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US, Iran to hold new nuclear talks on eve of Trump travel

The United States and Iran will hold a new round of nuclear talks Sunday in Oman, officials said, just ahead of a visit to the region by President Donald Trump.Trump, who will visit three other Gulf Arab monarchies next week, has voiced hope for reaching a deal with Tehran to avert an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear program that could ignite a wider war.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Oman, which has been mediating, had proposed Sunday as the date and both sides had accepted.”Negotiations are moving ahead and naturally, the more we advance, the more consultations we have, and the more time the delegations need to examine the issues,” he said in a video carried by Iranian media.”But what’s important is that we are moving forward so that we gradually get into the details,” Araghchi said.Steve Witkoff, Trump’s friend who has served as his globe-trotting negotiator, will take part in the talks, the fourth since Trump returned to the White House, according to a source familiar with arrangements.”As in the past, we expect both direct and indirect discussions,” the person said on condition of anonymity.Iranian and US representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ four decades of enmity.But the two sides are not believed to have gone into technical detail, and basic questions remain.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that Iran give up all uranium enrichment, even for civilian purposes. He has instead raised the possibility of Iran importing enriched uranium for any civilian energy.Witkoff initially voiced more flexibility before backtracking.- ‘Blow ’em up nicely’ -Trump himself has acknowledged tensions in his policy on Iran, saying at the start of his second term that hawkish advisors were pushing him to step up pressure reluctantly.In an interview Thursday, Trump said he wanted “total verification” that Iran’s contested nuclear work is shut down but through diplomacy.”I’d much rather make a deal” than see military action, Trump told the conservative radio Hugh Hewitt.”There are only two alternatives — blow ’em up nicely or blow ’em up viciously,” Trump said.Trump in his first term withdrew from a nuclear agreement with Tehran negotiated by former president Barack Obama that allowed Iran to enrich uranium at low levels that could be used only for civilian purposes.Many Iran watchers doubted that Iran would ever voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear program and give up all enrichment.But Iran has found itself in a weaker place over the past year. Israel has decimated Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia backed by Iran that could launch a counter-attack in any war, and Iran’s main ally in the Arab world, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, was toppled in December.Israel also struck Iranian air defenses as the two countries came openly to blows in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, which is also supported by Iran’s clerical state.The Trump administration has kept piling on sanctions despite the talks, angering Iran. On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions on another refinery in China, the main market for Iranian oil.Since Trump’s withdrawal from the Obama-era deal, the United States has used its power to try to stop all other countries from buying Iranian oil.

Thousands gather for rare peace event in Jerusalem

Thousands gathered for a rare peace event in Jerusalem on Friday, with the Gaza war in its 20th month, the UN warning of humanitarian catastrophe and Palestinian militants still holding dozens of Israelis captive.In recent days, Israel has announced plans for an expanded military campaign in Gaza entailing the “conquest” of the Palestinian territory. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said this meant that the Gaza Strip would be “entirely destroyed”.”We cannot let the extremists on both sides that thrive over revenge, fear and hate also control our future,” said Maoz Inon, 50, an Israeli entrepreneur and peace activist who was one of the main organisers of Friday’s “People’s Peace Summit”.  “Even though they are controlling our present and reality, we must choose an alternative and create and shape an alternative future,” he told AFP.Friday’s event was organised by a grouping of some 60 grassroots peace-building organisations working to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a political agreement.At the event, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and ex-Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa presented their proposal for peace, originally unveiled last year.Kidwa, the nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, joined via livestream from the occupied West Bank. “Only a two-state solution is a prescription for a dramatic change in the direction of our country and of the entire region,” said Olmert, a centrist predecessor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”We have to end the war and pull out of Gaza, Gaza is Palestinian… and it has to be part of a Palestinian state,” he added.He advocated for the establishment of an “internal security force” linked to the Palestinian Authority that would have “objective powers… to try and rebuild Gaza without any participation” of the militant group Hamas.- Two-state solution -Kidwa said the pair’s peace proposal involved a two-state solution including the exchange of 4.4 percent of territory between Israel and a Palestinian state.Under the plan unveiled last year, Kidwa and Olmert said this territory swap would involve Israel annexing land where the main Jewish settlement blocs exist in the West Bank, including some of the area around Jerusalem.In exchange, an equally sized piece of Israeli territory would be annexed by a future Palestinian state, they said. Their vision of a two-state solution is based on Israel’s June 4, 1967 borders — before the occupation of the West Bank.The Olmert-Kidwa plan also advocates for shared sovereignty over Jerusalem’s Old City, involving a trusteeship which would include Israel and a Palestinian state.The current war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 people abducted in Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 52,787 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations regards as reliable.The territory has been under a total Israeli blockade since March 2, with UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations warning of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water.

UN Palestinian agency says irreplacable in Gaza

It is “very difficult” to imagine any operation to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip without the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, a UNRWA spokeswoman said on Friday.The United States on Thursday announced a new foundation to provide aid to Gaza, sidelining the United Nations as Israel’s two-month blockade brings severe shortages to the war-battered Palestinian territory.”It is impossible to replace UNRWA in a place like Gaza. We are the largest humanitarian organisation,” the agency’s spokeswoman Juliette Touma told a press conference in Geneva, when asked about that proposal. Little is known for sure about the body proposed by the United States, but a listing in Switzerland showed the establishment in February of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”.”We have the largest reach, whether it is through our teams that work across the Gaza Strip, where we have more than 10,000 people who work to deliver whatever is left of the supplies,” said Touma, speaking from Amman, Jordan.”We also manage shelters for the displaced families.””It is very, very difficult to imagine any humanitarian operation without UNRWA.”Israel has blockaded Gaza for two months, leading UN agencies and other humanitarian groups to warn of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel to medicine to the territory of 2.4 million Palestinians.- Aid ‘bargaining chip’ -Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it plans to expand military operations to force Hamas to free hostages held there since the Iran-backed group’s unprecedented October 2023 attack sparked the war.Israel, which accuses Hamas of diverting aid, is reportedly aiming to shut down the existing UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza, forcing all deliveries to go through Israeli hubs.Such a proposal is widely criticised by the UN and humanitarian organisations.”We’ll only participate in any aid operation that respects our humanitarian principles of independence, humanity and impartiality,” UN spokesman Rolando Gomez told the press conference.James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, said Israel’s plan would only increase the suffering of youngsters in the Gaza Strip.”It’s dangerous to ask civilians to go into militarised zones to collect rations; it further entrenches forced displacement for political and military purposes; and humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip,” he said.Those most at risk, who are unable to travel to such zones, would “face horrendous challenges” in accessing aid as a result, Elder added.”And the use of humanitarian aid as a bait to force displacement, especially from the north to the south, will create this impossible choice between displacement and death.”