Trump rebuffs Putin’s offer to help mediate Israel-Iran conflict
The US president urged his Russian counterpart to resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine before stepping in elsewhere. “He actually offered to help mediate, I said, ‘do me a favour, mediate your own. Let’s mediate Russia first, OK?'” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Ex-UN aid chief warns conflict spiralling towards US attack
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s former humanitarian chief, says he has very little confidence that Trump truly wants diplomacy with Iran.
“What we’re facing is a tunnel going forward” towards a possible US military attack, Griffiths told Al Jazeera.
Griffiths, director of the Mediation Group International, noted that governments in the Middle East have tried to pass messages between the parties to the conflict “but there’s no appetite in the US and Israel for mediation.”
But he said that could change.
“The one thing we have learned about Trump – not so much about Netanyahu, who mostly does what he says he’s going to do, to the disasters that follow – is that President Trump does change,” Griffiths said.
Iran’s defiant response exactly ‘what you’d expect’
Former British Ambassador to Iran, Richard Dalton, said he is not surprised by Iran’s fiery response to Trump’s demand for it to “surrender”. “That is what you’d expect from any undefeated country and that is what you’d expect from Iran,” Dalton told Al Jazeera.
“These threats to its identity, to its continued existence, this damage to civilian facilities, not just military or potentially nuclear ones, has clearly enraged people in Tehran and not just supporters of the system of government in Iran,” he added.
“The unpredictability of the US is now a serious worry for the region and the rest of the world.”
Regime change in Iran ‘a strategic mistake’: French foreign ministry spokesman
France’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has been speaking to Al Jazeera. Here are some of their translated comments:
- France’s President Macron has indicated that military regime change in Iran is a strategic mistake.
- The French position is clear and consistent and calls for an end to the extremely dangerous escalation in the region.
- Talks on the Iranian nuclear programme must resume, and the issue cannot be resolved militarily.
- European role in the Iranian nuclear issue is to call on Israel to adopt diplomacy.
- France’s position is to call for a halt to operations on both sides and a return to negotiations.
