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Jordan, EU sign security pact to tackle serious crime, terrorism

Jordan and the EU have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at bolstering efforts to combat organized crime and terrorism across borders. (Europol)
Jordan and the EU have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at bolstering efforts to combat organized crime and terrorism across borders. (Europol)
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Jordan, EU sign security pact to tackle serious crime, terrorism

Jordan, EU sign security pact to tackle serious crime, terrorism
  • Joint action will target migrant and weapons smuggling as well as drug trafficking
  • Partnership ‘embodies mutual trust and understanding,’ says Europol executive director

AMMAN: Jordan and the EU have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at bolstering efforts to combat organized crime and terrorism across borders, the Jordan News Agency reported.

The working arrangements were signed between Jordan’s Public Security Directorate and the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, or Europol, on Thursday.

The agreement establishes a legal framework to support joint action in fighting serious and organized crime, as well as terrorism, by facilitating cooperation and the exchange of non-personal information between Europol and Jordanian law enforcement agencies.

According to a statement from the PSD, the agreement will allow both parties to coordinate on a range of issues, including migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons smuggling.

Under the deal, Jordan and the EU will share specialized expertise, overall situation reports, and the results of strategic analyzes.




he working arrangements were signed between Jordan’s Public Security Directorate and the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, or Europol, on Thursday. (Europol)

The agreement also enables participation in joint training initiatives, and includes provisions for advice and support in individual criminal investigations.

To streamline collaboration, the PSD will appoint a national contact point responsible for liaising with Europol and coordinating efforts between Jordanian agencies and their European counterparts.

The arrangements also allow for the potential appointment of a Europol liaison officer to be stationed in Jordan, joining a global network of law enforcement representatives from more than 50 countries.

With the agreement in force, the EU and Jordan are expected to significantly strengthen their cooperation in addressing pressing regional and international security challenges.

The arrangements represent “a pivotal step” in joint efforts to address the security threats affecting the EU, its member states, and Jordan, said Catherine De Bolle, executive director of Europol.

She said the partnership “embodies mutual trust and understanding in the law enforcement area,” paving the way for closer cooperation to achieve security within the EU and across the Middle East.


Fuel shortages in Gaza at ‘critical levels’, UN warns

Fuel shortages in Gaza at ‘critical levels’, UN warns
Updated 12 sec ago

Fuel shortages in Gaza at ‘critical levels’, UN warns

Fuel shortages in Gaza at ‘critical levels’, UN warns
  • UN agencies: ‘When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation’
GENEVA: The United Nations warned Saturday that dire fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip had reached “critical levels,” threatening to dramatically increase the suffering in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“After almost two years of war, people in Gaza are facing extreme hardships, including widespread food insecurity. When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation,” seven UN agencies cautioned in a joint statement.

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
Updated 12 July 2025

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
  • Israeli military says that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including four children, hospital officials said Saturday.

The children and two women were among at least 13 people who were killed in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials in Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Hospital said. Another four people were killed in strikes near a fuel station, and 15 others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military said in a statement that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas infrastructure sites. The military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment on the civilian deaths.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

US President Donald Trump has said that he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were no signs of a breakthrough.


Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources

Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources
Updated 12 July 2025

Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources

Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources
  • A source said the Syrian government considers the issue of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons a top priority
  • Syrian authorities have accused Lebanon of procrastination to repatriate its imprisoned nationals

DUBAI: The Syrian government has denied reports that Damascus intends to take escalatory measures against Beirut over the case of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon, sources said on Friday.
A source from Syria’s Ministry of Information said the Syrian government considers the issue of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons a top priority, adding that it is committed to resolving it swiftly through official channels between the two countries.
Sources close to the Syrian government were previously quoted by a television channel saying Damascus was considering diplomatic and economic escalation against Beirut.
The source claimed Damascus was considering the escalation over what it described as Lebanon’s disregard to the fate of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons, which an unnamed official related to the Syrian information ministry also denied.
Syrian authorities have accused Lebanon of procrastination to repatriate about one third of more than 2,000 of its imprisoned nationals.
The fate of the Syrian prisoners has irritated Damascus given that Lebanon had announced in March that it was ready to repatriate them.


Turkish president hails the start of disarmament by militant Kurdish separatists

Turkish president hails the start of disarmament by militant Kurdish separatists
Updated 59 min 4 sec ago

Turkish president hails the start of disarmament by militant Kurdish separatists

Turkish president hails the start of disarmament by militant Kurdish separatists
  • Today is a new day; a new page has opened in history, Erdogan said
  • Thirty PKK militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday hailed start of a disarmament process by militant Kurdish separatists as the end of a “painful chapter” in Turkey's troubled history.

Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AKP party in Ankara that the more than 40-year-old “scourge of terrorism” for which the Kurdistan Workers' Party - or PKK - was responsible is on its way to ending.

Erdogan's remarks came a day after male and female members of the PKK in northern Iraq cast rifles and machine guns into a large cauldron where they were set on fire. The symbolic move was seen as the first step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process aimed at ending four decades of hostilities.

The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm. In May the PKK announced that it would do so.

The PKK had waged an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984, initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkey.

The conflict, which spread beyond Turkey’s borders into Iraq and Syria, killed tens of thousands of people. The PKK is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have ended in failure — most recently in 2015.

“Today the doors of a great Turkey, a strong Turkey, a Turkish century have been opened wide,” Erdogan said.

In a statement issued on Friday, the PKK said the fighters who were laying down their weapons, saying that they had disarmed “as a gesture of goodwill and a commitment to the practical success” of the peace process.

“We will henceforth continue our struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism through democratic politics and legal means,” the statement said.

But Erdogan insisted that there had been no bargaining with the PKK. “The terror-free Turkey project is not the result of negotiations, bargaining or transactions.” Turkish officials have not disclosed if any concessions have been given to the PKK in exchange for laying down their arms.

The Turkish president also said that a parliamentary commission would be established to oversee the peace process.


Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say
Updated 12 July 2025

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say
  • Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March
  • US envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, will travel to Doha this week to join discussions

CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces’ withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless expected to continue, the sources said, despite the latest obstacles in clinching a deal.

A Palestinian source said that Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps which Israel has proposed, as they would leave around 40 percent of the territory under Israeli control, including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.

Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.

The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis may be resolved with more US intervention.

The White House said on Monday that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, will travel to Doha this week to join discussions there.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.

Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages are released and Hamas is dismantled.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.

Israel’s subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.