Region

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi-hosted Islamic summit on Saturday threw its support behind Palestinians ahead of a US-led peace plan suspected to be skewed in favour of Israel, as Muslim states rallied around Saudi Arabia over tensions with Iran.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting, the third and final Iran-focused summit in the holy city of Mecca this week, denounced controversial US moves to transfer its embassy to occupied Jerusalem and recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

The summit of the 57-member bloc, marked by the notable absence of Iranian and Turkish leaders, called for a "boycott" of countries that have opened diplomatic missions in the city. 

Trump broke with decades of bipartisan policy to recognise occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.

The plan, which has been heavily talked up by Trump and dubbed his "deal of the century", has already been rejected by the Palestinians, who say the president's policies have shown him to be overwhelmingly biased in favour of Israel.

The Palestinians see the eastern part of the city as the capital of their future state.

Kushner, who was in occupied Jerusalem on Friday on the latest leg of a regional tour to sell the plan, had looked to an alliance with Saudi Arabia against Iran as a way to gain Arab support.

But Saudi King Salman told leaders of the OIC countries gathered at the summit: “the Palestinian cause is the cornerstone of the works of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is the focus of our attention until the brotherly Palestinian people get all their legitimate rights.”

“We reaffirm our unequivocal rejection of any measures that would prejudice the historical and legal status of Quds [Jerusalem].”

‘Aggressive threats’ 

The OIC also backed Saudi Arabia in escalating tensions with Iran, as King Salman warned that “terrorist” attacks in the Gulf region could imperil global energy supplies.

The remark came after sabotage attacks damaged four vessels, two of them Saudi oil tankers, off the UAE and twin Yemeni rebel drone attacks shut down a key Saudi oil pipeline.

“We confirm that terrorist actions not only target the kingdom and the Gulf region, but also target the safety of navigation and world oil supplies,” the king told Muslim leaders.

Tehran has strongly denied involvement in any of the incidents.

In a Tweet just before the start of the summit, the king vowed to confront “aggressive threats and subversive activities”.

“Undermining the security of the kingdom effectively undermines the security of the Arab and Islamic world,” said OIC Secretary General Yousef Bin Ahmed Al Othaimeen, voicing solidarity that was shared by other members.

In back-to-back summits on Friday, Gulf and Arab allies similarly threw their support behind Saudi Arabia, which drew accusations from Iran of “sowing division”.

The summits came after Trump’s hawkish National Security Adviser John Bolton said Wednesday that Iranian naval mines were “almost certainly” responsible for the damage to the four ships off the United Arab Emirates on May 12.

The findings of a five-nation inquiry into what happened have yet to be released.

Tehran dismissed Bolton’s accusation as “laughable” and accused him of pursuing “evil desires for chaos in the region”.

Erdogan absent 

Regional tensions have risen sharply since US the Trump administration reimposed crippling unilateral sanctions against Iran, after he abandoned a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between major powers and Iran in May last year.

But Trump has appeared to soften his tone towards Tehran, saying that his government does not seek “regime change”.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was notably absent from the key OIC summit, an AFP photographer said.

A regional heavyweight, Turkey — which maintains close ties with Iran — was instead represented by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani was also not present but sent a representative to the talks, an AFP reporter said.

DUBAI — President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday suggested Iran may be willing to hold talks if the United States showed it respect, but said Tehran would not be pressured into negotiations, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Iran and the United States have been drawn into starker confrontation in the past month, a year after Washington pulled out of a deal between Iran and global powers to curb Tehran's nuclear programme in return for lifting international sanctions.

Washington reimposed sanctions last year and ratchetted them up in May, ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil. In recent weeks it has also hinted at military confrontation, saying it was sending extra forces to the Middle East to respond to an Iranian threat.

US President Donald Trump says the 2015 nuclear deal was not strong enough and he wants to force Iran to negotiate a new agreement. Some US officials have spoken of the possibility of new talks.

Trump said on Monday: "It [Iran] has a chance to be a great country with the same leadership... We aren't looking for regime change — I just want to make that clear."

Fars news agency quoted Rouhani as saying: "We are for logic and talks if [the other side] sits respectfully at the negotiating table and follows international regulations, not if it issues an order to negotiate."

Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday Iran would not negotiate with Washington. Rouhani had previously signalled talks might be possible if sanctions were lifted.

In Saturday's speech to a group of Iranian athletes, Rouhani noted Trump's recent remarks and suggested they were a climb-down from statements last year that encouraged regime change in Iran. 

"The same enemy which declared its aim last year to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran today explicitly states that it does not want to do anything to [our] system," Rouhani said. "If we remain hopeful in the war with America, we will win."

BAGHDAD — Foreign employees of US energy major ExxonMobil will return to work near Iraq's border with Iran Sunday, the oil ministry said, two weeks after being evacuated over tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"ExxonMobil accepted that the 83 employees evacuated will resume their posts from Sunday," spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP.

He said Iraqi authorities, which had slammed the decision to pull out the workers from the West Qurna oilfield as political, have taken "the necessary security measures for their return".

ExxonMobil pulled out its expatriate employees from the southern oil field after the US ordered non-essential personnel to quit its diplomatic missions in the country on May 15. 

Washington cited an “imminent” threat from Tehran-linked armed groups in Iraq as tensions fuelled by US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal spiked. 

It came 10 days after the Pentagon deployed an aircraft carrier task force and B-52 bombers to the Gulf to fend off an unspecified alleged plot by Tehran to attack US forces or allies.

Oil Ministry spokesman Jihad insisted that the absence of the foreign workers had not affected production as the bulk of the workforce is Iraqi.

BEIRUT — Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah pledged on Friday to confront the US Middle East plan that President Donald Trump has touted as "the deal of the century".

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the heavily armed Shiite movement, said it was unlikely Washington and its allies would launch a war against Tehran as they would pay a heavy price.

The US military has sent forces, including an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers, to the region to counter what it called "clear indications" of threats from Iran.

The US special envoy for Iran says the steps had deterred Tehran. But he said that Washington would respond to any attacks with military force, as Arab leaders met on Thursday to discuss what they deem a rising threat from Tehran.

Saudi Arabia's king told an emergency Arab summit on Friday that decisive action was needed to stop Iranian "escalations" in the region after attacks on Gulf oil assets. 

The United States knows that "war against Iran will not stop at Iran's borders", Nasrallah said in a televised speech at a rally marking the annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day. "The entire region will burn. All US forces and interests in the region will be annihilated." 

He said the "balance of power" was preventing a US-Iran war, which he warned would also hit US allies Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Nasrallah described a US blueprint to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, led by Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, as a "historic crime" that must be stopped. 

The first stage of the plan, still in draft form after almost two years, is expected to be unveiled at a late June conference in Bahrain. It seeks to encourage investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Arab donor states before grappling with thorny political issues at the heart of the conflict. 

Palestinian and Arab sources briefed on the draft say it has jettisoned the two-state solution — the long-standing US and world formula that envisages an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

Nasrallah also denied charges that Hizbollah has factories in Lebanon to produce precision-guided missiles, but said it has enough of those missiles "to change the face of the region".

Israel and the United States believe Hizbollah has sought home-grown production of precision-guided missiles that could paralyse Israeli infrastructure.

Israel sees Lebanon's Hizbollah, against which it fought a month-long war in 2006, as the biggest threat on its borders.

ANKARA — The looming threat of US sanctions and a wider rupture with Western allies over Turkey's purchase of Russian air defences is raising concern in Ankara, two Turkish officials said, despite public insistence the deal will go ahead as planned.

With barely a month left until Turkey could take delivery of Moscow's S-400 missile defence system, triggering automatic US sanctions, the Turkish government continues to say it will not be deflected from its agreement with Russia.

But worries about the impact of punitive US measures against Turkey's military, which could degrade its existing fleet of warplanes and block purchases of new US F-35 stealth fighter jets and the Patriot missile defence system, have reached as far as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the official said.

"Some senior officials are opposing this delivery taking place, at least in June. A senior official conveyed this to Erdogan as well," one of the officials told Reuters. 

"The officials opposing the immediate delivery of the S-400s are concerned about ties with NATO being disrupted, US sanctions and [the prospect] that the Patriots will become totally unavailable."

A second official familiar with the S-400 deal confirmed there were concerns over the possible US response, although he reiterated Turkey's position that it would not back out.

Turkey and the United States, both members of the NATO, have argued for months over the impact of S-400s deployed on Turkish soil.

A top defence official from a European Union NATO member state said buying S-400s could carry a wider cost for Turkey.

"NATO cannot force Turkey not to buy, but if Ankara does go ahead it could have effects on the alliance's intelligence sharing and further defence purchases," the official said. 

Turkey says that defending its territory poses no threat to allies, and that it has met all NATO obligations. A defence industry official said he expected the missile defences to be stationed on Turkey's border with Syria, although no final decision had been made.

Delivery of the S-400s is scheduled for July, and Turkey has even suggested that the first consignment could be brought forward to June.

But Defence Minister Hulusi Akar this week offered the first hint of possible delay, saying "they may not make it by June" and adding that Russia and Turkey were still working on some details of the deal.

However, Turkey's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Friday the S-400 delivery schedule was unchanged.

"Reports in some media outlets about Turkey evaluating delaying the S-400 procurement upon the request of the United States do not reflect the truth," Aksoy said. "The process of procuring S-400s from Russia is continuing as planned."

Three Turkish officials who spoke to Reuters all said it was possible the S-400s could still be delivered in June, but also left open the possibility of delay.

"Renewed tensions with the United States aren't desired at this point," the first official said, pointing to the potential economic damage from sanctions. "The plan now is for the S-400s to be delivered in June, but there is an ongoing discussion.”

"Depending on the talks, it may be pushed back."

Erdogan's government will not want to set off a crisis with the United States immediately before a June 23 Istanbul mayoral election — which is being rerun after his party suffered a narrow and dramatic loss two months ago — or a meeting he is due to hold with President Donald Trump in Japan just days later. 

"Turkey does not want to hurt its ties with the United States or Russia," the defence industry official said. "With the Erdogan-Trump meeting, it's possible that the two sides will understand each other better."

UNITED NATIONS, United States — UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday called on Sudan's military rulers and protest groups to go back to the negotiating table and quickly reach a deal on handing over power to a civilian-led government.

Guterres said in a statement that the sides must "conclude the negotiations over the transfer of power to a civilian-led transitional authority as soon as possible".

Negotiations between protesters and the military council have broken down over whether a planned transitional body would be headed by a civilian or a military figure. 

The deadlock has raised fears that the military will seek to tighten its grip on power, crushing hopes of a democratic process in Sudan.

On Friday, hundreds of people rallied in support of Sudan's military rulers in Khartoum.

The military council has ruled the country since the ouster of president Omar Bashir on April 11, after months of protests against his authoritarian rule.

Guterres called for the "utmost restraint" and stressed the importance of upholding human rights, including the right to freedom of assembly and of expression.

Sudanese authorities on Thursday shut down the Khartoum office of Qatari-owned Al Jazeera television and banned its journalists from reporting in the country.

Sudan's generals, backed by key Arab powers, have resisted calls from African and Western governments to hand over the reins of power.

The head of the ruling military council, Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, paid a visit to Saudi Arabia this week following talks in Egypt last week.

On May 14, the protest leaders and the military reached a breakthrough by agreeing on a three-year transition period for transferring power to a civilian administration.

They also agreed that parliament be composed of 300 members for the transition, with around two-thirds from the protest alliance and the rest drawn from other political groups.

But negotiations were suspended the following day by the military, which demanded that demonstrators remove roadblocks following clashes in which five people were killed.

Talks resumed on May 19 but broke down the following day over disagreement on whether the military or a civilian should lead the transitional authority.

The UN chief has called for a transition in Sudan that meets the "democratic aspiration" of the Sudanese people.