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South African Government Fetes Hamas Official Sanctioned by US Administration
ANC officials meeting with Hamas representatives in Johannesburg. Photo: X/Twitter
A spokesperson for South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has defended the presence of two Hamas officials at a meeting in Johannesburg last week, one of whom was sanctioned by the US government following the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel in which over 1,200 people were murdered and more than 200 seized as hostages.
The two officials — Bassem Naim, a former Hamas minister, and Khaled Qaddoumi, the terrorist organization’s official representative in Iran — arrived in South Africa in early December and spent several days there, attending an ANC-sponsored conference in solidarity with the Palestinians as well as ceremonies commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who led the ANC in its struggle against apartheid.
Qaddoumi was included in a list of eight Hamas-linked individuals who were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on Oct. 27, less than three weeks after the Hamas atrocities. An official statement accompanying the announcement noted that Qaddoumi is a “Jordanian national and longtime Hamas member who currently lives in Tehran serving as Hamas’ representative to Iran, and acting as a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government.”
It added that Qaddoumi “works to maintain strong relationships with Iran by attending delegation meetings with high-ranking Iranian officials and praising Iranian support for Hamas, including its provision of weapons.”
However, on Tuesday, an ANC representative defended the presence of the Hamas delegation at the Dec. 3 “Palestinian Solidarity Forum” held at the ANC’s Johannesburg headquarters, which also included representatives of Hamas’ putative rival, Fatah.
While stressing that the ANC remains committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the spokesperson, Obed Bapela, sympathetically summarized Hamas’ official position in an interview with the Daily Maverick news outlet.
In what appeared to be a reference to UN Security Council resolution 242 following the Six Day War of 1967 — which did not mention the Palestinians but called for Israeli withdrawal from territories captured during the conflict — Bapela said that “Hamas said they had been disappointed by the lack of the implementation of the agreement.”
He continued: “As a result, their view is that the entire Palestine be liberated, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. They can then look at modalities on how to accommodate who is there, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Palestinians.”
Bapela then accused Israel of having “put itself into a corner.”
“Should they have implemented the 1967 resolution we would not be where we are now,” he said. He added that the ANC had assured the Hamas and other Palestinian delegates that South Africa had “approached the ICC [International Criminal Court] on the issuing of an indictment of [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu to be charged for those three elements: genocide, violation of human rights, and war crimes.”
Bapela’s remarks drew a strong rebuke from the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), which has long battled the ANC’s pro-Palestinian sympathies while facing a fresh upsurge in domestic antisemitism since Oct. 7.
“Hamas made it clear to deputy minister Obed Bapela that it rejects the ANC’s policy of a two-state solution and supports the genocidal notion of ‘from the river to the sea,’” Benji Shulman — the SAZF’s director of public policy — told The Algemeiner. “Such sentiments ought to have been refuted by the organization.”
Shulman expressed concern that the ANC’s feting of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups could jeopardize South Africa’s trade agreements with the US and other countries. “Our alliance with Hamas puts trade relations with democracies at risk, including the US African Growth and Opportunity Act which provides jobs for thousands of South Africans,” he said.
Some US legislators have already expressed disquiet at the ANC’s stance. “South Africa’s ruling government stands in solidarity with Hamas — an Iranian-backed, US-designated terror group,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated in a Dec. 6 post on X/Twitter.
Risch went on to ask why US President Joe Biden’s administration “persists with its embrace of this same South African government. What is the US gaining from this policy of appeasement?”
The Johannesburg conference was addressed by Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Nkosi Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, a convert to Islam who is one of South Africa’s most outspoken anti-Zionist activists. According to a report of his remarks carried by the pro-Iranian Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen, the younger Mandela “extensively discussed the current plight of Palestinians, emphasizing the ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces” and “continuously called for the liberation of all Palestinian lands.”
While the ANC is one of the most vocal backers of Hamas among the world’s governments, Nelson Mandela himself was a stalwart supporter of Israel’s right to exist in security. An Oct. 2021 billboard campaign organized by South African Friends of Israel (SAFI) included a poster displaying a photograph of Mandela alongside a quote taken from a speech he delivered to the South African Jewish community in August 1993 that stated: “We insist on the right of the State of Israel to exist.”
The post South African Government Fetes Hamas Official Sanctioned by US Administration first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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