BEIRUT: Amos Hochstein, the US envoy appointed by the Biden administration this month to mediate Lebanon’s maritime border dispute with Israel, held talks on Wednesday with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati on the future of the negotiations.
Aoun expressed “Lebanon’s readiness to continue to cooperate positively” with the process. However, the points of contention remain.
“The administration of President Joe Biden is ready to help Lebanon and Israel find a mutually acceptable solution to their common maritime borders,” the State Department said.
Hochstein, who is also the State Department’s senior adviser for energy security, also met Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad and army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun.
The speaker’s office said Berri’s discussion with Hochstein focused on “multiple files, particularly the demarcation of the maritime and land border between Lebanon and occupied Palestine. The framework agreement announced in October last year was confirmed.”
The US administration’s framework agreement for talks, which was implemented a year ago by Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Schenker, includes two demarcation zones, for land and maritime borders. In accordance with the agreement, the US acts as mediator at the request of both sides.
Lebanon has been seen as struggling with the demarcation of its maritime borders. After submitting a border proposal to the UN in 2011, Lebanese officials decided that it was based on mistaken estimates and demanded an additional 1,430 square kilometers, an area that includes part of Israel’s Karish gas field. The Israelis oppose this.
Berri told Hochstein: “We have a new opportunity to resume negotiations in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, thanks to the new US efforts in this context.”
He also highlighted “the importance of excluding Lebanon from the sanctions of Caesar’s law in the topics of piping Egyptian gas and electricity from Jordan through Syria to Lebanon.” Lebanon has been experiencing widespread power outages as a result of fuel shortages amid a crippling economic crisis. The Caesar Act is US legislation sanctioning the Syrian government for war crimes against the Syrian people.
“The US envoy conveyed to Berri an optimistic view about positive progress being achieved in what relates to these matters,” the speaker’s office said.
Oil industry governance expert Diana Al-Qaisi told Arab News: “The US mediator has reached out to the Egyptian minister of electricity regarding redirecting the Egyptian gas into Lebanon.”
She added that Hochstein’s talks in Lebanon focused on diplomacy and how best to facilitate negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on their maritime border to agree a mutually acceptable solution, though Lebanon continues to stand firm in its demands.
Lebanese officials have yet to agree a strategy for the next phase of negotiations and their starting point for talks on the border.
The focus of Lebanese authorities then shifted on Wednesday to the nation’s financial crisis and a forensic audit of Banque du Liban, the country’s central bank. President Aoun met a delegation from the company Alvarez and Marsal, who informed him that the audit of the bank’s accounts was due to begin on Thursday morning. Aoun urged them to work quickly due to the urgency of the task.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund opened negotiations with the Lebanese government to agree a strategy to begin to address the country’s insolvency.
Jihad Azour, director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia department, stressed the need to address the losses faced by the financial sector and determine an accurate picture of the current financial situation in the country.
“Last time we had a full update of the situation was August 2020, before the resignation of the previous government, therefore many things have happened and we need to update the numbers and have a new baseline,” he said.
US mediator and Lebanese officials discuss future of border talks with Israel
https://arab.news/cbrq3
US mediator and Lebanese officials discuss future of border talks with Israel
- Amos Hochstein met President Michel Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Mikati and other ministers
- Lebanon is ready “to continue to cooperate positively,” Aoun said
Hamas says Gaza ceasefire efforts are back at square one
- Israel has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
CAIRO: The Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Friday that efforts to find a Gaza Strip truce deal were back at square one after Israel effectively spurned a plan from international mediators, and the White House said it was trying to keep the sides engaged “if only virtually.”
Hamas said in a statement it would consult with other Palestinian factions on its strategy for talks to halt seven months of war triggered by its deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Hours earlier, the United Nations warned that aid for Gaza could grind to a halt in days after Israel seized control this week of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a vital route for supplies to the devastated Palestinian enclave.
Despite heavy US pressure, Israel has said it will proceed with an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced people have sought refuge and Israeli forces say Hamas militants are dug in.
Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing the eastern and western sections of Rafah, effectively encircling the eastern part of the city in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up delivery of some military aid.
The White House said that it was watching “with concern,” but the Israeli operations appeared to be localized around the shuttered Rafah crossing and did not reflect a large-scale invasion.
“Once again, we urge the Israelis to open up that crossing to humanitarian assistance immediately,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
Israel’s plan for an all-out assault on Rafah has ignited one of the biggest rifts in generations with its main ally. Washington held up a weapons shipment over fears of massive civilian casualties.
In a report to Congress, President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday said it was reasonable to assess that Israel had used US arms in instances “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law.
However, the administration said it still found credible and reliable Israel’s assurances that it will use US weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Indirect diplomacy has failed to end a war that health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say has killed almost 35,000 people since the Oct. 7 attack. Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 taken hostage on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies.
Ceasefire talks in Cairo broke up on Thursday with no agreement.
Hamas had said it agreed at the start of the week to a proposal by Qatari and Egyptian mediators that had previously been accepted by Israel. Israel said the Hamas proposal contained elements it cannot accept.
“Israel’s rejection of the mediators’ proposal through the amendments it made returned things to the first square,” Hamas said in Friday’s statement.
“In the light of (Israel Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s behavior and rejection of the mediators’ document and the attack on Rafah and the occupation of the crossing, the leadership of the movement will hold consultations with the brotherly leaders of the Palestinian factions to review our negotiation strategy.”
“Hamas did not suspend nor withdraw from the negotiations; the occupation (Israelis) turned against the mediators’ proposal,” a senior Hamas official, Khalil Al-Hayya, said in comments to Al Araby TV published by Hamas.
Kirby said the end of the talks — which CIA Director William Burns was helping mediate — was “deeply regrettable,” but the US believed the differences were surmountable.
“We are working hard to keep both sides engaged in continuing the discussion, if only virtually,” he said.
EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE
Residents described almost constant explosions and gunfire east and northeast of Rafah on Friday, with intense fighting between Israeli forces and militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas said it ambushed Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east of the city, a sign the Israelis had penetrated several kilometers from the east to the outskirts of the built-up area.
Israel has ordered civilians out of the eastern part of Rafah, forcing tens of thousands of people to seek shelter outside the city, previously the last refuge of more than a million who fled other parts of the enclave during the war.
Israel says it cannot win the war without assaulting Rafah to root out thousands of Hamas fighters it believes are sheltering there. Hamas says it will fight to defend it.
Supplies were already running short and aid operations could halt within days as fuel and food stocks get used up, UN aid agencies said.
“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said the UNICEF Senior Emergency Coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Hamish Young.
Aid agencies say the battle has threatened hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians.
“It is not safe, all of Rafah isn’t safe, as tank shells landed everywhere since yesterday,” Abu Hassan, 50, a resident of Tel Al-Sultan west of Rafah told Reuters via a chat app.
“I am trying to leave but I can’t afford 2,000 shekels ($540) to buy a tent for my family,” he said. “There is an increased movement of people out of Rafah even from the western areas, though they were not designated as red zones by the occupation.”
Israeli tanks have sealed off eastern Rafah from the south, capturing and shutting the only crossing between the enclave and Egypt. An advance on Friday to the Salahuddin road that bisects the Gaza Strip completed the encirclement of the “red zone” where they have ordered residents out.
The Israeli military said its forces in eastern Rafah had located several tunnel shafts, and troops backed by an air strike fought at close quarters with groups of Hamas fighters, killing several.
It said Israeli jets had hit several sites from which rockets and mortar bombs had been fired toward Israel.
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably.”
Iranians vote in parliamentary runoff election
- Politicians calling for change in the country’s government, known broadly as reformists, were generally barred from running in the election
TEHRAN: Iranians voted on Friday in a runoff election for the remaining seats in the country’s parliament after hard-line politicians dominated March balloting.
People in 22 constituencies across the country will elect 45 representatives from a pool of 90 candidates, 15 of whom are considered moderate.
In the capital, Tehran, 16 representatives will be chosen from 32 candidates, all hard-liners.
Final results are expected on Monday, though counts in smaller constituencies are likely before that.
Iran’s parliament plays a secondary role in governing the country.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has the final say in all important state matters.
State TV showed Khamenei voting on Friday immediately after the polls opened.
He urged people to vote and said the runoff election was as important as the main one.
In the March election, hard-liners won 200 out of 245 seats, with more moderate candidates taking the other 45. A total of 25 million ballots were cast, for a turnout of just under 41 percent.
The previous lowest turnout was 42 percent in the 2020 parliamentary election.
Politicians calling for change in the country’s government, known broadly as reformists, were generally barred from running in the election.
Those calling for radical reforms or for abandoning Iran’s theocratic system were also banned or did not bother to register as candidates.
Suspected pirate attack in Gulf of Aden raises concerns about growing Somali piracy
- Somali piracy in the region at the time cost the world’s economy some $7 billion — with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group
DUBAI: A European naval force detained six suspected pirates on Friday after they opened fire on an oil tanker traveling through the Gulf of Aden, officials said, likely part of a growing number of piracy attacks emanating from Somalia.
The attack on the Marshall Islands-flagged Chrystal Arctic comes as Houthis have also been attacking ships traveling through the crucial waterway, the Red Sea, and the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait connecting them.
The assaults have slowed commercial traffic through the key maritime route onward to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
The pirates shot at the tanker from a small ship “carrying weapons and ladders,” according to the British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations Center, which oversees Mideast shipping routes.
The pirates opened fire first at the Chrystal Arctic, whose armed onboard security team returned fire at them, the UKMTO said.
BACKGROUND
Maritime sources say pirates may be encouraged by a relaxation of security or may be taking advantage of the chaos caused by attacks on shipping by the Houthis.
The pirates then abandoned their attempt to take the tanker, which continued on its way with all its crew safe, the UKMTO said.
Hours later, the EU naval force in the region known as Operation Atalanta said a frigate operating in the region detained six suspected pirates.
The frigate seized the pirates, given “the unsafe condition of their skiff” and said that some had “injuries of varied severity.”
It was not immediately clear if those injured suffered gunshot wounds from the exchange of fire with the Chrystal Arctic.
The EU force declined to elaborate “due to the security of the operations.”
Once-rampant piracy off the Somali coast diminished after a peak in 2011. That year, there were 237 reported attacks in waters off Somalia.
Somali piracy in the region at the time cost the world’s economy some $7 billion — with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.
Increased naval patrols, a strengthening central government in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and other efforts saw the piracy beaten back.
However, concerns about new attacks have grown in recent months.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, five incidents were reported off Somalia in the first quarter of 2024.
“These incidents were attributed to Somali pirates who demonstrate mounting capabilities, targeting vessels at great distances from the Somali coast,” the bureau warned in April.
It added that there had been “several reported hijacked dhows and fishing vessels, which are ideal mother ships to launch attacks at distances from the Somali coastline.”
In March, the Indian navy detained dozens of pirates who seized a bulk carrier and took its 17 crew hostage.
In April, pirates release 23 crew members of the Bangladesh-flagged cargo carrier MV Abdullah after seizing the vessel.
The terms of the release are not immediately known.
These attacks come as the Houthi campaign has targeted shipping since November as part of their pressure campaign to stop the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops drive further into Rafah as tanks split city in two
- Four Israeli soldiers killed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad put up a fierce resistance
- Israel’s move into Rafah has been short of the full-scale invasion that it threatened
JEDDAH: Israeli troops pushed further into Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday as its tanks split the city in two and encircled the eastern half.
The Israeli forces faced fierce resistance from Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, and battles also resumed in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped after being forced out earlier in the war. Four Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting there.
Israel’s move into Rafah has been short of the full-scale invasion that it threatened. The US and other Israeli allies are deeply opposed to a major offensive, and Washington has threatened to hold back arms to shipments to Israel.
But the heavy fighting has shaken the city and spread fear that a bigger assault is coming.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said more than 110,000 people had fled Rafah, and families who had already moved numerous times during the war were doing so again.
“The full invasion hasn’t started and things have already gotten below zero,” said Raed Al-Fayomi, a refugee in Rafah. “There’s no food or water.”
Those fleeing erected new tent camps in Khan Younis, which was half destroyed in an earlier Israeli offensive, and the town of Deir Al-Balah.
The charity Project Hope said there had been a surge in people from Rafah seeking care for blast injuries, infections and pregnancies in its clinic in Deir Al-Balah.
“People are evacuating to nothing. There are no homes or proper shelters for people to go to,” said the group’s Gaza team leader in Rafah, Moses Kondowe.
UN aid official Georgios Petropoulos said humanitarian workers had no supplies to set up in new locations.
“We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system,” he said.
The fighting in Rafah has left crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible, and food and other supplies were running critically low, aid agencies said.
The World Food Program will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday, Petropoulos said.
Aid groups have said fuel will also be depleted soon, forcing hospitals to shut down critical operations and bringing to a halt trucks delivering aid across south and central Gaza.
US report criticizes Israel but does not block arms
WASHINGTON: A long-awaited State Department report on Friday criticized Israel’s use of US weapons in the Gaza war but did not find enough evidence of violations to block shipments.
The report said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used weapons in ways inconsistent with international humanitarian law but that the United States could not reach “conclusive findings.”
The report had been held up for several days by debate within the State Department and was finally released after President Joe Biden publicly threatened to withhold certain bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it goes ahead with an assault on the packed city of Rafah.
The report does not affect that decision, with the White House reiterating on Friday that it was concerned about Israeli military action around Rafah, where some 1.4 million Palestinians have taken shelter.
Biden, responding to critics within his Democratic Party concerned by the toll on civilians in the Gaza war, had in February issued a memorandum known as NSM-20 that asked countries that receive US military aid to make “credible and reliable” assurances they are complying with human rights laws.
Israel — which launched a war against Hamas after the militants staged the deadliest ever attack on the country on October 7 — made assurances to the United States and “identified a number of processes for ensuring compliance that are embedded at all levels of their military decision-making,” said the public version of the report, which was submitted to Congress.
“The nature of the conflict in Gaza makes it difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents,” it said.
“Nevertheless, given Israel’s significant reliance on US-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” it said, referring to international humanitarian law.
The report also said that while the Israeli Defense Forces have “the knowledge, experience and tools” to minimize harm, “the results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases.”
But despite some “serious concerns,” the report said that all countries receiving US military aid had made assurances credible and reliable enough “to allow the provision of defense articles covered under NSM-20 to continue.”
A US official described the report as a snapshot and said the State Department was still monitoring the use of weapons.
The other recipients of US military aid covered by the report were Colombia, Iraq, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Ukraine.
