PHILIPPINES THREATENS TO PULL OUT OF ICC

MANILA: The Philippines on Tuesday threatened to pull out of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) if its war against drugs that has left thousands of people dead is investigated. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque previewed elements of a speech he is due to deliver at the ICC headquarters in New York on Wednesday. In April, a Filipino lawyer filed a lawsuit against President Rodrigo Duterte. ANKARA: The status of Jerusalem is a “red line” for Muslims and could even prompt Turkey to cut ties with Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump mulled whether to recognise the city as the Israeli capital.

Erdogan said Turkey, which currently holds the chairmanship of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), would immediately call a summit meeting of the panislamic group if Trump went ahead with the move.

“Trump! Jerusalem is a red line for Muslims,” Erdogan said in a raucous televised speech to his ruling party that was greeted with chants and applause.

Erdogan said that if such a move was made to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he would summon a summit of the OIC in Istanbul within five to 10 days “and we would set the entire Islamic world in motion”.

As for Turkey, Erdogan said Ankara would “follow this struggle to the very last moment with determination and we could even go right up to cutting our diplomatic relations with Israel.”

Last year, Turkey and Israel ended a rift triggered by Israel’s deadly storming in 2010 of a Gaza-bound ship that left 10 Turkish activists dead and led to a downgrading of diplomatic ties.

The two sides have since stepped up cooperation in particular in energy but Erdogan, who regards himself a champion of the Palestinian cause, is still often bitterly critical of Israeli policy.

Erdogan’s comments came after the White House said Trump would miss a deadline to decide on shifting the embassy from Tel Aviv, after a frantic 48 hours of public warnings from allies and private phonecalls between world leaders. SANAA: The Houthi militia killed 200 people who were taken prisoners during an attack that killed former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Arab media reported on Tuesday.

The Houthis ambushed the homes of Saleh’s relatives and killed a few of his supporters and leading figures in his General People’s Congress (GPC) Party, Al Arabiya reported.

This follows the killing of Abdullah Saleh at the hands of the militia in the south of Sanaa on Monday.

Al Arabiya said the Iranbacked Houthi militia carried out raids and arrested several leaders and members of the GPC in Sanaa.

Meanwhile, Arab coalition fighters launched several raids on the Presidential Palace amid heavy overflights over Sanaa, while Houthi militias created an undeclared state of emergency in Sanaa hours after Abdullah Saleh’s killing.