Arabic press review: US officials request to meet Tunisia's Ghannouchi

US delegation requests to meet Ghannouchi

Arabi21 quoted well-informed sources in Tunisia as saying that a US delegation - which is currently visiting Tunisia - had requested urgently to meet parliament speaker and leader of the largest party, Rached Ghannouchi.

However, the sources said that influential officials in the Tunisian presidency were rejecting the meeting and had been exerting pressures to prevent it from taking place.

The same sources suggested that the meeting would take place in the coming hours and at the latest within a few days.

A high-level US delegation handed Tunisian President Kais Saied a written message from US President Joe Biden last Friday.

The Tunisian presidency said that the president met with a US delegation headed by Jonathan Viner, assistant national security adviser, who informed Saied that the US president was following the recent developments in Tunisia.

Viner said the United States supported the democratic path in Tunisia, and looked forward to the president's next steps.

This official visit comes after President Saied froze all the powers of parliament, lifted the immunity of MPs, and assumed executive power in what has been branded a "coup" by many observers.

Congress leaders urged to act on Israel demolitions

Pro-Palestinian groups have called on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Speaker of the Democratic Majority in the House, Chuck Schumer, for immediate intervention to stop Israel's planned demolition of 16 homes in Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem.

The Palestine News Agency (Wafa) quoted a statement issued by 12 organisations calling for pressure on Israel to stop the demolitions and end its policy of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians.

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"Since May 2021, hundreds of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, including families in Al-Bustan neighbourhood, have faced the risk of arbitrary expulsion," the statement said,

The campaign included proposed texts in the event of contact with Pelosi and Schumer asking them to pressure the occupation government immediately to stop the scheduled evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Silwan neighbourhood, Jerusalem.

First Israeli baby born in UAE

The city of Dubai witnessed the birth of the first Israeli baby on the soil of the United Arab Emirates, according to the Israel in the Gulf Twitter account, which is affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The tweet described the birth as a "historic moment" after the wife of the Israeli consul gave birth to a daughter.

Israel in the Gulf wrote: "Historic moments. The wife of the Israeli consul in Dubai, Ilan Shtulman, gave birth to a girl, the first Israeli baby born on the land of the United Arab Emirates."

The account stated that Shtoleman, head of the Israeli consulate in Dubai, had a baby girl with his wife, Jackie, whom they named Mia, in a hospital in Dubai.

He pointed out that he received congratulations from local officials in Dubai, including the police chief, who came to the hospital himself to congratulate him on this historic event.

The Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid, visited the UAE in late June to inaugurate the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi and its consulate in Dubai.

Syrians seek refuge in opposition areas

Syrian opposition areas in northern Syria have been daily witnessing the arrival of displaced persons from areas under government control, owing to the deterioration of the living situation there, according to a report published by the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

Ahmed Shahaby, a field activist in the city of Al-Bab, north of Aleppo, says that "families from the regime's areas arrive on a daily basis through smuggling routes supervised by local militia leaders within the regime's areas."

Shahaby added that “local militias are working to smuggle family members to our areas in exchange for large sums of money amounting to $1,500 per family," according to the newspaper.

The Syrian economy has been in its worst state for years, following the US Caesar Act sanctions, causing extreme shortages of fuel and the high cost of bread, in addition to the rocketing prices of medicine and basic commodities, said the report.

A person named "Abu Yasser" stated that begging has become a daily phenomenon in Syria, noting that he sought refuge, along with one of his relatives, in the opposition-controlled city of Al-Bab after selling his house in the city of Hama.