Section:GDN 1N PaGe:27 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 20:55 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Friday 6 September 2019 The Guardian •
National^27
Netanyahu uses No 10
visit to urge caution
over Iran nuclear talks
Patrick Wintour
Diplomatic editor
Benjamin Netanyahu met Boris John-
son in London yesterday as part of a
drive to discourage world powers from
opening a dialogue with Iran.
The Israeli prime minister was in
Downing Street for just 29 minutes,
but, speaking ahead of the discus-
sions, Netanyahu said he wished to
discuss Iran, and Johnson voiced his
support for a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian confl ict.
Netanyahu praised Johnson’s
“ stance against antisemitism and ...
support for Israel’s security”. Downing
Street said the leaders “agreed on the
need to prevent Iran getting a nuclear
weapon and stop wider destabilising
Iranian behaviour”, while Johnson
“stressed the need for dialogue and a
diplomatic solution”.
Netanyahu wants the UK to spurn
a French plan to off er a $15bn (£12bn)
credit lifeline to help Iran sell oil.
Iran, Britain, France and Germany
have been in talks to save the landmark
2015 nuclear accord, which has been
unravelling since Donald Trump with-
drew from it in May last year.
On his way to London, the Israeli
leader cited an Iranian plan to restart
research on building advanced nuclear
centrifuges in a further breach of the
accord. “This is not the time to hold
talks with Iran; this is the time to
increase the pressure on Iran,” he said.
There is suspicion that Netanyahu’s
visit to London is in part designed to
bolster his international standing,
and play the security card ahead of
elections in a fortnight. But the tim-
ing gives him a platform from which
to pour cold water on Emmanuel
Macron’s Iran proposal.
Trump has reiterated his willing-
ness to meet the Iranian president,
Hassan Rouhani, but said there would
be no easing of US sanctions. “That’s
not happening,” he said.
European diplomats say the door to
diplomacy remains open as Iran has
announced it will take its next step
on centrifuges only if in two months’
time no progress on selling oil has been
made. It has not announced steps to
increase uranium enrichment.
The French plan, largely leaked by
Iran, proposes a $15bn credit line as a
prepayment for the purchase of Ira-
nian oil. It requires a US willingness to
reinstate sanctions waivers on coun-
tries that purchase Iranian oil. The
credit line would be the fi rst step in a
phased programme to address wider
concerns with Iran, including its bal-
listic missiles, regional behaviour and
the renewal of the nuclear deal.
I n i t s fi rst response to the Iranian
decision to step up its work on
centrifuges, the Foreign Offi ce said:
“Iran’s plan to suspend limits on
nuclear research and development
is deeply concerning. This third
step away from its commitments
under the nuclear deal is particularly
disappointing at a time when we and
our European and international part-
ners are working hard to de-escalate
tensions with Iran”.▲ Boris Johnson and Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday PHOTOGRAPH: ELLIOTT FRANKS
Ian Paisley paid for a loyalist
bomb, new BBC show claims
PA Media
A claim that Ian Paisley funded a bomb
attack on a reservoir by the Ulster
Volunteer Force, threatening Belfast’s
water supply, is set to be aired by the
BBC next week.
The programme is also set to screen
archive footage of Martin McGuinness
showing a gun to children.
The examination of the pasts of
Northern Ireland’s former fi rst and
deputy fi rst ministers, now both de ad,
comes in the fi rst instalment of a new
seven-part BBC Northern Ireland
series marking the 50th anniversary ofthe start of the Troubles. Spotlight On
The Troubles: A Secret History looks
at the earliest days of the Troubles
using unseen footage, formerly clas-
sifi ed documents and new testimony.
The fi rst instalment, presented by
Darragh MacIntyre , traces the height-
ening unrest between Protestants and
Catholics in the late 1960s and the birth
of the civil rights movement.
It examines attempts by the then
prime minister, Terence O’Neill, to
liberalise discriminatory practices
against fi erce opposition from Pais-
ley. In the programme, David Hancock,a former soldier, claims a police offi cer
told him Paisley supplied funding for
the bomb on the Silent Valley reservoir.
The blast was one of a series carried
out by loyalists between March and
April 1969 targeting water and elec-
tricity installations. They were initially
blamed on the IRA before it emerged
that loyalists were responsible.
The programme also exhibits a
formerly classifi ed government doc-
ument which reveals how Paisley’s
speeches and sermons were recorded
in an eff ort to prosecute him, as well
as police records from the time whichdrew links between him and the UVF.
Paisley, who died in 2014, consistently
and strongly denied any link with any
paramilitary group during his life.
The programme also shines new
light on McGuinness’s involvement
with the IRA. He admitted to being a
member of the IRA while giving evi-
dence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry.
The programme shows footage of the
IRA assembling a car bomb. Former IRA
member Shane Paul O’Doherty identi-
fi es a man in the clip as McGuinness.
Footage is also shown of McGuinness
showing a gun to children.RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws