LONDON: US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday that it appeared Iran was inching toward a place where talks could be held, days after US President Donald Trump left the door open to a possible meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York.
“It seems in some ways that Iran is inching toward that place where we could have talks and hopefully it’ll play out that way,” Esper said at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London.
Friction between the two countries has grown since Trump last year withdrew from a 2015 international accord under which Iran had agreed to rein in its atomic program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Washington has since renewed and intensified its sanctions, slashing Iran’s crude oil sales by more than 80 percent.
Rouhani on Wednesday said Iran would take another step away from the 2015 deal by starting to develop centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment, but he also gave European powers two more months to try to save the multilateral pact.
Separately, the United States refused to ease its economic sanctions on Iran, imposed fresh ones designed to choke off the smuggling of Iranian oil and rebuffed, but did not rule out, a French plan to give Tehran a $15 billion credit line.
The moves suggested Iran, the United States and the major European powers may be leaving the door open for diplomacy to try resolve a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program even as they largely stuck to entrenched positions.
Trump on Wednesday left open the possibility of a meeting with Rouhani at the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York.
Asked about the possibility of such a meeting, Trump told White House reporters anything was possible. “Sure, anything’s possible. They would like to be able to solve their problem,” he said, referring to inflation in Iran. “We could solve it in 24 hours.”
Iran ‘inching’ toward place where talks could be held: Pentagon chief
Iran ‘inching’ toward place where talks could be held: Pentagon chief
- Friction between the two countries has grown since Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 international accord
- Washington has since renewed and intensified its sanctions against Tehran
Gaza access: Foreign press group welcomes Israel court deadline
- The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM: The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to set Jan. 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by the attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.
Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.
On Oct. 23, the court held its first hearing in the case and gave Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan to grant access.
Since then, the court has granted several extensions to the Israeli authorities to develop their plan, but on Saturday, it set Jan. 4 as the final deadline.
“If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file,” the court said.
The FPA welcomed the court’s latest directive.
“After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out,” the association said in a statement.
“We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.
“And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the Supreme Court will recognize and uphold those freedoms,” it added.
An AFP journalist serves on the FPA board.
Meanwhile, US Senator Lindsey Graham accused Hamas of rearming during a visit to Israel on Sunday, and charged that the Palestinian group was also consolidating power in Gaza.
“My impression is that Hamas is not disarming, they are rearming,” Graham said in a video statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
“It’s my impression that they are trying to consolidate power (and) not give it up in Gaza.”
Graham’s remarks came a day after mediators the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye urged both sides in the Gaza war to uphold the ceasefire.
Hamas has called on the mediators and Washington to stop Israeli “violations” of the ceasefire.
On Friday, six people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school serving as a shelter for displaced people, according to the civil defense agency in Gaza.
