Al Jazeera is headquartered in Qatar, which is currently facing sanctions by the UAE (AFP)
Tweets by Dubai police chief condemned
A call by Dubai’s police chief to bomb the Al Jazeera TV channel based in Qatar has been condemned by Arab journalists, according to the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
Dhahi Khalfan accused the network of "nurturing terrorism” on 25 November amid a series of tweets, as tensions continue between Qatar and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including the UAE.
Yasser Abu Hilalah, the director-general of Al Jazeera, said that Khalfan's statements are "pure terrorism" and held him to be "responsible for any criminal act that may affect the employees of Al Jazeera because of the incitement to violence his speech included.”
Hilalah called on the UAE to prosecute Khalfan and said Al Jazeera reserved the right to take action against him, including filing complaints to international organisations to which he is affiliated.
Palestinian reconciliation at risk of collapse?
A member of Fatah’s Central Committee has said that there are major administrative, financial and security hurdles as Hamas and Fatah work on reconciliation, according to Saudi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
Hussein al-Sheikh said a war of words had broken out between the two Palestinian groups following the signing of the deal, which took place in Cairo last month.
According to the agreement, the first phase of the reconciliation process is supposed to allow the Palestinian Authority to operate in Gaza by early December.
But, al-Sheikh warned, there are serious doubts that this timetable will be met.
Rise in Syrian refugees returning
An estimated 1,000 Syrian refugees are leaving Jordan every month to voluntarily return home, according to Jordan’s Al Ghad newspaper.
The move came, the newspaper reported, after relative stability returned to the south-west Syria following a ceasefire deal in August between Jordan, the United States and Russia. Washington and Moscow issued a further joint statement on the cease fire on 11 November.
The United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) said that returning refugees had averaged around 1,000 per month during the past three months, compared to 1,700 for the whole of the first half of 2017.
But the UNHCR warned that Southern Syrian is still "unsafe" and risky to civilians.
