Israel expects to maintain access to more advanced US weaponry, a government spokesperson said on Thursday when asked about Washington’s plan to sell F-35 warplanes to Saudi Arabia.

Israel is the only Middle East country operating the F-35, one of the most advanced warplanes ever built. US law guarantees Israel a “qualitative military edge” in the region.

“The United States and Israel have a long-standing understanding, which is that Israel maintains the qualitative edge when it comes to its defense,” spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters.

“That has been true yesterday, that has been true today, and the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] believes that will be true tomorrow and in the future,” she said.

The spokesperson’s remarks were the first official comment from the Israeli government on the Saudi sale, announced earlier this week by President Donald Trump.

Saudi Arabia does not officially recognize the state of Israel. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, said during a visit to Washington this week that the kingdom wanted official ties with Israel but also wanted to ensure a clear path for a two-state solution with Palestinian independence.

Israel‘s Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood.

US officials have said the Saudi jets will not have superior features found in Israel F-35 fighters, which include advanced weapons systems and electronic warfare equipment.

The UN nuclear watchdog‘s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday saying Iran must inform it “without delay” of the status of its enriched uranium stock and bombed atomic sites, diplomats at the closed-door meeting said.

The resolution‘s purpose was primarily to renew and adjust the International Atomic Energy Agency’s mandate to report on aspects of Iran‘s nuclear program, but it also stated Iran must quickly provide the IAEA with the answers and access it wants, five months after airstrikes by Israel and the US.

Iran, which says its nuclear aims are entirely peaceful, warned before the US and Europe’s top three powers submitted this resolution that if it passed, it would “adversely affect” Tehran’s cooperation with the agency.

“Our message is clear: Iran must resolve its safeguards issues without delay. It must provide practical cooperation through access, answers, restoration of monitoring, to enable the agency to do its job and help rebuild confidence,” the US, Britain, France, and Germany said in a statement to the board.

IAEA: VERIFICATION IS ‘LONG OVERDUE’

The resolution passed with 19 votes in favor, three against and 12 abstentions, diplomats at the meeting in Vienna said. Russia, China, and Niger were the countries that opposed it.

“Iran must … provide the agency without delay with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran, and grant the agency all access it requires to verify this information,” the draft resolution text submitted to the board and seen by Reuters said.

Iran still has not let inspectors into the nuclear sites Israel and the United States bombed in June, and the IAEA says that accounting for Iran‘s enriched uranium stock, which includes material close to bomb-grade, is “long overdue” and the issue needs to be addressed “urgently.”

The IAEA cannot inspect the bombed facilities or verify Iran‘s uranium stock until Tehran submits a report updating it on what has happened to them. The bombed sites include Iran‘s three enrichment plants that were operating at the time.

When Israel first bombed Iran‘s nuclear sites on June 13, the IAEA estimates that Iran had 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons-grade, in a form that can easily be enriched further.

Iran says it can enrich to whatever level it wants in view of its peaceful objectives.

That is enough in principle, if it were to be enriched further, for 10 nuclear bombs, according to an IAEA yardstick.

THERE WILL BE ‘CONSEQUENCES,’ IRAN SAYS

Western powers say there is no civil explanation for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says it is “a matter of serious concern.”

“We are of the firm view that any provocative action – such as the introduction of yet another resolution – would jeopardize and potentially nullify the considerable efforts undertaken by the [IAEA] Director General and Iran to advance dialogue and cooperation,” Iran said in a joint statement to the board with allies including Russia, China, Cuba, and Belarus.

The IAEA and Iran announced an agreement in September in Cairo that was supposed to pave the way towards full inspections and verification, but Tehran said last month that deal is void.

“I’m afraid the resolution will have its own consequences,” Iran‘s ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, told reporters after the vote. Asked what those were, he said: “We will announce the consequences later.”

The only specific measure announced by Iran soon afterwards was that it was formally notifying the IAEA of the Cairo agreement’s termination.

Al Jazeera’s leadership shake-up has been in the headlines. But will its new executives direct the Qatari state-funded media arm to cease its cozy relationship with Hamas?

Allegations have been swirling that the royal family’s soft power news outlet is not merely reporting what Hamas says — but is actively collaborating with the terrorist organization.

Al Jazeera sells its content to major wire services like the AP and Reuters. Al Jazeera has resource-sharing agreements that allow outlets like CNN to access Al Jazeera’s footage and Al Jazeera to use CNN’s news feed.

Al Jazeera also has arrangements with BBC, France 24, and The Guardian that enable them to use Al Jazeera’s video footage and reports. Other media outlets, including Deutsche Welle and Euronews, have direct syndication arrangements, allowing them to use Al Jazeera’s content without intermediaries.

Credible reports indicate that Al Jazeera’s ties to Hamas extend well beyond journalism. Evidence points to coordination between the Qatari network and Hamas terrorists, raising serious reputational and policy questions for Al Jazeera and for media or corporate partners that cooperate with it.

Reporters Working for Both Al Jazeera and Hamas

Six Al Jazeera journalists simultaneously worked for Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), according to evidence seized by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) that has been made public.

Three have since been killed in Gaza. At any credible outlet, concurrently working for a US-designated terrorist organization would result in immediate dismissal. Not so with Al Jazeera. The absence of accountability speaks volumes.

Some of these journalists reportedly participated in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, assault, joining the terrorists who breached and burned Israeli kibbutzim near Gaza, massacring nearly 1,200 and kidnapping 250 others.

Media and corporate partners should have immediately paused collaboration with Al Jazeera until a credible internal investigation was conducted. But it appears that no such credible investigation occurred. Instead, the network issued denials that its reporters were working with Hamas.

Al Jazeera’s Role in Hamas’ October 7 Plan

The New York Times reported that Hamas’ October 7 massacre involved a detailed media strategy. This appeared to include a role for Al Jazeera, which aired prerecorded messages from Hamas commanders during the attack to inspire Arabs outside of Gaza to join in the fighting.

Al Jazeera’s reported collaboration as part of Hamas’ media strategy was not some innocuous business deal. Documents seized by the IDF reveal the terror group sought to ignite uprisings among Palestinians in the West Bank, Israeli Arabs, and Iranian proxies like Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border. One seized memo from 2023 stated that “two or three operations in which an entire neighborhood, kibbutz, or something similar will be burned” must occur to galvanize others.

There could be no credible denial about what was taking place. Hamas actively sought to broadcast its atrocities. Intercepts show that around 10 a.m. on October 7, a Hamas battalion commander, Abu Mohammed, ordered his fighters to “start setting homes on fire,” shouting “Burn, burn” and “I want the whole kibbutz in flames.”

Another six-page handwritten plan attributed to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar directed militants to “stomp on the heads of soldiers,” shoot them “at point-blank range,” and “slaughter some with knives.”

Commanders repeated and executed these orders in real time. “Slit their throats,” one said. “Kill everyone on the road. Kill everyone you encounter.” Another instructed, “Take a lot of hostages.”

According to a podcast featuring Ronen Bergman, a coauthor of the New York Times piece, Hamas wanted to showcase its “success” by showing Israelis dying, homes burning, and tanks exploding to convince allies that the destruction of Israel could be achieved.

Al Jazeera’s role was to spread this message, airing prerecorded communications from Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who proclaimed: “The day has come when anyone who has a gun should take it out. Now is the time. If you do not have a gun, take up your cleaver, axe, Molotov cocktail, truck, tractor, or car.”

Bergman explained that these speeches were “coordinated” and “perfectly synchronized” with Al Jazeera’s broadcasts.

A Hamas commander named Abu al-Baraa, according to intercepted communications, told Hamas terrorists invading Israel: “Document the scenes of horror, now, and broadcast them on TV channels to the whole world. Slaughter them. End the children of Israel.”

During and after the attack, Al Jazeera broadcast footage of the massacre while also airing Hamas’ messages, essentially serving as the group’s propaganda arm.

Throughout the war, Al Jazeera aired exclusive footage from Hamas tunnels, portraying the terrorist group as resilient rather than exposing its use of civilian areas for terror operations. It’s telling that Al Jazeera’s coverage portrayed Hamas as winning, while the network refrained from any criticism of the terrorist group’s leadership, tactics, hoarding of humanitarian aid, or harm done to Gazans for starting the war.

Internal Hamas communications dated before October 7 also show that the group instructed Al Jazeera to use specific terminology and limit visuals of failed rocket launches that fell inside Gaza. Al Jazeera reportedly complied with these instructions.

Direct Dial: Hamas’ Line Into Al Jazeera

Evidence found by the IDF and analyzed by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reveals that Hamas and Al Jazeera maintained a structured communications pipeline throughout the Israel-Hamas war. The captured Hamas documents show the creation of a “secure phone line” — referred to as the “Al Jazeera phone” — linking Hamas’ military operations room in Gaza directly to “Al Jazeera’s management offices in Doha.”

The line reportedly allowed Hamas to “control coverage in real time” by transmitting instructions on which events to air, what terminology to use, and which images to suppress.

Additional documents revealed that Hamas operatives sent media directives to Al Jazeera’s newsroom with detailed guidance on editorial framing. One 2022 memo urged the network to “minimize” images from a failed rocket launch that killed Gazan civilians and to avoid using the term “massacre” to refer to the event.

A subsequent Hamas media directive requested that Al Jazeera journalists coordinate with the movement’s “military media unit” before broadcasting material about the PIJ, ensuring consistency with Hamas’ narratives.

The Meir Amit Center described this pattern of coordination as “neither random nor isolated but systematic, organized and continuous.”

Why the Journalism World Should be Alarmed

Those who partner and collaborate with Al Jazeera cannot dismiss these findings as mere considerations. Continued cooperation with a network that coordinates with Hamas carries reputational, ethical, and potentially legal consequences. The same scrutiny applied to financial institutions accused of directly or indirectly supporting terror should extend to media entities that amplify or assist it.

Toby Dershowitz is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Asher Boiskin is an intern. Follow them on X @TobyDersh and @asherboiskin.