Oman FM visits Al-Aqsa in 'historic' move

February 16, 2018

Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawi bin Abdullah visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday.

Azzam Al-Khatib, the director of the Islamic Waqf in occupied Jerusalem, who received the Omani minister, described the visit as “historic” and said it was aimed at supporting the people of Jerusalem.

The visit comes after a meeting between the Omani minister and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

During a press conference with the PA president, the Omani foreign minister called on the Arab countries to “accept the invitation of Mahmoud Abbas to visit Palestine and occupied Jerusalem, stressing that the Palestinian people are not alone and that all the Arab peoples are behind them”.

“What is required is the hard work of the Palestinians to build their country, which has historically been a beacon of science, containing universities, schools, professors and experts,” he added.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180216-oman-fm-visits-al-aqsa-in-historic-move/.

Spain falls short of apologizing for 1920s use of chemical weapons in Morocco

February 15, 2018

Spain has said it will respond to the Amazigh World Assembly’s (AMA) request concerning the use of chemical weapons by King’s Alfonso XIII military during the Rif War from 1921-1926 but has fallen short on agreeing to apologize for its actions.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis confirmed that the request had been made to Madrid and “as a result of the request of the King, the [AMA] were received in the Spanish embassy to submit their demands and also examine possible ways of cooperation.”

Speaking during a parliamentary meeting, Dastis answered questions from Joan Tarda, a member of the Esquerra Republicana, who has been pushing for the Spanish government to admit its use of chemical weapons in the Rif war.

However, though showing his willingness to hear the AMA’s demands, Dastis fell short of expressing his country’s readiness to apologize for its use of chemical warfare on civilians.

The conflict lasted from 1920 to 1927 between Berber rebels led by Mohamed Ibn Abd Al-Karim Al-Khattabi against Spanish colonial forces in Morocco’s Rif region. Following the defeat of Spanish troops in the Annoual battle in July 1921, Spain reportedly used chemical and toxic gas indiscriminately against the Rif civilian population in order to inflict maximum damage. The chemical attacks were a violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versaille which prohibited the use of chemical weapons.

The AMA filed a request calling on Spanish authorities to officially apologize to the Rif people and to compensate the victims and families for the tragedy. A similar request by AMA was last made in 2015 to King Felipe VI.

The Moroccan Center for Common Memory, Democracy and Peace echoed calls by AMA and called on the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs to honor previous pledges to respond to the requests of Moroccan civil society organisations calling on Spain to recognize its culpability.

As a result of the chemical warfare, many of those in the Rif have suffered the highest rates of cancer than in any other region in Morocco with 80 per cent of cases of larynx cancer in Morocco found in the Rif region.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180215-spain-falls-short-of-apologising-for-1920s-use-of-chemical-weapons-in-morocco/.

Saakashvili supporters march to demand Poroshenko step down

February 18, 2018

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Several thousand supporters of deported Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili marched through the center of Kiev on Sunday, demanding the resignation of President Petro Poroshenko.

The protest included a nationalist faction, and some of its members broke windows at two Russian-owned banks and a Russian overseas agency after the march. Saakashvili, who was Georgia's president during 2004-2013, later became governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. He resigned in a dispute with Poroshenko and was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship last year.

He also lost his Georgian citizenship and is wanted in Georgia to face abuse of power charges. Saakashvili was abroad when he lost Ukrainian citizenship, but forced his way back into the country in September.

On Monday, he was detained at a Kiev restaurant and deported to Poland.

Kosovo celebrates 10 years of independence, Serbs boycott

February 18, 2018

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The Kosovo Assembly, or Parliament, convened in a special session Sunday to celebrate the country's 10 years of independence — a ceremony boycotted by the country's ethnic Serb lawmakers.

Speaker Kadri Veseli pledged that "the second decade of independence would be focused on the economic well-being of Kosovo's citizens." The second day of celebrations continued with a parade of military and police forces and a state reception.

In Feb. 17, 2008, Kosovo's Parliament unilaterally declared independence from Serbia nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to stop a bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo, one of poorest countries in Europe, has taken a first step to European Union membership by signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement. But the country faces serious challenges besides its relations with Serbia, including establishing the rule of law and fighting high unemployment, corruption and organized crime.

Kosovo is recognized by 117 countries, including the U.S. and most Western powers but Serbia still sees Kosovo as part of its own territory and has the support of Russia and China. A day earlier in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Kosovo's independence remains fragile and won't be concluded without an agreement with Serbia.

Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania contributed.

Challenges ahead as Kosovo, Europe's newest nation, turns 10

February 16, 2018

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Every country has a national anthem, a musical compilation that aims to stir patriotic emotion, and Kosovo is no exception. Except for one peculiarity: its anthem has no lyrics.

Ten years after the former Serb territory declared independence and nearly two decades after it was engulfed in war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Yugoslav government forces, there is still difficulty in finding someone able to pen words of unity for Europe's newest country without causing offense to one of its ethnic groups.

"The text should be written in a way that does not leave the impression to the minorities they are threatened or offended," said Mendi Mengjiqi, who composed the anthem in June 2008, just a few months after Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence.

So far, no attempts have been successful. A decade after its independence, Kosovo seems to have all the trappings of a modern, if rather poor, Balkan country. The bombed-out buildings and tank tread-destroyed streets of the 1998-1999 war have been replaced by highways and shopping malls, bustling cafes and shiny new office complexes.

Construction cranes can be seen on the drive into Pristina, the capital, as workers busily build new homes and businesses. "Kosovo is a joint success story, of the international community and the Kosovars," President Hashim Thaci, a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, told The Associated Press.

It was he who declared Kosovo's independence in 2008, nearly nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to stop a bloody Serb crackdown against ethnic Albanians. Kosovo is recognized by 115 countries, including the United States and most Western powers, and has joined about 200 international organizations.

But Serbia, which for centuries has considered Kosovo the cradle of its civilization, still sees it as part of its own territory, and has the support of Russia and China. Five European Union members also do not recognize Kosovo's independence.

A close look reveals a young country still struggling with nationhood. The Serb minority, which was the territory's politically dominant ethnicity before the war, lives in enclaves. Although people generally are no longer physically attacked for entering a different ethnic area, tension can be easily sparked. Some 4,500 NATO-led peacekeepers are still stationed in Kosovo to ensure nothing gets out of hand. Crime and corruption are rampant.

Kosovo Serbs, who live mostly in the northern Kosovo neighboring Serbia, are adamant that they not come under direct rule from Pristina. Serbia has rejected Kosovo's statehood, but is pressed by the West to compromise with ethnic Albanians on "good neighborly relations" or jeopardize Serbia's prospects of joining the EU.

Serbian officials have hinted they would recognize Kosovo as an independent state only if northern Kosovo is handed over to Serbia — a proposal flatly rejected by Pristina. EU-mediated negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade, which began in 2011, will be key in the country's progress, and have achieved significant improvements in the nation's governance and conditions for minorities.

But substantial hurdles remain. "Both Kosovo and Serbia should make drastic compromises, which I see as very difficult," said Momcilo Trajkovic, a Kosovo Serb analyst and former politician living in the Serb enclave of Gracanica, near Pristina.

In January, moderate Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, one of the few who promoted the idea of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs living together, was gunned down outside his office in northern Mitrovica, the edge of the Serb-dominated part of northern Kosovo. His murder was condemned by both Pristina and Belgrade.

The key issues facing Kosovo now are "rule of law, fighting unemployment, corruption and organized crime and progressing in the talks with Serbia face Kosovo," said U.S. Ambassador to Pristina Greg Delawie.

Kosovo hopes one day to join the EU and has begun the first step but still has a long way to go. "I very much hope that with good homework we could increase the speed of our expectation toward EU, NATO, United Nations and other memberships," said Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, also a former KLA commander.

The EU's special representative to Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, said progress had been made in the past decade between the nation's two ethnic groups but "fragility persists, and can be easily tested even by a train, a wall or an improper initiative."

But, she noted, the biggest concern for Kosovo's people is economics. If there is one issue that the country's Serbs and Albanians can agree on, it's the lack of job prospects and the nation's crushing unemployment, which in 2017 ran at 30.5 percent. Youth unemployment stands at 50.5 percent, according to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics.

A Pristina apartment can easily go for 1,000-1,500 euros ($1,238-1,857) per square meter and it costs half a million euros ($619,000) for a villa at the Marigona Residence, five miles from Pristina, where the country's prime minister lives. But that is not affordable in a nation where the average salary is about 360 euros ($450) a month.

With their future looking bleak, many youngsters long to leave. "When will we have visa-free travel so I can get to Germany or Switzerland and build a better life?" wondered Shait Krasniqi, a 28-year-old economics graduate who works as a waiter in Pristina. "There are no prospects here, especially for us, the young people."

Kosovo has a young population and with the jobless rate so high, many pack the capital's cafes, nursing a single coffee for hours. "If my uncles did not live in Switzerland and support us, my family would die," said Ilir, a young cafe client who was too embarrassed to give his last name. "My father gets a little money from selling agricultural products he grows from our small land. No other jobs for me or my sister."

In the Serb enclave of Gracanica, home to a medieval Serb Orthodox monastery, the sentiments are the same. "Regardless of ethnicity, the situation is grave for all the people," said Mirjana Vlasacevic, a 57-year-old court employee in Gracanica. "That is the reason that they, the youngsters, are looking to leave."

Florent Bajrami in Pristina, Sylejman Kllokoqi in Gracanica, Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed.

In Italy's poorer south, populist party woos angry voters

February 19, 2018

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — In the Naples suburb of Torre del Greco, a port town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, voters are steaming. Local seamen have jobs lost to foreigners willing to work for lower pay. The town is without a mayor, who was arrested months ago in a kickback scandal. Some 13,000 small investors lost their savings in the bankruptcy of a shipping company.

Those woes only aggravate the daily difficulties of life in Italy's underdeveloped south, where youth unemployment runs 50 percent or higher, and the jobless rate among all ages is nearly double that in the relatively affluent north. It's also an area long influenced by organized crime syndicates, where prosecutors say votes have been exchanged for guarantees of lucrative public work contracts.

Whichever party can convert voters' palpable anger in the south into support in Italy's March 4 election could very well determine who governs Italy. A few dozen southern races, including in the Campania region embracing Naples, are critical.

The maverick 5-Star Movement, a populist phenomenon that bills itself as the antidote to establishment politics, appears positioned to benefit from citizen outrage as it aims to enter Italy's national government for the first time.

"The South is a crucial area, an area in which negative emotions play a very relevant role, and it's where these negative emotions can lead to the 5-Stars," said Giovanni Orsina, a political expert at Rome's LUISS university.

Analysts predict the March 4 vote will produce three blocs: the 5-Star Movement, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's alliance of centrist and right-wing groups and a center-left group led by former Premier Matteo Renzi.

Vincenzo Accardo, the head of Torre del Greco's seamen's group, angrily told a rally last week that he had asked all the main parties to come to this town and learn about its problems. All but one didn't bother to reply.

But he joyously presented the only candidate for premier who did — 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio. "This is a land that not only has great traditions, it unfortunately has a high level of youth unemployment," said Di Maio, pledging to promote lasting jobs for young people.

In a sign of how crucial the southern voters are, the 5-Star Movement founder, comic Beppe Grillo, also came, making his only campaign appearance so far in support of Di Maio. "Beppe! Beppe!" the crowd chanted.

In opinion polls, the 5-Stars consistently rank as the most popular choice of those saying they'll vote. But they also appear far short of clinching the absolute majority needed to form a government. And because they have rejected any postelection deal to join a coalition government, they risk not getting into power.

Still, the 5-Stars could play the spoiler, siphoning off support in key races from what pollsters say is the only electoral group that could get a majority — Berlusconi's conservatives and far-right allies.

Gelsomina Assante, who came to the rally from nearby San Giorgio a Cremano, said she'd vote for the 5-Star Movement "for their honesty" and hoped others would too. "If not, I've told my husband we can leave Italy," she declared.

Recent developments have questioned that 5-Star "honesty." Seeking to distance themselves from establishment politicians, 5-Star lawmakers pledged to turn over half their salaries along with unspent expense accounts to a fund that provides modest loans to small businesses and the self-employed. A TV expose found that several lawmakers had kept the money instead.

Supporters view the 5-Stars as a long-awaited opportunity to break with Italy's established parties, like Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, which has done well previously in the south but which they say failed to help the region develop.

"The question is, why not vote the 5-Star Movement?" asked voter Giuseppe Apicella, who clutched a Movement flag. For decades in the south, politics consisted of doling out development aid and, prosecutors say, doling out public contracts to crime syndicates in exchange for votes. But those ways may be changing, according to Orsina.

Amid Italy's tepid economic recovery, it's "very difficult for politicians to ask for votes because they don't have the resources" to deliver on promises, Orsina told The Associated Press. Judging by the crowd at Di Maio's rally in his hometown of Pomigliano d'Arco, a factory town on the outskirts of Naples, 5-Stars certainly appeal to young professionals. But what about the have-nots?

With its crumbling balconies, broken windows, uncollected garbage and dim corridors where drug dealers do business, the public housing project in Naples' Scampia neighborhood has served as a backdrop for the hit movie and TV series "Gomorrah." Di Maio stopped in Scampia, visiting a judo school that takes the Camorra's future young recruits off the streets.

This gym "did more than the politicians did" for Scampia, said Di Maio, a 31-year-old former web designer who was raised in the Naples area. In a Scampia coffee bar, the verdict was mixed about who deserved their votes.

Giovanna Cardeopoli, 49 and jobless, said she would vote again for Berlusconi's party "because he gets things done." But one of her teenage daughters has left Naples for Rome, hoping to find work. Owner Salvatore Varriale, working the espresso machine, differed.

"Berlusconi by now has given what he had to give," he said. He believed the 5-Stars "think about the future of us young people." There's one bloc of voters that surpasses the 5-Stars in opinion polls: Italians who are undecided or say they won't vote at all. They total some 33 percent of those polled.

Lorenzo Liparulo held a banner with other Scampia residents outside Di Maio's judo stop, proclaiming themselves the "Organized Unemployed." "Honestly, I don't trust anyone anymore," Liparulo said. "I say that from my heart. Because after so many years, and after so many promises, no one has maintained any of them, no matter what party."

Paolo Santalucia and Trisha Thomas in Naples and Maria Grazia Murru in Rome contributed to this report.

Dutch foreign minister quits after lying about Putin meeting

February 13, 2018

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch foreign affairs minister resigned Tuesday, a day after admitting that he lied about attending a meeting hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin more than a decade ago.

An emotional Halbe Zijlstra announced his resignation at the start of a debate Tuesday at which he was expected to be grilled by opposition lawmakers about the lie. He called it "by far the biggest mistake I have committed in my entire career."

"This is about the credibility of the minister of foreign affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands," Zijlstra said. "That credibility must be beyond doubt." Zijlstra, a member of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's center-right VVD party, is the first minister to quit since Rutte's four-party coalition took office in October. Rutte, who was also in Parliament for Zijlstra's resignation, hugged him as he left.

Zijlstra's position as the country's top diplomat became untenable after he admitted lying about a meeting with Putin. Zijlstra has in the past said he attended a 2006 meeting when Putin said he considered Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states as part of a "Greater Russia."

On Monday, Zijlstra conceded he wasn't present at the meeting but heard the story from somebody who was. He said he considered Putin's statements so geopolitically important that he spoke about them publicly and took credit for hearing the comments as a way of protecting his source.

"It was clearly a wrong choice," Zijlstra said as he announced his resignation. The Russian embassy in the Netherlands waded into the debate by issuing a statement accusing some in the Netherlands of distributing "fake news" aimed at discrediting Moscow by suggesting it has expansionist ambitions.

"This can only be heard from those who are interested in presenting Russia as an enemy and who under the pretext of the notorious 'Russian threat' keep pushing NATO military infrastructure eastwards, therefore consciously provoking military confrontation," the Russian statement said.

Zijlstra's resignation came a day before he was due to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow. There was no immediate announcement about a replacement.