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‘Historic’ moment as UAE and Israeli foreign ministers meet for first time

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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (C), UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed (L), and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (R), speak at a press conference after their meeting in front of Villa Borsig, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. The three foreign minister met for talks in the German capital. (AP)
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UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed speaks at a press conference in front of Villa Borsig, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. (WAM)
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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (C), UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed (L), and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (R), speak at a press conference after their meeting in front of Villa Borsig, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. The three foreign minister met for talks in the German capital. (AP)
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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas speaks at a press conference in front of Villa Borsig, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. (WAM)
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Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi speaks at a press conference in front of Villa Borsig, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. (WAM)
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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (R), stands with UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed (L), and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (C), as they arrive for talks at the German foreign ministry’s guesthouse Villa Borsig Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. (AP)
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UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed (L), and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, stand in front of Villa Borsig, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. The foreign ministers of the UAE and Israel met for the first time. (AP)
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UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed (L), and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, stand in front of Villa Borsig, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. The foreign ministers of the UAE and Israel met for the first time. (WAM)
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Updated 07 October 2020
Arab News
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‘Historic’ moment as UAE and Israeli foreign ministers meet for first time

  • The foreign ministers met to discuss further steps in normalizing relations
  • They also discussed cooperation in the energy field in Berlin
Updated 07 October 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: The Middle East has taken its first steps toward a new era of security and prosperity, according to Emirati foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed. This is in line with his nation’s vision for a stable region, he said.
His comments came during a joint press conference in Berlin with his German and Israeli counterparts, Heiko Maas and Gabi Ashkenazi. The historic, face-to-face meeting of the Israeli and Emirati ministers was their first since their countries set aside decades of enmity and signed a US-brokered agreement in mid-September to normalize relations. Bahrain also signed a similar agreement with Israel.

Sheikh Abdullah said the agreement changes traditional thinking on ways to address regional challenges, and focuses on practical steps with tangible results.
He thanked Maas for hosting the meeting with “my new friend Gabi Ashkenazi” and added: “Three decades ago, the German people united Berlin to make history, and today we are gathered together in the hope of making history.”
He said the most important thing to emphasize is the return of the hope that the Palestinians and Israelis can work together to agree a two-state solution and a brighter future for the children of the region.
“In the UAE we are looking forward to opening more new horizons of cooperation to make peace, and to the economic opportunities that it opens up in the region,” he added.




German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (C), stands with UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed (R), and Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (L), as they arrive for talks at the German foreign ministry’s guesthouse Villa Borsig Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Berlin, Germany. (WAM)

“We will work together to take advantage of our world-leading capabilities in the research and development sectors to meet the needs of current and future generations.”
The minister highlighted sectors such as food security, energy, trade, health, aviation and technology as providing opportunities to expand and strengthen cooperation in the region.
He said that to maximize the benefits of international cooperation, the UAE is committed to working with partners to promote international investment, and looking for partners in Germany and Israel.
“Today, I discussed with my colleague Gabi Ashkenazi a set of proposals and ideas — perhaps most notably cooperation in the field of energy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution — in recognition that cooperation in research and development could represent a step toward a more stable, integrated and prosperous Middle East,” said Sheikh Abdullah.

He added that the UAE, Germany and Israel share an interest in promoting tolerance and diversity in their countries, as well as promoting pluralism and moderation in the region. He said all three nations share a deep concern about the threats that extremism and terrorism pose to them and the world.
“Just as we do not compromise with terrorism, we must also not compromise with extremism and hatred,” he said, adding that the UAE shares with Germany and Israel a desire to preserve regional stability as part of a peaceful international order characterized by cooperation and stability.
Ashkenazi thanked the UAE for its courage, vision and the efforts it has made to achieve peace. The agreement between the two countries provides hope and good news to the citizens of both, he added, as well as the prospect of peace in the region. It also contributes to efforts to achieve stability and confront common challenges, he said, foremost among which is the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier in the day, the Emirati and Israeli foreign ministers visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

Ashkenazi said the occasion “represented a new era of peace, development and hope, and we will see citizens of the UAE freely visit the State of Israel and all the holy sites, and we are looking forward to our citizens visiting the UAE soon.”
He added that discussions with his Emirati counterpart have been positive and presented a vision for relations between the two countries and future cooperation.
He said that “just peace is reached through courage and respect,” and called on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.
“Only through direct negotiations will we be able to find a solution to the conflict, and the longer we drag this one and the longer we wait for negotiations to start, the more difficult it will be and it will be transferred to future generations and they will be faced with a difficult reality,” Ashkenazi added.
Maas said Germany welcomed the signing of the Abraham Accords, the name given to the agreements with Israel signed by the UAE and Bahrain, and called the Israel-UAE agreement the “first good news in the Middle East for a long time.”

He urged them to go further still, however, and for the entire region to build on the momentum to find a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “This opportunity must be seized,” said Maas. His country currently holds the presidency of the EU, and he said the bloc is ready to help.
The UAE and Bahrain are the first Arab nations to establish normalized relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

 

(With AFP)

Topics: UAE Israel Abdullah bin Zayed UAE-Israel relations Germany Gabi Ashkenazi Heiko Maas berlin Holocaust Memorial

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The horror of Saydnaya jail, symbol of Assad excesses

Updated 03 January 2025
AFP
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The horror of Saydnaya jail, symbol of Assad excesses

  • Saydnaya prison north of the Syrian capital Damascus has become a symbol of the inhumane abuses of the Assad clan, especially since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011
Updated 03 January 2025
AFP

BEIRUT: Saydnaya prison north of the Syrian capital Damascus has become a symbol of the inhumane abuses of the Assad clan, especially since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011.
The prison complex was the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomising the atrocities committed by ousted president Bashar Assad.
When Syrian rebels entered Damascus early last month after a lightning advance that toppled the Assad government, they announced they had seized Saydnaya and freed its inmates.
Some had been incarcerated there since the 1980s.
According to the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison (ADMSP), the rebels liberated more than 4,000 people.
Photographs of haggard and emaciated inmates, some helped by their comrades because they were too weak to leave their cells, circulated worldwide.
Suddenly the workings of the infamous jail were revealed for all to see.
The foreign ministers of France and Germany — on a visit to meet with Syria’s new rulers — toured the facility on Friday accompanied by members of Syria’s White Helmets emergency rescue group.
The prison was built in the 1980s during the rule of Hafez Assad, father of the deposed president, and was initially meant for political prisoners including members of Islamist groups and Kurdish militants.
But down the years, Saydnaya became a symbol of pitiless state control over the Syrian people.
In 2016, a United Nations commission found that “the Syrian Government has also committed the crimes against humanity of murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts,” notably at Saydnaya.
The following year, Amnesty International in a report entitled “Human Slaughterhouse” documented thousands of executions there, calling it a policy of extermination.
Shortly afterwards, the United States revealed the existence inside Saydnaya of a crematorium in which the remains of thousands of murdered prisoners were burned.
War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in 2022 reported that around 30,000 people had been imprisoned in Saydnaya where many were tortured, and that just 6,000 were released.
The ADMSP believes that more than 30,000 prisoners were executed or died under torture, or from the lack of medical care or food between 2011 and 2018.
The group says the former authorities in Syria had set up salt chambers — rooms lined with salt for use as makeshift morgues to make up for the lack of cold storage.
In 2022, the ADMSP published a report describing for the first time these makeshift morgues of salt.
It said the first such chamber dated back to 2013, one of the bloodiest years in the Syrian civil conflict.
Many inmates are officially considered to be missing, with their families never receiving death certificates unless they handed over exorbitant bribes.
After the fall of Damascus last month, thousands of relatives of the missing rushed to Saydnaya hoping they might find loved ones hidden away in underground cells.
But Saydnaya is now empty, and the White Helmets emergency workers have since announced the end of search operations there, with no more prisoners found.
Several foreigners also ended up in Syrian jails, including Jordanian Osama Bashir Hassan Al-Bataynah, who spent 38 years behind bars and was found “unconscious and suffering from memory loss,” the foreign ministry in Amman said last month.
According to the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Jordan, 236 Jordanian citizens were held in Syrian prisons, most of them in Saydnaya.
Other freed foreigners included Suheil Hamawi from Lebanon who returned home after being locked up in Syria for 33 years, including inside Saydnaya.

Topics: Fall of Assad

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At least 30 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza as stalled ceasefire talks set to resume

At least 30 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza as stalled ceasefire talks set to resume

Updated 03 January 2025
AP
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At least 30 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza as stalled ceasefire talks set to resume

  • Israel said missiles were fired into the country from Yemen, which set off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and central Israel and sent people scrambling to shelters
  • Hospital staff say at least 30 people, including children, were killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes overnight and Friday morning
Updated 03 January 2025
AP

DEIR AL-BALAH: At least 30 people, including children, were killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes overnight and into Friday morning, said hospital staff, as air sirens sounded across Israel and stalled ceasefire talks were set to resume.
Staff at the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital said more than a dozen women and children were killed in strikes that hit various places in Central Gaza, including Nuseirat, Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al Balah. Dozens of people were also killed across the enclave the previous day, bringing the total of people killed in the past 24 hours to 56.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the latest strikes, but says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths.
Strikes Thursday hit Hamas security officers and an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone. Among those killed early Friday, was Omar Al-Derawi, a freelance journalist. Associated Press reporters saw friends and colleagues mourning over his body at the hospital, with a press vest laid on top of his shroud.
Israelis also woke up to attacks early Friday morning. Israel said missiles were fired into the country from Yemen, which set off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and central Israel and sent people scrambling to shelters. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, though a faint explosion, likely either from the missile or from interceptors, could be heard in Jerusalem. Israel’s army said a missile was intercepted.
As the attacks were underway, efforts at ceasefire negotiations were expected to resume Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized a delegation from the Mossad intelligence agency, the Shin Bet internal security agency and the military to continue negotiations in Qatar. The delegation is leaving for Qatar on Friday.
The US-led talks have repeatedly stalled during 15 months of war, which was sparked by Hamas-led militants’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in retaliation has killed over 45,500 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the dead. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.
Israel’s military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.

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French and German foreign ministers urge inclusive transition in Syria during Damascus visit

French and German foreign ministers urge inclusive transition in Syria during Damascus visit

Updated 33 min 36 sec ago
AFP
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French and German foreign ministers urge inclusive transition in Syria during Damascus visit

  • Jean-Noel Barrot and Annalena Baerbock in Syrian capital for talks on behalf of European Union
  • Ministers toured the cells of Assad's main torture prison
Updated 33 min 36 sec ago
AFP

DAMASCUS: The European Union backs a peaceful, inclusive transition in Syria, top French and German diplomats said Friday as they visited Damascus to meet with new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock were in the Syrian capital for talks on behalf of the European Union, in the highest-level visit by major Western powers since Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad last month.
One of their first stops was the notorious Saydnaya prison, not far from the capital, AFP journalists said.
Accompanied by White Helmet rescuers, Barrot and Baerbock toured the cells and underground dungeons of Saydnaya, the epitome of atrocities committed against Assad’s opponents.
Saydnaya was the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances. An advocacy group said more than 4,000 people were freed from the detention facility when rebel forces took Damascus on Dec. 8.
Sharaa, head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), led the offensive that toppled Assad.
The HTS-dominated interim authorities now face the daunting task of rebuilding state institutions, with growing calls to ensure an inclusive transition and guarantee minority rights.
Barrot, in Damascus, expressed hope for a “sovereign, stable and peaceful” Syria.

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It was also a “hope that the aspirations of all Syrians can be realized,” he added, “but it is a fragile hope.”
In a statement, Baerbock said Germany wanted to help Syria become a “safe home” for all its people, and a “functioning state, with full control over its territory.”
She said the visit was a “clear signal” to Damascus of the possibility for a new relationship between Syria and Germany, and Europe more broadly.
Earlier, in a post in X, Barrot said: “Together, France and Germany stand alongside the Syrian people, in all their diversity.”
He added that the two European powers wanted to promote a “peaceful transition.”
Despite “skepticism” about HTS — which is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda and is designated a terrorist organization by numerous governments Baerbock said that “we must not miss the opportunity to support the Syrian people at this important crossroads.”
Berlin was ready to support “an inclusive and peaceful transfer of power” as well as social “reconciliation,” Baerbock said.
She also asked the new regime to avoid “acts of vengeance against groups within the population,” to avoid a long delay before elections, and to avert any attempts at the “Islamization” of the judicial and education systems.
Since Assad’s ousting, a bevy of foreign envoys have traveled to Damascus to meet with the country’s new leaders.
France and Germany had both already sent lower-level delegations last month.
At the start of his visit, Barrot met with representatives of Syria’s Christian communities.
Diplomatic sources said Barrot told the Christian leaders that France was committed to a pluralistic Syria with equal rights for all, including minority groups.
Syria’s civil war — which started in 2011, sparked by the Assad government’s brutal repression of democracy protests — saw Germany, France and a host of other countries shutter their diplomatic missions in Damascus.
The conflict killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and left Syria fragmented and ravaged.
The new authorities have called for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Syria under Assad to allow for reconstruction.
Paris is due to host an international summit on Syria later this month, following a similar meeting in December in Jordan.
 

Topics: Fall of Assad

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Israel army says intercepted missile, drone launched from Yemen

Updated 03 January 2025
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Israel army says intercepted missile, drone launched from Yemen

  • Israel’s emergency service provider, Magen David Adom, reported that it had treated several people who were injured or experienced panic attacks on their way to shelters
Updated 03 January 2025
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Jerusalem: Israel’s military reported that it shot down a missile and a drone launched from Yemen on Friday, the latest in a series of attacks from the country targeting Israel in recent weeks.
“A missile that was launched from Yemen and crossed into Israeli territory was intercepted,” the military said in a statement posted to its Telegram channel.
“A report was received regarding shrapnel from the interception that fell in the area of Modi’in in central Israel. The details are under review.”
Israel’s emergency service provider, Magen David Adom, reported that it had treated several people who were injured or experienced panic attacks on their way to shelters after air raid sirens sounded in the center and south of the country.
Hours later the military announced that it had also shot down a drone launched from Yemen.
The drone was intercepted before it entered Israel, the military added.
On Tuesday, Israel also said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.
Much of Yemen is controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have been firing missiles and drones at Israel — as well as at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The Houthis have stepped up their attacks since November’s ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel has also struck Yemen, including targeting Sanaa’s international airport at the end of December.

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24 killed as pro-Ankara factions clash with Syria’s Kurdish-led SDF

Updated 03 January 2025
AFP
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24 killed as pro-Ankara factions clash with Syria’s Kurdish-led SDF

  • The latest bout of fighting was sparked by attacks by the Turkiye-backed fighters on two towns south of Manbij, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
  • Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by the US-backed SDF, which spearheaded the fight that helped oust the Daesh group from its last territory in Syria in 2019
Updated 03 January 2025
AFP

BEIRUT: At least 24 fighters, mostly from Turkish-backed groups, were killed in clashes with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern Manbij district, a war monitor said on Thursday.
The violence killed 23 Turkish-backed fighters and one member of the SDF-affiliated Manbij Military Council, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based war monitor said the latest bout of fighting was sparked by attacks by the Ankara-backed fighters on two towns south of Manbij.
Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by a Kurdish-led administration whose de facto army, the US-backed SDF, spearheaded the fight that helped oust the Daesh group from its last territory in Syria in 2019.
Turkiye accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which both Washington and Ankara blacklist as a terrorist group.
Fighting has raged around the Arab-majority city of Manbij, controlled by the Manbij Military Council, a group of local fighters operating under the SDF.
According to the Observatory, “clashes continued south and east of Manbij, while Turkish forces bombarded the area with drones and heavy artillery.”
The SDF said it repelled attacks by Turkiye-backed groups south and east of Manbij.
“This morning, with the support of five Turkish drones, tanks and modern armored vehicles, the mercenary groups launched violent attacks” on several villages in the Manbij area, the SDF said in a statement.
“Our fighters succeeded in repelling all the attacks, killing dozens of mercenaries and destroying six armored vehicles, including a tank.”
Turkiye has mounted multiple operations against the SDF since 2016, and Ankara-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in northern Syria in recent weeks.
The fighting has continued since rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad on December 8.
 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)

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