G7 supporta cessate il fuoco a Gaza; DE autorizza uso Patriot in Russia 🗞️ Rassegna del 04/06/2024

Israele

(Al Jazeera) G7 endorses Gaza ceasefire deal

• The Group of Seven (G7) bloc of nations says it stands behind a Gaza peace deal endorsed by US President Joe Biden and called on Hamas to accept it.
   

• “We … fully endorse” the truce plan “that would lead to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, a significant and sustained increase in humanitarian assistance for distribution throughout Gaza, and an enduring end to the crisis with Israel’s security interests and Gazan civilian safety assured,” a statement said.
   

• “We call on Hamas to accept this deal, that Israel is ready to move forward with, and we urge countries with influence over Hamas to help ensure that it does so.” Hamas said it views the proposal “positively”. Israeli officials say the war must continue until Hamas is “destroyed”

(New York Times) Israel’s Offensive in Southern Gaza Strains Ties With Egypt

• For weeks, talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists across Egypt’s government-managed media spoke with one voice: Any Israeli “occupation” of the Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border, could constitute a violation of Egypt’s sovereignty and national security. That would deal a further blow to a relationship that Israel’s military offensive in southern Gaza had already brought to its lowest point in decades.
   
• But when Israel’s military said that it had seized “tactical control” of the corridor last week, the same government mouthpieces were quick to say that the border area had nothing to do with Egypt; sovereignty went unmentioned.
   
• It was the latest indication that Cairo remains protective of its relationship with Israel, which has generated valuable military and intelligence cooperation against Egyptian insurgents, as well as billions of dollars in American aid and natural gas imports from Israel.
   
• Still, Israel took the risk of upsetting the delicate balance because it says it needed to take control of the Philadelphi Corridor to destroy dozens of tunnels under the border that it says have enabled Hamas to smuggle arms into the strip — despite Egypt’s avowals that it put a stop to the smuggling years ago.

(Al Jazeera) US says Hamas cannot govern Gaza

• US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller says once a ceasefire deal is implemented, Washington will pursue a different governing authority for Gaza that is not Hamas.
   
• “One of the principles that we see for the end of this conflict is that Hamas cannot continue to govern Gaza – period, full stop,” he said.
   
• While the US claims Hamas’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded by the war, the group remains an active force on the ground, with its top political and military leadership intact. So what happens to the group’s leaders and armed members? “That is quite clearly an issue that will still need to be negotiated,” Miller said. “We haven’t even gotten an acceptance of this proposal yet.”
   
• He stressed the Biden administration’s position is Hamas should lay down its arms.

(Al Jazeera) Biden administration stresses truce deal an ‘Israeli proposal’

• The US Department of State’s Matthew Miller says Washington is “completely confident” the deal presented by Biden last week, which the US president said would lead to an enduring ceasefire, was put forward by the Israeli government.
   
• “Obviously, it was a proposal that they developed in consultation with the United States and Qatar and Egypt – three countries that have played the mediating role throughout this process,” Miller said. “But this was ultimately an Israeli proposal in terms of where it stands. It was submitted to Hamas on Thursday night.”
   
• He added that Hamas has not responded to the plan. Hamas has said it will deal “positively and constructively” with the proposal. But Israeli officials say they’ll continue to seek the destruction of the Palestinian group.

Ucraina

(Euromaidan Press) Germany says Ukraine can strike Russia with Patriots to protect Kharkiv Oblast

• Germany’s recent limited permission allows Ukraine to potentially target Russian airspace with German-supplied Patriot air defense systems, as stated by Major General Christian Freudig. This policy change specifically supports Ukraine’s defense of Kharkiv Oblast, suffering from Russian aerial strikes across the border every day.
   

•  “It is quite conceivable that the ‘Patriot’ systems could now also be used in the Kharkiv area and over Russia. They are ideally suited to combat the Russian aircraft that can deploy the terrible gliding bombs,” said Maj-Gen Freuding, head of Germany’s Ukraine military situational center, in an interview with Tagesschau.
   

• Freuding emphasized that the tactical use of the systems would be solely up to the Ukrainian military, but said, “We have great confidence that the Ukrainians will not only adhere to international law, but that they will also use them with great tactical skill and achieve success.”

(Kyiv Independent) US Vice President Kamala Harris will attend global peace summit in Biden's place

• U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the upcoming global peace summit to be held on June 15-16 in Switzerland, the White House said on June 3.
   
• The announcement comes a few days after it was reported President Joe Biden would likely miss the eventas it clashes with a campaign fundraiser he is set to attend alongside, among others, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jimmy Kimmel. The White House's statement effectively confirmed that Biden would not be attending.
   
• The statement also said U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan would be attending.

(Kyiv Independent) Zelensky accuses China of 'working hard' to stop countries attending global peace summit

• Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore on June 2, Zelensky also expressed disappointment that "some world leaders" would not be present at the event to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16.

• Ukraine hopes the summit will address several key areas, such as energy security, the exchange of captives, the return of deported children, global food security, and other topics.

• "China, unfortunately, is working hard today to prevent countries from coming to the peace summit," Zelensky said on June 2.

• China is also reported to have declined an invitation as the terms they required to attend were not met, Reuters reported on May 31, citing several sources with direct knowledge of the matter. One source said China had insisted the summit should be recognised by both Russia and Ukraine and both countries should participate.

Europa

Regno Unito
 

(Guardian) Nigel Farage to stand for Reform UK in general election U-turn

• The Conservative party’s faltering general election campaign suffered a potentially damaging blow when Nigel Farage announced he intended to stand as an MP and lead the Reform party for the next five years.

• The former Ukip and Brexit party leader said he would stand in Clacton, Essex, after changing his mind while spending time on the campaign trail. He claimed that he did not want to let his supporters down.

• Farage will also take over as leader of Reform UK from Richard Tice, pledging to stay in post for a full parliamentary term.

• Farage’s bid to win in Clacton, which was the first to elect a Ukip MP in 2014 and has a Tory majority of 24,702, will be his eighth attempt to enter parliament. He has failed on each of the previous seven occasions.

• In a further blow to Sunak, YouGov’s first MRP constituency projection, before Farage’s announcement, showed Keir Starmer could win a 194 majority, bigger even than Tony Blair’s 179 majority in 1997. It put Labour on 422 seats (+222 from the 2019 election, based on new constituency boundaries), the Tories on 140 (-232), the Lib Dems on 48 (+40) and the SNP on 17 (-31). 

• One senior Tory described Farage’s return as an “existential” risk.

Politica internazionale

Nord America

Stati Uniti
 

(Guardian) Biden to sign executive order to close southern US border to asylum seekers
 

• Joe Biden will this week sign an executive order to temporarily close the southern US border to asylum seekers in a sharp political U-turn aimed at winning support on a key voter concern in a presidential election year.

• The US president is expected to sign the order as early as Tuesday to seal the border with Mexico to migrants when numbers of asylum claimants rise above a daily threshold of 2,500.

• He has been forced to change course as the number of asylum seekers coming through the US-Mexico border has surged during his presidency, with opinion polls consistently showing immigration to be at or near the top of voters’ concerns, ahead of inflation and the economy.

• According to CBS, which broke the story, Biden’s executive order will enable US immigration officials to quickly deport migrants who enter the country illegally without processing their asylum claims.

(Guardian) Trump calls on supreme court to annul his guilty verdict in hush-money case

• Donald Trump has called on the US supreme court to step in and annul his guilty verdict in a hush-money trial that left him with the unwanted distinction of being the first former US president to be a convicted felon.

• The 2024 presumptive Republican nominee made his plea in a typically florid post on his Truth Social site, highlighting that a sentencing hearing scheduled for 11 July falls just four days before the GOP’s national convention in Milwaukee, when his nomination is expected to become official.

• In a worrying sign for Trump, a new ABC/Ipsos poll showed 50% of voters thought the verdict was correct, nearly double the proportion, 27%, who believed it was wrong. Nearly half of those polled, 49%, thought he should end his campaign – a step he is highly unlikely to take.

• The figures were even starker among “double haters” – voters who equally dislike Trump and President Joe Biden – 65% of whom supported the verdict, with two-thirds saying the former president should end his campaign. Pollsters predict the cohort could be a critical component of the swing voter constituency they believe will determine the outcome in November.