Houthi agency says Israeli, US, British ships banned from Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea
Updated 22 February 2024
Reuters
Ships that are wholly or partially owned by Israeli individuals or entities and Israel-flagged vessels are banned from the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, said statements from an agency controlled by Yemen’s Houthi group seen by Reuters on Thursday. The statements, sent to shipping insurers and firms from the Houthi’s Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center, also said ships owned by US or British individuals or entities, or sailing under their flags, are also banned.
How the Gaza war has impacted the pace of Abraham Accords-style Arab-Israeli normalization
The 2020 accords normalized relations between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain, marking a major step in the peace process
The Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack and the resulting war in Gaza paused the accords’ momentum, complicating future agreements
Updated 12 sec ago
Jonathan Gornall
IN NUMBERS:
* 18% Decline in Israel’s overall trade with outside world since eruption of Gaza war in October 2023.
* 4% Decline in trade between Israel and 7 Arab countries that have normalized ties with it during the same period.
* 14% Drop in Israel-UAE trade in the last quarter of 2023 following the conflict.
(Source: Abraham Accords Peace Institute)
JONATHAN GORNALL
LONDON: It is exactly four years since Donald Trump stood on the South Lawn of the White House, flanked by a beaming Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of Bahrain and the UAE, each holding a copy of the Abraham Accords Declaration.
The signing of the agreements on Sept. 15, 2020, a process driven by the Trump administration, appeared to be the most significant development in the Arab-Israeli peace process for years.
In the historic Abraham Accords, Bahrain and the UAE recognized Israel’s sovereignty and agreed to normalize diplomatic relations. (AFP/File)
Both Bahrain and the UAE recognized Israel’s sovereignty and agreed to normalize diplomatic relations — the only Arab states to have done so since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
In so doing, as the one-page declaration signed by all four parties affirmed, they recognized “the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East … based on mutual understanding and coexistence,” and vowed to “seek to end radicalization and conflict and to provide all children a better future.”
A number of “firsts” followed. For the first time, it became possible to call direct to Israel from the UAE, and Emirati ships and planes began to dock and land in Israeli ports and airports. Various trade and business deals were made.
The Abraham Accords ushered in an era of understanding that saw the opening of Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Family House, which has been featured in TIME Magazine's annual list of the World’s Greatest Places. (WAM photo)
The region’s major player was missing from the White House photo op that day in 2020, but speculation that Saudi Arabia would soon follow suit and normalize relations with Israel was rife.
Three years later, in a groundbreaking and wide-ranging interview with Fox News, broadcast on Sept. 20, 2023, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave the biggest hint yet that such a historic breakthrough might be afoot.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman being interviewed by Bret Baier of Fox News in September 2023. (AN Archives)
“Every day we get closer,” the Saudi crown prince told Bret Baier of Fox News, adding Saudi Arabia could work with Israel, although he added that any such agreement, which would be “the biggest historical deal since the end of the Cold War,” would depend on positive outcomes for the Palestinians.
“If we have a breakthrough of reaching a deal that give the Palestinians their needs and make the region calm, we’re going to work with whoever is there,” he said.
Just over two weeks later, on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and its allies attacked Israel. All bets were off, and the Abraham Accords seemed doomed to go the way of every previous initiative in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since the Madrid Conference of 1991.
People pay tribute near the coffins of some of the people killed in the October 7 deadly attack by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip, during a funeral in Kfar Harif in southern Israel, on Oct. 25, 2023. (AFP)
But, say some commentators, despite the death and destruction of the past year, it would be wrong to write off the accords completely, and whether or not the process can be resuscitated could depend on which of the two main candidates in the coming US presidential election is handed the keys to the White House by the American electorate on Nov. 5.
“I’m not sure I would describe the accords as being on life support,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs).
“They are actually weathering this very difficult storm of the Gaza war. That is certainly putting the leadership and the decision-making in the UAE and Bahrain under a microscope, and of course that poses difficult domestic dynamics for these leaders to navigate.
“But at the same time, they remain committed to the Abraham Accords and haven’t shown any willingness to walk back from them or to break diplomatic ties. They in fact are arguing that by having diplomatic ties with Israel, they have a better avenue to support Palestinians and work behind the scenes with the Israelis.”
As for the Israelis, “normalization with Saudi Arabia is not on the cards for now, partly because obviously the Israeli leadership has different priorities right now, and after Oct. 7, the price of normalization became higher.
“And I think the Israeli leadership is calculating that if they wait this out — and perhaps over-anticipating that the Saudis will still be there, which could be a miscalculation — the price that they have to pay for normalization will go down again.
“I think that they’re assuming that the conditions in the region might change, or perhaps if the outcome of the US election leads to a Trump victory, that might alter what they need to do, what commitments they need to make toward the Palestinians that would satisfy the Saudis.”
But for Brian Katulis, senior fellow for US foreign policy at the Middle East Institute in Washington, “it’s a coin toss” whether a Trump or Kamala Harris administration would be most likely to reinvigorate the Abraham Accords.
“As we saw in the candidates’ debate on Tuesday evening, these issues don’t really matter to either of the leaders or the political discourse in America right now,” he said.
“These questions, of the Abraham Accords, of Israel-Palestine or of Iran, don’t really drive the political and policy debate in a major way compared to US domestic issues — immigration, abortion, who we are as a country, inflation.
“When it comes to foreign policy issues, China is much more relevant as a political question.”
Although, as the father of the Abraham Accords, Trump might be assumed to be keen to re-engage with an initiative he once saw as a foundation stone of his legacy — in January, a Republican lawmaker nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize — “he’s just so erratic as a leader, and I don’t know that he’ll be focused on it,” Katulis said.
“Harris may actually put more time and thought into it. In the debate, she was the only candidate who talked about a two-state solution, and that’s music to the ears of anyone in places like Saudi Arabia, which have been calling for a state of Palestine forever.”
But Saudi Arabia is unlikely to shift far from the position it took in 2002, when it was the author of the Arab Peace Initiative, which was adopted by the Council of Arab States.
This offered Israel peace and normalization of relations with all 22 Arab states, in exchange for “full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land-for-peace principle, and Israel’s acceptance of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
Merissa Khurma, program director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, said: “And of course, the Abraham Accords agreements completely flipped that formula because they offered normalization first.
“The premise they presented was that it was through these channels of communication that have now been established that we can try to address the thorny issues in the Palestinian-Israeli arena.
“But we all know that the reality on the ground was very different, that settlements and outposts have expanded and with the emergence of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, all of that has been accelerated.
“I’ve spoken to officials and thought leaders in the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, and there’s consensus that the Abraham Accords are, at best, on pause. Someone even said the accords are in a coma and they will need to be resuscitated after the war ends in Gaza.”
Harris, Joe Biden’s vice president, is likely to follow in his administration’s footsteps to some extent when it comes to the Abraham Accords.
“The Biden administration was a bit slow to embrace the model of the accords when they came into office, really, because, you know, they saw it as Trump’s legacy, and they were very partisan in their approach,” said Vakil.
“But they did come around, and they did begin to embrace this idea of integration through normalization. The reality, though — and this is what we’ve seen born out since Oct. 7 — is that without providing a mechanism and commitment to restart a peace process, and one that allows Palestinians to have self-determination, the accords, on their own, cannot deliver Israel’s security or provide the region with that integration, that economic and security integration that they’re seeking.”
A reboot of the agreements in the wake of the cessation of the current hostilities would be an opportunity — if not a precondition — to reconfigure them and put Palestinian demands at the top of the agenda.
“The Abraham Accords was a well-intentioned initiative led by countries in the region that wanted to prioritize their national security and economic interests,” Merissa Khurma said.
“No one can say taking the path of peace is a bad idea. But the heavy criticism from the region and the Arab public in general, which you can see in the polling from 2021 until today, is that in doing so they basically sidelined the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and flipped the formula that was the essence of the Arab Peace Initiative led by Saudi Arabia in 2002.”
To move forward successfully, said Katulis, whoever becomes America’s next president must “prioritize Palestine and make it a big item on the agenda.”
To do this, they should “go back to good old-fashioned collective diplomacy and form a regional coalition with a new international framework to create the state of Palestine. It’s ripe for the picking, and I would lean into it.”
Katulis added: “I would advise either President Trump or Harris to work by, with and through all of these countries, from Saudi Arabia to Morocco and others, those that have accords and those that want to. I would spend at least six months assembling everything that people have argued since the war started, and what they’d be willing to do, and what they’d be willing to invest, and present to Israel, the Israeli public and its politicians an offer — a state of Palestine that is going to be good for your security and will also insulate you from the threats presented by Iran.
“It is important to think practical, to think realistic, and realistic is that the next US president is not going to actually attend to a lot of these issues, so we’ve got to work with and through people diplomatically.
“Use that new energy in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and other places, use the resources they have to actually do some good, and that good should have as its endpoint making an offer to say, this is a state of Palestine which will coexist with Israel.”
That new energy, said Khurma, was evident at the 33rd summit of the Arab League in Bahrain in May.
In the joint declaration issued afterward, the league reiterated “our unwavering position and our call for a just and comprehensive peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, as well as our support for the call of His Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, for an international peace conference to be convened and for irreversible steps to be taken to implement the two-state solution, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and authoritative international resolutions, with a view to establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the basis of the lines of 4 June 1967.”
For whoever becomes the next president of the US, this initiative could be the vital missing component needed to jumpstart the Abraham Accords.
“When they met in Bahrain, the Arab countries revived the Arab Peace Initiative and took it a step further,” Khurma said.
“In the US media, there was very little coverage, but the declaration is very important because it shows that even in the midst of this horrific war, these countries are still willing to revive the Arab Peace Initiative, a peace plan with Israel, and to extend a hand to normalize with Israel, but of course, without leaving the Palestinians behind.”
Trains collide in Egypt’s Nile Delta leaving 3 dead, 29 injured
The crash happened in the city of Zagazig, the capital of Sharqiya province, the country’s railway authority said in a statement
Updated 29 min 8 sec ago
AP
CAIRO: Two passenger trains collided in Egypt’s Nile Delta on Saturday, killing at least three people, two of them children, authorities said.
The crash happened in the city of Zagazig, the capital of Sharqiya province, the country’s railway authority said in a statement. Egypt’s Health Ministry said the collision injured at least 40 others.
Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an aging railway system has also been plagued by mismanagement. In recent years, the government announced initiatives to improve its railways.
In 2018, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said some 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the North African country’s neglected rail network.
Video from the site of the crash showed a train car crumpled by the impact, surrounded by crowds. Men tried to lift the injured through the windows of a passenger car.
Last month, a train crashed into a truck crossing the train tracks in the Mediterranean province of Alexandria, killing two people.
Darfur has seen some of the war’s worst atrocities, and the RSF has besieged Al-Fasher since May
Updated 39 min 2 sec ago
AFP
KHARTOUM: Heavy fighting on Saturday shook a Sudanese city besieged by Rapid Support Forces, witnesses said, as US researchers reported unprecedented and escalating combat in the North Darfur state capital.
Al-Fasher is one of five state capitals in Sudan’s western Darfur region and the only one not in the hands of the Rapid Support Forces, who have been battling the regular army since April 2023.
The UN says the war across much of Sudan has created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with millions uprooted, and has led to famine at a displacement camp near Al-Fasher.
Darfur has seen some of the war’s worst atrocities, and the RSF has besieged Al-Fasher since May.
“Neighborhoods are completely deserted, and all you can hear are explosions and missiles,” said Ibrahim Ishaq, 52.
“The central market area has become unliveable because of the intensity of the explosions,” said Ishaq, who fled westward from the city on Friday.
Witnesses reported army bombardment south and east of the city on Saturday and said they heard air-defense batteries firing.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab said in a report on Friday that its analysis confirmed “unprecedented large-scale combat operations” in El-Fasher within the previous 10 days, “with significant escalation in the past 36 hours” involving both the army and the paramilitary forces.
It cited reports that describe “a major multidirectional RSF attack from the northern, eastern, and southern directions” on Thursday.
Darfur Gov. Mini Minawi said on Thursday on social media platform X that the army had repelled “a large attack” by the RSF.
The paramilitaries, however, said they seized military sites in Al-Fasher.
Using satellite imagery and other data, the Yale researchers said they found munition impacts “likely related to high-tempo aerial bombardment” from the regular army but said other structural damage resulted from “RSF bombardment” and combat activity by both sides.
Whatever the battle’s outcome, current fighting levels “are likely to reduce what is left of El-Fasher to rubble effectively,” the Yale study said.
The US special envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello said on X: “We are extremely concerned about the RSF’s renewed attacks.”
He urged the RSF “to stop its assault.”
It was not immediately possible to determine the number of victims.
Sudan’s war has already killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates as high as 150,000, according to Perriello.
In Khartoum on Saturday, around 800 km from Al-Fasher, witnesses reported heavy explosions and strikes to the city’s south.
Independent UN experts earlier this month appealed for the urgent deployment of an “impartial force” in Sudan for civilian protection.
Sudan’s foreign ministry, loyal to the army, rejected the idea.
Israel strikes northern Lebanon in sudden escalation
Hostilities have reached new areas over the past 24 hours on both sides of the border
Updated 14 September 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Israeli warplanes targeted the Qasr-Hermel area in the far northeast of Lebanon on Saturday evening for the first time in weeks. No deaths were reported.
The warplanes hit the surroundings of the town of Hawsh Al-Sayyid Ali in Hermel, a border area between Lebanon and Syria. They also targeted the Sarein Plain in the Bekaa Valley, 21 km from the city of Baalbek.
Loud explosions were heard in most parts of Baalbek and central Bekaa, causing panic among residents.
Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have escalated, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that he “decided to expand the military operation against Hezbollah … on the border with Lebanon.”
Israel’s Channel 13 quoted him as saying: “We are in the process of a broad and powerful operation on the northern front, and the Israeli army is seeking a gradual escalation on the northern front with Lebanon.”
Hostilities have reached new areas over the past 24 hours on both sides of the border. In the evening, Israel targeted the Sarafand area north of the Litani Line, while Hezbollah targeted settlements in the Safed, Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot areas in northern Israel.
The Israeli military announced in the evening that “two drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon towards the Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot settlements exploded, and they fell north of Kiryat Shmona.”
US envoy set for Tel Aviv talks in push to avoid deeper conflict
Lebanese minister backs journalist in condemning Israel’s ‘psychological warfare’
Hezbollah targets northern Israel with rockets in response to strikes on residential areas
Updated 14 September 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: US presidential envoy Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in Tel Aviv on Monday as the US pushes to stop violence along Israel’s border with Lebanon spiraling into a deeper conflict.
Hochstein is believed to be carrying a message from the US urging restraint, and calling on Israel to avoid any large-scale military action.
The Israeli government is due to meet on Sunday to discuss its response to the escalating conflict with Hezbollah, either through diplomatic efforts or a large-scale military operation.
The meeting comes amid growing internal pressure to facilitate the return of settlers who were forced to flee their homes in northern Israel about a year ago.
Hostilities continued as caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari expressed his support for Lebanese journalist Amal Al-Khalil in condemning Israel’s “intellectual terrorism and psychological warfare.”
The minister called Al-Khalil, a correspondent for the pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar newspaper, after she received death threats from Israeli sources via her phone.
Hezbollah on Saturday rained dozens of rockets on northern Israel, mainly in the areas of Rosh Pinna and north of Lake Tiberias, and carried out attacks with assault drones.
The strikes were in response to attacks by the Israeli military on residential buildings in southern villages, especially Al-Ahmadiyya in Western Bekaa and Kafr Rumman in the Nabatieh area.
In successive statements, Hezbollah said it launched an assault drone attack on the headquarters of the 810th Hermon Brigade at the Ma’ale Golani barracks, and struck the 282nd Artillery and Precision Missile Brigade headquarters in Yiftah Elifleet, northwest of Lake Tiberias, with Katyusha rockets.
Sirens sounded in Avivim in the Western Galilee.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that 55 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward the Upper Galilee since early morning.
Israeli media reported that Hezbollah was expanding its range of fire, focusing on Safed, the Tiberias area, and Rosh Pinna.
Sirens were also heard in Safed, Ami’ad, and Dovev in Western Galilee, and Yiftah.
Large explosions rocked the Upper Galilee, and rockets were reported to have landed in the Kahal area, south of Safed.
Explosions were heard in the artillery bunkers in Zaoura in the Golan Heights after a rocket salvo was launched from Lebanon. Sirens sounded in several nearby settlements.
Hezbollah said that it hit the Northern Corps reserve headquarters, the Galilee Division reserve base, and its logistical depots in Ami’ad with dozens of Katyusha rockets.
The militant group also claimed to have destroyed an Israeli Merkava tank on the Roueissat Al-Alam-Zebdine road with a guided missile.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that an Israeli airstrike on a building in Kfar Rumman, in the Nabatieh region, on Friday left 13 people injured, with one person requiring hospital treatment.
Hezbollah mourned the loss of one of its members, Abbas Hamada, 34, from the town of Qammatiyah in Mount Lebanon.
The Israeli army carried out a series of airstrikes and artillery attacks on several border towns in the southern region.
A spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, claimed that security forces targeted rocket launch sites that were used to stage attacks on Galilee in the morning and toward Upper Galilee late on Friday.
Adraee said that warplanes targeted a military building in Kfar Rumman, while Israeli artillery shelled areas in southern Lebanon.
Israeli reconnaissance aircraft and military drones continued to fly over the villages in the south, reaching the outskirts of the city of Tyre, while flares lit up the skies over border villages adjacent to the Blue Line in both the western and central sectors.
