Middle East diplomacy - Page 8

The Palestinians should cut all ties with the United States because of “racist” and “ignorant” comments US Ambassador David Friedman made to The Jerusalem Post last week, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Saturday.

After terrorists in Gaza fired three mortar shells at southern Israel on Friday, apparently to disrupt a ceremony honoring a fallen IDF soldier whose remains are being held captive in the coastal enclave, top Israeli officials have cast blame not only on Hamas, which rules the Strip, but also on Israel’s nemesis, Iran.

The Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas’ leader in Gaza said on Thursday a reconciliation deal with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction was collapsing, just 10 weeks after the agreement was reached.

US President Donald Trump said Friday it was time to focus funds on the US rather than foreign spending, tweeting: “After having foolishly spent $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is time to start rebuilding our country!”

Turkey is launching an initiative at the United Nations to annul a decision by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

US Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Israel has been delayed by several days due to Congressional votes on tax reform, The Times of Israel confirmed on Thursday.

During their talks in Paris, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron that he would be prepared to make “compromises and concessions” to the Palestinians within the framework of US President Donald Trump’s much-touted Middle East peace plan, Israel’s Channel 10 TV news reported on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Monday for the last leg of a day-long diplomatic dash, during which he ordered the partial withdrawal of Russia’s troops from the war-torn country.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was set to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo on Monday for discussions on the Trump administration’s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The leaders of two of Israel’s closest allies, Canada and Australia, shot down the possibility that they would follow the US and move their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “We will not be moving Canada’s embassy from Tel Aviv,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a visit to China, AFP reported.

TEL AVIV — Social media in the Arab world has been raging over the killing of former president of Yemen Abdullah Salah, who was deposed by his allies, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

JERUSALEM – Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces on Friday in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank after calls for a “day of rage” over US President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Vice President Mike Pence was expected to visit both Israel and the Palestinian Authority later this month but senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub said Thursday he was “unwelcome in Palestine.”

TEL AVIV — Reacting on social media, commentators in the Arab world responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel with a mix of outrage, conspiracy theories, and anti-Semitic statements.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was “exactly the right move to make” on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s upcoming decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is proof of United States meddling in the region, further vowing his support for the liberation of Palestine.

Washington has asked Israel to restrain its response to US President Donald Trump’s official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, citing the sensitivity of the matter and the volatile response it will likely elicit, Reuters reported Wednesday night.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday the Trump administration continues to believe there’s “a very good opportunity” to achieve Middle East peace, despite Palestinian and wider criticism of US President Donald Trump’s impending moves on Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly objected to the move of the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his office said in a special statement released Tuesday and carried by the official Palestinian news agency.

TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blasted his US counterpart Donald Trump’s plan to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital on Wednesday, saying it would not be tolerated.

President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will “kill the peace process” and provoke a violent reaction across the Middle East, according to the Palestinian envoy to the UK.

President Donald Trump’s fulfillment of his campaign promise to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital underlines the urgency of a new U.S.-led Middle East peace plan, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned.

JERUSALEM — Vociferous Arab and Muslim opposition was building Tuesday to any possible U.S. recognition of the hotly contested city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Tuesday that he had withdrawn his resignation, a month after his shock announcement that he was quitting sparked a political crisis.

US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday that he did not know whether President Donald Trump would decide to relocate his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV — Palestinian and Arab activists on social media have been spreading the hashtag “#jerusalem_capital_of_palestine” in response to repeated reports in Israeli media that U.S. President Donald Trump has returned to considering the relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and intends to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel in a speech on Wednesday.

Breitbart Jerusalem has obtained a list of conditions purportedly drafted by the Islamic State in response to a ceasefire offer from Syrian opposition elements, meant to include IS on one side, and Turkey, the Kurdish PKK and even the U.S. military on the other.

TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that Middle Eastern countries should solve their problems together without relying on external powers.

Amid reports of an alleged Israeli aircraft attack on an Iranian base outside of Damascus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that an Iranian presence in Syria will not become a reality.

WASHINGTON — Defying longstanding American policy, US President Donald Trump will give a speech Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, according to an Axios report on Friday.

The Palestinian president’s office warned Friday of the potential destructive effects of any move denying their claim to east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

American, Israeli and Jordanian officials all poured cold water on reports that the US was on the cusp of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv.

President Trump is preparing to formally declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and order a review of the best way to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, two officials said Thursday, actions that would reverse decades of U.S. policy and international peacemaking efforts, and could inflame the Arab world.

WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday said reports that it is poised to move the US embassy to Jerusalem were “premature,” ahead of a decision deadline. The White House urged caution after an Israeli TV report suggested a decision would come as soon as Sunday and that the US president would declare that he recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman recently compared the religious leadership of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei to Hitler in an interview with the New York Times.

TEL AVIV — Saudi and Arab world pundits opposed to the warming of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia have taken to social media to call for a policy against normalization, with some even claiming that normalization with Israel is forbidden according to sharia.