JERUSALEM: With less than two weeks to go before Israel’s general election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he is to visit London on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
It said Netanyahu, facing what could be a tough fight for re-election on September 17, would also meet US Defense Secretary Mark Esper while in the British capital.
Netanyahu returns to Israel on Friday.
It would be his first meeting with Johnson or Esper since the two took up their current posts, his office said in a statement.
“The PM will discuss with British prime minister Johnson the situation in the (Middle East) region and how to repel Iranian terror and aggression,” it said.
The meeting with Esper, it added, would focus on “Israel’s security needs” after the two had spoken by phone on Tuesday and agreed to “expand their conversation in London.”
Israeli media have said the United States and Israel are discussing the possible announcement of some form of defense alliance, likely to boost Netanyahu’s image as an international statesman.
Just ahead of inconclusive April 9 parliamentary polls, US President Donald Trump acknowledged Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, in what amounted to a major pre-election gift to his close ally Netanyahu.
On March 25 the two men met in Washington for a signing of Trump’s order recognizing Israel’s right to the strategic Golan Heights it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.

United Nations: The UN special envoy to Libya warned Wednesday that without action by the Security Council, the country’s war could escalate if outside patrons step up support for the warring sides.
“Many Libyans feel abandoned by part of the international community and exploited by others,” Ghassan Salame said by video link with the council.
“Without the unequivocal support of this council and the broader international community for an immediate end to the Libyan conflict, I believe we are faced with two highly unpalatable scenarios,” Salame added.
One is “persistent and protracted low intensity conflict,” he said.
The other is increased support for either warring side by their outside patrons.
This, he said, would lead to “a sharp escalation that will assuredly plunge the entire region into chaos.”
“The idea that war should be given a chance and that a military solution is at all possible is quite simply a chimera,” said Salame, who has often complained that the council is not united on the Libyan conflict and that some members support one or the other of the warring sides.
Libya has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising in which president Muammar Qaddafi was killed.
Strongman Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army launched an offensive on April 4 to conquer the capital, Tripoli.
His soldiers are fighting those of the Government of National Accord led by Fayed Al-Sarraj.
A member of Lawyers for Justice in Libya, Marwa Mohamed, also told the council there was no clear message on Libya from the international community.
During discussions on the conflict, several countries, such as Kuwait, South Africa, Indonesia and Germany, complained about what they called interference in that country’s affairs and repeated violations in the past five months of an arms embargo imposed on Libya in 2011.
Major powers such as the US, Russia, France and Britain avoided giving speeches Wednesday, saving their turns for a closed door session to be held after the public one.

RAMALLAH: Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in the West Bank on Wednesday to demand legal protection for women after a 21-year-old woman died last month in what rights groups say was a so-called honor killing.
A Palestinian Authority investigation is underway into the death of Isra’a Ghrayeb, a make-up artist who activists say was beaten by male relatives after a video posted on Instagram allegedly showed a meeting between her and a man who had proposed to her.
According to Palestinian media reports, Ghrayeb sustained serious spinal injuries after falling from a balcony in her home in Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, while trying to escape an assault by her brothers. She died on Aug. 22.
At least 18 Palestinian women have been killed this year by family members angered at perceived damage to their honor, which may involve fraternizing with men or any infringement of conservative values regarding women, according to the General Union of Palestinian Women and Feminist Institutions.
Ghrayeb’s family has denied the accusations. They said in a statement that Ghrayeb had a “mental condition” and died “after she had a heart attack, following an accidental fall into the (family’s) courtyard.”
The circumstances surrounding Ghrayeb’s death have stirred outrage within the Palestinian territories and on social media, with rights activists demanding action against the alleged perpetrators and legal protection for women under the hashtag #JustceforIsraa.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, female demonstrators held signs reading: “We are all Isra’a” and “My body is my property. I don’t need your supervision, your care, your honor.”
“I’m here to say enough is enough. We’ve lost enough women. Enough victims have died, have been killed, have been tortured, raped, harassed, and still there’s no justice,” said Amal Khayat, 30, an activist from Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said this week that several people had been detained for questioning over Ghrayeb’s death as part of the inquiry by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the Israel-occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian penal code dates to the 1960s and has been criticized for inadequate protection for women and lenient penalties for men who kill them in honor crimes.
“The case of Isra’a Ghrayeb shocked our conscience just like those before her. These are women and girls who dream to live in safety in a society free from violence and injustice,” the General Union of Palestinian Women and Feminist Institutions said in a statement.
The group called on the Palestinian government to “develop targeted programs that teach the principle of gender equality” and to reform laws to ensure accountability for perpetrators.
Protesters voiced optimism that Wednesday’s rally and others earlier this week would push the PA to make reforms. “The victims are a part of us, they’re a part of our history,” Khayat said. “We will continue (to protest) until we get justice.”

TUNIS: A Tunisian appeals court on Tuesday upheld the detention of media magnate Nabil Karoui, a candidate in this month’s presidential election, on suspicion of tax fraud and money laundering, his lawyer said.
Karoui, who denies any wrongdoing, had sought to be freed, but the court rejected the demand to release him, lawyer Kamel Ben Massoud told Reuters without giving details or further comment.
Karoui, the owner of Nesma TV channel, is one of the most prominent candidates in the Sept. 15 election along with current and past prime ministers, a former president, the defense minister and the representative of a major Islamist party.
He is running as a campaigner against poverty in a country where economic troubles have caused widespread frustration despite the transition to democracy since a 2011 revolution.
Karoui founded a charity to combat poverty in 2017 and then set up a political party, leading his critics to accuse him of using his foundation to advance his political ambitions, which he denies.
In June, parliament passed an amendment to the electoral law forbidding candidates who benefited from “charitable associations” or foreign funding in the year before an election, which would have banned him from the race.
However, the late president Beji Caid Essebsi died in July without having signed the law, meaning Karoui was free to enter the election.
His political party has called his detention a politically motivated attempt to bar him from the race, though government officials have said it is a purely judicial matter.
Tunisia’s electoral commission kept him on the list of eligible candidates after his arrest last month on a court order.
The president is responsible for foreign and defense policy in Tunisia, while most decision-making powers rest with a prime minister who is chosen by parliament. A parliamentary election will also take place on Oct. 6.
Despite Karoui still being in detention, his party launched his presidential campaign with a rally on Monday night. On Tuesday, supporters gathered outside the court to demand he be freed.

CAIRO: Germany’s top diplomat said Tuesday his country has been working to readmit Sudan into the international economy after the military’s overthrow of autocratic President Omar Al-Bashir in April amid mass protests against his three-decade rule.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas landed in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, in the first such visit to the African country by a top German diplomat since 2011.
His trip was part of Germany’s efforts to help overhaul Sudan’s battered economy and reach peace with armed groups, which remain among the top challenges facing the country’s new administration.
It came two weeks after the formation of a power-sharing government by the pro-democracy movement and the generals, which will rule Sudan for a little more than three years until elections can be held.
Maas told a joint news conference in Khartoum with Sudan’s newly appointed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok that Berlin would discuss with the international community ways to end Sudan’s international pariah status.
He said his government would also discuss with the parliament, or Bundestag, in Berlin ways to cooperate on economic development with the new government in Sudan.
Maas also met with Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council. He said he “stressed the importance of transferring power to a civilian government.”
The United States named Sudan a state sponsor of terror in 1993, and the designation stuck through the Al-Bashir regime. In 2017, Washington began a formal process to de-list Sudan, but this was put on hold when mass protests began in December. Moves to de-list Sudan could resume once the country’s political situation has stabilized.
Hamdok, the prime minister, said he has held a “long discussion” with the US administration about removing Sudan from Washington’s list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
“We are expecting a big breakthrough that will lead to removing Sudan from the terror list,” he said. “It is a convenient circumstance.”
De-listing Sudan would allow the transitional government to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, part of its efforts to revive the ailing economy.
Hamdok told a local TV station last month that Sudan needs up to $8 billion in foreign aid in the next two years and another $2 billion deposited as reserves to shore up the plunging local currency.
Sudan was plunged into an economic crisis when the oil-rich south seceded in 2011 after decades of war, taking with it more than half of public revenues and 95% of exports. Sudan has been battling rebellions in its long-neglected provinces for decades and is nearly $60 billion in debt.
Hamdok also said in the press conference that he would work with rebel groups to achieve “sustainable peace” that would eventually lead to a slash in military spending, which takes up as much as 80% of the state budget.
Sudan has also been convulsed by rebellions in its far-flung provinces for decades, and while a rebel alliance has joined the pro-democracy coalition, it argues that it should be represented in the transitional government.
The power-sharing deal calls for the government to reach a peace agreement with the rebels within six months.
The Sovereign Council said Hamdok, a former UN official, would announce his Cabinet within 48 hours. According to the power-sharing agreement, the protest-appointed Cabinet was to have been announced late in August.
Hamdok is tasked with forming a Cabinet of not more than 20 ministers, but the military will nominate the defense and interior ministers.
He said his talks with the protest leaders were still ongoing to ensure adequate representation for women and all of Sudan’s regions in the transitional government.