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UK Proposes Five-Point Plan to End Gaza War

Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis to Rafah after Israeli forces forced them to evacuate their camp. (EPA)
Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis to Rafah after Israeli forces forced them to evacuate their camp. (EPA)
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UK Proposes Five-Point Plan to End Gaza War

Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis to Rafah after Israeli forces forced them to evacuate their camp. (EPA)
Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis to Rafah after Israeli forces forced them to evacuate their camp. (EPA)

The UK is proposing a five-point plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas, as Western allies that have backed the Jewish state push for a permanent ceasefire and a political process that sets a pathway for the establishment of a Palestinian state, a report by the Financial Times revealed Saturday.

The initiative, which Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron discussed with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a tour of the region this week, calls for an immediate pause in hostilities. That would be used to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza and to negotiate the permanent ceasefire, a senior UK official said.

It proposes setting out a clear “political horizon” for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and the formation of a technocratic Palestinian government to administer the West Bank and Gaza after the war.

The newspaper added that Hamas would have to release all hostages and commit to halting attacks against Israel, which regional states would guarantee. The plan also includes the suggestion that Hamas’s senior leaders in Gaza, including Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 attack, leave the strip for another country.

The New York Times revealed in a report on Saturday that top officials from at least ten different administrations are trying to forge a head-spinning set of deals to end the Gaza war and answer the divisive question of how the territory will be governed after the fighting stops.

The narrowest set of major discussions is focused on reaching a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This would involve the exchange of more than 100 Israeli hostages held by Hamas for thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, the newspaper added.

The report was based on interviews with more than a dozen diplomats and other officials involved in the talks, all of whom spoke anonymously, Arab World Press reported.

Officials are tossing around many ideas, most of which are provisional, long shots, or strongly opposed by some parties. Several contentious suggestions are:

“Transferring power within the Palestinian Authority from the incumbent president, Mahmoud Abbas, to a new prime minister, while letting Mr. Abbas retain a ceremonial role, sending an Arab peacekeeping force to Gaza to bolster a new Palestinian administration there, and passing a UN Security Council resolution, backed by the United States, that would recognize the Palestinians’ right to statehood,” according to the newspaper.

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Iran to Begin Enriching Uranium with Thousands of Advanced Centrifuges, UN Watchdog Says

Iranian women walk past a mural painting of Iranian flags in Tehran on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
Iranian women walk past a mural painting of Iranian flags in Tehran on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Iran to Begin Enriching Uranium with Thousands of Advanced Centrifuges, UN Watchdog Says

Iranian women walk past a mural painting of Iranian flags in Tehran on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
Iranian women walk past a mural painting of Iranian flags in Tehran on November 26, 2024. (AFP)

Iran will begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges at its two main nuclear facilities at Fordo and Natanz, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Friday, further raising tensions over Tehran's program as it enriches at near weapons-grade levels.

The notice from the International Atomic Energy Agency only mentioned Iran enriching uranium with new centrifuges to 5% purity, far lower than the 60% it currently does — likely signaling that it still wants to negotiate with the West and the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

However, it remains unclear how Trump will approach Iran once he enters office, particularly as it continues to threaten to attack Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and just after a ceasefire started in its campaign in Lebanon. Trump withdrew America from Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, setting in motion a series of attacks and incidents across the wider Mideast.

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment over the IAEA's report. Tehran had threatened to rapidly advance its program after the Board of Governors at the IAEA condemned Iran at a meeting in November for failing to cooperate fully with the agency.

In a statement, the IAEA outlined the plans Iran informed it of, which include feeding uranium into some 45 cascades of its advanced IR-2M, IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges.

Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to more quickly enrich the uranium. Each of these advanced classes of centrifuges enrich uranium faster than Iran’s baseline IR-1 centrifuges, which have been the workhorse of the country’s atomic program. The IAEA did not elaborate on how many machines would be in each cascade but Iran has put around 160 centrifuges into a single cascade in the past.

It's unclear if Iran has begun feeding the uranium yet into the centrifuges. Tehran so far has been vague about its plans. But starting the enrichment at 5% gives Tehran both leverage at negotiations with the West and another way to dial up the pressure if they don't like what they hear. Weapons-grade levels of enrichment are around 90%.

Since the collapse of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, it has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. US intelligence agencies and others assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program.

The US State Department said in a statement to The Associated Press it was “deeply concerned with Iran’s announcement that it is choosing the path of continued escalation as opposed to cooperation with the IAEA.”

"Iran’s continued production and accumulation of uranium enriched up to 60% has no credible civilian justification," it added.

Iran, as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has pledged to allow the IAEA to visit its atomic sites to ensure its program is peaceful. Tehran also had agreed to additional oversight from the IAEA as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw sanctions lifted in exchange for drastically limiting its program.

However, for years Iran has curtailed inspectors’ access to sites while also not fully answering questions about other sites where nuclear material has been found in the past after the deal's collapse.

Iranian officials in recent months, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, had signaled a willingness to negotiate with the West. But Iran also has launched two attacks on Israel amid the war.

Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, said in a post on the social platform X that he met with EU diplomat Enrique Mora, criticizing Europe as being “self-centered" while having "irresponsible behavior.”

“With regard to the nuclear issue of Iran, Europe has failed to be a serious player due to lack of self-confidence and responsibility,” Gharibabadi wrote.

For his part, Mora described having a “frank discussion” with Gharibabadi and another Iranian diplomat. Those talks included “Iran’s military support to Russia that has to stop, the nuclear issue that needs a diplomatic solution, regional tensions (important to avoid further escalation from all sides) and human rights,” he wrote on X.