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Israel says Lebanon troop pullout ‘will continue’ beyond 60-day deadline

Israel announced on Friday that the withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon would continue beyond the 60-day period stipulated in a November ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire agreement had been drafted “with the understanding that the withdrawal process might extend beyond the 60-day period”.The comment comes despite earlier calls from UN peacekeepers and French President Emmanuel Macron for “accelerated” implementation of the deal.”The withdrawal process is conditional upon the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, with Hezbollah withdrawing beyond the Litani River,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said, ahead of the Sunday deadline.”Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States.” Under the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period.Hezbollah is to pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.The Israeli military on Friday also said that in the past days it had “conducted strikes to remove threats and to dismantle weapons storage facilities and active observation posts” used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.It said soldiers “remain deployed in southern Lebanon… and will operate against any threat” posed to the military and Israel.The fragile truce, which took effect on November 27 after two months of full-blown war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, has been marked by accusations of violations from both sides.Hezbollah began a low-intensity exchange of fire in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack by its Palestinian ally Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in September, launching a series of devastating blows against the group’s leadership structure that saw its longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah killed in an air strike on Beirut that month.- Hezbollah warning -Hezbollah on Thursday said that “any violation of the 60-day deadline will be considered a flagrant violation of (ceasefire) agreement, an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty and the occupation entering a new chapter”.This would require the Lebanese state to act using “all means necessary… to restore the land and wrest it from the clutches of the occupation”, Hezbollah said in a statement.A committee composed of Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates and a representative of UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL is tasked with ensuring any ceasefire violations are identified and dealt with.The UN peacekeeping force has reported Israeli violations of the ceasefire terms.On January 17, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for Israel to end its military operations and “occupation” in the south. He also said peacekeepers had found more than 100 weapons caches belonging “to Hezbollah or other armed groups”.Last Saturday Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun said it was necessary for “Israeli forces to withdraw from occupied territories in the south within the deadline set by the agreement reached on November 27”.More than 4,000 people died in Lebanon since the cross-border hostilities began in October 2023, while over 130 died on the Israeli side.

Hamas names hostages to be freed in next swap with Israel

Hamas named on Friday four Israeli “women soldiers” held hostage since October 7 whom it plans to release from captivity in a second exchange under a ceasefire deal that has halted the Gaza war.Israel confirmed it had received the list of names.If all goes according to plan, after Hamas releases the four hostages on Saturday, Israel should free a group of Palestinian prisoners, though neither side has specified how many they will be.The exchange is part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war, which took effect on Sunday and saw three women hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners freed.The fragile truce is intended to pave the way to a permanent end to the war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.Abu Obeida, the spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said on Telegram that “as part of the prisoners’ exchange deal, the Qassam brigades decided to release tomorrow four women soldiers”.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had received the names through mediators.Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau based in Qatar on Friday told AFP that Palestinians displaced by the war to southern Gaza should be able to begin returning to the north of the devastated territory following the releases.”An Egyptian-Qatari committee will oversee the implementation of this part of the agreement on the ground,” he said.While displaced Gazans longed to return home after more than a year of war, many found only rubble where houses once stood.”Even if we thought about returning, there is no place for us to put our tents because of the destruction,” Theqra Qasem, a displaced woman, told AFP.- ‘Eating away at us’ -The ceasefire agreement, brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States after months of fruitless negotiations, should be implemented in three phases.US President Donald Trump, who has claimed credit for the agreement, said Thursday he believed that “the deal should hold”.During the first, 42-day phase, 33 hostages Israel believes are still alive should be returned in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. The next phase should see negotiations for a more permanent end to the war, while the last phase should see the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the bodies of dead hostages.The first swap on Sunday saw the release of Israeli hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher. Hours later, 90 Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli jails, most of them women and minors.In Israel, families of hostages held for more than 15 months in Gaza fear that the ceasefire could collapse.”The worry and fear that the deal will not be implemented to the end is eating away at all of us,” said Vicky Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen.”Even these days, there are elements in the government who are doing everything in their power to torpedo the second phase.”Some far-right members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition opposed the deal, with firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir pulling his party out of the coalition in protest.- Lebanon withdrawal delay -During their 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.The attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.The war sparked a major regional crisis, with Israel’s northern neighbour Lebanon dragged into the conflict for more than a year.Just a day after Hamas staged its attack on southern Israel, its Lebanese ally Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on the north of the country, sparking a near-daily exchange of fire between the two sides.The hostilities then escalated into a full-scale war that a November 27 ceasefire brought to a halt.Under the agreement, Israeli forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon by January 26, while the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers deployed in the area.Hezbollah, meanwhile, was to withdraw north of the Litani river in south Lebanon and dismantle its military assets in the area.But Israel on Friday said its withdrawal would continue beyond Sunday.”Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. 

Saudi FM in Syria for first visit since Assad’s ouster

Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat said Friday the kingdom was seeking to help Syria’s new authorities secure the lifting of international sanctions, during his first visit to Damascus since Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow.Prince Faisal bin Farhan was received by Syria’s Islamist interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is eyeing investments from wealthy Gulf states to rebuild the war-torn country.The Saudi diplomat flew to Damascus from Beirut, an AFP correspondent said, following meetings on Thursday with Lebanon’s new leadership.During a press conference Friday with his Syrian counterpart, bin Farhan said Saudi Arabia was standing by Syria, pointing to “the importance of accelerating the lifting and freezing of all sanctions”.He added that Riyadh is engaged in “active dialogue with all relevant countries, whether the United States or the European Union, and we are hearing positive messages”.Washington had already eased sanctions on Syria following Assad’s overthrow, with the EU widely expected to follow suit when it addresses the issue at its next foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday.Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, who was in Riyadh earlier in January, said the lifting of sanctions would allow for “the opening of new channels for investment and trade”, as well as rebuilding infrastructure and creating jobs.The last time bin Farhan was in Damascus, in April 2023, he met Assad in a landmark visit that ended more than a decade of strained relations.Riyadh was key to the Assad government’s return to the Arab League, after severing ties in 2012 over his crackdown on pro-democracy protests that sparked the civil war.Now, Syria’s new leadership is eager for Saudi investment to help rebuild the country’s war-shattered infrastructure and boost its economy.- ‘Large role in Syria’s future’ -Analysts said Riyadh had hoped to pull Assad away from Iran and encourage him to curb the illicit captagon trade, Syria’s biggest export, mostly destined for Gulf countries. Their effort bore little success.Production of the amphetamine-like stimulant was rampant in Syria before Assad fled, and the country’s new authorities have announced finding multiple factories and warehouses storing tens of millions of pills.The first foreign visit by the new government was to Saudi Arabia, which has been providing humanitarian aid.During that visit earlier this month, Shaibani said he hoped to open a “new, bright page”, as he headed a delegation that included Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab.Last month, Sharaa told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television that Riyadh “will certainly have a large role in Syria’s future”, pointing to “a big investment opportunity for all neighbouring countries”.He told the broadcaster that he was born in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked at the time, and lived there for the first few years of his life.Also in December, a Saudi delegation met Sharaa in Damascus, a source close to the Saudi government told AFP.Sharaa heads the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that led the rebel offensive that toppled Assad.HTS has its roots in the former Syria branch of Al-Qaeda, but it broke ties with the jihadist network in 2016 and has sought to soften its image.

Saudi Arabia must punch its weight on global stage: minister

Saudi Arabia “needs to punch at (its) weight” on the global stage given its growing institutional presence and the return of Donald Trump, the kingdom’s finance minister told AFP in Davos.The wealthiest country in the Arab world has taken a larger place on the international scene since assuming the presidency of the G20 in 2020, and is seeking the right balance between its Western allies and emerging countries.”We are a key player in the world, the world economy, and we need to punch at our weight”, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.Through al-Jadaan, the Gulf state also chairs the committee advising the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on monetary and financial matters. Riyadh is also a key geopolitical player in the Middle East and a Global South looking to make its voice heard. “We need to make sure that emerging economies and low income countries’ voice is heard,” al-Jadaan said. “This is why we are really protecting, in every possible way, their interests in these multilateral institutions,” he said, stressing that emerging economies were “becoming actually larger than advanced economies in total population and size of economy.””Collectively, they need to be represented in the table.”- BRICS -The Kingdom has been invited to join the BRICs, a group of emerging economies including Brazil, China, India and Russia, but al-Jadaan said they “have not made that decision yet” and were still assessing “whether it is in our interest.”The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank said that “Saudi Arabia cannot risk alienating China or Russia,” in a paper released in November.”But it also cannot afford to burden its relationships with the West by in any way endorsing China and Russia’s attempts to build an anti-Western bloc,” it added.This partly explains the Saudi Arabia’s hesitation, especially given US President Donald Trump’s close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his first term in office.”We enjoy a very important strategic economic relationship with the US,” regardless of who’s in the White House, al-Jadaan said a day after Riyadh announced it will pile $600 billion into US trade and investments.AFP spoke with al-Jadaan Thursday night before Trump’s video appearance at Davos, in which he asked Riyadh and OPEC to reduce oil prices.Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince launched in 2016 a vast modernisation plan and reform agenda, Vision 2030, which seeks to attract foreign investors and to develop its tourism industry. As part of its global charm offensive, the kingdom has also used soft power, massively investing in tennis, golf, Formula 1 racing and football, with the 2021 purchase of the Newcastle United football club in England.It scored a major coup last year when it was selected to host the 2034 World Cup, prompting strong criticism from some NGOs that say a high number of migrant workers died on Vision 2030 construction sites.”This is categorically not true,” the finance minister said about the accusations.”If you compare our standards of workers protection today to the best in class in the world, we would be the same today.”

UN says more staff detained by Huthi rebels in Yemen

Yemen’s Huthi rebels have detained another group of UN personnel, a United Nations statement said on Friday, after 13 staff were held last June.The UN called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of its staff held in Yemen, which is suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”Yesterday, the de facto authorities in Sanaa detained additional UN personnel working in areas under their control,” the office of the resident United Nations coordinator for Yemen said.It did not say how many were held in the latest swoop by the Iran-backed Huthis, who have detained dozens of staff from UN and other humanitarian organisations, most since the middle of last year. Reeling from a decade of war, Yemen is mired in a humanitarian catastrophe with more than 18 million people needing assistance and protection, according to the United Nations.The UN has now suspended “all official movements into and within” areas held by Huthis, the statement said.”UN officials in Yemen are actively engaging with senior representatives of the de facto authorities, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all detained UN personnel and partners,” the statement added.The detentions come after United States President Donald Trump ordered the Huthis placed back on the US list of foreign terrorist organisations.Re-listing the Huthis will trigger a review of UN agencies and other NGOs working in Yemen that receive US funding, according to the executive order signed on Wednesday.- ‘Pressure Trump’ -Mohammed al-Basha of the Basha Report, a US-based risk advisory, called the latest detentions “an expected reaction” to the “terrorist” designation.”They assume that by detaining UN staff they’re going to be able to pressure the international community to pressure the Trump administration.”No immediate comment was available from the Huthis, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and rule large parts of the impoverished country.The rebels, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, have been attacking the Red Sea shipping route and firing on Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza war, prompting reprisal strikes from US, Israeli and British forces.With a Gaza ceasefire starting last Sunday, the Huthis have made conciliatory moves including releasing the 25-strong international crew of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship they seized in the Red Sea in November 2023.The rebels have also promised to tone down the Red Sea attacks and have said they would stop targeting Israel if it sticks to the ceasefire.The Huthis have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition since 2015, although hostilities have fallen sharply since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022.Since the start of the war, the Huthis have kidnapped, arbitrarily detained and tortured hundreds of civilians, including UN and NGO workers, according to rights groups.In June, the rebels detained 13 UN personnel, including six employees of the Human Rights Office, and more than 50 NGO staff plus an embassy staff member.They claimed they had arrested “an American-Israeli spy network” operating under the cover of humanitarian organisations — allegations emphatically rejected by the UN Human Rights Office.Two other UN human rights staff had already been detained since November 2021 and August 2023 respectively.In early August, the Huthis stormed the UNHCR office, forced staff to hand over the keys, and seized documents and property, before returning it later that month.