Summary
It has been another unsettling day in the wider military and diplomatic environs of the US-Israel war on Iran. This live blog is closing now and the latest news is here.
Here’s where things stand:
Two top US Republican lawmakers expressed strong concerns on Saturday about the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany. “We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a US brigade from Germany,” senator Roger Wicker and representative Mike Rogers said in a joint statement.
Lebanon’s death toll two months into Israeli attacks on its neighbour has reached 2,659, the Lebanese public health ministry said. They were the latest casualty figures since Israel renewed its attacks on Lebanon on 2 March, with a further 8,183 wounded.In the past 24-hour reporting period, 41 people had been killed and 11 others wounded in Israeli raids.
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, condemned the “illegal detention” and “kidnapping” of a Spanish activist who was arrested by Israel when a flotilla of boats attempting to take aid to stricken Gaza was stopped in international waters. Albares has called for the immediate release of Saif Abu Keshek, who is under Israeli detention along with Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila.
The two activists have been taken to Israel for questioning, the Israeli foreign ministry said. Ávila from Brazil and Abu Keshek “will be transferred for questioning by law enforcement authorities”, the ministry said on X.
Nato spokesperson Allison Hart said the alliance was working with the US to understand its decision to pull 5,000 American troops from Germany. Echoing earlier remarks by the German defence minister, Hart said the move “underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defence and take on a greater share of the responsibility” for the region’s security.
Top Republicans also criticize Trump’s habit of taking unilateral action
Senator Roger Wicker and House member Mike Rogers’ joint statement was also implicitly critical of Donald Trump’s habit of taking unilateral action.
“Any significant change to the US force posture in Europe warrants a deliberate review process and close cooperation with Congress and our allies,” they said in their statement that stands as a rare public pushback against the US president from within his own party.
The Republican chairs of the armed services committees in their respective chambers of Congress said: “We expect the Department [the Pentagon] to engage with its oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for US deterrence and transatlantic security.”
This almost plaintive and surely long-shot plea for the president to listen to anything from Congress he doesn’t agree with came as new analysis showed the Trump administration is increasingly ignoring court decisions it doesn’t like, too, as the executive branch continues to exert the most power of the three branches of government created by the US constitution.
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