PARIS: Iran’s crackdown on protesters and the sale of drones to Russia have turned the United States’ focus away from reviving a nuclear deal, which Tehran has so far rejected, Washington’s special envoy for Iran said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters in Paris, Robert Malley insisted that the United States would leave the door open to resume diplomacy “when and if” the time came, but for now Washington would continue a policy of sanctions and pressure.
Talks to revive a 2015 accord between Iran and world powers have been at a stalemate since September. Western states accuse Iran of making unreasonable demands after all sides appeared to be nearing a deal.
“If these negotiations are not happening, it’s because of Iran’s position and everything that has happened since (September),” Malley said.
“Our focus is not an accord that isn’t moving forward, but what is happening in Iran ... this popular movement and the brutal crackdown of the regime against protesters. It’s the sale of armed drones by Iran to Russia ... and the liberation of our hostages,” he said referring to three American nationals held in Iran.
Anti-government protests broke out in September over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was in police custody. The EU, the United States, Canada and Britain have imposed sanctions over human rights abuses in Iran as well as for its drone sales to Moscow.
Iran has continued its nuclear program, installing hundreds more advanced centrifuges. The machines enrich uranium, increasing the country’s ability to enrich well beyond the limits set by the 2015 deal. Iran began breaching those terms in 2019 in response to a US withdrawal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump.
The 2015 agreement limited Iran’s uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear arms, in return for lifting international sanctions. Iran denies wanting to acquire nuclear weapons.
Malley declined to give a timeframe on how long Washington would accept the status quo, but said if diplomacy failed the United States was ready to use other tools.
“If Iran takes the initiative to cross new thresholds in its nuclear program, then obviously the response will be different and coordinated with our European allies,” Malley said, without elaborating.
“There is no magic in which we will find a new formula.” Diplomats said Malley would hold talks in Paris with French, German and British counterparts on Tuesday.
No push for Iran nuclear talks, US envoy says, due to protests, drone sales
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No push for Iran nuclear talks, US envoy says, due to protests, drone sales
- “Our focus is not an accord that isn’t moving forward, but what is happening in Iran ... the brutal crackdown of the regime against protesters,” Malley said
Jordanian army foils smuggling attempt
- Smugglers use drones to smuggles drugs into the kingdom
DUBAI: The Jordanian army’s Northern Military Zone on Friday thwarted an attempt to smuggle drugs that was loaded a drone.
Border soldiers units tracked and monitored the drone, followed the rules of engagement, and dumped its package inside Jordanian territory, state news agency Petra reported, quoting a military source.
The confiscated goods were handed over to authorities, the report added.
From January until mid-July, Jordanian armed forces have intercepted an average of 51 drones each month, nearly two per day, all carrying narcotics destined for the kingdom.
Over 14.1 million narcotic pills, 92.1kg of illegal drugs and more than 10,600 slabs of hashish have been confiscated over the past six months, with a street value worth tens of millions of US dollars.
Human Rights Watch condemns Gaza aid centers as ‘death traps’
- At least 859 Palestinians were killed while attempting to obtain aid at GHF sites between May 27 and July 31 — most by the Israeli military — according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
JERUSALEM: Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Israeli forces operating outside US-backed aid centers in war-torn Gaza of routinely killing Palestinian civilians seeking food, as well as using starvation as a weapon of war.
“US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch.
After nearly 22 months of war in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas, the Palestinian territory is slipping into famine, and civilians are starving to death, according to a UN-mandated expert report.
HIGHLIGHT
After nearly 22 months of war in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas, the Palestinian territory is slipping into famine, and civilians are starving to death, according to a UN-mandated expert report.
Israel and the US have backed a private aid operation run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at four sites inside Gaza, protected by US military contractors and the Israeli army.
GHF launched its operations in late May, sidelining the longstanding UN-led humanitarian system just as Israel was beginning to ease a more than two-month aid blockade that led to dire shortages of food and other essentials.
Since then, witnesses, the civil defense agency, and AFP correspondents inside Gaza have reported frequent incidents in which Israeli troops have opened fire on crowds of desperate Palestinian civilians approaching GHF centers seeking food.
At least 859 Palestinians were killed while attempting to obtain aid at GHF sites between May 27 and July 31 — most by the Israeli military — according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” HRW’s Wille said in a statement.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff promised a plan to deliver more food to Gaza after inspecting the US-backed distribution center on Friday.
Witkoff said he had spent more than five hours inside Gaza, in a post accompanied by a photograph of himself wearing a protective vest and meeting staff at a GHF distribution center.
The foundation said it had delivered its 100 millionth meal in Gaza during the visit by Witkoff and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee to Gaza.
President Donald Trump “understands the stakes in Gaza and that feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority. Today he sent his envoy to serve as his eyes and ears on the ground, reflecting his deep concern and commitment to doing what’s right,” GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay said.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said 22 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Friday, including eight who were waiting to collect food aid.
Jordan delivers nearly 57 tonnes of aid to Gaza in latest round of airdrops
- Aircraft from the Royal Jordanian Air Force led the effort alongside planes from the UAE, Germany, France, and Spain
AMMAN: The Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) carried out seven airdrop operations over Gaza on Friday, delivering close to 57 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food supplies, relief items, and baby formula, the Jordan News Agency reported.
The mission, conducted in cooperation with multiple international partners, brings the total amount of aid delivered via airdrop since operations resumed last week to 148 tonnes.
Aircraft from the Royal Jordanian Air Force led the effort alongside planes from the UAE, Germany, France, and Spain. In total, the latest operation involved two Jordanian aircraft, one Emirati, two German, one French, and one Spanish.
The JAF said the airdrops were conducted under Royal directives aimed at intensifying humanitarian relief to Gaza amid the ongoing Israeli military offensive. They are part of broader Jordanian efforts to deliver urgent assistance to civilians in the besieged Strip.
In a statement, the JAF reaffirmed its commitment to its humanitarian mission “whether through airdrops or land convoys.”
Since the start of the war, Jordan has carried out 133 airdrop missions independently and participated in an additional 276 joint operations with allied nations.
Israel intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen
- The Houthis targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion airport using a Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missile
- Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Friday, which the Iran-backed Houthi militants said they had launched.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the Israeli military said.
The Houthis targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion airport “using a ‘Palestine 2’ hypersonic ballistic missile,” their military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement.
The militants have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since their Palestinian ally Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
The Houthis, who say they are acting in support of the Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza that ended in March, but renewed them after Israel resumed major operations.
Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports and the airport in the militant-held capital Sanaa.`
A settler accused of killing a Palestinian activist is to be freed, as Israel still holds the body
- Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three
- The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen’s body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city
TEL AVIV: An Israeli settler accused of killing a prominent Palestinian activist during a confrontation captured on video in the occupied West Bank will be released from house arrest, an Israeli court ruled Friday.
The video shot by a Palestinian witness shows Yinon Levi brandishing a pistol and tussling with a group of unarmed Palestinians. He can be seen firing two shots, but the video does not show where the bullets hit.
Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three, who was uninvolved and was standing nearby.
The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen’s body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city. It said the measure was being taken to “prevent public disorder.”
The confrontation occurred on Monday in the village of Umm Al-Khair, in an area of the West Bank featured in “No Other Land,” an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule.
In a court decision obtained by The Associated Press, Judge Havi Toker wrote that there was “no dispute” that Levi shot his gun in the village that day, but she said he may have been acting in self-defense and that the court could not establish that the shots killed Hathaleen.
Israel’s military and police did not respond to a request for comment on whether anyone else may have fired shots that day. Multiple calls placed to Levi and his lawyer have not been answered.
The judge said Levi did not pose such a danger as to justify his continued house arrest but barred him from contact with the villagers for a month.
Levi has been sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of past violence toward Palestinians. President Donald Trump lifted the US sanctions on Levi and other radical settlers shortly after returning to office.
A total of 18 Palestinians from the village were arrested after the incident. Six remain in detention.
Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer who has lobbied for sanctions against radical settlers, including Levi, said the court ruling did not come as a surprise.
“Automatically, Palestinian victims are considered suspects, while Jewish suspects are considered victims,” he said.
Levi helped establish an settler outpost near Umm Al-Khair that anti-settlement activists say is a bastion for violent settlers who have displaced hundreds since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence, which has surged since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, along with attacks by Palestinians.
In a 2024 interview, Levi said he was protecting his own land and denied using violence.
Some 70 women in Umm Al-Khair said they were beginning a hunger strike on Friday to call for Hathaleen’s body to be returned and for the right of his family to bury him in the village.
Israel’s military said in a statement to the AP that it would return the body if the family agrees to bury him in the “nearest authorized cemetery.”
Hathaleen, 31, had written and spoke out against settler violence, and had helped produce the Oscar-winning film. Supporters have erected murals in his honor in Rome, held vigils in New York and have held signs bearing his name at anti-war protests in Tel Aviv.
