MANILA, Dec 17 (Reuters) – There is no evidence indicating that the two suspects involved in the Bondi Beach attack received any form of military training while in the Philippines, the Philippines’ National Security Adviser said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Eduardo Año said that a mere visit to the country does not substantiate allegations of terrorist training, and the duration of their stay would not have permitted any meaningful or structured training.
The alleged father-and-son gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing 15 in an attack that shocked Australia and heightened fears of antisemitism and violent extremism.
Año said the government was investigating the two men’s travel from November 1 to 28 and coordinating with Australian authorities to determine the purpose of the visit, dismissing media reports portraying the southern Philippines as a hotspot for violent extremism as “outdated” and “misleading”.
Immigration records show the pair landed in Manila and travelled to Davao City in Mindanao, a region long-plagued by Islamist militancy, before the attack that Australian police say appeared to have been inspired by Islamic State.
The men stayed mostly in their rooms for almost a month at a budget hotel in Davao, MindaNews reported.
The father and son checked in at noon on November 1 and rarely went out for more than an hour, a hotel staffer told the online news outlet, which is based in Mindanao. Hotel staff said the two kept to themselves, never spoke to other guests, or had visitors. They were only seen walking nearby and never taking rides or getting picked up in front of the hotel.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Calls to a hotel officer and Davao police went unanswered.
Since the 2017 Marawi siege, a five-month battle in which the Islamic State-inspired Maute group seized the southern city and fought government forces, Philippine troops have significantly degraded ISIS-affiliated groups, Año said.
“The remnants of these groups have been fragmented, deprived of leadership, and operationally degraded,” he added.
(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by David Stanway and Sharon Singleton)
SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Government authorities have not done enough to stamp out hatred of Jews in Australia, which has allowed it to fester in the aftermath of October 7, said the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who was wounded at the Bondi shootings on Sunday.
Victoria Teplitsky, 53, a retired childcare centre owner, said that the father and son who allegedly went on a 10-minute shooting spree that killed 15 people had been “taught to hate,” which was a bigger factor in the attack than access to guns.
“It’s not the fact that those two people had a gun. It’s the fact that hatred has been allowed to fester against the Jewish minority in Australia,” she told Reuters in an interview.
“We are angry at our government because it comes from the top, and they should have stood up for our community with strength. And they should have squashed the hatred rather than kind of letting it slide,” she said.
“We’ve been ignored. We feel like, are we not Australian enough? Do we not matter to our government?”
The attackers fired upon hundreds of people at a Jewish festival during a roughly 10-minute killing spree, forcing people to flee and take shelter before both were shot by police.
RISING ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS
Antisemitic incidents have been rising in Australia since the war in Gaza erupted after Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in an attack on October 7, 2023. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has since killed over 70,000 people, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
A rise in such incidents in the past sixteen months prompted the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declare that antisemitism was his top priority in terms of threat.
“This was not a surprise to the Jewish community. We warned the government of this many, many times over,” Teplitsky said.
“We’ve had synagogues that have been graffitied, graffiti everywhere, and we’ve had synagogues that have been bombed,” she added, referring to a 2024 arson attack in Melbourne in which no one was killed.
Teplitsky’s father Semyon, 86, bled heavily after being shot in the leg, and now is facing several operations as doctors piece bone back together with cement, then remove the cement from the leg, which he still may lose, she said.
“He’s in good spirits, but he’s also very angry. Angry that this happened, that this was allowed to happen in Australia, the country that he took his children to, to be safe, to be away from antisemitism, to be away from Jew hatred.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “did nothing” to curb antisemitism.
Albanese repeated on Tuesday Australia’s support for a two-state solution. Pro-Palestinian protests have been common in Australia since Israel launched its offensive.
At a press briefing on Monday, Albanese read through a list of actions his government had taken, including criminalising hate speech and incitement to violence and a ban on the Nazi salute. He also pledged to extend funding for physical security for Jewish community groups.
(Writing by Melanie Burton; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) – China and Saudi Arabia agreed to have closer communication and coordination on regional and international issues, with Beijing lauding Riyadh’s role in Middle East diplomacy, statements following a meeting between the nations’ foreign ministers on Sunday showed.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on a three-nation tour in the Middle East that began in the United Arab Emirates and is expected to end in Jordan. He met with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud in Riyadh on Sunday.
A joint statement published by China’s official news agency Xinhua did not elaborate on what issues the countries will strengthen coordination on, but mentioned China’s support for Saudi Arabia and Iran developing and enhancing their relations.
“(China) appreciates Saudi Arabia’s leading role and efforts to achieve regional and international security and stability,” the statement released on Monday said.
The statement also reiterated both countries’ support for a “comprehensive and just settlement” of the Palestinian issue and the formation of an independent state for Palestinians.
At a high-level meeting, Wang told his Saudi counterpart that China has always regarded Saudi Arabia as a “priority for Middle East diplomacy” and an important partner in global diplomacy, a Chinese foreign ministry statement on Monday said.
He also encouraged more cooperation in energy and investments, as well as in the fields of new energy and green transformation.
The countries have agreed to mutually exempt visas for diplomatic and special passport holders from both sides, according to the joint statement.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Paul Simao)
JERUSALEM, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Sunday against a government push to oust the attorney general, who has sparred with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition over the legality of its policies, court documents showed.
In March, the cabinet held a no-confidence vote against Gali Baharav-Miara, citing substantial differences between the government and the attorney general, who was appointed by the previous government.
But a panel of seven Supreme Court judges said on Sunday the established mechanism for terminating the term of office of an attorney general could not be changed, ruling that as a result the cabinet’s no-confidence vote was null and void.
Under the established mechanism to dismiss an attorney general, governments must first consult a professional-public committee, the documents showed.
The judges also cited numerous procedural defects in the government’s dismissal of Baharav-Miara that meant it was invalid, saying she continues to hold office lawfully.
There was no immediate response to the ruling from the government or the attorney general’s office.
Prior to the war in Gaza, Netanyahu’s government launched an overhaul of the Israeli judicial system.
Netanyahu, who has been battling a trial on corruption charges that he denies, said at the time the overhaul was needed to rein in judicial overreach that was intruding on the authority of parliament. Protesters have said it was an attempt to weaken one of the pillars of Israeli democracy.
The overhaul plan was largely halted after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war. But the cabinet has since revived some parts of its plan to change the justice system.
Baharav-Miara was celebrated by the opposition as a gatekeeper of democracy in 2023 when the judicial overhaul plan that would give elected politicians more power over the Supreme Court was announced.
Differences with Baharav-Miara that have had a direct impact on the governing coalition’s stability include an ongoing issue of exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students from military conscription.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer and Maayan Lubell;Editing by Helen Popper)
KYIV, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s navy accused Russia of deliberately attacking a civilian Turkish vessel carrying sunflower oil to Egypt with a drone on Saturday, a day after Moscow hit two Ukrainian ports.
In a statement on Telegram, the navy said the vessel was called the Viva and had 11 Turkish citizens on board. It added that nobody was hurt and the vessel was continuing its journey to Egypt.
“The strike was carried out in the open sea in Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone, outside the range of Ukrainian air defence systems,” the statement said, accusing Russia of breaching maritime laws.
The navy said it was in contact with the ship’s captain.
On Friday, Russia attacked two Ukrainian ports, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels, according to Ukraine’s navy. A large fire broke out on one of those ships.
The attacks come after Moscow threatened to “cut Ukraine off from the sea” after Kyiv’s attacks damaged three ‘shadow fleet’ tankers heading to Russia to export its oil.
Dec 13 (Reuters) – Iranian authorities detained 18 crew members of a foreign tanker seized in the Gulf of Oman on Friday that they said was carrying 6 million litres of smuggled fuel, Iranian media reported on Saturday, citing the Hormozgan province judiciary.
It said those detained under the ongoing investigation include the captain of the tanker. The identity of the vessel and the nationalities of the crew members were not disclosed.
The authorities said the tanker had committed multiple violations, including “ignoring stop orders, attempting to flee, (and) lacking navigation and cargo documentation”.
Iran, which has some of the world’s lowest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Jan Harvey)
DUBLIN, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Ireland’s planned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods, a minister told Reuters, offering the first clear signal on the scope of the contested legislation and rejecting accusations that the country is antisemitic.
Ireland has been preparing a law to curb trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, facing pressure at home to widen the scope of the ban from goods to services, while Israel and the United States want the bill scrapped.
Ireland has been one of the European Union’s most outspoken critics of Israel’s assault in Gaza, which authorities in the Palestinian enclave say has killed more than 67,000 people.
‘EXTREMELY LIMITED MEASURE’, SAYS MINISTER
But Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, told Reuters that the bill is limited to the import of goods and that it would not become law this year.
“It’s an extremely limited measure, which would prohibit imports of goods from illegally-occupied territories,” he said in an interview. “Similar measures have already been brought in in a number of European countries.”
Byrne’s comments give insight into Dublin’s thinking as Ireland seeks to deflect pressure, including from U.S. companies based in the country, to soften its criticism of Israel. Ireland’s bill is expected to help shape how other European nations launch similar curbs on trade with Israeli settlements.
The Irish government has signalled the bill is imminent but has yet to publicly announce its scope.
Byrne declined to say when it would be sent to parliament, as the government weighs the bill’s implications. “It’s certainly not going to be implemented this year,” he said.
Earlier this year, sources told Reuters that the government intended to blunt the law, curbing its scope to just a limited trade of goods, such as dried fruit, and not services.
That more ambitious move could have entangled companies in technology and other industries in Ireland doing business in Israel. Business lobby groups had sought to kill the idea.
Limiting the bill to goods only would catch just a handful of products imported from Israeli-occupied territories such as fruit that are worth just 200,000 euros ($234,660) a year.
LAWMAKER BLACK SAYS SHE STILL WANTS SERVICES BAN
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area. It says the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
On Gaza, Israel says it acted in self-defence following the deadly October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has repeatedly said it is committed to international law and tries to minimize harm to the civilian population of Gaza.
Frances Black, the lawmaker who proposed the Irish bill, told Reuters she would push to include a ban on services. “It will take a lot of work in the new year to get services included but that’s exactly what I’m prepared to do.”
Byrne also defended Ireland’s government, after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar recently posted a video online where he accused the Irish government of having an “antisemitic nature”.
Saar said the Irish government’s response had been slow to a local proposal to rename a park bearing the name of Chaim Herzog, the former president of Israel who was raised in Dublin.
Irish ministers had roundly criticised the idea and Dublin City Council has since delayed a decision on whether to remove the name.
U.S. senator Lindsey Graham had also labelled Ireland a “cesspool of antisemitism”.
EU LAWMAKER REJECTS ANTISEMITISM CHARGE AS ‘NONSENSE’
“I reject outright that the country is in any way antisemitic,” said Byrne. “We’re deeply conscious of the contribution that Jewish people have made in Ireland.”
Ireland’s relations with Israel have been fraught. Last December, Israel shut its embassy in Dublin amid a row over Ireland’s criticism of its war in Gaza, including Ireland’s recognition of a Palestinian state last year.
Barry Andrews, an Irish member of the European parliament, urged Dublin to go ahead with its occupied territories bill. “Claims that Ireland is antisemitic are nonsense,” he said. Ireland has nothing to fear. We are no longer the only ones doing this.”
On Wednesday, Ireland’s central bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf was forced to abandon a public speech in Dublin by pro-Palestinian protesters objecting to the central bank’s earlier role in the sale of Israeli bonds.
(Additional reporting by Conor Humphries, Editing by William Maclean)
NICOSIA, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Discussions on the need to tighten sanctions on Russia, including the possibility of a blanket ban on providing maritime services, should not be at the expense of legitimate businesses in the industry, key EU shipping nations Cyprus and Malta said.
The Group of Seven countries and the European Union are in talks to replace a price cap on Russian oil exports with a full maritime services ban in an attempt to reduce the oil revenue that helps finance Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters exclusively reported on Dec. 5.
Cyprus and Malta, who along with Greece have the largest fleets in the EU, said tightening sanctions should not target bona fide maritime businesses.
“Any shift away from the price cap must avoid pushing maritime services to non-EU jurisdictions, where the EU would lose oversight and, with it, the leverage needed to uphold European standards,” the Maltese government said in a statement.
“There needs to be a holistic approach,” Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said. He said that while additional pressure on Russia was needed, the focus should also be on sanctions dodging.
“That has many actors involved and undermines our collective effort,” he said.
Russia exports over a third of its oil in Western tankers, mostly to India and China, with the use of Western shipping services. The ban would end that trade, which is mostly done through the fleets of EU maritime nations including Cyprus, Malta and Greece.
The services ban could be part of the EU’s next package of sanctions against Russia, slated for early 2026, three sources told Reuters last week. The 27 nation EU would like to approve the ban together with a broader G7 agreement before proposing the ban in the package, two sources said.
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze, who is visiting Cyprus, echoed Kombos’ comments. She said the discussion needed to be ‘calibrated’, and that it had also been discussed with the United States. “We have discussed how to increase sanctions efficiency,” she said.
(Reporting by Michele Kambas, Jonathan Saul and Chris Scicluna; Editing by Chris Reese and Nick Zieminski)
CAIRO/GAZA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Torrential rain swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding hundreds of tents sheltering families displaced by two years of war, and leading to the death of a baby girl due to exposure, local health officials said.
Medics said eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar died of exposure to cold after water inundated her family’s tent in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave.
Weeping and holding Rahaf in her hands, her mother Hejar Abu Jazar said she had fed the girl before they went to sleep.
“When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly,” she told Reuters.
“There was nothing wrong with her. Oh, the fire in my heart, the fire in my heart, oh my life,” she said in tears.
GAZA LACKS EQUIPMENT TO COPE WITH DELUGE DUE TO THE WAR
Municipal and civil defence officials said they were unable to cope with the storm because of fuel shortages and damage to equipment. They said Israel destroyed hundreds of vehicles, including bulldozers and others used to pump water, during the war, which displaced most of the over two million population and left much of Gaza in ruins.
The civil defense service said most of the tent encampments across the enclave were flooded, and it received more than 2,500 calls for help. Some of the belongings of displaced people were seen floating on top of pools of rainwater that filled the alleys of the tent encampments.
A U.N. report said 761 displacement sites hosting about 850,000 people are at high risk of flooding and thousands of people had moved in anticipation of heavy rain.
U.N. and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced. Most existing shelters are worn out or made of thin plastic and cloth sheeting.
Gazans have resorted to ripping out iron rods from the debris of bombed houses and using them to prop up tents or to sell for a few dollars.
A ceasefire has broadly held since October, but the war destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure, leaving grim living conditions.
Hamas-led authorities say Israel is not allowing in as much aid as promised under the truce. Aid agencies say Israel is blocking essential items. Israel says it is meeting its obligations and accuses agencies of inefficiency and failing to prevent theft by Hamas, which the group denies.
“We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for exposing displaced families to climate hazards as it continues closing crossings and preventing the entry of relief items and shelter materials,” said Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office.
The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said flooded streets and soaked tents are worsening already dire conditions.
“Cold, overcrowded and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” it said on X.
“This suffering could be prevented by unhindered humanitarian aid, including medical support and proper shelter,” it added.
In Gaza City, three houses collapsed as a result of the rainstorm in areas that had been devastated by Israeli bombardment, the civil emergency service said.
The October 10 ceasefire has enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to Gaza City’s ruins. Israel has pulled troops back from city positions, and aid flows have increased.
But violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 383 people in strikes in Gaza since the truce. Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began, and it has attacked scores of fighters.
On Thursday, medics said two Palestinian women were killed, and some other people were wounded in Israeli tank shelling in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military didn’t offer immediate comment.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ramdan Abed; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
GAZA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – As winter bites in Gaza, displaced Palestinians set out every day to homes destroyed by Israel. There they rip out iron rods from the walls and use them to prop up their flimsy tents or sell to scratch out a living in an enclave that will take years to recover from war.
The rods have become a hot item in Gaza, where they are twisted up in the wreckage left by an Israeli military campaign that spared few homes. Some residents spend days pounding away at thick cement to extract them, others do the back-breaking work for a week or more.
With only rudimentary tools such as shovels, pickaxes and hammers, work proceeds at a snail’s pace.
UN SAYS WAR GENERATED 61 MILLION TONNES OF RUBBLE
Once the bars helped hold up cement walls in family homes, today they are destined for urgently-needed tents as temperatures at night fall. Heavy rainstorms have already submerged many Gazans’ meagre belongings, adding to their misery.
Palestinian father-of-six Wael al-Jabra, 53, was putting together a makeshift tent, trying to hammer together two steel bars.
“I don’t have money to buy wood, of course. So, I had to extract this iron from the house. The house is made of five floors. We don’t have anything apart from God and this house that was sheltering us,” he said.
In November, the U.N. Development Programme said that the war in Gaza had generated 61 million tonnes of rubble, citing estimates based on satellite imagery.
Most of it can be cleared within seven years under the right conditions, it said.
A 10-meter metal rod costs displaced families $15 – a steep amount because many barely have cash.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas triggered the conflict after attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli calculations. Israel responded with a military campaign that killed over 70,000 people and laid waste to Gaza.
Carrying heavy buckets of rubble and pushing a wheelbarrow, Suleiman al-Arja, 19, described a typical day in the quest for iron rods.
“We pass by destroyed houses and agree with the house owner. He gives us a choice, whether to clean the house (clear the rubble) in exchange for iron or clean the house for money. We tell him that we want the iron and we start breaking the iron. As you can see, we spend a week, sometimes a week and a half,” he said.
FOCUS IS ON DAILY STRUGGLE TO LIVE
U.S. President Donald Trump promised to put together an international stabilisation force and an economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza, which was impoverished even before the war. Palestinians in Gaza can’t look so far ahead even though a ceasefire was reached in October. Every day is a struggle for Palestinians who have seen peace plans come and go over many decades.
Their minds are focused on finding ways to survive, every single day.
“We do this work to get our food and drink, to cover our living expenses and not need anyone, so we earn a living through halal (legitimate) means and effort. These are my hands,” said Haitham Arbiea, 29.
Palestinians accuse Israel of depriving Gaza of the iron bars.
An Israeli official told Reuters that construction materials are considered dual use items – items for civilian but also potential military use – and will not be allowed into Gaza until the second phase of the U.S.-led peace plan. The official cited concerns that the materials could be used for the building of tunnels, which have been used by Hamas.
(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
TUNIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Tunisian police arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa on Saturday to enforce 20-year prison sentence, detaining her at a protest in the capital, lawyers said.
An appeals court on Friday handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the president, in what critics said was a sign of President Kais Saied’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Toby Chopra)
KYIV, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Ukraine hit two tankers used by Russia to export oil while skirting Western sanctions with marine drones in the Black Sea, an official from the SBU security service said on Saturday.
The joint operation to hit the so-called ‘shadow fleet’ vessels was run by the SBU and Ukraine’s navy, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Turkish authorities have said that blasts rocked two shadow fleet tankers near Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait on Friday causing fires on the vessels, and rescue operations were launched for those on board.
The SBU official said both tankers – identified as the Kairos and Virat – were empty and on their way to the port of Novorossiysk, a major Russian oil terminal.
“Video (footage) shows that after being hit, both tankers sustained critical damage and were effectively taken out of service. This will deal a significant blow to Russian oil transportation,” the official said.
They did not say when the strikes took place.
Ukraine has consistently called for tougher international measures for Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’, which it says is helping Moscow export vast quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, writing by Max Hunder; Editing by Toby Chopra, Kirsten Donovan)
Explosions rocked two tankers sanctioned for carrying Russian oil, the latest in a spate of blasts on such vessels, sparking a rescue operation off Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
The 900-foot Kairos was en route from Egypt to Russia when it suffered a blast and caught fire, according to Turkish authorities. Emergency response vessels managed to evacuate its 25 crew members. Meanwhile, the 820-foot Virat began spewing heavy smoke from its engine room after being hit at a point farther east along the coast. The 20 personnel on board were in good condition, authorities said.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) -An explosion and fire broke out in the engine room of a tanker in the Black Sea to the north of Turkey’s Bosphorus strait on Friday, shipping agency Tribeca said.
The tanker Kairos, sailing under the Gambian flag and in ballast, was some 52 miles north of the Bosphorus when the incident occurred, the agency said.
Tribeca said reports indicated that the ship may have struck a mine and be in danger of sinking, adding that rescue tugboats and coast guards were dispatched to assist.
Shipping traffic through the strait continued, the agency also said.
(Reporting by Can Sezer and Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
TUNIS (Reuters) -A Tunisian appeals court on Friday sentenced 40 opposition leaders, business and media figures to jail terms ranging from five to 45 years on charges of conspiring against state security, the state news agency TAP said.
The case was one of the largest prosecutions for security offences in the North African country’s recent history. The defendants had been on trial since March, while more than 20 others had fled abroad, authorities said.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Iran has sent the Lebanese militia Hezbollah hundreds of millions of dollars over the past year via money exchanges and other businesses in Dubai, as Tehran seeks new ways to funnel money to its ally, people familiar with the matter said.
Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, is in desperate need of funds to rebuild and rearm its militia and pay other costs stemming from its bruising fight with Israel last year, the people said. Its smuggling routes through Syria were disrupted by the fall of the Iran-aligned Assad regime a year ago, and Lebanese authorities have made strides cracking down on couriers bringing suitcases of cash through the Beirut airport.
ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised Pope Leo’s stance on the Palestinian issue after meeting him in Ankara on Thursday, and said he hoped his first overseas visit as Catholic leader will benefit humanity at a time of tension and uncertainty.
“We commend (Pope Leo’s) astute stance on the Palestinian issue,” Erdogan said in an address to the Pope and political and religious leaders at the presidential library in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“Our debt to the Palestinian people is justice, and the foundation of this is to immediately implement the vision of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Similarly, preserving the historic status of Jerusalem is crucial,” Erdogan said.
Pope Leo’s calls for peace and diplomacy regarding the war in Ukraine are also very meaningful, Erdogan said.
In September, Leo met at the Vatican with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and raised the “tragic situation” in Gaza with him.
Turkey has emerged as among the harshest critics of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, in its conflict there with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Daren Butler)
BEIRUT — When Pope Leo XIV visits the Middle East this week, he comes to a conflict-weary region struggling to find peace even as the specter of war stalks it once again.
In his first international trip since assuming the papacy in May, the Chicago-born pope will travel Thursday to Turkey, where he will celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, where the Nicene Creed — a foundational declaration of Christian belief and unity — was written in AD 325.
But perhaps the real test of Leo’s international debut lies in Lebanon. His coming fulfills a promise to visit the country made by his boldly charismatic predecessor Pope Francis, who raised the papacy’s international profile with dozens visits abroad and a propensity for frankness in his commentary that endeared him to the faithful, especially in the Middle East.
But Christians — estimated to be about 30% of Lebanon’s population — are not the only ones looking forward to Leo’s arrival.
A view of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, which Pope Leo XIV will see during his visit to Turkey, which begins Nov. 27, 2025.
(Arif Hudaverdi Yaman / Anadolu / Getty Images)
Many here hope his visit will be a portent for peace, bringing attention to this tiny Mediterranean nation as it contends with a Job-like succession of crises: First the economy, which crashed in 2019, tanking the banking system and the currency with it; then the port explosion in 2020; and the war between the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and Israel, which flared in 2023 before intensifying late last year and left thousands dead and wide swaths of Lebanon’s south and east pulverized.
Despite a ceasefire brokered last November, Israel has launched near-daily attacks on its northern neighbor, justifying its strikes as a bid to stop Hezbollah from reconstituting itself, even as the United Nations tallied more than 10,000 air and ground violations in Lebanese territory and 127 civilians killed in the year since the ceasefire took effect.
Israel’s attacks have also paralyzed reconstruction efforts, meaning most residents of Lebanese border towns — whether dominated by Christians, Muslims or Druze — have been unable to piece back their prewar lives. The U.N.’s human rights office says around 64,000 Lebanese remain displaced.
The Israeli army launched more than 10 airstrikes on the town of al-Musaylih in southern Lebanon, causing extensive damage, on Oct. 11.
(Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Safety concerns for the pope have been paramount in people’s minds for months. In October, in what appeared to be a hot mic moment, Jordan’s Queen Rania asked the pope during a photo-op at the Vatican whether it was safe to go to Lebanon. “Well, we’re going,” Leo gruffly replied.
Alarms were raised again over the weekend when Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs, barely two miles away from where the pope would be landing on Sunday. The attack, the first one in months near the capital, killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander and coincided with a general uptick in Israeli strikes and drone activity in recent weeks — all indicators, observers say, of an impending all-out assault.
Nevertheless, the trip is still on, Lebanese officials say.
For Oumayma Farah, development director of the Order of Malta Lebanon, which aids communities of all religions and nationalities through humanitarian projects, that’s a “sign of courage and resilience to the Lebanese population and Christians in the region as a whole.”
“Whatever happens, the pope will come,” Farah said.
“The Church teaches us to not be afraid, so he’s the first example.”
A woman walks her dog past a billboard in Beirut touting Pope Leo’s upcoming visit to Lebanon.
(Anwar Amro / AFP/Getty Images)
Like most of the countries where Christianity first took hold, wars and economic lethargy — not to mention a relatively easier path to emigration — have dwindled Lebanon’s Christian population over the decades.
Across the Middle East, the number of Christians has gone from 20% of the population to a mere 5%; Lebanon remains the Arab country with the highest proportion, with Christians making up about 30% of the population, according to estimates from various research groups and the U.S. State Department.
The pope’s insistence on coming to Lebanon, Farah said, was “re-centering the importance of this country” and a “wake-up call” for its politicians. After spending three days in Turkey, the pope will arrive in Lebanon on Sunday and depart Tuesday.
In the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and other areas on the pope’s itinerary, signs abound of furious logistical activity and preparations: Police and security personnel have intensified their presence. A two-day holiday was announced to allow participation in public prayer events, even as parishes and schools across the country have been involved in bringing the faithful to attend Mass near the site of the Beirut port blast, which was deemed an accident caused by negligence, and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, roadworks and maintenance, all but abrogated in recent years due to the government’s financial woes, have been in full swing. The joke around town is that people want another papal visit if only so the government finishes repaving all the country’s pothole-stricken streets. A bitter corollary is another joke that the refurbished roads will last only till the pope leaves — because they’ll be destroyed in a new Israeli campaign.
Along with visiting the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Pope Leo will travel to the Turkish city of Iznik, ancient Nicaea, to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
(Arif Hudaverdi Yaman / Anadolu / Getty Images)
The gallows humor reflects the uncertainty of the moment, with the U.S. and Israel pushing the Lebanese army to fully disarm Hezbollah, even as the group insists it will disarm only in the country’s south.
Lebanon’s government, in turn, says that it cannot persuade Hezbollah to give up its arms so long as Israel keeps occupying Lebanese territory, and that doing so by force would lead to civil war.
The hope is that the pontiff can help break the logjam. But though few expect change to come so quickly, the visit is still important, said a Maronite parish priest, Father Tony Elias, from Rmeish, a village located just across the border from Israel.
“When the pope visits a country that has been in pain for so long, this is truly enough to lift that pain,” Elias said.
Rmeish, which maintained a resolutely neutral stance during the war, is relatively unscathed, an exception in the wasteland that has become Lebanon’s border area after years of Israeli bombardment.
Elias said he would have wanted the pope to visit the south, but he wasn’t disappointed, as he and about 200 others from the village would travel to Beirut and join the pontiff.
“If he can’t come to the south, we can come to him,” Elias said.
ANKARA (Reuters) -A maritime demarcation deal signed between Lebanon and Cyprus violates the rights of Turkish Cypriots on the island and is therefore unacceptable, Turkey said on Thursday.
Lebanon and Cyprus on Wednesday signed the long-awaited deal, which aims to pave the way for potential exploration of offshore gas fields and deepen energy cooperation in the Mediterranean.
Turkey, a NATO member, does not recognise the Greek Cypriot government on the ethnically-split island of Cyprus, and is the only country to recognise the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It has repeatedly complained that Greek Cypriots were disregarding and usurping Turkish Cypriot rights.
‘NOT POSSIBLE FOR US TO ACCEPT’
“It is not possible for us to accept any agreement in which the rights of the TRNC are disregarded,” the Turkish Defence Ministry said at its weekly press briefing, using an acronym for the Turkish Cypriot government.
“We evaluate that this accord, which disregards the TRNC’s rights, is also in violation of the interests of the Lebanese people, and tell our Lebanese counterparts that we are ready for cooperation on maritime issues,” it added.
Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oncu Keceli said the deal was another example of Greek Cypriots disregarding the rights of Turkish Cypriots, and said the Greek Cypriot administration was not the sole representative of the island and therefore did not have the authority to take decisions concerning the whole island.
“We call on the international community, namely countries of the region, not to support these unilateral steps by the Greek Cypriot Administration and not to become instruments in attempts to usurp the legitimate rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriots, who are sovereign and equal elements of the island,” Keceli said on X.
Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup. The last round of peace talks between the two sides collapsed in 2017, with efforts to revive them at a stalemate since.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Conor Humphries)
