BAGHDAD: The United Nations chief on Wednesday praised Iraq for its repatriating citizens detained in neighboring Syria on suspicion of ties to the Daesh group and pledged international support for the country’s efforts to regain stability and security.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke to reporters during a rare visit to Baghdad, his first in six years, ahead of this month’s 20-year anniversary of the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The years that followed Saddam’s overthrow saw widespread sectarian violence and the rise first of Al-Qaeda in the region and later, the extremist Daesh group, which at one point controlled wide swaths of territory, including Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. “We recognize that the challenges Iraq is facing did not arise overnight,” Guterres said, speaking at a news conference alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani. “They are the product of decades of oppression, war, terrorism, sectarianism and foreign interference.”
He praised the formation of Iraq’s new government in October, after a yearlong political stalemate, and the country’s “ambitious and forward-looking reform agenda.” He also pledged UN support for systematic governance reforms and for measures to address Iraq’s looming water crisis, which experts expect to be exacerbated by climate change.
Guterres commended Iraq for repatriating its citizens from northeastern Syria, particularly from Al-Hol camp, which holds tens of thousands of women and children — primarily the wives, widows and children of IS fighters — in what human rights groups have described as dangerous and squalid living conditions.
On Sunday, Iraq repatriated some 582 people from the camp to a rehabilitation center near the town of Qayara, south of Mosul.
Guterres described Iraq’s actions as an “example for the world” while noting that many women and children “remain stranded in desperate conditions.”
He called for implementation of promised measures that would allow members of the Yazidi religious minority displaced by IS attacks to return to their homes in the town of Sinjar and for the central government in Baghdad and Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish government to reach agreements on contentious budget issues and on a law governing oil and gas deals.
Guterres was to visit the Iraqi Kurdish region’s government and in the city of Irbil on Thursday, and meet with Kurdish leaders.
UN chief praises moves toward stability in rare Iraq visit
https://arab.news/jssd7
UN chief praises moves toward stability in rare Iraq visit
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke to reporters during a rare visit to Baghdad, his first in six years
- Guterres commended Iraq for repatriating its citizens from northeastern Syria, particularly from Al-Hol camp
Tunisia court reduces ex-PM’s jail term over terror charges
- Last year, the former premier was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
- An overnight ruling from an appeals court reduced the 70-year-old’s term to 24 years, his defense lawyer Bouthelja said
TUNIS: A Tunisian appeals court has reduced the prison sentence of former prime minister Ali Larayedh by a decade to 24 years after he was found guilty of terrorism charges, his lawyer said Friday.
Since his arrest in late 2022, Larayedh has denied the charges that he helped send militant fighters to Iraq and Syria, and his lawyers have branded the case as politically motivated.
Last year, the former premier was sentenced to 34 years in prison. However, an overnight ruling from an appeals court reduced the 70-year-old’s term to 24 years, his defense lawyer Oussama Bouthelja told AFP.
Larayedh was prime minister from 2013 to 2014. He was a leader in the Islamist party Ennahdha, which briefly governed Tunisia following a popular uprising in 2011 that launched the Arab Spring.
He is a critic of President Kais Saied.
Others prosecuted in the case included former security officials and a spokesman for Ansar Al-Sharia, a group Tunisia designated a terrorist organization in 2013 while Larayedh was prime minister.
The appeals court reduced the sentences of several others in the case, with prison terms now ranging from three to 24 years.
Ennahdha played a key role in Tunisian politics for years before its leader Rached Ghannouchi was hit with multiple prison terms, which include a 22-year sentence on charges of plotting against state security.
Larayedh had already spent 15 years in prison, including 10 in solitary confinement, for plotting against the state under longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled during the Arab Spring.
The UN said about 5,500 Tunisians fought with militant groups including the Daesh in Iraq, Syria and Libya between 2011 and 2016.
