JEDDAH: In a surprise visit, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met one-on-one with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Jan. 8 in Istanbul.

The cooperation avenues between the two countries, including boosting economic and business ties, were discussed during the friendly meeting, in which Hariri thanked Erdogan for his support to Turkish investments made in Lebanon.

Not everyone, however, was satisfied with this visit by the Lebanese prime minister, whose name has been often associated with corruption cases in Turkey, especially regarding the alleged involvement of the Hariri family in Turk Telekom, the country’s leading company in the field of information and communication technologies and once its most lucrative.

In his parliamentary speech on Monday, Faik Oztrak, spokesman of the main opposition party (CHP), reacted to the warm welcome of Hariri by Erdogan, saying, “How can you sit at the same table with this man who made billions of dollars without paying a penny on Telekom?”

The Turkish president’s Senior Adviser Yigit Bulut and Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay were also members of the board of directors of Turk Telekom, who benefitted from high salaries during the privatization process. Oktay worked as the deputy chairman of the company for a long time.

“This family borrowed money from Turkish banks and paid the treasury’s privatization price for Telekom. Then, they plundered millions of dollars in dividend income from Turkey to Lebanon. He placed $3.5 billion in loan debt on our banks,” Oztrak said.

The criticisms of the opposition lawmaker served as a reminder of the long-hidden scandal involving the telecommunications company, which came under the spotlight in March 2013, when the pro-government daily Sabah revealed that Turk Telekom had secretly and illegally put its copper cables up for sale to transform them into cheaper fiber optic cables.

But this sale, which involved thousands of tons of scraped cables — worth up to $10 million dollars — was not officially made known to the stock market, despite the existence of two court rulings that prevented the Lebanese Hariri Group, owning 55 percent of the stakes in the company, from performing this sale, as it did not have any official approval from the Turkish Treasury.

This corruption went unnoticed for years, and no in-depth investigation was carried out, neither about the amount of copper sold nor about the buyers.

Turk Telekom was privatized in 2005, just three years after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came into power. Ojer Telecommunications, owned by the Hariri family, acquired its stakes for $6.5 billion by receiving loans from dozens of Turkish and international lenders.

In 2018, the Hariri family failed to pay an installment on Turkey’s once largest corporate loan of $4.75 billion, and its holdings were taken over by some 20 lenders, including several Turkish banks.

The main opposition party is calling on the Turkish government to be held accountable for the corruption allegations and has blamed the AKP for the slowest Internet bandwidth in the country due to the inefficient allocation of state resources.

Oztrak has been criticizing the government’s handling of the Turk Telekom issue since 2017. In another parliamentary question that he put forward in July 2017, Oztrak said that public resources were being used to compensate for the failed payment of the Hariri family in Turk Telekom, with public authorities closing their eyes to the ongoing corruption.

In answer to Oztrak’s parliamentary inquiry, then Vice Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said that Turk Telekom transferred about $3.1 billion abroad as a profit share.
 

AL-MUKALLA: America’s decision to designate the Iran-backed Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization will help pave the way for peace in Yemen, government officials and analysts claim.

The designation, due to come into effect the day before US President Donald Trump’s administration leaves office, would curb Houthi human rights abuses and the group’s resistance to peace efforts, while weakening financial sources that fuel the war in the country, they said.

But critics have argued that the move might exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, escalate violence, and encourage the Houthis to strengthen ties with Iran.

Yemen’s parliament has urged American legislators to approve the designation to punish the Houthis for crimes carried out against Yemenis. It believes the move would force the Houthis into accepting unfulfilled peace agreements and current peace efforts, the official news agency SABA said.

“The Houthi militia has destroyed the land and people of Yemen and posed a threat to international peace and security,” the parliament said in a statement.

Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, former prime minister of Yemen and a senior adviser to the Yemeni president, described the US move as an “accurate and realistic description” of the Houthi movement, adding that the step would boost the Yemeni government and Arab coalition efforts to recapture state bodies from the Houthis.

In a tweet, Daghr said: “With this historic decision, the Americans have expressed their desire to achieve peace, sovereignty, and unity in Yemen and to save Yemen from Iranian interference.”

Despite strong opposition from aid workers and many Yemen experts, the internationally recognized government of Yemen has stepped up diplomatic efforts to get the Houthi movement declared a terrorist organization following last month’s missile attack on Aden airport that killed and wounded more than 130 people.

The Yemeni government has said that Houthi crimes and human rights abuses are on a par with those committed by other terrorist organizations such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda.

However, critics have pointed out that the US move may aggravate the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen by restricting movements of international aid organizations that distribute vital humanitarian assistance to millions of hungry Yemenis and could also provoke the Houthis into escalating their military operations throughout Yemen.

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, Yemen’s foreign minister, told Arab News that the decision would not have any impact on humanitarian deliveries inside Houthi-controlled areas, as it excluded humanitarian workers who deal with the rebels from sanctions.

“We will not allow the punishment of our people in areas under the control of the militias. The decision includes exceptions that will enable humanitarian organizations to operate,” the minister said.

At the same time, Yemeni government officials who handle humanitarian activities inside Yemen backed the US move, blaming the Houthis for fueling the humanitarian crisis by blocking the distribution of life-saving aid in areas under their control.

Based on his previous experience with the Houthis, former Yemeni minister of local administration and chairman of the higher committee for relief in Yemen, Abdul Raqeeb Fateh, said the designation would have positive impacts on the delivery of humanitarian assistance since it would put an end to the plundering of aid by the Houthis.

“Since 2014, the Houthis have looted relief aid and used it to support their war efforts and refused to apply humanitarian standards. The decision will force them to back down and reduce plundering,” he added in a tweet.

Abdu Abdullah Majili, a Yemeni army spokesman, told Arab News that troops were ready to confront any military action by the Houthis in response to the US announcement. “The national army is prepared to inflict defeat on the militia. The Houthis have committed heinous crimes against Yemenis since Sept. 21, 2014.”

Yemeni military and political experts noted that aggressive actions by the Houthis would only consolidate grounds for the designation and would push more countries into backing the decision.

“The Houthis have no other option but to comply with peace efforts. They are responsible for ruining the biggest political process in Yemen brokered by the world,” Najeeb Ghallab, undersecretary at Yemen’s Information Ministry and a political analyst, told Arab News, referring to the Houthi coup.

Nadwa Dawsari, a Yemeni conflict analyst, claimed that only a military operation would put an end to the Houthi threat and push the group into accepting peace initiatives.

In a tweet, she said: “Neither political negotiations with Houthis nor their designation alone will contain their (and Iran’s threat). Only a strong and well-planned ground military action that weakens them will neutralize their threat and bring Yemen closer to peace.”

News of the US designation negatively impacted exchange markets in the country, causing the Yemeni currency to fall again. Local moneychangers told Arab News that the Yemeni riyal was traded at 780 against the dollar on Tuesday, falling from 715 on Sunday. The riyal regained 20 percent of its value last month when a new government was formed and returned to Aden under the Riyadh Agreement.
 

BEIRUT: Daesh terrorists killed at least eight regime loyalists in eastern Syria on Monday, the latest in a series of deadly extremist attacks, a Britain-based war monitor reported.
Five Syrian soldiers and three pro-regime militia fighters were among those killed in the Daesh attack on one of their positions in a desert region of Deir Ezzor province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Eleven others were wounded, some of them critically, meaning the death toll could climb, the war monitor added.
Daesh in 2014 overran large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a cross-border “caliphate” before multiple offensives in the two countries led to its territorial defeat.
The group was overcome in Syria in March 2019, but sleeper cells continue to launch attacks in the vast Badia desert spanning from central Syria eastwards to the border with Iraq.
Since the start of the year, Daesh sleeper cells have upped their attacks on regime forces, killing at least 44, including soldiers and foreign paramilitaries, the Observatory says.

Among these, on Saturday, Daesh gunmen killed seven regime loyalists in the Deir Ezzor town of Al-Shola.
Another 15 Syrian troops have gone missing after a Daesh attack on regime forces in the central province of Hama on Friday, according to the Observatory.
Their bus was found torched at the weekend, but there was no sign of the men who are likely dead or held captive by jihadists, the monitor added. Syrian regime media did not report the incident.
In a separate incident last week, the Observatory said Daesh gunmen in central Syria had ambushed a bus carrying government soldiers as well as fuel tankers in another part of Hama province.
The ambush resulted in the deaths of eight soldiers, four allied fighters and three civilians, the Observatory said.
Daesh said it was behind a December 30 bus ambush in Deir Ezzor province, which killed at least 39 Syrian soldiers.
More than 387,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011.

DUBAI: The UAE on Monday recorded 2,404 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths related to the virus.
Officials from the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 232,982, while the death toll rose to 711.
It also said that 2,252 people had recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries is 208,366.
Abu Dhabi Media Office said free COVID-19 vaccines were now available at 105 locations around the emirate, calling on residents to register.

Residents across Abu Dhabi are receiving their free Covid-19 vaccine, now available at 105 locations around the emirate.

Protect yourself. Choose to Vaccinate today.

For more information on how to receive the free Covid-19 vaccine, visit https://t.co/pNmXmJ01Pi

— مكتب أبوظبي الإعلامي (@admediaoffice) January 11, 2021

The emirate also announced that schools would be ready to receive pupils from Jan. 17 and students would be able to attend classes while complying with anti-COVID-19 measures.
The UAE’s Ministry of Education said on Sunday that 50 percent of students Grades 9-12 would return to school and the rest would continue distance learning.
Schools in the UAE opened on Jan. 3 with only some students attending classes.
Elsewhere, Kuwait reported 527 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number to 154,841. The death toll rose to 945 after two coronavirus-related deaths were reported in the previous 24 hours.

تعلن #وزارة_الصحة⁩ عن تأكيد إصابة 527 حالة جديدة، وتسجيل 366 حالة شفاء، و 2 حالة وفاة جديدة بـ ⁧#فيروس_كورونا_المستجدّ⁩ COVID-19 ، ليصبح إجمالي عدد الحالات 154,841 حالة pic.twitter.com/HTxrv6WRPV

— وزارة الصحة – الكويت (@KUWAIT_MOH) January 11, 2021

Oman’s health ministry confirmed 172 new cases and no deaths, bringing the totals to 130,780 and 1,508, respectively.

#Statement No. 264
January 11, 2021 pic.twitter.com/yW0OhfFCq1

— وزارة الصحة – عُمان (@OmaniMOH) January 11, 2021

In Bahrain, no deaths was reported, keeping the death toll to 356, while 321 new infected cases were confirmed.

Out of 11539 COVID-19 tests carried out on 11 January 2021, 321 new cases have been detected among 162 expatriate workers, 152 new cases are contacts of active cases, and 7 are travel related. There were 283 recoveries from #COVID19, increasing total recoveries to 92645 pic.twitter.com/X03AXNdEVK

— وزارة الصحة | مملكة البحرين (@MOH_Bahrain) January 11, 2021

CAIRO: A meeting on Sunday about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) failed to make any progress, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. 

The six-party meeting was held to discuss a binding legal agreement on the rules for filling and operating the GERD. 

Ethiopia hopes the dam will turn it into Africa’s top hydropower supplier. Egypt and Sudan, however, fear it will substantially reduce their water share and affect development prospects.

“The meeting failed to achieve any progress due to disagreements over how to resume negotiations and aspects related to managing the negotiation process,” the ministry said.

“Sudan insists on the necessity to mandate the experts appointed by the African Union Commission to present solutions to the issues of disagreement which Egypt and Ethiopia are unsure about.”

Its statement added that the reservation came as a confirmation of the three countries’ commitment to the negotiation process and to preserve their right to formulate the texts and provisions of the agreement to fill and operate the dam.

According to the statement, Egypt confirmed its readiness during the meeting to engage in serious and effective negotiations in order to reach a legally binding agreement on the rules for filling and operating the dam.

South Africa’s minister of foreign affairs, Naledi Pandor, expressed regret that the hoped-for breakthrough in the negotiations had not been achieved and said she would submit a report to the president on the talks and their results.

Among those taking part in the meeting were Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, Mohammed Abdel Aty, Egyptian minister of water resources and irrigation, and the foreign and water ministers of Sudan and Ethiopia. It was headed by Pandor, who is the current chairperson of the African Union’s executive council.

Sudan called for a change in the negotiation methodology to give the African Union experts a greater role to bring the views of the three countries closer.

Sudanese Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasser Abbas said: “We cannot continue in this vicious circle of indefinite discussions, given the direct threat that the dam represents to the Roseires Reservoir, whose storage capacity is less than 10 percent of the GERD’s capacity if the filling and operation are done without agreement and the daily exchange of data.”

He added that Sudan had strongly protested a letter sent by the Ethiopian minister of irrigation to the African Union, Egypt and Sudan on Jan. 8, in which he affirmed Ethiopia’s intention to continue filling the dam in July regardless of whether an agreement was reached or not.

The three countries have held several rounds of talks since Ethiopia launched the GERD project in 2011, but are yet to reach an agreement on filling and operating the dam’s huge reservoir.