CAIRO: Contrary to reports from Russian news agency TASS, Egypt has not yet received a formal invitation to participate in the Syria peace talks in Astana. TASS claimed on Monday that an invitation has been sent to Egypt, citing “an Egyptian source familiar with the situation.”
But Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Abu Zeid told Arab News on Tuesday that no such invitation had been received. “Egypt will consider participating in the Astana talks whenever it receives an invitation,” Abu Zeid said. Egypt has repeatedly affirmed that it supports a political solution for the Syrian crisis on the condition that the solution maintains the integrity and unity of the Syrian state.
TASS said Egypt has been invited “to take part as an observer in the Astana talks,” adding that Egypt would probably join the negotiations. But Nourhan El-Sheikh, professor of international relations at Cairo University and a specialist in Russian affairs, told Arab News it is “illogical to assume that an invitation was sent to Egypt” since preparations for the coming round of Astana talks have not been completed.
“If an invitation is meant to be sent to Egypt, that will probably happen by the end of this week,” he said. He added that if Egypt did end up taking an active role in the supervision of the Syrian peace process, the country’s efforts would likely be focused on central areas of the country, including Homs and southern Damascus, rather than northern or southern areas of Syria.
The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Tuesday that he would meet the Russian foreign and defense ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Sergey Schweigo, in Moscow on Wednesday.
“The meetings will deal with the resumption of the political process in Geneva according to UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” De Mistura explained.
Egypt has recently increased its role in the peace process, most recently sponsoring a cease-fire deal reached on Oct. 12 with a Syrian rebel enclave south of Damascus.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Ansari said after the sixth round of talks in Astana in mid-September that the truce’s guarantors — Russia, Iran and Turkey — were considering sending invitations to new observers for the next round of talks. Russian presidential envoy for the Syrian settlement, Alexander Lavrentyev, said that China, Egypt, the UAE, Iraq and Lebanon would be observers.
Moscow has spearheaded the talks in Astana since the start of the year as it attempts to turn its game-changing military intervention on the ground into a negotiated settlement.
The often-tense Astana negotiations — seen as a complement to broader UN-backed talks in Geneva — have involved armed rebels and government officials and have focused mainly on military issues.
Egypt yet to receive invite for Astana talks
Egypt yet to receive invite for Astana talks
Gaza ceasefire fragile, UN warns, amid Israeli airstrikes, aid obstacles and spiraling West Bank violence
- Most Gazans remain dependent on humanitarian assistance as winter weather worsens, yet aid agencies still unable to operate at scale, senior UN official tells Security Council
- He warns of ‘entrenched’ negative trends in West Bank, including intensified Israeli military action, settlement expansions, settler violence, demolitions and large-scale arrests
NEW YORK CITY: The fragile ceasefire in Gaza could unravel amid sweeping humanitarian shortfalls, continuing Israeli military operations and mounting restrictions on aid access, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday.
At the same time, violence and settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank are accelerating, Ramiz Alakhbarov, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, added.
He acknowledged some improvements on the ground in Gaza, noting that deliveries of aid via Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Cyprus had helped to increase supply volumes and improve nutrition, but he stressed that “more must be done.”
Most people in Gaza continue to be dependent on humanitarian assistance, with displaced families exposed to worsening winter conditions, he added, yet aid agencies are still unable to operate at scale despite the halt in major hostilities.
“Nearly the entire population in Gaza remains in need of humanitarian assistance,” Alakhbarov said, warning that heavy rain and cold temperatures have compounded the suffering of about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who are living in inadequate shelters.
Restrictions on the delivery of construction materials and technical expertise have left emergency shelter sites unable to meet even minimal international standards, he warned as he described families struggling overnight to prevent tents collapsing from the wind and rain.
Humanitarian operations remain hampered by insecurity, customs delays, limited routes into Gaza, and Israeli restrictions on which organizations are allowed bring supplies into the territory, Alakhbarov told the council.
Aid entering Gaza from Jordan accounts for just 9 percent of assistance processed since Oct. 10, he said. He described the current volumes of aid “only a fraction” of what had previously been achieved.
Severe entry restrictions continue to be imposed on critical items such as mobile homes, fuel, rescue equipment and medical supplies, he added, which is endangering displaced people in general and patients in need of health care. Meanwhile, access to public infrastructure and agricultural land remains limited, and repeated displacements of the population continue amid ongoing demolitions.
Despite the ceasefire agreement in October last year, Israeli military operations have not fully ceased, Alakhbarov said, with airstrikes, shelling and gunfire continuing across Gaza.
Armed exchanges between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants also persist, he added, and attacks occur daily near or beyond the so-called “yellow line” that separates the parts of Gaza under Israeli control from the areas to which the Palestinian population is restricted.
“Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began, including many women and children,” Alakhbarov told council members.
He also raised the alarm over Israel’s decision to suspend or review the registration of dozens of international nongovernmental organizations, warning that banning them would significantly undermine humanitarian response efforts across the territory. He urged Israel to immediately reverse the move.
Turning to the situation in the occupied West Bank, Alakhbarov said negative trends were “entrenched daily,” citing in particular intensified Israeli military operations, settlement expansions, settler violence, demolitions and large-scale arrests.
Israeli forces conducted expanded raids in cities including Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah in late December and early January, he said, frequently involving live fire and raising serious concerns about the use of lethal force.
Palestinians, including minors, have been killed during the operations, and large-scale arrests, including the detention of children, have been reported alongside allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners and deaths in custody.
Palestinian attacks against Israelis have also continued, Alakhbarov noted, including deadly ramming and stabbing incidents in northern Israel in late December.
At the same time, settler violence has intensified, he said, forcing entire Palestinian communities to flee. Repeated attacks led to the displacement of people from Khirbet Yanun in Nablus governorate in December, followed this month by the forcible removal of about 80 households from Ras Ein Al-Auja in the Jordan Valley.
Demolitions and land seizures across the northern West Bank, evictions in East Jerusalem, and the destruction of parts of refugee camps have exacerbated territorial fragmentation, he said.
Meanwhile settlement expansions have been “rapid and relentless.” Israeli authorities have issued tenders for more than 4,700 housing units in Area C — which covers more than 60 percent of the West Bank — including thousands of units in the sensitive E1 zone east of Jerusalem, a move Alakhbarov warned could sever the geographic connection between the northern and southern West Bank.
He also condemned what he described as the escalating Israeli campaign against UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, including legislation to seize its compounds and cut utilities, raids on its health facilities, and the demolition of its headquarters in East Jerusalem.
“These acts are flagrant violations of international law,” Alakhbarov said. He urged Israeli authorities to comply with an International Court of Justice advisory opinion requiring them to facilitate, not obstruct, UNRWA operations.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to withhold Palestinian clearance revenues, which are taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on goods imported into Gaza and the West Bank. The amount withheld now totals nearly $2.5 billion, Alakhbarov said, and Israel’s refusal to hand it over is pushing the authority deeper into fiscal crisis, forcing cuts to public services and reduced salary payments to workers.
Unless these Israeli policies are urgently addressed, he warned, the cumulative effects might not only undermine prospects for a two-state solution but also jeopardize progress toward implementation the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
