CAIRO: In a joint statement on Wednesday, Egypt and Sudan stressed the need for foreign forces, mercenaries and fighters to leave Libya.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received Lt-Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council, at Al-Ittihadiya Palace on Wednesday.

The two sides stressed “the need to preserve Libya’s stability, unity and territorial integrity,” and affirmed “support for all efforts aimed at reaching a political solution, and for all Libyan parties to agree to move towards the future in the interest of Libya and its people without any dictates or external interventions, as well as the importance of supporting the role of Libyan state institutions and assuming their responsibilities.”

They also discussed Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam, saying “a consensus was reached on the continuation of intensive consultation and mutual coordination in this context during the coming period, emphasizing the paramount importance of the water issue for the Egyptian and Sudanese peoples as a matter of national security.”

The two sides discussed the need for a legal, fair and binding agreement on filling and operating the dam in a manner that achieves the common interests of all parties.

The Egyptian side affirmed Cairo’s “full awareness of the delicate situation that Sudan is currently going through, and the need for joint action so that the current developments on the international arena do not affect efforts to support Sudan to achieve political, security and economic stability.”

Egypt said it will continue to send “aid packages and logistical and humanitarian support to Sudan, in addition to providing technical support to Sudanese cadres and activating all bilateral cooperation programs, based on Egypt’s unlimited support for Sudan in all fields and at various levels, as well as the close link to Egyptian and Sudanese national security.”

AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Wednesday condemned “violence in all its forms” in a meeting with visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog, following a spate of deadly attacks in the Jewish state.
A total of 11 people have been killed in three attacks in the space of a week in Israel, the latest of them on Tuesday.
Abdullah expressed “Jordan’s condemnation of violence in all its forms, and the resulting loss of more innocent” lives, a palace statement said.
He pointed to “the regretable attacks that have targeted civilians from both sides, including yesterday’s attack,” warning it was “the Israelis and Palestinians who pay the price.”
“This conflict has lasted a long time, and the resulting violence continues to cause much pain and offers a fertile ground for extremism,” he said.
Four civilians and a policeman were killed on Tuesday when a Palestinian assailant opened fire at passers-by in the town of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv.
Ahead of Ramadan, the Israeli president said that “we have to move toward allowing the performance of religious rites peacefully,” adding that “this is what we are discussing with Jordan,” according to the palace.
“Having Muslim leaders meet Jewish and Israeli leaders is an alternative to the abyss of hatred and bloodshed,” Herzog said, quoted by his office.
Herzog’s visit comes one day after Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was in Amman, where he also met the king, in a bid to seek calm ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, starting in April.
Tensions flared last year during Ramadan between Israeli forces and Palestinians visiting Al-Aqsa mosque in annexed east Jerusalem, leading to 11 days of conflict between Israel and Hamas which rules Gaza.
Jordan, which established ties with Israel in 1994, has traditionally played the role of mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.
The kingdom also serves as custodian of the holy places in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
In his meeting with Gantz, Abdullah called on Israel to “lift all obstacles that could prevent (Muslims) from performing prayers” at Al-Aqsa and “prevent any provocations that could lead to escalation.”

LONDON: A long-running art-world mystery has been solved following the arrest of a German Lebanese antiques smuggler.

During the Egyptian uprising in 2011, tomb raiders dug out the golden sarcophagus of a first century B.C. Egyptian priest.

Studded with jewels and embellished with scenes and hieroglyphic texts — said to guide Nedjemankh, chief priest of the ram-headed Egyptian god Heryshef, through the afterlife — the treasure passed through art dealers in the UAE, Germany, and France before being sold for nearly $4 million to the Met Museum in New York City in 2017.

The arrival of the piece in the US was deemed suspicious by the American law enforcement agency the FBI, which began an investigation with French authorities.

When the artifact was returned for display in Egypt in 2019, two Frenchmen, named only as Christophe K and Richard S, were arrested over its theft.

Now the mystery of the artifact has been solved, as a German Lebanese antiques dealer turned smuggler Roben D has been linked to the illegal sale of the sarcophagus.

Roben D was intercepted at Hamburg airport after an EU arrest warrant was issued.

Liddy Oechtering, of the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office, said Roben D, 42, had been extradited to France this month accused of commercial fraud, receiving stolen goods, and trading in cultural assets.

Roben D, thought to be a seasoned art smuggler, is being held in Paris. He is suspected of illegally selling five other historical artifacts, said to be worth approximately $55 million, to the Louvre Abu Dhabi art museum.

JERUSALEM: A suspected Arab gunman killed at least five people in a Tel Aviv suburb on Tuesday before he was fatally shot, the national ambulance service said, in the latest of a string of deadly attacks in Israel.
Amateur video broadcast on Israeli television stations showed a man dressed in black and pointing an assault rifle walking down a street in Bnei Brak, a Jewish ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Israel’s commercial capital.
Witnesses said he began shooting at apartment balconies and then at people on the street and in a car.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said the gunman killed at least five people.
“The terrorist was liquidated,” ambulance spokesman Zaki Heller said. It was not immediately clear who shot him.
Israeli media said initially that security services suspected the gunman was a member of Israel’s Arab minority. They later reported that security officials believe he was a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank.
Last week, an Arab citizen of Israel killed four people in a stabbing and car ramming attack in the southern city of Beersheba, before he was shot dead by a passerby. Israeli authorities said he was a Daesh sympathizer.
On Sunday, as an Israeli-Arab summit convened in southern Israel, an Arab assailant, a resident of a town in the north of the country, shot and killed two police officers in Hadera, a city some 50 km (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv. Other officers shot and killed him.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the Hadera attack.

RABAT: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Morocco on Tuesday to discuss recent shifts in the diplomatic dynamic in the Middle East and North Africa that could upend some of the region’s long-standing disputes.
A day after an unprecedented gathering in Israel’s Negev Desert with the Israeli foreign minister and their counterparts from four Arab nations that have normalized relations with Israel, Blinken held talks with senior Moroccan officials to look at opportunities for expanding those ties.
In Morocco and again in Algeria on Wednesday, Blinken was also exploring options for helping end the neighbors’ festering row over Western Sahara after new developments offered fresh hope but added new complications for a resolution.
The meeting between Blinken and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita was their second direct encounter in two days. The pair were together on Monday in the Israeli town of Sde Boker, where they each confirmed their countries’ commitment to supporting a revitalized Middle East with growing ties between Israel and Arab states.
Morocco, along with the UAE and Bahrain, was one of the countries to fully normalize relations with Israel during the Trump administration’s push to negotiate the so-called “Abraham Accords,” in which the US pledged significant support in exchange for such recognition. While technically not an Abraham Accords signatory, Morocco won US recognition for its claim to Western Sahara in return for its agreement with Israel.
In a rare endorsement of a Trump foreign policy initiative, the Biden administration has signaled its full backing for the Abraham Accords and pledged to try to expand and strengthen them. However, while the administration has not revoked Trump’s decision on Western Sahara, it has been largely silent on the matter and US plans to build a consulate in the territory have not advanced since being announced by Trump in 2020.
That has led to questions about whether Washington is fully on board with Moroccan sovereignty over the former Spanish colony.
Just last week, Spain shifted its long-standing position on the territory by backing Morocco’s plan to give Western Sahara more autonomy as long it remains under Moroccan control, calling it “the most serious, realistic and credible” initiative for resolving the decades-long dispute.
Blinken echoed the “serious, realistic and credible” phrase in addressing the Moroccan plan, but stopped short of a full endorsement, saying it represented “one potential approach” to resolving the dispute.
Bourita said the autonomy plan had been praised by many countries, including Spain and the United States, but that others — particularly in Europe — should get on board. “We think it’s time for Europe mainly to get out of this comfort zone where people are supporting a process (and) shift into an outcome-oriented effort.”
The Spanish move was immediately welcomed by Rabat, which reinstated its ambassador to Madrid after a 10-month absence. But it was sharply criticized by Algeria, which supports Western Sahara’s Polisario Front independence movement, and recalled its ambassador to Spain.
In his meetings with the two protagonists, Blinken hoped to explore the potential for compromises on Western Sahara. The vast territory, which Morocco annexed in 1976, is largely barren but rich in phosphates and faces fertile Atlantic Ocean fishing grounds.
The Polisario called Spain’s decision a “grave error” that yields to Morocco’s leverage over the control of migrants crossing into Europe and accuses Madrid of taking sides in a dispute that the Spanish government for decades said could only be settled in a referendum held under UN auspices.