UN Security Council urged to refrain from making deals that help Iranian regime survive

UN Security Council urged to refrain from making deals that help Iranian regime survive
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Updated 03 November 2022

UN Security Council urged to refrain from making deals that help Iranian regime survive

UN Security Council urged to refrain from making deals that help Iranian regime survive
  • Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi also called on all countries to withdraw ambassadors from Tehran and reduce their diplomatic presence there
  • More than 300 people killed, 14,000 arrested in regime crackdown on ongoing peaceful protests, figures human rights watchdogs describe as conservative estimates

NEW YORK CITY: The people of Iran are asking Western governments, and especially the US, to refrain from making any deals with the Iranian regime that might help to ensure its survival, the UN Security Council heard on Wednesday.

The government in Tehran will use any funds it receives from international agreements not to improve the welfare of its people but to buy more weapons and cause more destruction domestically and in the wider region, council members were warned.

Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also urged “governments of the free world” to withdraw their ambassadors from Iran and reduce their level of diplomatic representation there to that of charges d’affaires.

She called on the UN to appoint a commission of inquiry, similar to the one set up by the organization in Myanmar, to investigate the Iranian regime’s most recent crimes and rights violations.

She was speaking at a Security Council meeting convened by Albania and the US, who said the objectives were to highlight the ongoing repression of women, girls and members of religious and ethnic minorities in Iran; the regime’s “unlawful use of force against protesters, (its) pursuit of human rights defenders abroad and its attempts to abduct or assassinate them;” and to identify ways to promote “credible, international, independent investigations into the Iranian government’s human rights violations and abuses.”

The wave of anti-government protests sweeping Iran was sparked by the death in police custody on Sept. 16 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year old woman from Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, who was arrested three days previously for failing to follow strict rules on head coverings.

Since the latest demonstrations began, at least 300 protesters have been killed and more than 14,000 arrested during the regime’s brutal crackdown on the dissent. Human rights watchdogs describe the figures as conservative estimates.

Lawyers and journalists reportedly have been detained for supporting or reporting on the protests. Hundreds of those arrested are charged with offenses that potentially carry the death penalty. Meanwhile the government is blocking the internet in most of the country.

Independent experts at the UN have denounced the actions of the Iranian government as part of “a continuum of long-standing, pervasive, gender-based discrimination embedded in legislation, policies and societal structures” and expressed support for “the establishment of an international investigative mechanism to ensure accountability in Iran and to end the persistent impunity for grave human rights violations.”

Ebadi told the meeting on Wednesday that the efforts of the Iranian people to change the situation in the country and force reforms have constantly “hit a hard wall but now (Iranians) will not settle for anything but a democratic and secular government.”

Nazanin Boniadi, a Tehran-born British actress and activist, told council members that in 14 years of working with human rights campaigners she has never witnessed “such widespread and committed opposition to the Islamic Republic’s regime as there is in Iran today.”

She said: “While Iran has become accustomed to mass protests nearly once every decade, neither the student protests of 1999 nor the green movement of 2009, or even the most more recent November 2019 protests, compare in fervor or magnitude to the current protests, in which for the first time since the inception of the theocracy in 1979, people are not only openly opposing 83-year old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which they started to do in 2017, but are actively fighting back to defend themselves against the security forces, and tearing down billboards and burning pictures of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini.

“Iranians, and the world, have repeatedly been hoodwinked to think that presidential elections, which have never been free or fair, would make a difference for them. But elections in Iran are a theater.

“The rise of the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, who has been a pillar of the oppressive state and implicated in crimes against humanity, and whose leadership harks back to 1980s Iran, is proof enough that a culture of impunity reigns supreme in Iran.”

Boniadi said the future of Iran will be “written by its own people, on its own streets” but added that no country can stand alone in pursuit of freedom and self-determination. She therefore called on the Security Council to assist the people of the nation in their time of crisis “because the Islamic Republic isn’t just a threat to its own people; its human rights abuses have become one of its primary exports.”

She said: “The catalog of abuses by the regime in Iran and around the world is well documented.

“The Islamic Republic regime has taken foreign hostages to use as political bargaining chips and has intimidated, abducted and assassinated dozens of dissidents beyond its borders, including recent attempts on the lives of prominent writers and activists just miles away from where we’re currently gathered.”

She called for global unity as she expressed the belief that “the potential for the current protests to transform Iran from theocracy to representative government could be a geopolitical game changer” and “the single most important key to bringing about stability in the Middle East.”


Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
Updated 11 sec ago

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
BEIRUT: The Daesh group killed 15 people foraging for desert truffles in conflict-ravaged central Syria by cutting their throats, while 40 others are missing, a war monitor said Friday.
Syria’s desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war and a crushing economic crisis.
Since February, at least 150 people — most of them civilians — have been killed by IS attacks targeting truffle hunters or by land mines left by the extremists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“At least 15 people, including seven civilians and eight local pro-regime fighters, were killed by Daesh fighters who slit their throats while they were collecting truffles on Thursday,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Forty others are missing following the attack in Hama province, he added.
Syrian state media did not immediately report the incident.
Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for truffles in the vast Syrian Desert, or Badia — a known hideout for jihadists that is also littered with land mines.
Foragers risk their lives to collect the delicacies, despite repeated warnings about land mines and Daesh fighters.
Earlier this month, Daesh fighters killed three truffle hunters and kidnapped at least 26 others in northern Syria, according to the monitor, which relies on a vast network of sources inside Syria.
That attack happened near positions held by pro-Iran forces, said the Britain-based Observatory.

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire
Updated 24 March 2023

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire
  • Blaze in Marrakech trapped father of two, worker in ‘truly horrific incident’
  • They died from smoke inhalation despite efforts of paramedics, police, firefighters

LONDON: A British man and a hotel worker have died in a fire that broke out at a resort in Marrakech on Wednesday, The Sun reported.

The blaze broke out in a spa in the five-star Jaal Riad Resort, trapping the father of two and the hotel worker inside.

They died from smoke inhalation despite the efforts of paramedics, police and firefighters who rushed to the scene.

A source described it as a “truly horrific incident,” adding that the Briton “was a tourist visiting the area with friends and they have had to break the news to his family. Everyone is heartbroken.”

A fire service spokesman said: “We can’t comment further because of an ongoing investigation.”


Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
Updated 24 March 2023

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
  • Imams to be sent to France for same purpose; Germany and Belgium have made similar requests
  • Italy made request ‘so all Muslims will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan,’ Interior Ministry source tells Arab News

ROME: Twenty-nine imams from Algeria will be sent by their government to Italy to help local imams perform Taraweeh prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

The imams will be sent “upon a specific request by the Italian authorities,” Algerian Religious Affairs Minister Youssef Belmehdi told state radio.

He added that 128 imams will be sent to France for the same purpose, and that Germany and Belgium have made similar requests.

A source in Italy’s Interior Ministry told Arab News that the request for imams from Algeria was made “so that all Muslims in Italy will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan.” The source said Algeria’s government “enthusiastically and promptly agreed” to the request.

Giuseppe Ciutti, a Catholic priest who is engaged in ecumenical dialogue, told Arab News: “At such an important time as Ramadan for Muslims, it’s important that everyone can get good spiritual assistance.”

According to the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, 2.5 million Muslims live in the country, comprising 4.7 percent of the total population. Moroccans represent the largest Muslim community in Italy.


Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
Updated 24 March 2023

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
  • Protesters clashed with French security forces in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt
  • Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests

TEHRAN: Iran on Friday urged France to listen to protesters and avoid violence after more than 450 people were arrested and nearly as many police were injured in demonstrations against pension reforms.
Protesters clashed with French security forces on Thursday in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to increase the retirement age.
“The French government must talk to its people and listen to their voices,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani tweeted.
“We do not support destruction or rioting, but we maintain that instead of creating chaos in other countries, listen to the voice of your people and avoid violence against them,” he added.
Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini after the 22-year-old’s arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Hundreds of people have been killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested in connection with what Iranian officials described as “riots” fomented by Israel and the West.
The United States, Britain and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran for its response to the protest movement, led mostly by women.
“Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind,” Kanani said, adding that such “violence contradicts sitting on the chair of morality lessons and preaching to others.”
On Friday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 457 people had been arrested and 441 members of the security forces injured the day before during the protests.
Darmanin dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform.
“I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence,” he said. “If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”


Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal
Updated 24 March 2023

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal
  • ‘The legal situation is clear: you must refrain from any involvement in initiatives to change the judiciary’

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s violated the law by saying he would get personally involved in a judicial overhaul plan, the attorney-general said on Friday.
In the face of intensifying protests against the proposed changes, Netanyahu said on Thursday that he was putting aside all other considerations and would do “anything it takes” to reach a solution.
Netanyahu added that his hands had been tied, but a new law limiting the circumstances in which a prime minister can be removed gave him more space for maneuver.
However, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, in a letter addressed to Netanyahu, disagreed.
“The legal situation is clear: you must refrain from any involvement in initiatives to change the judiciary, including the makeup of the committee for the appointment of judges, as such activity is a conflict of interest.”
“Your statement last night and any action you take in violation of this matter is illegal and tainted by a conflict of interest,” Baharav-Miara added.