Tunisian FM Discusses With US Counterpart Strategic Partnership

Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019
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Tunisian FM Discusses With US Counterpart Strategic Partnership

Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Jhinaoui during talks with his US counterpart Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui’s media office revealed Wednesday that a high-level Tunisian delegation has traveled to Washington to discuss the strategic partnership between Tunisia, the US and Libya's neighboring countries along with UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salameh.

These meetings aim to increase security coordination and end the war in Libya and areas adjacent to the Tunisian-Libyan border since forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar have stormed Tripoli in early April.

Jhinaoui said his talks with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo and his aides included war on terrorism, the latest developments in Libya's issue and the ceasefire efforts in the framework of the third session of the three-day “strategic dialogue” between Tunisia and US, which started on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Tunisian and Algerian authorities have increased their security and political coordination on combating terrorism and the Libyan issue.

Tunisian authorities played down the credibility of a new video attributed to ISIS-affiliated Tunisian elements, who threatened on Tuesday evening the country and its tourist season and vowed to carry out new terrorist attacks.

The Tunisian Interior Ministry had earlier announced the elimination of a terrorist belonging to the Libyan group, which launched on June 27 two terrorist attacks on security targets in central Tunis, killing two people, including a security personnel.

The attacks coincided with a third attack on a TV station on the Algerian-Tunisian borders and with the announcement of a serious deterioration of the Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi’s health condition.

News said Essebsi was taken to the military hospital, which increased fears of the political class of the impact and repercussions of these successive developments on the economic situation as well as on the political and electoral stages the country is heading to.

The video, shared on ISIS social media channels on Tuesday night, showed armed men in balaclavas who pledge allegiance to ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.



Turkish FM Says Sides Are Close to a Gaza Ceasefire Agreement

Turkish Foreign Minister Minister Hakan Fidan (R) shakes hands with Syrian Foreign Minister Minister Asaad al-Shaibani during a joint press conference after their meeting in Ankara, Türkiye, 08 October 2025. (EPA)
Turkish Foreign Minister Minister Hakan Fidan (R) shakes hands with Syrian Foreign Minister Minister Asaad al-Shaibani during a joint press conference after their meeting in Ankara, Türkiye, 08 October 2025. (EPA)
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Turkish FM Says Sides Are Close to a Gaza Ceasefire Agreement

Turkish Foreign Minister Minister Hakan Fidan (R) shakes hands with Syrian Foreign Minister Minister Asaad al-Shaibani during a joint press conference after their meeting in Ankara, Türkiye, 08 October 2025. (EPA)
Turkish Foreign Minister Minister Hakan Fidan (R) shakes hands with Syrian Foreign Minister Minister Asaad al-Shaibani during a joint press conference after their meeting in Ankara, Türkiye, 08 October 2025. (EPA)

Talks on bringing an end to the war in Gaza are on the verge of reaching a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Wednesday.

Turkish, Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators are working to realize an American plan that calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

“If an agreement is reached today, a ceasefire will be declared,” Fidan told a news conference in Ankara with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani.

Fidan earlier said that “a lot of progress has been achieved so far” in the negotiations. “What is good news is that the parties have showed great will for the release of the prisoners and the hostages,” he added.

All sides have expressed optimism for a deal to end the two-year war that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and most of Gaza destroyed. But key parts of the peace plan still haven’t been agreed, including a requirement that Hamas disarm, the timing and extent of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and the creation of an international body to run the territory after Hamas steps down.

Fidan told reporters that technical details were “being discussed at the moment,” adding that “if the positive views are heard today, the necessary steps will be taken for the first part of the agreement.”

The two ministers also discussed security in Syria — an issue that neighboring Türkiye takes a keen interest in.

Al-Shaibani criticized the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, for delaying the implementation of an agreement made in March for them to integrate into Syria’s new military. The SDF has recently clashed with security forces around the northern city of Aleppo.

“The SDF has taken it very slowly in making the right steps,” he said. “Any delay in terms of implementing this agreement will only serve for further losses and we will have huge trouble in fighting terrorism.”

Both al-Shaibani and Fidan attacked Israel’s involvement in Syria, with the Syrian minister saying Israel’s “aggression still jeopardizes our safety and security.”

Tensions soared between Israel and Syria following the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, when Israeli forces seized control of the UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria set up under the 1974 agreement and carried out airstrikes. Al-Shaibani on Wednesday reiterated Syrian calls to return to the 1974 boundaries.

Israel stepped up its intervention when violence erupted in Syria’s Sweida province in July between Bedouin clans and government forces on one side and armed groups from the Druze minority on the other.


Report: Rubio to Attend Paris Meeting on Gaza Transition

 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 7, 2025. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 7, 2025. (AFP)
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Report: Rubio to Attend Paris Meeting on Gaza Transition

 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 7, 2025. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 7, 2025. (AFP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend a ministerial meeting to be held on Thursday in Paris with European, Arab and other states to discuss Gaza's post-war transition, three diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.

The meeting, to be held in parallel with indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt on US President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza, is intended to discuss how the plan would be implemented and assess countries' collective commitments to the process.

According to a note sent to delegates, the meeting will follow up a conference on a "two-state solution" at the United Nations and is intended to agree on joint actions to make a contribution to the US plan for Gaza. The two-state solution would involve an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Countries attending on Thursday will include France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Türkiye and Canada.

The note had said Washington's participation would depend on advances in the negotiations in Egypt.

A European diplomatic source said it was vital to have the United States present. An Italian diplomatic source underlined the importance of supporting Trump's plan, which was "the only one possible".

A French diplomatic source said the United States and Israel had been kept up to date with plans for the meeting and the agenda would include humanitarian aid for Gaza and the enclave's reconstruction, disarmament of Hamas and support for the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian security forces.

The US Embassy in Paris was not immediately available for comment.


Israel’s Ben-Gvir Calls for ‘Gaza Victory’ at Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound 

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in this screengrab from a video obtained by Reuters on October 8, 2025. (Jewish Power/Handout via Reuters) 
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in this screengrab from a video obtained by Reuters on October 8, 2025. (Jewish Power/Handout via Reuters) 
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Israel’s Ben-Gvir Calls for ‘Gaza Victory’ at Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound 

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in this screengrab from a video obtained by Reuters on October 8, 2025. (Jewish Power/Handout via Reuters) 
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in this screengrab from a video obtained by Reuters on October 8, 2025. (Jewish Power/Handout via Reuters) 

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Wednesday and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue "complete victory" over Hamas in Gaza.

In a video on the edge of one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East, Ben-Gvir said that two years after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war, Israel was "winning" at the Jerusalem compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

"Every house in Gaza has a picture of the Temple Mount, and today, two years later, we are winning on the Temple Mount. We are the owners of the Temple Mount," Ben-Gvir said in the video released by his Jewish Power party.

"I only pray that our prime minister will allow a complete victory in Gaza as well – to destroy Hamas, with God's help we will return the hostages, and we will win a complete victory," Ben-Gvir said.

His remarks were released as Israel and Palestinian group Hamas are deep in indirect negotiations in Egypt to release all remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza and end the war there.

Ben-Gvir, known as a hardliner well before he helped Netanyahu form the most right-wing coalition government in Israel's history, heads the pro-settler, nationalist-religious Jewish Power party. He has previously threatened to quit Netanyahu's government unless Hamas is utterly destroyed.

The Al-Aqsa compound, in Jerusalem's walled Old City, is Islam's third holiest site and the most sacred in Judaism. Under a delicate decades-old "status quo" arrangement with Muslim authorities, the Al-Aqsa compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and Jews can visit but may not pray there.

Ben-Gvir has previously challenged those rules, prompting Netanyahu to issue statements saying Israel was committed to the status quo there.

Suggestions that Israel would alter rules at the Al-Aqsa compound have sparked outrage in the Muslim world and ignited violence in the past.