You are here

  • Home
  • France says Israeli athletes ‘welcome’ at Olympics

France says Israeli athletes ‘welcome’ at Olympics

France says Israeli athletes ‘welcome’ at Olympics
This photograph shows a logo of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games displayed on the Grand Palais Olympic site in Paris on July 22, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/ykvt9

Updated 22 July 2024
AFP
Follow

France says Israeli athletes ‘welcome’ at Olympics

France says Israeli athletes ‘welcome’ at Olympics
Updated 22 July 2024
AFP
Follow

PARIS: Israeli athletes are welcome at the Paris Olympics, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said Monday, after a hard-left member of the French parliament sparked outrage by urging them to stay away.
“The Israeli delegation is welcome in France,” Sejourne said in Brussels ahead of talks with his Israeli counterpart, adding that the call by France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Thomas Portes for the country’s exclusion had been “irresponsible and dangerous.”
“We will ensure the security of the delegation,” Sejourne added.
Portes drew ire from French Jewish groups and both political opponents and allies for saying Israeli athletes were “not welcome” and calling for “mobilization” around the Olympics, during a demonstration in support of Palestinians.
He later told the Parisien newspaper that “France’s diplomats should pressure the International Olympic Committee to bar the Israeli flag and anthem, as is done for Russia” over its invasion of Ukraine.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the comments had “hints of anti-Semitism” while the head of the Crif Jewish organization Yonathan Arfi said he was “putting a target on the backs” of Israeli athletes.
Portes’ remarks were condemned at the weekend by some allies from the more moderate Socialists, but backed by others in LFI.

Topics: 2024 Paris Olympics Israel

British PM Starmer visits Ireland seeking to reset relations after election win, sets US trip next week

British PM Starmer visits Ireland seeking to reset relations after election win, sets US trip next week
Updated 10 sec ago
Reuters
AP
Follow

British PM Starmer visits Ireland seeking to reset relations after election win, sets US trip next week

British PM Starmer visits Ireland seeking to reset relations after election win, sets US trip next week
  • Starmer is seeking better co-operation with EU countries, looking to improve diplomatic ties and trading relations without revisiting the fundamental basis of Britain’s departure from the bloc
Updated 10 sec ago
Reuters AP

DUBLIN/LONDON: Keir Starmer will go to Dublin on Saturday, the first visit to the Republic of Ireland by a British Prime Minister for five years, as his new government seeks to improve relations with its nearest neighbor and other members of the European Union.

Next week, he will visit Washington for talks that are expected to touch on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and other issues.

After his Labour Party won a July election to return to power for the first time since 2010, Starmer has sought better co-operation with EU countries, looking to improve diplomatic ties and trading relations without revisiting the fundamental basis of Britain’s departure from the bloc.
Britain’s 2016 referendum decision to leave the EU put particular strain on Anglo-Irish relations, as trading rules governing Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and has a land border with Ireland, became the major sticking point for a deal.
Starmer hosted his Irish counterpart Simon Harris in July, shortly after an election result which has also been seen in Dublin as the opportunity for a reset in relations.
“Our relationship has never reached its full potential, but I want to change that. We have a clear opportunity to go further and faster to make sure our partnership is fully delivering,” Starmer said in a statement ahead of the visit.
“(Harris) and I are in lockstep about our future, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration further.”
The two will meet businesses before watching a soccer match between the Republic of Ireland and England later in the day.
A match between the two sides in Dublin in 1995 — played three years before the Good Friday Agreement which largely ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland — was abandoned due to a riot. However, a 2015 fixture between the teams passed off without significant incident.

White House talks

On Friday, Joe Biden will host Starmer as the US president looks to step up engagement on the international stage in his final months in office.

US allies and adversaries are also intently watching how the race to succeed Biden between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump plays out.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the visit, the second by Starmer since he was elected earlier this summer, will focus on continuing Western support for Ukraine as it tries to repel Russia’s invasion, ongoing efforts to secure a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, threats to commercial shipping in the Red Sea posed by the Houthis, an Iranian-backed group, as well as shared concerns about the Indo-Pacific.

Starmer visited the White House two months ago for one-on-one talks with Biden when he was in Washington for the NATO Summit.

Topics: keir starmer UK-Ireland ties uk-us relations

Related

An Israeli armored vehicle drives along a devastated street in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on September 4, 2024.
Middle-East
UK’s Starmer defends Israel arms suspension as ‘legal decision’
Update Starmer, Scholz seek reset in British-EU ties with bilateral treaty
World
Starmer, Scholz seek reset in British-EU ties with bilateral treaty

Pakistani charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack

Pakistani charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack
Updated 21 min 5 sec ago
AP
Follow

Pakistani charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack

Pakistani charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack
  • Muhammad Shahzeb Khan tried to travel from Canada to New York City allegedly with the goal of slaughtering "as many Jewish people as possible,” says US attorney general
  • Khan has reportedly been sharing Daesh propaganda videos and expressing his support for the terror group in social media posts and communications with others on an encrypted messaging app
Updated 21 min 5 sec ago
AP

NEW YORK: A Pakistani man was arrested in Canada this week and accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the latest conflict in the Middle East, federal authorities announced Friday.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Muhammad Shahzeb Khan had attempted to travel from Canada, where he lives, to New York City with the “stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of Daesh, as many Jewish people as possible.”
The 20 year-old, who is also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was apprehended Sept. 4 and charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to the Daesh terror group, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham.

An image made available by the jihadist Al-Baraka news account on Twitter (now known as X) on June 11, 2014 shows a Daesh militant waving the group's flag on a road through the Syrian-Iraqi border. (AFP/File)

“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack,” Garland said in a statement.
It was unclear if Khan has a lawyer, where in Canada he was being held and when he may be brought to the US to face the charges.
Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office, which is handling the case, deferred to Canadian national police, which didn’t respond to an email seeking comment but said in a statement posted online that Khan will appear in the Superior Court of Justice in Montreal on Sept. 13.
“This planned antisemitic attack against Jewish people in the US is deplorable and there is no place for such ideological and hate-motivated crime in Canada,” Michael Duheme, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said in the statement.

 

US authorities said Khan began sharing Daesh propaganda videos and expressing his support for the terror group in social media posts and communications with others on an encrypted messaging app last November.
In conversations with two undercover law enforcement officers, he said he was trying start a “real offline cell” of Daesh in order to carry out attacks against “Israeli Jewish chabads” in America. Khan said he and another Daesh supporter based in the US needed to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition, hunting knives and other materials, according to the Justice Department.
Khan also provided details about how he would cross the border from Canada and said he was considering conducting the attacks on either the Oct. 7 anniversary or on Oct. 11, which is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, authorities said.
On Aug. 20, he told the undercover officers that he had settled on targeting New York because of its sizeable Jewish population and sent a photograph of the specific area inside a Jewish center where he planned to carry out the attack, according to the Justice Department.
His online messages described the Brooklyn site, which is not named in court documents, as “the ultra orthodox hasidic jews world headquarters,” according to authorities.
A spokesperson for the Chabad-Lubavitch, an influential Hasidic Jewish movement headquartered Brooklyn’s Crown Heights section, didn’t immediately comment Friday.
Khan began making his way to the US on Wednesday morning from the Toronto area in a car that also picked up additional passengers, according to the federal complaint unsealed Friday.
The group switched cars around Nepanee and again around Montreal, before their vehicle was eventually stopped around Ormstown, a town in the province of Quebec that is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the international border, the complaint states.

Topics: Shahzeb Khan Daesh ISIS

Related

Update Daesh claims responsibility for knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed 3
World
Daesh claims responsibility for knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed 3
Iraqi teen detained in Vienna after Taylor Swift attack plot foiled
World
Iraqi teen detained in Vienna after Taylor Swift attack plot foiled

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris
Updated 07 September 2024
AP
Follow

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris
  • Cheney, who was VP from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush, says Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump “can never be trusted with power again”
  • Several other top Republicans have come out in support of Harris while some, including Sen. Mitt Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence, say they won’t be voting for Trump
Updated 07 September 2024
AP

CHEYENNE, Wyoming: Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, will vote for Kamala Harris for president, he announced Friday.
Liz Cheney, who herself endorsed Harris on Wednesday, first announced her father’s endorsement when asked by Mark Leibovich of The Atlantic magazine during an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
“Wow,” Leibovich replied as the audience cheered.
Like his daughter, Dick Cheney has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, notably during Liz Cheney’s ill-fated reelection campaign in 2022.
Dick Cheney put out a statement Friday confirming his endorsement, which read almost entirely as opposition to Trump rather than support of Harris.
“He can never be trusted with power again,” the statement said. “As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Trump responded on his Truth Social platform by calling the former vice president “an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter.” The acronym stands for “Republican in name only.”
Asked for comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “Who is Liz Cheney?”
The campaign confirmed Cheung was being sarcastic by also pointing to a comment Liz Cheney posted online four years ago in which she called Harris a “radical liberal.”
Dick Cheney, 83, has made few if any public appearances over the past year or more. He has dealt with heart issues since his 40s and underwent a heart transplant in 2012.
Dick Cheney’s statement Friday was similar to a 2022 campaign ad for Liz Cheney as she sought a fourth term as Wyoming’s lone congressperson. In it, he called Trump a “coward” for trying to “steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”
The ad did little good for his daughter in a deep-red state that once held the Cheney family dear but is now thoroughly in Trump’s corner. By a more than 2-to-1 margin, Liz Cheney lost her Republican primary to Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman.
Dick Cheney has been friends with Democrats over the years but never supported one for president.
Both Cheneys backed Trump in 2016, but after Liz Cheney criticized Trump foreign policy decisions and Trump criticized the “endless wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq launched when Dick Cheney was vice president, their support waned.
If either Cheney supported Trump in 2020, they were mum about it. Meanwhile, their home state of Wyoming that year delivered Trump his widest margin of victory.
By 2021, Liz Cheney’s vote to impeach Trump and her investigation into him for the 2021 US Capitol riot made them irredeemable to Trump — and soon most of the GOP.
There were exceptions. One was Cheney ally Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a Republican Trump critic who earlier this year endorsed Biden and spoke in support of Harris at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Several other top Republicans have come out in support of Harris while some, including Sen. Mitt Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence, say they won’t be voting for Trump.
Of them only Romney, who is not seeking reelection, is still in office.

Topics: US Election 2024 Dick Cheney Kamala Harris Donald Trump

Related

Trump says US colleges could lose accreditation over ‘antisemitic propaganda’ if he’s elected
World
Trump says US colleges could lose accreditation over ‘antisemitic propaganda’ if he’s elected
Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris
World
Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris

Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for ‘all the right reasons’ while condemning Hamas

Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for ‘all the right reasons’ while condemning Hamas
Updated 07 September 2024
AP
Follow

Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for ‘all the right reasons’ while condemning Hamas

Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for ‘all the right reasons’ while condemning Hamas
  • Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, has stepped up its outreach to Arab and Muslim American leaders in Michigan, aiming to make up ground with a community that had grown exasperated with Biden after they felt months of outreach had not yielded many results
Updated 07 September 2024
AP

WASHINGTON: Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said Thursday that those protesting American support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza are doing so for “all the right reasons,” as the Democratic ticket looks to balance its support for Israel with the humanitarian plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.
Walz’ comments came in an interview with a local Michigan public radio station — a state with a large Muslim American population that is also a potentially pivotal swing state in this November’s election. His comments appeared to mark tonal shift, though not a policy one, from the steadfast support for Israel that Vice President Kamala Harris espoused at the Democratic National Convention last month.
Walz said the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that touched off the war, was “a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They certainly have the right to defend themselves.” But, he also said that, “we can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves.”
During the interview, Walz was also asked how a Harris administration might handle the nearly 11-month Israel-Hamas conflict and whether she would break with President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel while working to broker a ceasefire and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas.
Walz made no mention of the six hostages, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who were executed last week in Gaza by Hamas as Israeli forces drew near. Nor did he mention the protests that involve violence and vandalism and are frequently directed at Jewish Americans.
Harris, who has spoken more passionately of the plight of Palestinians civilians in Gaza than Biden, has pledged to continue longstanding support for Israel. In a statement after the hostages’ bodies were identified, Harris said that the “threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel— and American citizens in Israel— must be eliminated” and that “Hamas cannot control Gaza.”
Speaking at a vigil for the hostages at his synagogue in Washington on Tuesday, Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff said, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Hersh and his parents, or about the five others and their families.” He added: “This is hard. I feel raw. I’m gutted.”
Although the vice president has appeared more forceful in speaking about the plight of civilians in Gaza, she and Biden are in step on his efforts to arm Israel and bring about a hostage deal and ceasefire. Harris and Biden met earlier this week in the White House Situation Room with the US hostage deal negotiating team.
Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, has stepped up its outreach to Arab and Muslim American leaders in Michigan, aiming to make up ground with a community that had grown exasperated with Biden after they felt months of outreach had not yielded many results. Some have expressed a willingness to listen while others have had initial conversations with Harris’ team.
Harris previously said that it was important to remember “the war in Gaza is not a binary issue. However, too often the conversation is binary, when the reality is anything but.”
Hostage families have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of blocking a deal and potentially sacrificing their loved ones to hold a strip along Gaza’s border with Egypt, called the Philadelphi corridor. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis this week took to the streets and called for a deal, saying time is running out to bring hostages home alive.
Biden said this week they are still negotiating.

 

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Gaza US 2024 US Elections

Related

Displaced Gazans face dire conditions in hospital courtyard
Middle-East
Displaced Gazans face dire conditions in hospital courtyard
German minister says ‘purely military approach’ not the solution in Gaza
Middle-East
German minister says ‘purely military approach’ not the solution in Gaza

US sees potential Iran transfer of missiles to Russia as alarming

US sees potential Iran transfer of missiles to Russia as alarming
Updated 07 September 2024
Reuters
Follow

US sees potential Iran transfer of missiles to Russia as alarming

US sees potential Iran transfer of missiles to Russia as alarming
  • The potential moves come after the United States and partners, including in Europe, warned that such a step by Iran could meet with consequences
Updated 07 September 2024
Reuters

WASHINGTON: Any Iranian transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would mark a sharp escalation in the Ukraine war, the United States said on Friday, following reports that the two countries had deepened ties in recent weeks with such an arms transfer.
Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine.
Short-range missiles have now been delivered to Russia by Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing an unnamed US official.
“We have been warning of the deepening security partnership between Russia and Iran since the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are alarmed by these reports,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett.
“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Another US official told Reuters they were watching the potential Iranian-Russian missile transfers closely.
The potential moves come after the United States and partners, including in Europe, warned that such a step by Iran could meet with consequences. The Western countries have been watching Iran and Russia’s deepening ties in recent months with increasing concern.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said on Friday that Tehran’s position on the Ukraine conflict was unchanged.
“Iran considers the provision of military assistance to the parties engaged in the conflict — which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure, and a distancing from ceasefire negotiations — to be inhumane,” it said.
“Thus, not only does Iran abstain from engaging in such actions itself, but it also calls upon other countries to cease the supply of weapons to the sides involved in the conflict,” the mission said.

 

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Iran

Related

US sanctions three Iran weapons-procurement networks
Middle-East
US sanctions three Iran weapons-procurement networks
Zelensky appeals for weapons as Russia advances
World
Zelensky appeals for weapons as Russia advances

Latest updates

British PM Starmer visits Ireland seeking to reset relations after election win; sets US trip next week
British PM Starmer visits Ireland seeking to reset relations after election win; sets US trip next week
Thirteen Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, WAFA says
Thirteen Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, WAFA says
Pakistani charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack
Pakistani charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack
UN investigator accuses Israel of a ‘starvation campaign’ in Gaza that Netanyahu denies
UN investigator accuses Israel of a ‘starvation campaign’ in Gaza that Netanyahu denies
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.