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Israeli PM Discusses in Cyprus the Dispute over Aphrodite Gas Field

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the accompanying delegation (AFP)
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the accompanying delegation (AFP)
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Israeli PM Discusses in Cyprus the Dispute over Aphrodite Gas Field

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the accompanying delegation (AFP)
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the accompanying delegation (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on Sunday, accompanied by his wife Sarah, on a two-day visit to Cyprus to discuss the disputes over the ownership of parts of the Aphrodite gas field in the Cypriot economic waters.

Israel and Cyprus have yet to reach an agreement on the distribution of profits of the gas field since its discovery 13 years ago.

Cypriot officials expressed their dissatisfaction for failing to reach an agreement with Israel, which signed an understanding agreement with Lebanon, Tel Aviv's enemy. Israel also intends to sign a deal with Türkiye.

Cypriot officials said in a news program on the official Hebrew radio, Kan, that Israel signed an agreement with Lebanon but not with them.
The summit will also address the possibility of building a gas pipeline between Israel and Türkiye.

The former Israeli governments, headed by Naftali Bennett and then headed by Yair Lapid, conveyed a message stating that Greece and Cyprus do not support the idea.

According to the Walla website, Netanyahu aims to confirm to the Cypriot side that the alliance with Cyprus will remain strong no matter the developments in Israel's relations with Türkiye.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Greek President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his visit.

The trip was initially planned for the end of July but was postponed due to Netanyahu's health issues and his heart pacemaker implantation.

Notably, it is Netanyahu's first trip abroad in five months, as he feared facing the protest movement against his plan to overturn Supreme Court rulings.

The protest movement received Netanyahu in Cyprus with several protests organized by Israelis residing in Cypriot cities. They are preparing to demonstrate in front of the hotel where Netanyahu intends to stay, "City of Dreams," a Chinese casino hotel recently opened in Limassol. All the meetings will be held in Nicosia.

Protesters have hung banners across the area, featuring messages such as: "Netanyahu- even in little Cyprus, you won't find rest!", "The accused is coming to Cyprus, and we'll ensure he won't have peace," and other banners.

They protested near the meetings and gatherings to disturb him and ensure he heard their voice directly.

Before leaving Tel Aviv, Netanyahu announced at Ben Gurion Airport that he would soon announce the date of his upcoming meeting with US President Joe Biden.

The meeting is expected to occur in New York, where he will participate in the United Nations General Assembly discussions and deliver a speech on September 21. But Netanyahu prefers the meeting at the White House, even if he is delayed in Washington.

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Iran, US Begin 4th Round of Negotiations over Tehran's Nuclear Program

A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran, US Begin 4th Round of Negotiations over Tehran's Nuclear Program

A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran and the United States began a fourth round of negotiations Sunday over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, officials said, just ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump to the Middle East this week.

The round of talks, again happening in the sultanate of Oman, likely will see Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi mediating. American officials believe the talks will include both indirect and direct portions, as in previous rounds of negotiations, but like the other rounds in Muscat and Rome, details remain scarce.

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on Iran, closing in on half a century of enmity.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels. Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on their own if it feels threatened, further complicating tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Iranian state television announced the talks had begun, The Associated Press reported. There was no immediate comment from the US side.
The talks will again see Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff lead the negotiations. They have met and spoken face-to-face in the talks, but the majority of the negotiations appear to have been indirect, with al-Busaidi shuttling messages between the two sides.
Iran has insisted that keeping its ability to enrich uranium is a red line for its theocracy. Witkoff also has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.
“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again,” Witkoff told the right-wing Breitbart news site in a piece published Friday. “That’s our red line. No enrichment. That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan — those are their three enrichment facilities — have to be dismantled.”
Araghchi, however, warned again that enrichment remains a red line for Iran.
“This is a right of the Iranian people that is not up for negotiation or compromise. Enrichment is one of the achievements and honors of the Iranian nation,” Araghchi said before leaving Tehran. “A heavy price has been paid for this enrichment. The blood of our nuclear scientists has been shed for it. This is absolutely non-negotiable. That has been our clear stance that we have always voiced.”
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers capped Tehran’s enrichment at 3.67% and reduced its uranium stockpile to 300 kilograms (661 pounds). That level is enough for nuclear power plants, but far below weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Since the nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018 with Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the US from the accord, Iran has abandoned all limits on its program and enriched uranium to up to 60% purity — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels. There have also been a series of attacks at sea and on land in recent years, stemming from the tensions even before the Israel-Hamas war began.
Iran faces pressures at home as talks continue Iran also faces challenges at home, exacerbated by sanctions. Its troubled rial currency, once over 1 million to $1, has strengthened dramatically due to the talks alone to around 830,000 to $1.
However, the two sides still appear a long way from any deal, even as time ticks away. Iranian media broadly reported a two-month deadline imposed by Trump in his initial letter sent to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Trump said he wrote the letter on March 5, which made it to Iran via an Emirati diplomat on March 12 — putting the deadline in theory as Monday when Trump takes off from Washington for his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.