Jordanians vote in election overshadowed by Gaza war

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Jordanian women arrive to vote for parliamentary elections at a polling station at the Al-Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp near the capital Amman on September 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Jordanian voters arrive to cast their ballots for parliamentary elections at a polling station at the al-Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp near the capital Amman on September 10, 2024. Jordan holds parliamentary elections on on September 10, with anger over the war in Gaza and concerns over lagging tourism leaving voters disgruntled. (AFP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Jordanians vote in election overshadowed by Gaza war

  • Of Jordan’s 11 million people, 5.1 million are registered voters aged over 18

AMMAN: Jordanians voted Tuesday in a parliamentary election overshadowed by the Gaza war and concerns over a slump in tourism, a sector vital to the kingdom’s economy.
It is the first vote since a 2022 reform increased the number of seats in the house, reserving more for women and lowering the minimum age for candidates.
Despite these efforts to modernize the legislature, voters and candidates said the war in the Gaza Strip dominated the election.
After voting, Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said he hoped the turnout would not be affected by “this brutal Israeli aggression.”
“We hope that the vote will be high and befitting of this national occasion,” he said.
Independent Election Commission chairman Musa Maaytah later told a news conference he expected turnout “to be around the average of the previous elections in 2020 and 2016” when it was “around 30 percent.”
Polls closed at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT), with the electoral authority announcing a turnout of about 32 percent.
Chief European parliament observer Zeljana Zovko had earlier told reporters voting was “going smoothly.”
Analysts had predicted a high abstention rate, with Islamist candidates struggling to harness public anger over the devastating war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, becoming only the second Arab state to do so after Egypt. But around half its population is of Palestinian origin, and protests calling for the treaty’s cancelation have been frequent since the war erupted.
Tensions escalated further two days before polling day when a Jordanian gunman killed three Israeli guards at Jordan’s border crossing with the occupied West Bank — the first such attack since the 1990s.
Voters meanwhile fear the ongoing war will continue to strain the economy until Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas reach a ceasefire.
Tourism — a sector Jordan relies on for about 14 percent of its gross domestic product — has declined since the war began.
“The situation, frankly, is going from bad to worse in terms of job opportunities, and the salaries are low with long working hours,” said 21-year-old engineering student Fayez Al-Disi.
Retired schoolteacher Dalal Moussa said it was important to choose the best candidates “so that we have a role in what is happening around us” in the region.
Compounding the country’s economic woes, public debt has neared $50 billion and unemployment hit 21 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Candidates include tribal leaders, centrists, leftists and Islamists from the country’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamic Action Front (IAF).
According to the election commission, more than 5.1 million people are registered to vote in the country of 11.5 million.
“What is happening in Gaza... (the) killing, destruction and tragedies broadcast daily on television, makes us feel pain, helplessness, humiliation and degradation, and makes us forget the elections and everything that is happening around us,” said Omar Mohammed, a 43-year-old civil servant.
Islamist candidates have sought to capitalize on the public anger.
“The Gaza war and the Palestinian cause occupy a major place in Jordanian elections, as all eyes and minds are on Gaza and Palestine and the massacres taking place there against the Palestinian people,” said IAF candidate Saleh Armouti.
He told AFP the elections “serve the Palestinian cause and the region, but I also fear that there will be some abstention from voting due to these events.”
Oraib Rantawi, head of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies, agreed that turnout was likely to be hit but said significant Islamist gains were unlikely.
“The improvement in these forces’ status and parliamentary representation will be modest,” he told AFP.


Explosion occurs at Turkish oil refinery during drills

Updated 53 min 21 sec ago
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Explosion occurs at Turkish oil refinery during drills

  • A fire was quickly brought under control by the privately owned company’s own emergency crews

ANKARA: An explosion occurred at an oil refinery in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, an official said, adding the situation was “under control” and there were no reports of any casualties.
Mayor Tahir Buyukakin told private NTV television that the blast occurred at the Turkish Petroleum Refineries company, Tupras, in Izmit provicince during “routine drills.”
A fire was quickly brought under control by the privately owned company’s own emergency crews and no request for help was made, he said.
Video footage from the site showed smoke rising from the refinery.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.


Lebanon media reports strike on residential building south of Beirut

Updated 05 November 2024
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Lebanon media reports strike on residential building south of Beirut

BEIRUT: Lebanese state media reported a strike on an apartment in the Jiyeh coastal area south of Beirut on Tuesday, more than a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The official National News Agency said “a raid targeted a residential apartment in a building in the town of Jiyeh,” where an AFP correspondent said a large plume of grey smoke covered the area.


Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

  • Militants from the Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid in Sistan-Baluchistan province on October 26
  • Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces

TEHRAN: Iran’s military has killed eight militants in an operation in the restive southeast since a deadly attack last month on a police station, state media reported Tuesday.
Militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid on October 26 in Sistan-Baluchistan province — one of the deadliest attacks in the region in recent months.
Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces.
It has long been a flashpoint for cross-border attacks by separatists and extremists, opposed to the authorities in Iran.
Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Shafahi said “a total of eight terrorists have been killed” since the beginning of operations in the province, according to the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.
“Fourteen other terrorists have been arrested,” including key figures involved in the attack, he said, adding security forces seized weapons and ammunition.
Shortly after the attack in Taftan county, some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, a report on the Tasnim news agency said four militants had been killed and four others arrested.
Late on Monday, IRNA quoted Guards ground forces commander Mohammad Pakpour as saying the attackers “were not Iranian,” though he did not specify their nationalities.
In early October, at least six people including police officers were killed in two separate attacks in the province.
Jaish Al-Adl said on Telegram they had carried out the attacks.
Formed in 2012 by Baluch separatists, the group is proscribed as a “terrorist organization” by both Iran and the United States.
 
 


Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

Updated 05 November 2024
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Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

  • The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing

GENEVA: More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday in a rare transfer out of the war-ravaged enclave, a World Health Organization official said.
“These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.
The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, he added, and then a portion will travel to Romania.


Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

  • In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security

DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.