Arab Parliament: Israel ‘evades its heinous crimes with false allegations against Egypt’

A man carries firewood in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 14, 2024, as the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas enters its 100th day. (AFP)
A man carries firewood in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 14, 2024, as the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas enters its 100th day. (AFP)
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Updated 14 January 2024
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Arab Parliament: Israel ‘evades its heinous crimes with false allegations against Egypt’

A man carries firewood in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 14, 2024. (AFP)
  • Arab Parliament speaker said Israel was trying to evade crimes it was committing in Gaza Strip with allegations of Egypt preventing the entry of aid into region

CAIRO: The Arab Parliament has denounced as false allegations made by Israeli representatives at the International Court of Justice regarding the Egyptian position on the Rafah crossing.

Arab Parliament Speaker Adel Abdulrahman Al-Asoumi said that Israel was trying to evade the heinous crimes that it was committing in the Gaza Strip with allegations of Egypt preventing the entry of humanitarian aid into the region through the Rafah crossing.

Al-Asoumi said that the position of Egypt, and that of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, did not require testimony from anyone in light of Israel’s aggression. He also paid tribute to Egypt for providing a large proportion of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

He added: “In addition to its tireless efforts at the political level to achieve a ceasefire and stop this aggression, Egypt (has) spared no effort to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing.”

Al-Asoumi spoke of Egyptian efforts to meet the urgent humanitarian and medical priorities in support of Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The speaker added that attacks carried out by Israel in the vicinity of the Rafah crossing on the Palestinian side were visible, and its obstruction of the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip did not require further evidence.

He said that the whole world had witnessed the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel.

Al-Asoumi praised Egypt’s leadership and its people, stressing that it was always at the forefront of supporters of the Palestinian cause.

He added that this position was not a new one, but stood as an impenetrable wall against plans and attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday that the Rafah crossing had remained open since the onset of the Gaza crisis.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt had tirelessly pursued international and regional efforts to facilitate the entry of substantial aid into the Gaza Strip.

Diaa Rashwan, chairman of Egypt’s State Information Service, on Friday categorically denied the allegations brought by the Israeli defense team at the International Court of Justice that Egypt had prevented the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.


Israel strikes Yemen’s Sana’a airport, ports and power stations

Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, December 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, December 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Updated 24 min 16 sec ago
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Israel strikes Yemen’s Sana’a airport, ports and power stations

Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, December 26, 2024. (Reuters)
  • Houthis said that multiple air raids targeted an airport, military air base and a power station in Yemen

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including Sana’a International Airport and three ports along the western coast.
Attacks hit Yemen’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations as well as military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib, Israel’s military added.
The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli attacks on the airport, Hodeidah and on one power station, were reported by Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthis.
More than a year of Houthi attacks have disrupted international shipping routes, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys that have in turn stoked fears over global inflation.
Israel has instructed its diplomatic missions in Europe to try to get the Houthis designated as a terrorist organization.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Monday over Houthi attacks against Israel, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel’s military failed to intercept a missile from Yemen that fell in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, injuring 14 people. 


Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills

Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills
Updated 26 December 2024
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Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills

Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s more than 13-year civil war, effectively turning it into a narco state under Assad.
“We found a large quantity of captagon, around one million pills,” said a balaclava-wearing member of the security forces, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Osama, and whose khaki uniform bore a “public security” patch.
An AFP journalist saw forces pour fuel over and set fire to a cache of cannabis, the painkiller tramadol, and around 50 bags of pink and yellow captagon pills in a security compound formerly belonging to Assad’s forces in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district.
Captagon has flooded the black market across the region in recent years, with oil-rich Saudi Arabia a major destination.
“The security forces of the new government discovered a drug warehouse as they were inspecting the security quarter,” said another member of the security forces, who identified himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the stocks of alcohol, cannabis, captagon and hashish in order to “protect Syrian society” and “cut off smuggling routes used by Assad family businesses,” he added.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have yet to spell out their policy on alcohol, which has long been widely available in the country.

Since an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, Syria’s new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.
AFP journalists in Syria have seen fighters from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) set fire to what they said were stashes of captagon found at facilities once operated by Assad’s forces.
Security force member Hamza confirmed Wednesday that “this is not the first initiative of its kind — the security services, in a number of locations, have found other warehouses... and drug manufacturing sites and destroyed them in the appropriate manner.”
Maher Assad, a military commander and the brother of Bashar Assad, is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.
Experts believe Syria’s former leader used the threat of drug-fueled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.
A Saudi delegation met Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, a source close to the government told AFP, to discuss the “Syria situation and captagon.”
Jordan in recent years has also cracked down on the smuggling of weapons and drugs including captagon along its 375-kilometer (230-mile) border with Syria.


Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall

Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall
Updated 26 December 2024
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Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall

Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall

AMMAN: About 18,000 Syrians have crossed into their country from Jordan since the government of Bashar Assad was toppled earlier this month, Jordanian authorities said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told state TV channel Al-Mamlaka that “around 18,000 Syrians have returned to their country between the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024 until Thursday.”
He said the returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the United Nations.
Amman says it has hosted about 1.3 million Syrians who fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011, with 650,000 formally registered with the United Nations.


Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government

Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
Updated 26 December 2024
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Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government

Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
  • Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
  • Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders

DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.


Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
Updated 26 December 2024
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Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”