Wednesday 2 Iyar- France warns sanctions could be reimposed on Iran if nuclear deal not reached – Israeli officials now believe US-Iran nuclear talks are likely to succeed – Israeli Sentenced to 10 Years for Plotting With Iranian Agents to Assassinate Netanyahu, Other Top Officials

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The UK has joined US forces in attacking a Houthi target in Yemen for the first time since Donald Trump was re-elected.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the strikes took place on Tuesday as part of the government’s response to Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The ministry said careful intelligence analysis identified a cluster of buildings used by the Houthis to manufacture the sort of drones used to attack ships, located 15 miles south of the capital Sanaa.

RAF Typhoon FGR4s conducted strikes on several buildings using Paveway IV precision-guided bombs.

The sugar tax applied to fizzy drinks could be extended to pre-packaged milkshakes and lattes under new government plans.

The government is consulting on proposals, external to end the exemption from the tax for milk-based drinks, as well as non-dairy substitutes such as oats or rice.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her autumn budget last year that the government was considering widening the levy.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride labelled the move a “sucker punch” to households when Labour had “already pushed up the cost of living for families”.

The sugar tax, known formally as the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL), is a tax on pre-packaged drinks such as those sold in cans and cartons in supermarkets.

It applies to manufacturers and was introduced by the Conservative government in April 2018 as a means to tackle obesity.

Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won the election in Canada – capping a stunning comeback fuelled by Donald Trump’s annexation threats and trade war.

After polls closed, the Liberals were projected to win more of parliament’s 343 seats than the Conservative Party.
However, it was not immediately clear if they would win an outright majority or would need to rely on one or more smaller parties to form a government and pass legislation.

In a victory speech in Ottawa, Mr Carney said: “President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us – that will never, ever happen.”

“We will fight back with everything we have to get the best deal for Canada.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom will not hesitate to reimpose sanctions against Tehran if European security is threatened by Iran’s nuclear program, the French foreign minister says at the United Nations.

“Iran has crossed all the boundaries it had committed to respect,” and the country “is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons,” Jean-Noel Barrot tells reporters after a closed-door meeting of the Security Council on non-proliferation, which he had convened.

“There is no military solution to the Iranian nuclear problem. There is a diplomatic path to achieve it, but it is a narrow road,” he adds.

Barrot voices hope that the ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Washington on the issue would bear fruit, adding that France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are in “close contact” on the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The highest-level talks in years between long-time foes Washington and Tehran are targeting a new deal that would stop Iran developing nuclear weapons — an objective Tehran denies pursuing — in return for relief from sanctions.

US President Donald Trump pulled out of an earlier, multilateral agreement on Iran during his first term. The United States and Israel have repeatedly threatened Iran with military strikes to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“It goes without saying that upon the expiration of the Iranian nuclear deal… if European security interests are not guaranteed, we will not hesitate for a single second to reapply all the sanctions that were lifted 10 years ago,” Barrot warns.

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Israeli officials believe there is a high chance that talks between the US and Iran on a new nuclear agreement will be successful, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Until recently, the report says, Israeli officials had believed the US and Iran were unlikely to succeed in their efforts to create a new nuclear agreement. Following the third round of talks this past weekend, however, it says they now estimate the chance of success to be higher than the possibility of the talks failing.

The Beersheva District Court on Tuesday sentenced Moti Maman, a 73-year-old Ashdod resident, to 10 years in prison for collaborating with Iranian intelligence and discussing plans to assassinate Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli leaders.

Maman, convicted in December of contact with a foreign agent and unauthorized entry into an enemy state, traveled twice into Iran, where he met with Iranian security officials and plotted attacks targeting Netanyahu, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Judge Benny Sagi, president of the court, said the sentence was intended to send a warning. “The punishment must reflect a significant element of deterrence and convey a clear and distinct message regarding the severe price of maintaining illicit and unlawful ties with Israel’s enemies,” Sagi wrote in the verdict.

The court emphasized the context: Maman’s offenses were committed amid an ongoing war against Hamas, a terror group backed by Iran, and at a time when Israel was under assault on multiple fronts — from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

Despite expressing regret and admitting to the charges, Maman’s persistence in meeting Iranian officials for a second time, knowing the nature of the discussions, showed a “willing and dangerous commitment” to the relationship, the court said.

Prosecutors had sought a 12-year sentence, while Maman’s defense attorney, Eyal Besserglick, blasted the 10-year term as “completely disproportionate” and vowed to appeal. Besserglick argued that other Israelis awaiting trial for Iranian-linked espionage had engaged in even more serious acts, making Maman’s punishment unjustly severe.

Maman’s arrest last August, only disclosed a month later, marked one of the first visible cracks in an alarming wave of Iranian recruitment efforts targeting ordinary Israelis.

According to investigators, Maman — a businessman with long-standing ties in Turkey — was lured into Iran under the pretense of business opportunities. In May 2024, he was smuggled across the Turkish-Iranian border inside a truck and introduced to Iranian operatives who quickly pivoted discussions toward espionage and assassination.

The Shin Bet revealed that Iranian agents proposed various missions: planting weapons and cash at designated locations in Israel, photographing crowded public areas, intimidating Israeli operatives working for Iran, and even plotting to murder Israeli leaders as revenge for the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Maman was also asked to help locate Russians or Americans willing to assassinate Iranian dissidents abroad and to attempt recruiting a Mossad double agent. Maman reportedly demanded a $1 million advance, but ultimately received just 5,000 euros before returning to Israel, where he was promptly arrested.

The case is part of a broader, disturbing pattern. In just the past year, dozens of Israelis have been arrested — including IDF reservists and civilians — for alleged spying, intelligence gathering, and planning attacks under Iranian direction.

Israeli authorities have issued repeated warnings to citizens about the dangers of contact with foreign agents, promising aggressive prosecution against anyone who conspires with enemy states.

Former hostage Arbel Yehoud, who was returned to Israel in January as part of a Gaza ceasefire agreement, says her Palestinian Islamic Jihad captors made it clear to her that they would kill her if the IDF discovered their location and came to rescue her.

“I’m sitting next to them with loaded guns and know that they’ll shoot me in the head first thing if the army comes in,” Yehoud, 29, told Channel 13 in an interview broadcast Monday, filmed in the ruins of the Kibbutz Nir Oz home she shared with Ariel Cunio, who is still in captivity.

When she got back to Israel in February, Yehoud said, she realized her worst night in Gaza was a year earlier, on February 12, 2024, when troops operating in the Rafah tent camp where she was being held carried out a daring operation to rescue hostages Louis Har and Fernando Marman.

“I saw flares on the other side of the tent canvas, and then the planes began,” she said. “Warplanes, which sounded very low and very close. The bombings started, and then I heard the shootouts and the running.”

During the rescue operation, she said, one of her captors “was with a loaded gun, aimed at the tent” where she was being held, Yehoud said.

“I don’t think there is a word that can describe the fear of the sound of fighting — the bombings, the planes, those few seconds of the sound before a missile drops, the shootouts,” she said. “That fear is paralyzing, it’s terrifying. You don’t know if you’ll still be breathing the next minute and where it will catch you.”

For the UK Jewish Orthodox Community
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Erev Shabbos

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