WASHINGTON: Iran’s attack on Israel gives Joe Biden a familiar dilemma, but on steroids — how to balance support for a difficult ally while preventing the nightmare scenario of a wider war?
Tensions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s war on Gaza were papered over as the US president offered “ironclad” support, including shooting down Iranian drones.
But the White House said it would not support an Israeli counterattack and warned Israel to “think carefully” about escalation that could trigger a full-blown regional conflict.
The question then for Biden, who is facing a tough reelection battle against Donald Trump in November, is what if Netanyahu goes ahead anyway, as he has done in Gaza?
“It puts him in a very tough spot” Colin Clarke, Director of Research at the Soufan Group, told AFP.
“I think he’s suspicious of Netanyahu’s motives here... that Netanyahu is attempting to broaden the war throughout the region to deflect from how poorly the war is going for him in Gaza.”
Biden has been trying to avoid a regional war that could suck the United States back into the Middle East ever since Hamas’s October 7 attack and Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip.
The 81-year-old has, however, struggled to use the leverage provided by the United States being Israel’s main military supplier, especially given a long history of tense relations with Netanyahu.
Biden has been increasingly critical of the death toll in the Palestinian territory and even went as far as suggesting the US could limit military aid, but so far to little effect.
Iran’s attack has seen Biden go back to showing overt support — but at the same time scrambling to stop the crisis spiraling.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Netanyahu was “well aware” that Biden did not want a “wider war.”
Biden himself warned Netanyahu of the potential dangers in a call on Saturday night at a time of “heightened emotion.”
“The president had a discussion about trying to slow things down, think through things,” a US official said.
The hope was that “in the light of day” Israel would see it had had a “spectacular success” against Iran’s attack, added the official.
Washington’s calculus looks to be that Iran also got what it wanted, with a show of force in retaliation for Israel’s strike in Damascus earlier this month that killed a key Iranian general, but with minimal damage.
“However, I fear the status quo will be short-lived,” said James Ryan, Executive Director of the Middle East Research and Information Project, warning of a “dangerous spiral.”
“I expect Biden to attempt to restrain Israeli responses, but Netanyahu has already shown a willingness to test any kind of limit Biden wishes to impose,” he added.
“It’s all very cynical now, unfortunately.”
Biden’s options for restraining Israel are likely to be limited at this stage to tough language in private and making threats in public.
“They’ve got themselves into a corner in many ways,” said Clarke.
“I think they’ve overplayed their hand a little bit by saying the administration is considering cutting off weapons to the Israelis. It’s never going to happen — I think it’s an empty threat, especially in an election year.”
The US presidential election in November comes as Biden faces domestic political pressure on all sides when it comes to Israel.
Trump has led a chorus of Republicans accusing Biden of being weak on the issue — while young and left-wing voters in particular are angered by his failure to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.
Netanyahu, facing his own political and legal issues at home, would now be able to use the Iran attacks to “paper over the very real rifts that exist” with Washington on Gaza, said Clarke.
“If he can drag this out until November, he’s hoping for a Trump victory” when he would have “carte blanche” to act however he wanted in the region, said Clarke.
Another possibility, however, is that Netanyahu may decide to “accede to American urgings” for now on Iran — but with a cost, said Paul Salem, President and CEO of the Middle East Institute.
“Politically, I think they can cash in on saying, ‘okay, America, we won’t do anything, we’re being good. But in exchange, you have to, you know, give us more of a free hand in Gaza,’” he said.
Biden in ‘very tough spot’ trying to stop Middle East escalation
https://arab.news/2yf4n
Biden in ‘very tough spot’ trying to stop Middle East escalation
- Biden has been trying to avoid a regional war that could suck the United States back into the Middle East ever since Hamas’s October 7 attack
Monster storm pummeling central and southern US sparks tornadoes and fire, killing at least 18
- Wildfires elsewhere in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico
Violent tornadoes ripped through parts of the US, wiping out schools and toppling semitractor-trailers in several states, part of a monster storm that killed at least 18 people as more severe weather was expected late Saturday.
Missouri recorded more fatalities than any other state as it withstood scattered twisters overnight that killed at least 12 people, authorities said. The deaths included a man who was killed after a tornado ripped apart his home.
“It was unrecognizable as a home. Just a debris field,” said Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, describing the scene that confronted rescuers. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing people trapped in their homes Friday night found five dead bodies scattered in the debris outside what remained of his aunt’s house in hard-hit Wayne County, Missouri.
“It was a very rough deal last night,” he said Saturday, surrounded by uprooted trees and splintered homes. “It’s really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night.”
Henderson said they rescued his aunt from a bedroom that was the only room left standing in her house, taking her out through a window. They also carried out a man who had a broken arm and leg.
Officials in Arkansas said three people died in Independence County and 29 others were injured across eight counties as storms passed through the state.
“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and have first responders on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X.
She and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared states of emergency. Kemp said he was making the declaration in anticipation of severe weather moving in later Saturday.
On Friday, meanwhile, authorities said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
Extreme weather encompasses a zone of 100 million people
The deaths came as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that triggered deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.
Extreme weather conditions were forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph (130 kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible.
Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. Nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) had burned in his state.
The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.
Experts said it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
Tornadoes hit amid storm outbreak
The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs on Saturday, but the greatest threat would come from winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100 mph (160 kph) possible.
Significant tornadoes continued to hit Saturday. The regions at highest risk stretch from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the center said.
Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched a massive tornado from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, about half a mile (0.8 km) away as it struck an area near Paradise Ranch RV Park.
They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded a video depicting snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.
“The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over — everything was destroyed.”
Paradise Ranch reported on Facebook that all its staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the ranch itself.
“Homes and everything were destroyed all around it,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”
Some of the imagery from the extreme weather has gone viral.
Tad Peters and his dad, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists flee the interstate to park.
“Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here,” Tad Peters can be heard saying on a video. “Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn ...”
His father then rolled up the truck window. The two were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to turn around and head back home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they encountered wildfires.
Wildfires elsewhere in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico.
A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, quickly blew up from less than a square mile (about 2 square kilometers) to an estimated 32.8 square miles (85 square kilometers), the Texas A&M University Forest Service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening.
About 60 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, another fire grew to about 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometers) before its advance was halted in the afternoon.
High winds also knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, according the website poweroutage.us.
Stuck NASA astronauts one step closer to home after SpaceX crew-swap launch
- The pressure from Musk and Trump has hung over a NASA preparation and safety process that normally follows a well-defined course
WASHINGTON: NASA and SpaceX on Friday launched a long-awaited crew to the International Space Station that opens the door to bringing home US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the orbital lab for nine months.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. ET (2303 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying four astronauts who will replace Wilmore and Williams, both of whom are veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots and were the first to fly Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule to the ISS in June. Otherwise a routine crew rotation flight, Friday’s Crew-10 mission is a long-awaited first step to bring the astronaut duo back to Earth — part of a plan set by NASA last year that more recently has been given greater urgency by President Donald Trump.
The Crew-10 launch occurred as Wilmore and Williams were asleep in their daily schedule on the station, Dina Contellam deputy manager of NASA’s ISS program, told reporters after the launch.
After the Crew-10 astronauts’ ISS arrival on Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET, Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to depart on Wednesday as early as 4 a.m. ET (0800 GMT) on Sunday, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov flew to the ISS in September on a Crew Dragon craft with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.
The Crew-10 crew, which will stay on the station for roughly six months, includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
PLANNING FOR THE UNEXPECTED
Minutes after reaching orbit, McClain, part of NASA’s astronaut corps since 2013, introduced the mission’s microgravity indicator — per tradition in American spaceflight to signal the crew safely reached space — as a plush origami crane, “the international symbol for peace, hope and healing.”
“It is far easier to be enemies than it is to be friends, it’s easier to break partnerships and relationships than it is to build them,” McClain, the Crew-10 mission commander, said from the Crew Dragon capsule, her communications live-streamed by NASA.
“Spaceflight is hard, and success depends on leaders of character who choose a harder right over the easier wrong, and who build programs, partnerships and relationships. We explore for the benefit of all,” she said.
The mission became entangled in politics as Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, who is also SpaceX’s CEO, urged a quicker Crew-10 launch and claimed, without evidence, that former President Joe Biden had abandoned Wilmore and Williams on the station for political reasons. “We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.
“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said, “planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”
The Crew-10 mission is part of a normal crew rotation happening at an unusual time for NASA’s ISS operations — rather than a dedicated mission to retrieve Wilmore and Williams, who will return to Earth as late additions to NASA’s Crew-9 crew.
Musk says SpaceX had offered a dedicated Dragon mission for the pair last year as NASA mulled ways to bring the two back to Earth.
But NASA officials have said the two astronauts have had to remain on the ISS to maintain adequate staffing levels, and that it did not have the budget or the operational need to send a dedicated rescue spacecraft.
Having seen their mission turn into a normal NASA rotation to the ISS, Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the other five astronauts.
Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” she said.
“UNUSUAL” MISSION PREPARATIONS
Trump and Musk’s demand for an earlier return for Wilmore and Williams was an unusual intervention into NASA operations. The agency later brought forward the Crew-10 mission from March 26, swapping a delayed SpaceX capsule for one that would be ready sooner.
The pressure from Musk and Trump has hung over a NASA preparation and safety process that normally follows a well-defined course.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, said preparing for the mission had been an “unusual flow in many respects.”
The agency had to address some “late-breaking” issues, NASA space operations chief Ken Bowersox told reporters, including investigating a fuel leak on a recent SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and deterioration of a coating on some of the Dragon crew capsule’s thrusters.
Bowersox said it was hard for NASA to keep up with SpaceX: “We’re not quite as agile as they are, but we’re working well together.”
Macron says will announce plans to ‘mobilize civilians’
- Macron said the return of compulsory military service was “not a realistic option“
- “We are going to look at ways to mobilize civilians,” he told the regional press
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday ruled out bringing back mandatory military service but said he wanted to mobilize society in the face of Russian aggression and would make an announcement in the coming weeks.
Speaking to regional newspapers in comments recorded Friday and published Saturday, Macron said the return of compulsory military service was “not a realistic option.”
He said France no longer had the “logistics” to reintroduce conscription, which ended in 2001.
“We are going to look at ways to mobilize civilians,” Macron told the regional press, adding that he wanted to consolidate the “mobilization of society in the face of crises.”
European countries including France have been debating reinstating compulsory military service to boost their defenses in the face of Russian aggression. Fears about the strength of NATO have surged further after US President Donald Trump said Europe must take care of its own security.
According to a recent poll, 61 percent of French people are in favor of re-establishing some form of compulsory military service.
During his presidential campaign in 2017, Macron had promised to introduce a month-long compulsory service, but the idea received a cool response from the army.
Macron has been looking for ways to encourage young French people to serve.
In January, he asked the government and the army to submit proposals by May on how to mobilize more young volunteers to “back up the armed forces” in case of need.
Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, speaking to Le Figaro, proposed creating “a voluntary military service,” which would enable at least 50,000 men and women to be trained each year.
Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu has suggested strengthening a reserve force to 100,000 people.
Macron wants ‘clear pressure’ on Moscow to accept ceasefire
- Russia “does not give the impression it sincerely wants peace,” Macron said
- “Russia must respond clearly and the pressure must be clear, in conjunction with the United States, to obtain this ceasefire“
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that Europe and the United States had to put pressure on Russia to accept a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.
Russia “does not give the impression it sincerely wants peace,” Macron said in a statement provided to AFP following a Saturday morning video conference of countries backing Ukraine organized by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
On the contrary, Russian President Vladimir Putin is “escalating the fighting” and “wants to get everything, then negotiate,” he said.
“Russia must respond clearly and the pressure must be clear, in conjunction with the United States, to obtain this ceasefire,” he added.
In a statement released later Saturday, his office said Macron would Canada’s new prime minister Mark Carney on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine and “other international crises.”
Since returning to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has stressed his desire to end the three-year old conflict, and has made a spectacular rapprochement with Vladimir Putin.
After a very public falling out between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last month, Kyiv has worked to restore relations. It has backed Washington’s proposed a 30-day ceasefire, which Russia has not accepted.
“This is a moment of truth because if Russia does not sincerely commit to peace, President Trump will toughen sanctions and retaliation, and so that will completely change the dynamic,” Macron said in a interview Friday with French regional papers that was posted late Saturday.
He said planning was accelerating among countries willing to provide security guarantees for Ukraine following any eventual ceasefire, such as France and Britain.
Military leaders from some 30 countries met in Paris on March 11 to discuss plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, and will meet again Thursday in Britain.
“Several European countries, and indeed non-European ones, have expressed their willingness to join” a possible deployment to Ukraine to secure a future peace agreement with Russia, said Macron.
This would involve “a few thousand troops” per state, deployed at key points, to conduct training programs and “show our long-term support,” he told the regional papers.
Moscow has firmly opposed such a deployment.
But Macron said: “If Ukraine requests allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them.
He added: “Under no circumstances can the Ukrainians make territorial concessions without having any security guarantees.”
Macron will travel to Berlin Tuesday for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz for talks on Ukraine ahead of an EU summit, Berlin has announced.
Lawyers for detained Columbia student ask for his release on bail
- Mahmoud Khalil — a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent — was arrested a week ago at his university residence
- His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth next month
NEW YORK: A Columbia University student detained over his pro-Palestinian activism is not a flight risk and should be allowed to return home for the birth of his first child, his lawyers argued in a motion for bail on Saturday.
Mahmoud Khalil — a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent — was arrested a week ago at his university residence.
He has not been charged with a crime and is being held in immigration custody in Louisiana. His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth next month.
The case has become a flashpoint for President Donald Trump’s vow to deport some activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian militants. Khalil was a prominent member of the protest movement at Columbia University.
His arrest sparked protests this week. Justice Department lawyers have argued the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
The US will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days, Rubio said on Friday.
Under a provision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, a law passed in 1952, any immigrant may be deported if the secretary of state deems their presence in the country potentially adverse to American foreign policy. Legal experts have said that provision is rarely invoked, and Khalil’s lawyers have said it was not intended to silence dissent.
“His detention unquestionably chills his speech, as the federal government monitors and controls his ability to communicate with the outside world and has complete power over all of the decisions that impact his daily life inside a remote private prison,” his lawyers argued in the motion for bail.
They said if released, Khalil would return home to help his wife prepare for the birth of their child and start a job at a human rights organization in New York. He has the support of many current and former classmates, professors, colleagues and friends who are calling for his release, they said.
“There are no allegations that Mr. Khalil is a flight risk or a danger to the community,” his lawyers argued. “Mr. Khalil has never been arrested or convicted of a crime.”
The US Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Justice Department said on Friday: “Being in the United States as a non-citizen is a privilege, not a right ... Mahmoud won’t be missed.” Since Khalil’s arrest, federal agents have searched two student residences at Columbia University and the Justice Department said on Friday it was looking into what it said were possible violations of terrorism laws during the protests.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also said on Friday that a Columbia student from India, whose visa was revoked on March 5, had left the country herself on March 11.
Noem said a second woman — a Palestinian from the West Bank who took part in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University — was arrested for overstaying her expired student visa, which was terminated in 2022 for lack of attendance.
