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Iran’s nuclear inspections or talks

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The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi landed in Iran for two days visit as part of efforts to restore the nuclear deal between Iran and the Western countries.

Grossi is holding talks with Iranian officials to safeguard the nuclear deal signed in 2015 but collapsed in 2018 when the then US president withdrew from the agreement.

Grossi met with Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and expressed certitude that progress will be achieved in efforts to end nuclear activities. He highlighted the ongoing challenge but hoped the two sides agreed to move the talks forward.

While stressed on the need to put an end to “doubts and concerns” over Iran’s nuclear program, Grossi said that he is in Iran to achieve this objective.

IAEA has been engaged in talks with AEOI for months, and blamed Iran for nuclear activities at undeclared sites, an allegation which Iran dismissed time and again.

AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi received Grossi at the airport and will stay in the country for two days. He will also meet the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.

The western median media reported that uranium particles enriched up to 83.7 percent as Iran just need 90 percent to produce an atomic bomb.

Nuclear agreement failure

Head of AEOI Mohammad Eslami said that they decided to take steps away from the 2015 nuclear agreement after observing lack of commitment from other parties.

“Given the fact that the other parties failed to fulfill their commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), hindered other countries’ cooperation with Iran, and increased the sanctions,” Eslami said in an interview with state TV, referring to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018.

After the deal the sanctions must be removed which did not happen. We were also forced to decrease our own commitments as well, he said.

The decision was taken under the law adopted by the Iranian Parliament aimed at protecting the country’s interests against sanctions.

Eslami came up with the remark after meeting Grossi in Tehran and is expected to go for longer discussions between Grossi and Iranian officials.

Enrichment development

France, one of the countries that signed the 2015 deal with Iran and remained engaged in negotiations to restore and rescue the deal, has called the enrichment development “unprecedented and extremely serious.” Meanwhile Grossi will try to secure more substantial access to the site, according to media reports.  He will push to increase the number of inspections, but the negotiation process is complicated and fruitless so far that Iran likely allows him to see the sites.

Grossi will return back to Vienna late today

Grossi will return back to Vienna late Saturday evening, and is likely to brief the media. In March 2022, Grossi visited Iran and focused on the sites to facilitate resumption of negotiations between the major powers and Iran to safeguard the country’s nuclear deal.

The negotiation is not a simple process especially when it goes slowly and also the Ukraine war affected the talks. Meanwhile, the US, Israel and countries in most of Europe are really concerned over Iran’s progress toward producing a number bomb.

Israel, the neighboring but arch-enemy of Iran, has already threatened to take military action if needed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear state.

Nevertheless, Grossi is in Tehran to re-launch the dialogue and reach a conclusion to the deal to make sure to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in return of lifting international sanctions.

Another concern

On his part, CIA Director William Burns has expressed concern about growing relations between Iran and Russia and said the cooperation between the countries can go further behind merely military cooperation.

There has been reported that Iran sent military equipment, including drones to Russia to use them in the war in Ukraine. However, both Tehran and Moscow denied such cooperation, and Iran said it is ready to welcome foreign delegation to investigate the news of sending military support to Russia.

Regarding the nuclear activities, Burns said that the sudden progress of the Iranian nuclear program and it is growing at a “worrisome pace”.

“They’ve advanced very far to the point where it would only be a matter of weeks before they can enrich to 90% if they chose to cross that line,” Reuters reported Burns as saying.

But he said that the US does not believe that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has decided to resume the weaponization program that “we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003.”

Meanwhile, an Israeli delegation including Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi will visit the US to meet with officials from the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department to kick start deep talks on Iran’s enrichment of uranium.

New sanctions

On the day when Grossi visited Iran, the US came up with new sanctions on Iran-linked shipping and petrochemical companies, including two shipping firms based in China.

The Treasury Department’s website also showed that the sanctions also targeted 20 shipping vessels linked to firms in China, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates.

The order was implemented under a 2018 US executive order that restored sanctions targeting Iran’s oil, banking, and transportation sectors.

Weeks ago, the US also imposed sanctions on several jurisdiction that have played a critical role in the production, sale, and shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum to buyers in Asia.

 

 

EUROPE

Likud deepens ties with European right

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The “International Conference on Combating Antisemitism”, organized by Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli in Jerusalem on March 26-27, has sparked controversy in Europe.

Chikli, who has previously fostered relationships between Israel and his Likud party with some controversial figures, has invited individuals such as Jordan Bardella, president of the French National Rally (RN) party; Marion Marechal, a French Member of the European Parliament formerly associated with RN and Reconquête!; Charlie Weimers, a Member of the European Parliament from the Sweden Democrats party; Milorad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Hermann Tertsch, a Member of the European Parliament from the Spanish right-wing Vox party.

Following the leak of the guest list to the press, several prominent figures expected to attend from Europe announced their withdrawal. These included the Chief Rabbi of Britain, Sir Ephraim Mirvis; British politician and antisemitism advisor Lord John Mann; Goldsmiths University professor David Hirsh; French “philosopher” Bernard-Henri Levy; and the German antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein.

Mann told The Jewish News, “The quality of some of the dissenting politicians speaking is not high enough to make me drop competing priorities.”

Hirsh made a similar statement, saying, “The UK has nothing to learn about fighting antisemitism from these characters. The agenda includes a number of far-right speakers who associate themselves with anti-democratic and anti-equality movements.”

Hirsh argued that “anti-democratic thought is fertile ground for antisemitism” and that the best way to undermine antisemitism is to “support democratic thought, movements, and states.”

Levy, a staunch defender of Israel, was scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the event. However, the French figure told Le Monde that he had informed Israeli President Isaac Herzog that he would not attend due to the “far-right” guests.

Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, told Haaretz that he was unaware of the guest list when he confirmed his participation and canceled after seeing who would be speaking at the event.

Volker Beck, a former member of the Federal Assembly, also announced his non-attendance, stating on X, “If we associate ourselves with far-right forces, we discredit our common cause; this also contradicts my personal beliefs and will negatively impact our fight against antisemitism in our societies.”

European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Ariel Muzicant also sharply criticized Chikli on Tuesday. In a letter sent to The Jerusalem Post, Muzicant said, “For 80 years, we have been fighting antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and the aftermath of the Shoah.”

Muzicant pointed out that far-right parties in Europe are the biggest opponents in this fight, stating, “Many officials and leaders of these parties have supported Holocaust denial, promoted antisemitic codes and expressions, and fought against anti-Nazi laws.”

Muzicant wrote that although some far-right politicians now claim to support Israel, “The motivation of far-right politicians to come to this conference is not love for Israel or protecting Jews, but mainly to get a kosher certificate. And we, Jews or Israelis, should not be used as a kosher certificate.”

The EJC President described the conference organized by Chikli as a major problem for Jewish communities in Europe, arguing that it harms Jewish existence in the diaspora, “as if members of the Israeli government are stabbing them in the back.”

Muzicant emphasized that far-right movements in Europe often oppose liberal democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and freedom of the press.

Knesset Aliyah [the name given to Jewish immigration to Palestine] and Integration Committee Chairman Gilad Kariv (Democrats) called on Monday for the government to abandon the practice of inviting politicians from parties with what he described as “definite antisemitic roots.”

In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Kariv wrote that the invitation “constitutes a deviation from the long-standing policy of Israeli governments and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and directly contradicts the positions and policies of the representative organizations of Jewish communities in these countries and on the international stage.”

Kariv claimed, “The invitation of these representatives is particularly shocking, considering that it concerns an international conference on combating antisemitism, which is supposed to be held under the auspices of the president and the prime minister.”

Kariv argued that “inviting representatives of extremist parties with antisemitic roots undermines the foundations of Israel, the Jewish people, and the international fight against antisemitism,” adding, “It damages the fabric of relations between the State of Israel and Jewish communities in the diaspora and may harm Israel’s strategic relations with Western allies and leading political parties.”

Kariv added, “This step weakens Israel’s leading role in the global fight against antisemitism and represents a disturbing and dangerous regression to the current and future challenges of the Jewish people, as well as many Jewish communities around the world.”

Kariv argued that even though these parties express support for Israel, they should still not be given “an international stamp of approval.”

Chikli’s open support for the European “far-right” is receiving condemnation from European countries.

In December, Romania’s Ambassador to Israel condemned Chikli for holding a phone call with presidential candidate Calin Georgescu, who praised Romanian leaders who condoned the deaths of 280,000 Jews during the Holocaust.

French President Emmanuel Macron also complained to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Chikli after he openly supported Marine Le Pen’s presidential candidacy from the National Rally in the recent elections.

In recent weeks, Chikli also attended the “Make Europe Great Again” conference in Madrid, led by the Spanish Vox party.

Chikli’s party, Likud, also joined the Conservative Political Action Committee’s (CPAC) recent meeting as an “observer member,” one of the most important platforms of the national conservative movement in the West.

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Germany to cut budget amid armament preparations

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Germany’s likely next conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said budget cuts should be discussed during coalition talks with the Social Democrats. This statement came after the announcement of a historic armament and infrastructure spending package.

Merz, of the CDU, said the next German government would have to cut costs despite the proposed 500-billion-euro debt-financed fiscal package.

“We will have to reduce costs at the federal level, at the state level, and in local communities. The margins have not become larger,” Merz told German public broadcaster ARD.

The landmark fiscal package also includes easing Germany’s constitutional debt brake on borrowing.

The spending plan is also supported by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is continuing coalition government talks with the CDU/CSU after last month’s early election.

The package includes investments in defense and infrastructure. The package requires a two-thirds majority in Germany’s lower house, the Bundestag, and upper house, the Bundesrat, to pass. The package has already been approved by the Federal Assembly Budget Committee.

The Greens, who initially opposed the package, are expected to vote in favor of it because 100 billion euros have been allocated to combat climate change. Merz hopes the constitutional amendments will be adopted before the new Federal Assembly takes office on March 25.

Some members of the Federal Assembly are planning to apply to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe to block the vote on the multi-billion-euro fiscal package scheduled for Tuesday.

Independent member Joana Cotar has filed a lawsuit with the Karlsruhe court for the second time, demanding that the vote be postponed. The Constitutional Court confirmed on Sunday that the case had been accepted.

Three members of the Federal Assembly from the business-oriented Free Democratic Party (FDP) also said they would file an emergency application with the court, arguing that there was not enough time to publicly discuss the package’s impact on society.

According to FDP financial expert Florian Toncar, the current German government, consisting of the SPD and the Greens, has failed to answer “very simple and basic questions” regarding the package.

On the other hand, Merz also said that coalition negotiations with the SPD would involve “very difficult conversations” about much-needed reforms and what he described as “possible savings in the federal budget.” Merz argued that they would have to save money.

Referring to when Germany’s new coalition should be formed, Merz said it was too early to say and added, “We have not reached the end of the discussion. We have not yet reached the point of setting a date [for the new government].”

Merz wants to be chancellor before Easter in mid-April, about 50 days after the early election.

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UK and EU discuss confiscating Russia’s frozen assets

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According to Bloomberg, officials from the UK and the European Union (EU) are exploring legal and financial avenues to confiscate Russia’s frozen assets, following its military intervention in Ukraine.

This topic is on the agenda for today’s meeting in London between UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.

Sources speaking to Bloomberg noted that preparations for the potential confiscation of Russian assets are ongoing, despite opposition from some European countries, including Germany and Belgium.

These countries believe that seizing Russian assets could violate international law norms and affect the euro exchange rate.

The assets of the Central Bank of Russia held abroad were frozen after the start of the war, totaling over 260 billion euros.

A significant portion of the frozen assets is held in the Euroclear depository in Belgium.

The confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets has been discussed repeatedly for over three years since the start of the war.

However, so far, only the use of income from interest on these assets has been decided, and this income is being directed to support Ukraine.

EU officials have stated that there is no legal basis for the direct confiscation of the assets.

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