PARIS: The United Nations’ cultural agency wants to use the reconstruction of Iraq’s second city Mosul as a way to restore its credibility and show how a fraying multilateral order can be revived, its director general said on Monday.
Officially entitled the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris-based UNESCO is best known for designating and protecting world heritage sites, from the Galapagos Islands to the tombs of Timbuktu.
It was plunged into turmoil almost a year ago after the United States pulled out, striking a blow to multilateralism and raising questions over the funding of an agency founded after World War Two.
While most of its activities are uncontroversial, UNESCO has seen internal political fights between some of its 195 member states in recent years that have paralyzed its work, notably on issues related to the Holy Land.
Those culminated in the United States and Israel announcing their withdrawal from the organization, accusing it of anti-Israel bias, just days ahead of the new Director General Audrey Azoulay’s appointment in October 2017.
Almost a year later, Azoulay has sought to refocus the agency on its fundamentals, with Mosul’s reconstruction at the center of that effort.
“At a time when multilateralism is sometimes being questioned, the objective and magnitude of this initiative shows exactly why an organization like UNESCO is important,” Azoulay told Reuters ahead of a conference in Paris on Mosul.
Partnering with the Iraqi government, UNESCO wants to position itself as the go-to coordinator to rebuild some of the city’s landmarks that were turned to rubble by urban warfare between Daesh militants and the US-backed coalition.
Mosul needs at least $2 billion of reconstruction aid, according to government estimates. Azoulay said she wanted to restore the city’s heartbeat, diversity and history, while using UNESCO’s educational programs to combat extremism.
The agency is spearheading the restoration of the city’s market, the central library at its university, two churches and a Yazidi temple.
Its biggest project, funded with $50 million from the United Arab Emirates, is restoring the Grand Al-Nuri Mosque, famous for its eight-century-old leaning minaret, which was blown up by Daesh militants.
The political tension in Baghdad following elections, the unrest in the southern port city of Basra over the last week, and ongoing security threats from Islamic State inevitably raise questions as to how much can actually be achieved.
“We’re fully aware of Mosul’s specificities and the difficulties on the ground ... but it’s exactly because the situation is still fragile that we need to act,” Azoulay said.
Mosul reconstruction to give UNESCO window to revive fortunes
Mosul reconstruction to give UNESCO window to revive fortunes
- UNESCO has seen internal political fights between some of its 195 member states in recent years that have paralyzed its work
- Mosul needs at least $2 billion of reconstruction aid, according to government estimates
Iran FM warns against ‘destructive interference’ in Syria’s future
- Abbas Araghchi: Iran ‘considers the decision-making about the future of Syria to be the sole responsibility of the people... without destructive interference or foreign imposition’
Abbas Araghchi touched down in the Chinese capital on Friday afternoon, Iranian state media reported, to begin his first official visit to the country since being appointed foreign minister.
China and Iran were both supporters of ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Assad fled Syria this month after an Islamist-led offensive wrested city after city from his control, with the capital Damascus falling on December 8.
Iran “considers the decision-making about the future of Syria to be the sole responsibility of the people... without destructive interference or foreign imposition,” Araghchi wrote in a Chinese-language article in People’s Daily published on Friday.
He also emphasized Iran’s respect for Syria’s “unity, national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Iran’s supreme leader – a key backer of Assad’s administration – predicted on Sunday “the emergence of a strong, honorable group” that would stand against “insecurity” in Syria.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Syria’s young men would “stand with strength and determination against those who have designed this insecurity and those who have implemented it, and God willing, he will overcome them.”
In People’s Daily, Araghchi said supporting the Syrian people was a “definite principle (that) should be taken into consideration by all the actors.”
Beijing had also built strong ties with Assad – he met President Xi Jinping in China last year, where the two leaders announced a “strategic partnership.”
China has affirmed its support for the Syrian people and has said it opposes terrorist forces taking advantage of the situation to create chaos.
Araghchi’s two-day visit will include talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, according to Iran’s foreign ministry.
China is Iran’s largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
Xi pledged in October to increase ties with Iran during talks with his counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Russia on the sidelines of a BRICS summit.
Araghchi told reporters in a video published by Iranian state media as he arrived in Beijing that the visit was taking place “at a very suitable time.”
“Now it is natural that there are sensitive situations, both the region has various tensions, and there are various issues at the international level, also our nuclear issue in the new year will face a situation that needs more consultations,” he said.
“The invitation of our Chinese friends was for this reason, that at the beginning of the new year... we should think together, consult and be ready for the challenges that will come.”
He wrote in his editorial that Iran and China shared the “common view” that calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza was the biggest priority in the Middle East.
Lebanese university students launch donation campaign to aid war-displaced families
- ‘Hardship of war should never be faced alone,’ says student Nour Farchoukh
- More than 1,000 families benefit from food and clothing donations
DUBAI: Three American University of Beirut students have launched a donation campaign to support families across Lebanon displaced by the 13-month war with Israel.
Titled “Hope for our Lebanon,” the campaign distributes food supplies, sanitary boxes, and clothes through a collaboration with ‘Wahad Activism’ charity organization.
Nour Farchoukh, Celine Ghandour, and Kian Azad told Arab News that they provide the aid based on the needs of each family.
“We put snacks or diapers if there are children. We also ask if they need clothes,” said Ghandour, adding that the group depends on people’s in-kind donations.
So far, the donation campaign has reached more than 1,000 families in Baabda, Beirut, Chouf, Batroun, Barouk, and Hazmieh among other areas.
Israel stepped up its military campaign in south Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges launched by Hezbollah in retaliation for the war on Gaza.
Over 13 months, the war killed more than 4,000 people across Lebanon, injured over 16,600 people, and displaced 1 million people, according to the latest figures of the Lebanese health ministry.
On Nov. 27, a 60-day ceasefire agreement, brokered by US and France, was signed between Hezbollah and Israel.
Azad said the campaign was still running after the ceasefire, with clothes donations being distributed to orphanages.
“We know that no matter how small the number of families we help, it will still make a difference,” he added.
“Every volunteer and every donation help rebuild Lebanon bit by bit. The hardship of war should never be faced alone,” Farchoukh said.
The three students have invited the community to take part in the initiative through donations or volunteering.
Israeli forces raid north Gaza hospital, health ministry says contact with staff lost
- Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of only three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip
- Israeli forces order dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate the compound
CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of only three medical facilities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, on Friday, ordering dozens of patients and hundreds of others to evacuate the compound, officials said.
In separate incidents across Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 25 people, medics said. One of those strikes on a house in Gaza City killed 15 people, medics and the civil emergency service said.
The Palestinian health ministry said contact with staff inside the facility, which has been under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for weeks, had been lost.
“The occupation forces are inside the hospital now and they are burning it,” Munir Al-Bursh, director of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had made efforts to mitigate harm to civilians and had “facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation” but gave no details.
“Kamal Adwan Hospital serves as a Hamas terrorist stronghold in northern Gaza, from which terrorists have been operating throughout the war,” it said in a statement.
Kamal Adwan, as well as the Indonesia and Al-Awda hospitals, have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces, which have been clearing out the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for weeks, Palestinian medical staff say.
Friday’s raid comes a day after the army evacuated the nearby Indonesian Hospital and continued to press Al-Awda Hospital.
Bursh said the army had ordered 350 people inside the facility to leave to a nearby school sheltering displaced families. They included 75 patients, their companions, and 185 medical staff.
Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Television said that hours after the raid, Israeli forces set the hospital ablaze. Footage circulating on Palestinian and Arab media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed smoke rising from the area of the hospital.
There was no Israeli military comment.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and systematically razed, fueling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.
Israel denies the claims saying its campaign is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
On Thursday, health officials said five medical staff, including a pediatrician, were killed by Israeli fire at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, where Israeli forces have been operating since October.
In a statement, Hamas held Israel and the United States responsible for the fate of patients, injured people and the medical staff inside the hospital.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel strikes ‘infrastructure’ on Syria-Lebanon border
- It did not specify whether the strikes were on the Syrian or Lebanese side
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military reported it conducted air strikes on Friday targeting “infrastructure” on the Syrian-Lebanese border near the village of Janta, which it said was used to smuggle weapons to the armed group Hezbollah.
“Earlier today, the IAF (Israeli air force) struck infrastructure that was used to smuggle weapons via Syria to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon at the Janta crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border,” the military said in a statement.
It did not specify whether the strikes were on the Syrian or Lebanese side, but they came a day after Lebanon’s army accused Israel of “violation of the ceasefire agreement by attacking Lebanese sovereignty and destroying southern towns and villages.”
There is no official crossing point near Janta but the area is known for illegal crossings.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, has also expressed concern over “continuing destruction” caused by Israeli forces in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military said Friday’s strikes were aimed at preventing weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah, with whom it fought a land and air war for more than a year until a ceasefire was agreed upon last month.
“These strikes are an additional part of the IDF’s (Israeli military’s) effort to target weapons smuggling operations from Syria into Lebanon, and prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing weapons smuggling routes,” the military said.
“The IDF will continue to act to remove any threat to the state of Israel in accordance with the understandings in the ceasefire agreement.”
The truce went into effect on November 27, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.
Israel hospital says woman killed in stabbing attack in coastal city
- Israel’s police said the suspected attacker had been arrested
HERZLIYA, Israel: An Israeli hospital reported that a woman in her eighties was killed after being stabbed in the coastal city of Herzliya on Friday, while police stated that the suspected attacker had been arrested.
“She was brought to the hospital with multiple stab wounds while undergoing resuscitation efforts, but the hospital staff was forced to pronounce her death upon arrival,” Tel Aviv Ichilov hospital said in a statement. Israel’s police said the suspected attacker had been arrested.
