AMMAN: Jordan said on Friday the kingdom will host a meeting on Saturday between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Saudi, Qatari, Emirati and Egyptian counterparts, along with participation of the Palestinians.
The ministers will stress during the talks the “Arab stance calling for an immediate cease-fire, delivering humanitarian aid and ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region,” a foreign ministry statement said.

GENEVA: The UN aid chief said on Friday that there had been “some progress” in ongoing negotiations to allow fuel into the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip for the first time since hostilities began on Oct. 7.
“I heard just this morning as I came in, there has been some progress on allowing some more fuel in through these negotiations,” Martin Griffiths told a briefing for member states at the United Nations in New York, referring to ongoing negotiations between the global body, Israel, Egypt and the United States. “I hope to see that confirmed during today.”

BAGHDAD: An international summit in Baghdad on “regional stability” planned for late November has been postponed due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, an Iraqi official said.

The third edition of the Baghdad conference “for economic integration and regional stability,” co-organized by France, “is postponed until further notice due to the regional events” in the Middle East, said Farhad Alaaldin, adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani.

GAZA: Palestinians in Gaza sheltering from an intensifying Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands of people are running out of clean water and face growing health risks with public services at a halt and hospitals closing.

Israel has blocked off all power and fuel supply to Gaza and allowed in only a trickle of food and medicine as it presses its siege and invasion after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7.

NEW YORK CITY: A group of independent UN experts issued an urgent warning on Thursday in which they sounded the alarm that time is rapidly running out to prevent potential genocide and a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

They painted a grim picture of the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip and expressed deep frustration with Israel’s refusal to halt its plans “to decimate” the territory.