Jordanian-Iraqi economic forum begins at Dead Sea resort

Jordanian-Iraqi economic forum begins at Dead Sea resort
The Economic Forum for Financial, Industrial, and Commercial Partnerships between Iraq and Jordan at the King Hussein Convention Center. (Petra)
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Updated 05 May 2024
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Jordanian-Iraqi economic forum begins at Dead Sea resort

Jordanian-Iraqi economic forum begins at Dead Sea resort
  • A specialized session will focus on investment prospects in various economic sectors

AMMAN: Jordanian Minister of Investment Kholoud Saqqaf opened the Economic Forum for Financial, Industrial, and Commercial Partnerships between Iraq and Jordan on Sunday.
The forum, which is organized jointly by the Iraqi Business Council in collaboration with the Jordan and Amman chambers of industry, aims to strengthen economic ties between the two countries.
Held at the King Hussein Convention Center on the shores of the Dead Sea, the forum is the largest regional gathering for fostering economic cooperation between Jordan and Iraq, Jordan News Agency reported.
Over two days, the event will promote regional integration by facilitating economic connectivity and encourage collaboration across sectors.
Discussions will cover investment opportunities in Jordan and Iraq, prospects for commercial and industrial ventures, economic modernization initiatives, and opportunities in Jordan’s free and development zones.
Key figures attending include Kamel Dulaimi, the Iraq president’s chief of staff, ministers from Jordan and Iraq, as well as business leaders, investors and representatives from Arab and foreign companies.
Discussions are expected to focus on the banking sector’s role in providing financial support, while highlighting success stories from investment companies in both countries.
A specialized session will focus on investment prospects in various economic sectors, with a particular emphasis on mining and industry.
At the opening, Saqqaf highlighted investment prospects displayed on the Invest in Jordan platform, which align with the kingdom’s Economic Modernization Vision.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Khaled Battal Al-Najm drew attention to his country’s industrial strategy and plans for a joint economic zone with Jordan, alongside efforts to address unemployment and attract foreign investment, especially in mining.
Dulaimi emphasized the significance of Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid’s recent visit to Jordan, underscoring discussions aimed at strengthening ties and enhancing economic systems to facilitate investment projects.


 


Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says

Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says
Updated 16 February 2025
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Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says

Israeli strike kills two members of Hamas-run police force in Gaza, interior ministry says

CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike killed two policemen east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement, calling it a breach of the fragile January 19 ceasefire.
It said the policemen were deployed in the area to secure the entry of aid trucks into Gaza. A third policeman was injured, it added.
“The ministry...condemns this crime and calls upon the mediators and the international community to compel the occupation to stop targeting the police force, which is a civil apparatus,” the statement said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Hamas report.


Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel

Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel
Updated 16 February 2025
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Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel

Shipment of ‘heavy’ US bombs arrives in Israel
  • Rubio to discuss Gaza truce with Israel PM on first leg of Mideast tour

TEL AVIV:  Israel’s defense ministry said Sunday that a shipment of “heavy” US-made bombs arrived overnight in Israel, as Marco Rubio began his first visit to the country as Washington’s top diplomat.
“A shipment of heavy aerial bombs recently released by the US government was received and unloaded overnight in Israel,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to MK-84 munitions recently authorized by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Rubio landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and is due to hold talks with Israeli officials on Sunday when he will highlight Trump’s controversial proposal to take control of the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by more than 15 months of war between Hamas and Israel.
Coming from Munich, where he took part in a security conference dominated by the Ukraine war, the top US diplomat is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Netanyahu, who recently visited Washington where he met Donald Trump, expressed his appreciation for the US president’s “full support” for Israel’s next moves in Gaza.
“Israel will now have to decide what they will do,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday.
“The United States will back the decision they make!” he added.
Rubio arrived in Israel hours after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the sixth swap of a nearly month-old ceasefire.
The ceasefire came close to collapse earlier this week and Netanyahu credited “President Trump’s firm stance” with ensuring Saturday’s releases went ahead.
In his meetings, the US top diplomat is expected to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire, which should see the release of remaining hostages and a more permanent end to the war but which has yet to be agreed in detail.
A source close to the negotiations said mediators hope to begin talks on the second phase “next week in Doha.”
Washington has expressed openness to alternative proposals from Arab governments but has stressed that currently, “the only plan is Trump’s.”
Trump has proposed taking control of the Palestinian territory and displacing its residents to Egypt or Jordan, both of which strongly oppose the proposal.
Trump has warned of repercussions for Egypt and Jordan if they do not allow in the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza.
“Right now the only plan — they don’t like it — but the only plan is the Trump plan. So if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it,” Rubio said on Thursday.

 


Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated

Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated
Updated 16 February 2025
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Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated

Turkiye says it would reconsider its military presence in Syria if Kurdish militants are eliminated
  • The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged an insurgency against Turkiye for decades, seeking greater autonomy for Kurds

BEIRUT: Turkiye’s foreign minister said Saturday his country would reconsider its military presence in northeastern Syria if that country’s new leaders eliminate a Kurdish militant group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Hakan Fidan spoke at the Munich Security Conference alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, who did not comment on the remarks. Fidan has expressed such sentiments before.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged an insurgency against Turkiye for decades, seeking greater autonomy for Kurds.
“We can’t tolerate armed militia in any form,” Fidan said. He said such groups should be integrated “under one national army” in Syria and noted that its new leaders have been responsive to that idea.
Al-Shaibani did speak in support of disarming all non-state factions and of including Kurds in Syria’s new government.
The presence of Turkish-backed forces in northeastern Syria has increased substantially since insurgent groups ousted former President Bashar Assad late last year, and the forces have been targeting Kurdish forces more often.
Turkiye also views the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed military Kurdish alliance in Syria, as an extension of the PKK. That has led to ongoing military confrontations between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF in northern Syria.
While most insurgent groups have agreed to integrate into the new Syrian army, the SDF has refused.
“Kurds are part of the Syrian nation but they can’t have their own army, as this is against our unity,” said another speaker on Saturday’s conference panel, Hind Kabawat of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution.

 


Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza

Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza
Updated 16 February 2025
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Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza

Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza
  • Ibrahim, 61, said he had left “prison and suffering,” but the Gaza Strip — for years under a crippling Israeli-led blockade — was “the largest prison in the world”
  • The vast majority of prisoners released on Saturday, in exchange for three Israeli hostages, were Gazans taken into Israeli custody during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group

KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories: As Palestinian inmates released by Israel on Saturday stepped off the buses that took them to the Gaza Strip, some flashed a victory sign and swiftly set fire to sweatshirts they were made to wear in prison.
Images broadcast on Israeli media before their release under a ceasefire deal with Hamas showed rows of Palestinian prisoners wearing the sweatshirts emblazoned with the Star of David, the logo of Israel’s prison service and the Arabic phrase “we do not forget and we do not forgive.”
The white sweatshirts could be seen on the ground wreathed in orange flames at the prisoners’ reception point in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, an AFP correspondent said.
The growing blaze sent plumes of black smoke skywards over the crowds greeting the released inmates.
In previous releases under the Gaza deal, Palestinians were let out with plain grey prison tracksuits that did not bear any inscriptions.
The vast majority of prisoners released on Saturday, in exchange for three Israeli hostages, were Gazans taken into Israeli custody during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group.
The Gaza-bound convoy, facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, dropped off jubilant prisoners who threw victory signs and waved at the crowd welcoming them.
Other Palestinians freed Saturday were serving life sentences over attacks against Israelis, with some of them deported upon release.

Hamas, the Palestinian group whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war, and ally Islamic Jihad both condemned the Israeli prison service sweatshirts, calling them “racist.”
Ibrahim, 61, a freed prisoner who declined to share his last name, said he was sad to see the extent of the destruction wrought by the war in Gaza.
He said he had left “prison and suffering,” but the Gaza Strip — for years under a crippling Israeli-led blockade — was “the largest prison in the world.”
He said he had been arrested in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, and still did not know why he was jailed for nine months.
Abd Abu Zayra, another freed prisoner, told AFP he had Hamas to thank for his release, a moment “of joy and victory mixed with sadness and tragedy.”
“We pray that the war ends and that all prisoners are released,” he said.
The buses inched forward through the dense crowd, dropping off prisoners one after the other.
Paramedics taking the freed prisoners to hospital for check-ups were overwhelmed by the sea of relatives and friends who had gathered to greet them.
Muhammad Zaqout, director of Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, said medical examinations would be conducted for each prisoner.
He said many have suffered “torture” and neglect in jail.

Tariq Haniyeh, a 22-year-old Gazan, told AFP he had come to Khan Yunis to welcome his relative Loay Haniyeh a year after his arrest at a refugee camp near Gaza City.
“It’s a great joy to see the prisoners freed, but I’m very sad because I still have other relatives who are still detained,” said Tariq Haniyeh.
He said his family was still in mourning after the deaths of 21 relatives during the war, including distant cousin Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas chief killed by Israel in Tehran in July 2024.
Unlike Ismail Haniyeh, Tariq said his relative Loay, had “no connection to any Palestinian faction, and they (Israel) arrested him like thousands of others, without reason.”
Those in the last buses, too excited to wait, began their reunion from the bus windows.
One man stood on the shoulders of another to kiss a prisoner from the window. A child was hoisted in the air to be embraced.
Some stood on their toes to try to reach the hand of a loved one, while some prisoners still on the buses grabbed the microphones of journalists to start recounting their journey.
 

 


Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent

Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent
Updated 16 February 2025
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Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent

Four freed Palestinian prisoners transferred to West Bank hospital: Red Crescent
  • Negotiations on a second phase of the ceasefire, meant to lay out steps towards a more permanent end to the war, are expected to begin next week

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Four Palestinian prisoners freed from an Israeli jail on Saturday as part of the ongoing truce in Gaza were transferred to hospital on arrival in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the Red Crescent said.
“Our teams are transferring four released (Palestinian) prisoners from the location of reception to the hospital,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement following the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.