5 months ago
22
US Prez Joe Biden, asked whether PM Benjamin
Netanyahu
was prolonging the war in
Gaza
in an effort to hold on to office, said that he believes “there is every reason for people to draw that conclusion”, lending his voice to something many in his administration have been saying privately for months.
His statement came in an interview with Time magazine that was conducted May 28, three days before Biden gave a speech revealing details of what he called an “Israeli plan” to bring about an exchange of
hostages
and a permanent
ceasefire
.
His decision to describe the Israeli plan in public appeared to be a clear effort to lock in Netanyahu, who didn’t publicly reveal the details and seemed to back away from some of them after Biden’s statement last Friday.
Both in Jerusalem and Washington, Netanyahu is widely seen as highly aware that an end to the conflict could easily result in his being swept from office — especially once investigations began into how Israel ignored evidence of the Oct 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, and how slowly Israel’s defence forces responded. Street protests against him have begun to gather momentum again, seven months after the attack. Netan yahu has made clear, both before and after the attacks, that he is against a
two-state solution
.
Tensions between Biden and Netanyahu have been obvious for months, as the Israeli PM has refused American calls for Israel to allow far larger amounts of aid to reach Palestinians, and to come up with a plan to evacuate displaced refugees from Rafah, the current centre of military action. But Biden was careful not to criticise Netanyahu other than to agree that he was clinging to office by prolonging the war.
Israeli govt spokesman David Mencer, asked about the interview, said it was “outside the diplomatic norms of every right-thinking country” for Biden to make such comments.
Meanwhile, the White Hou se said Biden believes the ceasefire deal on the table is the best chance to get hostages out of Gaza and end hostilities. The US will continue to work with Netanyahu to try to get the proposal over finish line, spokesman John Kirby said.
Hamas says can’t agree to any deal unless Israel commits to permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal
Hamas cannot agree to any deal unless Israel makes a “clear” commitment to a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Gaza, a senior official from the Palestinian militant group said on Tuesday. “Israel only wants one phase where it takes all its hostages, then it resumes its aggression and war on our people,” Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, told a televised press conference.
Qatar, which alongside the US and Egypt has been mediating talks between Hamas and Israel, has also urged Israel to provide a clear position that has the backing of its entire govt to reach a deal.
‘Israeli air strikes in Syria have killed Iran general’
Israeli air strikes near Aleppo, Syria, in the early hours of Monday killed a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps who had been deployed to the country as an adviser, according to Iranian media reports. The Iranian was identified as General Saeed Abyar by Tasnim News agency, a media outlet affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards.
He was believed to be the first Iranian killed by Israel since the two countries nearly went to war in April, after Israel bombed Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus, killing several commanders. Iran retaliated, attacking Israel with a barrage of 300 drones and ballistic missiles, after which Israel attacked an Iranian military base with a missile. Since then, however, the two countries stepped back from direct confrontations, facing intense global pressure to not ignite a new, wider regional war. And Iran is now enmeshed in a domestic leadership crisis, making a new wave of attacks on Israel seem unlikely. Iran has been reeling from the sudden death of Prez Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash two weeks ago.
Abyar was a member of Iran’s Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards that operates largely in other nations. He had been in Syria since 2012, when he was deployed to help the govt in Damascus fight a civil war with opposition forces and IS terrorists. The Quds Force now uses Syria as a regional headquarters for coordinating and arming militia groups known as the “axis of resistance”, including in Lebanon, Iraq and West Bank.
(With Reuters inputs)
