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Trump Names In-law, Massad Boulos, As Middle East Advisor

Published

7 months ago

December 2, 2024

US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Lebanese-American businessman, Massad Boulos, as his senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

“I am proud to announce that Massad Boulos will serve as Senior Advisor to the President on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs,” Trump posted on Truth Social of the appointment, which puts his daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law in a major White House position.

Boulos was a key emissary for the Trump campaign, helping to mobilize Arab American and Muslim voters, many of whom were angry over President Joe Biden’s steadfast support for Israel in the Gaza war even as the civilian death toll rose into the tens of thousands.

The businessman will take over a difficult portfolio, with Israel’s war still raging in Gaza, a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon seeing early violations, and rebel forces in Syria making advances against the government of Bashar al-Assad.

Boulos’s son, Michael, is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany. He is the latest family member to be appointed to a key position.

On Saturday, Trump named real estate executive Charles Kushner — the father of his son-in-law Jared — as his pick to be the US ambassador to France, the latest case of Trump eschewing experience or expertise as the criterion for joining his team.

“Massad is an accomplished lawyer and a highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the International scene,” said Trump of his appointment to the Middle East advisor job.

“He has been a longtime proponent of Republican and Conservative values, an asset to my Campaign, and was instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American Community.”

The Republican referred to Boulos as “a dealmaker.”

Boulos’s son, Michael, is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany.

‘Finish it quickly’

Trump often promised on the campaign trail to bring a swift end to the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere, without specifying how he would do so.

Speaking to UK-based broadcaster Sky News in October, Boulos said it was important to finish the war “quickly.”

“What do we mean by finishing it quickly is, I mean, you have some military targets that you have to accomplish, which is to get rid of the Hamas infrastructure and ability to launch new attacks and so on,” he said.

“Let’s move to peace, and let’s move to rebuilding Gaza and rebuilding Lebanon,” he added.

“We want Gaza to be prosperous. We want the Palestinian people to be prosperous, to live in peace, to live in harmony, side by side with the Israelis and full security on both sides.”

Boulos’s family operates at least two automotive parts distribution companies in Nigeria.

The businessman, a member of the Christian Maronite community, has in the past run in vain for a seat in the Lebanese parliament.

Controversial picks

Trump has come under fire for a series of controversial picks for important posts in his incoming White House administration.

His choices have shown a pattern, so far, of selecting people, often wealthy, who are close to his family or of proven loyalty — rather than exhibiting experience or expertise in a given field.

The elder Kushner, who is also a lawyer, served time in a federal prison for tax evasion. Trump pardoned him in 2020 towards the end of his first term.

On Saturday, Trump named loyalist Kash Patel as the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a move that would replace the agency’s current leader before the end of his term.

A fierce defender of the incoming president, Patel supports the Republican hardliner notion of an anti-Trump “deep state” of allegedly biased government bureaucrats working to stifle Trump from behind the scenes, even having written a book on the subject.
PUNCH

Headline

Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children

Published

2 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.

Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.

The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.

Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.

“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.

An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.

“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.

Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.

According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.

That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.

Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.

The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.

The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.

AFP

Headline

Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Published

2 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.

“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.

“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.

However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.

Headline

We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel

Published

6 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.

“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Israel’s public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had “searched a lot”.

“Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders… so in the end it wasn’t realistic,” Katz told Kan.

He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because “there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire”.

Katz had said during the war that Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.

But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.

“He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker”, he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.

The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.

Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.

“We won’t let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles”, he said.

In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran’s enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic’s uranium enrichment capabilities.

“The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised,” he said of the enriched uranium.

The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.

A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The war erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Iran has consistently denied.