World

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi landed in Israel on Monday as the EU seeks to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel imports. 

Both leaders were due to hold energy talks in Israel, which has turned from a natural gas importer into an exporter in recent years because of major offshore finds.

Von der Leyen was to meet Foreign Minister Yair Lapid later Monday and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday, with talks expected to focus “in particular on energy cooperation”, a commission statement said.

Draghi, on his first Middle East trip since taking office last year, will also discuss energy and food security during his two-day trip, Italian media reported.  

Both leaders will on Tuesday meet Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The EU this month formally adopted a ban on most Russian oil imports, its toughest sanctions yet over the war in Ukraine. Von der Leyen has suggested the bloc end its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, including gas, by 2027.

Draghi and other EU leaders have warned European customers may need protection as energy costs continue to rise.  

Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar and other officials have said their country could help meet EU demand if it can deliver gas from its offshore reserves estimated at nearly 1,000 billion cubic metres.

Ahead of Von der Leyen’s visit, European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant told reporters to “stay tuned for announcements that we are going to make on energy cooperation with Israel and other partners in the region”.

– Export options –

For now, getting Israeli gas to Europe is fraught with challenges and would require major and long-term infrastructure investments. 

With no pipeline linking its offshore fields to Europe, one option for now is piping natural gas to Egypt, where it could be liquified for export by ship to Europe. 

Another possible scenario is building a pipeline to Turkey. 

Israel’s ties with Ankara have thawed after more than a decade of diplomatic rupture and experts have said Turkey’s desire for joint energy projects has partly triggered its outreach to Israel.  

That pipeline project would take $1.5 billion and two to three years to complete, according to Israel’s former energy minister Yuval Steizitz, now an opposition lawmaker. 

Option three is known as the EastMed project, a proposal for a seafloor pipeline linking Israel with Cyprus and Greece. 

Experts have, however, raised concerns about the cost and viability of the project, while Israel has said it would like to see Italy sign on. 

A spokesperson for Elharrar, the Israeli energy minister, told AFP on Monday there have been talks since March to create an agreement or legal framework to enable Israeli gas exports to Europe via Egypt.

Further complicating Israel’s offshore gas production is a long-running maritime border dispute with Lebanon. 

The neighbours technically remain at war but have agreed to US-mediated talks aimed at delineating the border to allow both countries to boost exploration. 

Talks broke down last year but Israel has urged Lebanon to re-engage. 

Tensions flared this month following a Lebanese claim that Israeli production was taking place in contested waters.

Israel countered that the area was located clearly south of the disputed zone. 

The US envoy mediating the maritime border talks, Amos Hochstein, was due in Lebanon on Monday. 

Dozens of Afghan women concealed in thick green shawls were married off in an austere mass wedding in Kabul on Monday, in a ceremony attended by hundreds of guests and gun-toting Taliban fighters.

Marriage is a costly affair in deeply impoverished Afghanistan, traditionally involving huge dowries, expensive gifts and lavish parties.

Historically, couples from families unable to foot the bill have sometimes opted to pool their resources in low-cost large scale marriages.

Monday’s ceremony hitching 70 couples was one of the largest recently witnessed in Afghanistan, currently in economic freefall since the return of the Taliban.

“Today, no young man wants to bear the burden of an expensive wedding,” said groom Ebadullah Niazai, who had waited eight years to be married.

“I have no job. We were short of money and so we decided to marry at a mass wedding ceremony,” said 22 year-old groom Esmatullah Bashardost, who hails from the minority Shiite Hazara community.

Bashardost, sporting a traditional Afghan cap, said his wedding would likely be the most “happy day” of his life.

However celebrations were dramatically dampened by frigid restrictions the Taliban have imposed on social life.

Before they seized power in August weddings were riotously colourful affairs marked with singing, dancing, and some degree of mingling between men and women in the deeply conservative nation.

On Monday the brides and grooms were kept separate throughout the ceremony.

Guests of opposite sexes were separated by around a dozen Taliban fighters patrolling with weapons, and the only entertainment was poetry recitations and speeches by charity organisers of the event.

Journalists were not allowed to speak to the brides, who wore crisp white gowns under their concealing shawls, but were permitted to photograph and film them.

A red and white wedding cake was produced for each couple, but was placed in front of the men only, who wore traditional white shalwar kameez.

The event ended as grooms — each sporting a plastic name badge — collected their brides and left the venue in cars decorated with flowers and ribbons.

A single day booking at a Kabul wedding hall costs between $10,000 and $20,000 and organiser Sayed Ahmad Selab said some betrothed couples were “waiting for years” because of the expense.

During their first regime between 1996 and 2001 the Taliban barred showy weddings.

After surging back to power on the heels of a hasty US withdrawal, the Islamists have yet to reinstate their previous ban but they have forbidden musical entertainment.

Meanwhile, they have also issued creeping restrictions on women, segregating them from men and rolling back marginal gains they made over the past two decades.

In May women were told to stay at home as much as possible and to conceal themselves completely, including their faces, should they need to step out in public.

Clashes in Sudan’s Darfur between Arab and non-Arab groups have killed more than 100 people, adding to a toll of hundreds in the region over recent months.

The latest fighting broke out last week between the Arab Rizeigat and non-Arab Gimir tribes in the district of Kolbus, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) from El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state. 

It started as a land dispute between two people, one from the Rizeigat and another from the Gimir, before morphing into broader violence involving other members from both tribes. 

“The fighting has so far killed 117 people and left 17 villages burnt,” including three on Monday, Ibrahim Hashem, a leader in the ethnic African Gimir tribe, told AFP by phone.  

Hashem said the deaths counted so far were largely among the Gimir tribe. He added that “many people” from his tribe have gone missing since the violence broke out and which was continuing. 

It was not immediately clear how many were killed among the Arab tribe. 

The latest violence highlighted a broader security breakdown in Darfur which was exacerbated by last year’s military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. 

The October coup derailed a fragile transition put in place following the 2019 ouster of president Omar al-Bashir. 

– ‘Cycle of violence’ –

In April alone, more than 200 people were killed in clashes between an Arab community and the non-Arab Massalit minority in the Krink area of West Darfur. 

The United Nations estimated 125,000 people were displaced in that unrest.

A month earlier, fighting in South Darfur between the ethnic Fallata and the Arab Rizeigat tribes killed at least 45 people.

On Monday, UN special representative Volker Perthes said he was “appalled” by the violence in Kolbus. 

“The cycle of violence in Darfur is unacceptable & highlights root causes that must be addressed,” he said on Twitter.

Perthes called on the fighting sides to “de-escalate”. 

Sudan’s western Darfur region was ravaged by a bitter civil war that erupted in 2003.

The conflict pitted ethnic minority rebels who complained of discrimination against the Arab-dominated government of  then-president Bashir.

Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, who were blamed for atrocities including murder, rape, looting and burning villages.

The scorched-earth campaign left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million, according to the United Nations.

Many Janjaweed have since been integrated into the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, de facto deputy leader of Sudan, according to rights groups.

In 2020, Sudan signed a peace deal with key rebel groups including from Darfur.

The main conflict has subsided over the years, but the region remains awash with weapons and deadly clashes often erupt over access to pasture or water. 

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi were headed to Israel Monday as the EU seeks to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel imports. 

Both leaders were due to hold energy talks in Israel, which has turned from a natural gas importer into an exporter in recent years because of major offshore finds.

Von der Leyen was to meet Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday, with talks expected to focus “in particular on energy cooperation,” a commission statement said.

Mario Draghi, on his first Middle East trip since taking office last year, will also discuss energy and food security during his two-day trip, Italian media reported.  

Both leaders will on Tuesday meet Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh in the occupied West Bank.

The EU this month formally adopted a ban on most Russian oil imports, its toughest sanctions yet over the war in Ukraine. Von der Leyen has suggested the bloc end its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, including gas, by 2027.

Draghi and other EU leaders have warned European customers may need protection as energy costs continue to rise.  

Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar and other officials have said their country could help meet EU demand if it can deliver gas from its offshore reserves estimated at nearly 1,000 billion cubic metres.

Ahead of Von der Leyen’s visit, European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant told reporters to “stay tuned for announcements that we are going to make on energy cooperation with Israel and other partners in the region.”

– Export options –

For now, getting Israeli gas to Europe is fraught with challenges and would require major and long-term infrastructure investments. 

With no pipeline linking its offshore fields to Europe, one option for now is piping natural gas to Egypt, where it could be liquified for export by ship to Europe. 

Another possible scenario is building a pipeline to Turkey. 

Israel’s ties with Ankara have thawed after more than a decade of diplomatic rupture and experts have said Turkey’s desire for joint energy projects has partly triggered its outreach to Israel.  

That pipeline project would take $1.5 billion and two to three years to complete, according to Israel’s former energy minister Yuval Steizitz, now an opposition lawmaker. 

Option three is known as the EastMed project, a proposal for a seafloor pipeline linking Israel with Cyprus and Greece. 

Experts have, however, raised concerns about the cost and viability of the project, while Israel has said it would like to see Italy sign on. 

Further complicating Israel’s offshore gas production is a long-running maritime border dispute with Lebanon. 

The neighbours technically remain at war but have agreed to US-mediated talks aimed at delineating the border to allow both countries to boost exploration. 

Talks broke down last year but Israel has urged Lebanon to re-engage. 

Tensions flared this month following a Lebanese claim that Israeli production was taking place in contested waters.

Israel countered that the area was located clearly south of the disputed zone. 

The US envoy mediating the maritime border talks, Amos Hochstein, was due in Lebanon on Monday.