AMMAN: A group of US citizens from Al-Bireh in Palestine have protested against US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Psagot, an Israeli settlement.
Former Al-Bireh mayor Abdel Jawwad Saleh was part of the protests, and told Arab News that the settlement “was built on citizens rightfully owned private property.”
The American-Palestinian group said in an open letter to Pompeo obtained by Arab News that they are the “legal property owners and titleholders of the land where the Israeli settlement of Psagot is built.”
The land was initially confiscated by the Israeli army for security purposes and later handed over to Israeli settlers.
Saleh, the 89-year old former mayor, lost seven dunums as part of Israeli settlement efforts. He directed harsh criticism at Pompeo, saying: “This is the land of our forefathers that your friends stole. You may drink the wine of this settlement but its grapes are the blood of Palestinians.”
The outgoing Trump-era official made an unprecedented and controversial visit to a Psagot winery that last year renamed one of their brands after Pompeo in a “show of gratitude.”
The American-Palestinian group said they “will not stop efforts to return our private property.” They also labeled Pompeo “a secretary of state not fit for office,” adding that they will pursue legal action and “hold him accountable for his actions that are facilitating the theft of private property of US citizens abroad.”
Anis F. Kassim, publisher of the Palestine Yearbook, told Arab News that Pompeo’s visit to Psagot is “an act of aggression against Palestinian rights.”
He said: “By endorsing the settlement structure and apartheid system that Israel is building in historical Palestine, the US is endorsing robbery of Palestinian land.”
Kassim called the US action “repugnant” to customary and conventional international law. “The Hague regulations and Geneva Conventions prohibit pillage by an occupying power,” he said.
In addition to the West Bank settlement visit, Pompeo plans to travel to the occupied Golan Heights that Israel annexed in 1981. In a deeply controversial move last year, the Trump administration formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied region.
Oraib Rantawi, director of the Amman-based Al-Quds Center for Political Studies, told Arab News that Pompeo’s visit is a “continuation of an attempt to normalize and legitimize settlements,” and could lead to the US “recognizing the annexation of larger settlements.”
Rantawi labeled the Trump administration’s visit as “part of gifts to the Israelis and their Zionist supporters in the US.”
Jordanian political activist Zaid Nabulsi said that the Golan Heights are “Syrian occupied and Syrian territory, regardless of what US officials say or do.”
Suhail Khalileh a settlement expert, said that the actions of any country that contravene international law and UNSC resolutions would normally be ignored.
“Khalifeh said that during the Biden era much of these actions will be referred.
“We feel that there is a huge campaign going on between the US and Palestine on the political progressive level as well as on the level of universities and municipalities.”
Ali Abunimah, one of the founders of the BDS movement, also commented on attempts by Pompeo to link the movement to antisemitism.
“This desperate tactic is a last gasp effort from a defeated administration to give Israel’s apartheid regime a parting gift. It will in no way affect the determination of Palestinians to campaign and struggle for their rights,” he told Arab News.
US-Palestine nationals denounce Pompeo visit
https://arab.news/yubuq
US-Palestine nationals denounce Pompeo visit
- Pompeo made a controversial visit to a Psagot winery that last year renamed one of their brands after him
- The American-Palestinian group said they “will not stop efforts to return our private property”
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
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.
King Charles donates to International Rescue Committee’s Syria aid operation
- Donation will fund healthcare, protect children, provide emergency cash
LONDON: King Charles III has helped pay for urgent humanitarian aid needed in Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad.
Charles made an undisclosed donation to International Rescue Committee UK to fund healthcare, protect children and provide emergency cash.
The king is the patron of the charity, which says Syria is facing profound humanitarian needs despite the defeat of the Assad regime by opposition forces.
Khusbu Patel, IRC UK’s acting executive director, said: “His Majesty’s contribution underscores his deep commitment to addressing urgent global challenges, and helping people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.
“We are immensely grateful to His Majesty The King for his donation supporting our work in Syria. This assistance will enable us to provide essential services, including healthcare, child protection and emergency cash, to those people most in need.”
The charity said it was scaling-up its efforts in northern Syria to evaluate the urgent needs of communities. Towns and villages have become accessible to aid groups for the first time in years now that rebel forces have taken control of much of the country.
The charity said Syria ranks fourth on its emergency watchlist for 2025 and a recent assessment found that people in the northeast of the country were facing unsafe childbirth conditions, cold-related illnesses, water contamination, and shortages of medical supplies.
Charles last month said he would be “praying for Syria” as he attended a church service in London attended by various faiths.
The king met Syrian nun Sister Annie Demerjian at the event, who described the situation in her homeland after the regime had been swept from power.
Israel strikes Syrian army positions near Aleppo: monitor
- Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted defense and research facilities
BEIRUT: Israel bombed Syrian army positions south of Aleppo on Thursday, the latest such strikes since the overthrow of longtime strongman Bashar Assad, a war monitor and local residents said.
Residents reported hearing huge explosions in the area, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted defense and research facilities.
The observatory said that “at least seven massive explosions were heard, resulting from an Israeli airstrike on defense factories... south of Aleppo.”
There was no immediate information on whether the strikes caused any casualties.
Syrian state TV also reported about an Israeli strike in Aleppo without providing details.
A resident of the Al-Safira area told AFP on condition of anonymity: “They hit defense factories, five strikes... The strikes were very strong. It made the ground shake, doors and windows opened — the strongest strikes I ever heard... It turned the night into day.”
Since opposition forces overthrew Assad in early December, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets, saying they are aimed at preventing military weapons from falling into hostile hands.
After Ocalan visit, Turkiye opposition MPs brief speaker, far-right leader
ISTANBUL: A delegation from Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish opposition DEM party met Thursday with the parliamentary speaker and far-right MHP leader amid tentative efforts to resume dialogue between Ankara and the banned PKK militant group. DEM’s three-person delegation met with Speaker Numan Kurtulmus and then with MHP leader Devlet Bahceli.
The aim was to brief them on a rare weekend meeting with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party who is serving life without parole on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.
It was the Ocalan’s first political visit in almost a decade and follows an easing of tension between Ankara and the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil and is proscribed by Washington and Brussels as a terror group.
The visit took place two months after Bahceli extended a surprise olive branch to Ocalan, inviting him to parliament to disband the PKK and saying he should be given the “right to hope” in remarks understood to moot a possible early release.
Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the tentative opening came a month before Syrian rebels began a lightning 12-day offensive that ousted Bashar Assad in a move which has forced Turkiye’s concerns about the Kurdish issue into the headlines.
During Saturday’s meeting with DEM lawmakers Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, Ocalan said he had “the competence and determination to make a positive contribution to the new paradigm started by Mr.Bahceli and Mr.Erdogan.”
Onder and Buldan then “began a round of meetings with the parliamentary parties” and were joined on Thursday by Ahmet Turk, 82, a veteran Kurdish politician with a long history of involvement in efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue.
Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah city bans groups accused of PKK links
SULAIMANIYAH: Authorities in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah have banned four organizations accused of affiliation with the Turkish-blacklisted Kurdistan Workers Party, activists said Thursday, denouncing the move as “political.”
The four organizations include two feminist groups and a media production house, according to the METRO center for press freedoms which organized a news conference in Sulaimaniyah to criticize the decision.
PKK fighters have several positions in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases used to strike Kurdish insurgents.
Ankara and Washington both deem the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye, a terrorist organization.
Authorities in Sulaimaniyah, the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s second city, have been accused of leniency toward PKK activities.
But the Iraqi federal authorities in Baghdad have recently sharpened their tone against the Turkish Kurdish insurgents.
Col. Salam Abdel Khaleq, the spokesman for the Kurdish Asayesh security forces in Sulaimaniyah, told AFP that the bans came “after a decision from the Iraqi judiciary and as a result of the expiration of the licenses” of these groups.
