Iran faces one-week deadline to end its ‘nuclear blackmail’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, second left, during the ‘nuclear technology day’ in Tehran on April 9, 2019. (Iranian Presidency/AFP)
Updated 11 July 2019
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Iran faces one-week deadline to end its ‘nuclear blackmail’

  • Threat of new UN sanctions unless Tehran halts drive to increase uranium enrichment
  • President Hassan Rouhani’s order to exceed the threshold would be implemented “in a few hours

TEHRAN: Iran faces a one-week deadline of July 15 to end its “nuclear blackmail” or risk snapback global sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.

Tehran said on Sunday it would enrich uranium beyond the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog.

Tehran also threatened to abandon more commitments unless a solution is found with parties to the landmark 2015 agreement.

Daniel Byman, senior fellow for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said Iran was engaged in a tricky balancing act.

“The step is meant to show domestic audiences that Iran is standing up to US pressure. It is also meant to convey a sense of risk to European audiences that Iran may provoke a crisis,” he said.

In a coordinated response, other signatories to the JCPOA — the UK, France, Germany and the EU — issued separate statements with identical wording. They urged Iran to “immediately stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its obligations,” and added: “We are coordinating with other JCPOA participants regarding the next steps under the terms of the deal.”

The “next step” is triggering the JCPOA dispute resolution mechanism. A spokesman for French President Emmanuel Macron said this would not happen immediately, but the French government was setting a deadline of July 15 for constructive progress with Iran.

Failure by Tehran to meet its obligations will begin a 65-day process that ends at the UN Security Council, and the snapback of sanctions imposed by all previous UN resolutions.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Tehran could further scale back its commitments, but “all such steps are reversible” if European countries deliver on their part.

The move to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.67 percent comes despite opposition from the European Union and the United States, which has quit the deal.

President Hassan Rouhani’s order to exceed the threshold would be implemented “in a few hours” after the last technical details were sorted, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said live on state television.

Germany said it strongly urged Iran to stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its commitments.

"We are in contact with the other JCPoA participants regarding the next steps," a German foreign office spokesman said.

The UK foreign ministry issued a similar statement, adding that "Iran must immediately stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its obligations."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iran's actions would only leave it facing further sanctions and isolation.

Donald Trump repeated his warning that Iran would never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

Rouhani initially flagged Tehran’s intentions on May 8, exactly a year on from US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoning the multilateral deal.
He has said the move is in response to a failure by remaining parties to keep their promise to help Iran work around biting sanctions reimposed by the US in the second half of last year.
The arch-rivals have been locked in an escalating war of words with Washington blaming Iran for a series of attacks on tanker ships and Tehran shooting down an American surveillance drone, raising fears of a conflict that both sides have said they want to avoid.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday singled out Iran’s declining oil sales and the effect of financial sanctions as the main issues that needed to be solved, or Tehran would further step back from its nuclear commitments.
“We hope we can reach a solution otherwise after 60 days we will take the third step as well,” he said, adding that Tehran would give further details at an “opportune moment.”


Iran has previously threatened to also resume building as of July 7 a heavy water reactor — capable of one day producing plutonium — in Arak in central Iran, a project that had been mothballed under the agreement.
However since Iran delivered its ultimatum on the Arak reactor “good technical progress” had been made with parties to the deal on modernizing the reactor, convincing Iran to postpone its decision, Araghchi said.
The 2015 deal was reached between Iran and six world powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, the United States and Russia — and saw Tehran agree to drastically scale down its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Washington began reimposing sanctions in August 2018 and has targeted crucial sectors including oil exports and the banking system, fueling a deep recession.
It is not yet clear how far Iran will boost enrichment.
But a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hinted on Friday it could reach five percent.
Iran says that it is not violating the deal, citing terms of the agreement allowing one side to temporarily abandon some of commitments if it deems the other side is not respecting its part of the accord.
The diplomatic chiefs of Britain, France, Germany and the EU said earlier in the week that they were “extremely concerned” by Iran’s decision to breach some of its commitments.
Trump, meanwhile, has warned Iran that it is “playing with fire.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sunday’s announcement a “very dangerous step” and called on France, Britain and Germany to impose “harsh sanctions” on Iran.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Rouhani of his “strong concern” over the risk of weakening the nuclear agreement during a telephone call Saturday, according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.
However, Macron pledged to “explore by July 15 the conditions for a resumption of dialogue between all parties,” the statement said.
Iran says it exercised “strategic patience” for a year after the US withdrawal, waiting for the other signatories to make good on promised economic benefits.
But on May 8, Tehran announced it would no longer respect two key limits — a 1.3-ton maximum for heavy water reserves and a cap of 300 kilogrammes on its low-enriched uranium stockpile.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has scheduled a special meeting on Iran’s nuclear program for July 10.
 


A friendly dance competition carries on an ancient Sahara festival tradition

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A friendly dance competition carries on an ancient Sahara festival tradition

  • Sebeiba is a core tradition of the Tuareg people, native to the Sahara and parts of West Africa
  • The festival is a proud tradition of the Tuareg in Djanet. Some call it the Sebeiba celebration, or the ‘war dance without bloodshed’ or ‘the dance of peace’

DJANET, Algeria: In one hand, the dancers hold swords symbolizing battle. In the other, a piece of cloth symbolizing peace. They dance a shuffling “step-step” to the beat of drums and chanting from the women encircling them, all adorned in their finest traditional garments and jewelry.

They’re performing the rituals of the 3,000-year-old annual Sebeiba festival of Djanet, a southeastern Algerian oasis town deep in the Sahara, just over 200 km from the Libyan border.
Sebeiba is a core tradition of the Tuareg people, native to the Sahara and parts of West Africa. The Tuareg are Muslim, and their native language is Tamasheq, though many speak some combination of French, Modern Standard Arabic, Algerian Arabic (Darija) and English.
The festival lasts 10 days, and ends with a daylong dance competition between two neighborhoods in Djanet — Zelouaz, or Tsagit, and El Mihan, or Taghorfit. The winner is decided by judges from a third neighborhood, Adjahil, by selecting the group with the most beautiful costumes, dances, jewelry, poetry and songs.
The Tuaregs in Djanet say there are two legends explaining the significance of Sebeiba, though oral traditions vary. The first says the festival was put on to celebrate peace and joy after Moses defeated the Pharaoh in the Exodus story.
“In commemoration of this great historical event, when God saved Moses and his people from the tyranny of the oppressive Pharaoh, the people of Djanet came out and celebrated through dance,” said Ahmed Benhaoued, a Tuareg guide at his family’s tourism agency, Admer Voyages. He has lived in Djanet all his life.
The second legend says the festival commemorates the resolution of a historic rivalry between Zelouaz and El-Mihan.
“The festival is a proud tradition of the Tuareg in Djanet,” Benhaoued said. “Some call it ‘the Sebeiba celebration,’ or ‘the war dance without bloodshed’ or ‘the dance of peace.’”
Today, Sebeiba is also a point of cultural pride. Recognized by UNESCO since 2014 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Sebeiba coincides with Ashoura, a day marking the 10th day of Muharram, or the first month of the Islamic year. Some in Djanet fast for up to three days before Sebeiba.
This year, Ashoura and Sebeiba fell on July 6, when temperatures in Djanet reached about 38 C. Still, more than 1,000 people gathered to watch Sebeiba at a sandy square marking the center point between the two neighborhoods, where the festival is held each year.
Each group starts at one end of the square — Zelouaz to the north and El-Mihan to the south.
The dancers are young men from the neighborhoods dressed in dark robes accented by bright yellow, red and blue accessories and tall, maroon hats called Tkoumbout adorned with silver jewelry.
The men’s dances and women’s chants have been passed down through generations. Children participate in the festivities by mimicking the older performers. Boys brandish miniature swords and scarves in their small hands and girls stand with the female drummers.
This year, El-Mihan won the dance competition. But Cheikh Hassani, director of Indigenous Institutional Dance of Sebeiba, emphasized that despite the naming of a winner, the festival remains a friendly celebration — meant above all to honor their ancestors in a spirit of unity.
“Sebeiba is not just a dance,” Hassani said. “People used to think you just come, you dance — no, it represents so much more. For the people of Djanet, it’s a sort of sacred day.”
While the most widely known part of Sebeiba is the dance competition on the last day, the nine days leading up to it are also full of celebration. Tuareg from Libya and from other cities in the Algerian Sahara come to gatherings each night, when the temperature has cooled, to watch the performers rehearse.
Hassani said the generational inheritance of the festival’s customs helps them keep the spirits of their ancestors alive.
“We can’t let it go,” he said. “This is our heritage, and today it’s become a heritage of all humanity, an international heritage.”
According to legend, Benhaoued said, there will be winds and storms if Sebeiba is not held.
“It is said that this actually happened once when the festival was not held, so a woman went out into the streets with her drum, beating it until the storm calmed down,” the Tuareg guide added.
About 50 foreign tourists joined the people of Djanet for the final dance competition, hailing mostly from European countries such as France, Poland and Germany. Several also came from the neighboring countries of Libya and Niger.
Djanet is one of many Algerian cities experiencing an increase in tourism over the past two years, thanks to government efforts to boost the number of foreign visitors, especially to scenic sites like the Sahara, which makes up 83 percent of the North African country’s surface area.
The government introduced a new visa-on-arrival program in January 2023 for all nonexempt foreign tourists traveling to the Sahara. Additionally, the national airline, Air Algerie, launched a flight between Paris and Djanet in December 2024 during the winter season, when tourists from across the world travel to Djanet for camping excursions deep into the Sahara.
“The Sebeiba isn’t just something for the people of Djanet,” Hassani said. “We have the honor of preserving this heritage of humanity. That’s an honor for us.”

 


Child malnutrition doubles in battleground Sudan state

A child suffering from malnutrition eats ready-to-use food at a UNICEF-supported clinic in Tawila, North Darfur. (UNICEF)
Updated 6 min 9 sec ago
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Child malnutrition doubles in battleground Sudan state

  • Severe acute malnutrition rose by over 70 percent in neighboring North Kordofan state, by 174 percent in the capital Khartoum and nearly seven-fold in the central state of Al-Jazira

PORT SUDAN: The number of severely malnourished children in Sudan’s battleground state of North Darfur has doubled since last year, the UN children’s agency said on Friday.
Since April 2023, war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people and driven over 14 million from their homes.
North Darfur state and its besieged capital El-Fasher have been particularly badly hit, with famine declared last year in three vast displacement camps outside the city

HIGHLIGHT

UNICEF said more than 40,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur were admitted for treatment between January and May this year — twice as many as during the same period last year.

In a statement on Friday, UNICEF said more than 40,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur were admitted for treatment between January and May this year — twice as many as during the same period last year.
“Children in Darfur are being starved by conflict and cut off from the very aid that could save them,” said UNICEF’s Sudan representative, Sheldon Yett.
Across the five Darfur states, cases of severe acute malnutrition rose by 46 percent in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2024.
The battle for El-Fasher — the last major city in Darfur still under army control — has intensified in recent months.
Hospitals have been hit by shelling, aid convoys attacked and access for humanitarian aid is now almost entirely blocked.
The UN said this week that nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher were suffering from acute malnutrition, including 11 percent with severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF also reported significant rises in malnutrition in other recent battlegrounds.
Severe acute malnutrition rose by over 70 percent in neighboring North Kordofan state, by 174 percent in the capital Khartoum and nearly seven-fold in the central state of Al-Jazira.
Khartoum and Al-Jazira were recaptured by the army earlier this year, but the country remains effectively split.
The army holds the east, north and center while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

 


UN chief condemns renewed Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping

Updated 9 min 4 sec ago
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UN chief condemns renewed Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping

  • Secretary-General Antonio Guterres describes sinking of two Greek-owned vessels as ‘dangerous re-escalation in this critical waterway’

NEW YORK: Fresh attacks by Houthi militants on international shipping in the Red Sea are unacceptable and violate the freedom of navigation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. 

The Yemeni group resumed attacks on ships this week when it seized and sank two  vessels as they attempted to pass through the waterway linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. Four seafarers are presumed dead and 11 others are still missing. 

The attacks were the first carried out by the group on international shipping for more than six months. In response to Israel’s war on Gaza, the militants attacked more than 100 vessels between November 2023 and December 2024, often using missiles and drones. 

The campaign forced shipping companies to reroute around Africa, adding significant time and costs to shipping goods between Asia and Europe.

Hopes that shipping through the waterway may be returning to normal were shattered last weekend when the Houthis attacked and sank the Magic Seas. All the crew were rescued.

Then on Monday, the group attacked the Eternity C before sinking it on Wednesday. Only 10 of the 25 aboard have been rescued. Both the ships flew Liberian flags and were operated by Greek companies.

Guterres “strongly condemned” the resumption of Houthi attacks on civilian vessels, his spokesman said.

“The sinking of both the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, along with the deaths of at least four crew members and injuries to others, is a dangerous re-escalation in this critical waterway,” he said.

The secretary-general called on the Houthis not to impede the ongoing search and rescue operations for the missing crew. 

“Beyond being an unacceptable attack on the safety and security of seafarers, these acts also violated the freedom of navigation, caused a hazard to maritime transport and represent a serious risk of a significant environmental, economic and humanitarian damage to an already vulnerable coastal environment,” he said.


EU pressing Israel to improve Gaza humanitarian situation, top diplomat says

Updated 11 July 2025
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EU pressing Israel to improve Gaza humanitarian situation, top diplomat says

  • EU’s diplomatic service presented 10 options for political action against Israel after it found “indications” Israel breached human rights obligations under pact
  • Foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says the options were prepared in response to member states that want stronger pressure on Israel to rectify suffering of civilians in Gaza

KUALA LUMPUR: The European Union is seeking ways to put pressure on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, its top diplomat said, as member states weighed action against Israel over what they see as potential human rights violations.
The EU’s diplomatic service on Thursday presented 10 options for political action against Israel after saying it found “indications” last month that Israel breached human rights obligations under a pact governing its ties with the bloc.
In a document prepared for EU member countries and seen by Reuters, the options included major steps such as suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement — which includes trade relations — and lesser steps such as suspending technical projects.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Friday the options were prepared in response to member states that wanted stronger pressure on Israel to rectify the suffering of civilians in Gaza’s now 21-month-old war.
“Our aim is not to punish Israel in any way,” she said after meeting with Asian foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, amid growing global jitters arising from US President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive.
“Our aim is to really improve the situation on the ground (in Gaza), because the humanitarian situation is untenable.”
EU members have voiced concern over the large number of civilian casualties and mass displacement of Gaza’s inhabitants during Israel’s war against Hamas militants in the enclave, and alarm about restrictions on access for humanitarian aid.
Kallas said on Thursday Israel had agreed to expand humanitarian access to Gaza, including increasing the number of aid trucks, crossing points and routes to distribution hubs.
She also said negotiations with the US on a trade deal to avoid high tariffs threatened by Trump were ongoing, and stressed that the EU did not want to retaliate with counter-levies on US imports.
Trump has said the EU could receive a letter on tariff rates by Friday, throwing into question the progress of talks between Washington and the bloc on a potential trade deal.
“We have of course possibilities to react, but we don’t want to retaliate. We don’t want a trade war, actually,” Kallas said.


Lebanese president rules out normalization with Israel

Updated 11 July 2025
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Lebanese president rules out normalization with Israel

  • Joseph Aoun calls on Israel to withdraw from the five points near the border it still occupies in southern Lebanon
  • He expressed hope for peaceful relations with Israel in the future

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun ruled out normalization between his country and Israel on Friday, while expressing hope for peaceful relations with Beirut’s southern neighbor, which still occupies parts of southern Lebanon.

Aoun’s statement is the first official reaction to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar’s statement last week in which he expressed his country’s interest in normalizing ties with Lebanon and Syria.

Aoun “distinguished between peace and normalization,” according to a statement shared by the presidency.

“Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment. As for the issue of normalization, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy,” the president said in front of a delegation from an Arab think tank.

Lebanon and Syria have technically been in a state of war with Israel since 1948, with Damascus saying that talks of normalization were “premature.”

The president called on Israel to withdraw from the five points near the border it still occupies. Israel was required to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon under a November ceasefire seeking to end its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Aoun said that Israeli troops in Lebanon “obstruct the complete deployment of the army up to the internationally recognized borders.”

According to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah must pull its fighters north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border with Israel, leaving the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area.

The United States has been calling on Lebanon to fully disarm Hezbollah, and Lebanese authorities sent their response to Washington’s demand this week.

The response was not made public, but Aoun stated that Beirut was determined to “hold the monopoly over weapons in the country.”

The implementation of this move “will take into account the interest of the state and its security stability to preserve civil peace on one hand, and national unity on the other,” hinting that Hezbollah’s disarmament will not be done through force.

Hezbollah, a powerful political force in Lebanon, is the only non-state actor to have officially retained its weaponry after the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990, as parts of southern Lebanon were still under Israeli occupation at the time.

The Lebanese group was heavily weakened following its year-long hostilities with Israel, which escalated into a two-month war in September.