Iran demands ‘cash for oil’ as nuclear talks resume

Representatives attending a meeting of the joint commission on negotiations aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna, Austria, on Dec, 27, 2021. (EU delegation in Vienna/EEAS/AFP)
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Updated 28 December 2021
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Iran demands ‘cash for oil’ as nuclear talks resume

  • Tehran desperate to refill its foreign currency coffers
  • Coordinator Mora says weeks not months left for agreement

VIENNA/JEDDAH: Iran on Monday demanded that world powers allow it to sell oil on international markets to replenish its dwindling foreign currency reserves, as talks resumed in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.
Indirect talks between Iran and the US also resumed, with Tehran focused on one side of the original bargain, lifting sanctions against it, despite scant progress on reining in its atomic activities.
Iranian oil sales have plummeted from about 2.8 million barrels per day to as low as 200,000 since 2018, when the US withdrew from the 2015 deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Donald Trump reimposed crippling economic sanctions. Any country or company doing business with Iran risks being frozen out of the international finance system.
Since the US pulled out, Iran has increased enrichment of fissile uranium to levels banned by the agreement. The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has expressed concerns over Iran’s growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The seventh round of negotiations to salvage the JCPOA resumed in late November, after a five-month break following the election of hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi as president of Iran. But it ended 10 days ago after adding some new Iranian demands to a working text. Western powers said progress was too slow and negotiators had “weeks not months” left before the 2015 deal becomes meaningless.

Iran's demand
The eighth round of the talks, which began Monday, involves delegations from Iran and the other countries that remain party to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
Ahead of the resumption, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the agenda should be “the issue of guarantees and verification” on the lifting of US sanctions.
“The most important issue for us is to reach a point where, firstly, Iranian oil can be sold easily and without hindrance,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Monday.
“The money from the oil is to be deposited as foreign currency in Iranian banks, so we can enjoy all the economic benefits stipulated in the JCPOA.
“Today, there is an acceptable joint document on the negotiating table that we call the Dec. 1 and Dec. 15 documents. Our negotiations will start on the basis of this joint document. Guarantees and verification are among the issues on the agenda.”
Iran’s two draft texts, submitted in previous talks, were incorporated in a draft drawn up in June after six rounds of negotiations between the previous Iranian team and major powers.

'Time running out'
Washington is participating indirectly, with diplomats shuttling back and forth between the Iranian and the US sides.
Iran has reported progress in the talks, but European diplomats have warned they are “rapidly reaching the end of the road.”
US negotiator Rob Malley has said there are only “weeks” left to revive the deal, if Iran continues its current pace of nuclear activities.
EU diplomat Enrique Mora, who is chairing the talks, said all sides were showing “a clear will to work toward the successful end of this negotiation.”
“If we work hard in the days and weeks ahead we should have a positive result.... It’s going to be very difficult, it’s going to be very hard. Difficult political decisions have to be taken both in Tehran and in Washington,” the talks’ coordinator, Mora told a news conference.
He was speaking shortly after a meeting of the remaining parties to the deal — Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union — formally kicked off the round on Monday evening.
“There is a sense of urgency in all delegations that this negotiation has to be finished in a relatively reasonable period of time. Again, I wouldn’t put limits but we are talking about weeks, not about months,” Mora said.

'No to a nuclear Iran'
Iran’s arch-rival Israel, which staunchly opposes the nuclear deal, had reportedly warned in November that Tehran had taken the technical steps to prepare to enrich uranium to military-grade levels of around 90 percent.
“Stopping Iran’s nuclear program is the primary challenge for Israeli foreign and security policy,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Monday.
“We prefer to act through international cooperation, but if necessary, we will defend ourselves, by ourselves.”
On Saturday, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran director Mohammad Eslami said Tehran has no plans to enrich uranium beyond 60 percent, even if the Vienna talks fail.
Eslami said the enrichment levels were related to the needs of the country, in remarks published by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Mora said he decided to reconvene the talks during many officials’ holidays between Christmas and the New Year so as not to lose time, but he added that talks would stop for three days as of Friday “because the facilities will not be available,” referring to the luxury hotel hosting most meetings. They are expecting to resume Monday next week.
Moscow’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Twitter that negotiators “held businesslike and result-oriented discussions.”
“In particular they agreed to intensify the drafting process in order to achieve an agreement ASAP,” he said.
Earlier Monday, he said it was the “presumably final round of negotiations.”

(With AFP & Reuters)
 


UK will sanction Israel ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, Times reports

Britain and other international allies will formally sanction far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Updated 50 min 41 sec ago
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UK will sanction Israel ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, Times reports

  • London will join Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other nations in freezing assets and imposing travel bans on Ben-Gvir — a West Bank settler — and Smotrich

LONDON: Britain and other international allies will formally sanction two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, following their conduct over the war in Gaza, the Times reported on Tuesday.
London will join Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other nations in freezing the assets and imposing travel bans on Israel’s national security minister Ben-Gvir — a West Bank settler — and finance minister Smotrich.
Britain’s foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Britain, like other European countries, has been ramping up the pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to end the blockade on aid into Gaza, where international experts have warned that famine is imminent.
London last month suspended free trade talks with Israel for pursuing “egregious policies” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, summoned its ambassador, and announced further sanctions against West Bank settlers.
Foreign minister David Lammy, who called Israel’s recent offensive “a dark new phase in this conflict,” has previously condemned comments by Smotrich on the possible cleansing and destruction of Gaza and relocation of its residents to third countries.


Several areas south of Sudan capital at risk of famine, says World Food Programme

Updated 10 June 2025
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Several areas south of Sudan capital at risk of famine, says World Food Programme

  • Several areas south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are at risk of famine, the World Food Programme

GENEVA, June 10 : Several areas south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are at risk of famine, the World Food Programme said on Tuesday, with need on the ground outstripping resources amidst a funding shortfall.
“The level of hunger and destitution and desperation that was found (is) severe and confirmed the risk of famine in those areas,” Laurent Bukera, WFP Country Director in Sudan, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Port Sudan. 


Abbas tells Macron he supports demilitarization of Hamas

Updated 10 June 2025
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Abbas tells Macron he supports demilitarization of Hamas

PARIS: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has said that Hamas “must hand over its weapons” and called for the deployment of international forces to protect “the Palestinian people,” France announced on Tuesday.
In a letter addressed on Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who this month will co-chair a conference on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, Abbas outlined the main steps that he thinks must be taken to end the war in Gaza and achieve peace in the Middle East.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces,” wrote Abbas.
He said he was “ready to invite Arab and international forces to be deployed as part of a stabilization/protection mission with a (UN) Security Council mandate.”
The conference at UN headquarters later this month will aim to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution — Israel currently controls large parts of the Palestinian territories.
“We are ready to conclude within a clear and binding timeline, and with international support, supervision and guarantees, a peace agreement that ends the Israeli occupation and resolves all outstanding and final status issues,” Abbas wrote.
“Hamas has to immediately release all hostages and captives,” Abbas added.
In a statement, the Elysee Palace welcomed “concrete and unprecedented commitments, demonstrating a real willingness to move toward the implementation of the two-state solution.”
Macron has said he is “determined” to recognize a Palestinian state, but also set out several conditions, including the “demilitarization” of Hamas.
In his letter, Abbas reaffirmed his commitment to reform the Palestinian Authority and confirmed his intention to hold presidential and general elections “within a year” under international auspices.
“The Palestinian State should be the sole provider of security on its territory, but has no intention to be a militarised State.”
France has long championed a two-state solution, including after the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militants Hamas on Israel.
But formal recognition by Paris of a Palestinian state would mark a major policy shift and risk antagonizing Israel, which insists that such moves by foreign states are premature.


Lebanon says two dead in Israel strike

Updated 10 June 2025
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Lebanon says two dead in Israel strike

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike killed a Lebanese father and son Tuesday in a southern village, the Lebanese health ministry and state media said, the latest deaths despite a November ceasefire.
A second son was also wounded in the strike in Shebaa, the state-run National News Agency reported. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
“An Israeli enemy drone carried out a strike in the village of Shebaa, killing two people and wounding one,” a health ministry statement said.
Israel had warned on Friday that it would keep up its strikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon despite the condemnation expressed by the Lebanese government after a massive strike on south Beirut the previous night on the eve of the Eid Al-Adha holiday.
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said the strikes levelled nine residential blocks. The Israeli military said they targeted underground drone factories.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strikes as a “a flagrant violation” of the November 27 ceasefire agreement, which was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that culminated in two months of full-blown war.


Israel commits ‘extermination’ in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say

Updated 10 June 2025
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Israel commits ‘extermination’ in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say

  • In its latest report, the commission said Israel had destroyed more than 90 percent of the school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza

VIENNA: UN experts said in a report on Tuesday that Israel committed the crime against humanity of “extermination” by killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, part of a “concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life.”

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was due to present the report to Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on June 17.

“We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission, said in a statement.

“Israel’s targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination,” she added.

The commission examined attacks on educational facilities and religious and cultural sites to assess if international law was breached.

Israel disengaged from the Human Rights Council in February, alleging it was biased.

When the commission’s last report in March found Israel carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s health care facilities during the conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the findings were biased and antisemitic.

In its latest report, the commission said Israel had destroyed more than 90 percent of the school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza.

“Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities ... In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination,” it said.

The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in a surprise attack in October 2023, and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Harm done to the Palestinian education system was not confined to Gaza, the report found, citing increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as harassment of students and settler attacks there.

“Israeli authorities have also targeted Israeli and Palestinian educational personnel and students inside Israel who expressed concern or solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza, resulting in their harassment, dismissal or suspension and in some cases humiliating arrests and detention,” it said.

“Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places,” the commission added.