by Wester van Gaal, Amsterdam, August 14, 2024, 2:56:04 PM
The United States has approved an additional $20bn (€18bn) worth of weapons to Israel, the US department of state announced on Tuesday (13 August) — a mere two days before scheduled ceasefire talks are due to take place in the region, coordinated by the US, Egypt and Qatar.
The upcoming sale includes dozens of F-15IA fighter jets, air-to-air missiles, tactical vehicles and tank and mortar cartridges. Only the ammunition can be delivered immediately, while the rest must still be produced and can only be shipped to Israel in a few years. The fighter jets will take over a decade to fully deliver.
“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” the State Department said in a statement.
Due to concerns over the 40,000 civilian deaths in Gaza — and a pending genocide case at the United Nations International Court of Justice — the US government in May decided to stop a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel used for the bombing of densely-populated areas.
US media hailed the decision as a “turning point” at the time, but deliveries have since resumed.
Wider war
The arms deal comes as concerns over a broader conflict in the Middle East intensify following a series of high-profile Israeli assassinations — most notably, the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran explosion on 31 July, just hours after Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Iran has vowed to retaliate for the assassination on its soil. Hamas on Tuesday announced that it will not join ceasefire talks this week.
In a statement, Hamas representative Ahmad Abdul Hadi said that while Hamas is not opposed to ceasefire talks “in principle,” he believes that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “deceiving and evading” in an attempt to prolong the war rather than bring it to an end.
For the past few weeks, Netanyahu has denied that he is trying to stonewall a ceasefire deal by toughening Israel’s negotiating position. However, unpublished documents reviewed by The New York Times reveal that Netanyahu has actually introduced new conditions to Israel’s demands.
Earlier this week Israel’s minister of national security Ben Gvir on social media called for all humanitarian aid and fuel to the Gaza-strip to be stopped “until all our abductees are returned home.”
In the same post, Ben-Gvir also called for the permanent occupation of Gaza. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the statements, calling them an “incitement to war crimes”.
Geneva Convention
The latest weapons deal was announced shortly after the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, ratified in 1949 to prevent war crimes and genocide.
US state secretary Anthony Blinken, who leads the US negotiating team in the Gaza- peace talks, said in a statement on social media on Tuesday that the “United States reaffirms” its “steadfast commitment to respecting international humanitarian law and mitigating suffering in armed conflict.”
Jeremy Konyndyk, who served in the Biden administration as USAID’s lead official and is currently the president of humanitarian organisation Refugees International, responded by saying that “the administration’s new $20bn arms deal with the Netanyahu govt speaks much more loudly than this tweet.”
Author Bio
Wester is a journalist from the Netherlands with a focus on the green economy. He joined EUobserver in September 2021. Previously he was editor-in-chief of Vice, Motherboard, a science-based website, and climate economy journalist for The Correspondent.
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source https://euobserver.com/eu-and-the-world/ar41443b69
Categories: America, United Nations, United States, War, War crimes, world war III
Geneva Convention. Human Rights Convention. All just a piece of paper for the super powers and veto powers. Valid only for looser warlords, preferably in Africa.