JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu easily won a vote to keep the Likud party helm, the party said on Friday, in a boost ahead of what is likely to be a hard-fought general election in March.
A Likud tally gave Netanyahu 72.5 percent of votes in Thursday’s party ballot, against 27.5 percent for challenger Gideon Saar, who conceded defeat, tweeting that he would now back the incumbent “for the sake of a Likud victory in the (general) election.”
The results awaited official confirmation by Israel’s Elections Committee.
The challenge by Saar, a former education and interior minister, had added to pressures that have mounted this year on the four-term premier, who is under indictment and fighting for political survival.
In November, Netanyahu was charged with corruption in three criminal cases and he has twice failed to form a government in the wake of two inconclusive national ballots, held in April and September.
Netanyahu’s centrist rival in those elections, Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party, was also unable to form a coalition government, leading to political deadlock and an unprecedented third election on March 2.
Netanyahu has cast the legal case against him as a political witch-hunt orchestrated by the media and an Israeli left hoping to oust him.
Though the troubles of “King Bibi,” as he is nicknamed by his fans, do not seem to have dented the loyalty Netanyahu commands among his supporters, some Likud members have said it is time for fresh leadership.
Netanyahu had played down Saar’s challenge, talking up his own security credentials and international prowess.
Thanking supporters for the “huge” Likud leadership victory, Netanyahu tweeted that he would “continue leading the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements.”
Benjamin Netanyahu wins party vote in boost ahead of Israeli election
https://arab.news/bscak
Benjamin Netanyahu wins party vote in boost ahead of Israeli election
- A Likud tally gave Benjamin Netanyahu 72.5 percent of votes in Thursday’s party ballot
- In November, Netanyahu was charged with corruption in three criminal cases
Iraq starts investigations into Daesh detainees moved from Syria
- Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters
- In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary announced on Monday it has begun its investigations into more than 1,300 Daesh group detainees who were transferred from Syria as part of a US operation.
“Investigation proceedings have started with 1,387 members of the Daesh terrorist organization who were recently transferred from the Syrian territory,” the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Under the supervision of the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, several judges specializing in counterterrorism started the investigation.”
Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.
They include Syrians, Iraqis and Europeans, among other nationalities, according to several Iraqi security sources.
In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected extremists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
Last month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria had largely expired, as Damascus pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF.
In Iraq, where many prisons are packed with Daesh suspects, courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including many foreign fighters.
Iraq’s judiciary said its investigation procedures “will comply with national laws and international standards.”
