04-14 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Trump draws criticism from church leaders and conservatives over AI-Jesus image and pope remarks.
US President Donald Trump is facing growing backlash after posting an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure and launching a series of social media attacks on Pope Leo XIV, drawing criticism from across the Christian political spectrum.
The image, shared on Trump’s Truth Social platform on Sunday and deleted on Monday, showed him in a white robe placing a hand on a man’s head in a scene resembling a healing. It was posted after a separate message in which Trump criticised the pope, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”.
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Later, Trump told reporters that, though he had posted the image, he thought it depicted him “as a doctor”.
“And had to do with the Red Cross as a Red Cross worker, which we support. And only the fake news could come up with that one,” he said.
He also said he does not “want a Pope who criticises the President of the United States”.
“I don’t want to get into a debate with him,” Pope Leo said on Monday en route to Algiers, where the first US-born pontiff is beginning an 11-day visit to four African countries.
“I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions to problems,” Pope Leo said.
“Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”
‘Pope Leo is not his rival’
Tensions between the White House and the Vatican have been building for months, particularly over the US administration’s hardline immigration policies, its military actions, and the US-Israel war on Iran.
Senior Catholic leaders in the US also pushed back against Trump’s remarks on the pope.
“I am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father. Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician,” Archbishop Paul S Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement.
“He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” Coakley added.
In Las Vegas, Archbishop George Leo Thomas said he was “grateful to God for sending us Pope Leo XIV, who is willing to speak truth to power just when we need him the most”.
“Pope Leo is calling for dialogue over diatribe, prayer over politics, and diplomacy above destruction,” Thomas added.
Internationally, Trump’s remarks have also drawn condemnation. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the US president’s attack on Pope Leo was “unacceptable”.
“I find President Trump’s words towards the Holy Father unacceptable. The pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war,” she said in a statement.
Criticism from conservatives
The backlash was not limited to church leaders, with several conservative figures also criticising Trump’s posts, particularly the AI-generated image.
Brilyn Hollyhand, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council, wrote on X:
“This is gross blasphemy. Faith is not a prop. You don’t need to portray yourself as a saviour when your record should speak for itself.”
Riley Gaines, a FOX News host, a former collegiate swimmer and outspoken critic of transgender athletes in women’s sports who has appeared with Trump at rallies, also questioned the post.
“Does he actually think this?” she wrote. “Either way, two things are true: 1) a little humility would serve him well, 2) God shall not be mocked.”
Megan Basham, a columnist for the conservative outlet Daily Wire, described the post as “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy”.
“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this,” she wrote.
She demanded Trump “take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God”.
Isabel Brown, also of the Daily Wire, said the image was “disgusting and unacceptable”, adding that “nothing matters more than Jesus” and arguing it reflected a misunderstanding of what she described as a renewed embrace of Christian faith in the United States.
The backlash also extended to Democrats, with Senator Bernie Sanders condemning Trump’s comments as “egomaniacal”.
“Trump is now attacking the pope for speaking out against war while posting images of himself as a messianic figure,” he wrote on X.
“This is not only offensive. It is deranged, egomaniacal behaviour.”
Trump’s support among Christian voters
Trump, who does not attend church regularly, secured strong support from Christian voters in the 2024 election, including a
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04-14 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Trump suggests openness to making a deal with Iran before ceasefire ends, as Hezbollah’s chief says diplomacy ‘futile’.
Live updates,
Iran war live: US blockade of Hormuz begins, Hezbollah rejects Israel talks
Trump suggests openness to making a deal with Iran before ceasefire ends, as Hezbollah’s chief says diplomacy ‘futile’.
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04-13 01:48 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
CENTCOM says the blockade will begin at 14:00 GMT, as Iran warns of even higher prices at the pump.
The US military says it will block all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports, starting at 10am ET (14:00 GMT) today.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says any military vessel that approaches the Strait of Hormuz will be considered in violation of the ceasefire and “will be dealt with severely”.
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04-13 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
US Navy to enforce blockade, Trump says after condemning Iran for blocking waterway, complaining of no deal in Pakistan.
Trump says US to blockade ships crossing Strait of Hormuz
President Donald Trump says the United States Navy will begin blockading the Strait of Hormuz “immediately” after peace talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan ended without an agreement.
Trump, in a social media post on Sunday, accused Iran of “extortion” and said the US Navy would also hunt down and interdict ships in international waters that have paid Iran a toll to traverse the strait. He said US forces will also begin clearing mines that he says Iran placed in the strait.
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“So, there you have it, the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not,” Trump said. “Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran has essentially taken control over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for the global energy market, since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned on Sunday that civilian vessels can cross the strait in compliance with “specific regulations”, but that military vessels approaching the strait would be considered in violation of the ceasefire and “dealt with severely”.
Traffic through the narrow strait has slowed to a trickle, nearly paralysing about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments and sending shock waves through the global economy.
Trump’s comments have raised concerns about the status of the fragile two-week ceasefire.
“These two posts by the US president are very bombastic, very long, very detailed, and seem to be filled with a great deal of frustration,” Al Jazeera correspondent Zein Basravi said from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
“There are no doubt alarm bells ringing here in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] for countries that were hoping this ceasefire would extend beyond those two weeks and become a consistent, long-term negotiated peace that could perhaps lead to different relationships forming in the region, but certainly to an end to the violence we see.”
Mediators have urged both parties to prioritise diplomacy and avoid a return to fighting.
“I urge that the ceasefire be extended and talks continue,” Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said in a social media post on Sunday. “Success may require everyone to make painful concessions, but this is nothing as compared to the pain of failure and war.”
Iran has denied US claims that two of its warships recently passed through the strait for mine-clearing operations, warning that any military vessels seeking to do so would receive a “strong response”. Trump called Iran’s control over the waterway “world extortion” in his social media post and added that any Iranian forces who fire at US forces or “peaceful vessels” would be “BLOWN TO HELL”.
He added that the blockade would involve unspecified “other countries”, and he would not allow Iran to benefit from the closure of the strait. Trump also stated in his social media post that the US Navy would interdict “every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran”.
“We’re not going to let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like,” Trump told Fox News in an interview later on Sunday. “It’s going to be all or none, and that’s the way it is.”
He added that the United Kingdom and “a couple of other countries” are sending minesweeper vessels to aid the US effort, an assertion that has not been confirmed by the British government.
Democratic lawmakers in the US have criticised Trump’s comments.
“I don’t understand how blockading the strait is somehow going to push the Iranians into opening it,” Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, said during an interview with CNN.
“I don’t see the connection there,” he added.
Iran has continued to send its own ships through the strait since the war began and has allowed a handful of vessels from other countries to pass through. Iranian officials have also discussed setting up a toll system after the fighting ends, under which users would pay Iran a fee to cross the strait.
“Iran knows that controlling the Strait of Hormuz is still their main leverage,” Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem reported from the Iranian capital of Tehran. “The higher the tensions, the more prices surge, and this affects the global economy.”
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04-13 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Trump said the US Navy would immediately start blockading the Strait of Hormuz after ceasefire talks in Pakistan fail.
The US military says it will begin blockading Iranian ports on Monday at 14:00 GMT, allowing ships not coming or going to Iran to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says the Strait of Hormuz is open for civilian vessels, but says that military ships “will be dealt with severely”.
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04-12 13:43 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Talks between Iran and the US expose deep divisions, prolonging uncertainty during a two-week ceasefire.
High-stakes talks between the United States and Iran have ended without a deal, and Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has blamed the US for the failure of talks held in Islamabad, Pakistan, during a two-week ceasefire in their war.
Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said on Sunday that his delegation raised “forward-looking” initiatives during the talks on Saturday but the US failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation.
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US Vice President JD Vance, who led the US delegation, said earlier that the talks ended without a deal. “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America,” he said six weeks into the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The talks – the first direct engagement between the two countries at this level since the 1979 Iranian Revolution – exposed deep divisions on core issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme and the Strait of Hormuz, which in effect has been under Tehran’s control since the war began on February 28.
The de facto blockade of the waterway, through which one-fifth of global crude oil supplies pass, has caused a global energy crisis and rattled stock markets globally.
Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the talks mediated by Pakistan, which went on for more than 21 hours, were “neither a breakthrough nor a breakdown”.
Here’s a look at what each side said and what the key sticking points between Tehran and Washington are:
What did the US say?
The US framed the lack of a breakthrough primarily around Iran’s alleged refusal to meet its core demand: a firm commitment not to develop nuclear weapons.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance told reporters at a news conference.
“That is the core goal of the president of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”
Vance said Washington had made its “red lines” clear and presented what he described as a “final and best offer”.
The vice president did not mention reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
During the negotiations, US President Donald Trump seemed to insert himself in the talks, saying a deal was not entirely necessary.
“We’re negotiating. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me because we’ve won,” he told reporters in Washington, DC.
However, the fact that Trump sent Vance to Islamabad showed the US was taking these talks seriously, Al Jazeera’s John Hendren said, reporting from Washington, DC.
“The fact that Vance left [Islamabad] doesn’t necessarily mean that the talks are over,” he said, adding that the main sticking points seem to be the Strait of Hormuz and the gaps on Iran’s nuclear programme.
“The US has been negotiating with Iran over time. Those talks can continue remotely, and leaving those talks may simply be a hard stance,” the Al Jazeera correspondent added.
What did Iran say?
Iran downplayed expectations and blamed the US for making what it called unreasonable demands.
“The success of this diplomatic process depends on the seriousness and good faith of the opposing side, refraining from excessive demands and unlawful requests, and the acceptance of Iran’s legitimate rights and interests,” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote on X.
He added that the two sides discussed a range of issues, including the “Strait of Hormuz, the nuclear issue, war reparations, the lifting of sanctions, and the complete end of the war against Iran”.
Baghaei emphasised that the lack of a deal should not be seen as a failure of the broader process, saying, “No one had such an expectation.”
According to the IRNA news agency, when asked whether diplomacy had ended, Baghaei said, “Diplomacy never ends.”
Ghalibaf posted on X: “The US has come to understand Iran’s logic and principles, and now it must decide whether it is capable of gaining our trust.”
Mohsen Farkhani from the University of Isfahan said Tehran entered the talks not for a breakthrough but to show the world that Washington was not serious.
“Iran was in these negotiations with a kind of totally realistic view and with distrust … to prove to the world that, for the third time, the US doesn’t have enough seriousness to solve the problems or the challenges in peace and negotiations,” he told Al Jazeera.
What did Pakistan say?
Pakistan called for the ceasefire to continue while keeping diplomacy alive.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar stressed that it is “imperative” for both sides to uphold their commitment to the ceasefire, warning implicitly of the risks of renewed
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04-12 13:43 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Trump says the US Navy would immediately start blockading the Strait of Hormuz after ceasefire talks in Pakistan fail.
US President Donald Trump says the US Navy would immediately start blockading the Strait of Hormuz and would also interdict every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran.
Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf has blamed the US for the failure of the ceasefire negotiations in Pakistan, saying the US officials failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation.
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04-10 06:10 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warns ‘time is running out’ amid Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
As the US and Iran prepare for talks in Pakistan, Israel continues to bombard Lebanon after killing more than 300 people and injuring at least 1,150 in a single day of strikes across the country on Wednesday.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on Israel to withdraw a forced evacuation order affecting two key hospitals in Lebanon’s Beirut area as the country’s health system struggles to treat civilian casualties of Israeli attacks.
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04-10 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Islamabad hosts negotiations as US and Iran seek off-ramp. But deep mistrust and regional tensions threaten talks.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pavements are being painted, an already formidable security presence is being bolstered, and an air of anticipation — and anxiety — is gripping Pakistan’s capital as it prepares to host meetings that the world will watch this weekend.
Exactly six weeks after the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, set off a war that has killed thousands of people across multiple countries, shut down the world’s most critical oil passage and sent energy prices soaring, Islamabad will on Saturday host talks involving top US and Iranian officials.
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The meetings come days after both Washington and Tehran agreed to a Pakistan-mediated two-week ceasefire, and at a time when that truce is already under strain amid different interpretations of the terms of the pause in fighting — and Israel’s intensified bombing of Lebanon.
Iran’s attacks on its Gulf neighbours, apart from Israel, amid the war have also left the world’s biggest energy export hub and a critical nerve centre of trade, tourism and innovation on edge since the fighting started on February 28. Tehran’s decision soon after to in effect shut down the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas passes during peacetime — except to ships from countries that negotiated deals with it, rattled global markets and drove energy prices to record highs.
This coming weekend, senior representatives from key players in the war will converge in Pakistan’s leafy capital in the lower reaches of the Margalla Hills.
Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming talks in Islamabad — from who is expected to attend and where they will be held, to what’s on the agenda, potential roadblocks and what the world can expect.
When and where will the talks be held?
The negotiations are set to begin this weekend in Islamabad after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formally invited both sides to pursue talks towards a full settlement of the war.
The White House has confirmed that formal discussions will start on Saturday morning local time.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said on April 8 that talks could continue for up to 15 days — suggesting the possibility that at least some members of the delegations may stay in Islamabad beyond Saturday, or return to the Pakistani capital for subsequent rounds of talks.
Islamabad’s Serena Hotel will host the delegations. Located next to the foreign ministry in the capital’s Red Zone, which houses key government buildings and embassies, the hotel has been requisitioned from Wednesday evening through Sunday, with guests asked to vacate.
It is also expected to serve as the venue for the talks.
Authorities have declared April 9 and April 10 public holidays in the federal capital, exempting essential services such as police, hospitals and utilities.
Security has been tightened across the city. The Red Zone has been sealed, while key entry points into Islamabad have also been closed.
Who will attend the talks?
The White House has confirmed that US Vice President JD Vance will lead the American delegation, joined by President Donald Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are expected to lead the Iranian delegation. It is unclear whether any representative from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — which is leading Tehran’s military response in the war — will attend the talks. Ghalibaf is a former IRGC commander.
But Pakistani officials cautioned that nothing was a certainty until the delegations actually arrived.
Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, briefly announced on X that the Iranian delegation would arrive on April 9. “Despite skepticism of Iranian public opinion due to repeated ceasefire violations by the Israeli regime to sabotage the diplomatic initiative,” he wrote, the delegation had come for “serious talks based on the 10 points proposed by Iran.”
But he deleted the post within hours.
What will the negotiations look like?
Prime Minister Sharif is expected to formally host the talks and hold separate preliminary meetings with both sides on Friday or early Saturday morning, depending on when the teams arrive.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who has been involved in shuttle diplomacy throughout the conflict, is expected to facilitate the actual negotiations on Saturday.
It remains unclear whether Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, will take part. Neither the foreign ministry nor the military’s media w
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04-10 00:01 · 地缘政治,中东局势,冲突,国际关系,媒体报道
Lebanon observes day of mourning after hundreds killed as US, Israel say country is not included in ceasefire with Iran.
Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu says he has issued an instruction to start direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” after what he claimed were requests from Beirut.
Lebanon has declared a day of mourning after a wave of Israeli attacks killed at least 200 people and injured more than 1,000 in a single day on Wednesday.
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