Iraqi PM: Security Reforms Top Government Priorities

Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
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Iraqi PM: Security Reforms Top Government Priorities

Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stressed on Saturday that reforms at the security institution were his government’s top priority.

He spoke of restructuring and modernizing the institution and the training of its members and of combating corruption.

The government has worked on rehabilitating 34,000 members of the security forces, he told a graduation ceremony at the Higher Institute for Security and Administrative Development.

Tens of thousands of new members have been recruited “to pump new blood into the institution,” he added.

On corruption, the PM called on the security forces to be on constant alert and readiness.

Their plans must be based on intelligence information, he added, while also urging the need to constantly modernize these plans to benefit from the latest developments in the security field.

Sudani spoke of combating drugs, which he said were no less dangerous than ISIS terrorism.

They are a threat to social security, he warned, calling for intensifying border security to combat smuggling.

He also stressed the need for cooperation and coordination with regional and international organizations in the fight against drugs.



Egypt’s Parliament Speaker Rejects Proposals for Taking in Palestinians from Gaza

 Two boys watch a crowd of Palestinians returning to northern Gaza, amid destroyed buildings, following Israel's decision to allow thousands of them to return for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP)
Two boys watch a crowd of Palestinians returning to northern Gaza, amid destroyed buildings, following Israel's decision to allow thousands of them to return for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP)
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Egypt’s Parliament Speaker Rejects Proposals for Taking in Palestinians from Gaza

 Two boys watch a crowd of Palestinians returning to northern Gaza, amid destroyed buildings, following Israel's decision to allow thousands of them to return for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP)
Two boys watch a crowd of Palestinians returning to northern Gaza, amid destroyed buildings, following Israel's decision to allow thousands of them to return for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP)

Egypt’s parliament speaker on Monday strongly rejected proposals to move Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, saying this could spread conflict to other parts of the Middle East.

The comments by Hanfy el-Gebaly, speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives, came a day after US President Donald Trump urged Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza.

El-Gebaly, who didn’t address Trump’s comments directly, told a parliament session Monday that such proposals "are not only a threat to the Palestinians but also they also represent a severe threat to regional security and stability.”

“The Egyptian House of Representatives completely rejects any arrangements or attempts to change the geographical and political reality for the Palestinian cause,” he said.

On Sunday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement rejecting any “temporary or long-term” transfer of Palestinians out of their territories.

The ministry warned that such a move “threatens stability, risks expanding the conflict in the region and undermines prospects of peace and coexistence among its people.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners have long advocated what they describe as the voluntary emigration of large numbers of Palestinians and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Human rights groups have already accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, which United Nations experts have defined as a policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove the civilian population of another group from certain areas “by violent and terror-inspiring means.”