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South African artist sues minister for blocking her Venice Biennale Gaza entry

A South African artist is suing the arts minister after he blocked her from representing the country at the Venice Biennale, having called her work addressing Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza “highly divisive”. Gabrielle Goliath filed the lawsuit last week, with Ingrid Masondo, who would have curated the pavilion, and the studio manager, James Macdonald. It accuses Gayton McKenzie of acting unlawfully and violating the right to freedom of expression and demands the high court reinstates her participation by 18 February, the deadline for confirming installations with biennale organisers. Goliath, whose video work Elegy pays tribute to a Palestinian poet killed by an Israeli airstrike, told the Guardian: “We hope to reclaim the pavilion, which we believe is rightfully ours. “But more importantly than that, it is the significance of the work … that speaks far more eloquently to these very difficult questions of whose life is recognised as a life worth grieving after.” The Venice Biennale rotates between art and architecture each year. A main exhibition features works chosen by a central curator, while governments organise national exhibition pavilions. In 2024, 86 nations participated. McKenzie responded to the backlash in a statement earlier this month, indicating his concern originated from the suggestion that “a foreign country” had offered to fund South Africa’s exhibition, and alleging that South Africa’s platform was being “used as a proxy by a foreign power to endorse a geopolitical message about the actions of Israel in Gaza”. The statement seemed to refer to Qatar Museums’ inquiry about the possibility of funding South Africa’s pavilion and buying the artworks, before Goliath was selected by an independent panel. These discussions did not go anywhere, Goliath’s affidavit said. Goliath said: “I utterly reject the accusation of foreign capture,” calling it a “damaging conspiracy theory”. McKenzie, in a letter on 22 December included in Goliath’s court filing, said: “The subject matter, as outlined, is known to be highly divisive in nature and is related to an ongoing international conflict that is widely polarising.” A second letter, dated 2 January, said: “It would not be wise or defensible for South Africa to support an installation against a country currently accused of genocide, while we as South Africa are also fielding unjustified accusations of genocide.” South Africa’s government launched a lawsuit in 2023 accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Before McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance party joined a national coalition government in 2024, McKenzie had said there was “no genocide” of Palestinians. Donald Trump and US officials have falsely claimed there is a “white genocide” in South Africa. Goliath had planned to exhibit three videos of Elegy, a work that has been shown for more than a decade, in which female singers take turns to step on to a dais and sing the same note. One video was to honour the Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed alongside her son by an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis on 20 October 2023. The other videos would have paid tribute to Ipeleng Christine Moholane, a 19-year-old murdered in South Africa in 2015, and two female victims of the German genocide in Namibia. The minister’s decision provoked outrage among South African artists, with groups of writers and non-profits also signing open letters condemning Goliath’s removal. The Democratic Alliance, which is in the national coalition, reported him to the country’s public watchdog. The minister and his department have not made public any plans to replace Goliath’s work in Venice. McKenzie’s spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions. In July 2025, the Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi was reinstated as Australia’s representative at the 2026 biennale. He had been dropped that February after controversy over some of his past works, including a depiction of the former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a video rendering of the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Israeli strikes on Gaza reportedly kill at least 12, one of highest tolls since October agreement

Hospitals in Gaza have said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians on Saturday, one of the highest tolls since an October agreement aimed at stopping the fighting. The missiles hit locations in northern and southern Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals which received the bodies said. The casualties included two women and six children from two families. Israeli planes carried out further strikes, while the army issued an evacuation warning for a building in Khan Younis, in anticipation of an attack. The strikes came a day before a border crossing is expected to open in Gaza’s southernmost city, a reminder that the death toll is still rising even as a ceasefire agreement inches forward. All of the territory’s border crossings have been closed since the start of the war, and Palestinians see the Rafah crossing with Egypt as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory because most of its medical infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment. Israel wants to ensure that more Palestinians leave Gaza than enter it, according to Reuters, which said Israel is aiming to allow only 150 Palestinians into Gaza through Rafah each day. Shifa hospital said Israel’s strike on Gaza City killed a mother, three children and one of their relatives on Saturday morning, while Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said a strike in a tent camp caused a fire, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren. Gaza’s health ministry has recorded more than 500 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on 10 October. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes. Despite Israel’s frequent killing of Palestinians in violation of the October ceasefire, the deal has moved to a crucial second phase. Some of the thorniest issues are contained in the second phase, which would require Hamas to disarm and hand over power to a President Donald Trump-appointed Board of Peace organisation staffed by his appointees. A recent presentation in Davos by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is also involved in Trump’s Gaza project, showed the Trump administration’s plan for “developing Gaza”, complete with sleek skyscrapers and corniches overlooking the Mediterranean. Most of Gaza has been levelled and basic infrastructure remains inoperable as a result of Israeli bombing over the past two years, which has also killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. Last year, a UN commission of inquiry found that Israel had committed a genocide in Gaza.

Protesters to demand resignation of Hungarian politician for anti-Roma remark

Thousands of people are set to gather in Budapest to demand the resignation of a senior Hungarian politician, for making a racist remark against Roma people earlier this month. János Lázár told attendees at a political forum that migration was not the solution to the country’s labour shortage. “Since there are no migrants, and someone has to clean the bathrooms on the InterCity trains,” Lázár said Roma people would do the job, using an offensive slur in his speech. The remarks, captured on video, quickly spread online and triggered a widespread backlash. Hungarian Roma organisations, NGOs and opposition politicians demanded that Lázár, a high-ranking ally of the rightwing populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, apologise and resign. “He has crossed all boundaries,” said Péter Magyar, the leader of the largest opposition party, Tisza. The scandal comes 10 weeks before an election that could cement or break the rule of Orbán’s Fidesz party, which came to power for the second time in 2010. “Fidesz is over, its mandate has expired permanently,” said Ádám Lakatos, an 18-year-old Roma activist and the organiser of Saturday’s protest. Independent polls show a stable lead for Tisza – a centre-right party founded in 2020 – ahead of Fidesz. Outrage over Lázár’s racist remarks could further alienate undecided voters from the governing party. Lázár has apologised, but refused to resign, and has recently appeared alongside Orbán at a party event. He didn’t respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. Roma communities, who have long been scapegoated by the government, experience worse living conditions, higher levels of poverty, and face lower life expectancy than the rest of the Hungarian population. “During its 16 years of rule, Fidesz has not created jobs, or supported [Roma] families,” said Szandi Minzári, a 37-year-old international policy expert with Roma heritage. Roma people are overrepresented in low-paying public jobs, which she said can be exploited by local politicians. Independent organisations have raised concerns that these public work programs are being leveraged by officials for electoral gain. “Lázár’s resignation would be a positive move for Fidesz, helping recover some Roma support, and setting an example” said Bernadett Orbán (no relation to the PM), a 33-year-old activist. “But I don’t think he will resign.” Orbán, and her partner, Tamás Könyves, are not Roma, but will attend the protest on Saturday. “I feel it is my duty to speak up and stand up for the Roma community,” said Könyves, 51, who will give a speech at the event. Fidesz has faced increasing public anger in recent years. In 2024, the party president, Katalin Novák, resigned after mass demonstrations erupted over a decision to pardon a man convicted for covering up child sexual abuse claims at a state-run orphanage. There were also protests in 2025 after news of systemic abuse at a juvenile correctional centre. The opposition demanded resignations in Orbán’s government over inaction. “Fidesz’s actions have become unacceptable for Hungarians, for Europe and for the entire world,” said Lakatos, who grew up in state care. Both of the main parties have increased their voting base in the past year, but as Tibor Závecz from Závecz Research Institute highlights, this growth primarily drew support from smaller parties, not the large swathe of undecided voters. “And it seems like Fidesz is taking the voters from the far right,” Závecz said. While anti-Roma speeches might gain the trust of these voters, they could alienate up to half a million hesitant voters. Balázs Böcskei, a political scientist and research director at the Idea Institute,says it is surprising that Fidesz’s campaign did not help the party gain much ground. He attributes this partly to a strong opposition, and partly to a series of “public policy failures” in “every sphere that is important to people today” he said, citing the economy, and welfare services.

Alarm raised over Chinese CCTV cameras guarding ‘symbol of democracy’ Magna Carta

Security cameras guarding Magna Carta are provided by a Chinese CCTV company whose technology has allegedly aided the Uyghur “genocide” and been exploited by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, it has emerged. In letters seen by the Guardian, campaigners called on Salisbury Cathedral, which houses one of four surviving copies of the “powerful symbol of social justice”, to rip out cameras made by Dahua Technology, based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. They have also written to the authorities responsible for the Parthenon temple in Greece, which is monitored by cameras produced by another Chinese company, Hikvision. Cameras made by the firms have already been removed from “sensitive” UK government sites, over concerns that they could be remotely accessed by China and used to spy on sensitive sites. Now fresh concerns about the two companies’ roles at sites housing foundational symbols of democracy and human rights have been raised by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a Ukrainian organisation called Don’t Fund Russian Army. China’s Dahua Technology boasts on its website that its low-light surveillance cameras help ensure the safety of a copy of Magna Carta, sealed by King John at Runnymede, England, in 1215. The document established limitations on feudal powers and is widely seen as a precursor to later formulations laying down democratic values and human rights protections. Salisbury Cathedral’s website calls the 810-year-old document a “powerful symbol of social justice” that has “inspired and encouraged freedom movements around the world”. But in a letter that has emerged during Keir Starmer’s visit to China, the WUC said Dahua was implicated in “genocide or crimes against humanity”. The organisation, which represents the persecuted minority ethnic group from China’s Xinjiang region, cited the company’s alleged involvement in facial recognition systems designed to identify Uyghurs and automate police reporting. The WUC said Dahua’s CCTV systems had “played a role in control and surveillance mechanisms” in Xinjiang designed to persecute the primarily Muslim group. “For us, it is particularly painful that the technologies of such companies are being used to protect one of the most prominent symbols of democracy and freedom,” the WUC wrote, in a letter emailed to the cathedral’s head of security. A spokesperson for the cathedral said it had not received the email, sent to its head of security. The Guardian has seen evidence that appears to show that the email was sent on 22 December. The cathedral spokesperson added: “We also do not comment on security matters; however, our systems and suppliers are regularly reviewed, working with external advisers.” Dahua’s technology was installed by a UK security firm, ARC Fire Safety & Security, according to the Chinese company’s website. The UK company did not return a request for comment. The WUC raised the same concerns in an email to authorities in charge of the Parthenon temple in Greece, which uses cameras made by Hikvision, urging it to remove the CCTV. It called for the technology to be removed at both sites. The WUC, which operates from Munich, Germany, also pointed to reports that the companies’ cameras have systemic vulnerabilities that allowed them to be hacked by Russia in reconnaissance during the invasion of Ukraine. Oleksii Kuprienko, of the Ukrainian organisation Don’t Fund Russian Army, said there had been several incidents where footage from surveillance cameras appeared to have been accessed – and even broadcast online – during Russian missile strikes. “Such footage can be used to analyse the effectiveness of strikes and, at the same time, to intimidate civilians by openly showing the power of Russian weapons,” he said. Kuprienko referred to an incident in early 2024 when footage from a camera believed to have been made by Hikvision broadcast the operation of a Ukrainian air defence system. “Shortly afterwards, that position was struck,” he said. A Ukrainian MP, Grigory Mamka, who sits on a parliamentary committee scrutinising law enforcement, confirmed that cameras made by Dahua and Hikvision were being removed. “[The security services] established that entrance codes were hacked and connection was made to equipment installed by these two companies,” Mamka said, in an interview mediated by a translator. Mamka said security services identified in 2024 that the cameras had been hacked, apparently by the Russian army, to spy on defensive positions. Footage of missile strikes, apparently from CCTV cameras, has also appeared on video streaming sites, which Kuprienko said was part of Russian psychological warfare, designed to intimidate Ukrainian civilians. Hikvision and Dahua did not return requests for comment. An email to a representative of the authority responsible for stewardship of the Parthenon went unanswered.

Starmer hopes his China trip will begin the thaw after recent ice age

The last British prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018. Before the visit, she and her team were advised to get dressed under the covers because of the risk of hidden cameras having been placed in their hotel rooms to record compromising material. Keir Starmer, in Beijing this week, was more sanguine about his privacy, even though the security risks have, if anything, increased since the former Tory prime minister was in town. China has been accused of spying on parliament, has sanctioned British MPs and peers, engaged in severe cyber-attacks, adopted aggressive trade practices and generally been, in the government’s own words, an “epoch-defining challenge”. “I can confirm that I didn’t,” Starmer replied to whether he had taken refuge while getting dressed. “I’ve always said that we need to seize the opportunities, mindful of our national security.” The prime minister’s instincts are indicative of his broader approach to balancing the risks on this trip – one of the most significant of his time in office. After years of what Starmer has described as the “ice age” in relations between the UK and China, it was intended to begin the thaw. But for all the potential offered by closer ties with the world’s second-biggest economy for a country desperate for growth, Beijing does not open the doors for nothing. While officials stress there was no political involvement, the UK’s decision to green-light the new Chinese mega-embassy in London smoothed the way. After that, Starmer was given the full works: ceremonial welcome, military march-past, lavish banquet, praise from his host and, crucially , more than three hours of talks with President Xi Jinping. The prime minister appeared to be getting into the spirit. When Xi’s business secretary greeted him with a deep bow, Starmer looked quizzically at Peter Kyle, his British counterpart. Kyle managed a polite nod. While there were some tangible gains from the trip – a visa waiver, cuts to whisky tariffs, investment in China by British firms – it was the 10 different agreements signed that will really make the difference. One British official described them as “jam tomorrow” deals. But the Chinese state is such a bureaucratic monolith that unless the man at the top is signed up, British businesses will struggle to get access to the market. So while some back home may have asked “was that it?”, in No 10’s view what mattered was the turning up – and a “more sophisticated” future relationship. “This trip is just the start,” Kyle told a reception at the British embassy on Thursday night. But a more sophisticated relationship means not just cosying up to China for the sake of our domestic economy – and ending up in a second “golden age” despite Beijing’s aggression. Before the trip, the prime minister promised he would raise “issues that need to be raised” – including the fate of pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai and the persecuted Uyghur community. He did raise them, but whether that will have any effect has yet to be seen. There was one clear breakthrough: China lifted its sanctions on six serving British parliamentarians. While Starmer will be leaving China for the next leg of his trip on Saturday, he will feel that it is job done. Of course, deepening bilateral relations does not happen in a vacuum, as Donald Trump reminded the UK with his usual bluntness. Starmer’s attempts were “very dangerous”, he warned. It is the US president’s unreliability, however, that encourages “middle powers” such as Britain, France and Canada to consider their options. China spies an opportunity. But the biggest challenge for the prime minister waits back at home. While he is at his most comfortable – and some say most effective – on the international stage, it is not lost on his team that he is seen as the very opposite in the UK. While leadership speculation has abated while he has been out of the country, it has not gone away. When he returns to Westminster on Monday, his many political and policy problems await him. He has had a confidence boost in China, and is more intent than ever to keep calm and carry on. But he may not get long to do so. On Wednesday afternoon, as the British Airways plane carrying Starmer and his delegation began its descent into Beijing, a familiar voice came over the cabin’s public address system. It was the prime minister. “Sit back, enjoy the rest of the flight – I’ll be bringing the plane in from here,” he joked. It remains unclear whether he’ll be able to deliver a safe landing at home.

‘It’s like a gift from God’: undocumented foreign workers welcome Spanish amnesty

Not everyone has been enthused by the Spanish government’s decision this week to buck European political trends by announcing plans to regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers to boost “economic growth and social cohesion”. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s party (PP), described the move as a reward for “illegality” that would bring more people into the country and “overwhelm our public services”. Santiago Abascal, who leads the far-right Vox party, attacked the measure as a nefarious effort to facilitate an “invasion” designed to replace Spaniards with foreigners. But for the young Bangladeshi man sitting in a cramped NGO office in central Madrid on a rainy Thursday, the announcement was nothing short of a miracle. For him, the decree raises the prospect of a future that need not be spent pounding the streets and selling cheap umbrellas in all weather to earn between €200 (£173) and €400 a month. “I don’t have my papers so I can’t get a proper job,” said the man, who came to Spain 14 months ago and asked not to be named. “I really worry about paying my rent and I’m also trying to support my wife and daughter, who I left behind. I can’t get public housing or go to the doctor. I’m out on the street all day in the rain and the cold and the sun, just trying to earn a living.” That, he added, was why he had been so delighted by Tuesday’s announcement. “I’m so excited,” he said. “It’s like a gift from God that will help keep me going.” Sitting next to him, Mohammed Elahi Alam Alam, the president of the Valiente Bangla Association, which works to help undocumented migrants, also welcomed the decision by the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE), saying it was long overdue recognition of reality. It was also a necessary counter to Vox’s stated intention of deporting 8 million people of foreign origin, including their Spanish-born children. “There are people who don’t want immigrants here – the fascists – but who’s going to work in the fields?” Alam asked. “Immigrants. Who’s going to work in the restaurants? Immigrants. Who’s going to look after people’s families? Immigrants.” Evidence of Valiente Bangla’s multi-faceted outreach work crammed Alam’s office: sacks of potatoes for communal, charitable meals; megaphones; children’s toys; and a stack of Spanish language books. Many of those eligible for regularisation, however, will not need to work on their Spanish. Rosa (not her real name), who came to Spain from her home country of Colombia almost two years ago, is one of the huge number of Latin American women who work informally as cleaners, cooks and carers. Many are badly paid and some are mistreated by their employers. Rosa said: “A lot of us have sacrificed so much to come here in search of a better life and yet some days you get up and think: ‘I just can’t do this any longer – I’m going to go back.’ “Some people deliberately hire undocumented people because they know they won’t need to pay them what they should or cover their social security.” For Rosa, the regularisation programme is the chance to get a job that pays more than €120 a week, and to access the protections and benefits enjoyed by legal workers. Despite the shrill political opposition to regularisation, it is far from unprecedented in Spain; PP and socialist governments enacted similar programmes between 1986 and 2005. Research suggests such initiatives can yield economic benefits for newly legalised workers and for government coffers. Joan Monràs, one of the authors of a study into the 2005 regularisation of almost 600,000 non-EU immigrants, said tax revenues increased by about €4,000 per regularised immigrant a year, adding that the policy had not led to “magnet effects” in encouraging further arrivals. “The first part of the paper looked at whether there was a ‘pull effect’ or not and we concluded that there wasn’t … there was no relative change in the flow of migrants,” said the labour economist. “Something else we saw very clearly was that the career paths of immigrants who entered the social security system improved significantly. A good example of this was domestic workers who entered the labour market. After starting off working for families, within six months, they’d started working for larger companies and earning higher salaries.” The decree is also not the first time the administration of Pedro Sánchez has defended the moral and economic case for immigration as Spain struggles with an ageing population and low birthrate. He said in October 2024: “Throughout history, migration has been one of the great drivers of the development of nations while hatred and xenophobia have been – and continue to be – the greatest destroyer of nations. The key is in managing it well.” But his government’s words and policies have infuriated the far right in Spain and beyond, and fake news stories about the regularisation have proliferated on social media. Although the measure will confer official resident status on successful applicants, it will not give them citizenship and the accompanying right to vote in general elections. On X this week, Elon Musk reposted a claim that Sánchez was using the move to conduct “electoral engineering” adding: “Wow.” Sánchez reposted the SpaceX tycoon’s comment with a reply of his own: “Mars can wait. Humanity can’t.” Amid the squabbling and point-scoring, some of those who have spent years campaigning for regularisation have called for reflection about what the decree means and why it is needed. Catholic groups, including the migration department of the Spanish conference of bishops, see the measure as “an act of social justice and recognition of so many migrants who, through their work, have long contributed to the development of our country, even at the cost of keeping them in an irregular situation”. Edith Espínola, a spokesperson for the Regularisation Now! movement, said the decree would go a long way to restoring the rights that so many people had lost when they crossed borders in search of safety or a better life. “Regularisation makes you feel like a citizen and a person,” she said. “It stops you feeling like an object and it lets you fight for your rights. You know those rights are yours but they’re never really yours until you have a plastic card that says you’re a resident of this country.” Regularisation, she added, allowed people to work, study and live with dignity. “It means that you can break through that invisible border. It means you can feel a little bit more human from the moment that you have that plastic card.”

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy fears rising US-Iran tensions will scupper key peace talks in UAE

Rising tensions over possible US strikes on Iran have injected fresh uncertainty into the plans for senior Ukrainian and Russian officials to meet in Abu Dhabi this weekend for another round of talks. “The date or the location may change,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “From our point of view, something is happening in the situation between the United States and Iran, and those developments could affect the timing.” “It is very important for us that everyone we agreed with be present at the meeting, because everyone is expecting feedback,” Zelenskyy told reporters in remarks released by his office on Friday. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who attended the previous round of talks, would not participate in the weekend meeting in Abu Dhabi. In Moscow, two sources told Reuters that Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, would travel to Miami on Saturday for meetings with members of Trump’s administration. Ahead of the possible talks, there has been a notable reduction in attacks by Russia and Ukraine against each other as Ukraine continues to experience one of its coldest winters in decades, with many people living without electricity and heating. The Ukrainian capital is bracing for an especially cold spell from Sunday, with temperatures forecast to fall as low as -26C. Zelenskyy said he was waiting to see if Russia would observe a proposed pause in strikes on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, saying on Friday there was no formal ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia, Pjotr Sauer writes. But Zelenskyy said Kyiv would halt such strikes if Moscow did the same. Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that Vladimir Putin had agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for a week. The Kremlin has acknowledged the request but declined to say whether the Russian president had agreed to it. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov indicated the measure would end on Sunday. Zelenskky noted on Friday that in all regions, “there were indeed no strikes on energy facilities from Thursday night to Friday”. “Ukraine is ready in reciprocal terms to refrain from strikes and today we did not strike at Russian energy facilities,” he said. Incoming Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten – whose D66 party struck a minority coalition deal to form a government this week – said he opposed the suggestion by some European Union leaders that the EU should reopen diplomatic channels with Russia so that Donald Trump could not set the tone for talks with Moscow. Jetten pledged that his new government would continue to support Kyiv and said he would not speak to Moscow because there were currently “no indications” Russia wanted to end the war in Ukraine. “And as long as the aggression continues, we will continue our support for the Ukrainian people.” He also said Europeans should have “a much stronger debate about what can Europe do for itself,” and stop looking at the US under Trump. Meanwhile, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán has stepped up his opposition to Ukraine joining the EU, claiming the bloc was looking to admit the country in 2027 to help it benefit from the next seven-year financial budget. His comments come after Zelenskyy repeated his target to join the EU in 2027, despite some scepticism in the bloc about the accelerated process that would be required. Orbán’s comments will probably be seen as part of an increasingly fierce campaign ahead of this April’s critical parliamentary election in Hungary, which could see him ousted after 16 years in office.

Trump says he believes Iran wants to make deal as he extols size of US ‘armada’

Donald Trump has said he believes Tehran wants to make a deal to head off a regional conflict, as he claimed the US “armada” near Iran was bigger than the taskforce deployed to topple Venezuela’s leader. “We have a large armada, flotilla, call it whatever you want, heading toward Iran right now, even larger than what we had in Venezuela,” the US president told reporters on Friday. “Hopefully we’ll make a deal. If we do make a deal, that’s good. If we don’t make a deal, we’ll see what happens.” He declined to say whether he planned a repeat of the military operation in Venezuela in which US forces captured and renditioned the president, Nicolás Maduro. “I don’t want to talk about anything having to do with what I’m doing militarily,” he said. His comments came after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was ready to negotiate with the US, but only if talks were not under duress and did not extend to Iran’s missile programme. After meetings with Turkish diplomats, Araghchi said Iran was “ready to begin negotiations if they take place on an equal footing, based on mutual interests and mutual respect”. He said there were no immediate plans to meet US officials, adding: “I want to state firmly that Iran’s defensive and missile capabilities will never be subject to negotiation.” Araghchi said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran, just as it is ready for negotiations, is also ready for war.” Trump said on Thursday he hoped to avoid military action, even as the US deployed another warship to the Middle East, joining the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers. But his precise objectives remain unclear. Speaking at the premiere of the documentary Melania, the US president told reporters Iran had to do “two things” to avoid military action. “Number one, no nuclear. And number two, stop killing protesters,” saying that “they are killing them by the thousands”. He added: “We have a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now, and it would be great if we didn’t have to use them.” Iran has blamed the US and Israel for the protests that erupted in late December over economic grievances, and were brutally suppressed. Activist groups estimate as many as 30,000 people were killed in the ensuing crackdown. On Saturday, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and Europe had stirred tensions in the protests and “provoked” people. The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said the resumption of talks between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear programme was “vital for reducing regional tensions”. Speaking alongside Araghchi, he claimed Israel was pushing for the US to attack Iran, and urged Washington to “act with common sense and not allow this to happen”. In a call with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he was willing to act as a mediator between Iran and the US. From Iran’s perspective, the US is piling ever more demands on Tehran that if all were implemented would spell the end of its sovereignty. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has called for an end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the transfer of its existing stock of highly enriched uranium out of the country, limits on Iran’s missile programme and an end to support for proxy groups in countries such as Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. Araghchi held separate phone calls with his counterparts from Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Turkey. All the Arab states have insisted their air ground facilities cannot be used by the US to attack Iran. In Turkey, Araghchi criticised Thursday’s decision by the EU, likely to be followed by the UK, to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. He said: “The truth is that Europe is a declining continent and has lost its role on the international level and is losing it more and more every day, and it is surprising that they themselves are fuelling this process. This shows that Europe has neither a correct understanding of the international situation, nor a correct understanding of the conditions in our region, nor a correct understanding of its own interests. The decision they made was a major strategic mistake.” Araghchi did not spell out what reprisals were being considered, but the UK Foreign Office has always worried such a move would lead Iran to break off diplomatic relations. But Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s national security council, said in future Tehran would treat the armies of Europe as terrorists. The Iranian supreme leader’s representative in the IRGC said the European action would have serious consequences for the EU. On Friday, the US followed the EU in imposing sanctions against Iran’s interior minister, accusing Eskandar Momeni of repressing the nationwide protests. The sanctions come as anger grows inside Iran that the supposedly reformist government allowed such large-scale killings. In a statement, the Reform Front, a reformist umbrella body, called for “an independent fact-finding committee to investigate this unprecedented disaster and present a transparent and candid report to the Iranian nation”. It also called on the judiciary to refrain from “hasty rulings” against detainees, and said bereaved families must be allowed to freely mourn protesters who were killed in the crackdown.