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17 Sept 2018 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy
Articles
'We're cooking leaves': Civilians caught in Yemen's war
AlJazeera, 17 Sep 2018
As the UN envoy steps up efforts to revive talks to end the three-year-old civil war, fighting is intensifying across the country. But it is the country’s civilians that bear the brunt of the suffering, forced to eat vegetation in spite of the adverse side effects it causes.
When rescue at sea becomes a crime: who the Tunisian fishermen arrested in Italy really are
openDemocracy , 15 Sep 2018
On the night of Wednesday, August 29, 2018, six Tunisian fishermen were arrested in Italy. Earlier that day, they had set off from their hometown of Zarzis, the last important Tunisian port before Libya, to cast their nets in the open sea between North Africa and Sicily. The fishermen then sighted a small vessel whose engine had broken, and that had started taking in water. After giving the fourteen passengers water, milk and bread – which the fishermen carry in abundance, knowing they might encounter refugee boats in distress – they tried making contact with the Italian coastguard.
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German minister can't rule out longer-term military role in Middle East
Reuters, 15 Sep 2018
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday said she could not rule out a longer-term deployment of German forces in the Middle East, amid a broader debate about a role for Germany in possible military action Syria. Von der Leyen spoke during a visit to the Azraq air base in Jordan where some 300 German troops support a refueling plane and four Tornado warplanes that fly reconnaissance missions as part of U.S. led-coalition operations against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
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Palestinian official says U.S. will never present Middle East peace plan
Reuters, 15 Sep 2018
The United States will not present its long-awaited plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace any time soon and is instead trying to unilaterally change the terms of reference for any future proposal, a senior Palestinian official said on Saturday.Echoing deep scepticism among the Palestinians, Arab countries and analysts, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said that the Trump administration was siding with Israel on the core issues of the decades-old conflict, burying all chances for Middle East peace.
EU's Juncker eyes free trade pact with Africa
Reuters, 12 Sep 2018
The European Union should offer a free trade agreement to the whole of the African continent and a new investment alliance, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a keynote speech on Wednesday. Among various proposals for EU action to bolster prosperity in the world’s poorest continent and Europe’s close neighbour, the Commission chief called for a more equal partnership and investment rather than aid, as Europeans look for ways to stem an economic divide driving Africans to try to migrate northward.