Region

GENEVA — UN-hosted talks between the warring sides in Libya that were supposed to start on Wednesday were clouded in uncertainty after participants said they were staying away.

The talks are meant to be between representatives of the UN-recognised government in Tripoli and the eastern-based parliament backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.

UN Support Mission in Libya spokesman Jean Alam told AFP that the political talks — part of a UN-backed process — had "kicked off" in Geneva on Wednesday.

But Abdulhadi Lahweej, foreign minister of the eastern government, said on Wednesday that his side's participation "for the moment is suspended".

He said the UN was trying to "impose" representatives.

“There is no precondition. What we want is that all the people in the negotiations table must be representative of the Libyan people,” he told reporters in Geneva, adding that his side was willing to make “concessions”.

The high state council, the equivalent of a senate which backs the Tripoli-based unity government, on Tuesday had said it too would not participate in the talks until progress was made in military negotiations.

Libya has been rocked by violence since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 overthrew and killed Muammar Qadhafi.

Haftar’s forces launched an offensive against Tripoli, seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord, last April.

His fighters have since stalled on the edges of the capital, but fighting has left more than 1,000 people dead, according to the UN.

A joint military commission with five members from each side wound up talks in Geneva on Sunday with a “draft ceasefire agreement” to be finalised in March, according to the UN mission.

CAIRO — Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi paid his respects on Wednesday at the military funeral of former president Hosni Mubarak, whose three decades of rule ended in the Arab Spring protests of 2011.

The presidential office declared three days of mourning for the veteran head of state, who died aged 91 in a Cairo military hospital on Tuesday.

The funeral focused not on Mubarak's political legacy but on the military career of the Soviet-trained fighter pilot who commanded Egypt's air force during the 1973 war with Israel.

A military helicopter delivered Mubarak's coffin, which was draped in an Egyptian flag and then mounted on horse-drawn carriage at Cairo's Mosheer Tantawi Mosque.

Sisi led the military procession, flanked by the state's top religious and political figures.

Officers carried Mubarak's war medals and cannons fired a 21-shot salute before the coffin was later lowered into the ground in the family cemetery in Heliopolis in east Cairo.

Sisi, who did not address the ceremony, shook hands with Mubarak's mournful sons Alaa and Gamal.

Dozens of Mubarak supporters came to mourn, among them Tharwat Hassan, 59, an office manager from Menufiyah, the governorate Mubarak hailed from.

"He lived to see the day his sons were cleared," Hassan said. He then pointed to torrential rains that drenched Cairo early this week, saying it was "as if the skies were crying for him".

"Hosni Mubarak was not just a statesman, he was the true embodiment of the state."

"Mubarak in God's hands," read the front-page headline of state newspaper Al Ahram, with a black stripe cutting across a photograph of the veteran ruler.

The funeral was carried live on local television channels, where prominent commentators praised Mubarak's legacy in glowing tones.

The former air force chief and vice president became head of state in 1981 after militants assassinated his predecessor Anwar Sadat during a military parade.

Mubarak, who was sitting next to him, was wounded. He would survive several more attempts on his life, including in 1995 when militants sprayed his motorcade with bullets at a roadblock in Ethiopia.

As Mubarak went on to lead the North African country, he relied heavily on the armed forces and security services to ensure stability and security, while promoting close ties with the United States and keeping Egypt's peace with Israel.

.In the post-Mubarak years, Egypt was torn by political turmoil — bloody unrest in the streets, the short-lived rule of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, and his 2013 ouster by Sisi, another military man.

Mubarak's full-honours military funeral contrasted with the low-key burial of Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood president.

Mohamed Amin, a columnist for the biggest privately owned daily, Al Masry Youm, wrote that "you can agree or disagree with the departed president, but one thing is for sure: Mubarak never betrayed his country".

He compared Mubarak's fate with those of other Arab rulers in Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Tunisia, writing that "his end was unlike Qadhafi, Ali Abdullah Saleh or Saddam Hussein. He did not seek asylum like Ben Ali.

"He said he would live here and die here."

VIENNA — Iran said on Wednesday it was open "to any initiative" as Western powers stepped up efforts to save a 2015 deal to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions — on life support since a 2018 decision by the US to withdraw its backing and reimpose sanctions.

After talks with the remaining parties to the deal in Vienna, Iranian negotiator Abbas Araghchi said he was "fully prepared" to reverse measures that apparently violated Tehran's commitments — but only if the other side reciprocated.

Britain, France and Germany launched the deal's formal dispute process in January after Iran said it would no longer observe limits on the number of centrifuges used to enrich uranium — one of the deal's key stipulations.

The dispute process spells out several steps, the last one of which is notifying the UN Security Council. UN sanctions would then automatically "snap back" after 30 days unless the Security Council voted to stop it.

Iran argued on Wednesday that it needed some benefits under the deal, which promises it sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear programme.

Renewed US measures have crippled the Iranian economy and were cited as the reason for Iran restarting various nuclear processes since May last year.

The European Union — which oversaw the Vienna talks between Iran, the three western European nations, Russia and China — said "serious concerns" had been expressed over compliance.

But the EU statement added: "Participants also acknowledged that the re-imposition of US sanctions did not allow Iran to reap the full benefits arising from sanctions-lifting."

'Far from a result' 

A diplomat who asked not to be named told AFP on Tuesday that no timetable had been fixed for solving the dispute, adding "we are still far from a result".

The diplomat said everyone wanted to save the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), so that UN inspectors could continue working in Iran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been tasked with monitoring the deal's implementation and its latest report is expected within days.

"We are still open to any initiative which can ensure Iran's dividends of the JCPOA," said Araghchi, the Iranian deputy foreign minister, after the Vienna talks.

"We are fully prepared to reverse steps we have taken so far in return for the fulfilment of the other side's commitments under the JCPOA."

Western diplomats believe Iran is unlikely to heed calls to come back into full compliance without substantial concessions — such as an end to US sanctions or Europe taking measures to offset their economic impact.

But they hope the use of the dispute process will convince Iran not to make any more moves away from the deal, giving space for back-channel diplomacy aimed at bringing Washington and Tehran back into alignment.

The diplomat told AFP that Iran could also "at least freeze its uranium stocks" as a possible positive outcome of the current discussions.

At a major international security conference in Munich earlier this month, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran would be prepared to move back towards the deal if Europe provides "meaningful" economic benefits.

Europe has set up a special trading mechanism called Instex to try to enable legitimate humanitarian trade with Iran, but it has yet to complete any transactions and Tehran regards it as inadequate.

The renewed US sanctions have almost entirely isolated Iran from the international financial system, driven away oil buyers and plunged the country into a severe recession.

CAIRO — Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak, who ruled for three decades before he was ousted amid the Arab Spring protests in 2011, died Tuesday at age 91.

The once burly leader with the trademark sunglasses, who became witheringly frail after multiple surgeries towards the end of his life, spent years behind bars for his role in the deaths of protesters but was freed in 2017 after the convictions were overturned.

His son Alaa Mubarak wrote on Twitter: "This morning my father, president Mubarak, passed away".

His death was confirmed by the presidency and on state television.

Mubarak's brother-in-law, General Mounir Thabet, told AFP that the family was by Mubarak's side at the hospital.

A military funeral is planned for Wednesday, to be followed by three days of mourning, said the office of President Abdel-Fattah Al Sisi.

Mubarak had long battled illness and was recently admitted to a Cairo military hospital's intensive care unit, as media speculated on whether he suffered cancer, heart troubles or respiratory ailments.

Tributes poured in from leaders in the Middle East, where Mubarak's Egypt, a key ally of the United States, had at times served as a mediator, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he mourned the death "with great sorrow" and hailed Mubarak's support of the Palestinian cause.

The long-time president started off as a military pilot and was commander of the air force in the 1973 war with Israel.

President Sisi's office offered condolences and hailed Mubarak as one of the "heroes of the October 1973 war against Israel".

Mubarak became vice president in 1975 before taking power in 1981, following the assassination of former president Anwar Al Sadat by Islamist militants.

Mubarak was sitting near Sadat but survived, going on to dodge bullets during several more attempts on his life, including one by Islamist militants in 1995 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

He remained head of state for three decades but was overthrown in 2011 after three weeks of mass protests that started on January 25.

His ouster came amid mounting popular anger triggered partly by rampant police brutality and by 2010 parliamentary elections which were widely slammed as rigged.

Mubarak faced multiple charges after his overthrow, including over the deaths of protesters in 2011 and for corruption.

Mubarak, a determined foe of Islamist radicalism, maintained a state of emergency for the entirety of his rule that gave sweeping powers to the country’s feared security services.

Internationally, Mubarak garnered respect as a regional power broker, including in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As a staunch US ally, Egypt took billions in military aid and agreed to liberalise its economy, especially in the crucial tourism sector.

DUBAI/ TEHRAN — Gulf countries announced new measures Tuesday to cut links with Iran to prevent coronavirus spreading after the confirmation of 20 new cases, all of them people returning from the Islamic republic.

Iran said Tuesday its coronavirus outbreak, the deadliest outside China, had claimed 15 lives and infected nearly 100 others — including the country's deputy health minister

The United Arab Emirates suspended passenger and cargo flights to Iran, while Bahrain closed schools and nurseries for two weeks.

This came after Gulf countries Kuwait and Bahrain announced additional cases of COVID-19.

Over the past two days, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman have reported 29 cases of the novel coronavirus among people returning from pilgrimages to Iran, which is battling the deadliest outbreak outside China.

The three countries have large Shiite Muslim populations who frequently travel to Iran to visit holy shrines.

The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority "suspended all passenger flights and cargo to and from Iran starting today and for one week," a statement carried by the official WAM news agency said, adding that the ban could be extended.

Bahrain's health ministry said 15 more people — including six Saudi women — had tested positive for the virus after returning to the kingdom from Iran via Dubai and Sharjah in the UAE.

Shortly after, the Bahraini authorities said citizens were banned from travelling to Iran "until further notice" and suspended "all public and private schools as well as nurseries for two weeks", according to the official Bahrain News Agency.

The first case of coronavirus in Bahrain was of a man who had transported children to three schools after returning home from Iran on February 21 via Dubai airport.

In neighbouring Kuwait, three new cases were recorded among Kuwaiti men who had been under quarantine in the emirate after returning from Iran.

And Oman — which on Monday reported its first cases of coronavirus, two Omani women who had returned from Iran — said it had detected an additional two cases.

Muscat was making arrangements to bring back its citizens from the Islamic republic, the foreign ministry said, a day after it suspended all flights to and from Iran.

Oman also announced that it would suspend trade with Iranian goods from Wednesday.

The UAE has already announced 13 coronavirus cases, all foreigners, including an Iranian couple who had travelled from Iran.

Kuwait has cancelled celebrations for national holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday, and also scrapped all sports events to counter the spread of the disease.

Iran has been scrambling to contain COVID-19 since Wednesday last week when it announced the first two deaths in Qom, a centre for Islamic studies and pilgrims that attracts scholars from abroad.

The country’s deputy health minister put on a brave face as he admitted he too was infected.

Iraj Harirchi had coughed occasionally and wiped sweat from his brow repeatedly during a news conference in Tehran on Monday with government spokesman Ali Rabiei.

At the time he denied a lawmaker’s claim that 50 people had died from the virus in the Shiite shrine city of Qom, saying he would resign if the number proved to be true.

“I too have been infected with coronavirus,” Harirchi said on Tuesday in a video apparently shot by himself.The health ministry confirmed three new deaths and 34 new infections, bringing the overall tally to 15 deaths and 95 cases. President Hassan Rouhani expressed confidence the authorities were on the right track.

“The reports I have received from the health minister are promising. We are moving towards controlling the virus,” he said.

Iran, which has shut schools, universities and cultural centres until the end of the week, has yet to find the source of the country’s outbreak.

But the health minister, Saeed Namaki, has said that one person who died of coronavirus in Qom was a businessman who had made several trips to China

TALTUNAH, Syria — In a field dotted with olive trees in embattled northwestern Syria, Shamseddeen Darra steps down into the gloomy underground shelter he and his family now call home.

After fleeing ongoing violence in their home region of Idlib, they found nowhere else to go.

Beyond rolling hills in the village of Taltuna, Darra, his three brothers, their wives and more than a dozen children share a small room in the belly of the earth.

"We're living here for lack of a better option", says 35-year-old Darra, who calls their makeshift shelter "the cave".

"We didn't have any tents. We stayed in the town mosque for two days. We looked for a place to stay but found nothing," he explained.

After they found the abandoned shelter, dug out by villagers earlier in the civil war to hide from air strikes, they cleaned it out and moved in.

The Syrian army has been chipping away at Syria’s last major rebel bastion since December.

The region is run by extremists and allied Turkey-backed rebel groups, and is home to around three million civilians.

The violence has forced 900,000 of them to flee their homes or shelters, more than half of them children.

‘Scorpions and snakes’ 

Inside their new underground home, Darra’s children huddle on a carpet around a tray covered in small bowls of hummus and dried oregano in olive oil.

Sunshine seeps in only from the staircase, the only source of light to cast away the dank darkness.

In a corner, the family has piled its scant belongings under a red and navy blue blanket.

“We’re suffering from the humidity. The kids are sick,” he said, as nearby one of them started crying.

“And there are bugs,” added Darra, wearing a thick black hooded sweatshirt.

Not far off, 40 year-old Abu Mohammed had also set up camp in an underground bunker.

He and around 40 people now share the space, where they have thrown a plastic rug on the ground and piled plastic jars of picked olives and other food along the uneven wall.

When we first arrived, “the cave was dirty. There was animal excrement,” said Abu Mohammed, wearing a black leather jacket and sporting a greying beard.

“The villagers warned us there were scorpions and snakes, but we had no other option,” he said.

Of those newly displaced since December, some 170,000 live out in the open or in unfinished buildings, the United Nations says.

AFP correspondents have seen families without shelter forced to camp out in their cars, sleep in schools or mosques, or even make home in an abandoned prison.

Among the dead 

But in the town of Sarmada further north, Yusra Harsuni said she and her family had reached new lows.

She, her daughter-in-law and grandchildren were now among 60 families living in the hall of the local cemetery.

When the rain stops during the daytime, men and women emerge to stroll between the graves.

They and their children sit on the grass, breathing in fresh air beyond the white marble tomb stones.

Inside, the sunlit hall is divided into two sections according to gender, and heated up with large stoves.

Babies cry out, piercing through the low din of everyday chatter.

Here and there, essential belongings grabbed in flight have been piled up haphazardly. There are mattresses, carpets, saucepans and boxes of food.

“There are lots of families inside,” Harsuni said, sitting by a tomb with two small children.

Living next to a graveyard is not easy, she said.

 One night a small boy started screaming and people thought he was possessed.

“The sheikh twice had to come and recite the Koran” to rid the place of any spirits, she said.

But the grandmother says she has now resigned herself to living among the dead.

“Of course, here in the middle of tombs, people are scared of death,” she said.

“But it’s the lesser of two evils.”

TEHRAN — French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, jailed in Iran since last year, has been transferred to a prison hospital after her health deteriorated following a hunger strike, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

"This is a consequence of the hunger strike she had. Unfortunately, her kidneys have been damaged," Saeed Dehqan told AFP, emphasising that her situation was "concerning".

The academic ended a six-week hunger strike on February 12 as she awaits trial on charges including conspiring against national security.

Adelkhah, a specialist in Shiite Islam and a research director at Sciences Po University in Paris, was arrested in June 2019 and is being held in Evin prison in Tehran.

Dehqan said they were waiting on their request for her to be transferred to a hospital outside the prison.

Adelkhah's French colleague and long-time partner Roland Marchal, an expert on East Africa, was reportedly detained at the same time while visiting her and is currently being held in the same prison.

They both face trial on March 3.

Adelkhah faces charges of "propaganda against the system" and "colluding to commit acts against national security", according to Dehqan.

Marchal was accused of "colluding to commit acts against national security".

"Mr Marchal is fine but very angry, just like Ms Adelkhah, over the process of their illegal detainment," said the lawyer.

Dehqan also raised concerns about an outbreak of the new coronavirus in the Islamic republic, which has so far killed 15 people among around 100 cases of infection.

"We're concerned that hospitals outside would not be safe" and that at the same time, the visiting husbands of the detained women could infect the inmates, he said.

He called on authorities to cancel prison visits until further notice.

The two researchers are not the only foreign academics behind bars in Iran.

Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert of the University of Melbourne is serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty of espionage.