16/05/2025

FRIDAY | MAY 16, 2025 9 ‘Nuclear deal possible if sanctions lifted’ WASHINGTON: An adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Iran could accept far-reaching curbs on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, US media reported. In an interview with NBC News, Ali Shamkhani said Tehran could agree to never develop nuclear weapons, give up stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and allow inspectors to nuclear sites, among other steps, if economic sanctions were lifted. He said “yes” in response to a reporter’s question on whether Iran would be willing to sign an agreement with the administration of US President Donald Trump, if sanctions were lifted “immediately”. The comments come after Tehran and Washington on Sunday held their fourth round of nuclear talks, which kicked off last month, marking their highest-level contact since the United States in 2018 pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran currently enriches uranium to 60% purity, which is far above the 3.67% limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90% needed for weapons-grade material. The Islamic republic began rolling back its commitments to the deal a year after the US withdrawal. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran is the only country in the world without nuclear weapons that enriches uranium to that level. Western countries have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons while Iran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes. Despite the talks, Washington has continued to impose sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear programme and oil industry. Shamkhani criticised Trump’s rhetoric on Iran and threats against the countries, even as talks were ongoing. “He talks about the olive branch, which we have not seen. It is all barbed wire,” he said, according to NBC News. – AFP NGO TO GIVE OUT AID IN GAZA WASHINGTON: A US-supported NGO said on Wednesday it would begin distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza this month following talks with officials in Israel, which has imposed a blockade on aid since March 2 after talks to prolong a Jan 19 ceasefire broke down. “The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) today announced that it would launch operations in the Gaza Strip before the end of the month.“ It added that it had asked Israel to secure distribution points in the north of the Palestinian territory and Israel had agreed. “We have a responsibility to act and to do it without compromising our values,” said GHF executive director Jake Wood. – AFP MISSILE ATTACK KILLS THREE SUMY: A Russian missile attack on Wednesday on an industrial site near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed three people, said regional governor Oleh Hryhorov on Facebook. Sumy region, on Ukraine’s northern border opposite Russia’s Kursk region, has been the target of repeated Russian attacks in the more than three-year old war, particularly in the last few months. A Russian missile attack on the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday last month killed 35 people. Russia denies targeting civilians in the war. – Reuters ISRAELI HURT IN ATTACK, DIES JERUSALEM: A pregnant Israeli civilian wounded in the West Bank when her vehicle was attacked has died, a hospital near Tel Aviv said yesterday. “After struggling to save the life of the woman, who was critically injured in the shooting attack in Samaria and arrived during resuscitation, the medical teams were forced to pronounce her dead,” said Beilinson Hospital in a statement, using the biblical name to refer to the West Bank. It added that the baby was delivered via Caesarean section and transferred to another hospital. – AFP

Putin absent from Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul

o Low-level Russian team delivers slap in face: Estonia

and Trump was open to “virtually any mechanism” that would lead to peace. The Russian delegation named by the Kremlin is headed by presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky and includes a defence deputy minister, a foreign deputy minister and the head of the GRU military intelligence agency. The Kremlin said Putin held a late night meeting with ministers, military commanders and spy chiefs to discuss the upcoming talks. A source involved on the Ukrainian side in the 2022 talks said Medinsky, who also led the Russian team then, did not have a strong mandate to make decisions. “The most important point is that the people who will be sitting at the table are not necessarily the key players,” the source said. Estonia, a European Union and Nato member that strongly backs Ukraine, said Putin was delivering a “slap in the face” by sending a low-level team. With Russian forces in control of close to a fifth of Ukraine, Putin has held fast to his long-standing demands for Kyiv to cede territory, abandon its Nato membership ambitions and become a neutral country. Ukraine rejects these terms as tantamount to capitulation and is seeking guarantees of its future security from world powers, especially the United States. – Reuters

ISTANBUL: Russian President Vladimir Putin sent aides and deputy ministers to hold peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey yesterday, spurning Kyiv’s challenge to go in person to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin on Sunday proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul and Zelensky said he would be waiting for the Kremlin leader. But after keeping the world guessing for days about Putin’s plans, the Kremlin on Wednesday named a delegation that did not include Putin. It was unclear how Ukraine, which has not publicly committed to send anyone to the talks or name a delegation, would respond. There was confusion in the Turkish city as reporters were gathered near the Dolmabahce Palace offices that the Russians had specified as the talks venue. Turkish officials have given no information on the time or location. Russia’s TASS news agency said talks would start at 0700 GMT but a Ukrainian official dismissed that, saying there had been no agreement on when they might begin. Zelensky said earlier this week he was not prepared to talk to anyone on the Russian side

except Putin, and questioned if the Kremlin leader was brave enough to show up. The Kremlin said Putin, who is under threat of an additional tightening of European sanctions to “suffocate” Russia’s economy, does not respond to ultimatums. The two sides last held face-to-face talks in March 2022, also in Istanbul. Washington has threatened repeatedly to abandon its diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict unless there is clear progress. After leaning heavily on Ukraine and clashing with Zelensky at a meeting in the Oval Office in February, US President Donald Trump has shown increasing impatience with Putin in recent weeks and threatened additional sanctions to hit Russian trade. Trump, who is on a three-nation tour of the Middle East, said yesterday he would go to the talks in Turkey today “if it is appropriate”. The confirmed absence of Putin lowers the expectations for a major breakthrough. Zelensky backs an immediate 30-day ceasefire but Putin has said he first wants to start talks at which the details of such a truce could be discussed. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was no military solution to the conflict

BR I E F S

SHOW OF FORCE ... Israeli tanks positioned near the border to Gaza on Wednesday. – REUTERSPIC

Order to release researcher held over Hamas ties WASHINGTON: A US judge ordered the release from custody on Wednesday of an Indian researcher at a top American university, who is facing possible deportation for alleged Hamas ties. Amendment rights to free speech. “The court’s order today should send a clear message to the Trump administration that it cannot arrest someone, rip them away from their family and incarcerate them just for standing in solidarity with Palestinians and against the genocide in Gaza,” said CCR attorney Astha Sharma Pokharel. sparked fear in the academic world that freedom of research and speech is being challenged under President Donald Trump. Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X at the time of Suri’s arrest, he was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media”.

Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University in the US capital, was arrested by federal agents two months ago at his home in Virginia and has been held in Texas. District judge Patricia Giles ordered Suri’s immediate release and that he be allowed to return from Texas to his wife and three children in Virginia on his personal recognisance. “Hearing the judge’s words brought tears to my eyes,” said Suri’s wife Mapheze Saleh in a statement released by the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which is among the groups representing her husband in court. Giles said Suri’s detention violated his First

She also accused him of having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas”. According to the New York Times , Saleh is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. McLaughlin said Suri is subject to deportation under a provision of immigration law that allows for expulsion if the visa holder’s presence in the United States is determined to threaten US foreign policy. – AFP

Georgetown University associate professor Nader Hashemi told AFP that the decision was “a victory” not only for Suri and his family but also “for the struggle for democracy in the United States”. Suri’s release comes several days after another judge ordered the release from custody of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University in Massachusetts who was detained in another high-profile case. The arrests of Suri, Ozturk and others have