Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Europe urged to reject US Middle East plan if it is unfair to Palestinians

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Exclusive: letter from former officials says Europe must stand by the two-state solution

High-ranking former European politicians have condemned the Trump administration’s one-sided Israel-Palestine policy and called in a letter for Europe to reject any US Middle East peace plan unless it is fair to Palestinians.

The letter, sent to the Guardian, the EU and European governments, was signed by 25 former foreign ministers, six former prime ministers, and two former Nato secretary generals.

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Libya crisis: Egypt’s Sisi backs Haftar assault on Tripoli

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Warlord also understood to have private support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan warlord bombarding Tripoli in an attempt to oust the country’s UN-recognised government, has won unequivocal support from the Egyptian leader, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, his closest political ally.

“The president affirmed Egypt’s support in efforts to fight terrorism and extremist militias to achieve security and stability for Libyan citizens throughout the country,” Sisi’s office said on Sunday.

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Palestinians eye Israel’s election: ‘People could make peace … the problem is politicians’

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Palestinians hoped for change, but a lurch to the right in Israel’s elections has only brought despair

For as long as she can remember, Mary Giacaman, a Christian Palestinian, has watched the outcome of the Israeli election on TV. “But not this year,” she explained. “It was too depressing, and anyway I knew what would happen.”

This Holy Week, the 56-year-old Catholic will be attending mass each morning as usual at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity across the square from her olive wood carved souvenir shop; she will spend a festive Easter day with her sons, daughters and six grandchildren. If nothing else, it will be a welcome distraction from a “very bad” election result, which saw a decisive victory for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Rape and abuse: the price of a job in Spain’s strawberry industry?

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Ten Moroccan women say Spanish authorities have ignored claims they were trafficked, assaulted and exploited

Last April, Samira Ahmad* kissed her baby goodbye and boarded a bus, leaving her home in Morocco for the strawberry fields of southern Spain.In her bag was her Spanish visa and a contract that promised €40 a day plus food and accommodation. In the three months she’d be away, she hoped the pain of being separated from her family would be softened by the money she’d be sending back to them – a fortune compared to what she’d be able to earn at home.

A year on, and Ahmad’s life is in ruins. She is destitute, divorced and for the past 10 months has been living in hiding, surviving on handouts with nine other Moroccan women who – like her – claim they faced human trafficking, sexual assault and exploitation on the farm where they were hired to work. She says her biggest mistake – other than coming to Spain – was going to the authorities.

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North Africa faces a test: revolutions rarely end happily

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Sudan and Algeria have ousted unpopular leaders. But can these countries resist the trend towards authoritarian rule?

Pete Townshend may not appear, at first glance, to be connected to the tumultuous events in Sudan. But it was the Who’s lead guitarist who famously celebrated popular insurrection in the 1971 hit, Won’t Get Fooled Again, whose lyrics he wrote. Here’s how a bit of it goes: “I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution/ Take a bow for the new revolution... Then I’ll get on my knees and pray/ We don’t get fooled again.”

After inducing the army to oust Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s unpopular president, well-organised opponents of the military regime, evidently no fools, are not trusting solely to prayer. On Friday, they forced the resignation of the coup leader, Awad Ibn Auf. Now they wait, camped on the streets, to see if his replacement – another general, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – can satisfy their insistence on civilian-led government.

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Bring back children of Syria Isis fighters, Save the Children urges Australia

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Aid group publishes open letter to political leaders, asking them to act on their words if elected

Save the Children has called on Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten to publicly commit – if they win the election – to bringing home the children of Australian foreign fighters in Syria.

In a letter published on Saturday, the aid organisation demanded that the major parties pledge to “stop the war on children” and repatriate those who were brought to the Syrian conflict or were born there to Australians who chose to fight with Islamic State.

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Protesters celebrate as Sudan’s spy chief quits

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Salih Ghosh, who led protests crackdown, resigns a day after interim leader stepped down

The protest movement in Sudan has won a series of fresh victories, with the country’s powerful military moving to replace the controversial transitional leader and spy chief following street rallies demanding officials linked to the former regime stand down.

Salih Ghosh, who led a sweeping crackdown against demonstrators over recent months, resigned on Saturday, a communique from the new military-led transitional council said.

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‘No more old men in uniform’: on the ground with Sudan’s protesters

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Public defiance crosses religious divides as protesters in Khartoum sustain united call for military to relinquish power

In front of the military headquarters in Khartoum, where protesters have refused to leave following the ousting of president Omar al-Bashir, came an extraordinary show of support.

In stifling heat, a group of Coptic Christians – a minority and persecuted group in Sudan – set up shelters to allow their fellow Muslim protesters to pray away from the glare of the Friday morning sun, and without leaving the spot they’ve occupied since Saturday.

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Sudan protesters demand military hands over power at once

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New military rulers say they plan to give power to civilian government in two years

A pledge by Sudan’s ruling military council to hand over power to a civilian government has been rejected by the country’s main protest group, which said the army was “not capable of creating change”.

In a press conference broadcast on state television, Omar Zein Abideen, a senior army officer and member of the military council, said Sudan’s new rulers had no ambition to hold on to power and had intervened to remove President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday in response to the wishes of the people.

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Abandoned at sea: the crews cast adrift without food, fuel or pay | Karen McVeigh

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Seafarers on board the Azraqmoiah have spent 18 desperate months stranded off the coast of UAE, owed $260,000 in wages

When Captain Ayyappan Swaminathan set off from his home in Kumbakonam, southern India, in January 2017, to work on a ship in the Persian Gulf, he told his four-year-old daughter, Aniha: “Don’t worry, I’ll be back shortly.”

But the merchant seaman’s hope of returning home soon with good money for his family turned into a nightmare. His cargo ship, the MV Azraqmoiah, became a floating prison from which he and his 10-man crew could not escape without losing their claim to thousands of dollars in unpaid wages.

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Benjamin Netanyahu: the enduring hardman of Israeli politics

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Ultranationalist PM has been at heart of backlash against peace efforts during 13 years in power

It was a win by the slimmest margin. Back in 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu took the Israeli election by less than 1% of the total votes.

Twenty-three years later, he has pulled off more knife-edge election acrobatics, securing a fifth term even though he tied in the election, after his main rival conceded.

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‘We have not managed to land successfully’: Israel’s moonshot fails

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Spacecraft crashes in to lunar surface after engine and communications breakdown

An Israeli spacecraft has crashed into the lunar surface, ending the first privately funded attempt to land on the moon.

About the size of a washing machine, the 585kg (1,290lb) robotic lander experienced an engine and communication failure in the last seconds of touchdown.

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Mood in Sudan shifts to anger as the army prepares to seize power

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Demonstrators in Khartoum insist a civilian government must replace Omar al-Bashir

As rumours spread that their long-time ruler was finally on his way out, the atmosphere on the streets of Khartoum was victorious.

“The regime has fallen,” people chanted. Flags waved, people danced and sang, and everyone’s hands were up in victory signs. “Freedom, peace and justice,” read one banner. On Wednesday morning, it seemed that the long-fought battle for these values might be on the point of being won.

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Sudan’s defence minister announces state of emergency after arrest of President Bashir – video

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On Thursday Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan in autocratic style for 30 years, was overthrown and arrested in a coup by the armed forces, said Sudan's defence minister, Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, in a televised address. He also announced a two-year period of military rule to be followed by presidential elections.

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Sudan’s army removes President Bashir after 30 years in power

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President arrested after months of protests that escalated with mass sit-in on Saturday

Sudan’s army has removed President Omar al-Bashir from power after 30 years, following months of protests that escalated at the weekend when demonstrators began a sit-in outside the defence ministry compound in central Khartoum.

Bashir had been arrested “in a safe place”, the Sudanese defence minster and army general Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf said in a statement broadcast on state media. A military council will take control of the country for two years, after which elections would be held, Ibn Auf added.

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Europe split over how to respond to Haftar assault on Tripoli

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France blocked draft EU resolution condemning warlord and calling for his retreat from Libyan capital

European divisions over how to respond to General Khalifa Haftar’s violent assault on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, have been exposed after France blocked a draft EU resolution that would have condemned him and called for him to retreat.

France, a supporter of the warlord over the past two years, blocked the draft despite new UN figures showing 56 reported dead, hundreds injured and more than 6,000 displaced by the fighting.

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Pompeo flounders on why annexation is good for the Golan but not for Crimea

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Trump’s decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over territory it seized from Syria sets a troubling precedent, experts fear

Under intense questioning about why the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights was good but the Russian seizure of Crimea was bad, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, told senators that there was an “international law doctrine” which would be explained to them later.

It turned out there was no doctrine. The state department’s clarification of Pompeo’s remarks contained no reference to one, and experts on international law said that none exists.

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Trump basks in Netanyahu’s victory by highlighting their personal alliance

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US president tweeted a picture of people waving Trump banners at the Israeli leader’s election celebrations

Donald Trump welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory by underlining the personal alliance between the two men, tweeting a picture of people waving Trump banners at the Israeli leader’s celebrations.

Related: 'The future is dark': Palestinians react to Israel's election

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