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Polish President Andrzej Duda tells Threat Status in an exclusive interview at the start of the NATO leaders summit that no Ukrainian territory can be ceded to Russia as part of any peace deal.

…U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines says Iranian spies are helping to pay for anti-Israel protests that have erupted in the United States since the start of the Gaza war.

…Security services from the U.S. and six allied nations have issued an unprecedented multinational security warning identifying a Chinese intelligence-linked hacking group.

…Israeli airstrikes killed at least 20 Palestinians in central Gaza Wednesday as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators met in Doha to push for a long-elusive cease-fire deal.

…And peace talks in South Sudan are facing collapse ahead of the East African country’s first election.

U.S. intelligence: Iran financing anti-Israel protests on college campuses

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrives to vote for the presidential election, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians voted Friday in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, with the race's sole reformist candidate vowing to seek "friendly relations" with the West in an effort to boost his campaign. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian intelligence officials are helping to pay for anti-Israel protests that have erupted in the United States and are posing as activists to stoke discord during a U.S. election year, according to the director of national intelligence.

Ms. Haines asserted in a statement Tuesday that Tehran is increasingly aggressive in trying to influence the United States and other countries to undermine confidence in democratic institutions. Anti-Israel protests in the wake of the bloody Israeli clash with Hamas Palestinian militants in Gaza have sprung up on college campuses across the country, raising questions of free speech, behavior codes and antisemitism in their wake.

“In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years,” said Ms. Haines. “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”

Polish president: Russian imperialism 'has to be punished'

Poland's President Andrzej Duda gives a statement to the media in Warsaw, Poland, on Jan. 10, 2024, after the arrest of two politicians convicted of abuse of power who had taken refuge for hours in the presidential palace. The office of Poland's president says Abdrzej Duda has spoken on the phone with Congolese president in an effort to obtain the release of a Polish traveller sentenced there for life in prison on charges of sabotage. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

The Polish president, whose nation is the most powerful NATO state bordering Ukraine, told Threat Status in an exclusive interview Tuesday that he sharply rejects the notion of any cease-fire deal that would require Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow.

Mr. Duda drew a clear line in the sand on the matter as NATO’s 75th Anniversary leaders summit opened in Washington — a gathering occurring at a moment when China, fellow NATO ally Hungary and some leading American politicians are issuing fresh calls for a rapid negotiated end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

“I would like this war to end as soon as possible. However, it cannot end, it must not end in the victory of Russia because if it happened that way, we will have another war soon because Russia will attack again,” said Mr. Duda. “Russian imperialism has to be reprimanded. It has to be punished in Ukraine.”

He separately rebutted the narrative that the U.S. commitment to NATO is faltering. Critics fear such a trend would rapidly accelerate if Republican candidate Donald Trump returns to the White House. “To me, it is most important that this anniversary NATO summit is taking place in Washington because this demonstrates who the most important entity is,” he said. “The one who is the strongest hosts the anniversary summit. … Nobody protested against that in NATO.”

China and North Korea threats also on NATO summit agenda

U.S. President Joe Biden, center, greets South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, on Aug. 18, 2023, at Camp David, the presidential retreat, near Thurmont, Md. South Korea’s President Yoon said the international community “will unite more tightly” to cope with deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, as he pushes to raise the issue with world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this week.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Top leaders of key Asian allies are also attending the NATO summit, where China’s dual-use exports to Russia and the Kremlin’s warming ties with North Korea are on the agenda.

The issues may be distant from the North Atlantic, the traditional focus of the 32-member alliance, but inviting the leaders of Japan, South Korea and New Zealand to attend is the latest sign that the alliance sees security challenges playing out on a field far larger than Central and Eastern Europe.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon examines the situation in a report penned from Seoul. He notes NATO’s statement that “the Indo-Pacific is important for the alliance, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security.”

Houthi-aligned hackers spying on Mideast armies

Houthi rebel fighters march during a rally of support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and against the U.S. strikes on Yemen outside Sanaa on Jan. 22, 2024. The heads of six U.N. agencies and three international humanitarian organizations issued a joint appeal Thursday, June 13, 2024, to Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the immediate release of 17 members of their staff who were recently detained along with many others also being held by the Iranian-backed group. (AP Photo, File)

The cybersecurity firm Lookout says it has discovered Houthi-aligned hackers spying on Middle Eastern militaries with a surveillance tool that works through Meta’s WhatsApp social media platform to infiltrate victims’ devices. The spying tool lets hackers collect photos, documents, location information and Wi-Fi configuration details, Lookout’s Alemdar Islamoglu and Kyle Schmittle say in a new report.

The Yemen-based Houthi militant group is backed by Iran. Lookout’s report asserts that Houthi-aligned hackers have used “GuardZoo” surveillance malware to target more than 450 IP addresses belonging to targets in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey.

Opinion front: What would a two-state solution solve?

Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran's Islamic Empire illustration by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

Threat Status opinion columnist Clifford D. May examines the long history of pursuing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, concluding that “if you’re among those who believe that widespread recognition of a Palestinian nation-state would resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I’ll remind you: This is an idea that has been tried and found wanting.”

Mr. May, who heads the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, argues that Israel’s most consequential conflict is with Iran’s rulers, who fund, arm and train Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah fighters and who explicitly reject the notion of a two-state solution.

“Is it not indisputable,” writes Mr. May, “that what Iran’s rulers and their minions want instead is a ‘final solution’ — the Nazi term for the extermination of Jews?”

A better path for Ukraine and NATO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks at the Ronald Reagan Institute on the sideline of NATO Summit in Washington, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

With debate over the prospect of Ukrainian membership dominating backroom discussions at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington this week, M.E. Sarotte notes that many of the alliance’s leaders remain concerned that a formal move on the issue “will be impossible as long as Kyiv is at war, given the centrality of the alliance’s Article 5 guarantee that an attack against one will be considered an attack against all.”

Ms. Sarotte argues in the journal Foreign Affairs that NATO leaders must think outside the box: “There’s room for creativity, because although NATO’s 1949 founding treaty does obligate allies to treat an attack on one as an attack on all, it doesn’t impose one-size-fits-all membership requirements,” she writes. She notes that the West German path to NATO membership back in 1955 shows how a country “can become an ally despite being divided.”

Events on our radar

• July 10 — China-Taiwan Competition: Why It Matters for Peace and Stability in the Pacific, U.S. Institute of Peace

• July 11 — Inside High-Stakes Negotiations: A Conversation with Hostage Negotiator Mickey Bergman on Freeing Captured Americans Abroad, Stimson Center

• July 11 — Supercharging the Development Finance Corporation: Opportunities and Pathways for Development, Infrastructure, and Investment, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)

• July 12 — Beyond the Summit: Outcomes and the path forward to Ukraine’s NATO membership, Atlantic Council

• July 12 — Europe’s Security After the Washington Summit: A Conversation with Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski, American Enterprise Institute

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