AFP Asia Business

Hamas says ready to start Gaza ceasefire talks ‘immediately’

Israel was considering its response on Saturday after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.The security cabinet was expected to meet after the end of the Jewish sabbath at sundown to discuss Israel’s next steps, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to head to Washington for talks on Monday with US President Donald Trump.Trump has been making a renewed push to end nearly 21 months of war in Gaza, where the civil defence agency said 35 people were killed in Israeli military operations on Saturday.”No decision has been made yet on that issue,” an Israeli government official told AFP when asked about Hamas’s positive response to the latest ceasefire proposal.Hamas made its announcement late Friday after holding consultations with other Palestinian factions.”The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place” the US-backed truce proposal, the militant group said in a statement.Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions told AFP that the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system.Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it supported ceasefire talks, but demanded guarantees that Israel “will not resume its aggression” once hostages held in Gaza are freed.Trump, when asked about Hamas’s response aboard Air Force One, said: “That’s good. They haven’t briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza.”The war in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive in the territory that aimed to destroy Hamas and bring home all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants.Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States secured temporary halts in fighting and the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.- ‘Will not be shut down’ -Efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for guarantees that any new ceasefire will be lasting.Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries.The group said two of its US staff were wounded in an “attack” on one of its aid centres in southern Gaza on Saturday.  “This morning, two American aid workers were injured in a targeted terrorist attack during food distribution activities at SDS-3 in Khan Yunis,” the organisation said, adding that reports indicated it was carried out by “two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans”.UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. Its operations have been marred by near-daily reports of Israeli fire on people waiting to collect rations. UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said Friday that more than 500 people have been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.GHF’s chairman Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical leader allied to Trump, on Wednesday rejected calls for the lead role in Gaza aid distributions to revert to UN agencies.”We will not be shut down. We have one job to do. It’s very simple, every day to provide free food to the people of Gaza,” he told reporters.- Civil defence says 35 killed -Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Israeli military operations killed 35 people across Gaza on Saturday.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates.The Hamas attack of October 2023 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 57,338 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.burs-dcp/smw

French writer jailed in Algeria won’t appeal, still hopeful of pardon: supporters

French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal will not appeal his five-year prison sentence to Algeria’s supreme court, said sources close to the author on Saturday, saying they remain hopeful for a pardon.The 80-year-old dual national writer was sentenced to five years behind bars on March 27 on charges related to undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity over comments made to a French media outlet.”According to our information, he will not appeal to the supreme court,” the president of the author’s support committee, Noelle Lenoir, told broadcaster France Inter on Saturday.”Moreover, given the state of the justice system in Algeria…he has no chance of having his offence reclassified on appeal,” the former European affairs minister said.”This means that the sentence is final.”Sources close to Sansal told AFP that the writer had “given up his right to appeal”.His French lawyer, Pierre Cornut-Gentille, declined to comment when contacted by AFP.France’s prime minister Francois Bayrou said earlier this week that he hoped Algeria would pardon the author, whose family has highlighted his treatment for prostate cancer.But Sansal was not among the thousands pardoned by Algeria’s president on Friday, the eve of the country’s independence day.”We believe he will be released. It is impossible for Algeria to take responsibility for his death in prison,” Lenoir said, adding she was “remaining hopeful”.A prize-winning figure in North African modern francophone literature, Sansal is known for his criticism of Algerian authorities as well as of Islamists.The case against him arose after he told the far-right outlet Frontieres that France had unjustly transferred Moroccan territory to Algeria during the colonial period from 1830 to 1962 — a claim Algeria views as a challenge to its sovereignty and that aligns with longstanding Moroccan territorial assertions.Sansal was detained in November 2024 upon arrival at Algiers airport. On March 27, a court in Dar El Beida sentenced him to a five-year prison term and fined him 500,000 Algerian dinars ($3,730).Appearing in court without legal counsel on June 24, Sansal said the case against him “makes no sense” as “the Algerian constitution guarantees freedom of expression and conscience”.The writer’s conviction has further strained tense France-Algeria relations, which have been complicated by issues such as migration and France’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a disputed territory claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.

Eight OPEC+ alliance members move toward output hike at meeting

Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other key members of the OPEC+ alliance will discuss crude production on Saturday, with analysts expecting the latest in a series of output hikes for August.The wider OPEC+ group — comprising the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies — began output cuts in 2022 in a bid to prop up prices.But in a policy shift, eight alliance members spearheaded by Saudi Arabia surprised markets by announcing they would significantly raise production from May, sending oil prices plummeting.Oil prices have been hovering around a low $65-$70 per barrel.Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman will take part in Saturday’s meeting, expected to be held by video.Analysts expect the so-called “Voluntary Eight” (V8) nations to decide on another output increase of 411,000 barrels per day (bpd) — the same target approved for May, June and July.   The group has placed an “increased focus on regaining market shares over price stability,” said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen.- Enforcing quotas -The group will likely justify its decision by officially referring to “low inventories and solid demand as reasons for the faster unwind of the production cuts”, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo told AFP.But the failure of some OPEC member countries, such as Kazakhstan and Iraq, to stick to their output quotas, is “a factor supporting the decision”, he added.By approving another output hike, heavyweight Saudi Arabia might seek to up pressure on members for not keeping to agreed quotas via slashing expected oil profits due to lower prices.According to Jorge Leon, an analyst at Rystad Energy, an output hike of 411,000 bpd will translate into “around 250,000 or 300,000” actual barrels. An estimate by Bloomberg showed that the alliance’s production increased by only 200,000 bpd in May, despite doubling the quotas.- No effect from Israel-Iran war -Analysts expect no major effect on current oil prices, as another output hike is widely anticipated. The meeting comes after a 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel, which briefly sent prices above $80 a barrel amid concerns over a possible closing of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.As fears of a wider Middle East conflict have eased, and given there “were no supply disruptions so far”, the war is “unlikely to impact the decision” of the alliance, Staunovo added.The Israel-Iran conflict “if anything supports a continued rapid production increase in the unlikely event Iran’s ability to produce and export get disrupted,” Hansen told AFP.