Ian Garner
“Europe has spent more time discussing, making statements, and making calls than actually putting its money where its mouth is and stepping up to give concrete support to Ukraine or to pursue any other policy of its own choosing. Everybody is technically on the same page. The problem is when you actually look at finer details of the plans, everybody disagrees. All these European leaders are still trapped in potential maybes. Nobody has come up with a cohesive, comprehensive, and collaborative plan to say, 'Here's what we would actually be willing to definitely do.' And so, of course, Trump, Putin, and even Zelenskyy don't take Europe seriously.”
16 hours ago
Majda Ruge
“There seems to be a group of EU countries who are clear that they are not going to be part of a poorly designed and hasty Trump deal, and who are focused on continuing their support to Ukraine.”
16 hours ago
Abdulaziz Alghashian
“Many people are preparing themselves for something very negative on the horizon in regards to the ongoing yet fragile Gaza ceasefire. I think they sense that Netanyahu is someone who's really confident, especially after leaving Washington [and] getting a great deal of support from the White House for his dream of pushing people out of Palestine. The emboldened Israeli prime minister might, at some point, try to draw the United States into attacking Iranian nuclear facilities. Netanyahu is trying to create a great deal of instability so he could prolong his political career.”
16 hours ago
Ian Garner
“Europe has spent more time discussing, making statements, and making calls than actually putting its money where its mouth is and stepping up to give concrete support to Ukraine or to pursue any other policy of its own choosing. Everybody is technically on the same page. The problem is when you actually look at finer details of the plans, everybody disagrees. All these European leaders are still trapped in potential maybes. Nobody has come up with a cohesive, comprehensive, and collaborative plan to say, 'Here's what we would actually be willing to definitely do.' And so, of course, Trump, Putin, and even Zelenskyy don't take Europe seriously.”
16 hours ago
Majda Ruge
“There seems to be a group of EU countries who are clear that they are not going to be part of a poorly designed and hasty Trump deal, and who are focused on continuing their support to Ukraine.”
16 hours ago
Abdulaziz Alghashian
“Many people are preparing themselves for something very negative on the horizon in regards to the ongoing yet fragile Gaza ceasefire. I think they sense that Netanyahu is someone who's really confident, especially after leaving Washington [and] getting a great deal of support from the White House for his dream of pushing people out of Palestine. The emboldened Israeli prime minister might, at some point, try to draw the United States into attacking Iranian nuclear facilities. Netanyahu is trying to create a great deal of instability so he could prolong his political career.”
16 hours ago
“I hope they're loading up their commanders with a bunch of body bags, because they're clearly going to need it. American officials also had reports that some North Korean soldiers had killed themselves rather than surrendering to Ukrainian forces, likely out of fear of reprisal against their families in North Korea in the event that they're captured. These North Korean soldiers appear to be highly indoctrinated, pushing attacks, even when it is clear that those attacks are futile.”
“We've told Israel very directly that we oppose their near-daily strikes here in densely populated areas in Beirut. We understand that they're conducting targeted operations designed to go after Hezbollah infrastructure, and we recognize that they have a right to do that, but they also have a commensurate responsibility to do it in a way that doesn't threaten the lives of civilians, UN peacekeepers or members of the Lebanese armed forces who have suffered some casualties here. It's unacceptable, and we've pressed the Israelis for more details about that.”
“I think people are safer without him [Hassan Nasrallah] walking around. But they [Hezbollah] will try to recover. We're watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum. It's going to be tough. … Much of their command structure has now been wiped out.”
“The talks actually progressed to a point where they felt like the next logical step was to have working groups at lower levels to sit down to hammer out these finer details.”
“[It's] not clear to us exactly how much they're going to do, I mean how many forces they're going to put there or what their intentions are, or what they're going to do about what the Ukrainians are doing.”
“The Russians really have kind of stalled out up there, basically. Their advance on Kharkiv is all but over because they ran into the first line of defenses of the Ukrainian armed forces and basically stopped, if not pulled back some units.”
“This was an Israeli proposal. We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal - as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal - then Israel would say yes.”
“When it comes to Iranian policy, it is Khamenei who calls the shots, not the president. So we don't anticipate any change in Iranian behavior. And therefore the Iranians should not expect any change in American behavior when it comes to holding them accountable.”
“It is possible that Russia will make further advances in the coming weeks, but we do not anticipate any major breakthroughs, and over time, the influx of U.S. assistance will enable Ukraine to withstand these attacks over the course of 2024.”
“Iran's massive aerial attack on Israel was a spectacular and embarrassing failure. We've seen reporting that the Iranians meant to fail, and this spectacular and embarrassing failure was all by design. All of this is categorically false.”
“Our commitment is ironclad to defending Israel and to helping Israel defend itself. As the president has said many times, we don't seek a wider war in the region. We don't seek a war with Iran.”
“We are monitoring a large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo. That includes an unprecedented staging of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks, mechanised infantry units. We believe that this is a very destabilising development. We are calling on Serbia to withdraw those forces from the border.”
“We've never shied away from calling it like we see it when it comes to [China's] behaviour, intimidation and coercion of not only their neighbours but countries around the world. This is a difficult, complex bilateral relationship, the most consequential one in the world. The president understands that. But that doesn't mean there isn't still a need to continue to improve our lines of communication.”
“We have gotten some initial feedback from the Ukrainians, and they're using them [cluster bombs] quite effectively. They are using them appropriately, they are using them effectively.”
“This transit [of Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen] is consistent with our longstanding unofficial relationship with Taiwan and it is consistent with the United States's 'One China' policy, which remains unchanged. There is no reason - none - for the Chinese to overreact here. The People's Republic of China should not use this transit as a pretext to step up any activity around the Taiwan strait.”
“The mercenary group [Wagner] had made incremental gains in and around Bakhmut over the last few days but those advances had taken many months to achieve and came at a devastating cost that is not sustainable. It is possible that they may end up being successful in Bakhmut but it will prove of no real worth to them because it is of no real strategic value.”
“We assessed whether they posed any kinetic threat to people on the ground; they did not. We assessed whether they were sending any communication signals; we detected none. We looked to see whether they were manoeuvering or had any propulsion capabilities; we saw no signs of that. And we made sure to determine whether or not they were manned; they were not.”
“Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it's not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself and it certainly isn't going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.”
“This particular PDA [Presidential Drawdown Authority] package, and the Bradley Fighting Vehicles, are very significant in terms of being able to do what we call 'combined arms maneuver' warfare.”