Israel Says No Ceasefire Despite Hamas Releasing US-Israeli Captive Today
Rabat – Israel says it has not agreed to any ceasefire with Hamas ahead of the expected release of US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander.
Hamas announced that the release would take place today as a goodwill gesture to the United States. The move comes after talks with American officials, and as US President Donald Trump is expected to arrive in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. Notably, he does not have plans to visit Israel.
In a statement on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that negotiations for a ceasefire would continue even while fighting goes on. He added that, allegedly, pressure from the Israeli Occupation Forces' constant attacks is the reason Hamas agreed to release Alexander.
Israel has not committed to a ceasefire 'in any way,' the statement said, adding that there would be no release of Palestinian prisoners as part of this move.
Hamas told the AFP news agency that mediators had said Israel would pause attacks briefly to allow the transfer of Alexander through a 'safe corridor.'
Qatar and Egypt, two countries involved in mediation, called the move a positive step toward restarting ceasefire talks.
Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayyah said the group is ready to begin serious negotiations for a long-term truce. This would include ending the war, exchanging captives, and handing over control of Gaza to an independent government of technocrats.
Edan Alexander's family said they are hopeful his release will lead to the return of other captives. Families of those still held in Gaza have been pushing the Israeli government to reach a deal. But. Netanyahu faces strong pressure from hardliners in his cabinet who oppose any end to the war.
Are Trump and Netanyahu at odds?
The fact that Trump is bypassing Israel has raised concerns about a growing rift between the US president and the Israeli prime minister.
Trump's talks with Saudi Arabia will reportedly focus on increasing access to civil nuclear technology, but without plans to push the Gulf country to normalize relations with Israel. This marks a major shift from Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, who consistently elevated this as a precondition on the negotiation table.
This, along with other recent diplomatic changes in the Trump administration's communication with Netanyahu has caused a frenzy both in Israeli circles and in US media who paint the narrative that the US president and Netanyahu are 'not getting along.'
However, in a Thursday interview, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee denounced these reports as 'reckless and irresponsible.' In regards to Trump bypassing Israel for his Middle East visit, Trump administration voices assert that the president is simply prioritizing US interests first, which is in line with his entire campaign message.
'What you're seeing is that President Trump has an idea of what is in our interest, and that comes first,' says former State Department official Dennis Ross, adding that the administration likely views the fact that they have given over $4 billion to Israel as proof enough that they have supported their longtime Middle East ally.
Analysts argue that it is therefore unlikely that Trump's perceived change in tone has anything to do with a geopolitical shift towards supporting Gaza, and more so business motivated.
Gaza onslaught continues
Meanwhile, the genocide in Gaza has reached an all-time crisis point.
Last week, Netanyahu said Israel is preparing for a complete military takeover of Gaza. Officials have said this major move will not begin until after Trump's visit with Gulf allies is over.
Meanwhile, Israel's brutal airstrikes on Gaza have relentlessly continued. IOF killed at least 17 people today in an attack on a school that had been turned into a shelter. The total blockade of Gaza has now lasted 71 days, and the humanitarian situation continues to worsen.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, at least 52,862 Palestinians have been killed and 119,648 injured since the war began. The Government Media Office says the real death toll is likely much higher, more than 61,700, because many people remain buried under the rubble or are unaccounted for. Tags: GazaIsraelPalestine
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Morocco World
21 hours ago
- Morocco World
Western Sahara: Bolton Continues to Lead Anti-Morocco Crusade
Rabat – John Bolton, who Trump fired from his position as national security adviser in 2019, is keeping up his Morocco-bashing campaign in favor of Algerian-backed claims challenging Moroccan sovereignty over its southern provinces in Western Sahara. In a new opinion piece published in the Washington Times, Bolton urged the US to support the outdated referendum claims promoted by the Algerian regime. Bolton's latest plea is bound to fall on unreceptive ears For decades, Algeria's regime has been using the Polisario Front – a separatist group harbored in the Tindouf camps on Algerian soil – to advance its interests against Morocco by supporting referendum and self-determination claims. Ignoring Algeria's involvement in interference in the domestic affairs of other countries in the Sahel region, Bolton blamed Morocco's strong ties with the West as the reason that 'worked to the Sahrawis' detriment.' But he claimed that the situation is changing, suggesting that Algeria is seeking new alliances and the first-ever US-Algeria military cooperation agreement that the North African country signed at the start of the second Trump administration. This 'signals a new direction,' he claimed. To the dismay of Polisario supporters, however, recent developments suggest that their continued agitation for separatism in southern Morocco are bound to fall on unreceptive ears. In the past few weeks, many comments and moves by various US officials have given renewed vigor to Washington's support for Morocco's sovereignty over its southern provinces. Indeed, with the first Trump administration being the instigator of Washington's unambiguous embrace of Morocco's territorial integrity in December 2020, the incumbent Trump administration has in recent statements signaled its unwavering commitment to upholding Western Sahara and that came months after Trump assumed his office as the US President of the United States for the second time in the country's history. In April, the US sent a direct setback to Algeria's regime, stressing that its decision of December 2020 remains unchanged and recognizing Morocco's full sovereignty over its southern provinces. The State Department issued a similar statement following a meeting between Marco Rubio and his Moroccan counterpart . In it, the seat of American diplomacy made sure to remind Algeria and its advocates that Washington supports Morocco's Autonomy Plan as the only feasible political solution to end the Western Sahara dispute. All of this comes as the Moroccan autonomy initiative continues to gather steam and build unprecedented momentum. Over 113 countries, including once staunch supporters of the Polisario, have over the past decade joined the growing list of nations that see the autonomy plan as the only viable path to a lasting and realistic political solution to the Sahara dispute. Reality does not matter Yet this blindingly obvious reality does not appear to discourage Bolton from continuing his support for the lost, sidelined cause of Sahrawi separatism in southern Morocco. His latest anti-Moroccan tirade dismissed Morocco's growing momentum and turned a deaf ear on Polisario's alarming use of terrorist threats to give renewed urgency and relevance to its waning cause. Many observers have decried Polisario's recent terrorist attacks in southern Morocco, yet Bolton dismissed these condemnations as a 'new line of propaganda' against Sahrawi emancipation. 'The Polisario's opponents are trying a new line of propaganda, alleging without evidence that the Polisario has come under Iran's influence. This misinformation may well be intended to divert U.S. attention from Morocco's decades-long stonewalling against a referendum,' he claimed. Bolton's dismissive claims come in defiance of many reports, including some that have quoted high-level US and regional officials as confirming that there has been collusion between Polisario (in support of the Algerian regime's agenda in the Maghreb) and Hezbollah, the notorious Iranian proxy. In April, the Washington Post quoted sources as confirming that Hezbollah had been trainingPolisario operatives on Syrian soil, with the blessing of Iran and the fallen al-Assad regime in Syria. 'Over the years, Iran has fostered a wide array of proxy groups to advance its interests,' the report said, quoting a regional official and a third European official who said Iran trained fighters from the 'Algeria-based Polisario Front' that are now detained by Syria's new security forces. Such reports have resurfaced on many occasions in recent weeks and months, alerting the international community about Algeria's interference in the domestic affairs of several countries. 'Over the years, Iran has fostered a wide array of proxy groups to advance its interests,' the Post report went on to stress, quoting a regional official and a third European official as indicating that Iran had trained fighters from the 'Algeria-based Polisario Front' that are now detained by Syria's new security forces. Read also: US Senator James Inhofe, Western Sahara, and 'Alternative Facts' Meanwhile, Algeria's interference in its neighbors' internal affairs is now known to have not been limited to Morocco. Mali and its Sahel allies, Niger and Burkina Faso, have recently slammed Algeria's hegemonic ambitions in the Sahel. They accused the Algerian army of shooting down a surveillance drone near the border with Mali, lamenting that this was not an isolated incident as Algeria had long interfered in Malian internal affairs. Yet none of this was enough to convince Bolton of the veracity of Morocco's warnings against the security threats that Polisario and its Algerian sponsors represent not only for Morocco, but for the entire Sahelo-Saharan corridor. Like most hardened ideologues, Bolton prefers his tainted vision to the reality under his nose. Despite mounting evidence of Polisario's cancerous impact on regional security and stability, he remains convinced that the terror-linked militia is a peace-loving group seeking decolonization. The mountain of reports about Polisario's atrocities; the well-documented links between Polisario and terrorist groups in the Sahel; the tortured voices of oppressed locals denouncing Polisario and calling for a political solution to end their families' decades-spanning tragedy, the pile of UN reports acknowledging the impossibility of a referendum-based solution — none of this seems to matter to Bolton. And what's more, arguing that Western Sahara 'should return to its 1991 origins,' Bolton is implicitly suggesting that his truth is what matters to him, not the tragic reality on the ground. Tags: Algeria and John Boltonjohn Bolton and algeria
Ya Biladi
2 days ago
- Ya Biladi
United States : John Bolton continues his pro-Polisario and pro-Algeria lobbying
مدة القراءة: 2' John Bolton is back on the international stage, this time advocating for the Polisario Front. As calls mount to classify the Polisario as a terrorist organization in the United States, the former National Security Advisor under the Trump administration argues in an op-ed that «U.S. should support a referendum allowing Sahrawis to determine their own future». In a surprising twist, Bolton justifies his call for the U.S. to back the Polisario by warning about «Chinese and Russian influence mounting across Africa, suggesting that continued American support for Morocco could open the door to their increased presence in the region. Bolton leans heavily on historical arguments, referencing Security Council Resolution 690, which established MINURSO in 1991 with U.S. support. His position closely mirrors those of Algeria and the Polisario, who have long demanded a self-determination referendum for Western Sahara and the implementation of the African settlement plan. However, Bolton omits a crucial historical fact: the UN abandoned the referendum option in the early 2000s. Under the leadership of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the UN dissolved the commission responsible for identifying eligible participants for the proposed vote. It's a significant omission, particularly for Bolton, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the UN from 2005 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. «The Polisario is Not Under Iran's Influence» Bolton also pushes back against accusations that the Polisario is aligned with Iran. After criticizing what he describes as Morocco's «obstacles» to holding a referendum, Bolton defends the Polisario's reputation: «The Polisario's opponents are trying a new line of propaganda, alleging without evidence that the Polisario has come under Iran's influence. This misinformation may well be intended to divert U.S. attention from Morocco's decadeslong stonewalling against a referendum». Bolton adds: «Sahrawi opponents have gone as far as claiming that Polisario fighters were among foreign militias Iran trained in Syria under the now-fallen Assad regime». He cites reports by The Washington Post and other publications, which state that both the Syrian government and the Polisario have categorically denied these allegations. «But Morocco's friends in the West continue to spread them», Bolton claims. «Perhaps influenced by this anti-Sahrawi propaganda, legislation has been introduced in the House to designate Polisario as a terrorist group», referring to legislation introduced by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson. Context and Contradictions Bolton further argues that the Sahrawis «never succumbed to the radicalism that swept the Middle East after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Claims that Sahrawis are susceptible to Tehran-based Shiite propaganda are belied by the long-standing presence in the camps of U.S. religious, nongovernmental organizations providing educational and medical services». However, it's worth noting that in October 2019, the U.S. government offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or capture of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, a former Polisario member who became a leading terrorist figure in the Sahel under the banner of ISIS. More recently, Robert Greenway, director of the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation—a prominent Republican think tank—reminded President Trump that the Polisario killed five American citizens in 1988. For the record, John Bolton has been a vocal critic of Trump's decision on December 10, 2020, to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Ya Biladi
2 days ago
- Ya Biladi
United States : John Bolton continues his pro-Polisario and pro-Algeria lobbying
Estimated read time: 2' John Bolton is back on the international stage, this time advocating for the Polisario Front. As calls mount to classify the Polisario as a terrorist organization in the United States, the former National Security Advisor under the Trump administration argues in an op-ed that «U.S. should support a referendum allowing Sahrawis to determine their own future». In a surprising twist, Bolton justifies his call for the U.S. to back the Polisario by warning about «Chinese and Russian influence mounting across Africa, suggesting that continued American support for Morocco could open the door to their increased presence in the region. Bolton leans heavily on historical arguments, referencing Security Council Resolution 690, which established MINURSO in 1991 with U.S. support. His position closely mirrors those of Algeria and the Polisario, who have long demanded a self-determination referendum for Western Sahara and the implementation of the African settlement plan. However, Bolton omits a crucial historical fact: the UN abandoned the referendum option in the early 2000s. Under the leadership of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the UN dissolved the commission responsible for identifying eligible participants for the proposed vote. It's a significant omission, particularly for Bolton, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the UN from 2005 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. «The Polisario is Not Under Iran's Influence» Bolton also pushes back against accusations that the Polisario is aligned with Iran. After criticizing what he describes as Morocco's «obstacles» to holding a referendum, Bolton defends the Polisario's reputation: «The Polisario's opponents are trying a new line of propaganda, alleging without evidence that the Polisario has come under Iran's influence. This misinformation may well be intended to divert U.S. attention from Morocco's decadeslong stonewalling against a referendum». Bolton adds: «Sahrawi opponents have gone as far as claiming that Polisario fighters were among foreign militias Iran trained in Syria under the now-fallen Assad regime». He cites reports by The Washington Post and other publications, which state that both the Syrian government and the Polisario have categorically denied these allegations. «But Morocco's friends in the West continue to spread them», Bolton claims. «Perhaps influenced by this anti-Sahrawi propaganda, legislation has been introduced in the House to designate Polisario as a terrorist group», referring to legislation introduced by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson. Context and Contradictions Bolton further argues that the Sahrawis «never succumbed to the radicalism that swept the Middle East after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Claims that Sahrawis are susceptible to Tehran-based Shiite propaganda are belied by the long-standing presence in the camps of U.S. religious, nongovernmental organizations providing educational and medical services». However, it's worth noting that in October 2019, the U.S. government offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or capture of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, a former Polisario member who became a leading terrorist figure in the Sahel under the banner of ISIS. More recently, Robert Greenway, director of the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation—a prominent Republican think tank—reminded President Trump that the Polisario killed five American citizens in 1988.
