German Foreign Minister to Tour Middle East From Sunday

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)
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German Foreign Minister to Tour Middle East From Sunday

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will travel to Israel Sunday for her fourth visit since the outbreak of the Gaza war, a ministry spokesman said.

Baerbock will hold talks with Israel's new Foreign Minister Israel Katz, as well as President Isaac Herzog, foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told a regular press conference on Friday.

She will also meet with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki.

Baerbock will subsequently travel to Egypt to meet with her counterpart Sameh Shoukry and also planned to visit Lebanon, according to AFP.

The talks would focus on the "dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the extremely volatile situation on the Israel-Lebanon border", as well as efforts to secure the release of more Hamas hostages, Fischer said.

Baerbock said at a Berlin press conference on Friday that the Israelis and Palestinians would "only be able to live side by side in peace if the security of the one means the security of the other".

"Our position on the so-called day after is very clear," she said, speaking alongside her counterpart from Luxembourg.

"There must be no occupation of the Gaza Strip, no expulsions and no reduction in the size of the territory. And at the same time there must be no more danger to Israel from the Gaza Strip," Baerbock said.

Fears have grown that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could spread, after one of the militant group's leaders was assassinated in the Beirut suburbs.

In addition to the killing, widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, the Israeli army has for months traded tit-for-tat fire across the border with Hezbollah militants.

The risk of escalation was "very real", Fischer said. Germany on Wednesday urged its citizens to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible.

Relentless Israeli bombardment and its ground invasion in Gaza after Hamas's October 7 attack have killed at least 22,438 people, most of them women and children.



US Attorneys General Urge a ‘Peaceful Transfer of Power’

Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gather near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Election Day, November 5, 2024. (AFP)
Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gather near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Election Day, November 5, 2024. (AFP)
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US Attorneys General Urge a ‘Peaceful Transfer of Power’

Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gather near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Election Day, November 5, 2024. (AFP)
Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gather near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Election Day, November 5, 2024. (AFP)

The attorneys general from 47 states and three US territories urged people to remain peaceful and to preemptively “condemn any acts of violence” related to the results of the presidential election.

The statement, released Tuesday, was signed by chief prosecutors from every US state except Indiana, Montana and Texas. Attorneys general from the District of Columbia and the US territories of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and US Virgin Islands also signed.

“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process,” they wrote. “Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it.”

Fears of election violence persist nearly four years after Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump supporters rioted at the US Capitol in an attempt to stop the election certification.

Rather than condemning the violence during his campaign, Trump has celebrated the rioters, pledging to pardon them and featuring a recorded chorus of prisoners in jail for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack singing the national anthem.