“Israel and the United States are discussing a new raft of sanctions that could be imposed on Iran if the next round of talks between world powers and Tehran fail, Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday.

US Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen said in an interview with the newspaper the sanctions would be imposed if talks in Russia slated for mid-June failed to halt Iran’s nuclear programme.

Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers, comprising the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany, have held two rounds of talks already, and are scheduled for third meeting in Moscow on June 18-19 as a July 1 deadline looms for the enforcement of an EU embargo on Iranian oil.”

“Israel has no plan to carry out a military strike against Iran in the immediate future, but Jerusalem has ruled out no potential course of action in its effort to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear-weapon capability, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday.

‘We have no intention, at the moment, of taking action, but the state of Israel is far from being paralyzed by fear,’ Reuters quoted the official as saying in a radio interview. ‘It must act calmly and quietly — we don’t need big wars.’”

“…the IAEA has reported for some years that there are unresolved questions about its programme and has sought clarification of Iran’s secretive nuclear activities.

Of next week’s report, one Western diplomat told Reuters news agency: “There are bits of it which clearly can only be for clandestine nuclear purposes. It is a compelling case.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the alleged evidence was a fabrication and part of a multi-pronged US smear campaign against his country.”

“There were two main concerns for Turkey before joining the project. The first one was that despite the fact that radar would be deployed at a location in Turkey, a small piece of its territory in eastern Anatolia close to Iran would not be covered by the shield. Turkey demanded the deployment of anti-ballistic Patriot missiles in this region to fully secure its territory. Turkey’s second concern was that data collected at the radar site could be shared real-time with Israel. The WSJ said the U.S. officials told Turkish counterparts that “the U.S. has a ‘separate and robust’ missile defense relationship with Israel, where the U.S. based high-powered X-Band radar in 2008 to bolster Israel’s missile defenses.””

“Israeli politicians have interrupted their summer recess to participate in a special debate on protests over the cost of living that have shaken the country.

Tuesday’s session of the Knesset, Israeli parliament, comes after a month of mass protests against the high prices of food, housing, education and healthcare.

Their protest quickly snowballed into a much larger movement, tapping into deep frustration across Israel over the cost of living and income disparity.”

“ A violent flare-up that began when Israel killed a leading militant commander in the Gaza Strip has so far killed 12 militants, said a Palestinian health spokesman Saturday.

The killing also unleashed a barrage of rockets by furious Palestinian militants from the coastal territory toward Israel’s southern border communities. One of those rockets seriously wounded an Israeli civilian and sent families scattering into bomb shelters.

The Palestinian militants were killed in seven air strikes overnight and on Saturday morning, said Gaza health spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya. He said some 20 more civilians were wounded by flying shrapnel from the exploding missiles, some of which targeted militants deep in civilian areas of the crowded territory.”

”’I can’t stand him any more, he’s a liar,’ Mr Sarkozy said in French.

‘You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day,’ Mr Obama replied.”

“An explosion has destroyed an Egyptian gas pipeline in the Sinai that supplies Israel and Jordan, security sources and witnesses say.

The explosion happened west of the city of el-Arish on Tuesday.

The army surrounded the area following the blast, and the company operating the pipeline closed it down after the explosion.

The pipeline has been repeatedly blown up by people believed to be against the sale of Egyptian gas to Israel since Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, was removed from power by a popular uprising in February.”

“House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) introduced a bill today that would effectively slash U.S. contributions to the United Nations and punish any U.N. organization that goes along with the U.N. vote on Palestinian statehood next month.”

“The boat was carrying assault rifles, ammunition and other weapons, according to an Israeli military statement.”