U.S., France, Other Allies Call For Immediate Three-Week Truce Between Israel and Hezbollah |
Countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates backed the joint statement negotiated yesterday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. It calls the recent fighting “intolerable” and appeals for a cease-fire across the Lebanon-Israel border to allow for negotiations, including on the possibility of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. In a statement issued while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to New York, he said he had not yet responded to the proposal on the table; Israel’s foreign minister posted on social media that “there will be no cease-fire in the north” while Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he hoped one could be reached soon.
Yesterday, Israel’s army leader in a public comment told troops near the border with Lebanon to be prepared to cross into the country. As cross-border tensions spiral, Israeli and Lebanese residents of border areas continue to flee, with thousands from Lebanon flocking into Syria. Netanyahu is due to address the General Assembly tomorrow. (AP, Reuters)
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“There is a short window for international diplomacy to find a face-saving formula that would allow Hezbollah to extricate itself from the Gaza conflict and stand down for the sake of Lebanon. This would require, however, the kind of national coalition building inside Lebanon that historically has proven hard to achieve. Crucially, it also entails the Biden administration obtaining iron-clad guarantees from Israel that it too will step back,” the Columbia Institute of Global Politics’ Kim Ghattas writes for the Financial Times.
“[Israel has], over many months now, said to the United States, ‘we are willing to allow your diplomacy to work.’ The [U.S.] president has repeatedly sent an envoy to Beirut and to Israel to try to work out some sort of solution, none to the satisfaction of either party, and as a result we are seeing what we are seeing now in Lebanon, tragically,” CFR Senior Fellow Steven A. Cook tells the BBC.
Read the full suite of Foreign Affairs and CFR.org resources on Israel and the current conflict.
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Japanese Warship Sails Through Taiwan Strait for First Time |
Japan was accompanied by Australian and New Zealand vessels in the transit, unnamed government sources told Nikkei. Japan followed countries such as the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in conducting freedom-of-navigation exercises in the Taiwan Strait. When asked about yesterday’s transit, a senior Japanese official said Tokyo “regrets” the expansion of Chinese military operations near Japan. (Nikkei)
U.S./Taiwan: Talks between dozens of U.S. and Taiwanese firms on collaborating on drone production wrapped up yesterday in Taipei. Taiwan hopes to play a bigger role in supply chains for Western drones, while both Washington and Taipei hope to chip away at China’s position as the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial drones. (NYT)
This article by CFR’s Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow explains U.S. support for Taiwan in five charts.
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Countries Launch Gender Discrimination Proceedings Against Afghanistan |
The push announced yesterday by Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands could result in the Taliban being taken to the International Court of Justice over gender discrimination. They called for negotiations; if those fail, the case could be the first of its kind to go to the Hague. (AFP) This In Brief by CFR’s Clara Fong and Noël James looks at how the Taliban’s rule is fueling a movement to end gender apartheid.
China/India: An Indian steelmakers’ association called on New Delhi to double tariffs on Chinese steel following a surge in lower-cost Chinese imports. (Reuters)
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Middle East and North Africa |
Tunisian Opposition Presidential Candidate Slapped With Second Prison Sentence |
Ayachi Zammel’s six-month sentence on charges of falsifying records came around a week after he was sentenced to eighteen months for similar charges by a different court. He has denied wrongdoing and has the right to continue campaigning from prison for the October 6 vote. He is one of two candidates challenging the incumbent Kais Saied. (Bloomberg) |
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Sudan’s Army Unleashes Push to Recapture Capital From Rebels |
Army forces waged offensives flanking western, southern, and central areas of Khartoum yesterday where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were set up. Air strikes and fierce clashes continued into today as the army peddled forward its biggest operation yet to regain ground there in the nearly eighteen months of fighting. (Sudan Tribune, AFP)
This article by CFR’s Mariel Ferragamo and Sabine Baumgartner shows in photos the destruction wrought in Sudan's war.
Liberia: The International Monetary Fund’s board approved an around $210 million loan package for Liberia that it said aimed to boost private-sector growth in the country outside of the natural resource sector. (Reuters)
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Biden Announces $8 Billion for Ukraine |
The new U.S. military aid to help Kyiv “win this war” will include shipments of a precision-guided glide bomb for the first time, though U.S. President Joe Biden stopped short of allowing Ukraine to use U.S. missiles to strike deep inside Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will have separate meetings with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House today. (Reuters, AP)
In this YouTube Short, Ukraine’s head of the president’s office Andriy Yermak discusses how the war in Ukraine could end in NATO membership.
Russia: President Vladimir Putin came out with changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine today, saying Russia will consider any nation’s conventional attack that is supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack on Russia. (AP)
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Mexico’s Congress Puts Military in Charge of Police Force |
Congress approved a goal of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and put the country’s National Guard under the control of the defense ministry. Human rights experts had warned against the move, saying it will not effectively address the country’s high levels of violence. (WaPo)
Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government survived a no-confidence vote in parliament yesterday. Trudeau is expected to face a series of these votes in this session of parliament amid lagging approval ratings and after one of his former coalition partners backed out earlier this month. (CBC, BBC)
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Harris Pledges $100 Billion in New Manufacturing Investments |
Vice President Kamala Harris outlined her pledges in a Pittsburgh speech and policy paper. She said the new investments in manufacturing would be funded by international tax reform and pledged cuts to red tape around building in the United States, the elimination of some college degree requirements for some federal positions, and tax breaks to companies that increase “good union jobs.” (NBC, NYT)
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