Category: General

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is traveling to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the U.S. presses for a cease-fire in the yearslong war between the kingdom and Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Sullivan will be the highest-ranking Biden administration official to visit Saudi Arabia. Besides seeing the crown prince, often referred to by his initials, MBS, Sullivan is expected to meet with deputy defense minster Khalid bin Salman, a brother to the crown prince, according to two senior administration officials. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Biden White House has largely steered clear of the crown prince since making public in February a CIA report that showed MBS likely approved the killing of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in a 2018 operation at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

But the White House has resolved that bringing an end to perhaps the world’s most complex conflict can’t be done without engaging with the most senior Saudi officials face to face, one senior administration official said.

National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said Sullivan was traveling to Riyadh on Monday and would also visit the United Arab Emirates, a Saudi ally in the war, but did not provide additional details. Axios first reported that Sullivan was planning on traveling to the region.

Sullivan is being dispatched at a moment when the situation in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has further deteriorated. Fighting has intensified in the key city of Marib, as Iran-backed rebels have sought to oust the Saudi-backed government from the oil-rich city in the country’s north.

Source: Voice Of America

The lead judge investigating last year’s massive blast in Beirut’s port suspended his work in the case Monday after a former Cabinet minister demanded his dismissal.

Judge Tarek Bitar, the second judge to lead the complicated and thorny investigation, canceled the questioning of a former military intelligence general, scheduled for Monday. The Court of Appeals now has to decide whether to dismiss him from the case.

Bitar’s removal, if it happens, would likely be the final blow to the inquiry, making it highly unlikely that a third judge would take up the job amid threats by members of the country’s political elite who have closed ranks in their effort to block the investigation.

The development comes amid a growing campaign by Lebanon’s political class against Bitar, who took over the job in February after his predecessor, Fadi Sawwan, was removed following similar legal challenges by senior officials he had accused of negligence that led to the blast.

On August 4, 2020, hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers that had been improperly stored in the port for years, exploded, killing at least 214 people, injuring more than 6,000 and devastating nearby neighborhoods.

Families of the victims of the explosion have already demanded an international probe, not trusting the Lebanese investigation. Lebanon is known for a culture of impunity that has prevailed for decades, including among the entrenched political elites.

The attempt to remove Bitar angered families of the victims who have been hoping that the judge would reveal who was responsible for bringing the material to the port and storing it in a port warehouse for years, as well as what caused the explosion described as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

“He was the best hope for Lebanese justice, but they are torpedoing everything,” said Mireille Bazergy Khoury, whose son Elias, 15, was killed by the explosion. She said the repeated lawsuits and challenges to the judge prove that those officials are implicated in the explosion.

“I can’t find the words to capture how sad and frustrated I am. I feel like every time something like this happens, they kill me once again,” Khoury said.

She said the families will try to legally challenge the obstruction attempts. “They killed my son, my daughter was injured, my home was destroyed, my life is in ruins.”

Bitar in July announced his intention to go after senior Lebanese officials and summoned for questioning then-outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab, three former Cabinet ministers and top security officials.

None showed up for questioning; the parliament failed to lift immunity of those summoned — a necessary step before any prosecution. Diab’s office and then-interior minister, Mohamed Fehmi, declined to let Bitar question the heads of two security agencies.

On Friday, former Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, who was also implicated in the probe, filed a motion to dismiss the judge.

Source: Voice Of America

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Tunisian capital, Tunis, Sunday to protest President Kais Saied’s recent decrees bolstering the already near-total power he granted himself two months ago.

Protesters demanded the country’s constitution be respected and parliament reinstated.

In July, Saied sacked the country’s prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority, saying it was because of a national emergency.

Some of those participating in Sunday’s protest were lawmakers from the Islamist party Ennahdha, the most powerful political party in Tunisia, which had previously supported Saied.

“Today we went out carrying the flag of Tunisia and the constitution of the second republic, which most of the Tunisian people voted for,” said Jamila Jouini, Ennahda Party Lawmaker. “There is no way to speak on behalf of the Tunisian people. This is the constitution of an elected Constituent Assembly and all Tunisian people participated in writing it.”

Saied’s new decrees include the continuing suspension of parliament’s powers, the suspension of all lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution and a freeze on lawmakers’ salaries. Saied’s critics are calling his actions a coup.

The protest comes amid a deep political crisis in Tunisia. On Saturday more than 100 Ennahdha officials announced their resignations to protest the choices of the movement’s leadership, with one senior lawmaker quoting the “impossibility of reforming the party from the inside.”

Source: Voice Of America

President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades bids farewell on Sunday to Jane Holl Lute, the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy to Cyprus, as her duties are about to end.

An announcement by the Presidency of the Republic notes that Lute will be received by the President at 7.00 pm (local time) in New York.

The meeting takes place for the President to bid Lute farewell, as her duties as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus are about to end, the announcement concludes.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Presidential Commissioner Fotis Fotiou said that forty-seven years after the invasion in Cyprus, Turkey is far from responding to Cyprus’ calls for the identification of the missing persons.

In his address to the Annual General Assembly of the Panhellenic Committee of Parents and Relatives of Undeclared Prisoners and Missing Persons of the Cyprus Tragedy, in Athens, Fotiou also suggested that Turkey conceals its responsibilities for the brutality it showed by invading Cyprus and for the crimes the Turkish army committed. “Turkey may try to whitewash its face, but it should understand that in no case is it absolved of its responsibilities, especially when they are clearly and unequivocally defined and circumscribed by decisions of international organizations and institutions such as the UN, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Right

Source: Cyprus News Agency

President Nicos Anastasiades attended a dinner in New York, in honour of President of the US Senate Committee of Foreign Relations, Bob Menendez, hosted by former President of the Federation of Cypriot American Organizations, Panikos Papanicolaou.

In post on Twitter President Anastasiades expressed gratitude to Senator Menendez “for his tireless work on advancing the partnership between Cyprus and the US; his support to our efforts to resume substantive talks for the reunification of Cyprus; and for sharing our vision for peace & stability” in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be meeting with the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus, on Monday, in a bid to find common ground for the resumption of the peace talks.

The meeting will take place in New York in the framework of a lunch (NY time) the Secretary-General will host for the President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar.

President Anastasiades said during a press conference upon his arrival to New York for the UN General Assembly that his optimism is limited due to the extreme views Turkey and Tatar express.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

?ed5 Ministers have asked the EU and the rest of the member states to work against the prevention of migration at source, in a joint statement they issued on Saturday after their meeting in Malaga 24-25 September.

Ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain held their second ministerial meeting in the Spanish city and discussed the internal and external dimensions of the European migration policy, in particular in the fight against irregular migration and human trafficking networks, as part of a holistic approach for an effective asylum and migration management.

In the joint statement they point out that prevention at source is as a fundamental and priority axis, in order to stem flows upstream.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Cypriot Police reported 30 individuals and 4 shop owners for violating the protective measures aiming to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

A Police spokesperson told CNA that in the last 24 hours ending on 06:00 local time, the force carried out 2,831 checks throughout the government-controlled areas.

In Nicosia the Police carried out 702 checks reporting 7 individuals and 1 shop owner, in Limassol 258 checks were made with 9 individuals reported, in Larnaca 490 checks were carried out with 2 individuals reported, in Pafos 3 shop owners were booked and 1 individual, while 11 individuals were fined in Famagusta following 528 checks.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during his speech at the UN General Assembly, in New York, said the Cyprus problem is the issue he is least optimistic about.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that it is regrettable that Turkey continues to ignore a number of UN resolutions, including resolutions 541 and 550, and insists on militarizing the island, violating the maritime zones and airspace of Cyprus, and violating UN resolutions in the fenced off area of Varosha.

“Greece remains fully committed to supporting efforts led by the UN Secretary-General for the resumption – as soon as possible – of result-oriented negotiations for a viable solution of the Cyprus issue.

Source: Cyprus News Agency