Source: Al Jazeera
Security & Justice
Captured Hezbollah Operative May Have Been Israeli Double Agent, Report Suggests
The alleged senior Hezbollah operative abducted by Israeli special forces last week in Batroun may have been operating as a double agent, according to a report by The Telegraph.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Lebanon’s Probe into Israeli Raid Expected to Take Days as Security Officials Weigh Theories
Lebanese authorities are ramping up investigations into an Israeli commando raid last week in the northern coastal city of Batroun, during which Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official, was snatched.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Monday 30 January 2023 15:56:51
Erdogan Says Turkey May Accept Finland in NATO, But Block Sweden
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled that Ankara could accept Finland into NATO before taking any action on the membership of its Nordic neighbor Sweden.
Erdogan was speaking just days after Ankara suspended NATO accession talks with the two countries after a protest in Stockholm in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Quran.
“We may deliver Finland a different message [on their NATO application] and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdogan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, dropping their longstanding military nonalignment.
Every member of the 30-nation alliance needs to approve their membership, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries yet to have done so. The Hungarian parliament is expected to approve the bids in February.
Erdogan’s main complaint has been with Sweden’s refusal to extradite dozens of people that Ankara has linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and a failed 2016 coup attempt.
He is facing an election in May and has dug in his heels over Sweden’s NATO membership as he tries to energize his conservative and nationalist supporters.
On Sunday, Erdogan repeated his demand for Sweden to hand over some 120 alleged suspects.
“If you absolutely want to join NATO, you will return these terrorists to us,” Erdogan said.
“You will send these terrorists to us so that you can join NATO.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said his country wants to restart NATO dialogue with Turkey.
Late on Saturday, the Turkish foreign ministry issued a travel warning for European countries over anti-Turkish demonstrations and what it described as Islamophobia.
The warning cited an increase in anti-Turkish protests by “groups with links to terror groups,” a reference to the PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
Pro-Kurdish groups have waved the flags of the PKK and its affiliates during protests in Sweden organized as a response to Sweden and Finland’s promise to prevent PKK activities in their countries in order to secure Turkey’s approval for them to join NATO.
As part of that memorandum, Erdogan said Turkey had provided a list of 120 people it wants extradited from Sweden.
