Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Letter comes as human rights groups urge foreign governments to take a stronger line with Tehran
The imprisoned British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has begged the Australian prime minister to secure her release from an Iranian jail, as human rights groups urge foreign governments to take a stronger line with Tehran.
A Cambridge-educated academic specialising in Middle East politics, Moore-Gilbert has been imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since September 2018, after she was arrested at Tehran airport while trying to leave the country after attending an academic conference.
Canadian PM says victims would still be alive if not for rising tensions party triggered by US
Victims of an Iran-downed jetliner would still be alive if not for a recent escalation of tensions partly triggered by the United States, Justin Trudeau has said.
“I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,” the Canadian prime minister said in an interview with Global television.
Effigy burned on streets of Tehran as diplomat accused of ‘interfering in internal affairs’
Iran’s judiciary has described the UK’s ambassador to Tehran as “persona non grata” and called for his expulsion, while crowds of regime supporters burned his effigy alongside the British flag.
The actions came after the envoy, Rob Macaire, was briefly arrested at the weekend and accused of “coordinating” anti-government protests.
General had been in Russian capital seeking deal with head of Libya’s UN-recognised government
Libya’s eastern strongman Gen Khalifa Haftar has left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement to end nine months of fighting in the country, leaving the future of a fragile truce uncertain..
The commander’s abrupt departure in the early hours of Tuesday was a setback for an international diplomatic push in recent days, though Moscow insisted it would continue mediation efforts.
Irrigation systems and oases in the arid south are failing to keep up with the demands of thirsty palm plantations
Mansour Rajeb is wrapping a plastic protective sheet around the branch of a date palm in his oasis near the village of Bchelli, in southern Tunisia. Tying it up, he lingers.
“I’m worried,” he says. “The quality is getting worse. The dates are getting drier.”
It is not clear Trump is ready to adapt any US policies based on latest developments in Tehran
Donald Trump hailed footage of Tehran students refusing to walk over a US flag as “big progress”, but there is little sign his administration is prepared to offer more than verbal encouragement to what the US president called “wonderful Iranian protesters”.
Amid the furious popular backlash to the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, students at Shahid Beheshti University took pains to walk around the big US and Israeli flags painted on a concrete campus thoroughfare, a gesture of defiance to all-pervasive state propaganda.
This was an unacceptable breach of the Vienna convention and it needs to be investigated. We are seeking full assurances from the Iranian government that this will never happen again. The FCO has summoned the Iranian ambassador today to convey our strong objections.
In a series of viral tweets, the head of a Canadian packaged meat company has lashed out at Donald Trump, suggesting the US president bears culpability for Iranian missiles that brought down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 last week. Most of the 167 passengers on board were bound for Canada.
“U.S. government leaders unconstrained by checks/balances, concocted an ill-conceived plan to divert focus from political woes. The world knows Iran is a dangerous state, but the world found a path to contain it; not perfect but by most accounts it was the right direction,” wrote Michael McCain, the chief executive of Maple Leaf Foods, calling Trump a “narcissist”who has destabilised the Middle East.
I’m Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, and these are personal reflections. I am very angry, and time isn’t making me less angry. A MLF colleague of mine lost his wife and family this week to a needless, irresponsible series of events in Iran...
Iranian authorities fired live ammunition to disperse protesters in Tehran, wounding several people, according to witness accounts provided to the Guardian and footage circulating on social media.
Hundreds of protesters on Sunday defied a heavy security presence in the Iranian capital to hold vigils and demonstrations throughout the day and march in the evening on Azadi Square in the centre of the city.
Iran is facing an escalating crisis as its leadership struggles to contain public anger over the military's shooting down of a commercial airliner with 176 people onboard. Footage on social media shows several people apparently wounded, including a woman lying on a blood-soaked pavement near Azadi Square in Tehran during anti-government protests on Sunday
Circumstances of deaths raise concerns about pressure on gathering and departure facilities
The fatal shooting of two Eritrean men in Libya has raised concerns about overcrowding in UN facilities for refugees there.
The pair were reportedly killed in Tripoli last Thursday, days after the UN refugee agency had pressed them to leave a so-called gathering and departure facility (GDF).
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has promised justice for victims of the Ukraine Airlines flight shot down in Iran. Memorials were held across Canada for the 57 Canadians killed in the crash - including one interrupted by a protester in Toronto
Emotional prime minister tells Edmonton gathering that Canada ‘will not rest until there are answers’
Justin Trudeau, his voice sometimes breaking, has told a vigil for some of those killed in an Iranian plane disaster that he would “pursue justice and accountability” for what happened.
Authorities break up second day of demonstrations that continued into the evening
Iran was facing a renewed crisis on Sunday night with authorities using teargas to break up a second straight day of protests in Tehran and demonstrations spreading to other cities, as the nation’s leadership struggled to contain public anger over the Iranian military’s shooting down of a commercial airliner with 176 people on board.
Britain also found itself caught up in the furore as pro-regime protesters set alight a union jack flag in front of the UK embassy in Tehran after the British ambassador was briefly detained the night before and accused of coordinating protests, which he denies. Chanting “death to Britain”, up to 200 protesters including members of a pro-regime paramilitary organisation rallied outside the mission calling for it to be closed a day after Rob Macaire was arrested. He was later summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry.
Warring sides also plan to deploy more troops despite Russian-Turkish brokered deal
A Russian-Turkish brokered ceasefire between the two warring groups in Libya was struggling to take hold in Tripoli as both sides accused the other of breaches and laid out plans to mobilise more forces.
In a breakthrough on Saturday, both sides in the civil war – the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces led from the east of Libya by Gen Khalifa Haftar – agreed to a ceasefire proposed last week by Russia and Turkey.
Trump and Pompeo should act with extreme caution in the wake of this terrible incident
The crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 over Iran, which killed all 176 people on board, is a tragedy. The human cost should not be obscured by the recriminations that have followed. Many families in Iran, Canada, Britain and elsewhere have suffered a devastating blow. In addition to the lives lost, countless more lives have been irreparably damaged.
The Iranian government’s admission of responsibility is welcome. It should have come sooner. Tehran’s hasty claim, within hours of the disaster, that mechanical problems were to blame provoked immediate suspicion. Within 24 hours, video and other evidence emerged, clearly indicating the airliner was hit by a ground-to-air missile, yet Iranian spokesmen and diplomats persisted with their implausible denials.
Trainees not involved in attack but reportedly accused of having extremist links or possessing child abuse images
The US will expel at least a dozen Saudi military students accused of extremist links and possessing child sexual abuse images, after an investigation into a shooting rampage by a Saudi officer in Florida, according to media reports.
In December Mohammed Alshamrani, who was in the US as part of a Saudi military training program, opened fire in a classroom at the Pensacola naval air station, killing three sailors and wounding eight other people before being shot dead by police.
Protesters speak out against supreme leader in response to deaths of Iranians in disaster
Iran’s embattled regime was shaken by a wave of international condemnation and domestic criticism on Saturday night after admitting its forces shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane with 176 people on board and lied in a bid to cover up its role in the tragedy.
Facing possibly the biggest crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, senior clerical, political and military leaders scrambled to contain the fallout from what President Hassan Rouhani termed a “disastrous mistake”.
As Iranians protest over their government’s mishandling of the downing of Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752, in London Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has addressed hundreds marching against the prospect of war with Iran.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which co-organised the demonstration with the Stop the War Coalition, is carrying photos of the protest on its Twitter feed.
#NoWarOnIran protesters gathering in Trafalgar Square. Other protests taking place in Chesterfield, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Bristol today. Many more are planned. Thank you to you all. Let's rebuild our movement, get the troops out of Iraq and stop a war on Iran. pic.twitter.com/js7rbwgBli
Following on from the previous report about domestic reaction to the Iranian mea culpa, reports are emerging on Twitter of protests in the street in Tehran over the government’s handling of the fiasco.
Another video from the protest at a university in the Iranian capital where students call for justice over #Iranplanecrash "Resignation is not enough. Prosecution is necessary." https://t.co/Z4FzVSX60W
A statement carried on Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Saturday morning said the military had made an “unforgivable mistake” in targeting Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran’s international airport on Wednesday. It was followed by condolences from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and an apology from the country’s president, Hassan Rouhani.
Country has shaped an ‘axis of resistance’ with proxy forces and influence in Middle East
There has been a calibrated de-escalation of tensions between the US and Iran, after a drone strike killed General Qassem Suleimani, the second most powerful man in Iran and most influential military commander in the region. Missile strikes on US bases allowed Iran to claim it had responded in kind, without causing any American casualties that could have prompted a further US attack.
But there is little expectation that this will be the end of Iran’s response to such a significant loss. The country has spent years honing its assets and expertise in asymmetric warfare, to strike against better armed, better funded opponents.