Written by: Wu Yihong

The two regional rivals in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Iran, from March 6 to 10, held extensive dialogues in Beijing for five days, mediated and sponsored by China, and finally reached an agreement on agreeing to resume diplomatic relations between the two countries, reopen embassies and representative offices of the two sides, and exchange Ambassadors within no more than two months.

The two sides pledged to "activate" the security cooperation agreement signed in 2001, as well as many agreements signed in 1998 related to economy, trade, investment, technology, science, culture, sports and youth.

The Saudi Minister of State, the Saudi National Security Adviser, Musaed bin Muhammad Al-Aiban, and the Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, led the two delegations to hold dialogues in Beijing.

Chairman of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee and Politburo member Wang Yi held talks with them respectively, and presided over the opening and closing ceremonies of the dialogue.

The outcome of the Beijing-Saudi Arabia dialogue and agreement to resume diplomatic relations is not only good news for Saudi Arabia and Iran, but also great news for peace in the Middle East and even world peace.

Both Saudi Arabia and Iran expressed their gratitude to Beijing for its diplomatic efforts, and international public opinion fully applauded the achievement.

Why did it happen in China and why is China capable of it?

In fact, before coming to Beijing for peace talks, the leaders of Iraq and Oman mediated on numerous occasions and invited senior officials from Saudi Arabia and Iran to go to the two countries for peace talks.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman immediately posted a tweet to express his congratulations after learning of the news of the two countries' decision to resume diplomatic relations, expressing sincere thanks to Iraq and the Sultanate of Oman for their tireless efforts that contributed to the success of the peace talks finally in Beijing.

Saudi Arabia and Iran chose Beijing as an ideal location for peace talks for three considerations:

First, the regional situation in the Middle East is changing. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the status of the Middle East as a "middle ground" for global strategic competition became more prominent.

Against the backdrop of great power rivalry, relations between Middle Eastern countries show a trend of relaxation, including relations between the Muslim Brotherhood camp led by Turkey and anti-Muslim Brotherhood camps such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan have signed agreements to normalize relations, while conflict between Saudi Arabia and other Sunni alliances and the Shiite group led by Iran has receded over the past ten years.

Therefore, it constitutes a new type of Middle Eastern system with sub-regional integration, the emergence of small multilateralism and "flexible multilateralism".

Second: China's strategic initiative accelerates Iran and Saudi Arabia's "going east" pace. In January 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran.

This was a very important visit by the head of state of China in the new era, and it symbolized China's intention to participate in the governance of the Middle East.

Within seven years after Xi Jinping's visit to the Middle East in 2016, Saudi Arabia and Iran signed the "Belt and Road" cooperation document with China. The two sides have carried out in-depth cooperation in trade and energy fields as well as cooperation in digital economy, 5G network, space and other fields.

Third: As the credibility of the United States continues to decline in the countries of the Middle East, the strategic autonomy of the countries of the Middle East is increasing.

The strategic mutual trust between Iran, Saudi Arabia and China has been continuously deepened, and mutual support for the sovereignty, security and development interests of other countries has been strengthened.

In December 2022, President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Saudi Arabia and attended the China-Saudi Arabia-China-Gulf Cooperation Council and China-Arab summits.

Last month, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi paid a state visit to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. Saudi Arabia and Iran sent two delegations to Beijing for dialogue, which represents recognition and confidence in China's sincere position.

Fourth: the common concept and unified goal. For a long time, Chinese, Arab, and Persian civilizations have known each other along the ancient Silk Road, learned from each other, and helped each other in facing changing international situations.

Similar historical experiences, the same dream of development, and mutual trust and support have brought China and Arab countries closer together.

In December last year, President Xi Jinping pointed out during his meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that China regards Saudi Arabia as an important power in the multipolar world.

Against the backdrop of profound and complex changes in the international and regional situation, the strategic and comprehensive nature of relations between China and Saudi Arabia has become more prominent.

China puts the development of relations with Saudi Arabia as a priority in its comprehensive diplomacy, especially its diplomacy in the Middle East, and is willing to work hand in hand with Saudi Arabia to achieve their national advancement, so as to upgrade the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz stated that Saudi Arabia and China have made good progress in recent years in the field of strategic cohesion and cooperation in various fields, and that there is an important consensus between the two sides on many issues, and that China's interests are also the interests of Saudi Arabia.

For his part, when Iranian President Raisi held talks with President Xi Jinping in Beijing last February, he made it clear that the friendship between Iran and China has been tested and will become stronger with time.

As two independent major countries, the relationship between Iran and China is based on the spirit of mutual respect, and they are sincere strategic partners who deserve mutual trust.

Iran's determination to deepen and strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between Iran and China is unwavering and will not be affected by any changes in the international and regional situation. Global development cannot be achieved without global security.

Adapting to the deeply adjusted international situation in the spirit of unity, responding to complex and interwoven security challenges with a win-win mindset, eliminating the root causes of international conflicts, and improving global security governance are the concepts jointly advocated by the leaders of China, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

By adhering to this concept, China was able to mediate the resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and created a new situation in the relationship between the two countries.

When talking about the important results of the Beijing-Saudi-Iranian dialogue, Wang Yi revealed that the Beijing dialogue was based on the consensus reached by the leaders of China, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and President Xi Jinping had expressed support from the very beginning.

The dialogue has also become a successful practice for the active implementation of the Global Security Initiative. As a bona fide and reliable mediator, China has faithfully fulfilled its duties as the host country.

Wang Yi emphasized that the success of the Saudi-Iranian peace talks is of long-term significance. Convey the success of the dialogue in providing positive and clear signals to the troubled world at the present time.

First, in addition to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, there are many issues related to peace and people's livelihood in the world that require the attention of the international community and timely and appropriate handling by the relevant parties.

Secondly, no matter how complex the problem and how serious the challenge, as long as we conduct dialogue on equal terms in the spirit of mutual respect, we will surely find a solution acceptable to both sides.

Third, the Middle East belongs to the people of the Middle East, and the fate of the Middle East should be in the hands of the people of the Middle East. It is believed that the countries of the Middle East will enhance the spirit of independence, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and work together to build a more peaceful, stable and prosperous Middle East.

This time, China contributed to the promotion of reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which serves the stability of the situation in the Middle East, and will also provide solutions to other problems in the region.

The research report of the Emirati "Super Trend Research and Consulting Center" indicated that the decision of Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations suggests that the policies and directions of the governments of the two countries have changed, as the two countries realized that they cannot continue in a state of competition and hostility, as calm and dialogue are the best ways for them and for all countries. region without exception.

Since 1979, Saudi-Iranian relations have been a barometer of political stability and security in the Middle East. Over the past few decades, political conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Iran have repeatedly and intensely unfolded at the level of the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam, and each has built an alliance. Therefore, dialogue and reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran provided successful examples of solving problems in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and other countries.

The essence of the agreement can be summarized as follows: By establishing respect for national sovereignty, non-interference in their internal affairs, and distancing political conflicts between religion and state, it paves the way for future development.

--The effects of the Saudi-Iranian agreement on regional issues

The resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran will undoubtedly open the door for dialogue between the two countries to resolve fierce conflicts in the region, including the crisis in Yemen, which is a source of great concern to both countries.

Saudi Arabia entered the conflict with support for Iran's exiled opposition in 2015, while Iran supports the Ansar Allah group (Houthis), who seized the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, in 2014.

Diplomats have been searching for a way to end a conflict that has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters and turned into a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran. So the Saudi-Iranian agreement could boost efforts to end the conflict.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said the region "needs normal relations between the two countries" in the wake of the Saudi-Iranian agreement.

In parallel, the political crisis in Lebanon may witness a breakthrough in the context of the Saudi-Iranian deal. The country is plunged into an economic and political crisis due to the deep divisions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia and Iran can help Lebanon form a government and arrange the economic situation together.

In addition, a Saudi-Iranian deal could impede Israel's plans to form a regional alliance against Tehran in accordance with the wishes of the United States, which would reduce the risk of any potential conflict between Tehran and Tel Aviv spreading to other countries in the region. It may contribute to increasing cooperation between Riyadh and Tel Aviv to reach a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Increasing opportunities for economic and trade cooperation for the development and prosperity of the peoples of the entire region: The Saudi-Iranian agreement will help enable the two countries to activate trade and joint investment, both of which have great economic potential and large oil resources.

The settlement of the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran will undoubtedly help the countries of the region to contain the sources of funding for terrorist and violent organizations, contain terrorism and weaken its influence.

-- Possible factors affecting the success of the Saudi-Iranian agreement

There are a number of factors that could positively or negatively affect the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran:

First, the commitment of Iran and Saudi Arabia to implement the terms of the agreement will be the most important factor for the success of the agreement. This may lead not only to the return of calm and resolving problems in the region, but also to various partnerships between Iran and the GCC countries, as well as the return of Iranian-Egyptian relations.

Second, the intervention of the great powers. This comes despite the United States welcoming the agreement and some asserting that it is commensurate with what US President Joe Biden made clear during his visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel that de-escalation, diplomacy and deterrence are among the most important pillars of his policy towards Iran.

However, the United States is concerned that the deal, which was signed under the auspices of China, could exacerbate conflict and polarization between Democrats and Republicans in the United States. The actual position of the United States and European countries will become an influencing factor in the future relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Third, the positions of the Arab countries on the agreement. Arab countries in the region welcomed the resumption of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran, and considered this a step towards stability in the Middle East.

On the other hand, many Israeli sources expressed concern about the agreement. Believing that resolving the Saudi-Iranian dispute is not in Israel's interest, Israel seeks normalization with Saudi Arabia under the slogan of confronting the "enemy of Iran."

Saudi Arabia's resolution of its differences with Iran would also put it in a better position to face pressure from Israel and the United States to normalize relations with Israel.

--- Future prospects for the Saudi-Iranian agreement:

In the future, the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran will face the following scenarios:

First, the full resumption of bilateral relations: This is the most optimistic scenario, and it is also the hope of most countries in the region. In light of this situation, the crisis between the two countries and between Iran and most of the Arab countries began to fade away.

Secondly, the agreement led to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries only for political and security coordination, but it did not achieve a comprehensive normalization of relations between the two countries.

Some Arab countries will only meet the door of dialogue with Tehran and limited cooperation in some security and economic issues. In this case, Israel and the United States will contribute to the continuation of Iran's hostile policy towards its neighbors, leaving the situation between Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Iran unchanged.

Third, Saudi Arabia and Iran are satisfied with the resumption of diplomatic representation and the establishment of a limited dialogue, without reaching a final settlement on the outstanding issues between the two countries, or addressing other regional issues. The relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran will remain as it is, and relations between Arab countries and Tehran cannot be fully normalized.

Fourth, given the challenges of escalating external forces and various natural hazards such as epidemics, earthquakes, climate change, etc., it is in the interest of all actors in the Middle East to expedite the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran to solve common problems in the region and the countries of the Middle East work together to deal with challenges and threats external.

The resumption of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran is a good start, although there is still a long way to go before the full normalization of relations between the two countries. There may even be twists and turns and coordination of relations, and the selection of the interests involved will be complex and intense. But in any case, this is a fruitful pioneering step for China's diplomacy in the Middle East.

I finish

Written by: Hani Al-Masry

Seminars, conferences, and brainstorming sessions held by the Masarat Center and other centers and institutions recently, which dealt with the required strategy in confronting the Netanyahu government; There are many issues, ideas and thoughts, the most important of which is that it reflected the general Palestinian situation in terms of a state of dispersion, and the spread of types of disorientation, frustration, loss of confidence and lack of certainty in anything, despite the fascination with the steadfastness and resistance of the Jenin and Nablus camps, and the phenomenon of the Kataeb, including the Lions’ Den, which was confirmed once again. The Palestinian people are determined to carry the banner, wave after wave, generation after generation, but what causes anxiety, and even despair, is that it is a spontaneous and regional phenomenon that has not been generalized, and lacks the ideas and vision that guides it, the broad front that supports it, the strategy that guides it, and the unified leadership that guides it. led by. And because it faces an authority that it wants to eliminate or contain, it is therefore liable to be a new victim of division.

National project and options

We find disorientation in its clearest form when dealing with the national project, which is the most important issue. As we see a loss that appears when each person elaborates a national project according to his size, or according to the size of his faction, clan, city, or the place in which he resides, so many points of view spread; This adds a major obstacle to unity, and even coordination between the Palestinian factions. If the national project is unknown or disputed, how can it be achieved? Without an agreed upon national project, no unity can be established, and without unity no victory can be achieved.

In fact, the principle is that the national project is fixed, and it is not and should not be subject to change and alteration with changing conditions, circumstances and interests. What changes are the plans, tools and strategies adopted at each stage to reach it, and on the basis of striving to achieve the maximum that can be achieved in each stage, and then moving to The second stage, and so on, without abandoning the natural, legal and historical rights, and the major national goals.

Those with this point of view, which stems from the fact that the historical national project is fixed and unchanging, because it is based on the real and not the fake historical narrative, believe that the Palestinians are not required to present a new national project every year, or at every stage, but rather the original project remains the same until be achieved.

We need to revive the national project. As for what changes, it is the programs that are put in place to suit the different stages and circumstances, and are in harmony with the balance of power, variables, emerging data, and learned experiences. The national project with its basic pillars includes (complete liberation, the right of return, and self-determination for the entire Palestinian people). In the National Pact approved at the founding of the PLO, and then in the National Pact approved after the leadership of the revolutionary factions, especially the Fatah movement, for the PLO after the defeat of 1967 and the victory of dignity in 1968.

It is required to add a solution to the Israeli issue

The change/development that has occurred and could occur in how the Israeli question is resolved within this project; That is, the position of the Israeli Jews in the historical solution; It is no longer possible to ignore them, throw them into the sea, return them from whence they came, or deal with them as subjects and take tribute from them, especially after the majority of Israelis were born in the land of Palestine and are not responsible for what their fathers and grandfathers did, and for this reason the Palestinian revolution was proposed. The idea of establishing a democratic state after liberation and the defeat of the settler-colonial project, in which all citizens will live equally, regardless of whether they are Muslims, Christians, Jews, irreligious or atheists.

Likewise, the Charter must be reformulated in a manner that does not prejudice basic rights, by adding concepts that achieve freedom and social justice, equality between citizens, democracy with all its components, foremost of which is the separation and independence of powers, regular elections, respect for human rights and freedoms, respect for the rule of law, and a combination of tasks. Nationalism and democracy.

The imbalance in abandoning basic rights for the sake of incomplete rights, and the result is the loss of both

The imbalance began when basic rights and major goals were bypassed by violating the charter in order to obtain recognition of the organization as the sole legitimate representative, leading to an attempt to change it as one of the costs of searching for a settlement and achieving minimum rights, by sitting on the Palestinian seat at the negotiation and conference table. In light of the presence and increasing risks of eliminating the Palestinian factor in favor of Arab and non-Arab roles and alternatives.

Obtaining recognition of the role and representation has been given priority at the expense of rights, especially on the eve and in the aftermath of the signing of the Oslo Accords. There was a perception that since the government of Yitzhak Rabin recognized the PLO as its legitimate representative, the establishment of a self-governing authority on Palestinian land, and the return of the PLO’s leadership and cadres and factions to the homeland, this means an Israeli recognition of minimum rights, and this is not true at all. There is a difference between the two matters.

The perception also spread that there is a possibility of reaching a trade-off between the full goals and historical rights in all of Palestine, the right to self-determination for the entire Palestinian people, and the right of return for refugees, in exchange for the establishment of a state on the 1967 borders.

It turned out, and it was clear at the beginning to many, that this is a big illusion, as there is a big difference between this and that, so the organization was recognized until it was tamed, its claws and power cards removed, and disposed of as the embodiment of the national entity and the collective rights of the Palestinians, and pushed it to give up rights. As it is well known, this attempt ended in the disastrous situation we are in, which explains the widespread state of frustration, as full rights were waived without realizing the incomplete rights, even at a minimum, and the state did not embody, and the authority became eternally limited self-rule, and it is weakened Its role and its threat of collapse and dissolution if it is not integrated more and more fully into the Israeli security system, and the organization, which has become a structure devoid of content and role, is not preserved. The state was not practically embodied on the ground despite its declaration and the fact that it is a right that should not be subject to negotiations. Independence was not achieved. Rather, Israel is advancing on the path of imposing its sovereignty over all of Palestine. Where it accelerates the steps to annex the West Bank, especially areas classified (C).

A deep and bold revision and course change is required

In front of this miserable fate of the negotiation process and the Oslo Accord, and the division into two conflicting powers, the conflict between them has become overshadowed by everything else, and instead of criticism and self-criticism, a deep and bold review of the experience, drawing lessons and lessons, and acknowledging mistakes and sins and the danger of free concessions, harmful illusions, lost bets, recklessness and adventure And the need to radically change the path by returning to the original national project that embodied and stems from the unity of the cause, the land, the people, and the historical narrative... We find submission to individual, factional, regional, and factional interests, and ignorance, intellectual and cultural backwardness, and lack of vision of the changes that are taking place and that can happen.

The two-state solution and one state without defeating Zionism are two sides of the same coin

There are those who want to remain in the same vortex, or enter the issue into another vortex that is another aspect of Oslo, and this expresses itself by recognizing reality and adapting to it instead of working to change it, to the extent that some Oslo theorists and supporters have begun to say that the "two-state solution" is dead. And the alternative is:

Either accepting what the occupation offers, and taking something better than nothing, and better than the complete erasure of the Palestinian identity, role and rights, which is the survival of the current restricted authority that plays a functional role in favor of the occupation as a final solution under Israeli sovereignty, for fear of the collapse of the authority and the dissolution of local authorities or administrations instead Among them, under the pretext that the presence of a million settlers in the West Bank, completely eliminated the possibility of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.

or accepting the other side of the Oslo coin, by proposing a one-state solution and accepting imperfect citizenship within the Jewish state; That is, not by striving to defeat the subjugating occupation colonial project and dismantling the racist system of privileges, but rather by promoting the benefits of Palestinians being citizens of the State of Israel; Because this over time can change the nature of the State of Israel, and make it a democratic state for all its citizens, or bi-nationalism, or what is a tactic to pressure for the revival of the two-state solution, despite the fact that 99% of Israelis refuse to grant citizenship and full rights to the Palestinians, and this means that The only issue for them is acceptance of the fait accompli and an authority subject to Israeli sovereignty.

The defect of those with these points of view lies in the fact that they consider what Israel is doing, and the facts that it plants on the Palestinian land, as giving the occupation a right and entailing obligations, as if they are final facts that are not subject to change or change, and they are facts that do not give the truth if they continue and are adapted to them. There is no possibility for a Palestinian state on the 67 borders, nor a Jewish state between the river and the sea without rights for the Palestinians, nor a single democratic state that is far from Zionism and its racist settler-colonial project. The citizen is of the second class, by imposing different regulations, until there is a suitable opportunity to displace the Palestinians, and whoever says that displacement is impossible, let him reflect on the significance of the Hawara Holocaust, and the settlers’ chant to displace the original owners of the country, as well as what came in the Trump deal of displacing the people of the Triangle to the West Bank, and let millions remember Syrians who migrated or were displaced inside and outside their country.

The wall that prevents displacement is a unified and effective Palestinian position, within a realistic, national, democratic vision and strategy, and a unified leadership with will, supported by a unified Arab position and unified global support, which are conditions none of which are available yet.

You can't take negotiations unless you can do without them

Based on the foregoing, one of the most important lessons learned from the history of the conflict, especially after the start of the settlement train after the October War in 1973, is that you cannot accept negotiations unless you were able to achieve them without them. Its forms, particularly the two-state solution, the one-state solution, and others, failed from the beginning, and were based on illusions. There was no Israeli partner for these solutions. Even during the golden age of Oslo, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, the leaders of the “peace camp,” did not accept the establishment of A Palestinian state. Indeed, when the latter was asked before his assassination: What will you give the Palestinians in the final agreement? He replied: What does half of the West Bank mean? That is, the occupation remains, and Israeli sovereignty remains.

Despite the foregoing, it was not without merit to adopt a program to establish a national authority over any liberated area. Because there is a political and legal status for the lands occupied in 1967, different from the status of the rest of Palestine on which Israel was established, although it is part of the one Palestinian land, and this status was embodied in international resolutions rejecting the occupation and calling for its end, which differs from the status of Palestine as a whole. Where the world, even brothers and friends, recognized Israel, and did not recognize its occupation, and against the backdrop that there is a large majority of citizens (their original owners) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip compared to the minority of colonial settlers, in light of a global movement with the participation and support of the two international poles at the time, the United States and the Soviet Union And Arab support for negotiations and settlement is still casting its dark shadows until now.

The beginning of the decline was evident in the transition from the program of the National Authority to the Palestinian state without giving up full rights in the beginning, to the approval of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which do not deal with the roots of the Palestinian cause, but rather with the effects of the June 1967 war, and then to the Oslo signing in which it was submitted. The Palestinian negotiator made major concessions in return for recognizing the organization and establishing a self-governing authority, and promised to negotiate for a period of five years to reach a final solution without agreeing on the content of this solution, including not releasing prisoners, nor referring to the Palestinian state, and therefore it is natural for him to reach the current outcome. Self-rule authority as a final solution, with a political and geographical division without any political horizon.

It is not possible without a comprehensive national advancement, and an appropriate change in the Arab, regional and international environment. The transition from the national independence approach to the one-state approach on the ruins of the colonial project; As this only leads to enabling the occupation to devour the West Bank more quickly and at lower costs, the main battle currently taking place is on the West Bank, and leaving the battle directly or being preoccupied with other battles does not strengthen the one-state option, but rather covers the one racist colonial state that Israel is establishing, from Through different legal and political regimes, between those that govern our people at home, those that govern Jerusalem, those that govern the West Bank, and those that govern the Gaza Strip through siege and aggression.

There are international political and legal achievements that are included in the international resolutions issued by the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the various agencies of the United Nations, including the World Organization for Human Rights, the Supreme Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court. There is the international recognition of the State of Palestine as an “observer state” and the recognition of the Palestinian state by 140 countries. ; All this cannot be thrown behind us for nothing. Options are built and cannot be realized once they are presented. Until they are built, they need a great local, regional and international effort. This requires starting from dealing with reality to change it. Because jumping from it or submitting to it leads to dedicating it, not changing it.

University goals

Is there anyone who opposes setting goals such as: ending the occupation of the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, the right of return and compensation, the right to self-determination, individual and national equality, the overthrow of apartheid, and the empowerment of Palestinians in the diaspora and places of refuge to preserve their national identity and defend their civil rights?

I do not believe, and these goals complement each other, and are consistent with the special tasks and the balance of power, and do not concede, but adhere to what unites all Palestinians.

Walking to achieve these goals in a parallel and simultaneous manner, and achieving one of them or making progress on this path, can serve the other goals, and whoever wants to place the achievement of independence for the State of Palestine as a stage on the path to a radical democratic solution, then he does not contradict those who oppose this goal in favor of adhering to the state The one that will be built on the ruins of the colonial, settler, occupation, substitutionary, racist project.

There is hope... be optimistic that you will find it

The crisis that Israel suffers from shows that its fate is inevitable as a result of it being a hostile entity implanted in the Arab region, which rejects it and will continue to reject it until it defeats it. It is not an ordinary, normal country, but embodies the colonial project that bears the seeds of its annihilation, but this will not be achieved in response to expectations or prophecies. Or myths about the demise of Israel in the past year or in the year 2027 or others, but rather as a result of the interaction of internal and external factors, and this could take ten years, twenty or fifty years, but what is certain is that the world is changing, the region is changing and Israel is changing, and the changes are not all in favor of the Palestinians And it is not in their favor alone, so they must change in a capable manner so that they can employ the Israeli, regional and international changes in their favour.

Written by: Hamdi Farrag

It is not possible to read the Iranian-Saudi reconciliation in the Chinese fortress in isolation from the dramatic developments taking place in the world, which in their entirety lead to pulling the rug out from under the feet of global capitalism under the leadership of America, which has been the sole ruler of this world, and has been tyrannical, for more than half a century.

And if we cannot specify a specific day or an event in and of itself, a date for the start of this collapsing regression, then we can accumulate, merge and escalate towards a specific era that may extend to a decade or even two decades, as all major events in the world such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, for example, which does not It can be limited to the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his qualitative book "Proestroika", or the destruction of the Palestine Liberation Organization by signing the Oslo Accords, or the fascism of Israel once Ben Gvir won its last elections three months ago.

Some may date the start of the countdown to the last evil empire in the world, to the economic crisis that struck America 15 years ago and exported it to Europe. Another may say that it is since Putin’s Russia annexed Crimea nine years ago, followed by the invasion of Ukraine a year ago, and a third may say that it is with the steadfastness of Syria. That semi-legendary resilience.

However, in achieving accumulation, integration and escalation, the reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Beijing must and necessarily be read among this achievement. It was preceded, of course, by the three summits held in Riyadh at the beginning of the year with the Chinese president; A Saudi Gulf Arab, Syria was absent from it, but it was the most important attendee, as there were no fundamental differences between any Arab regime and another Arab regime, except to come down to the dictates of America against the regimes that oppose normalization with Israel, which reached America occupying Iraq and executing Its president is Saddam, and Europe occupied Libya and executed its president, Gaddafi, and the matter almost applied to Syria, Bashar Al-Assad. Is the deceit only fooling young minds that the Iranian-Saudi dispute was a Shiite-Sunni religious dispute? The dark days in the history of this nation have proven that it is possible to overcome the religious dispute between the Muslim and the Jew, and they concluded an “Abraham” deal with four Arab countries within days over a corpse Jerusalem is the first kiss of the Prophet of Islam without batting an eyelid.

It is a clear and frank Saudi awakening in which it turns its face this time from the American West to the Chinese East and from the past backward to the future forward, with sincere and sincere efforts, which are the efforts of China that Saudi Arabia did not recognize even though it is a superpower on the claim that it is communist (and Iran on the claim that it is Shiite). Except in the 1990s, this was accompanied by Saudi Arabia discovering that its real enemy is America, which claims to be its loyal friend, only to discover that it owns its interests first, second and tenth, and all that matters to Saudi Arabia is its oil, and it came to its former president Donald Trump to take half a trillion dollars in cash, No oil, in one day without forgetting her public insult and humiliation: If it were not for us, the kingdom would fall within days, and the king would have to pay us the price of his protection.

By: Gershon Baskin
I came of age politically in 1968. I was 12 years old. The primaries took place in the Democratic Party for the post of President of the United States. The civil rights movement was at its height and young Americans were taking to the streets against the war in Vietnam. My congressman was Allard Lowenstein who was the leader of the anti-war movement in Congress. Lowenstein was supporting Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota for president. I met Lowenstein and spent a few weekends going door-to-door with him in my neighborhood. One of my neighbors sponsored an event for Senator McCarthy and I met him as well. I enlisted my father to lead me to anti-war demonstrations and civil rights events. On the weekends, my friend and I campaigned for McCarthy and Lowenstein at the largest mall on Long Island. I remember watching the news every night after the very idiotic and painful war in Vietnam. Most Americans had no idea how many young boys lost their lives in a war thousands of miles from their homelands. But every night, President Johnson or one of the pro-war right-wing candidates delivered rants and rants about the absolute, fundamental need for America to stand up to communism. Every night they reported thousands of enemy dead, and only a few American soldiers were killed. By the end of the war, 15 years after it began, about two million Vietnamese and about 60,000 American soldiers had been killed.
I am writing this article from Vietnam. The war here ended 48 years ago. America lost and the people of Vietnam “won.” I'm in North Vietnam and haven't seen any war memorials, but I'm sure there are. The locals we spoke to don't talk about war. You don't see the results of the war on the streets. It is part of the past and legacy of a nation that fought foreign invaders for freedom and liberation. Vietnam was liberated, but under the communist regime it is difficult to say that people are free. There are very severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association. Our local tour guide asked about the demonstrations taking place in Israel. He commented, "We haven't had any demonstrations against the government in Vietnam." It is illegal and unimaginable. However, since the mid-1980s and much more in the 1990s, economic reforms were carried out that opened up the economy. Old, inefficient co-operatives, especially cooperative farms, were closed, and private enterprise was encouraged. Now Vietnam is a manufacturing powerhouse. The government here recently made a decision that the new Vietnamese cars, Vinfast, manufactured here will be all electric.
Visiting the places I remember from the war days is a bewildering experience. My associations and memories of the names of those places are with death, destruction, and terrible suffering. Today, they are beautiful sites teeming with life, protected nature reserves, and tourist destinations for tourists from all over the world to enjoy what Vietnam has to offer. Life is normal. People are happy and work hard to provide themselves with the comforts that this world has to offer. It is not a rich country, but its economy is growing. There are many places in different stages of development and sometimes they remind me of some Arab villages and towns in Israel or in the West Bank. But the sharp difference is the lack of tension and the aura of peace. I cannot avoid thinking what our reality would look like if we enjoyed decades of peace. In particular, I cannot avoid thinking about how futile our continued war with the Palestinian people is and how much they suffer because we are unable to achieve peace.
There is no victor in war. The Americans lost the war in Vietnam, and so did the Vietnamese — on both sides. In Israel and Palestine, we continue to fight, hate and kill. Neither Israel nor Palestine will surrender, and neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians will leave. The futility of our conflict grows with each passing year, and the prospects for a peaceful solution that were on the table are more remote than ever. The war in Vietnam ended when a right-wing American president came to his senses, declared victory and got out of the war as quickly as possible.
The space between where we are and where we could be - moving toward peace is driving. Unfortunately, we in Israel and Palestine lack a leadership mature and intelligent enough to understand that neither Israel nor Palestine will win our war. We have no choice but to live together. We both have interests to protect our identity, culture, religion and rights. A solution to our conflict will only be found when both sides realize that we all have the same right to the same rights! No one has more rights than the other. With roughly equal numbers of Israelis and Palestinians living on the land, and millions of people, we must come to our senses and understand that if we are to create a future for our children and their children worth living for, we must begin the process of striving to live for our people, for our land rather than die For her. We need leaders to declare victory and end our conflict so that we can negotiate an end to the occupation and liberate Israel and Palestine from each other.

Attorney Ali Abu Hilal *

The unprecedented attack of the Israeli occupation on the male and female prisoners has taken serious dimensions affecting their rights and freedoms that are guaranteed to them by all conventions and covenants, the rules of international international humanitarian law, and the principles of the International Bill of Human Rights. From the penalties of solitary confinement, psychological and physical torture, and other penalties inside prison that affect their basic rights and the rights of their families. Rather, penalties continue to be imposed on them after their liberation from prison after the expiration of their actual prison sentence, in violation of all human laws, which impose one penalty on Persons when they do an act punishable by these laws.
However, the occupation’s unjust Sharia and laws from start to finish, which distinguishes the occupation from other illegal regimes and entities, does not adhere to the principles and standards of human laws and laws, but rather embodies gross violations of the most basic human rights and principles, and this is what makes it pursue prisoners throughout their lives and impose more penalties on them and their families. As long as the occupation remains, and as long as the prisoners and their families survive.
It is the law of aggression and injustice practiced by the occupation against the Palestinian people and their legitimate national rights, especially their right to independence and self-determination, which guarantees them to live freely and with dignity in and from a land, let alone if it comes to the rights of prisoners and detainees.
And based on the occupation’s policy of practicing aggression, injustice and hatred against the prisoners, the occupation authorities deported the Jerusalemite prisoner Munir al-Rajabi (50 years) last week, after he spent 20 years in the occupation detention centers, to the city of Hebron, and did not enable him to return to his place of residence in the city of Haifa inside the 48 territories, just a week before his release date.
The decision to deport the freedman Al-Rajbi warns of the escalating dangers to the fate of hundreds of Jerusalemite prisoners and Palestinian prisoners from within the 1948 lands, especially with the racist laws approved by the current occupation government, which are the most extreme of all, as it began to convert all the crimes and systematic violations that it originally implemented into bills. And laws, including the law (withdrawing residency and nationality) from prisoners and liberated prisoners, and it is mentioned that the occupation forces arrested Al-Rajabi in 2003, and issued a decision to withdraw his Jerusalem identity in 2019, after he obtained it under the reunification of his family. Al-Rajabi called, from the place of his deportation in Hebron, to "rescue the prisoners from the laws of the occupation government and the extremist Itamar Ben Gvir, which seeks to displace the Palestinians from the 48 lands, expel the Jerusalemites from their land, and prevent them from moving, as well as seeking to enact a law that requires the execution of prisoners."
The Israeli General Assembly, the Knesset, had finally approved, on February 15, in the second and third readings, a bill to withdraw citizenship or residency, and to deport every Palestinian prisoner who receives financial aid from the Palestinian National Authority, with the support of 95 Knesset members and the opposition of 9 members. . The law allows the "Minister of the Interior" in the occupation government to revoke citizenship or residency from a person who was "convicted of a terrorist crime," as they described it, and who received financial allocations from the National Authority, and deport him to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
There is no doubt that the extreme right-wing occupation government, led by Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir, is continuing to enact and legislate racist laws against male and female prisoners, believing that these unjust and unjust laws, in violation of international humanitarian law, and the principles of the legal bill of human rights, may achieve the goals of the occupation in the judiciary. On the resistance of the Palestinian people to the occupation, and it may undermine the steadfastness of the male and female prisoners and all other detainees in the prisons of the occupation, as if the aggressive policy of the occupation, and its gross violations of the rights of our people and the rights of male and female prisoners, require new laws and legislations that allow it to commit crimes against our people.
For decades, the occupation has continued, since its usurpation and occupation of the Palestinian land, its crimes against our people and against the prisoners, including the commission of murders, executions, assassinations, massacres of civilians, arrest, torture, confiscation of land and settlement, destruction and demolition of homes, buildings and civilian objects, and the commission of Crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing, desecration of Islamic and Christian sanctities, and other crimes of war and aggression.
And if the occupation committed these crimes with a legal license and with legislation it enacted for itself, from its institutions, and its legislative, judicial and executive bodies, then the occupation and its government would not gain any legal legitimacy for these crimes.
Rather, these racist and illegal legislations expose the racist and aggressive nature of the occupying government, which is hostile to the most basic human rights, in front of world public opinion, and before the international community, United Nations bodies, and all international, human rights and humanitarian organizations, and exposes the falsity of its claims, which it allows and promotes, that it is an entity Democratic and respects human rights. Despite the dangers of these racist laws and legislations, which violate the rights of our people, especially the male and female prisoners, and affect their freedoms and basic rights guaranteed to them by international humanitarian law and the principles of human rights, they will not affect their steadfastness and resistance to the occupation and its aggressive and racist policy.
* Lawyer and university lecturer in international law.

بقلم:دكتور ناجى صادق شراب

[email protected]
في أدبيات الحرب من السهل أن تبدأ الحرب لكن من الصعب أن تنتهى. والحرب تبدأ بقرار واحد وقد تنتهى بأكثر من قرار، وهذا ينطبق على الحرب الأوكرانية التي بدأت بقرار روسي للرئيس بوتين بدوافع كثيرة أبرزها أستعادة مجد الأمبراطورية الروسية حيث تسعى روسيا إلى الحفاظ على نفوذها في منطقة البحر الأسود ومضيق كيرتش. والنزعة القومية حيث ان المناطق الشرقية لأوكرانياتعد موطنا للأوكرانيين الناطقين بالروسية. وكما يقول المؤرخ ألأوكراني إيلي بوشاك:إن العلاقة بين روسيا وأوكرانيا وبين كييف وموسكو تشكل المشكلة ألأساس لتاريخ أوروبا الشرقية.
وبرغبة روسيا تغيير قواعد النظام الدولي من احادية القطبية الي متعدد الاقطاب .وبالمقابل الأطراف الأخرى المباشرة للحرب وتتمثل في الولايات المتحدة تسعى إلى إجهاض القوة الروسية والحيلولة دون منافستها لأحاديتها، وأوروبيا تحاول إستعادة قوة الناتو , بضم دول جديده مثل السويد وفنلندا. وهذه الدول اليوم تتحكم في نهايات الحرب وليس روسيا اوهذا ما يفسر لنا أحد الأسباب لإستمرارها. ولعل الخطأ الذي وقع فيه بوتين إعتقادة انها حرب لأيام قليلة يتم خلالها إسقاط حكم زيلنسكي وكييف التي تعتبرها روسيا أم المدن الروسية . اما مالا يتوقعه بوتين هذا الحراك ألأمريكي وألأوروبي، لتتحول هذه الحرب إلى حرب كونية في تداعياتها ، فلم تنجو دولة من آثارها الاقتصادية . ولعلها تكون من أكثر الحروب التي تترتب عليها خسائر كبيرة خلال عام واحد. فزادت الخسائر المالية عن 8-2 تريليون دولار تكفي لمعاجلة كل المشاكل الاقتصادية من فقر وكساد إقتصادي عالميا.وتجميد 300 مليار دولار روسي في البنوك الأوروبية كانت تدر أكثر من مائة مليار دولار على الخزينة الروسية.وأكثر من 100 الف قتيل روسي ومثلهم أوكرانيين.إلى جانب أكثر من 16 مليون لاجى أوكراني .وتدمير بنية الدولة كلها، وحاجتها اليوم لأكثر من 750 مليار دولار لإعادة إعمارها.وفقدانها حوالي 20 في المائة من أراضيها التي أحتلتها روسيا وتصر على بقائها بعد إستفتاء سكانها.وهذه الخسائر خلال عام واحد فكيف لو أستمرت الحرب عاما آخر؟ولوعدنا إلى الموقف الأمريكي الذي بات العامل الرئيس في إستمرار هذه الحرب وعدم توقفها ما أشار إليه السفير الفرنسي موريس غوردو والذي عمل مستشارا للرئيس شيراك من أن الرئيس الفرنسي كلفه إجراء إتصالات مع كل من موسكو وواشنطن عام 2006 لبحث إمكانية تسوية الأزمة بمنح حماية متبادلة لأوكرانيا من قبل ألأطلسي وروسيا. لكن الولايات المتحده رفضت الفكرة.. وهذا يؤكد لدينا مصداقية الفرضية التي تقوم عليها الحرب وموقف الولايات المتحدة الذي أكد عليه الرئيس بايدن في زياته المفاجئة لكييف وتصريحه لن نسمح لروسيا أن تنتصر في الحرب.ويقف وراء هذا الموقف ان هذه الحرب قد تقود روسيا لحرب على أقاليم أخرى.وإشكالية هذه الحرب ان الحروب الكبرى تحكمها توازنات القوة والقدرة على إستمرارها نظرا لتوفر الموارد والقدرات العسكرية والإقتصادية لديها، ونحن هنا أمام نموذج للحرب الكبرى بين روسيا وأمريكا وأوروبا تقوم أوكرانيا فيه بدور الوكالة فيها. وسبب آخر قدرة روسيا على الصمود في مواجهة العقوبات وتعويضا بالإنفتاح على دول آسيا وتصدير النفط والغاز وتغذية الروح القومية الروسية والإلتفاف حول الرئيس بوتين وتعليق المشاركة في معاهدة الأسلحة الإستراتيجية ستارت.وفي الوقت ذاته هناك دولا أستفادت من الحرب وخصوصا الصين والدول النفطية ودول الغاز كالدول العربية الخليجية وهو ما منح هذه الدول دورا أكبر للمساعدة في تخفيف تداعيات الحرب والإستعداد للتوسط لإنهائها. وقد تكون الصين بقوتها وقدرتها وعلاقاتها الأكثر إستفادة من الحرب وتاثيرا على روسيا ،وتفتح المبادرة التي أعلنت عنها الصين نافذة من التفاؤل لدبلوماسية الحل وتقوم على ركيزتين الأولى عدم جواز ضم ألأراضي بالقوة ، والركيزة الثانية إعتبار وتفهم للدواعي الأمنية الروسية لكن المعضلة هنا في الأقاليم التي ضمتها روسيا بعد إستفتائها..وتبدو هذه الحرب أمام اكثر من سيناريو، السيناريو القبرصي بتقسيم الأراضي وقيام حالة دولة للأقاليم التي ضمتها روسيا.وسيناريو إستمرار النزاع في إطاره القائم وإحتوائه جغرافيا. وسيناريو التسوية والحل الدبلوماسي وتبني إستراتيجية حفظ ماء الوجه لكل من روسيا وأكرانيا. وأستبعاد سيناريو النصر والهزيمة النهائية.ويبقى أن هناك وجها آخر لهذه الحرب لفهمها وتفسير تطوراتها وهو الجانب الحضاري والأيدولوجي العقيدي ، وهنا يبرز كتاب فو كومايا نهاية التاريخ الذي كتبه في أعقاب إنهيار الإتحاد السوفيتي.وتصديقا لمقولة المفكر الأمريكي هنتنجتون صدام الحضارات. وما قاله جوزيب بوريل سكرتير الشؤون الخارجية للاتحاد ألأوروبي:بأن أوروبا هي الحديقة الغناء وواحة الديموقراطية وما عداها سوى مساحات من ألأحراش وألأدغال تعيش بها الوحوش الكاسرة. وبالمقابل يقول الفيلسوف الروسي الأفضل لروسيا بأن لا تعيش في أوروبا ليكون شعبها غجرا في وسط القارة ألأوروبية، وألأفضل لها التوجه نحو الشرق أي أسيا. يبقى أن هذه الحرب قد غيرت من قواعد النظام الدولي القائم بالتحول نحو القطبية وسباق التسلح ودخول دول مهمة في هذا السباق مثل اليابان وألمانيا.وأن الولايات المتحده لم تعد تملك نفس عناصر الهيمنة الأحادية ، وهذا قديكون المفتاح لنهاية هذه الحرب قبل أن تتحول لحرب نووية الكل خاسر فيها وفي عصر اللايقين تبقى كل السيناريوهات قائمة.

Speculation arose hours before the Oscars , which will be held on Sunday, regarding the possibility that the very strange and unconventional comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” will win the most prominent awards, after the odds made it the favorite.

The academy that organizes the Oscars aspires for its ninety-fifth evening to succeed in attracting a large number of viewers, to follow perhaps the possible victory of this film, which was described as somewhat “crazy” and nominated for eleven awards, after achieving unparalleled success in cinemas. Its revenues amounted to one hundred million dollars.

The organizers also hope that the upcoming concert will contribute to turning the page on Will Smith's famous slap that disturbed the evening of last year, stole its lights, and captured the attention of the public and the media.

Combining action, comedy and sci-fi elements, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” tells the story of a laundromat owner (Michelle Yeo), exhausted by her administrative problems with the tax authorities, and suddenly drawn into a group of parallel worlds.

This Chinese immigrant, played by Michelle Yu, becomes humanity's last hope as she confronts a supervillain who threatens the entire "multiverse" and who turns out to be the alter ego of her depressed daughter.

In order to do this, she must use the powers of her various alternate lives, through strange worlds, in which some people, for example, have hot dogs instead of fingers.

The film won most of the cinematic awards that were distributed before the Oscars, thanks to its plot, which is based on poignant thoughts about family love, which was translated on the screen by a brilliant cast of mostly Asian members.

Hollywood Reporter writer Scott Feinberg noted, "Behind the film is a group of incredibly likable people."

However, the voting system for choosing the best film may be an obstacle to the film's expected dominance at the Oscars for weeks, as this system tends to punish highly polarized works, according to Feinberg.


And one of the Oscar voters revealed to AFP in this regard that some members of the Academy, especially the elderly, have reservations about the success of the film.

The voter said, asking not to be named, "It was a very bold and unique film, but it was not a traditional film (...) and therefore some may place it much further in the ranking."

This matter may be in the interest of the movie “Al Quiet on the Western Front”, which is based on a German novel in favor of the principle of peace, or open the door to victory for Tom Cruise’s popular movie “Top Gun: Maverick”, which finally contributed to reviving cinemas and returning viewers to the halls after pandemic crisis.

As for the competition between the actors, it seems much stronger. "I don't remember a year (...) when the competition was 'this fierce' in three of the four acting categories," Feinberg said.

The competition for the Best Actress award centers between Cate Blanchett, who is nominated for her role as an orchestra conductor in "Tar", and Michelle Yu, the heroine of "Everything Everywhere at Once", who may become the first Asian to win the title in this category.

In the Best Actor category, the battle is fierce between Brendan Fraser for "The Whale", Colin Farrell for "The Banshees of Enchantment" and Austin Butler for "Elvis".

So too is the Best Supporting Actress category, with Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Anarchy”) running close to winning.

Only Ki Ho Kwan, who was featured as a child in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and remained forgotten by Hollywood for more than 20 years, seems almost confident of winning the Academy Award after anticipating the event by winning a number of other awards for his supporting role as a loving husband in “ Everything Everywhere All at Once".

Also hanging over the Oscars evening is the specter of Will Smith's famous slap to last year's party host Chris Rock, after he made a joke about his wife's baldness.

There will likely be some joking comments about the slap, but Oscars executive producer Molly McNearney is clearly trying to turn the page. "We will acknowledge the event (...) and move on to something else," she told reporters.

The Academy came under fire last year for allowing Smith to accept the award for Best Actor on Stage after slapping Chris Rock. After that, a decision was issued banning him from attending the party for ten years. Last year's incident prompted the Academy to form a "crisis team" that works behind the scenes as a precaution for all possibilities.

This year, the organizers are counting on the presence of the popular "Top Gun" and "Avatar" sequels in the competition to raise the viewership, and stop the decline that has been recorded in recent years.

Although viewership numbers have rebounded over the past year, interest in the Oscars has waned dramatically from its peak in the 1990s. In 1998, the number of viewers set a record, as 57 million watched the movie "Titanic" win eleven awards.

"This world is gone (...) but if the audience does not increase compared to last year, the academy will face a big problem," Weinberg said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani announced on Sunday the launch of an afforestation initiative to combat desertification and dust storms in the country, which suffers from the effects of climate change and water shortage.

Al-Sudani's announcement came during the Iraq Climate Conference, which will be held on Sunday and Monday in the city of Basra, in the far south of the country, in the presence of ambassadors and officials from the United Nations.

In a speech at the opening of the conference, Al-Sudani said that climatic changes represented by "high temperatures, scarcity of rain, and increased dust storms, along with a decrease in green spaces, have threatened food, health, environmental and societal security."

He pointed out, according to a statement issued by his office, that "more than seven million citizens have been affected by drought, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced because they lost their livelihoods that depend on agriculture and fishing."

Al-Sudani announced an initiative that includes "planting five million trees and palm trees in all governorates of Iraq, accompanied by the launch of a national guide for urban afforestation, for the first time in Iraq."

During the spring of 2022, Iraq witnessed dozens of dust storms that produced breathing problems in thousands of people who had to go to hospitals to receive treatment, and forced the authorities to temporarily close schools and public administrations and suspend flights.

Among the measures taken to reduce this phenomenon, the authorities talk about the establishment of green belts around cities, as a deterrent to dust storms.

Decades of conflict and mismanagement have severely affected the number of palm trees that once flourished in Iraq. In the past, palm forests surrounded major cities such as Baghdad and Karbala, but today their numbers have decreased or disappeared and were replaced by buildings.

With less rain, higher temperatures and increasing desertification, Iraq is one of the five countries most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change in the world, according to the United Nations.

Iraq also suffers from an alarming decrease in the level of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Baghdad repeatedly accuses its neighbors Turkey and Iran of causing a decrease in the amount of water reaching its lands, especially because of their construction of dams on the two rivers.

Al-Sudani also announced the call "soon for a regional conference to be held in Baghdad," aimed at "enhancing cooperation and joint coordination, and exchanging experiences and programs among the countries of the region in confronting climate impacts."

In the year 2021, Saudi Arabia, Iraq's neighbor, announced a green initiative to plant ten billion trees on its lands within a decade, and 40 billion trees with other Arab countries.

On Sunday evening, the wedding of Princess Iman, daughter of Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, to Jamil Alexandre Termitos, who is of Greek descent, was held.

The official "Kingdom" channel broadcast the wedding ceremony that was held in the royal palace called "Jordan House" west of Amman, in the presence of King Abdullah II, his wife Queen Rania, and Crown Prince Hussein, in addition to a number of princes, princesses and family members of Jamil Alexandre Termitos.

Princess Iman wore a long and lacy wedding dress while carrying a white bouquet, while her husband wore a black formal suit.

Princess Iman, born in 1996, is the first daughter of King Abdullah and Queen Rania, and the second in the royal family arrangement after Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, USA.

As for Jamil Alexandre Termitos, he was born in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in 1994, and is of Greek descent.

He also holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and works in the financial services sector in New York.

King Abdullah and Queen Rania have a second daughter, Princess Salma, born in 2000, and two sons, Prince Hussein, Crown Prince, born in 1994, and Prince Hashem, born in 2005.

Last Tuesday, Queen Rania held a henna ceremony for Princess Iman at the Husseiniya Palace in Amman, and the queen published some pictures and video clips from the ceremony through her official account on the Instagram site, where the bride appears in a white embroidered dress that she decorated with a golden belt.

And on the fifth of last July, the royal court officially announced the engagement of Princess Iman to Jamil Alexander Termoutis, in the presence of members of the royal family.

Russia launched a Proton-M carrier rocket with Breeze-M as its upper stage on Monday, sending the Loch-5X relay satellite into space.

The Russian state space company, Roscosmos, said in a statement that the Proton-M rocket was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 02:13 a.m. Moscow time (2313 GMT Sunday).

The upper stage has separated from the third stage of the "Proton-M" rocket and is currently placing the satellite in the specified orbit.

The multi-functional Russian satellite relay system Loach was put into trial operation in February 2016.

The Oscar for Best Documentary Feature was awarded on Sunday to the movie "Navalny", which tells of events related to the poisoning of the famous Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who has been imprisoned for two years.

This investigative documentary, directed by Canadian Daniel Rohr, depicts the stages of Navalny's political rise, the assassination attempt that he survived, and his imprisonment at a later stage.

"And there is one person who could not be with us tonight: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who remains in solitary confinement for what he calls, and I quote correctly, Vladimir Putin's unfair war of aggression in Ukraine," Rohr said as he accepted the award.

Navalny has been in prison for more than two years, after he was arrested upon his return to Russia after he was subjected to a serious poisoning operation, which he accuses the Kremlin opposition of masterminding.

He was sentenced in March last year to nine years in prison on "fraud" charges that Navalny considers fabricated.

"My husband is in prison just because he told the truth," said the dissident's wife, Yulia, on Sunday. "My husband is in prison just because he defends democracy."

The documentary "Navalny", produced by "HBO Max" and "CNN Films", premiered on January 25, 2022 at the Sundance Film Festival.

The work won the Best Documentary Award in February 2023 at the British BAFTA Film Awards in London.

Thousands of tons of rubbish have accumulated in the streets of the French capital, a week after the start of a strike by waste collectors to protest against the government's pension reform project, the Paris City Council announced Sunday.

Three incinerators outside the capital have stopped working, with rubbish bags piling up entire sidewalks and containers overflowing.

And the "Sitcom" agency responsible for household waste announced that it had changed the route of waste collection trucks to other storage and treatment sites in the area, while it had not yet resorted to the police.

Over the past week, city cleaners have been collecting rubbish from only half of Paris' districts. The strike affected some of the city's most prominent areas, such as Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Areas where private companies are responsible for waste collection have not been affected.

According to the far-left Confederation of General Labor (CGT), waste collectors and drivers can currently retire at the age of 57, but they will have to work an additional two years under reform plans that still allow early retirement for people whose working conditions are difficult.

The Confederation notes that life expectancy for waste collectors is between 12 and 17 years lower than the average for the entire country.

The main measure of the reform is to raise the general minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, something many see as unfair to people who started working at an early age.

The horror movie "Scream 6" succeeded in overthrowing "Creed 3" from the top of the North American box office, as its premieres during the past weekend generated revenues of $ 44.5 million, according to estimates issued Sunday by the specialized "Experience Relationships".

Preliminary numbers for showings from Friday to Sunday in the United States and Canada showed that the sixth part of the famous horror movie "Scream" achieved the best start in the history of the series produced by "Paramount", since its debut in 1996.

At that time, Wes Craven's film, who died in 2015, was able to revive this cinematic genre through a mixture of horror and self-irony, a recipe that "Scream" still adopts.

The terrifying New York character "Ghost Face" appears in this part, starring actress Courteney Cox, who has accompanied the series since its inception, while "Wednesday" star Gina Ortega also participates in it.

As for the movie “Creed 3”, which is the ninth part of the “Rocky” series, and the first in it without the participation of Sylvester Stallone, it fell to second place, with revenues amounting to $ 27.2 million.

The film deals again with the story of Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo, who returns from retirement to have a highly anticipated confrontation with an old friend. It is the first film directed by Michael B. Jordan, who simultaneously performs the main role.

In third place was the science fiction thriller "65", starring Adam Driver, with $12.3 million, followed by "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" from the "Marvel" series, with $7 million. Then "Crazy bear" fifth, grossing $6.2 million.

Here are the remaining films in the top ten rankings at the North American box office this week:

6. "Jizzy's Revolution" ($5.2 million)
7. "Champions" ($5.2 million)
8. "Avatar: The Way of Water" ($2.7 million)
9. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: To the Swordsmith Village ($1.9 million)
10. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish ($1.7 million)

Former football star Gary Lineker will return to present his famous program "Match of the Day" on the British Broadcasting Corporation " BBC ", as the latter announced on Monday, after his comparison of the British government's new plan on illegal immigration with Nazi Germany's speech sparked controversy in recent days and commented activity on Friday.

BBC director general Tim Davie said: "Lineker is an added value at the BBC and I know exactly how much this broadcast means to him and I look forward to seeing him present our coverage this weekend."

Lineker said on his Twitter account, "I'm looking forward to sitting on the chair" Match of the Day "Saturday."

"Despite the difficult days in recent days, it simply cannot be compared to having to flee your home from persecution or war to seek refuge in a faraway land," he added.

The row was sparked by Lineker's response to a video in which Interior Minister Suela Braverman revealed plans to end illegal Channel crossings, which was strongly condemned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

"There is no massive influx. We receive much less refugees than other major European countries," the former Barcelona player said on Twitter.

"This is just an immeasurably harsh policy directed against the most vulnerable people with language not unlike that used by Germany in the 1930s, and (they say) I overstepped my bounds?"

The BBC said on Friday it considered Lineker's "recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines", adding that he should avoid taking sides on political issues and announcing his suspension.

Lineker, the former Tottenham and Leicester City striker, is the highest-paid presenter at the publicly funded BBC, with an annual salary of £1.35m ($1.60m), according to figures published last year.

(AFP) Television viewership of the Academy Awards ceremony rose for the second year in a row, with viewership of the event, in which "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won seven awards, 18.7 million viewers, according to the station. ABC Monday.
That's a 12% increase in viewership from the previous edition of the celebration, which upset Will Smith's slapping of comedian Chris Rock on stage.
The recovery continues in the rates of follow-up to the most prominent cinematic event, but at a slow pace, after it touched its lowest levels during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the celebration was held with limited attendance due to the pandemic, while its audience reached an all-time low of 9.85 million viewers.
Several factors this year contributed to the revival of television viewership for the party and the return of interest in this event, the most important of which is the comedian Jimmy Kimmel assuming the celebration again, and the presence of an innovative film such as “Everything Everywhere at Once” among the competing works, in addition to huge and popular productions such as “ Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water.
This upward trend in the number of viewers is a pleasant result for the organizers of the party, because the traditional television transmission of it was negatively affected by the growing demand from young people, especially on social networks and video-on-demand platforms.
Despite the increase in the rate of television follow-up to the event, this year's numbers constitute the third lowest level ever.
The evening, which featured two singing performances by Rihanna and Lady Gaga, received critical acclaim.
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" dominated the party, winning seven Oscars in major categories, including Best Picture and Best Actress, for its lead, Michelle Yeo, who became the first actress of Asian descent to receive this major award.
Official numbers for the evening's viewership are due to be released on Tuesday, since ABC's numbers are preliminary.

(Xinhua) -- Chinese and foreign researchers have jointly demonstrated that an innovative drug is effective in treating moderate or severe ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, providing a new treatment option.
Inflammatory bowel disease, which is a group of chronic inflammatory diseases, mainly includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, both of which are prone to recurrent attacks.
Since current drugs show weak therapeutic efficacy on IBD, the treatment strategy is to control the symptoms of the disease and prevent recurrence by suppressing overactive immune responses.
The homegrown drug, olamicept, is a soluble fusion protein that can selectively inhibit interleukin-6 transient signaling. During the phase II clinical trial, a joint team led by researchers from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in collaboration with counterparts from 22 hospitals and research centers in East Asia conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
In this context; Zhang Shenghong, a team member from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said that a total of 91 adult patients with active ulcerative colitis with an average age of 41 years were included in the study that began in February 2018, and they were randomly divided into three groups. In roughly equal numbers, they were each given intravenous 600-milligram or 300-milligram doses of olamkicept, or a placebo, respectively, for 12 weeks.
The results indicated that the drug "Olamcicept" at a dose of 600 milligrams had shown an effective therapeutic effect on patients with moderate or severe ulcerative colitis by significantly improving their clinical symptoms and biological indicators.
turn; The drug is safe and well tolerated, said Chen Minhu, the team leader, and can effectively reduce complications and deaths among patients with IBD. The drug is planned to enter phase III clinical trials this year.
The results of the study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(AFP) - British pop singer Gary Glitter , 79, who was sentenced in 2015 to 16 years in prison for sexually assaulting three minors, has been returned to prison for violating the terms of his release, Britain's monitoring services announced.
The former singer, whose real name is Paul Gad, who was released on February 3, was convicted in 2015 of attempted rape, four sexual assaults and sexual relations with an underage girl.
He was released in the middle of his term, after he had spent eight years behind bars.
A spokesman for the monitoring services said, "Protecting the population is our most important priority, so we set strict conditions for the release of prisoners, but when they violate them, we do not hesitate to send them back to prison."
Glitter was widely known during the period during which he assaulted minors.
The victims of Gary Glitter are two girls who were 12 and 13 years old when he assaulted them after being removed from their mothers.
As for the youngest victim, she was a ten-year-old girl when he tried to rape her in 1975.
The rock singer was arrested on the twenty-eighth of October 2012 in London, in light of the exposure of several scandals related to sexual abuse of children in the United Kingdom.
Glitter was arrested in 1997 and sentenced to four months in prison for downloading clips showing sexual acts with children to his computer.
The singer then decided to stay out of the limelight, so he moved to Cambodia, where he was arrested and expelled in 2002 on charges of sexual acts with children. And in 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison for the same reason.
After serving a prison sentence of two years and nine months, he returned to his country in 2008.
Glitter achieved wide fame in the seventies of the last century, and was famous for several songs, the most important of which was "I Am The Leader Of The Gang".

More than 3,000 healthcare cadres are participating in the activities of the Middle East Forum for Quality and Safety in Healthcare 2023, which is organized by Hamad Medical Corporation in cooperation with the Institute for Healthcare Development in the United States of America, from March 16 to 19, with personal attendance and virtual participation. (remote).

The forum, the tenth edition of which is being held this year, is considered the largest forum of its kind in the region dedicated to the quality of health care, as its program witnesses the participation of a group of the most prominent international and local health care experts.

The forum focuses on the issue of the health care system's ability to adapt in exceptional circumstances, through five learning paths that include optimization science, patient-centered care, improving safety, value and service flow, leadership, resilience and sustainability, and population health. The forum includes field tours during which participants learn about the key role played by the healthcare sector in hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, with a focus on specialized care for athletes during the tournament and preparedness to respond to major incidents during the World Cup.

The Bureau of Civil Service and Government Development launched the “ADAA” system, which aims to raise the level of performance of the government sector in the State of Qatar in line with the realization of the Qatar National Vision 2030, as the system promotes work directed towards achieving goals and results in all government sector practices in the country, which It is reflected in the tasks that the employee performs throughout the year, and it becomes an opportunity for the employee to highlight his achievements and efforts in order to achieve the main goals.

In this context, Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, Head of the Civil Service and Government Development Bureau, affirmed that the “ADAA” system constitutes an essential step towards the gradation and fragmentation of strategic goals at the state level into sectoral goals, then institutional goals, and then goals at the level of administrative units. And departments, and then individual goals, which highlights the importance of the role of each employee in achieving the national goals.

He pointed out that every employee is important and plays a role within a team to achieve goals that fall within the framework of the Qatar National Vision, and the role of the “ADAA” system is to highlight this and measure the extent of productivity clearly and transparently with motivation and continuous development. towards achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030. His Excellency stressed that “the importance of the performance system comes from the importance of developing performance systems for human resources and providing the appropriate environment for creativity and hard and distinguished work towards achieving the requirements of comprehensive development in all government agencies,” pointing out that in the context of plans The Civil Service Bureau and Government Development “we continue to coordinate with government agencies to build bridges of communication and continue introducing the system’s methodology while clarifying the principles to build a future vision for the government sector, based on efficiency, innovation, respect, cooperation, responsibility, commitment and integrity at work.”

In order to create a more efficient and productive work environment, the “ADAA” system targets all entities subject to the Civil Human Resources Law, including employees of various degrees of excellent and below, from government sector employees, as “ADAA” is a new stage to start their professional development journey. ADA'a is a comprehensive evaluation system that allows employees to know their strengths and weaknesses, and how they can improve and develop them. Through it, the employee's performance is measured in a transparent manner, whereby goals and performance indicators are agreed upon at the beginning of the year between the employee and his direct supervisor, and are followed up during the year, and achievement and what has been achieved are measured at the end of the year.

The “ADAA” system will also benefit the employees of government agencies by creating a space to enhance means of communication and continuous cooperation between employees, enhancing the culture of workflow within government sectors, and improving the employee’s perspective on the system as systematic and fair, which will contribute to reaching high-quality outputs that reflect the aspirations of the state Qatar. The launch of this system stems from the mission of the Civil Service and Government Development Bureau related to enabling sustainable competitive services that achieve the potential of human cadres with excellence, and are based on civil service values, integrity, competence, respect, responsibility, cooperation, commitment, and innovation.

These values aim to motivate the capabilities of all workers in the country and raise the level of quality in accordance with the highest levels of professional discipline, job behavior, transparency and ethical dealings.

Houston (AFP) - A three-year-old girl killed her four-year-old sister after accidentally shooting her with a semi-automatic pistol Sunday in Texas, US police said.

This tragedy is the latest example of the dire effects of the proliferation of firearms in the United States.

The official in Harris Police, located in the suburbs of Houston, Ed Gonzalez, indicated that the child "was able to reach a semi-automatic pistol loaded with bullets," adding that the family members heard a gunshot, so they quickly went to the room to find the four-year-old girl's body.
The girl's death was announced immediately.

Gonzalez added that what happened "constitutes a new tragic incident resulting from a child's ability to reach a gun and kill another person."

There are about 400 million weapons in circulation in the United States, that is, their number exceeds the population, while one adult out of every three owns at least one weapon, and one adult out of every two lives in a house that contains a weapon.

More than 44,000 deaths from firearms were recorded in the United States last year, half of them by suicide and the other half as a result of homicide, accidents, or reasons related to self-defense, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.
Texas is one of the easiest states in the US to get a gun.

The cherry blossom season officially opened in Tokyo on Tuesday, ten days earlier than usual, a trend that has become prevalent in recent years due to the consequences of climate warming.

This station marks the beginning of what is known as “hanami”, a Japanese tradition based on watching the new blossoms of “sakura” trees (cherry trees), and celebrating the arrival of spring by organizing picnics with family or friends.

Thus, the cherry blossoms are an event of interest across the country. Japanese media compete to predict the start date of this season across the archipelago, and cover its news annually with remarkable enthusiasm.

The delicate white and pink flowers appeared this early in the year in Tokyo in 2020 and 2021, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency based on its 70-year-old statistics on the subject. As for the last year, these flowers began to bloom six days later than the previous year.

"We had a lot of hot days in March," an official at the Japan Meteorological Agency told television cameras in Tokyo on Tuesday, trying to explain the early start of the season.

"Climate change may also have played a role," he added.

The agency had pointed out in 2021 that this phenomenon is linked to the upward trend in temperatures.

The Covid-19 pandemic partially spoiled the joy of the "Hanami" season between 2020 and 2022, after the Japanese authorities advised against participating in festive gatherings during this period, even outdoors.

Thus, the 2023 celebrations in Japan will be the first unrestricted cherry blossom season since 2019. It will also be the first in four years that is open to foreign tourists to whom Japan closed its doors between 2020 and 2022 due to the health crisis.

أبقت الصين الأحد محافظ مصرفها المركزي بمنصبه، في خطوة مفاجئة جاءت وسط وضع اقتصادي غير مؤات تواجهه البلاد.

وخلال اجتماع له، أبقى البرلمان الصيني يي غانغ محافظا لبنك الشعب الصيني، خلافا لتوقعات بأن يترك يي الذي بلغ سن التقاعد منصبه.

وأبقت الصين أيضا مسؤولين اقتصاديين كبار آخرين في مناصبهم، بمن فيهم وانغ وينتاو الذي سيظل وزيرا للتجارة وليو كون الذي سيبقى وزيرا للمال.

تعمل الحكومة على تنشيط الاقتصاد الصيني الذي نما بنسبة 3% فقط العام الماضي، وهو أداء يُعدّ من الأضعف له منذ عقود.

وعين الرئيس شي جينبينغ حلفاء له في حكومته الجديدة، بينهم دينغ شويشيانغ وهي لايفنغ.
واختير لي تشيانغ الذي يعد أحد المقربين جدا من شي السبت لرئاسة الوزراء غداة فوز الرئيس الصيني بولاية ثالثة.

Relations between China and Middle Eastern countries have been witnessing sound and stable development for a long time. China is pursuing innovation-driven development and strengthening cooperation with Middle Eastern countries in high-tech fields such as digital economy, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and quantum computers, providing more new opportunities for the region.

In recent years, distinguished Chinese companies in the manufacturing sector have pushed the development of the sector to become more advanced, intelligent and environmentally friendly, which has helped Chinese-branded smart manufacturing products meet the needs of consumers in Middle Eastern countries, and these products have successfully spread to the local consumer market in the region. .

Since Haier smart home's entry into the Middle East and Africa in 1998, the company has been innovating and developing more diversified products that suit the needs of local users based on local customs and practices in the region, such as large-sized drum washing machines and air conditioners suitable for the tropics.

Li Da Peng, regional manager of Haier smart home in the Middle East and Africa, said that the climate in the region always affects the service life of some household electrical appliances. Taking air conditioners as an example, ordinary air conditioners are not resistant to corrosion, so the outdoor units of air conditioners are often rusty, and the service life of their indoor units is also short. He explained that in order to solve this problem, the company developed corrosion-resistant air conditioners, which not only solved the corrosion problem, but also extended the operational life of air conditioners in the region as well.

Li stated that in order to ensure stable cooling in the extremely hot environment, the company also devised a special refrigeration technology to ensure that the cooling capacity of the air conditioners does not decrease under the high temperature, noting that through the radiator and the patented structural design, it effectively dissipates Heat in the outdoor unit, ensuring that the air conditioners do not malfunction when cooling at a high temperature, and achieving continuous and stable cooling for users in the Middle East.

With more consumers in the Middle East countries paying more attention to the TV viewing experience, the Chinese Hisense Group is focusing on producing advanced and large-sized TV screens in the region's markets.

Ou Yang, general manager of the Middle East and Africa region at Hisense International Marketing Company, said that based on the needs of local consumers for large screens with high image quality, Hisense launched high-quality products such as laser screens, and the company also seeks to continue improving its TV screens in terms of contrast and gradation. color and high refresh rate, adding that since 2018, the sales volume of Hisense TV screens has been ranked among the top three in the Qatari market.

Or stressed that Hisense TV screens are selling well in the Middle East market, which indicates that Chinese-branded products are gaining the trust of consumers in the region through upgrading manufacturing, noting that the company adheres to the principle of "putting customers first" and always insists on Providing consumers with high-quality digital products and advanced digital technology, which enables the company to maintain continuous growth in the Middle East market.

The Saudi Aramco oil group announced on Sunday that its net profits increased by 46.4 percent in 2022 compared to 2021, which indicates the impact of the rise in oil prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on stimulating growth in the largest oil-exporting country in the world.

The giant group said in a statement published on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) website that its net income reached 604.01 billion Saudi riyals ($161.07 billion) in 2021, compared to 412.4 billion Saudi riyals ($110 billion) in 2021.

She pointed out that "this increase mostly reflects the impact of higher crude oil prices and the quantities sold, and the strong increase in profit margins from the refining business."

Aramco's results correspond with the record profits for the year 2022 recorded by the five major oil companies, "Shell", "Chevron", "Exxon Mobil", "BP" and "Total Energy", which exceeded $ 150 billion and would have approached $ 200 billion had it not been for Costly withdrawals from Russia.

It also boosted Saudi Arabia's overall economic growth, which its officials estimate will reach 8.7% in 2022, the highest growth rate in the G20 countries.

Energy prices are expected to remain high in 2023. This is partly due to the decision to cut production approved by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Riyadh and its ten partners in the "OPEC Plus" alliance headed by Moscow last October, in a move criticized by Washington strongly.

Over the past few years, Aramco facilities have been subjected to attacks by drones and missiles claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the most recent and severe of which was about a year ago.

However, a surprising agreement announced Friday between Riyadh and Tehran to resume diplomatic relations severed between them since 2016 may reduce these risks in the coming months.

Saudi Arabia is pursuing policies of social openness and others aimed at diversifying its oil-dependent economy, especially since Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2017. It spends lavishly to invest in the tourism, entertainment and sports sectors.

HYBE , the company that manages the business of the famous K-pop youth group BTS, announced Sunday that it has given up on acquiring its competitor, SM Entertainment, ending a weeks-long battle over the company's management rights.

"In light of recent developments, Hype has discussed (...) these matters with Kakao and has reached an agreement to suspend the process of obtaining the rights to manage SM," Hype said in a statement.

Hype is competing with South Korean internet giant Kakao after it bought about 15 percent of SM from its founder Lee Soo-man last month, more than doubling the company's stock value in a month.

Hype explained its decision by the fact that the price of the acquisition of "SM" exceeded the fair range of the purchase price.

And "Hype" reported that the two companies "agreed in parallel to cooperate on issues related to their platforms."

SM expressed its relief with the decision and thanked the contributors, fans, staff and artists for their support "throughout the unexpectedly turbulent situation in recent weeks."

The company was founded by Lee Soo-man, who is considered the "father of K-pop" for being behind the launch of the first generation of artists.

But signs of a power struggle emerged when the co-CEOs of SM, including Lee Sung-Su, the founder's nephew, announced new plans for the company that excluded his uncle, prompting the latter to sell his shares to Hype.

This made Hype the majority shareholder in SM Entertainment. SM management considered this acquisition hostile and would put Hype in a monopolistic position, causing damage to the K-Pop industry, which has huge potential.

In an effort to regain control, SM sought the help of the South Korean company, Cocoa.

The technology group owns the most popular messaging apps in the country and was looking to buy a majority stake in the company to prevent Hype from taking over.

During the past 24 hours , the Jerusalem Electricity Company crews succeeded in installing new transformers at the Jarad station, south of Bethlehem, with a capacity of 15 megawatts, and at the 'Ararat' station in the city of Beit Sahour, with a capacity of 10 megawatts, as a replacement for the old transformers, which had a lower capacity.

The company stated in a statement issued today, Sunday, that the installation of new transformers with a higher capacity aims to strengthen the feeder networks and increase the stability of the electric current, especially with urban development and the natural increase in the number of subscribers. These development projects also aim to confront the growth of loads in the near future.

The company thanked everyone who facilitated the work of its crews before and during the installation of the transformers, led by the Bethlehem Police Directorate, represented by its director, Brigadier General Thabet Al-Saadi and his deputy, Brigadier General Ibrahim Al-Absi, and the traffic police who organized the movement during the installation of the transformer of the 'Ararat' station in the city of Beit Sahour, and worked to close Roads leading to the site in order to preserve the safety of citizens and facilitate the work of the company's crews.

It is worth mentioning that the cost of the aforementioned projects amounted to about 3 million shekels, and it is part of the company's five-year plan 2020-2024, which aims to enable and develop infrastructure in all its concession areas, which the company's board of directors is closely following up on.

Trading in the shares of the natural gas unit recently established by the Emirati company ADNOC begins on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, after an initial public offering of $ 2.5 billion aimed at benefiting from the high global demand for gas.

The subscription to the offering of the "ADNOC Gas" company witnessed a great turnout from investors, even after raising the volume of the subscription from 4 to 5 percent of the company's shares, in response to strong demand.

The volume of the offering amounted to about 2.5 billion dollars, after setting the final share price at 2.37 dirhams (0.645 dollars), and the market value of the company amounted to about 50 billion dollars.

The IPO of ADNOC Gas will be the largest initial public offering in the world so far in 2023, and the largest ever listing on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange.

With the subscription exceeding the target value by fifty times, the demand for the public offering of ADNOC has become the largest in the Middle East and North Africa, surpassing the world record set by Saudi Aramco three years ago of $ 29.4 billion.

The first public offering, organized by ADNOC, came quickly in the wake of the rush to search for alternative gas resources after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also with the countries' search for cleaner energy sources to confront the climate change crisis.

Energy expert Rudi Baroudi, who heads Qatar-based Energy and Environment Holding Company, expected demand to increase with the start of trading in shares.

"There is every reason to expect that the massive oversubscription that we have seen will continue to generate strong interest when the shares go public," he told AFP.

ADNOC, which generates the largest revenue for the UAE treasury, retained a 90 percent stake in its new subsidiary, which was formed from its previous units to process liquefied natural gas.

Gas is described as environmentally cleaner than other fossil fuels, with many countries in the world seeking to reduce their emissions.

Baroudi considered that LNG is "the most important transitional fuel while giving up hydrocarbons."

And in 2021, the UAE produced approximately 57 billion cubic meters of natural gas, or 1.4 percent of global production, according to BP statistics.

In the same year, the UAE exported about 8.8 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, representing about 1.7 percent of the volume of global exports, according to the British International Energy Company.

"With the acceleration of global efforts to combat climate change, the role of natural gas in general (...) is widely expected to grow," Baroudi said.

He added, "ADNOC has a good reputation, so it was expected that the public offering in ADNOC Gas would attract strong interest."

The ADNOC Gas IPO could be the start of another series of IPOs in Abu Dhabi this year.

It is expected that at least eight companies in the fields of technology, asset management and renewable medicine will follow in the footsteps of ADNOC, according to what Bloomberg quoted Sameh Al Qubaisi, Director General of Economic Affairs at the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi.

Iran's Oil Minister Javad Ochi said on Sunday that the country's crude oil exports have reached their highest levels since the re-imposition of US sanctions in 2018, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Oji stated that Iran's exports of crude oil increased by 83 million barrels since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, which started from March 21, 2022, to February 19, 2023, compared to the same period from 2021 to 2022.

He added that it also showed an increase of 190 million barrels compared to the same period from 2020 to 2021, without disclosing the exact figures for Iran's total exports of crude oil.

The Iranian oil minister said that the country's gas exports witnessed a year-on-year rise of 15 percent in the current Iranian calendar year, noting that Iran has achieved 6.5 billion US dollars of its liquefied petroleum gas exports since March 2022.

In May 2018, the United States tightened its sanctions on Iran, mainly targeting the country's oil exports and banking sector, after it unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Talks on reviving the JCPOA began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks in early August 2022.

Shares of " ADNOC Gas " rose by 25%, minutes after the start of trading on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange on Monday.

The share price of ADNOC rose to 2.96 dirhams ($0.80) from its set price of 2.37 dirhams ($0.645), in the offering, which amounted to about $2.5 billion.

The IPO of ADNOC Gas will be the largest initial public offering in the world so far in 2023, and the largest ever listing on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange.

With the subscription exceeding the target value by fifty times, the demand for the public offering of ADNOC has become the largest in the Middle East and North Africa, surpassing the world record set by Saudi Aramco three years ago of $ 29.4 billion.

The first public offering, organized by ADNOC, came quickly in the wake of the rush to search for alternative gas resources after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also with the countries' search for cleaner energy sources to confront the climate change crisis.

ADNOC, which generates the largest revenue for the UAE treasury, retained a 90 percent stake in its new subsidiary, which was formed from its previous units to process liquefied natural gas.

Gas is described as environmentally cleaner than other fossil fuels, with many countries in the world seeking to reduce their emissions.

And energy expert Rudy Baroudi considered that liquefied natural gas is "the most important transitional fuel while the hydrocarbons are abandoned."

And in 2021, the UAE produced approximately 57 billion cubic meters of natural gas, or 1.4 percent of global production, according to BP statistics.

In the same year, the UAE exported about 8.8 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, representing about 1.7 percent of the volume of global exports, according to the British International Energy Company.

"With the acceleration of global efforts to combat climate change, the role of natural gas in general (...) is widely expected to grow," Baroudi said.

He added, "ADNOC has a good reputation, so it was expected that the public offering in ADNOC Gas would attract strong interest."

The ADNOC Gas IPO could be the start of another series of IPOs in Abu Dhabi this year.

It is expected that at least eight companies in the fields of technology, asset management and renewable medicine will follow in the footsteps of ADNOC, according to Bloomberg quoted Sameh Al Qubaisi, Director General of Economic Affairs at the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi.

واصلت البورصات الأوروبية تراجعها الإثنين مسجلة أسوأ جلسة في السنة على وقع المخاوف من انتشار العدوى إلى القطاع المصرفي بعد إفلاس مصرفين أميركيين.

وبدأت المداولات في البورصات الأوروبية بصورة شبه مستقرة بعد إعلان تدابير استثنائية في الأسواق الأميركية لكنها هبطت بعد ذلك وبلغ التراجع قرابة الساعة 9,50 ت غ 2,33% في باريس و2,41% في فرانكفورت بعدما خسرت أكثر من 3%، و2,01% في لندن.

كذلك واصلت المصارف الأوروبية تراجعها الإثنين ولا سيما المصارف التي تعتبر أقل متانة من غيرها، فخسر مصرف كريدي سويس 9,90% مسجلا أدنى مستوياته التاريخية فيما خسر كومرتسبنك 12% وبي إن بي باريبا 5,29% وسوسييتي جنرال 5%.