Looming Mideast peace deal amounts to Netanyahu-Trump pact, experts say - NBCNews.com

Thank you.

That's what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to President Donald Trump when the leaders met ahead of the unveiling Tuesday of the U.S.'s long-delayed Mideast peace plan.

"Thank you for everything you've done for Israel," Netanyahu told the president at the White House on Monday, according to a statement released by his media adviser.

Netanyahu has good reason to be grateful for the "deal of the century."

Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations at Regent's University in London, said the agreement that Trump has promoted as the "ultimate deal" amounts to a two-way pact between Trump and Netanyahu.

Jan. 27, 202002:14

"The Palestinians were not consulted. It's a dictate of take it or leave it," he said.

"Popes used to give indulgences to forgive sinners until they got to purgatory. Now Trump is absolving Israel for occupation," Mekelberg added, addressing widespread speculation that Washington will give Israel the green light to annex parts of the occupied West Bank that it captured from Jordan in 1967 in the Six-Day War.

More than half a century later, the West Bank is home to almost 3 million Palestinians who hope it will form a significant part of a future state. More than 400,000 Israelis also live there.

Details of the plan are due to be released Tuesday and analysts predicted that it will not bode well for Palestinians, who have refused to meet with the Trump team since the president announced in December 2017 that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city as their capital.

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For Mekelberg and other analysts the deal should be understood as two friends lending each other a hand at a sensitive time in their political careers.

Trump is currently embroiled in impeachment proceedings, and in November Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust; both are campaigning in elections that will decide their political fate.

"Trump and Netanyahu care more about electoral politics at home and less about real peace with the Palestinians," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"It resembles a colonial arrangement of a bygone era," he added, comparing the impending deal to past secret agreements that divided parts of the Middle East among European powers and promised the Jewish community a home in historic Palestine.

"Palestinians are denied agency, representation and rights," he said.

Michael Stephens, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, said Palestinians "can't and won't" accept the plan set to be unveiled in the White House.

Even before the details were released, protests rejecting it were already in full swing in Gaza and Palestinians had called for a "Day of Rage" on Wednesday in the West Bank.

"The deal of the century, which is not based on international legality and law, gives Israel everything it wants at the expense of the national rights of the Palestinian people," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in opening the Palestinian Authority's weekly Cabinet meeting in Ramallah on Sunday.

Palestinians burn a poster showing President Donald Trump as they protest the American peace plan in Bethlehem on Monday. Mahmoud Illean / AP

Palestinian leaders have consistently dismissed the U.S. as biased toward Israel and emphatically rejected the economic half of the Trump administration's plan that was published on June 22.

Opposition to the deal came from another end of the political spectrum, too.

A delegation of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group of Israeli municipal authorities in the occupied West Bank that traveled to Washington for the plan's unveiling, said Tuesday that it was "very disturbed."

"We cannot agree to a plan that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state that would pose a threat to the State of Israel," said David Alhaini, the group's chairman.

Since becoming president, Trump has endorsed Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria, moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and closed the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington.

In November, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reversed decades of U.S. policy when he announced that the United States no longer viewed Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as necessarily a violation of international law.

If the deal includes annexation of large parts of the West Bank, as many suspect, it would "seal the fate of the two-state solution" said Mekelberg, referring to a plan to establish a separate Palestinian state.

"The West Bank would no longer be a viable Palestinian state and at best could become some autonomous region," he added.

Netanyahu's chief political rival, Benny Gantz, also flew to Washington this weekend to meet with Trump and welcomed the peace plan as a "significant and historic milestone."

Saphora Smith

Saphora Smith is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital. 

Paul Goldman

Paul Goldman is a Tel Aviv-based producer and video editor for NBC News.

Lawahez Jabari

Lawahez Jabari is a producer based in Tel Aviv. She has covered the Middle East conflict — on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides — for more than a decade. 

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2020-01-28 13:38:00Z
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Plane crash in Afghanistan remains a mystery but US military reaches crash site to retrieve remains - CBS News

Last Updated Jan 28, 2020 8:26 AM EST

American forces were able to reach the wreckage of a U.S. Air Force jet in Afghanistan overnight to retrieve remains, but it remained unclear what brought the high-tech aircraft down in Taliban territory the previous day.

The Taliban claimed it shot the plane down, and while a U.S. official said Monday that initial information brought "no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire," a U.S. military spokesperson told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin the cause of the crash was still under investigation. The Pentagon has not officially ruled anything out.

U.S. officials told Martin the pilot of the Bombardier E-11A declared an in-flight emergency shortly before the crash. U.S. helicopters were finally able to reach the crash site overnight to recover the bodies of two crewmen.

A spokesman for the police in Ghazni province, where the plane came down, told CBS News on Tuesday that even Afghanistan's domestic forces had been unable to reach the crash site, which was under Taliban control. The spokesman, Ahmad Khan Sirat, told CBS News' Ahmad Mukhtar that Afghan forces clashed with the Taliban overnight, causing no casualties but blocking the security forces' access to the site.

Sirat told CBS News that Afghan forces were planning Tuesday for an operation along with foreign partners to reach the crash site by ground, but he did not provide any further details.

Investigation reveals officials misled the public about war in Afghanistan

The plane came down in a remote area in central Afghanistan that is under the control of the Islamic insurgency. Videos quickly emerged on social media purportedly showing the wreckage of the plane — with U.S. Air Force markings — charred and burning.

Martin says the E-11A is a relatively large plane with a crew of just two people – the rest of the aircraft was crammed with state-of-the-art electronics, and now that the bodies have been recovered the main concern is protecting all the technology that went down with the jet.

The plane is normally used for electronic surveillance and can fly at high altitudes with an extended range. The E-11A is often referred to as "Wi-Fi in the sky," and is used to facilitate battlefield communications for American forces and their allies in a region with difficult terrain. 

U.S. and Taliban officials have been working to broker a ceasefire or at least to reduce hostilities in the country. There are an estimated 13,000 U.S. troops based in Afghanistan.

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2020-01-28 13:26:00Z
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U.S.-backed Afghan forces unable to reach site of U.S. surveillance plane that crashed in Taliban territory - The Washington Post

Saifullah Maftoon AP The wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft that crashed in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, is seen Monday, Jan. 27, 2020.

KABUL — U.S.-backed Afghan forces have been unable to reach the site of an American surveillance plane that went down in an area under Taliban control, Afghan officials said Tuesday. U.S. officials have not said how many people were on board or whether there were survivors.

Afghan officials said bad weather and heavily mined roads have prevented a special forces unit from reaching the site more than 24 hours after the crash was first reported.

“The site of the crash is insecure,” Wahidullah Kaleemzai, Ghazni’s provincial governor, told The Washington Post by phone Tuesday.

“Helicopters and drones flew above the site last night but could not land. We are doing what we can today jointly,” he said, referring to joint U.S. and Afghan military operations.

The U.S. military command confirmed the crash Monday of a U.S. Air Force Bombardier E-11A and said the cause is “under investigation,” according to a statement from Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Twitter accounts linked to the Taliban shared video on Jan. 27 showing the wreckage of an alleged U.S. Air Force E-11A aircraft. The video was shared after reports of a plane crash in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.

Leggett said that “there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire.” One Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, told The Post that insurgent forces shot down the plane, but other Taliban statements Monday said the plane “crashed.”

Another local lawmaker, Hameedullah Nawroz, a member of the Ghazni provincial council, said roadside bombs placed by the Taliban on routes leading to the crash site have prevented ground forces from moving in. He said an attempted air operation last night had to be called off due to poor weather.

The crash took place in Deh Yak district, an area considered a Taliban stronghold long under the insurgents’ control. Ghazni is one of Afghanistan’s most volatile provinces, with the Taliban contesting several districts. In 2018, the insurgents overran Ghazni’s provincial capital, and that same year a Taliban-claimed roadside bomb killed three American soldiers there.

The U.S. Bombardier E-11A is an electronics surveillance aircraft that helps boost tactical communications on the battlefield. In Afghanistan, it is used to help transmit communications between ground units and commanders, which is often a challenge in the country’s mountainous and rugged terrain.

The crash occurred as peace talks between the Taliban and American negotiators remained stalled. The United States is demanding a reduction in violence before formal talks can resume. Taliban leaders offered a proposal to bring down violence earlier this month.

Sayed Mustafa

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Afghan soldiers were unable Tuesday to reach the scene of a U.S. plane crash near Ghazni, Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.

Peace talks have brought with them an intensification of the conflict in Afghanistan in recent months, as U.S. and Taliban negotiators have sought to leverage battlefield victories. A peace agreement would include the withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from the country.

There are about 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. military command in Kabul. At the war's height in 2010 and 2011, there were more than 100,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar province left two U.S. service members dead and two wounded. Last year, 20 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan, more than any other year since 2014.

George reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul contributed to this report.

Read more

The Afghanistan Papers — A Secret History of War

U.S. military plane crashes in Taliban territory in Afghanistan

Two American service members killed in Taliban-claimed attack

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2020-01-28 11:14:00Z
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Impeachment Trial LIvestream: Final Day Of Trump's Defense - NPR

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Alan Dershowitz, an attorney for President Trump, speaks during the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate on Monday. Senate Television via AP hide caption

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Senate Television via AP

Shortly before winding down Monday night's arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz addressed the elephant in the room: whether potential testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton would alter the course of the proceeding.

Dershowitz was the first member of the president's defense team to directly acknowledge how recent Bolton news had consumed Washington, as speculation raged over the Senate possibly calling him as a witness.

Bolton's possible first-hand account of the events at the heart of the impeachment trial? Not necessary, argued Dershowitz.

"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense," he said.

Democrats need to convince at least four Republicans to defect from their party's leadership in order to support a subpoena of Bolton, a threshold that Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said on Monday appeared "increasingly likely."

That assessment comes in light of Bolton reportedly writing in his forthcoming book that Trump directly linked the freezing of $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine launching investigations into Trump's main political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.

Also on Monday, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told NPR that he too believes the Senate is now inching closer to having enough votes to bring Bolton into the chamber for live testimony.

"I'm already hearing a number of Republicans who are moving toward voting to at least hear from John Bolton, if not other witnesses," he said. "I think there'll be more," said King, referring to the four GOP votes Democrats need to call Bolton. "My bold prediction will be five or 10."

On Tuesday, the Trump team will carry out its final day of the president's defense.

The trial will resume at 1 p.m. ET. Watch live here when it begins.

The House impeached Trump for abuse of power for asking Ukraine to announce investigations into his political rivals, allegedly using $391 million in vital security assistance to pressure the country into launching the probes. House Democrats also impeached Trump for obstruction of Congress for the White House's refusal to cooperate with impeachment investigators.

But on Monday, Trump's defense team offered vastly different version of events, arguing that the president's freezing of military aid was done out of a legitimate concern over corruption in Ukraine, pointing out that the congressionally approved funding was eventually released.

Eric Herschmann, another Trump defense lawyer, maintained that the hold-up in military aid was not as consequential as Democrats have portrayed it to be.

"It is absurd on its face. Not one American life was in jeopardy or lost by the short delay, and they know it," Herschmann said.

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Ken Starr, who is defending Trump and who led the investigation into then-President Bill Clinton that triggered Clinton's impeachment, made the case that Trump's impeachment, the third impeachment trial in American history, shows that "we are living in what aptly can be described as the age of impeachment," adding the process is "filled with acrimony and divides the country like nothing else."

Starr, whose impeachment investigation of Clinton resulted in acquittal, framed impeachment in dramatic terms.

"Like war, impeachment is hell, or at least, presidential impeachment is hell," he said.

The defense team also used Monday to attack the Biden family, playing a television interview with Joe Biden's son, Hunter, answering questions about his time as a board member of the energy company Burisma when his father was vice president.

Trump defense lawyer Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, ran through a long timeline of events suggesting that Hunter Biden's involvement with Burisma was questionable enough to justify Trump's concerns about possible corruption.

Neither Joe Biden nor his son have been accused of any wrongdoing connected to Ukraine and Burisma.

Yet Bondi cited news outlets that have covered the Bidens and the energy company before saying: "they all thought there was cause to raise the issue about the Bidens and Burisma."

Added Bondi: "The House managers might say, without evidence, that everything we just said has been debunked, that the evidence points entirely and unequivocally in the other direction. That is a distraction," Bondi said. "They don't believe that there was any concern to raise here," she said. "And all we're saying is that there was a basis to talk about this, to raise this issue."

Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Joe Biden, characterized Bondi's presentation as a "conspiracy theory" that has been "conclusively refuted."

"Joe Biden was instrumental to a bipartisan and international anti-corruption victory. It's no surprise that such a thing is anathema to President Trump," Bates said in a statement.

Meanwhile in the Senate, lawmakers struggled on Monday to push through the daylong presentations by Trump's legal team.

Senators appeared more worn down than last week, giving way to yawns, or strolls into the cloakroom for extended breaks.

Once Trump's legal team rests, the trial will then move to the questions phase in which senators submit in writing questions to the prosecution or defense that the Chief Justice John Robert will read aloud.

After the questions wrap up, senators will then take up whether to call witnesses.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead Trump prosecutor, has said that the White House's attempt to block witnesses from the impeachment process is proof of a cover-up. On Monday, Schiff added to those contentions, saying on CNN that lawmakers interested in fully assessing the impeachment charges should want to hear Bolton's side of the story.

"I don't know how you can explain that you wanted a search for the truth in this trial and say you don't want to hear from a witness who had a direct conversation about the central allegation in the articles of impeachment," Schiff said.

NPR's Scott Detrow and Claudia Grisales contributed to this report.

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2020-01-28 10:01:00Z
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Taliban repel Afghan forces' bid to reach U.S. plane crash site - Reuters

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan forces and Taliban fighters clashed in a central region where a U.S. military aircraft crashed, officials said on Tuesday, as the government tried to reach the wreckage site in a Taliban stronghold.

The wreckage of an airplane is seen after a crash in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, Afghanistan January 27, 2020.

On Monday, the U.S. military said an E-11A aircraft crashed in the province of Ghazni, but disputed Taliban claims to have brought it down, without saying how many were aboard or if any had been killed.

Security forces were sent to the site immediately after receiving a report of the crash in the Deh Yak district, but were ambushed by Taliban fighters, Ghazni provincial police chief Khalid Wardak told Reuters.

“As per our information, there are four bodies and two onboard were alive and they are missing,” Wardak said, adding that the forces subsequently received an order to retreat and airborne action is to be taken instead.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said Afghan forces backed by U.S. military support had tried to capture the area around the crashed aircraft and clashed with fighters of the Islamist militant group.

The attempt was repelled, however, he told Reuters, but added that the Taliban would allow a rescue team access to recover bodies from the crash site.

“Taliban fighters on the ground counted six bodies at the site of the U.S. airplane crash,” he said, adding that while there could have been more, the militant group could not be certain, as fire had reduced everything to ashes.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, U.S. officials said the plane was carrying fewer than five when it crashed, with one official saying initial information showed there were at least two.

The site has not been visited by U.S. officials or any other members of the international force in Afghanistan, but the Taliban claim to have brought down the plane is misleading, a U.S. defense official told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that a preliminary probe showed there was a mechanical error.

The crashed aircraft, built by Bombardier Inc, is used to provide communication capabilities in remote locations.

Additional reporting by Rumpam Jain; Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-01-28 08:09:00Z
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Afghan plane crash: US jet comes down in Taliban territory - BBC News

The US military has confirmed one of its planes crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday.

Col Sonny Leggett said: "While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire."

The aircraft crashed in Deh Yak district, Ghazni province, an area with a strong Taliban presence.

It is unclear how many people were on board.

Col Leggett denied Taliban claims that additional aircraft had crashed.

• Trump makes first Afghan trip for Thanksgiving
• Has the Afghan conflict cost the US $500bn?

Taliban social media accounts have posted unverified footage showing a burnt-out plane with US Air Force markings.

The video shows a Bombardier E-11A - the type of jet used by the US Air Force for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.

Afghan authorities had initially said the crash plane belonged to state-owned airline Ariana, but the company quickly said all its planes were accounted for.

While helicopters have proven vulnerable and accident-prone in Afghanistan, the loss of a US fixed-wing aircraft is relatively rare.

But the Taliban are not believed to have the sorts of anti-aircraft missiles needed to bring down a high-flying aircraft.

The plane involved is an E-11A, one of only four in the whole US Air Force.

Essentially it is an adapted Bombardier executive jet, chosen for its ability to fly at high altitude and with extended range. It is packed with electronics: its job is to enable better communications between air and ground forces, and between different types of aircraft operating in difficult terrain or using incompatible data links.

It is a bit like the wi-fi range extender that you install in a room with a poor signal. The aircraft - along with similar electronics mounted on unmanned systems - have played an important role in the Afghan conflict, where the mountainous landscape is a major problem for modern military communications.

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2020-01-28 04:36:36Z
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China coronavirus death toll climbs to 80 as government scrambles to contain outbreak - NBC News

The death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 80 Monday as the government, scrambling to contain the epidemic, extended the Lunar New Year holiday to try and stop people from traveling.

The death toll stood at 56 on Sunday, according to health officials who have warned that the spread of the virus was accelerating.

Officials with China’s National Health Commission said there were 2,744 confirmed cases — up from 1,975 — of which 461 are considered severe. Officials are also investigating 5,794 suspected cases and tracking over 32,000 close contacts with infected patients.

Health officials in the capital, Beijing, said Sunday that the youngest patient was just nine months old.

Workers wearing protective clothing disinfect a residential area in Ruichang, in China's central Jiangxi province.AFP - Getty Images

Cases of the virus have been reported on four continents, including in the U.S. where the fifth case was confirmed Sunday. All of the U.S. cases are patients who have recently traveled from Wuhan.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said they expected many more cases in the coming days, likely including person-to-person spread; but said that the immediate risk to the U.S. general public is low.

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No deaths have been reported outside China.

The city of Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicenter of outbreak, was still on lockdown with more than a dozen neighboring cities facing similar severe transport restrictions to help stop the spread of the virus.

Health officials are asking anyone who had traveled to Wuhan or other affected areas recently to register and quarantine themselves for 14 days.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong, which has had eight confirmed cases, has barred residents of Hubei province and anyone who visited the area in the past 14 days from entering the city.

John McGory, a teacher at Jianghan University in Wuhan, told NBC News over the weekend that the city felt “like The Twilight Zone" as the lockdown continued.

“Today, I went out to get some bottled water and there's absolutely nobody on the streets. And this is a city of 11 million people,” McGory, 65, said.

The limitations on movement for millions of people come amid one of the busiest times of the year for travel — Chinese Lunar New Year. Chinese officials extended the week-long holiday until to Feb. 2 to reduce mass gatherings and slow down the spread of the virus.

Local authorities in Wuhan have also announced they were suspending all passport and visa services for Chinese citizens until at least Jan. 30 to help control the virus.

Chinese health officials have warned that people who are carrying the virus but not showing any symptoms may still be contagious, which could complicate early detection and isolation efforts.

The State Department has said it would evacuate its personnel and some private U.S. citizens on a plane departing from Wuhan to San Francisco Tuesday.

Other countries, including France, Australia, Spain, Iraq and Japan, are also looking into moving their citizens out of the city.

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is due to hold a special meeting with officials in Beijing Monday to discuss how to contain the virus. The WHO officials ruled last week that the outbreak did not yet constitute a global health emergency.

Reuters reported Monday that China has allocated nearly $9 billion to help contain the virus.

Jan. 25, 202002:00

Over the weekend, President Xi Jinping said the country was facing a "grave situation."

State media reported that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Wuhan Monday. The senior official has been “entrusted" personally by Xi to visit the city and inspect the ongoing efforts to contain the epidemic.

Yuliya Talmazan reported from London; Eric Baculinao from Manila; Leou Chen from Shenzhen.

Yuliya Talmazan

Yuliya Talmazan is a London-based journalist.

Eric Baculinao

Eric Baculinao is a producer based in Beijing. A long-term resident of Beijing who is fluent in Chinese, Baculiano scans Chinese news daily for hints of major new policy trends and insights into the workings of China's secretive Communist Party and government leadership.  

Mo Abbas

Mo Abbas is a London-based multimedia producer for NBC News.

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2020-01-27 14:48:00Z
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