Turkish PM hails US visa move, calls for Gulen’s extradition

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara on Tuesday. (AFP)
Updated 08 November 2017
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Turkish PM hails US visa move, calls for Gulen’s extradition

ANKARA/ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday described the US’ move to partially resume issuing visas in Turkey as a positive step, but said Washington should extradite a cleric blamed for last year’s failed military coup in Turkey.
“The limited reissuing of visas between the United States and Turkey... prior to our visit can be seen as a positive development,” Yildirim told reporters before leaving for the US, where he is due to meet US Vice President Mike Pence.
The US said on Monday it would resume “limited visa services” in Turkey after getting what it said were assurances about the safety of its local staff. Washington halted issuing visas at its missions in Turkey last month, citing the detention of two local employees.
Turkey said it would match the move, relaxing a visa ban of its own that was instituted last month in retaliation against Washington. However, Yildirim reiterated Turkey’s stance that it had not offered assurances to Washington.
“Both countries are states of law, and procedures are being carried out in accordance with the law. Negotiations regarding the offering of assurances to the United States or vice-versa would breach the principles of laws of state,” he said.
In May, a translator at the US consulate in the southern province of Adana was arrested and, more recently, a US Drug Enforcement Administration worker was detained in Istanbul. Both are accused of links to last year’s coup attempt. The US Embassy has said the accusations are baseless.
Turkey has been angered by what it sees as US reluctance to hand over the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999 and whom Ankara blames for orchestrating the coup. US officials have said courts require sufficient evidence to order his extradition.
Yildirim said Gulen’s extradition would be discussed during his visit, as well as the fate of some Turkish citizens arrested in the US — a reference to the wealthy gold trader who was arrested over Iran sanctions evasion last year and an executive at a state-owned bank arrested this year.
“We have strong evidence that Gulen was behind the July 15 coup attempt and we want his extradition. We want the concerns we have regarding the cases of our citizens arrested in the United States to be eased,” Yildirim said.
“They also have similar requests, and diplomatic channels are being used for discussions, we are both seeking a way out.”

Arrest warrants
A Turkish prosecutor has issued detention warrants for 53 active sergeants over alleged links to Gulen, state media said on Tuesday.
Twenty of the suspects have so far been detained in the operation across 12 provinces, state-run Anadolu Agency said. Thirty-three other soldiers were currently being sought, it said.
The Interior Ministry said on Monday that nearly 700 people had been detained over the previous week on allegations of ties to what Ankara calls the “Gulenist Terror Group.”
Some 50,000 people have been arrested since the failed putsch in July and around 150,000 dismissed or suspended, including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links with the movement of the US-based cleric.


Jordan condemns Israeli settlers’ ‘terror attacks’ on Palestinian villages in West Bank

Updated 7 sec ago
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Jordan condemns Israeli settlers’ ‘terror attacks’ on Palestinian villages in West Bank

  • Foreign ministry spokesman says Jordan ‘rejects these attacks and the escalation of settler terrorism against the Palestinian people’

LONDON: Jordan on Thursday condemned “terror attacks” by Israeli settlers that resulted in the killing of four Palestinians in two towns in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

 The Ministry of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs blamed the Israeli forces for the settlers’ “terrorist attacks” in the village of Kafr Malik, where three Palestinians were killed by soldiers and several others injured during clashes between residents and settlers.

Sufian Qudah, the foreign ministry spokesman, said Jordan “rejects these attacks and the escalation of settler terrorism against the Palestinian people.”

He said that Israeli government policies incite violence against Palestinians and give settlers “the impunity” to carry out “more crimes against the Palestinian people.”

He reaffirmed Jordan’s call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the ongoing Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave since late 2023.

On Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, including three in the village of Kafr Malik and a 15-year-old boy, Rayan Tamer Houshiyeh, who was shot by Israeli troops in Al-Yamoun, northwest of Jenin.

In a separate incident, 13-year-old Ammar Mutaz Hamayel succumbed to his injuries on Monday after being shot by Israeli forces. Hamayel was from Kafr Malik, which has a population of about 2,500 Palestinians. The village is 17 kilometers northeast of Ramallah and is surrounded by the Israeli settlement of Kokhav HaShahar.


No known intelligence that Iran moved uranium, US defense chief says

Updated 1 min 17 sec ago
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No known intelligence that Iran moved uranium, US defense chief says

WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program over the weekend.
“I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise,” Hegseth said.
After the strikes, several experts also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordow before the strike early Sunday morning and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the US and UN nuclear inspectors.
They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing “unusual activity” at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the near weapons-grade 60 percent highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the US attack. Hegseth’s comments denying those claims came at a news briefing where he accused the media of downplaying the success of US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program following a leaked, preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggesting they may have only set back Iran by months.
Hegseth said the assessment was low confidence, and, citing comments from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, said it had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged by recent US strikes, and that it would take years to rebuild.

Russia says against Iran suspending IAEA cooperation

Updated 26 min 14 sec ago
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Russia says against Iran suspending IAEA cooperation

  • Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow wanted continuing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA(Reuters)

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday spoke out against Moscow’s key ally Iran suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), after Iranian lawmakers voted in favor of halting work with the UN nuclear agency.
“We are interested in continuing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, so that everybody respects Iran’s repeated statements that Iran does not have and will not have plans to develop a nuclear weapon,” Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.
The decision by Iranian lawmakers, taken after a 12-day war that saw Israeli and US strikes on nuclear sites, still requires the approval of Iran’s Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.
Lavrov said the decision was of “an advisory nature” to Iran’s executive branch.
Moscow provides crucial backing for Tehran but did not swing forcefully behind its partner even as the United States launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.
Russia and Iran signed a milestone strategic agreement earlier this year, but it does provide for mutual assistance in the case of aggression.
Iran is Russia’s second close ally to come under pressure in the Middle East in recent months, after Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria was toppled last December.
It could be a sign that Russia’s influence in the region is waning, as Moscow has to relocate resources and divert attention to its Ukraine offensive, according to Nikita Smagin, an independent expert on Russia-Iran relations.
Russia “is potentially losing its status as a superpower, at least as it perceived in the Middle East,” he told AFP, adding that “its allies are being simply knocked out of the game, one after another.”


Palestinians reject Israeli claims of Hamas looting Gaza aid

Updated 59 min 58 sec ago
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Palestinians reject Israeli claims of Hamas looting Gaza aid

  • Rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions

GAZA CITY: A committee representing influential families in Gaza on Thursday rejected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s accusation that some aid entering the war-torn Palestinian territory was being looted by Hamas.

After Israel imposed a more than two-month blockade on Gaza, aid began being allowed in at a trickle in late May.

Rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with chaotic scenes and near-daily deaths marring aid distribution.

In a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz published late Wednesday, Netanyahu said there was “information received today indicating that Hamas is once again taking control of humanitarian aid entering the northern Gaza Strip and stealing it from civilians.”

He announced that he had instructed the military to draft a plan “to prevent Hamas from seizing the aid.”

A statement from Gaza’s higher committee for tribal affairs — a non-Hamas affiliated committee created during the war — on Thursday rejected the claim that Hamas was stealing aid.

“Gaza’s tribal leaders affirmed that all aid is fully secured under their direct supervision and is being distributed exclusively through international agencies,” the committee representing influential families said.

“The securing of aid has been carried out purely through tribal efforts,” it added.

The statement rejected Netanyahu’s comments as “false claims” and called for a United Nations delegation to determine if aid was being correctly dispatched in Gaza.

AFP footage from Wednesday showed a truck convoy led by a UN vehicle carrying aid into northern Gaza after entering through the Zikim gate, south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Masked and armed young men could be seen riding atop the large aid bundles on the five trucks.

The men told AFP they were protecting the convoy from being looted before reaching its final destination.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir shared a video on Telegram on Thursday appearing to show masked, armed men standing on top of aid trucks.

“Today, what was known all along is becoming clear: Hamas is taking control of the food and goods,” the caption said, calling on Netanyahu to halt the entry of aid into Gaza.

AFP could not independently verify whether the video shared by Ben Gvir showed a truck after being looted by Hamas or being protected from theft by locals.

Israel began allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza at the end of May, much of it going through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and bypassing the UN-led distribution mechanism.

An officially private effort with opaque funding, GHF’s operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns, with the UN and major aid groups refusing to work with it.

The GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points.


Israel opposition chief asks Trump not to ‘interfere’ in Netanyahu trial

Updated 26 June 2025
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Israel opposition chief asks Trump not to ‘interfere’ in Netanyahu trial

  • Trump said the Netanyahu trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero,“
  • Lapid said: “We are thankful to President Trump, but... the president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country“

JERUSALEM: Israel’s opposition leader on Thursday criticized US President Donald Trump for saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial should be canceled, warning him against interfering in internal affairs.

Trump on Wednesday described the case against Netanyahu as a “witch hunt,” echoing the Israeli premier’s dismissal of the corruption charges which he has flatly rejected.

In a message on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the Netanyahu trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero,” after the end of a 12-day war with Iran.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said in an interview with news website Ynet: “We are thankful to President Trump, but... the president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country.”

Lapid, of the center-right Yesh Atid party, backed a statement by one of Netanyahu’s coalition allies, Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionism party, who called for Trump to stay out of the court case.

“It is not the role of the president of the United States to interfere in legal proceedings in the State of Israel,” said Rothman, who chairs the Israeli parliament’s judicial affairs committee.

Rothman, a vocal critic of what he argues is judicial overreach, however said that “the management of Netanyahu’s cases is transforming the image of the State of Israel from a regional and global power into a banana republic.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of another far-right party in Netnayhua’s coalition, branded the trial as politically motivated.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was “distorted, unreasonable, contrary to the basic sense of justice” to continue Netanyahu’s trial at war, backing Trump’s call to drop the charges against the Israeli leader.

Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. During his current term since late 2022, his government has proposed a series of far-reaching judicial reforms that critics say were designed to weaken the courts.

In the trial that has been delayed many times since it began in May 2020, Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.

In a first case, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.

Two other cases allege that Netanyahu attempted to negotiate more favorable coverage in two Israeli media outlets.

Netanyahu has requested multiple postponements in the proceedings, most recently citing the ongoing war in Gaza since April 2023, later in Lebanon and earlier this month in Iran.