Foreign Ministers of US, India, UAE, Israel to Meet on Monday

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. (AFP)
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. (AFP)
TT

Foreign Ministers of US, India, UAE, Israel to Meet on Monday

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. (AFP)
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. (AFP)

The foreign ministers of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, India and the US plan to hold a meeting on Monday evening to bolster coordination.

The office of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the minister will hold a meeting with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in West Jerusalem on Monday, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan will participate through a Zoom call.

The meeting is part of the Israeli government’s efforts to build strong international relations that should strengthen its position in the region and in the world and contribute in offering a strong and smart push for the peace process between Tel Aviv and its neighbors, said the statement.

Meanwhile, Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde was visiting Tel Aviv and Ramallah to push forward the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Early this month, Lapid had kicked off efforts to restore contacts with Sweden, after relations between the two sides hit a low in 2015 when Stockholm recognized the State of Palestine.

Political sources said that Sweden has not changed its position, which will be reflected in Linde’s scheduled visit on Tuesday to Ramallah, where she will hold talks with Palestinians President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.

Linde told Israel’s Yediot Aharonot: “I think my country’s government does want to promote a two-state solution.”

She said Sweden’s relations with Israel are important and that her government wants to have good ties with it.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has expressed its desire to improve relations with Stockholm. However, it noted that “opening the file of the permanent settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not viable at this stage, although we very much want a settlement.”



Five ISIS Bombs Found Hidden in Iconic Mosul Mosque in Iraq

(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)
(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)
TT

Five ISIS Bombs Found Hidden in Iconic Mosul Mosque in Iraq

(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)
(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)

A United Nations agency said it has discovered five bombs in a wall of Mosul's iconic Al-Nuri mosque, planted years ago by ISIS militants, during restoration work in the northern Iraqi city.

Five "large-scale explosive devices, designed to trigger a massive destruction of the site," were found in the southern wall of the prayer hall on Tuesday by the UNESCO team working at the site, a representative for the agency told AFP late Friday.

Mosul's Al-Nuri mosque and the adjacent leaning minaret nicknamed Al-Hadba or the "hunchback", which dates from the 12th century, were destroyed during the battle to retake the city from ISIS.

Iraq's army accused ISIS, which occupied Mosul for three years, of planting explosives at the site and blowing it up.

UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, has been working to restore the mosque and other architectural heritage sites in the city, much of it reduced to rubble in the battle to retake it in 2017.

"The Iraqi armed forces immediately secured the area and the situation is now fully under control," UNESCO added.

One bomb was removed, but four other 1.5-kilogram devices "remain connected to each other" and are expected to be cleared in the coming days, it said.

"These explosive devices were hidden inside a wall, which was specially rebuilt around them: it explains why they could not be discovered when the site was cleared by Iraqi forces" in 2020, the agency said.

Iraqi General Tahseen al-Khafaji, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command of various Iraqi forces, confirmed the discovery of "several explosive devices from ISIS militants in Al-Nuri mosque."

He said provincial deminers requested help from the Defense Ministry in Baghdad to defuse the remaining munitions because of their "complex manufacturing".

Construction work has been suspended at the site until the bombs are removed.

It was from Al-Nuri mosque that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the then-leader of ISIS, proclaimed the establishment of the group's "caliphate" in July 2014.