Hezbollah Refutes Claims that Nasrallah Was Buried 'in a Secret Location’

A man points to a television set displaying an image of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a black stripe for mourning during a broadcast from the private Lebanese station NBN in Beirut on September 28, 2024. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)
A man points to a television set displaying an image of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a black stripe for mourning during a broadcast from the private Lebanese station NBN in Beirut on September 28, 2024. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)
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Hezbollah Refutes Claims that Nasrallah Was Buried 'in a Secret Location’

A man points to a television set displaying an image of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a black stripe for mourning during a broadcast from the private Lebanese station NBN in Beirut on September 28, 2024. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)
A man points to a television set displaying an image of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a black stripe for mourning during a broadcast from the private Lebanese station NBN in Beirut on September 28, 2024. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group denied reports on Friday that the party’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was temporarily buried in a secret place.
In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity, a Hezbollah source described as “rumors” the allegations that the party's Secretary-General was “temporarily buried” due to the difficulty of holding a public funeral because of "Israeli threats”. 
The source confirmed that no decision has yet been made regarding the date and location of the burial.
Earlier, the Agence France Presse quoted what it said was a “Hezbollah” source as saying that Nasrallah has been temporarily buried in a secret location fearing Israel would target a large funeral.
It said the move was taken until the circumstances allowed for a public funeral.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the killing of Nasrallah was a “historic turning point”.
On 23 September 2024, Israel began a series of airstrikes in Lebanon as part of the ongoing Israel–Hezbollah conflict. Since then, Israel's attacks have killed over 800 people, injured more than 5,000, and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians.
The attacks are the deadliest in Lebanon since the end of the Lebanese Civil War.

 



Morocco Denounces as 'Biased' ECJ Ruling Annulling its Trade Deals with EU

A bulldozer passes by a hilltop manned by Moroccan soldiers on a road between Morocco and Mauritania in Guerguerat located in the Western Sahara, Nov. 23, 2020. (AFP)
A bulldozer passes by a hilltop manned by Moroccan soldiers on a road between Morocco and Mauritania in Guerguerat located in the Western Sahara, Nov. 23, 2020. (AFP)
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Morocco Denounces as 'Biased' ECJ Ruling Annulling its Trade Deals with EU

A bulldozer passes by a hilltop manned by Moroccan soldiers on a road between Morocco and Mauritania in Guerguerat located in the Western Sahara, Nov. 23, 2020. (AFP)
A bulldozer passes by a hilltop manned by Moroccan soldiers on a road between Morocco and Mauritania in Guerguerat located in the Western Sahara, Nov. 23, 2020. (AFP)

Morocco's foreign ministry said a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Friday annulling its trade deals with the EU showed "blatant political bias".

The court said the European Commission had breached the right of people in Western Sahara to self-determination by concluding trade deals with Morocco.

The ruling contained legal errors and "suspicious factual mistakes", the ministry said in a statement, urging the European Council, the commission and member states to uphold their commitments and preserve the assets of the partnership with Morocco.

Western Sahara, a tract of desert the size of Britain, has been the scene of Africa's longest-running territorial dispute since colonial power Spain left in 1975 and Morocco annexed the territory.

Earlier on Friday, the European Union’s top court ruled definitively that fisheries and agriculture agreements reached between the bloc and Morocco five years ago failed to include consultations with the people of Western Sahara.

In its ruling, the European Court of Justice said that for the 2019 EU-Morocco farm and fisheries agreements to enter force, they “must receive the consent of the people of Western Sahara. However, such consent has not been given in this instance.”

It said the deals “were concluded in breach of the principles of self-determination and the relative effect of treaties.” The Luxembourg-based court dismissed “in their entirety” legal appeals by the EU’s executive branch and the council representing the 27 member countries.

The fisheries agreement laid out where European vessels with Moroccan permits could fish and included Moroccan-controlled waters west of the disputed territory. The four-year accord has already expired, so the court’s decision will only influence future agreements.

The court acknowledged that the EU institutions had launched a consultation process before concluding the agreements, but said this involved people who were present in the territory, “irrespective of whether or not they belong to the people of Western Sahara.”

It noted that “a significant proportion of that people now lives outside that territory.”