Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief

Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaks during a media briefing on the new nuclear energy projections, at IAEA's General Conference in Vienna, Austria on September 16, 2024. (AFP/File)
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Updated 27 September 2024
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Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief

Iran shows ‘willingness’ to re-engage on nuclear issue: IAEA chief

UNITED NATIONS: The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday said Iran is showing “willingness” to re-engage on the nuclear issue, but that Tehran will not reconsider its decision to deny access to top UN inspectors.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said Tehran was “showing signs of willingness to reengage, not only with the IAEA, but also... with our former partners in the nuclear agreement of 2015.”

Grossi spoke after meeting this week with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who played a key role in the negotiations that culminated in the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers which has since unraveled.

“It’s a moment where there is a possibility to do something” on the nuclear question, Grossi told AFP on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“The advantage Araghchi has is that he knows everything about this process, so that allows us to move faster,” Grossi said at the IAEA’s New York offices.

In recent years, Tehran has decreased its cooperation with the IAEA, while significantly ramping up its nuclear program, including amassing large stockpiles of uranium enriched to 60 percent — close to the 90 percent needed to develop an atomic bomb.

But since the July election of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Tehran has signaled openness to relaunching talks to revive the nuclear agreement.

The landmark deal — also known by its acronym JCPOA — started to unravel in 2018 when then-US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it and reimposed sanctions, and Iran retaliated by stepping up its nuclear activities.

Efforts to revive the deal — bringing the United States back on board and Iran back into compliance — have so far been fruitless.

“If things move in a positive way... and I think this is the intention of the president and the foreign minister (of Iran), there will be a return to the conversations with the former partners,” Grossi said.

Tehran, however, is not willing to walk back on a decision it took last year to ban some of the IAEA’s “best inspectors,” Grossi said, a move Teheran initially described as retaliation for “political abuses” by the United States, France, Germany and Britain.

“They are not going to restore the inspectors to the list,” Grossi said.

“Maybe there will be a review of that. I will keep pushing,” he added, explaining that he is due to visit Tehran in the “coming weeks.”

During his visit, Grossi plans to discuss “different monitoring and verification measures that we could agree on prior to a wider agreement.”

“I think getting an agreement with Iran on these things would be a very constructive indication... toward a future negotiation,” Grossi said.

“If you do not allow me to establish a baseline of all the capacities that the country has at the moment, then what kind of confidence and trust are you injecting in the system for a negotiation with other partners?” he added.

According to a diplomatic source, the European side is skeptical about the possibility of returning to the framework of the initial pact.

Grossi said the actual framework of the deal would be left to Iran and Western powers.

“Will it be the same? Will it be updated? Will it be something completely different? This is for them to decide,” Grossi said.


UK PM visits Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

UK PM visits Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
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UK PM visits Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

UK PM visits Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
  • Keir Starmer praises mosque as a ‘site where people meet in peace’
  • He was gifted a compass designed after the mosque’s chandeliers

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer toured the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi as part of state visit to the UAE on Monday.

Mansour Belhoul Al-Falasi, the Emirati ambassador to the UK, and Edward Hobart, the UK ambassador to the UAE, accompanied Starmer during his visit to the iconic site, Emirates News Agency reported.

Yousef Al-Obaidli, director-general of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center, gave Starmer a tour of the site’s external halls, arcades and prayer hall.

The mosque, which opened for worship in December 2007, calls for coexistence, tolerance and openness to other faiths, and aspires to connect cultures and peoples from around the world.

Starmer was briefed about the mosque’s design, which was inspired by centuries-old Islamic architecture.

The British premier said that the UK and UAE “have a common history and a deep relationship dating back centuries.”

He added that the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is making efforts “to promote common human values between religions and cultures,” and is a site where “people from all over the world meet in peace.”

At the end of the tour, the center gifted Starmer a compass designed after the chandeliers in the mosque.

Earlier, Starmer met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at Al-Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi. The two leaders discussed regional and global issues.


Assad’s fall brings ‘the moment’ to rid Syria of chemical weapons

UN vehicles are seen outside a hotel where international experts from OPCW stayed in Damascus in 2018. (File/AFP)
UN vehicles are seen outside a hotel where international experts from OPCW stayed in Damascus in 2018. (File/AFP)
Updated 32 min 53 sec ago
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Assad’s fall brings ‘the moment’ to rid Syria of chemical weapons

UN vehicles are seen outside a hotel where international experts from OPCW stayed in Damascus in 2018. (File/AFP)
  • OPCW said it was following the situation in Syria with “special attention” to chemical weapons-related sites
  • Organization reminded Syria, through its embassy, of its continued obligation to declare and destroy all banned chemical weapons

THE HAGUE: The downfall of Syria’s Bashar Assad, found to have used chemical weapons against his own people on multiple occasions during the civil war, creates an opportunity to rid the country of banned munitions, diplomatic sources said on Monday.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it was following the situation in Syria with “special attention” to chemical weapons-related sites and had reminded Syria, through its embassy, of its continued obligation to declare and destroy all banned chemical weapons.
A team at OPCW has spent more than a decade trying to clarify what types of chemical weapons Syria still possesses, but has made little progress due to obstruction by Assad’s government, it said.
“To date, this work has continued, and the Syrian declaration of its chemical weapons program still cannot be considered as accurate and complete,” the OPCW statement said.
A diplomatic source said Assad’s government had been “playing cat and mouse with us for years” and that “we are convinced that they still had an ongoing program.”
“It costs millions and millions of dollars without making any progress,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “So it really is a great opportunity now to get rid of (chemical weapons) for good. This is the moment.”
Security guarantees will need to be arranged before any deployment by OPCW inspectors. That would require contacting new power brokers in Syria, possibly militant forces in the alliance that toppled Assad, such as Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate labelled a terrorist group by some governments.
Past missions have not been free of risk. Members of a United Nations-OPCW mission to Syria were hit by explosives and AK-47 fire while trying to reach the site of a chemical attack in the northern town of Kafr Zita in May 2014.
Assad’s government and its Russian allies always denied using chemical weapons against opponents in the civil war, which erupted in March 2011.
Three different 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.
Evidence
Syria declared 1,300 tons of banned chemical weapons after joining the OPCW in 2013. The weapons were destroyed by the international community, but weapons inspectors have since found evidence of an ongoing program that violated the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention overseen by the OPCW.
The OPCW has conducted 28 rounds of consultations with Assad’s government since 2013, but a list of unexplained inconsistencies has only grown.
A recent assessment said 19 outstanding issues included “potentially undeclared full-scale development and production of chemical weapons at two declared chemical weapons-related facilities,” OPCW chief Fernando Arias said in November.
“The facilities were previously declared as having never been in operation,” he said. But inspectors found evidence contradicting that claim, sources said.
Among thousands of victims of suspected chemical weapons attack were more than 1,000 killed in a sarin gas attack on Aug. 21, 2013 in the Damascus suburb Ghouta, and around 100 killed in an April 4, 2017 gas attack on the Khan Sheikhoun in northern Syria. The systematic use of chlorine barrel bombs has killed and injured hundreds more, the OPCW has found.


Jordan denounces Israel’s Golan buffer zone seizure

Israeli armored vehicles maneuver on the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing, between Israel and Syria.
Israeli armored vehicles maneuver on the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing, between Israel and Syria.
Updated 48 min 38 sec ago
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Jordan denounces Israel’s Golan buffer zone seizure

Israeli armored vehicles maneuver on the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing, between Israel and Syria.
  • “We condemn the fact that Israel has entered Syrian territory and taken control of the buffer zone,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said
  • Safadi, whose country borders the Golan Heights, called the move a “violation of international law”

AMMAN: Jordan denounced on Monday Israel’s decision to seize Syrian-held areas in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday he had ordered the army to “seize” the demilitarised zone in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights after militants swept Syrian president Bashar Assad from power.
“We condemn the fact that Israel has entered Syrian territory and taken control of the buffer zone,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told parliament.
Safadi, whose country borders the Golan Heights, called the move a “violation of international law.”
Most of the Golan Heights plateau has been occupied since 1967 by Israel, which later annexed it in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
In 1974 a buffer zone was established to separate the Israeli-held and Syrian territories, with UN peacekeepers stationed there.


Syria central bank says depositors’ funds at local banks ‘safe’

Anti government forces stand guard in front of Syria’s Central Bank in Damascus, on December 9, 2024. (AFP)
Anti government forces stand guard in front of Syria’s Central Bank in Damascus, on December 9, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 09 December 2024
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Syria central bank says depositors’ funds at local banks ‘safe’

Anti government forces stand guard in front of Syria’s Central Bank in Damascus, on December 9, 2024. (AFP)
  • Footage taken on Sunday showed fighters rushing to stop looters at the central bank after the capital fell

DAMASCUS: Syria’s central bank said Monday depositors’ funds in the country’s lenders were “safe” after militants took the capital, and following chaotic scenes near some official institutions.
“We assure our fellow citizens dealing with all operating banks that their deposits and funds at these banks are safe and have not been and will not be exposed to any harm,” said a statement on the central bank’s official Facebook page.
AFP footage taken on Sunday showed fighters rushing to stop looters at the central bank after the capital fell, firing into the air to disperse people and sending them away from the building.
On Sunday, the militants issued a statement saying “we emphasize the need to safeguard public and private property in the capital Damascus and the need to protect it.”
Violators risk “heavy penalties that could include imprisonment or a fine,” the statement added.


Syrians search for loved ones missing in Assad’s jails

People stand outside the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP)
People stand outside the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP)
Updated 09 December 2024
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Syrians search for loved ones missing in Assad’s jails

People stand outside the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP)
  • On Monday, rescuers from the Syrian White Helmets said they were searching for secret doors or basements in Saydnaya prison, looking for detainees

DAMASCUS: Syrian rescuers searched a jail synonymous with the worst atrocities of ousted president Bashar Assad’s rule, as people in the capital flocked to a central square Monday to celebrate their country’s freedom.
Assad fled Syria as militants swept into the capital, bringing to a spectacular end on Sunday five decades of brutal rule by his clan over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century.
He oversaw a crackdown on a democracy movement that erupted in 2011, sparking a war that killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes.
At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centers used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Baath party’s line.
On Monday, rescuers from the Syrian White Helmets said they were searching for secret doors or basements in Saydnaya prison, looking for any detainees who might be trapped.
“We are working with all our energy to reach a new hope, and we must be prepared for the worst,” the organization said in a statement.
Aida Taha, aged 65, said she had been “roaming the streets like a madwoman” in search of her brother, who was arrested in 2012.
She said she went to Saydnaya, where she believes some prisoners are still underground.
“The prison has three or four underground floors,” Taha said. “They say that the doors won’t open because they don’t have the proper codes.”
“We’ve been oppressed long enough, we want our children back,” she added.
While Syria has been at war for 13 years, the government’s collapse ended up coming in a matter of days, with a lightning offensive launched by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).
Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by Western governments as a terrorist group.
While it remains to be seen how HTS operates now that Assad is gone, it has sought to moderate its image and to assure Syria’s many religious minorities that they need not fear.
In central Damascus on Monday, despite all the uncertainties for the future, the joy was palpable.
“It’s indescribable, we never thought this nightmare would end, we are reborn,” 49-year-old Rim Ramadan, a civil servant at the finance ministry, told AFP.
“We were afraid for 55 years of speaking, even at home, we used to say the walls had ears,” Ramadan said, as people honked their car horns and rebels fired their guns into the air.
“We feel like we’re living a dream,” she added.
During the offensive launched on November 27, rebels wrested city after city from Assad’s control, opening the gates of prisons along the way and freeing thousands of people, many of them held on political charges.
Social media groups were alight with Syrians sharing images of detainees reportedly brought out from the dungeons, in a collective effort to reunite families with their loved ones, some of whom had been missing for years.
Others, like Fadwa Mahmoud, whose husband and son are missing, posted calls for help finding their missing relatives.
“Where are you, Maher and Abdel Aziz, it’s time for me to hear your news, oh God, please come back, let my joy become complete,” wrote Mahmoud, herself a former detainee.
US President Joe Biden said Assad should be “held accountable” as he called his downfall “a historic opportunity” for the people of Syria.
“The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice,” he said.
But he also cautioned that hard-line Islamist groups within the victorious rebel alliance would face scrutiny.
“Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses,” Biden said.
The United States has taken note of recent statements by the rebels suggesting they were adopting a more moderate posture, but Biden said: “We will assess not just their words, but their actions.”
Amnesty International also called for perpetrators of rights violations to face justice, with its chief Agnes Callamard urging the forces that ousted Assad to “break free from the violence of the past.”
“Any political transition must ensure accountability for perpetrators of serious violations and guarantee that those responsible are held to account,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Monday.
How Assad might face justice remains unclear, especially after Russia refused on Monday to confirm reports by Russian news agencies that he had fled to Moscow.
The Syrian embassy in Moscow raised the flag of the opposition, and the Kremlin said it would discuss the status of its bases in Syria with the new authorities.
Russia played an instrumental role in keeping Assad in power, directly intervening in the war starting in 2015 and providing air cover to the army on the ground as it sought to crush the rebellion.
Iran, another key ally of Assad, said it expected its “friendly” ties with Syria to continue, with its foreign minister saying the ousted president “never asked” for Tehran’s help against the militant offensive.
Turkiye, historically a backer of the opposition, called for an “inclusive” new government in Syria, as the sheer unpredictability of the situation began to settle in.
“It is not just Assad’s regime falling, it is also the question of what comes in its place?” said Aron Lund, a specialist at the Century International think tank.
While Syria’s war began with a crackdown on grassroots democracy protests, it morphed over time and drew in jihadists and foreign powers backing opposing sides.
Israel, which borders Syria, sent troops into a buffer zone after Assad’s fall, in what Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described as a “limited and temporary step.”
Saar also said his country had struck “chemical weapons” in Syria, “in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists.”
In northern Syria, a Turkish drone strike on a Kurdish-held area killed 11 civilians, six of them children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.