Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Tag: Antony Blinken
-
Israel says counterstrike against Iran limited to
Israel says counterstrike against Iran limited to “military targets” – CBS News
-
U.S. tries to secure cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas as violence surges in Middle East
U.S. tries to secure cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas as violence surges in Middle East – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
-
Myanmar violence, South China Sea tensions are top issues as Southeast Asian diplomats meet in Laos
VIENTIANE – Southeast Asian foreign ministers and top diplomats from key partners including the United States and China were gathering in the Laotian capital on Thursday for the start of three days of talks expected to focus on the increasingly violent civil war in Myanmar, tensions in the South China Sea and other regional issues.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are expected to hold one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Vientiane, which come as both Beijing and Washington are looking to expand their influence in the region.
Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith thanked ASEAN members and partners for their “unwavering collective effort” that has led to its past achievements and emphasized the importance of the bloc’s continuous work to promote peace and stability.
“In light of the rapid and complex geopolitical and geoeconomic changes, we need to further enhance ASEAN centrality and unity so as to promote the relevance and resilience of ASEAN, aiming at addressing emerging challenges and seizing opportunity in the future,” he said in the opening statement.
For the ASEAN nations — Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos — the violence in Myanmar is at the top of the agenda as the bloc struggles to implement its “five-point consensus” for peace.
The plan calls for the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties. The military leadership in Myanmar has so far ignored the plan and has raised questions about the bloc’s efficiency and credibility to mediate for peace.
Broader talks, including diplomats from elsewhere in the region including Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, are expected to focus on issues including the economy, security, climate and energy.
Regional issues, including Cambodia’s decision to build a canal off the Mekong River that Vietnam, which is downstream, worries could have ecological and security implications, as well as massive dam building projects in Laos further upstream could also feature in the meetings.
In Myanmar, the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis.
In an effort to put pressure on Myanmar, ASEAN has prohibited it from sending any political representatives to top-level meetings, and it has sent bureaucrats instead. Aung Kyaw Moe, the permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry, represents the country in this week’s meetings, which run through Saturday.
More than 5,400 people have been killed in the fighting in Myanmar and the military government has arrested more than 27,000 since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. In addition, there are now more than 3 million displaced people in the country, with the numbers growing daily as fighting intensifies between the military and Myanmar’s multiple ethnic militias as well as the so-called people’s defense forces of military opponents.
As the needs of civilians grow, discussions on humanitarian assistance to Myanmar will also be a focus of the ASEAN talks, Bolbongse Vangphaen, head of the Thai Foreign Ministry’s department for ASEAN, told reporters ahead of the meetings.
Thailand, which shares a long border with Myanmar, has already been heavily involved in providing humanitarian assistance, and Bolbongse said the country is ready to support the next phase of delivery being planned by the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management.
He did not say when or where the aid delivery would be.
Thailand initiated its first delivery of aid to Myanmar in March from the northern province of Tak. It was said to be distributed in Kayin state to approximately 20,000 out of millions of people displaced by fighting.
Landlocked Laos is the bloc’s poorest nation and one of its smallest, and many have expressed skepticism about how much it can accomplish while the crises mount. But it is also the first ASEAN chair that shares a border with Myanmar. Laos has already sent a special envoy to Myanmar for meetings with the head of the ruling military council and other top officials in an attempt to make progress on the peace plan.
ASEAN also has introduced a mechanism of trilateral informal consultation among its current, past, and future chairs, specifically for ensuring continuity in its response to the situation in Myanmar. The troika met for the first time on Wednesday, attended by Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Wednesday after the meeting that she raised concerns about increasing numbers of cross-border crimes and refugees that resulted from a crisis in Myanmar. She said she urged ASEAN to “promote trust and confidence building through a balanced and low-key approach” to foster an inclusive dialogue among all relevant stakeholders in Myanmar.
“The worsening conditions in Myanmar have a direct impact on efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region,” she said.
Dulyapak Preecharush, a professor of Southeast Asia Studies at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, said ASEAN is not the only stakeholder when it comes to Myanmar, with China and India also major players — and both attending the ASEAN meetings.
Progress on Myanmar “needs to start with countries that share borders with Myanmar, such as China, India and Thailand, to find a joint consensus to address the problems” before expanding to other countries, he said.
In other issues, ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei are locked in maritime disputes with China over its claims of sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most crucial waterways for shipping. Indonesia has also expressed concern about what it sees as Beijing’s encroachment on its exclusive economic zone.
An estimated $5 trillion in international trade passes through the South China Sea each year. China has been increasingly involved in direct confrontations, most notably with the Philippines and Vietnam.
This year, tensions between the Philippines and China have escalated, with Chinese coast guard and other forces using powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking maneuvers to prevent food and other supplies from reaching Filipino navy personnel.
The Philippines, a treaty partner with the U.S., has been critical of other ASEAN countries for not doing more to get China to back away from its increasingly assertive approach.
China and the Philippines said Sunday they have reached a deal that they hope will end the confrontations, aiming to establish a mutually acceptable arrangement at the disputed area without conceding either side’s territorial claims.
The rare deal could spark hope that similar arrangements could be forged by Beijing with other countries to avoid clashes while thorny territorial issues remain unresolved.
ASEAN has been working with China to produce a South China Sea code of conduct, which is expected to be part of the talks in Vientiane.
___
Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
___
This story has been corrected to show Indonesia’s foreign minister is a woman.
___
Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Jintamas Saksornchai, Associated Press
Source link -
Ex-Ukrainian president says US delay in war aid let Putin inflict more damage
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said the long delay by the U.S. Congress in approving military aid for his country was “a colossal waste of time,” allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to inflict more suffering in the two-year-old invasion and prolonging the war.The severe lack of ammunition, which forced outgunned Ukrainian forces to surrender village after village on the front lines, also sowed concern among Ukraine’s other Western allies about Kyiv’s prospects in repelling the Russian invasion, Yushchenko told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.That sent a signal to Putin to “attack, ruin infrastructure, rampage all over Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, a pro-European reformer who sought to distance Kyiv from Moscow during his 2005-2010 administration.”And, of course, this undermines the morale of those in the world who stand with and support Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, who was in Philadelphia to speak at a World Affairs Council event.The delay “is not fatal” to Ukraine, but it forced Ukraine’s war planners to revise the current year’s campaign, he said. Yushchenko has backed the handling of the war by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and has asserted that no Ukrainian politician would give up territory in order to end the war.Yushchenko said it would be a “big mistake” for the U.S. and Europe to expect such a deal for peace, and would only embolden Putin to attack again.It would, he said, “give Putin five or seven years to get stronger and then start this misery again.”On the battlefield, Russia is pushing ahead with a ground offensive that opened a new front in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and put pressure on overstretched Ukrainian forces. Yushchenko urged Western allies to make political decisions faster to aid Ukraine in a fight that soldiers are waging every day around the clock.”The front line is working 24 hours, it doesn’t take vacation,” he said.After the U.S. aid was approved last month, President Joe Biden said he was immediately rushing badly needed weaponry to Ukraine as he signed into law a $61 billion war aid measure for Ukraine. Without it, CIA Director Bill Burns has said, Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.Still, only small batches of U.S. military aid have started to trickle into the front line, according to Ukrainian military commanders, who said it will take at least two months before supplies meet Kyiv’s needs to hold the line. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the Biden administration was “trying to really accelerate the tempo” of U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine following the monthslong delay by Congress. “The level of intensity being exhibited right now in terms of moving stuff is at a 10 out of 10,” he said. The U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support.Biden and Ukraine’s allies in Congress pushed for months to overcome resistance from hard-right Republican lawmakers in the House over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion.Final action only came after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed past that opposition last month to bring Ukraine aid to a vote.The funding impasse dated back to August, when Biden made his first emergency spending request for Ukraine. Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, the U.S. has sent more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine. Yushchenko acknowledged the huge losses that Ukraine has suffered in over two years of war, costing lives every day and forcing regular Ukrainians to join the fight. But he said that he was ashamed to hear arguments about “war fatigue” and that it shouldn’t be an excuse to stop fighting.”Every day we pay with our lives,” Yushchenko said. “The lives of children and women, the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Our infrastructure is being destroyed every day.”Despite his harsh criticism of the U.S. delay in approving the latest military aid, Yushchenko acknowledged that Ukraine has been able to recapture a significant part of the occupied territory thanks to Western support.More gains can be achieved if the allies are united, Yushchenko said. “For Putin, the main geopolitical challenge is freedom and democracy. And today he is using all available resources to show that the Western world is weak” and unable to coalesce, Yushchenko said.He has said he believes victory for Ukraine is inevitable, given the sacrifice of the country’s citizens to fight, and sees the war as a larger, defining battle to defend democracy from tyranny and imperialism.Yushchenko came to power as a popular opposition leader in the 2004 Orange Revolution protests, beating Putin’s preferred candidate. As president he adamantly pushed to move Ukraine out of Moscow’s shadow and integrate more closely with Western Europe. But his presidency was marked by political skirmishing that paralyzed government and prevented any of his promised reforms from being passed. He lost power amid a plunging Ukrainian economy during the 2008 global financial crisis and tensions with Russia highlighted by a clash over gas prices.Yushchenko survived a dioxin poisoning during his 2004 election campaign, and several former Russian intelligence officers accused Moscow of being behind the poisoning.The poisoning forced Yushchenko to temporarily abandon campaign activities in the midst of Ukraine’s hotly contested presidential race, and severely disfigured his face. But it also earned him the sympathy of many Ukrainians. He has said he subsequently underwent more than two dozen surgeries. Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
PHILADELPHIA —Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said the long delay by the U.S. Congress in approving military aid for his country was “a colossal waste of time,” allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to inflict more suffering in the two-year-old invasion and prolonging the war.
The severe lack of ammunition, which forced outgunned Ukrainian forces to surrender village after village on the front lines, also sowed concern among Ukraine’s other Western allies about Kyiv’s prospects in repelling the Russian invasion, Yushchenko told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.
That sent a signal to Putin to “attack, ruin infrastructure, rampage all over Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, a pro-European reformer who sought to distance Kyiv from Moscow during his 2005-2010 administration.
“And, of course, this undermines the morale of those in the world who stand with and support Ukraine,” said Yushchenko, who was in Philadelphia to speak at a World Affairs Council event.
The delay “is not fatal” to Ukraine, but it forced Ukraine’s war planners to revise the current year’s campaign, he said.
Yushchenko has backed the handling of the war by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and has asserted that no Ukrainian politician would give up territory in order to end the war.
Yushchenko said it would be a “big mistake” for the U.S. and Europe to expect such a deal for peace, and would only embolden Putin to attack again.
It would, he said, “give Putin five or seven years to get stronger and then start this misery again.”
On the battlefield, Russia is pushing ahead with a ground offensive that opened a new front in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and put pressure on overstretched Ukrainian forces.
Yushchenko urged Western allies to make political decisions faster to aid Ukraine in a fight that soldiers are waging every day around the clock.
“The front line is working 24 hours, it doesn’t take vacation,” he said.
After the U.S. aid was approved last month, President Joe Biden said he was immediately rushing badly needed weaponry to Ukraine as he signed into law a $61 billion war aid measure for Ukraine. Without it, CIA Director Bill Burns has said, Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.
Still, only small batches of U.S. military aid have started to trickle into the front line, according to Ukrainian military commanders, who said it will take at least two months before supplies meet Kyiv’s needs to hold the line.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the Biden administration was “trying to really accelerate the tempo” of U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine following the monthslong delay by Congress. “The level of intensity being exhibited right now in terms of moving stuff is at a 10 out of 10,” he said.
The U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support.
Biden and Ukraine’s allies in Congress pushed for months to overcome resistance from hard-right Republican lawmakers in the House over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion.
Final action only came after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed past that opposition last month to bring Ukraine aid to a vote.
The funding impasse dated back to August, when Biden made his first emergency spending request for Ukraine. Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, the U.S. has sent more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine.
Yushchenko acknowledged the huge losses that Ukraine has suffered in over two years of war, costing lives every day and forcing regular Ukrainians to join the fight. But he said that he was ashamed to hear arguments about “war fatigue” and that it shouldn’t be an excuse to stop fighting.
“Every day we pay with our lives,” Yushchenko said. “The lives of children and women, the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Our infrastructure is being destroyed every day.”
Despite his harsh criticism of the U.S. delay in approving the latest military aid, Yushchenko acknowledged that Ukraine has been able to recapture a significant part of the occupied territory thanks to Western support.
More gains can be achieved if the allies are united, Yushchenko said.
“For Putin, the main geopolitical challenge is freedom and democracy. And today he is using all available resources to show that the Western world is weak” and unable to coalesce, Yushchenko said.
He has said he believes victory for Ukraine is inevitable, given the sacrifice of the country’s citizens to fight, and sees the war as a larger, defining battle to defend democracy from tyranny and imperialism.
Yushchenko came to power as a popular opposition leader in the 2004 Orange Revolution protests, beating Putin’s preferred candidate. As president he adamantly pushed to move Ukraine out of Moscow’s shadow and integrate more closely with Western Europe.
But his presidency was marked by political skirmishing that paralyzed government and prevented any of his promised reforms from being passed. He lost power amid a plunging Ukrainian economy during the 2008 global financial crisis and tensions with Russia highlighted by a clash over gas prices.
Yushchenko survived a dioxin poisoning during his 2004 election campaign, and several former Russian intelligence officers accused Moscow of being behind the poisoning.
The poisoning forced Yushchenko to temporarily abandon campaign activities in the midst of Ukraine’s hotly contested presidential race, and severely disfigured his face. But it also earned him the sympathy of many Ukrainians. He has said he subsequently underwent more than two dozen surgeries.
Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
-
Blinken delivers some of the strongest US public criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza
WILMINGTON, Del. – Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant “a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians” but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency.
In a pair of TV interviews, Blinken underscored that the United States believes Israeli forces should “get out of Gaza,” but also is waiting to see credible plans from Israel for security and governance in the territory after the war.
Hamas has reemerged in parts of Gaza, Blinken said, and “heavy action” by Israeli forces in the southern city of Rafah risks leaving America’s closest Mideast ally “holding the bag on an enduring insurgency.”
He said the United States has worked with Arab countries and others for weeks on developing “credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding” in Gaza, but ”we haven’t seen that come from Israel. … We need to see that, too.”
Blinken also said that as Israel pushes deeper in Rafah in the south, a military operation may “have some initial success” but risks “terrible harm” to the population without solving a problem “that both of us want to solve, which is making sure Hamas cannot again govern Gaza.” More than a million Palestinians have crowded into Rafah in hopes of refuge as Israel’s offensive pushed across Gaza. Israel has said the city also hosts four battalions of Hamas fighters.
Israel’s conduct of the war, Blinken said, has put the country “on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy, and probably refilled by Hamas. We’ve been talking to them about a much better way of getting an enduring result, enduring security.”
Blinken also echoed, for the first time publicly by a U.S. official, the findings of a new Biden administration report to Congress on Friday that said Israel’s use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law. The report also said wartime conditions prevented American officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
“When it comes to the use of weapons, concerns about incidents where given the totality of the damage that’s been done to children, women, men, it was reasonable to assess that, in certain instances, Israel acted in ways that are not consistent with international humanitarian law,” Blinken said. He cited “the horrible loss of life of innocent civilians.”
Blinken spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, reiterating the longstanding U.S. opposition to what is now the growing Israeli offensive in Rafah, given the toll on civilians there, according to the State Department’s recounting of the call.
Blinken urged Gallant to allow humanitarian workers to bring aid into Gaza and distribute it. Israel’s offensive into Rafah has shut down one of the two main border crossings into the territory for a week, and most operations have stopped at the other one after it targeted by a Hamas rocket attack.
Seven months of fighting and Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries already have led to famine in the north of Gaza. Aid organizations say the now nearly total cutoff of food, medicine and fuel and the disruption from the Rafah offensive have humanitarian operations across Gaza on the brink of collapse.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in a call Sunday with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, raised concerns about a military ground operation in Rafah and discussed “alternative courses of action” that would ensure Hamas is defeated “everywhere in Gaza,” according to a White House summary of the conversation. Hanegbi “confirmed that Israel is taking U.S. concerns into account,” the White House said.
The war began on Oct. 7 after an attack against Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. About 250 people were taken hostage. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
There are increasing tensions between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about how the war has been conducted, and also domestic tensions about U.S. support for Israel, with protests on U.S. college campuses and many Republican lawmakers saying that Biden needs to give Israel whatever it needs. The issue could play a major role in the outcome of November’s presidential election.
Biden said in an interview last week with CNN that his administration would not provide weapons that Israel could use for an all-out assault in Rafah.
Blinken appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
——
Ellen Knickmeyer contributed.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Josh Boak, Associated Press
Source link -
5/1: The Daily Report with John Dickerson
5/1: The Daily Report with John Dickerson – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
-
5/1: CBS Evening News
5/1: CBS Evening News – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
-
5/1: America Decides
5/1: America Decides – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
-
In Israel, Blinken says Hamas must accept cease-fire deal, offers
Tel Aviv — Secretary of State Antony Blinken was back in Israel Wednesday morning for his seventh visit to the country since Hamas militants staged their bloody Oct. 7 terror attack on the Jewish state, instantly sparking the war in the group’s Gaza Strip stronghold.
Blinken said as he arrived that the Biden administration was “determined” to see Hamas and Israel agree to a cease-fire in the conflict, which health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory say has killed more than 34,000 people, most of them women and children.
Desperate for more American support, Israelis rallied outside Blinken’s Tel Aviv hotel, some of them holding signs voicing hope that U.S. pressure will help bring home the remaining 133 hostages still thought to be held in Gaza, including five U.S. nationals still thought to be alive.
Blinken returned to Israel after stops in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and he met Wednesday with both Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the latest proposal for a cease-fire. Hamas leaders have been reviewing that draft for a couple days and were expected to respond as soon as Wednesday.
“We are determined to achieve a cease-fire that will bring the abductees home, and to achieve it now,” Blinken told Herzog as they stood before news cameras on Wednesday. “The only reason a deal will not be reached is because of Hamas. There is an offer on the table, and as we said, no delays, no excuses.”
Blinken told Israeli demonstrators outside his hotel in Tel Aviv on Wednesday that he’d delivered the same message to the families of remaining hostages with whom he met soon after arriving back in Israel.
“Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do, and we will not rest until everyone — man, woman, soldier, civilian, young, old — is back home,” he told the group. “There is a very strong proposal on the table right now. Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done. That is our determination, and we will not rest, we will not stop until you’re reunited with your loved ones. So please keep strong, keep the faith. We will be with you every single day until we get this done.”
Oded Balilty/AP
It can’t possibly happen soon enough for dozens of families, including Aviva Siegel’s. Her American husband Keith is still among those being held by Hamas, 208 days after he was seized on Oct. 7.
Over the weekend, he appeared in a Hamas propaganda video. For Siegel, it was proof, at least, that her husband was still alive.
“I think the grief and anguish is unimaginable,” she told CBS News in an emotional interview. “I feel like I’m broken up into pieces… I know that Keith has had enough. My family’s had enough. My country’s had enough.”
Aviva was a hostage herself, but she was released after 51 days in captivity.
She and her daughter were among the relatives of American hostages who had a face-to-face with Blinken on Wednesday.
“The feeling was really grateful,” Aviva’s daughter Elan told CBS News after the meeting. “I think we all feel, and not only the American citizens, I think Israel feels, really grateful for what the United States has been doing since October 7th.”
Hostage Families Forum Headquarters
A statement from the collective Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, which represents all of the captives’ families, characterized the discussion with Blinken as “positive, with Blinken conveying cautious optimism about the emerging deal for their release.”
In Jerusalem, Blinken also pushed Netanyahu to increase the flow of desperately needed aid into Gaza and ensure its safe distribution. Israel has taken steps to allow more aid in by land and sea, and aid agencies acknowledge and uptick, but they say it isn’t enough to stave off the threat of famine facing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the enclave.
Blinken and Netanyahu “discussed the improvement in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the call between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu on April 4 and reiterated the importance of accelerating and sustaining that improvement,” the State Department said in a readout after their meeting.
The statement noted that Blinken had also reaffirmed the U.S. commitments to Israel’s security, “the need to avoid further expansion of the conflict,” and the Biden administration’s stance that a long-promised Israeli military ground operation in the crowded southern city of Rafah must only begin when the safety of the estimated 1.4 million Palestinians taking shelter there could be assured.
The White House has urged Netanyahu’s government to limit the scale of its operation in Rafah, and the head of the United Nations renewed his warning that a military offensive in the city would be “an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.”
Despite pressure, Netanyahu promised this week that the operation would go ahead and that civilians would be evacuated, but he did not say when the operation would begin.
CBS News’ Tucker Reals contributed to this report.
-
The Latest | Blinken in Israel to tell its leaders ‘the time is now’ for a cease-fire in Gaza
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel on Wednesday for meetings with Israeli leaders and told the country’s ceremonial president that “the time is now” for a cease-fire deal in the war in Gaza.
This is Blinken’s seventh visit since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October. He is trying to advance a truce that would free hostages held by Gaza’s Hamas militants in exchange for a halt to the fighting. Palestinian prisoners are also expected to be released as part of the deal.
On Tuesday, Blinken said that Israel plans on opening a major humanitarian aid crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza. Israel’s war against Hamas has flattened huge swaths of Gaza’s north, and famine is imminent for the hundreds of thousands of civilians who remain there.
Blinken returned to the Middle East this week to advance cease-fire negotiations as the talks appear to be gaining momentum.
Nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
Currently:
— Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah ‘with or without a deal’ as cease-fire talks with Hamas continue.
— Police clear pro-Palestinian protesters from Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall.
— A Portuguese-flagged ship is hit far in Arabian Sea, raising concerns over Houthi rebel capabilities.
— The top United Nations court rejects Nicaragua’s request for Germany to halt aid to Israel.
— Migration agency chief warns that even more Syrians will leave Lebanon as donors cut back on aid.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
BLINKEN IN ISRAEL TO PRESS THAT ‘THE TIME IS NOW’ FOR A CEASE-FIRE DEAL
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting with Israeli leaders on Wednesday, telling the country’s ceremonial president that “the time is now” for a cease-fire deal.
Blinken has blamed Hamas for any delay is getting a deal off the ground.
“We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” he said.
Blinken visited key regional leaders in Saudi Arabia and Jordan before arriving to Israel. He met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and was set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later. According to the State Department, he will meet also with families of the hostages as well as visit an Israeli port where aid is entering for shipment to Gaza.
The emerging deal between Israel and Hamas appears to be gaining steam but a key sticking point remains over whether the war will end as part of the agreement, a demand Hamas has stuck to and which Israel rejects.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Associated Press
Source link -
How 2024 election winner could shape international crises
How 2024 election winner could shape international crises – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
-
The Latest | Israeli airstrikes on Rafah kill at least 22 people, Palestinian health officials say
Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah have killed at least 22 people, including six women and five children, Palestinian health officials said. One of the children killed in the strikes overnight into Monday was just 5 days old.
Israel has regularly carried out airstrikes on Rafah since the start of the war and has threatened to send in ground troops, saying Rafah is the last major Hamas stronghold in the coastal enclave. Over a million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city on the Egyptian border. The United States and others have urged Israel not to invade, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday begins his seventh diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began more than six months ago.
Blinken’s visit — which includes a little more than a day in Saudi Arabia before stops in Jordan and Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday — comes amid renewed concerns about the conflict spreading in the Middle East and with once-promising prospects for Israeli-Saudi rapprochement effectively on hold as Israel refuses to consider one of the Saudis’ main conditions for normalized relations: the creation of a Palestinian state.
The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women.
Currently:
— Hamas is reviewing an Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, as a planned Rafah offensive looms
— Biden and Netanyahu speak as pressure is on Israel over planned Rafah invasion and cease-fire talks
— Blinken is back in the Middle East this week. He has his work cut out for him
— Top French diplomat arrives in Lebanon in attempt to broker a halt to Hezbollah-Israel clashes
— Arrests roil US campuses nationwide ahead of graduation as protesters demand Israel ties be cut
— AP’s full coverage of Israel-Hamas war
Here is the latest:
ISRAELI OFFICIALS APPEAR INCREASINGLY CONCERNED ICC MAY ISSUE ARREST WARRANTS
JERUSALEM — Israeli officials appear to be increasingly concerned that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants against the country’s leaders.
The ICC launched a probe three years ago into possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants going back to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, but it has given no indication such warrants are imminent. There was no comment from the court on Monday.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said late Sunday that it had informed Israeli missions of “rumors” that warrants might be issued against senior political and military officials.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said “we expect the court to prevent the issuance of arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials,” saying such warrants would “provide a morale boost” to Hamas and other groups that Israel is fighting.
A series of Israeli announcements in recent days about allowing more humanitarian aid into Gaza appears to be aimed in part at heading off possible ICC action.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel “will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defense.”
“The threat to seize the soldiers and officials of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is outrageous. We will not bow to it,” he posted on the social platform X. It was not clear what prompted the post.
The ICC investigation covers allegations going back to the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, as well as Israel’s construction of Jewish settlements in occupied territory that the Palestinians want for a future state.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said during a visit to the region in December that the investigation is “moving forward at pace, with rigor, with determination and with an insistence that we act not on emotion but on solid evidence.”
Neither Israel nor its close ally the United States accept the ICC’s jurisdiction, but any warrants could put Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries. They would also serve as a major rebuke of Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians.
The International Court of Justice, a separate body, is investigating whether Israel has committed acts of genocide in the ongoing war in Gaza, with any ruling expected to take years. Israel has rejected allegations of wrongdoing and accused both international courts of bias.
HAMAS’ MILITARY WING SAYS IT ATTACKED AN ISRAELI ARMY POST FROM SOUTHERN LEBANON
BEIRUT — Hamas’ military wing says it hit an Israeli army post from southern Lebanon.
The Qassam Brigades said in a statement that the Monday morning shelling of the army command in northern Israel was in retaliation for “the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza.”
Hamas has fired rockets from Lebanon on several occasions since the Israel-Hamas war started in October.
The militant Hezbollah group, an ally of Hamas, has also attacked Israeli army posts from Lebanon. Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily strikes with Israeli forces in the border region — and sometimes beyond — for almost seven months.
More than 350 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 273 Hezbollah fighters and more than 50 civilians. On the Israeli side, 12 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES KILL AT LEAST 22 PEOPLE IN RAFAH, PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS SAY
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah have killed at least 22 people, including six women and five children, Palestinian health officials say. One of the children killed in the strikes overnight into Monday was just 5 days old.
Israel has regularly carried out airstrikes on Rafah since the start of the war and has threatened to send in ground troops, saying Rafah is the last major Hamas stronghold in the coastal enclave. Over a million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city on the Egyptian border. The United States and others have urged Israel not to invade, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe.
The overnight strikes hit three family homes. The first killed 11 people, including four siblings aged 9 to 27, according to records at the Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, where the bodies were taken. The second strike killed eight people, including a 33-year-old father and his 5-day-old boy, according to hospital records. The third strike killed three siblings, aged 23, 19 and 12. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies at the hospital.
Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in densely populated areas. But the military rarely accounts for individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
BLINKEN BEGINS HIS SEVENTH DIPLOMATIC MISSION TO THE MIDDLE EAST SINCE WAR BEGAN
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday begins his seventh diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began more than six months ago.
Just ahead of Blinken’s visit — which includes a little more than a day in Saudi Arabia before stops in Jordan and Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday — President Joe Biden spoke by phone Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Blinken’s trip comes amid renewed concerns about the conflict spreading in the Middle East and with once-promising prospects for Israeli-Saudi rapprochement effectively on hold as Israel refuses to consider one of the Saudis’ main conditions for normalized relations: the creation of a Palestinian state.
The conflict has fueled mass protests around the world that have spread to American college campuses. U.S. support for Israel, particularly arms transfers, has come under particular criticism, something the administration is keenly aware poses potential problems for Biden in an election year.
BIDEN SPEAKS WITH NETANYAHU AGAIN AS PRESSURE BUILDS FOR CEASE-FIRE
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. President Joe Biden has again spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said Sunday, as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a cease-fire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza.
The White House said that Biden reiterated his “clear position” as Israel plans to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. The U.S. opposes the invasion on humanitarian grounds, straining relations between the allies. Israel is among the countries U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit as he returns to the Middle East on Monday.
Biden also stressed that progress in delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza be “sustained and enhanced,” according to the statement. The call lasted just under an hour, and they agreed the onus remains on Hamas to accept the latest offer in negotiations, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly.
There was no comment from Netanyahu’s office.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Associated Press
Source link -
Blinken tells CNN the US has seen evidence of China attempting to influence upcoming US elections
Beijing (CNN) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US has seen evidence of Chinese attempts to “influence and arguably interfere” with the upcoming US elections, despite an earlier commitment from leader Xi Jinping not to do so.
Blinken made the comments to CNN’s Kylie Atwood in an interview Friday at the close of a three-day to trip to China, where the top American diplomat spent hours meeting with top Chinese officials including Xi, as the two countries navigated a raft of contentious issues from US tech controls to Beijing’s support for Moscow.
Blinken said he repeated a message President Joe Biden gave to Xi during their summit in San Francisco last November not to interfere in the 2024 US presidential elections. Then, Xi had pledged that that China would not do so, according to CNN reporting.
“We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible,” Blinken said when asked whether China was violating Xi’s commitment to Biden so far.
“Any interference by China in our election is something that we’re looking very carefully at and is totally unacceptable to us, so I wanted to make sure that they heard that message again,” Blinken said, adding there was concern about China and other countries playing on existing social divisions in the US in influence campaigns.
Beijing has repeatedly said it does not interfere in US elections, based on its principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. China or actors that are believed to be affiliated with Beijing have been accused of political interference in other countries, such as Canada.
Blinken’s trip — his second to the country in less than a year — is the latest in a string of high-level engagements that culminated in the Biden-Xi summit late last year and that have seen the two countries start to expand what had been severely diminished bilateral communications.
“We are (now) focused on areas where we’re working to cooperate, but also we’re being very forthright about our differences and that’s important if we’re going to avoid the competition we’re in turning into conflict,” Blinken told CNN.
Warning on support for Russia
Blinken also said he used his meeting to raise the Biden administration’s concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base – and to stress that further action would be taken by the US on top of existing sanctions on more than 100 Chinese entities and individuals if such support continues.
The US believes that Chinese support is enabling Russia to ramp up production of tanks, munitions and armored vehicles – and to continue its onslaught on Ukraine.
“What we said to China is this – we’re going to take actions we already have, and if it doesn’t stop, we’re going to have to take more action, and you can anticipate as well, that other countries will (too),” Blinken said, adding that he raised the issue to both Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Xi. “We’re looking to them to act, and … if they don’t, we will.”
He also said that Chinese counterparts had not acknowledged the role of these goods in the war in Ukraine. Instead, they characterized this as trade with Russia and said Moscow’s success didn’t depend on China, Blinken added.
Beijing has previously slammed the US as making “groundless accusations” over “normal trade and economic exchanges” between China and Russia.
China has long contended that it maintains neutrality in the Ukraine war and has continued to present itself as a potential peace broker in the conflict, even as it has strengthened its economic, strategic and diplomatic ties with Russia since the war began.
Defending the right to protest
Blinken also defended the American right to protest, when asked about pro-Palestinian protests that have erupted across college campuses in the US in recent days amid mounting concern about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.
Responding to a question referencing reports of use of antisemitic rhetoric at some of these gatherings, Blinken said there had been instances where there have been clear expressions of antisemitism, but “protests in and of themselves are not antisemitic.”
“What we’re also seeing is people, young people, people from different walks of life, who do feel very passionately, who’ve had very strong emotions about (the conflict),” he said.
He also stressed the importance of such expression in democracies, without explicitly noting the lack of such freedoms in China.
“In our country, and in our society and in our democracy, giving expression to that is, of course, something that’s both appropriate and protected,” he said. “But we’ve certainly seen instances where that has clearly veered from a totally legitimate expression of views and beliefs, to in some instances, yes, clear expressions of antisemitism.”
Blinken said that the administration listens to the American people and “takes their views into account.” But he did not explain how the protestors concerns would impact Biden administration policy.
Asked if the administration would consider stopping sending weaponry to Israel, because that is what some of the protestors are calling for, he said no.
“No we are focused on what’s in the interests of the United States. How do we best reflect both our interests and our values in our foreign policy across the board, whether that’s with Israel, or with any anyone else,” Blinken said.
Ending the war in Gaza
When asked about resolving the conflict in Gaza, Blinken said it was on Hamas to decide if they are going to allow a ceasefire to go forward or not, after the militant group refused to agree to multiple possible deals.
He also said tensions in the wider region seemed to be alleviating following apparent tit-for-tat airstrikes between Iran and Israel earlier this month that ratcheted fears that the war in Gaza could expand into a wider conflagration.
“I think now, hopefully we are not seeing that kind of escalation,” Blinken said, explaining that Hamas might have been looking at that escalation when it rejected Israel’s hostage proposal.
Blinken also said it could be possible to roll out a framework for the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia along with a two-state solution proposal for Israel and the Palestinians before a Gaza ceasefire in place, marking a reversal in the order of events that US officials had previously expected to follow.
“Certainly that’s, that’s possible,” Blinken said. “Ceasefire or not we’ll continue to make these possibilities known. But in order to actually realize this, there’s going to have to be an end of the conflict in Gaza. And as I said, there’s also going to have to be a resolution to the Palestinian question, or at least an agreement on how to resolve it.”
Previously US officials said that the ongoing negotiations to secure a ceasefire had to reach an agreement before any further regional efforts could manifest.
Referencing the countries that came to Israel’s defense after Iran launched its April 13 aerial attack, Blinken said you could “see a path in the future where Israel is genuinely integrated in the region, where other countries are helping to make sure it’s defended.”
“But that also requires that (the conflict in) Gaza come to an end, and that there be a clear pathway to a Palestinian state. In that kind of future, Israel gets what it has sought from the start of its existence, which is normal relations with countries in the region,” he said.
Blinken cited the sustained US efforts to work towards normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as part of a potentially reach a historic agreement to bring the Israel-Hamas war to an end.
“We’ve been working intensively to flesh it out, working with our partners, working – with European partners on this as well. And I think the more concrete it becomes, and the more it moves from the hypothetical and theoretical to something that’s actually possible, that’s real, then everyone involved is actually going to have to make decisions and make choices. And so we’re doing this work. And we’re trying to make it as real as possible,” Blinken said.
Related
CNN
Source link -
Israel lashes out as U.S. expected to cut aid to IDF battalion over alleged human rights violations
Tel Aviv — Israeli leaders have lashed out at the prospect that the Biden administration may cut off aid to one of the Jewish state’s army battalions over accusations that it’s committed human rights abuses in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. According to a report by Axios, sanctions against the Israeli army’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion could be announced in the coming days.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested a decision had been made on Friday when he was asked about internal investigations under a U.S. law that prohibits military aid being sent to foreign forces found to be violating human rights.
Asked about the U.S. probe, Blinken said Friday that it would be “fair to say that you’ll see results very soon. I’ve made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead.”
Lior Mizrahi/Getty
The government has been investigating the IDF unit since 2022, a U.S. official told CBS News. The battalion came under heavy criticism after a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man was found dead in January of that year after being detained by IDF soldiers at a checkpoint in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted angrily to the possibility of his military being sanctioned over the more than two-year-old accusations as it continues its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, I will fight it with all my strength,” said the Israeli leader.
In a separate statement, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant lauded the Netzah Yehuda battalion, heaping praise on it for fighting Hamas’ ally Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and “most recently, they are operating to dismantle Hamas brigades in Gaza.”
“The battalion’s activities are carried out in accordance with the values of the IDF and in accordance with international law,” Gallant said, insisting that “any event that deviates from the aforementioned standards is addressed accordingly” by the IDF and Israel’s justice system.
“Any attempt to criticize an entire unit casts a heavy shadow on the actions of the IDF, which operates to protect the citizens of Israel. Damage to one battalion, affects the entire defense establishment — this is not the right path for partners and friends,” he said. “I call on the U.S. Administration to withdraw its intention to impose sanctions on the Netzah Yehuda battalion.”
A U.S. official pointed out that the U.S. is not and has not been considering sanctioning units in the IDF clarifying that “without confirming what may be under consideration, under the Leahy Act, certain units would be ineligible for American security assistance until the violations are remedied.”
The suggestion that the U.S. could cut off aid from a military unit of its long-time ally has turned the spotlight on the IDF as Netanyahu and his military continue dealing with a domestic backlash for failing to thwart Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 terror attack, which sparked the war in Gaza.
In the first top-level fallout from that failure, the IDF announced that the head of Israel’s military intelligence agency, Major General Aharon Haliva, would be resigning as soon a successor was appointed.
Haliva said last year, not long after Oct. 7, that he accepted responsibility for the intelligence failures that allowed Hamas to launch its unprecedented attack on Israel. That assault saw Hamas kill about 1,200 people and take more than 200 others hostage.
Israel’s war of retaliation against Hamas, with which Netanyahu has vowed to destroy the Palestinian group, has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties, but a majority of those killed have been women and children, according to the United Nations.
WAHAJ BANI MOUFLEH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
The IDF released video that it said was of a counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank city of Tulkarm over the weekend. The IDF said 14 militants were killed, but residents, just like Palestinians in Gaza, say they have borne the brunt of Israel’s retaliation.
When the IDF forces pulled out of Tulkarm, they left massive destruction in their wake, and residents told CBS News they had seen nothing like it before in the occupied Palestinian territory, which is considerably larger than Gaza.
During the mission, Israeli bulldozers smashed through homes and shops, tore up roads and severed pumps and power lines — cutting off electricity and water supplies.
“The attack was wild,” said resident Salah Yousif. “They came from four different sides.”
Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty
In Gaza, meanwhile, the war grinds on toward the seven-month mark, with officials in the Hamas-run enclave saying nearly 15,000 children have been killed. That includes members of a family killed in a strike over the weekend on the southern city of Rafah. Gazan officials said 16 people were killed in that strike, most of them children.
The U.S., along with other Israeli allies, has warned Netanyahu against carrying through with his plan to launch a major military ground operation in Rafah, fearing it could lead to huge civilian casualties in the city, where an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge. It is the only major city in Gaza that IDF forces have yet to invade since Oct. 7, but Netanyahu has vowed to order the incursion as he says there are still a couple Hamas combat units hiding out there.
Tucker Reals and Sara Cook contributed to this report.
-
The Latest | Blinken says Israel hasn’t told US of any specific date for Rafah ground invasion
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said Israel has not apprised the U.S. of any specific date for the start of a major offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but added that American and Israeli officials remained in contact to try to ensure that “any kind of major military operation doesn’t do real harm to civilians.”
Blinken spoke a day after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed that a date has been set to invade Rafah. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, says a ground operation into Rafah would be a mistake and has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians.
Rafah is filled with around 1.4 million Palestinians, most of whom are displaced from other parts of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s war against the militant group Hamas has pushed Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.
International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas are taking place in Cairo this week.
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza over the past six months have killed at least 33,360 Palestinians and wounded 74,993, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
Currently:
— Austin tells Congress Israel is taking steps to boost aid to Gaza as lawmakers question US support
— Turkey and Israel announce trade barriers on each other as relations deteriorate over Gaza
— At U.N. court, Germany rejects allegations that it’s facilitating acts of genocide in Gaza
— A Moroccan activist was sentenced to 5 years for criticizing the country’s ties to Israel
— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CRITICIZED FOR SUGGESTING POSSIBLE RECOGNITION OF A PALESTINIAN STATE
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong is facing criticism after she raised the prospect of Australia recognizing a Palestinian state.
Wong said in a speech late Tuesday that recognizing Palestinian statehood could be the only way to end the cycle of violence in the Middle East and build momentum toward a two-state solution amid ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israel. She said Wednesday she wasn’t changing Australia’s position, but was starting a conversation.
“We’ve made no such decision. The discussion I want to have is to look at what is happening in the international community where there is the very important debate about how it is we secure long-lasting peace in a region which has known so much conflict,” Wong told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Wong said Hamas must free hostages and that the militant group would have no place in a Palestinian state. She also said there needed to be an immediate humanitarian cease-fire so that aid could be delivered to Gaza. And she urged Israel not to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah because of the risk to civilians.
Both Australia’s center-left Labor Party government and the conservative opposition parties support a two-party solution in the Middle East.
But opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs Simon Birmingham called it “downright dangerous to reward (Hamas for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel) with a fast track to recognition of statehood.”
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE ON HOME IN CENTRAL GAZA KILLS 11 PEOPLE
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit a home in central Gaza on Tuesday evening, killing at least 11 people, including seven women and children, hospital officials said.
After the strike hit in the town of Zawaida, Associated Press footage showed one man carrying the limp body of a little girl and laying her with the bodies of other dead children on the floor at the main hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah. Hospital officials said the dead included five children and two women.
The strike came as the Israeli military withdrew its forces from the southern city of Khan Younis this week, ending a monthslong ground assault that left large parts of the city in ruins. Still, airstrikes have continued in the past days, including in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where Israel says it plans to launch its next ground assault.
FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES HELD IN GAZA MEET WITH U.S. VICE PRESIDENT
WASHINGTON — Several family members of hostages held by Hamas met with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Tuesday and urged for a deal that would release their loved ones and implement a temporary cease-fire in Gaza.
“The only hope for peace is through the release of all the hostages now,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen. On a potential hostage agreement, Dekel-Chen stressed that the world is waiting for “Hamas to get to yes.”
Rachel Goldberg, the mother of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, called the meeting with Harris “very productive.” She expressed gratitude to the White House and lawmakers for their support, but added: “We need results. We need our people home.”
“You can believe as we do that it is horrible that innocent civilians in Gaza are suffering,” Goldberg said. “And at the same time, you can also know that it is horrible and against international law for hostages to be held against their will.”
During the meeting, Harris emphasized that she and President Joe Biden “have no higher priority than reuniting the hostages with their loved ones,” according to a White House readout, as she gave an update on the administration’s efforts on a hostage deal.
U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY TELLS CONGRESS THAT ISRAEL IS TAKING STEPS TO BOOST AID TO GAZA
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress Tuesday that pressure on Israel to improve humanitarian aid to Gaza appears to be working, but he said more must be done and it remains to be seen if the improvement will continue.
“It clearly had an effect. We have seen changes in behavior, and we have seen more humanitarian assistance being pushed into Gaza,” Austin said in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “Hopefully that trend will continue.”
Austin’s comments came during a session that was interrupted several times by protesters shouting at him to stop sending weapons to Israel. “Stop the genocide,” they said, as they lifted their hands, stained in red, in the air. A number of senators also decried the civilian casualties, saying the administration needs to do more to press Israel to protect the population in Gaza.
In response, Austin said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on Monday and that he repeated U.S. insistence that Israel must move civilians out of the battlespace in Gaza and properly care for them.
Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr. were testifying on Capitol Hill about the Pentagon’s $850 billion budget for 2025.
BLINKEN SAYS ISRAEL HASN’T TOLD U.S. ABOUT ANY SPECIFIC DATE TO LAUNCH RAFAH INVASION
WASHIGNTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said Israel has not apprised the U.S. of any specific date for the start of a major offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but added that American and Israeli officials remained in contact to try to ensure that “any kind of major military operation doesn’t do real harm to civilians.”
Blinken spoke a day after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed that a date has been set to invade Rafah. The city is filled with around 1.4 million Palestinians, most of whom are displaced from other parts of the Gaza Strip. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has said a ground operation into Rafah would be a mistake and has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians.
Washington has also been applying pressure on Israel to improve humanitarian aid to Gaza, where half the population is starving and on the brink of famine due to Israel’s tight restrictions on allowing aid trucks through.
“We’re looking at a number of critical things that need to happen in the coming days,” Blinken said, referring to recent Israeli announcements on the opening of new aid routes into Gaza and more active efforts to avoid casualties to both civilians and humanitarian relief workers. “But what matters is results and sustained results and this is what we will be looking at very carefully in the days ahead.”
That includes getting assistance in and distributed to all of the territory “not just in the south, or in central Gaza. It has to get to the north as well,” he said.
FRANCE USING ‘ALL INFLUENCE’ TO PERSUADE ISRAEL TO OPEN GAZA CROSSINGS TO AID CONVOYS
PARIS — France’s foreign minister says his country is using “all levels of influence,” including threats of sanctions, to force Israel to open crossings with Gaza for vital humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians.
France was the first country to propose European Union sanctions against violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said in an interview Tuesday with French broadcasters RFI and FRANCE 24.
He added: “We have multiple ways to utilize our influence, obviously, we can provide more sanctions … to let humanitarian aid convoys cross checkpoints” and reach people in Gaza.
Sejourne did not elaborate on what kind of sanctions he was referring to. It is highly unlikely that France would impose any eventual sanctions without broader EU support, and the EU has been divided over policy toward Israel.
ISRAEL SHOOTS DOWN A DRONE OVER THE RED SEA
JERUSALEM — Israel shot down a drone over the Red Sea overnight in what the military described as the first deployment of its naval Iron Dome missile defense system.
The military said that a Corvette warship shot down the drone as it flew east over waters near the southern Israeli city of Eilat. The military released grainy aerial footage of the missile making contact with an aircraft.
It was not immediately clear who was directing the drone. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been conducting near daily attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, launching drones and missiles from rebel-held areas of Yemen.
The Israeli defense system, called the “C-Dome,” is a naval version of the Iron Dome, which has been used to shoot down rockets fired from the Gaza Strip for the past decade.
TURKEY AND ISRAEL PUTTING UP TRADE BARRIERS AS RELATIONS DETERIORATE
JERUSALEM — Foreign Minister Israel Katz says Israel is preparing a ban on products from Turkey after Ankara announced it was restricting exports to Israel.
Turkey said earlier Tuesday it is restricting exports of dozens of products to Israel, including aluminum, steel, construction products and chemical fertilizers. It said it would continue the measures until Israel declares a cease-fire and allows the uninterrupted flow of aid to Gaza.
Katz said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is sacrificing the economic interests of his citizens “for his support of Hamas.”
Relations between Turkey and Israel have been frosty for years, although trade ties between the two countries are strong.
NATO-member Turkey is among the strongest critics of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Erdogan has repeatedly called for an immediate cease-fire and accused Israel of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. The Israeli Foreign Ministry had no additional comment.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Associated Press
Source link -
UK’s David Cameron heads to Washington for Ukraine talks after meeting Donald Trump in Florida
WASHINGTON – British Foreign Secretary David Cameron is in Washington on Tuesday to press senior Republicans to unlock money for Ukraine, after meeting a skeptical Donald Trump in Florida.
Cameron says victory for Ukraine is “vital for American and European security,” but the former president and presumptive Republican candidate is a critic of continued U.S. support, and lawmakers aligned with him are holding up an aid package for Kyiv in Congress.
The U.K.’s Foreign Office confirmed the meeting, which was described as “productive” by the British side.
The U.K. government said it’s “standard practice” for government ministers to meet allied nations’ opposition leaders in election years.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in February with U.K. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who is the favorite to become prime minister in an election later this year. When Cameron was prime minister in 2012, he met the then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
British officials did not say how the meeting went. Cameron and Trump have had several notable differences of opinion in the past. Cameron called Trump’s proposal during his first presidential campaign to ban Muslims from the U.S. “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
Cameron was British prime minister during the U.K.’s 2016 referendum on whether to leave the European Union — a move he opposed but Trump enthusiastically supported. Cameron resigned after voters narrowly rejected his call to remain in the bloc.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unexpectedly brought Cameron back into government last year as Britain’s top diplomat.
In Washington, Cameron plans to urge U.S. lawmakers to approve a new aid package for Ukraine, warning Congress that it is putting the security of the West at risk by continuing to hold up the funding. He’s due to hold talks with lawmakers including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, and is hoping to meet House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose role is key.
In a video posted last week on social network X, Cameron said: “Speaker Johnson can make it happen in Congress.”
A $60 billion package of military aid is bogged down in the House of Representatives as populist conservatives seek to block further funding for the two-year-old conflict and some mainstream Republicans demand concessions on border security before supporting the bill.
After Cameron urged U.S. lawmakers in February not to show “the weakness displayed against Hitler” in the 1930s, Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene said he should “worry about his own country.”
Ahead of his trip, Cameron said that “success for Ukraine and failure for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin are vital for American and European security.”
“This will show that borders matter, that aggression doesn’t pay and that countries like Ukraine are free to choose their own future,” he said. “The alternative would only encourage Putin in further attempts to re-draw European borders by force, and would be heard clearly in Beijing, Tehran and North Korea.”
Cameron is also due to discuss the Israel-Hamas war, including efforts to reach a “sustainable cease-fire” and get more aid into Gaza, in talks with officials including Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. The U.K. is sending a Royal Navy ship to the eastern Mediterranean to bolster efforts to open a maritime aid corridor between Cyprus and a temporary U.S.-built pier in Gaza.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Associated Press
Source link -
Breaking down Biden-Netanyahu call on World Central Kitchen deaths
Breaking down Biden-Netanyahu call on World Central Kitchen deaths – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
-
Antony Blinken Fast Facts | CNN
CNN
—
Here is a look at the life of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Birth date: April 16, 1962
Birth place: Yonkers, New York
Birth name: Antony John Blinken
Father: Donald Blinken, investment banker and US ambassador to Hungary
Mother: Judith (Frehm) Pisar, UNESCO Special Envoy for Cultural Diplomacy
Marriage: Evan Ryan
Children: Two
Education: Harvard College, A.B., 1984; Columbia Law School, J.D., 1988
Religion: Jewish
His stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was a famed lawyer and Holocaust survivor.
Attended grade school and high school in Paris.
Was a writer for The Harvard Crimson. Worked as a reporter at The New Republic and has written about foreign policy for publications such as The New York Times and Foreign Affairs.
Before his career in government, Blinken practiced law in New York and Paris.
Former CNN global affairs analyst.
Blinken is visible in the famous photo of the “Situation Room” during the raid which killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.
1987 – His thesis, “Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis,” is published.
1993-1994 – Special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian Affairs at the State Department.
1994-2001 – Holds multiple roles in the administration of President Bill Clinton, including special assistant to the president, senior director for speech writing and member of the National Security Council staff.
2001-2002 – Senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a policy research institute in Washington.
2002-2008 – Democratic staff director for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
2008 – Works on Sen. Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
2009-2013 – National security adviser to Vice President Biden.
January 2013-2015 – Deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama.
January 9, 2015-2017 – Deputy secretary of state.
2017 – Co-founds WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm that offers geopolitical risk advisement.
January 26, 2021 – Is sworn in as the 71st secretary of state.
April 15, 2021 – Blinken arrives in Kabul, Afghanistan, in an unannounced visit less than 24 hours after the United States and the NATO coalition formally announced they would withdraw their troops from the country after nearly two decades. During remarks to Afghan political leaders, Blinken underscores the United States’ commitment to the people and the country.
May 25, 2021 – Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials, marking his first official visit to the Middle East. His trip will take him to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt and Jordan. Blinken pledges that the United States will make “significant contributions” to rebuild Gaza and reopen its consulate in Jerusalem following the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas.
March 23, 2022 – In a statement, Blinken announces the US government has formally declared that members of the Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
April 24, 2022 – Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin make an unannounced trip to Kyiv and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
May 4, 2022 – Blinken tests positive for Covid-19, according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.
September 8, 2022 – Blinken makes an unannounced visit to Kiev – his second since the war with Russia began more than six months ago – which coincides with the announcement of an additional $625 million tranche of security assistance to support Ukraine, as well as an intended $2.2 billion in long-term investments to bolster the security of Ukraine and 18 other regional countries.
January 30-31, 2023 – Blinken makes his first visit to Israel since the new Israeli government, which includes ultra-nationalists and ultra-religious parties, took power.
March 2, 2023 – Blinken meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time since the war in Ukraine began more than a year earlier.
March 28, 2023 – House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul subpoenas Blinken for a dissent cable written by US diplomats in Kabul criticizing the Biden administration’s plans to withdraw troops in 2021. On March 7, 2024, McCaul announces the House Foreign Affairs Committee has postponed a meeting for the markup to consider holding Blinken in contempt of Congress after Blinken agrees to deliver documents pertaining to the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
-
The Latest | Blinken meets Israeli leaders as Russia, China veto a UN cease-fire resolution
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv on Friday on the final stop in his sixth urgent trip to the region since the start of the war.
Blinken said he would share alternatives to Israel’s planned ground assault into the southern Gaza town of Rafah during talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his War Cabinet. However, after the meeting, Netanyahu said Israel would “do it alone” if necessary.
Russia and China on Friday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States that called for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.
So little food has been allowed into Gaza that up to 60% of children under 5 are now malnourished, compared with fewer than 1% before the war began, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.
The Health Ministry in Gaza raised the territory’s death toll Thursday to nearly 32,000 Palestinians. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.
Currently:
— Russia and China veto US resolution calling for immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
— Blinken says an Israeli assault on Gaza’s Rafah would be a mistake, and isn’t needed to defeat Hamas.
— Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last major stronghold in the Gaza Strip, and it’s determined to launch an offensive.
— U.S. House speaker says he plans to invite Netanyahu to address the Congress.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
ISRAELI FORCES KILL PALESTINIAN SHOOTER WHO WOUNDED THREE ISRAELIS IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Israeli military said it killed a Palestinian man who opened fire near a Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday, as violence has surged across the territory amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Three Israelis were wounded in the shooting, one in a serious condition, medical officials said.
The military said the man opened fire at an Israeli vehicle at a junction near Dolev settlement around 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city of Ramallah early Friday morning.
After a search, Israeli forces later killed the shooter near the name junction. During the search, troops raided his home in the nearby Palestinian village of Deir Ibzi. His wife, Lamees Samhan, said she was she briefly detained and blindfolded.
Violence has spiked across the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. At least 447 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in east Jerusalem and the West Bank since October, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
ISRAEL SIEZES ANOTHER 2,000 ACRES FOR SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK, WATCHDOG SAYS
JERUSALEM — An Israeli anti-settlement watchdog group says Israel has seized nearly 2,000 acres of land in the occupied West Bank, clearing the way for Israel to build settlements there.
The announcement came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Israel. The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate and an obstacle to peace.
Peace Now said Friday that Israeli Cabinet Minister Bezalel Smotrich had declared the area “state land” — a designation that makes it government property. The land is in the Jordan Valley — a strategic area that is home to many Palestinian farms and seen as essential for the viability of a future Palestinian state.
In a statement, Peace Now said the area is the largest piece of land seized by Israel since the interim Oslo peace accords three decades ago. “The year 2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land,” the group said.
Smotrich serves as Israel’s finance minister and in a newly created ministerial position in the Defense Ministry putting him in charge of Israel’s settlement policy. Smotrich, himself an outspoken settler leader, heads an ultra-nationalist party in parliament and has used his position to bolster the settlements.
Israel’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition is dominated by West Bank settlers and their political supporters.
Over 500,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank, captured by Israel with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future independent state.
NETANYAHU REJECTS U.S. CALL NOT TO INVADE RAFAH
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed American calls to halt plans for a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Netanyahu said Friday that he told the visiting U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that a ground offensive is the only way to destroy Hamas.
“I said we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah and destroying the remaining battalions there,” he said. “I told him that I hope we will do this with the support of the United States, but if necessary, we will do it alone.”
Ahead of the meeting, Blinken had said the U.S. supports Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas, but believes there are alternatives to a ground invasion.
Over 1 million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza. The U.S. and the rest of the international community fear an Israeli invasion will lead to large civilian casualties.
Blinken was set to speak to reporters later Friday before returning to the U.S.
RELATIVES OF ISRAELI HOSTAGES RALLY OUTSIDE BLINKEN’S HOTEL, DEMANDING A DEAL TO RELEASE CAPTIVES IN GAZA
TEL AVIV, Israel — Dozens of relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas demonstrated Friday outside the hotel where the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is staying in central Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to bring the release of their loved ones.
Many held up American and Israeli flags while others brandished placards of their relatives who were seized by the militant group when its fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7., the act that sparked the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“Hostage deal now!” the crowd chanted. “Blinken, you can bring them home again!”
The rally came hours before the start of the Jewish holiday of Purim, normally a festive occasion. Referring to one hostage by name, a sign read: “This is Purim without Ofer.”
Blinken arrived in Israel earlier Friday in the final stop of his Mideast tour, his sixth visit to the region since October.
Families of the captives have accused Israel’s war cabinet of not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages after months of failed cease-fire negotiations.
Any cease-fire deal would likely see the hostages freed in return for the release of a larger number of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. About 120 hostages held by Hamas and hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians were freed during a week-long cease-fire in November.
Hamas is believed to still be holding around 100 hostages.
RUSSIA AND CHINA VETO A U.N. CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION
UNITED NATIONS— Russia and China on Friday vetoed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favor, three against and one abstention.
Before the vote, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow supports an immediate cease-fire, but he questioned the language in the resolution and accused U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of “misleading the international community” for “politicized” reasons.
EUROPEAN UNION UNANIMOUSLY CALLS FOR A CEASE-FIRE IN GAZA
BRUSSELS — After five months of fighting in Gaza and tens of thousands of casualties, the 27 European Union countries have overcome their differences and agreed to call for a cease-fire.
In a statement overnight, EU leaders called “for an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said the EU position is largely in line with that of the United States. It comes as the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote later Friday on a U.S.-sponsored resolution declaring “the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war.
EU countries have long been divided over their support for Israel and the Palestinians, and the U.N. vote will be a fresh public test of their unity. In December, two EU members voted against calling for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” while four countries abstained.
BLINKEN ARRIVES IN ISRAEL FOR TALKS WITH NETANYAHU OVER THE WAR IN GAZA
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what were expected expected to be fractious talks over the war in Gaza as public differences over the conflict have intensified.
It’s the final stop in Blinken’s sixth urgent diplomatic mission to the Middle East, and he started the brief six-hour visit Friday with a one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu followed by a larger gathering with Israel’s war Cabinet aimed at convincing them not to proceed with plans for a large-scale military offensive in the southern city of Rafah that many fear could make an already disastrous humanitarian crisis in Gaza even worse.
“A major military operation in Rafah would be a mistake, something we don’t support,” Blinken said Thursday in Cairo, where he met with top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. “And, it’s also not necessary to deal with Hamas, which is necessary.”
Instead, Blinken will present Netanyahu with alternatives for dealing with Hamas in Rafah in discussions that will continue next week when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a separate delegation of senior Israeli officials visit Washington. Netanyahu agreed to send the delegation in a Monday phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden — their first conversation in a month amid the widening divisions.
Blinken’s brief visit to Israel, which was announced only Wednesday and was not part of his original Mideast itinerary, comes as top intelligence officials from the U.S., Israel, Egypt and Qatar were to meet in Doha to hammer out details of a proposed cease-fire-for-hostages deal. Qatar, and to a lesser extent Egypt, are the main interlocutors with Hamas, which has thus far rebuffed offers the negotiations have produced.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL WILL VOTE ON US RESOLUTION FOR AN ‘IMMEDIATE AND SUSTAINED CEASE-FIRE’ IN GAZA
The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is “imperative” to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was optimistic that the new, tougher draft resolution would be approved Friday by the 15-member council.
The draft being put to a vote “determines” — which is a council order — “the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire,” with no direct link to the release of hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which was in the previous draft. But it would unequivocally support diplomatic efforts “to secure such a cease-fire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages,” and emphasizes “the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to civilians in the entire Gaza Strip.”
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow will not be satisfied “with anything that doesn’t call for an immediate cease-fire,” saying it’s what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pressing for and what “everybody” wants. He questioned the wording of the draft, asking, “What’s an imperative? I have an imperative to give you $100, but … it’s only an imperative, not $100.”
The Security Council has already adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but none calling for a cease-fire.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Associated Press
Source link -
Netanyahu rejects Hamas’ Gaza cease-fire demands, says troops will push into Rafah
Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Hamas demands for a cease-fire and vowed to press ahead with Israel’s military offensive in Gaza until achieving what he called “absolute victory.” He also said — despite myriad warnings from humanitarian agencies of possible dire consequences — that he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to prepare to push into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Most of the roughly 1.5 million Palestinians displaced from their homes by the war in Gaza have packed into the southern town near the border with Egypt. Many are living in squalid tent camps and overflowing U.N.-run shelters.
Netanyahu made the comments Wednesday shortly after meeting visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been traveling the region in hopes of securing a cease-fire agreement.
GPO/Handout/Anadolu/Getty
The U.S. has been pushing Israel to adjust its tactics in Gaza amid soaring deaths. Officials in the Hamas-run enclave say the death toll is nearing 28,000. Many of those casualties have been women and children, but Hamas officials do not differentiate between combatants and civilians in their statistics.
“We are on the way to an absolute victory,” Netanyahu said, adding that the IDF’s operation in Gaza would last months, not years.
“There is no other solution,” the Israeli leader said, adding that agreeing to the terms proposed by Hamas, which has long been designated as a terror organization by Israel, Hamas and the European Union, would “invite another massacre.”
Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attack on southern Israel, which saw the militants kill about 1,200 people and take more than 200 others hostage, sparked the current war in the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which Hamas has controlled for almost two decades.
He ruled out any arrangement that leaves Hamas in full or partial control of Gaza, which the group’s latest proposal would effectively have done, according to full details of it published by a media outlet closely associated with the group’s Lebanese allies, Hezbollah.
Netanyahu also said Israel was the “only power” capable of guaranteeing security in the long term.
The Israeli premier also called for the replacement of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Blinken was scheduled to give a news conference later Wednesday.
