Region

ANKARA — An Ankara court Thursday ordered the leader of Turkey's largest opposition party to pay damages after ruling that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech in 2013, reports said.

The 10,000 lira ($3,820) fine handed to Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), comes amid growing concern over the multiplying number of cases over alleged insults against the president.

Erdogan had brought the case against Kilicdaroglu on the grounds that the opposition politician insulted him with statements that were vulgar, hurtful and contained criminal insinuations during a speech to the CHP parliamentary group in January 2013.

The president's lawyer Muammer Cemaloglu argued that the speech had violated Erdogan's rights.

Kilicdaroglu's lawyer, Celal Celik, countered that the speech contained concrete facts that were in the public interest.

Erdogan's lawyers had asked for a fine of 100,000 lira ($38,200) in the civil case.

Kilicdaroglu, who has repeatedly accused Erdogan and his inner circle of corruption, will be seeking to rattle the president with a strong performance in June 7 legislative elections.

The CHP sees itself as the champion of secular Turks and the ideas of the country's modern founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and accuses Erdogan of imposing an Islamisation on Turkey.

There has been growing concern over the number of cases coming before the courts over purported insults against Erdogan, who became president in 2014 after over a decade as premier.

Students, journalists and even a former Miss Turkey beauty queen are currently facing legal proceedings for insulting Erdogan on social media.

However Erdogan said in comments published Wednesday that he had every right to take people to court if they insult him, drawing a distinction between insults and criticism.

"Turkey is a state of law. In this democratic state of law do I also have my rights? I do," Erdogan told reporters aboard this presidential plane on a trip back from Iran.

He said he had a right to take legal action like any other Turkish citizen.

"I put myself in the place of a normal person and say to my lawyer friends 'this is not criticism, once it gets to the point of being an insult do what is required by the law'," Erdogan added.

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Egypt should free ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from jail and lift death sentences against his supporters before Ankara could consider an improvement in relations with Cairo.

Ties between the two former allies have been strained since then Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi toppled elected president Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Egyptian security forces then mounted one of the fiercest crackdowns against the Islamist movement, killings hundreds of supporters at a Cairo protest camp, arresting thousands and putting Morsi and other leaders on trial.

"Mr Morsi is a president elected by 52 per cent of the votes. They should give him his freedom," Erdogan was quoted by Turkish newspapers as telling reporters travelling on his plane as he returned from an official visit to Iran.

An official from Erdogan's office confirmed his comments.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has close ties with Turkey's ruling AK Party, which Erdogan co-founded and which has emerged as one of the fiercest international critics of Morsi's removal, calling it an "unacceptable coup" by the army.

Erdogan's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, and his support of a Saudi-led military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen in which Egyptian warships have taken part, have triggered speculation about a possible thaw in ties between Ankara and Cairo.

Erdogan had more conditions before that could happen, and reiterated his criticism of Western countries for not being more vocal about Egypt's treatment of political prisoners.

"Secondly, doesn't the West say it is against the death sentence? There are 3,000 people there sentenced to death. This should be lifted," Erdogan said, when he was asked if there was any chance of rapprochement in relations with Cairo.

Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of alleged Brotherhood supporters to death in recent months, many in mass trials condemned by foreign governments and rights groups as violating international law.

Erdogan said there were around 18,000 political prisoners who should be retried and bans on political parties in Egypt, which he says are arbitrary, should be removed.

"They say 'Turkey should not interfere with our domestic affairs'. We are not interfering. If something happens in a country against freedoms, we should speak up," Erdogan said.

Egypt has complained about previous comments made by Erdogan against Sisi and rejected Turkey's criticism of the government.

MOSCOW — Talks between the Syrian government and members of the tolerated opposition dragged on Thursday in Moscow with little sign of concrete progress towards ending the conflict in the country.

Opposition activist Mays Al Kridi said that the two sides appeared "almost certain" to ink a vague "plan of some eight or nine points" calling for a political process to resolve the fighting.

"In Syria it is a time of bloodshed. We have to move faster and to make compromises," Kridi said.

However, the potential signing of the document appeared to offer little hope of a breakthrough towards ending the war, given the absence of main Western-backed exiled Syrian opposition National Coalition from the talks.

Earlier talks in Moscow in January yielded a similar document that had no impact on the fighting on the ground.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Al Jaafari, who has headed the government delegation at the talks that started Monday, is supposed to give a press conference Thursday but that was rescheduled to Friday.

Members of the opposition National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change were also scheduled to hold a press conference Friday.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier urged Syrians to take responsibility for ending the conflict in their country as he opened a meeting between the two sides.

"Developments in and around Syria require urgent measures to ensure the country's protection from terrorist aggression and to restore its unity," Lavrov said.

 Opposition squabbles 

Moscow's latest attempt to bring government and opposition together comes amid continuing strikes by the US-led coalition against Daesh, with Canada on Wednesday sending two F-18s to target IS positions near the Syrian city of Raqqa.

Opposition activists at the talks in Moscow told AFP earlier Friday that the negotiations with Damascus were being hampered by squabbling between the opposition representatives.

Analysts said the meeting was designed to help Russia — a firm ally of the Assad regime — bolster its profile as a peace broker in the region.

The opposition National Coalition accused Russia of seeking to use the talks to bolster Assad, and declined to attend.

Most of Syria's opposition in exile has made it clear that Assad must step down in any deal to end the conflict that began with demonstrations against his rule in March 2011.

An Arab diplomat following the developments had told AFP that a proposal now being floated would see Assad stay in power for two or three more years to prepare a transition, given Russian and US fears about the consequences if his regime collapsed suddenly.

The window for any such agreement is fairly small, with Washington reportedly insisting that any deal be signed before campaigning for the 2016 presidential election begins in earnest in the autumn.

RAMALLAH — Palestinian police said on Wednesday they had extended their security control in parts of the occupied West Bank following a deal with Israel, launching armed patrols for the first time in towns near Jerusalem.

Louy Izriqat, the spokesman for Palestinian police, said 90 officers had deployed in Abu Dis, A-Ram and Biddu, towns that had been largely under Israeli security control since a 1993 interim peace accord.

Subsequent negotiations between the two sides have failed to secure a lasting deal, but minor advancements were made on the sidelines of now-defunct US-brokered talks, including one to expand the authority of Palestinian police in some areas.

"An old agreement is being implemented today," Izriqat told Reuters, adding that the officers, armed with rifles and pistols, would mainly be responsible for fighting crime.

It was not clear why the deal had been revived.

The Israeli military issued a statement that a general recently put in charge of Israeli forces in the West Bank had decided to open police stations in these towns "to address criminal matters as well as to maintain public order for the Palestinian population" in a portion of the West Bank near Jerusalem.

Palestinian police have patrolled other parts of the West Bank, territory Israel occupied in a 1967 war, but largely in areas under the direct control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), such as Ramallah and Bethlehem.

Palestinian neighbourhoods near Jerusalem, which Israel has unilaterally declared as its undivided capital, have been mainly under the control of Israeli forces.

Last month Palestinian leaders warned they might halt security coordination with Israel, which is seen by Western diplomats as vital to maintaining relative calm in the West Bank and preventing a new uprising, or Intifada.

The threat came after Israel decided to hold onto the Palestinian tax revenues that it collects on behalf of the PA after Palestinian leaders announced they would join the International Criminal Court.

At international urging, Israel sent the Palestinians some of the retained funds earlier this week, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to accept the cash, disputing Israel’s decision to deduct large sums for utility bills.

DAMASCUS — A Palestinian official said on Thursday he supported a Syrian army offensive to regain control of the war-battered Yarmouk camp on the outskirts of Damascus that has fallen into the hands of Daesh.

The radical Islamist group, which rules swathes of Syria and Iraq, seized almost all of Yarmouk in recent days, brushing aside local militia opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"They have tried to used the camp as a launching pad to expand their scope of clashes and their terror activities inside and outside the camp," said Ahmad Majdalani, a minister in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority who was sent to Damascus by the PLO leadership to discuss the crisis with the government.

Majdalani said the Syrian army alongside local Palestinian groups had had some success in pushing back Daesh militants and had so far secured 35 per cent of the camp.

The sprawling Yarmouk was home to some 160,000 Palestinians before the Syrian conflict began in 2011 — refugees from the 1948 war of Israel's creation, and their descendents.

Majdalani said there were just 17,500 residents left, with around 2,000 evacuated since the latest round of fighting.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain, earlier said that Daesh controlled 90 per cent of the camp after defeating fighters mainly from Aknaf Beit Al Maqdis — a Syrian and Palestinian militia opposed to Assad.

Daesh, the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, is now only a few kilometres from Assad's seat of power.

The Palestinian official echoed the Syrian government line that only way to rid the camp of the ultra radical militants was through force.

"What we have agreed with our Syrian brothers and factions is that the options that existed for a political solution were closed by the fighters of Daesh," he said, using a derogatory term for Daesh.

"The crimes they have committed... left us with no choice except a security one that respects the partnership with the Syrian state," he told a news conference in Damascus.

The Observatory has said Syrian air force jets had been waging a bombing campaign on militant hideouts in the camp almost daily since Daesh fighters infiltrated from the adjacent, rebel-held Hajar Al Aswad neighbourhood.

The United Nations has said it is extremely concerned about the safety and protection of Syrians and Palestinians in the camp. Civilians trapped there have long suffered a government siege that has led to chronic food shortages and disease.

Majdalani said the Daesh drive to seize Yarmouk had upset a fragile status quo that reigned inside the camp since it was taken over by opposition groups over two years ago and was an attempt to suck Palestinians into the wider Syrian conflict.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday demanded that all sanctions on Iran be lifted at the same time as any final agreement with world powers on curbing Tehran's nuclear programme is concluded.

Khamenei, the Islamic republic's most powerful figure and who has the last say on all state matters, was making his first comments on the interim deal reached between Iran and the powers last week in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

He repeated his faith in President Hassan Rouhani's negotiating team. But in remarks apparently meant to keep hardline loyalists on side, he warned about the "devilish" intentions of the United States.

"I neither support nor oppose the deal. Everything is in the details, it may be that the deceptive other side wants to restrict us in the details," Khamenei said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

His stand on the lifting of sanctions matched earlier comments by Rouhani, who said Iran would only sign a final nuclear accord if all measures imposed over its disputed atomic work are lifted on the same day.

These include nuclear-related United Nations resolutions as well as US and EU nuclear-related economic sanctions.

“All sanctions should be removed when the deal is signed. If the sanctions removal depends on other processes, then why did we start the negotiations?” Khamenei said.

However, the United States said on Monday sanctions would have to be phased out gradually under the comprehensive nuclear pact. France also said on Tuesday that many differences, including on sanctions, needed to be overcome if a final agreement was to be reached.

The US and EU sanctions have choked off nearly 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian exports since early 2012, reducing its oil exports by 60 per cent to around 1 million barrels a day.

The tentative accord was a step towards a settlement that would allay Western fears that Iran could build an atomic bomb, with economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted in return.

Negotiators from Iran, the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China will resume negotiations in the coming days to pave the way for the final deal.

One problem is that Iran and the world powers may have different interpretations on what was agreed in the framework accord — a point Khamenei made evident.

“Americans put out a statement just a few hours after our negotiators finished their talks... this statement, which they called a ‘fact sheet’, was wrong on most of the issues.” Khamenei said.

Enmity and mistrust remains

Since relations with Washington collapsed after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, enmity towards the United States has always been a rallying point for Iranian hardliners.

“I was never optimistic about negotiating with America... nonetheless I agreed to the negotiations and supported, and still support, the negotiators,” Khamenei said to chants of “Death to America”.

“I support a deal that preserves the interests and honour of Iran.”

The United States and its Western allies say it is vital that Iran fully cooperate with a UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation into past nuclear activities that could be related to making weapons.

Iran for its part has said that “possible military dimensions” (PMD) are an issue it will not budge on.

“PMD is out of the question. It cannot be discussed,” an Iranian official said. This issue has not been resolved.

Khamenei ruled out any “extraordinary supervision measures” over Iran’s nuclear activities.

“Iran’s military sites cannot be inspected under the excuse of nuclear supervision,” he said.

‘Extraordinary monitoring’

A final deal would require a vigorous monitoring framework to ensure Iranian compliance. The negotiators have been working out a monitoring mechanism that would involve the IAEA. This has not been considered a sticking point in the nuclear talks.

France, which has demanded more stringent conditions on Iran, said the comments by the Iranian leadership showed that reaching a final deal would be difficult and that in any case there would need to be a mechanism in place to restore sanctions if Tehran violated its commitments.

“Subjects still remain that we aren’t agreed on, notably on economic sanctions, and the Supreme Leader has made statements that show there is still a lot of work to be done,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told lawmakers.

“We are going to keep the position we have held from the beginning, which is constructive but extremely demanding,” Fabius said.

In a ceremony on Thursday to mark Iran’s National Day of Nuclear Technology, Rouhani said Tehran’s aim was to secure the Iranian nation’s nuclear rights.

“Our goal in the talks is to preserve our nation’s nuclear rights. We want an outcome that will be in everyone’s benefit,” Rouhani said in a speech. “The Iranian nation has been and will be the victor in the negotiations.”

However, Khamenei said the tentative deal did not guarantee reaching a comprehensive deal by a deadline on June 30.

“What has been achieved so far does not guarantee a deal or even that the negotiations will continue to the end,” Khamenei said, adding that an extension of the deadline should not be a problem.

Khameni reiterated Iranian denials that Tehran was seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

A senior Israeli defence official repeated Israel’s fears that Iran could still obtain a nuclear weapon if sanctions were lifted immediately and would have more money to spend on arming regional proxies.

“The moment the sanctions are removed, tens of billions [of dollars] will flow to their coffers,” Amos Gilad said in a radio interview after Rouhani’s speech.

“They will get rich. They will have the power to support the entire network of missiles and rockets.”

ADEN — Washington warned Thursday it would not stand by while Tehran supports rebels in Yemen, as Iran's supreme leader denounced Saudi-led air strikes as "criminal acts".

In the most direct American criticism yet of Tehran's backing for the Shiite Houthi rebels, Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would not accept foreign interference in Yemen.

"There have been  flights coming from Iran. Every single week there are flights from Iran and we've traced it and know this," Kerry told PBS television.

"Iran needs to recognise that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilised or while people engage in overt warfare across lines, international boundaries in other countries."

Washington has backed the air campaign which begin last month as the rebels advanced on Yemen’s main southern city of Aden after seizing Sanaa.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the campaign against the Houthis must end.

“This move is not acceptable in the region and I would warn that they must stop these criminal acts in Yemen,” he said on his website.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled Aden for Saudi Arabia during the Houthi advance and the city has since seen heavy clashes between pro- and anti-government forces.

Riyadh has accused Tehran, the major Shiite power, of backing the rebels in a bid to establish a pro-Iran state on its doorstep.

‘Children in battle’ 

But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted Tehran wanted a swift end to the fighting which has killed more than 640 people since March 19, according to the World Health Organisation.

The UN children’s agency warned Thursday that around 30 per cent of fighters in Yemen’s armed groups were minors.

“We are seeing children in battle, at checkpoints and unfortunately among [those] killed and injured,” Julien Harneis, UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, told AFP during a stop in Geneva.

Kerry, after world powers agreed a framework deal with Iran on its nuclear programme, said Washington was not looking for confrontation.

“But we’re not going to step away from our alliances and our friendships and the need to stand with those who feel threatened as a consequence of the choices that Iran might be making.”

In another sign of growing US support for the Saudi effort, the Pentagon said it had started aerial refuelling for coalition aircraft.

Overnight air strikes killed at least 14 rebels near Aden’s northern edge, a source in pro-government forces told AFP.

On Thursday, witnesses heard three explosions as coalition aircraft attacked the defence ministry building in Sanaa.

Norwegian media reported that a 28-year-old journalist named as Raymond Lidal has been held in Sanaa since late March and accused of spying after failing to show a journalist’s visa while filming air strikes against the Houthis.

An official in Aden said air strikes also hit a military camp in the southern Shabwa province held by the Houthis’ main allies, forces who have remained loyal to former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh who was ousted in 2012 after an Arab Spring-inspired uprising.

There was no information on casualties.

Afterwards, the troops deployed in nearby Ataq city and raised Houthi flags, military sources said.

Since Saleh’s ouster, Hadi has been unable to assert government authority in a deeply divided tribal country.

Diplomatic efforts 

As well as the Houthis, from north Yemen, the government has struggled against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), considered the most dangerous branch of the jihadist network.

Yemen for years allowed Washington to wage a drone war against AQAP, but US forces pulled out amid the latest unrest.

Al Qaeda has taken advantage of the chaos to seize some areas and also launch deadly attacks on both government forces and the Houthis.

Concern has been growing for what aid workers say is a mounting humanitarian crisis.

Some aid trickled in to Aden by ship on Wednesday but efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to organise cargo flights into Sanaa have so far failed.

In Aden, witnesses have said the situation is dire, with bodies lying in the streets.

Diplomatic efforts have stepped up to resolve the conflict, with the Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministers pledging at talks in Islamabad on Wednesday to work towards finding a negotiated solution.

Zarif laid out a four-stage plan for talks, calling for an immediate ceasefire followed by humanitarian assistance, dialogue among Yemenis and creation of an “all-inclusive government”.

Turkish media quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday as calling for a regional effort to end the fighting.

“Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran should be involved in efforts for a diplomatic solution,” he said.

CAIRO — Egyptian jihadist group Ajnad Misr confirmed Thursday the death of its leader Hammam Mohamed Attiyah, who police said was shot dead in a gunfight in Cairo.

On Sunday, the interior ministry announced that Attiyah was killed in a Cairo apartment when security forces raided it, without saying when.

Police say Attiyah previously belonged to Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, the Egyptian branch of Daesh terror group, but broke away in 2013 to found Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) — a small group operating mainly in Cairo.

"We are happy to announce to the Islamic nation and the mujahedeen the news of the martyrdom of the leader Hammam Attiyah," Ajnad Misr announced on Twitter.

It said Attiyah had been succeeded by Ezz Al Din Al Masry, without providing any details about him.

Ajnad Misr said Attiyah had previously fought in Iraq and in Sinai.

In January, Ajnad Misr had aired a video interview of Attiyah, showing his face blurred and explaining the group’s vision and strategies.

It has claimed several bombings against security forces across the capital, including near important buildings such as presidential palaces and Cairo University.

Its attacks have not caused large numbers of casualties but killed several policemen.

The group says it deliberately uses low-yield bombs to avoid harming civilians, although several of its attacks have caused civilian casualties.

Ajnad Misr says its attacks are in retaliation for a brutal government crackdown targeting supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

Hundreds of Islamists have been killed and thousands jailed in the crackdown since the army ousted Morsi in 2013.

BEIRUT — The US embassy in Beirut is supposed to reach out to Lebanon's residents, but scammers have reportedly taken advantage, impersonating the ambassador in a bid to solicit money.

In an e-mail and postings on social media on Wednesday, the embassy warned that messages seeking money, purportedly from ambassador David Hale, were the work of fraudsters.

"Don't believe them!" the embassy warned.

The scam reportedly involved both e-mails and use of the networking site LinkedIn, with targets being invited to "connect" on the website with Hale.

"When they have, they received a message saying that, for a certain sum of money, they could be named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations," the embassy said.

"Victims were then requested to send money to an office in London."

"Ambassador Hale does not make UN appointments and would not solicit funds from people," the embassy made clear.

In other cases, the scammers attempted to elicit feeds for the processing of immigrant visas and work permits.

Internet fraudsters worldwide have long sought to extract money from the vulnerable and gullible with messages promising riches, fame and love.

Some more sophisticated rackets have netted criminals millions of dollars, according to law enforcement officials.

BERLIN — An Israeli man who was killed in Berlin at the weekend was a tourist who sought help because he was short of funds for a flight, the embassy said Thursday.

The man, identified by police Thursday as 22-year-old Yosi Damari, was found by passersby early Sunday beaten beyond recognition in the ruins of a Gothic church.

"The dead man had visited the Israeli embassy on Good Friday (April 3) and we helped him with a few matters," an embassy spokeswoman said.

She said he asked for his family in Israel to be contacted so they could help him buy a plane ticket.

"We have no information about a motive. Our consul general is in close contact with the Berlin police and our staff is also in contact with his relatives in Israel," she added in an e-mail.

Police have opened a murder investigation into the case in which the victim was found in the ruins of the 14th century Church of the Franciscan Monastery, which was destroyed during World War II.

The site is near City Hall and Alexanderplatz, which has seen an increase in violent crime in recent years including two high-profile killings of young men.

Police said that Damari is believed to have "incurred massive injuries that led to his death" between 5 and 9pm on Saturday and was in the capital as a tourist "at least since Friday".

"The place the body was found is also the scene of the crime," it added, renewing a call for witnesses to come forward.

Police determined his identity based on a passport found with the body and subsequent DNA testing.

Long shunned as the city where the Holocaust was planned, Berlin has seen a mass influx of young Israelis in recent years attracted by its lower rents and food costs and famed nightlife.