Blinken Sees ‘Urgency’ in Resolving Iran’s Nuclear Problem

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his airplane prior to departing from Cornwall Airport Newquay, following his visit to the G7 summit, before heading to Brussels, in Newquay, Cornwall, Britain, Juna 12, 2021. Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his airplane prior to departing from Cornwall Airport Newquay, following his visit to the G7 summit, before heading to Brussels, in Newquay, Cornwall, Britain, Juna 12, 2021. Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS
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Blinken Sees ‘Urgency’ in Resolving Iran’s Nuclear Problem

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his airplane prior to departing from Cornwall Airport Newquay, following his visit to the G7 summit, before heading to Brussels, in Newquay, Cornwall, Britain, Juna 12, 2021. Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his airplane prior to departing from Cornwall Airport Newquay, following his visit to the G7 summit, before heading to Brussels, in Newquay, Cornwall, Britain, Juna 12, 2021. Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that there is an urgent need to know whether the Vienna Talks will help stop Iran’s progress in its nuclear program.

“First, when it comes to the nuclear talks, we’re not trading any other issues or interests for the sake of the nuclear talks… Second, I’m not going to get ahead of the President. I suspect he’ll be taking this up with President (Vladimir) Putin in a couple of days,” he responded to a CBS question.

He added that the “meeting with President Putin is not happening in a vacuum. The President will be coming off of the G7, the NATO summit, the meeting with the European Union’s leaders. When we bring the world’s democracies together, it’s an incredibly powerful force militarily, economically, politically, diplomatically.”

“Since we pulled out of the nuclear deal and then Iran began to ignore the constraints that the deal had imposed on it, it has been galloping forward and it’s enriching more material. It’s enriching at higher levels, degrees than were allowed under the agreement. It is gaining knowledge. And if this goes on a lot longer, if they continue to gallop ahead, then you’re right, they’re going to have knowledge that’s going to be very hard to reverse, which I think puts some urgency in seeing if we can put the nuclear problem back in the box that the agreement had put it in that.”

In another context, personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani slammed President Joe Biden for wanting to rejoin the Iranian nuclear accord.

“He’s caving into Iran before Iran even wants to make a deal,” Giuliani said in an interview that aired Sunday.

“He’s already let a couple of very big Iranian terrorist businesspeople off the hook. He’s already taken sanctions away from Iranian companies that have been dealing in oil,” he added.

“So, already Iran has gotten concessions, without giving up anything that they want to get from us. It’s the worst way to negotiate a deal, particularly with a regime of terror,” he said.
Giuliani said that Biden has “displayed a level of weakness that, I don’t know …”

“I remember years ago when Kennedy did this and made that mistake with Khrushchev. Khrushchev took it as a sign of weakness, and we got the Cuban missile crisis. Well, Kennedy straightened them out then, but I’m not sure that Biden will be able to do it,” Giuliani stated.



US Judge Blocks Deportation of Columbia University Palestinian Activist

Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP
Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP
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US Judge Blocks Deportation of Columbia University Palestinian Activist

Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP
Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP

A US immigration judge has blocked the deportation of a Palestinian graduate student who helped organize protests at Columbia University against Israel's war in Gaza, according to US media reports.

Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested by immigration agents last year as he was attending an interview to become a US citizen.

Mahdawi had been involved in a wave of demonstrations that gripped several major US university campuses since Israel began a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian born in the occupied West Bank, Mahdawi has been a legal US permanent resident since 2015 and graduated from the prestigious New York university in May. He has been free from federal custody since April.

In an order made public on Tuesday, Judge Nina Froes said that President Donald Trump's administration did not provide sufficient evidence that Mahdawi could be legally removed from the United States, multiple media outlets reported.

Froes reportedly questioned the authenticity of a copy of a document purportedly signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that said Mahdawi's activism "could undermine the Middle East peace process by reinforcing antisemitic sentiment," according to the New York Times.

Rubio has argued that federal law grants him the authority to summarily revoke visas and deport migrants who pose threats to US foreign policy.

The Trump administration can still appeal the decision, which marked a setback in the Republican president's efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian campus activists.

The administration has also attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil, another student activist who co-founded a Palestinian student group at Columbia, alongside Mahdawi.

"I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government's attempts to trample on due process," Mahdawi said in a statement released by his attorneys and published Tuesday by several media outlets.

"This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice."


Fire Breaks out Near Iran's Capital Tehran, State Media Says

Smoke rises from a fire caused by an explosion in Tehran (File photo - Reuters)
Smoke rises from a fire caused by an explosion in Tehran (File photo - Reuters)
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Fire Breaks out Near Iran's Capital Tehran, State Media Says

Smoke rises from a fire caused by an explosion in Tehran (File photo - Reuters)
Smoke rises from a fire caused by an explosion in Tehran (File photo - Reuters)

A fire broke out in Iran's Parand near the capital city Tehran, state media reported on Wednesday, publishing videos of smoke rising over the area which is close to several military and strategic sites in the country's Tehran province, Reuters reported.

"The black smoke seen near the city of Parand is the result of a fire in the reeds around the Parand river bank... fire fighters are on site and the fire extinguishing operation is underway", state media cited the Parand fire department as saying.


Pakistan PM Sharif to Seek Clarity on Troops for Gaza in US Visit

US President Donald Trump looks at Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaking following the official signing of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
US President Donald Trump looks at Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaking following the official signing of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
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Pakistan PM Sharif to Seek Clarity on Troops for Gaza in US Visit

US President Donald Trump looks at Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaking following the official signing of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
US President Donald Trump looks at Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaking following the official signing of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

Before Pakistan commits to sending troops to Gaza as part of the International Stabilization Force it wants assurances from the United States that it will be a peacekeeping mission rather than tasked with disarming Hamas, three sources told Reuters.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to attend the first formal meeting of President Donald Trump's Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday, alongside delegations from at least 20 countries.

Trump, who will chair the meeting, is expected to announce a multi-billion dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and detail plans for a UN-authorized stabilization force for the Palestinian enclave.

Three government sources said during the Washington visit Sharif wanted to better understand the goal of the ISF, what authority they were operating under and what the chain of command was before making a decision on deploying troops.

"We are ready to send troops. Let me make it clear that our troops could only be part of a peace mission in Gaza," said one of the sources, a close aide of Sharif.

"We will not be part of any other role, such as disarming Hamas. It is out of the question," he said.

Analysts say Pakistan would be an asset to the multinational force, with its experienced military that has gone to war with arch-rival India and tackled insurgencies.

"We can send initially a couple of thousand troops anytime, but we need to know what role they are going to play," the source added.

Two of the sources said it was likely Sharif, who has met Trump earlier this year in Davos and late last year at the White House, would either have an audience with him on the sidelines of the meeting or the following day at the White House.

Initially designed to cement Gaza's ceasefire, Trump sees the Board of Peace, launched in late January, taking a wider role in resolving global conflicts. Some countries have reacted cautiously, fearing it could become a rival to the United Nations.

While Pakistan has supported the establishment of the board, it has voiced concerns against the mission to demilitarize Gaza's militant group Hamas.