Jordanian FM hosts EU observers ahead of parliamentary elections

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Updated 09 September 2024
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Jordanian FM hosts EU observers ahead of parliamentary elections

  • Ayman Safadi hosted the Vice President of the European Parliament and head of the European Election Observer Mission Zeljana Zovko

LONDON: The Jordanian foreign minister on Monday welcomed to Amman EU observers who will monitor the kingdom’s parliamentary elections due to be held on Tuesday.

Ayman Safadi hosted the Vice President of the European Parliament and head of the European Election Observer Mission Zeljana Zovko, and members of her delegation.

Safadi and the EU team discussed ways of enhancing relations between Jordan and the EU, and the importance of the partnership and cooperation between the country and the bloc, Jordan Press Agency reported.

The minister praised the aid that EU member states will provide to Jordan’s economic and development programs in order to help the country deal with the repercussions of regional crises, especially the burden of hosting Syrian refugees.

The meeting also touched on developments in the Gaza Strip and Israeli escalation in the West Bank. Officials discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as ways to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave.

Safadi underlined the importance of the EU’s role in these efforts.


Israeli strike kills policeman in Syria: state media

Updated 6 sec ago
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Israeli strike kills policeman in Syria: state media

BEIRUT: Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed a policeman in the south of Syria near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, state media said, the day after a deadly air strike on the capital.
Israel has repeatedly struck Syria throughout the civil war that started in 2011, but it has ramped these up in recent weeks as it also pounds Lebanon.
Citing a police official, the official SANA news agency reported “the death of a security force member and wounding of another in an Israeli strike” on the outskirts of Quneitra city.
It comes after a strike in the Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh late Tuesday, that a war monitor said targeted a building used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The Syrian government said it killed seven civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor on Wednesday reported a higher toll of nine civilians, including four children.
The Britain-based organization said four others were also killed, including two members of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Last week, the Observatory said an Israeli strike on Mazzeh killed four people, including the son-in-law of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on south Beirut last month.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence.
Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been among the Syrian government’s most important allies in the country’s more than decade-old civil war.

Israel police say stabber wounds six in ‘terrorist attack’

Updated 54 sec ago
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Israel police say stabber wounds six in ‘terrorist attack’

JERUSALEM: Israeli police said at least six people were wounded, some seriously according to emergency responders, in a stabbing in four locations of Hadera city, describing it as a “terrorist attack.”
“The attack took place on four different sites where six people were stabbed... a short time ago, the police located the suspect and neutralized him by shooting,” said a police statement.
“We treated several injured individuals in varying conditions, some of whom were in serious condition,” said emergency service provider Magen David Adom.

Turkiye moves to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

Updated 26 min 43 sec ago
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Turkiye moves to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

  • Turkiye is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon

ANKARA: Turkiye on Wednesday sent ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon, with its Beirut envoy saying it would be “the biggest” evacuation of its type from the war-torn country.

A Turkish diplomatic source told AFP two naval ships carrying the evacuated nationals and their families would arrive at the southern Turkish port of Mersin “in the early hours” of Thursday morning.

The two ships set sail overnight for the Lebanese capital whose southern suburbs were hit overnight by fresh Israeli bombardments.

“These ships, with a capacity of around 2,000 people, will be ready to take those of our citizens who requested it from Lebanon to Mersin port,” Turkish ambassador Ali Baris Ulusoy told TRT Haber public television.

Turkiye, which is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon, announced the move on Tuesday because of the deteriorating security situation on the ground in Lebanon.

Images on TRT Haber showed a crowd of people at Beirut port waiting to board the boats.

The ambassador said the two ships were also bringing “approximately 300 tons of humanitarian aid” to show Turkiye’s support for the Lebanese people, including tents, bedding, hygiene kits and kitchenware.

Since September 23, Israel has intensified strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, killing more than 1,100 people and forcing more than a million to flee, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Monday.


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,010

Updated 09 October 2024
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,010

  • The toll includes 45 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Wednesday that at least 42,010 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 45 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 97,720 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.


Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo

Updated 09 October 2024
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Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo

  • Hamas delegation led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator and Hamas’ second-in-command, currently based in Qatar

CAIRO: Leaders from the Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement will hold further unity talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a Hamas official told Reuters.
According to Taher Al-Nono, the media adviser of the Hamas political chief, the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday. It was led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator and Hamas’ second-in-command, currently based in Qatar.
“The meeting will discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause,” Nono said.
There was no immediate comment from Fatah.
The meeting will be the first in months since the two groups held talks in the Chinese capital in July, agreeing on steps to form a unity government. Similar rounds in the past have so far failed to make progress.
The issue of the post-war Gaza administration is one of the thorniest issues facing the Palestinians, and both factions have said it was an internal affair, rejecting any Israeli conditions.
Israel vowed it would not accept any role for Hamas in post-war Gaza. It says it doesn’t trust the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority to do the job either.