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The EU's diplomatic chief Monday bluntly rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's suggestion that Europe would follow the US in recognising Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital, saying there would be no change to its stance on the holy city. Netanyahu said the controversial announcement by US President Donald Trump -- which prompted diplomatic alarm and street protests across the Islamic world -- had "put facts squarely on the table". As he arrived for talks in Brussels, Netanyahu said he expected "all or most" European countries would follow the US -- but the 28-nation bloc's foreign policy head Federica Mogherini...

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is now disclosing the nature of his resignation, and why he left Lebanon to spend time in Saudi Arabia. It appears the Saudi and regional partners provided evidence that Iran and Hezbollah were planning an assassination targeting Hariri and his family.

It's the knowing smirk that rankles most. When Donald Trump flashes his grating, self-satisfied grin, he's signalling to you and me that he's untouchable, beyond the reach of special counsel, Robert Mueller, and the comical remnants of the "rule of law". It's his easy, quick way of quashing the frayed spirits and hopes of those of us aching for his belated comeuppance and eviction from the White House. But Trump knows he's not going anywhere, anytime soon. So, he basks in his immunity and smiles. It's his tiny middle finger to anyone who believes that Mueller, the FBI or Congress...

Arab foreign ministers on Sunday demanded that the United States rescind President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, calling it a “grave” development that puts Washington on the same side as “occupation” and the violation of international law. In a resolution long on rhetoric but short on concrete actions, the ministers also called for the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution condemning Trump’s decision, but acknowledged that Washington would most likely veto it. If the U.S. vetoes the resolution, the Arabs would seek a similar resolution in the U.N. General Assembly, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki...

Malta EU Africa Migration Summit According to reports in the Israeli press, several other countries will follow President Trump's lead and move their Israeli embassies to Jerusalem. Who is doing this and why speaks volumes about the moral condition of the world. Hungary's President Viktor Orban reportedly vetoed a European Community resolution condemning Trump's action, and Hungary is expected to move its embassy to Jerusalem. Orban has fought a public war of words with liberal mega-donor George Soros all year, and polite opinion claims that Orban is an anti-Semite. His political base includes plenty of anti-Semites, to be sure....

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for calm and told Muslims protesting US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem to act in a democratic and lawful fashion. However, Erdogan also called Israel an "occupying state that usurped Palestinians' lands since 1967 with no regard to law or morality," and claimed Jerusalem was ...

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday blasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “We feel that we are facing Balfour Declaration 2,” Nasrallah said. “When we understand the dangers involved in this decision, it will prompt everyone to act and take responsibility — and not to obey the voices that will be heard in the coming days. I expect that we will hear voices in the Arab and Islamic world that will say that what happened is meaningless.” […] Nasrallah claimed that, with Trump’s declaration, “he humiliated a billion and a half Muslims,...

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday blasted U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. "We feel that we are facing Balfour Declaration 2," Nasrallah said...." "We all know that the Israeli enemy and the leaders of this entity do not respect international resolutions. This is proven. They do not even respect the agreements they signed. Their interest is the most important for them, they do not care what the Arab countries, Islamic states, European countries, Canada and Latin America say," added the Hezbollah leader. "For those who are interested in a peace agreement, Trump...

Russia’s unexpected announcement recognizing Israel’s eternal capital of Jerusalem, a dramatic decision that places Vladimir Putin against Donald Trump in a totally new big-power rivalry – the race to Jerusalem. Many American and Israeli Jews have waited with mounting impatience for Trump to keep his campaign promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Against an atmosphere of US equivocation, Putin suddenly announced, without preamble or restricting conditions, the recognition of Israel’s capital, to take effect immediately.

President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's official capital and his announcement that he would move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to that city has not only sparked outrage in the Middle East but also in Europe. One European leader who has condemned Trump's announcement is Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. Although you'd expect her to tread extremely carefully when talking about the Jewish nation-state -- considering her country's horrible record regarding the treatment of Jews -- nothing could be further from the truth. "The federal government doesn't understand this decision because the status of Jerusalem must be negotiated...

In one audio recording, Erdogan was heard ordering his son to get rid of all the cash he kept at home; and his son, after trying for several hours, tells him there are still millions left. Erdogan denied the authenticity of the evidence and claimed this was a coup d'état against his elected administration. He then purged all prosecutors and police officers investigating the charges. Zarrab's testimony as a witness, as well as documents displayed at trial "would show that this conspiracy to launder money for Iran was not a rogue operation. It would show the Turkish government at...

North Korea lashed out again on Wednesday at large-scale military exercises — involving its southern neighbor and the United States — this time saying that war was “unavoidable.” The comments were attributed to an unnamed North Korea Foreign Ministry spokesman, who said “bellicose comments” from high-ranked US officials, including CIA Director Mike Pompeo, had confirmed Washington’s intent for war. Pompeo had said on Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unaware of how tenuous his situation was both domestically and internationally. The North Korean spokesman accused Pompeo of directly provoking the country by “impudently criticizing our supreme leadership...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's military said on Thursday it had accomplished its mission of defeating Islamic State in Syria, and there were no remaining settlements there under the group's control. Russian bombers had used unprecedented force in the final stages to finish off the militant group, a senior Russian officer said. "The mission to defeat bandit units of the Islamic State terrorist organization on the territory of Syria, carried out by the armed forces of the Russian Federation, has been accomplished," Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoi, head of the general staff's operations, said on Rossiya 24 TV channel. Syrian government forces were...

An Iranian-backed militia in Iraq threatened on Thursday to attack US forces in the country over US President Donald Trump recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. "The decision by Trump on Al-Quds [Jerusalem] makes it legitimate to strike the American forces in Iraq," Al-Nojaba militia chief Akram al-Kaabi said in a statement. The group, established in 2013 and supported by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, numbers around 1,500 fighters and is part of the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) auxiliary force that has fought alongside the army against ISIS. Following Trump’s announcement, Iran strongly condemned the decision, saying it threatened a...

"Don't think this isn't related to Alabama next week. It is related," Matthews said. "Because it’s the Christian Evangelicals down there with their crazy ideas about Israel which is, I don't know, mythical." "They don't understand the situation over there, how tricky it is ethnically and tribally," he added. "They don't care because it's a religious belief. Trump is playing into that this week; you watch him."

(JTA) — The Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, D.C., canceled its Christmas reception due to President Trump’s expected announcement that he will be recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Monday, The New York Times published the Palestinian response to an alleged Saudi peace plan. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly presented it to PLO chief and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas last month. According to the Times’ report, Mohammed told Abbas he has two months to either accept the Saudi proposal or leave office to make way for a new Palestinian leader who will accept it. The Palestinians and their European supporters are up in arms about the content of Mohammed’s plan. It reportedly proposes the establishment of limited Palestinian sovereignty over small portions of Judea and Samaria....

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Tuesday warned the US about the dangers of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “Recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel does not calm a conflict; rather, it fuels it even more,” Gabriel said. “It’s in everyone’s interest that this does not happen.” Despite widespread international opposition to the move, Trump is expected to recognize the city as Israel’s capital on Wednesday. A senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity told AFP news agency that the president would make the announcement during a speech slated for 1 p.m. local...

Many pilots in Germany are refusing to participate in deportations, local media reported on Monday. Following an information request from the Left Party, the government said that 222 planned flights were stopped by pilots who wanted no part in the controversial return of refugees to Afghanistan, which has been deemed a “safe country of origin” in some cases, despite ongoing violence and repression in parts of the country. Some 85 of the refusals between January and September 2017 came from Germany’s main airline Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings. About 40 took place at Düsseldorf airport, where the controversial deportations are...

President Trump on Wednesday will order the State Department to begin moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, senior administration officials said, a move that fulfills a campaign promise made to religious conservatives but one that could inflame tensions across the Middle East. In his announcement, Trump will say that the U.S. government recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. One official described it as an "honest" acknowledgement of a "seven-decade old fact." “While President Trump recognizes that the status of Jerusalem is a highly sensitive issue, he does not think it will be resolved by...