UN Security Council endorses U.S.-backed resolution for Gaza ceasefire
The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved its first resolution endorsing a ceasefire plan aimed at ending the eight-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The U.S.-sponsored resolution welcomes a ceasefire proposal announced by President Joe Biden that the United States says Israel has accepted. It calls on the militant Palestinian group Hamas, which initially said it viewed the proposal “positively,” to accept the three-phase plan.
The resolution — which was approved overwhelmingly with 14 of the 15 Security Council members voting in favour and Russia abstaining — also calls on Israel and Hamas “to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
Hamas responded to the adoption by saying it welcomed the resolution and was ready to work with mediators in indirect negotiations with Israel to implement it.
The statement was among the strongest from Hamas to date but stressed the group would continue “our struggle” to end the Israeli occupation and work on setting up a “fully sovereign” Palestinian state.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the UN, said after the vote that the council “sent a clear message to Hamas to accept the ceasefire deal on the table,” reiterating that Israel has accepted the deal, which is supported by countries around the world.
“The fighting could stop today, if Hamas would do the same,” she told the council. “I repeat, this fighting could stop today.”
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters earlier on Monday that the U.S. wanted all 15 Security Council members to support what he described as “the best, most realistic opportunity to bring at least a temporary halt to this war.”
Whether Israel and Hamas agree to the three-phase ceasefire plan remains in question, but the resolution’s strong support in the UN’s most powerful body puts added pressure on both parties to approve the proposal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Biden presented only parts of the proposal and insisted that any talk of a permanent ceasefire before dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities is a non-starter.
Health officials in Gaza say at least 274 people have been killed in an Israeli hostage rescue operation in central Gaza. Israel says it safely extracted four hostages, but the high civilian death toll has prompted international condemnation and Israeli minister Benny Gantz’s resignation.
The leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who met in Qatar on Monday to discuss the proposed ceasefire deal, said in a statement afterward that any agreement must lead to a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza, reconstruction and “a serious exchange deal” between hostages in Gaza and Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s surprise Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mainly Israeli civilians, and saw about 250 others taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. About 120 hostages remain, with 43 pronounced dead.
Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 36,700 Palestinians and wounded in excess of 83,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It has also destroyed about 80 per cent of Gaza’s buildings, according to the UN.
Published at Mon, 10 Jun 2024 21:30:34 +0000
Macron gambles rest of his presidency by calling French legislative elections
France’s finance minister said on Monday that the snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron after a bruising loss to the far right in European Parliament elections would be the most consequential legislative vote in the republic’s history.
Macron’s shock decision amounts to a roll of the dice on his political future. It could hand a great deal of power to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) after years on the sidelines, and neuter his presidency three years before it is due to end.
The legislative vote will take place on June 30, less than a month before the start of the Paris Olympics, with a second round on July 7.
Bruno Le Maire says Emmanuel Macron’s governing coalition must be clear with voters ahead of June 30 to avoid the far right taking over the domestic agenda.
“This will be the most consequential parliamentary election for France and for the French in the history of the Fifth Republic,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told RTL radio.
Helmed by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, the RN won about 32 per cent of the vote on Sunday, more than double the Macron ticket’s 15 per cent, according to exit polls. The Socialists came within a whisker of Macron at 14 per cent.
“In the next few days, I’ll be saying what I think is the right direction for the nation. I’ve heard your message, your concerns, and I won’t leave them unanswered,” said Macron.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist, said “a dissolution just before the Games, it’s really something that is extremely unsettling,” in comments reported by France 24. The Paris Olympics begin on July 26.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called a snap election after a surge in support for far-right parties in France and other European Union member states during European Parliament elections. Political rival Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party won twice as many votes as Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.
Element of surprise
Analysts said Macron’s decision aimed to make the best of his weak position, reclaiming the initiative and forcing RN into election mode faster than it would have liked.
Some RN leaders appeared to have been caught off guard.
“We didn’t think it would be immediately after the European elections, even if we wanted it to be,” RN deputy chairman Sebastien Chenu said on RTL Radio.
Bardella will be the party’s candidate for prime minister, Chenu said.
The result is hard to predict. The outcome is likely to depend on how committed leftist and centre-right voters are to the idea of blocking the far right from power. Voter turnout on Sunday was about 52 per cent, the interior ministry said.
If the RN wins a majority, Macron would still remain as president and direct defence and foreign policy. But he would lose the power to set the domestic agenda, from economic policy to security.
Among policies put forward by the party, the RN has proposed higher public spending, despite already significant levels of French debt, threatening to further raise funding costs at banks.
It also wants to expel more migrants, stop family reunification, restrict child-care benefits to French citizens, give French nationals preference in access to social housing and jobs, and withdraw residency for migrants that are out of work for more than a year.
Macron’s Renaissance party currently has 169 lower house lawmakers out of a total of 577. The RN has 88.
Anne Muxel, from the Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po, says French president Emmanuel Macron is opening the door to volatility and uncertainty by calling a snap election that could lead to a far-right political party coming into power in the French government for the first time.
Eurasia Group said the RN was no shoo-in for a majority, predicting a hung parliament as the most likely scenario.
“Faced with another hung parliament, [Macron] will try to form a wider alliance with the centre-right or centre-left, possibly by appointing a prime minister from one of those camps,” it said in a note.
“We foresee a losing struggle for serious domestic reform or strict deficit reduction in the remaining three years of Macron’s term.”
The euro fell 0.5 per cent in early European trade, while Paris blue-chip stocks dropped two per cent, led by steep losses in banks BNP Paribas and Societe Generale.
Published at Sun, 09 Jun 2024 19:50:23 +0000
