JEDDAH: Ret. Gen. Mahmoud Mansour, the founder of Qatari Intelligence, said he believes it is impossible for Doha to implement its aim to have Iranian and Turkish soldiers deployed in its territory.
In a phone interview with Makkah newspaper, Mansour said the US will not allow fighters of other nationalities to be deployed in Qatar territories near its large base, adding that talks of foreign soldiers (to be used by Qatar) are no more than “vocal waves that will disappear.”
The statement comes in response to official and media reports about Qatar’s intention to host military personnel from Iran, Turkey and Pakistan in response to the fact that 16 Arab and Islamic countries have severed relations with it.
He said a list that named 59 individuals and 12 entities, issued jointly by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt, “is only the first step and will be followed by others.”
“In the coming days, many terrorist persons and entities will be added, especially those who Qatar has funded in the Arab world, Africa, Asia and Europe.”
He said it is time to bring the Qatari regime to account whether by the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab League or the UN.
The general said that former Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa and his government executive head Hamad bin Jasim turned Doha “to a department for the execution of operations aimed at achieving the goals of previous US administrations in the region.” They supported armed and terrorist groups in Asia, Africa, the Arab world and some European regions.
He said arrogance made them (the Hamads) think they could outsmart the US and seek the creation of a huge Islamic state with Doha as its capital.
Doha looking for agents
During that period (under the two Hamads), Qatar started looking for agents to recruit in Somalia, Eretria, Central and Western Africa, Egypt, some of the Gulf states “if not all of them,” in addition to the Levant region and even Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Philippines.
They started providing the funds and arms for those agents, while deceiving the Qatari people who thought the funds were for humanitarian purposes at those societies.
“The truth is, their goal was to create unrest in the countries they succeeded in penetrating using their (the then-Qatar government) vast amounts of money.”
Gen. Mansour said he was confident that the US is fully aware of the recent Qatari financial support for organizations and activities inciting against other societies.
Al-Baghdadi in Qatar?
He said he would not be surprised if Qatar was found to be hosting Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
“Was he smuggled into Qatar? Where is he? Is he one of those who turned their countries to hell and are hosted in Doha’s large hotels?”
Founder of Qatari Intelligence: US will never allow Iranian, Turkish presence in Doha
Founder of Qatari Intelligence: US will never allow Iranian, Turkish presence in Doha
Macron says West must be cautious over new Syria rulers
“We must regard the regime change in Syria without naivety,” Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors after Islamist-led forces toppled Assad last month, adding France would not abandon “freedom fighters, like the Kurds” who are fighting extremist groups in Syria.
UN: Over 30 million in need of aid in war-torn Sudan
- Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced
- Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: More than 30 million people, over half of them children, are in need of aid in Sudan after twenty months of war, the United Nations said on Monday.
The UN has launched a $4.2 billion call for funds, targeting 20.9 million people across Sudan from a total of 30.4 million people it said are in need in what it called “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Sudan has been torn apart and pushed to the brink of famine by the war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced, which, in addition to 2.7 million displaced before the war, has made Sudan the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
A further 3.3 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders to escape the war, which means over a quarter of the country’s pre-war population, estimated at around 50 million, are now uprooted.
Famine has already been declared in five areas in Sudan and is expected to take hold of five more areas by May, with 8.1 million people currently on the brink of mass starvation.
Sudan’s army-aligned government has denied there is famine, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.
For much of the conflict, the UN has struggled to raise even a quarter of the funds it has targeted for its humanitarian response in the impoverished northeast African country.
Sudan has often been called the world’s “forgotten” war, overshadowed by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine despite the scale of the horrors inflicted upon civilians.
Jordanian FM discusses rebuilding Syria in Turkiye talks
DUBAI: The Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi highlighted on Tuesday the need to help Syria regain its security, stability, and sovereignty during discussions in Turkiye.
Talks also focused on providing support to the Syrian people and addressing the challenge of rebuilding the war-torn country.
He underscored Jordan's firm stance against any aggression on Syria’s sovereignty, rejecting Israeli attacks on Syrian territory.
The minister also expressed solidarity with Turkey, supporting its rights in confronting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), emphasizing the importance of regional cooperation to ensure peace and stability.
Israel military says three projectiles fired from north Gaza
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it identified three projectiles fired from the northern Gaza Strip that crossed into Israel on Monday, the latest in a series of launches from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“One projectile was intercepted by the IAF (air force), one fell in Sderot and another projectile fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said in a statement.
Sudan army air strike kills 10 in southern Khartoum: rescuers
- Strike targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt ‘for the third time in less than a month’
- War between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary forces has killed tens of thousands of people
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Ten Sudanese civilians were killed and over 30 wounded in an army air strike on southern Khartoum, volunteer rescue workers said.
The strike on Sunday targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt “for the third time in less than a month,” said the local Emergency Response Room (ERR), part of a network of volunteers across the country coordinating frontline aid.
The group said those killed burned to death. The wounded, suffering from burns, were taken to the local Bashair Hospital, with five of them in a critical condition.
Since April 2023, the war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people.
In the capital alone, the violence killed 26,000 people between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Khartoum has experienced some of the war’s worst violence, with entire neighborhoods emptied out and taken over by fighters.
The military, which maintains a monopoly on the skies with its jets, has not managed to wrest back control of the capital from the paramilitary.
Of the 11.5 million people currently displaced within Sudan, nearly a third have fled from the capital, according to United Nations figures.
Both the RSF and the army have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
