��������

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said Tuesday Israel was pursuing “a war of starvation and genocide” in Gaza, and denied accusations Cairo prevented life-saving aid from entering the Palestinian territory.
“The war in Gaza is no longer merely a war to achieve political goals or release hostages,” El-Sisi told a press conference in Cairo along with his Vietnamese counterpart.
Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, vowing to crush the Palestinian militant group and to free hostages.
To El-Sisi, “this war has long since surpassed any logic or justification, and has become a war of starvation and genocide.”
“There is systematic genocide to eradicate the Palestinian cause,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday Israel must “complete” the defeat of Hamas to free hostages held in Gaza, a day after Israeli media reported the army could occupy the entire territory.
Israel has heavily restricted aid into Gaza which is slipping into a catastrophic famine 22 months into the war.
It has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Following mounting international pressure on Israel, in late May aid has only began trickling into Gaza, which borders Israel and Egypt.
In response to what El-Sisi said were “bankrupt” accusations of Egypt’s complicity in the siege, the president reiterated that the Rafah border crossing with Gaza was “never closed.”
The crossing at Rafah was a vital entry point of aid in the early months of the war, until Israeli troops took over its Palestinian side in May 2024, forcing it shut.
“The crossing was able to bring in aid as long as there were no Israeli troops stationed on the Palestinian side of the crossing,” El-Sisi said, adding that there are 5,000 trucks loaded with aid waiting to enter Gaza.
He also defended what he said was Egypt’s consistently “positive” role seeking an end to the conflict.
Since the war began, Cairo has undertaken a delicate balancing act, retaining its position as a mediator between Israel and Hamas — along with the United States and Qatar — while repeatedly criticizing Israel’s assault.
Cairo has also repeatedly refused US plans to displace Palestinians into Egypt, lobbying for a reconstruction plan for the territory that has fallen by the wayside as truce talks repeatedly folded.
“Egypt will always remain a gateway for aid, not a gateway for the displacement of the Palestinian people,” El-Sisi said on Tuesday.
“We are prepared to allow aid in at any time, but we are not prepared to receive or displace Palestinians from their land.”
Last week, El-Sisi urged US President Donald Trump — who had touted the plan to displace Palestinians into Egypt — to intervene, saying he “is the one capable of ending the war, bringing in aid and ending this suffering.”

TEHRAN: Iran has appointed veteran politician Ali Larijani, considered a moderate on foreign policy, to lead the Islamic republic’s top security body, state media said Tuesday.
“Ali Larijani was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in a decree by President Masoud Pezeshkian,” official news agency IRNA reported.
Larijani, 68, who is seen as a moderate conservative in Iran, replaces Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a Revolutionary Guards general who was named to the position in May 2023.
His appointment comes after a 12-day war in June, launched by Israel and later joined by the United States, during which key Iranian nuclear and military sites were hit.
The security council is responsible for laying out Iran’s defense and security strategy, but its decisions must be approved by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The secretary, as the most senior member of the council, oversees the implementation of its decisions.
A former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Larijani has held several senior government positions over three decades.
Khamenei made him one of his advisers in May 2020.
The following year, Larijani’s presidential run was blocked by a government vetting body despite him being considered a leading candidate.
Starting in 2005, Larijani had led Iran’s nuclear policy but resigned after two years of negotiations with Western powers, citing “serious differences” with the president at the time, ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
As parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020, Larijani put his weight behind the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.
The son of a grand ayatollah, Larijani comes from an influential Shiite Muslim family with ties to the government, and holds a doctorate in philosophy.
Tehran and Washington had been engaged in negotiations aimed at reaching a new nuclear deal earlier this year, but the talks were derailed by the Israel-Iran war.
Israel said its offensive was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied pursuing.