Breaking: Gaza ceasefire talks held up by Israel withdrawal plans: Palestinian sources
'The negotiations in Doha are facing a setback and complex difficulties due to Israel's insistence, as of Friday, on presenting a map of withdrawal, which is actually a map of redeployment and repositioning of the Israeli army rather than a genuine withdrawal,' one source said.
A second accused Israel of 'stalling and obstructing the agreement in order to continue the war of extermination.'
Developing
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
21 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Israeli strikes kill at least 22, Gaza's civil defense says
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes on Monday killed at least 22 people, while Israel and Palestinian militants reported facing each other in the territory's north. The latest violence came with apparent deadlock after a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire after more than 21 months of war. For the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict, visit our dedicated page. Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that 10 Palestinians were killed in three separate air strikes in various part of Gaza City, in the territory's north, with 12 more people killed in attacks on the southern area of Khan Younis. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. A military statement on Monday said that Israeli troops had destroyed 'buildings and terrorist infrastructure' used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza City's Shujaiya and Zeitun areas. The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza, released footage on Monday that it said showed its fighters firing missiles at an Israeli army command and control center near Shujaiya. Media restrictions in the Gaza Strip and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties. The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.
Al Arabiya
36 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
EU still seeks trade deal after new Trump tariff threat
The EU still hopes to strike a deal with the United States despite President Donald Trump's ramped-up threat of 30-percent tariffs, the bloc's trade chief said Monday, with pressure on Brussels to toughen its stance. The US leader threw months of painstaking talks into disarray on Saturday by announcing he would hammer the bloc with the sweeping tariffs if no agreement is reached by August 1. Heading into Brussels talks with EU trade ministers, the bloc's trade chief Maros Sefcovic said despite Trump's latest threat he 'felt' Washington was ready to continue negotiating -- and he planned to speak with his US counterparts later in the day. Sefcovic, who is leading talks on behalf of the EU's 27 states, said reaching a deal remained the priority -- while acknowledging calls from countries including key power France for the bloc to flex its muscles in negotiations. 'The current uncertainty caused by unjustified tariffs cannot persist indefinitely,' Sefcovic told reporters, adding the EU was preparing for 'all outcomes,' including 'well-considered, proportionate countermeasures.' European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday delayed a package of retaliatory measures over US tariffs on steel and aluminum -- a day before they were set to kick in -- as a sign of goodwill. But diplomats said an additional package of reprisal measures will be presented to trade ministers Monday that could be rolled out if Trump imposes the 30-percent tariffs. The EU threatened in May to target a much bigger swathe of US goods including cars and planes if talks fail. Diplomats said the finalized list was expected to be worth 72 billion euros. 'Prepare for war' France's trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said retaliation plans should be drawn up with 'no taboos' adding the weekend's setback called for a rethink of the bloc's tactics. 'If you hold anything back, you are not strengthening your hand in negotiations,' he said at the Brussels talks. 'Obviously, the situation since Saturday requires us to change our strategy.' Denmark's foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said Brussels needed to show its strength. 'We don't want any kind of trade war with the US... we don't want to escalate things,' he said. 'We want a deal but there's an old saying: 'if you want peace, you have to prepare for war',' he said ahead of the talks. EU nations -- some of which export far more to the United States than others -- have sought to stay on the same page over how strong a line to take with Washington in order to get a deal. French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urged von der Leyen's commission to 'resolutely defend European interests' and said the EU should step up preparation for countermeasures. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz agreed and said he had spoken to Macron, Trump and von der Leyen in the past few days and would 'engage intensively' to try to find a solution. Deals and duties Brussels had readied duties on US goods worth around 21 billion euros in response to the levies Trump slapped on metal imports earlier this year. But it held off on those measures to give space to find a broader trade agreement -- and has now suspended them again until early August. Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has unleashed sweeping stop-start tariffs on allies and competitors alike, roiling financial markets and raising fears of a global economic downturn. But his administration faces pressure to secure deals with trading partners after promising a flurry of agreements. So far, US officials have only unveiled two pacts, with Britain and Vietnam, alongside temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties with China. The EU, alongside dozens of other economies, had been set to see its US tariff level increase from a baseline of 10 percent last Wednesday, but Trump pushed back the deadline to August 1. The EU tariff is markedly steeper than the 20 percent levy Trump unveiled in April -- but paused initially until mid-July. Thomas Byrne, the minister for Ireland whose pharmaceutical industry puts it on the front line of Trump's trade war along with industrial powerhouse Germany, called for Europe to 'work our hardest' for a deal before August 1. 'That gives us certainty, it protects investments, it protects jobs,' he said.
Asharq Al-Awsat
an hour ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions
Iran will react to any reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, without elaborating on what actions Tehran might take. A French diplomatic source told Reuters last week that European powers would have to restore UN sanctions on Iran under the so-called "snapback mechanism" if there were no nuclear deal that guaranteed European security interests. The "snapback mechanism" is a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran under a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures in return for restrictions on Iran's nuclear program. "The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference, without giving further details. The 2015 deal with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia and China - known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - states that if the parties cannot resolve accusations of "significant non-performance" by Iran, the "snapback mechanism" process can be triggered by the 15-member UN Security Council. "The European parties, who are constantly trying to use this possibility as a tool, have themselves committed gross and fundamental violations of their obligations under the JCPOA," Baghaei said. "They have failed to fulfill the duties they had undertaken under the JCPOA, so they have no legal or moral standing to resort to this mechanism." Western countries accuse Iran of plotting to build a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies. The United States pulled out of the deal in 2018 under the first administration of President Donald Trump, who called the agreement "weak". Trump, whose second presidency began in January, has urged Tehran to return to nuclear negotiations on a new deal after a ceasefire was reached last month that ended a 12-day air war between Iran and Israel that destabilized the Middle East. When asked if Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would meet with Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, Baghaei said no date or location had been set for resuming the US-Iran nuclear talks.
