WASHINGTON, United States — The US State Department has approved the emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition, it said Saturday.
The department said it had notified Congress on Friday of a sale of 13,981 high-explosive 120mm tank cartridges and related equipment worth $106.5 million.
That sale, while relatively small, comes amid heated political debate over the Gaza war, with Republicans slowing a far larger Biden administration request for new military spending for Israel and Ukraine, and Democrats divided over the use of US weaponry against Palestinian civilians.
The State Department said the secretary of state had determined that “an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to the Government of Israel” of the weaponry, thereby waiving the normal requirement of Congressional review.
The statement said the sale, from US Army inventory, would be used by Israel “as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense” and would “not alter the basic military balance in the region.”
On Wednesday, Republican senators blocked a White House request for $106 billion in emergency aid primarily for Ukraine and Israel as conservatives balked at the exclusion of immigration reforms they had demande d.
The package would include roughly $60 billion to help Ukraine in its war with Russia and $10 billion for Israel in its conflict with Hamas, as well as aid for Taiwan.
With the death toll in Gaza steadily mounting, meantime, some Democrats have strongly urged Israel to carry out a more targeted offensive against Hamas targets and limit civilian casualties.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Azerbaijan said Sat urday it secured a consensus to host COP29 next year, which would be the second straight UN climate summit in a major producer of fossil fuels.
“I am delighted to announce that there is an overall consensus on the candidacy of Azerbaijan to host COP29,” Mukhtar Babayev, minister of ecology and natural resources, said at COP 28 in Dubai.
“We are committed to working inclusively and collaboratively with everyone to ensure the success of COP29,” he said.
The Dubai summit, which is scheduled to close Tuesday, must formally approve the next host country.
But Babayev said Azerbaijan had won the support of the group of Eastern European nations, whose turn to lead the climate summit is next year, as well as the United Arab Emirates, this year’s host.
Debate at the Dubai summit has focused on whether to seek an end to fossil fuel extraction, putting scrutiny on the host country, a member of the OPEC oil cartel whose leadership has led resistance to such calls.
COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber is also the head of the UAE’s national oil company but has struck a moderate tone, saying t hat a phase-down of fossil fuels responsible for climate change is inevitable.
Azerbaijan cleared a major hurdle this week when its historic rival Armenia said it would withdraw its own bid to lead COP29 and back its neighbour as the two seek to repair relations.
Azerbaijan in September seized back Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave controlled by ethnic Armenians and allied with Yerevan for three decades, in a lightning war.
Babayev said that Azerbaijan would pursue clean technologies in reconstruction of Nagorno-Karabakh, whose ethnic Armenian population has fled en masse.
“We are determined to transform these territories into a carbon-neutral zone by 2050,” Babayev said.
He said Azerbaijan supported the UN-backed ambition of checking warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Bulgaria had also sought to hold COP29 but dropped its bid after strong opposition from Russia, which did not want the summit to take place in a member of the European Union.