Tag: AID

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European Commission announces Jordan aid package

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission building in Brussels, Belgium, on June 9, 2021. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong/IANS)

The funds from this MFA will be provided as long-term loans under concessional terms...reports Asian Lite News

The European Commission has announced a proposal for a new macro-financial assistance operation for Jordan, with funding up to €500 million ($542 million).The MFA is part of the EU’s broader strategy to support neighboring countries, serving as an extraordinary instrument for EU crisis response. Specifically, the EU aims to assist Jordan in coping with the adverse effects of the war in Syria, including the influx of refugees it has hosted. The recent financial aid aims to help Jordan address its external financing requirements, bolster fiscal consolidation efforts, and enhance structural reforms.

This support is crucial for the continuation of Jordan’s ambitious reform agenda, which focuses on job creation, growth, and investment. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Today’s proposal is a clear indication of the EU’s ongoing solidarity with Jordan, offering up to €500 million in support during these challenging times of geopolitical instability.” Since the crisis began in 2011, the EU has mobilized approximately €4 billion in support of Jordan.

The funds from this MFA will be provided as long-term loans under concessional terms. The plan includes disbursing the funds in three installments, contingent on Jordan implementing specific policy measures agreed upon with the EU, detailed in a memorandum of understanding. These reforms may encompass improvements in economic governance, such as public finance management and tax administration, social and labor market policies, and efforts to combat fraud, corruption, and money laundering. The proposal for this fourth MFA to Jordan now awaits approval from the European Parliament and Council.

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-Top News Arab News EU News

EU Launches Gaza Aid Project

The European Commission has launched the project to establish a maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, reports Asian Lite News

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced the immediate launch of a project to establish a maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza.

“We are now very close to opening this corridor, hopefully this Saturday-Sunday, and I’m very glad to see an initial pilot will be launched today,” she told journalists on Friday after visiting Cyprus’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in the port city of Larnaca, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We are launching this Cyprus maritime corridor together: the EU, the UAE and the US,” she added.

In a joint statement endorsed by the European Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the UAE, the UK, and the US, the European Commission said: “Together, our nations intend to build on this model to deliver significant additional aid by sea, working in coordination with UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag — who is charged with facilitating, coordinating, monitoring and verifying the flow of aid into Gaza under UN Security Council Resolution 2720.”

The Amalthea Initiative was proposed by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides due to Cyprus’ proximity to Gaza. It was coordinated by the UAE, aiming for shipment before the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan.

The US has pledged to construct a floating platform off the coast of Gaza for the unloading of aid, while Israeli officials have vetted the aid to address concerns about potential military equipment.

The death toll of Palestinians from the ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 30,878, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Friday.

Five months ago, Israel began a large-scale military campaign against Gaza in response to a surprise Hamas attack on Israeli towns adjacent to the enclave, in which Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 others as hostages.

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-Top News Arab News

Starving Gazans take away food from aid convoy

The humanitarian situation has become very desperate, with around one million people displaced from their homes and driven to South Gaza forcibly by the Israeli troops…reports Asian Lite News

The situation in Gaza is turning from bad to worse as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues its heavy bombing and shelling in the enclave.

With people running short of food after over two months of war and only a small number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip, starving Palestinians went desperate seeing aid trucks and forcibly entered inside to take away food from it.

Several hungry and desperate Palestinians jumped into aid trucks to get food and other supplies in Gaza’s Rafah area on Sunday. It is to be noted that Rafah is the only border crossing into Gaza from Egypt, and used by aid agencies for supply of food, medicines and fuel into Gaza under the strict monitoring of IDF soldiers.

Sources in UN aid agencies working in Gaza told that several Palestinians surrounded the aid trucks after they drove in through the Rafah crossing and forced many trucks to stop, climbed on them, pulled out food and water boxes and passes them off to people waiting down.

The humanitarian situation has become very desperate, with around one million people displaced from their homes and driven to South Gaza forcibly by the Israeli troops.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have warned that there is an extreme shortage of essentials and the residents of Gaza have never ever experienced hunger of this kind.

ALSO READ-Europe grappling for united Gaza ceasefire call

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-Top News Europe

Ukraine Receives $2 Billion in Financial Aid in November

Ukraine received 32.1 billion dollars in international financial support last year…reports Asian Lite News

Ukraine received $37.4 billion financial aid from January-November this year, sources in the government said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the country got about $11 billion as grants in the period, with the US, Germany, Spain, Finland and Ireland being the largest donors, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ukraine received 2 billion dollars in financing in November itself, Shmyhal said.

Ukraine received 32.1 billion dollars in international financial support last year.

The aid is being extended to Ukraine in pursuit of its security, economic, and humanitarian interests.

Russia launched full scale Ukraine invasion in February, 2022.

ALSO READ-US Aid to Ukraine in Jeopardy

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-Top News Arab News

Iranian Health Minister Offers Medical Aid to Gaza

The Minister said that “we are ready to provide (medical) assistance to the people in Gaza,” where hospitals encountered “brutal Israeli attacks”…reports Asian Lite News

Iranian Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has voiced his country’s readiness to dispatch volunteer physicians and nurses to the war-torn Gaza Strip.

He made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of a ceremony to mark Iran’s National Nurse Day in the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi, IRIB news agency reported.

The Minister said that “we are ready to provide (medical) assistance to the people in Gaza,” where hospitals encountered “brutal Israeli attacks”.

Einollahi said Iran had ensured the necessary coordination to send medics to the Palestinian coastal enclave, Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel has been carrying out attacks on Gaza over the past weeks in retaliation for the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. The conflict has so far led to the deaths of more than 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza and plunged the area into a humanitarian catastrophe with its health system heavily overwhelmed. On the Israeli side, about 1,200 people have lost their lives, the majority of whom were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7.

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-Top News Europe USA

Internal Battles Delay Biden’s $106B Aid Package for Israel, Ukraine

Photo taken on Feb. 9, 2021 shows the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie/IANS)

The people of Israel and Ukraine are waiting in vain for billions of dollars in help from the US as they wage existential fights for their futures; media reports said criticising Congressmen of inaction and fighting their own battles in the House…reports Asian Lite News

The US House passed a stopgap measure to keep government funding open to federal agencies, but President Joe Biden’s $106 billion funding package for Israel and Ukraine remains stuck as the two war-ravaged countries fight an existential crisis while Republicans and Democrats fight internal battles “mindlessly” in the House, media reports said.

The House of Representatives did manage to take steps Tuesday to avert a threatened government shutdown, passing a plan to temporarily fund the federal machinery. However, the Senate still needs to approve the measure, which would only delay the next funding deadlines until early next year, reports said.

The people of Israel and Ukraine are waiting in vain for billions of dollars in help from the US as they wage existential fights for their futures; media reports said criticising Congressmen of inaction and fighting their own battles in the House.

“The 118th Congress, which took an initial step to punt funding deadlines to the winter, looked more like a fourth-grade class on a day that will further erode trust in government ahead of next year’s elections,” a prominent US Media network said.  

Though the House voted for temporary reprieve, it was enough to expose the forces that could soon tear the chamber apart again. With 93 Republicans opposing the bill, Conservatives wonder what rookie Speaker Mike Johnson would do as he had failed to include massive spending cuts that GOP hardliners want in the bill, political analysts at CNN said.  

The Democratic-run Senate or the White House would certainly oppose any deep spending cuts as it runs roughshod through the party’s social welfare programmes. That would guarantee a shutdown that would damage the GOP and bring pain to millions of Americans, the analysts said.

This may go down well with some hard right-wingers in the Congress who abhor Washington and see chaos as a “worthy goal”. “But on the eve of President Joe Biden’s critical summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the political tomfoolery will only bolster perceptions among US adversaries that America’s global power is being undermined by polarization at home,” CNN said in its analysis.

Kevin McCarthy, the ousted Speaker of the House, was accused of delivering a painful blow to Rep. Tim Burchett, one of the GOP rebels who was among right-wingers who removed him from holding the gavel in the House. “It was a clean shot to the kidneys,” the Tennessean told CNN.

McCarthy denied the claim, blaming a tight hallway for the collision. Quick-witted McCarthy said: “If I kidney punched someone, they would be on the ground. But that wasn’t even the fiercest showdown of the day.”

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz was engaged in a bitter exchange with House Oversight Chairman James Comer over the latter’s probe into the Biden family’s business affairs. 

Georgia’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, normally the ringmaster of the Capitol Hill circus, found herself overshadowed. 

Donald Trump-style stunt politics has often become dominant in the Capitol. Congress is consumed by fighting within and between the parties. And the febrile mood is only likely to intensify in the coming election year. Normal standards of decorum and respect have been thrown in the trash, and nearly three years after the Capitol insurrection, trust is fractured, political analysts at the network said.

Congressional leaders said the near altercations and foul tempers reflected the stress of an extraordinary session that saw the House sit for 10 weeks in a row, ignoring the fact such behaviour would be a sackable offence in many workplaces.

“Everybody’s tensions are high,” McCarthy said. South Dakota Sen. John Thune – a member of GOP leadership – noted with understatement that “we are living in fairly polarized times”. He said: “There is a lot going on not only here but around the world. Emotions are running high.”

Some people might see heart-breaking footage from the Middle East following the horrendous Hamas attacks against civilians and the carnage in Gaza wrought by Israel’s response – as a reason for greater seriousness among the nation’s leaders, analysts said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, however, suggested that policing the Capitol was beyond even his wily capacity to enforce discipline within his conference. “It’s very difficult to control the behaviour of everybody who’s in the building. I don’t view that as my responsibility. That’s something the Capitol Police will have to deal with,” the Kentucky Republican said.

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-Top News UAE News

UAE Launches Major Aid Operation for Gaza

OPERATION GALLANT KNIGHT 3: President H.H. Sheikh Mohamed directed Joint Operations Command to collaborate with UAE humanitarian institutions for providing support to Palestinians affected by the conflict…reports Asian Lite News

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has ordered the Joint Operations Command of the Ministry of Defence to initiate ‘Gallant Knight 3’, a humanitarian operation to support Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Sheikh Mohamed instructed the Joint Operations Command to work in close collaboration with the Emirates Red Crescent, the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, the Zayed Charitable Humanitarian Foundation, and other UAE institutions to provide humanitarian support to Palestinian people impacted by the current conflict.

Moreover, the President directed that volunteering opportunities be made available for doctors registered with the Ministry of Health and Prevention and the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, and for volunteers registered with the Emirates Red Crescent and other humanitarian and charitable entities in the UAE.

Logistic difficulties

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that logistic difficulties imposed by Israel and its repeated bombing of the Rafah border crossing delayed the delivery of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and placed additional burdens on the African nation.

Shoukry made the remarks on Sunday during his talks with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain in Cairo, where they discussed “the deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip and the increasing humanitarian needs of the people of the Strip”, Xinhua news agency quoted a statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry as saying.

The Egyptian top diplomat stressed the necessity to urgently provide more aid to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, highlighting Cairo’s intensified efforts in this regard.

The WFP chief lauded Egypt for its role to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza have continuous access to humanitarian aid.

Egypt had previously complained of the slow inspection procedures of the aid trucks that are sent from Egypt to Gaza through the Rafah crossing at the Israeli crossing of Nitzana.

Earlier on Sunday, Egypt sent 75 trucks loaded with food, water, and medical supplies through the Rafah crossing to Gaza, raising the total number of aid trucks sent to the enclave since October 21 to nearly 500, a security source told Xinhua news agency.

According to the UN Office for Coordinated Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 451 trucks have entered Gaza via Rafah — the only crossing point between the Hamas-controlled enclave and Egypt.

Of these, at least 158 trucks carried food, 102 carried health supplies, 44 carried water or hygiene products, 32 carried non-food items, and eight carried nutrition supplies, with the remaining trucks carrying mixed cargo, the OCHA said in its latest situation update report. 

The Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, which prior to the hostilities was the main entry point for goods, remains closed, as does the Israeli pedestrian crossing of Erez. .

For a second consecutuve day on Sunday, no exits of dual nationals or patients from Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing reportedly due to the failure of Hamas, Israel and Egypt to reach an agreement regarding the safe evacuation.

The halt in the exit of dual nationals and patients followed an attack on an ambulance convoy on its way from Gaza city to Rafah on November 3.

More than 1,100 people reportedly crossed from Gaza to Egypt on November 2 and 3.

Israeli Minister’s Nuke Remarks Draw Arab Flak

The UAE has strongly condemned and expressed its strong denunciation of the disgraceful and unacceptable statements of Israeli Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu on dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip. These statements constitute a violation of international law, as well as an incitement to commit grave violations of International Humanitarian Law such as war crimes, and raise grave concerns of an intent to commit genocide.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) affirmed the UAE’s categorical rejection of the threat of using nuclear weapons. The UAE stresses that the immediate priority is to preserve the lives of civilians and provide them with necessary humanitarian assistance.

‎‏The Ministry reaffirmed the need for an immediate ceasefire to prevent further loss of life, stressing the importance of protecting civilians according to international law, including international treaties, and the need to ensure that they are not targeted during conflict.

‎‏The UAE called on the international community to intensify efforts to avoid further fuelling the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to advance all efforts to achieve a comprehensive and just peace, while preventing the region from being drawn into new levels of violence, tension and instability.

Meanwhile, condemning the statement, Saudi Arabia said Israeli minister’s comments showed the penetration of “extremism and brutality” among members of the Israeli government.

“Moreover, not dismissing the minister and only freezing his membership constitutes the utmost disregard for all human standards and values,” it added.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned the Israeli minister’s statement as a “serious incitement to a war crime and a disregard for humanitarian and moral values and international laws.”

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs condemned Eliyahu’s “racist, inflammatory, and provocative” statements. 

It described the comment as a “call for genocide and a hate crime that cannot be tolerated.”

The ministry denounced it as a “condemnable incitement to murder and commit war crimes, in addition to the crimes committed against the people of the Gaza Strip.”

ALSO READ-S Africa calls for UN force to protect Gaza civilians

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Egypt to Intensify Aid Delivery Efforts to Gaza

Egypt is ready to exert any effort to achieve calm in Gaza and activate a genuine peace process, the presidency said on Sunday in a statement…reports Asian Lite News

Egypt offered to host a multilateral meeting to address the latest situation and the future of the Palestinian issue, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.

The invitation was made after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held a National Security Council meeting to review regional developments, notably with regard to the military escalation in the Gaza Strip, Xinhua news agency reported.

Egypt is ready to exert any effort to achieve calm in Gaza and activate a genuine peace process, the presidency said on Sunday in a statement.

“There is no solution to the Palestinian cause except through the two-state solution,” the statement said, stressing that Egypt rejected the displacement of the people of Gaza or “attempts to pay off the Palestinian issue at the expense of neighbouring countries”.

It is stressed at the meeting that national security is a red line and that there is no compromise in its protection, it added.

Egypt will continue contact with international and regional partners “to reduce the escalation and stop the targeting of civilians,” according to the statement.

While Egypt is facing difficulties in delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave, it will “intensify contacts with international and regional relief organisations in order to deliver the necessary assistance,” the statement noted.

Since Thursday, the El Arish airport in Egypt’s North Sinai has received planes carrying aid supplies for the Gaza Strip from Jordan, the UAE, Turkey, Tunisia and the WHO, according to Egyptian officials and the Red Crescent.

Egypt said it has kept its side of the Rafah crossing, the only crossing point between Egypt and Gaza, open for aid delivery since the conflict broke out between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas on October 7.

However, according to Egyptian officials, the Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side of the border halted the crossing’s operation.

Engaged in a US-sponsored peace treaty with neighbouring Israel since 1979, Egypt has for years been a peace mediator in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

ALSO READ-WHO plane with medical supplies for Gaza residents lands in Egypt

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-Top News India News Sri Lanka

Lanka Thanks India for Continued Support During Economic Crisis

The project is being executed under an Indian LoC of $318 million at a cost of $14.90 million, the Indian High Commission in Colombo announced…reports Asian Lite News

As the only creditor to continue to help Sri Lanka’s crippled Railway, India has completed projects worth over $1 billion with five Indian Lines of Credit (LoC), the Indian High Commission announced on Thursday. 

Continuing its support to the crisis hit neighbour, India on Thursday signed an agreement to install signaling system for 66 km railway track from North Central city of Anuradhapura to North-Western province’s Mahoat a cost of nearly $15 million.

The contract for design, installation, testing and commissioning of signalling system for Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) from Maho to Anuradhapura was signed between the Ministry of Transport and Highways of Sri Lanka and IRCON Ltd.

The project is being executed under an Indian LoC of $318 million at a cost of $14.90 million, the Indian High Commission in Colombo announced.

IRCON Ltd is carrying out a $91.27 million project to upgrade 128 km railway line from Maho to former war-ravaged Omanthai. Under this project, while track rehabilitation work from Anuradhapura to Omanthai has already been completed, work on the section from Anuradhapura to Mahois will commence from January 2024.   

Addressing the event, High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay stressed the significance of the signaling project for easing movement of the people of Sri Lanka, accelerating economic recovery of the country and strengthening the cooperation between the two countries.

He highlighted that the LoC for this project in the current situation symbolises the continued desire of the government and the people of India to stand with the people of Sri Lanka. 

Sri Lanka’s Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardane thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of India for supporting Sri Lanka in multiple ways, especially during the economic crisis last year.

“Sri Lankan railway projects have received support in the form of LoC in recent times only from India,” Gunawardane said. 

IRCON Ltd has completed several projects in Sri Lanka with Indian assistance and has contributed significantly towards rehabilitation and modernisation of Sri Lanka Railways.

One of the main loss making government institutions of the island nation, SLR suffered with the worst ever economic crisis with no way to carry out most essential maintenance work.

The lack of maintenance had led to regular signal failures and train derailments with record 117 train derailments in 2022.

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-Top News UK News

Boris Johnson attacks UK aid to Ukraine

Boris Johnson and Joe Biden.

Johnson directed his message not just at the UK but the US and other western nations, as well as global “swing voters” such as India…reports Asian Lite News

Boris Johnson has attacked the government over its policy on Ukraine, saying it should urgently provide more weaponry requested by Kyiv and asking the west: “What the hell are we waiting for?”

The former prime minister, who formed a close relationship with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy after the outbreak of the war with Russia, called on the UK to provide howitzers – an artillery weapon – Storm Shadow cruise missiles and “as much help as we can give them with drone technology”.

Writing for the Spectator magazine, which he used to edit, Johnson said it could be a “relatively trivial outlay for extraordinary potential reward” if western nations were to provide more military support. He called for a “far greater sense of urgency about our programme of military assistance”.

“I have asked it before and I ask it again: what the hell are we waiting for?” Johnson wrote. He said Ukrainians did not want warm words but “weaponry to finish the job – and so I simply do not understand why we keep dragging our feet”.

“Why are we always so slow?” he said. “How can we look these men in the eye, and explain the delay? Throughout this war we have underestimated the Ukrainians and overestimated Putin, and we are doing the same today.”

Johnson directed his message not just at the UK but the US and other western nations, as well as global “swing voters” such as India.

“If Putin wins – and all he has to do, to claim a victory, is hang on to at least a chunk of the territory he has taken since 24 February 2022 – the dreadful message will go round the world: that this was the moment when the democracies pledged to stand up to the autocracies, and we flunked it,” he wrote. “The story of Ukraine will be of lion-hearted Ukrainian troops finally betrayed by western loss of nerve.”

No western country has provided any troops to Ukraine but the US has provided military assistance of more than $43bn (£34bn) since the start of the Biden administration.

The UK is the second largest donor, having committed £4.6bn in military assistance to Ukraine so far, including £2.3bn in 2022 and a commitment to match that funding in 2023. It is also involved in a programme of training 30,000 new and existing Ukrainian personnel by the end of the year.

Britain is providing long-range precision strike missiles, and has recently committed to training Ukrainian fast jet pilots, but has said that combat fighter aircraft will not be provided for the moment.

The UK’s new defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said on his appointment that he was looking forward to “continuing the UK’s support for Ukraine in their fight against Putin’s barbaric invasion”.

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