Hopes fade for IMF bailout of Tunisia

Hopes fade for IMF bailout of Tunisia
President Kais Saied. (Reuters)
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Updated 07 April 2023
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Hopes fade for IMF bailout of Tunisia

Hopes fade for IMF bailout of Tunisia

Hopes faded on Friday for a stalled $1.9 billion IMF bailout package for Tunisia after President Kais Saied said he would not comply with “diktats” and that the required subsidy cuts could cause unrest.
Tunisia reached an agreement with the IMF for the loan in September, but it has already missed key commitments, and donors believe its finances are increasingly diverging from the figures used to calculate the deal.
Without a loan, Tunisia faces economic meltdown. Foreign loan repayments are due this year, and credit ratings agencies have said the country may default.
The terms of the loan include cuts to food and energy subsidies and a reduction in the public wage bill, but Saied said: “I will not hear diktats.” The alternative to the loan, he said, was that “Tunisians must count on themselves.”
Saied seized most powers in 2021, shutting down parliament, appointing a new government and moving to rule by decree —moves he said were necessary to end years of chaos and rampant corruption among the political elite.
He has blamed Tunisia’s economic problems on corruption and rejected what he sees as foreign interference.
Bailout talks with the IMF have been stalled for months, with the US and France, among others, demanding far-reaching reforms from Saied to free up the cash. Italy, however, a key destination for migrants from North Africa, says Tunisia should be quickly supported to avoid the financial collapse.
Europe risks seeing a huge wave of migrants arriving on its shores if Tunisia's financial stability is not safeguarded, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said last month. 
 


Houthis vow to continue blocking Red Sea for Israeli ships

Houthis vow to continue blocking Red Sea for Israeli ships
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Houthis vow to continue blocking Red Sea for Israeli ships

Houthis vow to continue blocking Red Sea for Israeli ships
  • Houthi Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Al-Atefi said that the militia would continue to block the Red Sea to ships owned or operated by Israel
  • US envoy discusses militia threats to international commercial traffic and peace efforts with key Yemen official

AL-MUKALLA: The Houthis have threatened again to launch missile and drone strikes against Israeli ships traversing the Red Sea as well as Israel itself, amid mounting international pressure on the Yemeni militia. 

Houthi Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Al-Atefi said on Wednesday that the militia would continue to block the Red Sea for ships owned or operated by Israel and would fire ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, defying international calls for the militia to stop threatening maritime navigation in the Red Sea.

“In support of our people in Gaza, the navy, missile, and drone forces are ready to conduct the toughest individual and collective attacks on fixed or moving targets in Israel,” Al-Atefi said while addressing a group of military and security officers, as well as media, aboard the seized cargo ship Galaxy Leader.

Al-Atefi’s warnings came as the militia’s military declared the firing of a number of ballistic missiles targeting military sites in Eilat, south of Israel.

Since the beginning of this month, the Houthis have fired drones and ballistic missiles toward Israel and commercial ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s assault in Gaza.

Several drones and missiles were intercepted over the Red Sea by US Navy ships. 

The Houthis seized the Israeli-linked cargo ship Galaxy Leader from the Red Sea on Nov. 19 and diverted it to the shore of Yemen’s Hodeidah. 

The militia transformed the seized ship into a tourist attraction, allowing visitors to board for 500 Yemeni riyals (almost a dollar in Houthi cities).

People were seen wandering around the ship, dancing in groups, and chewing the hobby qat leaves, according to social media influencers.

Images on social media showed tiny boats transporting passengers from Hodeidah’s shoreline to the ship.

Others were spotted snapping pictures and waving Palestinian and Yemeni flags.

The slogans of the Houthis were displayed on the ship.

“The ship is available to everybody for 500 riyals. Life is great here since one may chew (qat), alter his mood, smoke shisha, and even earn a livelihood,” Mustafa Al-Maouri, a Yemeni online influencer who was kidnapped by the Houthis and placed on trial earlier this year, said on the ship’s top deck.

Meanwhile, Tim Lenderking, US Yemen envoy, met with Aidarous Al-Zubeidi, deputy president of Yemen’s Presidential Transitional Council, in Dubai on Thursday to discuss Houthi threats to international commercial traffic in the Red Sea and peace efforts to end the conflict in Yemen.

“We discussed the urgent maritime security concerns and challenges in the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab considering the recent escalation by the Houthis and reviewed together the latest updates regarding the UN-led political peace process to end the war in #Yemen,” Al-Zubeidi said on the social media platform X.

The US Department of State said that Lenderking traveled to the region on Monday to push for a peaceful resolution to the Yemen crisis and to discuss with US partners measures to maintain the safety of international commerce.


Pakistan welcomes UN chief’s warning to Security Council of impending ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza

Pakistan welcomes UN chief’s warning to Security Council of impending ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza
Updated 07 December 2023
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Pakistan welcomes UN chief’s warning to Security Council of impending ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza

Pakistan welcomes UN chief’s warning to Security Council of impending ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza
  • US abstained last month to allow Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for pauses in fighting
  • Seven-day pause that saw release of hostages and increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza expired on Dec. 1

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday welcomed the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ rare move this week to formally warn the Security Council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and a global threat from the war.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, Guterres said the war in Gaza “may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security.” He invoked Article 99 of the founding UN Charter that allows him to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

The article has not been used for decades.

“Pakistan welcomes the UN Secretary-General’s decision to invoke Article 99 of the UN Charter, to bring to the attention of the UN Security Council the dire security situation and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” the Pakistani foreign office spokesperson said at a briefing on Thursday.

“This decision of the Secretary General demonstrates his conscionable assessment of the catastrophic situation in Gaza … We join the Secretary General in his call to the international community to end the ongoing situation and avert a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Pakistan called on the Security Council to perform its responsibility to impose an “immediate and unconditional” cease-fire and protect the people of Gaza from an “impending genocide.”

The foreign office also called for an international conference for long-term peace on the conflict, saying durable peace would emerge from the internationally agreed two-state solution and from the creation of a “secure, viable, contiguous, and sovereign state of Palestine” on the basis of the pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

The United States and close ally Israel oppose a cease-fire, arguing that it would only benefit Hamas. Washington has instead supported pauses to protect civilians and allow for the release of hostages taken by Hamas in a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says so far 16,015 people have been killed in the enclave of 2.3 million since Israel launched its offensive in early October. Guterres told the Security Council in his letter that there was no effective protection of civilians and that “nowhere is safe in Gaza.”


Turkiye’s Erdogan pledges ‘new era’ in relations with Greece

Turkiye’s Erdogan pledges ‘new era’ in relations with Greece
Updated 07 December 2023
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Turkiye’s Erdogan pledges ‘new era’ in relations with Greece

Turkiye’s Erdogan pledges ‘new era’ in relations with Greece
  • Fiery Turkish leader expected to discuss trade, regional issues and the perennially thorny issue of migration

ATHENS: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged Thursday to open a “new era” in relations with historic rival Greece, as he opened his first official visit to Athens since 2017.

“I believe that the Turkiye-Greece strategic cooperation meeting will lead to a new era” in relations, Erdogan told Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, adding that “we need to be optimistic, and this optimism will be fruitful in the future.”

In meetings with Sakellaropoulou and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the fiery Turkish leader was expected to discuss trade, regional issues and the perennially thorny issue of migration.

In an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini a day before his five-hour visit on Thursday, Erdogan said he was seeking a “new chapter” in relations on the basis of “win-win” principles.

Ankara has served as a migration bulwark since a 2016 deal with the European Union, which Mitsotakis and fellow EU leaders hope to update.

A retinue of diplomats accompanying Erdogan are also broaching with Greek counterparts the longstanding issue of Greek-Turkish territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea.

Erdogan has questioned century-old treaties that set out Aegean sovereignty, and Turkish and Greek warplanes regularly engage in mock dogfights in disputed airspace.

The discovery of hydrocarbon resources in the eastern Mediterranean has further complicated ties, with Ankara angering Athens in 2019 by signing a controversial maritime zone deal with Libya.

Relations further cratered in the next two years, prompting Mitsotakis to announce a military buildup in naval and air force equipment, and sign defensive agreements with France and the United States.

In 2020, Erdogan was seen in Athens to have encouraged thousands of migrants to attempt to cross the frontier into Greece, causing days of clashes with border guards.

At the time, the move was interpreted as a Turkish attempt to draw EU attention to the millions of asylum seekers in Turkiye.

Erdogan also used increasingly inflammatory rhetoric toward Greece, often in conjunction with his electoral campaigns.

Last year, he accused Greece of “occupying” Aegean islands and threatened: “As we say, we may come suddenly one night.”

But relations have improved since February, when Greece sent rescuers and aid to Turkiye after a massive earthquake killed at least 50,000 people.

Speaking to Kathimerini on Wednesday, the Turkish leader said communication channels with Greece had been “revived” and that he looked forward to signing a declaration of bilateral friendship with Greece on Thursday.

“Kyriakos my friend, we do not threaten you if you do not threaten us,” Erdogan said.

“If differences are addressed through dialogue and common ground is found, this is to the benefit of all,” he added.

Mitsotakis, the conservative prime minister who won a second four-year term in June, has also shown readiness to reduce tension with Ankara.

The two leaders previously met in September in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Erdogan was last in Athens in 2017, when he met Mitsotakis’ leftist predecessor Alexis Tsipras.

Without sidestepping the “major territorial disputes” that have long existed between the NATO allies, Mitsotakis favors settling differences at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

“It is important that disagreements do not lead to crises,” and that “every opportunity for dialogue — such as the very important (meeting) of December 7 — leads us forward,” Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told state TV ERT this week.

Greek and Turkish ministers will hold a meeting of the high cooperation council, a bilateral body that last convened in 2016.

A diplomatic source speaking on condition of anonymity called it a “positive step” in the rapprochement.

“Dialogue is the only tool in order to develop a road map for the delimitation of waters in the Aegean,” Antonia Zervaki, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Athens, said.

Greek migration minister Dimitris Kairidis this week said the two countries’ coast guards had been cooperating smoothly on migration in past months.

He did not rule out an agreement with Ankara to station a Turkish officer on the Greek island of Lesbos, and a Greek officer at the western Turkish port of Izmir.

Thursday’s talks are expected to also discuss the Israel-Hamas war, where Erdogan has shown no sign of abandoning his support of Hamas militants.

In contrast, Mitsotakis has made a clear distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people, stating that Israel had suffered a “savage terrorist attack” on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas following the deadliest attack in its history and launched a retaliatory military campaign that has killed more than 16,000 people in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the territory’s Hamas authorities.


Israeli forces kill 4 West Bank Palestinians: ministry

Israeli forces kill 4 West Bank Palestinians: ministry
Palestinian children run past a damaged car following a raid by Israeli troops early in the morning, in the Jenin camp in the oc
Updated 07 December 2023
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Israeli forces kill 4 West Bank Palestinians: ministry

Israeli forces kill 4 West Bank Palestinians: ministry
  • The Palestinian Authority says Israeli fire and settler attacks in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, have killed more than 250 Palestinians during the current conflict

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians, two of them teenagers, in the north of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Sixteen-year-old Omar Abu Bakr was killed by “a bullet to the chest fired by soldiers from the occupation (Israel) in Yabad,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Abdul Nasser Mustafa Riyahi, 24, succumbed to his wounds after being shot in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, according to the ministry.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces had burst into the camp in the morning and surrounded a house.
“Confrontations broke out during which the soldiers opened live fire at the Palestinians injuring four. One of them later died of his wounds,” it said.
Earlier, the health ministry said Israeli troops had killed two Palestinians elsewhere in the West Bank’s north.
It said Abdul Rahman Imad Khaled Bani Odeh, 16, and Moath Ibrahim Zahran, 23, were killed by Israeli fire in the village of Tamun and the nearby Al-Fara refugee camp.
An AFP correspondent in Tamun saw Israeli soldiers enter the village to make arrests and witnessed clashes breaking out with residents.
Further south, in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, three Palestinians “were wounded by the bullets of the occupation (Israel), one of them seriously,” the ministry said in a separate statement.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Violence in the West Bank has flared since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority says Israeli fire and settler attacks in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, have killed more than 250 Palestinians during the current conflict.
Hamas gunmen from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages, Israeli officials say.
In response, Israel has carried out air strikes and a ground offensive in Gaza that have killed more than 16,200 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run government there.
 

 


EP rapporteur on Turkiye visits philanthropist Kavala in prison

EP rapporteur on Turkiye visits philanthropist Kavala in prison
Updated 07 December 2023
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EP rapporteur on Turkiye visits philanthropist Kavala in prison

EP rapporteur on Turkiye visits philanthropist Kavala in prison
  • Sanchez called on Turkish authorities to implement the European Court of Human Rights rulings with regard to Kavala and other cases

ISTANBUL: The European Parliament’s Turkiye rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor visited Osman Kavala in prison, the first such visit by a member of the European Parliament with the jailed Turkish philanthropist, according to a press release on Wednesday.
Kavala, 65, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in April 2022, while seven others in the case received 18 years based on claims they organized and financed nationwide protests in 2013.
Sanchez thanked Turkish ministry of justice and foreign affairs on social messaging platform X.
“I hope this openness is a sign of a new period for the EU-Turkiye relations,” he added.
Sanchez called on Turkish authorities to implement the European Court of Human Rights rulings with regard to Kavala and other cases.
The European Commission’s annual report criticized Turkiye for not implementing a ruling of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights that called for the release of Kavala, who was detained in 2017 over attempting to oust the government.
Failure to comply with the Kavala ruling showed it has been “drifting away from the standards of human rights and fundamental freedoms to which it has subscribed as a member of the Council of Europe,” the report said.