23/10/2025

THURSDAY | OCT 23, 2025

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Russia reiterates peace terms FRANKFURT: Russia reiterated its previous terms for reaching a peace deal with Ukraine in a private communique sent to the US over the weekend known as a “non-paper”, according to two US officials. The communique reiterated Russia’s demand that it take control of all of Ukraine’s Donbas region, one of the US officials said, a stance that effectively rejected Trump’s view that the frontlines should be frozen at their prevailing locations. Russia also reiterated its stance that no Nato troops be deployed to Ukraine as part of any peace agreement, one of the officials said. News of the non-paper – diplomatic speak for an informal document meant to communicate one party’s position to another – comes as a proposed summit between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin takes shape. Asked for comment on the non paper, the White House pointed to Trump’s comments to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, during which he said he had not made a determination about the summit, but that he did not want to have a “wasted meeting”. He said that he thought a ceasefire along the current battle lines was still possible. Trump had a phone call with Putin on Thursday, after which he said the Budapest meeting would take place, possibly within the next two weeks. At a private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday, Reuters and other media outlets reported that US officials pitched the Ukrainian leader on a Kremlin-proposed plan to give up the Donbas region in return for small parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Zelenskiy pushed back, and Trump thereafter said publicly the prevailing frontlines should be frozen. – Reuters Hungary readies for summit MOSCOW: Russia said preparation for a summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was ongoing, despite the US leader’s announcement that it had been shelved. Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Russia’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire in the nearly four year Ukraine war, having so far failed to convince Putin to back down on his maximalist demands. The US leader met Putin at a summit in Alaska in August but the meeting failed to yield any deal. Trump announced last week he planned to meet Putin for a second round of talks in Budapest but then on Tuesday called off the plan, saying he did not want a “wasted” meeting. When asked about Trump’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No one wants to waste time, neither President Trump nor President Putin.” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said preparations were continuing. “We are saying that preparations are continuing,” he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. In Budapest, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said: “Preparations for the summit are continuing. The date is still uncertain. When the time comes, we will hold it.” – Agencies

ABU DHABI: Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the United Arab Emirates president, called yesterday for compromise to end the Middle East conflict by providing security for Israel and a viable state for Palestinians. The Gaza ceasefire that came into force earlier this month presents an important opening but the approach to one of the world’s most intractable conflicts needs to change, Gargash said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi. “This is definitely a moment of opportunity. I think the first thing to say, we see opportunity because we have a chance today to change course,” he said. The UAE is seen as a vital player in efforts to rebuild Gaza after two years of war that killed tens of thousands of people and demolished the Palestinian enclave, creating widespread hunger and a humanitarian disaster. “Some policies are no longer valid and should not be reincarnated, the maximalist views on the Palestinian issue are no longer valid, we have to address the issue that we have two contending nationalisms fighting on one piece of land and that land has to be divided,” Gargash said. “Are we going to continue with this sort of maximalist views on how to address the Palestinian issue, for example, by the Israeli right, which has to understand that this is not going to go away,” said Gargash, who served as the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs from 2008 to 2021. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a Palestinian state. Abu Dhabi, a major oil producer, punches above its weight diplomatically in the region and beyond and has gained vast influence by strategically investing everywhere from the West to Africa. The UAE was the most prominent of the Arab states to sign US brokered normalisation deals with Israel in 2020 known as the Abraham Accords. UAE Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh said during a panel at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit that the UAE normalised relations with Israel to foster tolerance and change THE HAGUE: The International Court of Justice was scheduled to issue an advisory opinion late yesterday on what Israel’s obligations are to UN and other aid organisations trying to work in Gaza and the West Bank. The opinion, which was requested by the UN General Assembly in December, will be closely watched as it could have effects beyond the Gaza conflict. It is expected to address the protections states must provide for UN staff worldwide. Advisory opinions of the ICJ, also known as the World Court, carry legal and political weight, but they are not binding and the court has no enforcement power. In April lawyers for the United Nations and Palestinian representatives at the ICJ accused Israel of breaking international law by refusing to let aid into Gaza between March and May. Since then some humanitarian aid has been allowed in but UN officials say the relief is nowhere near what is needed to ease a humanitarian disaster. The 20-point ceasefire plan mediated by the US earlier this

Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni with Gargash at the summit yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

‘Compromise to end Middle East conflict’

o Ceasefire provides moment of opportunity

Arab states to stabilise the Middle East and promote economic growth, Gargash said the focus now should be on making Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war work. As Gaza faces a shaky ceasefire, highly sensitive questions remain for the next phase of the truce in the plan, such as widespread calls for Hamas to disarm and for the group not to play any future role in governing the enclave.

mindsets in the region. “We partnered with the Arab region, with the United States and with Israel using the Abraham Accords to help achieve this ceasefire in Gaza that was so desperately needed,” said Nusseibeh. Gargash reiterated that Israeli annexation in the occupied West Bank would constitute a “red line” for the UAE. Asked if that red line could lead to the end of the Abraham Accords, which President Donald Trump wants to expand to include other

The UAE sees groups such as Hamas as an existential threat, a position that often influences its foreign policy. – Reuters Top court to rule on Israeli aid obligations

Nusseibeh ... UAE normalised ties with Israel to change mindsets.

In April, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the hearings as a “circus” and said the court was being politicised. “It is not Israel that should be on trial. “It is the UN and UNRWA,” he told reporters at the time. The request for an ICJ opinion was prompted by a 2023 Israeli law that banned UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA from operating in the country, as it said the organisation had employed members of Hamas. The UN said in August last year that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel and had been fired. Another Hamas commander, confirmed by UNRWA as one of its employees, was killed in Gaza last October, according to Israel. In an earlier advisory opinion last year, the ICJ found that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and should end immediately. The court also said that Israel had human rights obligations to the Palestinians because of its position as an occupying power. – Reuters

A Palestinian carrying supplies in Zawaida on Tuesday. – REUTERSPIC

month allows for 600 trucks of aid a day into Gaza. Israel has previously accused Hamas of stealing food delivered into the enclave, which it denies, and has said the aid

restriction was to put pressure on the group. Israel did not appear before the ICJ in hearings but did submit its legal position in writing.