Speech by Palestinian Authority president also says Hamas should have no role in governing Palestine and must disarm
Alimi says the policy of containment has given the Houthis time to expand its arsenal.
“It has become clear the peace we seek cannot be asked for but must be imposed by force,” he says.
Continue reading...Trump had refused to grant visas for Palestinian delegation due to attend conference and UN general assembly
The United Nations general assembly has voted to allow the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to address next week’s annual gathering of world leaders next week in New York via video link after Donald Trump said he would not give him a US visa.
The resolution received 145 votes in favour and five votes against, while six countries abstained.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Former PM returns to Middle East politics as civil society groups argue that any real solution must begin with Palestinian agency
Good morning. Tony Blair is back and he has plans for the Middle East.
No, you have not woken up and jumped back two decades in time. The former Labour leader, who was put under pressure to resign after the disastrous decision to go to war with Iraq – which led to the death of a million Iraqis and created a vacuum later filled by the brutal Islamic State – is back in the headlines this week.
Ukraine | The UK and European Union have summoned their Russian envoys after missile strikes on Kyiv killed at least 18 people and damaged British Council and EU offices.
UK news | The Treasury is reportedly considering a tax on landlords in the autumn budget that would target income from rents. The proposals are centred on the expansion of national insurance to include rental income.
Iran | The UK, France and Germany have formally notified the UN that they have triggered the restoration of sweeping UN sanctions against Iran, giving Tehran 30 days to make concessions on access to its nuclear sites.
US news | The White House named non-scientist Jim O’Neill, a deputy of Robert F Kennedy Jr, to serve as acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), amid a standoff over the firing of director Susan Monarez whose lawyers said she could only be removed by Donald Trump himself.
Environment | The collapse of a critical Atlantic current can no longer be considered a low-likelihood event, a study has concluded, making deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions even more urgent to avoid the catastrophic impact.
Continue reading...Mahmoud Abbas appoints veteran aide to newly created role, making him frontrunner to replace ageing leader
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday named a veteran aide and confidant as his new vice-president. It’s a major step by the ageing leader to designate a successor.
The appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as vice-president of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) does not guarantee he will be the next Palestinian president. But it makes him the frontrunner among longtime politicians in the dominant Fatah party who hope to succeed the 89-year-old Abbas.
Continue reading...Two main Palestinian factions agree during talks in Cairo that politically independent technocrats will run territory
Hamas and Fatah – the two main Palestinian factions which have been at odds for almost two decades – have agreed in talks in Cairo to create a committee that will jointly run the postwar Gaza Strip.
While Israel had refused to countenance a “day after” governing scenario involving Hamas or the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, the move nonetheless signifies fresh willingness from Hamas to give up its rule of Gaza and could help advance internationally mediated ceasefire talks.
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK government appears unlikely to go ahead with legal bid, while Keir Starmer has spoken with Israeli PM over Gaza ceasefire
The new Labour government is expected to drop a bid to delay the international criminal court (ICC) reaching a decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The development came as Keir Starmer, the new UK prime minister, told the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, that he believed the Palestinians had an undeniable right to a Palestinian state. Starmer spoke to Abbas on Sunday about the “ongoing suffering and devastating loss of life” in Gaza.
Continue reading...Departure of longtime leader would pave way for new elections and much needed reform of Palestinian Authority
Last month the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, flew to the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks on securing a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. That in itself was unusual; the West Bank-based Abbas, who is also chair of the Fatah party and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), has been all but sidelined by local and international actors since the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out.
According to three sources with knowledge of the meetings, which involved Palestinian and Qatari officials as well as diplomats from around the region, it was suggested that Abbas, 88, should consider shifting to a ceremonial presidential role. Such a move would pave a path for new Palestinian elections and help heal the long-running rift between Fatah and Hamas. It would also allow US-led hopes for a “revitalised”, “single structure” Palestinian Authority (PA) that could take charge in Gaza to move forward, with the eventual aim of restarting peace talks aimed at a two-state solution.
Continue reading...US secretary of state and foreign ministers from UK, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan join Israel at security conference
Western leaders are hoping a round of meetings at a security conference in Munich will put overwhelming pressure on Israel not to press ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah.
Almost all the key figures, save the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, will be present in Munich on Friday, including foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan. The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, and foreign minister, Israel Katz, will also attend along with three freed hostages, Raz Ben Ami, Adi Shoham and Aviva Siegel. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, is flying in too.
Continue reading...US secretary of state met Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, on visit dismissed as ‘theatre’ by residents
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, restated Washington’s commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state during a brief trip to the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a visit dismissed by many residents as “theatre”.
Blinken told Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), that the US position was that a Palestinian state must stand alongside Israel, “with both living in peace and security”, a spokesperson said.
Continue reading...Announcement follows pressure from allies in US to alleviate humanitarian crisis in besieged territory
Israel has said it will open a new aid crossing into the Gaza Strip in the face of pressure from allies in Washington to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory and wind down its wide-scale bombings and armoured ground operations against Hamas.
The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel, previously used for goods and aid deliveries, would reopen to process humanitarian supplies, the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday.
Continue reading...Unpopular and incompetent, the West Bank’s leaders have little to offer in a ‘day after’ scenario, despite Antony Blinken’s hopes
After the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, won by the Hamas-backed Change and Reform party, the Palestinian Authority’s rule in Gaza was coming to an ignominious and chaotic end. Heavily armed families, some separated by their political affiliations with Hamas and Fatah, others by long-simmering rivalries, were involved in armed clashes.
In cities such as Khan Younis, barricades blocked districts that turned into impromptu strongholds. Corrupt, weak and incompetent, the PA in Gaza had allowed – even encouraged – the arming of the rival clans. Within months, the PA would be driven out by Hamas after a period of intra-Palestinian violence.
Continue reading...PM met Palestinian Authority leader in Egypt as part of tour of the region to try to prevent the conflict escalating
Rishi Sunak has held talks in Cairo with the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, where the two men condemned Hamas and the prime minister reiterated the UK’s support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The leaders agreed on the need for all parties to take steps to protect civilians, and civilian infrastructure, and minimise the loss of innocent lives,” a spokesperson for Sunak said.
Continue reading...Palestinian Authority leader caused outrage after talking about Hitler and European Jews in a speech to his Fatah party
Dozens of leading Palestinian intellectuals, artists and other public figures have published an open letter condemning antisemitic comments made by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas.
In a letter published on Sunday, 96 people, including Rashid Khalidi, the historian, Dana el-Kurd, the political scientist, and Sam Bahour, the prominent businessman, said they “unequivocally condemn the morally and politically reprehensible comments” made by Abbas, which were publicly circulated last week.
Continue reading...Minister says ultranationalists in coalition want to dismantle body and create ‘new reality in the West Bank’
Senior allies of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, have expressed fears that Benjamin Netanyahu’s new ultranationalist coalition in Israel will seek to dismantle the Palestinian Authority (PA), established after the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
The Palestinian social development minister, Ahmad Majdalani, said members of the government intended to destroy the authority, which administers a degree of self-rule in parts of the West Bank and is considered by Abbas as the institutional building block for a future Palestinian state.
Continue reading...In new memoir, former Israeli PM describes efforts to turn US president against Palestinian leader Abbas
Benjamin Netanyahu used maps of Hezbollah missile sites and intelligence gained from a Mossad raid in Tehran to make sure Donald Trump backed Israel in Middle East peace talks and pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, the former Israeli prime minister writes in a new memoir.
But in unconventional scenes similar to those in countless books of reportage and Trump tell-alls, Netanyahu also says that to sway Trump from his desire to pursue peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to scotch his positive first impression of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, the Israelis deployed golfing metaphors and maps of New York City.
Continue reading...German chancellor condemns remarks morning after joint press conference with Palestinian leader
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts”, at a joint press conference with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, drawing condemnation from Germany and Israel.
At the end of his state visit to Germany’s chancellory on Tuesday night, Abbas was asked by a German journalist whether he planned to apologise for the deadly attack by Palestinian militants on Israeli citizens at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the 50th anniversary of which is on 5 September.
Continue reading...World criticism mounts over the shooting of Al Jazeera journalist as dispute over chain of events grows
Nahed Araf Imran and her husband Jamal were exhausted but excited on Wednesday morning: Nahed was in labour with their third child at a local hospital in Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
But when Jamal’s mother arrived at the hospital crying just before the couple’s daughter was born, he knew something was wrong.
Continue reading...In new book, David Friedman recounts private meeting with Israeli president in which Trump also knocked Netanyahu – and how he says he turned his man around
Meeting then-Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem in May 2017, Donald Trump stunned advisers by criticising the then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for being unwilling to seek peace while Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, was “desperate” for a deal.
The comment “knocked everyone off their chairs”, David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, writes in a new book.
Continue reading...The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced that the US would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem after it was downgraded by the Trump administration, and will provide an additional $75m to help rebuild Gaza. Speaking alongside the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he also promised to ‘continue to rebuild’ the US’s relationship with Palestinians, and repeated comments from Biden that both Israelis and Palestinians should ‘enjoy equal measures of freedom, opportunity, and democracy, to be treated with dignity’
Continue reading...Mahmoud Abbas says all agreements with US and Israel are void but others call move a cry for help
It was a speech intended to define a new era. In a final, do-or-die attempt to block what appeared to be Israeli plans for a permanent land grab, the Palestinian president announced he would renege on decades of diplomacy.
From the 1990s-era Oslo accords – the first steps of a peace process – to deep security coordination between the Palestinian leadership, Israel and US intelligence agencies, all were now void, Mahmoud Abbas said in a late-night speech last week. He said the Palestinian leadership was “absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments”.
Continue reading...