Middle East crisis live: Israel strikes Beirut after evacuation call | Middle East and north Africa

Outoging US president Joe Biden now has his best opening to end Israel’s war on Gaza but he won’t use it, Mohamad Bazzi writes …

[Biden’s] lack of action this week is especially egregious because he is politically unrestrained: the presidential election is over, and Donald Trump won. Biden can do whatever he wants without incurring a political cost. He doesn’t even have to worry about a transition to his fellow Democrat and vice-president, Kamala Harris. If there was ever a time for Biden to use his considerable power to save Palestinians, this was it. Yet he squandered this final opportunity to make the right and moral choice – and help end the Gaza war before leaving office.

Biden’s decision to keep supplying weapons to Israel reinforces his legacy as the primary enabler of the slaughter in Gaza, and Netanyahu’s campaign to expand the war into Lebanon. While Biden and his allies have done a lot of hand-wringing about Trump’s disregard for the rule of law, the Biden administration failed to uphold US law and its own policies – and it has undermined US credibility around the world even before Trump takes office once again.

You can read the full piece at the link below.

Images are coming through of Israel’s strike on Beirut this morning, showing a large plume of smoke rising above the city.

An Iranian official met with Elon Musk, according to a US official, AP reports.

Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani met with Musk — a key Trump ally and the world’s richest man — on Monday in New York.

The US official said he had been informed that the discussion covered a variety of topics, most notably Iran’s nuclear program, its support for anti-Israel groups throughout the Middle East and prospects for improved relations with the United States.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no immediate decisions were taken by either side. The official said the Iranians sought the meeting with Musk and that it did not take place at the Iranian mission to the UN.

The Trump transition team would not confirm or deny the meeting.

“The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world. When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, said in a statement.

Iran’s UN mission declined to comment.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed US officials, that Iran told the Biden administration in a written message delivered on 14 October that it would not try to kill Trump. It was a response to an earlier warning from the US that an attempt on Trump’s life would be considered an act of war, the Journal reported.

Here is the tweet from the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, calling for the evacuation of southern Beirut’s Haret Hreik neighbourhood a couple of hours ago.

“To all residents in the southern suburb area, specifically in the buildings specified in the attached maps and the buildings adjacent to them in Haret Hreik … You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will act forcefully in the near future,” a translation of the post reads.

“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 500 meters.”

AFP reported an Israeli strike hit the south of the city this morning.

Strike hits south Beirut after Israeli evacuation call