Arab League summit offers unique opportunity to end Sudan conflict, says Djibouti FM 

Mahamoud Ali Youssouf (L), the foreign minister of Djibouti, spoke to Arab News en Francais about the conflict in Sudan. (File/AFP/Reuters)
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Updated 21 May 2023
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Arab League summit offers unique opportunity to end Sudan conflict, says Djibouti FM 

  • Mahamoud Ali Youssouf says Arab heads of state must exert maximum pressure on Sudanese leaders to secure humanitarian corridors
  • Jeddah summit is a chance to demonstrate the growing appetite for Arab unity and leadership on the world stage

RIYADH: Arab leaders meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah for the Arab League summit on Friday will have a “unique opportunity” to resolve the conflict in Sudan, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the foreign minister of Djibouti, told Arab News en Francais.

Sudan, itself an Arab League member, has been rocked by more than a month of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, displacing hundreds of thousands and killing hundreds.

“The conflict in Sudan is extremely serious,” Ali Youssouf, who has served as Djibouti’s minister of foreign affairs since 2005, said in a Zoom interview this week.

“Serious in the sense that there are two armies, both well-equipped militarily, engaging in combat in urban areas, specifically in the capital, resulting in damage, the loss of human life, and the displacement of the population. 

“The gravity of this conflict in terms of magnitude, I believe, is beyond doubt.”

Saudi Arabia has played a leading role in the evacuation of foreign nationals and mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire. Commending the Saudi effort, Ali Youssouf said the Arab League must now collectively apply pressure on the warring parties. 

“A unique opportunity presents itself now for pressure to be exerted by Arab heads of state on the belligerents and stakeholders in Sudan to stop the conflict, establish a ceasefire, open humanitarian corridors and strive to get the political process back on track,” he said.

“This is the opportunity that our heads of state must seize to exert maximum pressure on Sudanese leaders.” He added: “I believe that the Arab League summit should come out with a firm resolution.”

Djibouti is a small, strategically located country on the northeast coast of the Horn of Africa, situated on the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, which lies to the east and separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden. It joined the Arab League in 1977.

Given its location at the meeting point between the Middle East and Africa, and as the site of multiple military bases and commercial hubs belonging to rival world powers, Djibouti’s foreign policy is uniquely multifaceted.

This perspective has no doubt colored Djibouti’s stance on another key feature of Friday’s summit — the first to include the government of President Bashar Assad of Syria since his nation’s suspension from the Arab League in 2011.

“First, I can assure you that Djibouti has not set any conditions for (Syria’s) reintegration,” said Ali Youssouf. 

 

“We believe that Syria, as a founding member of the Arab League, has always had a central role… It is truly a central country that has always been at the center of Arab League actions. That is the first element.

“The second element is that geopolitics are changing. Regional geopolitics in the Middle East are dynamic, not static. And I believe that today, it is time for Syria to regain its seat because Syria is still a key player, not only within the Arab League but in the Middle East region. It is a country that cannot be ignored.”

Common concerns among Arab leaders about Syria’s reintegration are security, given the continued presence of Daesh extremists on its territory, refugee rights, and the ongoing sanctions leveled against Assad by the Arab world’s Western allies.

 

“Of course, the pending issues will be the subject of discussions between the heads of state and the Arab leaders who will certainly address the grievances or conditions raised by some in an attempt to resolve them through dialogue,” Ali Youssouf added.

Furthermore, he views Friday’s summit as an opportunity to consolidate recent improvements in Arab relations with Iran following the Chinese-brokered thaw between Riyadh and Tehran earlier this year.

“I believe it is in the interest of Middle Eastern countries that this antagonism that exists between Iran and Arab countries finds a solution,” said Ali Youssouf. 

“Iran often used factions and terrorist groups to pursue a certain policy in Middle Eastern Arab countries. Arab countries have always employed a policy of what is called ‘containment,’ trying to contain to some extent Iran’s actions in Arab countries.

“I believe that this time, reason may have prevailed. Thanks to Chinese mediation, Iran and Saudi Arabia have restored their diplomatic relations and we are already seeing the consequences in terms of security and political situations in a number of countries.”

For Ali Youssouf, the Arab League summit is also an opportunity to demonstrate the growing appetite for Arab unity and leadership on the world stage — leadership he believes can be provided by Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

“I think we need leadership,” he said. “Arab countries can unite and become strong if there is leadership from the Arab world — a leading country that can assume this responsibility against all odds.”

He added: “We need, in the Arab world, one or two countries that can be the driving forces behind this unification. I believe it is through their strength, their cohesion, that these two countries can lead this campaign of strengthening Arab relations for a better future for Arab peoples. 

“I’m thinking of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. These two countries can play a role, I would say, as locomotives, and it is very important that the relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia are strong to pull all the others toward the future that we, the Arab peoples…desire and call for.”

 


Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

Updated 5 sec ago
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Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

  • More than 40 others wounded in three massacres caused by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip
Gaza City: Gaza’s civil defense agency said that 19 people, some of them children, were killed in Israeli air strikes and tank fire on Saturday.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “19 people were killed and more than 40 others wounded in three massacres caused by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip between midnight and this morning,” as well as by tank fire in Rafah in the territory’s south.

Lebanon says at least four killed in Israeli strike on central Beirut

Updated 11 min 31 sec ago
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Lebanon says at least four killed in Israeli strike on central Beirut

  • Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed station showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut on Saturday, with rescue operations still ongoing.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Basta Al-Fawqa in Beirut killed four people and injured 23 others,” the ministry said in a statement, giving a preliminary toll. Rescuers were still “removing the rubble”, it added.

A powerful Israeli airstrike targeted central Beirut on Saturday, security sources said, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said early on Saturday that the attack resulted in a large number of fatalities and injuries and destroyed an eight-story building. Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed station showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

Israel used bunker buster bombs in the strike, leaving a deep crater, said the agency. Beirut smelled strongly of explosives hours after the attack.

The blasts shook the capital around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), Reuters witnesses said. Security sources said at least four bombs were dropped in the attack.

It marked the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut, where the bulk of Israel’s attacks have targeted the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs. On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah media official in the Ras Al-Nabaa district of central Beirut.

Israel has killed several leaders of its long-time foe Hezbollah, Tehran’s most important ally in the region, in air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israel launched a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.

The conflict began when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after it launched the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

A US mediator traveled to Lebanon and Israel this week in an effort to secure a ceasefire. The envoy, Amos Hochstein, indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.


Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive

Updated 23 November 2024
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Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive

  • Destruction of Lubnan Baalbaki’s childhood home in October came during Israel’s offensive in Lebanon
  • Baalbaki’s family home in Odaisseh, designed by his late father, held more than just personal memories

BEIRUT: Lubnan Baalbaki, the conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched on his phone screen as an aerial camera pointed to a village in southern Lebanon. In seconds, multiple houses erupted into rubble, smoke filling the air. The camera panned right, revealing widespread devastation.
He zoomed in to confirm his fears: His family’s house in the border village of Odaisseh, where his parents are buried, was now in ruins.
“To see your house getting bombed and in a split second turned into ash, I don’t think there is description for it,” Baalbaki said.
The destruction of his childhood home in October came during Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.
The Israeli military has released videos of controlled detonations in areas along the border, saying it is targeting Hezbollah facilities and weapons.
But the bombardment has also wiped out entire residential neighborhoods or even villages. The World Bank in a recent report said over 99,000 housing units have been “fully or partially damaged” by the war in Lebanon.
Baalbaki’s family home in Odaisseh, designed by his late father, renowned Lebanese painter Abdel Hamid Baalbaki, held more than just personal memories. It held a collection of Abdel Hamid’s paintings, his art workshop and over 1,500 books. All were destroyed along with the house.
What cut even deeper, Baalbaki said, was the loss of the letters his parents exchanged during his father’s art studies in France. Only a few remain as digital photos.
“The language of passion and love they shared was filled with poetry,” Baalbaki said.
In a book of poems and photographs his father created for his wife following her sudden death in a car accident, the first page reads, “Dedication to Adeeba, the partner of my most precious days, the love bird that left its nest too soon.”
Abdel Hamid painstakingly designed his wife’s tombstone. Later, he was laid to rest beside her in the garden next to the house. For their son, watching his childhood home go up in smoke brought back the pain of losing them.
It was a moment he had feared for months.
Hezbollah began firing missiles into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. For nearly a year, the conflict remained limited.
After the war dramatically escalated on Sept. 23 with intense Israeli airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, Baalbaki and his siblings frequently checked satellite images for updates on their village.
On Oct. 26, explosions in and around Odaisseh triggered an earthquake alert in northern Israel. That day, videos circulated online, one of which showed their home being obliterated.
Until a few days before that, the satellite images showed their house still standing.
Now, Baalbaki said, he is resolved to honor his father’s dream.
“The mourning phase started to turn to determination to rebuild this project,” he said.
When the war is over, he plans to rebuild the house as an art museum and cultural center.


226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO

Updated 23 November 2024
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226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO

  • Over 187 attacks on healthcare workers have taken place in Lebanon over 13 months, says UN health agency
  • Fifteen of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning, warns WHO

GENEVA: Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said.
In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on health care in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict.
Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Nov.18 this year, “we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total,” Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.
He said “almost 70 percent” of these had occurred since the tensions escalated into an all-out war in September.
Saying this was “an extremely worrying pattern,” he stressed that “depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient” — the highest percentage of any active conflict today.
By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on health care globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on health care in Lebanon might be because “more ambulances have been targeted.”
“And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed.”
The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall health care in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.
The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that “attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most.”
“Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward.”


226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7: WHO

Updated 23 November 2024
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226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7: WHO

  • Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient”

GENEVA: Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said.
In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on health care in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict.
Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Nov.18 this year, “we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total,” Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.
He said “almost 70 percent” of these had occurred since the tensions escalated into an all-out war in September.
Saying this was “an extremely worrying pattern,” he stressed that “depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient” — the highest percentage of any active conflict today.
By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on health care globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on health care in Lebanon might be because “more ambulances have been targeted.”
“And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed.”
The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall health care in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.
The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that “attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most.”
“Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward.”