MIDDLE EAST
Sisi to meet Ethiopia’s patriarch, church delegation
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Monday, 12 January 2015
Monday, 12 January 2015
Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is set to meet Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch Mathias I on Monday, the presidency’s spokesman said.
Mathias I came to Egypt early Saturday with a large delegation for a six-day visit after an invitation from Egypt’s Pope Tawadros II, Ahram Online reported.
The Egyptian and Ethiopian churches mediated negotiations after spat between the two countries over the Grand Renaissance Dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile.
Mathias I met with Egypt’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab Saturday.
Last Update: Monday, 12 January 2015 KSA 14:48 - GMT 11:48
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U.N. aid chief wants more Syria intervention
By Michelle Nichols | Reuters United Nations
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos on Tuesday suggested more intervention in humanitarian emergencies as she said some states were aggressively asserting sovereignty rights to stop action being taken to protect civilians.
Amos cited Syria as an example after the United Nations Security Council had to adopt two resolutions to authorize the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid in a bid to reach millions of people in need as a result of the country's civil war.
"I don't think that the Syrian government has ever forgiven me. They see me as personally responsible for pushing the Security Council to agree to those resolutions," Amos told the Council of Foreign Relations in New York.
Amos, who will step down in March after more than four years, also said the conflict in Syria has been her low point. More than 12 million people in Syria need help, while another 3.2 million have fled the conflict that has killed some 200,000 people.
"Perhaps we could have pressured the Security Council earlier to get the resolutions that we did," she said.
Amos said there was not enough accountability at the United Nations and that while the Security Council has recognized flagrant violations of international humanitarian law around the world, "there is no action after that."
"As millions of people are forced to flee, as there is abuse on an unprecedented scale of girls and women in many countries ... and action is not being taken in relation to this, I ask the question: should we not be more interventionist?" she said.
But Amos said she did not necessarily mean "boots on the ground" intervention.
"I'm asking the question about an architecture that we already have, a body of rules and law that we already have that we are not holding ourselves accountable to. I see this as a significant failure," she said.
Amos cited Syria as an example after the United Nations Security Council had to adopt two resolutions to authorize the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid in a bid to reach millions of people in need as a result of the country's civil war.
"I don't think that the Syrian government has ever forgiven me. They see me as personally responsible for pushing the Security Council to agree to those resolutions," Amos told the Council of Foreign Relations in New York.
Amos, who will step down in March after more than four years, also said the conflict in Syria has been her low point. More than 12 million people in Syria need help, while another 3.2 million have fled the conflict that has killed some 200,000 people.
"Perhaps we could have pressured the Security Council earlier to get the resolutions that we did," she said.
Amos said there was not enough accountability at the United Nations and that while the Security Council has recognized flagrant violations of international humanitarian law around the world, "there is no action after that."
"As millions of people are forced to flee, as there is abuse on an unprecedented scale of girls and women in many countries ... and action is not being taken in relation to this, I ask the question: should we not be more interventionist?" she said.
But Amos said she did not necessarily mean "boots on the ground" intervention.
"I'm asking the question about an architecture that we already have, a body of rules and law that we already have that we are not holding ourselves accountable to. I see this as a significant failure," she said.
Last Update: Wednesday, 14 January 2015 KSA 07:53 - GMT 04:53
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Hamas employees in pay protest at unity govt Gaza HQ
By AFP | Gaza City
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Hundreds of Hamas employees began a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Palestinian unity government in Gaza on Tuesday, vowing to stay until their salaries were paid.
“Our sit-in is peaceful and we do not want to destroy public property, but we will stay here until our members are recognised and their salaries paid,” union spokesman Khalil al-Zayan said.
Zayan noted that staff recruited by the former Hamas administration had not received any wages for seven months.
“They can no longer support their families, this is unacceptable,” he said of the crisis looming over a spring reconciliation agreement between the Islamist group and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
Since the striking the deal, Hamas been demanding the new government pay the salaries of the 50,000 civil servants it recruited after its takeover of Gaza in 2007, who took the jobs of 70,000 Fatah employees.
Partial payments of $1,200 each were made to 24,000 Hamas civil servants in late October. But the other 26,000, who work in security functions, have received nothing.
“We’ve had enough of the false promises. Either the government resigns or it takes all of Gaza’s responsibilities, like in the West Bank,” Zayan said.
At the end of December, hundreds of Hamas civil servants blocked the entrance to the unity government’s headquarters during a visit to Gaza by West Bank-based ministers.
“Our sit-in is peaceful and we do not want to destroy public property, but we will stay here until our members are recognised and their salaries paid,” union spokesman Khalil al-Zayan said.
Zayan noted that staff recruited by the former Hamas administration had not received any wages for seven months.
“They can no longer support their families, this is unacceptable,” he said of the crisis looming over a spring reconciliation agreement between the Islamist group and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
Since the striking the deal, Hamas been demanding the new government pay the salaries of the 50,000 civil servants it recruited after its takeover of Gaza in 2007, who took the jobs of 70,000 Fatah employees.
Partial payments of $1,200 each were made to 24,000 Hamas civil servants in late October. But the other 26,000, who work in security functions, have received nothing.
“We’ve had enough of the false promises. Either the government resigns or it takes all of Gaza’s responsibilities, like in the West Bank,” Zayan said.
At the end of December, hundreds of Hamas civil servants blocked the entrance to the unity government’s headquarters during a visit to Gaza by West Bank-based ministers.
Last Update: Tuesday, 13 January 2015 KSA 22:33 - GMT 19:33
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U.N. to hold Libya peace talks in Geneva on Wednesday
AFP, Reuters
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
The United Nations will host crunch talks between Libya’s warring factions from Wednesday in Geneva, amid warnings that this could be the last chance for peace in the battle-scarred nation.
The talks will be overseen by U.N. envoy to Libya and the U.N. chief’s special representative Bernardino Leon. A press conference is scheduled on Wednesday afternoon.
The announcement came after the U.N.-backed negotiations looked in doubt on Tuesday after one of the delegations said it would postpone a decision on whether to participate until Sunday.
Western governments hope talks in Geneva this week would ease a crisis in Libya where two rival governments and their forces are vying for control of the North African oil producer three years after the fall of Moammar Qaddafi.
The internationally recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni has been based out of eastern Libya since the summer after a faction called Libya Dawn took over Tripoli and set up its self-declared government and legislature.
Tripoli-based forces said their legislature had postponed a decision over joining the Geneva talks until Sunday because of concerns about how the negotiations were organized.
“We do not reject dialogue, but we believe that the U.N. rushed to determine the date of the dialogue and its mechanisms,” said Omar Hmaidan, spokesman for the Tripoli legislature on Monday. “We have decided to postpone the vote to participate or not to next Sunday.”
The decision from Tripoli appeared to push back the chance of any meaningful talks between the two sides.
The decision from Tripoli appeared to push back the chance of any meaningful talks between the two sides.
“The U.N. office at Geneva is still planning on hosting the talks that have been announced, but cannot confirm at this stage exactly when they will start,” said U.N. spokeswoman Corinne Momal-Vanian.
A delegation from the elected House of Representatives, representing Thinni’s government, was already in Tunisia waiting to fly to Geneva, according to a parliament representative.
Last chance?
The European Union had called the Geneva talks the last chance for Libya, with Western governments increasingly concerned over the instability spilling into a broader civil war just across the Mediterranean from mainland Europe.
Diplomats expected the Geneva talks to be initial, indirect negotiations over U.N. objectives for a unity government and an end to hostilities rather than any swift resolution.
The conflict involves two broad coalitions of political rivals and their allied brigades of former rebels who once fought side by side against Gaddafi but have since turned against each other.
Thinni’s government and forces are broadly anti-Islamist, allied to former rebel militias from the town of Zintan, and a former Gaddafi army general, Khalifa Haftar, who Thinni has incorporated into his government’s armed forces.
Libya Dawn forces are mostly allied to the rival city of Misrata, but also include some Islamist-leaning former rebels and politicians. They deny charges they are linked to radical Islamist groups.
The new rulers in the capital are not recognized by the United Nations and world powers, but have taken over ministries, oil facilities, airports and much of western and central Libya.
Libya’s oil production has slumped to around 300,000 barrels per day as petroleum revenues increasingly become the focus of fighting. Two major eastern oil ports and their fields are still closed after clashes for control of the terminals.
Last Update: Tuesday, 13 January 2015 KSA 21:33 - GMT 18:33
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France extends air strikes against ISIS in Iraq
Al Arabiya News
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
The French lower house of Parliament approved on Tuesday air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq, reported the Associated Press.
The vote on Tuesday came after France’s worst terrorist attacks in decades last week.
A man claiming allegiance to ISIS killed four people in a kosher market and a policewoman in Paris while two brothers claiming ties to Al-Qaeda in Yemen killed 12 people at a Paris newspaper office.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, speaking to the National Assembly ahead of the vote, said “France is at war against radical Islam” but he insisted “France is not at war against Islam.”
France quickly joined the United States in conducting air strikes against the Islamic State last year. French law requires a vote on extending such operations after four months.
(With AP)
Last Update: Tuesday, 13 January 2015 KSA 21:20 - GMT 18:20
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