PALESTINE

UN backs two-state plan

The UN General Assembly on Friday voted overwhelmingly to support a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and urge Israel to commit to a Palestinian state, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vehemently opposes. The 193-member world body approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing the “New York Declaration,” which sets out a phased plan to end the nearly 80-year conflict. The vote was 142-10 with 12 abstentions. Hours before the vote, Netanyahu said, “There will be no Palestinian state.” He spoke at the signing of an agreement to expand settlements that would divide the West Bank, which the Palestinians insist must be part of their state, saying, “This place belongs to us.” The resolution was sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, who cochaired a high-level conference on implementing a two-state solution in late July, where the declaration was approved.

Photo: AP

UNITED STATES

Bolton document released

A US judge on Friday released a heavily redacted document used to justify a recent search of the home of John Bolton, who was national security adviser during US President Donald Trump’s first term, saying that revealing more could harm a criminal investigation. The FBI’s search warrant affidavit said there was probable cause to believe classified information and national defense information were being illegally kept at Bolton’s Maryland home. Bolton has not been charged with a crime. A coalition of news organizations had urged a judge in Maryland to unseal records related to the Aug. 22 search, citing a “tremendous public interest” that outweighed the need for continued secrecy. However, US Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan said limits were necessary. “The investigation involves matters of national security and highly classified materials to which the public has no right of access,” Sullivan said. More than a dozen pages in the affidavit have partial or full redactions. The FBI seized phones, computer equipment and typed documents. Bolton served in the first Trump administration for 17 months. He subsequently criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government, including in a 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened, that portrayed the president as ill-informed.

SYRIA

Talks with Israel under way

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday said that Syria was negotiating with Israel to reach a security agreement that would see Israel leave areas it occupied after the overthrow last year of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. As Islamist-led forces toppled Assad on Dec. 8 of that year, Israel deployed troops to the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights, which has separated Israeli and Syrian forces since an armistice that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Israel has also launched hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria and carried out incursions deeper into the south. Syria’s new authorities have not responded to the attacks. “We are now in a state of negotiations and dialogue on the issue of a security agreement,” al-Sharaa said in an interview with state television channel Alekhbariah. He said that Israel believed that Syria had “quit” the 1974 disengagement agreement after Assad’s fall, “even though Syria, from the first moment, expressed its commitment” to the accord. “Now, negotiations are underway on a security agreement to return Israel to where it was before December 8,” al-Sharaa said. Israel and Syria have no diplomatic relations, with the two countries technically at war since 1948.