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Gunman Fires Shots at US Embassy in Lebanon, Army Says
A gunman fired shots at the US embassy in Lebanon on Wednesday and was wounded in an exchange of fire with troops, the Lebanese army said.
The army said the attacker, a Syrian national, was detained and taken to hospital for treatment and soldiers were searching through the area for other gunmen.
The US embassy said small arms fire was reported near its entrance in the morning but that the facility and staff were safe. US ambassador Lisa Johnson is currently traveling outside Lebanon, according to diplomatic sources.
A Lebanese security source told Reuters on Wednesday morning that a member of the embassy’s Lebanese security team was lightly wounded. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan later confirmed to NBC News that a Lebanese guard was wounded and was receiving treatment.
The embassy said it would remain closed to the public for the rest of Wednesday but planned to be open for business as usual on Thursday, June 6.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but another senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that the army was investigating possible links to the Islamic State group.
The source said the attacker had “ISIS” in English and “Islamic State” in Arabic written on clothes he was wearing. Lebanese security forces have detained two sheikhs as well as the attacker’s family, the source added.
Reuters verified pictures of the suspected attacker circulating online and geolocated them to near the embassy. Reuters verified part of the Arabic writing on his vest, which read “Islamic.”
A Reuters cameraman saw Lebanese security forces setting up checkpoints around the embassy as a US-made helicopter provided to the Lebanese army circled above.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said he was following up on the incident with the defense minister and security forces.
The US embassy lies north of Beirut in a highly secured zone with multiple checkpoints along the route to the entrance. It moved there from Beirut following a suicide attack in 1983 which killed more than 60 people.
In September, shots were fired near the embassy with no injuries reported.
In mid-October, in the early days of the Gaza war, scores of protesters gathered outside the embassy to demonstrate. Lebanese security forces used tear gas and water cannons to repel them.
Lebanon has been the scene of conflict between the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah and Israel since October in parallel to the Gaza war. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been uprooted amid fears that the war will escalate.
The United States has been making diplomatic efforts to ease violence along the border.
In a separate incident, a member of Lebanon’s internal security forces assigned to provide security at the Saudi embassy in Lebanon committed suicide outside the embassy on Wednesday, a security source and a diplomatic source said.
The security source said the embassy guard died after shooting himself in the head. The diplomatic source said he suffered from mental health conditions.
The post Gunman Fires Shots at US Embassy in Lebanon, Army Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Foreign Minister Denies Plot to Kill Trump, Urges Confidence-Building with US
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi denied US charges that Tehran was linked to an alleged plot to kill Donald Trump and called on Saturday for confidence-building between the two hostile countries.
“Now … a new scenario is fabricated … as a killer does not exist in reality, scriptwriters are brought in to manufacture a third-rate comedy,” Araqchi said in a post on X.
He was referring to the alleged plot which Washington said was ordered by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards to assassinate Trump, who won Tuesday’s presidential election and takes office in January.
“The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the President of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,” Araqchi said.
“Iran is NOT after nuclear weapons, period. This is a policy based on Islamic teachings and our security calculations. Confidence-building is needed from both sides. It is not a one-way street,” he added.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that the claim was a “repulsive” plot by Israel and the Iranian opposition outside the country to “complicate matters between America and Iran.”
Iranian analysts and insiders have not dismissed the possibility of a detente between Tehran and Washington under Trump, although without restoring diplomatic ties.
“Iran will act based on its own interests. It is possible that secret talks between Tehran and Washington take place. If security threats against the Islamic Republic are removed, anything is possible,” Tehran-based analyst Saeed Laylaz said this week.
While facing off against arch-foe Israel, Iran’s clerical leadership is also concerned about the possibility of an all-out war in the region, where Israel is engaged in conflicts with Tehran’s allies in Gaza and Lebanon.
The post Iran Foreign Minister Denies Plot to Kill Trump, Urges Confidence-Building with US first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Evidence from WhatsApp, Telegram Groups Shows Amsterdam Pogrom Was Organized
i24 News – Screenshots of electronic messages on WhatsApp and Telegram obtained by the Daily Telegraph show that the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam represent a planned and organized pogrom.
One message sent to a Dutch-language WhatsApp group the day before Thursday night’s violent outbursts reads “tomorrow after the game, at night, part 2 of the Jew Hunt. Tomorrow we work them.”
Another message reads “who can sort fireworks? We need a lot of fireworks.” The pro-Palestinian activists refer to “cancer dogs,” an insult considered particularly vile in Holland.
The lackluster response of Dutch authorities was noted by many.
Dutch king Willem-Alexander reportedly said to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog in a phone call on Friday morning that “we failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
The post Evidence from WhatsApp, Telegram Groups Shows Amsterdam Pogrom Was Organized first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Qatar to End Gaza-Ceasefire Mediation: Report
JNS.org – Qatar will end its role as a mediator between Hamas and Israel in pursuit of a Gaza-ceasefire and hostage-release deal, an official “briefed on the matter” told Reuters on Saturday.
“The Qataris have said since the start of the conflict that they can only mediate when both parties demonstrate a genuine interest in finding a resolution,” the official added, according to Reuters.
Since diplomatic negotiations have not yielded fruitful results for months, the Gulf state concluded that Hamas’s political office in Doha “no longer serves its purpose,” the official was cited as saying.
These statements come in the wake of a Reuters report on Friday, according to which a senior US official told the outlet: “After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, [Hamas’s] leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner. We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas’s rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal.”
Doha passed on the message to Hamas around 10 days ago, the official said, adding that the United States was monitoring the situation and pressuring Qatar to close Hamas’s political office.
The last talks intermediated by Qatar broke down in mid-October, after a series of attempts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a deal that would swap Palestinian prisoners with the remaining 101 Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Qatar’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request by Reuters for a comment, though three Hamas officials denied they were being expelled from the Gulf state.
Qatar, a major American ally, which senior US officials frequently thank for its role in negotiating on behalf of Hamas in ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, has long harbored Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s acting political leader.
At a press conference late last month, JNS asked State Department spokesman Matthew Miller why Washington wasn’t pressuring Qatar to push Mashaal into a deal, given that the terror leader is a guest in the Gulf state.
Miller cited the prior “tireless efforts” and “intense focus” of Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani to try to seal an agreement.
“They have a channel with Hamas that is productive for trying to reach this agreement,” Miller said. “The fact is it’s Hamas that holds the hostages, and so it’s Hamas with whom they have to negotiate.”
In September, the US Justice Department unsealed charges against Mashaal for his role in orchestrating the Oct. 7 attacks.
In a press release, the Justice Department declared, “On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1,200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians… The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’s operations. These actions will not be our last.”
Doha has welcomed Hamas officials since 2012 as part of an agreement with Washington.
On Friday, 14 Republican senators called on the State Department to immediately freeze assets of Hamas leaders living in Qatar. The senators also urged the Biden administration to ask Doha to “end its hospitality to Hamas’s senior leadership.”
Al Thani has reiterated his position since Oct. 7 that Hamas’s presence in his country is contingent on the usefulness of the ongoing negotiations.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, a senior official in Jerusalem lauded Doha’s decision, saying that “Israel and the United States have pressured Qatar’s leaders not to host Hamas seniors [in their country] for a long time. It is good that Hamas, which is nothing but a murderous terrorist group, will be persecuted everywhere in the world and not welcomed by any country.”
The post Qatar to End Gaza-Ceasefire Mediation: Report first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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