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Biden says Netanyahu’s approach to war in Gaza is a ‘mistake’

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the war in Gaza is a “mistake,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview published on Tuesday, offering further criticism of Israel’s handling of the conflict, Reuters reported.

“I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach,” Biden said in comments to Univision, a U.S. Spanish-language TV network.

Biden has also previously called Israel’s bombing in Gaza “indiscriminate, opens new tab” and its military actions “over the top, opens new tab.”

The White House said last week that the president, in a call with Netanyahu, threatened to make conditional, opens new tab U.S. support for Israel’s offensive on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians. That call followed an Israeli airstrike that killed seven staff, opens new tab of the aid group World Central Kitchen.

“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” Biden said in Tuesday’s interview.

Israel’s military assault on Gaza, opens new tab has been the subject of mounting international criticism, opens new tab. Domestically, Biden has also faced months of protests, opens new tab from anti-war activists, Muslims and Arab Americans across the country, who have demanded a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and restrictions on U.S. military assistance for Israel, read the report.

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, opens new tab on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent military assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed over 33,000, according to the local health ministry, displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million population and led to genocide allegations, opens new tab that Israel denies. The coastal enclave also suffers widespread hunger.

Israel has received more U.S. foreign aid than any other country since World War Two, although annual assistance has been dwarfed for two years by funding and military equipment sent to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

According to Reuters the United States has traditionally shielded Israel in the U.N. Security Council and vetoed three draft resolutions on the war in Gaza. It abstained last month when the Security Council demanded an immediate ceasefire.

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Trump says he may go to Islamabad if Iran deal reached

Trump struck ⁠an optimistic tone about Iran ​as he spoke with reporters on the ​White House lawn on his way to a trip to Nevada and Arizona.

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U.S. President ​Donald Trump said on Thursday that ‌if a deal with Iran to conclude the war is reached and signed in Islamabad, ​he might go, and that Iran ​has agreed to almost everything, Reuters reported.

Trump struck ⁠an optimistic tone about Iran ​as he spoke with reporters on the ​White House lawn on his way to a trip to Nevada and Arizona. He said ​he could extend a U.S.-Iran ​ceasefire set to expire next week, but may ‌not ⁠need to do so.

“If a deal is signed in Islamabad I may go,” Trump said. “They want me.”

He also said ​without providing ​evidence ⁠that Iran has agreed to give up the enriched uranium ​believed buried from U.S.-Israeli airstrikes ​last ⁠year. Trump is pushing for a deal with Iran in which Tehran ⁠would ​give up its nuclear ​program.

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White House denies U.S. requested ceasefire, says new talks may happen in Pakistan

Speaking at a White ​House press briefing, Leavitt said any fresh talks ​would likely be in Pakistan again as it ⁠has emerged as the “only mediator” in the effort to ​end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

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Reports that the White House has requested a ceasefire in the Iran ​war are wrong, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told ‌reporters on Wednesday but added that discussions about a second round of talks with the Iranians were ongoing and productive, Reuters reported.

Speaking at a White ​House press briefing, Leavitt said any fresh talks ​would likely be in Pakistan again as it ⁠has emerged as the “only mediator” in the effort to ​end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

“These conversations are productive and ​ongoing, and that’s where we are right now. I’ve also seen some reporting about the potentiality for in-person discussions. Again, those discussions ​are being had, but nothing is official until you ​hear it from us here at the White House, but we feel ‌good ⁠about the prospects of a deal,” Leavitt said.

The talks last weekend broke down without an agreement to end the war, which President Donald Trump began alongside Israel on ​February 28, triggering ​Iranian attacks ⁠on Iran’s Gulf neighbors and reigniting a conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in ​Lebanon, read the report.

The war has led Iran to effectively shut ​the ⁠Strait of Hormuz – a vital artery for global crude and gas shipments – to ships other than its own, sharply reducing ⁠exports ​from the Gulf, particularly to Asia ​and Europe, and leaving energy importers scrambling for alternative supplies.

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US hosts rare Israel-Lebanon talks, progress unclear

The U.S. State Department released a statement after the meeting saying the two sides had “productive discussions on steps toward launching direct negotiations.”

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted the first direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in decades on ​Tuesday and both sides said they held positive discussions although it was not immediately clear if they agreed to a framework for peace, Reuters reported.

The meeting marked a rare encounter between representatives of governments ‌that have technically been in a state of war since Israel was established in 1948. They entered the talks with conflicting agendas, with Israel ruling out discussion of a ceasefire in Lebanon and demanding Beirut disarm Hezbollah.

The U.S. State Department released a statement after the meeting saying the two sides had “productive discussions on steps toward launching direct negotiations.”

It set out each country’s positions but did not say they had reached any common ground. “All sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue,” the statement ​said.

Speaking to reporters after the more than two-hour-long meeting in Washington, Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the United States, said the Lebanese government made it clear during the talks that it will no longer ​be “occupied” by Iran-aligned Lebanese militia Hezbollah. He declined to say whether Israel would cease its attacks on Lebanon.

Lebanese ambassador Nada Moawad described the preliminary meeting as “constructive”. In a statement to ⁠Reuters, she said in the meeting she called for a ceasefire and the return of displaced people to their homes and measures to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon caused by the conflict.

The meeting comes at ​a critical juncture in the crisis in the Middle East, a week into a fragile ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran.

The wider conflict in the region began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. Hezbollah opened fire ​in support of Tehran on March 2, sparking an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 2,000 people and forced 1.2 million from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities.

The presence of Rubio, President Donald Trump’s top diplomat and national security adviser, signalled Washington’s desire to see progress.

Trump has urged Israel to scale back attacks in Lebanon apparently to avoid undermining the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. The Middle East conflict has led to the largest oil supply disruption in history, piling pressure on Trump to find an off-ramp, read the report.

Iran says Israel’s ​campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon must be included in any agreement to end the wider war in the Middle East, complicating talks mediated by Pakistan aimed at averting further economic fallout. Washington has pushed back, saying there is no ​link between the two sets of talks.

Speaking at the start of the meeting, Rubio acknowledged that Tuesday’s talks would not solve “all of the complexities” but he hoped they would help form a framework for peace.

Israeli ‌ambassador Leiter later ⁠expressed hope but did not mention a concrete way forward.

“What gives me hope is the fact that the Lebanese Government made it very clear that they will no longer be occupied by Hezbollah… This is an opportunity. This is the first time our two countries are sitting together in over three decades,” Leiter said, adding that there may be further talks in the coming weeks.

The Lebanese government led by President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called for negotiations with Israel despite objections from Hezbollah, reflecting worsening tensions between the Shi’ite Muslim group and its opponents.

The Lebanese state has been seeking to disarm Hezbollah peacefully since a war between the militia and Israel in 2024. ​Any move by Lebanon to disarm it by force ​risks igniting conflict in a country shattered by ⁠civil war from 1975 to 1990. Moves against Hezbollah by a Western-backed government in 2008 prompted a short civil war.

The current government banned Hezbollah’s military wing after it opened fire on Israel last month.

Lebanese officials have said Moawad only has authority to discuss a ceasefire in Tuesday’s meeting while Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said Israel ​would not discuss a ceasefire, underscoring how at odds the two sides are.

In earlier remarks, Rubio said these talks were a process and not ​a one-off event. Leiter said ⁠there may be more talks soon but none of the participants mentioned a set time and a place.

“There were a few proposals, a few recommendations. We will of course bring these recommendations to our governments… and we will return in the next few weeks, we will continue to sit together. We will probably continue the talks in Washington,” Leiter said.

Rubio was hosting Tuesday’s talks amid questions over his lack of in-person participation in talks with Iran, with the Republican president sending ⁠Vice President ​JD Vance to Islamabad over the weekend to lead the U.S. negotiations, read the report.

Rubio was with Trump in Florida watching a mixed martial arts event ​as Vance announced in Pakistan that talks with the Iranians had concluded with no breakthrough.

State Department Counselor Michael Needham, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, and U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, a personal friend of Trump, were also participating in the talks on ​Tuesday.

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