Jordanian, Iraqi FMs discuss Gaza, Syria conflicts

CAIRO: Hamas said on Saturday that there were “positive” signs regarding the start of negotiations for the second phase of the fragile Gaza ceasefire, as a delegation from the Palestinian militant group met with mediators in Cairo.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would send a delegation to Doha on Monday for truce talks.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said in a statement that “efforts of the Egyptian and Qatari mediators are ongoing to complete the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.”
“The indicators are positive regarding the start of negotiations for the second phase,” he added, without providing further details.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said that Israel had accepted an invitation from US-backed mediators and would “send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance the negotiations.”
The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire ended on March 1 after six weeks of relative calm that included exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, though widespread hostilities have not resumed.
While Israel has said it wants to extend the first phase until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second phase, which should lead to a permanent end to the war.
On Saturday, a high-level Hamas delegation held talks with Egyptian officials over the second phase of the ceasefire. The truce has largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza.
In the statement, Al-Qanoua spoke of the “necessity of obligating the mediators to ensure Israel implements the agreement,” adding that: “Hamas affirms its readiness to begin negotiations for the second phase to meet the demands of our Palestinian people.”
Under the first phase, Gaza militants handed over 25 living hostages and eight bodies in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, 58 remain in the Palestinian territory, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.

NAIROBI: South Sudan is in “alarming regression” as clashes in recent weeks in the northeast threaten to undo years of progress toward peace, the UN commission on human rights in the country warned on Saturday.
A fragile power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar has been put in peril by the clashes between their allied forces in the country’s Upper Nile State.
On Friday, a UN helicopter attempting to rescue soldiers in the state was attacked, killing one crew member and wounding two others.
An army general was also killed in the failed rescue mission, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Friday.
The incident sent shudders through the young and impoverished nation, long plagued by political instability and violence.
Kiir late Friday urged calm and pledged no return to war.
In a statement on Saturday, the chair of the UN commission, Yasmin Sooka, said South Sudan was “witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress.”
“Rather than fueling division and conflict, leaders must urgently refocus on the peace process, uphold the human rights of South Sudanese citizens, and ensure a smooth transition to democracy,” she said.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended a five-year civil war in 2018 with the power-sharing agreement between bitter rivals Kiir and Machar.
But Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s forces of fomenting unrest in Nasir County, in Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of armed youths in the region from the same ethnic Nuer community as the vice president.
“What we are witnessing now is a return to the reckless power struggles that have devastated the country in the past,” commissioner Barney Afako said in the UN Commission statement.
He added that the South Sudanese had endured “atrocities, rights violations which amount to serious crimes, economic mismanagement, and ever worsening security.”
“They deserve respite and peace, not another cycle of war.”