Marking its 70th anniversary of relations with Egypt, Pakistan takes CPEC to Cairo

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The Egyptian-Pakistani Forum kicked off its activities on Monday in Cairo, marking the 70th anniversary of the beginning of relations between the two countries. (Arab News photo)
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The Egyptian Minister of Planning Hala Al-Saeed speaking in the conference. ( Arab News photo)
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Federal Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar speaking during the conference. ( Arab News photo)
Updated 25 September 2018
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Marking its 70th anniversary of relations with Egypt, Pakistan takes CPEC to Cairo

  • South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) in Islamabad has organized two-day conference in Egypt
  • The conference explores economic opportunities under the CPEC

CAIRO: The Egyptian-Pakistani Forum has kicked off its activities on Monday here, marking the 70th anniversary of the beginning of relations between the two countries.

The conference is organized by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) in Islamabad for two days (Sept. 24-25).

Dr. Maria Sultan, the SASSI’s director general, inaugurated the conference.

The Federal Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Egypt Mushtaq Ali Shah and other representatives from Egyptian and Pakistani ministries, including the Egyptian Minister of Planning Hala Al-Saeed, attended the conference inauguration.

“Pakistan has been and will continue to be supportive of investments in Egypt, especially in the Suez Canal region, and we are happy to partner with a pivotal country in the region and the world,” said Minister of Planning and Development Makhdoom Bakhtiar in his opening remarks.

He added: “Egypt is a promising country and the legislative environment for investments is ready to attract more projects. Pakistan has always provided a helping hand to its brothers from the Islamic world to make a continuous partnership in several fields.”

In spite of the economic investment orientation of the Forum, the issue of the war on terror was present.

Bakhtiar stressed the priority Egypt puts in the fight against terror and in bringing national security. He added that Pakistan had also had problems with terrorism for many years, and praised the Pakistani minister in Egypt for continued understanding and cooperation in the matter.

The Egyptian Minister of Planning Hala Al-Saeed expressed her happiness about this cooperation between Egypt and Pakistan. She stressed that the forum represents an important platform for dialogue and cooperation between the two countries, and that they are keen to promote and develop bilateral relations in various fields, and to elevate these relations to broad horizons.

The Egyptian minister discussed investment opportunities in Egypt, especially in the Suez Canal area, and concluded her participation in the opening session by saying: “Long live Egypt. Long live Pakistan.”

The establishment of official diplomatic relations between the two countries began in 1948. Egypt was the first country in the Middle East to open an embassy in Pakistan after its independence.

However, despite the existence of a contractual and institutional framework, the results and outcome of the cooperation is limited as the volume of trade exchange between the two countries was $231 million in 2017. This shows co-investment between two countries does not reflect the standard of relationship and resources the countries have, whether it be human resources or otherwise.

This conference is exploring economic opportunities mainly due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative The project, unveiled by President Xi Jinping in 2013, aims to increase a number of land and sea links within Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

“Trade through the Indian Ocean is expected to rise with the emergence of China as a global economic superpower,” said a SASSI statement.

Head of the Commercial Representation Authority Ahmed Antar said that the conference comes at an important time to enhance the partnership between the two, pointing out that the Suez Canal and the port of Gwadar in Pakistan are two of the most important ports on the Silk Road, and represent a huge opportunity to enhance cooperation between Egypt and Pakistan in the fields of trade, especially with the amount of traffic expected to hit the two ports in the coming years.

He added that Egypt and Pakistan enjoy huge advantages that enable the two countries to achieve great growth and economic integration. Egypt occupies a distinguished geographic location between the continents of Asia and Africa, and Pakistan is located in the heart of Asia. The Egyptian Government seeks to enhance cooperation with Pakistan, especially in the fields of telecommunications, insurance, information technology and international trade.

The conference program includes sessions in the fields of navigation, logistics and transportation, natural resources, banking and finance, trade and supply chains, and women’s role in trade, as well as sessions for small-to-medium enterprises and media.

The conference is to be held by a group of ministers and senior representatives of the Pakistan Government, including members of the Ministries of Planning and Development, Navigation Affairs, Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Finance, Science and Technology, Commerce, Information, and Industry and Production. There will also be a large number of speakers and representatives of various government agencies, the Central Bank and Pakistani banks.

The Egyptian side also includes representatives from the Ministries of Commerce and Industry, Investment and International Cooperation, Petroleum, Communications and Information Technology, the Central Bank of Egypt, the Financial Supervision Authority and the Suez Canal Economic Zone.


Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

Updated 4 sec ago
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Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

  • Practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court
  • The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention
JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities will stop holding Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, or incarceration without trial, the defense ministry announced Friday.
The practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court, and is often used against Palestinians who Israel deems security threats.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was “inappropriate” for Israel to employ administrative detention against settlers who “face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions.”
But, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now, it is one of only few effective tools that Israeli authorities to prevent settler attacks against Palestinians, which have surged in the West Bank over the past year.
Katz said in a statement issued by his office that prosecution or “other preventive measures” would be used to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.
B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, said authorities use administrative detention “extensively and routinely” to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that eight settlers were held under the same practice in November.
Yonatan Mizrahi, director of settlement watch for Peace Now, said that although administrative detention was mostly used in the West Bank to detain Palestinians, it was one of the few effective tools for temporarily removing the threat of settler violence through detention.
“The cancelation of administrative detention orders for settlers alone is a cynical... move that whitewashes and normalizes escalating Jewish terrorism under the cover of war,” the group said in a statement, referring to a spike in settler attacks throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict over the past 13 months.
Western governments, including Israel’s ally and military backer the United States, have recently imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers and settler organizations over ties to violence against Palestinians.
On Monday, US authorities announced sanctions against Amana, a movement that backs settlement development, and others who have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank.”
“Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank,” the US Treasury said.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank — which Israel has occupied since 1967 — is home to three million Palestinians as well as about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

Updated 11 min 2 sec ago
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UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

  • Emily Thornberry: Britain has ‘obligation under Rome Convention’ to arrest Israeli PM if he enters country 
  • Court: ‘Reasonable grounds to believe’ Netanyahu responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity in Gaza

LONDON: The UK will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country, a senior British politician has said.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on Thursday for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, alongside his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, pertaining to the Gaza war.

Emily Thornberry — Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, and former shadow foreign secretary and shadow attorney general — told Sky News: “If Netanyahu comes to Britain, our obligation under the Rome Convention would be to arrest him under the warrant from the ICC.

“(It is) not really a question of should — we are required to, because we are members of the ICC.”

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has refused to be drawn on whether Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot on British soil, saying it “wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment.”

She told Sky: “We’ve always respected the importance of international law, but in the majority of the cases that they pursue, they don’t become part of the British legal process.

“What I can say is that obviously, the UK government’s position remains that we believe the focus should be on getting a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is the first to be issued against the premier of a major Western ally by an international court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His office denounced the warrant as “anti-Semitic,” adding that Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions.” Israel is not an ICC member and rejects the court’s jurisdiction.

US President Joe Biden called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “outrageous,” adding: “Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he plans to invite Netanyahu to visit Budapest, adding that the arrest warrant will “not be observed” by his government.

The Italian and French governments, however, have indicated that Netanyahu will be arrested if he visits either country.

The ICC said on Thursday it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

The court also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel says Al-Masri, believed to have been the mastermind behind the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, was killed in Gaza earlier this year.

The ICC said it issued the warrant for his arrest because of insufficient evidence to prove his death.


Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92

Updated 16 min 23 sec ago
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Monitor raises toll in Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra to 92

  • Wednesday’s Israeli attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups
  • Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country

BEIRUT: A Syria war monitor said on Friday that Israeli strikes on the city of Palmyra this week killed 92 pro-Iran fighters, after a United Nations representative said they were likely the deadliest to date.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday’s attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups that also involved commanders from Iraq’s Al-Nujaba group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The toll has risen to “92 dead: 61 Syrian pro-Iran fighters,” 11 of them working for Hezbollah, “and 27 foreign nationals mostly from Al-Nujaba, plus four from Hezbollah,” the Observatory said.
The Britain-based war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, had previously reported 82 dead, while the Syria defense ministry on Wednesday said 36 people were killed.
The UN deputy special envoy to Syria, Najat Rochdi, told the Security Council on Thursday that the raid was “likely the deadliest Israeli strike in Syria to date.”
The Observatory said the strikes also targeted “a weapons depot near the industrial area” in Palmyra, a modern city adjacent to globally renowned Greco-Roman ruins.
Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since almost a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon escalated into full-scale war in late September.


Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

Updated 22 November 2024
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Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

  • Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami calls the ICC warrant ‘a welcome move’
  • Salami adds it is a ‘great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements’

TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday described the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former defense minister as the “end and political death” of Israel, in a speech.
“This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries,” Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami said in the speech aired on state TV.
In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami called the ICC warrant “a welcome move” and a “great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements,” both supported by the Islamic republic.
Israel and its allies criticized the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant on Thursday for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued in response to accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The move drew angry reactions from Netanyahu, who denounced it as antisemitic and from Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, but was welcomed by rights groups including Amnesty International.
The ICC’s move theoretically limits the movement of Netanyahu, as any of the court’s 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged the body’s members to act on the warrants, and for non-members to work together in “upholding international law.”


Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Updated 22 November 2024
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Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

  • Israeli military: Slain militants had ‘led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it had “eliminated” five Hamas militants, including two commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia.
In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year, adding that the slain militants had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim,” a kibbutz in southern Israel.