Category Archives: US foreign policy

Extremist Israeli settlers hit by EU and US sanctions

Posted on by

Far-right group Lehava and several individuals accused of violence targeted in dual announcements

The EU and the US have imposed tough new sanctions against key figures alleged to be behind extremist violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The sanctions – announced within hours of each other by the EU and by the US Treasury – targeted a number of prominent individuals and organisations, most prominently Bentzi Gopstein, the leader of the Levaha group, who reports in the Israeli media suggest has acted as an adviser to the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis live: Israel has carried out an attack on Iran, US officials say, after blasts reported near Isfahan

Posted on by

US officials say military operation carried out, without giving further details; Iran state media says air defences fired and airspace closed in some areas

It’s 7:24am in Tehran and 6:54 In Tel Aviv. Let’s get a reminder of what we know so far:

US officials have confirmed that Israel has carried out military operations against Iran but did not describe those operations.

The Israeli military has told news agencies including Agence France-Presse and Associated Press: “We don’t have a comment at this time.”

Iran’s state media reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan Friday

Air defence systems over several Iranian cities were activated, state media reported, after the country’s official broadcaster said explosions were heard near the city of Isfahan.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported “three explosions” were heard near the Shekari army airbase in the north-west of Isfahan province, while Iran’s space agency spokesperson Hossein Dalirian said “several” drones had been “successfully shot down”.

Nuclear facilities in Isfahan were reported to be “completely secure”, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported, citing “reliable sources”.

Flights were suspended across swathes of Iran on Friday. “Iran’s air defence has been activated in the skies of several provinces of the country,” Tehran’s official IRNA news agency said.

Mehr news agency reported that “flights to Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz, and airports in the west, northwest and southwest have been suspended.”

Flight-tracking software showed commercial flights avoiding western Iran, including Isfahan, and skirting Tehran to the north and east.

There was no immediate comment from Dubai’s Emirates airline, which was operating several of the planes.

Blasts were also reported in southern Syria, according to a local activist group. “There were strikes on a Syrian army radar position,” said Rayan Maarouf, who runs the Suwayda24 anti-government website that covers news from Sweida province in the south, reports AFP.

Oil prices surged more than three per cent in early Asian trade on Friday after the reports of explosions.

Continue reading...

US resumes deportation flights to Haiti despite continuing bloodshed

Posted on by

Critics condemn ‘reckless and cruel’ expulsions and say deportees likely to be targeted by armed gangs who control much of country

More than 70 Haitians expelled from the United States have been flown back to Haiti on the first deportation flight since heavily armed gangs launched a bloody insurrection which has paralysed the capital and forced the prime minister from office.

The flight, which landed in the port city of Cap-Haïtien early on Thursday, was described as “inhumane” by human rights activists who warned that deportees would likely be targeted by the criminal factions who control most of the country.

Continue reading...

US vetoes Palestinian request for full UN membership

Posted on by

Washington blocks security council resolution supported by 12 member countries, with two abstentions including UK

The US has vetoed a Palestinian request to the United Nations security council for full UN membership, blocking the world body’s recognition of a Palestinian state.

The vote in the 15-member security council was 12 in favor, the US opposed and two abstentions, the UK and Switzerland.

Continue reading...

US accused of failing to act on reports of abuse by Israeli forces

Posted on by

Panel urged denial of Israel funds because of serious human rights violations but state department has not yet acted, report says

The US state department has failed to act on internal reports of human rights abuses by Israeli army and police units, according to a new report, raising new questions over whether Washington’s continued supply of arms to Israel is breaking US law.

The ProPublica investigative journalism site quoted officials as saying that a special panel set up by the Biden administration had recommended that multiple Israeli military and police units be denied US funding because of serious human rights abuses. But the state department has yet to act on the recommendations.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: UN security council to vote on granting membership to Palestine – as it happened

Posted on by

UN due to vote on Thursday on bid for full membership by Palestine in move the US is expected to block

The EU has edged closer to calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East after a meeting of the 27 bloc leaders last night.

Leaders have struggled to agree language from the outset of the conflict, engaging in torturous discussions over whether they should use the word ceasefire, pause, or pauses in the first official bloc-wide declaration in October.

Continue reading...

China sounds warning after Philippines and US announce most expansive military drills yet

Posted on by

Exercises starting on Monday will be the first to be held outside Philippines’ territorial waters, and come amid a rise in tensions in the South China Sea

Philippine and US forces will carry out their first ever military exercises outside the south-east Asian country’s territorial waters, in a move China has said will only lead to greater insecurity in the South China Sea.

The annual Balikatan or “shoulder-to-shoulder” drills – which will run from 22 April to 10 May – will involve 16,700 soldiers simulating retaking enemy-occupied islands in areas facing Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: Israel will ‘make its own decision’ on Iran after UK and Germany call for restraint – as it happened

Posted on by

Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments came after UK foreign minister David Cameron and his German counterpart travelled to Israel for talks

Here are some more pictures sent over the news wires from Rafah showing the aftermath of an Israeli strike there.

Reuters, citing the semi-official Tasnim news agency, reports that Iran’s navy is to begin escorting Iranian commercial ships to the Red Sea.

Continue reading...

Roads blocked as thousands protest in US against Israel’s attack on Gaza

Posted on by

Flights delayed and traffic disrupted as protesters in major US cities intensify call for ceasefire in Gaza

Thousands of people held protests across the US on Monday condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza, shutting down airports and disrupting traffic in major cities from New York to San Francisco.

A portion of the Kennedy Expressway into Chicago O’Hare international airport, one of the US’s busiest, was blocked off by protesters calling for an end to the violence.

Continue reading...

Iran attack puts pressure on US House speaker to pass aid bill for Israel and Ukraine

Posted on by

Mike Johnson has said he will aim to advance legislation to support Israel but has not clarified whether Ukraine funding will form part of package

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said he will aim to advance a bill for wartime aid to Israel this week following Iran’s weekend attack, but did not clarify whether Ukraine funding would be part of the package.

US assistance for both nations has languished amid political bickering in Congress, with Johnson – an ally of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – blocking an earlier $95bn in aid sought by President Joe Biden for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan which had passed the Senate.

Continue reading...

Biden’s renewed embrace of Israel threatens to deepen Democratic divide

Posted on by

Iran’s attack may give the president a reason to return to his default position of ‘ironclad’ Israeli support – could that hurt him in November?

“Ironclad,” said Joe Biden. “Ironclad,” said Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary. “Ironclad,” said the Senate leader Chuck Schumer, the House leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

In the wake of Saturday’s attack by Iran, Democrats united around a single word in expressing their commitment to Israel’s security. It was a sentiment that papered over, at least for now, cracks in the party over Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Continue reading...

Bullish Iran hails attack on Israel as a success and says operation is over

Posted on by

Jubilant mood ignores fact almost all drones were shot down but Tehran suggests objectives were achieved

A bullish Iranian government hailed its unprecedented direct strike on Israel as a success and said that as far as it was concerned the military operation was now over, saying it had struck most of the military targets it had intended as a reprisal for the Israeli assault on Iran’s consulate in Damascus on 1 April.

The chief of the general staff, Gen Mohammad Bagheri, claimed that an Israeli intelligence centre close to the Syrian border and an airbase had been destroyed “to a significant extent and put out of operation”.

Continue reading...

Iran warns it will strike again with greater force if Israel or US retaliate

Posted on by

Tehran said it informed regional neighbours of strike several days before firing over 300 drones and missiles at Israel

Tehran has warned it will strike again with greater force if Israel or the US retaliate for the Iranian strike on Israel that used more than 300 drones and missiles on Saturday night.

The air raids, the country’s first ever direct attack on the Israeli state, brought a years-long shadow war into the open and threatened to draw the region into a broader conflagration as Israel said it was considering its response.

Continue reading...

Dynamic in South China Sea is changing through growing US and Japan ties, says Philippines president

Posted on by

Ferdinand Marcos Jr says building trilateral ties vital, after the three countries criticise China’s ‘dangerous and aggressive behaviour’ in the region

A cooperation agreement by the Philippines, the United States and Japan will change the dynamic in the South China Sea and the region, the Philippine president has said, while seeking to assure China it was not a target.

“I think the trilateral agreement is extremely important,” Ferdinand Marcos Jr told a press conference in Washington on Friday, a day after meeting President Joe Biden and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, in the nations’ first trilateral summit.

Continue reading...

Biden pledges to defend Philippines from any attack in South China Sea

Posted on by

US president describes defence commitment to the Philippines and Japan as ‘ironclad’ as Beijing accuses Manila of violating Chinese sovereignty

Joe Biden has pledged to defend the Philippines from any attack in the South China Sea, as he hosted the first joint summit with Manila and Tokyo amid growing tensions with Beijing.

“The United States’ defence commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad,” the US president said on Thursday as he met the Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida.

Continue reading...

US seeking to deter Iran from strike on Israel, officials say

Posted on by

US declaring commitment to Israeli security while also working to prevent regional war, say officials

The US is seeking to deter Iran from carrying out a retaliatory strike against Israel with concerted declarations of commitment to Israeli security, while at the same time trying to prevent the outbreak of a major regional war, officials in Washington have said.

US officials still believe that a direct Iranian missile or drone strike is possible within the next few days, in retaliation for the Israeli bombing of an Iranian consular building in Damascus on 1 April, which killed a top Islamic Revolutionary Guards general and six other Guard officers.

Continue reading...

Japanese leader asks US to overcome ‘self-doubt’ about global leadership

Posted on by

Fumio Kishida warns of risks from China in address to Congress and says Japan determined to do more to share responsibility

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, on Thursday called on Americans to overcome their “self-doubt” as he offered a paean to US global leadership before a bitterly divided Congress.

Warning of risks from the rise of China, Kishida said that Japan – stripped of its right to a military after the second world war – was determined to do more to share responsibility with its ally the United States.

Continue reading...

Tim Kaine: Biden knows Netanyahu ‘played’ him in early months of Gaza war

Posted on by

Senator and leading foreign policy voice in Democratic party tells the Guardian Biden has come to realise the limits of his influence

Senator Tim Kaine, a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party, has said Joe Biden now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”.

In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence.

Continue reading...

Hamas leader repeats Gaza ceasefire call after sons and grandchildren killed

Posted on by

Deadly Israeli airstrike prompts comments by Ismail Haniyeh, as two sides remain far apart on key issues

Three sons and at least two grandchildren of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the exiled political chief of the militant group has said from his base in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Haniyeh told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that his children Hazem, Amir and Mohammed and several of their children were visiting relatives for Eid at the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza when their car was targeted in an Israeli airstrike. Sixty of his relatives had been killed in the six-month-old war, he said, including 14 who died after an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Gaza City in October.

Continue reading...

Cherry blossoms, steak and Paul Simon: the Bidens put on a show for Japan’s PM

Posted on by

Fumio and Yuko Kishida honoured with state dinner to recognise ‘flourishing’ relationship between US and Japan, says Jill Biden

Dry-aged rib eye steak, cherry blossoms and Paul Simon playing a selection of his songs will be the centerpieces of a state dinner the White House is hosting for Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and his wife, Yuko. More than 200 guests are expected to attend.

A lavish state dinner is a tool of US diplomacy, and a high honour that is used sparingly and only to America’s closest allies. In the case of Japan, Joe Biden has chosen to celebrate an ally that he sees as a cornerstone of his policy toward the Indo-Pacific region.

Continue reading...