Jordanian king, Egyptian president discuss Gaza humanitarian truce

Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo. (Petra)
Short Url
Updated 22 November 2023
Follow

Jordanian king, Egyptian president discuss Gaza humanitarian truce

  • Leaders expressed their firm rejection of Israel’s collective punishment against the Palestinian people

LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi have jointly welcomed the announcement of a temporary humanitarian truce in Gaza, Jordan News Agency reported.

During a meeting in Cairo, the leaders emphasized the urgent need for a permanent cease-fire and the continuous delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

They expressed their firm rejection of the policies of starvation and collective punishment imposed on the Palestinian people. They also opposed any attempts to internally or externally displace Palestinians from Gaza.

Both leaders reiterated their countries’ unwavering support for the Palestinian cause. They urged the international community to take advantage of the current truce to provide relief to those suffering in Gaza and to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis.

Discussions also focused on efforts aimed at regional stability that must begin with a political process working toward securing Palestinians’ legitimate rights and establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

King Abdullah highlighted the crucial role of the humanitarian truce in preventing the conflict in Gaza from escalating and in supporting efforts to end the war. He praised Egypt and Qatar for their roles in achieving the truce.

The king also lauded Egypt’s efforts in increasing aid to Gaza, treating injured Palestinians, and evacuating foreign nationals. Meanwhile, he expressed concern over the potential catastrophic consequences if Israel’s ground operations in Gaza continue or expand.
 


Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’ of sovereignty after Israeli incursion

Updated 13 sec ago
Follow

Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’ of sovereignty after Israeli incursion

  • One person killed and 7 captured during the pre-dawn operation in Beit Jin, Interior Ministry says

DAMASCUS: Syria’s Interior Ministry condemned an Israeli incursion in southern Syria, saying Israeli forces killed one person and abducted seven others, calling it a “blatant violation” of the country’s sovereignty.

“We affirm that these repeated provocations constitute a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that “these practices cannot lead the region to stability and will only result in further tension 
and turmoil.”
The Israeli military said those detained during the pre-dawn raid on Beit Jin were suspected of planning attacks against Israel, and that weapons also were found in the area. 
They were taken back to Israel for questioning, the military said.
One person was killed and seven captured in the operation, Syria’s Interior Ministry said, while the father of the young man killed said he had a history of mental illness.
Since the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in early December, Israeli forces have moved into several areas in southern Syria and conducted hundreds of airstrikes throughout the country, destroying much of the assets of the Syrian army.
Local broadcaster Syria TV described Thursday’s raid as being carried out by about 100 Israeli troops who stormed Beit Jin, near the border with Lebanon, and called out the names of several people targeted for arrest through loudspeakers.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said such incursions spike tensions in 
the region. 
“Such repeated provocative acts are a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement.
Village official Walid Okasha said that Israeli troops had entered the outskirts of Beit Jin in recent months, but that this was the first time they entered the center of 
the village. 
He added that Thursday’s operation came four days after an Israeli drone strike hit a car in the village, inflicting casualties.
“They came targeting specific people,” said Okasha, who denied that Hamas members were in 
the village.
He said the seven people taken to Israel were all Syrians and that two of them were members of the country’s new security forces. 
He said the man who was killed suffered from mental illness.
Ahmad Hammadi identified the victim as his son and told the AP that he had a history of schizophrenia. 
He said his son was shot dead in front of his home, and that he had no links to Hamas. 
He said two of the captured men were his nephews. Hussein Safadi said his two sons, Ahmad, 32, and Mohammed, 34, were captured, adding that his younger son, who raises goats, had lived in Lebanon for years until recently. 
He said his younger son was a member of the armed opposition against Assad and recently joined the security forces of the new authorities. As for why Israeli forces seized his sons, “we don’t know the reasons,” Safadi said.
During a visit to France last month, Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said that his country is holding indirect talks with Israel to prevent hostilities from getting 
out of control.


Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis

Updated 23 sec ago
Follow

Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis

  • Egyptian authorities and activists both said Thursday that people planning to march across the Sinai Peninsula were deported

RABAT: Egypt blocked activists planning to take part in a march to Gaza, halting their attempt to reach the border and challenge Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory before it could begin.
Egyptian authorities and activists both said Thursday that people planning to march across the Sinai Peninsula were deported.
To draw attention to the humanitarian crisis afflicting people in Gaza, marchers have for months planned to trek about 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) from the city of Arish to Egypt’s border with the enclave on Sunday to “create international moral and media pressure” to open the crossing at Rafah and lift a blockade that has prevented aid from entering.
Saif Abu Keshek, one of the activists organizing the march, said that about 200 activists — mostly Algerians and Moroccans — were detained or deported.
But those arriving to the Cairo International Airport on Thursday afternoon were allowed into Egypt, the Spain-based activist added. Organizers have not received approval from Egyptian authorities for Sunday’s march and were evaluating how to proceed, he said.
An Egyptian official on Thursday said more than three dozen activists, mostly carrying European passports, were deported upon their arrival at the Cairo International Airport in the past two days.

The official said the activists aimed to travel to Northern Sinai “without obtaining required authorizations.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.


King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years

Updated 8 min 19 sec ago
Follow

King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years

CAIRO: After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun’s iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
Visitors have just days left to see the boy king’s world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.
“Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir,” said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.
“All are set to be moved soon,” he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer.
The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated.
Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals.
Tutankhamun’s treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo’s Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels.
But the neoclassical building — with faded cases, no climate control and aging infrastructure — now contrasts with the high-tech GEM.
Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilization, housing more than 100,000 artefacts — with over half on public display.
In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut’s treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh’s intact tomb in 1922.
His mummy will remain in its original resting place in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings as it is “a vital part of the archaeological site,” Egyptian officials have said.
A virtual replica, however, will be displayed at the GEM using virtual reality technology.
The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, long the historic heart of Egyptology, has lost in 2021 other star exhibits: 22 royal mummies including Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut that were relocated in a widely watched state procession to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Old Cairo.
Still, it is home to around 170,000 artefacts, according to the museum director, including treasures from Yuya and Thuya — Tutankhamun’s ancestors — and items from ancient Tanis, such as the golden funerary mask of King Amenemope.
A total of 32,000 artefacts have already been relocated from storage and display halls at the Tahrir museum to the GEM.
The museum’s director said the space left behind by Tutankhamun’s collection will eventually be filled by a new exhibition “on par with the significance of Tut’s treasures.”

Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside

Updated 11 min 59 sec ago
Follow

Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside

  • Atrack undermines Syria’s efforts to achieve stability and reconstruction, Foreign Ministry said
  • Israeli forces entered Beit Jinn in Qatana area killing one civilian and detaining others

LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic condemned an overnight incursion by Israeli forces into its southern territory, resulting in the death of a civilian and the detention of scores of residents.

“(The) escalation represents a clear violation of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, including the 1974 Disengagement Agreement,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement on Thursday.

It added that the attack undermines Syria’s efforts to achieve stability and reconstruction and called on the UN Security Council “to take decisive steps to halt those repeated attacks and ensure respect for international law, in order to preserve regional security and stability.”

Syria’s Ministry of Interior said on Thursday that the Israeli forces killed one civilian and “kidnapped seven others during a raid in the town of Beit Jinn, (in the) Damascus countryside” overnight.

The Israeli forces, comprised of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry vehicles, along with reconnaissance drones, entered Beit Jinn in the Qatana area in the country’s southern territory, 12 km from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

“These practices cannot lead to stability in the region and will only lead to further tension and unrest,” the Ministry of Interior said.

Israeli forces took the detained Syrians into the territories it controlled following the fall of the Assad regime in December, and their fate remains “unknown,” the ministry added.


US warns Iran over support for Houthis, asks UN Security Council for stricter arms embargo

Protesters hold weapons, during a demonstration of predominantly Houthi supporters to condemn US strikes in Yemen, in Sanaa.
Updated 17 min 8 sec ago
Follow

US warns Iran over support for Houthis, asks UN Security Council for stricter arms embargo

  • American envoy Dorothy Shea says Iranian support allows Houthis to threaten Israel, Gulf countries, and broader regional stability
  • ‘This council must not tolerate Iran’s repeated violations of its resolutions,’ she tells fellow members

NEW YORK CITY: The US sharply criticized Iran on Thursday over its backing of the Houthis in Yemen, accusing Tehran of violating UN arms embargoes and enabling attacks against Arab nations and Israel.

Speaking during a UN Security Council briefing on the situation in Yemen, the acting US ambassador, Dorothy Shea, said Iranian support is allowing the Houthis to threaten Israel, Gulf countries, and broader regional stability.

“This council must not tolerate Iran’s repeated violations of its resolutions,” she told fellow members.

Shea condemned the Houthis for ongoing cross-border attacks, including missile strikes on Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, and threats of air and naval blockades targeting Port of Haifa, as well as human rights abuses within Yemen itself.

“Israel has the right to defend itself,” she said. “We stand with Israel against Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including the Houthis.”

The US envoy also highlighted what she described as evidence that the Houthis were acquiring dual-use technology from Chinese sources, specifically the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company, which is linked to China’s military and Communist Party leadership.

In addition, she called for closer scrutiny of the Houthis’ expanding ties to Somalian insurgent group Al-Shabaab, including an investigation by expert UN panels.

Shea highlighted the important role of the UN’s Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen as a critical tool for preventing illicit arms shipments to the Houthis, and praised recent interceptions of containers headed for rebel-controlled ports. She urged member states to increase funding for the mechanism and provide naval assets so that it can fully enforce its mandate.

Shea also reiterated that even vessels cleared by the mechanism might still face consequences under US law, given that Washington has designated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and warned that any form of aid to the group could violate US antiterrorism statutes.

The ambassador condemned the Houthis for the prolonged detention of employees of the UN and nongovernmental organizations, and diplomatic personnel, including Americans, for more than a year on “fabricated espionage charges,” and called for their immediate and unconditional release.

“The Houthis bear overwhelming responsibility for the deterioration in the well-being and safety of the Yemeni people,” Shea added, as she accused the group of terrorizing civilians, obstructing humanitarian aid, and profiting from illicit commercial activities.

The briefing came as UN efforts to address Yemen’s protracted conflict and humanitarian crisis continue, with the organization’s special envoy to the country, Hans Grundberg, and Assistant Secretary-General Joyce Msuya on Thursday calling on council members to put pressure on the Houthis for a peace agreement and the release of all detainees.