Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that there should not be negotiations with the United States, days after US President Donald Trump called for a new nuclear deal. “You should not negotiate with such a government, it is unwise, it is not intelligent, it is not honourable to negotiate,” Khamenei said during a meeting with army commanders. The United States had previously “ruined, violated, and tore up” a 2015 nuclear deal, he said, adding that “the same person who is in power now tore up the treaty”.On Wednesday, Trump suggested striking a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran, adding in his social media post that Tehran “cannot have a Nuclear Weapon”.Trump, who returned to the White House on January 20, reinstated on Tuesday his “maximum pressure” policy towards Iran over allegations the country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons.Following the policy’s reinstatement, Washington on Thursday announced financial sanctions on entities and individuals accused of shipping hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil to China. Tehran on Friday condemned the sanctions as “illegal”, saying they were “categorically unjustified and contrary to international rules”.”We must understand this correctly: they should not pretend that if we sit down at the negotiating table with that government (the US administration), problems will be solved,” Khamenei said.”No problem will be solved by negotiating with America,” he said, citing previous “experience”.- Reciprocity -Khamenei also warned of reciprocal measures if the United States threatened or acted against Iran.”If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they carry out this threat, we will carry out our threat. If they attack the security of our nation, we will attack their security without hesitation,” he said.During Trump’s first term, which ended in 2021, Washington withdrew from the landmark nuclear deal that had imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.Tehran adhered to the 2015 deal — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — until a year after Washington pulled out, but then began rolling back its commitments. Efforts to revive the deal have since faltered.Khamenei said Iran was “very generous” during the negotiations that culminated in the deal, but it “did not achieve the intended results”.Iranian political expert Afifeh Abedi said the Khamenei’s remarks highlight “a serious concern” that negotiations “will result in the US breaching its commitments”. “Iran understands that Trump’s willingness to negotiate is a disingenuous, reactionary move driven by other objectives, rather than a genuine commitment to reaching an agreement,” she said.Iran has repeatedly expressed a willingness to revive the nuclear deal, and President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for an end to the country’s isolation.Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said recently the new US administration should work to regain Tehran’s trust if it wants a new round of nuclear talks.- ‘Only on paper’ -Western sanctions, especially since the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, have taken a toll on millions of Iranians struggling to make ends meet amid high inflation and a plunging currency.Khamenei acknowledged this on Friday, saying “almost most segments of the population have some problems” but adding they could be solved internally.The current “respected government can reduce the livelihood problems of the people”, he said.Tehran has said it hopes Trump will adopt a “realistic” approach towards countries in the Middle East including Iran.However, on Thursday, it joined Arab countries and world leaders in condemning a Trump plan to move Palestinians out of Gaza “permanently”. In the wake of the uproar, the Trump administration appeared to backtrack, with Washington’s top diplomat saying any transfer of Gazans would be temporary.Without directly mentioning Gaza, Khamenei said Friday the US administration was trying “to change the map of the world”.”Of course it is only on paper, it has no basis in reality,” he said.

An Israeli campaign group urged the government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce ahead of a fifth hostage-prisoner swap, after explosive comments by US President Donald Trump raised questions over the future of the deal.The scheduled exchange on Saturday comes after Trump declared that the United States would “take over Gaza” and move Palestinians out of the territory, sparking uproar across the Middle East and beyond.Israel has since ordered its military to prepare for the “voluntary” relocation of Gazans, while Hamas has rejected Trump’s plans as “absolutely unacceptable”.”An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home… Now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed — until the very last one,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement on Friday.Since January 19, Israel and Hamas have completed four swaps as part of the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.Palestinian militants, led by Hamas, have so far freed 18 hostages in exchange for around 600 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.The fragile ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 33 hostages during the first 42-day phase of the agreement.The fifth swap is scheduled for Saturday, but as of now, neither side has disclosed how many hostages Hamas will release or how many prisoners Israel will free in return.Amid the uncertainty triggered by Trump’s remarks, Yaela David, whose brother Evyatar is still being held in Gaza, urged “the negotiating team to act today to complete the final details of the deal and ensure the return of all hostages”. “This must happen under this deal, and if not, there will remain a huge black stain on the history of our state,” she said.Despite regional and international backlash — and initial backtracking by members of his administration — Trump has doubled down on his statement.”The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” he said on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.”No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”- ‘Intent to occupy’ -After Trump first floated the idea, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that he had ordered the military to prepare a plan to allow the “voluntary departure” of Gazans from the territory “to any country willing to accept them”.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also voiced support for Trump’s plan, announced at a joint press conference between the two leaders, calling it “the first original idea to be raised in years”.Hamas, however, condemned the remarks as “absolutely unacceptable”.”Trump’s remarks about Washington taking control of Gaza amount to an open declaration of intent to occupy the territory,” spokesman Hazem Qassem said.”Gaza is for its people and they will not leave.”Negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.The second stage aims to secure the release of more hostages and pave the way for a permanent end to the war, which began on October 7, 2023 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel.During the attack, militants took 251 hostages to Gaza. Seventy-six remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.

US President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the International Criminal Court for probes targeting America and its ally Israel, but the ICC on Friday vowed to continue providing “justice and hope” around the world.Trump signed an executive order Thursday saying the court in The Hague had “abused its power” by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held talks with the US president on Tuesday.He ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations.The ICC on Friday condemned the move, which it said sought to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work”.”The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” it said in a statement. The names of the individuals affected by the sanctions were not immediately released, but previous US sanctions under Trump had targeted the court’s prosecutor.Trump’s order said the tribunal had engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel,” referring to ICC probes into alleged war crimes by US service members in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza.Israel’s foreign minister applauded Trump on Friday over the sanctions, calling the court’s actions against Israel illegitimate.”I strongly commend @POTUS President Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the so-called ‘international criminal court’,” Gideon Saar wrote on X, adding that the ICC’s actions were “immoral and have no legal basis”.Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.The EU warned the move was a threat to its independence.”Sanctioning the ICC threatens the Court’s independence and undermines the international criminal justice system as a whole,” Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU’s 27 member states, wrote on X. The sanctions are a show of support after Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, during which Trump unveiled a plan for the United States to “take over” Gaza and move Palestinians to other Middle Eastern countries.The UN and legal experts have said Trump’s plan would be illegal under international law. Forcible displacement is also a crime under the ICC’s governing Rome Statute.- ‘Criminal responsibility’ -Following a request by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, judges issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif — whom Israel says is dead.The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza war, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.Netanyahu has accused the court of anti-Semitism.During his first term, Trump imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC’s then-prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials and staff in 2020. Describing it as a “kangaroo court,” his then-administration made the move after Gambian-born Bensouda launched an investigation into allegations of war crimes against US soldiers in Afghanistan.While his order at the time did not name Israel, Trump administration officials said they were also angered by Bensouda’s opening of a probe into the situation in the Palestinian territories in 2019.President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions soon after taking office in 2021.Prosecutor Khan later effectively dropped the United States from the Afghan investigation and focused on the Taliban instead.  Biden strongly condemned the “outrageous” warrant against Netanyahu in November.The US House passed a bill last month to sanction the ICC, but Senate Democrats blocked it last week, saying the bill could backfire on US allies and firms.But Democrats have also expressed anger at the sanctions on Netanyahu.