Iran says it might accept American IAEA inspectors if nuclear deal with US is reached
Iran might allow the UN nuclear watchdog to send US inspectors to visit Iranian nuclear sites if Tehran's nuclear talks with Washington succeed, Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday.
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Al Arabiya
40 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza
Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, as Israel presses its offensive in the Palestinian territory. A military statement said a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and 'an additional hostage whose name has not yet been cleared for publication' from the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza. Yaakov, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was 59 when he was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day. The military statement said he had been abducted and killed by fighters from the terrorist group Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally. Yaakov was abducted along with his partner Meirav Tal, as they sheltered in their safe room in Nir Oz. She was freed on November 28, 2023 during the first truce. Abducted separately at the home of their mother, Yair's two children Yagil and Or were also released on November 27 during the first truce. Nir Oz was one of the communities hit hardest by the attack, with nearly a quarter of its residents killed or taken hostage. Netanyahu also announced the return of two bodies from Gaza, including that of Yaakov. 'Along with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our deepest condolences to the families who have lost their most precious loved ones,' he said in a statement. 'We will not rest and we will not be silent until all our hostages — the living and the fallen alike — are brought home.' Before the latest announcement, out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 were still held in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military said were dead. Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on October 7, 2023 attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the retaliatory Israeli military offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority civilians. The UN considers these figures to be reliable.
Al Arabiya
40 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
United Nations to vote to demand immediate Gaza ceasefire over US, Israel opposition
The United Nations General Assembly will vote on Thursday on a draft resolution that demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza after the United States vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council last week. The 193-member General Assembly is likely to adopt the text with overwhelming support, diplomats say, despite Israel lobbying countries this week against taking part in what it called a 'politically-motivated, counter-productive charade.' General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry weight as a reflection of the global view on the war. Previous demands by the body for an end to the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas have been ignored. Unlike the UN Security Council, no country has a veto in the General Assembly. Thursday's vote also comes ahead of a UN conference next week that aims to reinvigorate an international push for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States has urged countries not to attend. In a note seen by Reuters, the US warned that 'countries that take anti-Israel actions on the heels of the conference will be viewed as acting in opposition to US foreign policy interests and could face diplomatic consequences.' The US last week vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that also demanded an 'immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire' and unhindered aid access in Gaza, arguing it would undermine US-led efforts to broker a ceasefire. The other 14 countries on the council voted in favor of the draft as a humanitarian crisis grips the enclave of more than 2 million people, where the UN warns famine looms and aid has only trickled in since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade last month. The draft resolution to be voted on by the General Assembly on Thursday demands the release of hostages held by Hamas, the return of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. It demands unhindered aid access and 'strongly condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians … of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supply and access.' 'This is both false and defamatory,' Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon wrote in a letter to UN member states, sent on Tuesday and seen by Reuters. Danon described the General Assembly draft resolution as an 'immensely flawed and harmful text,' urging countries not to take part in what he said was a 'farce' that undermines hostage negotiations and fails to condemn Hamas. In October 2023 the General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza with 120 votes in favor. In December 2023, 153 countries voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Then in December last year the body demanded — with 158 votes in favor — an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. The war in Gaza has raged since 2023 after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in an October 7 attack and took some 250 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Many of those killed or captured were civilians. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. They say civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks and that thousands more bodies have been lost under rubble.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
37 months in prison for ex-CIA analyst who leaked docs on Israeli strike
A former CIA analyst who leaked top secret US intelligence documents about Israeli military plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran was sentenced to 37 months in prison on Wednesday, the Justice Department said. Asif Rahman, 34, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency since 2016 and held a top secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia in November. In January, Rahman pleaded guilty at a federal courthouse in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. He faced a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Iran unleashed a wave of close to 200 ballistic missiles on Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killings of senior figures in the Tehran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups. Israel responded with a wave of strikes on military targets in Iran in late October. According to a court filing, on October 17 Rahman printed out two top secret documents 'regarding a United States foreign ally and its planned kinetic actions against a foreign adversary.' He photographed the documents and used a computer program to edit the images in 'an attempt to conceal their source and delete his activity,' it said. Rahman then transmitted the documents to 'multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them' before shredding them at work. The documents, circulated on the Telegram app by an account called Middle East Spectator, described Israeli preparations for a possible strike on Iran but did not identify any actual targets. According to The Washington Post, the documents, generated by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, described aviation exercises and movements of munitions at an Israeli airfield. The leak led Israeli officials to delay their retaliatory strike.
