BAGHDAD: Turkiye’s foreign minister on Tuesday denounced a separatist Kurdish group that operates in northern Iraqi territory as an enemy of both Turkiye and Iraq, and urged the Iraqi government to ban the group as a terrorist organization as Ankara has done.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged Iraq to label the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, a terrorist organization during his first visit to Baghdad since taking office.
The trip came ahead of an anticipated visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after what has been months of escalating hostility between Turkiye and Turkish-backed groups on one side, and Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria on the other.
In a statement after meeting with his counterpart, Fidan urged Iraqi officials to “not allow our mutual enemy, the PKK terrorist organization, to poison our bilateral relations.”
While Baghdad has frequently complained that Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq are a breach of its sovereignty, Fidan described the PKK’s activities there as a “challenge against Iraq’s sovereignty,” accusing the group of “occupying” areas in Iraq and seeking to link Iraq to neighboring Syria with a “terror corridor.”
The PKK question is expected to loom large during a visit by Erdogan, along with the resumption of oil exports from northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region via the Ceyhan port in Turkiye.
Officials in Baghdad and Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government, have long been at odds over sharing of oil revenues. In 2014, the Kurdish region decided to unilaterally export oil through an independent pipeline to Ceyhan.
Turkiye halted oil shipments from the Kurdish region through Ceyhan in March, following a ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, which sided with Baghdad, holding that all oil exports should go through Iraq’s state-owned oil marketing company, SOMO. The ruling required Ankara to compensate Baghdad for unauthorized oil exports from the Kurdish regional government from 2014 to 2018,.
Iraqi Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ahmed Al-Sahaf said a high-ranking Iraqi delegation, led by the oil minister, is currently in Turkiye.
Iraq’s Foreign Affairs Minister Fouad Hussein said following his meeting with Fidan that they had discussed the oil issue and were close to finalizing a solution. Hussein said the discussions with his Turkish counterpart had also focused on water issues.
The countries have been at odds over management of shared water resources, amid intensifying droughts in Iraq.
“Given our shared challenges with climate change and Iraq’s historical reliance on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers originating in Turkiye, it’s crucial for Iraq to receive its fair share of water,” Hussein said.
The two foreign ministers also spoke about recent public Qur’an-burnings in Europe, which sparked mass protests in Iraq, some of them violent. Fidan said if the two Muslim-majority countries “remain united, those who attack our sacred values will think twice before taking such action.”
Hussein said around 700,000 Iraqis reside in Turkiye, with 850 Turkish companies operating in Iraq. Fidan added that bilateral trade has reached $25 billion.
Fidan is next scheduled to visit Irbil and meet with the Kurdish region’s Prime Minister Massrour Barzani.
Top Turkish diplomat calls for Iraq to designate PKK a terrorist organization during Baghdad visit
https://arab.news/93h8j
Top Turkish diplomat calls for Iraq to designate PKK a terrorist organization during Baghdad visit
- The PKK question is expected to loom large during a visit by Erdogan, along with the resumption of oil exports from northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region via the Ceyhan port in Turkiye
Egypt rejects Israel’s denial of role in Gaza aid crisis
- Sameh Shoukry: “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side”
CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister on Tuesday accused Israel of denying responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after his Israeli counterpart said Egypt was not allowing aid into the war-torn territory.
Israeli troops on May 7 said they took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to Egypt as part of efforts to root out Hamas militants in the east of Rafah city.
The move defied international opposition and shut one of the main humanitarian entry points into famine-threatened Gaza. Since then, Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel aid access through the Rafah crossing.
Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said in a statement that “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side.”
In a tweet on social media platform X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had said, “Yesterday, I spoke with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Katz added that “the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends.”
Shoukry, whose country has tried to mediate a truce in the Israel-Hamas war, responded that “Israel is solely responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinians are currently facing in the Gaza Strip.”
He added that Israeli control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing and its military operations exposes “aid workers and truck drivers to imminent dangers,” referencing trucks awaiting entry to Gaza.
This, he said, “is the main reason for the inability to bring aid through the crossing.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he is “appalled” by Israel’s military escalation in Rafah, a spokesman said.
Guterres’ spokesman Farhan Haq said “these developments are further impeding humanitarian access and worsening an already dire situation,” while also criticizing Hamas for “firing rockets indiscriminately.”
Since Israeli troops moved into eastern Rafah, the aid crossing point from Egypt remains closed and nearby Kerem Shalom crossing lacks “safe and logistically viable access,” a UN report said late on Monday.
Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq
- Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades
BAGHDAD: Daesh claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on Monday targeting an army post in northern Iraq which security sources said had killed a commanding officer and four soldiers.
The attack took place between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, a rural area that remains a hotbed of activity for militant cells years after Iraq declared final victory over the extremist group in 2017.
Security forces repelled the attack, the defense ministry said on Monday in a statement mourning the loss of a colonel and a number of others from the regiment. The security sources said five others had also been wounded.
Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades.
Iraq has seen relative security stability in recent years after the chaos of the 2003-US-led invasion and years of bloody sectarian conflict that followed.
Israeli forces repeatedly target Gaza aid workers, says Human Rights Watch
- They are among more than 250 aid workers who have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted more than seven months ago, according to UN figures
- Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
JERUSALEM: Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Israel had repeatedly targeted known aid worker locations in Gaza, even after their coordinates were provided to Israeli authorities to ensure their protection.
The rights watchdog said that it had identified eight cases where aid convoys and premises were targeted, killing at least 15 people, including two children.
They are among more than 250 aid workers who have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted more than seven months ago, according to UN figures.
In all eight cases, the organizations had provided the coordinates to Israeli authorities, HRW said.
This reveals “fundamental flaws with the so-called deconfliction system, meant to protect aid workers and allow them to safely deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza,” it said.
“On one hand, Israel is blocking access to critical lifesaving humanitarian provisions and on the other, attacking convoys that are delivering some of the small amount that they are allowing in,” Belkis Wille, HRW’s associate crisis, conflict and arms director, said in Tuesday’s statement.
HRW highlighted the case of the World Central Kitchen, a US-based charity who saw seven of its aid workers killed by an Israeli strike on their convoy on April 1.
This was not an isolated “mistake,” HRW said, pointing to the other seven cases it had identified where GPS coordinates of aid convoys and premises had been sent to Israeli authorities, only to see them attacked by Israeli forces “without any warning.”
EU top diplomat sees US ‘fatigue’ in Mideast
- Josep Borrell strongly criticized Israel’s war campaign, saying Gazans were ‘dying and starving and suffering in unimaginable proportions’ and that it was a ‘man-made disaster’
- Josep Borrell: ‘I see a certain fatigue from the US side to continue engaging in looking for a solution’
SAN FRANCISCO: The European Union’s top diplomat has said that the United States is showing “fatigue” in its Middle East diplomacy and called for greater EU efforts toward a Palestinian state.
On a visit to California, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell again strongly criticized Israel’s war campaign, saying Gazans were “dying and starving and suffering in unimaginable proportions” and that it was a “man-made disaster.”
“I see a certain fatigue from the US side to continue engaging in looking for a solution,” Borrell said in a speech Monday at Stanford University that was publicly released on Tuesday.
“We are trying to push with the Arab people in order to build together, the Arabs and Europeans, to make this two-state solution a reality,” he said in English.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made seven trips to the Middle East since the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas which prompted a relentless Israeli military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
He has nudged Israel to allow in more aid, pushed against a regional escalation and pleaded for Israel to accept a two-state solution as part of a broader eventual deal that includes normalization with Saudi Arabia.
But the United States vetoed a Security Council bid to give Palestine full UN membership, arguing that statehood can only come though negotiations that address Israel’s security concerns.
The General Assembly last week passed a symbolic vote for Palestinian membership with the United States one of only nine countries to vote against.
The others opposed included two European Union members — the Czech Republic and Hungary. Among EU heavyweights, France voted in favor and Germany abstained.
Borrell acknowledged that the vote showed the European Union was “very much divided” over Gaza, unlike on the Ukraine war, and cited “historical reasons.”
“But it doesn’t mean that we don’t have to take a stronger part of responsibility because we have delegated (to) the US looking for a solution,” he said.
Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, in February sharply criticized the US arms flow for Israel, pointing to President Joe Biden’s own words that too many people were dying in Gaza.
Biden last week for the first time threatened to cut military aid to Israel, with one shipment of bombs already halted, if Israel defies US warnings and assaults the packed city of Rafah.
‘Nothing wrong’ with Gaza death toll figures
- Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
GAZA STRIP: The World Health Organization voiced full confidence in Gaza Ministry of Health death toll figures on Tuesday, saying they were actually getting closer to confirming the scale of losses after Israel questioned a change in the numbers.
Gaza’s Health Ministry last week updated its breakdown of the total fatalities of around 35,000 since Oct. 7, saying that about 25,000 of those have so far been fully identified, of whom more than half were women and children.
This sparked allegations from Israel of inaccuracy since Palestinian authorities had previously estimated that more than 70 percent of those killed were women and children.
UN agencies have republished the Palestinian figures, which have since risen above 35,000 dead, citing the source.
“Nothing wrong with the data, the overall data (more than 35,000) are still the same,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a Geneva press briefing. “The fact we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward,” he added.
Based on his own extrapolation of the latest Palestinian data, he said that around 60 percent of victims were women and children, but many bodies buried beneath rubble were likely to fall into these categories when they were eventually identified.
He added that it was “normal” for death tolls to shift in conflicts.
“We’re basically talking about 35,000 people who are dead, and really every life matters, doesn’t it?” Liz Throssel, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said at the same briefing. “And we know that many and many of those are women and children and there are thousands missing under the rubble.”
