Middle East diplomacy - Page 17

The Palestinian leadership should downgrade its diplomatic ties with the United States, if the American Embassy is relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a top Fatah official said on Monday.

The mayor of Jerusalem says the Trump administration is “serious” and committed to moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Iran is being cautious in its first comments on U.S. President Donald Trump. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told reporters on Monday that the Islamic Republic has no immediate pronouncement on Trump.

President Reuven Rivlin sent a letter to incoming US President Donald Trump on Saturday evening, congratulating him on his inauguration the day before and inviting him to visit Israel.

Iran’s foreign minister said Thursday his country isn’t worried and has options if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ditches a nuclear agreement reached between Iran and six world powers.

In a full throttled attack against US President Barack Obama, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday released a video statement accusing the outgoing president of “surrendering to the Iranian’s and radical Islam,” as well as “abandoning Israel.”

There has been no communication between Iran and US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, the Tehran regime-aligned Tasnim news agency reported.

In a radio interview on Sunday, French Member of Parliament Meir Habib took strong issue with a warning from French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault that President-elect Donald Trump’s moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would constitute a provocation that would result in “extremely serious consequences.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-Israel views likely influenced the outcome of Sunday’s peace summit, a Fatah official told Breitbart Jerusalem, leading to what the official termed a modestly worded resolution at the confab’s conclusion.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has distanced the Turnbull government from a communique agreed by ministers and diplomats of 70 nations, including Australia, concerning the pathways to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Qatar has agreed to pay $12 million for fuel for the Gaza Strip’s sole power plant, in a move that seeks to end the serious energy crisis gripping the Palestinian enclave.

US President Barack Obama says he does not regret his speech drawing a “red line” over Syria’s use of chemical weapons, a phrase critics say symbolizes the US failure to act over the country’s conflict.

Russia plans to improve and expand its naval and air bases in Syria, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source, as Moscow cements its presence in the Middle Eastern country, its only overseas military deployment.

US “hostility” to Iran is growing day by day despite Tehran’s nuclear deal, a senior Iranian official said Sunday, ahead of the first anniversary of the historic accord.

The international diplomatic conference set to be held in Paris on Sunday and attended by outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry will be a “reward to the Palestinians for continuing to avoid negotiations while promoting terrorism,” Israel’s UN envoy said.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned that peace could suffer if the incoming Trump administration goes ahead with plans to move the US embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party on Saturday warned that if the Trump administration moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it will “open the gates of hell.”

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to help stop the United States moving its embassy to Jerusalem, a top Palestinian official said Friday.

The upcoming international peace conference in Paris is a “rigged” effort intended to hurt Israel and its hopes of reaching peace, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, adding that Jerusalem was not bound by any decision that would be taken there.

French President Francois Hollande said that talks to discuss the Middle East peace process in Paris on Sunday do not aim to replace bilateral negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

A senior Hamas official confirmed Wednesday to The Times of Israel that Qatar and Egypt are involved in mediating between his organization and Israel, but stressed that Hamas will not even begin to talk about releasing Israeli civilians it has detained along with the remains of two IDF soldiers unless Israel first releases dozens of Palestinians it is holding.

Hamas and the Egyptian government have agreed on a series of measures to alleviate the blockade on the Gaza Strip, a senior official in the movement told Breitbart Jerusalem.

The incoming Trump administration plans to move ahead with its plans to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem regardless of criticism from Arab nations, CNN reported Monday.

Pope Francis will grant Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas an audience at the Vatican on Saturday, the Holy See confirmed indirectly Tuesday by announcing arrangements for media coverage of the visit.

Lebanon seeks cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the country’s Hezbollah-backed President Michel Aoun told Saudi television on Tuesday, after a tense year in relations between the two countries.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday he believes that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will not make the same mistakes as the outgoing administration in relations with Turkey.

A threat from a junior London-based Israeli embassy worker to ‘take down’ a British government minister drew an immediate apology from the country’s most senior diplomat.

TEL AVIV – “Supernatural” actor Mark Pellegrino slammed the United Nations and the U.S. for the “unethical” Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

Israel’s ambassadors around the world are engaged in a two-prong approach to combating the upcoming Paris Mideast conference, on one hand trying to convince countries not to attend, and on the other hoping to persuade those countries that will participate not to pass a resolution that might then be taken to the UN Security Council.

President-elect Trump won’t get any help from the State Department in implementing Israeli-relation policies opposed by President Obama before his inauguration.

An Australian senator has demanded tighter immigration controls coupled with trade sanctions against New Zealand after it co-sponsored a United Nations resolution condemning Israel’s West Bank settlements.

Continuing to push for a two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is “messianic behavior,” at a time when what is needed is “opening our thoughts” to new diplomatic approaches, Education Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he was “disappointed” to learn that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not attend an international peace conference in Paris scheduled for January 15.

The Islamic Republic will always back nations and groups that fight Israel, a top Iranian official vowed on Tuesday, the Tehran regime-aligned Tasnim news agency reported.

WASHINGTON — The United States was planning to abstain from Thursday’s vote on an Egyptian-drafted resolution at the United Nations Security Council condemning Israeli settlements, according to NBC News and Reuters.

Conditions to implement a multi-billion dollar contract to supply Saudi-financed French weapons to Lebanon are now favorable after the formation of a new government in Beirut, France’s foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Thursday.