Iran makes big move, agrees to talk to US with one condition, says no use of..., Israel had...
However, he has said that this can be possible only when America guarantees not to take any kind of military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
This statement of the senior ambassador has come at a time when an American news website, citing sources, claimed that America's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet Iran's Foreign Minister and Chief Negotiator Abbas Araghchi in Oslo next week. However, both America and Iran have not confirmed this news. What assurance Iran has sought?
Earlier, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi also said during a conversation with NBC News that Iran wants talks but America will have to assure that while we are talking, it will not use military force. When Israel attacked Iran
Let us tell you that five rounds of nuclear talks were held between Iran and America since April 12. Even two days before the war between Israel and Iran started on June 13, both the countries were planning for further talks.
Meanwhile, Israel launched a massive attack targeting Iran's nuclear bases. On June 22, America also attacked Iran's Fordo/Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites with B-2 stealth bombers. More than 900 people have died in Iran during the conflict. At the same time, about 28 people were killed in Israel in Iran's retaliatory attacks. A ceasefire was declared between the two countries on June 24.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
30 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Hamas says it has given a ‘positive' response to the latest ceasefire proposal in Gaza
DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Hamas said Friday it has given a 'positive' response to the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza but said further talks were needed on implementation. It was not clear if Hamas' statement meant it had accepted the proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump for a 60-day ceasefire. Hamas has been seeking guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war, now nearly 21 months old. Trump has been pushing hard for a deal to be reached, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the White House next week to discuss a deal. The Hamas statement came as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while seeking aid. The U.N. human rights office said it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid. Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization, while others were massed waiting for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian organizations, it said. Efforts ongoing to halt the war Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, during which the U.S. would 'work with all parties to end the war.' He urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. In its statement late Friday, Hamas said it 'has submitted its positive response' to Egyptian and Qatari mediators. It said it is 'fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.' It did not elaborate on what needed to be worked out in implementation. A Hamas official said the ceasefire could start as early as next week but he said talks were needed first to work out how many Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage and to specify the amount of aid that will enter Gaza during the truce. Hamas has said it wants aid to flow in greater quantities through the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the response with the press.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Who has the hand on Pakistan's nuclear button?
Amid reports of India hitting Pakistan 's nuclear-related military infrastructure during Operation Sindoor and US President Donald Trump repeatedly making claims about his intervention averting a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan, John Kiriakou , a controversial former CIA officer and whistleblower, has claimed in a viral video that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is under the control of an American general. "The command and control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal has been placed under an American general by the Pakistani government,' Kiriakou said. Kiriakou is known for publicly confirming the US government's use of waterboarding and other forms of torture during the post-9/11 "War on Terror". He was stationed in Pakistan in the early 2000s as part of the CIA's counterterrorism operations and managed CIA–ISI joint operations. During his time there, he played a key role in the capture of Abu Zubaydah, a senior member of al-Qaeda, in 2002. Zubaydah was one of the first high-value detainees captured after the 9/11 attacks. In 2012, he was charged under the Espionage Act for leaking the identity of a covert CIA officer to a journalist and was imprisoned. Kiriakou has since become an outspoken advocate for whistleblower protections and a critic of US intelligence practices. Last month, a Pakistani security expert, Imtiaz Gul, ignited a controversy by claiming that Pakistan's strategically important Nur Khan airbase is under American control and even senior Pakistan Army officers are not allowed there. The airbase is also close to the Strategic Plans Division, which is said to be in charge of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Fungo nas unhas: um truque simples reduz facilmente Acabe com os Fungo Undo India called Pakistan's nuclear bluff during Operation Sindoor, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar repeatedly saying that India will not submit to Pakistan's nuclear blackmail. The control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal has been a subject of a lot of debate ever since 1998 when it joined the ranks of nuclear powers after conducting atomic tests. Besides Kiriakou's claim, various theories have been doing the rounds. There is speculation that the US has an emergency plan ready for Pakistan's nuclear weapons while many think close military cooperation between the two countries suggests a degree of American control over Pakistan's nukes. Live Events You Might Also Like: Does America have a plan to capture Pakistan's nuclear weapons? America's plan to "snatch-and-grab" Pakistan's nuclear weapons America's concerns over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal go decades back. It was reported by NBC News in 2011 that the US has a contingency plan to "snatch-and-grab" Pakistan's nuclear weapons, if and when the US President believes they are a threat to either America or its interests. Plans had been drawn up for dealing with worst-case scenarios in Pakistan, NBC news reported quoting several US officials, who said that ensuring security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons had long been a high US security priority even before 9/11 terrorist attacks. Among the scenarios drawn by the report were Pakistan plunging into internal chaos, terrorists mounting a serious attack against a nuclear facility, hostilities breaking out with India, or Islamic extremist taking charge of the government or the Pakistan army. NBC said in its 2011 report that the greatest success of the US war on terrorism, the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden in his safe house in Pakistan, had fuelled concerns about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. The report said there were increasing suspicions among US officials that Osama had support within the ISI and the Abbottabad operation had emboldened those in Washington who believed an orchestrated campaign of lightning raids to secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons could succeed. In the aftermath of the bin Laden raid, US military officials testified before Congress about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and the threat posed by "loose nukes" - nuclear weapons or materials outside the government's control. Earlier Pentagon reports also outlined scenarios in which US forces would intervene to secure nuclear weapons that were in danger of falling into the wrong hands. In an interview with NBC News in 2011, former Pakistan military ruler Pervez Musharraf had warned that a snatch-and-grab operation would lead to all-out war between the countries, calling it "total confrontation by the whole nation against whoever comes in". Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistan's best known nuclear physicist and a human rights advocate, too, said a US attempt to take control of Pakistan's nukes would be foolhardy. "They are said to be hidden in tunnels under mountains, in cities, as well as regular air force and army bases," he said. "A US snatch operation could trigger war; it should never be attempted." Despite such comments, interviews with US officials, military reports and even congressional testimony indicated that Pakistan's weaponry had been the subject of continuing discussions, scenarios, war games and possibly even military exercises by US intelligence and special forces regarding so-called "snatch-and-grab" operations, the 2011 NBC News report said. "It's safe to assume that planning for the worst-case scenario regarding Pakistan nukes has already taken place inside the US government," Roger Cressey, former deputy director of counter-terrorism in the Clinton and Bush White House, had told NBC News. "This issue remains one of the highest priorities of the US intelligence community ... and the White House." Pakistan's "emerging threat" to the US American concerns over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal narrated in the NBC News report in 2011 must have only grown over time as Pakistan stockpiled more nukes and also achieved greater military power. A decade later, in 2021, a Brookings article mentioned the American plan to capture Pakistan's nukes: "Indeed, since the shock of 9/11, Pakistan has come to represent such an exasperating problem that the U.S. has reportedly developed a secret plan to arbitrarily seize control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if a terrorist group in Pakistan seemed on the edge of capturing some or all of its nuclear warheads," wrote Marvin Kalb. "When repeatedly questioned about the plan, U.S. officials have strung together an artful, if unpersuasive, collection of 'no comments.' Last year, the US was alarmed by a new development in Pakistan. A senior White House official said in December that nuclear-armed Pakistan was developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that eventually could allow it to strike targets well beyond South Asia, making it an "emerging threat" to the US, Reuters reported. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer's surprise revelation underscored how far the once-close ties between Washington and Islamabad had deteriorated since the 2021 US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Speaking to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Finer said the number of nuclear-armed states with missiles that could reach the US homeland "is very small and they tend to be adversarial," naming Russia, North Korea and China. "So, candidly, it's hard for us to see Pakistan's actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States," he said. An official told Reuters that the threat posed to the US is up to a decade away. Finer's speech came a day after Washington announced a new round of sanctions related to Pakistan's ballistic missile development program, including for the first time against the state-run defense agency that oversees the program.
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
'Take it or leave it': Trump says US tariff letters ready for 12 countries ahead of..., will be sent out from...; What about India-US trade deal?
US President Donald Trump US President Donald Trump is taking a big step in his trade strategy by sending out letters about new tariffs (taxes on imported goods) to 12 different countries on July 7. He signed these letters on Friday, but he's keeping the names of the countries secret until Monday. Trump mentioned that the tariffs will involve 'different amounts of money' and could go as high as 70 per cent for some countries, starting from August 1. He thinks sending these letters is an easier approach than lengthy negotiations. 'I signed some letters and they'll go out on Monday, probably twelve,' Trump said according to a Reuters report when questioned about his tariff strategy. 'Different amounts of money, different amounts of tariffs.' According to the report, Trump's letters will be sent with the American side indicating a 'take it or leave it' offers. Back in April, Trump had already put a basic 10 per cent tariff on most goods coming into the US, with higher rates for some nations, like China. However, those higher tariffs were temporarily put on hold until July 9. So far, the US has successfully made trade agreements with just two countries: the United Kingdom and Vietnam. India's Stance on Trade Talks Meanwhile, a high-level team from India, led by Rajesh Agrawal, has returned from Washington without fully agreeing on a trade deal with the US. The main sticking point is agricultural and dairy products, which the US wants more access to. Despite the recent talks, there's still a small chance that an agreement could be reached between the leaders of both countries before the July 9 deadline. The Indian team was in Washington from June 26 to July 2 for these discussions. India's Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, has made it clear that India won't rush into a trade agreement just because of a deadline. He emphasized that India will only make trade deals that are in its national interest and won't be pressured by time limits. The US is pushing to sell more of its farm and dairy products in India. However, this is a very sensitive issue for India because it directly affects the livelihoods of many small farmers in the country. India, on the other hand, wants to avoid Trump's 26 per cent tariffs by making a temporary deal before July 9. It's also hoping for lower taxes on its own exports that create a lot of jobs, like textiles, leather, and footwear, (With IANS inputs)
