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u.s. news Diaranson 20 aPriL 2022

Cuba says it will attend migration talks with the US

(AP) — Cuban authorities year — took place in July without completing fam-
said Tuesday that migra- 2018, under the administra- ily reunification processes or
tion talks with the Unit- tion of then President Don- were prevented from travel-
ed States will take place ald Trump. ing unless they carried out
this week, the first in four visa procedures through
years since the hardening Trump ended the policy of Guyana.
of relations between both rapprochement between
countries and amid a sus- both nations that his prede- The pandemic further com-
tained increase in arrivals cessor Barack Obama had plicated things and new U.S.
of Cuban citizens at the begun. President Joe Biden did not
southern border of the relax the tough measures, de-
U.S. Trump increased sanctions spite his campaign promises.
against the Caribbean island,
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said from the cancellation of per- According to U.S. Customs
on Twitter that the meet- mits to send remittances or and Border Protection, in the
ing will be held in Washing- cruise ships, to penalties for last six months Cubans were
ton on Thursday and that companies from third coun- stopped 79,800 times at the ply with the part of the bilat- ago with Mexico, which is
its delegation will be headed tries that operate in Cuba, to southern U.S. border, a little eral agreement that establish- seeing more Cubans at its
by Deputy Minister Carlos limitation of flights and pun- more than double the entire es the delivery of 20,000 visas borders. Cubans have been
Fernández de Cossio. ishment of oil tankers bound 2021 fiscal year and five times per year. arriving there irregularly —
for Cuba. more than 2020. in trips plagued by smugglers
The last of these meetings Cuba held migratory talks and dangerous routes -- with
— which according to agree- Also, Trump withdrew em- Cuban authorities said that in over that period of time with the aim of entering the Unit-
ments between both coun- bassy staff in 2018. Thou- the last five years the United countries such as Canada, ed States.
tries must be held twice a sands of people were left States had also failed to com- Belize, and less than a month

No war, no retreat: Mideast foes resume risky balancing act

(AP) — Days of violence in Jeru- — the ability to revoke thousands of
salem and an exchange of fire in work permits issued in recent months The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third ho- Such a move would be even more
Gaza overnight have raised the that provide an economic lifeline to liest site in Islam. Palestinians view it fraught now, during the week-long
possibility that Israel and Gaza’s Palestinians in the blockaded terri- as the one tiny part of their homeland Jewish holiday of Passover, which
Hamas rulers will once again go tory. that has yet to be taken over by Israel, this year coincides with the Muslim
to war, as they did less than a year which seized east Jerusalem, the West holy month of Ramadan. Israeli au-
ago under similar circumstances. For Israel, war could set back efforts Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast thorities say they are committed to
to sideline the conflict and damage war. ensuring freedom for worship for
This time around, both Israel and burgeoning ties with Arab states. The Jews, Christians and Muslims, with
Hamas have strong incentives to broad-based governing coalition, Hamas’ popularity skyrocketed last Bennett blaming the recent violence
avoid all-out war. But neither wants which lost its majority this month, is year when it was seen as defending on a “Hamas-led incitement cam-
to be seen as retreating from a Jerusa- at a small but growing risk of having the shrine — even at a devastating paign.”
lem holy site at the heart of the cen- a key Arab partner bolt, which would cost to Palestinians in Gaza. The in-
tury-old Mideast conflict, so further set the stage for new elections. ternationally recognized Palestinian Israel hopes to prevent a repeat of
violence cannot be ruled out. Authority, which cooperates with Is- last year, when weeks of protests and
All of those factors help explain the rael on security, faced a massive back- clashes in and around Al-Aqsa helped
“At this stage it’s political theater in relative restraint up until now: Israel lash. trigger an 11-day Gaza war.
which everybody is playing his part,” intercepted the Gaza rocket, its air-
said Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at strikes caused little damage, and no “Hamas would like the pressure In recent months, Israel issued thou-
the Israel Democracy Institute, a lo- one was hurt. Neither Hamas nor against Israel to continue from the sands of work permits to Palestinians
cal think tank. “But sometimes the any other group claimed the launch. West Bank, from east Jerusalem, with- in Gaza, which has been under an Is-
gun that appears in the first scene will out giving Israel an excuse to launch raeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas
shoot at the end.” At the same time, neither Israel nor a major war against Hamas and the seized power from rival Palestinian
Hamas can be seen as backing down Palestinians in Gaza,” says Mkhaimar forces 15 years ago. It also allows tens
For Hamas, another war would dev- over a major holy site in east Jerusa- Abusada, a political science professor of thousands of Palestinians from the
astate Gaza, which has hardly begun lem that is sacred to Jews and Mus- at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University. occupied West Bank to work in con-
to rebuild after the last one. And Isra- lims, where Palestinians and Israeli struction and other mostly menial
el would wield a potent new weapon police clashed over the weekend. The hilltop on which the mosque jobs in Israel, where wages are far
is built is the holiest site for Jews, higher.
who refer to it as the Temple Mount
because it was the location of the Israeli leaders portray the permits as a
Jewish temples in antiquity. Under goodwill measure, but they also help
longstanding arrangements, Jews are Israel maintain its military rule over
allowed to visit the site but not pray millions of Palestinians, which is now
there. But in recent years, large num- well into its sixth decade.
bers of nationalist and religious Jews
have regularly toured the site and dis- The permits can be canceled at any
creetly prayed there under the pro- time, and Israel — citing security
tection of Israeli police. concerns — prohibits nearly all forms
of Palestinian opposition to the occu-
The visits are seen as a provocation by pation.
both the Palestinians and neighbor-
ing Jordan, a close Western ally that For Hamas, the suspension or cancel-
serves as custodian of the site. But any ation of the permits would push tens
effort to limit them would expose the of thousands of Gaza residents back
government to severe criticism from into severe poverty and halt the flow
Israel’s dominant right-wing parties, of millions of dollars into the econ-
which would portray it as a capitula- omy.
tion to the country’s enemies.