ISRAELI police say security forces have clashed with Muslim worshippers at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.
A police spokesman said Palestinians hurled stones and chairs at forces during Jerusalem Day yesterday, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of the Old City during the 1967 Middle East War. It came after Israeli nationalists visited the contested site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
Tensions run high on Jerusalem Day, which this year falls toward the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Israelis held an annual march through the Old City and police were on high alert to avoid violence.
MEANWHILE, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo says the Trump administration is willing to talk to Iran “with no preconditions”.
He added that the US will continue its campaign of pressure against the Islamic Republic, as tensions rise between the countries.
Pompeo is in Switzerland, which represents US interests in Iran, for talks with foreign minister Ignazio Cassis. America’s top diplomat says the US is “prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions. We’re ready to sit down” with Iran’s leaders.
But Pompeo also made clear that “the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue”.
IN Italy, the transport minister has called for cruise ships to be banned from using the Giudecca Canal in Venice, after an out-of-control liner rammed a river tourist boat in the Italian city.
Videos of the crash, which happened at around 8.30am local time, show the MSC Opera cruise ship, apparently unable to halt its momentum, blaring its horn as it ploughs into a much smaller river boat and the dock, as people on the dock run away.
Danilo Toninelli said: “Today’s accident in the port of Venice proves that cruise ships shouldn’t be allowed to pass down the Giudecca any more.”
Four older female tourists were injured as they tried to run away when the cruise ship rammed the tourist boat.
FINALLY, in Algeria the Constitutional Council says there will be no presidential election on July 4 as planned after the two candidates – both unknowns – were rejected.
The council said in a statement that it is now up to the interim president, Abdelkader Bensalah, to set a new date for the vote.
Only two candidates turned in their files by the May 25 deadline, but the Constitutional Council rejected them. It did not say why.
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