The administration of US President George W. Bush has indicated it may support Israel's new proposal for a unilateral withdrawal from parts of Gaza and the West Bank, the New York Times said yesterday.
Citing unnamed US and Israeli officials, the newspaper said the administration is "taking a close look" at the policy, and that the president would send three senior aides to Israel next week to get questions answered before the proposal was endorsed.
But administration and Israeli officials say they expect a favorable US response, the report said.
In the past, the Bush administration has maintained that peace can be achieved in the Middle East only by reciprocal concessions agreed upon in negotiations between Israel and Palestinian officials.
Embracing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan would depart from that principle by accepting the idea that such negotiations are not possible, at least for now, the Times said.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Thursday that a pullout from Gaza would be "a step in the right direction."
Another official said the withdrawal plan, if implemented properly, "could reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians and improve Palestinian freedom of movement," the paper reported.
The Israeli plan calls for withdrawing Israeli troops and dismantling Jewish settlements in parts of Gaza and the West Bank.
US officials have previously expressed concern that it would in effect mean abandoning the idea of negotiating with Palestinian officials to achieve final statehood.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS