WASHINGTON: Vice President JD Vance has struck a nerve with key allies in the U.K and France after arguing that a US-Ukraine critical minerals deal is a more practical deterrent against Russian President Vladimir Putin than a peacekeeping force for post-war Ukraine that includes “some random country.”
Vance, in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity aired Monday evening, said the economic pact with Kyiv sought by President Donald Trump “is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
The Trump administration has been making the case that tightening the US-Ukraine economic ties through an agreement that gives the US access to valuable mineral deposits in Ukraine will give Russia pause about taking malign action against Ukraine in the future.
The Republican vice president did not mention any particular country in his skeptical comments about a potential peacekeeping mission. But the “random country” comment was seen by some lawmakers and government officials in the UK and France as a slight that discounted both countries’ partnership with the US military in conflict zones over the last 25 years.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are leading the call for a post-conflict peacekeeping force in Ukraine to prevent Russia from invading again if Moscow and Kyiv reach a truce to put a stop to Russia’s invasion, launched in February 2022.
French troops deployed to Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. And British troops have served alongside American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and in a US-led coalition against the Daesh group.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told broadcaster GB News that “JD Vance is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.”
“For 20 years in Afghanistan, pro rata our size against America’s, we spent the same amount of money, we put the same number of men and women in and we suffered the same losses,” Farage added. “We stood by America all through those 20 years putting in exactly the same contribution. And, all right, they may be six times bigger, but we did our bit.”
Vance on Tuesday took to social media to try to head off the criticism by noting that he didn’t name any countries in the TV interview. He also applauded Britain and France for fighting “bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond.”
Later, during an appearance on Capitol Hill, Vance underscored to reporters that “the British and the French have offered to step up in a big way.”
French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, in France’s parliament, noted the move by Vance. “Thankfully, the American vice president corrected his comments,” Lecornu said.
But in London, Liberal Democrat defense spokeswoman Helen Maguire, a former Royal Military Police officer who served in Iraq, called for the UK ambassador in Washington to ask Vance to apologize.
“JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. “I saw firsthand how American and British soldiers fought bravely together shoulder to shoulder. Six of my own regiment, the Royal Military Police, didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality.”
Vance’s comments came in an interview recorded hours before a White House official confirmed on Monday evening that Trump had directed a pause of US assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia.
Trump remains frustrated with Zelensky. He again criticized the Ukrainian leader on Monday after Zelensky said that reaching an agreement with Russia to end the conflict likely “is still very, very far away.”
Trump administration and Ukrainian officials, during Zelensky’s White House visit last week, had been expected to sign off on a deal that would have given the US access to Ukraine’s critical minerals in part to pay back the US for aid it has sent Kyiv since the start of the war.
But that plan was scrapped as the visit was ended abruptly after Trump and Vance had a heated exchange with Zelensky during Oval Office talks at the start of the visit.
Ukraine is believed to have deposits of strategically important minerals — including titanium. lithium and manganese — that could be useful for American aerospace, electric vehicle and medical manufacturing.
“The president knows that, look, if you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said in the Fox interview.
Trump hasn’t given up all hope of reaching an agreement. And the White House has billed such a pact as a way to tighten US-Ukrainian relations in the long term.
Trump on Monday called the proposal “a great deal” for the US and Ukraine and signaled that he would speak to it during his Tuesday address before a joint session of Congress.
Starmer says that “a mineral deal is not enough on its own” to ensure Ukraine’s security. The British prime minister has no illusions about US troops taking part in a potential peacekeeping mission.
Starmer, who met with Trump last week, and others are trying to make the case to Trump that the plan can only work with a US backstop for European forces on the ground — through US aerial intelligence, surveillance and support, as well as rapid-response cover in case of breaches of a truce.
Vance irks allies in UK, France with skeptical comments about Ukraine peacekeeping mission proposal
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Vance irks allies in UK, France with skeptical comments about Ukraine peacekeeping mission proposal
- The Republican vice president did not mention any particular country in his skeptical comments about a potential peacekeeping mission
- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are leading the call for a post-conflict peacekeeping force in Ukraine to prevent Russia from invading again
Single UK Special Forces officer rejected 1,585 Afghan resettlement applications
- UKSF member blocked numerous former Triples soldiers and their families from being resettled despite threats from Taliban
- Some may have been eyewitnesses to alleged war crimes in Afghanistan; more than 600 cases since overturned
LONDON: A court has been told a UK Special Forces officer personally rejected 1,585 applications from Afghans for resettlement in Britain.
The applications were all from people with credible links to UKSF personnel, the Ministry of Defense told the court, amid an ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes by the Special Air Service in Afghanistan.
The BBC revealed last week that the individual in question may have rejected applications from people with eye-witness testimony relating to the allegations.
Numerous former Afghan special forces soldiers, known as Triples due to their regiment numbers, served alongside UK forces until the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021.
Thousands of them and their relatives have subsequently struggled to obtain permission to travel to the UK.
The public inquiry into the conduct of UKSF soldiers in Afghanistan, meanwhile, lacks the power to compel former Triples soldiers to testify unless they are in the UK.
In October 2022 Natalie Moore, the head of the Ministry of Defense’s Afghan resettlement team, voiced concern that UKSF involved in applications for resettlement were giving the “appearance of an unpublished mass rejection policy.”
In January last year, former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer told senior government officials there was a “significant conflict of interest that should be obvious to all” in the processing of resettlement applications by UKSF personnel.
“Decision-making power,” Mercer claimed, over “potential witnesses to the inquiry,” was “deeply inappropriate.”
Mercer also noted that a number of former Triples soldiers had been killed by the Taliban after being left to wait in Afghanistan, including one whose application was rejected having “previously confronted UKSF leadership about EJKs (extrajudicial killings) in Afghanistan.”
The MoD initially denied UKSF personnel had a veto over the applications of former Triples soldiers, who having been armed, trained and funded by the UK, were deemed at risk of reprisals if left in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of coalition forces.
However, more than 2,000 applications deemed credible by caseworkers have been rejected by the UKSF. The MoD subsequently announced a review of the applications over fears the process was not “robust.”
An additional 2,500 rejected applications were placed under review this week by the government. So far, more than 600 of the 1,585 rejections attributed to the single UKSF officer have been overturned.
The revelations about the UKSF member who rejected the 1,585 applications were made at a judicial review hearing brought by former Triples soldiers over the conflict of interest in resettlement decision-making, which also heard the MoD had launched two investigations into UKSF practices.
One investigation, known as Operation X, said that it “did not obtain any evidence of hidden motives on the part of the UKSF liaison officer.”
It added it found “no evidence of automatic/instant/mass rejections,” but failed to provide evidence in its conclusion, instead suggesting the decisions were made as a result of “slack and unprofessional verification processes” by the UKSF officer and “lax procedures followed by the officer in not following up on all lines of enquiry before issuing rejections.”
Tom de la Mare KC, representing the Afghan Triple soldier who brought the case, accused the MoD of failing to disclose evidence of blanket application rejections, and of “providing misleading responses to requests for information,” the BBC said.
Cathryn McGahey KC, acting for the MoD, said “there might have been a better way of doing (the applications process), but that doesn’t make it unlawful.”
Daniel Carey, partner at law firm DPG, acting for the former Triples soldier, told the BBC: “My client spent years asking the MoD to rectify the blanket refusals of Triples personnel and has seen many killed and harmed by the Taliban in that time.
“He is pleased that the MoD have agreed to inform everyone of the decisions in their cases and to tell the persons affected whether their cases are under review or not, but it should not have required litigation to achieve basic fairness.”
Harvard sues Trump over block on foreign students
- “It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights,” said the lawsuit
NEW YORK: Harvard sued the Trump administration on Friday over its move to block the prestigious university from enrolling and hosting foreign students in a broadening dispute, a court filing showed.
“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” said the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court.
Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources
- The 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations
- A Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges
ATHENS: A Greek naval court has charged 17 coast guard officers over one of the Mediterranean’s worst shipwrecks two years ago, in which hundreds of people are believed to have drowned, three sources said on Friday.
The shipwreck of an overloaded migrant boat in international waters off the southwestern Greek town of Pylos on June 14, 2023, sent shockwaves across Europe and beyond. The naval court is still investigating the circumstances around the incident.
A coast guard vessel had been monitoring the boat, named Adriana, for 15 hours before it capsized and sank. It had left Libya for Italy with about 750 people on board. Only 104 of them are known to have survived.
Greek coast guard authorities have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the handling of the case.
Three legal sources said the 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations ranging from obstructing transport to causing or helping cause a shipwreck.
Contacted by Reuters, a Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges and had asked to be briefed by the naval court.
Greece’s judicial system has several preparatory stages and the compilation of charges does not necessarily mean that an individual will face trial.
Human rights activists and other protesters plan rallies across Greece on June 21 to mark the second anniversary of the Pylos shipwreck.
In February, the Greek Ombudsman recommended disciplinary action against eight coast guard officers, the first national probe into the incident to conclude.
Greece says that the coast guard operates with respect to human rights and that it has rescued more than 250,000 people since 2015, when the country was at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis.
Russia, Ukraine each free first 390 prisoners in start of war's biggest swap
- Kyiv and Moscow are due to swap 1,000 people each in a deal agreed at talks in Istanbul
- Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the swap had been “completed,” but an official said the exchange was ongoing
CHERNIHIV REGION, Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners on Friday and said they would free more in the coming days, in what is expected to be the biggest prisoner swap of the war so far.
The agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each was the only concrete step toward peace to emerge last week from the first direct talks between the warring sides in more than three years, when they failed to agree a ceasefire.
Both sides said they had each released 270 soldiers and 120 civilians so far, with more due to be released on Saturday and Sunday.
The freed Russians are currently in Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine, receiving psychological and medical assistance before being moved to Russia for further care, the Russian Defense Ministry said. They include civilians captured inside Russia’s Kursk region during a Ukrainian incursion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted photographs of released captives, all with shaven heads, celebrating their release and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.
Ukrainian media outlet Espreso TV published a video of the wife of a prisoner crying tears of joy, wrapped in a flag on Kyiv’s Independence Square. She said she had been waiting for her husband’s release since 2022, and had just received the call from Ukrainian authorities confirming the good news.
“We waited, hoped and fought,” said the woman, whose name was given as Victoria.
Earlier, Ukrainian authorities told reporters to assemble at a location in the northern Chernihiv region in anticipation that some freed prisoners could be brought there.
Referring to the prisoner swap earlier on Friday, US President Donald Trump, who had pressed the sides to meet last week, wrote on Truth Social: “Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???“
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been wounded or killed in Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two, although neither side publishes accurate casualty figures. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have also died as Russian forces have besieged and bombarded Ukrainian cities.
CEASEFIRE?
Ukraine says it is ready for a 30-day ceasefire immediately.
Russia, which launched the war by invading its neighbor in 2022 and now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine, says it will not pause its assaults until conditions are met first. A member of the Ukrainian delegation called those conditions “non-starters.”
Trump, who has shifted US policy from supporting Ukraine toward accepting some of Russia’s account of the war, had said he could tighten sanctions on Moscow if it blocked peace. But after speaking to Putin on Monday he decided to take no action for now.
Moscow says it is ready for talks while the fighting goes on, and wants to discuss what it calls the war’s “root causes,” including its demands Ukraine cede more territory, and be disarmed and barred from military alliances with the West. Kyiv says that is tantamount to surrender and would leave it defenseless in the face of future Russian attacks.
Russia claimed on Friday to have captured a settlement called Rakivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
The governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said Russia had struck port infrastructure there with two missiles on Friday afternoon, killing one person and wounding eight.
Indonesian pilgrims embark on Hajj journey under Makkah Route expansion
- Saudi Arabia’s Makkah Route initiative is facilitating travel for pilgrims in Jakarta, Surabaya and Solo
- Over 125,000 Indonesian Hajj pilgrims have already arrived in the Kingdom as of Tuesday
JAKARTA: More than 120,000 Indonesian pilgrims are benefiting from the Makkah Route initiative this year, as they embark on Hajj after the flagship Saudi program was expanded to three cities across the country.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation, sends the largest Hajj contingent of pilgrims every year to perform the spiritual journey that is one of the five pillars of Islam.
In 2025, Saudi Arabia granted Indonesia a quota of 221,000 pilgrims. With the Hajj expected to take place on June 4 and end on June 9, special pilgrimage flights from Indonesia started on May 2.
Over half of the pilgrims are departing under the pre-travel program, which was launched by the Kingdom in 2019 to help pilgrims meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in the Kingdom.
“In Indonesia, Makkah Route is implemented in three airports, Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta, and then in the cities of Solo and Surabaya,” Mohammed Zain, director of domestic Hajj services at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Arab News.
The initiative was only expanded in 2024 to reach more Indonesian pilgrims in different parts of the country.
This year, a total of 122,156 Indonesian pilgrims, who are departing from the three selected cities, are benefiting from the program.
“This is very helpful in sorting all of the pilgrims’ document requirements, like visa and passport, so that when the pilgrims reach Saudi Arabia, they simply head to their buses and go on their spiritual journey safely and comfortably,” Zain said.
“We hope that for Hajj next year, the Makkah Route initiative will be further expanded in Indonesia, so that we can offer more high-quality Hajj service.”
In Jakarta, the program is implemented at the new Hajj and Umrah terminal in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which was inaugurated by President Prabowo Subianto earlier this month.
Over 125,000 pilgrims have arrived in the Kingdom as of Tuesday.
Indonesia is among seven Muslim-majority countries — including Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Morocco, Turkiye and Cote d’Ivoire — where Saudi Arabia is operating its Makkah Route initiative.
