Chinese fighter jets soar over Egypt in first joint exercises

Chinese fighter jets soar over Egypt in first joint exercises
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China, Egypt hold first joint air force exercises (Credit: Al-Wattan Newspaper )
Chinese fighter jets soar over Egypt in first joint exercises
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China, Egypt hold first joint air force exercises (Credit: Al-Wattan Newspaper)
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Updated 06 May 2025
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Chinese fighter jets soar over Egypt in first joint exercises

Chinese fighter jets soar over Egypt in first joint exercises
  • Drills showcased China’s military hardware, Egypt’s regional clout
  • Beijing expanding defense and technology ties in North Africa

BEIJING: The sound of Chinese fighter jets roared over the Egyptian pyramids and could echo across the Middle East, as Beijing wrapped up military drills with Cairo aimed at chipping away at US strategic influence in the volatile region.
China’s military on Monday released videos of its fast jets, helicopters and transport planes flying high above the Sahara and hailing inaugural joint air force exercises with Egypt as “a signal of deepening military ties and shifting alliances.”
The joint exercises with one of the United States’ biggest security partners come as Washington increasingly turns inward under President Donald Trump, allowing China to deepen ties across North Africa and invest billions in security projects.
“As Egypt looks beyond its traditional US partnership, a new era of cooperation is taking flight over Cairo’s skies,” said a video released by the international division of state broadcaster CCTV, as a jet plane takes off into the night.
Global Times, a tabloid owned by the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, People’s Daily, said the “Eagles of Civilization 2025” drills had established a foundation for various potential cooperation between the two countries’ militaries at a time when Egypt is trying to upgrade its combat equipment, citing experts.
Analysts say the 18-day drills also help Egypt assert itself as a major regional power among the Arab nations and North Africa amid growing regional turbulence.
“It’s great public diplomacy for (China), particularly in the Middle East,” said Eric Orlander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project. “It’s what brings people in the door for them to sell drones, SAMs, light arms, transports, et cetera.”
“A major regional power needs an Air Force, right?” he added.
Orlander cautioned that switching jet fighter systems is very expensive, and Washington could choose to withhold financial military support from Cairo if it upped its purchases of Chinese technologies.
But the United States — the primary security partner to Egypt, neighboring Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states since the late seventies — has made large foreign cuts under Trump that have been keenly felt across the region.
And with the Gaza crisis unfolding to its north-east, ethnic violence in Sudan to the south, and political instability in Libya to its west, Egypt finds itself squeezed on three fronts.
China has since pledged billions in fresh investment for projects such as satellite manufacturing facilities in Egypt capable of producing military-grade surveillance equipment.
Beijing’s air force said the drills represented “a new starting point and a significant milestone in military cooperation between the two countries,” in a statement marking their conclusion.


Israel minister says army will ‘ensure Iran cannot threaten’ country again

Israel minister says army will ‘ensure Iran cannot threaten’ country again
Updated 8 sec ago
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Israel minister says army will ‘ensure Iran cannot threaten’ country again

Israel minister says army will ‘ensure Iran cannot threaten’ country again
  • Arch-foes fought a 12-day war last month
JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday said the army had a plan to prevent Iran from threatening Israel again after the arch-foes fought a 12-day war last month.
The Israeli military will prepare an “enforcement plan to ensure that Iran cannot threaten Israel again,” Katz said in a statement, adding that “the army must prepare on the intelligence and operational level to ensure that the Air Force maintains air superiority over Tehran.”

Trump expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on ‘final’ Gaza peace proposal

Trump expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on ‘final’ Gaza peace proposal
Updated 04 July 2025
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Trump expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on ‘final’ Gaza peace proposal

Trump expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on ‘final’ Gaza peace proposal
  • Israel has earlier agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours whether the Palestinian militant group Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a “final proposal” for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza.

The president also said he had spoken to Saudi Arabia about expanding the Abraham Accords, the deal on normalization of ties that his administration negotiated between Israel and some Gulf countries during his first term.

Trump said on Tuesday Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalize a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war.

He was asked on Friday if Hamas had agreed to the latest ceasefire deal framework, and said: “We’ll see what happens, we are going to know over the next 24 hours.”

A source close to Hamas said on Thursday the Islamist group sought guarantees that the new US-backed ceasefire proposal would lead to the end of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out. Dozens of Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza authorities.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.

A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians as a proposal of “ethnic cleansing.”

Abraham Accords

Trump made the comments on the Abraham Accords when asked about US media reporting late on Thursday that he had met Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the White House.

“It’s one of the things we talked about,” Trump said. “I think a lot of people are going to be joining the Abraham accords,” he added, citing the predicted expansion to the damage faced by Iran from recent US and Israeli strikes.

Axios reported that after the meeting with Trump, the Saudi official spoke on the phone with Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of Iran’s General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Trump’s meeting with the Saudi official came ahead of a visit to Washington next week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’
Updated 04 July 2025
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Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’
  • Medical charity warns of new threat from escalation in fighting in Sudan civil war

KHARTOUM: Civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan face mass atrocities and ethnic violence in the civil war between the regular army and its paramilitary rivals, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to consolidate their power in Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum in March. Their predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

The paramilitaries have intensified attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state which they have besieged since May 2024 in an effort to push the army out of its final stronghold in the region.
“People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting ... but also actively targeted by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharite, Medecins Sans Frontieres’ head of emergencies. There were “threats of a full-blown assault,” on El-Fasher, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people largely cut off from food and water supplies and deprived of access to medical care, he said.


Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed
Updated 04 July 2025
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Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia moved on Thursday to reassure Egypt about its water supply after completing work on a controversial giant $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile.

“To our neighbors downstream, our message is clear: the dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.

“The energy and development it will generate stand to uplift not just Ethiopia. We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water. Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is 1.8 km wide and 145 meters high, and is Africa's largest hydroelectric project. It can hold 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power — more than double Ethiopia’s current output. It will begin full operations in September.

Egypt already suffers from severe water scarcity and sees the dam as an existential threat because the country relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan met last week and “stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile basin.” They were committed to safeguarding water security in the region, Sisi’s spokesman said.


Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says

Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says
Updated 03 July 2025
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Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says

Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says
  • The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally,” the Irbil airport authority said

IRBIL, Iraq: An explosive drone was shot down near Irbil airport in northern Iraq on Thursday, the Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement.

There were no casualties reported, according to two security sources.

The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally and the airport was not affected by any damage,” the Irbil airport authority said in a statement.

The incident only caused a temporary delay in the landing of one aircraft, the statement added.