Russian MP Backs Libyan Parliament’s Call for Egyptian Military Intervention

Men walk in front of Rixos hotel damaged by a rocket in Tripoli, Libya May 24, 2019. (Reuters)
Men walk in front of Rixos hotel damaged by a rocket in Tripoli, Libya May 24, 2019. (Reuters)
TT
20

Russian MP Backs Libyan Parliament’s Call for Egyptian Military Intervention

Men walk in front of Rixos hotel damaged by a rocket in Tripoli, Libya May 24, 2019. (Reuters)
Men walk in front of Rixos hotel damaged by a rocket in Tripoli, Libya May 24, 2019. (Reuters)

The Russian Foreign Ministry has yet to comment on the east-based Libyan parliament’s call on the Egyptian military to intervene in the country to confront Turkey’s expansionist ambitions.

A Russian lawmaker did, however, welcome the move.

MP Vladimir Jabbarov said the Egyptian intervention could help restore the Libyan state, while also stressing the need to continue efforts to reach a political solution.

Of course, there is a need to hold political negotiations to settle the crisis, but if the Egyptian army were to help Libya restore its state, then that would also be a good thing, he remarked.

He said that the Egyptian military was able to restore the Egyptian state after the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood and now the country was developing successfully.

Russia understands Cairo’s concern over the unstable situation in Libya, he added.

Earlier this week, the Kremlin announced that President Vladimir Putin had discussed Libya in a telephone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also tackled Libya with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Russia’s Charge d’Affaires in Libya Jamshed Boltaev, meanwhile, denied that Moscow had delivered weapons to the North African country.

Russia was not violating the arms embargo against Libya, he stressed a week after resuming his duties at his country’s mission was reopened, but where it is temporarily being based in Tunisia.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”