Mohammed bin Salman has been criticised for alleged abuses at home and abroad [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Human Rights Watch has called on the UN to place sanctions on Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over abuses carried out in Yemen.

In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, the rights group’s deputy UN director, Akshaya Kumar, said the heir to the Saudi throne was behind abuses at home and bore responsibility “for the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in neighbouring Yemen.”

Kumar said Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms, such as allowing women to drive, opening up physical education to girls, and permitting movie theatres to open, were “important steps”, but warned against glossing over the prince’s record in other areas.

“The war in Yemen, and Prince Bin Salman’s prominent role in it as defence minister, fits poorly into a narrative of a visionary young reform-oriented leader,” she wrote.

“As restrictions on imports push millions of Yemenis further into famine and aid the spread of normally treatable diseases, Prince [Mohammed bin Salman] shouldn’t be getting a free pass.

“Instead, he and other senior coalition leaders should face international sanctions.”

As restrictions on imports push millions of Yemenis further into famine and aid the spread of normally treatable diseases, Prince [Mohammed bin Salman] shouldn’t be getting a free pass

AKSHAYA KUMARA, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

The Saudi crown prince is widely seen as the architect of the country’s intervention in Yemen, which started in March 2015 after Houthi rebels took over large parts of the country’s south, sending Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fleeing to exile in Riyadh.

Yemen’s capital Sanaa had fallen the previous year to a loose alliance of Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the country’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The alliance fell apart earlier this month with Saleh’s death at the hands of the Houthis after the late leader switched to the Saudi side and turned on the rebels.

Saudi-coalition led air raids have significantly contributed towards the war’s death toll of more than 10,000 fatalities.

Yemen’s civilian population has also suffered from a Saudi imposed blockade, which has deprived the country of essential goods.

The UN has warned that the blockade could result in famine and says it is already providing food assistance to over seven million people.

Nikki Haley, centre, vetoed an Egyptian-drafted resolution that called on countries to not establish diplomatic missions in Jerusalem [Justin Lane/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has sent a threatening letter to members of the UN General Assembly ahead of a vote on a resolution against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In the letter, obtained by Haaretz, Haley wrote that US President Donald Trump “will be watching [Thursday’s] vote carefully” and “requested I report back on those who voted against us…”

The warning came after the US was outnumbered 14 to 1 as it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday against Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.

Trump announced on December 6 that the US formally recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will begin the process of moving its embassy to the city, breaking with decades of US policy.

The move led to a wave of global protests, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in recent days to denounce his decision.

Threatening words
Furious over the Security Council resolution against the move, Haley on Tuesday said it was “an insult” that would “not be forgotten”.

“It’s one more example of the UN doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she said on Twitter.

Haley’s letter to the General Assembly members echoed her tweets in which she said the US “will be taking names” during Thursday’s vote, which is expected to pass with an overwhelming majority.

“As you know, the General Assembly is considering a resolution about President Trump’s recent decision on Jerusalem. As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally,” Haley said in the letter.

“Twenty-two years ago, the US Congress declared that Jerusalem should be recognised as the capital of Israel, and that the US embassy should be moved to Jerusalem. President Trump affirmed that declaration by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” she wrote.

“However, the President’s announcement does not affect final status negotiations in any way, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.

“The president also made sure to support the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites, and did not advocate changes to arrangements at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif,” Haley added in her letter.

‘US will not be able to use privilege’
Anticipating the US veto in the Security Council, the Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank promised to take the issue to the General Assembly to seek the passing of a resolution there.

Riyad al-Maliki, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), said in a statement on Monday: “The member states of the General Assembly will be asked to vote on the same draft resolution that we presented to the Security Council, which the US has blocked with the veto.

“In the General Assembly, the US will not be able to use this privilege,” he added.

Since the 1970s, when it first began exercising its veto power, the US has shot down some 42 Security Council resolutions relating to Israel and its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Turkey, a long-time ally of Palestine, is also leading efforts to pass a resolution through the UN’s General Assembly.

A vote in favour of the resolution in the 193-member UN General Assembly, however, is not legally binding. This means it would only serve as a recommendation and would act as an expression of the international community’s stance on Jerusalem.

At the request of Turkey and Yemen, the UN General Assembly is set to meet at 15:00 GMT on Thursday for the discussion about Jerusalem.

Representational Image (AP Photo/Mehr News Agency, Raouf Mohseni)

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia says it has intercepted a missile fired towards the country’s capital, Riyadh, from neighbouring Yemen.

Houthi rebels said they launched the ballistic missile targeting al-Yamama royal palace in Riyadh on Tuesday, according to Mohamemd Abdul Salam, a Houthi spokesperson.

It was the third ballistic missile attack by the Houthis since beginning of November.

On November 4, a missile was launched towards an area near Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, prompting Saudi to accuse Iran – who it blamed for the launch – of committing an “act of war”.

Another missile likely targeted the city of Khamis before it was intercepted on December 1.

In an interview with Al Jazeera in November, Mohammed Abdul Salam, a spokesman for the Houthi rebels, threatened to escalate operations on the Yemeni-Saudi border and target deep inside the kingdom.

“The Saudis started the war. Our response will continue and increase, whether it’s targeting deep inside Saudi Arabia, targeting military positions where Saudi jets fly from, or military bases inside Yemeni territory,” Abdul Salam said.

Dozens of smaller missiles have been fired from Yemen into Saudi Arabia throughout more than two years of war in Yemen, while Saudi Arabia, supported by the United States and other countries, has launched thousands of air attacks against Houthi targets.

Accusing Iran of helping to arm the Houthis during the conflict, the Saudi-led coalition has closed air, land and sea routes.

The war in Yemen is one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, killing at least 10,000 people and leading to widespread hunger and disease.

Last week, Saudi Arabia allowed humanitarian aid to enter the country for the first time in three weeks.

Thousands gather to protest the US Jerusalem move in Ankara [Anadolu]

by Umut Uras, Al Jazeera

Turkey is concentrating efforts on passing a resolution at the UN General Assembly against the US decision to recognise occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Ankara is leading the push in the General Assembly because a draft resolution to be voted on by the UN Security Council on Monday is expected to be vetoed by Washington, Turkish officials told Al Jazeera.

The United States is one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the top UN body with 15 members.

Following Monday’s Security Council session, Turkey, Palestine and other parties are expected to try to push the issue to the UN General Assembly, where all 193 members of the international organisation are represented.

President Donald Trump on December 6 announced the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, deviating from decades-old policy and the international consensus that the city’s status should be resolved through peace talks.

The UN Security Council draft resolution drafted by Egypt, and seen by Al Jazeera, “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”

“In this regard [the draft resolution] calls upon all states to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem,” it said.

‘Uniting for Peace’
Turkish foreign ministry sources, who asked to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera that as it was clear the draft resolution will be vetoed by the US at the UN Security Council, Turkey was concentrating efforts [against the US move] at the UN General Assembly.

The issue is expected to be taken to the UN General Assembly under Resolution 377A, known as the “Uniting for Peace” resolution, Turkish sources said.

The 1950 Resolution 377A says if the Security Council fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately.

“The resolution can be passed by getting at least two-thirds of the votes of the members of the UN General Assembly. We already have this number, but Turkey, as well as the other OIC members, are working hard to increase it,” the foreign ministry sources said.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) founded in 1969, bills itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world”.

Turkey has been highly vocal in criticising the US administration over its Jerusalem decision, leading calls at last week’s 57-member OIC summit in Istanbul last week to recognise East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.

‘Likely to look like 2012 vote’
Taha Ozhan, a ruling party MP and chair of the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission, told Al Jazeera that Ankara’s efforts against Trump’s move put pressure on the countries in the region to speak up on the issue.

“Turkey has triggered this, and regional actors are reacting,” he said.

“A possible vote in the General Assembly will remind us of the scenes we saw a few years ago in the vote there for Palestine to be a non-member observer state, in which only the US, Israel and few more countries voted against the move, dominated by the rest of the members.”

In the 2012 vote at the General Assembly, Palestine was given non-member observer status with 138 votes cast for the resolution and nine votes against it.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Ankara intended to open an embassy for Palestine in East Jerusalem.

“Given that Jerusalem is under occupation, we cannot just go and open an embassy there. However, our consulate general in Jerusalem is already represented by an ambassador … The day is close when officially, with God’s permission, we will open our embassy there,” he said, in an address in the southern province of Karaman.

Palestinians view East Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, as the capital of their future state while Israelis see the city as a whole as their capital.

Thousands of Turkish protesters marched in various parts of the country through the weekend, carrying anti-US and anti-Israel signs and shouting slogans against the two countries.

Putin made an unannounced visit to Syria and ordered a withdrawal of Russian troops [Sergei Chirikov/EPA]

Al Jazeera

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a surprise visit to a Russian base in Syria and ordered his troops to start withdrawing from the war-torn country.

Syrian state TV reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Putin at Khmeimim Air Base, southeast of Latakia, on Monday morning.

Russia’s state news agency Novosti cited Putin as saying that “in general, the combat work in this territory is completed by the complete eradication of terrorists”.

Putin made the stop in Syria on his way to Egypt, where he met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi later on Monday.

As the Syrian government’s main ally in the war, Russia started its intervention in September 2015, after an official request by the Syrian government for military help against rebel groups.

Since then, Russia mainly conducted air strikes against groups opposed to the government, including the Syrian National Coalition, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al-Nusra Front, and others.

In addition, Russian military advisors and special operations forces are stationed in Syria. Prior to the intervention, Russian involvement in the war had mainly consisted of supplying the Syrian army.

‘Saving Syria’
In November, Assad thanked Putin for “saving” his country and for Russia’s support in Syria.

The two heads of state met for talks in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on November 22 to discuss the fight against “terrorism” and the possibilities for a political settlement in Syria, which has entered its seventh year of war.

After the meeting, Assad in a statement expressed his readiness to hold discussions with parties interested in resolving the conflict.

In response, Putin commended Assad’s cooperation.

Last month, various factions, including the Syrian government and opposition groups, met in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, for talks aimed at implementing a lasting ceasefire agreement.

International initiatives to end the war over the years include an attempt at establishing four “de-escalation zones” across the country, with Russia, Turkey and Iran acting as guarantors.

To date, some 465,000 people have died in the conflict, and more than 12 million Syrians have been displaced.

by Al Jazeera

Thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets of Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to protest against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a contentious move that has inflamed tensions in Palestine and across the region.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in a handful of cities throughout Thursday.

Over 50 Palestinians were injured in the protests, and 16 were sent to hospital, according to local health authorities in the West Bank.

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Ramallah, said the clashes were dissipating after “several hours of quite vigorous confrontation between the youth and the Israeli army”.

Palestinian protesters gathered at the central Al Manara square in Ramallah and marched towards El Bireh, where they were met by Israeli troops firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Protests were also held in Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem and Jericho in the West Bank, according to Anadolu news agency, as well as in East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

At least four Palestinians were injured in Gaza after Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition at dozens of demonstrators who assembled east of Khan Younes, in the southern part of the coastal territory, according to Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

Trump’s ‘escalation’
Trump, ignoring warnings from the international community, announced on Wednesday that the US formally recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will begin the process of moving its embassy to the city, breaking with decades of US policy.

The decision has been condemned by world leaders who have described it as a “dangerous escalation” and a final nail in the coffin of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel says the city, which is under Israeli occupation, cannot be divided.

Trump’s “announcement has the potential to send us backwards to even darker times than the ones we are already living in”, said Federica Mogherini, high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs.

In a speech in Gaza City on Thursday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has said the US decision is a “war declaration against Palestinians”, and called for a new Intifada, or uprising.

Haniya said US President Donald Trump’s recognition “killed” the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

“This decision has killed the peace process, has killed the Oslo [accord], has killed the settlement process,” he said.

“The US decision is an aggression, a declaration of war on us, on the best Muslim and Christian shrines in the heart of Palestine, Jerusalem. We should work on launching an Intifada in the face of the Zionist enemy,” Haniya said.

Days of Rage
Palestinians had called for three days of rage in response to Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, and for the closure of local schools and stores.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from East Jerusalem on Thursday, said a small-scale protest had been ongoing for most of the day outside Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Old City.

“There has been a good deal of anger and just disbelief at what has happened overnight coming out of the White House,” he said.

Israeli police, meanwhile, attempted to break up the protest and confiscated Palestinian flags, he reported.

In Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Abdel-Hamid said “another round of confrontations” between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers was expected on Friday.

“We expect more scenes [of] violence and unrest across the entire occupied West Bank,” she said.

Ignoring warnings
On Thursday, Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera from Ramallah that Trump was “joining Israel in the war crimes and in confirming the annexation of the occupied Palestinian Territories”.

“I hope that the Palestinian Authority will not accept to meet with this American team any more,” he said.

“Israel decided it wants everything. They want everything? Fine. We will also fight for everything,” he said.

“We might be talking about a popular wide uprising but non-violent one, similar to the first Intifada. That’s what we need. Israelis should see the Palestinian resistance everywhere.”

Palestinian women in Gaza shouted slogans during a protest against the US intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem and to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

Al Jazeera

Protests have broken out in the Gaza Strip in response to US President Donald Trump’s expected decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as Palestinian leaders called for three days of rage against the move.

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza City on Wednesday, carrying banners denouncing Trump, hours ahead of his impending declaration that would also see the US embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The declaration, which is expected at 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, comes amid global condemnation of the decision.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh described Trump’s decision as a “flagrant aggression”.

“This decision is an uncalculated gamble that will know no limit to the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim reaction,” he said.

“We call on stopping this decision fully because this will usher in the beginning of a time of terrible transformations, not just on the Palestinian level but on the region as a whole. This decision means the official announcement of the end of the peace process.”

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Gaza, said people did not bother to wait for the announcement and spontaneously gathered to protest against the plans.

‘Ball of fire’
“This is an indication of what might come after Trump speaks later today. People here compared the protests to a small ball of fire that would roll and turn into a much larger ball later on,” Smith said.

“The move by the US seems to have further unified the Palestinians. Hamas and the smaller factions in Gaza have given their full support to Mahmoud Abbas’ Fattah movement in their opposition to the US move. There is full unity on the Palestinian streets behind this cause,” he added.

Similar sentiments came from protesters in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where hundreds gathered in the Palestinian refugee camp Bourj el-Barajneh to protests against Trump.

Jerusalem remains at the core of the perennial Israel-Palestine conflict as Palestinians want Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Leaders in the Middle East and elsewhere warned Trump that his plans would have grave implications for the so-called peace process and on regional stability.

Hours ahead of Trump’s expected announcement, British Prime Minister Theresa May said she intended to speak to the US president about the status of Jerusalem, adding that the fate of the city should be determined through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Jerusalem should ultimately form a shared capital between the Israeli and Palestinian states,” May said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US move was “because of their incompetence and failure”, while the Syrian foreign ministry released a statement saying: “[The move] is the culmination of the crime of usurping Palestine and displacing the Palestinian people.”

In his weekly address, Pope Francis said that the status quo that governs Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque compound should be respected. The state of Jordan has been the custodian of all Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem since 1994.

Status quo
US officials said that Trump “remains committed to achieving a lasting peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians and is optimistic that peace can be achieved”.

One official said that Trump’s decision “doesn’t change the status quo with respect to the holy sites and other sensitive issues”.

But Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada said that one would have to be “living on another planet for the last few decades to believe that the US was ever an honest broker”.

“What [Trump’s move] achieves is truth in advertising,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It is a more honest expression of American policy, which is to support Israel unconditionally, including Israel’s illegal colonisation and settlement-building in East Jerusalem,” he said, adding that “this has effectively been US policy for many, many years and Trump is simply coming out and being open about it”.

A wounded boy in a hospital in Douma after an air raid on the rebel-held town of Misraba in Eastern Ghouta [Bassam Khabieh/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 80 people have been killed in just over 24 hours in suspected Russian and Syrian government shelling in the eastern and southern parts of Syria.

The majority of those killed were civilians.

In the eastern province of Deir Az Zor, suspected Russian warplanes hit al-Shaf’ah village on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River on Sunday, killing about 51 people.

Four others were killed in an attack on the village of al-Darnaj, also on Sunday, raising the death toll in the province to 55.

Deir Az Zor province is one of the final Syrian redoubts of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) after the armed group was pushed out of its main strongholds, including Raqqa and Deir Az Zor city.

Meanwhile, in Eastern Ghouta, a district just outside the capital Damascus, at least 25 people were killed in alleged Russian and Syrian government shelling on several opposition-held areas on Sunday.

The attacks targeted a local market in the residential neighbourhood of Misraba, where 16 people were killed. At least nine others were killed in shelling on the neighbourhoods of Medyara and Douma.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, the figure of 25 includes five children and three women.

Deal violated
Eastern Ghouta has consistently been targeted despite being listed as a “de-escalation zone”, where military activity is prohibited under an agreement endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran, which was signed in September.

But due to its strategic location near the capital, where the government of President Bashar al-Assad sits, the attacks there have not halted, in violation of the agreement.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, said Eastern Ghouta was the main target for the Syrian government now.

“The regime is not interested in de-escalating. After they took back Aleppo, they went to Deir Az Zor, and now it’s Ghouta. It’s their main target now,” Abdul Ghany told Al Jazeera.

Since the implementation of the agreement, at least 250 people have been killed in suspected Russian and Syrian government air raids in the district, according to medical centres and civil defence workers.

The armed opposition in Eastern Ghouta has managed to keep Syrian government forces at bay during the war. In turn, the government has imposed a siege on the area to pressure the armed opposition, causing a humanitarian crisis, with severe shortages of food and medicine.

Under the so-called “de-escalation zones” agreement, opposition groups and government forces are required to halt hostilities, including air raids, for a period of six months, to protect civilians living in those areas.

More than 2.5 million people are believed to be living in the zones, which include, fully or partially, Eastern Ghouta and the provinces of Idlib, Homs, Latakia, Aleppo and Hama.

Syria’s conflict evolved from a violent government crackdown on protests against the president in 2011 to become a devastating war that has drawn in world powers, including Russia and a US-led international coalition.

Russia has led negotiations on finding a solution to the conflict since its game-changing military intervention on the side of al-Assad in 2015.

Wounded people are evacuated from the scene of the mosque attack on Friday [The Associated Press]

by Al Jazeera

The Egyptian army says an air raid killed some of the attackers involved in Friday’s massacre when at least 305 people died in a bomb-and-gun attack on a mosque.

In a statement late on Friday, army spokesman Tamer Rifai said the Egyptian air force chased down the assailants who, according to officials, arrived in four 4WD vehicles and carried out the attack during noon prayers.

“The air forces chased the terrorists and discovered and destroyed a number of vehicles that were involved in carrying out the brutal terrorist attack … Those on board were also killed,” Rifai said.

The massacre occurred in Bir al-Abed, a town in North Sinai province.

The mosque – about 40km west of el-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai – was frequented by followers of Sufism, a more mystical form of Islam.

No group has claimed responsibility, but according to a statement on Saturday from Egypt’s public prosecutor, the attackers were carrying a flag representing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS). The government declared a three-day period of mourning for the victims.

Egyptian state media MENA said 120 people were also wounded in the attack.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi condemned the assault, which he described as “criminal” and “cowardly” in a televised statement on Friday.

He said the attack “will not go unpunished”.

“The armed forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with the utmost force,” Sisi said.

Egypt has for years battled an armed, anti-government campaign on the rugged and thinly populated Sinai Peninsula. The campaign has gained pace since the military overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013.

In 2014, following a suicide bombing that killed 33 soldiers, Sisi declared a state of emergency on the peninsula, describing it as a “nesting ground for terrorism and terrorists”.

Previous attacks in Sinai mostly aimed at security forces and members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority.

However, mosques in North Sinai’s Sheikh Zuweid town have also been hit.

The Bir al-Abed mosque was an easy target because it was outside the province’s main cities.

The mosque may also have been targeted because it was attended by members of the Sufi sect, who are considered infidels by armed groups such as ISIL.

In 2016, ISIL fighters released images purportedly showing the execution of a 100-year-old Sufi religious leader, whom they accused of “witchcraft”.

Timothy Kaldas, a professor at Nile University in Cairo, told Al Jazeera that Friday’s assault “fits the pattern of ISIS attacks”.

“Potentially, it’s another attack against Sufis in northern Sinai. Potentially, it’s retaliation for tribes co-operating with the state in the crackdown on ISIS,” he said.

Kaldas said ISIL has been “more willing to target civilians, as we saw with a lot of attacks on the Egyptian-Christian community in the past year”.