Israel interested in establishing diplomatic ties with Syria and Lebanon, foreign minister says
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump sets deadline for Gaza ceasefire as Netanyahu plans WH visit
Donald Trump is demanding that there be a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza 'sometime next week' as he prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The visit next Monday will bring the two men together for the first time since the president ordered an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. It comes as the U.S. leader has ramped up pressure on the Israeli government to broker a ceasefire and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war in Gaza. Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he set a new deadline for a deal. 'We hope [a ceasefire] is going to happen and we're looking for it to happen sometime next week. We want to get our hostages back,' he stated. The president has been a strong backer of Netanyahu, ultimately lining up behind his bombing campaign against Iran – joining to confront a nation Netanyahu has long called a threat to Israel's existence. He also pressed Israel and Iran to agree to a ceasefire after the U.S. dropped 'bunker buster' bombs on Iran's three largest nuclear facilities 'obliterating' their enriched uranium program. But Trump also boiled over at Netanyahu when he concluded Israel's continued bombing campaign in Iran was interfering with his push to bring a quick resolution to the conflict. 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the [expletive] they're doing,' Trump fumed before heading to the NATO summit at The Hague. 'You understand that?' When he finally got the two sides to relent, he dubbed it the '12-day war.' Netanyahu's Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer's trip to Washington this week for talks with senior administration officials on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran and other matters. Dermer previously served as Isreal's ambassador to the U.S. Trump immediately after taking office floated dramatic plans to 'own and develop' Gaza and temporarily relocate many of the estimated 2 million people who live there. The president in public comments has signaled he's turning his attention to bringing a close to the fighting between Israel and Hamas, since the ceasefire to end 12 days of fighting between Israel and Iran took hold a week ago. Trump on Friday told reporters, 'We think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire' in Gaza, but didn't offer any further explanation for his optimism. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump and administration officials were in constant communication with Israeli leadership and bringing about an end to the Gaza conflict is a priority for Trump. 'It's heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the president wants to see it end,' Leavitt added. 'He wants to save lives.' 'This has been a priority for the President since he took office, to end this brutal war in Gaza,' Leavitt told reporters. She also said the 'main priority for the President also remains to bring all of the hostages home out of Gaza.' Trump last week defended Netanyahu in his long-running legal troubles, and called for the cancellation of his trial on corruption charges. 'It is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu,' Trump wrote, in what in the past would have been considered an unusual step into a country's internal politics. He then issued a threat: 'The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar [sic] a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this.' Two officials who were not authorized to comment publicly on the visit confirmed it, although it hasn't been formally announced. Trump will embrace Netanyahu as he pushes back against skeptical questions from Democratic lawmakers and others about how far U.S. and Israeli strikes have set back Iran's nuclear program. A preliminary report issued by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities. Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on CBS' 'Face the Nation' on Sunday that the three Iranian sites with 'capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree.' But, he added, 'some is still standing' and that because capabilities remain, 'if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.' He said assessing the full damage comes down to Iran allowing inspectors access. The Washington Post in Sunday reported on intercepted conversations between senior Iranian officials following the attack who said the results were 'less devastating than they had expected' – in information that contradicts Trump's own claims that the site was 'totally obliterated.' Trump in recent days has also inserted himself into Israeli domestic affairs, calling for charges against Netanyahu in his ongoing corruption trial to be thrown out. Trump's in a social media post last week condemned the trial as a 'WITCH HUNT,' and vowed that the United States will be the one who 'saves' Netanyahu from serious corruption charges. The decision by Trump to plunge himself into one of Israel's most heated debates has unnerved some in its political class. Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Monday approved a new half-billion-dollar arms sale to Israel to resupply its military with bomb guidance kits for precision munitions. The State Department said the sale is worth $510 million. It includes more than 7,000 guidance kits for two different types of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs. The deal is relatively small given that the U.S. provides Israel with more than $3 billion annually in military aid. But Israel has relied on JDAMs and other related US weaponry in its war against Hamas in Gaza and its recent strikes against Iran. 'The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,' the department said in a statement. 'This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Iran-linked hackers threaten to release Trump aides' emails
An Iran-linked group is threatening to dump emails hacked from members of President Donald Trump's inner circle, prompting the FBI to threaten to go after anyone associated with a national security breach. The group, whose contact uses the pseudonym Robert, says it has already obtained a trove of digital data – including from White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who Trump terms the 'Ice Maiden' due to her tough reputation and influence. It claims another target was Stormy Daniels , whose claim of a 2006 affair led to Trump's New York hush money trial last year. The group claims it has obtained 100 gigabytes of emails, and also said it had hacked the accounts of Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan and longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone. Stone continues to be in contact with the president, as his May 30 text message to Trump established when photographers captured it during Trump's trip to Pennsylvania . The group made its claim of holding the information in comments to Reuters , while also raising the idea of selling it. The same group tried to peddle hacked information last year from inside Trump's presidential campaign. While most mainstream media outlets didn't bite – despite Trump speaking openly about hacked materials from Hillary Clinton's camp during the 2016 campaign that got dumped on WikiLeaks – some of the leaked material appeared to be authentic, internal in opposition research file drawn from public information about now Vice President JD Vance. The nation's top law enforcement officers threatened to hit back hard. 'Anyone associated with any kind of breach of national security will be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' said FBI Director Kash Patel. AG Pam Bondi called it 'an unconscionable cyber-attack.' Daniels became a Trump rival as the two clashed during his 2016 election campaign. Trump's criminal trial did feature foul-mouthed text messages between Daniels, lawyer Keith Davidson, and former Trump 'fixer' Michael Cohen. The 2024 hack did not appear to have a major impact on the campaign. Reuters previously authenticated some of the material, including an email purporting to show a financial link between Trump and lawyers for his one-time presidential rival Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy later endorsed Trump and is now Health and Human Services Secretary. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency posted about the hack threats online. 'A hostile foreign adversary is threatening to illegally exploit purportedly stolen and unverified material in an effort to distract, discredit, and divide,' CISA said in an X post. 'This so-called cyber "attack" is nothing more than digital propaganda, and the targets are no coincidence. This is a calculated smear campaign meant to damage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants who serve our country with distinction. These criminals will be found and they will be brought to justice. Let this be a warning to others, there will be no refuge, tolerance, or leniency for these actions.' News of the Iran-linked group's hack comes days after Trump announce a stop in the fighting between Israel and Iran, after Trump ordered a U.S. air assault on three Iranian nuclear facilities.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
It is time for Britain to help fill the Middle Eastern void left by Russia and Iran
Love him or hate him, I applaud President Donald Trump for lifting all sanctions on the new Syrian government. As someone who has spent a good deal of time in Syria I believe this is a positive step towards peace in the region. In my opinion, this move is Trump's best chance at his elusive but apparently much desired Nobel Peace Prize. With Israel also suggesting it would like to normalise relations with the new government in Damascus, there is a genuine hope for this ancient land – devastated though it is by 50 years of Assad tyranny, amply aided in recent times by Russia and Iran. However it is a shame that our own government is not as forward leaning as the US president, when we have so much opportunity to act. It is six months since I made my first trip to Damascus and Homs after the fall of Assad, and we have still not managed to get our embassy in Damascus open and aid and advice flowing in. Certainly, there appears to be some great work going on by the Syria team at the FCDO, but I've yet to see the Prime Minister in Damascus or any meaningful government money heading that way. We have no British Ambassador working to get this wonderful place back on its feet as a major force for good in the Middle East. A bit of soft power today is better than a whole lot of hard power tomorrow – have our politicians not learnt anything from our adventures in the Middle East over the last few decades? We need to find our inner Lawrence of Arabia, make friends and influence people rather than blowing things to smithereens. With some surprise last month, I read a piece in Russia Today saying that I am to be blamed for the downfall of Assad by exposing his use of chemical weapons to murder his own people. I know for certain I had very little to do with his downfall but I'm delighted if I helped in any way. President Putin is still using chemical weapons today, on an industrial scale, against Ukraine. People can see that Iran's nuclear programme is a danger: so are chemical weapons. The British Syrian diaspora cannot be praised enough in my opinion, and the British government must understand this jewel in the British crown. It was mainly the British Syrians who set up the Idlib Health Directorate, which they are now helping to turn into Syria's National Health Service. It is them, and a few other Brits, who helped set up the White Helmets civil emergency services in Idlib, which is now being replicated across Syria. It is the diaspora who are using their own money and resources to help rebuild Homs and other towns and cities across the country. They can help the British government make a difference in Syria. British soft power and a bit of hard currency will go a long way to rebuilding this genuinely secular place into a moderate, democratic-ish country. If those of us who operated in Syria during the oppressive rule of Assad and the tyranny of the Jihadists are prepared to give the new government a go, that should be a green light for those who stood back and held our coats to wade in now. I am told it is too dangerous to open the embassy in Damascus and the British government has no money. Perhaps it is time for an ambassador in Damascus who doesn't need six months of risk assessments or a squadron of SAS to protect him, who can get a building from the British Diaspora to fly the British flag from, and can probably get the funds to run it for 6-12 months. I can find such a person very easily. Prime Minister? Over to you.
