Egypt urges GERD agreement ahead of reservoir filling

Ethiopia said the construction of the Renaissance Dam is 78 percent complete and indicated its commitment to conclude negotiations. (AP)
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Updated 05 January 2021
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Egypt urges GERD agreement ahead of reservoir filling

  • Agreement should ‘achieve the common interests of the three countries,’ and ‘secure Egypt’s rights and water interests’

CAIRO: Egypt has urged the need for an agreement “at the earliest possible time” with Sudan and Ethiopia on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) ahead of the second phase of its operation.

The three countries have agreed to bilateral meetings with experts to negotiate the filling of the dam’s reservoir.
Egypt said that the agreement should “achieve the common interests of the three countries,” but at the same time “secure Egypt’s rights and water interests.”
The comments came during a tripartite meeting between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia that discussed resuming negotiations on filling and operating the dam. The talks were held in the presence of African Union experts and international observers, headed by South Africa.
In a statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the meeting reached an agreement to hold a round of negotiations between the three parties, extended for one week, with the aim of discussing substantive aspects and points of disagreement on the dam agreement, in the presence of observers who are taking part in negotiations and experts appointed by the African Union Commission.
At the end of this week, another six-party ministerial meeting will be held, chaired by South Africa, to consider the outcomes of the tripartite negotiation round.
The Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said that the three countries reviewed their positions regarding an agreement that would allow negotiations to resume, in light of the “positive development” of experts submitting a memorandum of agreement for the three countries.
The ministry added in a statement that Sudan welcomes the development, but considers it “insufficient” due to the absence of a “clear role” for experts in facilitating negotiations and proposing solutions for future issues.

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The Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said that the three countries reviewed their positions regarding an agreement that would allow negotiations to resume, in light of the ‘positive development’ of experts submitting a memorandum of agreement for the three countries.

The statement said that the meeting concluded with the adoption of Sudan’s proposal that the coming week be devoted to trila-teral meetings between the three countries and a group of experts and observers.
The minister of international cooperation in South Africa urged the future meetings to identify points of agreement and disagreement between the three countries, provided that they resume on Jan. 10.
South Africa said it hoped that negotiations will conclude by the end of January, before the end of its African Union presidency.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Irrigation said that ministers of the three countries exchanged views on the continuation of tripartite negotiations by focusing on a draft document presented by experts commissioned by the head of the African Union.
The ministry added that construction of the Renaissance Dam is 78 percent complete, and that Addis Ababa expressed a positive view of the draft document and stressed its willingness to use it as a unified working document for tripartite negotiations, confirming agreement on most issues related to the first filling and the annual operation of the dam.
However, Ethiopia warned that it “will not accept” any agreement that limits its right to use Nile waters, indicating its commitment to conclude negotiations and reach an agreement.
The three countries have held several rounds of talks since Ethiopia launched the GERD project in 2011, but are yet to reach an agreement on filling and operating the dam’s huge reservoir.


Hamas military arm releases new video of Israeli hostage in Gaza

Updated 10 sec ago
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Hamas military arm releases new video of Israeli hostage in Gaza

The man identified himself as an Israeli hostage held in Gaza

JERUSALEM: The military arm of the Palestinian militant group Hamas released a video Saturday of a man identifying himself as an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
In the video, whose date cannot be verified, a man addresses US President-elect Donald Trump in English and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hebrew.


The military arm of the Palestinian militant group Hamas released a video Saturday of a man identifying himself as an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. (AFP/File)

Gaza rescuers say 3 aid workers killed in Israel strike

Updated 30 November 2024
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Gaza rescuers say 3 aid workers killed in Israel strike

  • The agency said the aid workers killed were Palestinian employees of World Central Kitchen
  • The US aid group did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said three aid workers were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Hamas-run territory on Saturday but the Israeli army said it killed a “terrorist.”
The agency said the aid workers killed were Palestinian employees of World Central Kitchen. The US aid group did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.
The Israeli army said it had “struck a vehicle with a terrorist that took part in the murderous October 7 massacre,” referring to militant group Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel last year.
“The claim that the terrorist was simultaneously a WCK worker is being examined,” it added in a statement.
Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the bodies of “at least five dead were transported (to hospital), including (those of) the three employees of World Central Kitchen.”
“All three men worked for WCK and they were hit while driving in a WCK jeep in Khan Yunis,” Bassal said, adding that the vehicle had been “marked with its logo clearly visible.”
The Israeli army insisted its strike in the main southern city hit “a civilian unmarked vehicle and its movement on the route was not coordinated for transporting of aid.”
In April, an Israeli air strike killed seven WCK staff — an Australian, three Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole.
Israel said it had been targeting a “Hamas gunman” in that strike but the military admitted a series of “grave mistakes” and violations of its own rules of engagement.
The October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.


Several wounded in two Israeli strikes in south Lebanon, health ministry says

Updated 30 November 2024
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Several wounded in two Israeli strikes in south Lebanon, health ministry says

  • Later on Saturday, another person was injured in a separate Israeli strike on Al Bisariya
  • The Israeli military said it had attacked a Hezbollah facility

CAIRO: An Israeli strike on a car wounded three people, including a seven-year-old child, on Saturday in the south Lebanon village of Majdal Zoun, the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement.
Later on Saturday, another person was injured in a separate Israeli strike on Al Bisariya, which lies near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said it had attacked a Hezbollah facility in Sidon that housed rocket launchers for the armed group.
It added that it had also hit a vehicle in southern Lebanon loaded with rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and military equipment as part of its actions against ceasefire violations.
A truce came into effect on Wednesday, but both sides have accused each other of breaching a ceasefire that aims to halt over a year of fighting.


West faces ‘reckoning’ over Middle East radicalization: UK spy chief

Updated 30 November 2024
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West faces ‘reckoning’ over Middle East radicalization: UK spy chief

  • MI6 head Richard Moore cites ‘terrible loss of innocent life’
  • ‘In 37 years in the intelligence profession, I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state’

LONDON: The West has “yet to have a full reckoning with the radicalizing impact of the fighting, the terrible loss of innocent life in the Middle East and the horrors of Oct. 7,” the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 has warned.

Richard Moore made the comments in a speech delivered to the British Embassy in Paris, and was joined by his French counterpart Nicolas Lerner.

Moore said: “In 37 years in the intelligence profession, I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state. And the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could hardly be more serious.”

Daesh is expanding its reach and staging deadly attacks in Iran and Russia despite suffering significant territorial setbacks, he added, warning that “the menace of terrorism has not gone away.”

In October last year, Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service MI5, said his agency was monitoring for increased terror risks in the UK due to the Gaza war. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in over a year of fighting.

In Lebanon, a 60-day truce agreed this week between Hezbollah and Israel brought an end to a conflict that has killed thousands of Lebanese civilians.


Israel military strikes kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

Updated 30 November 2024
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Israel military strikes kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

  • Among the 32 killed, at least seven died in an Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza City

The Israeli military said it killed a Palestinian it accused of involvement in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel in a vehicle strike in Gaza, and is investigating claims that the individual was an employee of aid group World Central Kitchen.
At least 32 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across Gaza overnight and into Saturday, with most casualties reported in northern areas, medics told Reuters.
Later on Saturday medics said seven people were killed when an Israeli air strike targeted a vehicle near a gathering of Palestinians receiving aid in the southern area of Khan Younis south of the enclave.
According to residents and a Hamas source, the vehicle targeted near a crowd receiving flour belonged to security personnel responsible for overseeing the delivery of aid shipments into Gaza.
Among the 32 killed, at least seven died in an Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza City, according to a statement from the Gaza Civil Defense and the official Palestinian news agency WAFA early on Saturday.
The Gaza Civil Defense also reported that one of its officers was killed in attacks in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, bringing the total number of civil defense workers killed since October 7, 2023, to 88.
Earlier on Saturday, WAFA reported that three employees of the World Central Kitchen, a US-based, non-governmental humanitarian agency, were killed when a civilian vehicle was targeted in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
The World Central Kitchen has not yet commented on the incident.