Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on Feb 26 — Palestinian Authority PM

Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on Feb 26 — Palestinian Authority PM
Troops on the ground in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas (AFP)
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Updated 18 February 2024
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Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on Feb 26 — Palestinian Authority PM

Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on Feb 26 — Palestinian Authority PM
  • Russia has invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow

MUNICH: Russia has invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow on Feb. 26, the Palestinian Authority prime minister said on Sunday, adding that the PA was ready to engage with Hamas.
“Russia has invited all Palestinian factions who will be meeting on the 26 of this month in Moscow. We will see if Hamas is ready to come to the ground with us” Mohammad Shtayyeh told the Munich Security Conference.
“We are ready to engage. If Hamas is not then that’s a different story. We need Palestinian unity,” he said, adding that to be part of that unity Hamas needed to meet certain prerequisites.
Set up as part of the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that raised hopes of Palestinian statehood, the PA has seen its legitimacy steadily undermined by Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Many Palestinians now regard it as corrupt, undemocratic and out of touch.
The militant Islamist group Hamas has ruled in the Gaza Strip for 17 years after ousting the PA loyalist security services from the enclave. Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel triggered Israel’s war against the group in Gaza.
Western and some Arab states have made it clear that they want to see a revitalized Palestinian Authority – which President Mahmoud Abbas has run since 2005 — take charge in Gaza once the conflict is over, unifying its administration with the West Bank.
“Palestine is ready. We have the institutions, capabilities, but our serious problem is we are under occupation,” Shtayyeh said. “We are under Israeli occupation and we need it to end.”
When asked whether bringing Hamas into the broader PLO platform would alienate international partners, he said Hamas was an integral part of the Palestinian political arena.
“In order for Hamas to be a member of the PLO there has to be prerequisites that Hamas has to accept — the political platform of the PLO, an understanding on the issue of resistance and we are calling for popular resistance and nothing else,” he said.
Hamas has always welcomed Russian reconciliation efforts. Leaders of the Palestinian Islamist factions have repeatedly visited Moscow, which maintains good relations with Hamas.
Hamas and the PA have failed to end their power disputes since 2007. Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group demand to join the PLO but say it should be reformed as the two factions reject recognizing Israel or abiding by the PLO commitment toward the signed peace accords.
Shtayyeh said there were currently no talks with Hamas.
“They need to come to our political agenda. Our ground is very clear. Two states on the borders of 1967, through peaceful means,” he said. “The Palestinians need to be under one umbrella.”
“We need a reformed PA because right now Hamas has too much legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinians,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said.
“We need to offer them a new generation of young Palestinian leaders who will be at the table to create this state.”


Lebanon asked US, France to press Israel to halt truce breaches, say sources

Lebanon asked US, France to press Israel to halt truce breaches, say sources
Updated 27 sec ago
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Lebanon asked US, France to press Israel to halt truce breaches, say sources

Lebanon asked US, France to press Israel to halt truce breaches, say sources
  • The truce came into effect on Nov. 27 and prohibits Israel from conducting offensive military operations in Lebanon
  • Lebanon’s parliament speaker says Beirut had logged at least 54 Israeli violations of the ceasefire so far
BEIRUT: Top Lebanese officials have urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold a ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Deadly Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket launches on an Israeli military post on Monday have put a US-brokered ceasefire between the two in an increasingly fragile position less than a week after it came into effect.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late Monday and expressed concern about the state of the ceasefire, the sources said.
Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry were immediately available to comment. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday, saying both sides should adhere to the ceasefire.
US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday that the ceasefire “is holding” and that the US had “anticipated that there might be violations.”
The truce came into effect on Nov. 27 and prohibits Israel from conducting offensive military operations in Lebanon while requiring Lebanon to prevent armed groups, including Hezbollah, from launching attacks on Israel. It gives Israeli troops 60 days to withdraw from south Lebanon.
A monitoring mechanism chaired by the United States is tasked with monitoring, verifying and helping enforce the truce, but it has yet to begin work.
Berri on Monday urged it to “urgently” ensure Israel halts its breaches, saying Beirut had logged at least 54 Israeli violations of the ceasefire so far.
Israel says its continued military activity in Lebanon is aimed at enforcing the ceasefire and does not violate its obligations under the truce.
Mikati on Monday met in Beirut with US General Jasper Jeffers, who will chair the monitoring committee, and stressed the need for Israeli troops to swiftly withdraw.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that France’s representative to the committee, General Guillaume Ponchin, will arrive in Beirut on Wednesday and that the committee would hold its first meeting on Thursday.
“There is an urgency to finalize the mechanism, otherwise it will be too late,” the source said, referring to Israel’s gradual intensification of strikes despite the truce.
Miller said the monitoring mechanism would begin its work “in the coming days.”
At least 12 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest day since the ceasefire came into effect.
They included six people in the southern town of Hariss and another four people in the southern town of Taloussa, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Israel strikes car on Damascus airport road: state media

Israel strikes car on Damascus airport road: state media
Updated 03 December 2024
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Israel strikes car on Damascus airport road: state media

Israel strikes car on Damascus airport road: state media
  • An Israeli air strike hit a car on the Damascus airport road on Tuesday, causing it to explode

DAMASCUS: An Israeli air strike hit a car on the Damascus airport road on Tuesday, causing it to explode, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
“A car exploded after it was targeted in an Israeli aggression on the road to Damascus International Airport,” SANA reported, citing a police source, without saying who was targeted or if there were any casualties.


Hamas, Fatah agree on joint committee to run post-war Gaza

Hamas, Fatah agree on joint committee to run post-war Gaza
Updated 03 December 2024
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Hamas, Fatah agree on joint committee to run post-war Gaza

Hamas, Fatah agree on joint committee to run post-war Gaza

CAIRO: Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party have agreed to create a committee to jointly administer post-war Gaza, negotiators from both sides said Tuesday.
Under the plan, which needs Abbas’s approval, the committee would be composed of 10 to 15 non-partisan figures with authority on matters related to the economy, education, health, humanitarian aid and reconstruction, according to a draft of the proposal seen by AFP.


Iraqi armed group urges government to deploy troops to Syria

Iraqi armed group urges government to deploy troops to Syria
Updated 03 December 2024
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Iraqi armed group urges government to deploy troops to Syria

Iraqi armed group urges government to deploy troops to Syria

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s powerful Iran-aligned Kataeb Hezbollah armed group has called on Baghdad to send troops to Syria to support the Damascus government against a militant offensive.
Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, made the appeal in a statement shared on pro-Iranian Telegram channels late Monday. Excerpts were also posted on its official website.
The militant offensive, led by Islamists, has seized the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, stirring concern in political and security circles in neighboring Iraq.
A spokesman for Kataeb Hezbollah, part of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance,” said the group had not yet decided to deploy its own fighters but urged Baghdad to act.
“We believe the Iraqi government should take the initiative to send regular military forces in coordination with the Syrian government, as these groups pose a threat to Iraq’s national security and the region,” the spokesman said.
Kataeb Hezbollah has previously fought in Syria alongside forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
In Iraq, it is part of the Hashed Al-Shaabi, a coalition of former paramilitary forces now integrated into the regular armed forces.
This coalition, under the Iraqi prime minister’s command, denies involvement outside Iraq’s borders.
Iraq remains scarred by the rise of the Daesh group in 2014, which saw the extremists capture nearly a third of the country before being defeated in 2017.
On Monday, Iraq said it had sent armored vehicles to bolster security along its 600-kilometer (370-mile) border with Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported the deployment of about 200 pro-Iranian Iraqi fighters in Syria’s Aleppo region to back government forces.


Syrian army and allied forces confront attack by SDF forces in Deir Al Zor, state news agency says

Syrian army and allied forces confront attack by SDF forces in Deir Al Zor, state news agency says
Updated 03 December 2024
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Syrian army and allied forces confront attack by SDF forces in Deir Al Zor, state news agency says

Syrian army and allied forces confront attack by SDF forces in Deir Al Zor, state news agency says

DUBAI: The Syrian army and allied forces confronted an attack launched by forces affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance on villages in the northern countryside of Deir Al Zor province on Tuesday, state news agency (SANA) reported.
The SDF is a Kurdish-led alliance in north and east Syria which worked with the US-led coalition against Daesh. Spearheaded by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and including Arab fighters, it holds a quarter of Syria, including oil fields and areas where some 900 US troops are deployed.
Turkiye, Syria’s northern neighbor, considers the YPG and the SDF by extension to be “terrorist” groups.