Category: 2. Middle East

NICOSIA (Reuters) -France’s foreign minister said on Thursday a U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution system in Gaza had generated a “bloodbath” and had to cease activity.

“I want to call for the cessation of the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the militarised distribution of humanitarian aid that has generated a bloodbath in distribution lines in Gaza, which is a scandal, which is shameful, and has to stop,” Foreign and European Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told…

WASHINGTON — The State Department on Thursday announced sanctions that deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, accusing the groups of obstructing peace efforts with Israel. 

“It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace,” the department said in its announcement.

The PLO is the internationally…

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has demanded that the US pay compensation for the damage inflicted during last month’s war, as a condition for resuming nuclear negotiations. In an interview with the Financial Times, Araghchi warned that the “road to negotiation is narrow” and that Tehran would not tolerate a return to “business as usual” after what he described as an unprovoked US assault.

“They should explain why they attacked us in the…

The US imposed sanctions Thursday on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA), accusing both groups of failing to comply with their commitments and undermining peace prospects in the Middle East.

“It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace,” the US State Department said.

The department also…

The Palestinian Authority said Israeli settlers set fire to homes and cars in a West Bank village on Thursday, killing one man, in the latest attack in the occupied territory.

“Forty-year-old Khamis Abdel-Latif Ayad was martyred due to smoke inhalation caused by fires set by settlers in citizens’ homes and vehicles in the village of Silwad at dawn,” the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.

Witnesses provided corresponding accounts of the attack on Silwad, a village in the central…

Canada has announced plans to formally recognise the State of Palestine during the upcoming UN General Assembly session in September, joining a growing list of Western countries challenging the longstanding international protection of Israeli impunity. Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement yesterday, aligning Ottawa with France and the UK in what appears to be a coordinated international push to revive the long-dormant two-state solution.

The decision…

A Stockholm court on Thursday handed down a life term to Swedish jihadist Osama Krayem over the 2015 murder of a Jordanian pilot burned alive by the Islamic State group in Syria.

The Swedish court was the first to try a person over the infamous killing which sparked outrage around the world.

Judge Anna Liljenberg Gullesjo said “the investigation has shown that the defendant was at the execution site, uniformed and armed, and allowed himself to be filmed.”

Although video evidence showed that…