What we know
- House Speaker Mike Johnson has outlined a plan to pass aid for Israel through Congress, separating it from support for Ukraine and Taiwan in a bid to overcome conservative objections to funding Kyiv's war effort.
- Israel's response to Iran's weekend retaliatory attack may be ''imminent,'' a source told NBC News. The response is expected to be limited in scope and most likely involve strikes against Iranian military forces and Tehran-backed proxies outside Iran, according to four U.S. officials.
- A coordinated protest effort across the U.S. brought traffic to a standstill in major cities, as pro-Palestinian activists push to keep attention on the Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
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U.S. will impose new sanctions on Iran, strengthen missile defense in Middle East
The United States will put in place new sanctions targeting Iran and entities that support its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, “in the coming days,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said today.
Sullivan said that the U.S. military will also work to strengthen missile defense and early warning systems across the Middle East “to further erode the effectiveness of Iran’s missile and UAV capabilities.”
“These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviors,” Sullivan said in a statement.
European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said its foreign affairs council met today and was united in increasing its sanctions against Iran.
Borrell said on X that if there is a spiral of attacks and the intensity of responses between Israel and Iran increases each time, there will be a full-scale war.
“The region doesn’t need it, the world doesn’t need it,” Borrell said.
Cease-fire talks 'almost frozen,' Arab diplomat says
At the moment, talks for a cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas are "almost frozen," a senior Arab diplomat with direct knowledge of the negotiations told NBC News.
The official did not attribute blame and said discussions stalled as tensions with Iran took center stage following Israel’s April 1 attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Sunday that Hamas had rejected Israel's most recent offer for a deal.
Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Karim Sadjadpour spoke to MSNBC's Katy Tur about the dangers that could come to the Middle East and Europe as Israel plans for a possible retaliation after Iran’s weekend attack.
U.N. committee unable to agree on Palestinian bid for full membership
UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations Security Council committee considering an application by the Palestinian Authority to become a full U.N. member “was unable to make a unanimous recommendation” on whether it met the criteria, according to the committee report seen by Reuters today.
The Palestinian Authority is still expected to push the 15-member Security Council to vote — as early as this week — on a draft resolution recommending it become a full member of the world body, diplomats said.
Such membership would effectively recognize a Palestinian state. The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly in 2012.
But an application to become a full U.N. member needs to be approved by the Security Council, where Israel ally the United States can block it, and then at least two-thirds of the General Assembly.
House passes bill requiring Treasury report on institutions with ties to Iranian officials
The House of Representatives passed a bill called the Holding Iranian Leaders Accountable Act of 2023 in a landslide 419-4 vote today.
The bill, which was introduced in November, would require the Treasury Department to provide a report on financial institutions with ties to various Iranian officials, including Iran's supreme leader and leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Earlier today a Treasury official told NBC News that Secretary Janet Yellen was looking to impose new sanctions on Iran.
Iran cannot get away 'scot-free' from Israeli attack, Hagari says
Israel will respond to Iran at a time and in a manner of the country's choosing, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters at a military base in central Israel today.
"We cannot stand still from this kind of aggression," Hagari said. "Iran will not get 'scot-free' from this aggression."
The defensive response Saturday night was an "amazing" operation, Hagari said, but also emphasized the strategic success of an international coalition. When asked how Israel could respond without escalating, Hagari reiterated that Israel will react "the way we will choose at the time that we will choose."
"We will know what to do, and when to do," Hagari said.
Sunak tells Netanyahu it's time for 'calm heads to prevail'
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged the need for de-escalating tensions during a call with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, according a readout from Downing Street.
"He stressed that significant escalation was in no one’s interest and would only deepen insecurity in the Middle East," the statement said. "This was a moment for calm heads to prevail."
Netanyahu thanked Sunak for his support and the military assistance provided by the Royal Air Force during Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel over the weekend. Sunak also expressed his concerns over the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, his office said.
"The UK wanted to see a massive step change in aid access to flood Gaza with vital supplies, including Israel opening up new aid routes as quickly as possible," the statement said.
An uneasy alliance of Arab states helped to defend Israel from Iran
BEIRUT — Since Iran’s unprecedented retaliatory attack against Israel was thwarted over the weekend with the help of the United States and its Middle Eastern allies, the Biden administration has crowed that the “coalition” averted a regional war.
An Israeli response, however, would test the durability of an informal coalition of awkward bedfellows including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, whose recent cooperation against Iran has the potential to be damaging on the homefront, analysts say.
“Those Arab countries are in a very critical situation,” said Oraib Al Rantawi, director of the Al Quds Center for Political Studies, a think tank based in Jordan’s capital, Amman. “There is no easy position to take for all of them, especially Jordan, which for geopolitical reasons has found itself trapped between two troublemakers — Iran and Israel.”
After Iran’s barrage of more than 300 missiles and drones did limited damage, as many of them were shot down by American, British, Israeli and Jordanian forces, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday that the coordinated operation was “an extraordinary military success” that sent “a strong message about where Israel is in the region versus where Iran is in the region, which is increasingly isolated.”
Global markets took Iran’s retaliatory attack against Israel in stride
West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark for oil, is down slightly week to date as Israel fended off the strike and the U.S. reiterated its desire to avoid a greater conflict in the Middle East. International Brent crude is also down about 0.5% this week.
The U.S. dollar, traditionally seen as a safe-haven currency for investors around the world, is only up 0.3% this week.
Gold — also seen as a source of safety during volatile market times — has perked up about 1% in that time, however.
U.S. Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, have continued climbing despite the weekend’s events. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield rose above 4.6% for the first time since November.
Israel still imposing ‘unlawful’ restrictions on Gaza aid, U.N. rights office says
GENEVA — Israel is still imposing “unlawful” restrictions on humanitarian relief for Gaza, the U.N. human rights office said today, despite assertions from Israel and others that barriers have eased.
Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip triggered by Hamas’ deadly cross-border attacks on Oct. 7 has turned much of the Gaza Strip into a wasteland, with hundreds of thousands of people now displaced and crowded into disease-ridden shelters.
The amount of aid now entering Gaza is disputed, with Israel and Washington saying the flow has risen in recent days, but U.N. agencies say it is still far below bare minimum levels.
“Israel continues to impose unlawful restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance, and to carry out widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, at a press briefing in Geneva, reiterating calls for unfettered access.
Israel, which denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza, has faced increased international pressure to let more supplies into the Gaza Strip since it hit an aid convoy on April 1, killing international relief workers.