Chaos during Maldives parliament session
NewsFeed MPs went after each other, throwing punches, pulling hair and blowing toy trumpets during a session of parliament in the Maldives. The fight came after the opposition party refused to approve 4 new cabinet ministers – who are members of the newly-elected president’s party. Published On 29 Jan 202429 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli intelligence accuses UNRWA staff of kidnap, seizing body
Israeli intelligence dossier alleges that a dozen UN agency employees were involved in the October 7 attack on Israel. An Israeli intelligence document that prompted several countries to halt funds for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) includes allegations that some staff took part in abductions and killings during the Hamas-led attack against Israel on October 7. The Israeli dossier alleges that some 190 UNRWA employees, including teachers, have doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters, the Reuters news agency reported. Palestinian officials have accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish UNRWA. The UN has fired nine of the accused workers, condemned “the abhorrent alleged acts” and launched an investigation into the allegations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met the head of internal investigations at the world body to ensure an inquiry into the allegations “will be done swiftly and as efficiently as possible,” a UN spokesperson said on Monday. Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people and taking 240 others captive, according to Israeli figures. Israel responded to the attack with a devastating bombardment, siege and ground invasion of Gaza. More than 26,600 people have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities, and vast areas of the territory have been reduced to rubble. The Israeli document listed 12 people, their alleged roles in the October 7 attack, job descriptions and photos. The findings detailed in the document could not be independently confirmed. The dossier said of the 12 workers, nine were teachers and one a social worker. Seven of the employees were accused of crossing into Israel on October 7. Of those, one was accused of taking part in a kidnapping, another of helping to abduct the body of a dead soldier and three others of participating in the attacks. One was accused of arming himself with an anti-tank missile the night before the attack, while the document claimed another took photos of a female hostage. Ten were listed as having ties to Hamas and one to the Islamic Jihad militant group. Two of the 12 have been killed, according to the document. The UN previously said one person was still being identified. Funds suspension The allegations against UNRWA staffers led several donor countries to freeze funds for the agency. UNRWA provides crucial day-to-day assistance for 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who are living through a dire humanitarian catastrophe amid the Israeli assault. The agency said on Monday that it would not be able to continue operations in Gaza and across the region beyond the end of February if funding were not resumed. More than 10 countries, including major donors the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, have halted their funding to the agency. Some donor countries have said they would continue to fund UNRWA, while others have urged donors to resume their cooperation. Saudi Arabia urged the agency’s supporters to “carry out their role in supporting the humanitarian tasks toward Palestinian refugees”. Lebanon called the suspension of funding a “historic mistake”, and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said UNRWA should not be punished over claims against individual staff members. Since the war began, most Palestinians in Gaza have come to depend on the agency’s programmes for “sheer survival”, including food and shelter, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has said. Long-standing tensions The allegations have stoked long-standing tensions between Israel and UNRWA. Israel says Hamas uses the agency’s facilities to store weapons and launch attacks. UNRWA says it does not knowingly tolerate such behaviour and has internal safeguards to prevent abuses and discipline any wrongdoing. Even before the latest allegations, Lazzarini had announced that he was ordering an external review of the agency’s operations and its safeguards. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he had cancelled a Wednesday meeting between Israeli officials and Lazzarini, and called on the UNRWA head to resign. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Kharkiv is their priority’: Deadly Russian attacks hit Ukraine’s northeast
Kharkiv, Ukraine – Like an enormous scalpel out of a surreal horror movie, a Russian missile sliced off an entire section of a five-storey apartment building, killing 10 people and wounding 60. After putting out the fire in last week’s predawn attack, rescue workers found the victims buried in the rubble that used to be the walls, ceilings and furniture of their apartments. “We dug out a guy, alive, but his family – a wife and an eight-year-old daughter – were dead,” one of the distressed rescue workers, with his hands and uniform black from the soot and dust, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday. The strike hit Building 7 on Proskury Street in northern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city that sits only 40km (25 miles) from the Russian border. Ukrainian officials said Kharkiv was targeted by 15 Russian missiles of three types in one of the largest attacks on the city since the war began 23 months ago. There were remodelled S-300 missiles, parts of air defence systems that intercept and destroy other missiles midair, and X-22 hypersonic missiles designed to destroy warships. The largest and most lethal weapons were Iskanders, 7-metre-long monsters that cost $3m, weigh almost 4 tonnes and carry up to 480kg (1,058 pounds) of explosives – or a nuclear warhead. Ukrainians in Kharkiv dodge shards of glass and rush to survive when Russia intensifies shelling [Mansur Mirovalev/Al Jazeera] Ukrainian officials have not yet specified what missile type hit Building 7, but a military expert said Russia “most likely” used an S-300 missile. “They’re not precise, this is moral and psychological pressure to destroy the city further,” Lieutenant-General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera. “Kharkiv is their priority, because [President Vladimir] Putin can’t forgive the fact that a Russian-speaking city didn’t want to become part of the Russian world,” he said. Moscow habitually denies it targeted civilians. Russia “doesn’t hit civilian infrastructure and residential areas, unlike the Kyiv regime”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. The Itar Tass news agency reported that Russia delivered “pinpointed strikes on the quarters for mercenaries”. Hitting Kharkiv The city with a pre-war population of 1.5 million is Ukraine’s most vulnerable urban centre. Russia lies north and east of it, and the border of Moscow-annexed Luhansk region is about 150km (90 miles) to the southeast. Almost 5,000 windows in 222 buildings were broken by the blasts and shockwaves throughout the region on January 23, officials said. In Building 7, communal workers, working quickly and efficiently, yanked out razor-sharp glass shards and covered each gaping hole with yellow, honeycomb-like rectangles of strand board to keep the biting cold away. They checked each apartment for natural gas leaks, fixed damaged entrance doors and started removing bricks the blast broke in half, pieces of glass, plastic and other debris. It was business as usual on the verge of exhaustion. “Their salaries are 5,400 hryvnia [$145] a month, but the amount of work is colossal – to collect it all, load [onto trucks] and take away,” district head of communal services Vera Fyodorovna told Al Jazeera. Two excavators were fumbling for the debris near Building 7, just 30 metres (about 100 feet) away from where another Russian bomb landed in April 2022. Since day one of the full-scale invasion, Russian forces have tried to seize Kharkiv, dispatching armed personnel carriers almost to the city centre. Moscow has deployed strategic bombers, ballistic or cruise missiles, and Iranian or Russian-made drones that only take minutes to reach the city from across the border. Unlike the capital, Kyiv, which received advanced Western air defence systems within months, Kharkiv remains almost defenceless. Residents and authorities have had to adapt quickly as any delays mean lost lives. The city’s subway system served as a 24/7 bomb shelter – and some stations occasionally became classrooms for the schoolchildren waiting out the air raids. The Kharkiv subway system has long served as a bomb shelter [Mansur Mirovalev/Al Jazeera] Public gatherings, museum exhibitions and even classes in community centres were banned. Gyms and swimming pools warn their patrons about each air raid, but let them decide whether to leave or stay. Daring Ukrainian missile and drone attacks forced Moscow to relocate the strategic bombers to airfields hundreds of kilometres away from the border. They do not cross into Ukrainian airspace any more, but their speed gives an additional boost to the missiles they launch. Each time satellites spot their takeoff, Kharkiv residents receive warnings and information on possible trajectories via Telegram or Viber channels. Old-fashioned air raid sirens also begin howling – but many residents are so used to their high-pitched sound that they simply do not wake up. That is why Tamara Karnaukhova woke up only when her balcony door fell on her bed. Tamara Karnaukhova, pensioner, pictured in her damaged kitchen [Mansur Mirovalev/Al Jazeera] The retired 76-year-old did not know whether to stay in her modest one-bedroom apartment in Building 7 or run away. The shockwave crumbled most of the windows and damaged the front door. “I wasn’t scared, I was confused,” she told Al Jazeera. After the blast, she ran downstairs as smoke gushed from broken windows and glass cracked under her feet. While she was at her neighbour’s, marauders sneaked into her apartment, rummaging in the kitchen but taking no valuables. Karnaukhova still cannot fathom why Russia invaded. “Do they need land? Resources?” she wondered aloud. “They already have it all.” ‘Lost count’ When the war began, Valerii Ivakhno joined a volunteer group that rides around in a minivan and hands out hot drinks, snacks and porridge to shelling victims. His 85-year-old mother’s apartment in central Kharkiv was heavily damaged in 2022, and he spent all of his savings to renovate it. But on Tuesday morning, the brand-new windows were knocked out. Luckily, his mother knew the “be between two walls” rule and rushed to the corridor seconds before the shards of glass showered her bed. Ivakhno said he is glad
What is Tower 22, the Jordan-based US outpost targeted in a drone strike?
The United States military announced on Sunday that three US soldiers were killed and at least 34 were wounded in a drone attack targeting Tower 22, a remote logistics outpost near the Jordan-Syrian border. The attack has elicited a strong reaction from Washington with President Joe Biden pledging to hold the attackers to account. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups in the region, claimed the attacks, saying it was in response to US support to Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 26,000 people. Here is what we know about the drone strike and the attack site: What is Tower 22 and where is it located? Tower 22, which houses a small US logistics outpost, is located in Jordan’s northeast close to the borders with Iraq and Syria. Public information about the outpost is limited. However, according to media reports, Tower 22 serves as a supply hub for the nearby US garrison of al-Tanf located across the border in Syria. At least 350 US Army and Air Force soldiers are also stationed there. It is unclear what type of weapons are kept at the outpost and the nature of air defences used. Since the beginning of Syria’s war in 2011, Washington has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help Amman set up an elaborate surveillance system known as the Border Security Programme to stem infiltration by armed fighters from Syria and Iraq. Al-Tanf, located on the Baghdad-Damascus highway, had been key in the fight against the ISIL (ISIS) armed group and has assumed a role as part of a US strategy to contain Iran’s military build-up in eastern Syria. Currently about 2,500 US troops are stationed in Iraq while 900 deployed in north-east Syria. Jordan has a close security pact with the US and is one of the few regional allies who hold extensive exercises with American troops. Jordan’s army is one of the largest recipients of Washington’s foreign military financing. What do we know about the drone strike in Jordan? The killing of three US service members in an overnight drone strike is the first since Israel launched its brutal military campaign in Gaza on October 7, which has killed more than 26,000 people and triggered responses from regional armed groups. The unmanned aerial strike targeted the living quarters in Tower 22 wounding 34 soldiers, some of whom sustained minor cuts or brain trauma, according to media reports. The US military said that at least eight of the wounded soldiers were flown out of Jordan for treatment. Experts have raised questions about why the outpost’s air defences failed to detect the drone. The identity of the soldiers killed in the attack has not been released yet. How has the Biden administration reacted? President Biden said he will hold those responsible to account. “While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden said in a statement. Iran has denied it was behind the attack. “Iran had no connection and had nothing to do with the attack on the US base,” Tehran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement on Monday published by the state news agency IRNA. “There is a conflict between US forces and resistance groups in the region, which reciprocate retaliatory attacks.” How have others reacted to the attack? Jordan condemned the “terrorist attack” and said it was cooperating with ally Washington to secure its frontier and “fight terrorism” on Sunday. Former US President Donald Trump also condemned the attack, blaming it on the Biden administration: “This brazen attack on the United States is yet another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender.” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Senator Roger Wicke, all attributed the attack to Iran. Democratic leaders including Chuck Schumer, Jacky Rosen and Hakeem Jeffries also voiced in favour of holding those responsible accountable. Heartbroken and outraged by the death of three U.S. service members and the wounding of many others during the horrific terrorist attack in the Middle East. Praying hard for all affected. Every single malignant actor responsible must be held accountable. — Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) January 28, 2024 Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz said: “We stand united in our values and battle against a common enemy. Their sacrifice will always be remembered. Rest in peace. Wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.” Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also released a statement, affirming the country’s “strong condemnation of any terrorist acts that threaten the security and stability of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, expressing full solidarity with Jordan in this delicate situation”. Have there been other attacks on US interests in the region? The latest attack comes amid an increasing risk of spillover of the Gaza war as tensions rise and spread in the region. The US-based, non-profit think tank, Institute for the Study of War, reported that Iran-backed militias have launched over 170 attacks targeting US bases in Iraq and Syria since Israel’s war on Gaza in the wake of the deadly Hamas attack on October 7. On January 21, the US Central Command said that Iranian-backed groups attacked the Ain al-Assad airbase in Iraq. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria. The group said on Sunday that it will continue its attacks as a response to “the massacres committed by the Zionist entity [Israel] against our people in Gaza” on the “strongholds of the enemies.” Israel has been dragged to the International Court of Justice by South Africa over the accusations of genocide committed in Gaza. The group on Monday carried out a drone strike on Israel. Iranian-backed Militants Attack Al-Assad Airbase, Iraq At approximately 6:30 p.m. (Baghdad time) time Jan. 20, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants in Western Iraq targeting al-Assad Airbase. Most
Two vessels freed following Somali pirate hijackings
The rise in pirate activity off Somalia suggests the impact of the Gaza war continues to spread across the region. One Sri Lankan and one Iranian vessel are reported to have been freed following hijackings by Somali pirates. Seychelles forces rescued a Sri Lankan fishing boat on Monday, according to President Wavel Ramkalawan’s office. Meanwhile, the Indian Navy said it had freed an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel. The attacks on the vessels “by armed Somali pirates”, according to the Seychelles statement, raise further concerns over security in the region’s waters. Amid the war in Gaza, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have waged a campaign targeting ships in the Red Sea. “Seychellois special military forces boarded the boat with utmost courage to take complete control of the vessel and rescue our Sri Lankan brothers,” the presidency said in the statement. Sri Lanka had earlier reported that diplomats were talking with Somali authorities trying to ascertain the whereabouts of a fishing vessel and its six crew members. The apparent abduction had come two weeks after Sri Lanka said it would join the US-led operation to protect merchant vessels sailing in the Red Sea against the Houthi attacks. Meanwhile, the Indian Navy announced that it had freed an Iranian fishing vessel hijacked off the coast of Somalia. “The fishing vessel had been boarded by pirates and the crew taken as hostages,” Indian Navy spokesman Commander Vivek Madhwal said, naming the vessel as the Iranian-flagged Iman. An Indian naval warship had “ensured the successful release of all 17 crew members along with the boat,” he added. The suspected hijackings in waters off Somalia have raised concerns that Somali pirates have resumed activity, a decade after they caused chaos in international shipping. The hijacking of the Sri Lankan vessel occurred in international waters about 840 nautical miles (1,555km) east of Somalia, 1,100 nautical miles (2,040km) from Sri Lanka and north of Seychelles, Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Captain Gayan Wickramasuriya said. Two to three armed men had arrived in a 23m (75-foot) vessel, boarded the fishing trawler, fired shots apparently to warn away other fishing boats nearby, and taken away the fishing trawler and the fishermen, said Susantha Kahawatta, a top official in Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Department. Kahawatta added that all details of the abduction were provided by fishermen in the other trawlers, and they identified the attackers as Somali. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched scores of attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in response to Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. International naval forces previously patrolling the Gulf of Aden have diverted north into the Red Sea in a bid to halt the attacks. That has sparked fears that Somali pirates could seek to exploit the vacuum. A first successful case of Somali piracy since 2017 was recorded in December. Adblock test (Why?)
Taking Modi on: Can a crumbling opposition alliance beat India’s PM?
New Delhi, India — Over the weekend, a popular joke on Indian social media featured Nitish Kumar, the 72-year-old nine-time chief minister of the east Indian state of Bihar. Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) party, or just JD(U), had been a part of the INDIA opposition bloc – a group of more than two dozen political outfits that hopes to take on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in national elections between March and May. But on Sunday, he broke away and instead joined hands with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of parties led by the BJP. He resigned as chief minister, then was sworn in again, this time with his new partners — all within hours. The joke (when translated) read: “Nitish Kumar is the only chief minister, who while being chief minister, resigns as chief minister so that he can remain chief minister.” The BJP and its allies might well be laughing. Two months before nearly a billion Indians vote to elect their next government, Kumar’s exit from the INDIA alliance serves as a blow to the opposition’s chances of challenging Modi, who is aiming for a third term as prime minister. It also reveals deeper fissures in the opposition alliance. Also last week, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of the neighbouring state of West Bengal and leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, pulled out of the alliance, which is led by India’s principal opposition party, the Congress. Apart from the Congress, the alliance primarily consists of regional, state-specific parties. Both Banerjee and Kumar cited rifts with the Congress for their exit from the alliance. The main bone of contention: who gets to contest how many of the 543 parliamentary seats in the country. Congress vs regional parties The INDIA bloc is hoping to leverage India’s first-past-the-post electoral system by fielding one joint opposition candidate against the BJP and NDA in all parliamentary constituencies. Such a move, opposition parties argue, would ensure that the anti-BJP votes are consolidated and not divided among various opposition players. But agreeing on consensus candidates is easier said than done. “The charges all the regional parties are making is that Congress is trying to put a lot of pressure on them and demanding a larger number of seats than they should get,” Sanjay Kumar, political analyst and psephologist, told Al Jazeera. That assertion was corroborated by KC Tyagi, general secretary of JD(U). Speaking to Al Jazeera, he said the Congress was keen on occupying political space but did not want to cede space to regional parties. “In the states where Congress is strong, they are not parting with even one seat. And then in the states where regional parties are strong, they want a disproportionate number of seats,” said Tyagi. “It’s not just us but all constituents of the alliance were uncomfortable with them.” Similarly, TMC’s Banerjee, while announcing her decision to break away from the alliance, cited a failure in seat-sharing talks with the Congress as one of the reasons for going into the polls solo. What has also irked the TMC and the JD(U) is that Rahul Gandhi, a Congress parliamentarian and scion of the Gandhi family that has headed the party for decades, has embarked on a journey from the east to the west of the country, without adequately consulting them. The journey is called the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which loosely translates into Uniting India through Justice March, a sequel to Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra last year where he walked more than 4,000km (2,485 miles) from the south to the north of India. Both Banerjee and Nitish Kumar said they were not asked about the route of the yatra that goes through the states they rule. The JD(U) further said that instead of a Congress programme – which only builds Gandhi’s image – the party should have organised a nationwide programme under the INDIA banner. The constituents of the alliance also accuse the Congress of delaying seat-sharing talks. Over the last year, the Congress won provincial elections in the crucial southern state of Karnataka and in the hilly northern state of Himachal Pradesh. While this provided the party (and India’s opposition) with some momentum against Modi, losses in the three crucial north Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in December came as a blow for the Congress. Banerjee and Kumar have said the Congress postponed seat-sharing talks in the hope of winning these three states where it was in a one-on-one contest with the BJP. A win in these states would have put the Congress in a better bargaining position in the alliance. INDIA vs INDIA The alliance also faces a challenge in states like Punjab and Kerala, where INDIA partners are the main rivals and the BJP has a negligible presence. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), an INDIA constituent, is the governing party and the Congress is the main opposition party. The AAP also runs the government in the national capital territory of Delhi. Similarly, in Kerala, the Left Front rules the state, while the Congress is in opposition. While Banerjee and Kumar were making their exits last week, the AAP chief minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, announced that his party will go solo in the state and will not ally with the Congress. Officially, however, the AAP says that while seat negotiations in Punjab are a work in progress, it has reached a preliminary understanding with the Congress in a few other states, including Delhi. “We have had two meetings with the Congress which were attended by their senior leaders. We had a very constructive dialogue with them and had discussions on some of the states,” Saurabh Bharadwaj, an AAP spokesperson and legislator in Delhi, told Al Jazeera. “We’ll soon close the discussion.” “With respect to Punjab, our state unit is not very keen to have an alliance. But we have not taken our final call yet”, he added. Negotiating the interests of the state units with
Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 115
EXPLAINER Iran denies involvement in drone attack that killed US troops and Israel continues to hamper delivery of aid to Gaza. Here’s how things stand on Monday, January 29, 2024: Latest developments Three United States troops were killed and dozens others injured in a drone strike on Sunday near a US military base close to the Jordan-Syria border. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organisation of Iran-backed armed groups, has claimed responsibility. Only eight planned United Nations missions to northern Gaza have successfully gone ahead since the beginning of January. Some 29 aid convoys were denied permission by Israeli authorities, while other deliveries were impeded by “excessive delays”, the UN’s humanitarian agency in the occupied Palestinian territories said on Sunday. Complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian discrimination and hate in the US rose by about 180 percent in the first three months of Israel’s war on Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on Monday. Hundreds of members of the Israeli settler community gathered for a convention in Jerusalem on Sunday calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in Gaza. The so-called “Return to Gaza” conference called for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the enclave. Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Jerusalem convention, which was also attended by 11 ministers of Israel’s new right-wing coalition government and 15 Knesset members, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Human impact and fighting The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Sunday it has buried three people in the courtyard of the al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza as Israeli forces besiege the area. Israeli forces shot and killed a man in the town of al-Yamoun, west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, early on Monday, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. Israel’s war against Hamas could last “10 years, or even an entire generation”, Benny Gantz, a senior member of Netanyahu’s government, was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel citing an interview with Channel12. About 200 people, many of them journalists, took part in a vigil in Cape Town on Sunday evening to express solidarity with Palestinian journalists and remember media workers killed in Gaza since October 7, reported South African news outlet GroundUp. Diplomacy On Monday, Iran denied any involvement in the drone strike that killed three US soldiers near the Jordan-Syria border. During an event to honour Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza on Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog accused the International Court of Justice of twisting his words in its interim ruling ordering Israel to take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza. Japan announced on Sunday that it will suspend additional funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) while it awaits the outcome of the agency’s investigation into allegations that several of its staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks in Israel. Tokyo’s decision follows similar funding pauses by at least 10 Western countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the US. Jordan, Turkey, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Amnesty International have called on countries to reinstate funds for UNRWA. Adblock test (Why?)
Iranian FM in Pakistan to mend ties following mutual air strikes
Tehran and Islamabad have moved to de-escalate amid high concern that the Gaza war could spill out across region. Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Pakistan as the two countries seek to calm tensions, which have risen amid the conflict in Gaza. Hossein Amirabdollahian landed in Islamabad before dawn on Monday for “in-depth talks” with Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Tehran and Islamabad are seeking to calm relations after carrying out tit-for-tat air strikes on each other’s territories earlier this month. The attacks, which each country claimed targeted terrorists in border regions and killed at least 11 people, came as Israel’s bombardment of Gaza escalated tension across the region. However, the elevated threat of a full-blown conflict appeared to send Islamabad and Tehran scrambling to pull back and rebuild diplomatic relations. The two ministers insisted following their meeting that close relations between Pakistan and Iran are an important source of stability for the region, and resolved to expand political and security cooperation. Both spoke of respect for one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The pair agreed to confront the “menace of terrorism” together, especially in the mountainous region on their shared border, which was the location of both air strikes. They also pledged to lift the regions economically. Iran’s Amirabdollahian added that “terrorists” in the border areas are supported by third countries. He did not offer any details on the claim. Western countries accuse Tehran of supporting several groups that they designate as terrorist. Iran’s foreign minister is also set to meet Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar during his visit. Amirabdollahian said that Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Pakistan soon, adding that a date was yet be determined. Tit-for-tat Iran and Pakistan have long been wary of armed groups in their borderlands, and it is thought that internal political pressures, as well as the spillover of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, helped push them over the edge. Tension reached a nadir on January 17, when Iran struck a target in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. Tehran said it was a hideout for anti-Iran armed group Jaish al-Adl (the Army of Justice). Pakistan said two children were killed and three others were injured. Islamabad, in retaliation, recalled its ambassador from Tehran. Two days later it launched an air strike against what it alleges were hideouts of armed groups in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province. Pakistan said it targeted Baloch groups with separatist aims, in an attack that killed at least nine people. The attacks sent concern spiking regarding a regional escalation of the Gaza war. Iran and Pakistan, however, quickly made a joint decision to de-escalate tensions and resume diplomatic links, with their respective ambassadors returning to their posts and Amirabdollahian’s visit arranged. During his trip, the Iranian official will also discuss Saturday’s killing of nine Pakistani labourers by gunmen in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, which Islamabad called “horrifying and despicable”. The families of the victims rallied on Sunday to demand their bodies be brought home. Pakistan has said that arrangements are being made with Iran’s help. Adblock test (Why?)
Iran executes four convicted of Israeli bomb plot
The defendants were accused of plotting a bomb attack on a factory making military equipment. Iran has executed four men it says were linked to an Israeli intelligence operation. The death sentences were carried out on Monday after the Supreme Court rejected appeals, according to Iranian state media. The quartet was accused of planning a bomb attack ordered by Israel’s Mossad agency. The men were convicted of illegally entering Iran from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region to attack a factory in the central city of Isfahan that produces equipment for the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics. The operation was planned for summer 2022 but was averted by Iranian intelligence. “The death sentence of four members of a group affiliated with the Zionist spy organisation … was carried out this morning,” the Iranian judiciary’s website Mizan Online reported. Iran and Israel are longtime foes. They’re currently locked in a row over Iran’s nuclear programme. Israel accuses Iran of backing armed groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, with which it is fighting. Iran says Israel has carried out a number of killings of Iranian officials and scientists, accusations that Tel Aviv neither confirms nor denies. Wave of executions Iran executes more people per year than any other country except China, according to Amnesty, and usually does so by hanging. In late December, it put to death three men and one woman convicted for alleged links to Mossad. Last week, Mohammed Ghobadlou, an Iranian man sentenced for his participation in antigovernment protests in late 2022 was executed. Critics said the defendant had suffered from mental health issues. “We are alarmed by reports of unfair trial proceedings in the case of Mr Ghobadlou, as well as in other cases, which fell far short of due process and fair trial standards required by international human rights law by which Iran is bound,” experts from UN’s human rights agency after the sentence was carried out. “We are dismayed by the unprecedented rise in executions in Iran and note that at least 834 people were executed in 2023, including 8 people associated with the nationwide protests,” the experts said. “We urge the Iranian government to stop this horrific wave of executions.” United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said last year that Iran had an “abominable” track record of executions, with an average of more than 10 people hanged each week. Adblock test (Why?)
Two brothers shot by Israeli forces in Khan Younis, white flag ignored
Khan Younis, Gaza – “Amal” in Arabic means hope, the kind of name given to a new neighbourhood to encourage people to move there and dream of their families growing up there. But last week, what weak glimmers of hope the Barbakh family had that they would make it out of al-Amal alive were quickly dashed when Israeli sniper fire took the lives of two of their sons. This photo taken by Ahmed Barbakh shows his two brothers shot on the street, Ramez was shot in the heart and fell on top of his 13-year-old brother who had been shot repeatedly. The white flag is visible where it fell from Nahedh’s hand [Courtesy of the Barbakh family] The two boys were waving a white flag. Orders to evacuate Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency has investigated the crime in which 13-year-old Nahedh and 20-year-old Ramez Barbakh were shot to death by sniper fire. On the morning of Wednesday, January 24, the Barbakhs were getting ready to leave al-Amal, west of Khan Younis, and move further south as they had been ordered to do by the leaflets dropping on their neighbourhood since the day before and by announcements by Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli army. “We didn’t know what to do,” the boys’ mother Islam told Al Jazeera. “In the beginning, we weren’t even sure about these evacuation orders because we hadn’t seen them ourselves. We were trying to lay low in our house and keep everybody safe. “But finally we realised that we would have to go and started trying to come up with a plan. My husband and sons thought maybe we could break a rear wall and go out that way, because we could hear that there was firing outside.” Eventually, though, the couple decided that the best way would be the most direct: they would walk out of their house with a white flag and make their way to al-Mawasi as directed. #عاجل 🔴🔴 الى سكان منطقة خان يونس في أحياء النصر، الأمل، مركز المدينة والمخيم (المعسكر) في بلوكات 107-112: من أجل سلامتكم عليكم الانتقال فورًا إلى المنطقة الإنسانية في المواصي عن طريق شارع البحر pic.twitter.com/K4MtDeKMSR — افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) January 24, 2024 Translation: #URGENT to the residents of Khan Younis in the neighbourhoods of al-Nasser, al-Amal, town centre and the camp, in blocks 107-112: For your own safety, you must move immediately to the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi via the coastal road. “I called Nahedh over,” said Mohamed-Adel, their father. “I gave him a white cloth to wave above his head as a white flag. I thought, there’s no way anybody would want to hurt a child or would be scared of a child.” As the rest of the family was bundling together the last of their belongings that they thought they could take with them, Nahedh took a few cautious steps out of the front door, waving his white flag overhead and walking cautiously out to the corner so he could look at the main road to see which way his family should go. ‘They just lay there all day’ According to what the family told Al Jazeera, as Nahedh took a few steps out of the door, he was shot in the legs and fell to the ground. His father called to him from within the house’s doorway, coaxing his little boy to get up just a little bit and try to get back into the house. When Nahedh got up to try to make it back into the house, he was shot twice more, in the back and in the head. His brother Ahmed, 18, told Al Jazeera that the shooting was coming from the direction of al-Katiba about 400 metres [1,312 feet] away, an area where Sanad was able to confirm Israeli military activity on the day in question. Islam was paralysed with shock when she saw her children shot in the street [Courtesy of the Barbakh family] Seeing what had happened to his little brother, Ramez ran out of the house to try to pull him out of harm’s way. He was shot in the heart and fell on his stricken brother, white flag and all. Islam was unable to comprehend what had befallen her family, paralysed with anguish as she looked out of her window at her two sons lying crumpled on the road. “I kept hoping that they were still alive, that there was some breath in them,” she said. “I couldn’t think of anything other than ‘I want my children, I want my children.’ “I’m not sure how I stayed inside the house, but all I remember is screaming out of the window at anyone I saw on the other side of the street, asking them to help, to do anything. “They didn’t do anything, they couldn’t. Whenever I called out to someone, my husband and sons would shush me any way they could. They were there to kill people,” she continued. The family could not approach the bodies of Nahedh and Ramez and eventually had to flee the neighbourhood without knowing what became of them. “They were just there, in the street, all day,” said Islam. “When we left we couldn’t remove their bodies nor could we even stop to check on them. There was constant shooting.” Mohamed-Adel Barbakh talking to Al Jazeera [Courtesy Barbakh family] Only one photo survives of that crime. It was snapped by Ahmed, the boys’ brother, who told Al Jazeera he “took a photo of my murdered brothers so I never forget them, and to document this crime that was committed, the crime of shooting a child who is carrying a white flag and then shooting his brother who rushes out to save him”. What the investigation revealed The Sanad investigation pinpointed the exact location where Ramez and Nahedh were targeted by Israeli snipers, near the Harun ar-Rashid school in al-Amal, also known as “Block 109” on the map the Israeli army released of Gaza. According to the testimonies,