Region

BENGHAZI, Libya — Libya's eastern-based parliament on Tuesday approved a new Cabinet, in a challenge to the unity government of Abdulhamid Dbeibah in the capital Tripoli in the west.

The new administration, to be headed by former interior minister Fathi Bashagha, won the confidence of the House of Representatives with a majority of 92 members, speaker Aguila Saleh said.

Bashagha had been tasked in early February with forming a government to replace that of Dbeibah, deemed by the HoR as having outlived its mandate.

But Dbeibah, the interim prime minister based in Tripoli, has repeatedly said he will only cede power to an elected government.

The construction tycoon had been appointed a year earlier, as part of United Nations-led efforts to draw a line under a decade of conflict following the 2011 revolt that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

He was to lead the country to elections in December, but they were indefinitely postponed and Saleh, a rival presidential candidate, argued that his mandate was finished.

The House of Representatives, elected in 2014, is based in the eastern city of Tobruk while Dbeibah’s administration is western-based in Tripoli, reflecting the deep and complex divisions that have plagued Libya in recent years.

The rise of Bashagha’s government once again gives the country two prime ministers, and experts have warned it could spark violence.

Bashagha has said he will “reach out to everyone”.

CAIRO — The Arab League on Monday expressed its worry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for a “diplomatic solution”, as the regional bloc’s members grapple with conflicting loyalties.

Most Arab countries so far have not come down on one side or the other in the war. Middle East and North African governments are cautious in their response to Russia, a major supplier of the region’s wheat and weapons.

At the same time they don’t want to alienate the United States, which supports Ukraine and is a historic ally of major powers in the Middle East.

After an extraordinary meeting held on the fifth day of Russia’s invasion, the 22-member Cairo-based League issued a statement reflecting its wish not to offend anyone.

It recalled “the importance of respecting the principles of international law”, while pleading for “restraint” and a “diplomatic solution”.

The bloc said its members pledged to cooperate to ensure the safety of its citizens, mainly students, thousands of whom are stranded in Ukraine.

Russia is the world’s top wheat exporter and Ukraine the fourth, leaving the Middle East and North Africa vulnerable to potential shortages of the staple food in a region where millions already struggle to get by.

The Gulf, long aligned with Washington, has stayed largely silent. On Friday the United Arab Emirates joined India and China in abstaining in voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution, which Russia vetoed, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Moscow’s troops from Ukraine.

Syria, which the Arab League suspended in 2011 and whose regime Russia has aided in its years-long civil war, leans clearly towards Moscow.

Algeria and Sudan tilt the same way, a reflection of their military links with Russia and the Soviet Union before it.

By Yasmin Zaher
Agence France-Presse

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — When US prosecutors struck a deal with a hedge-fund billionaire to surrender 180 stolen artefacts to their places of origin, they insisted victims of his plunder would see “justice”.

But Palestinians doubted it would apply to them.

They saw Michael Steinhardt’s December agreement with prosecutors in Manhattan as yet another setback in their ill-fated quest to retain control of precious antiquities found in Israeli-occupied territories.

Steinhardt’s collection, estimated to be worth $70 million, featured multiple items taken from the occupied West Bank, including areas where even Israel recognises Palestinian civilian control.

E-mails published by prosecutors between Steinhardt and dealers show his collection included a Carnelian fish amulet from around 600BC and an Iron Age cosmetic spoon, both found in Kom, near Hebron, an area the Palestinian Authority controls.

Other, highly valuable, items were found in the West Bank’s so-called Area C, a Palestinian territory under full Israeli control.

But the New York prosecutors said all 40 of the items illegally taken from Israel and the Palestinian territories should be returned to Israel.

Justifying the decision, they said: “The looting took place either at an area within Israel’s borders or at an area over which Israel exercises legal authority.”

It was a jarring conclusion for Palestinian officials, as it appeared to back Israeli ownership of all West Bank artefacts, regardless of where they were found.

The prosecutors did not comment when asked by AFP on whether they considered returning any of the items to the Palestinian Authority, even when their own investigation established the Palestinian provenance of pieces.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said that, from their perspective, the items listed in the Steinhardt case “were stolen, sold and exported out of Israel illegally”, without commenting on those found in Kom.

‘Wild West’ 

Wael Hamamra, head of the Palestinian ministry of tourism and archaeology, said the Steinhardt settlement was unjust.

The collection included “Palestinian archaeological artefacts [that] should be returned to their place of origin”, he told AFP.

Morag Kersel, an archaeology professor at Chicago’s DePaul University, described Israel as the “wild west” in the antiquities trade.

Israel has become a black market hotspot in part because it is one of the world’s few countries with a legally sanctioned antiquities trade among private dealers.

And, unlike the Palestinian Authority, it has not ratified the 1970 UNESCO convention against illicit trade in antiquities.

Israel has tense relations with the Paris-based agency after it became the first in the United Nations system to accept Palestine as a member state in 2011.

‘Archaeological theft’ 

In addition to private markets and auctions, disputed pieces also show up at leading Israeli museums.

The most valuable items in Steinhardt’s collection were a five-piece set of stone masks believed to be worth more than two million dollars.

Dated from 7,000BC, they are considered by scholars to be among the oldest masks in the world, used in ceremonies to represent the spirits of the dead.

They were found in the Judean desert, which spans both Israel and the West Bank. Their provenance remains uncertain, but Hamamra insisted they were looted from Palestinian territory.

Two of the masks remain on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where a plaque that said “on loan from the collection of Judy and Michael Steinhardt” was recently removed.

Chemi Shiff, a researcher at Israel’s Emek Shaveh organisation that works to curb the politicisation of archaeology, said Israeli practices were regularly in breach of binding international rules.

That notably included the 1954 Hague Convention which prohibits excavation in occupied territory unless the site is “under threat” and forbids moving antiquities across borders.

“Israel is obliged by this convention,” Shiff said.

He told AFP that former Israeli military chief Moshe Dayan committed “archaeological theft” when he took a collection of Bronze Age sarcophagi, also displayed in the Israel Museum, from a cemetery in Gaza after the 1967 June War.

Hamamra said repatriation of artefacts to Palestinian authorities “is our right and the right of future generations,” but admitted that there is currently no organised effort to return antiquities, as “there is limited communication” with Israel on the issue.

KHARTOUM — A Sudanese protester was shot dead Monday, medics said, during the latest march by thousands who continue to oppose a military coup which took place four months ago.

The latest death, despite international appeals for an end to the violence, takes the total number of people killed to at least 84 in a crackdown since General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan led an October 25 military takeover, according to independent medics.

"Tear gas canisters will not stop us!" said Taqwa Mohammed, a demonstrator near Khartoum's presidential palace, where the ruling Sovereign Council is based along the Nile River.

Around him, the bangs of stun grenades rang out, as volleys of tear gas canisters fell into the crowds, hissing out acrid clouds of red, green or yellow smoke.

"Down with Burhan!" the crowd chanted.

Some protesters hurled rocks at the soldiers, while others kicked back or picked up the hissing tear gas canisters.

Thousands also demonstrated in other cities.

“We are ready to die for our cause,” said Anouar Bashir, another protester in Khartoum.

“The world must see the violence of the putschists.”

The protester killed on Monday was shot in the head in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, according to the Sudanese Doctors’ Committee. The shooting happened as thousands of demonstrators tried to cross the bridge across the Nile linking the city to Khartoum.

‘Power to the people’ 

More than 2,000 protesters have been injured since October, medics say, while the UN has said at least 13 protesters were raped.

Last week, United Nations rights expert Adama Dieng, during a mission to Sudan, expressed concern “about the violations [committed by] the authorities and the use of live ammunition against protesters.”

Both the UN and the United States have made similar appeals before, with Washington threatening further “consequences” if violence continues. The coup, Sudan’s latest, has already led to suspension of international aid.

Sudanese authorities have said they arrested several police and soldiers who fired at demonstrators with Kalashnikov rifles, disobeying orders.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch quoted witnesses detailing how the security forces have used both “live ammunition” and fired tear gas canisters “directly” at crowds, a tactic that can be deadly at close quarters.

The coup derailed a fragile power-sharing arrangement between the army and civilians negotiated after the 2019 ouster of Omar Al Bashir.

In Wad Madani, about 200 kilometres south of Khartoum, around 4,000 demonstrators took to the streets on Monday.

“Power to the people”, they chanted, witnesses said. “Soldiers, go back to the barracks!”

In the eastern city of Gedaref, around 2,000 people rallied against the military, after calls to protest were made by the “resistance committees”, neighbourhood groups of activists organising opposition to coup.

While people took to the streets, the UN mission in Khartoum released a report following five weeks of meetings with military chiefs, political leaders and civil society representatives, an initiative it hopes will “address the current political impasse and develop a path towards democracy and peace”.

The UN mission said it “remains committed to supporting a civilian-led democratic government as the ultimate objective of the transitional period in Sudan,” a statement said.

Anti-coup protesters who regularly take to the streets, sometimes in the tens of thousands, reject partnership with the military.

DOHA — Talks between Chad’s military-led government and armed rebel groups due to start on Sunday in Qatar have been postponed, African diplomats and officials said.

The talks are aimed at paving the way for an “inclusive national dialogue” and elections which the leader of the Chadian junta Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has promised by October.

Deby took over as head of a Transitional Military Council in the poor landlocked central African country after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled Chad for three decades, was killed in fighting with rebels in April last year.

African diplomats in Doha said Sunday’s talks in Qatar had been delayed because preparations for the meeting had not been completed.

“Some delegations are here. The talks did not start today but could start in coming days,” a source with knowledge of the meeting told AFP on condition of anonymity as no-one was authorised to speak publicly.

Chadian sources close to the negotiations told AFP in N’Djamena that the junta was insisting on inviting more than 80 members of the 23 armed rebel groups — a request initially denied by Qatar.

Other sources, also speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed the delay on difficulties for would-be participants — some of whom live in Libya or Sudan — to obtain travel documents.

After taking power in last April, Deby, 37, dissolved Chad’s parliament and repealed the constitution, but he promised “free and transparent” elections within 18 months.

However, a national forum designed to chart the country’s future has been put back from February to May. Preliminary talks have also been held up several times amidst recriminations between the government and opposition.

In mid-February, Chad’s military junta accused prominent rebel leader Timan Erdimi, who heads the powerful Union of Resistance Forces, of seeking to bring in Russian mercenaries to derail the reconciliation process.

Erdimi, who was one of the fiercest opponents of Deby’s father, was contacted by AFP at the time but refused to comment on the allegation.

The African Union, European Union and France, the former colonial power, have supported the junta leader but insisted he must keep to his promised timetable to hold elections.

ALGIERS — Algeria's state energy firm is ready to supply Europe with more gas in view of a possible decline due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, its CEO said Sunday.

Sonatrach CEO Toufik Hakkar said the firm was ready to pump additional gas to the EU from its surplus via the Tansmed pipeline linking Algeria to Italy.

Sonatrach is "a reliable gas supplier for the European market and is willing to support its long-term partners in the event of difficult situations," Hakkar was quoted as saying in the daily Liberte.

Hakkar, nonetheless, said this would be contingent on the availability of a surplus of gas or liquified natural gas (LNG) once the national demand and "contractual engagements" are met.

He pointed to an "unused capacity" in the Transmed pipeline that could be used to "increase the supplies to the European market".

The Tansmed pipeline, jointly operated with Italy's ENI, has a capacity of some 32 million cubic metres per year, four times that of the Medgaz pipeline to Spain.

The top executive added that Sonatrach could expand its supplies to countries not currently served by existing pipelines via LNG tankers.

Hakkar said Europe is the “natural market of choice” for Algerian gas, which accounts for about 11 per cent of Europe’s gas imports.

Former Algerian energy minister Abdelmajid Attar meanwhile told AFP that “Algeria exports a maximum of 22 billion cubic metres [of gas] via the Transmed pipeline”, leaving a capacity of 10 billion cubic metres.

He nonetheless noted that Algeria alone will not be able to “compensate for the decline in Russian gas supply”, noting that it can offer a maximum of two or three million additional cubic metres.

Attar, who also previously served as Sonatrach’s CEO, added that LNG can also be transported via tankers, noting that existing liquefaction plants are only operating at 50-60 per cent capacity.

The former minister said that in the medium term, “in four or five months, Algeria can send larger quantities”, however noting that the country must first “develop new reserves” of shale gas.

TUNIS — Thousands of young Arabs who took up studies in Ukraine, often fleeing violence back home, are appealing to be rescued from a new nightmare — Russia's full scale invasion of the country.

More than 10,000 Arab students attend university in Ukraine, drawn to the former Soviet republic by a low cost of living and, for many, the lure of relative safety compared with their own troubled homelands.

Many have criticised their governments for failing to take concrete measures to repatriate them, and sought refuge in basements or the metro system. Few dared to cross the border into neighbouring Poland or Romania in search of sanctuary.

"We left Iraq to escape war... but it's the same thing in Ukraine [now]," Ali Mohammed, an Iraqi student told AFP by telephone from the western city of Chernivtsi.

Mohammed said he has been calling the Iraqi embassy in Kyiv around a dozen times a day since Russia launched the invasion but no one has picked up.

"We are demanding to go home. We are waiting to be rescued," he said. According to an Iraqi government official, there are 5,500 Iraqis in Ukraine, 450 of them students.

Syrian Raed Al Moudaress, 24, echoed him.

"I arrived in Odessa only six months ago, hoping to open a new page far away from war," he told AFP by telephone.

"I am lost. I don't know what to do," he said, adding he is spending most of his time hiding in a basement.

Among Arab countries, Morocco has the largest number of students in Ukraine, with around 8,000 enrolled in universities, followed by Egypt with more than 3,000.

"We demand solutions. The authorities must find us a solution," to get back home to Morocco, Majda tweeted when the invasion began on Thursday.

"What are you waiting for? This is World War III," she said, addressing authorities in her country, who announced measures the following day.

Hundreds of students from Lebanon, gripped by a financial crisis the World Bank says is one of the world’s worst in modern times, are also trapped in the country.

“The [Beirut] authorities have not issued guidelines” for our evacuation, said Samir, 25.

“I left Lebanon because of the financial crisis, sold my car and took my small savings to study in Ukraine,” he told AFP from Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border.

Ali Chreim, a restaurant owner from Kyiv who heads the Lebanese expat community in Ukraine, said he has been helping a group of young Lebanese women, who have sought shelter in the capital’s metro, by sending them food.

Before the invasion, 1,300 Lebanese students were studying in the country. Half managed to flee by their own means, but the rest are stuck, Chreim said.

Beirut set up a hotline but it only functions “intermittently”, he added.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the government was drawing up plans to help nationals trapped in Ukraine.

Planes will be sent to neighbouring Poland and Romania at a “date to be announced later”, he said.

‘Help us’ 

Other countries like Egypt have also pledged to organise repatriation flights from neighbouring countries.

But for Tunisia which does not have an embassy in Ukraine, getting in touch with its 1,700 citizens there is complicated.

Authorities said they had been in contact with international organisations such as the Red Cross to organise departures.

“We will begin the operation as soon as we have a full list of how many Tunisians wish to return home,” Foreign Ministry official Mohammed Trabelsi told AFP.

Despairing students have posted video footage online pleading for help.

“The supermarket shelves are empty, the streets have become dangerous. The embassy must help us get out of here,” said two pharmacy students from Egypt stuck in the Black Sea port of Odessa.

Other Egyptian students took matters into their own hands and crossed the border into Poland, hoping to make it back home.

Oil-rich Algeria, which has strong military links with Russia, did not ask its 1,000 nationals in Ukraine to leave.

Algerian authorities have, however, urged them to stay indoors and only venture out “in case of an emergency”.