Peace talks between the Philippine government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liber-ation Front (MILF) will begin in April, Malaysia said yesterday as it prepares to send an advance monitoring team to the southern Philippines.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the decision was reached after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur that began on Thursday between Philippine officials and the MILF.
"The peace talks will begin in April. It is expected to be held in Malaysia," he said.
Malaysia has been hosting and mediating talks between Manila and the 11,900-member MILF, which has been fighting for more than two decades to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the largely Christian Philippines.
Syed Hamid said that following the success of the talks, Malaysia had decided to send an advance team of military observers to Mindanao in the southern Philippines soon.
"I hope the team can be sent as soon as possible to report on the requirements for the international monitoring team that will be sent after the peace agreement is inked," the Malaysian minister said.
The international team would monitor any violations of the peace agreement, he said.
The Philippine military recently accused the MILF of violating a ceasefire signed in July last year and of staging an attack on a military outpost on Mindanao island.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied his group was behind the attack, alleging that the incident was fabricated by the Philippines government.
Syed Hamid described the two-day talks in Malaysia as successful, adding that Manila was led by Silvestre Afable, chairman of government peace negotiating panel, while the MILF was led by Mohaqer Iqbal, its central committee information chief.
"Both parties agreed that the peace talks will begin in April. They hope hostilities will cease," he said.
The Philippines government and the MILF in a joint statement issued in Manila said that their peace panels had "resolved all outstanding issues standing in the way of the formal talks."
Both panels "expressed confidence that the prospects for lasting peace were firm."
The statement, issued after the fifth round of exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur, requested that the Malaysian government send an "advance survey team" to the southern Philippines as soon as possible.
The two sides also called on Malaysia to deploy a Malaysian-led international monitoring team.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no
RSS