The Palestinians backed off from an immediate ban on the UN Mideast envoy after he criticized Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, but step-ped up their attacks against him and didn't rule out a future ban.
Terje Roed-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat who describes himself as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's "eyes and ears on the ground" in the Middle East, was at the center of a diplomatic storm after a briefing to the UN Security Council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nearing the end of his Mideast mission, Roed-Larsen expressed frustration at the lack of progress toward peace and blamed Arafat for blocking vital reforms in the Palestinian Authority and peace moves backed by the world body.
PHOTO: AP
Arafat's top adviser, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, described the UN envoy as "useless" and said he was no longer welcome in Palestinian areas. But Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer at the UN, said Roed-Larsen's legal status has not been decided and would be discussed with Annan when the secretary-general returns next week.
Al-Kidwa refused to say whether the Palestinians will ask Annan to remove Roed-Larsen, but he made clear that comments by Rdeneh and others reflected "real Palestinian anger" at the UN envoy's positions -- and that anger is not about to go away.
"We respect the United Nations as an institution. We know the rules and we play by the rules. No actions will be taken to prevent Mr. Larsen from entering the Palestinian territory. However, the position of the Palestinian officials is something else," Al-Kidwa said.
Al-Kidwa called the UN envoy's briefing "absolutely unacceptable," arguing that it "reflects basically an amalgamation of Israeli and American positions."
His office issued a six-point rebuttal of Roed-Larsen's briefing, complaining that it made "scant mention" of the world court ruling demanding that Israel tear down the separation barrier it is building to isolate the West Bank and "incomprehensively praised [Israeli] Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's initiative" in calling for a withdrawal from Gaza.
"The briefing waged unfair attacks against the Palestinian Authority and its president," it said. "Moreover, the briefing constituted a vulgar interference with internal Palestinian affairs and more importantly, it exempted Israel, the occupying power, from its direct responsibility for the current serious difficulties facing the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people."
After Tuesday's briefing, Roed-Larsen insisted that his report was balanced, noting that he also pressed Israel to pull out of the West Bank and Gaza and remove restrictions on Palestinians.
Roed-Larsen was not available for comment on Wednesday, but Annan came to his defense, as did US Ambassador John Danforth.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga