TEHRAN, (MNA) – Contrary to Western propaganda, Iran is an independent, developing and advanced country, the Prime Minister of Burkino Faso says.
The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Apollinaire Joachim Kyélem de Tambèla met and held talks with Iranian president Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi on the sidelines of the 2nd Iran-Africa International Summit held in Tehran on Friday.
In this meeting, the president called the development of relations with the African continent one of the priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Stating that the Islamic Republic of Iran pursues the mutual interests of the Iranian nation and the African nations in interacting with African countries, he emphasized the need to speed up the establishment of mechanisms to strengthen relations between Iran and Burkina Faso, including the activation of the joint commission of the two countries.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to cooperate, interact and exchange its capabilities with African countries, including Burkina Faso, he said, adding that the development of these relations will benefit the nations of the two countries.
The prime minister of Burkina Faso, for his part, referred to the Western media's attempt to present a false and distorted image of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Contrary to Western propaganda, Iran is an independent, developing and advanced country, which relies on the attractiveness of this country to develop and strengthen relations with it in all fields, he said.
The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso also emphasized his country's interest in expanding cooperation and interaction with the Islamic Republic of Iran in communications, mining, agriculture, animal husbandry, transportation, scientific and cultural, knowledge-based, and energy fields.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Israel is ready to reduce its demand for Hamas to release 40 prisoners in exchange for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza after the Palestinian movement refused an offer prepared by Qatari, Egyptian, and US negotiators.
According to the paper, Israel is now willing to accept the release of just 20 prisoners in the first phase of the deal as long as those released are women, men over 50 years old and those seriously ill. The earlier proposal included the release of 40 prisoners in those categories, but Hamas said it did not hold that many prisoners in those categories who were still alive.
Meanwhile, Israel’s war cabinet on Thursday authorized the country’s negotiating team to discuss a more flexible approach with the Egyptian delegation that will arrive in Tel Aviv on Friday for additional talks, the Times of Israel wrote.
In early April, negotiators gave the parties to the conflict a new proposal on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which is supposed to be implemented in three steps. The first step involves Hamas releasing 40 Israeli prisoners held in Gaza in exchange for the release of 900 Palestinian hostages, including 100 sentenced for life.
Other points of the potential agreement reportedly include bringing back displaced persons to the northern part of the enclave, and the daily passage of 500 lorries carrying humanitarian aid.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – China's special envoy to the Middle East says Iran is a “special partner” of Beijing in West Asia, appreciating Tehran’s measures in the region.
Zhai Jun made the remarks on Friday during a meeting with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani in Moscow, on the sidelines of the Consultations of Deputy Foreign Ministers/Special Envoys of the BRICS group of emerging economies on the Middle East Affairs.
Zhai condemned the Israeli regime’s recent terrorist attack against the Iranian diplomatic premises in Syria and thanked Tehran for its actions in defense of the Palestinians’ rights, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
China is Iran’s largest trade partner. Both countries are subject to different levels of illegal sanctions imposed by the US.
They have enjoyed close ties in recent years, particularly after the United States reinstated sanctions on the Iranian economy in 2018 after unilaterally withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal.
The two countries signed the landmark 25-year partnership agreement in March 2021 in an attempt to strengthen their long-standing economic and political alliance.
The deal was announced during President Xi’s visit to Tehran back in 2016. It sets the outlines of China-Iran cooperation in political, cultural, security, defense, regional, and international domains for the next 25 years.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Ali Bagheri Kani, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, says the emerging economies group BRICS showed that it has the initiative to play roles within the framework of multilateralism.
Bagheri Kani made the remarks in a meeting with Zhang Guoqing, the Chinese president's special envoy, on the sidelines of the meeting of deputy foreign ministers and special representatives of the BRICS in Moscow on Friday.
BRICS is a bloc of emerging economies made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE. The last four countries joined BRICS in January this year.
The emerging economies group showed that it has the initiative to play roles in various situations in line with multilateralism, he said.
The Chinese side hailed Iran’s actions in support of the Palestinians, lauding the regional initiatives of the Islamic Republic.
Iran has always been China's strategic partner in the Middle East, he further noted.
A meeting of deputy foreign ministers and special representatives of BRICS started in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, with the aim to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East and North Africa.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Tehran provisional Friday prayers leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami says Zionists will face a harder slap if they repeat their mistakes again.
Addressing the sermons of this week's Friday prayer, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, temporary Friday Prayers Leader of Tehran hailed IRGC's True Promise operation against Occupied Lands in response to the Zionist regime's attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria.
"What Islamic Iran did against the usurping Zionist regime was a divine act. It was something that was done based on the Quran," Khatami said.
"This attack was a punitive attack and a true promise operation, and it is a part of the past," he said, adding that Zionists will face a harder slap if they repeat their mistakes again.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Saudi Arabia plans to host a meeting on Monday to discuss Gaza’s future with foreign officials including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to people familiar with the matter, according to American source.
Saudi Arabia plans to host a meeting on Monday to discuss Gaza’s future with foreign officials including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to people familiar with the matter, Report informs via Bloomberg.
The talks in Riyadh may also include UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and key officials from the European Union, Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar, as well as the Palestinian Authority, said the people, who asked not to be identified speaking about private matters. Officials from Israel, which doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, and Hamas are not thought to be attending.
One of the people described it as a crisis meeting, designed more for initial talks between the sides than anything likely to achieve concrete outcomes.
The discussions will happen on the sidelines of a special edition of the World Economic Forum.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi voiced Iran's readiness to further boost it economic relations with African countries.
The 2nd Iran-Africa International Summit is being held in Tehran on Friday in the presence of more than 30 member states of the African Union.
Addressing the 2nd Iran-Africa International Summit on Friday, Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi said, "This meeting is a symbol of the will of African countries and Iran to expand economic relations."
Referring to the difference in Iran's view of Africa compared to Western countries, he said, "Cooperation with Africa was emphasized by Imam Khomeini and also emphasized by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution. Westerners want Africa for themselves, but we want Africa for itself."
The history of Africa shows how many Western countries have plundered Africa's resources, he noted.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he said, "Despite the threats and sanctions, the Islamic Republic of Iran has made good progress and it can be called an advanced and technological country. It is very important to know the progress and the achievment of the Islamic Republic of Iran to new technologies."
Saying that Iran enjoys 10,000 knowledge-based companies and the country's export reached two billion dollars so far, Raeisi said, adding that African countries want Iran's knowledge-based products to solve their problems.
In the fields of agriculture, industry, medicine, and treatment, good products have been produced in Iran that can be exported to Africa, he said.
"It is possible for the Islamic Republic to build a refinery and a power plant, and we can cooperate with African countries in this field," Iranian president said.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – The Arabic-language spokesperson of the US State Department has resigned, citing her opposition to Washington's policy related to the Gaza war, in at least the third resignation from the department over the issue.
Hala Rharrit was also the Dubai Regional Media Hub's deputy director and joined the State Department almost two decades ago as a political and human rights officer, the department's website showed.
"I resigned April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States' Gaza policy," she wrote on social media platform LinkedIn.
A State Department spokesperson, asked about the resignation in Thursday's press briefing, said the department has channels for its workforce to share views when it disagrees with government policies.
Nearly a month earlier, Annelle Sheline of the State Department's human rights bureau announced her resignation, and State Department official Josh Paul resigned in October.
A senior official in the US Education Department, Tariq Habash, who is Palestinian-American, had stepped down in January.
The United States has come under mounting criticism internationally and from human rights groups over its support for Israel amid Israel's ongoing war on Gaza that has killed more than 34,000 people and caused a humanitarian crisis.
There have been reports of signs of dissent in the administration of President Joe Biden as the death toll continues to grow in the war.
In November, more than 1,000 officials in the US Agency for International Development (USAID), part of the State Department, signed an open letter calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Cables criticising the administration's policy have also been filed with the State Department's internal "dissent channel".
The war has also led to anti-war demonstrations across the United States, Israel's most important ally.
Israel's war on Gaza has led to widespread displacement, hunger, and genocide allegations that Israel denies.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Iran has called on the BRICS group of emerging economies to play a role in putting an immediate stop to Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
The call by Iran's deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani in Moscow on Thursday came as his counterparts and special representatives of BRICs nations met to discuss the latest developments in the West Asia and North Africa region.
"The manner and quality of role-playing of individual countries and international organizations in relation to the Israeli regime's crisis mongering and the position they adopt in this regard is effective and will be recorded in history," he said.
"Therefore, the members of the BRICS organization should show their political and practical will to completely stop attacks on people and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip," he said.
Bagheri Kani called on the BRICS nations to help with the quick sending of humanitarian aid, especially food, medical equipment and medicine to the Gaza Strip and the complete withdrawal of the occupying forces and the reconstruction of the besieged territory.
"At the moment, our focus should be on achieving a complete and permanent halt to the attacks of the Zionist regime in order to reduce the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, expand the sending of international humanitarian aid to Gaza, and provide firm support to the activities of humanitarian organizations, especially UNRWA," he said.
"Only taking a position and making a statement is not enough, and effective and decisive operational measures must be put on the agenda for the Zionist regime to comply with the wishes of the international community."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has seen many of its top donor countries announce funding freezes after Israeli accusations without evidence that its members had participated in the October 7 operation against the occupying regime.
The senior Iranian diplomat thanked South Africa for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice for genocide in the Gaza Strip. He asked BRICS members to strongly support the case and provide necessary legal solutions to deal with the crimes.
"The experience of the past 200 days of crime and aggression by the Zionist regime has shown that the Palestinian nation cannot be destroyed and the people of Gaza have proven that it is the Palestinian child who wins against the Israeli bomb," he said.
Bagheri Kani said the "key to establishing stability and peace in the region from Lebanon to Iraq and the Red Sea is to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime against the defenseless and homeless people of Gaza".
He touched on the West's attempt to justify the Israeli crimes against humanity under the principle of the right of legitimate defense, saying "this justification of the supporters of the Zionist regime is completely invalid from a legal and international point of view".
Bagheri Kani also touched on the Israeli attack on Iran's consular building in Damascus and its assassination of some military commanders and staff in the premises.
"After the unprecedented and illegal crime, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserved the right of legitimate defense and the occupying regime received the response to its crime in Damascus in the occupied Palestinian territories."
Faced with financial, logistical, and geopolitical challenges, Riyadh has been forced to review its ambitious project, The Line, and critically reassess “economic normalization” with Israel.
Launched in 2017, Saudi Arabia’s NEOM, a sprawling high-tech development on the northwestern Red Sea coast, was introduced as the crown jewel of Vision 2030.
This futuristic desert megaproject, extending over some Jordanian and Egyptian territory, was cast as a bold leap toward economic diversification under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). But, recent geopolitical setbacks have raised significant concerns about the viability of some of NEOM's components.
Initially celebrated for its revolutionary design, The Line, a linear city within NEOM, was to redefine urban living. Yet, recent reports suggest a dramatic scaling back. Earlier this month, Bloomberg revealed a massive reduction in the metropolis’ scope – from 105 to 1.5 miles – and a decrease in likely inhabitants from 1.5 million to fewer than 300,000 by 2030. Furthermore, funding uncertainties and workforce reductions indicate a project in jeopardy.
While this adjustment does not signify a wholesale failure of Vision 2030, it does prompt a re-evaluation of the project’s most ambitious elements.
Experts suggest that The Line’s original scale was overly optimistic, lacking the necessary urban infrastructure for such an innovative endeavor. Financial and geopolitical challenges, including regional instability and insufficient foreign direct investment, further complicate NEOM’s future.
Not so straight-forward
The drastic downsizing of The Line “appears to be a reassessment of timeline feasibility,” Dr Robert Mogielnicki, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, tells The Cradle. “There are many experimental, world-first dimensions within the NEOM gigaproject, and some are eventually going to need rightsizing or rethinking.”
Also speaking to The Cradle, Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Baker Institute Fellow at Rice University, believes the project’s contraction to be a good thing:
Reports that The Line may be scaled back significantly is actually a positive move if it injects greater realism into a project whose initial scale appeared fanciful and difficult to translate into reality. Greater pragmatism in designing and delivering the gigaprojects associated with Vision 2030 is a good thing and means there is a greater likelihood of the projects making it off the drawing board.
Given financial and economic factors, The Line was never feasible as initially presented. Ultimately, the amount of wealth the Saudis generate from oil is not enough to finance the most ambitious of MbS’ Vision 2030 projects. And Riyadh has not been able to lure the levels of foreign direct investment needed to make these extremely expensive vanity projects realizable.
“The vast scope of [The Line] always struck me and many other observers as aspirational rather than realistic,” explains Gordon Gray, the former US ambassador to Tunisia.
Speaking to The Cradle, Ryan Bohl, a Middle East and North African analyst at risk intelligence company RANE, says:
I’d argue that the goals for The Line were unrealistic from the start, given that there’s virtually no urban infrastructure in the area, and it’s very difficult for cities to be started from scratch like that, regardless of the amount of investment poured in. Even if Saudi Arabia had, for example, done something extreme like declare NEOM to be their new capital city, it would still probably struggle to attract residents as we’ve seen from other historical examples like Brazil’s shift of its capital to Brasília.
Nonetheless, The Line and other singular projects had a purpose that was not necessarily about actually implementing the projects themselves. “The point of The Line, in particular, was to create a raison de parler – for people to actually talk about Saudi Arabia, to create a massive public debate globally where people are saying there’s something amazing happening in the desert,” Dr Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at King’s College London, tells The Cradle.
It attracts attention. That sort of discourse – positive or negative – creates a buzz. That buzz was supposed to attract investors who wanted to be a part of this, help Saudi Arabia build a city of the future, and try to do something completely outlandish and absolutely unconventional.
Gaza: a wrench in the works
The leadership in Riyadh has understood that the success of Vision 2030 heavily depends on attracting substantial foreign direct investment into the Kingdom. Ultimately, stability in Saudi Arabia and the wider West Asian region is crucial.
Consequently, Riyadh’s recent foreign policy has been less ideological, focusing instead on maintaining amicable terms with all major players in West Asia to advance Saudi business, commercial, and economic interests.
Within this context, Riyadh has worked to reach a peace deal with Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement, made an effort to preserve the Beijing-brokered 2023 Saudi–Iranian détente, restored relations with Qatar and Syria, and mended fences with Turkiye.
Therefore, beyond financial and economic constraints that require a reassessment of the most ambitious Vision 2030 projects, such as The Line, Israel’s brutal six-month war on Gaza and the expansion of that conflict into the Red Sea have created headwinds for Saudi Arabia’s geoeconomic plans.
As Arhama Siddiqa, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, explains to The Cradle:
Given the current instability in the Red Sea region, investors may hesitate to support a large-scale project like NEOM due to perceived risks. Even if the direct security threat to NEOM is minimal, the overall instability in the area can deter investors from committing substantial resources to a long-term venture. Additionally, the broader [West Asia] conflict further complicates the situation, adding another layer of uncertainty. Addressing these security concerns could require Saudi Arabia to allocate more resources to regional security measures, potentially diverting funds from the NEOM project.
There is no denying that Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification agenda is vulnerable to naval operations in the Red Sea. NEOM and other Red Sea projects require vessels to be able to freely travel from the Gulf of Aden through the Bab al-Mandab and up to Saudi Arabia’s west coast.
The Gaza war’s potential spillover into this vital waterway continues to raise concerns for Saudi officials about the impact on the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
These dynamics help explain Riyadh’s frustration with the White House for not leveraging its influence over Israel to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza. It has led to Saudi Arabia’s decision to abstain from joining any US-led security initiatives and military operations in the Red Sea and Yemen.
The Israel–NEOM connection
Israel’s geographic proximity to northwestern Saudi Arabia, its technological advancement, and its vibrant startup culture position the occupation state as a promising partner for Vision 2030 and the NEOM project, particularly in biotechnology, cybersecurity, and manufacturing.
Writing in March 2021, Dr Ali Dogan, previously a Research Fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, went as far as arguing that “relations with Israel are necessary for Saudi Arabia to complete NEOM.”
Dr Mohammad Yaghi, a research fellow at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, similarly stated that NEOM “requires peace and coordination with Israel, especially if the city is to have a chance of becoming a tourist attraction.”
However, Saudi Arabia’s leadership role in the Islamic world, exemplified by the monarch’s title as the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” makes any formal normalization of relations with Tel Aviv highly sensitive.
Initially, it was thought that while the UAE and Bahrain could establish overt relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia would continue to engage covertly, ensuring essential collaborations like those rumored in the tech sector could progress discreetly.
An example being in June 2020, when controversy arose over Saudi Arabia’s alleged engagement with an Israeli cybersecurity firm, which the Saudi embassy later denied.
Yet, almost seven months into Israel’s campaign to annihilate Gaza, can Saudi Arabia still look to Tel Aviv as a partner in NEOM?
It appears that amid ongoing crises in the region, chiefly the Gaza genocide, Riyadh must be careful to avoid being seen as cooperating with the Israelis in covert ways, and full-fledged normalization seems off the table for the foreseeable future.
Nonetheless, after the dust settles in Gaza and the Red Sea security crisis calms down, Saudi Arabia will likely maintain its interest in fostering ties with Israel as part of an “economic normalization” between the two countries. This could be important to Vision 2030’s future, particularly in NEOM.
But Israel’s unprecedented military campaign in Gaza will likely alter West Asia in many ways for decades to come. Even after the current war in Gaza is over, anger toward Israel and the US will continue.
Without a doubt, the Israeli–NEOM connection will be increasingly sensitive and controversial, both in the Kingdom and the wider region – a factor that the leadership in Riyadh cannot dismiss.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Iran's wushu caravan won the World Cup qualifiers in China by winning 20 colorful medals.
The International 2024 Wushu Cup qualifiers started on Wednesday morning with the presence of more than 300 participants from 38 countries, hosted by Jiangyin, China, and ended on Thursday.
Iran's wushu athletes, who won 6 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals on the first day, continued to shine on the second day and won 7 gold and 4 silver medals.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Iran's permanent ambassador to the United Nations has denounced Israel’s destabilizing activities in West Asia, urging the UN Security Council to hold the Israeli regime accountable for its atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere.
“Israel's ongoing destabilized and irresponsible actions and atrocities against the nations in the region are a real threat to regional and international peace and security,” Amir Saeid Iravani said as he addressed a UN Security Council session in New York on Thursday.
He noted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to expand and escalate the conflict in the region to stay in power, emphasizing that the members of the Security Council must not allow the body to be held hostage to the ambitions of such a "belligerent regime."
“It is time for the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility and address the real threat to international peace and security. The Security Council must promptly fulfill its duty under Chapter 7 of the Charter in response to Israel's reckless defiance.
“It must take urgent and punitive measures to compel this regime to stop its genocide and massacre against the people of Gaza and uphold its obligations especially fully implement the UNSC resolutions and legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice,” the Iranian diplomat pointed out.
Iravani underscored that Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone strikes against the occupied territories were in response to the Israeli regime’s terrorist attack of April 1 against the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital Damascus.
“Iran's operation was entirely in the exercise of Iran’s inherent right to self-defense as outlined in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and recognized by international law.
"This concluded action was necessary and proportionate. It was precise and only targeted military objectives, and carried out carefully to minimize the potential for escalation and prevent civilian harm,” he stated.
The Iranian UN envoy went on to condemn the tendency of certain Security Council members, including the United States, Britain and France, to once again turn a blind eye to reality and overlook the root causes of the current crisis.
“In hypocritical behavior, these three countries falsely blamed and accused Iran without considering their own failures to uphold their international commitments to peace and security in the region. They made unsuccessful attempts to use lies, manipulate the narrative, spread disinformation, and engage in a destructive blame game.
“All the while, they deliberately disregarded Iran's inherent right to respond to the violation of a fundamental principle of international law: the inviolability of diplomatic representatives and premises. Moreover, they ignored the underlying root causes of the current situation in the region,” Iravani stated.
The Iranian UN ambassador finally stated that the Islamic Republic has no intention of engaging in conflict with the US in the region; however, it will use its inherent right to respond proportionately if Washington initiates military operations against Iran, its citizens, or its security and interests.
A wounded Palestinian boy receives treatment at a clinic set up by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) treating severe injuries and burns sustained in Israeli bombardment, at the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital. Pic by Mohammed Abed/AFP)
What horrible times are we living in? “Never again” was the resolve that led to the formation of a rules-based world order in the aftermath of World War II, in which some 80 million people
—3 percent of the then-world population—perished. But events that followed showed humans were incapable of living in peace. People continued to die in wars across the world.
But none of the myriad wars and conflicts could be as brutal as the war Israel’s hardline prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been waging against the hapless people of the Gaza Strip for the past 200-plus days. What is happening in Gaza is not a war; it is genocide, period.
Although the genocide has been going on for 200 days in the full view of the world leaders, what is appalling is some Western leaders’ continuous support for Israel. The United States Congress this week approved billions of dollars for Israel despite the Zionist state’s genocide in Gaza, horrendous war crimes, and human rights violations in occupied Palestinian territories.
The US aid package lends credence to claims that the disagreements the Joe Biden administration is said to be having with the Netanyahu government over the massive civilian casualties in Gaza are merely a façade to cover up US complicity in the Gaza genocide.
Moreover, the military aid the US, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other Western nations send to Israel despite the brutal massacre of 15,000 Palestinian children and 20,000 men and women, including doctors, nurses, aid workers, journalists, and elderly people, exposes the duplicity of their human rights campaigns at the United Nations Human Rights Council and other forums.
As Israel’s Gaza genocide entered its 200th day this week, the United States State Department on Monday released its annual human rights report, which often acts as a fig leaf to hide its human rights shame.
When Washington points its index finger at others, it fails to see that three of its own fingers are pointing back at it. US diplomats were quick to take to social media to announce the release of the State Department report, only to be reminded by critics that the physician should heal himself first.
The US State Department report was only cautiously critical of Israel. Given the mammoth scale of Israel’s human rights violations, it was impossible for the report’s compilers not to make a mention of at least some of them.
So, they included in the report arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture, harsh prison conditions, arbitrary arrests or detentions, restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence against journalists, harassment of human rights organisations, and violence targeting minority groups. What has gone into the report is just a spec; the big beam, it appears, has been calculatingly left out in deference to the special relations the US has with Israel.
Yet Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told journalists for record’s sake: “As we’re looking at human rights and the condition of human rights around the world, we apply the same standard to everyone. That doesn’t change whether the country in question is an adversary or competitor, a friend or an ally.”
But he stopped short of announcing that Israel’s human rights record warrants an aid suspension under the United States Leahy Laws, which are applied to other nations whose human rights record may not be as horrendous as that of Israel. To hell with Leahy Laws, two days after the report, the US Congress passed a US$ 95 billion aid package to corruption-ridden Ukraine, genocide-committing Israel, and China-resisting Taiwan. Israel will receive US$ 17 billion in military aid and a portion of the US$ 9 billion component that is meant for civilians suffering in conflict zones around the world, including Palestinians in Gaza.
Such appalling policy decisions are backfiring on the Biden administration. The ground reality is different today. The era of pro-Israeli mainstream media corrupting and shaping the minds of the American people is fast vanishing with the advent of social media. Perhaps the Biden administration’s move to ban TikTok stems from fears that the Chinese-owned social media platform helps the youth see the stories the mainstream media would not dare to report.
Some US politicians see a link between TikTok and the ongoing US university student demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause. In a speech to back the ban on TikTok, Senator Pete Ricketts lamented that nearly a third of US youth got their news from TikTok. He said pro-Palestinian and Hamas videos on TikTok have more reach than the top ten US news websites combined. He accused the Chinese Communist Party of deliberately using TikTok to mislead US youth.
While TikTok is vowing to challenge the ban in US courts and American university students are defying the disproportionate police response to their pro-peace, pro-justice, and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Israel is preparing for a ground assault on Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are crammed into. The planned attack on Rafah only highlights the Netanyahu government’s failure to achieve its objectives in Gaza, even though the war has now gone on for more than 200 days.
At the beginning of his genocidal campaign in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack, in which 1,100 Israelis died and about 250 were taken hostage, Netanyahu spelled out three main objectives. They were a total victory over Hamas, rescuing the hostages and preventing a further such attack from ever taking place.
After more than 200 days, Hamas is very much a fighting force in Gaza, even though, in its hunt for Hamas, Israel has flattened the Gaza Strip, demolished hospitals, and killed or wounded more than 100,000 people. Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups have killed more than 200 Israeli soldiers, wounded thousands, and destroyed hundreds of Israeli military vehicles, including tanks.
Israel has been able to rescue only three hostages. A few hostages were killed by Israeli troops. About 105 hostages were freed not due to Israeli military pressure but after talks with Hamas during the early weeks of the war. Hamas says more than 70 hostages have been killed in the Israeli bombardment. If true, that is terrible news for Netanyahu. Family members of the hostages are blaming Netanyahu for not doing enough to get the hostages freed. If the Netanyahu government had extended the six-week ceasefire and released more Palestinian prisoners in keeping with Hamas’ demands at the talks, these hostages would not have been killed.
Netanyahu’s third objective also remains unfulfilled. Instead of making Israel more secure, Netanyahu has made Israel vulnerable to more attacks—from Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and on April 14, Iran.
The Rafah attack will be Netanyahu’s final straw. The US warning to Israel against the Rafah ground attack appears to be more perfunctory than a genuine commitment to save Palestinian lives. After all, the US has passed a multi-billion dollar military aid package to Israel, even though it knows well that Israel pays no heed to US warnings.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Iran’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva Ali Bahreini has said that by engaging in multilateral diplomacy, countries find common ground to resolve conflicts.
Multilateralism and diplomacy are fundamental pillars for fostering peace and upholding the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and international law, he said, addressing a ceremony on Wednesday to commemorate the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace, according to a Thursday post on X by the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
A collaborative approach among nations, based on mutual respect, dialogue, and cooperation, is crucial for addressing complex global challenges and maintaining international stability, he said.
By engaging in multilateral diplomacy, countries can forge consensus, build trust, and find common ground to resolve conflicts peacefully and prevent the escalation of tensions, the Iranian envoy said, adding that unilateralism of certain countries undermined this noble goal.
The path to overcoming the current crisis lies in a decisive return to multilateralism and international law, he noted.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called on the US officials to stop supporting the Israeli regime.
The top Iranian diplomat made the remarks on Thursday in reaction to the barbaric arrest of American students who protested against the Israeli regime's ongoing crime in the besieged Gaza Strip.
"The suppression and violent treatment of the American police and security forces against professors and students protesting the genocide and war crimes of the Israeli regime in various universities of the United States is deeply worrying and disgusted by the public opinion of the world," Amir-Abdollahian wrote on X.
"This repression is in line with the continuation of Washington's full-fledged support for the Israeli regime and clearly shows the double standard policy and contradictory attitude of the American government towards freedom of expression."
"Following the genocide of tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children, especially after the discovery of mass graves of the sick and wounded and medical staff in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip, the global wave of disgust towards the Israeli regime and its supporters cannot be kept hidden."
"The White House must immediately stop supporting the Israeli regime's war crimes and be held accountable."
The US police have arrested scores in many American universities in recent days as pro-Palestinian student protests spread throughout the US.
Israel waged a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas Resistance group carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Israel has imposed a complete siege on the densely populated territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
TEHRAN, (MNA) – At least 34,305 Palestinians have been killed and 77,293 wounded in Israel’s attack on Gaza since October 7, the Health Ministry says.
The tally includes at least 43 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said.
Among the dead are more than 14,500 children and 9,500 women in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
The death toll is estimated to be far higher with thousands believed buried in the debris of buildings collapsed during Israeli strikes.
Israel waged a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas Resistance group carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Israel has imposed a complete siege on the densely populated territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
