Region

BEIRUT — Tensions flared in Lebanon's capital on Saturday as angry protesters flung stones, traffic signs and tree branches at security forces, who responded with water canons and tear gas.

The protest movement rocking Lebanon since October 17 has revived last week, over delays in forming a new Cabinet to address the country's growing economic crisis.

No progress appears to have been made towards a final lineup, which protesters demand be comprised of independent experts and exclude all traditional political parties.

On Saturday afternoon, demonstrators set out from various spots in Beirut in a march towards the city centre under the slogan "We won't pay the price".

But before they all converged near the road leading to parliament, dozens of protesters flung rocks and plant pots filled with earth at the police guarding the institution, local television channels showed.

Security forces sprayed young men with two water cannons and lobbed tear gas over a metal fence to disperse remaining protesters on the wet tarmac.

"A direct and violent confrontation is taking place with anti-riot police at one of the entrances to parliament," the Internal Security Forces said on Twitter.

"We ask peaceful protesters to keep away from the site of the rioting for their safety."

An AFP photographer saw young men uproot parking metres.

He also saw around 10 people faint from the tear gas.

A female protester named Maya, 23, said she was attending the protest because politicians still seemed to be ignoring demands for an overhaul of the old political class.

“I’m here because after more than 90 days in the streets, they’re still squabbling over their shares in government... It’s as if they didn’t see our movement,”
she told AFP.

“Popular anger is the solution,” the young protester said.

Forming a new Cabinet is often convoluted in Lebanon, where a complex system seeks to maintain balance between the country’s many political parties and religious confessions.

But protesters say they want to scrap the old system, and demand only impartial technocrats staff a new government to address their growing economic woes, including a severe liquidity crisis.

The last government stepped down under pressure from the street on October 29, but has remained in a caretaker capacity until a new Cabinet takes shape.

The World Bank has warned that the poverty rate in Lebanon could rise from a third to a half if the political crisis is not remedied fast.

TEHRAN — Iran's supreme leader said on Friday that demonstrations at home over the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner were unrepresentative of the Iranian people and accused the country's enemies of exploiting the disaster for propaganda purposes.

Leading the main weekly Muslim prayer in Tehran for the first time since 2012, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the January 8 incident was a "bitter" tragedy but should not be allowed to overshadow the "sacrifice" of one of Iran's most storied commanders, assassinated in a US drone strike.

His sermon came after a traumatic month for Iran in which it approached the brink of war with the United States and mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian jet, killing all 176 people on board.

"The plane crash was a bitter accident, it burned through our heart," Khamenei said in an address punctuated by cries of "Death to America" from the congregation.

"But some tried to... portray it in a way to forget the great martyrdom and sacrifice" of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the foreign operations arm of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard who was assassinated in Baghdad on January 3.

Khamenei said Iran's enemies had tried to use the plane tragedy to undermine the Islamic republic.

"Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad," he said.

"The spokesmen of the vicious American government keep repeating that we stand with the people of Iran. You're lying," Khamenei said.

He also slammed Britain, France and Germany, which on Tuesday decided to trigger a dispute mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, following US threats to impose tariffs on European cars.

"It has been proven now, after about a year, that they are, in the true sense of the word, America's lackeys," he said.

President Donald Trump reacted by tweeting that Khamenei should watch his words.

"The so-called 'Supreme Leader' of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe," Trump tweeted.

"Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!"

The air disaster triggered scattered protests in Tehran and other cities, but they appeared smaller than nationwide demonstrations in November in which Amnesty International said at least 300 people died.

On Friday, anti-riot police staged a massive deployment in Tehran, an AFP correspondent said.

Khamenei said the protesters were unrepresentative of the Iranian people, who had turned out in their hundreds of thousands in what he called a "million-strong crowd" for Soleimani's funeral.

Praising the slain general, Khamenei said his actions beyond Iran's borders were in the service of the "security" of the nation and that the people support "resistance" against its enemies.

It was people like Soleimani, not the protesters, who had devoted their lives to Iran, Khamenei told thousands of worshippers who crammed into the mosque and spilled into the snowy streets outside.

Khamenei's sermon came at a tumultuous moment for Iran, which had seemed headed for conflict earlier in January after Soleimani was killed on January 3 outside Baghdad airport, prompting retaliatory strikes against Iraqi bases housing US troops.

Khamenei hailed the strikes as a "sign of divine help".

"It was a strike to their reputation, to America's might. This cannot be compensated by anything... sanctions cannot return the lost prestige of America," he said.

The animosity between Washington and Tehran has soared since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday urged a "de-escalation" of the tensions and an end to the "constant threats".

The plane tragedy "is a very serious red flag and signal to start working on de-escalation and not on constant threats and combat aviation flights in this region", Lavrov said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday he had met his Canadian counterpart Francois-Philippe Champagne in Oman to discuss cooperation among nations affected by the disaster.

The Boeing 737 was carrying 63 Canadians among other nationalities when it was shot down.

"Politicisation of this tragedy must be rejected. Focus on victims' families," Zarif tweeted.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Iran to hand the plane's black boxes to France, saying it has one of the few laboratories capable of properly examining them.

BERLIN — Forces loyal to Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar blocked oil exports from the war-ravaged country's main ports Saturday, raising the stakes on the eve of an international summit aimed at bringing peace to the North African nation.

The move to cripple the country's main income source was a protest against Turkey's decision to send troops to shore up Haftar's rival, the head of Tripoli's UN-recognised government Fayez Al Sarraj.

It comes ahead of a conference in Berlin on Sunday that will see the United Nations try to extract a pledge from world leaders to stop meddling in the Libyan conflict — be it through supplying troops, weapons or financing. 

"All foreign interference can provide some aspirin effect in the short term, but Libya needs all foreign interference to stop. That's one of the objectives of this conference," Ghassan Salame told AFP in an interview.

Leaders of Russia, Turkey and France are due to join the talks, held under the auspices of the UN.

Both Haftar and Sarraj are also expected at the gathering, the first of such scale on the conflict since 2018.

After months of combat, which has killed more than 2,000 people, a ceasefire took effect on January 12 backed by both Ankara and Moscow, which is accused of supporting Haftar.

But Saturday's blockade raised fears over the conflict.

The disruption to oil exports is expected to more than halve the country’s daily crude production, to 500,000 barrels from 1.3 million barrels, translating to losses of $55 million a day, warned Libya’s National Oil Company.

“Our line at the UN is clear. Don’t play with petrol because it’s the livelihood of the Libyans,” warned Salame just hours before the blockade.

“Don’t play with petrol, be it by turning it into a weapon of war or a way to cause divisions or as a bidding tool.”

The oil-rich North African country has been torn by fighting between rival armed factions since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed dictator Muammar Qadhafi and toppled his regime.

More recently, Haftar’s forces launched an assault in April on Sarraj’s troops in Tripoli.

‘Vicious cycle’ 

Although Sarraj’s government is recognised by the UN, some powerful players have broken away to stand behind Haftar — turning a domestic conflict into what is essentially a proxy war with international powers jostling to secure their own interests from global influence to oil and migration.

Alarm grew internationally when Ankara ordered in troops early January to help shore up Sarraj, while Moscow is suspected of providing weapons, financing and mercenaries to Haftar — something Russia has denied.

“We must end this vicious cycle of Libyans calling for the help of foreign powers. Their intervention deepens the divisions among the Libyans,” said Salame, noting that the place of international players should be to “help Libyans develop themselves”. 

The UN envoy said Sunday’s meeting will also seek to “consolidate” the shaky ceasefire.

“Today we only have a truce. We want to transform it into a real ceasefire with monitoring, separation [of rival camps], repositioning of heavy weapons” outside urban zones, he said.

The UN had sought on multiple attempts to bid for peace, but talks have repeatedly collapsed.

Erdogan issues warning 

On the eve of the Berlin talks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Europe to stand united behind Sarraj’s government, as Tripoli’s fall could leave “fertile ground” for extremist groups like Daesh or Al Qaeda “to get back on their feet”.

Erdogan also played up Europe’s fears of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis in his commentary for Politico news website, that further unrest could prompt a new wave of migrants to head for the continent.

Accusing France in particular of siding with Haftar, Erdogan said leaving Libya to the commander would be a “mistake of historic proportions”. 

France has denied it was backing Haftar. But a diplomatic source noted that the fact that the commander already controls 80 per cent of Libya needed to be taken into account.

The European Union is watching with growing alarm at the escalating strife on its doorstep as it counts on Libya as a gatekeeper deterring migrants from crossing the Mediterranean.

AL HOL CAMP, Syria — At least 517 people, mostly children, died in 2019 in an overstretched Syrian camp housing displaced people and relatives of the Daesh group extremists, the Kurdish Red Crescent told AFP on Thursday.

The Kurdish-run Al Hol camp in northeastern Syria is home to around 68,000 people who are reliant on humanitarian assistance, especially during the harsh winter months.

A Kurdish Red Crescent spokesperson said 371 children were among the 517 people who died in the squalid tent city last year.

Malnutrition, poor healthcare for newborns and hypothermia were among the main causes of death among children, Dalal Ismail told AFP at the camp.

"The situation is tragic and the burden is huge," she said, adding that foreigners were among the children who died.

Syrians and Iraqis form the bulk of the camp's residents but Al Hol is also home to thousands of foreigners, mainly relatives of Daesh fighters who are kept in a guarded section of the camp under the watch of security forces.

Aid shortage 

Kurdish authorities say they are holding 12,000 non-Iraqi foreigners, including 4,000 women and 8,000 children, in three displacement camps in northeastern Syria. The majority are being held in Al Hol.

Jaber Mustafa, an official in the camp, said that assistance delivered by aid groups is "not enough" to address the "great suffering" of residents.

Medicine and food baskets are among the most pressing needs, he told AFP.

The Kurdish administration in north-eastern Syria this week warned that humanitarian conditions in Al Hol could deteriorate further after the UN Security Council on Friday voted to restrict cross-border aid.

The Yaroubiya crossing on the Iraqi border was a key entry point for UN-funded medical aid reaching northeastern Syria, including Al Hol.

The UN had used it to deliver some medical supplies that the Syrian government had not permitted via Damascus.

Yaroubiya’s closure will disrupt “60 to 70 per cent of medical assistance to Al  Hol”, Abdel Kader Mouwahad, director of humanitarian affairs in the autonomous Kurdish administration, told AFP.

This leaves Syria’s Kurds with the unofficial Zamalka crossing with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, which is not used for UN aid.

The fate of foreign extremists and their relatives detained in the Kurdish region of Syria has been a politically difficult issue for their countries of origin.

Countries such as France and Belgium that have large contingents of nationals in such camps have been reluctant to bring them home while the Kurds warn they cannot keep them much longer.

Winter 

UN investigators on Thursday called for at least the children to be repatriated, notably because their lack of papers put them in a “particularly precarious” situation.

“This, in turn, jeopardises their rights to a nationality, hinders family reunification processes and puts them at a higher risk of exploitation and abuse,” a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said.

Some families have been stuck in limbo at Al Hol camp for more than a year and are experiencing their second winter.

“The humanitarian situation is terrible, we don’t get enough aid,” said one woman who gave her name as Amina Hussein, and who was displaced from one of the last bastions of the now defunct Daesh “caliphate” in 2018.

“The cold is biting and rain floods our tents,” said the young women, who wore a full niqab face veil and cradled her 18-month-old asthmatic son.

“His condition gets worse when I switch the heater on and we have no medicine,” the young mother said.

Every day, queues of women — some of them in wheelchairs and others walking with crutches — form in front of one of the Kurdish Red Crescent clinics in the camp.

“They only take in 50 people a day, so we sometimes wait from 6am to 9pm without even managing to register our names,” said Zeinab Saleh, a 28-year-old Iraqi mother of four.

“So we come back the next day.”

BAGHDAD — When it invaded in 2003, the United States promised "Iraqi freedom," democracy, and prosperity. But 17 years later, its troops may be ousted from a country beset by just the opposite.

After a parliamentary vote earlier this month, Iraq's government is preparing to order foreign forces out of the country in retaliation for the US killing of top Iranian and Iraqi commanders in a surprise drone strike in Baghdad.

Analysts say the troops would leave behind a country with inefficient institutions and rampant corruption, sectarian politics and cities still flattened by bombardment.

"It's an unmitigated failure" of long-term US planning for Iraq, said Karim Bitar, a Middle East expert at the Paris-based Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, adding: "It was rotten from the beginning."

He said the US-crafted Iraqi constitution, which formalised power-sharing across religions and ethnicities, had deepened divisions.

The 2005 document was meant to be the foundation of a state of institutions — but it leaves more questions unanswered.

What happens to lands claimed by both the federal and autonomous Kurdish governments? The constitution leaves it to be resolved at a later time.

What if the prime minister resigns? The document left out provisions for that — which prompted a legal crisis when current caretaker Premier Adel Abdel Mahdi stepped down in December.

Many key laws were never properly legislated, leaving loopholes for strongmen to pursue their own interests.

“The constitution is constantly violated,” an Iraqi government official even admitted.

‘Biggest strategic error’

The other pillar of a democratic system — the ballot box — has not fared much better.

“Elections meant to be a model for others have turned to community consensus,” Bitar told AFP, as parties trade and buy votes instead of truly campaigning.

A wave of recent anti-government rallies have called for an overhaul of the voting system but when the current 329-member parliament — elected in May 2018 — passed amendments last month, they contradicted protester demands.

The demonstrations have also slammed widespread graft among state institutions, which often make hiring decisions based on nepotism or bribery, not competency.

Iraq’s own Integrity Commission publishes near-daily updates on the millions of dollars siphoned off by government officials in recent years.

US companies working in Iraq since the invasion have been repeatedly accused of bribing government officials to get contracts worth billions of dollars.

And while Washington has repeatedly urged US firms to invest more in Iraq to expand the private sector, it also maintains American nationals should never travel there because of ongoing instability.

Indeed, a majority of the 17 years since the US invasion have been bloody, marred by an anti-American insurgency, sectarian warfare and the rise of extremists.

Bitar traced the instability back to a single US decision: Dissolving the Iraqi army in 2003.

“It was the biggest strategic error, a dangerous parallel to the de-Nazification of Germany after World War II,” he said.

The vacuum left hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men angry and armed, and allowed militias to flourish and impose their rule — including the Daesh terror group in 2014.

‘Want to live free’ 

Daesh, which included ex-members of Saddam’s army, was then fought by the Hashed Al Shaabi, a network of Shiite armed groups that have now been incorporated into the state.

Saddam’s soldiers, Daesh extremists and Hashed factions have all been opposed by the US, but the last of the three is now proving to be a massive thorn in Washington’s side.

The US sees the Hashed as the Iraqi extension of Iran, which the administration considers its regional foe.

“What America has not done is translate the military strength into political leverage,” said Fanar Haddad, an expert at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.

The US had long prioritised Iraq’s stability over real democracy and state-building, he said, which ultimately led to “the failure of the American project in Iraq”.

Now, Iraq is threatening to oust foreign forces from its soil, including 5,200 US troops.

Washington insists troops will stay, despite a controversial letter from a top US defence official in Baghdad saying forces were preparing to “move out”.

US President Donald Trump said an ouster would prompt devastating sanctions on Iraq, whose officials countered that would only send Baghdad further into Tehran’s orbit.

The war-of-words has eclipsed the protest movement, whose young activists were mostly born just before 2003 and have called for, among other things, “Iraqi freedom”.

And as protesters have slammed Iran for holding too much sway in Iraq, they have also hinted at another desire: a return to the presidential system in place under Saddam.

“We used to have one dictator. Now we have a lot of small dictators,” said one protester in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, where demonstrators have begun holding big banners that read, “No to Iran, No to the US!”

“We just want to live free,” the protester added.

BEIRUT — Lebanon's security forces were holding at least 100 anti-government protesters Thursday, lawyers told AFP, after two nights of demonstrations that turned violent in Beirut.

An unprecedented nationwide movement of protests demanding an end to endemic corruption and the wholesale removal of Lebanon's political elite broke out nearly three months ago.

With little change in sight, protesters also angered by a financial crisis they blame on Lebanon's oligarchs resumed their rallies with renewed determination Tuesday after a holiday lull.

Protesters vandalised several banks on the central Hamra street on Tuesday evening and hurled rocks at anti-riot police, who responded with volleys of tear gas canisters.

Gathered in front of the Central Bank again on Wednesday, the protesters then moved to a police station where some of their comrades had been detained the previous night, leading to clashes that left dozens lightly wounded.

According to documents put together by a committee of lawyers defending the protesters and seen by AFP, a total of 101 protesters are currently being detained over the violence.

"The total number of people arrested now tops 100, it's madness," said Nizar Saghieh, who heads the Legal Agenda non-government organisation.

A fresh demonstration is planned on Thursday to demand he release of those held.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned under pressure from the street less than two weeks into the wave of protests but a new government has still not been formed.

After a long search for a suitable candidate, former education minister and university professor Hassan Diab was nominated and tasked with picking a new Cabinet.

Protesters have demanded a government of technocrats excluding the household names that have symbolised Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics for generations.

Government formation talks have proved tough however and despite pressure from Lebanon’s foreign partners and donors, Diab has yet to announce his government.

BAGHDAD —  The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and pulled out after eight years, returning in 2014 to head a coalition battling terrorists.

Amid calls for its 5,200 troops to leave after a US air strike killed top Iranian and Iraqi commanders this month, here is an overview of the US military presence in Iraq.

2003: invasion 

The March 2003 US-led invasion is launched after claims that Saddam Hussein's regime is harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

US forces take control of Baghdad the following month.

President George W. Bush announces the end of major combat operations in May.

In October, a US report says no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.

Saddam is captured in December and hanged three years later.

The broadcast in April 2004 of images of torture and other abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib US military prison shocks the world.

Washington transfers power to an interim government in June.

 Insurgency, conflict 

In November 2004, more than 10,000 American and 2,000 Iraqi soldiers attack the city of Fallujah, retaking it from Sunni insurgents who backed the former regime and extremists.

In February 2006, Al Qaeda-linked terrorists blow up a Shiite shrine in Samarra, sparking sectarian killings that leave tens of thousands dead and last until 2008.

In January 2007, Bush boosts the number of US troops in Iraq to 165,000.

2011: pullout 

In December 2011 US President Barack Obama withdraws the last American soldiers.

They leave behind an elected Iraqi government but a population scarred by ongoing violence.

Around 4,500 US troops had been killed in Iraq since 2003; at least 112,000 Iraqi civilians also lost their lives, some caught up in fighting and others in sectarian violence or attacks.

2014: terrorists 

In January 2014, terrorists capture Fallujah and parts of Ramadi city. In June, they seize Mosul and by the end of 2014 hold one-third of Iraq.

The United States intervenes by bombarding positions of the Daesh  group and deploys troops to train and equip local security forces.

By mid-2015, there are officially 3,500 American troops stationed in Iraq.

With the help of a US-led coalition, Iraqi forces drive Daesh from all urban centres, declaring in December 2017 the "end of the war".

US, Iran tensions 

From late October 2019, US interests in Iraq are hit by a series of rocket attacks blamed on paramilitary groups backed by Iran, which has a growing influence in the country.

A barrage of rockets fired at a military base in Kirkuk in December kills an American civilian contractor and wounds several US and Iraqi soldiers.

The US retaliates with air strikes that kill at least 25 fighters from a hardline pro-Iran paramilitary.

An outraged pro-Iran mob lays siege to the US embassy in Baghdad on New Year's Day.

On January 3, President Donald Trump orders strikes that kill top Iranian commander, Qasem Soleimani, while he is in Iraq, as well as a top paramilitary chief.

Furious Iraqi lawmakers demand the expulsion of the 5,200 US troops in Iraq. Washington pauses joint military operations.

On January 16, The New York Times reports that operations had resumed in order to pick up the fight against the Daesh.

On Wednesday, Rouhani had said Iran's missile launches against Iraqi bases used by the US armed forces had provided "compensation" for the death of General Qasem Soleimani, the architect of Iran's Middle East military strategy.

In his speech on Thursday, Rouhani said that the Iranian retaliation — which caused significant material damage but no casualties according to the US military — had strengthened Iranian deterrence against the "threats" of President Donald Trump.

Rouhani, a moderate on his country's political spectrum, also defended the policy of openness to the world that he has pursued since his first election in 2013, and which has come under fire from Iran's ultra-conservatives.

He also defended the 2015 international agreement designed to limit Iran's nuclear programme which has been in tatters since Trump unilaterally pulled out of it in 2018.

Rouhani said that with the nuclear deal "we have proven in practice that it is possible for us to interact with the world”.

"Of course, it's difficult," he acknowledged.

"They tell us: there are people you should not trust," he said, referring to the rhetoric of Iranian ultra-conservatives about Europe and the United States.

"It's true" the Iranian president said, adding that "if there were trustworthy people ... it would be simple and easy" while also referring to Trump as "an unpredictable man".