TEHRAN: Iran has accused Iraq-based Kurdish groups of being “involved” in a drone attack last week against a defense ministry site in the central province of Isfahan, Iranian media reported Wednesday.
“Parts of the drones that attacked the workshop complex of the defense ministry in Isfahan, along with explosive materials, were transferred to Iran with the participation and guidance of the Kurdish anti-revolutionary groups based in Iraq’s Kurdistan region,” Nour news agency said.
Iranian authorities reported an “unsuccessful” drone attack late Saturday that targeted a defense ministry “workshop complex” in Isfahan province, home to the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
An anti-aircraft system destroyed one drone and two others exploded, the defense ministry said, adding that there were no casualties and only minor damage to the site.
Nour charged that Kurdish groups brought the drone parts and explosive materials into Iran from “one of the hardly accessible routes in the northwest” upon “the order of a foreign security service.”
The news agency, considered close to the Islamic republic’s Supreme National Security Council, did not specify which country’s security service it accused of being behind the attack. It said the drone parts were delivered to the “service’s liaison in a border city.”
“The parts and materials have been assembled and used for sabotage in an advanced workshop by trained forces,” Nour said.
Some Western media have blamed the attack on Iran’s arch foe Israel.
Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which Iran has accused of serving Western or Israeli interests in the past.
In November, Iran launched cross-border missile and drone strikes against several of the groups in Iraq, accusing them of stoking the nationwide protests triggered by the death in custody in September of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
Iran says Iraq-based Kurd groups ‘involved’ in drone attack
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Iran says Iraq-based Kurd groups ‘involved’ in drone attack
- Iranian authorities earlier reported “unsuccessful” drone attack
Iran police kill 9-year-old, caught in crossfire, after his father stole a car
- Boy’s photo was shared on social media, with people expressing sorrow for his death
Dubai: A boy was shot and killed by police after his father stole a car in the southwestern Khuzestan province and drove off with him, Iranian authorities said.
Ruhollah Bigdeli, chief of police in Shushtar County, said — via Iran’s official police website — that officers tried to stop the “stolen vehicle by shooting at it,” but the boy was caught in the crossfire and died on the spot.
Police said they issued the man several warnings before they started shooting, adding that he had a criminal record, including car theft and drug smuggling.
The Iranian Jamaran news website identified the boy as 9-year-old Morteza Delf Zaregani. They spoke to the father who accused the police of not issuing any warning before shooting.
Morteza’s photo was shared on social media, with people expressing sorrow for his death.
In November, 9-year-old Kian Pirfalak, was killed in a shooting that his mother blamed on security forces.
Pirfalak was shot and killed while passing with his parents through a street in the southwestern city of Izeh, in Khuzestan province, filled with demonstrators, during nationwide protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police.
5 killed in explosion at rocket and explosives factory in Turkiye
- Investigation launched into cause of explosion
ANKARA, Turkiye: An explosion at a rocket and explosives factory on Saturday killed at least five workers, Turkiye’s defense ministry said.
The explosion occurred at around 8:45 a.m. at the compound of the state-owned Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation, in the outskirts of the capital, Ankara.
An investigation was launched into the cause of the explosion.
Several ambulances and fire trucks were dispatched to area.
Shop and house windows in surrounding areas were shattered by the force of the blast, NTV television reported.
Family members rushed to the compound for news of their loved ones, the station said.
Latest Sudan truce begins amid civilian skepticism
- Civilians trapped in the battlegrounds are desperate for relief from the bloodshed
KHARTOUM: A 24-hour cease-fire took effect Saturday between Sudan’s warring generals but, with fears running high it will collapse like its predecessors, US and Saudi mediators warn they may break off mediation efforts.
With the fighting now about to enter a third month, civilians trapped in the battlegrounds in greater Khartoum and the flashpoint western region of Darfur are desperate for relief from the bloodshed but deeply skeptical about the sincerity of the generals.
Multiple truces have been agreed and broken since fighting erupted on April 15, and Washington had slapped sanctions on both rival generals after the last attempt collapsed at the end of May.
The nationwide truce announced by US and Saudi mediators on Friday took effect at 6:00 a.m.
“Should the parties fail to observe the 24-hour cease-fire, facilitators will be compelled to consider adjourning” talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah which have been suspended since late last month, the mediators said.
Civilians voiced disappointment that the promised cease-fire was so limited in scope.
“A one-day truce is much less than we aspire for,” said Khartoum North resident Mahmud Bashir. “We look forward to an end to this damned war.”
Issam Mohamed Omar said he wanted an agreement that required fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who had occupied his home in Khartoum to leave so that he can return there from his temporary lodgings across the Nile in Omdurman.
“For me, a truce that doesn’t kick the RSF out of the home they kicked (me) out of three weeks ago, doesn’t mean anything to me,” he said.
Sudan specialist Aly Verjee said he saw little reason why this truce should be honored any more than its predecessors.
“Unfortunately, the incentives have not changed for either party, so it’s hard to see that a truce with the same underlying assumptions, especially one of such short duration, will see a substantially different result, said Verjee, a researcher at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg.
Upwards of 1,800 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
Nearly two million people have been displaced, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries, the United Nations says.
The Saudi and US mediators said they “share the frustration of the Sudanese people about the uneven implementation of previous cease-fires.”
The army, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, said it has “agreed to the proposal,” adding in a statement it “declares its commitment to the cease-fire.”
The paramilitary RSF, commanded by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, said: “We affirm our full commitment to the cease-fire.”
Both statements said the truce could support humanitarian efforts, while cautioning against violations by their opponents.
“If observed, the 24-hour cease-fire will provide an important opportunity... for the parties to undertake confidence-building measures which could permit resumption of the Jeddah talks,” the US-Saudi statement said.
Friday’s announcement came a day after Sudanese authorities loyal to Burhan declared UN envoy Volker Perthes “persona non grata,” accusing him of taking sides.
UN chief Antonio Guterres later expressed support for Perthes, who is currently in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for a series of talks.
Speaking through his spokesman, Guterres said “the doctrine of persona non grata is not applicable to or in respect of United Nations personnel” and is contrary to Khartoum’s obligations under the UN charter.
The fighting has sidelined Perthes’s efforts to revive Sudan’s transition to civilian rule, which was derailed by a 2021 coup by the two generals before they fell out.
It has also complicated the coordination of international efforts to deliver emergency relief to the 25 million civilians that the United Nations estimates are in need.
Alfonso Verdu Perez, outgoing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Sudan, warned on Friday that “health care may collapse at any moment.”
“The needs are immense and much more remains to be done” in both Khartoum and Darfur, he told reporters in Geneva.
Palestinian president to visit China next week
- China has expressed readiness to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian talks
- Beijing has recently positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East
BEIJING: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.
“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.
“He is the first Arab head of state received by China this year, fully embodying the high level of China-Palestine good relations, which have traditionally been friendly,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing later.
Abbas is an “old and good friend of the Chinese people,” he added.
“China has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights.”
Beijing has sought to boost its ties to the Middle East, challenging long-standing US influence there — efforts that have drawn rebukes from Washington.
Xi last December visited Saudi Arabia on an Arab outreach visit that also saw him meet with Abbas and pledge to “work for an early, just and durable solution to the Palestinian issue.”
And during a trip to Riyadh this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone following tensions with the long-time ally.
Blinken has also this week sought to mediate Israel-Palestinian tension, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.
Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.
In April, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country was willing to aid peace negotiations, Xinhua reported.
And Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to the state news agency.
In both calls Qin emphasised China’s push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a “two-state solution.”
“The Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East issue. It bears on peace and stability in the Middle East and on international fairness and justice.”
UN peacekeepers urge calm as Israeli and Lebanese troops face off at border
- Anger of villagers as Israel’s bulldozers work on extending 2 km border fence
- Residents of Kfarchouba, Chebaa, Kfarhamam and villages around the mostly Sunni town of Aarqoub performed Friday prayers in Kfarchouba to protest against the Israeli operation
BEIRUT: UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon called for calm on Friday after Lebanese and Israeli troops came close to direct confrontation in the flashpoint “Blue Line” border area.
The Lebanese army was deployed to protect residents of villages around the town of Aarqoub who were protesting against Israeli bulldozers and diggers excavating in the area.
Villagers tried to cross the border line marked by UNIFIL to remove part of a separating fence, and were met by volleys of tear gas from Israeli troops.
Mohammed Mortada, Lebanon’s caretaker culture minister, said: “Are the Israelis so stupid as to think that tear gas canisters will stop land- owners and right holders from responding to their violations?”
The Israeli army said it was responding to “riots” and claimed that two Lebanese soldiers “pointed two RPG weapons toward an Israeli patrol” in the Chebaa Farms area.
Ismail Nasser, a 58-year-old retired soldier from Kfarchouba, defied Israeli tear gas to stand in front of a bulldozer and prevent it from digging further. Nasser said the land being bulldozed by Israel belonged to him and his ancestors.
A video showed Nasser’s actions, with the bulldozer driver trying to move forward and throw dirt at him, before he was pulled away by bystanders.
Nasser said that the land being bulldozed by Israel belonged to him and his ancestors.
A Lebanese security source told Arab News that Israel had been “unusually active” for more than a week in Aarqoub, especially in the hills of Kfarchouba.
“They are trying to change the features of the region by digging trenches and removing rocks in order to extend a new two-kilometer iron fence between Al-Sammaqah and Bawabat Hassan adjacent to the Baathael pond in Kfarchouba,” the source said.
The non-demarcated area belonging to the residents of Kfarchouba is about 8 km.
Residents of Kfarchouba, Chebaa, Kfarhamam and villages around the mostly Sunni town of Aarqoub performed Friday prayers in Kfarchouba to protest against the Israeli operation.
MP Kassem Hachem and Sheikh Hassan Dallah, the mufti of Hasbayya and Marjaayoun, criticized the bulldozing by the “enemy” and called on UNIFIL troops “to put an end to the Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.”
UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said: “UNIFIL peacekeepers have been on the ground from the very beginning to ensure that cessation of hostilities is maintained, restore stability and help decrease tension.
“We urge the parties to use our co-ordination mechanisms effectively to prevent misunderstandings, and violations, and contribute to the preservation of stability in the area.
“UNIFIL is actively seeking solutions. We call upon both sides to avoid actions along the Blue Line that may escalate tensions.”
UNIFIL’s yearly mandate is set to be renewed next September. The last renewal included a mandate from the UN Security Council granting greater freedom to operate independently, and without coordinating with the Lebanese army.
Israeli forces occupied the Syrian portion of the Kfarchouba heights and the surrounding agricultural land in 1973 but withdrew after signing the Agreement on Disengagement with Syria in 1974.
Kfarchouba witnessed a fierce battle in 1976 when Palestinian commandos expelled occupying Israeli forces from the town.
Two years later, Israel invaded the Lebanese border area as part of Operation Litani and occupied several regions including Kfarchouba.
In 2000, the Israeli army withdrew from the majority of the Lebanese southern towns and a withdrawal line — known as the Blue Line — was created.
The Kfarchouba hills and the Chebaa farms were not among the freed regions, as the UN considered their status to be part of a future solution for the Israeli-Syrian conflict.
However, the Lebanese government and Hezbollah declared this region occupied Lebanese territory.
