Frankly Speaking: inteview with Fabrizio Carboni, Regional director for Near and Middle East of ICRC

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Updated 28 May 2024
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Frankly Speaking: inteview with Fabrizio Carboni, Regional director for Near and Middle East of ICRC

Frankly Speaking: inteview with Fabrizio Carboni, Regional director for Near and Middle East of ICRC
  • Regional director for Near and Middle East of the International Committee of the Red Cross says the law of armed conflict makes sense if its violators are prosecuted
  • Fabrizio Carboni discusses ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrant against Israeli’s Netanyahu and Gallant, ICRC efforts to resolve other regional conflicts

DUBAI: On May 20, the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan applied to the court for arrest warrants to be issued against senior Hamas commanders and for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, one of whose key functions is to call on all parties in a conflict to uphold international humanitarian law, is in favor of prosecutions in cases where individuals have violated the laws of armed conflict.

Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for Near and Middle East, made the above point clear during an appearance on “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News current affairs program.




Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC regional director for Near and Middle East, spoke to Frankly Speaking host Katie Jensen. (AN photo)
 

“Usually we don’t comment on judiciary matters, especially if they’re related to a conflict where we have a very strong presence and where our staff is present,” he said.

“As a matter of principle, as the ICRC, obviously we believe that the law of armed conflict makes sense if you prosecute the people who violate it.

“And so we obviously, beyond the conflict in Gaza, beyond any specific case, we support prosecution.”

He added: “We support national prosecution first, and then international one if the national prosecution doesn’t comply. Now in this case of the ICC, our position is not to comment. We observe.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Carboni expressed anger at the trauma being experienced by Palestinian ICRC staff in Gaza, and explained among other things the impact of the Gaza war on other regional conflicts and the ICRC’s ongoing role in resolving them.




Palestinian Red Crescent personnel check an ambulance destroyed during Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on January 10, 2024. Four medics and two other people were reported killed inside the vehicle. (AFP/File)

No matter how big the imbalance of strength between Israel and Hamas, the international humanitarian law applies to both sides, Carboni he told Katie Jensen, the host of “Frankly Speaking.”

“There is no hierarchy in this. Parties to a conflict, state or non-state armed group, have obligations. And when we think about this humanitarian obligation, it’s basic. It’s the minimum.

“These are not very complex and sophisticated rules — just asking for the civilian population to be spared, just asking for civilians when they are displaced to receive basic assistance, to have access to essential services. It’s really basic humanity.”

Hamas broke international humanitarian law on Oct. 7 when its fighters kidnapped and killed civilians in southern Israel. Since then, Israel has been facing the bulk of the same accusation.




The relatives of Naor Hassisim, a victim of the Oct. 7, 2023, Kibbutz Kfar Aza attack by Hamas militants, grieve over his body during his funeral at a cemetery, in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on October 16, 2023. (AFP/File)

Despite the best efforts of the ICRC to compel Israel and Hamas to abide by the rules of war, it suspects both sides are still violating them. Carboni put this down to what he calls “survival narrative.”

“Something we don’t often mention is emotions and the fact that all parties in this conflict have a narrative of survival,” he said.

“I’m not commenting. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. I’m just seeing this. And when I engage all parties to this conflict, there is a survival narrative.”

In November last year, Israel and Hamas agreed to a humanitarian pause in the fighting, which permitted an exchange of prisoners and hostages and allowed aid agencies to get urgently needed supplies into Gaza to help civilians.




In this combination image, a convoy of Red Cross vehicles carrying Israelis taken hostage (left frame) by Hamas militants arrive at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on November 30, 2023, as part of a prisoner swap with Palestinian prisoners. On the right frame shows a Red Cross bus and delegation arriving outside the Israeli Ofer military prison near Ramallah to fetch Palestinian prisoners covered by the deal. (AFP photos)

Fighting soon resumed, however, and attempts by interlocutors since at securing a permanent ceasefire have failed.

If given the opportunity of another humanitarian pause, Carboni is confident the ICRC can make a significant difference to the lives of Palestinians trapped in Gaza and the hostages still held by Hamas.

“We could make a difference for the Palestinian people, because you might have assistance increase significantly during this pause,” he said. “We could have access to many areas safely and assist more Palestinian people.

“At the very same time, we could get hostages released. We could get detainees on the Palestinian side released by Israel. And this represents a form of hope.”

Part of the ICRC’s remit is to intercede in hostage negotiations. Carboni said the families of the hostages still held in Gaza are in a “permanent state of torture.” “Unfortunately, we know very little about the fate of the people who were taken hostage,” he said.




A child looks on as a Palestinian woman holds the shrouded body of a baby killed in Israeli bombardment at a health clinic in Rafah on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

“It’s part of this political, military environment where you negotiate everything, even things which shouldn’t be negotiated, such as the release of hostages, because (the taking) of hostages is totally prohibited.

“You can only imagine the condition of the hostages. You imagine the fighting, you imagine the bombing, you see the situation in Gaza, and you can imagine what the hostages are going through.

“And also a word on the families. When you’re a member of a family of a hostage or just a person missing, you don’t know, is he alive, is she alive, dead or not? Is she in good health, not in good health? And this situation for the families is a permanent state of torture.

“And I really feel this pain with the families of the hostages. Any family, being Palestinian or Israeli, who doesn’t know where his or her loved one is. And that’s why, as ICRC, we try to push as much as we can to find an answer, to release the hostages now.”

Carboni revealed that a couple of weeks ago, there was hope during two or three days for a ceasefire and release of hostages. “We really thought, a lot of people thought, that we would get there,” he said.

“And then suddenly it all collapsed. And I can tell you that the psychological impact of this failure on the civilian population in Gaza, on the families of the hostages, is devastating.”




People demonstrate in Tel Aviv on November 9, 2023, calling upon the International Committee of the Red Cross to take action for the release of hostages abducted by Palestinian militants on October 7. (AFP)

Meanwhile, according to him, humanitarians are running out of words to describe the misery that the Palestinian people are enduring in Gaza under Israel’s offensive. He underscored the urgency of de-escalation in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting the Palestinian militant group Hamas since Oct. 7 last year.

“There is an urgent need to de-escalate the level of violence,” he said. “What we see today in Gaza is unbearable.

“The civilian population, the Palestinian population, is going through a round of misery, which I have difficulty to even describe, because after seven months, eight months, I have the impression we used pretty much all the possible words to describe what they’re going through.

“I’m really concerned, because we don’t have words anymore. I’m afraid that at one stage, the situation of the Palestinian people in Gaza and including the hostages won’t be news anymore, because we are turning in circles, because we don’t see an improvement, because we see no end to this misery.”

Carboni added: “Every time I think about Gaza, I’m thinking about my Palestinian colleagues who are trapped in Gaza. “I’m thinking about their children, I’m thinking about their family, I’m thinking about the fact that they’ve been moved again.

 

 

“Most of them were coming from Gaza City. Then they moved to Khan Younis. Then they moved to Rafah. Now they are moving again. And I’m thinking about them.

“I’m thinking about, on the one hand, their courage, and on the other hand, this feeling of not being able to help them, not being able to alleviate their distress, their anxiety, their frustration.

“As a father, as a parent, I also connect with my colleagues who have children. It’s now, what, six, seven months that those children are living on a battlefield? Because Gaza is a very special situation. You’re permanently on the battlefield.

“You have children who, every day, are hearing bombs. Who’ve seen people being killed, wounded, children seeing their parents helpless.

“So, when I think about Gaza, I think about ICRC’s Palestinian staff, and it gives me the energy, humbles me, and at the same time makes me angry, because I don’t think my colleagues need to go through this.”




Palestinians inspect the destruction following overnight Israeli strikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 6, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)3

Asked whether he thought the worst is now over or if there was still potential for a wider regional conflagration emanating from Gaza, Carboni said the spillover has already occurred, raising fears of an unintended escalation.

“It’s not that we have to fear a regional conflict happening — it’s happening while we’re talking,” he said. “We have the fighting in Lebanon. We had this night where we had missiles and drones launched from Iran on Israel. The regional conflict is happening.”

Beyond its role as a humanitarian aid agency, Carboni said ICRC plays a critical role in conflict resolution, in the hope that “diplomacy will prevail, politics will prevail, and not the use of force.”

However, the violence in Gaza has had a detrimental effect on conflicts elsewhere in the region, including in Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthi militia has been locked in battle with the UN-recognized Yemeni government since 2014.

Since the outbreak of fighting in Gaza, the Houthi militia has mounted attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, ostensibly in solidarity with Palestinians, prompting retaliatory strikes by the US and UK.

As a result, the ceasefire between the Houthis and the Yemeni government, which expired in October 2022 but has remained largely intact, has been cast into doubt. Carboni said a prisoner exchange deal could get the stalled process back on track.

“The crisis in Gaza shook all the conflicts in the region,” he said. “I see the authorities in Riyadh trying to nevertheless push for this permanent ceasefire and tomorrow a peace agreement. One of the measures which would facilitate, which would build confidence, is to continue the release of detainees.”
 

 


Trump and his deputies wield power with a ‘macho’ hand

Trump and his deputies wield power with a ‘macho’ hand
Updated 53 sec ago
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Trump and his deputies wield power with a ‘macho’ hand

Trump and his deputies wield power with a ‘macho’ hand
  • Seeking a return to traditional gender norms, the new administration is making a big show of centering men
  • The Trump administration has even imposed a male-centric stamp on some government acronyms

WASHINGTON: He courted young, angry men during his presidential campaign. Now Donald Trump is back in the White House, where he and his acolytes are applying what they see as a decidedly masculine stamp on all they do.
Seeking a return to traditional gender norms, the new administration is making a big show of centering men — from Elon Musk declaring that “testosterone rocks!” to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doing push-ups to redefining government acronyms from a male perspective.
And the push goes well beyond the performative, with the fist-pumping Trump moving to sign executive orders eroding health care access for transgender people and declaring the country will recognize only two genders — men and women — in his first days in office.
Musk, Trump’s top donor and most powerful ally, whom the president has tapped to lead government cuts and, specifically, to slash programs targeting racism and inequality, has repeatedly been at the vanguard of the push to make America manly again.
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX boss on Wednesday warned of what he said were risks facing men from policies that seek to combat discrimination.
In a videoconference, he offered the bizarre-sounding suggestion that an artificial intelligence-based program designed to promote “diversity at all costs” could even “decide that there were too many men in power and execute them. So problem solved.”
The world’s richest person, Musk also posted a message on his X platform saying “Testosterone rocks.”
New Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, who has criticized the presence of women in combat roles and vowed to bring “warrior culture” back, on Friday shared photos of himself jogging and exercising with US troops on a snowy path in Poland.
Hegseth, a military veteran, said he had done five series of 47 pushups — a reference to Trump as the 47th American president.
The Trump administration has even imposed a male-centric stamp on some government acronyms.
A warning system for pilots known as NOTAM, for “Notice to Air Missions” has been changed officially to the “Notice to Airmen.”

Method in maleness
There is a method to all this maleness, experts say.
“The emphasis on a rigid gender binary is an outgrowth of a nostalgic patriarchy that wants to return to a mid-20th century understanding of gender relations, with white, heterosexual men at the pinnacle of a hierarchical identity pyramid,” said Karrin Anderson, a communications professor at Colorado State University.
Trump, of course, is at the heart of the movement.
Shortly after his return to power on January 20, the president ordered an end to passports with a gender-neutral “X” option and moved to restrict gender transition procedures for people under the age of 19.
The 78-year-old billionaire, who has promised to “protect” women “whether the women like it or not,” also signed an order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports events.
At the signing event, he surrounded himself with women and young girls.
His administration even went so far as to scrub all references to transgender and queer people from the National Park Service-administered website for a monument to the 1969 Stonewall riots, a foundational moment in the struggle for LGBTQ rights.
The approach can take on a religious hue, with Trump not averse to presenting himself as a providential emissary from God. Newly confirmed health minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. compared the president on Thursday to “a man on a white horse” arriving at a gallop to save America.

‘Promoting healthy masculinity’
“The revitalization of American masculinity is our nation’s most pressing need,” Jim Daly of the conservative evangelical group Focus on the Family said last month.
Writing in the Washington Examiner, he said that Trump, like conservative US president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, was promoting what he called “healthy masculinity.”
With Reagan’s portrait hanging in the Oval Office, it has been under the gaze of the former Western movie actor that Trump deploys his thick black marker to sign orders that, Anderson says, confirm his muscular approach to power.
“By bypassing Congress and flouting Constitutional checks and balances,” she said, “Trump demonstrates his might by exercising masculinized, autocratic authority rather than engaging in collaborative, democratic decision-making.”
Trump 2.0 is not entirely an old boys club, however.
While the Republican president has named a male-dominated cabinet, he has brought in more women than during his first term, some in strategic positions.
His new chief of staff Susie Wiles — whom Trump calls “the ice maiden” for her coolness under fire — is the first woman in that influential post.
 


European allies seek united Ukraine front as US backing wavers

European allies seek united Ukraine front as US backing wavers
Updated 16 February 2025
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European allies seek united Ukraine front as US backing wavers

European allies seek united Ukraine front as US backing wavers

MUNICH, Germany: European leaders on Saturday scrambled to force their way to the table for any talks on the Ukraine war, as Washington announced a team of senior US officials was planning to meet in Saudi Arabia with counterparts from Moscow and Kyiv.
US President Donald Trump upended the status quo this week when he announced he was likely to soon meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin to start talks to end the conflict, leaving US allies in Europe concerned their interests would be sidelined.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Saudi Arabia for ceasefire talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, US officials said Saturday, without giving details on when the meeting would happen.
Rubio had already began his Mideast tour on Saturday, arriving first in Israel.
The top US diplomat also had a call Saturday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, in which he “reaffirmed President Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine,” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
In Munich, NATO chief Mark Rutte said Europe had to come up with “good proposals” for securing peace in Ukraine if it wanted to be involved in US-led talks.
“If Europeans want to have a say, make yourself relevant,” Rutte told journalists at a gathering of top policymakers.
Rutte also said he would head to Paris on Monday to take part in an expected meeting of European leaders convened by French President Emmanuel Macron.
A spokesman for Macron’s office told AFP “discussions” were ongoing over a “possible informal meeting.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that Europe “must take on a greater role in NATO” and work with the United States to “secure Ukraine’s future.”
As part of any eventual “security guarantees” for Ukraine, talks have begun in Europe over a potential deployment of peacekeepers.
But those discussions are at an embryonic stage — and others argue the focus needs to be on building up Ukraine’s own forces.

European army
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the creation of a European army, arguing the continent could no longer count on Washington.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it,” Zelensky said.
“I really believe that time has come. The Armed Forces of Europe must be created.”

The push for a joint continental force has been mooted for years without gaining traction and Zelensky’s intervention seems unlikely to shift the balance.
Zelensky’s rallying cry came a day after he met US Vice President JD Vance and as Kyiv tries to ensure it is not sidelined by Trump’s engagement with Putin.
“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement,” Zelensky said in a speech.
“No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. No decisions about Europe without Europe.”
But Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, gave Europeans reasons to doubt they would be heard.
Europe would not be directly involved in talks but would still have an “input,” Kellogg said in Munich.

Vance's assurance
US officials have sought to assure Ukraine that it will not be left in the cold after three years of battling Russia’s invasion.
Vance said after his sit-down with Zelensky that the United States was looking for a “durable, lasting peace” that would not lead to further bloodshed in coming years.
But Washington has sent mixed messages to Kyiv, with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth appearing to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking all of its territory.
Trump has also pushed for access to Ukraine’s stocks of rare earth minerals as compensation for the military aid provided by the United States.
Zelensky said Saturday he blocked a deal that would have given the US access to vast amounts of Ukrainian natural resources as it lacked “security guarantees” for Kyiv.
“In my opinion, it does not protect us... our interests,” Zelensky told journalists.
The situation for his forces on the ground has continued to deteriorate.
Despite suffering heavy battlefield losses, the Russian army has been creeping forward in eastern Ukraine for more than a year.
Outside the Munich conference, several hundred pro-Ukrainian demonstrators voiced fears about what may come from talks.
“It’s terrifying,” said Ukraine-born protester Nataliya Galushka, 40, who left the country when she was a child.
“The fact that (Trump is) talking to Putin, a criminal, what kind of world is this?“
 


Brazil to host next BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro in July

Brazil to host next BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro in July
Updated 16 February 2025
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Brazil to host next BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro in July

Brazil to host next BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro in July

SAO PAULO: The Brazilian government announced Saturday that the next BRICS summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7.
Brazil will chair the bloc of developing economies through 2025 and said it will focus on promoting global governance reform and cooperation among Global South countries, according to a statement from the federal government.
BRICS was established in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2010 as a counterbalance to the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
Last year, the bloc expanded by adding Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has also been invited to join. Turkiye, Azerbaijan, and Malaysia have formally applied for membership, and several other countries have expressed interest.
Recently, the bloc welcomed Indonesia as one of its 11 members and Nigeria as a “partner country,” a designation introduced at the 2024 summit in Kazan.
Brazil said the partner countries are also invited to participate in the summit and may attend other meetings if there is consensus among members.
“We will make crucial decisions for development, cooperation, and improving the lives of all the inhabitants of these countries,” said Mauro Vieira, Brazil’s foreign minister.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on BRICS nations if they act to undermine the US dollar.

BRICS leaders have expressed their commitment to establishing an alternative payment system independent of the dollar.


Mali gold mine accident kills at least 48

Mali gold mine accident kills at least 48
Updated 16 February 2025
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Mali gold mine accident kills at least 48

Mali gold mine accident kills at least 48
  • Police and Kenieba gold miners’ association confirmed the death toll
  • Mali is one of Africa’s leading gold producers, but mining is largely unregulated

BAMAKO: At least 48 people were killed in the collapse of an illegally operated gold mine in western Mali Saturday, authorities and local sources told AFP.
Mali is one of Africa’s leading gold producers, and mining sites are regularly the scene of deadly landslides and accidents.
Authorities have struggled to control unregulated mining of the precious metal in the country, which is among the world’s poorest.
“The toll at 18:00 today is 48 dead following the collapse,” said a police source.
“Some of the victims fell into the water. Among them was a woman with her baby on her back.”
A local official confirmed the cave-in, while the Kenieba gold miners’ association also put the death toll at 48.
The search for victims was ongoing, the head of an environmental organization told AFP.
Saturday’s accident took place at an abandoned site formerly operated by a Chinese company, sources told AFP.
In January, a landslide at a gold mine in southern Mali killed at least 10 people and left many others missing, most of them women.
Just over a year ago, a tunnel collapsed at a gold mining site in the same region as Saturday’s landslide, killing more than 70 people.


UK’s Starmer says Europe ‘must take on a greater role in NATO’

UK’s Starmer says Europe ‘must take on a greater role in NATO’
Updated 16 February 2025
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UK’s Starmer says Europe ‘must take on a greater role in NATO’

UK’s Starmer says Europe ‘must take on a greater role in NATO’
  • In a statement, Britain’s leader said: “This is a once in a generation moment for our national security where we engage with the reality of the world today

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that Europe “must take on a greater role in NATO” and work with the United States to “secure Ukraine’s future.”
His comments came ahead of an expected gathering of European leaders in Paris on Monday, although France has yet to confirm the meeting.
Starmer will attend the get-together if it goes ahead, a UK official familiar with the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, Britain’s leader said: “This is a once in a generation moment for our national security where we engage with the reality of the world today and the threat we face from Russia.
“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in NATO as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia.”
Starmer, who is also expected to visit US President Donald Trump in Washington soon, added that the UK “will work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together.”
“We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face,” he said.
Starmer’s comments came after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned on Friday that Europe needed to boost its defense spending because it cannot assume that the presence of American troops on the continent will “last forever.”
They also come as European leaders scramble to force their way to the table at any talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump upended the status quo this week when he announced he was likely to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin soon to start talks to end the conflict, leaving US allies in Europe reeling from concerns that their interests would be sidelined in any deal on Ukraine.
The issue has dominated the ongoing Munich Security Conference, where senior European officials, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, NATO chief Mark Rutte and US Vice President JD Vance are among the attendees.
Rutte said the planned meeting in Paris “would focus on defense spending and planning so that “when a deal is reached in Ukraine, that we have absolute clarity what Europe can contribute.”
A spokesman for French President Emmanuel Macron’s office told AFP “discussions” were ongoing over a “possible informal meeting.”