Region

DUBAI — Iran's top diplomat on Saturday dismissed the possibility of war erupting in the region, saying Tehran did not want a conflict, and that no country had the "illusion it can confront Iran", the state news agency IRNA reported.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have increased in recent days, raising concerns about a potential US-Iran conflict. Earlier this week the United States pulled some diplomatic staff from its Baghdad embassy following attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf.

"There will be no war because neither do we want a war, nor has anyone the idea or illusion it can confront Iran in the region," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told IRNA before ending a visit to Beijing. 

President Donald Trump has bolstered economic sanctions and built up US military presence in the region, accusing Iran of threats to US troops and interests. Tehran has described those steps as "psychological warfare" and a "political game".

"The fact is that Trump has officially said and reiterated again that he does not want a war, but people around him are pushing for war on the pretext that they want to make America stronger against Iran," Zarif said. 

He told Reuters last month that Trump could be lured into a conflict by the likes of US National Security Adviser John Bolton, an ardent Iran hawk.

Regional tensions

In a sign of the heightened tension across the region, Exxon Mobil evacuated foreign staff from an oilfield in neighbouring Iraq after days of sabre rattling between Washington and Tehran.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Bahrain warned its citizens against travelling to Iraq or Iran due to "unstable conditions".

In Washington, officials urged US commercial airliners flying over the waters of the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to exercise caution.

A Norwegian insurers' report seen by Reuters said Iran's elite revolutionary guards were "highly likely" to have facilitated the attacks last Sunday on four tankers including two Saudi ships off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

In Tehran, the commander of the revolutionary guards named a new head of the force's intelligence unit on Saturday, the Fars news agency reported.

Iranian officials have denied involvement in the tanker attacks, saying Tehran's enemies carried them out to lay the groundwork for war against Iran.

US officials, however, are concerned that Tehran may have passed naval combat expertise onto proxy forces in the region.

Following the re-imposition of US sanctions, a senior Iranian maritime official said Iran had adopted new tactics and new destinations in shipping its oil exports.

Iranian crude oil exports have fallen in May to 500,000 barrels per day or lower, according to tanker data and industry sources, after the United States tightened the screws on Iran's main source of income.

TOKYO — Iran accused the United States Thursday of an "unacceptable" escalation of tensions and said Tehran was showing "maximum restraint" despite Washington's withdrawal from a nuclear deal with world powers.

Tensions were already high after President Donald Trump walked away a year ago from the accord, which eased international sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear programme.

But tensions have ratcheted up, with the US deploying an aircraft carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf over alleged threats from Iran.

"The escalation by the United States is unacceptable," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in Tokyo, where he is holding talks with Japanese officials.

"We exercise maximum restraint... in spite of the fact that the United States withdrew from JCPOA last May," Zarif said earlier, referring to the agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme, which is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

He added that Tehran remains "committed" to the deal, and said continuing assessments showed Iran was in compliance with the multilateral agreement.

Later, Zarif told reporters there was "no possibility" of negotiations with the United States to reduce spiralling tensions, describing US pressure as an "act of suicide".

Zarif's comments came after the US on Wednesday ordered non-emergency staff evacuated from its Baghdad embassy due to an alleged "imminent" threat from Iranian-linked Iraqi militias.

Two major pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq rejected suggestions the embassy personnel were at risk. 

Nasr Al Shomari, a military commander for the Iran-backed Harakat Al Nujaba, told AFP the claim was "a pretext" by Washington to create "an uproar" in Iraq.

But the move added to growing fears that the long-time rivals could be on course for conflict despite both sides stressing they have no desire for war.

Trump, however, predicted Iran would “soon” want to negotiate.

“I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon,” the president Tweeted. 

He also blasted media reports of White House turmoil over Iran, saying “there is no infighting whatsoever. Different opinions are expressed and I make a final and decisive decision”.

Zarif late on Thursday dismissed Trump’s prediction of talks, telling reporters: “I don’t know why President Trump is confident.”

Opponents of Trump say hardliners led by national security adviser John Bolton, who has long advocated toppling the Iranian government, are pushing the country into war.

According to Iranian state media, Zarif is set to visit China on Friday for discussions on “regional and international issues” including the 2015 nuclear deal with global powers. 

‘Imminent threat’ 

Despite international scepticism, the US government has been pointing to increasing threats from Iran, a long-time enemy and also a rival of US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Senior State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the threat came from Iraqi militia “commanded and controlled” by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“It is directly linked to Iran, multiple threat streams directly linked to Iran,” said one official.

“This is an imminent threat to our personnel,” said a second official.

Washington says it has received intelligence on possible attacks by Iranian or Iranian-backed forces, possibly targeting US bases in Iraq or Syria.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday insisted the showdown with the United States was a mere test of resolve.

“This face-off is not military because there is not going to be any war. Neither we nor them [the US] seek war,” he said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed that sentiment, saying in Sochi, Russia: “We fundamentally do not seek a war with Iran.”

World powers have rushed to urge calm and US allies continued to show scepticism over Washington’s alarm bells.

But UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he had recently met with Pompeo and shared “the same assessment of the heightened threat posed by Iran”. 

“As always we work closely with the US,” he Tweeted.

Britain’s defence ministry meanwhile said on Wednesday that they have “long been clear about our concerns over Iran’s destabilising behaviour in the region” — while still not confirming any new imminent danger.

Some observers speculate Tehran is seeking to retaliate over Washington’s decision in April to put Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on a terrorism blacklist — a move designed to stymie their activities across the Middle East.

But since the first US warning on May 5, the only incident has been a still-mysterious “attack” on Monday on tankers anchored off Fujairah, an Emirati port located at the strategically-crucial entrance to the Gulf.

One or more vessels incurred light hull damage, but what caused the damage and who was behind it remains unknown.

KHARTOUM — Sudanese protesters voiced regret Thursday at an army decision to suspend crucial talks on installing civilian rule but vowed to press on with a sit-in despite being targeted in fresh violence.

Army generals and protest leaders had been expected to come to an agreement on Wednesday over the make-up of a new body to govern Sudan for three years.

The issue is the thorniest to have come up in ongoing talks on reinstating civilian rule after the generals took over following the ouster of long-time autocratic president Omar Al Bashir last month.

But in the early hours of Thursday, the chief of Sudan's ruling military council, General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, announced the talks had been suspended for 72 hours as security in Khartoum had deteriorated.

He demanded that protesters dismantle roadblocks in Khartoum, open bridges and railway lines connecting the capital and “stop provoking security forces”.

The Alliance for Freedom and Change, the group leading the protest movement and negotiating the transfer of power with the army rulers, called the move “regrettable”.

“It ignores the developments achieved in negotiations so far... and the fact that Wednesday’s meeting was to finalise the agreement, which would have stopped the escalations such as roadblocks.”

The protest movement vowed to press on with the sit-in and called on its supporters to launch rallies heading to the protest camp later on Thursday after breaking the Ramadan fast.

Several roadblocks removed 

Protesters said the army was trying to provoke them.

“They want to provoke the people by delaying the negotiations... but the negotiations will resume now that the roadblocks have been removed,” said Moatassim Sayid, a protester at the sit-in.

On Thursday morning, several roadblocks in downtown Khartoum had been taken down, an AFP correspondent reported, adding that troops from the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) were deployed in some areas.

Roadblocks on key thoroughfares are being used by demonstrators to pressure the generals to transfer power to a civilian administration.

The talks began on Monday and achieved significant breakthroughs, but have also been marred by violence that left five protesters and an army major dead and many wounded from gunshots.

Protesters allege that members of the RSF were behind the violence.

But Burhan said there were “armed elements among demonstrators who were shooting at security forces”.

He defended the paramilitary group, saying “it had taken the side of the people” during the uprising that toppled Bashir on April 11.

The British ambassador to Khartoum said Sudanese security forces had fired at protesters on Wednesday when eight were reported wounded near the sit-in, where thousands remain camped demanding the generals step down.

“Extremely concerned by use of live ammunition by Sudanese security forces against protesters in Khartoum today, with reports of civilian casualties,” Irfan Siddiq wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

US blames generals 

Washington blamed the generals for the bloodshed that left six dead on Monday.

“The tragic attacks on protesters... were clearly the result of the Transitional Military Council trying to impose its will on the protesters by attempting to remove roadblocks,” the US embassy said.

The French foreign ministry urged the two sides to resume the dialogue “to establish a transitional civilian government” and to “preserve the peaceful nature of the transition”.

The protest movement said the generals wanted the demonstrators to restrict themselves to the sit-in area.

Protesters are demanding a civilian-led transition, which the generals have steadfastly resisted since bowing to their demands and toppling Bashir.

During the first two days of talks the two sides had agreed on an overall civilian structure, including a three-year period for the full transfer of power to a civilian administration.

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

The make-up of the new sovereign council has been the toughest part of the negotiations, with the two sides so far proposing different compositions of the body which is expected to take all key decisions concerning national issues.

The generals want it to be military-led, while the protesters insist on a majority civilian body.

General Yasser Al Atta, one of the members of the current ruling military council, had vowed earlier this week to reach a deal by Thursday that “meets the people’s aspirations”.

The new council is expected to form a transitional civilian government, which would then prepare for the first post-Bashir election after the three-year changeover period ends.

SANAA — Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed Yemeni rebel targets including in the capital on Thursday following insurgent drone strikes on a key oil pipeline that Riyadh said were ordered by its arch-rival Tehran.

The new bombardment came after the UN envoy, who has been spearheading efforts to end more than four years of conflict in the Arab world's poorest country, warned Yemen still faced the threat of plunging into all-out war.

The Saudi deputy defence minister said that Tuesday's attack by Yemeni rebels on a major pipeline in his country was "tightening the noose" around peace efforts.

The Saudi-led coalition, which has been battling the Houthi rebels since March 2015, confirmed that its warplanes were carrying out multiple strikes across rebel-held territory in Yemen.

"We have begun to launch air strikes targeting sites operated by the Houthi militia, including in Sanaa," a coalition official, who declined to be identified, told AFP.

The coalition said it had hit "a number of legitimate military targets" that the rebels used to store munitions.

The rebels' Al Masirah television said the coalition carried out at least 19 strikes, 11 of them in the capital.

A strike on one Sanaa neighbourhood killed six people and wounded 10, Mokhtar Mohammed of the capital’s Republic Hospital said.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders said that at least four people were killed and 48 injured in Sanaa in “several airstrikes” by the Saudi-led coalition.

An AFP correspondent saw one residential building that had been reduced to rubble by an air strike. Residents were using their bare hands in a desperate search for survivors.

“God is greatest,” they shouted as they pulled out a child. “Death to America, death to Israel,” they chanted, unsure whether the youngster was alive or dead.

The rebels said their attack on the Saudi pipeline was a response to “crimes” committed by Riyadh during its bloody air war in Yemen, which has been criticised repeatedly by the United Nations and human rights groups.

The drone strikes further raised tensions in the region after the mysterious sabotage of several oil tankers and the US deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf over alleged threats from Iran.

The speaker of Kuwait’s National Assembly said the risk of a war breaking out in the region was high.

“Chances are high, and things are not going the way we hoped for,” Marzuk Al Ghanem told reporters following a closed-door meeting. 

“The situation in the region is not reassuring and calls for preparing for all possibilities.”

‘Tightening noose’ on peace 

Saudi Arabia’s deputy defence minister, Khalid bin Salman, charged the pipeline attack was carried out on Iranian orders.

“The attack by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias against the two Aramco pumping stations proves that these militias are merely a tool that Iran’s regime uses to implement its expansionist agenda in the region,” the prince said on Twitter.

“The terrorist acts, ordered by the regime in Tehran, and carried out by the Houthis, are tightening the noose around the ongoing political efforts.”

The Saudi state minister for foreign affairs, Adel Al Jubeir, charged that the Houthis were “sacrificing the need of the Yemeni people for the benefit of Iran”. 

Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in Yemen when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into Saudi exile as the rebels closed in on his last refuge in Yemen’s second city Aden after sweeping through most of the rest of the country.

‘Alarming signs’ 

A grinding war of attrition has set in with third city Taez and the vital Red Sea aid port of Hodeida turned into battlegrounds.

In December, UN mediators brokered hard-won truce deals for both cities during talks in Sweden but the hoped for momentum for talks on a comprehensive peace has failed to materialise.

Three women were killed in clashes on Wednesday in Hodeida, a doctor at Al Thawra hospital told AFP.

On Tuesday, UN observers confirmed that rebel fighters had pulled out of three Red Sea ports including Hodeida.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths welcomed the pullback, but warned the Security Council on Wednesday that the risks of a slide into all-out war remained high.

“There are signs of hope,” he said, but there are also “alarming signs” of war. 

More than four years of conflict have triggered what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 24.1 million — more than two-thirds of the population — in need of aid.

CAIRO — Egypt's army on Thursday said 47 militants and five of its troops were killed as part of its military offensive in the restive Sinai Peninsula, where it is fighting the Daesh group.

The suspected militants had "guns of different makes, ammunition, explosive devices in northern and central Sinai" in their possession, according to a slickly produced video statement posted on the armed forces' social media accounts. 

As part of the wide-ranging operation to secure Egypt's borders, 158 "criminal elements" were arrested.

The armed forces also neutralised 385 explosive devices that insurgents planted targeting security forces. 

The army did not specify when the deaths and arrests took place, saying only that they happened as part of "recent efforts" against militants.

The Sinai Peninsula, in the northeast of the country, is the epicentre of a hardened insurgency spearheaded by Daesh.

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 the armed forces.

No independent statistic are available to verify the deaths and the region is largely cut off to journalists.

Terror attacks have surged following the 2013 military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was replaced by former army general Abdel Fattah Sisi.

The Egyptian president has presented himself as a bulwark against terrorism and a rock of political stability amid a region in turmoil.

BEIRUT — Lebanese political leaders and thousands of other people gathered on Thursday for the funeral of the former Maronite patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, who pushed for Syrian forces to leave Lebanon after its civil war. 

Ten black-clad priests with purple scarves bore his wooden coffin, marked with a cross, out of a chapel and along a purple carpet through crowds of mourners as incense wafted around. 

They were led by the current Patriarch Boutros Al Rahi, wearing his burgundy mitre and robes and carrying a large cross, and by other priests holding the vestments of Sfeir, who died on Sunday aged 98. 

"Everyone agrees he is a national loss and they saw in him the patriarch of a second independence, the patriarch of iron and a grip of stone, patriarch of national reconciliation, the patriarch who will not be repeated," Rahi said in his eulogy. 

Earlier, harmonious religious chanting echoed in the bright sun at the eastern church's seat in a pine forest overlooking the Mediterranean on the coast north of Beirut. 

Sfeir, born in the mountain village of Reifoun in 1920, was elected the Maronite patriarch in 1986 and was invested as a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1994 before retiring as patriarch in 2011.

Having cast himself as a defender of Christian rights during the 1975-90 civil war, he was instrumental afterwards in effecting reconciliation between Christians and the Druze sect. 

After the withdrawal of Israeli forces in 2000, following an 18-year occupation of south Lebanon, Sfeir demanded that Syria also pull out its troops who had been in the country since 1976.

President Michel Aoun, a Maronite, Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite Muslim, and numerous political party leaders sat among the mourners on Thursday. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also attended, as did many foreign ambassadors and a Papal representative. 

The Shiite Hizbollah movement, a close ally of Syria's government and an opponent of the United States, was not going to take part in the funeral, Lebanese TV channel MTV reported. 

The US State Department described Sfeir on Wednesday as "a courageous leader and a champion for the idea of a sovereign and independent Lebanon". 

Hariri declared Wednesday and Thursday as official days of mourning and May 16 was also made a national holiday this year. 

TRIPOLI — Peering through the gate of a home in the western suburbs of Libya's war-torn capital, seven-year-old Chehab shyly looked on as children streamed down the nearby street.

"I'll just play by myself," he muttered, holding a ball under one arm.

"I don't know anyone in this neighbourhood."

He is one of the more than 60,000 civilians who have fled their homes in Tripoli since early April, when forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar began their push to take the capital.

While some have found refuge at shelters throughout the city, many more have instead turned to relatives and even mere acquaintances as Libyans band together to find homes for the displaced.

Chehab and his family arrived at his uncle's home in Janzur in mid-April after fleeing the southern suburb of Ain Zara as it turned into a front-line battlefield.

Nearly a month later, his 10-year-old sister Alia misses the comforts of home.

"I want to go home and go back to school," she sighed.

"The school closed again because of the war and I had to leave my friends, my room and my toys."

Their father Abdelhafid would have liked to find a furnished apartment for the family to rent for the holy month of Ramadan, but it proved too expensive.

"I don't know what I would have done if my brother hadn't opened his door," the high school geography teacher said. 

 ‘Battlefield’ neighbourhoods 

An initial lightning advance by Haftar's forces on April 4 was quickly bogged down by militias loyal to the UN-recognised unity government — which is based in Tripoli — as they rushed to defend the capital.

The fighting has killed 454 people and wounded more than 2,000 others, according to the World Health Organisation.

The European Union warned on Monday that Haftar's offensive on the capital was a threat to international peace.

But front lines have since largely frozen and the intensity of the fighting has dipped with the beginning of Ramadan.

The clashes are centred along the capital's southern gates, particularly in Ain Zara.

But the fighting also extends elsewhere, including the districts of Salaheddin and Khalat Al Ferjan, as well as Tripoli's international airport which was destroyed in 2014 fighting.

"Our main concern is with civilians living near the front lines," said Youness Rahoui, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tripoli. 

"Densely populated neighbourhoods are gradually becoming battlefields."

‘Lucky’ 

Habiba left her home near the airport in a hurry after neighbours told her they were fleeing the area. 

For her, finding room with relatives or at a shelter were not options.

But her husband's friends came to the rescue, securing the family an apartment in the western neighbourhood of Siyahia that had once been used as an office by a foreign company. 

The family sleeps on mattresses nestled between a clutter of desks and chairs, but Habiba still believes they are "lucky".

"Our loved ones often don't have the space or the means to welcome an entire family," she said, adding she hoped to join her husband who lives abroad. 

"The school year is ruined anyway," she said, hinting that taking her children along for the journey would not affect their studies. 

Classes have been suspended across the capital, and schools in several districts have been transformed into makeshift shelters for the displaced.

Many homes in the southern suburbs have been damaged or completely destroyed by the fighting. 

Gasr Ben Ghachir, one of the heaviest hit areas, lies almost completely abandoned.

But 29-year-old Hamza has stayed behind to "stand guard" against looters, while his family takes refuge with relatives.

He does not "feel comfortable staying at other people's homes", he told AFP by phone.

But he will need a break from guard duty in a few days, when his supplies run out.

"The past few weeks have been tough and I need a rest," he said.

SEJNANE, Tunisia — With bucket and spade in hand, Sabiha Ayari from Sejnane in northern Tunisia is among the women keeping alive an ancient tradition of creating pottery with all-natural materials.

Using skills handed down from generation to generation, she extracts red and white clay from local wadis to craft terracota artefacts, such as dolls and animal figurines as well as cooking utensils for the kitchen.

The pottery, mostly cream-coloured with black and red motifs, was added in 2018 to the prestigious "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organisation.

"These are Berber motifs, the same as those found on traditional outfits and tattoos," says Ayari, a respected potter in her 50s committed to preserving the ancestral tradition.

Seated in her lean-to overlooking the family lands, she scoops up the clay and spends most of her time fashioning utensils as well as stylised tortoises and horses.

The women of Sejnane make and decorate their artisan pottery with natural elements from the agricultural region.

Ayari, who is unmarried, mixes the clay with crushed brick, prepared by her sister-in-law, to strengthen the raw material. 

The bricks are a rare nod to modern methods, as in the past shattered old pots were used.

After a days-long drying process, the pots are varnished with a thin coat of white clay. Some are then decorated with red-ochre earth.

Ayari's mother, with her worn-out hands, joins in by polishing the plates. They have to be smoothed out several times to achieve a glazed look.

No sophisticated tools are used, no modern ovens, just the sole of a shoe for the burnishing process and a stick for decorating the pieces with the juice of leaves collected from mastic trees.

The items are then heated on an open hearth fired by dried dung, turning the juice from green to black.

"This is how all kitchen utensils were made when I was little," says Ayari. "They didn't realise the value of these objects."

She shows off a large earthenware jar modelled by her grandmother. Other ancient objects have already been shattered to make new items.

Change with the times 

Her pottery handicraft, dating back to 3500BC, has remained intact "without great technical or aesthetic changes", explains Naceur Baklouti, a researcher into Tunisia's heritage.

But changing lifestyles and the availability of low-price kitchen and household items over the past 50 years have led artisans "to switch production from utensils to the decorative", says Baklouti.

Potters sell their wares from roadside shacks. The best of them are invited to display at exhibitions in Tunis, a two-and-a-half-hour drive away, and in Europe.

As for Ayari, she may not know how to read or write, apart from signing her work, but her pots are in demand and her flow of orders keeps her household going.

"I'm an ambassador for Tunisia," says the proud potter, who wears a traditional red costume and flowery scarf at her sales.

But her status is fairly unique among the hundreds of potters in the green valleys surrounding the town of Sejnane. For most, it's only a secondary source of income.

Young Tunisians do not have the patience to learn and perfect the art, according to Ayari. They prefer to use black ink and chemicals, rather than take the time to collect and extract natural materials.

The challenge remains to hand down the skills. Sejnane has plans to build a museum and training centre to preserve its local know-how.

Ayari has already trained her sister-in-law Khadija and given courses to several other local women.

Also to keep it in the family, the plan is to pass down her skills to her nephew's future wife after she quits her factory job.

But the future is not assured. "You have to be passionate about the work. You can't force it, you have to want it," Khadija frets.