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See - Sada Elbalad
10-05-2025
- Politics
- See - Sada Elbalad
Palestinian President Rejects US-Led Administration in Gaza
By Ahmad El-Assasy Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has firmly rejected any plans to establish an American-run administration in the Gaza Strip, stating that such a move is unacceptable to the Palestinian leadership and has been clearly communicated to Washington. In a televised statement reported by Cairo News Channel, Abbas stressed the importance of halting the ongoing conflict in Gaza, saying, 'The Palestinian people want nothing more than the implementation of international legitimacy.' The comments come amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to manage the post-conflict governance of Gaza, following months of war and humanitarian crisis in the territory. Abbas reiterated the Palestinian Authority's stance that Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state and must not be subject to foreign administration or unilateral arrangements. His statement is the latest in a series of firm positions taken by the Palestinian leadership against any proposals that bypass national consensus or disregard international law. read more Gold prices rise, 21 Karat at EGP 3685 NATO's Role in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict US Expresses 'Strong Opposition' to New Turkish Military Operation in Syria Shoukry Meets Director-General of FAO Lavrov: confrontation bet. nuclear powers must be avoided News Iran Summons French Ambassador over Foreign Minister Remarks News Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Escalation in West Bank News Greek PM: Athens Plays Key Role in Improving Energy Security in Region News One Person Injured in Explosion at Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid News Egypt confirms denial of airspace access to US B-52 bombers Lifestyle Pistachio and Raspberry Cheesecake Domes Recipe News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia News Australia Fines Telegram $600,000 Over Terrorism, Child Abuse Content Arts & Culture Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's $4.7M LA Home Burglarized Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Videos & Features Bouchra Dahlab Crowned Miss Arab World 2025 .. Reem Ganzoury Wins Miss Arab Africa Title (VIDEO) Sports Neymar Announced for Brazil's Preliminary List for 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers News Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly Inaugurates Two Indian Companies Arts & Culture New Archaeological Discovery from 26th Dynasty Uncovered in Karnak Temple
The Independent
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
An American ambush threatens Zelensky's negotiators – can the UK save Kyiv?
In hosting Ukraine 's president for talks about a 'ceasefire' with Russia, with three of America's biggest diplomatic guns, Britain's foreign secretary has the awkward task to keep them on side while ensuring he hasn't led Volodymyr Zelensky's troops into an ambush. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, has signalled that the US is prepared to walk away from brokering peace talks if there is no breakthrough. He's bringing his team of negotiators with him - not to talk but to present an ultimatum that favours Russia. Ukraine will have no choice but to reject proposals to freeze Russian control of the east of the country. Zelensky is likely to be asked (or told) to recognise the Kremlin 's de facto rule over Crimea, agree that Ukraine can never join Nato, and generally to meekly roll under Putin's tank tracks. That may explain why the Ukrainian president won't be in London on Wednesday. David Lammy doesn't want this. Nor do France and Germany, who are also sending their foreign ministers and security advisers to London. They are all now part of a 'coalition of the willing' formed by Keir Starmer and Emanuel Macron to offset the rapid withdrawal of America from European affairs - and the blatant support for Russia from the White House. They can't, and won't, admit that Donald Trump and his administration have done everything they can not to pursue peace in Ukraine but to cement the Kremlin 's suzerainty over lands it has invaded. But, according to reports in the US media, that is exactly what Rubio, Steve Waltz, the US envoy to Russia and Keith Kellogg, the envoy to Ukraine, are expected to try to sell to Ukraine and her allies here in London. They'll be expected to agree to leave Russia holding 20 per cent of his country in return for ceasefire monitors. They'll be expected to agree that the US would recognise Russia's control of Crimea, the headquarters of Russia's defeated Black Sea fleet, that was illegally invaded in 2014, and then annexed. Dmitry Perkov, the Kremlin spokesman, has already signalled Putin's delight with the US position on no membership of Nato for Ukraine. 'Of course we're satisfied with this,' he cooed. As well he might, given that Russia is being promised sanctions relief, and generally expanded business opportunities with America, while Washington has not indicated that Putin would face any retribution of he failed to observe, or agree, a ceasefire. Indeed there has been talk of turning the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, currently occupied by Russian troops and no longer generating any power, into an American-run project that will supply electricity to Russian-held Crimea. Ukraine knows what happens when it defies Trump. As a taster it suffered suspended military aid and later its intelligence feed from the US was cut just as Russia launched attacks in its Kursk province. Moscow has, according to Kyiv, massed close to 70,000 troops on Ukraine's northern border and may be planning a major drive into Ukraine. If Ukraine rejects the proposals from Rubio and Co, it knows the consequences. 'My concern is to prevent Trump from finding pretext to put the blame on Ukraine. Trump wants to exit the process of negotiations because he sees that it is hopeless because of Putin,' Oleksandr Morezkho, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee told The Independent. 'That's why for us it's crucially important not to give Trump a chance to blame us. We need to continue to do what we have been doing: to remain constructive and agree with his initiatives in so far as it doesn't hurt our national interests, such as territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.' In the meantime, a British official cautioned against assumptions that the high level US delegation was an indication that the latest meeting was a make or break moment. The US, the official said, was a very close ally and the London meetings were not likely to be the 'moment when this all blows up'.
New European
12-02-2025
- Politics
- New European
Alastair Campbell's diary: The Rest Is Politics heads to Damascus
So it was quite a moment to be sitting in a huge palace in Damascus, chatting happily with Ahmed al-Sharaa, who might well have ordered the attack, and whose various al-Qaida/Islamic State/al-Nusra/(delete where applicable) organisations were the reason I was advised against travelling. After 15 years of war, and the recent collapse of the Assad regime, official Foreign Office advice remains not to go here, but a few calls to a few people assured us that 'you would have to be very unlucky' for anything bad to happen. A British security official advised: 'They are trying to show a different face to the world. They will make sure nothing goes wrong.' And so, instead of seeking to wipe out the No 10 comms man who took so much of the blame for the war in Iraq (the one that led al-Sharaa to go and fight, ending up in American-run jails for five years for his troubles) and the Old Etonian British official given colonial-style powers over vast areas of the country once Saddam was gone, it seems we were now being looked after by him. Strange times. From terror leader with a $10m bounty on his head, to head of a country of 23 million, with world leaders lining up to meet him; from warrior in battle fatigues two months ago to the smartly dressed, gently smiling president who greeted us in the vast palace until recently occupied by the dictator Bashar al-Assad and his hated British-born wife, Asma. He had just returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia. We had been on standby all day, hoping to see him at 3pm, but as the day wore on, and the 'still in Saudi' messages piled up, we feared postponement or cancellation. However, his plane landed at 9pm, and by 10.30pm the interview began. Midnight came and went, and we were still talking. I suppose the question we were probing was one confronted many times during the Northern Ireland peace process: is it possible for someone who had been so sure that fighting, up to and including car and suicide bombings, was the way to achieving their goals, now to be just as sure that peaceful means are far, far better? Can a man of violence be a man of peace? It is barely possible to make that judgement on one meeting, even one that ran into the early hours. As you will hear if you listen to the interview, he is definitely saying a lot of the right things. The scale of his victory is immense; the scale of the challenge in a shattered country is even greater. Right now, virtually everyone you meet says they feel happier than they did under Assad. But we also drove through the Bekaa Valley and saw the shanty towns made of scraps of UN sheeting that have housed some of the million Syrian refugees in Lebanon over the last 14 years. Children have lived their whole lives in these tents. There are six million Syrians outside the country – mostly in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey – thinking of returning to their towns and villages, many of them destroyed. In Damascus, we found youth unemployment off the scale, public services close to collapse, nine out of 10 living in poverty, inflation so rampant that we needed a plastic bag to carry the $300 worth of Syrian pounds to pay the film crew. The capital felt virtually unpoliced, Assad's security forces having largely vanished, while there is also a not inconsiderable security threat from camps housing thousands of men still committed to the jihadist cause, (some of whom would no doubt like to see al-Sharaa taken down and out). So there is a huge amount on the presidential plate. All the more remarkable, then, that at the end of a ridiculously busy day, he still found time to see us, and seemed pretty calm, reasonably confident, and with no illusions that he has one of the toughest jobs on the planet. The interview took place in what Assad laughably called 'the Palace of the People,' on Mount Mezzeh, West Damascus (main building 340,000 sq ft, premises overall 5.5m sq ft, presidential hospital included). The palace was the place where Assad famously, after a reasonably polite meeting with Tony Blair, launched into a vicious attack on him when meeting the media later. Thereafter we referred to any unwanted verbal onslaught as 'doing an Assad', or 'going full Assad'. The security checks to get in were even greater for al-Sharaa than for Assad, and I couldn't help wondering, and indeed asked him, how weird it must feel to have gone from the life he had to the one he leads now. I find it hard to imagine he likes living there. There is only so much marble any one person can take in. We entered a football pitch-sized hall, thick red carpet running through the middle of it, huge upturned silver domes hanging from the ceiling. What awful taste the Assads had. I would love to know whether their new Russian abode is as large, or as gaudy. I would love to get them on the podcast, too. If anyone bumps into them in exile, please pass on the message. After all, we landed al-Sharaa by saying on the podcast that we would like to. Unsurprisingly, overseas tourism has virtually collapsed, which is a shame, because there is so much to see and do; the old city, which has a claim to be the oldest city in the world – continuously inhabited for 7,000 years; beautiful mosques and churches, wonderfully colourful markets, plenty of war tourism if that rocks your boat. But the two most powerful impressions left on me were of people's resilience, especially the children, who seem to find so much to smile about, and warmth. Twice we tried to buy things for which the seller didn't want to take money. And I lost count of how many times people just said the simple word 'welcome' on seeing the two of us walking along. One big blot on the Syrian landscape, however… smoking. With the zeal of a convert, as a former heavy smoker I now cannot bear to be anywhere near it. In Damascus, it is hard not to be. At breakfast this morning, at the next table were six men, five of whom seemed to be involved in a chain-smoking contest. One ate a huge omelette, fork in one hand, cigarette in the other, drawing on the latter as he chewed mouthfuls of the former. Of the many great things the New Labour government did, banning smoking in workplaces was right up there. Thankfully there seemed to be no smoking allowed in the room where we interviewed the president. I hope this is the first step on the road to his introducing a similar ban in Syria, then a holiday might follow.
