VIENNA/DUBAI: Iran freed four Americans including a Washington Post reporter on Saturday in a prisoner swap, as diplomats gathered to announce the lifting of international sanctions and bring the country of 80 million people back to the global economic stage.
The International Atomic Energy Agency was expected to announce in Vienna that Tehran had complied with a deal reached last year to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States, United Nations and European Union.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who developed a close rapport during months of unprecedented talks hammering out last year’s deal, met in a Vienna hotel before the announcement.
“Implementation day” of the nuclear deal marks the biggest re-entry of a former pariah state into world commerce since the end of the Cold War.
It is also a turning point in the hostility between Iran and the United States that has shaped the Middle East since Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979, a prize for both US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Both leaders have faced strong opposition from hard-liners at home in countries that have called each other “Great Satan” and part of the “axis of evil.”
“Today, with the release of the IAEA chief’s report, the nuclear deal will be implemented, after which a joint statement will be made to announce the beginning of the deal,” Zarif was quoted as saying in Vienna by state news agency IRNA.
“Today is a good day for the Iranian people as sanctions will be lifted today,” the ISNA agency quoted him as saying.
The sanctions, mostly imposed in the last five years, have cut Iran off from the global financial system, drastically reduced the major oil producer’s exports and imposed severe economic hardship on ordinary Iranians. Most will be lifted immediately.
Iranian media reported that four Iranian-Americans held in Iran had been released and seven Iranian-Americans held in the United States would also be freed under the prisoner swap. US State Department officials declined immediate comment.
The four freed in Iran include Washington Post bureau chief Jason Rezaian and two Iranian-Americans arrested while visiting relatives: Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and former US Marine Amir Hekmati. There were conflicting reports about the identity of the fourth.
Iranian news media said seven Iranians would be freed in the United States, held for violating sanctions. Federal court filings showed US prosecutors dropped sanctions-related criminal charges against four Iranians on Saturday morning.
The deal
Even before the expected announcement that sanctions would be lifted, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported on Saturday that executives from two of the world’s largest oil companies, Shell and Total, had arrived in Tehran for talks with state firms. Shell denied it.
Under the deal, Iran has agreed to forego nearly all enriched uranium, which world powers feared could be used to make a nuclear weapon. Once sanctions are lifted, Iran plans to swiftly ramp up its exports of oil.
Tens of billions of dollars worth of Iranian assets will be unfrozen and global companies that have been barred from doing business there will be able to exploit a market hungry for everything from automobiles to airplane parts.
Iran’s expected return to an already glutted market is one of the main factors contributing to a global rout in oil prices, which fell below $30 a barrel this week for the first time in 12 years. Tehran says it could boost exports by 500,000 barrels per day within weeks and 500,000 more within a year, in a world already producing 1.5 million barrels a day more than it consumes and running out of storage space to hold it.
Suspicions raised
The nuclear deal is opposed by all of the Republican candidates vying to succeed Obama as president in an election in November.
Nevertheless, Ted Cruz, a conservative senator from Texas and one of the Republican frontrunners, tweeted in support of the release of Christian convert Abedini: “Praise God! Surely bad parts of Obama’s latest deal, but prayers of thanksgiving that Pastor Saeed is coming home.”
The deal is also viewed with deep suspicion by US allies in the Middle East including Israel and Saudi Arabia. It is supported by Washington’s European allies, who joined Obama earlier in his presidency in making sanctions far tighter as part of a joint strategy to force Tehran to negotiate.
The Obama administration says the deal reached last July offered the best possible prospect of ensuring Iran would not develop a nuclear weapon, and could never have been achieved without the support of allies, which was always contingent on a pledge to lift sanctions once Iran complied.
For Iran, it marks a crowning achievement for Rouhani, a pragmatic cleric elected in 2013 in a landslide on a promise to reduce Iran’s international isolation. He was granted the authority to negotiate the deal by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an arch-conservative in power since 1989.
The prospect of Iran’s emergence from isolation could overturn the geopolitical balance of the Middle East.
In Iraq, Tehran has found itself on the same side as the United States, supporting a Shiite-led government against Daesh militants.
“There are some people who see peace as a threat, who were always against (the nuclear deal) and will continue to oppose it,” Foreign Minister Zarif, a US-educated fluent English speaker, was quoted as saying by ISNA.
He has argued, including in a New York Times op-ed column last week, that Iran wants to help the global fight against Muslim militants.
“It’s now time for all — especially Muslim nations — to join hands and rid the world of violent extremism. Iran is ready,” Zarif tweeted on Saturday.
But US-Iranian hostility still remains deeply entrenched. Apart from the nuclear issue, Washington maintains separate, far less comprehensive sanctions on Iran over its missile program.
Iran has tested missiles since the nuclear agreement, drawing threats from Washington to tighten those sanctions. A week ago Iran detained 10 US sailors on two boats in the Gulf, although they were released the next day after Tehran said it had concluded they had entered its waters by mistake.
Iran frees American prisoners as international sanctions to end
Iran frees American prisoners as international sanctions to end
Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030
- Indian Ministry of Education-sponsored program will take place at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Jan. 20-25
- Key speaker will be Prof. Joseph Albert Kechichian from King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies
NEW DELHI: One of India’s most prestigious educational institutions will host a special course this month about Saudi Arabia’s transformation programs and Vision 2030, as relations between the countries deepen.
The five-day course is organized by Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in cooperation with the Ministry of Education under the Indian government’s Global Initiative of Academic Networks program to encourage exchanges with the world’s top faculty members and scientists.
Scheduled to start on Jan. 20, the course will be led by Prof. Joseph Albert Kechichian, senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, who specializes in West Asian politics and foreign policy, especially of the Gulf region.
About 70 participants, including scholars, professionals and young researchers are expected to attend the sessions, said Prof. Sameena Hameed form the JNU’s Centre for West Asian Studies, who coordinates the course.
“It’s a Ministry of Education program, it’s a highly prestigious ... Saudi Arabia is one of our key partners in the Gulf region, where India has key energy trade investment and remittance interest,” she told Arab News.
“We have about 2 million Indians working there. India and Saudi Arabia are looking at each other with keen interest: How to harness this partnership for mutual development, for trade investment and other educational engagements.”
Saudi-Indian ties have steadily gained prominence over the past three decades, and reached a new level of engagement in 2019, following Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to New Delhi and the establishment of the Strategic Partnership Council.
This foundation set the stage for further collaboration, which gained momentum when Saudi Arabia presided over the Group of 20 largest economies in 2020, followed by India’s presidency of the bloc in 2023. The evolving relationship has not only deepened strategic ties but also fostered cooperation in trade, security, new technologies and regional stability.
The upcoming course at JNU aims to equip the participants with knowledge about key transformation programs underway in the Kingdom under its Vision 2030, and to understand its position at the local, regional and global levels.
“The rapid transformation the Kingdom has gone through under King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is important and needs greater academic discussions and understanding,” said Md. Muddassir Quamar, associate professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies.
“Vision 2030 promises not only to transform the Kingdom but also set the benchmark for developing societies that are working towards sustainable development with care for people, peace, prosperity and environment. India, in particular, is interested in a peaceful and stable West Asia given its deep and historic relations with the region and its strategic interests in the stability of the region. With Vision 2030 Saudi Arabia is set to take a leap forward in its developmental goals, and India views it as significant in ensuring a stable West Asia.”
British Muslims plan MCB alternatives to represent communities
- New bodies to provide civil, political support to Muslims in UK
- Successive governments have refused to fully engage with established Muslim bodies
LONDON: A number of British imams are in the process of establishing new organizations to represent the UK’s Muslim communities, The Times reported on Saturday.
A series of governments have refused to engage with established Muslim bodies, including the Muslim Council of Britain, creating a “vacuum” between politicians and British Muslims, according to community leaders.
Other groups — such as the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, the British Board of Imams and Scholars, and Tell Mama, an organization monitoring Islamophobia — are deemed too small to effectively lobby for or represent the UK’s 3.8 million Muslims.
The MCB represents around 500 mosques, schools and charities in the UK on social issues, but does not issue religious declarations.
The Labour government under Tony Blair had ties with it, but saw those severed in 2009 under Gordon Brown after the MCB’s then-deputy leader signed a declaration that was viewed as a call for violence against the Royal Navy and Israel.
The current Labour government talks to various Muslim groups on an “ad hoc” basis, said Qari Asim, senior imam at the Makkah Mosque in Leeds.
A source told The Times that rather than “simply a new entity to replace the MCB,” a “series of new initiatives” would be established “focused on increasing connection between British Muslims and the British government and trying to better represent and engage British Muslims.”
Another source told the newspaper: “It is a group of people from broad civil society who happen to be Muslim, from lawyers to doctors to economists to accountants.
“It’s a huge community (but) there is a lack of serious engagement (from government) and a whole load of expertise and experience not being tapped into by policymakers and others.”
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, professor in the sociology of Islam at Coventry University, told The Times that the government is “missing a trick” by not engaging with the MCB, warning that there is “a lot of suspicion within Muslim communities of new initiatives.”
UK must weigh repatriating Daesh members in Syria, terror adviser says
- Jonathan Hall KC: ‘It wouldn’t prevent them from potentially being prosecuted for what they’ve done’
- Trump’s counterterrorism adviser has also urged Britain to take back citizens who joined Daesh
LONDON: The UK must consider repatriating British members of Daesh held in Syrian detention camps, the government’s independent terrorism adviser has said.
“Repatriation would not be moral absolution. If someone came back it wouldn’t prevent them from potentially being prosecuted for what they’ve done,” Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC.
The incoming Trump administration’s counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka has also urged the UK to follow the US lead and take back its citizens who joined Daesh.
“Any nation which wishes to be seen to be a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment,” Gorka said.
“That is doubly so for the UK which has a very special place in President (Donald) Trump’s heart, and we would all wish to see the ‘special relationship’ fully re-established.”
One high-profile Briton who traveled to Syria to support Daesh is Shamima Begum, who left London as a teenager in 2015.
Her citizenship was stripped in 2019. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said Begum “will not be coming back to the UK.”
Hall said: “It could be quite a pragmatic decision in the overall interests of national security to bring someone back.
“There is obviously some national security benefit of leaving people there because you don’t have to monitor them.
“On the other hand, there haven’t yet been any attacks in Europe by anyone who has been repatriated in this way and if they are left there ... and then they escape, they would be much more dangerous, actually, to the UK.”
The US and some European countries have repatriated their citizens from Syrian camps. Many have been put on trial and imprisoned.
Lammy said Begum’s case has been reviewed in court and the 25-year-old is “not a UK national.”
Many of the detainees are “dangerous, are radicals,” he told the “Good Morning Britain” show on Thursday.
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has also said Begum should not be allowed to return to the UK.
“Citizenship means committing to a country and wanting its success. It’s not an international travel document for crime tourism,” Badenoch said.
IMF chief sees steady world growth in 2025, continuing disinflation
- Georgieva’s comments are the first indication this year of the IMF’s evolving global outlook
- The IMF will release an update to global outlook on Jan. 17, just days before Trump takes office
WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund will forecast steady global growth and continuing disinflation when it releases an updated World Economic Outlook on Jan. 17, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters on Friday.
Georgieva said the US economy was doing “quite a bit better” than expected, although there was high uncertainty around the trade policies of the administration of President-elect Donald Trump that was adding to headwinds facing the global economy and driving long-term interest rates higher.
With inflation moving closer to the US Federal Reserve’s target, and data showing a stable labor market, the Fed could afford to wait for more data before undertaking further interest rate cuts, she said. Overall, interest rates were expected to stay “somewhat higher for quite some time,” she said.
The IMF will release an update to its global outlook on Jan. 17, just days before Trump takes office. Georgieva’s comments are the first indication this year of the IMF’s evolving global outlook, but she gave no detailed projections.
In October, the IMF raised its 2024 economic growth forecasts for the US, Brazil and Britain but cut them for China, Japan and the euro zone, citing risks from potential new trade wars, armed conflicts and tight monetary policy.
At the time, it left its forecast for 2024 global growth unchanged at the 3.2 percent projected in July, and lowered its global forecast for 3.2 percent growth in 2025 by one-tenth of a percentage point, warning that global medium-term growth would fade to 3.1 percent in five years, well below its pre-pandemic trend.
“Not surprisingly, given the size and role of the US economy, there is keen interest globally in the policy directions of the incoming administration, in particular on tariffs, taxes, deregulation and government efficiency,” Georgieva said.
“This uncertainty is particularly high around the path for trade policy going forward, adding to the headwinds facing the global economy, especially for countries and regions that are more integrated in global supply chains, medium-sized economies, (and) Asia as a region.”
Georgieva said it was “very unusual” that this uncertainty was expressed in higher long-term interest rates even though short-term interest rates had gone down, a trend not seen in recent history.
The IMF saw divergent trends in different regions, with growth expected to stall somewhat in the European Union and to weaken “a little” in India, while Brazil was facing somewhat higher inflation, Georgieva said.
In China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, the IMF was seeing deflationary pressure and ongoing challenges with domestic demand, she said.
Lower-income countries, despite reform efforts, were in a position where any new shocks would hit them “quite negatively,” she said.
Georgieva said it was notable that higher interest rates needed to combat inflation had not pushed the global economy into recession, but headline inflation developments were divergent, which meant central bankers needed to carefully monitor local data.
The strong US dollar could potentially result in higher funding costs for emerging market economies and especially low-income countries, she said.
Most countries needed to cut fiscal spending after high outlays during the COVID pandemic and adopt reforms to boost growth in a durable way, she said, adding that in most cases this could be done while protecting their growth prospects.
“Countries cannot borrow their way out. They can only grow out of this problem,” she said, noting that the medium-growth prospects for the world were the lowest seen in decades.
China marks muted 5th anniversary of first Covid death
BEIJING: The fifth anniversary of the first known death from Covid-19 passed seemingly unnoticed in China Saturday, with no official remembrances in a country where the pandemic is a taboo subject.
On January 11, 2020, health officials in the central Chinese city of Wuhan announced that a 61-year-old man had died from complications of pneumonia caused by a previously unknown virus.
The disclosure came after authorities had reported dozens of infections over several weeks by the pathogen later named SARS-CoV-2 and understood as the cause of Covid-19.
It went on to spark a global pandemic that has so far killed over seven million people and profoundly altered ways of life around the world, including in China.
On Saturday, however, there appeared to be no official memorials in Beijing’s tightly controlled official media.
The ruling Communist Party kept a tight leash on public discussion throughout its zero-Covid policy, and has eschewed reflections on the hard-line curbs since dramatically ditching them at the end of 2022.
On social media, too, many users seemed unaware of the anniversary.
A few videos circulating on Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok — noted the date but repeated the official version of events.
FIRST COVID CASE
And on the popular Weibo platform, users who gravitated to the former account of Li Wenliang — the whistleblower doctor who was investigated by police for spreading early information about the virus — did not directly reference the anniversary.
“Dr. Li, another year has gone by,” read one comment on Saturday. “How quickly time passes.”
There was also little online commemoration in Hong Kong, where Beijing largely snuffed out opposition voices when it imposed a sweeping national security law on the semi-autonomous city in 2020.
Unlike other countries, China has not built major memorials to those who lost their lives during the pandemic.
Little is known about the identity of the first Covid casualty except that he was a frequent visitor to a Wuhan seafood market where the virus is thought to have circulated during the initial outbreak.
Within days of his death, other countries reported their first cases of the disease, showing that official efforts to contain its spread had failed.
China was later criticized by Western governments for allegedly covering up the early transmission of the virus and effacing evidence of its origins, though Beijing has vehemently maintained it acted decisively and with full transparency.
According to the WHO, China has officially reported nearly 100 million Covid cases and 122,000 deaths to date, although the true number will likely never be known.
In 2023, Beijing declared a “decisive victory” over Covid, calling its response a “miracle in human history.”
