WATCH PRESS TV NEWS HEADLINES

Here is a brief look at Press TV newsroom's headlines from 1800 GMT, January 13, 2019 to 0800 GMT, January 14, 2019.

Iran designing modern nuclear fuel

Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, says Tehran is designing modern uranium fuel with a purity of 20 percent to feed the country’s reactors. Salehi said the preliminary steps to design the fuel have been taken, adding that the country is on the verge of producing it. Salehi said the Islamic Republic has made such progress in nuclear science and industry that, instead of reverse-engineering and copying foreign designs, it can now design its own fuel. The 2015 nuclear accord allows Iran to produce nuclear fuel under strict conditions that need to be approved by the signatories to the agreement. Those conditions include ensuring that the fuel cannot be converted to uranium hexafluoride, the feedstock for centrifuges that enrich uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly confirmed Iran's commitment to the deal.

Israel-Egypt ties

An Israeli minister is on an official visit to Cairo days after the Egyptian president acknowledged close bilateral cooperation with Tel Aviv. Israel's energy minister is in Egypt to attend a regional forum on natural gas. Yuval Steinitz said the trip was planned upon an invitation from the Egyptian government. Steinitz also underlined that development of gas fields has geopolitical and geostrategic value for regional economic ties. Relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv have warmed in recent years especially in the fields of energy. In 2018, an Egyptian company signed a 15-billion-dollar deal to purchase natural gas from a US-Israeli consortium. Egyptian people are largely opposed to the normalization of ties with Tel Aviv in the absence of any resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Republicans oppose Trump

Senior US Republicans oppose President Donald Trump’s possible declaration of a national emergency to secure funds for his controversial border wall plan. Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee Senator Ron Johnson said he would hate to see Trump invoke emergency powers for a wall. The warning was echoed by number 2 House Republican Representative Steve Scalise. Trump has been at odds with Congress over the budgeting of the wall he plans to build on the border with Mexico. Trump has threatened an emergency declaration to end the standoff which has led to a prolonged government shutdown. The idea has already been strongly rejected by Democrats. Trump’s critics say the move would be constitutional overreach and set a dangerous precedent.

US alarms Turkey

The US president has warned Turkey against launching attacks against Kurdish forces in the wake of Washington’s military pullout from Syria. In a tweet, Donald Trump warned Turkey of economic devastation if it attacks US-backed Kurdish militias. He, however, also urged the Kurds not to provoke Ankara. US secretary of state, who is on a whirlwind regional tour, also sought to reassure Washington's Kurdish allies, who fear the pullout would allow Turkey to attack them. Turkey has reacted angrily to suggestions that Trump's withdrawal plan was conditional on the safety of the Kurdish militants. Ankara is critical of the US support for the Syrian Democratic Forces, arguing that terrorists make up the backbone of the Kurdish-dominated alliance.

Mass strike in Los Angeles 

More than 30,000 teachers from public schools across Los Angeles are expected to go on a strike on Monday. The educators’ decision came after negotiations between teachers and LA Unified School District hit the snag. The teachers’ union wants a 6.5 percent hike that would take effect all at once and be retroactive to fiscal year 2017. The district rejected the proposal but issued a new offer which was then declined by the union. Schools will stay open if a walkout happens. The district, with more than 6-hundred-thousand students, has hired hundreds of substitutes to replace teachers and others who would go on strike.

Turkey-US tensions

Turkey’s presidential spokesman says the US should honor the strategic partnership between the two countries. Ibrahim Kalin made the comment in a tweet after US President Donald Trump threatened to devastate Turkey’s economy if it attacks Kurds in Syria. Kalin said it is a fatal mistake to equate Syrian Kurds with the Kurdistan Workers' Party militants. He described the PKK as well as PYD and YPG Kurdish militants in Syria as terrorists. Turkey has reacted angrily to suggestions that the US military withdrawal from Syria is conditional on the safety of the Kurdish militants. Ankara is critical of the US support for the Syrian Democratic Forces, arguing that terrorists make up the backbone of the Kurdish-dominated alliance.

Iran-Iraq ties

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has kicked off his five-day trip to Iraq with a meeting with his counterpart Mohamad Ali Al-Hakim. Zarif is leading a delegation of businessmen and dignitaries in his trip that would also take him to Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Karbala and Najaf. Ali Mousawi has more in this report from Baghdad.

Macron launches 'national debate'

French President Emmanuel Macron has released a letter, launching a two-month great national debate aimed to quell weeks of anti-government protests. Macron made an appeal to the people of France in his letter, spelling out the questions underpinning his great national debate. He said the debate is neither an election nor a referendum and it would revolve around 35 questions on issues such as taxation, democracy, the environment and immigration. The letter comes after the ninth consecutive Saturday of nationwide yellow vest protests. The demonstrations started in mid-November as a simple protest against planned fuel price hikes, but soon morphed into mass demonstrations against government policies.

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