International
Israeli far-right minister asks the US to “respect” its rejection of the truce in Gaza
Israel’s Finance Minister, the anti-Arab ultra-nationalist Bezalel Smotrich, asked the United States to “respect Israeli democracy and the position of its officials,” after the Government of the North American country criticized him for rejecting a possible truce with the Islamist group Hamas.
“Just as the United States would reject international pressure to reach a surrender agreement with Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, Israel will not be subjected to any external pressure that could damage its security,” the minister wrote on social network X.
“I respect the position of the United States and thank it for its support of Israel in the face of regional threats, but I hope it respects Israeli democracy and the position of the citizens of Israel and its elected officials,” he added.
The United States, Israel’s main partner and supplier of weapons, is also a mediator – along with Qatar and Egypt – in the war between the Jewish State and the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, the mediating countries demanded that Israel and Hamas “resume urgent discussions on August 15 in Doha or Cairo to close all remaining gaps and begin the implementation of the agreement without further delay.”
The initiative received extensive support from the international community, and even Israel – which is receiving more and more pressure to sign the agreement – agreed to send a delegation with the mediators.
However, Smotrich said that the draft of the truce agreement – prepared by US President Joe Biden – is a “dangerous trap” that creates “an illusory symmetry between Israeli hostages (…) and despicable terrorists.”
The Biden government will not allow “extremists,” even in Israel, to deviate talks about the ceasefire from their course, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said on Friday.
“The idea that [Biden] would support an agreement that puts Israel’s security at risk is simply erroneous, outrageous, absurd,” the spokesman stressed, stressing that Smotrich “should be embarrassed.”
However, the far-right minister returned to the charge this Saturday: “The surrender agreement lets most of the kidnapped die, frees many murderers, returns terrorists to the north of the Gaza Strip, leaves the border and allows Hamas to smuggle weapons and restore its power to return and attack Israel,” he wrote in X.
“No criticism or attack will distract me from the goal,” he concluded.
Until now, the agreement had been stalled by Hamas’ demand that the ceasefire be definitive, and the insistence of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to resume fighting until the Islamist group was “extinguished”.
The war broke out on October 7 of last year after a Hamas attack on Israel that left about 1,200 dead and 251 kidnapped. Currently, 111 hostages remain in the Strip, although at least 39 would have lost their lives.
After more than 10 months of escalation, the Israeli offensive has left in the Gaza Strip almost 40,000 dead – mostly children and women – more than 90,000 injured, 10,000 missing under the rubble and 1.9 million displaced people who survive in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links
A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”
The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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