Egypt FM affirms Arab support for Lebanese security in Beirut talks

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Updated 16 August 2024
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Egypt FM affirms Arab support for Lebanese security in Beirut talks

Egypt FM affirms Arab support for Lebanese security in Beirut talks
  • Hezbollah video reveals ‘missile city’ in giant tunnel network
  • Samir Geagea deplores ‘axis of resistance’

BEIRUT: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said in Beirut on Friday that Cairo will “make every possible effort to spare Lebanon and its brotherly people the woes of any uncalculated escalation.”

Abdelatty condemned “all provocative policies, including the violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

He repeated Egypt’s rejection of “the Israeli aggression on Beirut’s southern suburb and the policy of assassinations.”

Abdelatty added that the security and stability of Lebanon “is an Egyptian interest and an Arab interest that we are working on maintaining.”

His talks in Beirut came two days after visits by US mediator Amos Hochstein and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne.

FASTFACT

Prime Minister Najib Mikati repeated Lebanon’s commitment to ‘fully implementing’ UN Resolution 1701.

Hochstein and Sejourne had urged the need for deescalation, in parallel with the Doha talks targeting a ceasefire in Gaza and the exchange of hostages.

Abdelatty — under the assignment and direction of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi — met several Lebanese officials.

The talks were part of Arab and international efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza between the Israeli army and Hamas, and deescalate the situation on the Lebanese border between Israel and Hezbollah.

Following his meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Abdelatty said that he delivered a “message of support and solidarity from the Egyptian people to the Lebanese people.”

Abdelatty highlighted the importance of “stopping the escalation and not dragging the region into a comprehensive regional war.

“We are working to stop this escalation, and we must act to the fullest extent and as quickly as possible to reach an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and stop the Israeli aggression,” he said.

“The core of the conflict in this region is the persistence of the Palestinian cause without a solution, and the continued failure of the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights, most importantly their right to establish an independent state on the entire national territory on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

According to his media office, Berri said: “The success of the efforts exerted in Doha to reach a ceasefire is the main gateway to restoring stability and solutions in the region.”

He praised the “great effort made by Egypt and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to stop the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.”

Abdelatty also met Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his ministerial counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib.

Mikati repeated his country’s commitment to “fully implementing” UN Resolution 1701.

“Pressure must be exerted on Israel to implement the resolution and stop its aggression against Lebanon,” he added.

As diplomacy intensified to prevent a wider regional conflict, Hezbollah again warned of a possible response to the assassination of its senior military commander, Fouad Shukr, who was killed in Beirut’s southern suburb in July.

In a threatening message to Israel, the militant group released a video on Friday containing footage of an underground facility carved from rock.

The site featured huge, illuminated tunnels containing steel doors, motorbikes, missile launchers and trucks.

Hezbollah’s military media said in a statement on the video: “Western media talks a lot about the tunnels.”

The clip was titled “Our mountains are our strongholds” and aimed to reveal Hezbollah’s extensive military capabilities.

It included a clip of a previous speech by Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general.

He said: “The resistance now possesses precision and non-precision missiles, along with its weapons capabilities, so that if Israel imposes a war on Lebanon, Israel will face a destiny and reality it didn’t expect any day.”

Hezbollah sources told Lebanese media that the location, and entrances and exits, of the tunnel facility, were secret.

“It is unknown where this underground facility begins, where our fighters are operating, where it ends and what it is connected to,” they said.

“What we are revealing today is a small part of the real capabilities of the resistance, especially in terms of precision missiles.”

The video was accompanied by a message from the Iranian Embassy, which commented on the video.

The embassy said: “We call underground missile installations within rocks and mountains ‘missile cities.’ They are spread throughout the geography of Iran, instilling fear in the hearts of Iran’s enemies. If necessary, we can strike the enemy from any point within Iran.”

On Friday, Hezbollah launched a series of missile attacks on Israeli military sites in the Upper Galilee.

The party mourned one of its fighters who was killed by an Israeli air-to-surface missile on the border town of Aitaroun. He was identified as Ibrahim Shawqi Salameh from the town of Blida.

Israel again targeted the town of Kfar Kila and the outskirts of Rmeich, Ramia, Beit Lif, Al-Qouzah, Naqoura and Mays Al-Jabal.

Also on Friday, the leader of the Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea, said that Hezbollah’s actions on the southern border “are not in support of Gaza, but rather in support of Iran’s strategic interests in the region.”

Addressing a press conference, Geagea said: “Implementing Resolution 1701 would significantly improve our situation.”

He urged the government to “take a stance based on Lebanon’s national interest, rather than echoing Hezbollah’s actions.”

Former Lebanese president Michel Aoun had “put us in one hell,” and now the Axis of Resistance is “putting us in another hell and digging our hole even bigger,” Geagea added.

 


UN’s top anti-racism body calls for immediate Gaza aid access

UN’s top anti-racism body calls for immediate Gaza aid access
Updated 09 May 2025
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UN’s top anti-racism body calls for immediate Gaza aid access

UN’s top anti-racism body calls for immediate Gaza aid access
  • Civilian population ‘at imminent risk of famine, disease and death,’ statement warns
  • Israel has blocked humanitarian aid entering Gaza since March in bid to ‘pressurize Hamas’

NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s top anti-racism body has called for immediate humanitarian access to Gaza in a bid to avoid “catastrophic consequences” for its civilian population.

The statement by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination — comprised of independent experts — came hours after the World Central Kitchen charity said it was forced to end operations in Gaza due to a lack of food.

It also follows a commitment by Israel to “conquer” almost all of the enclave, as well as disputes involving Israel, the UN and US over the appropriate way to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there.

The CERD committee is convening in Geneva for its latest session, ending today.

Gaza’s civilian population, “especially vulnerable groups such as children, women, the elderly and persons with disabilities,” are “at imminent risk of famine, disease and death,” the committee said.

The warning follows an earlier appeal by the World Food Programme, the UN’s food agency, which said that almost all food aid operations in Gaza had collapsed.

Late last month, the agency announced that the entirety of its food reserves in the enclave had been depleted.

Since March, Israel has blocked humanitarian aid into Gaza in a bid to build pressure on Hamas, which still holds Israeli hostages.

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, said last week: “Two months ago, the Israeli authorities took a deliberate decision to block all aid to Gaza and halt our efforts to save survivors of their military offensive.

“They have been bracingly honest that this policy is to pressurize Hamas.”

Expanded military operations by Israel in Gaza over the past two months “have dramatically worsened the humanitarian crisis and severely endangered the civilian population,” Friday’s CERD statement said.

The committee called on Israel to “lift all barriers to humanitarian access, allow the immediate and unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid, and cease all actions obstructing the provision of essential services to the civilian population in Gaza.”

The statement also highlighted worsening conditions across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including in East Jerusalem, where Israel closed six UNRWA schools this week.

Philippe Lazzarini, the Palestinian refugee agency’s chief, reacted with fury over the move, describing it as an “assault on children.”

The CERD statement called on all UN states to “cooperate to bring an end to the violations that are taking place and to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including by ceasing any military assistance.”


UN committee warns of ‘another Nakba’ in Palestinian territories

UN committee warns of ‘another Nakba’ in Palestinian territories
Updated 09 May 2025
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UN committee warns of ‘another Nakba’ in Palestinian territories

UN committee warns of ‘another Nakba’ in Palestinian territories
  • During the 1948 war, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became known as “the Nakba”

GENEVA: The world could be witnessing “another Nakba” expulsion of Palestinians, a United Nations committee warned Friday, accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and saying it was inflicting “unimaginable suffering” on Palestinians.

For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement in the war that accompanied to Israel’s creation in 1948.

“Israel continues to inflict unimaginable suffering on the people living under its occupation, whilst rapidly expanding confiscation of land as part of its wider colonial aspirations,” warned a UN committee tasked with probing Israeli practices affecting Palestinian rights.

“What we are witnessing could very well be another Nakba,” it said, after concluding an annual mission to Amman.

During the 1948 war, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became known as “the Nakba.”

The descendants of some 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently make about 20 percent of its population.

The UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1968.

The committee is currently composed of the Sri Lankan, Malaysian and Senegalese ambassadors to the UN in New York.

“What the world is witnessing could very well be a second Nakba. The goal of wider colonial expansion is clearly the priority of the government of Israel,” they said in their report.

“Security operations are used as a smokescreen for rapid land grabbing, mass displacement, dispossession, demolitions, forced evictions and ethnic cleansing, in order to replace the Palestinian communities with Jewish settlers.”


Iran, US to resume nuclear talks on Sunday after postponement

Iran, US to resume nuclear talks on Sunday after postponement
Updated 09 May 2025
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Iran, US to resume nuclear talks on Sunday after postponement

Iran, US to resume nuclear talks on Sunday after postponement
  • Fourth round of indirect negotiations, initially set for May 3 in Rome, postponed due to ‘logistical reasons’

DUBAI: Iran has agreed to hold a fourth round of nuclear talks with the United States on Sunday in Oman, Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said on Friday, adding that the negotiations were advancing.

US President Donald Trump, who withdrew Washington from a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers meant to curb its nuclear activity, has threatened to bomb Iran if no new deal is reached to resolve the long unresolved dispute.

Western countries say Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran accelerated after the US walkout from the now moribund 2015 accord, is geared toward producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes.

“The negotiations are moving forward, and naturally, the further we go, the more consultations and reviews are needed,” Aragchi said in remarks carried by Iranian state media.

“The delegations require more time to examine the issues that are raised. But what is important is that we are on a forward-moving path and gradually entering into the details.”

The fourth round of indirect negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons.”

Aragchi said a planned visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Saturday was in line with “continuous consultations” with neighboring countries to “address their concerns and mutual interests” about the nuclear issue. 


No milk, no diapers: US aid cuts hit Syrian refugees in Lebanon

No milk, no diapers: US aid cuts hit Syrian refugees in Lebanon
Updated 09 May 2025
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No milk, no diapers: US aid cuts hit Syrian refugees in Lebanon

No milk, no diapers: US aid cuts hit Syrian refugees in Lebanon
  • Merhi and her family are among the millions of people affected by Trump’s decision to freeze USAID funding to humanitarian programs
  • Since the freeze, the UNHCR and WFP have had to limit the amount of aid they provide

BEIRUT: Amal Al-Merhi’s twin 10-month-old daughters often go without milk or diapers.

She feeds them a mix of cornstarch and water, because milk is too expensive. Instead of diapers, Merhi ties plastic bags around her babies’ waists.

The effect of their poverty is clear, she said.

“If you see one of the twins, you would not believe she is 10-months-old,” Merhi said in a phone interview. “She is so small and soft.”

The 20-year-old Syrian mother lives in a tent with her family of five in an informal camp in Bar Elias in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

She fled Syria’s civil war in 2013 and has been relying on cash assistance from the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR to get by.

But that has ended.

Merhi and her family are among the millions of people affected by US President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze USAID funding to humanitarian programs.

Since the freeze, the UNHCR and the World Food Program (WFP) have had to limit the amount of aid they provide to some of the world’s most vulnerable people in countries from Lebanon to Chad and Ukraine.

In February, the WFP was forced to cut the number of Syrian refugees receiving cash assistance to 660,000 from 830,000, meaning the organization is reaching 76 percent of the people it planned to target, a spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the WFP’s shock responsive safety net that supports Lebanese citizens cut its beneficiaries to 40,000 from 162,000 people, the spokesperson added.

The UNHCR has been forced to reduce all aspects of its operations in Lebanon, said Ivo Freijsen, UNHCR’s country representative, in an interview.

The agency cut 347,000 people from the UNHCR component of a WFP-UNHCR joint program as of April, a spokesperson said. Every family had been receiving $45 monthly from UNHCR, they added.

The group can support 206,000 Syrian refugees until June, when funds will dry up, they also said.

“We need to be very honest to everyone that the UNHCR of the past that could be totally on top of issues in a very expedient manner with lots of quality and resources — that is no longer the case,” Freijsen said. “We regret that sincerely.”

BAD TO WORSE
By the end of March, the UNHCR had enough money to cover only 17 percent of its planned global operations, and the budget for Lebanon is only 14 percent funded.

Lebanon is home to the largest refugee population per capita in the world.

Roughly 1.5 million Syrians, half of whom are formally registered with the UNHCR, live alongside some 4 million Lebanese.

Islamist-led rebels ousted former Syrian leader Bashar Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces. Since then there have been outbreaks of deadly sectarian violence, and fears among minorities are rising.

In March, hundreds of Syrians fled to Lebanon after killings targeted the minority Alawite sect.

Lebanon has been in the grips of unyielding crises since its economy imploded in 2019. The war between Israel and armed group Hezbollah is expected to wipe billions of dollars from the national wealth as well, the United Nations has said.

Economic malaise has meant fewer jobs for everyone, including Syrian refugees.

“My husband works one day and then sits at home for 10,” Merhi said. “We need help. I just want milk and diapers for my kids.”

DANGEROUS CHOICES
The UNHCR has been struggling with funding cuts for years, but the current cuts are “much more rapid and sizeable” and uncertainty prevails, said Freijsen.

“A lot of other questions are still to be answered, like, what will be the priorities? What will still be funded?” Freijsen asked.

Syrian refugees and vulnerable communities in Lebanon might be forced to make risky or dangerous choices, he said.

Some may take out loans. Already about 80 percent of Syrian refugees are in debt to pay for rent, groceries and medical bills, Freijsen said. Children may also be forced to work.

“Women may be forced into commercial sex work,” he added.

Issa Idris, a 50-year-old father of three, has not received any cash assistance from UNHCR since February and has been forced to take on debt to buy food.

“They cut us off with no warning,” he said.

He now owes a total of $3,750, used to pay for food, rent and medicine, and he has no idea how he will pay it back.

He cannot work because of an injury, but his 18-year-old son sometimes finds work as a day laborer.

“We are lucky. We have someone who can work. Many do not,” he said.

Merhi too has fallen into debt. The local grocer is refusing to lend her any more money, and last month power was cut until the family paid the utility bill

She and her husband collect and sell scrap metal to buy food.

“We are adults. We can eat anything,” she said, her voice breaking. “The kids cannot. It is not their fault.”


Kurdish PKK says held ‘successful’ meeting on disbanding

Kurdish PKK says held ‘successful’ meeting on disbanding
Updated 09 May 2025
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Kurdish PKK says held ‘successful’ meeting on disbanding

Kurdish PKK says held ‘successful’ meeting on disbanding
  • The PKK will share “full and detailed information with regard to the outcome of this congress very soon,” it said
  • In February, Ocalan urged his fighters to disarm and disband

ISTANBUL: The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) held a “successful” meeting this week with a view to disarming and dissolving, the Kurdish agency ANF, which is close to the armed movement, announced on Friday.
The meeting resulted in “decisions of historic importance concerning the PKK’s activities, based on the call” of founder Abdullah Ocalan, who called on the movement in February to dissolve.
The congress, which was held between Monday and Wednesday, took place in the “Media Defense Zones” — a term used by the movement to designate the Kandil mountains of northern Iraq where the PKK military command is located, the agency reported.
The PKK will share “full and detailed information with regard to the outcome of this congress very soon,” it said.
In February, Ocalan urged his fighters to disarm and disband, ending a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In his historic call — which took the form of a letter — Ocalan urged the PKK to hold a congress to formalize the decision.
Two days later, the PKK announced a ceasefire, saying it was ready to convene a congress but said “for this to happen, a suitable secure environment must be created,” insisting it would only succeed if Ocalan were to “personally direct and lead it.”
The PKK leadership is holed up in Kurdish-majority mountainous northern Iraq where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years, targeting the group which is also blacklisted by Washington and Brussels.