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China Warns Israel Not to Occupy Gaza

CrossFireArabia
August 6, 2025

China has warned Israel against “dangerous actions” of occupying Gaza, expressing its concerns for Tel Aviv’s decision to escalate its military offensive in Gaza.

Beijing’s remarks came after Israeli media exposed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided, with US backing, to push ahead with a full-scale reoccupation of the besieged Palestinian enclave, targeting areas believed to hold Israeli captives.

“We urge Israel to immediately halt such dangerous actions. We urge all parties to promptly reach a binding and sustainable ceasefire agreement,” China’s envoy to the UN Geng Shuang told the UN Security Council meeting in New York on Tuesday according to Anadolu.

“We further urge countries with significant influence over the parties concerned to act in a just and responsible manner and take concrete steps to help bring about a ceasefire,” he said, according to an official transcript of his speech.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 61,000 Palestinians, almost half of them women and children. Israel’s military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Uncategorized

Changing The Middle East Face Through War

CrossFireArabia
June 17, 2025

Dr Marwan Asmar

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally got what he wanted: ‘A war with Iran.” But this war – now in its fifth day, is already proving very costly for Israel because of the Iranian military firepower meted out on Jewish cities, towns and military installations.

Such a war that begun Friday, 13 June, 2025, will be remembered as one of the greatest events in the calendar of the Middle East. The start of the reaping of the Muslim pride, for up until it was always US-backed Israeli ‘superman superiority’ – versus Islamic weakness and meekness.

Netanyahu may have made a devastating calculation by attempting to go after the Iranian vast nuclear infrastructure while in reality creating mayhem in Iranian cities, people and assassinating 10 of its top military leaders in the early hours of Friday morning.

This was all to change on the evening of that day as Iranian long-range missiles began to hurl down on central Israel and more precisely the Greater Tel Aviv area that includes other cities, towns and settlements with a population of 4 million people.

The start of the strikes on Israel stands today as unprecedented, a first-time development since the creation of the Zionist entity in 1948 and struck a series of bullet sounds among the Israeli population who has been huddling up-and-down the shelters since the conflict begun and best summarized by the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee who said one night after the bombs that:

“It was a tough night in Israel,” referring to the fact that he had to go down to the bomb shelter five times because of the incoming Iranian missiles that would not let up.

Shock, mayhem, hysteria quickly consumed Israelis as they started seeing first-hand, the destroyed buildings and quashed cars in the middle of Tel Aviv and its surrounding areas like Bat Yam, Ramat Gan, Rehovot, Petah Tikva and Herzliya.

Very quickly as well, missiles, and indiscriminately so, began to fall in these places, long seen as the pride of joy of Israeli technology, military industrialization and top business. These were crumbling in front of their eyes as reported by the Israeli newspapers and media channels.

Shocking was the fact, the incoming missiles, which made Israeli defenses like the Iron Dome and the David Sling look pitiful, were striking buildings and high-scrappers including the prestigious Weizmann Institute of Science with reporters of three its top flights struck and is now in fear of complete collapse.

Despite this, Netanyahu says he is sure of a complete victory, adding that Israel is on the verge of completely changing the face of the Middle East, including his claims of bombing Iranian military facilities, but in reality striking at civilian infrastructure and people.

However, for the first time Gazans and Palestinians are jubilating at the sight of what seems to be the non-stop Iranian missiles falling on Israeli areas where sirens go off and on in all middle of the night and day whilst in glee at the ruined and destroyed buildings. “Let them see how its like to be hit by a missile,” is a frequent comment voiced not only by Palestinians but also by many others in the world.

It is true the face of the Middle East is, and for the first time, is truly changing the face of the Middle East, but not according to the wishes of Netanyahu but to the people of the area of Gazans, Palestinians Arabs and Persians where they have watched the Israeli army bomb the enclave over the past 21 months or so.

This is indeed a historic moment led by Iran and soon to be joined by members of the Muslim world including Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia. The unexpected war in the Middle East, as brought on by Netanyahu and his extremist and racist government, is upsetting the plans of the Trump plan for the Middle East who is portraying himself as a so-called “man of peace” – a fake image in the light of the fact that the US has been the top military supplier for Israel to carry out its Gaza genocide.

The conflict with Iran – that is not likely to end any time soon because of the arsenal that waits in the ready and to be unleashed – has effectively put an end to the idea of transferring Palestinians from Gaza to other lands. They are likely to stay firmly on their places despite the mass destruction of the enclave.

However, there is a clear slippery-slope to this war that is still in the initial stages with outside powers ready to take sides developing into a real possibility of World War III, if cool hands don’t take the lead and let real and effectively diplomacy take the reign of power to stop what was seen in the 1960s, 1970s and even 1980s the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction.

The world today is on a precipice….

Opinion

Iran-Israel: Making of a World War

Dr Khairi Janbek
June 16, 2025

By Dr Khair Janbek

We became accustomed for a while to the mutual bombardment of Iran and Israel for the first a couple of days. Then Israel started declaring that it had achieved its objectives whilst Iran maintained its own momentum, saying it is also teaching Israel a lesson.

But now the new flaring conflict is lasting longer than expected. We really don’t know for certain what are the objectives as the declared intentions keep changing on daily basis and the hidden objections tend to be irrelevant, at least for the time being because we have no clue about them.

What is certain is that neither Israel nor Iran are naïve to think that, a protracted campaign of mutual bombardment, is in their interest. The reality however, is that a war of attrition is not in their interest of either, and may serve the interests of the two other regional powers: Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

But would both Israel and Iran willingly allow Turkey and Saudi Arabia to replace their influence? This is not very likely, as we can clearly see both sides are trying their best to drag others into the conflict by turning it into a regional conflgeration, by dragging the US and the EU on one side, and the Russians, Chinese, and Pakistanis on the other.

One at this juncture must say that a regional conflict, even by unintended consequences may lead to a wider global conflagration, quickly bringing in world powers and states that will not sit by the sidelines.

On the face of it, anyone cannot miss the fact that bombarding Iran came on the first day of the end of the two-month grace period which the US gave to Tehran to reach an ‘ironclad’ nuclear agreement. So at least on the face of it, the whole issue is related to forcing Iran to come back to the negotiating table with the US albeit with a weakened position.

But then again, the contradictory statement of the administration in Washington could mean anything or nothing, implying for certainty that it had prior knowledge of the Israeli attack on Iran.

Another idea which was thrown into the arena in a flip-flop manner, is that of helping in the process of regime change, but if one can say anything, is that when the Iraq-Iran war erupted, it was still in the early days of the Islamic Revolution and there was strong opposition to the mullahs regime.

And rather than creating a possibility for a regime, the war created a united nationalist response against the then Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. In a sense what started with a serious possibility of regime change ended up uniting the forces of the country.

Therefore, if the intention of the Israelis is regime change, then they better think twice about. Still, Iran is a country of more than 92 million people, with a territorial space of about 1.6 million kilometers so anything is possible. Just for interest, it is argued that Iran is 75 times the size of Israel.

So where do both parties go from here? One thing is for sure: One doesn’t know the extent of damage the two parties can do to each others’ nuclear arsenals. But if Israel feels it may not be able to destroy the Iranian nuclear infrastructure but can make it costly for them to re-start their programme, that would be naive because the Russians, the Chinese, and Pakistanis would be more than happy to offer their expertise.

One must add here however, that in the Near East, things can change very quickly.

Dr Janbek is a Jordanian writer based in Paris, France. He has contributed this article to crossfirearabia.com.

Opinion

Can ‘Realist’ Trump Pull Off Gaza Ceasefire?

CrossFireArabia
May 15, 2025

By Michael Jansen

During his ongoing visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, US President Donald Trump seeks to focus on business opportunities and investment in the US rather than address the negative political realities to which he contributed during his first term (2017-2021).

At that time, he dismissed the two-state solution in favour of “The Deal of the Century” which would give Palestinians a degree of autonomy within Israel. He defunded UNRWA, recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moved the US embassy there, and said the US no longer considers Israeli settlements illegal overturning a 1978 policy. The fate of the refugees, Jerusalem, and settlers were meant to be negotiated under the two-state solution by the sides under the 1993 Oslo accord. He closed the US consulate in occupied East Jerusalem which served Palestinians and the PLO office in Washington. Trump recognized Israeli annexation of Syria’s occupied Golan.

Trump began his second term by calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza which would be redeveloped as a Middle East Riviera instead of exerting pressure on Israel to end the Gaza war and enable its reconstruction. Under Trump’s real estate venture Gazan Palestinians were supposed to settle in Egypt and Jordan, which along with all the Arabs flatly rejected this proposal. Egypt drew up a counterproposal to reconstruct devastated Gaza while its population stays put.

His resort scheme has angered the Arab public from the Gulf to the Atlantic. His call for Saudi Arabia to establish relations with Israel has been rejected as Riyadh has said it will normalise when there is a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.

Since Trump made Saudi Arabia his first foreign destination in 2017 during his first term, the region has changed significantly by pivoting to the East. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have cultivated ties with Russia – Riyadh’s partner on oil production and pricing – and China which buys Gulf oil and exports billions of dollars in goods to the Gulf. The Emirates, Egypt and Iran joined BRICS (the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) while Saudi Arabia applied but did not follow through. China mediated Saudi-Iranian reconciliation. This has ended Iran’s isolation in the region.

On the positive side, early in this term Trump opened talks with Iran over its nuclear programme to replace the 2015 deal from which he withdrew in 2018. A fifth round of talks is expected. Although Trump wants to be a peacemaker, he has threatened war if the talks fail.

As a peacemaker, Trump bombed Yemen heavily to force Yemen’s Houthis to end attacks on international commercial and naval vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The Houthis and US agreed to end this confrontation. Trump has not, however, halted Houthi drone and ballistic missile attacks on Israel which the Houthis say will stop if Israel observes a ceasefire or ends the war on Gaza.

Trump has not planned to stop in Israel during this Gulf tour, indicating that there is some distance between him and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He has not only refused to ceasefire in Gaza but also maintained a ten-week blockade of the strip. He could have done both to ease Trump’s swing around the Gulf where Gaza is high on the agendas of the rulers and public. Since Netanyahu has carried on with his Gaza war, Trump has ignored him when resuming talks with Iran on limiting its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions and agreeing to a ceasefire with Yemen’s Houthi. The ceasefire has been welcomed by Washington’s Arab allies, particularly Saudi Arabia which had been urging an end to US attacks on Yemen before Trump began his tour.

Without Israeli involvement, the US has also negotiated with Hamas over the release on Monday of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander. For Trump, this is a greatly desired success in the US. In Israel, families of hostages who are not US-Israel dual citizens fear their relatives will be forgotten by Netanyahu who is determined to not only continue with the war but also to expand it once Trump departs from the region. Hostage families are not alone in their suspicions. A majority (54 per cent) of Israelis said that the war was being driven by personal rather than security reasons. Only 21 per cent agreed with Netanyahu’s prioritisation of eliminating Hamas over rescuing the hostages. A March poll showed 70 per cent of Israelis wanted Netanyahu to resign.

He has adopted this stance for several reasons. First, right-wingers in his coalition have vowed to pull out if he ends the war. Second, once the war is over, Netanyahu will be called upon to account for lax Israeli security in the south where Hamas breached the fence on October 7th, 2023, killed 1,200 Israelis and visitors and abducted another 251. There was no excuse for laxity. Young female Israeli soldiers deployed as “watchers” along that part of the border with Gaza, warned repeatedly that Hamas was conducting drills and manoeuvres ahead of an attack. Their warnings were not taken serioiusly by senior Israeli officers. Some of these women were killed and some captured. Third, as long as the war is being waged, Netanyahu will not have to explain how lightly armed Hamas fighters have managed to carry on the fight while the mighty Israeli army and air force levelled Gaza and killed 53,000 Palestinians. Netanyahu has a lot of explaining to do.

Jansen is a columnist for the Jordan Times

Opinion

Trump’s War in The Red Sea

Dr Khairi Janbek
April 28, 2025

Dr Khairi Janbek

The US foreign policy in the Red Sea today is characterized by a robust military response to Houthi threats, aiming to protect critical maritime trade routes and assert influence in a geopolitical strategic area. While these military operations garnered international support, the ongoing conflict underscores the complexities and challenges of Middle East interventions.

The US military’s increased involvement in the Red Sea, including the deployment of two aircraft carriers, signals a commitment to ensuring freedom of navigation and countering the Iranians in the region. However, the present ongoing escalation also risks entangling the US in a prolonged conflict.

This is reminiscent of past Middle East engagements which the Americans should be well-aware of, and may put additional strain on the US military resources amid other pressing global priorities if faces.

That said, the present military strikes on Yemen are not just about the Houthis. They are also widely seen as demonstration of US strength towards the group’s main backer: Iran.

The Washington administration is currently locked in a series of negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear programme and Trump has not ruled out military action if those talks fail, yet, it is possible still, that the US, and judging by recent history, the Americans may change their mind and everything is put on hold yet again.

But we need to wait and see! The US has already moved its patriot and THAAD missiles from Asia to the Middle East, and only in the first month of the preparedness campaign, $200 million of ammunition has been used and this is making military officials greatly concerned about the impact on stocks the US Navy might use in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

At the same time, there are various Yemeni groups opposed to the Houthis with regional backing, and dare one say with some international backing, reportedly considering taking advantage of the situation to launch a ground campaign to oust the Houthis once and for all, but Washington is yet to make a decision on whether to back such operations or not.

Most analysts and officials say that, American troops participating in any ground operations in Yemen is highly unlikely, moreover, even more limited support for ground operations would still be another case of the US backing armed groups in a messy middle Eastern war; exactly the sort of situation Trump blasted previous administrations for falling into.

Dr Janbek is a Jordanian analyst based in Paris, France.