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Arab leaders meeting Saturday at a summit in Baghdad urged the international community to press for a Gaza ceasefire, as Israel launched an expanded military offensive in the Palestinian territory.In a joint final statement, Arab League members also called for funding to back their Gaza reconstruction plan, after US President Donald Trump reiterated a proposal to take over the strip.The Arab leaders called “on the international community… to exert pressure to end the bloodshed and ensure that urgent humanitarian aid can enter without obstacles all areas in need in Gaza.”They added that they “firmly” rejected any plans to displace Palestinians. It came hours after Israel’s military launched a new Gaza offensive, saying it was part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip” aimed at defeating Palestinian militant group Hamas.Appearing at the summit as a guest, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appealed for increased pressure “to halt the massacre in Gaza”.Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to “apply all necessary efforts… for a ceasefire”.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres told the summit that “we need a permanent ceasefire, now”.Guterres said he was “alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more”.”We reject the repeated displacement of the Gaza population, along with any question of forced displacement outside of Gaza.”During a press conference, he urged an end to Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza.”A policy of siege and starvation makes a mockery of international law,” Guterres said.- ‘Unacceptable number’ -Sanchez, who has sharply criticised the Israeli offensive, said world leaders should “intensify our pressure on Israel to halt the massacre in Gaza, particularly through the channels afforded to us by international law”.He said his government planned a UN resolution demanding an International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s war methods.The “unacceptable number” of war victims in Gaza violates the “principle of humanity”, he said.The summit came days after a tour of the Gulf by Trump, who has sparked uproar by declaring the United States could take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.The scheme that included the proposed displacement of Palestinians was widely condemned, and prompted Arab leaders to come up with an alternative plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.During his visit to the region, Trump reiterated that he wanted the United States to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”.Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told the summit his country backed the creation of an “Arab fund to support reconstruction efforts” after crises in the region.He pledged $20 million to reconstruct Gaza and a similar amount for Lebanon, after an all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah.Israel has continued to launch strikes on Lebanon despite the November 27 truce.- Syria -Iraq only recently regained a semblance of normality after decades of devastating conflict and turmoil, and its leaders view the summit as an opportunity to project an image of stability.Baghdad last hosted an Arab League summit in 2012, during the early stages of the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which in December entered a new chapter with the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.In Riyadh this week, Trump met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime jihadist whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.He also said he would lift sanctions on Syria, which were mainly imposed during Assad’s rule.Arab leaders welcomed the decision and said the sanctions impacted Syria’s reconstruction efforts.Sharaa, who was imprisoned in Iraq for years after the US-led invasion of 2003 on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, missed the Baghdad summit after several powerful Iraqi politicians voiced opposition to his visit.Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani represented Syria, one of many countries to send ministerial-level delegations instead of leaders.

Israel’s military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander on Saturday in south Lebanon, where authorities reported one dead in the fourth Israeli strike within days despite a November ceasefire.Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli “drone strike” on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Tyre district.An AFP correspondent saw the charred wreckage of a vehicle in Abu al-Aswad, an area around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces “struck and eliminated… a commander” involved in “the re-establishment of Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” in south Lebanon.Israel has continued to launch strikes on its neighbour despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah militants including two months of full-blown war.The Israeli military said that “the rebuilding of terrorist infrastructure and related activity constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”Earlier this week, the Israeli military said three separate strikes in south Lebanon targeted Hezbollah operatives.Under the ceasefire, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic”.The Lebanese army has been deploying in the area as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.At an Arab summit in Baghdad on Saturday, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denounced “daily Israeli violations” of Lebanese sovereignty and “the ongoing Israeli occupation of positions” in the south.He said Lebanon was working to “fully implement” a United Nations Security Council resolution that formed the basis of the ceasefire.The resolution says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.Salam again urged international pressure “to oblige Israel to stop its attacks and immediately and fully withdraw from all Lebanese territory”.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday called for increased pressure “to halt the massacre in Gaza”, speaking at an Arab League summit hours after Israel announced an intensified operation in the besieged Palestinian territory.UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Baghdad meeting that “we need a permanent ceasefire, now”, while Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to “apply all necessary efforts… for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.The summit comes straight after a Gulf tour by Trump, who sparked uproar earlier this year by declaring that the United States could take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.The scheme that included the proposed displacement of Palestinians prompted Arab leaders to come up with an alternative plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.Guterres said that “we reject the repeated displacement of the Gaza population, along with any question of forced displacement outside of Gaza.”The UN secretary-general also said he was “alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more”.The Israeli military said it had launched “extensive strikes” on Saturday as part of the “initial stages” of a fresh offensive, more than 19 months into the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.Sanchez, who has sharply criticised the Israeli offensive, said world leaders should “intensify our pressure on Israel to halt the massacre in Gaza, particularly through the channels afforded to us by international law”.He said his government planned a UN resolution demanding an International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s war methods.The “unacceptable number” of war victims in Gaza violates the “principle of humanity”, he said.Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told the summit that his country backs the creation of an “Arab fund to support reconstruction efforts” after crises in the region.He pledged $20 million to the reconstruction of Gaza and a similar amount for Lebanon.Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the Baghdad meeting would endorse previous Arab League decisions on Gaza’s reconstruction countering Trump’s widely condemned proposal.During his visit to the region this week, Trump reiterated that he wanted the United States to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”.- Syria, Iran -Iraq has only recently regained a semblance of normality after decades of devastating conflict and turmoil, and its leaders view the summit as an opportunity to project an image of stability.Baghdad last hosted an Arab League summit in 2012, during the early stages of the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which in December entered a new chapter with the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.In Riyadh, Trump met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime jihadist whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.Sharaa, who was imprisoned in Iraq for years after the US-led invasion of 2003 on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, missed the Baghdad summit after several powerful Iraqi politicians voiced opposition to his visit.Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani represented Damascus instead.The summit also comes amid Iran’s ongoing nuclear talks with the United States.Trump has pursued diplomacy with Iran as he seeks to avert threatened military action by Israel — a desire shared by many of the region’s leaders.On Thursday, Trump said a deal was “getting close”, but by Friday, he warned that “something bad is going to happen” if the Iranians do not move fast.

The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “extensive strikes” as part of a fresh offensive in Gaza, after rescuers reported 100 people killed in the besieged Palestinian territory.The army said on Telegram it had begun the “initial stages” of the offensive, known as Operation Gideon’s Chariots.The operation was part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”, it said in a post in Arabic.A separate statement in English said the army was “mobilizing troops to achieve operational control in areas of the Gaza Strip”.Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday, while the army said its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian group in October 2023.The latest operation comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increasing pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade on Gaza, as NGOs warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.The return to fighting since March 18 has drawn international condemnation, with the UN’s rights chief on Friday denouncing the renewed attacks — and what he described as an apparent push to permanently displace the population.- ‘Ethnic cleansing’ -“This latest barrage of bombs… and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Volker Turk said in a statement.The main Israeli campaign group representing the families of hostages said that by extending the fighting, Netanyahu was missing a “historic opportunity” to get their loved ones out through diplomacy.Hamas on Friday demanded the United States press Israel to lift the aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by the group.Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with US nationality, was freed last week after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined.As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander’s release, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group was “awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure” on Israel “to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid”.Israel says its decision to cut off aid to Gaza was intended to force concessions from Hamas, which still holds dozens of Israeli hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war. – ‘People are starving’ -US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” in the besieged Palestinian territory.”We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel.The Arab League is to meet in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss regional crises, with Gaza expected to be high on the agenda.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres will attend the summit, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who has sharply criticised Israel’s offensive in Gaza — is expected to address it as a guest.The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 2,985 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,119.

The Arab League is meeting in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss Gaza and other regional crises, but some key leaders are expected to miss the talks that come straight after US President Donald Trump’s Gulf tour.Trump sparked uproar earlier this year by declaring that America would take over Gaza and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”, prompting Arab leaders to come up with a plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was the first Arab leader to arrive in Baghdad Friday.But a diplomatic source said that most Gulf countries will attend at a ministerial level.The war in Gaza is expected to dominate the agenda, especially after Israel approved plans to expand its offensive and spoke of the “conquest” of the territory.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres will attend the summit, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — who has sharply criticised Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza — is expected to address it as a guest.Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the Baghdad summit will endorse decisions that were made in Cairo’s meeting in March to support Gaza’s reconstruction as an alternative to Trump’s widely condemned proposal.Trump on Thursday reiterated from Qatar that he wanted the US to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”.- Syria, Iran -Iraq has only recently regained a semblance of normalcy after decades of devastating conflict and turmoil, and its leaders view the summit as an opportunity to project an image of stability.In an op-ed about the summit earlier this month, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani wrote: “Today, we are not just rebuilding Iraq, we are also reshaping the Middle East through a balanced foreign policy, a wise leadership, development initiatives, and strategic partnerships.”Baghdad last hosted an Arab League summit in 2012, amid domestic tensions and at the start of the war in neighbouring Syria, which only six months ago entered a new chapter after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.In Riyadh, Trump met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime jihadist whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.Sharaa, who was imprisoned for years in Iraq on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda following the 2003 US-led invasion, will miss Baghdad’s summit after several powerful Iraqi politicians voiced opposition to his visit.Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani will represent Damascus instead.The summit also comes amid Iran’s ongoing nuclear talks with the United States.Trump has pursued diplomacy with Iran as he seeks to stave off a threatened military strike by Israel on Iran — a desire shared by many of the region’s leaders.On Thursday, Trump said a deal was “getting close”, but by Friday, he was warning that “something bad is going to happen” if the Iranians do not move fast.

Israel threatened to target the leadership of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels after the air force struck two rebel-held ports on Friday, following repeated Huthi missile attacks in recent days.The Huthis agreed earlier this month to stop firing on international shipping in the Red Sea after the United States stepped up air strikes on rebel-held areas with British support.But the rebels vowed to keep up their strikes on Israel despite the deal and fired three missiles in as many days this week that triggered air raid warnings in major cities.The Huthis’ Al-Masirah television reported strikes on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, a key entry point for aid, as well as the port of Salif further north.An AFP correspondent in Hodeida reported hearing several loud explosions.The Huthi-run health ministry said at least one person was killed and nine wounded in the strikes.The Israeli military said 15 fighter jets dropped over 30 munitions on Huthi targets in the air force’s eighth round of strikes in Yemen.It said the ports were “used to transfer weapons” and that prior warnings had been issued to Yemeni civilians to evacuate.The Huthi administration said the strikes “will be met with a painful response”, according to the Huthi-run Saba news agency.The Huthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, began firing at Israel-linked shipping in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.They later broadened their campaign to target Israel, saying it was in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Huthi leadership there was “more to come” after Friday’s strikes.”We are not willing to sit on the sidelines and let the Huthis attack us. We will hit them far more, including their leadership and all the infrastructure that allows them to hit us,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Huthi leaders that if the missile attacks continued, they would face the same fate as Hamas leaders slain by Israel in Gaza.- UN scales back aid -“If the Huthis continue to fire, we will also hit the heads of the terror groups, just as we did to (slain Hamas military chief Mohammed) Deif and (the) Sinwars (Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed Sinwar) in Gaza,” Katz said in a post. “We will also hunt down and eliminate the Huthi leader, Abd al-Malek al-Huthi.”In early May, a Huthi missile struck an area at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people in a rare penetration of Israeli air defences. Israel retaliated by striking the airport in Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital Sanaa and three nearby power stations.The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that exchange marked a “dangerous escalation” and was a reminder that the war-torn country is “ensnared in the wider regional tensions.”The United Nations meanwhile announced that it was scaling back its humanitarian aid goals in Yemen in the latest fallout from a drastic drop in funding from member states.It said the cuts are putting millions of lives at risk around the world.In January, the UN launched an appeal for $2.4 billion to help 10.5 million people in war-torn Yemen this year, far below the 19.5 million people it deems as being in need of assistance.But with funding down, the global body and its humanitarian aid partners established new priorities so as to be able to help at least the neediest.Now the focus in Yemen will be on 8.8 million people with a forecast budget of $1.4 billion, said Stephanie Tremblay, a spokeswoman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.UN agencies are scaling back operations and staffing around the world as they grapple with big cuts in contributions from member states, in particular the United States under President Donald Trump.bur-ml-acc-fa/kir/jsa/fec/tym

President Donald Trump proclaimed a decisive break with decades of US interventionism during his Middle East tour, promising a new American foreign policy based instead on his beloved art of the deal.Trump vowed during his swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that there would be no more “lectures on how to live”, saying the region had achieved a “modern miracle the Arabian way.”In an extraordinary rupture with his predecessors, Trump then lambasted what he called the “neo-cons” that oversaw bloody US military interventions in the region and beyond.”In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built,” Trump told an investment forum in Riyadh, the first stop on his tour of the Gulf.”Far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins.”Trump did not name them but the targets were clear. His Democratic predecessor Joe Biden tried to tie US support to the promotion of human rights and the maintenance of the international order. And Republican George W. Bush in the early 2000s launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.- ‘Consequential shift’ -“Trump’s Riyadh speech marked a clear and consequential shift in US policy toward the Middle East,” said Sina Toossi, from the Center for International Policy. “By rejecting the legacy of military intervention and nation-building, he signaled a move toward realism and restraint. This shift resonates deeply in a region exhausted by war and foreign meddling.”But for Trump, that also means ignoring democracy and human rights issues and embracing the leaders of oil-rich monarchies with often autocratic tendencies.His Saudi host, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was for example found by US intelligence to have ordered the gruesome murder in 2018 of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. But there was no mention of that in Riyadh.Instead, Trump preached the same brand of gold-plated, transactional politics that he does at home.Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates showed him the money, signing a host of huge business and investment deals with the United States during his trip.In return they got the glitz of Trump’s first major foreign trip and praise as being examples of what the region could become.Conversely, Trump’s visit also shook one of the longest-standing pillars of US policy in the Middle East — its support for Israel.The US president not only bypassed Israel on the trip but appeared to sideline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on key issues including Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s war in Gaza, and Yemen’s Huthi rebels.This showed mounting tensions behind the scenes, particularly on Iran, with Israel far keener than Trump on a military option.- ‘American power’ -But Trump’s deal-making approach to foreign policy could soon have its limits tested.He has shown willingness to seek a deal with Iran over its nuclear program — saying that Tehran’s case “I have never believed in having permanent enemies.”But at the same time Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it does not reach an accord.Trump also left the Middle East with no progress towards a deal to end the war in Gaza despite his pledges to end the conflict — although he made a rare reference to the fact that people were now “starving” in the besieged enclave.Further afield, Trump tried to coax Russia’s Vladimir Putin to talks in Istanbul during his trip to discuss an end to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but his efforts came to nothing.Trump’s “peace through strength” doctrine also has its contradictions. On a visit to a huge US air base in Qatar he said that “my priority is to end conflicts, not start them.” But then he immediately added: “I will never hesitate to wield American power if it’s necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners.”