Lufthansa extends Beirut flight suspension

Lufthansa extends Beirut flight suspension
German airline group Lufthansa said Thursday it was extending a suspension of flights to Lebanese capital Beirut until October 15 due to heightened regional tensions. (AFP)
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Updated 12 September 2024
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Lufthansa extends Beirut flight suspension

Lufthansa extends Beirut flight suspension
  • The Lufthansa group, whose carriers also include SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, has not flown to Beirut since late July
  • Lufthansa had also suspended flights to Tel Aviv in Israel due to the tensions, but resumed them on September 5

FRANKFURT: German airline group Lufthansa said Thursday it was extending a suspension of flights to Lebanese capital Beirut until October 15 due to heightened regional tensions.
Services to Beirut had previously been suspended until the end of September.
The Lufthansa group, whose carriers also include SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, has not flown to Beirut since late July.
Lebanese group Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Lufthansa had also suspended flights to Tel Aviv in Israel due to the tensions, but resumed them on September 5.
Flights to Tehran also resumed on September 5, although Austrian Airlines is currently the only airline in the group serving the Iranian capital, a Lufthansa spokesman told AFP.
Germany, France and Britain on Tuesday said they were taking steps to cancel air transport agreements with Iran because of what they said was Iran's delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia.
"The Lufthansa group is aware of the planned sanctions and is in contact with the relevant authorities," the spokesman said.
Germany's foreign ministry on Wednesday said the country was "currently in intensive consultation with its European and international partners about the imposition of new sanctions, including in the aviation sector".


Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire

Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire
Updated 6 sec ago
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Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire

Erdogan says Gaza ‘shame of humanity,’ calls for permanent ceasfire
  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted ‘genocide,’ he branded it the ‘shame of humanity’
  • Erdogan has branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’ and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler

TIRANA: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his attacks on Israel as he arrived in Tirana Thursday, the first stop of a Balkans tour that will also take him to Serbia.
Repeating his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted “genocide,” he branded it the “shame of humanity,” at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“The international community, we must do our best to urgently guarantee a permanent ceasefire and exert the necessary pressure on Israel,” he added.
“The genocide that has been going on in Gaza for the past year is the common shame of all humanity,” he added.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, mostly civilians. The UN has said the figures are reliable.
Erdogan has branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “butcher of Gaza” and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
“The aggression led by the Netanyahu government now threatens the world order beyond the region,” Erdogan said.
Later Thursday Erdogan, accompanied by Prime Minister Edi Rama, inaugurated the Great Mosque of Tirana.
The largest Muslim place of worship in the Balkans, it has a capacity of up to 10,000 people. The project, funded by Turkiye, cost 30 million euros.
Turkiye is also a major employer in Albania. As Erdogan said in February, over 600 Turkish companies operate in the country, providing jobs to more than 15,000 workers.
It is also one of the five biggest foreign investors in Albania, he said, with $3.5 billion (3.2 billion euros) committed.
The two NATO member countries also have close military ties, with Turkiye supplying Tirana with its Bayraktar TB2 drones.
For the second stage of his tour Erdogan traveled from Albania to Serbia, where he was greeted at Belgrade airport by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Turkiye made a diplomatic comeback here in 2017 when Erdogan made a landmark visit to Belgrade.
The five century Ottoman presence in Serbia has traditionally weighed heavily on Belgrade-Ankara relations.
Another source of tension has been Turkiye’s historic ties with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade still refuses to recognize.
Erdogan’s 2017 visit repaired the relationship with Serbia, Belgrade analyst Vuk Vuksanovic told AFP.
But Belgrade was furious last year when Turkiye sold drones to Kosovo, something Serbia said was “unacceptable.”
The row could however still be patched up, Vuksanovic insisted.
“I would not be surprised if we see a military deal at the end of this visit,” he said.
He expected talks in Belgrade on Friday to focus on “military cooperation, the position of Turkish companies — and attempts by Belgrade to persuade Ankara to tone down support for Kosovo.”
While the rapprochement is relatively new, economic ties between the two countries are already significant.
Turkish investment in Serbia has rocketed from $1 million to $400 million over the past decade, the Turkiye-Serbia business council told Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
Turkish exports to Serbia hit $2.13 billion in 2022, up from $1.14 billion in 2020, according to official Serbian figures.
Turkish tourists are also important for Serbia, second only to visitor numbers from Bosnia.


Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria

Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria
Updated 14 min 43 sec ago
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Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria

Japan provides 950 million yen aid to affected regions in Syria
  • The economic situation was further worsened by the February 2023 earthquakes
  • The UN estimates that 16.7 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance in 2024

TOKYO: The government of Japan has committed approximately 915 million yen in partnership grant aid to support activities of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Syria.
The assistance aims to support humanitarian early recovery in regions affected by the crisis and the February 2023 earthquakes.
The Syria crisis entered its fourteenth year, and the situation continues to deteriorate, leading to further displacement and increasing hardships for the people.
The economic situation was further worsened by the February 2023 earthquakes, resulting in a significant loss of livelihoods and heightened vulnerabilities across the country.
The UN estimates that 16.7 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance in 2024, the highest number since the onset of the crisis.
While continuing to deliver life-saving support, UNHCR has also expanded its humanitarian early recovery activities to improve socioeconomic conditions and resilience of affected people.
With the support from the government of Japan, UNHCR will enhance capacity-building and self-reliance of internally displaced people, returnees, and host communities in Aleppo, Homs, and Hama governorates affected by the crisis and earthquakes.
The initiatives encompass the rehabilitation of vocational training facilities to produce skilled workers, the small business start-up support to empower vulnerable people toward economic self-sufficiency, and the rehabilitation of civil registries and cadastral offices to facilitate access to critical legal services, enabling people to exercise their basic rights.
These initiatives represent a significant step toward improving the socioeconomic situation of the people in Syria.
UNHCR will continue to work closely with the government of Japan and the international community to further strengthen humanitarian early recovery in Syria.


France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline

France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
Updated 39 min 21 sec ago
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France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline

France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
  • The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges“
  • The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: France and Britain granted 19.7 million dollars (18 million euros) in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday to help fund health and education services in the occupied West Bank, officials said.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges” due to the war in Gaza, violence in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s withholding of customs revenue, Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Wael Zaqout said.
“This financing is part of the emergency fund framework to guarantee the continuity of vital services in education and health,” he told a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank to keep the Palestinian economy afloat.
The PA has faced a serious budget crisis in recent years that has made it unable to pay salaries in full to public sector employees.
The problems worsened after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which led Israel to invade the territory.
In recent months, several senior Palestinian officials including the minister of the economy have warned about the risk of the West Bank economy collapsing.
“France remains committed to help build a viable Palestinian state, able to exercise its sovereignty over all its territories, including Gaza,” France’s consul-general in Jerusalem, Nicolas Kassianides, said in a statement.
The funds would “address the most essential and urgent needs of the Palestinian people,” he added.
British Consul-General Diane Corner said that her country’s contribution aimed to “support the salaries of 8,200 doctors, nurses and other employees in the health sector.”
The financial help “comes at a critical time and advances mutual priorities,” said Stefan Emblad, World Bank director in the Palestinian territories.
He added that the aid came on top of a recent $30 million grant from the World Bank, also to the emergency fund.


Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye

Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye
Updated 36 min 18 sec ago
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Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye

Boat carrying Turkish evacuees from Lebanon lands in Turkiye
  • The TCG Bayraktar, which set sail from Beirut around 8:00 am (0500 GMT), pulled into the port of Mersin around 9:00 p.m.
  • Turkish officials said around 2,000 people had signed up to leave Lebanon on navy ships in the first such evacuation by sea

MERSIN, Turkiye: The first of two naval ships evacuating Turkish citizens and their families from war-torn Lebanon landed at a port in southern Turkiye late on Thursday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
The TCG Bayraktar, which set sail from Beirut around 8:00 am (0500 GMT), pulled into the port of Mersin around 9:00 p.m. carrying the first batch of 966 people.
As it pulled into the port, a large group of journalists were waiting on the quayside.
A second boat carrying a similar number of passengers was set to dock around midnight, officials said.
Turkish officials said around 2,000 people had signed up to leave Lebanon on navy ships in the first such evacuation by sea.
Turkiye, which is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon, announced the move on Tuesday because of the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Speaking to AFP in Beirut ahead of the boats’ departure on Wednesday, Turkish ambassador in Lebanon Ali Baris Ulusoy told AFP the evacuation was a first and came after “a growing number of requests from our Turkish nationals living in Lebanon to be evacuated.”
He said they were allowing close relatives “who are not necessarily Turkish nationals, like spouses, children or parents” to travel too.
Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire on the country’s southern border since the start of the Gaza war a year ago.
But Israel has intensified its strikes against Hezbollah since September 23, killing more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and displacing more than a million from their homes.


Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks

Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks
Updated 10 October 2024
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Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks

Red Sea ship bound for Oman suffers ‘minor’ damage from Houthi attacks
  • UK’s Maritime Trade Operations said it received an alert from the master of a ship sailing off Hodeidah that an unidentified projectile had struck the ship
  • Critics say that the Houthis are using public outrage in Yemen over the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza to recruit new fighters

AL-MUKALLA: Multiple attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia caused minor damage to a commercial ship bound for Oman in the Red Sea on Thursday morning in the latest in a series of incidents.

The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations said it received an alert from the master of a ship sailing southwest of Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah that an unidentified projectile had struck the ship, causing damage but no fire or casualties.

Hours later, the UK’s marine agency sent two messages saying that the master had also reported three unidentified projectiles exploding near the ship, causing no damage.

Ambrey, another UK marine security agency, gave the same information about the incident off Yemen’s Hodeidah, identifying the attacked ship as a chemical tanker flying the Liberian flag and traveling from Saudi Arabia to Oman.

The Houthis have sunk two ships since November, seizing one with its crew, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at more than 100 ships in the Red Sea and other international shipping lanes in a campaign that the Yemeni militia claims is in support of Palestinians under attack from Israel.

The Houthis say that the group is only targeting Israeli-linked ships or ships owned by companies that do business with Israeli ports, in order to put pressure on Israel to end its war in the Gaza Strip.

Critics say that the Houthis are using public outrage in Yemen over the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza to recruit new fighters, increase public support, and divert attention away from the militia’s failures to improve public services and pay public salaries.

The news comes a day after the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said that the number of people abducted by the Houthis for celebrating the 1962 revolution had surpassed 434, and that the Houthis had banned people from celebrating the revolution in areas under the militia’s control.

The Yemeni rights group has demanded that the Houthis stop harassing those who celebrate the event; bring operatives who abducted those people to justice; and that the UN’s Yemen envoy, the US’ Yemen envoy, and international rights organizations put pressure on the Houthis to release the abductees.

The organization said: “The network (has) urged the Houthi militias to halt their brutal attacks and immediately release all those abducted for celebrating Yemeni Revolution Day.”

The Houthis have abducted hundreds of Yemenis who were commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the 1962 revolution, as well as suppressing celebratory gatherings in Sanaa, Ibb, and other Yemeni areas.

Meanwhile, Hamid Abdullah Hussein Al-Ahmar, a Yemeni politician and businessman, has said he will challenge US sanctions against him for supporting Hamas, saying that his actions were “compatible” with Yemeni laws and international charters that supported the Palestinian people.

Al-Ahmar said: “This unjustified decision is yet another example of America’s blatant bias toward injustice and occupation, as well as an illegitimate attempt to criminalize my modest legal and humanitarian efforts in support of the Palestinian people’s just cause.”

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Monday imposed sanctions on Al-Ahmar — who has been in exile since the Houthis seized power in Yemen a decade ago — as well as other individuals and businesses, accusing them of supporting Hamas.

Al-Ahmar is a Yemeni member of parliament who owns major media, banking, oil, and real estate companies in Yemen and elsewhere.