The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia University, located in the Manhattan borough of New York City, on April 25, 2024. Photo: Reuters Connect

The 36 new special patrol officers announced last month by Columbia University were appointed by the New York Police Department and will be subject to the orders of the police commissioner, a Columbia spokesperson confirmed this week.

Columbia’s leaders applied to the city’s police commissioner for peace officers last year after they had twice called in NYPD to arrest anti-Israel student protesters who had set up an unauthorized tent encampment on a campus lawn last spring and barricaded themselves inside an academic building.

Columbia spokesperson Samantha Slater said the new officers had gone through the NYPD’s application process under New York state’s Peace Officers law, which allows individuals and corporations to apply to the NYPD commissioner to appoint their employees as special patrol officers. If approved, the appointed officers acquire the same powers of arrest and to use physical force as police officers.

“These laws give Columbia the authority to have Special Patrol officers, with the police commissioner’s appointment,” Slater wrote in an email in response to Reuters’ queries. “Columbia has individuals that meet the other requirements in the law such as a lengthy training program and have gone through the NYPD’s application process.”

She said the special patrol officers were authorized under the New York City administrative code that states they will “be subject to the orders of the commissioner and shall obey the rules and regulations of the department and conform to its general discipline.”

Under city law, Columbia pays for the training and the salaries of the officers appointed by NYPD, and they remain Columbia employees. But they will also “possess all the powers and discharge all the duties” of regular NYPD patrol officers. The Columbia officers must report any summonses they issue and bring anyone they arrest to the local NYPD precinct.

People they arrest will be detained and processed in an office on a Columbia campus about 20 blocks uptown from the main Manhattan campus until they can be handed over to the precinct, Columbia said.

After publication of this article, Slater, the Columbia spokesperson, disputed the characterization of the laws and emphasized that the officers were employees of Columbia.

“They are hired, selected, employed, and funded by Columbia,” Slater wrote in an email.

Reuters could not independently establish full details of how Columbia’s officers have gone through the hiring and NYPD appointment process.

A spokesperson for the NYPD said the patrol officers would be unarmed, but declined to respond to other questions. The new officers must complete 162 hours of state-certified training, Columbia said, and under the law be sworn in by the police commissioner. They will then be able to patrol Columbia’s privately owned buildings and gated plazas and lawns, which regular NYPD officers are generally not able to do.

Last spring, Columbia became the epicenter of an anti-Israel student protest movement that has roiled campuses around the world, drawing criticism from both Democratic and Republican politicians, donors and some students and faculty.

Columbia’s board of trustees and the 111 students, staff and alumni who make up the University Senate have frequently been at odds over the best way to handle the protests.

The board of trustees appointed its co-chair, Claire Shipman, as interim university president last week.

Columbia’s new officers have the same powers of warrantless search and arrest as any other police officer under New York’s peace officer law. The state law permits the officers to use “physical force and deadly physical force in making an arrest or preventing an escape.”

Slater said that the officers will work with the university’s public safety office, but – unlike Columbia’s 117 civilian safety employees – will have powers to “remove individuals from campus, issue citations and make arrests, if necessary and appropriate.”

The plan was underway months before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House. His administration, citing what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the campus, demanded last month that Columbia tighten its protest rules or permanently lose federal funding. One of the nine demands was that the school deploy peace officers with arrest powers.

This week, Columbia’s Office of Public Safety updated its website to say the new officers will allow Columbia “to respond more effectively and promptly to campus disruptions, while reducing our reliance on the NYPD.”

Members of the Senate, the rule-making body that shares university governance with the trustees, said the trustees and president’s office had informed them Columbia was seeking to recruit peace officers, but has not told them that NYPD has any involvement in the patrol officers they have hired.

Dr. Jeanine D’Armiento, a professor of medicine and the chair of the Senate’s executive committee, and two other senators who asked not to be named, told Reuters that the president’s office had repeatedly declined to tell them who in New York’s government was authorizing the officers.

Columbia’s Slater said the university was complying with all its bylaws and in the post-publication letter said “the fact that Columbia was looking to expand its safety team with peace officers has not been a secret.”

The post Columbia University Adds 36 New Campus Patrol Officers with Powers of Arrest first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, March 21, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

Iran is pushing back against US demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear program or be bombed, warning neighbors that host US bases that they could be in the firing line if involved, a senior Iranian official said.

Although Iran has rejected US President Donald Trump’s demand for direct talks, it wants to continue indirect negotiations through Oman, a longtime channel for messages between the rival states, said the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“Indirect talks offer a chance to evaluate Washington’s seriousness about a political solution with Iran,” said the official.

Although that path could be “rocky,” such talks could begin soon if US messaging supported it, the official said.

Iran has issued notices to Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey and Bahrain that any support for a US attack on Iran, including the use of their air space or territory by US military during an attack, would be considered an act of hostility, the official said.

Such an act “will have severe consequences for them”, the official said, adding that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had placed Iran’s armed forces on high alert.

Warnings by Trump of military action against Iran have jangled already tense nerves across the region after open warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, military strikes on Yemen, a change of leadership in Syria and Israeli-Iranian exchanges of fire.

Worries of a wider regional conflagration have unsettled states around the Gulf, a body of water bordered on one side by Iran and on the other by US-allied Arab monarchies that carries a significant proportion of global oil supplies.

Spokespeople for the governments of Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of a warning but that such messages could be conveyed by other channels.

On Wednesday, Iranian state media reported that Kuwait had reassured Iran that it would not accept any aggressive action being directed at other countries from its soil.

Iran’s ally Russia said on Thursday that US threats of military strikes against the Islamic Republic were unacceptable and on Friday called for restraint.

Iran is trying to gain more support from Russia, but is skeptical about Moscow’s commitment to its ally, said a second Iranian official. This “depends on the dynamics” of the relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the official said.

TWO-MONTH WINDOW

Trump has said he would prefer a deal over Iran’s nuclear program to a military confrontation and he said on March 7 he had written to Khamenei to suggest talks.

The first Iranian official said a first round of indirect talks could involve Omani mediators shuttling between the Iranian and US delegations. Khamenei has authorized Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi or his deputy, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, to attend any talks in Muscat.

Oman’s government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, the official believed there was a window of around two months to agree a deal, citing worries that Iran’s long-time foe Israel might launch its own attack if talks took longer, and that it could trigger a so-called “snap back” of all international sanctions on Iran to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the U.N. nuclear watchdog has warned.

Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under any civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs.

While Iran has said it will consider talks with the US if the aim was to address concerns over its program, it has rejected holding any direct negotiations when the US is making threats and has said its missile program would be off limits.

A senior Iranian military commander, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Amirali Hajizadeh, had implied on Monday that US bases in the region could be targeted in any conflict.

In 2020, Iran targeted US bases in Iraq after the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, in a US missile strike in Baghdad.

The post Iran Wants Indirect Talks With US, Warns Regional Countries Over Strikes Against It first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US President Donald Trump waves as he walks before departing for Florida from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he hopes US President Donald Trump will ease tariffs imposed on Israel when the two meet in Washington this week.

Under a sweeping new tariff policy announced by Trump, Israeli goods face a 17% US tariff. The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest single trading partner.

Netanyahu, who has spent the last few days visiting Hungary, departs for Washington on Sunday for an impromptu visit with Trump that is expected to take place on Monday, officials said.

He said in a statement that the talks will cover Israeli hostages still held in Gaza after 18 months, achieving victory in Gaza and the tariff regime on Israel.

“I hope that I will be able to help on this issue. That is the intention,” Netanyahu said of the tariffs. “I am the first international leader, the first foreign leader, who will meet with President Trump on the issue, which is so important to the Israeli economy.

“There is a long line of leaders who want to do this regarding their economies. I think that it reflects the special personal link, as well as the special ties between the US and Israel, which is so vital at this time.”

Trump extended the surprise invitation in a phone call on Thursday with Netanyahu when the Israeli leader raised the tariff issue, according to the Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

An Israeli finance ministry official said on Thursday that Trump’s latest tariff announcement could impact Israel’s exports of machinery and medical equipment.

Israel had already moved to cancel its remaining tariffs on US imports last Tuesday. The two countries signed a free trade agreement 40 years ago and about 98% of goods from the US are now tax-free.

The post Netanyahu Says Will Seek Relief from Tariffs in Meeting with Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.