Region

TEHRAN — Schoolchildren and some government employees in Tehran have been ordered to stay at home this week due to severe air pollution in the Iranian capital, a recurring phenomenon in autumn and winter.

The “red warning” for hazardous air quality extends beyond the capital, affecting major cities nationwide, including Ahvaz in the southwest, Isfahan in the centre, and Tabriz in the northwest.

In Tehran, a sprawling metropolis of about 9 million people, kindergartens and schools have shuttered their doors since Sunday, transitioning to online classes.

The provincial governor’s office advises that people deemed “sensitive” — such as children, the elderly, and pregnant women — should refrain from outdoor activities and physical exercise.

Vulnerable public sector workers have been urged to work remotely.

Azam Keyvan, a 40-year-old civil servant, laments, “The situation is horrible. My throat itches as soon as I go out into the street.” She adds that the challenging conditions have deprived her of the ability to exercise for several days.

“We can’t breathe anymore,” decries Saeed Sattari, a 42-year-old street vendor in Tehran who sells cooked meals. He bemoans the economic toll of the pollution, saying, “I’m going bankrupt” since people avoid going outside.

Deadly consequences 

The familiar pattern unfolds as colder weather set in: The clear blue sky at dawn slowly succumbs to thickening, yellowish smog that blankets the affected cities during the day, obscuring the view.

Many experts warn of the grave health and economic consequences of pollution. They say it claims the lives of about 40,000 people each year in the oil-rich country of around 85 million people, as reported by the media.

Tehran, renowned for its congested traffic and high population, makes up about one-sixth of the total casualties, according to a parliamentary report.

City council members Soudeh Nadjafi and Mehdi Pirhadi recently highlighted “burning mazout” in some of Tehran’s power plants as a major contributor to the city’s pollution, a claim rejected by the government.

“Electricity supplies have become more dependent on thermal and gas power plants, which naturally increases the sources of air pollution,” says environmental expert Sadegh Partani.

“Turning to new and sustainable sources of energies, such as solar, is one of the best ways to reduce air pollution caused by electricity producing industries,” the university professor adds.

Consistently earning a top spot among the world’s most polluted cities, Tehran is nestled on the southern slopes of the Alborz mountains. These imposing peaks act as a trap for the city’s contaminated air.

Since March, “Tehran has had nine days of clean air” only, the service responsible for monitoring air quality said on Monday.

Thermal inversion 

The phenomenon known as thermal inversion peaks during winter, when cold air and a lack of wind trap hazardous smog over the capital for days on end.

“Car fuel pollution in climates and weather conditions prone to the inversion phenomenon can be one of the main sources of air pollution,” Partani says.

In 2017, the Iranian parliament adopted the “Clear Air Law” giving authorities including the government, municipality and police a mandate to step up measures to curb pollution.

Despite its enactment, the law has struggled to control the problem, forcing authorities to close kindergartens, schools and universities and in rare cases government offices in the colder seasons.

“Closing schools has nothing to do with reducing air pollution, but it is directly connected to reducing the health risks to vulnerable age groups,” says the expert Partani.

A World Bank report listed heavy vehicles, motorcycles, refineries and thermal power plants as the main causes of pollution.

Air pollution is high on the agenda of this year’s UN Climate Change Conference held in the UAE, which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi skipped to protest the presence of Israel at the summit.

DUBAI — With 2023 confirmed to be the hottest year on record by Europe's climate monitor, the temperature was also rising Wednesday on negotiators thrashing out the thorny issue of fossil fuels at COP28 in Dubai.

Pressure for progress is mounting as the UN climate talks near the end of their first week, with the latest draft of a global climate agreement "probably" expected on Wednesday before it is finalised, in theory, on December 12, said one observer.

The fate of oil, gas and coal, the main drivers of human-caused planet heating — has been the biggest sticking point on the agenda and divisions around their future have dominated the conference.

The situation is "very dynamic", one negotiator said on Tuesday evening, as representatives of nearly 200 countries haggle over the text that responds to a damning stocktake of progress on limiting warming.

Battle lines have previously been drawn on whether to agree to "phase out" or "phase down" fossil fuels.

A new phrase committing to an "orderly and just" phase-out of fossil fuels could signal a consensus candidate, giving countries different timelines to cut emissions depending on their level of development and reliance on hydrocarbons.

But there is another option: no mention at all of fossil fuels, which reflects opposition from nations including Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, according to several observers who attended the closed meetings.

India on Tuesday evening also opposed naming specific sectors or energy sources, one observer said.

The Paris Agreement that emerged from COP21 in 2015 was a “great success for all of us”, Saudi Arabia’s Chief Climate Negotiator Khalid Almehaid told the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum on Tuesday.

“The challenge that we have today is how can we keep that train with all of its passengers,” he added, alluding to the kingdom’s objection to phasing down fossil fuels.

But some of the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change on Wednesday urged called for a harder stance on fossil fuels.

The Alliance of Small Islands States “calls on major emitters to enhance their commitments, including... leading the way on fossil fuel phase out, phasing out all fossil fuel subsidies, and ensuring peaking of global emissions before 2025 and halving them by 2030,” the group’s chair Cedric Schuster said in a statement.

As it stands, the draft agreement includes options to phase out fossil fuels or not address the issue at all, setting the stage for tough negotiations due to end next week.

Climate experts, however, have warned that global warming could breach the 1.5ºC  Paris deal limit within seven years if emissions are not slashed.

The new draft of the negotiated text expected on Wednesday must be brought to a large plenary meeting taking stock of the first week of talks ahead of a rest day on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 2023 has seen a series of devastating extreme weather events linked to climate change, even as the world’s carbon emissions continue to rise.

Europe’s climate monitor on Wednesday said this year will be the hottest in recorded history after November became the sixth record-breaking month in a row.

‘Temperature will keep rising’ 

Last month smashed the previous November heat record, pushing 2023’s global average temperature to 1.46ºC warmer than pre-industrial levels, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said.

There had been previous warnings this year could take the title of hottest year from 2016, particularly after records toppled in September and October, but this marks the first time it has been confirmed.

November also contained two days that were 2ºC warmer than pre-industrial levels. Not one such day had ever before been recorded.

Samantha Burgess, deputy head of the Copernicus service, said that 2023 has “now had six record-breaking months and two record-breaking seasons”.

“The extraordinary global November temperatures, including two days warmer than 2ºC above pre-industrial [levels], mean that 2023 is the warmest year in recorded history,” she said.

Copernicus head Carlo Buontempo said that “as long as greenhouse gas concentrations keep rising we can’t expect different outcomes”.

“The temperature will keep rising and so will the impacts of heatwaves and droughts.”

ABU DHABI — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday landed in the United Arab Emirates for a rare visit outside the former Soviet Union, as Moscow seeks to reassert itself on the global stage.

Isolated by the West over the Ukraine war, Putin is courting allies in the Middle East, where he will discuss oil, trade and the Hamas-Israel conflict.

“Vladimir Putin has arrived in the United Arab Emirates for a working visit,” the Kremlin said, before he was scheduled to travel onwards to Saudi Arabia.

Russian state television showed UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and other officials greeting Putin on the runway.

Trade and oil will be on the agenda in the UAE, which is “Russia’s main economic partner in the Arab world”, according to a statement issued by the Kremlin ahead of the visit.

Bilateral trade turnover between the two countries reached a record level $9b in 2022, the Kremlin said.

Putin is expected to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman when he arrives in Saudi Arabia later Wednesday.

This is only the Russian leader’s third trip outside the former Soviet Union since he invaded Ukraine, after visits to Iran and China.

Putin has since March been wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court which has accused him of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

Putin skipped the BRICS summit in South Africa in August to avoid causing a “political show” and missed the in-person flagship G20 summit in September.

BEIRUT — A Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli fire on a military post near the country's southern border on Tuesday, Lebanon's army said, the first such death since cross-border hostilities began in October.

The Lebanon-Israel border has seen intensifying exchanges of fire since war broke out between Hamas and Israel in October, mainly involving the Iran-backed Hizbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration.

"An army military position in the... Adaysseh area was bombarded by the Israeli enemy, leaving one soldier martyred and three others injured," the Lebanese army said in a statement.

The death was the first fatality in the ranks of the country's armed forces since hostilities broke out.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported on Tuesday that Israeli forces shelled and carried out air strikes on southern Lebanon, with Hizbollah also claiming several attacks on Israeli troops and positions.

More than 110 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly Hizbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On October 9, Israeli shelling slightly injured a Lebanese officer.

On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, Israeli authorities said.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission has also said its headquarters in Lebanon’s south has been hit by shelling several times since hostilities began.

Hizbollah says its attacks on Israel have been in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s sudden attack on southern Israel on October 7.

AS SAWIYAH, Palestinian Territories — Moussa is eight years old and really likes marbles. But for the past month, this Palestinian boy, living in the occupied West Bank, has a new game: "Pretend daddy isn't dead."

He calls his dad, imagines what he did with his day and acts like he's suddenly going to run into him.

But his father, Bilal Saleh, was killed on October 28.

The 40-year-old was shot in the chest while picking olives with his family near his home in the village of As-Sawiyah.

Saleh is one of more than 250 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, according to a Palestinian government tally, since Hamas's sudden attack on October 7 sparked a new war with Israel.

"He was a simple man, attached to his land," says his widow, Ikhlas, showing images on her phone of Saleh in the fields, reciting the Koran with Moussa and at a wedding.

She struggles to even look at them, let alone tell the story of what happened.

The children pressed around her fill in the details.

Spat on 

Videos from the scene show four men wearing the knitted yarmulkes that are popular among Israeli settlers, shouting towards the family as they are harvesting.

One is armed with an automatic rifle.

The family flees, but Saleh has forgotten his phone and runs back to fetch it.

A few minutes later, a gunshot rings out.

The family rushes back to find Saleh bleeding from the chest.

Continued on page 5

West Bank family sees no hope of justice in settler killings

He was taken to a hospital about 10 kilometres away but declared dead soon after.

The family says Ikhlas' brother and father saw on social media that a man had been arrested for the shooting but released a few hours later.

The police and COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civilian activities in the Palestinian territories, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from AFP.

A few days later, without knowing why, Ikhlas was called to a police station in Ariel, a neighbouring Israeli settlement, where police asked her to explain what she saw.

"At the entrance, while a guard was checking my identity papers, a settler drove by. He saw that I was veiled and he rolled down his window to spit on me," she told AFP.

"After that, I don't see what kind of justice they could give us," she added.

Israeli human rights group Yesh Din convinced her to file a complaint anyway, though it says a study of settler violence cases between 2005 and 2021 showed 92 percent were dismissed by the Israeli authorities.

 'Even worse' 

Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

Nearly half a million Israelis also live there in settlements considered illegal by the United Nations.

"For the past 10 years, it has been getting more and more serious," said Hazem Saleh, Bilal's brother-in-law. "We are being attacked, our land is being taken from us, settlements are being built. They have the power, they can do what they want."

Israel has relaxed laws on access to weapons, promising to arm Israeli civilians in at least 1,000 localities, including settlements.

On Saturday, settlers opened fire on a 38-year-old Palestinian in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

The As-Sawiyah residents' WhatsApp group is a litany of fear and violence.

Mouna Saleh, 56, Bilal's mother-in-law, fears for the children, especially Moussa and Mayce "who are so small, what can we explain to them?"

"How can you kill a man in a few seconds, in front of children? What is this world?" she said.

"We're not calling for violence or revenge. We call for peace, justice, mercy as our Prophet Mohammed did," said Hazem.

"All we can do is tell our story, even if it pains us."

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israel has moved ground forces into the south of Gaza in its war on Hamas, witnesses said on Monday, despite global concern over mounting civilian deaths and fears the conflict will spread elsewhere in the Middle East.

Dozens of Israeli tanks as well as armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers entered the south of the territory near the city of Khan Yunis, which is crowded with internally displaced Palestinians, witnesses told AFP.

Amin Abu Hawli, 59, said the Israeli vehicles were “2 kilometres inside” Gaza in the village of Al Qarara, while Moaz Mohammed, 34, said Israeli tanks were rolling down the strip’s main north-south highway, the Salah Al Din road.

Weeks after Israel sent ground forces and tanks into northern Gaza, the army has been air-dropping leaflets in the besieged territory’s south, especially around Khan Yunis, telling Palestinians there to flee to other areas.

Full-scale fighting resumed on Friday after the collapse of a week-long truce brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, during which Israel and Hamas had exchanged scores of hostages and prisoners.

Air strikes have since intensified in Gaza’s south, said James Elder, a spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.

“Despite what has been assured, attacks in the south of Gaza are every bit as vicious as what the north endured,” he posted Monday on X, formerly Twitter.

“Somehow, it’s getting worse for children and mothers.”

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas for the Islamist group’s October 7 sudden attacks.

Israel’s military said Sunday it had carried out around 10,000 air strikes in total, while Gaza fighters had resumed rocket salvos into Israel, most of which had been intercepted.

The health ministry in Gaza says more than 15,500 people have been killed in Gaza, about 70 per cent of them women and children, a death toll that has sparked global alarm and mass demonstrations.

 ‘No safe place’ 

“There is no safe place in Gaza,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said as a UN agency estimated around 1.8 million people in Gaza, roughly 75 per cent of the population, had been displaced.

Israeli forces said on Monday three more soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, raising the number of troop deaths there to 75.

The fatalities brought the number of Israeli forces personnel killed since October 7, among them those killed in the Hamas attacks themselves and including soldiers, reservists, kibbutz guards and others, to 401.

Under the temporary truce that expired on Friday, 80 Israeli hostages were freed, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. More than two dozen Thai and other captives were also released from Gaza.

With at least 137 hostages still held in Gaza, according to the Israeli military, Hamas has ruled out more releases until a permanent ceasefire is agreed.

More air strikes have rained down on northern Gaza where the government and the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the entrance of the Kamal Adwan hospital was hit late Sunday.

Several people were killed in the strike, Wafa said, while Hamas accused Israel on Telegram of a “grave violation” of humanitarian law. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Israel says Hamas uses hospitals and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes, an accusation the group denies.

Nine-year-old Huda, who was wounded in the head, arrived at the Deir Al Balah hospital with a Red Cross convoy bringing casualties from northern Gaza.

“She doesn’t answer me anymore,” said her bereaved father Abdelkarim Abu Warda.

‘Too many innocents killed’ 

Israel’s ally the United States has intensified calls for the protection of Gaza’s civilians, with Vice President Kamala Harris saying that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed”.

A White House official said on Sunday the United States believes Israel is “making an effort” to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza.

Israel said on Monday it was not seeking to force Palestinian civilians to permanently leave their homes, even as it acknowledged conditions in Gaza were “tough”.

Any suggestion of Palestinian dispersal is highly contentious in the Arab world as the war that led to Israel’s creation 75 years ago gave rise to the exodus or forced displacement of 760,000 Palestinians.

Israeli occupation military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Monday: “We are not trying to displace anyone, we are not trying to move anybody from anywhere permanently.

“We have asked civilians to evacuate the battlefield and we have provided a designated humanitarian zone inside the Gaza Strip,” he said, referring to a tiny coastal area of the territory named Al Mawasi.

With fears of a wider regional conflagration rising, a US destroyer shot down multiple drones over the Red Sea while assisting commercial ships on Sunday, according to the US Central Command.

Fighting also flared on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

Israeli forces said it had launched artillery strikes in response to cross-border fire, and its fighter jets hit targets linked to Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.

The Israel-occupied West Bank has also seen a surge in violence since October.

The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said two Palestinians had been shot dead in an Israeli raid on the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, adding that Israeli forces kept the two bodies.