Iran to Present a Counter-proposal to US in Nuclear Talks, Foreign Ministry Says
Iran will soon hand a counter-proposal in nuclear talks to the United States via Oman, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, in response to a US offer that Tehran deems "unacceptable".
Reuters previously reported that Tehran was drafting a negative response to the US proposal which was presented in late May. An Iranian diplomat said the US offer failed to resolve differences over uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, the shipment abroad of Iran's entire stockpile of highly enriched uranium and steps to lift US sanctions.
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Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
US holds deep doubts about Palestinian state, Washington's envoy to Israel says
The US no longer wholeheartedly endorses an independent state for Palestinians, Washington's ambassador to Israel said, adding that if one were to be formed it could be elsewhere in the region rather than the West Bank. 'Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there's no room for it,' Mike Huckabee, an appointee of US President Donald Trump, said in an interview with Bloomberg in Jerusalem. Those probably won't happen 'in our lifetime,' he added. For the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict, visit our dedicated page. When asked if a Palestinian state remains a goal of US policy, as it has been for the past two decades, he said: 'I don't think so.' Regarding location, Huckabee suggested a piece of land could be carved out of a Muslim country rather than asking Israel to make room. 'Does it have to be in Judea and Samaria?' Huckabee, 69, said, using the biblical name the Israeli government favors for the West Bank, where some 3 million Palestinians live under occupation. Palestinians argue that Israel has made a formation of a state nearly impossible by building more and bigger Jewish settlements in the West Bank and undermining Palestinian authorities, while doing little to stop settler violence against Palestinians. European and Arab countries have been working to promote the creation of a Palestinian state led by the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank, as part of a process to end the 20-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. A conference in New York next week, sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, will be focused on such a state with the idea that the PA lead a multilateral effort to drive Hamas from Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip. Asked how the war could be brought to a conclusion, Huckabee placed the blame solely on Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, saying the Iran-backed group must free its remaining hostages for the conflict to end. The war was triggered when thousands of Hamas operatives crossed into Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 250, of which about 50 — many believed to be dead — remain in captivity. Some 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's subsequent military campaign, according to the health ministry, and much of the territory has been destroyed, leaving the population mostly displaced and living under unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Concern is building among international governments that Gaza's 2 million inhabitants are facing starvation after Israel barred aid for several weeks from early in March to put pressure on Hamas. A US-Israeli group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been working to deliver supplies in recent days but its work has been marred by chaos and violence. Huckabee endorsed the group's operations, saying it feeds Gazans while preventing aid from being seized by Hamas. Religious Divide Huckabee is a former governor of Arkansas and Baptist minister who has previously been an advocate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal by many states and international agencies. He gets along well with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the right wing and religious ministers in his government. In recent days, ultra-Orthodox members of the ruling coalition have threatened to bring down the administration if it doesn't pass a law cementing a longstanding exemption for religious men from military conscription. A bill to dissolve parliament is due to be voted on Wednesday — the first of four required votes in a process that could take weeks or months— and the ultra-Orthodox parties say they'll support it. Huckabee confirmed reports that he met with leaders of the religious parties, known collectively as the Haredim, and told them that if Netanyahu's government fell, it would be viewed poorly in the US. 'Americans won't understand a collapse of a government,' Huckabee said. 'That, to Americans, signals instability.' Opposition politicians eager for early elections to remove Netanyahu, bring back the hostages and end the Gaza war, had reacted angrily to reports of Huckabee's meeting, viewing it as interference in domestic politics. Huckabee said the conversations didn't constitute interference. Asked about the negotiations between the US and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, Huckabee said Trump has made clear the Islamic Republic shouldn't be able to enrich uranium at all — a position Iran has rejected out of hand. 'The president has made clear that there's a limit to his patience with Iran,' Huckabee said. 'He doesn't want there to be carnage. But he also has been even more clear that Iran's not going to have a nuclear weapon, they aren't going to enrich and they're going to have total dismantlement.' On whether the US might attack Iran militarily if the talks fail, he said, 'Nothing's off the table.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
an hour ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Iran Says it Executed 9 ISIS Militants Detained after a 2018 Attack
Iran said Tuesday it executed nine militants of ISIS group detained after a 2018 attack. The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency announced the executions, saying that the death sentences had been upheld by the country's top court, The AP news reported. It described the militants as being detained after they were in a clash in the country's western region with Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in which three troops and several ISIS militants were killed. Authorities said they had seized a cache of combat weapons, including a machine gun and 50 grenades, after surrounding the militants' hideout. Iran carries out executions by hanging. In the past eight months, it has executed an average of one person every six hours, according to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of advocacy group Iran Human Rights. He said Tuesday's executions were issued without fair trials and that there have been no updates about seven others reportedly detained in the 2018 attack. ISIS, which once held vast territory across Iraq and Syria in a self-described caliphate it declared in 2014, was ultimately beaten back by US-led forces. It has since been in disarray, though it has mounted major assaults. In Iran's neighbor Afghanistan, for instance, ISIS is believed to have grown in strength since the fall of the Western-backed government there to the Taliban in 2021. The group previously claimed a June 2017 attack in Tehran on parliament and a mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50. It has claimed other attacks in Iran, including two suicide bombings in 2024 targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 US drone strike. That assault killed at least 94 people. The clash with Revolutionary Guardsmen in 2018 marked a point of heightened tensions between Iran and the militant group. Iran launched ballistic missiles at parts of eastern Syria, vowing revenge after militants disguised themselves as soldiers and opened fire at a military parade in the Islamic Republic's southwest. That attack killed at least 25 people and was claimed by both ISIS and local separatists.
Asharq Al-Awsat
an hour ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Lebanon Says Two Dead in Israel Strike
An Israeli strike killed a Lebanese father and son Tuesday in a southern village, the Lebanese health ministry and state media said, the latest deaths despite a November ceasefire. A second son was also wounded in the strike in Shebaa, the state-run National News Agency reported. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. "An Israeli enemy drone carried out a strike in the village of Shebaa, killing two people and wounding one," a health ministry statement said, AFP reported. Israel had warned on Friday that it would keep up its strikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon despite the condemnation expressed by the Lebanese government after a massive strike on south Beirut the previous night on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday. Hezbollah said the strikes levelled nine residential blocks. The Israeli military said they targeted underground drone factories. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strikes as a "a flagrant violation" of the November 27 ceasefire agreement, which was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that culminated in two months of full-blown war.
