Most of Kuwait fire victims are Indians, minister says

Most of Kuwait fire victims are Indians, minister says
Kuwaiti security forces gather outside a building which was ingulfed by fire, in Kuwait City, on June 12, 2024. More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured in a building fire in an area heavily populated with foreign workers in Kuwait, the interior ministry said.(AFP)
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Updated 13 June 2024
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Most of Kuwait fire victims are Indians, minister says

Most of Kuwait fire victims are Indians, minister says
  • Victims will be repatriated to India by military aircraft
  • Kuwait’s Emir orders financial compensation for the families of the victims

KUWAIT: Most of the victims in a deadly blaze that engulfed a block housing immigrant workers were from India, Kuwait’s foreign minister said on Thursday, raising the death toll to 50.
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah ordered financial compensation for the families of the victims, who will be repatriated to India in military aircraft, according to an official statement.

Three Filipinos were among the dead, Philippines officials said, after the fire sent black smoke billowing through the six-story building south of Kuwait City.
At least 43 more were injured in the fire in Mangaf, south of Kuwait City, which broke out around dawn on Wednesday at the ground level of the block housing nearly 200 workers.
“One of the injured died” overnight, Foreign Minister Abdullah Al-Yahya told reporters, after 49 people were declared dead on Wednesday.
“The majority of the dead are Indians,” he added. “There are other nationalities but I don’t remember exactly.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country is “doing everything possible to assist those affected by this gruesome fire tragedy,” in a post on X late on Wednesday.
Next of kin will receive payments of 200,000 rupees ($2,400), Modi’s office announced.
In Manila, the Department of Migrant Workers said three Filipinos died from smoke inhalation, with two more in critical condition while six escaped unharmed.
“We are in touch with the families of all the affected (workers), including the families of those two in critical condition and the families of the three fatalities,” Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac said in a statement.
Kuwaiti officials have detained the building’s owner over potential negligence and have warned that any blocks that flout safety rules will be closed.

Since the fire broke out, Kuwaiti officials have carried out intensive inspections to demolish violating properties.
Stories of the victims

From a father-of-two who planned to leave his job to a 29-year-old due to visit his family in August, two dozen Indians from the southern state of Kerala died, leaving their families bereft.
Among the Keralite victims was Muralidharan Nair, who had been working in Kuwait for 32 years, including 10 as a senior supervisor in the company that owned the housing facility where the fire broke out.
“He came on leave in December for two months with a plan to end his career in Kuwait. The company called him back,” his brother, Vinu V Nair, told Reuters, adding that the family identified the 61-year-old from a list published by India’s embassy. His two roommates also died in the blaze.
For decades, a disproportionately large share of Indian workers in the Gulf have been drawn from Kerala, a densely packed state along southern India’s Arabian Sea coast.
News of the disaster spread quickly in Kerala. The family of Saju Varghese, 56, found out about the fire from television and social media, and confirmed his death from friends and relatives in Kuwait.
Working in the Gulf nation for the last 21 years, Varghese planned to visit Kerala later this month to arrange his daughter’s higher education.
“The family is in a state of shock,” their neighbor, George Samuel, said.
Another victim, Stephin Abraham Sabu, 29, was an engineer in Kuwait since 2019 and called home almost daily.
He had visited his hometown Kottayam “two or three times” since he left, and had booked air tickets to return in August for the housewarming of his family’s new home and to help them buy a new car, his friends said.
Sabu’s father has a small shop in Kottayam while his mother is a housewife. His brother, Febin, also works in Kuwait but lived separately.

With agencies


Chemical weapons agency chief to meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, sources say

Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
Updated 29 sec ago
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Chemical weapons agency chief to meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, sources say

Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
  • The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation

DAMASCUS: The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global non-proliferation agency, will meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, three sources familiar with the visit told Reuters.
Director General Fernando Arias was expected to meet interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, two of the sources said, in a sign of Syrian willingness to cooperate with the agency after years of strained relations under now-toppled leader Bashar Assad.
The sudden fall of the Assad government in December brought hope that the country could be rid of chemical weapons.
Following a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in 2013, Syria joined the OPCW under a US-Russian deal and 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed by the international community.
As part of membership, Damascus was supposed to be subjected to inspections. But for more than a decade the OPCW was prevented from uncovering the true scale of the chemical weapons program. Syria’s declared stockpile has never accurately reflected the situation on the ground, inspectors concluded.
When asked about contacts with the OPCW over chemical weapons still in Syria, the country’s new defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Reuters in January that he “does not believe” that any remnants of Syria’s chemical weapons program remained intact.
“Even if there was anything left, it’s been bombed by the Israeli military,” Abu Qasra said, referring to a wave of Israeli strikes across Syria in the wake of Assad’s fall.
Details of the mission to Syria are still being worked out but its key aims will be finding and securing chemical stocks to prevent proliferation risk, identifying those responsible for their use and overseeing the destruction of remaining munitions.
The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation.
Three investigations — a joint UN-OPCW mechanism, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification team, and a UN war crimes investigation — concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks during the civil war that killed or injured thousands.
A French court issued an arrest warrant for Assad which was upheld on appeal over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians. Syria and its military backer Russia always denied using chemical weapons.
The OPCW, a treaty-based agency in The Hague with 193 member countries, is tasked with implementing the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan have neither signed nor acceded to the convention and Israel has signed but not ratified it.

 


US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC

US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC
Updated 08 February 2025
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US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC

US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC
  • In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel

WASHINGTON: The State Department has formally told Congress that it plans to sell more than $7 billion in weapons to Israel, including thousands of bombs and missiles, just two days after President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The massive arms sale comes as a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas holds, even as Trump continues to tout his widely criticized proposal to move all Palestinians from Gaza and redevelop it as an international travel destination.
The sale is another step in Trump’s effort to bolster Israel’s weapons stocks. In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. The Biden administration had paused a shipment of the bombs over concerns about civilian casualties, particularly during an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Trump told reporters that he released them to Israel, “because they bought them.”
According to the State Department, two separate sales were sent to Congress on Friday. One is for $6.75 billion in an array of munitions, guidance kits and other related equipment. It includes 166 small diameter bombs, 2,800 500-pound bombs, and thousands of guidance kits, fuzes and other bomb components and support equipment. Those deliveries would begin this year.
The other arms package is for 3,000 Hellfire missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost of $660 million. Deliveries of the missiles are expected to begin in 2028.
 

 


Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 07 February 2025
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Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead

GAZA CITY: Hamas on Friday said Israel’s blocking of heavy machinery entering Gaza to clear rubble caused by war was affecting efforts to extract the bodies of hostages.
“Preventing the entry of heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove 55 million tonnes of rubble ... will undoubtedly affect the resistance’s ability to extract from under the rubble the dead prisoners (hostages),” said Salama Marouf, spokesman for Hamas’s media office in Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, including key items such as fuel, tents, and heavy machinery for clearing rubble.

FASTFACT

Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli government and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, have rejected the accusation.
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Hamas’ armed wing released the names of three captives it said would be freed on Saturday in a fifth hostage-prisoner swap as part of an ongoing agreement with Israel.
“Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood deal for the prisoner exchange, the (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to release” the three hostages, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed wing, said on Telegram.

 


Khamenei warns against negotiating with US

Khamenei warns against negotiating with US
Updated 07 February 2025
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Khamenei warns against negotiating with US

Khamenei warns against negotiating with US
  • Trump, who returned to the White House on Jan. 20, reinstated on Tuesday his “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran over allegations the country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said on Friday that there should not be negotiations with the US, days after US President Donald Trump called for a new nuclear deal.
“You should not negotiate with such a government. It is unwise, it is not intelligent, it is not honorable to negotiate,” Khamenei said during a meeting with army commanders. The US had previously “ruined, violated, and tore up” a 2015 nuclear deal, he said, adding that “the same person who is in power now tore up the treaty.”
On Wednesday, Trump suggested striking a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran, adding in his social media post that Tehran “cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump, who returned to the White House on Jan. 20, reinstated on Tuesday his “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran over allegations the country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons.
Following the policy’s reinstatement, Washington on Thursday announced financial sanctions on entities and individuals accused of shipping hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian crude oil to China.
Tehran on Friday condemned the sanctions as “illegal,” saying they were “categorically unjustified and contrary to international rules.”
“We must understand this correctly: they should not pretend that if we sit down at the negotiating table with that government (the US administration), problems will be solved,” Khamenei said.
“No problem will be solved by negotiating with America,” he said, citing previous “experience.”
Khamenei also warned of reciprocal measures if the US threatened or acted against Iran.
“If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they carry out this threat, we will carry out our threat. If they attack the security of our nation, we will attack their security without hesitation,” he said.
During President Trump’s first term, which ended in 2021, Washington withdrew from the landmark nuclear deal that had imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
Tehran adhered to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal until a year after Washington pulled out but then began rolling back its commitments. Efforts to revive the agreement have since faltered.
Khamenei said Iran was “very generous” during the negotiations culminating in the deal, but it “did not achieve the intended results.”
Iranian political expert Afifeh Abedi said Khamenei’s remarks highlight “a serious concern” that negotiations “will result in the US breaching its commitments.”
“Iran understands that Trump’s willingness to negotiate is a disingenuous, reactionary move driven by other objectives rather than a genuine commitment to reaching an agreement,” she said.
Iran has repeatedly expressed a willingness to revive the nuclear deal, and President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for an end to the country’s isolation.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently said that the new US administration should work to regain Tehran’s trust if it wants a new round of nuclear talks.
Western sanctions, especially since the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, have taken a toll on millions of Iranians struggling to make ends meet amid high inflation and a plunging currency.
Khamenei acknowledged this on Friday, saying, “almost most segments of the population have some problems,” but adding they could be solved internally.
The current “respected government can reduce the people’s livelihood problems,” he said.
Without directly mentioning Gaza, Khamenei said on Friday the US administration was trying “to change the map of the world.”
“Of course, it is only on paper, it has no basis in reality,” he said.

 


Scholz vows support for ‘free and safe’ Syria

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AP)
Updated 07 February 2025
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Scholz vows support for ‘free and safe’ Syria

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AP)
  • German Chancellor stresses ‘importance of the fight against terrorism’

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Friday that Berlin was ready to support the transition to a “free and safe” future after the ouster of Bashar Assad.

Scholz expressed Berlin’s “willingness to support the reconstruction of Syria so that Syria can become a free and safe home for all” in an hour-long conversation with Al-Sharaa, the chancellor’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said in a statement.
In his first call with the new Syrian leader, Scholz “congratulated the Syrian people on their success in ending the Assad regime’s reign of terror.”
Al-Sharaa was appointed as Syria’s president at the end of January after militants toppled Assad, ending more than five decades of the family’s iron-fisted rule.
Scholz told the new Syrian leader he needed to lead an “inclusive political process ... that allows all Syrians, regardless of their ethnic or religious group,to participate.”
The chancellor also stressed “the ongoing importance of the fight against terrorism for security in Syria,” according to the statement.
Scholz said that Germany would work with European and international partners in this regard.
Al-Sharaa has been invited to visit Germany, his office said on Friday following the phone call.
The invitation came two days after Al-Sharaa’s office announced he had been invited to visit France.
Scholz and Al-Sharaa agreed on Syria’s need for an inclusive political process that allows the participation of all Syrians and provides rights and protection, the German spokesperson said.
“The Federal Chancellor underlined the ongoing importance of the fight against terrorism for security in Syria, the region and worldwide,” the spokesperson added.
Al-Sharaa has made a push to rebuild Syria’s diplomatic ties since his Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, spearheaded the overthrow of Assad.
However, the country faces a difficult transition amid unresolved territorial and governance challenges. Armed forces in the south, including from the Druze minority, have responded cautiously to the new authority in Damascus.
Also on Friday, Human Rights Watch warned that US aid suspensions could worsen “life-threatening conditions” in camps holding relatives of suspected extremists in northeast Syria, urging Washington to maintain support.
Kurdish-run camps and prisons in the region still hold around 56,000 people with alleged or perceived links to Daesh, years after the extremists’ territorial defeat.
They include suspects locked up in prisons, as well as the wives and children of Daesh fighters held in the Al-Hol and Roj internment camps.
“The US government’s suspension of foreign aid to non-governmental organizations operating in these camps is exacerbating life-threatening conditions, risking further destabilization of a precarious security situation,” HRW said in a statement.
The rights group said the aid freeze could “limit the provision of essential services for camp residents,” citing international humanitarian workers.