CAIRO: Arab countries condemned Israel’s plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank as a “new war crime” against Palestinians, the Arab League said in a statement after a video conference of Arab foreign ministers on Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in announcing a deal to form a unity government, has said cabinet discussions will start on July 1 on extending Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and annexing the area’s Jordan Valley outright.
Palestinians have expressed outrage at Israel’s plans to cement its hold further on land it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, territory they are seeking for a state.
Implementing such plans “represents a new war crime added to the Israeli record full of brutal crimes against the Palestinian people,” the Arab foreign ministers said in a statement after their emergency meeting, which was held online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Arab League secretary general Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Israel of “taking advantage of the global preoccupation with confronting the coronavirus epidemic to impose a new reality on the ground.”
“This step, if taken, would eliminate the possibility of embodying an independent, sovereign, geographically connected and viable Palestinian state. This step, if completed, would end the two-state solution,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said during the meeting.
Netanyahu said on April 26 that the United states would give Israel the nod within two months to move ahead with de facto annexation of parts of the occupied lands.
The Arab countries urged Washington to abide by UN resolutions and “withhold support for plans and maps of the Israeli occupation government woven under the cover of the so-called American-Israeli deal of the century,” the statement said.
Palestinians have flatly rejected the US peace proposal announced by President Donald Trump in January, partly because it awards Israel most of what it has sought during decades of conflict, including nearly all the occupied land on which it has built settlements.
Arab League slams Israel’s West Bank annexation plans ‘a new war crime’
https://arab.news/6p4j4
Arab League slams Israel’s West Bank annexation plans ‘a new war crime’
- Netanyahu has set July 1 for the start of cabinet discussions on extending Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements in the West Bank
- Palestinians have expressed outrage at Israel’s plans
Morocco to open two deepwater ports in 2026 and 2028, minister says
- The facility will be surrounded by 1,600 hectares for industrial activities and 5,200 hectares for farmland irrigated by desalinated water, Baraka said
MARRAKECH: Morocco will open a new deepwater Mediterranean port next year and another on the Atlantic in 2028, Equipment and Water minister Nizar Baraka said, as the North African country aims to replicate the success of Africa’s largest port, Tanger Med.
Nador West Med, under construction on the Mediterranean, is scheduled to be operational in the second half of 2026, Baraka told Reuters in an interview.
It will offer 800 hectares for industrial activity, with plans to expand to 5000 hectares, surpassing Tanger Med’s industrial zones, he said.
The port will also host Morocco’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal — a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) — linked by a pipeline to industrial hubs in the northwest, as Morocco pushes investments in natural gas and renewable energy to reduce dependence on coal.
Further south on the Atlantic coast, Morocco is building a $1 billion port in Dakhla, in the disputed Western Sahara region.
The facility will be surrounded by 1,600 hectares for industrial activities and 5,200 hectares for farmland irrigated by desalinated water, Baraka said.
“The port will be ready in 2028 and will be Morocco’s deepest at 23 meters,” Baraka said. Such depth would support heavy industries focused on processing raw materials from Sahel countries, he said.
Officials have marketed Dakhla as a gateway for landlocked Sahel nations to global trade.
Both Nador and Dakhla ports will include quays dedicated to exporting green hydrogen once production begins, Baraka said.
Nador and Dakhla would be Morocco’s third and fourth deepwater ports after Tanger Med and Jorf Lasfar, an energy, bulk cargo and phosphates exports port on the Atlantic.
By 2024, industrial zones near Tanger Med hosted 1,400 firms employing 130,000 people across sectors including automotive, aeronautics, textiles, agri-food and renewable energy, official figures show.
Morocco is also considering building a port in Tan-Tan on the Atlantic in partnership with green hydrogen investors, Baraka said. “We are conducting studies to decide the appropriate size of the port,” Baraka said.
