Frankly Speaking: Is the Biden plan still the best deal to stop Gaza bloodshed?

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Updated 24 June 2024
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Frankly Speaking: Is the Biden plan still the best deal to stop Gaza bloodshed?

  • Slovenia’s representative to UNSC believes negotiators should be given time to help bring about a ceasefire
  • Samuel Zbogar explains why his government recognized Palestine state, blames EU disunity for passive role in Gaza crisis

DUBAI: The fact that Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas are both uncomfortable with the Gaza peace plan presented by US President Joe Biden means that “the deal is a good one,” said Samuel Zbogar, Slovenia’s representative to the UN Security Council.

On June 10, the council adopted Resolution 2735 — a ceasefire proposal to end the conflict in Gaza. However, according to reports, Hamas has refused to accept the plan without amendments, which Israel has rejected.

Appearing on the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” Zbogar said the world should not lose hope in the Biden peace plan and should allow time for negotiators to help bring about a ceasefire.

“I wouldn’t give up on the Biden plan yet,” he said. “We understand the talks are still ongoing, mediated by Qatar, by Egypt, and the US, of course.

“I think the US put its authority behind this plan, so we hope that we will see it implemented. We want to give peace a chance. We haven’t been discussing in the council this week the situation in Gaza precisely to give negotiators time to finally come to a ceasefire.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will not agree to a ceasefire without the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. Zbogar, however, believes compromises are required on both sides.

“I believe that problems are on both sides,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that it’s one side that is rejecting the deal. I would think that both sides somehow are not comfortable, which means that the deal is a good one.

“We really hope that it’s implemented to stop this killing and suffering of civilians in Gaza.”

Asked whether the Security Council could be applying more pressure on the Israeli government to halt its operation in Gaza, which threatens to spill over into Lebanon and other countries in the region, Zbogar said only a unified position would prove effective.




Appearing on the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” Samuel Zbogar said the world should not lose hope in the Biden peace plan and should allow time for negotiators to help bring about a ceasefire. (AN Photo)

“The Security Council is the most effective, or maybe the only time that it’s effective, really, is when it is completely united,” he said. “When we have 15 votes in favor, I think then, maybe, it will be a strong enough message to Israel and to Hamas that enough is enough.

“But so far, in the last resolution, Russia abstained. In the previous resolutions the US abstained. And this is always a message to one or to the other side that, maybe, there is still room to maneuver.”

Ignoring the protests of numerous governments, Israel mounted an offensive on May 6 against Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where about 1.4 million Palestinian refugees had sought shelter having fled the bombardment in the north.

Asked whether institutions like the European Union could have done more to prevent the Rafah assault, Zbogar said it was another example of a failure of unity.

“The Rafah assault is really something that will be haunting us, I think, as members of the council and as a human society in the future,” Zbogar told “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen.

“All council members in the chamber, as well as in consultations, were saying Rafah should not happen. I was warning Israel not to go against Rafah. And yet we witnessed that it happened.

“This is something that is difficult to live with, to see the neverending suffering of people, of Palestinians, of Gazans.

“Couldn’t the EU do more? Yes, it could, it should. But unfortunately, we are not united. The EU is strong when it’s united. Then really we can be a strong player in international relations. On this topic, unfortunately, we have different views inside the EU.

“There are a lot of countries inside who are supportive of the Palestinian cause and who recognize Palestine, but still we are not united.”

Elaborating the point, Zbogar said: “As the Gaza crisis continued and deepened, there was more and more understanding on the European side that maybe supporting Israel and its right to self-defense, which we did at the beginning, was not appropriate anymore. So, we don’t hear that anymore from European leaders. Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign and security affairs, took a very clear position all along the crisis. But, yes, we are not united and that’s why we are not the real player in this crisis.”

Since the Israeli military launched its operation in Gaza in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, aid convoys sent to the embattled enclave have faced blockades and thorough inspections by Israeli authorities, delaying the relief response.

Once inside the Gaza Strip, aid convoys have been mobbed by crowds of starving Palestinians and come under intense Israeli fire, despite assurances by Israeli forces they would be permitted to pass.

Zbogar said only an end to the fighting would create the security conditions needed to help stricken communities. “I think it’s one word — a ceasefire,” he said. “Nothing less than a ceasefire would allow enough distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“It’s very difficult to distribute aid at this moment when rockets are flying, where Israel is rejecting more than half of the trucks because of the dual use (issue), where there is public disorder now in Gaza after so many months and the desperate situation that people are in.

“We have seen so many times when the humanitarian workers had an approved road on which they could deliver the aid, and yet they were targeted.

“Like we were seeing with the World Central Kitchen a few weeks ago or months ago. How they had all the approvals, they were in touch with (the military coordinating unit) COGAT on the Israeli side, and yet they were targeted one after the other.

“How can you expect humanitarian workers to go into this situation even if they have promises from Israel that today we will not target? How do you expect people to sacrifice their lives when they see that 200 of their colleagues distributing aid were killed? And that’s why the ceasefire is the only way we can distribute more aid inside Gaza.”

It was because of this carnage and suffering in Gaza that on June 4 this year Slovenia followed Ireland, Norway and Spain in recognizing a Palestinian state, citing the need for two equally sovereign parties to negotiate future relations.

“We believe that after the destruction of Gaza, we see even more clearly that we need two equal parties,” he said.

“We need two sovereign, two parties that will be equally sovereign, Palestine and Israel, in order for them to be able to negotiate their future relations. Otherwise, as long as you have one party that is weaker, then it’s not a proper discussion. And that’s why that prevailed, then, in our reflection as well. We need a Palestine that is on the same level as Israel.”

Zbogar said Slovenian recognition of a Palestinian state was intended to send a message to the Palestinians that they are not alone, while telling the Israeli government it is on the wrong course.

“We are hoping for Palestine to open its embassy in Slovenia. And we already have a person on the ground in Ramallah who is representing Slovenia with the Palestinian Authority. So, officially we implemented the decision of the parliament,” he said.

“We’ve been discussing in Slovenia for years about this recognition. There was always a political process that we were waiting for. Now, since things began happening in Gaza, we thought it’s time for us to send a message.

“This is a message for Palestinians. It’s not a message to Israel. It’s not a message to Hamas. Neither of them really care for their citizens. They’re using Palestinians and hostages as an instrument of pressure on each other.

“This is, for us, a message to Palestinians that no matter how difficult it looks at the moment and that the world is abandoning them, that we do recognize their right to have a state, to live in their own state. And it’s time to do that.”

He added: “We have been friends, and we continue to be friends, with Israel. And we think this is a message to them as well, that what they’re doing is not right. I think they’re on the wrong course.

“But Israel is much more than the current government. And I believe that people in Israel will recognize that what we did was a good thing, to help bring peace to the region.”




Asked whether the Security Council could be applying more pressure on the Israeli government to halt its operation in Gaza, Zbogar said only a unified position would prove effective. (AN Photo)

Zbogar is concerned that a failure to respond to the carnage in Gaza will result in the youth of the region turning against the international community.

“You have the whole population in the region that might be turning against the international community, that we are not doing enough to stop the bloodshed in Gaza,” he said.

“I think we might be losing the whole young population across the region. That’s the message we are getting from all the countries, all the special representatives there, that it’s for the future relations between the West and these countries that is a very dangerous situation.”

Once the war ends in Gaza, the question will turn to who should govern the war-scarred territory — Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, an external power, or a multilateral agency.

Zbogar believes Gaza will need a transitional period to guarantee its own and Israel’s security and to rebuild. But he does not believe this is something the Palestinian Authority can do on its own, calling instead for UN involvement.

Indeed, a recent poll of Gaza and the West Bank by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed huge dissatisfaction with the Palestinian Authority, with more than 60 percent supporting its dissolution, and close to 90 percent wanting President Mahmoud Abbas to resign.

“I don’t think it’s surprising — this dissatisfaction — because the Palestinian authorities don’t have power to deliver to their people. And that’s why people are disappointed,” Zbogar said.

“They continue to see Israeli occupation. They continue to see what’s happening in Gaza. And, of course, they are disappointed that their authority is not protecting them and cannot do anything about it.

“But they really cannot do anything about it if you are serious. So, who should run Palestine or Gaza? I think it’s for Palestinians to decide. I don’t think it should be foreigners to decide. They should decide who should govern.

“Of course, there probably will be some transition period in Gaza after all this is over. There will need to be a transition period with regard to security, to re-establishment of security, to provide security to Israel. There will be a need to rebuild Gaza. There will be a lot of needs.

“But I don’t think Palestinian authorities can do that on their own. I think probably the UN should be involved, should be helping them, coordinating all the assistance and all the support that was coming from abroad, in re-establishing Gaza as a place to live.”

 

 


Three bodies recovered from capsized tourist boat off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, 13 missing

Updated 4 sec ago
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Three bodies recovered from capsized tourist boat off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, 13 missing

CAIRO: Three bodies have been recovered from a capsized tourist boat that sank off Egypt’s Red Sea coast on Monday, and 13 people were still reported missing, Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi told Reuters on Tuesday.


Israel to decide on ceasefire as US says deal ‘close’

Updated 54 min 24 sec ago
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Israel to decide on ceasefire as US says deal ‘close’

Israel’s security cabinet was due to meet Tuesday to vote on a proposed ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, an official said, while the White House voiced optimism that a deal was close.
The United States, European Union and United Nations have pushed in recent days for a truce in the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated into full-scale war in late September.

EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday that Israel has no reason to refuse a ceasefire with Lebanon along the lines proposed by France and the United States. 
“There is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire... No more excuses. No more additional requests. Stop this fighting. Stop killing people,” Borrell said at a G7 foreign ministers meeting near Rome.
As truce talks intensified, Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 31 people on Monday, mostly in the south.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the security cabinet “will decide on Tuesday evening on the ceasefire deal.”
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the talks were progressing but not finalized.
“We believe we’ve reached this point where we’re close,” he said, adding “we’re not there yet.”
While Israel presses its offensive on Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza, the United States and France have led efforts to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel is battling the Iran-backed Hezbollah on a second front.
France reported “significant progress” in ceasefire talks, and Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of nations, expressed “optimism” over a truce in Lebanon.
US news outlet Axios reported the draft agreement includes a 60-day transition period.
Israeli forces would withdraw, the Lebanese army would redeploy near the border, and Hezbollah would move heavy weapons north of the Litani River, said Axios.
A US-led committee would oversee implementation, with provisions allowing Israel to act against imminent threats if Lebanese forces fail to intervene, it added.
News of the security cabinet meeting came as the Israeli military said it carried out a wave of strikes on Monday, including on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly bombed since late September when it escalated its air campaign in Lebanon.
The latest strikes hit around two dozen Hezbollah targets across Lebanon in one hour, the military said. A statement said “command centers, and intelligence control and collection centers, where Hezbollah commanders and operatives were located,” were targeted.
The strikes followed intense Hezbollah fire over the weekend, including some attacks deep into Israel.


Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likely to endorse the US ceasefire proposal.
Asked in New York about the possible truce agreement, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said “we are moving forward on this front,” adding the cabinet would meet to discuss it.
The war in Lebanon followed nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah. The Lebanese group said it was acting in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Lebanon says at least 3,768 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them in the past few weeks.
On the Israeli side, the Lebanon hostilities have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.


The initial exchanges of fire forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes, and Israeli officials have said they are fighting so the residents can return safely.
Some northern residents expressed fears as to whether that was possible under a ceasefire.
“In my opinion, it would be a serious mistake to sign an agreement as long as Hezbollah has not been completely eliminated,” said Maryam Younnes, 29, a student from Maalot-Tarshiha.
“It would be a mistake to sign an agreement as long as Hezbollah still has weapons.”
Dorit Sison, a 51-year-old teacher displaced from Shlomi, said: “I don’t want a ceasefire, because if they do it along the lines that they’ve announced, we’ll be in the same place in five years.”
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir warned on X that reaching a Lebanon ceasefire deal would be a “historic missed opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah.”
Ben Gvir has repeatedly threatened to bring down the government if it agrees to a truce deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip or Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Efforts this year by mediators to secure a truce and hostage-release deal in the Gaza war have failed.
Qatar early this month said it was suspending its mediation role until the warring sides showed “seriousness.”
With an intensive Israeli military operation in besieged north Gaza continuing, remaining residents were left “scavenging among the rubble” for food, said Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Such scavenging puts Gazans at risk of encountering unexploded and unused ordnance that can be found in many populated areas of the territory, the Danish Refugee Council said.


Israeli airstrikes intensify in Lebanon amid rumors of imminent ceasefire agreement

Updated 26 November 2024
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Israeli airstrikes intensify in Lebanon amid rumors of imminent ceasefire agreement

  • Latest attacks cause further destruction in areas stretching from border region to distant areas as far north as Bekaa and beyond
  • Israel escalates attacks to put pressure on Lebanese authorities whenever peace talks advance, says deputy speaker of Lebanese parliament

BEIRUT: Israeli attacks on targets in Lebanon intensified on Monday, as rumors circulated in Tel Aviv and Beirut about the possibility of a ceasefire agreement within two days.

US envoy Amos Hochstein has been leading complex negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese authorities with the aim of ending the conflict, which began on Sep. 23 with Israeli airstrikes, followed by ground incursions into border areas on Oct. 1.

Since then, Israel has assassinated senior Hezbollah leaders, and the confirmed death toll from the fighting stands at about 3,800. This figure does not include Hezbollah members killed on the battlefield, the numbers of which are difficult to ascertain because of intense shelling in southern areas.

The escalating war has also resulted in the destruction of thousands of residential and commercial buildings in areas stretching from the south of the country to the southern suburbs of Beirut and northern Bekaa. Tensions continue to run high as the population lives in fear of the intense airstrikes, with ambulances and fire trucks remaining on standby in all regions.

MP Elias Bou Saab, the deputy speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, said: “We are optimistic about a ceasefire and there is hope. But nothing can be confirmed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What might put pressure on him is the battlefield.”

Israeli aggression intensifies whenever peace negotiations move closer to an agreement, he added, in an attempt to put pressure on Lebanese authorities.

“We insist on our position regarding the inclusion of France in the committee overseeing the ceasefire implementation,” said Bou Saab.

“We did not hear anything about Israel’s freedom of movement in Lebanon, and we still speak only about UN Resolution 1701, with no additions and with an implementation mechanism.”

Resolution 1701 was adopted by the Security Council in 2006 with the aim of resolving the conflict that year between Israel and Hezbollah. It calls for an end to hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the withdrawal of Hezbollah and other forces from parts of the country south of the Litani River, and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.

News channel CNN quoted a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister as saying talks were moving toward a ceasefire. Another regional source told the network: “The agreement is closer than ever. However, it has not been fully finalized yet.”

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, said an agreement “could happen in a few days” but “there are still some sticking points that need to be resolved.”

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted the country’s education minister as saying that Hochstein has the green light to proceed with an agreement. It added that a deal with Lebanon had been finalized and Netanyahu was considering “how to explain it to the public.”

Also on Monday, diplomat Dan Shapiro from the US Department of Defense held meetings with senior Israeli officials that focused on the members of a proposed committee to monitor the ceasefire, most notably the participation of France, and the details of a monitoring mechanism to be led by the US.

One report suggested Washington had agreed to provide Israel with a guarantee it would support any military action in response to threats from Lebanon and to disrupt any Hezbollah presence along the border.

According to news website Axios, the draft agreement for a ceasefire includes a 60-day transitional period during which the Israeli army would withdraw from southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese army in areas close to the border, and Hezbollah would move its heavy weapons from the border region to areas north of the Litani Line.

Against this backdrop of peace negotiations, the continual Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut intensified on Monday, following 10 strikes the previous evening. The attacks targeted Haret Hreik, Hadath, Ghobeiry, Bir Al-Abed and Sfeir.

Hundreds of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and as Arab News visited targeted areas, residents said “there have never been any Hezbollah offices in these structures, neither now nor in the past, and the buildings are mainly for residential purposes.”

A lawyer called Imad said the apartment building in the Hadath area in which he lived collapsed when it was hit by an airstrike.

“It is unbelievable that they use Hezbollah as a pretext to destroy our homes, which we purchased through financial loans to provide shelter for our families. They intend to annihilate us all,” he said.

The Israeli army said on Monday that an airstrike that hit the Basta area of central Beirut early on Saturday had “targeted a command center affiliated with Hezbollah.”

Efforts to help the injured and recover the bodies of the dead continued at the scene of the attack until Sunday evening. The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 29 people were killed and 67 wounded.

The Israeli army also carried out numerous airstrikes in southern Lebanon, mainly targeting the cities of Tyre and Nabatieh. Ten people were killed, including a woman and a member of the Lebanese army, and 17 injured in three airstrikes on Tyre.

Also in Tyre, an Israeli drone killed a motorcycle rider in a parking lot near the Central Bank of Lebanon. And three civilians were killed by an airstrike in the town of Ghazieh, south of Sidon.

From the southern border to the northern banks of the Litani River, no area has been spared from Israeli airstrikes, which have extended as far north as the city of Baalbek, and the town of Hermel close to the border with Syria.

In the east, back-and-forth operations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah continued as the former attempted to gain control over the town of Khiam. Its forces advanced, supported by Merkava tanks, from the southern outskirts under the cover of airstrikes and artillery bombardment, moving into the center of the town and toward Ebel Al-Saqi and Jdidet Marjeyoun.

The Israeli army also deployed tanks between olive groves in the town of Deir Mimas after an incursion into the town last week. It began advancing toward the Tal Nahas-Kfar Kila-Qlayaa triangle. Elsewhere, Hezbollah and Israeli forces clashed in the western sector of the Maroun Al-Ras-Ainata-Bint Jbeil triangle.

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli army positions on the outskirts of the towns of Shamaa and Biyada. Israeli forces carried out house-demolition operations in Shamaa.

Hezbollah also continued to launch attacks against northern Israel. The group said its rockets “reached the Shraga base, north of the city of Acre, and targeted an Israeli army gathering in the settlement of Meron.”

Israeli medical services said one person was injured in Nahariya by falling fragments from a rocket.


Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry says war death toll at 44,235

Updated 26 November 2024
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Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry says war death toll at 44,235

  • Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry

GAZA CITY: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that at least 44,235 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 24 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 104,638 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
 

 


Syria’s ‘large quantities’ of toxic arms serious concern: watchdog

Updated 26 November 2024
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Syria’s ‘large quantities’ of toxic arms serious concern: watchdog

  • The war has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged the country’s infrastructure and industry

THE HAGUE: The world’s chemical watchdog said Monday that it was “seriously concerned” by large gaps in Syria’s declaration about its chemical weapons stockpile, as large quantities of potentially banned warfare agents might be involved.
Syria agreed in 2013 to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, shortly after an alleged chemical gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus.
“Despite more than a decade of intensive work, the Syrian Arab Republic chemical weapons dossier still cannot be closed,” the watchdog’s director-general Fernando Arias told delegates at the OPCW’s annual meeting.
The Hague-based global watchdog has previously accused President Bashar Assad’s regime of continued attacks on civilians with chemical weapons during the Middle Eastern country’s brutal civil war.
“Since 2014, the (OPCW) Secretariat has reported a total of 26 outstanding issues of which seven have been fulfilled,” in relation to chemical weapon stockpiles in Syria, Arias said.
“The substance of the remaining 19 outstanding issues is of serious concern as it involves large quantities of potentially undeclared or unverified chemical warfare agents and chemical munitions,” he told delegates.
Syria’s OPCW voting rights were suspended in 2021, an unprecedented rebuke, following poison gas attacks on civilians in 2017.
Last year the watchdog blamed Syria for a 2018 chlorine attack that killed 43 people, in a long-awaited report on a case that sparked tensions between Damascus and the West.
Damascus has denied the allegations and insisted it has handed over its stockpiles.
Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011 after the government’s repression of peaceful demonstrations escalated into a deadly conflict that pulled in foreign powers and global jihadists.
The war has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged the country’s infrastructure and industry.