Turkiye spy chief visits Libya amid political standoff

Turkiye spy chief visits Libya amid political standoff
Türkiye’s spy chief visited Libya as backers of the Tripoli government search for a way out of a political impasse that has shut down Libya's oil exports and jeopardised four years of relative stability. (File)
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Updated 06 September 2024
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Turkiye spy chief visits Libya amid political standoff

Turkiye spy chief visits Libya amid political standoff
  • A Turkish security source said on Friday that Ibrahim Kalin, head of Türkiye’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT), had met Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah on Thursday
  • Kalin conveyed Ankara’s hope for conflicts in Libya to be resolved

ANKARA: Türkiye’s spy chief visited Libya as backers of the Tripoli government search for a way out of a political impasse that has shut down Libya’s oil exports and jeopardized four years of relative stability.
A Turkish security source said on Friday that Ibrahim Kalin, head of Türkiye’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT), had met Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah on Thursday, as well as other officials. Dbeibah head Libya’s UN-recognized, Türkiye-backed Government of National Unity.
Kalin conveyed Ankara’s hope for conflicts in Libya to be resolved “through national agreement and for de-confliction to continue,” the source said, adding Kalin had also reiterated Ankara’s commitment to Libya’s unity and stability.
NATO member Türkiye sent military personnel to Libya in 2020 to train and support a Tripoli-based government against eastern commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces, the Libyan National Army.
Kalin’s visit, the highest level contact between the sides since Dbeibah visited Ankara in late May, comes as rival Libyan authorities work to defuse a political standoff over last month’s ousting of veteran central bank chief Sadiq Al-Kabir. The central bank receives and distributes funds from Libya’s oil exports, source of nearly all national income.
During the impasse, eastern factions had declared a shutdown to all oil production, demanding Kabir’s dismissal be halted, in a move that threatened to end four years of relative stability in Libya, which has had little peace since 2011 and was split in 2014 between eastern and western factions.


Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues

Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues
Updated 7 sec ago
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Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues

Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues
  • Drone attack on base near Israel’s Haifa killed four soldiers on Sunday 
  • Escalation in Lebanon has killed over 1,300, displaced more than a million

BEIRUTU, Lebanon: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah threatened Israel with more attacks if its offensive in Lebanon continued, after a drone attack on a base near Israel’s Haifa Sunday killed four soldiers.
Israel’s military said four soldiers were killed in the attack, the deadliest such assault on an Israeli base since September 23, when Israel increased its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah “promises the enemy that what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our... people,” it said.
In what it described as a “complex” operation, the Iran-backed group said it had launched dozens of missiles toward Nahariya and Acre north of Haifa “with the goal of keeping Israeli defense systems busy.”
At the same time, it launched “squadrons of various drones, some of which were being used for the first time, toward various areas in Acre and Haifa, where they were able to get past Israeli air defense radars without being detected” and hit the training camp in Binyamina south of Haifa, it added.
They “exploded in the rooms where dozens of officers and soldiers of the Israeli enemy were present.”
After claiming the Binyamina attack, Hezbollah said it had launched missiles at a “maintenance and rehabilitation base” of the army, also south of Haifa.
The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon. At least one building north of Tel Aviv was damaged during the incident.
Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since the fighting escalated in late September.
Israel’s air defenses, including the Iron Dome system, have intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.
The escalation in Lebanon has killed more than 1,300 people and displaced over a million more from their homes, according to official figures.
 


Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon, near Acre in northern Israel on October 11, 2024.
Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon, near Acre in northern Israel on October 11, 2024.
Updated 14 October 2024
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Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon, near Acre in northern Israel on October 11, 2024.
  • After claiming the Binyamina attack, Hezbollah said it had launched missiles at a “maintenance and rehabilitation base” of the army, also south of Haifa

BEIRUTU, Lebanon: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah threatened Israel with more attacks if its offensive in Lebanon continued, after a drone attack on a base near Israel’s Haifa Sunday killed four soldiers.
Israel’s military said four soldiers were killed in the attack, the deadliest such assault on an Israeli base since September 23, when Israel increased its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah “promises the enemy that what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our... people,” it said.
In what it described as a “complex” operation, the Iran-backed group said it had launched dozens of missiles toward Nahariya and Acre north of Haifa “with the goal of keeping Israeli defense systems busy.”
At the same time, it launched “squadrons of various drones, some of which were being used for the first time, toward various areas in Acre and Haifa, where they were able to get past Israeli air defense radars without being detected” and hit the training camp in Binyamina south of Haifa, it added.
They “exploded in the rooms where dozens of officers and soldiers of the Israeli enemy were present.”
After claiming the Binyamina attack, Hezbollah said it had launched missiles at a “maintenance and rehabilitation base” of the army, also south of Haifa.
The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon. At least one building north of Tel Aviv was damaged during the incident.
Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since the fighting escalated in late September.
Israel’s air defenses, including the Iron Dome system, have intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.
The escalation in Lebanon has killed more than 1,300 people and displaced over a million more from their homes, according to official figures.
 

 


Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon

Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon
Updated 14 October 2024
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Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon

Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon
  • The military has escorted staff from several media organizations into southern Lebanon since Israel began its ground assault on September 30

EBANON-ISRAEL BORDER, Lebanon: The Israeli military on Sunday took a group of journalists across the border into south Lebanon, and showed what it claimed were three Hezbollah positions including two tunnels, just a few hundred meters from the border.
The Israeli soldiers escorting the media team, which included an AFP photographer, through the mountainous and densely forested terrain said they were near the Lebanese town of Naqura near the border.
The soldiers did not specify how far they were inside southern Lebanon, nor did the journalists see any other people in the area during their brief embed that lasted for about 90 minutes.
The movement of journalists was restricted by the military to a limited area, while the photos and video footage taken during the embed had to be approved by the military before publication.
One of the tunnels was, according to the military, just a few hundred meters (yards) from a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) post.
Israel has repeatedly asked UNIFIL, deployed along Lebanon’s southern border since 1978, to abandon its positions since it escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in September.
UNIFIL has rejected the requests.
“This is how you build an operational attack outpost. And that’s what we found here, just 300 yards from the UN post,” said Lt. Col. Rotem, an Israeli commander accompanying the journalists, who gave only one name for operational purposes.
The journalists were also shown a ditch located amid a cluster of trees, which the military claimed was a Hezbollah post.
The AFP photographer saw Israeli military vehicles crossing the border into Lebanon near Naqura, where troops had cut down trees near the entrance to one of the tunnels.
The military has escorted staff from several media organizations into southern Lebanon since Israel began its ground assault on September 30.
Israel stepped up its campaign in Lebanon on September 23, nearly a year after Hezbollah began launching cross-border attacks in what it said was support for its Palestinian ally, Hamas.


WHO, Red Crescent resupply two hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

WHO, Red Crescent resupply two hospitals in north Gaza: WHO
Updated 14 October 2024
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WHO, Red Crescent resupply two hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

WHO, Red Crescent resupply two hospitals in north Gaza: WHO
  • The resupply mission also delivered 20,000 liters (5,300 gallons) of fuel to keep Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda operational, and 23,000 liters of fuel were delivered to Al-Sahaba Hospital, along with 800 units of blood and essential medicines and supplies

GENEVA: World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late Sunday that a WHO-Palestine Red Crescent operation had managed to resupply two hospitals in northern Gaza.
“WHO and partners finally managed to reach Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals yesterday after 9 attempts this past week,” he posted on social media platform X.
“The missions were completed amid ongoing hostilities,” he added.
He said drivers had been subjected to “humiliating security screening” and even temporarily detained at a checkpoint, “which is unacceptable.”
The WHO regularly criticizes the obstacles the Israeli authorities put in the way of these supply and patient evacuation missions.
It did so again on Friday during a news briefing in Geneva specifically on the subject of this relief mission to the northern Gaza Strip.
“One-off missions are not enough. There is a sustained need for resupplying hospitals to keep them functioning,” Tedros said, reiterating his call “for sustained facilitation of humanitarian missions and ensuring safety for humanitarian staff; and for a ceasefire.”
According to the WHO, 13 patients in critical condition were transferred from Kamal Adwan hospital to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
“The hospital is overwhelmed and still serving around 60 in-patients and receiving at least 50-70 injured daily,” Tedros said.
Six other patients who had been transferred earlier from Al-Awda Hospital to Kamal Adwan were also taken to Al-Shifa, along with those accompanying them.
The resupply mission also delivered 20,000 liters (5,300 gallons) of fuel to keep Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda operational, and 23,000 liters of fuel were delivered to Al-Sahaba Hospital, along with 800 units of blood and essential medicines and supplies.
The fuel is mainly used to run the hospitals’ generators to ensure power supply.
The hospital infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip is very fragile after a year of war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas, with many facilities having been hit by shelling or fighting.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and carried out the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel that triggered the war, of operating under the cover of these buildings, which normally enjoy increased protection under the rules of war.
 


Iran in diplomatic push to seek halt in violence

raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
Updated 13 October 2024
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Iran in diplomatic push to seek halt in violence

raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
  • At a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Araghchi said in Iraq that his country was “fully prepared for a war situation ... but we do not want war, we want peace”

TEHRAN: Iran held a series of diplomatic talks on Sunday, with President Masoud Pezeshkian seeking support from France’s Emmanuel Macron for a ceasefire in Lebanon, and the foreign minister visiting Iraq while on a regional tour.
According to a statement on Iran’s presidential website, Pezeshkian and Macron discussed ways to secure a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as the Iranian leader condemned Israel’s “crimes” in Gaza and Lebanon.
Macron’s office said he called on Pezeshkian to support “a general de-escalation and to use its influence in this direction with the destabilising actors that enjoy its support.”
Iran backs Hamas, which is battling Israel in Gaza, and Hezbollah, which is fighting Israel in Lebanon.
Israel has vowed to retaliate against an Iranian missile strike on October 1, raising fears of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon morphing into an all-out regional conflict.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was meanwhile in Iraq on Sunday, a neighbor and ally of his government, as part of a series of visits in the region for talks on the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
Araghchi said there would be “no red lines” in defending the country’s people and interests, adding that efforts would continue to “contain an all-out war in our region.”
Iran has said its launch of 200 missiles on Israel earlier this month was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders in the region and a general in its Revolutionary Guards.
At a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Araghchi said in Iraq that his country was “fully prepared for a war situation ... but we do not want war, we want peace.”
He also said Iran would continue consultations “to prevent the escalation of tension in the region and to work for peace” and a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.
After his visit to Iraq, Araghchi headed to Oman, IRNA state news agency reported.
On Thursday, he had been in Qatar, where he met Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose government has been mediating talks aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire and has also called for a truce in Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Araghchi met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, during his trip to the Kingdom.