You are here

  • Home
  • Arab League welcomes announcement by Spain, Ireland, Norway to recognize Palestine
War on Gaza

Arab League welcomes announcement by Spain, Ireland, Norway to recognize Palestine

Arab League welcomes announcement by Spain, Ireland, Norway to recognize Palestine
Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Wednesday that “recognition conveys a clear message to Palestinians: the world stands resolute in defending their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state.” (AP/File)
Short Url

https://arab.news/4bqay

Updated 22 May 2024
Gobran Mohamed
Follow

Arab League welcomes announcement by Spain, Ireland, Norway to recognize Palestine

Arab League welcomes announcement by Spain, Ireland, Norway to recognize Palestine
  • Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League secretary-general, said that this “significant move underscores a genuine commitment to the two-state solution”
  • He urged countries yet to recognize Palestine to reassess their positions and align themselves with the course of history
Updated 22 May 2024
Gobran Mohamed
Follow

CAIRO: The Arab League has welcomed the official recognition of the state of Palestine by Spain, Ireland, and Norway.
The prime ministers of the three countries said on Wednesday they were formally going to recognize Palestine as a state as of May 28.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League secretary-general, said that this “significant move underscores a genuine commitment to the two-state solution and reflects the sincere desire of these nations to safeguard it from those seeking to undermine or eradicate it.”
Gamal Roshdy, Aboul Gheit’s spokesman, said that “this important development follows the recent recognitions by Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Bahamas. These additions bring the total number of countries recognizing the Palestinian state to approximately 147, aligning with the overwhelming global consensus.”
Roshdy said such recognition “is a fundamental aspect of the state's standing in international law.
This step “embodies a principled political, moral, and legal stance. It marks a significant milestone toward realizing the Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he quoted Abdul Gheit as saying.
Aboul Gheit said that “recognition conveys a clear message to Palestinians: the world stands resolute in defending their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state.”
He stressed that “amid the current hardships, a political pathway leading to the realization of the Palestinian state is inevitable.”
Aboul Gheit urged countries yet to recognize Palestine to reassess their positions and align themselves with the course of history.
He highlighted that recognizing Palestine signifies a genuine commitment to the two-state solution, diverging from violent approaches, and fostering peace and security across the region.

Topics: War on Gaza Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit Palestinian state

Related

Update Saudi Arabia welcomes move by Norway, Ireland and Spain to formally recognize Palestinian state
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia welcomes move by Norway, Ireland and Spain to formally recognize Palestinian state
Spain PM will Wednesday announce date to recognize Palestinian state
Middle-East
Spain PM will Wednesday announce date to recognize Palestinian state

Israelis due in Doha for talks on Gaza truce requests

Israelis due in Doha for talks on Gaza truce requests
Updated 45 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Israelis due in Doha for talks on Gaza truce requests

Israelis due in Doha for talks on Gaza truce requests
  • The source said the points were negotiable and an agreement was “doable,” provided Israel does not remain in Gaza “indefinitely” and a solution is found for the Philadelphi corridor, with Egyptian mediators leading these efforts
Updated 45 sec ago
AFP

DOHA: An Israeli delegation will travel to Doha on Thursday to discuss new demands for a Gaza truce and hostage-prisoner exchange, a source with knowledge of the talks said.
The delegation would meet with mediator Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani to discuss three Israeli requests, including control over the return of civilians to northern Gaza, the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of talks.
Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has been engaged in months of behind-the-scenes efforts to broker a Gaza truce and a hostage-prisoner swap.
A proposed cessation of hostilities focuses on a phased approach, beginning with an initial truce.
Recent discussions have centered on a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May, which he said had been proposed by Israel.
The source said Israel had requested its forces remain in the so-called Philadelphi corridor, a 14-kilometer (8.5-mile) stretch along the Gaza-Egypt border, and that it controls the return of displaced Gazan civilians to the north of the Palestinian territory.
Israel has also asked that its troop positions in Gaza be resolved before the truce begins, the source added.
The source said the points were negotiable and an agreement was “doable,” provided Israel does not remain in Gaza “indefinitely” and a solution is found for the Philadelphi corridor, with Egyptian mediators leading these efforts.
But the source said Israel’s return with extra demands was “a recurring theme” in the talks and Israel had “moved the goalposts.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for Washington on Monday under significant domestic and international pressure to agree to a truce and hostage-prisoner exchange in Gaza.
Despite this pressure, Netanyahu maintains that increased military pressure on the militants is the best route to a deal.
On Sunday, the premier’s office said he was sending a negotiating team for new talks on a truce deal.
Except for a one-week truce in November, during which 80 Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, talks have repeatedly foundered over differences between the parties.
 

 

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Gaza US Qatar Hamas ceasfire

Related

A displaced Palestinian girl sits next to sacks of humanitarian aid at the UNRWA distribution center in Rafah, Gaza.
Middle-East
Israeli parliament votes to label UN relief agency a terror organization
Update Palestinian woman gestures as others flee the eastern part of Khan Younis after they were ordered by Israeli army to evacuate.
Middle-East
Gaza health ministry says dozens killed, after Israel evacuation order

Civilians pay the price for Sudan’s civil war

Civilians pay the price for Sudan’s civil war
Updated 12 min 53 sec ago
Arab News
Follow

Civilians pay the price for Sudan’s civil war

Civilians pay the price for Sudan’s civil war
  • They face ‘horrendous levels of violence’ from both sides, medical charity says
Updated 12 min 53 sec ago
Arab News

JEDDAH: Civilians in Sudan are facing “horrendous levels of violence” in the country’s 15-month civil war, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a report published on Monday.

“The price paid by civilians in this war qualifies a conflict seemingly between warring factions as a war on the people of Sudan,” the charity said.

Fighting broke out in April 2023 between the regular army under Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, usually referred to as Hemedti.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than seven million displaced. Both sides have been accused of war crimes including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid, and there is a threat of famine.

“The population has faced horrendous levels of violence, succumbing to widespread fighting and surviving repeated attacks, abuse, and exploitation,” Medecins Sans Frontieres said.

Vickie Hawkins, the charity’s general director in the Netherlands, said: “Nowhere is safe for communities trapped in Sudan conflict hot spots. Patients recount horrific stories of inhuman treatment and violence, perpetrated by armed groups.”
These included “forced defections, looting and arson, degrading interrogation, arbitrary arrest, abduction, and torture on a systematic level,” she said.

While many aid organizations closed operations in Sudan because of the war, Medecins Sans Frontieres continues to operate in eight states across the country. It has treated thousands of conflict injuries, most caused by explosions, gunshots and stabbings.

Topics: Sudan Sudan civil war Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

Related

Emergency services rescued several people who had been trapped on the ground floor of the building.
Middle-East
Sudan fire kills nine
Displaced Sudanese eat dirt to survive, children too tired to cry says US envoy to UN
Middle-East
Displaced Sudanese eat dirt to survive, children too tired to cry says US envoy to UN

Israel’s Netanyahu requests meeting with former President Trump, Politico reports

Israel’s Netanyahu requests meeting with former President Trump, Politico reports
Updated 30 min 27 sec ago
Reuters
Follow

Israel’s Netanyahu requests meeting with former President Trump, Politico reports

Israel’s Netanyahu requests meeting with former President Trump, Politico reports
Updated 30 min 27 sec ago
Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested an in-person meeting with former President Donald Trump while in the US this week, Politico reported on Monday citing people familiar with the outreach.
Netanyahu and Trump’s teams have met in recent days to explore the idea of a meeting but Trump has yet to agree, the report added.

Topics: Benjamin Netanyahu Donald Trump Politico

Related

Israel’s Netanyahu walks political tightrope on Washington trip following Biden’s exit from race
Middle-East
Israel’s Netanyahu walks political tightrope on Washington trip following Biden’s exit from race
Defiant Netanyahu to meet US president, Congress amid Gaza tensions
Middle-East
Defiant Netanyahu to meet US president, Congress amid Gaza tensions

Moroccan ex-minister who defended government critics sentenced to five years

Moroccan ex-minister who defended government critics sentenced to five years
Updated 44 min 8 sec ago
AP
Follow

Moroccan ex-minister who defended government critics sentenced to five years

Moroccan ex-minister who defended government critics sentenced to five years
  • The verdict marks the latest development in one of the freedom of expression cases that has drawn condemnation from Morocco’s international allies and human rights organizations
Updated 44 min 8 sec ago
AP

RABAT, Morocco: Mohamed Ziane, an ex-Moroccan minister of human rights, was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday in a corruption case that his attorney described as retribution for outspokenness and work defending political prisoners.
An appeals court in Rabat handed down the sentence after a hearing in which the frail 81-year-old Ziane — once known for his loud and combative rhetoric — was silent as a form of protest.
The court had earlier found him and two other colleagues guilty of corruption and embezzling from their political party during Morocco’s 2015 election campaign.
Ali Reda Ziane — his attorney who is also his son — strenuously denied the charges faced by his father and his two colleagues. He said the court had not followed typical procedures in the case or any of its appeals, all 17 of which the defense lost.
He also linked the proceedings to his father’s defense of journalists and activists who had faced charges for unrelated offenses after criticizing the government.
“It means freedom of expression has been curtailed in Morocco,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday.
The verdict marks the latest development in one of the freedom of expression cases that has drawn condemnation from Morocco’s international allies and human rights organizations. It supplements a three-year sentence issued in 2022, in which Ziane was found guilty of 11 charges including defamation, adultery, sexual harassment and insulting a public official.
In a statement Sunday, the Moroccan Association In Support of Political Prisoners called the charges arbitrary and the proceedings unfair. The group described the case against Ziane as “purely political, aiming to humiliate and subjugate the man and discourage him from expressing his opinions.”
Ziane was among those profiled in a 2022 Human Rights Watch report on how Morocco has harshly cracked down on the freedom of expression of those critical of its government.
“Moroccan authorities, since the mid-2010s, have increasingly accused and prosecuted high-profile journalists and activists of non-speech crimes, including crimes involving consensual sex,” the report said.
Morocco’s government dismissed the report as biased and said it was full of false allegations. The government spokesperson did not respond to questions about Ziane’s sentencing on Monday.
The report documented how authorities convicted one of Ziane’s sons for hiding a witness and obstructing justice after a woman scheduled to testify in a human rights case that Ziane was defending slept at their home for security reasons before having to appear in court.
It also chronicled how pro-government media published leaked images and videos — including ones showing nudity — and suggested Ziane was engaged in an affair with a client. His son and attorney told The Associated Press that the legal complaints filed against him began after he accused Morocco’s intelligence services of being behind the leak — a charge the country’s Interior Ministry denied.
In 2023, Amnesty International said Ziane’s legal troubles were based on “bogus charges that stem from his work defending activists, journalists and victims of human rights abuses.”
Those who Ziane has defended as an attorney include Taoufik Bouachrine, the former editor of the independent Arabic language daily newspaper, Akhbar Al-Youm, and Nasser Zefzafi, an activist who helped lead an anti-government protest movement in northern Morocco’s Rif region last decade.
Bouachrine is currently serving a 15-year sentence for human trafficking, blackmail and sexual misconduct. Zefzafi is serving a 20-year sentence for undermining public order and threatening national unity.
Ziane’s defense of both men followed decades of human rights activism that began after he resigned as Morocco’s Human Rights Minister, a position he served in from 1996 to 1997. After serving as president of the Rabat Bar Association, he began defending activists and journalists critical of the government in 2017, becoming a rare dissenting voice who had once served in Morocco’s government.

Topics: Morocco Mohamed Ziane Rabat

Related

Moroccan ex-minister hit with five-year jail sentence
Middle-East
Moroccan ex-minister hit with five-year jail sentence
Moroccans march in pro-Palestinian rally
Middle-East
Moroccans march in pro-Palestinian rally

Sonic booms heard over Beirut as Israeli raids on Lebanon continue

Sonic booms heard over Beirut as Israeli raids on Lebanon continue
Updated 53 min 40 sec ago
NAJIA HOUSSARI
Follow

Sonic booms heard over Beirut as Israeli raids on Lebanon continue

Sonic booms heard over Beirut as Israeli raids on Lebanon continue
  • Lebanon expects extension of UNIFIL mandate for another year, PM says
  • Mikati: ‘No one can guarantee Israel’s intentions’
Updated 53 min 40 sec ago
NAJIA HOUSSARI

BEIRUT: Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut, Sidon and other parts of Lebanon on Monday.

The planes conducted mock raids over the Hasbaya area and the occupied Shebaa Farms, reaching as far as Bekaa.

Although hostile operations on the southern front have significantly decreased, sporadic strikes continue.

One Israeli air raid targeted a house in the town of Chihine in the Tyre district.

The raid resulted in injuries, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party reported that one of its members was killed.

A Lebanese Army unit, meanwhile, found the wreckage of a drone in the town of Aaiha in the Rashaya district. Army command did not clarify the nature of the drone or whether it was Israeli-made or from another source.

A Lebanese Army watchtower was attacked by Israel on Sunday night on the outskirts of the town of Alma Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, resulting in “moderate injuries to two soldiers, who were transferred to a hospital for treatment,” according to the military.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, targeted the Israeli military site of Al-Malikiyah with an attack drone, hitting one of its bunkers.

The developments in the south and the issue of renewing UNIFIL’s mandate, which is on the UN Security Council’s agenda, have been the focus of internal political attention.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said at a meeting with key officials that recent developments “naturally call for caution, but we continue to discuss with concerned parties and engage in necessary diplomatic contacts to prevent matters from spiraling into undesirable consequences.”

He added: “We cannot say there are reassurances and guarantees, as no one can guarantee the Israeli enemy’s intentions. However, we continue our diligent efforts to address the situation.”

Regarding the renewal of the mandate for the international forces operating in the south of Lebanon, Mikati said: “We continue diplomatic contacts to ensure a calm extension of UNIFIL’s mandate, whose essential role in the south we highly appreciate, along with the fruitful cooperation between them and the army.

“From the contacts we have made, we have sensed a keenness to maintain this role, especially under the delicate circumstances the south is going through.”

Speaking after a meeting with Mikati, Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said he informed the prime minister that “there is a quasi-agreement to renew the work of UNIFIL forces for one year, under the same conditions and without any modifications.”

Bou Habib, who briefed Mikati upon his return from New York, also said that US and European officials he met with emphasized “the importance of not expanding the war and working to avoid escalating military actions in the south.”

He added: “There is a kind of optimism, or less pessimism, about the outbreak of a wide war in Lebanon.”

Also on Monday, a group of opposition MPs submitted a petition requesting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri hold a session to discuss the repercussions of the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, now in its 10th month. 

The opposition MPs — Georges Okais, Mark Daou, Ashraf Rifi, and Salim Sayegh — demanded Berri “hold a parliamentary session at the earliest opportunity to discuss the ongoing war, prevent its escalation, and ensure that the government fulfills its constitutional duties.”

In their petition, the parliamentarians called for diplomatic efforts to return to the 1949 ceasefire agreement and fully implement UN Resolution 1701.

They stressed the need to put an end to military actions “outside the framework of the Lebanese state and its institutions, declare a state of emergency in the south, hand over control to the army, and allow it to respond to any attack on Lebanese territory.”

They referred to the “escalation and threats reaching the highest level since Oct. 8, and the increasing fears of the expansion of the ongoing war, which has cost us hundreds of Lebanese lives and thousands of destroyed residential units so far, in addition to the economic and environmental damage caused by daily Israeli attacks, and the repercussions of this in light of the political and economic crises plaguing the country, and the obstruction of electing a president for the country.”

Nabil Qaouk, a member of the Central Council of Hezbollah, stated that Israel had put the region “on a path of escalation.”

He said that “the support fronts in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen have entered a new phase, introducing new field equations through which we hope to increase pressure on the Israeli enemy to stop the aggression on the Gaza Strip.”

Topics: Lebanon Israel Hezbollah

Related

Lebanon state media says civilians injured in Israeli strike
Middle-East
Lebanon state media says civilians injured in Israeli strike
Senior Hezbollah commander among 5 reported dead in Israel strikes on Lebanon
Middle-East
Senior Hezbollah commander among 5 reported dead in Israel strikes on Lebanon

Latest updates

Israelis due in Doha for talks on Gaza truce requests
Israelis due in Doha for talks on Gaza truce requests
If not Kamala Harris, who else could be the Democratic nominee for November’s election?
If not Kamala Harris, who else could be the Democratic nominee for November’s election?
Civilians pay the price for Sudan’s civil war
Civilians pay the price for Sudan’s civil war
Israel’s Netanyahu requests meeting with former President Trump, Politico reports
Israel’s Netanyahu requests meeting with former President Trump, Politico reports
Moroccan ex-minister who defended government critics sentenced to five years
Moroccan ex-minister who defended government critics sentenced to five years

Search form

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