Latest news with #MilitaryIntervention
Fox News
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Bernie Sanders says Israeli PM 'wrong' both in the past and now: 'We must not get involved in Netanyahu's war'
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., issued a press release on Thursday in which he declared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "wrong" in the past and is again now. In the statement, Sanders pointed to comments Netanyahu made while speaking about Saddam Hussein at a U.S. congressional hearing in 2002. Netanyahu said at the time that "if you take out … Saddam's regime," the move "will have enormous positive reverberations on the region." He said that there was "no question whatsoever" that the Iraqi leader was pursuing the "development of nuclear weapons." "Netanyahu was wrong. Very wrong. The war in Iraq resulted in 4,492 U.S. military deaths, over 32,000 wounded, and a cost of roughly three trillion dollars. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also died as a result of that tragic war. Netanyahu was wrong regarding the war in Iraq. He is wrong now. We must not get involved in Netanyahu's war against Iran," Sanders asserted in his statement. President Donald Trump has not ruled out the prospect of U.S. military intervention as Israel targets Iran in a bid to stop the rogue regime from achieving its nuclear weapons ambitions. "Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks," President Trump said, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who read out the president's comment during a press briefing on Thursday. Trump has been clear that he opposes the prospect of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. "AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including the fact that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!" he declared in a Truth Social post on Monday.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Gives Netanyahu Green Light to Continue His Reckless Wars
President Trump took time on Wednesday to reaffirm his unwavering support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wars. 'I said, 'Keep going.' What do I say?' Trump said when asked about his recent conversations with Netanyahu. 'I speak to him every day. He's a good man … been very unfairly treated by his country, I think. Very unfairly.' 'Have you given him any indication that you may seek to aid them more than you have already?' a reporter asked. 'No.' At this point in the Israel-Iran conflict, the U.S. has offered Israel intelligence and helped shoot Iranian missiles out of the air. Trump has also left the door open for further U.S. military intervention, a development that would make Netanyahu's job that much easier. Trump doesn't seem willing to budge on his support for Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran under the guise of some potential nuclear threat, even as many in his own base oppose it in the name of 'America First.' If anything, this war offers Netanyahu some temporary reprieve from attention on his genocide in Gaza. If Trump believes Netanyahu is being treated unfairly even as he commits genocide in Gaza and provokes all-out war with Iran, all while failing to both eliminate Hamas and free all the Israeli hostages, then Trump is even more blindly committed to the prime minister than initially feared.
NHK
21 hours ago
- Politics
- NHK
Putin, Xi discuss Israel-Iran conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping discussed the conflict between Israel and Iran during telephone talks on Thursday. Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov says the leaders "firmly condemn Israel's actions," calling them a "violation of the UN Charter." Ushakov says they "adopted a position of principle in their belief that the current situation and matters relating to the Iranian nuclear programme cannot be resolved by force." This comment appears to target US President Donald Trump's administration, which has not ruled out military intervention. A remark by Xi, released by China's foreign ministry, also appears to call on the United States to exercise restraint. The ministry says Xi told Putin that the international community, especially major countries with special influence over the parties involved, should make efforts to calm the situation, not the opposite. Ushakov adds, "In view of this increasingly challenging environment, the two leaders agreed to instruct their respective teams in the relevant agencies and services of the two countries to work closely together in the coming days by sharing insights and perspectives."
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Iran will never surrender, ayatollah tells Trump amid Israel conflict
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defied President Trump's threat to bomb his country if he did not submit to 'unconditional surrender' and threatened to hit back against any attack on Wednesday. 'This nation will never surrender,' Khamenei said in a video address broadcast on state television. 'America should know that any military intervention will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage.' He took on directly the assortment of off-the-cuff remarks, social media posts and more formal statements with which Trump and his advisers have described America's choices as the president decides whether to join in Israel's attack on the Islamic Republic. Watch: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responds to Trump's call to surrender In one post on Tuesday on Truth Social, his social media platform, Trump simply said: 'Unconditional surrender!' In another, he said: 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now … Our patience is wearing thin.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump's saber-rattling over Iran threatens to split his Maga base
Prospects of the US joining Israel's strikes against Iran's nuclear program risks splitting Donald Trump's support base asunder, amid sharp divisions on military intervention between the president's most avid America-first acolytes and traditional Republican foreign policy hawks. Some leading figures in Trump's 'make America great again' (Mega) movement have warned that such a move would amount to a betrayal of past promises to avoid US involvement in long-running overseas wars and could even destroy his presidency. Among the most vocal critics are the broadcaster and interviewer Tucker Carlson – who hosts a show broadcast on Elon Musk's X platform – and Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser in Trump's first term and a standard bearer of his economic and anti-immigration nationalism. Carlson, a former Fox News host, voiced fierce opposition on Bannon's War Room podcast on Monday. 'I think we're going to see the end of American empire,' Carlson said. 'But it's also going to end, I believe, Trump's presidency – effectively end it – and so that's why I'm saying this. 'You're not going to convince me that the Iranian people are my enemy. It's Orwell, man. I'm a free man. You're not going to tell me who to hate.' Bannon – a manager of Trump's 2016 election campaign – said Trump would wreck his domestic agenda of deporting undocumented immigrants if he ordered US forces to strike Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities. 'If we get sucked into this war, which inexorably looks like it's going to happen on the combat side, it's going to not just blow up the coalition, it's also going to thwart the most important thing, which is the deportation of the illegal alien invaders who are here,' he said. Trump made criticism of US 'forever wars' – particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan – a mainstay of his 2016 election message and has maintained that posture ever since, although he has frequently sent out mixed messages on Iran. On Tuesday, he demanded 'unconditional surrender' from the country's theocratic rulers over their nuclear program – a message conveying the impression that US military action to bomb the facilities could be imminent. While he has repeatedly said that Iran must be prevented from having a nuclear weapon, he has also expressed a desire to negotiate a deal – despite having withdrawn in 2018 from a previous agreement negotiated during Barack Obama's presidency. Maga confusion over Trump's current stance was embodied in the comments of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and one of the president's most loyal activists. 'No issue currently divides the right as much as foreign policy,' he posted on X. 'Trump voters, especially young people, supported President Trump because he was the first president in my lifetime to not start a new war.' In a separate post, he said: 'The last thing America needs right now is a new war. Our number one desire must be peace, as quickly as possible.' Skepticism has also been voiced by rightwing Republicans in Congress, notably Marjorie Taylor Greene, the pro-Trump representative from Georgia, who defended Carlson after Trump called his pronouncements 'kooky'. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'Foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction,' she wrote on X. 'That's not kooky. That's what millions of Americans voted for. It's what we believe is America First.' The Washington Post quoted an unnamed former Pentagon official as saying the conflict between Israel and Iran had brought the America First movement to an 'inflection point.' 'A lot of people in the Maga movement, ones that have really invested a lot in electing Trump and [vice-president] Vance, will be incredibly disappointed if this turns into a larger war, and it will lead to some fractures,' said the official, adding that many Trump supporters were afraid to express a 'bubbling frustration with Israel' for fear of being labeled antisemitic. The ex-official added: 'I would argue that Iran is the defining issue on the political right right now. It's not trade. It's not spending. It's not even the culture war stuff. It is foreign policy, and specifically Iran.' Her sentiments were echoed by Rand Paul, a Republican senator for Kentucky, who said: 'Diplomacy comes from restraint. The president has shown restraint in the past … And I'm hoping the president will not get involved in the war.' Pitted against them are establishment Republicans such as Mitch McConnell, the former leader in the Senate, who has previously warned Trump of the dangers of 'isolationism'. 'What's happening here is some of the isolationist movement led by Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are distressed we may be helping the Israelis defeat the Iranians,' McConnell told CNN, noting that it had been 'kind of a bad week for isolationists' in the GOP. Two other pro-Trump loyalist in the Senate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have also been hawkish for action on Iran. Graham said the administration should 'go all in' in destroying Iran's nuclear facilities. 'If that means providing bombs, provide bombs,' he told CBS's Face the Nation. 'If that means flying with Israel, fly with Israel.'
