25/04/2025

FRIDAY | APR 25, 2025

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Netanyahu slams Tehran as existential threat JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is an existential threat and warned that “the fate of all humanity” is at stake if it acquires nuclear arms. He was speaking on Wednesday at the start of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War II and is observed every year in April or May according to the Jewish calendar. “The regime in Iran is a threat to our destiny, to our very existence and to the fate of all humanity. “This is what will happen if it obtains nuclear weapons. If we lose this battle, the Western nations will be next. Israel will not lose, will not give in and will not surrender.“ Western powers and Israel, considered by experts to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, have long accused Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran has consistently denied the charge, insisting that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed that he would not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. In his remarks at Yad Vashem, he compared Palestinian militant group Hamas to the “Nazis, like Hitler”. “They want to kill, to destroy all the Jews. They openly declare their intent to destroy the Jewish state and that will not happen!” – AFP LONDON SAYS PEACE TALKS PRODUCTIVE MOSCOW: The United Kingdom Foreign Office said the Ukraine talks in London have led to significant progress towards common ground on next steps, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti. “The talks today were productive and successful, and significant progress was made on reaching a common position on next steps. All agreed to continue their close coordination and looked forward to further talks soon,“ the ministry said. It added that all parties reaffirmed their support for US President Donald Trump’s commitment “to stopping the killing and achieving a just and lasting peace”. – Bernama Sputnik/RIA Novosti RUSSIA AGREES TO HAVE TALIBAN ENVOY MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday it would allow Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to have an ambassador in Moscow, in a symbolic move days after it lifted the “terrorist” designation for the militant group. Moscow has taken steps to normalise relations with the Islamist Taliban administration since the group seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 after the withdrawal of US troops. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Russian officials have held talks with Afghanistan’s foreign and internal ministers. It said the Afghan side “expressed deep gratitude for this step”. Russia sees a potential economic partner in the Taliban authorities, who praised Moscow for scrapping the “terrorism” label last week. – AFP

Rescuers working at the site of a building hit by a Russian missile in Kyiv. – REUTERSPIC

Trump blames Zelensky for failure to end war

the sense of what I am getting when I am talking to leaders“, mentioning specifically Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as hopeful for a US-Iran deal. Trump in 2018 ripped up a nuclear agreement negotiated under previous US president Barack Obama and reimposed sweeping sanctions. He has voiced hope in his second term for a new accord that would resolve the issue diplomatically, and has discouraged Israel from a military strike on Iran. – AFP Russia would have to give up. It is time for Moscow and Kyiv “to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process”, he said. French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said: “Ukraine’s territorial integrity and European aspirations are very strong requirements for Europeans.” The diplomatic wrangling and strikes on Kyiv came after a fresh wave of Russian air attacks that shattered a brief Easter truce. A Russian drone strike on a bus in the southeastern city of Marganets killed nine people and wounded at least 30, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor said on Wednesday. Ukrainian authorities also reported strikes in the regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava and Odesa. In light of the attacks, Zelensky called for an “immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire”. – AFP

Russian naval facilities, “was lost years ago” and “is not even a point of discussion”. Zelensky responded by posting on social media a 2018 “Crimea declaration” by Trump’s then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, which said Washington “rejects Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea”. The US pressure on Ukraine to accept a deal comes after Trump regularly boasted on the campaign trail that he would resolve the conflict in 24 hours. He has put no equivalent visible pressure on Russia while dangling a lifting of massive US economic sanctions against Moscow if the fighting stops. Vance said the deal would “freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today”. This would mean Ukraine losing large areas to Russia. He did not explain what territory He also said Iranian and IAEA experts would meet to follow up on his visit, including on reinstalling cameras on nuclear sites. Iran and the United States have held two rounds of talks since US President Donald Trump called for a diplomatic solution to avoid conflict. A new round of technical talks is expected this weekend. “I think there is a general expectation that this goes well and that the agreement is verified by the IAEA.“ Grossi said this was “more or less

o ‘Refusal to accept US terms for ceasing conflict will do nothing but prolong killing field’

BR I E F S

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, blaming his refusal to accept the Russian occupation of Crimea for failure to end the war. As the leaders traded accusations, Ukrainian authorities issued an alert for an “enemy missile” attack on Kyiv, with explosions heard across the capital. Trump said a deal was “very close”, and effectively closed with Moscow, but Zelensky was proving “harder” to negotiate with. Zelensky’s refusal to accept US terms for ending the conflict “will do nothing but prolong the killing field”, he added. WASHINGTON: The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency head has called on Iran to explain tunnels built around a nuclear site but voiced optimism that US-Iran talks would land a deal. The Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank, released satellite imagery on Wednesday that it said showed a new, deeply buried tunnel alongside an older one around the Natanz site, as well as a new security perimeter. “I have been raising this issue

Ahead of Trump’s broadside, Vice-President J.D. Vance laid out the US vision for a peace deal in which Russia would get to keep already occupied swaths of Ukraine, including Crimea. Zelensky rejected this as a violation of Ukraine’s constitution. This prompted an outburst from Trump, in which he accused Zelensky of being “inflammatory” and taking a position that is “harmful to peace negotiations with Russia”. Zelensky “can have peace or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country”, Trump wrote on Truth Social. repeatedly and will continue to do so,“ said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-general Rafael Grossi. Grossi, who visited Tehran last week, said all countries need to inform the IAEA of intentions for facilities around nuclear sites but Iran has a stance “unique in the world” that it does not need to inform the agency ahead of time. He said it “cannot be excluded” that the tunnels would store undeclared material but did not want to speculate on intentions.

He said Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula with longtime major Iran asked to clarify tunnels at nuclear site