9 30 p. M. In erans capital tehran. This is press tv news. Thanks for joining us. The mon chief has strongly criticized the west for trying to exert pressure on the Islamic Republic by abusing the mechanisms of the International Atomic energy agency. Muhammad islami says western countries resort to political means and sanctions to achieve their goal. He urged ia to maintain his impartiality and professionalism, and to not allow the west to use the agencies reports as an excuse to put pressure on tehran. Islamis said the west brutal political pressure on iran has been feudal and that the Islamic Republic will not leave such animosity unanswered. He was speaking in a meeting with the iea director general rafael amariano grossi on the sidelines of the 67th regular session of the agencies and general conference in viena. Early on monday, islami also raised the alarm about the threats posed by israels nuclear arsenal. The Islamic Republic of iran is the initiator of the notion of establishing a region free of Nuclear Weapons in the middle east, once again expresses its serious concerns about the secret militarized Nuclear Program of the zionist Israeli Regime. Unfortunately, by refusing to join the. This regime has not placed its Nuclear Activities in sites under the safeguard system, as a result, it is considered an internal threat to International Peace and security. Islamy added that israel continues terrorist measures against Iranian Nuclear scientists and the countrys Peaceful Nuclear sides. Irans nuclear chief called on the iaa to show a serious reaction to such moves. He also condemned recent remarks by the. Israely Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu what said that iran quote must face a credible nuclear threat. Undoubtedly the silence of the International Community in the face of the repeated threats issued by this regime has resulted in its recent brazenness. It is evident that the Islamic Republic of iran reserves the right to respond to the brazenness of the zionist regime. Islam me also touched upon washingtons unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 deal known as the jcpoa. He stressed the us sanctions have failed to prevent the development of irans peaceful Nuclear Program. Israels have again attacked eastern gaza. This is the fourth day in arrow that the regime has launched aerial aggression on the besideged. Strip, our gaza correspondent, ashhaf shanan tells us more. Once again, the israele regime, drones attacked hamas security posts in the east, they fired at least for four rockets towards that area east of gaza, this has protested protest where were there today, for for almost the 14th day in a row. Protesting against the Israeli Occupation and Israeli Settlers the secretion of a mask compound as today was the the the the climax of of of the desecration of mask by by extremely jewish settlers in in occupied alquds just after shooting one of the protested the chest and quickly injuring him they attacks by thone happened in the east of the enclave, the Hamas Movement reacted to the to the to the attacks on the protesters and the and the security post by saying that the palestinians will not be scared. By such attacks and they will continue all forms of resistance against the Israeli Occupation for the sake of protecting aqsa mask and alquds. Theres been much speculation about the possibility. Of israel and saudi arabia normalizing relations these days from the saudies abandoning talks with israel to both israel and saudi arabia sounding optimistic about possible reconciliation, one viewpoint holds true across the spectrum, any reconciliation with the Israeli Regime is a stab in the back of palestinians. But i believe that we are at the cusp of even more. Dramatic breakthrough, an historic peace between israel and saudi arabia, the israeli Prime Minister netanyahu on israels saudi normalization, and here he is again, i think that under your leadership, mr. President , we can forge a historic peace between israel and saudi arabia, the Saudi Crown Prince seems echo the same sentiment, every day we get closer, it seems its for the first time. Real one, serious, we got to see how it goes. Two problems here first, just days ago, it was said the saudi arabia had abandoned any normalization talks with israel, which was reported widely, yet when the Saudi Crown Prince was asked about it, he said, there were reports that you had suspended talks, no, no, thats thats not true, the soudy crown prince, however has said the issue of palestine is of utmost importance. For us the palestinian issue is very important, we need to solve that part. Question is, how important is it a nonnegotiable or is it open for negotiations . We have a good negotiations, continue, now comes the saudi foren minister, this to say about it at the unga podium, في اقامه دولته المستقله على حدود عام 1967, وعاسمه to paraphrase his statements, peace that allows Palestinian People to have an independent state, without boots as his capital. If thats the case, israeli reconciliation is a nonstarter. Theres no way that neither the israeli Prime Minister, nor his far right extreme fascist cabinet would agree to it. So what is the deal . Why is saudi arabia wasting time talking to israel . How can netanyahu say that he cares about the palestinian cause, yet say this about their position, but i also believe that we must not give the palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with arab states, and while talking about the importance of palestinians, his forces, murdering palestinians, just today, two shot in the head, buldozing their homes and detaining them. Is saudi arabia serious . It may reconcile with this aparthide regime . They in washington have ratcheted up the push for the saudi israel normalization as part of the socalled abrahams accord. So far, the uae, bahrain, sudan and morocco have signed accords with israel. Theres widspread consensus that these countries have abandoned the palestinian cause by signing this accorded. Incredible nuclear threat. The israeli Prime Minister was up to his old antix at the unga podium, using his props to make point, a red marker and a piece of cardboard. Today i bring this marker to show a great blessing, the blessing of new middle east. This new middle east that he talks about, referred to by iran as west asia, has already happened, its called the iran saudi reconciliation. Further proof of that, irans foreign minister, hooking up with the saudi fm in new york, on the sidelines of the nga, where there was talk about a comprehensive cooperation agreements with riyab, but theres no denying there is a conflict of interests when it comes to saudi, iran reconciliation, versus a possible saudi detante with israel, more ways than one. The iranian president had this to say about the possible. روابت با رژیم سییونیستی کشورهای منطقه این خنجریست از پشت بر مردم فلسطین و به مقاومت فلسطینییان and what about the us and the us president joeden. Whose hand the Saudi Crown Prince has rejected on more than one occasion. The us has been more cautious than the upbeat assessment of israel, saying things like a breakthrough is far away, and steep obstacles remain. But perhaps point overlooked by the media may provide a window into what the real intentions of the us is. One of the reasons behind the us enthusiasm behind the normalization, countering chinas inroads in the persian. This with clear reference to chinas belt and road initiative, a stance supported by the israeli Prime Minister, great promise, in the g20 meeting that you participated and led, you spoke about economic corridor that would link uh asia, the middle east and europe together, and such a corridor will make a very important hub a highway of. Us and israel through the trade route, as shown here, want to stand up to chinas one belt, one road initiative, and as the saying goes, kill two birds with one stone through this strategy, but will it work . Consider this china is saudi arabias Number One Oil customer. Saudi arabia has just become a new bricks member. Saudi arabia is reconciled with iran, with many pgcc persian gulf countries. Have done the same or are in the process of doing that with iran. Thats called the new world order. It would be wiser for netanyahu to reconcile his own people who have protested for over 30 weeks before aspiring to reconcile with saudi arabia. While theyre speaking and while we hope. Tensions remain high between china and the us over their rivalry in the asia pacific. Beijing has once again warned washington against this efforts to counter chinas influence and to extend germany in that region. For minister wangi said china will stand against what he called the wanten expansion of military alliances and the squeezing of the security space of other countries. The warning exit chinas long Health Criticism of uss efforts to show up. Alliances in the region enable the Chinese Defense minister said establishing natolike military alliances in the asia pacific will plunge the region into a worple of conflicts. Meanwile the Chinese Ministry spokesmanged washington to abandon his cold warm and to refrain from provoking an arms race in asia. China hopes that when developing bilateral relations and conduct military cooperation countries will effectively abide by the basic norms of international relations. And then hegemoneny and cold war thinking, stop provoking confrontation and stimulating arms races and do not harm regional peace, stability, development and prosperity. Wang was responding to a question about reported talks between the us and vietnam for an arms deal. Last week, american officials said the administration of President Joe Biden is negotiating to supply vietnam, the large arms package, including f16 fighter jets. The deal could probably be the largest arms. A transfer history between the two countries. Ding hang is a political commentator and radio host who joins us from beijing. Welcome to the program, so were looking at another country that uh appears theres to be an arms deal with the us, in this case vietnam being that country. Um, now obviously theres a dispute that uh is in the works here, which uh covers the spratley islands and the parasol islands, so thats on the one hand, of which there has been speculation about some kind of conflict maybe breaking out with china, but i think the us has bigger plans uh than just that uh when it comes to this possible deal. Tell us first of all your impression of this deal and uh how the us is adding another country with a what appears to be a massive arms deal, at least in terms of these two countries is the biggest one in their history. Well, i think first of all, it is an open secret. That the us military industrial complex, lets put it in this way, represents a big shadow in washingtons foreign policy, thats true in any administrations era, and so more regional tensions elsewhere are of course in the interest of the us military industrial complex, because as a result they will gain from this, they will get access to more business opportunities, thats for sure, and um, i think from chinas perspective. This is really uh looking to be part of the Biden Administrations effort to show up alliances and partnerships in the Asia Pacific Region to counter china. Washington has been doing this since biden came into office by seeking to work in with uh countries like japan, south korea as well as the philippines etc etc. Now rhetorically the Biden Administration shows claim that they want to stabilize the ties was china, but their real action sometimes would give you a different impression, and thats being said, i think um, really realistically speaking, vietnam is unlikely to board the us. As vessel when we talk about contering china or containing china in this region not only because of the you know brutal history between vietnam and and and the united states, but also realistically between china and the vietnam, there is huge economic and trade here. Chinese companies are investing in large quantities in vietnam and many western based multinational uh companies have supply chains in both china and vietnam and they. Depend a good connection and relations between these two countries uh to maintain their business, their International Business competitiveness. So yeah, like i mentioned earlier, this territorial maritime dispute on the South China Sea is one thing, is one effect, but really it is un to hijack, you know the the the relations between china and the vietnam, and also i think we need to keep in mind that there are news reports indicating that vietnam is actually seeking fighterjats and other kinds of arms from both, washington and moscow, so even on security issues, even for security related matters, vietnam appears to be putting its acts on more than one basket. Well, since you mentioned russia, russia provided 80 of vietnams defense equipment, and what the us is doing, which it calls it an upgrade, is to uh give that uh in terms of monthly installments in terms of uh the math there and the payments in order to uh scoop uh vietnam away to. Push it away from uh russian sphere of defense spending uh but you know uh just to expand a little bit more about what vietnam and the us may um eventually um culminate into a sale here the us used to sell a coast ships and Trainer Aircraft now its going to be selling f16s uh that sounds like huge not not an upgrade but when you take a look at what the f16s as the name uh suggests its their fighter jets. So it puts into question the militarization of that region, for example, japan, defense spending, i think uh, the biggest in their history, 40 increase, and uh, youre looking at south korea and other countries that are allies of the us, um, is the us looking a long, long longterm goal goal of a possible military confrontation with uh china, which it is stated at some point or another, it doesnt want to do that, but it may be inevitable, maybe. Yeah, thats uh, thats one way to look at it, but i think thats this kind of um, this recent you know developments talking about and some of the other related issues, i think these things really does not help washington say to push forward a bigger agenda in terms of hurdling china from becoming next to world number one power, etc. Etc. Uh, first of all, please allow me to clarify that beijing has never said that. China wants to become the next and number one power across the world. I think during the recent break summit in south africa and johannesburg, chinese president shin ping makes very clear that chandramonism was never and has never been in in the dna and of china. And i think what the us really needs to do is to somehow increase its Economic Engagement in the Asia Pacific Region rather than selling more weapons. Why doesnt it do that then . I mean, im looking at the other countries in the region im just guessing when they look at this uh possible confrontation between the us and china, i dont think any of them want to war in their backyard, but uh, you dont, theres not really as you just said diplomatic efforts from the us, at least economically engage with this countries a higher level, either to match whatever china is doing in terms of its Economic Activity or even even better, its its more the other way around, like military selles, possibly to be a. In this case, yeah, so i guess uh, you know, military cell is now something that china welcomes, but when we talk about say us promise to invest more on Development Issues in asia countries, thats something that even china welcomes, although china have its own Initiative Like the baltin of road to help other countries develop, but i guess from chinas perspective, anyones promise to uh to help enhance the prosperity in a less developed department. The world is something that china always welcomes, so by sending more weapons to the region, that will only increase regional attention. Now this is not suggesting that disputes dont exist here in the. Asia pacific without us weapons, however, i feel like my my observation is really the pursuit of economic cooperation, Economic Development, rather than group politics, say blog confrontation, thats really the main focus, Economic Development is the main focus of asia, this can be seen from the fact, for example, the worlds biggest free trade deal arset belongs to this particular region, and i guess the imf has predicted earlier this year. That asia pacific would contribute some 70 the Global Growth uh this year, so i guess most Asian Countries really dont want to see a scenario in which their focus on Development Issues is derailed by any you know unfriendly or provocative policy by any external power. Thank you so much for that ding hang, political commentator and radio host there from beijing, thank you. Moving on, the cost of living crisis in the uk, isnt just making life difficult, but also shorter, thats according t