Region

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The United States called Wednesday for dismantling the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, weeks before unveiling the economic aspects of its long-awaited Middle East peace plan.

Addressing the UN Security Council, US adviser Jason Greenblatt said UNRWA was a "bandaid" and that it was time to hand over services assured by the UN agency to countries hosting the Palestinian refugees and NGOs.

"The UNRWA model has failed the Palestinian people," Greenblatt told the council.

Last year, President Donald Trump's administration cut all funding to UNRWA, arguing that it was “flawed” as Washington pressed ahead with work on proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian solution.

Greenblatt, who along with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is drafting the peace proposals, said it was time to "start a conversation about planning the transition of UNRWA services to host governments, or to other international or local non-governmental organisations, as appropriate".

Founded in 1949, UNRWA provides education and health services to some five million Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The agency has long been a thorn in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's side and he has called for UNRWA to be shut down, claiming that it is anti-Israeli and “perpetuates the refugee problem”.

The United States will hold a conference in Bahrain on June 25-26 focused on the economic aspects of the peace plan that Greenblatt said has the “potential to unlock a prosperous future for the Palestinians”.

The Palestinians have rejected the US peace plan and cut off contacts with the Trump administration after it recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, ignoring Palestinian aspirations for a future state with East Jerusalem as its capital. 

Greenblatt pressed the US argument that the peace plan could bring prosperity to the Palestinians.

“It would be a mistake for the Palestinians not to join us. They have nothing to lose and much to gain if they do join us. But it is, of course, their choice,” he said.

UNRWA chief Pierre Kraehenbuehl told the council by video-conference from Gaza that the agency had managed to plug a $446 million deficit last year through budget cuts and new donor contributions.

“At a time when Palestine refugees face a near complete absence of a political horizon, I am strongly convinced that preserving UNRWA’s services is a crucial contribution in terms of human dignity and regional stability,” said Kraehenbuehl. 

France echoed that stance and warned that a failure to support Palestinian refugees would turn camps into prime recruitment ground for terrorist groups in the region.

LONDON — Iranian and US leaders have reassured their nations that they do not seek war. But among ordinary Iranians who already face hardship from tightening sanctions, nerves are being strained by worry that the situation could slip out of control.

In interviews conducted from outside the country by telephone and online, Iranians described heated discussions at home, on the streets and on social media.

The prospect of war was now the main topic of conversation in workplaces, taxis and buses, Nima Abdollahzade, a legal consultant at an Iranian startup company, told Reuters.

"Apart from the deterioration in the Iranian economy, I believe the most severe effect" of confrontation with the United States "is in the mental situation of ordinary Iranians", he said. "They are sustaining a significant amount of stress." 

The United States pulled out of an agreement between Iran and world powers a year ago that limited Iran's nuclear programme in return for lifting economic sanctions.

This month tensions have risen sharply, with Washington extending its sanctions to ban all countries from importing Iranian oil. A number of US officials led by National Security Adviser John Bolton have made hawkish remarks, citing Iranian threats against US interests. Trump himself Tweeted: "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran."

Iran has tended to dismiss the tough talk as a bluff — "psychological warfare" from a US administration not ready for a fight. But some Iranians say the tension could have its own logic, raising the chance of a mistake leading to violence.

'A dog that won't bite barks'

A labour activist who spent months in an Iranian jail for his activities and asked not to be identified, said: "War and sanctions are two sides of the same coin, designed by the [US] capitalist system. The working class would bear brunt of the pressures."

Some Iranians expect pressure to lead to negotiations, as when former president Barack Obama tightened sanctions that crippled the Iranian economy and led to the 2015 deal.

But others believe their leaders will never go back down that road following Trump's reimposition of sanctions.

"Any politician who starts negotiations with America would make a fool of himself," said a student who also asked not to be identified. "Even [Mohammad Javad] Zarif has given up on that," she said, referring to Iran's US-educated foreign minister.

Zarif told CNN this week Iran had "acted in good faith" in negotiating the deal that Washington abandoned. "We are not willing to talk to people who have broken their promises."

Trump has said Washington is not trying to set up talks but expects Tehran to call when it is ready. A US official said last week Americans "were sitting by the phone", but had received no call from Iran yet.

Foad Izadi, a political science professor at Tehran University, told Reuters that phone call is not coming.

"Iranian officials have come to this conclusion that Trump does not seek negotiations. He would like a phone call with Rouhani, even a meeting and a photo session, but that's not a real negotiation," Izadi said.

Despite saying talks are now off the table, Iranian leaders still say war is unlikely. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, said the United States would not attack as "it's not in their interests”.

The logic makes sense to Mohsen Mortazavi, a young cleric who graduated from a religious school in the city of Qom. 

"There won't be any war because a military confrontation will not resolve any of the US problems, it will only add to them," Mortazavi told Reuters. "Trump's shouts and threats are a psychological war. A dog that cannot bite barks."

But Izadi, the political science professor, disagrees. "A war is highly probable. There are officials in Washington who have planned for invading Iran for years," he said.

Stockpiling

Meanwhile, Iranians cope with the day-to-day implications of sanctions and tension. Worries over access to products have prompted some Iranians to stock up on rice, detergent and tinned food, residents and shopkeepers said.

An advertisement on state TV discourages stockpiling. A middle-aged man heading home after work is drawn to a supermarket when he sees people panic shopping. He buys anything he can put his hands on, causing shelves to be emptier.

Ali, an Iranian student in Tehran, told Reuters that unlike many, he was not against a US military invasion, as he believed the fall of the Islamic republic would be the only solution to the rising economic and political problems.

"My only hope is a war so I can take my revenge. I am telling my friends in the university that our only way is an armed struggle.... We have nothing to lose."

Shahin Milani, a 38-year-old who Tweets about Iranian politics to more than 7,000 followers on Twitter, believes military intervention could never bring democracy.

"The people should do it themselves... If someone is truly worried about the threat of war, they should work to create a democratic, secular government in Iran... As long as the Islamic republic is in power, the shadow of war will loom over Iran."

ANKARA — Turkey insisted it would go ahead with its controversial decision to buy the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, saying it was preparing for any possible sanctions from the US.

Turkey’s push to buy the S-400 system has strained relations with the United States, a NATO ally, which worries about integrating Russian technology with Turkey’s Western equipment.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters late on Tuesday that Ankara was “preparing” for US penalties under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which prohibits business with Russia’s state and private defence and intelligence sectors.

He added that Turkey was “fed up” with being just being a buyer of military equipment, and wanted to be involved in joint production and technology transfers.

“The idea that we always buy, you always produce, is finished,” he told reporters in Ankara.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey and Russia would jointly produce S-500 defence systems after the purchase of the S-400 system.

Turkey has already sent personnel to Russia for training, Akar said, and the system could be delivered as early as June or July.

Last month, he said the S-400 would likely be used to protect the capital Ankara and Istanbul.

In a bid to force Turkey to cancel its S-400 deal, the US offered a renewed proposal in March for Patriots, its own anti-missile and anti-aircraft weapon system.

The US has said buying the S-400 could jeopardise the Turkey’s involvement in the F-35 fighter jet programme, for which it provides some parts. 

Akar said Turkey was still considering the offer but that there had been “general easing” in negotiations with the US on the F-35s and Patriots.

DUBAI/MUSCAT — Omanis on Wednesday hailed writer Jokha Alharthi’s “historical achievement” and praised her for bringing “honour” to their Gulf nation after she became the first Arab author to win the Man Booker International prize.

“It is a huge historic achievement for the author, for Oman and for Arabic culture in general,” said Saif Al Rahbi, an Omani poet, essayist and writer.

“It shows that Omani literature is moving along,” he told AFP.

Alharthi, 40, received the prestigious prize during a ceremony Tuesday in London for her novel “Celestial Bodies” which depicts life in her small Gulf nation.

The £50,000 (57,000 euro, $64,000) Man Booker International prize celebrates translated fiction from around the world and is divided equally between the author and the translator.

The judges said Celestial Bodies was “a richly imagined, engaging and poetic insight into a society in transition and into lives previously obscured”.

It tells the story of three sisters who witness the slow pace of development in Omani society during the 20th century.

“I am thrilled that a window has been opened to the rich Arabic culture,” Alharthi told AFP after the ceremony at the Roundhouse in London.

“Oman inspired me but I think international readers can relate to the human values in the book — freedom and love,” she said.

The jury praised an “elegantly structured and taut” novel which “tells of Oman’s coming-of-age through the prism of one family’s losses and loves”.

The director general of Oman’s culture ministry, Said Bin Sultan Al Bussaidi, agreed.

The novel, he said, shows that Alharthi’s work “reflects maturity and has reached an international level”.

“It is an honour for each and every Omani man and woman... [and the prize] will help spread Omani literature across the world,” he added.

Alharthi is the author of two previous collections of short fiction, a children’s book and three novels in Arabic.

She studied classical Arabic poetry at Edinburgh University and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.

In an interview with the BBC at the weekend, Alharthi said she had wanted for a “very long time to write a book about life in Oman [but] couldn’t when she was actually in Oman”.

“But when I went to Edinburgh, the first year was difficult for me, homesickness, cold, so I felt that I need to go back to warmth and feel something from home,” she said.

“Actually writing saved me.”

 ‘Surge in translation’ 

Her prize-winning novel — which the Guardian newspaper said offers “glimpses into a culture relatively little known in the west” — came out in 2010.

For one expert of Arabic and Middle Eastern literature, it could be a game changer for novels emerging from the region.

“It has the potential to orient publishing away from the Arabic novel as answering the question ‘what can we learn about them?’ and towards the Arabic novel as a work of art,” said Marcia Lynx Qualey, editor of ArabLit Quarterly.

“The surge in translation of Arabic-language novels is already in progress, but I think this reorients publishers somewhat,” she told AFP.

Qualey said there “is definitely a growing interest in works by Gulf authors”.

Celestial Bodies was translated by US academic Marilyn Booth, who teaches Arabic literature at Oxford University.

Jury chair Bettany Hughes said the novel showed “delicate artistry and disturbing aspects of our shared history”.

CHIBAYISH, Iraq — Thirty years after Saddam Hussein starved them of water, Iraq’s southern marshes are blossoming once more thanks to a wave of eco-tourists picnicking and paddling down their replenished river bends.

A one-room home made of elaborately woven palm reeds floats on the river surface. Near it, a soft plume of smoke curls up from a firepit where carp is being grilled, Iraqi-style. 

A few canoes drift by, carrying couples and groups of friends singing to the beat of drums. 

“I didn’t think I would find somewhere so beautiful, and such a body of water in Iraq,” said Habib Al Jurani.

He left Iraq in 1990 for the United States, and was back in his ancestral homeland for a family visit. 

“Most people don’t know what Iraq is really like — they think it’s the world’s most dangerous place, with nothing but killings and terrorism,” he said. 

Looking around the lush marshes, declared in 2016 to be Iraq’s fifth UNESCO World Heritage site, Jurani added: “there are some mesmerising places.” 

Straddling Iraq’s famous Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Mesopotamian marshes are a rare aquatic ecosystem in a country nearly half of which is covered in cracked desert.

Legend has it, they were home to the biblical Garden of Eden. 

Around 90 per cent of the once-expansive marshes were drained, and the area’s 250,000 residents dwindled down to just 30,000.

In the ensuing years, severe droughts and decreased water flows from the twin rivers’ source countries — Turkey and Iran — shrunk the marshes’ surface from some 15,000 square kilometres to less than half that. 

Turtles and tourists 

It all culminated with a particularly dry winter last year that left the “ahwar”, as they are known in Arabic, painfully parched.

But heavier rains this year have filled more than 80 per cent of the marshes’ surface area, according to the United Nations, compared to just 27 per cent last year. 

That has resurrected the ancient lifestyle that dominated this area for more than 5,000 years. 

“The water returned, and with it normal life,” said 35-year-old Mehdi Al Mayali, who raises water buffalo and sells their milk, used to make rich cream served at Iraqi breakfasts.

Wildlife including the vulnerable smooth-coated otter, Euphrates softshell turtles, and Basra reed warbler have returned to the marshlands — along with the pickiest of all species: tourists. 

“Ecotourism has revived the ‘ahwar’. There are Iraqis from different provinces and some foreigners,” Mayali said.

A day in the marshes typically involves hiring a resident to paddle a large reed raft down the river for around $25 — not a cheap fare for Iraq. 

Then, lunch in a “mudhif” or guesthouse, also run by locals.

“Ecotourism is an important source of revenue for those native to the marshes,” said Jassim Al Assadi, who heads Nature Iraq. 

The environmental activist group has long advocated for the marshes to be better protected and for authorities to develop a long-term ecotourism plan for the area. 

“It’s a much more sustainable activity than the hydrocarbon and petroleum industry,” said Assadi, referring to the dominant industry that provides Iraq with about 90 per cent of state revenues. 

Long way to row 

The numbers have steadily gone up in recent years, according to Assaad Al Qarghouli, tourism chief in Iraq’s southern province of Dhi Qar. 

“We had 10,000 tourists in 2016, then 12,000 in 2017 and 18,000 in 2018,” he told AFP. 

But there is virtually no infrastructure to accommodate them. 

“There are no tourist centres or hotels, because the state budget was sucked up by war the last few years,” Qarghouli told AFP. 

Indeed, Daesh overran swathes of Iraq in 2014, prompting the government to direct its full attention — and the bulk of its resources — to fighting it back. 

Iraq’s government declared victory in late 2017 and has slowly begun reallocating resources to infrastructure projects. 

Qarghouli said the marshes should be a priority, and called on the government to build “a hotel complex and touristic eco-village inside the marshes”.

Peak season for tourists is between September and April, avoiding the summer months of Iraq when temperatures can reach a stifling 50ºC. 

But without a long-term government plan, residents worry that water levels will be hostage to fluctuating yearly rainfalls and shortages caused by Iranian and Turkish dams.

These dynamics have already damaged the marshes’ fragile ecosystem, with high levels of salination last year killing fish and forcing other wildlife to migrate. 

Jurani, the returning expatriate, has an idea of the solution.

“Adventurers and nature-lovers,” he said, hopefully. 

MOGADISHU — Few restaurateurs consider the threat of piracy in their plans but Abdulkadir Mohamed did so for his La Lanterna floating restaurant now moored off Mogadishu’s popular Lido beach.

“We considered that pirates could hijack it, and use it to attack cargo ships,” he said on the top of the double-deck boat as it bounced on the warm waters of the Indian Ocean a short distance from the Somali capital’s coastline.

“We made it slow,” he explained, so pirates would not see it as a prize vessel to seize and use in any of their attacks.

Pirates were once the scourge of the region, chasing oil tankers and other ships and demanding ransoms for those they captured. But as Somalia has regained a semblance of stability after almost three decades of conflict and chaos, piracy has faded, even if sporadic bombings still strike the capital.

A modicum of calm means Somalis are seeking out more leisure activities outside their homes, and the Lido beach, with its bleach white sand, is drawing the crowds.

With extra security and checkpoints to protect the 2.5km stretch of sand from possible attacks, the beach offers a place to escape from the battle-scarred capital.

“Sitting on Lido beach, having tea or coffee in the evening, you can see different colours and feel sometimes that you are in another world,” said Omar Abule, the manager of travel agent Visit Mogadishu, describing the cobalt waters and orange sunsets.

Families plunge into the water — the women from this religiously conservative country still wear their headscarves and loose garments as they sit or swim in the sea.

Visitors feeling more adventurous can don a life jacket and take a small launch to La Lanterna as it bobs near the beach. After clambering aboard, they can have a coffee or cold drink and order a snack, an opportunity to forget challenges ashore.

“I am happy to get on board such a boat,” said Samira Mohammed on La Lanterna. “Coming to Lido beach gives you big hope.”

Abdifitah Mohamed Siyad, director of tourism and investment in Mogadishu’s local government, said the city had been ruined by wars and most people had “stories of grief”.

“The remedy for the people is to create happiness for them, create an environment for tourism, a time for them to tour, a time for them to chat and forget the past,” he said.

BEIRUT — A British-based war monitor said on Wednesday it had no evidence to suggest the Syrian army had carried out a new chemical attack despite Washington’s announcement it had suspicions.

“We have no proof at all of the attack,” Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP. 

“We have not documented any chemical attack in the mountains of Latakia,” he said.

The northern mountains are the only part of Latakia province, on Syria’s Mediterraean coast that are no firmly in the hands of the government.

They are a major prize in fighting that has flared up in north-western Syria in recent weeks between pro-government forces and the militants, who have been using them as a launchpad for rocket and drone attacks on the Hmeimim Air Base of the government’s main ally Russia.

The Hayat Tahrir Al Sham alliance led by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate accused government forces on Sunday of launching a chlorine gas attack on its fighters in the north of Latakia province. 

The Syrian army dismissed the reports as a fabrication, a military source told the pro-government Al Watan newspaper.

But the US State Department said on Tuesday it was assessing indications that the government of President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on Sunday.

“We are still gathering information on this incident, but we repeat our warning that if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond quickly and appropriately,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

The head of observatory said that only terrorists were present at the site of Sunday’s alleged attack, making it nearly impossible to objectively confirm the incident.

“There were no civilians in the area,” Abdel Rahman said.

White Helmets rescue volunteers, who have reported past chemical attacks in rebel-held areas of Syria, told AFP on Wednesday that they had no information on the purported gas attack.

BAGHDAD — Scarred by two decades of conflict, Iraq finds itself caught in the middle of a US-Iranian tug-of-war, fearing it could pay the price of any confrontation between its two main allies.

Analysts say third parties may seek to exploit the latest spike in tensions between Tehran and Washington to spark a showdown that serves their own interests.

Iraq "pays a disproportionate tax on Iranian-American tensions and [has] an unenviable front-line position in any future conflict between the two," said Fanar Haddad, an Iraq expert at the National University of Singapore.

During the three-year battle to oust the Daesh group from Iraqi cities, powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias on the ground effectively fought on the same side as US-led coalition warplanes in the skies.

But since Iraq declared victory over the extremists in December 2017, relations between Washington and Tehran have deteriorated sharply.

In May last year, US President Donald Trump pulled out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and later re-instated tough sanctions.

This April, Washington dubbed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a "foreign terrorist organisation", prompting Iran to designate US troops across the region as "terrorists".

Tensions escalated this month, with Washington deploying a carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf over alleged, unspecified Iranian "threats".

The Trump administration last week ordered non-essential diplomatic staff out of Iraq, alleging Iran-backed armed groups posed an "imminent" threat.

On Sunday, a rocket was fired into the "Green Zone" of Baghdad that houses government offices and embassies, including the US mission.

There has been no claim of responsibility.

For Iraqi political analyst Essam Al Fili, the rocket attack was a sign some sides want to pull Tehran and Washington into a confrontation in Shiite-majority Iraq.

"There are those who want to fight Iran with other people's weapons, and those who want to fight the US with other people's weapons," he said.

But he added that Iran has "so far favoured restraint in Iraq, a country which is vulnerable on the security front".

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi has echoed those fears, saying on Tuesday that Iraq would “very soon send delegations to Tehran and Washington to push for calm”.

He warned that Iraq “does not have the option of distancing itself” from US-Iranian tensions, and stressed the need to “avoid giving other parties the space to inflame the situation”.

Several groups in the Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary coalition that battled Daesh denied any link to the rocket attack, with Assaib Ahl Al Haq chief Qais Al Khazali pointing a finger at “Israeli interests”.

Analyst Karim Bitar stressed that “the stakes are so high that Iranian proxies cannot act without an explicit green light” from Iran’s revolutionary guard force.

Tehran and Washington “know perfectly well that it’s an unwinnable war and that an all-out confrontation would be devastating for both the US and Iran”, said Bitar, an expert at France’s Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.

But, he added, “the inflammatory rhetoric of the past few weeks plays right into the hands of Iran’s hardliners” as well as pleasing Saudi Arabia and Israel, “bent on settling old scores with Iran”.

Tehran accuses its regional Sunni rival Riyadh and archfoe Israel of pressing the Trump administration to adopt a hard line.

But experts doubt the crisis will result in a head-on confrontation with Washington.

“There won’t be a direct war. The United States is counting on a collapse of the [Iranian] economy, which could be accompanied by limited air strikes,” said Iraqi political scientist Hashem Al Hashemi.

He said Washington may also urge Israel to carry out air strikes against Iran’s militia allies in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Meanwhile, memories of American interventions in recent years could also dampen Washington’s appetite for an offensive.

“The US foreign policy and security establishment knows full well that attacking Iran would make the Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya wars look like walks in the park,” Bitar said.

“So besides some messages that could be sent on the Iraqi arena, unless utter madness prevails, a large, open, direct war is still unlikely.”