All parties are watching closely! "Tensions are approaching boiling point"
2024-08-15
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Gaza ceasefire talks were held on the 15th. All parties kept a close eye on the military movements between Iran and Israel, and tensions in the Middle East were "approaching a boiling point"!
"Only an agreement reached in the Gaza ceasefire talks this week can prevent Iran from directly retaliating against Israel," Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official as saying on the 14th. US President Biden then said that if a ceasefire agreement in Gaza can be reached in the next few days, he expects Iran to postpone its retaliation against Israel. Since the assassination of Haniyeh, the leader of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), in Tehran on July 31, when and how Iran will retaliate against Israel has become the focus of attention of all parties. The United States and Qatar tried their best to mediate Israel and Hamas to participate in the ceasefire talks in Gaza on the 15th, but the reality that Gaza is bombed by Israel every day continues. Fox News said that tensions in the Middle East are "approaching a boiling point." At this sensitive moment, the United States approved the sale of $20 billion worth of weapons to Israel on the 13th, which aroused criticism; Israel's Minister of National Security led people to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the focus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which aroused anger from regional countries and condemnation from the United States and the European Union. On the 13th, Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations Fu Cong said at the UN Security Council's emergency open meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli issue that when the United States promoted Security Council Resolution 2735 two months ago, it claimed that Israel had accepted the ceasefire agreement, but the reality is just the opposite. We have not seen credible signs that Israel is committed to a ceasefire, but instead, there are expanding military operations and rising civilian casualties.
US approves $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, Israeli minister breaks into Al-Aqsa Mosque
Reuters said Iran accused Israel of being behind the assassination of Haniyeh, vowed to launch a retaliatory strike against it, and rejected Western calls for it to "exercise restraint." An unnamed senior Iranian security official told Reuters that if the Gaza ceasefire negotiations fail or Iran believes that Israel is delaying the negotiations, Iran will launch a direct attack on Israel together with its allies such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
"US diplomats are trying their best to avoid a full-scale war in the Middle East," AFP reported on the 14th. US envoy Hochstein visited Lebanon that day and said he had reached an agreement with Lebanese officials that both sides believed that "no more time can be wasted" and "no party has any reason to delay reaching a ceasefire framework agreement in Gaza." Axios News Network said that the United States, Egypt and Qatar called on Israel and Hamas to participate in the final round of "decisive negotiations" in Doha on the 15th to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza. The White House is extremely worried that if Iran and Hezbollah attack Israel in the next few days, the negotiations will be disrupted and the agreement will be strangled.
While calling for a ceasefire, the US State Department continued arms sales. On the 13th, it announced that it had approved the sale of $20 billion worth of weapons to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter jets, advanced air-to-air missiles and military vehicles, and it is expected that the fighter jets will be delivered in 2029. Agence France-Presse said that the US government's announcement of arms sales to Israel at this time has aroused criticism. Human rights organizations and some left-wing members of the Democratic Party urged the government to restrict or stop selling weapons to Israel. Paul, the head of the Middle East human rights organization "Dawn", said: "(The United States) approved tens of billions of dollars in new arms deals, which is actually authorizing Israel to continue its atrocities in Gaza and spread the conflict to Lebanon."
Qatar's Al Jazeera TV said on the 14th that the US-based non-governmental organization "Jewish Voice of Peace" used UN satellite data to draw a map marking more than 70,000 bombs dropped by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, and stated that Israel attacked "almost every inch of Gaza" with US-made bombs.
The actions of some Israeli government officials also added fuel to the fire. According to Agence France-Presse, on the 13th, the Israeli government's far-right National Security Minister Ben-Gvir ignored the ban on Jews praying in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and led more than 2,000 people into the mosque, sparking international condemnation. During the period, he also filmed a video vowing to "defeat Hamas" and opposed the ceasefire in Gaza.
"Al Arabiya TV" said that the Israeli Minister of National Security led people to forcibly break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray. This move was like "a stone that stirs up a thousand waves", arousing anger throughout the Arab world. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation expressed strong condemnation, calling it a "provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world." The United States, the European Union and the United Nations also criticized it. US Secretary of State Blinken said that Ben-Gvir "blatantly ignored" the current situation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, "At this critical moment, everyone's attention should be focused on diplomatic efforts." He urged Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop such actions.
“Hunger cannot be a weapon”
On the 13th, the UN Security Council held an emergency public meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, with all parties exchanging sharp words. According to the UN News Network, DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said at the meeting that the threat of further escalation of the regional situation has become more obvious and chilling than ever before, as the (Gaza) conflict has lasted for 10 months.
Palestinian Permanent Observer to the United Nations Mansour said at the meeting that "Israel does not care about condemnation at all", "Israel has denied the Security Council's resolution and even refused to listen to the Security Council's debate", and "the Israeli representative was playing with his mobile phone while representatives of Security Council member states were speaking."
Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said that last week Israel attacked Tabin School in Gaza, killing hundreds of innocent civilians, and China strongly condemned it. In the past 10 months, millions of people in Gaza have had their homes destroyed and their families separated. They have been forced to move from one place to another in order to find a peaceful corner, but what awaits them is indiscriminate bombing and death at any time. There is no safe place in Gaza now. Khan Yunis was once declared a so-called "safe zone" by Israel, but now the people there are facing new bombing attacks and are forced to flee. The desperate people of Gaza are looking forward to knowing where the war will end and where the hope of survival is.
Fu Cong said that the humanitarian disaster in Gaza continues to worsen, and hunger and diseases are spreading rapidly. Recently, a senior Israeli politician said that "it is reasonable and moral to let 2 million Gazans starve to death." This appalling statement is totally unacceptable. Hunger cannot be used as a weapon, humanitarian issues cannot be politicized, and civilian lives cannot be used as bargaining chips. He said that the United States, as the largest arms supplier, has sufficient influence on Israel. We hope that the United States will take sincere and responsible actions to push Israel to stop its military operations in Gaza as soon as possible and stop killing civilians.
According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Polyansky criticized the United States at the Security Council meeting on the 13th. He said that due to the United States' connivance with Israel, the Security Council has not been able to make a clear response to the escalation of the Middle East crisis so far. "The Security Council is essentially becoming more and more like a passive and powerless bystander. All it can do is to express its concern about the deterioration of the situation in a more and more helpless and polite manner."
'Last ray of hope'
Egypt's Al Dawn newspaper published an article on the 14th saying that the international community now has only "one last ray of hope" to prevent the Middle East powder keg from exploding again. The article said that on the political chessboard of the Middle East, the situation is evolving rapidly, like a high-stakes poker game, and every move may trigger a wider conflict.
France's Le Monde warned that if a new round of ceasefire talks in Gaza fails to produce positive results, the situation in the Middle East could be heading for a dangerous path. Recent developments could be the last chance to avoid a wider escalation of the conflict. The Financial Times quoted a "source familiar with the thinking of the Iranian leadership" as saying that Tehran wants to know whether Israel will make concessions on the Gaza issue before taking any escalatory measures. The source said Iran is waging a continuous psychological warfare against Israel, with the aim of keeping Israel's military, security and logistical capabilities on alert at all times, aiming to deprive Israelis of a sense of calm and stability, thereby exacerbating internal and external tensions.
The British "Guardian" published an article on the 13th saying that if Iran decides to launch a powerful attack on Israel, it may fall into a trap set by Netanyahu, who is trying to use any Iranian response to strengthen its internal and external political position, which may jeopardize Gaza's peace efforts and lead to a broad escalation of the regional situation.
"The situation in the Middle East has reached a boiling point," Turkey's Yetkin News reported. On the 12th, Blinken called Turkish Foreign Minister Feddan and asked Turkey to use its influence to get Hamas to return to the negotiation table with Israel on the 15th. But the fact is that neither Israel nor Hamas is ready. On the other hand, the United States has deployed new aircraft carriers and F-22 fighter jets to the eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. "Bringing so many weapons to such a far place has a price. No army will deploy weapons to a certain place for no reason."
Huang Peizhao, special correspondent of Global Times in Egypt; Yu Wen, special correspondent of Global Times
