Biden admin urges Trump team to focus on Iran's murder-for-hire plots - Semafor

“I am confident that we will complete the defeat of Iran’s terror axis and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for our region,” Netanyahu said addressing Trump in a video released on Monday.

“You withdrew from the dangerous Iran nuclear deal, you recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital … and you recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Netanyahu said, reflecting on Trump’s first term and his pro-Israel, anti-Iran policies.

With Trump’s return to the White House, significant shifts in US foreign policy are anticipated, particularly in the Middle East.

Israel's former defense minister Yoav Gallant also mentioned Iran in his congratulation note on Trump's inauguration day.

"Our ties are critical to Israel’s security and prosperity - to the return of the hostages, to the removal of the Iranian threat, to achieving our common goal of dismantling the ‘axis of evil’," he wrote in a post on X.

The Trump administration is expected to take a hard stance against Tehran. Both the president and senior members of his team have promised a return of the so-called maximum pressure campaign on Iran.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump said he wished prosperity for Iran but stressed the long-standing Washington red line that the theocracy must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.

Anticipating potential pressures, some in Iran including senior aides to Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian have openly called for talks with the Trump administration, suggesting even that the country’s markets can be opened to American companies.

This has not gone down well with the more hardline factions of the Islamic Republic, who inspired and encouraged by the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, warn against any advance by Tehran toward Washington.

The comments by the hawkish South Carolina senator who is a longtime Trump confidant are among the most direct yet by a senior decision-maker supporting a US military intervention on Iran.

"The next question for the world is what do we do about the Iran nuclear program," Graham told CBS Face the Nation on Sunday.

"With diplomacy, there's a one in a trillion chance you'll degrade the Iranian nuclear program. There's a 90% chance you'll degrade it through military action by Israel supported by the United States.

The veteran senator is one of the biggest advocates of a more muscular policy abroad and is a vocal supporter of Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he credited with delivering heavy blows to Iran-backed groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

Trump said in November that Iran "can't have nuclear weapons" but "I’d like them to be a very successful country."

Sworn in on Monday, Trump has repeatedly suggested he is disinclined to pursue regime change in Iran and has not publicly mentioned any military option on Iran.

Graham said he would engage Trump "to take this moment in time to decimate the Iranian nuclear program, to help Israel deliver the knock-out blow."

"(The Islamic Republic) is a religious nazi regime," Graham continued. "They want to destroy the Jewish State, they want to purify Islam and drive us out of the Mideast, it would be like negotiating with Hitler.

“Over the years, adversaries have tried to weaken Iran in this field and entangle the country in international issues," Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said during a military conference in Tehran

"That is precisely why they do not want Iran to have full, indigenous control over it.”

Kamalvandi emphasized that the nuclear program not only strengthens Iran's international position but also drives domestic progress.

“This industry has significant impacts on people’s lives,” he added, highlighting applications for energy, medicine, agriculture, and environmental protection.

Iranian officials have repeatedly asserted that the country's nuclear program is peaceful, referring to a religious ruling by Khamenei prohibiting weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear bombs.

However, Kamalvandi's remarks emphasized its potential to create deterrence and balance power on the international stage, aligning it with broader security objectives.

“Power in today’s international world is distributed based on balance and realism. Islam recognized this long ago and considered power as a foundation for creating deterrence."

Iranian hardliners have previously advocated for developing nuclear weapons as a deterrent. Following Israeli airstrikes on October 26, Javan, a newspaper affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, urged Tehran to consider developing nuclear arms to counter external threats.

Last year in October, amid heightened tensions with Israel, thirty-nine Iranian lawmakers called on Iran's Supreme National Security Council to review the country's defense doctrine and consider adopting nuclear weapons.

Kamalvandi’s remarks come at a time when tensions with the United States are widely expected to escalate following Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Tehran has expressed concern that Trump’s administration might embolden Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to consider striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, further intensifying the region's volatile security dynamics.

Casting his vote on Election Day in November, Trump appeared to downplay any attempt to knock out Iran's ruling system but said Iran could not have nuclear arms.

“My terms are very easy,” Trump said, adding that Iran "can't have nuclear weapons." "I’d like them to be a very successful country,” he added, but declined to detail specific plans for US-Iran relations should he return to office.

In addition to meetings and panel discussions, state media reported that Zarif is scheduled to participate in a conversation with CNN host Fareed Zakaria on the event's sidelines.

While business and political leaders began gathering in Davos on Monday for the four-day summit, US President-elect Donald Trump's swearing in ceremony was expected to dominate discussions despite his absence from the event.

Trump will address participants virtually on Thursday.

Last year, the World Economic Forum faced calls to revoke its invitation to Iran’s then Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian due to his close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and support for Hamas.

"We were not supposed to burn mazut at all, and we announced this. But then we got stuck. If we hadn't used it, we would have had to cut off gas supplies to households, because our consumption is many times higher than in other countries. We were forced to," Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast on state TV.

"In order to stop these problems from happening next year, we've started to create plans," he added, without providing further details.

Iran, one of the largest oil producers in the world, has faced a severe gasoline shortage since last summer. That shortage has prompted refineries to bulk out the fuel's volume with other substances, like mazut.

In November 2024, the government issued a decree ordering an increase in household gas tariffs and authorizing provinces to use mazut in all power plants and industries.

Despite repeated promises since to phase out the use of the highly polluting fuel oil in power plants, several reports suggest the practice has not stopped.

Tehran has also implemented rolling power cuts for residential and commercial areas this winter due to a severe shortage of natural gas, the primary fuel source for the country's power plants. The government initially presented the rolling blackouts as a necessary measure to avoid using mazut or diesel.

According to a 2023 report by Radio Farda, official Oil Ministry reports showed that the country intensified its use of mazut in December 2022 to 38.5 million liters per day, a 22 percent increase, and 42 million liters per day in January 2023.

Mazut, the non-standard gasoline contains harmful additives and has significantly contributed to the air pollution crisis in the country.

In 2023, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment David Boyd called on Iran to halt the practice, declaring it a human rights violation.

"Iran is burning mazut, one of the dirtiest fuels, to generate electricity. This produces massive volumes of toxic air pollution, which poisons millions of people in Iran, violating their human rights, including the right to a healthy environment. Iran must stop burning mazut!," the post on X read.

The use of the low-grade fuel mazut by power plants in Iran has been linked to severe harm to public health and even fatalities, with Iranians frequently expressing frustration over the worsening air quality and pollution in many cities.