JERUSALEM: Israel has become the only country to openly support an independent Kurdish state, a result of good ties between Kurds and Jews and expectations it would be a front against Iran and extremism, experts say.
Iraq’s Kurdish region plans to hold a non-binding referendum on statehood on Sept. 25 despite the objections of Baghdad and neighboring Iran and Turkey, as well as the US.
On Monday, Iraq’s Supreme Court ordered the suspension of the referendum as legal and political pressure mounted on the Kurds to call off the vote.
Israel became the first and so far only country to openly voice support for “the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state of its own,” as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week, without specifying where and how.
Netanyahu’s statement came after remarks made earlier in the month by former general Yair Golan, who said he liked the “idea of independent Kurdistan.”
“Basically, looking at Iran in the east, looking at the instability (in) the region, a solid, stable, cohesive Kurdish entity in the midst of this quagmire — it’s not a bad idea,” Golan said at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
He also noted Israel’s “good cooperation with the Kurd people since the early 1960s.”
To Gideon Saar, a former Israeli minister, the Kurds are a minority group in the Middle East that, unlike the Jews, have yet to achieve statehood.
“The Kurds have been and will continue to be reliable and long-term allies of Israel since they are, like us, a minority group in the region,” he said.
“We need to encourage independence of minorities that were wronged by regional arrangements since Sykes-Picot over the past 100 years and have been repressed under authoritarian regimes, like Saddam Hussein’s in Iraq and the Assads in Syria,” Saar said.
The Sykes-Picot agreement was a World War I-era deal between Britain and France laying out boundaries in the Middle East.
Saar too noted Kurdistan’s efforts in pushing back Islamist forces.
“Looking at the Kurds’ location on a map you realize they can be a dam blocking the spread of radical Islam in the region, and in practice we’ve seen them exclusively fighting IS,” he said.
“Throughout the years the Kurds were never drawn to anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist perceptions and maintained good ties with the Jewish people and Israel.”
Ofra Bengio, who heads a Kurdish studies program at Tel Aviv University, noted that Israel supplied covert military, intelligence and humanitarian aid to Kurdistan in the years 1965-1975.
When Jews living in Iraqi cities were subject to harassment under Baath rule in the early 1970s, Kurds smuggled them out of the country to safety, she said.
Former Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani visited Israel, as did his son, current president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region Massud Barzani, and many Israeli officials have visited Kurdistan, Bengio said.
“I don’t know to what extent (Kurdistan) could be an ally since it would be pressed by all kinds of Arab factors, but at least it won’t be hostile toward Israel. That’s certain,” said Bengio, author of the book “The Kurds of Iraq: Building a State Within a State.”
“What’s more important, it would be a buffer against extremist elements — not just Iran, but also others,” she said, noting IS and Iraqi Shiite militias.
A Kurdistan which emphasises “secularity, democracy, moderation and acceptance of the other” would be “a positive element in a region that is becoming increasingly extremist and unstable,” Bengio said.
The US supports the current Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq and relies on its forces in the war against Daesh, but has urged the Kurds to call off the potentially “provocative and destabilising” independence referendum.
To Saar, the former minister, Israeli leader Netanyahu should “use our leverage in the US to strengthen the Kurds in a very crucial moment of their national struggle.”
Israel sees benefits in independent Kurdistan: Experts
Israel sees benefits in independent Kurdistan: Experts
Celebrations in Sudan’s Wad Madani as army takes over strategic city
- More than 12 million displaced in nearly two years of war
- Army’s recapture of Wad Madani boosts morale, squeezes RSF
- RSF denies accusations of abuses in El Gezira
WAD MADANI: Civilians and soldiers celebrated in Wad Madani, the capital of Sudan’s El Gezira state, after it was recaptured by the Sudanese army from the paramilitary Rapid Support Services, marking a possible turning point in a devastating near two-year civil war.
“We are so happy, we can’t express ourselves,” said one woman on Sunday, as soldiers shot into the air and people cheered on the streets. “A whole year we have been squeezed, we haven’t been able to breathe.”
The war began in the capital Khartoum in April 2023 over the integration of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Services (RSF). It has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, pushing more than 12 million people out of their homes, and plunging half of the population into hunger.
The RSF’s occupation of El Gezira turned the fertile state into one at risk of famine. Its tight-knit villages were emptied out by violent raids as fields lay fallow or were set on fire, residents and eyewitnesses have said.
The RSF denies the accusations and says it is fighting rogue actors who are committing abuses.
The army’s ability to regain full control of the state would be pivotal in its attempts to choke the RSF’s supply lines to Khartoum and the army-controlled eastern half of the country. The RSF still controls most of the capital.
MORALE BOOST
“The SAF’s capture of Wad Madani boosts its own morale and puts large RSF contingents at risk of encirclement in the area,” said Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.
“It also frees the SAF to intensify pressure on Khartoum before potentially shifting its focus westward,” he said, while warning that the RSF could launch a counteroffensive on Al-Fashir, the army’s last remaining holdout in the western Darfur region.
“This is a big victory that we thank God for, but we are not stopping, we are going swiftly, we are in a hurry, and God-willing soon every inch of Sudan will be cleansed,” General Shams el-Din Kabbashi, deputy leader of the armed forces, told troops and civilians in Madani.
The bodies of RSF soldiers could be seen on the road and bridge leading into the city, but eyewitnesses reported few clashes inside Madani.
The relatively swift takeover comes after weeks of advances by the army in surrounding villages, newly equipped in recent months with fresh armaments and new recruits to allied forces.
HELPED BY DEFECTORS
The Joint Forces, a collection of former rebel groups, as well as Sudan Shield, led by RSF defector Abuagla Keikal, participated in the assault.
The RSF chose to withdraw after being overwhelmed in the lead-up to the takeover, sources in the paramilitary said. They added that its soldiers were exhausted by airstrikes and by dwindling stocks of ammunition and supplies.
They withdrew northwards toward other towns in the state and Khartoum, eyewitnesses said, chased by army airstrikes.
Fiercer fighting could be expected as the RSF fights to maintain control of Khartoum, where the army has made gains, the RSF sources said.
Many of the paramilitary’s fighters come from militias and tribal groups outside of Gezira and had little will to fight for the country’s center, the RSF sources added.
Residents said there had been extensive looting.
“If we have just 1000 pounds ($0.40) they tell us to hand it over. They exhausted and humiliated us,” said lawyer Ahmed Abdelqadir, who along with other women and children cheered for the SAF soldiers as they drove through the town.
The paramilitary soldiers who roamed through the town raided homes and killed the residents if they didn’t find anything, she said.
“They left us with nothing.”
Israel far-right finance minister warns won't back Gaza deal that halts war
JERUSALEM: Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned on Monday that he would not support a deal in Gaza that halts the war, insisting that Israel should "open the gates of hell" on the Palestinian territory.
"The proposed agreement is a catastrophe for Israel's national security," Smotrich said on X. "We will not be part of a surrender deal that involves releasing dangerous terrorists, halting the war, squandering the hard-won achievements paid for in blood, and abandoning many hostages still in captivity.
"Now is the time to intensify our efforts, using all available force to fully secure and cleanse the Gaza Strip," he continued.
"We must take decisive control of humanitarian aid to prevent its exploitation by Hamas, and open the gates of hell on Gaza until Hamas surrenders unconditionally and all hostages are safely returned."
Smotrich, a key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition, has repeatedly opposed halting the war in Gaza.
His latest comments come as indirect negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have resumed for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.
On Sunday, Netanyahu briefed outgoing US President Joe Biden on the ongoing negotiations in Doha.
"The prime minister discussed with the American president the progress in the negotiations for the release of our hostages and updated him on the mandate he has given to the negotiating team in Doha, aimed at advancing the release of the hostages," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Several previous rounds of negotiations held last year have failed to produce a deal.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
On that day militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 46,584 people, a majority of them civilians, according to Hamas-run territory's health ministry figures that the United Nations says are reliable.
Six EU nations call for temporary Syria sanctions relief
- EU foreign ministers are set to discuss relaxing Syria sanctions during a meeting in Brussels on Jan. 27
Six member states of the European Union have called for the bloc to temporarily suspend sanctions on Syria in areas such as transport, energy and banking, according to a paper seen by Reuters.
EU foreign ministers are set to discuss relaxing Syria sanctions during a meeting in Brussels on Jan. 27.
European leaders began reassessing their policy toward Damascus after the ousting of president Bashar Assad by insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States and most other countries, as well as the United Nations.
The document, signed by Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland and Denmark, said the EU “should immediately begin adjusting our sanctions regime.”
Nevertheless, the paper also warned that if EU expectations of respect for human rights and minorities are not met, further sanctions may not be lifted and a snapback mechanism could be applied to sanctions already removed.
The US last week issued a sanctions exemption for transactions with governing institutions in Syria for six months in an effort to ease the flow of humanitarian assistance.
The six EU members said the bloc should lift sanctions to facilitate civilian flights, reevaluate sanctions on high-value goods, remove an export ban on oil and gas technology, and reopen financial channels between the EU and Syria.
They also said sanctions against members of the Assad administration and its supporters should remain in place.
Lifting sanctions on HTS would have to be discussed at the United Nations level and coordinated with close partners, the paper said, adding that “it will depend on our joint assessment of the listed entity HTS and its leader (Ahmed) Al-Shara’a and of the evolution on the ground in Syria”.
Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, met Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, on Sunday in Riyadh, where top Middle Eastern and Western diplomats gathered to discuss the situation in the country.
“Now is the time for Syria’s new leadership to deliver on the hope they have created – through a peaceful & inclusive transition that protects all minorities,” she said.
“Next, we will discuss with EU Foreign Ministers how to ease sanctions,” she added.
Tanker hit by Houthis salvaged, Red Sea disaster averted
- Extinguishing the fires on board took three weeks in difficult climate conditions
- Greece had urged all nations to assist with the case with political negotiations extending from the Houthis
ATHENS: A risky operation to salvage an oil tanker attacked by Houthi militants in the Red Sea and avert what could have been one of the largest oil spills in recorded history has been completed, British maritime security company Ambrey and Greece have said.
The 900-foot Greek-registered MT Sounion, carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil, was struck by several missiles and drones and caught fire on Aug. 21, triggering fears of an oil spill that could cause catastrophic environmental damage in the area.
Months later, the vessel has been declared safe and its cargo has been removed, said Ambrey, which led the salvage operation.
Greece had urged all nations to assist with the case with political negotiations extending from the Houthis, who eventually allowed salvage teams to tow the ship, to Saudi Arabia, a key player in the region.
“It’s a great relief, mainly due to the environmental disaster risk. It was a very complex operation,” Greek Shipping Minister Christos Stylianides told Reuters on Monday. “I feel relieved and content.”
In mid-September, Sounion, which was hit 58 miles off the Yemeni coast, was towed to a safe location 150 miles to the north by a flotilla of seven salvage vessels escorted by the European Union’s naval force Aspides.
Extinguishing the fires on board took three weeks in difficult climate conditions, Ambrey said, and the vessel was later towed north to Suez for her cargo to be removed.
More than 200 people and six companies — Megatugs Salvage & Towage, Diaplous, Offmain, Fire Aid, Pro Liquid and Ambipar Response, were involved in the projects.
As Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Saudi Arabia on Monday, a Greek government official said the salvage of Sounion was pivotal in boosting bilateral ties.
Norway to host talks on Mideast two-state solution
- It will be the third meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution
OSLO: Dozens of countries will send delegates to Norway on Wednesday as part of a global alliance aiming to find a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Norway’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini, and UN envoy to the Middle East Tor Wennesland are among those due to attend.
It will be the third meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, whose creation was announced in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“While we must continue to work for an end to the war (in Gaza), we must also work for a lasting solution to the conflict that guarantees self-determination, security and justice for both the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.
“There is broad support for a two-state solution, but the international community must do more to make it a reality.”
Representatives of more than 80 countries and organizations are expected to take part in the meeting, though no official Israeli delegation has been announced.
Israel was angered when several countries — including Norway — decided to recognize the Palestinian state.
The war in Gaza, sparked by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s attack on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, has revived discussions of a two-state solution.
Analysts say however the possibility remains more remote than ever, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — firmly backed by US President-elect Donald Trump — vehemently opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The first two meetings of the global alliance were held in Saudia Arabia in late October and in Brussels in late November.
