عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Israeli Defense Minister: Iran Nuclear Deal 'in ER Room'

Benny Gantz speaks during an election campaign rally in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Corinna Kern/File Photo
Benny Gantz speaks during an election campaign rally in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Corinna Kern/File Photo
TT
20
TT

Israeli Defense Minister: Iran Nuclear Deal 'in ER Room'

Benny Gantz speaks during an election campaign rally in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Corinna Kern/File Photo
Benny Gantz speaks during an election campaign rally in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Corinna Kern/File Photo

Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is "in the ER room" and is unlikely to be renewed soon, if at all, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Thursday after European leaders voiced doubt about Tehran's willingness to revive the pact.

Israel, Iran's arch-foe, supported the US withdrawal from the accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, who deemed it too limited, and has been advocating against a re-entry into the pact sought by President Joe Biden's administration.

Iran, whose nuclear ambitions are seen by Israel as an existential threat, denies seeking atomic bombs. Since Trump's walkout, it has breached the 2015 deal by ramping up uranium enrichment, a process that can create bomb fuel down the line.

"...The Iran nuclear deal seems like it is in the ER room," Gantz told a conference on counter-terrorism at Reichman University. "There's a period maybe after the elections, we'll see how it goes," he said in an apparent reference to the US mid-term November elections.

His remarks echoed those of a senior unnamed Israeli official on Sunday who predicted the deal would not be signed before the November elections, Reuters reported.

Israel is not a party to the Vienna-based talks on reinstating the 2015 deal. But its threats to take military action against Iran if it deems diplomacy to be at a dead end keep Western capitals attentive.

On Saturday, France, Britain and Germany questioned Iran's commitment to reviving the deal in return for a lifting of sanctions, comments that were rejected by Tehran and called "very untimely" by Moscow.

In August, after 16 months of tortuous negotiations, the European Union laid down a final offer to overcome an impasse over terms for restoring the agreement.

Earlier this month, Iran sent its latest response to the EU's proposed text. Western diplomats said this was a step backwards, with Iran seeking to link a revival of the deal with the closure of U.N. nuclear watchdog investigations into unexplained nuclear activity by Tehran.

Most Viewed

 
World

Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)

A huge power outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, paralyzing traffic, grounding flights, trapping people in elevators and leaving power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.

Some hospitals halted routine work and the two countries' governments convened emergency cabinet meetings, with officials initially saying a possible cyber-attack could not be ruled out. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe, and the cause could not immediately be established.

Reuters witnesses said power had started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas of Spain in the early afternoon, a few hours after the outage began. It was not clear when power might be more widely restored.

Hospitals in Madrid and Cataluna in Spain suspended all routine medical work but were still attending to critical patients, using backup generators. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and retail businesses shut.

The Bank of Spain said electronic banking was functioning "adequately" on backup systems, though residents also reported ATM screens had gone blank.

"I'm in a data center, and everything has gone off. All the alarms popped up, and now we're with the groups, waiting to find out what happened," said Barcelona resident and engineer Jose Maria Espejo, 40.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged city residents to minimize their journeys and stay where they were, adding: "It is essential that the emergency services can circulate."

In Portugal, water supplier EPAL said water supplies could also be disrupted, and queues formed at stores by people rushing to purchase emergency supplies like gaslights, generators and batteries.

The main Portuguese electricity utility, EDP, said it had told customers it had no forecast for when the energy supply would be "normalized", Publico newspaper said. It warned it could take several hours.

Parts of France also suffered a brief outage. RTE, the French grid operator, said it had moved to supplement power to some parts of northern Spain after the outage hit.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

TRAFFIC JAMS

Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams in Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.

One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.

Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.

Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Lisbon's subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.

A source at Portugal's TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Such widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003 a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and as far as Morocco.