Israel Approves Supplemental Defense Budget to Confront Iran’s Threat

Incoming head of the Israeli Air Force Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar. (Israeli Defense Forces)

Tel Aviv: Asharq Al Awsat

11:14-25 December 2021 AD ـ 22 Jumada Al-Ula 1443 AH

Tel Aviv: Asharq Al Awsat

11:14-25 December 2021 AD ـ 22 Jumada Al-Ula 1443 AH

Israel Approves Supplemental Defense Budget to Confront Iran’s Threat

Incoming head of the Israeli Air Force Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar. (Israeli Defense Forces)

The Israeli Knesset Finance Committee approved Thursday a supplemental defense budget totaling nearly 7.4 billion shekels ($2.4 billion).

The items included in the new funding are classified, but the move comes amid reports that Israel was preparing contingency plans to act militarily against Iran as a last resort if diplomatic efforts fail to curtail its nuclear program.

Parliamentary sources said it comes in light of preparations to launch a new round of military exercises that simulate an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The supplemental budget was approved following an eight-hour meeting in the Knesset as part of the ongoing process to allocate funds for 2021.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz did not include this budget in the 58 billion shekel ($17.8 billion) defense budget approved earlier for 2022, the sources revealed.

They added that the army asked for additional 9 billion shekels, yet the finance ministry reduced the amount to only 7.4 billion shekels.

The army said two billion shekels of this amount will be allocated to compensate for the weapons and ammunition used in the war on the Gaza Strip in May and one billion shekels will be allocated to raise the allowances for the disabled in the army.

The rest of the amount will be added to the previously approved defense budget to prepare for a possible attack against Iran, intensify attacks in Syria and for army reinforcements.

Israel has the ability to carry out a successful strike on Iran’s nuclear sites as early as tomorrow, the country’s incoming Air Force commander said in an interview published on the Ynet news website on Friday.

Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar will take over as head of the Israeli Air Force from Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin in April 2022.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will “be all” for a no-holds-barred war with Israel, Bar stressed.

“He has been waiting for 30 years for that order [from Tehran], and there is no chance he will be absent from such a conflict, with all the force at his disposal. Israel must be prepared.”

“The third war on Lebanon cannot be compared to the first war, in 1982, or the second war, in 2006,” he threatened.

Although Iran has doubled the party’s strength several times over the past years, significantly increased its offensive and defensive capabilities and developed its electronic and cyber warfare technologies, it cannot predict the extent of the strength of the Israeli army, Bar warned.

They must be aware that Israel wants a clear and real victory in the shortest time and with minimal losses, he added.

South Korea Demands Ukraine Apology Over Denial of Confidential Deal on North's POWs

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a press conference at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool)

00:13-28 September 2026 AD ـ 17 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1448 AH

South Korea Demands Ukraine Apology Over Denial of Confidential Deal on North's POWs

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a press conference at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool)

South Korea's presidential office has demanded an apology from Ukraine for denying an agreement to keep the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul confidential.

The incident came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations that his country had sent two North Korean soldiers to the South, adding they were "not easy to capture alive".

Hours later, South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung said on X, "I do not know why the Ukrainian side broke the agreement and made the matter public, but it is very disappointing."

As a response to this, Zelensky's aide Dmytro Lytvyn told journalists that Ukraine was "an open country" and that it would have been strange to hand over the soldiers in secret.

"From the entire story -- which is long and detailed -- we reported only the fact itself, that they were sent to the Republic of Korea," he said.

"It is in itself a very serious matter that the Ukrainian side violated the confidentiality agreement between the two countries and made the disclosure unilaterally," Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said in a statement late Sunday.

"But the Ukrainian presidential press office's false statement that there had been no confidentiality agreement... seriously undermines trust between the two governments and gravely damages friendly relations between the two countries," he said.

The South Korean Presidential office demands "an official explanation and apology," said Seong.

The South Korean presidential office is "considering additional measures that may be necessary regarding this matter," he added, but did not specify what they were.

Early last year, Ukraine captured two North Korean soldiers among Pyongyang's troops fighting for Moscow.

A South Korean lawmaker had previously said the pair wanted to live a "normal life" in the South.

Under South Korea's constitution, all Koreans, including those living in the North, are considered citizens, and officials have said this would apply to any North Korean troops captured in Ukraine.

World

Trump Expects New Iran Talks Despite Rejecting Deal Offer

Iranian missiles are displayed on a street in Tehran, Iran, September 27, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

23:03-27 September 2026 AD ـ 16 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1448 AH

Trump Expects New Iran Talks Despite Rejecting Deal Offer

Iranian missiles are displayed on a street in Tehran, Iran, September 27, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he expects talks with Iran to resume in the coming week, despite his rejection of a truce proposal put forward by Tehran.

Iranian officials brought with them to the UN General Assembly in New York a plan for a seven-day truce followed by the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel.

Trump dismissed the plan and has mused on resuming full-scale air strikes on Iranian targets, but he told the news platform Axios that he expects negotiations to resume.

"They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make," Trump told Axios. "It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago."

"They overplayed their hand," Trump said, in the interview published Sunday.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Axios reported that indirect talks between Washington and Tehran could take place as early as Monday.

On Sunday, Iran was still standing by its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, leaving the Gulf front of the Middle East war locked in a stalemate, while fighting rages in Yemen.

- 'We will not back down' -

Hormuz is a key chokepoint for the world's energy supplies and is now central to the conflict between Washington and Tehran, which was started nearly seven months ago when the US and Israel launched a wave of strikes against Iran.

Iran's plan called for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and a return to the conditions in an earlier ceasefire deal that fell apart.

That agreement, which collapsed during fighting over Hormuz, called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade.

"Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent upon these conditions being fulfilled. We will not back down from them," Araghchi said on Sunday, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

"We have never closed the door to diplomacy or negotiations, but at the same time, we have never backed down from our rights."

Washington's ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, accused Tehran of demanding too much in exchange for a return to the negotiating table.

"This was, I think, a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable. To ask for the release of the blockade, the sanctions, international sanctions and access to billions in assets, just to talk," he told NBC News in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"I think it's kind of common sense that the president doesn't have a lot of confidence this time after we just tried a few months ago."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards meanwhile said that they seized an American submersible drone on Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz.

It said the underwater vehicle was being used "for espionage purposes", adding that it was "now in the hands of the force's specialists for data recovery".

- 'Tool for pressure' -

Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending the war, reopening the strait and launching talks on Iran's nuclear program.

But the deal broke down shortly afterwards when Iran fired on commercial ships in Hormuz that it accused of deviating from its approved route through the waterway.

Iran requires ships to obtain authorization before passage, citing security and sovereignty reasons.

Ships that refuse to comply are regularly targeted, while the United States sporadically bombs Iranian coastal areas in retaliation.

Araghchi said at the UN that Iran has conveyed to the United States, through Qatar, a concrete seven-day plan, adding: "The choice now rests with the United States."

Hossein Mohebi, a spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying: "We will not cease punishing the US until Iran's seven conditions are met."

Mohebi had told AFP in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that ending hostilities in Yemen was also among Tehran's demands.

World

Iran Insists on Diplomatic Solution after Trump Rejects Peace Plan

Iranians walk near an anti-Trump billboard in Tehran, Iran, 19 August 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Asharq Al Awsat

10:20-27 September 2026 AD ـ 16 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1448 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

10:20-27 September 2026 AD ـ 16 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1448 AH

Iran Insists on Diplomatic Solution after Trump Rejects Peace Plan

Iranians walk near an anti-Trump billboard in Tehran, Iran, 19 August 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Iran on Sunday insisted that only diplomacy can solve its conflict with the United States and Israel after US President Donald Trump said he rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end fighting.

"Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on social media. "Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock."

Iran announced a peace proposal last week at the UN General Assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted to the Americans via Qatari mediators. Trump said on Saturday he rejected the plan and argued that desperation was driving the Iranians’ push for an agreement on the key waterway.

"They want to make a deal to open ‌the Hormuz Strait immediately ‌because they're losing so badly," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Despite Trump's public ‌statements, ⁠mediators facilitating Iran's talks ⁠with the United States have not officially relayed a US rejection of the plan, according to Araghchi.

"We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive views to us, and we will make a decision based on them," Araghchi posted.

The US has imposed an economic blockade on Iran to put pressure on Tehran to stop Iranian attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which have drastically reduced shipping through the area even as Trump repeatedly asserts that the US controls the waterway.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had rejected the Iranian proposal, citing unnamed US officials.

It said Trump was privately skeptical that Iran ⁠would meet his demands and had told his staff that he sees a renewed bombing campaign ‌as likely after the November US midterm elections.

A US official had said ‌earlier that discussions with Iran through mediators were "positive and constructive".

CONFLICT HAS DISRUPTED OIL FLOWS, HARMED GLOBAL ECONOMY

Araghchi told reporters at the United Nations on Friday the proposed deal would trigger a seven-day countdown to reopening the strait and a pause in regional fighting.

"If there is seriousness on the US side to come to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, everything is now prepared," Araghchi said. If the US were to agree, ‌the warring parties could start wider talks "on mutually agreed subjects."

That could potentially include discussions of Iran's nuclear program. Trump has said Tehran must never acquire a nuclear bomb, while ⁠a senior Iranian official ⁠told Reuters that Iran would show no flexibility over its nuclear program even if the US accepted its peace deal.

Iran would grant no concessions over its rights, including enriching uranium or shipping its highly enriched uranium out of the country, the official said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in an interview with the CBS show "Face the Nation", said Tehran was ready for talks on its nuclear program and other issues, but would not accept "bullying or coercion".

"Iran is not seeking war, but will defend itself against pressure, threats and attacks,” Pezeshkian said, adding that it had already agreed that "we're not supposed to develop nuclear weapons".

Previous attempts at diplomacy have failed to end the war, which began on February 28 with US and Israeli attacks.

Since then the war has alternated between pauses and renewed strikes, killing thousands while degrading the conventional forces of Iran and damaging its already ailing economy.

Israel Approves Supplemental Defense Budget to Confront Iran’s Threat

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