Middle East diplomacy - Page 10

WASHINGTON — The United States warned that an independence referendum Monday for Iraqi Kurdistan to break away from Baghdad will “increase instability.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday defended his country’s latest ballistic missile test in defiance of Western and Israeli criticism, saying the controversial program served the Islamic Republic’s defensive needs.

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran is working to restore a lost link in its network of alliances in the Middle East, trying to bring Hamas fully back into the fold after the Palestinian militant group had a bitter fall-out with Iranian ally Syria over that country’s civil war.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has dismissed claims that Hezbollah should be disarmed as long as Israel “fails to respect” UN resolutions and international law.

The commander of Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guards urged his country to use “all its options” and take unspecified “actions” in the next few months to cause pain to the United States in the wake of criticisms of Iran by US President Donald Trump this week.

Israel’s goal is to “prevent Iran from becoming the North Korea” of the Middle East, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot said in a Rosh Hashanah interview published by the Hebrew news site Walla on Wednesday.

President Reuven Rivlin told members of the diplomatic corps on Monday that it is unacceptable for Iran to be given ever more legitimacy while it continues to threaten to destroy Israel.

Russia and Iraq restored scheduled commercial airline services on Sunday for the first time since 2004, in what officials hailed as a sign of stability returning to the war-torn country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the main message of his upcoming speech at the United Nations for the annual gathering of world leaders at the 72nd session of the General Assembly would be that Israel would not tolerate an Iranian presence on its northern border with Syria, now in its seventh year of a brutal civil war.

Two years after the nuclear deal was signed by Iran and world powers, the Islamic Republic is reported to have boosted its financial support to Hezbollah to $800 million a year, a dramatic increase from the $200m. it was said to be giving its proxy when sanctions were in place.

Saudi Arabia has said it has broken up an Islamic State group plot to use a suicide bomb against Defense Ministry offices, while separately dismantling an alleged spy ring.

Jordan and Russia said Monday a ceasefire brokered with the United States for southern Syria was “successful” and the next step would be to set up a safe zone there.

Leaders in Qatar and Saudi Arabia spoke by telephone early Saturday in their first high-level contact since an Arab diplomatic crisis engulfed Doha three months ago, but now even terms of what they discussed have created a new dispute.

TEL AVIV — Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to call on the UN General Assembly to determine Palestinian state borders when it convenes in two weeks, according to Dalal Salama, a member of Fatah’s central committee.

President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed efforts by the leader of Kuwait, a staunch American ally, to mediate a festering diplomatic crisis involving Qatar and its Arab neighbors that could have implications for the U.S. military presence in the region.

TEL AVIV — Arabic social media has been buzzing with commentary on the most recent nuclear test performed by North Korea, with many blaming the situation on the international community’s nuclear deal with the Iranian regime.

Enemies are unlikely to attack Iran, especially on the ground, the country’s military chief predicted on Saturday, saying even “unwise” leaders in the West know that any such conflict would have huge costs for them.

TEHRAN: Iran’s new defense minister said Saturday the priority was to boost the country’s missile program and export weapons to shore up neighboring allies.

In a recent television interview, Sudanese Minister of Investment Mubarak Al-Fadil Al-Mahdi said it would not be a “big deal” if his nation was to normalize relations with Israel.

UNITED NATIONS — The United States on Thursday described remarks by a Palestinian Hamas leader boasting of strong military ties with Iran as a “stunning admission” that showed Tehran was violating a UN ban on arms exports.

Five weeks after the evacuation of the Israeli embassy in Jordan following the attack incident in which an Israeli security guard shot and killed two Jordanians in apparent self defense, Israeli Ambassador to Jordan Einat Shlain and the embassy staff have yet to return to Jordan, and the diplomatic crisis is far from being resolved.

Jordan and Iraq on Wednesday reopened their only border crossing, saying security had been restored three years after the Islamic State group seized control of frontier areas.

TEL AVIV — UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited Ramallah on Tuesday, where he made public remarks about the so-called Israeli-Palestinian conflict and key issues related to the region.

Sudanese minister said any possible normalization of ties between Sudan and Israel would be “no big deal” and that Palestinians bear a large responsibility of the blame in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The new Gaza leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said Monday it has restored relations with Iran and is gearing up for future hostilities with Israel.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ankara, and said finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be beneficial to both sides.

Jerusalem cannot be expected to sit idly by as Iran entrenches itself in Syria and Lebanon and declares with Hezbollah that they are planning a two-front war against Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.

Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Monday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about recent staff departures from the White House and the influence of President Trump’s family members, particularly daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly to meet President Donald Trump in the US in mid-September. The two are scheduled to meet on September 17 in New Jersey, likely at Trump’s National Bedminster Golf Club, the Israel Hayom daily reported Sunday.

Israel will press UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on what it says is Hezbollah’s arms buildup in Lebanon during his first visit to the Jewish state since taking office, the deputy foreign minister said Sunday.

TEL AVIV — Talk of any U.S.-led initiative to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is a “delusion,” charged Palestinian official Mahmoud Aloul, a Fatah deputy to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

TEL AVIV — A senior Sundanese minister has stirred up a storm of anger in the country after he expressed support recently for the normalization of ties with Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas set aside weeks of widespread and vocal pessimism over US peace efforts, saying that a deal with Israel is not impossible during a meeting with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner Thursday.

US President Donald Trump has told his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi that he wants to strengthen ties with Cairo, Sissi’s office said Friday, days after it emerged Washington had cut some aid to Egypt.

A BBC World Service presenter told his audience that the State of Israel was “carved – as it was – out of land which had belonged to the Palestinians.”

Australia is open to the idea of having a new, formal diplomatic presence in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told a group of Jewish community leaders.