The vote came after a series of speeches during which the majority of countries called on Russia to end the violence in Ukraine, which has continued for nearly one week.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N., urged countries to vote in favor of the resolution in an emotional address that ended with applause from the chamber.

“It’s already clear that the goal of Russia is not an occupation only. It is genocide,” Kyslytsya said.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., asked members to vote against the resolution and said Western powers were exerting pressure on other countries to vote in favor of it. Belarus and Syria were among the countries that spoke out against the resolution.

There was widespread international support for the resolution
Ultimately, the resolution passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 141-5 with 35 abstentions. The five countries that voted against it were Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea.

“The truth is that this war was one man’s choice and one man alone: President Putin. It was his choice to force hundreds of thousands of people to stuff their lives into backpacks and flee the country,” said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

“Those were President Putin’s choices. Now it is time to make ours. The United States is choosing to stand with the Ukrainian people,” she added.

The measure’s passage showed that “a global anti-Putin coalition has been formed and is functioning,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet after the vote.

“The world is with us. The truth is on our side. Victory will be ours!” Zelenskyy added.

Russia’s invasion has continued despite diplomatic pressure
The vote came amid multiple efforts to wall off Russia diplomatically, a surge in the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine, an initial estimate that the humanitarian effort within the country will cost more than $1 billion, and an emergency, often heated debate at the General Assembly. None of the diplomatic activities appeared to slow Russia’s attacks Wednesday morning, as new reports said Russian airstrikes had hit a regional police headquarters in Kharkiv, injuring three people.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, singling out Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in her speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, said the war was based on lies.

“Mr. Lavrov, you can deceive yourself, but you won’t deceive us. And you won’t deceive our people and you won’t deceive your own people,” she said.

Russian diplomats, including Nebenzia, have called the attacks against Ukraine a “special military operation” intended to defend two separatist regions.

“Russia is seeking to end this war,” Nebenzia said earlier this week.

The resolution “demands that the Russian Federation immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.” It also expresses “grave concern at reports of attacks on civilian facilities such as residences, schools, and hospitals, and of civilian casualties, including women, older persons, persons with disabilities, and children.”

Last week, Russia vetoed a similar resolution at the 15-member Security Council. It was mostly isolated: No other nation opposed it, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained. Eleven nations, including the United States, supported it.

“No state should be able to get away with what Russia got away with without facing diplomatic isolation,” Samuel Charap, a political scientist at the Rand Corp. said. “The question is, does it alter the course of the war, really? And there, it doesn’t seem likely.”

The United Arab Emirates assumed the rotating chair of the Security Council on Tuesday, and Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s permanent representative to the U.N., became president of the Security Council on Monday. She said Monday that the UAE’s abstention from the Security Council’s resolution would not affect how it chairs the panel.

“We must leave space for a diplomatic off-ramp,” she said. “Those countries that did abstain have those channels with President Putin and will use them to help.”

She did not say whether the UAE would abstain from Wednesday’s General Assembly vote. The United Arab Emirates did not co-sponsor the resolution.

Leaders say the war in Ukraine is creating a humanitarian crisis
Separately, the United Nations said on Tuesday it estimates the initial humanitarian and refugee needs will cost $1.7 billion. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said humanitarian agencies need $1.1 billion to fund emergency relief within Ukraine for the next three months. He also requested another $551 million to help pay for services for Ukrainians fleeing the country, especially in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.

The money, he said, would help people access health supplies, safe drinking water, shelter and protection.

“The most effective humanitarian relief is to silence the guns,” he said.

An estimated 650,000 people have fled Ukraine and entered European Union countries since Russia invaded last week. The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to allow them to stay for up to two years under a “temporary protection directive.” If approved by EU member states, Ukrainians would be allowed to work and children would be allowed to attend school within the entire EU.

“All those fleeing Putin’s bombs are welcome in Europe,” said EC President Ursula von der Leyen.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/02/1083872077/u-n-set-to-hold-vote-that-would-demand-russia-end-war-in-ukraine

The post The U.N. approves a resolution demanding that Russia end the invasion of Ukraine first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A mass demonstration in Pyongyang on 9 September 2021 to mark 73 years since the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Kim Won-jin/AFP via Getty Images)

North Korea is again following its old playbook, alternating between extending an olive branch or thorns, diplomacy or missile tests, all with the aim to extract concessions from the United States and South Korea.

After South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in proposed to declare an end to the Korean War in his address at the United Nations General Assembly, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un, praised Moon’s offer as an “admirable idea”. However, just four days later, the North tested a new hypersonic missile that experts deem could evade existing missile defence shields and need much less preparation time. North Korea then conducted a new anti-aircraft missile test, even though Kim Jong-un then kept his pledge of engagement by restoring the inter-Korean hotlines cut in August.

Pyongyang is indicating to Biden that there is a window of opportunity for engagement, but he needs to act fast before it closes.

Although Pyongyang has increased the intensity of its missile tests in the past two weeks, it still abides by the moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests reached with the United States under former president Donald Trump, leaving the diplomatic route open. There are many reasons behind North Korea’s mixed signals, including advancing its missile technology in an arms race with the South, putting pressure on Seoul to persuade the Biden administration to lift sanctions, and consolidating its status as a nuclear power.

Another overlooked factor behind Pyongyang’s moves has to do with the Biden administration’s lack of detail and lukewarm diplomatic bid to engage North Korea. Via its mixed signals, Pyongyang is indicating to Biden that there is a window of opportunity for engagement, but he needs to act fast before it closes, especially when the South Korean presidential election is just around the corner.

Despite Biden’s willingness to engage the North diplomatically without preconditions, his administration has not come up with any concrete offers to back up its own olive branch. Since the release of the administration’s North Korea review in April, US officials have given the same response to all of North Korea’s provocations, that Washington condemns the actions but remains open to dialogue. The United States has prioritized caution over an elaboration of its North Korea policy and has often reluctantly followed Seoul’s initiatives rather than coming up with its own.

Joe Biden must decide whether he will adopt Obama’s approach of strategic patience towards North Korea or Trump’s all-out diplomacy (Cameron Smith/White House)

The post With Biden’s lukewarm diplomacy, North Korea runs hot and cold first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

President Trump on Sunday said he has no plans to meet with the Iranian leaders at this week’s United Nations General Assembly.

“Nothing is ever off the table completely, but I have no intention of meeting with Iran,” Trump said as he departed the White House for events in Texas and Ohio before heading to New York City for the U.N. meetings.

Trump said he has about 15 meetings set up, but that Iran “is not one of them.”

The comments all but shut the door on a surprise meeting amid simmering tensions between the two countries. Trump has consistently indicated in recent weeks that he would not completely rule out a meeting with Iran’s leaders in New York City but said that it was unlikely he would have one.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told “Face the Nation” that he and Trump are “looking for a diplomatic resolution,” but added, “we’re prepared to do the things we need to do.”

The U.S. has in recent days taken additional steps to respond to the bombings of Saudi oil facilities, which administration officials have blamed on Iran.

The Trump administration on Friday morning slapped new sanctions on Iran’s central bank in response to the attacks.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper also announced Friday evening that Trump had approved the deployment of U.S. troops and missile defense equipment to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It was unclear how many troops would be deployed, but Pentagon officials signaled they would be in the region in a defensive posture to provide added security.

Iranian officials have ripped the move and asserted it will worsen tensions, which were raised last year when Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions.

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/462489-trump-i-have-no-intention-of-meeting-with-iran-at-un

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The post Syria Warns All Options on Table for Liberating Golan Heights from Israel first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

For the Syrian people, the last eight years have been excruciating. Hundreds of thousands of their fellow countrymen have perished in a civil war where being merciless is the rule rather than the exception. Tens of thousands of additional Syrians have been swept up by the Assad regime’s vast intelligence apparatus and detained in extraordinarily inhumane conditions. Syria’s economic productivity has plummeted; a once proud nation that served as the beating heart of Arabism now lies in ruins, its future dictated by foreigners. Estimates of the cost for reconstruction are as high as $400 billion, a price tag Syria won’t be able to afford for perhaps as long as a generation.

Bashar al-Assad is only one villain in this tragic story, but he is by far the biggest one. With the notable exceptions of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria, the Arab world has blamed Assad for destroying his country in order to save himself. In November 2011, when Syria’s violence was only eight months old, the Arab League voted to suspend the Assad regime’s membership—only the third time in the League’s history that the group suspended one of its members (the first occurred in 1979, when Egypt was iced out after Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel). Weeks later, the Arab League placed economic sanctions on Syria, cutting off commercial trade with Damascus and restricting the travel of senior Syrian officials.

Nearly eight full years of war, however, have significantly changed the Arab world’s perception of the Assad regime. Years earlier, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar were sending weapons to multiple Syrian rebel groups for the express purpose of bloodying Assad’s nose and pushing the Syrian dictator to the peace table. That support, however, paled in comparison to what Russia and Iran offered to the Syrian government; Assad’s forces (backstopped by Iranian-organized foreign Shia fighters) have been retaking territory from the very moment the Russian Air Force entered the war in 2015. If it weren’t for a last-minute deal hashed out last month between Russia and Turkey, which stabilized the front lines outside Idlib, the armed opposition would be in an even weaker position.

While many Arab leaders would have loved to oust Assad and hand Iran a major strategic setback, all are now of the mindset that the Syrian dictator isn’t going anywhere. During the moribund UN peace talks last year, the Saudis reportedly pressed the opposition delegation to be more realistic in what they could achieve: to Riyadh, an Assad-free Syria was no longer a possibility. Assad’s opponents in the Persian Gulf have seen the handwriting on the wall for a while, and the message was that the Assad regime has largely snuffed out all attempts to usher in a post-Assad Syria.

The same Arab powers that once aided the anti-Assad rebellion with cash, ammunition, political support and weapons are now coming around to normalizing their relationship with Damascus. The motto appears to be “if you can’t beat him, join him.”

The Syrian foreign minister, reviled as a delusional pariah and chief representative to a criminal regime, is now meeting some of his colleagues again. Business as usual is slowly becoming standard. During the United Nations General Assembly, he greeted his Bahraini colleague with a warm embrace, something that would have been inconceivable years earlier. Syrian officials are now in talks with Baghdad to reopen the main Albu Kamal border crossing between the two nations. The Iraqis, never particularly supportive of the anti-Assad rebellion to begin with, are discussing Syria in terms of reconciling it with the rest of the Arab world. After a meeting in Damascus last week, Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari all but pleaded for the region to end its isolation of the Assad government and offer the Syrian dictator an olive branch. “No one can marginalize Syria,” Jaafari said, “and I raised the necessity of its return to the Arab League.”

Bashar al-Assad told a Kuwaiti newspaper earlier this month that there is “ a major understanding ” between himself and his fellow Arab leaders. Apparently, this understanding includes moves towards economic normalization. The Kingdom of Jordan, once the hub of a CIA-run operations room against the Assad regime, recently opened up its joint border at the Naseeb crossing to trade and travel. The Israelis, meanwhile, have taken a pragmatic approach; Assad may be a tyrant and a mass murderer, but he’s the devil we have been dealing with for decades and his family has kept the Golan Heights frontier quiet since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

To the opposition, the very thought of Bashar al-Assad being re-inducted into the Arab world as a legitimate participant is both depressing and nauseating. How can a man who has butchered, tortured, gassed and starved his own people possibly be given such a status? How is it possible for Arab leaders to improve relations with a despot who has killed so many Arabs himself?

The answers are simple: realpolitik and exhaustion. Arab states are tired of hosting and caring for millions of Syrian refugees, tired of the spillover violence, tired of the terrorist groups that have exploited Syria’s civil war in order to expand and tired of losing the trade routes Syria provided to the Persian Gulf. Like many Syrians who just want to rebuild their lives, the Arab world is tired of the war.

It may take a while before political relations between Syria and its neighbors are fully reestablished. But events are on the path towards an eventual rapprochement. In the interim, Assad will be content with a partial reconciliation from an era of isolation.

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/skeptics/assads-suffering-syria-seeks-reconciliation-arab-world-34592

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed to the United Nations General Assembly that Israel has discovered a second hidden atomic site in Iran’s capital city of Tehran – before promising that whatever the Islamic Republic tries to hide, Israel will find.

“Just a few months after Netanyahu revealed that Israel had discovered a secret Iranian atomic archive, he revealed a second facility,” CBN News reported.

Israel not fooled by Iran

Netanyahu made it a point to assure the UN that Israel is not fooled by Iran’s smoke and mirrors – which have led the global peacekeeping agency, the former Obama administration and numerous European nations from holding the Islamic Republic accountable for violating the so-called Iran nuclear deal.

“In May, we exposed the site of Iran’s secret atomic archive – it’s right here … in the Shorabad district of Teheran,” Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, according to CBN News. “Today, I am revealing the site of a second facility; Iran’s secret atomic warehouse. It’s right here … in the Turouzabad district of Teheran – just three miles away.”

The Israeli leader used his classic visual aids while addressing the assembly, impressing that the atomic sites were not destroyed by Iran because its goal is to produce nuclear weapons to be used against its enemies – including Israel and/or the United States.

“In fact, it planned to use both of these sites in a few years – when the time would be right to break out to the atom bomb,” Netanyahu asserted. “But ladies and gentlemen, rest assured that won’t happen. It won’t happen because what Iran hides, Israel will find.”

Iran mocks and denies …

The leadership of the Islamic terrorist-harboring nation mocked Netanyahu’s assertions.

“Iran’s foreign minister is deriding as an ‘arts and crafts show’ Israel’s visual-aid-enhanced accusation that his country is keeping a secret atomic warehouse,” The Associated Press (AP) announced Thursday night. “State-run media report that Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday there’s nothing to the allegation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made at the U.N. General Assembly.”

Netanyahu’s assertion about massive hidden storehouses in Tehran used to produce nuclear weapons were quickly dismissed by Zarif, who used the infamous Iran nuke deal – brokered by former Secretary of State John Kerry under then President Barack Obama – as so-called proof that Iran has kept its end of the agreement.

“Displaying maps and a photo, Netanyahu said Iran has been keeping tons of nuclear equipment and material in a property near its capital,” AP informed. “Zarif notes the International Atomic Energy Agency has certified that Iran is in compliance with its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal meant to keep it from developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. withdrew from the deal this year.”

In an attempt to take the attention off its own amassing nuclear arsenal, Iran began pointing the finger at Israel, alleging that it is building up nuclear arsenals of its own –  defenses that would be used to counter attacks from the hostile Islamic terrorist-supporting nations surrounding it in the infamously known “Powder Keg” region of the volatile Middle East.

“In a tweet, Zarif called Netanyahu’s presentation an ‘arts and crafts show’ by a country that he says needs to come clean about its own nuclear program,” the AP report added. “Israel is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal – but has never publicly acknowledged it.”

Netanyahu setting the record straight

The outspoken Israeli PM stressed that Iran’s aggressive intentions in the Middle East are more than obvious.

“In Syria, Iran is trying to establish permanent military bases against us, and has already launched missiles and drones into our territory,” Netanyahu pointed out, according to CBN News. “In Gaza, Iran is arming terror groups to launch rocket attacks into our cities and terror attacks against our civilians.”

He said this is true in Lebanon, as well, where the hostile Islamic Republic has ordered the terrorist group Hezbollah to construct hidden bases to strengthen its missile capabilities next to Israel.

“Hezbollah – listen to this – Hezbollah is deliberately using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields,” Netanyahu continued. “They’ve placed three of these missile convergent sites along Beirut’s international airport. Here’s a picture that is worth a thousand missiles.”

The leader of Israel’s Likud Party went on to emphasize that Israel will not stop its efforts to defend itself against the militant Iranian plots and facilities being organized around it.

“We will continue to act against you in Syria; we will act against you in Lebanon; we will act against you in Iraq; we will act against you wherever and whenever we must act to defend our State and to defend our people,” Netanyahu vowed to Iran.

He also extolled U.S. President Donald Trump for dumping the failed Iran nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions on Iran – before exhorting European leaders at the UN assembly to also uphold sanctions against the jihadist regime.

“Instead of coddling the Iranians, join the U.S. and Israel and most of the Arab world in supporting new sanctions against a regime that endangers all of us – and all of the world,” Netanyahu urged Europeans in attendance.

He also ripped into representatives of European nations at the UN for cowering to Iran and not holding the hostile Islamic nation accountable for keeping its end of the deal.

“[Netanyahu] blasted European countries for turning a blind eye to the nuclear activity,” Newsmax reported. “He also condemned European nations for ‘appeasing’ Iran by trying to renew trade – despite the nuclear activity.”

The leader of the Jewish State did not stop there in his rebuke of Europe for sticking to the failed nuke deal.

“Invoking historical European maneuvering in the Middle East, Netanyahu laced into Europe’s leaders for sticking to the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord – which allows for a lifting of sanctions in exchange for curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, the AP reported,” Newmax’s Cathy Burke noted.

Through his condemnation, he attempted to invoke representatives of Europe to finally take action against the militant Islamic regime.

“Have these European leaders learned nothing from history?” Netanyahu asked, as quoted by AP and published by Newsmax. “Will they ever wake up?”

One good take from the deal …

Despite his staunch opposition to the Iran nuke deal, the Israeli leader conceded that one positive outcome has poured out from the failed Iran deal brokered by the Obama administration.

“By empowering Iran, it brought Israel and many Arab states closer together than ever before – closer together than ever before in an intimacy and friendship that I’ve not seen in my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago,” Netanyahu stressed.

However, many obstacles to peace and security remain in the region.

“Netanyahu didn’t mention Russia in his speech – [a nation that] is set to deliver a more advance anti-aircraft missile system to Syria after the Syrian military mistakenly shot down a Russian military plane,” CBN News’ Julie Stahl noted. “That system could make it more difficult for Israel to prevent an Iranian military buildup inside Syria.”

Source: https://www.onenewsnow.com/national-security/2018/09/28/netanyahu-uncovers-2nd-tehran-atomic-site

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Dozens of Israeli settlers forced their way into East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, according to a Palestinian official.

“More than 150 Jewish settlers stormed the holy compound through the Al-Mugharbah gate,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a Jordan-run organization responsible for overseeing the city’s Islamic sites, said in a brief statement.

He said the settlers were joined by a number of Israeli policemen during the tour.

Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel was among those who toured the holy compound, according to al-Dibs.

Tension has mounted in the Palestinian territories — including occupied East Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa is located — since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa represents the world’s third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount”, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.

Last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the US to withdraw its recognition of the flashpoint city as Israel’s capital.

Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180909-dozens-of-jewish-settlers-storm-al-aqsa-compound/

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday dismissed a UN vote to reject US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but said Israel was heartened by the large number of countries who did not vote for the resolution and stood by “the truth.”

“Israel rejects the UN decision and, in parallel, expresses satisfaction at the large number of states that did not vote for the resolution, countries that Prime Minister Netanyahu has visited in Europe, Africa and Latin America,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said after the vote.

“Israel is grateful to President Trump for his steadfast position on Jerusalem, and thanks the nations that voted with Israel, and with the truth.”

In an English-language video on Facebook, Netanyahu said, “Israel completely rejects this preposterous resolution. Jerusalem is our capital — always was, always will be. But I do appreciate the fact that a growing number of countries refuse to participate in this theater of the absurd.”

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday defied the United States and overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and calling on countries not to move their diplomatic missions to the city.

A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the text, defying the threats — that were forcefully reiterated in an address before the vote by US envoy Nikki Haley — to cut aid to countries that opposed the motion.

Nine countries — the US, Israel, Togo, Micronesia, Guatemala, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands and Honduras — voted against the resolution.

There were 35 abstentions, including a number of countries that had been widely expected to support the move, such as Colombia, Mexico, Malawi and Rwanda. A further 21 countries did not vote at all.

In a statement, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman reminded Israelis of the longstanding Israeli disdain for such votes.

“Let’s just remember that this is the same UN about which our first ambassador to the organization, Abba Eban, once said: ‘If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions,’” Liberman said.

“There is nothing new in what just happened at the UN,” he added, and praised the US as “the moral beacon shining out of the darkness.”

Minister of Strategic Affairs and Public Security Gilad Erdan also blasted the UN vote.

“The historic connection between Israel and Jerusalem is stronger than any vote by the ‘United Nations’ — nations who are united only by their fear and their refusal to recognize the simple truth that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and the Jewish people,” Erdan said in a statement after the vote.

“While the US has recognized this simple truth, the UN has chosen once again to resort to lies and to ignore the reality that has existed for 70 years. Our response to the UN campaign by Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] and his supporters against the US and Israel will be to strengthen our sovereignty, security, and construction in every part of Jerusalem. The Palestinians can threaten and the UN can vote – we will continue to build and strengthen our capital Jerusalem.”

The top Arab lawmaker in the Knesset, Arab Joint List chairman MK Ayman Odeh, said the vote was a wake-up call for Israel.

“In the international arena, there still exists a large and definitive majority that believes that the Palestinian people, like all other nations, deserve a place in this world and the right to self-determination,” he said in a statement.

“This evening’s vote by the majority of the world’s nations against Trump’s announcement, in spite of the pressure and threats, flies in the face of Trump’s and Netanyahu’s diplomatic policy and is a clear statement by the international community in support of peace and the right of the Palestinians to an independent state, whose capital is East Jerusalem.”

Other Israeli leaders took to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the UN, with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein issuing a laconic tweet that reads, in full, “SHAME ON U(N).”

Labor Party leader Avi Gabbay said, “Jerusalem was our capital before the resolution and [will be] after it. I urge the UN to deal with issues it can actually influence for the better.”

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-rejects-un-vote-but-grateful-for-nations-who-voted-for-the-truth/

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While Jerusalem’s voice is heard, its positions are often not fully taken into account.

The post Can Israeli Diplomacy pull its weight against Russia, Iran and Syria? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The US president and the Israeli prime minister sit side by side and express their hopes for a fruitful collaboration at UN meeting.

US President Donald Trump expressed his faith in the success of future peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians on Monday as he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the United Nations General Assembly’s 72nd session.

When asked by the press about the state of the peace process, Trump said that “There’s a good chance that it will happen. I think with the capability of Bibi [nickname for Netanyahu] and frankly the other side, I think we have the chance. Israel would like to see it, Palestinians would like to see it. I can tell you that the Trump administration would like to see it.”

Netanyahu echoed Trump’s faith in the process, greeting the American president by saying: Mr. president, it’s great to see you. Under your leadership, the alliance between Israel and US has never been stronger. Never been deeper.”

The Israeli premier went on to suggest that the cooperation between the Jewish state and its great ally was deep “In ways people see and don’t see.”

Netanyahu expressed his hope that the US will eventually help ” to roll back Iran’s growing aggression in the region, especially in Syria.”

He also said that he would like to use the opportunity to “discuss how we can seize the opportunity for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab world.”

Netanyahu concluded by saying he looked forward to the pair’s separate appearances in front of the UN General Assembly, saying that “Under President Trump, America’s position towards Israel at the UN has been unequivocal, it’s been strong, it’s got both clarity and conviction .I want to thank you from the people of Israel and Israel’s many friends around the world.”

He then finished with a greeting for the new Jewish year ahead. “As you well know, it is the Jewish new year this week. I want to wish you and Jewish people all over the world a happy and healthy new year. Shana Tova.”

Source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/WATCH-Trump-Netanyahu-express-hope-for-peace-in-New-York-meeting-505451

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