Gulf / Middle East / Africa Wednesday, February 12, 2020 09 Trump’s M-E plan will not last: Abbas warns UN Palestinians demonstrate against Trump plan before Abbas UN speech RAMALLAH: Thousands of Palestinians dem- AFP Donald Trump that his plan one state, supported by anoth- onstrated on Tuesday against the US peace NEW YORK cannot achieve peace and se- er state to be imposed.” plan, hours before president Mahmud Ab- curity as it cancels interna- The Palestinians have bas was due to address the United Nations. PALESTINIAN President tional legitimacy,” Abbas told sought to rally international An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Palestin- Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday the Security Council. support against the plan, ians gathered in central Ramallah, home of told the UN Security Council “It cancels all the rights of which Trump unveiled along- the Palestinian government, for a demon- that the world should reject the Palestinians. This does not side Israeli Prime Minister stration led by prime minister Mohammed President Donald Trump’s meet the aspirations of a two- Benjamin Netanyahu, who has Shtayyeh, AFP correspondents said. Middle East plan, calling it an state solution,” he said. since moved forward on plans A few hundred demonstrators later outside imposition that cannot “If you impose peace it will to annex vast parts of the West protested near an Israeli military checkpoint bring lasting peace. not last, it cannot last,” he said, Bank. on the outskirts of the city, where clashes Brandishing a large map of asking: “What gives you the Palestinian President While the Palestin- broke out between stone-throwing youths Israel and Palestine as laid out right to annex these lands?” Mahmud Abbas said Trump’s ians have refused to deal with and Israeli soldiers firing tear gas. by Trump’s long-awaited Jan- Abbas said that peace with plan cannot achieve peace Trump, seeing him as biased, Twelve Palestinians were injured, including two shot by rubber bullets, the Palestinian Red uary 28 announcement, Abbas Israel remained “achievable” and security as it cancels Abbas said his first encoun- Crescent said. The protest had been called by Abbas’s political party Fatah and was the largest pro- called it a “Swiss cheese” deal and said: “I have come to build international legitimacy. “If ters with the billionaire turned Abbas demonstration in Ramallah in several years. Demonstrators condemned the US peace plan, that would limit Palestinian a just partnership.” “This deal you impose peace it will not president were positive. chanting “This deal will not pass.” The protesters, who came from a number of cities, held signs sovereignty. is not an international partner- last, it cannot last,” he said. The President Trump I met including those reading “Palestine is not for sale.” (AFP) “I would like to say to Mr ship. This proposal was from was not like that,” Abbas said. NATO Iraq plan could satisfy Trump, says White House’s envoy BRUSSELS: A plan for NATO to expand its Iraq mission by tak- Syria regime helicopter downed ing personnel from the anti-IS coalition could satisfy President Donald Trump’s call for more alliance action in the Middle East, a US official said on Tuesday. NATO defence ministers will meet in Brussels this week to discuss a proposal to move some forces from the US-led as Turkey’s Erdogan warns of coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State group to NATO’s training mission in Iraq. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Trump’s ambassador to NATO, wel- comed the move, saying it would leave coalition forces free for more combat operations against IS remnants in Iraq. “It’s part of burden-sharing -- our European allies coming in ‘very heavy price’ for any attack with us and doing more in counterterrorism,” she told report- ers. “The NATO operation is already ongoing in Iraq and I think AFP it will definitely be an answer to what President Trump has re- QAMINAS quested.” Trump called on NATO to do more in the Middle East in January, days after a US drone strike against a top Iranian TENSIONS escalated on Tues- commander in Baghdad sparked a regional crisis. (AFP) day between Syria’s regime and rebel-backer Turkey as a Iraq cleric Sadr dissolves units accused Syrian military helicopter was of deadly attacks on protests shot down and Ankara warned of a “heavy price” for any at- BAGHDAD: Controversial Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr announced tacks on its forces. on Tuesday he was dissolving the “blue caps”, an organised The new flare-up, a day af- unit of his supporters accused of deadly attacks on anti-gov- ter regime shelling killed five ernment protests in recent days. Turkish troops, came as gov- Sadr, who has a cult-like following of several million Iraqis, ernment forces battling rebels had first backed the popular rallies demanding a government in northwestern Syria took full overhaul when they erupted in October, but has switched control of a key highway linking course multiple times in recent weeks. the country’s four largest cities. He finally broke with the broader movement when he The advance marked an- endorsed PM-designate Mohammad Allawi, seen by protesters other step in President Bashar as too close to the elite they have railed against for months. al-Assad’s campaign to retake Since then, diehard Sadr supporters wearing blue caps have Syria’s last rebel-held pocket, raided protest camps in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south, where nearly 700,000 civil- with eight protesters killed in the ensuing violence. (AFP) ians have fled violence since December in the largest exo- Iraq commemorates top commander dus since the start of the war. killed in US strike Shortly after the M5 mo- torway was recaptured, a BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials on Tuesday commemorated Abu rocket attack downed a Syr- Mahdi al-Muhandis, the senior commander killed in last ian regime helicopter in Idlib Syrian rebel fighters gather around the burning remains of a military helicopter after it was shot down over the village of Qaminas, about 6 month’s US drone strike that targeted powerful Iranian general province, killing both pilots, kilometres southeast of Idlib city in northwestern Syria on Tuesday. (AFP) Qasem Soleimani. an AFP correspondent and a Muhandis was the deputy head of the Hashed al-Shaabi, war monitor said. would work with Turkey on its a loose network of paramilitary groups formed in 2014 to fight The Britain-based Syr- They will pay! Syrian govt forces response to Monday’s attack. jihadists that has since been absorbed into the Iraqi state. ian Observatory for Human Turkish President Erdogan retake key highway “The ongoing assaults by He, Soleimani and eight others were killed in the January Rights said the helicopter was the Assad regime and Russia 3 US strike outside Baghdad’s International Airport that Iraq’s hit by a rocket fired by Turkish said his troops would EARLIER on Tuesday, Syria re- must stop,” Pompeo said on government slammed as a violation of its sovereignty. forces, though Ankara did not continue to respond to gime forces retook full control Twitter. He said he has sent To mark 40 days since their deaths, a tradition in the Mid- claim responsibility. Syrian regime attacks. “The of the key M5 highway from US special envoy for Syria dle East, top officials held a memorial service in Baghdad’s An AFP correspondent saw more they attack... our jihadists and allied rebels James Jeffrey to Turkey “to high-security Green Zone. the bodies of the two pilots soldiers, they will pay a in the northwest for the first coordinate steps to respond to Hashed chief Faleh Fayyadh, who also serves as Iraq’s and the mangled remains of very, very heavy price.” time since 2012 this destabilising attack”. national security adviser, attended as did the country’s military the helicopter at the site of the Erdogan said he would The M5 motorway which Jeffrey was due to arrive chief of staff and interior minister. (AFP) crash near the village of Qami- reveal his next steps today. links the capital Damascus on Wednesday. nas, southeast of Idlib city. to the second city of Aleppo Earlier on Tuesday, Syria Regime forces later shelled through the cities of Homs regime forces retook full con- areas near a Turkish observa- Turkey, which has troops take hold. and Hama has been a key trol of the key M5 highway tion post in the same village, deployed in several locations On Tuesday, Erdogan said government target for years. from jihadists and allied rebels said the Observatory and an in northern Syria, continues Turkish troops would continue in the northwest for the first Sudan to hand over Bashir AFP correspondent who saw to support rebel groups bat- to respond to Syrian regime at- in a later statement saying it time since 2012, the Observa- large plumes of smoke rising tling the Assad regime or act- tacks. “The more they attack... was “ready to respond to the tory said. That highway links following a large fiery blast. ing as proxies against Kurdish our soldiers, they will pay a aggressions of the occupying the capital Damascus to the to ICC for Darfur crimes The Observatory said the forces. Along with regime ally very, very heavy price,” he told Turkish army”, accusing An- second city of Aleppo through AFP attack killed at least three peo- Russia, it is the key foreign a televised ceremony in Ankara. kara of targeting its positions Homs and Hama, and has KHARTOUM All those who ple but it remained to be seen broker in northern Syria, but Erdogan said he would reveal with rockets.