ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday hit out at the United Nations for failing to prevent Israel from firing at its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.
At least five UNIFIL peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as fighting ranges between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Erdogan said the UN was also to blame for failing to sanction Israel over its wars with Hezbollah and with Hamas in Gaza.
“The image of the UN which cannot protect its own personnel is shameful and worrying,” Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel, said in a televised address.
“Frankly, we ask ourselves what the (UN) Security Council is waiting for to stop Israel.
“Can you believe it? The Israeli tanks penetrate into the UNIFIL zone, attack peacekeeping soldiers, even wounding some of them, but the UN Security Council decides to just watch all this criminality from its stands — that’s what we call powerlessness.”
The UN condemned the attacks with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying they “may constitute a war crime.”
He said that Israeli soldiers had “deliberately breached” a UNIFIL compound.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Guterres to move peacekeepers out of “harm’s way,” saying Hezbollah was using them as “human shields.”
UNIFIL, a mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities created following Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon, has refused to leave its positions.
It has accused the Israeli military of “deliberately” firing on its positions.
Turkiye’s Erdogan blasts UN over Israeli attacks on peacekeepers
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Turkiye’s Erdogan blasts UN over Israeli attacks on peacekeepers
- Erdogan said the UN was also to blame for failing to sanction Israel over its wars with Hezbollah and with Hamas in Gaza
- “The image of the UN which cannot protect its own personnel is shameful and worrying,” Erdogan said
China urges caution in Israel-Iran tensions, calls for ceasefire
- In a phone conversation with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Wang also urged Israel to ensure the safety of UNIFIL personnel
BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on all parties involved in tensions between Israel and Iran on Monday to exercise caution and avoid escalating the situation.
In a phone conversation with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Wang also urged Israel to ensure the safety of personnel of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a foreign ministry statement said.
He also reiterated Beijing’s position on the Gaza conflict, calling for an immediate, complete and permanent ceasefire.
Katz said that during the call he had “clarified that Iran is the primary source for undermining stability in the Middle East” and said that Iran poses a direct threat through its proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
Katz said he had expected that China would express “a balanced and fair position in relation to the war,” citing the economic cooperation ties between the two countries “and the fact that approximately 20,000 workers from China continue to work in Israel during the...war.”
Bus carrying university students crashes, killing 12 in Egypt’s northeast
- Students from the Suez-based Galala University were on board, returning home using the Ain Sokhna highway, when the accident happened
CAIRO: A bus carrying university students crashed and overturned on a highway in northeastern Egypt, killing 12 people and injuring 33 others, the health ministry said Monday night.
Students from the Suez-based Galala University were on board, returning home using the Ain Sokhna highway, when the accident happened. The ministry didn’t reveal what caused the crash.
The statement said 28 ambulances rushed to the site and transported the injured to the Suez Medical Complex, but didn’t disclose their condition.
Deadly traffic accidents claim thousands of lives every year in Egypt, which has a poor transportation safety record. Speeding, bad roads, and poor enforcement of traffic laws mostly cause the collisions.
US aid officials attend meetings in Israeli prison accused of torture, sexual violence
- ‘I can’t sleep at night knowing that it’s going on,’ USAID official tells The Guardian
- Lawyer: ‘The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo’
LONDON: US aid officials are attending daily meetings at Israel’s Sde Teiman base, where widespread use of torture and sexual violence is employed against Palestinian prisoners, reports allege.
It follows a decision in July to move Israel’s humanitarian relief hub to the desert base, three USAID officials told The Guardian.
Israel consolidated all of its Gaza aid oversight bodies into the Joint Coordination Board, which operates at Sde Teiman and coordinates with the US, UN and various NGOs.
The US has a regular presence at the site as part of its mission to facilitate urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Sde Teiman was chosen by Israel as a holding facility for Palestinian prisoners in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
But extensive reporting by human rights groups, involving eyewitness accounts, has revealed that thousands of Palestinians who passed through the facility were subjected to severe physical and psychological abuse, torture and sexual violence.
Despite this, two USAID officials continue to visit Sde Teiman daily for meetings with Israeli and UN staff as part of the JCB.
A USAID official told The Guardian: “I can’t sleep at night knowing that it’s going on. It’s another form of psychological torture to make someone work there.”
It is unclear whether USAID staff have witnessed the section of Sde Teiman where Palestinian prisoners are detained, with one report saying the JCB operates out of “a handful of makeshift trailers.”
The reports issued by human rights groups on Sde Teiman cite whistleblowers and former prisoners to allege a consistent pattern of brutality by Israeli soldiers at the site.
The violence against Palestinian prisoners includes rape, beatings, electrocutions and force-feeding.
One Israeli doctor who worked at the facility reported that prisoners were “routinely” amputated due to aggressive handcuffing.
Since Oct. 7, about 4,000 Palestinians have passed through the prison, with at least 35 dying, the New York Times reported in May.
Khaled Mahajneh, a lawyer who visited Sde Teiman, told +972 Magazine: “The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.”
Israel has claimed that only 24 prisoners remain in the facility, and that a planned new wing would improve conditions.
But Tal Steiner, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, told The Guardian: “We have no indication that the living conditions in the camp have indeed been improved, as our lawyers have still not had access to the camp to assess that.”
One of the most controversial incidents at Sde Teiman took place earlier this year when a Palestinian prisoner was left in critical condition after being gang-raped by 10 Israeli soldiers, who were later investigated.
The decision to launch an investigation led to violent rioting and attacks by Israeli groups in support of the soldiers.
Israel moved its humanitarian oversight body to Sde Teiman from Hatzor airbase north of Gaza.
Weeks before, USAID chief Samantha Power visited the airbase, saying: “I think what’s happening in this room is incredibly important.”
Yet sources told The Guardian that the relocation has been a “closely guarded secret,” with internal communication listing the new site as nearby Beersheva instead of Sde Teiman.
Power, who previously served as US ambassador to the UN and senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, has faced mounting criticism within USAID over her failure to permit more aid to Gaza by way of agreements with Israel.
In March, 76 staffers sent a letter to a USAID bureau condemning the agency’s “silence on the suffering of Gaza.”
In response to The Guardian, USAID claimed that it is “working closely to ensure more effective dialogue between humanitarian partners and the Israeli government to improve the safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of humanitarian movements into and throughout Gaza. Due to security considerations, we do not comment on the specific locations of our staff.”
Nile basin nations say key accord has come into force
- Egypt and Sudan decline to sign the water-sharing agreement
KAMPALA: A regional partnership of 10 countries says an agreement on the equitable use of water resources from the Nile River basin has come into force despite the notable opposition of Egypt.
The legal status of the “cooperative framework” was formally confirmed by the African Union after South Sudan joined the treaty, the Nile Basin Initiative said in a statement Sunday.
Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania have ratified the accord. Egypt and Sudan declined to sign, while Congo abstained. Kenya has not yet deposited its ratification documents with the African Union.
FASTFACTS
• The accord ‘is a testament to our collective determination to harness the Nile River for the benefit of all, ensuring its equitable and sustainable use for generations to come,’ the Nile Basin Initiative said.
• Tensions in the region have increased, stemming in part from Ethiopia’s construction of a $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile, a key tributary of the Nile River.
The accord, which came into force on Sunday, “is a testament to our collective determination to harness the Nile River for the benefit of all, ensuring its equitable and sustainable use for generations to come,” the Nile Basin Initiative said in its statement. “This is a moment to congratulate the governments and people of the Nile riparian countries, and all partners and stakeholders, for their patience, resolve, and dedication to this cause.”
The lack of ratification by Egypt and Sudan — desert nations that have raised concern over any attempts to diminish their shares of Nile water — means the accord will prove controversial.
Tensions in the region have increased, stemming in part from Ethiopia’s construction of a $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile, a key tributary of the Nile River. Egypt fears the dam will have a devastating effect on water and irrigation supplies downstream unless Ethiopia takes its needs into account. Ethiopia plans to use the dam to generate badly needed electricity.
The accord’s rights clause states that Nile basin states “shall in their respective territories utilize the water resources of the Nile River system in an equitable and reasonable manner.”
Measuring 6,695 kilometers, the Nile is the longest river in the world, with one tributary, the White Nile, starting in South Sudan and the other, the Blue Nile, in Ethiopia.
Amid the dispute with Ethiopia, Egypt has recently appeared to strengthen its position in the Horn of Africa by pledging security cooperation with Somalia, which opposes Ethiopia’s efforts to seek access to the sea via the Somali breakaway territory of Somaliland. Under the terms of an agreement reached last week, Egypt could deploy peacekeeping troops to Somalia when the mandate of AU peacekeepers expires at the end of 2024.
Egypt, a founding member of the Nile Basin Initiative, has long asserted its rights to Nile water according to the terms of an agreement.
The agreement between Egypt and the UK gave downstream Egypt and Sudan rights to the Nile water, with Egypt taking 55.5 billion cubic meters and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters of the total of 84 billion cubic meters, with 10 billion lost to evaporation.
That agreement, first signed in 1929, took no account of the other nations along the river basin that have been agitating for a more equitable accord.
Houthis say US, UK jets hit Red Sea Al-Saleef district in Hodeidah
- Rashad Al-Alimi accuses Iranian regime of orchestrating ‘new colonial schemes’ in Yemen
- Iranian FM meets Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul Sallam in Muscat
AL-MUKALLA: US and UK jets launched two strikes against targets in Yemen’s Houthi-held western province of Hodeidah on Monday, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah said, the latest in a series of military operations against the militia in response to attacks on civilian shipping.
The Houthis did not provide additional information about the targeted areas or whether there were any human or property losses.
The US military usually says that its strikes on Houthi areas target drone and missile launchers, as well as drone boats poised to strike ships.
It comes as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul Sallam in the Omani capital on Monday, as the president of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council accused Tehran of orchestrating “new colonial schemes” in Yemen.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that Araghchi “held a meeting in Muscat” with Abdul Sallam on Monday but provided little information about the agenda.
According to Houthi media, Abdul Sallam discussed ending Israel’s “aggression” against Palestinians and Lebanese, as well as “the latest developments in the region.”
Iran has long been accused of providing the Houthis with advanced weapons, media and political support, allowing the militia to seize power in Yemen a decade ago, seize new territory across the country, and fuel a war that has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and displaced millions more.
The Houthis have recently promised to support Iran against any Israeli attacks.
The Houthis are part of the Axis of Resistance, which includes Iran-backed groups in the region, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestine’s Hamas and Iraq’s Islamic Resistance.
Araghchi’s meeting with the Houthi official came hours after Rashad Al-Alimi, the chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, called on Yemenis to band together to counter Iran’s agenda in Yemen and end the Houthi coup.
Speaking on the eve of the 61st anniversary of the Oct. 14 revolution, Al-Alimi accused Iran of attempting to partition Yemen by supporting the Houthis, warning that the militia poses an “existential challenge” to the Yemeni people, their identity, and their relations with the regional and international communities.
“In the face of these extremely intertwined challenges, we have a historical responsibility to unite the republican ranks and stand firm against the new colonial schemes through which the Iranian regime seeks to confiscate our people’s will, and tear their identity and social fabric,” the Yemeni leader said.
The Yemeni leader also condemned Israeli airstrikes on Houthi-held Yemeni territory and demanded that the Houthis end their attacks on international shipping lanes and stop exploiting Yemen’s outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The enormity of Iran’s role will not cause us to ignore Israel’s extremist behavior throughout the region and condemn its repeated aggression against Yemen, its people’s capabilities and national sovereignty,” Al-Alimi said.
Following Houthi drone and missile attacks on Israeli towns, Israeli jets launched two waves of strikes against Houthi-held Hodeidah in July and September, targeting power stations, ports and fuel storage facilities.
The Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and other seas off Yemen with drones, ballistic missiles and drones since November last year in a campaign in which the Yemeni militia claims to be supporting the Palestinian people and pressuring Israel to end its war in Gaza.
The US responded to the Houthi attacks by forming marine task forces to protect ships, designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization and launching strikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa, Hodeidah and other Yemeni areas controlled by the militia.
