Region

RAMALLAH — Recent visits by three Israeli Cabinet ministers to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas indicate both sides are keen to promote stability and improve ties, even if peace talks remain off the table for now.

The Israeli coalition led by hardline nationalist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — which ranges from left-wingers to Islamists — has no common position on ending the decades-long Palestinian conflict, complicating any formal diplomatic negotiations.

But Bennett has said his government will aim to improve economic conditions in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory under Israeli military occupation since 1967.

For Abbas, who was largely ignored by Bennett’s predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu, moves by Israel to bolster his position would likely be welcome, analysts said.

A poll last month by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research found that a record 80 per cent of Palestinians want Abbas to resign, reflecting deep frustration with the 86-year-old leader.

Only 19 per cent of respondents believe Abbas’s secular Fateh movement deserves to lead the Palestinian people, with 45 per cent preferring Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

‘Take advantage’ 

For Abbas and his Palestinian Authority — facing mounting anger over endemic corruption and a crackdown on human rights activists — talking to Israel is partly about “taking advantage of the diplomatic context”, said Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Middle East Research Centre at Tel Aviv University.

That context, Rabi said, is shaped by an Israeli coalition that includes leaders committed to a two-state solution and, for the first time ever, an Arab-Israeli party.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is also seen as far more sympathetic to the Palestinians than Donald Trump, who was accused of egregious bias towards Israel.

The first high-level Israeli visit to Abbas in Ramallah, which came days after Bennett met Biden in Washington, was by Defence Minister Benny Gantz.

Bennett is the former head of a lobby group representing Jewish settlers, who live in West Bank communities considered illegal under international law, and he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.

After Gantz met Abbas, a source close to the premier clarified that the discussions were on security issues and that “there is no peace process with the Palestinians nor will there be” under Bennett’s leadership.

But on Sunday, Abbas received Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, regional cooperation minister Issawi Freij and lawmaker Michal Rozin, all from the left-wing Meretz Party, part of the ruling coalition.

“We have a common mission,” Horowitz wrote on Twitter. “To maintain the hope of a peace founded on the two-state solution.”

The tweet included a photo of him standing with Abbas.

Ultimatum 

As Abbas has stepped up his diplomacy with Israel, he has also maintained a hard rhetorical line.

In an address to the UN General Assembly last month, he said that if Israel did not withdraw from all occupied territory within a year, he would no longer recognise Israel based on pre-1967 borders.

Rabi of Tel Aviv University said Abbas’ goal with that unrealistic ultimatum was to suggest that if there was no progress on peace talks during his tenure as president, a “chaotic” situation could result.

Palestinian analyst Diana Buttu stressed the limitations of Abbas’s dealings with Israel, saying Israel was open to discussing humanitarian issues, but it “does not want to hear about rights or political freedoms”.

Khalil Shaheen, a veteran Palestinian analyst and journalist, said Abbas is betting that he can create “momentum” that pressures Bennett into reviving moribund peace talks.

But that strategy could prove “ineffective” because Bennett’s ideologically disparate coalition is more focused on its own survival than on peace talks with the Palestinians, Shaheen told AFP.

“Israeli government has agreed to avoid controversial subjects like the Palestinian question that could tear it up at any moment,” he said.

DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates will launch a spacecraft to explore a major asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, officials said on Tuesday, after a UAE probe reached the red planet early this year.

The five-year journey from 2028 will traverse 3.6 billion kilometres, with the unmanned craft drawing on gravity assists from Earth and Venus to reach the main asteroid belt beyond Mars, officials said.

“The mission will make its first close planetary approach orbiting Venus in mid-2028, followed by a close orbit of Earth in mid-2029,” the UAE Space Agency said in a statement.

“It will make its first fly-by of a main asteroid belt object in 2030, going on to observe a total of seven main belt asteroids before its final landing on an asteroid 560 million kilometres from Earth in 2033.”

The UAE — made up of seven emirates including the capital Abu Dhabi and Dubai — is a newcomer to the world of space exploration.

In September 2019, the oil-rich country sent the first Emirati into space as part of a three-member crew that blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan.

Then in February 2021 its “Hope” probe successfully entered Mars’ orbit on a journey to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, in the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.

The UAE also has plans to send an unmanned rover to the moon by 2024.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, the UAE’s de facto leader, said that the launch of the new project sets an “ambitious” new goal for the country.

“The UAE is determined to make a meaningful contribution to space exploration, scientific research and our understanding of the solar system,” he tweeted.

RAMALLAH, Palestine — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met an Israeli government delegation in Ramallah on Sunday evening, the second meeting between the two sides in a month, said sources on both sides.

Abbas received Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Freij and deputy Michal Rozin, all from the left-wing Meretz Party, part of the ruling coalition.

"The president underlined the importance of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving a just and global peace conforming to international resolutions," the territory's official news agency WAFA reported.

Abbas also stressed the need to put an end to the settlements, and to end the expulsion of Palestinian families from different parts of East Jerusalem, WAFA added.

The Meretz members reiterated their support for a two-state solution to the conflict, for an independent Palestinian state and the need to build trust between the two sides.

"We have a common mission," Horowitz wrote later on Twitter. "To maintain the hope of a peace founded on the two-state solution." The tweet included a photo of him standing with Abbas.

Meretz leader Horowitz has been harshly criticised by the right in Israel for his meetings with Abbas.

In late August, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz visited the Palestinian Authority's headquarters for talks with Abbas, the first such official meeting at this level in several years.

But after those talks, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that there was no peace process ongoing with the Palestinians, “and there won’t be one”.

Sunday’s meeting happened as leaders of the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, held talks in the Egyptian capital Cairo over a possible exchange of prisoners with Israel.

Addressing the UN General Assembly last month, Abbas on September 24 gave Israel one year to withdraw from occupied territory, failing which he would no longer recognise the Jewish state based on pre-1967 borders.

TRIPOLI — Authorities in Libya on Monday announced the discovery of 10 bodies in a new mass grave in Tarhuna, the latest morbid find after years of rule by the notorious Kaniyat militia.

“Two sites were discovered. Four unidentified bodies were extracted from the first and six from the second,” the department charged with searching for remains said in a statement.

It also published pictures showing a number of holes in what it said was a local landfill site, adding that it expected to unearth more bodies.

The grim discovery came as a UN fact-finding mission found that all parties to Libya’s decade-long conflict have violated international humanitarian law since 2016, with some possibly guilty of war crimes.

Mass graves were initially discovered in Tarhuna in June 2020 following the withdrawal of forces of Khalifa Haftar, an eastern Libya-based military chief who had spent a year trying to seize the western capital Tripoli, 80 kilometres northwest of Tarhuna.

The farming town was since 2015 ruled by the Haftar-allied Kaniyat militia, run by six brothers who systematically executed not only their opponents but their entire families.

After starting their reign of terror in 2015, “the militia often abducted, detained, tortured, killed, and disappeared people who opposed them or who were suspected of doing so”, according to residents’ testimonies cited by Human Rights Watch.

Haftar used Tarhuna as a rear base for his aborted attack on Tripoli, and more than 150 bodies have been found since his forces’ withdrawal in 2020.

Members of the Kaniyat have been sanctioned by the United States and Britain.

Their chief Mohamed Al Kani was shot dead in the eastern city of Benghazi in July and others are rumoured to have fled east or abroad, reports that are not possible to verify.

Libya has seen a decade of violence since the fall in 2011 of dictator Muammar Qadhafi in a NATO-backed rebellion, with a myriad of militias and foreign forces becoming involved.

A ceasefire between eastern and western powers after Haftar’s defeat last year paved the way for a UN-led political transition, with a unity government taking power this year to lead Libya to elections.

BAGHDAD — As Iraq heads to the polls on October 10, a spotlight has fallen on the outsized influence neighbouring Iran wields — but also on the growing popular backlash against it.

The parliamentary vote is being held early as a concession to a pro-democracy movement that railed against an Iraqi political system it decried as inept, corrupt and beholden to Iran.

“One of the more alarming things for Iran in Iraq right now is the huge sense of public dissatisfaction towards Iran,” said political scientist Marsin Alshamary.

“That’s one of the things Iran wasn’t expecting and something it has to grapple with,” said the Harvard Kennedy School researcher.

At the height of unprecedented protests in November 2019, furious demonstrators attacked and torched Iran’s consulate in the southern city of Najaf, shouting “Get out of Iraq!”

When many protesters were killed by gunmen, activists accused pro-Iranian factions that play a major role in Iraq and which the United States blames for attacks on its interests there.

The paramilitary network known as Hashed Al Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces — formed in 2014 to defeat the Daesh group — includes many pro-Iranian Shiite groups. It has since been integrated into Iraq’s state security apparatus.

In Iraq’s parliament too, political parties with deep ties to the Islamic republic have formed powerful blocs with major influence in past governments.

Volatile relations 

Historically, relations have been volatile between Iraq and its larger neighbour to the east.

After Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein attacked over a border dispute, setting off their brutal 1980-1988 war.

However, since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam — sparking years of insurgency — Iran has gained great influence in Iraq.

Since then, Shiite Muslim pilgrims from Iran have been able to once more flock to Iraq’s holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Iran has also become one of Iraq’s largest trading partners, a major boost for the Islamic republic, which has been battered by sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme.

Iraq imports Iranian electricity as well as food, textiles, furniture and cars.

But many Iraqis worry that Iranian influence is now too strong.

Anti-Iranian anger has flared in recent years, even in what is known as Iraq’s southern Shiite heartland.

“Iran has lost a lot of the base in the south and the centre of Iraq, the Shiite base, which it assumed for a long time would be a loyal base,” said Renad Mansour of the Chatham House think tank.

“Many of the parties that are aligned with Iran find it more difficult to maintain popularity.”

‘No submission’ 

The 2018 election, marked by record abstentions, allowed Hashed candidates to enter parliament for the first time, after the victory against Daesh.

Today, they aim to gain strength in the chamber, but experts are sceptical.

For pro-Iranian MPs, the relationship with Tehran is nothing to shy away from.

One of the leading figures of the Hashed bloc, Baghdad lawmaker Ahmed Assadi, said in a recent TV interview that “our relationship with the Islamic republic is not a new one, it is a strategic one”.

“There is no submission or alignment,” he said. “It is a relationship based on the balance between the interests of Iraq and the interests of the Islamic republic.”

Mohammed Mohie, spokesman for the Kataeb Hizbollah, a powerful Hashed faction, told AFP that “relations with Iran are in the interest of the Iraqi people and must be strengthened”.

“We have never seen any negative interference from the Islamic republic in Iraqi affairs.”

Looking at the protesters’ demands, he said that improving public services and infrastructure must be one top priority, but he also stressed another: the withdrawal of US troops.

‘Backroom deals’ 

Iraqi political scientist Ali Al Baidar said the pro-Iran factions are seeking to “consolidate their presence in politics and government”.

They want “to be present on several levels — diplomacy, culture, sport — to change their image with the general public” which associates them with the security apparatus.

Lahib Higel of the International Crisis Group said she expects the pro-Iran parties in parliament “to retain approximately the same portion of seats. I don’t see that there is going to be a significant increase for them”.

Tehran, she said, will hope for “a prime minister they can work with, that is acceptable to their agenda”.

“A compromise candidate is not such a bad choice for them because it usually means that it’s quite a weak prime minister. And so in that case they can work, if not directly with the prime minister’s office, then with actors around him.”

Mansour said that while the election is important, “the key is the backroom deals that are made as part of forming a government”.

“In that process, Iran has historically had a big role,” he said. “Iran has proven to be the most capable external actor when it comes to government formation.”

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Six Palestinian prisoners who made a daring escaping from an Israeli prison in September were formally indicted on Sunday, Israel's justice ministry said.

The men were charged with escaping from the high-security Gilboa Prison in northern Israel while five others were accused of assisting them, a statement said.

The inmates, five from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and one belonging to the armed branch of the Palestinian Authority's Fateh faction, had been held for attacks against Israel.

According to the charge sheet, at the end of 2020 they began digging a tunnel under the sink of their cell's bathroom.

“The defendants carried out the digging work daily in shifts, accommodated to their routine to prevent them from being caught, while using improvised digging tools,” the indictment said.

One of them, Mahmud Abdullah Ardah, said after he was recaptured that he had used spoons, plates and even the handle of a kettle to dig the tunnel.

By September 5, the 30 metre-long tunnel, ending beyond the prison’s wall, was complete, the indictment said, with the convicts escaping that night.

The six, hailed as heroes by Palestinians, were recaptured in batches during a major Israeli manhunt in September.

In addition to Ardah, an Islamic Jihad member and the alleged mastermind of the escape, they include Zakaria Zubeidi who headed the Fateh armed wing in northern West Bank city Jenin.

The other four are Ayham Kamamji, Munadel Infeiat, Yaqub Qadri and Mohammad Ardah.

Israel has launched an investigation into how they pulled off their daring escaping.

DOHA — Women voters voiced disappointment on Sunday after none were elected in Qatar's first legislative polls with all eyes on whether the emir will use his powers to appoint 15 lawmakers to boost representation.

Thirty men were elected to Qatar's Shura Council at Saturday's polls despite more than two dozen women standing for the body which is seen as a nod to democracy rather than a fully-fledged parliament.

"The (emir's) quota is the lifeline to ensure women's representation in the next assembly," said defeated candidate Aisha Jassim Al Kuwari who ran in a constituency alongside four other women against 14 male contenders.

"We hope to appoint four to five women because the presence of women is very important.

"Some of the female candidates were disappointed, of course, because they presented strong programmes, but we should not forget that some female voters chose men and this is the will of the people."

It is not known when the emir's appointments will be announced or when the council will meet.

"I'm not happy because all of them [winners] are men , some of them are old. To be honest, I was surprised. It's not fair," said voter Shamma who declined to give her full name.

"We are really sad."

Dania Thafer, director of the Gulf International Forum, tweeted "I foresee a strong likelihood of women being appointed by the emir".

Of the 284 hopefuls who went into the race for the 30 available council seats, just 28 were women although the final proportion after a number of eleventh-hour candidate withdrawals has not been published.

'Egalitarian society' ? 

As well as counting no women amongst their number, the 30 victorious candidates were older men mostly from prominent families, many of whom had backgrounds in business or government.

"You lost the battle of victory, but you won the war of participation!" popular Qatari author Ebtesam Al Saad wrote on Twitter.

"We still hesitate to accept women... voters still feel that their communication with men is more free and flexible than their dealings with women."

If as expected by many analysts the emir does directly appoint women to improve the gender balance it would follow what happened in Bahrain’s legislative election.

Official sources had confirmed to AFP this was a likely outcome in the event no women succeeded at the ballot box in Qatar.

“Disappointed, but not surprised that not a single woman has won. Representation of women is still considered a ‘token’ representation and is based on filling a quota,” said Qatari voter Haya.

“Maybe now we can all admit what the true status of women is here and stop pretending we’re an egalitarian society.”

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights said that Qatar’s election laws would “need to be fully amended” to give women candidates a chance at future polls.

The final voter turnout was 63.5 per cent according to official data.

Qatar touts the level of representation enjoyed by its women with the health ministry led by a woman and the foreign ministry represented by a spokeswoman.

Women also hold prominent roles in the World Cup organising committee as well as philanthropy and the arts, medicine, law and business.

But in March, Human Rights Watch accused Qatar of restricting the lives of its female population through unclear “guardianship” rules requiring adult women to obtain male approval for everyday activities.

The constitution of Qatar, a conservative Muslim Gulf state, provides for “equal opportunities for all citizens”.

The Shura will be allowed to propose legislation, approve the budget and recall ministers, but the all-powerful emir will wield a veto.

BAGHDAD —Members of a paramilitary organisation integrated into Iraq’s regular security forces deplored on Sunday an official decision preventing them from voting in the same way as other security personnel.

Security force personnel will vote in the country’s parliamentary election on October 8 in locations where they are stationed, two days ahead of the main poll, in which citizens will vote in their home constituencies.

A statement Saturday by the electoral commission sought to explain why members of the Hashed Al Shaabi — a militarily and politically powerful network numbering 160,000 personnel — will have to vote in the main ballot on October 10.

It said it had contacted Hashed officials repeatedly seeking lists of fighters so as to include them in the special vote.

“The Hashed’s authority did not give us the enrolled names, so the commission has included them in the general vote,” the commission said.

Voting in home regions could prove challenging for many personnel stationed in geographically distant locations.

A spokesman for one key Hashed group, the Kataeb Hizbollah, said late Saturday that the measure “deprived fighters of their right to choose who will represent them and protect them from those who seek to weaken them”.

Ahmed Assadi, a Hashed lawmaker complained “our brothers in the Hashed Al  Shaabi have been deprived of their special vote [rights] — they will only be able to vote if they leave their stations and return to their [home] regions”, in a statement published on social media on Sunday.

The lawmaker called on his supporters to turn out en-masse “to compensate for the [lost] votes of our heroes who defend their positions”.

The Hashed, which includes dozens of mainly pro-Iran Shiite groups, was created in 2014 to fight the Daesh group, as the regular military failed to stem a lightning advance that allowed the terrorists to seize a third of the country.

The main Hashed coalition counts for 48 lawmakers among the 329 parliamentary seats.

They entered the legislature for the first time in the 2018 vote, after contributing hugely to the defeat of Daesh.

Opposition activists accuse Hashed armed groups of being beholden to Iran and an instrument of oppression against critics.

Alongside security force personnel, prisoners and displaced people will also vote in the special October 8 exercise.

More than 25 million citizens are eligible to vote in total in this month’s poll, brought forward by a year to appease a protest movement that started two years ago but subsequently dwindled.