Author: AFP
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will warn Wednesday against “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza over US President Donald Trump’s suggestion Palestinians could be removed from the coastal territory, his spokesman said. Trump, in a White House news conference on Tuesday alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, proposed “long-term ownership” of Gaza by the United States. The extraordinary remarks came after he has repeatedly called in recent days for the territory’s residents to move to Jordan or Egypt. “The secretary-general will say that in the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in a preview…
The White House said Wednesday that President Donald Trump is “not committed” to sending US troops to Gaza as part of his plan for rebuilding the Palestinian territory, but did not rule it out. “It’s been made very clear to the president that the United States needs to be involved in this rebuilding effort to ensure stability in the region for all people. That does not mean boots on the ground in Gaza, it does not mean American taxpayers will be funding this effort,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Asked if US troops were being ruled out, she said: “The…
President Donald Trump’s shock proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle its people faced a resounding rejection from Palestinians, Middle East leaders and governments around the world on Wednesday. Trump made his announcement to audible gasps during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he was hosting at the White House for talks. In a proposal that lacked details on how he would move out more than two million Palestinians or control Gaza, Trump said he would make the war-battered enclave “unbelievable” by removing unexploded bombs and rubble, and economically…
The British government was grilled in parliament on Wednesday as it denied claims by Mauritius that a new deal to return the Chagos Islands changes the lease terms for a key US military base. The foreign ministry hit back at reports that Britain would pay Mauritius up to £18 billion (£22 billion) to use Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean chain where the base is. Britain and its former colony reached a deal in October to hand back the isles — which it kept control of after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s — on condition that the military…
A Russia-bound Azerbaijani jet which crashed in Kazakhstan in December had probably been damaged by “external objects” before it hit the ground, an investigation said on Tuesday. The preliminary report did not identify the reason why the plane went off course. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly said that it was accidentally shot at from the ground by Russian air defence.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order withdrawing his country from a number of United Nations bodies, including its Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and setting up a broader review of US funding for the multilateral organization. The executive order said it withdrew Washington from UNHRC and the main UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), and would review involvement in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to speak by phone on Tuesday, just hours after slapping tariffs on each other’s economies in an escalating trade war. Beijing said it was imposing levies on imports of US energy, vehicles and equipment in a return salvo minutes after Trump’s threatened tariffs on Chinese goods came into effect. Trump suspended tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Monday for a month after they vowed to step up measures to counter flows of the drug fentanyl and crossing of undocumented migrants into the United States. Stock markets wavered on Tuesday…
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky called on US companies Tuesday to invest in his country’s rare earths after US President Donald Trump said he wanted a deal with Kyiv that involved getting the minerals in exchange for aid. Trump said Monday that he would want strategic metals — essential for various technologies — in exchange for security from the United States. Zelensky, who had floated the idea to the Republican last year, said it would be “fair” to give US companies access to the minerals as Washington has helped Kyiv fend off Russian forces. “I would like US business… to develop…
Several UN agencies voiced alarm on Tuesday at US President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze nearly all foreign aid, saying “confusion” reigned over what the full impact would be. Shortly after his inauguration last month, Trump signed an executive order implementing a 90-day pause in US foreign development aid. His administration later issued waivers for food and other humanitarian aid, but aid workers say that the impact is already being felt by some of the world’s most vulnerable. “There is a state of confusion to be frank,” Jens Laerke, a spokesman for United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in…
North Korea on Monday criticized Marco Rubio for calling the country a “rogue state,” dismissing as “nonsense” a comment made by the top US diplomat during a recent interview. In North Korea’s first public denunciation of the new Trump administration, a foreign ministry spokesman said that “we will never tolerate any provocation of the US… but will take tough counteraction corresponding to it as usual,” according to a statement carried on state news service KCNA.