06/09/2025

SATURDAY | SEPT 6, 2025

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Russia rejects Ukraine security pledges

PARIS: Russia rejected the notion of Western security guarantees for Ukraine on Friday, after more than two dozen countries pledged to join a “reassurance” force to deploy in the wartorn country after any eventual peace deal with Moscow. A force to deter Russia from again attacking its neighbour is a key pillar of the security backstop a coalition of mainly European countries want to offer to Ukraine if the war ends via a peace deal or a ceasefire. The extent of any United States involvement remains uncertain, even after European leaders spoke to US President Donald Trump via video conference following the Paris summit at which the “coalition of the willing” pledged its force. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday rejected the idea of Western security guarantees for Ukraine, adding that “foreign, especially European and American” troops “definitely cannot” provide such assurances to Kyiv. o Foreign troops cannot provide such assurances to Kyiv: Kremlin spokesperson Israel has intensified in recent days its bombardments of Gaza City, in the territory’s north, ahead of the planned offensive, despite mounting international pressure to halt the campaign. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Thursday killed more than 30 people in the city, out of at least 64 Palestinians killed across the Gaza Strip. As concern grows over the dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s population of more than two million, one of the European Union’s top officials called the war a “genocide”, a term strongly rejected by Israel, but which several governments and numerous rights groups have adopted. Israeli military spokesman Brig-Gen Effie Defrin said in a televised briefing “we hold 40% of the territory of Gaza City”, adding that the offensive “will continue to expand and intensify in the coming days”. Defrin vowed to “increase the pressure” on Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war, “until it is defeated”. With the vast majority of Gazans displaced at least once during the war, a senior Israeli military official told journalists on Wednesday that authorities expected the new offensive to push an estimated one million Palestinians south, away from Gaza City. The United Nations last month declared a famine in and around Gaza City, where it estimates nearly one million people live. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said an Israeli air strike on Thursday hit a tent sheltering a displaced Palestinian family in Gaza City, killing five people including three children. The Israeli military told AFP that forces targeted “a Hamas terrorist”, adding that it “regrets any harm caused to uninvolved civilians”. In Tel al-Hawa, the neighbourhood where the strike reported by the civil defence took place, AFP footage showed Palestinians outside damaged tents, clearing up scattered belongings. Israa al-Basous, who lives there, recounted

over what leaders say is Putin’s unwillingness to strike a deal to end the conflict. Zelensky said the call with Trump discussed sanctions on Russia and protecting Ukraine’s airspace. “We discussed different options, and the most important is using strong measures to force an end to the war.” The White House said it urged European countries to stop purchasing Russian oil “that is funding the war”. A Russian rocket attack on Thursday on northern Ukraine killed two people from the Danish Refugee Council who were clearing mines in an area previously occupied by Moscow’s forces, a Ukrainian governor said. Macron said if Russia continued refusing a peace deal, then “additional sanctions” would be agreed in coordination with the US. He accused Russia of “doing nothing other than try to play for time” and intensifying attacks against civilians. The gathering followed Putin’s high-profile trips to China and the US, where he met with Trump in Alaska last month. Speaking on Wednesday in Beijing, where he attended a military parade alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin hailed his forces’ progress in Ukraine, adding that Russian troops were advancing on “all fronts”. – AFP US gave warning on West Bank plans, says Rubio ECUADOR: United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday criticised France and other countries moving to recognise a Palestinian state, adding that he warned them Israel may respond by annexing the West Bank. Rubio declined to join global condemnation of efforts by members of the Israeli government to annex the occupied West Bank in hopes of destroying prospects of an independent Palestinian state. “What you’re seeing with the West Bank and the annexation, that is not a final thing, that is something being discussed among some elements of Israeli politics. I’m not going to opine on that today,” Rubio told reporters in Ecuador. “What I am going to tell you is it was wholly predictable. “We told all these countries before they went out and they did this, there was not going to be a Palestinian state, because that is not the way a Palestinian state is going to happen, because they have a press conference somewhere. “We told them that it would lead to these sort of reciprocal actions and it would make a ceasefire harder.” He also repeated his charge that the push to elevate the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank, emboldened rival Hamas in Gaza. “The minute, the day, that the French announced the thing they did, that day, Hamas walked away from the negotiating table.” French President Emmanuel Macron has called a United Nations summit for September 22 where he will recognise a Palestinian state, voicing exasperation at the dire humanitarian situation and what he sees as Israeli intransigence. Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday called for the annexation of swaths of the West Bank with an aim to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state” after countries including Belgium, Canada and Australia joined the French push on statehood. The United Arab Emirates, which took the landmark step of normalising relations with Israel in 2020 in the so-called Abraham Accords, said annexation was a “red line” that would “severely undermine” the agreement. – AFP

Macron said the troops would not be deployed “on the front line” but aim to “prevent any new major aggression”. He added that another major pillar was a “regeneration” of the Ukrainian army so that it could “not just resist a new attack but dissuade Russia from a new aggression”. He also said the US was being “very clear” about its willingness to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine. However, the actual US contribution remains unclear. There are also divisions within the coalition, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urging more pressure but remaining cautious about the scope of involvement. “Germany will decide on military involvement at the appropriate time once the framework conditions have been clarified,” a German government spokesman said after the summit. Taking a similar stance, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her country would not send troops to Ukraine, but could help monitor any potential peace deal. There is also growing concern that Putin is not interested in a peace accord, with alarm intensifying after his high-profile visit to China this week. Frustration has been building in the West

The Paris summit was hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and attended by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, while others, such as British Premier Keir Starmer, participated remotely. The meeting represented a new push led by Macron to show that Europe could act independently of the US after Trump launched direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The US was represented by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who also met with Zelensky separately. Trump said after his call with European leaders that he would speak to Putin soon, with Peskov confirming yesterday that such a call could be organised swiftly. Europe has been under pressure to step up its response over three and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. “We have today 26 countries who have formally committed, some others have not yet taken a position, to deploy as a ‘reassurance force’ troops in Ukraine, or be present on the ground, in the sea or in the air,” Macron told reporters, standing alongside Zelensky. Zelensky hailed the move: “I think that today, for the first time in a long time, this is the first such concrete step.”

Israel claims military controls 40% of Gaza City GAZA: The Israeli military on Thursday said it controls 40% of Gaza City, the largest urban centre in the Palestinian territory it is preparing to conquer after nearly two years of devastating war.

Palestinian children practice breakdancing with the Camps Breakerz team to provide children with psychological relief from the war in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip. – REUTERSPIC seeing the tent next to hers on fire.

failure to act and speak with one voice.” Top European Union officials have so far shied away from calling Israel’s actions a “genocide”. In central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, the civil defence said another Israeli air strike killed seven people including three children. The Israeli military said it was “not aware” of a strike there. AFP footage showed Yousef Suleiman, who said he lost relatives in the strike, walking through a bombed-out shelter where tattered scraps of material hung from tent poles. “The entire tent was destroyed, along with everyone inside,” he told AFP. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military. – AFP

“My children and I were sleeping in the tent when we heard the sound of bombing. Shrapnel fell on us, and my four children started screaming.“ United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund spokeswoman Tess Ingram, briefing journalists from a visit to the Gaza Strip, said “the unthinkable in Gaza City has already begun”, with escalating military operation leading to “the collapse of essential services”. “Without immediate and increased access to food, more children will starve. “Palestinian life is being dismantled here, steadily but surely.” European Commission vice-president Teresa Ribera, speaking in Paris, called the war a “genocide” and slammed the 27-nation bloc for failing to act to stop it. “The genocide in Gaza exposes Europe’s