KOENIG

Financial Times: Xi Jinping has warned Donald Trump that the “Taiwan question” was critical to US-China relations, adding that it could lead to “conflict” if badly managed as the two opened a high-stakes summit in Beijing. Meeting on Thursday in the Great Hall of the People, where the two leaders were also expected to discuss issues such as Iran and their trade war, Xi sought to impress upon Trump how seriously China’s Communist Party government regards its claims over Taiwan.

“The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations. If handled properly, the overall stability of bilateral relations can be maintained,” said Xi, according to state news agency Xinhua. “If mishandled, the two countries could face confrontation or even conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into a highly dangerous situation.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Wednesday that he had made a secretive visit to the United Arab Emirates and met with its leader, President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, during the US-Israeli war with Iran earlier this year.

The meeting resulted in a “historic breakthrough” in relations between Israel and Abu Dhabi, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The announcement was the latest sign of increased cooperation between the two countries during the war, after reports on Wednesday said that the heads of Israel’s two main intelligence agencies had also made secret trips to the Gulf state to help it shore up its defensive and offensive capabilities in the face of Iranian missile and drone attacks.

The United Arab Emirates foreign ministry denies a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that he secretly visited the UAE during the war against Iran, calling it “entirely unfounded.”

Coalition whip Ofir Katz submits a bill to dissolve the Knesset and trigger elections, co-sponsored by all of the parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

President Donald Trump warned Monday that the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran may be on the verge of collapse, casting new urgency over what a renewed conflict could look like as negotiations appear to be breaking down over Tehran’s nuclear program.

"I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support where the doctor walks in and says, 'Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living,'" Trump told reporters, signaling deep skepticism that current diplomacy will hold.

The comments came after Trump rejected an Iranian-backed proposal that focused on ending the U.S. blockade while delaying more difficult negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program — an approach the administration appears to view as unacceptable.

Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with the US said on Monday the Islamic Republic is “ready to deliver a well-deserved response to any aggression,” as US President Donald Trump reportedly considered restarting the war after negotiations with Tehran reached a dead end.

“Mistaken strategy and mistaken decisions will always lead to mistaken results,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X. “The whole world has already figured this out.

“We are prepared for all options; they will be surprised,” he wrote.

In an update to its report, JINSA’s review found U.S. forces had redirected 62 vessels that had attempted to breach the blockade as of May 11, and disabled four more. That is up from 44 vessels redirected at the time the report was first issued. The blockade began on April 13.

The UK and France will on Tuesday host a multinational meeting of defense ministers on military plans to restore trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said.

The announcement came hours after Iran warned London and Paris against sending warships to the region.

“The Defence Secretary John Healey will co-chair a meeting of over 40 nations, alongside his French counterpart, Minister Catherine Vautrin, for the multinational mission’s first Defence Minister’s meeting,” a British defense ministry statement said Sunday.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz becomes the first government official to publicly confirm that Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system has been used to shoot down Iranian missiles targeting the United Arab Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates carried out military strikes on Iran, making it the only other country to join the United States and Israel in its war against the Islamic Republic, according to a report on Monday.

The strikes, which the UAE has not publicly acknowledged, included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The attack took place in early April, the report said, which said it was around the time US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, but did not specify if it was before or after the declaration.

Iran on Sunday handed over its response to the latest US peace proposal, local media reported, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the war is “not over,” despite US President Donald Trump’s apparent desire to end hostilities and insistence that Iran had been roundly defeated.

“It should be noted that the main focus of Iran’s response to the US proposal is on ‘ending the war and maritime security’ in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s ISNA news agency said, without offering further details, shortly after Tehran said it had delivered its answer to Pakistani mediators.

The US proposal, if Iran agrees to it, will formally end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz before beginning talks on more contentious issues, including the Iranian nuclear program.

Israeli forces struck more than 40 Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites and killed more than 100 terrorists belonging to the Iranian proxy in Southern Lebanon this weekend, the military said on Sunday.

Soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces’ 91st “Galilee” Division attacked military-use targets, weapons storage facilities, a launcher and additional infrastructure sites. The slain terrorists were operating near IDF soldiers.

“The infrastructure sites struck were used by Hezbollah terrorists to advance and carry out attacks against IDF soldiers operating in Southern Lebanon,” the army said. “The IDF will continue to operate against threats directed at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, in accordance with directives from the political echelon.”

The Israel Defense Forces over the past 24 hours attacked more than 85 targets in Lebanon belonging to Hezbollah, the military said in a statement on Saturday.

Among the targets struck were weapon storage facilities, launchers and structures used by the Iranian-backed organization to advance terrorist activities against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, the military added.

In separate incidents, an underground site in the Beqaa Valley used to produce weapons and Hezbollah terrorists operating against Israeli soldiers in Southern Lebanon were attacked, the IDF said.

The reported terms of a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the Iran war spurred a swift backlash from allies of President Trump who have cheered on his fight against the Islamic Republic. 

Prominent conservative media figures and pro-Israel advocates spoke out against the deal, which would end Iran’s nuclear enrichment for a limited period and keep the regime in place, with U.S. sanctions scaled back over time.

The proposal followed a surprise announcement by Trump on Tuesday to end Project Freedom, a military operation that began the previous day to free commercial ships stuck in the Persian Gulf. 

Fox News broadcaster Mark Levin, who Trump has praised for defending the Iran war against MAGA critics, said the deal would be “disastrous” for Iranians and for the Israeli government.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US should get a response from Iran on its proposal on Friday and addressed the strikes on Iranian military facilities as defensive actions.

US forces disabled two Iranian-flagged oil tankers attempting to violate the US blockade by firing precision munitions into their smokestacks, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Friday.

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed on Thursday that the ceasefire with Tehran is in effect despite a naval skirmish, but threatened massive military action unless the Islamic Republic accepts a deal.

“They trifled with us today. We blew them away,” Trump said about the skirmish, in which U.S. guided missile destroyers came under fire, prompting a limited-scale retaliation. “Any other country, under the circumstances, wouldn’t have done that,” he continued, referencing the Iranian decision to fire on U.S. forces. He added that the Iranian fire failed to cause any damage, but that the retaliation did cause damage.

The US strikes on an Iranian port city and an island in the Strait of Hormuz came following anger from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia over Iranian attacks on the UAE, which US officials had downplayed, according to a Fox News reporter.

Iran shot more than a dozen missiles at the UAE on Monday amid an American operation to open up the strait, a key pathway for the global oil supply that Iran has blocked. On Tuesday, US officials said that the Iranian strikes did not mean the current ceasefire had ended.

That statement sparked anger in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Fox reporter Jennifer Griffin posts on X, writing that Riyadh subsequently withdrew permission for the US to use its bases and airspace for the Hormuz operation. That permission has since been restored, she writes, citing a senior US official.

(photo: GPO)

Israel is in “full coordination” with Washington on Iran and is preparing for all possible scenarios, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday as he convened his Security Cabinet.

“We are maintaining continuous contact with our friends in the United States,” said Netanyahu, according to his office, adding that he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump “almost on a daily basis. My people and his people are in daily contact as well, including today. And I will also speak with President Trump later tonight.” There were “no surprises” between them, he said.

Jerusalem and Washington share the goal of removing all enriched nuclear material from Iran and dismantling its enrichment capabilities, he continued.

(photo: Flash90)

While attention has focused on Iran and Lebanon, the situation in Gaza and the question of Hamas’s demilitarization have been pushed to the sidelines, even as the second phase of the Gaza peace plan has centered on disarmament, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.

In recent weeks, Nickolay Mladenov, director-general of the Board of Peace, and other senior officials have been engaged in intensive negotiations over Hamas’s disarmament and the continuation of the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza.

Two sources told The Jerusalem Post this week that Hamas has not agreed to the plan and that significant gaps remain, although talks are ongoing amid broader debate over the future of Hamas’s weapons and the structure of postwar Gaza.