The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
Blinken to meet privately with IDF chief after PM initially rebuffed US request
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold his first private meeting tomorrow with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office indicated that the premier had rebuffed the senior Biden administration official’s request for the tete-a-tete.
The Israel Hayom daily reported yesterday that Blinken requested the private meeting with Halevi, leading Netanyahu’s office to issue a statement saying the IDF chief would meet with the secretary as part of the premier’s talks with the top US diplomat.
During Blinken’s previous wartime visits, his only meetings with Halevi were as part of sit-downs with the war cabinet that the military chief took part in.
The request to meet Halevi privately suggests that Blinken believes he might give a more honest analysis of the current state of the war without ministers in the room.
Halevi’s is one of four meetings Blinken has scheduled for tomorrow, according to the State Department readout. He will first be meeting with Netanyahu at 11:15 a.m. followed by Halevi at 12:15 p.m., Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at 1:30 p.m. and President Isaac Herzog at 3 p.m.
With the meeting with Halevi on the agenda, there apparently is less of a need for a separate sit-down with the war cabinet.
Notably missing from the schedule is a meeting with war cabinet minister Benny Gantz or opposition leader Yair Lapid, though such sit-downs are not always included on the agenda, and there are still gaps in the schedule that would allow for them.
US military says Houthis fired missiles at two ships, causing minor damage to one
WASHINGTON — Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen fired six ballistic missiles at two ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, with one ship reporting minor damage but no injuries, the US military says.
Saudi Arabia fumes, claiming US suggested Riyadh could accept normalization without a ceasefire
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has issued a firey statement rejecting what it claims was US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby’s suggestion that Riyadh is prepared to normalize relations before there is a ceasefire in Gaza and without progress toward Palestinian statehood.
Kirby was asked during a press briefing earlier today whether securing a hostage deal and a Saudi normalization agreement are part of the same US effort. Kirby responded that they’re two distinct tracks, and noted that the US has held “positive” talks with Riyadh on the matter both before and after October 7.
Saudi officials have publicly acknowledged their willingness to normalize relations with Israel, even after October 7, but they’ve stressed — as has US Secretary of State Antony Blinken — that no deal can be reached until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and that it must include the creation of an irreversible pathway toward a Palestinian state.
Either because it took Kirby’s separation of the hostage talks from the normalization negotiations to mean that Riyadh would be prepared to establish relations before there is a truce or because it felt the White House spokesman was overly optimistic in his characterization of the talks, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry decides to call him out.
“Regarding the discussions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America on the Arab-Israeli peace process, and in light of what has been attributed to the US National Security [Council] spokesperson, the ministry of foreign affairs affirms that the position of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has always been steadfast on the Palestinian issue and the necessity that the brotherly Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights,” the statement asserts.
“The kingdom has communicated its firm position to the US administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognized on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and all Israeli occupation forces withdraw from the Gaza Strip,” the statement adds.
While Saudi officials in recent months have moved away from their long-held position that a fully implemented two-state solution be a precondition to normalization with Israel, they hadn’t yet specified the kind of more provisional steps it would accept in exchange for an agreement with Israel, sufficing with more vague statements regarding improving Palestinian livelihood or creating a pathway toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Recognition of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines appeared to be the most detailed stipulation that Riyadh has offered in recent months. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has all but rejected a two-state solution and a large percentage of Israelis would oppose a framework based on the pre-1967 lines, the Saudi statement notably refrains from specifically demanding that Israel be the one to recognize an independent Palestinian state, instead placing the honus on members of the UN Security Council.
“The kingdom reiterates its call to the permanent members of the UN Security Council that have not yet recognized the Palestinian state, to expedite the recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, so that the Palestinian people can obtain their legitimate rights and so that a comprehensive and just peace is achieved for all,” the foreign ministry adds.
The statement is issued just one day after Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, in a possible indication that the sit-down did not go well.
Still, by directing the Palestinian state recognition demand at Security Council members, such as the US, rather than at Israel, Riyadh can be seen as presenting Washington with a way around the Netanyahu government’s rejection of a two-state solution.
It also comes less than a week after UK Foreign Minister David Cameron said his government was considering recognizing an independent Palestinian state. Days later, the Axios news site reported that the US was weighing the same step after long rejecting it on the basis that the move should come after Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to a two-state solution.
US House rejects Republican-led effort to pass standalone Israel aid bill
WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives rejects a Republican-led bill that would provide $17.6 billion to Israel, as Democrats say they want a vote instead on a broader measure that would also provide assistance to Ukraine, international humanitarian funding and new money for border security.
The vote is 250 to 180, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
Opponents called the Israel legislation a political ploy by Republicans to distract from their opposition to a $118 billion Senate bill combining an overhaul of US immigration policy and new funding for border security with billions of dollars in emergency aid for Ukraine, Israel and partners in the Indo-Pacific region.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had said the Senate bill was “dead on arrival” in the chamber even before it was introduced. And Senate Republican leaders said on Tuesday they did not think the measure would receive enough votes to pass.
The Israel-only bill’s supporters insisted it was not a purely political stunt, saying it was important to move quickly to support Israel as it responds to the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists.
The vote was another blow to Johnson, coming right after the House voted against the impeaching Democratic President Joe Biden’s top border official.
The House in a 214-216 vote blocked a committee’s impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Four Republicans bucked their leadership, joining Democrats in opposing the charges against the Cabinet member.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Syrian media reports casualties in alleged Israeli strike; intel source says airbase was targeted
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, citing a military source, say a number of civilians were killed and wounded amid an alleged Israeli strike on the Homs area.
SANA says Israeli warplanes launched their missiles from an area north of Lebanon’s Tripoli, targeting several sites in Homs and the nearby area.
The source claims Syrian air defenses shot down some of the Israeli missiles.
In addition to the casualties, SANA says damage was caused to both public and private property.
Local sources tell Reuters that the attack targeted several Syrian army outposts and an airbase in the Homs area, with a Syrian military intelligence source familiar with the matter saying it targeted the Shayrat airbase.
???????????????? | #Syria: The strikes believed to be carried out by Israel caused destruction of a building inside a residential area in the city of Homs in western Syria. https://t.co/R7ZPtFB9KE pic.twitter.com/FBzChDEE1v
— Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (@Archer83Able) February 6, 2024
Iranian envoy to UN says Tehran arming, training and ’empowering’ Palestinian terror groups
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations says Tehran is sending weapons, training and empowering Palestinian terror groups.
Asked about Iran’s support for proxy militias in the region, Amir Saeid Iravani tells NBC Nightly News, “In the case of Palestine, we’re sending arms, we’re training them and empowering them. But with the other parts of the region, the resistance parts in the region, we have some coordination, cooperation, consultation, and maybe some financing also.”
The Iranian envoy speculates that strikes by Tehran-backed militias throughout the region would stop if there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, noting that the Islamic Republic would support such a truce if it was lasting and allowed for the rehabilitation of the enclave. He says the hostage talks will succeed if “the other side” accepts Hamas’s conditions, which include a permanent ceasefire and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Iravani dismisses US allegations that Iran supplies Yemen’s Houthis with their advanced weaponry, insisting the rebel group has been acting independently with its attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and does not take orders from Tehran.
Blinken arrives in Israel for talks on proposed hostage deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Israel as he attempts to seal a truce in the four-month-old Gaza war.
Blinken, who had flown from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and then Qatar on Tuesday in what is his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East, lands in Israel late in the evening, according to an AFP journalist.