Rubio thanks Turkmenistan for letting through Americans from Iran
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday thanked Turkmenistan and promised cooperation with the authoritarian state after it let US citizens cross through as they fled Iran following Israeli strikes.Turkmenistan, one of the world's most closed and authoritarian countries, initially balked at allowing Americans to cross but agreed over the weekend following appeals from Washington, officials said.Rubio, in his call with Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, 'expressed gratitude for Turkmenistan's cooperation,' State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.Rubio said he 'looks forward to further partnership with Turkmenistan, including expanding economic and commercial ties,' she said.Washington has organized evacuation flights for its citizens in Israel, but has limited capacity in Iran due to the lack of diplomatic relations.Most US citizens in Iran are dual nationals and hundreds have left since Israel launched its military campaign on June 13, another State Department official said.Around 200 Americans had voiced an interest in going through Turkmenistan, which shares a 1,148-kilometer (713-mile) border with Iran, although so far only 'tens' have proceeded through that route, the official said.'We're communicating to all of the US citizens... in Iran looking to go to Turkmenistan that that border is open,' the official said on customary condition of anonymity.With flights unavailable, the vast majority have gone through Azerbaijan, with some also going through Armenia and Turkiye, the official said.President Donald Trump, who has prioritized cracking down on immigration, earlier this month banned virtually all Iranian citizens and partially restricted nationals of Turkmenistan from entering the United States.The visa restrictions continue to apply to Iranian nationals who leave even if they are family members of US citizens, the State Department official said.Trump on Monday announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran but voiced frustration at implementation.
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Arab News
43 minutes ago
- Arab News
Israel killed at least 14 scientists in an unprecedented attack on Iran's nuclear know-how
PARIS: Israel's tally of the war damage it wrought on Iran includes the targeted killings of at least 14 scientists, an unprecedented attack on the brains behind Iran's nuclear program that outside experts say can only set it back, not stop it. In an interview with The Associated Press, Israel's ambassador to France said the killings will make it 'almost' impossible for Iran to build weapons from whatever nuclear infrastructure and material may have survived nearly two weeks of Israeli airstrikes and massive bunker-busting bombs dropped by US stealth bombers. 'The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years, by quite a number of years,' Ambassador Joshua Zarka said. But nuclear analysts say Iran has other scientists who can take their place. European governments say that military force alone cannot eradicate Iran's nuclear know-how, which is why they want a negotiated solution to put concerns about the Iranian program to rest. 'Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades, nor any regime ambition to deploy that knowledge to build a nuclear weapon,' UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told lawmakers in the House of Commons. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program was peaceful, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon. Here's a closer look at the killings: Chemists, physicists, engineers among those killed Zarka told AP that Israeli strikes killed at least 14 physicists and nuclear engineers, top Iranian scientific leaders who 'basically had everything in their mind.' They were killed 'not because of the fact that they knew physics, but because of the fight that they were personally involved in, the creation and the fabrication and the production of (a) nuclear weapon,' he said. Nine of them were killed in Israel's opening wave of attacks on June 13, the Israeli military said. It said they 'possessed decades of accumulated experience in the development of nuclear weapons' and included specialists in chemistry, materials and explosives as well as physicists. Zarka spoke Monday to the AP. On Tuesday, Iran state TV reported the death of another Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, in an Israeli strike, after he'd survived an earlier attack that killed his 17-year-old son on June 13. Targeted killings meant to discourage would-be successors Experts say that decades of Iranian work on nuclear energy — and, Western powers allege, nuclear weapons — has given the country reserves of know-how and scientists who could continue any work toward building warheads to fit on Iran's ballistic missiles. 'Blueprints will be around and, you know, the next generation of Ph.D. students will be able to figure it out,' said Mark Fitzpatrick, who specialized in nuclear non-proliferation as a former US diplomat. Bombing nuclear facilities 'or killing the people will set it back some period of time. Doing both will set it back further, but it will be reconstituted.' 'They have substitutes in maybe the next league down, and they're not as highly qualified, but they will get the job done eventually,' said Fitzpatrick, now an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think tank. How quickly nuclear work could resume will in part depend on whether Israeli and US strikes destroyed Iran's stock of enriched uranium and equipment needed to make it sufficiently potent for possible weapons use. 'The key element is the material. So once you have the material, then the rest is reasonably well-known,' said Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based analyst who specializes in Russia's nuclear arsenal. He said killing scientists may have been intended 'to scare people so they don't go work on these programs.' 'Then the questions are, 'Where do you stop?' I mean you start killing, like, students who study physics?' he asked. 'This is a very slippery slope.' The Israeli ambassador said: 'I do think that people that will be asked to be part of a future nuclear weapon program in Iran will think twice about it.' Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged. Previous attacks on scientists Israel has long been suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists but previously didn't claim responsibility as it did this time. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for killing its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun. 'It delayed the program but they still have a program. So it doesn't work,' said Paris-based analyst Lova Rinel, with the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank. 'It's more symbolic than strategic.' Without saying that Israel killed Fakhrizadeh, the Israeli ambassador said 'Iran would have had a bomb a long time ago' were it not for repeated setbacks to its nuclear program — some of which Iran attributed to Israeli sabotage. 'They have not reached the bomb yet,' Zarka said. 'Every one of these accidents has postponed a little bit the program.' A legally grey area International humanitarian law bans the intentional killing of civilians and non-combatants. But legal scholars say those restrictions might not apply to nuclear scientists if they were part of the Iranian armed forces or directly participating in hostilities. 'My own take: These scientists were working for a rogue regime that has consistently called for the elimination of Israel, helping it to develop weapons that will allow that threat to take place. As such, they are legitimate targets,' said Steven R. David, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. He said Nazi German and Japanese leaders who fought Allied nations during World War II 'would not have hesitated to kill the scientists working on the Manhattan Project' that fathered the world's first atomic weapons. Laurie Blank, a specialist in humanitarian law at Emory Law School, said it's too early to say whether Israel's decapitation campaign was legal. 'As external observers, we don't have all the relevant facts about the nature of the scientists' role and activities or the intelligence that Israel has,' she said by email to AP. 'As a result, it is not possible to make any definitive conclusions.' Zarka, the ambassador, distinguished between civilian nuclear research and the scientists targeted by Israel. 'It's one thing to learn physics and to know exactly how a nucleus of an atom works and what is uranium,' he said. But turning uranium into warheads that fit onto missiles is 'not that simple,' he said. 'These people had the know-how of doing it, and were developing the know-how of doing it further. And this is why they were eliminated.'
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Oregon Bill Providing Unemployment Pay for Striking Workers Signed Into Law by Governor
Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday signed into law a bill that provides unemployment benefits to striking workers, following neighboring Washington state in adopting measures spurred by recent walkouts by Boeing factory workers, hospital nurses, and teachers in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon's measure makes it the first state to provide pay for picketing public employees–who aren't allowed to strike in most states, let alone receive benefits for it. It makes striking workers eligible to collect unemployment benefits after two weeks, with benefits capped at 10 weeks. Only three other states–New York, New Jersey, and most recently, Washington state–give striking workers unemployment benefits. Washington's bill, which passed in April, pays striking private-sector workers for up to six weeks, starting after at least two weeks on the line. Democratic Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday vetoed a bill that would provide financial help for striking workers, after vetoing a similar measure last year. The final passage for Oregon's bill proved tumultuous. It first passed the state Senate in March and then passed the state House earlier this month. But a majority of senators did not concur with amendments added by the House, which sent the measure to a conference committee to resolve the differences between the two bills. It ultimately received final approval following a compromise on the 10-week benefits cap. The bill sparked debate among lawmakers as well as constituents, with over 1,000 letters of written testimony submitted. Supporters said it would level the playing field between workers and wealthy corporations that can wait until union strike funds run out to pressure employees under financial distress to accept deals. Opponents said it could incentivize strikes and hurt employers, particularly public employers such as school districts. Private employers pay into the state's unemployment insurance trust fund through a payroll tax, but many public employers do not, meaning they would have to reimburse the fund for any payments made to their workers. In response to those concerns, the bill requires school districts to deduct the benefits received by an employee from their future wages. Some argued it wouldn't cost public employers more than what they have already budgeted for salaries, as workers aren't paid when they are on strike. Also, those receiving unemployment benefits get at most sixty-five percent of their weekly pay, and benefit amounts are capped, according to documents presented to lawmakers by employment department officials. Oregon has seen two large strikes in recent years: Thousands of nurses and dozens of doctors at Providence's eight Oregon hospitals were on strike for six weeks earlier this year, while a 2023 walkout of Portland Public Schools teachers shuttered schools for over three weeks in the state's largest district.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
This is what could happen next after an Israel-Iran ceasefire
WASHINGTON: The whipsaw chain of events involving Iran, Israel and the United States that culminated in a surprise ceasefire has raised many questions about how the Trump administration will approach the Middle East going forward. Yet, the answer to the bottom line question — 'what's next?' — remains unknowable and unpredictable. That is because President Donald Trump has essentially sidelined the traditional US national security apparatus and confined advice and decision-making to a very small group of top aides operating from the White House. While there is uncertainty about whether the ceasefire between Iran and Israel will hold, it opens the possibility of renewed talks with Tehran over its nuclear program and reinvigorating stalled negotiations in other conflicts. Watching for next steps on Trump's social media Outside experts, long consulted by presidential administrations on policy, have been forced like the general public to follow Trump's social media musings and pronouncements for insights on his thinking or the latest turn of events. Even Congress does not appear to be in the loop as top members were provided only cursory notifications of Trump's weekend decision to hit three Israeli nuclear facilities and briefings on their impact scheduled for Tuesday were abruptly postponed. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, whose agency has played a key role in formulating Iran policy for decades, repeatedly on Tuesday deferred questions to the White House and Trump's posts. 'The secretary of state was in a dynamic with the president that is a private dynamic as that team was addressing a war and the nature of how to stop it,' she told reporters. 'I can't speak to how that transpired or the decisions that were made.' Trump's announcement Monday that Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire took many in the administration by surprise — as did his post Tuesday that China is now free to import Iranian oil. It's an apparent 180-degree shift from Trump's 'maximum pressure campaign' on Iran since he withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement during his first term. US officials were left wondering if that meant wide-ranging sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran's energy revenue were being eased or reversed. Assessing the damage to Iran's nuclear program While the extent of the damage from 11 days of Israeli attacks and Saturday's strikes by US bunker-buster bombs is not yet fully known, a preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency said the nuclear program had been set back only a few months and was not 'completely and fully obliterated' as Trump has said. According to people familiar with the report, it found that while the strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, they were not totally destroyed. Still, most experts believe the facilities will require months or longer to repair or reconstruct if Iran chooses to try to maintain its program at previous levels. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command, who has been nominated to lead forces in the Middle East, told lawmakers Tuesday that Iran still possesses 'significant tactical capability' despite the American strikes. He pointed to Iran's attempt to retaliate with missile launches at a US base in Qatar. In response to a question about whether the Iranians still pose a threat to US troops and Americans worldwide, Cooper replied, 'They do.' Trump, after announcing the ceasefire, boasted that Iran will never again have a nuclear program. However, there are serious questions about whether Iran's leadership, which has placed a high premium on maintaining its nuclear capabilities, will be willing to negotiate them away. Restarting US-Iran nuclear talks is possible Another major question is what happens with negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. It is not entirely clear who in Iran has the authority to make a deal or even agree to reenter talks with the US or others. Ray Takeyh, a former State Department official and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Iranian leadership is at a moment of disarray — making it difficult to return to the table. 'The country's leadership and the regime is not cohesive enough to be able to come to some sort of negotiations at this point, especially negotiations from the American perspective, whose conclusion is predetermined, namely, zero enrichment,' he said. Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, agreed, saying that 'the biggest challenge right now is who is in charge in Tehran.' 'Is there an Iranian negotiation team empowered to make consequential decisions?' he said. 'The issue is that (Trump) is dealing with an Iranian government whose longtime identity has been based on hostility toward the the United States.' Still, a US official said Tuesday that special envoy Steve Witkoff is ready to resume negotiations if Trump tells him to and Iran is willing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters. Witkoff has maintained an open line of direct communication via text messages with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. In the aftermath of the US strikes, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both stressed that diplomacy is still Trump's preferred method for ending the conflict permanently. 'We didn't blow up the diplomacy,' Vance told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. 'The diplomacy never was given a real chance by the Iranians. And our hope … is that this maybe can reset here. The Iranians have a choice. They can go down the path of peace or they can go down the path of this ridiculous brinksmanship.' Rubio echoed those comments. 'We're prepared right now, if they call right now and say we want to meet, let's talk about this, we're prepared to do that,' he said. 'The president's made that clear from the very beginning: His preference is to deal with this issue diplomatically.' The Israel-Iran ceasefire could affect Trump's approach to other conflicts If it holds, the ceasefire could offer insight to the Trump administration as it tries to broker peace in several other significant conflicts with ties to Iran. An end — even a temporary one — to the Iran-Israel hostilities may allow the administration to return to talks with mediators like Egypt and Qatar to seek an end to the war between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas. In Syria, a further shift away from now-weakened Iranian influence — pervasive during ousted leader Bashar Assad's reign — could open new doors for US-Syria cooperation. Trump already has met the leader of the new Syrian government and eased US sanctions. Similarly, tense US relations with Lebanon also could benefit from a reduced Iranian role in supporting the Hezbollah militant group, which has been a force of its own — rivaling if not outperforming the Lebanese Armed Forces, particularly near the Israeli border. If an Iran-Israel ceasefire holds, it also could allow Trump the time and space to return to stalled efforts to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Russia and Iran have substantial economic and military cooperation, including Tehran providing Moscow with drones that the Russian military has relied on heavily in its war against Ukraine. Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine in recent days as Israel attacked sites in Iran, perhaps expecting the world's attention to shift away from its three-year-old invasion.
