Jordan’s King Rejects Any Israeli Plan to Occupy Parts of Gaza

 A tank maneuvers, as seen from Southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, November 13, 2023. (Reuters)
A tank maneuvers, as seen from Southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, November 13, 2023. (Reuters)
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Jordan’s King Rejects Any Israeli Plan to Occupy Parts of Gaza

 A tank maneuvers, as seen from Southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, November 13, 2023. (Reuters)
A tank maneuvers, as seen from Southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, November 13, 2023. (Reuters)

Jordan's King Abdullah rejected any plans by Israel to occupy parts of Gaza or to create security zones within the enclave, saying the root cause of the crisis was Israel's denial of Palestinians' "legitimate rights", state media said on Monday.

In comments he made at the royal palace, the king was quoted as telling senior politicians that there could be "no military or security solution" to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

He said the war-ravaged enclave of Gaza should not be severed by Israel from the other Palestinian Territories.

The monarch told the politicians that the "root of the crisis was Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and its denial of Palestinians legitimate rights".

"The solution starts from there and any other path is doomed to failure and more of a cycle of violence and destruction," he said.

King Abdullah said he had long warned about Israeli violations in the West Bank, with which Jordan shares a border, and Jewish settler attacks on Palestinian civilians could "expand the conflict and push the region "to the abyss".

Jordan is home to a large population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants who fear that Israel could expel Palestinians en masse from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian inhabitants have surged since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

King Abdullah said this month the only path to permanent peace was revived negotiations on an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

US-brokered negotiations towards a "two-state solution" of Palestinian independence in Israeli-occupied territories have been frozen for almost a decade.



Iraqi PM Slams Israel’s Complaint over Attacks by Iraqi Iran-Backed Militias

13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
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Iraqi PM Slams Israel’s Complaint over Attacks by Iraqi Iran-Backed Militias

13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has dismissed an Israeli complaint to the UN Security Council about strikes by Iraq's Iran-backed Shiite militias on Israel as a "pretext and argument to attack Iraq" and to "expand the war in the region."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had earlier posted on X a letter to the Security Council saying that "Israel has the inherent right to self-defense ... and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq."

An umbrella group of Iraqi militias known as the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" has regularly launched drone strikes on targets in Israel in recent months in support of its Hamas and Hezbollah allies in the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

Saar said some of the militias are part of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces — a coalition of mostly Shiite armed groups that's technically part of the Iraqi army although it operates in practice largely outside state control — and urged the Iraqi government to "take immediate action to halt and prevent these attacks."

Al-Sudani’s office said in a statement on Tuesday that Iraq has refused to enter into the regional conflict while "seeking to provide relief to the Palestinian and Lebanese people."