Times letters: Iran and the prospect of regime change
There are good reasons why previous US presidents have restrained Israel from taking military action against Iran. Netanyahu will no doubt continue to exploit the White House to advance his own agenda. But I disagree with your leading article (' Reckoning', Jun 14; letters, Jun 16) that he is doing the international community a favour.
Edward Chaplin
Cambridge
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Telegraph
4 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The BBC are the last news agency Israel should let into Gaza
There aren't many organisations Israel is less inclined to heed than the BBC, and most of them come with their own armed wing. So the Corporation's joint statement with news wires AFP, AP and Reuters, professing itself 'desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families' is unlikely to move Benjamin Netanyahu or his government. Nor is the BBC's call for foreign journalists to be allowed back into Gaza, which is not only not in Israel's military interests but would put journalists in mortal danger. Israel is being pummelled daily by the BBC. It's not about to be responsible for one of Auntie's reporters being abducted by Hamas or killed in crossfire. Even if the BBC had any credibility remaining inside Israel, its statement would be misguided, but the Corporation seems not to realise just how degraded its reputation is among Israelis across the political spectrum. In the past six months alone, the BBC has aired a documentary on the Gaza war narrated by the son of a Hamas deputy minister, livestreamed Bob Vylan chanting 'death, death to the IDF' at Glastonbury, and its news chief executive has opined that 'we need to continually remind people of the difference' between the Hamas government and its armed wing, a distinction which does not exist in UK law. This is what will be to the forefront of the Israeli government's mind when receiving this statement. Jeremy Corbyn's new political party has a better chance of getting a hearing. The BBC's intervention is especially unfortunate given that it risks amplifying Hamas's messaging against those trying to alleviate the horrific suffering in Gaza. There is a concerted effort to make sure the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation fails and for one reason only: the GHF's mission is to distribute aid to the residents of Gaza. That's it. Nothing more nefarious than feeding people. But feeding people is a threat to the Hamas-NGO complex that has hitherto held a chokehold on humanitarian aid distribution inside Gaza. Whatever the aid, whatever its source, when Hamas is in charge it siphons off the best for its own and uses the remainder to coerce ordinary Gazans into joining its ranks or toeing the line – or see their families go hungry. This strategy is not unknown to the NGOs that work on the ground in Gaza and have become too willing to turn a blind eye. The GHF is disrupting this cartel. By directing its efforts to dispensing food parcels to the needy, and declining to become part of Hamas's propaganda echo chamber, the GHF is a trial run for a different future for Gaza. A Gaza in which humanitarian aid is not controlled by Hamas is a Gaza in which Hamas will struggle to retain control. That Gaza is one in which the gruelling work of state-building can finally begin, if the Palestinians choose a new leadership more concerned with developing the economy than using the strip as an eternal launching pad for a self-defeating war on the Jews. Ergo the deliberate provocations at food distribution sites, ergo Hamas's determination to bait the IDF into opening fire, ergo the death toll propaganda war. By cosigning this statement, the BBC is contributing to the propaganda war. The Corporation can either be a reporter of the conflict or a participant in it, but it can't be both. In less than two years since October 7 the BBC has accelerated a case for its privatisation that its detractors spent decades trying (and failing) to force into the political mainstream. Hamas controls Gaza today because, in 2007, it seized the territory during a brief civil war against rival Fatah. The two organisations proved incapable of cooperating in the wake of the 2006 Palestinian elections, which Hamas won and ended decades of Fatah dominance. Palestinian voters chose Hamas at the ballot box but almost two decades later there have been no further elections. The Israelis kidnapped on October 7 aren't the only hostages being held by Hamas. The international community should, for reasons both humanitarian and self-interested, be willing on Israel in its efforts to smash Hamas and give Gazans an opportunity to break free of their grip, reject bigoted and futile anti-Zionism, and choose a better future for themselves. As long as the international news media, including and especially the BBC, continue serving as useful idiots for Hamas, this cannot happen. And as long as Western populations are bombarded with unverified Hamas claims about starvation and fatalities, Western leaders will continue to heap pressure on Israel to relent and allow Hamas to keep its hold over Gaza. The result will be more terrorism, more wars, and more dead Palestinians. Gaza will continue to hold itself hostage from its own future. The Corporation's statement will have no impact in Israel. The Israelis have stopped listening to the BBC. Unless it changes, they won't be the only ones.
Reuters
4 minutes ago
- Reuters
Europeans to test Iran's appetite for nuclear compromise as sanctions loom
PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) - France, Britain and Germany will hold face-to-face talks with Iran on Friday for the first time since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June, aiming to gauge Tehran's appetite for a compromise to avert sanctions, diplomats say. The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to a 2015 deal - from which the U.S. withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme. Friday's talks between senior diplomats from the so-called E3 group and Iran's negotiating team will be held in Istanbul. The United States held five rounds of talks with Iran prior to its airstrikes in June, which U.S. President Donald Trump, said had "obliterated" a programme that Washington and its ally Israel say is aimed at acquiring a nuclear bomb. Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon. European and Iranian diplomats say there is no prospect of Iran re-engaging with the U.S. at the negotiating table for now. But the Europeans say negotiations must be revived due to a halt in inspections of nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and as an October 18 deadline for the expiration of the 2015 deal draws closer. They also want answers over the location of 400 kg (880 pounds) of near-weapons grade highly enriched uranium, whose whereabouts have not been known since last month's strikes. "We are determined to do everything to reach a diplomatic solution," German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told a press conference in Paris on July 18. Under the terms of the U.N. Security Council resolution enshrining the 2015 deal, U.N. sanctions could be reimposed before the agreement expires - a process that would take about 30 days. The E3, who do not want to lose leverage by letting the deal expire, have warned that unless there is a new nuclear accord they will launch the "snapback mechanism", which would restore all previous U.N. sanctions on Iran, including on the oil, banking and defence sectors. With Russia - an ally of Iran - taking over the Security Council presidency in October, the three European countries have signalled that the latest window to reactivate the sanctions would be the end of August. Three European, one regional and an Iranian diplomat said the meeting in Istanbul would focus primarily on the issue of the snapback mechanism. They said the E3 would float the possibility to Iran of extending the snapback mechanism by up to six months. In return, Iran would need to make commitments on key issues, including eventual talks with Washington, full cooperation with the IAEA, and accounting for its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Speaking to reporters at the U.N. on Wednesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who will be in Istanbul, said Tehran had agreed to allow a technical team from the IAEA to visit in the coming weeks. He warned that a triggering of the snapback mechanism would be met with a strong response from Tehran. It has previously threatened to leave the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) over the issue. Gharibabadi added that he had heard about the possibility of an extension. "That's very premature now to discuss the issue of the extension. We have almost about three months actually, till the deadline of 18th of October," he said. A Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. was "coordinated" with the E3 when asked whether Washington was discussing the reimposition of sanctions with them, but declined to elaborate. Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was in Paris on Thursday and due to meet French officials for talks on various subjects, including Iran, four sources said. Israel launched the attacks on Iran saying it wanted to remove any chance of its arch-foe developing nuclear weapons.
BBC News
4 minutes ago
- BBC News
Gaza: UN and charities say people urgently need more food
Charities are warning that people in Gaza need food straight away. A group of 100 aid agencies, which includes Save The Children and Oxfam, says that people face United Nations (UN) has reported that people have been taken into hospital because they have not had enough and aid agencies say that children and old people are particularly vulnerable to starvation. Israel put in place a blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza. Although the blockade was partly loosened after two months, shortages of food have got worse since Israel started the blockade in March 2025, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was doing it because Hamas was refusing to agree to an American outline of talks for the next stage of the ceasefire. At the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu also repeated demands for the return of all Israeli aid agencies and the UN blame Israel for the food UN says that there have been many issues causing the shortage of aid, but they say the main one in recent weeks is that people have been killed at sites controlled by the Israeli military where aid is handed out in Israeli military says that its troops near the aid sites only fire warning shots and do not deliberately shoot at civilians (people not involved in the fighting). The 100 charities say it is time for governments around the world to take "decisive action", meaning they should take strong steps to get food to people in Foreign Ministry said it "categorically rejected" the statement from the 100 aid agencies, meaning that it definitely and very firmly disagreed with what they Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in October 2023, after Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7th October 2023, killing civilians and taking people hostage.
