TEHRAN: Iran’s top security body has approved the release of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, under house arrest for seven years for leading mass protests in 2009, a family member told local media.
“I have heard that the decision to lift the house arrest was approved by the Supreme National Security Council,” said Hossein Karroubi, son of the jailed reformist, according to the Kalameh news website which is close to the family.
“This decision will be presented to the (supreme) leader so that this case can be concluded,” he said, adding that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would have 10 days to veto the decision.
There was no official confirmation of the decision, but the reports come at a time when Iran’s leaders are keen to unite conservative and reformist factions to face down increasing pressure from the United States and a worsening economic crisis.
Mousavi, 76, and Karroubi, 80, were reformist candidates in the controversial election of 2009, which was won by hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
They claimed the vote was rigged, triggering months of mass protests, particularly in Tehran. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in the biggest challenge to the system since the Islamic revolution of 1979.
The pair were placed under house arrest without trial in February 2011, along with Mousavi’s high-profile wife, 66-year-old Zahra Rahnavard.
Hossein Karroubi said the security council had also agreed to lift restrictions on reformist figurehead Mohammad Khatami, who was Iran’s president from 1997 to 2005.
The media had been banned from showing Khatami’s face and strict limits were placed on his movements.
President Hassan Rouhani repeatedly vowed to seek the release of Mousavi and Karroubi — a major plank of his election in 2013 and re-election last year, with their names frequently chanted at his rallies.
But despite Rouhani chairing the Supreme National Security Council, which is made up of government and military figures appointed by the president and supreme leader, there had been no sign of progress on their release.
Iran approves release of 2009 protest leaders Mousavi, Karroubi
Iran approves release of 2009 protest leaders Mousavi, Karroubi
- Iran’s top security body approve the release of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi
- Mousavi, 76, and Karroubi, 80, were reformist candidates in the controversial election of 2009
Tunisia rescues 64 migrants off eastern Mediterranean coast
TUNIS: Authorities in Tunisia say 64 migrants were rescued from a boat that capsized off the country’s eastern Mediterranean coast after running out of fuel.
The country’s national customs agency said in a statement that maritime patrols sent to the capsized vessel rescued 64 people of various nationalities off the coast of Mahdia on Friday evening. No deaths were reported.
“The rescued migrants were trying to cross by boat toward the European space illegally,” the customs agency said.
Initial findings of the investigation suggest that the migrants had set off from an unnamed neighboring country, likely to be Libya.
The migrants were taken to the port of Chebba, 60 km north of Sfax, for further investigation.
More than 30,000 migrants set sail from Libya and arrived in Italy in 2024, according to UNHCR.
The UN refugee agency said 61 percent of those arriving in Italy by sea came from Libya, followed by 32 percent from Tunisia.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 100 migrants have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean off the coast of Tunisia and Libya since the beginning of 2025.
There is no official data about the actual number of migrants living in Libya.
80,000 Palestinians perform Ramadan prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque despite Israeli restrictions
- Most worshippers were residents of Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel
- Israeli military police raided compound on Monday, detained 3 individuals
LONDON: Nearly 80,000 Palestinians performed the evening and Taraweeh prayers on the fourth night of the holy month of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, despite Israeli restrictions.
The Jerusalem Waqf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department, which is responsible for administering the site, said that most of the 80,000 worshippers were residents of Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel living in the 1948 territory.
However, thousands of Palestinians from cities and towns in the occupied West Bank were barred entry to Jerusalem through Israeli military checkpoints, it added, as Israel had introduced new restrictive measures during Ramadan.
Israeli military police raided the compound on Monday and detained three individuals, according to the Palestine News Agency. Israel also deployed additional forces in the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem over the weekend at the start of Ramadan.
Muslims worldwide fast from dawn until sunset, participating in the nightly Taraweeh prayers during Ramadan.
Syria state media says Israel strikes Tartus area
- Official news agency SANA reported “air strikes carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft on the surroundings of Tartus city, without recording human losses so far”
DAMASCUS: Syrian state media said Israeli strikes hit the Tartus area on Monday, after a war monitor reported a blast near the city’s port and the Israeli army said it struck a “military site” further north.
Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes after a lightning offensive ousted president Bashar Assad in December, in what it said was a bid to prevent Syrian military assets from falling into hostile hands.
Official news agency SANA reported “air strikes carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft on the surroundings of Tartus city, without recording human losses so far.”
“Civil defense and specialized teams are working to confirm the location of the targets,” it added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that “a strong explosion rocked the Tartus port” at the same time as aircraft flew overhead, reporting smoke rising from the site.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP the explosion was in a military base near the port.
The Israeli army said in a statement that its forces “struck a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored in the area of Qardaha.”
It added that the decision to strike the site was “due to recent developments in the area,” without elaborating.
Qardaha, the hometown of deposed president Assad, is located in Latakia province, some 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of the city of Tartus.
Last Tuesday, the Israeli army said it carried out air strikes targeting military sites containing weapons in southern Syria.
At least two people were killed by a strike on one of the sites, the headquarters of a military unit southwest of Damascus, the Observatory said at the time.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Syrian Islamist-led government near its territory.
Even before Assad’s fall, during Syria’s civil war which broke out in 2011, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in the neighboring country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.
The same day Assad was ousted, Israel announced that its troops were entering a UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights.
Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
Participants in Syria’s national dialogue conference last week affirmed their rejection of “provocative” statements by Netanyahu and urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop any “aggression and violations,” condemning “the Israeli incursion into Syrian territory.”
Israel on the weekend threatened action if Syria’s new leaders harmed the country’s Druze community, after unrest in a Damascus suburb home to members of the religious minority.
Israel PM warns Hamas of consequences it ‘cannot imagine’ if Gaza hostages not released
- “I tell Hamas: If you do not release our hostages, there will be consequences that you cannot imagine,” Netanyahu said
- Netanyahu’s comments came a day after Israel blocked aid flowing into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas on Monday of consequences it “cannot imagine” if the Palestinian movement does not release the hostages held in Gaza.
“I tell Hamas: If you do not release our hostages, there will be consequences that you cannot imagine,” Netanyahu said during a speech at the Israeli parliament, as negotiations for the Gaza ceasefire’s continuation have stalled.
Netanyahu’s comments came a day after Israel blocked aid flowing into Gaza, where a six-week truce had enabled a surge of vital food, shelter and medical assistance after more than 15 months of fighting.
The move came as talks on a truce extension appeared to hit an impasse, after the ceasefire’s 42-day first phase drew to a close over the weekend.
Under the first phase, Gaza militants handed over 25 living hostages and eight bodies in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Early on Sunday, Israel had announced its support for a truce extension until mid-April that it said US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had proposed.
But Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favoring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase, which is expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.
Israeli media on Monday reported that Netanyahu had a plan to exert “maximum pressure” on Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire under Israel’s terms.
Public broadcaster Kan reported that Netanyahu wanted to extend the first stage by at least one week, until the arrival of US envoy Witkoff in the region.
Referencing sources close to Netanyahu, Kan reported that the prime minister was waiting to see if mediators could persuade Hamas to extend the first phase, failing which he would consider resuming fighting.
Kan said Israel has drafted plans to ramp up pressure on Hamas this week, under a scheme dubbed the “Hell Plan.”
The plan includes following up the decision to block aid with displacing residents from the northern Gaza Strip to the south, halting the electricity supply, and a resumption of full-scale fighting, Kan reported.
Daily paper Israel Hayom said that Netanyahu, unlike his far-right allies in government, “wants to exhaust all possibilities of freeing hostages before returning to war.”
Arab top diplomats hold closed-door talks over post-war Gaza
- Summit focused on a plan to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and expel its residents
- Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held separate meetings with Arab counterparts
CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers met behind closed doors in Cairo on Monday ahead of an extraordinary Arab League summit focused on a plan to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and expel its residents.
The ministers held a “preparatory and consultative” session centered on an Arab plan to reconstruct the war-battered enclave without displacing its 2.4 million residents, a source at the Arab League told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The meeting was closed to the press, the source said, adding that the plan “would be presented to Arab leaders at Tuesday’s summit for approval.”
Ahead of the session, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held separate meetings with Arab counterparts, including from Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia, Iraq and Yemen, as well as the Palestinian top diplomat.
During the meetings, Abdelatty called for “moving forward with early recovery projects” in Gaza without displacing Palestinians, an Egyptian foreign ministry statement said.
Trump triggered global outrage when he floated a plan for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” while forcing its Palestinian residents to relocate to Egypt and Jordan.
The plan has united Arab countries in opposition, with Riyadh hosting a consultative meeting of Arab leaders last month to discuss “joint efforts in support of the Palestinian cause.”
At a news conference in Cairo on Sunday, Abdelatty said the Gaza reconstruction plan was ready and would be presented to Arab leaders at the summit in Cairo for approval.
Trump has recently appeared to soften his stance on the plan.
“I think that’s a plan that really works, but I’m not forcing it,” Trump said. “I’m just gonna sit back and recommend it.”
