15/10/2025

WEDNESDAY | OCT 15, 2025

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ERDOGAN SEES JOINT RECONSTRUCTION ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he will seek Gulf, US and European support for the reconstruction of Gaza and he believed financing will be provided swiftly. He said Israel’s “poor” track record of abiding by ceasefires means the US and others must vigilantly enforce it. “I believe financial support will be provided” for rebuilding projects developed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, Erdogan said. “We are seeking support from Gulf countries, the US, and Europe. The initial impressions are promising. Turkiye, the US and other countries are determined to preserve this ceasefire. If it turns into genocide again, Israel knows the consequences.” – Reuters COURT ORDERS RUSSIA TO PAY GEORGIA €253M STRASBOURG: The European rights court yesterday ordered Russia to pay Georgia over a quarter of a billion euros for preventing people from crossing freely into the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which Moscow recognised as independent after the 2008 war with Tbilisi. The European Court of Human Rights said Russia had committed violations including excessive use of force, ill-treatment, unlawful detention and unlawful restrictions on day-to-day movement across the administrative boundary line between Georgian-controlled territory and the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian regions. The court ordered Moscow to pay just over €253 million (RM1.2 billion) for the harm suffered by more than 29,000 victims. – AFP MOSCOW EXILES ACCUSED OF PLOTTING MOSCOW: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said yesterday it had opened a criminal case against exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing him of creating a “terrorist organisation” and of plotting to seize power. The FSB said it was investigating more than 20 other people as part of the same case, including prominent dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, ex-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and leading economists Sergei Aleksashenko and Sergei Guriev. The move came less than two weeks after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a human rights forum of lawmakers from 46 European countries, said it was creating a “platform for dialogue” with Russian democratic BRUSSELS: A general strike held in Belgium yesterday grounded most airplanes at two main airports and disrupted public transport in Brussels. The strike was the latest in a series of protests this year against the government’s proposals to reform pensions and the labour market. All flights due to depart from Brussels International Airport and about half of those scheduled to land were cancelled as staff from the security firm providing X-ray screening walked out. All flights were cancelled at the country’s second largest airport, in Charleroi, 60km south of Brussels. Most of the Brussels underground train, bus and tram lines were cut as a result of the strike. – Reuters forces in exile. – Reuters BELGIUM STRIKE GROUNDS AIRLINES

BR I E F S

Palestinians gathering at

Nasser hospital in Khan Younis as they welcome freed prisoners. – REUTERSPIC

Trump hails ‘tremendous day for Middle East’ o Leaders sign Gaza declaration

had gathered to support hostage families erupted in joy, tears and song as news broke of the first releases. In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, huge crowds gathered to welcome home the first prisoners. And in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, residents climbed the sides of the slow-moving Red Cross buses carrying the prisoners to greet their loved ones. “Welcome home,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on social media, hailing the return of the hostages. Of the prisoners Israel freed in return, around 250 were security detainees, while about 1,700 were taken into custody by the army in Gaza during the war.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the Gaza deal “closes a painful chapter in human history” and sets the stage for a two-state solution. As part of Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, Hamas on Monday freed the last 20 surviving hostages it held after two years of captivity in Gaza. In exchange, Israel released 1,968 mostly Palestinian prisoners held in its jails. “For so many families across this land, it has been years since you’ve known a single day of true peace,” Trump told Israel’s parliament. “Not only for Israelis, but also for Palestinians and for many others, the long and painful nightmare is finally over.” In Tel Aviv, a huge crowd that

In Gaza, the ceasefire has brought relief, but with the territory racked by a humanitarian crisis and much of it flattened by war, the road to recovery remains long. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,869 people. “The greatest joy is seeing my whole family gathered to welcome me,” Yusef Afana, a 25-year-old released prisoner from north Gaza, said in Khan Yunis. “I spent 10 months in prison – some of the hardest days I’ve ever lived.” In Ramallah, prisoners released by Israel were met by a cheering crowd so dense that they struggled to get off the bus. “It’s an indescribable feeling, a new birth,” said newly released Mahdi Ramadan. – AFP

SHARM EL SHEIKH: President Donald Trump hailed a “tremendous day for the Middle East” as he and regional leaders signed a declaration meant to cement a ceasefire in Gaza, hours after Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages and prisoners. Trump made a lightning visit to Israel, where he lauded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an address to parliament, before flying to Egypt for a Gaza summit where he and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye signed the declaration on Monday as guarantors to the ceasefire deal. “This is a tremendous day for the world, it’s a tremendous day for the Middle East,” Trump said as more than two dozen world leaders sat down to talk. He later declared that the assembled leaders had “achieved what everybody said was impossible”. “At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump said. According to the declaration, the signatories pledged to “pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region”, and also welcomed “the progress achieved in establishing comprehensive and durable peace arrangements in the Gaza Strip”. But the statement, released in full on Monday night by the White House, was vague about the path ahead for peace between Israel and its neighbours, including the Palestinians, making no mention of a one- or two-state solution. “We’re talking about rebuilding Gaza. I’m not talking about single state or double state or two state,” Trump said.

An Israeli MP holds a placard that reads: ‘Recognise Palestine!’ at the Knesset on Monday. – REUTERSPIC