UAE Gaza proposal may be rejected by Palestinians after Hamas-Fatah reconciliation

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has proposed a temporary international mission in the Gaza Strip to restore order and deal with the ongoing humanitarian crisis, at the formal request from the Palestinian government.

The wording of the proposal hints at the eventual recognition of the State of Palestine, Hasan Unal, professor of political science and international relations at Ankara Baskent University, told Sputnik.

The UAE is seeking to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority (PA) while excluding Hamas as a political force, according to Axios.

"This proposal is not feasible on the ground," Dr Lorenzo Trombetta, Beirut-based scholar and analyst specializing on the Middle East, told Sputnik.

"The recent China-mediated agreement between Fatah and Hamas paved the way to a joint, perhaps, event for future governance in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah."

The rival Hamas and Fatah, as well as other 12 Palestinian groups, attended China-brokered talks in Beijing between July 21 and 23 and eventually signed the Beijing Declaration on "ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity" and forming a unity government in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

"The United Arab Emirates initiative that is backed by Israel and the US, unofficially, won't be accepted very well by local Palestinian leaders, families and clans in Gaza and in the West Bank," Trombetta stressed.

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US DoD admits to Chinese COVID jab smear campaign in Philippines – report

The US Department of Defense admitted to intentionally spreading discrediting information about the Chinese Sinovac vaccine's effectiveness in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Reuters report citing a classified government document.

The disclosure first came to light when Harry Roque, the spokesperson for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, mentioned it in his podcast. Although Roque did not provide evidence, Reuters was able to review a letter from the Pentagon to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of National Defense.

In the letter, the US military department said: "It is true that the [Department of Defense] did message Philippines audiences questioning the safety and efficacy of Sinovac." A source familiar with the letter's contents confirmed its authenticity to Reuters.

The document further acknowledged that the Pentagon “made some missteps in our COVID related messaging,” but assured the Philippines that the military “has vastly improved oversight and accountability of information operations” since 2022.

An earlier Reuters investigation has revealed that Pentagon launched a secret psyop aimed to discredit Chinese vaccines and other COVID jabs in 2020-2021. Pentagon spokesman Pete Nguyen acknowledged that the department generated “social media content about the safety and efficacy of Sinovac.” The efforts supposedly sought to counter China’s growing influence in the Philippines.

The revelation mirrors a smear campaign against Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, where Brazil, one of the countries hit the hardest by the pandemic, delayed Sputnik V’s authorization and later banned its imports.

In 2021, the US Department of Health and Human Services similarly admitted that it used “diplomatic relations” in order to push Brazil to reject authorization of the Russian jab.

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UK plans to build new missile to target Russia linked to Pentagon’s dangerous conventional strike scheme – analyst

💬 “The deployment of these missiles, both American and British, is connected to two things,” veteran Russian defense and security affairs commentator Alexei Leonkov told Sputnik, commenting on the story in the UK’s The Times this week that Britain and Germany plan to develop a new conventional missile designed to target Russian tactical nuclear delivery platforms.

“The first is the global concept, the strategy under which NATO has been restructuring toward since 2002, which is the Conventional Prompt Strike concept, whose essence centers around the need to destroy the nuclear potentials of an adversary like Russia or China,” Leonkov explained.

The second relates to the fact that the Americans “are running late, or perhaps have lost the technologies used to create intercontinental missiles with a range beyond that of the Minuteman-3,” Leonkov believes.

“Why do the Americans want to switch up some of their missiles for European ones? I think that most likely, the missiles they have developed may not have proven entirely successful. Hence they’ve decided to attract a European consortium led by the UK,” he said.

Leonkov can’t rule out that the new British-German missile project may be focused on the creation of a maneuverable hypersonic vehicle, with Britain’s BAE Systems already known to be working on a number of projects in this direction.

Conventional Prompt Strike envisions the simultaneous firing of conventional long-range missiles in a massive surprise first strike attack to destroy as much of an enemy’s strategic arsenal as possible, decapitate its leadership, and destroy remaining fired nuclear missiles using missile defenses.

The concept’s primary danger stems from the concern that it makes the prospect of a ‘limited’ nuclear war seem more palatable for planners, hence increasing the temptation to launch aggression.

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◻️ UAE Gaza proposal may be rejected by Palestinians after Hamas-Fatah reconciliation

◻️ UK plans to build new missile to target Russia linked to Pentagon’s dangerous conventional strike scheme – analyst

◻️ Kerfuffle over Ukraine funding signals Kiev’s status as mere ‘Pax Americana to the East’ tool to pressure Russia

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The crowd booed Israel as their team sailed down the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris.

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Israeli air defense systems intercepted a rocket fired from the northern part of the Gaza Strip towards the perimeter of the area, while two other rockets landed in open terrain.

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EU's redistribution of revenue from Russian assets to Ukraine: A 'liberal democracy' test amid geopolitical tensions

The European Union signaled on July 26 that it is transferring 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) from revenues stemming from immobilized Russian assets to support the Kiev regime's military effort. The European Commission specified that the money will be channeled through the European Peace Facility (EPC) and the Ukraine Facility.

💬 "The EPF was established in 2021 to financially support European security policies," Tiberio Graziani, Chairman at Vision & Global Trends - International Institute for Global Analyses, told Sputnik.

"The fact of replenishing the fund's coffers with expropriated financial contributions introduces an element of innovation that could prove counterproductive for the nations of the entire West, based on the principles of liberal democracy."

Euronews reported on Friday the tranche will be wired directly into Ukraine's budget. Previous military aid from the EU was transferred via the EPF, which partially refunded member states for the arms supplied to the Ukrainian military. However, earlier this week Budapest announced it would block the EPF until Ukraine allows the transit of Russian oil to Hungary through its territory.

Following the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze approximately €300 billion in Russia's foreign exchange reserves. The lion's share of this money is held in the EU, mainly by Belgium's Euroclear, one of the world's largest settlement and clearing systems.

Moscow has qualified the EU's decision to use profits from Russia's immobilized assets to arm Ukraine as nothing short of a theft and warned about counter-measures.

"This is not a reason for an immediate reaction, but certainly a reason for thoughtful actions in response to such illegal decisions by the European Union," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said commenting on the bloc's sending the first tranche of stolen funds to Ukraine.

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The Israel Defense Forces said they dismantled a one-kilometer-long tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF also claimed that they found weapons, anti-tank missiles, electrical infrastructure, and means for a long-term hideout inside the tunnel.

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Russian FM Lavrov and US SecState Blinken sat opposite each other at ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting

During a meeting with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken were sitting directly opposite each other, footage circulated by the Russian Foreign Ministry shows.

Lavrov began his three-day trip to Laos on Thursday. On Friday, he participated in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Council in the Russia-ASEAN format. The minister is also expected to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum on Saturday.

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