Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable. (IRNA)
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Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions
  • In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security

DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.


Mysterious airstrip appears on a Yemeni island as Houthi attacks threaten region

Mysterious airstrip appears on a Yemeni island as Houthi attacks threaten region
Updated 7 sec ago
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Mysterious airstrip appears on a Yemeni island as Houthi attacks threaten region

Mysterious airstrip appears on a Yemeni island as Houthi attacks threaten region
  • Airstrip on Abd Al-Kuri Island could provide a key landing zone for military operations patrolling key waterway
  • Commercial shipping through the Gulf and Red Sea has halved under attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia
DUBAI: A mysterious airstrip being built on a remote island in Yemen is nearing completion, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show, one of several built in a nation mired in a stalemated war threatening to reignite.
The airstrip on Abd Al-Kuri Island, which rises out of the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, could provide a key landing zone for military operations patrolling that waterway. That could be useful as commercial shipping through the Gulf and Red Sea – a key route for cargo and energy shipments heading to Europe – has halved under attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militias. The area also has seen weapons smuggling from Iran to the militias.
While the Houthis have linked their campaign to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, experts worry a ceasefire in that conflict may not be enough to see the militias halt a campaign that’s drawn them global attention. Meanwhile, the Houthis have lobbed repeated attacks at Israel, as well as US warships operating in the Red Sea, raising fears that one may make it through and endanger the lives of American service members.
A battlefield miscalculation by Yemen’s many adversarial parties, new fatal attacks on Israel or a deadly assault on an American warship easily could shatter the country’s relative calm. And it remains unclear just how President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, will handle the emboldened militia group.
“The Houthis feed off war – war is good for them,” said Wolf-Christian Paes, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who studies Yemen. “Finally they can live up to their slogan, which famously, of course, declares, ‘Death to America, death to the Jews.’ They see themselves as being in this epic battle against their archenemies and from their view, they’re winning.”
Satellite images show airstrip nearly complete
Satellite photos taken Jan. 7 by Planet Labs PBC for the AP show trucks and other heavy equipment on the north-south runway built into Abd Al-Kuri, which is about 35 kilometers in length and about 5 kilometers at its widest point.
The runway has been paved, with the designation markings “18” and “36” to the airstrip’s north and south respectively. As of Jan. 7, there was still a segment missing from the 2.4-kilometer-long runway that’s 45-meters wide. Trucks could be seen grading and laying asphalt over the missing 290-meter segment.
Once completed, the runway’s length would allow private jets and other aircraft to land there, though likely not the largest commercial aircraft or heavy bombers given its length.
While within Houthi drone and missile range, the distance of Abd Al-Kuri from mainland Yemen means “there’s no threat of the Houthis getting on a pickup truck or a technical and going to seize it,” said Yemen expert Mohammed Al-Basha of the Basha Report risk advisory firm.
The United Nations’ Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization, which assigns its own set of airport codes for airfields around the world, had no information about the airstrip on Abd Al-Kuri, spokesman William Raillant-Clark said. Yemen, as a member state to ICAO, should provide information about the airfield to the organization. Nearby Socotra Island already has an airport declared to the ICAO.
It’s not the only airfield to see an expansion in recent years. In Mocha on the Red Sea, a project to extend that city’s airport now allows it to land far larger aircraft. The airfield also sits on a similar north-south path as the Abd Al-Kuri airstrip and is roughly the same length.
Other satellite photos from Planet Labs show yet another unclaimed runway currently under construction just south of Mocha near Dhubab, a coastal town in Yemen’s Taiz governorate. An image taken by Planet for the AP on Thursday showed the runway fully built, though no markings were painted on it.
Smuggling route passes by the island
A new airport on Abd Al-Kuri could provide a new, secluded landing zone for surveillance flights around Socotra Island. That could be vital to interdict weapons smuggling from Iran to the Houthis, who remain under a UN arms embargo.
A report to the UN Security Council said a January 2024 weapons seizure by the US military took place off Socotra near Abd Al-Kuri. That seizure, which saw two US Navy SEALs lost at sea and presumed killed, involved a traditional dhow vessel that US prosecutors say was involved in multiple smuggling trips on behalf of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to the Houthis.
Disrupting that weapons route, as well as the ongoing attacks by the US, Israel and others on the Houthis, likely have contributed to the slowing pace of the militias’ attacks in recent months. The US and its partners alone have struck the Houthis over 260 times, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Next week, Trump will be the one to decide what happens to that campaign. He has experience already with how difficult fighting in Yemen can be – his first military action in his first term in 2017 saw a Navy SEAL killed in a raid on a suspected Al-Qaeda compound. The raid also killed more than a dozen civilians, including an 8-year-old girl.
Trump may reapply a foreign terrorist organization designation on the Houthis that Biden revoked, a reimposition that the UAE backs. Marco Rubio, who Trump has nominated to be secretary of state, mentioned the Houthis several times when testifying Wednesday at his Senate confirmation hearing alongside what he described as threats from Iran and its allies.
Any US move could escalate the war, even with the Houthi’s enigmatic supreme leader, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, pledging Thursday night to halt the militias’ attacks if a ceasefire deal is reached in Gaza.
“I don’t see a way in 2025 that we have a de-escalation with the Houthis,” said Al-Basha, the Yemen expert. “The situation in Yemen is very tense. An outbreak in the war could be a reality in the next few months. I don’t foresee the status quo continuing.”

France’s Macron in Beirut to meet Lebanon’s new leaders

France’s Macron in Beirut to meet Lebanon’s new leaders
Updated 45 min 52 sec ago
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France’s Macron in Beirut to meet Lebanon’s new leaders

France’s Macron in Beirut to meet Lebanon’s new leaders
  • French president’s plane landed at the Lebanese capital’s airport at around 6:45 a.m.

BEIRUT: France’s President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut on Friday for a visit that will see him meet his counterpart and offer support as Lebanon’s leaders seek to open a new chapter in their country’s turbulent history.

After more than two years of a political vacuum at the top, Joseph Aoun was elected president on January 9 and chose Nawaf Salam as prime minister-designate.

They now face the daunting task of leading Lebanon after a devastating Israel-Hezbollah war and years of economic crisis.

Macron is also expected to meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the Lebanese capital as a January 26 deadline to fully implement an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal approaches.

Macron’s visit aims to “help” Aoun and Salam “to consolidate Lebanon’s sovereignty, ensure its prosperity and maintain its unity,” the French presidency said prior to his arrival.

Analysts say Hezbollah’s weakening in the war with Israel last year allowed Lebanon’s deeply divided political class to elect Aoun and to back his naming of Salam as premier.

France has special ties with Lebanon, which it administered for two decades after World War I, and the two countries have maintained close relations even since Lebanon’s independence in 1943.

Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have given “their full support” to the formation of a “strong government” in Lebanon, the French presidency said on Thursday after a call between the two leaders.

The new government must “bring together Lebanon’s diverse people, ensure the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon is respected and carry out the reforms necessary for the prosperity, stability and sovereignty of the country,” the presidency said.

Macron is also set to meet Lebanon’s powerful speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally.

He will also meet UNIFIL chief Aroldo Lazaro and the heads of a committee comprising Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates, alongside a UNIFIL representative, tasked with monitoring ceasefire violations.

Under the November 27 ceasefire accord, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws.

At the same time, Hezbollah is required to pull its forces north of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in south Lebanon.

After an aid conference in Paris in October, France’s presidency promised “symbolic gestures” to mobilize the international community to come to Lebanon’s assistance.


Israeli cabinet to meet on ceasefire after Netanyahu says hostage deal finalized

Israeli cabinet to meet on ceasefire after Netanyahu says hostage deal finalized
Updated 42 min 37 sec ago
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Israeli cabinet to meet on ceasefire after Netanyahu says hostage deal finalized

Israeli cabinet to meet on ceasefire after Netanyahu says hostage deal finalized
  • If approved by Israel’s cabinet, the ceasefire agreement would take effect Sunday

JERUSALEM: Israel’s security cabinet was set to meet Friday after final details of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal were ironed out, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, with the United States “confident” the truce would begin as planned this weekend.

If approved by Israel’s cabinet, the ceasefire agreement would take effect Sunday and involve the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which the terms of a permanent end to the war would be finalized.

Away from the diplomacy, Israeli strikes killed dozens of people, Gaza rescuers said Thursday, while Israel’s military reported hitting about 50 targets across the territory over the past day.

Netanyahu’s office had accused Hamas on Thursday of reneging on key parts of the agreement to extort last-minute concessions – an allegation Hamas denied.

His office said early Friday a “deal to release the hostages” had been reached and he had ordered the political-security cabinet to meet later in the day.

“The government will then convene to approve the deal,” it added.

At least two cabinet members have voiced opposition to the ceasefire, with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir saying that he and his party colleagues would quit the government – but not the ruling coalition – if it approved the “irresponsible” deal.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also opposes the truce, calling it a “dangerous deal.”

But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been involved in months of mediation efforts, said Thursday he believed the ceasefire would go ahead on schedule.

“I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday,” he said.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory after the deal was announced on Wednesday, killing at least 80 people and wounding hundreds since then.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their “freedom... into a tragedy.”

The war was triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During the attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

The ceasefire agreement followed intensified efforts from mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States, after months of fruitless negotiations to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history.

If finalized, it would pause hostilities one day before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who claimed credit for the agreement.

“If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would’ve never happened,” Trump said in an interview Thursday.

Envoys from both the Trump team and the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden were present at the latest negotiations, with a senior Biden official saying the unlikely pairing had been a decisive factor in reaching the deal.

In Israel and Gaza, there were celebrations welcoming the truce deal, but also anguish.

Saeed Alloush, who lives in north Gaza, said he and his loved ones were “waiting for the truce and were happy,” until overnight strikes killed many of his relatives.

“It was the happiest night since October 7” until “we received the news of the martyrdom of 40 people from the Alloush family,” he said.

In Tel Aviv, pensioner Simon Patya said he felt “great joy” that some hostages would return alive, but also “great sorrow for those who are returning in bags, and that will be a very strong blow, morally.”

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, announcing the agreement on Wednesday, said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released, including women, “children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded.”

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return “to their residences,” he said.

Biden said the second phase of the agreement could bring a “permanent end to the war.”

He added the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also underscored the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza.

Cairo said it was ready to host an international conference on reconstruction in Gaza, where the United Nations has said it would take more than a decade to rebuild civilian infrastructure.

In a statement Thursday, G7 leaders called the ceasefire deal “a significant development” and urged Israel and Hamas to work on its “full implementation.”

The World Health Organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, said Thursday that at least $10 billion would probably be needed over the next five to seven years to rebuild Gaza’s devastated health system alone.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to start later this month, welcomed the ceasefire deal.

“What’s needed is rapid, unhindered and uninterrupted humanitarian access and supplies to respond to the tremendous suffering caused by this war,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.


Netanyahu says deal to return hostages from Gaza reached

Netanyahu says deal to return hostages from Gaza reached
Updated 17 January 2025
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Netanyahu says deal to return hostages from Gaza reached

Netanyahu says deal to return hostages from Gaza reached
  • Israeli PM said he will convene his security cabinet on Friday, then the government will approve the ceasefire agreement
  • Meanwhile, Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 72 people since the ceasefire deal was announced

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached. The announcement early came a day after Netanyahu’s office said there were last minute snags in talks to free hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu said he will convene his security Cabinet on Friday and then the government to approve the ceasefire agreement.
On Thursday, Netanyahu's office said the Cabinet won’t meet to approve the agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages until Hamas backs down, accusing the group of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 72 people since the ceasefire deal was announced, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight as people were celebrating the ceasefire deal. In previous conflicts, both sides have stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires go into effect as a way to project strength.
Under the deal expected to begin Sunday, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The remainder, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 46,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry. It does not say how many of the dead were militants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.


Sudan government denounces US sanctions as ‘immoral’

Sudan government denounces US sanctions as ‘immoral’
Updated 17 January 2025
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Sudan government denounces US sanctions as ‘immoral’

Sudan government denounces US sanctions as ‘immoral’
  • Washington had slapped sanctions on Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using food deprivation as a weapon of war
  • US earlier imposed sanctions on Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, accusing his group of committing genocide

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry rejected as “immoral” US sanctions declared on Thursday against army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, saying that they “lack the most basic foundations of justice and transparency.”
In a statement, it said the sanctions “express only confusion and a weak sense of justice,” after 21 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, in which the foreign ministry said Burhan was “defending the Sudanese people against a genocidal plot.”
On Thursday, the US treasury department announced sanctions against Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using food deprivation as a weapon of war.
It came a week after the US slapped sanctions on RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, accusing his group of committing genocide.
Sudan’s foreign ministry on Thursday said the US’s “flawed decision cannot be justified by claiming neutrality,” saying it amounts to “support of those committing genocide.”

12 million people uprooted

Since April 2023, the war between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million people and pushed hundreds of thousands into famine.
Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and laying siege to entire towns.

“Taken together, these sanctions underscore the US view that neither man is fit to govern a future, peaceful Sudan,” outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement in which he voiced regret at his failure to end the brutal war.
The United States previously had steered clear of sanctions on the two leaders so as to preserve diplomacy with them.
But Blinken, who leaves office on Monday, said the army had repeatedly failed to join peace initiatives, although he hoped President-elect Donald Trump would keeping trying on Sudan.
“It is for me, yes, another real regret that when it comes to Sudan, we haven’t been able on our watch to get to that day of success,” Blinken said at a farewell news conference.
There have been “some improvements in getting humanitarian assistance in through our diplomacy, but not an end to the conflict, not an end to the abuses, not an end to the suffering of people,” he said.
The war erupted over a failure to integrate the army and the RSF, with joint US and Saudi diplomacy succeeding only in limited humanitarian agreements including on the entry of aid.
More than 24.6 million people — around half of Sudan’s population — face “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to a recent review by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Genocide in Darfur

The United States last week said that the RSF has committed genocide in Darfur through systematic killings and rapes of the ethnically African people there.
The atrocities are an echo of the scorched-earth campaign by the RSF’s militia predecessor, the Janjaweed, also accused of genocide two decades ago in Darfur.
The US special envoy on Sudan, Tom Perriello, pointed to actions taken last time in Darfur — “naming and shaming” of perpetrators, a “tremendous global activism” and the prospect of African Union intervention.
“Most of those tools are either off the table completely or seriously diluted right now,” Perriello said at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Perriello, a former Democratic congressman who also leaves office Monday, said the United States was also no longer the same “major bank for the world” that can spell dire economic consequences through sanctions.
US options are “much weaker in a world where people can go to other countries and get billion-dollar checks without having any conversations about human rights and democracy,” he said.
Perriello also voiced shock that regional power South Africa welcomed RSF leader Dagalo on a visit and that there was not “much of an outcry from South African civil society.”
But he said African powers increasingly focused on domestic issues and “want to be seen as economic powerhouses of the future, not necessarily the moral police.”
The Sudan conflict has brought in a series of foreign players, with the United Arab Emirates facing repeated charges of arming the RSF.
Perriello saluted the role of Egypt, saying he was surprised to work so closely but that Cairo exerted pressure on the Sudanese army in the interest of decreasing refugee flows.