PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Egypt on Monday to back the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by the United States, and to discuss implementation of its next phases, the Elysee Palace said.
The French presidency did not say whether Macron would be meeting with US President Donald Trump, who may also go to Egypt and who brokered the deal agreed by Israel and Hamas.
Macron will go to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt's Red Sea resort town which hosted the indirect talks that resulted in the Gaza deal.
There, he will hold discussions "with partners on the next steps of the peace plan's implementation", the Elysee said.
It added that Macron's trip was a continuation of a Franco-Saudi initiative to foster peace and security in the Middle East, based on "the two-state solution" of Israeli and Palestinian states coexisting.
France last month recognised a Palestinian state as part of its drive towards that goal, infuriating Israel and earning criticism from the United States.
Macron's trip comes as France is mired in political crisis.
The president has just reappointed as prime minister Sebastien Lecornu, an ally who resigned from the post on Monday, and tasked him with forming a government to push through an austerity budget rejected by much of the French parliament.
France's Macron heads to Egypt on Monday to back Gaza ceasefire deal
https://arab.news/g2frz
France's Macron heads to Egypt on Monday to back Gaza ceasefire deal
- The French presidency didn’t say whether Macron would be meeting with Trump
- Macron will hold discussions "with partners on the next steps of the peace plan's implementation", the Elysee said
Syrian refugee returns set to slow as donor support fades
- Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding
GENEVA: More than 3 million Syrians have returned home since the collapse of Bashar Assad’s rule a year ago but a decline in global funding could deter others, the UN refugee agency said on Monday.
Some 1.2 million refugees in addition to 1.9 million internally displaced people have gone back home following the civil war that ended with Assad’s overthrow, but millions more are yet to return, according to UNHCR.
The agency said much more support was needed to ensure the trend continues.
“Syrians are ready to rebuild – the question is whether the world is ready to help them do it,” said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi. Over 5 million refugees remain outside Syria’s borders, mostly in neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon.
RISK OF REVERSALS
Grandi told donors in Geneva last week that there was a risk that those Syrians who are returning might even reverse their course and come back to host states.
“Returns continue in fairly large numbers but unless we step up broader efforts, the risk of (reversals) is very real,” he said.
Overall, Syria’s $3.19 billion humanitarian response is 29 percent funded this year, according to UN data, at a time when donors like the United States and others are making major cuts to foreign aid across the board.
The World Health Organization sees a gap emerging as aid money drops off before national systems can take over.
As of last month, only 58 percent of hospitals were fully functional and some are suffering power outages, affecting cold-chain storage for vaccines.
“Returnees are coming back to areas where medicines, staff and infrastructure are limited – adding pressure to already thin services,” Christina Bethke, Acting WHO Representative in Syria, told reporters.
The slow pace of removing unexploded ordnance is also a major obstacle to recovery, said the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, which reported over 1,500 deaths and injuries in the last year. Such efforts are just 13 percent funded, it said.
Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding.
Others may have held back as they wait to see if authorities under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa make good on promises of reform and accountability, including for massacres of the Alawite minority in March, they say.
