Free Republic

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on Turkey to respect International Law at the Press Conference following the 5th trilateral meeting in Israel with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday... “We have emphasised the need for respect of international law in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean. Respecting, in particular, the right of Cyprus to exercise its sovereign rights in its EEZ “. Mr Tsipras went on to underline the need for a just and viable solution of the Cypriot problem with the scrapping of the guarantees on the occupied part of the island and...

The US-backed military alliance agreed to facilitate the medical evacuations at the request of Griffiths for "humanitarian reasons" and as a "confidence-building" measure, Maliki added in the statement. There was no immediate reaction from the Houthi rebels or the UN. The proposed UN-brokered peace talks have been backed by both the rebels and the Saudi-led government and were expected to take place in Sweden this week. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, however, has played down the early December schedule and said he hoped talks would start "this year". Houthi rebels have said they will attend the talks if they are guaranteed...

Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon to-be-released peace plan has vanished - after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” policy in breach of the Taylor Force Act. Jordan has now signalled its preparedness to replace the PLO by publically supporting Trump in an article written in the Jordan Times by Walid Sadi – a retired Jordanian diplomat with over 35 years’ experience and himself a former editor of the...

The Trump bandwagon is swinging into top gear--with Jordan in the box seat and the PLO left flailing way behind. Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon to-be-released peace plan has vanished - after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” policy in breach of the Taylor Force Act. Jordan has now signalled its preparedness to replace the PLO by publicly supporting Trump in an article written in the Jordan Times...

The Palestinian Authority President delivered his statement on Sunday as pressures mount on Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement on Sunday in which he voiced "full confidence" in Saudi Arabia and praised its leaders for their support for the Palestinians. The statement, which was published by the PA president's office, quoted Abbas as saying he has "absolute confidence" in Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. "Palestine was - and shall remain - on the side of Saudi Arabia," Abbas said....

Prince William will sit down for talks with the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president during his historic visit to the Middle East. William will also visit Jordan, and the capital Amman where his wife the Duchess of Cambridge lived from May 1984 until September 1986. 'The non-political nature of His Royal Highness's role – in common with all Royal visits overseas –allows a spotlight to be brought to bear on the people of the region: their cultures, their young people, their aspirations, and their experiences.' The palace said his 'goal' is to meet as 'many people from as...

My words: "OOOH! LET'S SWORDFIGHT!" A senior Likud source on Saturday responded to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting took place in France. "Olmert, who offered Abbas the Western Wall, has now turned into his faithful mouthpiece," the source said. "In the US and many Arab countries, they already understand that Abbas is the true obstacle to peace, and that the reason for his extreme demands is not peace but rather the elimination of the State of Israel." MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) also responded to the meeting. "Olmert met with...

The White House has confirmed that there has been a complete disconnect between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration. Former US secretary of state John Kerry met in London with a close associate of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Hussein Agha. Stall, play for time, do not break. Trump will not remain in office for a long, within a year Trump would not be in the White House. Kerry offered to help Sheppard his alternative peace initiative and promised to help garner international support from Europeans, Arab states and the international community. He promised to use all his contacts and...

President Trump hasn’t been pleased with the Palestinians’ refusal to consider compromises to achieve Middle East peace. So he’s decided to withhold tens of millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding from the Palestinian Authority. And what answer does he get? The threat of terrorism. Bloomberg reported the recent threat to the United Nations Security Council from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who also demanded that Trump designate Jerusalem, which the president recognized in December as Israel’s capital, as a capital for “Palestine.” Abbas, who renewed a demand for a conference this year to seek a Mideast accord, has warned...

President Trump's decision to reduce US aid to Palestine has so angered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he has vowed "to send wave after wave of terrorists to bomb, shoot, stab, or run over Americans wherever we can find them—even in the United States. You think things have been bad with the occasional attack on the Jews occupying our land, well they are about to get a whole lot worse. President Obama gave us money with the understanding that we would confine our attacks to the Jews. Trump breaks this deal at his own risk." House Minority Leader Nancy...

In a long, rambling February 20, 2018, speech before the UN Security Council, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas fed fables to his audience — and continued to attack Israel’s legitimacy. The speech marked the third time in two months that Abbas has publicly distorted history, and shifted blame for the lack of a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And once again, Abbas had a key ally: An uncritical press, seemingly determined to present the Palestinian leader in the best possible light. In his opening remarks before the Security Council, Abbas claimed that Palestinians “are the descendants of the Canaanites...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit to Oman last week came as a surprise to the Palestinians, who denounced it as a form of "normalization" with Israel. Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah said on Saturday they did not know if PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who also visited Oman last week, knew in advance about Netanyahu's visit to the country's port capital of Muscat. A senior adviser to Abbas would neither confirm nor deny reports to the effect that Oman and its leader, Sultan Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said, were acting as mediators between Israel and the Palestinians in a bid...

In a highly unusual plea, Mohammed al-Issa, an ally of the kingdom’s reformist crown prince, says mission could help ‘provide fertile ground to find solutions’ The head of the Saudi-based Muslim World League has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem to promote the cause of peace by finding common ground between religions. Dr. Mohammed bin Abdul Karim al-Issa, who is an ally of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told Fox News in an interview Thursday: “We should send a peace convoy that is representative of all three Abrahamic religions. They should be Muslim, Christian and Jewish...

The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France, and Germany have reiterated calls for a UN-backed political process to end the war in Syria that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a summit in Istanbul on October 27 that "the meeting demonstrated there is common determination to solve the problem."A joint solution can be achieved, not through military means, but only through political effort under the UN aegis," she added.Along with Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and French President Emmanuel Macron gathered for the talks in search of an end to...

Muscat: Oman’s Minister for Foreign Affairs has said the Sultanate is not concerned about the incoming US administration under President-elect Donald Trump. It’s the first time the Omani government has commented on reaction to the controversial US elections and the elevation of Donald Trump to the presidency. Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, said: “Why should we be concerned? This is not the first US administration to be deemed unfit. “But it could be fit. The new Washington language, despite its dialect, can be accepted by some and rejected by others, just like rain.” The minister...

Iran has stepped up weapons transfers to the Houthis, the militia fighting the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, U.S., Western and Iranian officials tell Reuters, a development that threatens to prolong and intensify the 19-month-old war. The increased pace of transfers in recent months, which officials said include missiles and small arms, could exacerbate a security headache for the United States, which last week struck Houthi targets with cruise missiles in retaliation for failed missile attacks on a U.S. Navy destroyer.

Oman publicly called on Middle East countries to accept Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday made a historic visit to the Arab Muslim state ...Oman is relying on the United States and efforts by President Donald Trump in working towards the “deal of the century” (Middle East peace), he added. ...Communications Minister Ayoub Kara said the visit was a testament to declarations “about the good relations that are developing between the Israeli government and the Sunni countries that oppose the Iranian terror, which also threatens them.” “In the coming days and until President Trump presents his diplomatic [peace]...

The timing of the exercise is unusual, as it appears to be similar in scale and nature to a drill that ordinarily happens later in the autumn. It comes just days before the U.S. reimposes sanctions on Tehran after its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several dozen boats were out training early Thursday morning. The vessels are mostly small attack boats, and there have been no interactions with U.S. ships in the area, the official added, according to AFP. In a statement, Captain Bill Urban, the military's Central Command spokesman, said...

Crude oil prices could jump as high as US$250 a barrel if Iran goes through with its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to U.S. pressure on oil buyers to cut their Iranian purchases to zero, RT reports, quoting analysts. The most bullish among these analysts was Artem Avinov from online broker TeleTrade, who saw prices skyrocketing to US$250 a barrel if the Strait of Hormuz is blocked, disrupting about 17 million bpd in seaborne oil trade. Avinov, however, added that this course of events is very unlikely, suggesting Iran would instead opt for “a quick economic...

Former Vice President and climate change activist Al Gore called a new heat record set in Oman “ominous” in a tweet Saturday.“Another ominous record has been set,” Gore said. “The city of Quriyat, Oman, hit an overnight LOW of 108.7 degrees Tuesday- likely the highest minimum daily temp recorded on Earth. For those suffering from the heat in the U.S. this weekend, be safe and stay cool!”