Clashes continue in Lebanon despite Israel and Hezbollah accepting US partial ceasefire plan

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By Laila Bassam, Maya Gebeily and Hatem Maher Reuters | Posted by TOE Lebanon announced a partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel on Monday in what would amount to a limited de-escalation of a conflict that has killed thousands of people and inflamed the broader U.S.-Israeli ‌war with Iran. According to Lebanon’s embassy in Washington, the agreement would not end the conflict in that country. But it calls for Israel ‌to refrain from strikes on Beirut and its suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, while the Iran-aligned group would halt its attacks on Israel. Hostilities in southern Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March, continued on Monday ​evening. Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel, and that no injuries were reported. U.S. President Donald Trump, who first announced the agreement, said Hezbollah, through intermediaries, had pledged not to attack Israel. No U.S. presid...
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Kremlin says pause in Ukraine peace talks ‘situational’

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By Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Antonov Reuters

The Kremlin said on Thursday that talks between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv on ending the war in Ukraine were on “situational pause” following the start of the Iran war, but Ukraine’s ‌president said new discussions were expected this weekend.

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war on his return to ‌the White House but has said efforts to resolve the conflict have been one of his biggest disappointments.

The Izvestia newspaper said in a front-page story that the Kremlin ​had confirmed a pause in talks on Ukraine and that war in the Middle East could push Kyiv towards compromise.

“This is a situational pause, for obvious reasons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the Izvestia report.

Peskov said that as soon as “our American partners” could pay more attention to Ukrainian affairs, Moscow hoped that the pause could end and that a new round of talks could take place.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ‌said it was time to end the pause ⁠and Washington had sent signals it was ready to continue negotiations. A Ukrainian negotiating team was already on its way to the U.S. for weekend talks.

“There has been a pause in the talks. It is time ⁠to end that, and we will do everything so that the talks can be truly meaningful,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

“The Ukrainian team … is already on the way and we expect a meeting on Saturday in the United States.”

It was not immediately clear what form the new talks would take ​and ​who would be taking part.

Izvestia said that talks on economic and investment cooperation ​with the United States, led by presidential envoy Kirill ‌Dmitriev, would continue.

Ukraine and Russia, which invaded its neighbour in 2022, held talks in Turkey last year and have conducted sessions with U.S. mediation in Abu Dhabi and Geneva this year. They remain far apart on Russia’s demand for Ukraine to cede control of the whole of its Donetsk region.

U.S. INTELLIGENCE CHIEF SAYS RUSSIA HAS UPPER HAND

Ukrainian and European leaders say Russia cannot be allowed to achieve its aims after what they cast as an imperial-style land grab and that Moscow could next attack a NATO member state if it wins. Moscow denies this.

U.S. Director ‌of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday ​that Russia had “maintained the upper hand in its war against Ukraine.”

“U.S.-led negotiations between Moscow ​and Kyiv are ongoing. Until such an agreement is met, ​Moscow is likely to continue fighting a war of attrition with the aim of degrading Kyiv’s ability and ‌will to resist,” Gabbard said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said ​he is open to discussing peace. ​He portrays the war as a watershed moment in relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/oqkfwT2

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