Region

BEIRUT — Hundreds of retired Lebanese security personnel protested on Monday over feared pension cuts and tried to storm the government’s headquarters in Beirut as ministers mulled an austerity budget inside.

For weeks, the government has been discussing budget cuts required to unlock $11 billion in aid pledged to the Mediterranean country in Paris last year.

Officials have hinted that army veterans and retired security officers may see cuts to their pensions and benefits as part of an impeding austerity package.

Budget talks were under way on Monday as protesters scuffled with security forces after breaching a barbed-wire barricade erected outside the Grand Serail, the headquarters of the Lebanese premiership.

Security forces used water cannon in an attempt to disperse them, injuring one veteran, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Another pensioner tried to set himself on fire before he was stopped by other demonstrators, NNA said.

“They threaten our income and our benefits after we served our country for years,” one pensioner said in a televised interview.

Another protester said he regretted the clash between the demonstrators and security forces.

“This is first time security forces confront [former] security forces,” he said.

A delegation of pensioners entered the Grand Serail to meet Defence Minister Elias Abu Saab, who gave them “guarantees”, according to a spokesman.

For his part, Bou Saab said many of the concerns relayed to him were based on rumours.

“Some of these issues are not being discussed anyway,” he said, referring to protester’s concerns.

The Lebanese economy has been hit hard in the wake of endless political deadlocks in recent years, compounded by the 2011 breakout of war in neighbouring Syria.

The country has been racking up public debt since the end of its own civil war between 1975-1990, which now stands at 152 per cent of gross domestic product, according to the finance ministry.

KHARTOUM — Sudan's army rulers and protesters resume talks Monday to finalise the makeup of a new ruling body after overnight negotiations remained deadlocked following a "dispute" over who should lead it.

The two sides launched a round of new talks Sunday evening over the form of the sovereign council to rule Sudan for a three-year transitional period following last month's ouster of long-time ruler Omar Al Bashir.

The military council that replaced him has faced international pressure to install a civilian-led administration — a key demand of thousands of demonstrators who have spent weeks camped outside Khartoum's army headquarters.

Hours of overnight meetings into the early hours of Monday ended without agreement, but the ruling military council announced the talks would resume again on Monday evening at 9:00pm (1900 GMT) at the presidential palace.

A prominent leader of an umbrella protest group who was at the talks said the question of who would head the body had been a key sticking point.

“The dispute over the presidency of the sovereign council” was ongoing, said Satea Al Haj of the Alliance for Freedom and Change, which led the nationwide campaign against Bashir.

“The military council is still insisting that the president of the sovereign council should be from the military,” he said.

“They are justifying it by saying the country faces security threats.”

The protest movement insists that civilians must form the majority of the body’s members, a demand backed by major world powers, Haj added.

“The international community and the African Union will not accept to deal with a military government,” he said.

“The people also want a civilian government.” 

‘Dirty political game’ 

However, the protest leader said on Sunday night’s talks were generally “positive”. The military council has said a “final deal” is expected during Monday’s negotiations.

The Alliance said it would continue to urge people to demonstrate.

“We continue to hold our demonstrations, our sit-ins and our protests until we achieve all the goals of our glorious revolution, the first of which is handing power” to a civilian authority, it said in a statement.

Generals and protest leaders have already agreed on key issues including a three-year transition period and the creation of a 300-member parliament dominated by lawmakers from the protesters’ umbrella group.

The new council is expected to form a transitional civilian government ahead of the first post-Bashir elections after the transition period.

But observers say the body may turn out to be only symbolic, with real power resting in the office of prime minister and the cabinet.

An agreement on the new council’s makeup had been expected on Wednesday.

But the generals suspended the negotiations for 72 hours, demanding that protesters remove roadblocks they had erected on several Khartoum avenues before any negotiation could proceed. 

Protesters duly tore down the barricades, but have warned that they will build them again unless the generals transfer power to civilians.

Demonstrator Abdelmoneim Seer vowed to continue protesting if the generals stay in power.

“If the military council does not meet all our demands at the next negotiation session... we will continue our sit-ins everywhere” across the country, he said.

The generals have allowed protesters to continue with their sit-in at the army complex.

Demonstrators began their sit-in against Bashir on April 6, but refused to move after his ouster by the military, vowing to stay there until a civilian government was installed.

Protesters accuse the generals of clinging to power and ignoring their demands.

“A dirty political game is being played by the military council,” said Mustafa Sadiq, who spent the night at the army complex.

The protesters’ umbrella group on Monday urged demonstrators to be patient.

“Victory is just a matter of patience and it is getting close,” the Alliance for Freedom and Change said.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — A UN team investigating the massacre of Iraq's Yazidi minority and other atrocities has excavated 12 mass graves and is collecting witness accounts that could be used in Iraqi and other national courts, according to a UN report seen by AFP on Monday.

The Security Council agreed in 2017 to establish the UN probe to ensure the Daesh terror group faces justice for war crimes in Iraq and Syria — a cause championed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad and international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.

In the report sent to the council, the head of the team, British lawyer Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, said efforts were focused on three initial investigations: The 2014 massacre of Yazidis, crimes committed in Mosul from 2014 to 2016, and the mass killing of Iraqi military recruits in the Tikrit area in June 2014. 

The team began work in October, with the first mass grave containing Daseh victims unearthed in March and April in the Murad's home village of Kojo in Sinjar in northwest Iraq.

Ahmad Khan said “progress had been slower than hoped” in the investigation and stressed the need to establish “clear and effective channels” to use the evidence in Iraqi proceedings.

The Iraqi government had resisted calls for the UN probe despite evidence of more than 200 mass graves in Iraq containing victims of Daseh, who swept across northern Iraq in 2014.

Murad is among thousands of Yazidi women who were taken hostage and held as sex slaves, while hundreds of men and women are believed to have been executed by the extremists.

The United Nations has described the massacre of the Yazidis by Daesh militants as possible genocide.

As well as excavations of mass graves, the 48-member team has “engaged first-hand with survivors and witnesses” and has put in place a witness protection programme, said the report sent to the council on Friday.

“In Mosul, Tikrit, Dohuk, and elsewhere in Iraq, victims have told harrowing accounts of their suffering, of entire communities erased and of women and girls taken as slaves,” it said.

The team is negotiating agreements with Iraqi authorities to hand over evidence and is ready to provide material to other courts to hold Daseh members accountable for their crimes, it said.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it wanted to avert war in the region but stood ready to respond with “all strength” following last week’s attacks on Saudi oil assets, telling Iran that the ball was now in its court.

Riyadh has accused Tehran of ordering Tuesday’s drone strikes on two oil pumping stations in the kingdom, claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group. Two days earlier, four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. In response, countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) began “enhanced security patrols” in the international waters of the Arabian Gulf area on Saturday, the US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said on Sunday. 

Iran has denied involvement in either operation, which come as Washington and the Islamic republic spar over sanctions and the US military presence in the region, raising concerns about a potential US-Iran conflict.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not want a war in the region nor does it seek that,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir told a news conference.

“It will do what it can to prevent this war and at the same time it reaffirms that in the event the other side chooses war, the kingdom will respond with all force and determination, and it will defend itself and its interests.”

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Sunday invited Gulf and Arab leaders to convene emergency summits in Mecca on May 30 to discuss implications of the attacks.

“The current critical circumstances entail a unified Arab and Gulf stance toward the besetting challenges and risks,” the UAE foreign ministry said in a statement.

The US navy’s Fifth Fleet said in its statement about increased maritime patrols that GCC countries were “specifically increasing communication and coordination with each other in support of regional naval cooperation and maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf”, with navies and coast guards working with the US navy. 

Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Muslim ally the UAE has not blamed anyone for the tanker sabotage operation, pending an investigation. No-one has claimed responsibility, but two US government sources said last week that US officials believed Iran had encouraged the Houthi group or Iraq-based Shiite militias to carry it out.

The drone strike on oil pumping stations, which Riyadh said did not disrupt output or exports, was claimed by the Houthis, who have been battling a Saudi-led military coalition in a war in Yemen since 2015. 

The head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Ali Al Houthi, derided Riyadh’s call to convene Arab summits, saying in a Twitter post that they “only know how to support war and destruction”.

A Norwegian insurers’ report seen by Reuters said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were “highly likely” to have facilitated the attack on vessels near the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, a main bunkering hub lying just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has dismissed the possibility of war erupting, saying Tehran did not want conflict and no country had the “illusion it can confront Iran”. This stance was echoed by the head of Iran’s elite revolutionary guards on Sunday. 

“We are not pursuing war but we are also not afraid of war,” Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami was cited as saying by the semi-official news agency Tasnim. 

Washington has tightened economic sanctions against Iran, trying to cut Tehran’s oil exports to zero, and beefed up the US military presence in the Gulf in response to what it said were Iranian threats to United States troops and interests.

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman discussed regional developments, including efforts to strengthen security and stability, in a phone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Saudi Media Ministry tweeted on Sunday.

“We want peace and stability in the region but we will not sit on our hands in light of the continuing Iranian attack,” Jubeir said. “The ball is in Iran’s court and it is up to Iran to determine what its fate will be.”

He said the crew of an Iranian oil tanker that had been towed to Saudi Arabia early this month after a request for help due to engine trouble were still in the kingdom receiving the “necessary care”. The crew are 24 Iranians and two Bangladeshis.

GIZA, Egypt — A bomb blast hit a tourist bus near Egypt's famed Giza pyramids on Sunday, wounding at least 17 people, including South Africans, in the latest blow to the country's tourism industry.

The roadside bomb went off as the bus was being driven in Giza, also causing injuries to Egyptians in a nearby car, medical and security sources said.

There were no deaths reported.

"A device exploded and smashed the windows of a bus carrying 25 people from South Africa and a private car carrying four Egyptians," the security source said. 

Video footage captured by AFP showed the bus and car with broken windows on the side of the road.

According to the security source, the wounded were being treated for scratches caused by the broken glass.

Ndivhuwo Mabaya, spokesman for South Africa's department of international relations, told AFP that "there might be South Africans involved" but declined to give any figures.

Sunday's incident comes after three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide were killed when a roadside bomb hit their bus as it travelled near the Giza pyramids outside Cairo in December.

It also comes just little more than a month before the African Cup of Nations hosted by Egypt is to kick off.

Egypt has been battling an insurgency that surged especially in the turbulent North Sinai region following the 2013 military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was replaced by former army general Abdel Fattah Sisi.

In February 2018, the army launched a nationwide operation against militants, focusing mainly on the North Sinai region.

Some 650 militants and around 45 soldiers have been killed since the start of the offensive, according to separate statements by the armed forces.

Since first being elected in 2014, Sisi has presented himself as a bulwark against terrorism, promising stability and increased security.

Recently, the country’s vital tourism industry has started to slowly rebound after suffering strong blows due to deadly attacks targeting tourists following the turmoil of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Figures by the official statistics agency showed that tourist arrivals reached 8.3 million in 2017, compared with 5.3 million the previous year. 

Authorities have gone at great lengths to lure tourists back, touting a series of archaeological finds and a new museum next to the pyramids, as well as enhanced security at airports and around ancient sites. 

But that figure was still far short of the record influx of 2010 when more than 14 million visitors flocked to see the country’s sites.

KHARTOUM — Sudanese protest leaders said Sunday they will insist a civilian runs a planned new governing body in new talks with army rulers, as Islamists warned against excluding sharia from the political roadmap.

The Alliance for Freedom and Change is determined that the country's new ruling body be "led by a civilian as its chairman and with a limited military representation", it said in a statement.

The protesters' umbrella group said talks would resume with the military council — which has ruled Sudan since president Omar Al Bashir was deposed on April 11 — at 9:00pm (1900 GMT) on Sunday.

Talks over a transfer of power by the generals have repeatedly stalled, resulting in international pressure to return to the table after the military rulers suspended negotiations earlier this week.

The generals insist the new body be military-led but the protest leaders demand a majority civilian body.

On Sunday, the protest movement raised the ante by insisting that the ruling body should be headed by a civilian.

The existing military council is headed by General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan.

Saudi Arabia meanwhile deposited $250 million in Sudan’s central bank as part of an aid package it announced following Bashir’s ouster.

“The ministry of finance has deposited 937.5 million Saudi riyals into the central bank of Sudan,” it said in a statement. 

Aid package 

In April, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) in financial aid for Sudan. 

The UAE said on April 28 it was depositing $250 million in Sudan’s central bank.

The oil-rich Gulf states pledged to inject $500 million into Sudan’s central bank and $2.5 billion to help provide food, medicine and petroleum products, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said last month.

It was Sudan’s worsening economic crisis that triggered nationwide protests against Bashir.

Before talks were suspended between the generals and protest leaders they had agreed on several key issues, including a three-year transition period and the creation of a 300-member parliament, with two thirds of lawmakers to come from the protesters’ umbrella group.

The previous round of talks was marred by violence after five protesters and an army major were shot dead near the ongoing sit-in outside the military headquarters in central Khartoum, where thousands have camped out for weeks.

Initially, the protesters gathered to demand Bashir resign — but they have stayed put, to pressure the generals into stepping aside.

The protesters had also erected roadblocks on some avenues in Khartoum to put further pressure on the generals during negotiations, but the miliary rulers suspended the last round of talks and demanded the barriers be removed.

Protesters duly took the roadblocks down in recent days — but they said they will put them back up, if the army fails to transfer power to a civilian administration.

The generals have allowed protesters to maintain their sit-in outside army headquarters.

Islamists’ warning 

Islamic movements rallied outside the presidential palace on Saturday night, to reject any civilian administration that excludes sharia as its guiding principle.

Hundreds took part in the rally, the first organised by Islamist groups since Bashir’s ouster.

“The main reason for the mobilisation is that the alliance [the main protesters’ umbrella group] is ignoring the application of sharia in its deal,” said Al Tayieb Mustafa, who heads a coalition of about 20 Islamic groups.

“This is irresponsible and if that deal is done, it is going to open the door of hell for Sudan,” he told AFP.

Bashir came to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989 and Sudanese legislation has since been underpinned by Islamic law.

At Saturday’s rally, hardline cleric Mohamed Ali Jazuli had a warning for the military council. 

“If you consider handing over power to a certain faction, then we will consider it a coup,” he vowed as supporters chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest).

The protest leaders have so far remained silent on whether sharia has a place in Sudan’s future, arguing that their main concern is installing a civilian administration.