Aaron David Miller, who used to work for the US State Department and focuses on the Middle East, believes that Israel is facing various limitations. One of these is their current uncertainty about how ambitious their goals should be.
For the last three weeks, Israel has been discussing putting an end to Hamas altogether.
This means that Hamas just needs to stay alive to consider it a victory in the recent fighting of this conflict that has been going on for many years.
Hamas just needs to stay alive during this situation. Hamas just needs to show that it still works in Gaza after the fighting is done.
“And that’s the problem that Israel has made for itself. ”
You can hear Miller’s thoughts in the video below.
Tag: US State Department
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Hamas only needs to endure in order to triumph – US analyst
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US worried about ‘worsening violence’ in Mali
In light of attacks on UN forces, the United States has expressed alarm about the possibility of Mali’s conflict escalating.
The attacks were “unacceptable,” according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who also denounced “such violence and the greater threat posed by armed actors operating” there.
The UN peacekeeping operation in Mali, Minusma, announced on Monday that deteriorating security had compelled them to leave the northern town of Ber earlier than usual.
It claimed that two attacks on its retreating forces resulted in some of the soldiers being hurt.
According to the US State Department, the attacks show how dangerous escalating violence is and how crucial it is for all Malian parties to resolve their issues amicably.
It continues, “We call on the transition administration to cooperate completely until the final Minusma element departs. It is essential that Minusma be permitted to undertake its departure in a secure and orderly way.
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UN worried about health of overthrown president of Niger
The elected president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, who has been under house arrest for more than two weeks, is concern to the US and the UN.
“We are deeply concerned about his health, his personal safety, and the personal safety of his family.” A representative for the US State Department said,
The leaders of the coup in Niger had been given till Sunday to abdicate by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Officials from Ecowas will meet later to deliberate the next steps.
Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the UN, expressed his concern about the family’s allegedly “deplorable living conditions” among other things.
On July 26th, Mr. Bazoum was dismissed.
Earlier, according to Mr. Bazoum’s party, he and his family were being held in “cruel” and “inhumane” conditions, according to Reuters.
Since that time, Niger has been governed by a military junta, with Mr. Bazoum being held at the presidential mansion. Regarding the condition of the ousted leader, junta members have remained silent.
Washington reported that on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Mr. Bazoum to reassure him of the US’s continued support.
According to Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, “as time passes and he is held in isolation, it’s a situation that is of growing concern to us.”
In a statement, Mr. Bazoum’s political party, PNDS-Tarayya, asserted that he and his family lacked access to running water, power, fresh food, and medical care.
The declaration confirmed earlier remarks made by the elected prime minister of Niger, Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou, who claimed that Mr. Bazoum was being held without electricity or water together with his wife and son.
Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the commander of the presidential guard, claims to be in charge of Niger at the moment, while Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, the former finance minister, was named the country’s new prime minister by the military coup.
Niger’s airspace has also been shut down by the new military government till further notice, citing Ecowas’ “threat of military intervention.”
France refuted claims made by the military junta of Niger on Wednesday that it was attempting to undermine the nation.
The leaders of the coup alleged that French planes had violated national airspace and that French soldiers had released jihadist prisoners so they could assault military targets.
The French military and foreign ministries issued a joint statement, which was cited by AFP news agency, in which they categorically denied the latest false allegations made by the putschists in Niger.
The military of Niger had approved the flight, they noted.
The US and France both maintain military installations in Niger as part of efforts to dismantle Islamist organisations active throughout the region.
After being ordered to leave Mali due to a coup, Niger became the major base for French forces.
Two representatives of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu met with the junta in the nation’s capital, Niamey, as part of diplomatic attempts.
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US citizen detained in Moscow on drug-related allegations
The US State Department has confirmed that American Travis Leake was detained in Russia and that US embassy representatives were present for his arraignment on Saturday.
A US citizen had been seized on drug-related accusations, according to a statement the Moscow courts of general jurisdiction previously posted on the social media app Telegram.
On Saturday, Leake was taken into custody after “the Khamovniki District Court of Moscow took a preventive measure against an American citizen,” according to the statement.
In a court document, he was described as “Travis Michael Leek.”
“The former paratrooper and musician is accused of engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people,” the statement said.
It added he had appeared at the Khamovniki District Court of Moscow on June 10 and will remain in custody until August 6, 2023.
On Sunday, the US State Department confirmed Leake’s detention.
“We can confirm that Michael Travis Leake was arrested and is detained in Moscow. Embassy officials attended his arraignment on June 10,” a spokesperson told CNN.
“We will continue to monitor the case closely.”
“The US Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no greater priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas,” they said.
“When a US citizen is detained overseas, the Department pursues consular access as soon as possible and works to provide all appropriate consular assistance.”
Leake’s mother Glenda Garcia says she has yet to hear from US government officials regarding the current status of her son and is worried about what he’s going through.
“Of course, I am worried. Of course, I am concerned, ” she told CNN on Sunday. “He’s in prison in a foreign country, that is a concern.”
Garcia said she doesn’t know if her son has an attorney and she doesn’t know what to do herself.
“I have not heard from the State Department. If I don’t hear from them tomorrow, I will try to call them,” she said. “I don’t really know anything other than what I heard on the news.”
Garcia last spoke with her son on Mother’s Day, she said, noting they typically talk every few weeks.
Regarding her son’s time in Russia, Garcia said, “I know he was in a band, I know he taught English.”
Video of Leake’s arrest from his home and a mug shot from a Russian police station were published by Russian media outlets on June 8.
Ren TV, a tabloid outlet, reported Leake’s statements to police in which he reportedly said: “I don’t understand why I’m here. I don’t admit guilt, I don’t believe I could have done what I’m accused of because I don’t know what I’m accused of.”
The arrest comes amid Russia’s war with Ukraine, which has seen already poor relations between the US and Russia plummet.
In March, Russian security services arrested US journalist Evan Gershkovich, accusing him of spying, which he denies.
CNN filmed with Leake in 2014 for an episode of Parts Unknown in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Host Anthony Bourdain had personally hand-picked Leake to participate in the show.
In the episode, Leake talked about his frustrations with censorship and relayed an incident involving his band and MTV. “This was a documentary series about musicians standing up and risking their lives in some cases, to stand up against government abuse of power, government corruption,” he said. “And yet, a foreign government was able to editorially control what Americans viewers see on their TV screens. That to me is a scandal of epic proportion.”
Darya Tarasova, who had produced the episode, said the “band wasn’t that famous but Travis and his friends had been very vocal about the freedom of speech and state oppression in Russia. Bourdain really liked that interview,” she said.
“Travis was a showman; very articulate and he loved Russia,” Tarasova added. “Bands from the Moscow rock scene would go to him to write songs in English for them and proofread their lyrics,” she said.
“The last time we spoke was in 2018 and he seemed depressed and upset, but Travis would never do the things he is being accused of. He is an American in Russia and is very aware of the situation he’s in. But I’m surprised he stayed after the war started, as it was very risky for him.”
Social media accounts and videos confirmed by a CNN reporter show Leake as a frontman in Lovi Noch, which translates to “Catch the Night.”
He was also a music producer for other Russian music groups during his time in Moscow.
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Iran criticized for executing three men over recent unrest
International watchdogs have denounced Iran after it murdered three more individuals in response to recent unrest that shook the nation.
Per the judiciary news source Mizan News, Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi were put to death in Isfahan on Friday. Three security personnel were killed in an incident that the three were accused of carrying out in Isfahan in November 2022 while there were anti-government demonstrations.
The US State Department requested Iran to postpone the executions on Thursday, labelling the procedures “sham trials.”
And Amnesty International said the men were “fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system” without due process being observed.
“These executions are meant to prolong the Islamic Republic’s rule and only a high political cost can stop more protester executions,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights, wrote on Twitter.
“Unless the Iranian authorities are met with serious consequences by the international community, hundreds of protester lives will be taken by their killing machine,” he said.
Iran executed at least 582 people last year, a 75% increase on the previous year, according to human rights groups who say the rise reflects an effort by Tehran to “instill fear” among anti-regime protesters.
It was the highest number of executions in the Islamic republic since 2015, according to a report released last month by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) groups.
More than half of the executions last year took place after the protests erupted in September.
The US State Department condemned the latest planned executions of Kazemi, Mirhashemi and Yaqoubi on Thursday.
“The execution of these men, after what have been widely regarded as sham trials, would be an affront to human rights and basic dignity in Iran and everywhere,” said State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel at a press briefing.
“It is clear from this episode that the Iranian regime has learned nothing from the protests that began with another death, the death of Mahsa Amini in September of last year,” Patel added.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, another NGO that monitors human rights violations in Iran, said on Twitter that the three men “had the minimal defense rights of an accused.” The group decried what it called an “unfathomable wave of executions in Iran.”
Nationwide protests rocked Iran last fall, as decades of bitterness over the regime’s treatment of women and other issues boiled over after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s so-called morality police.
Authorities violently repressed the months-long movement, which had posed one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.
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Rastafarian’s son banned from school for 3 years over dreadlocks in Malawi
Alli Nansolo debated whether or not to trim his son’s dreadlocks for years. Although it is not required by law in Malawi, a widespread unwritten policy meant that his son was being turned away from government schools because of the colour of his hair.
With his meagre earnings from manufacturing dresses, Nansolo’s was unable to provide his son Ishmael with a private education, and cutting his hair—a significant Rastafari religious symbol—was out of the question.
“The rastafari way of life is spiritual. Maintaining dreadlocks is comparable to making a pledge before the Most High Creator that we shall live our lives in service to Him without disobeying His Laws or Commandments, according to Nansolo, who spoke to CNN.
The 48-year-old makes between 200,000 to 300,000 Malawian Kwacha (around $194 to $291) monthly, while his wifeEmpress supplements the family’s income by selling secondhand clothes.
“I felt oppressed,” Nansolo said as he recalled the staff of a state-run secondary school in Zomba, southern Malawi. refusing to register Ishmael because of his hair.
Nansolo said he contacted an officer at the Ministry of Education who advised him to cut his son’s hair so that he could go to school.
Nansolo found himself caught up in the discriminatory policies of Malawian public schools and decided to take legal action against the Ministry of Education, along with a group of parents.
“I went to the Women Lawyers Association of Malawi to ask for help. The association accepted and we went to court in November 2017,” he said.
For three years, Ishmael, then 15, would remain out of school as the court case dragged on.
Then, in 2020, the Malawi High Court placed an interim order compelling public schools to enroll Ishmael and other Rastafari children until a final ruling was reached.
It was a legal victory that marked a significant milestone for the estimated 15,000 Rastafarian community in Malawi, according to Nansolo, who is also a community elder.
However, the temporary relief did not address the broader issue of discrimination that around 1,200 affected students face, their lawyer Chikondi Chijozi told CNN.
“We saw a number of Rastafari children being admitted into government schools but there were still reported cases of children of [the]Rastafari community being denied admission into government schools, and their parents were forced to take the court injunction to the school to compel them to admit them,” Chijozi said.
After a six-year legal challenge, the Malawian High Court delivered a landmark ruling on May 8.
The court ruled that it was unlawful to require learners, including Rastafarian kids, to cut their hair before they are enrolled into public schools.
The ruling came into immediate effect but the government has until June 30 to issue a nationwide statement mandating acceptance of all dreadlocked children into school.
Chijoki told CNN: “We got a judgment from the court which essentially upheld the rights of the Rastafari children and abolished the policy that requires all learners, including Rastafari children, to cut off their dreadlocks for them to be admitted into government schools.”
Nansolo expressed his community’s jubilation that their children could now finally continue their education.
“The judgment means that we are now free because most of us in [the]Rastafarian community don’t earn much, so we couldn’t manage to send our children to private schools,” Nansolo said.
“We are happy seeing that our children will now be going to public schools without being sent back or denied their right to education.”
CNN has contacted the education ministry for comment on the ruling.
Despite this victory, Malawi’s Rastafarian community still faces numerous challenges. Unemployment, poverty, and corporate discrimination persistently plague the community. Data on the community is hard to come by but the US State Department says around 5.6 percent of Malawi’s nearly 21 million population is formed of other religions includingHindus, Baha’is, Rastafarians, Jews, and Sikhs.
“Most of us rely on business to survive. Lack of jobs is a big challenge for the Rastafarian community because those in offices are reluctant to employ Rastas,” Nansolo said.
“The corporate world feels that being Rastafari is associated with criminality, but we are not like that.”
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Warring groups in Sudan’s leadership concur on a seven-day ceasefire – US
The US State Department said on Saturday that the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the two warring factions in Sudan, had reached a seven-day ceasefire agreement. This is the first such agreement between the parties since violence broke out last month.
“It’s past time to put a stop to the shooting and to block human access. The world is watching, so I beg both parties to uphold this agreement, Blinken wrote in a tweet.
Earlier on Saturday, Blinken held a conversation with the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces during negotiations between the two parties in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The ceasefire, which was brokered by both the US and Saudi Arabia, will go into effect Monday, according to a State Department statement.
Previous ceasefires have failed to stop the fighting between the rival factions in various parts of Sudan, CNN reported. Failed negotiations between the head of the Sudanese army Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into intense clashes between both sides in mid-April, sparking a mass exodus of refugees from the conflict-ridden country and leading to the deaths of at least 528 people.
Thousands of foreign nationals have escaped Sudan as Western powers stepped in to evacuate their own citizens, while thousands more local families have risked perilous journeys from the capital Khartoum as they have been left to fend for themselves.
The ceasefire, according to the text of the agreement, will be “supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism,” acknowledging that previous ceasefire agreements between the two groups have not been observed
John Godfrey, the US Ambassador to Sudan, called on both groups to observe the terms of the cease fire shortly after it was announced.
“The 7-day ceasefire agreement signed by SAF and RSF today in Jeddah will allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to reach the Sudanese people and provide a pathway to a permanent cessation of hostilities. I call on both parties to honor the agreement,” Godfrey said in a tweet.
The State Department said in its statement the US believes “subsequent talks in Jeddah will address steps needed to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
“We look forward to leadership by Sudanese civilian stakeholders, with the support of the regional and international community, on a political process to resume a democratic transition and form a civilian government,” the statement said.
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American teacher took French evacuation plane out of Sudan
Deana Welker had already spent days wandering around Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in search of safety while gun fights raged around the city when word of a probable evacuation arrived. She was also frightened.
The American educator had left her house just after fierce fighting began out between two factions vying for control of the nation, and she was staying at her second hotel when she and other educators were awakened in the middle of the night.
As she told CNN, “We had heard that the embassy personnel was being evacuated by helicopter, so our (school administration) advised, ‘Get dressed, get your bags ready and just wait. And we had a vague notion that they would take us.
They waited, well into the early hours of the morning – before finally getting an email from the US State Department. The message amounted to, “Oh yay, US embassy staff has been evacuated. Private citizens should not expect help,” Welker said.
US President Joe Biden announced last Saturday that the military had extracted US government personnel from Khartoum, the evacuation coming after a week of conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF – which has left hundreds dead and thousands wounded.
However, the US State Department has advised that American citizens in Sudan “should have no expectation of a US government-coordinated evacuation at this time” due to the security situation and the closure of the airport in Khartoum.
“It is imperative that US citizens in Sudan make their own arrangements to stay safe in these difficult circumstances,” said State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel at a news briefing last Friday.
Many American citizens have voiced anger and disbelief that they have been left to fend for themselves – many, like Welker, having to rely on other countries’ evacuation operations to get out of the country.
Welker finally made it back home to North Carolina on Wednesday – but knows she’s one of the lucky ones.
“I’m out, I’m safe, but so many people I care about and worked with (aren’t),” she said. “I just worry because now the internet keeps going out, so it’s hard to get information and find out who’s where and who’s safe.”
Welker, who worked at an international school in Khartoum, woke up on April 15 to loud gunfire and explosions outside as fighting between the rival groups erupted.
She and many other teachers live on a main road that leads to the airport, one of the main sites of conflict, meaning “there was just gunfire and artillery going off right in front of our building,” she said.
She spent the entire first day on the floor of her dining room – the only room in her home without windows.
“I spent the whole day just listening to gunfire and hoping it wasn’t going to be coming through the walls and windows,” Welker recalled.
The heavy clashes kept her up for the next two nights – before things escalated on April 16, with several RSF fighters entering her building, she said. They held the building guards at gunpoint and only left after they were offered water and food, she said.
The incident shook the residents; Welker and her fellow teachers decided to flee that night, grabbing a single bag of essentials and heading to a nearby hotel frequently used by US embassy staff.
They stayed there for the next two nights – but didn’t feel much safer, with the constant sound of artillery close by. Even when the two factions agreed to ceasefires, they were repeatedly broken, and the fighting never stopped, she said.
Another problem soon arose. With the entire city sheltering indoors, gunfire raining down on the streets, buildings shelled and hospitals attacked, everyone was running low on supplies.
“The hotel staff called us in and said, ‘Look, we’re running out of everything, and we’re not going to be able to provide water or food, and you’ve all got to find somewhere else to go,’” Welker said.
So the teachers, under the school administration’s guidance, found a bigger hotel down the road further from the fighting. Welker recalls taking a winding path there in the car, trying to avoid checkpoints and passing by destroyed houses on the way.
They had been there for two nights when they got the 3 a.m. call – and waited for an evacuation that never came for them. “That was pretty deflating, to say the least,” she said.
Bureaucracy stalling at least one family’s evacuation from Sudan
Anxiety and uncertainty set in, with nobody sure what would come next – but good news came a few hours later. The French Embassy in Sudan was carrying out a separate evacuation for French citizens, and foreigners of other nationalities were welcome.
Welker and the other American teachers crammed into several cars with their bags, driving again through war-battered streets until they arrived at the French Embassy. They were herded onto charter buses that drove north of Khartoum to an air base, put onto a military plane, and finally flown out of Sudan to neighboring Djibouti on April 24.
From there, everyone booked their flights home; between all the travel, it took her two days to get back to North Carolina. “But I was like, I don’t care as long as I’m out of there,” Welker said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US is now working to develop “a sustained process” that would allow Americans to leave Sudan over land, likely to Port Sudan.
“We believe that the best way to have an enduring capability to help people leave Sudan if that’s what they so choose is overland,” Blinken said at a news conference at the State Department on Thursday.
“And we are working to establish a process that would enable people to move overland to a place where they can more easily exit the country, in all likelihood port Sudan. So that’s under very active development.”
But many Americans stranded in Sudan – and those who have escaped – say it’s not enough, and comes too late.
CNN spoke with multiple people who say the State Department has provided “barely any assistance” since the deadly violence broke out, and that they and their family members have had to make “life or death decisions” about when and how to leave Sudan with very little guidance.
Those who spoke to CNN also pushed back on the argument made by US officials that they had warned Americans not to be in Sudan.
The travel advisory level has been “Level 4: Do Not Travel” since June 2021, and the State Department has consistently advised US citizens to “have evacuation plans that do not rely on US government assistance.”
However, there were no recent security alerts explicitly advising Americans to leave the country.
Welker also argued that Americans in Sudan are largely there for humanitarian and educational reasons – and that the US should help retrieve all those who want to leave.
“It’s not that these people went there on holiday,” she said. “There’s no reason they should be left behind.”