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Israel-Hamas talks ‘stopped’5/19/2024 Peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been put on hold over major disagreements, Israeli broadcaster Kan has reported, citing anonymous sources. Haaretz has confirmed the “impasse” in the talks, which were mediated by Qatar and Egypt.
Hostilities in Gaza broke out last October after Hamas militants staged a deadly incursion into Israeli territory, killing an estimated 1,200 people and abducting hundreds more, most of them civilians. Israel retaliated with a military campaign against the armed group, subjecting the densely populated Palestinian enclave to months of heavy aerial bombardment. According to Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza, Israel’s military operation has claimed the lives of more than 35,000 Palestinians, with nearly 80,000 sustaining injuries. While Qatari, Egyptian and US middlemen have for months been trying to get the two belligerents to agree to a ceasefire, so far these efforts have apparently been fruitless. In its report on Friday, Kan alleged that the negotiations “are not taking place at the moment” since “Egypt and Qatar have adopted the position of Hamas.” According to the media outlet, the mediators suggested sealing a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages. Kan quoted its anonymous sources as saying that there is a “large” divergence of opinion between the Palestinian militant group and Israel, especially over how each would define the “end of the war.” Another major bone of contention, the broadcaster claimed, was Israel’s refusal to unconditionally release incarcerated Hamas militants at the group’s request. On Saturday, Israel’s Haaretz, citing an unnamed foreign source familiar with the talks, also reported that the negotiations “are currently at an impasse, and there is no progress.” On Tuesday, the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, revealed that recent weeks had seen “some momentum building,” but that “unfortunately things didn’t move in the right direction.” “Right now, we are in a status of almost a stalemate,” he said. Sheikh Al Thani noted that “there is one party that wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages, and there is another party who wants the hostages and wants to continue the war.” There is little hope for progress unless Israel and Hamas see eye to eye on this fundamental issue, he warned. The Qatari prime minister also questioned whether Israel was seeking an end to hostilities in good faith. ”I don’t think that they are considering this as an option… even when we are talking about the deal and leading to a potential ceasefire,” he said. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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China may have built the world’s first “dedicated” drone carrier, military website Naval News reported, citing satellite imagery and an expert. The new aircraft carrier, the building of which has not been publicised by Beijing, could underline China’s aims to advance the military use of drones and their deployment in battle. Video from the first sea trial earlier this month of the Chinese navy’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, also showed another giant warship under construction – the Type 076 amphibious assault ship believed to serve as both a helicopter and drone carrier. Naval News reported on Wednesday that satellite imagery from the Jiangsu Dayang shipyard on the Yangtze, far upriver from the major yards of Shanghai, suggested that China had secretly built a new aircraft carrier to specifically host fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It said the features of the mystery ship, “launched in December 2022 but not reported until now”, were different from regular US or Chinese aircraft carriers. This includes a smaller size – around one-third the length and half the width of a US or Chinese supercarrier – and an “anachronistic” straight deck arrangement that would not allow aircraft to take off and land at the same time. It would be possible to operate fixed-wing aircraft from the vessel, which is wide enough to host aircraft or drones with a wingspan of around 20 metres (about 66 feet), the report said. However, the vessel’s low flight deck suggested insufficient space for an aircraft hangar below to support high tempo or prolonged flight operations, it said. This would limit the number of aircraft supported by the ship but “make sense” as a drone carrier. It is immediately apparent that it is, in general arrangement, an aircraft carrier of some sort. It has a marked runaway running along the port [on the left side] with an island superstructure on the starboard [right] side,” the Naval News report said. “Beyond this, it is unusual in every respect. The hull is a widely spaced catamaran. While catamarans are often featured in aircraft carrier concepts because they allow a large deck area, no one has actually built one before.” Navies around the world have been running trials to operate UAVs from regular aircraft carriers as drones become a key part of warfare, with frequent usage in the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Some countries, such as Iran and Türkiye, are also said to be working on plans to build carriers specifically designated to host drones.
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Ukraine said their units have managed to stop Russian forces in Kharkiv, but Moscow said they would continue to advance.
Ukrainian forces fought to stop the advance of Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, home to the second-largest city in Ukraine and located in the country's northeast. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the military sent reinforcements to the area. As Russia tries to gain ground near the city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian soldiers do what they can to bring residents to safety, reports from Vovchansk say, just a few kilometers from the Russian border. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Putting British or other NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine would not make sense, but there are other ways of helping Kiev, British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said.
Some officials in Kiev have proposed sending Western military veterans as civilian contractors to train Ukrainian soldiers inside the country in order to quickly raise enough brigades to offset battlefield losses. “I don’t want to step over that line that puts British, sort of, troops on the ground in Ukraine. I don’t think that makes sense to do. But what I do think is sensible is potentially moving training closer,” Shapps said on Wednesday, speaking to a Telegraph podcast about the situation in Ukraine. “There may be other models that we could look at. Not something I would want to go into in detail currently,” the defence minister added. He pointed out that the UK has already trained 65,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2014, most of them since February 2022, and that London’s commitment to Kiev “is absolutely rock-solid.” Shapps admitted that the situation north of Kharkov is rather dire for the Ukrainian military and blamed it on “the civilized world” not paying attention. “I think the world took its eye off the ball,” Shapps told the Telegraph, but added, “I think it’s rescuable, at this stage.” According to Shapps, other “civilized” countries should follow the UK´s lead and send even more money to Kiev, to ensure that Ukraine has all the weapons, training and equipment it needs to defeat Russia. Earlier this week, Shapps told Times Radio that London saw “no sense at all” in persuading or “strong-arming” Kiev into accepting any peace conditions and “giving up some of their territory” to Moscow. Boris Johnson, who was the British prime minister at the time, made a similar argument during his visit to Kiev in April 2022, which was seen as crucial in persuading Ukraine to reject a proposed armistice with Russia and continue fighting. Shapps was appointed defence minister last August. Unlike his predecessor Ben Wallace, he has no military experience, having been a printing salesman before entering politics. He has served in a variety of cabinet posts under several Tory governments, from housing and transportation to Home Office and net zero. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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EU shifts toward ‘War Economy’5/15/2024 The European Union’s defence industry has partially switched to a war economy, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton has said.
Kiev could face a “dangerous period” this year as the focus of Western politicians backing it has now turned to the European Parliament elections on June 6-9 and US presidential election on November 5, Breton explained in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV on Monday. Russia may well take advantage of this “uncertainty” and “move forward” on the front line, he said. “Because of this, we in Europe have decided to significantly increase our subsidies in terms of weapons and ammunition” for Ukraine, the commissioner stressed. According to Breton, the EU is now on track to be producing 2 million shells, including 155mm calibre, per year for Ukraine. He said that it is fair to say the EU has “moved into a war economy” at least in terms of shell production. “Now the challenge is for us to move into a war economy in all segments of the European defence industry,” the commissioner added. In March, the European Commission approved the allocation of €500 million ($590 million) to boost the production of shells in the EU. According to Brussels, the bloc will be able to make 2 million shells annually by the end of 2025. Last year, the EU vowed to supply Kiev with 1 million shells by March 2024. However, it later acknowledged that it would not be able to meet this goal. Ukrainian officials said that they received around a third of what had been promised. In April, French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that the switch to a war economy was “necessary” as defence spending and military orders have been on the rise across the EU. Russia has warned repeatedly that foreign weapons being sent to Kiev will not prevent Moscow from achieving its military goals, but will merely prolong the fighting and increases the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. According to officials in Moscow, the provision of arms, intelligence sharing, and the training of Ukrainian troops mean that Western nations have already become de-facto parties to the conflict. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Poland cannot give Ukraine any US-made Patriot missile systems because it does not have the full system for its own defense, Polish President Andrzej Duda reiterated on Tuesday.
Kiev has been asking its Western backers to provide more long-range air defense systems to repel Russian strikes. Poland has only just started receiving the first elements of the Patriot surface-to-air batteries that it ordered from the US seven years ago, Duda told Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. Warsaw is currently in the process of building its own defense shield, part of which will be formed by the Patriot, he added. “It’s difficult to say right now if we could be providing Patriot systems to Ukraine because, as a matter of fact, we still do not have the system in Poland, we do not have it complete to provide for our own defense,” Duda stated. Ukraine earlier received several Patriot launchers, each of which costs more than $1 billion, from the US, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Financial Times reported in April that Kiev was lobbying Poland, Spain and Romania for batteries to be donated. Both Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated last month that Poland didn’t have any Patriot missile systems available to donate to Ukraine. Germany and Spain recently agreed to send additional batteries to Kiev. Greece ruled out a donation, and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said some members of his government were against the idea of sharing such weapons. Poland has already donated $4 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine, including more than 300 battle tanks and Soviet-designed MiG 29 fighter jets, Duda said on Tuesday. Poland is modernizing its armed forces, and it must replace what it donated to Ukraine, he added. Warsaw spends 4% of its GDP on defense, which is higher than NATO´s 2.5% target. The Polish leader reiterated the claim that if Russia is allowed to win in Ukraine, it will keep attacking, and may target other neighboring countries. The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – have increasingly voiced fears that they could be next. That would be “a huge threat to the whole world,” Duda said. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Ukraine has never been in a position to get a favorable settlement to end the enduring conflict with Russia and so Washington has never actually encouraged Kiev to negotiate with Moscow, former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has claimed.
The ex-official and one of the key proponents of supporting Ukraine through military means made the remark in an interview with Politico published on Saturday. A vast part of the interview revolved around the Ukrainian conflict, with Nuland producing a typical mainstream American assessment of it. “Let’s start with the fact that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has already failed in his objective. He wanted to flatten Ukraine. He wanted to ensure that they had no sovereignty, independence, agency, no democratic future – because a democratic Ukraine, a European Ukraine, is a threat to his model for Russia, among other things, and because it’s the first building block for his larger territorial ambitions,” Nuland asserted, without providing any supporting evidence. The official insisted that Kiev can still “succeed” in the conflict, though she dodged the question of whether she believes Ukraine could seize its former territories from Russia, including the Crimean Peninsula, which broke away from Kiev in the aftermath of the 2014 Maidan coup and joined Moscow after a referendum. It can definitely get to a place where it’s strong enough, I believe, and where Putin is stymied enough to go to the negotiating table from a position of strength. It’ll be up to the Ukrainian people what their territorial ambitions should be,” she said, adding that “whatever is decided on Crimea, it can’t be remilitarized such that it’s a dagger at the heart of the center of Ukraine.” The former official revealed Washington has never actually pressed Kiev into negotiations with Moscow, claiming its “negotiating position” was never actually strong enough, including in late 2022. “They were not in a strong enough position then. They’re not in a strong enough position now. The only deal Putin would have cut then, the only deal that he would cut today, at least before he sees what happens in our election, is a deal in which he says, ‘What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable.’ And that’s not sustainable,” she claimed. Victoria Nuland has been widely perceived as one of the key figures behind the whole Ukrainian crisis that started with the Maidan events, which ultimately brought down Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, in 2014. The diplomat, who at the time was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, infamously showed up among Maidan activists, handing out pastries. The affair became widely known as “Nuland’s cookies,” serving as a textbook example of direct US involvement in the coup. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Switzerland’s neutrality remains unchanged, the country’s foreign ministry has insisted ahead of the peace conference on the Ukraine conflict next month.
Russia has accused Bern of effectively siding with the West and Kiev in the current confrontation, making it an unfit mediator. According to the Swiss government, the ‘Peace in Ukraine’ summit aims to pave the way towards a “just and lasting peace” in the eastern European country. Bern has invited more than 160 delegations from around the world, including members of the G7, G20, BRICS, and EU. However, Switzerland has not extended an invitation to Russia. Moscow has described the upcoming gathering as “pointless,” and said it would refuse to participate even if it were invited. The Kremlin has argued that the conference is based around Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s peace formula, which Russia has dismissed as an unrealistic ultimatum. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin deemed Bern’s seemingly mutually exclusive statements absurd. He stressed that “we are not being invited there” while at the same time “it is being said that it’s impossible to resolve anything” without Russia. On Friday, Reuters quoted a Swiss foreign ministry representative as stressing that Bern’s neutrality is “constant” and will not be affected by the summit on June 15-16. The statement noted, however, that “being neutral does not mean being indifferent.” “Switzerland strongly condemns Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Outside the military realm, the right to neutrality does not stand in the way of solidarity and support for Ukraine and its people,” the ministry clarified, as quoted by Reuters. Despite not being a member of either the EU or NATO, Switzerland has supported the West’s sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine. Last month, the country’s national agency overseeing sanctions revealed that Bern was holding an estimated 13 billion francs ($14.3 billion) in Russian assets, which remain frozen in its financial institutions. Also in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that “Switzerland simply does not suit us” as a host of any peace negotiations with Ukraine. “It is not a neutral party, it has turned from neutral to openly hostile,” the diplomat claimed at the time. While some political forces in Switzerland advocate aligning the country’s position more with the US and the EU, a poll conducted by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, a research university, which was published in March, demonstrated that some 91% of Swiss citizens believe the country should stay neutral. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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