RSS
Trump Touts Warm Ties to Israel’s Netanyahu, Blasts Harris
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, Sept. 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Former US President Donald Trump touted his close relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu when he hosted the Israeli prime minister on Friday and accused US Vice President Kamala Harris of making “disrespectful” comments about the Gaza war.
Netanyahu met Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2024 US presidential race, a day after talks with Democratic President Joe Biden and Harris, who is running against Trump in the Nov. 5 US election.
Trump greeted Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, and criticized Harris, who had voiced concern after meeting the Israeli leader about the toll on Palestinian civilians from Israel‘s nine-month-old campaign in Gaza.
“I think her remarks were disrespectful,” Trump said.
Netanyahu said he hoped his US trip would lead to a quicker ceasefire deal.
“I hope so. But I think time will tell,” he told reporters. He said he thought there had been movement in efforts to forge a ceasefire because of Israeli military pressure and said he would dispatch a team to talks in Rome.
Netanyahu had angered Trump when he congratulated Biden on his victory over Trump in the 2020 election. Trump falsely claims the election was stolen from him by voter fraud.
Trump more recently criticized Netanyahu for Israeli security failures that enabled Hamas to carry out the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the Israeli offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Trump dismissed any suggestion of tensions with Netanyahu.
“We have a very good relationship,” he said, noting policy changes during his presidency including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and pulling the United States out of the international nuclear deal with Iran.
Opinion polls put Harris and Trump in a close race for the White House, prompting world leaders like Netanyahu, traditionally more aligned with Trump’s Republicans than Biden’s Democrats, to strike a balance in dealings with the US.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION A ‘SERIOUS CONCERN,’ HARRIS SAYS
Harris had pressed Netanyahu on the suffering of Palestinians in the enclave in talks on Thursday that were watched for signs of how she might shift American policy if she becomes president.
“I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there,” Harris said. “I will not be silent.”
“Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters,” she said.
Members of Netanyahu’s delegation were disappointed by some of Harris’ remarks in private and in public out of concern that it showed “daylight” between the governments and could signal how relations would develop if she wins the presidency, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Netanyahu heads a right-leaning coalition government opposed to Palestinian statehood in the current security environment, a policy at odds with US support for a two-state solution to ending decades of conflict.
In defiant remarks to Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu defended Israel‘s military and dismissed criticism of its campaign in Gaza.
Dozens of Democrats boycotted Netanyahu’s speech, voicing dismay over the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, destruction of its infrastructure, and displacement of most of its population
In Wednesday’s speech, Netanyahu praised Biden’s support for Israel.
But to cheers from Republicans, he touched on Trump’s pro-Israel record as president. He praised Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a long-held goal of pro-Israel lawmakers.
He also cited the Abraham Accords, landmark US-brokered agreements signed during Trump’s White House years that normalized bilateral relations between Israel and four Arab countries.
Hamas and its allies killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in the Oct. 7 attack. Some 115 hostages are still being held though Israel believes one in three are dead.
Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from terrorist groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been killed or taken prisoner out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the war.
The post Trump Touts Warm Ties to Israel’s Netanyahu, Blasts Harris first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.