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CAIRO: Qatari, Egyptian and US leaders called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent talks on Aug. 15 either in Doha or Cairo to bridge all remaining gaps in the proposed Gaza ceasefire agreement and start implementing it without any delay, the three countries said in a joint statement on Thursday.
“It is the time to conclude a ceasefire agreement and release hostages and prisoners,” the statement added.
DAMASCUS: The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to step up the search for her son and said she hopes she can take him home with her.
Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil war.
His mother, Debra Tice, drove into the Syrian capital from Lebanon with Nizar Zakka, the head of Hostage Aid Worldwide, an organisation which is searching for Austin and believes he is still in Syria.
"It'd be lovely to put my arms around Austin while I'm here. It'd be the best," Debra Tice told Reuters in the Syrian capital, which she last visited in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about her son, before they stopped granting her visas.
The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December by Syrian rebels has allowed her to visit again from her home in Texas.
"I feel very strongly that Austin's here, and I think he knows I'm here... I'm here," she said.
Debra Tice and Zakka are hoping to meet with Syria's new authorities, including the head of its new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa, to push for information about Austin. They are also optimistic that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, will take up the cause.
"I am hoping to get some answers. And of course, you know, we have inauguration on Monday, and I think that should be a huge change," she said.
"I know that President Trump is quite a negotiator, so I have a lot of confidence there. But now we have an unknown on this (Syrian) side. It's difficult to know, if those that are coming in even have the information about him," she said.
Her son, now 43, was taken captive in August 2012, while travelling through the Damascus suburb of Daraya.
Reuters was first to report in December that in 2013 Tice, a former U.S. Marine, managed to slip out of his cell and was seen moving between houses in the streets of Damascus' upscale Mazzeh neighbourhood.
He was recaptured soon after his escape, likely by forces who answered directly to Assad, current and former U.S. officials said.
Debra Tice came to Syria in 2012 and 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities, who never confirmed that Tice was in their custody, both she and Zakka said.
She criticised outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, saying they did not negotiate hard enough for her son's release, even in recent months.
"We certainly felt like President Biden was very well positioned to do everything possible to bring Austin home, right? I mean, this was the end of his career. This would be a wonderful thing for him to do. So we had an expectation. He pardoned his own son, right? So, where's my son?"
Debra Tice said her "mind was just spinning" as she drove across the Lebanese border into Syria and teared up as she spoke about the tens of thousands whose loved ones were held in Assad's notorious prison system and whose fate remains unknown.
"I have a lot in common with a lot of Syrian mothers and families, and just thinking about how this is affecting them - do they have the same hope that I do, that they're going to open a door, that they're going to see their loved one?"
LONDON: Jordan’s Queen Rania met incoming US First Lady Melania Trump in Florida on Thursday.
Trump hosted the queen in Palm Beach during her visit to the US.
The queen said on Instagram that “it was a pleasure reconnecting” with Melania, who will return for a second term as first lady when her husband Donald is sworn in as president on Monday.
The two women “discussed various issues of mutual interest, including children’s welfare, as well as improving their education,” the queen’s office said.
The meeting, which was followed by a lunch, is the third to take place between the two in the US.
In 2018, Trump welcomed Queen Rania and her husband King Abdullah II to the White House ahead of meetings with the president.
The royals also visited the White House in 2017 and toured an all-girls school in Washington.
BEIRUT: The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group on Saturday accused Israel of hundreds of violations of a ceasefire, to be fully implemented by next week, and warned against testing “our patience.”
His remarks came during a visit to Lebanon by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called for Israel to end military operations and “occupation” in the south, almost two months into the ceasefire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
Guterres on Friday said UN peacekeepers had also found more than 100 weapons caches belonging “to Hezbollah or other armed groups.”
Naim Qassem, the Hezbollah leader, called “on the Lebanese state to be firm in confronting violations, now numbering more than hundreds. This cannot continue,” he said in a televised speech.
“We have been patient with the violations to give a chance to the Lebanese state responsible for this agreement, along with the international sponsors, but I call on you not to test our patience,” Qassem said.
Under the November 27 ceasefire accord, which ended two months of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside peacekeepers from the UNIFIL mission in south Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws.
At the same time, Hezbollah is required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in the south.
Qassem’s speech came as Guterres met Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun, the former army chief who has vowed that the state would have “a monopoly” on bearing weapons.
Analysts say Hezbollah’s weakening in the war with Israel allowed Lebanon’s deeply divided political class to elect Aoun and to back his naming as prime minister Nawaf Salam, who was presiding judge at the International Criminal Court.
Qassem insisted Hezbollah and ally Amal’s backing “is what led to the election of the president by consensus,” after around two years of deadlock.
“No one can exploit the results of the aggression in domestic politics,” he warned. “No one can exclude us from effective and influential political participation in the country.”
After his meeting with Aoun on Saturday, Guterres expressed hope Lebanon could open “a new chapter of peace.” The UN chief has said he is on a “visit of solidarity” with Lebanon.
French President Emmanuel Macron was also in Lebanon on Friday and said there must be “accelerated” implementation of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
LONDON: Foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan will lead the Kingdom’s delegation attending the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos next week, a statement from the Ministry of Economy and Planning said on Saturday.
This year’s forum, held under the theme of “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,” takes place amid significant geopolitical tensions, slow economic growth and the transformative impact of advanced technologies.
The Saudi delegation will engage with global leaders from government, business and civil society to address these issues and explore opportunities for innovation, sustainable development and human empowerment, the ministry statement added.
Central to the Kingdom’s participation will be showcasing its Vision 2030 reform agenda, which is reshaping Saudi Arabia’s economy as it seeks to diversify away from reliance on oil revenue.
Joining Prince Faisal will be Majid Al-Qassabi, minister of commerce; Ahmed Al-Khateeb, minister of tourism; Adel Al-Jubeir, minister of state for foreign affairs and envoy for climate affairs; and Khalid Al-Falih, minister of investment.
Also attending at ministerial level will be Mohammed Al-Jadaan, minister of finance; Abdullah Alswaha, minister of communications and information technology; Bandar Alkhorayef, minister of industry and mineral resources; and Faisal Al-Ibrahim, from the Ministry of Economy and Planning, which leads the Kingdom’s partnership with WEF.
TEHRAN: Two senior Iranian Supreme Court judges involved in handling espionage and terrorism cases were shot dead in the capital Tehran on Saturday, Iran’s judiciary said.
It said the attacker killed himself after opening fire at the judges inside the Supreme Court, and that a bodyguard of one of the judges was wounded.
The judiciary identified the judges who were killed as mid-ranking Shiite Muslim clerics Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini.
While the motive for the assassination was still unclear, judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir told state television that the two judges had long been involved in “national security cases, including espionage and terrorism.”
“In the past year, the judiciary has undertaken extensive efforts to identify spies and terrorist groups, a move that has sparked anger and resentment among the enemies,” he said.
State TV said these cases were related to individuals linked to Israel and the Iranian opposition supported by the United States. It did not elaborate.
Opposition websites have in the past said Moghiseh was involved in trials of people they described as political prisoners.
Razini was a target of an assassination attempt in 1998.
