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US sees possible Gaza deal this week, Sullivan tells Bloomberg News

Biden leaves office next week after Democrats lost the White House in November’s election, handing back the U.S. government to Trump and his fellow Republicans, who will control both chambers of Congress, read the report.

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The Biden administration sees a possible Gaza truce as soon as this week, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told Bloomberg News on Monday, adding that there were no guarantees that the parties would agree to such a deal, Reuters reported.

Sullivan, speaking to Bloomberg in an interview, added that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has been in contact with incoming President Donald Trump's team and has sought to have a united front on the issue ahead of Washington's Jan. 20 transition of power.

"The pressure building here towards the end of President Biden's term has been considerable," Sullivan said. "It's there for the taking."

Biden leaves office next week after Democrats lost the White House in November's election, handing back the U.S. government to Trump and his fellow Republicans, who will control both chambers of Congress, read the report.

Envoys of both Biden and Trump attended weekend talks on the potential deal.

"The question is now: Can we all collectively seize the moment and make this happen," Sullivan told Bloomberg, adding that Biden had directed him to work closely with the incoming team.

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Iran never plotted to kill Donald Trump, Iranian president says

Iran has also previously denied U.S. claims of interfering in American affairs, including through cyber operations, Reuters reported.

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Iran never plotted to kill Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in an NBC News interview on Tuesday, denying past claims from Trump and the U.S. government, Reuters reported.

In November, the U.S. Justice Department charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps to assassinate the U.S. president-elect. Law enforcement thwarted the alleged plan before any attack was carried out.

Trump also said last year during the U.S. election campaign that Iran may have been behind attempts to kill him, read the report.

"None whatsoever," Pezeshkian said on NBC News, when asked if there was an Iranian plan to kill Trump. "We have never attempted this to begin with and we never will."

Trump, who won last year's U.S. election and will take office on Monday, survived two assassination attempts during the campaign - one in September while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and another during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Investigators have found no evidence of Iranian involvement in either.

Iran has also previously denied U.S. claims of interfering in American affairs, including through cyber operations, Reuters reported.

Tehran says Washington has interfered in its affairs for decades, citing events ranging from a 1953 coup against a prime minister to the 2020 killing of its military commander in a U.S. drone strike.

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Russia’s Putin and Iran’s Pezeshkian to sign strategic partnership pact on Jan. 17, Kremlin says

Putin and Pezeshkian will also talk about regional and international issues, it added.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will hold talks in Russia on Jan. 17 after which they will sign a long-awaited comprehensive strategic partnership pact, the Kremlin said on Monday.

The two leaders will discuss options for further expanding ties between Moscow and Tehran, including in the trade and investment, transport and logistics, and humanitarian spheres, the Kremlin said.

Putin and Pezeshkian will also talk about regional and international issues, it added.

Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile towards the U.S., such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war, Reuters reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in October that Moscow and Tehran intended to sign the strategic partnership pact which would include closer defence cooperation.

The United States accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and imposed sanctions on ships and companies it said were involved in delivering Iranian weapons. Tehran denies providing Moscow with the missiles.

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EU foreign ministers to tackle Syria sanctions relief at end of month

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European foreign ministers will meet at the end of January to discuss the lifting of sanctions on Syria, the EU foreign policy chief said on Sunday in Riyadh ahead of a meeting of top Middle Eastern and Western diplomats and Syria's new foreign minister.

Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, said the foreign ministers would convene in Brussels on Jan. 27 in an effort to decide how the 27-nation bloc would relax sanctions on Syria, Reuters reported.

After 13 years of civil war, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in a lightning offensive by insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) a month ago.

The group has since set up a caretaker government in Damascus.

Any European decision to ease sanctions would be conditional on the new Syrian administration's approach to governing, which must include "different groups" and women and "no radicalisation", Kallas said, without elaborating.

"If we see the developments going to the right direction, we are ready to do the next steps...If we see that it's not going to the right direction, then we can also move back on this."

Sunday's conference, the first such meeting of Western and regional leaders hosted by regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia since Assad's ouster, comes as Damascus urges the West to lift sanctions to help international funding flow more freely.

The U.S., Britain, the European Union and others imposed tough sanctions on Syria after a crackdown by Assad on pro-democracy protests in 2011 that spiralled into civil war.

But the new reality in Syria has been complicated by sanctions on HTS - and some leaders - for its days as an al Qaeda affiliate.

Germany, which is leading the EU's discussion on sanctions, on Sunday proposed allowing relief for the Syrian population, but retaining sanctions on Assad allies who "committed serious crimes" during Syria's war.

British foreign minister David Lammy joined the Riyadh talks along with ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, as well as the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen.

Discussions would focus on support for the interim Syrian authorities, "including mechanisms to hold the Assad regime to account for the war crimes they perpetrated against the Syrian people," the UK foreign office said in a statement.

 

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