House speaker plans vote on Israel aid; IDF vows response to Tehran's retaliatory strike

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.” 

Read the full story here.

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.

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.

International Atomic Energy Agency director Rafael Grossi said the watchdog organization is "always concerned about" the possibility of strikes on nuclear facilities.

Grossi gave the answer during a news briefing in New York City today after being asked whether he was worried about a potential strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities. The agency did have to briefly suspend the inspections of the facilities there, which were closed due to "security considerations," Grossi told reporters.

Israel’s foreign minister said he's urging countries to place sanctions on Iran’s missile program and proscribe its Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

“Alongside the military response to the firing of missiles and drones, I am leading a diplomatic attack against Iran,” Israel Katz said in a post on X.

He added that he had sent letters to 32 countries and spoken with numerous counterparts, calling on them to “place sanctions on Iran’s missile project and declare the Revolutionary Guard a terror organization, as a way to stop and weaken Iran.”

“We must stop Iran now, before it will be too late,” he wrote.

A Hezbollah commander, Ismail Youssef Baz, was killed in an Israeli strike in a town within southern Lebanon's Tyre district.

The IDF first reported that it killed Baz, describing him as a veteran Hezbollah official who served in various position over the years. Baz helped plan numerous rocket and anti-tank missile launches toward Israel, according to the IDF statement.

Hezbollah later confirmed Baz's death in a statement, briefly describing him as a "martyr" born in southern Lebanon in 1972.

The U.S. has made it clear to Israel that its war against Hamas should not escalate after Iran's strikes, United Nations ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told MSNBC today.

"It has a greater impact on the region," Thomas-Greenfield said. "But again, I have to say that Israel, Israel's war cabinet will make the decision about what Israel will do."

Israel will continue to receive the White House's support "should they experience the kind of attack that they just experienced from Iran over the weekend," she added.

TEL AVIV — Soldiers were engaged in a series of exercises in northern Israel as part of the military's increased "readiness" preparations, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

The drills included both field exercises and digital simulations between Northern Command, the J6 and the Cyber Defense Directorate. Scenarios for other units included responses to attacks from the direction of Lebanon and Syria simultaneously.

"The command HQ trained the reservists based on operational plans and cooperation between the various arrays in the command — to prepare operational responses for every potential scenario," the IDF said.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is preparing fresh sanctions for Iran, a Treasury official told NBC News, as Yellen vows that the U.S. “will not hesitate” to inflict economic punishment on Tehran in the wake of its retaliatory attack on Israel.

"The attack by Iran and its proxies underscores the importance of Treasury’s work to use our economic tools to counter Iran’s malign activity,”  Yellen said in prepared remarks for a news conference at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Her comments come a day after the White House's John Kirby told reporters that the U.S. is looking to "further isolate" the Islamic Republic. 

Iran has been subjected to waves of sanctions over the years, including new sanctions from the Biden administration in October. Those were designed to keep Tehran from selling or acquiring parts or technology related to ballistic missiles or drones after a similar measure from the United Nations expired.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has unveiled a plan to advance foreign aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan in separate bills and move a fourth piece of legislation wrapping other Republican national security priorities together.

Those GOP priorities would include implementing a loan-lease program for Ukraine aid, which would lend Ukraine money backed by seized Russian assets, and imposing more sanctions on Iran.

Read the full story here.

Iran has told both China and Russia that it is not seeking further escalation with Israel after its retaliatory attacks.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone and said that Tehran’s strikes were limited and that the Islamic Republic was not interested in escalating, the Kremlin said.

Putin expressed hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and so prevent a fall toward a confrontation that could have “catastrophic consequences for the entire region,” the Kremlin added.

Tehran is “willing to exercise restraint and has no intention of further escalating tensions” in the Middle East, the country’s foreign minister told his Chinese counterpart yesterday.

Israeli security forces “must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians,” according to a statement from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

It follows a wave of settler attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank triggered by the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy in what authorities say was a militant attack.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since the attacks began Friday, and another 75 have been wounded.

Israeli authorities have urged people not to resort to vigilante attacks as tensions soar. But rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of routinely ignoring settler attacks or even taking part in them.

JERUSALEM — Israel says it will retaliate to Iran’s unprecedented and unsuccessful missile and drone attack.

But it's keeping the world guessing as to how, when and to what extent — making allies, including the United States, nervous about a wider Middle East war that once started would be difficult to contain.

The University of Southern California has sparked condemnation from a leading Muslim group after it canceled a planned commencement speech by its valedictorian, citing security concerns due to tensions over “the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.”

Asna Tabassum said she was told yesterday that she would no longer be able to give a speech as she and other graduates at the Los Angeles university are celebrated May 10.

“I am both shocked by this decision and profoundly disappointed that the University is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice,” Tabassum said in a statement released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. 

Read the full story here.

The smallest action against Iran’s interests “will definitely be met with a severe, extensive, and painful response against all its perpetrators,” the Islamic Republic’s president said last night.

Ebrahim Raisi said his country’s attacks on Israel contained “clear message for all,” according to a readout of a telephone call he made with Qatar’s leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The readout, published by Iran, said that Raisi had also criticized the strike on the Iranian consular building in Damascus earlier this month, which killed two top commanders and five advisers to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

He said the United Nations and the Security Council had “failed to condemn the attack.”

Israeli artist Ruth Patir has announced she will shut the Israeli pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where she planned to exhibit her work ''(M)otherland,'' an exploration of ''womanhood and the burdens of the female body,'' until a cease-fire is reached and hostages are released.

In a statement posted on Instagram, the artist said she wants to ''stand with'' protesters calling for an immediate truce deal. A sign affixed to the door of the Israeli pavilion reads: ''The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a cease-fire and hostage release agreement is reached.''

House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke to reporters after a GOP conference meeting that he said was “fruitful and productive” and outlined his plan to put four national security bills on the House floor: Israel aid, Ukraine aid, Indo-Pacific aid and a fourth measure that includes GOP national security priorities that would include more sanctions on Iran.

“Every member ultimately will be able to vote their own conscience on all of these matters and everyone have an opportunity to weigh in and bring the amendments that they think are suitable,” Johnson, R-La., said.

He said that he would prefer to send each bill to the Senate individually but that no final decision has been made. 

If bill text comes out tomorrow, as is the hope, Johnson said, the House might not vote on the packages until Friday. The House is scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon and be in recess next week, but that could change.

Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi spoke to officers at Nevatim air base in southern Israel yesterday. He vowed that Israel would respond to Iran's attack over the weekend.

“Iran will face the consequences for its actions. We will choose our response accordingly. The IDF remains ready to counter any threat from Iran and its terror proxies as we continue our mission to defend the State of Israel,” Halevi said in a video in English thanking the international partners who helped thwart Iran's retaliatory attack.

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