MILAN: The Italian Coast Guard rescued 22 people and recovered nine bodies after a smugglers’ boat capsized in a storm about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) south of the island of Lampedusa, authorities said Thursday.
Survivors indicated that the steel bottom boat had departed from Sfax, Tunisia overnight Sunday carrying 46 people from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast. The boat capsized Wednesday morning as waves reached up to five meters (16 feet) and “the group became very agitated when the engine broke down and they were left adrift,’’ the UN refugee agency said.
The victims included a six-month-old child, along with eight men, UNHCR said. Six of the survivors were treated for severe hypothermia and dehydration; two remain hospitalized.
After the rescue in rough seas with waves reaching more than 2 1/2 meters (eight feet), the Coast Guard said it continued the air surveillance of the area, which is under Malta’s search-and-rescue area.
The number of crossing attempts generally increase as summer approaches, raising concerns about more shipwrecks, especially as Italian port rules are restricting operations of charity rescue boats. Italy’s far-right-led government has recently been instructing charity boats to go to northern ports after each rescue, reducing their operations, and has been impounding boats that it says violates its rules.
“With the arrival of the summer season, we can expect more incidents at sea, as more and more people are leaving with completely unseaworthy metal boats, as we are seeing in these weeks,’’ said Federico Fossi, a spokesman for the UNHCR in Italy.
The International Organization for Migration put the number of migrants missing along the deadly central Mediterranean route from northern Africa to Italy at 385 so far this year and 23,109 since they launched the missing migrants project in 2014.
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Italian coast guard rescues 22 shipwrecked people, recovers 9 bodies
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Italian coast guard rescues 22 shipwrecked people, recovers 9 bodies
- Survivors indicated that the steel bottom boat had departed from Sfax, Tunisia overnight Sunday carrying 46 people from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast
- “The group became very agitated when the engine broke down and they were left adrift,’’ the UN refugee agency said
Turkiye’s foreign minister says the US and Iran showing flexibility on nuclear deal, FT reports
- Hakan Fidan: “It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries”
- Washington has until now demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent fissile purity
The United States and Iran are showing flexibility on a nuclear deal, with Washington appearing “willing” to tolerate some nuclear enrichment, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday.
“It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries,” Fidan, who has been involved in talks with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.
“The Iranians now recognize that they need to reach a deal with the Americans, and the Americans understand that the Iranians have certain limits. It’s pointless to try to force them.”
Washington has until now demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent fissile purity, a small step away from the 90 percent that is considered weapons grade.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran would continue to demand the lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights including enrichment.
Fidan told the FT he believed Tehran “genuinely wants to reach a real agreement” and would accept restrictions on enrichment levels and a strict inspection regime, as it did in the 2015 agreement with the US and others. US and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy, after President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising fears of new military action. Trump on Tuesday said he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, even as Washington and Tehran prepared to resume negotiations.
The Turkish foreign minister, however, cautioned that broadening the Iran-US talks to ballistic missiles would bring “nothing but another war.”
The US State Department and the White House did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
“It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries,” Fidan, who has been involved in talks with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.
“The Iranians now recognize that they need to reach a deal with the Americans, and the Americans understand that the Iranians have certain limits. It’s pointless to try to force them.”
Washington has until now demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent fissile purity, a small step away from the 90 percent that is considered weapons grade.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran would continue to demand the lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights including enrichment.
Fidan told the FT he believed Tehran “genuinely wants to reach a real agreement” and would accept restrictions on enrichment levels and a strict inspection regime, as it did in the 2015 agreement with the US and others. US and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy, after President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising fears of new military action. Trump on Tuesday said he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, even as Washington and Tehran prepared to resume negotiations.
The Turkish foreign minister, however, cautioned that broadening the Iran-US talks to ballistic missiles would bring “nothing but another war.”
The US State Department and the White House did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
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