Egypt, Turkiye pledge to cooperate as they mend ties

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi review a guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi review a guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 04 September 2024
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Egypt, Turkiye pledge to cooperate as they mend ties

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi.
  • Relations between the two men have warmed over the past two years, their interests aligning on several issues, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza
  • On Wednesday, the two leaders signed 17 cooperation agreements, according to the Turkish presidency

ANKARA: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egypt’s leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said they wanted to deepen their cooperation as they met in Ankara Wednesday to seal their mended ties.
“We will strengthen our cooperation in all areas,” said Erdogan, who visited El-Sisi in Cairo in mid-February when the two leaders said they had turned over a “new leaf” in their ties.
Ankara and Cairo had cut ties in 2013 after El-Sisi, then defense minister, ousted president Muhammad Mursi, an ally of Turkiye and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Erdogan said at the time he would never speak to “anyone” like El-Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world’s most populous nation.
But relations have warmed over the past two years as their interests aligned on several issues, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, the two leaders signed 17 cooperation agreements, according to the Turkish presidency.
“We want to improve our cooperation with Egypt in the domain of energy, especially natural gas and nuclear power,” Erdogan said.
Despite the decade of estrangement, trade between the two countries never ceased: Turkiye is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkiye’s largest in Africa.
The two leaders said Wednesday they want to expand their annual commercial exchanges to $15 billion (13.5 billion euros) in five years from $10 billion now.
According to the Turkish Presidency, the two men also discussed the possible sale of drones to Egypt.
On Gaza, they both called for a ceasefire and greater deliveries of humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian population.
El-Sisi also called for “a stop to the escalation in the West Bank,” where Israeli troops have for the last week been leading a military campaign.
El-Sisi said they also discussed Somalia, saying they agreed on the need to “preserve the unity and territorial integrity” of the country.
Ankara and Cairo have both recently signed military cooperation agreements with Somalia, which is in a standoff with the breakaway region of Somaliland after it signed an accord to lease ocean access to land-locked Ethiopia.


Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing

Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing
Updated 9 sec ago
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Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing

Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing
  • In Damascus, the group has a presence in the Sayyida Zeinab area south of the capital, home to an important Shiite Muslim shrine that is protected by pro-Iran groups

DAMASCUS: In central Damascus, a giant screen aired images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as news of his killing in an Israeli strike reverberated across the city.
Syrians fear Israel’s bombardment of neighboring Lebanon could spill into government-held areas, which have already faced hundreds of Israeli strikes over the years.
“Sayyed Nasrallah’s killing was a great shock and a tragedy for us and for Arab nations,” said Ayham Barada, a 30-year-old shop owner. “We lost a man of great stature.”
Nasrallah was a key ally of President Bashar Assad and backed the Damascus government’s forces during the Syrian civil war. His group, alongside Russia and Iran, helped Assad to claw back lost territory.
Assad offered condolences to Nasrallah’s family, saying he “will remain in the memory of Syrians” for heading the group during its fight “alongside Syria in its war against the tools of Zionism,” referring to Israel.
In Damascus, the group has a presence in the Sayyida Zeinab area south of the capital, home to an important Shiite Muslim shrine that is protected by pro-Iran groups.
Nasrallah’s face adorns walls across the neighborhood and prayers echoed from loudspeakers, while young men distributed white roses and water to passersby, residents said.

In other parts of the city, mourners gathered for three days to mark his death.
Authorities declared an official mourning period, with flags flying at half-mast on government buildings.
“We’re anxious... Syria will definitely be affected, but we can overcome this, just as we have overcome bigger blows before,” said Wissam Bashur, 36, who works in advertising.
“This is just one round of fighting in the larger battle,” said Bashur, who has been glued to his phone for three days.
Damascus streets are filled with cars bearing Lebanese plates, as tens of thousands have fled Lebanon for Syria to escape Israel’s air strikes, the United Nations said on Monday.
“The number of people who have crossed into Syria from Lebanon fleeing Israeli air strikes — Lebanese and Syrian nationals — has reached 100,000,” said Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency.
“The outflow continues,” he said on social media platform X.
For some, like Damascus resident Lubana Shaar, 36, Nasrallah’s death marks the start of an uncertain new chapter.
“There is a before and an after Nasrallah. This is a great loss and we have a right to feel scared of what this next phase will bring,” she said.
However, in rebel-held areas of Syria, many celebrated the death of Assad’s ally — illustrating deep divisions in a country marred by 13 years of devastating war.
Activists and opposition leaders in Syria blame Hezbollah for helping to keep Assad in power and driving tens of thousands from their homes after fighting alongside his government’s forces.
“Nasrallah was a tool to displace Syrians from their hometowns,” said Ahmad Al-Asaad, 34, who fled his village near the northern city of Aleppo for rebel-held Idlib.
“He was the main reason that I, as well as others celebrating his death, have been displaced,” he said.
 

 


Two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war

Two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war
Updated 7 min 54 sec ago
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Two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war

Two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war
  • High-resolution imagery collected on Sept. 3 and 6 showed clear deterioration, UN Satellite Center says

GENEVA: Two-thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed since the Gaza war began in October 2023, the UN said.

Updating its damage assessment, the UN Satellite Center, or UNOSAT, said very high-resolution imagery collected on Sept. 3 and 6 showed a clear deterioration.

“This analysis ... shows that two-thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip have sustained damage,” UNOSAT said.

“Those 66 percent of damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip account for 163,778 structures in total,” it said.

The last assessment, based on images from early July, determined that 63 percent of structures in the Palestinian territory had been damaged.

Monday’s update said the damage now included “52,564 structures that have been destroyed; 18,913 severely damaged; 35,591 possibly damaged structures; and 56,710 moderately affected.”

Gaza City has been notably affected, with 36,611 structures destroyed, it added.

UNOSAT and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said that approximately 68 percent of the permanent crop fields in the Gaza Strip showed “a significant decline in health and density” in September.

Hamas’s unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,615 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory’s Health Ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

Part of the UN Institute for Training and Research, or UNITAR, Geneva-based UNOSAT says its satellite imagery analysis helps the humanitarian community assess the extent of conflict-related damage and helps shape emergency relief efforts.

“Over the past year, UNOSAT’s team has worked tirelessly to provide the world with precise and timely insights into the impact of the conflict on buildings and infrastructure in Gaza,” said UNITAR’s executive director Nikhil Seth.

Critics highlight that from the time a UN General Assembly vote paved the way for Israel’s establishment in 1948, the country has ignored numerous UN resolutions and international court rulings without consequences.

Israel has always snubbed Resolution 194, which guarantees the Palestinians expelled in 1948 from the territory Israel conquered the right to return or to compensation.

It has also ignored rulings condemning its forceful acquisition of territory and the annexation of East Jerusalem after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the continuing and expanding settlement policy in the West Bank, among others. 


Man arrested after breaking into Moroccan embassy in Sweden

Policemen stand outside Morocco's embassy to Sweden in Stockholm on September 30, 2024. (AFP)
Policemen stand outside Morocco's embassy to Sweden in Stockholm on September 30, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 8 min 32 sec ago
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Man arrested after breaking into Moroccan embassy in Sweden

Policemen stand outside Morocco's embassy to Sweden in Stockholm on September 30, 2024. (AFP)
  • The perpetrator, who has not yet been identified, is suspected of breaking and entering, aggravated vandalism and causing bodily injury, after shattered glass from a window fell on a passerby on the street, they added

STOCKHOLM: A man was arrested on Monday after breaking into Morocco’s embassy in Stockholm and smashing windows before hanging a rainbow flag from a window, police said.
Police stormed the building and arrested the man, who daily newspaper Aftonbladet said was armed with a knife and had barricaded himself in a room.
The man’s motive was not immediately known, police said.
The perpetrator, who has not yet been identified, is suspected of breaking and entering, aggravated vandalism and causing bodily injury, after shattered glass from a window fell on a passerby on the street, they added.
“The person was not seriously injured and was going to seek medical help on their own,” police said.
The embassy has yet to respond to AFP’s request for comment.
 

 


Gaza children ‘extremely impacted’ by war: UNICEF

Gaza children ‘extremely impacted’ by war: UNICEF
Updated 2 min 53 sec ago
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Gaza children ‘extremely impacted’ by war: UNICEF

Gaza children ‘extremely impacted’ by war: UNICEF
  • Jonathan Crickx: ‘You see children who are not allowed to have the life of normal children, no education, no play, no joy’
  • Crickx: ‘You see a lot of children carrying these dirty yellow plastic jerrycans’ with up to 25 liters of water

JERUSALEM: Nearly a year of devastating war has left Gaza’s 2.4 million people enduring a humanitarian tragedy, with children in the besieged territory the most vulnerable, a UNICEF official told AFP in an interview.
Jonathan Crickx, the UN agency’s spokesman for the Palestinian territories, has returned this month from a week-long mission to Gaza, still heavily impacted even as Israel shifts its military focus to Lebanon.
He talked to AFP about the plight of Gaza’s children, who have not had a single day of education since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
“You see children who are not allowed to have the life of normal children, no education, no play, no joy,” Crickx said.
“The faces of these children are... so sad.”
Most children he saw in the war-battered Palestinian territory were helping their family as they no longer had classes to attend.
“So, you see a lot of children carrying these dirty yellow plastic jerrycans” with up to 25 liters of water, he said.
“I’ve seen children pushing these jerrycans with a broken wheelchair, trying to bring water, which is one of the major issues... in the Gaza Strip.”
Crickx said it was heartbreaking to see children, some as young as five or six, trying to find food for their families.
They are “walking in huge piles of garbage and trying to get whatever they can,” he said.
“These children are extremely impacted by the violence and the bombings and insecurity they have been through for a year.”
Crickx vividly remembers his conversation with Ahmad, a 10-year-old Gazan boy who lived with his family in a displacement camp in southern Gaza.
The boy’s uncle had died a horrific death, Crickx said.
Ahmad “was saying things that a 10-year-old should not tell you, how the body was in pieces, how the head was far away,” he recalled.
“This is extremely intense and difficult to hear from a 10-year-old child.”
Many children in Gaza have lost at least one of their parents, said Crickx.
Exact figures are unavailable, “but the frequency at which we meet with those children is very high,” he said.
UNICEF estimates that there are 19,000 children who are unaccompanied or have been separated from their parents, he said.
On top of that, not a single school is functioning across Gaza, he said, and 85 percent of all school buildings have been destroyed by the fighting.
“You have the entire population of school-aged children who didn’t attend a single hour of class in the past 12 months,” Crickx said.
“What is really striking is how they want to go to school, how they want to play with their friends, how they want to see their teachers... education, learning give hope.”
UN agencies and aid groups have warned of the spread of preventable disease and other health risks compounded by the war.
“With a very high level of density of people, extremely bad hygiene conditions, high temperatures, too little access to a bathroom, it’s the perfect, terrible recipe for the emergence of diseases,” Crickx said.
Many children are sick and need treatment, but most hospitals across Gaza are not functioning.
“This situation is really leading to children not getting the proper treatment that they need,” Crickx said.
He said he had met four children in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital who were suffering from cancer or heart problems.
“These children actually need an immediate medical evacuation (or) they will not make it,” he said.


Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing

Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing
Updated 11 min 22 sec ago
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Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing

Grief and fear in Damascus after Nasrallah killing

DAMASCUS: In central Damascus, a giant screen aired images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as news of his killing in an Israeli strike reverberated across the city.

Syrians fear Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon could spill into regime-held areas, which have already faced hundreds of Israeli strikes over the years.

“Sayyed Nasrallah’s killing was a great shock and a tragedy for us and Arab nations,” said Ayham Barada, a 30-year-old shop owner. 

“We lost a man of great stature.”

Nasrallah was a key ally of President Bashar Assad and backed the Damascus regime’s forces during the Syrian civil war. 

His group, alongside Russia and Iran, helped Assad to claw back lost territory.

Assad offered condolences to Nasrallah’s family, saying he “will remain in the memory of Syrians” for heading the group during its fight “alongside Syria in its war against the tools of Israel.”

In Damascus, the group has a presence in the Sayyida Zeinab area south of the capital, home to an important Shiite Muslim shrine that is protected by pro-Iran groups.

Nasrallah’s face adorns walls across the neighborhood, and prayers echo from loudspeakers. Residents say that young men distribute white roses and water to passersby. In other parts of the city, mourners gathered for three days to mark his death.