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NATO Secretary-General Calls for Continuing War on ISIS

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Petra News)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Petra News)
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NATO Secretary-General Calls for Continuing War on ISIS

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Petra News)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Petra News)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underlined the need to continue fighting ISIS at the political and intellectual levels following its military defeat.

In a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Stoltenberg said: “We need to continue our fight against the terrorist group at the political and intellectual levels,” praising Jordan’s role in fighting terrorism and extremism at the regional and international levels.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II discussed with Stoltenberg in Amman the efforts to fight terrorism and cooperate in the military and training fields, according to a statement by the Royal Court.

The meeting focused on “the importance of strengthening cooperation between Jordan and NATO in the military and training fields and efforts to combat terrorism, which threatens global security and peace,” the statement added, highlighting the Arab country’s keenness to strengthen its partnership with the organization.

For his part, Stoltenberg expressed appreciation for the important role assumed by Jordan to achieve peace, enhance security and stability in the region, and deal with regional challenges, stressing that the organization was seeking to improve cooperation with the Kingdom to the highest levels.

The NATO secretary general arrived in Jordan on Tuesday from Iraq as part of a regional tour.

In the joint news conference with Safadi, Stoltenberg expressed his concern over the situation in Syria, pointing to the humanitarian situation of the population of Eastern Ghouta and other parts of the country.

Safadi emphasized the kingdom’s interest in strengthening cooperation with NATO and deepen the strategic partnership in order to promote joint action to consolidate security and stability in the region.

He stressed, in this regard, the importance of cooperation programs between Jordan and NATO to strengthen and develop defense capabilities.

Safadi added that he discussed with Stoltenberg developments in the Palestinian issue, stressing the need to commit to the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.

The foreign minister noted that talks also touched on the Syrian crisis, to which he said there was no military solution, highlighting the necessity to unite all efforts to reach a political solution that would be acceptable to the Syrian people on the basis of Security Council Resolution 2254 and through the Geneva process.

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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)

Iran on Saturday hinted it would be willing to negotiate on a nuclear agreement with the upcoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, but that it has conditions.
Last Thursday, the UN atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.
Ali Larijani, advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said Iran and the US are now in a new position concerning the nuclear file.
In a post on X, he said, “If the current US administration say they are only against Iran’s nuclear weapons, they must accept Iran’s conditions and provide compensation for the damages caused.”

He added, “The US should accept the necessary conditions... so that a new agreement can be reached.”
Larijani stated that Washington withdrew from the JCPOA, thus causing damage to Iran, adding that his country started increasing its production of 60% enriched uranium.
The Iran nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached to limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under Trump’s first administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed a sanction regime of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
In retaliation, Iran has rapidly ramped up its nuclear activities, including by increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium to 60% — close to the 90% threshold required to develop a nuclear bomb.
It also began gradually rolling back some of its commitments by increasing its uranium stockpiles and enriching beyond the 3.67% purity -- enough for nuclear power stations -- permitted under the deal.
Since 2021, Tehran has significantly decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices to monitor the nuclear program and barring UN inspectors.
Most recently, Iran escalated its confrontations with the Agency by announcing it would launch a series of “new and advanced” centrifuges. Its move came in response to a resolution adopted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog that censures Tehran for what the agency called lack of cooperation.
Centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235).
Shortly after the IAEA passed its resolution last Thursday, Tehran spoke about the “dual role” of IAEA’s chief, Raphael Grossi.
Chairman of the Iranian Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Ebrahim Azizi said, “The statements made by Grossi in Tehran do not match his actions in Vienna.”
And contrary to the statements of Azizi, who denied his country’s plans to build nuclear weapons, Tehran did not originally want to freeze its uranium stockpile enriched to 60%
According to the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible. The 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Spokesperson and deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Friday that IAEA inspectors were scheduled to come immediately after the meeting of the Board of Governors to evaluate Iran’s capacity, “with those capacities remaining for a month without any interruption in enrichment at 60% purity.”
Iran’s news agency, Tasnim, quoted Kamalvandi as saying that “the pressures resulting from the IAEA resolution are counterproductive, meaning that they increase our ability to enrich.”
He added: “Currently, not only have we not stopped enrichment, but we have orders to increase the speed, and we are gradually working on that."