Qatar will soon be the first Arab Gulf nation to allow some of its long-time foreign residents to become permanent residents.

Issuing a new law, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani directed the government on Tuesday to grant permanent residency to 100 expatriates every year. The law also allows most migrant workers to leave the country without an exit visa.

The new permanent residency law gives priority to children born to a Qatari mother, as well as foreign nationals who have lived in the country for more than 20 years and are considered “valuable” for their skills.

About 2.7 million foreign residents live in Qatar.

Under the new law, permanent residents are entitled to the same social security as Qatar’s citizens, including free healthcare and education in government schools. They will also be given priority in government jobs.

‘Gesture of appreciation’

As permanent residents, foreign expatriates investing in Qatar will no longer be required to have a Qatari citizen as their partners. The new law also allows them to own real estate in the country.

Once the new law is implemented, permanent residents will be able to enter and leave the country without permission from their employers, as is required for other residents.

The landmark law also allows expatriates serving in the Qatari armed forces to apply for permanent residency.

A Sudanese citizen, serving in the Qatari army for decades, told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity that he received an application to become a permanent resident.

This law would serve as a gesture of appreciation to many of our Arab brothers who have lived among us for decades and made an honorable stand supporting Qatar against the siege by the neighbouring countries

Abdallah al-Athbah

Vision 2030

Analysts say the new law is part of Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s ambitious Vision 2030, which aims to create a sustainable and modern Qatar in the next 10 years.

“This law would serve as a gesture of appreciation to many of our Arab brothers who have lived among us for decades and made an honourable stand, supporting Qatar against the siege by the neighbouring countries,” Abdallah al-Athbah, chief editor of Qatari newspaper Al Arab, told Al Jazeera.

In June 2017, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding “terrorism” and fomenting regional instability – allegations Doha denies.

Athbah said the new law is a “first step” in Qatar’s “investment in human capital”, which will benefit the state in vital areas such as medicine, science and engineering.

“The pioneering new law is part of a national strategy of modernisation and sustained development,” a senior Qatari official, who declined to be identified, told Al Jazeera.

On plans to grant just 100 permanent residencies a year, Athbah said the move will allow the government to evaluate its policy and revise it as needed in the years to come.

Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world with an average income of nearly $124,000 per year, a figure that surpasses many Western countries, including the United States.

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Paraguay will return its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, reversing a contentious decision months ago to move the diplomatic site to Jerusalem.

“Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said on Wednesday.

In response, Israel announced it will close its embassy in Paraguay and recall its ambassador, the Haaretz newspaper quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as saying.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, will “immediately” open an embassy in Paraguay, Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, according to the official news agency Wafa.

Maliki hailed Paraguay’s change of mind as “a new Palestinian diplomatic achievement”.

Paraguay’s former president Horacio Cartes traveled to Jerusalem to inaugurate the embassy in May. But Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, also a member of the conservative Colorado party, took office last month and reversed the decision.

In December, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing decades of American policy and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies. It opened a new embassy in the city on May 14. Two days later, Guatemala also opened its embassy in Jerusalem. 

‘Irresponsible leader’

The decision by the three countries was hailed as a political victory by Israel as it presses other countries to recognise Jerusalem as its capital.

But the relocations drew Palestinian and international anger. Deadly protests in Gaza and the West Bank also took place. 

Palestinian leaders see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and said Trump’s move disqualifies Washington as a peace mediator.

Previous US presidents, as well as nearly every other country, refrained from opening embassies in Jerusalem, saying the city’s final status should first be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), had condemned the opening of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem.

“We have witnessed today how the Paraguayan president is an irresponsible political leader by defying international law and the achievement of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” he said.

Netanyahu has attempted to persuade other countries to follow the US’ lead.

On Wednesday – while meeting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov – Netanyahu said: “I appreciate your decision to open an honorary consulate in Jerusalem, and I hope, I hope, I hope it’s the first step towards establishing the Bulgarian embassy in Jerusalem.” 

Palestinians and right groups condemned a decision by an Israeli court that gave the green light for the military to demolish a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, forcibly evicting 180 residents there.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority said the decision to raze the Khan al-Ahmar village consolidates Israel’s “colonial project” of building “an arc of settlements” that effectively cut off occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

“This illegal decision uncovers the colonial DNA of Israel’s institutions that work to confiscate Palestinian lands … effectively alienating it from the West Bank and killing any hopes for a future contiguous Palestinian state,” it said.

Khan al-Ahmar is situated a few kilometres from Jerusalem in the middle of two major illegal Israeli settlements, Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim, which the Israeli government wants to expand. The removal of the Bedouin village enables the Israeli government to cut the West Bank in two.

The High Court rejected petitions against the demolition and said a temporary injunction that had put a hold on the move would lapse in a week.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman praised the justices’ decision on Twitter calling it “brave”.

“Khan al-Ahmar will be evacuated. I congratulate the Supreme Court judges for their brave decision. Nobody [is] above law. Nobody can prevent us from consolidating our sovereignty,” Lieberman said.

The mood in the village, where residents attended a protest after the ruling, was despondent.

“We have gone through all the procedures in court, now we can do nothing more,” said Tawfiq Jabareen, a lawyer for the community. “If anything can prevent the demolition, it is the political process.”

‘Courts of occupiers’

The villagers are members of the Bedouin Jahalin tribe that was expelled from their lands in the Naqab (Negev) desert by the Israeli military in the 1950s. They were displaced twice more before they settled in Khan al-Ahmar, long before the illegal settlements around it existed.

The small community of 40 families live in tents and shacks on what is classified by the 1993 Oslo Accords as Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the West Bank and is under total Israeli administrative and security control.

The court’s decision was largely based on the premise that the village was built without Israeli permission, which Palestinians say is impossible to obtain because of the expansion of illegal Jewish-only Israeli settlements there.

United Nations figures show Israeli authorities have approved just 1.5 percent of all permit requests by Palestinians between 2010 and 2014.

In early July, Israeli bulldozers destroyed a number of tents and other structures in Khan al-Ahmar, sparking confrontations with local residents.

Hagai El-Ad, director of Israeli rights group B’Tselem, told Al Jazeera the court’s ruling was “cowardly, immoral, and outrageous”.

“This decision only demonstrates the Israeli High Court is working not in the service of justice but is simply working in the service of the occupation,” he said, speaking from Jerusalem.

“This is yet another example where we can see that the occupied people cannot find justice in the courts of the occupiers.”

The Israeli government plans to relocate the residents to an area about 12km away, near the Palestinian village of Abu Dis.

But the new site is next to a landfill, and rights advocates say a forcible transfer of the residents would violate international law applying to occupied territory.

“Forcible transfer of protected people in occupied territory is a war crime, plain and simple,” El-Ad said. “And now we have even more High Court justices that are backing the implementation of a war crime.”

Appeal to international community

El-Ad said displacement and settlement expansion have been the policy of many Israeli governments but the current one “is acting with a glaring green light that it sees from Washington”.

In response to the court’s decision, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) organised a demonstration in Khan al-Ahmar on Wednesday.

“We are holding this sit-in today to show solidarity with the people of Khan al-Ahmar and pressure Israel to reverse its decision,” Walid Assaf, head of the PLO’s commission on settlements, told reporters there.

“Israel continues to impose restrictions on the Palestinian people and expel them from their homes. We have exhausted all domestic legal channels, so we must resort to international law to safeguard our rights.”

El-Ad called on the international community to act, saying it has the responsibility “to safeguard human rights anywhere”.

“Especially in this reality where Palestinians have been living for more than half a century under a military occupation that desires to advance settlements and displace Palestinians – a process that is happening in broad daylight,” he said.

The UN’s special envoy to Yemen expressed confidence before the first day of peace talks between rebels and the internationally recognised Yemeni government – despite the Houthis failing to arrive in Switzerland.

Speaking at press conference in Geneva on Wednesday, Martin Griffiths said despite delays in the arrival of the Houthi delegation, he was confident representatives will attend Thursday’s UN-sponsored discussions to help end the three-year war that has killed thousands.

Griffiths said he hoped to see both parties in the same room. Previous reports suggested there would not be face-to-face meetings with intermediaries used for communication.

The meeting will be the first UN-led peace talks in two years, although chances of anything more than an agreement to further discussions are slim. 

The rebels said they were stranded in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on the eve of the peace talks, unable to “secure authorisation” from the Saudi-Emirati-led military coalition for a plane to transport its delegation and wounded fighters out of the country, according to the Houthi’s Al Masirah TV. 

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Tuesday the UN “made promises on facilitating the transport of the wounded … abroad”, and accused the world body of stalling. 

Griffiths said talks with the Yemeni government will start Wednesday night, and efforts were being made to ensure the Houthis’ presence.

“We are working at it. I think this issue will sort itself out. Yemen talks have always had a delay to begin. We are going to make it happen,” he said.

Turning the page

The UN envoy told reporters in Geneva there was no military solution to the Yemeni conflict.

“It has been a process in Yemen. This is an opportunity for that page to be turned. We are talking about consultations – this is not a negotiation – this a process. We want to understand the issues of both parties,” Griffiths said.

“This is a Yemeni-Yemeni discussion, it’s not for other countries to determine.”

Griffiths will act as the intermediary between government officials and Houthi representatives.

While the Houthis control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the Saudi-Emirati-led coalition controls its airspace.

In 2014, the Houthis seized Sanaa and drove the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile, marking a major turning point in Yemen’s long-running conflict. 

The following year, Saudi Arabia and allies formed the regional military coalition to back Hadi’s government in its fight against the rebels.

More than 10,000 people have been killed since 2015 – a death toll that has not been updated in years and is likely much higher. The UN describes Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian situation with millions on the brink of famine because of the war. 

The last round of peace talks collapsed in 2016 when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing agreement.

The Houthi delegation was then grounded in Oman for three months on its way back to Yemen, blocked from returning by the coalition.