RAMALLAH: An Omani minister met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday and delivered a letter about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise visit to the Gulf sultanate last week, official Palestinian media said.
Yusuf bin Alawi, minister in charge of foreign affairs, gave Abbas the letter from Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
It gave no further details on their discussions in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians have been concerned by Israel’s bid for rapprochement with Gulf countries.
Frozen peace efforts and Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territory have been obstacles to Israeli attempts to win official recognition from countries in the region.
But there has long been talk of under-the-radar contacts, particularly regarding Iran, which is the enemy both of Israel and Gulf states.
Oman minister visits Ramallah after Netanyahu talks
Oman minister visits Ramallah after Netanyahu talks
- Yusuf bin Alawi, minister in charge of foreign affairs, gave Abbas the letter from Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, official Palestinian news agency WAFA said
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
