THOUSANDS of demonstrators have blocked traffic into the departures area at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, where Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin landed for talks.
Austin had to hastily reschedule the visit due to a surge in street protests against prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary which is putting Israel further up an extremist path.
The Pentagon chief met Netanyahu at the airport for more than an hour and was due to hold talks with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, reports said.
Austin had originally been due to arrive on Wednesday and stay overnight in Tel Aviv, where Israel’s ministry of military affairs is based. But those plans were changed due to traffic disruptions from protests.
Netanyahu was flown to the airport early in the morning by a helicopter in order to avoid the protesters. He was due to leave Ben Gurion airport for a two-day visit to Rome on Thursday afternoon.
Police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was at the airport coordinating the response to the protests. Mounted police moved into the area in an attempt to move the protesters.
Elsewhere, protesters in Tel Aviv headed towards Ayalon highway, where police were on standby with water cannons. The highway has been a key flashpoint between demonstrators and police in recent weeks.
Israel has been rocked by the biggest wave of protests for more than a decade, with hundreds of thousands of Israelis joining weekly demonstrations against changes they regard as a fundamental threat to the entity, with several figures warning that the worsening strife might lead to its disintegration.
In a sign of the widening scope of public anger, a group of reservists from an elite air force squadron said this week that they would not take part in training flights.
Protests have taken place across the occupied territories over the past two months since Netanyahu’s controversial move to reform the judiciary.
They say the so-called reform is meant to help Netanyahu avoid repercussions of his ongoing corruption cases, including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
- The US House of Representatives has rejected a proposed resolution seeking the withdrawal of US occupation troops from Syria.
The GOP-sponsored bill failed to pass on Thursday with 103 votes in favour and 321 votes against it.
The Syria War Powers resolution was introduced by Florida Republican Matt Gaetz last week, following a recent incident in which four American soldiers were injured during a raid in the Arab country.
The bill required President Joe Biden to bring US forces home within 180 days unless Congress votes to authorise a longer deployment.
Following the ill-fated vote, Gaetz slammed US lawmakers, saying the Congress never authorised military action in Syria to begin with.
Robert Ford, an Obama-era ambassador to Syria who pushed an aggressive approach to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, is now backing a resolution to force the withdrawal of occupying US troops from the Arab country.
‘There is no role for the United States of America in Syria. We are not a Middle Eastern power. We have tried to build a democracy out of sand, blood, and Arab militias,’ Ford said.
‘Time and again, the work we do does not reduce chaos. Oftentimes, it causes chaos – the very chaos that then subsequently leads to terrorism. While today’s vote may have failed, my fight to end forever wars and bring our troops home has only just begun’, he added.
Gaetz further noted that several prior Inspector General Reports have concluded that a resurgence of Daesh in Syria is ‘unlikely,’ instead claiming that the American presence has served as a ‘recruiting tool’ for the terrorist group.
Democrat Gregory Meeks argued that while he doesnot support an ‘indefinite’ deployment, a withdrawal would be ‘premature.’
By rejecting the resolution, Washington has opted to continue the years-long military occupation, despite repeated objections from the Syrian government.
The US military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria for years, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s rich mineral resources and to destabilise the country.
Former US president Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.
- Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has taken delivery of a new ocean-going warship and nearly 100 missile-launching speed boats.
Equipped with offensive and defensive systems, the Shahid Mahdavi warship was officially added to the IRGC Navy’s fleet in a ceremony in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Thursday.
Also, 95 Ashura- and Tareq-class missile-launching speed boats joined the IRGC Navy’s fleet.
Speaking at the ceremony, IRGC Navy Chief Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said the Shahid Mahdavi warship is a heavy, multi-purpose and long-range vessel capable of carrying and operating all kinds of helicopters, drones, and high-speed missile launchers, as well as missile, defence and radar systems.
The 2,100-ton warship has a length of 240 metres and a width of 27 metres, he said, adding that it is equipped with a 3D phased-array radar as well as surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, highly advanced electronic warfare telecommunication systems, and Khordad-3 missile systems, all of which are designed and manufactured by young Iranian technicians.
‘The Shahid Mahdavi warship is like a mobile maritime city ready to carry out ocean missions … to create sustainable security of sea communication lines and provide aid to the commercial and fishing fleets of the Islamic Republic and regional countries,’ the IRGC Navy commander said.
Tangsiri also said the elite military force has converted rocket-launching vessels into missile-launching ones in an ‘unprecedented’ move in the world.
‘By the joining of the specialised naval equipment … and the conversion of Ashura- and Tareq-class rocket-launching vessels into the missile-launching ones, with a minimum range of 10 and maximum of more than 180 kilometres, the IRGC Navy has managed to take an important and effective step in upgrading the level of its naval combat power. It is somehow unprecedented in the world,’ IRGC Navy Chief said.
Iranian military experts and engineers have in recent years made remarkable breakthroughs in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient.
Iranian officials have repeatedly underscored that the country will not hesitate to strengthen its military capabilities, which are entirely meant for defence, and that Iran’s defence capabilities will never be subject to negotiations.
Also speaking at Thursday’s event, IRGC Chief Major General Hossein Salami said that whenever the enemy acts forcefully against the Islamic Revolution, Iranians appear stronger against it.
‘The enemy has come to the scene with all its strength, but the more it acts, the less it gains and the farther it gets from its so-called objectives,’ he added.
Some fugitives portray themselves as benefactors and saviours of the nation, while they demand the enemies intensify the embargo and isolation targeting Iran, so that medicine and food do not reach the Iranian people, Salami stressed.
‘In the Iranians’ mentality, this kind of behaviour is disgusting and shameful,’ Salami noted.
