OkpaNsukkaisBae: A Palestine🇵🇸 statehood will bring peace to the Middle East region but the Israeli and her Western allies will always veto such proposal@ the United Nations Security Council.
I appreciate your divergence from the topic. Regarding the assertion of Palestinian statehood, blah blah blah.
On what grounds do you hold such certainty regarding the bolded statement? We can see how Hamas contributes to the peace of the Middle Eastern region through their acts of terrorism. Correct?
The Israeli military said Friday its troops in Gaza found the bodies of three Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack, including German-Israeli Shani Louk.
The military identified the other two bodies as those of a 28-year-old woman, Amit Buskila, and a 56-year-old man, Itzhak Gelerenter.
All three were killed by Hamas at the Nova music festival, an outdoor dance party near the Gaza border, military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a news conference.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths “heartbreaking,” saying, “We will return all of our hostages, both the living and the dead.”
The military said the bodies were found overnight, without elaborating, and did not give immediate details on where they were located. Israel has been operating in the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah, where it says it has intelligence that hostages are being held.
Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the Oct. 7 attack. Around half of those hostages have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more. Israel's war in Gaza since the attack has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he’s made little progress. He faces pressure to resign, and the US has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Danmisra: Permit me to ask where is the world police (US) the so called peace makers. Also where is UN security council, for more than a year, they ignored the issue, Where are these so called world monitors and peace Keepers when thousands of people are dying daily in Sudan and Congo. The hypocrites are nowhere to be found, May God help us and protects us from war and chaos.
You mean Africa leaders can not handle their issues without crying to the West?
Why should the US care about what's happening in Sudan? You despise them, yet you seek their help. Lol Handle your business yourself and quit waiting for the US to feed you, else you folks will come up with another story about the US interfering in your affairs!
Mpanyi: Let them be sure of what they are accusing the man of. In as much as I am not speaking for the man, men are endangered now where their female children are. Even I, I am always careful how I deal with my female children. It's a perverted world with pervert minds everywhere including your so-called wife
Have you taken the trouble to peruse his Instagram profile? There are no accusations being levelled against him. We are discussing an individual who has exhibited reprehensible behaviour by sharing compromising photographs of his child online. This includes images where he is socialising with acquaintances, indulging in smoking within a hotel room in the presence of the young girl, and dressing her scantily solely for celebratory photographs.
She is but a child. And yet, there persists an attempt to propagate the nonsensical notion that men are the ones at risk. It begs the question: why would anyone capture images of their daughter clad in thongs, with portruding belly, in a state of UnCloth? Such material ought to be confined to those who are of a mature age, not a minor.
Somehow or the other (and I dont know why) this post of yours comes across as sort of school-prefect-ish, talking down at the OP, or voltron-ish, defending the U.K.
There are reasons why the bill was controversial even in the U.K; and you should not pretend not to know them. Primarily, there is a scent of snobbery in the entire idea of off-loading would be illegal immigrants onto a small third world country, no matter how nicely packaged the idea is.
mysticwarrior: It's stupid for Rwanda to allowed their country to be used as deportation ground for illegal immigrants.
No one is using them as a deportation ground. It's a treaty. The treaty is an upgrade from the previous memorandum of understanding and aims to address the issues raised by the Supreme Court, which had previously ruled the plans as unlawful.
What the Rwandan government is trying to demonstrate that it is a safe country to send people to, and the treaty includes provisions for the UK to resettle a portion of Rwanda's most vulnerable refugees. Thee treaty specifies that Rwanda will only send people back to the UK if there are issues, with no exhaustive list of reasons provided.
Does this agreement sound forced to you? It's a mutual decision.
God1000: Why Rwanda? Rwandan government shouldn't have accepted such thing from UK
I sincerely don't know how this will benefit Rwanda
What is the nature of your inquiry, or is the content of the preceding post unclear to you? Surely you are the original poster?🤷♂️
In the event that the matter is not apparent to you, the post discusses the United Kingdom's strategy to repatriate certain migrants to Rwanda, which forms part of a broader initiative to curb unlawful immigration Following an extensive period of legislative debate, the UK Parliament has ratified a bill sanctioning these expulsions.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been a staunch advocate for this bill, asserting its necessity to halt the influx of migrants traversing the English Channel in diminutive vessels. The stance of Rwanda on this matter is secondary; the primary concern of the UK government is that this policy will serve to regulate immigration.
What the post says is the policy is designed not solely for the regulation of immigration but also to safeguard individuals by deterring them from embarking on hazardous voyages orchestrated by criminal syndicates.
The Rwandan government on the other hand has stated that it is important for the partnership to adhere to international law standards and has taken objection to being labeled as unsafe. The British government's funding is expected to ensure that asylum seekers sent to Kigali are well taken care of.
It's like an opportunity for Rwanda to strengthen bilateral relations with the UK, receive financial aid, and enhance its international standing by participating in a solution to a global challenge. Rwanda is simply asking for it. Lol
Why get so emotional and personal? Does your loyalty lie more with the US than Nigeria?
AGOA is just like curing cerebral malaria with paracetamol. How can we export to the US or anywhere when we are an import dependent nation? How can we export when we are not able to first meet local demand? We are still falling for the same economic trap the colonialists set up for us. We produce natural resources and goods for them cheaply, and then import food and essentials from them expensively. Awo, Zik and Balewa fell for this same trap. They were exporting groundnut, cocoa and coal for the Europeans while importing rice, chocolate and groundnut oil from them. Where is the industrial capacity, power, infrastructure and capital to start exporting to the US under AGOA? This same AGOA will impose stringent packaging and quality conditions that are very very difficult to meet. Now tell me exactly how many people do you know that is benefiting from AGOA? Are you one of them? Sudan ke? Which of the Sudans, south or the main Sudan? Sudan is your classical example of countries benefiting from the west? I hope you are being satirical.
So you mean African nations would be dumb investments if the US commit resources there like they did Europe and Israel? You also mean we were of no use or importance during the Cold War? If Africa was so useless, why are they now crying that Africa is considering looking east for their salvation?
This is the reason I like Trump to an extent, he doesn't bullshit that he likes Africa and want to help, while in reality hate Africa and Africans. He said his mind when he openly said he would prefer immigrants from Scandinavia than shithole countries (Africa).
Which continent benefited the US more in the past, Africa,Middle East or Europe? The wealth and prosperity enjoyed by the US, and Europe today was built on the resources and manpower of Africa.
In what manner are you personally reaping benefits from Russia, or what advantages do you foresee for yourself? Does this extend to any of your relatives? Ha!
The AGOA initiative was conceived to encourage growth driven by exports, potentially leading to an upsurge in production capabilities. For example, since the inception of AGOA, Kenya's apparel-focused AGOA sales have escalated from $55 million in 2001 to $603 million in 2022. This alone demonstrates that AGOA is indeed capable of augmenting export capacity without adversely affecting the local supply.
You've mentioned the difficulty of adhering to the rigorous standards set by the U.S. Nevertheless, AGOA encompasses initiatives aimed at capacity building, assisting African nations in fulfilling these criteria. This enactment has facilitated the establishment of industrial zones, such as those in Ethiopia, which have generated approximately 90,000 direct employments and substantially increased exports to the U.S.
Should you be unaware, nations like Ghana and Mauritius have experienced considerable growth in non-oil products entering the U.S. market under AGOA. These instances illustrate that AGOA offers concrete advantages for the economies of Africa. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/11/africa-us-trade-agoa-deal-expires-2025/
So, reading your concluding paragraph makes me want to ask you what are you laughing about? Cos Niger is exactly doing what she feels best serve her interest.
Mind you, in strategic alliance, Russia is more reliable for Niger. USA can only be trusted when it has to do with EU NATO, Israel and herself. But for one facking desert country, US does not care much. She is just using Niger as a base to fight against terrorist Iswap and Boko Haram, no other economic benefits. But the pact with Russia will guarantee both security and economic development and benefit. So, if you are Niger, wouldn't you rather go with Russia?
Last, change that terrible mindset that anything America is definitely good. No, it's not always so, US is one country that has perpetrated the most evil on earth amongst the committee of nations in the world.
Yes countries engage in alliances that serve their strategic objectives, but does it have to be a parasitic relationship? Sucking the life blood out of these poor African countries while giving little or nothing in return. That has been the nature of the relationship between African countries and Europe/US from the very beginning.
Why didn't the US employ the same doctrine of "strategic objectives" when dealing with European countries and Israel? The US spent billions in rebuilding Europe after the devastating war started by European themselves. They created military alliance and spent trillions defending Europe from themselves. They do the same with Israel, spending billions of dollars protecting Israel and helping their economy. But when it comes to Africans countries they remember the doctrine of strategic objectives.
Are you ignorant or just against the US? International relations are changing. There's work being done, not perfect mind you, to create fairer partnerships.
Ever come across the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)? It's this initiative to open up the US market to eligible countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These efforts are meant to boost economic growth and development that's beneficial for both sides. Are you aware of the amount of aid the US and other organisations send to Africa? You lot are still benefiting from free vaccines and such. Look at Africa now, take Sudan as an example, they're reaping from the West, billions being sent.
As for the US's actions after World War II, the Marshall Plan for Europe and the backing of Israel were smart investments. They were motivated by a mix of humanitarian aid, economic self-interest, and strategic geopolitical factors during the Cold War. The US's dealings with Europe and Israel were shaped by the political climate of the era, including the aim to block the spread of communism and to form strong alliances in crucial areas.
How can you compare it to Africa nations which on the other hand, have been shaped by a completely different set of historical, political factors etc. It's a totally different situation.
Davehasmadeit: The US is not a country to have as allies. They will indirectly enslave you without u realizing it.
Ooh. Russia is not going to 'enslave' you? 😂 In international relations, every country prioritizes its own interests first. This is true for the US, Russia, and all nations.
Similarly, if you consider Russia as an ally, they too would prioritize their national interests. It's a common practice in geopolitics for countries to engage in alliances that serve their strategic objectives.
The move blocked a resolution to support a status that Palestinians had long sought at the United Nations, where it is considered a “nonmember observer state.”
The United Nations Security Council met in New York on Thursday to address issues in the Middle East, including the Palestinian bid for statehood. The United States blocked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday from moving forward on a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state at the United Nations, quashing an effort by Palestinian allies to get the world body to back the effort.
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, had described the bid for full-member status as an effort “to take our rightful place among the community of nations.” But Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, on Thursday denounced the resolution that went before the Security Council as a “prize for terror.” He added: “The U.N. is no longer about multilateralism, sadly. It is now committed to multiterrorism.”
The vote was 12 in favor of the resolution and one — the United States — opposed, with two abstentions.
The Security Council has consistently called for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a result that has failed to materialize during negotiations between the two sides. In Washington, a spokesman for the State Department, Vedant Patel, said the statehood resolution was dead on arrival.
“It remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners,” Mr. Patel told reporters at a news briefing on Thursday.
The United States, along with the four other permanent members of the Council, can veto any action before it. On Thursday afternoon, during a high-profile Council meeting to address issues in the Middle East, including the Palestinian bid for statehood, the United States, a staunch ally of Israel’s, wielded that veto.
The resolution had asked the 15-member Security Council to recommend to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations,” diplomats say. To pass, the application needed to be approved by the Security Council with at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China. Then, at least two-thirds of the General Assembly would have had to approved it.
Israel was admitted as a full U.N. member in 1949. The Palestinian Authority has been seeking a state made up of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip for decades; those territories have all been captured or annexed by Israel. The Arab League founded the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964 with a charter stressing self-determination for Palestinians and the rejection of the creation of the State of Israel.
Little progress has been made on achieving statehood since Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, which established a peace process aimed at a two-state solution. In 2007, the militant group Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority, which President Mahmoud Abbas leads and which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, from power in the Gaza Strip.
Complicating the Palestinian application for statehood is the war that began when Hamas led terrorist attacks on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and prompted Israel’s retaliatory attacks in Gaza, killing more than 33,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and displacing more than one million people. The conflict has spilled into the occupied West Bank and neighboring countries like Lebanon and has drawn Iran into the fray.
The statehood push also comes as Israel expands settlements in the West Bank.
The Palestinians asserted statehood in 1988 with a declaration of independence. In November that year, the General Assembly voted to upgrade their status from “observer” to “nonmember observer state.”
The push for Palestinian statehood has picked up momentum around the world, with politicians in countries like Britain, France, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Sweden signaling their support to formally recognize a Palestinian state as a way to try to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict. As of April 2022, 138 countries and the Holy Seehave recognized the State of Palestine.
There are two ways to become a full member state at the United Nations. One can apply to the Security Council and the membership committee will consider it. A Council member can also introduce a resolution on membership for a vote.
The Palestinian Authority applied for statehood to the United Nations in September 2011, but it dropped the bid less than two months later because of a lack of support and pressure from the United States, which said it would veto any application.
After Mr. Abbas revived the statehood bid this year, the Biden administration sought to convince him to shelve it, according to Axios and The Times of Israel. But Mr. Abbas rebuffed those efforts, the reports said.
“All we ask for is to take our rightful place among the community of nations — to be treated as equals, equals to other nations and states, to live in freedom and dignity, in peace and security in our ancestral land,” said Mr. Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations.
“Recognition of the State of Palestine and its membership are not enough by themselves to end this illegal occupation,” he added. “But they are the first step towards this urgent and long-overdue goal.”
The Council’s committee on the admission of new members met twice last week to discuss the Palestinians’ application, but it could not reach a unanimous decision. Under Council guidelines that allow a member to introduce a resolution for a vote, Algeria, the Council’s only Arab member, put forward the Palestinian application.
Algeria’s foreign minister, Ahmed Ataf, said on Thursday that statehood “is a historic right which has not been implemented, and the lack of implementation of this right is the cause of the prolongation of this Arab-Israeli conflict.”
During the Council meeting on Thursday, a representative of the Palestinian Authority, Ziad Abu Amr, asked, “How could granting the State of Palestine full membership at the United Nations, similar to other countries around the world, how could this damage the prospect of peace between Palestinians and Israelis?”
He added, “This resolution will grant hope to the Palestinian people, hope for a decent life in an independent Palestinian state.”
Image Two men, wearing suits and with translation devices in their right ears, sit at a table before a placard reading “State of Palestine.” Ziad Abu-Amr, left, a representative of the Palestinian Authority, and Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, at the Security Council meeting on Thursday.Credit...Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mr. Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday before the vote, “The only thing that forced, unilateral recognition of a Palestinian State will do is to make any future negotiations almost impossible.”
He accused the United Nations of being guided by politics, calling the resolution a “destructive approach” that was making a solution “unattainable.”
The vote was originally supposed to take place on Friday, but Algeria and the Arab Group of nations wanted it on Thursday during a scheduled session on the Middle East conflict attended by many foreign ministers from regional countries, including Iran and Turkey.
Yemen's Houthi group called on the United Nations on Wednesday to resume food aid distribution in the war-torn country to mitigate "dangerous stages" of famine.
Ibrahim al-Hamli, an aid official in the Houthi group, discussed with UN Resident Coordinator in Sanaa Julian Harneis the "humanitarian suffering" in Yemen, the Houthi-run Saba news agency reported.
In December 2023, the UN World Food Program (WFP) suspended its food aid program in areas controlled by the Houthi group in northern Yemen due to limited funding and disagreements with the Houthis.
"The suspension of food aid has exacerbated humanitarian suffering, leading to an increase in food insecurity and cases of malnutrition among the displaced people, especially children," al-Hamli said.
He underlined the need to resume food aid distribution in Yemen "to prevent the country from sliding into dangerous stages of famine."
Yemen has fallen into civil war since 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to set up an interim capital in the coastal city of Aden.
UN estimates that in 2024, over 20 million people - over half the population - will need humanitarian assistance and protection services in Yemen.
According to UN figures, 17.6 million people will be severely food insecure and an estimated 2.7 million women and five million children under five will need treatment for acute malnutrition.
4 people, including a preacher, were stabbed in a church in western Sydney on Monday evening local time.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, the preacher at Wakeley church, was delivering his sermon when the assailant approached him and began stabbing at him with a knife. The sermon was being livestreamed at the time of the attack.
The four victims were treated by paramedics and said to have non-life threatening injuries. All of the victims were men and said to be of varying ages.
Local police said an operation was underway, and the apparent assailant had been arrested and taken for questioning. New South Wales Police urged people to stay out of the area of the church located in Fairfield, a suburb of Sydney. According to Sky News Australia, a riot erupted outside following the attack.
The mayor called for calm and also asked that people not go down to the church. The bishop is said to be a popular religious leader in the community, with a large social media following.
This is the second stabbing incident to occur in Sydney in the space of a week, after 6 people were stabbed to death at a mall on Saturday.
Video said to show commandos rappelling from helicopter onto Portugal-flagged MSC Aries in Gulf of Oman, off Emirati port Fujairah; vessel associated with Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group
A video first reported by The Associated Press showed commandos raiding a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter Saturday, an attack a Mideast defense official attributed to Iran amid wider tensions between Tehran and the West.
The vessel involved is likely the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group.
Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC, which did not immediately respond.
The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.
The video — not released by the news agency — showed the attack earlier reported by the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. It described the vessel as being “seized by regional authorities” in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, without elaborating.
The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, shared the video with the AP
In it, the commandos rappelled down onto a stack of containers sitting on the deck of the vessel.
A crew member on the ship could be heard saying: “Don’t come out.” The crew mate then tells his colleagues to go to the ship’s bridge as more commandos come down on the deck. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide them with potential cover fire.
Though the AP could not immediately verify the video, it corresponded to known details of the boarding and the helicopter involved appeared to be one used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has carried out other ship raids in the past.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West, with Israel bracing for an attack from Tehran after an April 1 strike on a building in the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital of Damascus, which killed several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, including two generals.
Iran did not immediately acknowledge seizing any vessel, nor was there any report carried by state media about the incident. However, Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures and had attacks on vessels attributed to it amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes. Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates’ eastern coast, is a main port in the region for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.
Since 2019, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings. The US Navy blamed Iran for limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers.
Australian police on Saturday said they had reports that "multiple people" were stabbed at a busy shopping centre in Sydney. The incidents occurred at the sprawling Westfield Bondi Junction mall complex, which was packed with Saturday afternoon shoppers.
The mall has been locked down and police have urged people to avoid the area.
New South Wales Ambulance told AFP one man had been shot dead by police. He is believed to be one of the attackers.
The motive was not immediately clear.
Eyewitnesses said there was panic at the scene, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area.
Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour.
The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air.
Security camera footage broadcast by local media showed a man running around the shopping centre with a large knife and injured people lying on the floor.
Foreign Affairs / Re: List Of Persons On Board Iranian President’s Missing Helicopter by Botragelad: 7:48pm On May 19