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Arab World

Egypt's Sisi Meets With Iran's Foreign Minister

FILED - 11 September 2024, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after their meeting at Ittihadiya Palace. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
FILED - 11 September 2024, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after their meeting at Ittihadiya Palace. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
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Egypt's Sisi Meets With Iran's Foreign Minister

FILED - 11 September 2024, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after their meeting at Ittihadiya Palace. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
FILED - 11 September 2024, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after their meeting at Ittihadiya Palace. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday, Egypt's presidency said in a statement.
The meeting focused on regional developments, with al-Sisi reiterating Egypt's call to avoid the expansion of conflict and the need to halt escalation to prevent a full-scale regional war, Reuters reported.
Araqchi emphasized the importance of continuing efforts to explore prospects for mutual development of relations between the two countries, the statement added.
Araqchi landed in Cairo late on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian officials, the first such visit in years as part of a Middle Eastern tour amid concerns of a wider confrontation in the region with Israel.
Tensions are high in anticipation of an Israeli attack on Iran in retaliation for Iran's missile attack on Oct. 1. That followed a rapidly spiraling conflict between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Araqchi arrived for "important talks with Egypt's high ranking officials that will be held tomorrow [Thursday]," Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X on Wednesday.
Relations between Egypt and Iran have generally been fraught in recent decades but the two countries have stepped up high-level diplomatic contacts since the eruption of the Gaza crisis last year as Egypt tried to play a mediating role.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty traveled to Tehran in July to attend the country's presidential inauguration.

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Arab World

Israel Approves Settler Building Plans in Palestinian West Bank City

Israeli soldiers stand by as Palestinian women look on as Israeli bulldozers demolish a Palestinian home, which the Israeli authorities say was built without permission, in Ar-Rifaiyya village, south of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron on June 17, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers stand by as Palestinian women look on as Israeli bulldozers demolish a Palestinian home, which the Israeli authorities say was built without permission, in Ar-Rifaiyya village, south of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron on June 17, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Approves Settler Building Plans in Palestinian West Bank City

Israeli soldiers stand by as Palestinian women look on as Israeli bulldozers demolish a Palestinian home, which the Israeli authorities say was built without permission, in Ar-Rifaiyya village, south of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron on June 17, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers stand by as Palestinian women look on as Israeli bulldozers demolish a Palestinian home, which the Israeli authorities say was built without permission, in Ar-Rifaiyya village, south of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron on June 17, 2026. (AFP)

Israel on Wednesday approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the center of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, in a construction push that Palestinians say violates a decades-old agreement.

Israel's finance minister announced the plans a day after saying he had scrapped a deal that gave the Palestinian municipality control over certain planning and construction around Hebron's historic core, home to ‌a flashpoint holy ‌shrine.

The enclave around the Cave ‌of ⁠the Patriarchs - revered ⁠by Muslims, Jews and Christians - is home to more than 1,000 Jewish settlers who live among tens of thousands of Palestinians under complete Israeli security control.

Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Israeli troops remain deployed in the area, but construction has generally required approval from the Palestinian ⁠municipality, including around the shrine.

The religious heritage of ‌the city has made ‌it a focal point for Israeli settlers, who are determined ‌to expand the Jewish presence.

Bezalal Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance ‌minister, said construction of a 1,000 square meter building for a Jewish school in Hebron's historic core had been approved.

"We are continuing to build the Land of Israel in ‌practice and to implement practical sovereignty in the settlements," Smotrich, who has said he wants ⁠to bury ⁠the idea of Palestinian statehood, said in a statement.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist who lives in Hebron, said he feared Israel's dismantling of parts of the Hebron Agreement would leave Palestinian residents of the city without basic services.

He said that move was aimed at making life miserable for Palestinians and forcing them to leave.

"It means ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families from their homes, and more displacement," he said, describing Israel's actions as stealing Palestinian dreams to have a state "and to live without violence, without fear, with peace".

Arab World

Palestinian Official: Israeli Settlers Torched West Bank Mosque

A Palestinian man inspects the damage inside a mosque burnt by Israeli settlers over night, in the Israeli occupied West Bank village of Jiljlia, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 17, 2026. (Photo by ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /
A Palestinian man inspects the damage inside a mosque burnt by Israeli settlers over night, in the Israeli occupied West Bank village of Jiljlia, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 17, 2026. (Photo by ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /
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Palestinian Official: Israeli Settlers Torched West Bank Mosque

A Palestinian man inspects the damage inside a mosque burnt by Israeli settlers over night, in the Israeli occupied West Bank village of Jiljlia, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 17, 2026. (Photo by ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /
A Palestinian man inspects the damage inside a mosque burnt by Israeli settlers over night, in the Israeli occupied West Bank village of Jiljlia, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 17, 2026. (Photo by ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /

Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in a West Bank village on Wednesday, the local mayor said, while AFP journalists at the site saw signs of arson and vandalism.

The incident comes amid an increase in attacks against Palestinian communities by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in 2023.

Osama Abdullah, head of the village council in Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, told AFP that "settlers set fire to the ablution room, caused damage to the village's main mosque, and scrawled hostile slogans on the outer walls.”

Israel's military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

AFP journalists who visited the mosque on Wednesday reported that the ceiling, walls and floors were blackened by smoke and flames.

They said graffiti in Hebrew had been scrawled on the walls, including some reading "vengeance" and "hi from the Hilltop Youth.”

The Hilltop Youth are a group of Israelis in the West Bank who are regularly accused of violence towards Palestinians they seek to evict from areas they wish to take over.

Mayor Abdullah said settlers arrived to burn down the mosque between 2am and 3am but found its door was locked, so instead set fire to a room dedicated to ablutions on a lower floor.

He said Palestinian civil defense crews, along with young men from the village and neighboring areas, extinguished the blaze.

Arab World

Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria Discuss Ways to Secure Shared Borders

Libyans from various regions, along with organizations and activists, gather in front of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to demand that they take action to resettle irregular migrants and refugees, in the capital Tripoli on June 16, 2026. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)
Libyans from various regions, along with organizations and activists, gather in front of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to demand that they take action to resettle irregular migrants and refugees, in the capital Tripoli on June 16, 2026. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)
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Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria Discuss Ways to Secure Shared Borders

Libyans from various regions, along with organizations and activists, gather in front of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to demand that they take action to resettle irregular migrants and refugees, in the capital Tripoli on June 16, 2026. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)
Libyans from various regions, along with organizations and activists, gather in front of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to demand that they take action to resettle irregular migrants and refugees, in the capital Tripoli on June 16, 2026. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)

Security officials from Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria have held talks in Tripoli on strengthening cooperation to secure their shared borders.

According to Libya’s Interior Ministry of the Tripoli-based government, Tuesday’s meeting discussed ways to enhance cooperation in border security, combat cross-border organized crime, tackle terrorism, and curb illegal migration.

Security authorities in the three countries are working along their shared borders to counter irregular migration from sub-Saharan African countries, as well as smuggling operations and the risks of militant infiltration.

The Libyan ministry said in a statement that the three countries are keen to strengthen joint security cooperation and to develop operational mechanisms to be highly ready in confronting cross-border security threats and challenges, thus contributing to enhanced security and stability and protecting the shared interests of the region’s peoples.

The ministry explained on its Facebook page that the meeting “addressed ways to enhance cooperation among the three countries in securing borders and combating cross-border organized crime, in a way that strengthens security and stability in the region.”

It stressed that the meeting comes within the framework of ongoing efforts by the three countries to consolidate security and stability, strengthen partnership and security integration, and help protect shared borders while combating various forms of organized crime.

The joint Libyan-Algerian-Tunisian task force responsible for securing the shared borders was established in January 2025.

Its formation came as part of an agreement between the interior ministers of the three states to raise the level of security coordination, unify efforts to control the borders, combat cross-border organized crime, and address illegal migration.