Israeli PM says he will make sure Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons

In a post on Telegram, Handala said the 2.1 terabytes of stolen information also includes legal cases, weapon permits, and identity documents. It also claims to have extracted 350,000 documents and made them publicly accessible.

Israeli police denied the attack, saying there was no evidence of a breach.

"Following inquiries regarding an alleged hack into police systems, we would like to clarify that after a thorough investigation, no external party had access to the police's information systems, and there is no indication that a hack occurred or that information was leaked," they said in a statement on X.

Last month, the same hacking group targeted kindergartens in Israel, disrupting public address (PA) systems and infiltrating emergency systems in at least 20 locations by exploiting vulnerabilities in a private company's infrastructure.

Additionally, the group used another system belonging to the same company to send tens of thousands of threatening text messages to Israeli citizens.

At the time, Israel's National Cyber Directorate confirmed the breach and said it is working with the affected company and the Ministry of Education to address the situation.

Last year in September, the group claimed it had successfully breached the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, alleging the theft of 197 gigabytes of data.

The hackers also published around 30 photos they claimed were taken inside the center, along with screenshots allegedly showing the names of nuclear scientists involved in the facility's particle accelerator project.

In response, the Israeli prime minister's office, speaking on behalf of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, denied the authenticity of the images. "Following a thorough examination, the images and blueprint do not belong to any of its facilities," the statement said.

According to Microsoft, Israel has become the top target of Iranian cyberattacks since the start of the Gaza war, replacing the US as the number one target.

"Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Iran surged its cyber, influence, and cyber-enabled influence operations against Israel," Microsoft said in its recent annual report.

"From October 7, 2023, to July 2024, nearly half of the Iranian operations Microsoft observed targeted Israeli companies," the Microsoft Digital Defense Report said.

Trump told The New York Post on Saturday: “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it. . . . They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.”

On February 4, Trump signed a directive to intensify sanctions enforcement on Iran, at the same time insisting that he would prefer negotiations rather than confrontation and offered to meet his Iranian counterpart.

Trump told the Post, “If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them.” Earlier he had said that any reports the United States and Israel would work together on a devastating military attack on Iran were overblown.

"I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens,” ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED," Trump said.

In his remarks to the Post, Trump refused to reveal his negotiating tactic with Tehran. “I could tell what I have to tell them, and I hope they decide that they’re not going to do what they’re currently thinking of doing. And I think they’ll really be happy.”

Following Trump’s move to tighten sanctions and his expressed willingness to negotiate, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday ruled out any talks with the United States.

Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran during his first term, imposing tough economic sanctions that have triggered a prolonged financial crisis in the country.

Iran has also lost influence in the Middle East as a result of Israeli attacks on its proxy forces and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

During a joint news conference in Washington on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that he envisioned the US assuming control over the Gaza Strip, relocating its residents elsewhere, and transforming the war-ravaged coastal area into what he called the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

In separate phone calls with his Egyptian, Turkish and Pakistani counterparts, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi called for an emergency meeting of the OIC to "adopt a unified and firm stance in countering this plot against the fate of the Palestinian people."

"The forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is a colonialist conspiracy to erase Palestine and a serious threat to regional stability and security," Araghchi told Egypt's Badr Abdelatty.

Araghchi said the OIC can "play a crucial role in countering the ethnic cleansing plan in occupied Palestine."

Trump's proposal has already sparked outrage in the Middle East, including in Egypt and Jordan, two close allies of Washington which Trump has suggested can take in the Palestinians.

A report by Israel's Channel 12 says Trump is also considering Morocco, Puntland, and Somaliland as other possible options for the relocation of Palestinians.

Implicitly referring to President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear agreement in 2018, Khamenei said that “Negotiating with such a government should not be done; it is neither wise, intelligent nor honorable."

Trump reinstated his "maximum pressure" sanctions this week but also extended an olive branch, proposing a meeting with his Iranian counterpart and expressing hope that if an agreement ensures Iran abandons the pursuit of nuclear weapons, further sanctions would not be unnecessary.

A US State Department spokesman told Iran International on Friday that Iran will remain under the restored maximum pressure campaign unless it chooses to pursue a deal.

Most Iranian media outlets have reported Khamenei’s statements without commentary or analysis. As seen in previous instances reported by Iranian journalists, higher authorities—such as the Supreme National Security Council—may have directed the media to refrain from critical coverage of the speech.

Hardliner and ultra-hardliner media outlets and politicians, however, have insisted that Khamenei’s speech unequivocally banned any response to President Donald Trump’s proposal to hold direct negotiations with his Iranian counterpart.

"The Leader of the Revolution's stance on negotiations with the United States was stated in the clearest possible terms, leaving no room for alternative interpretations," the Revolutionary Guards-linked Javan newspaper wrote in an editorial Saturday.

The editorial also demanded that President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government urgently align with Khamenei’s directive “to safeguard national unity.” In fact, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghci announced on Saturday that he will follow the Supreme Leader's guidance in foreign policy.

In a social media post, an ultra-hardliner lawmaker, Mohammad-Mannan Raisi, issued a stern warning to those advocating for talks with the United States. “After His Excellency’s speech today, if they continue pushing their unrectified views and pressuring the Leader, we will no longer respond with mere speeches and commentaries,” Raisi wrote on social media.

On the other hand, supporters of direct US-Iran negotiations offered alternative interpretations of Khamenei’s remarks, suggesting they might not represent a complete rejection of talks. Some argued that Khamenei was merely emphasizing the need for clear outcomes, such as lifting sanctions, rather than engaging in futile negotiations.

In support of this view, proponents noted that Khamenei’s speech did not refer to the 2020 killing of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, an event often cited by hardliners to oppose dialogue with Trump.

Mohammad-Ali Ahangaran, a moderate conservative political analyst, interpreted Khamenei’s position as part of a broader negotiation strategy. “As a scholar in international law and political science, I see this as an element in ongoing negotiations,” Ahangaran wrote on social media.

Similarly, former reformist lawmaker Akbar Alami argued that Khamenei’s speech was a tactical move aimed at securing guarantees from Trump that any potential agreement would not be abandoned, as happened in 2018. Alami recalled that Khamenei had previously opposed negotiations during three speeches in 2012 and 2013, even as secret talks with the US were reportedly taking place in Oman.

During this period, Jake Sullivan, the former National Security Advisor to the US Vice President Joe Biden and William Burns, the Deputy Secretary of State under Barack Obama, reportedly held talks with Iranian representatives in Muscat.

Abdolreza Davari, a former aide to ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suggested that Khamenei’s remarks were not a rejection of negotiations per se but a call for talks to focus on resolving Iran’s problems, particularly sanctions relief.

“Negotiation for its own sake, as seen during the tenure of [Saeed] Jalili [during Ahmadinejad’s presidency] has no outcome other than exacerbating the country’s problems,” he said in an x post, adding that Pezeshkian’s government must “define the requirements for wise, logical, or honorable talks” to prevent a similar outcome.

Paris-based political analyst Hamzeh Ghalebi also argued that Khamenei’s rhetoric implied that negotiations had not been ruled out. According to Ghalebi, Trump demands that Iran forgo nuclear and strategic weapons, while Khamenei seeks guarantees that such disarmament would not compromise Iran’s security and that sanctions would be genuinely lifted. “The first stage of negotiations has already taken place,” Ghalebi concluded.

Compared to the same period last year, when the dollar stood at 510,000 rials, the national currency has devalued by 75%.

The economic fallout from the rial's collapse has been profound. Consumer goods inflation in Iran has surged to approximately 50%, leaving more than one-third of the population below the poverty line.

“Negotiating with such a government should not be done; it is neither wise, intelligent nor honorable,” said the 85-year-old cleric during a meeting with air force personnel in Tehran.

“No problem will be solved through negotiations with the United States,” he added, despite calls by many insider politicians and commentators in Tehran to open negotiations with the United States to ease sanctions.

"We must understand this correctly; they should not make it seem to us that if we sit at the negotiation table with that government, this or that problem will be solved. No, no problem will be solved through negotiations with the United States."

Meanwhile, the US State Department told Iran International on Friday that the Trump "maximum pressure" sanctions on Iran would remain unless a deal was reached.

Although President Donald Trump reaffirmed his sanctions strategy earlier this week, he left the door open for an agreement, saying that he preferred a diplomatic resolution.

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's relatively moderate president, has expressed tentative openness to talks, contrasting with Khamenei's firm stance.

Over the past five years, tens of millions of Iranians have experienced a steady decline in living standards, as wages have failed to keep pace with rising prices. Since the reintroduction of US sanctions in 2018, the rial’s value has plummeted more than twentyfold. The iannual inflation rate has hovered at around 40% for the past five years.

Basic living costs have become unattainable for many, with the average worker’s monthly earnings shrinking to the equivalent of $135 from $ 200 earlier this year, while official data estimates $500 is necessary to cover basic needs.