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US, Israeli Officials to Meet Virtually on Rafah, US Official Says

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes with their families due to Israeli raids, walk next to the border fence with Egypt, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 30 March 2024. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes with their families due to Israeli raids, walk next to the border fence with Egypt, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 30 March 2024. (EPA)
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US, Israeli Officials to Meet Virtually on Rafah, US Official Says

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes with their families due to Israeli raids, walk next to the border fence with Egypt, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 30 March 2024. (EPA)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes with their families due to Israeli raids, walk next to the border fence with Egypt, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 30 March 2024. (EPA)

Senior US and Israeli officials planned to hold a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss the Biden administration's alternative proposals to an Israeli military invasion of Rafah, a US official said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off a planned visit to Washington last week by a senior Israeli delegation after the US allowed passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the United Nations on Monday, marking a new war-time low in his relations with President Joe Biden.

Two days later Israel asked the White House to reschedule a high-level meeting on military plans for Gaza's southern city of Rafah, officials said, in an apparent bid to ease tensions between the two allies.

The United States, concerned about a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, wants Israel to consider alternatives to a ground invasion of Rafah, the last relatively safe haven for more than 1 million displaced Palestinian civilians.

The US team in the talks will be led by Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, the official said.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 63 in the past 24 hours, in Israel's six-month military offensive in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health authorities.

Israel's retaliation began after an Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas gunmen breached the Israeli border to kill 1,200 people and take 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.