Region

BAGHDAD — Iraqis voted on Monday in the first provincial council elections held in a decade, which were expected to strengthen the dominance of Shiite groups.

The vote comes at a time of widespread political apathy and disillusionment in the oil-rich country of 43 million that is still recovering from years of war.

Polls closed as planned at 6:00 pm (15:00 GMT), state media reported, with the election commission saying preliminary results were expected 24 hours later.

Turnout at noon had reached just 17 percent, said election commission official Omar Ahmed, who urged voters to come out and “contribute to the success of the electoral process”.

Until polls closed, AFP journalists observed low attendance at three polling stations in Baghdad and in the southern city of Nasiriyah, where voters arrived one by one.

The vote is seen as a key test for Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani — who rose to power just over a year ago, backed by pro-Tehran parties — ahead of a general election due in 2025.

The provincial councils, set up after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, choose regional governors and manage budgets for health, transport and education.

Influential Shiite cleric and political kingmaker Moqtada Sadr, a one-time militia leader who has launched anti-government protests in the past, has boycotted the vote.

‘Economic populism’

Sudani, after casting his ballot in Baghdad, hailed the councils as “a pillar of the executive” which help the government implement policies.

The premier has pledged to boost public services and rebuild infrastructure ravaged by decades of conflict and turmoil.

He urged Iraqis to elect “honest” representatives. Some 17 million people are eligible to vote, with 6,000 candidates vying for just 285 council seats.

But many voters in the young democracy voiced little interest.

“What use are these elections to us?” said a Baghdad taxi driver who gave his name only as Abu Ali, 45.

“The years pass, elections come around again, the candidates change, and our situation stays the same.”

Civil servant Amin Saleh, 63, voiced greater enthusiasm as he cast his ballot in the capital.

“If I don’t come and vote, and nobody else does either, there’ll be chaos,” he told AFP. “We need someone to represent us. How do you achieve that except by voting?”

Lamia Mahmud, a 59-year-old civil servant, voted to “build the country. We want to develop the country, we do not want to stay behind,” she said.

Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at think tank Chatham House, told AFP that in the end, turnout is “the ultimate gauge of satisfaction”.

It shows “whether the Sudani government’s economic populism — the policy of giving out [public sector] jobs — can be successful and can capture the young population”.

Elections were held in 15 provinces, but not in the three which make up an autonomous Kurdish region in the north.

One quarter of candidates are women under a system that also reserves quotas for the Christian, Yazidi and Sabian minorities.

The election is expected to boost the ruling Iran-aligned bloc called the Coordination Framework coalition.

It brings together Shiite Islamist parties with factions of the Hashed Al Shaabi, a network of former paramilitary units that have been integrated into the regular security forces.

Mansour said some alliance heavyweights hope the elections will “prove they have a social base and that they are popular” following disappointing results in 2021 national elections.

Tensions around the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza were not seen as a major factor in the elections, despite recent drone attacks against US-led coalition troops based in Iraq.

Voting was held amid tight security, but Interior Minister Abdel Amir Al Shammari told reporters no breaches had been reported during the day.

Observers kept a close eye on the oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk where historic rivalries could resurface between parties representing its Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities.

DUBAI — Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Monday they had attacked two "Israeli-linked" vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza, as more companies halt transit through the troubled but vital waterway.

The attacks on the Norwegian-owned Swan Atlantic and another ship identified by the Houthis as the MSC Clara are the latest in a flurry of maritime incidents that are disrupting global trade in an attempt to force a stop to Israel's campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza.

In a statement, the rebels said they had carried out a "military operation against two ships linked to the Zionist entity" using naval drones after they refused to respond to calls.

They vowed to "continue to prevent all ships heading to Israeli ports... from navigating in the Arab and Red Seas" until more food and medicine is allowed into Gaza.

The Swan Atlantic's owner, Norway's Inventor Chemical Tankers, said in a statement that the ship was carrying biofuel feedstock from France to Reunion Island.

It said the vessel has "no Israeli link" and was managed by a Singaporean firm.

It added there were no injuries among the Indian crew and the vessel sustained only limited damage.

"The crew and the ship are now being assisted by the US Navy and will be brought to safety under protection by naval forces," it said.

The incident came as British oil giant BP became the latest to suspend transit.

Frontline, one of the world’s largest tanker companies, also said on Monday it was rerouting ships away from the Red Sea.

“We only allow new business to be concluded if routing via” South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope an option, it said.

German transport company Hapag-Lloyd, which had said it was halting Red Sea container ship traffic until Monday, announced that it was rerouting ships via the Cape of Good Hope.

“This will be done until the passage through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea will be safe again for vessels and their crews,” it said in a statement.

The Belgian-headquartered Euronav shipping company said it too was avoiding the Red Sea “until further notice”.

The latest announcements followed similar moves by Danish shipping giant A.P Moller-Maersk, which accounts for 15 per cent of the global container freight market.

Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company and France’s CMA CGM have also taken similar measures. 

The Red Sea attacks have forced insurance companies to significantly increase premiums on ships transitting the area, making it uneconomical for some to transit through the Suez Canal.

The rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope, however, makes for a longer voyage distance, adding to fuel costs.

“The frequency of serious attacks over the last week means that what has now become a maritime security crisis threatens much wider commercial and economic implications in the region and beyond,” Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft told AFP.

US efforts 

Monday’s attack took place as Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin visited Bahrain, home base of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, as part of a Middle East tour that will also take him to Israel and Qatar.

In Manama, he was to discuss “US efforts to convene multilateral coalitions to respond to aggression at sea that threatens shipping and the global economy”, a Pentagon statement said at the weekend.

On Saturday, a US destroyer shot down 14 drones in the Red Sea launched from rebel-controlled areas of Yemen, the US military said.

And the British government said one of its destroyers had also brought down a suspected attack drone in the area.

Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said that neutral Oman had launched mediation efforts to safeguard shipping using the waterway. 

“Under the sponsorship of our brothers in the Sultanate of Oman, communication and discussion continue with a number of international parties regarding operations in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

CAIRO — Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has won a third term with 89.6 per cent of the vote in the Arab world's most populous nation, the national election authority said on Monday. 

The outcome of the December 10-12 poll secured 69-year-old Sisi his third and, according to the Egyptian constitution, final term in office, starting in April and set to run for six years.

It was the third time in a decade Sisi wins a landslide victory. In both 2014 and 2018, Sisi won over 96 per cent of the vote.

The runner-up Hazem Omar, who leads the Republican People's Party, received 4.5 per cent of the vote. 

Next came Farid Zahran, leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, and Abdel-Sanad Yamama from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party.

The election authority said turnout was "unprecedented" at 66.8 per cent of 67 million registered voters. This was up from 41 per cent in 2018 and 47 per cent in 2014.

Sisi, a retired army field marshall, was first voted in as president after the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Morsi in 2013.

He is credited with engineering a return to public order after a period of Islamist political violence and chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.

From 2016 onward, he undertook a host of economic reforms that have required severe austerity measures and multiple currency devaluations.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israel kept up deadly strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday despite growing international calls for a ceasefire and pleas from desperate relatives to bring home the remaining hostages.

Fighting raged on in the bloodiest ever Gaza war, now in its third month, that started with the Hamas sudden attacks of October 7 and has devastated much of the Palestinian territory, sparking global concern.

The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said "24 Palestinians were killed this morning in Jabalia camp by an Israeli bombardment. Many are still missing under the rubble".

It also said at least 12 people died in strikes on the central city of Deir Al Balah, while witnesses reported bombardment of Bani Suhaila east of Khan Yunis, Gaza's second city.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, the latest foreign envoy visiting Israel, called for an "immediate and durable" truce leading to a lasting ceasefire, stressing that "too many civilians are being killed".

Her British and German counterparts, David Cameron and Annalena Baerbock, also bemoaned the high civilian toll but voiced a different stance on the conflict, in a joint Sunday Times article.

The pair wrote that they "support a ceasefire, but only if it is sustainable ... We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward".

According to health ministry in Gaza, Israel's offensive, including over two months of sustained aerial bombardment and a ground invasion, has killed 18,800 people, mostly women and children.

The Israeli forces said Sunday two more soldiers had been killed in Gaza, bringing the total to 121 since ground operations began in late October.

Hospital 'bloodbath' 

Israel's bombardment of Gaza has left much of the territory in ruins, with the UN estimating 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced by the war and warning of a "breakdown of civil order".

"I would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity," said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

The UN's World Health Organisation also sounded the alarm over Gaza's humanitarian disaster after visiting the largest hospital, Gaza City's Al Shifa, weeks after it was raided by Israeli forces in pursuit of Hamas militants.

The visiting WHO team "described the emergency department as a 'bloodbath', with hundreds of injured patients inside, and new patients arriving every minute", the organisation said.

"Patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor," it said, while "tens of thousands of displaced people are using the hospital building and grounds for shelter" amid "a severe shortage" of water and food.

The Israeli government has come under growing pressure, including from its top ally the United States, but also from families of hostages, to either slow, suspend or end the military campaign.

Relatives of hostages again rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for an urgent deal to bring them home after the army admitted to mistakenly killing three captives in Gaza.

Ruby Chen, father of 19-year-old soldier Itai, who is among the remaining 129 captives, said: “We feel like we’re in a Russian roulette game [finding out] who will be next in line to be told the death of their loved one.”

Nonetheless, according to reports, talks involving mediator Qatar have resumed toward another truce after a week-long ceasefire last month allowed for the hostages-for-prisoners swap.

News platform Axios said Israeli spy chief David Barnea met Friday in an unspecified European location with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who helped negotiate the earlier truce.

Qatar in a statement Saturday reaffirmed its “ongoing diplomatic efforts to renew the humanitarian pause”.

But Hamas said on Telegram it was “against any negotiations for the exchange of prisoners until the aggression against our people ceases completely”.

The Gaza war has also seen violence spiral in the occupied West Bank.

Five Palestinians were killed Sunday morning in an Israeli forces operation at the Tulkarem refugee camp, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

More than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the war erupted, health officials say.

The war has also raised fears of a broader Middle East conflict, with Israel exchanging regular fire with Iran-backed Hizbollah across its northern border with Lebanon.

And Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched repeated attacks at Israel and on passing vessels, causing major disruption to the key Red Sea shipping lane.

Major shipping companies have said they would redirect their vessels, among them Mediterranean Shipping Company, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Saturday he was travelling to Israel, Bahrain and Qatar to highlight Washington’s “commitments to strengthening regional security and stability”.

KUWAIT CITY — The ruling emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, died on Saturday aged 86, the royal court said.

"With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn... the death of Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait," said a statement aired on state television.

In November, Sheikh Nawaf was hospitalised "due to an emergency health problem", according to the official KUNA news agency. Sheikh Nawaf ascended to the role of crown prince in 2006, appointed by his half-brother Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah. He assumed the position of emir upon Sheikh Sabah's death in September 2020 at the age of 91.

In 2020, Sheikh Nawaf faced the challenge of navigating the economy through a crisis triggered by a fall in oil prices.

Sheikh Nawaf’s reign, though not the shortest in Kuwait’s history, was notable for issuing numerous amnesties, earning him the title “emir of pardons”, according to Bader Al Saif, an assistant professor of history at Kuwait University.

Last month, Kuwait’s Council of Ministers approved a draft royal decree calling for pardons for political prisoners convicted during the past decade. Similar pardons were also issued in 2021.

Sheikh Nawaf would also “be remembered for his unique personal attributes: Soft spoken, devout, modest, low profile”, Saif said.

Sheikh Nawaf’s rule also saw the Gulf country hold three parliamentary elections in as many years.

Born in 1937, Sheikh Nawaf was the fifth son of Kuwait’s late ruler from 1921 to 1950 Sheikh Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah.

He started his political career at the age of 25 as governor of Hawalli province, remaining in the position until 1978 when he began a decade-long tenure as interior minister.

DUBAI — Two of the world's largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said on Friday they were suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global commerce, after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally, say they're targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its two-month-old war with Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip.

The maritime tensions have added to fears that the Gaza conflict could spread.

German transport company Hapag-Lloyd said it was halting Red Sea container ship traffic until December 18, after the Houthis attacked one of its vessels.

"Hapag-Lloyd is interrupting all container ship traffic across the Red Sea until Monday," the company said in a statement sent to AFP.

The Danish firm Maersk made a similar announcement, a little earlier.

"We have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab Al Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice," it said.

Maersk said this followed a "near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday" as well as Friday's attack, in which the rebels struck a Hapag-Lloyd cargo ship in the Red Sea.

A US defence official identified it as the Liberia-flagged Al Jasrah, a 368-metre container ship built in 2016.

"We are aware that something launched from a Houthi-controlled region of Yemen struck this vessel which was damaged, and there was a report of a fire," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity so that he could discuss intelligence matters.

The US Central Command in the Middle East (CENTCOM) confirmed on X, formerly Twitter, that "a UAV" l struck the Al Jasrah causing a fire that was successfully extinguished.

Vessel seized 

A Hapag-Lloyd spokesman told AFP: "There has been an attack on one of our ships."

It was en route from the Greek port of Piraeus to Singapore. There were no casualties and the ship was travelling onward to its destination, he added.

Later in the day during a pro-Palestinian rally in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, the rebels said they attacked two other ships in the area.

"Container ships MSC Palatium and MSC Alanya were targeted by two naval missiles as they were heading toward the Israeli entity," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a broadcast on the rebels' television channel.

The rebels said that, in an earlier attack, the Maersk Gibraltar vessel was “targeted with a drone and the hit was direct”. According to a US official, the missile missed.

Saree said the attack came after the ship’s crew “refused to respond to the calls of the Yemeni naval services”, and that it was intended as retaliation for the “oppression of the Palestinian people”.

CENTCOM said that the MSC Alanya was only threatened but not struck, while the Palatium was hit by one of two ballistic missiles fired.

In a statement posted December 9 on social media, the Houthis said they “will prevent the passage” of ships heading to Israel, regardless of ownership, if food and medicine are not allowed into besieged, Hamas-ruled Gaza.

On Tuesday, they claimed responsibility for a missile strike on a Norwegian-flagged tanker.

Last month, they seized an Israel-linked cargo vessel, the Galaxy Leader, and its 25 international crew members.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday said the Houthi attacks “endanger not only Israel’s security” but also international shipping routes.

Speaking in Tel Aviv, United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan expressed similar concern and said Washington is working with the international community “to deal with this threat”.

Oil, gas route 

Asked at a press conference in Oslo about the potential for broader conflict after the Houthi attacks, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said: “Our region is very complex and we do not need any other conflicts to erupt.”

A Saudi-led military coalition has for years backed the Yemeni government against the Houthis, but a United Nations-brokered ceasefire has largely held since expiring over a year ago.

Iran’s Defence Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani warned on Wednesday against the possible deployment of multinational forces in the Red Sea, which he said would lead to “extraordinary problems”, the ISNA news agency said.

The attack on the Al Jasrah occurred near Bab Al Mandab, the narrow strait between Yemen and northeast Africa through which around 20,000 ships pass annually.

The area leads to the Red Sea, Israel’s southern port facilities and the Suez Canal, making it part of a strategic route for Gulf oil and natural gas shipments.

The Houthis have declared themselves part of the “axis of resistance” of Iran-affiliated groups.

Western warships are patrolling the area and have shot down Houthi missiles and drones several times.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel approved Friday the "temporary" delivery of aid into Gaza via its Kerem Shalom border crossing, the prime minister's office said, opening a new route for supplies after weeks of pressure.

The Gaza Strip is facing dire humanitarian conditions after more than two months of war, but prior to Friday's decision, all aid entering the territory had to pass through the Rafah crossing on its border with Egypt.

Kerem Shalom, which sits on Gaza's border with Israel, recently began inspecting shipments of aid bound for the territory, but the trucks still had to travel to Rafah afterwards to enter.

Israel's cabinet "approved today a temporary measure of unloading the trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing" in order to increase the amount of aid getting into the territory, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who was wrapping up a trip to Israel on Friday, called the decision a "significant step".

"President (Joe) Biden raised this issue … and it was an important topic of discussion during my visit to Israel over the past two days," he said.

The United States hopes “this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of life-saving assistance”, Sullivan added.

A World Health Organisation representative said the announcement was “very good news”, while a spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres also welcomed Kerem Shalom’s reopening.

“The fast implementation of this agreement will increase the flow of aid,” said spokesman Stephane Dujarric. “A humanitarian ceasefire will increase the distribution of that aid across Gaza even more.”