Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday slammed Israel’s restriction on the Rafah border crossing to allow only the exit of Gaza residents, calling it a “clear violation” of the peace plan that finally brought an end to the fighting.

Israel announced on Wednesday it would unilaterally open the Rafah crossing to allow residents to flee the Gaza Strip, a move swiftly rejected by Egypt as Cairo insisted on lifting the blockade in both directions to relieve the besieged Palestinian territory.

Egypt refused to facilitate what critics fear is the forced displacement of Palestinians, insisting on adherence to the terms of the United States-brokered peace plan, which mandates full humanitarian access.

The Rafah crossing, the only vital artery to the outside world for the residents of Gaza not controlled directly by Israel, has been shuttered for months, strangling the flow of life-saving aid.

The Foreign Office (FO) said FM Dar held a phone call with Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan today and discussed regional developments, particularly Gaza.

“FM strongly condemned Israel’s unilateral plan to restrict the Rafah crossing for the exit only of Gaza residents, a clear violation of the peace plan and a move that undermines humanitarian access.

“Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring unfettered aid to Gaza and advancing coordinated efforts toward lasting peace,” the FO said.

Negotiations on the next stage of the Gaza ceasefire continue without significant progress at a moment when the truce appears particularly fragile, AFP reported on Thursday.

The first phase included a withdrawal of Israeli forces on October 10 to a line that still gave them military control of over half of Gaza, the release of all prisoners, living or dead, held by Hamas or its allies, and an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Though all living prisoners were released on October 13, one body is still said to be in Gaza.

For now, the Israeli government demands that the last hostage’s remains are returned before any talks begin on the second phase via mediating countries: US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye.

Egypt will also host a conference on Gaza’s reconstruction that will focus on the territory’s humanitarian needs, but no date has yet been set.

The process seems to be stuck mainly due to the Trump plan’s grey areas.

President Donald Trump’s envoys were to meet Thursday with Ukrainian negotiators for the third time in two weeks to press his plan to end the war as his administration eased economic pressure on Russia.

Two days after the envoys met Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Treasury Department partially suspended measures that Trump had announced in October when he finally vowed to get tough on Moscow.

The Treasury Department suspended until at least April 29 economic sanctions against Lukoil-branded gas stations outside of Russia.

A ban remains on place to prevent the money from flowing back to Russia, which has been under sweeping US and EU sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump’s sanctions had been one of the most concrete means to pressure Russia, which European diplomats accuse of trying to avoid pressure by pursuing negotiations.

Easing isolation

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s business partner-turned-roving global ambassador, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, will meet in the Miami area for dinner late Thursday with the top Ukrainian negotiator, Rustem Umerov, a US official said.

The gathering, which will be closed to the press, came two days after the Trump duo met with Putin for five hours, stretching into the early morning, in Moscow.

Trump said the envoys had a “reasonably good meeting” with Putin.
Pressed on whether Witkoff and Kushner got any sense that Putin genuinely wanted to halt Russia’s nearly four-yearinvasion, Trump replied: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.” But Putin showed no public signs of budging, as Russia makes slow but steady progress seizing land in eastern Ukraine.

“This is a complex task and a challenging mission that President Trump took upon himself,” Putin said of the diplomacy in an interview as he visited India.

“Achieving consensus among competing parties is no easy task, but President Trump, truly, I believe – he sincerely tries to do this,” he said, according to magazine India Today.

“I think we should engage with this effort rather than obstruct it.” Putin’s visit to India, a historic partner of Russia, comes as international isolation of him gradually eases.

Trump in August welcomed Putin to Alaska where they made no clear progress on ending the Ukraine conflict.

Critical time for Ukraine

Trump has previously mused that Russia will inevitably win more land and that Ukraine would be better off settling.

A first draft of the US plan would see Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not been able to win on the battleground in return for security promises that fall short of Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO.

Witkoff and Kushner have been working on modifications since meeting with the Ukrainians on November 23 in Geneva. The two sides met again the following week in Miami alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The talks come at a delicate time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the West at the start of the war but has had a tumultuous relationship with Trump.

Zelensky last week removed his top aide and negotiator Andriy Yermak, who days earlier had negotiated with Witkoff, as he came under investigation in a corruption scandal.

An Afghan man has been charged in Texas with threatening to build a bomb and carry out a suicide attack, United States officials said on Tuesday, as the Trump administration vows a crackdown on Afghan migrants after a deadly shooting.

Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, 30, of Fort Worth, allegedly made the threats in a November 23 video that he shared on TikTok, X and Facebook, the Justice Department said in a statement.

In the video, Alokozay allegedly praises the Taliban and threatens to carry out a suicide attack on Americans.

“Thanks to public reports of a threatening online video, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force apprehended this individual before he could commit an act of violence,” FBI Dallas special agent in charge Joseph Rothrock said.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Alokozay “came into America during the Biden administration and, as alleged, explicitly stated that he came here in order to kill American citizens”.

He faces up to five years in prison if convicted of making a threatening interstate communication.

Alokozay’s arrest comes a week after the shooting near the White House in Washington of two National Guard members.

A 29-year-old Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the attack, which left one of the soldiers dead.

Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

US President Donald Trump said Sunday his administration intends to pause asylum decisions for “a long time” after the shooting.

“We don’t want those people,” he said on social media.