Israel arrests citizen over Iranian spy plot targeting nuclear, military facilities

“It is time for Iran to walk away completely from its desire to have a nuclear weapon. And they will not, and cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapons program, that’s enrichment, weaponization, and its strategic missile program,” Waltz said.

“The President has all options on the table. But we want to be clear, this isn't some kind of, you know, kind of tit for tat that we had under the Obama administration, or Biden. This is the full program. Give it up, or there will be consequences,” he added.

His comments came in contrast to the much more conciliatory tone of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who spoke of the US president's intention to resolve Iran's nuclear dispute diplomatically.

Earlier this month, Trump wrote a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in an attempt to explore a new nuclear agreement and prevent military escalation, Witkoff told Fox News on Sunday.

"We don't need to solve everything militarily," Witkoff said.

He emphasized that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, saying, “It cannot happen and it will not happen.”

"Our signal to Iran is let's sit down and see if we can, through dialogue, through diplomacy, get to the right place. If we can, we are prepared to do that. And if we can't, the alternative is not a great alternative."

On Friday, Witkoff told the Tucker Carlson show, “We should talk. We should clear up the misconceptions. We should create a verification program so that nobody worries about weaponization of your nuclear material."

He also said Trump believes the issue “has a real possibility of being solved diplomatically” and “acknowledged that he's open to an opportunity to clean it all up with Iran.”

His remarks raised questions about the Trump's administration's approach toward Iran, as Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz, have taken a much tougher stance, insisting over the past few weeks that Iran's nuclear program must be dismantled and that Iran will face military action unless it complies with US demands.

"We don't need to solve everything militarily," Steve Witkoff told Fox News.

"Our signal to Iran is let's sit down and see if we can, through dialogue, through diplomacy, get to the right place. If we can, we are prepared to do that. And if we can't, the alternative is not a great alternative."

Witkoff emphasized that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, saying, “It cannot happen and it will not happen.”

On Friday, Witkoff said Iran used indirect channels to respond after the US president sent a letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei earlier this month.

“I’m not at liberty to talk about the specifics,” Witkoff said in an interview released Friday on The Tucker Carlson Show, saying only it was through "back channels through multiple countries".

Last week, an Emirati official brought a letter from Trump proposing nuclear talks with Tehran, which Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected, saying such a proposal was deception from Washington amid crippling sanctions on Iran.

Iran's foreign ministry said Tehran will respond privately to Trump's letter and will not make public its contents.

Witkoff's remarks come as a senior Iranian nuclear official on Sunday said that Iran will not yield to Western pressure regarding its nuclear program, warning that such pressure could have adverse effects on cooperation.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), emphasized Iran's determination to advance its nuclear industry and counter what he described as unjust accusations from Western powers.

In an interview on Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks with the US are currently impossible unless significant changes occur as Washington awaits Tehran's response to its invitation for talks on a new nuclear deal.

"Combat readiness and combat capability are our priority, because it is the order of the Supreme Leader," said Alireza Tangsiri in an interview with ILNA news agency on Sunday.

Tangsiri also elaborated on the Navy's plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into its weaponry, saying, "We must definitely be equipped with artificial intelligence, and this is a necessity for our work, which is happening."

He added, "The flag of this work, thank God, is in the hands of the Supreme Leader, and the knowledge of this work is in the hands of the Supreme Leader, and God willing, the dear young people will continue this work."

His announcement comes as the United States prepares to significantly increase its naval presence in the Middle East, a move directly tied to escalating tensions with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region next month, a rare deployment intended to bolster US strikes against the Houthis, whose primary benefactor is Iran.

The buildup follows persistent Houthi attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea, which the group frames as a response to the Israeli war in Gaza.

These attacks, which began in November 2023, have included missile and drone strikes on over 100 vessels, resulting in the sinking of two ships and the deaths of four sailors.

The extended deployment of the USS Harry S. Truman and the expedited arrival of the USS Carl Vinson will provide US commanders with increased capacity for patrols and strikes.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat, Qaani’s message was also passed on to Yemen’s Houthis via intermediaries in Iraq.

Multiple meetings were held during Qaani’s visit, most of them in the Iraqi capital, according to reports received by Iran International.

According to Iraqi outlet Shafaq News, Qaani arrived in Baghdad last Wednesday for high-level talks with several key actors.

Among those in the talks were leaders of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-aligned Shia political parties; commanders of armed factions linked to Iran; members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mostly Shia paramilitaries integrated into Iraq’s security forces; and Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, the IRGC linked Mohammad Kazem Al-Sadegh.

“Iran has a big problem to bring supplies and physical support to Gaza now because it’s closed so nobody can get anything inside, like ammunition,” said Shlomo Mofaz, the head of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Research Center in Israel

Speaking to Iran International, he said: “Maybe some things are being smuggled with the aid, or food, or from Egypt by UAVs, but mainly they have a problem. The main focus of Iran is the West Bank, where there are a few ways they are supporting Hamas and other groups, mainly from Jordan where there is a long border and no fence in many places.”

Since Iran-backed Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 mostly civilians and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, the Israeli military has locked down the strip’s borders amid the longest Gaza war since the Islamist group took control of Gaza in 2007.

After several weeks of ceasefire, last week, Israel resumed military operations in Gaza in a bid to put pressure on Hamas to release the dozens of remaining hostages in the strip.

In 2022, now assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh told Al Jazeera that his group had received $70 million in military help from Iran. "We have rockets that are locally manufactured but the long-range rockets came from abroad, from Iran, Syria and others through Egypt," he said.

The US State Department estimated in 2020 that Tehran’s support for Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas, reached $100 million a year.

“The smuggling to the West Bank starts in Syria to Jordan but since the change in regime, it’s a bit harder there too as Israel has more control over what’s going on in southern Syria, but there are still some groups continuing,” added Mofaz, a leading intelligence expert in Israel.

However, financial aid is continuing through the likes of Bitcoin so Iran-backed armed groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank can buy arms on the black market.

He explained that much of the activity involves collaboration with Arab criminal groups inside Israel, who help smuggle ammunition into the West Bank. While some weapons are also assembled using commercially available materials, he noted this is less significant.

He added that Iran continues to smuggle dollars, but doing so has become more difficult. With no IRGC presence currently in Syria, the supporting infrastructure has been greatly reduced since the fall of the regime.

Just last month, Israel's defense minister announced that its war on Iran-backed groups in the occupied West Bank could go on as long as another year as Tehran refocuses its efforts in the wake of the Gaza war.

Speaking about the operation named 'Iron Wall, Defense Minister Israel Katz said: "We will not return to the reality that existed in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps and other terrorist hotbeds in order to dismantle the battalions and terrorist infrastructures of extremist Islam that were built, armed, financed and trained by the Iranian axis of evil."

Mofaz said that from the Israeli side, security and military agencies have been working hard in the West Bank. “The intelligence is very good, much better than it was in Gaza before the war,” he said.

Overall, Mofaz says Iran’s allies, known as the ‘axis of resistance’, in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza have been significantly weakened, aided by the fall of the Assad government in Syria which has taken away a major military stronghold for Iran abroad.

“Iran has less air defense to defend from US and Israeli airstrikes after Israel’s last attack,” Mofaz said. "The change in the regime in Syria is another issue. The routes on the ground to Lebanon have been closed. By air, that’s also difficult from Damascus now.

The IRGC's influence has been significantly curtailed since Assad's ousting from Syria. Israel has repeatedly targeted the Syria-Lebanon border, particularly the tunnel network, and the Lebanese army now controls the country's borders following the US-France brokered November ceasefire.

As Iran explores Iraq and Turkey as alternative routes, these options are drawing increased attention, particularly after Israel exposed the Turkey route and warned against its development.

Regional experts broadly agree on the weakening of the so-called axis. However, Arman Mahmoudian, a GNSI research fellow and USF lecturer, argued in a January Stimson Institute article that a weakened Iran could increase the nuclear threat.

”There is growing concern that a weakened and increasingly vulnerable Iran, governed by a survivalist regime, may see no alternative but to weaponize its decades-long nuclear program,” he warned.

“While the Axis of Resistance is now significantly weakened, its diminished state still presents considerable dangers for the United States’ position in the Middle East and the broader stability of the region. A fragile Iranian regime, desperate to survive, may become an even greater source of instability.”