Senior UK officials discuss Gaza crisis on sidelines of COP28 in Dubai

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Britain’s King Charles III met with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad in Dubai. (QNA)
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Dubai. (10 Downing Street)
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Dubai. (10 Downing Street)
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad in Dubai. (QNA)
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Updated 02 December 2023
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Senior UK officials discuss Gaza crisis on sidelines of COP28 in Dubai

  • ‘We must work toward a two-state solution,’ Rishi Sunak tells Qatar’s emir
  • Hamas ‘could have no future’ in Gaza, PM’s office says

LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Downing Street said.

Sunak thanked the emir for Qatar’s important role in “facilitating the humanitarian pause in Gaza, which saw the release of dozens of hostages and the vital passage of further aid,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“The leaders deeply regretted the collapse of the pause and reiterated the importance of ongoing efforts to secure the release of all hostages and ensure humanitarian assistance reaches those in need in Gaza,” it said.

In the long term, “we must work toward a two-state solution which guarantees the security and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians,” Sunak said, adding that “Hamas had demonstrated that it could not be a partner for peace and could have no future in Gaza.”

Sunak also met Jordan’s King Abdullah II and reassured him that Britain would continue “to press Israel on the need to adhere to international humanitarian law and contain settler violence in the West Bank.”

“The prime minister recognized the vital role Jordan has played in addressing the crisis in Gaza and the generosity they have shown in providing significant humanitarian support to Palestinian civilians, including the provision of military field hospitals,” the statement said.

Sunak reiterated the UK’s commitment to working toward a lasting resolution to the conflict that would deliver “dignity, peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Sunak and King Abdullah also agreed on the importance of close cooperation between their countries, especially in trade, defense and clean technology.

During talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Sunak reiterated “the UK’s support for the humanitarian response in Gaza, with planeloads of UK aid, including warehouse facilities and forklift trucks, sent to Egypt to preposition on the border with Gaza.”

He thanked El-Sisi for Egypt’s efforts to get vital aid into Gaza, its role in helping secure the release of hostages and support in evacuating British nationals.

“He said the UK stands ready to provide further support, recognizing that there must be no forcible displacement from Gaza and that aid must be able to reach people across the Gaza Strip,” the Downing Street statement said.

Sunak and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also discussed the conflict with Hamas and the end of the humanitarian pause in Gaza earlier on Friday.

The prime minister “once again emphasized the need to take all possible measures to avoid civilian casualties and significantly increase the flow of aid to Gaza,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the UK’s King Charles III met Sheikh Tamim on the sidelines of the annual summit to discuss “the friendship and cooperation between the two countries and peoples, as well as the means to enhance them,” the Qatar News Agency reported.

They also exchanged views on the most prominent issues on the summit’s agenda and discussed developments of joint interest.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron held talks with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman on the latest developments in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as ways to reduce escalation and bring about a ceasefire.

During the meeting, Sheikh Mohammed said his country, along with its mediation partners, was committed to its efforts to return calm to the region and that the resumption of bombing of the Gaza Strip after the truce had complicated mediation efforts and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis.

He expressed Qatar’s “firm position in condemning all forms of targeting civilians and that killing innocent people, especially women and children, and practicing the policy of collective punishment are unacceptable, under any circumstance,” the news agency reported.

He also stressed the necessity of opening humanitarian corridors to ensure relief and aid reach the stricken Palestinians.


Gaza sick, wounded could get medical care in Japan

Updated 5 sec ago
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Gaza sick, wounded could get medical care in Japan

  • “We are thinking about launching a similar program for Gaza, and the government will make efforts toward the realization of this plan,” Ishiba said

TOKYO: The Japanese government is considering offering medical care in the world’s fourth-largest economy for sick and wounded residents of Gaza, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said.
Ishiba told a parliament session on Monday that his administration is working on a policy to provide support in Japan for “those who are ill or injured in Gaza.”
He said that educational opportunities could also be offered to people from Gaza, which is under a fragile ceasefire with Israel.
Ishiba was responding to a lawmaker who had asked whether a 2017 scheme to accept Syrian refugees as students could be used as a reference point to help Gaza residents.

BACKGROUND

In 2023, Japan accepted 1,310 people seeking asylum — less than 10 percent of the 13,823 applicants.

“We are thinking about launching a similar program for Gaza, and the government will make efforts toward the realization of this plan,” Ishiba said.
The measures discussed in parliament are different to Japan’s main asylum policy, which has long been criticized for the low number of claims granted by the nation.
In 2023, Japan accepted 1,310 people seeking asylum — less than 10 percent of the 13,823 applicants.
Under a different framework, as of the end of last year, Japan had accepted a total of 82 people as students from Syria who were recognized as refugees by the UN refugee agency, a foreign ministry official in charge of aid programs said.

 


Palestinian Authority forms task force to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction

Updated 9 min 36 sec ago
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Palestinian Authority forms task force to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction

  • Responsibilities include distributing aid, reopening roads, clearing debris, providing adequate shelter
  • These crimes against our people must end,’ says Palestinian prime minister

LONDON: The Palestinian Authority announced the formation of a task force on Tuesday to oversee the Gaza Strip’s reconstruction and coordinate humanitarian relief efforts with Egypt.

The PA’s task force will address urgent issues for the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza following 15 months of Israeli bombardment, which ended in January following a ceasefire.

Its responsibilities will include distributing aid, reopening roads, clearing debris, and providing adequate shelter for families whose homes have been destroyed.

The Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, which began in late 2023, has resulted in the deaths of at least 47,000 Palestinians, with the majority being women and children. According to the UN, about 60 percent of buildings in Gaza have been either damaged or destroyed during the military campaign.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that a PA-led Government Operations Room for Emergency Interventions is currently working to deliver as many essential services as possible to the people in Gaza, including water, electricity, healthcare, and education.

“This is a national responsibility toward our people, who have endured the horrors of war for the past 15 months,” he said, as reported by the Palestine News and Information Agency.

Mustafa added that Palestinians “will neither capitulate nor despair in the face of the international community’s failure to stop Israel’s war machine.”

He added: “These crimes against our people must end. We will continue our legitimate struggle for all our rights because we are certain that justice will prevail as no right is ever lost when fought for.”


Kuwaiti National Guard conducts military exercises with UAE counterparts

Updated 55 min 17 sec ago
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Kuwaiti National Guard conducts military exercises with UAE counterparts

  • Drills aim to enhance cooperation, share expertise 
  • The 20th edition of the exercise, known as Nasr 20, is being held at the Kuwaiti National Guard’s Command Center

LONDON: The Kuwaiti National Guard is conducting a joint military exercise this week with the UAE National Guard to enhance cooperation and share expertise in military operations.

Lt. Gen. Eng. Hashem Al-Rifai, undersecretary of the Kuwaiti National Guard, received on Tuesday Maj. Gen. Saleh Al-Ameri, commander of the UAE National Guard, and his forces, the Kuwait Press Agency reported.

The military exercises, also known as CPX — Shield, are being conducted at the Kuwaiti National Guard’s Command Center, at Sheikh Salem Ali Camp.

This is the 20th edition of the exercises, called Nasr 20, which Kuwait carries out regularly and which involves other security branches in the country as well as forces from neighboring and allied countries.

Al-Rifai conveyed to the Emirati forces the greetings of the National Guard’s leadership, Sheikh Mubarak Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and his deputy Sheikh Faisal Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah.


Qatar PM says to help Lebanon rebuild after government is formed

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani meets with Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam.
Updated 04 February 2025
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Qatar PM says to help Lebanon rebuild after government is formed

  • “When it comes to economic support and support for reconstruction, there is no doubt that the State of Qatar will be there,” Qatari PM says

BEIRUT: Qatar’s prime minister said during a visit to Beirut on Tuesday that Doha would help Lebanon rebuild after a devastating Hezbollah-Israel war, but only after a new government is formed.
Reeling from years of crisis and a conflict, Lebanon has pinned hopes on Gulf states to fund reconstruction, with Qatar having been heavily involved in such efforts after the Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006.
“When it comes to economic support and support for reconstruction, there is no doubt that the State of Qatar will be there,” Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani told reporters after meeting Lebanon’s newly-elected President Joseph Aoun.
“We look forward to ongoing efforts to form a government, and after that, we will discuss these files,” Al-Thani said, adding that he looked forward to forming “a strategic partnership” with Lebanon.
Al-Thani is set to meet other senior officials during what he described as a “visit of support,” including prime minister-designate Nawaf Salam, who has been tasked with forming a government, though efforts have stalled.
Qatar was among five countries, including the United States, France, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which lobbied heavily for Lebanon to elect a president last month and end a two-year vacuum due to political deadlock.
A fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire has been in place since November 27, after more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war.
Al-Thani said it was crucial for Israeli troops to “adhere to the agreement on the withdrawal... from southern Lebanon.”
He also called for implementing a Security Council resolution that states United Nations peacekeepers and the Lebanese army should be the only forces present in the country’s south.
Under the truce deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period.
Hezbollah was also to pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
The withdrawal period was extended to February 18 after the Israeli military missed the original January 26 deadline.
Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violations of the truce deal.
Al-Thani also said Qatar would continue providing humanitarian aid, as well as support for Lebanon’s cash-strapped army.
Washington is the main financial backer of Lebanon’s army but it also receives support from other countries including Qatar, which has granted in-kind and monetary aid.


Sudan’s RSF falters amid blunders, supply shortfalls

Updated 04 February 2025
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Sudan’s RSF falters amid blunders, supply shortfalls

  • After nearly two years of fighting, the RSF’s supplies have dwindled and its recruitment efforts have faltered
  • Many of its members lack formal military training, making them increasingly vulnerable in prolonged combat, Hudson said

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are losing ground to the army due to strategic blunders, internal rifts and dwindling supplies, analysts say.
The regular army has made major gains, seeming to reverse the tide of a nearly two-year war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.
Last month, the army surged through central Sudan, reclaiming the Al-Jazira state capital of Wad Madani before setting its sights on Khartoum.
Within two weeks, it shattered RSF sieges on key Khartoum military bases, including the General Command headquarters, and overran the Al-Jaili oil refinery, the country’s biggest, just north of the capital.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa program, said while “the RSF outperformed at the start of the war because it was more prepared,” its weaknesses were now showing.
After nearly two years of fighting, the RSF’s supplies have dwindled and its recruitment efforts have faltered.
Many of its members lack formal military training, making them increasingly vulnerable in prolonged combat, Hudson said.
The army, which “was caught off guard” at the start of the war, has “had time to rebuild, recruit and rearm,” he added.
According to a former general in the Sudanese military, the army has broadened its fighter base, mobilizing volunteers, allied militias and other branches of the security apparatus.
One “critical” addition to the army’s operations has been reinstating the Special Operations Forces, part of state intelligence, the former general told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The special forces, who are trained in urban warfare according to the former general, have helped reverse what Rift Valley Institute fellow Eric Reeves called the army’s “cowardly willingness to engage only in ‘stand-off tactics’, namely artillery and aircraft strikes,” particularly in the capital.
The RSF meanwhile has overstretched its resources and exposed vulnerabilities in its military strategy, analysts say.
More than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) separate RSF strongholds in Darfur — the vast western region nearly entirely under their control — from Khartoum, the fiercely contested metropolis.
Darfur’s strong tribal networks have supplied troops to the RSF, while crucial support from abroad has funnelled through the region’s borders with Chad and Libya, experts and the UN have said.
But attempting to expand their control into central and eastern Sudan, the paramilitaries have “stretched themselves too thin,” said Reeves, a veteran Darfur expert.
The long road — increasingly contested by the army in areas such as North Kordofan — has made resupply missions “both difficult and dangerous,” said Hamid Khalafallah, a Britain-based Sudanese researcher.
“It has become very costly for the RSF to get supplies from Darfur to the center and east,” he told AFP.
Beyond logistics, analysts say internal rifts have added to the RSF’s troubles.
“Their ability to command their forces in a coherent and organized way across the country has been severely tested,” said Magnus Taylor, deputy director of the Horn of Africa project at International Crisis Group.
In Wad Madani, the high-profile defection of an RSF commander in late 2024 has weakened the group’s hold.
The commander, Abu Aqla Kaykal — widely accused of atrocities against civilians — has since led troops on behalf of the army, according to a source in his Sudan Shield Forces militia.
Analysts say the RSF’s setbacks do not necessarily signal their defeat or an imminent end to the fighting.
They say the paramilitary force has changed its strategy, targeting civilian infrastructure in central Sudan while consolidating its hold on Darfur.
“It seems the RSF’s current strategy is to create chaos,” Hudson said.
“It is not targeting military sites, but civilians... to punish the people and the state,” he added.
RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has remained defiant, vowing again on Friday to “expel” the army from Khartoum.
In recent weeks, the RSF has struck power plants, the only functioning hospital in the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher and a market in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city.
But the prize most critical to the RSF’s continued war effort is 1,000 kilometers west of Khartoum: El-Fasher, the only major city in Darfur out of its control.
Since May, the RSF has laid siege to the city as its fighters have been repeatedly repelled by the military and its allied militias.
Should the paramilitaries succeed in taking El-Fasher, “then the de facto bifurcation of the country will become much more formalized,” said Hudson.
And the RSF would put “itself in a more advantageous negotiating position, as it controls one third of the country,” he added.