Region

KERMAN, Iran — Dozens of people were crushed to death after a stampede broke out Tuesday during a massive funeral procession for a top Iranian general assassinated in a US drone strike.

The tragedy came as grieving crowds packed the hometown of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, a hugely popular figure in the Islamic republic.

More than 50 people were killed and 212 people injured in the stampede in Kerman, semi-official news agency ISNA said, citing the emergency services chief in the southeastern city, Mohammad Saberi.

Anxious Iranians gathered outside a city hospital to check the lists of victims or show doctors pictures of their missing relatives.

AFP correspondents in Kerman said the streets were filled with mourners, while others took refuge on hillsides around the city, where the general was to be buried at the martyrs’ cemetery.

Soleimani, the head of the Guards’ Quds Force foreign operations arm, was killed on Friday in a US strike near Baghdad international airport, an operation that shocked Iran.

“The enemy killed him unjustly,” the Revolutionary Guards’ top commander, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said, adding the process of “expelling the United States from the region has begun”.

“Our will is firm. We also tell our enemies that we will take revenge, and that if they [strike again] we will set fire to what they love,” he told the sea of black-clad mourners.

Schoolgirls joined chants of “Death to Trump” from the crowd, an AFP correspondent reported.

Tuesday’s funeral comes after days of processions through the south-western city of Ahvaz and the shrine cities of Qom and Mashhad as well as the capital Tehran.

The assassination of Soleimani set off an escalating war of words between Iran and the United States.

In Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani on Monday warned Trump to “never threaten” Iran, after the US leader issued a US strike list of 52 targets in the Islamic republic.

On Tuesday, Iranian lawmakers voted to designate all US forces around the world “terrorists” over Soleimani’s killing.

Parliament also agreed to bolster the coffers of the Quds Force, which Soleimani led, by $244 million.

 ‘Boils the blood’ 

In Kerman, people converged from afar on Azadi Square where two flag-draped coffins were on display, with the second one reportedly containing the remains of Soleimani’s closest aide, Brig. Gen. Hossein Pourjafari.

“We’re here today to pay respects to the great commander of the holy defence,” said one of the mourners who came from the southern city of Shiraz.

“Haj Qasem was not only loved in Kerman, or Iran, but also the whole world,” Hemmat Dehghan told AFP.

“The security of the whole world, Muslims, Shiites, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and especially Iran, all owe it to him,” said the 56-year-old war veteran.

Another mourner said Soleimani’s assassination “boils the blood of the Iranian people”.

“He was seen as a great man who was ready to serve his people both then in the war and now. He must certainly be avenged,” said Sara Khaksar, an 18-year-old student.

Friday’s assassination of Soleimani, 62, heightened international concern about a new war in the volatile Middle East.

Iraq’s parliament has demanded the government expel the 5,200 American troops stationed in the country in response to the drone attack which also killed top Iraqi military figure Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis.

Baghdad requested in a letter to the UN — seen by AFP — that the Security Council condemn the US strike so that “the law of the jungle” is not allowed to prevail.

The operation represented “a dangerous escalation that could lead to a devastating war in Iraq, the region and the world”, wrote Iraq’s UN Ambassador Mohammed Hussein Bahr-Aluloom. 

‘Path of sobriety’ 

On Sunday night, the US mistakenly notified Baghdad of an imminent troop pullout in a letter that sparked confusion in Washington.

“We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure,” said the letter, whose authenticity was confirmed to AFP by both Iraqi and US defence officials. 

In the letter, US Brigadier General William Seely said the US-led coalition would “be repositioning forces”.

But Pentagon Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley said the letter was a mere “draft” that was sent by mistake.

Germany said Tuesday it was withdrawing some of its troops deployed to the anti-IS coalition in Iraq.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday that Iran must avoid “further violence and provocations”.

The European Union, whose foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on the crisis on Friday, said it was in both Iran and Iraq’s interests to “take the path of sobriety and not the path of escalation”.

Saudi Arabia also appealed for calm after a “very dangerous” escalation.

Iran’s foreign minister said he has been informed by UN chief Antonio Guterres that Washington has denied him a visa for a planned trip to UN headquarters in New York.

“What we know is that the US state secretary [Mike Pompeo], in a call to the secretary general of the United Nations, said: ‘We did not have time to issue a visa for Mohammad Javad Zarif and we will not issue a visa’,” Zarif said.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said enormous progress had been made in Syria as he met Tuesday with President Bashar Al Assad on a surprise visit to Damascus, Russian news agencies reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the agencies that in talks with Assad, Putin had underlined "that a huge distance has been travelled towards restoring Syrian statehood and the country's territorial integrity".

Peskov told Interfax, RIA Novosti and TASS that Putin had met Assad at a command post for Russian forces in Syria, driving through Damascus on the way.

"Putin also noted that on the streets of Damascus the signs of how peace has been restored can be seen with the naked eye," according to Peskov.

He said the two men had heard military reports on the situation in various parts of Syria, where Russia's armed forces intervened in 2015 in support of Assad.

"The Syrian president expressed appreciation for the help of Russia and the Russian military in the fight against terrorism and the restoration of peaceful life in Syria," Peskov said.

Assad also “warmly congratulated” Putin and the Russian people on Orthodox Christmas taking place on Tuesday, he said.

Putin was due to visit several more sites, Peskov said, without providing further details. The Russian leader was expected in Turkey on Wednesday to inaugurate a gas pipeline with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It was Putin’s first visit to Damascus since the launch of the Russian intervention, though he previously visited Russia’s Hmeimim Airbase in northwestern Syria in December 2017. 

METEKEL, Ethiopia — Cell phone batteries constantly dying, health centres bereft of modern equipment, a dependence on flashlights after sundown — Kafule Yigzaw experienced all these struggles and more growing up without electricity in rural Ethiopia.

So five years ago, he leapt at the chance to work on a project designed to light up his country and the wider Horn of Africa region: The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a 145-metre-high, 1.8-kilometre-long concrete colossus that is set to become the largest hydropower plant in Africa. 

“Our country has a huge problem with electricity,” Kafule, 22, told AFP recently while taking a break from reinforcing steel pipes that will funnel water from the Blue Nile River to one of the dam’s 13 turbines. 

“This is about the existence of our nation and, in my opinion, it will help us break free from the bondage of poverty.”

The dam is expected to begin producing energy by the end of this year.

Across Ethiopia, poor farmers and rich businessmen eagerly await the more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity officials say it will ultimately provide. 

Yet as thousands of workers toil day and night to finish the project, Ethiopian negotiators remain locked in talks over how the dam will affect downstream neighbours, principally Egypt.

The next round of negotiations starts Thursday in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and is likely to renew focus on Cairo’s fears that the dam could bring water and food insecurity for millions of Egyptians.

Ethiopians at the dam site say they are doing their best to focus on the task at hand, though they bristle at suggestions that their country is overstepping in its bid to harness the Blue Nile for its development. 

“When we do projects here it’s not to harm the downstream countries,” said Deputy Project Manager Ephrem Woldekidan. “There is no reason that the downstream countries should complain [about] it because this is our resource also.”

Rising Nile tensions 

The Nile River’s two main tributaries — the Blue and White Niles — converge in the Sudanese capital Khartoum before flowing north through Egypt toward the Mediterranean Sea. 

Egypt depends on the Nile for about 90 per cent of its irrigation and drinking water, and says it has “historic rights” to the river guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959.

Tensions have been high in the Nile basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the dam in 2011. 

The International Crisis Group warned last March that the countries “could be drawn into conflict” given that Egypt sees potential water loss as “an existential threat”. 

In October, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize, assured lawmakers that “no force can stop Ethiopia from building the dam” and said “millions” of troops could be mobilised to defend it if necessary. 

The United States stepped in to jumpstart a tripartite dialogue with Sudan that is supposed to resolve the dispute by January 15. 

The biggest initial hurdle is the filling of the dam’s reservoir, which can hold 74 billion cubic metres of water. Egypt is worried Ethiopia will fill the reservoir too quickly, reducing water flow downstream. 

After the latest round of talks in Sudan last month, Sudanese irrigation minister Yasser Abbas said there had been “progress” on the issue but no breakthrough. 

Kevin Wheeler, an engineer at the University of Oxford who has studied the dam, said he was hopeful a deal on the filling period could be reached by January 15, but that additional issues would emerge down the line. 

“Coordinated operations between the reservoirs along the Nile are likely to be an ongoing discussion that may continue for years, decades, and centuries to come, particularly as populations grow, development continues, and global climate patterns continue to change,” Wheeler said. 

Ethiopia’s 

push
for power

Thousands of farmers have allegedly been displaced since work on the dam began. 

The US-based NGO International Rivers has accused Ethiopia of disregarding the dam’s environmental impacts, which remain understudied. 

The group has voiced concern about “great degradation” that, along with changing weather patterns due to climate change, could “result in irregular episodes of flooding, drought and mudslides”.

Ethiopia has responded to such statements by noting that a study group including experts from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan has been tasked with assessing social and environmental impacts.

Meanwhile, officials in Addis Ababa are focusing on the country’s push for power. 

Ethiopia is striving for universal electricity access by 2025, though currently more than half the population of 110 million lives without it. 

Even in Addis, power is patchy, and the city suffered weeks of blackouts during the most recent period of electricity rationing in May and June 2019. 

Dawit Moges, head of a medical laboratory, said the cuts drove up his generator costs and, because they were not predictable, led to delayed results and unreliable blood sample readings. 

“You’ve collected specimens, you’re processing the specimens and boom, there is no power. All those specimens, you may not be sure about the results,” he said, adding that he hoped the dam would yield a steady power supply. 

“I want it to be completed as soon as possible and go into production.” 

The same is true for Harsh Kothari, head of Mohan Group, which runs five manufacturing units producing everything from shoes to electric cables and barbed wire. 

Reliable electricity would make his business “a lot more competitive” and enable it to grow, Kothari said. 

Back at the dam site, this kind of talk about how the project could fuel prosperity from farms to factories across Ethiopia is exactly what motivates Workey Tadele, a radio operator, to go to work every day.

“We’re working here for the benefit of our country,” she said. “If we have electricity, then we’ll have a better future.”

By Robbie Corey-Boulet

BAGHDAD — America's military strategy in Iraq has been thrown into disarray after the Pentagon admitted a top US general mistakenly informed the Iraqi government his troops were preparing to leave.

Here is AFP's look at what shape a withdrawal could take.

How could troops withdraw? 

A senior US military official had told AFP that a hypothetical withdrawal would take weeks, but could be shortened to days in an emergency situation — like being ordered out immediately by Iraq's government.

Cargo planes would transport equipment by air while troops would likely drive out through the south to Kuwait.

The Monday letter mistakenly sent by US Brig. Gen. William Seely to the Iraqi government said the US-led coalition would be "repositioning forces in the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement".

Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute told AFP: "The coalition would need to map out travel routes, sequence evacuation plans for troops, civilians and contractors and decide what equipment and documents to bring, abandon or destroy."

What is happening on the ground? 

The Pentagon swiftly denied there was a plan to leave Iraq, saying the letter was still a draft.

But there already seemed to be an impact on the ground.

The letter said helicopters would be flying around Baghdad's Green Zone where the US embassy is located as part of the departure arrangements.

AFP could hear helicopters flying low over Baghdad throughout the night for three nights before the letter was sent.

On Tuesday, Germany said 30 soldiers based in Baghdad and a nearby airbase would "shortly" be moved to Jordan and Kuwait, "together with soldiers from other countries".

A French government source told AFP on Tuesday it had no plans to withdraw its forces.

But a European diplomat told AFP a withdrawal of US troops would necessitate all coalition forces leaving Iraq.

NATO on Tuesday announced it was temporarily taking "some personnel" out of Iraq for safety reasons.

Iraq's caretaker Premier Adel Abdel Mahdi has told US Ambassador Matthew Tueller and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that the government wanted foreign troops out following a vote to that effect by the Iraqi parliament.

Why are troops still in Iraq? 

Thousands of foreign troops are deployed across Iraq as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led coalition formed to fight the Daesh group.

In 2014, the Iraqi foreign ministry issued an urgent appeal to the United Nations Security Council for help to roll back Daesh, which was sweeping across Iraq.

The coalition sent troops and special forces to Iraq to "advise and assist" Iraqi forces as they fought Daesh.

Their deployment was based on an executive-to-executive agreement that was never ratified by Iraq's parliament.

It was not governed by a detailed arrangement like the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement that expired in 2011.

NATO's mission was separately established in late 2018 to train Iraqi troops.

Who is deployed, and where? 

The bulk of the coalition is made up of 5,200 US soldiers stationed at Iraqi bases, the largest of which is Ain Al Assad in the west.

More are based at Al Balad and Taji north of Baghdad, as well as four bases in northern Iraq, near the US embassy in Baghdad and in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.

They are joined by about 400 British, 200 French, and 120 German forces, as well as dozens of other international troops.

There are also thousands of civilian contractors and support staff in Iraq for logistical operations.

Troop numbers have fluctuated recently as US officials said they would deploy up to 4,000 more troops to the region in the wake of tensions with Iran.

At least 150 US troops arrived in Baghdad last week to reinforce security at the US embassy following an unprecedented attack by a pro-Iran mob, and hundreds more have been flown to Taji.

QAMISHLI, Syria — Syria's Kurds have released 30 Syrians suspected of affiliation to the Daesh group after guarantees from tribal leaders, a spokesman said on Tuesday, adding more should be freed soon.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold thousands of suspected Daesh fighters after years of leading the US-backed fight in the country against the extremist group.

The suspects are mostly Syrian and Iraqi — Iraq was the other key crucible of the conflict with Daesh — but they also include hundreds of foreigners.

A spokesman for the Kurdish authorities in north-eastern Syria said tribal leaders had requested that 300 Syrian detainees be freed, and that 30 were approved and released on January 5.

"Those being released have no blood on their hands and have not been proven guilty of any crime," the Kurdish region's Foreign Affairs spokesman Kamal Akef told AFP.

They might have joined the extremist group to earn a living or because they were forced to, he said.

They "are being released with guarantees from the tribal leaders", the official added, without specifying what guarantees are involved.

"In the coming days, some more will be released in waves" to return to the provinces of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa in the east and north of Syria, he said.

Backed by air strikes by a US-led coalition, the SDF in March last year expelled Daesh from their last patch of territory in eastern Syria.

Earlier that month, nearly 300 Syrian men were freed after tribal chiefs lobbied for their release including in Raqqa, the Kurdish authorities said.

At the time, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said it was not the first release of Daesh-linked prisoners, but the number was particularly large.

The Kurds have also said they were releasing hundreds of suspected Daesh-linked women and children from overcrowded camps for the displaced.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel has approved the construction of 1,936 new settler units on occupied Palestinian territories, watchdog Peace Now said Monday.

The green light was given on Sunday and Monday, Peace Now said, adding that 89 per cent of the new units will be erected in "settlements that Israel may have to evacuate under a future peace agreement with the Palestinians".

The watchdog says settlement building has vastly increased under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ally US President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu has been fighting for his political survival faced with corruption charges and after failing to form a new coalition government following April and September elections.

The premier, who was indicted in November on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, is now facing a third general election in March.

“Despite lacking a clear mandate, for this caretaker government it’s business as usual — continue the massive promotion of harmful and unnecessary construction in occupied territory and in places that Israel will have to evacuate,” said Peace Now in a statement.

“Netanyahu continues to sabotage the prospects of peace, dragging Israel into an anti-democratic one-state reality resembling apartheid.”

According to Peace Now, 1,150 of the units were approved for “deposit” or phase one of the planning process.

A total of 786 units received final endorsement, including 258 that are to be built in Haresha, an “illegal outpost” west of the city of Ramallah on the West Bank, the watchdog said.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war in a move never recognised by the international community.

Its settlements are deemed illegal under international law and widely seen as the main obstacle to peace.

Some 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem among around 2.9 million Palestinians.

Late last year, the Trump administration said it would no longer consider Israeli settlements in the occupied territories illegal.

The move was hailed by Trump ally Netanyahu while Palestinians have been outraged.

The European Union, United Nations and others have stressed, however, that they continue to consider settlements illegal.

According to Peace Now, the number of new settler units approved by Israel has almost doubled since Trump took office in January 2017.

TEHRAN — A sea of black-clad Iranians on Monday mourned the top commander killed in last week's US drone strike that inflamed tensions across the Middle East as NATO ambassadors met to discuss the spiralling crisis.

Iranians clutching anti-American signs and portraits of their hero Qassem Soleimani massed as supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over the emotional service for the slain head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force.

The targeted killing of 62-year-old Soleimani ordered by US President Donald Trump saw the Islamic republic vow "severe revenge" before Tehran also took a further step back from the already tattered 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

In an escalating war of words that has heightened international concern and rattled financial markets, Trump threatened yet more "major retaliation" if Tehran hits back, including strikes on Iranian cultural sites.

Iraq's parliament has, meanwhile, demanded the government expel the 5,200 American troops stationed in the country in response to the drone attack in Baghdad which also killed top Iraqi military figure Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis.

Trump has warned a forced departure of US troops would prompt sanctions against Iraq that would "make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame".

NATO ambassadors were to hold an extraordinary meeting to "address the situation in the region," said the alliance, which has been forced to suspend its training mission in Iraq.

Ambassadors from the 29 allies were gathering at their Brussels headquarters with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expected to brief journalists afterwards.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan — whose US-allied country is seen vulnerable to Iranian counter strikes — also appealed for calm after a “very dangerous” escalation.

‘Crucial to de-escalate’ 

Germany joined France and Britain in urging Iran to refrain from taking “further violent actions or support for them”, or from steps that further weaken the 2015 nuclear deal.

“It is crucial now to de-escalate,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a joint statement on Sunday.

The EU’s diplomatic chief Josep Borrell said he “deeply regrets” Iran’s latest step back from the nuclear deal.

The agreement had offered Tehran relief from sanctions in return for curbs to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons — but Trump’s withdrawal from it in 2018 dramatically weakened the agreement.

Despite its latest step Sunday, Iran insisted it will continue to fully cooperate with the UN agency overseeing its atomic programme.

The European leaders also pleaded with all parties to not jeopardise the ongoing battle against the Daesh terror group, which has lost its self-proclaimed “caliphate” but whose militants remain active.

Amid the geopolitical tensions in the oil-rich region, crude prices surged and most equities tumbled while the safe-haven commodity gold hit a more than six-year high.

‘Million-strong’ 

The raw emotions sparked by the US killing of Soleimani were on full display in Tehran, where mourners formed a sea of black, dotted with red Shiite flags and white signs, in what state television said was a “several million-strong” turnout.

“The last time I remember such a crowd was at Ayatollah Khomeini’s funeral 30 years ago,” said Maziar Khosravi, former head of the political department of the reformist daily Shargh.

As they marched down a main artery of the Iranian capital, the mourners chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.

Khamenei appeared to cry as he prayed over the flag-draped coffins containing the remains of Soleimani and five other “martyrs” killed in the strike.

He was flanked by President Hassan Rouhani and other top political and military figures as well as Soleimani’s son and the slain general’s replacement as Quds commander,
Esmail Qaani.

“We must give a crushing response,” a 61-year-old named Afkhami told AFP. “We must target whatever military base they have in the region.”

Soleimani’s daughter Zeinab and the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniya, also delivered emotional speeches.

Zeinab said: “Stupid Trump — a symbol of stupidity and a toy in the hand of Zionism — don’t think that with the martyrdom of my father everything is over.”

The procession later made its way to Tehran’s vast Azadi Square, before Soleimani’s remains were flown to the holy city of Qom for a ceremony.

Soleimani was one of Iran’s most popular public figures, seen as a hero of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

He will be laid to rest in his hometown Kerman on Tuesday, in a martyrs’ cemetery next to a war veteran he used to fight alongside with.

NATO

Tehran should avoid “further violence and provocations”, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday, as tensions mount in the Middle East after US forces killed a top Iranian general.

The warning came as the EU called an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday to discuss the fallout from the killing of Qasem Soleimani, head of Tehran’s Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.

At a hastily-convened emergency session of NATO’s ruling council on Monday afternoon, US officials explained the thinking behind the decision to kill Soleimani at Baghdad airport on Friday — an operation that caught many of Washington’s allies by surprise.

Stoltenberg stressed that the drone strike, which killed at least 10 people, was a “US decision” but said the other 28 NATO members had repeated their longstanding concerns about Iran’s destabilising activities in the Middle East.

UNESCO

Both Iran and the United States must observe a convention obliging states to preserve cultural sites, the UN’s cultural agency said on Monday, after President Trump threatened to target Iran’s cultural heritage.

UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay highlighted that both Tehran and Washington had signed a 1972 convention prohibiting states from taking “any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage” of other states.

At a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to the Paris-based organisation, Azoulay said that both countries had signed a 1954 convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, UNESCO said.

Azoulay “stressed the universality of cultural and natural heritage as vectors of peace and dialogue between peoples, which the international community has a duty to protect and preserve for future generations”.

Trump tweeted on Saturday that the United States would target some sites “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” if Tehran attacked American personnel or assets in retaliation for the killing of commander Qasem Soleimani.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in return that such a move would be a “war crime”.

But Trump showed no sign of backing down from that threat on Sunday, saying: “They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran boasts 22 cultural sites on UNESCO’s world heritage list.

They include the majestic Meidan Imam square — also known as Naghsh-e Jahan — in the city of Isfahan that was built by shah Abbas I at the start of the 17th century.

The most outstanding site is considered by many to be the ancient Achaemenidian capital of Persepolis in southwest Iran, founded by Darius I in 518BC, and a major attraction for foreign tourists.