How GCC-ASEAN Riyadh Summit charted a path for inter-regional cooperation

Family group photo of leaders participating in the ASEAN-GCC Summit in Riyadh on October 20, 2023. (Front, L- R) Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Oman's Deputy Prime Minister of Defense Affairs Sayyed Shihab bin Tarek bin Taimur al-Said. (SPA)
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Updated 21 October 2023
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How GCC-ASEAN Riyadh Summit charted a path for inter-regional cooperation

  • Meeting in Saudi capital on Friday was the first meeting of its kind since the establishment of relations in 1986
  • Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman highlighted need to establish a Palestinian state according to 1967 borders

RIYADH/JAKARTA: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations adopted on Friday a cooperation road map during their inaugural joint summit in Riyadh, which also called for a ceasefire in the wake of Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.

The gathering of the leaders of the GCC and ASEAN in the Saudi capital was the first top-level engagement between the two blocs since they established relations in 1986, when the GCC Ministerial Council decided to initiate contact with the political and economic union of 10 Southeast Asian nations.

Engagements between the two groupings — which from the GCC side comprise Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE, and from the ASEAN side Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines — have been on the rise for the past few years.




UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (L) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcome leaders from the ASEAN and GCC prior to the regional blocs’ maiden summit in Riyadh. (SPA)

The two blocs together account for a GDP of about $7.8 trillion and a population of more than 700 million. Their economic growth last year stood far above the global average, with 7.5 percent for the GCC and 5.3 percent for the ASEAN.

“We look forward to strengthening relations with ASEAN nations in various domains,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said as he opened the summit.

With the meeting taking place in the wake of the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, the crown prince reiterated the Kingdom’s categorical rejection of targeting civilians and called for an end to the fighting.




Leaders at the GCC-ASEAN Riyadh Summit called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the most effective and efficient access for relief supplies, humanitarian aid, and essential services. (SPA)

“As we gather, we are saddened by the escalating violence that Gaza is witnessing today, the price of which is being paid by innocent civilians,” he said, highlighting the necessity to “stop military operations against civilians ... and to create conditions for the return of stability and the achievement of lasting peace that ensures reaching a just solution to establish a Palestinian state according to the 1967 borders.”

Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, which this year holds ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship, thanked Saudi Arabia for “the warm welcome and hospitality,” as he hoped that the new level of cooperation between the countries of the Gulf and Southeast Asia would make them together emerge as a “positive force in the midst of a divided world.”




Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) welcomes Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Riyadh on October 19, 2023, a day ahead of the GCC-ASEAN summit. (Photo by Bandar Al-Jaloud/Saudi Royal Palace)

He also called on the summit’s participants to address the situation in Gaza.

“Acts of violence must be stopped, humanitarian matters must be prioritized at this moment, and we must prevent the conditions from worsening,” the Indonesian president said.

“We must not forget that the root cause of the problem is the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel.”

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ASEAN is the world’s third most populous economy, following China and India.

ASEAN economic growth projected to slow from 5.6% in 2022 to 4.4% in 2023.

The figure would still be above the global average of 2.7%.

Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister of Malaysia — the country coordinator of the GCC-ASEAN summit — also called all nations to come together to find a long-lasting and just solution to prevent the situation from becoming “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis” that could widen into a regional and world conflict.

“The Palestinians must be returned their land, homes and properties,” he said. “They must be allowed to live in peace and dignity in their own sovereign state in internationally recognized borders, based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”




Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (L), the country coordinator of the GCC-ASEAN summit, called all nations to come together to find a long-lasting and just solution to the Palestinian crisis. (SPA)

Israeli has said it will allow aid to enter the besieged enclave, but while trucks loaded with foreign aid have reached Rafah, the crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the arrangement brokered by US President Joe Biden has been in a state of limbo.

Participants in the Riyadh summit on Friday addressed both its original agenda to produce a cooperation road map and made a joint statement on the situation in Gaza.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Indonesian FM Retno Marsudi closed the summit by presenting the GCC-ASEAN Framework of Cooperation 2024-2028, which aims to “further strengthen partnership” and “realize the potential for growing cooperation between both sides.”




Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan holds a joint press conference with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi. (SPA)

Prince Faisal also announced that the summits of GCC-ASEAN leaders will be held every two years to ensure the strengthening of joint cooperation.

The framework covered the areas of counterterrorism, trade and investment, agriculture and food security, energy, tourism, connectivity, as well as culture, information, education, banking and financial services. The regional leaders also agreed to explore joint strategies on micro, small and medium enterprise development policies.

“The ASEAN and GCC cooperation will continue to flourish in the future and together we can create a better region, a better world,” Marsudi said.

“Today we write a new history. A history of a closer relationship between two important regions, between ASEAN and the GCC. Today we build a strong bridge, to connect our two regions and develop cooperation that brings benefit to our people.”

In a joint statement on Gaza, the GCC-ASEAN leaders called for upholding international humanitarian law, particularly the principles and provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

They condemned all attacks against civilians, called for a durable ceasefire and for all concerned parties to ensure the most effective access for humanitarian aid.

Since October 7, when the Gaza-based militant group Hamas attacked Israel, the Palestinian territory has been cut off from electricity, water, food, fuel, and medicine supplies amid daily Israeli airstrikes that have already killed over 4,100 people.

Prince Faisal said that GCC-ASEAN leaders reached a consensus over the need for a ceasefire and humanitarian access.

“I hope that working together, we will be able not just to help the pathway to peace, but also the prosperity for our part of the world and ASEAN,” he said.

“The only way to end the cycle of violence is through a lasting resolution to the conflict.”

The GCC-ASEAN declaration called for “all concerned parties to ensure the most effective and efficient access for humanitarian aid, and relief supplies and other basic necessities and essential services, as well as the restoration of electricity, water, and allow the unhindered delivery of fuel, food, and medicine throughout Gaza.”

The summit’s call to implement a ceasefire and allow delivery of humanitarian aid and supplies was a “welcome move and will help end the bloodshed and stop the killings and injuries to civilians,” Dr. Osama Ghanem Al-Obaidy, professor of international law at the Institute of Public Administration in Riyadh, told Arab News.

“It is time to stop the deaths and injuries and destruction resulting from this conflict, which is what this summit aims to effect.”

 

 


Israel says retrieved official Syrian archive on executed spy Eli Cohen

Updated 18 May 2025
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Israel says retrieved official Syrian archive on executed spy Eli Cohen

  • Eli Cohen was discovered by Syrian intelligence and publically hanged in Damascus on May 18, 1965
  • Among the items recovered are a handwritten will penned by Cohen hours before his execution, audio recordings and files from his interrogations

JERUSALEM: Israel announced on Sunday that it had retrieved the official Syrian archive on famed spy Eli Cohen — a cache of 2,500 documents, photographs and personal effects linked to the Mossad agent executed in Damascus in 1965.
“In a complex covert operation by the Mossad, in cooperation with a strategic partner service, the official Syrian archive on Eli Cohen was brought to Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, referring to the country’s external intelligence agency.
“The trove contains thousands of items that had been kept under tight security by Syrian intelligence for decades,” the statement added.
Cohen, who developed close ties with high-level political and military figures in Syria as part of a four-year espionage operation, was eventually discovered by Syrian intelligence.
He was publically hanged in Damascus on May 18, 1965.
Cohen’s story was dramatized in the Netflix minizeries “The Spy,” starring the British actor Sacha Baron Cohen.
The prime minister added that retrieving the archive reflected Israel’s “unwavering commitment to bringing back all our missing, prisoners, and hostages.”
The statement was an apparent reference both to the 58 captives, dead and alive, being held by Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, as well as the announcement last week that Israel had retrieved from Syria the body of a soldier missing for 43 years, also in a covert Mossad operation.
Sunday’s statement said that the recovery of the items came after “decades of Mossad intelligence, operational, and technological effort to find every scrap of information about Eli Cohen in the quest to shed light on his fate and discover the location of his burial.”
Over the years, multiple operations have been carried out to that end, the statement said, including “inside enemy states.”
Mossad director David Barnea said in the statement that recovering the archive was a “significant achievement,” and “another step toward locating our man in Damascus’ burial place.”
Among the items recovered are a handwritten will penned by Cohen hours before his execution, audio recordings and files from his interrogations and those of his sources, letters he wrote to family members in Israel and photographs from his clandestine mission in Syria.
Additionally, the cache included belongings taken from his home after his arrest, including forged passports and photographs of him with senior Syrian military and government officials, as well as notebooks and diaries listing Mossad tasks.
Also discovered was a file labelled “Nadia Cohen,” detailing Syrian intelligence monitoring of Cohen’s wife’s campaign to free her husband.
In a special meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu and Barnea shared the trove of items with Nadia Cohen, the statement said.


Israel army says 2 projectiles launched from Gaza after air raid sirens sound

Updated 18 May 2025
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Israel army says 2 projectiles launched from Gaza after air raid sirens sound

  • One projectile was intercepted and the other fell in an open area

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said two projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, shortly after it announced it had commenced “extensive ground operations” across the besieged Palestinian territory.
“Following the sirens that sounded in Kissufim, two projectiles were identified crossing into Israel from the central Gaza Strip,” the army said, adding one was intercepted and the other fell in an open area.


Israeli forces have demolished 600 Palestinian houses in Jenin since January offensive

Updated 18 May 2025
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Israeli forces have demolished 600 Palestinian houses in Jenin since January offensive

  • Shops, houses and infrastructure in Al-Sharqi and Al-Hadaf neighbourhoods sustain heaviest damage
  • Forces arrest a prisoner who was released during Israel-Hamas truce in November 2023

LONDON: Israeli forces have demolished nearly 600 Palestinian houses in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the town municipality, where Israel has been carrying out military operations for the past 118 days.

On Sunday, forces intensified dredging and destruction operations in the Jenin refugee camp, causing significant damage to its water and electricity infrastructure and main roads, while continuing to block access to the area.

The Jenin Municipality has documented the total destruction of 600 houses in the camp, while others were either partially damaged or have been abandoned by residents since Israel launched a major offensive in January.

The neighborhoods of Al-Sharqi and Al-Hadaf sustained the heaviest damage — to shops, houses and infrastructure — the Wafa news agency reported.

Also on Sunday, Israeli forces arrested Yasmeen Shaaban at her home in Al-Jalameh village, north of Jenin. Shaaban, who spent 21 months in prison, was released in November 2023 during the first temporary truce and captive-exchange arrangement between Israel and Hamas.

The municipality reported that 22,000 people are displaced in Jenin as Israeli forces increase enforcement in the town and its refugee camp. The military operation has caused heavy losses to businesses in Jenin, leading to many shop closures and a decrease in shopper footfall from nearby villages, with an estimated loss of $300 million.

Since Israel launched its offensive on January 21 in Jenin, at least 40 people have been killed, while hundreds have been arrested and injured.


Italian MPs protest at Egypt’s Gaza border against war

Italian and European parliament members hold placards during a protest in front of the Egyptian side of Rafah border crossing.
Updated 18 May 2025
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Italian MPs protest at Egypt’s Gaza border against war

  • The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now”

RAFAH: Italian parliamentarians protested on Sunday in front of Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza, calling for aid access and an end to the war in the devastated Palestinian territory.
“Europe is not doing enough, nothing to stop the massacre,” Cecilia Strada, an Italian member of the European parliament, told AFP.
The group — including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs — held signs reading “Stop genocide now,” “End illegal occupation” and “Stop arming Israel.”
“There should be a complete embargo on weapons to and from Israel and a stop to trade with illegal settlements,” Strada said.
The protesters laid toys on the ground in solidarity with Gaza’s children, who the UN warns face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” more than two months into a total Israeli aid blockade.
At least 15,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, according to the United Nations.
Israel has faced mounting pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.
It resumed its offensive on March 18, ending a two-month truce in its war against Hamas triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
On Saturday Israel announced an expanded military campaign, killing dozens of people in new strikes.
“We hear the bombs right now,” Walter Massa, president of Italian non-profit organization Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana, told AFP near the crossing.
“The Israeli army continues to do what it believes is right in the face of an international community that does not intervene, and in Gaza, beyond the Rafah crossing border, people continue to die,” he said.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now.”
Italy’s government on Saturday reiterated its calls to Israel to stop attacking Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: “Enough with the attacks.”
“We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said.
Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,339.


Lebanon says soldier among two wounded in Israeli strike

Updated 18 May 2025
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Lebanon says soldier among two wounded in Israeli strike

BEIRUT: Lebanon said two people including a soldier were wounded in an Israeli strike Sunday in the country’s south, where the army has been deploying after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“A soldier was moderately wounded due to the Israeli enemy targeting of a vehicle... at the Beit Yahun checkpoint” in Bint Jbeil district, an army statement said.
Beit Yahun is around eight kilometers (around five miles) from the border.
The health ministry said two people including a soldier were wounded in the strike, which it said was launched by an “Israeli enemy drone” and targeted a vehicle.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the reported strike.
Israel has continued to launch raids on its neighbor despite a November truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah militants including two months of all-out war.
Lebanon has reported four deadly strikes this week in the south, with Israel saying it targeted Hezbollah operatives.
Under the ceasefire, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”
The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.
The truce was based on a United Nations Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.
Last month, President Joseph Aoun said the army was deployed in more than 85 percent of the south, and that the sole obstacle to full control across the frontier area was “Israel’s occupation of five border positions.”
Also in April, Lebanon’s military said a munitions blast in the south killed three personnel, days after an explosion killed another soldier as the force was dismantling mines in a tunnel.