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US President Donald Trump said Thursday a deal was close on Iran’s nuclear programme that would avert military action, sending oil prices tumbling, as he boasted of raising “trillions of dollars” on a Gulf tour.He made the remarks in Doha before flying on to the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi on the third and final leg of a Gulf tour that began in Saudi Arabia.”We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran,” Trump said. “I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” he said, referring to military action.Oil prices plunged more than three percent on rising hopes for a nuclear deal that could see Iranian exports return to the market.Iran has held four rounds of talks with the Trump administration, which has sought to avert threatened military action by Israel while keeping up its “maximum pressure” campaign.”You probably read today the story about Iran. It’s sort of agreed to the terms,” Trump said.The US president did not specify which remarks he was referring to, but an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ali Shamkhani, told NBC News that Tehran would give up its stocks of highly enriched uranium as part of a deal in which Washington lifts sanctions.Trump said Iran should “say a big thank you” to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who had pressed the US leader to avoid military action against his country’s giant neighbour.Speaking to troops at Al-Udeid, the biggest US military base in the region, Trump said his priority was “to end conflicts, not start them”.But he warned that “I will never hesitate to wield American power if it’s necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners” — while flanked on stage by a fighter jet and an MQ-9 drone.He also said Qatar would invest $10 billion in the coming years to support Al-Udeid, which hosts the regional headquarters of the US military’s Central Command.- Abu Dhabi -In Abu Dhabi, he was wecomed at the airport by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, whose oil-rich country seeks to become a technology and artificial intelligence hub.But these ambitions hinge on access to advanced US technologies, including AI chips under restricted export — which the UAE president’s brother and spy chief Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed reportedly lobbied for during a Washington visit in March.Trump is hoping to secure billions of dollars in business deals with the oil-rich UAE.Earlier in Qatar, Trump again said the United States wanted to “take” Gaza, which has been obliterated by the war started by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.Qatar has been a key mediator in talks to end the 19-month war and release hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas.Gaza would become a “freedom zone”, Trump said, without elaborating.Trump has been unabashed about seeking Gulf money and hailed the effect on creating jobs at home.”This is a record tour. There’s never been a tour that will raise — it could be a total of $3.5-4 trillion just in these four or five days,” Trump said in Qatar.The president hailed what he said was a record $200 billion deal for Boeing aircraft from flag-carrier Qatar Airways.Saudi Arabia promised its own $600 billion in investment, including one of the largest-ever purchases of US weapons.The Gulf leaders’ largesse has also stirred controversy, with Qatar offering Trump a luxury aircraft ahead of his visit for presidential and then personal use, in what Trump’s Democratic opponents charged was blatant corruption.- Business, not ‘nation-builders’ -Trump has made no mention of human rights during his tour.Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had initially vowed to shun Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over US intelligence findings that he ordered the gruesome murder in 2018 of Jamal Khashoggi — a Saudi dissident writer who lived in the United States.Trump instead hailed the crown prince, who is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, as a visionary due to the kingdom’s rapid economic investments.The president also acceded to a key request by the crown prince in announcing the lifting of sanctions on Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December.He met in Riyadh with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the first encounter between leaders of the two nations in 25 years.Sharaa — a former jihadist once on the US wanted list — appeared in a suit and was complimented by Trump as a “young, attractive guy”.

Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank village of Tammun Thursday, in a raid the military described as targeting buildings suspected of being used to plan terror attacks.”The occupation forces killed five young men after besieging a house in the centre of the village,” Tammun mayor Samir Qteishat told AFP.”The (Israeli) army took four bodies, and we found a fifth martyr, the charred body, after the (Israeli) forces left,” he added.The Israeli military meanwhile said it targeted “two buildings suspected of being used for planning terror attacks from Tubas and Tamun”.It said “soldiers identified armed terrorists who barricaded themselves in a building. Following an exchange of fire, five terrorists were eliminated, and an additional terrorist was apprehended”.The West Bank has seen an upsurge in violence since the beginning of the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.On Wednesday, a shooting attack in the centre of the West Bank killed a pregnant Israeli woman and left another Israeli wounded.Raids were ongoing Thursday and roads blocked after Israel’s military chief vowed to find the perpetrators of the attack.Israel’s military in January launched an ongoing, large-scale operation in the West Bank that has displaced at least 38,000 people, according to the United Nations.The operation, which Israel says aims to eradicate Palestinian armed groups, has primarily targeted refugee camps in the northern West Bank — where Tammun is located.Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 934 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to health ministry figures.Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 34 Israelis, including soldiers, over the same period, according to Israeli figures.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law. 

The EU accused TikTok on Thursday of breaking digital rules after concluding that the Chinese-owned social media platform was not transparent enough about advertisements.The European Commission “found that TikTok does not provide the necessary information about the content of the advertisements, the users targeted by the ads, and who paid for the advertisements”, it said in …

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Lasting peace in Syria depends on the country building a strong judicial system giving justice to the victims of all crimes committed during the Assad era, a prominent Syrian human rights lawyer told AFP.”We believe that the Syrians who paid the heavy cost to reach this moment will not accept changing one dictatorship into another,” Mazen Darwish said in an interview.Darwish, who was in Stockholm with his wife Yara Bader to receive an award for their work running the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), is one of the most high-profile rights advocates for Syria.While acknowledging that progress “will take time”, Darwish said: “We don’t think that we will be able to reach sustainable peace in Syria if we don’t solve all of these crimes.”Syria’s international ties have started to reboot under its new transitional rulers, an Islamist coalition led by Ahmed al-Sharaa who commanded a rebel offensive which in December ended five decades of rule by the Assad family.But Western powers in particular have urged the new leadership to respect freedoms and protect minorities — and wariness lingers over the future directions the coalition might take.President Donald Trump this week announced the lifting of US sanctions on Syria, which the Syrian foreign ministry hailed as a “pivotal turning point”.But Darwish, who was born in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, said there are “a lot of challenges, a lot of worries regarding the new authorities”. Sharaa’s administration has vowed to prosecute those responsible for the torture of tens of thousands of detainees held in Syrian prisons under toppled leader Bashar al-Assad, and under his father Hafez al-Assad.Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia, is also accused of using chemical weapons against Syria’s population.”We hope we will have transitional justice roadmap in Syria,” Darwish said.He stressed that the new legal system should examine crimes from all parties and groups in the country.But the goal of bringing in transitional justice to Syria has had a setback.In late February, Syrian rights groups denounced the banning of a conference on transitional justice in the country to be attended by international NGOs and representatives of foreign governments.That conference, aiming to establish rule of law with an eye to national reconciliation, was to examine the fate of those who disappeared and violations committed during the civil war.- French case -With Syria’s own justice system still deficient and lacking trust, the SCM has turned to outside countries that have adopted universal jurisdiction over war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, among them France, Germany, Canada and the United States.On Thursday, Darwish was due to testify in Paris as a civil party in a trial of former Syrian rebel, Majdi Nema, accused of complicity in war crimes in Syria.The former member of Jaysh al-Islam, whose trial started in late April, denies the allegations.”For us, this is one of the most important cases. This is also a case where the victims are our colleagues,” Darwish explained.Human rights advocates Razan Zaitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil, and Nazem Hammadi went missing after being abducted on December 9, 2013, in their offices in Douma. The region was under the control of rebel groups at the time, including Jaysh al-Islam. Stemming from the work done by SCM and other organisations, French judges have also issued two arrest warrants targeting Bashar al-Assad.The work carried out by Darwish and his wife Bader has come at a cost: the lawyer was himself arrested in 2012 and tortured in Syrian prisons.

China urged parties involved in Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison’s sale of Panama Canal ports to exercise “caution” Thursday, warning of legal consequences should they proceed without clearance from Beijing.The Hong Kong firm’s attempt to sell most of its port operations to a US-led consortium was first announced in March after weeks of pressure from …

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Internet giant Alibaba posted on Thursday a six percent increase in annual revenue, the latest positive sign for China’s tech sector despite persisting economic uncertainties.The Hangzhou-based company is one of the biggest players in China’s tech industry, with operations spanning retail, digital payment, artificial intelligence and entertainment.This year has seen its share price rollercoaster on …

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