IRBIL, Iraq: Election results from the vote for the regional parliament in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region show the two dominant Kurdish parties have maintained their hold while an opposition party has made inroads, officials said Wednesday.
According to the Independent High Electoral Commission, the Kurdistan Democratic Party — with its base of support in the regional capital, Irbil, and the city of in Dohuk — made the strongest showing, securing 39 seats.
The rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan won 23 seats, continuing its influence over the city of Sulaymaniyah. In the 2018 elections, the two parties won 45 and 21 seats, respectively.
A relatively new opposition party, New Generation, won 15 seats, a significant increase from the eight seats it got in 2018, when the party was first established.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union, which came in fourth with seven seats, announced it will join the New Generation in opposition in the regional, 100-seat parliament. Other minor parties took a smattering of seats.
Despite some technical issues at the polls, voters turned out in large numbers, with 72 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.
The surge in support for the New Generation appeared to stem from growing disillusionment among younger voters, who are increasingly frustrated with the region’s ongoing economic challenges, including delays in salary payments, high unemployment, and perceived corruption within the traditional political leadership.
Economic concerns remain at the forefront — widespread dissatisfaction over delayed payments to civil servants, fluctuating oil prices, and ongoing budget disputes with the central government in Baghdad have fueled calls for reform.
Three Assyrian Christian candidates and two Turkmen candidates secured the five remaining quota seats for minorities, despite the Iraqi federal court’s controversial elimination of the reserved seats for ethnic and religious minorities earlier this year.
These seats are usually filled by candidates backed by the major political parties, leading some to say that they do not offer a genuine minority representation.
“We no longer have true representation in the parliament or the government; our voices are being silenced,” said Toma Khoshaba, an Assyrian ethnic activist.
Khoshaba argued that that these “so-called independent Assyrian representatives occupying the quota seats are largely supported by the Kurdistan Democratic Party” or by Shiite factions.
“Their loyalty lies with these dominant political groups, not with our communities,” he said.
The election outcome will also play a pivotal role in determining how Kurdish leaders handle ongoing disputes with Baghdad, particularly over oil revenue sharing and budget allocations, as well as the region’s broader economic challenges.
Dominant Kurdish parties maintain their sway in the election for the parliament in the Iraqi region
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Dominant Kurdish parties maintain their sway in the election for the parliament in the Iraqi region
- The election outcome will also play a pivotal role in determining how Kurdish leaders handle ongoing disputes with Baghdad
Israeli couple arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran: police
- Israeli police charge Goliev couple carried out surveillance of sensitive Israeli sites
JERUSALEM: Israeli police said Thursday they had arrested an Israeli couple on suspicion of spying for Iran, barely a week after two groups allegedly working for Tehran were detained.
“The thwarting of Iran’s efforts to recruit Israelis continues,” said a statement from the police and Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet.
The two Israelis, a couple from the central city of Lod, had been involved in gathering intelligence on “national infrastructures, security sites and tracking a female academic,” the statement alleged.
“Rafael and Lala Goliev... residents of Lod, were arrested after they carried out tasks on behalf of an Iranian cell that recruits Israelis from the Caucasus countries in Israel.”
Police charged that the couple were recruited by Elshan (Elhan) Agayev, an Azerbaijani national acting on behalf of Iranian officials. It was unclear if Agayev is based in Israel.
They alleged that the Golievs carried out surveillance of sensitive Israeli sites, including the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, and collected intelligence on an academic working at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
Thursday’s announcement comes little more than a week after Israeli security services said they had uncovered two other suspected spy rings.
On October 22, Israeli police said they had arrested a group of seven Palestinians from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem they suspected of planning attacks for Iran.
A day earlier, police said they had arrested seven Israeli citizens from the city of Haifa on suspicion of carrying out hundreds of spy missions on Iran’s orders.
The previous week, two other Israelis were charged with various offenses after they were allegedly approached by Iranian agents and asked to carry out spy missions.
In September, an Israeli identified as Mordechai Maman from the coastal city of Ashkelon, was arrested on suspicion of being recruited by Iran to plot the assassination of top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel is currently engaged in a multi-front conflict with Iran-backed groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Israel army issues evacuation call for south Lebanon including refugee camp
- Among the areas listed was Rashidieh camp, which houses thousands of Palestinian refugees
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army issued an evacuation call for several areas of south Lebanon Thursday, including a Palestinian refugee camp, warning it was poised to hit Hezbollah targets in those areas.
“Hezbollah’s terrorist activities force the IDF (army) to act forcefully against it in these areas, and we do not intend to harm you,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X. Among the areas listed was Rashidieh camp, which houses thousands of Palestinian refugees.
Turkiye arrests opposition mayor accused of being a member of PKK
- President Tayyip Erdogan’s government runs the governor’s office while the CHP runs the municipality
ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Thursday ordered the arrest of a mayor from Turkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over alleged militant ties.
A deputy governor of Istanbul has replaced Ahmet Ozer as CHP mayor of Istanbul’s immigrant-heavy Esenyurt district after he was accused on Wednesday by the chief prosecutor’s office of being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Ozer denies the terrorism-related claims, while his party said it would defend him against the “unfounded allegations.”
President Tayyip Erdogan’s government runs the governor’s office while the CHP runs the municipality.
The court order comes days after the PKK claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on Turkish defense company TUSAS that killed five people in Ankara.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said the arrest was based on “abstract allegations” and was intended to harm the will of the people.
“We will undoubtedly...defeat this vile mind that does not recognize the nation and does not respect the people’s choices, and will thwart this disgusting plan,” Ozel said in a post on X.
The CHP’s central executive committee will meet on Thursday at CHP Esenyurt headquarters, and Ozel has called on residents to gather around Esenyurt municipality to protest against the decision.
The PKK has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkiye for four decades, with more than 40,000 people killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies.
Officials in West Bank say Israeli raid has killed 3
- The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire
RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials said Thursday that an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike and third by Israeli gunfire. The Israeli military said its forces were targeting militants in the area of the Nur Shams refugee camp, which has seen repeated battles in recent months. The military said it eliminated a Hamas militant in the area who was involved in planning attacks on Israelis.
Meanwhile, mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to wind down the regional conflict.
Hezbollah’s newly named leader, Naim Kassem, said the militant group will keep fighting in its war with Israel until it is offered ceasefire terms it deems acceptable.
Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates. Lebanon’s Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 12,900 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.
The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.
Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says
- Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the laws are “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves”
- Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated the agency
RIYADH: The head of the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and create further instability in Gaza and the West Bank.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview — the first since the laws were passed — that the legislation is “ultimately against the Palestinians themselves,” effectively denying them a functioning provider of lifesaving services, education and health care.
UNRWA has been the main agency procuring and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of around 2.3 million Palestinians relies on the agency for survival amid Israel’s nearly 13-month-old war with the militant Hamas group.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in UNRWA-run schools. Other aid groups say the agency’s strong, decades-old infrastructure across Gaza is irreplaceable. So far, Israel has put forward no plan for getting food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s population in UNRWA’s absence.
Israel alleges that Hamas and other militants have infiltrated UNRWA, using its facilities and taking aid — claims for which it has provided little evidence. The laws, passed by parliament this week, sever all ties with UNRWA and ban its operations in Israel.
And since the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank must go through Israeli authorities, the laws threaten to close its activities there as well. The laws are expected to come into effect in three months.
If the Israeli decision is implemented “this would be a total disaster, it is like throwing (out) the baby with the water,” Lazzarini told the AP, speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where he is attending a conference to discuss the Mideast conflict.
“This would create a vacuum. It would also feed more instability in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Having UNRWA ending its activities within the three months would also mean more people will die in Gaza.”
He said the agency is looking for “creative ways to keep our operation going.” He appealed for support from the UN General Assembly and donors to keep providing services and called on Israel to rescind the decision or extend the three-month grace period. He said Israel has not officially communicated with the agency following the adoption of the laws.
For decades, UNRWA has operated networks of schools, medical facilities and other services around Gaza and the West Bank — as well as in neighboring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In Gaza especially, it plays a major role in maintaining social services and the economy, as the territory’s largest single employer and the source of education and health care for much of the population.
The laws threaten to shut down all those operations, impacting the education and welfare of hundreds of thousands of children well into the future, he said.
“We have today 1 in 2 persons in Gaza below the age of 18, among them 650,000 girls and boys living in the rubble, deeply traumatized at the age of primary and secondary school,” he said. “Getting rid of UNRWA is also a way to tell these children that you will have no future. We are just sacrificing your education. Education is the only thing which has never, ever been taken away from the Palestinians.”
UNRWA was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It now offers support to the refugees and their descendants, who number some 6 million around the region.
Lazzarini said the Israeli laws are the “culmination of years of attack against the agency.” He said “the objective is to strip the Palestinian from refugee status.”
International law gives Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes. Israel has refused to allow their return, saying it would end the Jewish majority in the country. Israel has said the refugees should be taken in by their host countries, and officials often argue that UNRWA’s services keep Palestinians’ hopes for return alive.
In a letter to the UN, Lazzarini said the Israeli laws and campaign against the agency “will not terminate the refugee status of the Palestinians, which exists independently of UNRWA’s services, but will severely harm their lives and future.”
Israel claims hundreds of Palestinian militants work for UNRWA, without providing evidence, and that more than a dozen employees took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that ignited the latest war.
The UN has fired nine staffers after internal investigations found they may have participated in the attack. UNRWA has nearly 30,000 staff around the region, including 13,000 in Gaza, most of them Palestinians. Israel also says Hamas fighters operate in UNRWA schools and other facilities in Gaza — and has hit many of them with airstrikes.
UNRWA denies knowingly aiding armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks.
Lazzarini said Israel has not responded to inquiries from UNRWA for details about other allegations, including that the agency’s premises are used by militant groups.. With the continued fighting, the agency has been unable to verify the claims, he said and called for an independent investigation.
At least 237 UNRWA staff have been killed in the war in Gaza, a toll among UN staff not seen in any other conflict. Over 200 UNRWA facilities have been damaged or destroyed, killing more than 560 people sheltering there.
Lazzarini spoke on the sidelines of the conference by the Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution, a Saudi government-created initiative attended by foreign ministers from Arab, Muslim, African and European countries.
“If we want to be successful in any future political transition, we need an agency like UNRWA taking care of education and the primary health of the Palestinian refugees” until there is a viable functioning state or administration to do so, he said.
