07/07/2025

MONDAY | JULY 7, 2025

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Israel agrees to Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha

WASHINGTON: US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two. Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two”. Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?” “There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear programme totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said. Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with President Donald Trump. Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear programme had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location. Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear programme or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear programme, adding that Iran did want to meet with him. Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research. – Reuters Talk show host to air interview with Iran president COLOMBIAN MAN HELD OVER SHOOTING BOGOTA: Colombian attempted assassination of a prominent right wing presidential candidate arrested on Saturday a man they believe hired the teenager accused of pulling the trigger. Elder Jose Arteaga Hernandez was described by police as a key planner of the June 7 attack on senator Miguel Uribe, who remains hospitalised in serious condition. Arteaga Hernandez planned the attack, said police chief Carlos Fernando Triana Beltran. Uribe, 39, was shot three times, including twice in the head, during a campaign rally in a park in Bogota. Police have now arrested five suspects, including the 15-year-old alleged hitman. Arteaga Hernandez, who has a long criminal record and a file with Interpol, coordinated the attack, hired the shooter and provided him with a gun, police said. – AFP GABON PRESIDENT LAUNCHES NEW PARTY LIBREVILLE: President Brice Oligui Nguema launched a political party known as the Democratic Union of Builders on Saturday. Its motto – inclusion, development, happiness – conveys a simple ambition: to unite, transform and elevate Gabon. The party’s inaugural congress drew thousands of supporters, including former heavyweights in the previous government. “The country went through 50 years of politics where leaders were instrumentalised by their political party. I don’t want to indoctrinate anyone. I don’t want to create a party that instrumentalises elections,” Nguema said in a speech, vowing a primary system to choose the party’s candidates. – AFP police investigating the

year’s war, and that reconstruction in Lebanon must begin. Only then, according to the Hezbollah chief, “will we be ready for the second stage, which is to discuss national security and defence strategy”. Supporters marched through Beirut’s southern suburbs before his speech, waving Hezbollah banners as well as national Lebanese, Palestinian and Iranian flags. Some also carried posters of the slain leader Nasrallah. In his remarks, Qassem said that his movement “will not accept normalisation ... with the Israeli enemy”, after Israel’s top diplomat said his government was “interested” in such a move. Lebanon, which is technically still at war with Israel, did not comment. Syria, which was also mentioned by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, said it was “premature” to discuss normalisation. – AFP Netanyahu, who confirmed Israeli negotiators were also en route, said that “the changes that Hamas is seeking to make in the Qatari proposal are unacceptable to Israel”. Hamas has not publicly disclosed its response to the US-backed proposal, relayed by mediators from Qatar and Egypt. In Tel Aviv on Saturday, protesters gathered for a weekly rally demanding the return of hostages held in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023. Macabit Mayer, the aunt of captives Gali and Ziv Berman, called for a deal “that saves everyone”. Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions said the proposal included a 60 day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel. However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system. On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said 14 people were killed by Israeli forces yesterday. The agency said 10 were killed in a pre dawn strike on Gaza City’s Sheikh Radawn neighbourhood, where AFP images showed Palestinians searching through the rubble for survivors with their bare hands. Sheikh Radawn resident Osama al Hanawi said: “The rest of the family is still under the rubble. “We are losing young people, families and children every day, and this must stop now. Enough blood has been shed.” Mediators have brokered two temporary halts in fighting, during which hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Of the 251 hostages kidnapped on Oct 27 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of the demand for a lasting ceasefire. Karima al-Ras, from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said “we hope that a truce will be announced” to allow in more aid. A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. – AFP

Under mounting pressure to end the war, now approaching its 22nd month, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet today President Donald Trump, who has been making a renewed push to end the fighting. A Palestinian official familiar with the talks and close to Hamas said international mediators had informed the group that “a new round of indirect negotiations ... will begin in Doha”. The group’s delegation, led by its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, had already arrived in the Qatari capital, the official said. On Friday, Hamas had said it was ready “to engage immediately and seriously” in negotiations.

TEL AVIV: Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas were set to resume yesterday in Doha for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. Netanyahu had earlier announced he was sending a team to Qatar though he said Hamas’ response to a draft ceasefire deal contained “unacceptable” demands. o Hamas wants withdrawal of occupation force

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A Palestinian mother and her daughter rushing for cover during an Israeli strike at Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip. – AFPPIC

Hezbollah chief ‘will not surrender’ BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said yesterday his group would not surrender or lay down its weapons in response to Israeli threats, despite pressure on the Lebanese group to disarm. Lebanese authorities are due to deliver a response to Barrack’s request for Hezbollah to be disarmed by the end of the year, according to a Lebanese official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Lebanese authorities say they have been dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in the south, near the Israeli border. Israel has continued to strike Lebanon despite the November ceasefire, claiming to hit Hezbollah targets and accusing Beirut of not doing enough to disarm the group. According to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah is to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, some 30km from the Israeli frontier. Israel was to withdraw its troops from all of Lebanon, but has kept them deployed in five points it deemed strategic. Qassem said Israel must abide by the ceasefire agreement, “withdraw from the occupied territories, stop its aggression ... release the prisoners” detained during last

“This threat will not make us accept surrender,” Qassem said in a televised speech to thousands of his supporters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Lebanese leaders who took office in the aftermath of a war between Israel and Hezbollah last year have repeatedly vowed a state monopoly on bearing arms while demanding Israel comply with a November ceasefire that ended the fighting. Qassem, who succeeded longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah after Israel killed him in September, said the group’s fighters would not abandon their arms and asserted that Israel’s “aggression” must first stop. His speech came as US envoy Tom Barrack was expected in Beirut on Monday.