Region

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s divided parliament failed to elect a new president Thursday for a ninth time, despite the damage the political deadlock is doing to efforts to bail out its bankrupt economy.

Parliament is split between supporters of the powerful Iran-backed Hizbollah movement and its opponents, neither of whom have a clear majority.

“Holding a session every week won’t change anything,” said lawmaker Alain Aoun, of former president Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).

Hizbollah opponent Michel Moawad, who is seen as close to the United States, won the support of 39 MPs but fell well short of the required majority.

Only 105 of parliament’s 128 lawmakers showed up for the vote and as many of them spoilt their ballots.

Some MPs wrote in mock choices for the vacant presidency, with one vote cast for late South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Moawad’s candidacy is opposed by Hizbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah called last month for a president ready to stand up to Washington.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri reiterated calls for dialogue among lawmakers to find a consensus candidate to prevent the process dragging on for months.

Aoun’s election in 2016 followed a more than two-year vacancy at the presidential palace as lawmakers made 45 failed attempts to elect a president before reaching a consensus on his candidacy.

By convention, Lebanon’s presidency goes to a Maronite Christian, the premiership is reserved for a Sunni Muslim and the post of parliament speaker goes to a Shiite Muslim.

A cabinet meeting on Monday exacerbated divisions between Hizbollah and its main Christian ally the FPM, which says the caretaker government should not meet until a new president has been named.

Lebanon can ill afford a prolonged power vacuum as it grapples with a financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history, with a currency in free fall, severe electricity shortages and soaring poverty rates.

The country’s caretaker government has limited powers and cannot enact the sweeping reforms demanded by international lenders to release billions of dollars in bailout loans.

Parliament will convene for a 10th attempt to elect a president on December 15.

RIYADH — Chinese President Xi Jinping met Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince on Thursday on an Arab outreach visit that will yield billions of dollars in deals and has earned a rebuke from Washington. 

About $30 billion in agreements will be signed on Thursday, Saudi state media said, as China seeks to shore up its COVID-hit economy and as the Saudis, long-term US allies, push to diversify their economic and political alliances. 

Xi, who flew in on Wednesday, was greeted with a handshake by 37-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, de facto ruler of the world’s biggest oil exporter, at Yamamah Palace. 

The two men stood side-by-side as a brass band played their national anthems, then chatted as they walked into the palace, which is the king’s official residence and seat of the royal court. 

Arab leaders also began to converge on the Saudi capital ahead of a summit with Xi, the leader of the world’s number-two economy, who will hold separate talks with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council before leaving on Friday.

China, the top consumer of Saudi oil, has been strengthening its ties with a region that has long relied on the United States for military protection but which has voiced concerns the American presence could be downgraded.

After Xi’s arrival on Wednesday, with formation jets flying overhead, Saudi state media announced 34 investment agreements in sectors including green hydrogen, information technology, transport and construction.

The official Saudi Press Agency did not provide details but said two-way trade totalled 304 billion Saudi riyals ($80 billion) in 2021 and 103 billion Saudi riyals ($27 billion) in the third quarter of 2022. 

State broadcaster Al Ekhbariya said another 20 agreements worth 110 billion riyals ($29.3 billion) were due to be signed on Thursday.

Riyadh-based diplomats said on Thursday was expected to be devoted to meetings including with King Salman, the 86-year-old monarch, and his son, Prince Mohammed.

‘Raising pace’ 

of cooperation 

The crown prince sees China as a critical partner in his sweeping Vision 2030 agenda, seeking the involvement of Chinese firms in ambitious mega-projects meant to diversify the economy away from fossil fuels. 

Key Saudi projects include the futuristic $500 billion megacity NEOM, a so-called cognitive city that will depend heavily on facial recognition and surveillance technology. 

Saudi investment minister Khalid Al Falih said this week’s visit “will contribute to raising the pace of economic and investment cooperation between the two countries”, offering Chinese companies and investors “rewarding returns”, according to SPA. 

Xi may also hold bilateral talks before the summit meetings with other Arab leaders who have arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of Friday’s summits, Riyadh-based diplomats said. 

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, Tunisian President Kais Saied, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan were all flying in on Thursday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister NajibMikati have also confirmed their attendance.

China’s foreign ministry this week described Xi’s trip as the “largest-scale diplomatic activity between China and the Arab world” since the People’s Republic of China was founded. 

It has not escaped the attention of the White House, which warned of “the influence that China is trying to grow around the world”, calling its objectives “not conducive to preserving the international rules based order”. 

Xi is making just his third journey overseas since the COVID pandemic prompted China to shut its borders and embark on a series of lockdowns, putting the brakes on its giant economy.

RIYADH — Ravers sporting face paint and flashing LED sunglasses jump in time to the thudding beats of Dish Dash, a DJ act whose rise mirrors that of the Saudi music scene.

The confetti-strewn dance hall in Riyadh is packed with young men and women, most in streetwear hoodies and jeans, a few in traditional white robes and abayas.

The setting bears scant resemblance to the venues where Dish Dash — the Jeddah-born brothers Abbas and Hassan Ghazzawi — began performing more than 15 years ago.

Among their early gigs were gender-segregated weddings in which the duo would be walled off from female guests.

"They used to lock us in the room. We would stay in this room for five hours and basically DJ for the wall," Hassan recalled, laughing.

"The only way you could tell if people are enjoying it is if you hear people are screaming."

Like other facets of cultural life in conservative but fast-changing Saudi Arabia, the music scene is undergoing a revamp, emerging as a regular stop for top global pop stars from Justin Bieber to Usher and Mariah Carey.

At this past weekend's MDLBEAST Soundstorm festival, organisers said more than 600,000 fans took in sets by the likes of Bruno Mars and DJ Khaled, who dutifully documented his sampling of Saudi food and traditional sword-dancing for his 31 million Instagram followers.

Such events have helped advertise reforms championed by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who has overseen an easing of rules that once barred cinemas and gender-mixed concerts — albeit during a ramped-up repression of political dissent.

Now, Saudi performers like Dish Dash want to take advantage of the opening-up to foster a domestic music industry that can thrive even when the spotlight veers elsewhere.

'New boom' 

In between their sets at Soundstorm, Saudi acts told AFP they were encouraged by the progress so far, pointing to new labels, studios and performance venues that make it easier to build careers.

Not long ago "people used to tell us, 'Dude, you're just wasting your time. You're not doing anything,'" Hassan said.

"And now people are calling us to get [on] guest lists and stuff like that."

Nouf Sufyani, a DJ who performs under the name Cosmicat, said she only began taking a music career seriously after the first edition of Soundstorm in 2019.

Before that, she had been working as a dentist and DJing on the side, but the buzz around the event spurred her to pursue music exclusively.

Today "I'm 100 per cent able to live on music alone," she said. "And that should be a push also for anyone who wants to do music, and has the talent, but hesitates."

It is an increasingly common story in a kingdom whose youthful population of 34 million represents a vast underserved market, said Talal Albahiti, MDLBEAST's chief operating officer.

"I keep telling people this is our new black gold", he said, a reference to the oil that Saudi Arabia is primarily known for.

"This is the new boom, and it's all about these creatives and what they bring to the table... I believe the next big hit or superstar will come out of this region."

'Baby steps' 

But challenges remain, notably a still-developing network of recording studios that until five or six years ago "were mainly focused on classical Arabic music" and "pretty much neglected all other genres and all other types of artists", Albahiti said.

The process of setting up rules governing music rights, licensing and royalties is also "in its infancy still", he added.

But Hassan, of Dish Dash, said he believed such a scene would ultimately be viable, calling it the logical "next step".

The changes to date have already captured the attention of artists elsewhere in the region, including from bigger markets like Egypt.

Disco Misr, an Egyptian DJ trio known for up-tempo remixes of Arabic pop classics, first played Saudi Arabia in 2019 and returned to perform in September at the Azimuth music festival in the northern desert city of Al Ula.

That event, more intimate than Soundstorm, attracted around 1,000 fans to a stage nestled between sandstone mountains for two nights of dusk-to-dawn sets.

"Their baby steps are surprising. I cannot call them baby steps. It's huge... I can only compare what's happening in Saudi Arabia with Tomorrowland," Disco Misr member Schady Wasfy said, referring to the Belgian electronic dance music festival.

"I cannot compare [it] with anything happening in the Arab region. I'm actually surprised — I'm really surprised. And I'm hoping to see more."

THE HAGUE — TV network Al Jazeera submitted the case of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, saying she was killed by Israeli forces.

The Qatar-based channel said it had "unearthed new evidence" on the death of the Palestinian-American, shot while covering an Israel army raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11.

Any person or group can file a complaint to the ICC prosecutor for investigation, but the Hague-based court is under no obligation to take on such cases.

Al Jazeera said its submission highlighted "new witness evidence and video footage [that] clearly show that Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the Israeli Occupation Forces".

"The claim by the Israeli authorities that Shireen was killed by mistake in an exchange of fire is completely unfounded," the channel said.

An AFP journalist saw a lawyer representing Al Jazeera's case entering the ICC's headquarters to hand over their submission.

The ICC last year launched a probe into war crimes in the Palestinian territories, but Israel is not an ICC member and disputes the court's jurisdiction.

The Israeli army conceded on September 5 that one of its soldiers had likely shot Abu Akleh after mistaking her for a militant.

Israel said it would not cooperate with any external probe into Abu Akleh's death.

"No one will investigate IDF [Israeli military] soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not Al Jazeera," Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.

'Complete cover-up' 

The veteran reporter, who was a Christian, was wearing a bulletproof vest marked "Press" and a helmet when she was shot in the head in the Jenin refugee camp, a historic flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Her niece, Lina Abu Akleh, urged the ICC to investigate the journalist's death.

"The evidence is overwhelmingly clear, we expect the ICC to take action," she told a press conference in The Hague, adding that they had asked for a meeting with prosecutor Karim Khan.

"My family still doesn't know who fired that deadly bullet and who was in the chain of command that killed my aunt."

Lawyer Rodney Dixon said there had been a “complete cover-up” by Israel over Abu Akleh’s death.

He alleged that her killing was part of a “systematic and widespread campaign” against Al Jazeera by Israel that also included the bombing of a Gaza building housing Al Jazeera’s office last year.

“There’s a clear attempt to shut Al Jazeera down and silence it.” Dixon told the press conference.

“We are hopeful that there will now be justice for Shireen.”

Dixon said they had not yet had a formal meeting with the prosecutor’s office but had handed over evidence including some on memory sticks to the ICC’s evidence unit.

After receiving complaints from individuals or groups, the ICC prosecutor decides independently what cases to submit to judges at the court.

Judges decide whether to allow a preliminary investigation by the prosecutor, which can then be followed by a formal investigation, and if warranted, charges.

In the majority of cases such complaints do not lead to investigations, according to the ICC.

TUNIS — The Tunisian director of "Under the Fig Trees", which portrays young harvest workers, said she hoped the award-winning drama film would "smash the cliche" that rural women are "miserable and closed".

Erige Sehiri told AFP her first feature-length work relates the secrets, love stories and resentments of the mostly female orchard workers who live in the countryside but are "modern and connected".

The young women pick fruit in rural Tunisia but are hyper-connected and use social media to eke out their freedom, in contrast to their older colleagues who live in a more conservative world.

"Our young people are so modern, just like everywhere else in the world," said Sehiri, 40.

The fig orchard, near the town of Kesra, "represents a space of liberty for workers, especially the young ones, where they can talk and discuss everything freely," she said.

Shot in the blistering summer heat of Tunisia's marginalised north, the characters are played by actors from similar backgrounds — all amateurs who normally have harvest jobs or work at wholesale markets.

"It's a film inspired by real events, things I've heard from women farm workers who work hard all year, and high school students who come in the summer," the director said.

The young women, sometimes helped by a young man, pick soft ripe figs which are then packaged by older workers, under the orders of a bossy young man representing the traditional patriarchal structure.

The symbolism extends to the trees themselves, representing the hardships of life, while the mature figs reflect the girls' discovery of sensuality.

The film, a co-production involving France, Tunisia, Qatar, Switzerland and Germany, will hit screens in France on Wednesday and premiere later in Britain, Italy and Belgium.

It has been shortlisted to represent Tunisia at the Oscars next year, having won awards at film festivals in Tunisia, Belgium and Germany as well as the Ecoprod prize at Directors' Fortnight in Cannes.

Solidarity 

Produced on a budget of just 300,000 euros ($315,000), the work is "a film on the individual and the collective, because one doesn't exist without the other, they go together", Sehiri said.

It looks at the links of solidarity between the women, who share their food and dreams of freedom.

At the end of a hard day's work, the young workers make themselves pretty and take selfies for their social media.

One of the main characters, Fide, is played by Ameni Fdhili, a student who picks cherries for extra cash in the summer.

Fide and her friends are portrayed as realists and somewhat jaded, aware of a lack of economic opportunities — or even the choice of who to love and marry. But they also let themselves dream of another destiny.

The film also shows older women, tired by years of hard work and social restrictions, who spend their break times snoozing or discussing their medical problems.

For Sehiri, the contrast creates a "mirror effect".

"Perhaps these workers reflect the future of these girls, and at the same time, they're nostalgic for their own youth."

The director said she had given the actors the freedom to improvise dialogues, and was "pleasantly surprised by their ability to express themselves simply, sincerely and spontaneously".

Sehiri said the critical acclaim for the film had been "extraordinary" and that "it couldn't be better for a first fiction film played by amateurs".

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli occupation forces shot dead a Palestinian man on Monday during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, official sources on both sides said.

The Palestinian health ministry said "a citizen was killed by live bullets in the chest in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem" in the southern West Bank near Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group identified the dead man as Omar Manaa, 22, and said 14 others were arrested in overnight raids across the West Bank.

Israel's army said its troops opened fire during the arrest operation targeting alleged members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The PFLP group, which has Marxist roots, has been banned by Israel and is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Union.

In the northern West Bank, Israeli forces arrested Yahya Al Saadi, "a senior member of the Islamic Jihad suspected of terror activity," the army said.

At least 146 Palestinians have been killed so far this year across the West Bank, Israel and the contested city of Jerusalem.