12/05/2026

TUESDAY | MAY 12, 2026

9

No end to deadlock

EU to sanction West Bank settlers BRUSSELS: The European Union was expected to agree new sanctions on Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians, the bloc’s top diplomat said, as a change of government in Hungary ends months of blockage. “I expect political agreement on the sanctions on violent settlers, hopefully we will get there,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ahead of a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers. The move in response to rising violence and settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank had been stalled by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban. But nationalist leader and Israel ally’s ouster by rival Peter Magyar now appears to have paved the way for the veto to be lifted. EU officials said seven settlers or settler organisations were set to be blacklisted. The bloc was also set to sanction representatives from Palestinian group Hamas. The occupied West Bank has been gripped by almost daily violence since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, involving both Israeli troops and settlers. There has been a surge in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Iran war on Feb 28, Palestinian officials and the United Nations have said. – AFP UK TO NATIONALISE BRITISH STEEL LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday that he would introduce legislation to nationalise Chinese-owned British Steel, after the government took control of the company last year. “Legislation will be brought forward this week to give the government powers ... to take full national ownership of British Steel,” Starmer said. The country’s last factory that can make steel from scratch faced imminent closure last year after its Chinese owner Jingye said the plant was no longer financially viable. After unsuccessful talks with the company, the government passed legislation to prevent the struggling plant’s blast furnaces going out. Since then, “it has not been possible to agree a commercial sale with the current owner,” the government said. – AFP DEMAND FOR UKRAINE DRONES KYIV: Nearly 20 countries are interested in drone deals with Ukraine and four agreements have been signed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Since the outbreak of the Iran war in February, Zelensky has managed to leverage Ukraine’s expertise in drone warfare into successful deals during visits to the Middle East and Europe. “Nearly 20 countries are involved,” Zelensky said. In April, Ukraine signed defence and drone deals in Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, following security partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in late March. – Reuters

TEHRAN: Iran said yesterday it had demanded the release of its frozen assets and the end of a US blockade of its ports, after President Donald Trump angrily rejected Tehran’s terms for ending the Middle East war. The sharp exchange of messages raised the spectre of a return to open conflict in the Gulf, dashed hopes of a quick negotiated deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping and sent oil prices higher. Trump reacted with fury after Iran responded to the latest US proposed outline for peace talks with a counteroffer he deemed, in a brief social media post, “totally unacceptable”. The US leader did not say what had offended him in Iran’s response, but Tehran’s Foreign Ministry said it had called for an end to the US naval blockade and to the war “across the region” – implying a halt to Israel’s strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Crucially, ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters, Iran demanded the “release of assets belonging to the Iranian people, which have for years been unjustly trapped in foreign banks”. This would suggest not just a return to the status quo before the National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes on more than 20 locations, including two south Lebanon villages where the Israeli army had warned residents to evacuate, saying it would act against Hezbollah sites. Israel has expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent days, and the NNA also reported Israeli artillery shelling on several other locations. The latest strikes come despite a ceasefire in place since April 17 that was supposed to halt the hostilities with Hezbollah, which has been carrying out its own attacks, mainly on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon but also across the border. A Lebanese Health Ministry statement said that Israel “directly targeted, with two strikes, two health committee sites”, killing one paramedic and wounding three others in Qalaway, and killing another paramedic and wounding two more in Tibnin. The statement decried what it called Israel’s continued “violation of international laws”. The Israeli military said in a statement that on Sunday its forces had struck more than 20 sites in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and headquarters. Hezbollah claimed more than 20 attacks on Israeli military targets in south Lebanon and on the border, frequently with drones. Lebanon’s Health Ministry on Sunday raised the overall death toll from Israeli strikes since war erupted to 2,846 killed, including 108 health and emergency workers. Israeli raids have killed dozens of people in Lebanon since the ceasefire. Under the terms of the truce, Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”. Its troops are operating behind an Israeli-declared “yellow line” that runs 10km north of Lebanon’s border. – AFP

US officials have stressed it would be “unacceptable” for Tehran to control the international waterway: the export route for a fifth of the world’s oil. The US Navy is also blockading Iran’s ports, at times disabling or diverting ships. As diplomatic momentum appeared to dwindle, fresh drone attacks in the Gulf on Sunday rattled the ceasefire. The United Arab Emirates said its air defences intercepted a drone launched from Iran, while Kuwait reported “hostile drones”. Qatar’s Defence Ministry said a freighter from Abu Dhabi was hit. In a social media post on Sunday, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security commission warned Washington: “Our restraint is over as of today.” “Any attack on our vessels will trigger a strong and decisive Iranian response against American ships and bases,” Ebrahim Rezaei said. – AFP

that has to be taken out of Iran,” he told US broadcaster CBS’s 60 Minutes . “There’s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” he said. The Wall Street Journal , citing people familiar with the matter, said Iran’s counter-proposal had included the possibility of diluting some of its highly enriched uranium, with the rest transferred to a third country. Iran had sought guarantees that the transferred uranium would be returned if negotiations failed or Washington abandoned the agreement, sources told the Journal . Trump is expected to press President Xi Jinping, a major buyer of Iranian oil, on the Iran issue when he visits Beijing on Thursday, according to a senior US official. The lack of a path to a resolution has focused concern on the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran is restricting maritime traffic and setting up a payment mechanism to charge tolls for crossing ships.

o Iran, US reject terms

United States and Israel launched the war on Feb 28, but a victory for the Islamic government’s long standing campaign against economic isolation. “We did not demand any concessions. The only thing we demanded was Iran’s legitimate rights,” Baqaei said. An end to international sanctions would also diminish Washington’s leverage over Tehran as it tries to secure a lasting end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment. The US, Israel and their allies have long accused Iran of seeking an atomic bomb, an accusation Tehran has repeatedly denied. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the conflict would not end until Iran’s nuclear facilities are destroyed. “It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material, enriched uranium,

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon kill two paramedics BEIRUT: Israel kept up strikes on south Lebanon on Sunday despite a ceasefire with authorities saying two paramedics were killed.

BR I E F S

An Israeli strike hits a village in southern Lebanon as seen from Marjayoun yesterday. – REUTERSPIC