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President Joe Biden called Tuesday for Israel to accept a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza for six to eight weeks — before any of the remaining Israeli hostages are set free by Hamas, undermining Israel’s military and diplomatic position. Biden’s remarks were aired by Univision, though they were taped last week. As Breitbart News reported, Biden had demanded an “immediate ceasefire” last Thursday, after the accidental killing of seven aid workers in Gaza. He had also allowed a United Nations Security Council resolution to pass that separated a ceasefire from the release of the hostages. But the White House insisted that...

The United States Government has declared that it will no longer be performing tests of Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapons. In a public statement during a visit to the Vandenberg Space Force Base, Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that this policy has the primary purpose of setting an example to other countries. It represents an important step in the direction of establishing “space norms” for all countries to follow.ASAT weapons go as far back as the early years of the Cold War. According to the Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems, ASAT weapons were designed for strategic and tactical military...

"Unilateral actions" by the United States in Iran and Syria have infuriated Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday, according to Reuters. "Many political scientists are asking why do we care and say that the worst is the best: let the United States prove its inability to find an agreement, (to show) its destructive role in global affairs, let it be in Iran or Syria and where the unilateral actions have already infuriated Turkey,"...

The UN Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the declaration of US president Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The meeting was convened at the request of 8 countries: Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, Egypt, Uruguay, Bolivia and Senegal. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will report to the council about Trump's decision and will state his position. Guterres criticized Wednesday "any unilateral measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace...

WASHINGTON — The former second-ranking officer in the United States military, retired Gen. James E. Cartwright of the Marines, is a target of an investigation into the leak of classified information about American cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program, a person familiar with the investigation confirmed Thursday night. The leak investigation, being carried out by the United States attorney for Maryland, Rod J. Rosenstein, was announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after articles in The New York Times described an ambitious series of cyberattacks under the code name Olympic Games that were intended to slow Iran’s progress toward a...

Israel is still responding angrily to France's proposal yesterday to call an international peace conference with Israel and the Palestinians - and to unilaterally recognize the state of "Palestine," should the conference fail to bring peace. Political officials told Arutz Sheva that they wonder "whether France will propose an international conference with ISIS, after it armed and spread terror in France?" Another official explained that "The French proposal effectively gives the Palestinians an excuse to blow up the talks and still get all they want without negotiating at all." He added: "This is a mistaken approach. Why should the Palestinians...

The attack in San Bernardino on Wednesday was a terrible tragedy. Nobody can say that we should not be doing all in our power to bring about real solutions that prevent this kind of event from ever happening again. Sadly, the debate over those solutions has turned poisonous. The New York Daily News wasted no time attacking those who dared pray for the victims: Far-left online dumpster Mother Jones rushed to their defense after the backlash, declaring such a brilliant headline to be "pitch perfect".Other gun-control supporters piled on: Thoughts and prayers aren't enough—we must act to protect families...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action. "Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know of,"...

Washington - Is President Obama about to take unilateral steps to ease US relations with Cuba? A number of recent developments – from Mr. Obama’s recourse to executive action on immigration to the Spanish foreign minister’s enigmatic statement that he would be carrying “very concrete messages” from the US government when he visits Havana this week – have some Republicans fretting that the White House aims to move even further from decades-old policy of isolating communist Cuba. Obama last took action on Cuba in 2011, when he eased travel restrictions on Americans visiting the island.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that President BarackObama is “always” looking for opportunities to act “unilaterally” again on guns, though he would prefer to work with Congress. “The president’s goal is to look for opportunities to act administratively, unilaterally using his executive authority to try to make our communities safer,” Earnest said, responding to a question the day that a gunman opened fire at an Oregon high school, killing one student and injuring a teacher. “We’re always looking for those opportunities. But none of those opportunities when they present themselves is going to be an acceptable substitute for...

President to Seek to Use State of the Union Address to Shift Souring View of Leadership President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night will seek to shift the public's souring view of his leadership, a challenge the White House sees as critical to shaping the nation's policy direction over the next three years. Mr. Obama will emphasize his intention to use unilateral presidential authority—bypassing Congress when necessary—to an extent not seen in his previous State of the Union speeches, White House officials said.

During the NATO intervention in Libya, to date perhaps the great success of Obama's foreign policy, senior White House officials went so far as to suggest that the logic that led the president to intervene in order to protect the citizens of Benghazi from slaughter might be expanded into a broader principle: the Obama doctrine, they called it. The Obama doctrine had two basic components — imminence and collaboration. America ought to intervene militarily when it could prevent the imminent slaughter of civilians, the doctrine said, but it would not do so unless it could secure the collaboration of a...

As the war drums for Syria get louder, let this thread serve as a repository for news, background, Tweets, photos, video, on-the-ground reports, etc., as was done recently with Egypt.

President Barack Obama is set to announce a new round of strategic nuclear warhead reductions in the near future as part of a disarmament agenda that could reduce U.S. strategic warheads to as few as 1,000 weapons. The next round of U.S.-Russian arms talks would follow Obama's expected announcement that the United States' arsenal of strategic warheads can be reduced unilaterally to around 1,000 warheads. That position is expected as part of the Pentagon's long-delayed Nuclear Posture Review implementation study that Obama was expected to sign earlier this year. Recent press reports have indicated that President Obama may make the...

Foreign Minister Lieberman has not ruled out the possibility of a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from much of Judea and Samaria, Yisrael Hayom reports. Lieberman’s stance - as expressed in closed-door meetings - was compared to that of Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also raised the possibility of a major withdrawal in the region. Lieberman, however, conditioned his approval for a withdrawal on two things: that Israel’s security interests would not be harmed, and that the international community would recognize the move as legitimate. He rejected the idea, raised by Barak, that Israelis living in areas affected...

The Palestinian Authority will seek United Nations recognition for statehood in September even if peace negotiations with Israel are under way, a senior PA diplomat said Thursday. Riyad Mansour, the PA envoy to the United Nations, said the PA was simultaneously pursuing three independent tracks: restarting negotiations, building institutions for an independent state, and gaining recognition for statehood. “If we succeed in opening the door for negotiations, we’re not going to stop from attaining what belongs to us as Palestinians in this General Assembly starting on September 20,” Mansour insisted. American and European efforts to restart Israeli-PA negotiations have been...

(CNSNews.com) - CIA Director Leon Panetta, who President Barack Obama has nominated to be secretary of Defense, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that he believes the president can unilaterally use military force, without congressional authorization to “protect our national interests.”Panetta’s claim of broad unilateral presidential power to initiate U.S. military action absent an attack or imminent threat to the United States came in response to a question from Sen. John McCain—who said he agreed with Panetta.The U.S. is now involved militarily in Libya even though Congress has never authorized that involvement.

"Tapper asked Clinton, “Why not got to Congress?” “Well, we would welcome congressional support,” the Secretary said, “but I don't think that this kind of internationally authorized intervention where we are one of a number of countries participating to enforce a humanitarian mission is the kind of unilateral action that either I or President Obama was speaking of several years ago.”

The U.S. Navy was repositioning its heavy-hitting warships around North Africa tonight as America and Britain dramatically increased pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, which had been on pirate-hunting duty off the coast of Somalia, has now steamed to the mouth of the Suez Canal in the Red Sea. The deadly strike force aboard the nuclear-powered carrier is already within flying distance of Libya but the Enterprise is said to be heading closer to country and its rogue dictator.

The U.S. military is developing plans for a unilateral attack on the Pakistani Taliban in the event of a successful terrorist strike in the United States that can be traced to them, The Washington Post reports. Planning for a retaliatory attack was spurred by ties between alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and elements of the Pakistani Taliban, the Post said in an article posted on its website Friday night, quoting unidentified senior military officials. The military would focus on air and missile strikes but also could use small teams of U.S. Special Operations troops currently along the border with...