• Naveed Akram faces 59 charges over December 14 attack.
• Akram appears via video link from Goulburn Correctional Centre.
• Akram seat smostly in silence during the proceedings.

A man accused of opening fire on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach in an attack that killed 15 people appeared in court for the first time on Monday, Australian media reported.

Naveed Akram, 24, faces 59 charges over the December 14 attack, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of wounding with intent to murder and a terror offence.

Police allege he carried out the mass shooting with his father Sajid, 50, who was shot dead at the scene.

During a brief status mention at a Sydney court on Monday, Akram appeared via video link from Goulburn Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison southwest of Sydney, where he is being held on remand, media reported.

Akram wore prison greens and sat mostly in silence during the proceedings. He spoke only to acknowledge that he heard a discussion about extending non-publication orders for the details of the victims.

Outside court, Akram’s lawyer Ben Archbold said his client was doing “as well as he can be” given the “very onerous conditions” in prison.

Archbold said it was too early to say how Akram would plead and that he had not discussed details of the alleged attack with him.

“I haven’t spoken to him about the attack in that regard,” he told reporters.

“All that we’re doing at the moment is starting the process … we’re waiting for the brief to be served, there’s nothing more I can say.”

Archbold added that he had visited Akram in prison.

“He’s just a client, and he’s a client that needs to be represented. And we don’t let our personal view get in the way of our professional obligations. The matter has been adjourned, I have nothing more to say.”

The case is expected to return to court in April.

• Israel has destroyed 150 km of Gaza tunnels; 350 km remain.
• US-Iran talks resume this week; Netanyahu unsure of outcome.
• US sends second aircraft carrier to region amid tensions.

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he told US President Donald Trump last week that any US deal with Iran must include the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, not just stopping the enrichment process.

Speaking at the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, Netanyahu also said Israel still needs to “complete the job” of destroying all tunnels in Gaza. Israel, he said, has already dismantled 150 km of an estimated 500 km.

A second round of talks between the US and Iran is slated for this week. Iran is pursuing a nuclear agreement with the US that delivers economic benefits for both sides, an Iranian diplomat was reported as saying on Sunday.

Netanyahu said he is sceptical of a deal, but it must include enriched material leaving Iran.

“There shall be no enrichment capability – not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantling the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place,” he said.

Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation.

The US has dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the region and is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, US officials have told Reuters.

Netanyahu also said that he aimed to end US military aid to Israel within the next 10 years, after the current 10-year deal of receiving $3.8 billion a year, which is largely spent in the United States on equipment, ends in 2028.

Due to a thriving economy, “we can afford to phase out the financial component of the military aid that we’re receiving, and I propose a 10-year draw down to zero. Now, in the three years that remain in the present memorandum of understanding and another seven years draw it down to zero,” Netanyahu said.“We want to move with the United States from aid to partnership,” he said.

• Iran, US to hold further talks in Geneva on Tuesday.
• Tehran signals flexibility on nuclear programme.
• Iran says deal must deliver economic gains for both sides.
  

Iran is pursuing a nuclear agreement with the US that delivers economic benefits for both sides, an Iranian diplomat was reported as saying on Sunday, days before a second round of talks between Tehran and Washington.

Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation. The US has dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the region and is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, US officials have told Reuters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at a news conference in Bratislava, said President Donald Trump had made it clear that he would prefer diplomacy and a negotiated settlement, while making clear that may not happen.

“No one’s ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran but we’re going to try,” Rubio said.

Iran has threatened to strike US bases in the Middle East if it is attacked by US forces but on Sunday took a conciliatory line.

“For the sake of an agreement’s durability, it is essential that the US also benefits in areas with high and quick economic returns,” foreign ministry deputy director for economic diplomacy Hamid Ghanbari said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

“Common interests in the oil and gas fields, joint fields, mining investments, and even aircraft purchases are included in the negotiations,” Ghanbari said, arguing that the 2015 nuclear pact with world powers had not secured US economic interests.

In 2018, Trump withdrew the US from the pact that had eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, and re-applied tough economic sanctions on Tehran.

On Friday, a source told Reuters that a US delegation, including envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would meet Iranian officials in Geneva on Tuesday, a meeting later confirmed to Reuters by a senior Iranian official on Sunday.

“Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be travelling, I think they are travelling right now, to have important meetings and we’ll see how that turns out,” Rubio said, without providing further details.

While talks leading to the 2015 nuclear pact were multilateral, the current negotiations are confined to Iran and the United States, with Oman acting as mediator.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi left Tehran for Geneva to take part in the indirect nuclear talks with the US and meet the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, and others, his ministry said.

Open to compromise

Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi signalled Iran’s readiness to compromise on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, telling the BBC on Sunday that the ball was “in America’s court to prove that they want to do a deal.”

The senior official referred to the Iranian atomic chief’s statement on Monday that the country could agree to dilute its most highly enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions as an example of Iran’s flexibility.

However, he reiterated that Tehran would not accept zero uranium enrichment, a key sticking point in past negotiations, with Washington viewing enrichment inside Iran as a potential pathway to nuclear weapons. Iran denies seeking such weapons.

In June, the US joined Israel in a series of air strikes that targeted Iranian nuclear sites.

The US is also stepping up economic pressure on Iran. At a White House meeting earlier this week, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed that the US would work to reduce Iran’s oil exports to China, Axios reported on Saturday.