Qur’an burning in Sweden raises questions about its reliability as a possible NATO member, says Turkiye’s foreign minister

Turkey's newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan delivers a speech during a handover ceremony in Ankara on June 5, 2023. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 04 July 2023
Follow

Qur’an burning in Sweden raises questions about its reliability as a possible NATO member, says Turkiye’s foreign minister

  • Turkiye has been holding off ratifying Sweden’s membership in the alliance, accusing the country of being too soft toward groups that Ankara regards as threats to its security, including Kurdish militants

ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Swedish authorities’ failure to prevent Qur’an-burning protests in the country is raising security concerns and questions about Sweden’s credentials for possible NATO membership.
But Hakan Fidan said Turkiye would still approve Sweden’s membership in the military alliance if Stockholm “completes its homework” and presses ahead with efforts to address Turkiye’s concerns.
“The fact that the Swedish security system is incapable of preventing provocations and is presenting an image of a (country) that brings problems to NATO — instead of more power — is making us think in terms of the strategic and security aspects,” Fidan said at a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart. “When it comes to Sweden’s membership in NATO, whether it will become a burden or a benefit has become more open to debate.”




People rally in Sanaa to denounce the burning of the holy Qur’an in Sweden and the Israeli military operation in the West Bank. (Reuters)

Sweden and Finland abandoned their decades-long neutrality and applied to join NATO last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Turkiye has been holding off ratifying Sweden’s membership in the alliance, accusing the country of being too soft toward groups that Ankara regards as threats to its security, including Kurdish militants and members of a network that Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.
Ankara has also been angered by a series of demonstrations in Sweden by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as Qur’an-burning protests, including one that took place last week that was condemned by Muslim countries.
The PKK has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkiye that has left tens of thousands dead. It is designated a terrorist organization by the US and the EU.
NATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time the alliance’s leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11 to 12, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called a meeting of senior officials from Turkiye, Sweden and Finland for July 6 to try to overcome Turkish objections to Sweden’s membership.
NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand. Turkiye and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified Sweden’s bid.
Sweden has changed its anti-terror legislation after applying for membership. Fidan, Turkiye’s former intelligence chief who was appointed foreign minister last month, maintained that terror groups were able to continue to stage demonstrations, raise money and recruit members in Sweden.
”If Sweden continues with its efforts and does its homework, there are always alternatives, just as there was in the case of Finland,” Fidan said. He was referring to a memorandum that Sweden and Finland signed with Turkiye last year under which they agreed to address Ankara’s concerns.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis lamented last week’s Qur’an-burning protest outside a mosque in central Stockholm in an interview with the UAEs’ Al-Ittihad newspaper. Swedish police allowed it to take place, citing freedom of speech, after a court overturned a ban on a similar Qur’an-burning.
“Any book considered sacred by its authors must be respected out of respect for its believers, and freedom of expression must never be used as an excuse to despise others, and to allow this, must be rejected and condemned,” the pope was quoted as saying.
Ayman Safadi, the Jordanian foreign minister, also called for mutual respect of religious values and for the prevention of such protests.
A spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Council said that following a request by Pakistan, the council will discuss “the alarming rise” in acts of religious hatred such as the desecration of the Qur’an.

 


UN launches probe into first international staff killed by unidentified strike in Rafah

Updated 15 May 2024
Follow

UN launches probe into first international staff killed by unidentified strike in Rafah

  • Retired Indian army officer Waibhav Anil Kale was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack

NEW DELHI: The United Nations has launched an investigation into an unidentified strike on a UN car in Rafah on Monday that killed its first international staff in Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said.
The staff member, a retired Indian Army officer named Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack.
Israel has been moving deeper into Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave’s north on Tuesday in some of the fiercest attacks in months.
Israel’s international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled, and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters.
In a statement on Monday after Kale’s death, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated an “urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages,” saying the conflict in Gaza was continuing to take a heavy toll “not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers.”
Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people and driven most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
His deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Tuesday the UN has established a fact-finding panel to determine the responsibility for the attack.
“It’s very early in the investigation, and details of the incident are still being verified with the Israeli Defense Force,” he said.
There are 71 international UN staff members in Gaza currently, he said.
In its only comment on the matter yet, India’s mission to the UN confirmed Kale’s identity on Tuesday, saying it was “deeply saddened” by his loss.
Israel, which launched its Gaza operation after an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to its tallies, has ordered civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah.
The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA estimates some 450,000 people have fled the city since May 6. More than a million civilians had sought refuge there.


Libya war crimes probe to advance next year: ICC prosecutor

An exterior view of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, March 31, 2021. (REUTERS)
Updated 15 May 2024
Follow

Libya war crimes probe to advance next year: ICC prosecutor

  • The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi

UNITED NATIONS, United States: The International Criminal Court prosecutor probing war crimes committed in Libya since 2011 announced Monday his plans to complete the investigation phase by the end of 2025.
Presenting his regular report before the United Nations Security Council, Karim Khan said that “strong progress” had been made in the last 18 months, thanks in particular to better cooperation from Libyan authorities.
“Our work is moving forward with increased speed and with a focus on trying to deliver on the legitimate expectations of the council and of the people of Libya,” Khan said.
He added that in the last six months, his team had completed 18 missions in three areas of Libya, collecting more than 800 pieces of evidence including video and audio material.
Khan said he saw announcing a timeline to complete the investigation phase as a “landmark moment” in the case.
“Of course, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require cooperation, candor, a ‘can do’ attitude from my office but also from the authorities in Libya,” he added.
“The aim would be to give effect to arrest warrants and to have initial proceedings start before the court in relation to at least one warrant by the end of next year,” Khan said.
The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.
So far, the investigation opened by the court in March 2011 has produced three cases related to crimes against humanity and war crimes, though some proceedings were abandoned after the death of suspects.
An arrest warrant remains in place for Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the assassinated Libyan dictator who was killed by rebel forces in October 2011.
Libya has since been plagued by fighting, with power divided between a UN-recognized Tripoli government and a rival administration in the country’s east.
 

 

 


Palestinians rally at historic villages in northern Israel

Updated 15 May 2024
Follow

Palestinians rally at historic villages in northern Israel

  • The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population
  • Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory

SHEFA-AMR: Thousands of people took part Tuesday in an annual march through the ruins of villages that Palestinians were expelled from during the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.
Wrapped in keffiyeh scarves and waving Palestinian flags, men and women rallied through the abandoned villages of Al-Kassayer and Al-Husha — many holding signs with the names of dozens of other demolished villages their families were displaced from.
“Your Independence Day is our catastrophe,” reads the rallying slogan for the protest that took place as Israelis celebrated the 76th anniversary of the proclamation of the State of Israel.
The protest this year was taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza, where fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has displaced the majority of the population, according to the United Nations.
Among those marching Tuesday was 88-year-old Abdul Rahman Al-Sabah.
He described how members of the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary group, forced his family out of Al-Kassayer, near the northern city of Haifa, when he was a child.
They “blew up our village, Al-Kassayer, and the village of Al-Husha so that we would not return to them, and they planted mines,” he said, his eyes glistening with tears.
The family was displaced to the nearby town of Shefa-Amr.
“But we continued (going back), my mother and I, and groups from the village, because it was harvest season, and we wanted to live and eat,” he said.
“We had nothing, and whoever was caught by the Israelis was imprisoned.”
Palestinians remember this as the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the war that led to the creation of Israel.
The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population.

Many of today’s Arab Israelis remain deeply connected to their historic land.
At Tuesday’s march, one man carried a small sign with “Lubya,” the name of what was once a Palestinian village near Tiberias.
Like many other Palestinian villages, Al-Husha and Al-Kassayer witnessed fierce battles in mid-April 1948, according to historians of the Haganah, among the Jewish armed groups that formed the core of what became the Israeli military.
Today, the kibbutz communities of Osha, Ramat Yohanan and Kfar Hamakabi can be found on parts of land that once housed the two villages.
“During the attack on our village Al-Husha, my father took my mother, and they rode a horse to the city of Shefa-Amr,” said Musa Al-Saghir, 75, whose village had been largely made up of people who immigrated from Algeria in the 1880s.
“When they returned to see the house, the Haganah forces had blown up the village and its houses,” said the activist from a group advocating for the right of return for displaced Arabs.
Naila Awad, 50, from the village of Reineh near Nazareth, explained that the activists were demanding both the return of displaced people to their demolished villages within Israel, as well as the return of the millions of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, Gaza and other countries.
“No matter how much you try to break us and arrest us, we will remain on our lands,” she insisted.
 

 


Egypt rejects Israel’s denial of role in Gaza aid crisis

Updated 15 May 2024
Follow

Egypt rejects Israel’s denial of role in Gaza aid crisis

  • Sameh Shoukry: “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side”

CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister on Tuesday accused Israel of denying responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after his Israeli counterpart said Egypt was not allowing aid into the war-torn territory.
Israeli troops on May 7 said they took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to Egypt as part of efforts to root out Hamas militants in the east of Rafah city.
The move defied international opposition and shut one of the main humanitarian entry points into famine-threatened Gaza. Since then, Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel aid access through the Rafah crossing.
Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said in a statement that “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side.”
In a tweet on social media platform X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had said, “Yesterday, I spoke with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Katz added that “the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends.”
Shoukry, whose country has tried to mediate a truce in the Israel-Hamas war, responded that “Israel is solely responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinians are currently facing in the Gaza Strip.”
He added that Israeli control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing and its military operations exposes “aid workers and truck drivers to imminent dangers,” referencing trucks awaiting entry to Gaza.
This, he said, “is the main reason for the inability to bring aid through the crossing.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he is “appalled” by Israel’s military escalation in Rafah, a spokesman said.
Guterres’ spokesman Farhan Haq said “these developments are further impeding humanitarian access and worsening an already dire situation,” while also criticizing Hamas for “firing rockets indiscriminately.”
Since Israeli troops moved into eastern Rafah, the aid crossing point from Egypt remains closed and nearby Kerem Shalom crossing lacks “safe and logistically viable access,” a UN report said late on Monday.


Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq

Updated 15 May 2024
Follow

Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq

  • Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades

BAGHDAD: Daesh claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on Monday targeting an army post in northern Iraq which security sources said had killed a commanding officer and four soldiers.
The attack took place between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, a rural area that remains a hotbed of activity for militant cells years after Iraq declared final victory over the extremist group in 2017.
Security forces repelled the attack, the defense ministry said on Monday in a statement mourning the loss of a colonel and a number of others from the regiment. The security sources said five others had also been wounded.
Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades.
Iraq has seen relative security stability in recent years after the chaos of the 2003-US-led invasion and years of bloody sectarian conflict that followed.