Iran begins lifting restrictions after virus lockdown

Iranians, some wearing personal protective equipment, walk past shops in the southeastern city of Kerman on April 11, 2020, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (AFP)
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Updated 12 April 2020
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Iran begins lifting restrictions after virus lockdown

  • Government offices outside Iran’s capital, Tehran, reopened on Saturday with a third of all employees working from home, state media reported

TEHRAN, DUBAI: Iran began reopening government offices on Saturday after a brief nationwide lockdown to help contain the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, which has killed more than 4,300 people in the country.
Authorities had ordered most government agencies and all nonessential businesses to remain closed for a week after the Nowruz holiday ended on April 4.
President Hassan Rouhani urged Iranian to respect health protocols to guard against the virus.
“Easing restrictions does not mean ignoring health protocols ... social distancing and other health protocols should be respected seriously by people,” Rouhani was quoted as saying.
Government offices outside Iran’s capital, Tehran, reopened on Saturday with a third of all employees working from home, state media reported. Women who have young children were given priority in deciding who works remotely. Businesses outside the capital were also allowed to reopen.
Businesses in Tehran will be allowed to reopen next Saturday, provided they register with authorities and follow guidelines on social distancing set out by the Health Ministry. Government offices in the capital will reopen with two-thirds of employees coming in.
The Health Ministry, meanwhile, reported another 125 deaths, bringing the overall toll to 4,357. Iran has reported more than 70,000 confirmed cases, and authorities say more than 40,000 have recovered.

For weeks, Iran declined to impose the kind of wide-scale lockdowns adopted by other Middle Eastern countries, even as the number of confirmed cases and fatalities steadily climbed. The virus has also infected and killed a number of senior Iranian officials.
Authorities have defended their response, saying they have to consider the economic impact of any quarantine measures since the country is under severe U.S. sanctions.
In a separate development, Iran executed one of the alleged ringleaders of a prison break last month, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. It said Mostafa Salimi had been on death row for killing two policemen during a prison riot in 2004.
Around 70 convicts escaped from a prison in the western city of Saqqez on March 27 after fighting with the guards. Iran has temporarily released around 90,000 prisoners, but those held in Saqqez were not among them.
IRNA quoted a local prosecutor as saying authorities had arrested 65 of the escaped prisoners and were still searching for the other nine.


US Envoy Hochstein says will travel in a few hours to Israel to try to bring truce talks to a close

Updated 14 sec ago
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US Envoy Hochstein says will travel in a few hours to Israel to try to bring truce talks to a close

US Envoy Hochstein says will travel in a few hours to Israel to try to bring truce talks to a close


Lebanese army says soldier killed by Israeli fire

Updated 14 min 30 sec ago
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Lebanese army says soldier killed by Israeli fire

  • South Lebanon and the capital have seen heavy strikes in recent days

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed a soldier on Wednesday, a day after it said three other personnel died in a strike on their position in south Lebanon.
South Lebanon has seen intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants whose group holds sway in the area.
A soldier “died of his wounds sustained due to the Israel army targeting of an army vehicle” in south Lebanon, a statement on X said, after reporting two personnel wounded in the incident near Qlayaa in south Lebanon.
On Tuesday, the military said three soldiers were killed when “the Israeli enemy targeted an army position in the town of Sarafand,” where the health ministry said eight people were wounded.
AFP images showed destruction at the site in Sarafand on the Mediterranean coast, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the southern border, with a concrete structure destroyed and a vehicle among the debris.

Israel army says hit over 100 ‘terror targets’ in past day

The Israeli military on Wednesday said it struck more than 100 “terror targets” in Lebanon over the past day and had “eliminated” two Hezbollah commanders at the weekend.
The targets included “launchers, weapons storage facilities, command centers, and military structures,” the army said in a statement.
The announcement came as US envoy Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon, seeking to hammer out a truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
The military also said “on Sunday, the (air force) eliminated the commanders of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile and operations unit in the coastal sector” who were “responsible for terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
The army added that its troops continued to conduct “limited, localized, targeted raids” in southern Lebanon.
Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its bombing campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops, after almost a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
South Lebanon and the capital have seen heavy strikes in recent days, though the situation was calmer in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, with US envoy Amos Hochstein visiting for truce talks.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and air strikes in south Lebanon overnight and on Wednesday, saying Israeli troops were seeking to advance further near the town of Khiam.
Hezbollah on Tuesday said it had attacked Israeli troops near the flashpoint border town.
The NNA also said that Israel forces were “attempting to advance from the Kfarshuba hills... to open up a new front under the cover of fire and artillery shells and air strikes.”
“Violent clashes are taking place” between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, it added.
Hezbollah said it carried out several attacks on Israeli troops near the border Wednesday.
 


Syria war monitor says 4 fighters dead in Israeli attack on Palmyra

Updated 9 min 48 sec ago
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Syria war monitor says 4 fighters dead in Israeli attack on Palmyra

  • State news agency SANA said an “Israeli attack... targeted residential buildings and the industrial area”

Beirut: A war monitor said Israeli strikes on central Syria’s Palmyra on Wednesday killed four pro-Iran fighters, while Syrian state media reported an unspecified number of wounded in the attack.
“Four non-Syrian fighters from pro-Iran groups were killed and six others including civilians were wounded in a provisional toll of the Israeli strikes” on Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The strikes targeted “a warehouse in the industrial area and a restaurant and buildings near the ancient city of Palmyra,” the Britain-based Observatory added.
State news agency SANA said an “Israeli attack... targeted residential buildings and the industrial area” of the city, renowned for its ancient ruins.
State television reported unspecified “wounded due to the Israeli attack that targeted the city of Palmyra.”
Since the civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed armed groups, including Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes since almost a year of hostilities with Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon escalated into all-out war in late September.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria, but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.


Erdogan says Turkiye prepared if US withdraws from Syria

Updated 20 November 2024
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Erdogan says Turkiye prepared if US withdraws from Syria

ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye is prepared if the United States decides to withdraw troops from northern Syria, broadcaster CNN Turk and other media cited him as saying on Wednesday.
In an interview with reporters on his way back from the G20 summit in Brazil, Erdogan said Turkiye’s security is paramount and it is holding talks with Russia on the issue of Syria.


40 killed in central Sudan paramilitary attack on village

Updated 20 November 2024
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40 killed in central Sudan paramilitary attack on village

PORT SUDAN: A medic on Wednesday said 40 people were killed “by gunshot wounds” during a paramilitary attack on the Sudanese village of Wad Oshaib in the central state of Al-Jazira.
Eyewitnesses in the village told AFP the Rapid Support Forces, at war with the army since April 2023, attacked the village on Tuesday evening. “The attack resumed this morning,” one eyewitness said by phone Wednesday, adding that paramilitary fighters were “looting property.”