分类： politics

In an unprecedented step that marks a sharp departure from long-standing diplomatic practice, China has issued one-year entry bans on four sitting New Zealand Members of Parliament following their official visit to Taiwan in May, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed. Local media first broke the story on Thursday, revealing that the four lawmakers only learned of the travel restrictions after returning home from their trip. According to reports, the Chinese Embassy in Wellington has indicated the bans could be lifted early if the parliamentarians issue a formal apology.

China has long asserted territorial claims over the self-governing island of Taiwan, and has consistently sought to limit Taipei’s formal diplomatic engagements with sovereign states around the world. However, this latest action marks the first time Beijing has implemented direct travel restrictions against New Zealand elected officials over a Taiwan visit, a development that has caught Wellington’s top diplomat off guard. A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to the BBC that the move came as a surprise to Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

New Zealand’s official position has long held that parliamentary travel to Taiwan is fully aligned with the country’s formal One China policy. “New Zealand MPs have visited Taiwan for decades and such visits are not inconsistent with New Zealand’s One China policy,” the spokesperson said in an official statement.

The cross-party delegation that traveled to Taiwan in May included three lawmakers from the current ruling coalition: Maureen Pugh, David Wilson, and ACT party member Laura McClure, as well as Duncan Webb from the opposition Labour Party. In comments to local media, McClure pushed back sharply against the restrictions, framing the ban as an unacceptable intrusion into New Zealand’s domestic affairs. “This is a type of foreign interference,” she told the *New Zealand Herald*, adding that she would not apologize for making the trip.

McClure further told Radio New Zealand that she was caught completely off guard by the punitive measure. “I was quite surprised and shocked,” she said, noting that parliamentary delegations from New Zealand had made similar visits to Taiwan for decades without incident. She emphasized that elected New Zealand representatives hold an inherent right to global travel as part of the country’s democratic foundations. “New Zealand MPs have the right to travel freely around the globe,” she said. “That is part of living in a free democracy.”

Following the announcement of the bans, Foreign Minister Peters has directed New Zealand diplomatic staff in both Beijing and Wellington to open formal discussions with Chinese authorities, with the goal of clarifying why Beijing broke from decades of past practice on the issue.

Pictures from the parliamentary visit were shared publicly on Facebook by Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, who framed the trip as a meaningful show of cross-party parliamentary support for Taipei. Lin tied the New Zealand visit to recent diplomatic challenges Taiwan has faced, referencing President Lai Ching-te’s trip last month to Eswatini, Taiwan’s only remaining formal diplomatic ally in Africa. Lai’s visit was only able to proceed after an initial itinerary was scrapped when multiple African countries reportedly faced pressure from Beijing to deny Lai overflight access to their airspace.

“President Lai’s recent visit to Eswatini has once again made the world feel the challenges facing Taiwan’s diplomacy,” Lin wrote in his social media post. He added that the New Zealand delegation’s trip “not only showed the support of the New Zealand Parliament for Taiwan, but also made the friendship between Taiwan and New Zealand stronger.”

New Zealand has formally recognized Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China since establishing full diplomatic ties in 1972, consistent with the One China policy. Like many other nations that do not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, Wellington has continued to hold unofficial people-to-people and parliamentary exchanges with Taiwan over the decades.

Beijing has already made formal objections to recent parliamentary trips from New Zealand to Taiwan. Last year, a separate delegation of New Zealand MPs met with President Lai Ching-te during a visit to the island, prompting the Chinese Embassy in Wellington to denounce the meeting as “colluding with ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.” A month before that, Beijing also condemned a group of New Zealand lawmakers for attending an official reception hosted by Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Wellington.

This ban is not the first time China has imposed punitive measures on foreign lawmakers for visiting Taiwan. Beijing has previously issued sanctions against multiple U.S. Members of Congress over Taiwan trips, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during her high-profile 2022 visit, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul in 2023, when authorities claimed McCaul’s visit sent a “serious wrong signal to Taiwan independence separatist forces.”

Taipei has repeatedly accused Beijing of mounting a coordinated campaign to poach its few remaining diplomatic allies and limit its international space, a narrative that has gained greater traction amid growing global scrutiny of China’s regional ambitions.

Fresh confrontations and conflicting claims roiled US-Iran relations on Wednesday, as overlapping military clashes, congressional scrutiny, and stalled diplomatic talks laid bare the deep divisions between the two adversaries amid a broader regional conflict.

Iran opened the day by announcing it had launched a strike against a US military vessel operating near the Gulf of Oman, which Tehran claimed hosted a US command and control center that had entered Iranian territorial waters. The account was immediately rejected by US Central Command, which denied any attack had taken place against an American vessel in the region.

The day’s deadliest violence unfolded at Kuwait International Airport, where a stray projectile caused extensive structural damage, one fatality, and approximately 60 injuries. Initial blame for the strike fell on Iran, but Tehran countered that the damage stemmed from a malfunctioning US Patriot missile interceptor fired during its own barrage of more than 30 ballistic missiles targeting positions in Kuwait. US Central Command labeled Iran’s missile launch a “deliberate, calculated, and unjustified attack” against the Gulf state. Iran has long alleged that Kuwait permits the US to use its territory as a staging ground for strikes against Iranian targets, a claim Kuwait has repeatedly denied. Kuwaiti authorities have also arrested and deported individuals who filmed missile activity in the country, and reaffirmed this week that it has not allowed Washington to use its military bases for the US-Israeli campaign against Iran that launched on February 28.

The escalating violence drew sharp criticism from congressional Democrats during a Wednesday hearing featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Gregory Meeks, the committee’s top Democratic member, repeatedly pressed Rubio for a direct yes-or-no answer on whether the secretary had warned President Donald Trump that US strikes against Iran would trigger retaliatory attacks against American allies, partners, and US citizens residing and working across the Middle East. Rubio only responded that the administration had been fully prepared for any Iranian response.

The day’s developments came after a fragile Pakistani-brokered ceasefire between the parties collapsed earlier this month, bringing a resumption of open hostilities. Despite the escalation, however, Iran confirmed Wednesday that indirect negotiations with the US have resumed, after Iranian officials pulled back from talks earlier this week to protest Israel’s ongoing intensive bombardment of Lebanon, where Iran backs key ally Hezbollah. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Lebanese broadcaster al-Mayadeen that diplomatic channels have not been severed, though no substantive progress has been achieved to date. “Text exchanges have continued between the two delegations,” Araghchi confirmed.

The core sticking points of the negotiations remain unchanged. The Trump administration has insisted that any final agreement must require Iran to end all nuclear enrichment activity and dismantle its ballistic missile program—two demands that Tehran has repeatedly labeled non-negotiable red lines. Rubio defended the administration’s military campaign, Operation Epic Fury, to lawmakers on Wednesday, noting the operation has now been fully wound down, and that he does not characterize the ongoing exchange of fire as a full-scale war. “Operation Epic Fury achieved its core goal of degrading Iran’s conventional missile and drone shield, and it forced Tehran back to the negotiating table,” Rubio said. “Our hope is that this will lead Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment ambitions entirely.”

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, citing an anonymous source within the Iranian negotiating delegation, reported Wednesday that any preliminary memorandum of understanding between the two sides will require a four-stage approval process, signaling that a final agreement will likely take months to finalize. That timeline contradicts repeated public statements from President Trump, who has suggested in recent press briefings that a deal with Iran could be reached in the very near term. Iran has also added a new non-nuclear precondition to any agreement: Tehran has made clear it will not sign any deal that fails to guarantee an end to Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory.

Parallel talks focused on stabilizing the Lebanon front continued this week in Washington, where Lebanese and Israeli officials convened for a third round of negotiations on Tuesday and Wednesday. The talks followed an announcement from Trump Monday that he had held a call with Hezbollah representatives, who confirmed the group would abide by a proposed ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back on that framework, saying he would only agree to a ceasefire that applies to Beirut, leaving open the option of continued air strikes and ground operations in southern Lebanon.

This independent reporting was originally published by Middle East Eye, which provides on-the-ground coverage of the Middle East and North Africa region.

On Wednesday, former U.S. President Donald Trump offered a cautiously upbeat outlook on negotiating an end to the ongoing conflict with Iran — a conflict widely characterized as an illegal war initiated under his leadership — even as he conceded that the standoff could stretch on for multiple additional months.

During an interview with *The New York Post*, Trump was asked whether the current U.S.-led blockade of Iran would remain in place through this year’s Labor Day, which falls on September 7. Responding to the question, Trump stated, “I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be, but I think it’s unlikely.” He went on to assert, “I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly.”

For months, Trump has leveraged incremental hints that the conflict could wrap up imminently as a tool to prevent global oil prices from surging to catastrophic levels, even as the war drags on with no clear end in sight. While the Trump administration has repeatedly maintained that a previously agreed ceasefire remains in effect, new developments have shattered that narrative: CNN reported Wednesday that Iran launched retaliatory strikes against U.S. military bases stationed in Kuwait and Bahrain, after U.S. forces fired a Hellfire missile at a Botswana-flagged oil tanker en route to an Iranian port.

Al Jazeera further confirmed that Iran’s retaliation included drone and missile strikes targeting Kuwait’s international airport, which left one civilian dead and dozens more wounded. The fresh escalation has amplified already grave warnings about the fragility of global oil markets, particularly amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global crude oil supplies.

Days before the latest exchange of fire, prominent oil industry analyst Patrick De Haan issued a stark warning that oil prices are on the cusp of a sharp upward spike if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. De Haan explained that U.S. petroleum stockpiles, which have been drawn down at an unprecedented rate since the outbreak of the war, are set to hit their lowest level in more than 20 years. In a public social media post, De Haan wrote: “US distillate inventories will likely fall under 100 million barrels for the first time in over 20 years, exacerbated by high exports due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This is a powder keg waiting to go off if a deal to reopen the strait doesn’t happen soon.”

Ryan Cooper, an analyst with *The American Prospect*, echoed that warning in an analysis published Wednesday, noting that the emergency strategies global governments have relied on to cap oil prices — most notably coordinated releases from strategic petroleum reserves — are fast approaching their limits due to crippling supply constraints. “As storages dwindle and run out, the only way to match demand to supply will be for the price to rise high enough to destroy something like 10 to 20% of global oil consumption,” Cooper wrote. He added that because much of global oil demand is driven by non-negotiable, essential use cases that are largely insensitive to price shifts, benchmark crude prices could surge past $150 per barrel.

Such a price jump would not only send gasoline and diesel costs soaring for consumers around the world, Cooper added, but would trigger corresponding price increases for nearly every goods category, as almost all products rely on oil for transportation or as a raw material for plastic production.

In a unified show of diplomatic pushback against shifting territorial and religious dynamics in Jerusalem, the foreign ministers of eight major Muslim-majority nations have issued a sharp condemnation of Israeli settler incursions into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while demanding formal international recognition of Jordan’s long-held legal jurisdiction over the sacred site.

The joint position was released Wednesday in an official statement shared via social media by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The statement, signed by ministers from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, argues that the intrusions—carried out with explicit protection from Israeli security forces—represent a blatant breach of international law, binding United Nations resolutions, and the established historical and legal framework governing holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem.

The coalition of foreign ministers went on to reject all Israeli efforts to unilaterally revise the centuries-old legal and religious status quo that protects both Islamic and Christian holy sites across Jerusalem. They reiterated their urgent call for the global community to formally uphold and recognize Jordan’s centuries-old custodianship mandate over the entire Al-Aqsa compound.

Further emphasizing their stance, the ministers stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque remains a sacred space reserved exclusively for Muslim worship. They also placed full accountability for the rising wave of intrusions carried out by settlers under Israeli military protection squarely on Israeli national authorities.

The Al-Aqsa compound has operated under a carefully negotiated status quo arrangement for decades, an internationally agreed framework that enshrines its identity as an exclusive place of Islamic worship. The current governing structure was established following the 1967 Six-Day War, when Jordan and Israel reached a consensus: the Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf would oversee all internal religious and administrative affairs of the site, while Israel would retain control over external security operations. Under this long-standing agreement, non-Muslim visitors are allowed to tour the compound during scheduled time slots, but are explicitly prohibited from conducting private or communal prayer on the grounds.

In recent years, however, the site has seen a steady and alarming increase in intrusions by Israeli settlers, most of which proceed with armed military escort. This escalation comes amid broader reported efforts to alter the site’s governing status: independent regional outlet Middle East Eye previously revealed that the U.S. and Israel have been actively working to revoke Jordan’s historic custodianship of the Al-Aqsa complex, according to anonymous senior sources.

Under the drafted plan first exposed by MEE, future management of the revered Muslim site would be restructured to align closely with Israeli strategic and political interests. The initiative is being spearheaded by former White House advisor Jared Kushner and current U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, according to accounts from U.S., Jordanian, Palestinian, Western and Gulf Arab diplomatic sources. If implemented, the plan would dissolve the existing authority of the Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf and replace it with a new regulatory body appointed by the Israeli government, which would reclassify Al-Aqsa Mosque as a multi-faith religious site.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly denied the existence of such a plan, but has stopped short of explicitly affirming Jordan’s long-standing custodianship rights over the compound, leaving the diplomatic status of the agreement in question.

In a move that amplifies regional security concerns and escalates tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly introduced a new nuclear weapons fuel production facility on Thursday, reiterating his pledge to rapidly grow the country’s nuclear capabilities at an exponential pace.

According to state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the new site leverages far more sophisticated enrichment technology than existing facilities, though the outlet released no key operational details, including the plant’s geographic location or the date it began active production. Published photos from KCNA show a large industrial hall densely packed with centrifuges, leading independent nuclear analysts to conclude the facility is purpose-built to enrich uranium to weapons-grade purity.

KCNA reported that Kim toured the new site on Wednesday, where he received briefings on its current operational output and reviewed its long-term production roadmap. The unveiling of the plant directly aligns with Kim’s repeated public commitments to expand North Korea’s nuclear program, a response he says is necessitated by growing U.S.-led military pressure on the Pyongyang regime.

In comments carried by KCNA, Kim emphasized that expanding the quality and quantity of North Korea’s nuclear deterrent has become increasingly urgent amid intensifying confrontation with what he called “the most ferocious enemies” – a widely understood reference to the United States and South Korea. Kim added that other unstated security threats and ongoing crises further justify accelerating the buildup of the country’s nuclear capacity.

The KCNA report also included Kim’s claim that North Korea’s total production capacity for weapons-grade nuclear materials has more than doubled over the past five years. No independent third party has been granted access to verify this assertion, and outside nuclear monitors have no ability to conduct on-site inspections of North Korea’s secretive nuclear infrastructure.

Following an inspection tour and leadership meeting at the facility, Kim and top ruling party officials confirmed the prioritization of a long-term strategic plan to grow North Korea’s national nuclear forces exponentially, per KCNA. The outlet released photos showing Kim walking between rows of centrifuges, as well as images of him conferring with senior officials around a table holding a blurred graphic of a cone-shaped object – it remains unclear whether the graphic depicts a nuclear warhead design.

Thursday’s public reveal comes less than two years after North Korea unveiled another covert uranium enrichment plant in September 2024. That disclosure marked the first public showing of a North Korean enrichment facility since 2010, when Pyongyang allowed a group of visiting American scholars to tour a centrifuges hall at the main Yongbyon nuclear complex. During his 2024 visit to that previously undisclosed plant, Kim delivered an identical message, calling for expanding the number of centrifuges to exponentially grow the country’s nuclear arsenal and pushing for the development of more advanced centrifuge technology.

Last September, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young publicly confirmed that North Korea currently operates four separate uranium enrichment facilities, including the core complex at Yongbyon, and that all sites run continuously around the clock.

Nuclear weapons can be constructed using either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has long maintained production capacity for both materials at the Yongbyon site. Since the collapse of high-stakes denuclearization diplomacy between Kim and former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019, Pyongyang has prioritized expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal. Kim has repeatedly rejected overtures from the U.S. and South Korea to restart diplomatic negotiations on the country’s nuclear program.

As early as April this year, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi told reporters that the organization had confirmed a rapid increase in operational activity across all known North Korean nuclear facilities, signaling Pyongyang’s accelerating push to expand its nuclear stockpile.