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Iran could potentially agree to direct talks with the United States on the nuclear issue if progress is made during initial indirect negotiations, independent journalist Laura Rozen reported on Thursday citing an Iranian source.
The source, whom Rozen said spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that indirect talks could begin in the next two to three weeks, likely in Oman, if the US is willing to engage. The talks are expected to be private at first.
Rozen cited the source as saying that if the indirect talks are successful in establishing a framework for negotiations, they could pave the way for direct talks.
The report added that Iran's negotiating team is expected to include Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Ravanchi, who was a key figure in talks which achieved a previous international nuclear deal, and Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi.
“Trump’s words are just hot air,” an Iranian lawmaker said Wednesday, dismissing the US President Donald Trump’s threat to bomb Iran if it fails to agree a nuclear deal.
“They know the extent of our offensive and defensive capabilities,” Fereydoun Abbasi said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of leading what he called an “assault on civilization” during joint remarks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest on Thursday.
Netanyahu's visit followed Hungary’s formal decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court earlier in the day. The Israeli leader is sought under an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
“This is important for all of civilization as we fight this battle against barbarism,” Netanyahu said. “We are fighting a similar fight for the future of our common civilization.”
He said that civilization itself is “under assault from radical Islam” spearheaded by Iran.
Iran-backed Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages to Gaza.
Israel's ongoing incursion into Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, with nearly a third of the dead under 18.
Tehran and its allies were dealt significant setbacks last year, including Israeli attacks that severely weakened Iran's ally in Lebanon Hezbollah and helped dislodge the Assad dynasty in Syria, Tehran's oldest Arab ally.
On Oct. 26, Israel launched air strikes on Iran which it said knocked out Iran’s Russian-supplied air defense system.
Since Donald Trump took office in the United States for his second term as president, Tehran has issued repeated warnings against further attacks.
It has also conducted continuous military drills since early January. After reviving the "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions from his first term, Trump on Sunday mooted bombing Iran if it does not agree to a new nuclear deal.
A high-ranking Iranian judge and member of the so-called Death Committee which oversaw the execution of thousands of dissidents in the late 1980s, has died.
The head or Iran's judiciary issued a condolence message on Thursday saying Hossein Ali Nayeri had been bedridden due to a lengthy illness, attributing the sickness to his years of work.
"Certainly, this ailment was due to many years of service to the holy system of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the judiciary," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei was quoted as saying by the judiciary's Mizan news agency.
Nayeri's death comes after a court employee in January shot dead two veteran Supreme Court judges, Mohammad Moghiseh and AliRazini, before killing himself. Initial news reports at the time mentioned a third judge being injured but officials said an injured bodyguard was the only other victim.
Born in 1956, Hossein Ali Nayeri served as the religious judge of Tehran's Evin Prison from 1983 to 1989 and was appointed by the founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini.
During this period authorities routinely executed political prisoners. Nayeri was a key member of a judicial panel - later known as the "Death Committee" - which condemned thousands of prisoners to death in the summer of 1988.
Following his tenure at Evin Prison, Nayeri served as the Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1989 to 2013 and as the head of the Judges Disciplinary Court from 2013 to 2022.
On Wednesday, a hacktivist group said the Iranian police intelligence agency has issued thousands of gun permits to senior state officials to fend off assassination.
A former Iranian diplomat says Europe's implicit support for President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on Iran reflects the extent to which Tehran’s relations with European powers have deteriorated.
Kourosh Ahmadi, who previously served at Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York, argued in an analysis published on a Tehran-based website that despite growing rifts between the Trump administration and Europe, European governments have refrained from criticizing Trump’s hardline approach toward Iran.
“Europe’s current silence or alignment with Trump on Iran comes at a time of unprecedented tension between Europe and the United States, as Trump and his team have shown nothing but contempt and hostility toward America’s traditional allies,” Ahmadi wrote. This, he said, underscores how severely Tehran’s ties with Europe have eroded over the past three years.
France’s foreign minister warned Wednesday that a military confrontation with Iran could become “almost inevitable” if world powers fail to quickly reach a new agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program. The statement followed a rare, closed-door meeting convened by President Emmanuel Macron with senior ministers and experts to assess the Iran situation.
