标签： Asia

The White House made a formal confirmation Monday that the United States Army’s highest-ranking civilian official, Dan Driscoll, has formally stepped down, a departure that comes amid widely reported friction between Driscoll and Secretary of the Army Pete Hegseth over the Trump administration’s handling of the ongoing conflict with Iran.

In an official statement released to the public, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly praised Driscoll’s tenure, framing his work as central to advancing President Donald Trump’s policy agenda of rebuilding American military strength. “Through his collaboration with the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary Hegseth, the U.S. Army today stands as more capable and powerful than at any point in recent history,” Kelly added in her remarks.

But Driscoll’s exit unfolds against a backdrop of growing unease within the Pentagon’s senior ranks over the trajectory and costs of the seven-month-long Iran campaign. The Washington Post reported Monday that the service chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, alongside four-star combatant commanders leading U.S. military operations across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, have privately cautioned Hegseth that extending large-scale combat operations in Iran will severely erode the United States’ ability to deter and respond to other emerging global security threats.

Military stockpiles of critical weaponry have already been strained to breaking point by the conflict, multiple independent outlets have confirmed. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that the Iran war has pushed stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors—particularly Patriot systems, which have been heavily drawn down to defend Ukraine against Russian ballistic missile attacks—into a “beyond critical” shortage. Reuters further corroborated these warnings, reporting that the U.S. has nearly exhausted its reserves of sophisticated long-range surface-to-surface missiles, including ATACMS and the newer Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).

A veteran of the Iraq War, Driscoll first entered politics with an unsuccessful 2020 run for Congress before joining as an advisor to Trump’s 2024 presidential re-election campaign. He had been widely known as a close political ally of former Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, who was dismissed by Hegseth in a personnel shakeup earlier this year. Though public reports confirm repeated clashes with Hegseth, Driscoll long maintained a protected position in the administration thanks to his longstanding personal ties to Vice President JD Vance; the two attended law school together as classmates.

Vance, a leading figure in the Republican Party’s isolationist wing, has taken a high-profile stance opposing a prolonged U.S. military commitment in Iran. He led U.S. negotiations with Iranian officials in Pakistan-hosted talks held in Islamabad earlier this spring, and in July drew widespread attention for publicly accusing Israel of manipulating American public opinion to prolong the conflict.

In sharp contrast, Hegseth has emerged as one of the most outspoken proponents of continuing the Iran campaign, regularly holding combative press briefings where he has pushed back against critical media coverage of the conflict’s handling.

Intra-administration tensions over Iran policy extend well beyond Driscoll and Hegseth, too. Vance is widely viewed as a potential contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who shares Vance’s skepticism of deepening U.S. engagement in the Middle East. Middle East Eye reported in March that Rubio and Hegseth have been locked in open conflict over the question of deploying additional U.S. ground troops to Iran at Israel’s request: Hegseth has repeatedly backed the proposal, while Rubio has warned it would trap the U.S. in another costly, open-ended Middle Eastern war.

The most immediate consequence of Driscoll’s resignation, analysts note, is that the U.S. Army now enters its seventh month of the Iran conflict without either permanent civilian leadership or a confirmed uniformed chief of staff, creating a leadership vacuum at the top of the service at a moment of unprecedented operational strain.

At a closed-door gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in Las Vegas on Monday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance moved to ease growing concerns among the group’s members that the second Trump administration has deprioritized support for Israel, a reassurance that came amid a widening ideological shift within the Republican Party over Washington’s long-standing alliance with the Middle Eastern nation.

According to audio of the speech obtained by Politico, Vance’s remarks earned raucous applause from the crowd of RJC attendees, a cohort that entered the event deeply skeptical of the vice president. That skepticism stems from Vance’s past willingness to openly question the influence of the pro-Israel lobbying community in U.S. domestic politics, as well as his close ties to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has emerged as one of the most high-profile critics of Israeli policy within the Republican Party.

The RJC, a group that has long maintained an unwaveringly pro-Israel stance, is currently facing an uphill battle to retain influence within the GOP as criticism of Israel surges, particularly among the party’s younger base. Beyond widespread condemnation of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza — which has been labeled a genocide by the United Nations and dozens of leading Holocaust scholars — many young conservative voters are increasingly questioning why the U.S. allocates billions of dollars in annual foreign aid to a nuclear-armed Middle Eastern state.

In his remarks, Vance acknowledged the growing generational divide in the party’s perspective on the U.S.-Israel relationship. “There is a growing suspicion among, I would call it, under-40s, of the US-Israel relationship,” Vance said in the audio. “I think my view is, what we have to do is articulate why this is in the best interest of the United States of America, and actually get out there and talk about the ways in which it is in the best interest of the United States of America.”

Vance also addressed backlash that followed his controversial appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast last month, where he made comments suggesting actors within the Israeli government were manipulating American public opinion to prolong a simmering conflict with Iran indefinitely. Vance defended his decision to speak on the popular platform, arguing that engaging with influential cross-ideological voices is a core part of building support for administration policy. “I think the best approach is to actually go in there and talk to him and make the argument as best as you can,” he said.

During the convention address, the vice president also strongly condemned antisemitism and the ancient anti-Jewish conspiracy theory of “blood libel” — a term Israeli officials regularly deploy to dismiss serious criticism of Israeli policy, including allegations of genocide in Gaza. Vance added that promoting such bigotry violates core Christian values.

Despite the skepticism heading into the event, RJC CEO Matt Brooks told Politico that the group’s community has a well-honed ability to detect political pandering, and he said attendees left Vance’s speech convinced the vice president’s message was genuine. “The Republican Jewish community has a great ‘bullshit detector,’ to understand when they’re being pandered to… And I don’t believe that anybody will come away from this convention thinking that they were pandered to,” Brooks said.

Vance’s willingness to engage with long-taboo questions about the U.S.-Israel alliance that previous Republican vice presidents and their administrations refused to entertain has sparked widespread speculation about a broader ideological shift within the GOP. Middle East Eye editor-in-chief David Hearst has even openly questioned whether Donald Trump will go down in history as the last overtly pro-Zionist U.S. president, with Vance currently widely viewed as the frontrunner to succeed Trump as the party’s leader in the next election cycle.

This is not the first time Vance has made public comments that have put him at odds with the pro-Israel establishment. Back in June, as he pushed back against Israeli criticism of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iran, Vance warned that Trump remained the only major world leader sympathetic to Israel, urging Israeli officials to avoid attacking their only powerful global ally.

Vance, who led the U.S. delegation in negotiations with Iranian officials in both Islamabad and Lucerne, framed the MoU as a new chapter in U.S. relations with the Iranian people. Speaking at a White House press briefing about the reported $300 billion reconstruction fund included in the agreement, Vance doubled down on his warning to Israeli leaders. “My message to them would be twofold. Number one: Donald J Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance told reporters. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”

The U.S.-Iran MoU sparked immediate outrage across Israel, where it was widely viewed as a major diplomatic victory for Tehran. The agreement has since largely collapsed, and on Tuesday, just one day after Vance’s RJC address, the U.S. military launched airstrikes on multiple Iranian sites amid an ongoing standoff over control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

A sweeping expansion of Israeli education policy in occupied East Jerusalem is forcing more than 45,000 Palestinian students — roughly 38% of all Palestinian students in the city — to study under the Israeli national curriculum, a sharp, accelerated increase from enrollment numbers in recent years. Starting this week, all new first-grade and seventh-grade classes within East Jerusalem’s Israeli-run state school system will transition to the Israeli curriculum, completing the latest phase of a policy Palestinian officials describe as an unprecedented threat to their national identity.

This rapid expansion marks a major jump from just five years ago, when only 10,347 Palestinian students attended Israeli curriculum schools. That number climbed to 27,041 by the 2025-26 school year, and now crosses the 45,000 threshold as the policy is extended to all new entering cohorts at state-run institutions.

Palestinian students in East Jerusalem currently attend one of four school systems: schools operated by the United Nations, independent private institutions, schools run by the Islamic Waqf endowment, and Israeli municipal schools, where the new curriculum rules are now being widely enforced. The trajectory of education policy in the region has shifted dramatically since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967: initially, the education system remained aligned with the West Bank, using a Jordanian-designed curriculum, which was replaced by a Palestinian Authority-developed curriculum in the 1990s. Today’s expansion of the Israeli curriculum represents the most significant change to that framework in decades.

Maarouf al-Rifai, spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate, called the decision a dangerous escalation unmatched since the 1967 occupation. He framed the policy as a direct assault on the Palestinian national and cultural identity of Jerusalem residents, noting that the Israeli curriculum systematically marginalizes core elements of Palestinian history and collective narrative. Key topics such as the Nakba, the status of Palestinian political prisoners, and the centrality of Jerusalem to Palestinian identity are erased or sidelined from the curriculum, turning education into a battleground for collective memory, national consciousness, and cultural identity in the contested city.

The curriculum expansion is not an isolated move, but part of a coordinated, systematic campaign targeting Palestinian education across East Jerusalem, Palestinian officials say. Additional restrictions have thrown the start of the new academic year into chaos for Palestinian private schools: Israel has blocked entry permits for roughly 70 West Bank-based teachers who work in East Jerusalem, and 40% of all teachers at the city’s Palestinian private schools — most of them Palestinian Christians — reside in the West Bank. In response, private schools have announced they will delay the 2026-27 academic year indefinitely until entry permits are renewed or reissued for all affected staff.

Omar Rjoob, media director for the Jerusalem Governorate, explained to Middle East Eye that the crackdown on education ties into a broader Israeli strategy to solidify the annexation of East Jerusalem and sever the city from its geographic and cultural Palestinian roots. Long-standing barriers including Israeli military checkpoints and the separation barrier constructed in the early 2000s already cut Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank, forcing many Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to seek employment in the Israeli labor market and increasing pressure for expanded Hebrew language education over time.

Recent policy changes have accelerated this shift: in January 2026, Israel’s parliament passed a ban barring the hiring of teachers who hold academic degrees from Palestinian Authority-affiliated universities within the Israeli education system. The rule has had an immediate, severe impact on Arabic-language education in East Jerusalem, where a large share of teaching staff graduated from Palestinian higher education institutions.

Israeli authorities have also targeted United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools that serve Palestinian refugees, closing multiple campuses and seizing agency-owned educational complexes in the Shuafat and Kafr Aqab refugee camps. Israeli newspaper Haaretz confirmed that a large purpose-built UNRWA school in central Shuafat has been taken over by the Jerusalem municipality, which plans to repurpose the site to house 14 high school classes, a co-ed primary school, and five special education kindergartens.
“This entire trajectory, with all its components, represents an attempt to re-engineer the educational landscape of occupied Jerusalem to serve the Israeli occupation’s policy goals,” Rjoob told Middle East Eye. He added that the weakening of Palestinian educational institutions, movement restrictions on teachers, and forced curriculum changes collectively threaten the Palestinian identity of young students in the city, transforming education into a tool for annexation, Judaisation, and the erasure of East Jerusalem’s inherent Arab-Palestinian character.

The policy announcement comes as high-profile far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir prepares to launch a children’s book celebrating his political “activities and achievements” to be distributed to Israeli educational institutions. Titled *The Minister Who Didn’t Stop*, the book is scheduled to launch Tuesday, the first day of the Israeli school year, at a conference for Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party.

A London-based civil society leader is demanding answers from UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham over explosive allegations that the United Arab Emirates orchestrated a covert plot to assassinate him on British territory, following a months-long investigative journalism project that uncovered detailed evidence of the alleged operation.

Last month, Britain’s ITV News published an investigation claiming the UAE committed millions of dollars to contracting a mercenary operative to target Anas Altikriti, chief executive officer of the Cordoba Foundation, a London-headquartered policy think tank focused on Middle East issues.

The alleged plotter, Abraham Golan, a dual Hungarian-Israeli citizen who led the private security firm Spear Operations Group, traveled to the United Kingdom in December 2016 specifically to carry out surveillance on Altikriti, according to evidence gathered by ITV. The outlet obtained Emirati financial records confirming Golan, who resided in the United States, received regular payments from the UAE government during the period of the operation. These included a six-figure annual retainer plus large performance bonuses, with one $1 million payment processed just weeks before Golan’s 2016 London trip, originally tied to a separate operation in Yemen.

ITV’s investigation, built from a trove of evidence including witness testimony, email correspondence, WhatsApp communications and financial documents, found Golan worked alongside a retired U.S. special forces operator to track Altikriti’s daily movements. Golan reached out to a British political strategist, identified by the investigation only as “Victor”, in November 2016, asking for access to networks connected to Altikriti and the Cordoba Foundation. Once in London, Golan initially offered Victor £50,000 (equivalent to $68,000 at current exchange rates) to help locate the think tank chief, later increasing the bribe to £100,000 ($136,000).

Documents and witness accounts confirm Golan shared detailed surveillance intelligence with Victor, including photos of Altikriti’s personal residence and vehicle, custom maps with satellite imagery, and granular notes on his routine travel between home and work. During one planning meeting, Golan explicitly raised the possibility of killing Altikriti, the investigation found. When questioned about the outcome of the operation, Golan’s former special forces associate made a throat-slitting gesture to indicate assassination.

Victor told ITV he grew increasingly alarmed by the scope and intent of the plot, ultimately cutting ties with the group once he confirmed the operation planned to end in Altikriti’s death. After the plot was uncovered, British police visited Altikriti at his London home twice to warn him his life was in imminent danger—but officers refused to share any details about the source or nature of the threat, leaving him without full context about the risk he faced.

In a formal letter sent to Prime Minister Andy Burnham on August 21, Altikriti has laid out a series of urgent demands for transparency and action from the UK government. The activist is asking Burnham to explain how a foreign government could apparently plan an assassination on British streets without facing any diplomatic or legal consequences, and to clarify what protection the state can guarantee to individuals in his position when such threats emerge.

Altikriti also pressed the government to release all information British intelligence and law enforcement agencies held about the 2016 plot, and to answer why he was not given full details about the threat at the time when the information would have been most critical. Addressing the UK government’s stated goal of deepening diplomatic and trade ties with the UAE, Altikriti questioned how this ambition can align with credible evidence of an Emirati assassination plot on UK soil, asking what new requirements of trust, transparency and accountability will now be applied to the bilateral relationship. He added that he is ready and willing to meet with Burnham or any relevant cabinet minister to discuss the matter in person.

Per ITV’s reporting, Golan told the British strategist he was acting on direct orders from Abu Dhabi, which considers Altikriti and the Cordoba Foundation to be affiliated with groups labeled as terrorist organizations by the UAE government.

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — Against a backdrop of simmering trade frictions and geopolitical division, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has launched a push to convince fellow G20 finance ministers to mirror the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to trade imbalance enforcement, centered on broad tariffs and targeted trade restrictions. Speaking on the sidelines of the three-day G20 finance minister summit, Bessent confirmed his early warning — issued at the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term — that Washington’s new multi-layered “tariff wall” targeting Chinese goods would redirect massive volumes of Chinese exports to third-party markets across the globe has already come to pass.

“And unfortunately, I was right,” Bessent told assembled reporters. “The rest of the world probably needs to take a hard look at what they should be doing to protect their citizens’ jobs, their manufacturing base, so that everything they do doesn’t get offshored.”

The Trump administration’s unilateral tariff strategy has drawn widespread criticism from economists and cross-party political leaders alike, who argue the measures have driven up living costs for ordinary American consumers and disproportionately hurt U.S. trade allies rather than targeted economic competitors. Independent economic think tank the Tax Foundation has quantified this impact, finding that new tariffs rolled out by the administration across 2025 lifted the overall retail price of imported consumer goods by roughly 7 percent compared to pre-tariff price trends. Compounding this political and economic pushback, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that the sweeping global tariffs Trump imposed using emergency presidential powers during his second term were unconstitutional, forcing the White House to overhaul its trade playbook.

Despite the court ruling, the administration is moving forward with new trade restrictions: it is currently weighing an additional 7.5 percent tariff on all Chinese imports, following a probe into alleged excess Chinese industrial capacity and what Washington calls problematic forced-labor regulations. Bessent confirmed he held one-on-one talks with his Chinese counterpart during the Asheville summit, though he declined to share any substantive details about the content or outcome of those discussions.

Speaking in a Tuesday interview with Fox Business commentator Larry Kudlow, who served as Trump’s top economic advisor during his first term, Bessent outlined the administration’s current posture toward Beijing: “I often say in our trade discussions with China that we do not want to pull apart from them, but we have to de-risk.” He also noted unexpected common ground between Washington and Beijing on a key Middle East security issue: “We have more in common with the Chinese on Iran than we disagree on. The Chinese agree Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The Chinese agree that there should be freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Beyond trade tensions with China, Bessent addressed growing market jitters over soaring global debt levels. Global gross debt has surged to a historic $353 trillion, with U.S. national debt hitting a record $40 trillion as of August. Fears of a sustained sell-off in U.S. government bonds have rippled through global markets in recent weeks, but Bessent sought to downplay those concerns, telling reporters “I don’t think we’re in any kind of dire situation” when it comes to bond market stability. Bessent also identified China’s 2025 record trade surplus of $1.2 trillion, as well as what he frames as excessive Chinese economic regulation, as major headwinds to balanced global economic growth.

The summit has also been marked by geopolitical discord over Russia’s participation, as the attendance of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov sparked widespread discomfort among Western delegations. Though Siluanov held a brief sideline meeting with Bessent on Monday, he was excluded from the G20 finance ministers’ traditional opening “family photo,” a visible snub reflecting ongoing international tensions over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters the Russian minister’s presence “created a lot of discomfort around the table, not only from Canada, but from colleagues around the table. We have made sure our discomfort is being heard by colleagues with respect to who is in attendance at the meeting.”

Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission’s economy commissioner, echoed that sentiment during a Tuesday press briefing, saying the international community should not move to normalize economic and diplomatic relations with Moscow at this time. Associated Press reporter Rob Gillies contributed reporting from Toronto.

A long-simmering territorial dispute over the Falkland Islands, known as the Islas Malvinas to Argentina, has reemerged as a flashpoint in global diplomacy, following provocative comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son and a groundbreaking shift in rhetoric from former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Days after 35-year-old Yair Netanyahu, a U.S.-based political activist, publicly asserted in Spanish social media posts that the contested South Atlantic archipelago belongs to Argentina, Trump confirmed for the first time that Washington could open a review of its long-standing stance backing British sovereignty over the islands. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, when asked if the U.S. was reevaluating its position, Trump responded: “I always review every position – that’s just one of many.”

The former president offered no further detail on what changes Washington might consider, but his remarks mark the first public signal from a U.S. leader that the country’s long-held position on the dispute could be up for negotiation. The 3,600 residents of the islands overwhelmingly support continued British rule, and the conflict over the territory already led to a 1982 war between Argentina and the United Kingdom that left hundreds dead on both sides.

Yair Netanyahu’s intervention in the dispute was not rooted in the territorial question itself, but in his sharp criticism of the current British government’s stance toward Israel. In follow-up posts after his initial declaration, the activist made clear his position was a response to what he frames as British hostility toward Israel. He called the current British government “antisemitic, communist, jihadist,” and condemned the UK for its recent recognition of Palestinian statehood aspirations and criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. “I don’t care about the Falkland Islands, I care about Israel,” he wrote, adding that Argentina has remained a consistent friend to Israel, unlike the UK.

Argentine President Javier Milei, a staunch pro-Israel leader who has made backing the Netanyahu administration a core pillar of his foreign policy amid controversial domestic economic reforms, quickly reposted Yair Netanyahu’s comments. Milei has repeatedly expressed unwavering support for Netanyahu during the Gaza conflict, has spoken of converting to Judaism, and has pledged to move Argentina’s Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move strongly aligned with the current Israeli government’s priorities.

Even before Yair Netanyahu’s public comments, UK newspaper The Telegraph reported that pro-Israel Republican figures had already been lobbying privately in Washington to push the Trump administration to abandon its long-standing neutral stance on the Falklands dispute. Analysts note that Israel holds unprecedented influence within the Trump administration, and recent British criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, its apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, and a prospective British sanctions package against Israeli officials reported earlier by Middle East Eye, have created incentive for Israel and its allies to use the Falklands dispute as leverage against the UK within the U.S. government.

Yair Netanyahu’s comments have already sparked backlash from even pro-Israel and far-right political figures in the UK, who warn the remarks risk alienating British supporters of Israel. Right-wing pro-Israel commentator Alex Armstrong, who works for GB News, called the comments “unconstructive,” urging Yair Netanyahu to distinguish between the British government and pro-Israel constituents within the UK. Rupert Lowe, a far-right British lawmaker and vocal Israel supporter, added a firm rebuke, declaring “the Falklands are British and will remain so,” and noting that any future British government would defend the territory militarily if needed.

A leaked Pentagon memo from earlier this year already suggested the Trump administration was considering using the Falklands dispute as bargaining leverage in trade and diplomatic negotiations with the UK, adding context to Trump’s recent comments that have upended decades of quiet agreement on the islands’ status.