Frankly Speaking: Did Oct. 7 attack expedite recognition of Palestine?

1 Palestine now closer to full UN membership than it was before Oct.7
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2 Ironic that US gives aid to Gaza while sending weapons to Israel
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Updated 18 March 2024
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Frankly Speaking: Did Oct. 7 attack expedite recognition of Palestine?

  • Riyad Mansour says apparent Western support for the two-state solution is an encouraging sign
  • Palestine’s permanent observer to UN notes irony of US giving aid to Gaza while sending arms to Israel

DUBAI: Statements from Western leaders indicate Palestine is now closer to full UN membership than it was prior to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, according to Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN.

In recent weeks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron have frequently spoken of pathways to a Palestinian state, even as Israeli legislators appear intent upon blocking such a move.

“I believe these statements do put us on the course of getting closer and closer to the objective of having a recommendation from the Security Council to the General Assembly to admit the state of Palestine for membership,” Mansour said on “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News weekly current affairs show.




Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, said “the Israeli government can’t blame anyone they wish, ... there is international humanitarian law and there must be obedience to that law.” (AN photo)

The effort to achieve such a recommendation has been ongoing for many years, having won endorsement at the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation joint summit in Saudi Arabia in November and the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda in January.

“As to the timing, the Israeli side pushed the envelope in that direction when about two weeks ago the Israeli Knesset voted by 99 members out of 120 to deny statehood for the Palestinian people.

“So, they are dictating that the timing is now, and we should proceed as soon as possible through the Security Council for that recognition, and we will,” Mansour added.




Humanitarian aid falls through the sky towards the Gaza Strip after being dropped from an aircraft on March 17, 2024. (REUTERS)

In parallel with the apparent support for Palestinian statehood and UN recognition, the US has also bolstered efforts to increase the amount of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.

Months under Israeli bombardment and limits on the number of trucks carrying humanitarian relief and commercial goods into the embattled territory have brought the Palestinian population to the brink of famine.

Although the Israeli military has permitted more trucks to enter Gaza in recent days, the US has sought to supplement the road route with airdrops and now plans to establish a maritime corridor to deliver aid by sea.

Mansour noted that it was ironic, however, that the US was giving aid to Gaza while at the same time sending weapons to Israel, thereby prolonging the war and the suffering of the Palestinian people.

He told “Frankly Speaking” show host Katie Jensen: “It is very ironic. If you want to save lives and send humanitarian assistance, you should not send weapons and ammunition that the Israeli occupying forces use to kill the Palestinian civilian population.

“This is mind-boggling. It doesn’t make sense. If truly the intention is to save lives, then we should not send weapons to allow Israel to kill the Palestinians, and you should use everything possible in terms of political leverage and power to stop Israel from continuing this carnage against our people and to have a ceasefire.”




Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, told “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen “the Israeli government can’t blame anyone they wish, ... there is international humanitarian law and there must be obedience to that law.” (AN photo)

There are, of course, two sides to the war.

Hamas mounted an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking a further 240 hostage, including many foreign nationals, who were taken back to Gaza.

Some have argued that if Hamas had agreed to lay down its weapons and release the hostages early in the conflict, then many innocent lives could have been spared. But Mansour has rejected such narrative, arguing that it was the responsibility of the international community to preserve civilian lives.

He said: “You see, again, the Israelis can say whatever they want. When there is war, it is the duty of the UN to call for a ceasefire and try to resolve it.

“So, therefore, at the UN, I’m devoting all my energy and the energy and the thinking of my entire team in order to accomplish that objective.

“We need to save lives. Every day, the war is continuing, more Palestinian civilians are being killed, especially children and women.




A Palestinian man kisses the shrouded body of a child killed in an Israeli bombing in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip before the burial on March 14, 2024. (AFP)

So, it is the duty of the international community to abide by the principles and the reasons why we established the UN, elected in the charter of the UN, to stop the killing, to stop the fighting, and to try to find solutions to these conflicts.”

Since the onset of the war, Israel has accused Hamas of using the civilian population of Gaza as human shields — building tunnel networks, command centers, weapons caches, and places to hold hostages under hospitals and schools where they are less likely to be targeted in bombing raids.

Does Hamas, therefore, hold a share of responsibility for the civilian death toll in Gaza?

“The Israeli government can’t blame anyone they wish. There is international humanitarian law and obedience to that law regardless of any reasoning or narrative or spinning of whatever one wants to say.

“International humanitarian law puts the responsibility on the attacking army or government to protect civilians, not to harm them under any condition or situation. They have to protect them, they have to protect hospitals, they have to protect personnel who are working in the humanitarian field.

“These are the provisions of international humanitarian law that Israel and any invading or attacking country should abide by and not to blame anyone else but to blame themselves for violating the provisions of these humanitarian international laws,” Mansour added.




Palestinian children salvage some items found amid the destruction caused by Israeli bombing in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip on March 14, 2024. (AFP)

Repeated attempts to secure a ceasefire have failed since the conflict began. Even efforts at the UN Security Council to symbolically demand an immediate halt to the fighting have foundered after the US used its veto power, shielding its Israeli allies from censure.

On whether he and his colleagues at the UN felt let down by the international community for allowing the bloodshed in Gaza to continue, Mansour accused the UN Security Council of dragging its feet.

“The international community should have called for an immediate ceasefire a long time ago, because every day we do not have a ceasefire in place, we have large numbers — hundreds, sometimes thousands — of Palestinians being killed and injured, the great majority of them are women and children,” he said.


READ MORE:

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a plea last week urging Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate humanitarian ceasefire during the month of Ramadan.

“We are working relentlessly in the Security Council for that objective.

“We are grateful for the General Assembly that supported us in that regard, when we went there twice, but the Security Council is still dragging its feet, mainly because one country that has a veto power and it’s not listening to the billions of people who are calling for a ceasefire now and to almost 14 countries in the Security Council who are supporting this position,” Mansour added.

Even as consensus evades the UN Security Council, discussions between the Israelis and Hamas brokered by Qatar have also stalled.

Qatari officials accuse the Israeli government of adopting inflexible positions, while Israeli and US officials put the blame on Hamas for failing to release hostages or even agreeing to identify their names or disclose how many remain alive.




Relatives of Israelis being held in Gaza by Hamas militants in Gaza gather in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on March 9, 2024, to press their demand for the release of their loved ones. (AFP)

“You don’t have to listen to all the countries that speak today. It is not an issue trying to blame one party or the other,” Mansour said.

“Pay attention to the reports of international organizations, bodies of the UN, in which they are saying there is a famine situation in northern Gaza, and they are crying day and night; allow humanitarian assistance to scale to enter the Gaza Strip.

“And they are also saying that we cannot distribute all this humanitarian assistance to all parts of the Gaza Strip unless we have a safe way of doing it, which means that we need a ceasefire.

“Those are the objective ones who are the specialists in dealing with saving lives, civilians in situations of war. Those are the ones who are saying objectively what needs to be done — that this war has to stop, a ceasefire, humanitarian assistance in massive amounts should reach all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“And they’re not being allowed to do so because of the Israeli occupying authorities who declared from the beginning there will not be water, there will not be food, there will not be fuel extended to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip unless Hamas releases the hostages.

“Therefore, they are using these illegal things to starve the population as tools of war, and that is illegal and it is forbidden and it is a form of genocide — atrocities and wholesale killing of the civilian population to attain political objectives,” he added.




Infographic courtesy of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

UK Foreign Minister Cameron recently said that the leaders of Hamas would need to leave Gaza and must not be permitted to play a role in the enclave’s post-war governance or in a future independent Palestinian state.

But Mansour pointed out that this was a matter for the Palestinians themselves to decide.

He said: “First of all, it is not up to anyone to put conditions on our natural and individual right to exercise self-determination, including our right to have our own independent state.

“These are innate rights for the Palestinian people unconditionally. The UK or anybody else, they cannot impose on the Palestinian people different conditions. For example, when Israel declared its independence in 1948, they did not negotiate that with anyone, nor did they ask for permission from anyone.

“The Palestinian people will not be the exception to the rule. They will behave in such a way that it is an innate right for them to exercise self-determination, including statehood and the independence of our state without conditions, without negotiations, without permit from anyone.”

 


Water levels plummet at drought-hit Iraqi reservoir

Updated 56 min 34 sec ago
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Water levels plummet at drought-hit Iraqi reservoir

  • Visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s

DUKAN: Water levels at Iraq’s vast Dukan Dam reservoir have plummeted as a result of dwindling rains and further damming upstream, hitting millions of inhabitants already impacted by drought with stricter water rationing.
Amid these conditions, visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s.
Dukan Lake has been left three quarters empty, with its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq explaining its reserves currently stand at around 1.6 billion cubic meters of water out of a possible seven billion.
That is “about 24 percent” of its capacity, the official said, adding that the level of water in the lake had not been so low in roughly 20 years.
Satellite imagery analyzed by AFP shows the lake’s surface area shrank by 56 percent between the end of May 2019, the last year it was completely full, and the beginning of June 2025.
Tawfeeq blamed climate change and a “shortage of rainfall” explaining that the timing of the rains had also become irregular.
Over the winter season, Tawfeeq said the Dukan region received 220 millimeters (8.7 inches) of rain, compared to a typical 600 millimeters.


Upstream damming of the Little Zab River, which flows through Iran and feeds Dukan, was a secondary cause of the falling water levels, Tawfeeq explained.
Also buffeted by drought, Iran has built dozens of structures on the river to increase its own water reserves.
Baghdad has criticized these kinds of dams, built both by Iran and neighboring Turkiye, accusing them of significantly restricting water flow into Iraq via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Iraq, and its 46 million inhabitants, have been intensely impacted by the effects of climate change, experiencing rising temperatures, year-on-year droughts and rampant desertification.
At the end of May, the country’s total water reserves were at their lowest level in 80 years.
On the slopes above Dukan lies the village of Sarsian, where Hussein Khader Sheikhah, 57, was planting a summer crop on a hectare of land.
The farmer said he hoped a short-term summer crop of the kind typically planted in the area for an autumn harvest — cucumbers, melons, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and beans — would help him offset some of the losses over the winter caused by drought.
In winter, in another area near the village, he planted 13 hectares mainly of wheat.
“The harvest failed because of the lack of rain,” he explained, adding that he lost an equivalent of almost $5,700 to the poor yield.
“I can’t make up for the loss of 13 hectares with just one hectare near the river,” he added.


The water shortage at Dukan has affected around four million people downstream in the neighboring Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk governorates, including their access to drinking water.
For more than a month, water treatment plants in Kirkuk have been trying to mitigate a sudden, 40 percent drop in the supplies reaching them, according to local water resource official Zaki Karim.
In a country ravaged by decades of conflict, with crumbling infrastructure and floundering public policies, residents already receive water intermittently.
The latest shortages are forcing even “stricter rationing” and more infrequent water distributions, Karim said.
In addition to going door-to-door to raise awareness about water waste, the authorities were also cracking down on illegal access to the water network.
In the province of roughly two million inhabitants, the aim is to minimize the impact on the provincial capital of Kirkuk.
“If some treatment plants experience supply difficulties, we will ensure that there are no total interruptions, so everyone can receive their share,” Karim said.


Israel military says hit Hezbollah site in south Lebanon

Updated 21 June 2025
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Israel military says hit Hezbollah site in south Lebanon

  • The military said the site was used by Hezbollah “to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Saturday its navy hit a Hezbollah “infrastructure site” near the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura, a day after Israel’s foreign minister warned the Lebanese armed group against entering the Iran-Israel war.
“Overnight, an Israeli Navy vessel struck a Hezbollah ‘Radwan Force’ terrorist infrastructure site in the area of Naqoura in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
The military said the site was used by Hezbollah “to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
In a separate statement on Saturday, the military said it had “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon the previous day, despite an ongoing ceasefire between both sides.
In a statement carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s health ministry said late on Friday that one person was killed in a “strike carried out by an Israeli enemy drone on a motorcycle” in the same south Lebanon village.
The November ceasefire aimed to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which sparked months of deadly hostilities by launching cross-border attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Lebanon’s army, which has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure as part of the truce, said earlier in June that the Israeli military’s ongoing violations and “refusal to cooperate” with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism “could prompt the (Lebanese) military to freeze cooperation” on site inspections.


Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

Updated 21 June 2025
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Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

  • Veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force
  • The Quds Force built up a network of Arab allies known as the Axis of Resistance

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom.

The veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, Katz said in a statement.

There was no confirmation from the IRGC.

The Quds Force built up a network of Arab allies known as the Axis of Resistance, establishing Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982 and supporting the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

But Iran-aligned network has suffered major blows over the last two years, as Israeli offensives since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel have weakened both the Palestinian group and Hezbollah.

Katz said Izadi financed and armed Hamas during the initial attacks, describing the commander’s killing as a “major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force.”

Izadi was sanctioned by the US and Britain over what they said were his ties to Hamas and Palestinian militant faction Islamic Jihad, which also took part in the October 7 attacks.


Iran’s FM arrives in Istanbul for Arab League meeting

Updated 21 June 2025
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Iran’s FM arrives in Istanbul for Arab League meeting

  • Around 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

ISTANBUL: Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, Tasnim news agency reported, for a meeting with Arab League diplomats to discuss Tehran’s escalating conflict with Israel.

Around 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as Israel and Iran continue to exchange missile strikes.

“The Foreign Minister arrived in Istanbul this morning to participate in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ meeting,” Tasnim reported.

It comes after Araghchi met with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Geneva on Friday.

“At this meeting, at the suggestion of Iran, the issue of the Zionist regime’s attack on our country will be specifically addressed,” said Iranian foreign Abbas Araghchi, according to the news agency.

Israel began its assault in the early hours of June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran in the worst-ever confrontation between the two arch-rivals.

Earlier on Friday, Araghchi said Tehran was ready to “consider diplomacy” again only if Israel’s “aggression is stopped.”

The Arab League ministers are expected to release a statement following their meeting, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu said.


Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks

Updated 16 min 30 sec ago
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Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks

  • Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: Iran and Israel exchanged fresh attacks early on Saturday, a day after Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear program while under threat and Europe tried to keep peace talks alive.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m. in Israel (2330 GMT on Friday), the Israeli military warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel, including Tel Aviv, as well as in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing across the metropolitan area as Israel’s air defense systems responded.

Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom.

The veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, Katz said in a statement.

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22 arrested for links to Israeli spy services since start of conflict

Police in Iran’s Qom province said Saturday that 22 people “linked to Israeli spy services” had been arrested since June 13, Fars news agency reported.

“22 people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime’s spy services, disturbing public opinion, and supporting the criminal regime,” the agency stated, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran’s Qom province.

Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site targeted by Israel

Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site was targeted by Israel, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday, adding that there was no leakage of hazardous materials.

At the same time, Israel launched a new wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites in Iran, the Israeli military said.

Sirens also sounded in southern Israel, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service. An Israeli military official said Iran had fired five ballistic missiles and that there were no immediate indications of any missile impacts.

There were no initial reports of casualties.

The emergency service released images showing a fire on the roof of a multi-storey residential building in central Israel. Local media reported that the fire was caused by debris from an intercepted missile.

Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying its longtime enemy was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel.

Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.

Its air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based human rights organization that tracks Iran. The dead include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists.

In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, according to authorities.

Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures for either side.

Talks show little progress

Iran has repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv, a metropolitan area of around 4 million people and the country’s business and economic hub, where some critical military assets are also located.

Israel said it had struck dozens of military targets on Friday, including missile production sites, a research body it said was involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was no room for negotiations with the US “until Israeli aggression stops”.

But he arrived in Geneva on Friday for talks with European foreign ministers at which Europe hopes to establish a path back to diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated that he would take as long as two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses”, he said.

Trump said he was unlikely to press Israel to scale back its airstrikes to allow negotiations to continue.

“I think it’s very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

The Geneva talks produced little signs of progress, and Trump said he doubted negotiators would be able to secure a ceasefire.

“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this one,” Trump said.

Hundreds of US citizens have fled Iran since the air war began, according to a US State Department cable seen by Reuters.

Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Friday his country would not stop its attacks “until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled”.

Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called for Security Council action and said Tehran was alarmed by reports that the US might join the war.

Russia and China demanded immediate de-escalation.

A senior Iranian official said that Iran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that it would reject any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium completely, “especially now under Israel’s strikes”.