YEREVAN: Armenia announced Friday it was recognizing the State of Palestine, the latest country to do so during the war in Gaza, saying it was against “violence toward civilian populations.”
A series of nations have recognized the State of Palestine amid the war between Israel and Hamas, drawing strong rebukes from Israeli officials.
Shortly after the former Soviet republic announced the recognition, Israel’s foreign ministry said it summoned Yerevan’s ambassador for a “severe reprimand.”
Yerevan noted it is “genuinely interested in establishing long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.”
“Confirming its commitment to international law, equality of nations, sovereignty and peaceful coexistence, the Republic of Armenia recognizes the State of Palestine,” Armenia added.
Yerevan, which has itself been ridden by conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan for decades, slammed Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.
“Armenia deplores using civilian infrastructure as shields during armed conflicts and violence toward civilian populations,” Yerevan said.
It also criticized Hamas for “the captivity of civilian persons” and said Armenia “joins the demands of international community on freeing them.”
A senior official from the Palestinian Authority, Hussein Al-Sheikh, welcomed the move.
“This is a victory for right, justice, legitimacy and the struggle of our Palestinian people for liberation and independence,” he said on social media.
“Thank you our friend Armenia,” added Al-Sheikh, who is also secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee.
The Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas, which is at war with Israel in Gaza, also welcomed Yerevan’s decision Friday.
“We consider this an additional and important step toward solidifying international recognition of our people’s rights and their aspirations to end the occupation of their land,” the movement said in a statement.
In late May, Spain, Ireland, and Norway officially recognized the State of Palestine, stating they saw the move as a step toward peace in the region.
Israeli authorities accused the European trio of “rewarding terrorism.”
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,431 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Israel is a major arms supplier to Armenia’s arch-foe neighbor Azerbaijan, with which Yerevan had been locked in a decades-long territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region that Baku recaptured last year from Armenian separatists.
Armenia says recognizes State of Palestine
https://arab.news/5s6xp
Armenia says recognizes State of Palestine
- Yerevan noted it is “genuinely interested in establishing long-term peace and stability in the Middle East”
- Israel is a major arms supplier to Armenia’s arch-foe neighbor Azerbaijan
Nigerian gunmen free kidnapped Muslim religious travelers
- Kidnappings for ransom are common in the west African country
JOS, Nigeria: Gunmen have released a group of people they kidnapped in central Nigeria who were traveling for a Muslim religious event, the brother of one of the victims told AFP Saturday.
On December 21, unidentified attackers abducted 28 people, including women and children, in Plateau state while they were traveling to a Malud gathering to mark the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
Kidnappings for ransom are common in the west African country. But the abduction in Plateau state came after a spate of mass kidnappings in November that drew international scrutiny over the country’s grim security situation.
“Yesterday at night, an official of the State Security Service called and told us that our people have been rescued,” said Ibrahim Musa, a brother of one of the victims.
Musa told AFP he and others “are eagerly waiting to receive our people” once they’re handed over by security forces to their families.
The Plateau abduction occurred on the same day authorities secured the release of 130 schoolchildren — the last batch of more than 250 snatched from their Catholic boarding school in north-central Niger state.
It was unclear how the Plateau travelers were freed. Paying ransoms is technically illegal in Nigeria, though the government is often suspected of doing so.
Neither the police nor the State Security Service — also known as the Department of State Services (DSS) — immediately responded to a request for comment.
US President Donald Trump has latched onto the insecurity in Nigeria, focusing on the killing of Christians and putting Abuja under diplomatic pressure.
In late December the US launched strikes on what it and the Nigerian government said were militants linked to the Daesh group.
Nigeria’s myriad armed conflicts kill people across religious lines, and some experts have warned Trump’s focus on Christian victims may inflame communal tensions.
