President Raisi says Iran has ‘no problem’ with IAEA inspections, sees no obstacle to restoring ties with Egypt

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi departs following a news conference on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, at UN headquarters in New York City. (File/AFP)
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Updated 21 September 2023
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President Raisi says Iran has ‘no problem’ with IAEA inspections, sees no obstacle to restoring ties with Egypt

  • UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi earlier accused Iran of closing its nuclear sites to inspectors
  • Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry earlier received his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian

NEW YORK: Iran has no issue with the UN nuclear watchdog’s inspection of its nuclear sites, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Wednesday, days after Tehran barred multiple inspectors assigned to the country.
“We have no problem with the inspections but the problem is with some inspectors ... those inspectors that are trustworthy can continue their work in Iran,” Raisi told a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Iran’s move was a response to a call led by the United States, Britain, France and Germany at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors earlier this month for Tehran to cooperate immediately with the agency on issues including explaining uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
“Tehran’s decision was in reaction to some unfair statements by the Western members of the IAEA,” Raisi said.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi has condemned Iran’s “disproportionate and unprecedented” move.
Tehran’s move, known as “de-designation” of inspectors, is allowed; member states can generally veto inspectors assigned to visit their nuclear facilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and each country’s safeguards agreement with the agency governing inspections.

In a separate statement, the Iranian president said the meeting of Iranian and Egyptian foreign ministers in New York could pave the way for a restoration of ties.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not see any obstacle in establishing relations with Egypt, and this issue has been announced to the Egyptian side as well,” Raisi told a press conference at the end of his trip to New York for the United Nations leaders meeting, according to the website of the Iranian presidency.
“Today’s meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries can also be a chapter to start and revive relations between the two countries.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian at the headquarters of Egypt’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Amirabdollahian said strengthening relations “will serve common interests” while Shoukry underlined the importance of cooperating with all countries in the region in the face of ongoing instability.
“In order to strengthen relations with neighboring, Muslim, and aligned countries, the Islamic Republic of Iran will extend its hand to any country that want to cooperate with us,” Raisi added.
Relations between Egypt and Iran have generally been fraught in recent decades although the two countries have maintained diplomatic contacts.
Some Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, have taken steps to ease regional tensions in recent months.
Egypt’s Sunni Muslim Arab ally Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations earlier this year while Cairo has mended a rift with Qatar and re-established ties with Turkiye.


UK re-establishing full Syria ties, Lammy says during Damascus visit

Updated 11 sec ago
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UK re-establishing full Syria ties, Lammy says during Damascus visit

LONDON: UK will re-establish full ties with the Syrian Arab Republic, Foreign Minister David Lammy said Saturday during Damascus visit.

More to follow...


Syria battles forest fires for third day as Turkiye sends help

Updated 05 July 2025
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Syria battles forest fires for third day as Turkiye sends help

  • Syria’s ministry for emergencies and disaster management said teams from Turkiye began helping on Saturday morning
  • Syria’s civil defense said a volunteer firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation

QASTAL MA’AF, Syria: Syrian emergency workers were battling forest fires raging in the coastal province of Latakia on Saturday for a third day in tough conditions as neighboring Turkiye sent assistance.

An AFP correspondent saw strong winds fanning the flames in forest areas and farmland in Qastal Maaf, around a dozen kilometers (eight miles) from the Turkish border, as residents continued to flee with what they could carry.

Some residential areas in the region were evacuated a day earlier.

Syria’s ministry for emergencies and disaster management said teams from Turkiye began helping on Saturday morning “as part of regional coordination to face the fires,” with the assistance including two aircraft and eight fire trucks.

Turkiye, a key supporter of Syria’s new authorities, has been battling its own fires in recent days, including near the Syrian border.

The AFP correspondent saw helicopters bearing the Turkish flag flying over Qastal Maaf assisting firefighters on the ground.

Syria’s civil defense said a volunteer firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation and a service vehicle caught fire.

More than 60 Syrian civil defense and other teams were fighting fires across several areas of Latakia province, the ministry said.

It cited “very difficult conditions, with the explosion of war remnants and mines,” strong winds and high temperatures, adding that mountainous terrain was hampering efforts to reach some blazes.

More than six months after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, Syria is still reeling from more than a decade of civil war that also left munitions and ordnance scattered across the country.

With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves, low rainfall and major forest fires.

In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization told AFP that Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”


Nine dead in Egypt road crash: health ministry

Updated 05 July 2025
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Nine dead in Egypt road crash: health ministry

  • The crash in Menoufiya was the second deadly accident on the same highway in a week

CAIRO: Nine people were killed and 11 injured in northern Egypt on Saturday when two minibuses collided on a busy highway in the Nile Delta, the health ministry said.

The crash in Menoufiya, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Cairo, was the second deadly accident on the same highway in just a week.

On June 27, 19 people were killed, most of them teenage girls working as day laborers, when a truck collided with their minibus.

Egypt’s roads claim thousands of lives each year, with crashes often blamed on reckless driving, poor maintenance and weak law enforcement.


Erdogan says asked Trump to intervene over shootings at Gaza aid centers

Updated 05 July 2025
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Erdogan says asked Trump to intervene over shootings at Gaza aid centers

  • “You need to intervene here so that these people are not killed’,” Erdogan said
  • Erdogan said ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war had created a new opportunity to end the fighting in Gaza

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he asked US President Donald Trump to intervene to stop shootings at Gaza aid centers, which the UN says have killed more than 500 people.

Erdogan said when he met Trump at a NATO summit in late June, he asked him to step in and halt the bloodshed.

“I asked him to intervene in the Gaza process telling him, ‘You are the one who will best manage this process with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’. There are people who are being killed in food queues in particular.

“You need to intervene here so that these people are not killed’,” he said, his remarks reported Saturday by Anadolu state news agency.

Israel blocked supplies going into Gaza in early March, deepening a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory, but on May 26, a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the US, started delivering supplies.

However its operations have since been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations from its distribution sites in Gaza, where the Israeli military says it is seeking to destroy Hamas militants.

The UN Human Rights Office said Friday more than 500 people had been killed in the vicinity of the GHF sites.

Israel’s army has blamed Hamas for the incidents and this week, GHF’s chairman Johnnie Moore denied any Palestinians have been killed in or near its four distribution sites.

Erdogan said ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war had created a new opportunity to end the fighting in Gaza.

“The ceasefire between Iran and Israel has also opened a door for Gaza. Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its good will in this regard,” he said just days after his spy chief and foreign minister met separately with senior Hamas officials.

US pressure on Israel would be “decisive” in securing the success of the latest proposal for a 60-day truce in Gaza, he remarked, saying the issue of guarantees was “especially important.”

“In the event of a ceasefire, the international community needs to invest rapidly in reconstruction projects. If a permanent ceasefire can be achieved, a path to permanent peace in the region can be opened.”


Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says two of its US aid workers injured in Gaza

Updated 05 July 2025
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Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says two of its US aid workers injured in Gaza

  • GHF says two Americans in stable condition after grenade attack
  • Gaza officials say dozens killed by Israeli military in 24 hours

JERUSALEM: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Saturday that two American aid workers had suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a targeted attack at a food distribution site in Gaza.
The US- and Israeli-backed GHF said in a statement that the injured Americans were receiving medical treatment and were in a stable condition.
“The attack – which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans – occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food,” the GHF said.
In addition to aid workers, the GHF employs private US military contractors tasked with providing security at their sites.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. The Israeli military had no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.
Gazan authorities separately reported dozens of Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli military in the past 24 hours, including near aid distribution sites.
The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza on Thursday had warned residents of the coastal enclave not to assist the GHF, saying deadly incidents near its food distribution sites endangered hungry Gazans.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, bypassing traditional aid channels, including the United Nations which says the US-based organization is neither impartial nor neutral.
The GHF has said it has delivered more than 52 million meals to Palestinians in five weeks, while other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted.”
Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19, the UN says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid handouts. A senior UN official said last week that the majority of people killed were trying to reach aid distribution sites of the GHF.
Footage released by GHF has shown at least one aid site to be overrun with no clear distribution process. Palestinians have described the sites as chaotic.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 70 people have been killed in the territory by the Israeli military in the last 24 hours, including 23 near aid distribution sites.
The ministry did not specify where or how exactly they had been killed.
Over 57,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s war against Hamas, according to the Gaza health ministry, launched after the militant group’s surprise attack on Israel in October 7, 2023.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in that attack and took another 251 hostages into Gaza. There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, of which 20 are believed to be alive.