More than one in four Syrians ‘extremely poor’: World Bank
More than one in four Syrians ‘extremely poor’: World Bank/node/2516876/middle-east
More than one in four Syrians ‘extremely poor’: World Bank
This aerial view shows the camp of Deir Ballut for internally displaced people in the Afrin region of Syria’s rebel-held northern Aleppo province on May 24, 2024. (AFP)
More than one in four Syrians ‘extremely poor’: World Bank
27 percent of Syrians — about 5.7 million individuals — live in extreme poverty
“Continued funding shortfalls and limited access to humanitarian assistance” have further strained poor Syrians, the World Bank said
Updated 25 May 2024
AFP
BEIRUT: More than a quarter of Syrians live in extreme poverty, the World Bank said Saturday, 13 years into a devastating civil war that has battered the economy and impoverished millions.
The World Bank published two new reports on Syria, which found that “27 percent of Syrians — about 5.7 million individuals — live in extreme poverty.”
“Extreme poverty, while virtually non-existent before the conflict, affected more than one in four Syrians in 2022” and might have further deteriorated after a deadly earthquake last year, one of the reports said.
The quake killed about 6,000 people in the country.
According to the United Nations, about 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, while it previously estimated that around 2 million lived in extreme poverty after more than a decade of war.
The report cited neighbor Lebanon’s economic meltdown in late 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as having eroded the welfare of Syrian households in recent years.
The civil war in Syria has also ravaged the economy, infrastructure and industry, while Western sanctions have added to the country’s woes.
“Continued funding shortfalls and limited access to humanitarian assistance” have further strained poor Syrians, already coping with “soaring prices, reduced access to essential services and rising unemployment,” the World Bank said.
The UN told AFP previously that its humanitarian response plan for Syria for 2024 requires more than $4 billion but that it is only six percent funded.
The international community is set to meet in Brussels Monday to try and muster funds for Syria at a yearly pledging conference.
A lack of opportunities and dwindling aid has pushed many Syrians to rely on money sent from relatives abroad to survive, with the World Bank estimating that “in 2022, the total value of remittances received by Syrian households reached about $1.05 billion.”
Syria’s estimated GDP stood at around $6.2 billion in 2023.
Syria’s “real GDP is projected to contract by 1.5 percent in 2024, extending the 1.2 percent decline in 2023,” the report said.
“Inflation is anticipated to remain high in 2024 due to the pass-through effects of currency depreciation, along with persistent shortages and potential further subsidy cuts (for) food and fuel,” it said.
Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 after Damascus cracked down on anti-government protests.
Israelis go on strike for Gaza deal after hostage deaths
Updated 12 sec ago
TEL AVIV: Strike action brought parts of Israel to a halt on Monday in a bid to raise pressure on the government to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, after the military recovered the bodies of six captives that the health ministry said had been “murdered” by Hamas. Relatives and demonstrators have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of not doing enough to bring the hostages back alive, and during mass rallies on Sunday called for a truce deal to help free dozens who remain captive. The military said on Sunday the bodies of six hostages, who were all captured alive during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war, had been recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, prompting outpourings of grief and fury. The Israeli health ministry said post-mortem examinations showed the six had been “murdered... with several close-range gunshots” shortly before they were found by troops. The Histadrut trade union called a nationwide strike beginning at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) “for the return” of the remaining 97 hostages, including 33 the military says are dead. Several major cities across Israel joined the strike, closing schools and municipal services for several hours. Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv was operating “as usual,” a spokeswoman told AFP, but takeoffs were halted for two hours. In Jerusalem and some other cities, life appeared to go on as usual. Some private companies, like public transportation providers, have partially suspended operations in support of the strike. The strike followed a day of mass protests on Sunday that saw tens of thousands on the streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere, part of a series of anti-government rallies during the war. On Monday, protesters again blocked roads in Tel Aviv. Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David said he wanted to “stop the abandonment of the hostages,” adding that “only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken,” an apparent reference to top Israeli decision-makers who have opposed a truce or stalled in months of negotiations. Out of 251 hostages seized during the October 7 attack, only eight have been rescued alive by Israeli forces but scores were released during a one-week truce in November — the only one so far. Mediation efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt since then have repeatedly stalled. US President Joe Biden is due to convene a meeting with his negotiating team later on Monday to “discuss efforts to drive toward a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages” following “the murder” in captivity of the six including US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the White House said. Israel named the five others as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lobanov. On Sunday, Biden said he was “still optimistic” a deal could be reached. Rising death tolls Yair Keshet, uncle of hostage Yarden Bibas, said during Sunday’s protest in Tel Aviv that the government needed to “stop everything and to make a deal,” which campaigners say is the best option to ensure the return of the remaining captives. On the ground in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, civil defense rescuers said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 11 people at a school where Israel’s military said a Hamas command center was based. The fighting continued on Monday, coinciding with the second day of localized “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first confirmed polio case in 25 years. An AFP correspondent reported some air strikes overnight, and the civil defense agency said artillery shelling and gunfire rocked Gaza City, where two people were killed when a missile hit a residential block. Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 87,000 children received a first dose of the polio vaccine on Sunday in central Gaza. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the inoculation campaign a “race against time to reach just over 600,000 children” in the war-torn territory of 2.4 million people. “For this to work, parties to the conflict must respect the temporary area pauses,” he said. The Israeli military campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children. The October 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians and including hostages killed in captivity, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Escalating violence The war has sent regional tensions soaring, with violence surging in the occupied West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory. At least 24 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched simultaneous raids on Wednesday across the northern West Bank. Militant groups have claimed 14 of the dead as members. A shooting Sunday in the southern West Bank killed three Israeli police officers, authorities have said. The military said the suspected assailant was “eliminated” following a manhunt. Middle Eastern and Western governments as well as UN officials have called on Israel to end the large-scale operations in the Palestinian territory, which it has occupied since 1967. In the city of Jenin, the streets were largely deserted and most shops were closed on Monday, after loud explosions and clashes were heard during the night. Israeli bulldozers in the Jenin city center and other areas have caused damage to infrastructure including water systems, officials have said. “No one dares to go out,” said Jenin resident Adel Marai Egbaria.
Iran brings new charges against jailed reformist: media
Tajzadeh, jailed since July 2022 in Tehran’s Evin prison, served as deputy interior minister under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami
He was sentenced to five years in prison in October 2022 on charges of “plotting against state security” among others
Updated 15 min 35 sec ago
AFP
TEHRAN: Jailed Iranian activist and former cabinet member Mostafa Tajzadeh, a prominent figure of the Islamic republic’s reformist camp, has been charged with “propaganda” against the state, local media said Monday.
Tajzadeh, jailed since July 2022 in Tehran’s Evin prison, served as deputy interior minister under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who oversaw a rapprochement with the West between 1997 and 2005.
He was sentenced to five years in prison in October 2022 on charges of “plotting against state security” among others, his lawyer said at the time.
Reformist daily Hammihan said Monday that new charges had been brought against Tajzadeh, accusing him again “of plotting against state security” and “propaganda against the Islamic republic.”
He had already spent a total of seven years behind bars, having been arrested in 2009 alongside other reformist leaders following the re-election of hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a vote contested by the opposition.
Tajzadeh, an outspoken commentator on national politics via social media channels operated by his relatives, said in a letter “that he would not appear in court” in the new case, according to Hammihan.
If convicted, Hammihan said, Tajzadeh could face up to six more years in jail.
In recent years, he has urged democratization and called on authorities to enact “structural changes” in the Iranian political system.
Tunisia police arrest presidential candidate as pre-election tension rises
Updated 02 September 2024
AFP
TUNIS: Tunisian police arrested presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel on Monday, a member of his campaign told Reuters, amid growing fears among rights groups and the opposition that prominent rivals to President Kais Saied will be excluded from the race.
The electoral commission is preparing to announce on Monday the final list of accepted candidates for the presidential elections scheduled for Oct. 6.
Mahdi Abdel Jawad said police had arrested Zammel at his home at about 3:00 a.m. on suspicion of falsifying popular endorsements and added that “the matter has become absurd and aims to exclude him from the election.”
The electoral commission and the interior ministry did not immediately comment.
Last week, the Administrative Court, the highest judicial body that adjudicates electoral disputes, reinstated three prominent candidates, Mondher Znaidi, AbdelLatif Mekki and Imed Daimi, to the election race after the electoral commission had rejected their candidacy filing.
They joined accepted candidates Ayachi Zammel, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Saied, the current president.
However, electoral commission head Farouk Bouasker said the commission would study the Administrative Court’s decision and other judicial decisions against candidates before issuing the final list.
Bouasker’s position sparked widespread anger among rights groups and politicians, who expressed their fear that the statement was a clear signal pointing to the exclusion of the three candidates from the race.
They said that the commission was no longer independent and its sole goal had become to ensure an easy victory for Saied. The commission denies these accusations and says it is neutral.
Tunisian constitutional law professors said the election commission must implement the administrative court’s decision as is, or the elections will completely lose credibility.
Political parties and human rights groups called in a join statement for a protest on Monday near the election headquarters to demand implementation of the court’s decision to reinstate the candidates and stop “arbitrary restrictions” and intimidation.
Saied, who dissolved parliament and seized control of all powers in 2021 in a move described by the opposition as a coup, said last year “he would not hand over the country to non-patriots.”
Al-Sudani made the comments during a meeting with Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Leahy, commander of the Global Coalition against Daesh in Iraq
Updated 02 September 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Sunday that the Daesh militant group no longer poses a threat to the country.
Al-Sudani made the comments during a meeting with Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Leahy, commander of the Global Coalition against Daesh in Iraq, and the US ambassador to the country, Alina Romanowski.
The officials held talks on the end of the coalition’s mission and the transition to bilateral relations with the entity’s member states, according to a statement released by the prime minister’s office.
They emphasized that there would continue to be cooperation in training, and intelligence sharing.
Al-Sudani said Daesh has been reduced to isolated groups hiding in remote areas. And that Iraq’s armed forces were conducting operations to locate and apprehend these remaining terrorists.
Tanker and merchant vessel report missile, drone attacks in Red Sea
Drone hit a merchant vessel some 50 nautical miles west of Yemen’s Hodeidah
UKMTO said in an advisory note that damage control was underway and that a third explosion had occurred in close proximity to the vessel
Updated 24 min 36 sec ago
Reuters
SANAA: Two ships, a Panama-flagged oil tanker and a merchant vessel, came under attack in the Red Sea off Yemen on Monday with the tanker being struck by two projectiles, British maritime agencies reported.
Military authorities confirmed the tanker was attacked with missiles, security firm Ambrey said.
No casualties were reported in either incident.
The tanker attack took place some 70 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port of Saleef, Ambrey and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.
Ambrey “assessed that the vessel was targeted due to company affiliation with a vessel calling Israeli ports,” it said.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.
In a second incident, Ambrey reported a drone hit a merchant vessel some 50 nautical miles off Yemen’s Hodeidah, a Red Sea port just south of Saleef.
The vessel is proceeding to its next port of call, UKMTO said.
