
Trump blocked Israeli plan to strike Iran nuclear sites: report
Washington: US President Donald Trump scuppered an Israeli plan to strike Iranian nuclear sites, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, as Washington attempts to reach a deal to curb Tehran's weapons program.
The United States and Iran, which have not had diplomatic relations for more than 40 years, are seeking a new nuclear deal after Trump pulled out of a landmark agreement during his first term. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are due to meet in Rome on Saturday, a week after they held the highest-level Iranian-US nuclear negotiations since the collapse of a 2015 accord.
In March, Trump sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging talks but warning of possible military action if they failed to produce a deal. Trump administration officials revealed to the New York Times that Israel had sought Washington's assistance to carry out an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in May. According to the Times, the plan and its possible maneuvers were under consideration for months.
But during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House last week, Trump told the Israelis he would not support an attack. The president instead publicly announced the direct talks with Tehran. Iran has consistently denied that it is seeking nuclear weapons, but has stepped up its nuclear capacities since Trump scrapped the 2015 agreement. The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report noted with "serious concern" that Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, nearing the weapons grade of 90 percent.
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Observer
3 hours ago
- Observer
Police make arrests in downtown LA during nighttime curfew
LOS ANGELES: Downtown Los Angeles was largely calm overnight into Wednesday, with police arresting at least 25 people for violating a curfew after a fifth day of protests against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Heavily armed security officers, including several riding horses, patrolled near government buildings, while men boarded up storefronts after dark on Tuesday to protect against vandalism. Looting and vandalism in the second-biggest US city have marred the largely peaceful protests over ramped-up arrests by immigration authorities. The demonstrations, which began Friday, and isolated acts of violence prompted Trump to take the extraordinary step of sending in troops, over the objection of the state governor. One protester said that the arrest of migrants in a city with large immigrant and Latino populations was the root of the unrest. "I don't think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It's whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence," she said on Tuesday. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the curfew — meant to stop vandalism and looting — was in effect within one square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of the city's more-than-500 square mile area from 8:00 pm and 6:00 am (0300 to 1300 GMT). That zone was off-limits for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, she added. Protests against immigration arrests by federal law enforcement have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Austin. On Tuesday, in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven, dozens of demonstrators waved American and Mexican flags and held signs against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that has ramped up arrests and deportations of migrants under Trump. "You got people that are being arrested on the street by (immigration) agents that don't wear badges, wear masks... it makes me really angry," 26-year-old protester Brendon Terra said. The Los Angeles protests again turned ugly on Tuesday night, but an hour into the curfew only a handful of protesters were left downtown, with police making several arrests as they warned stragglers to leave. "Multiple groups continue to congregate" within the designated downtown curfew area, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) wrote on X late on Tuesday. Police arrested at least 25 people on suspicion of violating the curfew as of Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing an LAPD spokesperson. At their largest, the protests have included a few thousand people taking to the streets, but smaller groups have used the cover of darkness to set fires, daub graffiti and smash windows. Overnight on Monday 23 businesses were looted, police said, adding that more than 500 people had been arrested over recent days. Trump has activated 4,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, along with 700 active-duty Marines, in what he has claimed is a necessary escalation to take back control, even though local law enforcement authorities insisted they could handle the unrest. A military spokeswoman said the Marines were expected to be on the streets by Wednesday. Their mission was to guard federal facilities and provide protection to federal officers during immigration enforcement operations. The Pentagon said the deployment would cost US taxpayers $134 million. Photographs issued by the Marine Corps showed men in combat fatigues using riot shields to practice crowd control techniques at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. Late on Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said his state would deploy its National Guard "to locations across the state to ensure peace & order" after solidarity protests. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has clashed with the president before, said Trump's shock militarisation of the city was the behavior of "a tyrant, not a president." In a filing to the US District Court in Northern California, Newsom asked for an injunction preventing the use of troops for policing. US law largely prevents the use of the military as a police force — absent the declaration of an insurrection, which Trump has mused. — AFP


Observer
3 hours ago
- Observer
Effect of declining oil prices on Oman's budgetary obligations
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Observer
7 hours ago
- Observer
This Israeli govt a danger to Jews everywhere
Israelis, diaspora Jewry and friends of Israel everywhere need to understand that the way Israel is fighting the war in the Gaza Strip today is laying the groundwork for a fundamental recasting of how Israel and Jews will be seen the world over. It won't be good. Police cars and private security at synagogues and Jewish institutions will increasingly become the norm; Israel, instead of being seen by Jews as a safe haven from antisemitism, will be seen as a new engine generating it; sane Israelis will line up to immigrate to Australia and America rather than beckon their fellow Jews to come Israel's way. That dystopian future is not here yet, but if you don't see its outlines gathering, you are deluding yourself. Fortunately, more and more retired and reserve duty Israeli air force pilots, as well as retired army and security officers, are seeing this gathering storm and declaring they will not be silent or complicit in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ugly, nihilistic policy in Gaza. They have begun to urge Jews in America and elsewhere to speak up — SOS: Save Our Ship — before the widening moral stain of Israel's military campaign in Gaza becomes irreversible. The Netanyahu government should be telling the Trump administration and Arab mediators that it's ready to withdraw from Gaza in a phased manner and be replaced by an international/Arab/Palestinian Authority peacekeeping force — provided that the Hamas leadership agrees to return all remaining living and dead hostages and leave the strip. If instead, though, Israel goes ahead with Netanyahu's vow to perpetuate this war indefinitely — to try to achieve 'total victory' over every last Hamasnik, along with the far right's fantasy of ridding Gaza of Palestinians and resettling it with Israelis — Jews worldwide better prepare themselves, their children and their grandchildren for a reality they've never known: to be Jewish in a world where the Jewish state is a pariah state — a source of shame, not of pride. Because one day, foreign photographers and reporters will be allowed to go into Gaza unescorted by the Israeli military. And when they do and the full horror of the destruction there becomes clear to all, the backlash against Israel and Jews everywhere could be profound. Do not confuse my warning to Israel for a shred of understanding for what Hamas did on October 7, 2023. What society in the world would not see its heart grow cold by such brutality? But as a Jew who believes in the right of the Jewish people to live in a secure state in their biblical homeland — alongside a secure Palestinian state — I am focused right now on my own tribe. And if my own tribe does not resist this Israeli government's utter indifference to the number of civilians being killed in Gaza today — as well its attempt to tilt Israel into authoritarianism at home by moving to sack its independent attorney general — Jews everywhere will pay dearly. Don't just take that warning from me. Last week two respected former Israeli air foce pilots, Brig Gen Asaf Agmon and Col Uri Arad, published an open letter in Hebrew in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, addressed to their colleagues still serving in the air force. Both men are members of Forum 555 Patriots, an impressive group of around 1,700 Israeli air force pilots, some retired and some still serving as reservists, which originally formed to resist Netanyahu's efforts to undermine Israeli democracy with a judicial coup. They wrote: 'We do not seek to downplay the monstrous nature of the massacre committed by Hamas terrorists on that cursed Saturday. We believe the war was fully justified... 'However, as the war in Gaza dragged on, it became clear that it was losing its strategic and security purposes and instead served primarily the political and personal interests of the government. It thus became an unmistakably immoral war, and increasingly appeared to be a war of revenge... 'The Air Force has become a tool for those, in government and even in the military, who claim that there are no innocent people in Gaza... Recently, a member of the Knesset even boasted that one of the government's achievements is the ability to kill 100 people a day in Gaza without anyone being shocked. 'In response to such statements, we say: As horrific as the October 7 massacre was, it does not justify complete disregard for moral considerations or the disproportionate use of deadly force. We do not want to become like the worst of our enemies. It is time for a similar movement calling out Hamas' vile excesses, led by those who support Palestinian statehood and a peaceful resolution in Gaza. No one should accept Hamas prolonging this war to keep itself in power. Nothing would do more to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire than to be denounced across the world, on college campuses and in high-profile demonstrations from those who have been giving this hate-driven organisation a free pass. This is what being pro-Palestinian really sounds like. — The New York Times Thomas L Friedman The writer is a foreign-affairs columnist of The New York Times