U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy arrive at the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, September 11, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy arrived in Kyiv on a joint visit Wednesday (September 11, 2024), as Ukraine presses the West to allow it to use long-range missiles against Russia.

The top diplomats reached the Ukrainian capital by train hours after the U.S. presidential debate during which Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump sparred over the 2 1/2-year war in Ukraine.

Mr. Blinken travelled from London, where he accused Iran of providing Russia with Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move a “dramatic escalation” of the war.

For months, Ukraine has been requesting approval to use long-range weapons from the United States and Western allies to strike targets in Russia and is expected to press harder given Russia’s latest reported weapons acquisition.

Also Read: Trump vows to end Russia-Ukraine war if elected as U.S. President

“If we are allowed to destroy military targets or weapons prepared by the enemy for attacks on Ukraine, it would certainly bring more safety for our civilians, our people, and our children,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a news conference in Kyiv on Tuesday (September 10, 2024). “We are working towards this and will continue to push for it every day.”

Referring to the missiles from Iran, he added, “Russia’s use of weapons from its terrorist allies to strike at Ukraine continues their genocidal war and terrorism on our territory. We must be able to respond to such terrorism in kind by destroying military targets on their territory to ensure greater safety for our citizens.”

Wednesday’s (September 11, 2024) visit comes ahead of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s upcoming trip to Washington, where he will meet President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday (September 13, 2024).

Russian airstrikes, mostly aimed at crippling Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, have intensified in recent weeks with nightly missile and drone attacks.

As Mr. Blinken and Mr. Lammy arrived in Kyiv, the U.K. announced it was banning 10 commercial ships it accuses of illicitly transporting Russian oil in violation of international sanctions. The U.K. government said the vessels would be barred from British ports and could be detained if they enter.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge differences holding up a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza. He called on Hamas to do the same.

Mr. Blinken on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) was on his ninth urgent mission to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began more than 10 months ago. He did not say whether the “bridging proposal” addressed concerns cited by Hamas.

Even if the militant group accepts the proposal, negotiators will spend the coming days working on “clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Mr. Blinken said. He said there are still “complex issues” requiring “hard decisions by the leaders,” without offering specifics.

Mr. Blinken is traveling to Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) for further negotiations after meetings in Israel on Monday (August 19, 2024).

His visit came days after mediators, including the United States, expressed renewed optimism that a deal was close. His trip also came amid fears the conflict could widen into a deeper regional war following the killings of top militant commanders in Lebanon that Iran blamed on Israel.

Here’s the latest:

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7 attack that started the Gaza war.

The military said in a statement Tuesday (August 20, 2024) that its forces recovered the bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza. It identified the hostages as Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry, without saying when or how they died.

The recovery came as the the United States, Egypt and Qatar are trying to mediate a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that would see the release of scores of hostages held by the militant group.

Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages captured in the October 7 attack. Israeli authorities estimate around a third of them are dead.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said that a barrage of 55 rockets from Lebanon has ignited fires in northern Israel.

The military said Tuesday (August 20, 2024) that only some of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems, while others fell in open areas. Firefighters were working to contain the blazes.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said it fired “intense barrages of missiles” at military positions in Israel’s north. Israel said it struck the areas where the missiles were launched in Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since October 8, causing widespread damage on both sides of the border and killing civilians and combatants on both sides.

Fears have increased in recent weeks of a larger escalation, with Hezbollah vowing retaliation for an Israeli strike last month in Beirut that killed one of its top commanders.

JERUSALEM — The bodies of two hostages were returned from the Gaza Strip, the communal farm they lived on announced Tuesday (August 20, 2024).

Kibbutz Nirim said that the bodies of Yagev Buchshtav and Nadav Popplewell had been returned to Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight. The kibbutz did not provide additional information and the Israeli military did not immediately confirm the information.

Israeli media reported that the two men — along with Avraham Munder, whose death his kibbutz announced Tuesday (August 20, 2024) — were part of a larger military hostage extraction operation overnight.

Popplewell was declared dead by the Israeli military in June. Hamas said in May that Popplewell had died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike. Israel’s military announced Buchshtav’s death in July.

The men were taken hostage by militants who stormed the border on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. About 110 hostages kidnapped that day remain in the strip. About a third of them are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

JERUSALEM — Another male hostage has died in Hamas captivity, his communal farming village announced Tuesday (August 20, 2024).

Kibbutz Nir Oz said that Avraham Munder had been killed while held hostage in Gaza “after enduring months of physical and mental torture.” It was not clear from the statement whether his body had been recovered. Israel’s military did not immediately confirm the information.

Of some 110 hostages remaining in Gaza who were captured in Hamas’ October 7 attack, around 40 are believed to be dead, their bodies held in Gaza.

The kibbutz remembered Mr. Munder for his “clear voice, warm smile, and boundless love for his family and the kibbutz.”

Militants kidnapped Mr. Munder on October 7 when they stormed Nir Oz, dragging some 80 of its residents back to Gaza.

Mr. Munder’s wife, daughter, and grandson were also taken hostage, but released during a brief cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. His son was killed on October 7.

In total, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, across southern Israel and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

UNITED NATIONS – From the early days of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan attacked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, accusing him of being “an accomplice to terrorism” and calling for his resignation.

Now, Israel has a new ambassador, and the U.N. chief is calling for “a constructive dialogue.”

However, Danny Danon, who served as Israel’s U.N. ambassador from 2015 to 2020 and presented his credentials to the secretary-general on Monday (August 19, 2024), made clear he would be following in Erdan’s footsteps when it comes to Israel’s views about the United Nations.

Mr. Danon said he’s returning to the U.N. at a time of “immense challenges” for Israel and its people, saying 115 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza and face “ongoing atrocities and suffering.”

“I am committed to represent my country to show the real face of Israel, and to push back the lies and the hypocrisy that we unfortunately have to deal with here at this building,” he said.

Neither the U.N. Security Council nor the General Assembly have condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people and triggered the war, though Guterres has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages. He has also criticised the killing of over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many women and children, mainly in Israeli airstrikes, as well as Israel’s obstruction to humanitarian aid deliveries.

For his part, Mr. Guterres said that “for the U.N., it is extremely important to have an objective relationship with Israel.”

“We have different points of view in many aspects in relation to the two-state solution, in relation to what has been happening recently,” Mr. Guterres said, “but that doesn’t mean that we should not have a constructive dialogue based on truth.”

BEIRUT — The Israeli army said it hit “a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities” in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley Monday (August 19, 2024) night.

At least three Israeli airstrikes hit towns in the Baalbek district, Lebanese state media reported.

Videos from the scene showed a large fire and multiple explosions following the initial strike.

“Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck,” the Israeli army statement said.

A spokesperson for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strike.

A similar scene took place last month after an Israeli airstrike on the southern coastal village of Adloun hit an arms depot, setting off a series of explosions that hit nearby villages with shrapnel.

Israel:

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same.

Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Palestinian operative group’s October 7 attack triggered the war with Israel, was scheduled to fly from Tel Aviv to El Alamein, the Mediterranean city famous for a World War II battle in 1942, to speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at his summer palace.

Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week.

Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict.

Washington put forward the latest proposal last week after the talks in Doha.

Blinken said Monday he had “a very constructive meeting” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal”.

Ahead of those talks, Hamas called on the mediators to implement the framework set out by US President Joe Biden in late May, rather than hold more negotiations.

The movement said on Sunday that the current US proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and leaves him “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators”.

Earlier on Monday, the US secretary of state had said: “This is a decisive moment — probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security”.

Months of on-off negotiations with US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have failed to produce an agreement.

Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for delays in reaching an accord that diplomats say would help avert a wider conflagration in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“There is, I think, a real sense of urgency here, across the region, on the need to get this over the finish line and to do it as soon as possible,” Blinken said.

The Biden administration is under domestic pressure over Gaza, with pro-Palestinian protests taking place outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.

Biden said in his farewell speech to the convention that the protesters “have a point”, adding that “a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides”.

Permanent ceasefire

Israel and Hamas have traded blame for delays in reaching a truce deal.

Hamas insisted on “a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”, saying Netanyahu wanted to keep Israeli forces at several strategic locations within the territory.

Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters who protested in Tel Aviv during Blinken’s visit, and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Netanyahu in order for an agreement to be reached.

Far-right members crucial to the prime minister’s governing coalition oppose any truce.

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 40,139 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and operative deaths.

Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

The Biden framework would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks while Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid enters Gaza.

Netanyahu said on Monday that negotiators were aiming to “release a maximum number of living hostages” in the first phase of any ceasefire.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Tel Aviv, Israel:

Israel’s prime minister, under pressure at home and from abroad to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas, on Sunday accused the Hamas operatives of obstinance in Gaza truce talks as top US diplomat Antony Blinken landed in Israel.

Making his ninth trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war began when Hamas attacked Israel in October, the US secretary of state is to meet Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in a renewed bid to seal a deal that could help avert a wider conflagration.

Blinken is later set to travel on Tuesday to Cairo, where ceasefire talks will resume in the coming days.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday reiterated that it is Palestinian Islamist group Hamas that must be pressured.

“Hamas, up to this moment, remains obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure should be directed at Hamas and (Yahya) Sinwar, not at the Israeli government,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, referring to the Hamas chief.

Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters protesting in Israel, and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Netanyahu in order that an agreement be reached.

Far-right members crucial to his governing coalition oppose any truce.

Ahead of Blinken’s visit, the foreign ministers of Britain and France were on Friday also in Israel to stress the urgency of a Gaza deal.

In late May, US President Joe Biden laid out a framework which he said was proposed by Israel. The UN Security Council later endorsed the proposal, which would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks as Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid enters the besieged Gaza Strip.

Ahead of the truce talks in Doha last Thursday and Friday, Hamas called on mediators to implement the Biden framework rather than holding more negotiations.

Hamas also announced its opposition to what it called “new conditions” from Israel.

On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office in a statement said Israeli negotiators have expressed “cautious optimism” about reaching a Gaza truce deal.

US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have also reported progress and a US official said remaining gaps were “bridgeable”.

But after Biden said “we are closer than we have ever been” to a deal, Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed as “an illusion” such optimistic talk.

Previous announcements that a deal was close during the months of on-off truce negotiations proved unfounded.

But the stakes have risen since the late July killings in quick succession of Iran-backed militant leaders, including Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, and as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, deepened with a feared polio outbreak.

Israeli evacuation orders have “reduced the safe zone” in the south of the territory, leaving “no more space” for displaced Palestinians, said Samah Dib, 32.

Some people “are sleeping on the street” while clean water is scarce and “there’s food at the markets, but it’s very expensive and we have no money left”, said Dib, who like almost all Gazans is among the displaced.

As efforts towards a long-sought truce continued, so has the violence in Gaza but also in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hamas’s Iran-backed ally Hezbollah have traded near-daily fire throughout the war. They did so again on Sunday.

The rumble of tanks

Civil defence rescuers in Hamas-run Gaza reported seven killed in Israeli bombardment of Deir el-Balah and four others in air strikes on the northern Jabalia refugee camp.

The latest killings helped push the Gaza health ministry’s war death count to 40,099.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that started the war resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The Israeli military said troops continued operations in central and southern Gaza and “eliminated” operatives in Rafah, on the territory’s border with Egypt.

From the Israeli-designated safe zone in southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi, Lina Saleha, 44, said she could hear “constant artillery shelling” and the rumble of tanks “getting closer.”

“That’s not a good sign and we’re terrified and afraid,” she said.

In the West Bank, Israel said late Saturday it had killed “two senior Hamas officials” in Jenin. Hamas’s armed wing confirmed the deaths of two militants.

In Lebanon, the UN said three peacekeepers were lightly injured in a blast in the country’s south.

Calls for ‘pressure’

Iran and its regional allies have vowed retaliation for Haniyeh’s death in Tehran — which Israel has not claimed responsibility for — and for an Israeli strike in Beirut that killed a top Hezbollah commander.

In Israel, Blinken will seek to “conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and release of hostages and detainees”, the State Department said.

Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 111 are still held in Gaza including 39 the military says are dead. More than 100 were freed during a one-week truce in November.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club watchdog said that since the Gaza war began, Israeli forces have detained “more than 10,000 Palestinians” in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in 1967.

At a rally in the Israeli city of Haifa on Saturday, Guri Lotto, 51, said he was protesting to “put pressure on the government” to secure a hostage release deal and end the war.

A US official travelling with Blinken said on condition of anonymity that “the feeling is… that various sticking points that existed before are bridgeable, and that work’s going to continue”.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will join their Japanese counterparts Yoko Kamikawa and Minoru Kihara, at the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee, known as “2+2” security talks. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Japanese and U.S. defence chiefs and top diplomats will meet in Tokyo on July 28 for talks aimed at further bolstering their military cooperation, including by upgrading the command and control of U.S. forces and strengthening American-licensed missile production in Japan, amid a rising threat from China.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will join their Japanese counterparts, Yoko Kamikawa and Minoru Kihara, at the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee, known as “2+2” security talks, to reaffirm their alliance following President Joe Biden ‘s withdrawal from the November Presidential race.

For the first time, the Ministers will hold separate talks to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to “extended deterrence,” which includes atomic weapons — a shift from Japan’s earlier reluctance to openly discuss the sensitive issue in the world’s only country to have suffered nuclear attacks — amid growing nuclear threats from Russia and China.

The Ministers are expected to discuss plans to upgrade command and control structures for U.S. forces in Japan by bringing in higher-ranked officers with commanding authority to create a U.S. counterpart for Japan’s unified command currently set for inauguration in March.

Japan is home to more than 50,000 U.S. troops, but a commander for the U.S. Forces Japan headquartered in Yokota in the western suburbs of Tokyo, tasked with managing their bases, has no commanding authority. Instead that comes from the Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. “The plan to upgrade USFJ’s command and control capability is designed to help smooth joint exercises and operations,” officials say.

Ahead of the 2+2 talks, Mr. Kihara met with Austin and South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik for their first trilateral defence talks hosted by Tokyo and signed a memorandum based on their June agreement in Singapore that institutionalises their regular high-level talks, joint exercises and other exchanges.

Defence officials said the memorandum serves as the basis for future defence cooperation among the three countries despite possible changes of leadership, while showcasing their unity.

“The signing of this memorandum makes our trilateral cooperation unwavering even under changing global environments,” Mr. Kihara told reporters.

Mr Kihara also met Shin, who is the first South Korean defence chief to visit Japan in 15 years, and they agreed to take concrete steps to deepen their bilateral defence ties.

Japan has been accelerating its military buildup and has increased joint operations with the U.S., as well as with South Korea, while trying to strengthen its largely domestic defence industry.

Japan has significantly eased its arms export restrictions and in December accommodated a U.S. request for shipment of surface-to-air PAC-3 missile interceptors produced in Japan under an American license to replenish U.S. inventories, which have decreased due to its support for Ukraine.

The Ministers are also expected to discuss increased Japanese production of PAC-3 interceptors for export to the United States.

Japan and the U.S. have been accelerating arms industry cooperation following an April agreement between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Joe Biden. The two sides have set up working groups for missile co-production and for the maintenance and repair of U.S. Navy ships and Air Force aircraft in the region.

While Japan’s role is largely designed to help U.S. weapons supply and keep its deterrence credible in the Indo-Pacific amid continuing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, Japanese officials say it will help strengthen the Japanese defence industry.

Washington, United States:

Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within “one or two weeks,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

News of Iran’s capabilities follows the recent election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has said his goal is to “get Iran out of its isolation,” and who favors reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers.

Blinken said that “what we’ve seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that’s actually moving forward” with its nuclear program.

The United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal, which was designed to regulate Iran’s atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

Speaking at a security forum in Colorado, Blinken blamed the collapse of the nuclear deal for the acceleration in Iran’s capabilities.

“Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, (Iran) is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said.

He added that Iran had not yet developed a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri told CNN earlier this week that his country remained committed to the deal, known as the JCPOA.

“We are still a member of JCPOA. America has not yet been able to return to the JCPOA, so the goal we are pursuing is the revival of the 2015 agreement,” he said. “We are not looking for a new agreement.”

Bagheri added that: “Neither I nor anyone else in Iran has not talked and will not talk about a new agreement. We have an agreement (signed) in 2015.”

Blinken made the statement just days after reports emerged that the US Secret Service increased security for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump weeks ago, after authorities learned of an alleged Iranian plot to kill him.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials on Monday of the “unacceptably high” civilian casualties in Israel’s bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, his spokesman said.

The Israeli military has launched several deadly attacks in recent days including on a refugee camp and multiple UN-run schools where civilians were sheltering.

In response, Hamas said it was pulling out of ceasefire negotiations, causing prospects for a truce and hostage release deal to dwindle further.

Mr. Blinken received two influential Israeli officials — Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi — “to express our serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza.”

Casualties “still remain unacceptably high. We continue to see far too many civilians killed in this conflict,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed more than 90 people in the al-Mawasi camp near Khan Yunis, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.

AFP reported sirens wailing and women screaming as children were pulled bloody and unmoving from the wreckage in Al-Mawasi, which Israel had declared a “safe zone”.

The Israeli military said the bombardment targeted two people — the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, and his close associate Rafa Salama who the army said was killed.

A Hamas official said Sunday that Deif was “well and directly overseeing” operations, though doubts remained.

The two Israeli officials told Blinken that “they do not have certainty yet” about Deif’s fate, according to Miller.

The bilateral discussions also focused on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, humanitarian aid for Gaza and post-war plans, he said.

The visit comes several few days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to address the US Congress on July 24.

“We continue to hear from Israel directly that they want to reach a ceasefire and that they’re committed to the proposal that they put forward,” Miller said.

The United States has strongly defended Israel since the October 7 attacks by Hamas, in which 1,195 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

During the attack, the militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.

Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 38,584 people, also mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Gaza health ministry.

U.S. President Joe Biden has been under mounting political pressure over the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“We are incredibly troubled by the ongoing deaths of Palestinians in Gaza,” Miller said Monday, when asked about US weapons provided to Israel.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (L) looks on during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on the sidelines of the NATO Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on July 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet on July 10 in Washington for a fresh round of U.S.-mediated talks, Yerevan and Washington announced, as the arch-foe neighbours negotiate a peace agreement.

The Caucasus rivals fought two wars — in the 1990s and in 2020 — over control of Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which had been predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians.

Last autumn, Baku recaptured the mountainous enclave in a one-day offensive that led to the exodus of its entire Armenian population — more than 1,00,000 people.

Years of internationally mediated peace talks between Baku and Yerevan have failed to produce a breakthrough, but the two countries’ leaders said recently that a comprehensive peace deal is within reach.

“A trilateral meeting between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be held on July 10,” Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ani Badalyan said.

The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington, she added.

The meeting was listed on Mr. Blinken’s official schedule for Wednesday, 10:15 a.m. (1415 GMT), according to the U.S. Department of State’s website.

State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. continues “to work for a diplomatic resolution” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, but refused to provide further details about the planned talks.

Mr. Blinken has led repeated talks between the countries in hopes of averting further conflict.

Last week, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his country “needs a new constitution” because the current one “doesn’t reflect citizens’ vision of the relations with neighbouring countries”.

The statement came in response to Baku’s demand that Yerevan remove from its constitution a reference to the country’s 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, which proclaims Armenia’s unification with Karabakh as a national goal.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that reaching a peace agreement with Armenia is impossible until Armenia removes territorial claims to Karabakh from its constitution.

In May, Armenia returned to Azerbaijan four border villages that it had seized decades earlier, with Mr. Pashinyan saying the move was part of his efforts to secure peace with Azerbaijan.

Last month, Mr. Pashinyan said Yerevan was ready to sign a peace agreement with Baku “within a month”.

Mr. Aliyev said last week that the text of the agreement could be finalised within a matter of several months.

Washington:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel during a Monday meeting with its defense minister to avoid further escalation in Lebanon as they discussed efforts to reach a deal to free hostages in Gaza.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was on a visit to Washington seeking to reaffirm the value of ties with Israel’s top ally, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly chastised the United States for what he said was a delay in weapons deliveries.

In a two-hour meeting with Gallant at the State Department, Blinken discussed indirect diplomacy between Israel and Hamas on an agreement that “secures the release of all hostages and alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Blinken also “underscored the importance of avoiding further escalation of the conflict and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows both Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes,” Miller said in a statement.

Tensions have been rising with growing exchanges of fire between Israel and Lebanon’s Iranian-backed militant movement Hezbollah.

Netanyahu has said Israeli forces are winding up the most intense part of the Gaza war and will redeploy to the northern border, although he cast the move as defensive.

Gallant also met CIA chief Bill Burns, the key US pointman in negotiations to free hostages from Hamas.

“I would like to emphasize that it is Israel’s primary commitment to return the hostages, with no exception, to their families and homes,” Gallant said before starting his meetings.

“We will continue to make every possible effort to bring them home,” he said.

The minister made no further comment as he left the meeting with Blinken, as a few dozen protesters outside the State Department chanted to call him a “war criminal.”

– Arms shipment dispute –

President Joe Biden on May 31 laid out a plan for a ceasefire in Gaza and release of hostages.

Hamas, which launched the conflict with its October 7 attack on Israel, has come back with its own demands, and the United States hopes the gaps can be bridged.

Netanyahu, who has faced major protests calling for him to accept the deal, in recent days has annoyed the Biden administration by accusing Washington of cutting back arms and ammunition deliveries.

Gallant took a different tack, saying: “The alliance between Israel and the United States, led by the US over many years, is extremely important.”

Other than Israel’s own military, “our ties with the US are the most important element for our future from a security perspective,” he said.

Biden, who has faced criticism from parts of his own base over his support for Israel, held back a shipment that included heavy 2,000-pound bombs.

Netanyahu — who has close relations with Biden’s rivals in the Republican Party — told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that there was a “dramatic drop in the supply” of US weapons around four months ago.

Asked about his latest remark, Miller told reporters, “I don’t understand what that comment meant at all.”

“We have paused one shipment of high-payload munitions. That shipment remains on pause,” Miller told reporters.

“There are other weapons that we continue to provide Israel, as we have done going back years and years, because we are committed to Israel’s security. There has been no change in that,” Miller said.

Miller said the United States would also press Israel to work on longer-term arrangements after the end of the fighting.

“We don’t want to see in Rafah what we’ve seen in Gaza City and what we’ve seen in Khan Yunis, which is the end of major combat operations and then the beginning of Hamas reasserting control,” he said, referring to two other major cities targeted by Israel earlier in the war.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea and reaffirmed the “vital” importance of the Seoul-Washington alliance during phone talks with his South Korean counterpart, his spokesperson said.

The call between Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul came on Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty on their cooperation in defence and other areas during their summit in Pyongyang on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported.

“The Secretary condemned deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including ongoing arms transfers that violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and reaffirmed the vital importance of the ironclad US-South Korea alliance in promoting peace, security, and prosperity around the world,” Matthew Miller, the Spokesperson, said in a statement.

Blinken thanked Cho for Seoul’s continued support for Ukraine while the two sides agreed to continue working together to address the “complex and evolving” security challenges posed by North Korea, as well as to support peace and stability in the South China Sea, according to Miller.

This week’s summit between Putin and Kim has been a major source of concern for both Seoul and Washington due to its implications for regional and global security.

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