A car-ramming targeting Israeli troops in Jerusalem wounded 14 people early Thursday in an attack that Palestinian Islamist group Hamas hailed as a response to Washington s controversial Middle East peace plan. A manhunt was underway for the driver who fled the scene outside a popular Jerusalem entertainment spot. The attack occurred shortly before 2:00 am (2400 GMT) outside the First Station, an historic Ottoman-era railway terminus that has been turned into a cultural and entertainment centre with bars and restaurants. The attacker struck in the street outside where the soldiers had been marching, the army said. One of then soldiers was "severely injured" and has been evacuated to hospital. Public radio said they were new recruits on their way to an induction ceremony at Jerusalem s Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. "During the incident, a terrorist sped his car towards (Israeli) soldiers," the army said. Israeli troops "are currently pursuing the terrorist who escaped the scene." Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said "the incident is being investigated as a terror attack." There have been car-rammings targeting Israeli troops in the past, in the occupied West Bank as well as Jerusalem. The Islamist Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, hailed the car-ramming as a "practical response" to US President Donald Trump s controversial Middle East peace plan. In a statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the attack was part of the "resistance operation" but stopped short of claiming responsibility. It came amid heightened tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, since the release last month of US President Donald Trump s long-awaited peace proposals. The Palestinians have angrily rejected the plan, which unilaterally gives Israel most of what it has sought in previous negotiations. - Sporadic clashes - There have been sporadic clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops since the release of Trump s proposals. In the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli forces shot dead 19-year-old Yazan Abu Tabikh on Thursday, in an incident that left seven others wounded. The army said troops had "identified a number of armed terrorists who hurled explosive devices and fired towards them. The forces responded with riot dispersal means." On Wednesday, a 17-year-old was shot dead by Israeli forces during a protest in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli military described the teenager as a "violent rioter" armed with a Molotov cocktail who posed a threat to troops. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli aircraft struck Hamas positions early Thursday, after Palestinians fired rockets or mortar rounds at Israel and launched incendiary balloons. "Fighter jets and (other) aircraft targeted Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip," an army statement said. Since Trump s plan was announced, there has been almost daily fire from Gaza into southern Israel, drawing Israeli retaliation. There have been no reported casualties.

Syrian militants affiliated with groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are currently being sent by Turkey to fight on behalf of the U.N.-supported government in Libya, according to two Libyan militia leaders and a Syrian war monitor. Both sides in Libya s civil war receive equipment and backing from foreign countries. But Turkey, which has long trained and funded opposition fighters in Syria and relaxed its borders so foreign fighters joined IS, has in recent months been airlifting hundreds of them over to a new theater of war in Libya. The U.N.-supported government controls only a shrinking area of western Libya, including the capital, Tripoli. It s facing a months-long offensive by forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Hifter who is allied with a rival government based in Libya s east. The United Nations recognizes the government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, as Libya s legitimate government because it was born out of U.N.-mediated talks in 2015. Sarraj is backed by Turkey, and to a lesser degree, Qatar and Italy. Hifter receives backing from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia. Libya has the ninth largest known oil reserves in the world, and many of these countries are apparently jockeying for influence in order to control Libya s resources. Libyan militia leaders in Tripoli told The Associated Press that Turkey has brought more than 4,000 foreign fighters into Tripoli, and that ``dozens of them are extremist-affiliated. The two commanders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. The commanders also highlighted differing opinions within the Libyan militias about accepting Syrian extremists into their ranks. One said the fighters backgrounds aren t important, as long as they ve come to help defend the capital. The other said some commanders fear the fighters will ``tarnish the image of the Tripoli-based government. Turkey-backed militias in northern Syria have been known to include fighters that previously fought with al-Qaida, IS and other militant groups, and have committed atrocities against Syrian Kurdish groups and civilians. The U.N. has repeatedly condemned the flow of weapons and foreign fighters into Libya. But the organization has not directly responded to reports and accusations by Hifter s side that Sarraj s government and Turkey are apparently using IS- and al-Qaida-linked extremists as mercenaries. Turkey has not confirmed or denied reports of Syrian fighters being sent to Libya to support Sarraj, and the Turkish military did not respond to requests for comment. However, in a televised interview last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: ``As a combat force, we will have a different team there. They won t be from within our soldiers. Those different teams and the combat forces will work together. But our high-ranking soldiers will coordinate.`` He did not elaborate. Rumors of Turkey-backed Syrian fighters in Libya have swirled for weeks. Foreign leaders and commentators have pointed to videos circulated online that appear to show Syrians in Tripoli. In one video, a man with a Syrian accent films the dormitories where he and other fighters are living, saying ``Thank God, we arrived safely in Libya. Another clip shows a plane full of fighters, some wearing fatigues and speaking with Syrian accents. Turkey s Libyan allies and Syrian opposition leaders have denied any organized efforts to send combatants to Libya. But in January, Sarraj told the BBC that his government ``would not hesitate to cooperate with any party to defeat this aggression`` by Hifter s forces. Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AP that his war-monitoring network has determined there are at least 130 former Islamic State or al-Qaida fighters among the approximately 4,700 Turkey-backed Syrian mercenaries sent to fight for Sarraj. He said the IS militants had joined the so-called Syrian National Army, a patchwork alliance formed by Turkey from different factions who battled the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Most of the groups are loyal to Turkey, and the SNA was used as shock troops last year in Turkey s offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria. In theory, a cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey remains in place around Tripoli but Libya s warring sides have traded accusations of violations, and the shaky truce is threatened by clashes. Representatives from Sarraj and Hifter began meetings in Geneva on Tuesday to work toward a more permanent cease-fire. The Observatory also quoted a Syrian fighter from Idlib province who applied to go to Libya as saying he was motivated by the financial benefits offered by Turkey. Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute who closely follows Syria s armed groups, said the promise of payment, Turkish citizenship or the prospect of fleeing to Europe were the main motives of Syrian fighters sent to Libya. ``None of them are committed to the fight in Libya due to personal conviction or ideology, she said. A Libyan official at the prime minister s office said Syrian fighters have been in Libya since early August. At first, he said they were only facilitating the work of Turkish military experts. But as the fighting escalated in mid-December, the number of Syrian fighters arriving in Libya increased. These fighters now immediately deploy to the front lines, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn t authorized to talk to reporters on the subject. The Tripoli authorities and U.S. officials have also accused Hifter of relying on hundreds of Russian mercenaries. Sudanese armed groups from the Darfur region recently joined the fighting on both sides, according to a report by U.N. experts. The influx of Syrian, Russian and Sudanese mercenaries has threatened to prolong the war and cripple international efforts to establish a long-term cease-fire. Last month, a summit in Berlin brought together the major international stakeholders in Libya, but with few concrete results. Nicholas Heras, a Syria expert at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said Turkey is focusing on Libya to establish a sphere of influence in the Mediterranean. ``However, the Turks do not want to risk significant casualties to their own forces when the Turkish military has built a proxy force of Syrian fighters that can reinforce the Libyan fighters, he said.

Sudan s leader Tuesday briefed the country s ruling body after the Israeli prime minister said the two had discussed normalising bilateral ties, a move which surprised the Sudanese cabinet. On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu s office said he had met General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan s ruling sovereign council, in the Ugandan city of Entebbe in a previously unannounced meeting. Israel remains technically at war with Sudan, which for years supported hardline Islamist forces. The statement from Netanyahu s office said the two men had "agreed to start cooperation leading to normalisation of the relationship between the two countries". Sudan s cabinet said it had been unaware of such talks and convened Tuesday to discuss the issue. Sudan s sovereign council, a transitional body of civilians and military officials led by Burhan, also held a meeting on Tuesday where the issue was being discussed, a source told AFP. The source said Burhan, who had now returned from Entebbe, was briefing the council about his meeting with Netanyahu. Netanyahu s office said on Monday that he believed Sudan is headed "in a new positive direction" and that he had expressed this view to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "Burhan is eager to help his country modernise by taking it out of isolation and putting it on the world s map," it said. The Uganda meeting came after Sudan said Pompeo had invited Burhan to Washington for an official visit, the first such invitation to a Sudan ruler in more than three decades. The United States still classifies Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, a legacy from the rule of now ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir who in the 1990s welcomed Osama bin Laden. Late on Monday, Sudan s government spokesman Faisal Mohamed Salih said the cabinet had only learned of the meeting at Entebbe through the media. "We, the members of the cabinet, were not notified or consulted about this meeting," Salih said in a statement. Sudan under Bashir was part of the decades-long Arab boycott of Israel over the Jewish state s treatment of the Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership denounced the Sudanese general s talks with Netanyahu. "This meeting is a stab in the back of the Palestinian people... at a time when the administration of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are trying to liquidate the Palestinian cause," Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said in a statement carried on official news agency WAFA.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey will continue to retaliate after Syrian government shelling killed four of its troops and wounded nine in Syria s northwest Idlib region, where Turkish forces have bulked up in recent days. Erdogan said initial indications show 30-35 Syrians were "neutralised" in Turkey s response to what the government called intense shelling of its soldiers. He said Turkey has told Russian counterparts "they need to stand aside" in the escalating conflict. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad s forces, backed by Russian air power, have recently made advances in Idlib, prompting Turkey to warn it may launch a military operation there unless the fighting is halted. "We have responded in kind to these attacks and will continue to do so, whether it is with our artillery or mortars," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul. "We are determined to continue our operations for the security of our country, people and our brothers in Idlib," he said. "Those who question our determination will soon understand they made a mistake." A Turkish security official told Reuters that the shelling which killed the soldiers occurred in the area of Saraqeb town, 15 km (9 miles) to the east of Idlib city. "Following the developments in Idlib in recent weeks, serious support was provided over the weekend to the troops, equipment and vehicles in the region," the official said. The Idlib region is the last major rebel-held stronghold in Syria s nearly nine-year-old war and Erdogan accuses Russia of violating agreements to reduce the fighting in the region, a charge which Moscow denied on Friday. Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million refugees from Syria, fears a fresh wave of migrants from Idlib. It has 12 military observation posts around the region, set up under a 2017 agreement with Russia and Iran. Several of them have since been surrounded by advancing Syrian government forces. REINFORCEMENTS A spokesman for Erdogan s AK Party said Turkey will view Syrian government forces around the observation posts in the region as "targets". The Syrian Observatory, a UK-based war monitor, said some 320 Turkish trucks and military vehicles entered Idlib at Kafr Lusin crossing on Sunday, much more than usual, and went south. Turkey s defence ministry said Syrian shelling was carried out against its reinforcements, which were meant to prevent clashes in Idlib, despite prior coordination of their positions. Erdogan said if talks between diplomats and generals fail to get results he will contact Russian President Vladimir Putin directly to try to resolve the situation. "We told especially Russian counterparts that they are not our counterparts here, that it is the (Syrian) regime directly, and that they need to stand aside," Erdogan said. "This is not okay, we are giving martyrs here, but our armed forces and our artillery... are keeping them under fire." He added F-16s are involved in Turkey s operation against 40 points in Idlib. Russia s TASS news service said no air strikes were carried out in the fighting. The U.S. special envoy for Syria said on Thursday the Idlib fighting raised the spectre of an international crisis.

Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip early Sunday in retaliation for projectiles fired from the Palestinian enclave into southern Israel, the army said. Military jets and helicopters struck targets linked to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, shortly after midnight, with no reported casualties. Israel also suspended cement deliveries to the enclave and cancelled 500 commercial entry permits into Israel "until further notice". The action was taken "due to the continued rocket fire and launchings of incendiary balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israel," said a statement by Major General Kamil Abu Rukun, head of the Israeli military unit responsible for coordination in the Palestinian territories. Since the announcement Tuesday by US President Donald Trump of his plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rockets, shells and explosive balloons have been fired almost daily from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, provoking Israeli retaliation. Palestinians strongly reject the US plan, seen as heavily favouring Israel. The Trump initiative suggests that Israel would retain control of the contested city of Jerusalem as its "undivided capital" and gives the Jewish state the green light to annex settlements in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967. Rocket fire from Gaza on Saturday night forced Benny Gantz, a leading candidate in Israel s upcoming general election who was campaigning in southern Israel, to take refuge with his team in a shelter, local media reported. Former military general Gantz heads the Blue and White party and is the chief rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2 election. The Israeli army said its overnight strikes on Gaza targeted infrastructure belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled the enclave since 2007. "Fighter jets and attack helicopters struck a number of Hamas terror targets in the northern Gaza Strip," it said in a statement. Among the targets was "underground infrastructure... used as a situation room," it added. There were no casualties from the strikes, according to Hamas security sources. Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008 but over the past year the Islamists have gradually shaped an informal truce with Israel, under which the Jewish state has eased its crippling blockade of Gaza.

Abu Dis, the town earmarked for the Palestinian capital in U.S. President Donald Trump s Middle East peace plan, lies a short distance to the east of Jerusalem s walled Old City. A relatively featureless urban sprawl on the old road to Jericho, it has little of the religious or cultural resonance of the historic city centre, which contains sites sacred to the three great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Abu Dis belongs to the Palestinian governorate of Jerusalem but is just outside the Israeli municipal city limits set by Israel after it captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, later annexing it in a move not recognised by most of the international community. What the neighbourhood does have is a large shuttered building that was constructed in an earlier, more hopeful era to be a site for the parliament of the Palestinian Authority. That hall now lies abandoned and disused after the breakdown of the Oslo peace process and the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, two decades ago. Since then, Palestinians in Abu Dis have been cut off from Jerusalem neighbourhoods to the west by a high concrete wall built by Israel that claimed it built it to stop suicide bombers and gunmen entering the city. Students at a nearby university have used the wall as a backdrop to project movies during warm summer nights when they sit outside. The White House document accompanying the U.S. plan s release said the barrier should "serve as a border between the capitals of the two parties." It said Jerusalem should "remain the sovereign capital of the State of Israel, and it should remain an undivided city." It continued: "The sovereign capital of the State of Palestine should be in the section of East Jerusalem located in all areas east and north of the existing security barrier, including Kafr Aqab, the eastern part of Shuafat and Abu Dis, and could be named Al Quds or another name as determined by the State of Palestine."

The number of Jews and Arabs between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River is at or near parity, figures cited by Israeli officials show, raising questions whether Israel can remain a democracy if it keeps territory where Palestinians seek a state. The population statistics were mentioned in an Israeli parliamentary statement on Monday summing up legislators’ questioning of an official of Israel’s military-run civil administration (COGAT) that coordinates government activities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Demography is studied closely on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of its potential implications for both societies as they weigh possible solutions as Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary next month. With over a “two-state solution” frozen since 2014, some argue that if Israel becomes a binational state through annexation of land seized 51 years ago, it could one day be forced to choose between remaining a democracy or securing a Jewish majority by denying Palestinians the vote. “We estimate the (Palestinian) population in Judea and Samaria at between 2.5 million and 2.7 million,” Colonel Uri Mendes, COGAT’s deputy director, using Israel’s term for the West Bank, told a session of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. He noted that a Palestinian census put the figure even higher, at 3 million. Avi Dichter, the committee’s chairman and a former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, responded that with the addition of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians, that meant there was now a total of about five million Palestinians living in the two territories that fell to Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Taking the higher end of the Israeli figures cited and adding them to the 1.84 million Arabs living inside Israel, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), would bring the total number of Arabs in Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories to around 6.5 million. This is around the same number of Jews living between the Jordan Valley and Mediterranean, according to the CBS. Jewish settlements in occupied territory Palestinians seek for a state have also dimmed Palestinian hopes of a viable and contiguous country of their own with East Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians also fear their quest for statehood suffered another blow when U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December. SETTLERS DISPUTE DATA Israeli settlers immediately disputed the population figures, citing one study that put the number of Palestinians in the West Bank at 1.8 million. “The slanted publication about Arab demography in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley relies on data from the Palestinian statistics bureau which are not true or accurate. They (Palestinians) have an interest in inflating the numbers,” settler spokesman Yigal Dilmoni said. But Ahmed Tibi, an Arab legislator in the Israeli parliament, described the figures as accurate and “well known to us for a long time”. Without the creation of a Palestinian state, Tibi said, Israel will be headed toward a “one-state solution” embracing either “apartheid or an Arab-Palestinian prime minister”. Ofer Shelah, a committee member from the opposition centrist Yesh Atid party, said it is clear the Jewish majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is “precarious”. “From a demographic perspective, if Israel does not part with the Palestinians then there is real danger to realizing the Zionist dream of a Jewish and democratic Israel,” Shelah told Reuters. Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said one state taking in two nations was not viable. “The answer is separation, the answer is manifestly separation. Two countries for two people, which of course has to be negotiated,” said DellaPergola. Underlying political dynamics, he said, are more important than exact population percentages.

The Israeli army said Tuesday it was beefing up forces in the Jordan Valley, a swathe of the occupied West Bank expected to feature in US President Donald Trump s long-awaited peace plan. "Following the ongoing situation assessment conducted in the IDF, it has been decided to reinforce the Jordan Valley area with infantry troops," the military said in a statement. Trump was due to release his plan, years in the works, at the White House later Tuesday together with his close ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinians, who accuse Trump of pro-Israel bias, were not taking part in the Washington event and have rejected the plan and any US role as peacemaker. While details of the US proposal remain secret, it may seek to give Israel the green light to annex the Jordan Valley, a strategic area along the border with Jordan that constitutes around 30 percent of the West Bank. During a tour of the valley on Monday, Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said they were taking steps towards the move -- a central election promise of right-winger Netanyahu. "As interior minister I d like to tell you, we ve started to prepare for an annexation -- we are getting the paperwork ready," Deri said. Palestinians were planning protests in the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday.

One protester was killed early Monday in Iraq s flashpoint city of Nasiriyah, a medic told AFP, as gunmen stormed the square where anti-government demonstrators had been camped out for months. The men arrived in Habbubi Square just after midnight, torching the tents where protesters had been sleeping and leaving nothing but charred shreds of fabric and metal frames, an AFP correspondent there said. The unidentified gunmen fired on protesters, killing one and wounding four others, a medical source said. Hours later, determined protesters had rallied again and shut down two main bridges in the city, some 350 kilometres (200 miles) south of the capital Baghdad. The main protest camp in the holy city of Najaf was also burned down overnight by unidentified gunmen, AFP s correspondent there said on Monday. Mass protests erupted on October 1 in Baghdad and across Iraq s Shiite-majority south in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and corruption. They spiralled into calls for a total government overhaul and are now specifically demanding snap polls, an independent prime minister and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed. Protesters tried to ramp up pressure on the government starting a week ago by sealing streets with burning tyres and metal barricades, but riot police responded with force. They fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse clusters of young demonstrators, and 21 protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded in the last week. That brought the toll from the last four months of rallies close to 480 dead, according to an AFP rally. On Friday, security forces began moving in on the main protest camps across the country after influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said he would drop support for the youth-dominated reform campaign. Sadr supporters swiftly began dismantling their own tents, prompting fears by the remaining activists that they had lost their political cover and would face a crackdown. But thousands of students turned out Sunday across Iraqi cities to insist on their movement s resilience and political independence. Demonstrators have feared that their movement may be eclipsed by tensions between neighbouring Iran and the US, which spiralled after the killing early this month of a senior Iranian commander in a US drone strike in Baghdad. On Sunday evening, three Katyusha rockets slammed into the US embassy in the Iraqi capital, a security source said. A senior Iraqi official and US diplomatic sources said one person was wounded, but no details were immediately available on whether it was a US national or an Iraqi member of staff at the mission.

Security forces shot live rounds to clear protest hotspots in Baghdad and southern Iraq for a second day Sunday, sparking skirmishes with demonstrators determined to keep up their movement. The anti-government protesters had feared their campaign would be squashed when riot police Saturday moved in on their tent camps in the capital, the southern port city of Basra, the holy city of Najaf and other cities. But the demonstrators returned in large numbers in the evening and on Sunday morning, with security forces trying to clear them out again. In the capital, they used live rounds in an attempt to disperse small anti-government rallies in Khallani and Wathba squares, near the main protest camp of Tahrir Square, according to a police source. At least 17 protesters were wounded, including six with bullet wounds, the source said. The young demonstrators have mostly thrown rocks at riot police but some have tossed Molotov cocktails. In Nasiriyah to the south, security forces also fired live rounds but there was no immediate word on casualties. Protesters had gathered there in large numbers after police reopened main thoroughfares in Nasiriyah leading to the central protest camp in Habbubi Square. The youth-dominated protests erupted in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south on October 1 in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and rampant corruption. Met with violence, they quickly spiralled into calls for a total government overhaul. Rallies are now specifically demanding snap elections, the appointment of an independent premier and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or the recent bloodshed. But activists worry they could face a wider crackdown after firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr dropped his support for the movement on Friday. The notoriously fickle militia leader-turned-politician backed the protests when they first started and even called on the government to resign. His supporters had widely been recognised as the most organised and well-stocked protesters in Tahrir. But after holding an anti-US rally in Baghdad that was attended by thousands, Sadr said he no longer wanted to be involved in the regime change movement. Within hours, his supporters were dismantling their tents in protest camps across the country and riot police began moving in on demonstrations. But activists issued an urgent call for help, and young demonstrators flooded Tahrir and other areas.

Chinese face mask manufacturers are reopening factories shut for a national holiday, promising workers up to four times their normal wages as consumers emptied out stock in stores in a race to protect themselves from the new coronavirus infection. The flu-like virus, which has killed 17 and infected nearly 600, is expected to spread further as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel domestically and abroad during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, a time when factories across China usually close. Worried about the potential for a global pandemic, China is putting Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak and a city of 11 million, on lockdown. The decision was praised by the World Health Organization as a strong one that could limit contagion but has also heightened fears about the virus. "From what I have heard, the mask shortage is much, much more severe than what the public knows," said Cao Jun, general manager of mask manufacturer Lanhine, which has a factory in east China s Ningbo city. "Almost all hospital workers nationwide are facing a huge shortage of masks, not just in Wuhan. That s very terrible." Cao said the firm s clients are demanding a combined 200 million masks per day compared to its normal production rate of 400,000 a day. "At the moment, we have 20-plus people in the factory, working 24 hours. We re offering them quadruple their wages per day," Cao told Reuters. "We aim to ramp up output on Jan. 27 and be at full capacity on Feb. 1, when we’d have nearly 200 workers." Another manufacturer, CMmask, in eastern China s Jiande city, told Reuters it was offering workers triple their wages if they came back. "Our factory is out of stock now, but we have extended our working hours by four hours to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m," said Hu Qinghui, CMmask s deputy general manager. U.S. firms 3M and Honeywell International issued statements saying that they would make every effort to ensure a continuous supply of masks during the holiday and that their official stores would not raise prices. China s industry ministry on Wednesday launched an "emergency coordination effort", asking local authorities to work with factories "to overcome labour difficulties during the Spring Festival, accelerate production and do their utmost to increase supply to the market," state media reported. Firms from drugmakers to makers of thermometers have also said they would step up production. Xinlong Holding, a manufacturer of filters and fabrics for masks, said some of its factories had "abandoned the Spring Festival holiday." Tech giant Alibaba Group told the state-backed China News Service it was working with 92 mask manufacturers, which currently have a combined supply of 42 million masks. Another 1.57 million more will be made before the week-long holiday officially starts on Friday, it said. E-commerce platforms, including Alibaba s Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo Inc have also pledged to crack down on any vendors who might try to raise prices of masks and disinfectant products.

Lebanon s newly-unveiled cabinet met Wednesday for the first time to start tackling the twin challenges posed by a tenacious protest movement and a nosediving economy. Hassan Diab, who replaced Saad Hariri as prime minister, vowed to meet the demands from the street but demonstrators were unconvinced and scuffled with police overnight. The 61-year-old academic, was thrown in at the deep end for his first experience on the political big stage and admitted that Lebanon was experiencing "a difficult time in its history". "Government of last resort," was the headline on the front page of Al-Akhbar, a daily newspaper close to the powerful Hezbollah movement that gave its blessing to Diab s designation last month. The Shiite group and its allies dominated the talks that produced the new government, from which outgoing premier Saad Hariri and some of his allies were absent. The millionaire was one of the symbols of the kind of hereditary and sectarian-driven politics that protesters who have been in the streets since mid-October want to end. He and his government resigned less than two weeks into the non-sectarian protests demanding the complete overhaul of the political system and celebrating the emergence of a new national civic identity. Protesters from across Lebanon s geographical and confessional divides had demanded a cabinet of independent technocrats as a first step to root out endemic government corruption and incompetence. Diab is a career academic from the prestigious American University of Beirut and he insisted Tuesday in his first comments that the government just unveiled was a technocratic one. "This is a government that represents the aspirations of the demonstrators who have been mobilised nationwide for more than three months," he said. Technocratic? Yet the horsetrading between traditional political factions during lengthy government formation talks was all too familiar to many Lebanese who met the breakthrough with distrust at best. "Instead of the corrupt politicians, we got the corrupt politicians friends," said Ahmad Zaid, a 21-year-old student who joined a few hundred protesters in central Beirut after the announcement. Clusters of demonstrators burned tyres and briefly blocked roads to express their displeasure at the new line-up but clashes with riot police were on a smaller scale than weekend violence that left dozens wounded. Similar rallies took place in Tripoli -- a hotbed of the protest movement -- in Sidon, Byblos and other cities. The new cabinet is mostly made up of new faces, many of them academics and former ministry advisers. It comprises 20 ministers and among its six women is Zeina Akar, Lebanon s first-ever female defence minister. To downsize the cabinet, some portfolios were merged, resulting in at times baffling combinations such as a single ministry for culture and agriculture. Anger at what protesters see as a kleptocratic oligarchy was initially fuelled by youth unemployment that stands at more than 30 percent and the abysmal delivery of public services such as water and electricity. The long-brewing discontent was compounded by fears of a total economic collapse in recent weeks, with a liquidity crunch leading banks to impose crippling capital controls. Lebanon has one of the world s highest debt-to-GDP ratios and economists have argued it is hard to see how the near bankrupt country could repay its foreign debt. - A little time - "Regarding the economic situation, I repeat that this is one of our priorities," Diab said Tuesday night, pledging to find solutions "as fast as possible". "We need to be given a little time," he said. A looming default on Lebanon s debt, which has been steadily downgraded deeper into junk status by rating agencies, has sent the dollar soaring on the parallel exchange market. In a country where many transactions are carried out in dollars and most goods are imported, consumers and business alike have been hit hard by the national currency s free fall. Money changers announced on Tuesday the rate would be capped at 2,000 pounds to the dollar -- still above the official peg of 1,500 -- but the move is only likely to create a fully illegal black market of unlicensed changers applying different rates. Every morning, queues of people hoping to withdraw their weekly cap of 100 or 200 dollars form outside banks. With Hariri and his Sunni bloc staying out of the fray, the national unity government he led for three years is being replaced by a lopsided cabinet dominated by Hezbollah. Western sanctions on the Iranian-backed organisation are stacking up and economists have argued the new government might struggle to secure the aid it so badly needs.

Iran acknowledged on Tuesday that its armed forces fired two Russian anti-aircraft missiles at a Ukrainian jetliner that crashed after taking off from Tehran s main airport earlier this month, killing all 176 people on board. The new preliminary report by Iran s Civil Aviation Organization however stopped short of blaming the TOR-M1 for the crash of the Boeing 737-800, flown by Ukraine International Airways. For days after the Jan. 8 shootdown, Iran denied that it fired missiles at the plane, initially blaming a technical malfunction and engine fire for the crash. However, after the U.S. and Canada blamed missile fire for the crash, Iran s armed forces said anti-aircraft fire from the country s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had downed the flight. The new report identified the missiles fired at the aircraft as coming from the TOR-M1. In 2017, Iran received the delivery of 29 TOR-M1 units from Russia under a contract worth an estimated $700 million. However, the report said ``the impact of these missiles on the accident and the analysis of this action under is under investigation. Surveillance footage earlier obtained by The Associated Press showed two missiles were fired at the plane. The two minutes of black-and-white footage purportedly shows one missile streaking across the sky and exploding near the plane. Ten seconds later, another missile is fired. Some 20 seconds after the first explosion, another strikes near the plane. A ball of flames then falls from the sky out of frame. The footage corresponded with AP reporting, appeared genuine and matched geographic features of the area. It also explained how so many people filmed the shoot down: the first explosion drew their attention so they turned their mobile phone cameras to the predawn sky. The Tor short-range air defense system, code-named the SA-15 by NATO, was designed during Soviet times to shoot down aircraft and precision guided weapons. It is mounted on a tracked vehicle and carries a radar and a pack of eight missiles. Each vehicle can operate independently. Tor has a range of up to 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) and can hit aerial targets at altitudes of up to 6 kilometers (about 19,700 feet). Tor missiles explode near their target, taking it down with shrapnel that devastates engines, fuel tanks and other vital components. In other developments on Tuesday, South Korea Defense Ministry announced its anti-piracy unit operating in the Gulf of Aden was temporarily expanding its mission to the Strait of Hormuz. A ministry statement said the decision was meant to help ensure the safe passage of South Korean vessels and nationals through the waterway. It said the unit s expanded operation will include the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. The ministry said the unit will conduct an independent operation but will cooperate with a U.S.-led coalition if necessary. Already, a U.S.-led operation is surveilling the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all the world s oil passes. A French-led naval coalition is also being created. The missions began after mysterious explosions last summer targeted oil tankers near the strait, attacks the U.S. blamed on Iran. Tehran denied being involved, though it did seize tankers amid wider tensions with the West over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.

World leaders committed to ending all foreign meddling in Libya s civil war at a Berlin summit Sunday, and to uphold a weapons embargo as part of a broader plan to end the long-running conflict. The presidents of Russia, Turkey and France were among global chiefs signing up to the agreement to stop interfering in the war -- be it through weapons, troops or financing. But the talks failed to deliver "serious dialogue" between the warring parties -- strongman Khalifa Haftar and the head of Tripoli s UN-recognised government Fayez al-Sarraj -- or to get both sides to sign up to a permanent truce. "Ensuring that a ceasefire is immediately respected is simply not easy to guarantee," said summit host Chancellor Angela Merkel. "But I hope that through today s conference, we have a chance the truce will hold further." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged that there are "still some questions on how well and effectively" the commitments can be monitored. But he said he is "optimistic that there will be less violence and... an opportunity to begin the conversation that (UN special envoy) Ghassan Salame has been trying to get going between the Libyan parties". Libya has been torn by fighting between rival armed factions since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Most recently, Sarraj s troops in Tripoli have been under attack since April from Haftar s forces. Clashes have killed more than 280 civilians and 2,000 fighters and displaced tens of thousands, until a fragile ceasefire backed by both Ankara and Moscow was put in place on January 12. Although Sarraj s government is recognised by the UN, powerful players have broken away to stand behind Haftar -- turning a domestic conflict into what some have described as a proxy war in which international powers jostle to secure their own interests. Alarm grew in recent weeks after Turkey ordered in troops to shore up Sarraj s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). - Small step forward - UN chief Antonio Guterres said the world powers had made "a strong commitment to stop" the conflict escalating into a regional confrontation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed to some positive takeaways from the talks, but said the summit failed to launch necessary talks between Sarraj and Haftar. "It is clear that we have not yet succeeded in launching a serious and stable dialogue between them," Lavrov told reporters after the conference, where Haftar and Sarraj did not meet face to face. Nevertheless, the Libyan parties had taken "a small step" forward, Lavrov added. Pro-Haftar forces upped the ante on the eve of the talks by blocking oil exports at Libya s key ports, crippling the country s main income source in protest at Turkey s decision to send troops to shore up Sarraj. In afternoon trade on Asian markets Monday, oil prices rose more than one percent on supply concerns following the move. Vested interests The flaring oil crisis underlined the devastating impact of foreign influence in the conflict, in which Sarraj s GNA is backed by Turkey and Qatar while Haftar has the support of Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Ahead of the talks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Haftar, saying he needed to drop his "hostile attitude" if Libya is to have any chance at winning peace. Russia has been accused of sending in mercenaries to help Haftar as Moscow seeks to extend its influence in the region -- allegations it denies. For Turkey, the fall of Sarraj s GNA could jeopardise a maritime boundary agreement the parties signed. It gives Ankara extensive rights over the eastern Mediterranean where the recent discovery of undersea gas reserves has triggered a scramble by littoral states. Erdogan has repeatedly urged Europe to stand united behind Sarraj s government, warning that Tripoli s fall could allow jihadist groups like the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda to regroup. Further unrest could prompt a new wave of migrants to head for Europe, he has cautioned. Amid the latest apparent ceasefire violation -- according to GNA forces Sunday, Haftar s militia opened fire on them in southern Tripoli -- Sarraj issued a plea for international "protection troops". The call echoed a similar suggestion by the EU s chief diplomat Josep Borrell, who stressed that monitors must be present to check that any ceasefire and weapons embargo are respected. With the idea gathering pace, Britain and Italy had voiced readiness to help, ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday that will discuss how the bloc can contribute to implementing Sunday s deal. But as Guterres noted, that discussion remains premature. "First, we need to have a ceasefire -- we cannot monitor something that doesn t exist."

World leaders gather in Berlin on Sunday to make a fresh push for peace in Libya, in a desperate bid to stop the conflict-wracked nation from turning into a "second Syria". Chancellor Angela Merkel will be joined by the presidents of Russia, Egypt, Turkey and France and other world leaders for talks from around 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) held under the auspices of the United Nations. The summit s main goal is to get foreign powers wielding influence in the region to stop interfering in the war -- be it through weapons, troops or financing. Leaders of both warring factions -- strongman Khalifa Haftar and the head of Tripoli s UN-recognised government Fayez al-Sarraj -- are also expected at what is the first such gathering since 2018. Speaking to reporters before leaving Istanbul for Berlin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the summit could be "an important step on the way to cementing the ceasefire and a political solution" in Libya. But pro-Haftar forces upped the ante ahead of the talks by blocking oil exports at Libya s key ports, crippling the country s main income source in protest at Turkey s decision to send troops to shore up Sarraj s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). The move underlined the devastating impact of foreign influence in the crisis. "Libya needs all foreign interference to stop," the United Nations special envoy Ghassan Salame told AFP. The UN hopes all sides will sign up to a plan to refrain from interference, and commit to a truce that leads to a lasting end to hostilities, according to a draft of a final communique seen by AFP. That document also urges all parties to re-commit to a much-violated UN arms embargo and raises the prospect of intra-Libyan political talks in Geneva at the end of the month. If all goes to plan, the Berlin participants will hold an evening press conference. But the summit has already ruffled feathers, with several countries in the region fuming at being left out, including Greece, Morocco and Tunisia. Libya Second Syria Libya has been torn by fighting between rival armed factions since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Most recently, Sarraj s troops in Tripoli have been under attack since April from Haftar s forces. Clashes killed more than 280 civilians and 2,000 fighters and displaced tens of thousands, until a fragile ceasefire backed by both Ankara and Moscow was put in place on January 12. At follow-up talks in Moscow, Sarraj agreed to a permanent truce but Hafter walked away without signing the deal. Although Sarraj s government is recognised by the UN, powerful players have broken away to stand behind Haftar -- turning a domestic conflict into what is essentially a proxy war in which international powers jostle to secure their own interests. Alarm grew internationally after Erdogan ordered troops to Libya early January to bolster Sarraj. Underlining the stakes involved, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "we have to make sure Libya doesn t become a second Syria." Sarraj meanwhile issued a call for international "protection troops" if Haftar were to keep up his offensive. "Such a protection force must operate under the auspices of the United Nations. Experts will have to advise who should participate, such as the EU or the African Union or the Arab League", he told Die Welt newspaper on Sunday. He also criticised the EU, saying it had not been proactive enough on Libya. "Unfortunately the role of the EU so far has been very modest... even though some EU countries have a special relationship with Libya, we are neighbours and have many interests in common," he said. Lip service? Erdogan has repeatedly urged Europe to stand united behind Sarraj s government, warning that Tripoli s fall could allow jihadist groups like the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda to regroup. He has also warned that further unrest could prompt a new wave of migrants to head for Europe. For Turkey, a fall of Sarraj s GNA could jeopardise a maritime boundary agreement the parties signed. It gives Ankara extensive rights over the eastern Mediterranean where the recent discovery of undersea gas reserves has triggered a scramble by littoral states. But Haftar is backed by Turkey s fiercest regional rivals -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Erdogan has also accused Russia of sending in mercenaries to help Haftar, as Moscow seeks to extend its influence in the region. The International Crisis Group s Libya expert Claudia Gazzini said the Berlin conference "could be a modest step forward" on the path to peace. "Yet the risk remains that some participants will merely pay lip service to the diplomatic initiative, even as they continue to fuel a war from which they benefit."

Germanys foreign minister was flying to Libya on Thursday to meet one of the countrys rival leaders, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, in a bid to push forward troubled efforts to secure a cease-fire. Germany will host a conference on Libya in Berlin on Sunday, bringing together many of the countries that have interests in the North African countrys civil war. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas trip to Benghazi comes two days after Libyas rival leaders left Moscow without reaching an agreement. Hifters forces have been on the offensive since April, laying siege in an effort to capture Tripoli and battling with militias aligned with the U.N.-supported government based in the Libyan capital. Since the 2011 ouster and killing of Libyas longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the country has sunk further into chaos and turmoil and is now divided between two rival administrations, the Tripoli one in the west and the one based in the countrys east, supported by Hifters forces. Russia and Turkey proposed a cease-fire last week. Prime Mniister Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libyas U.N.-supported government, and rival Hifter went to Moscow on Monday for talks with Russian and Turkish diplomats and military officials. Sarraj and Hifter, who didnt meet directly, considered a draft document spelling out details of a truce proposed jointly by Russia and Turkey that began Sunday. Sarraj signed the draft before departing, while Hifter requested more time to consider it and then left Moscow without signing. Both Sarraj and Hifter have been invited to the Berlin conference, though it isnt yet clear whether they will come. Maas spoke to Sarraj last week and said he is meeting Hifter on behalf of the European Unions foreign ministers. ``Our message is clear: no one can win this conflict militarily, Maas said before leaving Berlin. ``A window is now opening to free the conflict from international influence and so open the way to a political process and inter-Libyan negotiations on a post-war order under U.N. supervision. ``I hope that the parties will take this opportunity to put the future of Libya back in Libyan hands, Maas added. ``This now requires readiness for a real cease-fire and both parties participation in the dialogue formats proposed by the United Nations.

Military strongman Khalifa Haftar s reluctance to sign up to a Turkish-Russian orchestrated ceasefire accord underlines the complexity of Libya s conflict and pressures exerted by key foreign players, analysts say. He left Moscow on Tuesday without signing a permanent truce aimed at ending nine months of fighting against the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez al-Sarraj. His abrupt departure was a setback for an international diplomatic push, after Sarraj had signed up to halting Haftar s offensive to seize Tripoli from the GNA. For Emad Badi of the Washington-based Middle East Institute, there are two plausible explanations for Haftar walking away. "Either he didn t sign because he personally decided not regardless of the consequences, or... one of his backers guaranteed him support even if he did not sign". Abdelqader el-Rehebi, a Libyan political analyst, said the motivation for Haftar to hold off on signing a definitive ceasefire deal was clear. "Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Cairo and Paris, the direct or indirect supporters of his military campaign... were not agreed" on the deal. "This makes his refusal logical." Rehebi said Haftar s foreign backers had pressed him to keep up the Tripoli offensive "and, in return, (they pledged) to keep up their political and military support". Egypt, for example, a regional rival of Turkey which opposes Ankara s support for the GNA, "rejects any consensus or reconciliation between the two camps that would permit a Turkish presence on the Libyan scene", Rehebi said. Peter Millett, a former British ambassador to Libya, tweeted that Haftar s stand was a signal that the general and his backers "still think he can win militarily". - Very expensive price - But Mohamed Eljarh, another Libyan analyst, tweeted that Haftar had come under "enormous pressure" to sign. "Once again, Haftar proves he is not bound by the wishes of his backers & those that sympathize with him. Not #Cairo, not #AbuDhabi, and not #Moscow. #Libya," Eljarh wrote. A former US special envoy to Libya, Jonathan M. Winer, said the strongman s actions were true to form. "That has been what I have both observed & been told by senior foreign officials of states that supported him in the past. A dictator is beholden to no one," he tweeted. Critics accuse Haftar of aiming to install a new dictatorship in Libya, which has been in chaos ever since the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed longtime ruler Moamer Kadhafi. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted with fury to Haftar s walkout. "We will not hesitate to teach a deserved lesson to the putschist Haftar if he continues his attacks on the country s legitimate administration and our brothers in Libya," he said. The general, who supports an administration based in eastern Libya, set his sights on Tripoli last April after conquering much of the south, in part by rallying powerful local tribes. For Federica Saini Fasanotti of the Brookings Institution, "the price of this siege (of Tripoli) is also very expensive for Haftar." He "sees himself indebted to foreign countries that have supported him, but above all to the inhabitants" of eastern Libya. "Families who lost their children in this war operation await a clear response from Haftar that can only end with victory, at least on paper. Without that, it will be very difficult" for him, she said. Other analysts speculated that a secret annex to the ceasefire accord between Moscow and Ankara could explain Haftar s opposition. "Possibly, the two countries might have some under the table deal for a possible new political lineup in Libya," Claudia Gazzini of the International Crisis Group told AFP.

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar left Moscow on Tuesday without signing a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending nine months of fighting, leaving the future of a fragile truce uncertain. The commander s abrupt departure in the early hours of Tuesday was a setback for an international diplomatic push in recent days, though Moscow insisted it would continue mediation efforts. Haftar and his allies were in Moscow on Monday for talks with the UN-recognised government headed by Fayez al-Sarraj and based in Tripoli. Sarraj s government has been under attack since last April from forces loyal to Haftar, who is based in the east of the oil-rich North African country with his own loyalist politicians. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey that took effect at the weekend and were in Moscow to sign a long-term agreement. The talks raised hopes of an end to the latest fighting to wrack Libya since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi. But after seven hours of negotiations, only Sarraj had signed on to the agreement and Russian officials confirmed to AFP that Haftar s delegation had left without signing the deal. "We will pursue our efforts in this direction. For now, a definitive result has not been achieved," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in Sri Lanka. Russia, European powers and Libya s neighbours "are working in the same vein and motivating all Libyan sides to agree rather than continue sorting things out by force", Lavrov said. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted a source in Haftar s stronghold Benghazi as saying he did not sign because the agreement did not spell out a timeline for disbanding groups allied with Sarraj s Government of National Accord (GNA). Opposing sides Western powers are keen to stabilise Libya -- home to Africa s largest proven crude reserves -- following years of turbulence since the 2011 killing of Kadhafi. Since the start of the offensive against Tripoli, more than 280 civilians and about 2,000 fighters have been killed and 146,000 Libyans displaced, according to the United Nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a joint call for a ceasefire, which started at midnight Sunday and was welcomed by the United Nations. The leaders of Turkey and France on Monday called for a more permanent truce which would pave the way for a political process, while Germany was preparing a summit on Libya this month. Putin late on Monday discussed the talks in Moscow with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Kremlin said, following her visit to Moscow Saturday. Turkey and Russia s diplomatic initiative came despite the countries being seen as supporting opposing sides. Ankara dispatched troops -- in a training capacity, it said -- to support the GNA in January in a move criticised by European powers and US President Donald Trump. The GNA has signed agreements with Ankara assigning Turkey rights over a vast area of the eastern Mediterranean, in a deal denounced by France, Greece, Egypt and Cyprus. Russia has been accused of backing pro-Haftar forces, which are supported by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- all regional rivals of Turkey. Several hundred Russian mercenaries are reported to be in Libya supporting Haftar. Putin said any Russians in the country are not in Moscow s pay.

Libya s warring rival leaders will hold peace talks in Moscow on Monday alongside representatives from Russia and Turkey, Russian news agencies cited the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying. The talks come after a ceasefire in Libya, initiated by Turkey and Russia, saw a lull in heavy fighting and air strikes on Sunday, though both factions accused each other of violating the truce as skirmishes continued around the capital Tripoli. Monday s Moscow talks will be attended by Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), and by Fayez al-Serraj, who heads the rival Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), Russian news agencies reported. Russia and Turkey s foreign and defence ministers would also take part in the talks, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying. Lev Dengov, the head of the Russian contact group on Libya, said the warring factions would discuss "the possibility of signing a truce and the details of such a document," Interfax reported. Libya, which has been mired in turmoil since the toppling of strongman Muammar Gaddafi, has had two rival governments since 2014. The conflict between the forces of the two factions has wrecked the country s economy, fuelled migrant smuggling and militancy, and disrupted oil supplies. The Russo-Turkish peace push, the latest international attempt to stem the violence, comes more than nine months into an offensive on Tripoli by the LNA led by Haftar. Turkey backs Haftar s rival, Serraj, who heads the Tripoli-based GNA, while Russian military contractors have been deployed alongside Haftar s LNA forces. Asked about those mercenaries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that any Russian citizens fighting in Libya were not representing the interests of the Russian state or receiving money from it. During a visit to Moscow on Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin wanted to host Libyan peace talks to build on what she said she hoped would be successful joint efforts by Russia and Turkey to stop the conflict.

World and regional leaders, many at odds with one another, met Oman s new ruler on Sunday to offer condolences for the death of Sultan Qaboos whose quiet diplomacy during five decades in power helped calm regional turbulence. The rulers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirate, which are locked in a protracted dispute, were among those who visited the royal palace in Muscat as was the foreign minister of Iran, which is an arch-foe of U.S.-allied Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Oman s new sultan, Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, promised after assuming power on Saturday to uphold the foreign policy of his Western-backed predecessor under which Muscat balanced ties between larger neighbours Saudi Arabia and Iran as well as the United States. "His challenge going forward will be to quickly develop his personal relationships with foreign partners and make clear his likely stance to stay-the-course with Oman s foreign policy," said Elana DeLozier, a research fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. Qaboos, who died on Friday aged 79, managed to maintain Oman s neutrality, not taking sides in the Gulf dispute with Qatar, and helped to mediate secret U.S.-Iran talks in 2013 that led to an international nuclear pact two years later which Washington then quit in 2018. President Donald Trump called Qaboos a true partner to the United States, working with nine different American presidents. "His unprecedented efforts to engage in dialogue and achieve peace in the region showed us the importance of listening to all viewpoints," Trump said in a statement. The British government said Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles arrived in Muscat for the condolences ceremony for the longest-serving Arab leader, who took power in a palace coup in 1970 with the help of former colonial power Britain. Among other Western dignitaries was former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Other leaders included Kuwait s ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, as well as Bahrain s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the president of Yemen s internationally recognized government, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Haitham assumes power at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the United States that could destabilise a region vital to global oil supplies. Qaboos death leaves Kuwait s 90-year old Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who was also in Muscat on Sunday, as the last of the old guard leaders in the Gulf. The region has seen the emergence of young hawks in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi who are bent on curtailing Iran s influence.

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar s capture of the strategic city of Sirte on Monday was a major setback for Tripoli s UN-recognised government, analysts say. The fresh advance by Haftar s self-styled Libyan National Army comes as Turkey deploys troops -- 35 so far, in a training capacity -- to bolster the beleaguered Government of National Accord. Diplomatic efforts to contain the spiralling crisis saw Turkey and Russia on Wednesday call for a ceasefire, despite supporting opposing sides of the conflict. But Libya s rival factions have not yet responded. Sirte was controlled by forces loyal to the GNA after they expelled Islamic State jihadists from the coastal city in 2016. But after a local Salafist militia switched sides, the city fell without fighting to Haftar s Libya Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), which has been fighting to seize Tripoli from the GNA since last April. The hometown of Moamer Kadhafi, Sirte paid a heavy price after the longstanding dictator was ousted in a 2011 NATO-backed rebellion. Many in Sirte welcomed Haftar s forces as they did not support the GNA -- whose forces are mostly former anti-Kadhafi rebels from Misrata, a city between Sirte and Tripoli. - New front? - Along with undermining the morale of GNA forces, "the loss of Sirte will significantly reduce (their) military and strategic position vis-a-vis" the LAAF, said Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher at the Clingendael Institute. Since Haftar launched his Tripoli offensive, his troops have also mobilised to block any potential counter attack on Libya s "oil crescent" in the northeast, under Haftar s control since 2016. Haftar feared GNA forces could use Sirte s airbase to carry out strikes on his eastern stronghold, according to Harchaoui. Threats from Sirte against the LAAF, until recently known as the Libyan National Army, "constituted a kind of sword of Damocles hanging over Haftar," he said. The loss of Sirte also puts pressure on the eastern flank of pro-GNA forces defending the capital in Tripoli s southern suburbs, Harchaoui added. According to Emad Badi of the Middle East Institute, Haftar is looking to turn Misratan forces towards Sirte in order to weaken Tripoli s defences. His forces may look to open a new front against Misrata, 200 kilometres (120 miles) east of Tripoli, which previously blocked their advance west, according to Hamish Kinnear, an analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. "Misratan militias will prioritise protecting their home city" if the LAAF advances on it, he said. "This will put enormous pressure on the GNA s war effort in Tripoli itself." - Important setback - "Strategically, the loss of Sirte makes it much more difficult for GNA-affiliated forces to harass Haftar s supply lines," said Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. The loss of Sirte comes as Turkey is sending troops to support the GNA against Haftar, who is supported by Ankara s rivals the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Russia is also accused of sending fighters to support Haftar, something Moscow denies. While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made grand pronouncements about supporting Tripoli, in reality he will be forced to proceed slowly, Harchaoui said. Turkey may decide to defend limited territory, such as downtown Tripoli and other enclaves, he said. But "the loss of Sirte makes Turkish support all the more urgent for the GNA," said Lacher. While Turkish drones have resumed attacking pro-Haftar forces in recent days, the GNA still needs greater air capabilities, Lacher told AFP. Advisers are already helping GNA troops fly the drones and jam signals from Haftar s unmanned aircraft, experts say. The Turkish deployment may in large part be a propaganda move aimed at halting Haftar s Tripoli offensive, the analysts believe. Erdogan on Wednesday appeared alongside his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Istanbul to call for a ceasefire in Libya from Sunday. The pair united to issue a joint statement calling for a truce "supported by the necessary measures to be taken for stabilising the situation on the ground". Haftar meanwhile was in Rome Wednesday for talks with Italian premier Giuseppe Conte.