Region

TEHRAN –– Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani defended Tuesday a landmark nuclear deal with world powers that promises modest sanctions relief, saying his government did not fear “the few” domestic critics.

Rouhani’s defence came after repeated criticism by hardliners in parliament and the powerful Revolutionary Guards of the deal clinched in November that also requires Iran to curb temporarily parts of its nuclear drive.

“The initial agreement with the six major powers on the nuclear issue was not a simple task but very difficult and complicated,” Rouhani said in remarks broadcast live on state television.

“It required brave decision-making ... We should not and do not fear the fuss made by the few people or a small percentage criticising the deal,” he said.

The critics, however, have been united in questioning what Iran gains from the deal, under which the Islamic republic agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear drive for six months in exchange for modest sanctions relief and a promise by Western powers not to impose new sanctions.

They say fewer concessions could have been made by the nuclear negotiating team, led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

In recent weeks, hardliners in the conservative-dominated parliament have sought to form a committee to supervise the negotiating process but to no avail.

Government officials say the nuclear dossier will remain under direct control of the Supreme National Security Council and that final decisions still rest with Iran’s ultimate authority, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Rouhani on Tuesday insisted he has the full support of Khamenei.

“In all important and sensitive steps along the way, the supreme leader has backed the government and its policies,” he said. “Iran is in a special situation that needs to be replaced by normalcy.”

Iran’s economy has been hard hit by international sanctions, while the vital oil exports have been more than halved by US and European embargoes.

In Tehran, lawmakers meanwhile are readying a bill that would oblige the government to enrich uranium to 60 per cent if Iran is hit by new sanctions.

Under the nuclear deal in Geneva, Iran will limit its enrichment of uranium to 5 per cent. Higher level purities of above 90 per cent could provide fissile material for nuclear weapons.

The deal –– which is yet to come into force –– is aimed at creating a window of diplomatic opportunity for Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers, comprising the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany.

The sides are engaged in negotiations to find a lasting solution to the decade-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear activities, which Western powers suspect mask military objectives despite repeated denials by Tehran.

Talks to remove remaining obstacles before the deal is implemented will resume in Geneva on Thursday.

RAMADI –– Iraqi troops will delay assaulting the militant-held city of Fallujah, an officer said Tuesday, citing fear of civilian casualties, as fighting and missile strikes in nearby Ramadi killed 29 people.

Parts of Ramadi –– the capital of Anbar province, west of Baghdad –– and all of Fallujah have been outside government control since last week.

It is the first time militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the height of the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.

“It is not possible to assault [Fallujah] now” over concerns about civilian casualties, defence ministry spokesman Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed Al Askari told AFP.

Attacking the Sunni-majority city would also be extremely politically sensitive, as it would inflame already high tensions between the Sunni Arab minority and the Shiite-led government.

It would also be a major test for Iraqi security forces, which have yet to undertake such a major operation without the backing of American troops.

Overnight, security forces and allied tribesmen sought to retake south Ramadi from fighters loyal to Al Qaeda-linked group the ISIL, but the assault failed.

“Security forces and armed tribesmen tried last night to enter areas controlled by ISIL fighters in the south of the city,” a police captain told AFP.

“Clashes between the two sides began about 11pm (2000 GMT) last night and continued until 6am,” he said, adding that “security forces were not able to enter these areas and ISIL fighters are still in control”.

Four civilians were killed and 14 wounded, said Ramadi hospital’s Dr Ahmed Abdul Salam, who had no casualty figures for security forces or militants.

Later Tuesday, missile strikes in Ramadi killed 25 militants, Askari said.

Three loud explosions were heard outside Fallujah early Tuesday, a witness said, as the army deployed reinforcements.

“Today, the army sent new reinforcements, including tanks and vehicles, to an area about 15 kilometres east of Fallujah,” a police captain told AFP.

Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has called on residents to expel ISIL to stave off a military offensive.

But senior tribal leader Sheikh Ali Al Hammad told AFP Monday ISIL had left Fallujah, and that it was now held by tribesmen.

US working with Iraq to isolate Al Qaeda

As violence in Anbar entered its second week, the Pentagon said Washington would accelerate delivery of 100 Hellfire missiles, which were due to be sent to Iraq in the next few months.

Colonel Steven Warren said an additional 10 ScanEagle surveillance drones would also be supplied.

Warren said Washington was working with Iraq to develop a “holistic strategy to isolate Al Qaeda-affiliated groups so the tribes working with the security forces can drive them out of the populated areas”.

But he reiterated statements by US Secretary of State John Kerry that no American forces would enter the fray.

Fighting erupted near Ramadi on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old protest camp where Sunni Arabs had demonstrated against what they see as the marginalisation and targeting of their community by the government in Baghdad.

The violence spread to Fallujah, and militants moved in and seized the city after security forces withdrew.

Maliki had long sought the closure of the protest camp, dubbing it a “headquarters for the leadership of Al Qaeda”.

But its removal has come at the cost of a sharp decline in Anbar’s security situation.

Both Ramadi and Fallujah were insurgent strongholds in the years after 2003, and Fallujah was the target of two major assaults in which US forces saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.

They eventually wrested back control of Anbar from militants, with the support of Sunni Arab tribesmen who formed the Sahwa (Awakening) militias, which allied with US troops against Al Qaeda from late 2006.

But two years after US forces withdrew from Iraq, Sunni militants have regained strength, bolstered by the war in neighbouring Syria and widespread Sunni Arab anger with the central government.

Iraq also suffered violence outside Anbar on Tuesday, when a suicide bomber detonating an explosives-rigged vehicle near a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing four people and wounding 56.

DAMASCUS –– A first shipment of material has been removed from Syria under a deal to rid the country of its chemical weapons arsenal, the joint mission overseeing the disarmament said Tuesday.

“A first quantity of priority chemical materials was moved from two sites to the port of Latakia for verification and was then loaded onto a Danish commercial vessel today,” the mission said in a statement.

It added that the ship had sailed for international waters and would remain at sea “awaiting the arrival of additional priority chemical materials at the port”.

“This movement initiates the process of transfer of chemical materials from the Syrian Arab Republic to locations outside its territory for destruction,” the statement said.

Maritime security is being provided by naval escorts from China, Denmark, Norway and Russia, it added.

The head of the disarmament mission, Sigrid Kaag, was on Wednesday to brief the United Nations Security Council on the latest progress in the operation.

The removal had been scheduled to take place before December 31, but Syria’s worsening civil war, logistical problems and bad weather had delayed the operation.

The year-end deadline for the removal of key weapons components was the first major milestone under a UN Security Council-backed deal arranged by Russia and the United States that aims to eliminate all of Syria’s chemical arms by the middle of this year.

Under the plan, the chemicals will be taken from Latakia to a port in Italy where they will be transferred to a US navy vessel fitted with equipment to destroy them at sea.

The OPCW has turned to the US military for assistance after no country volunteered to destroy the chemical weapons on its soil, despite an international consensus that the weapons be neutralised outside Syria.

The US-Russia deal was aimed at heading off US military strikes against President Bashar Assad’s regime after hundreds of people were killed last August in a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus.

BEIRUT –– The chief of Syria’s Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate, called Tuesday for an end to fighting between rebel groups and the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

In an audio recording posted on Twitter, Abu Mohamed Al Jolani announced an initiative to end the fighting, including a “ceasefire” and the establishment of an independent Islamic committee to serve as mediator.

“This unfortunate situation pushed us to launch an initiative to solve the situation,” Jolani said.

“It consists of forming a committee based on Islamic law and composed of the key brigades [and]... the establishment of a ceasefire,” he said, calling on all fighters “to give priority to the fight against the regime.”

In recent days, widespread fighting has broken out pitting coalitions of Islamist and moderate rebel forces against ISIL.

The Nusra Front, which is Al Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria, has joined the fight against ISIL in places, but Jolani said the battles were detracting from the key battle against President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The jihadist leader said some of the blame for the clashes lay with ISIL’s behaviour, but he called for a speedy end to divisions among opposition Islamist fighters.

Fighting rages

At least 34 foreign jihadists from the ISIL and an ally were killed after clashes with rival Syrian rebels, a watchdog said on Tuesday.

The jihadists had apparently been executed after the fighting in the Jabal Zawiya district of the northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The fighters, from ISIL and a group called Jund Al Aqsa, were killed by non-jihadist rebels over the past few days, the observatory said.

The deaths came amid fighting on several fronts pitting several coalitions of rebel fighters against jihadists from ISIL.

There was renewed fighting on Tuesday in the city of Raqqa, the only provincial capital outside government control and previously an ISIL stronghold, the observatory said.

The fighting centred on the provincial governor’s office, taken over by ISIL for a headquarters, and “heavy weaponry was being used”.

Both Islamists and moderate rebels have joined the fight against ISIL, which has been accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing rival rebels and civilians.

The rebels, many of them civilians who took up arms against the regime, initially welcomed the arrival of battle-hardened jihadists.

But tensions have mounted, with activists accusing ISIL of imposing a reign of terror, and rebels saying the group has focused on accumulating territory and fighting other rebels rather than battling the regime.

Elsewhere in the country, the observatory said the death toll from a government air campaign launched in Aleppo province in mid-December now topped 600, among them 172 children.

The relentless campaign has included the use of explosive-packed barrels dropped from aircraft on residential areas.

PRAGUE –– Czech authorities are seeking answers over an arms find at the Palestinian mission in Prague, as the body of an envoy killed by an apparently accidental explosion there was flown home.

The coffin bearing the remains of 56-year-old Palestinian ambassador Jamal Al Jamal was placed aboard a regular flight to Amman from where it will be repatriated to the Palestinian Territories, the Czech CTK agency reported.

Jamal, who had been ambassador to the Czech Republic since October, died on January 1 of injuries caused by the explosion, which police suggest was triggered by an anti-theft device inside a safe Jamal was manipulating.

They have ruled out an assassination.

This version of events has been contested by the late diplomat’s daughter Rana Al Jamal, who believes her father was murdered.

On Sunday, Czech police announced that investigators had found 12 weapons inside the Palestinian mission in Prague where the new year’s day explosion happened.

At the same time Prague police chief Martin Cervicek denied media speculation that an arsenal of more than 70 weapons had been kept at the embassy, but would not give details.

Cervicek said the weapons discovered included sub-machineguns and pistols, which would undergo DNA and ballistic tests.

The Czech foreign ministry on Monday denounced a “flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations”.

“The Czech Republic expects the Palestinian side to explain clearly and without equivocation the situation concerning these arms found in the Palestinian mission,” it said in a statement.

QUSRA, Palestinian Territories –– Palestinians beat and detained several Israeli settlers who had sparked clashes after entering Qusra village near the West Bank city of Nablus Tuesday, sources on both sides said.

At one point, Israeli soldiers were negotiating the release of some 13 settlers from a house in the village where they were being held, an AFP correspondent said.

Palestinian security sources told AFP the settlers were eventually released and handed over to the Israeli army.

Village council head Abdul Azim Wadi confirmed the incident but said only eight settlers were detained.

The Israeli army said it had “vacated” 11 Israelis from a building in Jalud, a village adjacent to Qusra, “with light-moderate injuries, following a confrontation which erupted earlier today between them and Palestinians”.

“During the confrontation mutual rock-hurling took place, injuring some of the Israelis,” the army said in a statement.

“Initial inquiry suggests the confrontation erupted following a law enforcement activity which took place earlier today in Esh Kodesh.”

Esh Kodesh is a nearby settlement outpost, where military radio said the army had earlier uprooted an olive grove settlers had illegally planted.

A group of settlers then entered Qusra to provoke a clash.

However, an Israeli wounded in the event, told army radio that Palestinians had attacked a group of settlers who were hiking in the area and had not provoked an attack.

The area south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, is the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers from nearby settlements.

Some 350,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank, in addition to another 200,000 Israelis settled in occupied and annexed East Jerusalem.

The international community considers the colonisation of occupied land to be illegal, and the Palestinians have long viewed settlement construction as a key obstacle to reaching a peace agreement.

UNITED NATIONS –– UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday sent invitations to 30 countries to attend a Syria peace conference this month, but did not include Iran, a spokesman said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet on January 13 in a bid to decide Iran’s role in ending the nearly three-year-old war, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Russia supports the participation of Iran, a major backer of President Bashar Assad, at talks scheduled to start in Switzerland on January 22.

The United States and other western nations say Iran must first support a 2012 declaration by the major powers calling for a transitional government in Syria before it can play a frontline role in the peace talks.

The role of Iran is one of many obstacles that have bedevilled efforts by Ban and UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to organise the conference.

The makeup of the Syrian opposition and government delegations has also called friction and details of their representatives have still not been released.

But Haq confirmed to reporters that Ban has started asking countries to attend, while adding: “Iran was not among the first invitations.”

The 30 countries on the list do include Saudi Arabia, a major backer of the Syrian opposition, as well as Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States –– the five UN Security Council permanent members –– and Syria’s neighbours such as Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.

Highlighting the January 13 meeting between Kerry and Lavrov, the UN spokesman said “we very much hope they will reach agreement on Iran’s participation”.

Ban has spoken in favour of Iran’s attendance. “We all know that the active support of regional powers in a political solution is critical,” said Haq.

Kerry reaffirmed the US position on Sunday while adding that Iran could play a role from the “sidelines”.

US deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf reaffirmed Monday that Iran would have to accept the declaration –– adopted at a meeting in Geneva in June 2012 –– calling for a transitional government in Syria before it could attend the new conference.

Iran would have to show that is being “less destructive” in the Syrian war, Harf added.

With the war worsening, Lavrov and Kerry have been pressing since May for a follow-up Geneva conference.

The new meeting, which will have a much bigger guest list than for 2012, will start in Montreux before moving back to Geneva for serious negotiations.

“It aims to bring two broadly representative and credible delegations of the Syrian government and opposition to a negotiating table in order to end the conflict and launch a political transition process through the full implementation of the Geneva communiqué of 30 June 2012,” said Haq.

“The secretary general views the conference as a unique opportunity for ending the violence and ensuring that peace can be restored,” he added.

“At the core of this effort is the establishment of a transitional governing body based on mutual consent.”

Even after any role of Iran, and opposition backer Saudi Arabia, is decided, the conference faces a mountainous struggle to end the bloodshed.

The Syrian government, which has stepped up its bombardment of opposition strongholds such as Aleppo, says that Assad’s future cannot be discussed at the peace conference.

Western nations back the opposition case that Assad cannot be a part of any transitional government.

Amid the diplomatic tensions, the death toll has risen to more than 130,000 since protests against Assad that started in March 2011 turned into a civil war, according to Syrian activists.

GENEVA –– Thousands of Syrians fleeing civil war or planning to stock up on supplies crossed into northern Iraq at the weekend after Iraqi Kurdish authorities reopened a long-closed border, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.

On Sunday afternoon, authorities reopened the Peshkhabour border at the Tigris River, which had been closed since mid-September, allowing 2,519 Syrians to cross into the country by barge, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva.

The border crossing is currently the only one open between Syria and Iraq, she said.

A bridge across the border was no longer in use, so people were forced to cram into small barges carrying between 10 and 30 people each to cross from Simelka on the Syrian side of the river, she explained.

No one had crossed on Monday, but Fleming said “several thousand” Syrians had gathered near the riverbank in Simelka by Tuesday morning.

Iraqi authorities decided to close the border in September after facing an exodus of some 60,000 Syrians, UNHCR said.

Authorities in Iraq’s Kurdistan region had told the UN agency they had now decided to allow Syrians claiming they did not want to stay in the country to visit for up to seven days, allowing them to stock up on supplies before returning.

Those wishing to stay meanwhile needed to register their request for refugee status with authorities.

Around 400 of the newcomers had gone to UNHCR to ask for assistance as refugees, and were taken to the Gawilan refugee camp, which counts some 3,000 residents and lies between Erbil and Dohuk.

But Fleming said many appeared intent on returning to Syria.

UNHCR staff had on Monday seen 350 of the new arrivals load barges and go back to Syria with generators, kerosene heaters and other supplies, she said.

Some 210,000 Syrians have been registered as refugees in Iraq since the conflict in their country began in March 2011.

In total, more than 2.35 million people have fled across Syria’s borders, while millions more have been displaced inside the country during the nearly three-year conflict.

CAIRO –– In Egypt, it no longer appears to be a question of if, but when army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi will declare his candidacy for president.

For the second time in three days, local media reported on Monday that Sisi had finally made up his mind.

With no other obvious candidates for the post, the general who deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July has kept Egyptians guessing about his intentions as the clock ticks down to the presidential vote that could happen as soon as April.

Sisi’s candidacy would further deepen divisions between the many Egyptians who believe a firm hand is needed to steer the country through crisis and Islamists bearing the brunt of a state crackdown on dissent.

Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, an official in the security services said Sisi was “most likely going to announce that he will run for the presidency”, adding: “The army in a recent meeting expressed its support for him to run.”

The question of Sisi’s intentions has become more pressing since the army-backed authorities signalled that the presidential election will come ahead of parliamentary polls — reversing the original timetable.

In public statements, the army has said nothing on Sisi’s intentions — the major outstanding question of the political transition set in train after the military deposed Morsi following mass protests against his rule on June 30.

Responding to a local TV report saying Sisi would run, the army issued a statement on Saturday saying the military did not make declarations via anonymous sources and urging the media to show professionalism in its reporting.

But it did not clearly deny the main elements of the report read out during an evening talk show on MBC Egypt: that Sisi will now run and Sedki Sobhi, currently chief of staff, will take his place as defence minister and army chief.

There is little doubt Sisi would win the election, turning the clock back to the days when the presidency was controlled by men from the military — a pattern interrupted by Morsi’s 2012 win and one year in office.

Though Sisi enjoys broad support among those Egyptians happy to see the end of Morsi’s rule, he is reviled by his Islamist opponents, who view him as the mastermind of a bloody military coup against the country’s first freely elected head of state.

The army-backed government has mounted a crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, driving it underground and prompting fears of longer term instability. Prominent secular dissidents have also been arrested in a blow to political freedoms.

But Sisi’s supporters see him as the kind of strong man needed to bring stability after three years of turmoil. His face has appeared on posters and chocolates, he has been lionised by the media and songs have been dedicated to him and the army.

Decision seen after referendum

In his last public remarks on whether he would run, Sisi, 59, held open the possibility. “Let’s see what the days bring” he told a Kuwaiti newspaper in a November 21 interview.

People familiar with Sisi’s thinking have said he was by no means set on the idea of running for the presidency of a country facing economic and political crises.

But with little time left for another candidate to be introduced to the public, analysts say he now has no choice.

It seems unlikely that Sisi, who received military training in the United States, will make an announcement before a January 14-15 referendum on a new constitution drawn up as part of the transition plan, analysts and politicians say.

The referendum marks the first time Egyptians have voted since Morsi’s removal, and is seen as much as a public vote of confidence on the roadmap and Sisi as the constitution itself.

Mohamed Abolghar, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, forecast that Sisi would announce his candidacy and step down from his official positions after the referendum.

“Then he will prepare for elections. That’s what seems likely to happen,” added Abolghar, whose party counts the interim prime minister among its members.

Abolghar also forecast that no prominent liberal or leftist politicians would run against Sisi.

None of the candidates defeated by Morsi in the 2012 election have declared their candidacy this time around.

And the Nour Party, an ultra-orthodox Islamist group that came second to the Brotherhood in 2011 parliamentary elections, has said it will not run a candidate for the presidency.

The dearth of campaigning is a stark contrast to the frenetic period leading up to the 2012 vote, when the field included former air force commander Ahmed Shafik, leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, ex-Arab League chief Amr Musa and Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, a moderate Islamist.

Mustapha Kamel Al Sayid, a political science professor at Cairo University, said the election may shape up to be more of a “presidential plebiscite” on Sisi than a hotly contested vote.

“I am sure there will be other candidates but I don’t think there will be any serious candidates that will have the courage or audacity to run against Sisi,” he said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The US ambassador to Israel says a framework proposal on all issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be presented to both sides soon.

Dan Shapiro told Israel Radio on Tuesday that the proposal will include security arrangements, borders, Jerusalem and all other “core issues”.
He said it will be presented to the Israelis and the Palestinians in a few weeks’ time.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has been visiting the region often since talks resumed last July, shuttling between Israel and Palestinian leaders to mediate talks.

Kerry has been pushing for the outlines of a peace deal. He is trying to nudge Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closer to a peace pact that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

On Tuesday, Israel’s defence minister said wide gaps remain in peace talks with the Palestinians after Kerry’s latest visit and he cast doubt over the chances of reaching a final accord by an April target.

Negotiations on Palestinian statehood resumed in July after a three-year halt, with a nine-month target set for a permanent peace agreement, amid deep scepticism a deal could be achieved to end the decades-old conflict.

“We are attempting to achieve a framework for a continuation of negotiations for a period exceeding the nine months in which some thought that we would be able to reach a permanent agreement,” Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters.

“It is clear there are big gaps — they are not new — but it is definitely in our interest to continue the talks,” he said in broadcast remarks, without defining the differences.

The United States is trying to broker a “framework” of general guidelines — addressing core issues such as borders, security, the future of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem — with details to be filled in later.

Before wrapping up his 10th visit to the region on Monday, Kerry said the two sides were making progress but there was still a chance no accord would be reached.

Shapiro said that Kerry would return soon to continue his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“We will take into account the suggestions, the requests and wishes of the parties and I hope and we will work so that in a few weeks, or perhaps a month — I don’t know how long — we will be ready to present a proposal for a framework on all the core issues,” Shapiro said in Hebrew.

A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinian side was seeking a written framework agreement.

“We want it to address concrete issues, such as saying the Palestinian capital will be ‘East Jerusalem’, not just ‘in Jerusalem’,” the official said.

Palestinians seek to establish a state in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, an enclave now controlled by Hamas Islamists opposed to the US peace effort, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured the areas in the 1967 Middle East war and pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005.

In his remarks, Yaalon signalled that Israel was looking for a less rigid “framework” deal than Palestinians were seeking, in an apparent nod to concerns any formal agreement now could stoke opposition from hardline members of the Israeli government.

“We are not dealing with a framework agreement, but with a framework for the continuation of negotiations for a more lengthy period,” Yaalon said.

Shapiro said that Kerry has sat for “many, many hours” with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and has heard from them things that “perhaps nobody else has heard”.

“Even though they have already taken brave decisions, he estimates they both have the ability to take more hard decisions with the support of their respective peoples,” Shapiro said.