“To put the onus on Arab Americans to vote for someone who’s directly contributing to the genocide of other people is outrageous,” Hamade said.
Iran slams US deployment of B-52 bombers as ‘destabilising’
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday criticised what he called the United States’ “destabilising presence” after the deployment of B-52 bombers in the region.
“We have always believed that the presence of America in the region is a destabilising presence,” said Baghaei told a news conference in response to a question about the deployment, adding that it “will not deter (Iran’s) resolve to defend itself”.
The US military announced on Saturday the deployment of B-52 bombers to the Middle East as a warning to Iran which has vowed to respond to Israeli strikes on its military sites on October 26.
Israel’s attack was in retaliation for an October 1 Iranian missile barrage, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
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At least four soldiers were killed in the strikes which also caused “limited damage” to a few radar systems, officials said at the time. Iranian media also reported that a civilian was killed.
Baghaei said Iran’s response would be “definite and decisive”.
He added that Iran supported “all initiatives and efforts” to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, where Israel is at war with the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah armed groups, respectively.
Israel said its October 26 attack targeted Iran’s defence capabilities and missile production, but Tehran said its missile production remained intact.
On Monday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran had missiles so Israel “wouldn’t dare attack us”.
During the news conference, Baghaei said Iran’s official position against changing the nuclear doctrine and pursuing atomic weapons remained the same.
Citing a recent speech by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Baghaei said the Islamic republic would be “equipped with everything necessary to defend” itself.
Trump wins US election, Netanyahu, Starmer react
Republican Party candidate Donald Trump has won the United States presidential election after garnering 279 electoral college votes.
Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, who now has 223 electoral college votes, is preparing her concession speech which will be delivered soon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the UK’s Keir Starmer have been among the first world leaders to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election.
In his statement, Netanyahu – who has had a difficult relationship with President Joe Biden – spoke of “history’s greatest comeback”, adding that Trump’s return to office offered a “new beginning for America, a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America”.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “I look forward to working with Trump in the years ahead.”
He added: “From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”
Kamala Harris under pressure as her path to victory narrows
Donald Trump has won North Carolina and Georgia and taken a lead over Kamala Harris in most of the other five battleground states that will decide the winner of the US election, BBC’s US partner CBS projects.
CBS says Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are leaning towards Trump and he is ahead in the other so-called Rust Belt state of Michigan. The results are not final.
Incomplete returns also suggest Trump has a lead in Nevada, while the race remains tight in the other sun belt battleground of Arizona.
In more good news for Trump’s fellow Republicans, the party is projected to win majority control of the Senate.
As expected, Trump has won conservative strongholds from Florida to Idaho, while Harris swept liberal states from New York to California, CBS projects.
The Democrat was expected to spend election night at Howard University in Washington DC, where she was an undergraduate, but it emerged after midnight that she would not attend.
Following the announcement by campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond, the crowd all but disappeared from Harris HQ at the historically black college.
The party-like atmosphere of a few hours earlier at Howard had already turned sour as two swing states were called for Trump.
From Harris HQ, Democratic fundraiser Lindy Li told the BBC that it is “pretty grim right now”.
“People are getting increasingly anxious,” she said, “but there is still a pathway. I am still holding on to that, but this is not the night we wanted.”
Trump was expected to appear shortly at his campaign watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the mood was celebratory.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump mega-donor, is spending election night with the Republican nominee.
Whichever way it goes the result will be historic – giving America its first woman president or marking a seismic political comeback for Trump.
Whoever takes the White House may have their hands tied by Congress, which is also up for grabs in Tuesday’s vote.
CBS projects Republicans will win control of the Senate after wresting two seats in West Virginia and Ohio from the Democrats and beating off a stiff challenge in Texas.
Neither party seemed to have an overall edge in the House, which Republicans narrowly control.
Around 86 million voters cast their ballots early amid one of the most turbulent campaigns in recent American history.
Vice-President Harris, 60, only became the Democratic Party candidate in July, after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race under pressure from within the party.
Trump, 78, was the target of two assassination plots – narrowly avoiding a sniper’s bullet in Pennsylvania.
The former president said he felt “very confident” as he voted earlier on Tuesday near his home in Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife, Melania.
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’m going to be the first one to acknowledge it,” he said.
He posted earlier on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying “law enforcement coming” to Philadelphia because of “massive cheating”.
Philadelphia’s police department told BBC Verify they were unaware of any electoral fraud. The city’s top prosecutor said the allegation had “no factual basis whatsoever”.
Both sides have armies of lawyers on standby for legal challenges on and after election day.
If Harris won, she would become the first woman, black woman and South-Asian American to win the presidency.
Trump would become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than 130 years. He is also the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted.
CBS exit poll data suggests Harris may have under-performed with women.
Some 54% of female voters cast their ballots for her, the numbers indicate. But Joe Biden won the support of 57% of women in 2020.
Law enforcement agencies nationwide are on high alert for potential violence.
About 30 bomb threats hoaxes targeted election-related locations nationwide on Tuesday, more than half of them in the state of Georgia alone, reports CBS.
US Election: Michigan Muslims shun Harris over Mideast turmoil
Haunted by the daily violence ravaging the Middle East, Soujoud Hamade, a registered Democrat, felt compelled to back Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the US presidential election.
“It is very emotional,” the 32-year-old real estate lawyer told AFP after casting her ballot Tuesday at a school in Dearborn, the nation’s largest Arab-majority city, where voters could prove decisive in the key battleground of Michigan.
“Every time I watch the news or get on social media, I see my people being decimated, I see my home country being destroyed,” added the Lebanese-American, disillusioned by the Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering support for Israel.
Hamade says she’s clear-eyed about the two-way nature of the race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.
Still, she insists her vote is far more than just a protest.
She’s banking on helping Stein crack five percent of the national popular vote, a threshold that would unlock future federal funding for the Green Party and “move the needle forward” toward breaking the two-party hold on US politics.
Dearborn, a Detroit suburb famous as the birthplace of Henry Ford and the home of Ford Motor Company’s headquarters, has a population of around 110,000, with 55 percent of residents claiming Middle Eastern or North African heritage.
The city overwhelmingly backed President Joe Biden in 2020, helping him narrowly flip Michigan blue.
But recent polling shows a shift away from the Democratic Party among Muslim and Arab-Americans.
That trend was evident in conversations with voters around the city on Election Day.
Stein, a Jewish physician and the Green Party’s perennial left-wing candidate is predicted to do well among Muslims, as well as progressives and youth voters nationwide — potentially acting as a spoiler for Harris.
“She’s the only one who’s anti-genocide,” said Muhammad Hijazi, a 28-year-old engineer who described himself as a “single-issue voter” who had previously voted Democrat but had now “lost faith.”
The Democrats, he argued, don’t have a plan to bring peace to the Middle East, and he doesn’t trust Trump to do any better.
Yet signs suggest Trump, too, may fare better than in past cycles. Unlike Harris, he visited Dearborn, addressing a modest-sized audience last week.
His outreach to Michigan’s Muslim community secured endorsements from the Muslim mayors of Hamtramck and Dearborn Heights, while his newfound connection to the community — through Lebanese-American son-in-law Michael Boulos, husband of Tiffany Trump — has further endeared him.
Harris’ decision to campaign with former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, a staunch supporter of the Iraq War, was the final straw for Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi, he told Trump supporters at the former president’s final Michigan rally.
Charles Fawaz, a 29-year-old first-grade teacher of Lebanese descent who voted for Trump, told AFP he was impressed that the former president “showed up.”
“When Trump was president, everything was fine with our foreign policy because other leaders respected our country,” Fawaz said.
Even if Trump doesn’t deliver on Middle Eastern peace, he hopes Republicans will manage the economy better.
Former Democrats here say they know some liberals will blame them if Harris loses, but they reject the accusation.
“To put the onus on Arab Americans to vote for someone who’s directly contributing to the genocide of other people is outrageous,” Hamade said.
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Trump wins US election, Netanyahu, Starmer react
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