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JERUSALEM, Israel Iran's supreme leader on Tuesday was optimistic that negotiations to revive the Iranian nuclear deal are going ahead properly, even though American officials are indicating that an agreement to salvage the accord may not materialize.

"The negotiations may reach somewhere, they might reach positive, semi-positive or negative results, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during a meeting with Irans hardline President Ebrahim Raisi.

Negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal are stalled, apparently over Irans deal-breaker demand that Washington remove its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) from the US terror blacklist. The IRGC is a powerful political faction that controls elite armed forces and major businesses in Iran.

The Biden administration plans to reject Irans demand, even if it puts reviving the deal in jeopardy, an unnamed senior US official toldThe Washington Post.

The onus is on Iran as to whether we have a nuclear deal. The [US] president will stick to core principles. The Iranians know our views, the official said.

The officials comments echo an earlier statement made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. When asked by NBC News if the IRGC is a terrorist organization, Blinken said, they are.

Im not overly optimistic at the prospects of actually getting [the nuclear] agreement to conclusion, Blinken added.

According to the Post report, President Biden and US officials are adamant about keeping the IRGC on the terror blacklist during the nuclear negotiations because the organization has killed thousands around the world, including Americans, and its network of proxies directly jeopardizes US national security.

Former US President Donald Trump designated the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2019, a year after he unilaterally abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and triggered its collapse. Iran responded by increasing its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, bringing it closer than ever to a nuclear weapon.

Advocates of delisting the IRGC argue that doing so will have little effect because other sanctions would remain on the group. Thats because the IRGC would still be sanctioned as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) on a separate US terror blacklist created after the 9/11 attacks.

Israel opposes delisting the IRGC, and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said such a move is too high a price to save the nuclear accord.

Lead US negotiator Rob Malley has said in recent days that an agreement to salvage the accord is not just around the corner and is not inevitable."

Negotiators in Vienna have spent months trying to restore the Iranian nuclear deal, which was designed to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. The accord, signed between Germany, China, Britain, France, Iran, Russia and the United States, placed restrictions on Irans nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

There is no immediate sign the Vienna talks will resume after they were paused a month ago.

Still, Iranian media has suggested the parties are considering a prisoner swap that could see billions of dollars in Iranian assets unfrozen in South Korea.

The US State Department on Tuesday shot down claims that a deal had been reached to restore the accord, or that a prisoner swap was underway.

Any reports otherwise, including reports that Iranian funds held in restricted accounts in third countries will be transferred, are false, the State Department said. Our partners have not released these restricted funds to Iran, nor has the United States authorized or approved any such transfer of restricted funds to Iran.

Meanwhile, Khamenei praised Palestinians for recent terror attacks against Israelis that have killed 14 people and wounded several others in a matter of weeks.

"Palestine is showing that it is alive, praise be to Allah. Palestine is alive, despite policies of America and its followers that wanted the Palestinian problem to be forgotten, he said.

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Former President Donald Trump warned against the Biden administration's attempt to restructure and re-sign the Iran nuclear deal, telling Fox News on Wednesday it could mean Israel's doom.

Trump said that the Biden administration is allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to help forge the deal, and at the same time they are sanctioning the Kremlin and opposing its invasion of Ukraine.

He told "Hannity" that the original deal, forged by former Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and others, was awful, but that a new, updated one could be much worse for the U.S.' closest Mideast ally.

"I ended a terrible deal, but it was better than the one that they're looking to do [which is] even worse if that's possible," he said.

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Donald J. Trump (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

"The one thing you didn't say is Israel is in tremendous peril; tremendous danger if this happens because it's a very quick roadmap for [Tehran] to have a nuclear weapon."

He openly hoped Congress will head off any finalization of a deal.

"This could very well be the end of Israel," he continued, adding that if the Biden administration fails to act in protecting Israel or allowing a deal to pass that would harm the Jewish State, Jerusalem may have to fend for itself.

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

"A lot of people are saying that too, unless perhaps something happens where Israel is going to have to take up the fight," he said. "It is a terrible situation."

Trump recalled telling China they cannot be permitted to buy oil from Iran until he as U.S. president would have finished its own more aggressive agreement with the Mullahs.

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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

He added Biden has also sadly made it a point to weaken the United States' standing in the world on multiple fronts including on energy production nodding to the fact the current president halted the Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline.

Host Sean Hannity reported that Alberta Premier Jason Kenney recent suggested the pipeline would now be supplying a wealth of oil to the United States at this point, if Biden would have simply let the construction continue.

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Trump: New Iran nuclear deal worse than Obama's; 'could be the end of Israel' - Fox News

Ankaras envoy to Washington has called for Israeli-Turkish cooperation in countering regional threats, in a possible hint at Iran, amid improving bilateral ties.

In an article published in Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center for Strategic Studies journal Turkeyscope on Tuesday, Ambassador Hasan Murat Mercan highlighted the strong historical relationship between the Jewish and Turkish nations and urged further cooperation, especially in fields of security and energy.

Without mentioning Iran, he wrote, Turkish-Israeli interaction offers more than a conventional regional partnership in the face of malign actors and trends, adding that Dealing with malign actors and their activities throughout our region is a particular area for enhanced coordination.

A more robust regional security cooperation between the two, with a specific focus on fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, will also have an added value to both countries national security, he added.

Calling for engagement on regional affairs, he said that Turkish-Israeli partnership would be effective to further curb destabilizing moves in broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The power competition, which is the dominant trend in todays world and runs the risk of confrontation, writes off the so-called value of proxy-led spheres of influence as inter-regional and intra-regional alliances are becoming all the more relevant.

Calling the Israeli President Isaac Herzogs visit to Turkey a visible message of peace and partnership, he said both Herzog and Erdoan defined the visit as a new milestone and expressed their shared goal to revive political dialogue and foster regional cooperation.

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Turkish Diplomat Calls For Cooperation With Israel, Hinting At Iran -

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - Washington on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a procurement agent in Iran and his companies and accused them of helping to support Tehran's ballistic missile program following missile attacks by suspected Iran-backed proxies against countries in the region.

In a statement issued as talks stalled on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. Treasury Department cited Iran's March 13 missile attack on Erbil in Iraq and an "Iranian enabled" Houthi missile attack on Friday against a Saudi Aramco facility as well as other missile attacks by Iranian proxies against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. read more

It accused the agent Mohammad Ali Hosseini and his network of companies of procuring ballistic missile propellant-related materials for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unit responsible for research and development of ballistic missiles. Iran's IRGC is subject to U.S. sanctions.

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The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the sanctions were unrelated to efforts to revive the nuclear deal under which Iran had limited its nuclear program to make it harder to develop a nuclear bomb - an ambition it denies - in return for relief from global economic sanctions.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions, the Treasury said.

The network of companies includes Iran-based Jestar Sanat Delijan and Sina Composite Delijan Co. Also sanctioned was P.B. Sadr Co, which the Treasury accused of acting on behalf of Parchin Chemical Industries, an element of Iran's Defense Industries Organization also under U.S. sanctions.

A nascent plan for Iraq's Kurdish region to supply gas to Turkey and Europe - with Israeli help - is part of what prompted Iran to strike Erbil with ballistic missiles this month, Iraqi and Turkish officials say. read more

The Houthis said they launched attacks on Saudi energy facilities on Friday and the Saudi-led coalition said oil giant Aramco's petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah was hit, causing a fire in two storage tanks but no casualties. read more

The indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks were nearing an agreement in early March before last-minute Russian demands for sweeping guarantees that would have hollowed out sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine derailed the talks.

Russia has since appeared to have narrowed its demands to cover only work linked to the nuclear deal, leaving a small number of issues to be resolved between Washington and Tehran, diplomats say.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to assure Gulf monarchies on Tuesday that Washington is determined to help them fend off attacks from the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen. read more

Blinken met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, in Morocco as part of a trip to the Middle East and North Africa.

Gulf states have for years been frustrated by what they see as U.S. inaction in confronting Iran's role in the region, but their concerns have grown since Joe Biden became president 14 months ago.

Some Gulf nations, as well as Israel, fear that a revived nuclear deal would give Iran more oil revenues that it could use to support regional proxies, potentially leading to more attacks on them.

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Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Arshad Mohammed and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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U.S. imposes sanctions on key actors in Iran's ballistic ...

With political tension swirling, President Bill Clinton said on the morning of the match, The World Cup is beloved across our planet because it offers a chance for people from around the world to be judged not by the place they grew up, the color of their skin, or the way they choose to worship but by their spirit, skill, and strength I hope it can be another step toward ending the estrangement between our nations.

The teams also met in a January 2000 friendly match at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. Midfielder Chris Armas, currently an assistant coach with Manchester United, scored for the U.S.

Head coach Dragan Skoi took over the Iran national team in February 2020 after the squad got off to a slow start in the second round of Asian qualifying. The Croatian turned Irans fortunes around immediately, leading Team Melli to seven straight wins, four to close out the second round and three to start the third round strong.

Prior to joining Iran, Skoi coached for eight years in the club game in the Balkans and the Middle East, including stops in his native Croatia, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Slovenia. As a player, the Croatian played professionally in Croatia, Spain and the United Arab Emirates. He was the first Croatian league player to venture out and ply his trade abroad.

Midfielder Eshan Hajsafi has served as Irans captain throughout World Cup qualifying and has earned 118 caps for Team Mejii, the most of any active player. Playing for AEK Athens in the Greek Super League, Hajsafi appeared for Iran at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups.

With 40 goals in just 62 caps, Sardar Azmoun is Irans active scoring leader and led the squad with 10 goals in World Cup qualifying. The forward moved to Germanys Bayer Leverkusen during the January transfer window and is Irans all-time leading scorer in the UEFA Champions League, netting six goals during his time with Russias Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Forwards Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Mehdi Taremi netted a number of important goals for Iran during the critical third round of Asian World Cup qualifying, each tallying four times. Taremi, currently at Porto in Portugal, netted the goal that punched Team Mejiis ticket to Qatar vs. Iraq in January. Jahanbakhsh led the Eredivisie in scoring during the 2017-18 season with AZ Alkmaar and now plays for Dutch power Feyenoord.

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