Al Mayadeen –April 30, 2025
Trump pressures Egypt for free Suez access for US war on Yemen: WSJ
Egypt's President pushed back against Trump's comments, saying a ceasefire in Gaza would be a more effective path to ending the Red Sea blockade.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday revealed that Donald Trump is pressuring Egypt to allow US ships free access to the Suez Canal, as compensation for America's ongoing military campaign against Yemen.
The demand was made amid a sustained US bombing campaign targeting Yemen, which has launched attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes connected to Israeli trade. Yemeni forces have made it clear that their actions are a form of blockade against the occupation, framed as direct solidarity with the people of Gaza in the face of an ongoing genocide.
"American Ships, both Military and Commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Those Canals would not exist without the United States of America."
Trump also raised the issue in a recent phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, according to sources familiar with the conversation. He reportedly urged Egypt to either support the US campaign militarily, provide intelligence, or financially compensate Washington for what he framed as the benefits of restored canal traffic, despite the fact that Egypt has not requested this military intervention.
El-Sisi pushed back, saying a ceasefire in Gaza would be a more effective path to ending the Red Sea blockade. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Egyptian president stated that Yemen's campaign began in direct response to the war on Gaza, not out of unrelated hostility.
"President Trump's operation to restore freedom of navigation through the Red Sea directly benefits American workers and consumers, but it also benefits partner nations globally, including Egypt," said National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt. "The burden for a broadly beneficial military operation should be shared broadly, and free transit for US ships through the Suez Canal is one way to share that burden."
But many observers view the framing of this campaign as "freedom of navigation" as a deliberate distortion. In reality, Washington is using military force to crush a political and economic act of resistance by Yemen, which has explicitly conditioned the reopening of the Red Sea on an end to "Israel's" assault on Gaza.
Profit Diplomacy
Trump officials were reportedly discussing how to extract financial returns for the campaign. "As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return," said a participant identified as SM, likely Trump adviser Stephen Miller. "If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return."
Egypt's media pushed back against Trump's demands. Prominent journalist Lamees El Hadidi responded that "the Suez Canal was officially inaugurated in 1869 when you had just ended your civil war, you still owned slaves and you barely had an operational railway." Ahmed Moussa called the demand "a dangerous transgression," warning of the consequences for Egypt-US relations.
The Suez Canal has seen revenues plunge due to the blockade, which has forced shipping to reroute via longer and more expensive journeys. According to Egypt's canal authority, revenue dropped from $10.3 billion in 2023 to just $4 billion in 2024.
Yet Yemen's position has remained clear: no Israeli-linked shipping will pass until the assault on Gaza ends. And as Washington deepens its military entanglement, it now seeks to bill its allies for a war they never asked for, one carried out not in the name of peace, but in defense of Israeli supply lines.
Sanaa announces downing F/A-18, hitting vital Israeli military sites
The Yemeni Armed Forces also downed an F-18 fighter jet during an operation that forced the USS Truman to retreat toward the northern Red Sea.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced a significant escalation in Yemen's ongoing defense campaign, confirming that the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a precision drone operation targeting the US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its escort warships in the Arabian Sea.
"We carried out a military operation targeting the US aircraft carrier Vinson and several of its accompanying warships in the Arabian Sea," the spokesman declared.
"The operation against the Vinson and its escort vessels was executed using multiple drones."
The bold move came just one day after what Saree described as a victorious confrontation with another US carrier group.
"The targeting of the Vinson came 24 hours after the blessed operation that forced the US aircraft carrier Truman to retreat," he stated. "The blessed operation forced Truman to withdraw to the far northern Red Sea toward the Suez Canal."
"Among the results of the blessed operation against Truman was the downing of an F-18 fighter jet and the foiling of an aerial attack the enemy had begun executing against our country."
"Another outcome of the blessed operation was the pursuit of the Truman with missiles and drones all the way to the far north of the Red Sea."
The Resistance did not limit its response to American aggression. Saree also confirmed a dual drone operation targeting strategic positions inside occupied Palestine.
"We carried out a dual military operation targeting vital and military sites of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Yafa area using three Yafa-type drones," he said. "We also carried out a military operation against a vital target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Ashkelon area using a 'Yafa'-type drone."
The spokesperson reaffirmed Yemen's steadfast position in the face of imperial aggression.
"We affirm to our people and the free people of our nation that, with God's help, we are capable of standing firm and confronting the enemy despite its capabilities and resources."
"By God's grace, we have succeeded in foiling the aggression, and we will continue, with trust in God, to resist it. We will continue, confident in God, to support the oppressed Palestinian people until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted."
The US had claimed it lost an F/A-18 Super Hornet days ago to a towing incident aboard the USS Harry Truman.
US loses F/A-18 from USS Truman in Red Sea in suspicious incident
An F/A-18 Super Hornet Red Sea incident occurred when the US Navy lost both a fighter jet and a tow tractor from the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier, currently stationed in the region for relentlessly bombing Yemen, resulting in a minor injury to one sailor, the US Navy claimed on Monday.
According to a press release, "USS Harry S. Truman lost an F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 136 and a tow tractor as the aircraft carrier operated in the Red Sea, April 28. All personnel are accounted for, with one sailor sustaining a minor injury."
The fighter jet reportedly fell overboard after the move crew lost control while towing the aircraft within the hangar of the carrier.
The US Navy added that a formal investigation has been launched to determine the exact circumstances leading to the incident.
Given the current escalation and previous attacks on the USS Harry Truman, the incident raises questions about the official narrative. Some analysts suggest the F/A-18 Super Hornet may have been lost due to combat-related factors, possibly resulting from a Yemeni shootdown, rather than a simple towing accident.
This incident follows another recent event in February, when the Truman Strike Group was involved in a collision with a merchant vessel near Egypt, causing damage to the carrier above the waterline.
Ongoing Resistance
These retaliatory operations come as Yemen endures a brutal wave of US-led bombardments. According to the Ministry of Justice in Sanaa, more than 1,300 civilians have been killed or wounded in recent weeks, including numerous women and children. The United States stands accused of committing war crimes, with its latest strike on a migrant detention center in Saada using a GBU-39 bunker-buster bomb—an internationally banned weapon with devastating humanitarian impact.
Sanaa has also placed the United Kingdom on notice for its renewed military involvement. In a statement released Tuesday, the Yemeni government warned of serious repercussions for Britain's participation in what it called the "trio of evil"—the US, UK, and "Israel"—vowing to confront their aggression "with all its strength."
Meanwhile, the US has moved to limit public disclosure of its operations in Yemen, citing "operational security." Since mid-March 2025, Washington has carried out over 800 strikes across the country, many targeting civilian infrastructure. Central Command admitted the operations have had "lethal effects" but offered no transparency regarding civilian tolls.
Despite the onslaught, Yemen's resistance remains unshaken. As Saree made clear, the struggle continues until justice is secured for Gaza and the siege is broken.
British jets bomb Yemen in joint aggression with US, Ansarullah leaders vow response
Britain says its fighter jets have carried out airstrikes on Yemen in a joint military operation with the United States, prompting a stern warning from Ansarullah leaders who said the aggression will not go unanswered.
The Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Wednesday that Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s took part in the raid, dropping Paveway IV guided bombs in an area 15 miles south of the capital, Sana’a.
It claimed the fighter jets targeted a cluster of buildings that were used by Yemen's Ansarullah movement to manufacture drones that had targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The British defense secretary, John Healey, said the airstrike came in response to “a persistent threat from the Houthis to freedom of navigation.”
"We conducted these strikes, supported by the US, to degrade Houthi capabilities and prevent further attacks against UK and international shipping."
It was the first public acknowledgment by the UK army of a joint airstrike with US forces against Yemen since the Trump administration escalated the attacks on the North African country in March.
Yemen warns of consequences
Ansarullah leaders warned that Britain should "anticipate the consequences of its aggression," according to a statement published by Yemen's al-Masirah television network.
“The British enemy must carefully consider the consequences of its involvement and be prepared to face the repercussions.”
Yemen will “respond to this unlawful and unjustified aggression," which came as “part of ongoing Anglo-American efforts to support the Israeli enemy by attempting to block Yemen’s support for Palestine, enabling the Israeli enemy to continue its genocide in Gaza.”
The Yemeni armed forces have been attacking Israeli and US targets in the Red Sea in support of Palestinians in Gaza since Tel Aviv launched its devastating war on the besieged Palestinian territory in October 2023.
Britain had joined with the US to carry out airstrikes on Yemen between January and May 2024, but has not been directly involved in a new and more intense wave of US strikes under Trump's administration.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/04/30/747143/UK-US-joint-airstrikes-Yemen-Houthi-
India and Pakistan could Flare-up new regional War
By Dr. Mahboob A.Khawaja, PhD.
India alleges Pakistan’s involvement in a recent attack on 26 tourists in Jammu and Kashmir Valley Pahalgam – disputed territory and parts occupied by India and Pakistan. Unthinkable flare -up could lead to war between the two nuclear rivals unfit to conduct their domestic politics in peace and order. India and Pakistan continue to manifest the history of “divide and rule’perpetuated by British colonialism. Time and opportunities were stolen from the new and educated generations of young people to breathe sigh of freedomand rethink for a new order of peace, harmony and emancipation of friendly relations between the religious, nationalistic and ethnic divides propelled by British imperialism. The State of Jammu and Kashmir was never part of the British Raj of India, and its people have geography and history connectedto neighboring people of Pakistan, not India. Were India and Pakistan unprepared for national freedom and incapacitated by colonization to imagine a new beginning for the good of deprived masses? Politics of opportunism and slanted vision of “Mahabahart” - Greater India extend sadistic face of realityto PM Modi’s superior Hidutvata ideology. Intellectuals like Ashoka Mody (India Is Broken, 2023 ), points out how national freedom was lost and economic resources mismanaged to usher typical Hinduism comforting political manipulation PM Modi. Aakar Patel’s (Price of the Modi Years, 2022),evokes new issues of political reckoning and exploitation andexposesPM Nirendra Modi’s record on diplomacy, war, security and assault on press freedom and civil society organizations; monetary corruptionto tilt political funding in his party’s favor; and his marginalization of Indian Muslims. PM Nirendra Modi, a decade earlier when a chief minister of state conspired to burn alive about 2000 Muslims in Gujrat and was banned from travelling to Europe and America due to human rights violation
s.
Nations once colonized by Europeans remain colonized in thoughts and practices. Political despotism could be changed into political reasoning and wisdom to reconstruct a sustainable future in the sub-continent. But Indian or Pakistani leaders hardly possess the proactive capacity to envisage a navigational change to serve the masses. Zeyad Masroor Khan (City on Fire– A Boyhood in Aligarh (2023), tells of socio-economic and political threats that Hindu nationalism poses to India and shares his own experience of existential fear that minority citizens experience in India today, the people of Kashmir are no exception under constant fear and hatred of Hiduvata domination, seeking freedom from Indian occupation since 1948. Suchitra Vijayan (Midnightﾒs Borders:Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India, 2021), exposes an insane cruelty of Hinduism that runs India more bluntly than at their margins. Suchitra Vijayan’s shows orphaned citizens mostly beleaguered Muslim citizens and how a majoritarian nation turns citizens living on its margins into aliens for reasons of petty politics and dehumanization of its people. An impartial observer could well imagine why about 12 millions people of Kashmir would prefer to be a free nation rather than being forcibly occupied by a million or so posted Indian armed forces throughout the Kashmir valley. If there were public institutions of accountability and intelligent political leadership as was Imran Khan, an international conference should be organized to hear the grievances of the people of Kashmir for freedom. Pakistan needs a political change, wherever the military runs a country, it is an invitation to deceit, defeat and dreadful consequences.
Pakistan - How the Nation Lost Time and Opportunities for Political Change?
History offers lessons and leaders of India and Pakistan need to see the mirror.PM Modi is a self-centered politician dragging India into his own generated disasters. Greed of self and political power made ZA Bhutto and General Yahya Khan a traitor and ended up losing half of the country (East Pakistan) to India in 1971, and India occupied Kashmir by force and the nation continued to lose more in socioeconomic and political domains because of the dishonesty and failed leadership of Bhuttos, Sharif brothers, Musharaf and few Generals. These thugs and indicted criminals stole billions and billions of national wealth to buy palaces in the UK, France, Dubai and elsewhere in Europe. Please see more by this author,“British Colonialism and How India and Pakistan Lost National Freedom.”https://www.globalresearch.ca/british-colonialism-how-india-pakistan-lost-freedom/5765810andhttps://ms-my.facebook.com/Uncommon-Thought-Journal-161860380533165/photos/4916004181785404/and“Pakistan, Planned Political Chaos: Imran Khan a Victim of Hope for the Future”, Global Research: 11/06/2022.
Pakistan embroiled in its own internal insecurity clashes with Afghan intruders and continuous skirmishes across Baluchistan province lacks strength and leadership to engage in another war with ten times bigger Indian. The massive corrupt networks of politics and military involvement have turned Pakistan into a colonial satellite of the US. After six military coups and enlarged Bhuttos-Sharif's family thrones have crippled the nation for a viable and legitimate system of political governance. Imran Khan, the people’s leader and political winner of 2024 national elections (Tehreek-E-Insaf Party), charged with 150 bogus legal cases, remains in jail indefinitely. Constancy to reason, law and justice are missing in Pakistan.The nation and its moral, intellectual and political strength solely rests in developing public institutions, systems of governance and transferring power to educated and intelligent people of the young generation to rebuild Pakistan.Have the few phoney Pakistani Generals learnt any lessons from the living history? Pleas see: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/17/senior-pakistan-official-admits-election-rigging-as-protests-grip-country“Pakistan: What Next after the Rigged National Elections?” https://countercurrents.org/2024/02/pakistan-what-next-after-the-rigged-national-elections/
India and Pakistan would waste time and opportunities if the Kashmir conflict continues without an agreed upon plebiscite (The UN-SC Resolution, 1949), engage in military confrontation; PM Modi could stir a fake “terrorist” incursion to blame Kashmiris or Pakistan. Pakistan’s strength lies in its unity of political contrasts causing domestic strife and socio-economic disintegration, a navigational change to confront India with moral and political stability as a model of survival and people of Kashmir should have their natural rights to determine their freedom, their future and their humanitarian progress for change and a better future free of foreign occupation, killings and violence being experienced in the name of fake democracy. Current affairs call upon new and educated generations to take initiatives for rebuilding friendly relationships in the sub-continent – what was lost under British colonialism and what is being wasted by a few antagonists and mindless politicians make no rational sense.Progressive nations are built by educated thinkers, people of new ideas and ideals belonging to new generations of informed and honest people. Deprivation of the new generation is a systematic process to keep the old bags and corrupt families in power with the alignment of few egoistic Generals.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and has spent several academic years across the Russian-Ukrainian and Central Asian regions knowing the people, diverse cultures of thinking and political governance and a keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including: Global Humanity and Remaking of Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution for the 21st Century and Beyond, Barnes and Noble Press, USA, 2025 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/global-humanity-and-remaking-of-peace-security-and-conflict-resolution-for-the-21st-century-and-beyond-mahboob-a-khawaja/1147150197?ean=9798317619374
The Zionist regime’s impunity has collapsed the post-WWII order
By Robert Inlakesh
When anyone stands up to help the people of Gaza, they are also subjected to a smaller dose of the same punishment.
The impunity with which the Israeli regime commits its war crimes throughout West Asia has proven every legal mechanism and international body faulty. In doing so, it has rewound the clock to the standards of the Second World War, for which the United Nations (UN), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and international law were created to overcome.
On March 22, 2004, the Israeli military used an Apache helicopter to assassinate Hamas leader, Ahmed Yassin. In order to do so, a hellfire missile was used, killing Yassin, along with his bodyguards and 9 civilians in Gaza. At the time, US President George W. Bush condemned that assassination due to the high civilian death toll.
Fast forward to September 27, 2024, when “Israel” used a range of fighter jets to assassinate Hezbollah Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, dropping at least 85 tonnes of explosives on a densely populated civilian neighbourhood in Beirut's Southern Suburb in Lebanon, the Israeli military openly announced it had calculated that 300 estimated civilians were going to die as “collateral damage”. At the time, US President Joe Biden praised the assassination.
Only 20 years ago, it was deemed wrong to kill 9 civilians in order to assassinate a leader of a military movement. Now, we have entered an era where 300 civilian deaths are considered acceptable “collateral damage”. Why is this so important? Because this is now the standard set for the entire world.
A threshold has been surpassed, red lines have been crossed, and any country around the world that locates a high-value target will open fire regardless of how many innocent civilians are going to die as a result of it. It is a similar idea to the deployment of nuclear weapons; once one power does it, you open Pandora's box.
The 'targeted assassination' of the international community
Following World War 2, nations across the world came together under a joint project to steer humanity clear of the horrors that befell it during that awful conflict. From the extermination of European Jews to the nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was a desperate need to ensure that none of these horrors could be repeated again.
Although the United Nations (UN), international courts, and “human rights” did not work to prevent a large range of atrocities around the world, the ideals pushed forth through these universalistic endeavours remained embedded in the collective global consciousness as if they were sacred. This has now died, along with some 20,000 children, in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli genocide in Gaza is the world's first live-streamed genocide, a holocaust in which the global public watches on as a steady stream of shredded and beheaded children fills their social media feeds on a daily basis. This genocide, where everthing from rape and starvation to the execution of medical teams and beheading of babies, has been ongoing for 18 months without any justice.
When anyone stands up to help the people of Gaza, they are also subjected to a smaller dose of the same punishment. In Lebanon, Hezbollah tried to play a supporting role to the Palestinians, and for it, the Zionist regime murdered 3,000 people in their country, after detonating thousands of explosive pagers across the country in an act described by former CIA director Leon Panetta as an act of terrorism.
The other major actor to have fought for the Palestinian people, Ansar Allah in Yemen, has been subjected to a war of aggression launched by the United States military, a war that is being fought so that the Israeli regime can continue its genocide in Gaza unchallenged.
Iran, which has been financially, diplomatically, and militarily supporting the Palestinian Resistance, has also come under attack. The Israeli regime launched airstrikes against the Iranian embassy in Syria, an unprecedented move that triggered retaliatory strikes. Yet, the Zionist entity was not finished there and decided to carry out an assassination in the heart of Tehran.
Upon the fall of the Syrian government, the Israelis launched an illegal invasion of the country, occupied more of its territory, and conducted their largest ever air campaign. On a daily basis, the Israelis attack the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. They violate the sanctity of the Muslim and Christian Holy Sites in occupied al-Quds, while ethnically cleansing the indigenous population of the city.
For eight weeks straight, they have been denying Gaza all food and medical aid, while bragging about the suffering they are causing. And for 18 months, their whole society, from the Prime Minister down to the settlers in the occupied streets of Yafa, has openly uttered genocidal statements against Palestinians.
All of this is happening as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled the Zionist entity is committing a plausible genocide and ruled against its occupation, and as the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his prime accomplice Yoav Gallant. All of the UN condemnations, human rights reports, and international court rulings have come to no avail as the US shelters its Zionist allies from any accountability.
Now, across the West, if you dare organize a university protest or become too vocal about Israeli war crimes, you may be imprisoned, beaten, or deported. Your freedom of speech is being taken away from you if you stand up against this holocaust and the genocidal settler entity committing it.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: If the Israelis get away with committing just about every crime imaginable, what is stopping everyone else from doing the same? You either have the law or you don’t. We no longer have a UN, international law, or human rights; those ideas are soaked in the blood of Palestinian children and buried in the sands of Gaza.
