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Blinken headed for Middle East to push Gaza ceasefire plan

News Agency nabakhabar — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:10:27 +0000

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in the Middle East to push the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza. The top United States diplomat is expected to visit Egypt and Israel on Monday as he launches his eighth tour of the region in as many months, before continuing to Jordan and Qatar.

He will seek support for the latest draft of the ceasefire deal presented by President Joe Biden 10 days ago, which the US also hopes to put to a vote at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

However, with neither Israel nor Hamas having fully endorsed the plan, fighting continues, with air raids hitting across the Gaza Strip overnight on Sunday and Monday morning.

In Cairo, Blinken will meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi before visiting Israel for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

As well as pressing the ceasefire proposal, the US official is set to discuss the reopening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a vital point for aid shipments into Gaza that Israel seized amid its ground invasion of the south of the enclave last month.

Categorical and permanent

Biden outlined on May 31 a three-phase proposal to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that he said was presented by Israel. However, neither Israel nor Hamas has fully endorsed the plan, with negotiations ongoing.

A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, urged the US on Monday to press Israel to end the war.

“We call upon the US administration to put pressure on the occupation to stop the war on Gaza and the Hamas movement is ready to deal positively with any initiative that secures an end to the war,” he said.

The proposal includes the exchange of Palestinian prisoners with Israeli captives, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, return of displaced Palestinians to their homes across the enclave, and a plan to reconstruct the territory, much of which has been destroyed since October 7.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war and about 84,000 injured, mostly women and children.

The trip comes as Washington has been working on multiple drafts of a resolution it aims to put to a vote at the UNSC to back up the proposal.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said that the latest version of the proposal differs in some significant ways from previous efforts.

“First of all, it explicitly states that Israel has accepted the ceasefire deal. A previous version only said that a ceasefire deal was acceptable to Israel,” he noted.

It also explicitly states that any ceasefire will continue after six weeks, and be renewed as long as negotiations continue.

“But it’s still not a categorical, permanent ceasefire. That’s what some members of the Security Council want,” Rattansi said.

Continued bombardment

Blinken’s trip comes two days after the Israeli military killed at least 274 Palestinians and wounded 698 more in Nuseirat in central Gaza as part of an operation that led to the release of four Israelis from Hamas captivity.

Hamas claimed that three more unnamed captives, including one holding US citizenship, were killed by Israeli forces during the raid, which was denied by Israel.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued its bombardment on sites across Gaza. Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said bodies continue to arrive at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, threatening to overwhelm the only operating hospital in the area.

Late on Sunday, Benny Gantz announced he was resigning as Israeli war cabinet minister. While the move is unlikely to threaten the Netanyahu administration immediately, it will make him even more reliant on far-right allies.

Blinken has previously met Gantz during visits to Israel, but it is unclear if a visit is scheduled on Monday.

The eighth regional tour since the start of the war by the US diplomat also comes as tensions are boiling in border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, with both sides signaling they are ready for war after eight months of border fighting.

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Turkish President talks with Guterres, remarks Israel’s ‘flagrant’ disregard for law

News Agency nabakhabar — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 18:32:29 +0000

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ahead of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting focusing on the Gaza crisis.

During the discussion, the two leaders addressed the international community’s expectations regarding Israel’s flagrant disregard for law, humanitarian solutions to the crisis, and efforts towards a lasting peace.

President Erdogan emphasized that Israel continues to brazenly violate international law, the laws of war, and humanitarian principles with impunity, underscoring the necessity for Israel to be held accountable for its actions before the international legal framework.

In the conversation, President Erdogan conveyed condolences to Guterres for the more than 100 United Nations personnel who lost their lives in the Gaza attacks.

He said that Guterres’ personal visit to the Rafah Border Crossing could draw international attention to the situation, emphasizing its significance in shedding light on the plight of the victims.

The upcoming UNSC meeting is expected to address the escalating crisis in besieged Gaza, with leaders worldwide anticipating collaborative efforts to bring about a resolution to the humanitarian challenges and foster sustainable peace in the region.

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UNSC officially declares end of sanctions on Iran missiles

News Agency nabakhabar — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:40:08 +0000

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has officially declared an end to restrictions it had imposed on Iran’s missile program, according to the organization’s secretariat.

In a note sent to the member states of the UN, the secretariat of the UNSC officially ended curbs set out in paragraphs 3, 4, and 6 (c) and (d) of Annex B to Resolution 2231.

The termination came into force on October 18, eight years after the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with major world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

According to the Press TV report, the restrictions included curbs on ballistic missile-related activities and transfers, as well as sanctions on some Iranian individuals and entities.

Rosemary A. DiCarlo, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, also confirmed the termination in a separate letter to Iran’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani.

“As a consequence,… the Secretariat removed on 19 October 2023 from the Security Council website the list of 23 individuals and 61 entities subject to the aforementioned restrictive measures,” DiCarlo said in the letter.

The changes were also made to the UNSC Consolidated List of all sanctioned people and entities.

The termination, which means Iran is no longer subject to any UN sanctions, occurred despite extensive political and legal efforts made by the United States and Western countries in recent years to lay the ground for keeping the measures in place.

On the same day the UN sanctions expired, the United States imposed new unilateral sanctions against Iran’s missile program.

Last month, the three European signatories to the JCPOA — the UK, Germany, and France — said they plan not to terminate their anti-Iran sanctions, including ballistic missile bans, arguing that Iran has been in non-compliance with the deal since 2019.

Iran halted some of its JCPOA commitments in 2019, a year after the US unilaterally walked out of the deal and after the EU failed to offer any compensation for the US withdrawal.

Iran said at the time the reduction of its commitments was in accordance with the deal, which allows parties to dishonor commitments should other parties do the same.

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