PARIS: French former President Nicolas Sarkozy is to be investigated over allegations that he accepted cash from former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi to fund his 2007 election campaign.
Judicial sources confirmed yesterday that a formal probe has been opened that could lead to Sarkozy facing a second set of corruption-related charges arising from his campaign.
Sarkozy, 58, was charged last month with taking advantage of a person incapacitated by illness in a case that centers on allegations he accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from France’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt.
He adamantly denies any wrongdoing and is suing investigative news website Mediapart over the Libya allegations. Mediapart reported last April that Qaddafi’s regime had contributed 50 million euros to Sarkozy’s successful 2007 campaign.
Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman who is embroiled in a series of political financing scandals in France, has also repeatedly claimed that he has proof Sarkozy was financed by the Libyans but has refused to make his evidence public.
Qaddafi’s regime was toppled and he himself was killed in 2011 following an uprising backed by a NATO intervention that Sarkozy was instrumental in organizing.
That won him international acclaim but his reputation has been blighted since leaving office last year by a slew of judicial probes into his conduct during his time as president or as a government minister.
As well as the Libya and Bettencourt cases, he is the subject of ongoing investigations into alleged cronyism in the awarding of contracts for opinion polls, an illegal police investigation into journalists and alleged kickbacks on a Pakistani arms deal. Sarkozy lost his immunity from prosecution after losing the 2012 presidential election to Francois Hollande.
Sarkozy investigated over Qaddafi funding claims
Sarkozy investigated over Qaddafi funding claims
Hamas says will free hostages if end to Gaza war guaranteed
- Hamas is engaged in negotiations in Cairo with mediators from Egypt and Qatar
- Senior Hamas official accuses Israel of obstructing progress toward a ceasefire
Hamas is engaged in negotiations in Cairo with mediators from Egypt and Qatar – two nations working alongside the United States to broker a ceasefire in the besieged territory.
“We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” Taher Al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, said.
However, he accused Israel of obstructing progress toward a ceasefire.
“The issue is not the number of captives,” Nunu said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war.”
“Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation (Israel) to uphold the agreement,” he added.
Israeli news website Ynet reported on Monday that a new proposal had been put to Hamas.
Under the deal, the group would release 10 living hostages in exchange for US guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.
The first phase of the ceasefire, which began on January 19 and included multiple hostage-prisoner exchanges, lasted two months before disintegrating.
Efforts toward a new truce have stalled, reportedly over disputes regarding the number of hostages to be released by Hamas.
Meanwhile, Nunu said that Hamas would not disarm, a key condition that Israel has set for ending the war.
“The weapons of the resistance are not up for negotiation,” Nunu said.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 1,574 Palestinians had been killed since March 18, when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,944.
Iran FM to head to Moscow, discuss US nuclear talks
On Saturday, Araghchi held talks with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat, the highest-level Iranian-US nuclear negotiations since the collapse of a 2015 accord.
“Dr. Araghchi will travel to Moscow at the end of the week,” said spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, adding that the trip was “pre-planned” and would be “an opportunity to discuss the latest developments related to the Muscat talks.”
Iran and the United States separately described Saturday’s discussions as “constructive.”
The negotiations came weeks after US President Donald Trump sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for nuclear talks while warning of possible military action if Tehran refused.
Russia, a close ally of Iran, and China have held discussions with Iran in recent weeks over its nuclear program.
Moscow welcomed the Iran-US talks as it pushed for a diplomatic solution and warned that military confrontation would be a “global catastrophe.”
Another round of talks between Iran and the United States is scheduled for Saturday, April 19.
Iran has yet to confirm the location but the Dutch foreign minister and diplomatic sources said that the upcoming discussions would be held in the Italian capital.
The official IRNA news agency reported that they would be held in Europe, without elaborating.
Baqaei said the next set of talks would continue to be indirect with Omani mediation, adding that direct talks were “not effective” and “not useful.”
He had previously said that the only focus of the upcoming talks would be “the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions,” and that Iran “will not have any talks with the American side on any other issue.”
Late Sunday, IRNA reported that Tehran’s regional influence and its missile capabilities were among its “red lines” in the talks.
In 2018, during Trump’s first term in office, Washington withdrew from the 2015 agreement and reinstated biting sanctions on Tehran.
Iran continued to adhere to the agreement for a year after Trump’s withdrawal but later began rolling back its compliance.
Iran has consistently denied that it is seeking nuclear weapons.
Baqaei reiterated that Iran would host United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi in the coming days but noted that the details of his trip were still “to be decided on.”
In a post on X, Grossi confirmed that he would be heading to Tehran “later this week.”
“Continued engagement and cooperation with the Agency is essential at a time when diplomatic solutions are urgently needed,” he said.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency last visited Iran in November when he held talks with top officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In its latest quarterly report in February, the IAEA said Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms (605 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent, which far exceeds the 3.67 percent limit set under the 2015 deal and is much closer to the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.
UAE, Iran discuss US-Iran talks in phone call amid push for regional stability
- The discussions, currently hosted by Oman, were welcomed by Sheikh Abdullah, who commended Iran’s willingness to engage in dialogue
DUBAI: Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, UAE deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, received a phone call on Sunday from Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, to discuss recent developments in the ongoing talks between the US and Iran.
The discussions, currently hosted by Oman, were welcomed by Sheikh Abdullah, who commended Iran’s willingness to engage in dialogue. He emphasized the importance of such efforts in reinforcing regional security and stability, as well as contributing to broader international peace.
France says Algeria threatening to expel diplomatic staff
- Algeria protested over the weekend against Frances’s detention of an Algerian consular agent suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian
PARIS: France said on Monday that Algeria had threatened to expel 12 of its diplomatic staff and that it would take immediate reprisals should that occur in the latest flare-up between them.
Algeria protested over the weekend against Frances’s detention of an Algerian consular agent suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian. French media said three people, including the diplomat, were under investigation over the seizure of Algerian government opponent Amir Boukhors.
“The Algerian authorities are demanding that 12 of our agents leave Algerian territory within 48 hours,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement.
“If the decision to expel our agents is maintained, we will have no choice but to respond immediately.”
There was no immediate confirmation from Algeria of an imminent expulsion.
France’s relations with its former colony have long been complicated, but took a turn for the worse last year when French President Emmanuel Macron angered Algeria by backing Morocco’s position over the disputed Western Sahara region.
Only last week, Barrot had said ties were returning to normal after a visit to Algeria.
Palestinian ministry says Israel PM’s criticism of Macron an ‘unjustified attack’
- Emmanuel Macron said that France could take the step during a United Nations conference in New York in June
- His remarks sparked a wave of criticism from right-wing groups in France and from Netanyahu and his son Yair
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian foreign ministry on Monday condemned the Israeli prime minister’s criticism of French President Emmanuel Macron for announcing that Paris intended to recognize a Palestinian state within months.
“The ministry strongly condemns the unjustified attack and offensive remarks made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his son against President Emmanuel Macron,” the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement.
“The ministry considers these statements a clear acknowledgement of Netanyahu’s ongoing hostility to peace based on the two-state solution, as well as a blatant rejection of international legitimacy and a persistent preference for violence and military solutions over the political path.”
Macron, in an interview with France 5 broadcast on Wednesday, said that France could take the step during a United Nations conference in New York in June, adding he hoped it would trigger a reciprocal recognition of Israel by Arab countries.
“We must move toward recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Macron said.
“I will do it because I believe that at some point it will be right and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must also allow all those who defend Palestine to recognize Israel in turn, which many of them do not do.”
His remarks sparked a wave of criticism from right-wing groups in France and from Netanyahu and his son Yair Netanyahu.
“Screw you!” Yair Netanyahu wrote in English on X late on Saturday, while Netanyahu himself dismissed Macron’s remarks.
“President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land – a state whose sole aspiration is the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“To this day, not a single figure in Hamas or the Palestinian Authority has condemned the horrors of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” he said, referring to the October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas on Israel.
He described it as “a silence that reveals their true attitude toward the Jewish state.
“We will not endanger our existence over illusions detached from reality, and we will not accept moral lectures about establishing a Palestinian state that would threaten Israel’s survival — especially not from those who oppose granting independence to Corsica, New Caledonia, French Guiana, and other territories, whose independence would pose no threat to France whatsoever.”
