Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said U.S. discussions with Hamas were recent and the message to the Palestinian resistance group was that the United States wants to get hostages home. Witkoff also said the U.S. does not believe Hamas has been forthright.
U.S. special envoy for hostages Adam Boehler has the authority to negotiate directly with Hamas, the White House said on Wednesday after sources said Boehler has been in discussions with the group about freeing Gaza hostages. “When it comes to the negotiations that you’re referring to, first of all, the special envoy who’s engaged in those negotiations does have the authority,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. She said Israel was consulted and she said Boehler’s work was a “good faith effort to do what’s right for the American people.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would continue supplying electricity to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia at a meeting in the Kremlin on Wednesday with its leader Badra Gunba. Putin congratulated Gunba on his victory in a presidential election at the weekend, describing Russia-Abkhazia relations as “special”. The election was held months after Gunba’s predecessor was driven from office following protests over an investment deal with Russia. Most countries recognise Abkhazia as part of Georgia, which called the election “another flagrant violation of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”. Abkhazia has in recent months been plagued by an electricity crisis,…
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla has signed a lease deal to open its first showroom in Mumbai, as it moves towards a goal to sell imported cars in India, registration papers show, after it dropped similar plans last year. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The papers show the company has signed a five-year lease from February 16, 2025, and will pay rent of about $446,000 for the first year for 4,003 square feet (372 square meters), almost the size of a basketball court. The rent will increase by 5% every year, with a total expense over…
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday Israel was ready to proceed to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, as long as Hamas was ready to release more of the 59 hostages it is still holding. Fighting in Gaza has been halted since January 19 under a truce arranged with U.S. support and Qatari and Egyptian mediators, and Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. But the initial 42-day truce has expired and Hamas and Israel, which has blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza, remain far apart…
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri on Tuesday rejected Israeli and U.S. calls for the group to disarm, saying its right to resist was not negotiable. “The weapon of the resistance is a red line, and it is not negotiable,” he told Reuters. “We will not accept (any deal) to trade it for reconstruction or the entry of aid.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the United States and Iran should resolve their mutual issues through talks, and Russia was ready to do everything in its power to help bring this about, state news agency RIA reported.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Tuesday he was certain that U.S. President Donald Trump would be able to achieve peace on what he referred to as the Palestinian issue. Speaking during an extraordinary Arab League summit, he said Egypt would be hosting a conference for Gaza reconstruction next month.
France and Britain are proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine that would not cover ground fighting, French President Emmanuel Macron told the daily newspaper Le Figaro on Sunday. However, Macron said the truce would cover air, sea and energy infrastructure attacks. “In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to verify (fighting) along the front was being respected,” Macron told Le Figaro, adding that the front line was equivalent to the distance between Paris and Budapest. Macron spoke to Le Figaro as he flew to London for a meeting with European leaders, convened by…
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the names of three cryptocurrencies to be included in a new U.S. crypto strategic reserve on Sunday, spiking the value of each in market trading. Trump said on social media that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including XRP (Ripple), SOL (Solana), and ADA (Cardano). The assets rose 10% to 35% in trading on Sunday. Other digital assets also gained. Trump said his order “directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will make sure the…