The development of the crisis in the Middle East, which began with the February 28 attack by the US and Israel against Iran, supplemented by the military actions of the Israeli state in Lebanon, as well as the war in Ukraine, continue to be major topics in the world press, BTA reported.
According to the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", US President Donald Trump claims that Iran has agreed to hand over its enriched uranium stockpile, which is one of Washington's conditions for a deal with Tehran. "They agreed to hand over the nuclear dust to us," Trump told reporters in Washington yesterday, without giving details. He added that both countries are "very close" until a peace agreement is reached.
Trump used the term "nuclear dust" to refer to the stockpile of enriched uranium that Washington believes could be used to build nuclear weapons.
The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which was announced yesterday and applauded by Trump, was violated by the Israeli army, Beirut claims, with several villages in southern Lebanon being shelled. Shortly before the ceasefire came into effect, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group "Hezbollah" fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel, and the Israeli army later said it had attacked the missile launchers.
The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, asked rhetorically on Mabrit Illner's talk show whether Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz was not promising too much to Ukraine, the "Frankfurter Rundschau" reported. He pointed out that relations between Berlin and Kiev are not a "charity act" on the part of Germany. "The war in Ukraine, right next to us, is the biggest problem", Ischinger stressed, calling for increased EU efforts to end it. If stable arrangements are also established in Iran, Gaza and the West Bank, that would be good – – "but first the most important things", i.e. peace in Ukraine, he pointed out.
"The fact that the Europeans are excluded from the current peace talks is just completely stupid", Ischinger criticized the US government's position.
Iran welcomed the ceasefire in Lebanon, calling it part of the agreement brokered by Pakistan and the US, the "Financial Times" reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said Tehran had called for a simultaneous ceasefire across the region during and after talks with Washington in Islamabad last week. He stressed the need for a complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the release of prisoners of war, the return of refugees and the reconstruction of devastated areas of Lebanon with international support.
Bagahai praised the resilience of Lebanon and its "resistance fighters against Israeli aggression" and thanked Pakistan for its diplomatic efforts.
The fragile 10-day ceasefire was greeted with celebratory gunfire as the clocks struck midnight in Lebanon, following the entry into force of a US-brokered deal that promises to halt Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, the Washington Post reported. The newspaper noted that the deal announced by Trump was later confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But later in a video, Netanyahu said that Israel had "the opportunity to conclude a historic peace agreement with Lebanon," but that Israeli forces would remain on Lebanese territory in a "reinforced security buffer zone."
"Wall Street Journal" commented that the possibility of direct talks between the leaders of Israel and Lebanon, announced by President Trump yesterday, would mark a historic step for two neighboring countries that have been technically at war for 78 years. But, the newspaper pointed out, the talks would leave aside one of the main belligerents - "Hezbollah" - a US-designated terrorist group that has fought several wars with Israel since the 1980s.