Egypt, Europe Agree to Support ‘Food Security’ Efforts

Egypt and EU officials signing the agreement to enhance "food security" (Egyptian government)
Egypt and EU officials signing the agreement to enhance "food security" (Egyptian government)
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Egypt, Europe Agree to Support ‘Food Security’ Efforts

Egypt and EU officials signing the agreement to enhance "food security" (Egyptian government)
Egypt and EU officials signing the agreement to enhance "food security" (Egyptian government)

Egypt and the EU have signed a grant agreement of $40 million to support food security challenges.

The grant comes within the framework of the European Union's support for the food security in Egypt program, funded by a grant of €100 million. Projects related to the remaining amount, estimated at €60 million, are being agreed upon.

The signing ceremony was held on Thursday in the presence of International Cooperation Minister Rania Mashat, Supply and Internal Trade Minister Ali Moselhi, Agriculture Minister Sayed el-Quosair, president of the Foreign Ministry's office of the Egyptian-European partnership Amr Abo Eish, Head of the EU delegation to Egypt, Ambassador Christian Berger, Head of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) Martino Melli, and several officials.

The agreement resulted in the signing of several partnership deals, including the emergency project to support food security and flexible response at a value of $500 million with the World Bank, the Takaful and Dignity Expansion Program worth $500 million with the World Bank, and the Food Security and Economic Resilience Support Program at a value of $271 million with the African Development Bank.

Mashat confirmed that the agreement comes in light of Egypt's efforts to face food security challenges resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian war.

It also aims to strengthen national efforts in grain production and storage, stimulating climate resilience and increasing the storage capacities of strategic grains.

On Thursday, Moselhi reiterated the importance of cooperation with Italy and the EU in supporting the plans of the Egyptian state. He also referred to the Ministry's plans to expand wheat storage silos and stimulate food security efforts.

The Minister pointed out that the Egyptian state has taken many steps to achieve food security over the last eight years through land reclamation and cultivating strategic crops.

Furthermore, the Minister of Agriculture referred to the excellent cooperation and coordination between all Egyptian ministries to support the food security system, noting that Egypt has good collaboration with the Italian side to implement several projects in the agricultural sector, especially in the field of rural development, digital transformation, agricultural mechanization, and others.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.