Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Philippines grants asylum to Iranian woman held in airport

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Bahareh Zare Bahari was subject of Interpol arrest warrant after criticising regime

The Philippine government has granted asylum to an Iranian former beauty queen and critic of the Iranian regime after she was stranded for four weeks in an airport.

Bahareh Zare Bahari was the subject of an Interpol “red notice” issued by Iran, resulting in her detention on 17 October when she attempted to enter the Philippines. She cited fears that she would be jailed or executed in Iran on politically motivated charges.

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Pompeo slams Iran’s treatment of UN nuclear inspector

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US secretary of state accuses Tehran of trying to ‘intimidate’ woman while Iran says tests indicated she possessed ‘suspect’ material

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has criticised Iran’s treatment of an inspector with the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency as “an outrageous and unwarranted act of intimidation”.

The top US diplomat said that Iran had “detained” the inspector, who the International Atomic Energy Agency said had been briefly prevented from leaving the country.

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Turkey threatens to send foreign Isis suspects home from next week

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Interior minister said repatriation of alleged terrorists would include those rendered stateless

Turkey will begin deporting foreign members of Islamic State in Turkish custody back to their home countries from next week, the country’s interior minister has said.

Ankara has repeatedly criticised European nations for refusing to take back any of the 1,200 foreign nationals currently held in Turkish prisons on suspicion of links to the terror organisation.

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Lebanese women demand new rights amid political turmoil

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Feminist bloc plans to build on role in protests that brought down prime minister

A man may just have stepped down as prime minister, but the women of Lebanon are not going anywhere.

During the protests that led to the resignation of Saad Hariri, women were among those chanting, blocking roads and debating the future of the country’s politics.

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‘I need to get out’: the Iranian former beauty queen in limbo at Manila airport – video report

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A former Iranian beauty queen has been stuck at Manila’s international airport since 17 October, when Iran issued an Interpol notice for her arrest. Bahareh Zare Bahari says she will be killed if she is sent back home and is seeking asylum in the Philippines, where she has lived for six years. Iran says Bahari is wanted because of an offence committed in 2018, but she claims Tehran is attempting to silence her because of her public stand against the government

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Young Kurdish feminists make me hopeful for the future of the region

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A conference on sexual violence in Iraqi Kurdistan has given women an overdue opportunity to voice their experiences

When I received an email from the Kurdish feminist writer and activist Houzan Mahmoud, asking if I would speak at the first conference on sexual violence against women and girls to be held in Iraqi Kurdistan, I could barely contain my excitement.

Mahmoud, a campaigner for Kurdish and Iraqi women’s rights – “honour” killings, the rape and abduction of women in Iraq and the imposition of Islamic sharia law are among the areas she tackles – was supporting the Sofia Society, a group of roughly 40 young feminists.

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Jordan attack: foreign tourists among eight stabbed in Jerash

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Victims at popular destination reported to include people from Mexico and Switzerland

Eight people including four foreign tourists were stabbed on Wednesday inside the ancient Roman city of Jerash, one of Jordan’s most popular sites for visitors.

Authorities said the victims included tourists from Mexico and Switzerland. Police sources told the Guardian that three of those stabbed were Mexican and one was Swiss. The others included two Jordanian police officers, a tour guide and a driver.

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Yemen government signs power-sharing deal with separatists

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Deal aims to create cohesive government capable of challenging Houthi forces

Yemen’s UN-recognised government has signed a Saudi Arabian-brokered power sharing agreement with separatists in the south of the countryafter months of fighting in the area.

The deal aims to create a new, cohesive government capable of challenging the Iranian-backed Houthi forces that control the capital, Sana’a, and the north.

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Prisoners may be denied life-saving HIV treatment in UAE, campaigners say

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Human Rights Watch warns non-national detainees were denied drugs and kept isolated by staff who ‘knew nothing about HIV’

Prisoners in the United Arab Emirates who are HIV-positive but not from the country may have been denied regular access to life-saving treatment, Human Rights Watch has warned.

On Monday the organisation claimed that non-national prisoners in at least one major UAE jail have seen delays, interruptions or a complete freeze on their access to antiretrovirals – drugs that suppress the activity of the HIV infection.

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Sister of killed Isis leader captured, says Turkish official

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Unnamed senior figure hopes for ‘trove of intelligence’ from Rasmiya Awad after raid in Syrian border town

Turkey claims to have captured the sister of killed Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and is interrogating her and her husband and daughter-in-law, who were also detained.

A senior Turkish official told Reuters that Rasmiya Awad, 65, was seized on Monday during a raid near the Turkish-controlled northern Syrian town of Azaz. When captured, she was also accompanied by five children.

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Iran’s production of enriched uranium rises tenfold in two months

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Experts warn of dangerous consequences as nuclear deal continues to unravel

Iran has announced a tenfold increase in enriched uranium production as Tehran backs away from its nuclear deal with the west.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, said enriched uranium production was now at 5kg per day, up from 450g two months ago. The announcement coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Iranian takeover of the US embassy.

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Iraqi security forces open fire on protesters in fatal clashes in Baghdad – video

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Clashes have erupted in Iraq's capital as security personnel fired live rounds and used water cannon to dispel thousands of demonstrators who defied a plea from the prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, to suspend their protests. Reuters reported that at least five people had been killed

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Saudi Arabia: arrests of dissidents and torture allegations continue

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Relaxation of social laws has belied repression since murder of Jamal Khashoggi, says report

Activists, clerics and other perceived critics of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, continue to be arbitrarily detained more than a year after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a report has said.

Bin Salman has overseen the relaxing of a number of the kingdom’s restrictive social laws since assuming a leadership position in the Saudi government four years ago, most recently allowing women over 21 to obtain passports and travel abroad without the permission of a male guardian.

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Iraqi PM calls on protesters to reopen roads after civil unrest

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Adil Abdul-Mahdi says ongoing protests in Baghdad have cost the country billions of dollars

Iraq’s prime minister called on anti-government protesters to reopen roads on Sunday after a month of major rallies to demand wide-ranging political change.

Adil Abdul-Mahdi called for markets, factories, schools and universities to reopen after days of protests in the capital and across the mostly Shia south. He said the threat to oil facilities and the closure of roads had cost the country billions of dollars and contributed to price increases that affected everyone.

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Car bomb explodes in Syrian town captured by Turkey from Kurds

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At least 13 people killed in explosion in northern border town of Tal Abyad

A car bomb exploded in a northern Syrian town along the border with Turkey on Saturday, killing 13 people. Turkey’s defence ministry said about 20 others were wounded when the bomb exploded in central Tal Abyad, which forces backed by Ankara captured from Kurdish-led fighters last month.

The ministry harshly condemned the attack, which it blamed on Syrian Kurdish fighters, and called on the international community to take a stance against this “cruel terror organisation”. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

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Palestinian killed in Israeli air strikes on ‘wide range’ of Hamas targets

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The Israeli army said the raids were in response to at least 10 rockets being fired at Israel from Gaza on Friday

A Palestinian was killed by Israeli air strikes on Saturday, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said, in an attack launched in response to rocket fire.

Dozens of strikes hit the Palestinian enclave in the early hours, targeting bases of the strip’s Islamist rulers and allied groups, a security source in Gaza said.

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Anti-government demonstrations in Iraq swell as protesters defy teargas – video

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Tens of thousands took to the streets of Baghdad on Friday under clouds of teargas to demand the removal of the elected government in the biggest protest movement in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The city’s Tahrir Square was a chaotic scene of flag-waving demonstrators battling with security forces, while tuk-tuks ferried off wounded dissenters as riot police fired teargas.

Amnesty International this week accused Iraqi security chiefs of using military grade teargas – up to 10 times more powerful than that typically used for crowd control – to try to quell the unrest

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‘Fear factor is broken’: protesters demand removal of Iraqi government

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Crowds of dissenters in central Baghdad want Iranian influence banished from Iraqi politics

The biggest protest movement in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein has pressed its demand for the removal of the elected government, staring down an embattled political elite and the widespread influence of Iran.

Friday’s rallies of tens of thousands came a day after supporters of Iraq’s embattled leader, Adil Abdul Mahdi, believed they had won the backing of one of two powerful figures that threatened his premiership, a development that appeared to stabilise his position on Thursday.

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Tutankhamun’s glitzy farewell tour a timely promotion for Egypt

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Riches to move permanently to new Grand Museum, so London show is being milked by country’s PR department

In the manner of an ageing rock star with a faltering voice but a hefty tax bill, King Tutankhamun and his entourage rolled into London this weekend for the latest stop in what his handlers insist will be absolutely, without question, his last world tour.

Related: Tutankhamun review – thrills and fun as King Tut gets the Hollywood treatment

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