GAZA – After months of deadlock, there are new signs that Israel and Hamas could be moving closer to a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. A senior Palestinian official involved in the indirect negotiations told the BBC that talks were in a “decisive and final phase”. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has also said an agreement is closer than ever. In recent weeks, the US, Qatar and Egypt have resumed their mediation efforts – reporting greater willingness by both sides in this 14-month war to conclude a deal.

An Israeli delegation described as “working level” is currently in the Qatar capital Doha, amid a flurry of diplomatic comings and goings in the region. The Palestinian official outlined a three-phase plan which would see civilians and women soldiers held hostage in Gaza released in the first 45 days, with Israeli forces pulling out of city centres, the coastal road and the strategic strip of land along the border with Egypt. There would be a mechanism for displaced Gazans to be able to return to the north of the territory, the official said. A second stage would see remaining hostages freed and troops withdrawn before the third stage ending the war. Of 96 hostages still held in Gaza, 62 are assumed by Israel to still be alive. The plan appears to be based on the deal US President Joe Biden outlined on 31 May and reports from all sides stress there are key details to work out. A round of talks in mid-October failed to produce a deal, with Hamas rejecting a short-term ceasefire proposal. (BBC)

Photo: The plan would see hostages released in step with Israeli withdrawals in Gaza. (BBC)

The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has thrown its weight behind set criteria being established for choosing a presidential candidate for a grand coalition to contest the 2025 elections. Last week, Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, told reporters at the People’s National Congress’s weekly press conference that he believes criteria should be laid out to select the ‘right’ person to be the presidential candidate. Co Leader of the WPA, Dr David Hinds, told reporters on Monday, during their party’s press conference, that his party does not have a candidate and therefore cannot be burdened with the stress of finding one. However, they do have an interest in who will become the consensus candidate to represent them come next year.

“So we agree with the PNC that there should be declared guidelines as to how we arrive at the consensus candidate. We have not given much thought to a candidate coming from outside of the political parties, but we would not object to such a proposal,” Dr Hinds said. He reasoned that if a proposal is put on the table, it would be discussed but they feel that there is still time, as “in arriving at a consensus candidate, we feel that we have to have a consensus programme, as we said, a consensus approach to governance, and I think out of that consensus programme, out of that consensus approach to governance, we may get an insight into the type of person or candidate who should head the ticket.” He explained there is also the gender perspective and if the coalition can arrive at this ‘top ticket’ to reflect the multi-ethnic nature and the gender dynamics in the society, “we will get the best of all, but at the minimum, we will insist, that the top of the ticket reflects the multi-ethnic nature of the society.”

Norton told reporters that the intellect of the person who will lead the coalition must be examined thoroughly, if that person is to compete as head of the combined opposition at the 2025 General and Regional Elections. “This cannot be some arbitrary thing, in which somebody flies from the sky and decide that they will be president. One of the things for me, a leader of a political party has to be able to do, is to withstand pressure… not resign as soon as some pressure comes to you, and while I wouldn’t attack anyone, when it comes to dealing with a presidential candidate, we will have to identity the criteria and see who fits the criteria, and I am prepared to be involved in that process,” Norton said. The PNCR leader explained that he is guided by the PNCR and that party has made it clear that he should be the presidential candidate. However, if there is a chance that another person is being considered, then as party leader he would be the one to make the decision. “I would say this to you, I would do everything to ensure that we get rid of the PPP. And that guarantee I give to you. We must weaken this government. We must do everything [and] if it demands coalition to change this government, we will do that, because the worse thing for the people of Guyana, at this stage, is the Irfaan Ali Government,” Norton told reporters. (Kaieteur News)

Photo: Co leader of the WPA Dr David Hinds. (Kaieteur News)

JORDAN  –   An Iranian-American citizen and a Swiss Iranian have been arrested and charged by United States authorities, with allegedly exporting sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a deadly drone attack on American forces based in Jordan. Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed fighters, was alleged to have carried out the drone attack that killed three US soldiers and wounded 47 others at a US military outpost in Jordan, near the Syrian border, in January. Federal prosecutors in Boston charged 38-year-old Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, who is known as Mohammad Abedini, the co-founder of an Iranian-based company, and Mahdi Sadeghi, 42, an employee of Massachusetts-based semiconductor manufacturer Analog Devices, with conspiring to violate US export laws. Abedini, a dual citizen of Switzerland and Iran, was arrested in Milan, Italy, at the request of the US government, which will seek his extradition. Sadeghi, an Iranian-born naturalised US citizen, who lives in Natick, Massachusetts, was also arrested.

“Today, working with our partners here and abroad, we have charged and arrested two men who conspired to evade US sanctions and supply the Iranian government with the type of drone navigation technology used in that attack,” US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. Joshua Levy, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, said the FBI had traced sophisticated navigation equipment used in the drone to Abedini’s Iranian company, SDRA, which manufactured the navigation system. Abedini, Levy said, had used a company in Switzerland as a front to procure US technologies from Sadeghi’s employer, including accelerometers and gyroscopes that were then sent to Iran. On multiple occasions since 2016, Sadeghi had helped Abedini procure US export-controlled electric components, the US Justice Department said in a statement.

During a brief court hearing, Sadeghi was ordered detained pending a further hearing after a prosecutor called him a flight risk. His court-appointed lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Abedini could not be identified. Court papers do not identify Sadeghi’s employer by name, but Analog Devices in a statement confirmed he worked for the company. Analog Devices said it was cooperating with law enforcement and was “committed to preventing unauthorised access to and misuse of our products and technology”. The US Justice Department said the prosecution of the two men was coordinated through the US government’s Disruptive Technology Strike Force, an interagency force focused on “illicit actors” and protecting supply chains in order to prevent sensitive technology from being acquired by “hostile nation states”. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: The US soldiers killed in a drone strike in Jordan on January 28, 2024: Left to right, Kennedy Sanders, William Jerome Rivers, and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett. (AP)

SPAIN – Madrid, Spain (AFP) – Spain’s central bank raised its 2024 growth forecast by 0.3 percentage points on Tuesday despite the impact of the devastating October 29 floods, the country’s worst such disaster in decades. The Bank of Spain predicted in a report that gross domestic product in the European Union’s fourth-largest economy would grow by 3.1 percent this year, an increase of 0.4 percentage points on 2023. The floods killed 231 people and laid waste to swathes of the eastern Valencia region, an industrial and agricultural powerhouse and home to one of Europe’s busiest cargo ports. Bank of Spain governor, Jose Luis Escriva, estimated last month that the costly damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and fields could shave up to 0.2 percentage points off growth in the final quarter.

But in its latest report the bank said the catastrophe would only “weigh down slightly on activity”, slowing final-quarter growth by between 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points. “The uncertainty surrounding this estimate is high due to the difficulty in assessing the impact” of the floods, it wrote.

The improved forecast for 2024 is based on an acceleration of the economy in the second half of the year that exceeded expectations and fresh data published by the National Statistics Institute. Spain’s economy has been growing faster than the eurozone average this year after recovering from the COVID-19 crisis, providing vital political oxygen to the often beleaguered minority left-wing government. The bank also increased its growth forecast for 2025 by 0.3 percentage points to 2.5 percent. (Jamaicaobserver)