Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Global anger at Sunak’s Cop27 snub that raises fears over UK’s climate crisis stance

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PM accused of ‘washing his hands’ of leadership on international climate action with decision not to attend talks

Rishi Sunak’s decision to snub the Cop27 UN climate talks, and to keep King Charles from attending, has angered and upset countries around the world, risking the UK’s standing on the world stage and raising concerns over his government’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

Several developing countries told the Guardian of their dismay. Carlos Fuller, Belize’s ambassador to the UN, said: “I can understand why the king was asked not to attend – keeping him out of the fray. However, as the principal UK policymaker and the Cop26 president, the PM should have led the summit.

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Iranians hold large rallies in defiance of warning by Revolutionary Guards head

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Raids on student campuses spark protests despite threats made by chief of security force about response to further unrest

Thousands of Iranians have demonstrated in defiance of a final warning by the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that he would bring protests to an end with unprecedented force.

Rallies were held on the streets on Sunday to protest against raids on student dormitories over the weekend in which students were taken away in buses to state detention. Some were sent text messages saying they were banned from campus indefinitely.

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Somali president vows to continue ‘war’ against Islamic extremists

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Twin car bombs kill at least 100 in Mogadishu, the deadliest attack since more than 500 killed in same spot five years ago

Somalia’s president has said he will press ahead with a major offensive against Islamic extremists despite twin car bombings that killed at least 100 people and injured three times as many at a busy junction in the centre of the capital, Mogadishu.

The toll in Saturday’s attack – the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500 – is expected to rise.

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Attacker killed after five wounded in West Bank shooting

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Four Israelis and one Palestinian injured in gun attack in Hebron, say Israel's emergency services and army

A gun attack in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron wounded five people on Saturday, including four Israelis and one Palestinian, and the assailant was shot dead, Israel’s emergency services and the army have said.

Extreme-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Religious Zionism alliance is eyeing major gains in elections on Tuesday, has claimed that his Hebron home was the target.

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Qatar lavished British MPs with gifts ahead of World Cup

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MPs who received gifts later appeared to speak favourably about Qatar in parliamentary debates

Qatar has spent more money on gifts and trips for British MPs in the past year than any other country, according to Observer analysis that reveals the Gulf state’s lobbying efforts ahead of next month’s football World Cup.

The Qatari government made gifts to members of parliament worth £251,208 in the 12 months to October 2022, including luxury hotel stays, business-class flights and tickets to horse-racing events.

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Iran accuses journalists who reported Mahsa Amini’s death of spying for CIA

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Spying charge levelled at Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi carries death penalty as Tehran seeks to suppress running protests

Two female journalists who were instrumental in reporting the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death in the custody of Iran’s morality police has sparked nationwide protests, have been labelled as CIA foreign agents by the Iranian regime.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who were arrested shortly after news broke of Amini’s death and who are reportedly being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, were accused of being foreign agents in a joint statement released by Iran’s ministry of intelligence and the intelligence organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards last night.

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Mogadishu car bombs leave ‘scores of civilian casualties’

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Two explosions occur at same busy junction where al-Shabaab blasts killed 500 people five years ago

Two car bombs have exploded at a busy junction in Mogadishu near key government offices, leaving “scores of civilian casualties,” police told Somali state media.

The attack on Saturday occurred five years after a massive blast at the same location killed hundreds of people.

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Iran: Revolutionary Guards chief tells protesters today is last day on streets

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Hossein Salami’s tough language raises fears security forces may be about to intensify crackdown on unrest

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has told protesters that Saturday will be their last day of taking to the streets, in a sign that security forces may intensify their crackdown on unrest sweeping the country.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

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Itamar Ben-Gvir: fiery far-right leader gains traction before Israeli election

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Ben-Gvir, a defender of Jewish extremists, poised to become powerful mainstream force

Whenever the far-right politician Meir Kahane got up to speak in the Knesset after winning his Kach party’s only ever seat, in 1984, the rest of the plenum would walk out. Even the hardline prime minister at the time, Yitzhak Shamir, called the rabbi’s anti-Arab movement “negative, dangerous and damaging”. Kach was banned from politics a few years later for inciting racism.

Four decades on, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still raging, and Israel’s political sphere is more rightwing than ever before. The country will hold its fifth election in less than four years next week. Kahane’s disciple Itamar Ben-Gvir is on course to become a powerful mainstream force.

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Iran: deaths reported as security forces open fire on protesters in Zahedan

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Crowds in Mahabad also fired on during rally held after funeral of protester Ismail Mauludi

Iranian security forces have opened fired on protesters in Zahedan a month after a massacre that killed scores of people in the restive south-eastern city.

Crowds were also fired on in Mahabad, another city with a long history of resistance against the regime, in renewed deadly violence at the end of the sixth week of unrest sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini on 16 September.

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Perpetrator of Syria’s Tadamon massacre still working on military base

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Maj Amjad Yousef, identified on videos as killer of dozens of people, accused of directing more mass killings

The Syrian intelligence officer at the centre of one of the most shocking acts of the civil war – the Tadamon massacre – is still working on a military base outside Damascus and has since been accused by colleagues of directing up to a dozen more mass killings.

Amjad Yousef, a major in one of Syria’s most feared intelligence units, is operating from the Kafr Sousa base, where he has been for most of the past six months since the Guardian revealed his role in shooting dead dozens of people across a death pit in Tadamon, a suburb of the Syrian capital in 2013.

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World Cup organisers in Qatar respond to Australian players’ criticism, saying ‘no country is perfect’

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Group running tournament praises Socceroos for raising awareness of human rights but does not address issue of same-sex relationships

Qatari organisers of the 2022 World Cup have responded to the Socceroos’ criticism of the country’s human rights record, praising the group of players for raising awareness of issues ahead of the tournament while admitting that “no country is perfect”.

Sixteen Australian players raised their concerns about the “suffering” of migrant workers and the inability of LGBTQ+ people in Qatar “to love the person that they choose” in a collective video released on Thursday.

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Iraq parliament approves new government after year of deadlock

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Prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani leads new government, vowing to reform economy and fight corruption

Iraqi lawmakers have approved a new government, ending more than a year of deadlock, but the country still faces many challenges.

Prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, 52, who previously served as Iraq’s human rights minister as well as minister of labour and social affairs, will head the new government.

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Iran protests reignite at funerals and commemorations for those killed

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Protesters turn out in dozens of towns and appear to take control of largely Kurdish city of Mahabad

Protests against the Iranian government have suddenly regained momentum as funerals for those killed and a highly emotional commemoration of the movement have stretched security forces drawn into a further cycle of arrests and repression.

Dozens of towns were rocked by protests on Wednesday night as mainly young crowds used the cover of darkness to mark the 40th day since Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in police custody, sparking unprecedented unrest.

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Credit Suisse to cut 9,000 jobs and seek billions in new investment

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Shake-up aims to draw line under series of scandals and new £3.5bn loss at Swiss bank

Credit Suisse has disclosed sweeping plans to cut 9,000 jobs and raise billions of pounds from investors in a Saudi-led funding round, as part of a company-wide overhaul meant to draw a line under a series of scandals and help it recover from a £3.5bn loss.

The announcement follows months of speculation over the scale of change scheduled under its new boss, Ulrich Körner, who has been tasked with scaling back the investment bank and slashing costs.

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New Zealand influencers detained in Iran ‘extremely relieved’ to be home

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NZ government facing accusations that its response to Iran protests has been muted in order to secure release of pair

Two New Zealand influencers who were detained for nearly four months in Iran have said they are “extremely relieved” to be out of the country and back with family.

Christopher “Topher” Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray were on a trip they called Expedition Earth; driving a Jeep through 70 countries to “promote environmental issues” and documenting their travels on Instagram. They disappeared in early July, shortly after they were questioned by authorities upon entering Iran. The pair are understood to have been kept in the country by security forces.

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Iran: gunmen kill at least 15 people at Shia shrine in Shiraz

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Attack takes place same day security forces reportedly open fire at mourners in Mahsa Amini’s hometown

Armed men have attacked a Shia Muslim shrine in the Iranian city of Shiraz, killing at least 15 people, the state news agency Irna said, as security forces clashed with protesters marking 40 days since the death of Mahsa Amini in custody.

Irna described the attackers as “takfiri terrorists”, a label used by officials in predominantly Shia Muslim Iran to refer to hardline, armed Sunni Islamist groups. The attack was later claimed by Islamic State in a statement posted on the terror group’s telegram channel.

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Archaeologists unearth 2,700-year-old rock carvings in Iraq

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Experts find artefacts from ancient empire during restoration of historic site destroyed by Islamic State

Archaeologists in northern Iraq have unearthed 2,700-year-old rock carvings featuring war scenes and trees from the Assyrian empire, an archaeologist has said.

The carvings on marble slabs were discovered in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, where experts have been working to restore the site of the ancient Mashki Gate, which was bulldozed by Islamic State militants in 2016.

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Iran’s security forces reportedly open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini

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Teargas also used against protesters gathered in home town of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, says rights group

Iranian security forces have clashed with protesters who had gathered in their thousands in Mahsa Amini’s home town to mark 40 days since her death, with reports that shots were fired.

“Security forces have shot teargas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square, Saqqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded. It said more than 50 civilians were injured by direct fire in cities across the region.

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UK minister criticised over call for gay World Cup fans to show respect in Qatar

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James Cleverly says ‘flex and compromise’ needed on both sides in country that criminalises homosexuality

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has been criticised for telling gay football fans they should show respect to Qatar, which criminalises their sexuality, when attending the World Cup in the emirate.

Cleverly said Qatar was willing to make compromises to allow people it would normally persecute to attend the tournament, which kicks off on 20 November. On Tuesday, the prominent British LGBTQ campaigner Peter Tatchell claimed he had been arrested in Qatar for highlighting the country’s stance.

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