Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 8 augusT 2017
Iran signs its biggest-ever car deal with France’s Renault

By AMIR VAHDAT moves to isolate the coun- Donald Trump, who spoke suing business deals with biggest reserves of natural
AYA BATRAWY try. The €660 million — or with French President Em- Iran due to U.S. sanctions gas. It also has well-estab-
Associated Press $778 million — deal follows manuel Macron over the in place not related to the lished manufacturing and
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran the lifting of the U.N. and weekend about ways to nuclear program. agricultural industries.
signed the country’s big- European Union sanctions counter Iran’s influence in Asian and European com- Just last month, France To-
gest-ever car deal on after Iran’s 2015 nuclear Mideast conflicts. The U.S. panies, meanwhile, have tal SA and state-run China
Monday to build tens of agreement with world legislation, first passed by raced for a share of Iran’s National Petroleum Cor-
thousands of cars annually powers to curb its contro- Congress, imposes penal- sizable consumer market poration signed a $5 billion
under a joint venture with versial uranium enrichment ties on people involved in since international sanc- agreement with Iran to de-
French automobile manu- program, a possible path- Iran’s ballistic missile pro- tions were lifted. Iran, with velop the country’s massive
facturer Groupe Renault, way to nuclear weapons. gram and anyone who its population of 80 mil- offshore natural gas field in
buoying its manufactur- It also comes just days after does business with them. lion people, sits atop the the first such deal since the
ing industry in defiance of new U.S. sanctions on Iran American businesses have world’s fourth-largest oil landmark nuclear deal was
the Trump administration’s were signed by President been cautious about pur- reserves and the second- struck.q
Jordan king in rare West Bank trip seen as message to Israel

there, said Palestinian For- in Israel as a capitulation
eign Minister Riad Malki. and by Palestinians and the
“This evaluation is very im- Arab world as a victory.
portant for us to prepare The shrine, a sprawling
for the coming stage we 37-acre (15-hectare) es-
expect from Israel and from planade rising from Jeru-
(Prime Minister Benjamin) salem’s walled Old City, is
Netanyahu personally,” the third holiest site of Islam
Malki said. and the most sacred one
Israel has denied allega- in Judaism. It is central to
tions by Muslims that it was rival Israeli and Palestinian
trying to encroach on their religious and national nar-
rights at the holy site, which ratives and has triggered
is also revered by Jews. major confrontations in the
Abdullah’s visit to the West past.
Bank, his first in five years, Jordan serves as the Muslim
came at a time of rising custodian of the site, home
Israeli-Jordanian and Israe- to the Al-Aqsa and Dome
li-Palestinian tensions over of the Rock mosques. Jor-
the shrine, known to Mus- dan’s ruling Hashemite dy-
lims as the Noble Sanctuary nasty has drawn much of its
and to Jews as the Temple legitimacy from that role.
Mount. On Sunday, Abdullah told
The crisis erupted when Is- lawmakers in Jordan that
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left receives Jordan’s King Abdullah II at his headquarters, rael installed metal detec- “without the Hashemite
in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Monday, Aug. 7, 2017.
(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) tors at gates to the com- custodianship and the
pound after Arab gunmen steadfastness of the Jerusa-
By KARIN LAUB with the Palestinians on key ment compound in the killed two Israeli policemen lemites, the holy sites would
IYAD MOGHRABI issues, such as a contested West Bank city of Ramal- there in mid-July. The mea- have been lost many years
Associated Press Jerusalem shrine. lah. sures triggered protests by ago.”
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) Palestinian President Mah- The two leaders discussed Muslims. “Our success requires one
— Jordan’s king flew by he- moud Abbas and Abdul- the recent showdown with Israel removed the devices stand with the Palestinian
licopter to the West Bank lah II met for about two Israel over the Muslim-ad- after a few days, after in- brothers, so that our cause
on Monday — a rare and hours, after a red-carpet ministered shrine, including tervention from the United wouldn’t be weakened
brief visit seen as a signal to welcome for the monarch confronting alleged Israeli States, Jordan and others. and our rights would be
Israel that he is closing ranks at the Palestinian govern- attempts to expand its role The step was seen by many maintained,” he said. q

Al-Jazeera denounces Israel’s decision to close its bureau

JERUSALEM (AP) — Al- pute over Doha’s politics nounced he would revoke watch closely the develop- on-air. “Israel is taking its
Jazeera on Monday de- and alleged support for ex- the press credentials of Al- ments that may result from cues from Arab dictators.”
nounced Israel’s decision tremists. Jazeera journalists, effec- the Israeli decision, and will Kara, a member of Prime
to close the Jerusalem bu- The channel and its affiliate tively preventing them from take the necessary legal Minister Benjamin Netanya-
reau of Qatar’s flagship sites have been blocked in working in Israel, and would measures.” hu’s ruling Likud Party, said
satellite network, saying the Saudi Arabia, United Arab move to block its transmis- Al-Jazeera’s senior politi- he has asked cable and
measure was “undemo- Emirates, sion from the country. cal analyst Marwan Bishara satellite networks to block
cratic” and that it will take Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. “Al-Jazeera denounces this noted the irony of Israel Al-Jazeera transmissions
legal action. Israel has long accused the decision made by a state following the lead of Sunni and is seeking legislation to
Israel’s move follows in network of bias against it that claims to be ‘the only Arab states. ban them altogether.
the footsteps of four Arab and incitement to violence. democratic state in the “Those dictatorships now But commentators noted
countries that are aligned On Sunday, Middle East,’” the network dictate to Israel what it that implementation of this
against Qatar as part of a Israeli Communications said in a statement. “Al- does about press and press would be highly unlikely. q
months-long political dis- Minister Ayoob Kara an- Jazeera stresses that it will credentials,” Bishara said