When US President Donald Trump campaigned for a second term in the White House, he promised to be a “president of peace” who would stop foreign wars, not start them. Now, a quarter-century after the September 11, 2001, attacks that triggered America’s global “war on terror,” he is entangled in an unpopular conflict of his own making that analysts say risks becoming his version of a “forever war." With the 9/11 anniversary at hand, Trump’s war against Iran is drawing comparisons in foreign policy circles to the long, divisive conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq that preceded it. It is also prompting questions about whether the US has again failed to learn the lessons of past conflicts or prepare a clear exit strategy. “Trump has broken an important post-Iraq and Afghanistan constraint in Washington against launching another major, open-ended war in the Middle East,” said Sina Toossi of the Centre for International Po...
Israel considering plans to build 1,670 new housing units in West Bank Jewish settlements: commission
Israeli authorities are considering plans to build 1,670 new housing units in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said late Wednesday. In a statement, the commission said the development came shortly after 12 Western countries decided to impose trade restrictions on products from Jewish settlements and called on Israel to halt settlement expansion. It said the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved 104 new Jewish settlements and established 160 agricultural settlement outposts since taking office in late 2022. The plans, which have reached the final approval stage, include 365 new housing units in the Maale Amos settlement southeast of Bethlehem and 200 in the Talmon settlement northwest of Ramallah. Read: FO welcomes UK's steps against Israel as 'clear rejection of illegal actions' in occupied Palestine The commission said the plans also include establishing thre...