Hezbollah chief says group suffered ‘major’ blow in device blasts

Update Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah addresses Lebanon from an undisclosed location on September 19, 2024. (AFP)
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah addresses Lebanon from an undisclosed location on September 19, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 19 September 2024
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Hezbollah chief says group suffered ‘major’ blow in device blasts

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah addresses Lebanon from an undisclosed location on September 19, 2024. (AFP)
  • Nasrallah struck a defiant tone, warning that Israel would receive “just punishment” for the attacks
  • Describing the attacks as a possible “act of war,” he said Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not“

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged Thursday his powerful group had suffered an “unprecedented” blow when thousands of operatives’ communication devices exploded in attacks it blamed on Israel.
Israel has not commented on the attacks that killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 across Lebanon over two days but has said it will widen the scope of its war in Gaza to include the Lebanon front.
Delivering a speech after the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, which plunged Lebanon into panic, Nasrallah struck a defiant tone, warning that Israel would receive “just punishment” for the attacks.
Describing the attacks as a possible “act of war,” he said Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not.”
“It could be a war crime or a declaration of war,” he said of the attacks, which he branded a “massacre.”
Nasrallah also vowed to keep up Hezbollah’s fight against Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.
“The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops” despite “all this blood spilt,” he said.
Nasrallah addressed Israeli officials’ promises to return thousands of Israelis displaced by exchanges of fire across the border with Lebanon to their homes.
“You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north,” he said, warning that “no military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border.”
Hezbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which on October 7 launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that sparked Gaza’s deadliest ever war.
Up until now, the focus of Israel’s firepower had been on Gaza.
But Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has seen exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants almost every day since October.
The violence has killed hundreds of people, mostly fighters, on the Lebanese side, and dozens on the Israeli side.
Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut as Nasrallah spoke, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said, with AFP correspondents in Beirut reporting loud booms.
Nasrallah announced the launch of an internal probe into the attacks, which experts and some Israeli media have said bear all the hallmarks of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.


Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors

Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors
Updated 27 sec ago
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Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors

Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities,” Netanyahu said

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces have taken out the would-be successors of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, without naming them.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the slain Nasrallah, had probably been “eliminated.” It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement.”

Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year

Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year
Updated 27 sec ago
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Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year

Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year
  • Charge d’Affaires of the Russian Embassy in Yemen Evgeny Kudrov and Yemen’s FM Shaya Al-Zindani said the embassy would reopen at the beginning of next year
  • Kudrov also expressed his government’s support for the internationally recognized government of Yemen

AL-MUKALLA: Russia will reopen its embassy in Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, in early 2025. Coming nearly a decade after it closed, the news has boosted hopes for the reintroduction of foreign diplomatic missions in the southern city.

During a meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday, Charge d’Affaires of the Russian Embassy in Yemen Evgeny Kudrov and Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Shaya Al-Zindani said the embassy would reopen “at the beginning” of next year.

Kudrov also expressed his government’s support for the internationally recognized government of Yemen.

An official at the Yemen Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who asked to remain anonymous, said Russia had taken “serious” steps toward reopening the embassy. He added that India and some Gulf Cooperation Council states might follow suit by opening embassies in Aden.

Foreign diplomatic missions in Sanaa, Yemen’s official capital, were closed when the Houthis took power in the country a decade ago.

The city of Aden has experienced relative calm in recent years following the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council, which brought together rival Yemeni factions.

Shortly after being liberated from the Houthis in mid-2015 it experienced anarchy, with explosions, assassinations and bloody clashes. However, the Yemeni government says it is now safe and that security and military forces are willing to protect foreign diplomatic missions that relocate there. 

Russia’s announcement came a day after the Kremlin denied a Wall Street Journal report claiming that arms dealer Viktor Bout, released from the US during a prisoner swap in 2022, is negotiating a deal with the Yemen Houthi militia to provide them with small arms, including Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Last month, US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking expressed concern over news reports that Russia was in talks with the Houthis about supplying them with advanced anti-ship missiles.

Meanwhile, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Monday sanctioned Hamed Abdullah Hussein Al-Ahmer, a Yemeni MP and banking, oil, and telecom tycoon, as well as several other individuals and businesses, for their support of Hamas.

According to OFAC, Al-Ahmer, who is based in Turkey, is a major Hamas supporter and an agent for the group’s investments, which have which generated over half a billion US dollars.

Al-Ahmer is president of the Istanbul-based League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds, which was founded in 2015 and operates banking, oil, media and telecom businesses in Yemen, Turkey and elsewhere.

“He is a key member of Hamas’ once-secret investment portfolio, which at its peak managed over $500 million worth of assets enabling Hamas’s leaders to live in luxury outside the Palestinian territories despite the real humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza,” the OFAC said.

Al-Ahmer has not officially responded to the US sanctions but on Monday, the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, he appeared on video expressing his support for the “resistance” of people in Palestine and Lebanon.

“We applaud the Palestinian and Gazan people’s resilience in the face of an attack by the Zionist destruction machine, which is supported by America and Europe,” he said.


Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim

Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim
Updated 6 min 58 sec ago
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Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim

Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim
  • Israel has also not commented publicly on Tuesday’s closed-door parliamentary session in Ankara
  • Foreign and defense ministers made presentations at the closed-door session on the risk of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon widening further

ANKARA: Turkiye’s lawmakers held a closed-door session on Tuesday to discuss the spread of war in the Middle East, a week after President Tayyip Erdogan made an unsubstantiated claim that Israel eventually aimed to encroach on Turkish territory.
Israel has not publicly responded to Erdogan’s claim, which analysts and opposition lawmakers say is far-fetched and is intended primarily to deflect public attention away from Turkiye’s economic woes.
Israel has also not commented publicly on Tuesday’s closed-door parliamentary session in Ankara, which is titled “Israel’s occupation of Lebanon and developments in the region.”
Foreign and defense ministers made presentations at the closed-door session — which was requested by the opposition — on the risk of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon widening further.
NATO member Turkiye is among the world’s sharpest critics of what it calls Israel’s illegal and reckless wars with armed groups Hamas and Hezbollah. It halted trade with Israel and applied to join a genocide case against it at the World Court.
Israel rejects the genocide case and Turkiye’s criticism, saying it is locked in an existential struggle with militant Islamist groups backed by Iran that are sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Last week Erdogan told parliament that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was acting out his dream of a “utopia” and “promised land” for Israel.
“After Lebanon, the next place on which Israel will set its eyes will be our homeland,” he told parliament’s opening session, attended by dozens of foreign ambassadors and his cabinet, without providing evidence.

CHAOS AT BORDERS
Devlet Bahceli, leader of Erdogan’s main ally MHP, said on Tuesday it was “likely that chaos in neighboring countries will reach our borders and that Israel will harass Turkiye” in the near future.
But Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), dismissed such talk.
“It’s unreasonable to think Netanyahu will conduct an assault on Turkiye, which is a NATO member and has a great army,” Ozel told his party.
Later, after hearing the ministers’ presentation, Ozel said he had not been convinced by them about any alleged Israeli threat against Turkiye.
“They didn’t say anything that we don’t know,” he said, reiterating his view that Erdogan had raised the issue in order to stop Turks focusing on “unemployment, inflation, poverty and high prices.”
Polls show Turks strongly back the government’s hard line on Israel.
Some Turkish protesters in recent days — marking the anniversary of the beginning of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel — demanded that Erdogan take more action.
Critics have raised questions over whether Turkiye is still effectively shipping goods to Israel despite the May trade ban, given official data show exports to Palestinian territories have leapt six-fold so far this year.


US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader

US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader
Updated 56 min 20 sec ago
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US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader

US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader
  • Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa was sanctioned “for his involvement in RSF efforts to procure weapons and other military materiel,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said
  • His actions have fueled war in Sudan “and brutal RSF atrocities against civilians”

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against a senior leader in war-torn Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for his role in obtaining weapons for the paramilitary organization.
Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the RSF after their head generals refused a plan to integrate.
Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa was sanctioned “for his involvement in RSF efforts to procure weapons and other military materiel that have enabled the RSF’s ongoing operations in Sudan,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
His actions have fueled war in Sudan “and brutal RSF atrocities against civilians, which have included war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing,” Miller said.
The US Treasury said that as a result of such sanctions “all property and interests in property of the designated persons... that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported.”
The United States has led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting in Sudan but has seen limited success and leverage, with RSF commanders unlikely to hold major assets in the West that would be affected by sanctions.


France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says

France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says
Updated 08 October 2024
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France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says

France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says
  • “If we don’t do anything, then Lebanon tomorrow could resemble what Syria has become,” Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers in parliament
  • French and Qatari military planes delivered some 27 metric tons of medicines and basic necessities

PARIS: France and Qatar delivered urgent humanitarian aid to Lebanon on Tuesday, France’s foreign minister said, as Paris pushes for broader humanitarian efforts and a ceasefire in the country.
“If we don’t do anything, then Lebanon tomorrow could resemble what Syria has become,” Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers in parliament. “(That is), a hub of instability for smuggling, terrorism and a point of departure for a large migration of civilians seeking refuge in Europe.”
French and Qatari military planes delivered some 27 metric tons of medicines and basic necessities, including blankets and hygiene kits, diplomatic sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Paris has historical ties with Lebanon and has been working with the United States in trying to secure a ceasefire in the Middle Eastern country. Those talks stalled at the end of September when Israel heavily bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
It has since launched a ground offensive displacing thousands of people. Tuesday’s Franco-Qatari aid aims to support local aid groups to help the wounded and displaced.
The two sides must accept the ceasefire proposal, Barrot said, to “give peace and negotiations a chance to guarantee the sovereignty of Lebanon and security for Israel.”
France is also working to put together a conference on Lebanon soon that will center around three pillars: humanitarian aid, reinforcing the Lebanese army and discussing the ongoing political vacuum in the country, Barrot said.