Trump blasts Iranian regime, says it is time for change

People protest in Tehran in this picture obtained from social media. (Reuters)
Updated 01 January 2018
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Trump blasts Iranian regime, says it is time for change

JEDDAH: US President Donald Trump on Monday blasted the clerical regime in Tehran for repressing its people as anti-government protests and demonstrations spread to more Iranian cities claiming, according to the Associated Press, more than 12 lives, including a policeman.

According to state TV, the protesters tried to overrun military bases and police stations before security forces repelled them.

The demonstrations, the largest in Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, began on Thursday in Mashhad over economic issues and have since expanded to several cities. Some protesters are chanting against the government and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hundreds of people have been arrested.

“TIME FOR CHANGE!” wrote Trump on his Twitter account, expressing US support for the demonstrators. The country is “failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration,” he said.

“The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years,” he wrote. “They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted.”

Iranian state television aired footage of a ransacked private bank, broken windows, overturned cars, and a firetruck that appeared to have been set ablaze. It reported that clashes on Sunday night killed 10 people.

“Armed protesters tried to take over some police stations and military bases but faced serious resistance from security forces,” state TV reported. It did not say where the attacks occurred.

Later Monday, state TV said clashes had killed six people in the western town of Tuyserkan, 295 km southwest of Tehran. It said clashes in the town of Shahinshahr, 315 km south of Tehran, had killed three more. It did not say where the 10th person had been killed.

Earlier Monday, the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted Hedayatollah Khademi, a representative for the town of Izeh, as saying that two people had died there Sunday night.

He said the cause of death was not immediately known, though authorities later described one of the deaths as the result of a personal dispute. Many in Izeh, some 455 km southwest of Tehran, have hunting rifles in their homes.

Harvard scholar and Iranian affairs expert Majid Rafizadeh called the protests unprecedented.

“People from all sectors — working class, middle class, women and youth — are coming together. They are demanding regime change, not just the limited reforms we saw in previous protests,” he told Arab News.

“The modus operandi of the regime is based on using brute force to respond to demonstrators. This will definitely make the size of demonstrations grow larger,” he said.

According to Rafizadeh, Iran has had three revolutions in the past century. “There are some similarities between these protests and the ones that occurred in 1979. People are fed up with corruption, authoritarianism and they are demanding democracy and respect for human rights and freedoms. But these protests also highlight the frustrations over poverty, unemployment and the regime’s support of, and funding for, terrorist and militia groups across the region.”

Two protesters were also killed in clashes late Saturday in Doroud, some 325 km southwest of Tehran in Luristan province, authorities said.

On Sunday, Iran blocked access to Instagram and the popular messaging app Telegram, which have been used by activists to organize. President Hassan Rouhani acknowledged the public’s anger over the Islamic Republic’s flagging economy, though he and others warned that the government would not hesitate to crack down on those it considered lawbreakers.

That was echoed Monday by the chief of the Iranian Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, who urged authorities to confront rioters, state TV reported.

“I demand all prosecutors across the country get involved and their approach should be strong,” he said.

Rouhani also stressed Monday that Iran “has seen many similar events and passed through them easily.”

Oubai Shahbandar, a Syrian-American analyst and fellow at the New America Foundation’s International Security Program, said: “What is happening in Iran has all the signs of being the early stages of a revolution. The silence of Khamanei as this uprising spreads is deafening.”

He said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were “showing indications that they are preparing for mass reprisals against the protesters.”

He said it was a truly a grassroots movement. “They (the protesters) are calling for the fall of the regime. Period. Khamanei is going to resort to violence to try to hold on to power, but this time around, he may not succeed the way he did in suppressing the 2009 green revolution.”


Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

Updated 54 min 41 sec ago
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Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

DUBAI: Four people were sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in northwest Iran over charges of spying for Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.


Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike

Updated 06 November 2024
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Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike

  • The airstrike hit the building in the town just north of the port city of Sidon, an area that has not been regularly targeted by Israeli military operations

BARJA: Lebanese rescuers pulled 30 bodies out of the rubble after a late night Israeli strike on an apartment building in the town of Barja, Lebanon’s Civil Defense service said Wednesday as the Mideast wars press on with no signs of abating.
It remained unclear if there were any survivors or bodies still trapped under the rubble following the Tuesday night airstrike, which came without warning. There was no statement from the Israeli military and the strike’s intended target also was unknown.
Barja, a town just north of the port city of Sidon in central Lebanon, has not been regularly targeted so far in the conflict.
“Something pulled me hard, and then the explosion happened,” said Moussa Zahran, who was at home with his wife and son when the building was hit. He said he couldn’t see but started digging through the rubble until he found his wife and son — alive but injured — and pulled them out. Both are still in the hospital, he said.
Another building resident, Muhyiddin Al- Qalaaji, said he was at work when the strike happened and heard the news from his wife who called him frantically.
“There are many dead and injured,” he said as he carried out what he could salvage of the family’s belongings on Wednesday morning.
Civil defense official Mostafa Danaj said some of the neighbors have reported there are still people missing.
Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group have been clashing for more than a year, since Hezbollah started firing rockets across the border soon after the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza in October last year.
The war on the Lebanese front has substantially escalated since mid-September, with Israel launching a massive aerial bombardment and ground invasion.
On Wednesday, sirens blared across northern and central Israel, including in the populous metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, as Hezbollah launched 10 rockets toward Israel. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said there were no reports of injuries.
A large portion of a rocket slammed into a parked car in the central Israeli city of Raanana. Rockets also struck an open area near Israel’s main airport, Israeli media reported, though the airport said flights were operating as normally.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said there were no injuries. Israeli police said they arrested 40 people during protests on Tuesday night when the demonstrators blocked Israel’s main highway in Tel Aviv.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country. Gallant’s replacement is Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.
While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant said military force created the necessary conditions for at least a temporary diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the militant group.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others, taking them back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,500 have been wounded in Lebanon, about a quarter of them women and children, the Health Ministry reported.
Hezbollah continues to send dozens of rockets and drones toward Israel. The projectiles have killed 72 people in Israel so far, including 30 soldiers, according to Netanyahu’s office.
A report by Lebanon’s crisis response unit said that 361,300 Syrians and over 177,800 Lebanese have crossed into Syria between Sept. 23 and Nov. 1, to escape the fighting.
Another night of protests was planned across Israel on Wednesday evening, over Gallant’s firing.
Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza but the prime minister had avoided letting go of his rival before the US presidential election on Tuesday.
By midday Wednesday in the Middle East, Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States in a remarkable political comeback.


Hezbollah says it fired missiles at military base near Ben Gurion Airport

Updated 06 November 2024
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Hezbollah says it fired missiles at military base near Ben Gurion Airport

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said on Wednesday that it fired missiles at a military base near Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main international gateway.
Israeli media reported on Wednesday that a rocket had landed near the airport. The airports authority said the airport was continuing to operate as usual.


Algeria opens book fair without winner of top French language literary prize

Updated 06 November 2024
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Algeria opens book fair without winner of top French language literary prize

  • This year’s Prix Goncourt winner and his French publisher Gallimard — a regular participant — are among those who won’t be welcomed at the Algiers International Book Fair

ALGIERS: As one of the Arab world’s largest book fairs opens in Algeria on Wednesday, there is one conspicuous absence. French-Algerian author Kamel Daoud, who won France’s most prestigious literary award earlier this week, was not invited to this year’s event.
This year’s Prix Goncourt winner and his French publisher Gallimard — a regular participant — are among those who won’t be welcomed at the Algiers International Book Fair. The exclusion of several prominent authors and publishers from this year’s event reflects the ongoing limitations on freedom of expression in Algeria.
Daoud’s novels and their subject matter often polarize opinions in both France, where he lives, and Algeria, where he was born. His Goncourt-winning third novel Houris (Virgins, in English) centers on the memories of victims of Algeria’s “Black Decade.” After Islamists won the first round of legislative elections in 1990, Algeria descended into civil war after the second round was canceled by the military-backed government.
Though memories of that history loom large, Houris will not be among the more than 300,000 titles available at the book fair, which is being marketed under the slogan “Read to Triumph” and billed for having a special focus on history.
Ali Bey, the owner of Algiers’ Librarie du Tiers Monde, said he was “delighted” to see Daoud’s international recognition but lamented that Algerian readers would not be able to purchase his novels.
The censorship extends beyond Daoud and Gallimard. Koukou Publishing, an independent Algerian house led by former political activist Arezki Ait Larbi, has also been excluded from this year’s festival. Koukou — known for publishing works by essayists, novelists and journalists whose writings often challenge official narratives — wasn’t invited either, Ait Larbi wrote in a Facebook post.
“Our house is under threat of a complete ban from publishing,” Ait Larbi said, accusing the Ministry of Culture’s censors of targeting his books.


Thousands in Israel protest sacking of defense minister

Updated 06 November 2024
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Thousands in Israel protest sacking of defense minister

JERUSALEM: Thousands of Israelis protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of his defense minister, demanding the government do everything in its power to bring home hostages held in Gaza.
The demonstration erupted soon after Netanyahu’s office announced the sacking of Yoav Gallant on Tuesday following public differences over the war with Hamas.
The removal of Gallant — a hawk on the war Hezbollah in Lebanon who also pushed for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza — coincided with the presidential election in the United States, Israel’s top military backer.
Netanyahu and Gallant have frequently clashed over Israel’s retaliatory military offensive against Hamas following the Palestinian militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
“Over the past few months... trust has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defense minister,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that foreign minister Israel Katz would take his place.
Shortly afterwards, thousands of people took to the streets of commercial hub Tel Aviv, chanting slogans against Netanyahu and demanding the return of 97 hostages held in Gaza.
Protesters blocked traffic and lit fires, with some wearing “Bring them home now!” T-shirts referring to the hostages.
They held up signs with slogans such as “We deserve better leaders” and “Leaving no one behind!,” and one protester wore handcuffs and a face mask with Netanyahu’s likeness.
The reshuffle’s timing comes at a critical juncture in the Gaza and Lebanon wars, with both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon massively weakened.
Jonathan Rynhold of the political studies department at Bar-Ilan University said Netanyahu was feeling “emboldened because he is improving in the polls.”
“He is also taking advantage of the fact that the US election is happening today... everyone’s focus is elsewhere,” he told AFP.
After his appointment, Katz vowed “victory over our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war,” including “the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon” and the return of hostages.
Gideon Saar, a minister without portfolio, was appointed to replace Katz as foreign minister.
After being fired, Gallant posted on X that Israel’s security would remain his life’s “mission.”
He called on the government to bring home the hostages in Gaza while they were “still alive” and insisted all Israelis of draft age must serve in the military — a key issue that he and Netanyahu had disagreed on.
The sacked minister had been a key advocate for ultra-Orthodox Jews to be called up, but Netanyahu wanted their exemption to continue, fearing their conscription could break up his far-right coalition government.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to Gaza health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.
Hamas also seized 251 hostages in their attack, of whom Israel believes 63 people including two children are still alive in Gaza.
After Gallant’s dismissal, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group urged Katz “to prioritize a hostage deal... to secure the immediate release of all hostages.”
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri welcomed the sacking of Gallant, who especially in the early months of the war was seen as a key architect of the fight against the militant group.
“Netanyahu dismissed Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, who was bragging that he would eliminate Hamas. Today, we say to them that Gallant is gone, but Hamas remains, and will remain, God willing,” Abu Zuhri said.


Aviv Bushinsky, a political commentator and former Netanyahu chief of staff, said Gallant’s dismissal was just “a matter of time.”
“I cannot recall an incident when Israel Katz was in opposition to Netanyahu,” he said.
“Besides, Netanyahu thinks he can run the show himself.”
Meanwhile, on the ground, the wars in Gaza and Lebanon showed no sign of abating.
Authorities in Lebanon reported raids across the country, and the toll from a strike on Tuesday in the town of Barja, south of Beirut, rose to 20.
Hezbollah on Tuesday claimed it had fired rockets and drones into northern Israel, and also targeted Israeli troops near the border inside Lebanon.
Tuesday’s fighting came more than a month into the Hezbollah-Israel war which has left at least 1,990 dead in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.
Palestinians in Gaza told AFP that whoever wins the US presidential election must end the conflict in the territory.
“We are hanging by a thread, and like every other people in the world, we are looking for someone who can stop the war,” said Ayman Al-Omreiti, 45, in Gaza City.