Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Iran has not received £400m agreed by UK at time of Zaghari-Ratcliffe release

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Debt paid as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh-Ashoori were released is blocked in Oman, Iran says

The historic £400m debt the UK paid to Iran at the time of the release of British-Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori has still not reached Tehran, according to Iranian government sources.

A senior Iranian government source said the money was blocked in Oman and the problem was not with the UK government. One report said only £1m had been transferred to Tehran.

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Massacre in Tadamon: how two academics hunted down a Syrian war criminal

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After a rookie militiaman secretly watched a video of 41 people being brutally killed, he knew he had to get the horrific images to the outside world

• Warning: this report contains images readers may find upsetting

On a spring morning three years ago, a new recruit to a loyalist Syrian militia was handed a laptop belonging to one of Bashar al-Assad’s most feared security wings. He opened the screen and curiously clicked on a video file, a brave move given the consequences if anyone had caught him prying.

The footage was unsteady at first, before it closed in on a freshly dug pit in the ground between the bullet-pocked shells of two buildings. An intelligence officer he knew was knelt near the hole’s edge in military fatigues and a fishing hat, brandishing an assault rifle and barking orders.

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Time running out to reach Iran nuclear deal, warn experts

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Letter signed by former diplomats says Iran close to developing nuclear weapons capability

Leading former diplomats including seven ex-UK foreign and defence ministers have warned the Iran nuclear talks are heading to “corrosive stalemate devolving into a cycle of increased nuclear tension” and urged Tehran and Washington to show more flexibility.

Year-long talks in Vienna on reviving the deal and for the US, which was pulled out of the agreement by Donald Trump, to lift sanctions on Iran have in effect ground to a halt in a dispute over whether the west will lift the foreign terrorist organisation designation, and sanctions, against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

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Janjaweed militia blamed for attacks that left at least 200 dead in Darfur

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Death toll likely to rise, say witnesses to indiscriminate attacks on Kreinik and El Geneina by Sudan’s notorious Rapid Support Forces

At least 200 people are now known to have died in West Darfur in the latest attack on civilians and local forces blamed on Janjaweed militia.

Darfur, the semi-arid western region of Sudan where a vicious civil war erupted in 2003, has seen a new outbreak of fighting over the past few months as rival groups clash over water and grazing land, shortages of which are being exacerbated by the climate crisis.

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Disney is refusing to cut LGBTQ scene in Doctor Strange 2, Saudi Arabia says

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Official denies Marvel film is banned but says kingdom ‘still trying’ to get Disney to cut 12 seconds referring to lesbian character with two mothers

Saudi Arabia has asked Disney to cut “LGBTQ references” from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before it can be screened in the kingdom, an official said on Monday – but denied earlier reports that the film has been banned.

Disney has so far declined the requested edits to the Doctor Strange sequel, slated for release around the world next week. The cuts amount to “barely 12 seconds” in which a lesbian character, America Chavez, played by the actor Xochitl Gomez, refers to her “two moms”, according to Nawaf Alsabhan, Saudi Arabia’s general supervisor of cinema classification.

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Sudan: at least 168 people killed in violence in Darfur region, aid group says

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Fears death toll from Sunday’s clashes could rise after armed tribesmen attacked villages of non-Arab Massalit minority

Clashes between rival groups in Sudan’s Darfur killed at least 168 people on Sunday, an aid group has said, in the latest bout of deadly violence to hit the restive region.

Darfur, which was ravaged by civil war that erupted in 2003, has seen a spike in deadly conflict since October last year triggered by disputes mainly over land, livestock and access to water and grazing.

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British man held for five years in Yemen without charge is freed

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Luke Symons was captured by Houthi rebels and accused of being a spy but was never put on trial

A British man who was held captive in Yemen without charge or trial for five years has been released from jail.

In 2017, Luke Symons, 30, was detained by Houthi rebels at a security checkpoint on suspicion of espionage.

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Saudis’ Biden snub suggests crown prince still banking on Trump’s return

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Refusal to help US punish Russia and $2bn investment in Kushner fund signal crown prince’s displeasure with Trump’s successor

Saudi Arabia appears to be banking on Donald Trump’s return to office by refusing to help the US punish Russia for the Ukraine invasion, and by placing $2bn in a new, untested investment fund run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

In seeking to persuade Riyadh to increase oil production so as to lower prices by as much as 30%, and thereby curb Russian government revenue, the Biden administration is looking for ways to reassure the Saudi government that it is dedicated to the kingdom’s security.

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One child dies but more than 40 people are saved after boat sinks off Tripoli

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Lebanese Red Cross says about 60 people were onboard boat that departed from Qalamoun area

One child has died but more than 40 people have been saved after the sinking of a boat off the coast of Lebanon’s northern port city of Tripoli on Saturday, transport minister Ali Hamie told Reuters.

The Lebanese Red Cross said in a tweet that there were about 60 people onboard.

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Dozens wounded in Israeli-Palestinian clashes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque

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Violence breaks out between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters as UN voices deep concern at unrest

Israeli police have clashed with Palestinian protesters in the latest violence at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, as the UN voiced deep concern at spiralling unrest.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 57 people were wounded on Friday, including 14 Palestinians taken to hospital, one of them in a serious condition, after police stormed the facility in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem’s Old City.

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Israel strikes Gaza after rocket attack as Jerusalem tensions soar

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Hamas ‘weapons manufacturing site’ targeted in response to rocket fired from Palestinian enclave

Israel has carried out its first airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in months in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave as tensions soared after a weekend of violence around a Jerusalem holy site.

Warning sirens sounded in southern Israel on Monday night after the rocket was fired from the enclave controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, the first such incident since early January. The projectile crashed into the sea off Tel Aviv.

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More than 20 injured in Israeli-Palestinian clashes around al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

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Israeli police say Palestinians in compound began gathering stones before the arrival of Jewish visitors later seen leaving under police guard

More than 20 Palestinians and Israelis have been wounded in several incidents in and around Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, two days after major violence at the flashpoint site.

The clashes on Sunday take the number of wounded since Friday to more than 170, at a tense time when the Jewish Passover festival coincides with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

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Tunisia’s neighbours offer help to contain damage after fuel ship sank

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Divers find no leaks and government says ‘outlook is positive’ as navies try to limit environmental harm from sinking of vessel carrying 750-1,000 tonnes

Some neighbouring countries have offered to help Tunisia prevent damage to the environment after a merchant ship carrying up to 1,000 tonnes of fuel sank off the country’s coast, the Tunisian defence ministry has said.

The ship, which was travelling from Equatorial Guinea to Malta, requested entry to Tunisian waters on Friday evening due to bad weather. It sank near Gabes, and the Tunisian navy rescued all seven crew members. After being checked in hospital, all seven were taken to a hotel.

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Boat capsizes off Libya, leaving 35 people dead or presumed dead

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Wooden vessel launched from Sabratha, a major departure point for Europe, says UN migration agency

A boat carrying 35 people has capsized off the Libyan coast, , the UN migration agency has said.

The incident took place on Friday off the western Libyan city of Sabratha, a major launching point for the mainly African people making the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean, said the International Organization for Migration.

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Diesel tanker sinks off Tunisia risking environmental disaster

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Ship carrying 750 tonnes of fuel from Egypt to Malta ran into difficulty in bad weather on Friday evening

A tanker carrying 750 tonnes of diesel fuel from Egypt to Malta sank in the Gulf of Gabes off Tunisia’s south-east coast, sparking a rush to avoid a spill.

The Equatorial Guinea-flagged Xelo was sailing from the Egyptian port of Damietta to Malta when it requested entry to Tunisian waters on Friday evening owing to bad weather.

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Israeli city’s Jewish residents form armed ‘self-defence’ group

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Formation of citizens’ militia in Lod in central Israel follows spate of Palestinian attacks across country

Jewish residents in a central Israeli city have formed an armed group they say is for self-defence, after a string of Palestinian attacks across the country sparked fears of a new wave of internal violence.

The mixed city of Lod, near Tel Aviv, became the focal point of communal bloodshed that flared in Israel last year, with the government and police struggling to control clashes between Arabs and Jews.

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Iraq’s ancient buildings are being destroyed by climate change

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Water shortages leading to rising salt concentrations and sandstorms are eroding world’s ancient sites

Some of the world’s most ancient buildings are being destroyed by climate change, as rising concentrations of salt in Iraq eat away at mud brick and more frequent sandstorms erode ancient wonders.

Iraq is known as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that agriculture was born, some of the world’s oldest cities were built, such as the Sumerian capital Ur, and one of the first writing systems was developed – cuneiform. The country has “tens of thousands of sites from the Palaeolithic through Islamic eras”, explained Augusta McMahon, professor of Mesopotamian archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

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More than 150 Palestinians injured in Jerusalem clash, say medics

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Palestine Red Crescent says people injured by rubber bullets, Israeli police batons and stun grenades at al-Aqsa mosque

Medics say more than 150 Palestinians have been injured in clashes that erupted when Israeli riot police entered Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, in the most significant violence at the holy site since similar scenes sparked a war last year.

Most of the Palestinian injuries on Friday were incurred by rubber bullets, stun grenades and beatings with police batons, the Palestine Red Crescent said.

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MPs call for British child and ill mother to be returned to UK from Syrian camp

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Mother is unlikely to survive without medical intervention, leaving her young son orphaned, say doctors

MPs and a human rights group have called on the UK government to repatriate a young British boy and his gravely ill mother from a detention camp in Syria, after doctors said she was at risk of dying and leaving the child orphaned.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was reviewing the case of Zaid* and his mother, Maryam* – who was injured in an explosion in Syria in 2019 and left with shrapnel in her head – “as a matter of priority”.

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Palestinian lawyer and teen killed as Israel raids West Bank amid escalating violence

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Israeli troops open fire as crowd pelts them with rocks and incendiary devices in Nablus after clashes near vandalised Jewish sacred site

A Palestinian lawyer and a teenager have been killed on the fifth day of Israeli raids in the West Bank following deadly attacks in the Jewish state, amid heightened tensions after a religious site was vandalised.

Israel has poured in additional forces and is reinforcing its wall and fence barrier with the occupied territory after four deadly attacks claimed 14 lives in Israel, most of them civilians, in the past three weeks.

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