Arab Parliament Speaker Condemns Israeli Settlement Plan in West Bankhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5309764-arab-parliament-speaker-condemns-israeli-settlement-plan-west-bank
Arab Parliament Speaker Condemns Israeli Settlement Plan in West Bank
Arab Parliament logo
Arab Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Yamahi strongly condemned Israel’s plan to implement the expansionist settlement project in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank and rejected the remarks made by Israel’s security minister calling for the killing of dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday.
He stressed that proceeding with the project despite international warnings defies international law and relevant international resolutions.
He called on the international community, the UN Security Council, parliaments, and international organizations to take concrete measures to halt settlement and annexation activities, hold those responsible for incitement accountable, and work toward achieving peace, which begins with ending the occupation and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate rights.
Sudan Farms Lie Barren as El Nino Leaves Nile Banks Dryhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5309769-sudan-farms-lie-barren-el-nino-leaves-nile-banks-dry
A photograph shows the exposed riverbed of the Blue Nile in Khartoum on July 27, 2026. (AFP)
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Sudan Farms Lie Barren as El Nino Leaves Nile Banks Dry
A photograph shows the exposed riverbed of the Blue Nile in Khartoum on July 27, 2026. (AFP)
Along the bone-dry riverbanks of the Nile in Sudan, farmers struggle to pull water to their crops. Others gather to pray for rainfall over cracked earth.
Across the country, farmland that could feed the world's largest hunger crisis many times over lies fallow, as weary farmers once again find themselves in the crosshairs of faraway destruction.
First came war between the country's army and rival paramilitaries, which since April 2023 has killed more than 200,000 people and pushed nearly 20 million into crisis levels of hunger.
Then a more distant conflict, between Iran and the United States, crippled fuel and fertilizer supply through the Strait of Hormuz, causing costs to soar.
And now the powerful El Nino climate pattern strengthening in the Pacific Ocean, which impacts winds and rains across the world, has delayed crucial rains and led water levels in the life-giving Nile to drop precipitously.
Just south of the capital Khartoum, farmer Al-Tigani Fadlallah points to an island that shouldn't be there.
"The water usually covers it by July, but you can see it even now," he told AFP this month, seeing in the sunbaked sandbank a bad omen for his parched crops.
Through the length of Sudan, from the northern fields near Egypt, along the Nile river to the Ethiopian border, farmers told AFP reporters the water they need is not rising from the riverbanks nor falling from the sky.
The UN's food and agriculture organization says the season "is unfolding under heightened climate risk, driven by El Nino conditions" including delayed and below average rains, and long and frequent dry spells.
Farmers say it is one of the hardest seasons in recent memory, but climate research shows it will not be the last.
- Pray for rain -
Climate and hydrology scientist Elfatih Eltahir, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has studied the link between El Nino and the Nile for thirty years.
His research has shown El Nino is closely associated with low Nile flow and, when it begins in late spring, as it did this year, brings a high probability of drought in southeastern Sudan and northwestern Ethiopia, where the Blue Nile originates.
Water levels at the reservoir behind Ethiopia's massive Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile, which contributes the majority of water feeding the Nile river, was six meters lower this July compared to the same month last year, according to data from Germany's University of Tubingen.
A Sudanese farmer ploughs agricultural land in Gedaref State, eastern Sudan, on July 18, 2026. (AFP)
But Eltahir warns "more transparency and cooperation" are also needed between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over Addis Ababa's management of the reservoir, especially as climate change brings more extreme floods and droughts.
This summer, the Blue Nile basin has already seen as little as half of its usual rainfall, according to UC Santa Barbara's Climate Hazards Center, and regional forecasts predict below average rainfall for the rest of the rainy season.
Farmers in Gedaref state on the Ethiopian border, where the bulk of Sudan's staple crops such as sorghum and sesame are planted, are already feeling it.
When August rolled in and their usually-verdant fields were still a dull brown, frustrated farmers gathered behind local imams for rain-invoking prayers.
"We need these rains for our crops and our livestock, and they're late," local farmer Abdelmajid Hussein told AFP after a prayer.
Agriculture minister Ismat Qurashi told AFP farmers are being told to choose drought-resistant crops and to delay planting.
Moussa Yaacoub, 75, has planted sesame for decades, including three wartime growing seasons each harder than the last.
Now, standing sentinel over the cracked earth, he wonders if he will make it through the next, with his land now costing him "four times as much to plant".
- Can't catch a break -
Downstream, in Sudan's other breadbasket state Al-Jazira, Hassan Ahmed stares out at the farm that has been in his family for 100 years.
When Ahmed returned to it last year, after the army recaptured Al-Jazira from the Rapid Support Forces, he found it had been ransacked by looting paramilitaries, and his trees stood wilting in the sun.
He and his sons got to work bringing it back to life, but this year have struggled anew.
"I'm 63 and I have never seen the Nile this low in August," he told AFP. "By now we should have taken our water pump out because the flood had drenched the soil several meters in."
Buffeted by a perfect storm -- low water, soaring costs and a crippled market -- many farmers have abandoned their lands, at a time when 65 percent of Sudan's vast arable land is already out of commission.
Some farmers, hopeful at the start of the season, "planted their crops but then left them to die because it just wasn't worth the harvest," young farmer Mohamed al-Tijani told AFP near Khartoum.
Sudan imports all of its fuel and most of its fertilizer, costs for which have multiplied by up to five this year as a result of war in the Middle East.
Veteran farmer Ahmed Othman is one of many who know he won't break even in the market, already devastated with most of the country out of work.
"But at least I can say I'm working at all," he told AFP, back bent from decades of toiling in the fields.
Syria Requests to Join Anti-chemical Weapons Partnershiphttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5309761-syria-requests-join-anti-chemical-weapons-partnership
The logo of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman Purchase Licensing Rights
Syria Requests to Join Anti-chemical Weapons Partnership
The logo of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman Purchase Licensing Rights
Syria on Friday said it had requested to join the International Partnership Against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons on the anniversary of a 2013 chemical attack on a suburb of the capital Damascus.
In a joint statement with France commemorating the attack during former leader Bashar al-Assad's rule on opposition-held areas, Syria announced its bid to join the partnership of dozens of countries, launched by Paris in January 2018.
France welcomed the step as "a clear demonstration of Syria's commitment to strengthening accountability and justice and combating impunity" following its more than decade-long civil war.
Damascus and Paris also said they "commemorate the victims, extend their deepest sympathies and solidarity to their families, and reaffirm their joint commitment to supporting efforts to uncover the truth, ensure justice, and hold those responsible for these crimes accountable".
In August 2013, the Syrian army under Assad was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under the opposition’s control.
According to US intelligence and rights groups, more than 1,400 men, women and children died as a result.
With Syria at the height of its civil war, the Assad government denied responsibility, but agreed to hand over its chemical arsenal in order to avert US strikes.
Assad went on to remain in power for more than a decade, only to be ousted in 2024 by opposition forces, headed by now President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Survivors of the attacks, including medics, at the time risked their lives by posting dozens of videos online, and spoke to journalists including AFP reporters about the horror they had witnessed.
The footage showed dozens of corpses, many of them children, outstretched on the ground.
Other images showed unconscious children, people foaming at the mouth and doctors trying to help them breathe.
The scenes provoked revulsion and condemnation around the globe.
- 'Painful chapter' -
A United Nations report later said there was clear evidence sarin gas had been used.
Syria agreed to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and disclose and hand over its toxic stockpile under Russian and US pressure, averting the threat of strikes by Washington and its allies.
But that was not the last of the chemical attacks: the OPCW went on to blame Assad's forces for others later in the civil war.
Marking 13 years since the attack, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani called it "one of the most painful chapters in Syria's history".
"Tomorrow, the Syrian Arab Republic begins a new phase in dealing with the legacy of these weapons. We have initiated the necessary technical and logistical procedures for their disposal, in cooperation with our international partners," he added, also vowing to pursue those involved in the attack.
Several Syrian officers linked to the attack have been arrested since Assad's fall.
Syria's civil war began in 2011, with a brutal crackdown on dissent that yielded an armed rebellion. More than half a million people ended up being killed, with millions more forced into exile.
The OPCW reinstated Syria last month, five years after taking the unprecedented step of stripping it of its voting rights.
Iran's Qalibaf Urges Baghdad to Break Economic Dependence on Washingtonhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5309706-irans-qalibaf-urges-baghdad-break-economic-dependence-washington
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf (R) attends a ceremony marking 40 days since the burial of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Karbala, central Iraq, Aug. 20, 2026. (AFP)
Iran's Qalibaf Urges Baghdad to Break Economic Dependence on Washington
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf (R) attends a ceremony marking 40 days since the burial of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Karbala, central Iraq, Aug. 20, 2026. (AFP)
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf on Friday urged Baghdad to reduce its reliance on the dollar and draw up what he called a “precise roadmap” for economic cooperation between the two countries.
Qalibaf made the remarks during a visit to the southwestern Iraqi city of Najaf, as the region awaits what has been described as an unprecedented package of US sanctions on Iran and its trading partners.
Iran must plan to overcome what Qalibaf called “unjust sanctions,” after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced what he described as the toughest sanctions ever imposed on Iran, according to Reuters.
Earlier, at a consultative meeting with business figures at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, Qalibaf called for a “precise roadmap” for economic ties with Iraq that would include moving away from the US dollar.
He said the two countries should end their reliance on the US currency and use local currencies in trade.
“The era of US dominance over the world has ended, but we have not made proper use of the opportunities available to us, and we are still conducting trade through outdated methods,” Qalibaf said.
Iraq relies entirely on the dollar for its oil exports, which generate more than 90% of national revenues. The proceeds are deposited in US dollars into an account held in the name of the Central Bank of Iraq at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
‘Difficult and trying circumstances’
In stark contrast, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi sought to reassure public-sector employees and pensioners that monthly salaries and government payments were fully secured, even as he warned that Iraq was facing “difficult and trying circumstances” due to regional developments and disruptions to oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking at the Baghdad Dialogue conference, organized by the Iraqi Institute for Dialogue, al-Zaidi said Iraq faced major economic challenges and described the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a key obstacle.
The strait, he said, “was not closed even during the harshest days of the blockade.”
Al-Zaidi said the government had found alternative routes for oil exports and activated border crossings to bolster trade, adding that the state had “more than one solution” to preserve economic stability and contain the fallout from the crisis.
He said Iraq was working to expand oil exports through Türkiye’s Ceyhan port, while efforts continued to develop export routes through Banias and Aqaba.
“We are working to increase Iraq’s export quota through OPEC, and we aim to reach 8 million to 10 million barrels per day within six years,” al-Zaidi said.
“Iraq fought ISIS on behalf of the region and the world, and it is only fair that it receive a crude oil export quota commensurate with the size of its population and its oil reserves.”
On the political front, al-Zaidi said political forces were in full agreement that the government should press ahead with its anti-corruption campaign.
He described “the battle against the looting of public funds” as a matter of honor for him.
The government launched an operation dubbed “Dawn Crackdown” on June 28 to combat the looting of public funds. The operation has targeted political officials, lawmakers, and businesspeople.
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