Iraq must comply with joint, UN-approved agreements: Kuwait PM

Kuwait's Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City on September 21, 2023. (REUTERS)
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Updated 22 September 2023
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Iraq must comply with joint, UN-approved agreements: Kuwait PM

  • Iraq recently ruled unconstitutional a 2013 maritime pact with Kuwait
  • Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Sabah calls for peace in Palestine, Sudan, Yemen

New York: Iraq’s failure to adhere to international agreements may lead to chaos and instability, Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Sabah, prime minister of Kuwait, said Thursday.

Speaking during the 78th UN General Assembly debate in New York, Sheikh Ahmad expressed concern about Kuwait’s relations with Iraq, citing a dispute over their maritime pact ratified by the UN in 2013.

Earlier this month, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court ruled that the agreement regulating navigation in the Khor Abdullah waterway, which lies between the two nations, was unconstitutional.

“These agreements can help prevent chaos and accidents in the region. They can also protect us from trafficking in arms and narcotics, which are sources of revenue for terrorist and extremist groups,” he said.

The land border between the two was demarcated by the United Nations in 1993 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, but it did not cover the length of their maritime boundaries, and this was left for the two oil producers to resolve.
An agreement between the two nations was reached in 2012 and ratified by each of their legislative bodies in 2013.

Sheikh Ahmad called on Iraq to take “immediate, decisive measures” to comply with agreements reached by the two states as well as international resolutions, including Security Council Resolution 833 which demarcated the Iraq-Kuwait border.

“Kuwait reserves the right to undertake the requisite measures, both legal and international measures, to defend its legitimate and legal right pursuant to international resolutions and the norms of international law,” he said.

Sheikh Ahmad also urged the UN to find relief for the Palestinian people who “suffer from Israeli occupation which violates all international norms and conventions.” He called for the establishment of “an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital within the 1967 borders.”

On Sudan and Yemen, he called for the parties involved to end their fighting and seek resolutions through talks.

Sheikh Ahmad urged Iran to refrain what he viewed as interference in the affairs of sovereign nations. He added that the Durra offshore natural gas field, in the neutral zone between Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia, was fully owned by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

“These two countries alone have full rights to explore these natural resources,” he said.

On his country’s economy, Sheikh Ahmad expressed his desire to “turn Kuwait into a financial, commercial and cultural hub that can effectively interact with the rest of the region and the rest of the world,” particularly in the fields of climate-friendly measures, renewable energy, and carbon neutrality.

“We welcome the statement by Saudi Arabia regarding the establishment of a global body for water, which would be based in Riyadh … to manage water resources in an effective manner and exploit them in an optimal way,” he said.

Sheikh Ahmad also condemned those burning copies of the holy Qur’an under the pretext of “free speech.”

 

 


Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions

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Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.
A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.
Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say what kind of animals were in the capsule.
State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule into space.
Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other space crafts. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.
It says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The US and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.

Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel — Tasnim

Updated 06 December 2023
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Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel — Tasnim

DUBAI: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Navy have seized two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tasnim said 34 foreign crew have been detained by the Guards in the operation.
Iran, which has some of the world’s cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.


Israel reviewing strike that harmed Lebanese troops, army says

Updated 06 December 2023
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Israel reviewing strike that harmed Lebanese troops, army says

  • Lebanese army say the soldier, a sergeant, was killed when an army position was shelled by Israel on Tuesday

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Wednesday it was reviewing a strike that harmed Lebanese troops in south Lebanon, an apparent reference to Israeli shelling that killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded three others the previous day.
“The Lebanese Armed Forces were not the target of the strike. The IDF expresses regret over the incident. The incident is under review,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel and the heavily armed Lebanese group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border since the start of the war between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7.
The Lebanese army said the soldier, a sergeant, was killed when an army position was shelled by Israel on Tuesday.
The Israeli army said its soldiers had acted in “self defense to eliminate an imminent threat that had been identified from Lebanon” from a “known launch area and observation point” used by Hezbollah.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon UNIFIL noted in a statement on Tuesday it was the first Lebanese army soldier killed during the hostilities, and that the Lebanese army had not engaged in conflict with Israel.


The Gaza Strip: Tiny, cramped and as densely populated as London

Updated 06 December 2023
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The Gaza Strip: Tiny, cramped and as densely populated as London

  • Gaza has a population density of about 5,500 per square kilometer

GAZA: The war between Israel and Hamas has seen fierce Israeli bombardment that has flattened broad swaths of the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
And all that is happening in a tiny, densely populated coastal enclave.
Gaza is tucked among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. The strip is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long by some 7 miles (11 kilometers) wide. It has 2.3 million people living in an area of 139 square miles (360 square kilometers), according to the CIA Factbook.
That’s about the same land size as Detroit, a city that has a population of 620,000, according to the US Census Bureau. It’s about twice the size of Washington and 3½ times the size of Paris.
Gaza has a population density of about 14,000 people per square mile (5,500 per square kilometer). That’s about the same as London, a city brimming with high-rise buildings, but also many parks. Gaza has few open spaces, especially in its cities, due to lack of planning and urban sprawl.
Gaza’s density is even tighter in its urban cores like Gaza City or Khan Younis, where tens of thousands are packed into cramped neighborhoods and where density rates become more comparable to certain cities in highly populated Asia.
An Israeli-Egyptian blockade, imposed after the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007, has greatly restricted movement in and out of Gaza, adding to the sense of overcrowding.
 

 


‘Living dead’: Tunisian villages suffer drought, climate change

Updated 06 December 2023
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‘Living dead’: Tunisian villages suffer drought, climate change

  • About 300,000 of Tunisia’s 12 million people have no drinking water in their homes, according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights

OULED OMAR, Tunisia: Tunisian villager Ounissa Mazhoud ties two empty jerry cans to a donkey and cautiously descends a stony hill toward the last local source of water.
The North African country, in its fourth year of drought, is grappling with its worst water scarcity in years.
Mazhoud — like other women in the remote village of Ouled Omar, 180 kilometers (110 miles) southwest of the capital Tunis — wakes up every morning with one thing on her mind: finding water.
“We are the living dead ... forgotten by everyone,” said Mazhoud, 57, whose region was once one of Tunisia’s most fertile, known for its wheat fields and Aleppo pines.
“We have no roads, no water, no aid, no decent housing, and we own nothing,” she said, adding that the closest source of water is a river about an hour’s arduous walk away.
Providing water for their families, she said, means that “our backs, heads and knees hurt, because we labor from dawn to dusk.”

The World Bank predicts that by 2030 the Middle East and North Africa region will fall below the “absolute water scarcity” threshold of 500 cubic meters yearly per person.
Tunisia, already the 33rd most water-stressed country according to the World Resources Institute, has dropped to 450 cubic meters per inhabitant.
Its dams — the primary source for drinking water and irrigating crops — are filled at just 22 percent capacity, despite brief showers recently, according to official figures.
Some 20 dams have already gone out of service, mostly in the most arid south.
Last spring, Tunisian authorities introduced water rationing to limit household use even in major cities.
But in remote villages, where water scarcity impacts crucial farming and livestock, the issue takes on even greater weight.
Ounissa’s 65-year-old husband, Mahmoud Mazhoud, said their village has become unable to support livestock, forcing him to sell half of his cow herd so he could afford to keep the rest alive.
Ouled Omar is home to 22 families who share the only remaining spring.
They say it yields only about 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of water per day in total, but that it is undrinkable.

Ramzi Sebtaoui, a stockbreeder in his thirties, brings water to his family every day by driving to the closest source, some 20 kilometers away in the city of Maktar.
“Two or three years ago, the situation was much better, with many natural sources of water that we could use for livestock,” he said.
“Today, due to climate change and other factors, almost all sources have dried up, and the roads are destroyed.”
Last week, Ouled Omar residents traveled almost 50 kilometers to the city of Siliana to protest outside governorate offices, demanding a paved road and access to clean water.
“They don’t have a source of drinking water, not even taps,” Houda Mazhoud, a researcher who has been advocating for Ouled Omar’s access to clean water for years, told AFP.
“As a result, they use a natural source. But with climate change, it’s starting to disappear.”

The only road that leads to the village is decrepit and hasn’t been paved in decades, and residents say this only deepens their sense of isolation.
Some villagers have felt pushed to move to urban areas or abroad.
About 300,000 of Tunisia’s 12 million people have no drinking water in their homes, according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.
Ounissa’s cousin, Djamila Mazhoud, 60, said her son and two daughters had all left in search of better lives.
“We educated our children so that when we grow old, they take care of us, but they couldn’t,” she said.
“People are either unemployed or eaten by the fish in the sea,” she added, using a common phrase for migrants who attempt the dangerous sea voyages for Europe.
Entire families have already left the village, said Djamila.
“Their houses remain empty,” she said, explaining that elderly people feel they have no choice but to follow their sons and daughters.
“Can an 80-year-old go to the river to get water?“