Palestine expected to top agenda of Arab Summit in Algeria

A preparatory session was held on Oct. 26, 2022, in Algiers as a prelude to the 31st Arab summit. (SPA)
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Updated 27 October 2022
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Palestine expected to top agenda of Arab Summit in Algeria

  • PM addresses preparatory meeting for conference amid promotion campaign for event

CAIRO: The first preparatory meeting for the forthcoming Arab Summit kicked off on Wednesday at the International Conference Center west of Algiers.

The preparatory session was held as a prelude to the 31st Arab summit, to be hosted by Algeria on Nov. 1-2.

The Palestinian crisis is expected to top the summit agenda, also covering relations with Africa and Europe at various levels. 

Algerian officials have announced the completion of arrangements for the event.

The country’s official news agency, APS, published a video on the preparations, describing the event as “the most important in the history of the Arab summits.”

It follows the success of Algeria’s effort to gather the Palestinian factions to sign a reconciliation agreement on Oct. 13.

Media outlets launched a major promotion campaign for Algeria’s preparation for the Arab meeting under the slogan, “Uniting the Arab League,” raised by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

The campaign highlighted the president’s efforts to persuade Arab leaders, including kings and heads of state, to take part in the summit, during visits he made to many Arab capitals over the past months.

Prime Minister Aymen Benabderrahmane said on Saturday that the Arab meeting would be an occasion “to reaffirm support for the Palestinian cause, as a central Arab cause, by emphasizing the common Arab position represented in the Arab Peace Initiative, which is the framework that guarantees the protection of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

Algeria took the presidency of the Council of the League of Arab States from Tunisia.

Ennadir Larbaoui, Algeria’s permanent representative at the UN, stressed the close relationship that unites Algeria and Arab countries at all levels.

He said that deliberations for the Algiers summit started three years after the last summit that was held in Tunisia in 2019.

Larbaoui commended the efforts made by the general secretariat of the Arab League to hold the summit amid growing global issues and a state of acute polarization.

In his speech during the preparatory meeting, he said that the challenge is “great” and that it requires coordinating political, diplomatic and collective efforts among Arab countries to overcome.

He said that the Palestinian issue topped the list of Arab priorities, praising in this context the recent agreement between the Palestinian factions, which came under the auspices of Algeria.

Larbaoui said: “We want it to be a consensual Arab summit that reflects the solidarity of the Arab world. We must benefit from the lessons of the past and face the challenges of the present while building bridges of cooperation.”

Mohamed Ben Youssef, Tunisia’s permanent representative at the Arab League, said that the positive atmosphere that resulted from the meetings cemented everyone’s conviction in Arab solidarity and “unification of attitudes toward the challenges facing our countries.”

He added that following the Tunis summit three years ago, “we have sought to increase joint Arab action and strengthen solidarity in this delicate situation marked by instability and the growing phenomenon of terrorism, cross-border organized crime, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.” 

“The tension in the Arab region and the continuation of armed conflicts necessitate that we intensify efforts to contain crises and search for political solutions to conflicts and divisions that enhance security, and immunize our societies from external interference,” he added.

Ben Youssef said that Tunisia was keen to contribute to finding a solution to the Libyan crisis within the framework of a “Libyan-Libyan agreement.”

He added that the region is reeling from the impacts of severe crises and rapid transformations that have further complicated the situation, threatening Arab national security and the stability of the entire region, requiring solidarity and cooperation to solve and achieve prosperity.

Hossam Zaki, Arab League’s assistant secretary-general, stressed the importance of the summit in Algeria at a time when crises have worsened.

He praised Algeria’s efforts to make the summit paperless, noting that it was a step in the right direction in line with the efforts of other organizations.


Lebanon to hold parliament session on January 9 to elect president

Updated 13 sec ago
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Lebanon to hold parliament session on January 9 to elect president

  • State news agency: ‘Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9’
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament will hold a session in January to elect a new president, official media reported on Thursday, a day after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire began and following more than two years of presidential vacuum.
“Speaker Nabih Berri called a parliament session to elect a president of the republic on January 9,” the official National News Agency reported.

Israeli tank fires at 3 south Lebanese towns

Updated 10 min 2 sec ago
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Israeli tank fires at 3 south Lebanese towns

  • Lebanese security sources and state media report tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba

BEIRUT: Israeli tank fire hit three towns along Lebanon’s southeast border with Israel on Thursday, Lebanese security sources and state media said, a day after a ceasefire barring “offensive military operations” came into force.

Tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, all of which lie within two kilometers of the Blue Line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel. One of the security sources said two people were wounded in Markaba.

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas shattered by 14 months of fighting.

But managing the returns have been complicated. Israeli troops remain stationed within Lebanese territory in towns along the border, and on Thursday morning the Israeli military urged residents of towns along the border strip not to return yet for their own safety.

The three towns hit on Thursday morning lie within that strip.

There was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel, who had been fighting for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war.

The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can take up to 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border.

Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, had said on Wednesday that residents could return home.


Syria war monitor says more than 130 dead in army-militant clashes in north

Updated 41 min 15 sec ago
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Syria war monitor says more than 130 dead in army-militant clashes in north

  • Clashes followed “an operation launched by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
  • The air forces of both Syria and its ally Russia struck the attacking militants

BEIRUT: A monitor of Syria’s war said on Thursday that more than 130 combatants had been killed in clashes between the army and militant groups in the country’s north, as the government also reported fierce fighting.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll in the clashes which began a day earlier after the militants launched an attack “has risen to 132, including 65 fighters” from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, 18 from allied factions “and 49 members of the regime forces.”


Palestinian leader Abbas lays ground for succession

Updated 28 November 2024
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Palestinian leader Abbas lays ground for succession

  • Abbas, 89, still rules despite his term as head of the Palestinian Authority ending in 2009, and has resisted pressure to appoint a successor or a vice president

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday announced who would replace him in an interim period when the post becomes vacant, effectively removing the Islamist movement Hamas from any involvement in a future transition.
Abbas, 89, still rules despite his term as head of the Palestinian Authority ending in 2009, and has resisted pressure to appoint a successor or a vice president.
Under current Palestinian law, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) takes over the Palestinian Authority in the event of a power vacuum.
But the PLC, where Hamas had a majority, no longer exists since Abbas officially dissolved it in 2018 after more than a decade of tensions between his secular party, Fatah, and Hamas, which ousted the Palestinian Authority from power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.
In a decree, Abbas said the Palestinian National Council chairman, Rawhi Fattuh, would be his temporary replacement should the position should become vacant.
“If the position of the president of the national authority becomes vacant in the absence of the legislative council, the Palestinian National Council president shall assume the duties... temporarily,” it said.
The decree added that following the transition period, elections must be held within 90 days. This deadline can be extended in the event of a “force majeure,” it said.
The PNC is the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which has over 700 members from the Palestinian territories and abroad.
Hamas, which does not belong to the PLO, has no representation on the council. The PNC deputies are not elected, but appointed.
The decree refers to the “delicate stage in the history of the homeland and the Palestinian cause” as war rages in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, after the latter’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel in October last year.
There are also persistent divisions between Hamas and Fatah.
The decree comes on the same day that a ceasefire entered into force in Lebanon after an agreement between Israel and Hamas’s ally, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Palestinian Authority appears weaker than ever, unable to pay its civil servants and threatened by Israeli far-right ministers’ calls to annex all or part of the occupied West Bank, an ambition increasingly less hidden by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.


Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egypt

Updated 27 November 2024
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Israeli military says it downed drone smuggling weapons from Egypt

CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Wednesday it shot down a drone that was carrying weapons and crossed from Egypt to Israel.
When asked about the latest drone incident, Egyptian security sources said they had no knowledge of such an incident.
In two separate incidents in October, Israel also said it downed two drones smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory.
Israeli officials have said during the war in Gaza that Palestinian militant group Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt’s Sinai region to smuggle arms.
However, Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.