Region

TEHRAN — Two French academics held in Iran where they are accused of plotting against national security will go on trial on March 3, their lawyer said on Tuesday.

Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, both researchers at Sciences Po University in Paris, were detained in the Islamic republic in June 2019 and are being held in Evin prison in Tehran.

“We saw the indictment yesterday. The date for the trial was set yesterday for March 3,” lawyer Said Dehghan told AFP.

Adelkhah faces charges of “propaganda against the system” and “colluding to commit acts against national security”, he said.

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

Speaking a short time earlier in a televised news conference, Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said the academics had already been convicted.

“They were tried in the presence of their lawyer, and convicted and are currently undergoing their sentence,” said Esmaili, without elaborating further.

But their lawyer said this was not the case.

“I deny this,” Dehghan told AFP. “We are preparing our defence.”

Adelkhah, a specialist in Shiite Islam, last week ended a six-week hunger strike that she had reportedly begun to demand the release of Marchal amid concerns about his health.

Marchal, an expert on East Africa, was reportedly arrested when visiting Adelkhah.

The detention of the pair has raised tensions between Iran and France.

France said on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had called for their “release without delay” during talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday in Munich.

A spokesman for the French foreign ministry called on Tuesday for “consular access, which must be regular and in accordance with Iran’s international commitments, and... the release of our compatriots”.

Iran, which does not recognise dual nationality, has repeatedly criticised France for what it calls its “interference” in Adelkhah’s case.

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.

BRUSSELS — EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to a naval operation to enforce an arms embargo on war-torn Libya, overcoming objections from countries who feared it may encourage new migrant flows.

The new mission will include ships as well as air capacity and the possibility of ground forces, Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said.

It will focus on the eastern Mediterranean, through which weapons pass on their way to Libya.

The conflict in the oil-rich but turbulent North African state was on the agenda for EU ministers meeting in Brussels but EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell had played down hopes of an agreement over objections from Austria and Hungary.

"We all agreed to create a mission to block the entry of arms into Libya, with rules of engagement," di Maio said.

"If it creates a 'pull factor', that is to say the ships attract migrants, the mission will be stopped."

Austria had led opposition to reviving Operation Sophia — set up in 2015 to fight people smuggling across the Mediterranean — to enforce the embargo with ships, fearing it could reactivate a rescue fleet that would end up ferrying migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Hungary, whose right-wing populist government has taken a tough anti-immigration stance, is understood to have supported Austria’s objections.

Making the arms embargo work is seen as crucial to stabilising the Libyan conflict, where the UN-backed Tripoli government is under attack from the forces of military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of the country’s south and east.

Di Maio and his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg insisted Operation Sophia was finished and the new mission was a different beast.

“There is a basic consensus that we now want a military operation and not a humanitarian mission,” Schallenberg said.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said there had been a long discussion about whether a naval element was needed but finally it was agreed it was “necessary to get a complete picture”.

“But it will be only in the eastern Mediterranean, where the weapons routes run,” Maas said.

Libyan chaos 

A senior UN official warned Sunday that a fragile truce agreed in January but regularly breached is “holding by a thread”.

World leaders agreed at a Berlin summit last month to end all meddling in the conflict and stop the flow of weapons into Libya, but little has changed on the ground since then.

States including Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt support Haftar, while the UN-recognised government led by Fayez Al Sarraj is backed by Turkey and Qatar.

After a meeting of foreign ministers in Munich on Sunday — a follow-up to the Berlin conference — Borrell hit out at Austria for blocking the Operation Sophia revival, saying it was absurd for a landlocked country which does not even have a navy to take such a stance.

On Monday, Borrell renewed his attack, rejecting Vienna’s claim that reviving naval operations would create a “pull effect” encouraging migrants to try to cross the Mediterranean by offering the prospect of rescue if they got into difficulties at sea.

Former Spanish foreign minister Borrell has said the renewed mission would focus on known weapons smuggling routes, away from the areas that human traffickers use to bring migrants from Libya.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Violence in northwest Syria has displaced 900,000 people since the start of December, and babies are dying of cold because aid camps are full, the UN said Monday.

That figure is 100,000 more than the United Nations had previously recorded.

"The crisis in northwest Syria has reached a horrifying new level", said Mark Lowcock, the UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief.

He said the displaced were overwhelmingly women and children who are "traumatised and forced to sleep outside in freezing temperatures because camps are full. Mothers burn plastic to keep children warm. Babies and small children are dying because of the cold."

The Idlib region, including parts of neighboring Aleppo province, is home to some three million people, half of them already displaced from other parts of the country.

Lowcock warned Monday that the violence in the northwest was “indiscriminate”.

“Health facilities, schools, residential areas, mosques and markets have been hit. Schools are suspended, many health facilities have closed. There is a serious risk of disease outbreaks. Basic infrastructure is falling apart,” he said in a statement.

“We are now receiving reports that settlements for displaced people are being hit, resulting in deaths, injuries and further displacement.”

He said that a massive relief operation underway from the Turkish border is has been “overwhelmed. The equipment and facilities being used by aid workers are being damaged. Humanitarian workers themselves are being displaced and killed”.

ALGIERS — On February 22, 2019, sudden and unprecedented protests swept Algeria. A year on, despite bringing down a president, the "Hirak" protest movement faces mounting challenges.

Massive anti-government protests held every Friday quickly gathered momentum: Six weeks in, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned after 20 years in power.

But Algeria's military was quick to reassert control and by the time presidential elections were held in December, a former Bouteflika ally succeeded him in a vote deeply opposed by protesters and shunned by most voters.

"With the presidential election, we passed into act two, with all the spectre of improbability, uncertainty and instability" that entails, Karima Direche, an historian of contemporary North Africa, told AFP.

"It matches what Algerians have been saying for a year: 'Everything is moving and nothing is changing.'"

While a year of weekly protests has not yet brought down "the system" that they challenged, the Hirak movement has profoundly changed Algeria's political landscape.

'Increased awareness' 

Bouteflika's resignation and the imprisonment of corrupt businessmen and politicians are "tangible results, even if the main demand of regime change and systemic reform is far from having been achieved", said Dalia Ghanem, a researcher with the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

But Hirak's biggest success, she said, was "the increased awareness of Algerians and their desire to reconnect with politics... without fear of another civil war".

A brutal war between the Algerian army and Islamist rebels killed some 200,000 people in the 1990s.

The trauma of the conflict was exploited under Bouteflika to discourage dissent, and until February 22 had rendered large protests on the streets unimaginable.

Ahead of the first protests, Algeria's political system had remained focused on presidential polls that were widely expected to return Bouteflika to power — despite the 82-year-old being largely incapacitated since a stroke in 2013.

Cut off from the public, the regime sensed growing anger but underestimated it.

Young Algerians — disproportionately affected by massive unemployment in a country where the majority is under 30 — were fed up with being represented by a wheelchair-bound octogenarian whose rare public appearances elicited mockery online.

Simmering anger peaked when, during a meeting of the president's party, a portrait of Bouteflika was addressed by party apparatchiks in the absence of the ailing leader.

Calls to protest on February 22 began multiplying across social media.

Few expected the movement to take hold though, especially in Algiers, where since 2001 public rallies had been banned.

But then on the first Friday, overwhelmed police stood aside as tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators poured out onto the streets.

What now? 

In a country without a real opposition party or union, for the first time "the street appeared as a protest force", said Karima Direche, a historian at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

According to Jean-Pierre Filiu, professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po University in Paris, the Hirak has for the past year taken centre stage in "both the nation's history and public space".

And by keeping the protests peaceful, "the movement has changed the rules of the game in Algerian politics, which was previously marked by violence and a lack of transparency."

The Hirak has also shown the profound transformation of Algerian society: Led by an educated and hyper-connected youth, and in particular women, who are now determined to be heard.

Algeria's new president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, aged 74, "will have to deal with that. He won't be able to rule like those before him", said Direche.

A year on, the protests are smaller than in spring 2019, but the movement remains strong.

The Hirak wants to influence the changes promised by the new president but is struggling to structure itself and agree on a future strategy.

"As the movement celebrates its first anniversary, I want to ask 'What's next?'," said Ghanem. "What do you want? What are you demanding and how will you obtain concrete results?"

Several civil society groups born of the Hirak movement are to hold a conference in Algiers on Sunday marking the anniversary in a bid to unify their ranks as a political force.

Participants from across Algeria and abroad will examine a "February 22 Proclamation" summing up the demands and slogans of the protest movement, organisers said.

TEHRAN — Many Iranians, battered by economic sanctions, political turmoil and the lingering threat of military conflict, say they are in no mood to vote in general elections this week.

Speaking of heavy hearts and a sense of bitterness, Tehranis complain they are tired of politicians who have failed to keep their word or to raise living standards.

"No way! There's no way we are going to vote!" 62-year-old Pari said under the gaze of her daughter who also intends to boycott the parliamentary polls on Friday because she no longer trusts politicians.

"It's difficult for everyone in Iran nowadays. We're fed up. We want to send a message that we're not satisfied with the situation," the mother added.

President Hassan Rouhani, reelected in 2017, promised more social and individual freedoms and gave assurances that Iranians would be able to benefit from the fruits of engagement with the West.

But many people feel their lives have been crippled by the economic slump and exacerbated by harsh US sanctions since US President Donald Trump in 2018 pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal with Iran.

Added to this has been the threat of military conflict as Trump has ramped up a campaign of "maximum pressure" against the Islamic republic.

Pari and her daughter Kiana were strolling through Tajrish, one of the capital's most exclusive neighbourhoods where displays of wealth contrast sharply with extreme poverty.

Elegant women in dark glasses steered their SUVs through streets lined with roadside vendors who displayed their wares on the grimy pavement.

A shoeshine boy sitting on the curb of the icy sidewalk was narrowly missed by a motorcycle online food delivery rider speeding the wrong way up a traffic-choked street.

"There's no work, no future," said Kiana, her jet-black hair falling out from under her headscarf.

Above all, she aid, she no longer "trusts the authorities" and is dismayed by their "lack of honesty".

The credibility of Iran's leaders took a hit among many when authorities denied last month that Iranian armed forces had mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner, before they came clean days later.

At Tehran's Grand Bazaar, beyond the stunning turquoise-blue mosaic entrance, hundreds of people scrambled into the historic market, a labyrinth of alleys and shops underneath stone vaulted ceilings.

Browsing for brass dishware, linen bedding, refined carpets and clothes, shoppers elbowed their way through the crowd.

Standing at the entrance was Amir Mohtasham, a 38-year-old who has been jobless for two years and who said he worries about the lack of vision of those candidates allowed to stand for elections.

"It seems none of the candidates has a plan for anything," he said.

"Neither the conservatives nor the reformists are trustworthy. They only care about votes... Our elections are useless."

A short distance away, a 30-year-old carpet merchant, though much better off, voiced similar views.

"We voted for Rouhani with a dream, but we didn't achieve anything," Mohammad said, accusing the authorities of spreading "lies".

"People no longer have peace of mind," he said. "When the people aren't the ones who decide, why should we vote? If voting is legitimising, then we won't vote."

Other people from conservative or religious backgrounds however said they were determined to take part in the election.

"I will certainly vote, but I need to think about for whom," said Hassan Ghole, 55, a bazaar salesman.

"Our parliamentarians are all trying to do their best but how much they can actually succeed, nobody knows," he said, expressing hope that future lawmakers would work "to solve the problems of youths".

In Tehran's poorer southern district of Nazi Abad, a housewife wearing a chador also said she would dutifully cast her ballot.

"From the point of view of our religion, it's important to go and vote, especially as our country is surrounded by enemies," she said.

"The most important thing for us is to have faith in life and then the economy will be good."

But in the same neighbourhood, youths spoke of their thirst for more freedom in the Islamic republic, which marked its 41st anniversary this month.

"Elections have just become symbolic... I don't support this system and won't vote," 20-year-old Kamran Baluchzadeh said, in a rare show of dissent.

"I feel hopeless and weak, and I'm even not 25 years old," he said, shivering in below-freezing temperatures.

"I feel desperate," he added, citing expenses he can't pay, worries about being unable to find a wife and taking care of his parents.

Bags of clothing and a telephone in hand, Pari Aghazadeh is a fashion designer who does not go unnoticed with her slender figure, redone nose, false nails and thick coat of lipstick.

"I honestly don't want to vote, because it won't fix our problems," she said, accusing the government of mismanagement.

"This government, this system doesn't care at all about women. We don't have any personal freedoms," she said.

At least by boycotting the vote, she said, "we can voice our protest".

AMMAN — Rival parties in the Yemen conflict have reached an agreement on the first large-scale prisoner exchange since the start of the five-year conflict, the UN said Sunday.

The announcement came after a seven-day meeting in Amman.

A joint statement from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross called the deal "a step towards the fulfilment of the parties' commitment to the phased release of all conflict-related detainees according to the Stockholm Agreement".

The number of prisoners to be released was not specified and neither was the timing.

The conflict in Yemen pits Iran-backed Houthi rebels against government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.

The warring parties agreed to exchange some 15,000 detainees as part of a UN-mediated deal brokered in Sweden in 2018.

"This is a purely humanitarian measure that must be implemented without delay, according to what was agreed in Jordan," the Yemeni foreign ministry said on Twitter.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam tweeted that "1,400 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese, will be freed".

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, urged the warring parties "to move forward with the exchange they agreed on today [Sunday] with the utmost sense of urgency".

"Progress has been too slow on this front," he said.

The committee overseeing the Sweden prisoner swap plans to meet again in late March “to discuss further exchanges”, the statement added.

Both sides have released hundreds of prisoners over the past months as part of sporadic swaps.

“Despite ongoing clashes, we saw that the parties have found common humanitarian ground that will allow many detainees to return to their loved ones,” said Franz Rauchenstein, the ICRC’s head of mission in Sanaa.

The Yemen conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, and sparked what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.