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EU Foreign Policy Chief Says ‘Main Objective’ to Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons

High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas speaks to the media on the day of the European Union Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has warned of Iran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East, emphasizing in a new interview that the bloc’s “main objective” in the region is to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

During her first official trip to Israel this week, Kaja Kallas told the Israeli news outlet Ynet that the EU thinks there is a “window of opportunity” to mitigate the threat from Iran, whose regime she considers to be weaker than it has been in the past.

“Our main objective is that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon,” the top EU official said. “We clearly see what they are doing – not only in the Middle East, but also in helping Russia and conducting hybrid attacks against European countries. Our policies must be stronger.”

After a year of strained EU-Israel relations, Kallas visited the Jewish state on Monday, marking the first trip by an EU foreign minister to the country in more than a year.

During her visit, Kallas met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, as well as with families of hostages held in Gaza.

“We want to have good relations with Israel,” Kallas told Ynet. “I hope this visit is a milestone in that direction.”

During the interview, the EU official admitted that efforts to officially designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization are currently stalled due to a lack of consensus among member states.

“The discussions are ongoing, but EU foreign and security policy decisions require unanimity,” she said.

Iran is Hamas’s chief international backer, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training.

According to Ynet, Kallas also referred to the Arab-led plan for Gaza reconstruction as “a good starting point,” but expressed concerns about funding.

“Right now, the European Union provides the bulk of aid to the Palestinians,” she said, urging Middle Eastern countries to take on a greater financial responsibility.

Kallas rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere, saying the EU doesn’t “support the involuntary displacement of populations.”

Trump said earlier this month that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from the enclave, seemingly suggesting that any resettlement outside of Gaza would be voluntary.

“The reconstruction plan is better because it allows people to stay in Gaza while it’s being rebuilt,” Kallas said. “It’s important that Palestinians can remain where they are and that no one is forced to leave their home.”

She reiterated the EU’s commitment to the two-state solution, saying it is the only viable outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

However, Kallas also emphasized that “Hamas should have no role in the governance of Gaza,” highlighting it as a security issue for Israel that must be addressed.

“The Palestinian Authority is the best-suited entity to govern,” she told Ynet. “They need reforms, especially to root out corruption, and we are pressing them to do that. But alongside Israel’s security, the rights of Palestinians must be respected.”

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.

“Who will ensure that terrorism doesn’t return to Gaza? We need to avoid another Oct. 7,” Kallas said.

Last week, Egypt made a new proposal aimed at restoring the Gaza ceasefire deal, following an escalation in violence after Israel resumed air and ground operations against the Palestinian terrorist group, effectively ending a two-month period of relative peace.

Israel says it resumed its military operations to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza, adding that the terrorist group refused to agree to US proposals to extend the ceasefire.

During her interview, Kallas also reassured Jerusalem that there are no EU initiatives to sanction Israel.

“There are proposals to impose sanctions on violent settlers, but no one is talking about sanctioning Israel itself,” she said. “There have been calls to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, but there is no consensus for that.”

The post EU Foreign Policy Chief Says ‘Main Objective’ to Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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German Court Overturns Ban on Annual ‘Quds Day’ March in Frankfurt Despite Authorities’ Antisemitism Concerns

Quds Day march in Hannover, Germany in 2024. Photo: Screenshot

A demonstration calling for Israel’s destruction will be allowed to take place in the German city of Frankfurt this weekend after an administrative court overturned the city’s ban on the rally, which had been put in place due to expected displays of antisemitism.

The Frankfurt Administrative Court on Friday ruled that the ban on the march, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday, was unlawful.

German authorities on Thursday had banned the annual “Quds Day” rally in Frankfurt, citing public safety concerns and its antisemitic symbolism, local media reported.

According to the city’s assembly authority, the decision was based on the “high probability” that the gathering “would serve as an openly visible symbol of antisemitism related to Israel” and that public safety would be immediately at risk.

Sponsored by the Iranian regime, the annual Quds Day commemorations event is held in Tehran and several other cities, where Iran and its allies organize marches in support of the Palestinians and call for Israel’s annihilation.

“The end of Ramadan is actually a celebration of inner contemplation and also of hope,” Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement, as reported by German media. “It is almost tragic that Muslim fanatics – incited by Iran – repeatedly use this occasion to propagate hatred against Israel and Jews.”

He called on Muslim groups to “actively position themselves against this abuse of their faith,” adding, “Everyone knows what to expect from Al-Quds marches. They should be banned.”

Iran is the chief international backer of Hamas, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training. According to media reports based on documents seized by the Israeli military in Gaza last year, Iran had been informed about Hamas’s plan to invade and perpetrate a massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, months in advance.

Since 2015, demonstrations have been held on the streets of Frankfurt every year during the last weekend of Ramadan, marking the so-called “Al-Quds [Arabic name for Jerusalem] Day.” The event was introduced by Iran’s then-nascent Islamist regime in 1979 as the “Day of the Liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem from Zionist Occupation.”

Frankfurt’s Public Order office said that between 500 and 1,000 people were expected to participate in the events this weekend.

Since last year, the official slogan of the event has been “Stop the War” — referring to the Gaza war, which began after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, during which Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages.

Frankfurt’s mayor, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, criticized the event last year as a “propaganda day for the [Iranian] regime,” stating that demonstrations with “clearly antisemitic slogans” and the display of images of terrorists should be banned.

During the rally last year, participants chanted slogans such as “Israel, child killer” and “Germany finances, Israel bombs.”

“Demonstrations that deny a state’s right to exist and call for its destruction cannot be peaceful,” Frankfurt’s Commissioner of Public Order, Annette Rinn, said in a statement. “Therefore, the decision to officially ban this year’s Al-Quds Day in Frankfurt is the only appropriate action.”

Rinn later said she accepted the court’s decision to overturn the ban, adding, “Our goal is now to ensure an orderly course of the assembly through appropriate conditions, especially with regard to possible counter-demonstrations.”

In 2021, Berlin became the first jurisdiction in Germany to allow the prohibition of gatherings promoting hate speech. It is one of eight federal states that have adopted this measure.

In recent years, “Al-Quds” demonstrations in the German capital have been canceled.

Ulrike Becker, director of research at the Berlin Middle East Freedom Forum, has called for a general ban on “this celebration of antisemitism.”

“It is a mistake to allow demonstrations that call for the destruction of Israel on the streets of Germany, whether in Frankfurt, Berlin, or anywhere else,” Becker said.

It is not “a peaceful protest,” but rather “a call for the destruction of the Jewish state,” a demand that “cannot be protected by the right to freedom of expression or the right to protest,” Becker added.

She also said the event is “not a legitimate expression of opinion” but “an instrument of the Islamist regime [of Iran] to spread hatred and hostile imagery.”

The post German Court Overturns Ban on Annual ‘Quds Day’ March in Frankfurt Despite Authorities’ Antisemitism Concerns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Harvard University Pauses West Bank Program With Birzeit University

Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Harvard University has paused a partnership with a higher education institution located in the West Bank, an area administered by Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA).

According to a report by The Harvard Crimson, Birzeit University will not, among other things, receive Harvard’s co-sponsorship of a “Palestine Medical Course” held on its campus due to “safety concerns of having Harvard students study in the West Bank.” This is the second change to the arrangement with Birzeit, as the course had already been transplanted to Amman, the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.

The Crimson added that the decision to put the Harvard-Birzeit partnership into abeyance followed from an internal investigation of Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights (FXB), the institution directly affiliated with Birzeit. It is not clear what ultimately caused Harvard to discontinue the arrangement, but it is a move for which prominent members of the Harvard community and federal lawmakers have clamored before, The Crimson noted.

“There are some issues that should be complicated. Why can’t Harvard immediately dissolve its partnership with Birzeit University?” former Harvard president Larry Summers wrote on the X social media platform in July 2024. His post came on the heels of a letter in which over two dozen Republican members of Congress said that Harvard’s partnership with Birzeit was “extremely concerning” given alleged pro-Hamas sentiment expressed by the school’s student government.

“The university also has had a policy of barring Israeli Jews from campus. Shockingly, following the Oct. 7 attack, Birzeit University posted, ‘Glory for martyrs, recovery for wounded ones, and freedom for the captives.’ This type of behavior stands in direct opposition to the values Harvard claims to uphold,” the lawmakers wrote, led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a rising star in the GOP whose nomination for United Nations Ambassador was pulled by President Donald Trump to protect his party’s majority in Congress.

Harvard University has rejected accusations that it harbors antisemites and supporters of jihadist terrorists since its students cheered Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in southern Israel, in which the terrorist group murdered, sexually assaulted, and abducted Israeli civilians.

Over the next year and a half, the university saw its students and faculty quote terrorists, share antisemitic cartoons, and illegally occupy sections of campus they refused to surrender unless Harvard initiated a boycott of Israel. The new Trump administration has placed the school in its crosshairs even as it takes steps to downsize, and potentially shutter, the government agency charged with investigating it.

Earlier this month, the Department of Education added Harvard University to a list of colleges and universities it will investigate for possible civil rights violations stemming from their alleged failure to address campus antisemitism. In announcing the action, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said, “Jewish students studying on elite campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year.”

Meanwhile, Harvard has recently taken steps to allay concerns that it welcomes pro-Hamas extremists. It recently fired a librarian whom someone filmed ripping posters of the Bibas children, two babies murdered in captivity by Hamas, off a kiosk in Harvard Yard. Following the incident, which became a viral sensation on social media, Harvard diversity and inclusion officer Sherri A. Charleston denounced the perpetrator’s behavior as “hateful” and a violation of “the university and community values that unite us.”

In January, Harvard settled an antisemitism lawsuit it had initially fought to discredit, and in so doing pledged to “strengthen our policies, systems, and operations to combat antisemitism and all forms of hate.”

Per the agreement, Harvard will apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to its non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies (NDAB), recognize the centrality of Zionism to Jewish identity, and explicitly state that targeting and individual on the basis of their Zionism constitutes a violation of school rules.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Harvard University Pauses West Bank Program With Birzeit University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Elise Stefanik to Remain in US Congress as Trump Withdraws UN Ambassador Nomination to Hold Narrow GOP Majority

United Nations Ambassador-designate Elise Stefanik spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect

US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) will remain in Congress after President Donald Trump withdrew her nomination to become the next ambassador to the UN amid growing concerns over the Republicans’ narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

Trump announced on social media on Thursday that Stefanik would rejoin the House leadership team, citing a need to “maintain every Republican seat in Congress” to help the president advance “historic tax cuts, great jobs, record economic growth, a secure border, energy dominance, [and] peace through strength.”

On Thursday night, a visibly disappointed Stefanik emphasized the importance of being a “team player” and vowed to continue fighting on behalf of Trump’s legislative agenda. 

“I have been proud to be a team player. The president knows that. He and I had multiple conversations today, and we are committed to delivering results on behalf of the American people. And as always, I’m committed to delivering results on behalf of my constituents,” Stefanik said on Fox News. 

Stefanik added that she is excited to resume “sharing my voice as I always have, being one of the top fighters and top allies on behalf of President Trump and behalf of the American people, and on behalf of my district.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), who holds authority over special elections within the Empire State, had also indicated that she would push back the special election date as long as possible in an attempt to stymie Trump’s political agenda. The New York Republican Party had struggled to settle on a singular candidate around whom to coalesce for the special election to replace Stefanik if she were confirmed as ambassador.

“The reality is … Democrats, as we see in New York State, it is totally corrupt,” Stefanik said. “Kathy Hochul started threatening to move the ball on the election date. You see a highly, highly politicized radical left trying to do everything they can to defeat the president. And this is about stepping up as a team. And I am doing that as a leader to ensure that we can take hold of this mandate and deliver these historic results.”

Republicans are also facing the prospect of closer-than-expected special elections in the upcoming week. According to a recent poll, Florida Republican state Sen. Randy Fine holds a narrow 48-44 percentage point lead over Democratic opponent Josh Weil in a district Trump dominated by 30 points in 2024. A potential loss in the Florida special election would further diminish the Republican House majority, leaving the party with less flexibility for deflections within the lower chamber of Congress. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Thursday defended Trump’s decision to yank Stefanik’s nomination, arguing that “it is well known Republicans have a razor-thin House majority.” He added that Stefanik remaining in the House of Representatives will bolster the GOP by letting the party “keep one of the toughest, most resolute members of our Conference in place to help drive forward President Trump’s America First policies.”

The post Elise Stefanik to Remain in US Congress as Trump Withdraws UN Ambassador Nomination to Hold Narrow GOP Majority first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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