Region

AMMAN — Jerusalem churches have condemned the “unreasonable” restrictions imposed by Israeli forces for the upcoming Holy Light ceremony on Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the day before Easter, according to the Julian calendar.

In a joint statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Patriarchate said: “Each year, the Churches coordinate with the authorities to ensure this ceremony can take place without issue. 

“Notably, last year barriers were imposed by the Israel Authority throughout the Old City that made impossible the access of our local Christian Communities pilgrims from attending the Holy Light Ceremony in the Holy Sepulchre, impeding their freedom to worship and witness the miracle of the resurrection.” 

“This year, after many attempts made in good will, we are not able to coordinate with the Israeli authorities, as they are enforcing unreasonable and unprecedented restrictions on access to the Holy Sepulchre — more so than last year. These heavy-handed restrictions will limit access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Light Ceremony. Police are unfairly and inappropriately placing the burden on the churches to issue invitations, while tying the churches’ hands with unreasonable restrictions that will prevent worshippers from attending, particularly our local community. This makes difficult our coordination with the police,” the statement said.

“As we, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Patriarchate clearly stated in our various statements, we shall continue to uphold the Status Quo customs, and the ceremony will be held as customary for two millennia and all who wish to worship with us are invited to attend. With that made clear, we leave the authorities to act as they will. The churches will freely worship and do so in peace,” concluded the statement. 

KHARTOUM — Sudan's regular army warned on Thursday that the country was at a "dangerous... turning point" after paramilitaries deployed more fighters in major cities amid a deepening rift within the military government.

Military leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan has increasingly been at odds with his number two, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, during talks to finalise a deal to return the country to civilian rule and end the crisis sparked by their 2021 coup.

A plan to integrate the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Daglo into the regular army led by Burhan is one of the key points of contention, analysts have said.

Eleventh-hour haggling within the security forces over the details have twice forced postponement of the signing of an agreement with civilian factions setting out a roadmap for the transition.

In its statement, the regular army said it was "sounding the alarm as the country is at a dangerous historical turning point".

“The risks are increasing as the RSF command mobilised and spread forces in the capital and other cities,” the army said.

It said the deployment, which “took place without the approval of, or even just coordination with, the armed forces command” has “exacerbated security risks and increased tensions among security forces”. 

The RSF defended its deployment, saying it works in coordination with the regular army and its fighters “move throughout the country to achieve security and stability”. 

Created in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then president Omar Al Bashir unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in the western Darfur region a decade earlier, drawing accusations of war crimes. 

In recent months, Daglo has said the 2021 coup was a “mistake” that failed to bring about change in Sudan and reinvigorated remnants of Bashir’s regime, which was ousted by the army in 2019 following month of mass protests. 

Burhan, a career soldier from northern Sudan who rose the ranks under Bashir’s three-decade rule, maintained that the coup was “necessary” to bring more groups into the political process.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Greek Orthodox Church on Wednesday slammed Israel's "heavy-handed restrictions" on its upcoming Easter celebrations in Jerusalem, urging Christians to attend in spite of police curbs.

In an escalating row over attendance numbers at the Holy Fire ceremony on Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christians believe Jesus's tomb lies, the church said negotiations with police had failed.

"After many attempts made in goodwill, we are not able to coordinate with the Israeli authorities as they are enforcing unreasonable restrictions," said Father Mattheos Siopis from the Greek Orthodox Church.

"These heavy-handed restrictions will limit access to... the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and to the Holy Light ceremony," he told journalists.

The annual Holy Fire ceremony, during which priests bring a flame from the tomb which they believe sparks miraculously each year, marks the most important event in the Orthodox calendar. 

In the past some 10,000 worshippers clutching candles would fill the church, with many more crowding into the surrounding alleys of the Old City, before the flame was flown to Orthodox communities internationally.

“The ceremony has been faithfully taking place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for nearly 2,000 years,” said Siopis.

The sacred site lies in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and the country’s police force has for the second consecutive year told church leaders that access must be considerably restricted.

‘Churches will freely worship’ 

Limiting church attendance to 1,800 people including clergy from the various Orthodox denominations is a necessary safety precaution, police said on Wednesday.

“I want to emphasise that our main concern is the safety of the pilgrimage that are coming to the Old City. The numbers were provided by the safety engineer,” who assessed the church, said Yoram Segal from the Jerusalem district police.

“We understand the feeling, the religious feelings of people that want to participate in this Holy Light ceremony. But unfortunately not everyone can enter the church because of the safety regulation,” he added. 

Segal said the ceremony will be broadcast on screens in the Old City and that the force is “doing our best” to ensure the flame can travel onwards to Christian communities beyond Jerusalem. 

Last year there were scuffles between worshippers and police officers who imposed barriers throughout the city’s Christian quarter.

Siopis said these measures “made impossible” the access of Christians to the church.

With the breakdown of talks between Christian leaders and Israeli security forces, the priest urged “all who wish to worship with us to attend”.

“With that made clear, we leave the authorities to act as they will. The churches will freely worship and do so in peace,” he said.

DAMASCUS — War-torn Syria will reopen its diplomatic mission in Tunisia and appoint an ambassador there, Damascus and Tunis said in a joint statement on Wednesday after more than a decade of strained ties.

Syria's decision followed a similar move by Tunis on April 3, when Tunisian President Kais Saied instructed his foreign minister to begin procedures to appoint an ambassador to Damascus.

"In response to the initiative of the President of the Tunisian Republic... the Syrian government... decided to reopen the Syrian embassy in Tunisia, and to appoint an ambassador soon," Syria's official news agency SANA said quoting the statement.

Tunisia's Saied had said last month he planned to restore diplomatic relations with Syria.

It was the latest example of Arab outreach to the internationally isolated government in Damascus that has gathered pace since Syria and Turkey were hit by a devastating earthquake in February.

Since the quake, Syrian President Bashar Assad has received calls and aid from Arab leaders, momentum analysts say he could leverage to bolster regional support.

Assad has visited the United Arab Emirates, which restored ties in 2018, and Oman this year, and last month Saudi Arabia said it has started talks with Damascus about resuming consular services.

Tunisia expelled Syria's ambassador in 2012 over the government's repression of peaceful protesters that triggered more than a decade of civil war which has killed around half a million people and displaced millions more since 2011.

The Syrian government was bolstered when Russia intervened on its side from 2015 and has since regained control over much of the territory it lost in the early stages of the war.

The diplomatic rupture with Tunis, undertaken when former president Moncef Marzouki was still in office, was strongly criticised by the Tunisian opposition at the time.

In 2015, Tunisia took a step toward reestablishing relations when it designated a consular representative to Damascus to "follow" the situation of Tunisians in Syria.

Nine Arab countries are set to meet in Saudi Arabia later this week to discuss moves to end Assad's decade-old isolation.

The Arab League, which suspended Syria in 2011, is expected to hold a summit in Riyadh in May.

SANAA — An exchange of nearly 900 prisoners from Yemen's civil war will start on Friday, one day later than previously announced, a government official said on Wednesday.

The biggest prisoner swap since 2020 is taking place after a delegation from Saudi Arabia, which launched a military intervention in 2015, held talks with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels this week in an attempt to end hostilities.

Nearly 900 prisoners, most of whom were fighting with Houthi rebels, will be flown between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, which leads the military coalition fighting on behalf of the ousted government, the official said on Tuesday.

The Houthis will release 181 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese, in exchange for 706 detainees held by government forces, according to an agreement reached last month in Switzerland.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by direct and indirect causes in a war that left many on the brink of famine in a country which was already the poorest in the Arabian Peninsula.

"It has been confirmed that the exchange process will start on Friday morning," tweeted Majid Fadael, spokesman for the government delegation negotiating the exchange.

The prisoner transfers “will last for three days, starting on Friday and ending on Sunday”, said Fadael, revising the timetable he announced on Tuesday.

The Houthis are releasing 181 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese, in exchange for 706 detainees held by government forces, according to an agreement reached last month in Switzerland.

Yemen has been at war since a Houthi advance in 2014 saw them seize the capital Sanaa, leading the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 to support the ousted, internationally recognised government.

The Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al Jaber, flew to Sanaa for talks with the Houthis this week, saying he wanted to work towards a “political solution” to the conflict.

But Houthi government sources, speaking anonymously as they are not authorised to brief media, downplayed hopes of reaching agreement by next week, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“The talks between the Saudi delegation and the Houthis did not reach a final result yet to complete an agreement that was expected to be signed at the end of Ramadan,” a source told AFP, information that was confirmed by another official.

“The Saudis presented their vision of a solution and wanted to be mediators in resolving the crisis alongside the Omanis, but the Houthi political and religious leaders insisted that Riyadh be a party to the agreement and not an intermediary,” the source added.

The uptick in diplomacy and optimism follows last month’s landmark announcement that heavyweight rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran will resume ties, seven years after an acrimonious split.

RIYADH — An Iranian delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Tehran said, to pave the way for reopening diplomatic missions as the Gulf rivals prepare to normalise relations, seven years after an acrimonious split. 

The announcement came just days after a Saudi delegation made a similar visit to Iran's capital, following a historic meeting in China between the two governments' foreign ministers who vowed to bring stability to the turbulent region. 

"In accordance with the implementation of the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia on the resumption of diplomatic activities... the Iranian technical delegation arrived in Riyadh at midday Wednesday and was welcomed by Saudi officials," said Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.

"The Iranian delegation will take the necessary steps to reopen the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate general in Jeddah as well as the activities of Iran's permanent representative in the [Jeddah-based] Organisation of Islamic Cooperation," he said in a statement.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has been invited to Saudi Arabia, according to Tehran. It would be the first trip by an Iranian president to Saudi Arabia since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2012 travelled to Mecca where he attended a regional meeting.

The flurry of diplomatic activity follows last month’s landmark, Chinese-brokered announcement that Iran and Saudi Arabia, who have backed opposing sides in conflicts around the Middle East, would work towards resuming ties.

Riyadh broke off relations in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions following the execution of Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr Al Nimr — one in a series of flashpoints between the long-time foes.

Since the March 10 announcement, the two countries’ foreign ministers have met in China and a Saudi technical delegation met Iran’s chief of protocol in Tehran last week, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Saudi delegation, which arrived in Tehran on Saturday, is due to fly on to Iran’s second city Mashhad on Thursday, Kanani said.

Meanwhile, Syria’s foreign minister arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a Saudi statement said, on the first such trip since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad flew into Jeddah after an invitation from his Saudi counterpart, according to the statement from the Saudi foreign ministry.

They will “hold a session of talks on efforts to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis that preserves the unity, security and stability of Syria”, the statement said.

The foreign ministers will also discuss “facilitating the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, and securing humanitarian access to the affected areas in Syria”.

Mekdad arrives two days before nine Arab countries gather in Jeddah on Friday to discuss allowing President Bashar Assad’s Syrian government to attend an Arab League summit next month.

Ministers and top officials from the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, Iraq and Jordan have been invited, Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said earlier.

Over the past few months there has been increasing engagement with Assad, who has been isolated since the start of the Syrian war in 2011.

Assad has visited the UAE and Oman this year and last month Saudi Arabia said it has started talks with Damascus about resuming consular services.

DEIR AL-HATAB, Palestinian territories — Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian fighters on Tuesday in the West Bank, on a day mourners laid to rest a British-Israeli woman who died in an attack that also killed her two daughters.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged over the last week, with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Jewish Passover and Christian Easter coinciding.

The Palestinian ministry of health named the two men as Saud Abdullah Saud Titi and Mohammad Abu Dhiraa.

Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fateh movement, claimed the two men as members.

They were from the nearby Balata refugee camp, a statement from Fateh said.

An AFP photographer saw Israeli soldiers place a body into an ambulance at the site, as other troops inspected a white car riddled by bullets.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a statement, labelled the killings “abhorrent” and added “the UK condemns this appalling attack on civilians”.

He said Britain urged “all sides to de-escalate tensions in Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories, and end the deadly cycle of violence”.

Ban at Al Aqsa 

The government also said it would ban Jewish visitors from entering Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa compound, starting Wednesday until the end of Ramadan.

The move follows a promise by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to restore security “on all fronts”.

The latest surge in unrest began last Wednesday with an Israeli police raid on Al Aqsa Mosque, followed by rocket fire from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and a car-ramming in Tel Aviv that killed an Italian tourist. 

The body of Alessandro Parini arrived back in Rome on Tuesday, after the 36-year-old was killed when a car ploughed into pedestrians on the city’s seafront Friday evening.

On Monday, Palestinian mourners had gathered near Jericho city for the funeral of a 15-year-old boy, Mohammed Fayez Balhan, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid in the Jordan Valley.

The conflict has this year claimed the lives of at least 96 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP count based on Israeli and Palestinian official sources.