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Ex-Iranian diplomat: “We negotiated with Saddam, so we can talk to Trump too”

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Trump

In an exclusive interview with Entekhab news outlet, Ahmadi shared insights into the Trump administration’s attempts at diplomacy and the internal dynamics that influenced U.S. foreign policy towards Iran.

Ahmadi disclosed that during Trump’s presidency, the former US president made two attempts to meet with then Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

He said: These efforts were part of Trump’s broader approach to renegotiate various international agreements.”

Ahmadi added that Trump criticized the NAFTA agreement as flawed but eventually entered negotiations with Canada and Mexico after receiving positive signals from both countries. The outcome was essentially the same agreement under a new name, which Trump then presented to his voter base as a victory.

Ahmadi further explained that within the Trump administration, there was a notable difference in attitudes towards Iran. While Trump often highlighted the economic benefits that European countries derived from doing business with Iran and focused on pragmatic issues, his National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held much more hardline, ideological positions.

The former Iranian diplomat, who had once served at the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York noted: “Even in situations where Trump was inclined towards negotiating with Iran, Bolton’s influence was a significant barrier.

Israeli soldiers allowed to shoot at Gazans ‘virtually at will’: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
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Israeli Army

Israeli soldiers told the outlets of near-total absence of firing regulations, “with troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets” all with their commanders’s blessings.

“There was total freedom of action,” B., an anonymous soldier who served in Gaza, said, adding, “If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain — you just shoot.”

B. stated that when someone is approaching.

“it is permissible to shoot at their centre of mass [their body], not into the air. It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman.”

Even when dealing with Israeli hostages in the besieged enclave, soldiers “didn’t have a specific directive”, as the incident in which the army accidentally killed three hostages did not cause any significant changes to the open-fire regulations.

Soldiers even freely fired at civilians entering so-called “no-go zones”, and their corpses are often left to rot, only removed ahead of the arrival of humanitarian aid convoys so that “images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out”.

Flouting a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 38,200 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 88,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Russia responds to Ukraine hospital attack claims

By
IFP Media Wire
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Russia Ukraine War

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Peskov stressed that Russia “does not strike civilian targets” and that all strikes carried out by the Russian military are exclusively aimed at “critical infrastructure facilities and military targets that are somehow related to the regime’s military potential”.

Regarding Ukraine’s accusations that Moscow intentionally hit the hospital in Kiev, Peskov pointed to the official statement by the Russian Defense Ministry, which “absolutely rules out that there were strikes on any civilian targets. It states that we are talking about the fall of an anti-missile”.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Monday that it had conducted a large-scale attack using long-range high-precision weapons to strike Ukrainian military industry facilities and aviation bases. The attack was said to be in response to Kiev’s continued attempts to cause damage to Russian energy and economic facilities.

The ministry stated that all the intended targets were hit and rejected Kiev’s claims of Russian missiles striking civilian facilities as “absolutely untrue”.

“Numerous published photos and video footage from Kiev clearly confirm the fact of destruction due to the fall of a Ukrainian air defense missile launched from an anti-aircraft missile system within the city,” the ministry noted.

It also accused Kiev of attempting similar “hysterics” in the past, especially before large international summits, such as the NATO gathering in Washington that kicked off on Tuesday. The Russian Defense Ministry suggested that the incident at Okhmatdet is being used by the Ukrainian authorities to ensure continued funding and the continuation of the conflict.

Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, has also suggested that the hospital tragedy is seen by Kiev’s Western backers as a “perfect gift” to justify further escalation of the conflict and the continuation of hostilities.

The Western press is “whipping up hysterics” and hiding relevant facts about the tragedy, Antonov claimed, including Moscow’s assessment that the incident was caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

Pro-Kiev media outlets have claimed that the weapon that struck the hospital was a Russian air-launched Kh-101 cruise missile. However, others have argued that the projectile, which can apparently be seen in a video filmed from a distance by a witness, was probably an AIM120 fired by a NASAM missile system or an interceptor fired by the MIM-104 Patriot missile system. Western donors have provided Ukraine with this type of US-developed weapon.

Official: De-dollarization, Rial’s immunity from sanctions in Iran-Russia monetary agreement

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Dollar

Mohsen Karimi referred to the CBI governor’s remarks on the first monetary agreement between Iran and Russia and the connection of Russia’s “Mir” card network to Iran’s “Shetab” network, starting from the first week of September.

Karimi stated that four significant and strategic actions were on the agenda of the two countries’ central banks. Two of these actions, establishing correspondent relations in national currencies and connecting the two countries’ banking messaging infrastructures, had already been completed, enabling all Iranian and Russian banks to send standard banking messages to each other.

The Deputy for International Affairs of the CBI added that these two actions have been finalized and will be operational in the coming weeks. This means that Iranian and Russian travelers can use their bank cards in both ATMs and point-of-sale terminals in both countries.

Karimi elaborated on the recent monetary agreement between Iran and Russia, stating that the agreement involves a liquidity swap line between the two central banks. This approach is aimed at de-dollarization and reducing sanction risks. In other words, it renders each country’s national currency immune to sanctions.

President-Elect Pezeshkian: Enhancing Pakistan ties Iran’s inviolable foreign policy

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Masoud Pezeshkian

Pezeshkian, in a phone call with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday, said Iran is ready to implement bilateral agreements with its eastern neighbor in various political, economic and security fields.

He said, “The long-standing relations and the deep cultural, religious and civilizational relations between the two countries have formed the most important foundation of the relations between the two great countries of the Islamic world in all dimensions.”

The Iranian president-elect, however, said, “There are many unused capacities for the promotion of cooperation between Iran and Pakistan, which we hope will be used with joint efforts to upgrade relations.”

He also expressed hope that the friendly and fraternal goals of the two countries will be realized in the new era.

Sharif, in turn, offered Pezeshkian his felicitations on his victory in the recent snap presidential elections to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

The Pakistani premier noted that the successful holding of elections and smooth transition of power in Iran indicate that the foundations of power in the country are based on democracy.

Israel army admits much of Hamas tunnel network in Gaza still in ‘good functional state’

By
IFP Media Wire
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Hamas

The Hamas tunnels are in good shape in central Gaza, most of Rafah in the south, and Shejaiya in the north, the TV report says.

In Khan Younis, in the south of the strip, many tunnels that were targeted by the IDF have been fixed up, as have the factories in the area that produce the concrete to build the tunnels.

Even though the IDF has been focused on tackling Hamas in Rafah in recent weeks, functional tunnels in the area enable Hamas to get close to the Israeli border, and only a few routes have been destroyed on the Philadelphi Route along the Gaza-Egypt border, the report adds.

Tunnels in Gaza City are in a medium to good state, and enable Hamas to gain proximity to the Israeli border, it adds.

Overall, were the war to end now, the report says, “Hamas still has the capacity to organize an incursion close to the border and perhaps even across it, [albeit] not on the scale of the past.”

Senior Israeli defense officials in January assessed that Hamas’s Gaza tunnel network was between 350 and 450 miles long, an astounding figure given that the enclave is only some 140 square miles in total size.

After seven months of Israel’s military operations against the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip, US intelligence sources told Politico only 30 to 35 percent of Hamas fighters have been killed.

In addition, around 65 percent of Hamas’ tunnel infrastructure remains intact, Politico’s sources said, and thousands of new members are said to have been recruited to the group in recent months.

The report comes as Washington has become increasingly concerned about the viability of Israel’s stated aim of destroying the Palestinian group.

Iranian Sahand warship capsizes, sinks again

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Iran’s Sahand destroyer

The warship partially sank on Sunday afternoon after an accident probably caused by problems in the ship’s ballast tank or water infiltration during repairs, according to Salman Zarbi, the head of Iran’s Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex (ISOICO).

Several people were injured in the incident that occurred near a repair facility 35 kilometers west of the city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province.

Experts say recent upgrades on Sahand, one of Iran’s most modern destroyers, may have made it top-heavy.

The missile carrier vessel was built in 2012 and was named after a ship that was sunk by the US military in 1988, during a day-long clash in the Arabian Sea.

Once the ship can be refloated, it would take Iran months to repair it.

China says NATO threatening global peace

By
IFP Media Wire
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Lin was asked by Bloomberg at a daily briefing to comment on recent reports that the US-led military bloc is planning to sign a cooperation agreement with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand at the upcoming NATO summit in Washington.

The spokesperson responded by stating that NATO is a “product of the Cold War and the world’s largest military alliance”. Despite claiming to be a regional and defensive organization, the bloc has continued to “expand its power across borders, break through defense zones, and provoke confrontation”, Lin added.

These actions, according to the spokesperson, expose NATO’s “deep-rooted Cold War mentality and ideological bias, which is the real source of risk threatening global peace and stability”.

“NATO should abide by its regional and defensive organization positioning, stop creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, peddle Cold War thinking and camp confrontation, and stop messing up Europe and trying to mess up the Asia-Pacific,” the spokesman said.

Lin’s comments come as NATO bolsters its efforts to establish relations with countries across the Asia-Pacific, at the same time claiming it does not seek to formally expand into the region.

Earlier this year, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg explained that the bloc feels that it must respond to the ever-changing security landscape in Asia, particularly because of alleged Chinese aggression. “This is not about NATO moving into Asia, but instead about the fact that China is coming close to us”, Stoltenberg told attendees at the exclusive Davos gathering in January.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Quian responded by calling Stoltenberg’s statements “inappropriate” and described NATO as a “walking war machine” that “brings disorder everywhere.”

In 2021, the US, UK, and Australia also established the so-called AUKUS security partnership, which aims to help Canberra acquire nuclear-powered submarines. Washington has extended invitations to other countries in the Asia-Pacific, such as Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand, to participate in the project.

The AUKUS pact has been condemned by Beijing as an attempt to build an “Asia-Pacific version of NATO.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry has warned that such moves only further the “Cold War mentality,” stimulate an arms race, and undermine regional stability and peace.

Speaking in Hanoi, Vietnam last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin also insisted that NATO’s aspirations in the Asia-Pacific represent a “threat to all countries in the region, including the Russian Federation”. Putin vowed that Moscow will not allow these actions to go unanswered.

Fire in Karkheh National Park in southern Iran put out

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Wildfires Iranian forests

Firefighters have been on the scene since Monday to put out the fire that affected over 65 hectares of land in the park.

No report has yet been released on the extent of damage to the site.

Earlier in June, bushfires burned large swathes of the forests in the area which took several days to extinguish.

Drought, human factors, and the burning of wheat fields by farmers are the main causes of fire in the Karkheh forests.

The Karkheh National Park is the main habitat of the Persian yellow deer.

Hamas says Israeli attacks not helping Gaza ceasefire talks, Netanyahu creating obstacles

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

In a statement on Monday, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh warned that the “catastrophic consequences of what is happening in Gaza” could “reset the negotiation process to square one”.

Netanyahu and his army will bear “full responsibility for the collapse of this path”, Hamas quoted Haniyeh as saying.

The statement added Haniyeh made “urgent contact” with mediators Qatar and Egypt over the expanding actions of the Israeli military, which issued further evacuation orders for areas in the neighbourhoods of Gaza City, displacing thousands of Palestinians, many of whom have been forced to move multiple times.

In a separate statement, Hamas accused Netanyahu of escalating “his aggression and crimes against our people” in what it said were “attempts to forcibly displace them in order to thwart all efforts to reach an agreement”.

Israel has killed at least 38,193 Palestinians and wounded 87,903 others since October 7, Gaza’s health ministry reported on Monday.

It comes as Egypt, Qatar and the United States step up efforts to mediate a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before the Palestinian movement would sign an agreement.

But Netanyahu’s office reiterated in a statement on Sunday that “any deal will allow Israel to return [to Gaza] and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved”.

As talks repeatedly flounder over differences between the parties, mediators Egypt and Qatar were due to host new meetings this week, according to officials.

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