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Blinken on surprise visit to Baghdad, meets with PM

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday following a trip to the occupied West Bank earlier in the day. (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday following a trip to the occupied West Bank earlier in the day. (AP)
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Updated 07 November 2023
AFP
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Blinken on surprise visit to Baghdad, meets with PM

Blinken on surprise visit to Baghdad, meets with PM
  • Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani met Blinken
Updated 07 November 2023
AFP
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BAGHDAD: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday following a trip to the occupied West Bank earlier in the day.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani met Blinken, the premier’s office said, with the two expected to discuss the risks of escalation in Israel’s war with Hamas.
Blinken’s visit — which came after a brief stop in Cyprus to discuss a possible maritime aid route to Gaza — was not announced in advance for security reasons.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, a series of rocket and drone attacks have targeted military bases hosting US forces in Iraq.
“I made very clear that attacks or threats coming from militias that are aligned with Iran are totally unacceptable,” Blinken said on Sunday.
“We will take every necessary step to protect our people,” he added during a meeting with Sudani.
Washington has accused Iran of having a hand in the attacks which have also targeted American troops in Syria.
Most of the attacks have been claimed by a group known as “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” according to Telegram channels affiliated with Iraqi factions close to Tehran.
Figures released by the Pentagon on Friday showed that between October 17 and November 3 there were 17 attacks in Iraq and 12 in Syria.
Some 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq, tasked with advising their Iraqi counterparts in the fight against the Daesh group.
Sudani condemned the attacks and said that investigations were under way to determine the perpetrators.
Iraq’s prime minister has repeatedly called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and has described Israel’s military operation in the coastal territory as a “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
Iraq does not recognize Israel as a state and its government is close to Iran, which in turn backs Hamas.
Blinken is engaged in a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, having visited Israel on Friday followed by Jordan on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah II and where he took part in ministerial meetings with five of his Arab counterparts.
On Sunday morning, he traveled to the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, followed by a stop in Cyprus where he met the president and foreign minister.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Palestine Iraq US US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

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International community has ‘moral duty’ to protect Palestinians: Jordan’s king

International community has ‘moral duty’ to protect Palestinians: Jordan’s king
Updated 11 sec ago
Arab News
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International community has ‘moral duty’ to protect Palestinians: Jordan’s king

International community has ‘moral duty’ to protect Palestinians: Jordan’s king
  • ‘Consecutive Israeli governments, emboldened by years of impunity, have rejected peace and chosen confrontation’
  • ‘The unprecedented scale of terror unleashed on Gaza is beyond any justification,’ he tells UN General Assembly
Updated 11 sec ago
Arab News

DUBAI: The international community has a “moral duty” to “establish a protection mechanism” for Palestinians “across the Occupied Territories,” Jordan’s King Abdullah told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
He also condemned “those who continue to propagate the idea of Jordan as an alternative homeland” for Palestinians. “Let me be very, very clear: That will never happen.”
The king said no country in the region benefits from escalation, adding: “We’ve seen that clearly in the dangerous developments in Lebanon over the past few days. This has to stop.
“For years, the Arab world has extended a hand to Israel through the Arab Peace Initiative, offering full recognition and normalization in exchange for peace.
“But consecutive Israeli governments, emboldened by years of impunity, have rejected peace and chosen confrontation instead.”
The UN “is facing a crisis that strikes at its very legitimacy and threatens a collapse of global trust and moral authority. The UN is under attack, literally and figuratively,” said the king, adding that for nearly a year, the organization has been powerless to protect innocent civilians from Israeli bombardment of its shelters and schools in Gaza.
UN aid trucks sit motionless just miles away from starving Palestinians, its workers are disparaged and targeted, and the rulings of the UN’s International Court of Justice “are defied and its opinions are disregarded,” he said.
“So it’s no surprise that both inside and outside this hall, trust in the UN’s cornerstone principles and ideals is crumbling.”
He said many people see that some nations are above international law and that human rights are selective.
Addressing the UNGA, he said: “Ask yourselves, if we aren’t nations united in the conviction that all people are equal in rights, dignity and worth, and that all countries are equal in the eyes of the law, what kind of world does that leave us with?”
He reminded the audience that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel was condemned by countries all over the world, including Jordan.
“But the unprecedented scale of terror unleashed on Gaza since that day is beyond any justification,” the king said.
“The Israeli government’s assault has resulted in one of the fastest death rates in recent conflicts, and one of the fastest rates of starvation caused by war … and unprecedented levels of destruction.”
He accused Israel of killing more children, journalists, aid workers and medical personnel than in any other war in recent memory, “and let us not forget the attacks on the West Bank.”

Topics: UNGA79 Jordan King Abdallah

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Israeli defense minister says Hezbollah has suffered severe blows

Israeli defense minister says Hezbollah has suffered severe blows
Updated 30 min ago
Reuters
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Israeli defense minister says Hezbollah has suffered severe blows

Israeli defense minister says Hezbollah has suffered severe blows
  • Gallant, in a discussion with troops, said more strikes were coming
Updated 30 min ago
Reuters

JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday that Israel will continue to batter Iran-backed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon until the goal of ensuring the safe return of Israel’s northern residents to their homes is achieved.
Gallant, in a discussion with troops, said more strikes were coming.
“Hezbollah today is not the same Hezbollah we knew a week ago. (It) has suffered a sequence of blows to its command and control, its fighters, and the means to fight. These are all severe blows,” Gallant said.

Topics: War on Gaza Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Lebanon Hezbollah

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Iran president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel

Iran president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel
Updated 42 min 29 sec ago
AFP
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Iran president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel

Iran president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel
  • On Monday, nearly 500 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry
  • Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian calls on international community to 'not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza'
Updated 42 min 29 sec ago
AFP

TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that its ally Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel which carried out its deadliest day of air strikes on Lebanon since 2006.
“Hebzollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with CNN translated from Farsi to English.
He called on the international community to “not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza,” in response to a question if Iran would use its influence with Hezbollah to urge restraint.
On Monday, nearly 500 people, including 35 children, were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.
The Israeli military said it had hit about 1,600 Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing a “large number” of militants, and had carried out more on Tuesday morning.
Iran called on the UN Security Council to “take immediate action” against the “insane” Israeli escalation.
“Iran will NOT remain indifferent,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X late Monday.
“We stand with the people of Lebanon and Palestine.”
The Israeli strikes came less than a week after coordinated sabotage attacks targeting Hezbollah’s communication devices killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.
Iranian media blamed Israel for the apparent slide toward all-out war.
“The Zionist regime has pressed the all-out war button,” said the ultraconservative Javan newspaper, while its rival Kayhan asked: “Has the big war begun?“
Government daily Iran warned “the region is on the verge of a massive explosion.” Reformist newspaper Etemad said “peace in Lebanon is hanging by a thread.”
Pezeshkian, who has been in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, accused Israel of warmongering.
“We know better than anyone that if a larger war erupts in the Middle East, it will benefit no one globally,” Pezeshkian told journalists at a roundtable.
“It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict.”
He said Iran had “never started a war in the last 100 years” and was “not looking to cause insecurity.”
But he insisted that Iran “will never allow a country to force us into something and threaten our security and territorial integrity.”

Topics: Iran Lebanon Gaza Israel

‘What are you waiting for to prevent the genocide in Gaza?’ Erdogan asks UN

‘What are you waiting for to prevent the genocide in Gaza?’ Erdogan asks UN
Updated 49 min 23 sec ago
Zaynab Khojji
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‘What are you waiting for to prevent the genocide in Gaza?’ Erdogan asks UN

‘What are you waiting for to prevent the genocide in Gaza?’ Erdogan asks UN
  • Turkish president: ‘Countries that have a say over Israel are openly complicit in this massacre’
  • Israel ‘trampling on international law at every opportunity and practicing ethnic cleansing’
Updated 49 min 23 sec ago
Zaynab Khojji

LONDON: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned the UN Security Council for failing to stop the war in Gaza.

Speaking at a gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly, he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are “endangering the lives” of Palestinians, Israelis and “the entire region for political gain.”

Erdogan said: “I call out to the UN Security Council: What are you waiting for to prevent the genocide in Gaza, to put a stop to this cruelty, this barbarianism?”

He added that the situation in Palestine “is a sign of a great moral collapse” and the Israeli government is disregarding basic human rights, “trampling on international law at every opportunity, and is practicing ethnic cleansing.”

He said the war is “a clear genocide” against the Palestinians and an occupation of their land. Erdogan called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where authorities say Israeli operations since last October have killed at least 41,467 people.

“An immediate and permanent ceasefire should be achieved, a hostage-prisoner exchange should be carried out, and humanitarian aid should be delivered to Gaza in an unhindered and uninterrupted way,” he said.

“Countries that have a say over Israel are openly complicit in this massacre … Those who are supposedly working for a ceasefire in front of the stage continue to send arms and ammunition to Israel so that it can continue its massacres on the background. This is inconsistency and insincerity.” 

Erdogan said the Israeli government, in “constantly dragging its feet,” is making it “almost impossible” for a ceasefire to be reached, signaling that it “doesn’t want peace.” 

He urged the international community to stop “Netanyahu and his murder network,” comparing the Israeli prime minister to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.

“Just as Hitler was stopped by the alliance of humanity 70 years ago, Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped by the alliance of humanity,” Erdogan said. 

Topics: UNGA79 Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan UN Security Council (UNSC)

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Houthi captors torture prisoners, Yemeni rights group alleges

Houthi captors torture prisoners, Yemeni rights group alleges
Updated 24 September 2024
Saeed Al-Batati
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Houthi captors torture prisoners, Yemeni rights group alleges

Houthi captors torture prisoners, Yemeni rights group alleges
  • Families of abducted people have complained that the Houthis at the Central Security prison in Sanaa tortured their incarcerated relatives
  • Houthis have abducted at least 70 Yemeni employees from UN agencies, international rights and aid organizations, and diplomatic missions in Sanaa
Updated 24 September 2024
Saeed Al-Batati

AL-MUKALLA: A Yemeni rights group on Tuesday accused the Houthis of torturing prisoners at a Sanaa detention facility, as dozens of Yemeni activists and politicians demanded that the Yemeni militia release people abducted for celebrating the 1962 revolution.

The Mothers of Abductees Association, which represents thousands of female relatives of war prisoners, said that families of abducted people have complained that the Houthis at the Central Security prison in Sanaa tortured their incarcerated relatives, starved them, barred them from contacting or seeing their families, isolated them in cells with mentally ill prisoners, and held them in small, unventilated rooms.

“The Mothers of Abductees Association condemns the Houthi group’s serious violations against our children in the central prison, which pose a serious threat to their lives and safety. We hold them completely accountable for their psychological and physical safety,” the organization said in a statement.

The MAA chairperson, Amat Al-Salam Al-Hajj, told Arab News that the Houthis began torturing the detainees, who had been imprisoned for years, and isolated them after accusing them of causing a riot in the prison. The prisoners then appealed to their families to speak to the media to pressure the Houthis to stop torturing them, she said.

This revelation came after dozens of Yemeni journalists, lawyers, activists, and politicians signed an online petition urging the Houthis to release dozens of Yemenis abducted during a crackdown on those commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the 1962 revolution.

“We are deeply concerned about the unnatural arrest campaign targeting civil activists for expressing joy on the 62nd anniversary of the glorious September 26 Revolution. We urge the wise leaders of the authority in Sanaa to make every effort to persuade the Sanaa authority to immediately stop the arrests,” the Yemeni activists said in the petition.

Ahmed Nagi Al-Nabhani, a Yemeni activist based in Sanaa, told Arab News that the Houthi authorities said the Yemenis were arrested for “inciting” the public to challenge their rule, and that they were not arrested for celebrating the revolution, which the Houthis would honor this year.

“The Sanaa regime does not say that they arrested those people for celebrating the revolution, but rather on charges of incitement against the regime and serving the aggression,” Al-Nabhani said.

Over the past few days, the Houthis have abducted dozens of journalists, activists, military and security officers, and government officials, including some members of the former ruling party, the General People’s Congress, in Sanaa, Ibb, Amran, and other Yemeni cities for celebrating or encouraging the Yemeni people to celebrate the revolution.

The Yemeni revolution, which began in 1962 in northern Yemen, overthrew the Zaidi Imamate rulers who had controlled the region for centuries and established the Yemen Arab Republic.

According to Yemenis, the Houthis and the Zaidi Imamates shared similar radical ideologies that restricted Yemen’s rule to Hashemite families.

On Tuesday, local media and activists reported that two journalists were among dozens of tribal leaders, politicians, activists and other Yemenis kidnapped by the Houthis in Sanaa, Ibb, Dhamar, Amran and Hodeidah for expressing their support for the revolution on Facebook or WhatsApp.

Despite the ongoing crackdown, the Houthis on Thursday declared a public holiday to commemorate the 1962 revolution.

Speaking about the Houthi crackdown on revolution supporters, Yemen Shura council speaker Ahmed Obeid bin Dagher said that a revolution is “in the making” in Houthi-held areas that will end Houthi rule and that they will not stop it, according to the official news agency SABA.

Rashad Al-Alimi, meanwhile, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, has urged the UN to relocate its agencies’ offices from Houthi-held Sanaa to the southern city of Aden, the country’s interim capital, to protect its employees from Houthi harassment and to stop dealing with the central bank in Sanaa. 

Al-Alimi, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, told Joyce Msuya, the UN acting undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, that the UN should move its agencies’ headquarters in Yemen from Sanaa to Aden and transfer funds through the central bank in Aden rather than the central bank in Sanaa in order to strengthen the Yemeni riyal and cut off Houthi financial flows. 

The Houthis have abducted at least 70 Yemeni employees from UN agencies, international rights and aid organizations, and diplomatic missions in Sanaa on charges of spying for the US and Israel, as well as trying to destabilize the country’s health, education and agriculture sectors.

Topics: Yemen Houthis Abudctees Mothers Association (AMA)

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