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Biden Names New Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues

Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
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Biden Names New Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues

Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Internally displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, take shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 April 2024. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD

US President Joe Biden on Thursday appointed Lise Grande as the new special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, the State Department said in a statement.

Grande, who replaces David Satterfield, is currently head of the independent US Institute of Peace.

She previously worked for the United Nations for more than 25 years, a career that included running aid operations in Yemen, Iraq and South Sudan.

The United Nations has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza in the six months since Israel began an aerial and ground offensive against the Gaza Strip's Hamas.

Israel's military campaign has reduced much of the territory of 2.3 million people to a wasteland with an unfolding humanitarian disaster since October, when Hamas ignited war by storming into southern Israel.

Satterfield said on Tuesday that Israel has taken significant steps in recent weeks on allowing aid into Gaza, but considerable work remained to be done as the risk of famine in the enclave is very high.

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France Declines to Comment on Algeria’s Anger over Recognition of Morocco’s Claim over Sahara

French President Emmanuel Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. (AFP file)
French President Emmanuel Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. (AFP file)
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France Declines to Comment on Algeria’s Anger over Recognition of Morocco’s Claim over Sahara

French President Emmanuel Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. (AFP file)
French President Emmanuel Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. (AFP file)

Paris declined to comment on Algeria’s “strong condemnation” of the French government’s decision to recognize Morocco’s claim over the Sahara.

The office of the French Foreign Ministry refused to respond to an AFP request for a comment on the Algeria’s stance.

It did say that further comments could impact the trip Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is set to make to France in late September or early October.

The visit has been postponed on numerous occasions over disagreements between the two countries.

France had explicitly expressed its constant and clear support for the autonomy rule proposal over the Sahara during Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne’s visit to Morocco in February, reported AFP.

The position has helped improve ties between Rabat and Paris.

On Thursday, the Algerian Foreign Ministry expressed “great regret and strong denunciation" about the French government's decision to recognize an autonomy plan for the Western Sahara region "within Moroccan sovereignty”.

Algeria was informed of the decision by France in recent days, an Algerian foreign ministry statement added.

The ministry also said Algeria would draw all the consequences from the decision and hold the French government alone completely responsible.