How Middle East peace plans were hatched in the Norwegian woods
Norwegians Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen looked at this extremely complicated conflict and said 'we can fix this'.
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News.com.au
28 minutes ago
- News.com.au
US politics live: Donald Trump's ‘disgust' at Australia for deciding to recognise a Palestinian state revealed
Welcome back to our live coverage of US politics. President Donald Trump is preparing for his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which will happen in the early hours of Saturday morning, Australian time. 'I have solved six wars in the last six months, and I'm very proud of it,' Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office today. He didn't give an exhaustive list, but one of the conflicts he was counting was, presumably, the long-running one between Armenia and Azerbaijan. 'I thought the easiest one would be this one. It's actually the most difficult.' Mr Trump is reportedly keen to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But finding a pathway to peace for Ukraine and Russia, one both sides can accept, will indeed be very hard. Elsewhere, the United States' ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has expressed the Trump administration's 'disgust' at the Australian government's decision to recognise a Palestinian state. Speaking to the ABC's 7.30 program, he characterised the move as a 'gift' to Hamas, the terrorist group whose surprise attack on southern Israel in 2023, during which its militants committed atrocities against civilians and kidnapped hundreds, started the war in Gaza. Mr Huckabee claimed Australia's newly announced stance on Palestinian statehood would endanger any hostages who remain alive. 'There is an enormous level of disappointment, and some disgust,' he told host Sarah Ferguson, explaining the view inside Donald Trump's administration. 'I don't know that the {resident used that word. I would say that is a characterisation of a sentiment.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are meeting, but peace may be more than a conversation away
When Vladimir Putin arrives in Anchorage today for peace talks with Donald Trump to try to end the war in Ukraine, he's likely to walk in believing he has the upper hand. Russian forces have advanced at least 10 kilometres on a front in Ukraine's east this week — a breakthrough, of sorts, after months of incremental territorial gains. Moscow's drones and missiles have been pounding its neighbour's cities, killing scores of people and chipping away at the morale of those who remain. Despite all that aggression, Putin — considered a pariah by much of the international community since his full-scale invasion in 2022 — has been rewarded. An in-person meeting with the leader of the free world awaits on Friday, local time. Trump, for his part, has said he's searching for a pathway to peace. That idea could be unrealistic. A chasm remains between the Kremlin and Kyiv's ceasefire wish lists. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week outlined several demands he said Trump had "agreed" to raise with Putin. Among them was that Russia cannot veto his country's ambitions to join the European Union and NATO. Putin, however, has consistently framed that prospect as a dealbreaker. Zelenskyy also said Ukraine had to be involved in any ceasefire discussions. As the country that was invaded, that might seem obvious. But it hasn't been invited to Friday's meeting. "So whatever might come out of that summit between the US and the Russian presidents, those will not be terms that can be simply imposed on Ukraine," said Jaroslava Barbieri, a research fellow at London think tank Chatham House. She added Trump would need to be wary of Putin's spin. "One of the key objectives of the Kremlin … is putting forward proposals that are unacceptable for Ukraine in order to present Ukraine as an uncooperative and ungrateful actor to Trump's peace brokering efforts," she said. Since the Alaska summit was announced last week, Trump has made several references to the possibility of "land-swapping" between Russia and Ukraine. Judging by the rhetoric coming from both Moscow and Kyiv, the idea either side would be prepared to do that in exchange for peace appears far-fetched. The Kremlin's stance on ending its invasion has not budged since Putin set out conditions last year. He wants Ukraine to abandon its NATO aspirations, reduce its military, become a neutral state, and cede territory occupied by Russian forces during the war. Two territories in Ukraine's east — Donetsk and Luhansk — are particularly prized by Putin, and analysts say it will likely be a key demand discussed in Alaska. Russia has partially occupied both since 2014, and last month claimed it had captured all of Luhansk, more than three years after its full-scale invasion was launched. Zelenskyy has said his troops will not leave either. Ukraine's leader has also said he would not cede his country's territory, arguing tens of thousands of soldiers had died defending it and Russia could use it to launch future attacks. Such a move would not only be unpopular among Ukrainians. It's illegal under the country's constitution to redraw borders set in 1991. Putin, too, has constitutional headaches. Back in 2022, seven months after his full-scale invasion began, he signed amendments to Russia's constitution that four Ukrainian territories — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — had been integrated into his country. After years of fighting and massive casualties, his troops control only one of those completely. Zelenskyy says he's already warned Trump: "Putin is bluffing" when it comes to peace. "He is trying to put pressure before the meeting in Alaska along all parts of the Ukrainian front. Russia is trying to show that it can occupy all of Ukraine," he said. Zelenskyy isn't the only key player not going to Alaska. European allies, who like the US have tipped billions of dollars in financial and military aid into Ukraine, have also been barred from taking part. This week they, and Ukraine's leader, had a video call with Trump. It was a last-ditch attempt to shape his approach. "We as Europeans are doing everything we can to help set the agenda for that meeting," German Chancellor Frederich Merz said on Wednesday, after the hook-up. Among the European Union's main concerns is that after Ukraine, an emboldened Putin will launch further invasions on the continent. At most risk, they say, are the Baltic states, and Poland. Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat to the United Nations, who resigned in 2022 because he was "ashamed" of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said he did "not have very high expectations" for Friday's meeting. "What Vladimir Putin wants goes strictly against the national interest of the United States and the Western countries," he said. "To accept Putin's demands and his conditions would mean surrender, not only of Ukraine, but of the West itself — surrender to open aggression, to rewriting of national borders, and it would be a green light for the continuation of such policy by Russia or any other would-be aggressor." So when is peace possible? Anna Mateeva, a visiting fellow at Kings College London who specialises in Russian politics and security, said Friday's summit should be viewed as the first step in a long process. "The most important thing which can be achieved is the two-leaders assessment of each other, and to what extent they are serious about what they are saying they can do," Dr Mateeva said. Many analysts argue the in-person meeting between Trump and Putin has the potential to be something constructive en route to a ceasefire. But actually getting there appears a distant goal. On the battlefield, fighting remains ferocious, and off it, the gulf between Kyiv and Moscow's lists of demands has not been closed. It could take more than a conversation to change that reality.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich vows to resume E1 development in occupied West Bank
On a hilltop overlooking the West Bank, controversial far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made a stunning declaration to raucous applause. "We will continue to build a fulfilling Jewish reality," he said. "This reality definitively buries the idea of a Palestinian state, simply because there is nothing to recognise, and no-one to recognise." In the hills behind him to the east of Jerusalem, was Ma'ale Adumim, one of Israel's largest settlements in the occupied West Bank. Mr Smotrich had just revived, and approved, a highly controversial plan to extend the settlement through to East Jerusalem, which many Palestinians and their allies fear would rip the West Bank into two. Known as the E1 plan, many consider it a death knell for the two-state solution. The E1 plan has been met with fierce opposition for many years, by Palestinians and much of the globe. The latest iteration of the plan would see 3,400 houses for Israeli settlers built in an area extending from East Jerusalem to Ma'ale Adumim, which stretches east toward the Dead Sea. "It's smack in the centre of the West Bank, and it breaks it up into a northern part and a southern part," said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim. "It's not possible to undo 100,000 Israeli settlers in that area. It would mean there's no Palestinian contiguity and there's no way to create a viable Palestinian state." Israel's settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, but the Israeli government considers many of the established towns and villages to now be part of the state of Israel. About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with settlement building sharply intensifying. Israel froze construction plans to build E1 in 2012, and again after a renewed push for the plan in 2020. It did so because of objections from the US and European allies, who considered it a significant threat to any future peace deal and two-state solution. But the international landscape has changed. Mr Smotrich, who has been sanctioned by Australia and the UK over accusations of inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, said the US was in his corner. "Everything I do in the Judea and Samaria [the biblical names for the area] is being done in full coordination with Netanyahu and with his blessing. "It's done in full coordination with our friends in the White House, with President Trump, with his team, with Ambassador Huckabee." Mr Tatarsky said that for more than 20 years Israel held back from these plans in part because of pressure by the international community. "The fact that now the Israeli government is going through with this plan just shows in what situation we are in, both in the goals of the current Israeli government and the lack of a serious, international intervention." The Palestinian Authority's presidential spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the PA condemned the plan. "These are illegal decisions and proposals and we hope that the world community will never allow Israel to force its laws on the Palestinian land," he said. An Israeli group that tracks settlement activity in the West Bank, Peace Now, said while steps were still required before construction, if cleared, infrastructure work could begin within a few months. "The E1 plan is deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution. We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed," the group said. In response to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, Australia has chosen to recognise Palestinian statehood next month, to add to growing momentum calling for peace. While making the announcement, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said there would be "no Palestine left to recognise if the world does not act". "States like Australia should understand the urgency and the need to finally let Palestinians be free of occupation and have a state of their own," Mr Tatarsky said. "These Israeli actions … will only stop if countries like Australia take effective measures to stop Israel." In a statement on Thursday afternoon local time, British Foreign Minister David Lammy said Israel's settlement plans breached international law and "must be stopped now". The European Union and the United Nations also condemned the decision, while a US State Department spokesperson said Washington remained focused on ending the war in Gaza. Palestinian activist Hisham Saleh told Reuters that today's approval was a continuation of the behaviour of settlers happening on a daily basis. "We say, condemnation and statements are not valid anymore, there is an existential threat on Palestine." ABC/wires
