Iran FM drafting negotiation framework with US amid tension

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview made public on Wednesday, said that any new US strike on Iran would have serious consequences and called for restraint to find a solution to enable Iran to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme.

Lavrov's interview with Saudi Arabia's Al-Arabiya television was aired a day after U.S. and Iranian negotiators held indirect talks in Geneva to head off a new mounting crisis between Washington and Tehran.

"The consequences are not good. There have already been strikes on Iran on nuclear sites under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. From what we can judge there were real risks of a nuclear incident," Lavrov said in the interview, which was posted on his ministry's website.

"I am carefully watching reactions in the region from Arab countries, Gulf monarchies. No one wants an increase in tension. Everyone understands this is playing with fire."

Iran is expected to submit a written proposal on how to avoid its standoff with the United States in the wake of US-Iran talks in Geneva on Tuesday, a senior US official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Top national security advisers met in the White House Situation Room to discuss Iran and were told all US forces deployed to the region should be in place by mid-March, the official said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on the weekend of 28 February, the official said.

Three Palestinians were shot by Israeli forces on Wednesday night in the town of Arraba, south of Jenin, according to local sources.

Sources told the Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli troops raided the town, and shot and injured three people, including one critically. Several young Palestinians were also detained in the town square.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its teams provided first aid to the three gunshot victims and transported them to a hospital.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel next week as tensions rise on Iran, a US official said.

"Secretary Rubio will travel to Israel on February 28 to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Washington last week for talks with President Donald Trump, has long advocated a hard line on Iran's clerical state and in June ordered a major bombing campaign.

Trump eventually joined the attack by ordering strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump sent envoys Tuesday to meet with Iran's top diplomat in Geneva.

Iran reported progress, but Trump has mused openly about a military intervention and has ordered a military buildup near the Middle Eastern nation.

The renewed pressure comes a month after Iran's clerical state killed thousands of protesters as they crushed massive demonstrations that posed one of the biggest threats to the government since the overthrow of the pro-Western shah in 1979.

A top UN official warned Wednesday that steps by Israel to tighten control of areas of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority amount to "gradual de facto annexation."

"We are witnessing the gradual de facto annexation of the West Bank, as unilateral Israeli steps steadily transform the landscape," UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told a meeting of the Security Council on the Palestinian question.

Iran issued a notice to airmen that it plans rocket launches in areas across its south on Thursday from 330 GMT to 1330 GMT, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration website showed on Wednesday.

The White House said Wednesday Iran would be "wise" to strike a deal with US officials in negotiations on its nuclear program, after days of escalating rhetoric from President Donald Trump.

"Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump and with his administration," Trump's Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

The United States is imposing visa restrictions on 18 Iranian officials and telecommunications industry leaders, the State Department said on Wednesday, in the latest such move against Tehran. 

Fewer than 1,000 families remain at a camp where relatives of suspected Islamic State militants had been held in Syria's northeast, the camp's former director said on Wednesday, with thousands having fled last month as government forces seized control of the area from Kurdish-led fighters.

Al-Hol, near the Iraqi border, was one of the main detention camps for relatives of suspected Islamic State fighters who were detained during the U.S.-backed campaign against the jihadist group in Syria.

Jihan Hanna, the former director who still coordinates with international agencies and the Syrian government, told Reuters the remaining families were Syrian nationals and were being transferred to a camp in Aleppo. Most of the camp’s foreign nationals had fled, she said.

The Syrian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to the latest camp data obtained by Reuters, dated 19 January - a day before the government took control of the camp - its population was 6,639 families comprising 23,407 people, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, as well as 6,280 foreigners from more than 40 nationalities.

Israeli officials told Axios that they were preparing for the outbreak of war between the US Iran within days,

The publication also quoted a Trump adviser as saying that "The boss is getting fed up. Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I think there is 90 percent chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks," while other US sources said that the war would likely be a weeks-long campaign that could see joint US-Israeli operations.

The United States is continuing to build a major force of naval and air assets in the Middle East, potentially setting the stage for a sustained military campaign against Iran.

The United States has also sent a large fleet of aircraft to the Middle East, according to open-source intelligence accounts on X and flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

These include F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets, F-15 and F-16 warplanes, and the KC-135 aerial refuelling aircraft that are needed to sustain their operations.

On Wednesday, Flightradar24 showed multiple KC-135s flying near or in the Middle East, as well as E3 Sentry airborne warning and control aircraft and cargo planes operating in the region.

Four Palestinians were injured during a settler attack on the occupied West Bank village of Mukhmas north of Jerusalem, with three being treated for bullet injuries, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. A fourth Palestinian was beaten in the attack, which also involved Israeli forces.

A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

A fire broke out in Iran's Parand near the capital city Tehran, state media reported on Wednesday, publishing videos of smoke rising over the area which is close to several military and strategic sites in the country's Tehran province.

"The black smoke seen near the city of Parand is the result of a fire in the reeds around the Parand river bank... fire fighters are on site and the fire extinguishing operation is underway", state media cited the Parand fire department as saying.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a soldier killed in Gaza on Wednesday died in a "friendly fire" incident.

Earlier, the Israeli military had said that Staff Sergeant Ofri Yafe, aged 21, was killed in combat in southern Gaza.

However, in a message of condolence to Yafe's family, Netanyahu said he "fell in a painful friendly fire incident" in the Palestinian territory, according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office.

Before Pakistan commits to sending troops to Gaza as part of the International Stabilization Force it wants assurances from the United States that it will be a peacekeeping mission rather than tasked with disarming Hamas, three sources told Reuters.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to attend the first formal meeting of President Donald Trump's Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday, alongside delegations from at least 20 countries.

Three government sources said during the Washington visit Sharif wanted to better understand the goal of the ISF, what authority they were operating under and what the chain of command was before making a decision on deploying troops.

"We are ready to send troops. Let me make it clear that our troops could only be part of a peace mission in Gaza," said one of the sources, a close aide of Sharif.

"We will not be part of any other role, such as disarming Hamas. It is out of the question," he said.

Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that Tehran was "drafting" a framework to advance future talks with Washington, during a phone call with the UN nuclear watchdog.

In the call with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, Araghchi "stressed the Islamic Republic of Iran's focus on drafting an initial and coherent framework to advance future talks", a day after a second round of resumed negotiations with the United States.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he is pleased to see steps taken in neighbouring Syria to integrate the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into state structures, after a US-backed ceasefire deal late last month between the sides.

In a readout on Wednesday of his comments to reporters on a return flight from Ethiopia, Erdogan was cited as saying Ankara is closely monitoring the Syrian integration steps and providing guidance on implementing the agreement.

A US immigration judge has blocked the deportation of a Palestinian graduate student, Mohsen Mahdawi, who helped organise protests at Columbia University against Israel's war on Gaza, according to US media reports.

In an order made public on Tuesday, Judge Nina Froes said that President Donald Trump's administration did not provide sufficient evidence to remove Mahdawi from the United States legally, multiple media outlets reported.

Froes reportedly questioned the authenticity of a copy of a document purportedly signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that said Mahdawi's activism "could undermine the Middle East peace process by reinforcing antisemitic sentiment," according to the New York Times.

"I am grateful to the court for honouring the rule of law and holding the line against the government's attempts to trample on due process," Mahdawi said in a statement released by his attorneys and published Tuesday by several media outlets.

"This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice."

The European Union is exploring possible support for a new committee established to take over the civil administration of Gaza, according to a document produced by the bloc's diplomatic arm and seen by Reuters.

"The EU is engaging with the newly established transitional governance structures for Gaza," the European External Action Service wrote in a document circulated to member states on Tuesday.

"The EU is also exploring possible support to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza," it added.

European foreign ministers will discuss the situation in Gaza during a meeting in Brussels on 23 February. 

Italy will be present at the first meeting of US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" as an "observer", Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday.

"I will go to Washington to represent Italy as an observer to this first meeting of the Board of Peace, to be present when talks occur and decisions are made for the reconstruction of Gaza and the future of Palestine," Tajani said according to ANSA news agency.

The board, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the territory's reconstruction after Israel's war on the enclave.

But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, triggering fears the US president wants to create a rival to the United Nations.

The first meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Washington.

The United States will deter Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons "one way or the other", US Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned on Wednesday.

"They've been very clear about what they would do with nuclear weapons. It's entirely unacceptable," Wright told reporters in Paris on the sidelines of meetings of the International Energy Agency.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will travel to Washington in lieu of President Tayyip Erdogan for the inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" on Thursday, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

A Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters that Fidan, during the talks, would call for determined steps to resolve the Palestinian issue and emphasise that Israel must end actions to hinder the flow of aid into Gaza and stop its ceasefire violations.

Fidan will also reiterate Turkey's readiness to contribute to Gaza's reconstruction and its desire to help protect Palestinians and ensure their security, the source said. He will also call for urgent action against Israel's "illegal settlement activities and settler violence in the West Bank", the source added.

According to a readout from Erdogan's office, the president separately told reporters on Wednesday that he hoped the Board of Peace would help achieve "the lasting stability, ceasefire, and eventually peace that Gaza has longed for", and would focus on bringing about a two-state solution.

Israel announced it would allow 10,000 Palestinian worshippers to attend weekly prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan, which began Wednesday.

Israeli authorities also imposed restrictions on entry to the mosque compound, permitting access only to men aged 55 and older, women aged 50 and older, and children up to age 12.

"Ten thousand Palestinian worshippers will be permitted to enter the Temple Mount for Friday prayers throughout the month of Ramadan, subject to obtaining a dedicated daily permit in advance," COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry agency responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs in occupied territory said in a statement.

"Entry for men will be permitted from age 55, for women from age 50, and for children up to age 12 when accompanied by a first-degree relative."

During Ramadan, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians traditionally attend prayers at Al-Aqsa, Islam's third-holiest site, located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later illegally annexed in a move that is not internationally recognised.

The Israeli military announced that one of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Gaza on Wednesday, but a security source said the death appeared to have been caused by "friendly fire".

"Staff Sergeant Ofri Yafe, aged 21, from HaYogev, a soldier in the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit, fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.

A security source, however, told AFP that the soldier appeared to have been "killed by friendly fire", without providing further details.

"The incident is still under investigation," the source added.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would pursue a policy of "encouraging the migration" of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported Wednesday.

"We will eliminate the idea of an Arab terror state," said Smotrich, speaking at an event organised by his Religious Zionism Party late on Tuesday.

"We will finally, formally, and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria.

"There is no other long-term solution," added Smotrich, who himself lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday night about US-mediated Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Geneva, as well as talks between the US and Iran on their nuclear dispute, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Starmer also discussed Gaza with Trump and stressed the importance of securing further access for humanitarian aid, the spokesperson said.

Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia concluded the first of two days of the US-mediated peace talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with Trump pressing Kyiv to act fast to reach a deal.

Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran and Washington reached an understanding on Tuesday on "guiding principles" aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, but that did not mean a deal is imminent.

Iran and Russia will conduct navy drills in the Sea of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean on Thursday, the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency reported, a few days after Revolutionary Guards conducted military drills in the Strait of Hormuz.

"Creating convergence and coordination in joint measures to counter activities threatening maritime security and safety (...) as well as combating maritime terrorism, are among the main goals of this joint exercise," an Iranian navy commander, Hassan Maghsoodloo said according to Fars news.