SHERIF TAREK / BLOOMBERG

A military base in Syria belonging to a U.S.-led coalition came under rocket-fire late on Sunday, the government-affiliated Iraqi Security Media Cell said in a statement.
At least one rocket landed at the base, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in an interview with Al-Arabiya.

It wasn’t immediately clear if there were any casualties. U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, is yet to comment.

The attacks are the first against U.S. bases in the region since early February, when Washington struck Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. That was in response for a drone assault that killed three American soldiers in Jordan and was blamed by the U.S. on an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

Iran backs a number of anti-U.S. and anti-Israel militias in Iraq and Syria and they ramped up attacks on American bases after the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

Iraqi forces are conducting a search operation west of Nineveh, near the Syrian border, to try to capture the perpetrators of the latest attack, according to Iraqi Security Media Cell.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq didn’t explicitly claim responsibility for the strike, but in a statement on Telegram the militant group said it decided to resume military operations against American troops after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani visited the White House and met President Joe Biden this month. The group gave Al-Sudani three months to negotiate the departure of the roughly 2,000 U.S. forces in Iraq.

“What happened a short while ago is the beginning that must be escalated,” according to the group’s statement.

The attack followed an explosion on a base in Iraq this weekend controlled by the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iran-allied militias, killing one person and injuring eight, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. said it wasn’t behind that incident.

Ireland’s foreign minister on Monday called the “collective punishment” of Palestinians by Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack “not acceptable,” saying Israel’s response was not proportionate.

“We believe that the response has been fully disproportionate and has also been, in our view, a breach of humanitarian law in terms of the destruction of Gaza and also in terms of the killing of civilians, innocent men, women and children,” Michael Martin said in a doorstep speech ahead of a EU Foreign Ministers Council meeting.

“We believe that cannot be justified,” Martin said and added: “The population of Gaza has been collectively punished because of the activities of Hamas, that’s not acceptable.”

He said Israel has “not been listening” to the EU and US, urging that it was “time that Israel pull back and stop this, and then we get the cease-fire, get the hostages released and get some good humanitarian aid in as fast as we possibly can.”

The minister added that Ireland and Spain would be calling for a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which forms the legal basis governing the bloc’s trade relations with Israel, during the meeting.

He also said the ministers would discuss the current situation with regard to a peace plan, as well the recognition of a Palestinian state, and humanitarian aid issues.

Gazans ‘cannot wait another day’ to have access to basic needs

The Spanish foreign minister also called for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza during his doorstep, saying that people in the besieged strip cannot go another day without access to basic needs.

“We are going to continue calling now more than ever for a permanent cease-fire given the risk that Israeli military operations will extend to Rafah, which would further increase this humanitarian catastrophe that has already claimed 34,000 lives,” Jose Manuel Albares said.

“We are going to request that all land points be opened once and for all for humanitarian aid to access,” Albares said.

“The civilian population of Gaza cannot wait another day to have access to things as basic as food, medicine, and drinking water,” he warned.

Regarding last week’s vote on Palestine’s UN membership, he underlined Spain’s position of being in favor of Palestine’s entry into the union.

“I believe that on Thursday, there was enormous support for Palestine’s entry into the United Nations,” he said. “It has been a very broad support and, of course, what Spain is going to do… is that sovereign recognition (of Palestine) as a member state, as 139 countries on the planet have already done, including 9 from the European Union.”

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 76,980 injured since then, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

(Source: AA)

Dr Ramzy Baroud

The outcome of the Palestine vote and the American veto at the United Nations Security Council on 18 April was predictable. Though European countries are becoming increasingly supportive of a Palestinian state, the United States is not yet ready for this commitment.

These are some of the reasons that the US deputy envoy to the UN, Robert Wood, vetoed the resolution.

One, US foreign policy in the Middle East is still governed by Israeli priorities. And since the majority of Israelis reject the idea of a Palestinian state, or any “concessions” or even the most basic rights for Palestinians, the weak US president neither has the courage, nor the desire to defy the Israeli position.

Two, the fact that Israel, as per the words of its Ambassador at the UN, Gilad Erdan, saw that a vote for Palestine would be equivalent to “rewarding terror with a Palestinian state”, created the kind of political discourse that would have made a positive American vote, or an abstention, akin to supporting this so-called terrorism.

Three, Biden, in his own Democratic Party’s calculations, cannot politically afford supporting an independent Palestine only a few months ahead of one of the most contested and decisive elections in US history.

His position remains that of supporting a strong Palestinian Authority – which only exists to “secure” Israel against Palestinian resistance – while giving the illusion that a Palestinian state is forthcoming.

“There needs to be a Palestinian Authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state,” Biden said in October 2023.

The same position was, for the lack of a better word, articulated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in January 2024: There is a need for a “pathway to a Palestinian state.”

But what does this mean in practice?

“The problem is getting from here to there, and of course, it requires very difficult, challenging decisions. It requires a mindset that is open to that perspective,” according to Blinken. In other words, more illusions and newspeak.

On the other hand, the Republican Party leadership made it clear that their support for Israel is blind and unconditional. They are also ready to exploit any comment – let alone action – by Biden and his officials that may seem critical of Israel in any way. All of these factors combined made the American veto quite predictable.

Important Lessons
However, the vote was still important, as it, according to Palestinian political leaders and officials, showed that it is the US, not the Palestinians, who are isolated within the international community.

Indeed, the vote demonstrated that:

One, the international community remains largely united in its support of the Palestinians.

Two, the positive vote by France, an influential European country, signals a shift in the perception of the European body politic towards Palestine.

“The time has come for a comprehensive political settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the two-state solution,” the French Delegation at the UN tweeted on 19 April.

Three, the strong statements emanating from Ireland, Norway, Spain and others in this regard indicate that the trajectory of support of Palestine in Europe will continue in the coming months and years.

Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Michael Martin, expressed his disappointment “at the outcome of the UN Security Council vote on Palestinian UN membership,” he tweeted.

“It is past time for Palestine to take its rightful place amongst the nations of the world. (Ireland) fully supports UN membership and will vote in favour of any UNGA resolution to that end.”

The same position was also adopted by Norway.

“Norway regrets that the Security Council did not agree on admitting #Palestine as a full member of the UN,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide tweeted, adding: “Norway is a staunch supporter of Palestine’s right to statehood. The #TwoStateSolution is the only way to durable peace.”

Four, the outcome of the vote further isolates the United States precisely as much as the Israeli genocide in Gaza has also exposed and isolated Washington.

Despite the Israeli genocide in the Strip, Washington remains the main line of defence for Tel Aviv, allowing it to violate the rights of the Palestinian people and to deny them the very political horizon needed for a just peace.

And, finally, the vote and veto further accentuate Biden’s inability to liberate himself from the stronghold imposed on him and his party by Israel’s supporters – Israel’s backers within the Democratic Party institution and the pro-Israel lobby from without.

Despite the negative outcome of the vote, however, Palestinians now have a renewed resolve that they will ultimately prevail, despite the numerous obstacles created by the US and Israel.

In truth, this collective feeling of hope and empowerment is not the outcome of the strong support for Palestine at the UNSC and the General Assembly, but of the growing sympathy and support for Palestine worldwide and, even more important, the continued resistance of Palestinians in Gaza.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.