Blinken says path to Palestinian state can isolate Iran, proxies

Blinken says path to Palestinian state can isolate Iran, proxies
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media before boarding his plane in Cairo, Egypt, January 11, 2024, at the end of his week-long trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East. (Pool via Reuters)
Blinken says path to Palestinian state can isolate Iran, proxies
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves to the press at the end of his visit to Cairo as he boards the plane on January 11, 2024 on his way back to Washington DC, following a week-long trip to the Middle East aimed at calming tensions across the region. (POOL / AFP)
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Updated 11 January 2024
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Blinken says path to Palestinian state can isolate Iran, proxies

Blinken says path to Palestinian state can isolate Iran, proxies
  • Says the "other path is to continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran”
  • Blinken made the statement as he concluded his Mideast tour with a meeting with Egyptian President El-Sisi

CAIRO: Offering a pathway to a Palestinian state is the best way to stabilize the wider region and isolate Iran and its proxies, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday, as he ended a frenetic regional tour over the Gaza war in Cairo.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Blinken said the region faced two paths, the first of which would see “Israel integrated, with security assurances and committments from regional countries and as well from the United States, and a Palestinian state — at least a pathway to get to that state.”

Blinken said Israel bolstering its security and the creation of a Palestinian state is the best way to thwart attacks from Iran’s regional proxies, like Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and various militia that have staged attacks on US and foreign interests in Iraq and Syria.

He added: “The other path is to continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran.”

“If you pursue the first path ... that’s the single best way to isolate, to marginalize Iran and the proxies that are making so much trouble — for us and pretty much everyone else in the region.”

He said there is “a greater willingness now of countries to make the hard decisions and do what’s necessary to advance on that track.”

The meeting President El-Sisi and Blinken outlined Egyptian efforts to communicate with all parties, to reach an immediate ceasefire,and to ensure accessibility to humanitarian aid.

According to a statement from El-Sisi’s office, both sides stated their rejection of any displacement of Palestinians from their lands.

Egyptian General Intelligence Service Director Major General Abbas Kamel also attended the meeting.Presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy said that the regional situation was discussed, especially in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian territories.

Blinken was keen to share with El-Sisi the course of his expanded tour in the region and to listen to Egypt’s vision on theprospects for a solution.

El-Sisi stressed the need for the international community to undertake its responsibilities to implement the relevant UN resolutions so that aid could enter in sufficient quantities to help the people of Gaza.

He said it was also imperative for the calming efforts to lead to a just and comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian issue that addressed the roots of the current situation, enabled the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights, and achieved security, development and prosperity for all the people of the region.

Modest success

American officials claimed modest success in getting wide regional support for planning for reconstruction and governance in Gaza after Israel’s war with Hamas ends.

But progress is uncertain because Israel’s far-right government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not on board with several key points and it remains unclear if it can be convinced to accept them.

Still, Blinken secured buy-in from previously reluctant Arab and Muslim nations to begin post-war planning planning for Gaza in discussions with the leaders of Turkiye, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the Palestinian Authority over the weeklong mission, his fourth to the Middle East since the war began in October.

Winning approval for the consideration of post-conflict scenarios along with tamping down renewed fears that the Gaza war could spread were Blinken’s main goals.

Each country — along with Greece, which Blinken also visited — pledged to participate in the general planning, although precise contributions have yet to be determined and Israel remained an outlier.

“On our previous trips here, I think there was a reluctance to talk about some of the day-after issues in terms of long-term stability and security on a regional basis,” Blinken told reporters at Cairo’s airport after his meeting with El-Sisi. “But now we’re finding that our partners are very focused on that and wanting to engage on those questions.”

“They’re also clearly prepared to take steps to do things, to make commitments necessary both for Gaza’s future and for long-term peace and security of the region,” Blinken said.

However, Arab support is contingent on not only the end of the conflict but also the establishment of a pathway for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, something that Netanyahu opposes.

US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private diplomatic talks, said the conversations Blinken had in Israel on Tuesday were the most difficult on the trip. But, they added, the talks had been successful in getting Israel to agree to a United Nations inspection team visit to northern Gaza to gauge whether it is safe for residents who fled the Israeli offensive to return.

Also key to the plan is the reform of the Palestinian Authority, which was the main agenda item at a summit held Wednesday in Aqaba between El-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“We have a commitment from the Palestinian Authority to pursue meaningful reform,” Blinken said. Officials said the changes would include the appointment of a new technocratic government, a crackdown on corruption, judicial reform and an easing of media restrictions.

(With AP)

 


Israel strikes south Beirut as Hezbollah says targeted south Israel

Israel strikes south Beirut as Hezbollah says targeted south Israel
Updated 58 min 38 sec ago
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Israel strikes south Beirut as Hezbollah says targeted south Israel

Israel strikes south Beirut as Hezbollah says targeted south Israel
  • Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported three raids “within the third round of strikes on the southern suburbs today“
  • AFPTV footage showed columns of smoke rising from the area, usually a densely populated residential district but now largely emptied

BEIRUT: Successive rounds of Israeli strikes hit Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold Thursday after Israeli military evacuation warnings, while Hezbollah claimed a series of attacks including on a base near south Israel’s Ashdod, its deepest so far.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported three raids “within the third round of strikes on the southern suburbs today,” saying they hit the Haret Hreik and Hadath areas.
It had earlier reported two other rounds of three raids each on the southern suburbs, including a “very violent strike” on Haret Hreik and a raid on the Kafaat neighborhood that destroyed a building and damaged others nearby.
AFPTV footage showed columns of smoke rising from the area, usually a densely populated residential district but now largely emptied.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee on social media platform X issued several rounds of evacuation warnings for areas in the southern suburbs, saying the military would target Hezbollah “facilities and interests,” pinpointing six buildings.
The Israeli military in a statement said its air force carried out strikes on “Hezbollah command centers and terror infrastructure” in the southern suburbs, which it has hit repeatedly since September 23 when it escalated air raids against the Iran-backed group.
Hezbollah claimed a series of attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon and on military facilities across the border including a drone attack on the Haifa naval base, which it has repeatedly claimed strikes against.
The group also said its fighters “targeted... for the first time, the Hatzor air base” near the southern city of Ashdod, around 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, “with a missile salvo.”
Israeli first responders said a man was killed on Thursday after rocket fire from Lebanon hit the Galilee region in Israel’s north.
The renewed Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs came after two days of relative calm in Beirut and its suburbs while US envoy Amos Hochstein visited, seeking to broker an end to the almost two-month-long Israel-Hezbollah war.
Hochstein was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the premier’s office said.
The Israeli army also issued evacuation warnings for areas in and around the southern coastal city of Tyre, while the NNA reported Israeli strikes in south and east Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Wednesday that at least 3,558 people had been killed in the violence since October 2023.
Most of the deaths have been since September this year, when Israel began its massive bombing campaign and later sent ground forces in to Lebanon.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that three soldiers, including a 70-year-old, were killed in south Lebanon, bringing to 52 the number killed in Lebanon since the start of ground operations.


Libya’s Derna hosts theater festival year after flash flood

Libya’s Derna hosts theater festival year after flash flood
Updated 21 November 2024
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Libya’s Derna hosts theater festival year after flash flood

Libya’s Derna hosts theater festival year after flash flood
  • Nizar Al-Aned, artistic director of the Derna Festival, said organizers had “insisted that the festival take place, even if the theater is still under construction” to rebuild it
  • Tunisian comedian Abir Smiti said it was her first time at the event

DERNA, Libya: A year after a flash flood ripped through Derna and killed thousands of people, the coastal Libyan city is hosting a theater festival with a message of hope.
The city in the war-torn country’s east is still reeling from the flooding that destroyed historic buildings, including Libya’s oldest theater where the festival was held in previous years.
Nizar Al-Aned, artistic director of the Derna Festival, said organizers had “insisted that the festival take place, even if the theater is still under construction” to rebuild it.
Now, back after a pause due to the September 2023 floods, the festival’s sixth edition is being held this week under the slogan: “Derna is back, Derna is hope.”
With five theater troupes from Libya, and one each from neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, the event has drawn artists, comedians and visitors from across the Arab world.
Tunisian comedian Abir Smiti said it was her first time at the event.
“To me, Derna is a discovery,” she told AFP.
“When you just arrive, you can feel the pain, but at the same time there’s joy. You can feel how everyone has hope.”
Once home to about 120,000 inhabitants, the wall of water that swept through Derna last year killed nearly 4,000 people, left thousands missing and displaced more than 40,000 others, according to the United Nations.
It was the result of extreme rainfall from hurricane-strength Storm Daniel, which had caused two dams to burst inland from the city that lies some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.
Libya is still grappling with the aftermath of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
The chaos that ensued saw the rise of jihadist movements, with Derna coming under the control of Al-Qaeda and later the Daesh group before they were chased out by 2018.
The North African country remains split between two rival administrations.
The divisions have complicated the emergency response and reconstruction efforts.
Derna is under the eastern administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose son Belgacem Haftar has been the figurehead for reconstruction in the city.
At the theater festival, jury member Hanane Chouehidi told AFP that “despite the drama, the deaths and the destruction,” she was confident Derna could be rebuilt.
“Derna deserves to be beautiful, just as its residents deserve to be happy,” she said.


Israeli foreign minister says ICC “lost all legitimacy” with Netanyahu, Gallant ruling

Israeli foreign minister says ICC “lost all legitimacy” with Netanyahu, Gallant ruling
Updated 21 November 2024
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Israeli foreign minister says ICC “lost all legitimacy” with Netanyahu, Gallant ruling

Israeli foreign minister says ICC “lost all legitimacy” with Netanyahu, Gallant ruling
  • “A dark moment for the International Criminal Court,” Saar said on X
  • French foreign ministry’s spokesman Christophe Lemoine said their reaction will be in line with the court’s statutes

JERUSALEM: The International Criminal Court has “lost all legitimacy” after issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday.
“A dark moment for the International Criminal Court,” Saar said on X, adding that it had issued “absurd orders without authority.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office rejected the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants against him and his former defense chief, describing them as “anti-Semitic.”
“Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions leveled against it by ICC,” his office said in a statement, adding Israel won’t “give in to pressure” in the defense of its citizens. 

When asked during a news conference if France would arrest Netanyahu, the French foreign ministry’s spokesman Christophe Lemoine said their reaction will be in line with the court’s statutes, but declined to say whether France would arrest the leader if he came to the country.
“It’s a point that is legally complex so I’m not going to comment on it today,” he said.


Displaced by war, cancer patients in Lebanon struggle for survival

Displaced by war, cancer patients in Lebanon struggle for survival
Updated 21 November 2024
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Displaced by war, cancer patients in Lebanon struggle for survival

Displaced by war, cancer patients in Lebanon struggle for survival

BEIRUT: Lebanese small business owner Ahmad Fahess thought nothing could be more devastating than his cancer diagnosis until suddenly, while he was at work one day, Israeli airstrikes started targeting his town of Nabatieh in south Lebanon.
When he saw the tangled mess around him, he knew he had to grab his family and flee.
“We want to go back to our homes, to our work,” he said, breaking into tears as he received cancer treatment at the American University of Beirut’s Medical Center (AUBMC), his sister sitting next to his bed.
Israel launched a broad attack on southern Lebanon in September, almost a year after Iran-backed Hezbollah militants there stepped up their rocket fire on northern Israel as Israeli forces fought Hamas gunmen who had attacked Israel from Gaza.
Washington is trying to broker a ceasefire but Israel says it must be able to continue defending itself. It says Hezbollah uses civilians as human shields, something the militants deny.
A father of two teenagers who owned four welding shops in Nabatieh, Fahess is now not only unsure when he will be able to go home, but also how long he will be able to access treatment for the rare cancer, sarcoma, which affects the connective tissue in his left arm.
“I used to come three days to Beirut for treatment and go back home,” he said. “Now with the war, we were displaced, and the treatment struggle started.”
Thousands of cancer patients are among more than a million people who have fled their homes.
“It all happened very quickly. We were at work when the shelling started; we were surprised by it,” he said. He fled with his family to Antelias in Mount Lebanon with only $4,500 that quickly dwindled.
Fahess now depends on the hospital’s Cancer Support Fund, a charity initiative launched in 2018 to assist cancer patients and now also giving extra support to displaced individuals.
“The treatment is costly; if the hospital didn’t help me, I couldn’t have afforded it,” he said.
But he is worried about funding drying up. “If we have to pay and we’re back at our homes, it would be fine, but if we are still displaced, it’ll be impossible,” he said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 2,500 displaced cancer patients have been forced to find new treatment centers, as at least eight hospitals in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs were out of action due to Israeli shelling.
Cancer was already expensive to treat under Lebanon’s health care system, which in recent years has been battered further by economic crisis.
It is now under severe strain, said Ali Taher, the director of the Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute at AUBMC, adding that treating displaced patients has brought new complications, including finding their missing medical records and doctors.
“It’s also difficult to get cancer screening ahead of time because it’s no longer a priority for people,” Taher said.
Ghazaleh Naddaf, 67, was displaced from the southern village of Debel. Now living with her brother in Beirut, the former pharmacist assistant lost her job and has been unable to afford her therapy for multiple myeloma for two months.
“I am skipping treatment and medication,” she said. “I used to come twice a week for treatment, paying over $1,000. I can’t afford it anymore,” adding that she also needs a bone marrow transplant costing $50,000, an expense far beyond her reach.
“It’s war, and there is no safety, and I still need to go through the treatment to get on with my life,” she said.
Hala Dahdah Abou Jaber, co-founder of the Cancer Support Fund, said displaced cancer patients have to choose between basic necessities and life-threatening therapies and many can no longer co-pay for their treatment.
“Cancer doesn’t wait. Cancer is not a disease that gives you time; it’s harsh,” she said.


Iran president visits Sistan-Baluchistan after deadly attack

Iran president visits Sistan-Baluchistan after deadly attack
Updated 21 November 2024
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Iran president visits Sistan-Baluchistan after deadly attack

Iran president visits Sistan-Baluchistan after deadly attack

TEHRAN: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in the restive southeast of Iran on Thursday for a visit to Sistan-Baluchistan province, state media reported, nearly a month after one of the deadliest ever attacks in the region.
Sistan-Baluchistan, located some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from the capital Tehran, shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups and drug traffickers.
On October 26, ten police officers were killed in what the authorities described as a “terrorist” attack.
Pezeshkian arrived at the airport in the regional capital Zahedan for a one-day visit during which he was set to meet the families of the dead police officers, state television reported.
Since the October 26 attack, Iranian forces have launched a vast counterterrorism operation in Sistan-Baluchistan that is ongoing, during which at least 26 militants have been killed and around fifty people arrested, according to the authorities.
The Sunni jihadist group Jaish Al-Adl — Army of Justice in Arabic — based in Pakistan and active in southeastern Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on Telegram.
The Iranian president is also scheduled to visit the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone, a major project aimed at developing southern Iran.
Chabahar Port, which bypasses the heavy traffic of the Strait of Hormuz, is aimed at attracting businesses from nearby Pakistan, India, the Gulf and China among others.
Chabahar, located on the edge of the Indian Ocean, was exempted by Washington from the economic sanctions it unilaterally reimposed after withdrawing from a landmark nuclear agreement.
Sistan-Baluchistan, one of the most impoverished provinces in the country, is home to a large number of the Baluch minority, an ethnic group spread between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan which practices Sunni Islam in contrast to the country’s predominantly Shiite population.