Trump says he is in 'no rush' to strike nuclear deal with Iran
"They would like to talk. I'm in no rush to talk because we obliterated their site," Mr Trump told reporters upon his arrival in Washington after a trip to Pittsburgh, referring to US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last month.
Iran said on Monday that it will not resume nuclear talks with the US if negotiations are conditional on halting its uranium enrichment activities, state news agency Irnareported.
Tehran and Washington held several rounds of negotiations aimed at reviving a nuclear deal, but those efforts were derailed after Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran in June, triggering 12 days of war.
After a ceasefire was announced ending the war, Mr Trump signalled interest in returning to the negotiating table. However, Tehran has remained firm that it will not relinquish its right to the peaceful use of nuclear power.
Mr Trump is set to meet Qatar 's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Wednesday to discuss efforts to bring a nuclear agreement, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X. Qatar has previously mediated between the two sides.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK agreed during a phone call on Monday to set the end of August as the de facto deadline for reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, Axios reported, citing three sources.
The EU was particularly proud of the 2015 nuclear deal because it represented a strong symbol of multilateral diplomacy. It brought together great powers in the spirit of bolstering the cause of nuclear non-proliferation.
Besides exiting, the Trump administration reimposed heavy secondary sanctions on Iran, which effectively forced foreign companies to choose between investing in the US and Iranian markets.
European efforts to mitigate the impact of these US sanctions failed, thus undermining the key benefit of the deal for Iran: helping its battered economy.
It also weakened Tehran's faith in the value of Europe as a partner, as it revealed an inability to carve real independence from the US.
If no deal is reached by that deadline, the three European powers plan to trigger the "snapback" mechanism that automatically reimposes all UN Security Council sanctions lifted under the 2015 Iran deal, according to the Axios report.
October 18 is Termination Day for the 2015 nuclear agreement, which Mr Trump unilaterally pulled out of three years after it was signed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
US to pull out of Unesco over inclusion of Palestine and alleged anti-Israel bias
The US has announced that it will leave the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) on 31 December 2026 over its inclusion of Palestine as a member state. The State Department announced on Tuesday that Washington viewed Palestine's inclusion as "highly problematic", and a decision which had in turn led to the "proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric". The US was angered in 2011 when Unesco members granted Palestine full membership in the body, despite opposition from its ally Israel. Washington opposes any move by UN bodies to recognise Palestine as a state, believing that this must wait until a negotiated Middle East peace deal. "Unesco works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN's sustainable development goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy," the State Department's spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, said. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "Unesco's decision to admit the 'State of Palestine' as a member state is highly problematic, contrary to US policy and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organisation," she added. On Monday, the New York Post reported that US President Donald Trump had ordered a 90-day review of the US's membership in February, focusing on any "anti-Semitism or anti-Israel sentiment within the organisation". Officials within his administration concluded that Unesco had a pro-Palestine and pro-China bias and was overly concerned with diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a White House official was quoted as telling The Post. Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed Tuesday's announcement, claiming that Israel had been singled out by the agency. However, Audrey Azoulay, Unesco's director-general, rejected the accusations and said that the claims "contradict the reality of Unesco's efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism". Trump 2.0 will strip away the illusions of the 'rules-based order' Read More » Azoulay also said that Unesco's work had been hailed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, the World Jewish Congress and its American Section, and the American Jewish Committee. "I deeply regret President Donald Trump's decision to once again withdraw the United States of America from Unesco," she said. "This decision contradicts the fundamental principles of multilateralism, and may affect first and foremost our many partners in the United States of America - communities seeking site inscription on the World Heritage List, Creative City status and University Chairs." The US was a founding member of Unesco in 1945, but this latest departure marks the third time it has quit. The US first withdrew in 1983 under Ronald Reagan, whose administration said the organisation had anti-western bias and "has extraneously politicised virtually every subject it deals with". It rejoined in 2003 under George W. Bush, with the White House saying it was happy with Unesco's reforms. The Trump administration then withdrew from Unesco in 2017, shortly after the body designated Hebron's Old City and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank as a Palestinian World Heritage site. His administration cited what it called "mounting arrears, the need for fundamental reform in the organisation and continuing anti-Israel bias". It returned in 2023 under US President Joe Biden whose administration said it was crucial to rejoin in order to counter "Chinese influence". As a condition of readmission, the US agreed to pay about $619m in unpaid dues.
Khaleej Times
3 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Trump agrees to small reduction in Philippine tariffs after trade talks
US President Donald Trump agreed Tuesday to reduce threatened tariffs on the Philippines, but only by one percentage point, after what he termed a successful meeting with his counterpart Ferdinand Marcos. Welcoming Marcos to the White House, Trump called him a "very tough negotiator" and said: "We're very close to finishing a trade deal — a big trade deal, actually." In a social media post shortly afterward, Trump said that while the Philippines would open up completely to US goods, he would still impose a 19 per cent tariff on products from the Southeast Asian country, a major exporter of high-tech items and apparel. "It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. The Philippines was among two dozen economies confronted by Trump with letters this month warning of 20 per cent tariffs on all goods coming into the United States as of August 1. The 19 per cent rate is still above the 17 per cent threatened by Trump in April, when he threatened sweeping global tariffs. The trade rift comes despite increasingly close defence relations between the United States and the Philippines, a former US colony and treaty-bound ally that has seen high tensions with China. The United States last year, under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, deployed ground-launched missiles in the Philippines. Washington has also eyed ammunition manufacturing in the Philippines, despite the closure in 1992 of the US naval base at Subic Bay due to heavy public pressure. "All of what we consider part of the modernization of the Philippine military is really a response to the circumstances that surround the situation in the South China Sea," Marcos said next to Trump. Trump devoted much of the appearance to attacks on his Democratic predecessors Biden and Barack Obama. "We are essentially concerned with the defense of our territory and the exercise of our sovereign rights," said Marcos. "Our strongest, closest, most reliable ally has always been the United States."
The National
4 hours ago
- The National
Wife of ICEBlock developer considers legal options after firing from Justice Department
A woman who was fired as an auditor for the US government because of an immigration police-tracking app her husband created says she is weighing her legal options. The Department of Justice says Carolyn Feinstein has a 'sizeable interest' in the company which developed the ICEBlock app, ALL U Chart. Trump administration officials have taken issue with the app, which has more than one million downloads and allows users to report sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. 'ICEBlock is an app that illegal aliens use to evade capture while endangering the lives of ICE officers by disclosing their location,' a Justice Department representative told The National. 'This DoJ will not tolerate threats against law enforcement or law enforcement officers.' Ms Feinstein, who worked from the DoJ's Austin, Texas office as a forensic auditor, was fired from her job at the weekend. She told The National that while she owns a portion of All U Chart, her husband, Joshua Aaron, is the majority owner. She said she is listed as a stakeholder so she could wind down the company in the event something were to happen to her husband. 'I had no part in developing the app, coding the app, or marketing the app in any way,' she said. 'My only relation to it is that I'm married to the creator.' She said she is exploring potential legal options to challenge her dismissal, and looking for new career opportunities. 'There's going to be bigger and better things out there,' she said. Mr Aaron said his company, All U Chart, is currently working on a healthcare app unrelated to the ICEBlock app that has become the source of ire in the Trump administration. Since its release this year, the app has gained popularity as President Donald Trump approved significant funding increases for ICE, whose mandate includes detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. Masked ICE agents have swept up thousands of migrants in a nationwide dragnet that has sometimes snared US citizens and green card holders. Current and former detainees have said they were kept in dismal conditions in ICE custody, charges the agency denies. 'When I saw what was happening in this country I knew I had to do something to fight back,' said Mr Aaron, who lives in Texas, a state with a large undocumented immigrant population. Mr Aaron, who is Jewish, told The National in an interview last week that he had decided to create the app after meeting Holocaust survivors and learning about Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany. The app aims to alert users to the presence of ICE officials within an 8km radius. It is powered by crowdsourced data and relies on people reporting where ICE agents are. ICEBlock also allows users to describe the vehicles ICE agents are using and the clothes they are wearing. When a sighting is reported, push notifications are sent to nearby users. It is only available for iPhone. According to Mr Aaron, the privacy settings he deems necessary for ICEBlock are not yet possible on Android devices. US Attorney General Pam Bondi has suggested that the app should be considered illegal, and recently told Fox News that the Justice Department was 'looking into' the developer, Mr Aaron. Mr Aaron acknowledges criticism that the software has the potential to be misused, as the Trump administration has claimed violence against ICE agents is on the rise. 'Please note that the use of this app is for information and notification purposes only,' reads a disclaimer appearing throughout ICEBlock, with an added warning that the app should not be used 'for the purposes of inciting violence or interfering with law enforcement'. Mr Aaron says ICEBlock is strictly designed to inform, and not to obstruct. Laura Loomer, a far-right activist well known for her controversial and xenophobic comments, posted information about his wife on X last week. 'I reviewed Carolyn's LinkedIn page, and she has been working for the DOJ since January 2021 when Joe Biden assumed office,' said Ms Loomer's post.
