Day: 12 June 2023

Deputizing for His Majesty King Abdullah II, Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces- Arab army (JAF), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maj. Gen. Yousef Hunaiti Monday led the graduation ceremony of the 20th National Defense College course of holders of the master’s degree in management and strategic studies and the Master’s program in countering extremism and terrorism strategies. Officers from JAF, security services and employees from various ministries and institutions participated in the two programs, as well as officers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen. Sudan, Pakistan, the United States and Germany. “The college is proud of presenting to the country, the armed forces and the participating countries a new group of promising leaders, who have received advanced scientific and intellectual qualifications in line with the requirements of the age that meet qualifications in major world universities, institutes and academies”, said the college’s commander Brig. Gen. Azzam Rawahneh. He told the ceremony that the college, in implementation of the visions of His Majesty the King and the message of the JAF, had made remarkable development and modernization. The commander said that through the development of the organizational structure, study plans and curricula within a world-class approach incorporating strategic planning and decision-making in the digital world, the college had embarked on implementing a development plan of its infrastructure and the technical and academic structures. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote in the guestbook, expressing his pride in the advanced military and academic levels the students at the Royal National Defense College have reached. The graduation ceremony was attended by the Director of Public Security, senior officers of the armed forces and security services, the President of Mutah University, civilian officials as well as ambassadors and military attachés from the countries of the graduates.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Acting Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates for Diplomatic Affairs Hazem Al-Khatib Monday received a copy of the credentials of Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Brazil, Marcio Fagundes do Nascimento, as accredited and resident ambassador to Jordan. During a meeting with Nascimento, Al-Khatib wished the envoy success in his new duties in cementing relations between the two friendly countries.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Israeli District Court postponed the hearing of Palestinian journalist Lama Ghosheh, 30, who was arrested at her family home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on September 4, 2022, for her writing on social media. The hearing was postponed until July 11 while keeping the same restrictions imposed on her in place, including being placed on house arrest and banned from the use of social media. Ghosheh, a mother of two young girls, five and two years old, who works for Al-Qastal news network, was arrested at her family home in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on September 4 for her writing on social media, mainly her interviews with former Palestinian prisoners and publishing the interviews on social media and also for her writing against attempts by extremist Israeli settlers to take over Palestinian homes in her neighborhood. Her phone and computer were also seized. Her detention was extended several times until she was released on September 13 on the condition that she will not use social media and be kept under house arrest, along with a bail of $15,000, until her next court hearing, which has been postponed continuously since then.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Riad Malki today stressed the need to put immediate end to Israel’s impunity. In a meeting with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdulla on the sidelines of the 2nd Ministerial Meeting between members of the League of Arab States and the Pacific Small Island Developing States hosted by the Kingdom in Riyadh, Foreign Minister Malki reiterates the need to put an immediate end to the intolerable impunity of Israel, as an occupying Power, and reminded the international community of its responsibility in this regard. During the meeting, Foreign Minister Malki expressed Palestine’s support to Riyadh’s candidacy to host World Expo 2030 as both Ministers reviewed the means to enhance bilateral relations and discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian arena, with special focus on Israel’s unbridled violations, colonial settlement expansion, land pillage, home demolitions, forcible expulsions, and extrajudicial killings, which all form an integral part of Israel’s decades-long brutal settler-colonial and apartheid policies against indigenous Palestinians intended to forcibly displace indigenous Palestinians and steal their land. The top Palestinian diplomat pointed that the above Israeli acts are intended to obliterate the two-state solution, not to mention the set of racist laws passed by and bills presented to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, all of which violate the historical, political, legal and demographic status of the territories of the State of Palestine, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh today called on the European Union (EU) to play an effective role in obliging Israel to respect the agreements it has signed and halt all unilateral measures in the Palestinian territories. Prime Minister Shtayyeh made the remarks during a meeting with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas at the Prime Minister’s Office in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, in the presence of the European Union representative to Palestine, Sven Kon von Burgsdorff. During the meeting, Prime Minister Shtayyeh discussed with Schinas the latest developments on the Palestinian arena in light of the political vacuum, while stressing the importance of creating international movement necessary to revive the Arab Peace Initiative, end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. He added that Israel was imposing measures, which are not restricted to daily incursions, which are tantamount to a re-occupation of the West Bank, but also include extrajudicial killings, detention raids, land grab to make room for colonial settlement expansion and renewed settler-colonialism in the northern West Bank, all of which are intended to destroy the two-state solution and leads to the one-State solution in which Palestinians would form a majority, governed by a minority Israeli population in a form of apartheid. Premier Shtayyeh pointed that not only has been Israel waging a war against Palestinian geography, finances and narrative, but also a religious war on Islamic and Christian holy sites, especially in Jerusalem, as it continues its policy of the de-Palestinization of Jersalem and attempts to spatially and temporally divide Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. He slammed Israel for preventing the Palestinian people from holding elections in the their territories, including Jerusalem. He appreciated to EU for their ongoing support to Palestine at all levels in line with the Palestinian national priorities, as well as for its unwavering position in support of the two-state solution. Schinas pledged that EU would continue to support Palestinian national priorities and needs in order to improve economic and social conditions, especially for youth, as well as the two-state solution, while voicing concern over Israeli encroachments upon Islamic and Christian holy sites and stressing the need to maintain the historical status quo, especially in Jerusalem.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry today decried the Israeli government’s plan for thousands of new settler units in the occupied West Bank. The Ministry denounced in a press statement the Israeli government’s intention to announce later this month the building and planning of thousands of new settler units in the colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank, and considered this a crime and a gross violation of international law as well as of United Nations resolutions and an official persistence in proceeding with the annexation of the West Bank. It considered this plan puts the US administration along with its position on the two-state solution to a serious test while calling on the US to take a firm stand to prevent Israel from implementing this plan. Israel uses the Jewish nationalist name ‘Judea and Samaria’ to refer to the occupied West Bank to reinforce its bogus claims to the territory and to give them a veneer of historical and religious legitimacy. There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Habtoor discussed on Monday with Speaker of Shura Council Mohammed al-Aidarous ways to consolidate work on common issues, especially those related to the National Resilience Program.

The meeting touched on the Shura Council’s work plan for the year 1445 AH, and its main features that are compatible with the tasks entrusted to the council and related to the national vision for building the modern Yemeni state, as well as the plan and program of the National Salvation Government, in addition to the most prominent tasks accomplished during the current year.

Al-Aidarous reviewed the nature of the tasks entrusted to the Shura Council related to the resilience program and the field visit plan to the provinces and districts, and the responsibility of the governors and directors of districts in cooperation with members of the Shura Council.

The Prime Minister said the government is keenn to benefit from the outputs of the Shura Council’s work to serve the institutional work of the various concerned government agencies, pointing to the government’s assignment of the Shura Council’s action plan of last year.

Source: Yemen News Agency