عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Biden Calls for More Aid for Israel and Ukraine

US President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, USA, 19 October 2023. EPA/JONATHAN ERNST / POOL
US President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, USA, 19 October 2023. EPA/JONATHAN ERNST / POOL
TT
TT

Biden Calls for More Aid for Israel and Ukraine

US President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, USA, 19 October 2023. EPA/JONATHAN ERNST / POOL
US President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, USA, 19 October 2023. EPA/JONATHAN ERNST / POOL

President Joe Biden has urged support for additional US aid for Ukraine and Israel, saying in a televised address from the Oval Office that “American leadership is what holds the world together.”

Biden spoke hours after returning to Washington from an urgent visit to Israel to show US support in the wake of a deadly attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. Some 1,400 civilians were killed and roughly 200 others, including Americans, were taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel has responded with airstrikes, and 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

“History has taught us when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction,” Biden said. “They keep going. And the cost and the threat to America and the world keep rising.”

Biden placed an increased emphasis on the deadly toll that the conflict has had on civilians in the Middle East, saying he's “heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life."

“Israel and Palestinians equally deserve to live in safety, dignity and peace,” Biden said. He also warned about a rising tide of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the US, noting the killing of Wadea Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy.

“To all you hurting, I want you to know I see you. You belong," Biden said. "And I want to say this to you. You're all Americans.”

The US president argued that Israel needs help to defend itself from Hamas. He also said the US must help Ukraine stop the advances of Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep other “would-be aggressors” from trying to take over other countries.

Biden said he will send lawmakers an “urgent budget request” Friday to fund US national security needs.

He called the request, said to carry a price tag of about $100 billion, a “smart investment” that will pay dividends for decades to come.

Biden included in his remarks a warning to Iran's leaders, who have supported Hamas in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and said the US “will continue to hold them accountable.”

Most Viewed

 
 
World

South Korea’s Yoon Seeks Dialogue, Path to Unification with Isolated Pyongyang

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol speaks during the celebration of the 79th National Liberation Day at Sejong Center of the Performing Arts in Seoul, South Korea, 15 August 2024. (EPA)
South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol speaks during the celebration of the 79th National Liberation Day at Sejong Center of the Performing Arts in Seoul, South Korea, 15 August 2024. (EPA)
TT
TT

South Korea’s Yoon Seeks Dialogue, Path to Unification with Isolated Pyongyang

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol speaks during the celebration of the 79th National Liberation Day at Sejong Center of the Performing Arts in Seoul, South Korea, 15 August 2024. (EPA)
South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol speaks during the celebration of the 79th National Liberation Day at Sejong Center of the Performing Arts in Seoul, South Korea, 15 August 2024. (EPA)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol offered on Thursday to establish a working-level consultative body with North Korea to discuss ways to ease tension and resume economic cooperation, as he laid out his vision on unification of the neighbors.

In a National Liberation Day speech marking the 79th anniversary of independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule after World War Two, Yoon said he was ready to begin political and economic cooperation if North Korea "takes just one step" toward denuclearization.

Yoon used the speech as a chance to unveil a blueprint for unification and make a fresh outreach to Pyongyang, following his government's recent offer to provide relief supplies for flood damage in the isolated North which he said had been rejected.

But a unified Korea appears a distant prospect to most people on both sides of the border. Relations between the neighbors have been at their lowest in decades as the North races to advance its nuclear and missile capabilities and takes steps to cut ties with the South, redefining it as a separate, hostile enemy state.

At the start of the year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called South Korea a "primary foe" and said unification was no longer possible.

Yoon said launching the "inter-Korean working group" could help relieve tensions and handle any issues ranging from economic cooperation to people-to-people exchanges to reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

"We will begin political and economic cooperation the moment North Korea takes just one step toward denuclearisation," he said at a ceremony in Seoul.

"Dialogue and cooperation can bring about substantive progress in inter-Korean relations."

The speech came amid a dispute with opposition lawmakers over Yoon's appointment of what they view as a pro-Japan, revisionist former professor to oversee a national independence museum, another sign of political polarisation and divided opinions over Yoon's efforts to ramp up security ties with Tokyo.

Major independence movement groups which had for decades co-hosted the annual National Liberation Day events with the government held a separate ceremony for the first time in protest over the professor, joined by opposition lawmakers.

Yoon's office has said there are "misunderstandings" about the appointment, and was seeking ways to resolve them.

Yoon, in the speech, also raised the idea of a plan to launch an international conference on North Korea's human rights and a fund to promote global awareness on the issue, support activist groups, and expand North Korean residents' access to outside information.

"It is important to help awaken the people of North Korea to the value of freedom," he said, calling for freedoms in the South to be extended to "the frozen kingdom of the North."

"If more North Koreans come to recognize that unification through freedom is the only way to improve their lives and are convinced that a unified Republic of Korea will embrace them, they will become strong, friendly forces for a freedom-based unification."