Modi, Xi hold 'forward-looking' talks, call for peace in border areas

Xiamen, (China), Sep 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping today held their first substantive bilateral meeting after the Dokalam standoff and reaffirmed that maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas was a pre-requisite for ties to move forward.

Modi, who attended the BRICS Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue earlier in the day, met Xi on the sidelines of the 9th BRICS Summit here.

There was a forward-looking and constructive approach taken by both sides during the over an hour-long meeting between the two leaders, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said while briefing reporters on the Modi-Xi bilateral meet.

Prime Minister Modi and president Xi felt that there should be closer communication between the defence and security personnel of India and China, Jaishankar said. The two leaders reaffirmed that it is in the interest of both India and China to have good relations, he said.

During the meeting, both Modi and Xi reaffirmed the understanding reached earlier this year at Astana between them to not allow differences to become disputes. They felt that peace and tranquillity in the border areas is a pre-requisite for ties to move forward, Jaishankar said.

Asked if the Dokalam standoff had been left behind by the two sides, he said, "It was a forward-looking conversation and not a backward-looking one." In his initial remarks during the meeting, Modi congratulated Xi on a "very successful" BRICS Summit, saying the conference had been a success in making the grouping more relevant in a fast-changing world.

Xi told Modi that the two countries should pursue "healthy, stable bilateral ties", China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. China is willing to work with India on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Panchsheel), which were put forward by both the countries, to improve political mutual trust, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and push Sino-India ties along the right track, Xi was quoted as saying.

The meeting came amid diplomatic efforts by the two sides to overcome the bitterness caused by the 73-day face-off between their troops in the Dokalam area of the Sikkim sector.

The Chinese and the Indian troops were engaged in a standoff since June 16 after the Indian side stopped the construction of a road by the Chinese Army. On August 28, India's External Affairs Ministry announced that New Delhi and Beijing have decided on "expeditious disengagement" of their border troops in the disputed Dokalam area.

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Israel broadens airstrikes in Lebanon, killing displaced families without warning

News Network

November 13,2024

Beirut: The Israeli army on Tuesday continued to launch attacks against civilians in Lebanon, targeting them in several areas without prior evacuation warnings.

However, 13 airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in the space of only three hours were preceded by evacuation warnings.

The attacks caused no injuries but resulted in widespread destruction of residential buildings and commercial, medical and educational centers.

The airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Bekaa region, reaching Akkar in Lebanon’s far north, erased any hope of a near-term ceasefire settlement.

The strikes were accompanied by an announcement on Israel’s Channel 14 that “the Israeli army has expanded its operations in southern Lebanon to areas it had not reached since the beginning of the ground operation.”

About 50 days have passed since Israel intensified its hostile operations in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. The death toll from these confrontations and attacks has passed 3,200, with more than 14,000 wounded.

For the first time, an airstrike targeted a mountainous area between Baalchmay and Aabadiyeh on the road leading to Aley, destroying a building housing displaced people.

The mayor of Baalchmay, Adham Al-Danaf, confirmed that “the airstrike targeted a residential building in the Dhour Aabadiyeh area.”

The initial toll from the Ministry of Health showed “five people killed and two injured.”

The raids that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time in the morning, unlike nightly raids before, caused huge destruction. Those who evacuated their homes after Israeli warnings, used their phones to record the collapse of empty buildings in Sfeir, Haret Hreik, Bir Al-Abed, Mrayjeh, Laylaki and Hadath.

Israeli warplanes also targeted Tyre, where a strike on a building killed three people and injured many others, while a raid on Tefahta killed a man identified as Kifah Khalil and his family.

Attacks were widespread, with Yater and Zebqine subject to artillery shelling, a civilian being killed in Hermel, and further attacks on Bouday and an area between the towns of Srifa and Arsoun.

A raid on the town of Siddiqin killed two people and injured several others, while an attack on the Mechref farm led to one fatality and multiple injuries.

The search for those missing after an Israeli raid on the town of Ain Yaacoub in Akkar, in the northernmost part of Lebanon, continued until dawn.

During the operation, 14 bodies were retrieved, identified as those of residents displaced from the town of Arabsalim in the Iqlim Al-Tuffah area of the south, along with members of a Syrian family, a mother and three of her children. Additionally, there were 10 people in critical condition.

The targeted residence belongs to a Lebanese citizen, Hussein Hashim, who is reported to be a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

An airstrike on the town of Saksakiyeh in the Sidon region on Monday night resulted in yet another tragedy.

It appeared that the intended target was the Shoumer family, who just days before lost Hussein Amin Shoumer and his two sisters in a drone strike near Al-Awali River.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued additional evacuation warnings for towns in the southern region along the Litani River, which, according to estimates from the mayors, are currently 90 percent uninhabited.

In the meantime, Hezbollah announced its continued efforts to “combat the intrusions of Israeli forces and to strike military installations and towns in the north.”

Hezbollah said in a statement that it confronted “an Israeli Hermes 450 drone in the airspace of Nabatieh and forced it to leave Lebanese airspace.”

The party also announced that it targeted “Kfar Blum settlement with a rocket salvo.”

On the Israeli side, air raid sirens sounded in areas of Upper and Western Galilee and in the town of Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings.

The Israeli army confirmed that “a drone exploded in Nesher, east of Haifa, without activating the air raid sirens,” and that “a drone launched from Lebanon crashed into a school in Gesher HaZiv, north of Nahariya.”

Israel’s Channel 13 reported the Israeli military’s assessment regarding Hezbollah’s military strength, claiming that the group currently possesses approximately 100 precision missiles, thousands of artillery shells, and hundreds of rockets. Additionally, it was highlighted that “there are around 200 Lebanese towns that remain unvisited.”

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