Rival Iranian Kurdish parties reunite after 16-year split

Khalid Azizi, secretary-general for the Kurdish Democratic Party-Iran, speaks at a press conference in Irbil on Monday. (AFP)
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Updated 22 August 2022
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Rival Iranian Kurdish parties reunite after 16-year split

  • Negotiations between the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran and the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran — both banned in Iran — “led to the party’s reunification,” said the statement issued late on Sunday

IRBIL: Two rival Iranian Kurdish opposition parties based in northern Iraq have announced in a joint statement their reunification 16 years after they split over internal disputes.

Negotiations between the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran and the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran — both banned in Iran — “led to the party’s reunification,” said the statement issued late on Sunday.

Formed in 1945, the KDPI is the oldest Iranian Kurdish party, but most of its members are based in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

The party had led an insurgency against the Iranian authorities since 1979, and it continues to oppose them from exile.

Assassinations have targeted several leaders of the party, which Tehran considers a “terrorist” organization.

In 2006, internal disputes led to a faction of the KDPI splitting off and forming the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran.

Their reunification “is a new stage in the struggle against the regime of Iran and the mentality that denies Iran’s ethnic pluralism and the rights of different peoples,” the statement said.

In July, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had arrested suspected “terrorists” in the country’s northwest, saying they belonged to Kurdish separatist groups based in northern Iran.

Tehran has previously accused “counter-revolutionary” groups in northern Iraq of staging attacks on its territory.

In September 2018, Tehran struck the KDPI’s headquarters in northern Iraq, near the border with Iran, killing 15 people.


West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp

Updated 10 sec ago
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West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style clearance as Israel squeezes Jenin camp

  • The month-long operation in the northern West Bank has been one of the biggest seen since the Second Intifada uprising by Palestinians more than 20 years ago
  • Already, Israel has campaigned to undermine UNWRA, the main Palestinian relief agency, banning it from its former headquarters in East Jerusalem and ordering it to stop operations in Jenin

JENIN, West Bank: Israeli bulldozers have demolished large areas of the now virtually empty Jenin refugee camp and appear to be carving wide roadways through its once-crowded warren of alleyways, echoing tactics already employed in Gaza as troops prepare for a long-term stay.
At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and the nearby city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank since Israel began its operation just a day after reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza after 15 months of war.
“Jenin is a repeat of what happened in Jabalia,” said Basheer Matahen, spokesperson for the Jenin municipality, referring to the refugee camp in northern Gaza that was cleared out by the Israeli army after weeks of bitter fighting. “The camp has become uninhabitable.”
He said at least 12 bulldozers were at work demolishing houses and infrastructure in the camp, once a crowded township that housed descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in the 1948 war in what Palestinians call the ‘Nakba’ or catastrophe at the start of the state of Israel.
He said army engineering teams could be seen making preparations for a long-term stay, bringing water tanks and generators to a special area of almost one acre in size.
No comment was immediately available from the Israeli military but on Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered troops to prepare for “a prolonged stay,” saying the camps had been cleared “for the coming year” and residents would not be allowed to return.
The month-long operation in the northern West Bank has been one of the biggest seen since the Second Intifada uprising by Palestinians more than 20 years ago, involving several brigades of Israeli troops backed by drones, helicopters, and, for the first time in decades, heavy battle tanks.
“There is a broad and ongoing evacuation of population, mainly in the two refugee camps, Nur Shams, near to Tulkarm and Jenin,” said Michael Milshtein, a former military intelligence official who heads the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.
“I don’t know what the broad strategy is but there’s no doubt at all that we didn’t see such a step in the past.”
Israel launched the operation, saying it intended to take on Iranian-backed militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have been firmly implanted in the refugee camps for decades, despite repeated Israeli attempts to root them out.
But as the weeks have gone on, Palestinians have said the real intention appears to be a large scale, permanent displacement of the population by destroying homes and making it impossible for them to stay.
“Israel wants to erase the camps and the memory of the camps, morally and financially, they want to erase the name of refugees from the memory of the people,” said 85-year-old Hassan Al-Katib, who lived in the Jenin camp with 20 children and grandchildren before abandoning his house and all his possessions during the Israeli operation.
Already, Israel has campaigned to undermine UNWRA, the main Palestinian relief agency, banning it from its former headquarters in East Jerusalem and ordering it to stop operations in Jenin.
“We don’t know what is the intention of the state of Israel. We know there’s a lot of displacement out of the camps,” said UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma, adding that refugees enjoyed protected status regardless of their physical location.

’MILITARY OPERATION’
The camps, permanent symbols of the unresolved status of 5.9 Palestinian refugees, have been a constant target for Israel which says the refugee issue has hindered any resolution of the decades-long conflict.
But it has always held back from clearing them permanently. On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied that the operation in the West Bank had any wider purpose than combating militant groups.
“It’s military operations taking place there against terrorists, and no other objectives but that,” he told reporters in Brussels where he met European Union officials in the EU-Israel Association Council.
But many Palestinians see an echo of US President Donald Trump’s call for Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza to make way for a US property development project, a call that was endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the operation in the northern West Bank appeared to be repeating tactics used in the Gaza, where Israeli troops systematically displaced thousands of Palestinians as they moved through the enclave.
“We demand that the US administration force the occupation state to immediately stop the aggression it is waging on the cities of the West Bank,” he said.
Israeli hard-liners inside and outside the government have called repeatedly for Israel to annex the West Bank, a kidney-shaped area around 100 kilometers long that Palestinians see as the core of a future independent state, along with Gaza.
But pressure has been tempered by fears that outright annexation could sink prospects of building economic and security ties with Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, and face a veto by Israel’s main ally, the United States.
However, hard-liners have been heartened by the large number of strongly pro-Israel figures in the new US administration and by Trump himself, who said earlier this month that he would announce his position on the West Bank within weeks.

 


Gaza ceasefire faces hurdle but not collapsing yet, say analysts

Updated 14 min 30 sec ago
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Gaza ceasefire faces hurdle but not collapsing yet, say analysts

  • Hamas, in turn, warned that Israel’s decision jeopardizes the “entire agreement,” stopping short of promising a return to fighting
  • Despite Israel demanding Gaza be completely demilitarised and Hamas removed, while the militant group insisting on remaining in the territory after the war, Mendoza said that if Trump throws his weight behind phase two “then it will happen”

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s fragile five-week truce faces a major hurdle with Israel’s refusal to release Palestinian prisoners, but analysts say the ceasefire is likely to hold as Washington pushes for its extension.
“It’s actually the most complicated crisis since the beginning of the ceasefire,” Palestinian affairs expert Michael Milshtein of Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center told AFP.
While previous obstacles have tested the truce — including Hamas’s threat to stop releasing hostages over alleged violations of the ceasefire including insufficient aid entering Gaza — Milshtein emphasized that “this time, it is even more complicated.”
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, after militants freed six hostages.
He condemned what he described as “humiliating ceremonies” by Hamas to free hostages in Gaza.
Palestinian militants had in the weeks prior paraded Israeli captives and later displayed black coffins containing deceased hostages on stage, sparking outrage across Israel.
Netanyahu went further on Sunday, warning that Israel was ready to “resume intense fighting at any moment” in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas, in turn, warned that Israel’s decision jeopardizes the “entire agreement,” stopping short of promising a return to fighting.
Yet, despite the escalating rhetoric, both sides appear intent on maintaining the ceasefire, according to Milshtein.
“Hamas really wants to implement phase one of the deal because on Saturday, the IDF (military) is meant to start leaving the Philadelphi Corridor,” he noted, referring to a strategic strip that runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
For Israel, Mairav Zonszein, an analyst from the International Crisis Group, said that Netanyahu was also stuck “in the same quagmire of trying to get hostages out while trying to get rid of the people holding those hostages.”
“I think Netanyahu is kind of doing what he does best, which is dragging things out, buying time, trying to see if he can leverage withholding these prisoners,” she said.
Zonszein noted that Israeli public opinion is putting pressure on Netanyahu to uphold the ceasefire, particularly as more hostages are seen “coming out alive.”
Some analysts suggest that Israel’s tougher stance is a calculated negotiating tactic ahead of upcoming talks for the second phase of truce.
“I don’t think the ceasefire will collapse, it’s not in Netanyahu’s interest to have it collapse particularly as hostages are still being held in Gaza,” said Sanam Vakil, director of UK-based think tank Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program.
“What we are witnessing now is political hardball, with them (Israel) trying to up the ante, or increase pressure on Hamas” ahead of the next phase, she said.

Phase two was “always going to be the hardest phase of the negotiations, made worse by the US position and posturing and by the fact there is no coherent Arab plan,” she said.
Trump has stirred controversy by openly suggesting that the United States should take control of Gaza and expel its 2.4 million inhabitants to Egypt and Jordan.
But in recent days he has toned down his view and on Wednesday his special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to arrive in Israel to push forward the phase two talks.
“I think the key to this is the Americans, they will determine what takes place next,” said Alan Mendoza, executive director of the UK-based Henry Jackson Society.
“Trump was the main factor in getting Netanyahu to agree to ceasefire,” he said, noting that the deal was on the table previously but “Trump pushed it and both the Israelis and Hamas have agreed to its terms.”
Despite Israel demanding Gaza be completely demilitarised and Hamas removed, while the militant group insisting on remaining in the territory after the war, Mendoza said that if Trump throws his weight behind phase two “then it will happen.”
“It’s a tough negotiation round and the odds are we will not be able to agree on a stage two plan but if the Arab states buck up... and take more of an interest given Trump’s Gaza Riveria plans — there’s a possibility we could do it.”
 

 


Doctors Without Borders halts activities at Sudan’s Zamzam camp due to heavy fighting

Updated 34 min 26 sec ago
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Doctors Without Borders halts activities at Sudan’s Zamzam camp due to heavy fighting

  • The escalation made it “impossible” for the group to provide life-saving humanitarian needs to thousands of displaced people in the area

CAIRO: Doctors Without Borders on Monday halted its operations in Sudan’s famine-stricken Zamzam camp due to an escalation of attacks and fighting in the vicinity.
The international medical aid group, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières and acronym MSF, said fighting between the Sudanese military and its rival paramilitary the Rapid Support Forces intensified in the camp, located in North Darfur.
The escalation made it “impossible” for the group to provide life-saving humanitarian needs to thousands of displaced people in the area, it said in a statement, adding it had suspended all activities in Zamzam, including at its field hospital.
“Halting our project in the midst of a worsening disaster in Zamzam is a heart breaking decision,” said Yahya Kalilah, the group’s head of mission in Sudan.
Kalilah said that being close to violence, experiencing great difficulty in sending supplies, dealing with the “impossibility” of send experienced staff, and the uncertainty around routes out of the camp, left MSF with “little choice.”
Sudan plunged into war when fighting began in April 2023 between the military and the RSF after simmering tensions. As a result of fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to the other parts of the country. The conflict that killed more than 24,000 people, forced over 14 million people out of their homes, and created famine across various parts of the country.
The fighting in Zamzam ramped up on Feb. 11-12, according to the MSF. The field hospital received 130 wounded patients, most suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
The MSF facility in Zamzam can’t provide trauma surgery for those in critical conditions as it was originally established to address the significant malnutrition crisis unfolding in the camp.
Kalilah said that 11 patients died in the hospital, including five children, because staff couldn’t treat them properly or refer them to the local hospital in El Fasher, the regional capital. Access to water and food in the area has been more compromised because of the fighting, according to the MSF. The central market has been looted and burnt.
Zamzam camp hosts around 500,000 people and has seen displaced families newly arriving from the areas of Abu Zerega, Shagra, and Saluma, who told MSF teams of abuses in villages and roads in the El Fasher locality that include killings, sexual violence, lootings, and beatings.
“In January and December, two of our ambulances carrying patients from the camp to El Fasher were shot at,” Kalilah said. “Now it’s even more dangerous and as a result, many people, including patients requiring trauma surgery or emergency caesarean sections, are trapped in Zamzam.”


Syria economy minister discusses resuming cooperation with World Bank

Updated 42 min 47 sec ago
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Syria economy minister discusses resuming cooperation with World Bank

  • The World Bank had previously supported Syria with technical assistance and development advice, but suspended all of its operations after the civil war broke out in 2011

DAMASCUS: Syria’s economy minister sat down with the Middle East director of the World Bank on Monday to discuss resuming cooperation with the lender, which was suspended under the toppled government of Bashar Assad, state media reported.
Since ousting Assad in December, Syria’s new rulers have been trying to restore ties to international institutions to support the country’s reconstruction and revive its sanctions-hit economy.
“The minister of economy, Mr. Bassel Abdel Hanan, discussed with World Bank’s director for the Middle East, Jean-Christophe Carret, the resumption of relations between the bank and Syria as well as the prospects for their development,” the official SANA news agency said.
Abdel Hanan proposed the establishment of a “joint committee between the ministry and the bank to evaluate a new start.”
He added that “the nature of the financing granted by the bank will determine the type of projects that will be financed,” pointing to the energy, agriculture, industry and infrastructure sectors in particular, SANA said.
Abdel Hanan also said there was a need for “loans to manufacturers whose facilities have been destroyed so they can resume their activities, and raised the possibility of creating an investment fund to support industry, provided the (bank) offers sanctions in this area.”
The World Bank had previously supported Syria with technical assistance and development advice, but suspended all of its operations after the civil war broke out in 2011.
Since the fall of Assad, Syria has been urging the international community to drop sanctions imposed on the former government.
The European Union on Monday eased sanctions on the energy, transport and banking sectors in a bid to help the country’s reconstruction.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani called the move “a step toward alleviating the suffering of our people.”
A UN report published last week found that 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty — three times as many as before the war — while 75 percent rely on humanitarian aid.
The country is expected to form a transitional cabinet on March 1.
 

 


UAE president and Italian prime minister discuss strategic cooperation

Updated 46 min 52 sec ago
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UAE president and Italian prime minister discuss strategic cooperation

  • Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan is on a state visit to Italy
  • Value of bilateral non-oil trade increased by 21.2% in 2024 compared with 2023

LONDON: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the president of the UAE, and Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, met on Monday to discuss cooperation and the strategic partnership between their countries.

The talks took place at Chigi Palace in Rome, as part of the president’s state visit to Italy. The leaders discussed collaboration in the fields of the economy, investment, advanced technology, artificial intelligence, renewable energy and cultural exchanges.

Sheikh Mohammed said the value of non-oil trade between Italy and the UAE reached $14.1 billion in 2024, a 21.2 percent increase compared with 2023, the Emirates News Agency reported. He added that bilateral trade is expected to keep growing, with increased cooperation, and highlighted shared interests in sustainability, renewable energy and innovation. He also expressed hope that an announced $40 billion investment by the UAE in Italy will help improve the development and prosperity of both nations.

Meloni said her country is committed to strengthening cooperation with the UAE to advance their mutual interests.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Nahyan, an advisor to the president, were also present at the meeting, along with other senior officials and ministers.