06/03/2025

THURSDAY | MAR 6, 2025

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Kyiv readiness to negotiate is positive: Kremlin

A Palestinian family breaking fast in their destroyed house in Beit Lahia on Tuesday. – AFPPIC

MOSCOW: Russia welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement that Kyiv is willing to negotiate over the war, but it is not yet clear who it might be negotiating with, the Kremlin said yesterday. Zelensky made the statement in a letter to President Donald Trump, which Trump made public on Tuesday. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” Trump said in an address to Congress while quoting from the letter. Asked how the Kremlin viewed this, spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied: “Positively.” But he added: “The question is who to sit down with. For now, the Ukrainian president is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side. So, overall, the approach is positive, but the nuances have not changed yet.” Peskov was referring to a Zelensky decree in 2022 that ruled out negotiations with President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has offered to host the truce talks that could involve US officials, he said yesterday. – Reuters/AFP VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis rested well during his 19th night in hospital with pneumonia, the Vatican said yesterday, as celebrations for the Lent religious season started without him. The 88-year-old head of the Catholic Church has suffered a worrying series of respiratory attacks since his admission to the Gemelli in Rome on Feb 14, the most recent on Monday. Francis had passed a calm day on Tuesday after Monday’s two episodes of acute respiratory failure, with the Vatican reporting he had no fever, was “alert” and cooperating with his treatment. But the pope’s prognosis “remains reserved”, meaning doctors will not say how they expect his condition to evolve. – AFP IRELAND DROPS TROOP DEPLOYMENT LAW DUBLIN: Ireland moved on Tuesday to remove a law that prevents the deployment of its troops without UN approval, with Prime Minister Micheal Martin saying he did not want Russia, China or the United States having a veto on deployments. Ireland, which is militarily neutral, only allows troop deployment with the approval of the United Nations, the government and parliament – the so-called “triple lock”. A draft law removing the UN requirement was presented to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after plans to drop it were announced in late 2023. – Reuters POPE ‘RESTED WELL’ BUT MISSES START OF LENT MUTTENZ: The Swiss public prosecutor on Tuesday requested suspended sentences of 20 months for both Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini in an appeal against their 2022 acquittal in a corruption case. An Extraordinary Appeal Court sitting in Muttenz near Basel, will hand down its decision on March 25 in a long-running legal saga which shattered the careers of Blatter, the former president of world football’s governing body Fifa, and Platini, ex-head of European body UEFA. Prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand opted not to call for prison sentences for the 88-year-old Swiss and 69-year-old Frenchman. The case began in 2015 when Blatter quit as head of Fifa in a corruption crisis. It stems from a

Arab leaders endorse plan

BR I E F S

ministry said in a statement. Palestinians, Arab states and many European governments have rejected Trump’s proposal for US control of Gaza, opposing any efforts to expel its people. Trump has recently appeared to soften his stance, saying he was “not forcing” the plan, which experts have said could violate international law. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the plan would ensure Palestinians “remain on their land”, but was careful not to criticise Trump. The summit’s final communique warned against “sinful attempts to displace the Palestinian people”, saying they would “usher the region into a new phase of conflicts”. For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe – the mass displacement in the war that led to Israel’s creation in 1948. Sisi said on Tuesday that the new management committee, composed of Palestinian technocrats, was aimed at “paving the way for the return of the Palestinian Authority to the Strip”. Veteran Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, also addressing the summit, said a working committee had been formed to prepare for the PA resuming its role in Gaza. – AFP He said the argument was implausible. Even if Fifa had transferred one million Swiss francs to Platini in 1999, it would still have had “more than 21 million francs in cash”, and its reserves had reached 328 million in 2002. To agree such a sum without a written record, without witnesses and without making provision for it in the accounts was, he said, “contrary to commercial practice” as well as to Fifa’s norms. The appeal trial, which began on Monday, is due to continue until today, with closing arguments from the defence. Although Fifa, the civil party, has joined the public prosecutor’s appeal, it is not represented in Muttenz. – AFP

and urged the international community to back it. “All these efforts are proceeding in parallel with the launch of a political track” towards Palestinian statehood, it added, an ambition that Israeli leaders have opposed. The statement welcomed “the Palestinian decision to form a Gaza administration committee under the umbrella of the Palestinian government”. The summit also called on Palestinian representation to be unified under the PLO, an umbrella group that is the dominant political force within the Palestinian Authority and which excludes Hamas. The PA had previously governed Gaza before losing power there in 2007 to Hamas. Hamas said it welcomed the summit’s plan and the proposed formation of a temporary committee “to oversee relief efforts, reconstruction and governance”. But it was unclear how willing Hamas would be to relinquish control of Gaza. Israel said the Arab leaders’ proposal failed “to address the realities” and criticised its reliance on both the PA and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. “Both have repeatedly demonstrated corruption, support for terrorism, and failure in resolving the issue,” the Israeli foreign contract” to pay Platini in 2011 for work as a consultant between 1998 and 2002. In 2011, Platini opted not to run against Blatter, who was then reelected as Fifa president. Blatter and Platini had signed a written agreement in August 1999, before the Frenchman became UEFA president, providing for an annual payment by FIFA of 300,000 Swiss francs for consultancy work. At the beginning of 2011, Platini presented an invoice for 2 million Swiss francs. Blatter approved it and presented it to Fifa as a late salary balance. The defendants say they had agreed a yearly sum of one million Swiss francs but that this was too much for Fifa finances at the time.

o Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza

CAIRO: Arab leaders endorsed on Tuesday a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority, presenting an alternative to President Donald Trump’s widely condemned proposal to take over the territory and displace its people. The prospect of the Palestinian Authority (PA) governing Gaza remains far from certain, however, with Israel having ruled out any future role for the body, and Trump having closed the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) liaison office in Washington during his first term while stepping up support for Israel. Trump triggered global outrage by suggesting the United States “take over” the Gaza Strip and develop it, while forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to relocate to Egypt or Jordan. Tuesday’s Arab League summit in Cairo offered an alternative with the adoption of a “comprehensive Arab plan”. It announced the establishment of a trust fund to pay for the territory’s reconstruction, delayed payment of two million Swiss francs (RM9.98 million) Fifa paid Platini in 2011 for consultancy services. The pair were acquitted by the Swiss Federal Court in June 2022 of charges that included “disloyal management”, “breach of trust” and “forgery of securities”. The court concluded that fraud was “not established with a likelihood bordering on certainty”, and therefore applied the general principle of criminal law according to which “the doubt must benefit the accused”. The Swiss Attorney General’s office appealed. In his three-and-a-half-hour argument on Tuesday, Hildbrand set out to dispel the defendants’ assertion that they had an “oral

Swiss prosecutor seeks suspended sentences for Blatter, Platini