Latest news with #VarsenAghabekian
Euronews
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Palestinian Foreign Minister "shocked" at EU failure to act over Gaza
The Palestinian Authority's (PA) minister for foreign affairs, Varsen Aghabekian described as 'shocking and disappointing' the European Union's refusal to act against Israel for violations in Gaza and the West Bank. The PA governs the West Bank while Hamas controlled has the Gaza Strip for much of the last two decades. It has been severely weakened because of Israel's assault in Gaza. EU foreign affairs ministers failed on Tuesday to agree on any action against the Jewish state despite an EU report showing Israel is in breach of article 2 of the Israel-EU Association Agreement that underlines that human rights and democratic principles must be respected. It's 'shocking and disappointing, because everything is crystal clear. I mean, there's a new EU report that clearly stated that Israel has been violating missing words 38 violations were indicated in that report. And it's an EU report,' Varsen Aghabekian told Euronews in an exclusive interview. 'These violations have been unfolding in front of everybody's eyes. The whole world has been seeing what is happening in Gaza. The killing. The atrocities, the war crimes, the weaponization of food, the killing of people queuing to get a pack of flour', she said. Aghabekian was in Brussels as EU Foreign Ministers failed to get the requisite support to coalesce unanimously agree on around any measure despite the conclusion that Israel is in breach of human rights in the West Bank and Gaza laws. The EU and its member states are the biggest donors of humanitarian and development aid to the Palestinians, but due to historical divisions, are unable to forge a common foreign policy. Ministers were given a range of ten options by EU Foreign Affairs chief Kaja Kallas to apply as potential penalties against Israel in response to the breaches. Such options included suspension of the Israel's access to the EU's Horizon Europe Research programme, limited trade measures, an arms embargo or sanctions against extremist hardline members of the Israeli government such as Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have been sanctioned by the UK, Norway, Canada, New Zealand and Australia for 'repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.'. Yet it was a foregone conclusion that no measures would pass, as most decisions require unanimity from all member states, and Germany, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic consistently refuse any criticism against Israel's military campaigns in the Palestinian Territories. For decisions that require a qualified majority vote, either Germany or Italy – the countries with the largest populations need to support them and neither was willing. Last week, ahead of the meeting on Tuesday, the EU struck a deal with Israel for it 'substantially' increase the number of trucks of humanitarian aid including medical food items into Gaza. The EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday that while there has been some improvement in the number of trucks entering Gaza, the situation was still 'catastrophic'. In the days following the deal, dozens of Palestinian civilians including many children have been killed trying to access aid. On Sunday Israel admitted a 'technical error' after 10 people were killed including six children at a water distribution centre in Nuseirat refugee camp. 'I hope the EU puts very strong scrutinizing measures on monitoring the compliance with the agreement, because if we look at the last week, since the agreement was made, we see more killings of people', the foreign minister said. 'We see people killed at the queuing points. We see children brutally murdered while in tents. Awaiting medical care from another tent', said Aghabekian Shain. Israel says the violence in Gaza is as a response to Hamas stealing and diverting aid from starving Palestinians. 'There are conflicting reports on this. But regardless, whatever is being offered in Gaza is not meeting the needs of the Gazans', she said. Shahin Aghabekian said where in the past there were 300 points of distribution of food and aid, today there are four. 'There was a modality in the past, and that modality was working because the international organizations were distributing the aid, and they had like 300 points of distribution. Today we have a new modality with four points of the distribution', she told Euronews. In its last July 9 humanitarian update, the UN estimated that one third of Gazans are going entire days without eating and more people are at risk of starvation. Health services face an imminent shutdown to a lack of fuel.
The National
11-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers set to join Brussels meeting
Foreign ministers from Israel and Palestine are expected to attend a dinner in Brussels on Monday in a rare diplomatic setting as the Gaza war continues. They have both confirmed their attendance at an EU-Southern Neighbourhood ministerial meeting, The National understands. While it appears that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and his Palestinian counterpart Varsen Aghabekian will be in the same room, it remains unclear whether they will speak. The meeting comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped for a truce soon in Gaza as talks continued in Qatar. 'We would like for us as Palestinians to speak for ourselves at this meeting and send a message to Europeans about the humanitarian crisis for Palestinians and ask that they take measures against Israel,' a Palestinian official told Euronews. The aim of the Brussels meeting is to strengthen relations between the EU and the 10 partner countries in the Mediterranean region. They include Algeria, Egypt and Jordan. Syria has been reintegrated since the fall of the Assad regime in December and its Foreign Minister Assad Al Shibani is expected to attend. The last such meeting took place in November 2022 in Barcelona, just under a year before the October 7 Hamas-led attacks against Israel. Relations between Israel and the EU appear to have warmed since Kaja Kallas was appointed the bloc's foreign affairs chief in December. Ms Kallas on Thursday announced that she had struck a deal with Israel to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza. A meeting of the EU's 27 foreign ministers on Tuesday is set to discuss options to respond to Israel's human rights violations in Gaza. There is little expectation that Tuesday's meeting will lead to concrete decisions targeting Israel. Ms Kallas has said that measures would be discussed only if the situation did not improve in Gaza, though some European ministers said they would closely watch the implementation of the aid deal. Most European countries have said they do not approve of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's new aid distribution operation, during which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed. Ms Kallas this week put forward 10 options to member states, including a full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which appeared unlikely because it needed consensus from the 27 members. Suspending trade relations or Israel's participation in the Erasmus+ student exchange or Horizon academic research programmes would require a qualified majority vote. Mr Saar was in Brussels in February for the first EU-Israel high level talks in years, followed by a similar meeting with Palestine's Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
India.com
09-07-2025
- Politics
- India.com
‘Gaza Won't Surrender': Hamas Defies Israel As Death Toll Tops 750 Since May 27, Aid Lines Turn To Graves And Ceasefire Talks Drag
New Delhi: Gaza has refused to kneel. It is bleeding, burning and burying its dead, but it does not appear to be broken. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured Washington promising to 'force Hamas to surrender' and to 'end Gaza as a threat', Hamas called it 'psychological defeat' – pointing to military commanders who, after months of relentless war, had still failed to bring their captives home. 'Gaza will not surrender. It has become clear that there is no way to secure the release (of the captives) except through a serious deal with the resistance,' declared the armed Palestinian group. That resistance is now surrounded by fire and famine. The Israeli military killed nearly 100 Palestinians across Gaza in a single day, striking homes and hospitals. The Zeitoun Medical Clinic was forced to shut down after direct attacks. Al-Shifa Hospital is running on hours – maybe minutes – of fuel. By dawn, doctors fear the last remaining machines may go dark. While Israel spoke of 'humanitarian cities', it bombed aid lines again. The Gaza Government Media Office confirmed a staggering toll – 751 Palestinians killed and 4,931 injured since May 27 while queuing for food at aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Between June 30 and July 6 alone, 168 were killed waiting in aid lines. The Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, answered back with a deadly ambush. Three explosive charges. A gunfight. Five Israeli soldiers killed. Several wounded. On both sides, young lives are being claimed faster than ceasefire papers can be drawn. Meanwhile, in West Bank towns, armed settlers joined Israeli soldiers in raids. Palestinian homes were stormed. Olive groves were torched. Villages cracked under boots and gunfire. But the story of Gaza today is not told in firepower. It is told in square metres. According to the Euro-Med Monitor, Gaza's 2.3 million people are now packed into less than 15% of the territory. That gives each man, woman and child less space than a detainee in Guantanamo Bay. No water. No food. No shelter. No healthcare. Just sky overhead and craters underfoot. 'After 21 months of continuous Israeli assault, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are confined to less than 15 percent of the enclave,' said the rights group in a statement. 'This is part of a deliberate policy that reflects a genocidal process by Israel to uproot the people and erase their physical and demographic presence through mass killing, forced displacement, starvation and systematic destruction of life,' it said. The world watches. The European Union (EU) says it is concerned. Palestinians in Ramallah say concern is no longer enough. Varsen Aghabekian, minister of state for foreign affairs, met the EU's special envoy Christophe Bijou in Ramallah. Her words were sharp, urgent and exhausted. She urged the EU to act 'immediately' to stop Israel's 'genocide, displacement and starvation'. She reminded Europe that Gaza's cries cannot be drowned out by statements or diplomacy. She called for action. She demanded that Europe's 'policy be translated into actions and steps that promote just peace by embodying the independent Palestinian state'. And in Gaza, surrounded by ash and silence, a battered people echo that call. They still sleep beside the ruins of their homes. They still bury their dead with their bare hands. But they still refuse to surrender.
The National
31-05-2025
- Business
- The National
More countries expected to recognise 'our state' at upcoming conference, says Palestinian minister
More countries are expected to recognise a Palestinian state at an upcoming UN conference in New York, a Palestinian minister has said, amid growing international support, and mounting pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza. Major partners of Israel have become more critical over the war, the chaotic nature of the country's humanitarian aid scheme and its expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank. "Arab states are our backbone. We have seen this during the collective voicing of disapproval of displacement of Palestinians, by all Arab states - which paid off, because that idea has been put aside for the time being," Palestinian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian told The National. Ms Aghabekian said the anticipated recognition of Palestine by additional countries at the UN conference, scheduled for June 17–20 and led by France and Saudi Arabia, will not be merely "symbolic". High-level participation will hold "everyone" to account and bring an opportunity to "revive a credible peace process", she said. While it remains unclear whether the US will be among the countries recognising Palestine as a state, Ms Aghabekian said she would "love" to see that happen. Currently, 149 of the 193 UN General Assembly member states recognise Palestine. Ms Aghabekian recently concluded a diplomatic tour that included several European nations. Speaking to The National from Ramallah, she said there has been a noticeable shift in global perspectives, not only on the Palestinian cause but also on Israel. "There has been some shift ... and some countries are using a new narrative we've not heard before," she said in an apparent reference to the sharper tone adopted by the UK, Canada and France. They warned Israel this month that they could impose targeted sanctions if it continues to broaden its war on Gaza and to expand settlements in the West Bank. But even after this criticism, Israel on Thursday approved 22 new settlements, reflecting what the Palestinian official said is the need for a two-pronged approach that does not rely solely on the recognition itself. "It would mean a lot if this was accompanied by measures on the ground to hold Israel accountable ... but again, it doesn't mean a lot to the people on the ground who have had their homes demolished and suffocated by the occupation," she said. This change in perspective, Ms Aghabekian added, was influenced by the scenes in Gaza during "Israel's genocidal war", which has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and wounded 123,492 since October 2023, according to Gaza's health officials. She also criticised "Israel's growing belligerence". On Friday, Israeli media reported that Israel will prevent a delegation of Arab foreign ministers from entering Ramallah to attend a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital. "I don't think this comes as a shock to anybody. Israel has been following the exclusion policy for decades and is failing to understand that it needs to integrate in the region," Ms Aghabekian said. Most of the countries reportedly scheduled to visit Ramallah had normalised ties with Israel. The fact that even these are not being allowed in is "very telling and impedes further normalisation", the minister said. She noted that by not letting these countries visit - even to discuss peace - Israel is further propagating the idea that it does not wish to comply "with anyone" and would continue its aggression against the Palestinians.
Arab News
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
New demand by Israel risks shaky Gaza truce
CAIRO: The fragile truce in Gaza was hanging by a thread on Friday after Israel demanded a six-week extension to the first phase of the deal. The 42-day first stage of the ceasefire — under which Hamas released 33 Israeli hostages, more than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli jails and its forces partially withdrew from Gaza — ends on Saturday. Talks on the second stage — the release of all remaining hostages and Israel's complete military withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave — should have begun last month, but Egyptian security sources said on Friday that Israeli negotiators in Cairo were insisting on a further 42 days of the first stage. Hamas opposes the extension and insists on proceeding to the second phase of the deal as originally agreed. 'We call on the international community to pressure the occupation to... immediately enter the second phase of the agreement without any delay,' it said on Friday. Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian also said on Friday that she would like the ceasefire phases to move ahead as originally planned. 'I doubt anyone in Gaza will want to go back to war,' she said. However, there is also no sign of consensus on Gaza's future. That uncertainty is complicating efforts to negotiate a lasting resolution. A hostage-prisoner swap early Thursday was the final one under the initial stage of the truce. Hamas returned the bodies of four Israelis and 643 Palestinians were released from Israeli jails. Many were awaiting treatment on Friday at a hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Among those freed was Nael Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner who spent more than four decades behind bars. Another released prisoner, Yahya Shraideh, said: 'We were in hell and we came out of hell.'
