torsdag 23 juli 2026
Middle East Crisis
Gaza War
Rubio: “ICC is a collection of lunatics and fools”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has dismissed the entire International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) as a collection of “lunatics and fools”, writes Reuters.
– If there are people who want to agree to be part of such a stupid organization, they can of course do so. But we will not be part of it and it will not be able to exercise power over Americans, he said, in connection with his visit to Manila on Thursday.
The statement comes after discussions about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested when he visits the United States in September.
Netanyahu has been the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the ICC since November 2024, for war crimes and crimes against humanity for the methods used by Israel in the invasion of Gaza.
According to an agreement, suspects are to be arrested if they set foot in any of the court's 125 member states, although the United States is not one of them.
Iran war
Analysis: Trump's war cannot be ended – and he is okay with that
The Trump administration is asking for tens of billions of dollars to continue the war against Iran – even though none of them seem to be able to explain why the war is still going on, writes CNN's Stephen Collinson in an analysis.
After five months of war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cannot even answer the question of what an American victory will look like, he writes.
In Foreign Policy, Keith Johnson writes plainly that the new US offensive is not working. At least not to open the Strait of Hormuz and avert the oil crisis.
"The few tools the US seems to have at its disposal – more airstrikes, more sanctions, more tariffs – will likely not be able to do anything about the fundamental problem," he writes.
The fundamental problem, according to Keith Johnson, is that Iran now has new red lines and new power over the Strait of Hormuz that they did not have before the war.
Adam Gabbatt's analysis in The Guardian reports that only 28 percent of Americans believe the war is even worth fighting. Even Trump's loyal voter base is starting to sour, he writes.
But Trump, who is not seeking re-election, does not have much to lose – unlike his Republican colleagues in Congress.
"Could the midterm elections be a disaster? Maybe. Will Trump get over it? Probably," writes Gabbatt.
War package gets green light from the House of Representatives
The US House of Representatives has voted in favor of a budget package of $95 billion, equivalent to 921 billion kronor, American media reports.
Most of it, $60 billion, will go to the Pentagon, which has warned of a shortage of money for the Iran war. $13 billion goes to “other national security needs,” $12 billion to help farmers affected by Trump’s tariff policies, and $10 billion to change election laws.
216 members—all Republicans but two—voted yes, and 214 voted no.
Texas Republican Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the budget committee, describes the package as “bullets and bombs to get the job done.”
Democrats argued that the money should instead be spent on reducing costs for Americans at home.
The bill now goes to the Senate for approval, where it is expected to face opposition.
The US-Saudi Arabia relationship
The agreement with Saudi Arabia is being cut: “His best friends”
The civil nuclear agreement signed by the US and Saudi Arabia is being heavily criticized by opposition politicians in the US, several media outlets report.
“Trump claims that his war on Iran is about preventing an authoritarian country from enriching nuclear fuel. Now he is letting his best friends in Saudi Arabia – one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships – do exactly that,” writes Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders on X.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the agreement means that Saudi Arabia will not have to receive inspectors from the UN Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Instead, the US will carry out its own inspections, which has been criticized.
– What would we do if Russia said that we should not worry about nuclear facilities in Cuba, because Russian inspectors are keeping an eye on them? says Richard Nephew, a former adviser to Barack Obama, in an interview.
Trump's conditions for helping with uranium enrichment
US President Donald Trump says he wants to help Saudi Arabia enrich uranium for nuclear power, but only for peaceful purposes and on condition that the country accepts the "Abraham Accords", he writes on Truth Social.
"The US is not opposed to civilian (non-enriched) nuclear power plants", he writes, which is also reported by the AP.
So far, only the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan - along with Israel - have signed the Trump-initiated agreement.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are three other Muslim states that have so far been outside and that Trump would like to include. Saudi Arabia has historically been far from Israel, among other things, the country does not have any diplomatic representation in the country, but it does have an ambassador in Palestine.
As recently as November, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that one condition for the country to sign the "Abraham Accords" was that there was a clear path towards a two-state solution.
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