Israeli prime minister faces incompatible demands from his far-right government ministers and from Donald Trump
Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rejection of a US-backed deal for Gaza drew scepticism in Israel, amid reports he was personally hammering out details of a pilot military withdrawal days earlier.
The Israeli prime minister is struggling to balance incompatible demands on Gaza policy from his key domestic and international allies.
Continue reading...Israeli PM says IDF will not withdraw until Hamas is disarmed and rebukes US pressure to end wars without his country’s buy-in
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected a US-backed 15-point peace plan for Gaza in a rare public break with Donald Trump.
In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu said that he was confronting a “wave of rumours about Israeli weakness and Israeli withdrawals on all fronts” and rebuked US pressure to end wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without Israel’s buy-in.
Continue reading...Drone strike comes after Riyadh signs defence pact and Tehran issues tough demands to reopen strait of Hormuz
Yemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthis have claimed responsibility for an attack on a refinery in Saudi Arabia, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.
The attack early on Sunday came after Iran said tough new demands would have to be met before it would reopen the strait of Hormuz, and after the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships had been targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the waterway remained out of reach.
Continue reading...Tehran urges US to ‘correct its behaviour’ as UAE says one of its ships targeted by Iranian missile
Iran has issued tough new demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach on Saturday.
Iran’s politburo-like body known as the supreme national security council said the strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour”, and its state broadcaster published a statement from the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Continue reading...The US president’s profound ignorance of his enemy has led to an impotent cycle of empty threats, analysts say
Being the subject of mockery may be the most intense of all Donald Trump’s known aversions.
Yet more than five months after embarking on a war of choice against Iran, the US president risks attracting ridicule as he struggles to secure a military victory – while repeatedly threatening devastating bombardment against the Tehran regime, only to back down on the pretext of renewed negotiations.
Continue reading...Move comes in response to Rome imposing similar measures after mass migration rush to Ceuta
Spain has announced it will introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy in response to Rome imposing similar measures after a mass rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta.
The checks, which come “amid the persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy, will start at midnight on Saturday and last until 7 September, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement.
Continue reading...By dragging out talks, Tehran aims to damage the US president politically – but some fear a bruised and weakened Trump could lash back
Tehran has set out a protracted negotiating timetable designed to keep Donald Trump embroiled in the Iran conflict until the midterm elections, in the hope of inflicting the same ruinous blow on his presidency as Jimmy Carter suffered over the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis.
For many inside Iran, inflicting meaningful revenge on Trump is a legitimate and self-standing war aim, reflected in the mood of those attending the funeral of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei where demands for retribution were ubiquitous.
Continue reading...Yinon Levy charged with manslaughter in first exception this decade to culture of impunity for Israelis who kill Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
Prosecutors in Israel have indicted an extremist settler for shooting a Palestinian activist last July, the first attempt this decade to hold an Israeli responsible for killing a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank.
Yinon Levy, who was under western sanctions, is charged with manslaughter over the death of Awdeh Hathaleen, an English teacher and peace activist. In his last moments, Hathaleen filmed the settler drawing his weapon and opening fire towards him.
Continue reading...Letter says lifting of sanctions sent ‘clear message’ settlers can use deadly force in West Bank without consequences
Senior Democrats have accused Donald Trump’s administration of giving a green light to violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, warning that its policies created “a climate of impunity and unbridled violence” that endangers both Palestinians and US citizens.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, a group of 19 Democratic senators and representatives call for the restoration of sanctions against extremist settlers and demand independent US investigations into the deaths of nine US citizens killed in the West Bank since 2022.
Continue reading...Washington-Rabat ties under scrutiny as questions swirl over what led to deadly influx into tiny Spanish territory
The cosy relationship between Washington and Rabat has long been flaunted by both sides, from Morocco’s announcement this year that it would be the first African state to join Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to the congratulatory message recently sent by Trump to mark King Mohammed VI’s 27 years in power.
The latest example landed this week. As Spain grappled with the aftermath of the sudden influx – and swift return – of more than 70,000 people into Ceuta, Morocco’s monarch confirmed he had named a $1bn highway flanking the disputed territory of Western Sahara after Trump.
Continue reading...Investigation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Legal Agenda shows Israel deliberately attacked Amal Khalil and colleague Zeinab Faraj knowing they were civilians
An Israeli strike that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured her colleague Zeinab Faraj in April was a war crime, three rights organisations said on Thursday.
Investigations from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Legal Agenda showed that Israel deliberately and directly attacked Khalil and Faraj, with apparent knowledge that they were civilians. The organisations called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, while HRW called for states to halt arm sales to Israel and put targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes.
Continue reading...Investigation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Legal Agenda shows Israel deliberately attacked Amal Khalil and colleague Zeinab Faraj knowing they were civilians
An Israeli strike that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured her colleague Zeinab Faraj in April was a war crime, three rights organisations said on Thursday.
Investigations from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Legal Agenda showed that Israel deliberately and directly attacked Khalil and Faraj, with apparent knowledge that they were civilians. The organisations called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, while HRW called for states to halt arm sales to Israel and put targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes.
Continue reading...Joint statement with Oman is being finalised, but Tehran says deal alone would not guarantee waterway’s security
Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on the geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, and a joint announcement is being finalised provided certain third parties do not interfere, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Wednesday.
Baghaei added that any such agreement between Iran and Oman would not, by itself, guarantee security in the strategic waterway.
Continue reading...Joint statement with Oman is being finalised, but Tehran says deal alone would not guarantee waterway’s security
Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on the geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, and a joint announcement is being finalised provided certain third parties do not interfere, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Wednesday.
Baghaei added that any such agreement between Iran and Oman would not, by itself, guarantee security in the strategic waterway.
Continue reading...Hits on two towns among deadliest bombings since start of June ceasefire
An Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon killed one person and injured 11, the Lebanese ministry of health said, in one of Israel’s deadliest bombings since the start of the June ceasefire.
Israel carried out an airstrike in the town of Tebnine, south Lebanon hitting a cemetery, the Lebanese health ministry said. It said the town of al-Mansouri, also in south Lebanon, was bombed too, forcing families to flee.
Continue reading...Masoud Pezeshkian dismisses talk of internal rift as hardline Assembly of Experts call US negotiations ‘futile’
Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, has been forced to deny claims that he has repeatedly threatened to resign as he battles hardline factions opposed to reaching a settlement with the US over the strait of Hormuz.
The US and Europe hope a deal is imminent to reopen the strait and they are putting pressure on Oman to accept a temporary agreement that officials in Muscat fear will leave Iran retaining near permanent dominance of the vital oil shipping channel. Ships would enter the strait in a route close to Iran, but leave on a route that passes through Iranian and Omani waters.
Continue reading...Remains of 112 victims, including 40 children, recovered from rubble more than two years after residential block was destroyed
Mourners gathered in central Gaza on Tuesday for a mass funeral for 112 people, including 40 children, who were killed in 2023 in one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the Gaza war.
Their bodies could not be recovered until now because of Israel’s continuing strikes, which have slowed, though not halted, since the ceasefire in October.
Continue reading...Optimism echoes Trump’s claims on Monday that deal is close as mediators say they are exchanging proposals
US and Qatari officials have said progress is being made in restoring a ceasefire in the US-Iran war and reopening the strait of Hormuz.
The optimistic speculation on Tuesday brought oil prices down 2%, but the strait remained closed to shipping and a cargo vessel was reportedly struck by an unidentified projectile off Oman’s coast close to the strait.
Continue reading...Exclusive: More than 60 accounts on X have been made unavailable in Saudi Arabia, after similar action on Snapchat and Facebook
Elon Musk’s X has become the latest major US social media company to block the accounts of Saudi Arabian dissidents so they are no longer visible inside the kingdom, following orders from Saudi authorities.
Earlier this year, the Guardian reported that platforms including Snapchat and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram had blocked dissidents’ accounts over allegations by Saudi authorities that they were violating local law.
Continue reading...US president reduced to bemoaning Tehran’s ‘unbelievable duplicity’ as he struggles to find solid negotiating ground
The Donald Trump doctrine has always contained a tenuous relationship with the truth. It was his mentor, the infamous New York lawyer Roy Cohn, who taught the young real estate mogul always to claim victory and never to admit defeat. Unfortunately for Trump, in Iran the US president has found a counterpart just as stubborn as himself.
As Trump claims new negotiations are to begin with Tehran this week, Iran has shown it can also reignite the conflict by lobbing ballistic missiles at US bases in the region and maintaining a stranglehold on the strait of Hormuz, effectively taking initiative in the stalled peace process. And time is of the essence for Trump as the clock ticks toward a global energy crisis and a painful midterm elections for him and his Republican party.
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