Region

ADEN — Yemen's embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi pledged Saturday to fight Iran's influence in his violence-wracked country, accusing the Shiite Houthi militia of importing Tehran's ideology.

Hadi lashed out at the Iran-backed militia a day after multiple suicide bombings at Houthi mosques claimed by the Daesh terror group killed 142 and wounded 351 others.

The country is on the brink of a civil war with a deepening political impasse and an increasingly explicit territorial division along sectarian lines, amid rising violence pitting Shiite militia against Sunni tribes and Al Qaeda militants.

By claiming its first attack in Yemen, Daesh is seeking to exploit the chaos gripping the country where its rival Al Qaeda traditionally has been the dominant militant organisation.

The Houthis, who seized Sanaa in September, vowed to take further "revolutionary steps" following Friday's blasts.

In his first televised speech since he fled to Aden from house arrest in militia-held Sanaa, Hadi said he would ensure that “the Yemeni republic flag will fly on the Marran mountain in [the northern Houthi stronghold] Saada, instead of the Iranian flag.”

“The Iranian Twelver [Shiism] pattern that has been agreed upon between the Houthis and those who support them will not be accepted by Yemenis, whether Zaidi [Shiites] or Shafite [Sunnis],” he said.

The Houthis, who belong to the Zaidi sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, are believed to have converted to Twelver Shiism which is followed by Iran and insist that Tehran does not meddle in Yemeni affairs.

In a letter to relatives of the victims of the mosque bombings, which also wounded 351 people, Hadi condemned the attacks as “terrorist, criminal and cowardly”.

"Such heinous attacks could only be done by the enemies of life," who want to drag Yemen into "chaos, violence and internal fighting", he said.

"Shiite extremism, represented by the armed Houthi militia, and Sunni extremism, represented by Al Qaeda, are two sides of the same coin, who do not wish good and stability for Yemen and its people."

'Tip of iceberg' 

Hadi has declared Aden the temporary capital of Yemen.

Friday's bombings came a day after clashes between forces loyal to Hadi and those allied with the Houthis in the southern city.

There were signs that security forces allied with the Houthis and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh were planning to seize Taez — a strategic city between the capital and Aden.

Since taking over Sanaa the Houthis have tightened their grip on government institutions, aided by forces loyal to Saleh.

In their push to widen their control to the south, they have faced fierce resistance by Sunni tribes allied with Al Qaeda militants who are active in the impoverished country.

Al Qaeda swiftly distanced itself from the bombings, insisting it does not target mosques.

In an online statement claiming responsibility, the Sanaa branch of Daesh said the attacks were "just the tip of the iceberg".

'War on the revolution' 

Mohammed Abdulsalam, the spokesman of the Houthi's Ansarullah Party, said the attacks were part of a "clear war against the Yemeni people and its popular revolution" — in reference to Sanaa's takeover.

He accused "Gulf-funded media" of providing political cover for Al Qaeda militants in the provinces of Baida and Marib.

"It is now imperative that we complete the revolutionary steps to protect the people and their revolution," he said in a statement.

The Houthi threat came as reinforcements from the Special Forces, accused of links to the Houthis and Saleh, were sent to Taez, 260km south of Sanaa.

Military sources said about 1,200 soldiers, backed by 22 armoured vehicles, had arrived in the base of the Special Forces in Taez.

Hundreds demonstrated Saturday outside the base, saying the Houthi fighters were among the troops and demanding their return to Sanaa.

Taez is only 180km north of Aden, and is seen as a strategic entry point to Hadi's refuge.

"The bombings in Sanaa will now be taken as an excuse to open new fronts by attacking Taez and Marib [in the east]," said Yemeni youth activist Bassem Hakimi.

The mosque blasts sparked an international outcry.

Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of Hadi, denounced the "terrorist attacks" and offered to transport victims to its hospitals for treatment.

Iran, which is accused of backing the Houthis, "strongly condemned" the bombings.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described the blasts as an "absolute catastrophe", adding that Yemen is "one of those countries where the crisis worsens by day".

DUBAI — By claiming its first attack in Yemen Daesh terror group is seeking to exploit the chaos gripping the country and siphon support from the world's most fearsome Al Qaeda branch, analysts say.

Suicide bombings at two mosques frequented by members of the Shiite Houthi militia in control of the capital killed 142 people and wounded 351 on Friday in one of the deadliest extremist attacks in Yemen's history.

Daesh claimed responsibility, warning it was "the tip of the iceberg" for Yemen.

In contrast, the country's Al Qaeda branch, AQAP, issued a statement saying that it avoided "targeting mosques and markets" to protect "innocent Muslims".

The carnage in Sanaa came 48 hours after Daesh claimed responsibility for an attack on foreign tourists at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, in which 21 people died.

Experts said the extremist group may have been trying to give the impression that it could launch a coordinated, region-wide campaign of attacks.

Daesh "demonstrated in recent weeks its ability to coordinate a vast expansion movement, first in Libya, then Tunisia, and finally Yemen," said Jean-Pierre Filiu, professor at the Sciences-Po institute in Paris.

He said the attacks suggested Daesh "wants to show would-be jihadists its ability to strike the enemy... more violently than AQAP could".

"Already, whole sections of AQAP are leaning towards Daesh," he added.

Yemen has descended into chaos since the 2012 ouster of longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, and security has broken down since Houthi militiamen swept unopposed into the capital last year.

The Houthis, allegedly supported by Saleh as well as Iran, surrounded the presidential palace in Sanaa, forcing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to the south in what Yemen's Gulf neighbours labelled an attempted coup.

The militia has met fierce resistance from AQAP and Sunni tribal fighters after trying to push further into central Yemen, and clashes have left scores dead.

AQAP, considered by the United States to be the jihadist network's most dangerous franchise, was formed in 2009 and has been responsible for a string of devastating attacks on Yemeni security forces in recent years.

It claimed responsibility for the bloody January 7 attack in Paris on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, targeted for its cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. 

AQAP 'lost credibility' 

But analysts say AQAP's potency in Yemen may have diminished since the country's descent into disarray.

Daesh, by comparison, has expanded rapidly after seizing parts of Iraq and Syria last year, receiving pledges of fealty from jihadist groups in Egypt and Libya, and now, allegedly, offshoots in Tunisia and Yemen.

In spite of the severe rift that has formed between Daesh and Al Qaeda's Syria branch Al Nusra Front, AQAP last year called on Muslims to support IS in order to face down "crusaders" in the Middle East, seen at the time as a sign of deference from the Yemeni organisation.

AQAP has also been hit by defections. Its fighters from Dhamar and Sanaa provinces claimed allegiance to Daesh last month with the stated intention of attacking Houthis who, as Shiites, are viewed by the group as heretics.

"Since the Houthi militiamen took control of the capital and a good part of the country, Al Qaeda lost credibility, having been unable to defend even Sunni provinces," said Mathieu Guidere, an expert in Islam at the University of Toulouse.

Daesh, meanwhile, "has never hidden its desire to expand into [the Arabian Peninsula], and Yemen is a prime target as it is seen as the birthplace of the Arabs", he added.

In addition, the group could be seeking what Guidere termed "the strategic encirclement of Saudi Arabia”, after having seized much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland, including Anbar Province, which borders the kingdom to the north.

Filiu warned that Daesh attacks in Yemen and Tunisia in the space of a few days could be just the beginning of the group's next phase.

"My hunch is that this movement [into the two countries], marked by a significant acceleration, is the precursor to the resumption of a terror campaign in Europe," he said.

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Commission on the Status of Women approved a resolution Friday blaming Israel's ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian territory for "the grave situation of Palestinian women”.

Israel's UN Ambassador Ron Prosor denounced the resolution saying it was further proof of the UN's bias against Israel, as it was the only country singled out by the 45-member commission.

The resolution, sponsored by the Palestinians and South Africa, was adopted by a vote of 27-2 with 13 abstentions. The United States and Israel voted against it and European Union members abstained.

The vote took place on the final day of the commission's two-week meeting which reviewed the 150-page platform for action to achieve equality for women adopted at the UN women's conference in Beijing in 1995. The commission set a new goal of 2030 to achieve gender equality.

The resolution stressed the quest for equality and reaffirmed "that the Israeli occupation remains the major obstacle for Palestinian women with regard to their advancement, self-reliance and integration in the development of their society”. It called on the international community to continue providing urgently needed assistance and services "to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis being faced by Palestinian women and their families”.

It also condemned last summer's Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza which killed and injured thousands of civilians including hundreds of Palestinian women and girls.

Prosor accused the Palestinians of mistreating women, noting that "honour killings in the Palestinian Authority are a matter of daily occurrence, and employment of women stands at only 17 per cent”. That compares with 70 per cent of men.

"Of the 193 member states in this institution, dozens slaughter innocent civilians and impose discriminatory laws that marginalise women and yet they all get a free pass," he said, noting that the commission includes "some of the worst violators of human rights like Iran and Sudan”.

OMRANE SUPERIEUR, TUNISIA — Shortly before he and a friend gunned down 20 foreign tourists at Tunisia's Bardo museum, Yassine Al Abidi sat down to a breakfast of olive oil and dates with his family and left for work at his travel agency as usual.

His relatives, mourning his death in a hail of police bullets in the midst of the attack, said they could not understand how a lively, popular young man with a taste for the latest imported clothes could have done such a thing.

They said he was typical of the young men of Tunis' Omrane Superieur suburb. He graduated in French, held down a job and showed no sign of the hardline Islamist ideology that would drive him to commit the worst militant attack in a decade.

But relatives said last year he had begun to spend more and more time at a local mosque, following a pattern of radicialisation of Tunisian young men who then find themselves fighting in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

"I am sad for Yassine, but even sadder for the victims that Yassine killed. They were innocent, why did they have to pay the price of a false understanding of Islam," said his uncle Mohamed Abidi. "They are the victims of terrorism. We are the victims of a demagogic network that wants only death."

Yassine's family had set up a traditional mourning tent outside their home, a well-made orange duplex standing in contrast to the more rundown residences nearby.

Chairs sat empty inside, with only ten family members present. Nearby his mother wept constantly.

Four years after a popular revolt toppled autocrat Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has had free elections, a new constitution and compromise politics.

But the new government is also caught up in a low-level war with militants who have taken advantage of the new freedoms.

More than 3,000 Tunisians have left to fight in Syria and Iraq and the government estimates around 500 have since returned, fuelling fears of further attacks on Tunisia's fragile new democratic state.

'Couldn't hurt a bird'

Abidi and his fellow gunman were trained at a jihadist camp in Libya before the Bardo attack, the Tunisian government has said. Officials said the two men had been recruited at mosques in Tunisia and travelled to Libya in September.

Daesh, which has declared a “caliphate” in large parts of Iraq and Syria and is active in Tunisia's chaotic neighbour Libya, praised the two attackers in an audio recording as "knights of the Daesh" armed with machine guns and bombs.

Family members said Abidi had left home for two months, saying he would be working in the commercial city Sfax on Tunisia's coast. But he did not display any of the conservative beliefs of hardline Islamists, never, for instance, complaining about alcohol being consumed at his uncle's house.

"He was always fun, we danced together at family weddings. He wasn't like hardline Salafists," said his cousin Hanen.

"On the last day he had breakfast of dates and olive oil and went to work. At 10 am he asked for a break and went and did what he did."

Last year, he had started visiting a local mosque where ultraconservative Salafists gave talks on jihad in Syria and Libya, relatives said.

But even when Abidi spent lots of time there, he acted normally with his family, unlike the Islamist hardliners who frown on popular music and entertainment.

"He never told us not to watch television for example," Hanen said.

Since its revolution, Tunisia has seen the emergence of several hardline Islamist groups, including Ansar al-Sharia, which the United States blames for storming its embassy in Tunis in 2012 and lists as a terrorist organisation.

In the early days after the revolution, hardline imams took over mosques, profiting from the new freedoms to preach their extremist vision of Islam and encourage young men to leave to fight in foreign wars.

The Tunisian authorities have began taking back control of most of those mosques. But young men are still leaving. Some are students, unemployed and middle class, rather than poor. Some lived in marginalised rural communities, and most were simply taken in by extremist recruiters.

"The son I knew could never do what was done," Abidi's mother Zakia said, weeping. "He could not even harm a bird."

CAIRO — More than 45,000 Egyptians have fled Libya since jihadists published a video last month showing the beheading of Coptic Christians, most of them Egyptian, an official and state media said Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians work in the restive country to the west and send money home to support their families, but their exact number is uncertain because many enter illegally.

Egyptian Copts have been increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, who beheaded 21 hostages, most of them Egyptian, prompting Cairo to carry out air strikes on a jihadist stronghold in Libya.

By Friday, 11,500 Egyptians had flown home via Tunisia, Libya's western neighbour, since the beheadings were announced, said civil aviation ministry spokesman Mohamed Rahma.

Another nearly 34,000 Egyptians have crossed into Egypt from Libya by land in the same period, state media reported.

The Daesh group's affiliate in Libya claimed responsibility for the beheadings, releasing the video on February 15.

The militants took a foothold in the country amid a conflict between rival governments and their supporters.

MADRID — The UN's Libya envoy has warned an agreement between the strife-torn country's rival political factions is still a way off, in remarks published Saturday after the launch of crunch talks.

Libya has been wracked by violence since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Qadhafi in 2011, with rival militias and administrations battling for power.

Three days of UN-mediated talks that began on Friday are aimed at reaching an agreement to form a national unity government.

"An agreement is going to be difficult, we are still a long way off," UN special envoy, Bernardino Leon, told the Spanish newspaper El Pais from Morocco.

As the talks got under way in Morocco, the internationally recognised government said loyalist forces had launched an offensive to "liberate" Tripoli, seized by Islamist-backed militia last summer.

"We think this activity is linked to the negotiations," Leon was quoted as saying.

"In both camps, there are the hardliners and the moderates," he said. "The moderates want to reach an agreement, while the hardliners prefer a military solution, they want to impose it on the other party by force."

"The international community can't accept such an outcome.

"What the international community didn't do well after the 2011 intervention is not to stay on the ground. It wasn't about rebuilding a state, it was about building one from scratch," he said.

Leon has said the talks in Morocco would focus on security arrangements, the creation of a national unity government and confidence-building measures.

"By Sunday, we would like to have these three documents ready and if possible, published, as already agreed [as] part of what will be a final package," Leon has said.

ABU DHABI — A global anti-tobacco conference that ended Saturday urged countries to take steps to reduce the consumption of tobacco, which it said was a leading cause of disease and death worldwide.

In its final declaration, the 16th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Abu Dhabi also called for wider implementation of World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for cutting smoking rates and reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases.

The five-day conference, which declared that all tobacco products are harmful, said they "pose an especially heavy burden on low- and middle-income countries and should be de-normalised worldwide".

It insisted that tobacco use, in all its forms, is a major contributor to the occurrence of non-communicable disease (NCDs), such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and respiratory diseases.

Organisers warned that tobacco causes one in six of all NCD deaths and that almost half of current tobacco users will eventually die of tobacco-related disease.

And despite a decline in the number of smokers in many countries, more needs to be done to curb tobacco use to meet the global target of a 30 per cent reduction in consumption by 2025.

According to the WHO, one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco — nearly 6 million people each year. It warns that unless urgent action is taken, the annual toll could rise to 8 million by 2030.

WHO says NCDs kill 35 million people annually, of whom 80 per cent are in low- and middle-income countries.

The WHO framework convention on tobacco sets out guidelines on steps governments can take, including punitive tax measures; bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; the creation of smoke-free work and public spaces, prominent health warnings on tobacco packages and combatting illicit trade.

The treaty has been signed by 180 countries but implementation "has fallen short of objectives", and the conference urged global cooperation to fully implement it.

The conference called for all countries to have ratified the treaty by 2018, at as well as for at least 30 countries to have adopted plain packaging and at least 100 requiring graphic warnings covering more than 50 per cent of cigarette packets.

And it said that at least 15 additional countries should introduce a 70 per cent hike in taxes on the retail price of tobacco products.

It also supported an initiative to be voted by parliament in the Australian state of Tasmania Tuesday to ban tobacco sales to all those born this century, to achieve a "tobacco-free generation".

The United Arab Emirates, where the conference took place, is at the forefront of anti-tobacco practices. It bans smoking in enclosed public areas and prohibits tobacco advertising and sponsorship.

It has also introduced graphic warnings on cigarette packs and prohibits the sale of tobacco products to under 18s.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

In an eagerly anticipated message for the traditional Kurdish new year, Ocalan, however, stopped short of setting out a clear roadmap for disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels as had been anticipated in some quarters.

In the message read out by a pro-Kurdish lawmaker to hundreds of thousands of supporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Ocalan said that the armed struggle had been "painful" and could no longer be maintained.

"A congress should be organised to bring an end to the 40-year struggle against the Turkish republic," Ocalan said in the message read out by Sirri Sureyya Onder of the People's Democratic Party (HDP).

Ocalan is serving a life sentence on the prison island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara following his sensational arrest by Turkish agents in Kenya in 1999.

He said the congress — which would likely involve all the Kurdish political forces in Turkey — would decide "a social and political strategy which will determine our history".

Ocalan said that the congress — whose timing was not made clear — would usher in a "new era" in relations between Turkey and the Kurds.

The Turkish government welcomed the message, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc describing the statement as "positive in every way".

The written message had been delivered by Ocalan to a group of HDP deputies who visited him on Imrali on Thursday.

'Bury the hatred' 

In scenes that would have been unimaginable a decade ago and broadcast live on Turkish television, hundreds of thousands attended the Newroz new year celebration in Diyarbakir, hearing speeches in Turkish and Kurdish.

They flew yellow and red Kurdish flags and brandished pictures of Ocalan, known to his followers as "Apo" ("Uncle"), the main leader of Turkey Kurds despite his incarceration.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worked over recent years to find a solution to end the violence, granting modest reforms to the Kurdish minority.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed that the government "would do what it takes" for success in the peace process, saying Turkey was entering a new period of unity.

"Let's leave the anger aside and from now just focus on talks," he told supporters in a speech in Istanbul.

"Let's bury in the ground for ever the culture of hatred, the violence and the weapons. Let's bury the pain of the mother of a martyr in the ground," he said.

However the route to a final peace deal remains thorny, with Turkey preparing for legislative elections on June 7 and still shaken by the deaths of dozens in clashes during pro-Kurdish protests in October 2014.

Ocalan, who in February had called on the PKK to lay down their arms, did not specifically mention disarmament in this message.

The PKK has largely observed a ceasefire since 2013 but attempts to find a permanent deal have stalled over the issue of the withdrawal of PKK fighters and weaponry from Turkey.

The PKK's military leaders, who are based in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq, have argued their should be no disarmament before a final settlement.

'Kobani victory'

At least 40,000 people have been killed on both sides since the PKK formally began its insurgency in 1984 demanding self-rule for Turkey's Kurds, who make up around 20 per cent of the population. Bloodshed though had begun at least a decade before that.

The PKK is regarded as a terrorist group not only by Turkey but also by the United States and the European Union.

However it has also been working with Iraqi and Syrian Kurds in the US-backed campaign against Daesh militants, with PKK fighters winning respect for their abilities.

Ocalan hailed as a "victory" and a "new symbol of history" the defeat by Kurdish fighters of Daesh militants in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobani earlier this year.

Often described as the world's largest stateless people after being denied their own country in the wake of World War I, Kurds are spread between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Beirut — Syrian President Bashar Assad has fired two top intelligence chiefs after a fight between the two officials, a high-ranking security source in Damascus told AFP on Friday.

"General Rustom Ghazaleh, the head of political intelligence, and General Rafiq Shehadeh, the head of military intelligence, were fired at the beginning of the week by President Assad after a violent dispute between the two men," the source said.

Ghazaleh has been replaced by his former deputy, Nazih Hassoun, with Mohamed Mahalla taking over as military intelligence chief, the source added.

The two men were replaced after a violent argument over Ghazaleh's involvement in the southern front of the conflict in Syria, according to the source.

Ghazaleh had reportedly sought greater involvement in the battle against rebel fighters in southern Daraa province, where he was born.

But Shehadeh "was categorically opposed to him taking part in the battle" being waged in the area by regime troops backed by Lebanon's Shiite Hizbollah movement, the source said.

"A violent disagreement erupted and Shehadeh's men beat up Ghazaleh badly," the source said.

Ghazaleh was briefly hospitalised after the incident two weeks ago, but was readmitted later on suffering complications related to hypertension.

The source said Ghazaleh was currently in "critical condition".

Ghazaleh and Shehadeh both took their posts in July 2012, after being promoted following a bombing that killed four top regime figures.

Shehadeh was previously head of military intelligence in central Homs province, an early bastion of the opposition to Assad's regime.

Ghazaleh was head of military security in Damascus before his 2012 promotion.

He is considered a strongman of Assad, since he became president in 2000, succeeding his father Hafez.

In 2002, Ghazaleh was named head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, where he was accused of intervening extensively in the country's political affairs.

He was also frequently named by witnesses as a suspect in the planning of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, though he has not been indicted by the international tribunal prosecuting the murder.

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied making a U-turn by saying he would never agree to the creation of a Palestinian state, arguing that the conditions were not yet ripe.

Holding out an olive branch to the United States, the veteran politician insisted the Palestinian Authority had to cut its ties with Hamas fighters, recognise the existence of Israel and engage in "genuine" peace talks with Israel.

Taking to the US airwaves, he empathically denied going back on a long commitment to seeking a Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in comments made in the last days of the election campaign, which raised global alarm.

“I didn’t retract any of the things I said in my speech six years ago, calling for a solution in which a demilitarised Palestinian state recognises a Jewish state. I said that the conditions for that, today, are not achievable,” Netanyahu told Fox News channel’s “The Kelly File”.

Netanyahu accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of rejecting “the acceptance of a Jewish state. He’s made a pact with the Palestinian terrorist organisation, Hamas, that calls for our destruction”.

The Israeli leader also pointed to turmoil in the region unleashed in the wake of the Arab Spring, claiming that meant militants from the Daesh terror group were only dozens of kilometres from Israel’s borders.

Speaking with NBC television, Netanyahu insisted he was “proud to be the prime minister of all Israeli citizens, Arabs and Jews alike” after triggering outrage for warning supporters that Arabs Israelis were “turning out in droves” to the polls.

He suggested to NBC that he remained open to the possibility of new peace talks, saying: “I was talking about what is achievable and what is not achievable.”

Israel would “need the recognition of [a] Jewish state and real security in order to have a realistic two-state solution”.

But he insisted that to make that happen, “you have to have real negotiations with people committed to peace... it’s time we saw the pressure on the Palestinians to show that they are committed too”.

Iran, which backs Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was ready to start pouring arms into the West Bank run by the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu claimed. 

‘You can’t impose peace’  

“We withdrew from Gaza, we got thousands of rockets on our heads. [We] don’t want it to happen again. I think the administration has said time and time again, the only way to achieve peace is a negotiated solution — you can’t impose peace,” he told NBC News.

“If you want to get peace, you’ve got to get the Palestinian leadership to abandon their pact with Hamas and engage in genuine negotiations with Israel for an achievable peace.”

The Israeli leader also maintained that his controversial anti-Arab comments on a Facebook page aimed at drumming up support at the ballot box were an attempt “to counter a foreign-funded effort to get votes that are intended to topple my party”.

Some outside groups had vowed to “try to get out votes for a specific party, an amalgamation of Islamists and other groups”, Netanyahu said, without giving any details, insisting he was not “trying to suppress a vote”.

The White House on Wednesday had chastised Netanyahu for his remarks, saying such rhetoric “seeks to marginalise Arab Israeli citizens.”