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Israel Sends Aid to Ukraine

Ukrainians fleeing towards the border with Slovakia (Reuters)
Ukrainians fleeing towards the border with Slovakia (Reuters)
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Israel Sends Aid to Ukraine

Ukrainians fleeing towards the border with Slovakia (Reuters)
Ukrainians fleeing towards the border with Slovakia (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday his government was proceeding "with moderation and responsibility" on a conflict testing its ties to Kyiv and Moscow.

Speaking on television after a weekly cabinet meeting, Bennett made no mention of Ukrainian appeals on Israel to mediate in the crisis with Russia.

"We pray for the wellbeing of the citizens of Ukraine and hope that further bloodshed is prevented," Bennett said. "We are conducting ourselves with moderation and responsibility".

He said Israel is sending 100 tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including water-purification kits, medical equipment and tents. According to Reuters, it will arrive within days.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, a Bennett confidante, on Saturday told Israel's Channel 12 TV that the mediation request by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was "being attended to" but would not be drawn on the matter further.

This came after Ukraine's ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, confirmed that his country wants Israel to intercede on behalf of Kyiv with Russian President Vladimir Putin and halt the invasion.

Korniychuk said his country is looking forward to Israel's diplomatic mediation efforts.

"We always look to Israel as one of the most prominent possible intermediaries for Mr. Putin."

Korniychuk stated that Ukraine was glad to hear Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's condemnation of Russia's attack.

But what is more critical is the extent of the behind-the-scenes diplomacy that Israel can accomplish on behalf of Ukraine by speaking to Moscow on its behalf, he explained.

The envoy's statement reinforced Israeli reports about an official Ukrainian request for Israel's mediation.

The Israeli Kan channel said that Ukraine asked Israel to mediate with Russia to reach a ceasefire.

The channel quoted Israeli and Ukrainian sources saying that the request for Israeli mediation was made on the call between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday.

Zelenskyy suggested holding the talks in Jerusalem rather than Minsk, the capital of Belarus, a close ally of Moscow.

Korniychuk confirmed that Netanyahu spoke with Russia on behalf of Ukraine in the past, and Bennett discussed it when he met Putin in Sochi last October, which enraged the latter who described Zelensky as a "Nazi."

Putin advised Israel to stay away from this issue.

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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."