TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday shuttered businesses and curtailed travel between its major cities, including the capital of Tehran, as it grapples with the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in the Mideast region.
Top Iranian officials initially downplayed the risks posed by the virus outbreak, before recently urging the public to follow measures like wearing masks and avoiding unessential travel.
Iran has recorded daily death tolls of above 430 over the past five days. The Iranian Health Ministry said on Saturday that the total number of confirmed cases has risen to above 840,000.
The new lockdown measures, which include shuttering most businesses, shops, malls, and restaurants, include Iran’s largest cities of Mashhad, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Iranian authorities have designated the nearly 160 towns and cities affected as hot spots because these urban centers have the highest daily per capita positive coronavirus test results.
On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a televised speech urged people to follow the measures to help “lessen the death toll.” He added that the government plans to supply cash subsidies to Iran’s 30 million poorest people for four months to help them to manage the economic fallout from the new outbreak.
The latest round of restrictions to stem the outbreak came as a spat among top Iranian health officials led to the resignation of at least two officials.
Iranian newspapers said Saturday that the deputy health minister in charge of research, Reza Malekzadeh, resigned from his post in reaction to recent remarks by the Minister of Health Saeed Namaki, who said government-led research projects were not successfully addressing the current needs of the ministry.
In reply, Malekzadeh in his resignation letter criticized government’s mismanagement of the virus outbreak as leading to a “large number of human deaths.”
Iranian news websites also said that Ali Nobakht, an adviser to the health minister, resigned over similar reasons, without providing further details.
In Tehran, the head of the city’s chamber of commerce, Qassem Nodeh, said that the restrictions will lead to the closure of 70% of business in the capital and its surrounding areas.
Manoochehr Nassiri, who runs a lighting shop in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, complained about the closures.
“We shop owners don’t know what to do, considering the economic situation of the country,” he said standing outside his shuttered store.
The closures are set to last two weeks but can be automatically extended.
Beginning on Saturday, government offices that provide essential public services — including banks, post offices, communications and utilities services — will continue their work with half of the regular number of staff. All other government offices will continue working with one third of their staff.
All schools in the capital will also be closed and required to switch to virtual instruction by Internet. Authorities will also close shrines in Tehran and cancel mass prayers in mosques, though it was not immediately clear if the same restrictions would apply in other cities, including the holy city of Mashhad.
Any travel between the affected cities by private car is also suspended. Public transportation will be available but the use of private cars is banned between 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.
People who have tested positive for the virus are required to stay at home and can face a roughly $8 cash fine if they appear in public.
Media organizations, construction jobs, agriculture, heavy industry, and services for the elderly and assisted living are largely exempt from the closures.
Iran has avoided the full lockdowns seen in other countries as it struggles to keep its faltering economy alive in the face of crushing US sanctions. President Donald Trump re-imposed sweeping sanctions on the country after withdrawing from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
Iran closes businesses, curtails travel amid virus surge
https://arab.news/n4mak
Iran closes businesses, curtails travel amid virus surge
- The new lockdown measures, which include shuttering most businesses, shops, malls, and restaurants, include Iran’s largest cities of Mashhad, Isfahan, and Shiraz
- President Rouhani in a speech urged people to follow the measures to help “lessen the death toll”
UAE president presents Indonesia’s defense minister with Order of Zayed
- Subianto receives UAE’s highest civil honor in recognition of his contribution to improved bilateral cooperation
DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Monday presented Indonesia’s defense minister, Prabowo Subianto, with the Order of Zayed, the UAE’s highest civil honor, in recognition of his contribution to the enhancement of cooperation between the countries.
During the meeting in Abu Dhabi, Subianto conveyed greetings from Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and expressed his desire for the continued advancement and prosperity of the UAE, the Emirates News Agency reported. Sheikh Mohammed responded with similar wishes for Indonesia.
The president and defense minister also discussed the relationship between their countries, particularly as it relates to defense and military affairs, and ways in which it might be enhanced in the interests of both countries, and reviewed regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Sheikh Mohammed said he was keen to leverage the strong strategic ties between the UAE and Indonesia to deepen cooperation so that both nations benefit from shared opportunities for development and prosperity.
Kuwaiti emir, Omani sultan meet for official talks
- Leaders discussed the longstanding relationship between their countries
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah hosted Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tareq at Bayan Palace in Kuwait City on Monday for official talks.
The leaders discussed the longstanding relationship between their countries and explored avenues for enhancing cooperation in various sectors, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
They also addressed strategies for the advancement of the Gulf Cooperation Council, matters of shared interest and various regional and international affairs.
The meeting came during the sultan’s two-day state visit to Kuwait and was followed by a banquet held in his honor.
Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and other officials from the two countries also attended the meeting.
US doesn’t believe ‘genocide’ occurring in Gaza: White House
- White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with Hamas
- Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments
WASHINGTON DC: The United States does not believe that genocide is occurring in Gaza but Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians, President Joe Biden’s top national security official said Monday.
As ceasefire talks stall and Israel continued striking the southern city of Rafah, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with militant group Hamas.
“We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians. We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Sullivan told a briefing.
The US was “using the internationally accepted term for genocide, which includes a focus on intent” to reach this assessment, Sullivan added.
Biden wanted to see Hamas defeated but realized that Palestinian civilians were in “hell,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he was coming to the White House podium to “take a step back” and set out the Biden administration’s position on the conflict, amid criticism from both ends of the US political spectrum.
Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments to press his demands that Israel hold off a Rafah offensive, while there have been protests at US universities against his support for Israel.
The US president believed any Rafah operation “has got to be connected to a strategic endgame that also answered the question, ‘what comes next?’” Sullivan added.
This would avoid Israel “getting mired in a counterinsurgency campaign that never ends, and ultimately saps Israel’s strength and vitality.”
First international UN staff member killed in Gaza attack
- Guterres “was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a UN DSS staff member and injury to another DSS staffer when their UN vehicle was struck,” spokesperson said
- “The Secretary-General condemns all attacks on UN personnel and calls for a full investigation,” Haq said
UNITED NATIONS: A UN security services member was killed in an attack on a vehicle in Gaza on Monday, a spokesperson said, adding the death was the first international UN employee killed in the Palestinian territory since the war began.
UN chief Antonio Guterres “was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a United Nations Department of Safety and Security (DSS) staff member and injury to another DSS staffer when their UN vehicle was struck as they traveled to the European Hospital in Rafah,” said his deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.
It was “the first international casualty” for the UN since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas attack of October 7, Haq said, recalling that some 190 Palestinian UN employees have been killed, mainly staff of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
“The Secretary-General condemns all attacks on UN personnel and calls for a full investigation,” Haq said.
The spokesman did not immediately release the nationality of the person killed.
“I don’t have the full details of whether this was part of a large convoy or not, I believe it was in a convoy that was moving, and this was the DSS vehicle that was hit,” he said.
The DSS oversees the security of UN agencies and programs in more than 130 countries around the world.
Hezbollah chief urges Beirut to allow Syrian migrant boats to leave for Europe
- Hassan Nasrallah called for ‘a national decision that says: we have opened the sea... whoever wants to leave for Europe, for Cyprus, the sea is in front of you. Take a boat and board it’
- Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost member, is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lebanon and Syria, and wants to curb migrant boat departures from Lebanon toward its shores
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday urged Lebanese authorities to open the seas for migrant boats to reach Europe, amid soaring anti-Syrian sentiment and accusations the West is seeking to keep refugees in Lebanon.
His remarks came in an apparent bid to pressure the European Union after it announced earlier this month $1 billion in aid to Lebanon to help tackle irregular migration.
Many in crisis-hit Lebanon have criticized the aid package as focused on preventing refugees from leaving the country, amid mounting calls for them to return home.
In a televised address, Nasrallah called for “a national decision that says: we have opened the sea... whoever wants to leave for Europe, for Cyprus, the sea is in front of you. Take a boat and board it.”
But “we do not propose forcing displaced Syrians to board boats and leave for Cyprus and Europe,” he added in the speech, broadcast on the group’s Al-Manar television channel.
Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost member, is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lebanon and Syria, and wants to curb migrant boat departures from Lebanon toward its shores.
Currently refugees “are prohibited (from leaving), and so they turn to smuggling and to rubber boats, and there are drownings in the sea, because the Lebanese army is implementing a political decision to stop them from migrating,” Nasrallah added.
Lebanon says it currently hosts around two million people from neighboring Syria — the world’s highest number of refugees per capita — with almost 785,000 registered with the United Nations.
Lebanon needs to tell the West that “we all have to coordinate with the Syrian government to return the displaced to Syria and to present them with aid there,” Nasrallah said.
He also urged Lebanon’s parliament to press the EU and Washington to lift sanctions on Syria that Damascus says are blocking aid and reconstruction efforts, adding: “If sanctions on Syria aren’t lifted, there will be no return” of refugees.
Nasrallah’s remarks came a day before Lebanon is expected to resume “voluntary returns” of Syrians, with dozens of families set to pass through two land border crossings in the country’s east, a year and a half after such returns were paused.
Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019, turning it into a launchpad for migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrians and Palestinian refugees making perilous Europe-bound voyages.
Some Lebanese politicians have blamed Syrians for their country’s worsening troubles, and pressure often mounts ahead of an annual conference on Syria in Brussels, with ministers meeting this year on May 27.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have warned that Syria is not safe for returns.
