Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated this week that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps continues to plot the assassination of both current and former top United States officials while talks regarding the Iran nuclear deal are still underway.
The US said Tuesday that Iran’s nuclear breakout time was down to weeks, and blamed the previous administration, as negotiations between Tehran and world powers continued to stall.
With Israel’s national security adviser in Washington to meet his counterpart, Israeli officials have reportedly said the chances of world powers signing a new nuclear deal with Iran are greatly diminished.
Iran has opened a centrifuge parts workshop at Natanz that will provide parts for its uranium enriching centrifuges, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed in a Thursday report, according to Reuters.
Iran is close to having enough enriched uranium for a weapon as negotiations to return to the 2015 nuclear deal remain stuck, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz made it clear on Monday that if world powers do not reach an agreement with Iran, Israel will be forced to activate “Plan B” immediately.
More than 500 Iranian American scholars, scientists, and professionals are urging President Biden not to lift the terrorist designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in order to close a new nuclear deal with Iran, warning such a move would fuel the Iranian regime’s aggression abroad and oppression at home.
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have told a gathering of 80 ambassadors to Israel that time is running out on the possibility of a good Iranian nuclear deal, World Israel News (WIN) reports.
The United States and Iran blamed each other Monday for a weeks-long impasse that has held up a return to the 2015 deal that sought to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said on Thursday Israel won’t be faced with any American restrictions if it wishes to act against Iran, whether or not a nuclear deal is signed between Tehran and world powers.
At their historic summit in the Israeli Negev town of Sde Boker on Monday, the top diplomats of Israel, the US and four Arab nations announced that the conference would be the first iteration of a permanent regional forum, as they reaffirmed the importance of growing ties between Israel and the broader Middle East.
In what will be a first for Israel, the country was poised to host a summit between US Secretary State Antony Blinken, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, and Foreign Minister and Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid starting Sunday. The two-day summit, to be held at Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev Region, is the initiative of Lapid.
The foreign ministers of Iran and Syria, two allies of Russia, discussed the war in Ukraine and other developments during a meeting in Damascus on Wednesday. Syria‘s top diplomat said Moscow is defending its people.
The State Department said on Tuesday it welcomed an unprecedented summit between Israel, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s supreme leader on Monday signaled support for Tehran’s nuclear negotiations to secure sanctions relief, a rare reference to the still-halted talks, as world powers near a diplomatic turning point.
Israeli leaders are concerned the US may be planning to remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from its terrorist blacklist as part of a deal to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown the global energy market into a state of turmoil, forcing the U.S. and Europe to look for substitutes for Russian oil and gas. In that process, the Biden administration has turned to Iran as a potential supplier — just two months after effectively killing an Israeli pipeline project that would have supplied natural gas to Europe.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow had received guarantees from the US on its ability to trade with Tehran as part of ongoing talks to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.
Iran has suspended talks with regional rival Saudi Arabia, a website affiliated to Iran’s top security body reported on Sunday, without giving a reason for the decision that comes as a fifth round of negotiations was due to start this week.
Visiting Israel, former US vice president Mike Pence — touted as a potential future presidential contender — said Tuesday that a Republican-led America will once again pull out of any future Iran nuclear deal.