Author: ALJAZEERA

Mediator Qatar says Hamas has given a “generally positive” response to a proposed truce deal with Israel, as the Palestinian group reiterated its demand for an end to the Israeli assault on Gaza. During a press conference on Tuesday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani described Hamas’s reaction to the proposal as “generally positive”, without providing more details. Blinken said Hamas’s response to the proposal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States has been shared with Israeli officials. Blinken is on a lightning tour of the Middle…

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Jeanine Hennis-Plasscha urges cessation of attacks, ‘reining in armed actors operating outside state control’.The head of the United Nations political mission in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, has told the Security Council she expects to step down at the end of May, adding the country was “on a knife edge”. The former Dutch defence minister was appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in late 2018. The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq aims to advance inclusive political dialogue and helps coordinate humanitarian and development aid. “For Iraq to further continue on its path of stability and progress, an enabling environment will prove essential.…

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The organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest are under increasing pressure to exclude Israel from this year’s competition as it wages a devastating war on Gaza. More than 20 politicians wrote to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on Tuesday saying Israel’s participation in the contest “whitewashes a regime that is carrying out ethnic cleansing in Palestine and committing war crimes and genocide”. European Parliament members and politicians from Spain’s left-wing Podemos party are among the signatories of the letter seen by Al Jazeera. The annual contest is set to take place in May at Sweden’s Malmo Arena after Swedish singer…

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United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Egypt on his fifth regional tour since October last year, aimed at paving the way for an agreement between Israel and Hamas as the war in Gaza rages on. Blinken was set on Tuesday to meet Egyptian mediators, who, together with other Arab counterparts, have tried to put together a deal to end the vicious war, which has killed more than 27,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Most of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million population is displaced, facing severe shortages of food, water, medicine, and shelter, with the majority of…

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They accuse Washington of raising the risk of escalation in service of Biden’s election hopes.Russia and China have slammed the United States for its recent air strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria. The two countries accused Washington of raising the risk of regional escalation at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council late on Monday. Moscow also asserted that the US decision to launch the attacks was linked to the upcoming presidential election in November. Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has been the topic of bitter debate at the UNSC over the past two years, had requested the…

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Slump comes after customers in Muslim countries boycotted brand over its perceived support for Israel.McDonald’s has cited Israel’s war in Gaza as a factor in the fast food giant missing its first quarterly sales target in nearly four years. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said on Monday that the war had had a “disheartening” effect on sales in Middle Eastern countries and other Muslim-majority nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia. “So long as this conflict, this war, is going on … we’re not expecting to see any significant improvement in this,” Kempczinski said in a conference call. “It’s a human tragedy,…

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NewsFeedFamilies in Syrian towns devastated by last year’s earthquake are still choosing to sleep in tents outside, one year on. They fear that another quake could strike at any moment and that they could be crushed in their sleep. The Turkey-Syria earthquakes struck the region on February 6, 2023, killed more than 50,000 people.Published On 6 Feb 20246 Feb 2024 Source link

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