THE HAGUE: International appeals judges Monday upheld a reprimand of Jordan for failing to arrest former Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir during a visit to the Arab country two years ago.
Amman had appealed a ruling by the International Criminal Court which found that Jordan “failed to comply with its obligations” because it did not detain Bashir in 2017 when he was wanted by the Hague-based tribunal on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The ICC’s appeal judges nonetheless eased the blow a bit by reversing a pre-trial chamber judges’ decision to refer Jordan to the UN Security Council and the court’s Assembly of States Parties (ASP) for further measures.
Bashir, 75, was indicted by the ICC in 2009 in connection with fighting in the western region of Darfur, where more than 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million others displaced since 2003, according to UN figures.
Despite two international warrants for his arrest on 10 charges arising from the conflict, Bashir freely attended an Arab League summit in Amman in March 2017.
“By failing to arrest and surrender Mr. Bashir, in circumstances in which Mr. Bashir was entitled to no immunity, Jordan prevented the court from exercising an important power and a fundamental function,” Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said.
Jordan is a member of the Rome Statute, which underpins the tribunal — established in 2002 to try the world’s worst atrocities — and as such has agreed to comply with the court’s orders.
In a first for the court, Amman last year appealed the ICC’s findings that Jordan had failed to fulfil its legal obligations to seize Bashir, saying it was not obliged to do so.
Jordan’s lawyers argued that Bashir at the time of his visit was a sitting head of state “and therefore immune to arrest,” based on the international legal principle of comity between states.
But Eboe-Osuji said Monday that head-of-state immunity did not stop the ICC — an international court — from exercising its jurisdiction according to its founding document, the Rome Statute.
Easing the verdict on Jordan however, Eboe-Osuji added that the court’s pre-trial judges should not have referred the matter to the Security Council and the ASP.
“The judges’ discretion to refer the case to the UNSC and ASP was tainted,” Eboe-Osuji said.
Amman replied that it was “mulling” the judgment.
It looked in particular at “the part concerning approving the pre-trial chamber’s decision suggesting that Jordan has not cooperated with the court in handing Bashir over, which is rejected by Jordan,” according to a statement released by foreign ministry spokesman Sufyan Al-Qudah.
He welcomed the appeals judges’ decision to nullify the “unfair, discriminatory and arbitrary decision” by pre-trial judges to refer the issue to the Security Council and ASP.
“Jordan has been a strong supporter of the ICC since its establishment and was the first country in the Middle East to ratify its statute,” the spokesman noted.
Over the last decade Bashir has traveled to a number of countries which did not arrest him, including ICC member states such as South Africa and Jordan.
The 75-year-old Bashir has always denied the ICC charges.
He was toppled last month after 30 years of iron rule in Sudan, raising hopes that he would finally be extradited to The Hague to stand trial.
Human rights groups applauded Monday’s decision saying “today the ICC found that heads of state sought on charges by the court cannot be exempt from arrest.”
Elize Keppler, an associate director at Human Rights Watch also called for Bashir to be handed over to the ICC.
“Whether president or prisoner in Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir remains a fugitive from the ICC on charges of the gravest crimes committed in Darfur.”
“He should be surrendered to The Hague to face the charges against him,” she said.
But legal experts said it seemed more likely that Bashir would be tried in Sudan, despite Sudanese opposition calls for the African nation to “immediately” join the ICC.
The conflict in Darfur broke out when ethnic minority groups took up arms against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government, which in turn launched brutal counter-insurgency operations.
Jordan loses ICC appeal over failure to arrest Bashir
Jordan loses ICC appeal over failure to arrest Bashir
- The judges panel said Jordan should have arrested Bashir
- Its failure to do so was not grounds for referral because Jordan tried to consult with the court ahead of time
Ex-national security adviser criticizes UK PM for not suspending arms sales to Israel
- Lord Peter Ricketts: ‘Pity’ govt ‘could not have taken a stand on this and got out ahead of the US’
- American decision to pause delivery of weapons seen as warning to Israel to abandon or temper plan to invade Rafah
LONDON: A former UK national security adviser has condemned Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for failing to suspend weapons sales to Israel, The Independent reported on Wednesday.
After the US paused a delivery of bombs, Sunak has yet to follow suit despite mounting pressure from within his own Conservative Party.
Lord Peter Ricketts, a life peer in the House of Lords and retired senior diplomat, said Britain should have been “ahead of the US” in ending arms sales to Israel.
The US decision to pause the shipment of bombs is seen as a warning to Israel to abandon or temper its plan to invade Rafah in southern Gaza.
More than 1 million Palestinian civilians are sheltering in the city after being forced out of northern sections of the enclave.
Ricketts said it is a “pity” that “the government could not have taken a stand on this and got out ahead of the US.”
Conservative MP David Jones made the same call in comments to The Independent, saying: “We should give similar consideration to a pause.”
He added: “Anyone viewing the distressing scenes in Gaza will want to see an end to the fighting. Hamas is in reality beaten. Now is the time for diplomacy to bring this dreadful conflict to an end.”
At Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Sunak faced a flurry of questions over Britain’s potential ties to an Israeli invasion of Rafah. He said the government’s position remains “unchanged.”
South Gaza hospitals have only three days’ fuel left: WHO
- Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into the overcrowded southern city of Rafah on Tuesday and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt
- “Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, which means services may soon come to a halt,” WHO chief said
GENEVA: Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip have only three days of fuel left, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday, due to closed border crossings.
Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into the overcrowded southern city of Rafah on Tuesday and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.
“The closure of the border crossing continues to prevent the UN from bringing fuel. Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop. Border closures are also impeding delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter.
“Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, which means services may soon come to a halt.”
Tedros said Al-Najjar, one of the three hospitals in Rafah, was no longer functioning due to the ongoing hostilities in the vicinity and the military operation in Rafah.
“At a time when fragile humanitarian operations urgently require expansion, the Rafah military operation is further limiting our ability to reach thousands of people who have been living in dire conditions without adequate food, sanitation, health services and security,” he said.
“This must stop now.”
The Geneva-based WHO is the UN’s health agency.
Israel bombarded Rafah on Wednesday as talks resumed in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.
Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has conducted a retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 34,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Egypt police probe murder of Israeli-Canadian businessman
- Security sources made no link between the shooting and the dead man’s ethnic background
CAIRO: Egypt’s interior ministry said it had launched an investigation Wednesday after an Israeli-Canadian businessman was shot dead in the coastal city of Alexandria.
A police statement said the man, “a permanent resident of the country” was shot dead on Tuesday.
The Israeli foreign ministry said the murdered man was a businessman with dual Canadian-Israeli citizenship.
“He had a business in Egypt. The Israeli embassy in Cairo is in contact with the Egyptian authorities, who are investigating the circumstances of the case,” the ministry said.
Attacks on Israelis in Egypt are rare but not unprecedented.
On October 8, the day after Hamas attacked Israel triggering war in Gaza, an Egyptian policeman shot dead two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide.
Following their deaths, Israeli authorities advised its nationals in Egypt to leave “as soon as possible.”
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel but relations between the two peoples have never been warm.
The Egyptian government has often acted as mediator in flare-ups in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that have threatened to stir up passions on the street.
Israel pounds Gaza as truce talks resume in Cairo
- AlQahera News: ‘Truce negotiations have resumed in Cairo today with all sides present’
- Moscow so far sees no prospect for a peace settlement in Gaza or the wider Middle East
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, where it has launched a ground incursion, as talks resumed Wednesday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.
Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into Rafah on Tuesday and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.
The White House condemned the interruption to humanitarian deliveries, with a senior US official later revealing Washington had paused a shipment of bombs last week after Israel failed to address US concerns over its Rafah plans.
The Israeli military said hours later it was reopening another major aid crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, as well as the Erez crossing.
But the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the Kerem Shalom crossing — which Israel shut after a rocket attack killed four soldiers on Sunday — remained closed.
It came after a night of heavy Israeli strikes and shelling across Gaza. AFPTV footage showed Palestinians scrambling in the dark to pull survivors, bloodied and caked in dust, out from under the rubble of a Rafah building.
Russia said on Wednesday that the war in Gaza was escalating due to Israel’s incursion into Rafah and that Moscow so far saw no prospect for a peace settlement in Gaza or the wider Middle East.
“An additional destabilizing factor, including for the entire region, was the launch of an Israeli military ground operation in Rafah,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.
“About one and a half million Palestinian civilians are concentrated there. In this regard, we demand strict compliance with the provisions of international humanitarian law.”
Speaking more broadly about efforts to find a lasting settlement in the Middle East, Zakharova said: “I would like to call it a settlement, but, alas, it is far from a settlement.”
“There are no prospects for resolving the situation in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, the situation in the conflict zone is escalating daily.”
“We are living in Rafah in extreme fear and endless anxiety as the occupation army keeps firing artillery shells indiscriminately,” said Muhanad Ahmad Qishta, 29.
“Rafah is a witnessing a very large displacement, as places the Israeli army claims to be safe are also being bombed,” he said.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel in response vowed to crush Hamas and launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Militants also took around 250 people hostage, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 36 who are believed to be dead.
Talks aimed at agreeing a ceasefire resumed in Cairo on Wednesday “in the presence of all parties,” Egyptian media reported.
A senior Hamas official said the latest round of negotiations would be “decisive.”
“The resistance insists on the rightful demands of its people and will not give up any of our people’s rights,” he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the negotiations.
The official had previously warned it would be Israel’s “last chance” to free the scores of hostages still in militants’ hands.
Mediators have failed to broker a new truce since a week-long ceasefire in November saw 105 hostages freed, the Israelis among them in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Mediator Qatar urges international community to prevent Rafah ‘genocide’
- Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after seizing the main border crossing with Egypt
- African Union condemns the Israeli military’s moves into southern Gaza’s Rafah
DOHA: Qatar called on the international community on Wednesday to prevent a “genocide” in Rafah following Israel’s seizure of the Gaza city’s crossing with Egypt and threats of a wider assault.
In a statement the Gulf state, which has been mediating between Israel and militant group Hamas, appealed “for urgent international action to prevent the city from being invaded and a crime of genocide being committed.”
Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after seizing the main border crossing with Egypt. Israel has vowed for weeks to launch a ground incursion into Rafah, despite a clamour of international objection.
The attacks on the southern city, which is packed with displaced civilians, came as negotiators and mediators met in Cairo to try to hammer out a hostage-release and truce deal in the seven-month war.
Qatar, which has hosted Hamas’s political office in Doha since 2012, has been engaged — along with Egypt and the United States — in months of behind-the-scenes mediation between Israel and the Palestinian group.
The African Union condemned Wednesday the Israeli military’s moves into southern Gaza’s Rafah, calling for the international community to stop “this deadly escalation” of the war.
AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat “firmly condemns the extension of this war to the Rafah crossing,” said a statement after Israeli tanks captured the key corridor for humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.
Faki “expresses his extreme concern at the war undertaken by Israel in Gaza which results, at every moment, in massive deaths and systematic destruction of the conditions of human life,” the statement said.
“He calls on the entire international community to effectively coordinate collective action to stop this deadly escalation.”
