The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Benjamin Netanyahu

  • Israeli Minister threatens to end Assad’s rule

    An Israeli Minister threatened to end the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday in a sharp increase in Israeli rhetoric over Iran’s military presence in Syria.

    “If Assad allows Iran to turn Syria into a military base against us to attack us from Syrian territory, he needs to know that this is his end, this is the end of his regime,’’ Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview with the Ynet news site.

    “He cannot remain the president of Syria, ruler of Syria, if he allows states – principally Iran – to turn Syria into a base to attack Israel,’’ he added.

    The minister’s comments come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned with increasingly bellicose rhetoric that Israel would not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria as the civil war there winds down.

    Read Also: Syria returns Assad award to France

    On Sunday Netanyahu said that a confrontation with Iran over Syria is “better now than later.’’

    “Nations that were unwilling to act in time against murderous aggression against them later paid much heavier prices,’’ he said.

    Iran says it is acting in Syria at the behest of the Syrian government.

    Steinitz’s statements come ahead of a May 12, deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump to reinstate sanctions on Iran, possibly spelling an end to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

    NAN

  • Iran nuclear deal built on lies – U.S

    United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said a landmark nuclear deal with Iran was “built on lies,” after Israel claimed to have proof of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons programme.

    Mr. Pompeo said documents revealed by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, were authentic.

    Analysts said they show nothing new, highlighting that concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions led to the deal, the BBC reports.

    U.S President, Donald Trump, who opposed the accord, has until May 12 to decide whether to abandon it or not.

    Other Western powers, including signatories Britain and France, said Iran has been abiding by the deal and it should be kept.

    Mr. Netanyahu on Monday accused Iran of conducting a secret nuclear weapons programme, dubbed Project Amad, and said it had continued to pursue nuclear weapons knowledge after the project was shuttered in 2003.

    That followed the revelation in 2002 by an exiled Iranian opposition group that Iran was constructing secret nuclear sites in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which Iran was a signatory.

    Mr. Netanyahu presented what he said was evidence of thousands of “secret nuclear files” that showed Iran had lied about its nuclear ambitions before the landmark deal was signed in 2015.

    Tension between the long-standing enemies has grown steadily since Iran built up its military presence in Syria, which lies to the north-east of Israel.

  • U.S. embassy will move to Jerusalem within a year

    U.S. embassy will move to Jerusalem within a year

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that the U.S. will move its embassy from Tel Aviv  to Jerusalem within a year.

    The prime minister’s timeline drastically differs from that offered earlier by White House officials, who said the move would take at least three to four years due to stringent security measures and other requirements.

    Netanyahu made this known to Israeli reporters on a flight from Dehli to Gujarat during a state visit to India, the Times of Israel reported.

    A spokesman for the prime minster confirmed the content.

    “My confident assessment is that it will move much faster than people think, within a year from today,” Netanyahu said, according to the Times of Israel.

    President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Dec. 6 and initiated a process to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

    Read Also: Israel set to cede parts of Jerusalem in peace deal

    Israel occupied the eastern half of Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed the territory in a move that was not internationally recognised.

    Israel has long claimed that Jerusalem as its “undivided capital,” while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

    Trump’s controversial decision sparked protests in some countries and was rejected in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution.

    The recognition was welcomed in Israel, and Guatemala has since announced it will follow the US in moving its embassy to the city.

    Arab foreign ministers are set to meet on Feb. 1 in Cairo to discuss steps against Trump’s recognition, the Arab League had earlier said.

    dpa/NAN

  • UN is a house of lies – Israeli PM

    UN is a house of lies – Israeli PM

    Israel Prime Minister,  Benjamin Netanyahu, described the United Nations as a “house of lies” ahead of a vote on Thursday on a draft resolution calling on the United States to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    “The State of Israel totally rejects this vote, even before (the resolution‘s) approval,” Netanyahu said in a speech at a hospital dedication in the port city of Ashdod.

    The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim countries to vote on the draft resolution, which the U.S. vetoed on Monday in the 15-member UN Security Council.

    Generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim world, and concern among Washington’s Western allies, President Donald Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy on December 6 when he recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    Palestinians have protested daily in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip since Trump’s announcement, throwing stones at security forces and burning tires.

    Read also: Netanyahu to attend ECOWAS Summit in Liberia

    Gaza militants have also launched sporadic rocket fire.

    Eight Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire during the demonstrations and dozens wounded, Palestinian health officials said.

    Two militants were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza after a rocket attack.

    Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favour of the UN draft resolution, and his ambassador to the world body, Nikki Haley said the U.S. “will be taking names”.

    Netanyahu, in his speech, thanked Trump and Haley for “their brave and uncompromising stance”.

    He repeated his prediction that other countries would eventually follow Washington’s lead in pledging to move their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

    “The attitude towards Israel of many countries, on all continents, outside the walls of the UN, is changing and will ultimately permeate into the UN-the house of lies,” he said.

    Most countries regard the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be settled in an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, although that process is now stalled.

    Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there.

    Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in a move never recognised internationally.

    Reuters/NAN

  • EU rejects Trump’s Jerusalem move

    EU rejects Trump’s Jerusalem move

    EU foreign ministers on Monday in Brussels rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to join the U.S. in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    Early, Netanyahu had asked the EU to ask allies to join the U.S. in Jerusalem move, but was met by a firm rebuff from EU foreign ministers who saw the move as a blow against the peace process.

    Making his first ever visit to EU headquarters in Brussels, Netanyahu said President Donald Trump’s move made peace in the Middle East possible “because recognising reality is the substance of peace, the foundation of peace.”

    Trump announced on Dec. 6 that the U.S. would recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that the ancient city’s status must be decided in Israeli-Palestinian talks.

    Israel, which annexed East Jerusalem after capturing it in a 1967 war, considers the entire city to be its capital while Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.

    The Trump administration says it remains committed to the peace process and its decision does not affect Jerusalem’s future borders or status.

    It says any credible future peace deal will place the Israeli capital in Jerusalem, and ditching old policies is needed to revive a peace process frozen since 2014.

    Israel’s closest European allies have rejected that logic and say recognising Israel’s capital unilaterally risks inflaming violence and further wrecking the chance for peace.

    After a breakfast meeting between Netanyahu and EU foreign ministers, Sweden’s top diplomat said no European at the closed-door meeting had voiced support for Trump’s decision, and no country was likely to follow the U.S. in announcing plans to move its embassy.

    “I have a hard time seeing that any other country would do that and I don’t think any other EU country will do it,” Margot Wallstrom said.

    Several EU foreign ministers arriving at the meeting reiterated the bloc’s position that lands Israel has occupied since the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank and Golan Heights, are not within Israel’s borders.

    Israel’s position does appear to have more support from some EU states than others.

    On Friday, the Czech foreign ministry said it would begin considering moving the Czech Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while Hungary blocked a planned EU statement condemning the U.S. move.

    Prague later said it accepted Israel’s sovereignty only over West Jerusalem, and Budapest said its long-term position seeking a two-state solution in the Middle East had not changed.

    On Monday, Czech Foreign Minister, Lubomir Zaoralek, said of Trump’s decision: “I‘m afraid it can’t help us.”

    “I‘m convinced that it is impossible to ease tension with a unilateral solution,” Zaoralek said.

    “We are talking about an Israeli state but at the same time we have to speak about a Palestinian state.”

    Trump’s announcement triggered days of protests across the Muslim world and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in which scores of Palestinians were wounded and several killed.

    By Monday morning, violence appeared to have subsided.

    Netanyahu, who has been angered by the EU’s search for closer business ties with Iran, said Europeans should emulate Trump’s move and press the Palestinians to do so too.

    “It’s time that the Palestinians recognise the Jewish state and also recognise the fact that it has a capital.
    It’s called Jerusalem,” he said.

    The decision to recognize Jerusalem could also strain Washington’s ties with its other main Muslim ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, which has sought closer relations with Washington under Trump than under his predecessor Barack Obama.

    Saudi Arabia shares U.S. and Israeli concerns about the increasing regional influence of Iran, and was seen as a potential broker for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal.

    Saudis have suggested that unilateral decisions over Jerusalem make any such rapprochement more difficult.

    Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and veteran ex-security chief, published a strongly-worded open letter to Trump on Monday denouncing the Jerusalem move.

  • UN: Netanyahu bows hot as secretary-general makes first regional trip

    UN: Netanyahu bows hot as secretary-general makes first regional trip

    Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a scathing criticism of the UN on Monday as the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, began his first visit to the country.

    At the opening remarks of Netanyahu’s meeting with the UN chief, the prime minister accused the UN of failing to prevent arms shipments to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    He added, that Iran is seeking to open a front against Israel on the Lebanese and Syrian borders.

    “[Iran] is also building sites to produce precision-guided missiles towards that end in both Syria and in Lebanon.

    “This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept,” Netanyahu said, without offering specifics.

    Iran and Hezbollah are fighting alongside Syrian President ‘s government in the Syrian civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands.

    The prime minister added that he believes the UN has an “absurd obsession” with his country.

  • Jerusalem on alert as religious tensions rise over holy site

    Jerusalem on alert as religious tensions rise over holy site

    Israel bolstered security in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday and prepared for possible clashes with Muslim worshippers after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided metal detectors at a sensitive holy site would not be removed.

    There have been daily confrontations between Palestinians hurling rocks and Israeli police using stun grenades since the detectors were placed at the entrance to the shrine, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, on Sunday, after the killing of two Israeli policemen.

    Muslim leaders and Palestinian political factions have urged the faithful to gather for a “day of rage” against the new security policies, which they see as changing delicate agreements that have governed the holy site for decades.

    The Israeli police said extra units had been mobilised to bolster security in the Old City, while Muslim access to the shrine for prayers would be limited to women of all ages and men over 50.

    Roadblocks were in place on approach roads to Jerusalem to stop buses carrying Muslims to the site.

    “Police are coordinating to enable Friday prayers to take place and at the same time security measures are taking place,” spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

    The Noble Sanctuary-Temple Mount compound, containing the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque, has long been a source of religious friction.

    Since Israel captured and annexed the Old City, including the compound, in the 1967 Middle East war, it has also become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

    On Thursday, there were calls for Netanyahu to back down and remove the metal detectors so as not to inflame the situation.

    President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, after discussing the issue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to press for their removal.

    Nickolay Mladenov, UN’ special coordinator for long-stalled Israel-Palestinian peace talks, appealed for calm and the White House urged a resolution.

    Jordan, which is the ultimate custodian of the holy site, has also been involved in mediation efforts.

    After a late-night meeting of his security cabinet, Netanyahu decided the metal detectors should stay.

    Officials said they were necessary to ensure Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs do not smuggle weapons into the holy compound.

    Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government, which relies on religious and right-wing parties for support, had publicly urged him to keep the devices in place.

    “Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo at the Temple Mount and the freedom of access to the holy places,” the security cabinet said in a statement.

    “The cabinet has authorised the police to take any decision in order ensure free access to the holy places while maintaining security and public order.”

    Tensions around the Noble Sanctuary-Temple Mount have erupted into violence in the past.

    In 2000, after then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited, Palestinians took it as a provocation.

    It led to clashes that spiraled into the second Intifada, when an estimated 1,000 Israelis and some 3,000 Palestinians were killed over four years of violence.

    As well as anger at having to submit to Israeli security policies, Palestinians are alarmed at what they see as the slow chipping away at the status quo at the Noble Sanctuary.

    Since Ottoman times, while Jews are permitted to visit the area, considered the holiest place in Judaism, where an ancient temple once stood, only Muslims are allowed to pray.

    Over the past decade, however, visits by religious-nationalist Jews have increased sharply and some attempt to pray.

    While police are supposed to eject them if they do, the rules are not always enforced, fuelling Muslim anger.

  • Red Crescent say 50 injured in clashes on site holy to Jews, Muslims

    Red Crescent say 50 injured in clashes on site holy to Jews, Muslims

    The Red Crescent reported on Tuesday that some 50 Palestinians were wounded in overnight clashes with Israeli police near a Jerusalem site holy to Jews and Muslims.

    The Red Crescent said among the 50 wounded Palestinians, 15 of them were hit by rubber bullets.

    The rioting was sparked by new security measures introduced over the weekend by the Israelis after police were attacked at the site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

    Jerusalem Grand Mufti Mohammed Hussein criticised the new measures which included metal detectors and turnstiles at the entrance to the site as altering the status quo.

    The Palestinians feared that Israel would retake control of the site by stealth.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that he did not want to alter the status quo, which gives Muslims religious control over the site and permits Jews to visit but not pray there.

    The site is sacred to both religions, as it houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine, Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina, but also the ruins of the Biblical Jewish Temple.

    Questions about control of the site frequently lead to outbursts of fighting.

    Two Israeli police officers were killed and another injured after three men opened fire on security officers working at the site.

    The attackers, believed to be Israeli Arabs, were also killed, Israel then closed off the area, preventing Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque.

  • Netanyahu to attend ECOWAS Summit in Liberia

    Netanyahu to attend ECOWAS Summit in Liberia

    Israeli Prime Minister

    will be attending the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) annual summit of Heads of State in the Liberian capital, Monrovia on Sunday, June 4.

    Tony Obiechina, Senior Media and Political Officer of the Embassy of Israel, in a statement in Abuja, said, Netanyahu will be on a one-day visit to Liberia to attend the summit.

    Obiechina said that during the summit, Netanyahu is expected to sign a joint declaration for greater cooperation with ECOWAS, the 15-state regional body.

    He said that Netanyahu has spearheaded intense efforts to improve ties with Africa under the slogan “Israel is coming back to Africa, and Africa is coming back to Israel.”

    It will also be Netanyahu’s first trip outside Israel after hosting President Donald Trump in Jerusalem.

    The trip is the first for any Israeli leader to West Africa since the late Prime Minister Golda Meir visited Nigeria in the 1960s.

    The Prime Minister on 2016 toured East African.

    Obiechina said that one of key goals of Netanyahu’s Africa trip is to strengthen economic ties and boost Israel’s know-how specifically, in the areas of water technology, agriculture, energy and cyber-security.

    Israel’s relations with Africa go back to the 1950s barely few years after it was created in 1948.

    NAN reports others expected to attend include a high-level delegation from the Moroccan government, a high-level delegation from the European Union, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, among others.

    On the margins of the summit, Mano River Union States (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire) will launch the West Africa Power Pool Project which will provide electricity to the countries within the Mano River Union basin.

    NAN also reports that it will be the first ECOWAS summit held in Liberia in more than two decades.

  • Trump says has new reasons to hope for peace in Middle East

    Trump says has new reasons to hope for peace in Middle East

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had new reasons to hope for peace and stability to the Middle East after his visit to Saudi Arabia.

    In a stopover lasting 28 hours, Trump is to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    “During my travels in recent days, I have found new reasons for hope,” Trump said in a brief speech on arrival.

    “We have before us a rare opportunity to bring security and stability and peace to this region and its people, defeating terrorism and creating a future of harmony, prosperity and peace, but we can only get there working together.

    “There is no other way,” he said.

    Later on Monday, he will pray at Judaism’s Western Wall and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and on Tuesday he will travel to Bethlehem.

    Netanyahu and his wife Sara, as well as President Reuven Rivlin and members of the Israeli cabinet, were at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport to greet Trump and first lady Melania in a red carpet ceremony after what is believed to have been the first direct flight from Riyadh to Israel.
    Trump’s tour comes in the shadow of difficulties at home, where he is struggling to contain a scandal after firing James Comey as FBI director nearly two weeks ago.

    The trip ends on Saturday after visits to the Vatican, Brussels and Sicily.

    Netanyahu said Israel shared Trump’s commitment to peace, but he also repeated his right-wing government’s political and security demands of the Palestinians, including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

    “May your first trip to our region prove to be a historic milestone on the path towards reconciliation and peace,” Netanyahu said.

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters en route to Tel Aviv that any three-way meeting between Trump, Netanyahu and Abbas was for “a later date”.

    Trump has vowed to do whatever is necessary to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, something he has called “the ultimate deal”, but has given little indication of how he could revive negotiations that collapsed in 2014.

    When he met Abbas this month in Washington, he stopped shortly of explicitly recommitting his administration to a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, a long-standing foundation of U.S. policy.

    He has since spoken in support of Palestinian “self-determination”.

    Trump has also opted against an immediate move of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a longtime demand of Israel.