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The United States is pulling some of its anti-aircraft and missile batteries out of the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. military officials.
The Pentagon will pull out four Patriot missile systems from Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain next month, the report https://www.wsj.com/articles/u... said, adding that the realignment step marks a shift of focus away from long-lasting conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan to tensions with China, Russia and Iran.
Two Patriot missile systems will be redeployed from Kuwait, and one each from Jordan and Bahrain, the report said. Patriots are mobile missile systems capable of shooting down missiles and planes.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has criticized an address delivered by U.S. President Donald Trump at Tuesday’s opening session of the UN General Assembly.“What Trump said at the UN on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict deepens differences and sets back the chances for peace,” PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement carried by Palestine’s official WAFA news agency.“Jerusalem will be the capital of a Palestinian state established on the pre-1967 borders, regardless of who accepts it or rejects it,” Abu Rudeineh said.Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat also blasted Trump’s speech, saying it had “closed the doors on peace”.Israel arrests Palestinian poet from West Bank home“President Trump and his administration have closed the doors to peace; they cannot play a role in the peace process by moving their embassy to Jerusalem,” Erekat said in a statement.“Because of the U.S. administration’s one-sided, pro-Israel decisions, peace between Palestinians and Israel has been derailed,” he added.According to Erekat, the Trump administration “continues to reward those who violate international law and commit war crimes”.He also lashed out at Trump for the latter’s rejection of The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).Hundreds of Jewish settlers storm East J'lem's Al-Aqsa“His rejection of the ICC is a rejection of international law,” Erekat said.Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, described Trump’s speech as a “superficial defense of unilateralism, isolationism and plain bullying”.Israeli officials, for their part, lauded Trump’s speech before the UN General Assembly.Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it had “been a while” since there was a world leader who understood the Middle East as well as Trump.Israeli army rounds up 15 Palestinians in W. Bank raids“We have seen an impressive speech by U.S. President Donald Trump at the club of hypocrites and sycophants called the ‘United Nations’,” Lieberman tweeted.“I hope world leaders will listen to and internalize Trump’s speech,” he added.Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, meanwhile, said Trump’s address had shown “that the U.S. is on the right side of history”.“While standing on Israel’s side in the struggle for stability in the Middle East, the U.S. is leading the UN into a new era that ends its obsession with Israel and pushes back against the Iranian regime,” Danon said in a statement.
Palestinians decry, Israel commends Trump's UN address
The report comes amid rising rhetoric against Iran from the United States, which earlier this year pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for the lifting of most Western sanctions.
Meanwhile, Russia and the United States have been facing diplomatic rifts over Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, involvement in the Syrian conflict and alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
If U.S. President Donald Trump wants the price of oil to stop going up, he should stop interfering in the Middle East, Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Wednesday, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA)."Mr. Trump is trying to seriously reduce exports of Iran's oil and also ensure the price of oil does not go up, but these two cannot happen together," Zanganeh said, according to ISNA."If he wants the price of oil not to go up and the market not to get destabilized, he should stop unwarranted and disruptive interference in the Middle East and not be an obstacle to the production and export of Iran's oil."Iran says oil to rise as Saudi, Russia do 'little and late'Oil at four-year high after OPEC rebuffs Trump, fails to raise outputIran oil minister says hopes OPEC will not follow US orders
'If Trump wants oil price to stop going up, he should stop interfering in Middle East'