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Iran and Europeans Hold ‘Frank’ Nuclear Talks With UN Sanctions Looming

General view of the Iranian Consulate where Iran holds nuclear talks with so-called E3 group of France, Britain, and Germany, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dilara Senkaya
Iran said it would continue nuclear talks with European powers after “serious, frank, and detailed” conversations on Friday, the first such face-to-face meeting since Israel and the US bombed Iran last month.
Before the meeting in Istanbul, Iran also pushed back on suggestions of extending the United Nations resolution that ratifies a 2015 deal, nearing expiration, that was designed to curb its nuclear program.
Delegations from the European Union and so-called E3 group of France, Britain, and Germany met Iranian counterparts for about four hours at Iran‘s consulate for talks that the UN nuclear watchdog said could provide an opening to resume inspections in Iran.
IRAN AND EUROPEANS PRESENT IDEAS
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said afterward that both sides had presented specific ideas on sanctions relief and the nuclear issue.
“While seriously criticizing their stances regarding the recent war of aggression against our people, we explained our principled positions, including on the so-called snapback mechanism,” he said.
“It was agreed that consultations on this matter will continue.”
The European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to the 2015 deal – from which the US withdrew in 2018 – which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.
A deadline of Oct. 18 is fast approaching when the resolution governing that deal expires.
At that point, all UN sanctions on Iran will be lifted unless the “snapback” mechanism is triggered at least 30 days before. This would automatically reimpose those sanctions, which target sectors from hydrocarbons to banking and defense.
To give time for this to happen, the E3 have set a deadline of the end of August to revive diplomacy. Diplomats say they want Iran to take concrete steps to convince them to extend the deadline by up to six months.
EUROPEANS WANT NUCLEAR COMMITMENTS FROM IRAN
Iran would need to make commitments on key issues including eventual talks with Washington, full cooperation with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and accounting for 400 kg (880 pounds) of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, whose whereabouts are unknown since last month’s strikes.
Before the talks, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson had said Tehran considered talk of extending UN Security Council Resolution 2231 to be “meaningless and baseless.”
IAEA head Rafael Grossi said he was optimistic that nuclear inspection visits might be able to restart this year and that it was important to discuss the technical details now.
“We need to agree on where to go, how to do it. We need to listen to Iran in terms of what they consider should be the precautions to be taken,” he told reporters in Singapore.
The United States held five rounds of talks with Iran prior to its airstrikes in June, which US President Donald Trump said had “obliterated” a program that Washington and its ally Israel say is aimed at acquiring a nuclear bomb.
However, NBC News has cited current and former US officials as saying a subsequent US assessment found that while the strikes destroyed most of one of three targeted nuclear sites, the other two were not as badly damaged.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and says its nuclear program is meant solely for civilian purposes.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
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Italy’s Meloni: Recognizing Palestinian State Before It Is Established May Be ‘Counterproductive’

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 26, 2022. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognizing the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive.
“I am very much in favor of the State of Palestine but I am not in favor of recognizing it prior to establishing it,” Meloni told Italian daily La Repubblica.
“If something that doesn’t exist is recognized on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” Meloni added.
France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September drew condemnation from Israel and the United States, amid the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
On Friday, Italy’s foreign minister said recognition of a Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with recognition of Israel by the new Palestinian entity.
A German government spokesperson said on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” towards a two-state solution.
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Syria, Israel Agree to Further Talks on De-Escalating Conflict, Ekhbariya TV Reports

A drone view shows the remains of a destroyed tank, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
Syrian and Israeli officials agreed to meet again after no final accord was reached in US-mediated talks in Paris on de-escalating the conflict in southern Syria, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Saturday, citing a diplomatic source.
The source described the dialogue as “honest and responsible,” in the first confirmation from the Syrian side that talks had taken place.
On Friday, US envoy Tom Barrack said officials from both countries spoke about de-escalating the situation in Syria during the talks on Thursday.
Representatives from the Syrian foreign ministry and intelligence officials were in attendance, Syria’s Ekhbariya reported.
Hundreds of people have been reported killed in clashes in the southern Syrian province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by government forces.
Last week’s clashes underlined the challenges interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa faces in stabilizing Syria and maintaining centralized rule, despite warming ties with the US and his administration’s evolving security contacts with Israel.
The diplomatic source said the meeting involved initial consultations aimed at “reducing tensions and opening channels of communication amid an ongoing escalation since early December.”
The Syrian side held Israel responsible for the latest escalation, saying that the continuation of such “hostile policies” was threatening the region, according to the source. The Syrian delegation also said that Damascus would not accept “imposing new realities on the ground.”
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