KOENIG

(photo: Iran Government via AP)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the Trump administration's offer for a nuclear deal on Wednesday, saying it compromised the country's "national independence."

In an address marking the 36th anniversary of late leader Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei said that the "proposal contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of 'We Can.'"

Last weekend, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff submitted a proposal to Iran for a nuclear deal, with the Trump administration urging Tehran to accept it or face the consequences.

(photo: AFP / Getty)

Hezbollah head Naim Qassem met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beirut on Wednesday, according to the Iranian-backed terrorist group.

According to a Hezbollah statement cited by Lebanon’s LBC TV outlet, Qassem thanked the Islamic Republic for its regional influence and its support for Palestinian “resistance” groups. Qassem was also said to have emphasized his commitment to Lebanon’s “progress, stability, sovereignty, and the expulsion of occupation from its territory.”

During the Beirut meeting, which reportedly was focused on “regional developments,” Araghchi stressed “the importance of bilateral relations with Lebanon and reiterated the Islamic Republic of Iran’s commitment to supporting Lebanon economically, politically and socially, based on mutual respect and enhanced cooperation between the two countries.”

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who leads Israel’s negotiating team in hostage talks, spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Muhammad bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on the phone over the weekend, a source familiar with the matter told Walla on Tuesday. 

Sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that this was the first direct contact between the two. Al-Thani is considered a key mediator between Israel and Hamas in the ongoing negotiations. Dermer’s office declined to comment on the matter.

The Post previously reported that US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, attempted to arrange a meeting between Dermer and Al-Thani after Dermer took office, but it never came to fruition.

(photo: Getty Images)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday stated unequivocally that the nuclear deal currently being discussed with Iran will not allow any uranium enrichment, contradicting earlier media reports.

“Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” Trump posted on social media.

The statement came shortly after Israeli news outlet Walla, citing two sources familiar with the deal, reported on Monday that Washington was open to permitting Iran limited, low-level uranium enrichment for an unspecified duration.

(photo: AFP)

The United States has warned the UK and France not to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state at a UN conference scheduled for June 17 in New York, the Middle East Eye reported Tuesday.

France and Saudi Arabia will co-host this conference on the two-state solution, with Paris reportedly preparing to unilaterally recognize Palestine. France is also pressuring London to follow this path, according to sources from the British Foreign Office.

French media reports indicate that French authorities believe they have the agreement of the British government. Meanwhile, Arab states are encouraging this move, measuring the success of the conference by the recognitions obtained.

Italy's Mount Etna produced a spectacularly explosive eruption Monday morning, sending a ripple of reddish clouds down from its summit. The soaring ash rose to form a mushroom cloud high above Etna, Europe's highest active volcano, triggering a red alert for aviation crews in the region.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology's Etna Observatory in Catania estimated the volcanic cloud's height at about 21,325 feet. The massive ash cloud was moving in a west-southwest direction, according to the agency, known as INGV.

Federal officials have charged Boulder, Colorado, terrorist attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman with a hate crime involving actual or perceived race, religion, or national origin.

Soliman, 45, was charged with first-degree murder, crimes against at-risk adults/elderly, assault, criminal attempt to commit class one and class two felonies and use of explosives or incendiary devices during a felony.

Soliman allegedly threw explosives into a crowd Sunday in Boulder as a pro-Israel group, "Run for Their Lives," participated in a gathering on Pearl Street advocating for Hamas to release Israeli hostages. 

Tehran is set to refuse a US proposal for a nuclear deal, according to a report in Reuters on Monday, and instead offer a counterproposal that is not "one-sided."

In addition, Iran demands US guarantees that sanctions will be lifted, according to a report in the Saudi Al Arabiya channel.

"We want to guarantee that the sanctions are effectively lifted" for a deal on Tehran's nuclear program, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said. "So far, the American side has not wanted to clarify this issue."

Iran has thrown water on optimism expressed by the US that a deal could be reached, all the while a report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), accused Tehran of activity in several undeclared nuclear sites.

Hamas announced Sunday that it was prepared to immediately begin a new round of indirect negotiations on remaining “points of contention” amid pressure from mediators to soften its stance, after the terror group submitted a response to a US ceasefire and hostage deal proposal that Washington called “totally unacceptable.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee denounced France’s push for Palestinian statehood on Saturday, telling Fox News that Paris should instead “carve out a piece of the French Riviera” for the Palestinians.

“Oct. 7 changed a lot of things,” Huckabee said of Hamas’s 2023 murder spree that killed 1,200 people, primarily civilians. “If France is really so determined to see a Palestinian state, I have a suggestion for them—carve out a piece of the French Riviera and create a Palestinian state,” he continued.

“They are welcome to do that, but they are not welcome to impose that kind of pressure on a sovereign nation. And I find it revolting that they think they have the right to do such a thing,” he said.

The FBI announced Sunday that it was investigating a “terror attack” in Boulder, Colorado, that the local Jewish community said targeted activists rallying for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

A joint statement from Boulder Jewish community groups said that an “incendiary device” had been thrown at participants in a hostage rally by a group called Run for Their Lives. Chapters of the group hold weekly events around the US to raise awareness about the hostages.

The Jewish groups said there were injuries but that details about the attack remained unclear.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates have condemned the Israeli government’s decision to block their politicized visit to Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the West Bank. The Arab foreign ministers and their Turkish counterpart intended to visit the PA administrative capital Ramallah during the weekend. 

In a joint statement, the Arab states condemned what they claimed  “reflects the extent of the Israeli government’s arrogance, its disregard for international law, and its continued illegitimate measures and policies that besiege the brotherly Palestinian people and their legitimate leadership.” The Arab ministers added by claiming that the Israeli government seeks to perpetuate “the occupation and undermine the chances of achieving a just and comprehensive peace.”

Ukrainian forces destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes with a drone attack on air bases deep within Russian territory on Sunday.

Ukrainian forces destroyed 40 aircraft in the attack, which an official says took more than a year to orchestrate. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the attack on Sunday, saying it struck five airfields.

The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41 planes stationed at several airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff slammed Hamas for making what he called were "backward" changes to the US-backed hostage deal proposal.

"I received the Hamas response to the United States’ proposal. It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week," Witkoff said on X/Twitter.

"That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire," he concluded.

President Donald Trump put Russian President Vladimir Putin on notice, and issued some harsh words to China and their ongoing trade negotiations during his 19th week in office. 

"What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former Russian president, responded in kind and issued his own words of caution to the U.S. 

"Regarding Trump's words about Putin ‘playing with fire’ and ‘really bad things’ happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!" Medvedev wrote.

“Iran is totally determined to complete its nuclear weapons program,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday, referring to a recent International Atomic Energy Agency report that, for the first time in nearly 20 years, explicitly found Tehran guilty of violating its non-proliferation obligations.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog “presents a stark picture that serves as a clear warning sign,” the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The report “strongly reinforces what Israel has been saying for years—the purpose of Iran’s nuclear program is not peaceful,” the Prime Minister’s Office statement continued.

Saudi Arabia’s defense minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: Take US President Donald Trump’s offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously, because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel.

Alarmed at the prospect of further instability in the region, Saudi Arabia’s 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son Prince Khalid bin Salman with the warning destined for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two Gulf sources close to government circles and two Iranian officials.

Present at the closed-door meeting in Tehran, which took place on April 17 in the presidential compound, were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the sources said.

The IDF struck weapons depots in the Latakia area of Syria, containing surface-to-surface missiles, the IDF confirmed in a statement on Friday evening.

The IAF also struck surface-to-air missile components.

The weapons posed an international threat as well as a threat to Israel's maritime navigation abilities, the IDF fstatement said.

This comes after news this week that Israel and Syria are in direct contact and have, in recent weeks, held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region between the two longtime foes.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Sunday will become the first Saudi foreign minister to visit the West Bank in decades, a top Palestinian official confirmed to AFP.

The top Saudi diplomat will head a delegation of Arab foreign ministers to Ramallah, where they will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein al-Sheikh told CNN on Friday.

Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mazen Ghoneim told Saudi state-backed Al Arabiya that Prince Faisal will be joined by counterparts from Egypt, Jordan and “other countries.” The Palestinian Al Quds newspaper reported earlier this week that foreign ministers from Qatar, Bahrain and Oman will also join Prince Faisal.

Hamas said Thursday it does not accept the outline of US envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposed ceasefire and hostage deal at face value and demands certain changes, according to people familiar with the matter.

The information provided by the sources conflicts with reports published in Saudi newspaper Al-Hadath, which indicated that Hamas will shortly agree to a 60 day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18. As part of the proposal, the report claimed that 125 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,111 prisoners arrested after October 7, would also be released, and aid would be increased to the Gaza Strip.

Hamas said the new proposal was more biased in favor of Israel than previous proposals, and that Witkoff accepted most of the demands presented by Ron Dermer in a meeting with him on Tuesday, a source close to Hamas told Walla.

The US flag was hoisted Thursday outside of the long-shuttered American ambassador’s residence in Damascus, in a sign of growing ties between Washington and the new Syrian government.

The US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who has also been appointed special envoy to Syria, arrived to inaugurate the residence, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported.

On Thursday, speaking to Saudi channel Al Arabiya in Damascus, Barrack described the long-standing conflict between Syria and Israel, who have technically been at war since 1948, as a “solvable problem” through dialogue, proposing a “non-aggression agreement” between them.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to halt nuclear talks between the US and Iran by launching a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, according to The New York Times on Wednesday.

Citing officials briefed on the matter, Netanyahu has butted heads with US President Donald Trump in at least one phone call. US and Israeli officials have held a "flurry of meetings in recent days."

The Israel Defense Forces has reportedly been ramping up preparations for a massive airstrike across Iran against its nuclear facilities, and in at little notice as seven hours, limiting the time that the Trump administration would be able to stop Israel.

The Israeli Air Force struck Sana’a International Airport on Wednesday, destroying the last operational aircraft used by the Houthi terrorist organization, according to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“This is a clear message and a direct continuation of the policy we established: Whoever fires at the State of Israel will pay a heavy price,” Katz stated following the strike.

The attack follows an Israeli operation on May 6 that eliminated other aircraft at the same site.

Mossad chief David Barnea and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer are expected to meet US Special Envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff during their trip to Washington on Tuesday, Hebrew media reported, with the top officials persisting in their efforts to reach a hostage release deal with Hamas.

The Walla news site reported the two arrived in Washington earlier in the day, citing Israeli officials.

According to foreign media reports, a deal being discussed would see around 10 living hostages and 10 bodies of hostages, along with hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, released in two stages during a roughly two-month ceasefire. During that time, Israel and Hamas would hold negotiations on the terms of a permanent truce.