Category Archives: Iran

Trump scrambles to claim credit for Israel’s Iran attack he publicly opposed

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Discordant US response as president says he was fully aware of plans for what Marco Rubio called a ‘unilateral action’

Donald Trump is walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations.

The White House’s messaging has shifted quickly from Marco Rubio’s arms-length description of the Israeli attack as a “unilateral action”, to Trump claiming on Friday morning that he was fully in the loop on the operation and that it came at the end of a 60-day ultimatum he had given Iran to “make a deal” on its nuclear programme.

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Blasts heard in Tehran as Israel defence minister announces strikes on Iran – live

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Explosions heard in capital Tehran as Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, says counter attack is expected

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the nation, saying the IDF had targted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.

He said that Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz had been targeted.

This operation will continue for as many days as it takes … We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history.

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Israel’s Iran threat is familiar, but it is unlikely to attack without US backing

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Israel has threatened to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme before, ultimately holding back in absence of Washington’s support

The withdrawal of non-essential US personnel from parts of the Middle East and the anonymously sourced US reports in the past 24 hours that Israel is on the brink of an all-out attack on Iran are all deeply alarming, but they are also familiar.

The Israeli government has approached the same precipice, of a war to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme, several times in the past two decades, going as far as honing detailed plans and conducting practice air sorties.

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US orders non-essential embassy staff out of Iraq amid growing Middle East tensions

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State department move comes amid increasing concerns about nuclear talks between US and Iran that appear to be deadlocked

The United States has ordered the departure of “non-essential” diplomatic staff and their families from embassies in the Middle East amid growing diplomatic tensions in the region.

The US diplomatic draw-down came as Iran threatened to target US military bases in the region if conflict breaks out, while Donald Trump said he was “less confident” about reaching a nuclear deal.

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Iran says it will release Israeli nuclear secrets as pressure grows to reimpose sanctions

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Tehran threat comes as European powers press for vote that could lead to reimposition of UN sanctions

Iran has said it will soon start releasing information from a hoard of Israeli nuclear secrets it claims to have obtained, as European countries push for a vote this week on reimposing UN sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme.

The unverified claims by Iranian intelligence of a massive leak of Israeli secrets may be designed to turn the focus away from what Iran argues is its own excessively monitored civil nuclear programme.

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Iran extends ban on dog-walking for ‘public order, safety and health’

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Many cities said to have imposed prohibition in recent days that echoes 2019 police directive in Tehran

Iranian authorities have expanded a ban on walking dogs in public to many cities nationwide, citing public health, social order and safety concerns, domestic media have reported.

The ban, which echoes a 2019 police directive that barred walking dogs in Tehran, was expanded to Ilam city in the west on Sunday, according to reports.

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Iran blasts Trump for ‘racist mentality’ and hostility to Muslims over travel ban

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Tehran condemns Donald Trump’s order barring 12 countries’ citizens from entering US as violation of ‘fundamental principles of international law’

Tehran has denounced the US travel ban on Iranians and citizens of 11 other mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, saying Washington’s decision was a sign of a “racist mentality”.

Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday reviving sweeping restrictions that echo the US president’s first-term travel ban, justified on national security grounds after a firebomb attack at a pro-Israel rally in Colorado.

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Iran on brink of rejecting US proposal on nuclear programme

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Offer gives no ground on Tehran’s demand to continue to enrich uranium inside country, sources say

Iran is on the brink of rejecting US proposals on the future of its nuclear programme after the US draft insisted that Tehran would have to suspend the enrichment of uranium inside Iran and set out no clear route map for lifting US economic sanctions.

The US proposals were the first in written form since five rounds of indirect talks started, but Iranian diplomatic sources said the US proposals gave no ground on Iran’s demand to continue to enrich uranium inside the country.

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Trump says he warned Israel against attack on Iran as nuclear deal ‘very close’

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US president claims he told Tel Aviv he thought agreement on Tehran’s nuclear programme could come within weeks

Donald Trump has claimed he warned Israel against attacking Iran because he believed he was very close to a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme in which US inspectors will be given unparalleled access to sites to ensure the country is not planning to build a nuclear bomb.

At a White House press conference on Wednesday, the US president confirmed he held talks last week with Israel and told them it was “not appropriate” to attack Tehran because he believed he could reach a deal within weeks.

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Jafar Panahi returns to Iran in triumph after Cannes Palme d’Or win

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The director of It Was Just an Accident was cheered by supporters as he arrived back in his home country, where his work has previously landed him in jail

Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was given a hero’s welcome on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media showed.

After being banned from leaving Iran for years, forced to make films underground and enduring spells in prison, Panahi attended the film festival in person and sensationally walked away with the Palme d’Or for his latest movie It Was Just an Accident.

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Iran-US nuclear talks end with no agreement but ‘possibility of progress’

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There were fears latest meeting could collapse but both sides appear willing for more talks on uranium enrichment

Talks between Iran and the US on whether Iran will be allowed to continue to enrich uranium inside the country have ended without an agreement, but apparently without the feared breakdown.

The indirect talks between the two sides were mediated by Oman and held in Rome.

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Iran would view US as ‘participant’ in any Israeli attack on its nuclear sites

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Warning issued after US intelligence reportedly understood Israel might attack if Iran-US talks broke down

Iran has said it will hold the US responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear sites in remarks that set a fraught backdrop for the fifth and probably most important round of talks between Iran and the US on the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, issued the warning on Thursday after reports appeared in the American media claiming US intelligence understood Israel was planning an attack on Iranian nuclear sites – with or without American support – if the talks broke down.

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Middle East crisis live: Trump says US should turn Gaza into ‘freedom zone’ as more than 100 killed in Israeli strikes

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US president’s reported comments in Qatar come as scores killed in a second consecutive night of heavy bombing

Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that the death toll from Israeli strikes overnight into Thursday is up to 82 people, updating a previous toll.

“The number of martyrs from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has risen to 82 after the occupation targeted several homes in northern Gaza,” civil defence spokesperson Mohammad al-Mughayir told AFP, after the agency earlier reported at least 50 dead (see 8.27am BST).

We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this … there [are] two steps to doing this, there is a very, very nice step and there is the violent step, but I don’t want to do it the second way.

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Iran has ‘sort of’ agreed deal on nuclear programme, says Donald Trump

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US president rules out military action against Tehran after talks in Oman

Donald Trump says Iran has “sort of” agreed to the terms of a deal on the future terms of its nuclear programme.

On a visit to Doha, the US president said: “I want them to succeed. I want them to end up being a great country. But they cannot have a nuclear weapon. It is very simple really. It’s not like I need to give you 30 pages worth of details. It is only one sentence – they cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

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Iran proposes partnership with UAE and Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium

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A consortium would help Tehran deal with US objections and tie in Gulf states to its enrichment programme

Iran has floated the idea of a consortium of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to enrich uranium as a way of overcoming some US objections to Iran continuing to have its own enrichment programme.

The proposal would be one way of locking the Gulf states into supporting the Iranian position that it must be continued to be allowed to enrich.

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Iran and US talks upbeat despite disagreement over uranium enrichment

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Talks described as positive by US but Iran will not back down from its ‘right’ to enrich uranium for energy

Iran and the US have ended a fourth round of talks on a surprisingly upbeat note, despite the two sides appearing far apart on the central issue of a uranium enrichment programme on Iranian soil.

The talks in Muscat, Oman lasted four hours and were described as positive by the US side. The Iranian foreign ministry said the “talks had been difficult but detailed to better understand each side’s positions”.

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Iranians arrested in counter-terrorism raids allegedly targeted Israeli embassy

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Home secretary says raids across UK last weekend reflected some of biggest terrorism threats in recent years

Israel’s embassy in London was the target of an alleged terror plot involving a group of Iranian nationals who were detained by police after a series of dramatic raids across England on Saturday, sources have told the Guardian.

Four men remain in custody and are being questioned by police on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act targeting what police and politicians have so far only been willing to describe publicly as “specific premises”.

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Trump plans to announce US will refer to Arabian Gulf rather than Persian Gulf

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Move sparks outrage in Iran as diplomats try to broker deal between Tehran and Washington over nuclear programme

Donald Trump plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the US will now refer to the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia rather than the Persian Gulf.

The move has prompted outrage from Iranian leaders, and last-minute efforts are being made to persuade Trump to pull back from offending Iran in the midst of vital talks on the future of the Iranian nuclear programme. “If Trump went ahead with the proposal he would manage to unite every Iranian, pro- or anti-regime, against him, and that is a near impossible achievement,” one diplomat said.

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Iran calls for US to withdraw support for Israeli strikes on Yemen

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Iran claims attacks in Yemen are attempt to disrupt negotiations with US over Tehran’s nuclear programme

Iran has urged the US to end its support for Israel’s continuing strikes on Yemen, claiming Israel is trying to use its conflict with the Houthi-led government to drive a wedge between Iran and the US in the negotiations over the future of Tehran’s civil nuclear programme.

The strikes have been criticised by the UN-recognised Yemen government based in Aden , which said it had not been consulted and airstrikes alone were not an integrated plan to remove the Houthis from power. Yemen has been divided between the Houthis and the official government since the Houthis captured the capital, Sana’a, in 2015.

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Iran executes man accused of helping Israel kill Revolutionary Guards colonel

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Mohsen Langarneshin is accused of being ‘senior spy’ for Mossad, but human rights groups say he was innocent

Iran has executed a 36-year-old man it accused of helping the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, kill a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Tehran in 2022.

Iranian state media said Mohsen Langarneshin was hanged, the usual method of execution in Iran, at Ghezel Hesar prison early on Wednesday morning.

Langarneshin’s family and human rights groups insisted the former IT consultant was innocent of the charges against him and that any reported confessions were obtained by torture or blackmail.

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