Each year, Muslims retrace the steps of the Prophet Mohammed from nearly 1,400 years ago to Mecca and Medina, to complete the hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. About 2 million people are taking part in the event that began Wednesday and continues through Monday. Behind the scenes, more than 100,000 security men are deployed to ensure safety and security. And for the first time, Saudi women are part of security at an emergency call center in Mecca. VOA's Deborah Block has a report.
Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears to be alive, a top U.S. military commander said Thursday, contradicting Russia’s claims that it probably killed the top counterterror target months ago.
“Do I believe he’s alive? Yes,” said Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who commands the coalition forces fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, referring to al-Baghdadi.
At first, Townsend said his belief stemmed from a lack of evidence he had seen, “rumor or otherwise,” that al-Baghdadi was dead. But, he then added: “There are also some indicators in intelligence channels that he’s alive.” Townsend did not elaborate on the intelligence.
Russian officials said in June there was a “high probability” that al-Baghdadi died in a Russian airstrike on the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria, a month earlier.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from his headquarters in Baghdad, Townsend said U.S. and coalition forces are actively searching for al-Baghdadi. If they find him, they probably will kill him rather than capture him, he said.
A good guess about where al-Baghdadi is hiding, Townsend said, would be the so-called Middle Euphrates River Valley, stretching approximately from the city of Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria to the town of Rawa in western Iraq. He said this area is shaping up to be the group’s last stand following its ouster from nearly all of northern Iraq.
IS setbacks
The most recent IS setback was in Tal Afar, west of the also recently liberated city of Mosul, which had been the militants’ main stronghold in Iraq. The Iraqi government announced Thursday that Tal Afar had been returned to government control. Townsend called it a “stunningly swift” victory for the Iraqi army, moving “like a steamroller” into the city in a matter of days.
The IS militants, who swept into Iraq in 2014 against minimal resistance from the Iraqi army, still control a large area of eastern Syria along the border with Iraq, as well as parts of Raqqa, the capital of the group’s self-styled caliphate. Townsend said U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces have recaptured about half of Raqqa in ongoing fighting.
Assessing his 12 months in command of the U.S.-led coalition, Townsend said more tough fighting remains but signs are positive. It will be up to the Iraqi government, he said, to safeguard the gains troops have achieved since 2015, when Iraqi security forces began a U.S.-assisted counteroffensive in the western Anbar province.
“I think part of the rise of ISIS was disenfranchised peoples, most of them Sunnis, who looked at Baghdad and they didn’t see their government representing them or their interests or their future,” he said. “And I think that’s probably the most important thing that the government of Iraq has to do. It has to reach out, reconcile, bring all Iraqis together and be the government of all Iraqis.”
US in Iraq
Townsend said he hopes the U.S. government works out an arrangement for a long-term military presence in Iraq to minimize the chances of another IS-like episode. He said such talks are under way.
“We all saw what happened in 2011 when we parted ways completely,” he said, referencing the pullout of U.S. troops under former President Barack Obama and Iraq’s subsequent struggles.
“My personal view is I wouldn’t want to repeat that,” Townsend said. “So I think that our governments will work out something that will work for the future.”
Townsend is ending his year in command in Baghdad and will hand off next week to another three-star Army general, Paul Funk II.
He credited the Trump administration with putting greater trust in him and other commanders to execute the counter-IS campaign.
“The current administration has pushed decision-making down into the military chain of command,” Townsend said. “And I don’t know of a commander in our armed forces that doesn’t appreciate that.”
“A key result of that is that we don’t get second-guessed a lot,” he added. “Our judgment here on the battlefield in the forward areas is trusted. And we don’t get 20 questions with every action that happens on the battlefield and every action that we take.”
Read More US Commander: IS Leader al-Baghdadi Likely Still Alive : http://ift.tt/2eJuODv
Harvey has gathered headlines as the most powerful storm to hit Texas in half a century, but floods have killed many more people in Africa and Asia this year amid extreme weather worldwide.
Here are some of them:
South Asia
Floods in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have killed more than 1,200 people and affected 40 million, and are likely to intensify as monsoon rains continue, aid agencies say.
All three countries suffer frequent flooding during the June-September monsoon season, but aid agencies say things are worse this year, with thousands of villages cut off and people deprived of food and clean water for days.
Tens of thousands of houses, schools and hospitals have been destroyed as humanitarians prepare for more deaths, hunger and waterborne diseases.
"These are some of the worst floods we've seen in South Asia in decades, and the impact is likely only going to get worse," Madara Hettiarachchi, Christian Aid's humanitarian head in Asia, said in a statement. "Farms and livestock have been washed away, so food security is going to be a huge problem."
The worst floods in a decade struck Nepal, killing 150 people and destroying 90,000 homes.
Monsoon floods submerged more than a third of low-lying, densely populated Bangladesh, causing more than 130 deaths and widespread crop damage.
The latest disaster zone is Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, where overnight floods killed at least a dozen people, officials said Thursday.
West Africa
Widespread flooding has killed at least 40 people in Niger since the rainy season began in June, leaving thousands homeless, without cattle or crops.
Aid agencies are increasingly worried about waterborne diseases like cholera as the waters are not expected to subside until rains end in September.
A mudslide in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, on August 14 killed about 500 people after heavy rains, with hundreds still missing.
Sporadic downpours continue, flooding parts of the coastal city and washing away more mud containing human remains.
Heavy rainfall also sparked a landslide at a rubbish dump in Conakry, the capital of neighboring Guinea, last week, killing 10 people, while at least 200 people are thought to have died in another slide in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Yemen
At least 18 people were killed in Yemen in flooding caused by heavy rains, the government-run news agency Saba reported Wednesday.
Aid organizations say the rains could exacerbate Yemen's cholera epidemic, which has infected more than half a million people and killed nearly 2,000 since April.
Sources: Oxfam, International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Reuters
Read More Beyond Harvey: Deadly Floods Cause Havoc in Africa, Asia : http://ift.tt/2vNjJqK
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Thursday Iran had shown its "true colors" by restoring ties with Palestinian militant group Hamas and must be held to account by the international community.
The new leader of Hamas in Gaza said on Monday that Tehran was again its biggest provider of money and arms after years of tension over the civil war in Syria. Hamas had angered Iran by refusing to support its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in the six-year-old civil war.
Haley described the Hamas leader's statement as a "stunning admission." Iran is subject to an arms embargo - with exceptions granted only in cases when it has received U.N. Security Council approval for imports or exports.
"Iran is showing its true colors. Iran must decide whether it wants to be a member of the community of nations that can be expected to take its international obligations seriously or whether it wants to be the leader of a jihadist terrorist movement. It cannot be both," Haley said in a statement.
"It's long past time for the international community to hold Iran to the same standard that all countries who actually value peace and security are held to," she said.
Neither Hamas nor Iran have disclosed the full scale of Tehran's backing. But regional diplomats have said Iran's financial aid for the Islamist movement was dramatically reduced in recent years and directed to the Qassam Brigades rather than to Hamas' political institutions.
Hamas seeks Israel's destruction. It has fought three wars with Israel since seizing the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
Hamas and Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are locked in a political dispute over the issue of Palestinian unity.
Read More US: Iran Shows 'True Colors' by Restoring Hamas Ties : http://ift.tt/2wmGuFx
The Israeli Supreme Court has demanded an explanation from the government for its decision not to implement an agreement that would have expanded the section of a revered Jewish shrine where women can pray alongside men.
The deal between the government and several non-Orthodox groups, reached in January 2016, would have allowed mixed-gender worship at a part of the Western Wall. But the government suspended the deal six months later, after being pressured by its Orthodox coalition partners.
The Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday demanded answers. "One can't help but ask 'What exactly happened here?'" Chief Justice Miriam Naor said. "There was an agreement, they were working on it. But then the government came and said there isn't one. It raises some questions."
In accordance with strict ultra-Orthodox tradition, there are currently separate prayer sections for women and men at the wall. Women are also barred from leading the prayers or carrying the Torah.
The reform movement and other activists have been pushing for years to brings changes to the rules governing the wall.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews represent only about 10 percent of the Israeli population, but have wielded great power over the social fabric of the country.
In June, a Jerusalem court ruled the Israeli state airline El-Al can no longer ask female passengers to move seats to accommodate Orthodox men.
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Iraq's prime minister has declared victory over Islamic State in the city of Tal Afar and the entire province of Nineveh.
"Our happiness is complete, victory has arrived and the province of Nineveh is now entirely in the hands of our forces," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement.
U.S. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of coalition forces fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, praised Iraqis for their "stunningly swift and decisive victory" in the city of Tal Afar, where he says they came in "like a steamroller" to defeat the terror group.
The offensive on Tal Afar, which lies 80 kilometers west of the former Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, began on August 20.
"The Iraqi Security Forces attacked with a great deal of power on five axes of attack into Tal Afar and they were able to maintain that same pressure on all axes," Townsend told Pentagon reporters Thursday in a teleconference briefing from Baghdad.
The coalition estimated that there were 1,000 to 2,000 Islamic State fighters in Tal Afar. Townsend said the Iraqis and coalition forces killed between "1,000-1,2000 enemy fighters" with up to about 700 killed in Tal Afar city itself and another 300 to 500 killed when they started to flee north.
"The Iraqi Security forces and the coalition went there to annihilate ISIS forces that were there in Tal Afar, and I think we've done that," Townsend said, using an acronym for Islamic State. He added that there could be some small numbers of terrorist fighters hiding to the city's north.
While the fight for Tal Afar was swift, Townsend said the coalition was planning for "tough fights ahead," especially in the middle Euphrates River Valley, which stretches across 250 kilometers from Deir Ezzur, Syria, to Rawa, Iraq.
Townsend: Baghdadi still alive
Townsend, who leaves his command post in Baghdad next month, discounted recent reports that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead and said that he thinks that Baghdadi is alive and likely hiding somewhere in that middle Euphrates River Valley.
"We're looking for him every day," he said.
Townsend said his view was made due to "some indicators in intelligence channels that he [Baghdadi] is alive." However, he then added that his opinion was "just an educated guess."
There have been numerous reports of the Islamic State leader's demise, mostly recently in June, when Russia claimed to have killed him in an airstrike.
Read More Iraqi PM: 'Victory Has Arrived' in Tal Afar Over IS : http://ift.tt/2eIpOz5
“All you can hear at night is the sound of broken doors flapping in the wind,” says Abd Elaam, a 50-year-old furniture maker. “Even soldiers stay indoors after dark.”
Elaam is currently one of the very few civilians living in Old Mosul, an ancient neighborhood shattered by the battle to recapture the city from Islamic State militants. Like many families that survived IS rule, he says, his resources are completely exhausted by the war and he has nowhere else to go.
Other families trickle in by day, looking to repair their broken homes or recover the bodies of their dead loved ones. But even during daylight hours, the neighborhood is dangerous, riddled with bombs and an unknown number of militants hiding out in the vast network of tunnels under the tightly-packed buildings and piles of rubble. The level of destruction has been compared to World War II Dresden.
“A IS militant came out of one those houses two weeks ago,” Elaam says, gesturing towards another dusty, broken street. “He blew himself up near two families. They were all injured and the bomber was cut in half.”
The militant’s body, like other fallen IS fighters in Old Mosul, was shoved under the rubble to reduce the smell of rot in the 45 degree-plus weather. When Iraq declared victory over IS in early July, the bodies of dead militants lay scattered in buildings and on the streets of nearly every block. Authorities searched through giant piles of concrete, once homes, for the remains of civilian families. But, they said, the only government department responsible for the IS bodies was garbage collection.
Old Mosul is far from re-establishing city services like trash pickup. There is no running water, electricity or businesses open. Yet other families are following Elaam’s lead, and plan to return to their homes as soon as possible.
“In a few days I will move back and bring my family,” says Ghanem Younis, 72, resting on a beige plastic chair in a sliver of shade. “If they provide electricity and water, everyone would come back.”
Younger men and children squat around Ghanem, recalling the isolation of the final months of the battle that began late last year. “We couldn’t go more than 50 meters from our front doors,” says Sufian, a 27-year-old unemployed construction worker. “We spent our time sitting right here with Uncle Ghanem.”
But it is not sentiment driving some families home despite the dangers, adds Elaam, as more neighbors join the conversation.
“People cannot stay with friends and relatives forever,” he says. Camps for those displaced are also crowded. “No one has anywhere else to go,” he adds.
Airstrike Damage
A few blocks away, outside the checkpoints that cut off the Old City, the Zanjelli neighborhood is slowly being repopulated.
Construction workers build a market to replace one destroyed in airstrikes, while the owners of what was once a shoe store paint the shelves, hoping to re-open in the coming weeks. The wreckage from a few of the destroyed homes has been cleared away, and the bodies of many of the dead are now buried in graveyards. ,
In less than five minutes of conversation, at least three people tell us about family members, including toddlers, killed in airstrikes in the last months of battle.
“There was an IS sniper firing from next to my house and the airstrike hit us,” says Youseff Hussain, 35. “Fifteen members of my family were killed.”
Rebuilding the neighborhood, adds Hussain, is made doubly frustrating by the fact that it was Iraq's allies, including the United States, who destroyed many of their homes as they battled IS from the air.
Many locals say the sacrifice of property and lives may have been necessary to prevent the city, then under siege, from total starvation. But after bearing the brunt of the war with IS, largely considered a global threat, residents say they thought the international community or the government would help them rebuild.
The only aid families here get right now, Zanjelli residents say, is Iraqi military rations, as soldiers share their food.
“There is nothing they can do to pay us back for what we have lost,” says Hussain. “But shouldn’t we at least get refunded for our property?”
Read More Returnees to Old Mosul Find Little Besides Rubble, Lingering Danger : http://ift.tt/2esCdKB
Around two million Muslim pilgrims have marked the high point of the hajj — the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca — by ascending Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia. Saudi security forces remain on high alert, amid a variety of internal and external terrorist threats.
Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims made the ritual ascent to the Namira mosque on Mount Arafat, outside Mecca, braving a blazing summer sun and temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius.
Saudi television showed a sea of pilgrims cloaked in white cloth robes, many clutching umbrellas to shield them from the sun, climbing Mount Arafat, where Islam's Prophet Mohammed, is thought to have given his final sermon.
Sheikh Sa'ad al-Shetri, addressing them at the mosque, told them the pilgrimage should be focused on God.
He said the hajj must be dedicated to God, alone, and that there can be no place for political or sectarian strife, which has resulted in horrible massacres and left millions homeless.
Prince Khalid al-Faisal, Emir of Mecca, told journalists the Saudi government has done its utmost to ensure the comfort and safety of the pilgrims attending this year's hajj.
He said the Saudi hajj authority has provided 21,000 tour buses, a shuttle train that can carry 360,000 pilgrims, and provided for health concerns with 30,000 doctors and nurses, 17 hospitals, 35 emergency rooms, and 135 mobile health centers.
Thousands of Saudi security personnel, dressed in black, held training drills overnight to ensure their readiness for possible problems.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdel Aziz ben Saoud said several days ago his ministry and others are cooperating to make sure the pilgrimage takes place safely and without any glitches.
He said several government ministries and private organizations have cooperated to make the hajj go off smoothly and ensure the pilgrims' comfort and safety.
Pilgrims were spending Thursday night in the Valley of Muzdalifa after slowly descending Mount Arafat. The hajj concludes Friday, as pilgrims sacrifice an animal.
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The United States is pushing U.N.nuclear inspectors to check military sites in Iran to verify it is not breaching its nuclear deal with world powers. But for this to happen, inspectors must believe such checks are necessary and so far they do not, officials say.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley visited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is scrutinizing compliance with the 2015 agreement, as part of a review of the pact by the administration of President Donald Trump. He has called it "the worst deal ever negotiated."
After her talks with officials of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Haley said: "There are... numerous undeclared sites that have not been inspected. That is a problem." Iran dismissed her demands as "merely a dream."
The IAEA has the authority to request access to facilities in Iran, including military ones, if there are new and credible indications of banned nuclear activities there, according to officials from the agency and signatories to the deal.
But they said Washington has not provided such indications to back up its pressure on the IAEA to make such a request.
"We're not going to visit a military site like Parchin just to send a political signal," an IAEA official said, mentioning a military base often cited by opponents of the deal including Iran's arch-adversary Israel and Trump's Republican Party. The deal was hatched under his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.
IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano frequently describes his Vienna-based agency as a technical rather than a political one, underscoring the need for its work to be based on facts alone.
The accord restricts Iran's atomic activities with a view to keeping the Islamic Republic a year's work away from having enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, should it pull out of the accord and sprint towards making a weapon.
The deal also allows the IAEA to request access to facilities other than the nuclear installations Iran has already declared if it has concerns about banned materials or activities there. But it must present a basis for those concerns.
Those terms are widely understood by officials from the IAEA and member states to mean there must be credible information that arouses suspicion, and IAEA officials have made clear they will not take it at face value.
"We have to be able to vet this information," a second IAEA official said, asking not to be identified because inspections are sensitive and the agency rarely discusses them publicly.
No new intelligence
Despite Haley's public comments, she neither asked the IAEA to visit specific sites nor offered new intelligence on any site, officials who attended her meetings said. A U.S. State Department spokesman confirmed this.
"She conveyed that the IAEA will need to continue to robustly exercise its authorities to verify Iran's declaration and monitor the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," the spokesman added, using the deal's official name.
Under U.S. law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran's compliance with the deal. The next deadline is October. Trump has said he thinks by then Washington will declare Iran to be non-compliant — a stance at odds with that of other five world powers including U.S. allies in Europe.
An IAEA report published in 2015 as part of the deal formally drew a line under whether Iran pursued nuclear weapons in the past, which is why new information is needed to trigger a request for access.
The IAEA has not visited an Iranian military facility since the agreement was implemented because it has had "no reason to ask" for access, the second agency official said.
The deal's "Access" section lays out a process that begins with an IAEA request and, if the U.N. watchdog's concerns are not resolved, can lead to a vote by the eight members of the deal's decision-making body - the United States, Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union.
Five votes are needed for a majority, which could comprise the United States and its Western allies. Such a majority decision "would advise on the necessary means to resolve the IAEA's concerns" and Iran "would implement the necessary means," the deal's Access section says.
That process and wording have yet to be put to the test.
But Iran has already made clear that its military sites are off limits, raising the risk of a stand-off if a request for access were put to a vote. That adds to the pressure to be clear on the grounds for an initial request.
"If they want to bring down the deal, they will," the first IAEA official said, referring to the Trump administration. "We just don't want to give them an excuse to."
During its decade-long impasse with world powers over its nuclear program, Iran repeatedly refused IAEA visits to military sites, saying they had nothing to do with nuclear activity and so were beyond the IAEA's purview.
Shortly after the 2015 deal, Iran allowed inspectors to check its Parchin military complex, where Western security services believe Tehran carried out tests relevant to nuclear bomb detonations more than a decade ago. Iran has denied this.
Iran has placed its military bases off limits also because of what it calls the risk that IAEA findings could find their way to U.S. and Israeli intelligence services.
Read More US Pressure or Not, UN Nuclear Watchdog Sees No Need to Check Iran Military Sites : http://ift.tt/2vuWV3D
Iraq's prime minister is declaring the town of Tal Afar "fully liberated" from the Islamic State group after a nearly two-week operation.
Haider al-Abadi said Thursday that Iraqi troops "eliminated and smashed Daesh terrorists" in al-Ayadia district, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of Tal Afar, where the militants fled last week. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for IS.
Al-Abadi says with Tal Afar liberated, all of Nineveh province — the first area IS militants captured in a 2014 blitz — "is in the hands of our brave troops."
Iraqi officials often declare areas liberated before the fighting has completely ended, and the militants have been known to carry out surprise counterattacks.
IS stills control the northern town of Hawija as well as towns in western Iraq near Syria.
Read More Iraqi PM Declares Tal Afar Town 'Fully Liberated' From IS : http://ift.tt/2x8AWix
The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to renew the mandate for a
peacekeeping mission in Lebanon on Wednesday, following tense negotiations amid U.S. and Israeli criticism that U.N. troops should do more to stop Hezbollah gaining arms.
The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) — established in 1978 - patrols Lebanon's southern border with Israel. Washington regards Hezbollah, which supports the Syrian government and has a strong presence in south Lebanon, as a terrorist organization.
US supports resolution
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Washington wanted the French-drafted resolution to renew UNIFIL's mandate to “ensure UNIFIL is doing its job to the fullest extent possible.”
After a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the UNIFIL mandate was expanded to task peacekeepers with making sure southern Lebanon was “free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons” other than those belonging to the Lebanese government.
“For too long UNIFIL's leadership has failed to make sure this goal is realized,” Haley told the council after the vote.
Mandate is the same
The mission mandate has not changed, but the resolution adopted on Wednesday spells out that peacekeeping operation is authorized to “take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces ... to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities.”
The resolution also asks U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to look at ways the peacekeeping mission can increase its visible presence, including through patrols and inspections.
“At the direction of its patron, Iran, the terrorist organization Hezbollah is stockpiling an offensive arsenal in southern Lebanon,” Haley told the 15-member council after the vote. “It is preparing for war.”
“They have thousands of missiles and thousands of trained fighters all beyond the control of the Lebanese government. It is apparent to everyone who cares to see it,” she said.
Hezbollah defends its possession of weapons as necessary to defend Lebanon, but does not say where they are.
Israel says force is too soft
Deputy French U.N. Ambassador Anne Gueguen described the negotiations on the resolution as “difficult.”
“UNIFIL, of course, can do better and can do more, but no-one in this council can imagine for one second the environment existing there without UNIFIL,” she told the council.
Israel has regularly complained that UNIFIL has too soft an approach toward enforcing the 2006 ceasefire and would like to see stronger action against Hezbollah military deployment that Israel alleges is taking place in violation of the ceasefire.
Lebanon also accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire by sending warplanes into its airspace.
Read More After Tense Talks, UN Agrees to Renew Peacekeepers in Lebanon : http://ift.tt/2eleNmD
The White House says President Donald Trump has spoken with Saudi Arabia's King Salman about a regional dispute over Qatar.
Trump spoke Wednesday by telephone to the Saudi king, telling him a diplomatic resolution to the dispute would fulfill a commitment made when Trump visited the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to maintain a united front against terrorism.
In June, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with Qatar over allegations it was funding extremists, a charge Qatar denies.
Trump has tweeted his belief that Qatar is funding terrorists.
The United States is urging the countries involved to reach a diplomatic resolution to the dispute.
The two leaders also reportedly discussed Iran. Both countries agree Iran poses a threat to its region.
The White House adds that the two men "discussed the need to defeat terrorism, cut off terrorist funding, and combat extremist ideology."
King Salman and President Trump also discussed Hurricane Harvey, which has ravaged Texas this week. King Salman offered his condolences to the families of the storm victims.
Read More Trump Discusses Qatar With Saudi King : http://ift.tt/2grcClC
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the media, accusing it of working against him by playing up corruption investigations against him.
"The 'fake news' industry has reached a record level. The aim is to secure indictments, at whatever price and quickly, against me," he said at a rally of supporters Wednesday.
Israeli authorities have questioned Netanyahu in two separate corruption cases.
One case, dubbed "File 1000,'' reportedly involves claims that Netanyahu improperly accepted lavish gifts from wealthy supporters, including Australian billionaire James Packer and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.
The second, "File 2000,'' reportedly concerns Netanyahu's alleged attempts to strike a deal with publisher Arnon Mozes of the Yediot Ahronot newspaper group to promote legislation to weaken Yediot's main competitor in exchange for more favorable coverage of Netanyahu by Yediot.
The Israeli leader has denied any wrongdoing but is said to be under increased pressure since a former chief of staff agreed to turn state's witness.
Read More Netanyahu Assails Israel's 'Fake News Industry' : http://ift.tt/2wpisI3
The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that transportation and food costs in Qatar had "edged up" because of a diplomatic rift that led four Arab countries to cut ties with the small Gulf state.
An IMF team visited the capital, Doha, this week, saying in a statement that Qatar's government was able to soften the immediate impact of trade disruptions, but that some costs had gone up as a result of delays caused by rerouting trade. Non-oil growth is projected to shrink to 4.6 percent this year, down 1 percentage point.
In June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport links with Qatar. Saudi Arabia also sealed Qatar's only land border, a major conduit for imports.
Qatar turned to other exporters like Turkey, Iran and Morocco to fill gaps in its food imports and the construction material needed to build infrastructure for soccer's World Cup in 2022, set to take place there. Qatar also rerouted its shipments through ports in Oman after the UAE blocked Qatar-bound shipments from using its national waters.
The IMF said Qatar's banking sector remained sound and that the impact of the severed ties was mitigated by liquidity injections by the Qatar Central Bank and increased public sector deposits. The international lender said Qatar was prepared for any withdrawal of nonresident deposits.
The four countries accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism and backing extremist groups. Qatar denied the accusations and said the moves were aimed at pressuring the country to fall in lockstep with policies formulated in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
The IMF warned the rift could have a wider impact across the Gulf Cooperation Council, which consists of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
"Over the longer term, the diplomatic rift could weaken confidence and reduce investment and growth, both in Qatar and possibly in other GCC countries as well," the statement said.
Read More IMF Says Transport, Food Costs Are Up in Qatar After Rift : http://ift.tt/2wKdHLU
Egypt is pushing to educate people in rural areas on birth control and family planning in a bid to slow a population growth rate that President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said poses a threat to national development.
The country is already the most populous in the Arab world with 93 million citizens and is set to grow to 128 million by 2030 if fertility rates of 4.0 births per thousand women continue, according to government figures.
In 2016, Egypt saw the birth of 2.6 million babies, the country's statistics agency CAPMAS said last month.
"The two biggest dangers that Egypt faces throughout its history are terrorism and population growth and this challenge decreases Egypt's chances of moving forward," Sissi told a youth conference last month.
Egypt's health minister last month started Operation Lifeline, a strategy to reduce the birth rate to 2.4 and save the government up to 200 billion Egyptian pounds ($11.3 billion) by 2030.
Its target is rural areas where many view large families as a source of economic strength and there is resistance to birth control because of a belief that it is unlawful under Islam to aim to conceive a specific number of children.
Egypt's Al-Azhar university, a 1,000-year-old seat of Islamic learning, endorsed the ministry's plan and said family planning is not forbidden.
Ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his wife Suzanne set up a population control program decades ago but this is the first time the government says it is motivated by concern that rapid expansion saps the economy.
Free check-ups
The health ministry said it would deploy 12,000 family planning advocates to 18 rural provinces but gave no details of how it would attract more women to the program.
The ministry runs nearly 6,000 family planning clinics where women receive free check-ups and can buy heavily subsidized contraceptives ranging from condoms at 0.10 Egyptian pounds to copper Intrauterine Devices at 2 Egyptian pounds.
"Given how expensive the cost of living has become and the increase in prices, people have started becoming more aware.
They know they can afford to have one or two children, but no more," Ahlam Saad, a nurse at a government-run family planning clinic on the outskirts of Cairo, told Reuters.
Inflation has surged in Egypt to record highs over the past year after the country floated its currency in November, a move which drove down the value of the pound.
That drop created a shortage of medicines in pharmacies across Egypt, as scores of products including contraceptives became unprofitable to produce or import.
"My fiance and I decided that we want to delay having a baby, I want to continue my studies and we're just not ready," said 30-year-old Sherin who sat in the waiting room with a score of others.
In line with government plans to reduce reliance on imports, the ministry contracted Acdima International, a subsidiary of the privately owned Arab Company for Drug Industries and Medical Appliances, to source locally produced hormonal contraceptives.
The deal saves the government millions of dollars and covers 65 percent of local demand, Managing Director Tarek Abulela said, adding that the rest is exported throughout the region.
Read More Egypt Promotes Birth Control to Fight Rapid Population Growth : http://ift.tt/2x6K86T
Tureibil, Iraq's main international border crossing with Jordan and a key trade route, officially reopened Wednesday after being officially closed for three years. Privately-owned U.S. security firms, along with Iraqi ground and air forces, will be responsible for safety along the 500-kilometer route from Baghdad to Amman, which goes through Iraq's Anbar province.
Iraqi forces have cleared areas near the highway of Islamic State militants in recent months, and parts of the route, including a number of bridges and overpasses, were rebuilt or repaired.
The Iraqi parliament agreed to allow U.S. security firms to oversee the highway, after a long and heated debate.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi indicated in a tweet Wednesday that he was "pleased by the reopening of the Iraq-Jordan border crossing," adding that it will "increase bilateral relations considerably."
The deputy head of the Anbar provincial council, Falah al-Aissawi, told al-Hurra TV recently that the provincial government was doing its utmost to reopen the key highway.
He says that Anbar province is using part of its budget to reopen the highway and the crossing with Jordan, which is a lifeline for both Anbar and the country, and that its reopening to traffic will give a boost to the economy.
Iraqi Interior Minister Qassem al-Araji inspected the highway and the border crossing several days ago, noting that the security situation appeared to be good.
The interior minister says he has inspected all the key infrastructure along the route and that Iraq was intent on reopening all its border crossings. He says the Tureibil crossing is vital to Iraq's economy.
Hilal Khashan, who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut, tells VOA that the reopening of the Iraqi border with Jordan was yet another step in the ongoing collapse of the Islamic State group.
"It's clear that IS is being defeated and it is in full retreat on all fronts. This move points in the direction of increasing security in both Iraq and Jordan," said Khashan.
Khashan also thinks that Jordan agreed to reopen its border crossing with Iraq "in conjunction with both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia," and that the move "marks a significant improvement of ties between Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and [possibly] Iran."
Iraq and Saudi Arabia recently reopened their land border, which had been closed since 1990.
Read More Jordan, Iraq Reopen Main Border Crossing on Baghdad to Amman Highway : http://ift.tt/2wjyll5
Street cleaners in Dubai are wearing new "cooling collars" to prevent heatstroke as they work in rising Gulf temperatures that can hit 45 degrees C (113 degrees F), Dubai said Wednesday.
The Middle East emirate issued orange fabric collars containing a chilled gel, similar to the cold compresses used for injuries, to 4,000 cleaners.
"This type of cooling material [can]... protect the body from high temperature so that the worker is not subject to heat exhaustion," Abdulmajeed Saifaie, director of the waste department, said in a statement.
Projections show the Gulf region will be the world's hottest region by 2100 as a result of climate change.
With small, wealthy populations and minimal domestic food production, oil-rich states in the Gulf can respond better to rising heat than poorer countries in South Asia, experts say.
The collars can work for up to six hours, after which they must be put in a fridge to refreeze the gels.
Temperatures in the Gulf will become "intolerable" for humans by the end of the century if climate change is not addressed, a 2015 Nature Climate Change study showed.
Read More Dubai Street Cleaners Beat the Heat With 'Cooling Collars' : http://ift.tt/2wjUTlL
A U.S.-led airstrike has been carried out in order to prevent Islamic State jihadists fleeing Lebanon from entering eastern Syria, coalition officials said.
Monday, hundreds of IS fighters fled the border region between Lebanon and Syria as part of a cease-fire deal and were making their way to an IS-held town near the Iraqi border when they were confronted by U.S. air power.
A coalition statement said the airstrike blocked the IS convoy’s route by cratering a road and destroying a small bridge, but did not specify a location of the engagement.
"ISIS is a global threat; relocating terrorists from one place to another for someone else to deal with is not a lasting solution," the statement said, using an alternate acronym for IS.
U.S. presidential envoy to the anti-IS coalition Brett McGurk wrote on Twitter the “terrorists should be killed on the battlefield” and not transported across Syria to be relocated to Iraq.
"Our coalition will help ensure that these terrorists can never enter Iraq or escape from what remains of their dwindling 'caliphate'," he wrote.
The coalition said it is monitoring the convoy in real-time and it would not rule out direct strikes on IS jihadists. Its statement added it is "not party to any agreements that were made by the Lebanese Hezbollah and ISIS or the [Syrian] regime,” noting that any strikes carried out against the IS convoy would be in accordance with “the law of armed conflict.”
Read More Officials: US-led Airstrike Blocks IS Fighters From Reaching Syria : http://ift.tt/2x5Nabz
The latest phase in the long-running Syrian conflict is presenting a dizzying picture of strange bedfellows and temporary battlefield deals as sectarian groups, President Bashar al-Assad and overseas powers, including the United States, Russia and Iran, maneuver to gain an edge or to steer the war to a resolution.
U.S. officials said this week that Turkish-backed Syrian rebels fired on American troops who were working with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Syria. The Turks view America’s ground ally against Islamic State, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, as much a menace to them as the jihadists, and anti-Assad rebels have long seen the YPG as serving Assad’s interests.
Adding to the confusion of opportunistic maneuvers, Assad and his foreign Shi’ite backers, Iranian-directed militias and Hezbollah, granted more than 600 IS fighters and their families safe passage this week from the west to the east of Syria after the jihadists suffered a defeat in the Qalamoun mountains, on the border with Lebanon.
The transfer deal for the militants, which included a Syrian government escort from near Damascus to Deir ez-Zor, prompted angry condemnations from the Syrian Coalition, the umbrella political organization of anti-Assad rebels, but scant public comment from Western powers in the anti-IS coalition.
Although U.S. envoy to the anti-IS international coalition Brett McGurk tweeted a rebuke Thursday (Aug. 24), “Irreconcilable #ISIS terrorists should be killed on the battlefield, not bused across #Syria to the Iraqi border without #Iraq’s consent.”
After the Iraqi government issued a furious condemnation of the transit of IS militants, the Pentagon issued a statement saying, "the Coalition was not a party to any agreement between the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and ISIS."
A Syrian rebel statement said the safe-passage deal “exposed the close links between ISIS, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and the Assad regime.” But for analysts, the deal smacked more of expediency, a move by Assad and Hezbollah to solve a problem on the border with Lebanon. But it earned the Syrian government no favors from IS militants in Raqqa province, who launched an offensive on Syrian government forces, seizing tanks and rockets.
Creating a negotiating base
The war, which has left up to a half-million dead and millions of Syrians displaced, has been notorious for double-dealing.
At the beginning of the rebellion against Assad, the beleaguered Syrian leader freed hundreds of jailed jihadists. Syrian rebels argue the mass release was part of an Assad plan aimed at infiltrating insurgent ranks with extremists so the Syrian dictator could later claim he was battling an uprising by terrorists, not an insurgency of moderates wanting democracy.
In this latest phase the dangers of miscalculation by all sides as they jostle for advantage may be mounting.
Charles Lister, an analyst with the Middle East Institute, a Washington policy research organization, argues the current maneuvering reflects “the shifting priorities of external states” who are “driving the creation of an interim set of pre-settlement conditions,” to split the wrecked country into territorial zones of control.
The map is becoming increasingly clear with Assad and his Iran-commanded Shi’ite allies controlling the west and central desert area, the U.S.-backed Kurds the northeast of the country, with IS boxed in in the east and anti-Assad rebels bottled up in northern Idlib province and a small part of the south.
US, Russia
In recent weeks cooperation between the United States and Assad’s other foreign backer, Russia, has deepened, according to U.S. officials, as both Washington and Moscow strive to avoid conflict between their own militaries and between their proxies.
The two powers have established a "co-operation center" in neighboring Jordan, have worked to get the Syrian military and rebel factions in the southwestern city of Dara'a to observe a cease-fire and have collaborated in northern Syria to try to prevent clashes between SDF forces and Turkish-backed rebels. And Washington and Moscow have been co-operating to ensure that de-escalation zones, agreed to by Russia, Turkey and Iran, remain free of fighting.
Trump administration officials have made it clear their priority in Syria is the defeat of IS and not the ouster of Assad. But critics claim that has meant ceding Syria to Iran, which controls tens of thousands of troops in the war-torn country, and argue it diminishes U.S. influence in the region. “Hezbollah is immeasurably more powerful than before the Arab Spring,” argues Lister.
The situation also worries Israel, which fears Iran and Hezbollah will use Syria to launch a future Shi’ite conflict with Israel. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, where the Israeli leader condemned Iran’s strength in Syria, saying it is “endangering us [Israel], and in my opinion, endangering the region,” according to his officials.
“It still isn't clear how (U.S. President Donald) Trump intends to counter Iranian influence,” says Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington research organization. “One of the problems for U.S. policy has been that weakening Iran in Syria will likely strengthen the hand of jihadist groups,” he added.
Read More Syrian Conflict Endgame Presents Dizzying Picture of Temporary Deals : http://ift.tt/2vKxHcB
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims began the annual haj pilgrimage on Wednesday, donning traditional white garments and heading to a tent camp outside the holy city of Mecca in an itinerary retracing the route Prophet Muhammad took 14 centuries ago.
Nearly 2 million worshippers, from nearly every country, arrived in Saudi Arabia this week for the five-day ritual, which is a once-in-a-lifetime religious duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it.
Some prayed at the Grand Mosque before heading to the Mina area or towards Mount Arafat, east of Mecca, where the Prophet is believed to have delivered his final sermon to followers.
They walked or took buses, with traffic police using loudspeakers to try to direct crowds speaking a medley of languages. They were dressed in simple white robes, marking a state of ihram, or ritual purity.
Moroccan pilgrim Rida al-Belaqili, waiting to board a bus to Arafat, struggled to find words to describe his feelings.
“We are meeting people from every country and every nationality. There is a sort of unity,” he said. “I hope this will recharge Muslims’ faith and spirituality. I ask God to grant me and all Muslims forgiveness.”
He is performing haj with his wife, Latifa al-Omari, for the second time.
“Haj is not a hardship. This joy and happiness makes you forget everything,” she said.
All the pilgrims will arrive by Thursday morning at Mount Arafat, about 15 km (10 miles) east of Mecca.
The Eid al-Adha, or feast of the sacrifice, begins on Friday, when pilgrims begin three days of casting stones at walls in a symbolic renunciation of the devil.
The world’s largest annual gathering of Muslims has in the past seen deadly stampedes, fires and riots, with authorities sometimes struggling to respond.
A crush in 2015 killed nearly 800 pilgrims, according to Riyadh, although counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.
Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islam’s holiest sites - Mecca and Medina - and organizing the pilgrimage.
Authorities say they have taken all necessary precautions, with more than 100,000 members of the security forces and 30,000 health workers on hand to maintain safety and provide first aid.
Read More Muslims Begin Annual Haj Pilgrimage in Mecca : http://ift.tt/2xxSwKP
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for large-scale humanitarian aid to Gaza on Wednesday in his first visit to the isolated territory as U.N. chief and ordered the immediate release of $4 million from the world body's emergency relief fund.
Speaking at a U.N.-backed elementary school in the northern Gaza Strip, Guterres also called for unity among the Palestinians' warring factions - Hamas, which rules Gaza, and Fatah, which rules parts of the West Bank.
"The division only undermines the cause of the Palestinian people," he said, adding that he had a dream to "come back to Gaza one day and to see Gaza as part of a Palestine state in peace and prosperity."
Guterres is on his first visit to the region since taking office at the beginning of the year. He has met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders aiming to encourage the resumption of peace talks. But he did not meet with Hamas officials in Gaza, who issued a demand he work to lift the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the strip and save it from a humanitarian crisis. Hamas also demanded he approve relief and development programs and pressure Israel about the Palestinian prisoners it holds.
Prior to arriving in Gaza, he took a helicopter tour of the Israel-Gaza border with Israeli officials, visited a tunnel Hamas dug into Israel to carry out attacks and met local residents living along the volatile front.
Guterres was accompanied by Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, and Aviv Kochavi, Israel's deputy military chief. Danon warned Guterres that Gaza's Hamas rulers have been exploiting international humanitarian aid to dig the tunnels aimed at harming Israel.
"Instead of working to ensure a better future for their children, Hamas has turned the residents of Gaza into hostages," Danon said. "At the same time, the Israeli residents of the border communities have stood strong in the face of terror threats, as they build prosperous communities and help further develop the region for the betterment of the next generation."
Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's destruction, has ruled Gaza with an iron fist since seizing control of the coastal area in 2007 from forces loyal to Palestinians President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. Repeated attempts for reconciliation have failed.
Hamas has since fought three wars with Israel, firing thousands of rockets into its territory and digging a network of elaborate offensive tunnels. It has largely observed a truce with Israel since the last battle, in 2014, though more radical groups in the territory have carried out occasional attacks.
Egypt and Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Hamas takeover that has crippled the local economy. In recent years, Egypt has also cracked down on the once-vibrant tunnel trade along the border. Israel began construction of an underground anti-tunnel barrier along the border last year.
Read More UN Chief Appeals for Humanitarian Aid in First Visit to Gaza : http://ift.tt/2wSfhvK[unable to retrieve full-text content]
An ancient board game has helped bring some Israelis and Palestinians together at Jerusalem's first backgammon championship. VOA's Deborah Block reports. Read More Ancient Board Game Helps Unite Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem : http://ift.tt/2iHaxCJ[unable to retrieve full-text content]
This VOA special project depicts, through Lukeman Ahmad's beautiful paintings, the IS kidnapping of hundreds of girls from Kocho, Iraq. Read More Paintings Capture Lives of Girls Kidnapped By Islamic State : http://ift.tt/2wnCCSS
A grand jury in Washington has indicted 19 people, including 15 Turkish security officials, in connection with a brawl that broke out during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to the U.S. capital in May.
The indictments, announced Tuesday, charge the defendants with attacking peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassador's residence.
All 19 are charged with conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, a felony punishable by a statutory maximum of 15 years in prison. Several face additional charges of assault with a deadly weapon.
Sixteen of the defendants had already been charged in June; Tuesday's indictment adds three new defendants, all Turkish security officials.
WATCH: Demonstration at Turkish Embassy in DC Turns Violent
The incident, which took place after Erdogan met with President Donald Trump at the White House, put further stress on already strained relations between Washington and Ankara.
Video of the incident recorded by VOA Turkish showed men who appeared to be security guards and Erdogan supporters attacking and beating a small group of protesters.
Men in dark suits and others repeatedly kicked one woman as she lay curled up on a sidewalk. Another wrenched a woman's neck and threw her to the ground. A protester with a bullhorn was repeatedly kicked in the face.
Washington police struggled to protect the protesters, who did not appear to initiate the attacks, and ordered the Erdogan supporters to retreat. Several suspects dodged the officers, however, and continued to flail at and punch their targets.
WATCH: Turkish President Erdogan Watched Violent Clash
The Turkish Embassy claimed Erdogan's bodyguards acted in "self-defense," without citing any evidence. Turkish diplomats further claimed that the protesters were affiliated with the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, an outlawed group in Turkey, but offered no substantiation for that accusation.
Nine people were injured in the skirmish.
VOAnews.com later posted additional video recorded just before the clash. It showed that Erdogan, returning to the embassy after his White House meetings, spoke briefly with members of his armed security detail; moments later, the bodyguards broke through a police line and violently charged the protesters. Erdogan, standing beside his limousine, was seen looking on as the attack unfolded.
Read More Turkish Security Officials Indicted for Attacking US Protesters : http://ift.tt/2wQSgt7
Iraqi forces are battling to retake the small town of al-Ayadiya where militants fleeing Tal Afar have entrenched themselves, saying on Tuesday the fighting is "multiple times worse" than the battle for Mosul's old city.
Hundreds of battle-hardened fighters were positioned inside most houses and high buildings inside the town, making it difficult for government forces to make any progress, army officers told Reuters.
Iraqi government troops captured the town of Mosul from Islamic State in June, but only after eight months of grinding urban warfare.
But one Iraqi officer, Colonel Kareem al-Lami, described breaching the militants' first line of defense in al-Ayadiya as like opening "the gates of hell."
Iraqi forces have in recent days recaptured almost all the northwestern city of Tal Afar, long a stronghold of Islamic State. They have been waiting to take al-Ayadiya, just 11 km (7 miles) northwest of the city, before declaring complete victory.
Tough resistance from the militants in al-Ayadiya has required the Iraqi forces to increase the number of airstrikes, as well as bring in reinforcements from the federal police to boost units from the army, air force, Federal Police, the elite U.S.-trained Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and some units from the Shi'ite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
Up to 2,000 battle-hardened militants were believed to be defending Tal Afar against around 50,000 government troops last week.
Military intelligence indicated that many militants fled Tal Afar to mount a staunch defense in al-Ayadiya. Many motorcycles carrying the Islamic State insignia were seen abandoned at the side of the road outside al-Ayadiya.
Though the exact numbers of militants on the ground in al-Ayadiya was still unclear, al-Lami, the Iraqi Army colonel, estimated they were in the "hundreds."
"Daesh [Islamic State] fighters in the hundreds are taking positions inside almost every single house in the town," he said.
Sniper shots, mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-armored projectiles were fired from every single house, he added.
"We thought the battle for Mosul's Old City was tough, but this one proved to be multiple times worse," al-Lami said. "We are facing tough fighters who have nothing to lose and are ready to die."
Two army officers told Reuters that no significant advances had yet been made in al-Ayadiya. They said they were waiting for artillery and airstrikes to undermine the militants' power.
Tal Afar became the next target of the U.S.-backed war on the jihadist group following the recapture of Mosul, where it had declared its "caliphate" over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Read More 'Gates of Hell': Iraqi Army Says Fighting Near Tal Afar Worse Than Mosul : http://ift.tt/2wQSTTt
Iran on Tuesday dismissed U.S. demands for the inspection of Iranian military sites by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, shrugging off a request by America's ambassador to the U.N. as only a "dream."
Iran's government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told reporters that the demand by Ambassador Nikki Haley wasn't worth any attention. Iran will not accept any inspection of its sites and "especially our military sites," he said.
In remarks broadcast by state TV, he said the sites and all information about them were "classified."
Last week, Haley said the United States wants inspections of Iranian military and nonmilitary sites to determine its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The deal saw Iran cap its nuclear activities in return for lifting of crippling sanctions.
In a televised interview later in the day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also rejected the demands, saying "regulations dictate out relations with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency, not the United States."
He said Iran was still committed to the nuclear agreement, but "we do not accept bullying."
Read More Iran Rejects US Demand for Inspection of Its Military Sites : http://ift.tt/2wRipI6
Seven women sit in front of computer screens fielding distress calls from across Mecca ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage this week, in a first for Saudi Arabia as it tries to expand participation in the workforce.
The seven, almost all wearing the black niqab over their faces, form the first women's section of an emergency call center in the kingdom, which has begun offering more education and employment opportunities to the half of the population that has traditionally stayed at home.
The women verify a caller's location and request, which could be related to fire, crime, illness or a traffic accident, before passing the information on to first responders.
In the conservative kingdom, that's a big shift.
Saudi Arabia adheres to strict interpretations of Islamic law and tribal custom, requiring women to have male guardians and obey a modest dress code. They are barred from driving.
However, the Saudi government has begun introducing gradual reforms to open new job opportunities for women as part of a vision to wean the country off oil — on which it relies for more than 60 percent of its income — and transform society.
"Saudi women are present in multiple fields, so they can also be present in the security sector," 31-year-old Baara al-Shuwaibi, who studied English at a Mecca university, told Reuters, headphones hanging over her ears.
The women all speak English and received training before starting their jobs in recent weeks. Dozens of men sit in a separate room doing the same work.
"I receive a call, check the location and send the request to the proper authority as fast as possible, especially if it's an emergency like fire or ambulance," Shuwaibi said.
'Step forward'
The National Operations Centre in Mecca launched two years ago, becoming the first in the kingdom to unify government response services. There are plans for similar sites in Riyadh, Medina and the Eastern Province.
This is the first year the women's section will operate during the hajj, which is expected to attract about two million Muslims from around the world for a week of sacred rituals starting Wednesday.
The world's largest annual gathering of Muslims has in the past seen numerous deadly stampedes, fires and riots, and the authorities have been preparing for months to handle any violence, disease or a crush like the one that killed hundreds in 2015.
Major General Abdel Rahman al-Saleh, who runs the operations center, said it receives around 65,000 calls each day during hajj, 50 percent more than normal.
"We consider the women's section a step forward to demonstrate that women can work in any place and in any field," Saleh said.
There are plans to increase the number of women and offer them advanced training, he said.
Hassa al-Badi, who manages the women's section and has a master's degree from an American university, said female callers sometimes ask to speak to another woman due to the sensitivity of their request.
"Women are now present in the security sector and, God willing, they will continue to advance," she said.
Read More For First Time, Saudi Women Step into Hajj Emergency Role : http://ift.tt/2iIqyZt
American troops returned fire last week after being repeatedly shot at by rebels in areas of northern Syria controlled by Turkish-backed forces.
Defense officials told VOA that U.S.-led coalition forces came under gunfire "on multiple occasions" from "unknown groups." Army Colonel Joe Scrocca, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said there were no casualties or damage to equipment during the incidents.
"We are engaged with Ankara and other parties to address this danger," Defense Department spokesman Eric Pahon told VOA.
Pahon said coalition troops will continue to perform patrols in the area controlled by the Turkish-backed Manbij Military Council, and will defend themselves against any threat.
"Coalition forces are there to monitor, deter hostilities, and ensure all parties remain focused on our common enemy and the greatest threat to regional and world security, ISIS," he said, referring to the Islamic State group. "We strongly urge all parties to remain focused on defeating ISIS."
Many of the Turkish-backed forces oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and have clashed with Kurdish fighters from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, who also are battling Islamic State militants.
There is no evidence that Turkish forces were involved in the attacks, according to officials.
Read More US Forces Come Under Fire in Syria : http://ift.tt/2xw4GDE
The Middle East and North Africa region loses about $21 billion each year because of an inadequate supply of water and sanitation, the World Bank said Tuesday, warning that urgent action is needed to prevent ripple effects on stability and growth.
Poor management of water resources and sanitation in the world's most water-scarce region costs about 1 percent of its annual gross domestic product, with conflict-hit states losing as much as 2 to 4 percent each year, the bank said in a report issued at the World Water Week conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
Deaths due to unsafe water and sanitation in some parts of the region, particularly countries affected by conflict, are higher than the global average, it added.
"As the current conflict and migration crisis unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa shows, failure to address water challenges can have severe impacts on people's well-being and political stability," the report said.
Peril in Yemen
In Yemen, which is reeling from more than two years of conflict, water supply networks serving its largest cities are at risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and disrepair, and about 15 million people have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation, the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) said in a separate statement Tuesday.
In Syria, where the conflict is well into its seventh year, water has frequently been used as "a weapon of war," with pumps deliberately destroyed and water sources contaminated, and about 15 million people are in need of safe water, including an estimated 6.4 million children, UNICEF said.
Overall, 183 million people lack access to basic drinking water in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability around the world, it added.
Better management
With the urban population in the Middle East and North Africa expected to double by 2050 to nearly 400 million, a combination of policy, technology and water management tools should be used to improve the water situation, the World Bank report said.
"Water productivity — in other words, how much return you get for every drop of water used — in the Middle East in general is the lowest on average in the world," said Anders Jägerskog, a specialist in water resources management at the World Bank and one of the report's authors.
Middle Eastern and North African countries are using far more water than can be replenished, said the report.
To reverse the trend, technology and innovation are "essential but not enough," Jägerskog told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Water governance — in particular, water tariffs and subsidies — must also be addressed, he said.
The region has the world's lowest water tariffs and spends the highest proportion of GDP on public water subsidies. Such policies lead to excessive use of already scarce water supplies and are not sustainable, said Jägerskog.
Untreated wastewater
Another challenge is that more than half of the wastewater collected in the region is fed back into the environment untreated.
"Along with better water management, there is room for increasing the supply through nonconventional methods such as desalination and recycling," Guangzhe Chen, senior director of the World Bank's global water practice, said in a statement.
Improved water management could bring considerable financial returns, the report noted.
Governments could gain $10 billion annually by improving the storage and delivery of irrigation water to users, while increasing agricultural production by up to 8 percent, the report said.
Egypt, Syria and Iran — which have the largest proportion of irrigated land in the region — are the countries that could benefit most.
Read More World Bank: Tackle Middle East Water Scarcity to Save Money, Boost Stability : http://ift.tt/2wm3liB
U.S. Air Force pilot Jeremy Renken knew that whatever happened next might escalate the war in Syria.
The lieutenant colonel, 40, was flying his F-15E StrikeEagle fighter jet in a "racetrack" pattern around an Iranian-made drone, which had just tried to kill U.S.-backed forces and their advisers on the ground.
After the drone's first shot failed to detonate on impact, it was positioning to strike again.
So, on June 8, in what was an unprecedented move in the U.S. air war over Syria to that point, Renken shot it down, even as two Russian fighter jets watched from a distance.
"When we saw the drone turn back toward friendly forces, we weren't waiting around for anybody's permission. We destroyed it," Renken said in his first interview about the incident.
Renken's downing of the Iranian drone, a Shaheed 129, was the first in a series of several defensive U.S. air-to-air shoot-downs over several weeks in June that at first appeared to signal a tipping point to a far more dangerous air war in Syria.
But since the decisions by Renken and other U.S. pilots to fire at two drones and a manned Syrian fighter jet in June, there haven't been similarly provocative actions by pro-Syrian forces. U.S. officials say they seem to have delivered the message.
Renken's case, in many ways, highlights not just the risks of Syrian conflict, in which Russia, Syria, the United States and its allies are flying military jets within targeting range of each other.
It also illustrates the tremendous responsibility entrusted to U.S. pilots to make life-or-death decisions in an instant, with broad, strategic implications for the war.
Renken spoke with Reuters from a U.S. military installation in the Middle East, which does not disclose its location at the request of the country hosting it.
Lethal intent
Renken, a squadron commander, developed his Air Force career in the shadow of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al-Qaida. He was training as a pilot when suicide hijackers flew into the World Trade Center, and he has since deployed repeatedly to the Middle East.
But Renken acknowledged that the Syrian air war is, in his view, unique.
U.S. pilots, who have enjoyed air supremacy against the insurgents they've been battling in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, cannot be sanguine about the risks posed by advanced Russian or Syrian jets or ground-based air defense in Syria.
Armed aircraft from Syria, Russia, the United States and its coalition allies are all flying within "no escape" range of each other's weapons.
"We can all engage each other. So it takes a lot of discipline and studying the nuance of a circumstance to [determine]: 'Was that an escalation?' " Renken said.
As U.S.-backed and Russia-backed ground forces scramble to capture what is left of Islamic State's caliphate, the risk of accidental contacts between the sides is growing, raising the stakes both on the ground and in the air.
But while the U.S. military has had years to iron out how and when to engage IS fighters on the ground, American pilots are still gaining experience deciphering hostile intent by other aircraft in the skies above Syria.
Closer than thought
The U.S. Air Force proudly boasts that no U.S. soldier has been killed by enemy aircraft since 1953. But the drone attack threatened to change that, if accounts by two U.S. officials of a limited American presence in the convoy that day are correct.
The U.S. military initially said the drone dropped a bomb that missed the convoy, which included U.S.-backed fighters and their advisers. Renken offered a slightly different account.
He said the drone was actually carrying missiles. When it fired, it hit the door of one of the vehicles with a munition that failed to detonate, he said.
"It was a dud round. So, very lucky," Renken said. "It was definitely intended to be a lethal shot."
The criteria needed to fire the drone had been clearly met, he said.
Still, one factor complicating his decision to return fire was the presence of the Russian "Flanker" fighter jets, who might think that Renken was shooting at them.
"Is [the Russian pilot] going to see a missile come off of my aircraft and consider that a potential aggression against him?" he explained.
Another problem was that the drone was small enough that the missile Renken would fire could potentially go long and inadvertently head toward the Russian jet.
"[There] was a lot of potential for escalation," he said.
For Renken, the big takeaway for pilots is that the war in Syria has evolved far beyond simply striking IS targets on the ground.
U.S. pilots have to be prepared for anything.
"What this recent event has proven is that you can't take for granted that you know what the fight is going to look like," Renken said. "You need to walk in ready for it to metastasize into any hybrid variation."
Read More In Syrian Skies, US Pilots Learn How Fast Air War Can Morph : http://ift.tt/2vpVROs
Iraq's oil-producing Kirkuk region will vote in a referendum on Kurdish independence on September 25, its provisional council decided Tuesday, a move that could increase tension with Arab and Turkmen residents.
The ethnically mixed region is claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
The vote is "definitely happening" on September 25, Kirkuk Governor Najmuddin Kareem told Reuters after a majority of the provincial council voted in favor of taking part.
The KRG had said it was up to the local councils of Kirkuk and three other disputed regions of Iraq to decide whether to join the vote on the independence of the Kurdish region.
The vote in the disputed regions would amount to deciding whether to join the KRG or remain under the jurisdiction of the Shi'ite Arab-led government in Baghdad.
Baghdad said the referendum was unconstitutional.
The United States and Western nations fear the vote could lead to conflicts with Baghdad and neighboring Turkey and Iran, which host sizable Kurdish populations, diverting attention from the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
A senior Kurdish official has said Iraq's Kurds could consider postponing the referendum in return for financial and political concessions from the central government.
"Those who ask for a postponement — including Baghdad and the U.S. and Europe and whoever — should give us a time," Kareem said. "Why don't they propose a date?"
Kurdish peshmerga fighters seized control of Kirkuk in 2014 when the Iraqi army fled in the face of Islamic State's sweeping offensive across northern and western Iraq, preventing the region's oil fields from falling into the hands of the militants.
The Kurds have been seeking an independent state since at least the end of World War I, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East and left Kurdish-populated territory split among modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Read More Iraq's Kirkuk Province to Vote in Kurdish Independence Referendum : http://ift.tt/2iFy476
School playgrounds across Syria are being transformed into vegetable gardens where children whose diets have been devastated by six years of war can learn to grow — and then eat — aubergines, lettuces, peppers, cabbages and cucumbers.
Traditional Syrian cuisine is typical of the region, and rich in vegetables. Its mainstays include hummus, minced lamb cooked with pine nuts and spices, varied salads, stews made with green beans, okra or courgettes and tomatoes, stuffed cabbage leaves and artichoke hearts.
But the six-year war has changed that for much of the population, and many now live mainly on bread or food aid.
According to U.N. figures, unemployment now stands at more than 50 percent, and nearly 70 percent of the population is living in extreme poverty, in what was once a relatively wealthy country.
"The ongoing crisis in Syria is having a devastating effect on the health and nutrition of an entire generation of children," Adam Yao, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) acting representative in Syria, said on Tuesday, ahead of the start of the school year.
FAO is helping some 17 primary schools in both government and opposition-controlled areas to plant up to 500 meter-square fruit and vegetable plots in war-torn areas including Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Idlib and the outskirts of Damascus.
Young children are often the most vulnerable to malnutrition in a crisis, which can have serious and long-lasting effects on their growth and future development.
"Good nutrition is a child's first defense against common diseases and important for children to be able to lead an active and healthy life," Yao added.
The primary schools, which began planting in May, have produced 12 tons of fruit and vegetables. Another 35 schools are expected to start transforming their playgrounds soon in Aleppo and in rural areas around Damascus.
Rising prices, falling production
The price of food has risen since the start of the war — agriculture production has plummeted, and the country now relies on food imports to make up the shortfall. Transporting food around the country has also become difficult and costly.
About 13.5 million people in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance. Of those, 7 million are unable to meet their basic food needs.
Some 5 million people receive international food aid, but not everyone in need can be reached, and the World Food Program says it has had to cut the amount of calories in its family food baskets because of funding shortages.
"The donors are generous, but we don't know how long they can continue to be generous and rely on taxpayers' money," the FAO's Yao told Reuters.
Vulnerable families are receiving help from FAO to grow food at home, so they can become less reliant on food aid.
"Food aid is very important, but ... we should combine both, in a way that people grow their own food and move away from food aid gradually," he said.
In a country where more than half the population has been forced to flee their homes, many moving several times, investing in agriculture helps people to stay put for as long as it is safe, Yao added.
"Agriculture has become a hope for [many] because they can grow their own food and survive — even in the besieged areas."
Read More Syrian Schools Grow Edible Playgrounds to Boost Diets of Hungry Children : http://ift.tt/2vHwR0t
Jordan will open its main border crossing with Iraq on Wednesday for the first time since 2015, now that Iraqi forces have gained control of the main highway to Baghdad from Islamic State militants, officials said Tuesday.
Iraqi troops pulled out of the Tureibil post, on the 180-km (110-mile) border, in the summer of 2014 after the militants secured nearly all the official crossings of the western frontier as they swept through a third of the country.
Commercial traffic continued for a year after until Iraq launched an offensive in July 2015 to reclaim the area and deprive the militants of funds raised from truck drivers forced to pay a tax on cargo coming in from Jordan.
Officials say customs and border arrangements have been finalized, with security measures in place to ensure the 550-km (340-mile) highway from the border to Baghdad was safe.
"The opening of the crossing is of great importance to Jordan and Iraq. ... It's a crucial artery. Jordan and Iraq have been discussing reopening it for a while," Interior Minister Ghaleb al Zubi said last week.
Zubi did not give date then, but several trade and business officials said they have been invited to an event Wednesday to mark the reopening.
Since last year, the Iraqi army has regained most of the mainly Sunni Muslim Anbar province's main towns that fell to the ultra-hard-line jihadist group.
Road south from Basra
Iraq has also been working on securing the highway, which connects Iraq's Basra port in the south to Jordan, where the Red Sea port of Aqaba has long served as a gateway for Iraqi imports coming from Europe.
Jordan hopes the reopening of the route will revive exports to Iraq, once the kingdom's main export market, accounting for almost a fifth of domestic exports or about $1.2 billion a year, according to the International Monetary Fund. They have fallen by more than 50 percent from pre-crisis levels.
"This will increase industrial exports and also revive the two countries' trucking industry. It's a major boost to the economy," said Nael Husami, general manager of the Amman Chamber of Industry, adding transport costs would fall by nearly half.
Jordanian exporters have had to use more expensive sea routes to Iraq's Um Qasr port or another land route across Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, businessmen say.
The restoration of trade links will also give a push to an oil pipeline project running from Basra to Aqaba. Prime Minister Hani al Mulki had visited Baghdad earlier this year to revive the frozen project.
Jordanian officials are hopeful the crossing with Syria on its northern border can also open by the end of the year, once a U.S.-Russian de-escalation zone in southwest Syria that includes the area is cemented.
Read More Jordan Border Crossing With Iraq to Reopen in Major Boost to Ties : http://ift.tt/2xKWvD4
Lebanon's foreign minister said on Tuesday he supported renewing the mandate of U.N. peacekeeping forces in the country for another year, despite U.S. and Israeli criticism that the peacekeepers should do more to stop Hezbollah from gaining arms.
"Preserving the mandate of @unifil is necessary for peace and stability, otherwise will jeopardize efforts of @UN," Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said on Twitter.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols Lebanon's southern border with Israel.
Its annually renewed mandate was expanded from the original 1978 mission following a 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
This tasked UNIFIL with making sure southern Lebanon was "free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons" other than those belonging to the Lebanese government or UNIFIL.
Washington regards Hezbollah, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has a strong presence in south Lebanon, as a terrorist organization.
Israel has regularly complained that UNIFIL has too soft an approach toward enforcing the 2006 cease-fire and would like to see stronger action against Hezbollah military deployment that Israel alleges is taking place in violation of the cease-fire.
Lebanon also accuses Israel of violating the cease-fire by sending warplanes into its airspace. In January, Lebanon's new government affirmed its support for the security council resolution outlining UNIFIL's current mandate.
Hezbollah defends its possession of weapons as necessary to defend Lebanon, but does not say where they are.
Israel's ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon called in an August newspaper column for UNIFIL to be able to inspect Lebanese towns more stringently and insist on unlimited access to all suspicious sites.
Israeli officials want UNIFIL and the Lebanese army to act against Hezbollah by uncovering hidden weapons and emplacements, of which they say there are thousands that Israel has mapped.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday raised the issue in a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Netanyahu said the U.N. has failed to report any of the "tens of thousands of weapon smugglings into Lebanon for Hezbollah."
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Friday criticized UNIFIL head Irish Major General Michael Beary, accusing him of an "embarrassing lack of understanding" in not uncovering Iranian arms supply to Hezbollah.
The U.N. Security Council will vote on renewing the mandate this week before it expires Thursday.
"We are not looking to change the mandate itself. We are looking to include language that clearly directs UNIFIL to do what it should have been doing for years," Haley said.
A UNIFIL spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Read More Lebanon Calls on UN to Renew Peacekeepers' Mandate : http://ift.tt/2wQeD1P
Moroccan authorities have arrested a man suspected of supplying gas canisters to a jihadist cell that carried out a double attack in Catalonia earlier this month that killed 16 people, a source from the Spanish investigation said.
The cell accumulated around 120 canisters of butane gas at a house in a town south of Barcelona with which, police say, it planned to carry out a larger bomb attack.
Police believe the cell accidentally ignited the explosives on Aug. 16, the eve of the Barcelona attack, triggering a blast that destroyed the house in the town of Alcanar.
The remaining attackers then decided to use hired vans to mow down crowds along Barcelona's most famous avenue and later mount an assault in the resort town of Cambrils.
Moroccan police arrested the man in the city of Casablanca, the source said, without giving further details.
Spain's interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said on Tuesday that Moroccan authorities had arrested two people linked to the attacks but declined to give details about them.
Spanish news agency EFE said the second man was arrested in the city of Oujda and was a relative of one of the members of the Barcelona cell. The source did not confirm that.
Zoido, speaking after a meeting with the Moroccan interior minister in Morocco's capital Rabat, said Spanish and Moroccan authorities were working closely together in the investigation.
Most of the suspected attackers were Moroccan and an imam suspected of radicalizing the cell traveled there shortly before the attack took place.
Six of the attackers were shot dead by police and two died in the explosion at the house in Alcanar. Four other people were arrested over the assaults, two of whom have now been released under certain conditions.
Read More Source: Barcelona Attackers' Suspected Supplier Arrested in Morocco : http://ift.tt/2xKh81V
More than 100,000 members of the Saudi security forces will help protect the 2 million worshipers expected to participate in the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage this week, but no specific militant plots have been detected, a senior spokesman said Tuesday.
The world's largest annual gathering of Muslims has in the past seen deadly stampedes, fires and riots, with authorities sometimes struggling to respond.
Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islam's holiest sites and its organization of the hajj, has been hit by bombings by Islamic State in the past two years.
The Islamist militant group, which launched attacks around the world after seizing large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, is now on its back foot in those countries.
Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Turki said the security services had dismantled a number of militant cells in Mecca and Medina over the past few years.
'Members do not disappear'
"From our expertise and experience with al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations, we know that their members do not disappear just because the organization is defeated," he told Reuters in an interview. "So we do not overlook the reality of such potential threats, and we take all necessary preventative measures."
Turki said strict measures were in place at the entrances to Mecca, Medina and other holy sites as well as airports and seaports.
Asked whether the authorities had detected any specific plots against this year's hajj, he said: "Not at all. We have not detected anything, but that does not mean we are ignoring what the terrorist groups could try to do.
"We take each threat very seriously, even if we don't announce it."
Turki said the security forces had taken all necessary measures — though he gave no details — to prevent a stampede like the one that killed hundreds of pilgrims in 2015. But he also urged pilgrims to abide by their assigned schedule for performing the sacred rituals.
"Each group must abide by the specified paths assigned to each while throwing the jamarat," he said, referring to one of the critical stages of hajj, when pilgrims conduct the ritual stoning of the devil.
Read More Saudi Security Forces Brace for Haj; No Militant Threats Detected : http://ift.tt/2wQnJMa
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that a two-state solution remains the only path to peace for Israel and the Palestinians.
"I want to express very strongly the total commitment of the United Nations and my personal total commitment to the two-state solution," Guterres said after meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah, after having spoken with Israeli leadership the day before.
Guterres also spoke on Israeli settlements in the West Bank Tuesday, calling them a "major obstacle" to peace and noting that they are "illegal under international law".
Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to never uproot Israeli settlements in the West Bank, enraging Palestinians and raising questions about U.S. peace efforts in the region.
White House adviser Jared Kushner spoke with Netanyahu and Hamdallah days earlier during a visit to Israel and the West Bank.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in the past, has said he hopes to mediate the “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians. He has espoused staunchly pro-Israel rhetoric during his campaign and presidency, but Palestinian leaders have held out hope a deal could be reached.
Read More In Ramallah, UN Chief Reiterates Support for Two-State Mideast Solution : http://ift.tt/2x18Vtf
