Iran nuclear deal parties meet as accord nears collapse

Since May, Iran has taken a series of measures, including stepping up uranium enrichment, in breach of the 2015 deal. (File/AFP)
Updated 06 December 2019
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Iran nuclear deal parties meet as accord nears collapse

  • Envoys from Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and Iran will take part in the meeting
  • Iran insists that under the agreement it has the right to take measures in retaliation for the US’s withdrawal from the deal

VIENNA: The remaining signatories to the faltering 2015 Iran nuclear deal will meet in Vienna on Friday with the survival of the landmark agreement at stake after Tehran vowed to continue to breach the deal’s limits on its nuclear program.
Envoys from Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and Iran will take part in the meeting, which is the first time the six parties will have gathered in this format since July.
Since May, Iran has taken a series of measures, including stepping up uranium enrichment, in breach of the 2015 deal, with another such move likely in early January.
Iran insists that under the agreement it has the right to take these measures in retaliation for the US’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018 and reimposition of crippling sanctions.
Since last month, European members have in turn begun raising the possibility of triggering the so-called “dispute resolution mechanism” foreseen in the accord, which could lead to the resumption of UN sanctions on Iran.
On the eve of what was already likely to be a strained meeting, Britain, France and Germany accused Iran of developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, in a letter to the UN on Thursday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif dismissed the allegation as “desperate falsehood.”
However, despite the mounting tension observers say Britain, France and Germany are unlikely to trigger the dispute resolution mechanism on Friday when their diplomats attend the joint commission meeting chaired by senior EU official Helga-Maria Schmid.
Analysts say if UN sanctions are re-imposed and the deal falls apart, Iran could also withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
“It’s not clear whether that’s worth the benefit,” Ali Vaez from the International Crisis Group told AFP.
But he warned the risk of the deal collapsing was increasing as Iran was “running out of measures that are easy to reverse and non-controversial.”
“Both sides are locked into an escalatory cycle that is just very hard to imagine that they would step away from,” he said.
Francois Nicoullaud, former French ambassador to Iran, also says tensions were expected to continue to rise.
“Maybe it won’t be this time, but (the deal falling apart) will certainly be in the background of the discussions,” Nicoullaud told AFP.

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani warned Sunday that if European partners triggered the dispute mechanism, Tehran may “seriously reconsider” its commitments to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitors the deal’s implementation.
European efforts to shield Iran from the effects of US sanctions by creating a mechanism to carry on legitimate trade with the Islamic republic have borne little fruit, much to Tehran’s frustration.
The EU is growing increasingly concerned by Tehran rowing back from its commitments.
The dispute resolution mechanism in the deal has numerous stages, but it can eventually culminate in the UN Security Council voting on whether Iran should still have relief from sanctions lifted under the deal.
In such a scenario, says Vaez, “we will have a major non-proliferation crisis on our hands in the sense that the Russians and the Chinese have already declared they would not recognize the return of (sanctions).”
Vaez said in the end the path to a diplomatic solution would depend on Washington’s next moves and whether it would at least be willing to relax its attempts to prevent sales of Iranian oil, a vital source of income for the country.
“The remaining parties to the deal have proved incapable of providing Iran with any kind of breathing space,” Vaez said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Tehran is willing to return to the negotiating table if the United States first drops sanctions.


Anxiety clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Updated 5 sec ago
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Anxiety clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

  • ‘There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it’

ZABABDEH: In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town’s main Christian communities — Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican — and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

“The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children,” said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

“There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it,” the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zababdeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

“It led to a lot of people to think: ‘Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?’” said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

“Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?“

Kasabreh said this “existential threat” was compounded by constant “depression” at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel’s response to Hamas’s October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor’s office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

“Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war,” said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. “Nobody knows what will happen.”

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fueling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

“People can’t stay without work and life isn’t easy,” said 60-year-old math teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

“For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It’s a reality, not a call for emigration,” he said.

“But I’m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

“And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad — one in Germany, the other two in the United States.”

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation’s spirituality had never been so vibrant.

“Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that’s when) you see the faith is growing,” Tabban said.


Houthi media says US air strikes hit Sanaa

People inspect the site of a reported US airstrike in Sanaa, a day after the attack. (File/AFP)
Updated 42 min 20 sec ago
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Houthi media says US air strikes hit Sanaa

  • Houthi-held areas of Yemen have endured near-daily strikes, blamed on the United States, since Washington launched an air campaign against the militia on March 15

SANAA: Houthi media said more than a dozen air strikes hit the militia-held capital Sanaa on Wednesday, blaming them on the United States.
Houthi-held areas of Yemen have endured near-daily strikes, blamed on the United States, since Washington launched an air campaign against the militia on March 15 in an attempt to end their threats to shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
“Fourteen air strikes carried out by American aggression hit the Al-Hafa area in the Al-Sabeen district in the capital,” the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV reported.
It also reported strikes blamed on the United States in the Hazm area of Jawf province.
The US campaign followed Houthi threats to resume their attacks on international shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Since March 15, the Houthis have also resumed attacks targeting US military ships and Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis began targeting ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as Israeli territory, after the Gaza war began in October 2023, later pausing their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire.
Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March and resumed its offensive in the Palestinian territory on March 18, ending the truce.
The vital Red Sea route, connecting to the Suez Canal, normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, but the Houthi attacks forced many companies to make a long detour around the tip of southern Africa.


At least 8,000 missing in war-torn Sudan in 2024: Red Cross

Updated 16 April 2025
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At least 8,000 missing in war-torn Sudan in 2024: Red Cross

PORT SUDAN: At least 8,000 people were reported missing in war-ravaged Sudan in 2024, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday, adding that the figure is just “the tip of the iceberg.”
“These are just the cases we have collected directly,” Daniel O’Malley, head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan, told AFP. “We know this is just a small percentage — the tip of the iceberg — of the whole caseload of missing.”


Qatar renews $60m grant for Lebanon army salaries

Updated 16 April 2025
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Qatar renews $60m grant for Lebanon army salaries

  • The provisions were to enable Lebanon’s army to “carry out its national duties of maintaining stability”
  • The Lebanese President arrived in Qatar on Tuesday

DOHA: Qatar is to renew a $60 million grant to pay the salaries of Lebanon’s army and provide 162 military vehicles, the two countries said on Wednesday following Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s first official visit to the Gulf state.
Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani “announced the renewal of the Qatari grant to support the salaries of the Lebanese army, amounting to USD 60 million, in addition to 162 military vehicles,” a joint statement said.
It added the provisions were to enable Lebanon’s army to “carry out its national duties of maintaining stability and controlling the borders throughout Lebanese territory.”
Aoun, who was elected in January after more than two years of caretaker government in Beirut, has been tasked with charting a course out of the country’s worst economic crisis and reconstruction after all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Lebanese President arrived in Qatar on Tuesday accompanied by foreign minister Youssef Raggi, and departed Doha on Wednesday afternoon, the official Qatar News Agency reported.
The Gulf state in February pledged support for reconstruction in Lebanon after the recent conflict and was already a provider of financial and in-kind support to the Lebanese army.
“Both sides emphasized the national role of the Lebanese army, the importance of supporting it, and the need to implement Resolution 1701 in all its provisions,” the joint statement added, urging “de-escalation in southern Lebanon.”
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and formed the basis of the November truce that largely ended more than a year of fresh hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
The resolution calls for the disarmament of all non-state armed groups and said Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon.
Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems “strategic.”


Jordan briefs Lebanon on investigation into terrorist cell

Jordan’s King Abdullah and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. (File/AFP)
Updated 16 April 2025
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Jordan briefs Lebanon on investigation into terrorist cell

  • Beirut unsure if Lebanese citizens involved in missile-making group
  • Army intelligence arrests 2 Palestinians for smuggling weapons across Lebanon-Syria border

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun was briefed by Jordan’s King Abdullah on Wednesday on the results of investigations into a missile manufacturing cell uncovered in Jordan, two members of which had been sent to Lebanon for training.

According to his media office, Aoun expressed Lebanon’s “full readiness for coordination and cooperation” between the two countries and instructed Justice Minister Adel Nassar to work with his Jordanian counterpart, in cooperation with the security and judicial agencies, on the investigations and the exchange of information.

A judicial source told Arab News that Lebanese army intelligence was “following up on the case of the terrorist cell and we do not yet know whether any Lebanese individuals are involved.”

“This agency has requested Jordan to provide it with information regarding the investigations, to rely on the Lebanese investigations and in the event any Lebanese involvement is proven, the matter will then be referred to the Lebanese judiciary,” the person said.

In a parallel development, Lebanon’s army intelligence said it had arrested two Palestinians in the southern city of Sidon for “trading in and smuggling military weapons across the Lebanese-Syrian border and seized several weapons and military ammunition in their possession.”

The army command said the detainees were being investigated under the supervision of the judiciary.

Media reports said the pair were members of the security apparatus of the Hamas movement in Sidon.

No official security agency has confirmed a link between the arrests and the Jordanian cell.

The Jordan News Agency on Tuesday quoted intelligence officials as saying that “a series of plots targeting the country’s national security were thwarted and 16 individuals suspected of planning acts of chaos and sabotage were arrested.”

The plans involved the production of missiles using local materials and imported components. Explosives and firearms were discovered, along with a concealed missile that was ready for use, the report said.

The 16 suspects are thought to have been engaged in efforts to develop drones, recruit and train individuals domestically and send others abroad for further training.

According to the suspects’ statements, two members of the cell — Abdullah Hisham and Muath Al-Ghanem — were sent to Lebanon to coordinate with a prominent figure in the organization and receive training.

In December, the Lebanese army initiated a process to disarm Palestinian factions located outside Palestinian refugee camps. The factions were loyal to the former Syrian regime and mostly based in the Bekaa region along the border with Syria and the southern region.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam expressed Lebanon’s “full solidarity with Jordan in confronting schemes that threaten its security and stability” and its “readiness to cooperate with Jordanian authorities as necessary regarding information that some of those involved in these plots received training in Lebanon,” according to his media office.

At the launch of the Beirut Airport Road Rehabilitation Project, Salam said that security issues on the airport road were “being worked on with Defense Minister Michel Menassa and Interior Minister Ahmed Hajjar.”

In the past 48 hours, the Beirut Municipality has undertaken efforts to remove party flags and images of politicians and party leaders, particularly those associated with Hezbollah, from the streets of the capital.