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Israel said Monday it is “interested” in striking peace agreements with neighbouring Lebanon and Syria, a potentially historic shift in the region after decades of war and animosity.With Syria under new leadership after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement weakened, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told journalists his government wanted more normalisation agreements with Arab countries.”Israel is interested in expanding the Abraham Accords circle of peace and normalisation,” Saar said of the US-brokered deals that Israel signed with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020, during US President Donald Trump’s first term.”We have an interest in adding countries such as Syria and Lebanon, our neighbours — to the circle of peace and normalisation while safeguarding Israel’s essential and security interests,” Saar told a news conference in Jerusalem alongside his Austrian counterpart Beate Meinl-Reisinger.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s recent “victory” in a 12-day war against Iran “opens the path to dramatically enlarge the peace accords”.- Golan Heights tensions -Control of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has long been a source of tension between Israel and Syria, which are technically still at war.Saar insisted that the strategic plateau, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the United Nations, “will remain part of the State of Israel” under any future peace agreement.Following Assad’s overthrow in December, Israel moved forces into the UN-patrolled demilitarised zone in the Golan, and has carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria.In Lebanon, the clout of militant group Hezbollah has diminished after it had emerged bruised from a conflict with Israel last year, fuelled by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.Israel, however, has kept up strikes against Hezbollah despite a November ceasefire.There was no immediate response from Lebanese or Syrian officials to Saar’s remarks.- US peace call -US officials say the end of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran with a ceasefire on June 24 has raised prospects for broader peace efforts in the region.On Sunday, a senior US diplomat called for peace agreements by Israel with Syria and Lebanon in the wake of the Iran-Israel ceasefire and expected there would be discussions about it.Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who is also a special envoy to Syria, said Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa “has indicated that he doesn’t hate Israel and that he wants peace on that border,” Barrack told Turkish news agency Anadolu.”I think that will also happen with Lebanon. It’s a necessity to have an agreement with Israel,” he added.Pressure has risen on the Israeli government to end its offensive in the Gaza Strip, prompted by Hamas’s deadly attack in October 2023.”Everybody is starting to move back towards the Abraham Accords, especially as the Gaza situation dissipates,” Barrack said.”What just happened between Israel and Iran is an opportunity for all of us to say: ‘Time out. Let’s create a new road’,” he added.”The Middle East is ready to have a new dialogue, people are tired of the same old story.”

The High Court in London rejected a legal challenge on Monday brought by a Palestinian rights group seeking to block the UK from supplying components for Israeli F-35 fighter jets.Israel has used the jets to devastating effect in its bombardment of Gaza.Both sides have been accused of atrocities during a conflict that has killed tens of thousands — the vast majority of them Palestinian civilians, according to figures the United Nations deems reliable.The UK government suspended some export licences for military equipment after concluding there was a risk Israel could be breaching international humanitarian law but made an exemption for some parts for Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth jets.Rights group Al-Haq had asked the High Court for a judicial review, saying the “carve out” was unlawful and alleging the government had misunderstood the applicable rules of international law.It was supported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and others in its case.Judges Stephen Males and Karen Steyn rejected all of the grounds for challenging the government’s decision, saying the case was really asking if the court could order the UK to “withdraw from a specific multilateral defence collaboration”.”Under our constitution that acutely sensitive and political issue is a matter for the executive, which is democratically accountable to parliament, and ultimately to the electorate, not for the courts,” said the judges, denying permission for a judicial review.Shawan Jabarin, General Director of Al-Haq, said in a statement to AFP his organisation would “continue to persevere in the UK and beyond until governments are held accountable”. A government spokesperson said the ruling showed that the UK was operating “one of the most robust export control regimes in the world”. – ‘Shocking increase’ -The UK contributes components to an international defence programme that produces and maintains the F-35s for Israel and several other countries.Defence Secretary John Healey had argued a suspension would impact the “whole F-35 programme” and have a “profound impact on international peace and security”.In September 2024, the new Labour government announced it was suspending around 30 of 350 export licences following a review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.But the partial ban did not cover British-made F-35 parts, which include refuelling probes, laser targeting systems, tyres and ejector seats, according to Oxfam.UK-based NGO Campaign Against Arms Trade has said that licensing figures showed the government had made a “shocking increase in military exports to Israel” in the months after the September 2024 announcement of partial suspensions.It said the figures showed the UK approved £127.6 million ($170 million) in military equipment to Israel in single-issue licences from October to December 2024, saying this was more than for the period from 2020 to 2023 combined.Most of the licences were for military radars, components and software, as well as targeting equipment, according to the NGO, which was involved in the case against the government.Israel launched war on Gaza after an attack by militants from Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,500 people in Gaza, an occupied Palestinian territory, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

A French court on Monday sentenced seven Afghans and two Iraqi Kurds to seven to eight years in jail over the fatal capsizing of a boat carrying would-be asylum seekers from France to England in 2022.France and Britain have vowed to crack down on people smugglers who heap migrants on flimsy dinghies to make the dangerous Channel crossing in exchange for thousands of dollars.In the latest such case to go to court in France, a small boat departed France early on December 14, 2022, carrying people from Afghanistan, Albania, India and Senegal. Four people died and four went missing after the dinghy burst a few kilometres (miles) from the English coast.Only one of the bodies was identified — that of an Afghan man. Rescuers saved 39 people from drowning.A court in the French city of Lille sentenced three men to eight years behind bars.They included an Afghan being tried in absentia and thought to be the mastermind of the smuggling operation.It handed the rest seven-year sentences over the disaster.They included two Afghan brothers accused of financing the operation and another Afghan who admitted to summoning passengers for the crossing, although he claimed he did it after being threatened. The court ordered all to pay 50,000 to 100,000 euros ($58,000 to 117,000) in fines, and to leave French territory at the end of their sentences. A tenth man, who is being held in Belgium, is to be tried at a later date.A British court has already sentenced a Senegalese minor who steered the boat to nine years in jail, French prosecutors said.During the trial earlier this month, the prosecutor said the dinghy involved in the accident had been “completely unsuitable for navigation on high seas”.She said the defendants had been benefitting from a “highly lucrative” illegal trade, with migrants paying on average 3,500 euros ($4,000) for the crossing.- Loud bang -According to the investigation, several people heard a loud bang that sounded like the dinghy had been punctured before the departure. The smugglers told the passengers not to worry and that the boat was the only one available for the crossing.But the sea was rough and there were not enough life jackets for all the passengers.Those who died were not wearing any, according to the testimony of survivors. After one or two hours, the boat filled with water and panicked passengers stood up to get the attention of another ship.But the hull of the capsizing boat burst under the weight of the water. All the passengers fell into the freezing sea.The 2022 accident was one of the deadliest in the Channel in recent years.In November 2021, another deadly incident killed 27 people off the French coast, in a case that has not yet gone to court.At least 17 people have died attempting the Channel crossing this year, after a record 78 lost their lives last year.As part of efforts to stem migrant crossings, French authorities intervene on land to try to prevent boats leaving. They also intervene at sea but only to rescue passengers if a boat asks for help.Paris says it is now considering also stopping migrant boats in its shallow coastal waters, though the move raises both safety and legal issues.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world to “rev up the engine of development” at an aid conference in Spain on Monday at a time when US-led cuts are jeopardising the fight against poverty and climate change.Dozens of world leaders and more than 4,000 representatives from businesses, civil society and financial institutions are gathering in the city of Seville for the June 30-July 3 conference to seek fresh impetus for the crisis-hit aid sector.But the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change.Guterres told delegates at the opening of the conference that two-thirds of United Nations sustainable development goals set for 2030 were “lagging” and more than $4.0 trillion of annual investment would be needed to achieve them.US President Donald Trump’s gutting of his country’s development agency, USAID, is the standout example.But Germany, Britain and France are also making cuts while they boost spending in areas such as defence.International charity Oxfam says the cuts to development aid are the largest since 1960.More than 800 million people live on less than $3.0 a day, according to the World Bank, with rising extreme poverty affecting sub-Saharan Africa in particular.Disruption to global trade from Trump’s tariffs and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have dealt further blows to the diplomatic cohesion necessary for concentrating efforts on helping countries escape poverty.The crisis meant children going unvaccinated, girls dropping out of school and families suffering hunger, said Guterres.He urged the international community to “change course” and “repair and rev up the engine of development to accelerate investment” in “a world shaken by inequalities, climate chaos and raging conflicts”.A blistering heatwave that is scorching southern Europe welcomed the delegates to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, an example of the extreme weather that scientists say human-driven climate change is fuelling.- ‘Colonial debt’ -Kenya’s William Ruto, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, Angolan leader Joao Lourenco and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan were among prominent Global South leaders in Seville.Among the key topics up for discussion is reforming international finance to help poorer countries shrug off a growing debt burden that inhibits their capacity to achieve progress in health and education.The total external debt of the group of least developed countries has more than tripled in 15 years, according to UN data.Critics have singled out US-based bulwarks of the post-World War II international financial system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for reform to improve their representation of the Global South.Painstaking talks in New York in June produced a common declaration to be adopted in Seville that only went ahead after the United States walked out.The document reaffirms commitment to the UN development goals such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, reforming tax systems and international financial institutions.The text also calls on development banks to triple their lending capacity, urges lenders to ensure predictable finance for essential social spending and for more cooperation against tax evasion.Coalitions of countries will seek to spearhead initiatives in addition to the so-called “Seville Commitment”, which is not legally binding.But campaigners have criticised the text for lacking ambition and have rung alarm bells about rising global inequality.Hundreds of demonstrators braved the sizzling heat in Seville on Sunday to demand change in international tax, debt and aid policies.”Global South countries will never be able to decide how they want to do development if they are bound to the new colonial debt,” protester Ilan Henzler, 28, told AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rise in popularity during the war with Iran may already be fading, as pressure mounts at home to end the conflict in Gaza.Netanyahu claimed victory over the Islamic republic in the 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire last week, after President Donald Trump ordered US warplanes to join in bombing Iranian nuclear sites.Political scientist Assaf Meydani, in a column on Israeli website Ynet on Saturday, said that alongside a “victory for both Trump and Netanyahu” in Iran, the Israeli leader “will have to explain a series of failures”.Most notable among them, according to Meydani, is Netanyahu’s “failure to end the campaign in Gaza”, where Israel has been fighting to crush the Palestinian militant group Hamas since October 2023.”Hamas, though battered, has not been destroyed, and ‘Swords of Iron’ has become prolonged attrition,” Meydani said, using Israel’s name for its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.”The people of Israel are strong, but tensions are simmering.”Israelis fearful of the threat of a nuclear Iran rallied behind Netanyahu as he led the campaign against Israel’s longtime rival. Now that that war is over, domestic and international pressure has resumed to secure an end to the fighting in Gaza.A public opinion poll published by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster the day after Tuesday’s ceasefire with Iran suggested a rise in support for Netanyahu.But while his approval ratings went up compared to previous polls, 52 percent of respondents in the Kan survey still said they wanted Netanyahu — Israel’s longest-serving prime minister — out of office.Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they wanted the Gaza war to end, compared to 22 percent who favoured continuing the fighting.Israeli newspaper Maariv said Friday that its polling showed a “surge” for Netanyahu immediately after the ceasefire with Iran had “evaporated almost entirely” within days.In the coastal hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday, thousands of people gathered to demand a ceasefire deal that would bring home the dozens of hostages still held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.Liri Albag, who was released from captivity in January under a short-lived truce, told the crowd that Netanyahu and Trump “made brave decisions on Iran. Now make the brave decision to end the war in Gaza and bring (the hostages) home.”- ‘Terrible failures’ -Trump wrote on Saturday on his Truth Social platform that “Netanyahu is negotiating a deal with Hamas that will include the release of the hostages.”On Sunday, he added: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”On the same day, Netanyahu said that the war with Iran had created “opportunities” to free the remaining hostages.Netanyahu has also faced renewed pressure from one of his political rivals, former prime minister Naftali Bennett.Criticising the Netanyahu government’s “inability to decide” on Gaza, Bennett called for “a comprehensive agreement that includes the release of all the hostages” to end “the terrible impasse and political confusion”.”Netanyahu must step down. He has been in power for 20 years… that’s far too long”, Bennett told Israel’s Channel 12 in an interview that aired on Saturday.”The people want change, they want calm,” added Bennett, who is widely expected to run for office again in the next elections, scheduled for late 2026.Gil Dickman, a prominent activist demanding action by Israel to secure the release of the hostages, said that while “the operation in Iran was a success”, Netanyahu had “failed” to “make people forget his responsibility” for failing to prevent Hamas’s unprecedented 2023 attack.Dickman, whose cousin Carmel Gat was killed in captivity and her body retrieved from Gaza in August, told AFP that Netanyahu’s “terrible failures and the abandonment of the hostages will not be forgotten”.Expressing “cautious optimism” after Trump’s recent remarks, Dickman said there was “apparently an opportunity to end the war”.”We couldn’t save my cousin, but we can still save those who are still alive in Gaza.”

Hajjar Shademani’s family waited for hours in the heat and dust after crossing the border into Afghanistan, their neat pile of suitcases all that remained of a lifetime in Iran after being deported to their homeland. The 19-year-old and her three siblings are among tens of thousands of Afghans who have crossed the Islam Qala border point in recent days, the majority forced to leave, according to the United Nations and Taliban authorities. Despite being born in Iran after her parents fled war 40 years ago, Shademani said the country “never accepted us”. When police came to her family’s home in Shiraz city and ordered them to leave, they had no choice. But Afghanistan is also alien to her. “We don’t have anything here,” she told AFP in English. Between Iranian universities that would not accept her and the Taliban government, which has banned education for women, Shademani’s studies are indefinitely on hold. “I really love studying… I wanted to continue but in Afghanistan, I think I cannot.” At Herat province’s Islam Qala crossing, the checkpoint is usually busy handling the cycle of smuggling to deportation as young men seek work in Iran. But since Tehran ordered Afghans without the right to remain to leave by July 6, the number of returnees — especially families — has surged. More than 230,000 departed in June alone, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Since January, more than 690,000 Afghans have left Iran, “70 percent of whom were forcibly sent back”, IOM spokesperson Avand Azeez Agha told AFP. Of the more than a dozen returnees AFP spoke to on Saturday, none said they had fled the recent Iran-Israel conflict, though it may have ramped up pressure. Arrests, however, had helped spur their departures. – Few prospects -Yadullah Alizada had only the clothes on his back and a cracked phone to call his family when he stepped off one of the many buses unloading people at the IOM-run reception centre. The 37-year-old said he was arrested while working as a day labourer and held at a detention camp before being deported to Afghanistan. Forced to leave without his family or belongings, he slept on a bit of cardboard at the border, determined to stay until his family could join him. “My three kids are back there, they’re all sick right now, and they don’t know how to get here.”He hopes to find work in his home province of Daikundi, but in a country wracked by entrenched poverty and unemployment, he faces an uphill climb. The UN mission for Afghanistan, UNAMA, has warned that the influx of deportees — many arriving with “no assets, limited access to services, and no job prospects” — risks further destabilising the crisis-wracked country. Long lines snaked into tents encircling the reception centre where returnees accessed UN, NGO and government services. Gusty wind whipped women’s Iranian-style hijabs and young men’s trendy outfits, clothing that stood out against the shalwar kameez that has become ubiquitous in Afghanistan since the Taliban swept to power in 2021, imposing their strict interpretation of Islamic law. Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi inspected the site on Saturday, striding through the crowd surrounded by a heavily armed entourage and pledging to ensure “that no Afghan citizen is denied their rights in Iran” and that seized or abandoned assets would be returned. Taliban authorities have consistently called for “dignified” treatment of the migrants and refugees hosted in Iran and Pakistan, the latter having also ousted hundreds of thousands of Afghans since the latest decades-long war ended.- ‘Have nothing’ -Over one million Afghans have already returned to Afghanistan this year from both neighbouring countries. The numbers are only expected to rise, even as foreign aid is slashed and the Taliban government struggles for cash and international recognition. The IOM says it can only serve a fraction of the returnees, with four million Afghans potentially impacted by Iran’s deadline. Some of the most vulnerable pass through the agency’s transit centre in Herat city, where they can get a hot meal, a night’s rest and assistance on their way.  But at the clean and shaded compound, Bahara Rashidi was still worried about what would become of her and her eight sisters back in Afghanistan. They had smuggled themselves into Iran to make a living after their father died.  “There is no man in our family who can work here, and we don’t have a home or money,” the 19-year-old told AFP. “We have nothing.”