DUBAI, AUG 10 (AP): Israel on Sunday rejected a deal announced by US President Donald Trump for Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”
Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington, after making similar comments last week. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed.
Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that’s been largely destroyed.
There was no immediate White House comment on Netanyahu’s statement.
“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the US to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.
The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire continues.
Iran’s top security post changes again
Iran named a new head of its powerful Supreme National Security Council, state media reported. Mohsen Rezaei had been a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guard commander.
It was the latest shuffle at the top for the politburo-like body, which has a range of political opinions and rivalries and is adapting to the loss of several senior officials in the war.
Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took up the role after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March. Zolghadr will become a political adviser to Khamenei. Rezaei earlier this month said Iran will never allow an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, which was considered an international waterway before the war and Tehran’s assertion of control.
Iran won’t reopen Hormuz without US concessions
DUBAI, AUG 10 (AP): Iran on Monday said it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States met its conditions.
“It is up to the US side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said, noting the American blockade of Iranian ports. Iran wants the US to lift the blockade, pay compensation for months of war damage, lift economic sanctions and release Iran’s frozen assets. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz – a waterway that normally carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies – has become the war’s most lasting consequence.
The impasse has kept energy prices as a major focus of US politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Iran is holding separate talks with Oman over transit through the strait, including potentially a temporary shipping corridor. But it has said any actual reopening is contingent on talks with the US.
