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Agence France-Presse

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that a ceasefire deal in Gaza could deter Iran from attacking Israel in retaliation for the killing of a Hamas leader that sent regional tensions soaring.
His remarks came after Iran rejected Western calls to “stand down” its threat of reprisals.
The Islamic republic and its allies have blamed Israel for Ismail Haniyeh’s killing on July 31 during a visit to Tehran for the swearing-in of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not commented.
Iran has vowed to avenge the death, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior commander of Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.
Asked if a truce between Israel and Hamas could stave off an Iranian assault, Biden said: “That’s my expectation”.
He told reporters in New Orleans that while negotiations were “getting hard” he was “not giving up”.


Western diplomats have scrambled to prevent a major conflagration in the Middle East, where tensions were already high due to the Israel-Gaza war.
“Ten months since the start of the war, the threat of further regional escalation is more palpable, and chilling, than ever,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, United Nations undersecretary general for political and peacebuilding affairs. She called on all parties to “end all escalatory rhetoric and actions”.
In a statement on Monday, the United States and its European allies urged Iran to de-escalate.
The White House warned that a “significant set of attacks” by Iran and its allies was possible this week, saying Israel shared the same assessment.
The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group and a guided missile submarine to the region in support of Israel.
On Tuesday, Washington approved weapons sales of more than US$20 billion to Israel including F-15 fighter aircraft and nearly 33,000 tank cartridges.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani criticised the Western call for restraint.
“The declaration by France, Germany and Britain, which raised no objection to the international crimes of the Zionist regime, brazenly asks Iran to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said in a statement.

The United States and its European allies also called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with truce talks to resume on Thursday.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,929 people, according to a toll from the territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Far-right parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition strongly oppose any ceasefire in Gaza, a point rammed home by firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on a visit to Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The visit was swiftly condemned by Al-Aqsa’s custodian Jordan, as well as world powers including the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
Defying long-standing rules that allow Jews and other non-Muslims to visit the compound but not to pray there, Ben Gvir led thousands of Israelis in singing Jewish hymns and performing Talmudic rituals.
In a video filmed inside the compound, Ben Gvir renewed his opposition to any let-up in the Gaza war.
“We must win and not go to the talks in Doha or Cairo,” the minister said, referring to the truce talks planned for Thursday.

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel nonetheless said Washington remained hopeful that talks would move forward.
Netanyahu has already confirmed Israel’s participation and “our Qatari partners have assured us that they are working to ensure that there is Hamas representation as well”, Patel told reporters.
Hamas has urged mediators to implement a truce plan presented earlier by Biden instead of holding more talks.
Despite more than 10 months of fighting in Gaza, Hamas has still on occasion been able to fire rockets into Israel.
On Tuesday the militants said they had fired two rockets at Tel Aviv in their first attack on the city in months.
The Israeli army said a rocket from Gaza fell into the sea, while another was identified but “did not cross into Israeli territory”.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow and told him he was “concerned” about civilian deaths in Gaza.
Putin called for a ceasefire and the “creation of a fully-fledged Palestinian state”, according to images shown on Russian state television.


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Israel-Gaza war

Joe Biden says Gaza ceasefire could stop Iran attacking Israel

Iranians follow a truck carrying Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s coffin during the funeral ceremony in Tehran on August 1. Photo: AP

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday. Photo: Temple Mount Administration via Reuters

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (right) receives Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Tuesday. Photo: PPO via AFP

Iran says West’s calls to stand down Israel threat lacks ‘political logic’

Vehicles drive past a billboard depicting slain leader of the Palestinian Hamas group Ismail Haniyeh (left) in Tehran on August 8. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

A billboard with a photo of new Hamas leader Yahya al-Sinwar hangs on a wall at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari at Julis military base, southern Israel in April. Photo: Reuters

Yahya Sinwar, Gaza’s new Hamas leader, holds a child during a rally in Gaza City. Photo: AFP

Middle East talks to defuse tensions over Iran and Israel-Gaza war fuel hope of respite

Protesters hold up posters of newly appointed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh at a rally in Sanaa, Yemen. Photo: Reuters

The site of an Israeli strike on a residential neighbourhood in the al-Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, on August 8. Photo: Bloomberg

Mourners carry the casket of Israeli Michael Samara, who died from wounds sustained from Israeli interceptor missile shrapnel amid a Hezbollah drone attack on August 6, during his funeral in Kfar Yasif on August 10. Photo: AFP

An F-35B Lightning II aircraft on board the amphibious assault ship USS Essex as part of the F-35B’s first combat strike, against a Taliban target in Afghanistan in 2018. Photo: Reuters

‘Children torn apart’: Israel striking Gaza schools becoming a pattern in war

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli strike on the Al-Tabieen religious school in Gaza on August 10. Photo: EPA-EFE

Women mourn the Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on a school in Gaza. Photo: Reuters

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World

Middle East

The US president’s remarks come after Iran rejected calls to ‘stand down’ its threat of retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Haniyeh


The US president’s remarks come after Iran rejected calls to ‘stand down’ its threat of retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Haniyeh.
