RSS
Iran Tells IAEA Chief It Will Negotiate but Not Under Pressure
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi meets with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 14, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran is willing to resolve outstanding disputes over its nuclear program but won’t succumb to pressure, its foreign minister told the UN nuclear watchdog head on Thursday, as European countries push for diplomacy before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“The ball is in the EU/E3 court,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X following talks in Tehran with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, referring to three European countries — France, Britain and Germany — which represent the West alongside the United States at nuclear talks.
“Willing to negotiate based on our national interest and inalienable rights, but not ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation,” Iranian state media quoted Araqchi as saying. “I hope the other side will adopt a rational policy.”
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran would send a message to the three European powers through Grossi about Tehran’s seriousness to resolve its nuclear standoff, while stressing that any pressure on Tehran would have the opposite effect.
Diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday that Britain, France, and Germany are pushing for a new resolution against Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency board next week to pressure Tehran over what they view as its poor cooperation.
Grossi, in a televised joint press conference with Iran‘s nuclear chief, urged Tehran to take steps to resolve the remaining issues.
“It is in our power here to take concrete steps that will indicate clearly, to the US and the international community, that we can clarify things and move forward with concrete solutions,” Grossi said.
Grossi met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian for the first time since Pezeshkian was elected in July. The president told Grossi that Tehran was prepared to cooperate with the IAEA to clear up “alleged ambiguities” about Tehran’s nuclear work, state media reported.
Trump’s return to office as US president in January upends nuclear diplomacy with Iran, which had stalled under the outgoing administration of Joe Biden after months of indirect talks.
During Trump’s previous tenure, Washington ditched a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers that curbed Tehran’s nuclear work in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
On Tuesday, Pezeshkian, seen as relatively moderate, said Tehran would not be able to ignore its arch-foe the United States and needs to “handle its enemies with forbearance.”
Trump has not fully spelled out whether he will continue his “maximum pressure” policy on Iran when he takes office.
SOURED RELATIONS
Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have soured over several long-standing issues including Iran barring the agency’s uranium-enrichment experts from the country and its failure to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
In August, the agency said Iran‘s production of highly enriched uranium continues and it has not improved cooperation with it, despite a resolution passed by the IAEA Board of Governors in June.
Grossi, who has long sought progress with Tehran over its fast-advancing nuclear work, said: “Inspections are just one chapter of our cooperation and cannot be discussed.”
The US withdrawal from the nuclear pact in 2018 and the reimposition of sanctions prompted Tehran to violate limitations on its uranium enrichment — seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear weapons capability.
Tehran is now enriching uranium to up to 60 percent fissile purity, close to the roughly 90 percent required for an atom bomb. Tehran says its nuclear work is purely for peaceful purposes.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Tehran’s reaction to a resolution could be to limit diplomatic and technical cooperation with the IAEA.
On Friday Grossi is scheduled to visit Iran‘s Natanz nuclear plant and its Fordow site, which is dug into a mountain.
The post Iran Tells IAEA Chief It Will Negotiate but Not Under Pressure first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.