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Heads of Arab and pan-African parliament discuss cooperation on mutual interests  

Heads of Arab and pan-African parliament discuss cooperation on mutual interests  
The two sides reviewed regional and international interests, and agreed on full coordination in international forums in support of all Arab and African matters. (Arab Parliament)
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Updated 31 January 2023
Arab News

Heads of Arab and pan-African parliament discuss cooperation on mutual interests  

Heads of Arab and pan-African parliament discuss cooperation on mutual interests  
Updated 31 January 2023
Arab News

The President of the Arab Parliament, Adel bin Abd al-Rahman al-Asoumi, met with the President of the Pan-African Parliament, Chief Fortune Charumbira on Tuesday.  

The officials met on the sidelines of the Conference of the Union of Councils of Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Algeria, a statement by the Arab Parliament said. 

The two sides reviewed regional and international interests, and agreed on full coordination in international forums in support of all Arab and African matters.  

The Speaker of the Arab Parliament affirmed that the Arab and African regions possess many common denominators that contribute to supporting Arab and African matters, especially the Palestinian issue and the Libyan crisis.

Topics: Arab parliment African Parliament

Jordanian MPs vote to expel Israeli envoy in Amman over Palestine denial speech

Jordanian MPs vote to expel Israeli envoy in Amman over Palestine denial speech
Updated 44 min 35 sec ago
Arab News

Jordanian MPs vote to expel Israeli envoy in Amman over Palestine denial speech

Jordanian MPs vote to expel Israeli envoy in Amman over Palestine denial speech
  • Bezalel Smotrich dismissed existence of Palestinian people, used map of Israel including occupied West Bank, Gaza, Jordan
  • Finance minister’s behavior reflected ‘Israeli arrogance, disrespect of international treaties, conventions’: Jordan MPs
Updated 44 min 35 sec ago
Arab News

AMMAN: The Jordanian Parliament’s Lower House has voted to expel Israel’s ambassador in Amman in protest over Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s reference to a map of Israel that included the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan.

During a speech in Paris on Sunday, Smotrich claimed the notion of a Palestinian people was artificial.

He said: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. There is no Palestinian history. There is no Palestinian language.”

The minister was speaking at a memorial event for a French Israeli right-wing activist who had denied the existence of a Palestinian nation and advocated annexation of the West Bank.

During the Jordan Parliament session on Wednesday, MPs described Smotrich’s words as reflecting “an Israeli arrogance and disrespect of international treaties and conventions,” the Jordan News Agency reported.

Lower House speaker, Ahmed Safadi, called on Jordan’s government to take proactive measures against Smotrich’s statements and behavior.
 

Topics: Jordan Israel

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Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will not revive settlements evacuated in 2005

Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will not revive settlements evacuated in 2005
Updated 22 March 2023
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Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will not revive settlements evacuated in 2005

Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will not revive settlements evacuated in 2005
  • Lawmakers earlier voted to annul part of a law banning Israelis from living in areas of the occupied West Bank the government evacuated in 2005
Updated 22 March 2023
AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel has “no intention” of reviving West Bank settlements evacuated nearly two decades ago, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, after a parliamentary vote sparked US ire.
Lawmakers voted Tuesday to annul part of a law banning Israelis from living in areas of the occupied West Bank the government evacuated in 2005.
That year Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip and removed Jewish settlers from the coastal territory, as well as from four settlements in the northern West Bank.
Netanyahu’s office said the parliamentary vote scraps “a discriminatory and humiliating law, that prohibited Jews from living in areas in northern Samaria, which is part of our historic homeland,” using the biblical name for the northern West Bank.
“Having said that, the government has no intention of establishing new communities in these areas,” the statement added.
Netanyahu returned to power in December and vowed to expand settlements across the West Bank, which are deemed illegal under international law.
His assertion that the government will not formally allow settlers to return to the four sites evacuated in 2005 comes after Washington said it was “extremely troubled” by the parliamentary vote.
“The legislative changes announced today are particularly provocative,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday.
Patel said the move was in “clear contradiction” of promises made by prime minister Ariel Sharon to US president George W. Bush, as well as assurances given just two days ago by the Netanyahu administration.
The decision by lawmakers was heralded by Israel’s settler movement which has made one of the sites — Homesh — a symbol of their cause.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a far-right settler, tweeted that it marked a step toward regularizing the Israeli presence at Homesh.
A small group of activists returned to the site in 2009 and set up a Jewish seminary, which was cleared repeatedly by Israeli troops before the military eventually allowed them to stay.

Topics: Benjamin Netanyahu Israel

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Tear gas, clashes as Lebanon protesters try to storm government HQ

Tear gas, clashes as Lebanon protesters try to storm government HQ
Updated 22 March 2023
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Tear gas, clashes as Lebanon protesters try to storm government HQ

Tear gas, clashes as Lebanon protesters try to storm government HQ
  • The retired soldiers demanding better pay were clashing with riot police and troops
Updated 22 March 2023
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BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse hundreds of protesters, mainly retired soldiers, who tried to break through the fence leading to the government headquarters in downtown Beirut.
The violence came amid widespread anger over the harsh economic conditions in the country, where mismanagement by the ruling class has been rampant for years, preceding the economic meltdown that started in late 2019.
The retired soldiers demanding better pay were clashing with riot police and troops. Several people suffered breathing problems from the tear gas. The protesters hurled stones at the officers protecting the government headquarters and repeatedly tried to break through the fence.
The Lebanese pound hit a new low on Tuesday, selling for more than 143,000 pounds to the dollar before making some gains. The pound has lost more than 96 percent of its value over the past three years.
“My monthly salary is $40. How can I survive,” screamed a retired army officer.
Lebanon, a small Mediterranean nation of 6 million people, is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a political class that has ruled the country since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
The political class has also resisted the implementation of reforms demanded by the international community. Since the economic meltdown began, three-quarters of the population, which includes 1 million Syrian refugees, now lives in poverty and inflation is soaring.
Lebanon has also stalled on reforms agreed to with the International Monetary Fund to enable access to $3 billion in a bailout package and unlock funds in development aid to make the economy viable again.

Topics: Lebanon Beirut

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Building collapse in Qatar’s capital kills 1, search ongoing

Building collapse in Qatar’s capital kills 1, search ongoing
Updated 22 March 2023
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Building collapse in Qatar’s capital kills 1, search ongoing

Building collapse in Qatar’s capital kills 1, search ongoing
Updated 22 March 2023
AP

DOHA: A building collapsed Wednesday in Qatar’s capital, killing at least one person as searchers clawed through the rubble to check for survivors, authorities said.
Qatar’s Interior Ministry described the building as a four-story structure in Doha’s Bin Durham neighborhood. It said rescuers found seven survivors, while the one person killed had been inside the building at the time of the collapse.
Authorities offered no immediate explanation for the building’s collapse. Online video showed car alarms sounding after the collapse, with one part of the building falling into another nearby.
Civil defense and police surrounded the site after the 8 a.m. collapse, with multiple ambulances and an excavator at the scene. Residents were asked to evacuate for their safety.
Qatar hosted the FIFA World Cup last year.

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Pro-Kurdish party gives tacit support to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival in Turkey polls

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Updated 22 March 2023
AFP

Pro-Kurdish party gives tacit support to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival in Turkey polls

Pro-Kurdish party gives tacit support to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival in Turkey polls
  • Peoples’ Democratic Party decision reduces the possibility of a damaging split of the anti-Erdogan vote
  • Boosts the chances of the opposition alliance’s joint candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu
Updated 22 March 2023
AFP

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s main pro-Kurdish party said Wednesday it would not field a presidential candidate in May elections, giving tacit support to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival in the crucial vote.
The decision by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) reduces the possibility of a damaging split of the anti-Erdogan vote, boosting the chances of the opposition alliance’s joint candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Winning more than 10 percent of the vote in the past three national elections, the HDP was widely seen as a kingmaker in the tightly contested race.
“We will not field a candidate in the presidential elections,” Pervin Buldan, the party co-chairwoman, told reporters.
“We will fulfil our historic responsibility to end one-man rule in the coming elections,” she said, condemning Erdogan’s consolidation of power over his two decades as prime minister and president.
The HDP’s decision strips Erdogan of a key voting bloc in what is widely seen as Turkiye’s most important election of its post-Ottoman history.
Erdogan enjoyed some support from Kurdish voters earlier in his rule.
His government once worked with HDP politicians in an effort to put an end to a decades-long fight by Kurdish insurgents for an independent state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
But he now accuses the HDP — parliament’s third largest party — of being the political wing of the PKK militants.
The leftist party denies the charges and says it is being singled out for its fierce criticism of the government’s social and economic policies.
Erdogan and his far-right allies in parliament are now trying to dissolve the HDP over its alleged terror ties.
Turkiye’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected the HDP’s request to delay the outcome of the case until after the May 14 election.
The HDP was excluded from a six-party opposition alliance that has rallied around Kilicdaroglu’s candidacy.
The anti-Erdogan alliance includes staunchly nationalist parties that refuse to work with the HDP.
Meeting with HDP leaders on Monday, Kilicdaroglu promised to remove restrictions on the Kurdish language and address other Kurdish concerns.

Topics: Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan

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