Turkey OKs military intervention, warns Iraqi Kurds on vote

September 23, 2017

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Turkish parliament on Saturday renewed a bill allowing the military to intervene in Iraq and Syria if faced with national security threats — a move seen as a final warning to Iraqi Kurds to call off their Monday independence referendum.

The decree allows Turkey to send troops over its southern border if developments in Iraq or Syria are seen as national security threats. Turkish officials have repeatedly warned the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq to abandon its plans for independence.

Kurds are dispersed across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran and lack a nation state. Turkey itself has a large ethnic Kurdish population and is battling a Kurdish insurgency on its own territory that it calls separatist.

The bill read in parliament Saturday listed combating Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq and the Islamic State group as national security requirements for Turkey. It also emphasized the importance of Iraq and Syria's territorial integrity and said "separatism based on ethnicity" poses a threat to both Turkey and regional stability.

Speaking in parliament, Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli likened Monday's vote in northern Iraq to a brick that — if pulled out — could collapse an entire "structure built on sensitive and fragile balances." The resulting conflict could be global, he warned.

Osman Baydemir, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party or HDP — the third biggest group in parliament — called the bill "a war mandate" and "a proclamation of enmity towards 40 million Kurds." A dozen parliamentarians from the party are behind bars for alleged links to terror groups.

The HDP voted against the mandate Saturday. All other parties, including the main opposition Republican People's Party, voted for it. Earlier Saturday, the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called the referendum "a mistake, an adventure." He said Turkey would take diplomatic, political and economic measures according to "developments on the ground." He added a cross-border military operation was also an option.

The renewed mandate is a combination of two previous bills that are based on a constitutional article on the "declaration of state of war and authorization to deploy the armed forces." The Iraq Bill was passed in 2007 to combat outlawed Kurdish militants in northern Iraq to prevent attacks in Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK has its headquarters in Iraq's Qandil mountains. Turkey, the United States and the European Union consider it a terror organization.

The Syria Bill of 2012 was in response to mortar attacks by Syrian government forces on a Turkish border town. The combined bill was passed in 2014 as IS waged a deadly campaign in Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish town on the Turkish border. IS failed to take over the town and the victory strengthened Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG, who are now a key U.S. ally against IS in Syria. Turkey, however, considers them a terror group.

The mandate has allowed Turkey to launch a cross-border military operation into northern Syria with Syrian opposition forces in August 2016 to clear its border of IS and YPG. Turkey's air force has also been bombing targets in northern Iraq and Syria.

The Turkish military, meanwhile, said additional units joined this week's previously unannounced exercises near the Iraqi border. The chief of staff also met his Iraqi counterpart in Ankara to discuss the Kurdish referendum and border security.

Turkey warns Kurdish leaders on vote as parliament convenes

September 23, 2017

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish officials are pressing Iraqi Kurdish leaders to call off an upcoming independence referendum as Turkey's parliament convenes to renew a mandate for the country's military to intervene in Iraq and Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Saturday called the Monday referendum to create a Kurdish state in neighboring Iraq "a mistake, an adventure." Yildirim says Turkey would take diplomatic, political and economic measures according to "developments on the ground." He added that a cross-border operation also was an option.

The prime minister has said Saturday's vote would allow the military to get involved in "all kinds of developments" that threatened Turkey's security. Meanwhile, the Turkish military said additional units joined exercises near the Iraqi border as the chief of staff welcomed his Iraqi counterpart to the country.

Albania president rejects Kosovo passport request

October 11, 2017

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Albania's president has turned down a request from his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci to issue Albanian passports for citizens in neighboring Kosovo, the only nation in Europe excluded from a visa-free European travel zone.

Ilir Meta, who is visiting Kosovo Wednesday, said the solution was "through dialogue." The European Union insists Kosovo must approve a border demarcation deal with Montenegro before its citizens can enjoy visa-free travel within the so-called Schengen zone.

Opposition lawmakers in Kosovo have refused to ratify that deal, saying it meant Kosovo would lose land. Albania has enjoyed access to the visa-free regime since 2010. Kosovo's 1.9 million population is mainly ethnic Albanian.

Rival Palestinians Strike Gaza Unity Deal After Cairo Talks

By Saud Abu Ramadan and Fadwa Hodali
October 12, 2017

Rival Palestinian groups agreed on Thursday to end their decade-old rift, signing an Egyptian-brokered deal that will allow a unity government to resume control of the Gaza Strip and deploy forces to the border with Egypt within weeks.

Hamas, an embattled Islamist movement which had controlled Gaza since 2007, last week handed over most government functions to the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, in a first step toward ending divisions that have complicated the Palestinian bid for statehood.

Under the accord struck in Cairo, the consensus government will formally take full administrative control of Gaza by Dec. 1, according to a statement issued after the talks. The two sides have been invited to return to the Egyptian capital for more negotiations on Nov. 21. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered all state agencies to “restore the unity of the Palestinian people and institutions.”

In a joint news conference, chief Fatah negotiator Azzam al-Ahmad said the deal crucially would see the Palestinian Authority’s presidential guards deploy along the border between Gaza and Egypt by Nov. 1. If that leads to greater security, Egypt might be willing to permanently reopen the Rafah border crossing, one of the isolated coastal enclave’s few outlets to the world.

After initially shunning Hamas, the Egyptian government of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi sought its help in controlling the movement of militants and weapons through cross-border tunnels between Gaza and Egypt’s northern Sinai, where an Islamic State affiliate is fighting the Egyptian government -- a conflict that has battered the Red Sea tourist industry.

Armed Wing

“The consensus government has to take full control in the Gaza Strip and carry out all its duties and functions in all aspects of life, running the crossing points either with Israel or with Egypt,” Fatah’s Al-Ahmad said.

There was no indication from either side, however, that any understanding had been reached on the fate of Hamas’ armed wing, a sticking point which could yet scupper reconciliation efforts. Hamas leaders have said they would not disarm as long as Israel occupies Palestinian land. Abbas has said he wants weapons to be under unified control.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week warned against any “bogus” unity bid that would threaten his country if Hamas is allowed to keep its guns. On Thursday, he said any Palestinian government must meet the conditions of the international Quartet behind peace efforts, including recognizing Israel and respecting past agreements. Israel will watch as the situation develops and will react accordingly, he said.

The willingness of Hamas to work with Fatah, which governs the Authority’s West Bank territories, comes amid desperation in Gaza, whose economy has been strangled for years by an Israeli and Egyptian blockade, the destruction of its underground smuggling tunnels and wars with Israel. The destitution deepened earlier this year when Abbas engineered a power shortage to put further pressure on Hamas, which is shunned as a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and European Union.

Israeli Assertions

Gaza, which sits on the Mediterranean coast and is fenced in by heavily-patrolled barriers on three sides bordering Israel and Egypt, has been a frequent battleground over the past decade, during which Hamas has fought three wars with Israel. Abbas has tried numerous times without success to repair the rift, in part to counter Israeli assertions that peace negotiations are pointless because he can’t ensure that any treaty will also hold in Gaza.

Previous efforts to reconcile have failed due to disagreements over the fate of the weapons held by Hamas, as well as control of borders and other key institutions. This time, Hamas has gone further in offering concessions to heal the rift. As well as offering help to secure the border with Egypt, it has distanced itself from the Muslim Brotherhood, which former military chief El-Sisi removed from power in mid-2013.

Internationally isolated and with the economy in shreds, Hamas said last month it was ready to dismantle the administrative committee it set up earlier this year to run Gaza. Abbas viewed the panel as a shadow government and evidence of bad faith in the talks.

“We, in Hamas, are determined, serious and faithful this time,” Hamas negotiator Saleh Al-Arouri said at the news conference in Cairo. “This time is different to the previous times.”

— With assistance by Ahmed Feteha, Tarek El-Tablawy, Lin Noueihed, and Michael Arnold

Source: Bloomberg.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-12/palestinians-strike-gaza-unity-deal-after-marathon-cairo-talks.

Fatah, Hamas reach agreement in Palestinian reconciliation talks

2017-10-12

GAZA CITY - Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reached an agreement Thursday on ending a decade-long split following talks mediated by Egypt in Cairo, with president Mahmud Abbas calling it a "final" accord.

Details of the agreement have not yet been released and a press conference was being planned for Thursday afternoon in the Egyptian capital, where talks have been taking place since Tuesday.

Abbas welcomed the deal and said he considered it a "final agreement to end the division" -- though many details remain to be resolved and previous reconciliation attempts have repeatedly failed.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya's office said in a statement, without giving further details, that "an agreement was reached today between Hamas and Fatah under Egyptian sponsorship."

An official from Abbas's Fatah movement said the Palestinian president was now planning to travel to the Gaza Strip within a month as part of the unity bid in what would be his first visit in a decade.

Sanctions taken by Abbas against Hamas-controlled Gaza will also soon be lifted, the Fatah official said.

The deal includes 3,000 members of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority's police force redeploying to Gaza, a member of the negotiating team said on condition of anonymity.

The figure is however a fraction of the more than 20,000 police officers employed separately by Hamas.

Another party to the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agreement would see Palestinian Authority forces take control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

He added that all Palestinian factions would begin wider negotiations on the formation of a unity government in the coming two weeks.

One of the key issues has been punitive measures taken by Abbas against Gaza in recent months, including reducing electricity payments that left the territory's residents with only a few hours of power a day.

"All the measures taken recently will end very shortly," Zakaria al-Agha, a senior Fatah leader in the Gaza Strip, said.

The two sides had been meeting in the Egyptian capital this week with the aim of ending the crippling decade-old split between the rival factions.

Hamas seized Gaza from Fatah in a near civil war in 2007 and the two factions have been at loggerheads ever since. Multiple previous reconciliation efforts have failed.

Egypt has been keen to improve security in the Sinai Peninsula which borders Gaza and where jihadist rebels have fought a long-running insurgency.

An Egyptian source close to the talks said intelligence chief Khaled Fawzi had followed the talks closely.

- Fate of armed wing -

Last month, Hamas agreed to cede civil power in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority but the fate of its vast military wing remains a significant issue for the two sides.

Islamist movement Hamas is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

It has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and the blockaded Gaza Strip has seen deteriorating humanitarian conditions.

Faced with increasing isolation and a severe electricity shortage, Hamas has reached out to Egypt for help, hoping to have the Rafah border opened.

The crossing has remained largely closed in recent years.

Egypt has also agreed to provide fuel to the Gaza Strip for electricity generation.

In return, Cairo pressed Hamas to move forward on reconciliation with Fatah.

Previous attempts at reconciliation have repeatedly failed, and many analysts are treating the latest bid with caution, waiting to see if actual change will occur on the ground.

Last week, Palestinian Authority prime minister Rami Hamdallah visited Gaza for the first time since 2015 and his ministers took formal control of government departments in the territory.

But the move was seen as mainly symbolic, with Hamas still effectively in charge in the Palestinian enclave of two million people bordered by Egypt, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.

One of the key sticking points will be the fate of Hamas's 25,000-strong military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

Reconciliation could also pose a dilemma for international efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal since Hamas has not recognized Israel, unlike the Abbas-led Palestine Liberation Organization.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85354.

Rabat restaurant champions mentally disabled workers

2017-10-11

RABAT - In a country where nearly half of people with mental disabilities are unemployed, one restaurant in the Moroccan capital is part of a pilot project tackling the problem.

When a customer enters the Hadaf restaurant in the capital's business district, nothing indicates that many of the staff are disabled in any way.

Take Amr, an enthusiastic 28-year-old in a crisp white shirt and black trousers.

He scouts the street for prospective clients as front of house staff add vases as the finishing touches to tables.

"I first learnt in the canteen," Amr said.

"Now I take orders from customers in the restaurant -- I like the contact with them, getting to know each other," he added.

The experiment was launched by a local association created by parents to shake up prejudices and serve as a springboard for young people with mental disabilities.

The jobless rate for such people is 47.65 percent, four times the average in a country which has 2.3 million disabled, according to a study published last year by the families ministry.

Soumia Amrani is on the board of a human rights group and the co-chair of a disability-focused collective.

She believes the battle to integrate must begin at an early age.

"You can't prepare children to be sociable and learn to join society if they stay on the margins of that society," she said.

"They must be inside society to learn with everyone else."

- Constitutional rules -

In the kitchen at Hadaf, 28-year-old Moed, chef's hat perched on his head, is delighted to have a trade after spending just three years in primary school.

"I've learnt a lot from my colleagues. I'm very happy and my family is proud of me," he said.

Morocco's 2011 constitution says those with disabilities should be able to "integrate and rehabilitate into civil life".

But things are different in reality. Just 41.8 percent of disabled youngsters aged between six and 17 go to school, and in the six to 11 range that figure falls to 37.8 percent.

Another indicator that there is a problem is that a third of homeless people suffer from some form of disability.

"This restaurant? It's a good thing for me and the customers," said Moed as he chopped parsley for the salad of the day, all grown from the restaurant's own organic garden.

Other young people busied themselves at the kitchen work surfaces as skewers of meat sizzled on the flames.

The restaurant is part of the Hadaf Center -- Hadaf means "goal" in Arabic -- that was established 20 years ago by a group of parents and friends of people dealing with mental disabilities.

Today, it looks after 90 young people in the greater Rabat area, with more on the waiting list.

In addition to the catering business, others undergo training in such diverse areas as gardening, jewelry-making, carpentry and sewing.

Their studies have to be paid for, unless families are too badly off to afford them.

- Strength in numbers -

Amina Mesfer is the driving force behind the project. She has an adult son of 38 with mental and sight disabilities.

"It became clear to me very quickly that I couldn't do everything on my own, but that getting a group together meant we could work on solutions," she said.

"There were care structures in place, but only until they were 21 -- as if a mental disability miraculously evaporates at that age -- and then our children were left to their own devices."

In the dining room at Hadaf, business was brisk as Fati Badi polished off her creme caramel.

"It's the first time I've been here, and I'm very pleasantly surprised," she said, having come to dine with a friend.

"Nice surroundings, the quality of the service and the food -- it's all here.

"They've set an example -- it's a way of empowering people with disabilities in the best way possible."

The Hadaf Center also has a guest house that provides some income and gives the young people the chance to socialise, said Mesfer.

Since 2016, a center funded by the Mohamed VI Foundation has provided training and diplomas.

Five students trained by Hadaf have already been able to obtain certification there -- basically a passport to a job.

Which is exactly what Amr hopes will happen.

"When I've learnt my trade well, I'd like to work in a restaurant or hotel," he said, a great big smile on his face.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85337.

Catalan leader urged to definitively declare independence

October 13, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Pressure is mounting from within the Catalan separatist movement on Friday for the regional president to declare independence from Spain once and for all, a move that could prompt the central government to take over the region's powers of self-governance.

Two key allies in the secessionist bid are joining voices from within the ruling pro-independence coalition urging regional leader Carles Puigdemont to ignore Spain's warnings and lift the suspension on his ambiguous secession proclamation earlier this week.

In a highly anticipated parliamentary speech, Puigdemont said that Catalonia was proceeding with a declaration of independence after an Oct. 1 referendum, but proposed freezing its implementation for a few weeks to allow for the possibility of negotiations with Spain.

Spain considers the referendum to be illegal and unconstitutional, and says its results are invalid. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has rejected any possibility of dialogue unless Puigdemont backtracks and returns "to legality." He has also said that Spain doesn't need international mediators in the political deadlock.

Rajoy's government gave Puigdemont a Monday deadline to clarify whether he really declared independence. If Puigdemont says he did, then he will have three more days to cancel any secession plans. If he refuses to, or doesn't answer, Rajoy has threatened to trigger for the first time a constitutional article that could give central authorities power to intervene directly in Catalonia.

The far-left separatist Catalan party CUP said in a letter dated Friday that Puigdemont should ignore the Spanish government's warning, lift the suspension and definitively proclaim independence. The Assemblea Nacional Catalana, or ANC, a civil society group that organized massive protests in support of secession, also issued a brief statement with a similar message.

"It doesn't make sense to keep the suspension of the independence declaration" given Madrid's rejection of any dialogue, ANC said in the statement. Some politicians of the two parties in the ruling coalition have also expressed similar views on social media, with only a few of them calling for calm. The Catalan government hasn't given any signal of what it intends to do.

Years of growing separatist sentiment erupted on Oct. 1 when Catalan leaders held the banned referendum despite court rulings and a fierce opposition from Spain. About 2.3 million Catalans — or 43 percent of the region's electorate — voted amid police violence to halt the referendum. Catalonia said 90 percent favored secession and it declared the results valid. Opponents boycotted the vote.

Macedonia local elections to test new left-wing government

October 13, 2017

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Macedonia's left-wing government faces a strong test in this weekend's municipal elections, five months after it came to power during an acute political crisis following a decade of conservative rule.

The first round of the vote is scheduled for Sunday, with over 1.8 million registered voters choosing local officials in the capital, Skopje, and another 80 municipalities. The re-run is on Oct. 29. Opinion polls show a slight advantage for the governing Social Democrats, particularly in the capital, Skopje, where the party's candidate mayor is 2.6 percent ahead of the conservative incumbent.

The conservative VMRO-DPMNE main opposition party is seeking to defend its dominance on a local level. It won 56 of 81 municipalities in the last elections in 2013 against the Social Democrats' four. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has sought to get Macedonia to join NATO and the European Union, and to see through criminal investigations into conservative officials over a 2015 wiretapping scandal.

Zaev has urged voters to "free the country from the remnants of the VMRO-DPMNE criminal regime." Zaev's ascent followed a protracted political crisis triggered by the wiretaps, for which he blamed the then-ruling conservatives. They denied wrongdoing and blamed unspecified foreign spies.

On the streets of Skopje, many voters seem disenchanted with politics. "After every election, I'm poorer and more miserable. It is just a show for politicians and their greed for more power and money," 36-year-old dentistry technician Dijana Stojanovska told the Associated Press.

VMRO-DPMNE campaigning has focused on what it calls "national issues," claiming that the Social Democrats plan to change the country's name — over which Macedonia has a decades-long dispute with southern neighbor Greece — to join NATO and the EU.

VMRO-DPMNE also accuses Zaev's government of treason, for proposing to make Albanian Macedonia's second official language, and signing a friendship pact with neighboring Bulgaria. Albanians form a quarter of Macedonia's 2.1-million population, and ethnic tensions boiled over in 2001 when an ethnic Albanian uprising brought the country to the brink of civil war.

The local elections were delayed for five months due to a new crisis after VMRO DPMNE came first in parliamentary elections last year but was unable to secure a governing majority. Second-placed Zaev was eventually able to form a coalition with the ethnic Albanian DUI party.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has over 300 observers to monitor the voting. Preliminary results are expected Monday.

Italy populists protest passage of revised election rules

October 12, 2017

ROME (AP) — Backers of Italy's populist 5-Star Movement are protesting the initial passage of revised election rules they contend are designed to foil their bid to gain national power for the first time.

The Chamber of Deputies — the lower chamber of the Italian Parliament — approved the rules late Thursday despite defections by some lawmakers from parties that are officially backing the changes. Supporters include the main governing Democratic Party, loyalists of center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi, and the Northern League, a right-wing party gaining ground in opinion polls.

The Senate now takes up the bill. The 5-Star Movement, Parliament's largest opposition party, opposes the changes, which reward parties in election coalitions. The Movement refuses to participate in coalitions and hopes to win Italy's premiership in elections due by early 2018.

Hungary, Ukraine still at odds over Ukraine education law

October 12, 2017

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary will continue to withhold its support for Ukraine's further integration with the European Union as long as a new Ukrainian education law remains unchanged, Hungary's foreign minister said Thursday.

The education law passed last month specifies that Ukrainian will be the main language used in schools, rolling back the option for lessons to be taught in other languages. Ukraine has some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, mostly in the country's west.

"We consider the new Ukrainian education law a stab in the back of our country," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, speaking after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin. Ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, as Hungary calls western Ukraine, fear that the 71 Hungarian schools there could be at risk of having to close, Szijjarto said.

He said relations between neighbors Hungary and Ukraine are "at their most difficult period" since Ukraine declared independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991. Russia, Romania and Moldova have also expressed concerns about the new language law.

Klimkin said not knowing the native language made it hard for minorities to be successful in Ukraine. He said 75 percent of students in an area with a large Hungarian minority failed their high school exit exams.

"Everyone needs the opportunity to fulfill themselves in their country of citizenship," Klimkin said. "But this is not possible without knowing the language." However, he said "not a single school" would be closed or "a single teacher" dismissed because of the new language requirement.

Klimkin said Hungary's move to grant Hungarian citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine would not benefit those people. He also alleged that Russia was using the language issue to "manipulate" and "provoke" in Ukraine, including "directly and indirectly" in the Transcarpathia region.

In reply, Szijjarto said ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine "don't need any incitement from anyone to stand up for their own rights." "As long as the Hungarians of Transcarpathia ask us to fight on this issue and not back down, we will fight and not back down," Szijjarto said.

Weah takes early lead in Liberia election's first results

October 13, 2017

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Former international soccer star George Weah has taken an early lead in Liberia's presidential election as the West African nation begins releasing provisional results. The National Election Commission data shared late Thursday show Weah ahead in 14 of Liberia's 15 counties while Vice President Joseph Boakai leads in his home county, Lofa. With 20 candidates in the race, observers expect a runoff election.

Commission Chairman Jerome Korkoya warned that the early results represent a small portion of the total vote, and he cautioned candidates' supporters against declaring victory. Liberia seeks a successor to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who led the country as it recovered from civil war and the Ebola outbreak that killed nearly 5,000 Liberians.

One of the largest political parties called for a halt to vote-counting Thursday, alleging voting irregularities and fraud. Angry Liberty Party supporters claimed that polls opened late and that ballot-tampering occurred in at least one location in the capital, Monrovia.

"These people stood in the rain and under the sun. These people sacrificed," the party's vice chairman for political affairs, Abe Darius Dillon, told The Associated Press. The Liberty Party's candidate is Charles Brumskine, a corporate lawyer who placed third in 2005 elections and fourth in 2011.

The election commission is ready to listen to official complaints but the vote-counting will continue, spokesman Henry Boyd Flomo said. "The constitution mandated us to conduct elections and declare results therefore in 15 days," Flomo said. "We've got no option but to live with that."

He said he could not address the accusation of ballot-tampering but acknowledged that many voters found it difficult to find their voting station. Everyone was allowed to vote, he added. The Carter Center, which observed elections, commended Liberians "for the calm and peaceful atmosphere" of the vote. It noted difficulties with long lines and management of voter lists but said it could not give a final assessment until vote counting is complete.

"No matter the outcome of this election, it will result in a transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another for the first time in the lives of many Liberians," it said in a statement.

US, Israel to exit UNESCO over its alleged anti-Israel bias

October 13, 2017

PARIS (AP) — The United States announced Thursday it is pulling out of the U.N.'s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for "fundamental reform" in the agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel plans to follow suit. While the Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal from UNESCO for months, the timing of the State Department's statement was unexpected. The Paris-based agency's executive board is in the midst of choosing a new chief — with Qatar's Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari leading the heated election heading into Friday's final vote.

Outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova expressed "profound regret" at the U.S. decision and tried to defend UNESCO's reputation. The organization is best known for its World Heritage program to protect cultural sites and traditions, but also works to improve education for girls, promote understanding of the Holocaust's horrors, and to defend media freedom.

Bokova called the U.S.'s planned departure a loss for "the United Nations family" and for multilateralism. The U.S. and UNESCO matter to each other more than ever now with "the rise of violent extremism and terrorism," she said.

The U.S. stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011, but the State Department has maintained a UNESCO office and sought to weigh in on policy behind the scenes. The U.S. now owes about $550 million in back payments.

In a statement, the State Department said the decision will take effect Dec. 31, 2018, and that the U.S. will seek a "permanent observer" status instead. It cited U.S. belief in "the need for fundamental reform in the organization."

Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel also plans to withdraw from the agency, saying it had become a "theater of the absurd because instead of preserving history, it distorts it." Israel has been irked by resolutions that diminish its historical connection to the Holy Land and have instead named ancient Jewish sites as Palestinian heritage sites.

Praising Trump's decision as "brave and moral," Netanyahu said he has ordered Israeli diplomats to prepare for Israel's withdrawal from the organization in concert with the Americans. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also praised Washington's move as heralding "a new day at the U.N., where there is a price to pay for discrimination against Israel."

"The United States stands by Israel and is a true leader for change at the U.N," Danon said. "The alliance between our two countries is stronger than ever." U.S. officials said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the decision and it was not discussed with other countries. The officials were not authorized to be publicly named discussing the issue.

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called UNESCO's July designation of Hebron's Old City and the Tomb of the Patriarchs as Palestinian territory the latest of many "foolish actions" that had made the agency "a chronic embarrassment."

Haley also criticized UNESCO for "keeping Syrian dictator Bashar Assad on a UNESCO human rights committee even after his murderous crackdown on peaceful protesters" The United States has pulled out of UNESCO before. The Reagan administration did in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The U.S. rejoined in 2003.

The State Department informed Bokova it intends to stay engaged at UNESCO as a non-member "observer state" on "non-politicized" issues, including the protection of World Heritage sites, advocating for press freedoms and promoting scientific collaboration and education.

"We will be carefully watching how the organization and the new director-general steers the agency," Charge d'Affaires Chris Hegadorn, the ranking U.S. representative to UNESCO, told The Associated Press. "Ideally, it steers it in way that U.S. interests and UNESCO's mandate will converge."

UNESCO's 58-member executive board plans to select Bokova's successor from among three finalists remaining from the field of seven candidates under consideration at the beginning of the week. Along with al-Kawari, Qatar's former culture minister, the finalists are Audrey Azoulay, a former culture minister in France, and former Egyptian government minister Moushira Khattab. The board's pick then goes to the full UNESCO general assembly next month for final approval.

Lee reported from Washington. Edith M. Lederer in New York, Aron Heller in Jerusalem and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Morocco rejects Catalonia's secession bid

2017-10-11

CASABLANCA – Rabat rejected Catalonia’s secession bid and expressed its commitment to Spain’s sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity, according to statement issued Wednesday by Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Morocco called Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont’s decision to proceed with the secession “a source of instability and division not only in Spain but throughout its European neighborhood.”

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took the first step on Wednesday towards suspending Catalonia's political autonomy and ruling the region directly to thwart a push for independence.

He demanded that the regional government clarify whether it now considered itself independent following a speech by Puigdemont on Tuesday night during which he said that he would proceed with the secession but would suspend it for a few weeks to facilitate negotiations.

This requirement is a necessary step before triggering Article 155 of the constitution, which would allow Madrid to suspend the region's political autonomy.

“Morocco is confident in the ability of the Spanish government to wisely manage this situation with a view to preserving the constitutional order and to act in the supreme interest of the Spanish Nation and the European Continent,” said the statement.

“Consequently, Morocco does not recognize this unilateral process which runs against the international legality,” it added.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85347.

Libya's Mufti: Libyan Political Agreement a lie of luxury; a truth of misery

October 11, 2017

Libya’s Mufti, Al-Sadiq Al-Gharyani, has said that Skhirat-signed Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) is not a luxurious privilege for Libyans.

"That agreement has not even brought stability or accord to Libya." the Mufti remarked.

In an article posted on the Fatwa House website and titled “Does the UN really want stability in Libya?” the Mufti indicated Tuesday that Libya has gone through tough times after it gave up its own fate to the hands of the UN, adding that the experience was a lesson to all those who believe that the UN’s project was aimed to stabilize Libya.

“The UN’s project fueled conflicts in Libya and did not aim to bring about accord.” The Mufi adds.

Sheikh Al-Gharyani also referred to the fact that Derna has a population of over 120.000, yet it is still deprived of necessary living items while the international community and the UN are watching, according to his article.

"Being the first city to defeat terrorism on its own without support did not help Derna much, but rather it was awarded by a siege that led to the starvation of the civilians." He indicated, pointing out that the same strategy had been adopted in Ganfouda, Benghazi, before Derna.

The Mufti also lashed out at the parties that selected the dialogue committees, asking himself and the Libyans if those parties still believe the lie of fighting terrorism, which he said had been scandalized in Sabratha and in Benghazi.

"The international community knows very clearly that Haftar had never fought terrorist before, yet no action." The Mufti added.

Source: Libya Observer.
Link: https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/libyas-mufti-libyan-political-agreement-lie-luxury-truth-misery.

Number of cargo ships arriving in Qatar rises by 47%

October 11, 2017

The number of cargo vessels arriving at Hamad Port in Doha rose by 47.3 per cent in August, Qatar News Agency has reported.

According to the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, the figure was 162 vessels carrying around 1.3 million tons of goods. The ministry’s monthly report showed that in the same period the total number of vessels in all of Qatar’s ports was just over 600, carrying about 3.9 million tons.

The Director of Hamad Port, Abdul Aziz Al-Yafei, announced last month that the port authority plans to accommodate more than 1,000 vessels by the end of this year, and about one million containers. Al-Yafie explained that work is underway to make Hamad Port a major re-export hub in the region.

The Hamad Port only opened officially on 5 September. It aims to acquire 35 per cent of the total Middle East trade by next year.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171011-number-of-cargo-ships-arriving-in-qatar-rises-by-47/.

Women sign up to be Saudi's first female taxi drivers

2017-10-12

KHOBAR - Hunched over platters of dates and Arabic coffee, Saudi women raring to drive once a government ban ends next June signed up for another revolution -- to be the kingdom's first female cab drivers.

King Salman last month decreed that women will be allowed driving permits, a historic reform that could put not just millions of women behind the wheel but potentially many more into the workforce.

Sensing a lucrative opportunity, ride-hailing company Careem says it plans to hire up to 100,000 female chauffers to lure new clients in the gender-segregated kingdom.

This week, the company invited AFP to its first recruitment session in the coastal city of Khobar, which attracted a diverse crowd -- from housewives to working women -- who already have foreign driving licences.

"For years I felt helpless. My car would be parked outside and I could not drive," said Nawal al-Jabbar, a 50-year-old mother of three, sipping coffee from a thimble-sized cup.

A chorus of hoots and claps erupted in the auditorium as the women, who learned about the recruitment by word-of-mouth, watched news footage on a projector screen of last month's royal decree.

"It felt like we had woken up in a new Saudi Arabia," Jabbar said.

An instructor stood next to the screen, holding up a smartphone to show the inner workings of the app.

The firm plans to add a new "Captinah" button to the app next June that would allow customers to choose women chauffeurs. The option will only be available to other women and families, Careem spokesman Murtadha Alalawi said.

Around 30 women registered for the event in Khobar.

Many arrived unaccompanied by men, something not commonly seen in a country where male "guardians" have arbitrary authority to make crucial decisions on behalf of women.

- 'Rite of passage' -

"This is a rite of passage for women," said Sarah Algwaiz, director of the women chauffeurs program at Careem, referring to the reform.

"For women to drive their own cars signals autonomy, mobility and financial independence."

The Gulf kingdom was the only country in the world to ban women from taking the wheel, and it was seen globally as a symbol of repression.

For decades, hardliners cited austere Islamic interpretations to justify the ban, with some maintaining women lack the intelligence to drive and that allowing them to would promote promiscuity.

"Society portrays women to be strong when it's convenient and weak when it's convenient," said trainee Jabbar.

"I say if you can depend on a female doctor to deliver a baby, then you can depend on a woman to drive a car."

The lifting of the driving ban has been widely credited to 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who styles himself as a modernizer in the conservative kingdom, where more than half the population is aged under 25.

Prince Mohammed has cracked down on dissent while also showing a rare willingness to tackle entrenched Saudi taboos such as promoting more women in the workforce.

Becoming a chauffeur would mean "extra income", said Banain al-Mustafa, a 24-year-old medical lab technician who obtained her license while she was studying in West Virginia in 2015.

"I drove for two-and-a-half years," she said, including once on her own in a nine-hour road trip from New York to West Virginia.

"If I can drive there, why not in my own country?"

- Cultural backlash -

The reform is in line with the kingdom's Vision 2030 program that seeks to elevate women to nearly one-third of the workforce, up from about 22 percent now.

Authorities have highlighted the economic benefits of the reform as the kingdom reels from a protracted oil slump; Saudi families would no longer need foreign chauffeurs, often a major source of financial strain.

Riyadh is moving to bring female driving instructors from abroad, local media reported, and Princess Nourah University said it will inaugurate a women's only driving school.

Authorities this week warned against violations of the ban until it is formally lifted after a woman was filmed driving out of a luxury hotel in Riyadh.

Careem said it would wait for government regulations to be formally announced before putting female recruits behind the wheel.

Its rival Uber is reportedly planning a similar initiative to recruit female drivers.

The new Careem recruits in Khobar were seemingly unperturbed by pockets of resistance from men or sexist comments on social media over women driving.

"Look at how women's abayas have evolved -- different styles and colours -- despite strong resistance," Jabbar said, referring to the traditional black gown.

"After a while, even women drivers will become a new normal."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85362.

French President Macron launches step 2 of labor reforms

October 12, 2017

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is launching step two of his campaign to rethink French labor law, focusing on unemployment benefits and job training. Macron meets Thursday with France's main workers and employers unions to start negotiations that will last for months. The discussions come as workers are still protesting a first set of labor measures Macron signed last month, aimed at making it easier for firms to hire and fire.

The government now wants to extend unemployment benefits to independent entrepreneurs, farmers and merchants who go bankrupt. Employees who voluntarily quit would also be entitled to unemployment benefits under strict conditions, to encourage workers to change jobs more easily.

The government also wants to reform the way the benefits are financed and help unemployed people acquire new skills needed in a rapidly changing global economy.

Russia's security agency detains 6 Crimean Tatar activists

October 11, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's domestic security agency said Wednesday it detained six people in Crimea accused of involvement in an extremist organization, a move described by one of the suspects' lawyer as part of Moscow's crackdown on the Crimean Tatars.

Emil Kurbedinov, a lawyer for one of the six detainees, said that police also rounded up nine other Crimean Tatars who protested the detentions in the Crimean town of Bakhchisarai. The Federal Security Service or FSB, the main KGB successor agency, said it has stopped the activities of a local cell of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamist group which Russia and several other ex-Soviet nations banned as a "terrorist" organization.

The FSB said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that it has opened a criminal probe against six people suspected of involvement in the group. Kurbedinov, a lawyer for Suleiman Asanov, whom the FSB accused of organizing the cell, described the charges as "absurd." He said all six detainees were local Crimean Tatar activists who opposed Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.

Russia has faced criticism for infringing on the ethnic group's rights since the annexation. "It's yet another attempt to intimidate people with 'terrorism' and 'extremism' labels," Kurbedinov said by phone from Bakhchisarai.

Kurbedinov said nine other Crimean Tatars who were protesting the detentions were taken into custody for holding an unsanctioned demonstration and were set to face court hearings Thursday. Zair Smedlyayev, who heads an association of Crimean Tatars, also said the move was part of a continuing crackdown on the Turkic ethnic group.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was visiting the Ukrainian capital, said Turkey was monitoring the situation of Crimean Tatars and thanked Ukraine for defending their rights.

Kenya ruling brings new uncertainty to fresh election

October 11, 2017

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan judge on Wednesday ruled that a minor opposition candidate can run for president in this month's election, bringing fresh uncertainty a day after opposition leader Raila Odinga withdrew from the new vote ordered by the Supreme Court.

At the same time, lawmakers approved amendments to the electoral law that have been criticized by the opposition and Western diplomats. The amendments require the approval of President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose ruling party sought the changes after the Supreme Court nullified Kenyatta's election in August and cited "irregularities."

Elsewhere in Nairobi, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of opposition protesters who regrouped outside the election commission's offices and demanded reforms. In the opposition stronghold of Kisumu city, four people with gunshot wounds were admitted to hospitals after police used live ammunition to disperse protesters, a police official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

Wednesday's court ruling appeared to open the way for other presidential candidates in the August election to run again on Oct. 26, though none aside from Kenyatta and Odinga received even 1 percent of the vote.

Justice John Mativo said he did not see any reason for Ekuru Aukot to be barred from participating in the repeat election. Aukot won about 27,000 votes of more than 15 million cast in the invalidated poll.

The Supreme Court last month rejected the August election in which Kenyatta was declared the winner after Odinga challenged the results, saying hackers infiltrated the electoral commission's computer system to manipulate the vote in Kenyatta's favor.

Odinga then surprised Kenyans on Tuesday by withdrawing from the fresh election, saying the electoral commission must be changed or the new vote risked having the same problems. His withdrawal created confusion in East Africa's largest economy, with observers wondering how the new election might go forward.

The election commission has said it was meeting with its legal team on the way forward. Kenyatta, who called the Supreme Court judges "crooks" after their ruling, has said he does not want changes to the election commission. His Jubilee Party has instead has used its parliamentary majority to push for the changes to the electoral law.

The opposition says the changes are meant to make the transmission of election results a manual process that would have fewer safeguards against fraud, and would make it more difficult for the court to annul an election.

Diplomats including the United States ambassador this month said the proposed amendments put at risk the election commission's "ability to conduct a better election" and unnecessarily increase political tensions.

Russia's dog-loving leader gets another puppy as gift

October 11, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — Another summit, another dog. For the third time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been given a puppy as a gift. This one is a Central Asian Shepherd bestowed by the president of Turkmenistan on Wednesday.

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov presented Putin with the puppy as a birthday gift. Putin, an avid dog lover, turned 65 over the weekend. Putin cuddled Verny, which is Russian for "loyal," and kissed the pup on the head during a meeting in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Putin previously received a Bulgarian shepherd named Buffy from Bulgaria's premier and an Akita named Yume from a Japanese official. The Russian leader also has been given horses and even a tiger. Turkmenistan is a former Soviet republic.

UN: Myanmar violence a deliberate strategy to expel Rohingya

October 12, 2017

GENEVA (AP) — A report by the U.N. human rights office says attacks against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar point to a strategy to instill "widespread fear and trauma" and prevent them from ever returning to their homes.

The report released Wednesday is based on 65 interviews conducted in mid-September with Rohingya, individually and in groups, as more the half a million people from the ethnic group fled into Bangladesh during a violent crackdown in Myanmar.

The attacks against Rohingya in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state by security forces and Buddhist mobs were "coordinated and systematic," with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning, the report said.

Some of those interviewed said that before and during attacks, megaphones were used to announce: "You do not belong here — go to Bangladesh. If you do not leave, we will torch your houses and kill you."

According to the U.N. researchers, measures against the minority group began almost a month before the Aug. 25 attacks on police posts by Muslim militants that served as a pretext for what Myanmar's military called "clearance operations" in Rakhine.

"Information we have received indicates that days and up to a month before the 25th of August, that the Myanmar security forces imposed further restrictions on access to markets, medical clinics, schools and religious sites," Karin Friedrich, who was part of the U.N. mission to Bangladesh, said at a news conference. "Rohingya men aged 15 to 40 were reportedly arrested by the Myanmar police" and detained without any charges, she said.

U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said the Myanmar government's denial of rights, including citizenship, to the Rohingya appeared to be part of "a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return." He has also described the systematic attacks and widespread burning of villages as "textbook ethnic cleansing."

The report said efforts were made to "effectively erase signs of memorable landmarks" in Rohingya areas to make the landscape unrecognizable. Myanmar's Buddhist majority denies that Rohingya Muslims are a separate ethnic group and regards them as illegal immigrants.

Al-Qaida-linked fighters launch new attack in central Syria

October 06, 2017

BEIRUT (AP) — Al-Qaida-linked fighters on Friday attacked a key central Syrian village at the crossroads between areas under government control and those controlled by insurgent groups, opposition activists said.

In eastern Syria, meanwhile, 15 civilians, including children, were killed when a missile slammed into a government-held neighborhood in the city of Deir el-Zour on Thursday evening. The attack on the village of Abu Dali in central Hama province was led by al-Qaida-linked Hay'at Tahrir al Sham — Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee and also known as HTS. It came two weeks after insurgents attacked a nearby area where three Russian soldiers were wounded.

Earlier this week, Russia's military claimed the leader of the al-Qaida-linked group was wounded in a Russian airstrike and had fallen into a coma. The military offered no evidence on the purported condition of Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

The al-Qaida-linked group subsequently denied al-Golani was hurt, insisting he is in excellent health and going about his duties as usual. Al-Qaida-linked fighters have been gaining more influence in the northwestern province of Idlib and northern parts of Hama province where they have launched attacks on rival militant groups, as well as areas controlled by the government.

The village of Abu Dali had been spared much of the violence and had functioned as a local business hub between rebel-run areas and those under President Bashar Assad's forces. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said al-Qaida fighters captured several village tribesmen following the attack in the early hours of Friday. The HTS-linked Ibaa news agency did not mention the attack but said Russian warplanes were bombing areas the group controls in northern Syria.

Violence in eastern Syria has escalated significantly in recent weeks as Syrian troops with the help of Russian air cover are closing in on Mayadeen, a new Islamic State group stronghold after IS came under attacks in the cities of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour.

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said troops are marching south from Deir el-Zour toward Mayadeen under the cover of airstrikes. The DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group said the missile in the airstrike on Thursday evening that killed 15 had hit near a school in the Qusour neighborhood. Three children and three women were among those killed, the group said Friday, blaming IS for the attack. The school and a nearby residential building were destroyed.

The Observatory also reported the incident, putting the number of civilians killed at 13. Both the Observatory and DeirEzzor 24 also reported that an airstrike hit the village of Mehkan, just south of Mayadeen, and said it killed several families.

Syrian troops have broken a nearly three-year siege on parts of Deir el-Zour last month and are fighting to liberate from IS remaining parts of the city. In Russia, the military said one of its helicopters had made an emergency landing in Syria, but its crew was unhurt.

According to the Defense Ministry, the Mi-28 helicopter gunship landed in Hama province on Friday due to a technical malfunction. The two crewmen were not injured and were flown back to base. The ministry said the helicopter was not fired upon.

The ministry's statement followed a claim by IS-linked Aamaq news agency, which said that a Russian helicopter was downed south of Shiekh Hilal village in Hama. Also on Friday, the Russian military accused the United States of turning a blind eye and effectively providing cover to the Islamic State group's operations in an area in Syria that is under U.S. control.

The Defense Ministry's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said IS militants have used the area around the town of Tanf near Syria's border with Jordan — where U.S. military instructors are also stationed — to launch attacks against the Syrian army.

The area has become a "black hole," posing a threat to Syrian army's offensive against the IS in eastern Der el-Zour province, he added. The Russian accusations likely reflect rising tensions as U.S.-backed Syrian forces and the Russian-backed Syrian army — both of which are battling IS — race for control of oil and gas-rich areas of eastern Syria.

Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Rare Islamic State victory in rural Homs splits displaced families apart

OCT. 2, 2017

AMMAN: In a remote, destitute displacement camp along Syria’s southeastern border with Jordan, thousands of residents were finalizing preparations last week to return home to central Homs province, fed up after years of life in the desert.

The departing residents were headed back home from the Rukban camp to Qaryatayn, a small town 160km to the northwest, nestled deep within regime territory in rural Homs province.

Some people in the camp had already sent their spouses and children back to Qaryatayn in recent weeks as living conditions in Rukban deteriorated. Someday, they planned to rejoin their loved ones in the relative safety of regime-held central Homs.

But late Friday night, Islamic State forces reportedly launched a surprise offensive and captured Qaryatayn from the Syrian regime. Virtually all communications from the town went down. On Sunday, IS released a statement online claiming their forces held “full control” over the town. Syrian state media did not report the attack.

For residents of Rukban who fled IS control of Qaryatayn two years ago, the recapture of the city came as “a shock."

“Nobody was expecting IS to return,” Abu Ward, a 25-year-old Rukban resident who fled Qaryatayn with his family in 2015, told Syria Direct on Monday. “To be honest, it was a shock—I didn’t believe the news at first.”

Once a mixed town of Syrian Muslims and Christians reliant on agriculture and government jobs in Damascus, Qaryatayn first fell to the Islamic State in 2015. At the time, thousands of its roughly 14,000 residents fled south through Syria's eastern desert to safety in Rukban.

Syrian regime forces recaptured Qaryatayn in 2016, but many residents who had already fled did not return for fear of arrest or forced military conscription at the hands of the authorities.

If confirmed, the capture of Qaryatayn is a rare victory for IS as the group's forces suffer major losses in eastern Syria’s Raqqa and Deir e-Zor provinces, amid separate campaigns by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and the regime to eradicate the group from its remaining territory.

The surprise advance also comes amid clashes between regime and IS forces 160 kilometers northeast of Qaryatayn in Sukhnah, a key waystation for regime forces on the eastern Deir e-Zor front.

‘No communication’

Today, Qaryatayn natives still in Rukban tell Syria Direct they have “no communication” with their family members back home, as the reported IS hold over the city reaches its third day. For them, the town is a virtual black hole.

The Qaryatayn Media Center, a Facebook news page based outside of the town, posted online that it was able to contact reporters inside on Monday. According to the page, clashes between regime forces and IS continue in the town's south as civilians shelter inside. "Hundreds" of residents were arrested and later released by IS following the capture of the town, QMC reported.

Among Rukban residents with family now trapped back home in Qaryatayn is Abu Saleem, a 33-year-old father of four. He sent his wife and children home to Qaryatayn last month, after he felt life had returned to normal in the regime-held town. Abu Saleem stayed behind in Rukban because he feared arrest and conscription by regime forces.

Abu Saleem’s wife and children were among hundreds of Rukban residents who returned to Qaryatayn since August, after key supply routes to the desert camp were cut off by battles in the surrounding desert.

From his location in Rukban, Abu Saleem kept in touch with his family daily via voice messages sent online. “[My wife] told me she was doing fine, that the city was safe,” he told Syria Direct on Monday. “She had just registered the kids in school.”

“But on Friday evening, she sent me a voice message. There was gunfire, and she said she couldn’t go outside the house, that IS had returned to the city. My children were crying nearby.”

Abu Saleem has heard nothing from his wife and children since Friday, he says, after communication with them “was cut off.”

“I’m afraid for my family,” he said from Rukban. “I’m afraid IS could commit massacres, or that regime warplanes could bomb the city, which could lead—God forbid—to the death of my family.”

Abu Saleem isn’t alone. Abu Ward, the 25-year-old Rukban resident, also told Syria Direct he had no communication with family members who had recently returned to Qaryatayn.

Abu Ward’s brothers, nieces and elderly parents all left Rukban for their hometown about a month and a half ago, hoping for a more stable life outside of the camp. He kept in touch with his family via landline, he said, “because when IS captured Qaryatayn for the first time, they cut off cell phone coverage.”

But the last time Abu Ward heard anything substantial from his family was Friday evening, during a phone call.

“At 11:30pm, the landline cut off,” he told Syria Direct on Monday. “At the time, they seemed to be doing well—there were no signs of IS. Everything seemed normal.”

He was able to reach his family members in Qaryatayn “briefly” again on Monday, Abu Ward said, “but the line cut out again.”

“I couldn’t figure out how they were doing—just that there is great panic among residents of the town.”

Mohammad Ahmad a-Darbas al-Khalidi, Rukban’s current local council director, estimates some 100 families—hundreds of people—have returned from the camp to Qaryatayn since August. At the time, deteriorating food and medical supplies, as well as series of regime advances eastward along the Syrian-Jordanian border spurred camp residents to flee back home.

“We advised people against returning to Qaryatayn or other areas under regime control,” al-Khalidi told Syria Direct from the camp on Sunday.

Some 300 families were preparing to leave Qaryatayn just before news broke of the IS attack, he said. “They said that they preferred death to living in this camp.”

Today, Rukban resident Abu Saleem says all he feels is regret for sending his wife and young children home to Qaryatayn.

“My feelings are nearly killing me,” he said from inside encampment. “Regret for sending them by themselves, regret that I’m not with them, regret for being the one who made the decision for them to return.”

Source: Syria Direct.
Link: http://syriadirect.org/news/rare-islamic-state-victory-in-rural-homs-splits-displaced-families-apart/.

US-backed SDF seizes 90% of Syria's Raqa

2017-09-20

RAQA - US-backed fighters have seized 90 percent of Raqa from the Islamic State group, a monitor said Wednesday, as they announced they were in the "final stages" of capturing the jihadists' Syrian stronghold.

Under siege in the northern city for three months, IS is struggling to defend its one-time bastion under a barrage of air strikes by the US-led coalition battling the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

"Because of the heavy coalition air strikes, IS withdrew from at least five key neighborhoods over the past 48 hours," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"This allowed the Syrian Democratic Forces to control 90 percent of the city."

The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces the coalition is backing in Syria with air strikes, equipment and advisers.

IS pulled out of the north of the city and abandoned its grain silos and mills, and was now confined to the city center, Abdel Rahman said.

The SDF said its forces had mounted a "surprise attack" on IS in the city's north.

"We consider this the final stages of the Wrath of the Euphrates campaign, which is nearing its end," the statement said.

IS seized Raqa in early 2014, transforming the city into the de facto Syrian capital of the "caliphate" it declared after taking control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.

It quickly became synonymous with the group's most gruesome atrocities, including public beheadings, and IS is thought to have used the city to plan attacks abroad.

- 'Not resist much longer' -

The SDF spent months encircling the city before entering it in June and sealing off all access routes.

Abdel Rahman said the siege had worn down IS's defensive capabilities.

"After hundreds of their fighters were killed in recent weeks, the remaining IS fighters will not be able to resist much longer in Raqa as their military equipment and basic necessities are dwindling," he said.

Without food or medical equipment, IS was unable to treat its own wounded and had retreated to the city center, which it considered "the most secure," he said.

But the battle for the 10 percent of the city still held by IS will likely be tough, as the jihadists had heavily mined the area, Abdel Rahman said.

IS has used mines, snipers, car bombs, and weaponised drones against the SDF offensive.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting in recent months. Estimates of the number still inside the city range from fewer than 10,000 to as many as 25,000.

"We will continue the campaign until we achieve our aim," Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, the SDF's spokeswoman for the Raqa offensive, said.

Correspondents on Tuesday saw a military convoy of US-made vehicles, bulldozers, and arms being transported through northeastern Syria.

Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad, but has since evolved into a complex, multi-front war.

More than 330,000 people have been killed and millions have been forced to flee their homes.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=84948.

Four Palestinians on FBI's 'most wanted' list

October 6, 2017

Some 29 individuals from around the world are wanted over their alleged involvement in terrorist activities that have led to the death of US citizens, America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced. The names are included in the FBI’s latest “most wanted” list.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth reported yesterday that the list includes four Palestinians, most notably the Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, Ramadan Shallah. The Washington DC-based bureau is offering a $5 million reward to anyone who hands over Shallah, who is said to be responsible for “a series of murder, bombing, extortion and money laundering activities.”

The FBI list also includes 37-year old Palestinian prisoner Ahlam Al-Tamimi, who was accused of carrying out the so-called Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2001, as well as the killing of a number of Israeli settlers and two US citizens. The Palestinian leader and co-founder of the Islamic Jihad movement, Abdel Aziz Odeh, 67, is another of the FBI’s “most wanted”.

Seventy-one year old Hussein Al-Amri, who was born in Jaffa, is wanted by the FBI for his alleged participation in the Pan American Airline bombing on 11 August 1982. The bureau has also placed a $5 million reward for any information on his whereabouts.

At the top of the list of “most wanted” individuals is Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda. The FBI reward for his capture stands at £25 million.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171006-four-palestinians-on-fbis-most-wanted-list/.

Palestinian Government Sets Economic Reform Plan for Gaza Strip

October 5, 2017

Ramallah– Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah presented on Wednesday highlights of his government’s economic reform plan in the Gaza Strip.

“We have plans ready for action,” said Hamdallah, who remained in Gaza with a group of ministers following a Cabinet session on Tuesday.

“We hope we can invest in industrial areas and gas fields,” he stated, addressing a group of Gazan businessmen.

The prime minister was referring to his intention to reproduce the experience of the West Bank in the establishment of large industrial zones, which is still in its early stages, and to start extracting gas from the natural gas field off the coast of Gaza, which was discovered in 1998.

The Authority highlighted an initial agreement with foreign companies for gas extraction, hoping that the Gaza gas field would be one of the foundations of the Palestinian economy.

In addition, Hamdallah said that his government was looking to improve the business and investment environment in Gaza, to work on the land settlement and water purification projects and to complete infrastructure and sanitation plans.

The economic file will be one of the most important issues that the Palestinian government will have to deal with, in the wake of the high rates of unemployment and poverty, and the significant and dangerous economic decline witnessed over the last period.

According to a recent study, the Gaza Strip incurred losses worth $15 billion over the past ten years.

Hamdallah stressed that his government would work to improve the economic situation, despite the decline of foreign aid by more than 70 percent, the delivery of only 35.5 percent of aid, and with many countries not fulfilling their commitments to reconstruction in Gaza.

The prime minister, however, linked the ability of his government to implement its economic plans with the agreement between Fatah and Hamas on the reconciliation files in Cairo.

“We hope that reconciliation will be a lever for our efforts in this context, which will contribute to improving our economy and the living conditions of citizens,” he said.

Two delegations from Fatah and Hamas are expected to arrive next Monday in Cairo, upon an invitation by Egyptian Intelligence Chief Khalid Fawzi.

On Tuesday, Hamdallah presided over a Cabinet meeting in the Gaza Strip, in a move towards reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas parties.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.
Link: https://english.aawsat.com/kifah-ziboun/news-middle-east/palestinian-government-sets-economic-reform-plan-gaza-strip.

Palestinian cabinet convenes in Gaza for first time since 2014 amid Fatah, Hamas unity talks

GAZA CITY, Palestine
October 3, 2017

The Palestinian cabinet met in Gaza on Tuesday for the first time since 2014 in a further step towards the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority retaking control of the territory.

The meeting of the Fatah-led government, which is based in the occupied West Bank, comes as part of moves to end a decade-long split between the PA and the Hamas movement, which runs Gaza.

In an opening speech, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah renewed his pledge to end the rift.

"We are here to turn the page on division, restore the national project to its correct direction and establish the (Palestinian) state," he said.

It was the first meeting of the cabinet in Gaza since November 2014, and comes a day after Hamdallah entered the territory for the first time since a unity government collapsed in June 2015.

On Monday, he met with senior Hamas figures, including leader Ismail Haniya.

After Tuesday's cabinet meeting, government spokesman Yusuf Al Mahmud said ministers discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza. No Hamas officials took part.

Mahmud warned that a full reconciliation deal would take time.

"The government does not have a magic wand," he told reporters.

More than two million people live in impoverished Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt for years.

The sides will hold further talks next week in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Punitive measures imposed by the PA against Hamas, including cutting electricity payments for Gaza, would remain in place pending the result of those talks, Mahmoud added.

Hamas called for the measures to be ended immediately as a show of good will.

"Our people look forward to practical steps to ease their suffering," a statement said.

A main sticking point between the parties is whether tens of thousands of Hamas employees will be added to the PA's already bloated government payroll. It is also unclear if Hamas will allow its militants to be replaced by PA security forces, especially at Gaza's border crossings to Egypt.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since seizing it from the PA in a near civil war in 2007 after Hamas swept 2006 legislative polls that were ultimately rejected by Fatah, Israel and the international community. So far, multiple previous reconciliation attempts have failed.

Last month, Hamas announced they were willing to cede civilian control to the PA, following Egyptian pressure.

The United States and the European Union blacklist Hamas as a terrorist organization, complicating the formation of any potential unity government.

The head of Egyptian intelligence Khaled Fawzi is to visit Gaza later on Tuesday and meet with Hamas and PA officials, including Haniya.

'Carefully optimistic'

Tuesday's cabinet session took place at the official Gaza residence of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the cabinet office, hung with portraits of Abbas and historic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Huge posters of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who brokered the reconciliation effort, were also featured outside Abbas' residence.

Abbas himself remained in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Hamas security were on the roof of the building, while Palestinian Authority agents were deployed inside, an AFP correspondent reported.

"Today we are faced with a historic revival in which we are grappling with our wounds and elevating our unity," Hamdallah said, reaffirming that there would be no Palestinian state without Gaza.

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said on Monday that he was "carefully optimistic" about the reconciliation talks.

"If the region stays engaged, if Egypt's role continues and if the political parties themselves continue to show the willingness they are currently showing to work with us on this process, then it can succeed," he told AFP.

In an interview on Monday night Abbas said that while the two sides "might have wronged each other and cursed each other, today we enter a new phase."

A key issue is Hamas's powerful military wing that has fought three wars with Israel since 2008. Hamas officials reject the possibility of dissolving it.

Abbas told Egypt's CBC that there will be "one state, one system, one law and one weapon" -- in an apparent reference to Hamas's military wing.

He also warned Hamas could not "copy or clone Hezbollah's experience in Lebanon," referring to a situation where an independent armed group exerts major influence on national politics.

The United States cautiously welcomed Hamdallah's visit, but White House special envoy Jason Greenblatt warned any Palestinian government "must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties and peaceful negotiations."

The Palestinian Authority has signed peace deals with Israel, but Hamas was not party to them and does not recognize Israel's right to exist.

Source: Daily Sabah.
Link: https://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2017/10/03/palestinian-cabinet-convenes-in-gaza-for-first-time-since-2014-amid-fatah-hamas-unity-talks.

Palestinian leader launches reconciliation push in Gaza

October 02, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian prime minister traveled Monday to the Gaza Strip to launch an ambitious reconciliation effort with the rival Hamas militant group, receiving a hero's welcome from thousands of people as the sides moved to end a bitter 10-year rift.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, representing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, was joined by dozens of top officials, aides and security men on the trip from the West Bank through Israel and into Gaza to meet with the Hamas officials. It is by far the most ambitious attempt at reconciliation since Hamas seized power of the coastal strip in 2007.

The sides exchanged smiles, handshakes and pleasantries — a reflection of the changed climate that has ripened conditions for reconciliation after other failed attempts. But difficult negotiations lie ahead, and key sticking points, particularly who will control Hamas' vast weapons arsenal, could easily derail the effort.

On Monday, at least, the two sides put aside their differences. Well-wishers surrounded Hamdallah's car as it entered Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing, and dozens of Palestinian youths gathered alongside a barbed-wire fence to glimpse the welcoming ceremony. Some waved Palestinian or yellow Fatah flags, and many chanted Hamdallah's name.

"The only way to statehood is through unity," Hamdallah told the crowd of about 2,000. "We are coming to Gaza again to deepen the reconciliation and end the split." Conditions in Gaza have deteriorated greatly in a decade of Hamas rule, and the feeling of hope by desperate residents was palpable Monday.

Thousands lined the streets to watch Hamdallah's 30-vehicle convoy. The crowd forced the delegation to delay its first meeting at the home of the top Fatah official in Gaza and instead take a break at a beachside hotel.

Dozens of vehicles later returned to the Shejayeh neighborhood for the lunch. Hamas' top leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Yehiyeh Sinwar, said next to Hamdallah and West Bank security chief Majed Faraj. "This is a day of joy," said Shaima Ahmed, 28, a women's rights activist who covered her shoulders with a Palestinian kaffiyeh. "Yes it's difficult and not easy to go forward, but we only have to be optimistic this time."

Hamas ousted the Fatah-led forces of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in the summer of 2007, leaving the Palestinians torn between rival governments on opposite sides of Israel. Hamas has ruled Gaza, while Abbas' party has controlled autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Abbas seeks both territories, along with east Jerusalem, for a Palestinian state, and the division is a major obstacle to any possible peace deal. Israel captured all three areas in the 1967 Mideast war, although it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

While previous reconciliation attempts have failed, years of international isolation and steadily worsening conditions in Gaza have pushed Hamas toward compromise. In a significant concession, Hamas has offered to turn over all governing responsibilities to Hamdallah. His ministers are expected to begin taking over government ministries Tuesday, with negotiations in Cairo on more difficult issues in the coming weeks.

Hamdallah said the reconstruction of Gaza, which is still recovering from a 2014 war with Israel, would be a priority. "We realize that the road is still long and hard. We will be faced with obstacles and challenges, but our people are able to rise again from among destruction and suffering," he said.

Several factors appear to be working in favor of reconciliation. Under Hamas' watch, Gaza has fallen deeper into poverty, battered by a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade and three devastating wars with Israel. Unemployment is estimated at over 40 percent, Gaza's 2 million residents are virtually barred from traveling abroad, and residents have electricity for only a few hours a day.

Sinwar, Hamas' newly elected leader, has expressed willingness to yield most power to Abbas, preferring to return to his group's roots as an armed "resistance" movement battling Israel. The group's leadership is based entirely in Gaza, meaning they no longer have to consult with exiled leaders spread across the Arab world to make difficult decisions.

And perhaps most critically, Hamas has improved relations with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The former general took office after the military ousted then-President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, had close ties with Hamas, and el-Sissi has previously accused Hamas of cooperating with Islamic extremists in Egypt's neighboring Sinai peninsula. But the sides have grown closer in recent months, with Hamas now providing security cooperation with Egypt and el-Sissi promising to ease the blockade.

Reflecting these improved ties, Egyptian envoys attended Monday's ceremony, and posters of the Egyptian flag and el-Sissi were hoisted at major intersections. Egypt also maintains good ties with Israel and could potentially play an important role in selling a reconciliation deal to Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group.

Abbas also has much to gain. The 82-year-old Palestinian leader has said the rift with Gaza is his greatest regret. Regaining control of Gaza would help him burnish his legacy, especially after years of failure in peace efforts with Israel.

Still, many obstacles lie ahead. While Hamas is eager to give up its governing responsibilities, officials say the group will not give up its arsenal of thousands of rockets and mortars aimed at Israel.

Officials close to Abbas say he will not agree to allow Hamas to become like Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that dominates its country's politics. The sides will have to find a formula that not only is acceptable to them but which Israel would be willing to tolerate.

Israel has demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognize its right to exist as part of any reconciliation deal. It also remains unclear what will happen to Hamas' 40,000 civil servants, who were hired after Abbas forced his employees in Gaza to resign after the Hamas takeover. In an area with few jobs, both sides will likely want their loyalists to receive salaries.

Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi said the sides are up to the task. "We believe these issues are difficult, but with our will and patience, we can resolve them," he said. In signs of good spirits, a family named their child born in Gaza Monday after the visiting Palestinian prime minister, and the official TV station of Abbas' government broadcast its main news bulletin from Gaza for the first time in a decade since the Hamas takeover.

Donald Trump's Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt said in a statement the U.S. "welcomes efforts to create the conditions for the Palestinian Authority to fully assume its responsibilities in Gaza." It added that "any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel," and should also accept previous agreements between the parties.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestinian PM Arrives in Gaza in First Step in Reconciliation

October 2, 2017

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday in what is seen as a major step towards ending the decade-long rift between Fatah and Hamas, which seized control of the coastal strip in 2007.

Hamdallah drove through the Israeli Erez crossing, heading a large delegation of Fatah officials from the West Bank trying to end the dispute.

Hamas announced last week that it was handing over administrative control of the Gaza Strip to a unity government headed by Hamdallah, but the movement’s armed wing remains the dominant power in the enclave of two million people.

Hamas’s reversal was the most significant step toward elusive Palestinian unity since the government was formed in 2014. It failed to function in Gaza because of disputes between Hamas and Fatah over its responsibilities.

Analysts said narrowing internal divisions could help Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas counter Israel’s argument that it has no negotiating partner for peace.

A Hamas police honor guard and hundreds of Palestinians, many of them waving Palestinian flags, welcomed Hamdallah outside the Hamas-controlled checkpoint, down the road from the Erez crossing.

“It is a day of Eid, a national holiday,” said Abdel-Majid Ali, 46. “We hope this time reconciliation is for real.”

Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel and the West, made its dramatic reversal toward unity last month, disbanding its Gaza shadow government, after Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates imposed an economic boycott on its main donor, Qatar, over support of terrorism.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.
Link: https://english.aawsat.com/asharq-al-awsat-english/news-middle-east/palestinian-pm-arrives-gaza-first-step-reconciliation.

Fatah welcomes Hamas pledge to try to end Palestinian split

September 17, 2017

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on Sunday welcomed a pledge by its Hamas rival to accept key conditions for ending a decade-old Palestinian political and territorial split, but said it wants to see vows implemented before making the next move.

Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed since the militant Hamas drove forces loyal to Abbas from the Gaza Strip in 2007, a year after defeating Fatah in parliament elections. The takeover led to rival governments, with Hamas controlling Gaza and Abbas in charge of autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Earlier Sunday, Hamas announced that it has accepted key Abbas demands for ending the split. This includes holding general elections in the West Bank and Gaza, dissolving a contentious Gaza administrative committee and allowing an Abbas-led "unity government," formed in 2014 but until now unable to start operating in Gaza, to finally assume responsibility there.

The announcement came after separate talks by Hamas and Fatah delegations with Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo in recent days. Egypt relayed Fatah demands to Hamas that as a first step, it must dissolve the administrative committee, its de facto government in Gaza, and allow the unity government to take charge.

"We accepted that as a sign of our good will toward reconciliation," Hamas official Hussam Badran told The Associated Press. "The administrative committee is now dissolved and the government can come to Gaza today to assume its responsibilities and duties," he said.

Azzam al-Ahmed, a Fatah participant in the talks, said Hamas and Fatah agreed to meet in Cairo within 10 days, during which time the national unity government should assume its responsibility in Gaza.

Mahmoud Aloul, another Fatah official, told the Voice of Palestine radio that the news from Cairo is encouraging, but that "we want to see that happening on the ground before we move to the next step."

Hamas has been greatly weakened by an Israeli and Egyptian blockade, three wars with Israel and international isolation. Gaza's economy is in tatters and residents of the territory have electricity for only a few hours a day. In recent months, Abbas has stepped up financial pressure on Hamas, including by scaling back electricity payments to Gaza, to force his rivals to cede ground.

Still, there were no guarantees that this deal would succeed where others failed. In previous deals, including one brokered by Egypt in 2011, both sides professed willingness to reconcile, but ultimately balked at giving up power in their respective territories.

A key sticking point in the past was Hamas' refusal to place its security forces in Gaza under the control of an Abbas-led unity government. It also was not clear how Egypt's latest effort aligns with its previous tacit support for a separate Gaza power-sharing deal between Hamas and Mohammed Dahlan, an exiled former Abbas aide-turned-rival.

Hezbollah leader: Kurdish vote will sow division in region

September 30, 2017

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group has warned that a controversial referendum on support for independence in Iraq's Kurdistan will lead to dividing several countries in the region.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Saturday night that the referendum held on Monday does not threaten Iraq alone but also Turkey, Syria and Iran, which all have large Kurdish minorities. Iran, Turkey and Syria rejected this week's symbolic referendum, in which Iraq's Kurds voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence.

Nasrallah said the divisions would also reach other countries in the region including Saudi Arabia, a country that he harshly criticized in his speech. "The responsibility of the Kurds, Iraqi people and concerned counties ... is to stand against the beginning of divisions," Nasrallah said.

Jordan: Syrian refugee camp holds recruitment fair

October 6, 2017

50 Jordanian companies and factories took part in a recruitment fair in the Zaatari refugee camp yesterday in an effort to help Syrian refugees find work.

The exhibition, organized by the Zaatari Employment Office in cooperation with UNHCR and the International Labor Organisation (ILO), is the first of its kind in the camp located in Mafraq, 85 kilometers northeast of Amman. It is being held nearly two months after the Jordanian Ministry of Labor began issuing work permits to refugees residing in refugee camps allowing them to work outside of the camps.

Statistics from the Ministry of Labor indicate that more than 7,000 Syrian refugees residing in the Zaatari and Azraq refugee camps were issued work permits.

Ahmed Orabi, owner of a Jordanian clothing factory, participated in the exhibition hoping to get skilled Syrian tailors and seamstresses. “The Syrians are skilled textile workers who have a good reputation in the field,” he explained, adding that there are about 35 refugees currently working at his factory.

Orabi received dozens of requests for employment from the refugees which he will review. He told Alaraby Al-Jadeed:  ‘I am looking for workers with experience. It is not a problem if they have minimal experience, as they can be trained quickly.”

The Jordanian Labor Law applies to Syrian refugees in terms of working hours and minimum wages, while the factory, located in a city about 30 kilometers from the camp, provides transport.

Refugees also benefit from financial exemptions provided by the Jordanian Labor Ministry in order to encourage them to apply for work permits. The fee for a working permit is $14.

Jordan began granting work permits to Syrian refugees living outside the camps following the Supporting Syria and the Region conference held in London in February last year. This came after European countries promises to facilitate the entry of Jordanian exports into their countries, in exchange for granting 200,000 work permits to refugees.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171006-jordan-syrian-refugee-camp-holds-recruitment-fair/.

General accused of war crimes courted by west in Libya

Monday 25 September 2017

European leaders are embracing a Libyan general who has ordered his soldiers to commit war crimes, according to new evidence that has been analysed by senior legal experts.

The allegation of human rights abuses by Gen Khalifa Haftar, a former CIA asset who controls nearly half of Libya from his base in the east, comes as the general is due to arrive in Rome on Tuesday, where he will be received by Italian officials. The visit is a radical departure for Italy, who had previously shunned Haftar and seen him as a major obstacle to stability in the region because of his refusal to recognize the UN-backed government in the west.

The two experts – a former top Pentagon attorney and a former official at the international criminal court – said that newly unearthed video evidence suggests that Haftar has been complicit in calling for extrajudicial killings and the unlawful siege of the eastern port city of Derna. In one case, he is believed to have called for the “choking” of Derna just a day after he met Boris Johnson, the UK foreign secretary, in Benghazi.

The new assessment, published on the Just Security blog, follows the recent issuing of an arrest warrant by the ICC for Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al-Werfalli, a member of Haftar’s Libyan National Army. Werfalli stands accused of executing prisoners himself, as well as commanding others to carry out extrajudicial killings. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also condemned alleged war crimes by the LNA.

The legal questions, and longstanding doubts among officials in the west about Haftar’s trustworthiness, have not dissuaded European leaders from seeking to forge an alliance with him.

The analysis by Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel to the general counsel of the Pentagon, and Alex Whiting, a former international criminal prosecutor at the ICC, paints a troubling picture of Haftar’s record.

The two experts point to a video that was posted on YouTube on 10 October 2015, recording a speech that Haftar gave to his LNA fighters on 18 September. In the speech, Haftar calls on his men to take no prisoners, which in legal parlance is called a “denial of quarter” and is a violation of the rules of war. “Never mind consideration of bringing a prisoner here. There is no prison here. The field is the field, end of the story,” he said in the video.

In another video, a spokesman for Haftar, Beleed al-Sheikhy, is heard saying in connection to fighting in Ganfouda, a district of Benghazi, that “who is above 14 years of age will never get out alive”. The video is believed to have been recorded in August 2016.

Haftar is a dual Libyan-US citizen who was once loyal to Muammar Gaddafi but then rebelled against the dictator. He was provided protection by the CIA around 1990 and was granted US citizenship. He lived in Virginia for two decades, where he reportedly trained in anticipation of a coup against Gaddafi. He later returned to Libya, where he has an unbreakable hold on the eastern bloc of the country, including a string of towns known as the oil crescent.

Even as experts who closely study the region say that Haftar is considered an untrustworthy and unreliable partner in Libya, diplomats increasingly see him as part of the country’s future.

On a trip to Benghazi this summer, Johnson met the Libyan general and said Haftar had a “role to play in the political process”. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who hosted Haftar and his rival, the UN-backed Libyan prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, also praised him, saying he and Sarraj had shown historic courage in agreeing to a ceasefire.

The UN envoy to Libya last week set out a new a plan under which Libya could hold elections within a year, and Haftar is widely seen as a candidate who would stand for president.

A former US official said it was believed that Haftar’s true goal was to run the country under a military dictatorship. The ex-official said European attempts to bring Haftar “into the tent” were understandable and pragmatic, because the creation of a stable government would not now be possible without his support.

Haftar has expanded his foothold militarily in part due to the support of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, the former official added. He also has contacts within the Kremlin, and visited Russia for the third time in August this year.

The ICC issued its warrant for Werfalli, a member of the al-Saiqa brigade of the LNA, based on the “reasonable belief” that he had ordered the execution of 33 detainees in seven incidents from June 2016 to July 2017.

The Just Security article also pointed to a speech that Haftar gave in August 2017, a day after his meeting with Johnson, in which he appeared to be discussing the need to tighten the siege of Derna. Haftar said that ordering a blockade was tantamount to choking, and ought to involve a block on medicine, medical care, petrol and cooking oil.

Brig Gen Ahmad Mismari, a spokesman for the LNA, said he could not comment on the ICC warrant because the matter was under investigation. He also declined to comment on the allegations raised in the Just Security blog.

In an interview with the Guardian, Goodman said Haftar’s status as a US citizen made him subject to federal laws that criminalised violations of laws of war and risked criminal liability for any “aiders and abetters” who supported him in the US. Given his status, any decision to provide financial or other support to Haftar – including intelligence – by the US would first have to be cleared by a justice department office to ensure it was legal under US laws.

Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that the more Haftar was legitimised, the less likely it was that he would ever be prosecuted. “It is up to the Europeans and the Americans to decide whether such a regime is stable, because what we have seen with the Arab spring is that repressive regimes are unstable,” he said.

“He cannot be trusted, much like most Libyan warlords, on the fight against terror, on migration, and I think also his military capacity is not as big as some people think,” he added.

Source: The Guardian.
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/25/khalifa-haftar-libyan-general-accused-of-human-rights-abuses.