MIDEAST/INTERNATIONAL 9

ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2016

Attack killed 38 tourists

Tunisia commemorates victims of beach massacrePORT EL KANTAOUI, Tunisia, June 27, (AFP): Tunisia held a minute’s silence Sunday mark-ing one year since a seaside at-tack claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 38 tourists in-cluding 30 Britons in the North African country.

Tunisia’s Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi Rekik and Brit-ish Foreign Office official To-bias Ellwood laid down flowers to remember the victims of the shooting in the town of Port El Kantaoui south of the capital.

A priest then called out the names of the victims under the watchful eye of security forces, who were out in high numbers for the occasion.

Hotel employees as well as diplomats from Germany, Por-tugal, Ireland, Belgium and Rus-sia — whose countries also lost victims in the attack — also at-tended the ceremony.

Tourists fled in horror on June 26 last year, as a Tunisian gun-man pulled a Kalashnikov rifle from inside a furled beach um-

brella and went on a shooting spree outside a five-star hotel near the city of Sousse.

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has suffered from a wave of jihadist violence since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abi-dine Ben Ali.

The beach bloodbath was the second of two deadly jihadist at-tacks that dealt heavy blows to the country’s vital tourism sector last year, following four years of decline due to political instability.

The shooting came just months after 21 tourists and a policeman were killed in another attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis. Both were claimed by IS.

In November, a suicide bomb-ing in the capital — also claimed by the jihadist group — killed 12 members of the presidential guard.

The authorities implemented a state of emergency, which re-mains in place after it was ex-tended for the fourth time on Monday.

Reconciliation deal with Turkeypromotes ME ‘stability’ – Israel

Ban welcomes hopeful signal for region

ROME, June 27, (Agencies): Israel and Turkey have an-nounced a reconciliation deal to end a bitter six-year rift between the Mideast powers.

In Rome, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the deal would help bring “stability” to the turbulent Middle East.

His Turkish counterpart, Binali Yildirim, made a simultaneous announcement in Ankara.

Relations between the once-close allies imploded six years ago after an Israeli naval raid killed nine Turks on board an aid ship trying to breach Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Under Monday’s deal, the two countries will restore full diplomatic relations. Israel will pay $20 million in compensation, and it will allow Turkey to carry out a series of aid projects in Gaza.

Yildirim said the deal “largely” lifted the Israeli blockade, while Netanyahu said the blockade remains in place.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday welcomed a deal between Israel and Turkey to normalise relations after years of acrimony, calling it a “hopeful signal for the stability of the region.”

“I welcome today’s announcement of the normalisation of relations between Israel and Turkey,” Ban told journalists as he met Israeli President Reuven Riv-lin.

Israel and Turkey have reached a deal to normalise relations that soured after a

Afghan devotees perform a special evening ‘Taraweeh’ prayer during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at a mosque in Herat on June 25. Muslims throughout the world are marking the month of Ramadan, the holiest month

in the Islamic calendar, during which devotees fast from dawn until dusk. (AFP)

No jobs … no fields … nothing

Niger’s Diffa suffers under Boko HaramDIFFA, Niger, June 27, (AFP): Out-side the Diffa grand mosque in Ni-ger’s southeast, two soldiers stand at the ready, rifles pointed at the wave of worshippers walking towards them.

Unbidden, the men raise their “bou-bous”, the traditional wide-sleeved robes worn across West Africa. They need to show they’re not hiding explo-sives under the tunics.

This is one of the ways that Boko Haram insurgents have changed life in Diffa, the regional capital of a territory of 600,000 people situated uncomfort-ably close to the border with Nigeria.

The attacks by the Nigeria-based Is-lamists, the swarms of refugees from the violence, and government security measures to combat Boko Haram have combined also to strangle the local economy.

“There are no more customers,” said Mamane Noure Abdou, owner of a half-empty store selling peanuts and drinks. “People are afraid or have fled.” “There’s no money, no jobs, no fields (to tend), nothing,” he added, saying his profits have dropped by a third compared to 2015.

In its quest to form a hardline Is-lamic state, Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

Extending the attacks to neighbour-ing countries, the group has prompted a regional military fightback involving troops from Niger, Chad and Camer-oon as well as Nigeria.

Some 2,000 Chadian soldiers cur-rently are set to launch a counter-of-fensive against the group in the region,

in coordination with Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.

In an effort to protect its citizens, Niger has imposed security mea-sures in the southeast which have further slowed down the country’s economy.

In March 2015, the local governor evacuated some 25,000 people living on the nearby islands of Lake Chad, many of whom resettled in Diffa.

He also suspended trade in fish and pepper, the region’s most important products, and banned motorcycles -- the leading local mode of transport -- because they had been used by Boko Haram fighters to get around.

CurfewThen he slapped a curfew on night-

time traffic.“We don’t do anything anymore,”

said mechanic Mohamed Ali. “We just sit around.”

A year ago, Ali, 22, was the proud owner of a motorcycle repair shop set up in the space next to Abdou’s small grocery store.

Now the shop has become a “fada”, or gathering place, where mats cover the floor, and Ali is unemployed.

About 13,000 people in all have lost their jobs because of the motor-bike ban, according to a civil society source.

“I hold it against Boko Haram, but the measure wasn’t well thought out,” said Ali, who “really misses” the en-gines.

On the other hand, the motorcycle ban proved to be good news for Ad-ama Malamari, a onetime motorcycle

taxi-driver, who swapped his two-wheeler for a four-door.

“We sold the motorcycle and oth-er things and bought our taxi,” the 22-year-old said.

Malamari said he makes more mon-ey now though his work is more dif-ficult because of the state of the roads, the police roadblocks, and the thou-sands of inexperienced drivers.

Couriers have been hardest hit by the crisis, many simply walking away from the job, said Sabou Ali, the region’s secretary general in charge of couri-ers. “There is insecurity on the roads because of Boko Haram,” he said. “We have lost all activity in the forbidden zones”, such as the islands and regions evacuated by the authorities. “Roads and markets have been closed, traffic has slowed,” Sabou Ali added, saying that costs have also risen.

It used to cost 400 CFA francs (0.60 euros, 88 US cents) a litre to fuel up a truck on petrol from Nigeria, but now 530 CFA francs.

Pepper, a local speciality, too has been impacted by the violence and se-curity measures, with most of the local farmers now displaced and living on international aid. Buyers who resold the commodity in cities such as Niamey in the west and Zinder in south central Ni-ger meanwhile no longer work.

“It’s been six months since I’ve bought anything,” said Bra Boulama, a trader who estimated that pepper used to account for 20,000 jobs. “I’m down to my last stocks and I don’t know what I’ll do.” “If the situation doesn’t improve,” said grocery owner Abdou, “we’ll leave Diffa.”

Tunisia’s Tourism Minister, Salma Rekik Elloumi (right), lays a wreath of flowers on the beach on June 26, during a ceremony in memory of those killed a year ago by a jihadist gunman in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Port el Kantaoui, on the outskirts of

Sousse south of the capital Tunis. (AFP)

2010 Israeli raid on an aid fl otilla that left 10 Turkish nationals dead.

Here are some questions and an-swers on the agreement:

Why is it signifi cant?NATO-member Turkey and Israel

are two key Middle Eastern pow-ers at a time when Western nations are seeking cooperation in the fi ght against extremists from the Islamic State group.

Israel is also deeply concerned with limiting the regional infl uence of its arch-foe Iran, and Turkey and Iran remain on opposing sides of the fi ve-year civil war in Syria.

There are also important economic and energy considerations.

Why now?Turkey has been moving to restore

its waning regional clout after a drastic worsening of its ties with Russia fol-lowing Ankara’s downing of a Russian warplane over Syria on Nov 24.

Besides downgraded relations with Israel, Ankara has also reduced ties with Egypt and has failed to oust Syr-ian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel was also motivated to fi nd new allies in the region, in part due to a need for export partners for its natural gas. There has been talk of building a pipeline to Turkey.

It has also found itself under in-creasing pressure over the lack of any progress on peace efforts with the Palestinians and has sought to build relationships with regional countries partly to counter such criticism.

What caused the dispute?The Muslim majority country and

the Jewish state were once close allies, but ambassadors were withdrawn fol-lowing the deadly storming by Israeli commandos in 2010 of a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza.

The ship was part of a fl otilla seek-ing to run Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Nine activists aboard the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara ferry were killed, with a 10th person later dying of his wounds. All of those killed were Turkish nationals.

Aside from the Mavi Marmara inci-dent, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a stout supporter of the Pal-estinian cause, had raised hackles in Israel with his sometimes infl amma-tory rhetoric towards it.

What are the conditions of the deal?

The deal is to result in the restora-tion of ambassadors, an Israeli offi cial said on condition of anonymity.

Two of Turkey’s key conditions — an apology and compensation — were largely met earlier.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologised to Erdogan in a breakthrough engineered by US Presi-dent Barack Obama during a visit to Jerusalem in 2013.

Israel has also agreed to pay some $20 million into a fund for compensa-tion for the Turkish victims’ families, and in return all claims against Israeli soldiers will be dropped.

The third demand — that Israel lift its blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip — proved the toughest to over-come.

A compromise was reached in which Israel will reportedly allow the completion of a much-needed hospital in Gaza, as well as the construction of a new power station and a desalination plant for drinking water.

Turkey’s aid to Gaza would also be channelled through the Israeli port of Ashdod rather than sending it directly to the Palestinian enclave, the reports said.

Turkey has also committed to keep-ing Islamist movement Hamas from carrying out activities against Israel from its country, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Hamas would continue to be able to operate from Turkey for diplomatic purposes, the paper said.

Erdogan has also agreed to assist in having Hamas hand over four miss-ing Israelis, according to an Israeli offi cial who spoke on condition of anonymity. They include the remains of two soldiers presumed dead and two civilians believed held alive by Hamas in Gaza.

‘Interpreters could be in serious danger’

WASHINGTON, June 27, (AP): Afghan civilians who assisted the American-led coalition as interpreters, firefighters and construction workers are in danger of being harmed or killed by the Taleban if Congress cancels a program that allows them to resettle in the United States, ac-cording to the top American commander in Afghanistan.

The warning from Army Gen John Nicholson comes with the future of the so-called special immigrant visa pro-gram in doubt as the Senate opens up de-bate Wednesday on the annual defense policy bill.

The program’s backers, who include Sen John McCain, the Republican chair-man of the Senate Armed Services Com-mittee, said it’s unconscionable to deny entry to Afghans who are considered traitors by insurgent groups for siding with the coalition. Nicholson’s remarks, outlined in a May 20 letter to McCain, underscore that concern.

Opposition to the program centers on the potential $446 million price tag of expanding the program and concerns that issuing visas to the thousands of Afghans who aided the US and its allies will drain Afghanistan of much needed talent.

Nicholson told McCain that aban-doning the special visa program would “significantly undermine” US credibility and 15 years of enormous personal costs made since US forces invaded Afghani-stan.

Failure“Failure to adequately demonstrate a

shared understanding of their sacrifices and honor our commitment to any Af-ghan who supports the International Security Assistance Force and Reso-lute Support missions could have grave consequences for these individuals and bolster the propaganda our enemies,” Nicholson wrote.

Congress has added 7,000 visas to the program over the last two years alone to meet the demand and the Obama admin-istration requested 4,000 more for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1. Since De-cember 2014, the State Department has issued 3,200 special immigrant visas to Afghans who worked for the coalition. Thousands more visas are being pro-cessed through a pipeline that can take 270 days from start to finish.

“We’re going to run out of visas by the end of the year,” said Sen Jeanne

Shaheen, DNH, who plans to offer an amendment in the Senate with McCain to extend and expand the visa program.

The Congressional Budget Office es-timated the additional 4,000 visas would cost $446 million over the next 10 years. Afghans who resettle in the US become lawful permanent residents and are enti-tled to federally supported benefits such as Medicaid, subsidies for health care and food stamps.

Sen Jeff Sessions, R-Ala, who objects to increasing the number of visas, cited the future expense and said it’s not clear more visas are needed when so many haven’t been used. He also cautioned that the visa program could lead to a brain-drain in Afghanistan.

Careful“We just need to be careful about

this,” he said. “Just because you’ve got applicants doesn’t mean every one of them is deserving of acceptance.”

Sen Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Com-mittee, has raised questions about how well the program is being managed and the severity of the threats facing the Af-ghans.

Shaheen, a member of the Armed Ser-vices Committee, called objections over the cost a “red herring.” The expenses would be offset by cost-saving measures found elsewhere in the Defense Depart-ment budget, she said.

“What they’re trying to do is divert at-tention away from the importance of the program,” she said.

In the GOP-led House’s version of the defense bill, lawmakers refused to provide the 4,000 additional visas. They did extend the program for a year, but restricted eligibility for visas only to Afghans whose jobs took them outside the confines of a military base or secured facility.

“It’s shocking,” he said of attempts to scuttle the program. “We have a moral obligation to help people who risked their lives to help us.”

Betsy Fisher, policy director of the In-ternational Refugee Assistance Project, said the costs projected by the budget office may end up being much lower. Many of the Afghans coming to the US are educated, productive members of society who will get jobs and pay taxes, she said.

“I’m optimistic an agreement will be reached,” she said.

Preserve Afghan visa program,says top American commander

An image grab made on June 25, from a video released by head of Islam-ist group Ansar Dine, Iyad Ag Ghaly, shows Ag Ghaly reiterating threats against France and the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in Mali. The 11-minute clip, delivered in Arabic and the Tuareg language Tamasheq, is

Ag Ghaly’s first since one posted online on Aug 5, 2014. (AFP)

Ansar threatensFrance and UNDAKAR, June 27, (AFP): The head of Islamist group Ansar Dine, Iyad Ag Ghaly, has released his fi rst vid-eo in 22 months, reiterating threats against France and the United Na-tions’ peacekeeping mission in Mali.

In the footage given to AFP at the weekend, Ag Ghaly singles out a vio-lent protest in Kidal in northeastern Mali in April against French forces and the 12,000-strong peacekeeping mis-sion, known as MINUSMA, as an ex-ample of ways to confront “the crusad-ers’ military machine”. The 11-minute clip, delivered in Arabic and the Tuareg language Tamasheq, is Ag Ghaly’s fi rst since one posted online on Aug 5, 2014.