Trump blocked Israeli plan to strike Iran nuclear sites: Report
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 programme.
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 manoeuvres 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 274.8kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, nearing the weapons grade of 90 percent.
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Middle East Eye
17 minutes ago
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Amnesty says Israel's Madleen interception is illegal
Amnesty International has branded the Israeli navy's interception of the Gaza-bound aid ship Madleen illegal. "By forcibly intercepting and blocking the Madleen, Israel has once again ignored its legal obligations towards civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip," Amnesty said in a statement posted to its social media accounts. "The crew were unarmed activists and human rights defenders on a humanitarian mission," the human rights group said, as it called on them to be "released immediately and unconditionally". Amnesty said that rather than ensure, as the occupying power, that the people of Gaza had access to food, medicine and other supplies, Israel "consistently and deliberately impeded the provision of impartial humanitarian assistance for civilians in desperate need". The rights group said that while the Madleen had "emerged as a powerful symbol of solidarity" with Palestinians in Gaza, "this very mission is also an indictment of the international community's failure to put an end to Israel's inhumane blockade".
Middle East Eye
17 minutes ago
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Gaza flotilla: The Madleen shows us the world as it could be
In the dead of night, Israeli speedboats encircled the Madleen. Drones loomed above. A strange white substance was sprayed across the deck. Then, in international waters, armed forces stormed the boat. One by one, the passengers - 12 unarmed civilians, from Brazil to Sweden - were captured and led away. There were no weapons aboard - only food, medicine and conscience. The Madleen's mission was simple yet profound: to deliver aid and solidarity to Gaza's starving population. Amid Israel's siege of Gaza, power speaks, morality is silenced, and even the open sea is not safe. The Madleen was not merely a boat. It was a message carved into waves. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Its name honoured Madleen Kulab, Gaza's first and only female fisher. At 13, she took her father's place and forged alone into a world of blockade and threat. She later became a small business owner - employing others, offering boat tours under a purple canopy, building a future in a place where hope was scarce. 'I am brave and have good will,' she once said. Her courage sailed under her name. 'It falls on us' The Madleen followed a history already soaked in violence. In 2010, Israeli forces boarded the Mavi Marmara, killing nine. Other flotillas have been blocked, detained, humiliated. Yet still, they sailed. Those on board the Madleen declared, by their very presence, that Palestine is no longer the cause of a region; it has become the conscience of the world. Among the passengers was Greta Thunberg, once the darling of western progressives, now vilified for refusing to stay silent. From the deck of the Madleen, she declared: 'When our complicit governments fail to step up, it falls on us … to do so.' Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war Portrayed as a threat to the establishment, she has been smeared by mainstream media as part of a 'woke elite' for standing with Gaza. Even US Senator Lindsey Graham joined the ugly chorus, sneering: 'Hope Greta and her friends can swim!' - gleefully contemplating the drowning of a young woman and her civilian companions in open waters. Greta's response was calm, unflinching: 'We can swim very well.' Nothing illustrates Israel's moral unravelling more than its reaction to this small civilian boat. Not just the threats, but the tone: rabid, delusional, utterly divorced from human reality. Palestine is no longer the cause of a region; it has become the conscience of the world Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz labelled Thunberg an 'antisemitic Hamas propagandist' and ordered the army to use 'any means necessary' to stop the Madleen - a threat of military force against civilians, against a boat named after a fisherwoman. In one grotesque video, Israeli children warned Thunberg: 'We're coming to get you!' Instead of grieving the dead or praying for peace, Israelis were celebrating the pursuit of an unarmed girl with a conscience. Even Uri Geller - the spoon-bending illusionist - joined the frenzy, claiming he had sent 'psychic' protection to Israeli forces and warning Greta not to underestimate the power of his mind. At any other time, it would be absurd. Today, it is pathological. This is not the voice of a confident democracy. This is a settler colony at the edge of its own delusion: armed, enraged and spiralling. Arab silence But amid the noise came a voice of moral clarity. Gabor Mate, a Jewish Holocaust survivor and world-renowned trauma expert, recorded a message to the flotilla from Poland, where he had just visited the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial. With quiet conviction, he said: 'Today you represent those fighters. Today you represent that small group that's willing to stand up against one of the most murderous militaries in the world, supported by all the world's great powers. 'You are carrying all of humanity with you … all human beings whose hearts are open, who believe in justice, who believe in freedom, and who support and are moved by and full of admiration for what you're doing,' Mate added. Seizure of Madleen is the latest in more than a decade of Israeli attacks on aid flotillas Read More » The boat set sail not from Tangier, Latakia or Alexandria, but from Italy. A damning silence echoes from the Arab shores of the Mediterranean. Egypt watches from across the water. Holidaymakers cheer the boat's passing with videos and Eid greetings, but none board. Gaza, it seems, is nearer to a young Swede than to its own neighbours. Egypt has sealed the Rafah crossing, guarding it with soldiers as Palestinians starve metres away. Palestine is no longer the concern of governments, especially not those ruled by despots. It is the cause of the free, of those with conscience - of those who refuse to bow to silence, dictatorship or despair. The Madleen is not a miracle, but a model. It is a whisper of what could be done if humanity dared to act. What if this wasn't the only boat? What if thousands set sail, from every Mediterranean port? What if fishers, sailors, students and parents rose to say: not in our name, not on our watch? What if the sea became a corridor of conscience? Global inaction Remember Dunkirk. In 1940, civilian boats crossed the Channel to rescue trapped Allied soldiers. No orders, no permission. Just courage. And history remembers. 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But we, the people, are not powerless. We are not condemned to be spectators. We are not fated to live in a world where the strong devour the weak while the rest scroll by. Moral direction What is at stake is not only the survival of a people. It is the moral direction of civilisation. Do we want a world where law is meaningless, where genocide is rebranded as self-defence, where starvation is a military strategy and truth a liability? The Madleen is a mirror. It shows us the world as it is - and the world as it could be. Liberation is not a gift from the powerful. It is a project of the powerless. 'We think we are liberating Palestine. But it is Palestine that liberates us' - French politician Rima Hassan As French politician Rima Hassan, aboard the Madleen, wrote: 'When they arrest us, I will look at them as Larbi Ben M'Hidi looked at the colonisers of his land - calm, assured of liberation … We think we are liberating Palestine. But it is Palestine that liberates us.' Hassan continued: 'I accuse western colonial complicity. I accuse Arab cowardice. I accuse the corruption of the Palestinian elite. And I stand with the resisters, the rebels, the dreamers, the undisciplined, those who refuse the disorder of this world.' She went on to quote Ben M'Hidi, who once said: 'Throw the revolution into the street - the people will pick it up.' Today, it has been thrown into the sea. Will we follow? The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Middle East Eye
17 minutes ago
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Israel launches artillery and air strikes on Khan Younis
Israeli planes and artillery are striking Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, according to eyewitness reports. The artillery shelling and air strikes began on Monday early evening, local time, and follow Israel's bombardment on other areas north of Khan Younis.
