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Morocco's King Says Determined to React Against Any Security Threat

Morocco's King Mohammed VI (C), flanked by his brother Prince Moulay Rachid (R) and son Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, speaks to the nation, last July. (AFP)
Morocco's King Mohammed VI (C), flanked by his brother Prince Moulay Rachid (R) and son Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, speaks to the nation, last July. (AFP)
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Morocco's King Says Determined to React Against Any Security Threat

Morocco's King Mohammed VI (C), flanked by his brother Prince Moulay Rachid (R) and son Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, speaks to the nation, last July. (AFP)
Morocco's King Mohammed VI (C), flanked by his brother Prince Moulay Rachid (R) and son Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, speaks to the nation, last July. (AFP)

Morocco's King Mohammed VI warned Monday that his country will respond in self-defense against any threat to his country's security. This came during a phone conversation the King held with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres over the situation in Guerguerat.

King Mohammed stressed that Morocco will take necessary measures to keep order and protect safety and fluidity of passenger and commercial traffic in border area between Morocco and Mauritania.

Morocco, however, also remains "firmly determined to react, with the greatest severity, and in self-defense, against any threat to its security,” the king said, quoted in an official statement.

"Morocco took its responsibility in line with its legitimate right after the UN Secretary-General failed in its laudable attempts to end the unacceptable acts of the Polisario," he noted.

Morocco will continue supporting UN efforts to find a political solution on the basis of clear criteria and with the participation of real parties to this regional conflict in order to find a realistic, feasible solution within Morocco’s sovereignty, he added.

“Morocco restored the situation, proceeded to a lasting settlement of the problem and guaranteed resumption of traffic flow.”

For its part, the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed support to Morocco in a tweet.

“The government of the Federal Republic of Somalia stands alongside the brotherly Kingdom of Morocco in all the measures it undertakes to protect its security and sovereignty over its territories at the Guerguerat crossing point between Morocco and Mauritania.”

Also, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Gambia issued a press release on Monday to hail Morocco’s “peaceful and decisive intervention” to secure the region after Polisario and its supporters staged illegal protests in the region.

The West African country also said it supports the UN-led political process to find a political solution to the Western Sahara conflict.

Moreover, President of the Pan-African Parliament Roger Nkodo Dang has sent a letter to the African Union foreign ministers to draw their attention to the maneuvers of the 3rd Vice President of the PAP Jamal Bouras against the interests of the Kingdom of Morocco.

The authoritarian abuses of Bouras, who acts as the president without rotation, have created a serious institutional and functional crisis within the Pan-African Parliament, Dang underlined in the letter.

The president, blocked in Cameroon, stressed that all decisions, declarations, and actions taken outside what is provided for by the texts in force, cannot be considered as reflecting the position of the PAP or its legitimate bodies.

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Arab World

Palestinian Authorities Say Israeli Forces Kill Man Trying to Climb Barrier

Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
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Palestinian Authorities Say Israeli Forces Kill Man Trying to Climb Barrier

Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man Sunday as he attempted to enter Jerusalem by climbing over a barrier separating the city from the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah identified the man as Imad Haroun Ashtiyeh, 26, saying he was killed by Israeli gunfire near the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem.

Ashtiyeh, a construction worker from the village of Salem near Nablus, had attempted to climb the barrier at Al-Ram along with a few other men to make his way to the Israeli city of Tel Aviv for work, said Omer, a relative who gave only his first name.

"But then he was shot while attempting to climb over," Omer told AFP.

An AFP journalist saw Ashtiyeh's corpse shrouded in a Palestinian flag at the Ramallah medical complex, his relatives weeping over his body.

The Palestinian Authority's press office wrote on X that "Israeli occupation forces killed a Palestinian man seeking work while crossing the annexation and apartheid wall".

Al-Ram, located near the Qalandiya checkpoint, is separated from Jerusalem by a section of the barrier reinforced with barbed wire.

The Israeli military and police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israeli security officials say a significant number of Palestinians from the West Bank attempt to enter Israel illegally, often by climbing over the barrier.

They are driven largely by economic hardship and the loss of work permits since the Hamas assault that sparked the Gaza war in October 2023, Palestinian officials say.

Most of them are arrested, while some have died or been injured fleeing from Israeli forces, Palestinian officials say.

Ashtiyeh is the fifth Palestinian killed trying to cross into Israel this year, and the 52nd since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.

Israel began building the barrier at the height of the second Palestinian intifada that erupted in 2002, saying it was needed to maintain security amid suicide bombings in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.

The barrier cuts into many parts of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and Palestinians see it as a land grab and de facto border illegal under international law.

Israel maintains tight restrictions on the movement of the West Bank's roughly three million residents, who require special permits to cross checkpoints into east Jerusalem and Israel.

Violence has sharply escalated in the Palestinian territory since the Gaza war began.

At least 1,075 Palestinians -- both militants and civilians -- have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 2023, according to AFP figures based on Palestinian health ministry data.

In the same period, at least 46 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in attacks or military operations in the West Bank, Israeli official figures show.

Arab World

France Requests UN Security Council 'Emergency Meeting' on Lebanon

Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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France Requests UN Security Council 'Emergency Meeting' on Lebanon

Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

France has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Israeli forces seized the medieval Beaufort castle in Lebanon, the French foreign minister said Sunday, AFP reported.

"I have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council because, while we recognize Israel's right, like that of all countries, to self-defense... nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory," Jean-Noel Barrot said on the BFMTV channel.

On Sunday, Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century.

The capture of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, came after days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages where Israeli troops fought Hezbollah members in the rugged area.

Israel has since launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns close to the border. Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

The Israeli push came despite a nominal ceasefire that has been in place since April 17 and just days before Lebanon and Israeli hold their next round of direct talks in Washington starting Tuesday.

 

 

 

Arab World

Netanyahu Orders Deeper Israeli Incursion into Lebanon to Hit Hezbollah

Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS
Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS
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Netanyahu Orders Deeper Israeli Incursion into Lebanon to Hit Hezbollah

Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS
Israeli soldiers operate at Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, in this handout image released on May 31, 2026. Israeli Military/Handout via REUTERS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, despite a ceasefire announced more than six weeks ago.

The fighting in Lebanon has been the broadest spillover of the Iran war, displacing more than 1.2 million Lebanese through Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Israel to back its ally Iran.

The incursion has so far killed more than 3,370 people, according to the Lebanese government. Israel says 24 of its soldiers and four civilians have been killed over the same period. Tens of thousands of Israelis in the country's north have also been displaced by Hezbollah rockets and drones.

In the latest advance, Israeli troops seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said, a day after one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire toward northern Israel since the April ceasefire, prompting school closures and restrictions.

"I instructed the (military) to expand its ground manoeuvre in Lebanon," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire since the mid-April ceasefire, with Hezbollah resorting to the use of cheap, easy-to-assemble kamikaze drones that are hard for air defences to thwart and that have killed several Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military already controlled territory up to the Litani River in Lebanon, but troops are now pushing to the Zaharani River, around 10 km north.

Netanyahu said his aim is to "deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah's control".

Naftali Bennett, a key challenger to Netanyahu in an upcoming election, said he seeks stronger action in Lebanon, including hitting suburbs of Beirut.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said soldiers will retain Beaufort as part of Israel's security zone in southern Lebanon.

"The campaign is not over yet," he said. "We are all determined to crush Hezbollah's power."

Talal Atrissi, a sociology professor at the Lebanese University and an analyst who is close to Hezbollah, said the Israeli army is managing to achieve its goals in Lebanon.

Israeli troops were also operating near Nabatieh, a major Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, the military said.