Region

DUBAI — Security forces in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have detained three Iranians suspected of kidnapping a British-Iranian businessman who went missing in Dubai in June, the Dubai government said on Thursday.

Britain’s Foreign Office said in August it was in touch with the Dubai and Iranian governments over the case of Abbas Yazdi, who went missing in June in Dubai. His wife had told a UAE newspaper that he may have been kidnapped by “elements in Iran”.

The Dubai government press office said that the state security service arrested the three on suspicion of kidnapping Yazdi, a 44-year-old businessman who owns a general trading company in the Gulf Arab emirate.

“The security apparatus identified the group members and... was able to uncover the method they had used to kidnap the suspect,” the statement said.

It quoted Dhahi Khalfan, Dubai’s deputy chairman of police and general security, as saying that the three were about to dispose of some personal effects of Yazdi that had been under surveillance when they were arrested.

The three were being questioned to find out the whereabouts of Yazdi, it said.

Yazdi went missing on June 25 and his wife, Atena, told the 7Days newspaper that she feared he may have been kidnapped by Iranian intelligence officers.

Foreign Secretary William Hague raised Yazdi’s disappearance with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi during a telephone conversation on July 31.

Britain is among Western nations at odds with Iran over its nuclear programme and other issues. It shut its embassy in Tehran after what it called “an attack by government-sponsored militias” on the mission in November 2011. Iran’s embassy in London was also closed.

7Days cited Yazdi’s wife as saying the 44-year-old trader and investor was a close childhood friend of the son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Atena Yazdi was quoted as saying that her husband had been detained in Iran in 1993 and held in solitary confinement by the intelligence service for six months. He had later travelled to London and obtained British citizenship, she said.

BERLIN — Germany said Thursday it had accepted a UN request to destroy remnants of Syria’s chemical weapons on its own soil as part of a bid to eliminate the arsenal by June 30.

The foreign and defence ministries said in a joint statement that the move was intended to speed up the scrapping of all of Syria’s chemical weapons stocks and thus advance the peace process.

“The government decided, following a request by the UN-Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), that Germany is prepared to make a substantial contribution to the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons,” they said in the statement.

“The government is willing and able to destroy in Germany remnants created in the course of irreversibly neutralising chemical weapons from Syria and which resemble industrial waste.”

State-owned company GEKA based in the northern town of Munster will handle the mission “in full compliance with environmental regulations”, the ministries added.

“The destruction of the chemical weapons could be the first, decisive step in defusing the Syria conflict,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

“The international community has a duty to ensure their disposal. No one who takes his international responsibilities seriously should refuse.”

Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen added: “Germany has safe technology and a lot of experience with destroying remnants of chemical arms. It is sensible for us to use this capability for the sake of the international community and with it, make a worthy contribution to the peace process.”

Syria’s most dangerous chemicals were meant to have been moved out of the country by December 31. Under a UN-backed plan, all of Syria’s declared 1,290 tonne arsenal should be destroyed by June 30. But the country’s worsening conflict has caused holdups.

Sigrid Kaag, the head of the OPCW, which is monitoring the operation, said Wednesday that the June deadline could still be met despite delays moving the most dangerous chemicals.

“Everything is ready, investment is made and the authorities have shown that first movements have started to happen,” she added, describing the loading of the first chemicals onto a ship in the Syrian port of Latakia on Tuesday as “an important first step”.

On top of battles between President Bashar Assad’s forces and opposition rebels, a customs strike in neighbouring Lebanon and heavy snow in Syria had blocked the delivery of necessary equipment, Kaag said.

Containers of Class A chemicals from Syria’s arsenal were put on a Danish vessel in Latakia on Tuesday which is now being guarded at sea by an international fleet.

After more chemicals have been loaded, the consignment will be taken to Italy to be transferred to a US Navy vessel for destruction to start.

Kaag said an international tender for companies to destroy lower level chemicals in the arsenal would be completed within weeks.

RAMALLAH –– West Bank villagers who beat up a group of Jewish settlers then locked them inside a building were on Thursday hailed by the Palestinian government as acting in “self-defence”.

“Citizens of Qusra village, who were subjected to numerous assaults by settlers during the past months, acted in self -defence,” said government spokesman Ihab Bseiso in a statement.

On Tuesday, around a dozen settlers from the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost entered Qusra, some wearing masks, but were beaten up by local Palestinians who then shut them up in a house.

Israeli troops eventually negotiated the release of the settlers but police placed seven of them under house arrest pending an investigation into why they had entered the village in the first place.

Qusra is just a few kilometres north of Esh Kodesh and is the scene of frequent clashes between settlers and Palestinians.

“Citizens of Qusra village were able to stand in the face of settler groups who assaulted farmers from the village and tried to sabotage their land; they chased them out of the fields and trapped them in a building under construction,” Bseiso said.

The villagers had “provided the settlers with water and wipes to clean their wounds” then contacted local officials who got in touch with the army, he said, demanding the international community to “intervene to provide protection” for Palestinians in the face of settler violence.

Bseiso said Qusra had suffered “continuous assaults” by local settlers, including shooting attacks, burnt crops and olive trees uprooted; three villagers were still suffering from serious injuries and one person had been shot dead by troops in 2011 in one such attack.

Palestinian daily Al Quds said the detention of settlers by ordinary civilians was “a unique precedent and an example of passive resistance”.

On Wednesday, Israel’s Peace Now settlement watchdog sent a letter to the government demanding it dismantle Esh Kodesh, saying the residents had “repeatedly attacked” Palestinians in the area.

“Esh Kodesh is an outpost that serves as launching ground for severe unlawful activity, and as such... it creates severe friction that causes harm to people and their property, and therefore heavily burdens the security authorities,” said the letter, a copy of which was seen by AFP.

The watchdog slammed the government for failing to carry out existing demolition orders against wildcat outposts — settlements which have not been formally approved and are therefore illegal.

Under international law, all settlement building in the Palestinian territories is illegal.

WASHINGTON –– More than a majority of US senators support a bill to impose new sanctions on Iran should the Islamic Republic break an agreement to curb its nuclear programme, aides said on Thursday, but there was no plan yet to debate the measure.

The White House has threatened to veto the legislation, and Iran says last November’s nuclear deal struck in Geneva would be dead if the US Congress imposes new sanctions.

The “Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act” is now supported by at least 54 senators in the 100-member chamber, according to a congressional record, with six senators joining on Wednesday. A Senate aide said two more joined on Thursday, to bring the total to 56.

It is uncertain whether the bill will be introduced on the Senate floor and whether backers can win the two-thirds majority to overcome a veto by President Barack Obama.

A senior Senate Democratic aide said there were no plans yet for advancing the bill to the Senate floor, despite the growing list of co-sponsors.

The bill would also place sanctions on Iran if it does not agree to a comprehensive deal later this year or next. The United States and five other world powers agreed to a six-month interim deal with Iran in Geneva in November, that can be extended to a year.

Under last year’s interim agreement, Iran will get access to billions of dollars worth of funds that had been cut off by sanctions in return for limiting enrichment of uranium.

At least 15 Democrats support the bill introduced in December by Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an advocacy group with strong ties to many lawmakers, has said it supports new sanctions that would take effect if Iran violates the interim pact or does not agree to an “acceptable” comprehensive deal.

The bill seeks to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero two years after implementation. It also puts limits on the Obama administration’s ability to waive sanctions.

There is tough resistance to the measure by many other Democrats, however. A bloc of 10 Democratic senators, all leaders of committees, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last month expressing their opposition to the bill.

The aide said more support could come soon from the bloc of Democrats. “At least two that I know of are inching toward public support for the bill,” the aide said on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the talks.

There has been no public indication from any of the 10 that they were leaning toward shifting position on the issue.

Nine senior foreign policy experts, including Ryan Crocker, a former ambassador to Israel and the United Nations, this week urged Menendez and Kirk to not pass the new sanctions, saying they could potentially move the United States closer to war. 

WASHINGTON –– Mediators seeking to end fierce fighting in South Sudan have made “progress” in negotiating a ceasefire, a US official said Wednesday, adding differences still remained over releasing political prisoners.

Representatives from an East African bloc, known as IGAD, had Wednesday travelled to Juba to visit 11 allies of sacked vice president Riek Machar who have been detained by South Sudan President Salva Kiir.

The negotiators and western diplomats, led by the United States, have been pressuring Kiir’s government to free the men to boost the peace talks being held in Ethiopia.

“We believe that they need to be present at the IGAD talks for discussions on political issues in order for them to be productive,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The mediators had also spoken with Kiir and presented the parties with “a draft proposal on a cessation of hostilities and on the release of political detainees”.

“The discussions have made progress on a proposed cessation of hostilities,” Psaki told reporters.

“Disagreements remain on the issue of the release of political detainees. Obviously, the discussions are continuing, but that’s where things stand at this moment.”

The unrest erupted on December 15 as a clash between rival army units loyal to Kiir and Machar, and has escalated into war between government troops and a loose alliance of ethnic militia forces and mutinous army commanders.

Thousands of people have already been killed, aid workers say, while more than 200,000 have fled their homes.

A rebel spokesman indicated that there would be no imminent truce in the country unless the government freed the group of alleged coup plotters.

But IGAD said in a statement on returning to Juba that the prisoners had urged that any ceasefire should not be held up by arguments over their release.

They “stated that their status as detainees should not be an impediment to reaching an agreement on cessation of hostilities”, IGAD said.

Washington, which was the prime backer of South Sudan’s 2011 independence from Sudan, has also called for the fighting to stop.

“We do not believe the release of detainees should be a precondition for a halt to the fighting. Both sides need to drop preconditions for the talks and agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities,” spokesman for the Africa bureau Will Stevens told AFP.

BAGHDAD –– Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is facing one of the biggest challenges of his eight-year rule, with key areas on Baghdad’s doorstep outside government control just months before general elections.

He is also often accused of marginalising and targeting Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, many members of which oppose his government, and has presided over a sharp increase in violence in the country to levels not seen in five years.

The city of Fallujah, just 60 kilometres west of Baghdad, has been out of government hands for days, while parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, farther west, are also under the control of militants.

But analysts believe that if the 64-year-old Maliki is able to obtain some type of security victory, he may yet be able to emerge relatively unscathed and focus attention away from other failings, as he has done in the past.

“Maliki faces the biggest challenge since 2006,” said Ihsan Al Shammari, a political science professor at Baghdad University.

“The issue of Fallujah is related to the issue of terrorism and its importance exceeds other files such as services,” which Maliki’s government has also failed to improve, Shammari said.

“The biggest challenge is ISIL,” he said, referring to Al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has been active in the fighting in both Fallujah and Ramadi.

But “if Maliki succeeds in containing the situation” in Anbar, it will be a major boost for the premier ahead of parliamentary polls scheduled for April 30.

Fighting erupted near Ramadi on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp.

The violence spread to Fallujah, and militants moved in and seized the city and parts of Ramadi after security forces withdrew.

The loss of Fallujah is strategically important due to its proximity to the capital, and symbolically signficant because it was the target of two major assaults by American forces in which they saw some of the heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.

More generally, Iraq has suffered a surge in violence to levels not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings that left tens of thousands dead.

“Entering into military operations without clear coordination with the residents of the area will lead to a major disaster,” Issam Al Faili, a political science professor at Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, said of Fallujah.

“There are fighters experienced in urban warfare in the city,” who know Fallujah well, Faili said.

If he succeeds in Fallujah, Maliki will likely use it for political gain in the runup to the polls, as he did with the “Charge of the Knights” operation in Basra in 2008, Faili said.

But in Basra, Shiite security forces were fighting Shiite militants, Faili noted, while this time they would be fighting in a Sunni city.

Additionally, Iraqi forces had to fall back on American assistance during the operation, which they cannot do now, as US forces departed at the end of 2011.

Maliki, who was born near the city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, has faced repeated accusations of sectarianism from Sunni Arabs who ruled the country for decades before the 2003 US-led invasion.

Widespread anger among Iraqi Sunnis has fuelled the rise in violence in the country that began last year, experts say.

But Maliki, who fled Iraq in 1980 to escape execution by Saddam Hussein’s regime, still enjoys the backing of the United States, though some US lawmakers have expressed concerns over how he would employ advanced American weaponry.

“Maliki relies on Western, and especially American, support,” said Hamid Fadhel, a Baghdad University political science professor.

“It is clear that the American position is a strong message to Maliki’s opponents, especially the Sunni Arabs who tried to convey a message that Maliki is targeting them,” Fadhel said.

BEIRUT — The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Thursday of “extreme human suffering” in Syria’s Yarmouk camp, with state media saying “terrorists” had blocked aid from entering.

Since September, at least 15 people have died from hunger in the camp, which came under tight regime siege around a year ago after rebels took control of the area.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said food shortages continue and that the absence of medical care had led to women dying in childbirth.

“The profound civilian suffering in Yarmouk deepens, with reports of widespread malnutrition and the absence of medical care, including for those who have severe conflict-related injuries and... women in childbirth, with fatal consequences for some women,” he said.

“Residents, including infants and children, have been subsisting for long periods on diets of such things as stale vegetables, animal feed and cooking spices dissolved in water.”

He said residents –– both Palestinian and Syrian –– were experiencing “extreme human suffering in primitively harsh conditions”, and urged humanitarian access to the camp.

“Syrian authorities and other parties must allow and facilitate safe and open humanitarian access,” he said.

But state television said a convoy carrying aid for the estimated 20,000 residents trapped in the camp had been blocked from entering by “terrorist gangs”.

“Terrorist gangs in the Yarmouk camp prevented the entry of an aid convoy carrying some 5,000 food parcels for those trapped in the camp,” it said.

“The gangs opened heavy fire to prevent them from entering,” it added.

Yarmouk was once home to some 170,000 people but tens of thousands have fled since fighting began in the camp.

Syria is officially home to nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees, around half of whom have been displaced by the conflict that broke out in March 2011, becoming refugees for a second time.

CAIRO –– Courts on Thursday jailed 113 supporters of Egypt’s deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to up to three years for taking part in unauthorised and violent protests, judicial sources said.

One Cairo misdemeanour court condemned 63 Morsi supporters to three years in prison and fined them 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($7,200, 5,250 euros) each over protests in November, the officials said.

They can post bail of 5,000 pounds to stay out of jail until an appeal hearing.

The government installed by the military after Morsi’s ouster passed a law in November banning all but police-sanctioned protests, amid a crackdown on Islamists that has killed more than 1,000 people in street clashes.

Another Cairo court sentenced 24 Morsi supporters to three years for being in a “terrorist gang” and attacking policemen in a protest, the officials said.

A Cairo court also sentenced 26 students from Al Azhar University to two years and a half in jail for vandalism and clashes in the university’s dormitory in November.

Pro-Morsi students have regularly clashed with police in protests on campuses, relative safe havens for Islamists whose street rallies are now immediately dispersed by police.

In December, the government declared Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist organisation” after accusing the group of responsibility for a suicide car bombing at a police building that killed 15 people.

The Brotherhood condemned the attack, which was claimed by an Al Qaeda-inspired militant group.

The “terrorist” designation carries harsh penalties for offenders, including possible death sentences for the movement’s convicted leaders and five-year jail terms for protesters.

Promoting the Brotherhood can also lead to prison sentences.

Since Morsi’s overthrow last July 3, his supporters have staged near daily protests calling for his reinstatement.

The protests often descend into clashes with police and civilian opponents.

In December, a court sentenced 139 Morsi supporters to two years in prison over violence in July.

Thousands of people have been arrested in the crackdown on the Islamists, including most of the Brotherhood’s leadership.

Morsi is himself on trial for allegedly inciting the killings of opposition protesters during his turbulent year in power.

TUNIS — Tunisia’s Islamist Prime Minister Ali Larayedh resigned on Thursday to make way for a caretaker government in an agreement with secular opponents to complete the country’s transition to democracy.

Three years after its uprising against autocrat Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia is in the final stages of establishing a full democracy before new elections that would be a rare bright spot in an unstable region.

Tunisia’s new premier, technocrat Mehdi Jomaa, must tackle subsidy cuts sought by international lenders to curb the small North African country’s deficit and also confront a growing threat from Islamist militants.

Illustrating the continued fragility, troops in the southern city of Tatouine fired into the air and police used tear gas on Thursday to disperse protests over economic hardship.

To end months of political crisis, Larayedh’s moderate Islamist party Ennahda agreed late last year to a deal to hand over to an independent Cabinet led by Jomaa, who will govern until the election.

“I have just handed my resignation to the president,” Larayedh told reporters. “The president will appoint the new prime minister, Mehdi Jomaa, shortly and he will present his new Cabinet in the next few days.”

One of the most secular countries in the Arab world, Tunisia has struggled with divisions over the role of Islam and the rise of Islamist radicals since the uprising in 2011 that inspired other revolts in the region.

Model transition

Tunisia’s largely peaceful transition has been widely watched as a model for other nations struggling with instability since their own “Arab Spring” revolts.

But the killings of two secular Tunisian opposition leaders by gunmen last year galvanised Ennahda’s secular foes, who took to the streets to demand the government resign, accusing it of being too lax with hardliners.

After months of wrangling, Ennahda reached a compromise with the main opposition Nidaa Tounes and its allies to resign once parties had finished a new constitution, set a date for fresh elections and appointed a body to oversee the vote.

Much of that agreement has now been implemented. The national assembly is voting on the last clauses of the new charter this week and on Wednesday night the assembly appointed a nine-member electoral commission.

International lenders want Tunisia to trim public subsidies to cut a budget deficit estimated to have hit 6.8 per cent of national output last year. But the cuts will raise fuel and food costs and may spark further discontent among Tunisians.

The International Monetary Fund has still to disperse a $500 million portion from a $1.5 billion loan for Tunisia.

After two days of protests and strikes backed by labour unions in several cities over a hike in vehicle taxes, Larayedh said on Thursday the government would suspend the reform.

Troops and police intervened to repel hundreds of protesters in Tatouine after they attacked two police stations and an Ennahda party office, the state news agency TAP said.

No injuries were reported and local residents said the army had brought the situation under control later in the day.

Authorities say Islamist militants from the Ansar Al Sharia group, whose leader pays allegiance to Al Qaeda, are also a growing menace for a country heavily reliant on foreign tourism.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a popular beach resort late last year — Tunisia’s first such attack in a decade.

Islamist parties who rose to political power after the 2011 revolts in Egypt and Libya have fared less well than Ennahda, whose compromise with secular opponents will allow them to again take part in elections this year.

Egypt’s democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi faces trial after the military ousted him and Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood-allied party is locked in a political crisis with its secular foes in the country’s parliament.