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CAIRO: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call on Sunday that preventing regional escalation is tied to stopping Israeli “aggression” in the Gaza Strip, Iraqi state media said.
ANKARA: Turkiye on Saturday removed another elected pro-Kurdish provincial mayor over convictions on terrorism-related charges and appointed a state official in his place, the interior ministry said.
The local governor replaced Abdullah Zeydan, a member of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and mayor of the eastern province of Van because of his recent conviction for “assisting an armed terrorist organization,” the ministry said in a statement.
Eight DEM Party-member mayors and two main opposition CHP-member mayors across Turkiye have been removed from their posts over terrorism-related charges since March 2024 local elections. Another CHP-member mayor has been under arrest over tender-rigging charges.
DEM, which has 57 seats in the 600-seat parliament, said the trustee appointment to the Van municipality was “a blow to people’s will,” and it will not “bow to this unlawfulness.”
Opposition politicians have faced a series of legal probes, detentions and arrests in what critics say is a government effort to muzzle dissent and hurt their electoral prospects.
Turkiye’s government dismisses accusations of political interference in the cases and says the judiciary is independent.
On Friday, a legal probe into a top official at Turkiye’s main business group TUSIAD was launched over his criticisms on the recent judicial crackdown on opposition leaders, mayors and journalists.
The European Parliament on Thursday condemned the legal actions against opposition mayors as a “disregard of the rule of law and the government’s violation of the fundamental principles of democracy.”
Saturday’s move also comes amid talks, supported by the government, with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to seek an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and Turkish state.
KHAN YOUNIS: Three more Israelis held captive in the Gaza Strip are on the verge of being freed Saturday as part of a shaky ceasefire deal that requires Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
The truce that began nearly four weeks ago had been jeopardized in recent days by a tense dispute that threatened to renew the fighting.
US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to remove more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and settle them elsewhere in the region has cast even more doubt on the future of the ceasefire.
But Hamas said Thursday it would move ahead with the release of more hostages after talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials. The group said the mediators had pledged to “remove all hurdles” to assure Israel would allow more tents, medical supplies and other essentials into Gaza.
It will be the sixth swap since the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19. So far, 21 hostages and over 730 Palestinian prisoners have been freed during the first phase of the truce.
As with previous exchanges, dozens of masked, armed Hamas fighters lined up near a stage festooned with Palestinian flags and the banners of militant factions while music blared from loudspeakers.
The militants are expected to parade the hostages before crowds and cameras onto the stage, which has been set up near a heavily damaged multistory building, before handing them over to the Red Cross. The humanitarian organization will then transport them to Israeli force.
CAIRO: Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun condemned on Saturday an attack on a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon convoy in Beirut, saying security forces will not tolerate anyone who tries to destabilize the country, according to a statement by the president’s office.
Lebanese authorities are set to hold an emergency meeting on Saturday after a deputy commander with the UN peacekeeping force in the country was injured during an attack on a convoy taking him to the airport.
Hezbollah supporters have been blocking the road to the country’s only airport for two consecutive nights over a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in Beirut.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said one of its vehicles was set on fire during the Friday night incident, which injured outgoing deputy force commander Chok Bahadur Dhakal as he was returning home.
“We demand a full and immediate investigation by Lebanese authorities and for all perpetrators to be brought to justice,” the peacekeeping force said in a statement.
The Lebanese army pledged to take firm action against those behind the attack, and the interior minister called an emergency meeting of the Central Internal Security Council on Saturday morning.
Interior Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar said he visited two injured UNIFIL officers in hospital and emphasized “the Lebanese government’s rejection of this attack.”
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert described the incident as “unacceptable.”
“Such an act of violence threatens the safety of United Nations staff who work tirelessly to maintain stability in Lebanon, sometimes at great personal risk,” she said in a statement.
In a conversation with Hennis-Plasschaert and UNIFIL Commander General Aroldo Lazaro, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam strongly condemned the “criminal attack” and promised to arrest the perpetrators.
The army said on social media that several areas around the airport had seen “demonstrations marked by acts of vandalism and clashes, including assaults on members of the armed forces and attacks against vehicles.”
It remains unclear who is responsible for the attack on the UNIFIL convoy.
Videos circulating on social media have shown demonstrators, some hooded and carrying Hezbollah flags, attacking a man in military garb and another in civilian clothes near the torched UNIFIL vehicle.
(With AFP and Reuters)
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday advocated taking a “hard stance” on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a US takeover and where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants is in place.
Trump had said this week that Hamas should release all Israeli hostages in Gaza by Saturday midday or “let hell break out.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow (Saturday) at 12’o clock. If it was up to me, I would take a very hard stance but I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
A ceasefire went into effect just before Trump returned to the presidency on January 20.Some Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel since then.
The UN human rights office has described images of both emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.
Trump on Friday reiterated his concerns about the appearances of released Israeli hostages without commenting on the state of the Palestinians.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
The assault internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Trump has faced international condemnation for his proposal to take over Gaza and permanently displace Palestinians there. Rights experts and the United Nations have called it a proposal for ethnic cleansing.
