JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday what he calls Iran’s “aggression” and attempts to expand its military presence in Syria.
Netanyahu along with Israeli security officials have repeatedly expressed concern over what they see as Iran moving to expand its presence in the Middle East.
Netanyahu will neet Putin at the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Wednesday. Both Russia and Iran back Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in the war.
“I will raise the problem of Iran trying to establish a military presence in Syria,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This proves that Iran’s aggression has not diminished since the nuclear agreement, which has become a problem not only for Israel, but for all the countries of the Middle East and the entire world.”
The head of Israeli spy agency Mossad, Yossi Cohen, and Netanyahu’s newly named head of his national security council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, will join him on the trip.
Netanyahu opposes a southwest Syria cease-fire recently agreed by Russia and the US because he believes it would enable Iran to solidify its presence in the country, an Israeli official has said.
An Israeli intelligence official said in April his country fears an “Iranian crescent” may be forming in the Middle East because of Tehran’s influence in Syria and its connections with regional Shiite groups.
Beyond concerns over Iran, Netanyahu’s talks with Putin are also likely to involve coordination in Syria.
Russia and Israel have established a “hotline” to avoid accidental clashes in the country.
Israel has sought to avoid being dragged into the six-year Syrian conflict, but has acknowledged carrying out strikes to stop advanced weapons deliveries to Hezbollah, the Lebanese group with which it fought a devastating war in 2006.
Hezbollah also backs Assad’s regime in the Syrian war.
Netanyahu to discuss Iran’s ‘aggression’ with Putin
Netanyahu to discuss Iran’s ‘aggression’ with Putin
30 killed in drone attack on hospital in Sudan’s Darfur: medical source
The bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s emergency building, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.
It was not immediately clear which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.
They have besieged El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since May, but have not managed to claim the city, where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.
Last week, they issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by Wednesday afternoon in advance of an expected offensive.
Local activists have reported intermittent fighting since, including repeated artillery fire from the RSF on the famine-hit Abu Shouk displacement camp.
On Friday morning alone, heavy shelling killed eight people in the camp, according to civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees.
The United Nations has voiced alarm, calling on both parties to ensure the protection of the city’s civilian population — some two million people.
“The people of El-Fasher have suffered so much already from many months of senseless violence and brutal violations and abuses, particularly in the course of the prolonged siege of their city,” United Nations rights office spokesman Seif Magango said Wednesday.
France in communication to maintain Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, Lebanese statement citing Macron says
- Aoun asked Macron to oblige Israel to implement the agreement to preserve stability
CAIRO: French President Emmanuel Macron told his new Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun in a phone call that he is in communication to maintain the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, according to a statement by the Lebanese President’s office on X.
Aoun asked Macron to oblige Israel to implement the agreement to preserve stability.
The phone call comes after the Israeli army on Saturday warned residents of dozens of Lebanese villages near the border against returning until further notice, a day after Israel said its forces would remain in south Lebanon beyond a Sunday deadline for their departure under the US-brokered ceasefire that ended last year’s war.
70 freed and ‘deported’ Palestinian prisoners reach Egypt
- According to Israeli list, more than 230 Palestinian prisoners to be released under the deal are serving life sentences
- They will be permanently expelled from the Palestinian territories upon their release
CAIRO: Seventy Palestinian prisoners arrived aboard buses in Egypt Saturday after being released from Israel as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal, state-linked Egyptian media reported.
Al-Qahera News, which is linked to state intelligence, said the prisoners were those “deported” by Israel, adding they would be transferred to Egyptian hospitals for treatment.
According to a list previously made public by Israeli authorities, more than 230 Palestinian prisoners to be released under the deal are serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, and will be permanently expelled from the Palestinian territories upon their release.
Broadcasted footage on Saturday showed some of the prisoners, wearing grey tracksuits, disembarking from two buses on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
After transiting in Egypt, the deported prisoners “will choose either Algeria, Turkiye or Tunisia” to reside, Amin Shuman, head of the Palestinian prisoners’ affairs committee, told AFP.
“It’s an indescribable feeling,” one of those released told Al-Qahera News, smiling and waving from the window of the bus.
The prisoners transferred from the Ktziot prison in Israel’s Negev desert into Egypt are part of a group of 200 prisoners released Saturday in exchange for four Israeli hostages freed by Hamas militants in Gaza.
Police kill a man who set himself on fire outside a Tunisian synagogue
- The man advanced toward a law enforcement officer while ablaze, and a second officer opened fire to protect his colleague
- The officer was hospitalized with burns, as was a passerby
TUNIS: A man set himself on fire in front of the Grand Synagogue in the Tunisian capital and was killed by police, the Interior Ministry said. A police officer and a passerby suffered burns.
The man started the fire after sundown Friday, around the time the synagogue holds Sabbath prayers.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the man advanced toward a law enforcement officer while ablaze, and a second officer opened fire to protect his colleague. The officer was hospitalized with burns, as was a passerby, the statement said.
The ministry did not release the man’s identity or potential motive for his act, saying only that he had unspecified psychiatric disorders.
Tunisia was historically home to a large Jewish population, now estimated to number about 1,500 people. Jewish sites in Tunisia have been targeted in the past.
A national guardsman killed five people at the 2,600-year-old El-Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba after an annual pilgrimage in 2023. Later that year, pro-Palestinian protesters vandalized a historic synagogue and sanctuary in the southern town of El Hamma. And a garden was set ablaze last year outside the synagogue in the coastal city of Sfax.
Tunisia’s recent history was also marked by the self-immolation of a street vendor in 2010 in a protest linked to economic desperation, corruption and repression. Mohamed Bouazizi’s act unleashed mass protests that led to the ouster of Tunisia’s autocratic ruler and uprisings across the region known as the Arab Spring.
‘We cannot forget Sudan’ amid ‘hierarchy of conflicts’: UK FM
- David Lammy: ‘If this was happening on any other continent there would be far more outrage’
- About half of Sudan’s population face acute food insecurity, according to UN
LONDON: The humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan must not be forgotten amid a “hierarchy of conflicts” in the world, the UK’s foreign secretary has warned.
Writing in The Independent, David Lammy called for renewed international attention on the 21-month-long civil war. The humanitarian disaster from the war will be “one of the biggest of our lifetime,” he said.
Since the conflict began in April 2023, almost 4 million people have fled Sudan and fighting has killed more than 15,000, according to conservative estimates.
Lammy visited a refugee camp for displaced Sudanese in neighboring Chad this week. “I bore witness to what will go down in history as one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes of our lifetimes,” he said.
“The truth no one wants to admit is that if this was happening on any other continent — in Europe, in the Middle East, or in Asia — there would be far more attention from the media — far more outrage. There should be no hierarchy of conflicts, but sadly much of the world acts as if there is one.”
About half of Sudan’s population — more than 24 million people — face acute food insecurity, the latest UN figures show.
The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces remain locked in a battle for control of the country and its resources.
Lammy praised the work of the country’s neighbors — including Egypt, Chad and South Sudan — in helping to manage the crisis.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, warned last week that the war is taking an “even more dangerous turn for civilians.”
On Thursday, the UN Human Rights Office reported that about 120 civilians were killed and more than 150 injured in drone attacks across the city of Omdurman.
Lammy said: “The world cannot continue to shrug its shoulders. There can be no hierarchy of suffering. We cannot forget Sudan.”
The UK has pledged $282 million in aid to almost 800,000 displaced people in Sudan. The funding will supply emergency food assistance and drinking water, among other relief.
