عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Israeli Opposition Leader Lapid Says Trump’s Emerging Deal with Iran Is ‘Bad for the Region’

Yair Lapid, founder of the new "Together" party and head of the Israeli opposition, speaks during a press briefing for the foreign media in Jerusalem, 25 May 2026. (EPA)
Yair Lapid, founder of the new "Together" party and head of the Israeli opposition, speaks during a press briefing for the foreign media in Jerusalem, 25 May 2026. (EPA)
TT
TT

Israeli Opposition Leader Lapid Says Trump’s Emerging Deal with Iran Is ‘Bad for the Region’

Yair Lapid, founder of the new "Together" party and head of the Israeli opposition, speaks during a press briefing for the foreign media in Jerusalem, 25 May 2026. (EPA)
Yair Lapid, founder of the new "Together" party and head of the Israeli opposition, speaks during a press briefing for the foreign media in Jerusalem, 25 May 2026. (EPA)

The deal being discussed between the US and Iran fails to achieve any of Israel’s goals for the war, Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Monday, as he accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to influence a better agreement.

Lapid, who is part of an alliance attempting to unseat Netanyahu in elections this year, said details of the emerging deal are “disturbing.”

“The deal is bad for Israel, bad for the region, bad for the citizens of Iran,” Lapid told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel and the US launched the war on Feb. 28 vowing to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile program, end its support for proxy armed groups across the region and end Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear bomb. Both Netanyahu and President Donald Trump also said they hoped to create conditions to topple Iran’s government.

According to regional officials, under the current deal being discussed Iran would give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ending a US blockade of Iranian ports and the lifting of sanctions against Iran. Key details on Iran’s nuclear program would then be negotiated during a 60-day period. It is unclear if the deal will address Iran’s missiles or support for regional militant groups.

Lapid expressed gratitude to Trump for launching the war with Israel, but criticized Netanyahu for allowing Washington to negotiate a potential deal with little coordination with Israel.

“The Israeli government is at an all-time low in its ability to influence decisions in Washington,” he said, noting that Trump said last week: “Netanyahu will do whatever I want him to do.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed to Trump that Israel maintains “freedom of action” against threats in any arena, according to an official familiar with Israel prime minister's conversations with Trump, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

“Israel is a sovereign state, we are not a vassal state and we are not a protectorate,” Lapid said.

Lapid, head of the centrist “Yesh Atid” party, briefly served as prime minister in 2022 under a rotation agreement with Naftali Bennett, leader of a small conservative party. Their coalition government ended 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule.

They have once again merged their parties into a single faction headed by Bennett as they attempt to unseat Netanyahu in elections which will be held by the end of October.

Lapid has served as Israel’s opposition leader since Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, while Bennett took a break from politics. Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition united in large part by their shared hostility toward Netanyahu.

Lapid, one of a shrinking number of Israeli politicians who supports the idea of Palestinian independence, said the issue would not be on the next government’s agenda. He said the conditions are not right following the trauma of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and wars that have followed.

“There will be no two-state solution in the coming years, because Israelis now understand this will become just another failing terrorist state on our borders,” said Lapid, adding that the Palestinian Authority does not have the ability to effectively prevent attacks against Israel.

But Lapid said he would oppose unilateral steps that would make a future Palestinian state impossible and had received assurances from Bennett, a former West Bank settlement leader, that Israel will not move toward annexing the occupied territory.

Lapid also ruled out cooperation with Arab parties to build a coalition to unseat Netanyahu.

Opinion polls indicate that Bennett and Lapid might not be able to form a governing majority coalition without the support of some Arab lawmakers, as they did in their previous government. They broke a longstanding taboo in 2021 when they invited Mansour Abbas, leader of a small Arab faction, into Israel’s governing coalition for the first and only time in Israel’s history.

Lapid said his previous cooperation with Abbas was “the right government for the moment,” but that Israel is in a very different place after nearly three years of wars and he and Bennett will not build a coalition with Abbas’ party in the next elections.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

North Korea Demands South Show 'Utmost Respect' to Restore Ties

FILE PHOTO: Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/Pool/File Photo
TT
TT

North Korea Demands South Show 'Utmost Respect' to Restore Ties

FILE PHOTO: Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/Pool/File Photo

The powerful sister of North Korea's leader said Thursday Seoul must show the "utmost respect" to mend ties, after Pyongyang denied responsibility for a DMZ mine blast that wounded South Korean soldiers.

North Korea has denied being behind the explosion that injured three soldiers last month inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the heavily mined buffer dividing the two Koreas since their 1953 armistice.

The South Korean military demanded an official apology last week, accusing Pyongyang of "a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement" -- although Seoul's civilian leadership called the North to return to dialogue.

"If they (South Korea) truly wish to restore relations between the DPRK and South Korea, they should be mindful of the other side's feelings in every word and deed, and first demonstrate the utmost respect, consideration and sincerity," North Korea's Kim Yo Jong said Thursday, using her country's official acronym.

Seoul as well as the US-led United Nations Command said the blast was caused by North Korean mines laid on the South Korean side of the border.

World

UN Health Agency Wants More Details from Russia on Suspected Pneumonic Plague Case

A man walks past the building of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, Russia, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)
A man walks past the building of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, Russia, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)
TT
TT

UN Health Agency Wants More Details from Russia on Suspected Pneumonic Plague Case

A man walks past the building of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, Russia, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)
A man walks past the building of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, Russia, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)

A top official with the World Health Organization said Wednesday it doesn’t know how a lab worker in Siberia died, and she urged Russia to provide more information about a case that prompted global concerns about suspected pneumonic plague.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said the UN health agency doesn’t know what the “causative agent” was behind the woman’s Oct. 2 death, which unconfirmed reports in Russia blamed on pneumonic plague — a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person.

In its tersely worded statements, Russia's public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, does not link the case to pneumonic plague, saying only that the lab worker had contracted pneumonia of “unknown” origin and that “extensive” testing found no evidence her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.

“We don’t understand how she was infected,” Van Kerkhove said. “We need information in a timely way. We need regular information. We need answers to the follow-up of the questions that we have asked.”

“We have posed these questions to our colleagues in the Russian Federation. In fairness, they have responded. We’ve gone back with more questions,” she said.

The comments suggested the UN health agency has more questions than answers about the situation at the lab, which focuses on plague and was founded about a century ago to study the disease in Siberia, where it occurs naturally in wild animals.

Russia has released little information about the case

Russian authorities have kept a tight lid on information about the case, which has been surrounded by secrecy.

While it has raised global concerns, Russian state TV and other national state-controlled media have largely steered clear of the subject. Some news outlets withdrew earlier reports about the case.

Rospotrebnadzor said Sunday the lab worker was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” meaning its origin was not known.

A state TV station in Irkutsk reported she died Oct. 2 in a hospital in Shelekhov, a town just outside Irkutsk. Officials have quarantined that hospital and were monitoring the worker's contacts.

Russia has said the pneumonia initially presented as a “typical” acute respiratory viral infection, the WHO has said, acknowledging that pneumonia is commonplace.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Russian authorities had indicated that no case of plague had recently been reported in the Irkutsk region, and that they had placed about 200 contacts in quarantine.

Russia says preventive measures are underway

US President Donald Trump said he would discuss the issue during a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin because Wednesday is the Kremlin leader's 74th birthday.

“They’re sharing it a little bit with our people. We expect them to share it a lot with our people,” Trump said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier Wednesday that a Putin-Trump call hasn’t been set yet but could be organized quickly.

Asked if the incident was a sign that plague might be developed as a bioweapon, Trump said, “We don’t think so. We’re going to find out soon enough, but we don’t think so.”

When asked if the situation was similar to dealing with China on COVID-19 in his first term, Trump suggested Russia was staying relatively quiet, just as China did before the virus turned into a pandemic. “China didn’t say much and Russia is not saying much either, but they do say they have it very much under control,” he said.

Dr. Erica Schwartz, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the threat to the US “is extremely low.” She travel from that area of Russia to the US each year is limited — and mostly comes through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Government agencies are working “to make sure that we know exactly if anyone from that area comes into the United States,” Schwartz said during a Wall Street Journal health forum Wednesday.

Russian health authorities reported a full range of preventive measures had been carried out, including tracing the dead woman’s contacts, medical monitoring and lab tests, the WHO said.

The Geneva-based organization cited media reports that a second employee had pneumonia of undetermined cause.

Health experts urge more Russian openness

Peskov referred all questions to Rospotrebnadzor, which does not mention suspected plague in its reports and has not responded to a request for comment.

In its latest statement Tuesday, the agency said that “the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region, the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov is calm.” Authorities were completing a “complex of prophylactic measures and medical observation over contacts,” it said, adding that so far they have found two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus.

“No other infectious pathogens have been found among contacts,” it said.

Judy Twigg, professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, noted that while the measures taken by Russian health authorities “have been swift and serious,” officials sought to play down the situation and “any statements that strayed from that party line ... were edited or deleted within hours.”

“What we are watching is less a failure to respond than a failure of candor,” Twigg said in written comments.

Vasily Vlassov, professor at the department of healthcare administration and economics at Russia’s Higher School of Economics, said the measures taken appeared “sensible,” focusing on treating the sick, isolating them and their contacts, looking for new cases and carrying out disinfection.

He said it wasn't clear whether more transparency was possible if those dealing with the situation didn’t have enough certainty, and “maybe, they still don’t.” Deceiving the public, however, “always turns out to be harmful,” he said.

Distrust of Russia’s official narrative is “natural” and “almost inevitable,” Vlassov said.

In the Soviet era, dangerous outbreaks of infection had “a thick veil of secrecy — people were told nothing.”

The lab worker who died was described as highly diligent

The news outlet Lyudi Baikala — or “People of Baikal” — identified the dead lab worker as Darya Shipilova, 28, and said she first was hospitalized with cold symptoms Sept. 29 and died three days later.

It quoted colleagues as saying she was a highly qualified and diligent researcher. They also emphasized that security rules at the facility are extremely strict.

The report quoted Shipilova's neighbors as saying disinfection experts did several cleanups of her apartment, leaving a strong antiseptic smell.

Shipilova’s mother, who worked as a doctor in the past, described her daughter as hard-working and dedicated, according to independent Russian news outlet Glubina, adding that she had not gotten official documents describing the cause of death.

Twigg noted that Russia criminalized “false information” about threats to public safety in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, “so silence is the one safe move for everyone below the top.”

“Personalist regimes without electoral accountability tend to treat bad news as a loyalty problem rather than focusing on the actual problem to be addressed,” she said.

She warned that “the public’s understandable reaction to the lack of information carries real dangers.”

“A government that is not believed when it says ‘there is no outbreak’ will not be believed when it must actually say ‘there is one; do the following.’ We saw this with COVID,” she said.

Pneumonic plague and the more well-known bubonic plague — also called the Black Death — are caused by the same bacteria, said Simon Clarke of the University of Reading in the UK Pneumonic plague results from breathing in the bacteria, causing an infection in the lungs.

The bacterium, called Yersinia pestis, has not been eliminated, but it is not spread very easily and it is treatable with antibiotics.

World

France Summons Iran Ambassador Over ‘Disinformation Campaign’ on School Protests

Students run through tear gas near Sciences Po university as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)
Students run through tear gas near Sciences Po university as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)
TT
TT

France Summons Iran Ambassador Over ‘Disinformation Campaign’ on School Protests

Students run through tear gas near Sciences Po university as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)
Students run through tear gas near Sciences Po university as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP)

The French foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against a "disinformation campaign conducted by the Iranian authorities" over high school protests that have rocked France.

The ambassador was told "the misleading content disseminated online" by official accounts of the Iranian foreign ministry was "absolutely unacceptable", the ministry said in a statement, after Tehran on Tuesday summoned the French ambassador over the treatment of protesters in France.

Iran accused France of "violent treatment" of the protesters and "extensive and flagrant human rights violations" during the demonstrations, which intensified last week and have seen clashes between demonstrators and the security forces.

But the French foreign ministry said that the summoning of its ambassador to Tehran was "baseless".

Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused French authorities of using disproportionate force against protesters, with police firing tear gas and blast balls and using batons to control crowds.

Iran's anger over events in France came after Iranian security forces used deadly force earlier this year to crack down on anti-government protests that peaked on January 8-9.

Rights groups have said thousands were killed and organizations, including Amnesty, have accused Iranian security forces of directly firing on protesters.

Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights says it has identified 4,219 people killed during the protests -- almost all on January 8-9 -- but has warned the toll is likely far higher.

Amnesty has described the Iran crackdown as the "unprecedented massacres of thousands of protesters and bystanders".

Iran has termed the protests as "riots" and emphasized the deaths of members of the security forces.