Jordanian PM, Qatari minister discuss bilateral ties, Gaza war

Jordanian PM, Qatari minister discuss bilateral ties, Gaza war
Jordanian PM Bisher Al-Khasawneh and Qatari Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al-Khater. (Petra)
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Updated 21 November 2023
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Jordanian PM, Qatari minister discuss bilateral ties, Gaza war

Jordanian PM, Qatari minister discuss bilateral ties, Gaza war
  • Officials said that said that the relationship between Jordan and Qatar is at its “pinnacle"

LONDON: Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh met Qatari Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al-Khater on Tuesday in Amman, Jordan News Agency reported.

During the meeting, Khasawneh highlighted the longstanding relations between the two countries fostered under the leadership of King Abdullah and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Both sides said that the relationship between Jordan and Qatar is at its “pinnacle,” with the two countries improving cooperation across multiple domains.

Khasawneh expressed concern about Israeli aggression causing a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, while commending the level of coordination between Jordan and Qatar to provide sustainable humanitarian aid to the enclave.

He reiterated the shared stance of Jordan and Qatar against Israel’s brutal assault on the Gaza Strip. Both countries have demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities, the protection of civilians, the immediate and long-term delivery of humanitarian aid, and the pursuit of a political solution based on the two-state solution in accordance with international resolutions.

The solution — which Khasawneh described as the only viable way to break the cycle of violence — would involve the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The prime minister praised King Abdullah’s efforts to assist Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, aided by Crown Prince Hussein. Jordan has established field hospitals and launched aid planes, distributing 40,000 tons of wheat, 15,000 tons of grain as well as medicines.

Khasawneh said that his country’s humanitarian efforts will continue alongside political and diplomatic efforts to halt the aggression, protect civilians and ensure the continued delivery of aid.

He reiterated Jordan’s rejection of any actions that result in the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, which the kingdom considers a declaration of war and a breach of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty.

The prime minister praised Qatar’s role in humanitarian truces to ensure aid delivery and prisoner exchanges, paving the way for a ceasefire.

Al-Khater praised Jordan’s position on Gaza and its efforts to promote a peaceful solution to the Palestinian cause.

She reiterated Qatar’s solidarity with Jordan in rejecting the forced displacement of Palestinians, opposing changes to Jerusalem’s historical and legal status, and supporting Palestinian land rights.

The minister also lauded the coordination between Jordan and Qatar in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.
 


Blasts at Iraq PMF security agency base south of Baghdad kill 4 members, sources say

Blasts at Iraq PMF security agency base south of Baghdad kill 4 members, sources say
Updated 7 min 44 sec ago
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Blasts at Iraq PMF security agency base south of Baghdad kill 4 members, sources say

Blasts at Iraq PMF security agency base south of Baghdad kill 4 members, sources say
  • An Iraqi military official said the cause of the blast remained unclear and authorities will start investigating the incident

BAGHDAD: Blasts on Tuesday inside a base south of Baghdad used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) killed four members of the official state security agency containing several Iran-aligned armed groups, and wounded four others, police and medical sources told Reuters.
The initial death toll was one, but two others who were critically injured in the blasts later died and another body was retrieved from the location of the blasts, hospital sources and a local government official said.
The blasts came after multiple rockets were launched at Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad air base housing US-led forces late on Thursday, US and Iraqi sources said, with no damage or casualties reported.
In a statement issued following the blasts, PMF made no accusation, saying it was unidentified explosion.
Another PMF statement issued later said rockets fired by drones targeted two patrols for the PMF forces in town of Jurf Al-Sakhar just south of Baghdad.
An Iraqi military official said the cause of the blast remained unclear and authorities will start investigating the incident.
Two Iraqi PMF local commanders accused the US of carrying out airstrikes that targeted the PMF base. There was no immediate response from the US military.
Ambulances rushed to the area where the camp is located, 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad, said witnesses.
Iraq, a rare ally of both Tehran and Washington which hosts 2,500 US troops and has Iran-backed militias linked to its security forces, has witnessed escalating tit-for-tat attacks since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October.

 


France shifts Western Sahara stance, seeking closer ties with Morocco

France shifts Western Sahara stance, seeking closer ties with Morocco
Updated 37 sec ago
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France shifts Western Sahara stance, seeking closer ties with Morocco

France shifts Western Sahara stance, seeking closer ties with Morocco
  • France, as the former colonial power in the region, has walked a diplomatic tightrope between Rabat and Algiers on the issue

RABAT, Morocco: France has thrown its support behind Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara, shifting a decades-old position and adding itself to a growing list of countries to align with Morocco as a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled.
In a letter to King Mohammed VI, France’s President Emmanuel Macron called the plan that Morocco proposed in 2007 to offer the region limited autonomy under its sovereignty the “only basis” to solve the conflict. The shift deals a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has for decades claimed to be the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi people.
“The present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” Macron wrote in a letter made public on Tuesday. “France intends to act consistently with this position at both national and international level.”
Macron’s move is unlikely to change the key tenets of the territorial dispute but could deepen France ties with Morocco, which has long blamed it for drawing the colonial borders it sees as the root of the conflict. France signaled earlier this year that it was open to investing in Moroccan projects in the disputed territory.
The move could strain diplomatic relations in North Africa, further alienating both France and Morocco from Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front’s claims and allows it to operate as a self-declared government in exile from refugee camps within its borders.
It follows similar shifts from the United States, Israel, Spain and a growing list of African nations that have established consulates in the territory.
In a statement, Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s Royal Cabinet called France’s shift “a significant development.” A high-ranking Moroccan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity noted France’s role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and called it “a game-changer” amid an international shift toward Morocco’s position.
The move was preemptively rebuked by both Algeria and the Polisario Front in the days leading up to the publication of letter, which Algeria said it was made aware of by France in the days prior.
The Polisario’s Mohamed Sidati accused France of acting at odds with international law and backing Moroccan expansionism as its influence wanes throughout Africa.
“Whatever hardships Morocco tries to impose on us with the support of France, the Sahrawi people will continue to stubbornly defend their rights until they obtain the definitive departure of the Moroccan aggressor from their territory and general recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination and independence,” Sidati, the Foreign Minister of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, said in a statement on Monday.
Algeria called Morocco and France “colonial powers, new and old” and announced it would withdraw its ambassador from Paris.
“The French decision is clearly the result of a dubious political calculation, a morally questionable judgment and legal interpretations that are neither supported nor justified,” Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last week.
Western Sahara is roughly the size of Colorado, encompassing a stretch of desert rich in phosphates and sitting along an Atlantic coastline rich in fish. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, sparking a regional conflict and putting it at odds with the pro-independence Polisario Front over the region that the United Nations considers a “non-self-governing territory.”
Morocco quickly moved to occupy the majority of the land, fighting off guerilla warfare from the Polisario until the UN brokered a 1991 ceasefire and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future. Disagreements over who is eligible to vote prevented the referendum from taking place.
Morocco has long sought political recognition of its claim from its other nations, while the Polisario has prioritized fighting legal battles to assert the people of the region’s right to self-determination.
Sporadic violence has ensued since the Polisario renewed armed conflict in 2020, ending a 29-year truce. Morocco has since embarked on expansive economic development efforts, constructing ports, highways and hotels.

 


Algeria to withdraw its ambassador from France, foreign ministry says

Algeria to withdraw its ambassador from France, foreign ministry says
Updated 7 sec ago
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Algeria to withdraw its ambassador from France, foreign ministry says

Algeria to withdraw its ambassador from France, foreign ministry says
  • Algeria took similar measures against Madrid when Spain backed Morocco’s autonomy plan in 2022

TUNIS: Algeria has decided to withdraw its ambassador from France, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after France recognized a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty as the only way of resolving a long-running dispute.
Algeria took similar measures against Madrid when Spain backed Morocco’s autonomy plan in 2022.

 


No time to seek shelter, residents in north Israel after Golan strike

No time to seek shelter, residents in north Israel after Golan strike
Updated 30 July 2024
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No time to seek shelter, residents in north Israel after Golan strike

No time to seek shelter, residents in north Israel after Golan strike
  • “Before, we felt safe, we didn’t feel danger,” said Amal Al-Shaar, 46, who accompanied her 12-year-old son Adam to the Galilee Medical Center
  • “We’re the only hospital to be functional below ground or in a protected area since October 7,” said director Massad Barhum

NAHARIYA, Israel: The war with Hezbollah that residents of northern Israel feared since the start of the Gaza conflict appeared more likely after a deadly rocket strike rocked the annexed Golan Heights.
There, in the Golan Heights bordering Nahariya’s Galilee region and occupied by Israel since 1967, 12 youths were killed and dozens wounded Saturday by the rocket that hit a soccer field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams.
“Before, we felt safe, we didn’t feel danger,” said Amal Al-Shaar, 46, who accompanied her 12-year-old son Adam to the Galilee Medical Center in the coastal town of Nahariya while he received treatment for his injuries from the strike.
“We paid a high price with our children’s lives, we paid with the blood of our hearts for this war,” she said.
Below the ground where Adam and Amal were and in what used to be the hospital’s underground parking lot, certain departments were relocated to protect them from future rocket attacks.
“We’re the only hospital to be functional below ground or in a protected area since October 7,” said director Massad Barhum, who made the decision for the transfer the day of Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
As early as October 8, Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite movement supported by Iran, began to fire rockets at Israel in support of Palestinians and of its ally Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Since then, cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel’s army and the group have become almost daily, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a “severe response” to the Majdal Shams strike blamed on Hezbollah.
Tuesday, another Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket in the area, according to the army and paramedics, leading the military to strike back inside Lebanon where it says it has been aiming at Hezbollah’s infrastructure for weeks.
Tens of thousands of Israelis who lived close to the border were evacuated shortly after the start of the war in Gaza, but in Nahariya, people remained.
This created a “new border” where Nahariya is on the frontline, said Barhum, “along this entire new border, it’s us.”
“When there is a war, it will be here. Missiles could hit here,” said the 64-year-old Arab-Israeli, adding that his hospital is “ready to hold for seven days” without any contact with the outside world.
Strings of small Israeli flags have been hanged between the various departments as a sign of support.
In the hospital’s neonatal unit, the first department to have been relocated underground, newborns are under high protection.
Down there, only the incubators’s humming break the silence, as the sound of air-raid sirens cannot travel through the ground.
“We’re safe down here, far from the world,” said Vered Fleisher-Shefer, the unit’s director, who said she refuses to “live in fear.”
Like Nahariya, the nearby town of Maalot is so close to Lebanon — about 10 kilometers (six miles) — that residents will have just a few seconds to seek shelter when sirens warn of incoming rockets.
“We’re not even inside the (bomb) shelter when we hear explosions... that’s the scary thing,” said teacher Florence Touati-Wachsstock, who move there more than a decade ago.
“That’s what happened in Majdal Shams, and they’re even closer (to Lebanon),” added the 47-year-old mother of five.
“For almost 10 months, we’ve been expecting a real war with Lebanon, even more so these past few days with the attack in Majdal Shams,” she said.
Now she is reassessing her plans for the future.
“Should we stay, should we go, when will we know that we need to go, we have no idea of what can happen this evening, or tomorrow,” she said.
On Tuesday night, Israel carried out a strike on Hezbollah’s stronghold in the suburbs south of Beirut, targeting what the army said was the commander responsible for the Majdal Shams attack.
A source close to the Iran-backed militant group said that senior commander Fuad Shukr was the target but that he “survived the Israeli strike.”


More than 80 patients evacuated from Gaza in biggest operation since war, WHO says

More than 80 patients evacuated from Gaza in biggest operation since war, WHO says
Updated 30 July 2024
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More than 80 patients evacuated from Gaza in biggest operation since war, WHO says

More than 80 patients evacuated from Gaza in biggest operation since war, WHO says
  • “This extremely complex joint evacuation was supported by the (United Arab Emirates), WHO, and partners,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X

CAIRO: At least 85 sick and severely injured Palestinians from Gaza, including 35 children, were evacuated to Abu Dhabi for specialized care, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
“This extremely complex joint evacuation was supported by the (United Arab Emirates), WHO, and partners. It is the largest medical evacuation since October 2023,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X.

The evacuated patients suffered from various severe conditions including cancer, neurological issues and cardiac diseases. They were accompanied by 63 family members and caregivers, Tedros said.