After speaking with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., reaffirmed his support for the congresswoman's nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
"Always was a hard YES for @EliseStefanik but it was a pleasure to have a conversation. I support defunding UNRWA for its documented Hamas infiltration and fully look forward to her holding the @UN accountable for its endemic antisemitism and blatant anti-Israel views," Fetterman said in a post on X.
The senator made the comments when retweeting Stefanik, who shared a photo of herelf and Fetterman doing a double thumbs up for the camera.
"Thank you to @SenFettermanPA for hosting a very productive meeting where we discussed our shared commitment to standing with Israel and combating antisemitism," Stefanik said in her post.
"Senator Fetterman shared his ideas for strong national security leadership and I highlighted my ideas on implementing President @realDonaldTrump's America First peace through strength national security agenda," Stefanik added.
Fetterman described Stefanik and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who Trump tapped to serve as secretary of state, as "serious, qualified individuals," indicating last month that he planned to vote in favor of confirming both of them.
The Democratic lawmaker, an unflinching supporter of Israel, accused the U.N. of "rank, pervasive antisemitism," noting, "I look forward to voting for @RepStefanik to continue a strong and unapologetic pro-Israel position."
After Trump tapped Dr. Mehmet Oz — who lost Pennsylvania's 2022 U.S. Senate contest to Fetterman — to serve as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, Fetterman indicated that he was open to supporting confirmation.
A top Israeli diplomat insisted his nation is "not getting involved" in Syria’s domestic politics after the nation launched an aggressive campaign of airstrikes and seized control of a buffer zone in Syria.
"We are not getting involved in what's happening domestically inside Syria. But we have concerns about our border," Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital.
"It’s been a quiet border, relatively, but we hope it will continue to be the same."
Israel has launched an assault on military and chemical weapons sites within Syria, fearing they could fall into the wrong hands after the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad and his government over the weekend.
The ouster left a power vacuum that leaves Israel and the U.S. to wonder which forces may seize dominance in the nation and how friendly they might be.
In that vacuum, Israel moved troops into the Golan buffer zone for the first time since it was established after the 1973 Mideast war.
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have condemned the Israeli incursion, accusing it of exploiting the situation.
Danon seemed hopeful the next Syrian government would not be under the thumb of Iran but warned "bad actors" had been involved in the overthrow of Assad.
"Iran was heavily invested in Syria. And I'm sure that today it will change, and the Iranians will not be welcome anymore in Syria. So, on that front, I think it's an achievement. But, at the same day, we have to look what's happening on other fronts," said Danon.
"We have to remember that it's not like a peaceful revolution. You know, they walked with al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. So, we have to pay attention to that."
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was the key faction behind the fall of Damascus and the fleeing of Assad and now controls the capital city. But the Islamist militant group was founded as an offshoot of al Qaeda, and its leader has a $10 million bounty on his head.
The group in recent years has worked to soften its image and lobbied to be delisted as a terrorist organization by the U.S.
Israel has also taken control of Mount Hermon, the highest point on the border between the two countries and a blind spot in its defenses that Iran had been exploiting to send low-flying drones.
"That was a defensive, temporary act," said Danon. "We want to see what’s happening there."
The ambassador said Israel hopes Syria will have a "better future," but its only goal is to "not allow terrorists to be on the fence."
"For more than 50 years, the Assad family tortured the Syrian people, massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians. So, we are the one humanitarian point of view. We do hope that they will have a better life."
EXCLUSIVE: A group of former United Nations officials fed up with its inefficiency launched "DOGE-UN," an investigative effort that will highlight waste by the world body.
The effort, similar to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will culminate in a report online ahead of the 2026 secretary-general selection, in hopes that the next leader will prioritize making the agency run more efficiently.
"Why stop at this country’s federal agencies?" said Hugh Dugan, a longtime member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. and former National Security Council adviser on international organizations.
"We need to centralize our understanding of our cash flow to and from the U.N. and the results we'd like to see from our participation in international organizations," he told Fox News Digital.
Dugan is working with a group of former presidents of the U.N. General Assembly who meet regularly to discuss agency issues. He’s recruited "insiders and outsiders who used to be insiders" to identify where the U.N. is ineffective at its mission and where funds are going to waste.
"Unfortunately, the mindset there over the years prefers to look at outputs over outcomes," said Dugan. "How many meetings did we hold, how many pencils did we buy, instead of outcomes. Like, was there an opportunity to get peace underway more quickly in conflict settings, or to what extent are we ameliorating the rate of hunger in the world?"
Dugan says his team will ask two questions: "Is the U.N. working?" and "Is it working for us?"
The U.N. has an Office of Internal Oversight Services, but unlike the inspectors general for other government agencies, that office is internal, not independent, Dugan pointed out.
Last month, a former high-ranking U.N. official was ordered to pay back $59 million the agency lost in deals he made with a British businessman who gave him interest-free loans, a Mercedes and other gifts for his sons.
"Usually, there is no consequence for bad behavior, and that's a rare thing that they caught this one," said Dugan.
He recalled the U.N.’s oil-for-food program, where former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein siphoned off more than $10 billion through illegal oil smuggling, according to a 2004 CIA report.
"I'm hoping this will serve to really crack open this dark chamber there that seems to just perpetuate itself on the goodwill of the charter, but actual performance is not serving the peoples of the world."
Founded with a mission to promote global peace, development and respect for human rights after World War II, the U.N. relies on the U.S. for about a third of its budget. President Biden increased U.S. financial contributions to the U.N. and its sister agencies, boosting it from $11.6 billion in 2020 to $18.1 billion in 2022.
The U.S. gave about three times as much that year as the next-highest contributors, Germany, at $6.8 billion and Japan, at $2.7 billion.
That amount of funding gives a new administration wiggle room to withhold funds to the U.N. if its global interests do not align with those of the U.S., a notion some Republicans have already pushed for.
President-elect Trump will be in office when the international body elects its next secretary-general in 2026, and the U.S. will have veto power over any candidate.
The U.N. particularly relies on the U.S. for global aid programs.
In 2022, it provided half of all contributions to the World Food Programme, and about a third of all contributions to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the International Organization for Migration.
Dugan said his report would also highlight ways to prevent China from "hijacking" the U.N. "deep state" to divert aid for its own Belt and Road Initiative.
China doubled the number of its nationals employed at the U.N. to nearly 15,000 from 2009 to 2021.
Musk and Ramaswamy outlined their efforts for DOGE in a Nov. 20 Wall Street Journal op-ed: "The DOGE Plan to Reform Government."
They said they would focus on driving change through "executive action based on existing legislation" rather than "passing new laws." They would work to claw back regulations put forth by government agencies that were never passed by Congress, backed by newfound authority under the Supreme Court’s West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), which stated agencies can’t impose regulations that touch on major economic or policy questions unless Congress allows them to do so.
Iran has increased its nearly weapons-grade uranium, a United Nations watchdog found, defying international demands to rein in its nuclear program.
Iran now has enough uranium at 60% purity, just below the 90% purity needed for a weapon, to produce about four nuclear bombs, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report said.
The report found Iran had about 400 pounds of uranium enriched to 60% as of Oct. 26, up 40 pounds from August.
Around 92 pounds of uranium, enriched at 90%, is needed to make an atomic weapon.
Iran’s overall stockpile of uranium enriched at any level reached about 14,560 pounds, up 1,880 pounds from August.
It comes as Iran has offered to cease enriching uranium beyond 60% – but only if the European Union and the United Kingdom cease their efforts to slap new sanctions on Iran and the IAEA drops a censure resolution it is pursuing.
During a meeting between IAEA general director Rafael Grossi and high-level Iranian diplomats, "the possibility of Iran not further expanding its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% U-235 was discussed, including technical verification measures necessary for the Agency to confirm this, if implemented," Grossi said.
He added that Iran said it would consider accepting agency inspectors to conduct oversight of its nuclear materials.
Experts say there is no credible use of 60% uranium at the civilian level.
Concerns have swelled among Western nations that Iran could decide pursuing a nuclear bomb is its best deterrent, after Israel hollowed out Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran’s biggest proxies. U.S. intelligence suggests they've improved their manufacturing capabilities for doing so over the past year.
It's not yet clear whether President-elect Trump will come in with a combative or diplomatic tone toward Iran, but he's promised to crack down on sanctions on the regime that he claims President Biden failed to enforce.
The European Union on Monday widened sanctions against Iran for its alleged support for Russia in the war in Ukraine, including targeting the national seafaring company and ships used to transfer drones and missiles. Acting in tandem, the U.K. froze the assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied that Iran was aiding Russia and warned the sanctions would prompt Iran to retaliate.
"There is no legal, logical or moral basis for such behavior. If anything, it will only compel what it ostensibly seeks to prevent," Araghchi wrote on X.
"Freedom of navigation is a basic principle of the law of the sea. When selectively applied by some, such shortsightedness usually tends to boomerang," Araghchi wrote.
The IAEA board is expected to move forward with a European-backed censure resolution, which could lead to the issue being escalated to the U.N. Security Council for possible measures against Tehran.
That resolution would condemn Tehran's lack of responsiveness and call for creating a comprehensive report of all open questions about Iran's nuclear work.
Iran has not formally decided whether to build a nuclear bomb, according to the latest available U.S. intelligence. But as of September 2024, Iran could produce weapons-grade uranium in about seven days and have enough for six to nine nuclear bombs within a month if it wanted to, according to David Albright at the Institute for Science and International Security.
