China, Russia and Iran call for end to US sanctions on Iran and the restart of nuclear talks

• March 14, 2025

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Representatives of China, Russia and Iran called Friday for an end to U.S. sanctions on Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program and a restart to multinational talks on the issue.

The three countries’ meeting was the latest attempt to broach the matter and come after U.S. President Donald Trump wrote to Iran’s supreme leader in an attempt to jumpstart talks.

The letter, which hasn’t been published, was offered as Trump levied new sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign that holds out the possibility of military action while emphasizing he still believed a new deal could be reached.

China, Russia and Iran “emphasized the necessity of terminating all unlawful unilateral sanctions,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu read from a joint statement, flanked by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov Sergey Alexeevich and Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.

“The three countries reiterated that political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect remains the only viable and practical option in this regard,” Ma read.

In comments to the three representatives, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reinforced China’s commitment to a peaceful settlement and opposition to “illegal” sanctions, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.

He added that China remains committed to the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal between Iran and six major countries — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — as “the basis for new consensus.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has mocked Trump, saying he wasn’t interested in talks with a “bullying government,” although Iranian officials have offered conflicting signals over the possibility of negotiations. Trump sent a letter to Khamenei in 2019 with no apparent effect on rising tensions.

China and Russia are both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with France and Britain, that took part in the original 2015 Iran nuclear deal preliminary framework agreement. Trump withdrew America from the accord in 2018, setting in motion years of tensions in the wider Middle East.

China and Russia have particularly close relations with Iran through energy deals and Iran has provided Russia with bomb-carrying drones in its war against Ukraine.

They are also seen as sharing a joint interest in diminishing the role of the U.S. and other liberal democracies in determining world events in favor of their own highly authoritarian systems.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 pounds) as it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.

While Iran has maintained it won’t negotiate under duress, its economy has been savaged by the U.S. sanctions. Protests over women’s rights, the economy and Iran’s theocracy in recent years have shaken its government.

China has sought to become more involved in Middle Eastern affairs and a year ago hosted talks leading to the full restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Associated Press journalist Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

The United Nations is an enabler of Saudi Arabia’s oppression of women

• March 14, 2025

A few years ago, I read a memoir that has stayed with me. It tells the story of Rahaf Mohammed, a young Saudi woman who, in 2019, made headlines for escaping state-endorsed family abuse in Saudi Arabia and live-tweeting her escape. The book impacted me not only because of the riveting events, which couldn’t have been imagined by the most creative Hollywood writer, but also because of Rahaf’s bravery and determination to seek freedom. I think about her story often—her resolve to seek a better life is nothing short of inspiring. 

Rahaf executed an escape that could’ve cost her life. She wasn’t just escaping her family, she was renouncing Islam and fleeing an entire regime that is hell-bent on treating women worse than animals. A regime that endorsed and encouraged the abuse she was suffering, and that punishes dissenters like Rahaf with public decapitation using a sword. 

Rahaf has said that women are treated like slaves in Saudi Arabia. In her memoir, she recalls that in school she was taught that women are “less than men and were created to obey them, care for them and provide them with sexual gratification.” 

In describing her plight throughout the book, Rahaf explains that she was routinely brutally beaten by her family members. In one instance, she recalls that her brother “bashed [her] against the wall” for having received the gift of a guitar without permission. He later smashed the guitar on her head. Another time, he beat her up for having walked home alone: “By the time he was finished with me, I had a black eye and he had a clump of my hair in his hand.” 

“Honor killings” are routinely carried out for women who’ve engaged in unauthorized sexual relations—even if against their will. Rahaf was sexually assaulted in a taxi once, and she writes that “the beast who did that to me knew he would get away with it because I would be found guilty of losing the family’s honor, and my life would be the price paid to restore that honor.”

Saudi Arabia’s ‘guardianship system’ grants male relatives total control over a woman’s life, commanding decisions about marriage, travel, work, and what she can study. Rahaf explains that her brother “had control over … what I should wear, what I should eat, where I go, who I can see and go out with.” 

Women have no rights in Saudi Arabia. As Rahaf puts it, in Saudi “a woman is a nullity.” It’s hard to overstate the level of abuse, misogyny, and oppression that these women endure—all endorsed by the State. “I had to leave, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to live my own life,” explains Rahaf. 

Thankfully, leave she did: she was granted asylum in Canada and now lives in freedom. Over 12 million other Saudi women can’t say the same. 

Just as I think of Rahaf’s bravery often, I also think about those who enabled the evil that she endured; those who are intellectually and morally responsible for what she went through. Among them is an undeservingly cherished institution: the U.N.

The U.N., an organization that most people expect to stand up for human rights, has done nothing but prop up the Saudi regime, giving it a veneer of respectability on the international stage. Despite myriad human rights violations against women, Saudi Arabia remains a U.N. member in good standing, and it gets a voice and a vote within the organization, on par with rights-respecting nations.

The U.N. goes as far as to elevate Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women. Earlier this week, the Kingdom was appointed as chair of the U.N. Women’s Rights Commission. That is not a typo—Saudi Arabia, the regime that oppressed Rahaf and millions of other women as a matter of state policy, is in charge of monitoring the rights of women worldwide.

This is not the first time that the U.N. has propped up Saudi Arabia in this regard. In the past, this regime has been appointed to several entities and committees dedicated to protecting the very rights it denies. The U.N. has been providing moral cover for the Saudis by elevating the regime as alleged leaders in the respect of women’s rights.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of the human right group UN Watch, said of the designation of Saudi Arabia to the Women’s rights Commission: “It’s surreal. Electing Saudi Arabia to head the world body for protecting women’s rights is like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.”

Neuer’s analogy is apt, but Saudi Arabia’s designation is not surreal—it’s in keeping with the nature of the U.N., which has no concern for morality and turns a blind eye to brutal human rights abuses worldwide and whitewashes them.

The Saudis are not an outlier; they’re part of a broader pattern. As I’ve written in this column before, the U.N.’s founding principle of amoral neutrality puts all countries on equal footing, regardless of their respect or repudiation of individual rights. Barbaric abusers like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela get a seat at the table next to essentially free countries like the U.S. or Canada. This amoral approach makes the U.N. hand out leadership opportunities equally, as if countries who encourage “honor killings” were the same as those who guarantee equal rights for all individuals.

The U.N. is an enabler of Saudi Arabia’s crushing of women. It does so by providing them with moral cover and a seat at the table, by giving them a vote, by putting them in leadership positions for protecting the very rights they deny. The U.N. is part of the intellectual trend that propels, whitewashes and empowers this massive evil. 

The barbaric treatment Rahaf endured seems unimaginable to those of us in the West, particularly in America. Yet we’re endorsing and funding an organization that whitewashes that evil and props up torturers. It’s past time to seriously question if America, the freest country on earth, belongs there.

Agustina Vergara Cid is a Young Voices Contributor. You can follow her on X at @agustinavcid

​ Orange County Register 

Six Flags Magic Mountain reclaims drop tower record

• March 14, 2025

Six Flags Magic Mountain has quietly reclaimed the title for the world’s tallest drop tower after a sister park in New Jersey demolished a record-setting ride that stole the crown a decade ago — but Magic Mountain won’t have the title for long.

The 400-foot-tall Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom ride at the Valencia amusement park is once again the world’s tallest drop tower.

ALSO SEE: Six Flags to spend $1 billion on 11 coasters over next 2 years

New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure demolished Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom in late February — marking the final demise of the world’s tallest roller coaster and world’s tallest drop tower, respectively.

Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom sends riders racing 40 stories downward at a top speed of 85 mph during a 5-second free-fall descent — also making the Magic Mountain ride the fastest drop tower in the world.

ALSO SEE: 1,000-foot-tall roller coaster about to become a reality

The 2012 Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom only held the drop tower title for two years until the 415-foot-tall Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom debuted in 2014.

Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom took the drop tower title from the 390-foot-tall Giant Drop at Australia’s Dreamworld theme park that had held the crown for 14 years.

ALSO SEE: The race is on to open America’s first tilt coaster

All three drop towers share one thing in common — they were all attached to pre-existing roller coasters that were at one time or another the world’s tallest, according to Screamscape.

Dreamworld’s Tower of Terror II shuttle coaster was removed in 2019, leaving behind only the tower supporting the Giant Drop.

Magic Mountain’s drop tower is attached to the Superman: Escape from Krypton shuttle coaster that has been closed for refurbishment since September.

ALSO SEE: 8 roller coasters coming to new Six Flags park in Saudi Arabia

Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom won’t hold the reclaimed title for very long.

The 475-foot-tall Sirocco Tower will become the world’s tallest drop tower when the ride opens in late 2025 at the new Six Flags Qiddiya amusement park in Saudi Arabia outside the capital city of Riyadh.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange City Council likely to commit to balanced budget rule; bringing in consultants to help

• March 14, 2025

With a new fiscal year just about a quarter away, Orange leaders are looking to get the city’s finances in order with outside help.

The City Council also is likely to approve a new fiscal policy that mandates a yearly balanced general fund budget. Last year, Orange ran a $19.1 million general fund deficit. 

Orange is hiring Grant Thornton, a global accounting and consulting firm with an Orange County office, to help city leaders quickly reassess City Hall’s organizational structure and find opportunities for budget cuts and revenue development. 

“Let’s go department by department and understand what’s happening in the budget,” said Grant Thornton partner Shawn Stewart, who made his pitch to the City Council on March 11.  

“The value we bring to the equation is we’re objective,” Stewart added. “We’re not part of the city, and we’re able to come in and really take a hard look at things.”

Stewart said he’s already met with City Manager Tom Kisela and reviewed some information about Orange’s finances. 

Based on what he’s seen, Stewart said he doesn’t believe there’s any evidence of fraud that might have caused the city to run chronic budget deficits since the Great Recession — deficits that escalated with time into the $19.1 million shortfall last year. 

Audits back him up.

The most recent of which, a comprehensive audit for the fiscal year 2024 shown to the council in March, revealed no anomalies, according to Lance, Soll and Lunghard, another independent CPA firm.

Stewart suggested that Orange wound up in this fiscal hole, not because of fraud, but because of a pattern of delivering more services than it could afford. 

“The money didn’t really vanish,” he said. “It was used by the city in its operations.”

In the current budget cycle, Orange leaders have cut city services across many departments.

 The City Council has already reduced library hours, frozen unfilled staff and public safety positions and cut funding for holiday celebrations. At one point, the council even considered cutting janitorial services at City Hall before backing off due to staff complaints of insect infestation and dirty bathrooms. 

Despite more austerity, Orange is still projected to run a sizeable budget deficit for the fiscal year ending in June. The city is projecting to collect $145.2 million in revenues for city operations this fiscal year while making $156.2 million in expenditures.

To square the budget, the City Council had hoped that voters would approve a local half-cent sales tax increase in November that could have raised up to $20 million per year for 10 years.

That ballot measure was narrowly defeated in the general election, sending the council back to the drawing board.

With other revenue-generating plans — such as paid parking around the Orange Plaza — remaining in the works, the City Council believes tit can continue to cut costs by providing government services more efficiently. 

Councilmembers also hope the Grant Thornton team’s organizational assessment will shed light on the city departments that lag behind benchmarks set by other municipalities.

“Ultimately, how are we running our city to meet the needs of our residents in a way that’s sustainable over time in a more streamlined organization way?” asked Councilmember John Gyllenhammer. “I think that’s where our gap is, and I think that’s where we need to spend our time.”

It’s unclear at this point how much Orange will pay for Grant Thornton’s services. Stewart made it seem like that number could fluctuate depending on the level of services Orange ultimately requests. 

For now, Stewart said his company’s initial services will be a “sprint.”

“We would anticipate this would be about an eight-week project,” he said. “The idea is to do something rapidly in order to help the city put things back on the right course.”

Gyllenhammer said the city should focus on its return on investment. 

“I think we should spend $100,000 if we have $101,000 on the back end of it,” he said, using those numbers arbitrarily to exemplify his thinking. 

While consultants are coming in, Orange also is taking internal steps to clean its fiscal house.

The City Council gave direction to City Finance Director Trang Nguyen to develop the first set of fiscal management policies in city history. 

“This is a key pillar to Orange putting its fiscal house in order,” said Mayor Dan Slater. “We have never in city history had a fiscal management policy. This is huge.”

“It’s a long time coming,” City Manager Kisela added.

Councilmembers said they intend to approve such policies, which Nguyen outlined to them on March 11, before the new fiscal year.

Nguyen’s policy outline includes a mandate that the City Council pass a structurally balanced general fund budget before the start of the fiscal year on July 1.

She also says the City Council, as part of its annual budget process, will need to review a new financial model that shows how short-term spending affects long-term reserves.

The budget policy will also tie recurring non-personnel expenditure growth to the Consumer Price Index, and it will define priorities for how the city must balance the budget in light of unforeseen reductions in revenue.

In that situation, the city would freeze vacant positions, suspend most overnight training and suspend non-essential purchases of supplies, equipment, vehicles, services and capital improvement projects.

Among other measures, the policy also would commit Orange to creating a plan to pay back the city’s reserve fund within two years after any event where it must make a withdrawal from that fund.

“If we commit to this, we have a balanced budget going forward, which I think is tremendous, and I think it’s about time we brought something like this forward,” Gyllenhammer said.

His colleagues agreed, unanimously approving the draft plan, 6-0. Councilmember Denis Bilodeau was absent from the meeting. 

​ Orange County Register 

Mark Carney is sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister as country deals with Trump’s trade war

• March 14, 2025

By ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) — Former central banker Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister on Friday, and will now try to steer his country through a trade war brought by U.S. President Donald Trump, a threat of annexation and an expected federal election.

Carney, 59, replaces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January but remained in power until the Liberal Party elected a new leader. Carney is widely expected to trigger a general election in the coming days or weeks.

The governing Liberal Party had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared economic war and threatened to annex the entire country as a 51st state. Now the party and its new leader could come out on top.

Carney has said he’s ready to meet with Trump if he shows “respect for Canadian sovereignty″ and is willing to take ”a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade.″

Trump put 25% tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products April 2. He has threatened economic coercion in his annexation threats and suggested the border is a fictional line.

The U.S. trade war and Trump’s talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state have infuriated Canadians, who are booing the American anthem at NHL and NBA games. Some are canceling trips south of the border, and many are avoiding buying American goods when they can.

The surge in Canadian nationalism has bolstered the Liberal Party’s chances in a parliamentary election expected within days or weeks, and Liberal showings have been improving in opinion polls.

Carney, who navigated crises when he was the head of the Bank of Canada from 2008, and then in 2013 when he became the first noncitizen to run the Bank of England — helping to manage the worst impacts of Brexit in the U.K. — will now try to steer Canada through the trade war brought by Trump.

Carney, a former Goldman Sachs executive with no experience in politics, becomes Canada’s 24th prime minister.

“He will do very well. He’s respected internationally,” former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien told reporters Friday. But, he added: “There is no magic solution. This is not a normal situation. We’ve never seen someone who changes his mind every five minutes as president of the United States. It creates problems everywhere, not only in Canada.”

​ Orange County Register 

Man in wheelchair killed while crossing Fullerton street

• March 14, 2025

A man in a wheelchair died Thursday after he was struck by a car while crossing a Fullerton intersection.

The crash occurred around 10:50 p.m. near West Commonwealth Avenue and Library Lane, according to Fullerton police spokesperson Kristy Wells.

Arriving officers immediately began life-saving measures until relieved by Fullerton Fire Department paramedics, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. His name was not released pending notification of relatives.

The initial investigation revealed the man in the wheelchair tried to cross northbound at the intersection while the traffic signal was red and was struck by a gray Hyundai heading westbound on Commonwealth, Wells said.

The 41-year-old Fullerton man driving the Hyundai remained at the scene, and police said he was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

“Investigators did locate alcohol at the scene believed to belong to the pedestrian,” she said.

Any witnesses with information about the crash are asked to contact Fullerton Police Traffic Accident Investigator Manes at 714-738-6815 or via email at [email protected]. Anonymous tips can be left at Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS or occrimestoppers.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Hundreds of federal offices could begin closing this summer at DOGE’s behest, internal records show

• March 14, 2025

By RYAN J. FOLEY, JOSHUA GOODMAN and CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER, Associated Press

Federal agencies will begin to vacate hundreds of offices across the country this summer under a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers to terminate leases that they say waste money.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency maintains a list of canceled real estate leases on its website, but internal documents obtained by The Associated Press contain a crucial detail: when those cancellations are expected to take effect. The documents from inside the General Services Administration, the U.S. government’s real estate manager, list dozens of federal office and building leases expected to end by June 30, with hundreds more slated over the coming months.

The rapid pace of cancellations has raised alarms, with some agencies and lawmakers appealing to DOGE to exempt specific buildings. Several agencies are facing 20 or more lease cancellations in all, including the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Many of the terminations would affect agencies that aren’t as well-known but oversee services critical to many Americans.

They span from a Boise, Idaho, office of the Bureau of Reclamation — which oversees water supply and deals with disputes across the often-parched American West — to a Joliet, Illinois, outpost of the Railroad Retirement Board, which provides benefits for railroad workers and their survivors.

The lease terminations do not mean all the locations will close. In some cases, agencies may negotiate new leases to stay in place, downsize their existing space or relocate elsewhere.

“Some agencies are saying: ‘I’m not leaving. We can’t leave,’” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official who now represents building owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions. “I think there’s going to be a period of pushback, a period of disbelief. And then, if necessary, they may start working on the actual execution of a move.”

Errors add to confusion

DOGE says GSA has notified landlords in recent weeks that it plans to terminate 793 leases, focusing mostly on those that can be ended within months without penalty. The group estimates those moves will save roughly $500 million over the terms of the leases, which in some cases were slated to continue into the 2030s. The Bureau of Reclamation cancellation in Boise, for instance, would take effect Aug. 31 and is expected to save a total of $18.7 million through 2035.

But DOGE’s savings estimates — a fraction of Musk’s $1 trillion cost-cutting goal — have not been verified and do not take into account the costs of moves and closures. The group has released no information about what they will mean for agencies.

“My initial reaction is this is just going to cause more chaos,” said Jim Simpson, an accountant in Arizona who helps low-income people file taxes and serves on an IRS panel that advocates for taxpayers. “There’s a lot of room to help with government efficiency, but it should be done surgically and not with a chainsaw.”

Simpson said he was surprised to learn that dozens of IRS offices, including local taxpayer assistance centers, were facing upcoming lease cancellations. He refers clients there to get paperwork to file returns and answer IRS inquiries, and he said losing services would “cause a lot of anxiety” and delay refunds.

Plans to cancel the leases at several of the IRS centers and other sites were in error and have been rescinded, according to a person with direct knowledge of the changes who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity in order to avoid retaliation. Those changes are not yet reflected on DOGE’s list, which only removed one and added dozens more in its latest update published Thursday.

The GSA walked back the cancellation of a Geological Survey office in Anchorage, Alaska, for instance, after learning it did not have termination rights, according to the person familiar with the matter.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Monday that he’d convinced DOGE to back off lease terminations planned for the National Weather Center in Norman, a Social Security office in Lawton and the Indian Health Services office in Oklahoma City. But all three leases remained on DOGE’s list of cancellations as of Thursday.

GSA’s press office didn’t respond to inquiries.

The real estate market is blindsided

While there was already a bipartisan push to reduce the government’s real estate footprint, the mass cancellations blindsided an industry known for its stability.

Landlords who had been expecting government agencies to remain tenants, for several more years in some cases under their existing leases, were stunned. Some agencies learned from building managers, not their federal partners, that their leases were being canceled, according to real estate managers.

Becker, whose firm is tracking the DOGE lease cancellations, and other observers said they expect some agencies will be unable to move their personnel and property out of their spaces within such tight timelines. That may force some agencies to pay additional rent during what’s known as a holdover period, undermining DOGE’s stated goal of saving taxpayer money.

The Building Owners and Managers Association, which represents the commercial real estate industry, told landlords in a recent advocacy alert to be prepared to seek payment from any federal government tenants who stay beyond their leases.

Many affected agencies aren’t speaking up

Asked about plans for buildings with leases that will soon expire, the IRS did not respond. A Social Security Administration spokesperson downplayed the impact of its offices losing leases, saying many were “small remote hearing sites,” did not serve the public, were already being consolidated elsewhere or planned for closure.

Several other agencies provided little clarity — saying they were working with GSA to consider their options, in statements that were nearly identical in some cases.

But a spokesperson for the Railroad Retirement Board expressed concern over the upcoming lease cancellations of its offices in Joliet, Illinois, and eight other states, saying it was working to “maintain a public-facing office presence for the local railroad community.”

Government Accountability Office official David Marroni told a congressional hearing last week that the push to unload unnecessary federal real estate was “long overdue,” saying agencies have for too long held on to unnecessary space. But he warned the downsizing must be deliberate and carefully planned to “generate substantial savings and mitigate the risk of mistakes and unexpected mission impacts.”

That process had already started before Musk’s team arrived, with the federal government’s real estate portfolio steadily declining over the last decade. Indeed, critics of DOGE say if it were truly interested in cost-cutting it could learn from GSA, whose mission even before Trump took office was to deliver “effective and efficient” services to the American public.

A law signed by former President Joe Biden before he left office in January directed agencies to measure the true occupancy rates of leased spaces by this summer. Those that did not meet a target of 60% use rate over time would be directed to dispose of their excess space.

”There is a logical and orderly way to do this,” Rep. Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, said at last week’s hearing. Instead, he said, DOGE is pursuing a reckless approach that threatens to harm the delivery of public services.

Industry observers cautioned that each situation is different, and it will take months or years to understand the full impact of the lease cancellations.

“It really depends on the terms. But it is a shock, there is no question, that all of a sudden, boom, in six weeks all these things have happened,” said J. Reid Cummings, a professor of finance and real estate at the University of South Alabama. “It’s like a blitzkrieg.”

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa; Goodman reported from Miami; and Keller reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Hamas says it will release a US-Israeli hostage and 4 bodies but Israel expresses immediate doubt

• March 14, 2025

By JULIA FRANKEL, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals who had died in captivity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office cast doubt on the offer, accusing Hamas of trying to manipulate talks underway in Qatar on the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

The group in the Gaza Strip did not immediately specify when the release of soldier Edan Alexander and the four bodies would occur — or what it expected to get in return.

Alexander was 19 when he was taken from his base on the border with Gaza in southern Israel during the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked the war.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

It was not clear which parties had participated in negotiating the deal. The United States, led by the Trump administration’s hostage envoy Steve Witkoff, has been pushing for a proposal that would extend the truce and see a limited number of hostage for prisoner exchanges.

Following the Hamas statement, Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “accepted the Witkoff outline and showed flexibility,” but said that “Hamas is refusing and will not budge from its positions.”

“At the same time, it continues to use manipulation and psychological warfare — the reports about Hamas’ willingness to release American hostages are intended to sabotage the negotiations,” the prime minister’s office said.

It added that Netanyahu would convene his ministerial team on Saturday night to receive a detailed report from the negotiation team and “decide on the next steps for the release of hostages.”

The first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago.

The White House last week made a surprise announcement, saying that American officials had engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held U.S. policy of not directly engaging with the group. That prompted a terse response from Netanyahu’s office.

It was not immediately clear whether those talks were at all linked to Hamas’ Friday announcement about the release of the American hostage.

In a separate statement, Hamas official Husam Badran reaffirmed what he said was Hamas’ commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in all its phases, warning that any Israeli deviation from the terms would return negotiations to square one.

The ceasefire has paused the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and Hamas. The first phase allowed the return of 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the first time since early in the war, and hundreds of trucks of aid entered per day until Israel suspended supplies.

Israel has been pressing Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for an extension of the first phase, and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.

Two weeks ago, Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza and its more than 2 million people as it pressed Hamas to agree. The group has said that the move would affect the remaining hostages as well.

Hamas wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace.

The group said with support cut off to Gaza, some 80% of the population has now lost access to food sources, with aid distribution halted and markets running out of supplies, while 90% are unable to access clean drinking water.

In Jerusalem, some 80,000 Muslim worshippers prayed on Friday at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for the second week of Ramadan, according to the Islamic Trust, which monitors the site. Israel is tightly controlling access, allowing only men over 55 and women over 50 to enter from the occupied territory for the prayers.

“The conditions are extremely difficult,” said Yousef Badeen, a Palestinian who had left the southern West Bank city of Hebron at dawn to make it to Jerusalem, said. “We wish they will open it for good.”

Hamas accused Israel of escalating a “religious war” against Palestinians with what it called the “systematic targeting of Muslim religious practices” through its restrictions at Al-Aqsa mosque.

Associated Press writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register