Palestinian president gives Israel one year to end its occupation or risk withdrawal of recognition

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remotely addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in a pre-recorded message, Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, at UN headquarters. (AP)
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Updated 25 September 2021
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Palestinian president gives Israel one year to end its occupation or risk withdrawal of recognition

  • Abbas said Israel was “destroying the prospect of a political settlement based on the two-state solution” through its settlements on West Bank land
  • Most countries view the settlements as illegal, a position Israel disputes

WASHINGTON D.C.: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has given the Israeli government one year to withdraw from the occupied territories of West Bank and Jerusalem or face the prospect of the Palestinians withdrawing their recognition of Israel.

Abbas said that the Palestinians would otherwise seek a legal judgment from the International Court of Justice against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinians stood ready to finalize the borders between the prospective Palestinian state and Israel and finish negotiations over other lingering final status issues such as the return of refugees and the status of occupied Jerusalem, he said.

Abbas, who delivered a prerecorded statement from Ramallah to the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, said that the Palestinians had had enough of Israel’s 54-year occupation of Palestinian lands. He said after decades of peace negotiations with Israel, the Palestinians still had no Israeli peace partner interested in ending the conflict.

Israel occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to establish their state, during the 1967 war after defeating the armies of Jordan, Egypt and Syria.

Abbas said that the Palestinians had honored all their agreements with Israel and committed to a peaceful end to the conflict, especially after signing the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993.

He said that Israel had not only not honored its agreements with the Palestinians, but undermined the prospect of a two-state solution by building illegal settlements to increase the Israeli-Jewish population in the occupied territories in violation of international law.

The Oslo accords stipulated the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the West Bank and Gaza within several years of the agreement. It also committed Israel to negotiate the final status of occupied East Jerusalem, the establishment of a Palestinian state and the right of return of Palestinian refugees no later than one year after the final status negotiations that started in 1999.

Abbas said that Israel had since rejected and refused to implement all of the peace proposals and agreements it signed with the Palestinians, including the Oslo accord.

“Contrary to past agreements and to the principles of international law, Israel is forcing the Palestinians out of their homes in Jerusalem, especially the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood,” he said. “Israel is committing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and this is considered a crime according to international law.”

The Palestinian leader chastised the UN and members of the international community for not holding Israel accountable for its actions, which made it think of itself as a country above the law.

Abbas also criticized the US and European countries, without naming them, for recognizing the Israeli occupation and its system of “apartheid” while boasting that they shared “the same values with it.”

“What kind of shared values are they talking about?” he asked. Abbas praised the American administration of president Joe Biden, describing his ties with the US government as “constructive dialogue.”

He said that current talks with US envoys revolved around the American government guarantee of an Israeli commitment to enforce its signed agreements with the Palestinian government.

On the domestic front, Abbas said that he had not canceled the Palestinian legislative elections, which were due to take place last May, but rather “postponed” them. He said that he decided against holding the slated elections because Palestinians in Jerusalem would not be able to vote due to Israeli objections.

In an apparent criticism of his main Palestinian rival, Hamas, Abbas told the international community that the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he is chairman of, was the only representative of the Palestinian people.

Abbas, who is also the chairman of the Palestinian Authority that administers the Palestinian cities in the West Bank, has been the subject of criticism and protests by Palestinian citizens. In recent months, Palestinian protesters have demanded his resignation over claims of corruption, human rights violations and security collaboration with Israel.


Turkiye FM calls for regional cooperation to fight PKK

Updated 7 sec ago
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Turkiye FM calls for regional cooperation to fight PKK

  • Two Iraqi border guards were killed Friday near the Turkish border in a shooting that Iraq blamed on the PKK

BAGHDAD: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for combined regional efforts to combat outlawed Kurdish fighters in Iraq and neighboring Syria during a visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, holds positions in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies, and Ankara accuses Kurdish forces in Syria of links to the outlawed group.

“I want to emphasize this fact in the strongest way: The PKK is targeting Turkiye, Iraq and Syria,” Fidan said in a press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein.

“We must combine all our resources and destroy both Daesh and the PKK,” he added.

Fidan’s visit comes after two Iraqi border guards were killed Friday near the Turkish border in a shooting that Baghdad blamed on the PKK. After the attack, Ankara vowed to work with Iraq to secure their common frontier.

Turkiye regularly launches strikes against the PKK in Iraq and Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Baghdad has recently sharpened its tone against the PKK, and last year it quietly listed the group as a “banned organization” — though Ankara demands the Iraqi government do more in the fight against the militant group.

“Our ultimate expectation from Iraq is that it recognizes the PKK, which it has declared a banned organization, as a terrorist organization as well,” Fidan said.

In August, Baghdad and Ankara signed a military cooperation deal to establish joint command and training centers with the aim of fighting the PKK.

The foreign ministers also discussed the fight against Daesh on the Iraqi-Syrian border, Hussein said during the press conference, as well as the situation in Syria, where former leader Bashar Assad was toppled in December.

“There are clear understandings between ... Turkiye and Iraq on how to address” the situation there, he said, adding that Baghdad was in contact with the new Syrian authorities and was “trying to coordinate on many issues.”

Earlier this month, Fidan threatened to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria, where Turkiye has carried out successive ground operations to push the fighters away from its border.

The Kurdish forces there are seen by the West as essential in the fight against Daesh.


Palestinian president condemns ‘any projects’ to displace Gazans

Displaced Palestinians gather near a roadblock, as they wait to return to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Updated 56 min 17 sec ago
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Palestinian president condemns ‘any projects’ to displace Gazans

  • Trump said on Saturday that he wanted Jordan and Egypt to take Palestinians from Gaza, suggesting “we just clean out that whole thing”

RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned on Sunday “any projects” to relocate the people of Gaza outside the territory, after US President Donald Trump suggested moving them to Egypt and Jordan.
Without naming the US leader, Abbas “expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects aimed at displacing our people from the Gaza Strip,” a statement from his office said, adding that the Palestinian people “will not abandon their land and holy sites.”
Trump, less than a week into his second term as president, said on Saturday that he wanted Jordan and Egypt to take Palestinians from Gaza, suggesting “we just clean out that whole thing.”
The idea was swiftly rejected by Jordan, while Egypt has previously spoken out against any suggestions that Gazans could be moved there.
In the statement issued by the Palestinian presidency, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Abbas said: “We will not allow the repetition of the catastrophes that befell our people in 1948 and 1967.”
The former is known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were displaced during the war the coincided with Israel’s establishment.
The 1967 Arab-Israeli war, during which Israel conquered Gaza and the West Bank, is known as the Naksa, or “setback,” and saw several hundred thousand more displaced from those territories.
Abbas also rejected what he called “any policy that undermines the unity of the Palestinian land in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.”
He called on Trump to “continue his efforts to support” the ceasefire in Gaza that began on January 19 and said the Palestinian Authority remained ready to take on the governance of the war-battered territory.


Palestinian sources say to free Gaza hostage demanded by Israel before next swap

Updated 26 January 2025
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Palestinian sources say to free Gaza hostage demanded by Israel before next swap

  • Arbel Yehud will be handed over within days, sources say
  • In exchange, 30 prisoners serving life sentences will be released

CAIRO: Two Palestinian sources told AFP on Sunday that an Israeli woman held hostage in Gaza, and whose release Israel has demanded before allowing the return of displaced Palestinians, will be handed over within days.
“Arbel Yehud is expected to be freed before the next (hostage-prisoner) exchange” scheduled for February 1, said a source from the Islamic Jihad militant group.
Another Palestinian source familiar with the issue said Yehud is expected to be released by Friday.
“The release of Arbel Yehud will happen most likely by next Friday in exchange for 30 prisoners serving life sentences,” the source said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly.
Israel has accused Hamas of reneging on the ceasefire deal by not releasing Yehud when the second hostage-prisoner took place on Saturday.
As a civilian woman, Yehud “was supposed to be released” as part of the second hostage-prisoner swap under the truce deal, a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Labelling it a violation by Hamas of the ceasefire deal, Netanyahu’s office said it “will not allow the passage of Gazans to the northern part of the Gaza Strip until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud... is arranged.”
On Saturday, two Hamas sources told AFP that Yehud was “alive and in good health,” with one source saying she would be “released as part of the third swap set for next Saturday.”
But on Sunday, the two Palestinian sources said she was expected to be released following an intervention by mediators Egypt and Qatar.
“The crisis has been resolved,” said the source familiar with the issue.
Tens of thousands of displaced Gazans massed on Sunday on the road to the north but were not allowed to pass through, AFP correspondents reported.


Netanyahu says France assures Israel its firms can take part in Paris Air Show

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (File/AP)
Updated 26 January 2025
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Netanyahu says France assures Israel its firms can take part in Paris Air Show

  • Israeli defense companies were last year banned from participating in a defense industry exhibition held in Paris

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron had given him assurances that Israeli companies would be able to take part in the Paris Air Show.
The two had a phone conversation during which the assurance was given, according to a statement by the prime minister’s office.
Separately, Macron’s office said in a statement that the presence of Israeli companies at the air show “could be favorably considered, as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.”
Israeli defense companies were last year banned from participating in a defense industry exhibition held in Paris as Macron called for Israel to cease some military operations in Gaza.
That ban strained relations, but a French court in October overturned a government ban on Israeli companies taking part in a naval arms exhibition near Paris.
The Paris Air Show, the world’s largest, is held every two years, alternating every other year with Farnborough in Britain. It is due to take place from June 16 until June 22. Leading aerospace, aviation and defense companies from around the world typically take part in both events.
A ceasefire agreement reached this month between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which it has been fighting in Gaza, remains in effect, as does another truce agreement struck last year between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.


Emirati explorer circles Antarctica in two helicopters with adventurers

Updated 26 January 2025
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Emirati explorer circles Antarctica in two helicopters with adventurers

  • The journey took a month and covered 19,050 kilometers
  • Explorers encounter massive icebergs, frozen rivers and strong winds

LONDON: Emirati explorer Ibrahim Sharaf Al-Hashemi participated in an air mission that completed the first circular flight around Antarctica using two helicopters.

Al-Hashemi is the first Emirati to participate in this historic expedition, which launched on Dec. 4, 2024, and concluded on Jan. 17, 2025, according to WAM, the official news agency of the UAE.

The journey covered 19,050 kilometers and took a month, starting and ending at Union Glacier Camp. The trip reportedly took seven years of meticulous planning to tackle the region’s logistical challenges and extreme weather.

The team flew over remote icy landscapes under explorer Frederik Paulsen’s leadership, encountering massive icebergs, frozen rivers and strong winds.

Al-Hashemi’s endeavor illustrates the UAE’s growing role in global missions and long-haul flights in harsh environments, WAM added.