TEL AVIV: The Palestinians on Sunday slammed Israel for rejecting the promised reopening of the US Consulate in Jerusalem, a move that would restore Washington’s main diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in the contested city.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said late Saturday there was no room in Jerusalem for another American mission.
The Trump administration shuttered the US Jerusalem Consulate, an office that for years served as the de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to reopen it, a move that Israel says would challenge its sovereignty over the city. The reopening could help mend US ties with the Palestinians ruptured under Trump.
In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it views the reopening of the consulate as part of the international community’s commitments to ending Israel’s decades-long occupation of territories the Palestinians seek for their future state.
“East Jerusalem is an inseparable part of the occupied Palestinian territory and is the capital of the state of Palestine. Israel, as the occupying power, does not have the right to veto the US administration’s decision,” the statement said.
Asked about the consulate at a press conference, Bennett repeated Israel’s position on Jerusalem.
“There’s no room for another American consulate in Jerusalem,” he said. “Jerusalem is the capital of one state and that’s the state of Israel.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid suggested the consulate could instead be opened in the Palestinian administrative center in Ramallah, West Bank. The Palestinians reject the idea because it would undermine their claims to Jerusalem.
Israel views Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital. The Palestinians seek the eastern part of the city, which Israel occupied in 1967 and later annexed, as capital of their hoped-for state.
The consulate is emerging as another test between Bennett’s government and the Biden administration, which has moved to restore traditional US foreign policy toward Israel and the Palestinians after the Trump White House largely sided with Israel on issues related to the conflict.
Trump had downgraded the consulate’s operations and placed them under his ambassador to Israel when he moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city in 2018. The embassy move infuriated the Palestinians and led them to sever most ties with the Trump administration.
Blinken has not provided a firm date for the reopening and US officials have implied that Israeli resistance to the move could act as a hindrance.

KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces on Sunday fired tear gas at multiple anti-coup rallies, with protesters in several cities joining a call for two-days of civil disobedience against last month’s military takeover.
Hundreds of anti-coup protesters rallied on Sunday in Khartoum, as well as in its twin city of Omdurman, Wad Madni to the south, and the northern city of Atbara.
“The authority belongs to the people,” protesters chanted, calling “no, no to military rule,” and demanding a “civilian government.”
Nationwide anti-coup protests have occurred since the Oct. 25 power grab by the army, but have been met by a deadly crackdown.
At least 14 demonstrators have been killed and about 300 wounded, according to the independent Central Committee of Sudan’s Doctors.
“Protesters barricaded the streets, set car tires ablaze, called out against the military rule, and chanted that civilian government is the people’s choice,” said Hoda Othman, who witnessed protests in Omdurman on Sunday.
Almost two weeks ago Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan dissolved the government, as well as the ruling joint military-civilian Sovereign Council — that was supposed to lead the country toward full civilian rule.
Burhan also declared a state of emergency and detained Sudan’s civilian leadership.
Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was briefly detained, but later placed under effective house arrest.
Al-Burhan met with a delegation of the Arab League on Sunday, state television reported.
The Arab League, which has called for Sudanese parties to stick to the democratic transition after the army took over power last month, had said on Saturday that it would send a high-level delegation to Sudan.
Sunday’s rallies followed calls for two-days of civil disobedience made by the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), an umbrella of unions which were also instrumental in the 2018-2019 protests which led to the ouster of longtime strongman Omar Bashir in April 2019.
“The Sudanese people have rejected the military coup,” the SPA said, vowing “no negotiation, no partnership, no legitimacy.”
In Khartoum eastern Burri district, protesters built burning barricades of tires.
“Security forces later dispersed the protest by firing tear gas and began removing the barricades,” said protester Mosab Abdalla.
Earlier on Sunday, dozens of teachers rallied against the army outside the education ministry in Khartoum.
“We organized a silent stand against the decisions by Burhan,” said geography teacher Mohamed Al-Amin, who took part in the protest.
“Police came and fired tear gas at us, though we were simply standing on the streets and carrying banners.”
There were no confirmed reports of casualties but about 87 teachers have been detained, according to the SPA.
The teachers’ rally came after the military leadership replaced heads of department at the Education Ministry, as part of sweeping changes it made in multiple sectors.
“The protest rejects the return of remnants of the old regime” linked to now jailed ex-resident Bashir, the teachers’ union said.
The SPA’s appeals for the civil disobedience were circulated via text messages to bypass internet outages since the putsch.
On Sunday, there appeared to be mixed compliance with the call among retailers.
Some shops were still open but others were shuttered in Khartoum, as well as in the neighboring cities of Omdurman and Khartoum-North, according to witnesses.
The military takeover sparked international condemnation, including punitive aid cuts and demands for a swift return to civilian rule.
Al-Burhan insists it “was not a coup” but a move to “rectify the course of the transition.”
On Thursday, the military released four civilian members of the government.
But other key officials are still under guard and, on that same day, security forces arrested other civilian leaders near a UN building in Khartoum, following their meeting with UN Special Representative for Sudan Volker Perthes.
“We call upon the military leadership to cease arresting politicians and activists and to stop committing human rights violations,” Perthes said afterwards.

AL-MUKALLA: The UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg began a visit on Sunday to the interim capital of Yemen, the southern port city of Aden, to discuss the UN-brokered peace plan to end the war in in the country with the government. 

The UN envoy is meeting Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik Saeed and other government officials.

Grundberg is pushing both the government and the Houthis to accept the UN peace plan that calls for achieving an immediate nationwide truce, including stopping the Houthi offensive on the central city of Marib, opening Sanaa airport and lifting restrictions on Hodeidah seaport.

On Saturday, Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi told US envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking in Riyadh that his government would comply with any peace plan or ideas to end the war in Yemen, stressing that the Yemenis would resist Iran’s attempt to force its ideologies onto the country through the Houthis.

“We are always open to all calls for peace and the cessation of war to spare the blood of the Yemeni people, establish security and stability, normalize life and rebuild what the Houthi militias have destroyed,” the Yemeni president told the US envoy, according to the official news agency SABA.

Hadi said that the continuing military escalation by the Houthis and their shelling of civilians in Marib, Shabwa and Taiz show they are not serious about peace and ending the war.

On the ground, Yemen’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that government troops, backed by air cover from the Arab coalition, pushed back many Houthi incursions in areas south of Marib city.

The coalition’s warplanes targeted Houthi forces heading to the battlefields in Marib province.

Hundreds of combatants have been killed in fierce clashes outside the city of Marib since earlier September when the Houthis intensified attacks on government troops defending the strategic city.

TRIPOLI: Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah on Sunday came to the defense of his foreign minister, Najla El-Mangoush, a day after the country’s presidential council said it had suspended her.
Dbeibah’s office argued that the council, formed this year, doesn’t have the authority to suspend ministers and instructed El-Mangoush to continue her duties, reiterating its “appreciation” of her work.
The dispute highlights the power struggles within the fragile administration which — after a decade of war and turmoil following the 2011 ouster of dictator Muammar Qaddafi — is supposed to steer the country toward elections.
Dbeibah said in a statement that “the nomination, dismissal, suspension or indictment of a member of the executive branch… fall under the exclusive powers of the prime minister.”
The presidential council, headed by Mohamad Al-Manfi, on Saturday said it had suspended El-Mangoush from her duties and barred her from travel, days before a major international conference in Paris.
In the absence of further details on the allegations against El-Mangoush, Libyan media connected her suspension with a BBC interview in which she had suggested that Tripoli is ready to coordinate with the US over the extradition of suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
The council said Saturday it had opened an inquiry into alleged “administrative breaches” by El-Mangoush, spokeswoman Najla Weheba told the Libya Panorama television channel.
Dbeibah’s government called on Libya’s different institutions to “respect procedure” and “avoid conflicts of interest,” saying they should not obstruct the government’s work at such a “critical” phase.
The presidential council, headed by Mohamed Al-Manfi, was formed in February, consisting of three members representing the three regions of Libya. It was set up as part of a UN-sponsored political process, alongside the new government under Dbeibah, to pave the way for presidential and legislative elections in December.
Analysts said Saturday’s move to suspend El-Mangoush reflect growing tensions between Dbeibah and Manfi ahead of the polls.
“Last night the growing rift between #Libya’s President Manfi and PM Dbeibah flared up, as the President jumped on — a pretty flimsy — excuse to try and suspend FM Mangoush,” tweeted Tarek Megerisi, a senior policy fellow at the European Council.
Parliament recently announced that legislative polls would be postponed to January amid simmering tensions that threaten to derail the political process, which seeks to put an end to the conflict between Libya’s rival factions.
But on Sunday Libya’s electoral commission said that candidates for presidential and legislative polls slated for December 24 can start registering Monday.
The move to suspend El-Mangoush comes ahead of a conference on Libya in Paris next week, expected to be attended by world leaders.
According to the BBC, El-Mangoush alluded to one of Qaddafi’s top bomb-makers, Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, who is jailed in Libya and wanted in the US over the Lockerbie bombing.
A total of 270 people were killed in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet as it was flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
Libya expert Emadeddin Badi, an analyst at the Geneva-based Global initiative, linked the move to suspend El-Mangoush to her comments to the BBC.
“The US position is key; therefore the current fallout is also covertly about currying favor with the Biden administration, and who will take credit,” he told AFP.
El-Mangoush has denied specifically mentioning Masud, according to a statement from her ministry, and said that “these questions are the responsibility of the prosecution.”

AL-MUKALLA: A Houthi-controlled court in Yemen sentenced an abducted model and her friend to five years in prison on Sunday, the model’s lawyer told Arab News. 

The West Sanaa Court charged Entesar Al-Hammadi and her friend with committing indecent acts.

Two other women, who were abducted from a Sanaa flat and were later accused of being prostitutes, received prison sentences of three years and one year each from the same court.

Al-Hammadi and her colleague were on their way to a film set on Feb. 20 when armed Houthis abducted them and forcibly disappeared them for several weeks.

The Houthis, under local and international pressure, said they had arrested a group of women in Sanaa, including Al-Hammadi, who were involved in prostitution, drug dealing, and committing un-Islamic acts.

“This is a purely political verdict,” her lawyer Khaled Mohammed Al-Kamal said. “How could the two women who were snatched from the street get longer terms than the two women who were abducted from the flat?”

Local and international rights groups have said the militia subjected the women to unfair trials, physically and psychologically tortured them, and put Al-Hammadi into solitary confinement.

The Houthis banned local journalists and Al-Kamal from covering the case or talking to international media after it attracted global attention.

She went on hunger strike and even tried to kill herself in protest against the harsh treatment and lengthy detention she was enduring.

Al-Kamal said he would appeal against the court’s judgment in the hope of getting a shorter sentence. 

He called her innocent and said she had not committed a crime.

He added the Houthis had punished her in defiance of the international rights groups and Western envoys, including the former British ambassador to Yemen Michael Aron, who had demanded they release her.

Critics of the Houthis said the abductions were part of the militia’s continuing moral crackdown on artists, singers, and liberal women.

They have abducted several singers for performing at weddings in Houthi-controlled areas.