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US Tries to Ease Israel’s Concerns over Iran Nuclear Negotiations

Iranians go shopping in a bazaar in Tehran, Iran, 25 August 2022. (EPA)
Iranians go shopping in a bazaar in Tehran, Iran, 25 August 2022. (EPA)
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US Tries to Ease Israel’s Concerns over Iran Nuclear Negotiations

Iranians go shopping in a bazaar in Tehran, Iran, 25 August 2022. (EPA)
Iranians go shopping in a bazaar in Tehran, Iran, 25 August 2022. (EPA)

Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata held talks in Washington this week to ease Tel Aviv’s concerns over the US offering more concessions to Iran in the nuclear deal negotiations, media reports said.

Speculation has been growing that the United States and Iran are close to agreeing a return to the 2015 nuclear pact.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is expected in Washington on Friday to continue Hulata’s discussions.

Hulata met with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Sullivan underscored Biden’s steadfast “commitment to ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon” during his conversation with Hulata.

Sherman and Hulata “discussed the strength of the bilateral relationship and reflected on the success” of President Joe Biden’s recent trip to Israel.

“They also discussed shared global security challenges, including Iran,” said a State Department statement, with Sherman reiterating the administration’s “steadfast commitment to Israel’s security.”

Axios reported that when Hulata arrived in Washington this week, “his government was highly concerned that the Biden administration was about to make new concessions to reach a nuclear deal with Iran. After the visit, that anxiety has been reduced, three Israeli officials say.”

“The US and Iran have moved much closer to a deal to restore the 2015 nuclear accord in recent weeks, but a few key Iranian demands remain unresolved. According to the Israeli officials, the US has toughened its positions on those demands,” it added.

“The White House says the reason a deal is now getting closer is that Iran has made significant concessions. But the Israeli side has been concerned the US might soften its own positions to get the deal across the line,” it explained.

“One of the biggest concerns for Israel has been that the US would press the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to close its investigations into Iran’s undeclared nuclear activity, as Tehran has requested.

“The senior US officials made clear to Hulata that the US would not put political pressure on the agency,” the Israeli officials said according to Axios.

National security council spokesman John Kirby said publicly the next day that the US would not agree to make the nuclear deal conditional on the closure of the IAEA probe.

“We have communicated to Iran, both in public and private, that it must answer the IAEA questions. It's the only way to address those concerns. And our position on that is not going to change,” Kirby briefed reporters.

Another Israeli concern was the possible easing of restrictions on conducting business with Iranian companies linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) after the deal.

The White House assured Israel it would not soften its position on that due diligence process, according to the Israeli officials, said Axios.

A third concern was over the economic guarantees Iran would receive to protect against a scenario in which a future US president withdraws from the deal, as Donald Trump did in 2018.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid urged President Joe Biden and Western powers to call off an emerging nuclear deal with Iran, saying that negotiators are letting Tehran manipulate the talks and that an agreement would reward Israel's enemies.

Lapid called the emerging agreement a “bad deal” and suggested that Biden has failed to honor red lines he had previously promised to set.

“The countries of the West draw a red line, the Iranians ignore it, and the red line moves,” Lapid told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem. An emerging deal, Lapid said, “does not meet the standards set by President Biden himself: preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state.”

Biden has been eager to revive the deal, which offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. The original deal unraveled after Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, with strong encouragement from Israel.

It remains unclear whether the United States and Iran will be able to reach a new agreement. But the Biden administration is expected to weigh in on Iran's latest offer in the coming days. With an agreement appearing close, Israel has stepped up its efforts to block it.

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World

China Tells US Ready to Strengthen Cooperation

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)
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China Tells US Ready to Strengthen Cooperation

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)

China's top diplomat Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday Beijing was "willing to strengthen" cooperation with Washington, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Wang and Rubio spoke by phone ahead of an expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the November 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in China's Shenzhen.

The two countries reached an agreement to calm trade tensions during last year's APEC summit in South Korea after they had exchanged tariff escalations earlier in 2025.

"(China) is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with the US," Wang told Rubio during a "constructive" call, the ministry said in a statement.

Wang added that the countries would support each other in hosting the 2026 APEC summit and G20 summit in the United States.

Beijing stands ready to "properly handle differences and sensitive issues" with Washington, Wang said, adding that "stability" in US-China ties had been "hard won".

Next week's APEC summit could also see a trilateral meeting with Trump, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, after each country said they were in discussions about such talks.

Trump said Sunday he would likely be meeting Xi and Putin to discuss ending the Iran war.

World

Italy Evacuates Hundreds of Schools Due to Bomb Alert, with Threats in Scotland and Ireland

Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)
Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Italy Evacuates Hundreds of Schools Due to Bomb Alert, with Threats in Scotland and Ireland

Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)
Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)

Italian authorities evacuated hundreds of schools Wednesday after an emailed bomb threat, the latest in a series of disruptions affecting European institutions following recent hoaxes aimed at airlines and broadcasters.

Schools in Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland received similar threats, but no evacuations were reported.

The Italian Education Ministry said the email threat was received by over 6,300 schools, but it was not immediately known how many had been evacuated.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said there was no indication of any “concrete danger” to schools and that the threats appeared aimed at “generating alarm and concern.” She said investigations were underway and that she had called a meeting of ministers for later Wednesday.

The anonymous email also threatened Meloni, according to copies obtained by Italian media, including the LaPresse news agency. She did not address the personal threat in her statement, and her office had no immediate comment.

The email purported to come from the leader of an otherwise unknown group with an anti-woman name and contained particularly violent threats. It was signed with the same Russian name used in last week’s threats against European broadcasters.

Authorities have not attributed the threats to any group or state, and no evidence has emerged linking the hoaxes to a government.

Threats reported in other countries

Police in Northern Ireland said they were conducting “urgent inquiries” after a threatening email was sent to hundreds of schools. Police in Scotland said they were treating similar messages as hoaxes and were not requiring schools to evacuate.

“Our assessment remains that they do not represent a credible threat,” Police Scotland said.

Police in Ireland also said they were aware of a “generic communication” sent to several educational institutions.

Rome students learn of threat after evacuation

“These are very delicate considerations, because there is always the risk that there is someone else behind the madman,” Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told reporters. “Given that so many schools are involved, the real risk is almost non-existent.”

At Rome’s Mamiani high school, students poured into the streets, mistaking the alarm for the recess bell. They learned of the bomb threat only after they were outside.

“They are saying it was a bomb alert because an email arrived from Russian hackers in which they said they would have killed everyone. It was pretty violent,” said Anita Bartocci, an 18-year-old student.

Hoax pattern emerges

Bomb threats targeted dozens of flights across Europe last week, following a string of hoaxes that forced flight diversions and left airlines scrambling to keep passengers safe and minimize disruption.

False bomb threats are relatively common, but so many in such a short period are unusual. No suspicious items were found and no one was injured. Still, the threats raised concerns because they followed other disruptions across Europe, including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems and drone incursions.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the emailed threats were aimed at “sowing terror, or creating concern.”

“It’s too easy. Any one of us can use the available means and instruments to send an email to a school, a daycare, an airline, saying that there’s a bomb,” Crosetto told reporters at an event Wednesday.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday that his personal data had been leaked to the dark web, an encrypted part of the internet. PM Meloni blamed pro-Russian hackers.

The company overseeing construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel, which will connect Austria and Italy, also said over the weekend that it had been hacked last month.

World

World Leaders Urge Stronger and Faster Action at UN Climate Talks Over Inadequate Response

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plants an olive sapling ahead of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye. (Kiara Worth/UN Climate Change/dpa)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plants an olive sapling ahead of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye. (Kiara Worth/UN Climate Change/dpa)
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World Leaders Urge Stronger and Faster Action at UN Climate Talks Over Inadequate Response

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plants an olive sapling ahead of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye. (Kiara Worth/UN Climate Change/dpa)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plants an olive sapling ahead of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye. (Kiara Worth/UN Climate Change/dpa)

World leaders called for urgent and decisive action on global warming Wednesday as formal talks began at the United Nations climate conference in Türkiye, saying the crisis is disproportionately harming some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

“You might as well bomb us. That might have been easier than watching climate change tear apart our homes piece by piece,” said Surangel Whipps Jr., president of the island nation of Palau. “We are at war with a crisis we did not create. A war no peace treaty can end, only urgent action can.”

The annual summit follows a year of deadly floods, heat waves and other disasters. Leaders said geopolitical conflicts had diverted attention from climate change.

Leaders of the world’s three biggest polluting nations — China, the United States and India, which together account for more than half of global carbon dioxide emissions — skipped the summit at COP31.

Their absence left a handful of national leaders and UN officials to press for action as a new report warned of a widening gap between countries’ climate pledges and actual emissions cuts.

Scientists say global warming is likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Limiting warming to that threshold was a goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement and remains a focus of international negotiations.

“We know the truth. Now we must act on it because climate action is more than a fight over a number or a thermometer,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an opening speech. “We are in the fight for our lives and our children’s future.”

'Every fraction of a degree counts'

Guterres outlined a framework for climate negotiations, saying they must prioritize ending fossil fuel reliance, adapting to a warmer world, increasing financial support for poorer countries bearing the brunt of climate change, and promoting cooperation over conflict.

“We do not need countries to agree on everything. But we do need them to cooperate on the things no country can solve alone,” he said.

But addressing climate change has been overshadowed by wars, inflation and geopolitical conflicts, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said. He pledged to protect the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, and urged world leaders to work together for a just, sustainable future.

“Brazil is back to defend the continuity of a healthy planet,” he said.

Micronesian President Wesley Simina said his country is already suffering irreversible losses of coral reefs that “protect our shores, sustain our fisheries, feed our families and carry the stories and traditions of our communities.”

He called climate change the “single greatest threat to the security, livelihoods, and well-being of Pacific peoples, but perhaps worse than what we’ve already experienced is what has yet to come” as temperatures continue to rise.

“Every fraction of a degree counts. Every fraction avoided reduces risk. Every year in which we can slow the rate of warming provides more time for adaptation and reduces the pressure on ecosystems that are approaching their limits,” he said. “This is why the world must act not only deeply, but quickly.”

Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration, called for more funding to help communities adapt to climate change and build resilience.

Climate change displaced almost 30 million people in 2025, while hundreds of millions more live in places unprepared to withstand future risks, Pope told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the summit.

“The issue that policymakers fail to understand is that making these investments in building resilience to climate in these vulnerable communities will actually save millions of dollars, millions of lives in the end,” she said.

Leaders of some major polluting nations absent

More than 70 world leaders and senior government officials are speaking at the summit, though what can be accomplished remains uncertain in the absence of leaders from key nations.

“It really is a disgrace that just one of the seven G7 heads of state and only a handful of G20 leaders are attending this summit,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank. “The world’s biggest economies should be leading the response to the climate crisis, not leaving it to others.”

The United States, the world’s second-largest polluter after China, is absent from the talks for the second consecutive year. President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, has targeted offshore wind projects and removed rules limiting power plant emissions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attended, but many leaders of European countries stayed away.

“More than half of the top leaders of the EU countries are not showing up at the leaders’ summit,” Climate Action Network Europe Director Chiara Martinelli told The Associated Press. “If Europe wants to help steer the global transition, it needs to show up and be part of it.”

Conference colored by fears over speed of climate action

The gap between nations’ climate plans and action on the ground is widening, according to an annual climate change performance index published Wednesday by Germanwatch and the New Climate Institute.

“Overall, current collective efforts are not enough to prevent catastrophic climate change. But we see clear potential for improvement,” said Jan Burck of Germanwatch.

COP31 host Türkiye and Australia, which is leading the negotiations, ranked among the worst performers in curbing emissions.

The talks come as the war in Iran has driven up global prices for oil, gasoline and products such as fertilizers and pesticides, prompting governments to rethink energy policies and investment in renewable sources such as wind and solar.

Past talks have been criticized for producing promises that later went unfulfilled.

Delegates at the 2023 conference in Dubai agreed to transition away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, the main drivers of climate change. But subsequent conferences in Azerbaijan and Brazil yielded little agreement on how to reduce their use. Last year’s conference in Brazil produced a compromise deal pledging more money to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change.