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Colombia Plans to Provide Medical Treatment to Palestinian Children Injured in Israel-Hamas War 

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)
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Colombia Plans to Provide Medical Treatment to Palestinian Children Injured in Israel-Hamas War 

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro shakes hands in Stockholm, Sweden on June 13, 2024, as the Colombian navy's flagship ARC Gloria seen in the background is docked at the Skeppsbron during the president's visit to Sweden. (TT News Agency / AFP)

A Colombian military hospital would provide medical treatment to Palestinian children injured in the Israel-Hamas war under a plan announced Thursday by the country’s Foreign Ministry.

Colombia’s Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor Jay told reporters the children would travel with their families to Colombia for rehabilitation. She did not provide further details, including the number of children who would receive treatment, when they would arrive in Colombia or how long they would remain in the country.

Neither the foreign ministry nor the office of President Gustavo Petro immediately responded to a request for additional information from The Associated Press. Taylor Jay made the announcement during Petro’s trip to Sweden.

The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Germany have been receiving Palestinians in need of medical treatment as a result of the war that began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

Israeli bombardments and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022.

Weeks after the Hamas attack on southern Israel, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive. In May, he broke diplomatic ties with Israel saying that he could not maintain relations with the “genocidal” government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Taylor Jay on Thursday said the government believes injured children can be treated by Colombian military doctors in part due to “the expertise” they have acquired while caring for people wounded during Colombia’s decadeslong internal conflict.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke, Colombia has repatriated 310 of its citizens on three humanitarian flights. Petro also granted Colombian nationality to a Palestinian woman, married to a Colombian man, who was trapped in Gaza with two of her Colombian children. The family settled in the South American country in November.

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World

France to Summon US Ambassador Charles Kushner over US Comments on Activist’s Death

The French national flag is raised at a French embassy, December 17, 2024. (Reuters)
The French national flag is raised at a French embassy, December 17, 2024. (Reuters)
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France to Summon US Ambassador Charles Kushner over US Comments on Activist’s Death

The French national flag is raised at a French embassy, December 17, 2024. (Reuters)
The French national flag is raised at a French embassy, December 17, 2024. (Reuters)

France will summon US Ambassador Charles Kushner to protest comments by the Trump administration over the beating death of a far-right activist, the foreign affairs minister said.

Jean-Noel Barrot was reacting to a statement by the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, which posted on X that “reports, corroborated by the French Minister of the Interior, that Quentin Deranque was killed by left-wing militants, should concern us all.”

Deranque, a far-right activist, died of brain injuries last week from a beating in the French city of Lyon. He was attacked during a fight on the margins of a student meeting where a far-left lawmaker, Rima Hassan, was a keynote speaker, The AP news reported.

His killing highlighted a climate of deep political tensions ahead of next year’s presidential vote. French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Saturday as some 3,000 people joined a march in Lyon organized by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque.

“We reject any instrumentalization of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” Barrot said. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”

The State Department said in its post that “violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety. We will continue to monitor the situation and expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice.”

Seven people have been handed preliminary charges. The Lyon public prosecutor’s office requested that each of them be charged with intentional homicide, aggravated violence and criminal conspiracy. Six of the accused were charged on all three counts. The seventh was charged with complicity in intentional homicide, aggravated violence and criminal conspiracy.

Barrot said he has other topics to discuss with Kushner, including US decisions to impose sanctions on Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for supervising social media rules, and Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court.

Barrot said both are targeted by “unjustified and unjustifiable” sanctions.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry did not say when the meeting will take place.

Kushner had already been summoned in August last year over his letter to Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat antisemitism. France’s foreign officials met with a representative of the US ambassador since the diplomat did not show up.

World

Minister Says US Can Access Minerals, Military Bases in Somaliland

Minister of the Presidency of the Republic of Somaliland, Khadar Hussein Abdi looks on during an interview in Hargeisa on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Minister of the Presidency of the Republic of Somaliland, Khadar Hussein Abdi looks on during an interview in Hargeisa on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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Minister Says US Can Access Minerals, Military Bases in Somaliland

Minister of the Presidency of the Republic of Somaliland, Khadar Hussein Abdi looks on during an interview in Hargeisa on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Minister of the Presidency of the Republic of Somaliland, Khadar Hussein Abdi looks on during an interview in Hargeisa on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Somaliland is willing to give the United States access to its minerals and military bases, a minister has told AFP, as the breakaway region of Somalia seeks international recognition.

Israel became the only country in the world to recognize Somaliland's independence in December -- something the territory has been seeking since declaring its autonomy from Somalia in 1991.

The government in Mogadishu still considers Somaliland an integral part of Somalia even though the territory has run its own affairs since 1991, with its own passports, currency, army and police force.

"We are willing to give exclusive (access to our minerals) to the United States. Also, we are open to offer military bases to the United States," Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency, told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

"We believe that we will agree on something with the United States."

Somaliland president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi already suggested in recent weeks granting Israel privileged access to its mineral resources.

And Khadar Hussein Abdi said he could not rule out the possibility of also allowing Israel to set up a military presence.

The African Union and most Arab countries have thrown their support behind Somalia and condemned the move.

The US, however, defended what it said was Israel's right to recognize Somaliland, although President Donald Trump said he was unlikely to follow suit, despite pressure from some within his Republican party.

World

Senior Iranian Official: New Talks with US Planned in Early March, Interim Deal Possible

Pedestrians walk past a billboard depicting a US aircraft carrier with damaged fighter jets on its deck and a sign in Farsi and English reading, "If you sow the wind, you'll reap the whirlwind," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Pedestrians walk past a billboard depicting a US aircraft carrier with damaged fighter jets on its deck and a sign in Farsi and English reading, "If you sow the wind, you'll reap the whirlwind," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Senior Iranian Official: New Talks with US Planned in Early March, Interim Deal Possible

Pedestrians walk past a billboard depicting a US aircraft carrier with damaged fighter jets on its deck and a sign in Farsi and English reading, "If you sow the wind, you'll reap the whirlwind," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Pedestrians walk past a billboard depicting a US aircraft carrier with damaged fighter jets on its deck and a sign in Farsi and English reading, "If you sow the wind, you'll reap the whirlwind," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran and the United States have differing views over the scope and mechanism to lift sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that new talks were planned in early March.

The official said Tehran could seriously ⁠consider a combination of ⁠exporting part of its highly enriched uranium (HEU) stockpile, diluting the purity of its HEU and a regional consortium for enriching uranium, but in return Iran's ⁠right to "peaceful nuclear enrichment" must be recognized.

"The negotiations continue and the possibility of reaching an interim agreement exists," the official said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that he expected to have a draft counterproposal ready within days following nuclear talks with the ⁠United ⁠States this week, while US President Donald Trump said he was considering limited military strikes.

The senior official said Tehran will not hand over control of its oil and mineral resources but US companies can always participate as contractors in Iran’s oil and gas fields.