Trump on Tuesday ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela as Washington tries to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a press conference after addressing the 80th United Nations General Assembly, September 27, 2025.(photo credit: REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ)ByREUTERSRussia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it hoped that US President Donald Trump’s administration would not make a fatal mistake over Venezuela and said Moscow was concerned about US decisions that threatened international shipping.
Trump on Tuesday ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela as Washington tries to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
There has been an effective embargo in place after the US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil idling in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.
“We hope that the D. Trump administration, which is characterized by a rational and pragmatic approach, will not make a fatal mistake.”
US President Donald Trump speaks with the media on the day of the signing of an executive order to rename the Department of Defense the ”Department of War”, in the Oval Office, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 5, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/BRIAN SNYDER)
‘Unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere’
Moscow favored a normalization of dialogue between Washington and Caracas and hoped the US would not wade into a situation that would have “unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere,” it added, saying Russia supported “the Maduro government’s course.”
Separately, the Kremlin called for countries in the region to show restraint.
“We see tensions rising in the region and consider this to be potentially very dangerous,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“President Putin recently had a telephone conversation with President Maduro. And, of course, we call on all countries in the region to exercise restraint in order to avoid any unpredictable developments.”
US expects leaders of Egypt, Qatar, UAE, UK, Italy, Germany to sit on top panel overseeing Strip’s rebuild, but similar commitments to join ISF lacking amid questions about mandate
President Donald Trump at the Gaza International Peace Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13 2025. (Yoan Valat, Pool photo via AP)
WASHINGTON — The US is telling interlocutors that it has secured commitments from Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany to have their leaders join US President Donald Trump on the Board of Peace that will oversee the postwar management of Gaza, four officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.
Commitments from six countries — including prominent stakeholders in the Mideast and Europe — offer critical international buy-in to the Trump administration’s efforts to advance its Gaza peace plan out of the initial ceasefire phase.
However, willingness to sit on the Board of Peace does not mean further support from each country is guaranteed, according to a US official, an Israeli official and two Arab diplomats who spoke to The Times of Israel for this story on condition of anonymity.
Still, the US is hoping that broad, prominent membership in the Board of Peace will boost the initiative’s international legitimacy and increase the likelihood that countries will be willing to contribute funds, troops or other forms of support.
Accordingly, the US is aiming for roughly half a dozen more leaders to join the panel headed by Trump, including Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The State Department, along with the foreign ministries of the aforementioned countries, did not respond to requests for comment.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands during a welcome ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, June 22, 2022. (AP/Burhan Ozbilici)
Eyes on Riyadh and Ankara
Trump even said publicly during bin Salman’s visit to Washington last month that he hopes the de facto Saudi leader will join him on the Board of Peace.
The four officials said Riyadh is still holding off on making such a decision until there is more clarity regarding the situation in Gaza, where Hamas has pledged to hold onto its weapons and Israeli forces have opened fire on or conducted strikes against Palestinians crossing the ceasefire line on a near-daily basis since a fragile ceasefire was signed on October 9.
While bin Salman would be a welcome addition to the Board of Peace, as far as Israel is concerned, Jerusalem continues to resist Turkish involvement in the postwar management of Gaza, particularly in the International Stabilization Force that the Trump plan envisions will phase out the IDF in the Strip.
The Israeli official said that he expects the US pressure in the coming weeks to intensify, with the aim of coaxing Jerusalem to lift its blanket veto on Turkish involvement in postwar Gaza and agree to a compromise where Erdogan sits on the Board of Peace or Ankara is involved in the command structure of the ISF, even if it doesn’t have boots on the ground in Gaza.
ISF mandate issues
Securing foreign troop commitments to the ISF has been a much more uphill battle than Board of Peace membership, as countries are still seeking more clarity regarding the force’s mandate, and there is also widespread unease regarding the war-like conditions on the ground in Gaza.
Washington sought to address some of those concerns at a conference that the US Central Command hosted in Doha on Tuesday, where it laid out its vision for the ISF to representatives from several dozen potential contributors.
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Gaza City, December 17, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
It laid out five different ways in which countries can participate in the ISF: troops, law enforcement officers, logistical support, training of Palestinian police officers or funding.
While more clarity was provided regarding the ISF’s size, makeup and command structure, along with elements of its mandate, thornier issues related to Hamas disarmament remain unaddressed, the two Arab diplomats said.
The resolution that the US pushed through the UN Security Council states that the ISF will “ensure” the demilitarization of Gaza, but the US has told interlocutors that it is not expecting the force to at first deploy on the western half of the Gaza Strip currently under de facto Hamas control and referred to as the “red zone,” the four officials said.
Instead, the US wants to initially station the ISF along the Yellow Line boundary to which Israel withdrew at the start of the October ceasefire, leaving it in control of roughly 53 percent of the Strip, according to the four officials.
Washington has also told potential contributors that it doesn’t envision the ISF actively sparring with Hamas to take away its weapons, and instead expects the terror group to comply with a gradual disarmament plan.
However, the two Arab diplomats said that talks on such an agreement between Hamas and the Mideast mediators are still in very early stages, and that US engagement has been limited. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff had planned to meet with top Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya last month, but that meeting was scrapped and has not since been rescheduled.
(L-R) Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya and US special envoy Steve Witkoff. (Collage/AP)
Rome is calling
Meanwhile, Italy has in recent days renewed its willingness to dispatch its Carabinieri and military forces to join the ISF, the US official said, confirming a report in the Repubblica Italian daily.
But like Azerbaijan and Indonesia, Rome is seeking more clarity regarding the ISF mandate before formally signing on, the US official said.
The US is aiming to hold a follow-up conference in Washington around the second week of January and to have outstanding questions addressed by then, but the two Arab diplomats and the Israeli official expressed heavy skepticism over the Trump administration’s desire to have the force deployed in that same month.
A tapestry with a portrait of Blessed Carlo Acutis, who will be canonized on Sunday, hangs on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on September 4, 2025, as two Carabinieri officers patrol in St. Peter’s Square. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
The administration has already pushed off Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire’s second phase that was initially planned for mid to late December, with the president saying last week that it will take place sometime early next year.
The four officials stressed that Netanyahu’s planned December 29 meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago will be decisive in addressing many of the outstanding issues holding countries back from making decisions regarding the extent to which they’ll participate in the postwar management of Gaza.
Hamas slows search for Gvili
For its part, Israel has dismissed the notion of a gradual disarmament process, decreasing the likelihood that it will be willing to further pull back its forces from deep inside Gaza, the four officials said.
It is also pushing back on transitioning to the ceasefire’s second phase before the body of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, has been returned.
The two Arab diplomats said that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s search for Gvili has slowed in recent days against the backdrop of Israeli strikes in Gaza. An IDF strike over the weekend killed senior Hamas commander Raed Saad, in what Washington has privately recognized was a violation of the ceasefire, the US official said.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a car in Gaza City that killed top Hamas official Raed Saad, December 13, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
The two Arab diplomats said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the slowed search for Gvili was due to the difficult security conditions on the ground or Hamas’s response to the Israeli strikes.
Israel also isn’t thrilled about the idea of Qatar being on the Board of Peace, but the Israeli official said Jerusalem recognizes that it can’t be seen as blocking every aspect of Trump’s plan.
Moreover, the Board of Peace is largely symbolic, with real responsibility in managing and overseeing expected to be placed with a mid-tier executive committee staffed by Witkoff, fellow Trump aide Jared Kushner, former UK prime minister Tony Blair and former UN envoy to the Mideast Nickolay Mladenov — all of whom have productive working relationships with Israel’s leadership, the Israeli official said.
Palestinian Hamas gunmen patrol as Egyptian workers, accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), search for the remains of the last Israeli hostage, Ran Gvili, in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on December 8, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Also sitting on the executive committee will be a number of high-profile American business leaders, while Mladenov will be tasked with overseeing the Palestinian technocratic committee responsible for running the day-to-day affairs in the Strip, the Israeli official said.
A source familiar with the matter said that the US is also working to finalize the charter of the Board of Peace, at which point formal invitations will be extended, including to those who have already committed to joining.
At spy agency award ceremony, David Barnea says Islamic Republic will break out to bomb ‘as soon as it is allowed,’ says there must not be another ‘bad deal’
Mossad chief David Barnea speaks at an award ceremony for agents in Jerusalem, December 17, 2025. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Mossad chief David Barnea said on Tuesday that Israel must “ensure” Iran doesn’t restart its nuclear program, six months after the IDF struck the Islamic Republic’s atomic facilities during a 12-day war.
A country sworn to Israel’s destruction, such as Iran, which has “enriched uranium levels that have no explanation other than realizing its desire for a military nuclear weapon, is a country that will break out as soon as it is allowed,” Barnea said at an award ceremony for Mossad intelligence agents in Jerusalem.
“The idea of continuing to develop a nuclear bomb still beats in their hearts. We bear responsibility to ensure that the nuclear project, which has been gravely damaged, in close cooperation with the Americans, will never be activated,” he said.
The outgoing spy chief, who will end his term in June 2026, praised Israel’s surprise opening strikes of the war, which he suggested showed the vast amount of intelligence Israeli spies had collected on Iran.
“Even though the ayatollahs’ regime awoke, in a single moment, to discover that Iran had been entirely exposed and infiltrated, Iran still hasn’t abandoned its ambition to destroy the State of Israel,” Barnea said.
Expressing his skepticism of any diplomatic solution with Tehran, Barnea added: “Iran believes it can deceive the world once again and implement yet another bad nuclear deal. We did not and will not allow a bad deal to come to fruition.”
Huge smoke rises up from an oil facility after it appeared to have been hit by an Israeli strike in southern Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. (AP Photo)
Western powers have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and sought to prevent it from acquiring them.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. When the war began, Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.
Iran said over 1,000 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the June war. It retaliated by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel, which killed 32 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.
In his first term, US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 landmark deal, opposed by Israel, limiting Iran’s enrichment of nuclear material in exchange for sanctions relief.
Vehicles of delegations leave the Omani embassy after a fifth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, in Rome on May 23, 2025. (Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
Iran and the US began negotiations for a new agreement in April, mediated by Oman, but those talks ended when Israel launched its attack at the end of a 60-day deadline set by Trump for a deal to end Tehran’s uranium enrichment.
Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
The US joined in with its own strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities.
Trump has repeatedly said the American attack obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, but the full extent of the damage remains unclear.
The Pentagon has said the strikes delayed Iran’s nuclear program by between one and two years, contradicting an initial classified US intelligence report that, according to American media, found the setback was only a few months.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has previously rebuffed Trump’s claims that Iran’s nuclear program had been destroyed, telling him to “keep dreaming.”
