WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron's plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
"What he says doesn't matter," Trump told reporters at the White House. "He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight."
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip, calling it a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience."
"I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community -- the lack of compassion, the lack of truth, the lack of humanity," Guterres told Amnesty International's global assembly via video link.
DUBAI (Reuters) -Syria's foreign minister held frank and productive talks with the United States and France at which they said on Friday they underlined the importance of ensuring the success of Syria's political transition, unity and territorial integrity.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani, French Foreign Minister Jean Noel Barrot and U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met in Paris, days after a ceasefire halted bloodshed in Syria's southern province of Sweida.
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a day after withdrawing their delegations from talks.
Netanyahu said Israel was now considering "alternative" options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the rule of Hamas in the territory. Trump said Hamas did not want to make a deal and he believed the group's leaders would now be "hunted down".
France's highest court Friday annulled a French arrest warrant against Syria's ex-president Bashar al-Assad -- issued before his ouster -- over 2013 deadly chemical attacks.
The Court of Cassation ruled there were no exceptions to presidential immunity, even for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But its presiding judge, Christophe Soulard, added that, as Assad was no longer president after an Islamist-led group toppled him in December, "new arrest warrants can have been, or can be, issued against him" and as such the investigation into the case could continue.
PARIS (Reuters) -France's Cour de Cassation, the country's highest court, ruled on Friday that a warrant issued for former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was invalid.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Writing by Makini Brice)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said Palestinian militant group Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
Trump made the comments to reporters at the White House one day after his Middle East peace envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas' latest proposal.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones, Editing by William Maclean)
DUBAI (Reuters) -Israel will allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza starting on Friday, Israeli army radio quoted a military official as saying.
An Israeli military spokesperson did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the report.
The Gaza health ministry says more than 100 people have died from starvation in the Palestinian enclave since Israel cut off supplies to the territory in March.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany is not planning to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make "long-overdue progress" towards a two-state solution, a German government spokesperson said on Friday.
"Israel's security is of paramount importance to the German government," said the spokesperson. "The German government therefore has no plans to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term."
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) -The main hospital in the southern Syrian city of Sweida is overwhelmed with trauma patients and working without adequate power or water after the local Druze minority clashed almost two weeks ago with Bedouin and government forces.
"Inside of Sweida, it's a grim picture, with the health facilities under immense strain," the World Health Organization's Christina Bethke told reporters in Geneva via video link from Damascus.
"Electricity and water are cut off, and essential medicine supplies are running out."
