Sunday, October 31, 2021

Hamas calls for punishing Israeli envoy for tearing UN report on regime's war crimes

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has called for a firm punitive measure against the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, who recently tore up a copy of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s annual report on the Israeli war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanu said in a recent press briefing that Gilad Erdan’s behavior on the podium of the UN General Assembly reflected Israel’s arrogance in dealing with international and UN institutions, the Palestinian Information Center reported on Sunday. Qanu said such a behavior “entails taking punitive steps against him.”

“The world has to stop the policy of double standards, do justice to the victims of Israeli massacres, curb this rogue entity and hold its leaders accountable for their crimes against our people.”

On Friday, the Israeli envoy issued a tirade in which he accused the UNHRC of “obsessive anti-Israel bias” and called the report “anti-Semitic,” “distorted” and “one-sided.” The report’s only place was “in the dustbin of anti-Semitism,” he said, before ripping up the copy and leaving the podium.

The report has presented the findings of an investigative body set up to examine the devastating and deadly effects of Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave in May.

Concerning the occupied West Bank, the report censured Israel’s construction of a separation wall there, including around East al-Quds, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.

The UNHRC voiced deep concern “at the fragmentation of the occupied Palestinian territory,” including East al-Quds, through settlement activities and other measures. It also said it was “gravely concerned that long-standing impunity for international law violations has allowed for the recurrence of grave violations without consequence.”

Tel Aviv has invariably avoided all attempts at bringing it to account over its decades-long aggression against Palestinians and other regional nations thanks to staunch support by the United States, its oldest and strongest ally.

Israel occupied East al-Quds during the 1967 war and annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that failed to gain recognition of the international community. More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since 1967. All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.

MP Raps Saudi’s Blatant Call for Resignation of Lebanese Minister

MP Raps Saudi’s Blatant Call for Resignation of Lebanese Minister

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A member of Lebanon’s parliament denounced Saudi Arabia’s insistence that Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi should resign as brazen interference in the domestic affairs of his country.

 In an interview with Tasnim, member of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Hassan Ezzeddine, condemned Riyadh’s call for the resignation of George Kordahi as brazen interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Information Minister decried the Saudi-led military aggression against Yemen, Riyadh called for his resignation, expelled Lebanon's ambassador, and banned all Lebanese imports on Friday. Bahrain and Kuwait have also followed suit, giving the Lebanese envoys 48 hours to exit.

“Neither Saudi Arabia nor any other country is allowed to impose its will on Lebanon through measures such as requesting the resignation of a Lebanese official or resorting to the policy of blockade and sanctions against Lebanon’s national figures,” Ezzeddine stated.

The MP said Lebanon is a sovereign state with capacities that enable it to deal with the crisis that Riyadh has created with the purpose of forcing Lebanon to give in.

The course of events and the activities of Saudi Arabia, such as expulsion of Lebanon’s ambassador or a ban on the imports of Lebanese products, reveal the kingdom’s pre-planned plot to create a big diplomatic crisis with Lebanon, he warned.

George Kordahi is an honorable and patriotic man, the MP said, denouncing the Saudi call for his resignation as the very epitome of rudeness.

“The Constitution of Lebanon and all bills and laws support freedom of expression,” Ezzeddine added.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, and resulted in what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Some 3.3 million people have been displaced from their homes and 24 million, or more than 80 percent of the population, are in need of aid, according to the UN.

Egypt Intelligence Chief, Islamic Jihad Leader Discuss Palestinian Issues in Cairo

Alwaght- The head of Egypt’s intelligence service and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement have discussed critical issues concerning Palestine during a meeting in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Daoud Shahab, a spokesman for the movement, said the meeting between Ziyad al-Nakhalah and Abbas Kamel took place on Saturday and that the two discussed such issues as the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli siege of Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in the occupying regime’s jails.

“The meeting focused on the developments in Palestine and the conflict with the Zionist regime,” Shahab said in an interview with Turkey's official Anadolu news agency.

“There was a positive atmosphere in the meeting, which shows the desire of the parties to achieve the goals and aspirations of the Palestinian people. During the meeting, the Egyptian intelligence chief reviewed his country’s efforts to rebuild Gaza, reduce the siege by Israel and facilitate traffic through the Rafah crossing.”

More than two million Palestinians live in Gaza, suffering from difficult living conditions as a result of the continuous Israeli blockade of the enclave since 2007.

Cairo is mediating efforts between Israel and the Palestinians to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza that took effect on May 21 with Egyptian mediation after an 11-day military confrontation.

At least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in the war that began on May 10. Israel’s airstrikes also brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished territory.

The Gaza-based resistance movements responded by launching over 4,000 rockets into the occupied territories, some reaching as far as Tel Aviv and even Haifa and Nazareth to the north.

Nakhalah also on Saturday praised Egypt's efforts to pursue the case of the Islamic Jihad prisoners' hunger strike in Israeli jails.

On October 22, prisoners of the Islamic Jihad movement in Israeli prisons suspended their hunger strike after nine days, which they had launched in protest at the "repressive measures" being taken against them following the escape of six inmates.

On September 6, Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander of the Palestinian resistance group al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade in Jenin, and five members of the Islamic Jihad group managed to tunnel their way out through their cell’s drainage system to escape from the maximum-security jail of Gilboa.

It was the biggest Palestinian escape from an Israeli jail since 1987, when six members of the Islamic Jihad broke out of a heavily-guarded jail in Gaza.

After the recent escape of the six inmates, Israel adopted collective punitive measures against the Palestinian prisoners. The six Palestinian prisoners were all recaptured nearly two weeks later.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in Israeli jails. Hundreds have been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which allows holding Palestinian inmates without trial or charge. Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.

More Clues In Pursuit Of the Nebulous Cabal That Runs Stuff

 Phil ButlerWLST34233

Being part of a cabal of evil geniuses bent on world domination is not hard. The only requirements are being part of the old money establishment, taking a blood oath, and having absolutely no soul. Orchestrating the complete domination of every human being on Earth, now that’s the tricky part. Here’s how it all works (sort of).

First things first. Vladimir Putin believes that teaching kids gender fluidity is a crime against humanity. And I agree with him. I make this point because in my country, what I just said will get me in hot water in a multitude of ways. First, the section of America convinced that the leadership of the far left care about them will hate my guts. They will immediately label me as something between a racist and a Donald Trump misogynist fanatic. I’ll even lose Facebook friends. But pay close attention.

Another pitfall of expressing honest views like this in America is that the real far-right fanatics who love Donald Trump will holler either “Hell yeah!” or “Praise Jesus,” depending on which side of the tracks they grew up on. And, if I appear to side with them, disagreeing with “instructing” innocent minds that it’s okay to switch and swap their sexuality further their cause. If I don’t agree with the education system instructing kids to call their Mom and Dad birthing attendants one and two, it puts me (and every moderate American) on the bus with the KKK, flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, and worse. And the left-wing ride alongs, the African American and Hispanic communities, they’ll hate me too. Sadly, none of the aforementioned Americans know, it’s the Big Daddy evil geniuses orchestrating the whole thing. Do you get it? It’s the evil genius perfect storm.

“The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I know, I know, it sounds like the same old Illuminati conspiracy theory all right. But doesn’t the “rest of us” at one another’s throats on everything seem strange to you? A friend here in Greece told me yesterday, “The anarchists destroy our art. They gather in the square to execute their only function, to recruit more idiots into the ranks.” The man speaking had taken his own time and money to help reinvigorate a key cultural neighborhood in Heraklion, Crete’s capital. Artists from around the world came to beautify a once wonderful neighborhood square with street art that was magical. And now it’s almost all defaced, spray painted over because the subject matter was not “political enough.” Yes, you got me, medieval, shit for brains stuff. Now let’s flip the page.

Recruitment for the current Alice in Americaville rabbit hole games began some years ago. The evil geniuses sat down together and hammered out a circus sideshow with “We the People” as the performers. We can call “them” the liberal order, if you like. Their Job One was to make the conservatives in America into lunatics or idiots who would follow a sellout billionaire or Bozo the Clown, if only their gas prices would go down. One half of America got to juggle deported Hispanic children and the Holy Bible, while the other half looked on aghast! Trump, you see, is the Pied Piper to take moderation off the cliff for good. He also served well to help create our first trillionaires, the technocrats and Wall Street demons sucking the world dry while we die of COVID. On the other end, the empowered and liberated mass is now exploding with jobs, as act III begins.

“Man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” – William Golding

Does anyone else out there ask themselves the question, “How in the hell did Joe Biden become president?” The KKK membership is out there hollering, “They cheated. They rigged the election, them socialist sons of bitches.” So much for the nation of brotherly love, huh? But the fact of the matter is, they are right. Only the voting machines were not rigged. “They” rigged the elections a long time ago. “They” always gave us lousy choices. “They” always pitted us against one another. Think about it you Baby Boomers. Loud mouth, sexist, stupid, bad mannered, no class Donald Trump the casion owner and mafia puppet billionaire as the Commander in Chief of the most powerful military on Earth! If you are a Boomer, you remember the Twilight Zone, the Outer Limits, and Dr. Strangelove too. The election was rigged because even the silent Wisconsin milk farming moderate voted for Biden. To SAVE the world!

Okay, how can we know that the game is rigged? Well, for one thing it’s too expensive for the house if the roulette wheel is on the level. What if Donald Trump did not Tweet his every military move? Why Raytheon stocks might never fluctuate at just the right moment. And what about Joe Biden and the staggering gas prices Trump followers are now going nutty over? Well, they’re still half of what they are here in Europe, but everything is about perception. Gas prices fluctuate to serve the gas sellers, they are bound to go up no matter what. But, wait! We’re off course. What about the cabal? Let’s reveal their greasy little fingers manipulating everything since the COVID pandemic shut us down.

Warren Buffett’s stock portfolio ballooned to a value of $281.17 billion by the end of 2020. Someone must have noticed that Buffett sold out of American Airlines (AAL), United Airlines (UAL), Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Southwest Airlines (LUV) in the first quarter of 2020, even before the pandemic totally shut down travel. He started buying into tech, which was not previously a pattern for him. Speaking of tech, Google and Microsoft saw bonanza profits during the pandemic, which put Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Bill Gates in the quest to become the world’s first trillionaires alongside Buffett, Bezos, and dark horse leader Elon Musk. Wait a minute, though. None of these names are old money. And how the hell did Elon Musk amass $250 billion dollars so fast? With stock. You know, the air that all the well-to-do gamble their money on. More to the point, how does an evil genius multi trillionaire camouflage himself? In plain sight, surrounded by little billionaires, of course.

Stocks. The cabal at work in their favorite playground, shooting the rest of us humans around in a gigantic game of marbles. Elon Musk is the richest person in the world (in the news) playing stocks. The man who invented a fantastic electric car, which none of us can afford, is propped up by market cap, longs and shorts, and is benefitting from some invisible hand. At one point during this pandemic, he was making $383 million per day. In one five-day period, Musk amassed $39 billion. His story is “their” story, those pesky Bilderbergers. And what about the conglomerates? You know, those family organizations that have bought out every innovative competitor, or run them out of business. Mars candy, for instance, has now diversified.

Most people in America never even heard of Forrest Mars Sr., the founder of the candy company that made his family filthy rich. This family is so secretive their Wikipedia page has two short paragraphs on them. But, only the Waltons and the Koch Brothers are richer. Think of it, a company with 130,000 employees worldwide, and nobody knows who the hell they are. Hell, the world did not even know that Forrest Mars Sr. died, or that he was the head of the company, until somebody finally leaked the news. Now imagine people who have trillions, instead of billions, and how come you know nothing of them! These people run the show folks, not Jeff Bezos or any of the other front men set up for the blaming game. The Mars operations have been charged with child labor abuses, slave labor, all-wrong animal experiments, GMO madness, deforestation of African national parks, and more. Ironically, they also run a chain of veterinarian shops across America, and their candy bars feed American kids, who are hopelessly enslaved by sugar. Talk about resident evil. To make matters worse, they are horrible liars.

“There is no happiness in life, only a mirage of it on the horizon, so cherish that.” – Vladimir Putin

And another headline reads “India’s Reliance grows above pre-pandemic levels, refining powers profit surge.” Tell me, exactly how does this happen with people in India dying like flies from COVID? Ah! Another relatively unknown “family” at work amassing even greater wealth. The Ambani Family’s estimated wealth is only supposed to be $81.3 billion, but it’s probably a lot more, somewhere around half a trillion, I’d guess. Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, Asia’s richest man, expanded his father’s company to become a major petrochemicals player, a telecommunications leader, and the top retailer in India. His private pad is valued at $1 billion, and again, not much is really known about his operations. Check this, when COVID cut short the demand for polymer supplied by Ambani’s Jamnagar Refinery (the world’s biggest), Maersk shipping and logistics group came through to help the billionaire quadruple export from the Jamnagar Refinery. Denmark, hmm.

Enter Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, the now deceased Danish billionaire who inherited what became the world’s biggest container shipping operation. His grandson, Robert Maersk Uggla now runs A.P. Moller Holding. Uggla is well educated, of course, having graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics and later at the Univerità Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Harvard Business School, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and IMD. Maersk expanded its operations and influence following both world wars, but the company has now expanded into oil exploration, drilling, and production. In fact, Maersk McKinney-Moller negotiated what amounts to a monopoly for his family, where offshore Denmark oil is concerned. He was also a Bilderberg participant.

Maersk has been accused of human rights violations, cheating the US Government in Afghanistan and Iraq, and breaking the Sudan embargo. An interesting “family” anecdote here is how Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller sold the newspaper Berlingske Tidende when reporters there dug up A.P. Moller owned a company that sold arms to the Nazis in World War 2. And the fact that Royal Dutch Shell and Maersk are partnering in North Sea oil workings, probably means nothing. After all, King Willem-Alexander has publicly said he does not own a majority stake in Shell. It’s only rumored his wife Queen Maxima is the top shareholder. More secrets, who can say. But just what is the “Netherlands Central Institute for Cashless Securities Transactions?” Over 21% of Shell A and B stocks are owned by this entity. Sorry, now my head is wobbling because of a connection to the Dutch royal family (associative) to the Argentinian leader Juan Peron. Forget I mention this, it’s a mind boggling coincidence.

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein

The “real” evil geniuses who’ve run our civilized circus of political ideologies in practice, they’re invisible. Elon Musk is a veritable nobody in their eyes. A puppet, a pinup boy, to keep our attention focused on what is least important. Technology, playboy trips to “almost” space. Fancy cars nobody but rich people can afford. Or, in Bezos’ or Gates’ cases, “miraculous” rises to fame and fortune. Come to think of it, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg are also miraculous American dreams, self-made gazillionaires. Just how many garage startups are there out there? Or, is someone, or someone(s) standing behind at just the right time? Hey, if I can think of it, perhaps the Rothschilds thought of it too!

What else have they to do? The evil geniuses that are not Putin.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

MP Slams Saudi Arabia for Taking Revenge on Lebanon after Defeat in Yemen

MP Slams Saudi Arabia for Taking Revenge on Lebanon after Defeat in Yemen

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Slamming a crisis created by Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, a Lebanese lawmaker said the country that failed in its war on Yemen is now planning to take revenge against Lebanon over its support for the oppressed Yemeni people.

 Mohammad Raad, the head of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc — the political wing of the Hezbollah resistance movement — in the Lebanese parliament, made the remarks on Saturday, as tensions have been running high between Beirut and Persian Gulf states over the Saudi-led military campaign on Yemen.

“Today, we are facing a crisis created by one of the regional countries that launched a cruel war against another Arab country and lost it,” Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website quoted him as saying, apparently referring to Saudi Arabia.

“The country that lost the war now intends to avenge its defeat against Lebanon since Lebanon stood by the oppressed nation that has been under invasion for eight years and whose country has been destroyed amid attempts by some parties to make it surrender.”

On a TV program filmed in August and aired this week, Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi, who was not appointed to the post back then, said the war in Yemen was an aggression by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He called the war “absurd,” saying it must stop because he is opposed to wars between Arabs.

He called the war on the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country “futile” and said it was “time for it to end.”

Kordahi also said the Yemeni army forces and their allied fighters from Popular Committees were “defending themselves... against an external aggression,” and that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the Saudi-led coalition.

Angered by the criticism, Saudi Arabia on Saturday afternoon ordered Lebanon’s ambassador to leave the kingdom within 48 hours and banned all imports from the fellow Arab country.

In solidarity with Riyadh, Kuwait and Bahrain followed suit, ordering the Lebanese charge d’affaires to leave within two days and recalling their own envoys from Beirut. The United Arab Emirates also said Saturday it was withdrawing its diplomats from Lebanon.

Elsewhere in his comments, Raad said that the verbal attack against the minister may be aimed at destroying the stability that prevailed in Lebanon after the recent government formation, which ended a months-long political stalemate in the country.

Those who are creating a crisis for Lebanon want to disrupt the 2022 general election because they may have realized that the results would not be in their interests, he noted.

Additionally on Saturday, a member of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council said that recent tensions created by the Saudi regime were in line with the interests of the United States.

Speaking to the Lebanese al-Mayadeen television channel, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, said, “Saudi Arabia’s objective in stoking tensions with Lebanon is to bring the Lebanese people to their knees and enslave them.”

He slammed the Riyadh regime for attempting to “blackmail” Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia launched the military aggression against its southern neighbor in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies, and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western countries.

The aim was to return to power a former Riyadh-backed regime and crush the popular Ansarullah movement which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.

The war killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned entire Yemen into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, however, it has stopped well shy of all of its goals.

Meanwhile, Yemeni forces have gone from strength to strength against the Saudi-led invaders, and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the impoverished country.

What’s Motivated Saudi-Lebanese Diplomatic Crisis?

Alwaght- The political tension between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon that was triggered by remarks of the Lebanese Minister of Information George Kurdahi who questioned the legitimacy of the Saudi war against Yemen is now drifting to a diplomatic crisis with Riyadh recalling its ambassador from Beirut and expelling the Lebanese ambassador.

Saudi Arabia has always sought to play a role in the Lebanon developments as a stage of regional rivalry with the Iran-led Axis of Resistance and pose as an influential actor in the political scene of this small but important country.

In recent years, Riyadh-Beirut relations have been very tumultuous, with the arrest in 2017 of then-Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri during a visit to Riyadh and forcing him to resign being a controversial example. Amid the great underway economic crisis in Lebanon, which has led to public protests and eventually a 13-month political crisis in the country, the Saudis cut off their financial aids to Beirut, compounding the situation and further destabilizing the country.

The several-year Saudi fury at Beirut has elevated to the stage of severance of diplomatic ties now. This promotes questions: What is the Saudi aim behind severing ties with Lebanon? Why did the unofficial remarks of a Lebanese minister infuriate the Arab kingdom? Since 2016, Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran and Qatar in an effort to raise coalitions against its regional rivals. Does Bahrain and UAE accompaniment mean that the Saudis have the same aim against Lebanon? Will this move force the Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati concede?

Saudis worried about increasing criticism against Yemen war

Undoubtedly, part of the Saudi anger with the Lebanese minister’s remarks is driven by massive regional and international pressures and criticism the Saudi are undergoing for their crimes in Yemen. The hardline decision against Lebanon comes while Kurdahi personally said that the comments reflected his, not the government’s, views. The Saudis, who failed to realize their goals in Yemen despite heavy spending on Western-provided arms and massacring Yemenis in heavy bombardment campaign, are afraid that the criticism will make its way to the official comments of the Arab world officials. If this happens, Riyadh’s claims that its war, which created one of the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophes, has regional and international legitimacy will go invalid and strengthen the Yemeni resistance to its aggression.

There is no doubt that a considerable number of the Arab and Muslim countries are critical of Yemen war. The by-name presence of some of so-called members in the Saudi-led coalition bears witness to this reality. The degree of the Saudi reaction to the Lebanese official reveals Saudi Arabia’s thought that unserious reaction can produce a dangerous chain represented by other Arab and Muslim countries taking stance on the war in Yemen.

The expulsion of the Lebanese ambassador by Saudi Arabia, and similar moves by Bahrain, UAE, and Kuwait, are a remainder to Beirut of the collective diplomatic action against Doha in 2017 and the heavy conditions set for Qatar for reconciliation. Lebanon is grappling with a wide-ranging economic crisis, and its new cabinet is seeking financial support from the Persian Gulf monarchies to overcome the repercussions. Meanwhile, Riyadh seeks to force the government of Mikati to fire Kurdahi in flexing of muscles to Yemen war detractors.

Saudi Arabia’s burned play cards in Lebanon      

For some reasons, the Saudi moves to pressure Lebanon are doomed to fail.

First, the notion that Saudi Arabia was the losing side in the diplomatic crisis with Qatar is widely recognized at regional and international levels. With Qatar defying the blockade and resisting the pressures of obviously illegitimate Saudi conditions and demands, Riyadh can no longer pose as the leader of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council even as a show gesture. As the arrest of Hariri and his resignation under the Saudi pressure damaged the Lebanese national dignity and pride and caused public outrage, any retreat from Mikati government can once again arouse the ire of the public.

Second, the fact that Saudi Arabia destroyed with its own hand its trump card in Lebanon by cutting off aids to Beirut should not be ignored. So, threats with trade boycott does not seem to make a significant difference to the Lebanese economic situation, as the UAE, China, Greece, Italy, and Turkey and not Saudi Arabia are Lebanon’s main trade partners.

Thousands Demonstrate in Rome As G20 Discuss Climate

Thousands Demonstrate in Rome As G20 Discuss Climate

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Thousands of people marched in Rome on Saturday during the summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 major economies, calling on them to act against climate change and ensure fair access to COVID-19 vaccines.

 Climate activists led the march, carrying colorful placards, playing drums and dancing as they demanded world leaders save the planet.

"We are holding this protest for environmental and social issues and against the G20, which continues undaunted on a path that has almost led us to social and ecological failure," said protester Edoardo Mentrasti, Reuters reported.

They marched alongside students and groups of workers in a city on high security alert, with up to 6,000 police and about 500 soldiers deployed to maintain order. Metro stations have been closed and bus routes diverted due to the G20 summit.

Italian police are particularly anxious about unrest after recent protests over the country's mandatory COVID health pass for workers turned violent when neo-fascist activists attacked the headquarters of the CGIL labor union in Rome.

In Saturday's march, a large banner saying "stop patents, vaccines are a global right" was held by demonstrators parading along the banks of the Tiber River.

In the morning, the G20 leaders kicked off two days of talks where they were set to acknowledge the existential threat of climate change, but stop short of radical new commitments to tame global warming.

"There is an alternative to a development model based on 20 of the world's most important heads of state meeting in a room and deciding on the fate of the world," demonstrator Luca Ianniello said.

A separate, smaller protest against the Italian government, was in progress a few kilometers away.

Demonstrators have been kept far from the summit centre, located in a suburb built by the 20th Century fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.