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Tens of Thousands Hold Anti-Israeli Protest in Istanbul

Holding a huge Palestinian flag, thousands demonstrate to show solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza enclave, at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul on January 1, 2024. (AFP)
Holding a huge Palestinian flag, thousands demonstrate to show solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza enclave, at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul on January 1, 2024. (AFP)
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Tens of Thousands Hold Anti-Israeli Protest in Istanbul

Holding a huge Palestinian flag, thousands demonstrate to show solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza enclave, at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul on January 1, 2024. (AFP)
Holding a huge Palestinian flag, thousands demonstrate to show solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza enclave, at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul on January 1, 2024. (AFP)

Tens of thousands marched in Istanbul Monday to protest "murderer" Israel's war in Gaza and the killing of Turkish soldiers by outlawed Kurdish militants in Iraq.

The rally, called by a foundation which counts Bilal Erdogan, the son of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among its members started after crowds performed morning prayers at Istanbul's iconic mosques, including Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Protesters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags rallied to the Galata Bridge on the Bosphorus chanting: "Murderer Israel, get out of Palestine" and "Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest).

Tens of thousands of people joined the rally "Mercy for our martyrs and a curse on Israel", the official Anadolu news agency reported.

Erdogan has lashed out repeatedly at Israel for the scale of death and destruction caused by its response to Hamas' unprecedented October 7 cross-border attack.

He has accused Israel of "state terrorism" and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "no different" from Adolf Hitler.

The nearly three-month war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's bloody October 7 attacks on Israel, which killed around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Fighters also took around 250 people hostage that day, most of whom remain in Gaza, according to Israeli officials.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas in response, launching a punishing offensive in the Gaza Strip that has reduced vast areas to a ruined wasteland and killed at least 21,822 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.

The Israeli army says 172 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza, with the war showing no signs of stopping.

The Turkish army said 12 soldiers were killed in late December in two separate attacks launched by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

Türkiye regularly conducts ground and air operations in northern Iraq against the positions of the PKK, listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

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World

On Victory Day, Putin Accuses West of Risking Global Conflict

08 May 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in Moscow. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
08 May 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in Moscow. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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On Victory Day, Putin Accuses West of Risking Global Conflict

08 May 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in Moscow. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
08 May 2024, Russia, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in Moscow. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world's biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two.
As Russian troops advance against Ukraine's Western-backed forces, Putin accused "arrogant" Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world.
"We know what the exorbitance of such ambitions leads to. Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash," Putin said on Red Square after Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reviewed troops lined up in a blizzard.
"But at the same time, we will not allow anyone to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always in a state of combat readiness."
Putin, who sent his army into Ukraine in 2022, casts the war as part of a struggle with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence.
 

World

Rob Malley Faces ‘Troubling’ Accusations by Republican Lawmakers

US Special Envoy to Iran Rob Malley (Archives - AP)
US Special Envoy to Iran Rob Malley (Archives - AP)
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Rob Malley Faces ‘Troubling’ Accusations by Republican Lawmakers

US Special Envoy to Iran Rob Malley (Archives - AP)
US Special Envoy to Iran Rob Malley (Archives - AP)

Senior Republican lawmakers in Congress revealed the reasons for the removal of Robert Malley, the US special envoy to Iran, from his post, demanding more information about the case, in a letter they addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Malley’s exclusion has raised controversy since April 2023, when lawmakers expressed their anger at the administration’s evasiveness regarding the reasons for suspending him without pay and canceling his security clearance in June 2023.
Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to Blinken, demanding a detailed explanation of the reasons for Malley’s arrest and investigation.
“Specifically, we understand that Mr. Malley’s security clearance was suspended because he allegedly transferred classified documents to his personal email account and downloaded these documents to his personal cell phone. It is unclear to whom he intended to provide these documents, but it is believed that a hostile cyber actor was able to gain access to his email and/or phone and obtain the downloaded information,” the letter read.
The two congressmen stressed that the allegations were extremely disturbing and required immediate answers.
“Due to the Department’s evasiveness and lack of transparency, we have worked to glean information from other sources. Our own investigations have uncovered the following information and troubling allegations. We ask that you confirm the information we have learned,” they stated.
McCaul and Risch asked Blinken to answer a long list of questions, including whether the alleged hackers who accessed his phone were affiliated with Iran.
“The allegations we have been privy to are extremely troubling and demand immediate answers,” the letter concluded. “These allegations have a substantial impact on our national security and people should be held accountable swiftly and strongly.”
Although Malley remains on unpaid leave, he was not expelled from the position of presidential envoy to Iran, but rather placed under surveillance.
In October, the Oversight and Accountability Committee of the US House of Representatives requested documents from the US State Department, and summoned Malley to testify in the case.
In a letter addressed to Blinken, the committee pointed to a former member of Malley’s Iran negotiating team, Ariane Tabatabai, who was in close contact with the Iranian regime for years.
“Tabatabai participated in the regime-backed Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), which was launched by senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials in the spring of 2014. The alleged purpose of the initiative was to cultivate a network of European and US researchers that could be used to bolster Iran’s image on global security matters, especially its nuclear program,” the letter read.

 

 

World

Armenia's Prime Minister Talks with Putin in Moscow While Allies' Ties are Under Strain

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)
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Armenia's Prime Minister Talks with Putin in Moscow While Allies' Ties are Under Strain

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)

Armenia's prime minister visited Moscow and held talks Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid spiraling tensions between the estranged allies.
Putin hosted Nikol Pashinyan for talks following a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-dominated economic alliance they both attended earlier in the day. The negotiations came a day after Putin began his fifth term at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, The Associated Press said.
In brief remarks at the start of the talks, Putin said that bilateral trade was growing, but acknowledged “some issues concerning security in the region.”
Pashinyan, who last visited Moscow in December, said that “certain issues have piled up since then.”
Armenia's ties with its longtime sponsor and ally Russia have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September to reclaim the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatists’ rule there.
Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh after the previous round of hostilities in 2020 of failing to stop Azerbaijan's onslaught. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, has rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.
The Kremlin, in turn, has been angered by Pashinyan’s efforts to deepen ties with the West and distance his country from Moscow-dominated security and economic alliances.
Just as Pashinyan was visiting Moscow on Wednesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry announced that the country will stop paying fees to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-dominated security pact. Armenia has previously suspended its participation in the grouping as Pashinyan has sought to bolster ties with the European Union and NATO.

World

Iran Says to Change Nuclear Doctrine if Existence Threatened

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him speaking during a ceremony in Tehran on May 1, 2024. (Photo by KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him speaking during a ceremony in Tehran on May 1, 2024. (Photo by KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
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Iran Says to Change Nuclear Doctrine if Existence Threatened

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him speaking during a ceremony in Tehran on May 1, 2024. (Photo by KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him speaking during a ceremony in Tehran on May 1, 2024. (Photo by KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

Iran will have to change its nuclear doctrine if its existence is threatened by Israel, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Kamal Kharrazi said, raising concerns about an Iranian nuclear weapon.
"We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran's existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine," Kharrazi said, as reported by Iran's Student News Network on Thursday, adding that Tehran has already signaled it has the potential to build such weapons.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa in the early 2000s, reiterating his stance in 2019 by saying: "Building and stockpiling nuclear bombs is wrong and using it is haram (religiously forbidden) ... Although we have nuclear technology, Iran has firmly avoided it."
However, Iran's then-intelligence minister said in 2021 that Western pressure could push Tehran to seek nuclear weapons, Reuters reported.
"In the case of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime (Israel), our deterrence will change," Kharrazi added.
In April, Iran and Israel reached their highest level of tensions, with Tehran directly launching about 300 missiles and drones against Israel as retaliation for a suspected deadly Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Damascus.

World

Biden: US Weapons Have Been Used by Israel to Kill Civilians in Gaza

US President Joe Biden - AFP
US President Joe Biden - AFP
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Biden: US Weapons Have Been Used by Israel to Kill Civilians in Gaza

US President Joe Biden - AFP
US President Joe Biden - AFP

US President Joe Biden publicly warned Israel Wednesday he would stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons if it attacks Rafah in southern Gaza, as he deplored the fact that civilians had been killed by the dropping of US bombs.

"If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used... to deal with the cities," Biden said in a televised interview with CNN.

"We're not gonna supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used."

The threat to cut artillery supplies comes after the United States confirmed on Tuesday that it had already paused a shipment of large bombs over concerns about Israel's planned assault on Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian civilians displaced by the war are sheltering near the Egyptian border.

"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they (Israel) go after population centers," Biden said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to go into Rafah as part of the campaign to eliminate Hamas after the militants' attack inside Israel on October 7.

Israel has already defied US and international objections and sent tanks into Rafah, seizing early Tuesday the key border crossing with Egypt.

When asked about Israel's action already in Rafah, Biden said "they haven't gone in the population centers."

"What they did is right on the border and it's causing problems with, right now, in terms of Egypt, which I've worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help," he told CNN.

He promised Washington would "continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks."

World

US Eyes Curbs on China's Access to AI Software

Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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US Eyes Curbs on China's Access to AI Software

Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Flags of China and US are displayed on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

The Biden administration is poised to open up a new front in its effort to safeguard US AI from China with preliminary plans to place guardrails around the most advanced AI Models, the core software of artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, sources said, Reuters reported.
The Commerce Department is considering a new regulatory push to restrict the export of proprietary or closed source AI models, whose software and the data it is trained on are kept under wraps, three people familiar with the matter said.
Any action would complement a series of measures put in place over the last two years to block the export of sophisticated AI chips to China in an effort to slow Beijing's development of the cutting edge technology for military purposes. Even so, it will be hard for regulators to keep pace with the industry's fast-moving developments.
The Commerce Department declined to comment. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.
Currently, nothing is stopping US AI giants like Microsoft (MSFT.O), OpenAI, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), Google DeepMind and rival Anthropic, which have developed some of the most powerful closed source AI models, from selling them to almost anyone in the world without government oversight.
Government and private sector researchers worry US adversaries could use the models, which mine vast amounts of text and images to summarize information and generate content, to wage aggressive cyber attacks or even create potent biological weapons.
To develop an export control on AI models, the sources said the US may turn to a threshold contained in an AI executive order issued last October that is based on the amount of computing power it takes to train a model. When that level is reached, a developer must report its AI model development plans and provide test results to the Commerce Department.
That computing power threshold could become the basis for determining what AI models would be subject to export restrictions, according to two US officials and another source briefed on the discussions. They declined to be named because details have not been made public.
If used, it would likely only restrict the export of models that have yet to be released, since none are thought to have reached the threshold yet, though Google's Gemini Ultra is seen as being close, according to EpochAI, a research institute tracking AI trends.
The agency is far from finalizing a rule proposal, the sources stressed. But the fact that such a move is under consideration shows the US government is seeking to close gaps in its effort to thwart Beijing's AI ambitions, despite serious challenges to imposing a muscular regulatory regime on the fast-evolving technology.
As the Biden administration looks at competition with China and the dangers of sophisticated AI, AI models "are obviously one of the tools, one of the potential choke points that you need to think about here," said Peter Harrell, a former National Security Council official. "Whether you can, in fact, practically speaking, turn it into an export-controllable chokepoint remains to be seen," he added.

World

Russia's Biggest Airstrike in Weeks Piles Pressure on Ukraine Power Grid

Ukrainian servicemen use a searchlight as they search for drones in the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights
Ukrainian servicemen use a searchlight as they search for drones in the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights
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Russia's Biggest Airstrike in Weeks Piles Pressure on Ukraine Power Grid

Ukrainian servicemen use a searchlight as they search for drones in the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights
Ukrainian servicemen use a searchlight as they search for drones in the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights

Russian missiles and drones struck nearly a dozen Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities on Wednesday, causing serious damage at three Soviet-era thermal power plants and blackouts in multiple regions, officials said.

Ukraine's air force said it shot down 39 of 55 missiles and 20 of 21 attack drones used for the attack, which piles more pressure on the energy system more than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

"Another massive attack on our energy industry!" Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on the Telegram app, Reuters reported.

Two people were injured in the Kyiv region and one was hurt in the Kirovohrad region, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

Galushchenko said power generation and transmission facilities in the Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia regions were targeted.

Some 350 rescuers raced to minimise the damage to energy facilities, 30 homes, public transport vehicles, cars, and a fire station, the interior ministry said.

National power grid operator Ukrenergo said it was forced to introduce electricity cuts in nine regions for consumers and that it would expand them nationwide for businesses during peak evening hours until 11 p.m. (2000 GMT).

Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, interviewed by the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet, said electricity imports would not make up for power shortages. He said hydropower stations had also been hit, clarifying an earlier company statement omitting hydro stations from the list of affected facilities.

Power cuts for industrial users, he said, were "almost guaranteed" but interruptions for domestic users would depend on how well they reduced consumption.

"Many important power stations were damaged," he said, citing three stations operated by DTEK, Ukraine's biggest private company, as well as two hydropower stations.

"The damage is on quite a large scale. There is a significant loss of generating power, so significant that even imports of power from Europe will not cover the shortage that has been created in the energy system."

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Russia's defence ministry said it struck Ukraine's military-industrial complex and energy facilities in retaliation for Kyiv's strikes on Russian energy facilities.

"As a result of the strike, Ukraine's capabilities for the output of military products, as well as the transfer of Western weapons and military equipment to the line of contact, have been significantly reduced," the ministry said.

World

China, Serbia Chart 'Shared Future' as Xi Jinping Visits Europe

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his wife Tamara Vucic welcome China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan for an official two-day state visit, at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia, May 7, 2024. REUTERS/Marko Djurica Purchase Licensing Rights
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his wife Tamara Vucic welcome China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan for an official two-day state visit, at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia, May 7, 2024. REUTERS/Marko Djurica Purchase Licensing Rights
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China, Serbia Chart 'Shared Future' as Xi Jinping Visits Europe

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his wife Tamara Vucic welcome China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan for an official two-day state visit, at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia, May 7, 2024. REUTERS/Marko Djurica Purchase Licensing Rights
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his wife Tamara Vucic welcome China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan for an official two-day state visit, at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia, May 7, 2024. REUTERS/Marko Djurica Purchase Licensing Rights

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Serbia on Tuesday evening escorted by MIG-29 jets in a tightly secured visit coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of China's embassy in which three Chinese journalists were killed.

Belgrade, after France, is the second stop on Xi's first visit to Europe in five years, which also includes Hungary. In Serbia, which is seen as China's most important partner in the Balkans, Xi is expected to discuss China´s multi-billion investment in the country and possible new deals.

 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and government officials welcomed Xi at the Belgrade airport, where he was greeted by a military guard of honor and folk dancers. The two leaders will hold a meeting on Wednesday.

On May 7, 1999, 20 Chinese nationals were wounded in the NATO attack, which prompted outrage in China and an apology from then US President Bill Clinton.

The embassy was hit during a campaign against the then Yugoslavia to force late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Reuters reported.

"The Chinese people appreciate the peace but will never allow that a historic tragedy repeats itself," Xi said in an opinion article in the daily Politika on Tuesday.

"The friendship between China and Serbia which is soaked in blood that the two peoples spilled together has become a joint memory of the two peoples and will encourage both parties to make together huge steps forward," Xi said.

The Belgrade streets were decorated with Chinese flags and placards as thousands of police officers were deployed to secure Xi and his 400-member entourage, the highest-level visit by a foreign leader in years.

Xi is visiting Serbia after France, where President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen pressed him to ensure more balanced trade with Europe and use his influence on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

During his first visit to Belgrade in 2016, the two countries signed a strategic partnership. Last year, Vucic signed 18 agreements with Xi in Beijing, including a free trade deal that should become operational in July.

Both leaders insist on an ironclad partnership between their countries. Along with Hungary, which is Xi´s next stop, Serbia is Europe's firmest supporter of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

China runs mines and factories across Serbia and has lent billions for roads, bridges and new facilities, becoming Serbia's key partner in much-needed infrastructure development.

Observers say Xi's choice of Serbia and Hungary is designed to pull closer two European countries that are pro-Russia and large recipients of Chinese investment. Serbia’s Western partners view the country as a Chinese hub at the gateway to the EU.

In 2023, China was Serbia’s second-largest trading partner after the EU with a total trade exchange of $6.1 billion and among its top five investors, according to the national investment agency.

World

Jewish Groups Protest Iran Ex-leader's Hungary Visit

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. AFP file photo
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. AFP file photo
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Jewish Groups Protest Iran Ex-leader's Hungary Visit

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. AFP file photo
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. AFP file photo

Hungarian Jewish organizations and the Israeli embassy have condemned a public university for inviting Iran's former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to an event this week.

The Budapest-based Ludovika University of Public Service invited the politician -- who has said Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map" and that the Holocaust was a "myth" -- to an academic meeting.

Two Hungarian Jewish congregations, together with a Jewish advocacy group, were the latest to protest the visit of "openly anti-Semitic" Ahmadinejad in a joint statement Wednesday.

They urged the university "to consider whether it wishes to give Ahmadinejad the opportunity to spread his dangerous and poisonous ideas within the walls of the institution".

The country's main Jewish organization also condemned the invitation, urging the university to give an explanation and to apologise to the Hungarian Jewish community, AFP reported.

The visit was in "direct contradiction to the principle of zero tolerance against anti-Semitism proclaimed by the Hungarian government", it added.

The Israeli embassy called the visit a "grave insult" that "tramples on the memory" of the 600,000 Hungarian Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

Ludovika University of Public Service did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

Hungary's Foreign Ministry said the government "does not interfere in university programs".

"The government has not received the former Iranian president. His programme is a university programme," it said in a statement.

Hungary hosts central Europe's biggest Jewish community with some 100,000 members.

According to Iran's ILNA news agency, Ahmadinejad arrived in Hungary to give a speech and take part in a meeting on environmental issues taking place at the university from May 6 to 10.

The 67-year-old, who was Iran's president from 2005 to 2013, is currently a member of an advisory board to supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has close relations with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, voicing unequivocal support for Israel's military offensive on Gaza.

But Hungary also has a friendly attitude towards Iran. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto held talks in Tehran this February, marking a rare visit from an EU and NATO member state.

World

Amsterdam Police Break up Pro-Palestinian Student Protest

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff of the university and sympathizers protest in front of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 07 May 2024, during a protest in solidarity with pro-Palestinian students who protested a day earlier at the Roeterseiland campus of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and were removed by the police. (EPA)
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff of the university and sympathizers protest in front of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 07 May 2024, during a protest in solidarity with pro-Palestinian students who protested a day earlier at the Roeterseiland campus of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and were removed by the police. (EPA)
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Amsterdam Police Break up Pro-Palestinian Student Protest

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff of the university and sympathizers protest in front of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 07 May 2024, during a protest in solidarity with pro-Palestinian students who protested a day earlier at the Roeterseiland campus of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and were removed by the police. (EPA)
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff of the university and sympathizers protest in front of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 07 May 2024, during a protest in solidarity with pro-Palestinian students who protested a day earlier at the Roeterseiland campus of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and were removed by the police. (EPA)

Dutch riot police broke up a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on Wednesday, battling demonstrators who had vowed to stay put until the institution severed all ties with Israel.

Protesters on barricades made of desks, fences, wooden pallets and bricks used fire extinguishers to keep the police at bay, images on the local TV station AT5 showed.

Police hit protesters with batons and used a shovel to knock down the barricades, breaking through in a matter of minutes.

Hundreds of protesters on the narrow streets outside shouted "Shame on you!" as the police pushed them away from the campus site and dragged many protesters away.

The police had detained 169 people early on Tuesday after sometimes violent clashes as they cleared a similar protest at another UvA site.

Students in the Dutch capital have joined a wave of sit-ins and other actions at universities throughout Europe against Israel's war in Gaza, following larger-scale disturbances at US universities.

UvA managers had hoped talks on Wednesday would bring an end to the protests, but the students dug in, pulling up bricks from the streets and pavements near to the 19th-century campus and forming human chains to take them to the barricade.

The protesters say the Israeli institutions that the university works with profit from oppression of Palestinians.