International

In West Bank, Palestinian recognition welcomed despite fears of Israeli annexation

Published

9 months ago

September 21, 2025

In West Bank, Palestinian recognition welcomed despite fears of Israeli annexation

Abdel Aziz Majarmeh was standing next to his 13-year-old son, Islam, as he was shot dead by Israeli forces this month at the entrance to Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank.

“My son fell to the ground, and then I heard the sound of a shot,” he said. “An army jeep came up and five or six soldiers pointed their weapons at me, telling me to leave. I didn’t even know my son was martyred. I started dragging him away.”

Abdel Aziz said he had gone to the camp – occupied by Israel’s army since January – to retrieve family documents from his home there.

“There is no one for me to complain to,” he told me. “They control everything. The Palestinian Authority can’t even protect itself – it only implements the decisions of the Jews.”

As a Palestinian, Abdel Aziz is resigned to his powerlessness. As a father, he’s tormented.

“In my mind, I keep asking that soldier: why pick on a 13-year-old boy? I’m standing right next to him. Shoot me. Why are you shooting children? I’m here, shoot me.”

Israel’s army said it had fired to neutralise a threat posed by suspects who had approached them in a closed military area, and was examining the incident.

It refused to clarify what threat the teenager had posed.

Cities like Jenin were put under the full control of the Palestinian Authority three decades ago, under the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Peace Accords.

They were meant to be the seeds from which statehood would grow.

But Israel says it was terrorism that flourished there. In January, it sent tanks into Jenin and the neighbouring city of Tulkarem to crush armed Palestinian groups, saying it would apply lessons learned in Gaza.

Since then, Israeli forces have remained, razing large areas of the camps in both cities, and demolishing buildings in other areas.

The UK, France and other countries are now set to recognise a Palestinian state, as Israeli control spreads across the West Bank and the Gaza War grinds on.

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Jenin’s mayor, Mohammed Jarrar, took me to the camp entrance near where Islam was shot. The army vehicles stationed here on my previous visits are nowhere to be seen, but a large earth berm now blocks the road in, and locals say Israeli snipers still scan the area from the buildings overhead.

Mr Jarrar told me around 40% of Jenin was now a military area for Israeli forces, with around a quarter of residents – including the entire camp – displaced from their homes.

“It was clear from the beginning this was a major political plan, not a security operation,” he told me. “This Israeli government wants to annex the West Bank and in preparation for that, it wants to prevent any [armed] opposition to its plan.”

Israel has also placed the Palestinian Authority under a long-term economic siege, withholding tax revenues the PA needs to pay teachers and police.

Israel accuses it of funding terrorism by compensating the families of Palestinian militants who are killed. The PA says it has now scrapped that payment scheme.

Mr Jarrar said it was now very challenging to provide even basic services to the local population, and to persuade young people not to leave.

Against this backdrop, he said, the recognition of a Palestinian state by Britain, France and others is important, even after more than 140 other nations have already done so.

“It confirms the fact that the Palestinian people possess a state, even if it is under occupation,” he told me. “I know that this recognition will lead to [greater] occupation of the West Bank. But even so I believe recognition is more important, because it will shape the future of the Palestinian people, and the international community will be called on to defend their rights.”

Recognition of a Palestinian state by the UK and France is also a recognition of the political chasm between Israel and its European allies over this issue.

“There will be no Palestinian state,” Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told settlers in the West Bank last week. “This place is ours. We will see to our heritage, our land and our security.”

Netanyahu has built his career on preventing a Palestinian state, and his government has pushed hard on expanding settlements in the West Bank.

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His far-right allies have been pushing for formal annexation, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently outlining a plan to annex 82% of West Bank, with the remaining Palestinian enclaves cut off from each other.

US President Donald Trump has opposed the recognition of a Palestinian state, but has not publicly criticised Israeli moves towards annexation.

Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and has never left.

Establishing civilian settlements on occupied land is illegal under the Geneva Conventions, but Israel argues that it has a historic Jewish right to the West Bank.

Around half a million settlers now live there, and the Israeli organisation, Peace Now, which tracks settlement expansion, says more than 100 new outposts have appeared across the West Bank in the past two years.

Outposts are illegal under both international and Israeli law, but they receive tacit approval from Netanyahu’s government as well as state support in the form of roads, security and utilities.

Earlier this summer, Ayman Soufan saw new neighbours arrive on the hill next to his house, in the hills south of Nablus.

From his window, he and his grandchildren have a clear view of the simple wooden shelter and corrugated iron shed put up by Israeli settlers that Ayman says are from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar.

“This outpost they set up here is to push us out of our house. Every day a settler comes, bangs on the house, shouting ‘leave, leave!’,” he told me. “They throw their garbage at our doorstep. I call the authorities and they say, “We’ll send the army”. But the army never comes. The settlers are the army, they are the police, they are everything.”

Ayman’s family built this house, near the village of Burin, a few years after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Israel was temporarily given control over rural areas like this under the Oslo peace accords, with the intention that they would eventually be transferred to a future Palestinian State, after negotiations over settlements there.

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But Israeli control has remained, settlements have mushroomed, and human rights groups say Israeli forces are increasingly supportive of settler attacks.

Ayman said his father had died from a heart attack as settlers set fire to the house in 2003, and that his home had been torched several more times since then.

“Who is supposed to protect me,” Ayman asked. “The Palestinian police? They can’t even prevent this happening in the cities, how will they come here? Here, my security is in the hands of the people who occupy me.”

International recognition of a Palestinian state is a good thing, he says, even if little will change on the ground.

“What’s coming is worse,” he said. “But if I ever leave this house, it’ll be when I’m carried out dead. This house where I was born, where I grew up and lived my childhood; every corner has a memory for me. How can I leave it?”

In the decades since the Oslo Accords, Israeli narratives have hardened, armed Palestinian groups have strengthened, and the control of the Palestinian Authority government has been eaten away.

“Palestine was never theirs and will never be theirs,” said bereaved father Abdel Aziz Majarmeh. “Sooner or later, today, tomorrow, in a year or two, they will leave this country. And Palestine will be liberated.”

The UK and France have clung to the idea that two separate states – Israeli and Palestinian – are the solution to the conflict here, even as Palestinian territory was taken, and Palestinian institutions undermined.

Now the Gaza war, and questions over who will govern Gaza afterwards, have forced that political gridlock into open confrontation, as Netanyahu’s far-right allies push hard for annexation.

Some Israelis say the West Bank is like the Wild West: a place where statehood and sovereignty are decided not by laws and declarations but by facts on the ground.

Israel has long argued there can be no Palestinian state without its agreement.

Now, by pushing ahead with recognition, the UK, France and others are signalling that Israel can’t cancel statehood alone.

A political fact by Israel’s allies to counter its facts on the ground.

In West Bank, Palestinian recognition welcomed despite fears of Israeli annexation

BBC

Related Topics:Israel Palestinian recognition West Bank

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International

Iran to US: No Deal Unless We Keep Enriching Uranium & Controlling Hormuz

Published

2 days ago

June 12, 2026

Trends Admin

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei

Iran to US: No Deal Unless We Keep Enriching Uranium & Controlling Hormuz

TEHRAN / WASHINGTON – Iran has drawn a firm red line under any future agreement with the United States: its right to enrich uranium is non-negotiable, and it alone will manage the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The declaration came Friday, directly contradicting assurances U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly gave to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Despite Trump’s claim that a draft deal has been approved at the “highest levels” in Tehran, Iranian state media insist that no final accord will be signed unless it explicitly preserves the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sovereignty and control over the Gulf’s critical oil and gas chokepoint.

Following weeks of indirect negotiations in Oman aimed at ending the war triggered by U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, a ceasefire took effect in April. However, sporadic violence has continued to threaten a return to all-out conflict. Now, as both sides finalize a 60-day negotiation window, Iran’s official IRNA news agency has outlined the country’s unyielding stance.

On the nuclear front, Iran insists its right to enrich uranium and retain existing stockpiles of enriched material will be “emphasised with a view to their inclusion in the final agreement.” This directly rebuts Israel’s claim that Trump promised to strip Iran of all enriched nuclear matter. Regarding maritime security, Tehran demands to maintain control over the Strait of Hormuz, including the right to grant or deny vessels passage. Since the war began, Iran has blockaded the waterway, allowing only a trickle of ships through after they obtain permission from Iranian armed forces. According to the Mehr News Agency, which published what it said was a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU), Iran assumes “no new nuclear obligations” and will not cede management of the strait or restore conditions that existed prior to the U.S.-Israeli military aggression.

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While Trump told reporters a draft deal had been “brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved,” the text circulating in Tehran includes demands that Washington has yet to publicly endorse. The draft MoU reportedly includes several key provisions. First, it calls for a “decisive end” to the conflict across all fronts, including Lebanon, rather than a simple extension of the fragile ceasefire. Second, it demands the release of **$24 billion** in Iranian assets held abroad, with half of that sum ($12 billion) required to be released before final negotiations can even begin. Third, it seeks a suspension of U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil and petrochemical sales, alongside a complete lifting of the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports that has been in place since April 13. Fourth, it includes a demand that the U.S. and its allies pay war reparations and present a $300 billion reconstruction plan for Iran. Finally, regarding the strait, the draft specifies that the waterway would be managed via a mechanism between Iran and Oman, with no role for the United States.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly pushed back against the Iranian narrative. After speaking with Trump, Netanyahu reiterated that the U.S. president had vowed any agreement would include the removal of all enriched nuclear material from Iran and the dismantling of its missile infrastructure. “As long as I am the Prime Minister of Israel, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said Friday.

On the streets of Tehran, the prospect of a deal has been met with wary skepticism. “I am not sure how I feel,” a 29-year-old cafe worker in the Iranian capital told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “The main purpose of this war was for the US to remove the system, and this did not happen. So what does a deal do?”

Despite Trump’s optimism—which has briefly boosted stock markets and lowered oil prices—Iran’s uncompromising stance on uranium enrichment and Hormuz control suggests that a final agreement is far from guaranteed. The next 60 days of indirect talks will determine whether the U.S. can accept Tehran’s conditions or if the region will slide back toward military confrontation.

Iran to US: No Deal Unless We Keep Enriching Uranium & Controlling Hormuz

International

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Hints at Breakthrough in Iran Negotiations

Published

2 days ago

June 12, 2026

Trends Admin

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Hints at Breakthrough in Iran Negotiations

Global oil prices fell sharply on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump indicated that negotiations with Iran were nearing a breakthrough, easing fears of a prolonged disruption to global energy supplies and boosting hopes of stability in the Middle East.

The decline saw Brent crude oil fall to about $87 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded around $84.50 per barrel. The drop came after several days of gains driven by escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran, which had pushed oil prices above the $90-per-barrel mark earlier in the week.

Speaking at the White House, Trump expressed confidence that diplomatic efforts were yielding results and suggested that a formal agreement with Iran could be reached in the coming days.

“We have essentially ended the war with Iran,” Trump said, adding that discussions were progressing toward a settlement that could significantly reduce tensions across the region.

The remarks marked a dramatic shift from previous statements by the U.S. president, who had earlier threatened military action against Iran and suggested possible strikes on key oil export infrastructure, including Kharg Island, the terminal responsible for handling most of Iran’s crude shipments.

The prospect of a diplomatic resolution immediately calmed energy markets, with traders reducing the geopolitical risk premium that had been built into oil prices since the crisis intensified.

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A major factor behind the market reaction was renewed optimism over the future of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important shipping lanes. The waterway serves as a critical route for nearly 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas exports.

Concerns that conflict could disrupt shipping through the strait had fuelled fears of supply shortages and triggered a surge in crude prices over the past week. Trump’s latest comments, including suggestions that the passage could soon reopen fully to normal traffic, helped reverse those gains.

Despite the pullback, analysts caution that oil prices remain significantly above pre-crisis levels. Before tensions escalated, crude traded within the $70–$72 per barrel range. Market experts say prices are unlikely to return to those levels unless a comprehensive agreement is reached and normal oil flows through the Gulf are restored.

Iranian officials have also urged caution, noting that negotiations are still ongoing and that no final deal has been signed. The uncertainty means markets could remain volatile until concrete details emerge from the talks.

Energy analysts warn that any setback in negotiations or renewed threat to shipping in the Gulf could quickly push crude oil prices higher again. Conversely, a successful agreement could boost global supply, ease inflationary pressures, and provide relief for energy-importing countries struggling with high fuel costs.

Investors worldwide are now closely monitoring developments between Washington and Tehran, with the outcome expected to have significant implications for global oil markets, energy security, and the broader world economy.

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Hints at Breakthrough in Iran Negotiations

International

Trump Defends Rising Inflation, Says Prices Will Fall After Iran Conflict

Published

2 days ago

June 12, 2026

Trends Admin

US President Donald Trump

Trump Defends Rising Inflation, Says Prices Will Fall After Iran Conflict

United States President Donald Trump has sparked fresh debate over the state of the American economy after declaring that he “loves” the latest inflation figures, even as US inflation climbed to its highest level in three years.

New data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that annual inflation rose to 4.2 per cent in May 2026, up from 3.8 per cent in April, marking the third straight monthly increase and the highest rate recorded since 2023.

The increase was driven largely by rising energy prices, with gasoline, electricity and other fuel-related costs surging amid ongoing geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

Reacting to the figures at the White House, Trump appeared unconcerned about the inflation spike.

“I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation,” the president told reporters.

The remark quickly drew attention across political and economic circles, with critics arguing that millions of Americans continue to struggle with higher living costs. However, Trump later clarified that he was not celebrating rising prices but rather expressing confidence that inflation remained lower than many analysts had predicted despite global instability.

Speaking to the New York Post, Trump said the latest figures demonstrated the resilience of the US economy during a period of international conflict.

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“I love the inflation numbers because of what I’m talking about. The numbers are going to be phenomenal because what’s showing is that despite the fact that we’re in a war, the numbers are much lower than anticipated, and when we’re out of that war, the numbers will be at lower numbers than they were even before it started,” he said.

Trump maintained that inflationary pressures would ease significantly once tensions in the Middle East subside. According to him, oil prices are expected to decline sharply after the conflict ends, helping to reduce transportation, manufacturing and household energy costs.

“When this conflict is over, you will see oil drop to where it was before,” he told reporters.

The latest inflation report showed that energy costs accounted for a significant share of the increase in consumer prices. Government data indicated that fuel-related expenses contributed heavily to the overall rise, with gasoline prices recording one of the sharpest increases.

Data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) showed that the national average price of regular gasoline rose to approximately $4.15 per gallon, compared with about $2.98 per gallon in late February.

Analysts have linked the increase in fuel prices to disruptions in global oil markets and concerns surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes. Any threat to oil exports through the waterway typically drives up crude oil prices and increases inflationary pressures across major economies.

Beyond energy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported higher costs for airline tickets, healthcare services, communication services, recreation and other consumer goods and services.

The inflation increase presents a fresh challenge for the US Federal Reserve, which has a long-term inflation target of 2 per cent. Rising inflation often raises expectations that the central bank could maintain higher interest rates or introduce additional measures aimed at slowing price growth.

Financial markets are now closely watching upcoming policy decisions from the Federal Reserve as officials assess whether current inflation pressures are temporary or likely to persist.

The issue is also expected to become a major political talking point ahead of the upcoming US midterm elections, with inflation, fuel costs and affordability remaining among the top concerns for American voters.

Although current inflation remains well below the 9.1 per cent peak recorded in 2022, economists remain divided over the outlook for the coming months. While some believe easing geopolitical tensions could bring prices down, others warn that continued disruptions in global energy markets may keep inflation elevated for longer than expected.

For now, the latest data underscores the continued influence of energy prices on the US economy and sets the stage for a renewed debate over inflation, interest rates and economic policy in the months ahead.