Putin is ready to help Trump on Iran nuclear negotiations, the Kremlin says
MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump that he was ready to use Russia's close partnership with Iran to help with negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Trump said after a phone call with Putin on Wednesday that time was running out for Iran to make a decision on its nuclear programme and that he believed Putin agreed that the Islamic Republic should not have nuclear weapons.
Putin, according to Trump, suggested that he participate in the discussions with Iran and that "he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion", though Iran was "slowwalking".
"We have close partner relations with Tehran and, naturally, President Putin said that we are ready to use this level of partnership with Tehran in order to facilitate and contribute to the negotiations that are taking place to resolve the issue of the Iranian nuclear dossier," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
Asked when Putin could join the negotiations, Peskov said that dialogue with Tehran and Washington continued through various channels.
"The president will be able to get involved when necessary," Peskov said.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was "100%" against the country's interests, rejecting a central U.S. demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The U.S. proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Oman, which has mediated talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
After five rounds of talks, several hard-to-bridge issues remain, including Iran's insistence on maintaining uranium enrichment on its soil and Tehran's refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium - possible raw material for nuclear bombs.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said nothing about halting the talks, but said the U.S. proposal "contradicts our nation's belief in self-reliance and the principle of 'We Can'".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump administration orders US embassies to stop student visa interviews
The Trump administration has ordered US embassies worldwide to immediately stop scheduling visa interviews for foreign students as it prepares to implement comprehensive social media screening for all international applicants. A Tuesday state department cable obtained by the Guardian instructs consular sections to pause adding 'any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued' within days. The directive, first reported by Politico , could severely delay visa processing and hurt universities – many of which Donald Trump accuses of having far-left ideologies – that rely heavily on foreign students for revenue. 'The department is conducting a review of existing operations and processes for screening and vetting of student and exchange visitor visa applicants,' the cable reads. Officials plan to issue guidance on 'expanded social media vetting for all such applicants'. The freeze is a further escalation from current screening measures, which have primarily targeted students who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests. Since March, consular officers have been required to conduct mandatory social media reviews looking for evidence of support for 'terrorist activity or a terrorist organization' which could be as broad as showing support for the Palestinian cause, according to a cable obtained by the Guardian at the time. That directive required officers to take screenshots of 'potentially derogatory' content for permanent records, even if posts were later deleted. The new expansion would apply social media vetting to all student visa applicants, not just those flagged for activism. Under the screening process, consular officers would examine applicants' posts, shares, and comments across platforms such as Instagram, X and TikTok for content they deem to be threatening to national security, which has since been tied in to the Trump administration's stance on combating antisemitism. Rubio told senators last week that his department has revoked visas numbering 'probably in the thousands at this point', up from more than 300 reported in March. 'I don't know the latest count, but we probably have more to do,' he said. There are more than one million foreign students in the US, contributing nearly $43.8bn to the economy and supporting more than 378,000 jobs in 2023 to 2024, according to NAFSA. The visa freeze threatens to compound existing challenges facing higher education institutions already experiencing declining international enrollment. When reached for comment, a state department spokesperson said that 'every visa adjudication is a national security decision', noting that visitors applying for visas were required to provide social media identifiers since 2019. 'The Trump administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,' the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump says it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia ‘fight for a while'
Donald Trump has said it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia 'fight for a while' rather than pursue peace immediately, as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, urged him to increase pressure on Russia. During the Oval Office meeting, Trump voiced doubts about the potential success of peace talks, saying 'sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart'. The US president said he had told Vladimir Putin that the two countries were like 'two young children fighting like crazy in a park' when the two spoke by phone on Wednesday. Putin's reaction is not known, but the Russian leader would probably welcome the US agreeing to his previous calls for Washington to stay out of the conflict and stop providing military aid and support to Ukraine. Merz, who used his speaking time in the Oval Office to press the US president on Ukraine, told Trump that he wanted to work together to put more pressure on Russia and reminded Trump that the violence he abhorred seeing was a result of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. He told Trump that the German people owed the US gratitude for its role in defeating Nazi Germany in the second world war. 'America is again in a very strong position to do something on ending this war [in Ukraine], so let's talk about doing what we can,' he said. 'We are looking for more pressure on Russia, we should talk about that.' Related: The Guardian view on Ukraine's spectacular attack: 21st-century tactics still require support from allies | Editorial Russia has vowed to respond to Ukraine's daring drone operation 'how and when' it sees fit, the Kremlin warned, seeming to confirm reports that Putin had told Trump that Moscow was obliged to retaliate. Ukraine has been bracing for retaliation after its SBU security service carried out a surprise drone strike over the weekend, targeting four airbases and damaging up to 20 Russian warplanes deep inside the country, according to US officials. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, asked on Thursday what Moscow's response would be, said: 'How and when our military deems it appropriate.' Trump said Putin had 'strongly' told him that Russia would respond to the recent attacks on its airfields, during an unannounced phone call on Wednesday. The US embassy in Ukraine warned of a continuing risk of 'significant airstrikes' and advised its citizens to exercise caution. Hours after Trump and Putin spoke, Russia launched a series of missiles and drones across Ukraine overnight. At least five people, including a one-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother, were killed when a drone struck a residential building in the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky. The child was the grandson of an emergency responder, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said. 'One of the rescuers arrived to respond to the aftermath right at his own home,' Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. 'It turned out that a Shahed drone hit his house.' In the southern city of Kherson, a large hole was seen in an administration building after missile attacks by the Russian army. But Russian officials have suggested that Moscow has yet to respond to Ukraine's weekend drone attack, which came a day before two bridges collapsed, killing seven people – attacks Moscow blamed on Ukrainian sabotage. After Ukraine carried out its unorthodox operation using drones smuggled into Russia on trucks, pro-Kremlin war bloggers and prominent commentators posted on Russian media to demand retribution, with some calling for nuclear retaliation. While Russian officials have previously indicated their willingness to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, analysts consider the deployment of such weapons on the battlefield highly unlikely at this stage of the war. Russia's nuclear doctrine permits the use of nuclear weapons in response to attacks that pose a 'critical threat' to the country's sovereignty. In a podcast for the independent outlet Meduza, Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based expert on Russian nuclear forces, rejected suggestions that Ukraine's recent drone strikes could justify such a response. He argued the operation did not threaten Russia's sovereignty or territorial integrity, nor did it undermine the retaliatory capacity of its strategic nuclear arsenal. A nuclear strike would also be strongly condemned by China, Russia's most influential ally, with Xi Jinping previously warning Putin against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Instead, as in past responses to Ukrainian military successes, Moscow may launch a wave of deadly ballistic missile strikes – or deploy its experimental Oreshnik missile, which was used at least once last year. Ukraine has intensified its sabotage operations over the past week, including detonating underwater explosives beneath a key bridge linking Russia to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. On Wednesday, a visibly angry Putin for the first time reacted to the Ukrainian attacks, accusing Kyiv of 'organising terrorist attacks'. 'How can we have meetings like this under these conditions? What is there to talk about? Who has negotiations with … terrorists?' he said. Trump has not publicly commented on the Ukrainian drone operation, but sources who reportedly discussed it with him told Axios he described the attack as 'strong' and 'badass' and saw it as a setback to his diplomatic initiative to end the war. While the drone strikes dealt a tangible blow to Russia's military capacity and offered a morale boost for Kyiv, the broader picture remains less rosy for Ukraine. More than three years after launching its invasion, Russia is largely on the offensive, making steady battlefield gains in eastern Ukraine and continuing to pound Ukrainian cities and civilians with drones and missiles. Putin's forces have been advancing further into Ukraine's northern region of Sumy, threatening the regional capital after taking more than 150 sq km of the area in less than two weeks. With Putin showing no willingness to agree to a lasting ceasefire, Ukrainian officials and the military are preparing for a Russian summer offensive, with Moscow intent on advancing into the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
International Pride Orchestra plays outside DC in rebuff to Trump snub at Kennedy Center
An event by the International Pride Orchestra this week swung from classical Gershwin favorites to choral patriotism to high drag in a rebuff to Donald Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center and its subsequent snub of the LBGTQ+ ensemble. The spirited celebration of WorldPride, the peripatetic biennial international festival in support of LGBTQ+ rights which kicks off this month and is taking place in Washington DC, was staged instead at the Strathmore Music Center in Maryland, just north of the capital. Related: Four queer business owners on Pride under Trump: 'Our joy is resistance' Sequin-clad drag queen Peaches Christ acted as host and New York drag queen Thorgy Thor played a violin solo to Beyoncé's Crazy in Love to an audience of 1,166 people. The orchestra had hoped to play at the Kennedy Center, Washington's premier performing arts center, but shortly after returning to the White House, Donald Trump pledged on social media that there would be, in all-caps: 'No more drag shows, or other anti-American propaganda' at the public-private arts space. The Trump administration has issued executive orders limiting transgender rights, banned transgender people from serving in the armed forces, and rescinded anti-discrimination policies for LGBTQ+ people as part of a campaign to repeal diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Michael Roest, conductor and founder of the International Pride Orchestra, a non-profit, reminded the audience that 'people don't feel safe to live and love openly'. 'That is the reason why we have this orchestra,' he said. During the event, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington sang American the Beautiful, and a pianist, Sara Davis Buechner, who is transgender, dazzled while leading the orchestra on grand piano in the Gershwin favorite Rhapsody in Blue. Both Stars and Stripes and rainbow flags were hoisted at the close. Trump in February fired the leadership of the Kennedy Center, named himself chair and put a loyalist in charge. The center then sent Roest a message that said: 'We are not in a position at this time to advance a contract,' according to an email chain seen by Reuters, after months of prior negotiations. Considering themselves 'disinvited', event organizers began looking for alternative venues and the Strathmore offered its space, an orchestra spokesperson said. A Kennedy Center spokesperson referred Reuters to an X post from leadership saying it had not actually canceled any shows.
