diplomacy - Page 10

President Joe Biden told visiting Israeli Mossad spy chief, Yossi Cohen, the U.S. is still a long way to agreeing to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the Axios news site citing a senior Israeli official.

Tehran has signed on for China’s global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure project, Iran Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami declared Monday.

China warned Thursday “serious consequences” await Australia after it tore up a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) agreement between the two countries, cautioning “serious harm” to relations remain possible along with unspecified economic coercion against a country that refuses to be bullied.

Iran has begun enriching uranium to 60 percent — dangerously close to weapons-grade — at an “aboveground facility” at its Natanz nuclear enrichment plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Saturday, confirming an earlier statement made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani who said the move came as a direct response to Israel’s “nuclear terrorism” at the plant days earlier.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday told visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Israel and the U.S. agree on never allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), has been tipped to be U.S. President Joe Biden’s nomination for a diplomatic post with the United Nations World Food Programme.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel on Sunday–marking the first official visit from a Biden administration official–and met with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

The Biden administration was applauded Thursday by the U.N. agency for so-called Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after it offered $250 million in funding while sidestepping a 2018 law that prevents U.S. taxpayer dollars from supporting the Palestinian Authority.

Six months after the Trump administration brokered a normalization deal between Israel and Sudan, Khartoum on Tuesday moved to scrap a decades-old Israel boycott law.

Iran has rejected President Joe Biden’s reported compromise proposal for a partial nuclear deal before he has even offered it.

Russia and China issued a joint statement Tuesday calling for a summit of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The statement implied – and the foreign ministers of the two authoritarian regimes clearly stated afterward – that the meeting would be a forum for the Russians and Chinese to air their grievances against U.S foreign policy.

Chinese state media was very enthusiastic about the confrontation between U.S. and Chinese diplomatic representatives in Alaska this weekend, churning out a blizzard of editorials that congratulated Politburo member Yang Jiechi and other members of the Chinese team for humiliating U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that U.S. President Joe Biden missed an important diplomatic opportunity by declining Russian President Vladimir Putin’s challenge to a one-on-one televised debate.

The Biden administration is planning a “reset” with the Palestinians after the relationship crumbled under former President Donald Trump, according to an internal State Department memo.

North Korea announced the abrupt end of diplomatic ties with Malaysia Friday in response to Kuala Lumpur’s “unpardonable crime” of extraditing a North Korean citizen to the United States for trial.

The Biden administration’s first encounter with Chinese diplomats in Alaska on Thursday was an utter debacle, as the Chinese disregarded protocols to lecture the stunned Biden team on American “human rights violations” and reject all American criticism of the tyranny in Beijing as meaningless bluster.

After their highly contentious first meeting in Alaska, Chinese diplomats and President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team accused each other of violating protocols that were agreed upon in advance, including the allotted time for each party to deliver opening remarks.

The trial of a Canadian businessman accused of spying in China ended in no verdict on Friday after a court appearance that lasted just under two hours.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group conducted a passing and communication exercise with the Turkish Navy in the Mediterranean Sea this week, the Navy said on Thursday.

Israel is set to make peace with four more Arab countries in the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Iran claims the right to retaliate over an alleged Israeli attack on one of its ships, the regime’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

A British-Australian academic who spent two years imprisoned in Iran has claimed Tehran tried to recruit her as a spy in exchange for her freedom.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on the campaign trail ahead of elections later this month, on Tuesday vowed that as long as he was in office Iran would never acquire an atomic bomb.

President Joe Biden spoke with President Alejandro Giammattei Falla of Guatemala promising to develop a “humane and effective” plan for migrants traveling from his country to the United States.

Israeli Environmental Minister on Thursday accused Iran of being behind a major oil spill off the Mediterranean coast that caused the largest environmental disaster in Israel’s history, saying it was an act of “environmental terrorism.” The spill, which resulted in the

President Reuven Rivlin on Monday received the credentials of the first-ever ambassador to Israel from the United Arab Emirates, following the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords normalizing ties between the two countries. UAE Ambassador Muhammad Mahmoud Al Khajah was welcomed with a

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “many” people in Saudi Arabia want to normalize relations with Israel, and expressed his hope the Gulf kingdom will join the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations.

The Biden administration’s plans to reopen the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem have been shelved until after Israel’s upcoming elections, Axios reported Wednesday.

The U.S. and Israel will launch a strategic working group on Iran in the coming days, which will focus on intelligence assessments about its nuclear program, Axios reported on Wednesday.

Members of the Five Eyes intelligence network were denigrated as members of an “axis of white ­supremacy” by Beijing on Tuesday, as China’s state-sanctioned media went on the attack just 48-hours after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned “white supremacy” is an increasing threat to global security.

MUSCAT — Iran must refrain from any provocation as Washington steps up efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, the head of US forces in the Middle East told AFP.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally spoke on the phone with President Joe Biden on Tuesday, after nearly a month since the American president took office.

British politicians leading a growing call for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing have drawn the ire of Chinese state media representatives warning of retaliation.

For the second time in less than a month New Zealand’s left-wing Labour government has attacked key ally Australia, with an angry Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern lashing Canberra on Tuesday for rejecting a dual national arrested in Turkey over links to the Islamic State terrorist group.

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei would welcome a phone call from President Joe Biden and the chance to talk about the Chinese telecom giant’s future on U.S. soil.

The Biden administration has issued an ultimatum saying that if American planes are not allowed to fly emergency planes to Israel, Israeli planes will not be allowed to land in the US, Israel’s Channel 12 news reported Saturday.