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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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US envoy has first meeting in Sudan with army chief

US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello (C) is welcomed by local officials upon his arrival in Port Sudan on November 18, 2024.
Updated 8 sec ago
AFP
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US envoy has first meeting in Sudan with army chief

  • Experts say both sides have stonewalled peace efforts as they vie to gain a decisive military advantage, which neither has managed to hold for long
Updated 8 sec ago
AFP

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: A US special envoy on Monday made his first visit to Sudan for talks with the country’s army chief and de facto leader to discuss aid and how to stop the war.
Tom Perriello met Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan in the Red Sea city for what Burhan’s ruling Sovereignty Council called “long, comprehensive and frank” talks.
It said Burhan and Perriello discussed “the roadmap for how to stop the war and deliver humanitarian aid.”
The envoy’s visit came as Russia on Monday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Sudan.
Sudan’s war erupted in April 2023 between the regular army led by Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
It has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of 11 million, according to the United Nations.
The conflict has also resulted in what has been described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in recent history.
A US State Department release said Perriello “engaged in frank dialogue with Sudanese officials.”
It said these centered “on the need to cease fighting, enable unhindered humanitarian access, including through localized pauses in the fighting to allow for the delivery of emergency relief supplies, and commit to a civilian government.”
Monday’s visit was the special envoy’s first to Port Sudan, the Red Sea city where government offices and the UN have relocated since fleeing the war-torn capital Khartoum.
It is also the first diplomatic overture in months, since Sudan’s military opted out of US-brokered negotiations in Switzerland.
Experts say both sides have stonewalled peace efforts as they vie to gain a decisive military advantage, which neither has managed to hold for long.
Perriello’s trip comes after repeated failed efforts at mediation.
The statement from Burhan’s office said Perriello expressed the “shared ambition for an end to the war to put a stop to the atrocities and violations we have witnessed recently.”

Writing on social media platform X, the US envoy welcomed “recent progress to expand humanitarian access.”
“As the largest aid donor to Sudan, we will work around the clock to ensure that food, water and medicine can reach people in all 18 states plus refugees,” Perriello posted.
Peace efforts, including by the United States, Saudi Arabia and the African Union, have only succeeded in marginally increasing access to humanitarian aid, which both the military and the RSF are accused of blocking.
International pressure has managed to secure government authorization for aid to be delivered through Adre, a key border crossing with Chad and the only access point to famine-stricken Darfur in western Sudan.
However, on Monday Burhan told Perriello his government rejects “the exploitation of the Adre crossing to deliver weapons to the rebels,” a reference to the RSF’s reported use of the border as a weapons supply route.
Monday’s Russian veto at the UN came with the Security Council largely paralyzed in its ability to deal with conflicts because of splits between permanent members, notably Russia and the United States.
 

 

Topics: Sudan Unrest Sudan US

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Yemen’s Houthi militants linked to ship attacks in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

Updated 1 min 32 sec ago
AP;
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Yemen’s Houthi militants linked to ship attacks in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

  • The ship’s captain saw a missile splashing in close proximity to the vessel twice, once in the Red Sea and the second time in the Gulf of Aden.
Updated 1 min 32 sec ago
AP;

DUBAI: Suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants targeted a Panama-flagged bulk carrier traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, though no damage or injuries were reported, authorities said Monday.
The attacks come as the the militant group continue their months long assault targeting shipping through a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it a year over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon.
The bulk carrier Anadolu S first had been contacted over VHF radio by someone claiming to be authorities in Yemen, demanding the ship turn around, said the Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational task force overseen by the US
“The vessel did not comply with the order and continued its transit,” the center said.
The ship’s captain later saw that “a missile splashed in close proximity to the vessel” as it traveled in the southern Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting to the Gulf of Aden in the first attack late Sunday night, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in an alert. The attack happened some 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Yemen port city of Mocha.
On Monday, another attack some 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Aden in the Gulf of Aden similarly saw a missile splash down close to the vessel, the UKMTO said.
“The vessel and crew are safe and proceeding to its next port of call,” the UKMTO added.
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attacks. However, it can take the group hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults.
The Houthis have targeted more than 90 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign, which also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. The Joint Maritime Information Center said the Anadolu S had an “indirect association to Israel.” However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
The Houthis have shot down multiple American MQ-9 Reaper drones as well.
In their last attack on Nov. 11, two US Navy warships targeted with multiple drones and missiles as they were traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but the attacks were not successful.

Topics: Red Sea Houthi attacks Gaza Lebanon;

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Nearly 100 food aid trucks violently looted in Gaza, UN agencies say

Updated 29 min 47 sec ago
Reuters
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Nearly 100 food aid trucks violently looted in Gaza, UN agencies say

  • This is one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the besieged enclave
  • 98 of 109 trucks in convoy were raided and some transporters were injured
Updated 29 min 47 sec ago
Reuters

GENEVA/CAIRO: Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on Nov. 16 after entering Gaza in one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the enclave, where hunger is deepening, two UN agencies told Reuters on Monday.
The convoy transporting food provided by UN agencies UNRWA and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom border crossing, said Louise Wateridge, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer.
Ninety-eight of the 109 trucks in the convoy were raided and some of the transporters were injured during the incident, she said, without detailing who carried out the ambush.
“This ... highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” she told Reuters.
“⁠The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.”
The Hamas TV channel Al-Aqsa quoted Hamas interior ministry sources in Gaza as saying that over 20 gang members involved in looting aid trucks were killed during an operation carried out by Hamas security forces in coordination with tribal committees.
It said anyone caught aiding such looting would be treated with “an iron fist.”
A WFP spokesperson confirmed the looting and said that many routes in Gaza were currently impassable due to security issues.
An Israeli official said Israel had been working to address the humanitarian situation since the start of its war against Hamas, adding that the main problem with aid deliveries was UN distribution challenges.
A UN aid official said on Friday that access for aid to Gaza had reached a low point, with deliveries to parts of the Israeli-besieged north of the enclave all but impossible. Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. 

 

Topics: Gaza Israel

UNESCO ‘enhanced protection’ for 34 Lebanon heritage sites

Updated 40 min 1 sec ago
AFP
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UNESCO ‘enhanced protection’ for 34 Lebanon heritage sites

  • Baalbek and Tyre ‘will receive technical and financial assistance from UNESCO’
Updated 40 min 1 sec ago
AFP

PARIS: Dozens of heritage sites in Lebanon were granted “provisional enhanced protection” by UNESCO on Monday, offering a higher level of legal shielding as fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
The 34 cultural properties affected “now benefit from the highest level of immunity against attack and use for military purposes,” the United Nations cultural body said in a statement.
Several Israeli strikes in recent weeks on Baalbek in the east and Tyre in the south — both strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah — hit close to ancient Roman ruins designated as World Heritage sites.
UNESCO said the decision “helps send a signal to the entire international community of the urgent need to protect these sites.”
“Non-compliance with these clauses would constitute ‘serious violations’ of the 1954 Hague Convention and... potential grounds for prosecution,” it added.
Hezbollah and Israel have been at war since late September, when Israel broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border, even as the Gaza war plows on.
UNESCO’s move followed an appeal Sunday by hundreds of cultural professionals, including archaeologists and academics, to activate the enhanced protection.
Baalbek and Tyre “will receive technical and financial assistance from UNESCO to reinforce their legal protections, improve risk anticipation and management measures, and provide further training for site managers,” the body said.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Lebanon UNESCO Israel Hezbollah

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Refugees who escaped from war-torn Tuti Island speak of hunger, disease

A Sudanese army soldier mans a machine gun on top of a military pickup truck outside a hospital in Omdurman on November 2, 2024.
Updated 48 min 52 sec ago
AFP
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Refugees who escaped from war-torn Tuti Island speak of hunger, disease

  • Charity kitchens have been forced to close in Tuti and elsewhere in the capital Khartoum due to lack of funding and supplies, and high prices
Updated 48 min 52 sec ago
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JUBA: Mohammed Awad and his family are among dozens who escaped Sudan’s Tuti Island earlier this year amid a siege by the Rapid Support Forces, finding refuge at a shelter after surviving for months on scant food and the risk of disease.
The island in the middle of the Nile serves as a microcosm for the devastation unleashed by a war that began in April 2023.
More than 61,000 people are estimated to have died in Khartoum state during the first 14 months of Sudan’s war, significantly more than previously recorded, according to a new report.
Activists report that the Rapid Support Forces charged people large sums to evacuate them.

HIGHLIGHT

More than 61,000 people are estimated to have died in Khartoum state during the first 14 months of Sudan’s war.

“There is no good food, and there’s a lot of diseases, there is no sleep, no safety,” Awad said, holding one of his children at the shelter for displaced residents in Omdurman, an army-controlled refuge. The island is one of 14 places across Sudan at risk of famine, according to experts. Dengue fever has ravaged Tuti, a close-knit farming community.
Sarah Siraj, a mother who left with her two children, said six or seven people were dying daily, and that she was only able to have her children treated for dengue, a mosquito-borne disease, once she reached Omdurman.
Charity kitchens have been forced to close in Tuti and elsewhere in the capital Khartoum due to lack of funding and supplies, and high prices.
Rabeea Abdel Gader, a nutrition guide, has been treating newly arrived families at a city shelter.
“We ask the mother about what they eat ... Sometimes the mother responds with her tears,” she said.
Meanwhile, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Sudan.

 

Topics: Sudan Unrest Sudan

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