Ella Baron on Donald Trump’s peace negotiations with Iran – cartoon
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Source: The Guardian ▾
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Starmer’s press tormentors are merciless. He either needs to fight back or bypass them | Jane Martinson
Now the rightwing press are accusing the PM of cowardice over Iran. He must stop letting them craft his narrative and create his own If there was one thing Keir Starmer might have hoped the UK media would support him over, it was his refusal to follow a US president blindly into war in the Middle East. After all, his Labour predecessor Tony Blair only really got hammered in the press over warmongering in Iraq.
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Iran’s parliament speaker: the outsider seen by White House as possible partner
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has threatened US, being weighed up as potential interlocutor to bring war to an end Middle East crisis – live updates Just as in 1967 when a rank outsider won the Grand National due to a massive pile-up of other horses at one of the final fences, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and Donald Trump’s putative interlocutor , appears to have come to the front as the field around him rapidly thinned. In the pantheon of Iran’s leaders, ruthlessly reduced by targeted assassinations, Ghalibaf stands out as a survivor, but if the US president hopes he has finally located the Delsy Rodríguez of Iran – a pragmatic leader from within the regime willing to do business with America – he may need to think again. Continue reading...
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Pakistan’s army chief attempts to broker Iran peace talks in call with Trump
Diplomatic sources say negotiations in Islamabad may begin next week, though no formal agreement is in place Middle East crisis – live updates Pakistan’s military leadership has been attempting to broker negotiations between the US and Iran, after the White House confirmed that Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, had a phonecall with Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss the conflict. Diplomatic sources said the US and Iran could meet for negotiations in Islamabad as early as this week, to discuss an end to the war which began almost a month ago. Continue reading...
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Trump’s ‘very good’ talks with Iran buy him time with oil and energy markets
Tehran denied negotiations that delayed US strikes and Trump was vague on the details, but talks signal renewed push for peace from regional powers There have been so many abortive rounds of diplomacy between the US and Iran – the latest appearing to be led by Pakistan after Washington has burned through many other regional mediators – that it was hardly a surprise that President Trump’s claims of “very good” talks with Tehran initially provoked disbelief – especially after Iran denied that any negotiations were taking place at all. Nonetheless, standing beside Air Force One, Trump did his best to sell the sudden detente with little detail as a US ultimatum to bomb Iran’s power plants loomed unless Tehran opened up the strait of Hormuz. It was lost on few that the sudden about-face came just hours before US markets were to open for what promised to be another punishing round of trading on Monday.
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Surprise US talks with Iran’s fractured leadership offer uncertain path out of conflict
Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf at first dismissed talks took place, insisting Trump’s claim was ‘fake news’ designed to soothe markets Middle East crisis – live updates The backchannel talks between Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, were not a secret in the sense that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry had tweeted that conversations were under way on Sunday, 24 hours before Donald Trump’s late Monday deadline to start blowing up Iran’s energy infrastructure. But such is the chaos surrounding the process that the discussions – thought to be well short of negotiations – may have lasted longer than Sunday, with more than one mediator, as is often the case, jostling for the title of peacemaker in chief. Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, for instance, spoke with Trump on Sunday, while Pakistani prime minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, held talks with Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Monday.
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‘Unimaginable hell’: Iranian relief and unease after Trump pauses plan to cripple power supply
Some inside Iran believe Trump’s threat designed to divert attention from Trump’s desire to seize islands in strait of Hormuz Middle East crisis – live updates A wave of temporary relief, and some jubilation swept through Iran as Donald Trump announced he was postponing his attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure after he claimed he had productive conversations with Tehran, conversations Iran promptly denied ever having directly with him or through intermediaries. That does not mean the diplomatic track was entirely silent. Turkey, through its foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, and Oman, via its foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who are both respected in Tehran and Washington, have been working the phones constantly.
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A smidgen of doubt about Trump’s jibe | Brief letters
Nato ‘cowards’ | Duck dish | Measurements | Small amounts | Chelsea gnomes | Excuses | Floaters Perhaps Donald Trump might encourage his “cowardly” Nato colleagues by reminding them about his heroic efforts during the Vietnam war? ( Anger grows among UK ministers amid fears Iran war could jeopardise Britain’s fragile finances, 21 March ). Tony Green Ipswich • My favourite cooking quantity ( Letters, 19 March ) comes from a wartime recipe for vegetarian duck.
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‘Nobody else is responsible’: Trump to blame for Iran crisis, ex-CIA chief says
Leon Panetta calls president ‘naive’ over strait of Hormuz closure and says ‘the chickens are coming home to roost’ Donald Trump is stuck between “a rock and a hard place” after three weeks of war in Iran and “sending a message of weakness” to the world, Leon Panetta , a former US defence secretary and Central Intelligence Agency director, has told the Guardian. Panetta, who served in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, recalled that national security officials were always keenly aware of Iran’s ability to create an energy crisis by blocking the strait of Hormuz . That very scenario is now unfolding, leaving Trump with no exit strategy beyond wishful thinking.
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Jimmy Kimmel on Trump Pearl Harbor joke: ‘Everything he knows about it begins and ends with the Ben Affleck movie’
Late-night hosts panned Trump’s joke about the 1941 attack, addressed new unredacted Epstein emails and talked popular puppy names With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on hiatus until at least 27 March, late-night hosts on Thursday discussed Donald Trump ’s snafu while meeting Japan’s prime minister, his caginess over Iran , and new findings in the Epstein investigations. Continue reading...
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UK letting US use its bases is ‘participation in aggression’, Iran’s foreign minister tells Yvette Cooper – UK politics live
Abbas Araghchi says decision to allow use of RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia will be ‘recorded in the history of relations’ between Iran and UK Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor. Reform UK’s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord , has reportedly brushed off questions about the views of Holyrood candidates accused of spreading false rumours about asylum hotels, of describing Humza Yousaf as an “Islamist moron”, and of backing Tommy Robinson. I can’t comment on individual cases.
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US has ‘lost control of its own foreign policy’, says Oman’s foreign minister
Badr Albusaidi claims Israel convinced Donald Trump to make the ‘grave miscalculation’ of waging war on Iran Middle East crisis – live updates Oman’s foreign minister has claimed the US has “lost control of its own foreign policy” and accused Israel of persuading Donald Trump’s administration to go to war with Iran – a conflict he described as a “catastrophe” and “grave miscalculation”. Writing in the Economist , Badr Albusaidi, the Omani minister who mediated the latest nuclear talks between Iran and the US, offered an unusually damning assessment of events leading up to the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran and the war that it has triggered across the Middle East. Continue reading...
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Trump thinks brute force will arrest the US’s decline. His heavy-handed actions in Iran are only accelerating it | Owen Jones
From Venezuela to the Middle East, this is gangsterism fused with colonialism. It repudiates the moral language through which US power once justified itself Gone are any pretences about saving the Iranian people. “They really are a nation of terror and hate,” Donald Trump says of Iran .
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Democrats move to impeach Bondi after ‘fake’ Epstein briefing – US politics live
Anger grows after a closed-door briefing from attorney general where she refused to commit to testify under oath despite subpoena Democrats walk out in protest at Epstein briefing from Bondi Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Furious Democratic lawmakers have moved to impeach attorney general Pam Bondi after walking out of a closed-door briefing about the Jeffrey Epstein files on Wednesday. We asked her multiple times, are you going to come and speak with us under oath?
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Hungary’s Orbán says he won’t back down and allow EU’s €90bn loan to Ukraine – Europe live
Hungarian PM, who is facing an upcoming election, appears in no mood to compromise as EU leaders meet in Brussels this morning EU leaders are meeting in Brussels this morning for what was meant to be a discussion on the bloc’s competitiveness and economy, but “events, my dear boy, events” mean they will have to focus on Hungary’s ongoing spat with Ukraine and the Middle East instead. Less than four weeks before a key parliamentary election in Hungary, Viktor Orbán will once again come under pressure to unblock the EU’s €90bn loan to Ukraine , which he is blocking over a dispute about the Druzhba pipeline. Continue reading...
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We need to be honest about Iran – and how our rampant greed for oil is causing mayhem | George Monbiot
Oil has empowered capitalism, and some of the world’s most exploitative regimes. Move away from it and we can solve some of the key issues we face I realise this is a serious breach of etiquette. But could we perhaps abandon good manners and contextualise Donald Trump’s attack on Iran?
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As Trump shows lack of direction on Iran, even Badenoch distances herself
Steady UK opposition to the war and the US president’s insults mean MPs are finding it easier to point out the obvious When is a U-turn definitely a U-turn? To the consternation of politicians through the ages, this is rarely something within their control, but decided instead by the herd. And thus it is with Kemi Badnoch over Iran and Donald Trump.
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Trump nominee Mullin expected to get quick confirmation to replace Noem at DHS – US politics live
Republicans almost certain to push through appointment following the ousting of Noem amid public backlash to her aggressive immigration approach Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. A Senate committee later today is expected to give a quick confirmation to Markwayne Mullin, a first-term Republican senator from Oklahoma, to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A top counter-terrorism official in the Trump administration resigned over the ongoing war on Iran .
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How ignorance, misunderstanding and obfuscation ended Iran nuclear talks
Negotiators had reached agreement on key issues despite Trump team’s idiosyncratic approach. Two days later, war began In the many bizarre exchanges that occurred in the run-up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, perhaps the most unexpected was an invitation by Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff for the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, to join him and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for a visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group. The idea that Araghchi would leave talks in Oman about the future of Iran’s nuclear programme to tour a ship sent to the Gulf in an effort to dislodge his government seemed idiosyncratic at best.
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Starmer tells Zelenskyy that 'focus must remain on Ukraine' – video
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, in London on Tuesday for talks on peace and Russia sanctions. Starmer told Zelenskyy it's important the 'focus must remain on Ukraine' despite the war in Iran UK politics live Continue reading...
