Region

THE HAGUE — The UN's top court on Tuesday backed Qatar in a bitter row with four Middle East nations that imposed an air blockade against Doha after accusing it of backing radical Islamists and Iran.

The decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) covers a key part of the acrimonious standoff that erupted three years ago pitting Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Qatar.

The Hague-based court unanimously "rejects the appeal" by the rival states against a decision by the world civil aviation body in favour of Qatar over sovereign airspace, ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said.

The court also "holds that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has jurisdiction" in the case, by 15 judges to one, Yusuf said.

The ICAO in 2018 ruled it had the jurisdiction to handle a dispute brought by Qatar, which accused its neighbours of violating a convention that regulates the free passage of its passenger planes through foreign airspace.

But the four allies disagreed, saying the ICAO was not the right body to judge in the dispute and that its decision to do so was "manifestly flawed and in violation of fundamental principles of due process and the right to be heard."

They had asked the ICJ to declare the aviation body’s ruling “null and void and without effect”.

There was no immediate reaction from Qatar or its four rivals.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and other allies severed ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing the gas- and oil-rich country of backing radical Islamists and Iran.

They imposed wide-ranging punitive measures including banning Qatari planes from their airspace, closing Qatar’s only land border with Saudi Arabia and expelling Qatari citizens.

Doha strongly denies the allegations.

The countries justified the moves against the Gulf peninsula state saying it was their sovereign right to protect their national security.

Qatar fiercely rejected the claims that it had violated a series of agreements inked with its neighbours in 2013 and 2014 aimed at settling years of diplomatic rancour.

AFAK, Iraq — Unlike in years past, Iraqi farmer Ahmed Mohsen now walks past his local market with a smile on his face. The pale green melons he harvested are selling fast, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Iraq, in a bid to prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, shut its 32 border crossings to goods and people coming from Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in mid-March.

That helped Iraq's agriculture ministry accelerate a campaign to make Iraqi food markets self-sustainable, after they had spent years relying on foreign imports for half of their supply.

The land fit for farming in Iraq is roughly 9.3 million hectares  — much less than Iran's nearly 46 million or Syria's almost 14 million hectares.

"For years, farmers have been working at a loss with little support from the state," said Mohsen, who lives in Iraq's agricultural heartland, the southern province of Diwaniyah.

"But with the new coronavirus, the authorities have begrudgingly been forced to close the border."

Every year, Iraq would buy $2.8 billion in goods from regional trade giant Turkey, with Iranian imports coming in second with $2.2 billion in products sold to Baghdad.

It was a grim reality for a country whose ancestral civilisation, Mesopotamia, has been hailed for its pioneering agricultural and irrigation technologies for thousands of years.

The land of two rivers is now making a small comeback. Every day, Mohsen’s melons make their way from his home village of Afak to be sold en masse to the rest of the country.

“The authorities didn’t want to help farmers, but in the end they allowed us to prove that we can provide for the nutrition needs of Iraqis,” said Mohsen, a 32-year-old farming engineer.

‘The state is late’ 

A third of Iraq’s 40 million people still rely on farming to live, but the industry is riddled with inefficiencies.

As a holdover from the socialist era of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein, the government provides subsidies in water, fertiliser and equipment and purchases certain products — particularly wheat, barley and lentils — from Iraqi farmers at a price above the market rate.

But the state usually also imports cheap foodstuffs from Iran and Turkey at huge volume, causing an imbalance in the market, experts wrote in the “Sustainability” environmental magazine last year.

Their research found that Iraqi farmers often opted not to work their land because they did not expect to sell the harvest, given the oversupply from neighbouring countries.

Local farmers usually provide about 5 million tonnes of wheat products yearly, complemented by around 3 million tonnes imported from neighbouring countries, mostly flour.

Those who did sell their harvest to the government reported months-long delays in getting paid, which are still ongoing today.

That’s why the coronavirus, despite bringing death and suffering to many, was also a blessing in disguise for their sector, farmers told AFP.

“Each year, the state is late in paying farmers and this slaps us with losses,” said Khashan Karayiz, 70.

He comes from a long line of wheat farmers and this year, for the first time he can remember, he has already sold all of his harvest by July.

With little competition from Turkish or Iranian rivals, he was able to sell directly to the private sector, earning more money more quickly.

“I hope Baghdad will stop imports, in order to financially and morally support Iraqi farmers,” Karayiz said.

A little further on at the market, Hani Shayyer offers melons, aubergines, cucumbers and tomatoes.

It is the first time, he told AFP proudly, that his produce has been able to reign supreme in local markets.

With no competition, his wares — which he insists “are much better quality than imports” — can be sold at lower prices.

Reaping what you sow 

Already, Iraq’s agriculture ministry has placed bans or new tariffs on 25 fruits and vegetables.

Across the border, Syria and Turkey have also stopped selling their agricultural goods abroad due to COVID-19.

That has helped Iraq become self-sufficient in 28 food products for the first time in years, said Mohammed Kachach, who heads Diwaniyah’s Farming Confederation.

Egg production, for example, steadily grew from 11 million eggs a month in January to 17 million in April, May and June, according to Iraq’s agriculture ministry.

But structural problems remain.

According to a government source, wheat and barley is still being smuggled in from Syria, Iran and Turkey and then being mixed into Iraqi farmers’ harvests to pass them off as local and therefore win government subsidies.

And according to a recent report by the United Nations’ World Food Programme and the Farming and Agricultural Organisation, the lower prices in the market do benefit consumers, but still hurt local producers.

Finally, Iraq continues to face chronic water shortages.

Its two mighty rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, risk are being slowly choked off by dams and overuse upstream by the very trade partners that have long brought the most agricultural goods, Turkey and Iran.

TEHRAN — Iran on Tuesday executed two people convicted of involvement in a 2010 bomb attack that killed a dozen people, the Islamic republic's judiciary said.

"The death penalty was carried out today for the two main perpetrators of the [2010] bombing in the city of Mahabad," said a statement by the judiciary authority of West Azerbaijan province.

It said the two were "the agents of terrorist groups linked to foreign intelligence services", according to the judiciary's Mizan Online website.

It did not reveal the identity of the convicts nor the alleged countries involved.

Twelve people were killed and 81 injured by the bomb that exploded in Mahabad, on Iran's northwestern borders with Iraq and Turkey, in September 2010.

Most of the victims in the Kurdish-majority city were women and children attending a military parade.

Iranian officials blamed the attack on "counter-revolutionary elements" in the region which regularly witnesses armed clashes between Iranian forces and Kurdish militant groups.

Days after the attack, Iran said 30 "terrorists" including some "American mercenaries" involved in the attack were killed in an operation by the Revolutionary Guards in Iraq.

Iran's intelligence ministry said in 2014 that three linked to the attack were arrested, adding that they had confessed to being part of the Kurdish nationalist group Komala.

The group has conducted a long-running insurgency in Iran's Kurdistan from bases located across the border in Iraq.

Iran has accused the United States of supporting the groups, most notably Komala and Kurdistan Free Life Party.

CAPE TOWN — Egypt’s Alexandria governorate has banned the flying of kites, citing safety reasons, while a member of parliament has said the pastime poses a national security threat.

According to a report by Arab News, Egyptian police have seized 369 kites in Cairo and fined five people in the northern region of Alexandria.

Alexandria governor Mohamed Al Sharif issued the directive on Thursday, banning the flying of all types of kites on beaches in the coastal city, writes Daily News Egypt.

He said the ban was brought in “to ensure the safety of citizens after a number of accidents” involving kites in the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, Khaled Abu Taleb, a member of parliament’s defence and national security committee, said last month that he wanted Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly briefed on the dangers of kites as they might be equipped with surveillance cameras and therefore posed a national security threat, wrote Arab News.

Daily News Egypt confirmed that those above 18 years of age or the parents of minors found flying kites will face a fine of between 300 and 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($18 to $62).

According to a report, member of parliament Faika Fahim addressed Madbouly and Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy on the spread of kites and their dangers to car drivers and children. 

The MP called for the ban on kites to be applied across Egypt and for the awareness campaign highlighting their dangers to be intensified, said Daily News Egypt.

Last week a 12-year-old girl in Alexandria died after she fell from the 17th floor of a building while flying a kite. 

Earlier in June, a high school student was electrocuted and died in Menoufiya governorate, also while flying a kite.  

KHARTOUM — Sudan has begun distributing cash handouts under an internationally backed plan to help millions cope with an economic crisis aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, recipients and the authorities said.

The stimulus is funded from $1.8 billion pledged by 40 countries at a conference last month in Germany as the African nation transitions from three decades of rule under now-ousted autocrat Omar Al Bashir.

"The programme is based on supporting 80 per cent of the country's population with direct cash support from the state", Essam Abbas, director of the finance ministry's digital transformation agency, told AFP.

"It's a project that aims to help this segment of the population in facing the economic reforms head-on," he said in an interview days after the scheme was launched nationwide.

Yasser Mohamed Al Nour is among those who have benefitted from the handouts, part of an economic reform agreement the government reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month.

“I have a family of 11 and I work in a tailor’s shop. I receive 2,500 pounds (about $21) from the finance ministry monthly,” he said.

The help is much needed but not enough to deal with the rising cost of living, said Nour, who lives in the working class suburb of Al Khadra about 25 kilometres from the capital Khartoum.

Sudanese authorities hiked bread prices earlier this year and many people still queue for hours to buy staple foods or fill their car with petrol.

Anti-Bashir protests that erupted in late 2018 were originally sparked by a government decision to triple bread prices before morphing into broader calls for political change.

Sudan’s annual inflation rate topped the 114 per cent mark in May, compounding the country’s acute economic crisis.

“Life is very stressful for me. I live with my family in a two-bedroom home and I have to pay for transport to and from my workplace,” Nour told AFP.

Sudan’s economic woes have been further compounded by the coronavirus outbreak which pushed authorities to impose a lockdown on Khartoum state, including the capital, that was loosened last week.

The country has officially registered more than 10,000 cases of the illness and around 650 deaths.

TEHRAN — Iran reported on Monday more than 200 new coronavirus fatalities that took the overall toll in the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak beyond 13,000.

“Unfortunately, in the past 24 hours, we have lost 203 of our compatriots due to the COVID-19 disease,” said Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari.

“Based on this figure, the total number of victims has reached 13,032,” she told a televised news conference.

Lari said another 2,349 people had tested positive for the virus, raising the overall figure in the country’s outbreak to 259,652.

Iran has been struggling to contain the virus since announcing its first cases in February — two deaths in the Shiite holy city of Qom.

The Islamic republic has refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pandemic’s spread.

Official figures have shown an upward trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.

The Iranian government made the wearing of masks compulsory in closed public spaces from July 4, including on public transport.

State television, whose presenters now wear masks, said on Monday that police in Tehran were stopping commuters without masks from entering the subway.

§Authorities in Qom tightened controls in banks and administrative offices to ensure the implementation of health protocols, including mask-wearing, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.

The health ministry spokeswoman called on everyone to keep a physical distance from others, to wash their hands and to use masks.

“The more time you spend in an overcrowded environment, the more likely you are to contract the disease,” Lari said.

Iran closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between its 31 provinces in March, but progressively lifted restrictions from April to try to reopen its sanctions-hit economy.

The economy is suffering under the pressures of the health crisis.

The country’s currency, the rial, has hit new lows against the US dollar in recent weeks, mostly over border closures and a halt in non-oil exports, according to analysts.