World leaders on Saturday condemned a deadly but foiled coup attempt by a faction of the Turkish army against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule.
The Gulf nation of Qatar, which has close ties to Erdogan’s government, was quick to condemn the military coup attempt.
It called the attempted coup a “violation of the constitutional legitimacy” in Turkey and said it supports all legal measures the government takes to maintain security and stability.
The official Qatar News Agency said the ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has spoken with Erdogan by phone to express Qatar’s support.
Qatar and Turkey have grown increasingly close in recent years, and share similar stances on their support for Syrian rebel groups and the Muslim Brotherhood. The two countries agreed last year to establish a Turkish military base in Qatar.
Rivals Iran and Israel, which have both had strained relationships with Erdogan’s government, condemned the putsch that began late on Friday night.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke with his Turkish counterpart three times since the crisis began.
On Twitter, he hailed the Turkish people’s “defense of democracy & their elected government” which he said “proves that coups have no place in our region and are doomed to fail.”
“Deeply concerned about the crisis in Turkey,” Zarif tweeted late on Friday. “Stability, democracy & safety of Turkish people are paramount. Unity & prudence are imperative.”
Israel, which last month approved a deal to restore ties frozen after a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish ship in 2010, also condemned the coup attempt.
“Israel respects the democratic process in Turkey and looks forward to the continuation of the reconciliation process between Turkey and Israel,” said foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.
Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers, who have friendly ties with Qatar as well as Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted AKP party “condemned the failed coup attempt” and “congratulated the people and the Turkish leadership for successfully protecting democracy.”
Turkey has recently obtained several compromises from Israel over Gaza including authorization for Ankara to build a hospital.
In Khartoum, Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir condemned “the attempted coup in Turkey and the disturbance of security and stability in the country.”
“The government of Sudan and its people stand besides President Erdogan and the people of Turkey to ensure security and stability in Turkey,” the presidency statement added.
Syria’s exiled Syrian opposition congratulated the Turkish people for halting the attempted military coup.
The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition said Turkey has protected its democratic institutions “in the face of dark and desperate attempts that sought to take control of the popular will.”
Turkey has been one of the main backers of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad, and is hosting some 2.7 million Syrian refugees.
In the early hours of the attempted coup, celebratory gunfire broke out across Damascus. The government and its supporters view the rebels as terrorists and consider Turkey to be one of their chief sponsors.
World powers react
In Washington, President Barack Obama urged all sides in Turkey to support the democratically elected government of Erdogan amid the military takeover attempt involving the key NATO ally.
In a statement issued after a meeting with his national security advisers Friday, Obama also urged everyone in Turkey to show restraint and avoid violence or bloodshed.
Turkey plays a key role in the US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group. American jets use its Incirlik air base to fly missions against the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
Obama discussed the developments by telephone with Secretary of State John Kerry, who was traveling in Moscow for separate meetings with senior Russian officials on Syria.
In a separate statement, Kerry said he had stressed in a telephone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu the United States’ “absolute support” for Turkey’s democratically elected, civilian government and democratic institutions. Kerry said he urged all parties to ensure the safety and well-being of diplomatic missions, personnel and civilians across Turkey.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday turmoil in Turkey threatened regional stability and called on the Turkish authorities to resolve the situation without violence and within the country’s constitutional framework.
It spoke out as forces loyal to the Turkish government fought on Saturday to crush the remnants of a military coup attempt which crumbled after crowds answered President Tayyip Erdogan’s call to take to the streets and dozens of rebels abandoned their tanks.
Relations between the Kremlin and Erdogan remain strained over the Syria crisis and the Turkish shooting down of a Russian fighter jet in November despite an agreement last month to resume bilateral cooperation after a period of tension.
“In Moscow we are gravely concerned about events inside the Turkish republic,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The escalation of the political situation (in Turkey) against the backdrop of existing terrorist threats in this country and of armed conflict in the region pose heightened risks for international and regional stability.”
Safe and secure
NATO’s chief says all alliance personnel and military units in Turkey are “safe and secure” following the attempted coup. Turkeyis a member of the Atlantic alliance.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a Twitter post that he had spoken to NATO’s supreme commander, US Army Gen. Curtis M. Scapparrotti, who “confirms that all NATO personnel and units in Turkey are safe and secure.”
The alliance chief also tweeted that he welcomed “the strong support shown by the people and all political parties to democracy and to the democratically elected gov of Turkey.”
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he had spoken to his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to underline support for Turkey’s “democratic elected government and institutions” in the wake of the overnight coup attempt.
Spain’s acting Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo condemned the attempted coup, telling Spanish national television that his government completely supports the Turkish government headed by Erdogan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday turmoil in Turkey threatened regional stability and called on the Turkish authorities to resolve the situation without violence and within the country’s constitutional framework.
It spoke out as forces loyal to the Turkish government fought on Saturday to crush the remnants of a military coup attempt which crumbled after crowds answered President Tayyip Erdogan’s call to take to the streets and dozens of rebels abandoned their tanks.
Relations between the Kremlin and Erdogan remain strained over the Syria crisis and the Turkish shooting down of a Russian fighter jet in November despite an agreement last month to resume bilateral cooperation after a period of tension.
“In Moscow we are gravely concerned about events inside the Turkish republic,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The escalation of the political situation (in Turkey) against the backdrop of existing terrorist threats in this country and of armed conflict in the region pose heightened risks for international and regional stability.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said “democratic institutions should be respected in Turkey.”
“We strongly hope that the situation will return to normal and that order and peace will be restored as soon as possible,” he said in a statement.
An aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Tariq Fatimi, condemned the attempted coup in a statement and said Pakistan “hopes that peace and normalcy will be restored in Turkey.”
Pakistan’s main political parties have also praised the people of Turkey for foiling the coup.
Sharif was himself overthrown in a 1999 coup led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan until 2008.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani expressed support for Turkey’s elected government, saying in a statement that “democratic elections are the most effective means for peaceful transfer of power.”
“Militaristic options will only undermine democratic institutions, stability and development in the country,” the statement from Ghani’s office said.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter said his country condemns the attempted coup “in the firmest way.”
“Based on the number of deaths and the way it was carried out, this attempted coup can be also called an act of terror,” he said.
The president of Turkey’s neighbor Azerbaijan condemned the attempted coup.
President Ilham Aliev was concerned about developments in Turkey and “welcomed measures taken to prevent the attempt at a coup and to stabilize the situation,” spokesman Ali Hasanov said.
Azerbaijan is a Turkic nation and its late president Geidar Aliev once described their relations as “one nation, two states” — a phrase later echoed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkmenistan says the coup attempt has caused “serious anxiety.”
The Foreign Ministry said President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov “expressed support for the Turkish people and government and also firm confidence in stabilizing the situation in Turkey.”
Turkmenistan is ethnically Turkic but does not share a border with Turkey.
World leaders denounce deadly Turkish coup bid
World leaders denounce deadly Turkish coup bid
Turkiye says France must take back its militants from Syria
- Ankara is threatening military action against Kurdish fighters in the northeast
- Turkiye considers the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as linked to its domestic nemesis
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insisted Turkiye’s only aim was to ensure “stability” in Syria after the toppling of strongman Bashar Assad.
In its sights are the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which have been working with the United States for the past decade to fight Daesh group militants.
Turkiye considers the group as linked to its domestic nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye and is considered a terror organization by both Turkiye and the US.
The US is currently leading talks to head off a Turkish offensive in the area.
“The US is our only counterpart... Frankly we don’t take into account countries that try to advance their own interests in Syria by hiding behind US power,” he said.
His remarks were widely understood to be a reference to France, which is part of an international coalition to prevent a militant resurgence in the area.
Asked about the possibility of a French-US troop deployment in northeast Syria, he said France’s main concern should be to take back its nationals who have been jailed there in connection with militant activity.
“If France had anything to do, it should take its own citizens, bring them to its own prisons and judge them,” he said.
Lebanese caretaker PM says country to begin disarming south Litani to ensure state presence
- Najib Mikati: ‘We are in a new phase – in this new phase, we will start with south Lebanon and south Litani’
DUBAI: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that the state will begin disarming southern Lebanon, particularly the south Litani region, to establish its presence across the country.
“We are in a new phase – in this new phase, we will start with south Lebanon and south Litani specifically in order to pull weapons so that the state can be present across Lebanese territory,” Mikati said.
Tanker hit by Yemen militia that threatened Red Sea spill has been salvaged
- The Sounion had been a disaster in waiting in the waterway, with 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard
- The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started
DUBAI: An oil tanker that burned for weeks in the Red Sea and threatened a massive oil spill has been “successfully” salvaged, a security firm said Friday.
The Sounion had been a disaster in waiting in the waterway, with 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard that had been struck and later sabotaged with explosives by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militia. It took months for salvagers to tow the vessel away, extinguish the fires and offload the remaining crude oil.
The Houthis initially attacked the Greek-flagged Sounion tanker on Aug. 21 with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat. A French destroyer operating as part of Operation Aspides rescued its crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, after they abandoned the vessel and took them to nearby Djibouti.
The Houthis later released footage showing they planted explosives on board the Sounion and ignited them in a propaganda video, something the militia have done before in their campaign.
The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Lancet study estimates Gaza death toll 40% higher than recorded
- The number of dead in Gaza has become a matter of bitter debate since Israel launched its military offensive
- The study’s best death toll estimate was 64,260, which would mean the health ministry had under-reported the number of deaths
PARIS: Research published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.
The number of dead in Gaza has become a matter of bitter debate since Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas in response to the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
Up to June 30 last year, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported a death toll of 37,877 in the war.
However the new peer-reviewed study used data from the ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries to estimate that there were between 55,298 and 78,525 deaths from traumatic injuries in Gaza by that time.
The study’s best death toll estimate was 64,260, which would mean the health ministry had under-reported the number of deaths to that point by 41 percent.
That toll represented 2.9 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population, “or approximately one in 35 inhabitants,” the study said.
The UK-led group of researchers estimated that 59 percent of the deaths were women, children and the elderly.
The toll was only for deaths from traumatic injuries, so did not include deaths from a lack of health care or food, or the thousands of missing believed to be buried under rubble.
AFP is unable to independently verify the death toll.
On Thursday, Gaza’s health ministry said that 46,006 people had died over the full 15 months of war.
In Israel, the 2023 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel has repeatedly questioned the credibility of the Gaza health ministry’s figures, but the United Nations have said they are reliable.
The researchers used a statistical method called “capture-recapture” that has previously been used to estimate the death toll in conflicts around the world.
The analysis used data from three different lists, the first provided by the Gaza health ministry of the bodies identified in hospitals or morgues.
The second list was from an online survey launched by the health ministry in which Palestinians reported the deaths of relatives.
The third was sourced from obituaries posted on social media platforms such as X, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, when the identity of the deceased could be verified.
“We only kept in the analysis those who were confirmed dead by their relatives or confirmed dead by the morgues and the hospital,” lead study author Zeina Jamaluddine, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said.
The researchers scoured the lists, searching for duplicates.
“Then we looked at the overlaps between the three lists, and based on the overlaps, you can come up with a total estimation of the population that was killed,” Jamaluddine said.
Patrick Ball, a statistician at the US-based Human Rights Data Analysis Group not involved in the research, has used capture-recapture methods to estimate death tolls for conflicts in Guatemala, Kosovo, Peru and Colombia.
Ball said the well-tested technique has been used for centuries and that the researchers had reached “a good estimate” for Gaza.
Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at Britain’s Open University, said there was “inevitably a lot of uncertainty” when making estimates from incomplete data.
But he said it was “admirable” that the researchers had used three other statistical analysis approaches to check their estimates.
“Overall, I find these estimates reasonably compelling, he added.
The researchers cautioned that the hospital lists do not always provide the cause of death, so it was possible that people with non-traumatic health problems — such as a heart attack — could have been included, potentially leading to an overestimate.
However there were other ways that the war’s toll could still be underestimated.
The study did not include missing people. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said that around 10,000 missing Gazans are thought to be buried under rubble.
There are also indirect ways that war can claim lives, such as a lack of health care, food, water, sanitation or the spread of disease. All have stricken Gaza since October 2023.
In a contentious, non-peer-reviewed letter published in The Lancet in July, another group of researchers used the rate of indirect deaths seen in other conflicts to suggest that 186,000 deaths could eventually be attributed to the Gaza war.
The new study suggested that this projection “might be inappropriate due to obvious differences in the pre-war burden of disease” in Gaza compared to conflicts in countries such as Burundi and East Timor.
Jamaluddine said she expected that “criticism is going to come from different sides” about the new research.
She spoke out against the “obsession” of arguing about death tolls, emphasizing that “we already know that there is a lot of high mortality.”
What AI-agents and blockchain in a ‘Post Web’ world means for tech-savvy Middle East
- Web3 redefined the internet with “read, write, own,” but Post Web takes it further, enabling users to “delegate” tasks through AI agents
- Post Web shifts from attention-driven platforms to intention-based systems, with AI agents handling tasks autonomously
RIYADH: As blockchain and cryptocurrency drive the internet toward decentralization, the shift from Web 3.0 to Post Web is underway. And with a young, tech-savvy population and substantial investments in advanced technologies, the Middle East is poised for early adoption.
Building on this vision of a self-organizing, user-centered internet, Outlier Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm and accelerator specializing in Web3 and blockchain ecosystems, has announced the launch of its “Post Web Thesis.”
As predicted in Outlier Ventures’ 2016 “Convergence Thesis,” advancements in AI are merging with Web3 infrastructure to simplify the latter’s complexity.
Intuitive interfaces and automation now manage tasks like signing transactions, handling fees and bridging chains, making digital property rights and Web3 applications — or decentralized apps — more accessible and scalable through delegation.
“AI agents can now serve users by acting on their intent with a blend of deterministic precision and adaptive flexibility through hyper-contextual experiences,” Jamie Burke, Outlier Ventures CEO and founder, told Arab News.
“In essence, in the Post Web, users won’t just read, write and own — they will also have the ability to delegate.”
An AI agent, Burke says, is intelligent, autonomous software powered by AI to interpret intentions, gather context and execute tasks across decentralized networks, either independently or on behalf of users, with varying degrees of sovereignty.
Those agents will initially handle simple tasks, such as booking appointments, but can gain economic agency over time by interacting with distributed ledger technology such as blockchain, enabling users to perform tasks without a centralized authority.
Burke highlighted the Middle East and North Africa region as a prime candidate for early adoption of the Post Web, citing its young, tech-savvy population and significant investments in advanced technologies.
The region’s advantages could position it as a global hub for Post Web innovation and development, he said.
Opinion
This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)
Web3 defines the web’s “read-write-own” era. Its original goal was to create a decentralized internet using blockchain technology, giving users digital property rights and greater control over their data and assets.
Unlike Web 2.0’s reliance on centralized platforms, Web3, the latest evolution of the World Wide Web since Tim Berners-Lee’s creation in 1989, leverages blockchain technology to enable peer-to-peer interactions without intermediaries.
“Web3’s promise was to ‘unbundle’ the centralized platforms of the Web2 era, promoting greater control for users and peer-to-peer economic interactions,” Burke said.
“But a decade on we can see that mass adoption of its applications just isn’t going to be possible in its current form because, whilst it was a functional upgrade to the internet, Web3 ultimately still isn’t usable for the majority of the people.”
This sets the stage for the “Post Web Thesis,” which examines how the convergence of Web3 and AI could transform the internet.
Rather than operating within the constraints of the “attention economy,” this new paradigm envisions a shift toward an “intention economy” — one where user purpose and goals drive engagement and value creation.
“This shift will reimagine the web, moving from today’s human-centered interactions to a world where machines and autonomous agents act on our behalf through intent-based architectures,” said Burke.
This means that, in the near future, much of the consumer internet could be outsourced to intelligent agents that bypass search engines, price comparison websites and applications, instead accessing application programming interfaces and other agents directly to find information and compare services.
The Post Web’s intention economy seeks to prioritize users’ needs by seamlessly aligning their goals with counterparties through contextual, dynamic interfaces. This approach enables more valuable interactions while minimizing waste and reducing exploitation.
“This marks a profound shift toward an internet that organizes itself around solving real user needs, rather than mindlessly harvesting attention,” Burke said.
“We still believe that humans will interact with the web, but rather than spending hours searching for the best insurance for example or flights for a holiday, time will be spent with much more enriching engagements that people enjoy doing social, gaming and immersive shopping.”
And as AI agents handle most transactional activities and routine tasks in the background, the traditional web will largely fade away, making room for the “Thin Web.”
Inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this streamlined web offers varying levels of immersion based on users’ personal and environmental contexts.
A simple example of how the Post Web will transform online experiences is booking a family holiday.
Traditional websites are often cluttered with ads for packages that do not fully meet a family’s needs, forcing users to make rushed or suboptimal decisions. Search engines, driven by optimization practices, frequently prioritize results based on rankings rather than quality.
“Paid advertisements and manipulation of organic rankings through search optimization often overwhelm users,” Burke said.
“While price comparison websites may seem like an alternative, these platforms also complicate matters. They typically prioritize results based on auction placements, and comparisons are rarely like-for-like.”
If a user is purchasing holiday insurance for a family with diverse ages and interests, a basic plan might not cover an advanced scuba diver, a beginner and another child who prefers surfing.
The more multidimensional and diverse the trip, the more complex and time-consuming the planning becomes.
In an intention economy, an AI agent compares policies across multiple dimensions, such as payout structures, activity-specific coverage and unique risk factors, Burke said.
“For example, they could recommend a product tailored to a family with an experienced scuba diver and novice scuba diver, factoring in skill level, diving conditions based on weather reports, and other nuances to ensure optimal coverage.”
In terms of cost-effectiveness, Burke says the Post Web eliminates inefficiencies in the consumer internet and “software as a service” sectors. It removes unnecessary intermediaries and aligns outcomes with user needs, resulting in faster, cheaper and better solutions.
DID YOUKNOW?
• In Outlier Ventures’ Post Web era, AI-driven agents will render search obsolete by acting directly on intent.
• The convergence of AI and blockchain will enable the agentic internet, where machines autonomously transact and collaborate.
• AI and Web3 could push organizations toward superfluidity, reducing friction and linking ideas and resources to fuel growth.
By enabling sellers to reach users without relying on interruptive advertising, it reduces costs for both buyers and sellers.
AI agents optimize the technology stack — compute, storage and networking — and replace inefficient centralized cloud systems. This benefits users and sellers but is a major loss for platforms profiting from the attention economy.
In addition to being a more cost-effective solution, the Post Web will lead to what Burke calls a “Supercycle.”
Burke believes these technologies will drive widespread adoption, bringing billions of users and real-world assets on-chain. This presents a valuable investment opportunity in digital assets, which will become crucial for powering the internet and its virtual supply chains.
Since these assets will reflect real-world supply and demand, they can be analyzed like traditional commodities, paving the way for billions in institutional and retail investments through exchange-traded funds and stock market indexes.
“It’s important to see the transition into the Post Web as a vision that will evolve and adapt over time,” he said.
“Web3 was first introduced 10 years ago and while we are sharing our vision for the Post Web now, we see this as an evolution that will evolve over the next 10 years.
“During this time the web as we know it will continue to evolve as AI agents manage more and more tasks on users’ behalf, and the most relevant technologies will converge into the Post Web, but others will become obsolete such as the app store and search.”
