https://arab.news/89256
ALGIERS: Algerian foreign minister Ahmed Attaf spoke over the phone on Saturday with Egypt's newly appointed foreign minister Badr Abdelatty.
The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that, during the call, ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries in all fields were discussed.
They also spoke about regional and international issues of common interest, especially the Palestinian issue and ongoing Israel-Hamas war as well as the situation in Libya.
DAMASCUS: Campaign posters have sprung up across Damascus as Syria prepares to hold a parliamentary election in government-held areas on Monday that is designed to renew the ruling Baath party’s grip on power.
It will be the fourth election to Syria’s largely rubber-stamp parliament since civil war erupted in 2011. As in the previous ones, President Bashar Assad’s Baath party, in power since 1963, is expected to secure most of the 250 seats.
“Although there are new candidates... the old ones that we’re used to seeing” are still running, said Fawaz Hanna, 56.
“Our demands are solely focused on living conditions,” said Hanna, referring to the hyperinflation caused by the war, which has driven millions into poverty.
“We urge candidates to take responsibility for their slogans and to keep their promises,” he added.
Outside his photography studio in central Damascus, candidates have put up campaign posters promising to revive the economy.
On one banner, a candidate pledged “to support small businesses,” while another, a few meters away promised “a competitive industry... a thriving economy.”
The Baath party and its secular left-wing and Arab nationalist allies are running virtually unopposed in the election with independents the only alternative.
Polling stations will operate only in government-controlled areas, effectively disenfranchising the millions of Syrians who live in the Kurdish-controlled northeast or in areas along the Turkish border controlled by Ankara-backed rebels or by jihadists.
Candidates are still contesting seats allocated to the north and northeast but only voters who have moved to government-controlled areas can cast ballots in the designated polling stations.
The millions of Syrians who have found refuge abroad also have no vote.
Syria’s exiled opposition issued a statement Wednesday condemning the election as “absurd” and saying that polls organized by the government “only represent the ruling authority.”
Authorities said 8,953 candidates, including 1,317 women, are competing for a seat in parliament.
“Most of the candidates are men, I only saw pictures of two female candidates,” said Aya Jdid, 22, a Damascus University student.
In another part of the city, a group presenting themselves as independents set up a tent with pictures of candidates on their list — mostly businessmen wearing suits.
“I don’t expect these elections to be any different than the previous ones, because we’re seeing the same” candidates, said 46-year-old event planner Johnny Arbash.
“However, we ask that they work in the interest of the people, who are tired after years of war,” he said.
Arbash said the fledgling rehabilitation of Assad’s government on the regional diplomatic stage gave him some hope for the economy.
“We are following news of political openings with Saudi Arabia and a possible rapprochement with Turkiye, and we hope this will have an impact on... living conditions,” Arbash said.
Last year, Damascus was readmitted to the Arab League after reconciling with Gulf Arab states that had championed its suspension from the regional bloc.
Earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he might invite Assad to Turkiye “at any moment.”
Geography teacher Hossam Shaheen, 40, told AFP he was excited to vote and had urged his friends to do so too.
“We must vote instead of watching and criticizing,” he said.
But Bashir, 33, who gave only his first name, said he intended to spoil his ballot in protest at the “predetermined” outcome.
“I don’t believe in any of the candidates, but at the same time... it’s my right to participate,” he said.
“I will cast a blank vote.”
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday the Israel-Gaza war must end now and Israel must not occupy the enclave after the war, telling reporters his ceasefire framework had been agreed on by both Israel and Hamas but there were still gaps to close.
“That framework is now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas. So I sent my team to the region to hammer out the details,” Biden said in a news conference.
Biden in late May detailed a proposal of three phases aimed at achieving a ceasefire, the release of hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the rebuilding of the coastal enclave.
CIA Director Bill Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk were in the Middle East this week meeting with regional counterparts to discuss the ceasefire deal.
“These are difficult, complex issues. There are still gaps to close. We’re making progress. The trend is positive. I’m determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now,” Biden said in the press conference.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has accepted a key part of a US plan, dropping a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the deal must not prevent Israel from resuming fighting until its war objectives are met. At the outset of the war, he pledged to annihilate Hamas.
Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday he was committed to securing a Gaza ceasefire deal provided Israel’s red lines were respected.
Biden told reporters on Thursday that Israel must not occupy Gaza while also offering some criticism of Israel’s war cabinet, saying “Israel occasionally was less than cooperative.”
Biden also expressed disappointment at some of his steps not having succeeded in Gaza, citing the planned winding down of the US military’s humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza as an example. “I was hopeful that would be more successful,” he said.
The Biden administration has faced international criticism for its continuing support of Israel in the face of growing civilian casualties.
The United States, Israel’s important ally, has seen months of protests around the country in opposition to the war and to US support for Israel.
A dozen US administration officials have quit, citing opposition to Biden’s Gaza policy. Rights advocates also note a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in the US amid the war.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when fighters led by Hamas, which controlled Gaza, attacked southern Israel. They killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
The Gaza health ministry says that since then over 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on the coastal enclave, which has displaced nearly all its 2.3 million population, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations that Israel denies.
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday it is not possible for NATO to continue its partnership with the Israeli administration.
“Until comprehensive, sustainable peace is established in Palestine, attempts at cooperation with Israel within NATO will not be approved by Turkiye,” Erdogan said at a news conference at the NATO summit.
Turkiye also continues its diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, he said.
Erdogan said as well that he has instructed Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad to start to restore relations with Syria.
Regarding F-16 sales to Turkiye, Erdogan said: “I talked to Mr. Biden. ‘I will solve this problem in 3-4 weeks’ he said’.”
TRIPOLI: Libya’s Tripoli-based High State Council has rejected a budget approved by the eastern-based parliament, warning of more partition and wasting of public money.
The rejection came in a letter from council head Mohammed Takala to the House of Representatives Speaker Aguila Saleh in Benghazi.
It was sent by the council media office to journalists.
The House approved the budget in two different sessions, one at the end of April worth 90 billion Libyan dinars ($18.5 billion) and another called it an additional budget of 88 billion Libyan dinars on Wednesday.
The budget is for the Benghazi-based government of Osama Hamad, who came to power in March 2023 and is allied with the military commander Khalifa Haftar, who controls the east and large parts of the southern region of Libya.
The council warned of what it described as “the House of Representatives’ persistence in its transgressions and managing public affairs by its sole will only lead to more division.”
A budget of about 179 billion Libyan dinars “is an unprecedented amount of money,” the council said.
Libya has had little peace since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Qaddafi, and it split in 2014 between warring eastern and western factions.
In Tripoli, the Government of National Unity is headed by interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, installed through a UN-backed process in 2021.
The House of Representatives was elected in 2014, while the High State Council was formed as part of a 2015 political agreement and drawn from a parliament elected in 2012.
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said US President Joe Biden and his administration are complicit in what he called Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the Gaza conflict, and he called for sanctions against Israel.
In an interview with Newsweek during the NATO summit in Washington, Erdogan said Israel’s “brutal murder” of civilians and its strikes on hospitals, aid centers, and elsewhere constituted war crimes.
“The US administration, however, disregards these violations and provides Israel with the most support. They do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations,” Erdogan said.
“At this juncture, who will impose what kind of sanction against Israel for violating international law? That is the real question, and no one is answering it,” he said.
More than 38,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, have been killed since the war broke out on Oct. 7, according to Gaza medical authorities.
NATO member Turkiye has denounced Israel’s assault on Gaza, halted trade with it, and voiced support for Hamas.
It has repeatedly criticized Western countries for backing Israel and called for Israel to be punished by international courts.
