Senior Hamas officials on Tuesday joined the family of Nelson Mandela to mark the 10th anniversary of his death and cast the spotlight on the bitter conflict in Gaza.

South Africa has strongly condemned Israel’s response to the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attacks that unleashed a war in which thousands have died.

Mandela, who died aged 95 in 2013, made a Palestinian state one of his main international causes when he became South Africa’s first black president.

And Hamas representatives were among Palestinians who laid a wreath when the Mandela family paid tribute at a giant statue of the anti-apartheid icon,


Mandela’s grandson, national assembly member Mandla Mandela, helped organise a two-day conference on the Palestinian-Israel conflict before the wreath-laying at the Union Buildings.

Basem Naim, a former Hamas health minister in Gaza, and Khaled Qaddoumi, the militant group’s representative in Iran, were among Palestinians to visit for the conference and anniversary.

“We were waiting to gain first-hand experience of the daily atrocities that are being carried out in Gaza,” Mandla Mandela told national broadcaster SABC.

“It was a real experience for them to be in South Africa and learn from our experience as we had to face one of the most brutal apartheid regimes on the continent and we were able to defeat it.”

He said his grandfather considered a Palestinian state “the great moral issue of our time” and added: “We are carrying on where he left off.”

Mandla Mandela is part of the ruling African National Congress which last month backed a national assembly motion calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy and for a suspension of diplomatic ties in protest at the war.

South Africa has also officially called on the International Criminal Court to investigate what President Cyril Ramaphosa has called Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza.

Israel says 1,200 people were killed when Hamas fighters crossed the border on October 7. The Hamas government says nearly 16,000 people have died in Israel’s military assault on Gaza since.

Israel, which has rejected comparisons between its conflict and apartheid, did not send a senior leader to Mandela’s funeral in 2013.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Russia on Thursday, for talks with Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said, as the two countries strengthen economic and military ties in the face of Western sanctions. “I can confirm.

There will be Russian-Iranian negotiations on December 7,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday when asked about media reports of Raisi’s impending visit.

Putin visited Iran in July last year and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov travelled to Tehran in October for talks with regional counterparts.

Western countries have accused Tehran of supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine by providing it with large quantities of drones and other weaponry.

Iran’s official news agency Irna said Raisi would be travelling to Moscow following an invitation from Putin.

“Bilateral issues, including economic interactions, as well as discussions about regional and international issues, especially the situation in Gaza, will be high on the agenda of the one-day trip,” it reported.

AFP

Britain’s embattled Conservative government unveiled a raft of measures Monday aimed at cracking down on record levels of migration — a key battleground in a general election expected next year.

The UK announced it would raise the minimum salary threshold for a skilled worker visa and prevent overseas health and social care staff from bringing family dependents to Britain.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office trumpeted the proposals as “the biggest clampdown on legal migration ever”.

But critics said it would damage the state-run National Health Service (NHS), which faces staff shortages.

Immigration is set to be a key issue in nationwide elections that must be held by January 2025 at the latest, and which the main opposition Labour party is currently favoured to win.

Sunak has pledged to reduce new arrivals and has been under pressure ever since statistics released last month showed that net migration to Britain hit a high in 2022.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of people who arrived in Britain last year was 745,000 more than the number who left.

Interior minister James Cleverly said his plan would result in 300,000 fewer people coming to the UK in the coming years.

“Enough is enough,” the home secretary told parliament as he laid out his proposals, which will take effect early next year.

Cleverly said skilled foreign workers wanting a UK visa would have to earn £38,700 ($48,860), up from £26,200 and in line with the median full-time wage.

He exempted health and social care workers, but said they would be prevented from bringing family dependents.

NHS Providers, which represents hospital groups in England, said changes that might deter care workers from coming to the UK were “deeply concerning”.

Care England, a charity representing independent adult social care providers, said immigration had been “saving the social care sector”. Staff shortages have been exacerbated by Brexit.

Cleverly also raised the minimum income for family visas to £38,700 and confirmed restrictions on international students bringing dependents.

He reaffirmed that Britain would increase the surcharge that migrants pay to access the NHS by 66 percent, to £1,035.

Critics have said this effectively imposes a double charge on migrant workers, as employees also pay National Insurance charges, which go towards covering healthcare.

Cleverly added that the government would reform the “shortage occupation list”, which details jobs for which employers are not able to find enough British workers.

The Conservatives won a landslide under the leadership of Boris Johnson at the last election in 2019, largely on a promise to bring net migration numbers down.

The party has repeatedly promised that leaving the European Union, which ended the free movement of people from member states, would allow the UK to “take back control” of its borders.

But regular migration has soared since Britain formally left the EU in January 2020. In 2021, net migration was 488,000.

The ONS data piled pressure on Sunak from his own MPs to take action, with some right-wingers arguing that the issue was “do or die” for the party.

In opinion polls, the Tories, in power since 2010, lag well behind centre-left Labour, which also claims regular migration is too high.

Labour’s home affairs spokesperson Yvette Cooper accused the Conservatives of being in a “chaotic panic” over immigration.

“Today’s statement is an admission of years of total failure by this Conservative government,” she told parliament.

Sunak is also struggling to cut the number of irregular arrivals crossing the Channel from northern France on small boats.

About 30,000 have undertaken the dangerous crossing this year.

The government has deemed such crossings illegal but its much-trumpeted plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was struck down by the courts last month.

Cleverly is due to visit Kigali soon, possibly this week, to finalise a new treaty. The government has also said it is working on “emergency legislation” to get deportation flights going by spring.

AFP