
UAE expresses solidarity with Afghanistan, conveys condolences over victims of bus collision resulting in dozens of deaths
ABU DHABI (WAM)The United Arab Emirates expressed its solidarity with Afghanistan and conveyed its sincere condolences over victims of the traffic accident bus collision which resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries in Herat province, western Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) conveyed the UAE's sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims, as well as to the people of Afghanistan over this tragedy, along with its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Dubai Eye
31 minutes ago
- Dubai Eye
Israel maintains military pressure on Gaza City ahead of planned offensive
The Israeli military maintained its pressure on Gaza City with heavy bombardments overnight, residents said, ahead of a Thursday meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers on plans to seize the enclave's largest city. The military a day earlier called up 60,000 reservists in a sign that the government was pressing ahead with the plan, despite international condemnation. Although one military official said that most reservists would not serve in combat and that the strategy to take Gaza City had not yet been finalised. Calling up tens of thousands of reservists is also likely to take weeks, giving time for mediators to attempt to bridge gaps over a new temporary ceasefire proposal that Hamas has accepted, but the Israeli government is yet to officially respond to. The proposal calls for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas and of 18 bodies. In turn, Israel would release about 200 long-serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The Israeli government has restated that all of the remaining 50 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza must be released at once. Israeli officials believe that around 20 of them are still alive. GAZA CITY SEIZURE Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with some cabinet ministers on Thursday to discuss his plan to seize Gaza City, according to Haaretz and other Israeli media, without giving more details. The plan was approved this month by the security cabinet, which he chairs, even though many of Israel's closest allies have urged the government to reconsider. Netanyahu is under pressure from some far-right members of his coalition to reject a temporary ceasefire and instead to continue the war and pursue the annexation of the territory. In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians have left their homes as Israeli forces have escalated shelling on the Sabra and Tuffah neighbourhoods. Some families have left for shelters along the coast, while others have moved to central and southern parts of the enclave, according to residents there. Israeli tanks have been edging closer to densely populated Gaza City over the past 10 days. Israeli officials have said evacuation notices would be issued to Palestinians there before the military moves in. Two more people have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Thursday. The new deaths raised the number of Palestinians who have died from such causes to 271, including 112 children, since the war began. Israel disputes malnutrition and starvation figures posted by the Gaza health ministry.


Dubai Eye
31 minutes ago
- Dubai Eye
Putin prepared to meet Zelenskiy but legitimacy an issue, Lavrov says
Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy but all issues must be worked through first and there's a question about the Ukrainian leader's authority to sign a peace deal, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday. Putin and US President Donald Trump met on Friday in Alaska for the first summit in more than four years and the two leaders discussed how to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. After his summit talks in Alaska, Trump said on Monday he had begun arranging a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit with the US president. Asked by reporters if Putin was willing to meet Zelenskyy, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "Our president has repeatedly said that he is ready to meet, including with Mr. Zelenskyy". Lavrov, though, added a caveat: "With the understanding that all issues that require consideration at the highest level will be well worked out, and experts and ministers will prepare appropriate recommendations. "And, of course, with the understanding that when and if - hopefully, when - it comes to signing future agreements, the issue of the legitimacy of the person who signs these agreements from the Ukrainian side will be resolved." Putin has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelenskyy's legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024 but the war means no new presidential election has yet been held. Kyiv says Zelenskyy remains the legitimate president. Russian officials say they are worried that if Zelenskyy signs the deal then a future leader of Ukraine could contest it on the basis that Zelenskyy's term had technically expired. Zelenskyy said this week Kyiv would like a "strong reaction" from Washington if Putin were not willing to sit down for a bilateral meeting with him. WAR OR PEACE? European leaders say they are sceptical that Putin is really interested in peace, but are searching for a credible way to ensure Ukraine's security as part of a potential peace deal with minimal US involvement. Lavrov said it was clear that neither Ukraine nor European leaders wanted peace. He accused the so-called "coalition of the willing" - which includes major European powers such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy - of trying to undermine the progress made in Alaska. "They are not interested in a sustainable, fair, long-term settlement," Lavrov said of Ukraine. He said the Europeans were interested in achieving the strategic defeat of Russia. "European countries followed Mr. Zelenskyy to Washington and tried to advance their agenda there, which aims to ensure that security guarantees are based on the logic of isolating Russia," Lavrov said, referring to Monday's gathering of Trump, Zelenskyy and the leaders of major European powers at the White House. Lavrov said the best option for a security guarantee for Ukraine would be based on discussions that took place between Moscow and Kyiv in Istanbul in 2022. Under a draft of that document which Reuters has seen, Ukraine was asked to agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Any attempts to depart from the failed Istanbul discussions would be hopeless, Lavrov said. At the time, Kyiv rejected that proposal on the grounds that Moscow would have held effective veto power over any military response to come to its aid.


Dubai Eye
31 minutes ago
- Dubai Eye
Ukrainian man arrested in Italy over Nord Stream pipeline attacks
A Ukrainian man was arrested at a holiday bungalow in Italy on suspicion of coordinating attacks on three Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, officials said on Thursday, a breakthrough in an episode that sharpened tensions between Russia and the West. Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, the explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role. The arrest comes just as Kyiv is engaged in fraught diplomatic discussions with the United States over how to end the war in Ukraine without giving away major concessions and swathes of its own territory to Russia. "Politically we are firmly on Ukraine's side and will continue to be so," said Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig when asked if the arrest would affect Berlin's ties to Kyiv. "What is important for me is that Germany is a country of law, and crimes in our jurisdiction are fully investigated." The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, a statement from the prosecutor's office said. He and his accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany's northeastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack, it said. The vessel had been rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents via middlemen, it added. Authorities acted on a European arrest warrant for the suspect, who faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures. An official in the Ukrainian president's office said he could not comment as it was not clear who had been arrested. The official reiterated Ukraine's denial of any role in the blasts. Successive Ukrainian governments have seen the pipelines as a symbol of, and vehicle for, Russia's hold over European energy supplies that Kyiv argued made it hard to act against Moscow ever since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. The Wall Street Journal reported that the suspect was a retired captain in Ukraine's armed forces and previously served in Ukraine's security service SBU, as well as in an elite unit that defended Kyiv in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. The officer purportedly headed a team of two soldiers and four civilian divers covertly recruited by a special Ukrainian military unit to lay explosives that damaged the undersea pipelines, the WSJ said, citing investigators. German prosecutors declined to comment on the WSJ report. Carabinieri officers arrested the suspect overnight in San Clemente on Italy's Adriatic coast, where he was supposed to spend a few days with his family. "Once his presence had been verified, the Carabinieri surrounded the bungalow and launched a raid, during which the man surrendered without resistance," a statement by the Carabinieri said, adding the suspect was 49 years old. A police official told Reuters the suspect was arrested because, when providing documents at a hotel check-in, an alert flagging he was wanted popped up at the police headquarters, which dispatched a Carabinieri police patrol. In September 2022, one of the two lines of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was damaged by mysterious blasts, along with both lines of Nord Stream 1 that carried Russian gas to Europe. Moscow, without providing evidence, blamed Western sabotage for the blasts, which cut off most Russian gas supplies to the lucrative European market. The US denied having anything to do with the attacks. The Washington Post and Germany's Der Spiegel magazine have previously said the team that carried out the attack was put together by a former Ukrainian intelligence officer, who denied involvement. In January 2023, Germany raided a ship that it said may have been used to transport explosives and told the United Nations it believed trained divers could have attached devices to the pipelines at about 70 to 80 metres deep. The boat, leased in Germany via a Poland-registered company, contained traces of octogen, the same explosive that was found at the underwater blast sites, according to the investigations by Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered Europe's deadliest conflict in 80 years, in which analysts say more than 1 million people have been killed or injured.