Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Iran vows to retaliate against any ‘enemy action’, one year after Suleimani killing

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Amid US tensions, Revolutionary Guards chief promises ‘reciprocal, decisive blow’ as he inspects forces on key island near Strait of Hormuz

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, has vowed to respond to any “action the enemy takes” during a visit to a strategic Gulf island amid tensions with the US.

Salami was speaking on Saturday, on the eve of the first anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in a Baghdad drone strike.

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Lead FBI investigator in Blackwater case likens Iraq massacre to My Lai

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John M Patarini says in letter to New York Times he is ‘disgusted with the president’s actions’ after Trump pardons

The mass shooting in Baghdad for which Donald Trump pardoned four American mercenaries was “a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam”, the lead FBI investigator in the case said, pronouncing himself “disgusted with the president’s actions”.

Related: 'Our blood is cheaper than water': anger in Iraq over Trump pardons

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Deadly suicide attack in Mogadishu claimed by al-Shabaab

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Motorcycle bomber targets Turkish construction company, killed at least five people and injuring 14

A suicide bombing in Mogadishu has killed at least five people, the Turkish health minister has said.

The al-Shabaab group, which is linked to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday in the Somali capital in a post from its Shahada news agency. The group often targets Mogadishu with suicide bombings and other attacks.

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Iran to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, UN nuclear watchdog says

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Latest move was flagged in law passed last month after the assassination of country’s top nuclear scientist

Iran has told the United Nations nuclear watchdog it plans to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, a level it achieved before its 2015 accord, at its Fordow site buried inside a mountain, the agency has said.

The move is the latest of several recent announcements by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to further breach the deal, which it started violating in 2019 in retaliation for Washington’s withdrawal from the agreement and the reimposition of US sanctions against Tehran.

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World leaders urged to make Covid vaccine available to millions of refugees

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Global humanitarian figures and NGOs call for rollout to take in all people for the global public good

Global humanitarian figures and NGOs have urged world leaders to urgently make Covid-19 vaccinations available to millions of refugees and others displaced by war, as the pandemic continues to overwhelm some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

The impact of the contagion has sharply intensified across the Middle East in recent weeks, matching soaring global numbers. However, it has been further amplified by drastically underresourced medical responses that cannot cope with the numbers of dying or seriously ill.

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Iran says Trump is trying to fabricate pretext for war

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Tehran says it will defend itself forcefully as tensions rise ahead of anniversary of Suleimani killing

The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Thursday accused Donald Trump of attempting to fabricate a pretext to attack Iran, and said Tehran would defend itself forcefully.

Separately, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned Trump “not to turn the New Year into mourning for Americans”.

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Joe Biden should end the US pretence over Israel’s ‘secret’ nuclear weapons | Desmond Tutu

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The cover-up has to stop – and with it, the huge sums in aid for a country with oppressive policies towards Palestinians

  • Desmond Tutu is a Nobel peace laureate and a former archbishop of Cape Town

Every recent US administration has performed a perverse ritual as it has come into office. All have agreed to undermine US law by signing secret letters stipulating they will not acknowledge something everyone knows: that Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal.

Part of the reason for this is to stop people focusing on Israel’s capacity to turn dozens of cities to dust. This failure to face up to the threat posed by Israel’s horrific arsenal gives its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a sense of power and impunity, allowing Israel to dictate terms to others.

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Syria: dozens killed in Isis bus attack

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Assault reportedly targeted Syrian regime soldiers returning to their posts in Deir ez-Zor, near Iraq border

At least 37 people in Syria have been killed in one of the biggest attacks carried out by Islamic State since the fall of the self-proclaimed caliphate last year.

The assault on Wednesday reportedly targeted a convoy of Syrian regime soldiers and militiamen returning from leave to their posts in Deir ez-Zor province, a mainly desert area on the border with Iraq.

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UK pledges an extra £47m in aid as agencies warn of ‘catastrophic hunger’

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Coronavirus, conflict and cuts to UN funding are increasing the risks of food insecurity and acute malnutrition in 2021

The government has promised £47m in extra emergency aid for 2021 as it becomes clear that the coming year will see a dramatic rise in people struggling for food.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Wednesday it will provide more aid for food, water, hygiene and shelter in 11 countries, including £8m to Africa’s Sahel region, where the UN has warned of catastrophic hunger.

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US approves sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia

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Arms deals with Middle East dictatorships are being rushed through by Trump, critics say, despite opposition over human rights records

The US state department has approved the sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration.

Critics of the sales say they are being rushed through despite broad congressional and public opposition to such military support because of the human rights records of the regimes involved and in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the huge civilian death toll from the war in Yemen.

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Egypt drops inquiry into murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni

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Prosecutors reject Italy’s finding that Egyptian security officials were behind kidnap and torture

Egypt’s public prosecution has officially closed its investigation into the murder of Giulio Regeni, rejecting Italian prosecutors’ findings that accused four Egyptian security officials of kidnapping and torturing the Italian doctoral student in 2016.

Italy officially indicted four Egyptian security officials including two from Egypt’s national security agency in early December. The four men were accused of kidnapping Regeni, whose body was found on an outlying Cairo highway in February 2016 showing signs of torture. One of the suspects, named as Magdi Ibrahim Abdel Al Sharif, is accused of grievous bodily harm.

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Aden airport blasts attack ‘directed at Yemen government’

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Explosions struck after plane carrying the Yemen prime minister and cabinet politicians landed

At least 26 people have been killed and more than 60 injured after an attack on the airport in the Yemeni city of Aden that appeared to be targeted at a plane carrying members of the newly formed government.

Three loud explosions and gunfire were heard on Wednesday afternoon as members of Yemen’s cabinet disembarked. Clouds of smoke billowed from the terminal building. Initial reports suggested the blasts had been caused by mortar shelling or missiles.

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Poor data protection could put lives at risk, say Somalia aid workers

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‘Extremely dangerous’ if personal information needed to process mobile payments is lost or falls into wrong hands, say staff

The rapid upscaling of digital technology use by international groups in Somalia is causing concern about the risk to the people whose data is being collected.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the use of programming by humanitarian organisations to deliver aid, but local staff working with several different NGOs say the organisations are not thinking enough about data protection or obtaining informed consent.

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‘Vaccine diplomacy’ sees Egypt roll out Chinese coronavirus jab

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A lack of trial data transparency from China has raised concerns, but the country is confidently pushing ahead

When Egypt’s health ministry sent out an invitation to doctors to be vaccinated against Covid-19, they neglected to make clear it was a clinical trial.

Instead, it assured them that two Covid-19 vaccines developed by China’s National Biotec Group, part of a state-owned conglomerate known as Sinopharm, had no side-effects and that “the minister of health was vaccinated today, and orders were issued to vaccinate all doctors and workers who wish to be vaccinated”.

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Mayor review – grappling with reality inside Ramallah city hall

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Ramallah’s leader Musa Hadid navigates diplomatic stresses and day-to-day problems in this love letter to the West Bank

Musa Hadid is the popular Palestinian mayor of Ramallah in the West Bank, and this thoughtful, sympathetic documentary tracks his stressful day-to-day working life – shown suddenly getting a lot more stressful in 2017 when President Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Hadid feels strongly that this move emboldened Israel’s military to be more menacing in Ramallah, with soldiers marching into stores and demanding to see security camera footage on the grounds that there could be images of terrorists – and even doing the same at city hall.

The film lets you appreciate Hadid’s delicate and complex situation. He is often receiving high-profile international visitors and relishes the opportunity to show off the city he loves – the opening and closing sequences of this film, incidentally, almost feel like the introduction to Woody Allen’s Manhattan. One such VIP is Prince William, though some of Hadid’s colleagues are less than happy: “All the problems of our country come from Britain!” says one, referring to the 1923 Mandate.

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Saudi rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul sentenced to almost six years in jail

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Court suspends some of sentence and backdates start of term, meaning she only has three months left to serve

Loujain al-Hathloul, the Saudi women’s rights activist detained three years ago by the Saudi government, has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail after being found guilty of spying with foreign parties and conspiring against the kingdom.

But the court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence, and backdated the start of her jail term to May 2018, meaning she only has three months left to serve.

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Syrians refugees flee Lebanon camp after tents set on fire

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Three people wounded in clash between camp residents and youths near coastal city of Tripoli

Hundreds of Syrian refugees have fled their makeshift camp in north Lebanon after their tents were set alight when fighting broke out between local youths and camp residents.

At least three people were wounded in the clash on Saturday in the Miniyeh region near the coastal city of Tripoli, after which youths set fire to the camp, Lebanon’s state-owned National News Agency said.

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Far-right Israeli football fans rebel over Beitar Jerusalem’s new Arab owner

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Hardcore group threaten boycott and hold protest at training session after Abu Dhabi sheikh buys 50% stake in top team

An Israeli premier league football team whose most hardcore fans chant “Death to Arabs” faces a crisis of introspection following a landmark deal that saw the club part-sold to an unlikely new owner: an Arab sheikh.

Beitar Jerusalem – the only Israeli team never to have fielded an Arab player – has been grappling with the news that, as of this month, a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, now owns 50% of the club.

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At least 10 climbers killed in avalanches in Iran’s Alborz mountains

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Several more mountaineers are unaccounted for and seven crew on a capsized ship are missing after wild weather across the region

At least 10 climbers have died and several more are missing after a blizzard triggered avalanches in mountains north of Iran’s capital, Tehran, state media reported on Saturday.

Several climbers have remained unaccounted for since Friday, when two deaths were reported, while the number reported as missing has increased as concerned families contact authorities, state television said.

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Israeli jets strike Gaza after rockets fired across border

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Israeli army says it targeted three Hamas sites in Palestinian territory, including a rocket-manufacturing facility

Israel has targeted a number of sites in Gaza after the army said Palestinian militants had fired rockets into the south of the country.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said Israeli aircraft had struck three Hamas targets including a rocket manufacturing facility, underground infrastructure and a military post.

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