Latest news with #AntonyBlinken
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Readers Debate Blinken on a Palestinian State
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken would like there to be a Palestinian state that lives in peace with Israel. So would I. But on the showing of the past century, this is a little like wishing that tigers would become house pets. Mr. Blinken is right in his op-ed 'Recognizing a Palestinian State Is a Rebuke to Hamas' (Aug. 12) that the current efforts by pious Western leaders to punish Israel by calling for a Palestinian state are premature and harmful. But the first step has to be a competent non-Palestinian Arab authority that will take over Gaza from Hamas and show that it can coexist with the Jewish state, as Egypt and Jordan have managed in recent decades.
Yahoo
12-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Blinken: Palestinian state recognition 'a rebuke to Hamas,' but hostages, ending war take priority
Recognition of a Palestinian state is necessary, not only if Israel wishes to resume normalization with Saudi Arabia. But, Blinken pointed out, recognition must be based on predetermined conditions. Former US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said that the recognition of a Palestinian state is a rebuke to Hamas rather than a reward, but must come secondary to the matters of returning the hostages, preventing famine in Gaza, and ending the war, he wrote in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. 'Israel long ago achieved two of its three stated objectives in Gaza,' Blinken wrote in WSJ, referring to Israel's goals of destroying Hamas' military capabilities and killing those responsible for the October 7 massacre. Israel's goal to return the remaining hostages, he said, will not be accomplished by following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to occupy Gaza, with Netanyahu's plan simply lengthening the conflict and amplifying anguish on both sides. Blinken noted that key Arab states are willing to help Palestinians govern and rebuild Gaza while preventing Hamas from reemerging into power, but will 'only [do so] if there's a credible political path toward Palestinian self-determination.' Conditions of recognizing a Palestinian state Recognition of a Palestinian state is necessary, and not only if Israel wishes to resume normalization with Saudi Arabia. But, Blinken pointed out, recognition must be based on predetermined conditions. 'No one,' Blinken said, 'should expect Israel to accept a Palestinian state that is led by Hamas or other terrorists, that is militarized or has independent armed militias, that aligns with Iran or others that reject Israel's right to exist, that educates and preaches hatred of Jews or Israel.' He suggested a timeline of three years and deemed the United Nations Security Council as the most suitable candidate to judge whether or not Palestinians uphold the aforementioned conditions. 'America's veto would reassure Israelis,' he noted. Meanwhile, he pushed, Israel must address the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and implement a withdrawal plan. Israel must also stop allowing settlements to expand in the West Bank, demolishing Palestinian homes there and in east Jerusalem, and hold extremist violence on all sides accountable. Israel would also need to 'support the reform of the Palestinian Authority instead of trying to undermine it.' Until then, he stated, Israel cannot maintain the idea that Palestinians will tolerate being a 'non-people without national rights.' As well, Palestinians must understand that ideas of a state 'from the river to the sea' are unfeasible. 'No one is going anywhere, whatever the delusions of extremists on both sides.'
Fox News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Blinken shreds Trump's Iran strikes, though he hopes they ‘inflicted maximum damage'
Former Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned President Donald Trump's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on Tuesday, though he held out some hope they'd have their intended effect. "The strike on three of Iran's nuclear facilities by the United States was unwise and unnecessary. Now that it's done, I very much hope it succeeded," he wrote in a New York Times guest essay. U.S. military B-2 stealth bomber aircraft dropped 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on three nuclear facilities on Saturday in an attack Trump called "a spectacular military success." The president announced on Truth Social on Monday that both Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire following the U.S. strikes, although a frustrated Trump lashed out at both countries on Tuesday morning for continued hostilities. The administration has since pushed back against media reports that the attacks did not obliterate Iran's nuclear capabilities but instead were only a temporary setback. Blinken not only trashed Trump's strikes on Iran but criticized the president's entire strategy in dealing with the country, which started with him tearing up former President Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and culminated in Saturday's strikes. "In 2018, President Trump tore up the agreement and replaced it with … nothing. In response, Iran accelerated its enrichment, quite likely reducing its breakout time to a matter of days or weeks. Mr. Trump, in essence, is now trying to put out a fire on which he poured gasoline," Blinken said. Blinken also argued Trump jumped the gun when there was still time for diplomacy with the Iranian regime. "As of now — and there are conflicting messages coming from within the Trump administration — our intelligence agencies believe Iran has not yet made a decision to weaponize. If and when it does, it would take Tehran 18 to 24 months to produce an explosive device, according to some estimates," he said. "In other words, there was still time for diplomacy to work, and the situation wasn't nearly the emergency that Mr. Trump portrayed it to be." He added, "Experts I've spoken to had real doubts about the ability of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or M.O.P. — the 30,000-pound bombs unique to America's arsenal that were dropped on Iran's nuclear sites — to fully incapacitate the Fordo site and other deeply buried or fortified components of Iran's nuclear program." Trump ripped media critics on Tuesday that he accused of casting doubt on the effectiveness of his strikes. Singling out CNN, he said, "But when I see CNN, all night long, they're trying to say, 'Well, maybe it wasn't really as demolished as we thought.' It was demolished. You take a look at the pinpricks, and you see that place is gone. And I will say, I think CNN ought to apologize to the pilots of the B-2s." Blinken did admit he hoped Trump's attack was successful. "I wish that he had played out the diplomatic hand we left him," Blinken wrote. "Now that the military die has been cast, I can only hope that we inflicted maximum damage — damage that gives the president the leverage he needs to finally deliver the deal he has so far failed to achieve." The White House did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
CNBC
24-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Israel-Iran ceasefire: Live updates
FILE PHOTO: An Israeli gas platform, controlled by a U.S.-Israeli energy group, is seen in the Mediterranean sea, some 15 miles (24 km) west of Israel's port city of Ashdod, in this file picture taken February 25, 2013. Amir Cohen | Reuters Oil prices have fallen sharply now that Trump says China can keep buying oil from Iran, a sign that the U.S. is easing its maximum pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic in the wake of a ceasefire with Israel. Global benchmark Brent fell $4.14, or 5.79%, to $67.34 per barrel by 11:55 a.m. ET. U.S. crude oil was last down $3.97, or 5.79%, to $65.54 a barrel. Prices closed 7% lower on Monday as the oil market bet that the conflict in the Middle East was winding down. "China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran," Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. "Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also. It was my Great Honor to make this happen!" — Spencer Kimball US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks after meeting with the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, on Jan. 8, 2025. Ludovic Marin | Via Reuters Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken is calling the U.S.'s weekend missile strike on Iran nuclear sites "unwise and unnecessary" in a new New York Times op-ed. "Now that it's done, I very much hope it succeeded," Blinken, who served under former President Joe Biden, wrote. "I can only hope that we inflicted maximum damage — damage that gives the president the leverage he needs to finally deliver the deal he has so far failed to achieve," he wrote. – Laya Neelakandan A former Defense Department official says the next phase in the Iran-Israel conflict will be at the negotiating table. Michèle Flournoy, WestExec Advisors co-founder and managing partner and former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Obama administration, said the focus now should be on putting pressure on both sides. The key is to assess how much damage was actually done to Iran's nuclear programs and determine whether Iran will come to the negotiating table "more seriously than it did before," she told CNBC's Squawk Box. "I understand that we all want to sigh a big sigh of relief today with the ceasefire, but this is far from over as yet," she added. – Laya Neelakandan U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks at a press conference following the U.S. Senate Republicans' weekly policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 10, 2025. Kent Nishimura | Reuters Two classified briefings for Congress on Iran that were scheduled for this afternoon have been postponed until Thursday, NBC News' Frank Thorp reports. The decision to postpone the briefings comes as a fragile ceasefire appears to be taking hold, and both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are in the Netherlands with Trump to attend the NATO summit. Thorp notes this will be the first classified briefing since the U.S. strikes last weekend to which all members of Congress are invited, not just a small group of intelligence committee leaders and party leadership. — Christina Wilkie President Donald Trump speaks to press before his departure at the White House to route The Hague, Netherlands on June 24, 2025, in Washington D.C. to attend NATO Summit in Netherlands. Celal Gunes | Anadolu | Getty Images Trump is claiming in a new Truth Social post that Israel and Iran both desired a ceasefire after more than a week of exchanging rocket fire. "Both Israel and Iran wanted to stop the War, equally! It was my great honor to Destroy All Nuclear facilities & capability, and then, STOP THE WAR!" While U.S. bombing did significant damage to three nuclear facilities, it did not eliminate Iran's enriched uranium. U.S. intelligence officials have admitted in recent days they do not know where much of that material is being stored. — Christina Wilkie
Fox News
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Israel's US ambassador says beeper operation will 'seem simple' compared to what is planned for Iran
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said there will be some surprises amid the Jewish State's conflict with Iran that will make Israel's explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies used by members of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria last year look "simple." "We've pulled off a number of surprises," Leiter said during a Tuesday appearance on the TV network Merit Street. "When the dust settles, you're going to see some surprises on Thursday night and Friday that will make the beeper operation almost seem simple," he continued. Leiter was referring to near-simultaneous detonations of pagers used by members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group that killed at least 12 people, including two children, and wounded nearly 3,000 on Sept. 17 in Lebanon and Syria. The following day, at least 25 people were killed and more than 600 were wounded when walkie-talkies were detonated in the region. Israel was subsequently found to be behind the attacks, in which small amounts of explosives hidden in the devices were detonated. A U.S. official told The Associated Press at the time that Israel briefed the U.S. government after the attacks. But then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. "did not know about, nor was it involved in, these incidents." Leiter on Tuesday also posted a video message on X that was recorded outside the Situation Room in the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he explained that Israel was "not in the business of regime change." "Today we continue to peel back the surface-to-surface missile systems that are spread throughout Iran. We've reached the point where between a third and a half have been demolished," he said. "We hit today the broadcast center in the middle of Tehran after we informed the people living in the vicinity to leave. Hundreds of thousands of Tehranis have escaped Tehran to be out of the line of danger. And we took out the broadcast system. This is very important because this serves the mullahs and their information campaign, the propaganda campaign throughout." "Iran, to incite the public and to warn the public against any kind of demonstrations against the government," the ambassador continued. "A lot of questions have been asked today about regime change. In many of the interviews that I gave, that was the key question. We're not in the business of regime change. We're interested in neutralizing the threat to our existence through a nuclear weaponization program in Iran and a ballistic missile program." Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency have said Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon. "If the Iranian people rise up and change their regime, that's their choice," Leiter said. "And if we play a role in facilitating that eventuality, then history will judge us favorably, I believe. It's important also to emphasize that our economy remains strong and resilient despite the war, and the stock market in Israel once again, for the second day in a row, continued to rise." "We are working very hard to assist those stranded both in Israel wanting to leave and those wanting to get back to Israel, to their families, to their positions in society and the army," he added. "And we're hoping to find solutions through our neighbors in the next couple of days. We continue to press on. We continue to press forward. And we thank you for your support and prayers."
