The spectre of an emerging Arab-Israeli bloc that could tilt the Middle East balance of power further away from Iran is driving the Islamic Republic to pursue nuclear talks with world powers with renewed determination, officials and analysts said.

Indirect talks in Qatar between Tehran and Washington on salvaging a 2015 nuclear pact ended on Wednesday without progress. Iran questioned the United States' resolve, and Washington called on Tehran to drop extra demands.

But the talks' difficulty has not discouraged Iran, two officials and a politician, all Iranian, told Reuters, adding Iran's hardline establishment was set on pursuing diplomacy.

A deal would see a lifting of sanctions that have shackled its economy, eventually reviving oil exports towards the estimated 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) shipped before the reimposition of sanctions, from under one million currently.

For Iran, the unfavourable alternative could be a war in a region where geopolitical shifts may evolve into a U.S.-led alliance hostile to Tehran, the officials and politician said.

Growing worries about warming relations between Israel and its former Arab foes, including normalisation agreements between Israel and some Arab nations known as the Abraham Accords, have pushed Tehran to keep the diplomatic ball rolling.

"The region is changing, alliances are changing. Israel is normalising ties with Arab countries and Americans support all these developments," said a senior Iranian official, who is close to Iran’s top decision-makers.

"These are serious threats that need to be thwarted. Our enemies are praying to God for the end of the nuclear talks. But it will not happen."

To keep the talks alive, almost two weeks ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran agreed to hold the talks in Doha aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the impasse. 

"The Doha meeting's message to countries in the Persian Gulf was simple: unlike what Israel claims, Iran believes in diplomacy as a solution for all issues, from nuclear to regional and beyond," said another Iranian official.

After the Doha talks fizzled, diplomats said there would be more "talks for talks".

AIR DEFENCE ALLIANCE

"There is real cost to declaring failure. And that cost inevitably rises with each attempted (and failed) diplomatic foray, as prospects for a deal narrow and as the temptation of a risky, confrontational alternative grows," said Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Israel is building a U.S.-sponsored regional air defence alliance, the Israeli defence minister said this month, adding that the apparatus has already foiled attempted Iranian attacks.

Drawing closer in recent years to U.S.-aligned Arab states who worry that Iran could become a new regional hegemon hostile to their interests, Israel has offered defence cooperation.

Washington hopes more cooperation would further integrate Israel in the region. It may also preface more normalisation with Israel, including by Saudi Arabia, following the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020.

Widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arms but which sees Iran as a existential threat, Israel has threatened to attack Iranian nuclear sites if diplomacy fails to contain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Iran, for its part, will seek to weaken any regional anti-Tehran bloc, said Sanam Vakil, an analyst at Britain’s Chatham House, adding it will seek "opportunistic ways to divide regional states and infiltrate this alliance should it develop."

Iran has long said its uranium enrichment programme, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, is only for peaceful purposes and has vowed a "crushing response" to any Israeli aggression. Under the 2015 deal, Iran curbed the programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

"NO RUSH"

Ultimately Tehran desires a "good" deal. But emboldened by high oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine, Iran's hardline rulers are betting Tehran's fast advancing nuclear abilities could pressure Washington to offer concessions.

"We are in no rush. With or without the deal, the Islamic Republic will survive. Our nuclear programme is advancing every day. Time is on our side," said the second official. "But we want a deal that 100% serves our national interests. We want a good deal."

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump reneged on the accord in 2018 and reimposed U.S. sanctions. In response, Tehran breached the deal in several ways including by rebuilding stocks of enriched uranium.

The broad outline of the revived deal was essentially agreed in March after 11 months of indirect talks in Vienna.

But then talks broke down, largely due to Tehran's demand that Washington remove its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) from a U.S. terrorism list and the U.S. refusal to do so, arguing that this was outside the scope of reviving the agreement.

The IRGC is Iran's most powerful military force and answers to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Republicans in the United States argue dropping the FTO label would show the Democrat administration is soft on terrorism, a charge U.S. officials deny.

IRGC SANCTIONS

One Iranian and one European official told Reuters the demand has now been taken off the table, but still two issues, including one on sanctions, are unresolved.

"We sent Americans messages via mediators that lifting sanctions on the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters is essential for reaching an agreement," said a hardline Iranian security official, who asked not to be named.

The IRGC's economic arm, Khatam al-Anbiya, controls a vast network of businesses, ranging from oil and gas to construction.

When asked to comment, a State Department spokesperson said: "We are not negotiating in public and are not going to respond to speculation about Iran’s positions."

Vaez said such demands were the clearest sign of Tehran's inability or unwillingness to understand U.S. political constraints. He said: "Tehran's demand for IRGC-related sanctions relief faces the same obstacle that the Guards' de-listing from the FTO was confronted with".

Also Iran wants guarantees that no U.S. president will abandon the deal, the same way Trump did. But Biden cannot promise this because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding, not a legally-binding treaty. (Reuters)

Greece is expected to send an official request in the coming days to the United States for the purchase of 20 Lockheed Martin made F-35 fighter jets, defence sources said on Thursday.

NATO member Greece spends more than 2% of its gross domestic product on defence spending. It has beefed up its military purchases in recent years as tensions with its neighbor, historic rival and NATO ally, Turkey have resurfaced.

"The relevant document has been signed," one of the sources said. Deliveries of the jets will begin in 2027-2028.

According to state TV ERT the Letter of Request has been signed and is expected to be submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Athens this week. This is the first step in a multi-stage process.

Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a series of issues ranging from overflights in the Aegean and the extent of their continental shelves and their maritime boundaries to energy resources and ethnically-split Cyprus.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to the purchase of F-35 jets during a visit in May to the United States.

Athens ordered 24 Dassault-made Rafale jets last year for 2.5 billion euros and three navy frigates with an option for a fourth one from France for about 3 billion euros.

According to state ERT TV, the defence ministry also wants to proceed with the upgrade of F-16 fighter jets.

On Wednesday, the United States supported the potential sale of U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after Ankara lifted a veto of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, saying that strong Turkish defense capabilities would reinforce NATO's defences. (Reuters)

Ferdinand Marcos, the son of the Philippine ruler overthrown in a popular uprising 36 years ago, was sworn in as the country's president on Thursday, promising to strive for unity and a better future while praising his late father's legacy.

Marcos, 64, won last month's election in a landslide, capping off his wealthy family's decades-long quest to regain the presidency and transform its image after it was driven out in 1986.

"We are here to repair a house divided, to make it whole and to stand strong again," he said in an inauguration speech that echoed his campaign slogans of unity.

In a rousing, 30-minute address with sister Imee, a senator, and mother Imelda, a former congresswoman, seated nearby, Marcos Jr thanked voters for giving him "the biggest electoral mandate in the history of Philippine democracy", and said the country would go far on his watch.

The elder Ferdinand Marcos ruled for two decades from 1965, almost half of it under martial law, helping him to extend his power until his overthrow and his family's retreat into exile during a "people power" revolution.

Thousands of his opponents were jailed, killed or disappeared during his rule, and the family name became synonymous with cronyism, extravagance and billions of dollars of missing state wealth. The Marcos family denies embezzlement.'

"I am here not to talk about the past. I am here to tell you about our future," Marcos Jr said before thousands of cheering supporters, waving flags, and wearing red, a colour associated with his father.

"No looking back in anger or nostalgia."

Marcos Jr, who closely resembles his late father, defended his father's legacy and said he would emulate his achievements.

"I once knew a man who saw what little had been achieved since independence ... but he got it done. Sometimes with the needed support, sometimes without, so, will it be with his son. You will get no excuses from me," he said.

Marcos took his oath at the heavily guarded National Museum, once a legislative building that witnessed frequent demonstrations against his father's presidency.

'REJECT, MARCOS'

Close by, hundreds protested against Marcos, angered by a campaign his critics say relied heavily on social media to win votes by debunking narratives of Marcos-era abuses and decadence and offering alternative versions of history.

Carrying banners saying "Reject, Marcos" they gathered at the Plaza Miranda, where some of his father's opponents were killed and injured in a bombing blamed on communists.

Marcos campaigned on the slogan "together, we shall rise again", invoking nostalgia for his father's rule, which his family and supporters have portrayed as a golden age for the Philippines.

At a heroes' monument, victims of persecution under martial law gathered for their own oath-taking, promising to guard against what they called tyranny and lies.

"The survivors are a vanishing breed, if not an endangered species and the time to correct falsehoods and lay bare the truth is now," said Cristina Bawagan, who said she suffered abuse under the elder Marcos' rule.

His son has pledged to deliver jobs and bring down consumer prices in a country of 110 million people, nearly a quarter of whom live on less than $2 per day.

He said he would not disappoint the public and would improve food sufficiency, education, infrastructure and energy supply, tackle plastics pollution and better support millions of overseas Filipino workers.

"I am ready for the task," he said. "I will get it done." (Reuters)

South Korea's president warned a NATO summit of the threat to universal values at a time of new conflict and competition, a reference to Russia's aggression in Ukraine and China's engagement with Russia, a South Korean official said.

President Yoon Suk-yeol became the first South Korean leader to attend a NATO summit, joining national NATO leaders as an observer at a meeting in Spain as Russian forces intensified attacks in Ukraine.

"As a new structure of competitions and conflicts is taking shape, there is also a movement that denies the universal values that we have been protecting," Yoon said in a speech on Wednesday, according to a South Korean official.

While he did not identify Russia or China, Yoon said the international community was facing complex security threats that a single country could not solve, the official cited him as saying in his speech that was not made public.

"He was referring to the Ukraine war, and as most other participating countries did, he raised concern about Russia's responsibility for the war and China's responsibility in the international community," the official, who declined to be identified, said on Thursday.

South Korea is a staunch U.S. ally and hosts some 28,000 U.S. troops. It has also developed a crucial economic relationship with China, South Korea's largest trading partner.

Yoon, like his predecessors, will have to balance those two relationships while at the same time facing a belligerent North Korea developing its arsenal of nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them.

Yoon hopes to build relations with NATO members in the face of an unpredictable international situation and promote international cooperation on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, South Korean officials said before the summit.

South Korea's approach to NATO comes as the alliance is looking east towards a region it refers to as the Indo-Pacific, a new focus that Yoon welcomed, the official said.

NATO in its new strategic concept unveiled on Wednesday, for the first time described China as a challenge to NATO's "interests, security and values", as an economic and military power that remains "opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up".

China firmly opposes NATO's new strategic concept and called on NATO to "immediately stop groundless accusations and provocative remarks", Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

"NATO's strategic concept document ignores the facts...discredits China's foreign policy, speaks ill of China's normal military development and national defense policy and encourages confrontation," Zhao said.

Yoon, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also attending the NATO summit as an observer, met and agreed that the progress of North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes posed serious threats to not only the Korean peninsula but also East Asia and the world.

Chinese state media had warned against South Korea and Japan attending the NATO summit and criticised the alliance's broadening partnerships in Asia. North Korea said this week that NATO involvement in the Asia-Pacific region would import the conflict raging in Europe.

Australia and New Zealand also attended the summit, making four observers from the region. The South Korean official said the four were "exploring their own Indo-Pacific strategies".

"At the heart of that, there are concerns and various dilemmas about China," the official said.

Asked on Thursday about South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand's attendance at the NATO summit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao said that third parties should not be targeted, or their interests undermined as different countries develop relations with each other.

"China will pay close attention to the relevant trends of NATO and will not sit idly by and do nothing if matters are harming China's interests," he said. (Reuters)