15.06.22
Former US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, told Galei Tzahal that Biden’s expected visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia would lead to normalization between the two countries.
“There is no doubt that it is possible to advance the process in this direction. It does not mean that they will join the Abraham Accords in the coming weeks, but there is no doubt that Saudi leadership is preparing for real normalization – the younger generation there is ready for it,” he was quoted as saying.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh greets European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Ramallah. Photo: Reuters/Mohamad Torokman
A slew of foreign dignitaries visited Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday, discussing issues ranging from continued aid to the Palestinian Authority to de-escalating tensions with Israel.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and a US delegation headed by Barbara Leaf, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, all held talks with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh at his office in Ramallah.
Von der Leyen’s meeting with Shtayyeh took place the morning after a vote by the European Commission — the executive body of the EU — in favor of releasing funding to the PA that had been held up due to objections in Brussels to the presence of antisemitic images and themes in Palestinian school textbooks. The EU is the single largest donor to the PA, having provided more than $2 billion during the past decade, much of which is used to pay the salaries of Palestinian civil servants.
“As Team Europe, we are the largest donor in Palestine, with around EUR 600 million per year,” von der Leyen said at a press conference following the meeting. “I am very glad to announce that the EU funds for 2021 can be disbursed rapidly. All the difficulties are gone.”
“Palestine is dependent on imports of Ukrainian cereals – like many other vulnerable countries in the world, too,” she said. “And as Russia is blocking the export of wheat from Ukraine via the Black Sea, the situation is very difficult right now.”
While von der Leyen did not specify whether future aid to the PA would be conditional, Palestinians were quick to claim a political victory.
“The Palestinian political system rejected all the conditions and dictations,” Abdul Allah Al-Atira, an aide to Shtayyeh, told the Arabic news outlet Al-Watan. Al-Atira claimed that the EU would now release approximately $220 million in funding for the PA, which would be disbursed in the main to hospitals and other institutions in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Impact-se, an independent NGO that tracks the Palestinian school curriculum, noted in a statement that the EU’s announcement “did not specify if some of the funding would remain conditional based on a reform of the PA curriculum.”
The group argued that given “the importance of PA textbook reform to the Parliament and Commission, one can only assume that a partial funding freeze over textbook incitement remains on the table.”
Shtayyeh met later on Tuesday with an American delegation headed by the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Barbara Leaf, and her deputy, Hady Amr. A readout of the meeting published by the Palestinian WAFA news agency stated that the Palestinian prime minister reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, urging as well that the US reopen its consulate in eastern Jerusalem which was merged with the new US Embassy in Jerusalem in Oct. 2018. Shtayyeh also denounced what he called “Israel’s attempts to Judaize the city of Jerusalem and divide Al-Aqsa Mosque in time and space.”
Meanwhile, Italian leader Draghi said following his meeting with Shtayyeh that he would “continue to work to reduce tensions at all levels.” Draghi and Shtayyeh signed six development accords worth 12 million Euros, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The New York Times says Iranian officials suspect Israel targeted engineer Ayoob Entezari, geologist Kamran Aghamolaei, who died under similar circumstances several weeks ago
Iran suspects Israel killed two Iranian scientists several weeks ago by poisoning their food, a Monday report said, as tensions flare between Tehran and Jerusalem amid Iranian progress on its rogue nuclear program and a series of mysterious deaths in Iran.
The scientists, Ayoob Entezari and Kamran Aghamolaei, died in separate incidents under murky circumstances that Iran suspects were targeted killings, The New York Times reported, citing an Iranian official and two other sources connected to the government.
The details of the mens’ work, the circumstances of their deaths and their ties to the government remain unclear. Both scientists were young and healthy before their deaths, which occurred on different days, hundreds of miles apart.
Entezari, 35, became sick after attending a dinner party in the city of Yazd and died on May 31. Authorities were searching for the host of the party, who has vanished, the report said.
Iran International, an opposition outlet based in the UK, previously reported that an acquaintance had intentionally poisoned Entezari, and that the man who hosted the dinner party fled the country.
Entezari was reportedly employed at a research and development center in Yazd, where he was said to have worked on developing missiles and drones.
The area’s governor sent his family a letter calling him a “martyr,” indicating that he had been killed by an enemy or while serving the country, and a picture reportedly showed local officials paying a condolence visit to his home. The province later said the use of the term was a mistake.
Authorities denied that Entezari was an aerospace engineer and that he had a prominent job, but photos and videos showed him meeting with Iran’s former president Hassan Rouhani in 2019. His university also said he was an aerospace engineer, the New York Times report said.
Aghamolaei’s background is even more sketchy. After a business trip in the city of Tabriz, the 31-year-old geologist went to Tehran, then became sick with severe nausea and diarrhea. His organs failed and he died on June 2, the report said, citing information from one of his friends.
Tehran’s Tarbiat Modares University, where he was a doctoral student, put out a statement saying he had died of a heart attack. There have been no other official statements.
Hebrew media and some Persian news outlets based outside Iran said Aghamolaei worked at the Natanz nuclear facility, which his friends denied, The New York Times reported.
The alleged killings came amid a string of mysterious deaths in Iran in recent weeks and climbing tensions between Israel and Iran. The Islamic Republic has further breached nuclear agreements, threatened Israel and reportedly targeted Israeli civilians in Turkey, while Israel has issued warnings about Iran’s nuclear program and reportedly bombed Iran-linked targets in Syria.
On May 22, two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in Tehran. He reportedly was involved in killings and abductions outside of Iran, including attempts to target Israelis. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, and Iranian officials have blamed Israel.
The 50-year-old Khodaei remains a shadowy figure and Iran has yet to offer biographic detail beyond saying that he also was a member of the elite Quds Force, which is tasked with carrying out operations abroad. The IRGC has described him as “defender of the shrine” — a reference to Iranians who support militias fighting the extremist Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Thousands attended his funeral in Tehran and hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi visited his family.
Earlier this month, another colonel in the Quds Force died, reportedly in an accident at his home, either a fall from a roof or a balcony. Iran International, which is linked to Iran’s regional adversary Saudi Arabia, claimed Col. Ali Esmailzadeh was killed over suspicions he provided information to Iran’s enemies that was used in the assassination of Khodaei days earlier.
Late last month, an engineer was killed and another employee injured in Iran’s Parchin military complex under unclear circumstances.
Iranian media reported on Monday that two members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division died as “martyrs” in Iran in separate incidents over the weekend.
Amid the killings, Israel has in recent weeks warned its citizens against traveling to Turkey amid a series of reports about Iranian terror attempts in the country.
Israel’s Channel 13 reported Monday that several Israelis visiting the Turkish city of Istanbul were whisked out of the country last week by Israeli security officials, who were acting on intelligence showing that the visitors were at immediate risk from Iranian assassins.
Israel’s National Security Council on Monday raised the warning for Istanbul to level 4, the highest, meaning Israelis are explicitly told not to visit an area and to leave if they are already there. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called on Israelis in Turkey to return immediately and for citizens to cancel travel plans to the country. Other reports have said that Turkish security forces have acted against Iranian agents in the country.
The security incidents have come as Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers remains stalled and continues to deteriorate.
The UN nuclear watchdog formally censured Iran over its nuclear program last week, hours after the Islamic Republic said it disconnected some of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s cameras monitoring its nuclear sites, cutting off monitoring of its progress. The agency’s chief, Rafael Grossi, warned that the move could deal a “fatal blow” to negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, stalled since March.
Iran followed this up on Thursday by announcing that it has begun injecting gas into newly installed advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges.
Iran said Monday that all measures it has taken to roll back its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers are “reversible” if a new agreement is finalized.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned in an interview published Saturday that Tehran was drawing “dangerously close” to producing nuclear weapons, and called on the global community to join Israel and ramp up pressure against Iran’s nuclear program and ambitions.
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