Israel

Blinken visits Israel during cease-fire

Published

3 years ago

May 25, 2021

Screen Shot 2021 05 25 at 10.48.11 AM scaled

Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel Tuesday to address tensions between Israel and Palestinian terror groups. The trip comes after weeks of rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and during a cease fire.

As noted by reporter Jackson Richman, the press release revealed he visited Jerusalem. The US recognized Israel’s capital when the embassy was moved to Jerusalem in 2018 under President Donald Trump.

.@StateDept transcripts for @SecBlinken's visits w/ @netanyahu and @Gabi_Ashkenazi have "Jerusalem" as the location, while Blinken's visit w/ US embassy staff has "Jerusalem, Israel" as the location. US recognizes Jerusalem as #Israel's capital, so all should read as the latter. pic.twitter.com/wW93kluQGj
— Jackson Richman (@jacksonrichman) May 25, 2021

Blinken will be in the area until Thursday. He promised to accomplish further peace-keeping during his trip.

“I’m here, as I said earlier, to reaffirm the strong commitment of United States to Israel’s security, to the partnership between us, to move forward now on dealing with the humanitarian situation in Gaza and also starting to rebuild, to re-engage with the Palestinian community and Palestinian Authority,” Blinken said alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi before their meeting. He was repeating his pledge from earlier with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and repeated himself again to the US embassy.

Blinken’s visit comes after many GOP lawmakers accused the Biden administration of not supporting Israel enough as an ally. The Secretary of State was involved in Israeli issues back in 2014. Netanyahu thanked him personally and publicly because he “supported us by having Iron Dome replenishments, a quarter of a billion dollars, that [Blinken] personally shepherded through the system very quickly.” He also thanked Blinken and Biden “for firmly supporting Israel’s right of self-defense.”

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.

China

Analysis: Biden unlikely to sanction Iran’s oil exports, gas prices ‘critical during an election year’

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Sara Carter Staff

Analysts say President Joe Biden is unlikely to “prompt dramatic sanctions action on Iran’s oil exports” due to “worries about boosting oil prices and angering top buyer China” according to Reuters.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, House Republican Representative Steve Scalise, said the administration had made it easier for Iran to sell its oil, generating revenues that were being used to “go fund terrorist activity.”

The Biden administration has maintained for months that among its primary goals is to keep the Gaza conflict between terror group Hamas and Israel from turning into a wider regional war. However, House Republican leaders accused President Joe Biden of failing to enforce existing measures and said they would take up this week a series of bills to sharpen sanctions on Iran.

Kimberly Donovan, a sanctions and anti-money laundering expert at the Atlantic Council, said that oil-related sanctions have not been strictly enforced in the past couple of years.

“I would not expect the administration to tighten enforcement in response to Iran’s missile and drone attacks against Israel over the weekend, mainly for concerns (that) could lead to increases in oil prices,” she said.

“The price of oil and ultimately the prices of gas at the pump become critical during an election year.”