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Saudi defense minister and UAE president discuss bilateral relations and regional developments

Saudi defense minister and UAE president discuss bilateral relations and regional developments

Arab News14-05-2025
RIYADH: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and the UAE's president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, held talks on Wednesday about the latest developments in the Middle East.
During their meeting at Qasr Al-Shati in Abu Dhabi, the prince passed on greetings from King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Emirati leadership, and their best wishes for ongoing progress and prosperity in the UAE.
Prince Khalid and Sheikh Mohammed discussed the state of relations between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, shared their views on regional and international developments, and reviewed efforts to maintain security and stability in the region, the Emirates News Agency reported.
Other senior Emirati and Saudi officials present at the meeting included Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi and national security advisor; and Hisham bin Abdulaziz bin Saif, the director general of the Saudi Office of the Minister of Defense.
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For the sake of peace, America should recognize Palestine
For the sake of peace, America should recognize Palestine

Arab News

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For the sake of peace, America should recognize Palestine

After an unexpected delay due to Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran last month, the UN will finally convene a crucial high-level meeting in New York this week. Scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at the foreign minister level, the meeting aims to discuss the long-promised but still unrealized political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the two-state solution. The idea is not new. It envisions two states — Israel and Palestine — living side by side in peace. While Israel has been recognized by the global community, including Arab nations and the Palestinians themselves, the state of Palestine still lacks full recognition by the UN Security Council. That recognition is a necessary step before Palestine can be admitted as a full UN member. Three permanent members of the UNSC — France, the UK and the US — have so far blocked that recognition. But change is coming. President Emmanuel Macron, whose government is co-chairing the UN conference with Saudi Arabia, has announced that France will recognize Palestine when the UN General Assembly meets this fall. The UK has expressed similar intentions, conditioned on there being a 'wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution.' Without a political horizon for Palestinians and a realistic long-term solution, we will only be kicking the can down the road. Both France and the UK understand the urgent need for an end to the Israeli revenge war on Gaza, accomplishing the release of detainees on both sides, followed immediately by an urgent effort to carry out the more important challenge of finding a political solution. Before the end of September, it is expected that 150 of the UN's 193 member states will have recognized the state of Palestine on the June 4, 1967, borders. This leaves the US as the lone major holdout. Leaders from both major American political parties, including President Donald Trump, have supported the idea of a two-state solution. Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, despite his staunch support for Israel, even visited Ramallah last year and met with senior Palestinian leader Hussein Al-Sheikh. Yet, paradoxically, the US has announced that it does not plan to attend the UN meeting on the two-state solution. The reasons remain unclear. One possibility is that Washington is reacting to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fiery rhetoric. After Macron's announcement, Netanyahu claimed that recognizing Palestine would endanger Israeli security. 'A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel,' he said. 'Let's be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.' Nothing could be further from the truth. 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It is a recognition of an inalienable right: the right of self-determination. That principle is foundational to the very idea of the UN and the international order it represents. If Washington continues to pay lip service to a two-state solution while boycotting discussions intended to realize it, the implications will be stark. The current position suggests that American leaders — whether consciously or not — are aligning themselves with a vision of Jewish supremacy in the Middle East. That is a dangerous path. It will only prolong the conflict and isolate the US from the global consensus, which is increasingly united against apartheid, occupation and permanent discrimination. Palestinians and Israelis have two — and only two — realistic options: two states for two peoples or one democratic state with equal rights for all. All other ideas mean that America (and any other holdouts on Palestinian recognition) support apartheid by not opposing the current situation. 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Israel's daily pauses fall short of easing Gaza suffering: UK
Israel's daily pauses fall short of easing Gaza suffering: UK

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Israel's daily pauses fall short of easing Gaza suffering: UK

LONDON, GAZA: Israel's decision on Sunday to pause military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and allow new aid corridors falls short of what is needed to alleviate suffering in the enclave, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said. Lammy said in a statement that Israel's announcement was 'essential but long overdue,' and that access to aid must now be urgently accelerated over the coming hours and days. 'This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those desperately suffering in Gaza,' Lammy said. 'We need a ceasefire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered.' Lammy said that access to aid must now be urgently accelerated over the coming hours and days. The Israeli military said the 'tactical pause' in Gaza City, Deir Al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas with large populations, would increase humanitarian aid entering the territory. The pause runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily until further notice. Jordan said it carried out three airdrops over Gaza, including one in cooperation with the UAE, dropping 25 tonnes of food and supplies on several locations. 'Whichever path we choose, we will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Despite the annouoncement of temporary pauses, Israeli strikes killed at least 38 Palestinians from late Saturday into Sunday, including 23 seeking aid. An airstrike on a Gaza City apartment killed a woman and her four children. Another strike killed four people, including a boy, his mother and grandfather, in the eastern Zaytoun neighborhood. US President Donald Trump said Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after moves by Israel to pull out of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas militant group. Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly 'hardened' up on the issue. 'They don't want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision,' Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in southern Gaza on Sunday, the military said, a day after confirming another soldier had died of wounds sustained last week. The two soldiers, aged 20 and 22, served in the Golani Infantry Brigade's 51st Battalion. Israeli military sources said they were killed when their armored vehicle exploded in the city of Khan Yunis.

Gaza famine a death sentence delivered by global inaction
Gaza famine a death sentence delivered by global inaction

Arab News

timean hour ago

  • Arab News

Gaza famine a death sentence delivered by global inaction

Famine in Gaza is no longer a speculative threat, nor is it merely a rhetorical tool to shame the international community into action. It is now a brutal, undeniable fact. The situation has evolved from a humanitarian crisis into a full-blown catastrophe and the numbers speak for themselves. According to the UN, 96 percent of Gaza's population faces acute food insecurity. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warns that at least 500,000 people are living under 'catastrophic' conditions — one step before mass starvation. These are not projections. They are the present realities. Gaza, already strangled by an 18-year blockade, is now walking barefoot into famine under the shadow of total siege and relentless bombardment. The current Israeli assault, which began in October 2023, has not only flattened entire neighborhoods and displaced more than 1.7 million people, it has also systematically targeted the infrastructure that makes survival possible: bakeries, food distribution centers, water facilities and even the UNRWA aid warehouses that once formed the backbone of humanitarian relief. Hospitals are collapsing. Children are dying — not only from bombs, but from hunger. Videos and photographs released by health workers in Khan Younis and northern Gaza show toddlers with protruding ribs, skeletal arms and lifeless eyes. Mothers have been filmed weeping as they try to feed their children with boiled grass and stale bread mixed with animal feed. These are not isolated cases — they are the norm in a place where malnutrition is spreading faster than any ceasefire can catch up. In previous conflicts, Gaza's suffering was often buried under the weight of geopolitical calculations and narratives of moral equivalence. This time, the truth has become too grotesque to ignore. The UN has repeatedly stated that Gaza is on the brink of famine. In June, the World Food Programme declared that 100 percent of Gaza's population is 'food insecure' — a statistic unprecedented in modern times. In March, famine was declared in northern Gaza by multiple humanitarian agencies, citing more than 30 children dying of starvation in just two hospitals. The rest of the deaths go undocumented, with bodies buried under rubble or in makeshift graves. To continue treating Gaza's starvation as a 'pressure tactic' used by Palestinian officials or international nongovernmental organizations is to participate in a lie that masks a genocide in progress. What we are witnessing is not a food crisis born of natural disaster or logistical failure. It is manufactured. It is the deliberate denial of food, water and medicine as a weapon of war — what international law classifies as collective punishment and, in some interpretations, genocide. Let us call it what it is: engineered starvation. And it is working. The scenes unfolding in Gaza are reminiscent of the worst famines in modern history: Ethiopia in the 1980s, Sudan's Darfur and the besieged cities of Syria. But there is one critical difference: never has the international community had such real-time access to the suffering — drone footage, eyewitness testimonies, satellite images — and still failed to meaningfully intervene. We cannot say we did not know. We know everything and yet we are doing nothing. Or worse — we are enabling. Standing with Gaza is no longer a political choice or a symbolic gesture — it is an existential test of our humanity. Hani Hazaimeh The Biden administration continued to send military aid to Israel, including bombs and surveillance technologies, despite multiple reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even former UN officials calling for arms embargoes. European leaders offer lukewarm appeals for 'humanitarian pauses' while failing to impose any meaningful consequences. This is no longer about political alliances, strategic partnerships or counterterrorism narratives. Standing with Gaza is no longer a political choice or a symbolic gesture — it is an existential test of our humanity. In the face of children starving to death on live television, neutrality becomes complicity. Silence becomes endorsement. What is more, supporting Gaza today is not a matter of political affiliation or ideological alignment. It is not reserved for Muslims, Arabs or left-leaning activists. It is a universal moral imperative. Every human being who still believes in dignity, in life, in the right of a child to eat and sleep safely, has a role to play. This is not about Hamas. This is about humanity. The flood has reached its limit. The time for cautious statements and deferred action is over. The international system, including the UN Security Council and major humanitarian agencies, is facing a crisis of legitimacy. If these bodies cannot prevent the slow death of an entire population by hunger, what are they for? What is the value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights if it cannot be applied to Gaza? What purpose does international law serve if starvation tactics are used with impunity? There must be steps taken — now. First, an immediate and unconditional ceasefire is the only way to begin halting the famine. Second, the complete and unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid must be guaranteed by a binding international resolution, not vague promises. Third, accountability must follow. War crimes, including the deliberate starvation of civilians, must be investigated and prosecuted, no matter the perpetrator. Finally, there is a role for all of us as individuals. Speak up. Do not allow this atrocity to continue in your name. History will remember what we did — or did not do — when Gaza cried out not for help but for bread. In 2025, the world is being tested not just by war but by its own conscience. Will we choose humanity or will we rationalize genocide with politics and diplomatic fatigue? Gaza is dying, not in silence but in full view of the world. Let history record that we saw — and that some of us refused to look away.

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