DUBAI: Iran has released Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah on furlough for five days, her lawyer told the Emtedad website on Tuesday, a day after Tehran and Washington wound up indirect talks in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.
“We hope it (the furlough) will be extended,” Emtedad quoted Hojjat Kermani as saying.
Adelkhah, who is a resident of France and was arrested in 2019 while on a visit to Iran, was sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison on national security charges. She was moved to house arrest later, but in January was returned to jail.
Adelkab has denied the charges. France has called them “politically motivated” and repeatedly called for the release of Adelkhah, a researcher affiliated with Paris’s prestigious Sciences Po University.
Iran does not recognize dual nationality, saying the case is an Iranian domestic legal matter.
In March 2020, Iran released Adelkhah’s partner, French academic Roland Marchal, who was detained along with her, after France freed Iranian engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad, detained over alleged violations of US sanctions against Tehran.
Iran releases Iranian-French academic Adelkhah on furlough
https://arab.news/486bp
Iran releases Iranian-French academic Adelkhah on furlough
- Adelkhah was sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison on national security charges
- She was moved to house arrest later, but in January was returned to jail
White House: US concerned about reports Israel used white phosphorus in Lebanon attack
NEW YORK: The United States is concerned about reports Israel used US-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday.
“We’ve seen the reports. Certainly concerned about that. We’ll be asking questions to try to learn a little bit more,” Kirby told reporters on Air Force One.
Kirby said white phosphorus has a “legitimate military utility” for illumination and producing smoke to conceal movements.
“Obviously any time that we provide items like white phosphorous to another military, it is with the full expectation that it will be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes ... and in keeping with the law of armed conflict,” he said.
Japan, UAE to cooperate towards stabilization of international oil market
- Sheikh Mohammed told Kishida that UAE was keen on boosting relations with Japan in energy
TOKYO: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, spoke with Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio about the Ukraine crisis and assured him that the UAE was keen to maintain energy security and keep global markets stable.
In a Japan-UAE Summit telephone talk, Sheikh Mohammed also told Kishida that his country was keen on boosting relations with Japan in the energy field.
Kishida said that the UAE was a strategic partner for Japan and expressed his intention to foster close ties with Sheikh Mohamed, and expressed his congratulations on the success of Expo 2020 Dubai.
Sheikh Mohamed outlined his renewed hopes for strengthening bilateral relations with Japan, and also expressed his gratitude for Japan’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, according to the ministry.
The two leaders also exchanged views on “soaring” crude oil prices in the wake of the situation in Ukraine.
Kishida called for the UAE’s further proactive contribution to the stabilization of the crude oil market as a member of OPEC, and the two leaders confirmed that the UAE and Japan would cooperate towards the stabilization of the international oil market.
The leaders confirmed the strengthening of their bilateral relationship, including through signing the framework document for the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Initiative,” and in promoting cooperation in various fields, especially as 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the UAE.
Kishida requested the UAE’s support in securing safe means for Japanese nationals in Russia to return to Japan. In response, Sheikh Mohamed said that the UAE was committed to closely cooperating with Japan.
The two leaders exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East, including Yemen and Iran, and confirmed the continuation of their close cooperation.
(With inputs from WAM)
* This article originally appeared on Arab News Japan. Click here to read it.
Strong voter turnout on 2nd day of Egypt presidential election
- Queues started forming on Monday at some polling stations in Cairo and elsewhere in the country long before they opened at 9 a.m.
- Polls close at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, with the election results due to be announced on Dec. 18
CAIRO: Egyptian voters turned out in force on the second and penultimate day of a presidential election in which President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was expected to sweep to a third, six-year term in office.
Queues started forming on Monday at some polling stations in Cairo and elsewhere in the country long before they opened at 9 a.m.
El-Sisi is competing against three other candidates: Abdel-Sanad Yamama, the head of Wafd, Egypt’s oldest party, Hazem Omar, leader of the Republican People’s Party, and Farid Zahran, of the Social Democratic Party.
In the coastal city of Alexandria, El-Sisi’s electoral campaign officials reported a strong turnout at ballot boxes, and voting centers were said to be particularly busy in central Cairo and the southwestern New Valley Governorate.
Moushira Khattab, president of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights, said: “We are reassured about the conduct of the presidential elections.” She added that the council had so far not received any complaints relating to election conduct.
National Elections Authority officials said that voting operations were proceeding in a disciplined and smooth manner, adding that voter turnout on Sunday had also been brisk.
Polls close at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, with the election results due to be announced on Dec. 18.
Passant Tarek, a 27-year-old dentist who cast her vote in Suez, said: “Voting is our duty, and it is the least we can do for the country, especially during these critical times and with the developments happening around the world.”
UNRWA staff honored at Doha Forum amid Gaza war
- Lazzarini lamented the deaths of 134 UNRWA colleagues during the war in Gaza
LONDON: The Doha Forum has honored staff from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East for their humanitarian work in Gaza and throughout the region.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani presented the award to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on Sunday.
“UNRWA stands with the people of Gaza as they go through their darkest hours. This award is in recognition of the lifesaving and irreplaceable work that my colleagues are doing especially in the Gaza Strip and across the region,” Lazzarini said in his acceptance speech.
The agency houses more than 1.2 million displaced Palestinians in its facilities throughout the Gaza Strip, and its workers are continuing with relief efforts despite suffering tragic losses.
“At least 70 percent have been displaced, some multiple times. They take their children to work so if they die, they die together,” said Lazzarini.
The ceremony was not just a moment of honor but also of mourning, with Lazzarini lamenting the deaths of 134 UNRWA colleagues during the war in Gaza.
“This number is the highest ever recorded in the history of the UN. The world should honor their memory. UNRWA will never be the same without them,” he said.
According to UNRWA, the number of Palestinians killed during the war in proportion to the population is the highest it has been since the turn of the century. At least 70 percent of those killed are women and children.
“I urge world leaders to put an end to this war, for the sake of global peace and stability and to reach a longer-term political solution to what is one of the longest unresolved crises in history,” said Lazzarini.
Palestinians go on strike over Gaza onslaught
- Many Palestinians took part and rallies were staged in the West Bank
- In Lebanon, public institutions, banks, schools and universities closed in a nationwide strike in solidarity with Gaza and southern border areas
RAMALLAH: Shops, schools and government offices shut across the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem Monday as Palestinians staged a general strike protesting against Israel’s relentless onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
The bloodiest ever war in Gaza has killed more than 18,200 Palestinians in the territory, mostly women and children, and 104 Israeli soldiers, according to the latest reported death tolls.
Activists had called for a strike in solidarity with the besieged territory covering businesses, public workers and education.
Many Palestinians took part and rallies were staged in the West Bank, according to Essam Abu Baker who coordinates Palestinian factions in Ramallah.
He described the protest as part of a global effort to put pressure on Israel to stop the war, reporting strikes taking place in parts of Jordan and Lebanon.
In Lebanon, public institutions, banks, schools and universities closed after the government decided on a nationwide strike in solidarity with Gaza and with border areas in the south, which have seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah.
The stoppage was also observed in Istanbul’s western Esenyurt district, where many businesses are owned by residents from the Palestinian territories, Syria, Yemen and Iran.
Footage on social media showed deserted streets and Palestinian flags billowing.
“The strike today is not only in solidarity with Gaza, but also against the USA which used its veto in the Security Council against a truce,” Abu Baker said in Ramallah, referring to the US rejection of a cease-fire resolution on Friday.
Overnight in Gaza, more Israeli air strikes targeted the biggest southern city of Khan Yunis, while deadly fighting and bombing were also reported in the center and north of the narrow territory.
Hamas, which triggered the war with its October 7 attacks in which 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel, warned that the remaining 137 hostages held in Gaza would not survive the conflict unless Israel meets its demands and frees more Palestinian prisoners.
At a rally in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, demonstrators unfurled a huge list of names of the victims in Gaza.
Whole families came out to protest, with parents carrying children on their shoulders.
“All we can do is take part,” an elderly man in the crowd told AFP. “We don’t have anything else.”
AFP photographers also saw the work stoppage being observed in the northern West Bank city of Nablus and Hebron in the south, where another rally was held.
In east Jerusalem’s Old City, many shops were closed. The sound of keys echoed in the bazaar as Palestinian business owners locked their brightly painted doors.
“We want the war to stop,” said Nasser, a 65-year-old coffee shop owner who gave only his first name. He has not heard from friends in war-torn Gaza for weeks, and doesn’t know if they are dead or alive.
He said he had little to lose by closing his shop along the Via Dolorosa, a Christian pilgrimage route.
“We’ve had no business anyway since the war started,” he said, after the outbreak of violence prompted visitor numbers to plummet.
The few shopkeepers who did open said they had strong reasons for doing so.
Florist Raja Salama, 62, came to work to prepare wreaths of white roses for an elderly relative’s funeral.
“I’m only open because the funeral is today,” he said.
“When I’ve taken the flowers over, I’ll close.”
Others were desperate for business.
“I need to work to feed my baby son,” said a young Palestinian barber.
He did not give his name, explaining that he was ashamed to open his shop in the Old City.
“I should respect the strike, but I have no choice. I have a one-year-old at home and I haven’t had work since the start of the war. That’s the ugly truth.”
