#EXCLUSIVE: Secret talks between Iran and the United States in Oman were making good progress, but have now been jeopardised by the sudden death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister.

The talks focused on three subjects: a shared desire for a change in government in Israel; ending Israel’s war on Gaza; and preventing the conflict from spreading elsewhere in the region.


🔗 Read the full article: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/secret-iran-us-talks-gaza-war-undermined-raisi-death

🎥 Do governments have to comply with an ICC arrest warrant?

@el.sayyed explains in a segment from this week’s episode of The Big Picture Podcast.

In a landmark decision, International Criminal Court prosecutors issued arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders over war crimes committed in Gaza and on October 7. These include Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

But what is the jurisdiction of ICC cases, and what happens when countries ignore them - like Sudan and Russia?

Watch the full episode on IG or subscribe and listen on all podcast platforms

📰 The organisers of a succession of pro-Palestine protests in London have demanded a meeting with Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley over abuse and threats they say were directed at stewards and protesters by pro-Israel counter-demonstrators during last Saturday's march.

Organisers criticised the police on Tuesday for failing to protect its volunteers and participants in the protest as they passed the counter-protest in Piccadilly Circus.

Organisers said police had allowed counter-protesters to assemble on the agreed route despite assurances that they would be kept away from the main pro-Palestine demonstration, which organisers say attracted 250,000 people

🔗 Click the link to read more
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-pro-palestine-protest-organisers-seek-police-meeting-threats-abuse?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the Interior Department’s chief of staff, resigned on 15 May on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba over the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza.

Call is the first Jewish-American political appointee to publicly resign in protest over US support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Speaking to MSNBC, she said her resignation was spurred by President Joe Biden's handling of the Rafah invasion and his approval of a $1 billion arms transfer to Israel, actions she considered to be a violation of “his own red line”.

She drew parallels between the Nakba and Shoah, the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, both of which translate to "catastrophe". She noted that her upbringing emphasised a one-sided view of the founding of the state of Israel

🎥 "Immigrants in this country (US) have had a civilising mission, civilising the palate of these people"

When asked about what the West does not understand about Iran, Professor Hamid Debashi goes into a tirade and recalls that when he arrived in the USA most regular people didn’t know what a pomegranate was

Israel said it seized the broadcasting equipment of the Associated Press (AP) because it was filming the location of Israeli soldiers and had refused to cut off Al Jazeera from their content.

Israel also said that the AP was “focusing on the activities of IDF soldiers and their location” from a house in Sderot, Israel.

The Foreign Press Association said it is “alarmed” by Israel’s confiscation of the Associated Press’s broadcasting equipment in southern Israel.

In a statement, the association, which represents international media working in Israel and Palestine, said “Israel’s move today is a slippery slope” and that “Israel could block other international news agencies from providing live footage of Gaza"

🎥 "You can't equate between the oppressor and the oppressed. You can't equate between the occupier and the occupied"

Mustafa Barghouti, founder of the Palestinian National Initiative, explained on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Monday why the claim that Israel always uses, that Palestinians do not want peace, is incorrect.

Barghouti also discussed the request made by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant against Israeli leaders, arguing that Israel cannot accuse every international court in the world of being antisemitic

🎥 During his speech at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House, US President Joe Biden defended Israel, saying that its forces are not committing genocide in their military campaign in Gaza.

He also reiterated his condemnation of the request made on Monday by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant against Israeli leaders

A bipartisan group of senior US senators said they plan to help Israel against the International Criminal Court of Justice.

“We will continue to work in a bipartisan manner to strenuously object to the ICC’s actions against our ally, Israel, and take appropriate steps to help Israel and protect American personnel from future ICC action,” a joint statement said by Republican and Democratic senators said.

The letter was signed by Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the committee.

The letter was also notably signed by Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Jeanne Shaheen who have criticised the conduct of Israel’s war on Gaza

🎥 Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, described the request made by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders as "an act of outrageous absurdity and moral bankruptcy" as he addressed the UN Security Council meeting on the war in Gaza

The UN has halted all food distribution to Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The UN said it had halted operations due to a lack of supplies and security concerns.

The UN added that it hasn’t received supplies for two days from a US-built pier in Gaza.

Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Programme, warned that “humanitarian operations in Gaza are near collapse”.

She said if food and other supplies don’t begin entering Gaza “in massive quantities, famine-like conditions will spread”

🎥 Israeli news channel Kan 11 published a recording on Monday by Yoav Gallant, Defence Minister of Israel, where he stated his rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

He also added that people should "ignore" the statements made by the US on the matter as “they already understand that a Palestinian Authority won’t exist”

The top-ranking general in the US criticised on Monday Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, warning that the failure of Israeli forces to both secure captured territory and eliminate Hamas from northern Gaza is hampering its ability to achieve its military objectives.

“Not only do you have to actually go in and clear out whatever adversary you are up against, you have to go in, hold the territory and then you’ve got to stabilise it,” said General Charles Brown, who chairs the joint chiefs of staff, as reported by Politico.

The comments by Brown were a rare moment of criticism from the American military, which has aided Israel in its war on Gaza by providing military equipment and assistance through intelligence-sharing

Read further ⤵️
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israels-lack-military-lack-gains-against-hamas-felt-washington?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🔴 RECAP #Israel #Palestine (as of 23:30 GMT, 21 May)

• The head of the WHO urged Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza

• US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken suggested the Biden administration was ready to work on sanctioning ICC officials with Congress

• At least 7 Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid on Jenin

• Israel seized and later returned the Associated Press’s broadcasting equipment

• The UN halted all food distribution to Gaza's southern city of Rafah

• Israeli strikes on Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza damaged an intensive care unit and administrative facilities trapping medical workers and patients

• Norway became the first country to announce it would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the ICC issued an arrest warrant for him

• The US said new routes are being used to move aid from a pier in Gaza to warehouses after desperate Palestinians intercepted deliveries

• The US faulted Egypt for the closure of Rafah border crossing, wading into Cairo’s dispute with Israel

📰 Israeli forces attacked two hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip as it pushed deeper into the Jabalia refugee camp and increased bombardment of crowded Rafah districts.

Artillery shelling hit al-Awda Hospital, north of Jabalia, which has been under Israeli siege since the weekend.

Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia was also shelled, forcing bed-ridden patients and medical staff to evacuate.

On Monday, the medical team at al-Awda said that snipers were “aiming at the building and an artillery rocket hitting the fifth floor, where the administration department is located,” according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Read more ⤵️
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-attacks-jabalia-hospital-bombs-rafah-camp?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 World Health Organization chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on Tuesday that north Gaza's al-Awda hospital has been “under siege” for the last two days.

WHO representative in the Palestinian territories Dr Rick Peeperkorn adds that staff there are reporting both sniper and artillery attacks