Trump Says He Could Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt Over Gaza Development Plan

🔶️ The president turned up the pressure on the two nations to agree to his plan for them to house the Palestinian population of #Gaza and said the Palestinians would not have the right to return to the territory.

🔶️ President #Trump said on Monday that he could cut aid to #Jordan and #Egypt if they refused his demand to permanently take in most Palestinians from Gaza, substantially increasing the pressure on key allies in the region to back his audacious proposal to relocate the entire population of the territory in order to redevelop it.

🔶️ “If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office a day ahead of a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan. Both Jordan and Egypt have rejected any suggestion that Palestinians be relocated to their countries.

New rebellion erupts against Assad in the Daraa province
#Assad soldiers are either disarmed by the crowds or fleeing their positions.
New rebellion erupts against Assad in the Daraa province in southern Syria, right next to the borders with #Jordan and #Israel.

In addition, Tensions in #Damascus are rising: footage of #Assad's presidential guard forces on the rooftops of houses in the al-Maliki neighborhood to defend against #drones.

#Syria

U.S. Navy warship shoots down Iranian drones, Houthi missiles, over Gulf of Ade

The USS Carney shot down three Iranian drones and one anti-ship ballistic missile Wednesday launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

The Houthi missile was headed toward the Gulf of Aden at about 8:30 p.m. local time. Forty minutes later, the USS Carney shot down three Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) nearby.

The U.S. Central Command said there were no injuries or damage reported. The attack comes amid an uptick in tensions in the region. Houthis have been targeting commercial ships and vessels in the Red Sea, prompting U.S. forces to respond with a series of precision strikes.

The Houthis say the attacks, which began in November, are intended to protest the Israel-Hamas war in the region, but many of the recent attacks have no clear ties to Israel. As a result, shipping companies have been forced to find alternative shipping routes, driving up oil prices and delaying the delivery of goods, raising concerns about the effect on the global economy.

U.S. officials said earlier this week that U.S. troops have come under fire from Iranian-backed groups more than 160 times since late October. The attack also comes just a few days after three U.S. service members were killed and about 40 others injured in a deadly drone strike in Jordan Sunday.

Biden has pledged to respond to the attack in a “time and manner of our choosing,” but he has also made clear he does not seek a larger war.

U.S. to respond to attack on its forces in Middle East, says White House

The U.S. government is now focused on responding to a recent strike targeting a US military base on the Jordanian-Syrian border, U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters.

When asked whether the US was planning to act independently or in coordination with its partners to retaliate for the attack, Kirby replied: "We're focusing on US response, they killed American troops."

He also said the Islamic Resistance in Iraq group was responsible for the attack, which left three US service members dead and over 40 wounded. "We believe the attack in Jordan was planned, resourced and facilitated by an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which contains multiple groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah," he said.

When asked whether Kata'ib Hezbollah played a key role in the attack, the US official replied: "This certainly has the earmarks of the kinds of things Kata’ib Hezbollah does." However, he emphasized that "attribution that our intelligence community is comfortable with is that this was done by the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq."

World War Three is approaching fast, and too few are willing to admit why

Are we on the brink of a third world war? In the age of “peak apocalypse”, it is easy to laugh off such a question. After all, we already find ourselves on permanent pandemic-watch, are besieged daily by predictions of ecological collapse, and drip-fed a diet of dystopian drama by crude Netflix algorithms. But the risk of a global war has surely not been so high since America was locked in an existential battle against the USSR.

Around the world, authoritarian regimes are failing. In an era of global stagnation, their inability to deliver on promises to provide jobs, tackle poverty and grow their middle classes is coming to a head. Paranoid about internal dissent, autocrats thus have a growing incentive to bet the farm on shoring up their power by focusing on external enemies, whether via expansionist regional wars or high-risk existential conflicts against the West.

The fast-moving crisis that has erupted following a drone attack on a US base near Jordan’s border with Syria is a perfect example of our frightening new reality. Although Iran has denied any direct involvement, it is clear that it is deeply implicated in what is merely the latest in a string of Tehran-linked attacks designed to drive the US from the Middle East.

Fearing U.S. action, Iran evacuates Syrian positions

SOHR, a reliable source of news in Syria reported that for fear of American response after about 34 American soldiers killed and injured, Iranian-backed militias evacuated many Syrian positions.

Deir Ezzor province: The Iranian-backed militias continue to be on alert, repositioning and changing their locations along the Euphrates River strip from Al-Bokamal city to Al-Mayadeen city in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, where Iranian-backed militias evacuated about 12 locations in the cities of Al-Bokamal and Al-Mayadeen and the areas surrounding them, and moved to alternative locations, for fear of the American response after three American soldiers were killed and 25 others were injured, following the attack that targeted an American military base in Jordan.

Yesterday, SOHR reported that four U.S. helicopters have flew over the U.S. base in Koniko Gas Field northern of Deir Ezzor City, coinciding with two U.S. cargo planes landing in the base.

This coincided with the repositioning of Iran-backed groups in Iran-held areas on the line of Euphrates River in Deir Ezzor, in addition to the Syrian Desert.

'All eyes look now to Joe Biden. Will his response be feeble, or strong? Will it be a "one-time event", or will it be a new policy?'

Jordanian Foreign Minister:
"All the indications we have point to the fact that the war will probably get much worse..."