Jordan's King to deliver speech at the EU parliament
STRASBOURG: Jordan's King Abdullah II is set to deliver a speech at the European Union parliment in Strasbourg France on Tuesday.
In his address, he is expected to focus on a range of issues, including the devastating war in Gaza and its consequences.
This will be King Abdullah's sixth visit to the European Parliament, following his previous visits in 2002, 2007, 2012, 2015 and 2020.
The king is also scheduled to meet European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
UN urges more support to speed up Syria refugee returns
DAMASCUS: UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi has urged more international support for Syria to speed up reconstruction and enable further refugee returns after some 14 years of civil war. 'I am here also to really make an appeal to the international community to provide more help, more assistance to the Syrian government in this big challenge of recovery of the country,' Grandi told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of a visit to Damascus. Syrians who had been displaced internally or fled abroad have begun gradually returning home since the December overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, whose brutal repression of peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 triggered war. But the wide-scale destruction, including to basic infrastructure, remains a major barrier to returns. Grandi said over two million people had returned to their areas of origin, including around 1.5 million internally displaced people, while some 600,000 others have come back from neighboring countries including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkiye. 'Two million of course is only a fraction of the very big number of Syrian refugees and displaced, but it is a very big figure,' he said. According to UNHCR, some 13.5 million Syrians remain displaced internally or abroad. Syria's conflict displaced around half the pre-war population, with many internally displaced people seeking refuge in camps in the northwest. Grandi said that after Assad's toppling, the main obstacle to returns was 'a lack of services, lack of housing, lack of work,' adding that his agency was working with Syrian authorities and governments in the region 'to help people go back.' He said he discussed the importance of the sustainability of returns with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, including ensuring 'that people don't move again because they don't have a house or they don't have a job or they don't have electricity' or other services such as health. Sustainable returns 'can only happen if there is recovery, reconstruction in Syria, not just for the returnees, for all Syrians,' he said. He added that he also discussed with Shaibani how to 'encourage donors to give more resources for this sustainability.' With the recent lifting of Western sanctions, the new Syrian authorities hope for international support to launch reconstruction, which the UN estimates could cost more than $400 billion.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Netanyahu using Iran war to stay in power ‘forever': former US president Clinton
DUBAI: Former US president Bill Clinton said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been wanting to fight Iran for a longtime because that way he can stay in the office forever. 'Netanyahu has long wanted to fight Iran because that way he can stay in office forever and ever. I mean, he's been there most of the last 20 years,' the former president said during an appearance on 'The Daily Show'. Clinton said he called on US President Donald Trump to 'defuse' the current conflict between Israel and Iran, and end the 'outright constant killing of civilians.' 'But I think we should be trying to defuse it, and I hope President Trump will do that.' The former president said he does not think either Netanyahu or Trump want to trigger a full-scale regional disaster. He also emphasized the importance of the US protecting its allies in the region, while simultaneously advocating for restraint. 'We have to convince our friends in the Middle East that we'll stand with them and try to protect them,' he stated. 'But choosing undeclared wars in which the primary victims are civilians, who are not politically involved, one way or the other, who just want to live decent lives, is not a very good solution.' The US by far has stayed out of direct action in the conflict between Iran and Israel. But it has helped Israel shoot down missiles from Tehran and has supplied it with military equipment.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Shipping Company Maersk Temporarily Pauses Haifa Port Calls
Container shipping company Maersk said on Friday it had temporarily paused vessel calls at Israel's Haifa port amid regional tensions. The Danish company said it did not experience any further disruptions to its scheduled operations in the region. Israel has been hitting Iran from the air since last Friday in what it describes as an effort to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran has denied plans to develop such weapons and has retaliated by launching counterstrikes on Israel. On Thursday, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said it had launched combined missile and drone attacks at military and industrial sites linked to Israel's defense industry in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
