ISTANBUL/AMMAN/DUBAI: Airlines from Turkey as well as Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE said Wednesday they will suspend operations to and from Iraq’s Kurdistan region following Baghdad’s threat to ban flights after the region’s independence referendum.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, whose government strongly opposed the referendum, had threatened on Tuesday to order a halt to all flights serving airports in Iraqi Kurdistan in response to the independence vote.
People in northern Iraq voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in Monday’s non-binding vote that was opposed by Baghdad, Turkey and Iran, who all fear it could encourage separatism among their own Kurdish populations.
The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority sent a notice on Wednesday to foreign airlines telling them international flights to Irbil and Sulaimaniya in the Kurdish region would be suspended on Friday at 1500 GMT and only domestic flights allowed.
Turkish carriers Turkish Airlines, Atlas and Pegasus, which offer frequent connections for Iraqi Kurdistan, will halt their flights from Friday, the Turkish consulate in Irbil said.
Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines said it would also stop flights to and from Irbil from Friday while EgyptAir announced its flights would also halt that day “until further notice.”
Jordan’s state carrier Royal Jordanian (RJ) said it will suspend its flights to Irbil and Sulaymaniyah from Friday following a request from Iraqi authorities.
Budget carrier flydubai said it was temporarily suspending its flights to Irbil from September 30.
“The work has started in order to increase the capacity of the flights” to and from Irbil until Friday, the Turkish consulate in Irbil said in a statement, urging citizens to consider the “circumstances” in their travel planning.
More than 92 percent of Iraq’s Kurds voted “Yes” for independence in the referendum, according to the first official results announced on Wednesday, two days after the disputed plebiscite.
Abadi had said he would ban “international flights to and from Kurdistan” from Friday unless the airports in Irbil and the city of Sulaimaniyah were placed under the control of the federal government in Baghdad.
The transport minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Mawloud Bawah Murad, expressed bafflement at the move by Baghdad.
“Irbil and Sulaimaniyah airports were built from the budget of the Kurdistan government,” he told a press conference in Irbil.
“We want more clarifications from the Iraqi government on its demand to hand them the two airports, because we don’t understand how to give them the two airports, when they are already subject to the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority.”
Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines chairman Mohammed Al-Hout said MEA would work to ensure Lebanese citizens could leave Iraqi Kurdistan through other Iraqi airports.
“We will not leave any Lebanese stranded. They will be able to go to Baghdad, Basra or Najaf as transit points,” he said.
Baghdad has reacted with anger to Monday’s Kurdish independence vote, with Abadi saying that it must be annulled.
Referendum fallout: Airliners from Turkey and other states halt flights to Iraqi Kurdistan
Referendum fallout: Airliners from Turkey and other states halt flights to Iraqi Kurdistan
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Netanyahu appoints adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire talks
- The US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser.
- Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister
The US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate a second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
Since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.
Here’s the latest:
Netanyahu appoints close adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire negotiations
An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The official says that Cabinet Minister Ron Dermer will head the Israeli team. Previous talks have been led by the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet security agencies.
Talks have not yet started on the second stage, which is meant to include an end to the war, return of all hostages and Israeli pullout from Gaza.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment has not been officially announced.
The US-born Dermer is widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister, where he has been a key player in relations with the US as well as Gulf Arab countries.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2025/02/19/4575313-188827118.jpg?itok=F-uIpQiH)
- The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups
JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.
![](https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/pictures/February/1347/2025/7384946099249156.jpg)
The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2025/02/18/4575262-1363367705.jpg?itok=MwXW6Hg2)
- The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups
JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.
![](https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/pictures/February/1347/2025/7384946099249156.jpg)
The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.
More than one million Syrians return to their homes: UN
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- “Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
GENEVA: More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Assad, including 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.
Assad was toppled in December in a rebel offensive, putting an end to his family’s decades-long grip on power in the Middle Eastern country and bookmarking a civil war that broke out in 2011, with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions from their homes.
The Islamist-led rebels whose offensive ousted Assad have sought to assure the international community that they have broken with their past and will respect the rights of minorities.
“Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.
“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.
At a meeting in Paris in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Turkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”
The meeting’s final statement also pledged support for Syria’s new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”