Iranian regime has ‘lost all legitimacy in the international arena,’ UK panel told

Iranian regime has ‘lost all legitimacy in the international arena,’ UK panel told
A demonstrator raising his arms and makes the victory sign during a protest for Mahsa Amini in Tehran on September 19, 2022. (AFP/File)
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Updated 02 February 2023

Iranian regime has ‘lost all legitimacy in the international arena,’ UK panel told

Iranian regime has ‘lost all legitimacy in the international arena,’ UK panel told
  • Nationwide protests are ‘unprecedented,’ Washington Post columnist tells webinar attended by Arab News
  • Panelist: Iran is ‘stomping across the Middle East, it outwitted the West in Syria, and it controls a country bordering Israel’

LONDON: Iran’s leadership has “zero answers” to the population’s “very legitimate” demands, and its brutal crackdown on nationwide protests will shape society for years to come, a UK panel has heard.
The regime in Tehran is “perhaps the most insular and least qualified in the history of the Islamic Republic,” Iranian-American Washington Post columnist Jason Rezaian told a webinar organized by London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House.
Thursday’s event, titled “The Islamic Republic at 44” and attended by Arab News, was moderated by Sanam Vakil, Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program deputy director.
It included Rezaian; Azadeh Pourzand, director of the Siamak Pourzand Foundation, which promotes freedom of expression for artists, writers and journalists; and Kian Tajbakhsh, senior adviser for Columbia Global Centers, which are research outposts established by Columbia University in different locations worldwide.
Rezaian and Tajbakhsh, both dual nationals, have faced political persecution and imprisonment in Iran at different times.
Rezaian described the protests that erupted in Iran last year as “unprecedented.” The standard of living and quality of life in the country have “plummeted across the board,” he said.
“There’s no coming back” from the regime’s brutal crackdown, Rezaian added, referring to the killing of innocent people, including children, and the stifling of Internet access nationwide.
The origins of public anger lie in deteriorating economic conditions, with the Iranian state “no longer delivering on basic services” and “people failing to see their lives improving,” he said, adding that the regime has “zero answers.”
However, he warned against the West failing to enforce economic sanctions on Iran. “If we don’t activate the international levers of justice to hold the regime accountable, it (sanctions) is all for show,” he said. The threat of Iran’s nuclear capability is also an issue that “can’t be ignored,” Rezaian added.
Tajbakhsh said the roots of the “toxic relationship” between the US and Iran lie in the regime’s “extremely consistent and coherent” rejection of Western ties.
Panelists discussed the future of the Iranian protest movement, with Rezaian and Tajbakhsh predicting that the “culture war” in the country would shape society for years to come.
However, Tajbakhsh warned: “The bad news is that the regime has succeeded in repressing and controlling the protest movement.
“Protests remained restricted to a narrow band of people from their late teens to late 20s, and failed to expand to the urban middle class or the military.”
Pourzand described the nationwide demonstrations as a “quest of a people for an ordinary life,” adding that “dignity and quality of life” are the key demands of the public.
From now on, the regime, which “lacks any form of accountability” and has “lost all legitimacy in the international arena,” is “only buying extra time,” she said. The resilience and creativity of the Iranian people offer hope for the future, Pourzand added.
However, Tajbakhsh argued that the economic situation in Iran’s urban centers, including Tehran, “is often not as dire as presented by the international media.”
The protest movement represents only a small section of the country, he said, adding that the demonstrations and crackdown represent “competing visions of society that will clash over the coming decades.”
Tajbakhsh said: “The striking thing about the government response is its solidarity. There was almost no dissent from any senior officials or clerics, which demonstrated the remarkable unity of the regime.”
The high price of repression, the tolerable economic situation, and the lack of effective alternative political organization have made the middle class reluctant to join the protest movement, he added.
“If you look at Iran, it’s remarkably successful. It’s stomping across the Middle East, it outwitted the West in Syria, and it controls a country bordering Israel,” Tajbakhsh said, referring to Lebanon.
“It maintained this and has remained in power over many, many decades. It has avoided political fissures, circumvented sanctions, as well as provided enough economic welfare so that the stakes of the middle class to overthrow the regime are too high.”
It will never alter its behavior as long as it has the support of key regional allies, he added, warning that protests and revolts are “an ordinary day’s work for authoritarian regimes.”


Israel: 2 soldiers wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting

Israel: 2 soldiers wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting
Updated 25 March 2023

Israel: 2 soldiers wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting

Israel: 2 soldiers wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting
  • The attack was the third to take place in the Palestinian town of Huwara in less than a month
  • One soldier was seriously wounded and the second was in moderate condition

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said two soldiers were wounded, one severely, Saturday evening in a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank, the latest in months-long violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
The attack was the third to take place in the Palestinian town of Hawara in less than a month. One soldier was seriously wounded and the second was in moderate condition, the military said. A manhunt was launched as forces sealed roads leading to Hawara.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the shooting attack, but Hamas, the militant group ruling the Gaza Strip, praised it.
“The resistance in the West Bank can surprise the occupation every time and the occupation cannot enjoy safety,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.
Violence has surged in recent months in the West Bank and east Jerusalem amid near-daily Israeli arrest raids in Palestinian-controlled areas and a string of Palestinian attacks.
US-backed regional efforts to defuse tensions have led to the meeting of Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jordan and Egypt respectively, where parties hoped to prevent a further escalation during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
On Feb. 27, when Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Jordan’s Aqaba, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed two Israelis in Hawara. Another shooting attack in Hawara took place as the parties met again in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, wounding two Israelis.
Eighty-six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli or settler fire this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Palestinian attacks have killed 15 Israelis in the same period.
Israel says most of those killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and people not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their future independent state.


Houthi drone attacks Yemen defense minister’s convoy in Taiz

File photo of Yemeni Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Mohsen Al-Daeri. (Screenshot)
File photo of Yemeni Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Mohsen Al-Daeri. (Screenshot)
Updated 25 March 2023

Houthi drone attacks Yemen defense minister’s convoy in Taiz

File photo of Yemeni Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Mohsen Al-Daeri. (Screenshot)
  • Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s information minister, accused the Houthis of attempting to derail peace attempts

AL-MUKALLA: A Yemeni government soldier was killed and two others wounded on Saturday when an explosives-laden drone fired by Iran-backed Houthis attacked a convoy conveying senior military leaders, including Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Mohsen Al-Daeri, in the besieged city of Taiz, Yemeni officials and local media said.

A Yemeni government official told Arab News that the Houthis launched a drone at a convoy carrying the defense minister, the army’s chief of staff, and the governor of Taiz as they traveled from the Red Sea town of Mocha to Taiz. Al-Daeri and all other government officials were unhurt.

Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s information minister, accused the Houthis of attempting to derail peace attempts.  

“This sinful targeting, which comes in the wake of the terrorist Houthi militia’s continuous escalation on multiple fronts, confirms its insistence on sabotaging efforts to restore the ceasefire and calm the situation,” the minister said on Twitter. 

Al-Eryani had earlier warned that large-scale military operations would resume throughout the nation if the Houthis continued their assaults on government soldiers, particularly in the central province of Marib. 

Scores of fighters have been killed or injured since early last week, when the Houthis began a series of intense assaults on government troops in the district of Hareb, south of Marib province, capturing a few villages.

Those attacks, as well as other less intense shelling and ground attacks in Taiz, have dashed hopes of a peaceful solution to the war, which had arisen following the latest successful round of prisoner-swap talks between the Houthis and the Yemeni government, which resulted in an agreement to release more than 800 prisoners during Ramadan.

Al-Eryani said Houthi raids in Hareb had resulted in the displacement of a significant number of people and posed the prospect of all-out conflict, which would put an end to the country’s relative peace since the UN-brokered ceasefire came into force in April last year.

Speaking to a group of military personnel in Taiz’s Al-Bareh on Friday, the minister pledged to defeat the Houthis, retake Sanaa and other areas currently controlled by the Iran-backed militias, and urged soldiers to remain alert.

“To reclaim every square inch of our territory, retake our capital, and restore our legitimate leadership to its proper position, we must all share the same spirit and direct our firearms against these militias,” the minister said. 

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Al-Kumaim, a Yemeni military analyst, said the Houthis have used the UN-brokered truce to regroup, and to target military officials and government-controlled areas. He suggested that the Yemeni government should abandon any agreements with the Houthis and resume military operations.

“Following this attack on the convoy of the highest military authority in the Yemeni army, the government is expected to terminate all accords, including the Stockholm Agreement, and unleash the fronts,” Al-Kumaim said.

Since October, the Yemeni government has labeled the Houthis a terrorist organization. It threatened to withdraw from the Stockholm Agreement and other agreements with the Houthis and resume military offensives when the Houthis shelled oil facilities in Hadramout and Shabwa with drones and missiles, halting Yemen’s oil exports.


Judicial overhaul legislation must be halted, Israel Defense Minister

Judicial overhaul legislation must be halted, Israel Defense Minister
Updated 25 March 2023

Judicial overhaul legislation must be halted, Israel Defense Minister

Judicial overhaul legislation must be halted, Israel Defense Minister
  • Gallant asked Netanyahu’s coalition to wait until after the Jewish passover holiday that begins on April 5
  • “I will not take part in this,” Gallant said

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on Saturday for an immediate and temporary halt to the far-right government’s contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary, the first public dissent from within Prime Minister Benjamin’s coalition.

Citing the need for dialogue with the opposition, Gallant asked Netanyahu’s coalition to wait until after the Jewish passover holiday that begins on April 5 before pushing ahead with its divisive plan to overhaul the judiciary.

He said he is worried that the overhaul plans pose a threat to the country’s security. The plan has sparked the largest protest movement in Israel’s history, bringing thousands to face off against police in the streets weekly.

“I will not take part in this,” Gallant said, although did not elaborate on what would happen if the government pressed on. His statement indicated the first crack in Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

In recent weeks, discontent over the overhaul has even surged from within the Israeli army — what Israelis consider to be the country’s most respected and unifying institution. A growing number of Israeli reservists have threatened to withdraw from voluntary duty in the past weeks, posing a broad challenge to Netanyahu as he plows ahead with the reform while on trial for corruption.

“The events taking place in Israeli society do not spare the Israel Defense Forces — from all sides, feelings of anger, pain and disappointment arise, with an intensity I have never encountered before,” Gallant said in a televised address on Saturday after the end of the Jewish Sabbath. “I see how the source of our strength is being eroded.”

Gallant said that the national crisis over the judicial overhaul has created a “clear, immediate and tangible danger to the security of the state.”


Houthis restricting humanitarian flights arriving in Yemen’s Sanaa

Workers unload aid shipment from a plane at the Sanaa airport, Yemen in 2017. (Reuters/File Photo)
Workers unload aid shipment from a plane at the Sanaa airport, Yemen in 2017. (Reuters/File Photo)
Updated 25 March 2023

Houthis restricting humanitarian flights arriving in Yemen’s Sanaa

Workers unload aid shipment from a plane at the Sanaa airport, Yemen in 2017. (Reuters/File Photo)
  • Houthis said their decision was in response to an alleged barring of commercial flights to and from the Yemeni capital

SANAA: The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen said they were imposing severe restrictions starting Saturday on UN and other humanitarian flights arriving in the capital, Sanaa.

The Houthi-run Civil Aviation Authority said no humanitarian flights would land in Sanaa between March 25-30. It said in a statement they would allow such flights in Sanaa only on Fridays.

The Houthis said their decision was in response to an alleged barring of commercial flights to and from the Yemeni capital, and a ban of booking flights from Sanaa.

The UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Sanaa International Airport was partly reopened for commercial fights last year as part of a UN-brokered cease-fire deal between Yemen’s warring parties. The cease-fire expired in October when the two sides failed to reach a compromise to renew the truce.

The Houthi move comes amid an escalation in fighting in the central province of Marib, where the Houthis in recent days attacked government-held areas.

The Houthi restrictions on humanitarian flights is likely to exaggerate the suffering of Yemenis in Houthi-held areas, including the capital.

Yemen’s conflict has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than 21 million people in Yemen, or two-thirds of the country’s population, need help and protection, according to the UN.


Outrage in Lebanon after PM’s last-minute decision to delay daylight savings

Outrage in Lebanon after PM’s last-minute decision to delay daylight savings
Updated 25 March 2023

Outrage in Lebanon after PM’s last-minute decision to delay daylight savings

Outrage in Lebanon after PM’s last-minute decision to delay daylight savings
  • Move forces country’s Muslims to change fasting hours during Ramadan
  • Lebanese institutions on Saturday took divergent positions on the move

BEIRUT: An abrupt decision by Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to postpone the start of daylight saving time by one month has turned into a major political dispute, overshadowing the country’s dire economic crisis.
Despite repeat IMF warnings over the state of the Lebanese economy, the latest political controversy surrounding the postponement from March 25 to April 21 is dominating debate in the country.
The dispute over daylight saving time also involves religious and sectarian differences, and comes as Muslims mark the holy month of Ramadan. It means those fasting must break their fasts an hour earlier than planned.
Lebanese institutions on Saturday took divergent positions on the move. One media outlet said that it “will not abide by the decision and will commit to the universal time.”
According to one political observer, the dispute reflects a “political vacuum, given that an absurd decision was explained in a sectarian way.”
This dispute “showed the loss of confidence in the ruling political class and the scale of randomness that political action in Lebanon can slip into.”
The postponement caused confusion among institutions working with other states, notably the international airport, banks and mobile phone networks that automatically adjust to daylight savings each year.
Airlines were forced to reschedule flights, and the two major mobile networks in the country sent a written message to subscribers, asking them to “manually adjust the time on their mobile phones before the midnight of Saturday-Sunday, to avoid the time change on their screens.”
Secretary General of Catholic Schools Father Youssef Nasr said: “Private educational institutions and the Federation of Private Educational Institutions will abide by Mikati’s decision until it is reversed.”
Mikati’s move was met with sarcasm on social media platforms. One political activist said: “We are in the republic of wasting time.”
Another said: “It looks like Lebanon’s connection to the global system is not important.”
Other warned that the decision “was taken by leaders who do not acknowledge the presence of others in the country.”
Free Patriotic Movement MP Saeed Nasr said in a press conference: “Such decision leads to many problems and disruptions in software, applications and electronic devices that rely on daylight saving time in their operations, thus resulting in errors in setting times and dates, delaying production and delivery processes, which could possibly affect banks and SWIFT payments.
Meanwhile, amid political dispute over the postponement — with opposition to the move led by FPM MPs and MP Nadim Gemayel — the Lebanese Cabinet is scheduled to hold a session on Monday to discuss boosting salaries and incentives following a collapse in the wages of public and private sector employees.
Retired army members are likely to protest in Riad Al-Solh Square in central Beirut during the Cabinet meeting, following a similar move earlier this week.
Veteran representatives said that the call to protest came after negotiations with the government failed to meet their basic demands, especially fair and legal wages and an increase in medical and educational benefits.