Time running out for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s hopes of adding to family, says husband
Time running out for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s hopes of adding to family, says husband/node/1705146/middle-east
Time running out for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s hopes of adding to family, says husband
Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been incarcerated in Evin Prison, north of Tehran, since her arrest at the city’s airport in 2016. (Reuters)
Time running out for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s hopes of adding to family, says husband
Richard Ratcliffe: There remains a little girl growing up without her mother still. I hope not a little girl without a sibling
UK Foreign Office: We have consistently urged Iran to make Nazanin’s furlough permanent so she can return to her family in the UK
Updated 15 July 2020
Arab News
LONDON: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian national imprisoned by Tehran on charges of espionage, is running out of time if she is to have another child, according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who has appealed to Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to release her on compassionate grounds.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, has been incarcerated in Evin Prison, north of Tehran, since her arrest at the city’s airport in 2016, during which time she has allegedly been denied access to medical treatment.
She has one child, her 6-year-old daughter Gabriella, who was with her when she was arrested and was repatriated to the UK last year.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released on temporary furlough to stay with her parents in Tehran as part of wider efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19 in Iran’s prisons earlier this year, where she has since undergone a series of private medical tests on the recommendation of a former cellmate who had worked as a doctor.
Ratcliffe said the results of his wife’s tests showed she had a less than 15 percent chance of conceiving another child.
“The discovery left her devastated. She spent the day crying looking at pictures of Gabriella,” Ratcliffe said. “She reflected, ‘I always used to tell myself in Evin that they can’t take my future away. But now they have’.”
He appealed to Zarif for his wife’s release, saying: “Her hostage experience risks having a permanent legacy for our whole family. It is one thing to recover from losing over four years of your life to someone else’s fights, but it will be quite a different recovery journey for us all if it also means we can never have another baby.”
Ratcliffe added: “It is time to end this. Quite literally every month counts. There remains a little girl growing up without her mother still. I hope not a little girl without a sibling. This has been cruel enough.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe supposedly qualifies for permanent release under the terms of an amnesty for 3,000 prisoners to mark the end of Ramadan in May, declared by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
But her appeal for clemency has been postponed, with fears that it will only be raised when a hearing in a debt case between the UK and Iran over the canceled sale of tanks in the 1970s begins in November. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment has been linked to the dispute.
Iranian prosecutors, meanwhile, have warned that a second case, linked to comments made by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary about her being in Iran to train journalists, could be brought against her in the future. Those allegations could see a further sentence of five years were she to be convicted.
The UK Foreign Office said in a statement: “We have consistently urged Iran to make Nazanin’s furlough permanent so she can return to her family in the UK.
“We will continue to do everything we can to help secure the release of all UK dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran.”
‘Netanyahu is not Dreyfus,’ Palestinian envoy tells UN Security Council
Riyad Mansour rejects Israeli PM’s claim of antisemitism over ICC arrest warrant, says ‘either Gaza becomes the graveyard of international law or land of its resurrection’
US envoy warns annexation of West Bank and settlements in Gaza would create ‘new obstacles for Israel’s integration in the region’
NEW YORK CITY: The warrant issued last week by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has “nothing to do with his faith and everything to do with his crimes,” the Palestinian envoy to the UN told the Security Council on Monday.
Riyad Mansour urged council members to stand up to what he described as Netanyahu’s “diversions and distortions, to his smearing, his threats and his attacks.”
Netanyahu has denounced the ICC decision as “antisemitic,” comparing it to the Dreyfus affair in France more than a century ago. Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer of Jewish descent, was wrongfully convicted in 1894 of treason based on fabricated evidence.
“No, Netanyahu is not Dreyfus,” Mansour told the Security Council. “The ICC, the ICJ (International Court of Justice), this council and the General Assembly, the secretary-general and the United Nations are not antisemitic, and Netanyahu’s efforts to frame efforts to uphold international law as antisemitic must be firmly rebuked.”
The council must “act now to restore primacy to international law, to the humanitarian and human rights laws that Israel is shredding to the detriment of all,” he added.
He warned that the “genocide” in Gaza is transforming the Middle East for generations to come, with “the gravest” repercussions for the region and the wider world.
“This fire will devour everything in its path if it is not urgently stopped,” Mansour said, and so states are faced with a “quite simple” choice: defend the rule of international law or defend “the massacres perpetrated by this Israeli government.”
He called on politicians who have “difficulties making the right choice” to stop “playing political games with our people’s lives,” and added: “Our children should not be sacrificed for the sake of your political calculations and ambitions.”
Palestinians in Gaza are bracing themselves to endure another winter living in makeshift tents, besieged and bombed, without any of the essential infrastructure required to sustain life, while famine continues to loom over the war-ravaged enclave, Mansour warned.
“How much more suffering must they endure?” he asked. “Their agony must be brought to an end and life and hope must be restored. Israel’s war machine must be stopped in Palestine and in Lebanon. It is sowing the conditions of insecurity and hatred for decades.”
He urged council members not to allow “a solvable political conflict to be transformed into an eternal religious conflict. This would have terrible, unimaginable consequences for our region and the world.”
He added: “The fate of our region is being determined in Gaza: either Gaza becomes the graveyard of international law or the land of its resurrection.”
Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, told fellow council members that Washington remains opposed to the annexation of the West Bank and the construction of settlements in Gaza.
Such actions would breach international law, he said, “sow the seeds of further instability and create new obstacles to Israel’s full integration into the region.” He also expressed concern about the “increasing extremist-settler violence in the West Bank.”
But Wood reiterated that the US rejects the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and blames Hamas for the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement. He added that the militant group must not be “let off the hook.”
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy permanent representative, said: “The USA only demands, and continues to demand, that we all put pressure on Hamas,” yet it is “clear” that Israel’s plan is “to create yet another irreversible fact on the ground: a scorched, depopulated Gaza that has been emptied of Palestinians.”
He added: “How many more people need to die for Gaza to at last see peace? Or will the USA obstruct this until all the Palestinians have been exterminated and the question of the two-state solution falls away by itself?”
Moscow “will continue to insist on the adoption of the most decisive measures to stop the bloodshed in Gaza,” Polyanskiy said.
Those still in north Gaza ‘scavenging among the rubble’: UNRWA
‘There is no access to food and drinking water in besieged territory,’ spokeswoman says
Updated 5 min 24 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: With an intensive Israeli military operation in Gaza’s besieged north in its 50th day, remaining residents are left “scavenging among the rubble” for food, said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge.
The Israeli army announced it would intensify operations in the ravaged north of the territory on Oct. 6, with troops encircling the northern city of Jabalia and adjacent areas at the time.
Speaking from Gaza City, where many of the north’s residents have fled since the operation began, Wateridge gave insights gleaned from talking to displaced Palestinians and colleagues from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
She said UNRWA estimates that between 100,000 and 130,000 people have fled north Gaza since the beginning of the operation, which Israel said aims to keep militants from regrouping in the area.
“There is no access to food, no access to drinking water. Eight of the UNRWA water wells in Jabalia stopped functioning weeks ago. They’ve been damaged and destroyed. They’ve run out of fuel.
“There were very horrific reports of continued strikes on hospitals, on shelters where people are.
“Here in Gaza City, I’m meeting people who have fled for their lives, and they’re showing me these appalling videos where they’re running through the streets, they’re navigating, you know, the rubble.
“There are bodies of children around them. There are bodies of people who have been killed everywhere that they have to walk and step over
to get out.
“Fifty days of siege, it’s unfathomable, the destruction, the death, the pain, the suffering that that will cause.
“I met some children just in the last few days; you can hear the planes going over, you can hear the drones, and they freeze, they completely freeze, they don’t have anything to say, their teeth start chattering, they’re absolutely paralyzed by fear from these experiences that they’ve had over the last few weeks.”
“(There are) around 65,000 people in these besieged areas. We hear that they are scavenging from residential buildings, scavenging among the rubble, trying to find any old tins of canned food, any kind of source of food already in these residential buildings or among the rubble.”
“It was around this time last year that there were reports from northern Gaza that was cut off, and people were going around. Our colleagues were going around eating animal food to stay alive. So, people are just eating anything that they can find at this point, and it really is complete survival.
“Hearing these stories of people’s families under the rubble and fleeing and having to leave them behind, people are traumatized, people who haven’t managed to escape, they’re absolutely traumatized.”
“(There are) around 100,000 to 130,000 more people forcibly displaced from Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and these besieged areas. And... they’re arriving (in Gaza City) to charcoal buildings, blown out buildings, it’s raining, cold, and freezing.
“They don’t have mattresses, they don’t have tarps, they don’t have tents, they don’t have blankets, families are crying, begging because their children don’t have clothes, they don’t have warm clothes, babies don’t have anything to keep them warm.
“It’s beyond appalling, the conditions people are forced to live in here. So they’re among the rubble in these facilities that should be protected by international law.
“Horrific stories of tanks arriving, of strikes on the schools, and then people being forced to go back and shelter there because they simply don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Can Lebanon’s ancient cultural heritage be protected from war damage?
Countless historical landmarks face existential threat amid escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah
Preserving heritage fosters resilience, identity, and post-conflict recovery, say UNESCO and heritage advocates
Updated 48 min 51 sec ago
Robert Edwards
LONDON: Towering above the fertile Bekaa Valley, the Temple of Jupiter and Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek stand as monumental symbols of Roman power, while the ruins of Tyre echo the splendor of the Phoenician civilization.
Today, these UNESCO World Heritage sites, along with countless other historical landmarks, face a grave threat as the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters encroaches on Lebanon’s unique and ancient heritage.
After nearly a year of cross-border exchanges that began on Oct. 8, 2023, Israel suddenly escalated its campaign of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck on November 3, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
In recent weeks, Baalbek’s famed Roman temples, celebrated for their architectural sophistication and cultural fusion of East and West, have come dangerously close to being hit.
Although these structures have so far been spared direct strikes, adjacent areas have suffered, including a nearby Ottoman-era building. The city’s ruins, which have survived the test of time and the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, are now at significant risk.
The ancient city has suffered multiple airstrikes since evacuation orders were issued on Oct. 30 by Israel, which has designated the area a Hezbollah stronghold.
FASTFACTS
• UNESCO World Heritage sites in Baalbek and Tyre are at risk of direct hit or secondary damage under Israeli strikes.
• ALIPH has allocated $100,000 to shelter museum collections and support displaced heritage workers in Lebanon.
• Preserving heritage fosters resilience, identity, and post-conflict recovery, say UNESCO and heritage advocates.
The proximity of these airstrikes has left archaeologists and local authorities fearing that damage, whether intentional or collateral, could be irreversible. Even indirect blasts pose a serious risk, as reverberations shake these ancient stones.
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (L) and Director of the UNESCO Office in Beirut Costanza Farina (C) visit the Roman citadel of Baalbeck, in the Bekaa valley, on November 21, 2024. (AFP)
“The threats come from direct bombing and indirect bombing,” Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, a Lebanese archaeologist and founder of the non-governmental organization Biladi, told Arab News. “In both ways, cultural heritage is at huge risk.”
Reports indicate that hundreds of other Lebanese cultural and religious sites have been less fortunate. Several Muslim and Christian heritage buildings have been reduced to rubble in southern towns and villages under shelling and air attacks.
“Some of them are known and already registered in the inventory list and some of them unfortunately we know about them when they are destroyed and inhabitants share the photos of them,” said Farchakh Bajjaly.
The six columns of the Temple of Jupiter at the Roman citadel of Baalbeck, in the Lebanese Bekaa valley, on November 21, 2024. (AFP)
Many of these sites carry irreplaceable historical value, representing not only Lebanon’s heritage but also that of the broader Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions.
Baalbek’s origins stretch back to a Phoenician settlement dedicated to Baal, the god of fertility. Later known as Heliopolis under Hellenistic influence, the city reached its zenith under the Roman Empire.
The Temple of Jupiter, once adorned by 54 massive Corinthian columns, and the intricately decorated Temple of Bacchus, have attracted pilgrims and admirers across millennia.
Cultural heritage is a key reason people visit Lebanon. The cultural heritage of Lebanon is the cultural heritage of all humanity.
Valery Freland, ALIPH executive director
Tyre, equally revered, was a bustling Phoenician port where the rare purple dye from Murex sea snails was once crafted for royalty. The city is home to ancient necropolises and a Roman hippodrome, all of which have helped shape Lebanon’s historical identity.
Valery Freland, ALIPH executive director
Israel’s war against Hezbollah, once the most powerful non-state group in the Middle East, has thus far killed more than 3,200 people and displaced about a million more in Lebanon, according to local officials.
The Israeli military has pledged to end Hezbollah’s ability to launch rocket and other attacks into northern Israel, which has forced around 60,000 people to flee their homes near the Lebanon border.
On Oct. 23, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders near Tyre’s ancient ruins, and began striking targets in the vicinity.
Children displaced by conflict from south Lebanon play in the courtyard of the Azariyeh building complex where they are sheltering in central Beirut on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
The cultural devastation in southern Lebanon and Bekaa is not limited to UNESCO sites. Across these regions, many cultural heritage sites of local and national significance have been reduced to rubble.
“Cultural heritage sites that are located in the south or in the Bekaa and that are scattered all over the place … were razed and wiped out,” said Farchakh Bajjaly.
“When you can see the demolition of the villages in the south of Lebanon … the destruction of the cultural heritage is coming as collateral damage. The historical sites, the shrines or the castles, aren’t being spared at all.”
Tebnin/Toron castle in southern Lebanon (Shutterstock)
As a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention, Lebanon’s heritage should, in theory, be protected from harm during armed conflict. However, as Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada has appealed to UNESCO, these symbolic protections, like the Blue Shield emblem, have shown limited effectiveness.
In response to the escalation, the Geneva-based International Alliance for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Conflict Areas, known as ALIPH, has provided emergency funding to Lebanon, working alongside Biladi and the Directorate General of Antiquities.
With $100,000 in initial funding, ALIPH is sheltering museum collections across Lebanon and providing safe accommodation for displaced heritage professionals.
Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, a Lebanese archaeologist and founder of the non-governmental organization Biladi.
“We are ready to stand by our partners in Lebanon, just as we did after the 2020 Beirut explosion,” Valery Freland, ALIPH’s executive director, told Arab News.
“Our mission is to work in crisis areas… If we protect the cultural heritage now, it will be a way (to stop this becoming) another difficulty of the peacebuilding process.”
Documentation has also become a critical tool for preservation efforts, particularly for sites at risk of destruction. Biladi’s role has been to document what remains and, where possible, secure smaller objects.
A man checks the destruction at a factory targeted in an overnight Israeli airstrike in the town of Chouaifet south of Beirut on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
“Unfortunately we are not able to do any kind of preventive measures for the monuments for several reasons,” said Farchakh Bajjaly.
“One of the most obvious ones is due to the weapons that are being used. If the hit is a direct hit then there’s no purpose of taking any action. Nothing is surviving a direct hit.
“The only measures that we can do, as preventative measures … (are) to secure the storage of museums and to find ways to save the small items and shelter them from any vibrations and make sure storages are safe and secure.”
Map of Lebanon showing the number of people who have fled their homes by district as of October 13, according to the International Organization for Migration. (AFP)
Farchakh Bajjaly describes a “dilemma of horror” arising from the conflict. When the IDF issued its evacuation order for Baalbek, around 80,000 residents fled, with some seeking refuge within the temples themselves.
“The guards closed the gates and didn’t let anyone get in,” she said, explaining that, under the 1954 Hague Convention, using protected sites as shelters nullifies their protected status. “If people will take refuge in the temples, then it might be used by the Israeli army to target temples. Thereby killing the people and destroying the temples.”
The displacement of Baalbek’s residents has added to Lebanon’s swelling humanitarian crisis. With more than 1.2 million people displaced across the country due to the conflict, the city’s evacuation order has compounded local instability.
Historic ancient Roman Bacchus temple in Baalbek, Lebanon. (Shutterstock)
Despite the harrowing reality, Farchakh Bajjaly insists that preserving cultural heritage is not at odds with humanitarian goals. “Asking to save world heritage is in no way contradictory to saving people’s lives. They are complementary,” she said.
“It’s giving people a place to find their memories, giving them a sense of continuity when in war, usually, nothing remains the same.”
UNESCO has been actively monitoring the conflict’s impact on Lebanon’s heritage sites, using satellite imagery and remote sensing to assess visible damage.
Arch of Hadrian at the Al-Bass Tyre necropolis. UNESCO world heritage in Lebanon. (Shutterstock)
“UNESCO liaised with all state parties concerned, reminding (them of their) obligations under the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,” Nisrine Kammourieh, a spokesperson for UNESCO, told Arab News.
The organization is preparing for an emergency session of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property to potentially place Lebanon’s heritage sites on its International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection.
The importance of cultural preservation extends beyond mere aesthetics or academic interest. “It’s part of the resilience of the population, of the communities and it’s part of a solution afterward,” said ALIPH’s Freland.
Elke Selter, ALIPH’s director of programs, believes “protecting heritage is essential for what comes after. You cannot totally erase the traces of the past.”
Indeed, the preservation of Lebanon’s cultural heritage is as much about safeguarding identity and memory as it is about recovery.
“Imagine that your town is fully destroyed and you have to go back to something that was built two weeks ago; that is very unsettling in a way,” Selter told Arab News, noting that studies have shown how preserving familiar landmarks fosters a sense of belonging after displacement.
In the broader context of Lebanon’s recovery, cultural heritage can play a key role in economic revitalization, particularly through tourism.
“For Lebanon’s economy, that’s an important element and I think an important one for the recovery of the country afterwards,” said Selter. “Cultural heritage in Lebanon was one of the key reasons why people would visit Lebanon.”
The tragedy facing Lebanon’s heritage is also a global concern. “The cultural heritage of Lebanon is the cultural heritage of all humanity,” said Freland.
For Biladi and other heritage organizations, Lebanon’s current crisis offers a test of international conventions that aim to protect heritage in times of conflict.
“If the conventions are being applied, then cultural heritage will be saved,” said Farchakh Bajjaly. “Lebanon has become in this war a sort of a field where it’s possible to test if these conventions work.”
Axios said Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the terms of a deal
Israel’s security cabinet was expected to approve deal on Tuesday
Updated 25 November 2024
Reuters
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Israel is moving toward a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah but there are still issues to address, its government said on Monday, while two senior Lebanese officials voiced guarded optimism of a deal soon even as Israeli strikes pounded Lebanon.
Axios, citing an unnamed senior US official, said Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the terms of a deal, and that Israel’s security cabinet was expected to approve the deal on Tuesday.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said of a ceasefire: “We haven’t finalized it yet, but we are moving forward.” Asked for comment, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had nothing to say about the report.
Hostilities have intensified in parallel with the diplomatic flurry: Over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut — while the Iran-backed Hezbollah unleashed one of its biggest rocket salvoes yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles.
In Beirut, Israeli airstrikes levelled more of the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs on Monday, sending clouds of debris billowing over the Lebanese capital.
Efforts to clinch a truce appeared to advance last week when US mediator Amos Hochstein declared significant progress after talks in Beirut before holding meetings in Israel and then returning to Washington.
“We are moving in the direction toward a deal, but there are still some issues to address,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said, without elaborating.
Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, told Israel’s GLZ radio an agreement was close and “it could happen within days ... We just need to close the last corners,” according to a post on X by GLZ senior anchorman Efi Triger.
In Beirut, Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab said a decisive moment was approaching and expressed cautious optimism. “The balance is slightly tilted toward there being (an agreement), but by a very small degree, because a person like Netanyahu cannot be trusted,” he said in a news conference.
A second senior Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Beirut had not received any new Israeli demands from US mediators, who were describing the atmosphere as positive and saying “things are in progress.”
The official told Reuters a ceasefire could be clinched this week.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah spiralled into full-scale war in September when Israel went on the offensive, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
Israel has dealt major blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders and inflicting massive destruction in areas of Lebanon where the group holds sway.
Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (19 miles) from the Israeli border.
ENFORCEMENT
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the test for any agreement would be in the enforcement of two main points.
“The first is preventing Hezbollah from moving southward beyond the Litani (River), and the second, preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding its force and rearming in all of Lebanon,” Saar said in broadcast remarks to the Israeli parliament.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel must press on with the war until “absolute victory.” Addressing Netanyahu on X, he said “it is not too late to stop this agreement!“
But Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said Israel should reach an agreement in Lebanon. “If we say ‘no’ to Hezbollah being south of the Litani, we mean it,” he told journalists.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said last week that the group had reviewed and given feedback on the US ceasefire proposal, and any truce was now in Israel’s hands.
Branded a terrorist group by the United States, the heavily armed, Shiite Muslim Hezbollah has endorsed Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri of the Shiite Amal movement to negotiate.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Israel’s offensive has forced more than 1 million people from their homes in Lebanon.
Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (19 miles) from the Israeli border, and the regular Lebanese army to deploy into the frontier region.
Egypt says 17 missing after Red Sea tourist boat capsizes
Governor Amr Hanafi said that some survivors were rescued by an aircraft, while others were transported to safety aboard a warship
Updated 25 November 2024
AFP
CAIRO: Egyptian authorities said 17 people including British nationals and other foreigners were missing after a tourist yacht capsized off the country’s Red Sea coast on Monday, with 28 others rescued.
The vessel, which was carrying 31 tourists of various nationalities and a 14-member crew, sent out a distress call at 5:30 am (0330 GMT), said a statement from Egypt’s Red Sea governorate.
An AFP tally confirmed that tourists involved in the incident include nationals from the UK, China, Finland, Poland and Spain.
The “Sea Story” embarked on Sunday on a multi-day diving trip from Port Ghalib near Marsa Alam in the southeast, and had been due to dock on Friday at the town of Hurghada, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north.
Governor Amr Hanafi said that some survivors were rescued by an aircraft, while others were transported to safety aboard a warship.
“Intensive search operations are underway in coordination with the navy and the armed forces,” Hanafi added in a statement.
Authorities have not confirmed the nationalities of the tourists.
Beijing’s embassy in Egypt said two of its nationals were “in good health” after being “rescued in the cruise ship sinking accident in the Red Sea,” Chinese state media reported.
The Finnish foreign ministry confirmed to AFP that one of its nationals is missing.
Polish foreign ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski said authorities “have information that two of the tourists may have had Polish citizenship.”
“That’s all we know about them. That’s all we can say for now,” he told national news agency PAP.The Red Sea governor’s office did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment about the possible cause of the accident.
According to a manager of a diving resort close to the rescue operation, one surviving crew member said they were “hit by a wave in the middle of the night, throwing the vessel on its side.”
Authorities in the Red Sea capital of Hurghada on Sunday shut down marine activities and the city’s port due to “bad weather conditions.”
But winds around Marsa Alam had remained favorable until Sunday night, the diving manager told AFP, before calming again by morning.
By Monday afternoon, it became increasingly “unlikely that the 17 missing would be rescued after 12 hours in the water,” he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Marsa Alam area saw at least two similar boat accidents earlier this year but there were no fatalities.
The Red Sea coast is a major tourist destination in Egypt, a country of 105 million that is in the grip of a serious economic crisis. Nationally, the tourism sector employs two million people and generates more than 10 percent of GDP.
Dozens of dive boats criss-cross between coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s eastern coast every day, where safety regulations are robust but unevenly enforced.
Earlier this month, 30 people were rescued from a sinking dive boat near the Red Sea’s Daedalus reef.
In June, two dozen French tourists were evacuated safely before their boat sank in a similar accident.
Last year, three British tourists died when a fire broke out on their yacht, engulfing it in flames.
