BEIJING: Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan met Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dr. Fuad Hussein in Beijing on Friday.
The two sides affirmed their strong fraternal relations and discussed ways to enhance and develop them across various fields.
They also exchanged views on recent regional and international developments, foremostly the situation in Gaza and the continuing efforts to address it.
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Saudi foreign minister meets Iraqi counterpart
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Saudi foreign minister meets Iraqi counterpart
- The two sides affirmed their strong fraternal relations
UK lawmaker quits Labour Party over PM’s ‘hypocrisy’
- The row over the free gifts from rich donors had already cast a shadow over the party’s first conference since they returned to government
LONDON: The new government of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reeled from its first resignation Saturday, as lawmaker Rosie Duffield quit the Labour Party, accusing him of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts.
In a blistering resignation letter, Duffield denounced Starmer for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies.
“The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale,” she wrote, after it emerged earlier this month that Starmer had accepted more than £100,000 in gifts and hospitality while cutting an annual £300 winter heating payment to some 10 million pensioners.
“I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”
Duffield said the “hypocrisy” of a leader enjoying expensive free clothing and outings while asking others to tighten their belts was “staggering.”
She also attacked the prime minister’s decision to maintain a cap on a benefit aimed at supporting families with children.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp — this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour Prime Minister,” she wrote.
Duffield said that she would in the future sit as an independent MP “guided by my core Labour values.”
The row over the free gifts from rich donors had already cast a shadow over the party’s first conference since they returned to government.
Labour ousted the Conservatives in a landslide election win in July after 14 years in opposition.
But instead of toasting their victory at the conference earlier this week, ministers found themselves on the backfoot and facing anger from the normally supportive unions.
All of the gifts accepted by Starmer had been declared and none fall foul of parliamentary rules.
But records show that Starmer accepted more than £100,000 ($132,000) in gifts and hospitality since December 2019, more than any other lawmaker.
It also emerged that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner accepted the loan of a New York apartment for a holiday and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves accepted around £7,500 worth of clothing.
Reeves and the Labour party have defended the abolition of the £300 payment to many pensioners to help them heat their homes, citing a need to fill a “£22 billion black hole” they say was left by the Conservatives.
Attacking Starmer’s “managerial and technocratic approach” in her letter, first reported in The Sunday Times, Duffield also reproached Starmer for poor politics.
His “lack of basic... political instincts” had “come crashing down on us as a party after we worked so hard, promised so much, and waited a long 14 years to be mandated by the British public.”
Starmer lost a symbolic vote at the conference demanding that he reverse the contentious policy.
The vote was non-binding but its outcome was nonetheless embarrassing for the premier.
It highlighted the strength of feeling among activists and union backers.
Delegates narrowly backed a union motion calling for the cut to be reversed.
“I do not understand how our new Labour Government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super rich untouched,” said the Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham.
Osasuna dismantle Barca’s perfect Liga start
- The Catalans won all seven of their opening fixtures but Hansi Flick’s rotated side came badly undone in Pamplona
PAMPLONA, Spain: Osasuna shattered La Liga leaders Barcelona’s perfect start to the season with an emphatic 4-2 victory on Saturday.
The Catalans won all seven of their opening fixtures but Hansi Flick’s rotated side came badly undone in Pamplona as Ante Budimir scored a brace either side of Bryan Zaragoza’s strike.
Pau Victor had given Barca a lifeline to pull them back into the game before Budimir bagged his second from the penalty spot.
Abel Bretones added a sensational fourth from the edge of the box, before Lamine Yamal pulled one back with a fine effort of his own.
Victory would have matched Barcelona’s best ever start to a league campaign with eight consecutive wins, but they were not able to build on their four-point lead on second-place Real Madrid.
The Spanish champions visit Atletico Madrid, third, in a derby clash on Sunday.
“It’s normal there are rotations, there are a lot of games, it’s not an excuse,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri told Movistar.
“In the second half we deserved a bit more but we let in goals when we were at our best.”
Ahead of a Champions League match against Young Boys on Tuesday, Flick shuffled his pack.
The coach handed starts to defenders Gerard Martin and Sergi Dominguez as well as Pablo Torre in midfield and Victor in attack.
The coach rested Spain Euro 2024 starlet Yamal and Brazilian winger Raphinha among other regular picks.
As a result Barcelona failed to ignite in the first half and Osasuna winger Zaragoza took center-stage.
Last season Zaragoza struck twice while playing for Granada in a 2-2 draw against Barca, a performance which helped earn him a move to Bayern Munich.
On loan from the German giants, Zaragoza created the opener for target-man Budimir with a fine cross, which the Croatian nodded home with ease in the 18th minute after escaping the attentions of Dominguez.
Zaragoza finished the second himself 10 minutes later after being sent through on goal, with the winger bypassing goalkeeper Inaki Pena with a fine ball roll and then slotting into the empty net.
Barcelona complained there had been a foul on Victor in the build-up but the referee waved their complaints away.
The leaders created little themselves, with the best opening falling to Ferran Torres. However the Spanish winger miscontrolled on the edge of the box and was quickly swallowed up by the Osasuna defense.
Yamal, Raphinha and Ansu Fati warmed up at half-time, with Barcelona needing to turn to their stars to mount a comeback.
Before Flick had time to send them on, Victor pulled Barcelona back into the game.
Osasuna goalkeeper Sergio Herrera gave the ball away with a poor throw, intercepted by Martin, who fed Victor.
The forward took an early shot from distance which Herrera, who slipped as he made it back to his goal, should have kept out but could not.
Flick took off top scorer Robert Lewandowski, largely uninvolved, with 20 minutes remaining and moved Torres into the middle to fill the gap.
However Osasuna almost immediately stretched their lead when 19-year-old center-back Dominguez scythed down Budimir in the area as he went to shoot.
The striker buried the penalty with a low effort hit hard enough to beat Pena although he dived the right way.
Ruben Pena wasted a glorious chance to grab a fourth as he ran in on goal but was caught in two minds whether to pass or shoot, and Eric Garcia charged back to dispossess him as he dawdled.
Bretones, on the other hand, was lethal from the edge of the box when he won the ball back and powered an effort past Barca goalkeeper Pena.
Yamal hit back brilliantly from range and teed up Torres who struck the post, but it was too little, too late.
Osasuna rose to sixth and Zaragoza said his team had been determined to beat the leaders.
“We knew Barca were an incredible team, they had won everything and we knew we had to get stuck into it, and that’s how we went out there,” explained the winger.
“It’s a special game and really nice to play in.”
Turkiye says Hezbollah’s Nasrallah will be hard to replace
- Hakan Fidan said the “helplesness” of the United States and other Western countries was allowing the violence to continue
ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was an important figure for Lebanon and the region and would be hard to replace after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut a day earlier.
Speaking to state broadcaster TRT Haber in New York, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also said Turkiye believed Israel would not stop in Lebanon and would spread the war in Gaza to the wider region.
He said the “helplesness” of the United States and other Western countries was allowing the violence to continue.
Iraq PM says Israel crossed ‘all red lines’ with Nasrallah killing
- Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines,” Sudani said in a statement
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani condemned on Saturday the Israeli killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as a “crime.”
The Friday attack on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed the Iran-backed group’s leader was a “shameful attack” and “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines,” Sudani said in a statement, calling Nasrallah “a martyr on the path of the righteous.”
Syria condemns ‘despicable’ Israeli killing of Nasrallah
- The government announced three days of official mourning, SANA reported
DAMASCUS: Syria on Saturday condemned Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, one of Damascus’s key supporters in years of civil war, and declared public mourning.
A foreign ministry statement carried by state news agency SANA said that the late Friday air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that killed Nasrallah was a “despicable aggression.”
“The Zionist entity (Israel) confirms through this despicable aggression, once again... its barbarism and wanton disregard for all international standards and laws,” it said.
“The Syrian people... have never for a day forgotten (Nasrallah’s) positions of support,” the statement added.
The government announced three days of official mourning, SANA reported.
Hezbollah since 2013 has openly backed the forces of President Bashar Assad in his country’s civil war, which broke out after the repression of anti-government protests.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country since the war began in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Hezbollah.
Along with Russia, Hezbollah backer Iran has helped Assad regain territory lost earlier in the civil war.
While Damascus condemned Nasrallah’s killing, in areas outside government control, some were celebrating, including in the Idlib jihadist-run rebel bastion.
Many Syrian opposition supporters and activists consider Hezbollah responsible for their woes, after the group fought Syrian rebels in a number of areas, leading to heavy losses among opposition factions and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee.
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