US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran has requested the lifting of heavy US sanctions, adding that he is open to discussing the possibility.

“Frankly, Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. They’re facing very heavy US sanctions, which makes it really hard,” Trump said during a dinner with Central Asian leaders at the White House.

“I’m open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens but I would be open to it,” he added.

Western powers, including the United States, have long accused Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies, insisting its program is purely peaceful.

Iran has been under years of international sanctions, particularly since Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed strict economic measures.

Tensions escalated in June, when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that briefly drew in the United States with targeted strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The conflict marked by Iranian missile and drone attacks in retaliation — derailed the fragile nuclear talks that had been ongoing between Tehran and Washington since April.

Trump said Iran had once been the “bully of the Middle East,” but “no longer has the possibility of nuclear weapons.”

The Republican president, who returned to office in January, has repeatedly claimed that recent strikes destroyed much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, though the full extent of the damage remains unclear.

In September, the United Nations reinstated sanctions against Tehran under the so-called “snapback” mechanism after Britain, France and Germany triggered the process.

Those measures bar dealings linked to the Islamic republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities.

Oman, which has hosted several rounds of US-Iran nuclear talks, has called on both sides to return to negotiations.

The talks had aimed for a new agreement that would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.

WASHINGTON: US right-wing influencers falsely linked New York´s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to the Daesh militant group, amplifying a fabricated statement that garnered millions of views on social media, researchers said on Thursday.

Mamdani — the first Muslim and South Asian elected to lead America´s largest city — secured a decisive victory this week in the face of fierce attacks on his policy proposals and religious background.

A slew of anti-Mamdani accounts on the Elon Musk-owned platform X have circulated a statement purportedly from Daesh titled “Operation Manhattan Project,” which alluded to an attack in New York City on Election Day against what it called “American aggression.”

Among the influencers who linked the fake communique to Mamdani was Laura Loomer, a conservative influencer who has Trump’s ear.

“The Muslims can’t think of a better way for the Muslims to celebrate the victory of a Muslim mayoral candidate today than by committing an ISIS (Islamic State) attack in NYC,” Loomer wrote in a post on X that racked up more than 200,000 views.

Other conservative accounts cited the purported statement to falsely claim that the extremist group had endorsed Mamdani as mayor.

The posts collectively amassed millions of views across the platform.

The purported letter, which displayed the logo of the Amaq News Agency, was fabricated, according to multiple researchers including the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard.

Meili Criezis, an American University academic, told the watchdog that the supposed communique did not bear the hallmarks of other statements that emanated from Amaq.

“Amaq is used [by the Islamic State] to share news and claim responsibility for attacks,” Criezis said.

“It doesn’t make threats like what is stated in the screenshot.”

The Information Epidemiology Lab, another research group, also said the circulated communique “sharply” diverged from established Daesh “media practices in language, style, formatting, and distribution.”

The fabricated statement appeared to first surface on the far-right message board 4chan, a known haven for conspiracy theories.

In recent months, Mamdani, a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian cause, has vocally denounced antisemitism as well as the Islamophobia he himself suffered following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The 34-year-old state lawmaker — who appealed to voters by pledging to tackle the soaring cost of living — has repeatedly been targeted by racist tropes and misinformation.

In the weeks leading up to the highly anticipated election, AFP’s fact-checkers debunked several false internet claims targeting Mamdani, including that a noncitizen illegally voted for him and that one of his campaign staffers posed beside graffiti of Nazi swastika.

• Kazakhstan’s accession to Abraham Accords in final stage.
• Kazakhstan already has diplomatic and economic ties with Israel.
• Trump seeks to expand accords amid regional geopolitical shifts.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Kazakhstan will join the Abraham Accords to have normalised relations between Israel and Muslim-majority nations.

The announcement came after Trump said he had held a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

“We will soon announce a Signing Ceremony to make it official, and there are many more Countries trying to join this club of STRENGTH,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The Kazakh government said in a statement that the matter was in the final stage of negotiations.

“Our anticipated accession to the Abraham Accords represents a natural and logical continuation of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy course — grounded in dialogue, mutual respect, and regional stability,” it added.

Kazakhstan already has full diplomatic relations and economic ties with Israel, meaning the move would be largely symbolic, something Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back against on Thursday.

“It’s an enhanced relationship beyond just diplomatic relations,” he said.

“It is… with all the other countries that are part of the accord. You’re now creating a partnership that brings special and unique economic development on all sorts of issues that they can work on together.”

Trump met with Tokayev alongside four other Central Asian leaders from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan at the White House on Thursday as the US seeks to gain influence in a region long dominated by Russia and increasingly courted by China.

“Some of the countries represented here are going to be joining the Abraham Accords… and those announcements will be made over the next little while,” Trump said.

Witkoff returning for announcement

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said earlier at a business forum in Florida that he would be returning to Washington for the announcement, without naming the country.

Axios first reported that the country would be Kazakhstan.

A second source familiar with the matter said the United States hopes that Kazakhstan’s entry will help reinvigorate the Abraham Accords, the expansion of which has been on hold during the Gaza war.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to expand the accords that he brokered during his first term in the White House.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established ties with Israel in 2020 under the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords. Morocco established ties with Israel later the same year.

Trump has been upbeat about the prospects that regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia will finally join the accords since a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza last month, but Riyadh has shown no willingness to move ahead without at least a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to visit the White House on November 18.

Other Central Asian countries such as Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, both of which have close ties with Israel, have also been seen as potentially joining the Abraham Accords, which is considered a signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s first term.