Amman: Activists in Jordan called for further protests Sunday after days of demonstrations against the war in Gaza and Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel that have brought thousands onto the streets.
Jordan, where nearly half the population is of Palestinian origin, has seen regular rallies in Amman and elsewhere in solidarity with Gaza since Israel’s military onslaught in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack.
Recent protests have seen rare clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the capital and in Jordan’s largest Palestinian refugee camp.
The group Jordanian Youth Gathering urged people to return later Sunday to the Israeli embassy in Amman “to support the resistance in Gaza and demand the cancelation of the Jordanian Israeli peace treaty and cut all ties with Israel.”
In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab country, after Egypt in 1979, to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
“No to a Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory,” read one banner at Saturday’s embassy protest, where people have gathered every evening since the holy Muslim month of Ramadan began more than two weeks ago.
Security forces said on Sunday they had arrested a number of protesters 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Amman at the Beqaa refugee camp.
Public security spokesman Amer Al-Sartaawi said in a statement a “number of rioters” were arrested after “acts of rioting and vandalism, setting fires, and hurling stones at vehicles on the public road.”
Beqaa camp, home to more than 100,000 Palestinians, is one of six camps set up to house the influx of refugees fleeing the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
Jordan has 2.2 million people who have been registered by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Many have been granted Jordanian citizenship.
Hamas’s October attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel responded with a relentless military campaign that has so far killed 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Calls for more Jordan protests against Gaza war, Israel ties
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Calls for more Jordan protests against Gaza war, Israel ties
EU’s von der Leyen to unveil aid for Lebanon to stop refugee flows, says Cyprus
Nicosia has lobbied the bloc for months to extend aid to Lebanon similar to deals the EU has with Turkiye, Tunisia, and more recently, Egypt
NICOSIA: The European Union will offer economic aid for Lebanon when the head of the bloc’s executive and the Cypriot president jointly visit Beirut on Thursday, a Cypriot official said on Tuesday.
EU member Cyprus has grown increasingly concerned at a sharp increase in the number of Syrian refugees making their way to the Mediterranean island. Lebanon, a mere 100 miles (185 km) away from Cyprus, hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
“The President of the European Commission will present an economic aid package for Lebanon,” Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a statement.
President Ursula von der Leyen, due in Cyprus on Wednesday, would jointly travel to Beirut with the Cypriot President, Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday morning.
Discussions would focus on challenges Lebanon presently faces and stability reforms it needs, Letymbiotis said.
Nicosia has lobbied the bloc for months to extend aid to Lebanon similar to deals the EU has with Turkiye, Tunisia, and more recently, Egypt.
“The implementation of this (package) was at the initiative of President Christodoulides and the Republic of Cyprus and is practical proof of the active role the EU can play in our region,” Letymbiotis said.
Lebanon, in the throes of an economic meltdown since 2019, has not enacted most of the reforms required by the International Monetary Fund to get access to its funding, but has asked friendly countries to continue backing it.
Some Lebanese officials have used the growing presence of migrants and refugees in the country as a bargaining chip, threatening to stop intercepting migrant boats destined for Europe unless Lebanon received more economic support.
Cyprus took in more than 2,000 Syrians who arrived by sea in the first quarter of this year, compared to just 78 in the same period of last year. Earlier this month, it took the unprecedented step of dispatching patrol vessels to international waters off Lebanon to discourage crossings and said it was suspending the processing of asylum applications from Syrians.
Major Developers unveils $272 million luxury residential project
- Manta Bay will mark the company’s first project in Ras Al Khaimah
DUBAI: UAE-based real estate company Major Developers has announced an AED1 billion ($272 million) luxury residential project in Ras Al-Khaimah, Emirates News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Manta Bay will mark the company’s first project in the emirate and represents a major investment in the region’s luxury market.
The company says the development, on the shores of Al-Marjan Island, is inspired by Manta Bay in Indonesia and will be the epitome of exclusivity. It is set to break ground by mid-2024.
“We anticipate that Ras Al-Khaimah will capture a substantial portion of the UAE’s real estate market, supported by its strategic location, extensive infrastructure enhancements and increasing demand,” said Naren Vish, Major Developers’ chief marketing officer, during a press conference at the JW Marriott Hotel Marina in Dubai.
Egyptian FM repeats call for two-state solution
- Sameh Shoukry took part in a ministerial coordination meeting involving Arab and European countries
- Meeting, which discussed recognition of a Palestinian state, was held on the sidelines of the two-day WEF special meeting in Riyadh
CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister has repeated his call for a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue.
Sameh Shoukry on Monday took part in a ministerial coordination meeting involving Arab and European countries.
The meeting, which discussed recognition of a Palestinian state, was held on the sidelines of the two-day World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh.
Shoukry called on the international community to pressure Israel into ending its occupation of the Palestinian territories, and to support the legitimate and inalienable rights of Palestinians, said Ahmed Abu Zeid, the ministry’s spokesman.
Given the violence in Gaza and tensions in the West Bank, international parties must “assume their legal and human responsibilities to find a serious political horizon to establish a two-state solution and bring just and comprehensive peace to the region,” Shoukry added.
The foreign minister described the two-state solution as the “only path” toward peace between Palestinians and Israelis, as well as stability and coexistence among the peoples of the region.
IAEA chief Grossi to visit Iran May 6-8, Mehr says
- Grossi will meet Iranian officials in Tehran before participating in the International Conference of Nuclear Sciences and Technologies held in Isfahan
- Enrichment to 60 percent brings uranium close to weapons grade
DUBAI: International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi is scheduled to visit Iran to take part in a nuclear conference from May 6-8 and meet Iranian officials, Iran’s Mehr news agency said on Tuesday.
“Grossi will meet Iranian officials in Tehran before participating in the International Conference of Nuclear Sciences and Technologies held in Isfahan,” the agency reported.
The IAEA chief said in February that he was planning a visit to Tehran to tackle a “drifting apart” in relations between the agency and the Islamic Republic.
Grossi said the same month that while the pace of uranium enrichment by Iran had slowed slightly since the end of last year, Iran was still enriching at an elevated rate of around 7 kg of uranium per month to 60 percent purity.
Enrichment to 60 percent brings uranium close to weapons grade, and is not necessary for commercial use in nuclear power production. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons but no other state has enriched to that level without producing them.
Under a defunct 2015 agreement with world powers, Iran can enrich uranium only to 3.67 percent. After then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of that deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran moved well beyond the deal’s nuclear restrictions.
The IAEA said the 2015 nuclear deal was “all but disintegrated.”
‘We are with them’: Lebanon students rally for Gaza
- “We are Palestine’s neighbors. If we do not stand with them today, who will?” asked AUB student Zeina
- Some students also carried banners declaring solidarity with south Lebanon, where Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since October
BEIRUT: Hundreds of university students in Lebanon protested on Tuesday against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, inspired by recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have rocked US and European campuses, AFP correspondents said.
Dozens of students gathered at the prestigious American University of Beirut (AUB), some wearing the traditional Arab keffiyeh scarf that has long been a symbol of the Palestinian cause, an AFP photographer said.
“We are Palestine’s neighbors. If we do not stand with them today, who will?” asked AUB student Zeina, 23, declining to provide her surname.
“Around the world, students my age, from our generation, are the ones raising their voices,” she added.
The Gaza war began after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Hamas also took some 250 hostages. Israel estimates that 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The protests came as Hamas said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the release of scores of hostages in exchange for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.
Some students also carried banners declaring solidarity with south Lebanon, where Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since October.
The protests came as similar demonstrations swept universities across the United States, posing a challenge to administrators trying to balance free speech with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism.
Footage of police in riot gear called in by universities to break up the rallies has circulated worldwide, recalling the protest movement that erupted during the Vietnam War.
“We renew our demand to stop the American-backed Israeli genocide against Palestinians and urgently demand to stop Zionist (Israeli) attacks” on south Lebanon, a female student told the crowd at AUB, praising “the global student movement supporting our people.”
At the nearby Lebanese American University, dozens of students gathered, raising Palestinian flags and burning an Israeli one.
“We want to convey a message to our people in Gaza: we are with them... We have not forgotten them,” Lara Qassem, 18, told AFP.
In Lebanon, at least 385 people have been killed in months of cross-border violence, mostly fighters but also including 73 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed in the country’s north.
