You are here

Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state

Special Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state
Ahmed Aboul Gheit met with Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s minister of foreign affairs, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Cairo. (X/@arableague_gs)
Short Url

https://arab.news/crvrz

Updated 10 September 2024
Gobran Mohamed
Follow

Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state

Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state
  • Ahmed Aboul Gheit expresses appreciation for Denmark’s supportive positions
  • Arab League’s chief urged Denmark to follow the lead of several European countries that had recently recognized the independent state of Palestine
Updated 10 September 2024
Gobran Mohamed
Follow

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has called on Denmark to recognize the state of Palestine.

Aboul Gheit made the remarks as he received Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s minister of foreign affairs, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Cairo.

Gamal Roshdy, a spokesman for the secretary-general, said that the meeting between the two focused on enhancing bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

Aboul Gheit expressed appreciation for Denmark’s supportive positions on the Palestinian cause.

Aboul Gheit spoke of his confidence that Denmark would continue to play a constructive role in promoting peace, security, and stability in the Arab region — particularly in light of Copenhagen’s recent success in securing a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2025-2026 term.

The Arab League’s chief urged Denmark to follow the lead of several European countries that had recently recognized the independent state of Palestine within the borders of June 4, 1967, and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He stressed that such recognition was crucial to realizing the two-state solution.

The foreign minister reaffirmed his country’s support for Arab issues and concerns and outlined Denmark’s current foreign policy priorities.

He also stressed his country’s keen interest in strengthening relations with Arab nations across all sectors.

Topics: Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit Denmark Palestine

Related

Israel risks undermining Egypt’s role, Arab League warns
Middle-East
Israel risks undermining Egypt’s role, Arab League warns
Arab League, Egypt condemn Israeli military raids on northern West Bank
Middle-East
Arab League, Egypt condemn Israeli military raids on northern West Bank

Paramilitary shelling of besieged Darfur city kills 10

Paramilitary shelling of besieged Darfur city kills 10
Updated 8 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Paramilitary shelling of besieged Darfur city kills 10

Paramilitary shelling of besieged Darfur city kills 10
Updated 8 sec ago
AFP

PORT SUDAN: Ten civilians were killed and 20 wounded in paramilitary shelling of North Darfur’s besieged capital El-Fasher which hit the city’s main hospital and other areas, activists said.

The attack left “10 civilians killed and 20 others injured ... as a result of recent shelling inside the city of El-Fasher and the Saudi Hospital,” said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups that have been coordinating aid across Sudan during 20 months of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Sudanese doctor Mohamed Moussa has grown so accustomed to the constant sound of gunfire and shelling near his hospital that it no longer startles him. He continues attending to his patients.

“The bombing has numbed us,” the 30-year-old general practitioner said by phone from Al-Nao Hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.

Gunfire rattles in the distance, warplanes roar overhead and nearby shelling makes the ground tremble, more than a year and a half into a grinding war between rival Sudanese generals.

Embattled health workers “have no choice but to continue,” said Moussa.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces.

Topics: Sudan Unrest

Related

Paramilitary attack in North Darfur kills 3: activists
Middle-East
Paramilitary attack in North Darfur kills 3: activists
RSF attacks main hospital in North Darfur’s Al-Fasher, says health official
Middle-East
RSF attacks main hospital in North Darfur’s Al-Fasher, says health official

Blinken to announce more funding for Sudan at UN on Thursday, official says

Blinken to announce more funding for Sudan at UN on Thursday, official says
Updated 18 December 2024
Follow

Blinken to announce more funding for Sudan at UN on Thursday, official says

Blinken to announce more funding for Sudan at UN on Thursday, official says
Updated 18 December 2024
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce at the United Nations on Thursday additional funding for humanitarian assistance to Sudan and efforts to support civil society in the country, where a conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
Deputy US Representative to the United Nations Ned Price told reporters on Wednesday that Blinken will make a number of announcements when he chairs on Thursday a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan, which will focus on humanitarian assistance and protection of civilians.
The announcements will include additional funding for humanitarian assistance, and efforts to support civil society and, ultimately, the transition back to democracy, Price said.
“Sudan, unfortunately, has risked becoming a forgotten conflict,” Price said.
“So part of the reason the secretary ... opted to convene a signature event on this very topic is to make sure it remains in the spotlight,” Price said.
Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in conflict for more than 18 months, triggering a profound humanitarian crisis in which more than 12 million people have been driven from their homes and UN agencies have struggled to deliver relief.
The war erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.
US-mediated talks in Geneva this year failed to achieve progress toward a ceasefire as the army refused to attend, but did secure promises from the warring parties to improve aid access.
Price said the United States would continue to work with allies for improved humanitarian access in Sudan and ultimately a cessation of hostilities before the end of President Joe Biden’s term next month.
“We are going to leave nothing on the field in our efforts to work with allies, with partners, with the Sudanese stakeholders themselves, on the issues that matter most — humanitarian access, the provision of humanitarian assistance, ultimately, the process by which we can work to get to a cessation of hostilities, which is most urgently needed,” he said.

Erdogan says Turkiye, Lebanon agree to act together on Syria

Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Ankara, Turkiye, December 18.
Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Ankara, Turkiye, December 18.
Updated 18 December 2024
AFP
Follow

Erdogan says Turkiye, Lebanon agree to act together on Syria

Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Ankara, Turkiye, December 18.
  • “The stability of Syria means the stability of the region,” Erdogan said
  • Turkiye and Lebanon are home to a large number of Syrian refugees
Updated 18 December 2024
AFP

ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Turkiye and Lebanon would work together on Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Assad by militants.
“A new era has now begun in Syria. We agree that we must act together as two important neighbors of Syria,” Erdogan told a news conference, alongside Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
“The stability of Syria means the stability of the region,” he said, adding that reconstruction of the war-ravaged country on their borders would be their priority.
Assad fled to Russia after a lightning offensive spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from his control until the militants reached the Syrian capital earlier this month.
The ousting of Assad sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, and has prompted many refugees to begin returning home.
Turkiye and Lebanon are home to a large number of Syrian refugees.
To rebuild Syria, Erdogan said: “This is a critical period in which we need to act with unity, solidarity and mutual reconciliation.”

Topics: Fall of Assad Turkiye Lebanon

Related

Syria rescuers say bodies found in warehouse video
Middle-East
Syria rescuers say bodies found in warehouse
Turkish rescuers end search of Syria’s Saydnaya prison
Middle-East
Turkish rescuers end search of Syria’s Saydnaya prison

Syria rescuers say bodies found in warehouse

Syria rescuers say bodies found in warehouse
Updated 18 December 2024
AFP
Follow

Syria rescuers say bodies found in warehouse

Syria rescuers say bodies found in warehouse
  • “We received a report about the presence of bodies, bones and a foul smell at the site,” White Helmets official Ammar Al-Salmo said
Updated 18 December 2024
AFP

DAMASCUS: A Syrian civil defense official said Wednesday that White Helmets rescuers discovered unidentified bodies and remains in a medicine warehouse in a Damascus suburb, 10 days after Bashar Assad’s ouster.
An AFP video journalist at the scene said the warehouse strewn with medicine boxes was located just around 50 meters (yards) from the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, a revered site for Shiite Muslims.
“We received a report about the presence of bodies, bones and a foul smell at the site,” White Helmets official Ammar Al-Salmo told AFP.
South Damascus’s Sayyida Zeinab suburb was a stronghold of pro-Iran fighters including Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group before militants took the capital on December 8 in a lightning offensive.
“In the warehouse, we found a refrigerated room containing decomposing corpses,” Salmo said, adding that some appeared to have died more than a year and a half earlier.
He said human bones were also scattered on the ground, estimating there were around 20 “victims.”
AFP saw men in white suits removing bodies and remains in black bags and placing them onto a truck.
Salmo said the words Aleppo-Hraytan — Syria’s second city in the north, and a nearby location — and numbers were written on bags where the unidentified bodies were found.
“We are going to establish the age of the victims” then take samples for DNA tests “and try to locate their families,” Salmo added.
AFP was unable to independently ascertain the reason for the presence of the remains or the identities of the bodies.
Since Assad’s ouster, a number of mass graves have been uncovered in the country.
The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing parts of the Syrian conflict, which has claimed more than 500,000 lives.
In 2022, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor estimated that more than 100,000 people had died in prison, mostly due to torture, since the war began.

Topics: Fall of Assad bodies warehouse

Related

Syrian mass graves expose Assad’s ‘machinery of death’
Middle-East
Syrian mass graves expose Assad’s ‘machinery of death’
Syria militants say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus video
Middle-East
Syria militants say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus

UN calls for ‘free and fair’ elections in Syria

Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024.AP
Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024.AP
Updated 18 December 2024
AFP
Follow

UN calls for ‘free and fair’ elections in Syria

Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, speaks to journalists in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024.AP
  • UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said “there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria”
  • Calling for immediate humanitarian assistance, he also said he hoped to see an end to international sanctions
Updated 18 December 2024
AFP

DAMASCUS: The UN envoy to Syria called on Wednesday for “free and fair” elections after the ouster of president Bashar Assad, as he voiced hope for a political solution for Kurdish-held areas.
Assad fled Syria following a lightning offensive spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.
He left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, and the collapse of his rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond.
Years of civil war have also left the country heavily dependent on aid, deeply fragmented, and desperate for justice and peace.
Addressing reporters in Damascus, UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said “there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria.”
“A new Syria that... will adopt a new constitution... and that we will have free and fair elections when that time comes, after a transitional period,” he said.
Calling for immediate humanitarian assistance, he also said he hoped to see an end to international sanctions levied against Syria over Assad’s abuses.
Pedersen said a key challenge was the situation in Kurdish-held areas in Syria’s northeast, amid fears of a major escalation between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkiye-backed groups.
Turkiye accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants at home, whom both Washington and Ankara consider a “terrorist” group.
The United States said Tuesday it had brokered an extension to a fragile ceasefire in the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Turkiye.
“I’m very pleased that the truce has been renewed and that it seems to be holding, but hopefully we will see a political solution to that issue,” Pedersen said.
Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organization by several Western governments, HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric by assuring protection for the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities.
It has appointed a transitional leadership that will run the country until March 1.
HTS military chief Murhaf Abu Qasra said Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the country’s new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism.
“Syria will not be divided,” he told AFP, adding that “the Kurdish people are one of the components of the Syrian people.”
He said HTS would be “among the first” factions to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces, after the leader of the group ordered the disbanding of militant organizations.
“All military units must be integrated into this institution,” Abu Qasra said.
HTS has also vowed justice for the crimes committed under Assad’s rule, including the disappearance of tens of thousands of people into the complex web of detention centers and prisons that was used for decades to silence dissent.
“We want to know where our children are, our brothers,” said 55-year-old Ziad Alaywi, standing by a ditch near the town of Najha, southeast of Damascus.
It is one of the locations where Syrians believe the bodies of prisoners tortured to death were buried — acts that international organizations say could constitute crimes against humanity.
“Were they killed? Are they buried here?” he asked.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, more than 100,000 people died or were killed in custody from 2011.

Topics: Fall of Assad elections Syria

Related

Syrian opposition leader Al-Bahra calls for national support in Syria’s transition
Middle-East
Syrian opposition leader Al-Bahra calls for national support in Syria’s transition
Turkish rescuers end search of Syria’s Saydnaya prison
Middle-East
Turkish rescuers end search of Syria’s Saydnaya prison

Latest updates

Paramilitary shelling of besieged Darfur city kills 10
Paramilitary shelling of besieged Darfur city kills 10
French far-right leader Le Pen eyes early presidential election
French far-right leader Le Pen eyes early presidential election
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Birds at Rest’ by Roger Pasquier
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Birds at Rest’ by Roger Pasquier
Blinken to announce more funding for Sudan at UN on Thursday, official says
Blinken to announce more funding for Sudan at UN on Thursday, official says
ACWA Power launches key Initiatives at COP16
ACWA Power launches key Initiatives at COP16

Search form

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