You are here

  • Home
  • Spain’s prime minister says he will propose that parliament recognizes a Palestinian state

Spain’s prime minister says he will propose that parliament recognizes a Palestinian state

Spain’s prime minister says he will propose that parliament recognizes a Palestinian state
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says he will propose that the country's parliament recognizes a Palestinian state. (AP Photo/File)
Short Url

https://arab.news/vpx9x

Updated 10 March 2024
AP
Follow

Spain’s prime minister says he will propose that parliament recognizes a Palestinian state

Spain’s prime minister says he will propose that parliament recognizes a Palestinian state
  • Says it's a "just cause and because it is the only way that the two states, Israel and Palestine, can live together in peace.”
  • Adds that his position on the conflict in the Gaza Strip is much like his country’s support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion
Updated 10 March 2024
AP
Follow

BILBAO, Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Saturday that he will propose that Spain’s parliament recognizes a Palestinian state.

“I will propose granting Spain’s recognition to the Palestinian state,” Sánchez said. “I do this out of moral conviction, for a just cause and because it is the only way that the two states, Israel and Palestine, can live together in peace.”

Sánchez added his voice to a chorus of other European leaders and government officials who have said that they could support a two-state solution in the Middle East as international frustration grows with Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.

Sanchez also posted his plan on the X platform.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that it’s not “taboo” for France to recognize a Palestinian state. British Foreign Minister David Cameron said that the United Kingdom could officially recognize a Palestinian state after a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Sánchez said that his position on the conflict in the Gaza Strip is much like his country’s support for Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion more than two years ago.

He stressed that Spain demanded “respect for international law from Russia, and from Israel, for the violence to end, the recognition of two states, and for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.”

His comments at a rights conference in the city of Bilbao came as aid shipments were headed for Gaza amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a new international willingness to work around Israeli restrictions.

Five months after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage, Israel’s military has battered the territory, killing more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Topics: Spain pedro sanchez Palestinian state Israel War on Gaza

Related

Israel opposes ‘unilateral’ imposition of Palestinian state
Middle-East
Israel opposes ‘unilateral’ imposition of Palestinian state
Palestinian state only pathway to Middle East security, stability: Saudi FM video
Middle-East
Palestinian state only pathway to Middle East security, stability: Saudi FM

Bangladesh cuts Hajj package fee by 20% to accommodate more pilgrims

Bangladesh cuts Hajj package fee by 20% to accommodate more pilgrims
Updated 59 min 38 sec ago
Follow

Bangladesh cuts Hajj package fee by 20% to accommodate more pilgrims

Bangladesh cuts Hajj package fee by 20% to accommodate more pilgrims
  • Bangladeshis will pay $920 less than this year for the 2025 pilgrimage package
  • Hajj quota for Bangladesh was 127,000 in 2024 but only 85,000 pilgrims traveled
Updated 59 min 38 sec ago
SHEHAB SUMON

DHAKA: The Bangladeshi government cut the cost of Hajj packages on Wednesday to make the spiritual journey more accessible in next year’s pilgrimage season.

Last year, Saudi Arabia granted Bangladesh a quota of 127,000 pilgrims, but high inflation and the cost of flights to the Middle East meant only 85,000 were able to embark on the spiritual journey.

In 2024, the minimum government rate for Hajj was nearly $5,000; for 2025, it will be about 20 percent lower.

“We have announced two Hajj packages today for next year’s Hajj. It’s good news for our pilgrims that costs have been reduced significantly this time, compared with last year. In one package, it has been reduced by $920, and in another one, the cost is reduced by around $100,” Matiul Islam, additional secretary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Arab News.

“This huge reduction in the Hajj expense was mainly possible due to the reduction in plane fare and accommodation facilities.”

Under the cheaper package, pilgrims will stay in accommodation some 3 km from the Great Mosque of Makkah, while hotels will be located within 1.5 km of the sacred site under the more expensive one.

Bangladesh, one of the most populous Muslim-majority countries, also struggled to meet its Hajj quota in 2023, as few people were able to afford it.

The government is hopeful this will not be the case in 2025.

“We hope that the Hajj quota will be fulfilled as Hajj expenses have been reduced significantly. As of today, around 9,000 pilgrims (are) registered for next year,” Islam said.

“I think the prospective pilgrims will register for Hajj in huge numbers in the next weeks, as many of them were waiting for the announcement of the new package.”

Next year’s Hajj is expected to begin on June 4. The deadline for Bangladeshi pilgrims to register is Nov. 30.

Topics: Bangladesh hajj

Related

Bangladesh records lowest Hajj registration turnout as inflation bites
World
Bangladesh records lowest Hajj registration turnout as inflation bites
First Bangladeshi pilgrims ready to depart for Hajj
World
First Bangladeshi pilgrims ready to depart for Hajj

Philippines braces for new typhoon with regions still under water after deadly storm

Philippines braces for new typhoon with regions still under water after deadly storm
Updated 30 October 2024
Ellie Aben
Follow

Philippines braces for new typhoon with regions still under water after deadly storm

Philippines braces for new typhoon with regions still under water after deadly storm
  • More than 300,000 people remained in emergency shelters after Tropical Storm Trami
  • Kong-Rey is skirting northern Philippines before slamming into Taiwan on Thursday
Updated 30 October 2024
Ellie Aben

MANILA: The Philippines braced on Wednesday for the possible impact of another powerful typhoon sweeping the country’s north, days after a storm wreaked havoc on its most populous island, leaving at least 139 people dead and dozens missing.

Kong-rey — locally known as Leon — reached super-typhoon strength on Wednesday and was expected to bring strong winds and heavy rainfall as it skirted the northernmost province of Batanes, said the weather bureau, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

The PAGASA also warned of a moderate-to-high risk of “life-threatening coastal flooding due to storm surge with peak heights exceeding 3.0 meters.”

This could be triggered by Kong-rey in low-lying coasts of Batanes and the nearby Babuyan cluster of islands, home to some combined 20,000 people.

Batanes was placed under Signal No. 4, which means that “the situation is potentially very destructive to the community.”

“Forced and mandatory evacuations in areas identified with high risk (are) enforced as the country prepares for the anticipated adverse weather condition brought by ‘Leon,’” the Department of Defense said in a statement.

The super-typhoon is passing near the Philippines before making landfall along Taiwan’s eastern coast on Thursday.

The 12th cyclone to hit the Philippines this year was approaching days after Tropical Storm Trami swept across the country’s northeast, inundating entire towns with severe flooding and triggering landslides.

Most of the damage was recorded in Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and most populous island.

Towns and cities in the Bicol region, southern Luzon, were still under water on Wednesday, as over 300,000 people displaced last week remained in emergency shelters, authorities said.

It was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in 2024.

The Southeast Asian nation is the country most at risk from natural disasters, according to the 2024 World Risk Report.

Millions of Filipinos are affected by storms and typhoons every year, which are increasingly more unpredictable and extreme due to climate change.

Topics: Philippines

Related

Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’
Offbeat
Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’
Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked
World
Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked

US running low on interceptor missiles amid Middle East, Ukraine wars: WSJ

US running low on interceptor missiles amid Middle East, Ukraine wars: WSJ
Updated 30 October 2024
Arab News
Follow

US running low on interceptor missiles amid Middle East, Ukraine wars: WSJ

US running low on interceptor missiles amid Middle East, Ukraine wars: WSJ
  • Pentagon officials reportedly ‘concerned’ over American readiness levels
  • Analyst: ‘Both of those wars are extended conflicts, which was not part of US defense planning’
Updated 30 October 2024
Arab News

LONDON: US stockpiles of air-defense missiles are running low amid surging demand in Israel and Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Pentagon officials and analysts are reportedly “concerned” over US readiness due to an inability to produce new missiles faster than they are being used.

More than 100 Standard Missiles have been launched since the Hamas attack against Israel last October.

The interceptors were used to counter the two Iranian missile and drone attacks on Israel, as well as strikes from Yemen’s Houthi militia.

“The US has not developed a defense industrial base intended for a large-scale war of attrition in both Europe and the Middle East, while meeting its own readiness standards,” Elias Yousif, deputy director of the Conventional Defense Program at the Stimson Center, told the WSJ. “And both of those wars are extended conflicts, which was not part of US defense planning.”

Washington cannot publicly disclose its stockpile strength due to security concerns. Pentagon officials said there are no plans to increase production of Standard Missiles.

“Over the course of the last year, the Department of Defense has augmented our force posture in the region to protect US forces and support the defense of Israel, while always taking into account US readiness and stockpiles,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told the WSJ.

Topics: US Ukraine Iran Israel

Related

US missile system will remain in the Philippines despite China’s alarm
World
US missile system will remain in the Philippines despite China’s alarm
US to complete withdrawal from Niger’s air base on Sunday
World
US to complete withdrawal from Niger’s air base on Sunday

Canada alleges Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered campaign targeting Sikh separatists

Canada alleges Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered campaign targeting Sikh separatists
Updated 30 October 2024
AP
Follow

Canada alleges Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered campaign targeting Sikh separatists

Canada alleges Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered campaign targeting Sikh separatists
  • Justin Trudeau has said Canada has evidence Indian agents murdered Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
  • Indian authorities have repeatedly denied Canada’s allegations while calling them absurd in recent months
Updated 30 October 2024
AP

OTTAWA, Ontario: A Canadian official alleged Tuesday that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told Parliament members of the national security committee that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations.
“The journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee.
Morrison did not say how Canada knew of Shah’s alleged involvement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a year ago that Canada had credible evidence agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June 2023.
Canadian authorities have repeatedly said they have shared evidence of that with Indian authorities.
Indian government officials have repeatedly denied Canada has provided evidence and have called the allegations absurd. India’s embassy in Ottawa didn’t immediately respond to messages for a request for comment on the allegation against Shah.
On Oct. 14, Canada expelled the Indian high commissioner and five other diplomats, alleging they were persons of interest in multiple cases of coercion, intimidation and violence aimed at quieting a campaign for an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan.
Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The United States Justice Department announced criminal charges in mid-October against an Indian government employee in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.
In the case announced by the Justice Department, Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors have previously said was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada.
Nathalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security adviser, told the committee Tuesday that Canada has evidence the Indian government first gathered information on Indian nationals and Canadian citizens in Canada through diplomatic channels and proxies.
She said the information was then passed to the government in New Delhi, which allegedly works with a criminal network affiliated with Lawrence Bishnoi.
Bishnoi is currently in prison in India, but Drouin said his vast criminal network has been linked to homicides, assassination plots, coercion and other violent crimes in Canada.
Before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public with allegations that Indian diplomats were persons of interest in criminal investigations, Drouin said there was an effort to work with the Indian government to ensure accountability.
Drouin said a meeting was held with Modi’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, in Singapore two days earlier.
She said the decision was made to go public when it became evident the Indian government would not cooperate with Canada on proposed accountability measures.
That included asking India to waive diplomatic immunity for the persons of interest, including the high commissioner in Ottawa. Drouin said this was not seen as likely.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it took the extraordinary step of talking publicly about ongoing investigations because of threats to public safety.
The Indian government denies the allegations and has expelled six Canadian diplomats in return.
Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.
Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Niijar’s murder and are awaiting trial.
Drouin and Morrison were called as witnesses at the committee alongside Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme, as well as the director of Canada’s spy service.

Topics: India Canada relations

Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked

Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked
Updated 30 October 2024
AP
Follow

Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked

Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked
  • WHO says TB continues to mostly affect people in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Western Pacific
Updated 30 October 2024
AP

LONDON: More than 8 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, the highest number recorded since the UN health agency began keeping track.
About 1.25 million people died of TB last year, the new report said, adding that TB likely returned to being the world’s top infectious disease killer after being replaced by COVID-19 during the pandemic. The deaths are almost double the number of people killed by HIV in 2023.
WHO said TB continues to mostly affect people in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Western Pacific; India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Pakistan account for more than half of the world’s cases.
“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
TB deaths continue to fall globally, however, and the number of people being newly infected is beginning to stabilize. The agency noted that of the 400,000 people estimated to have drug-resistant TB last year, fewer than half were diagnosed and treated.
Tuberculosis is caused by airborne bacteria that mostly affects the lungs. Roughly a quarter of the global population is estimated to have TB, but only about 5–10 percent of those develop symptoms.
Advocacy groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have long called for the US company Cepheid, which produces TB tests used in poorer countries, to make them available for $5 per test to increase availability. Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders and 150 global health partners sent Cepheid an open letter calling on them to “prioritize people’s lives” and to urgently help make TB testing more widespread globally.

Topics: tuberculosis WHO

Related

Saudi oil giant Aramco launches first branded gas station in Pakistan photos
Pakistan
Saudi oil giant Aramco launches first branded gas station in Pakistan
Ronaldo misses late penalty as Al-Nassr eliminated from Saudi cup
Sport
Ronaldo misses late penalty as Al-Nassr eliminated from Saudi cup

Latest updates

Esports is the future of mainstream sports, says SEF chairman
Esports is the future of mainstream sports, says SEF chairman
AlUla’s non-tourism sector economically buoyant, RCU chief says
AlUla’s non-tourism sector economically buoyant, RCU chief says
Deal inked to elevate fashion sustainability in Kingdom
Deal inked to elevate fashion sustainability in Kingdom
PIF partners with Google Cloud to create AI hub in Saudi Arabia 
PIF partners with Google Cloud to create AI hub in Saudi Arabia 
Bangladesh cuts Hajj package fee by 20% to accommodate more pilgrims
Bangladesh cuts Hajj package fee by 20% to accommodate more pilgrims

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.