CAIRO: The Arab League said Monday it will convene an urgent virtual meeting this week to discuss how to galvanize opposition to Israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
The extraordinary meeting — scheduled for Thursday at the request of the Palestinian leadership — will bring together Arab foreign ministers via video conference, rather than a face-to-face meeting, due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
The Arab League’s deputy secretary Hossam Zaki said the ministers will “discuss in their virtual meeting providing political, legal and financial support to the Palestinian leadership to confront the Israeli plans.”
It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival Benny Gantz signed a deal for a unity government that could accelerate the premier’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank in the coming months.
Those Israeli plans — while subject to caveats, including the need to maintain “regional stability” and uphold the peace agreement with Jordan — have drawn wide criticism including from the United Nations and the European Union.
Arab League chief Ahmed Ahmed Aboul Gheit had last week sent a message to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warning against Israel’s plans saying they risk “igniting tension in the region.”
He also accused Israel of “exploiting the world’s preoccupation with the novel coronavirus to impose a new reality on the ground.”
Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War and has since extended its control by expanding its settlements there.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a decision regarding the annexation of West Bank territories was up to Israel’s new unity government.
Earlier this year, the US unveiled a controversial Middle East peace plan that would allow Israel to retain control of the contested city of Jerusalem as its “undivided capital” and annex Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands including in the West Bank.
Arab states rejected Trump’s plan, saying it favored Israel and failed to grant Palestinians their minimum rights.
The Palestinians as well as the European Union have likewise criticized the plan, saying it effectively closes the door to a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Arab league to meet over Israel’s plans to annex West Bank
https://arab.news/v8g9j
Arab league to meet over Israel’s plans to annex West Bank
- Arab League chief Ahmed Ahmed Aboul Gheit had last week sent a message to UN Secretary General
- Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz signed a deal for a unity government that could accelerate the annexation of parts of the West Bank
Iraq begins closing Al-Hol camp, 19,000 citizens return home
- About 3,000 Iraqis still remain in Al-Hol
- The camp currently houses around 60,000 people of various nationalities, most of them women and children linked to Daesh fighters
DUBAI: Iraq said it has begun dismantling the Al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, repatriating thousands of its citizens as part of efforts to prevent the site from being used to promote extremist ideology, state news agency INA reported on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Migration and Displacement said around 19,000 Iraqis returned from Al-Hol to their former areas of residence and were reintegrated into local communities, with no security incidents recorded.
Karim Al-Nouri, undersecretary at the ministry, said returnees were subjected to screening and vetting before their transfer to the Al-Amal Community Rehabilitation Center in Al-Jada’a, south of Mosul in Iraq.
“The Ministry of Migration and Displacement is not concerned with security aspect,” Al-Nouri said, adding terrorism cases are handled separately by judiciary.
He said senior Daesh militants recently transferred to Iraq were brought from prisons run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and not from Al-Hol camp.
The most recent group of returnees consists of 281 families, marking the 31st batch received by Iraq so far.
Officials described Al-Hol as a potential security threat, saying the camp has been exploited in the past as a recruitment hub for Daesh and a center for spreading extremism.
The camp currently houses around 60,000 people of various nationalities, most of them women and children linked to Daesh fighters.
Iraqi returnees receive psychological, medical and social support at the Al-Amal center, with assistance from international organizations and the Iraqi health ministry, before returning to their communities, according to the ministry. Those found to have committed crimes are referred to courts.
Al-Nouri said about 3,000 Iraqis still remain in Al-Hol. He added Iraqi detainees are also held in other prisons in Syria, with their cases requiring follow-up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
