Elon Musk has held talks with Iran’s envoy to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, with reports suggesting the meeting was an effort to reduce tensions between Washington and Tehran, after Donald Trump was re-elected as US president.
Mr Musk is set to help lead a government efficiency agency under the second Trump administration, which begins in January. The meeting with Mr Iravani, which took place on Monday, was “positive”, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The tech billionaire, who became a close ally of Mr Trump during the election campaign, has been vocal on major foreign policy issues, including the Ukraine war, expressing the belief that Moscow and Kyiv can strike a peace deal. The SpaceX chief executive has also supplied Starlink internet terminals to Iran, with the technology providing free internet access from satellites in low-earth orbit, but authorities in the country have claimed it is part of a CIA plot.
Mr Musk’s talks with Mr Iravani came amid growing international pressure on Iran. The US has called for "actual behavioural change and action" from Iran over its nuclear programme and its support for proxy groups including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.
Nuclear research row
Mr Patel's statement followed a visit to Tehran by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to discuss “a situation of tension” over the country’s atomic ambitions. Experts, including scientists at the International Atomic Energy Agency, have warned for nearly two years that Tehran is close to having enough highly enriched uranium to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran has long insisted that it does not intend to make a weapon.
Critics say Iran has built vast plants underground that can enrich uranium to more than 90 per cent purity. A civilian nuclear reactor requires uranium enriched to up to five per cent.
Talks between Iran and global powers to revive a nuclear deal have stalled amid the devastating Gaza war, which began in October last year. Iran signed an agreement in 2015 that limited its atomic programme in exchange for relief from some sanctions, but the deal collapsed after the US – under the presidency of Mr Trump – withdrew in 2018.
Tension rose sharply between Iran and the US during Mr Trump's first term in office, which included the assassination of senior Iranian commander Qassem Suleimani in 2020. The strike brought the two sides to the brink of war.
There are also growing fears that Israel could launch a major attack on Tehran's nuclear sites, after Iran last month faced a major bombardment in retaliation for a missile attack.
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SPECS
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
