This is really all that the US cares about
US unsure if Israel willing to agree to Saudi demands for ‘normalisation’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he’s unsure whether Israel is ready to make compromises to reach a deal to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia, notably on a pathway to a Palestinian state.
Blinken acknowledged doubts about whether Netanyahu and his hard-right government would meet Saudi requests if the normalisation issue became more than “hypothetical”.
“I can’t tell you whether Israel – whether it’s the prime minister or the country as a whole – is prepared to do in this moment what would be necessary to actually realise normalisation,” Blinken told a Senate committee. “Because that requires an end to [the war on] Gaza and requires a credible pathway to a Palestinian state.”
His frank assessment came after Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, visited both countries and briefed Netanyahu on the “potential” for a historic accord.
Got to keep Saudi Arabia a close ally, and is also the largest importer of US weapons.
US just making a bigger fool of itself
Blinken says he’ll work with Congress on ICC response, with sanctions a possibility
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that sanctions against International Criminal Court (ICC) officials are a possible response to a request for arrest warrants to be issued for Israeli leaders over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Blinken at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing that he wanted “actions, not just words” over Karim Khan’s request for warrants to be issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Graham then asked Blinken if he would support a “bipartisan effort to sanction the ICC”.
“I welcome working with you on that,” Blinken responded.
Earlier, we reported that Blinken said the Biden administration would be happy to work with lawmakers to formulate “an appropriate response” to the ICC prosecutor’s request and called the move “profoundly wrong-headed”.
Trump adviser calls for sanctions on ‘corrupt’ ICC officials over Israeli arrest warrants
A senior adviser to Donald Trump has said the US should place sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) officials who are seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over war crimes in Gaza.
Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser, made the comments in an interview with the Reuters news agency after meeting with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.
O’Brien, who said Trump would be briefed on the results of his trip to Israel, discussed what he called the ICC’s “irrational decision” to issue a warrant for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Palestinian Hamas leaders.
“We can sanction the bank accounts, the travel. We can put visa restrictions on these corrupt prosecutors and judges. We can show some real mettle here,” O’Brien told the news agency.
O’Brien was accompanied on his visit to Israel by former US Ambassador to the UAE John Rakolta and former US Ambassador to Switzerland Ed McMullen.
Sanders expresses support for ICC warrants, says Israel committing war crimes
US Senator Bernie Sanders has said he supports arrests warrants being issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli leaders as they have committed “war crimes’ in Gaza.
Sanders, speaking on the floor of the US Senate on Tuesday, said he believes there is “substantial evidence” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has “used starvation as a weapon of war” and “targeted civilians” in the Palestinian enclave.
“There must be consequences. What the ICC has done is important… for the global community in the sense that we cannot allow the human race to descend to barbarity,” he said.
