JERUSALEM: Oman’s foreign minister made a rare visit by an Arab official to a Jerusalem holy site on Thursday after holding talks with Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank.
Yusuf bin Alawi visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, an AFP journalist reported.
His visit comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6, a move that angered the Muslim world.
Such a visit would usually require coordination with Israeli officials. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said he was unaware of the visit and could not immediately comment.
Oman and Israel do not have official diplomatic relations, as is the case with most of the Arab world.
The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is the third-holiest site for Muslims and the scene of regular tensions between Palestinians and Israeli authorities.
It is on the hill that Jews refer to as the Temple Mount, the most sacred place in Judaism as the site of the first and second Jewish temples in the biblical era.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken repeatedly of improving ties with Arab nations in recent months, but there was no sign of a link to the minister’s visit.
Bin Alawi visited the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque at the compound and said “it is a duty of Arabs to visit the mosque if they can.”
Jerusalem’s status is perhaps the most sensitive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community. It sees the entire city as its capital.
The Palestinians want Jerusalem’s eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
Bin Alawi met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah earlier in the day.
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Oman minister makes rare visit by Arab official to Jerusalem holy site
Oman minister makes rare visit by Arab official to Jerusalem holy site
Power outage after drone strikes in Sudan’s El-Obeid
PORT SUDAN: The power supply was cut on Sunday following drone strikes in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, the national electricity company said, as fighting raged in the oil-rich southern region.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Kordofan the latest battleground after the RSF launched an offensive to seize the strategic region.
“El-Obeid power station... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply,” the electricity company said.
Army-aligned forces had announced on Wednesday that they had retaken several cities south of El-Obeid from the RSF.
The Joint Forces — an umbrella organization of armed groups fighting alongside the army — said they had “achieved sweeping field victories in the North Kordofan axis.”
In a statement, the group affirmed “progress and control over several strategic areas, key among which are Kazqil, Hamadi, El-Rabash, Habila and El-Dubaibat.”
It said those areas had been “cleared of rebel militia (RSF) elements after inflicting many losses on them in lives and military equipment.”
A source in the Sudanese army told AFP that “this progress will open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — a city in South Kordofan state controlled by the army and besieged by the RSF.
According to a UN-backed report, Dilling is in the throes of famine.
The army source added that government forces in Dalama to the south had cleared a path to Dilling and entered it.
Since mid-December, some 11,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Since the start of the war, more than 11 million people have been displaced internally and across Sudan’s borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Kordofan the latest battleground after the RSF launched an offensive to seize the strategic region.
“El-Obeid power station... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply,” the electricity company said.
Army-aligned forces had announced on Wednesday that they had retaken several cities south of El-Obeid from the RSF.
The Joint Forces — an umbrella organization of armed groups fighting alongside the army — said they had “achieved sweeping field victories in the North Kordofan axis.”
In a statement, the group affirmed “progress and control over several strategic areas, key among which are Kazqil, Hamadi, El-Rabash, Habila and El-Dubaibat.”
It said those areas had been “cleared of rebel militia (RSF) elements after inflicting many losses on them in lives and military equipment.”
A source in the Sudanese army told AFP that “this progress will open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — a city in South Kordofan state controlled by the army and besieged by the RSF.
According to a UN-backed report, Dilling is in the throes of famine.
The army source added that government forces in Dalama to the south had cleared a path to Dilling and entered it.
Since mid-December, some 11,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Since the start of the war, more than 11 million people have been displaced internally and across Sudan’s borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.
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