US-Iran nuclear talks ‘productive’ despite fears after blast
A blast killed five and injured 700 at an Iranian port as the US pursued nuclear talks with Tehran in the absence of Israel. It came as Hamas put a five year truce on the table.
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The United States and Iran reported progress in their latest round of nuclear talks on the weekend and agreed to meet again next week as they pursue a deal that could help ease soaring Middle East tensions.
The talks coincided with a major blast at Iran’s Shahid Rajaee port that killed five and injured 700, state media reported.
While there were initial fears the blast could have been caused by an air strike, the port’s customs office soon clarified it probably resulted from a fire in a storage depot.
Mr Trump pulled out of an earlier, multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran during his first term.
The United States and Israel have repeatedly threatened Iran with military strikes should a new agreement not be reached.
A US official called the talks “positive and productive”, and Iran’s top diplomat said the two sides will study how to narrow their differences on a range of subjects before next week’s fourth round.
The highest-level contact in years between the long-time foes is targeting a new deal that would stop Iran developing nuclear weapons – an objective Tehran denies pursuing – in return for relief from sanctions.
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the senior US official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the next talks would be in Europe.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Saturday’s talks, which included technical-level teams for the first time, “serious and businesslike”.
“There are differences both in the major issues and in the details,” he told Iranian state TV.
“Until the next meeting, further studies are to be conducted in the capitals on how to reduce the differences.” Araghchi added: “I think our progress has been good so far. I am satisfied with the process of the negotiation and its speed. I think it is proceeding well and satisfactorily.”
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HAMAS OPEN TO FIVE YEAR TRUCE
Hamas said they are open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said Saturday ahead of talks with mediators.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo to discuss with Egyptian mediators ways out of the 18-month war, while, on the ground, rescuers said an Israeli strike on a family home in Gaza City killed at least 10 people with more feared buried under the rubble.
The Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian militant group “is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years”.
BIDEN MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR ISRAEL WAR: TRUMP
Donald Trump said former US President Joe Biden is the one with blood on his hands when it comes to who is most to blame for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Mr Trump made the comments in an interview to Time Magazine to mark his first 100 days in office.
“I would say that the blame for that is Biden more than anybody else, because I had, as you know, Iran was broke, and he allowed them to become rich,” Mr Trump said.
When the journalist asked if Mr Trump laid more blame with Mr Biden than he did Hamas, the president doubled down.
“There was no money for Hamas. There was no money for Hezbollah. There was no money,” Mr Trump said.
“Iran was broke under Trump, and you know that, he knows that, broke. They had no money, and they told Hamas, we’re not giving you any money.
“When Biden came and he took off all the sanctions, he let China and everybody else buy all the oil, Iran developed US$300 billion in cash over a four-year period.
“They started funding terror again, including Hamas.
“Hamas was out of business. Hezbollah was out of business. Iran had no money under me. I blame the Biden administration, because they allowed Iran to get back into the game without working a deal.”
HAMAS TO MEET MEDIATORS IN CAIRO
A Hamas delegation will meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire, a senior official from the Palestinian militant group told AFP.“The Hamas negotiating delegation, headed by Khalil al-Hayya, has left for Cairo,” senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said Friday. “It will meet with Egyptian officials tomorrow to discuss Hamas’s vision for ending the war,” he added, reaffirming that that Hamas’s weapons “are not up for negotiation”.
GAZA FOOD STOCKS DEPLETED
The UN’s World Food Programme said Friday it had depleted its food stocks in war-ravaged Gaza, where Israel has blocked all aid for more than seven weeks.
After 18 months of war, the situation in Gaza “is probably the worst” it has been, the UN’s humanitarian office has said, with the head of the world body’s Palestinian refugee agency decrying the aid stoppage on Friday as “politically motivated starvation”.
ISRAELI STRIKES KILL 55 IN GAZA
Gaza rescue teams and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 55 people on Thursday, as the military threatened an even larger offensive if hostages were not freed soon.
“If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages in the near future, we will expand our activities to a larger and more significant operation,” Israel’s army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said.
The warning came as the army issued fresh evacuation orders for northern areas of Gaza ahead of a planned attack.
Earlier in the day, six members of one family – a couple and their four children – were killed when an air strike levelled their home in northern Gaza City, the civil defence agency said in a statement.
Nidal al-Sarafiti, a relative, said the strike happened as the family was sleeping.
“What can I say? The destruction has spared no one,” he told AFP.
Nine people were killed and several wounded in another strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to a statement from the Indonesian hospital, where the casualties were taken.
“Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing,” said Abdel Qader Sabah, 23, from Jabalia.
Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas “command and control centre” in the area but did not say whether it was the police station.
In another deadly attack, the bodies of 12 people were recovered after the Hajj Ali family home, also in Jabalia, was struck, the civil defence said.
Another 28 people were killed in strikes across the territory, medics and the civil defence agency reported.
P.L.O. TO CREATE VICE PRESIDENT POSITION
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) voted on Thursday to establish the position of vice president, potentially paving the way for a successor to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
The move follows years of foreign calls to reform the organisation, and comes as Arab and Western powers envision an expanded role for Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) in the post-war governance of the Gaza Strip.
“A vote was held to create the position of vice president,” Rizq Namoura, a member of the PLO’s central council, said in an interview with Palestine TV, adding the outcome was “almost unanimous” in favour of establishing a number two role for the first time in the organisation’s history.
The Palestinian official news agency Wafa confirmed the vote. Palestinian analyst Aref Jaffal said the new role was created to pave the way for someone to take the reins from Abbas, now 89, “as there are many things the Palestinian situation requires”.
“The Palestinian political system is already miserable, so I believe that all these arrangements are a prelude to creating a successor to Abbas,” Jaffal, the director of the Al-Marsad Election Monitoring Center, told AFP.
In the event of Abbas’s death or resignation, the vice president would be expected to become the acting head of the PLO and of the State of Palestine, which is recognised by nearly 150 countries, according to Palestinian officials.
‘HAND THEM OVER’ PALESTINE LEADER’S HAMAS PLEA
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has urged Hamas to free all hostages, saying their captivity provided Israel with “excuses” to attack Gaza, as the terror group released a new video showing a captive alive.
Israeli attacks killed at least 25 people across the besieged territory, while Germany, France and Britain urged Israel to end its blockade on aid.
Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza on March 18, ending the ceasefire that had largely paused hostilities and saw the release of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1800 Palestinians from Israeli custody.
Talks on a new ceasefire have so far failed to produce any breakthroughs, and a Hamas delegation is in Cairo for renewed negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
“Hamas has given the criminal occupation excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages,” Abbas said in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“I’m the one paying the price, our people are paying the price, not Israel. My brother, just hand them over.”
“Every day there are deaths,” Abbas said.
“You sons of dogs, hand over what you have and get us out of this ordeal,” he added, levelling a harsh Arabic epithet at Hamas.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim called Abbas’s remarks “insulting”.
“Abbas repeatedly and suspiciously lays the blame for the crimes of the occupation and its ongoing aggression on our people,” he said.
Ties between Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas have been tense, with deep political and ideological divisions for nearly two decades.
Abbas and the PA have often accused Hamas of undermining Palestinian unity, while Hamas has criticised the former for collaborating with Israel and cracking down on dissent in the West Bank.
Since Israel’s military campaign resumed, at least 1890 people have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least 51,266, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Hamas’s attack on Israel in 2023 that ignited the war resulted in the deaths of 1218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
– with AFP
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Originally published as US-Iran nuclear talks ‘productive’ despite fears after blast
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