PARIS: Four prisoners died in a fire that raged overnight in the Iranian capital’s notorious Evin prison, said the judiciary in the Islamic republic which has been rocked by a month-long protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
“Four prisoners died due to smoke inhalation caused by the fire and 61 were injured,” the judiciary authority’s website Mizan Online reported, adding that four of the injured were in “serious condition.”
Rights groups had voiced grave fears for the inmates after gunshots and explosions were heard during the blaze from inside the complex, illuminated by flames and smothered by smoke in video footage posted on social media channels.
The fire — blamed on “riots and clashes” and later brought under control according to authorities — came as Iran has been rocked by protests over the death of 22-year-old Amini after her arrest for violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The demonstrations have turned into a major anti-government movement in the Islamic republic, confronting its clerical leadership with one of its biggest challenges since the ousting of the shah in 1979.
Evin, infamous for the ill-treatment of political prisoners, also holds foreign detainees and thousands facing criminal charges. Hundreds of those arrested during the recent demonstrations have reportedly been sent there.
“The life of every political and ordinary crime prisoner (in Evin) is at grave risk,” the Oslo-based non-government group Iran Human Rights (IHR) warned overnight.
It said authorities had closed off roads leading to the prison in an apparent bid to stop protests taking place outside the jail.
But some headed there on foot and chants of “Death to the dictator” could be heard in videos shared by social media channel 1500tasvir.
“Prisoners, including political prisoners, are completely defenseless inside that prison,” said Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
Freedom of expression group Article 19 said it had heard reports of telephone and Internet connections at Evin being cut.
Iranian rights activist Atena Daemi, herself a long-time inmate of Evin, wrote on Twitter that in the early hours of Sunday several buses and ambulances were seen leaving the prison.
The judiciary’s Mizan Online said late Saturday that the fire at the prison had been extinguished.
Citing a Tehran prosecutor, the official IRNA news agency said the clashes at Evin had “nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country.”
The four inmates who died had been convicted of robbery, Mizan said.
Evin prison holds foreign inmates including French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and US citizen Siamak Namazi, whose family said he was taken back into custody this week after a temporary release.
Namazi’s US attorney Jared Genser said he had now spoken to his family and that he was unharmed.
Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was held in Evin for most of her 800-plus days behind bars in Iran, told AFP she had heard that all the women political prisoners were safe.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Iran was “fully responsible for the safety of our wrongfully detained citizens.”
Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh are also among those believed to be held at Evin.
The prison has been dubbed “Evin University” because of the sheer number of intellectuals held there.
Rights groups reported night-time protests in Tehran in solidarity with Evin detainees, after angry demonstrators had rallied across Iran on Saturday despite Internet cuts.
“Guns, tanks, fireworks; the mullahs must get lost,” women without hijabs chanted at Tehran’s Shariati Technical and Vocational College, in a video widely shared online.
Jeering protesters hurled projectiles at security forces in Hamedan city, west of Tehran, in footage verified by AFP, and protesters were also seen in the northwestern city of Ardabil in videos shared on Twitter.
At least 108 people have been killed in the Amini protests, and at least 93 more died in separate clashes in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan province, according to IHR.
Amnesty International has slammed an “unrelenting brutal crackdown” that has included an “all-out attack on child protesters” leading to the deaths of at least 23 minors.
A Revolutionary Guards commander said Saturday that three Basij militia members had been killed and 850 wounded in Tehran since the start of the “sedition,” IRNA said.
The crackdown has drawn international condemnation and sanctions against Iran from Britain, Canada and the United States.
The European Union has agreed to level new sanctions, a move expected to be endorsed by its foreign ministers Monday.
Iran on Sunday shrugged off recent criticism by US President Joe Biden.
“Iran is too strong for its will to be swayed by interference ... by a politician tired of years of failure,” foreign affairs spokesman Nasser Kanani wrote on Instagram.
Iran says four inmates killed in fire at Tehran prison
https://arab.news/gmkw4
Iran says four inmates killed in fire at Tehran prison
- Iran has also been rocked by protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested for violating dress code for women
- The country’s official news agency says the clashes at Evin prison have ‘nothing to do with the recent unrest’ on the streets of Iran
Aggression against Gaza represents a turning point in history of region: Arab League chief
- Aboul Gheit said that the Arab League was committed to making all efforts to build a promising future for both Arab and Chinese societies
CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that the aggression against Gaza for more than eight months “marks a turning point in our region’s history.”
He said that there was “a deep sense of frustration over the international community’s inability to halt this massacre.”
Aboul Gheit was speaking at the opening session of the 10th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing.
The forum — founded in 2004 in Cairo — includes members of the Arab League.
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony.
Leaders from Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and the UAE were also present.
Aboul Gheit said: We value China’s role and steadfast support for the just cause of the Palestinian people, their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state.”
He urged China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to play a more significant role in reinforcing the global consensus on the two-state solution, leading to a reliable and irreversible path to establishing an independent Palestinian state along the June 4, 1967, borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Aboul Gheit said that the Arab League and its member states aimed to enhance regional stability by working to contain existing crises, settle them peacefully, and reduce escalation through balanced relations with neighboring countries based on non-interference in internal affairs and mutual respect.
He reaffirmed the league’s support for China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, maintaining a firm commitment to the one-China principle.
Aboul Gheit said that the Arab League was committed to making all efforts to build a promising future for both Arab and Chinese societies.
“We aim to advance the strategic partnership between the Arab countries and China for a better future, strengthening cooperation mechanisms and finding political solutions to issues of mutual concern on regional and international fronts.”
Aboul Gheit said that China had “an illustrious presence in world history that we deeply respect and appreciate. Its profound influence on the world’s present and future is evident and highly valued. Moreover, China’s experience achieving renaissance and progress is greatly admired in our Arab world.”
The Arab League chief said: “Today, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of establishing the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum.
“This forum marked a significant milestone in the history of relations between the two sides, placing these relations within a comprehensive institutional framework, thus ensuring their development and future potential.
“Since its inception, the forum has become a success story in international multilateral cooperation, evidenced by the various mechanisms, memorandums and frameworks it has produced to facilitate collaboration across political, economic, social and development fields.”
Aboul Gheit said that the first Arab-Chinese summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2022 marked a qualitative shift in Arab-Chinese relations.
This summit signaled the beginning of a pivotal phase in the history of relations between the Arab world and China.
“The outcomes and agreements from this summit laid a strong foundation for mutual benefit, and we are committed to continuing efforts to implement them,” Aboul Gheit said.
He called for institutionalizing the Arab-China summit and holding regular sessions to enhance progress and allow for continuous monitoring and development of cooperation programs.
Child malnutrition at ‘emergency levels’ in Sudan: UN
- “The lives of Sudan’s children are at stake and urgent action is needed to protect an entire generation from malnutrition, disease and death,” the UNICEF, WHO and WFP said
- “The ongoing hostilities are worsening the drivers of child malnutrition“
ROME: Three UN agencies warned Thursday of a “significant deterioration” in the nutrition situation of children and mothers in war-torn Sudan, calling for “urgent action.”
“The lives of Sudan’s children are at stake and urgent action is needed to protect an entire generation from malnutrition, disease and death,” the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Food Program (WFP) said in a statement.
Sudan has been in the throes of conflict for over a year between the regular army led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single West Darfur town, according to UN experts.
Nearly nine million people have been forced from their homes.
“The ongoing hostilities are worsening the drivers of child malnutrition,” the agencies said.
“These include a lack of access to nutritious food, safe drinking water and sanitation, and increased risk of disease,” they added.
“Sudan is facing an ever-increasing risk of conflict-induced famine that will have catastrophic consequences including the loss of life, especially among young children.”
The agencies said the conflict “is also severely impacting the delivery of humanitarian supplies, leaving countless women and children without access to vital food and nutritional support... (while) growing violence and bureaucratic procedures impede access to conflict affected areas.”
Child malnutrition in Sudan is “at emergency levels,” the statement said.
In Central Darfur, acute malnutrition is estimated to be at 15.6 percent among children under five, while at the Zamzam camp for displaced people in North Darfur state it is close to 30 percent.
“We need immediate and safe access to deliver the humanitarian assistance that they so desperately need,” said WFP head Cindy McCain.
“Millions of lives are at stake and the international community must act now or we risk losing an entire generation of children,” she said.
The agencies warned: “The window to avert the worst is rapidly closing.”
Israeli airstrike on Rafah kills 12 Palestinians, Gaza medics say
- Officials say Israeli strike occurred as they tried to recover body of civilian in southern Gaza city
- Israel says more fighting in central, northern and southern Gaza
- Head of UNRWA calls for end to Israeli attacks on staff and buildings
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in a dawn airstrike on Rafah in southern Gaza on Thursday and fighting raged in several other areas of the coastal enclave, Gaza medics said.
Israel pressed on with its offensive on Rafah a day after saying its forces had taken control of a buffer zone along the nearby border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, giving it effective authority over Gaza’s entire land frontier.
It said the buffer zone’s capture had cut off a route used by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas to smuggle arms into Gaza during more than seven months of war, which has laid waste to much of the territory and raised fears of famine.
Gaza medical sources said the 12 Palestinians, whom it said were civilians, had been killed and an unspecified number of others wounded in an Israeli airstrike as they tried to recover the body of a civilian in the center of Rafah.
Another Palestinian civilian was killed in an airstrike on Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City in the north of the densely populated enclave, the medics said.
Israel reported clashes in southern, central and northern Gaza but did not immediately comment on the reported deaths in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians took refuge earlier in the war.
Israel has kept up raids on Rafah despite an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top UN court, to halt its attacks. Israeli forces say they are trying to root out Hamas fighters and rescue hostages being held there, and the ICJ also called for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and land war in Gaza, with 53 of those killed in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run enclave’s health ministry said.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military said a soldier had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to 292 Israel’s combat losses since its first Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 20.
TUNNELS, ARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
In an overnight call with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant underlined the continuing importance of Israeli operations in the Rafah area “due to concrete information regarding hostages held there.”
“Minister Gallant detailed IDF activities in the Rafah area where 20 terror tunnels have been identified,” the Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement on the overnight call.
The Israeli military also said in a statement that tunnels used by Hamas for smuggling and moving fighters underground had been discovered during the latest raids, as well as large amounts of arms and explosives.
The Israeli statements did not say where the smuggling tunnels ran from. An Israeli official said on May 15 there were 50 tunnels connecting Rafah to the Sinai in Egypt, and voiced concern that Hamas could use them to smuggle senior operatives or hostages into Egyptian territory. Egypt on Wednesday denied the existence of any such tunnels.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday but said it did not believe such an operation was under way.
The US has, with Egypt and Qatar, been involved in efforts to mediate indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on arranging a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages. Those talks have stalled, with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress.
As the war drags on, malnutrition has become widespread in Gaza as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle, and the United Nations has warned of incipient famine.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), also called for an end to what he said were Israeli attacks on UNRWA staff and buildings in Gaza.
In article for the New York Times, he said Israeli officials were “delegitimizing UNRWA by effectively characterizing it as a terrorist organization,” and he described a “dangerous precedent of routine targeting of UN staff and premises.”
His comments followed allegations by Israel in January that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Israel did not immediately respond to his remarks.
The Gaza war has also stoked violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, another territory where Palestinians seek statehood.
Israel said two soldiers were killed in an overnight hit-and-run by a Palestinian motorist in the West Bank city of Nablus. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Palestinian factions.
Israel yet to respond to French Lebanon proposals, French ministry says
- The written proposal also looks at long-term border issues
PARIS: Israel has not given a response to France on Paris’ proposals to reduce tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, France’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in escalating daily cross-border strikes over the past months — in parallel with the war in Gaza — and their increasing range and sophistication has raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
France has historical ties with Lebanon and has proposed written proposals to both sides that would see Hezbollah’s elite unit pull back 10 km (6 miles) from the Israeli border, while Israel would halt strikes in southern Lebanon.
Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne went to both Lebanon and Israel in April to push France’s efforts, and Israel’s foreign minister was in Paris earlier this month. Lebanon’s foreign minister was in Paris for talks on Wednesday.
“We have had a relatively positive response from the Lebanese, but I think we have not had any return from Israel at this point,” Christophe Lemoine told reporters in a daily briefing.
The written proposal also looks at long-term border issues and had been discussed with partners including the United States, which has its own efforts to ease tensions and exerts the most influence on Israel.
The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah has amassed a formidable arsenal since a 2006 war with Israel and since October thousands of people on both sides of the border have been displaced by the clashes.
US envoy condemns attacks on Western-linked brands in Baghdad
- A stun bomb exploded at 1:20 am in front of a dealership of the US construction equipment company Caterpillar
- Ten minutes later, a blast went off in front of the Cambridge Institute in nearby Palestine Street
BAGHDAD: The US ambassador to Iraq denounced attacks Thursday targeting Western-linked brands in Baghdad this week, as anger grows across the Middle East over Israel’s war in Gaza.
A stun bomb exploded at 1:20 am in front of a dealership of the US construction equipment company Caterpillar in the Jadriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, the Iraqi security forces said.
Ten minutes later, a blast went off in front of the Cambridge Institute in nearby Palestine Street, which a resident identified as a likely Iraqi-owned language learning center.
On Sunday, a makeshift bomb was thrown at a branch of the US fast-food chain KFC, causing minor damage. The next night, masked men broke into another branch, smashing glass.
“We condemn recent violent attacks against US and international businesses,” the US ambassador to Baghdad, Alina Romanowski, said on social media platform X.
She urged the Iraqi government to “conduct a thorough investigation, bring to justice those who are responsible, and prevent future attacks.”
“These attacks endanger Iraqi lives and property, and could weaken Iraq’s ability to attract foreign investment,” the US diplomat added.
The Iraqi security forces said Thursday’s attacks, whose motives remained unknown, did not cause any damage or injuries, adding they were a “desperate attempt to harm Iraq’s reputation.”
After the KFC attacks, security forces said they had arrested several suspects.
Since the war in Gaza started in October, a boycott movement spearheaded by pro-Palestinian activists has targeted major Western brands, such as Starbucks and McDonald’s.
Iraq does not recognize Israel’s statehood, and all of its political parties support the Palestinian cause.
Earlier this week, influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr renewed his calls to close the US embassy in Baghdad “through diplomatic means without bloodshed,” after an Israeli strike killed dozens of civilians in a camp in Gaza.
