The State Department on Friday announced a $7 billion arms sale to Israel, circumventing the congressional review process, according to Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The announcement, which includes thousands of Hellfire missiles and bombs, comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met President Donald Trump and other top administration officials in Washington, DC.
Diplomatic and intelligence sources tell Middle East Eye that Cairo has no plans for preventing the US president‘s idea to take over Gaza and forcibly displace its population
(January 24, 2025)
With the signing of a new Executive Order that threatens to replicate the discriminatory 2017 “Muslim Ban,” and the swift advancement of IHRA bills at both federal and state levels, the ADC Legal Hotline comes at a pivotal time for Arab and Muslim communities.
For nearly 45 years, ADC has stood at the forefront of defending Arab Americans—particularly during moments of heightened profiling, speech suppression, and persecution. From the post-9/11 era to the original Muslim Ban in 2017, ADC’s legal team has repeatedly exposed and challenged policies designed to silence and intimidate our communities. Today’s increased momentum behind xenophobic Executive Orders and IHRA legislation further underscores the urgent need for robust legal support and community solidarity.
„The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,“ he said. Palestinians „would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.“ He added: „No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed!“
Citing Puck, The Times of Israel reported that Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, helped prepare the shock remarks the president made on Tuesday night during his press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kushner, who has a long history of friendship with Netanyahu, served as an advisor to President Trump during his first term in office and was involved in negotiating the Abraham Accords, the deals that sought Israel’s regional integration without settling the issue of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
The colonial creation of private property from stolen land is the American way, from the theft of Indigenous people’s lands to the urban renewal clearance projects that built the modern New York City in which Donald Trump was able to thrive and build wealth. There can be no shock that the developer president’s first public words on Gaza would celebrate the old method of generating “demolition sites” (terra nullius, or empty land). In a way, Trump actually is daring those of us who support Palestinian sovereignty to understand the interdependence of capitalism and genocidal colonialism. There must be a people, and there must be a land. One without the other presents a windfall to the developers.
Asked by an Israeli reporter if he supported “Israeli sovereignty” over “Samaria, which many believe is the Biblical homeland of the Jewish,” otherwise known as the West Bank, Trump said, “Well, we are discussing that with many of your representatives … who do like that idea, but we haven’t take a position on it yet. We will be making an announcement on that specific topic over the next four weeks.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t keep the smirk off his face.
And no wonder.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed moving Gazans to a “good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” in another country, offering a vision of mass displacement that would likely inflame sentiments in the Arab world as he prepared to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.
(September 2, 2014)
Auf dem Gipfel des Nordatlantikpakts in Wales wird es weniger um Russland als um die Frage gehen, mit welcher schwachsinnigen Ausrede nun die N.A.T.O. den am 4. Oktober 2001 ausgerufenen „kollektiven Verteidigungsfall“ aufrechterhalten will.
Eine Option: Noch mehr Eroberungen islamischer Staaten, wegen dem „Islamischen Staat“.
When ISIS seized swathes of Iraqi land in 2014, Peshmerga played a key role in driving the extremist group out of the areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, especially Kirkuk. The US-led global coalition provided Peshmerga and Iraqi forces with military assistance to defeat ISIS territorially, which was completed in 2017.
Barzani and Leahy also discussed the latest developments in Syria and their impact on neighboring countries.
(January 31, 2025)
The U.S. and Iraq announced an agreement last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country. (…)
But the fall of Assad in a lightning offensive led by Sunni Islamist rebels in December led some to reassess that stance, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-allied political parties that brought current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani to power in late 2022.
Sheinbaum made the announcement on social media Monday morning, roughly 12 hours before the tariffs were set to take effect. Trump and Sheinbaum spoke on Monday and agreed that Mexico will do more to combat drug trafficking into the U.S., and that the U.S. will step up efforts to block the flow of firearms into Mexico.
Sheinbaum also said officials with the U.S. and Mexico were beginning talks on wider trade and security issues.
The foreign ministers of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt issued a wide-ranging statement Saturday, saying they hoped to work with Trump on a two-state solution in the Middle East.
But they pushed back on Trump’s suggestion to relocate Palestinians from Gaza. Without specifically referencing the president’s proposal, the ministers reiterated a commitment to rebuilding the enclave while ensuring “the continued presence of Palestinians in their homeland.”
If ever there was a searing, sanctimonious self-immolation in presidential politics, this was it and the costs are incalculable. The damage will reverberate for decades and might never be recovered.
It will be all but impossible for the Democratic Party to accept responsibility for the catastrophe it has inflicted on America, through its head, Joe Biden, and the complicity of all of the party’s upper echelon. It will, thus, ensure that nothing will change. We desperately need a new party that reflects the interest and needs of the American people, and not those of the party’s corporate owners. Change cannot come too soon.
(January 23, 2016)
In addition to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves and role as the spiritual anchor of the Sunni Muslim world, the long intelligence relationship helps explain why the United States has been reluctant to openly criticize Saudi Arabia for its human rights abuses, its treatment of women and its support for the extreme strain of Islam, Wahhabism, that has inspired many of the very terrorist groups the United States is fighting. The Obama administration did not publicly condemn Saudi Arabia’s beheading this month of a dissident Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who had challenged the royal family.
(January 30,2025)
“It was shocking and a betrayal to me and every person who was killed on 9/11, their families, and my brothers and sisters in uniform.” She continued, “When as a member of Congress, I learned about President Obama’s, dual programs that he had begun, really to overthrow the regime of Syria and being willing to, through the CIA’s Timber Sycamore program that has now been made public, of working with and arming and equipping Al Qaeda in an effort to overthrow that regime, starting yet another regime change war in the Middle East.”
Ziad Abu Amr, one of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s longtime advisors, would become the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, heading the committee. He would be appointed deputy to Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa but endowed with massive new powers.
Abu Amr was born in the Gaza Strip in 1950. He could be palatable to the Trump administration because he is also a US citizen. He obtained his PhD from Georgetown University and served as deputy Palestinian prime minister from 2013 to 2024.
The challenges facing Jordan in this context are multiple, most notably the political pressures that may be exerted by the United States and some Western powers to show some flexibility towards this file. In addition, any new wave of displacement may lead to internal tensions, given the sensitivity of the demographic balance in the Kingdom.
The economic impacts cannot be ignored, as Jordan suffers from increasing financial challenges, and any increase in the number of refugees will exacerbate the pressure on resources and infrastructure. In addition, the security aspect constitutes a major concern, as the influx of large numbers of displaced persons could lead to complex security repercussions, especially in light of the tense conditions in the region.
Thousands of Egyptians, led by public figures and political delegations, are protesting in the Egyptian Rafah on the border with the Gaza Strip to reject all proposals to displace the Palestinian people from their land and any attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
The delegations, representing various Egyptian political forces, parties, unions, and civil society groups, are united in their opposition to statements made by US President Donald Trump, which suggest forcibly relocating Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan.
Why it matters: This was the first meeting between a Trump administration official and a Palestinian official since November‘s election.
– The meeting between Witkoff and Hussein al-Sheikh took place amid efforts by the Trump administration to end the war in Gaza and push for a Saudi-Israeli peace deal that includes a path toward a Palestinian state.
He added that Palestine has been fought over for 6,000 years, and that “it is not an easy thing to find, whether it’s during the Crusades […] I can’t think of anywhere that’s had that much done to it.”
However, he stressed that “good things are never easy. And anyone who is objecting to what almost the whole world sees as the solution cannot be right. So, you know, again, that’s why I’m not optimistic, because we have a lot of problems along the way.”
Al Saud asserted that “there’s no other solution” other than a two-state solution.
The Commission also said the Israeli forces rounded up dozens of residents as part of their ongoing military raid in the Jenin and Tulkarem governorates.
The official National News Agency said Tuesday that an Israeli drone dropped a bomb near a gathering of Lebanese army personnel and citizens in the town of Yaroun.
This warning comes after South Lebanon residents, accompanied by the army, attempted to return to their villages on Monday, following Israeli fire that killed over 20 people. The ceasefire, extended until February 18, allows Israel more time to withdraw, as confirmed by the White House and Lebanon‘s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Jordan‘s posture on the Palestinian question has always been firm and clear: Jordan is not, and will never be, an alternative homeland for Palestinians.
This position is not merely a political statement but a historical commitment rooted in the principle of justice and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Jordan rejects any attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause or deny the rights of Palestinians under whatsoever pretext.
CAIRO – 28 January 2025: A high-profile Egyptian source negated Tuesday that a phone call had taken place earlier this week between U.S. President Donald Trump and President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, noting that phone calls between the chief of state and counterparts are always announced.
„I’ve helped him [el-Sisi] a lot and I hope he’ll help us. I think he’ll do it [take in Palestinians] and the king of Jordan will do it too,“ he added.
In towns like Bani Haiyyan, Markaba, and the region of Borj El Mlouk heading towards Kfarkela, which remains under Israeli occupation, residents defied military checkpoints and moved towards their towns. The Israeli forces responded by opening fire on the civilians and Lebanese Army positions.
(Jan. 27, 2025Updated 12:07 p.m. ET)
Israeli forces opened fire toward residents of southern Lebanon for a second consecutive day on Monday as people pressed on with attempts to return to their homes along the border, a day after at least two dozen people were killed and scores injured in Israeli attacks, Lebanese officials said.
The Israeli fire on Sunday was the deadliest bout of violence in Lebanon since the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, ended with a truce in November. In the renewed violence on Monday, at least two people were killed and 17 others injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
(January 26, 2025)
The arrangement between Lebanon and Israel, monitored by the United States, will continue to be in effect until February 18, 2025.
The Government of Lebanon, the Government of Israel, and the Government of the United States will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after October 7, 2023.
(11 hours ago)
The IDF has begun withdrawing troops from the western part of the Netzarim Corridor that bisects the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported early Monday morning, citing Palestinian reports.
Well that didn’t take long.
Trump has built his political career around being unapologetically pro-Israel. On his larger vision for Gaza, Trump said he had call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.
“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”
A citizen was killed in the town of Odaisseh, while a man and a young woman lost their lives in Meiss El Jabal, and another citizen was killed in Markaba.
These latest casualties bring the total number of fatalities to 15 so far, according to the ministry‘s statement.
The Lebanese Army announced that one of its soldiers was killed and another wounded in separate incidents of gunfire by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, the army reported that the fatal shooting occurred on the Marwahin-Dhayra road in the Tyre District, while the injury took place in the town of Meiss El Jabal, Marjaayoun District.
A drone view shows Palestinians waiting to be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza on 26 January 2025
Crowds of Palestinians have gathered near the Netzarim Corridor, a crossing point created by the Israeli army that separates north and south Gaza, in hopes of eventually returning to the north.
Although they are expected to be allowed through on Sunday, the Israeli army has accused Hamas of violating the terms of the ceasefire and said it will not open the corridor.
President Macron explained that he is in contact with various parties to maintain the ceasefire and ensure the full implementation of the agreement.
While Lebanese army soldiers are dispersed across the south’s western sector, Israeli troops remained in control of most of the southeastern sector.
Members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks and bulldozers have unexpectedly moved and set up several roadblocks, apparently in an attempt to prevent displaced Lebanese people trying to return to their villages.
So, this ceasefire agreement is really a test. A test of whether the state can extend its authority across southern Lebanon.
The Israeli security cabinet authorized the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) late Thursday to remain in some areas of southern Lebanon past the 60-day withdrawal deadline set to expire on Sunday. Under the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire agreement approved last November, both sides must fully remove all of their troops from the region by Jan. 26 to reinstate the borders laid out in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.
The White House is calling for Israeli troops to be allowed to remain in Lebanon past the expiration date of a cease-fire next week, giving Israel more time to complete its mission but heightening the risks that the truce will unravel altogether.
“It would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly on all those areas that are of interest to both the United States and Russia,” Putin said during an interview on domestic TV channel Russia 24.
In an interview with Russian state television, Putin praised Trump as a “clever and pragmatic man” who is focused on U.S. interests.
“We always had a business-like, pragmatic but also trusting relationship with the current U.S. president,” Putin said. “I couldn’t disagree with him that if he had been president, if they hadn’t stolen victory from him in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided.”
I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue. And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest.
All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!
He also said he hoped China can help end the war, and Trump reiterated later on Thursday that he thinks China has power over Russia.
“It’s a very big trading partner. But, Russia supplies a lot of energy to China and China pays them a lot of money for that, and I think they have a lot of power over Russia. So. I think Russia should want to make a deal. Maybe they want to make a deal. I think, from what I hear, Putin would like to see me meet as soon as we can. I’d meet immediately,” he said in the Oval Office.
The Trump administration expects the IDF to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by Sunday, per the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the Hezbollah terror group, Army Radio reports.
The position of the new administration under US President Donald Trump, Army Radio says, differs from that of the Biden administration, which was said to be considering granting Israel an additional 30 days beyond the 60-day withdrawal period stipulated in the truce agreement
(January 21,2024)
On the eve of his inauguration, Israeli settlers carried out large-scale attacks on the villages of Al-Funduq and Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to Palestinian homes, vehicles, and shops.
Earlier that evening, Israel shuttered dozens of checkpoints and entrances into the West Bank and carried out a massive campaign of arbitrary arrests, detaining over 60 Palestinians.
Israeli settlers also rampaged through several Palestinian towns in the West Bank on 19 January in a show of anger at the ceasefire deal in Gaza – which has so far seen the release of three Israeli captives in exchange for 90 Palestinians.
(March/April 2006)
Since the start of the war on terror, the Bush administration has singlemindedly advanced the view that, in time of war, the president is the law, and no statute, no constitutional barrier, no coordinate branch of the U.S. government can stand in the president’s way when, by his lights, he is acting to preserve national security. Bush administration officials have argued
– that the president has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as “enemy combatants,” strip them of any constitutional protection, and hold them for the duration of the war on terror;
– that the president has the power to ignore validly enacted statutes prohibiting war crimes if he believes those statutes impede his prosecution of the war on terror; and
– that the president has the power to launch invasions of other countries at his discretion, without so much as a by-yourleave to Congress.
In a 1977 interview with David Frost, Richard Nixon described his view of the president’s national security authority: “Well, when the President does it, that means it is not illegal.” In the arguments it has advanced, both publicly and privately, for untrammeled executive power, the Bush administration comes perilously close to that view.
After President Trump left the White House in 2021, critics of his norm-breaking use of executive power implored Congress to tighten legal limits on when presidents can unilaterally reshape American government with the stroke of a pen. But lawmakers largely did not act.
The states view Mr. Trump’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship as “extraordinary and extreme,” said New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, who led the legal effort along with the attorneys general from California and Massachusetts. “Presidents are powerful, but he is not a king. He cannot rewrite the Constitution with a stroke of the pen.”
Section 1. Purpose. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference. Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to: (a) secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech;
(b) ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen;
(c) ensure that no taxpayer resources are used to engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen; and
(d) identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech.
Sec. 3. Ending Censorship of Protected Speech. (a) No Federal department, agency, entity, officer, employee, or agent may act or use any Federal resources in a manner contrary to section 2 of this order.
(b) The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies, shall investigate the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order and prepare a report to be submitted to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken based on the findings of the report.
It’s not yet clear how the order could affect the work that several U.S. agencies do to track false claims that pose threats to election security, including the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA.
“Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration‘s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
A collection of advocacy groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit late Monday challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order to halt the automatic granting of citizenship to children born in the United States.
The executive orders include some things that scholars and legal experts say may be out of the reach of the president’s pen and could be tied up in courts or legislatures for years, including ending birthright citizenship, a right embedded in the Constitution and bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling that grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
Deportations and birthright citizenship: Donald Trump called for a crackdown on criminal “aliens” and signed an order to end automatic birthright citizenship for children of non-permanent residents. However, the order faces legal hurdles as birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution.
(b) Within 14 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to make operational preparations regarding the implementation of any decision I make to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, 50 U.S.C. 21 et seq., in relation to the existence of any qualifying invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States by a qualifying actor, and to prepare such facilities as necessary to expedite the removal of those who may be designated under this order.
The incoming administration will sign an executive order to designate drug cartels and other criminal organizations, including the U.S.-El Salvadoran-based MS-13 and Venezuela‘s Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations or specifically designated global terrorists (SDGT).
An incoming White House official said Monday that the order will direct authorities to specifically remove members of Tren de Agua from the United States. And, citing the Alien Enemies Act enacted more than two centuries ago, the official said Tren de Agua has become an „irregular armed force of Venezuela‘s government conducting a predatory incursion and invasion into the United States.“
Trump also declared that he will sign a Day 1 executive order designating cartels foreign terrorist organisations, allowing the government to take deadly measures against them.
„Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organisations. And by invoking the alien enemies act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to us, soil, including our cities and inner cities,“ Trump said.
(November 14, 2024)
The text of the Alien Enemies Act says it can be invoked whenever:
– A war is declared between the US and “any foreign nation or government” OR
– “Invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government” AND
– “the President makes public proclamation of the event”
Here’s the transcript of his full speech.
The announcement, made during his victory rally in Washington, D.C., was met with thunderous applause from supporters.
„As the first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also reverse the over-classification of government documents,“ Trump declared to a packed Capital One Arena. „And in the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.“
Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Disease for decades, including during the outbreak of Covid in Trump’s first presidency, and Milley served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term and has warned Trump is a fascist.
Here Are The Live Updates From Donald Trump‘s Inauguration Ceremony:
The truth of the matter is that every day for the past year, Biden could have secured a cease-fire by using America’s vast leverage, and every day for the past year, from all the evidence we have today, Biden chose not to.
In early November, a small group of senior U.S. human rights diplomats met with a top official in President Joe Biden’s State Department to make one final, emphatic plea: We must keep our word….
New reporting published Wednesday details the impotence and insincerity of President Joe Biden‘s „multiple threats, warnings, and admonishments“ to Israel as it annihilated the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians while receiving tens of billions of dollars in U.S. arms and unwavering diplomatic support.
Writing for ProPublica, Brett Murphy showed how multiple „red lines“ issued by Biden administration officials were ignored by Israel with impunity.
(January 6, 2ß25)
Riyadh has been very clear on the kind of nuclear partnership it expects, and it is no secret that its favored option is cooperation with South Korea, similar under a 123 agreement (a nuclear cooperation document that establishes the legal basis and prerequisites for nuclear deals with the United States) allowing it to enrich uranium domestically. The problem, however, lies in the last bit of the sentence. The United States currently insists on an agreement that requires the Saudis forgo enrichment and reprocessing capabilities—two pathways to building a bomb. The reelection of Trump might be the Saudis’ chance to tip the balance in their favor.
(January 12, 2025)
The hype about Iran’s nuclear program is focused on the enrichment of some uranium at 60% purity, which is still below the 90% needed for weapons-grade. Iran took the step to enrich at 60% in response to an Israeli covert attack on its Natanz nuclear facility in 2021.
Iran is also a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, unlike Israel, which never signed the NPT and has a covert nuclear stockpile that’s not officially acknowledged by the US.
(January 10, 2025)
Kelly: Iran, which had a pretty lousy 2024, weakened internally, mounting pressures externally. We interviewed Jake Sullivan, the national security, the national security adviser at the White House the other day. He told me the big question on his mind is, given the losses Iran has sustained, will it make it more likely, more likely that Iran tries to go for a nuclear weapon? Director Burns, will it?
Burns: It‘s something we watch very intently, because you‘re right, Iran has it‘s strategic position has suffered considerably over the course of the last six or seven months. You know, two failed efforts to launch significant ballistic missile strikes against Israel, the collapse of its leading proxy, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the severe degradation of Hamas in Gaza, and then the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. All of that, I think, strategically puts the Iranian regime in a much weaker position. And so Jake Sullivan was right to express the concern that, you know, the Iranian regime could decide in the face of that weakness that it needs to restore its deterrence as it sees it and, you know, reverse the decision made at the end of 2003 to suspend their weaponization program. We do not see any sign today that any such decision has been made, but we obviously watch it intently.
(January 10, 2025)
Israeli military sources claim that its strikes inside Iran (precipitated by an Iranian missile assault on Israel) dismantled much of its air defense systems. These security officials note that this was a key mission: to eliminate Iran’s air defenses in preparation for a future all-out assault on its nuclear program. The sources estimate it will take a year or more for Iran to repair the current damage and restore its capabilities.
(January 3, 2025)
President Joe Biden has less than a month in office, but that might be enough time to leave a very big mess on President-elect Donald Trump‘s desk. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan presented Biden with plans to bomb Iranian nuclear sites before the end of his term „in a meeting several weeks ago,“ Axios reported on Thursday. A source told Axios that Biden‘s inner circle believes that he has both „an imperative and an opportunity to strike“ now.
During the presidency of Barack Obama, the United States began providing Saudi Arabia with critical support to „sustain“ the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in the Yemeni Civil War,[1] later expanded during the presidency of Donald Trump.[2] This support included logistical and intelligence aid. Trump vetoed a bipartisan bill in 2019 aimed at stopping U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. In 2021, Joe Biden vowed to halt U.S. support for the war, though U.S. arms sales to the coalition have continued.[3][4]
From 2015 to 2019, Saudi Arabia was reportedly the largest importer of U.S. arms.[2]
Eleven air raids hit the Yemeni capital Sanaa, including the vicinity of Al-Sabeen Square, where around one million people were taking part in a weekly pro-Palestine march.
The Harf Sufyan District was hit by 12 airstrikes in the Amran Governorate of northern Yemen, while six hit the Hodeidah port west of the country. One strike also targeted the Ras Issa port north of Hodeidah.
The main power station in Haziz, south of Sanaa, was struck as well.
Trump turned to the high court in a last-ditch effort to stop the hearing, citing the conservative majority’s explosive opinion in July that granted him and other former presidents immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts.
But five of the nine justices said Trump’s immunity concerns about evidence presented at his trial can be addressed “in the ordinary course on appeal.”
Aoun’s election happened only after former Interior Minister Suleiman Frangieh, the main alternative candidate, withdrew and endorsed Aoun.
Electing a president requires a two-thirds majority of parliament, which was met after Frangieh’s endorsement gave Aoun the support of Hezbollah and Amal Movements. Many media reports see Aoun’s election as a sign of Hezbollah’s weakness, despite most Hezbollah MPs supporting him.
Securing 99 of the Lebanese parliament’s 128 votes, Aoun garnered widespread support across Lebanon’s political spectrum, despite initial reservations from Hezbollah and its allies.
While political statements from Aoun are rare, he recently emerged as the US and Saudi Arabia’s favoured candidate for the Lebanese presidency.
The local and international push gathered momentum following Israel’s two-month offensive in Lebanon last year, which killed over 4,000 people and displaced over a million.
After the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020, countries friendly to Lebanon diverted their aid to the military, claiming that they only rely on the army to distribute it. Therefore, all the aid, estimated at tens of millions of dollars, was directed directly to the army and was at Aoun’s disposal and under his direct management. It appears that the military establishment has effectively managed the funds and has never experienced a shortage due to corruption.
The US has told Lebanese officials that Saudi Arabia is prepared to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars to reconstruct their war-torn country if Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun is elected president, one senior Arab official and one former senior US official told Middle East Eye.
(15. April 2018)
Der nun erfolgte erneute Luftangriff gegen Syrien repräsentiert die Wiederholung einer Seifenoper aus dem letzten Jahr (11.04.2017, Wag the Russki). Drehbuch wie folgt:
– U.S. Präsident Donald Trump äußert in etwa “es hat nach Hunderttausenden von Toten keinen Sinn mehr die Invasion in Syrien mit terroristischen Proxy-Truppen und regulären eigenen Einheiten weiter fortzusetzen”,
– im Gebiet der terroristischen Proxies und Invasoren bei Ghouta ereignet sich ein fiktiver oder tatsächlicher Einsatz von Chemiewaffen,
– Trump dreht sich um 180 Grad und kündigt einen Militärschlag auf Syrien an,
– dieser erfolgt, mit Ankündigung und laut der französischen Verteidigungsministerin und einem anonymen Politiker über “Reuters” abermals mit Vorwarnung durch die Westmächte,
– die russische Flugabwehr tut nichts, gibt auch noch damit an und die syrische, die genau wie die russischen Militärs noch jedem Massaker gegen die eigenen und verbündeten Truppen aus Irak, Iran und Libanon zugesehen hat wie die Karnickel auf der Fahrbahn, behauptet dies und das.
Einer der wenigen Unterschiede zum letzten Jahr ist, dass sich neben Donald Trump mit Emmanuel Macron und Theresa May nun zwei weitere in ihrem Land hoch umstrittene Staatsleiter vor die Presse stellen und sagen können, sehet her, das haben sie nun davon, diese Russkis. Und Putin, der arme Putin, zitiert das Völkerrecht.
Dass die russische Staatsführung nie beabsichtigt hat Syrien gegen Luftangriffe zu verteidigen, sagte sie schon im letzten Jahr. Dass der russische Präsident jetzt von einer Verletzung der Souveränität Syriens redet, spricht Bände über dessen auch im Humor zum Ausdruck kommenden Grausamkeit. Der ganze Luftraum Syriens quillt über von irgendwelchen Kampfjets von Vancouver bis Wladivostok, seit Jahren. Noch einmal – hätte die Russische Föderation vor Beginn der Syrien-Invasion oder vor Beginn der Libyen-Invasion den dortigen Regimen eine Garantieerklärung gegeben, wie sie China letzten Sommer unter viel Gewimmer und Gebrumm endlich gegenüber Nordkorea abgab, wären Hunderttausende Menschen heute noch am Leben.
Human rights advocates in the United States and around the world on Monday condemned outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden for continuing to fuel Israel‘s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip with a pending $8 billion weapons package.
Since Axoisrevealed late Friday that his administration had notified Congress of the deal, Biden has faced a fresh flood of outrage, with critics calling the president „morally bankrupt“ and his decision to keep arming Israel „willful madness.“
The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday an arms sale to Israel valued at $8 billion, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.
Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, primarily women and children.
„The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, and to deter aggression from Iran and its proxy organizations. We will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel‘s defense,“ a U.S. official said.
Meanwhile, the US is preparing an $8bn arms package for Israel, including heavy bombs
The final outcome in Syria appears stark: Assad’s regime has fallen, and the Syrian army has been entirely dismantled—an unprecedented event even compared to the 1967 war. Israel now firmly controls the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. Turkish forces have seized more than 13 cities, cementing their influence. The United States has solidified its presence in oil-rich regions while extending legal protection to the Kurds and the SDF.
“President Biden has an opportunity to make history by addressing the racist and unjust federal death penalty system and keep an early campaign promise he made to the American people,” Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said this month after the ACLU and more than 130 other civil and human rights organizations sent Biden a letter urging him to commute the sentences of those on death row.
Fortschritte in der Forensik sowie Enthüllungen über Justizirrtümer stellen die vermeintliche Schuld bereits hingerichteter Sträflinge infrage.
Gleichzeitig wird die Diskriminierung im Strafjustizsystem kritisiert – denn Studien zeigen, dass die Todesstrafe eher verhängt wird, wenn die Opfer weiß sind. Außerdem erhalten Schwarze bei ähnlichen Verbrechen oft härtere Strafen als Weiße. Auch die Qualität der Rechtsvertretung spielt eine entscheidende Rolle und führt oft zu Ungleichheiten.
(December 19, 2024)
“They did not tell us how it would happen,” Bashar al-Mashadani, an RCA commander, told The Telegraph. “We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’ But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.”
In October, the US brought several other Sunni Muslim militias under the command of the RCA, swelling the force from 800 fighters to about 3,000. All of the fighters are armed by the US, and the US pays their salaries of $400 per month.
(December 18, 2024)
RCA fighters who captured the Russian-controlled Syrian air base on the outskirts of the town last week said they had been told to prepare for Assad’s possible fall in early November, nearly three weeks before the offensive began.
Until one month earlier, Capt Mashadani had been second-in-command of the Abu Khatab brigade. This small unit of 150 men was created by US Special Forces and trained by their British counterparts in Jordan until 2016, to hunt down Isis fighters near Deir ez-Zor, a city in eastern Syria.
Julani fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq against American soldiers during the Iraq War. He then founded al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front. In recent years, he has attempted to soften his image by giving friendly interviews to Western journalists, often appearing in a suit and with a trimmed beard to obscure his jihadist ideology.
Leaf said of Julani after the meeting, who is also going by Ahmad al-Sharaa, “I heard him on his priorities, which are very much rooted in getting Syria on the road to economic recovery.”
“We’ve been hearing this for some time, some very pragmatic and moderate statements on various issues, from women’s rights to protection to equal rights for all communities,” she added. “It was a good first meeting. We will judge by deeds, not just by words.”
„Als Gegenleistung für ihre Unterstützung und ihr Geld, so sagte mir der Israeli, würden die Vereinigten Staaten der saudischen Führung ein erweitertes Verteidigungsabkommen anbieten, das Saudi-Arabien in ihren nuklearen Schutzschirm einbeziehen würde – für den Fall, dass der Iran, Israels letzter verbliebener Feind, in den Besitz einer Atombombe gelangen sollte. “
(…)
„Der Israeli sagte mir, dass das saudische Paket einen zusätzlichen Anreiz enthält: Die Saudis würden wegschauen, wenn die Israelis Bombenangriffe durchführen, einschließlich der Bombardierung militärischer Ziele im zerrissenen Syrien, und würden Israel Zugang zu einem Flugplatz innerhalb der saudischen Grenzen gewähren. Auf diese Weise könnten israelische Bomben, die zumeist von den Vereinigten Staaten geliefert werden, innerhalb von Minuten, nicht Stunden, auf wichtige iranische Ziele abgefeuert werden.“
(December 16, 2023)
Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.
Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.
In return for its support and money, the Israeli told me, the Saudi leadership would be offered an expanded defense treaty by the United States that would include Saudi Arabia in its nuclear umbrella—its zone of protection—in case Iran, Israel’s last standing enemy, were to acquire a nuclear bomb.
(…)
There is an added inducement in the Saudi package, the Israeli told me: the Saudis would look the other way as the Israelis conduct bombing raids, including bombing of military targets inside fractured Syria, and would give Israel access to an airfield within Saudi borders. This would bring Israeli bombs, most supplied by the United States, within minutes, and not hours, of key Iranian targets.