WASHINGTON/VIENNA: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that “hundreds” of US sanctions will remain on Iran even if the United States rejoins a nuclear accord.
President Joe Biden’s administration has been engaged in indirect talks with Iran about reversing former president Donald Trump’s exit from the 2015 nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“I would anticipate that, even in the event of a return to compliance with the JCPOA, hundreds of sanctions remain in place, including sanctions imposed by the Trump administration,” Blinken told a Senate hearing.
“If they are not inconsistent with the JCPOA, they will remain unless and until Iran’s behavior changes,” he said.
The discussions in Vienna, brokered by European diplomats, have been locked in dispute on which sanctions to lift.
The Biden administration is ready to end the sweeping measures imposed by Trump — including an effort to stop all of Iran’s oil exports — if it reverses the steps away from the nuclear deal that it took to protest the last administration’s sanctions.
But Iran has insisted on a removal of all sanctions — while the Biden administration has insisted that some will remain if they were imposed over other concerns, including human rights and Iran’s support for extremist movements.
Blinken reiterated support for returning to the nuclear accord, with which UN inspectors said Iran was complying before Trump pulled out the United States.
Asked about concerns that Iran did not declare all activities from before the nuclear deal, Blinken said: “Plain and simple, we would be in an even better place to insist on it answering those questions if we had managed to get Iran back into compliance with the JCPOA and if we were part of it, too.”
“But regardless, it needs to answer those questions. It needs to come clean about past activities,” Blinken said.
Meanwhile, the US told Iran on Tuesday that it must let the UN atomic agency continue to monitor its activities, as laid out in an agreement that has been extended until June 24, or put wider talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal at risk.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran reached a three-month agreement in February cushioning the blow of Tehran’s decision to reduce its cooperation with the agency by ending extra monitoring measures introduced by the 2015 deal.
Under that new side agreement, which on May 24 was extended by a month, data continues to be collected in a black-box-type arrangement, with the IAEA only able to access it at a later date. It is unclear whether the agreement will be extended again; the IAEA has said such negotiations are getting harder.
“We strongly encourage Iran to avoid any action that would prevent the collection of or IAEA access to the information necessary for it to quickly re-establish ... continuity of knowledge,” a US statement to a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors said.
“Such action would, at a minimum, seriously complicate ongoing efforts to reach an understanding on how Iran can return to compliance with its JCPOA commitments in return for a similar US resumption,” it added, referring to the 2015 deal by its full name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Indirect US-Iran talks on reviving the deal are due to resume in Vienna this week. The data covered by the separate IAEA-Iran agreement includes real-time uranium enrichment levels as well as whether centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, remained in storage and the production of centrifuge parts.
(With AFP and Reuters)
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Blinken anticipates hundreds of sanctions on Iran to remain in place
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Blinken anticipates hundreds of sanctions on Iran to remain in place
- ’If they are not inconsistent with the JCPOA, they will remain unless and until Iran’s behavior changes,’ says Blinken
- US says monitoring of Iran’s activities by IAEA must be allowed to continue or risk undermining Vienna talks
Prosecutors plan to charge Israeli settler with killing Palestinian activist in West Bank
RAMALLAH: Israeli prosecutors said Monday that they plan to charge a settler in the killing of a Palestinian activist during a confrontation that was caught on video, opening a rare prosecution of violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Attacks from settlers and home demolitions by authorities have spiked dramatically over the past two years, but the death in July of Awdah Hathaleen has drawn particular attention due to his involvement in the 2025 Oscar-winning film “No Other Land,” which chronicled Palestinian villagers’ fight to stay on their land.
The case also stands out because the confrontation between Palestinians and Yinon Levi, an internationally sanctioned settler, was captured on video from multiple vantage points.
In a video that family members say was taken by Hathaleen himself, Levi could be seen firing toward the person holding the camera. Another showed Levi firing two shots without showing where the bullets struck.
An Israeli judge released Levi from custody six months ago, citing a lack of evidence that he fired the shots that killed Hathaleen.
Israel’s State Attorney General’s office confirmed in a statement Monday that it had initiated proceedings to indict Levi. It did not specify the charges.
Eitan Peleg, an attorney for Hathaleen’s family, said the office had informed them it planned to indict Levi for reckless homicide, triggering a process that allows Levi to contest charges before they’re formally filed.
“Enforcement of the law in cases like this involving Palestinians in the West Bank is very rare, so this is unique,” Peleg told The Associated Press on Monday.
Israel’s military referred questions on the indictment to police, who have not yet responded. Both bodies enforce laws in the area.
More than 3.4 million Palestinians and 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by Palestinians for a future state. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Palestinians and rights groups say authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers or hold them accountable for violence. Under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, investigations into settler attacks have plummeted, according to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
Khalil Hathaleen, Awdah’s brother, said the family was glad some measure of justice was being pursued but felt the charge of “reckless homicide” was insufficient.
“It was an intentional killing in broad daylight, with prior intent and premeditation,” he said.
Levi’s attorney, Avichai Hajjbi, declined Monday to comment on the coming indictment, which he said he hadn’t received. After the shooting, he told The Associated Press that Levi acted in self-defense, without elaborating. Levi did not answer phone calls Monday.
Parts of the confrontation were filmed
Video released last year by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group showed Levi firing a gun toward the person filming. At the moment that B’Tselem says Hathaleen collapsed, the visuals are jostled but moans of pain can be heard. The group said it obtained the video from the family of Hathaleen, who said he filmed it.
Additional footage obtained by the AP last year showed Levi waving a pistol during the standoff in Umm Al-Khair that was with a group of Palestinians over an excavator that had rolled down from a nearby settlement and damaged Palestinian property earlier in the day.
Alaa Hathaleen, a cousin who filmed the encounter, told AP at the time that he had approached Levi to tell him the group was unarmed and to stop the bulldozing.
In the video, one Palestinian insults Levi and another challenges him to shoot. Levi shoves someone just out of the frame, demands to know who threw stones, and later fires a shot, seemingly away from the crowd. He then fires again and yells toward the crowd to get away from the excavator.
The footage did not show where bullets struck, though other relatives said they saw Awdah Hathaleen fall immediately after shots were fired.
Levi was detained before being released to house arrest. That condition was eventually lifted, too.
Levi was among the Israeli settlers sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of violence toward Palestinians in 2024. President Donald Trump lifted the US sanctions after taking office the following year.
Attacks spike as spotlight grows
Activists and crew members on the film “No Other Land” have said settler attacks have intensified on the village portrayed since the movie won the Oscar.
Hamdan Ballal, one of the film’s directors, said his family home in Umm Al-Khair was subject to another attack on Sunday. Four relatives were arrested during the confrontation, he said.
Ballal said a soldier, who came to their home accompanied by another soldier and a settler-herder, grabbed his brother by the neck and tried to choke him. Neither the army nor the police responded to requests for comment on the incident.
“The year after I won the Oscar, the assaults increased significantly. On a daily basis, settlers come and destroy the fields, destroy the trees, destroy the crops around the house,” he said.
Israeli proof-of-ownership rules spark anger
As prosecutors move to indict Levi and violence persists across the West Bank, Israel is moving ahead with measures to deepen its control over land in the occupied territory.
On Sunday, it announced it would resume a land registration process across the West Bank to require anyone with a claim to land to submit documents proving ownership. Rights groups say the process could strip Palestinians of land they’ve lived on and farmed for generations and transfer vast swaths of land to Israeli state control.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the steps countered Palestinian Authority land registration efforts in areas where Israel maintains civil and military control.
The measures follow years of accusations by Palestinians that actions by settlers and the military — campaigns of violence, harassment and demolitions — have pushed them from their land.
The decisions have drawn widespread condemnation as violations of international law, including from countries involved in the ceasefire process in the Gaza Strip and Trump’s Board of Peace.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry in a statement on Monday said the measures were part of Israel’s effort to impose a “new legal and administrative reality” that undermines prospects for peace and stability. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called the move a “flagrant violation” of international law, warning it would escalate tensions in the Palestinian territories and across the region.
Attacks from settlers and home demolitions by authorities have spiked dramatically over the past two years, but the death in July of Awdah Hathaleen has drawn particular attention due to his involvement in the 2025 Oscar-winning film “No Other Land,” which chronicled Palestinian villagers’ fight to stay on their land.
The case also stands out because the confrontation between Palestinians and Yinon Levi, an internationally sanctioned settler, was captured on video from multiple vantage points.
In a video that family members say was taken by Hathaleen himself, Levi could be seen firing toward the person holding the camera. Another showed Levi firing two shots without showing where the bullets struck.
An Israeli judge released Levi from custody six months ago, citing a lack of evidence that he fired the shots that killed Hathaleen.
Israel’s State Attorney General’s office confirmed in a statement Monday that it had initiated proceedings to indict Levi. It did not specify the charges.
Eitan Peleg, an attorney for Hathaleen’s family, said the office had informed them it planned to indict Levi for reckless homicide, triggering a process that allows Levi to contest charges before they’re formally filed.
“Enforcement of the law in cases like this involving Palestinians in the West Bank is very rare, so this is unique,” Peleg told The Associated Press on Monday.
Israel’s military referred questions on the indictment to police, who have not yet responded. Both bodies enforce laws in the area.
More than 3.4 million Palestinians and 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by Palestinians for a future state. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Palestinians and rights groups say authorities routinely fail to prosecute settlers or hold them accountable for violence. Under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, investigations into settler attacks have plummeted, according to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
Khalil Hathaleen, Awdah’s brother, said the family was glad some measure of justice was being pursued but felt the charge of “reckless homicide” was insufficient.
“It was an intentional killing in broad daylight, with prior intent and premeditation,” he said.
Levi’s attorney, Avichai Hajjbi, declined Monday to comment on the coming indictment, which he said he hadn’t received. After the shooting, he told The Associated Press that Levi acted in self-defense, without elaborating. Levi did not answer phone calls Monday.
Parts of the confrontation were filmed
Video released last year by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group showed Levi firing a gun toward the person filming. At the moment that B’Tselem says Hathaleen collapsed, the visuals are jostled but moans of pain can be heard. The group said it obtained the video from the family of Hathaleen, who said he filmed it.
Additional footage obtained by the AP last year showed Levi waving a pistol during the standoff in Umm Al-Khair that was with a group of Palestinians over an excavator that had rolled down from a nearby settlement and damaged Palestinian property earlier in the day.
Alaa Hathaleen, a cousin who filmed the encounter, told AP at the time that he had approached Levi to tell him the group was unarmed and to stop the bulldozing.
In the video, one Palestinian insults Levi and another challenges him to shoot. Levi shoves someone just out of the frame, demands to know who threw stones, and later fires a shot, seemingly away from the crowd. He then fires again and yells toward the crowd to get away from the excavator.
The footage did not show where bullets struck, though other relatives said they saw Awdah Hathaleen fall immediately after shots were fired.
Levi was detained before being released to house arrest. That condition was eventually lifted, too.
Levi was among the Israeli settlers sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of violence toward Palestinians in 2024. President Donald Trump lifted the US sanctions after taking office the following year.
Attacks spike as spotlight grows
Activists and crew members on the film “No Other Land” have said settler attacks have intensified on the village portrayed since the movie won the Oscar.
Hamdan Ballal, one of the film’s directors, said his family home in Umm Al-Khair was subject to another attack on Sunday. Four relatives were arrested during the confrontation, he said.
Ballal said a soldier, who came to their home accompanied by another soldier and a settler-herder, grabbed his brother by the neck and tried to choke him. Neither the army nor the police responded to requests for comment on the incident.
“The year after I won the Oscar, the assaults increased significantly. On a daily basis, settlers come and destroy the fields, destroy the trees, destroy the crops around the house,” he said.
Israeli proof-of-ownership rules spark anger
As prosecutors move to indict Levi and violence persists across the West Bank, Israel is moving ahead with measures to deepen its control over land in the occupied territory.
On Sunday, it announced it would resume a land registration process across the West Bank to require anyone with a claim to land to submit documents proving ownership. Rights groups say the process could strip Palestinians of land they’ve lived on and farmed for generations and transfer vast swaths of land to Israeli state control.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the steps countered Palestinian Authority land registration efforts in areas where Israel maintains civil and military control.
The measures follow years of accusations by Palestinians that actions by settlers and the military — campaigns of violence, harassment and demolitions — have pushed them from their land.
The decisions have drawn widespread condemnation as violations of international law, including from countries involved in the ceasefire process in the Gaza Strip and Trump’s Board of Peace.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry in a statement on Monday said the measures were part of Israel’s effort to impose a “new legal and administrative reality” that undermines prospects for peace and stability. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called the move a “flagrant violation” of international law, warning it would escalate tensions in the Palestinian territories and across the region.
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