Region

BEIRUT/ RABAT (AFP) — A Lebanese man died Tuesday from the novel coronavirus, a health ministry official said, marking the country's first recorded death from an epidemic that has infected 52 people nationwide.

The 56-year-old had been receiving treatment at Beirut's Rafik Hariri state hospital, the ministry official told AFP, adding that he had recently returned from Egypt, where novel coronavirus infections have also been detected.

Lebanon, already hit by economic collapse and anti-government protests, is now grappling with an outbreak of the deadly illness — its latest in a long list of crises.

Authorities on Tuesday said they had recorded 11 new cases in the past 24 hours.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan said last week that the country has moved beyond the phase of "containment" and was bracing for a more serious outbreak.

Schools, universities, cafes, pubs and other public places have since been ordered shut over fears of the virus' spread.

Sport tournaments have been postponed and cultural events cancelled.

According to the health minister, the origins of Lebanon’s cases have mostly been traced to other countries.

Lebanon has said it would deny entry to non-resident foreigners arriving from China, South Korea, Iran and Italy, which are among the hardest hit by the epidemic.

Also on Tuesday, Morocco’s health ministry said the country had recorded its first death linked to the new coronavirus, an 89-year-old woman who suffered from chronic health problems.

The woman, a Moroccan citizen who had been living in Italy, “suffered from chronic illnesses affecting the respiratory and cardiovascular system”, the ministry said in a statement.

She returned to Morocco in late February, before testing positive for the virus and being transferred under medical supervision to a hospital in Casablanca, according to the statement.

Two other infections have been confirmed in the kingdom — a Moroccan man who came home from Italy and a French tourist who arrived in Marrakesh on Saturday. Both are under medical supervision.

Moroccan authorities have imposed restrictions on sporting and cultural events, including closing stadia to the public.

Local media outlets have reported that the vital tourism sector is being hit by cancellations of travel bookings.

Several people have been arrested by authorities in recent days for allegedly spreading misinformation on coronavirus on social networks.

ANKARA — Turkey hopes to reach a new agreement with Europe to deal with refugees in time for the next EU leaders' summit, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

"If we reach an agreement by March 26 when there will be an EU leaders' summit, this issue will come on to the agenda of this meeting," Cavusoglu said.

"We are ready for constructive work," he added.

He spoke a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held tense discussions with EU presidents Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel in Brussels.Erdogan said the leaders of Germany and France will visit Istanbul next week for talks on the latest migration crisis at Turkey's border with Europe, official media said Tuesday.

"We will come together in Istanbul next Tuesday" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Erdogan told journalists on his plane back from Brussels, the Anadolu news agency said.

The French presidency did not confirm the summit when asked by AFP.

Erdogan said it would be a four-party summit if British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was able to join the talks.

Turkey's decision at the end of February to reopen its border for refugees seeking to reach Europe sparked a row with Brussels, as well as harsh exchanges with Greece.

"If we are to come up with a roadmap with the EU, we expect them to be sincere," Cavusoglu said.

"It is not only about keeping migrants in return for more money," he added.

Turkey agreed in 2016 to prevent migrant departures in exchange for six billion euros and talks on building closer ties.

It says it has not received all the money, and that other promises — including improved visa and trade rules — have not been met.

Erdogan skipped the post-talks press conference in Brussels on Monday.

“Clearly we do have our disagreements, but we have spoken plainly and we have spoken openly to each other,” Von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, told reporters.

Turkey hosts some four million refugees — most of them from Syria — and faces a fresh influx as the Syrian regime, backed by Russia and Iran, seeks to retake the last rebel stronghold of Idlib on the Turkish border.

Europe has said it will consider taking 1,500 child refugees, but has focused on reinforcing Greece’s borders.

Although Turkey and Russia agreed a ceasefire for Idlib last week, previous peace deals have proved temporary and Ankara has called for greater assistance from its NATO allies.

Cavusoglu confirmed on Tuesday that Turkey had requested Patriot missile defences from NATO. The issue has been complicated by Turkey’s controversial decision to buy Russian S-400 missile defences.

GENEVA — Iran's response to the deadly new coronavirus outbreak, including temporarily releasing 70,000 prisoners, has been "too little, too late", a UN rights expert said on Tuesday.

Javaid Rehman, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said Tehran was trying to "fudge" its handling of the outbreak, one of the deadliest outside China, where the disease originated.

"The situation on coronavirus is highly disturbing within Iran," Rehman told reporters at the UN in Geneva.

Since the first two reported deaths in the holy city of Qom on February 19, the disease has spread widely, he said.

"It has been a rapid expansion. In my estimation, the state has done too little, too late."

Iran on Tuesday reported 54 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day toll since the start of the outbreak there. That brought the numbers killed in the country to 291 out of 8,042 infected.

And recent reports suggest that COVID-19 has spread inside Iranian prisons.

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online official news agency cited Asghar Jahangir, the head of Iran's prisons organisation, as saying that "about 70,000 prisoners" had been released in a bid to combat the spread.

But this temporary release programme was an inadequate response, said Rehman.

"We don't know what conditions they have been released on: The bail agreement, for how long precisely," he added.

Prisons 'a recipe for disease' 

For one thing, it only included people serving sentences of up to five years.

It would therefore exclude anyone jailed for national security offences, such as those rounded up in the lethal crackdown on protests in November, political prisoners and dual and foreign nationals, he said.

He had recommended to Tehran that it free "all prisoners on temporary release and not have this discriminatory restriction of a threshold".

The authorities should ensure a comprehensive testing scheme, he added, as "many prisoners have expressed concern that the state is not doing enough.

"They are trying to fudge this issue."

Iran had been slow to react to the virus when it broke out, said Rehman, and they were still not doing enough. "We want transparent public outreach and communication."

In his latest report, presented to the UN Human Rights Council this week, Rehman expressed alarm at the conditions of detention in Iran.

In Iranian prisons and detention centres, overcrowding, poor nutrition and the lack of basic hygiene were "a recipe for disease", he said.

But Rehman also warned that US sanctions, reimposed after Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal, were leading to shortages of essential medicines and medical equipment in Iran.

QAMISHLI, Syria — On a Syrian highway, Hussein Abdel Hamid recently found himself trapped inside his car. A US army patrol had encountered Russian tanks down the road, neither allowing the other passage.

The incident two weeks ago is not a rare sight in war-torn northeastern Syria, where Russian and US forces demonstrate a fragile coexistence despite backing opposite sides in the nine-year conflict.

"We always see US and Russian forces going head-to-head," Abdel Hamid, a 55-year-old Syrian Kurd, said.

"Just like taxis," they keep trying to cut each other off on the road, he added.

A staunch opponent of the Syrian regime, Washington first deployed troops in northeast Syria in 2014 as part of a coalition to combat the Daesh terror group.

Russia, for its part, has militarily backed the Syrian since 2015, but did not deploy its forces in the northeast until late last year, following a Turkish invasion against Kurdish fighters.

Turkey's offensive in October was spurred in part by US President Donald Trump who said he was pulling his forces out of border areas in the northeast.

Feeling abandoned by their erstwhile allies in the anti-Daesh battle, the Kurds turned to Damascus and Moscow to prevent a deeper incursion into their region.

Since then, Russian soldiers and American troops have rubbed shoulders in Kurdish-held territories, where their patrols cross paths regularly, flags fluttering simultaneously on opposite sides of the road.

AFP correspondents have often seen soldiers using binoculars to watch each other's movements.

"I think the joint presence of Russia and the United States in northeastern Syria is an exceptional situation," said Syria researcher Samuel Ramani.

In a video shared on social media in February, a US military vehicle is seen nudging a Russian armoured vehicle that was trying to overtake it off the road.

But the presence of Russian troops has also helped US forces avoid a face-off with Syrian regime forces.

In early March, two American armoured vehicles found themselves only 50 metres from a Syrian army position and had to wait for the return of a Russian patrol in order to leave, local sources said.

In February, Moscow said Russia came to the rescue of American troops who came under attack by Assad loyalists who opened fire and tried to block its passage.

Despite all these tensions, Ramani said he thought "the risk of a major confrontation is very limited".

"Russia and the US might not have much experience with close geographical proximity, but they have a history of fighting in tandem on opposite sides in the Syrian civil war," he said.

Charles Thepaut, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, agreed that "neither the Russians nor the Americans are interested in direct confrontation".

But these incidents did however "show how fragile the situation is on the ground".

"The concentration of forces hostile to each other... in a small area where everybody has to use the same roads makes things dangerous," he added.

Competing interests 

Syria is the only country in decades to have seen both American and Russian forces on the ground at the same time.

In February 2018, US-led coalition strikes killed dozens of regime and allied fighters near oil and gas installations in eastern Syria.

Moscow said five Russians were likely among the victims, blaming the incident on a "lack of co-ordination" by the pro-Assad group with Russian command.

But today, deconfliction channels in place since 2015 to prevent any clash between the Russians and the Americans seem to be bearing their fruit.

Any escalation will likely be contained, "unless one of the parties really wants to show strength”, Thepaut said.

But long term, both sides have very different goals.

Although Trump in October said he would withdraw US troops from Syria, he later added that at least 500 personnel would remain, including to protect oil installations in the east.

"The goal of Russia is to get all US troops to leave Syria to reinstall the regime in all of Syria, which is impossible with US troops on the ground," Thepaut said.

"Their goal is also to pressure the [Kurdish-led] Syrian Democratic Forces to negotiate with the regime."

Caught between both sides, the SDF find themselves having to deal with both the Russians and the Americans if they want to salvage some of their semi-autonomy in Syria's northeast.

Residents say they hold little hope in either side.

"We no longer trust the Americans or the Russians," said 61-year-old Yaqub Kassar.

"All countries are only looking out for their own interests."

By Delil Souleiman and Layal Abou Rahal 

KHARTOUM — Sudan's post-uprising Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok survived unharmed after a bomb and gun attack targeted his convoy on Monday on the way to work in the capital Khartoum, officials and state media said.

The attack on Hamdok, a seasoned economist named premier last August, was staged in the Kober district of northeast Khartoum, in an apparent sign of the shakiness of Sudan's transition to civilian rule.

"An explosion hit as Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's car was driving by but thank God no one was hurt," Ali Bakhit, his office director, said in a Facebook post.

Sudan's official news agency SUNA said that Hamdok, who later chaired an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, was in "good health and a safe place".

The unidentified attackers struck at "around 9 am at the entrance to Kober bridge... at the time when Hamdok usually heads to his office" in the city centre, SUNA said.

The Cabinet said an explosion and multiple gunshots targeted the convoy.

Images on state television showed at least two damaged vehicles at the blast site, which was quickly cordoned off by police.

Hamdok, 64, wrote on his official Twitter account that he was unharmed and released two photos of himself beaming while seated at his desk.

“I would like to assure the people of Sudan that I am safe and in good shape,” he said.

He appeared on television exchanging hugs with public figures who congratulated him for surviving the attempt on his life.

Attack on ‘revolution’ 

US Assistant Secretary of State Tibor Nagy said Washington “strongly supports” Sudan’s transitional government and was “monitoring the situation closely”.

Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia denounced the attack.

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrel also voiced support, saying “the ideals of the revolution have to be preserved”.

UNAMID, the United Nations-African Union mission in Sudan, for its part, said the “perpetrators of such a heinous act aim at derailing the transitional period”.

Hamdok addressed such concerns.

“Rest assured that what happened today will not stand in the way of our transition, instead it is an additional push to the wheel of change in Sudan,” said Hamdok in a tweet.

The premier also met with leaders of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) movement, who spearheaded nationwide protests against longtime president Omar Al Bashir calling for civilian rule.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and no arrests were announced.

The “terrorist attack” had targeted the “revolution of the Sudanese people and the gains they achieved”, the cabinet said in a statement.

It said there were no casualties apart from a guard “who suffered a minor shoulder injury after falling from his motorcycle”.

Dozens of demonstrators in Khartoum later took part in public shows of support for Hamdok, chanting “with our blood and soul, we will sacrifice ourselves for you”.

“This is our homeland and Hamdok is our leader,” they sang.

Hamdok’s appointment as prime minister came on the back of a power-sharing deal between military leaders, who ousted Bashir in April, and the FFC.

He had built a solid career in continental and international organisations, including as deputy executive secretary of the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa.

Since he took office, Hamdok has vowed to tackle social and economic difficulties and been attempting to forge peace with rebel groups across the country.

TEHRAN — Iran on Monday announced 43 new deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 237 dead, one of the world's highest.

"Our colleagues have confirmed 595 new cases across the country," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference.

"This brings the overall number of confirmed cases to 7,161 as of today noon," he said.

Jahanpour said the rate of new infections was slowing but it was "still too early to judge" when the outbreak could be brought under control.

“Forty-three people have unfortunately been added to the number of those who have died of the disease, so to date we have 237 dead,” he said.

Iranian media said a politician and a high-ranking cleric were among the latest fatalities.

Mohammadreza Rahchamani, a reformist politician and sitting MP from 1984 to 2000, died on Monday, state news agency IRNA said.

Another prominent victim was Ayatollah Reza Mohammadi Langeroudi, 91, a student of the Islamic republic’s late founder Ayatollah Khomeini, Entekhab website reported.

The outbreak of the virus in Iran is one of the deadliest outside of China, where the disease originated.

With 1,945 cases, the capital Tehran remains the province with the most cases.

The second worst-hit province with 712 confirmed cases is Qom, the Shiite pilgrimage city south of Tehran where the Islamic republic’s first cases were reported, followed by Mazandaran in the north with 633.

The latter is a popular tourist spot bordering the Caspian Sea, especially during holidays for the Iranian New Year on March 20.

Iran is yet to officially impose quarantines but authorities have repeatedly advised against travelling.

In certain provinces including Mazandaran, the police have announced that non-residents will be denied entry.

According to Iranian media, authorities in several provinces have ordered the closure of hotels and other tourist accommodations in a bid to discourage travel.

State television has also started airing educational programmes for elementary school students, after schools were closed until the end of the Iranian year.

Some radical Iranian officials have speculated the coronavirus may have been developed as a weapon by the Islamic republic’s arch-enemy, the United States.

The virus may have been “a product of America’s biological aggression that has first infected China and then spread to Iran and the rest of the world”, said Hossein Salami, commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard, quoted in Etemad newspaper.

But Alaeddin Boroudjerdi, a senior MP, noted that the “United States, the Zionist regime [Israel] and other countries are all affected” by the virus.

Apart from the direct fatalities, 27 people have died from methanol poisoning in Iran after rumours that drinking alcohol can help cure the disease.

BEIRUT — Lebanon, shaken by street protests and economic crisis and now set to default on its Eurobond debt, has pledged reforms that will serve as a litmus test for its new government.

"The real question is: Will politicians do what's necessary to fix the problem?" asked Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs.

"If defaulting does not go along with a clear-cut commitment to reform, this will accelerate collapse."

Lebanon's debt burden, long among the largest in the world, is now equivalent to nearly 170 per cent of its gross domestic product.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Saturday his government would suspend payment of a $1.2 billion Eurobond maturity due on Monday and seek debt restructuring because of dwindling foreign currency reserves.

He also announced plans to slash state spending and downsize an inflated banking sector.

His self-styled technocratic government, nominated in January to tackle a financial meltdown and unprecedented anti-government protests, must now prepare for talks with creditors and decide on whether to a seek the help of the International Monetary Fund.

With a long track record of chronic political gridlock, corruption and financial mismanagement, many expect Lebanese politicians to stumble.

The demonstrators who have rallied since October don’t believe the government will carry through with the necessary changes.

“We want to remind the ruling class that the solutions have been available for years but, just like today, we lacked courageous political will,” said activist group Taqaddom in a statement.

Another group, Shabab Al Masraf, warned that the government pledges may just be “ink on paper”.

IMF debate 

Despite its turbulent history, the small Mediterranean country has never before defaulted, but in recent months it has grappled with its worst economic turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Foreign currency has become increasingly scarce, Lebanon’s pound has plunged in value and banks have imposed tough restrictions on dollar withdrawals and transfers.

Diab met last month with an IMF delegation to discuss technical assistance to tackle the spiralling financial crisis, but he has yet to request funds amid internal divisions.

Banking experts have argued in favour of an IMF rescue, saying it would secure international assistance that the cash-strapped country desperately needs and provide the kind of assurances creditors are looking for.

“The IMF is the only option moving forward if politicians want an exit,” Nader said.

But the powerful Shiite movement Hizbollah, which along with its allies holds a majority in parliament, has emerged as a vocal critic.

Last week it said it rejected conditions and “ready-made recipes” which global bodies could impose, warning against what it called “foreign guardianship” over the economy.

In some troubled economies, the IMF has in the past recommended subsidy cuts, tax hikes and a floating currency to address state insolvency, at times fuelling the kind of street protests that have already shaken Lebanon for months.

Exposed to danger 

The An-Nahar newspaper, Lebanon’s oldest daily, however warned the country could be exposed to more “danger” because the government has decided to embark on the default path without IMF assistance.

The IMF is a “necessary international mediator that could have helped Lebanon by providing it with cover” against creditors who may consider legal action, it said in an editorial on Sunday.

As Lebanon braces to enter restructuring negotiations, a credible and feasible economic rescue plan is “the main prerequisite”, said Mohamad Faour, a post-doctoral research fellow in banking and finance at University College Dublin.

Creditors usually prefer for such reform plans to be part of an IMF package, he said, warning that “kick-starting the negotiations with no concrete plan would be a non-starter”.

Diab on Saturday reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to reforms pledged at a Paris conference in April 2018, including spending cuts and electricity sector reform, as well as plans to downsize a bloated banking sector.

The economist Jad Chaaban, a prominent critic of Lebanon’s political elite, blamed the crisis on decades of mismanagement by the state, including of commercial lenders, many of which are owned by politicians themselves.

He said in a Facebook post that the prime minister’s latest announcement marked the “end of a system that saw banks covering up the corruption of the ruling elite”.

“Political parties are in trouble, bank owners are in trouble, and the tug of war between the two will only get worse.”