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Muslims pray at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa at start of Ramadan

By - Mar 25,2023 - Last updated at Mar 25,2023

People perform the first Friday noon prayer of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, in front of the Dome of the Rock at the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound in occupied Jerusalem on Friday (AFP photo)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Tens of thousands of worshippers attended Friday prayers at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque Compound, the first in the holy month of Ramadan, AFP correspondents said, amid heightened tensions in the region.

Authorities said the prayers at Islam's third holiest site passed peacefully despite concerns over a recent surge in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The mosque compound in the Israeli-occupied Old City of East Jerusalem has previously seen clashes and violence between Palestinians and Israelis, particularly during Ramadan.

Azzam Al Khatib, head of the Jordanian Waqf Islamic affairs council which administers the compound, told AFP "the prayers went peacefully and everything went well".

Israeli officials estimated the number of worshippers at more than 80,000 while the Waqf said 100,000 had attended the afternoon prayer.

Israeli police said it had deployed 2,300 officers across the city for the day.

A massive crowd streamed through the Bab Al Silsilah entrance to the compound with prayer mats in hand, an AFP correspondent said, while some posed for photos in front of the iconic golden Dome of the Rock.

An AFP photographer saw a masked man waving the flag of the armed wing of Islamist movement Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, while a Hamas banner was unfurled from one of the compound's porticos.

Late in the afternoon, Israeli police published a video showing an officer standing on a ladder and removing the banner along with two other flags of Palestinian militant groups.

 

'Nobody can stop us' 

 

Aboud Hassan, 62, had travelled early on Friday morning from the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

"Ramadan is the most important month of the year, and nothing matters to me except Al Aqsa," he said.

“Nobody can stop us from praying at Al Aqsa, thank God. The prayers today went smoothly and without problems, thank God.”

An AFP photographer saw huge queues at Qalandiya checkpoint, one of the main crossing points from the occupied West Bank into Israel, after Israeli authorities had eased restrictions on West Bank Palestinians visiting Jerusalem for prayer.

Worshipper Ebtissam Barrak, 26, said “nearly all the roads” in the area were blocked.

“Of course, we fear escalation but we hope that Ramadan will be peaceful... and that Muslims will be able to enter Al Aqsa to pray without any problems between Jews and Arabs,” she added.

Last week Hamas warned Israel it would react to any “violations” at the compound during Ramadan.

Any attempt by Israel to “impose” its policies during Ramadan would be met with the “reaction of our people”, said a statement attributed to Saleh Al Aruri, deputy head of the Gaza-based group’s political bureau.

Since the start of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 87 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.

Dozens of migrants missing in latest Tunisia shipwreck

By - Mar 25,2023 - Last updated at Mar 25,2023

TUNIS — Thirty-four migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were missing off Tunisia's Mediterranean coast on Friday after their boat capsized, a court official said, the latest in a string of tragedies this month.

The boat carrying 38 people had set off on Thursday from near Sfax and was attempting to reach Italy, said Fawzi El Masmoudi, a court spokesman in the port city.

Sub-Saharan African migrants residing in Tunisia have been living in fear since an incendiary speech by President Kais Saied speech last month, in which he accused them of representing a demographic threat and causing a crime wave. 

The North African country's population of 12 million hosts an estimated 21,000 migrants from other parts of Africa, representing 0.2 per cent of the population.

Earlier Friday, Alarm Phone, a charity monitoring migrant boats, said that 40 people were at risk on a "boat in distress trying to escape Tunisia". 

Those on board reported that “so-called Tunisian coast guards have removed their engine, beaten some of them, and abandoned them at sea”, the group said.

The latest deadly shipwreck off Tunisia, one of at least four this month, comes two days after five Sub-Saharan African migrants drowned and another 28 went missing when a boat carrying 38 mostly Ivorian migrants capsized.

In the days after Saied’s speech, slammed by rights groups as “racist hate speech”, migrants reported an upsurge in racist attacks and many were evicted from their accommodation by landlords fearing large fines or prison for housing them.

Those working informally in construction and other sectors also lost their jobs, and thousands rushed to their embassies to be repatriated.

While some migrants arrive in Tunisia to study, many use the country as a springboard for attempts to reach Europe by sea. European governments have pressured Tunis to rein in the flow.

Parts of Tunisia’s coastline are within 150 kilometres of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

A spokesman for the Tunisian National Guard said on Friday that in 24 hours, the coast guard had intercepted more than 1,000 migrants, 25 of them Tunisians.

Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned Friday that Tunisia’s “serious financial problems” risked sparking a “migratory wave” towards Europe.

She also confirmed plans for a mission to the North African country involving the Italian and French foreign ministers.

Meloni echoed comments earlier in the week by Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, who warned Tunisia risks economic collapse that could trigger a new flow of migrants to Europe, fears Tunis has since dismissed.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned this week that Tunisia urgently needs to reach a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund. 

 

14 perish in Somalia flash floods

By - Mar 25,2023 - Last updated at Mar 25,2023

MOGADISHU — At least 14 people have been killed in southern Somalia after torrential rains triggered flash floods that have caused havoc in several towns and villages.

Bridges, roads and houses have been damaged or destroyed and many people have been forced to flee their homes in search of safer ground.

In the town of Baardhere in Jubaland state, 14 people were killed including three members of the same family, district commissioner Mohamed Weli Yusuf told reporters.

“Most of the casualties were caused after the victims were trapped across a bridge in the town Thursday evening which was swept up in the floods,” he said.

“It was very difficult to rescue these people because of the time the incident happened and the lack of resources in the town.”

The rains signal the early start of the April-June rainy season, and have brought some relief to areas of the country suffering from the worst drought in four decades.

But the UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA warned in a statement on Saturday of the risk of an increase in diseases such as cholera as living conditions likely deteriorate.

Baardhere resident Ahmed Omar said there had been heavy rains in the region over the past three days.

“Floods devastated Baardhere town, my house was destroyed and most of my belongings swept away by the flood. Thanks to God my family survived but five people died in my neighbourhood including children and women,” he told AFP.

“Now the whole town is under water and most families fled to higher ground,” he added.

Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam on Saturday sent condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives and called for urgent assistance to be sent to those affected by the disaster.

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, and extreme weather events are occurring with increased frequency and intensity.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation warned that nearly 100,000 people in Somalia were facing catastrophic levels of hunger due to the worst drought to hit the region in four decades.

 

Israeli forces kill Palestinian in West Bank raid

By - Mar 23,2023 - Last updated at Mar 23,2023

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Amir Imad Abu Khadija, who was killed in an Israeli raid, during his funeral on Thursday in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank (AFP photo)

Tulkarem, Palestinian territories — Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the first killing in the occupied West Bank during Ramadan as the army said it targeted an armed suspect.

Amir Imad Abu Khadija, 25, was killed by "the Israeli occupation bullets during their aggression on Tulkarem," the ministry said in a statement.

He was shot in the head and lower limbs, the statement added.

The Israeli forces raided the village of Shufa, near Tulkarem, in pursuit of Abu Khadija who was allegedly involved in multiple shootings targeting Israelis.

"During the arrival of the forces and surrounding of the building, the wanted suspect drew a gun within the apartment at the forces, who responded with live fire. A hit was identified," an army statement said.

The killing is the first fatality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Thursday.

The Tulkarem Brigade claimed Abu Khadija as one of its "leaders and founders."

"He will be the first to bid us farewell in this holy month," the group said in a statement.

The latest deadly Israeli raid in the West Bank came just days after Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Egypt in a bid to reduce tensions, amid a surge in violence.

Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 87 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.

The United Nations Middle East peace envoy, Tor Wennesland, said on Wednesday that Israeli operations and subsequent clashes “have led to a staggering number of Palestinians killed and injured”.

“I am deeply disturbed by the intensifying cycle of violence that threatens to plunge Palestinians and Israelis deeper into deadly crisis,” he told the UN Security Council, while also condemning attacks on Israelis.

IMF warns Lebanon at 'very dangerous moment'

By - Mar 23,2023 - Last updated at Mar 23,2023

A handout photo provided by the Lebanese photo agency Dalati and Nohra on Thursday shows Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati meeting with a delegation from the Ineternational Monetary Fund (IMF) at the governmental palace in Beirut, on Thursday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — Crisis-hit Lebanon is "at a very dangerous moment", a visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation said on Thursday, criticising slow progress on reforms needed to unlock billions in loans.

Lebanon and the IMF reached a conditional agreement in April 2022 on a $3-billion-dollar loan needed to save the country's economy, in free fall since 2019.

But nearly a year after Beirut signed the agreement, officials have yet to enact the substantial changes required to kickstart the 46-month financing programme.

Since last year, the country has had no president and only a caretaker government, amid persistent deadlock between rival factions while the country plunges deeper into a crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the mid-19th century.

"We think Lebanon is at a very dangerous moment, at a crossroads," said Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, who headed the IMF delegation to Beirut.

He warned the continued "policy of inaction is going to leave Lebanon in a never-ending crisis".

"Time has gone by. It's almost a year since we have reached an agreement," Rigo added, urging leaders to implement the reforms swiftly.

"The country is in a significant crisis. One would have expected a lot more in terms of implementation and approval of legislation," added Rigo.

In September he had already warned of tardiness in implementing reforms, "despite the urgency".

Lebanon's meltdown has pushed most of the population into poverty while the political elite, widely blamed for the country's financial collapse, has failed to take action.

If the status quo persists, the country could see hyperinflation, “in a worst case scenario” Rigo said.

 

‘Very slow’ 

 

The IMF had conditioned the funds on a series of measures, notably unifying the country’s plethora of exchange rates, a reformed bank secrecy law as well as restructuring the banking sector and the implementation of formal capital controls.

The Lebanese have progressed, Rigo said, but “the progress is very slow”.

Lebanon has implemented some reforms demanded by the IMF including passing a 2022 budget as well as a revised bank secrecy law.

Rigo said any solution for Lebanon must include an adjustment of “fiscal policies”, address “banking sector losses” and strengthen anti-corruption measures.

Lebanese banks have imposed draconian withdrawal restrictions — essentially locking depositors out of their life savings.

“Small depositors are the ones hit the hardest... They are suffering more than they should,” he said.

“The loss is so large that unfortunately there will have to be a redistribution between the government, banks, and depositors.”

As reforms drag, the market value of the Lebanese pound reached historic lows against the US dollar this month, prompting hundreds to take to the streets and protest deteriorating living conditions on Wednesday.

Many of the demonstrators were retired servicemen whose army pensions have lost most of their value, and depositors locked out of their savings by cash-strapped banks.

Security forces fired tear gas as some tried to push through barriers to reach the Beirut compound which houses government offices, while other protesters hurled stones.

“I used to make around $4,000. Now my pension is worth $150,” one retired general told AFP.

The pound has been trading on parallel markets at more than 100,000 against the greenback — a dizzying plunge from 1,507 before the economic crisis hit in 2019.

Lebanon defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in 2020.

Yet over the years the government has opened lines of credit from the central bank, “something that we have recommended should not be happening”, Rigo said, urging authorities to stop borrowing from the central bank.

Activist group Kulluna Irada, which met with the IMF delegation, denounced “a lack of real intention to reform” on behalf of Lebanon’s ruling class.

Saudi, Iranian FMs hold Ramadan call, vow to meet 'soon'— Riyadh

By - Mar 23,2023 - Last updated at Mar 23,2023

RIYADH — The Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers spoke by phone to mark the beginning of Ramadan, vowing to meet “soon” to implement a landmark bilateral reconciliation deal, Riyadh said on Thursday.

The Saudi minister, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, called Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the pair “exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan”, which begins on Thursday in both countries, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter.

“The two ministers agreed to hold a bilateral meeting soon in order to pave the way for the reopening of embassies and consulates between the two countries,” the statement said.

Saudi officials have said the ministers’ expected meeting is the next step in a surprise Chinese-brokered rapprochement announced on March 10 intended to fully restore diplomatic ties seven years after they were severed.

Riyadh cut relations after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in 2016 following the Saudi execution of Shiite cleric Nimr Al Nimr — just one in a series of flashpoints between the two longstanding regional rivals.

The deal is expected to see Shiite-majority Iran and mainly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia reopen their embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation deals signed more than 20 years ago.

On Sunday, an Iranian official said President Ebrahim Raisi had favourably received an invitation to visit Saudi Arabia from King Salman, though Riyadh has yet to confirm.

Amir-Abdollahian told reporters the same day that the two countries had agreed to hold a meeting between their top diplomats and that three locations had been suggested, without specifying which.

The detente between Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and Iran, strongly at odds with Western governments over its nuclear activities, has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterised by turbulence for decades.

 

Israel lawmakers adopt strict limits on removing PM

By - Mar 23,2023 - Last updated at Mar 23,2023

An aerial view shows protesters marching during ongoing demonstrations in Tel Aviv on Thursday, against controversial legal reforms being touted by the country's far-right government (AFP photo)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli parliament approved on Thursday legislation restricting grounds for declaring a premier unfit for office, a move the opposition has called a "personal law" that serves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The vote came as Netanyahu's government pushes forward with a divisive judicial reform programme, which critics say threatens Israeli democracy and has sparked mass protest.

Lawmakers voted 61 against 47 to approve an amendment to one of Israel's Basic Laws, the country's quasi-constitution, specifying the necessary conditions to temporarily declare a prime minister unfit for office.

The previous version of the law stated that a premier could be declared incapacitated, but did not specify on what grounds or lay out the necessary steps.

The amended legislation requires a request by the prime minister, or a government vote backed by a three-quarter majority of ministers, and only for mental or physical health reasons.

The law "de facto limits the possibility of declaring a prime minister incapacitated to exercise their functions", said Guy Lurie, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem.

"Reasons other than those specified in the amendment will no longer be admissable," he told AFP.

Some opposition figures and civil society groups have argued for Netanyahu — who returned to office at the helm of a hard-right coalition in December — to be declared unfit to serve, citing corruption charges against him, which he denies.

Former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert had also faced calls to step down over a criminal investigation, and resigned from office in 2009 after police recommended he be indicted for graft.

"While the supreme court had at the time rejected a petition demanding that he be declared incapacitated, it implied that a conflict of interest could be considered as [a reason] for incapacity," Lurie said.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an anti-corruption NGO, last month lodged a petition with the court aimed at declaring Netanyahu unfit for office, arguing he had a conflict of interest because he is currently on trial.

Recently, the office of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara denied unsubstantiated reports she had wanted to force Netanyahu to resign.

Opposition chief Yair Lapid said on Thursday "the coalition has just adopted a personal law, obscene and corrupt, against an unfounded rumour of impeachment."

Pro-Kurdish party gives tacit support to Erdogan rival in polls

By - Mar 22,2023 - Last updated at Mar 22,2023

ISTANBUL — Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said Wednesday it would not field a presidential candidate in May elections, giving tacit support to Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rival in the crucial vote.

The decision by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) reduces the possibility of a damaging split of the anti-Erdogan vote, boosting the chances of the opposition alliance's joint candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Winning more than 10 per cent of the vote in the past three national elections, the HDP was widely seen as a king maker in the tightly contested race.

"We will not field a candidate in the presidential elections," Pervin Buldan, the party co-chairwoman, told reporters.

"We will fulfil our historic responsibility to end one-man rule in the coming elections," she said, condemning Erdogan's consolidation of power over his two decades as prime minister and president.

The HDP's decision strips Erdogan of a key voting bloc in what is widely seen as Turkey's most important election of its post-Ottoman history.

Erdogan enjoyed some support from Kurdish voters earlier in his rule.

His government once worked with HDP politicians in an effort to put an end to a decades-long fight by Kurdish insurgents for an independent state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

But he now accuses the HDP, parliament's third largest party, of being the political wing of the PKK militants.

The leftist party denies the charges and says it is being singled out for its fierce criticism of the government's social and economic policies.

Erdogan and his far-right allies in parliament are now trying to dissolve the HDP over its alleged terror ties.

Turkey's Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected the HDP's request to delay the outcome of the case until after the May 14 election.

The HDP was excluded from a six-party opposition alliance that has rallied around Kilicdaroglu's candidacy.

The anti-Erdogan alliance includes staunchly nationalist parties that refuse to work with the HDP.

Meeting with HDP leaders on Monday, Kilicdaroglu promised to remove restrictions on the Kurdish language and address other Kurdish concerns.

10 soldiers killed as fresh Yemen fighting clouds peace efforts

By - Mar 22,2023 - Last updated at Mar 22,2023

DUBAI — At least 10 soldiers were killed in renewed fighting in Yemen, military sources told AFP, despite diplomatic efforts to halt the long-running war in the Arab world's poorest country.

The clashes took place in oil-producing Marib province, one of the main battlegrounds and the scene of sporadic fighting even during a lull in hostilities over the past year.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked a mountainous area and have been engaged in a build-up of forces in the region, two military sources told AFP.

"The Houthis launched an attack on hills overlooking Harib district, south of Marib, and made progress on that front, causing the displacement of dozens of families," one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"At least 10 soldiers were killed, in addition to an unknown number of attackers," the source added. The details of the clash were confirmed by a second military official.

The fighting comes a month after at least four soldiers were killed in the same district, and dents new optimism after Saudi Arabia and Iran, who back opposing sides in what amounts to a proxy war, agreed to restore diplomatic ties.

An exchange of hundreds of prisoners was agreed this week and Hans Grundberg, UN secretary general's special envoy for Yemen, has said "intense diplomatic efforts" are underway to strike a peace deal.

The Houthis seized control of Yemen's capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year and fighting that has left hundreds of thousands dead, through direct and indirect causes, and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

But a UN-brokered ceasefire that took effect last April brought a sharp reduction in hostilities and even though the truce expired in October, fighting has largely remained on hold.

On Monday, after talks in Switzerland, the Huthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government agreed to exchange 887 prisoners, 181 held in Houthi prisons and 706 rebels.

During a Security Council meeting last week, UN officials said the detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran, welcomed by both the Houthis and the Yemeni government, should offer momentum toward peace.

Israel missiles hit arms depot in Syria's Aleppo airport — monitor

Authorities say strike puts airport out of service

By - Mar 22,2023 - Last updated at Mar 22,2023

A child walks in mud following heavy rainfall at a camp for internally displaced persons in the rebel-held north-western province of Idlib on Sunday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — An Israeli missile strike destroyed a suspected arms depot used by Iran-backed militias at Syria's Aleppo airport on Wednesday, a war monitor said, with authorities saying the strike put the airport out of service.

It was the second such attack in a month on the airport in Syria's second city, which has been a major conduit for relief flights since a February 6 earthquake devastated swathes of northern Syria and neighbouring Turkey.

The pre-dawn strike targeted "the airport compound and a weapons depot belonging to pro-Iranian forces on the airport's perimeter," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said.

The Britain-based war monitor said the arms depot was "completely destroyed".

The Syrian defence ministry reported "damage" but did not immediately mention any casualties.

"Around 3:55 am [0055 GMT], the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack... targeting Aleppo international airport, leading to some material damage," a ministry statement said.

"A number of missiles" were fired from the Mediterranean west of the coastal city of Latakia, it added.

The transport ministry said the strikes caused damage to the runway and to airport equipment, forcing all flights to be redirected to Damascus or to Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.

The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes against Syria, but has vowed repeatedly to keep up its air campaign to stop arch foe Iran consolidating its presence.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that "we do not comment on reports in the foreign media", its standard response when questioned about such strikes.

Previous strikes blamed on Israel have also stopped flights using the airport following damage to the runway.

On March 7, three people were killed in an Israeli strike on the airport that brought air traffic, including relief flights, to a halt. The airport reopened three days later.

More than 80 aid flights have landed in Aleppo with relief supplies following the earthquake, according to the transport ministry.

Since war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against its neighbour, allegedly targeting positions of the Syrian army and its Iranian and Hizbollah allies.

Iran-backed militias have a heavy presence in the Aleppo region after providing key ground support to the army in its recapture of rebel-held districts of the city in 2016.

Israel has attacked Aleppo and Damascus airports several times in recent years.

A strike on Aleppo airport last September put it out of service for several days. That attack targeted a warehouse used by Iran-backed militias, the observatory said at the time.

Earlier this month, Israeli air strikes targeting a weapons depot in Syria killed an army officer and two pro-Iran fighters, the observatory said.

Last month, an Israeli air strike killed 15 people in Damascus district housing state security agencies.

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