You are here

IAEA chief Grossi to visit Iran May 6-8, Mehr says

IAEA chief Grossi to visit Iran May 6-8, Mehr says
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi is scheduled to visit Iran to take part in a nuclear conference from May 6-8 and meet Iranian officials, Iran's Mehr news agency said on Tuesday. (AFP/File)
Short Url

https://arab.news/ywgmc

Updated 30 April 2024
Reuters
Follow

IAEA chief Grossi to visit Iran May 6-8, Mehr says

IAEA chief Grossi to visit Iran May 6-8, Mehr says
  • Grossi will meet Iranian officials in Tehran before participating in the International Conference of Nuclear Sciences and Technologies held in Isfahan
  • Enrichment to 60 percent brings uranium close to weapons grade
Updated 30 April 2024
Reuters
Follow

DUBAI: International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi is scheduled to visit Iran to take part in a nuclear conference from May 6-8 and meet Iranian officials, Iran’s Mehr news agency said on Tuesday.
“Grossi will meet Iranian officials in Tehran before participating in the International Conference of Nuclear Sciences and Technologies held in Isfahan,” the agency reported.
The IAEA chief said in February that he was planning a visit to Tehran to tackle a “drifting apart” in relations between the agency and the Islamic Republic.
Grossi said the same month that while the pace of uranium enrichment by Iran had slowed slightly since the end of last year, Iran was still enriching at an elevated rate of around 7 kg of uranium per month to 60 percent purity.
Enrichment to 60 percent brings uranium close to weapons grade, and is not necessary for commercial use in nuclear power production. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons but no other state has enriched to that level without producing them.
Under a defunct 2015 agreement with world powers, Iran can enrich uranium only to 3.67 percent. After then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of that deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran moved well beyond the deal’s nuclear restrictions.
The IAEA said the 2015 nuclear deal was “all but disintegrated.”

Topics: IAEA Rafael Grossi Iran

Related

Iran closed nuclear facilities in wake of Israel attack: IAEA chief
Middle-East
Iran closed nuclear facilities in wake of Israel attack: IAEA chief
IAEA warns that attacks on a nuclear plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine put the world at risk
World
IAEA warns that attacks on a nuclear plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine put the world at risk

Hamas says Israeli strikes in Yemen ‘dangerous development’

Hamas says Israeli strikes in Yemen ‘dangerous development’
Updated 50 min 10 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Hamas says Israeli strikes in Yemen ‘dangerous development’

Hamas says Israeli strikes in Yemen ‘dangerous development’
Updated 50 min 10 sec ago
AFP

GAZA: Palestinian militant group Hamas said Thursday that Israel’s strikes in Yemen after the Houthi rebels fired a missile at the country were a “dangerous development.”
“We regard this escalation as a dangerous development and an extension of the aggression against our Palestinian people, Syria and the Arab region,” Hamas said in a statement as Israel struck ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen after intercepting a missile attack by the Houthis.

Topics: Israel Yemen

Separated for decades, Assad’s fall spurs hope for families split by Golan Heights buffer zone

Separated for decades, Assad’s fall spurs hope for families split by Golan Heights buffer zone
Updated 19 December 2024
AP
Follow

Separated for decades, Assad’s fall spurs hope for families split by Golan Heights buffer zone

Separated for decades, Assad’s fall spurs hope for families split by Golan Heights buffer zone
  • Golan Heights is a rocky plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981
  • US is the only country to recognize Israel’s control; the rest of the world considers the Golan Heights occupied Syrian territory
Updated 19 December 2024
AP

MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights: The four sisters gathered by the side of the road, craning their necks to peer far beyond the razor wire-reinforced fence snaking across the mountain. One took off her jacket and waved it slowly above her head.
In the distance, a tiny white speck waved frantically from the hillside.
“We can see you!” Soha Safadi exclaimed excitedly on her cellphone. She paused briefly to wipe away tears that had begun to flow. “Can you see us too?”
The tiny speck on the hill was Soha’s sister, Sawsan. Separated by war and occupation, they hadn’t seen each other in person for 22 years.
The six Safadi sisters belong to the Druze community, one of the Middle East’s most insular religious minorities. Its population is spread across Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981. The US is the only country to recognize Israel’s control; the rest of the world considers the Golan Heights occupied Syrian territory.
Israel’s seizure of the Golan Heights split families apart.
Five of the six Safadi sisters and their parents live in Majdal Shams, a Druze town next to the buffer zone created between the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Syria. But the sixth, 49-year-old Sawsan, married a man from Jaramana, a town on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, 27 years ago and has lived in Syria ever since. They have land in the buffer zone, where they grow olives and apples and also maintain a small house.
With very few visits allowed to relatives over the years, a nearby hill was dubbed “Shouting Hill,” where families would gather on either side of the fence and use loudspeakers to speak to each other.
The practice declined as the Internet made video calls widely accessible, while the Syrian war that began in 2011 made it difficult for those on the Syrian side to reach the buffer zone.
But since the Dec. 8 fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, families like the Safadis, are starting to revive the practice. They cling to hope, however faint, that regime change will herald a loosening of restrictions between the Israeli-controlled area and Syria that have kept them from their loved ones for so long.
“It was something a bit different. You see her in person. It feels like you could be there in two minutes by car,” Soha Safadi, 51, said Wednesday after seeing the speck that was her sister on the hill. “This is much better, much better.”
Since Assad’s fall, the sisters have been coming to the fence every day to see Sawsan. They make arrangements by phone for a specific time, and then make a video call while also trying to catch a glimpse of each other across the hill.
“She was very tiny, but I could see her,” Soha Safadi said. “There were a lot of mixed feelings — sadness, joy and hope. And God willing, God willing, soon, soon, we will see her” in person.
After Assad fell, the Israeli military pushed through the buffer zone and into Syria proper. It has captured Mount Hermon, Syria’s tallest mountain, known as Jabal Al-Sheikh in Arabic, on the slopes of which lies Majdal Shams. The buffer zone is now a hive of military and construction activity, and Sawsan can’t come close to the fence.
While it is far too early to say whether years of hostile relations between the two countries will improve, the changes in Syria have sparked hope for divided families that maybe, just maybe, they might be able to meet again.
“This thing gave us a hope … that we can see each other. That all the people in the same situation can meet their families,” said another sister, 53-year-old Amira Safadi.
Yet seeing Sawsan across the hill, just a short walk away, is also incredibly painful for the sisters.
They wept as they waved, and cried even more when their sister put their nephew, 24-year-old Karam, on the phone. They have only met him once, during a family reunion in Jordan. He was 2 years old.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts in the heart,” Amira Safadi said. “It’s so close and far at the same time. It is like she is here and we cannot reach her, we cannot hug her.”

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Israel Golan Heights

Related

Update Israeli military vehicles ride through Syria close to the ceasefire line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria.
Middle-East
Israel aims to ‘double population’ in annexed Golan
Druze in shock as war between Israel and Hezbollah strikes home
Middle-East
Druze in shock as war between Israel and Hezbollah strikes home

Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide – Human Rights Watch

Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide – Human Rights Watch
Updated 19 December 2024
Reuters
Follow

Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide – Human Rights Watch

Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide – Human Rights Watch
  • ‘What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive’
  • Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins
Updated 19 December 2024
Reuters

THE HAGUE: Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.
“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the Genocide Convention of 1948,” Human Rights Watch said in its report.
Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas-led attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.
Although the report described the deprivation of water as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing their intent. It cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide.”
“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a press conference.
Human Rights Watch is the second major rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report that concluded Israel was committing genocide.
Both reports came just weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny the allegations.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
The 184-page Human Rights Watch report said the Israeli government stopped water being piped into Gaza and cut off electricity and restricted fuel which meant Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used.
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few liters of water a day in many areas, far below the 15-liter-threshold for survival, the group said. Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Gaza Human Rights Watch

Related

A Palestinian woman, displaced from Beit Lahia, arrives in Jabalia in northern Gaza on December 4. Amnesty International accused
Middle-East
Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza
Israel must comply with ICJ measures to prevent genocide — UN human rights chief video
Middle-East
Israel must comply with ICJ measures to prevent genocide — UN human rights chief

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted
Updated 39 min 45 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted
  • Raids ‘targeted two central power plants’ in Yemen’s capital Sanaa
  • The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians
Updated 39 min 45 sec ago
AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port... and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.

Topics: Yemen Houthis US

Related

US building support in UN for Houthi ship inspections: Envoy
World
US building support in UN for Houthi ship inspections: Envoy
US strikes Houthi command and control facility in Yemen
Middle-East
US strikes Houthi command and control facility in Yemen

Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen

Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen
Updated 19 December 2024
AFP
Follow

Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen

Israeli army says intercepted missile fired from Yemen
Updated 19 December 2024
AFP

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said sirens sounded across central Israel as it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Thursday.
The Israeli Air Force “intercepted one missile that was launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory,” said a statement from the army, adding that there could be “falling debris from the interception.”

Topics: Israel Houthis

Related

Israeli settlers crossed into Lebanese territory on Wednesday, erecting tents and taking pictures of themselves. (@tamerqdh)
Middle-East
Israeli settlers set up tents in Lebanese border town
Israeli demolitions rip through Palestinian area of Jerusalem
Middle-East
Israeli demolitions rip through Palestinian area of Jerusalem

Latest updates

Cricket’s corruption problem remains an ongoing concern
Cricket’s corruption problem remains an ongoing concern
Fitch revises Oman’s outlook to positive, downgrades Egypt’s economic outlook
Fitch revises Oman’s outlook to positive, downgrades Egypt’s economic outlook
Next Gen ATP Finals get underway in Jeddah
Next Gen ATP Finals get underway in Jeddah
Germany faces uncertainty as Syrian doctors weigh returning home amid Assad’s fall
Germany faces uncertainty as Syrian doctors weigh returning home amid Assad’s fall
FIFA World Cup 2034 to bring positive momentum to Saudi Arabia’s stock market
FIFA World Cup 2034 to bring positive momentum to Saudi Arabia’s stock market

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.