14/07/2025

MONDAY | JULY 14, 2025

9

Truce talks in the balance

Kim offers Russia full support

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Moscow his full support on the war in Ukraine during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, state media in Pyongyang said yesterday. Lavrov’s visit to North Korea was the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials as both countries deepen military and political ties amid Russia’s offensive against Kyiv. Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to oust Ukrainian forces and provided the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles. Kim and Lavrov met on Saturday in “an atmosphere full of warm comradely trust”, North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported. Russia’s Foreign Ministry posted a video on Telegram of the two men shaking hands and greeting each other with a hug, and said the talks were held in Wonsan, a city on North Korea’s east coast where a massive resort was opened earlier this month. Kim told Lavrov that Pyongyang was“ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership in regard to tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis”, KCNA said. Kim also expressed a “firm belief that the Russian army and people would surely win victory in accomplishing the sacred cause of defending the dignity and basic interests of the country”. He lauded Putin’s “outstanding leadership”, the report said. The two men also discussed “important matters for implementation of the agreements made at the historic DPRK-Russia summit talks in June 2024”, KCNA said, referring to North Korea by its official name. The two heavily sanctioned nations signed a military deal last year, including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang. Lavrov told Kim that Putin “hopes for continued direct contacts”. Lavrov met his counterpart Choe Son Hui on Saturday and thanked the “heroic” North Korean soldiers who have been deployed to aid Russia. – AFP PARIS: Gisele Pelicot, who became a feminist icon by publicly testifying over the mass rapes she endured, and rapper-turned fashion designer Pharrell Williams were among 589 people awarded France’s top civic honour yesterday. Pelicot, 72, and Williams were both named knights of the Legion of Honour on a list announced ahead of France’s July 14 national day. Pelicot earned international tributes for her courage in testifying at a trial last year against her former husband. Williams, 52, made his name as a rapper and singer but earned a second fortune as a music producer and designing clothes and accessories for several brands. He has been Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director since 2023. Actor Lea Drucker was also among the figures awarded the Legion of Honour. – AFP PROMOTION OF CONVICTED PRIEST SPARKS FURORE PARIS: A French archbishop’s decision to promote a priest who was sentenced to jail for raping a teenager has drawn condemnation. Support groups and traditionalists have expressed outrage over the case of Dominique Spina, who was found guilty of raping a 16-year-old boy in 2006 and sentenced to five years in prison. The archbishop of Toulouse, Guy de Kerimel, set off the controversy in June when he named Spina as diocesan chancellor, putting him in charge of archives. Kerimel said he had acted out of “mercy” and that he had “nothing to reproach” the priest for in an “administrative function”. He acknowledged the “incomprehension” but said without “mercy” Spina risked a “social death”. – AFP FRANCE HONOURS FEMINIST ICON, FASHION DESIGNER

o Israel, Hamas blame each other of inflexibility

Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu said he would then be prepared to enter talks for a more permanent end to hostilities. But a Palestinian source said Israel’s refusal to accept the demand for a complete withdrawal was hindering the talks. A second source said mediators had asked both sides to postpone discussions until US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrives in the Qatari capital. The first source said Israel was proposing to maintain its military in more than 40% of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. “Hamas will not accept the Israeli maps, as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement,” they said. Israeli media reported that new maps would be presented, quoting an unnamed foreign official with knowledge of the details. – AFP Prime Minister

said Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight people “including children and women” and wounding others. An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in “10 dead and several injured”, Bassal said. Another strike “hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people west of the Nuseirat camp”, Bassal added, reporting “six dead and several injured”. In the territory’s south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area. In Tel Aviv, thousands took to the streets urging the government to seal a hostage release deal. “The window of opportunity is open now and it won’t be for long,” said Eli Sharabi, who was freed in February. Both Hamas and Israel have said 10 hostages held since Oct 7, 2023 would be released if an agreement is reached.

GAZA CITY: Ceasefire talks hung in the balance as Hamas and Israel on Saturday accused each other of blocking attempts to strike a deal, nearly a week into an attempt to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Palestinian territory. A Palestinian source with knowledge of the indirect talks in Qatar said Israel’s decision to keep its troops in the war-torn territory were blocking a deal for a 60-day pause. But on the Israeli side, a senior political official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivities of the talks, accused the group of inflexibility and deliberately trying to scuttle an accord. On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli airstrikes yesterday killed at least 27 Palestinians, including six near a water distribution point. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal

BR I E F S

More Palestine Action supporters arrested LONDON: Police in several British cities on Saturday arrested scores of people for supporting Palestine Action, following a second consecutive weekend of protests over the government’s decision to ban the activist group using anti-terror laws. In London, the Metropolitan Police said its officers had made 41 arrests for “showing support for a proscribed organisation”. Another individual was arrested for common assault, the force added. Police officers keeping a watchful eye on demonstrators at St Peter’s Square in Manchester on Saturday. – REUTERSPIC

They come a week after 29 similar arrests at protests staged on July 5, mainly in London. Since the Palestine Action ban kicked in on July 5, police have warned that expressing support for the group was now a crime, after a last-ditch High Court challenge failed to stop its proscription becoming law. The government announced plans for the ban under the 2000 Terrorism Act days after the group’s activists claimed to be behind a break-in at an air force base in southern England. Two aircraft there were sprayed with red paint, causing an estimated £7 million (RM40 million) in damage. Four people charged in relation to the incident remain in custody. Palestine Action has condemned its outlawing – which makes it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison – as an attack on free speech. – AFP

Footage showed police moving in on a small group of protesters displaying signs supporting Palestine Action. They had gathered at lunchtime at the steps of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square. Greater Manchester Police arrested 16 people, while officers in the Welsh capital Cardiff detained 13, all for the same offence under the 2000 Terrorism Act, both forces confirmed. “South Wales Police supports the right for people to make their voices heard through protest, provided it is done lawfully,” said a police statement. The other arrests occurred in the Northern Irish city Londonderry and Leeds, in northern England, according to Defend Our Juries.

Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which had announced the rallies “to defy” the ban, said 86 people had been arrested in five cities. They included four vicars, a lawyer, civil servant, social worker, mechanical engineer and the daughter of a Polish resistance fighter, as well as veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement, the group said. “We will not be deterred from opposing genocide, nor from defending those who refuse to be bystanders,” the group said in a statement, referring to accusations levelled against Israel over its war in Gaza. The protesters were also taking a stand “against the corruption of democracy and the rule of law”, it said.