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UN Delegation in Baghdad to Discuss Monitoring of Parliamentary Elections

An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)
An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)
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UN Delegation in Baghdad to Discuss Monitoring of Parliamentary Elections

An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)
An Iraqi man casts his vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Baghdad, Iraq May 12, 2018. (Reuters)

A delegation of experts from the United Nations kicked off on Tuesday talks with Iraqi officials over their monitoring of parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for October.

Head of the Independent High Electoral Commission Jalil Khalaf Adnan received the experts, expressing his gratitude to the UN for its support of the commission.

The experts will provide technical and management support to organizers. They include experts in procedures and training, media, voter outreach, electoral administration, legal affairs, information technology, among others.

Adnan stressed that the commission was keen on holding the elections, underlining the importance of international monitors due to their “significant role in ensuring the transparency and fairness of the polls.”

Meanwhile, President Barham Salih announced that he has updated his biometric card ahead of polls, encouraging voters to follow suit.

Updating the card is necessary to hold transparent elections, he stressed in a tweet, saying it “guarantees the freedom of choice away from fraud.”

Head of the Hikma alliance, Ammar al-Hakim, expressed his support for international monitoring of the elections on condition that it refrains from meddling in electoral affairs.

Only the commission is entitled to interfere in the elections, he stated, while urging the need to hold the polls on time.

Former head of the Baghdad electoral district, Adil al-Lami told Asharq Al-Awsat that people needed to distinguish between the supervising and monitoring of the polls and technical assistance.

Overseeing entails direct involvement in proceedings, he explained, while monitoring observes whether the process is in line with international democratic practices.

In 2005, he continued, the UN was involved for strictly technical assistance.

Some political parties are now objecting to the overseeing of the elections, not their monitoring, because they fear that their voter fraud will be exposed, he added.

Lami said that the UN has yet to clearly announce whether it will be involved in a monitoring or supervisory capacity.

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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.