France says to expel Algerian diplomats in tit-for-tat move
PARIS: France will expel Algerian diplomats in response to plans by Algiers to send more French officials home, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Wednesday, as relations between the countries deteriorate.Barrot told the BFMTV broadcaster that he would summon Algeria's charge d'affaires to inform him of the decision that he said was 'perfectly proportionate at this point' to the Algerian move, which he called 'unjustified and unjustifiable.'
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Arab News
37 minutes ago
- Arab News
‘Bellicose punchlines': Islamabad slams India's top diplomat over anti-Pakistan remarks in Brussels
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday criticized Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar for 'producing bellicose punchlines' after he made a series of statements during his visit to Brussels, accusing Islamabad of sponsoring 'terrorism' and asserting New Delhi reserved the right to retaliate against militant attacks. The comments come in the wake of a recent military standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbors, involving the exchange of fighter jets, drones, missiles and artillery fire. Both countries have since launched parallel diplomatic offensives, dispatching delegations to major world capitals to present their versions of events. New Delhi suspended a longstanding river water-sharing treaty following a gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that it blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad denied any involvement, calling for an impartial international probe before India decided to launch missiles to target what it called was 'terrorist infrastructure' in Pakistan. A US-brokered ceasefire was announced by President Donald Trump on May 10, followed by Pakistan's call for a 'composite dialogue' with its neighboring state which New Delhi has so far resisted. 'Pakistan categorically rejects the irresponsible remarks made by the External Affairs Minister of India during different media engagements in Brussels,' the foreign office said in a strongly worded statement. 'The discourse of top diplomats should aim to promote peace and harmony, rather than producing bellicose punchlines,' it continued. 'The tone and tenor of a Foreign Minister should be commensurate with his dignified status.' The ministry accused India of waging a years-long 'malicious campaign' aimed at misleading the global community with a 'fictitious narrative of victimhood,' adding that such rhetoric cannot conceal what it described as India's own 'sponsorship of terrorism beyond its borders' or its 'state-sanctioned oppression' in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. 'India must also desist from concocting misleading narratives to justify its recent aggressive actions,' the statement said. 'Pakistan believes in peaceful coexistence, dialogue and diplomacy. However, it stands resolute in its intent and ability to safeguard its sovereignty against any aggression, as exemplified by its robust response to India's reckless strikes last month.' Calling India's recent remarks a sign of 'sheer frustration' after what it termed an 'unsuccessful military adventure,' Islamabad said Indian leaders should focus on improving the quality of their discourse rather than remaining 'obsessed with Pakistan.' 'The history will judge not by who shouted the loudest but by who acted the wisest,' it added.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
United Nations to vote to demand immediate Gaza ceasefire over US, Israel opposition
The United Nations General Assembly will vote on Thursday on a draft resolution that demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza after the United States vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council last week. The 193-member General Assembly is likely to adopt the text with overwhelming support, diplomats say, despite Israel lobbying countries this week against taking part in what it called a 'politically-motivated, counter-productive charade.' General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry weight as a reflection of the global view on the war. Previous demands by the body for an end to the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas have been ignored. Unlike the UN Security Council, no country has a veto in the General Assembly. Thursday's vote also comes ahead of a UN conference next week that aims to reinvigorate an international push for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States has urged countries not to attend. In a note seen by Reuters, the US warned that 'countries that take anti-Israel actions on the heels of the conference will be viewed as acting in opposition to US foreign policy interests and could face diplomatic consequences.' The US last week vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that also demanded an 'immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire' and unhindered aid access in Gaza, arguing it would undermine US-led efforts to broker a ceasefire. The other 14 countries on the council voted in favor of the draft as a humanitarian crisis grips the enclave of more than 2 million people, where the UN warns famine looms and aid has only trickled in since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade last month. The draft resolution to be voted on by the General Assembly on Thursday demands the release of hostages held by Hamas, the return of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. It demands unhindered aid access and 'strongly condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians … of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supply and access.' 'This is both false and defamatory,' Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon wrote in a letter to UN member states, sent on Tuesday and seen by Reuters. Danon described the General Assembly draft resolution as an 'immensely flawed and harmful text,' urging countries not to take part in what he said was a 'farce' that undermines hostage negotiations and fails to condemn Hamas. In October 2023 the General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza with 120 votes in favor. In December 2023, 153 countries voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Then in December last year the body demanded — with 158 votes in favor — an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. The war in Gaza has raged since 2023 after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in an October 7 attack and took some 250 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Many of those killed or captured were civilians. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. They say civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks and that thousands more bodies have been lost under rubble.
Arab News
11 hours ago
- Arab News
UK to trim asylum backlog, saving ‘$1.3 billion a year'
LONDON: Britain's Labour government pledged to cut a backlog in asylum applications and end 'the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers,' saving £1 billion ($1.3 billion) annually, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced on Wednesday. 'Funding that I have provided today ... will cut the asylum backlog, hear more appeal cases and return people who have no rights to be here, saving the taxpayer a billion pounds a year,' Reeves said in her Spending Review that sets out Treasury expenditure and savings over the next few years. The number of UK asylum seekers has risen sharply in recent years, with tens of thousands of applications waiting to be decided, according to official figures. Labour, which came to power last July, has set about tackling the situation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has started formal talks with unspecified countries to create 'return centers' outside the UK for those who have exhausted all legal avenues to remain in the country. The number of asylum seekers in the UK tripled to 84,200 in 2024 from an average of 27,500 between 2011 and 2020. In 2022, there were approximately 13 asylum applications per 10,000 people in the UK, compared with 25 applications per 10,000 people in the EU at the same time. Some 11 percent of migrants in the UK were asylum seekers or refugees in 2023 — almost twice as high as the 2019 figure of six percent. The number of people crossing the Channel in makeshift boats, a route that virtually did not exist before 2018, has meanwhile increased sharply in recent years. In 2024, the largest group of asylum seekers hailed from Pakistan, followed by Afghanistan. In previous years, they came mainly from Syria and Iran.
