NEW YORK: UN chief Ban Ki-moon yesterday said the Syria “calamity” is turning into a global crisis as US President Barack Obama led growing calls for an end to Bashar Assad’s rule.
Angry over harsh living conditions in their desert tent camp in Jordan, dozens of Syrian refugees clashed with Jordanian police, hurled stones and smashed charity offices and a hospital, officials and refugees said yesterday. The rioting late Monday in the Zaatari camp was the worst violence since the facility opened in July near the Jordan-Syria border. About 26 policemen were injured by stones thrown by the refugees, a police official said.
A Syrian refugee in the camp, Abu Nawras, said police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters who were demanding improved conditions, better food and education for their children.
The camp, which hosts about 32,000 Syrians who fled the civil war at home, has seen smaller protests in the past weeks as refugees mostly complained about snakes and scorpions, and demanded their tents be replaced with trailers so they can better protect themselves from the scorching sun, cold nights and ubiquitous dust.
Jordan alone has taken in some 200,000 Syrians — the largest number in the region — while Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq have taken in the rest. The Jordanian police official said Monday’s violence erupted when about 150 refugees started hurling stones at security officers, torched a tent and attacked the offices of a Jordanian charity responsible for the camp and a Moroccan field hospital.
Abu Nawras, the Syrian refugee, said many of the Zaatari residents, disillusioned with the conditions there, are now demanding to go back to Syria. But a representative for the UN refugee agency in Jordan, Andrew Harper, said it would not be safe for them to return home now.
“People vented their frustration in a way that is unacceptable in any environment, by throwing stones at buildings, damaging buildings, injuring a number of staff,” Harper said. “It was a particularly ugly situation, which is now under control.”
In response to the refugee riot, scores of Jordanians took to the streets in the nearby town of Mafraq, demanding the Syrians be sent home, Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah said. The Jordanian protesters denounced what they described as “ingratitude” by the refugees to their host country.
Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel commander, Col. Kassem Saadeddine, has escaped an assassination attempt by pro-regime forces unscathed, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) said yesterday.
“Col. Saadeddine’s convoy was ambushed by shabbiha (pro-regime militiamen) after midnight in Salmiyeh in Hama province” in central Syria, Fahd Al-Masri said.
“A large battle ensued and the shabbihas were killed. The colonel was saved,” Masri said. Saadeddine, a defector from Assad’s forces, is the chief rebel commander in the central province of Homs and also the official FSA spokesman inside Syria.
The ambush came as Saadeddine was returning from the northern city of Aleppo, the current focal point of the conflict, after meeting regional rebel commander Col. Abdel Jabbar Al-Okaidi, Masri added.
In a separate development, a top lawyer said yesterday the nephew of slain Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was among six jihadists arrested in Jordan last week as they tried to cross into Syria.
“Jordanian border guards on Saturday arrested six mujahideen, including Abu Asyad, the nephew of Zarqawi, as they attempted to go to Syria for jihad,” Musa Abdullat, a leading lawyer for groups, said.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi was killed in an air strike by the US military in Iraq in 2006. “They are expected to be charged and jailed for between five and 15 years,” Abdullat said.
Syria ‘calamity’ turning into global crisis
Syria ‘calamity’ turning into global crisis
UN nuclear watchdog says it’s unable to verify whether Iran has suspended all uranium enrichment
VIENNA: Iran has not allowed the United Nations nuclear watchdog to access nuclear facilities affected by the 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the watchdog circulated to member states and seen Friday by The Associated Press.
The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency stressed that therefore it “cannot verify whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities,” or the “size of Iran’s uranium stockpile at the affected nuclear facilities.”
The IAEA report on Friday warned that due to the continued lack of access to any of Iran’s four declared enrichment facilities, the agency “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium in Iran.”
The report stressed that the “loss of continuity of knowledge over all previously declared nuclear material at affected facilities in Iran needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency.”
Iran long has insisted its program is peaceful, but the IAEA and Western nations say Tehran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003.
Highly enriched material should be verified regularly
According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the AP. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon.
Such highly enriched nuclear material should normally be verified every month, according to the IAEA’s guidelines.
The IAEA also reported that it had observed, through the analysis of commercially available satellite imagery, “regular vehicular activity around the entrance to the tunnel complex at Isfahan.”
The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, was mainly known for producing the uranium gas that is fed into centrifuges to be spun and purified.
Israel has struck buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site, among them a uranium conversion facility. The US also struck Isfahan with missiles during the war last June.
The IAEA also reported that through the analysis of commercially available satellite imagery, it has observed “activities being conducted at some of the affected nuclear facilities, including the enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow,” but it added that “without access to these facilities it is not possible for the Agency to confirm the nature and the purpose of the activities.”
The confidential IAEA report also said Friday that Iran did provide access to IAEA inspectors “to each of the unaffected nuclear facilities at least once since the military attacks of June 2025, with the exception of Karun Nuclear Power Plan, which is in the early stages of construction and does not contain nuclear material.”
IAEA joined Geneva talks between Iran and US
The IAEA reported on Friday that Grossi attended negotiations between the US and Iran on Feb. 17 and Feb. 26 in Geneva at which he “provided advice on issues relevant to the verification of Iran’s nuclear program.” The report said that those negotiations are “ongoing.”
The Trump administration has held three rounds of nuclear talks this year with Iran under Omani mediation. Thursday’s round of talks in Geneva ended without a deal, leaving the danger of another Mideast war on the table as the US has gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the region.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi said technical talks involving lower-level representatives would continue next week in Vienna, the home of the IAEA. The agency is likely to be critical in any deal.
The US is seeking a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons.
Iran says it is not pursuing weapons and has so far resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment on its soil or hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Similar talks last year between the US and Iran about Iran’s nuclear program broke down after Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran, that included the US bombing Iranian nuclear sites.
Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity.
