Ukrainian MP 'doubts' Russia will accept peace deal
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SBS Australia
4 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Armenia and Azerbaijan sign peace deal
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . TRANSCRIPT Australia joins other countries in condemning Israel's planned Gaza City takeover. Azerbaijan and Armenia sign US-brokered peace deal. And in sport, A-League club Western United says they will fight the decision to have their licence withdrawn. Australia has signed a joint statement with several Western nations rejecting Israel's decision to expand its military operations in Gaza and re-iterating calls for a two-state solution. Foreign Minister Penny Wong signed alongside her counterparts from Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, saying Israel's plan violates international law. The statement also says Israel's proposal would aggravate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, endanger hostages' lives, and further risk mass displacement of civilians. Germany's government has also announced it has suspended the delivery of weapons that could be used in the fighting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected international concern over his plan to take complete control of the Gaza Strip. He accused Germany of rewarding Hamas in a statement responding to its decision to stop selling arms to Israel for use in Gaza. The statement also reiterated Mr Netanyahu's earlier assertion on Fox News that Israel does not intend to occupy Gaza. "Well, we don't want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us." Arab nations including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, among others, have condemned Israel's plan. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says it will cost the lives of the hostages that are still alive. "To assume that now we are going to reach out for what remained of Hamas and rescue the hostages is a fantasy. It will not happen. And it is totally unacceptable and unforgivable." Azerbaijan and Armenia have signed a US-brokered peace deal that would boost bilateral economic ties after decades of conflict during a meeting with President Donald Trump. If the deal between the South Caucasus rivals holds it would be a significant accomplishment for the Trump administration - and likely to rattle Moscow, which sees the region as being within its sphere of influence. President Trump announced the deal flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. "It's a long time - 35 years - they fought and now they're friends, and they're going to be friends for a long time. I want to congratulate these two visionary people." Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians but located within modern Azerbaijan, broke away from the country with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. The peace agreement includes exclusive U-S development rights to a strategic transit corridor that the White House says will facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources. United States President Donald Trump says he expects some form of land swap to be a feature of any ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine. It comes as Mr Trump has announced he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday to try and broker an end to the war. The Wall Street Journal reports Mr Putin told U-S officials he would agree to a complete ceasefire if Ukraine agreed to withdraw its forces from eastern Donetsk. Mr Trump says the swapping of territories would be to the betterment of both countries. "Well, you're looking at territory that's been fought over for three and a half years with, you know, a lot of Russians have died, a lot Ukrainians have died. So we're looking that, but we're actually looking to get some back and some swapping. It's complicated. It's actually nothing easy. It's very complicated. But we're gonna get some backed. We're gonna some switched. There'll be some swopping of territories to the betterment of both." To sport now, and in football… Western United have vowed to fight the stripping of their A-Leagues licence as the embattled club teeters on the brink of folding. Football Australia withdrew the licence on Friday, saying the owners had failed to satisfy key financial criteria. In response, United issued a statement saying the decision was disappointing and will be appealed immediately. It says plans to raise capital by selling the club are being progressed. United have been in financial turmoil for months, with players and staff paid late in April, May and June while superannuation payments were also delayed. They have also been unable to register players due to a FIFA ban related to an ongoing dispute with former striker Aleksandar Prijovic.
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- News.com.au
Putin-Trump summit: what we know so far
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold talks in Alaska next Friday in a bid to end the war in Ukraine, which was triggered by Russia's February 2022 invasion. Trump has spent his first months in office trying to broker peace -- after boasting he could end the war in 24 hours -- but multiple rounds of peace talks, phone calls and diplomatic visits have failed to yield a breakthrough. Here is what we know about the summit so far: - When and where - On his Truth Social site on Friday, Trump announced that his meeting with Putin would be held in the far-north US state of Alaska on August 15, which was later confirmed by the Kremlin. The announcement came after days of both sides indicating the two leaders would hold a summit next week. The Kremlin confirmed the summit in Alaska on Friday, calling it "quite logical." "They would like to meet with me, I'll do whatever I can to stop the killing," Trump said on Thursday, speaking of both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At the White House Friday, Trump said "there'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both" Ukraine and Russia, without providing further details. - Why Alaska? - The meeting will be held in Alaska, which Russia sold to the United States in 1867. The western tip of the state is not far -- just across the Bering Strait -- from the easternmost part of Russia. "Alaska and the Arctic are also where our countries' economic interests intersect, and there are prospects for large-scale, mutually beneficial projects," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in a statement on Telegram. "But, of course, the presidents themselves will undoubtedly focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis," he added. Ushakov also expressed hope that next time the two presidents would meet on Russian territory. "A corresponding invitation has already been sent to the US president," he added. The International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Putin -- which obligates members to detain the Russian leader if he visits their country -- had been thought to narrow the potential number of venues. Putin had previously mentioned the United Arab Emirates as a possible host for the talks, while media speculated Turkey, China or India could be possible venues. - Will Zelensky be involved? - Zelensky has been pushing to make it a three-way summit and has frequently said meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff proposed a trilateral meeting when he held talks with Putin earlier this week, but the Russian leader has appeared to rule out meeting his Ukrainian counterpart. At talks in Istanbul in June, Russian negotiators said a Putin-Zelensky meeting could only take place at the "final phase" of negotiations, once the two sides had agreed on terms for peace. Asked if Putin had to meet Zelensky as a prerequisite for their summit, Trump said on Friday: "No, he doesn't." - When did they last meet? - Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump's first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January. Putin previously held a summit with Trump in Helsinki in 2018. Trump raised eyebrows at the time by appearing to side with Putin over the US intelligence community's finding that Russia had interfered in the US election to support the New York tycoon. The last time Putin met a US president in the United States was during talks with Barack Obama at a UN General Assembly in 2015. - Negotiating positions - Despite the flurry of diplomacy and multiple rounds of peace talks, Russia and Ukraine appear no closer to agreeing on an end to the fighting. Putin has rejected calls by the United States, Ukraine and Europe for an immediate ceasefire. At talks in June, Russia demanded Ukraine pull its forces out of four regions Moscow claims to have annexed, demanded Ukraine commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO. Kyiv wants an immediate ceasefire and has said it will never recognize Russian control over its sovereign territory -- though it acknowledged securing the return of land captured by Russia would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield. Kyiv is also seeking security guarantees from Western backers, including the deployment of foreign troops as peacekeepers to enforce any ceasefire.
ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
Trump says there will be 'swapping' of territories between Ukraine and Russia
US President Donald Trump says there will be some swapping of territories between Ukraine and Russia as he tries to broker a peace deal.
