#Vedant Patel

[vyorei]

So you haven't, you won't, and you will probably high-five the fuckers.

[nando161mando]

"I'm not gonna speak to specific instances and incidents...I will let the IDF speak to that,"

US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel replied when asked by a journalist to comment on Israel’s airstrike that targeted a residential apartment in Gaza today, which killed a Palestinian mother and her newborn twins.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

The U.S. State Department is already both-sidesing the Al-Tabin school massacre:

“We have been clear … to our partners in Israel that every possible effort needs to be taken to minimise the impact of civilian casualties,” Patel told reporters at a briefing. However, sites such as schools may lose their protected status under international law when “used by combatants” he said, adding that “there is a clear, provable track record of Hamas using human civilians as human shields, locating itself amongst civilian infrastructure”.

[plitnick]

‘Moderate PAC’ is latest big-money push to keep Democrats in line on Israel

If you don’t know who Jeffrey Yass is, you should. He is a Republican mega-donor and one of the primary funders of the far-right Kohelet Forum in Israel, which has proven very effective at moving Israel even farther to the extreme right. But now, this far-right figure is getting into Democratic politics. Yass is the sole current funder of the new so-called “Moderate PAC” which will work with Joe…

[sayruq]

The U.S. will use its veto power against a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a member state of the United Nations during a vote at the Security Council expected to take place Thursday evening. Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, described as premature an effort by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to gain member status at the U.N. He said there was not unanimity among the Security Council’s 15 members that the Palestinian Authority had met the criteria for membership, with unresolved questions over the governance of the Gaza Strip, where Israel is in a war to defeat and eliminate the controlling power, Hamas. “And for that reason, the United States is voting no on this proposed Security Council resolution,” Patel said.

Earlier it was revealed that the United States was secretly pressuring other members of the Security Council to shoot down a Palestinian state membership so the US wouldn't have to use its veto as that would lead to a wave of local and international criticism for Joe Biden.

[allthegeopolitics]

The US, on Thursday, rejected Amnesty International’s report that said there is “conclusive evidence” of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports. “We disagree with the conclusions of such a report. We have said previously and continue to find the allegations of genocide to be unfounded,” State Department deputy spokesman, Vedant Patel, told reporters. Patel acknowledged the “vital role” of NGOs and human rights organisations like Amnesty International but characterised their findings on genocide in Gaza as “an opinion”.

Continue Reading

[papasmoke]

Tweet from @prem_thakker on twitter:

State Department confirms that the new Senate funding bill would eliminate aid to UNRWA.

Spokesperson Vedant Patel says the US will "redirect funding to UNRWA to other partners" like the World Food Programme & UNICEF.

(Note: Both those "partners" have called for a ceasefire).

Tweet from @dwdavison on twitter:

The WFP and UNICEF have international briefs and rely on UNRWA to distribute aid in the Palestinian territories. They can try to pretty this up as much as they want but they're zeroing out humanitarian aid for Palestine full stop.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

EDITH M. LEDERER at AP, via NewsNation:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States vetoed a widely backed U.N. resolution on Thursday that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine. The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two abstentions. The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations. Some 140 countries have already recognized the state of Palestine, so its admission would have been approved. This is the second Palestinian attempt to become a full member of the United Nations, and it comes as the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month, has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage. Before the vote, U.S. deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the United States has “been very clear consistently that premature actions in New York — even with the best intentions — will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people.” Palestinian membership “needs to be the outcome of the negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians,” U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood said. It “is something that would flow from the result of those negotiations.” Anything that gets in the way “makes it more difficult to have those negotiations” and doesn’t help move toward a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace, which “we all want,” Wood told reporters. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first delivered the Palestinian Authority’s application for U.N. membership to then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011. That initial bid failed because the Palestinians didn’t get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members. The Palestinians then went to the General Assembly and by more than a two-thirds majority succeeded in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a non-member observer state in November 2012. That opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join U.N. and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court. The Palestinians revived their bid for U.N. membership in early April, backed by the 140 countries that have recognized Palestine as an independent state.

This is such a disgraceful decision by the Biden Administration vetoing making the State of Palestine a full UN member.

[wingedalpacacupcake]

State Department deputy spokesperson Patel says US believes Israel is a ...

Israel a credible source?!

The ppl who continuously lied throughout the whole attack!!!

[evillesbianvillain]

And death to those cunts of John Kirby, Matthew Miller, Karine Jean Pierre and Vedant Patel too

[tieflingkisser]

US silent on Israeli forces killing Palestinian waving white flag

"Have you ever gotten a finding from the Israelis?" Vedant Patel, Deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, declined to comment on footage captured by an ITV News cameraman. The footage shows a Palestinian civilian in Gaza, waving a white flag, being shot dead by Israeli forces. The incident occurred as the individual was attempting to contact family members after evacuating Khan Younis for Rafah in occupied Palestine.

[mariacallous]

If a photograph circulating online this week is accurate, Russia has deployed North Korean artillery systems to its Krasnoyarsk region. On November 14, the image appeared on multiple pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, and open-source intelligence experts soon geolocated it to Krasnoyarsk. Meduza reviews what we know about M1989 Koksan 170-millimeter self-propelled cannons and their potential impact on Russia’s invasion campaign in Ukraine.

The artillery systems in the photograph appear to be M1989 Koksan 170-millimeter self-propelled cannons. Little is known definitively about this weapon’s true capabilities. Even the name is just a provisional designation used by U.S. military intelligence, which first identified the cannons in the town of Koksan near Pyongyang in 1989. The Koksan’s 170-millimeter caliber is unusual; neither NATO nor the Soviet Union used anything like it. It matches the specifications of a German World War II-era cannon that the Soviet Union supplied to Kim Il Sung from captured stockpiles. Beyond that, any reported details about the M1989 Koksan are pure speculation.

Meanwhile, North Korean troops have already been deployed in Russia to aid the war in Ukraine. Just days ago, U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel confirmed that Pyongyang had sent “over 10,000 [North Korean] soldiers,” with most stationed in the Kursk region. The recent appearance of North Korean M1989 Koksans alongside these troops now raises the question of who exactly is meant to operate this equipment.

Whether North Korean forces operate as independent units or are integrated as infantry under Russian command, any autonomous deployment would require dedicated artillery and a full support infrastructure. However, the M1989 Koksan isn’t designed for direct infantry support. Instead, it’s a heavy artillery system intended for long-range strikes deep into enemy territory, targeting supply lines and strategic positions — a role similar to that of Russia’s 2S7 Pion cannons. The Russian military typically organizes such weapons into separate heavy artillery brigades, which makes it more likely that the North Korean artillery units are being supplied for Russia’s own use.

Still, it’s unclear how many Koksans Russia will actually receive. While North Korea’s production numbers are unknown, Pyongyang will likely keep most systems for domestic use, given that Koksans are reportedly meant to target Seoul in the event of hostilities with South Korea.

The Koksan’s effectiveness is also debatable. According to the pro-war Telegram channel Military Informant, for example, the artillery system boasts impressive range but suffers from rapid barrel wear, making it a mixed bag — in other words, effective but not built to last. At the same time, the independent news outlet iStories suggests that Koksans could help replace Russia’s dwindling supply of 2S7 Pions.

Even without reliable data on the Koksan’s specifications, barrel wear is undeniably a critical issue in artillery warfare and is often more problematic than equipment losses. Military analysts have attributed Russia’s shortage of self-propelled artillery systems to barrel wear. The country has struggled to scale up barrel production, as the specialized machinery needed was mostly imported from the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Domestic production efforts have fallen short, and large-caliber barrels, like those used for 2S7 Pions, are in limited supply, though some Soviet-era stockpiles remain.

The M1989 Koksans’ potential impact on Russia’s war effort, however, remains unknown. Heavy artillery is a niche asset in warfare. Russia has used self-propelled artillery systems to support urban combat operations in cities like Mariupol, Rubizhne, Bakhmut, and Avdiivka, but aviation has increasingly taken over this role since 2023, with guided glide bombs offering greater precision and explosive power. Yet, artillery is perennially in demand, and Moscow undoubtedly welcomes any additional supplies to reinforce its invasion forces.

[mysandwichgiver]

Yesterday was the end of the 30 day time period the US gave Israel to stop starving Gaza, or be declared in violation of US law. The majority of this hour-long press briefing is the Department of State Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel weaseling.

[catdotjpeg]

Netanyahu has repeatedly and unambiguously said he rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state. But the Biden administration, which promotes a two-state solution to the conflict, has been trying to evade addressing the prime minister’s comments as it maintains unconditional support for Israel. Asked about Netanyahu’s open rejection of a Palestinian state, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters: “I’m just not going to characterise the prime minister’s remarks.” Days earlier, Biden had suggested Netanyahu does not oppose the two-state solution, but the prime minister left no place for doubt, crediting himself this week for thwarting the establishment of a Palestinian state. In the latest comments from the White House, national security spokesperson John Kirby was also reluctant to talk about Netanyahu’s remarks. “They had a very constructive conversation, and I think I just need to leave it at that,” Kirby said, describing a call on Saturday between Biden and Netanyahu. “The prime minister should speak to his comments, and I’m sure he has and he will.”

-- "US evades addressing Netanyahu’s rejection of two-state solution" by Ali Harb for Al Jazeera, 22 Jan 2024 19:30 GMT

[bloghrexach]

💥 … On April 30, 2024: more on Israel!! — for real? If this has been found, what’s the next step? — I’m waiting …

By: LaillaB, founder of Reclaim the Narrative’, from LinkedIn …

“The US has found five units of the Israeli security forces responsible for gross violations of human rights, over incidents in the West Bank before the plausible genocide in Gaza, the state department has said.

The findings come at a time when Israel is facing potential accountability from the international criminal court and the state department for its conduct of the conflict in Gaza, in which more than 34,000 people have been massacred.

The units found to be involved in abuses in the West Bank are mostly from the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) but include at least one police unit. They have not been sanctioned, however, the state department said.

The fifth, an ultra-orthodox military unit known as Netzah Yehuda, drawn in part from West Bank settlers, was about to be blacklisted earlier this month under the Leahy laws, which ban US funding of any foreign military units involved in atrocities.e

The unit had carried out no apparent remedial action despite having been alerted to the abuses and Israeli government lawyers had ignored communications about the issue for months, according to US officials.

Shortly before the sanctions were due to be announced, however, Israeli government lawyers urgently contacted Washington and insisted that under the current 10-year US memorandum of understanding governing military relations with Israel signed in 2018, Israel should be given more time to respond to the US finding.

“After a careful process, we found five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights. All of these were incidents much before October 7 and none took place in Gaza,” a state department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said.

The Guardian reported in January that the Leahy laws were interpreted by different, more lenient rules in Israel compared with other countries.

Netzah Yehuda is notorious for a series of incidents involving abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank. In 2022, the battalion commander was reprimanded and the platoon commander and company commander were removed from their positions following the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian American man, Omar Assad, who suffered a heart attack after being detained, bound and gagged by members of the unit at a West Bank checkpoint.

The IOF admitted Assad’s death was a consequence of “moral failure and poor decision-making” by the soldiers who had detained him.

**Netzah Yehuda is now active in Gaza.**de

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has described the unit’s potential sanctioning by the US as the “height of absurdity and a moral low” and vowed to resist any such decision.

Meanwhile, Reuters has reported that several senior US officials in the state department have advised the secretary of state that Israeli assurances that it has used US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, are not “credible or reliable”.

It didn’t start in Oct 7th!! … 💥

#reclaimthenarrative — 🕊🍉 — #FreePalestine … @hrexach …