DUBAI: Government employees went back to work in Iran on Saturday and President Hassan Rouhani said mosques are to resume daily prayers throughout the country, even though some areas are seeing high levels of coronavirus infections.
Rouhani also said on state television that the hours of shopping malls, which had been allowed to open only until 6 p.m., will be extended, a further step in the government’s plans to ease coronavirus restrictions.
“Doors to mosques across the country will open to public for daily prayers,” Rouhani said, adding that social distancing and other health protocols should be observed. He did not say when they are due to reopen.
Authorities are taking tougher measures to ensure that health regulations are observed, including barring commuters not wearing masks from buses and metro trains, Iranian media reported.
Alireza Zali, head of the government-led Coronavirus Taskforce of Tehran, told state TV the situation in the capital was “still not favorable,” adding that the easing of restrictions should be accompanied by “more serious observance” of regulations.
As of Friday, Iran had recorded 146,668 infections, with 7,677 deaths.
Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said Friday there had been no deaths in the previous 24 hours in 15 of the country’s provinces and one in each of five provinces.
The provinces of Khuzestan in the southwest, and Baluchistan in the southeast of the country, have been declared “red” areas where there are still high levels of infection.
The health ministry has divided the country into white, yellow and red areas based on the number of infections and deaths.
Mosques in Iran to resume daily prayers, president says
https://arab.news/5nzww
Mosques in Iran to resume daily prayers, president says
- Rouhani also said on state television that the hours of shopping malls will be extended
- He did not say when they are due to reopen
Iraq ministry says two border guards killed by PKK fire
The two guards were killed and a third wounded
IRBIL, Iraq: A shooting which officials blamed on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed two Iraqi border guards on Friday near the Turkish boundary in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, Iraq’s interior ministry said.
The PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, has several positions in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases used to strike Kurdish insurgents.
“When the Iraqi border forces were carrying out their duties securing the Iraqi-Turkish border... they were fired at by terrorists from the banned PKK organization” in Zakho district, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The two guards were killed and a third wounded, it added.
A border guard official told AFP that the guards were patrolling a village near the Turkish border when the “shooting and clashes” with the PKK took place.
Baghdad deploys federal guards along its border with Turkiye in coordination with the government of the Kurdistan region and its forces, the peshmerga.
The Iraqi federal authorities in Baghdad have recently sharpened their tone against the PKK. Last year, Baghdad quietly listed the group as a “banned organization” — though Ankara demands that the Iraqi government do more in the fight against the militant group.
Ankara along with the United States deems the PKK a “terrorist” organization.
Türkiye has conducted hundreds of strikes against PKK fighters in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon will last beyond 60 days, Netanyahu’s office says
- There was no immediate comment from Lebanon or Hezbollah
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army will not complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by a Monday deadline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday, saying Lebanon has not yet fully enforced the ceasefire agreement.
The deal, brokered by the United States and France, ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah. The fighting peaked with a major Israeli offensive that displaced more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon and left Hezbollah severely weakened.
Under the agreement, which came into effect on Nov. 27, Hezbollah weapons and fighters must be removed from areas south of the Litani river and Israeli troops should withdraw as the Lebanese military deploys into the region, all within a 60-day timeframe due to conclude on Monday at 4 a.m. (0200 GMT).
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Israeli military’s withdrawal process was “contingent on the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani.”
“Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States,” the statement said.
There was no immediate comment from Lebanon or Hezbollah.
UN suspends all trips into Houthi-held areas of Yemen over staffers being detained
- The statement comes after the Houthis detained UN staffers
DUBAI: The United Nations on Friday suspended all travel into areas held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels after more of their staff were detained by the rebels.
The statement comes after the Houthis detained UN staffers, as well as individuals associated with the once-open US Embassy in Sanaa and aid groups.
“Yesterday, the de facto authorities in Sanaa detained additional UN personnel working in areas under their control,” the UN statement read. “To ensure the security and safety of all its staff, the United Nations has suspended all official movements into and within areas under the de facto authorities’ control.”
The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge the UN’s decision, which came as they have been trying to deescalate their attacks on shipping and Israel after a ceasefire was reached in the Israel-Hamas war.
US President Donald Trump separately has moved to reinstate a terrorism designation he made on the group late in his first term that had been revoked by President Joe Biden, potentially setting the stage for new tensions with the rebels.
The Houthis earlier this week said they would limit their attacks on ships in the Red Sea corridor and released the 25-member crew of the Galaxy Leader, a ship they seized back in November 2023.
Israel building military installations in Golan demilitarized zone
- UN: Israeli construction along Area of Separation is ‘severe violation’ of 1974 ceasefire agreement
- Israeli forces have been operating in southern Syria since fall of Assad regime in December
LONDON: The Israeli military is building installations in the demilitarized zone between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria, satellite images published by the BBC have revealed.
Israeli forces moved into the Area of Separation agreed in the 1974 ceasefire with Syria, crossing the so-called Alpha Line following the fall of the Assad regime in December.
The satellite images, taken on Tuesday, show construction work and trucks around 600 meters inside the Area of Separation, including a track linking the site to another Israeli-administered road in the area.
Footage obtained by a drone operated by a Syrian journalist on Monday also identified excavators and bulldozers at the location.
The Israeli military told the BBC that its “forces are operating in southern Syria, within the buffer zone and at strategic points, to protect the residents of northern Israel.”
The UN Disengagement Observer Force has said Israeli construction along the Area of Separation is “a severe violation” of the 1974 ceasefire agreement.
Jeremy Binnie, Middle East specialist at defense intelligence company Janes, told the BBC: “The photo shows what appear to be four prefabricated guard posts that they will presumably crane into position in the corners, so this is somewhere they are planning to maintain at least an interim presence.”
It is not the first time that the BBC has identified Israeli forces inside the Area of Separation. Soldiers were spotted near the town of Majdal Shams, around 5.5 km from the new site, while satellite pictures taken in November found a trench being dug by Israeli personnel along the Alpha Line near the town of Jubata Al-Khashab.
Hamas says to provide names of 4 Israeli hostages on Friday for next swap
- Four Israeli women hostages to be freed on Saturday as part of a second release
- Hamas has not released definitive information on how many captives are still alive or the names of those who have died
CAIRO: A senior Hamas official told AFP that his group will provide on Friday the names of four Israeli women hostages to be freed the following day as part of a second release under the ceasefire with Israel.
“Today, Hamas will provide the names of four hostages as part of the second prisoner exchange,” said Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau based in Doha.
“Tomorrow, Saturday, the four women hostages will be released in exchange for a group of Palestinian prisoners, as agreed upon in the ceasefire deal.”
Naim also said that once the exchange takes place, war-displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza will be able to begin returning to the north of the territory.
“An Egyptian-Qatari committee will oversee the implementation of this part of the agreement on the ground,” he said.
“The displaced will return from the south to the north via Al-Rashid Road, as Israeli forces are expected to withdraw from there in accordance with the agreement.”
The ceasefire agreement was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States after months of intense negotiations.
The truce, the second in the more than 15 months of war, began on Sunday, with the first three hostages released in exchange for around 90 Palestinian prisoners.
The war between Hamas and Israel broke out after the militants’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
During the attack, militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are deceased.
The first truce, implemented in late November 2023, lasted just one week but involved the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Since then, Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the UN considers are reliable.
