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US could suspend funding for UN over Palestine: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
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United Nations

Palestine is currently a “permanent observer state” at the UN that participates in meetings but does not have voting rights.

The UN General Assembly could vote on Friday on a draft resolution that would recognize the Palestinian Authority (PA) as eligible to become a full member of the world body and recommend that the UN Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably”.

Reuters wrote that the vote would demonstrate the level of global support Palestinians have for their bid, which was vetoed by the US in the UN Security Council last month. An application to become a full UN member needs to be approved by the 15-member Security Council, as well as the General Assembly.

“We are aware of the resolution and reiterate our concerns with any effort to extend certain benefits to entities when there are unresolved questions as to whether the Palestinians currently meet the criteria under the Charter,” Nate Evans, spokesperson for the US mission to the UN, was quoted as saying.

Under US law, Washington cannot fund any UN organization that grants full membership to any group that does not have the “internationally recognized attributes” of statehood. In 2011, the US halted funding for the UN cultural agency (UNESCO) after the PA became a full member.

“It remains the US view that the path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations,” Evans added.

Diplomats told Reuters that the 193-member General Assembly is likely to back the Palestinian bid, adding that changes could still be made to the draft.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan denounced the current draft General Assembly resolution, saying it would give Palestinians the rights of a state and that it goes against the founding UN Charter.

“If it is approved, I expect the United States to completely stop funding the UN and its institutions, in accordance with American law,” Erdan stated.

Under the governance of the PA, the State of Palestine claims sovereignty over territory considered Palestinian before the outbreak of the 1967 Six-Day War. This includes Gaza, the entire West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood, and vowed to impose “full Israeli security control over the entire area west of Jordan”, which includes all of these regions.

Parts of the West Bank are already under full Israeli military and civilian control, while Gaza is governed by Hamas, which views the PA as illegitimate for recognizing and negotiating with Israel.

Poll: Majority of Jewish Israelis say captive deal higher priority than Rafah invasion

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Israel Hostage

The poll, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), asked participants what should be the highest priority in terms of Israeli national interest: military action in Rafah or a deal to release the hostages held by Hamas.

The survey found that a majority of the Jewish public (56%) agree that an agreement to release the captives should be the top priority for Israel, while 37% say military action in Rafah should be the top priority.

Among Arab Israelis, nearly 89% said a deal to release the hostages is more important.

Data collection was carried out from May 1 to 6, 2024, with 600 men and women interviewed via the internet and by telephone in Hebrew and 150 in Arabic.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed Israel’s military operation in Rafah serves the twin goals of returning the hostages held in Gaza and eliminating Hamas.

“I ordered to operate in Rafah. Within hours, our forces raised the Israeli flags at the Rafah crossing and took down the Hamas flags,” Netanyahu said in a video statement Tuesday, describing operations that began overnight.

“The entrance to Rafah serves two main war goals: the return of our hostages and the elimination of Hamas,” he added.

Netanyahu stressed that, as previously demonstrated, “military pressure on Hamas is a necessary condition for the return of our hostages. The Hamas proposal yesterday was intended to torpedo the entry of our forces into Rafah. It did not happen.”

Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal Monday evening, but Israel announced the deal remained “far from” meeting its demands. Netanyahu confirmed he’d sent Israel’s negotiating team to Cairo, Egypt’s capital, to continue to “stand firm” on the conditions Israel is seeking.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, also said in a statement Tuesday the Israeli military’s operations in Rafah will “continue and expand as necessary”.

Gantz, widely seen as a potential successor to Netanyahu, stated returning the hostages held in Gaza remained the cabinet’s “highest priority”, while talks over a ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Hamas continue.

“At any stage where we can reach an outline for the return of our hostages, we will do so. This task has the highest priority.”

He added Israel’s negotiating team in Egypt, where talks with Hamas have been taking place, “does not have a mandate just to listen – it has an obligation to turn over every stone, and to act to bring about an outline [for a deal]. We all work to make this happen, every day.”

Gantz has been one of the most vocal members of Netanyahu’s cabinet calling for an acceptable ceasefire deal, while the more extreme wing of the coalition has said destroying Hamas in Rafah must remain the priority.

“Our achievements, even if it takes a long time to achieve them, must be strategic – and the return of our hostages is the first strategic goal, alongside the need to remove the threat of Hamas and make sure that such a threat does not re-emerge,” he continued.

President Raisi says negotiations, missiles two necessary coping strategies

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Ebrahim Raisi

Raisi stated Operation True Promise that Iran launched recently in retaliation against the Israeli regime indicated that the Islamic Republic stands powerfully against any hostile action.

However, Iran has never bowed out of the negotiating table and has always expressed its logical and admissible stances in the talks, unlike the US and the Europeans which have repeatedly reneged on their promises, he added.

Asked if the solution to the country’s problems is missiles, or negotiation, or both, the president stressed, “We have emphasized many times that the Islamic Republic of Iran warmly shakes the hands of all countries that seek friendly relations with us, but some countries have always promoted Iranophobia in the past 45 years.”

Pointing to 15 reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency that have confirmed the peacefulness of Iran’s nuclear program, Raisi said, “Nevertheless, there is not a sympathetic ear for those reports. On whether the negotiations alone can address the problem, (the answer is) no. Both the negotiations and the missile, when necessary, can do it. In fact, it can be said that missiles (are needed to) respond to missiles.”

Denouncing more than seven months of Israeli onslaught on Gaza, Raisi added all experts believe that the winners of this field are the resistant Palestinians of Gaza and the losers are the Zionist regime and its supporters.

He described the continuation of the crimes committed by the Zionist regime despite the acceptance of a ceasefire by Hamas as a shame and humiliation of the supporters of this regime before the eyes of the people of the world.

“Today, the cry for justice is heard not only in universities in the Western world, but everywhere in the world, and it is these failures that have caused the Zionist regime to despair, and one of the manifestations of this despair was the attack on the consular building of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, against all international regulations and frameworks,” the president noted.

Washington delays report on whether Israel violated international law with US weapons

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

Politico cited an email to lawmakers that the report was “briefly delayed”.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said earlier on Tuesday that the report wasn’t finished, but that the administration was “trying very hard to meet that deadline”, adding it was possible “it slips just a little bit, but we are trying to get it done by tomorrow.”

Miller added the deadline was set by the administration. Under a National Security Memorandum issued by President Joe Biden in February, the administration said it would report to Congress by 8 May whether it found credible evidence of Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons did not violate US or international law.

A new report has revealed that the United States has quietly authorized over 100 separate weapons sales to Israel since the start of the Gaza war in early October, despite mounting alarm over the occupying regime’s genocidal campaign against the besieged territory.

US officials told members of Congress in a recent classified briefing that the sales include thousands of precision-guided munitions, small diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid, the Washington Post reported in early March.

The report comes as only two approved weapons sales authorized by US President Joe Biden had been made public so far but the latest triple-digit figure has not been previously reported.

Israel launched the devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

Since then, the United States has supplied the Tel Aviv regime with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment, and used its veto power against all United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has so far killed more than 34,700 people, most of them women and children.

Iranian FM: Ground ready for lasting ceasefire in Gaza

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Hossein Amirabdollahian

Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Hossein Amirabdollahian made the remarks as the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire proposal, while the Israeli regime is dragging its feet on it.

The foreign minister said, “Hamas responded to the initiative proposed by Egypt and Qatar within the framework of its principles and in a realistic plan.”

He added, however, Israeli prime minister Benjamin “Netanyahu and the extremist figures of the Zionist regime use their efforts to continue the war, because ceasefire can be a new crisis for them.”

Ceasefire negotiations continue in Cairo to stop the months-long Israeli aggression that has left 35,000 Gazans dead and the besieged territory in ruins.َئهقشذی

US says completed humanitarian pier construction off Gaza shore

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

“As of today, the U.S. military has completed the off-shore construction of the Trident pier section, or the causeway, which is the component that will eventually be anchored to the Gaza shore,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.

The project, known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) capability, consists of two pieces, a floating pier where ships can unload aid — completed last week — and a causeway section meant to be attached to the Gaza coast, on which trucks can drive aid dropped off by the ships to the mainland.

The two portions of JLOTS “are complete and awaiting final movement offshore”, Singh continued, adding that bad weather has prevented the U.S. military from doing so.

“Today there are still forecasted high winds and high sea swells, which are causing unsafe conditions for the JLOTS components to be moved, so the pier sections and military vessels involved in its construction are still positioned at the Port of Ashdod.”

The completion of JLOTS in the Mediterranean Sea comes as humanitarian conditions in Gaza grow worse by the day, with the United Nations and humanitarian organizations in the territory warning that the region has fallen into famine due to a severe lack of access to food and medical supplies.

The situation is expected to become more dire with Israel’s Tuesday military seized the Rafah crossing, the sole entry point for humanitarian aid between Gaza and Egypt.

Despite the pier not being in position, Singh said that the U.S. is loading aid onto the ship MV Sagamore, currently in Cyprus but meant to be the first vessel to transport the assistance from there to the pier.

“The Sagamore is a cargo vessel that will use the JLOTS system, and will make trips between Cyprus and the offshore floating pier as USAID and other partners collect aid from around the world,” Singh noted.

She added that defense officials hope to have JLOTS in position “later this week”.

US delays sending Joint Direct Attack Munitions to Israel amid Gaza war: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Joint Direct Attack Munitions

The administration of President Joe Biden has been criticised over its policy of arming Israel, which critics say violates US laws banning military aid and weapon sales to countries engaged in rights abuses. Seven months of Israeli bombardment and siege on the Gaza Strip have killed nearly 35,000 people and wounded almost 80,000, with Israel facing accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which it denies.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that the proposed deal involved up to 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) – guidance kits that turn unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions.

US law requires Congress to be notified of major foreign military sales agreements. The Department of State usually provides information to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before such potential sales, followed by the formal congressional notification.

Congress was first informed about the sale – estimated at $260m – in January but the Biden administration has yet to move forward, according to the WSJ. The administration’s lack of follow-up action with an official notification about the sale has triggered an effective pause in the deal, the publication said.

“It’s unusual, especially for Israel, especially during a war,” a congressional official familiar with the arms sales process told the WSJ.

The official added, however, they were not aware of the reason for the delay.

Seth Binder, an expert on US arms sales with the Middle East Democracy Center, told the WSJ that if the delay was deliberate, it “would be the first instance since this war began where the administration took such an action on weapons we know have been used in Gaza”.

The reported delay in JDAMs deal comes as pro-Palestine protests against the US government’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, including sales of weapons, have swept through university campuses across the US.

It also comes a few months before the US presidential election, in which Biden, a Democrat, will face off with former President Donald Trump, a Republican, in November.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in late February, 56 percent of respondents who identified themselves as Democrats said they were less likely to vote for a candidate who supports military aid for Israel, compared with 40 percent who said they would be more likely to back such a contender.

John Kirby, spokesman of the White House National Security Council, declined to comment on whether any weapons sales to Israel had been put on hold.

“Our security commitments to Israel are ironclad,” he stated during a briefing.

Kirby also told reporters that “nothing changed” in the US stance towards an Israeli assault on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where some 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering amid the relentless Israeli bombardment.

Biden on Monday held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and stressed US opposition to a ground offensive in Rafah, according to the White House.

But in the early hours of Tuesday, just hours after Hamas, the group that runs Gaza, said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by international mediators, Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah border crossing.

Palestinian rights advocates have argued that simple verbal criticism of Israeli policies from US officials is not enough, instead calling on Biden to cut off military support to the US ally.

French-German network Arte acquires, dubs Iranian series “Actor”

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Actor TV Show

Directed by Nima Javidi, the series will be made available in French and German dubbing on the Arte TV channel and platform.

The first season of Actor is set to premiere on May 9 during prime viewing hours, ensuring maximum visibility for the series.

Arte says this move aligns with its reputation for showcasing diverse, high-quality programming to the channel’s European audience.

French-German network Arte acquires, dubs Iranian series “Actor”

Actor has already garnered international acclaim, having won the grand prize at the French Seriesmania festival and the best screenplay award at the Seoul World Drama Awards.

Starring Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ahmad Mehranfar, and Hanieh Tavassoli, the series follows the journey of talented theater actors as they navigate complex adventures after accepting a unique offer.

Fans of the series can look forward to its European debut on Arte TV starting May 9.

Ukraine detains two officials for treason over alleged Russian plot to kill Zelensky

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Two colonels in Ukraine’s government protection unit were accused of carrying out “subversive activities against Ukraine in exchange for financial compensation”, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said Tuesday.

Both colonels were charged with treason; one was also charged with preparing a terrorist act.

The prosecutor’s office announced one of the suspects received two drones and ammunition from Russia’s state security service (FSB), which they intended to transfer to another accomplice to carry out an explosion.

The SBU added it had “foiled” the “actively developing plans” to assassinate Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials, including the head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk, and the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov.

“One of the tasks of the FSB’s agent network was to find perpetrators among the military close to the President’s security who could take the Head of State hostage and then kill him,” the SBU noted.

Zelensky has reportedly faced several attempts on his life since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A woman from the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv was arrested in August 2023 in connection to a plot to assassinate Zelensky. She was accused of gathering intelligence about Zelensky’s planned visit to Mykolaiv in order to plan a Russian airstrike to kill him. The SBU announced it caught the woman “red-handed” as she tried “to pass intelligence to the invaders”.

In April, a Polish man was accused of assisting another alleged Russian assassination plot against Zelensky. He was charged with “readiness to act for foreign intelligence against the Republic of Poland”, an offense which carries up to eight years in prison.

Prosecutors said the man agreed to provide information to Russian spies about security at Rzeszów-Jasionka airport, in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, which Zelensky is known to use when leaving on foreign trips. The plot was uncovered by Ukrainian authorities and the man was later detained and charged in Poland.

Aside from assassination plots, Zelensky has experienced a number of close shaves during his many visits to the front lines and cities under Russian bombardment.

During a visit to the coastal city of Odesa in March, a Russian missile exploded close to a convoy carrying Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The group felt the impact of the strike, which landed around 500 meters away from the convoy, and saw a “mushroom cloud” of smoke. Five people were killed in the strike, although neither Zelensky nor Mitsotakis were injured.

Hamas says Israel sabotaging ceasefire negotiations

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

“By deciding to close the Rafah and Kerem Shalom [Karem Abu Salem] border crossing, Israel is leading the region toward a disaster and continues its policy of starvation and persecution of [Palestinians],” said Hamas, which on Monday accepted a three-phase ceasefire deal proposed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

In its statement, the Palestinian group also urged for “international intervention” to push Israel towards a ceasefire, adding it holds the administration of US President Joe Biden and the international community fully responsible for the war’s continuation.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had seized “operational control” of the Gaza side of the border post, which links the besieged enclave with Egypt. The operation came amid an overnight assault on eastern parts of the city.

The assault comes despite Hamas having said on Monday that it had agreed with the terms of a truce deal hammered out by mediators.

However, pressed by hardline nationalist coalition partners who have demanded a full offensive on Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears set to press on regardless.

Israeli forces whipped up panic on Monday as they ordered 1.4 million or so Palestinians in Rafah – most of whom are displaced following previous instructions from the Israeli military – to evacuate.

The Israeli army reiterated on Tuesday that it has “encouraged” displaced people and international humanitarian organisations operating in eastern Rafah to “temporarily evacuate”.

However, people sheltering in Rafah, amid poor conditions with little shelter, food, or medicine, have few places to go.

The closure of the border crossing only threatens to worsen those shortages and trap more people close to the fighting.

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