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US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee dismissed France’s potential upcoming recognition of a Palestinian state, calling the move “revolting” while Israel fights Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “It’s incredibly inappropriate in the midst of a war that Israel is dealing with to go out and present something that I think increasingly Israelis are steadfast against,” he told Fox News. Huckabee’s comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state, with conditions, is “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity.” Macron also said that European countries should “harden the collective position” against Israel if...

In a trans-Atlantic phone call the young French leader warned the consequences would be severe. However, Mr Tump clearly ignored Mr Macron’s advice and yesterday made the bombshell announcement. Adding his voice to near worldwide condemnation Mr Macron said he ‘deplored’ the US president’s unilateral decision to officially recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying that the city’s status should be determined as part of a settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. During a news conference in Algiers, Algeria, he said: “It is a regrettable decision that France does not approve of, and that goes against international law and the...

  What happened to Jewish Holy Sites and places of worship in lands controlled by the Arabs? On May 28, 1948 the Arab Legion completed the capture of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the site of numerous ancient synagogues and the Western Wall of the Temple, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD. These were and remain the holiest sites in the Jewish religion.After the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem was captured, the destruction, desecration and systematic looting of Jewish sites began and continued. 57 ancient synagogues (the oldest dated to the 13th century), libraries...

A fine thread running through many of our columns is that the legitimacy of Islam’s religious claims to Jerusalem is in inverse proportion to the volume and frequency with which they are made. Now comes along a renowned Muslim Egyptian scholar, of all people, to corroborate our point. Prof. Youssef Ziedan, a specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies and a prolific author, has given a series of interviews to Egyptian television stations in recent days, in all of which he emphasizes one issue: There is actually no connection between Jerusalem and ancient Islam. When Islam was founded during the 7th...

Goodness is contagious. The Trump presidency will go down in history as a triumph for American freedom and goodwill towards men, a return to America being a force for good across the world. Merry Christmas! Israel says 10 more countries in talks about moving embassies to Jerusalem Honduras reportedly next in line after Guatemala announces relocation of mission; Togo, Paraguay, Romania and Slovakia also floated Following Guatemala’s announcement Monday that it would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, at least 10 other countries are in talks to move their own missions, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said. In...

After meeting last week with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely last week, a Romanian politician has announced their nation will be moving their embassy to Jerusalem. This will make Romania the fourth nation to do so and the first European Union country to break ranks and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, a Social Democrat, proposed the move to his government last Wednesday, April 11, and the process moved forward quickly. In an interview with the Romanian TV channel ANTENA 3 on Thursday, Israeli Independence Day, Liviu Dragnea, the president of the Chamber of Deputies...

Buckets of blood dripped from Ebrahim Raisi, the 8th president of Iran, for his roles on the “Death Committee” and other atrocities under his direction. He wore a black turban to claim that he descended from the Prophet Muhammad. The Shiite president did not survive the helicopter crash of May 19, 2024. Who will mourn the death of an evil man who presided over the death and torture of so many? Dissidents were tortured, subjected to cruel inhuman treatment, and killed. A political purge against political dissidents lasted five months during 1988. Ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini, the “Death Committee” was...

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), praised President Donald Trump in an address on Wednesday for taking the “courageous and historic” step of lifting sanctions on his country. Sharaa delivered a speech to the Syrian people following an in-person meeting with President Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where President Trump concluded the first of three stops in a Middle East tour on Wednesday. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who first met Sharaa shortly after HTS toppled the half-century-old Assad family regime in Damascus, arranged and presided over the meeting. The...

There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One. A tour narrowly billed by the White House as a chance for Trump to show he’s a master dealmaker is jumbling the region’s geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.Wherever he goes, Trump’s brings disruption that can forge possibilities. And he takes risks – for instance, his decision on this trip to lift sanctions on Syria to give a war-ravaged nation a second chance.But the move revives a perennial question about Trump’s entire...

Donald Trump has said his administration is now exploring the possibility of normalising relations with Syria - his comments coming shortly after he met Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces ended the decades-long dictatorship of the Assad family. The extraordinary encounter, unthinkable just months ago, was short but significant. "I think he has got the potential," Trump remarked after his meeting in Riyadh, 37 minutes long, with the former Syrian fighter formerly linked to Al-Qaeda. The $10m US bounty on his head was only lifted in December. Video footage of their conversation in a lavish Saudi royal palace showed...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had tea with a former jihadist who until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head. Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, once known by his militant nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, met Trump in Riyadh six months after leading a swift campaign that toppled the half-a-century-old Assad regime, ejecting Iran-backed armed groups and declaring himself leader of the country. Al Sharaa was placed on the US Specially Designated Global Terrorist list in 2013 for heading al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, known as Al Nusra Front, and allegedly orchestrating suicide bombings across...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump urged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to sign the Abraham Accords in a previously unplanned meeting on Wednesday, one day after lifting all sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. The two leaders met on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council gathering in Riyadh, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan phoning into the conversation. Syria currently doesn’t recognize Israel’s statehood, and the Abraham Accords were just one of Trump’s requests to Syria in an effort to normalize relations. Trump also told the Syrian leader to make all foreign terrorists leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help...

SUMMARY Donald Trump has met the Syrian interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia this morning The brief meeting came after the US lifted sanctions on Syria - Trump said the move is designed to "give them a chance at greatness" Until December, the US offered a $10m reward for al-Sharaa's arrest, our correspondent Lina Sinjab writes from Damascus Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attended the US-Syria meeting, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined remotely Trump then addressed a Gulf leaders' summit - saying again he wanted a deal with Iran, but they must stop "sponsoring terror" After...

Elon Musk said Saudi Arabia has approved Starlink for aviation and maritime use in the region, speaking at an investment forum during a White House-led trip to the kingdom on Tuesday. Starlink is the satellite internet service owned and operated by Musk's aerospace and defense contractor, SpaceX. Musk also briefly discussed his other business ambitions in the region, promising to bring Tesla robotaxis to Saudi Arabia at an unspecified date. "I think it would be very exciting to have autonomous vehicles here in the kingdom, indeed, if you're amenable," Musk said. Musk also said he showed several of Tesla's Optimus...

The United States and Saudi Arabia reached a $142 billion arms deal, President Donald Trump shared on Tuesday. Trump’s announcement came during his speech at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, amid his state visit to the Middle East. “In addition to purchases of $142 billion of American-made military equipment by our great Saudi partners, the largest ever, this week, there are multibillion dollar commercial deals with Amazon, Oracle, AMD…Uber, Qualcomm, Johnson & Johnson, and many, many more,” the president said. The commander-in-chief touted the quality of American military products moments earlier. “Nobody makes military equipment like us;...

@Brick_Suit YMCA plays as President Trump is joined on stage by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. Amazing finish to an incredible summit meeting!

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has said that his country was moving steadily closer to normalising relations with Israel, following similar moves from other Gulf countries, and amid a big push by the United States for a Saudi-Israeli deal. “Every day, we get closer,” the crown prince told US broadcaster Fox News, according to excerpts seen by Reuters of an interview scheduled to air later on Wednesday. The interview with the crown prince, widely known as MBS, came as US President Joe Biden’s administration presses ahead with an effort to broker historic ties between the two countries...

Reports this week indicated that US President Donald Trump may visit Saudi Arabia in the coming months. This is important because it would be his first trip abroad as president. It will also be a repeat of a trip he took during his first term. During his first term, in May 2017, he travelled to Saudi Arabia for the US-Arab-Islamic Summit. He met with Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during that trip, among other leaders who attended During the May 2017 trip, Trump said, “I stand before you as a representative of the American People, to...

President Barack Obama’s first act as a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2009 — nine months after he took the oath of office — was to try to wriggle out of accepting it. “The morning the prize was announced, his staff investigated whether anyone had failed to travel to Oslo to receive their prize,” writes Nobel insider Geir Lundestad in “The World’s Most Prestigious Prize” (Oxford), out this month. Apparently, the president was among the 61 percent of Americans who believed he didn’t deserve it. “It is true, Obama did not do much before winning,” Lundestad, 74, a member of...

US President Donald Trump hosts an iftar dinner at the White House where he thanks Muslims in America for voting for him in record numbers in the previous election. “I want to extend a very special thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Muslim Americans who supported us in record numbers in the 2024 presidential election. It was incredible. We started a little slow with you, but we came along,” Trump says. “The Muslim community was there for us in November, and while I’m president, I will be there for you.” “We’re keeping our promises to the Muslim community. My...