Germany’s foreign minister sought to ease concerns in Israel over a new nuclear deal with Iran as she met officials in Tel Aviv and Ramallah to discuss the long-stalled Arab-Israel peace process.
Annalena Baerbock said Israel’s security was central to the talks in Vienna on how to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that set tight limits on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. The deal fell apart in 2018 as then-US president Donald Trump exited the arrangement and placed sanctions on Iran.
“I am convinced that a full restoration of the JCPOA will secure the whole area, that includes Israel, or else we would not hold those talks,” Ms Baerbock said at a press conference with her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid on Thursday.
“We are fully committed because we want to do everything so that with that treaty Israel’s security is guaranteed.”
Mr Lapid said he had presented Ms Baerbock with Israel’s position “that a nuclear Iran endangers not only Israel but the entire world”. He said Iran was “an exporter of terror from Yemen to Buenos Aires” and that the agreement must take into account its regional aggression.
Reviving the peace process
Ms Baerbock is visiting the Middle East to discuss the long-stalled Arab-Israeli peace process and met officials from both sides, including separate sit-downs with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Before her visit, the German Foreign Ministry said the country's new government was “not letting up in its commitment to peace and security for the people in the region”.
Ms Baerbock said her decision to make her first official trip a visit to Israel was made “very consciously”.
During the visit to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, she met Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki, who asked Germany, which supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, to pressurise Israel to enter peace talks.
“Israeli Prime Minister [Naftali] Bennett has refused to accept the two-state solution as a viable solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict … the problem is that there is no partner on the Israeli side. We hope that Germany … could really convince Israel to sit with us to negotiate and to commit itself to a peaceful political negotiation with the Palestinians,” Mr Maliki said.
Ms Baerbock was also due to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
Her visit comes only days after Amnesty International released a report compiled over four years accusing Israel of a crime against humanity in its treatment of Palestinians and criticising other nations for emboldening a regime committing apartheid. Israel has rejected the report’s findings.
Ms Baerbock said she had raised the report's accusations of human rights abuse with Israeli authorities and called Amnesty a “trusted partner” of the German government, although she said she did not agree with some of the assertions made.
“Reports of human rights violations must and should be a top priority for any government and should be taken seriously and that is why I raised this here in Israel,” she said.
“But we do not adopt every analysis ... delegitimisation of Israel is a red line for us.”
She said the focus should be “to do everything we can to ensure that Israel and the Palestinian representatives once again work together”.
While in Israel, Ms Baerbock visited the Yad Vashem holocaust museum and raised the need to combat rising anti-Semitism.
“It is our responsibility to raise our voice against anti-Semitism, against hatred and intentions of hatred, against exclusion and violence so that such a crime against humanity will never be repeated and children will have a future,” she said.
Ms Baerbock travels on to Jordan before arriving in Egypt on Saturday.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ARM%20IPO%20DETAILS
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What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
UAE squad
Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
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Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
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Warlight,
Michael Ondaatje, Knopf
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 217hp at 5,750rpm
Torque: 300Nm at 1,900rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh130,000
On sale: now
Who is Mohammed Al Halbousi?
The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Specs
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JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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