Israeli Delegation in US in Attempt to Limit Iranian Expansion

The White House. (photo credit:REUTERS)
The White House. (photo credit:REUTERS)
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Israeli Delegation in US in Attempt to Limit Iranian Expansion

The White House. (photo credit:REUTERS)
The White House. (photo credit:REUTERS)

A high-ranking Israeli delegation in talks with the US National Security Council (NSC) is attempting to persuade the Americans with the necessity to having a different stance from the Iranian file, to study Tehran’s plans in the Arab region and take necessary steps to stop them, sources in Tel Aviv said.

Israel believes that US President Donald Trump isn’t heeding the Iranian file, especially that Tehran is busy in the war against ISIS, the sources stated.

“There is evidence that the Iranian regime seeks to impose sectarian Shii’te dominance in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Yemen, and also has a role in Egypt and Jordan,” the sources added, affirming that this dominance will be faced with a stern Sunni reaction.

According to the sources, the number of Sunni refugees from Syria is mounting and there is a risk of sectarian war escalation. This can destabilize the region and ruin any positive outcomes from the battle against ISIS.

Reliable sources stated that the Trump administration is currently resuming the transformation that had been started by Obama by halting support to Syrian opposition groups.

At the end of July, The Washington Post newspaper revealed that the president has decided to stop the program of providing rebels with arms, and this is a logical decision because the US intelligence wasn’t certain that the arms wouldn't reach the wrong people or lead to the killing of pro-regime civilians.



NATO Command in Germany to Assist Ukraine Is up and Running, Says Rutte

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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NATO Command in Germany to Assist Ukraine Is up and Running, Says Rutte

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)

A new NATO command in the German city of Wiesbaden has taken up its work to coordinate Western military aid for Ukraine, the alliance's Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday.

The command takes over coordination of the aid from the United States, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against NATO sceptic US President-elect Donald Trump.

"The NATO command in Wiesbaden for security assistance and training for Ukraine is now up and running", Rutte told reporters at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.

Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly without elaborating how he aims to do so. He has long criticized the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.

The headquarters of NATO's new Ukraine mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden.

The US-led Ramstein group of around 50 nations, an ad hoc coalition named after a US air base in Germany where it first met, has coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv since 2022.

It will continue to exist as a political forum as NSATU assumes the military implementation of decisions taken there.

Diplomats, however, acknowledge that the handover to NATO may have a limited effect given that the United States under Trump could still deal a major setback to Ukraine by slashing its support, as it is the alliance's dominant power and provides the majority of arms to Kyiv.

NSATU is set to have around 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO's military headquarters SHAPE in Belgium and at logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.

Russia has condemned increases in Western military aid to Ukraine as risking a wider war.