Blog

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey supports efforts to establish a permanent peace in Ukraine with the participation of all parties, President Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Wednesday, the Turkish presidency said.

Erdogan also told Putin he was closely following developments related to the process, and that Turkey had strived for a just peace since the beginning of the war, it said.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel-Atti has firmly stated that Cairo will not tolerate any plans for the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. In an interview with CNN, he declared, “We will not allow this to happen. The displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip is a ‘red line.’”

Abdel-Atti emphasised that Egypt is actively engaged in various diplomatic channels to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, underscoring the…

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo plans to visit Lebanon, the country’s senior Catholic official announced on Wednesday, in what could be the first visit outside Italy by the new leader of the global Church.

The pope will travel to Lebanon “by December”, Cardinal Bechara Rai told the al-Arabiya television channel.

Rai, leader of the 3.5-million-member Maronite Catholic Church, did not give a specific date for the visit but said “preparations are already underway”.

A Lebanese…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised French President Emmanuel Macron’s call to recognise Palestine as a state, claiming it fuels “the antisemitism fire”.

In a message sent to Macron, Netanyahu said that antisemitism “has risen sharply” in France since the French president’s announcement.

He added, “Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire. It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas…