TEHRAN: The Iranian foreign minister will commence a diplomatic tour in an attempt to restore the nuclear deal amid high tensions due to the US withdrawal and global concerns over announcements of clashes with Israel in Syria that were unprecedented.
A spokesman said Friday that Mohammad Javad Zarif is convening with all five of the remaining members to the 2015 nuclear deal and will start his tour late Saturday to Beijing, Moscow and then Brussels.
During the sensitive meetings, Iran appeared determined to evade a wider regional conflict with Israel, despite Israel’s claims to have struck dozens of Iranian targets inside Syria early on Thursday when implementing “Operation House of Cards.”
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to “throw the Iranians out” of his country.
Israel said the strikes were in response to a missile volley fired from southern Syria by Iran’s Quds force, that struck the occupied Golan Heights without causing casualties.
But Iran flatly denied the Israeli version of events, saying Israel’s attacks were carried out on false “pretexts.”
“The repeated attacks by the Zionist regime on Syrian territory were carried out under pretexts that were invented by themselves and are without foundation,” said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi, without offering further details.
Iran must tread a delicate line as it seeks to show resolve against Trump and the Israeli strikes without alienating the European partners it needs to salvage something from the nuclear deal.
Zarif will hold high-pressure talks with the other parties to the deal, first in Beijing and Moscow, and then with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Brussels on Tuesday.
All five have condemned Trump’s move to walk out of the deal and reimpose crippling sanctions, but European companies in particular will be highly vulnerable to economic pressure from Washington.
France still hopes for a wider settlement that will cover Iran’s activities across the Middle East, and warned Tehran on Thursday “against any temptation for regional dominance.”
Iran’s hard-liners are already mobilizing against any concessions to Europe, with hundreds protesting in Tehran after Friday prayers, saying it was time to abandon the deal.
“Officials shouldn’t trust France and Britain. They will never abandon the US for us,” said Poormuslim, a housewife at the rally.
In Jerusalem, around 200 Jews gathered at the Western Wall for prayers “against the enemy.”
“We came here to pray to God after the victory against Iran” following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, said Aryeh Stern, a rabbi from Jerusalem.
Southern Syria was quiet but tense, with monitors saying Syrian, Iranian and allied Lebanese forces from Hezbollah were on high alert.
The Israeli raids had prompted concern Iran could activate its powerful ally Hezbollah to retaliate from its positions in southern Lebanon, opening up a deadly new front in the conflict.
Iranian analysts said Israel had struck first on Thursday, and that any retaliation was the work of the Syrian military, not Iran.
“The Israelis want to make this into an Iran-Israel thing, but it isn’t. Whatever happens in Syria happens under the command of the Syrians,” said analyst Mohammad Marandi, who was part of Iran’s negotiation team leading up to the nuclear deal.
Analysts say Israel feels it has a green light from Washington to move more aggressively against Iran’s presence in Syria, particularly after Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
They also see a rare chance for Iran to hold the moral high ground.
“For the first time, Iran has the chance to show the world they are not the rogue nation they are always presented as, that they negotiated in good faith and keep to their commitments,” said Karim Emile Bitar, of the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs in Paris.
Russia — which is alone in having close relations with both Iran and Israel — has sought to position itself as a mediator to prevent further escalation.
Its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said “all issues should be solved through dialogue” and that Russia had warned Israel to avoid “all actions that could be seen as provocative.”
However, one analyst at London’s Chatham House, Yossi Mekelberg, said the strikes on Iranian targets “were likely undertaken with tacit Russian approval.”
“Russia is not happy with Iran gaining too much power, too much influence there,” he said.
On Friday the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken with Germany’s Angela Merkel and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a bid to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive.
“The importance of preserving the deal from a point of view of international and regional stability was highlighted,” it said.
Iran turns to diplomacy amid high regional tensions
Iran turns to diplomacy amid high regional tensions
- Mohammad Javad Zarif is convening with all five of the remaining members to the 2015 nuclear deal.
- Iran must tread a delicate line as it seeks to show resolve against Trump and the Israeli strikes without alienating the European partners.
Israel eyes deeper economic ties with India, finalizing investment protection deal
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the ministry’s chief economist Shmuel Abramzon discussed the issue, which it did not elaborate on, and other economic matters with Indian Ambassador to Israel J.P. Singh.
“Deepening economic ties with India is one of the goals I have set,” Smotrich said after the meeting in Jerusalem, calling India a “true friend of Israel.” An investment protection agreement is a treaty in which countries aim to reduce the perceived risk of investing in each other, such as by offering protections against unfair treatment or removing restrictions on transferring capital and profits.
India, the ministry noted, has become in recent years one of Israel’s most important trade partners globally and especially in Asia, and the volume of trade and investments between the two countries is expected to increase sharply in the coming years in light of their strengthening diplomatic and security relations.
Bilateral trade between India and Israel in 2024 came to almost $4 billion.
“In recent years, we have witnessed a strengthening of economic ties between us, including in the fields of defense exports and infrastructure,” Smotrich said.
“The potential for further strengthening our economic cooperation is immense. It can leverage our shared technological capabilities, India’s demographic scale, and the geo-strategic position of both countries.”
The EU presidency says Europe must rearm within 5 years
- Russia has been accused of acts of sabotage, cyberattacks and fake news campaigns – largely to weaken European support for Ukraine
BRUSSELS: Russia could pose a credible security threat to the European Union by the end of the decade and defense industries in Europe and Ukraine must be ramped up within five years in preparation, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned on Tuesday.
In a speech to the European Parliament marking the launch of Denmark’s six-month term as holder of the EU presidency, Frederiksen lamented that “cutting our defense spending in the past 30 years was a huge mistake.”
European officials have warned that President Vladimir Putin could soon try to test NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee — the pledge that an attack on any one ally would be met with a collective response from all 32. Most of the allies are EU countries.
Russia has been accused of acts of sabotage, cyberattacks and fake news campaigns – largely to weaken European support for Ukraine – and while Europe is not at war, it is not at peace either, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said.
“Strengthening Europe’s defense industry is an absolute top priority, and we have to be able to defend ourselves by 2030 at the latest,” Frederiksen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. “Never, ever should we allow Europe to be put in a position again where we cannot defend ourselves.”
Many European leaders insist they have heard the Trump administration’s warning that American security priorities now lie elsewhere – in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific – but Europe’s effort to arm is moving only slowly.
When NATO’s ambitions are not enough
At a key summit last month, NATO leaders endorsed a statement saying: “Allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defense requirements as well as defense- and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations.”
That historic pledge will require them to spend tens of billions of euros (dollars) more over the coming decade, not five years. Spain – NATO’s lowest spender with 1.28% of GDP last year – quickly branded the target “unreasonable.”
Belgium has cast doubt over whether it will make the grade. Slovenia is considering a referendum. Heavyweights France and Italy are mired in economic woes and will struggle to get there too.
Money spent on military support to Ukraine can now be included in NATO’s defense calculations, but even that will not hike the GDP military spend by much.
The EU’s Readiness 2030 plan
With the threat of Russian aggression in mind, the EU’s executive branch has come up with a security plan. It hinges on a 150-billion-euro ($176 billion) loan program that member countries, Ukraine and outsiders like Britain could dip into.
It aims to fill gaps that the U.S. might leave. Spending priorities for joint purchase include air and missile defense systems, artillery, ammunition, drones, equipment for use in cyber and electronic warfare, and “strategic enablers” like air-to-air refueling and transport.
On Tuesday, 15 EU countries were permitted to take advantage of another measure — a “national escape clause” — to allow them to spend more on defense without breaking the bloc’s debt rules.
Beefing up Ukraine ’s defense industry is also a pillar. The country produces arms and ammunition faster and more cheaply than its EU partners. Kyiv estimates that 40% more of its industrial capacity could be exploited if Europe were to invest.
Still, ambition is one thing, and the reality another.
“Things are not moving fast enough to be able to defend ourselves in 5 years,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters last week. “It’s a huge, huge challenge to reach that goal.”
On the need to take risks
A big part of the problem is that governments and the defense industry are stuck in old ways of thinking and neither wants to take a risk, even with Europe’s biggest land war in many decades still raging in its fourth year.
“You cannot expect industry to invest in production capacity if you don’t have long-term orders,” said Joachim Finkielman, the director of Danish Defense and Security Industries.
“If you need to build new factories, if you need to engage a larger workforce, you need to make sure that you have that,” he told The Associated Press on Friday.
Demand for 155mm artillery shells is a typical example, Finkielman said. “When you see the kinds of orders that have been placed around Europe, it is two to three years out in time,” he said, while industry needs five to 10 years’ worth of orders to take a chance.
Finkielman said that if governments and industries in Britain, France, Germany and Italy start to move, “the rest will follow.”
King Charles hosts Macron in first European state visit since Brexit
- Charles is expected to emphasize “the multitude of complex threats” both countries face when he speaks at the castle later
- Macron posted on X on his arrival that “there is so much we can build together”
LONDON: King Charles welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to Britain on Tuesday for the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit, their warm greeting symbolising the return of closer ties between the two countries.
Macron, treated to a British state visit for the first time, enjoys a strong personal relationship with the king, and there were smiles as the pair met alongside their wives Brigitte and Queen Camilla, watched over by soldiers on horseback, in ceremonial uniform of blue tunics and scarlet plumes.
Charles is expected to emphasize “the multitude of complex threats” both countries face when he speaks at the castle later, while Macron posted on X on his arrival that “there is so much we can build together.”
Accompanied by heir to the throne Prince William, and his wife Princess Catherine, the group climbed into several horse-drawn carriages for a procession in Windsor which finished in the medieval castle’s courtyard, west of London.
Since the election of Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year, Britain has been trying to reset ties with European allies, and Charles will want to play his part in setting the tone of the visit before the political talks get underway.
“Our two nations share not only values, but also the tireless determination to act on them in the world,” the 76-year-old monarch, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer, will say later.
While Macron’s three-day trip is filled with meetings about economic issues and foreign affairs, the first day of the state visit, which comes 16 years after the late Queen Elizabeth hosted then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, is largely focused on pageantry, and heavy in symbolism.
Before heading to London on Tuesday afternoon to address parliament, Macron joined Charles to inspect the Guard of Honour. He was due to have lunch with the family and tour the Royal Collection, paintings and furniture amassed by the Windsors over the centuries.
The monarch’s right eye was noticeably red when he met Macron. A Buckingham Palace source said he had suffered a burst blood vessel in one eye which was unrelated to any other health condition.
The day will end with a state dinner back at Windsor Castle, including speeches by Charles and Macron in front of about 150 guests.
“It’s wonderful that we’re going down the path of welcoming European leaders once again,” Alastair King, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, who will host a banquet in Macron’s honor on Wednesday, told Reuters.
Migrants deal
Later in his trip, Macron and Starmer’s discussions will focus on a range of issues, including how to stop people-smuggling and improve economic and defense ties at a time when the United States is retrenching from its traditional role as a defender of European security.
Although there have been tensions over the shape of post-Brexit ties and how to stop asylum seekers from crossing the Channel in small boats, Britain and France have been working closely together to create a planned military force to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.
British officials are hoping that Macron will agree to a pilot of an asylum seekers’ returns deal. This would involve Britain deporting one asylum seeker to France in exchange for another with a legitimate case to be in Britain, thereby disrupting the business model of people-smuggling gangs.
A record number of asylum seekers have arrived in Britain on small boats from France in the first six months of this year. Starmer, trailing behind Nigel Farage’s insurgent, right-wing Reform UK party in the polls, is under pressure to come up with a solution.
France has previously refused to sign up to such an agreement, saying Britain should negotiate an arrangement with all the EU countries.
A million more Afghans could be sent back from Iran, Red Cross warns
- Over 1.2 million people have been returned to Afghanistan from Iran since the start of this year
- Aid groups worry that the new arrivals from Iran risks further destabilizing the country
GENEVA: The Red Cross said on Tuesday it is bracing for another 1 million people to be sent back from Iran to Afghanistan amid mass deportations that humanitarians say are placing a heavy strain on the aid system. Over 1.2 million people have been returned to Afghanistan from Iran since the start of this year, according to data from the UN refugee agency, with the number of returns surging since Iran and Israel launched strikes on each other last month.
Sami Fakhouri, Head of Delegation for Afghanistan at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said he witnessed busloads of people returning to a border crossing at the Islam Qala border in Herat province in recent days.
“(We) are anticipating that an additional one million people, possibly more, may return from Iran to Afghanistan by the end of this year,” he told reporters at a Geneva press briefing, voicing concern about their futures with many having left their home country years ago and were now homeless.
“The majority didn’t have a say in coming back. They were put on buses and driven to the border,” he said.
Afghanistan is already battling a humanitarian crisis and aid groups worry that the new arrivals from Iran – on top of hundreds of thousands pressured to return from Pakistan – risks further destabilizing the country.
Fakhouri said the IFRC appeal for 25 million Swiss francs ($31.40 million) to help returning Afghans at the border and in transit camps is only 10 percent funded, voicing concerns about whether it could maintain support for people.
Babar Baloch, a spokesperson at the UN refugee agency, said tens of thousands were arriving from Iran daily with over 50,000 crossing on July 4.
He also voiced concerns about family separations.
“The psychological scars are going to stay with Afghans who have been made to come back to the country in this way,” he said at the same press briefing.
Southeast Asia to step up US trade talks over Trump’s new tariffs
- Indonesian government ‘very optimistic’ about upcoming negotiations
- Thai minister vows to ‘fight to the very end’ for best possible deal
JAKARTA: Officials in Southeast Asian countries prepared on Tuesday to step up trade negotiations with Washington after President Donald Trump’s administration hit some of them with over 30 percent tariffs, despite a raft of new concessions and offers to boost investment in the US.
Trump sent letters on Monday to over a dozen nations, notifying them of new tariff rates set to begin on Aug. 1. About half were heavily export-reliant Southeast Asian economies.
In Indonesia, the region’s largest economy, Trump’s announcement came despite last week’s offer to increase imports of US wheat, soybean, cotton, corn and energy products in a deal that could go as high as $34 billion, and to boost investment in the US.
Jakarta has immediately sent Airlangga Hartarto, its top negotiator and senior economics minister, to Washington to hold talks with US officials.
“We have a team of negotiators ready in Washington, D.C., and our coordinating minister for economic affairs is on his way to D.C.,” Hasan Nasbi, head of the presidential communications office, told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon.
“With the date extended to Aug. 1, it means we have a few weeks’ opportunity to negotiate, and our government is very optimistic about these negotiations as we have good relations with all countries, including the US.”
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that countries “aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an additional 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy.”
The post followed Sunday’s summit of BRICS — a geopolitical forum that includes Russia, China, India, and Indonesia — which condemned Trump’s tariffs.
The US is Indonesia’s second-largest export market after China, with exports valued at around $26.3 billion in 2024, according to data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency. Last year, Indonesia ran a $16.8 billion goods trade surplus with the US.
Also, Thailand is facing a tariff rate of 36 percent, despite offering to cut levies to zero on many US imports last week.
“The United States has not yet considered our latest proposal,” Thai Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira wrote on X.
“We will not stop; we will keep fighting. We will seek additional measures and find more solutions to ensure that we all fight to the very end, to secure the best possible deal for Thailand.”
In 2024, Thailand’s shipments to the US accounted for 18.3 percent of its total and were worth about $54.96 billion last year, making the US the country’s biggest export market.
Malaysia, for whom the US is the second-largest trading partner after China, and the largest export destination — with total trade worth $71.4 billion in 2024 — faces a 25 percent tariff rate.
Its Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the country “remains committed to constructive engagement” with the US.
“While we understand concerns regarding trade imbalances, we believe that dialogue and engagement are the best approach,” he wrote on X.
“(Malaysia’s Trade Ministry) will continue discussions with U.S. counterparts to address unresolved issues. Our goal is to achieve a balanced, mutually beneficial, and comprehensive trade agreement.”
