Region

ANKARA — Failure to finalise a framework agreement between Iran and the six major powers aimed at curbing the country's sensitive nuclear work could profoundly destabilise the Islamic Republic, analysts and politicians say.

Iranians' hopes of ending their international isolation have risen so high since the accord that failure to finalise it would generate levels of dismay that could hurt the authorities, even if the West was portrayed as the guilty party, analysts say.

"Finally it is over. The isolation is over. The economic hardship is over. [President Hassan] Rouhani kept his promises," said university student Mina Derakhshande, who was among a cheering crowd on Friday.

"Failure of the talks will be end of the world for us Iranians. I cannot tolerate it."

Managing popular expectations will be more difficult in Iran now, said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"If the deal doesn't come to fruition, most Americans won't notice, while most Iranians will be devastated," Sadjadpour said.

The tentative deal on curbing Iran's nuclear work, reached on Thursday in Lausanne, revived hopes of an end to sanctions in return for limits on its atomic programme, opening the way for economic reform and international recognition.

While the man who ultimately matters, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has remained silent over the agreement, some hardline conservatives have taken off the gloves.

The deal has heightened their anger over pragmatist Rouhani's 2013 election as president on a pledge to improve foreign relations and revive the economy.

But politicians and analysts say Khamenei approved "any step taken" by the Iranian nuclear negotiators, and the tension will abate if Khamenei supports the deal.

"Without the leader's approval, the Iranian team could not agree to the framework deal in Lausanne. There is no rift among top decision makers over the framework agreement," said a senior Iranian official, who asked for anonymity.

The establishment groups behind Rouhani's election win — the Revolutionary Guards, powerful clerics and influential politicians — have united in public to support the nuclear deal, which was praised by the president as a "historic opportunity" that would benefit everyone.

Speaker Ali Larijani said parliament "supported the deal", Iran's military chief and a close ally to Khamenei, General Hassan Firouzabadi, congratulated Khamenei on the "success" of Iranian negotiators and thanked Rouhani for the deal and the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"The Iranian nation and the Revolutionary Guards appreciate the negotiators' honest political efforts," said IRGC's top commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said, Fars reported on Tuesday. But criticism of Rouhani has also increased, with hardline conservatives casting the government as insufficiently robust on the nuclear programme.

The critics, wary of any detente with the West they fear would imperil the Islamic Revolution, hold influential positions in parliament, the security forces and intelligence services.

"Iran has exchanged its saddled horse for one with a broken bridle," Fars quoted Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the hardline Kayhan daily and an adviser to Khamenei, as saying.

‘Backing the deal, denouncing US’

With this in mind, some analysts believe that Khamenei will show flexibility when he repeats his faith in the negotiating team led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was given a hero's welcome on his return to Tehran on Friday after eight days of talks with the powers in Lausanne.

"Khamenei will continue to support the Iranian team, while denouncing America in his first public appearance," said Tehran- based analyst Saeed Leylaz, a reference to Khamenei's public speeches aimed at reassuring hardliners.

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.

But inflation, unemployment and lack of investment as a result of sanctions persuaded Khamenei to support Rouhani's efforts to find common ground with the big powers on the nuclear question.

"Hostility towards America has been one of the pillars of Iran's foreign policy since the revolution... But the leader still backs the nuclear negotiations," said Leylaz. "It will be difficult for hardline conservatives to criticise the deal if Khamenei continues his support for the talks."

Khamenei, whose hostility towards Washington holds together Iran's faction-ridden leadership, remains suspicious of US intentions and has ruled out normalisation of ties.

But some observers believe Rouhani will enjoy Khamenei's support as long as the president's growing prestige does not threaten Khamenei.

"Khamenei's first priority is to preserve his own authority and the establishment," said analyst Hamid Farahvashi. "Rouhani will be Khamenei's scapegoat if the deal collapses."

‘Existence of establishment’

Even if the government succeeds in convincing hardliners to accept the preliminary deal, a bigger challenge may lie in motivating the nation if negotiators fail to reach a final accord in June, officials and analysts said.

"The establishment's existence is at stake. I don't even want to think about such failure. Not only Rouhani but the whole system might be endangered in that case," said another official. "Now, people have very high expectations and hopes."

But popular support for the deal could turn out to be a double-edged sword for Rouhani, said Ali Vaez, of the International Crisis Group.

"It is necessary for selling the agreement, but should widespread expectations of rapid change be dashed, the disillusionment of his constituency will be all the more difficult to contain," Vaez said.

Many Iranians see a nuclear deal as Iran's ticket out of economic isolation. Thousands danced in the streets on Thursday, chanting "Rouhani, Zarif you are our Heroes", when the framework agreement was reached.

But there are already signs that Iran and the powers have different views about what was agreed, particularly over the speed at which sanctions are lifted.

Iran, the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia resume talks in the coming days. The deadline for a final deal is June 30.

DUBAI — Iran's backing of Shiite Houthi rebels came under fire from Washington on Thursday, but while there can be no doubt of Tehran's support for the movement, the full extent is unclear.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the United States would not "stand by" as the region is "destabilised" by Iran backing the Houthis.

Washington has already backed the Saudi-led air campaign launched by Riyadh after the Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa and then moved on the southern city of Aden, where President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi had taken refuge.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Iran — the main Shiite power — of backing the Houthis in a bid to instal a Tehran-friendly regime.

Kerry said Washington had traced flights from Iran in support of the Houthis and there have been several other signs of support in recent years.

Yemeni authorities have claimed several times to have intercepted ships carrying weapons allegedly from Iran to the Houthis.

Soon after the rebels overran Sanaa last September, eight Yemeni sailors who had been convicted of smuggling weapons to the Houthis were freed.

Two Iranians, said to belong to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, were released the same week after they were held in Sanaa on charges of training Shiite rebels.

Tehran's ideological influence on the Houthis was always clear, as they chanted the Iranian slogan "Death to America! Death to Israel!" at protest rallies and waved the flags of Lebanon's Hizbollah militia, which is openly backed by Iran.

Support 'largely overstated'? 

As they consolidated their hold on Sanaa, the Houthis' links to Tehran became ever more clear.

The Houthi-run Saba news agency reported that Iran would provide Yemen with crude oil for a year and also build a 165-megawatt power plant.

A Houthi delegation was received in the Islamic republic and on March 1, an Iranian commercial flight landed in Sanaa — the first in many years and the fruit of an aviation accord with Tehran.

On Tuesday, Iranian state television reported that Tehran had sent a shipment of non-military aid to Yemen, the first since the coalition launched its operation.

Iranian officials have insisted they want peace in Yemen, but Riyadh's ambassador to the United States, Adel Al Jubeir, has said Tehran is fuelling the conflict.

"Iran provides financial support for the Houthis and helps them in building weapon factories and providing them with weapons," he said.

"We do not want the error of Hizbollah in Lebanon to be repeated with the Houthis in Yemen," he said.

A Gulf diplomatic official has accused Iran of providing "logistical and military support" to the Houthis and even of sending in forces to support the rebels.

"There are 5,000 Iranians, Hezbollah and Iraqi militia on the ground in Yemen," he said.

But some have raised doubts about the claims of wholehearted Iranian support.

Frederic Wehrey, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that "in all probability, the Saudis have largely overstated Iranian influence over the Houthis".

"The portrayal of what is happening in Yemen as an Iranian takeover is meant to rally US and Gulf/Arab support for the Saudi position," he wrote in a report.

KHARTOUM — Sudan heads to the polls next week in elections widely expected to extend President Omar Bashir's quarter-century rule, despite his indictment for alleged war crimes, continued unrest and a faltering economy.

Bashir is facing 15 little-known challengers in the vote — which takes place over three days starting Monday — but main opposition parties are boycotting.

Rights groups have accused the 71-year-old Bashir, twice indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), of crushing dissent with a crackdown on the media and civil society.

The EU also raised concerns, saying the elections cannot produce a "credible" vote.

Khartoum released two top political detainees on Thursday, their lawyer saying it was a move to ease international pressure.

In the capital, there are few signs presidential and parliamentary elections are days away, despite official figures showing the participation of 44 parties.

Bashir's face looms from billboards lining main streets, but only a few flyers for other candidates are up around the city.

"The election is being boycotted by most opposition parties, the [ruling] National Congress Party is the only real contender for this election. So you can't really expect any surprises," said Khaled Al Tijani, an analyst and newspaper editor.

Career soldier Bashir took power in an Islamist-backed takeover in 1989, the last in a series of coups that marked Sudan after its independence from joint British and Egyptian rule in 1956.

He has since overseen the country's split with South Sudan after a 22-year civil war, but faces continued unrest on several fronts.

A rebellion in the western Darfur region erupted in 2003, where ethnic insurgents complained of marginalisation, that has left some 300,000 dead.

Bashir is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Insurgencies have also broken out in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, led by former allies of south Sudanese rebel forces, and the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North has vowed to stop voting across the regions.

Officials have insisted the rebels will not disrupt the vote, but the election will not take place in one district of Darfur and seven in South Kordofan for security reasons.

Despite the threats, Bashir has promised on the campaign trail that his next term will bring nationwide stability.

He has made few concrete policy promises but has vowed to boost development of Sudan's economy, which for years has suffered from international isolation.

The United States imposed a trade embargo in 1997 over alleged rights abuses and sanctions over Khartoum's sheltering of Al Qaeda leader Osama Ben Laden in the early 1990s.

More than three quarters of the country's oil reserves were also lost with South Sudan's split.

With only a few weeks to go before the vote, Sudan last month agreed to join the Saudi-led coalition against Shiite rebels in Yemen, a move Tijani said may be aimed at giving the economy a boost.

"The coalition in the war in Yemen could ease the economic situation in Sudan, which may be expecting to get some assistance from Saudi Arabia," he said.

After years of divisions, opposition groups formed a movement dubbed Sudan Call aimed at presenting a united face against Bashir.

Led by the main opposition Umma Party, Sudan Call agreed to talks with the ruling NCP in Addis Ababa in late March to arrange a national dialogue.

But the NCP snubbed the meeting and said the dialogue would take place after the elections.

"When dialogue is bypassed, some groups are excluded and civil and political rights are infringed, the upcoming elections cannot produce a credible result," EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said in a statement.

And on Thursday, Khartoum freed top opposition leaders Farouk Abu Issa and Amin Makki Madani, who were arrested in December after signing Sudan Call and had faced calls from a prosecutor to charge them on six counts.

Their lawyer Mohammed Al Zein said their release had come because the "president doesn't want international pressure" ahead of the vote.

Security forces have also targeted media and civil society groups, with agents in February seizing the print runs of 14 dailies in one day.

The opposition says it has been left with no choice but to refuse to take part.

"We think the only way out is to boycott the elections," said Mariam Al Mahdi, the Umma Party's deputy head.

"We are following civil resistance and civil paths to challenge the regime."

The presidential election could theoretically go to a second round if no candidate wins a first round majority. Officials have said final results will be released in late April.

ADEN, Yemen — Houthi forces fought battles street by street with local militia in the old centre of Aden on Wednesday, as the first boatloads of emergency medical aid arrived to the south Yemeni port city which aid workers say faces a humanitarian catastrophe.

Residents saw a dozen bodies strewn on the streets and said several buildings were burnt or demolished by rocket fire. Mosques broadcast appeals for jihad against the Houthis, Iran-allied fighters who have taken over large areas of Yemen.

By mid-afternoon residents of the central Crater neighbourhood said the Houthi push, backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, had been at least partially repelled, and that Houthi fighters had been cleared from some northern neighbourhoods.

Iran, which denies arming the Houthis, has condemned the Saudi-led offensive. It sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, saying they would protect Iranian shipping.

Aden has been the target of a three-week-old assault by the Muslim Shiite fighters, who control the capital Sanaa. Their assault prompted Tehran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia and its allies to launch air strikes against the Houthis.

The fighting has had a devastating impact on parts of Aden. Scores of people have been killed, water and electricity have been cut off in central neighbourhoods, and hospitals have struggled to cope with the casualties.

“It’s nearly catastrophic,” said the International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman in Yemen, Marie Claire Feghali.

“Shops are closed, so people cannot get food, they cannot get water. There are still dead bodies in the street. Hospitals are extremely exhausted.”

A boat carrying 2.5 tonnes of medicine docked in Aden on Wednesday, said the medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). The MSF said it was the first shipment the group had delivered to Aden since the fighting escalated.

The ICRC said a surgical team also reached Aden on Wednesday by boat and was heading to a hospital in the city of 1 million people.

The World Health Organisation says at least 643 people have been killed in the conflict and more than 2,200 wounded. Tens of thousands of families have been displaced by fighting on the ground and by the air strikes.

Regional struggle

Saudi Arabia’s leading role against the Houthis has turned Yemen into the latest theatre of a regional proxy conflict between the Gulf’s leading Sunni Muslim and Shiite Muslim powers — a struggle also playing out in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Iran has called for an immediate halt to the air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition which includes four other Gulf Arab states, and appealed for dialogue.

Its deputy foreign minister said Yemeni factions should form a national unity government. “We in the Islamic Republic of Iran are undertaking all good initiatives and efforts that help in reaching this political solution,” Morteza Sarmadi said.

Iran’s Alborz destroyer and Bushehr support vessel would patrol the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea to protect Iranian shipping from piracy, navy chief Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said.

The United States, a major Saudi ally, said on Tuesday it was speeding up arms supplies for the offensive, and had increased intelligence sharing and planning coordination.

State media in the United Arab Emirates says Saudi Arabia has deployed 100 jets in its air campaign, alongside 30 from the UAE, 15 each from Kuwait and Bahrain, and 10 from Qatar. Sudan, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco have also supported the campaign.

Pakistan’s parliament is debating a request from Saudi Arabia for it to join the military operation. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said he will defend Saudi Arabia’s “territorial integrity” but not what, if any, commitments he has made.

The foreign minister of Oman, the only member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) not participating in the bombing campaign, called for a short humanitarian truce after meeting his Iranian counterpart in Muscat on Wednesday.

Alawi previously said Oman was ready to help mediate between the two sides but he did not believe they were ready to come to the table.

Overnight, warplanes struck Al Anad Airbase, about 50km north of Aden, local officials said.

The base, which once housed US military personnel involved in Washington’s covert drone war against Al Qaeda fighters in eastern Yemen, has been taken over by soldiers loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who are allied to the Houthis.

There were also air strikes against Houthi positions in the town of Dhalea, further north from Al Anad.

LONDON — United Nations officials warned on Wednesday of a potential "slaughter of innocents" unless aid and assistance reached a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria where thousands of civilians are trapped up in a vicious battle.

Some 18,000 civilians, including 3,500 children, are caught in the camp outside Damascus just a few kilometres from President Bashar Al Assad's palace. The camp largely fell under Daesh control last week and is surrounded by the Syrian army.

The Yarmouk camp, which was home to half a million Palestinians before the conflict began in 2011, has been held by anti-Assad insurgents and besieged by government troops since the early days of the war and many have already fled.

But as fighting intensified in and around the camp, the remaining refugees have been left without food, water and medical supplies prompting aid agencies to call for the warring parties to allow access for aid and evacuations.

“The level of inhumanity that Yarmouk has descended to is frankly unimaginable,” Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a Skype interview from Jerusalem.

“The situation is absolutely desperate. We need urgently to have humanitarian access, which is why UNRWA is calling for all parties to exercise influence with their clients on the ground so that we can get into the camp.”

Gunness said since the fighting escalated a week ago, UNRWA aid convoys have not been able to enter the camp and the already dire situation has become more desperate with people left without water, food or medicine and the growing risk of disease.

Gunness said a few Palestinian charities had managed to get some supplies to the camp but otherwise people were cut off with the risk of disease rising daily.

“When you have public health system completely shot to pieces, when you have such terrible levels of food insecurity... disease is going to soar,” said Gunness.

“We have tragic pictures of children and others scooping up water out of holes in the streets.”

Gunness said UNRWA had not been a regular presence in the camp for at least two years so it was impossible to estimate the number of people now ill or the death toll.

The war in Syria has killed 220,000 people and displaced millions of Syrians.

The United Nations has said it is extremely concerned about the safety and protection of Syrian and Palestinian civilians at the Yarmouk camp.

Gunness said an estimated 94 civilians, including 43 women and 20 children, managed to leave the camp on Sunday and were provided with humanitarian support so there was no reason why more could not be helped to safety.

“For me it is unconceivable that the so-called civilised world can stand and watch what is going on in Yarmouk,” he said.

“We are facing a potential slaughter of the innocents and the world cannot stand by and watch that happen.”

TUNIS — Soon after Islamist militants gunned down 21 foreign tourists in Tunisia's Bardo museum last month, newspaper columnists, radio hosts and politicians swiftly called for a merciless crackdown to save their young democracy.

In the cafes and mosques of working-class Tunis, fears are now emerging that a campaign against militants may spiral into repression like the old days of Tunisia's police state before the freedoms won in a 2011 revolt.

Tunisia has since been held up as a model of democratic transition, the only country where an uprising during what came to be known as the "Arab Spring" did not end in large scale violence or civil war.

But last month's attack is testing Tunisia's tricky balance between security and the new liberties since the revolt, which ousted long-running autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

Lawyers, opposition leaders and rights campaigners say they have seen more arbitrary arrests and police harassment, and worry a proposed anti-terror law will roll back freedoms as lawmakers yield to public opinion.

In poor Tunis quarters, some religiously conservative young men say they are shaving off their beards, eschewing traditional gowns and limiting mosque visits to avoid harassment from police who they fear will sweep up anyone who even looks militant.

"The atmosphere has changed. I shaved off my beard because I don't want to be watched by the police," said Moez, a religiously conservative salesman. "Even I am against terrorism or any extremism that damages Islam's image."

Four years after its revolt, Tunisia is unlikely to slide back to the days of Ben Ali's oppressive state. It has free elections, a new constitution and a political environment that sees compromise deal-making between secular and Islamist politicians.

But the Bardo attack complicates already tricky questions over religious freedom in one of the Arab world's most secular nations, where liberal lifestyles often sit uneasily alongside a strain of conservative Salafist Islam.

“There are a lot of constraints on rights in this atmosphere of anger after the attacks,” said Yamina Zoglami, a lawmaker from the moderate Islamist party Ennahda. “Yes, Tunisia has been hit hard, but we can’t let that hurt our rights and freedoms.”

Since its transition to democracy, Tunisia has been praised by the West as a symbol of democratic hope for a region where other “Arab Spring” nations are caught up in division, intolerance and outright war.

But the small North African state has also struggled to define the role of Islam in politics, especially with the rise of ultra-conservative Islamist and Salafist groups who emerged with the new freedoms.

Security is key for Tunisia’s vital tourism industry. So far the government estimates the impact of the Bardo attack on foreign visitor bookings appears slight, though the summer season has yet to start.

Prime Minister Hadid Essib told parliament this week authorities would increase their campaign to take back mosques controlled by extremists who the government blames for helping recruit young men into militant groups.

“We respect freedoms, this is not about falling into a police state,” President Beji Caid Essebsi told Le Monde newspaper. “But when someone comes to kill you, and kill those around you, you have a state of legitimate defence.”

Tough anti-terror talk

Human rights groups are worried.

“All these declarations are quite disturbing,” Amna Guellali director of the Human Rights Watch Tunisia. “There will be some fallout in widening the net of arrests, we don’t know whether this goes beyond that yet.”

One immediate concern is the newly proposed anti-terrorism law that will be debated in the national assembly. The draft extends some police powers such as pre-trial detention time, and lifts a halt on death penalty.

Human Rights Watch has urged the government to revise the draft. The rights group said the bill allows police to hold detainees for up to 15 days before they go before a judge. It also has a broad definition of “terrorist” activity, opening the way for abuses.

Fear of repression falls mostly on conservative Salafists and Islamists who were long oppressed by Ben Ali and by his predecessor Habib Bourguiba, seen as the founder of much of Tunisia’s secular tradition.

While Salafists, who model their austere lifestyle on the Prophet Mohammad, share some of the same religious outlook as hardline jihadists, most reject their violence.

But their drive for a broader role for religion in public life has often alarmed Tunisian secularists who fear this could undermine individual freedoms and women’s rights.

In the tumultuous days after the 2011 uprising, Salafist hardliners attacked theaters and art shows and other symbols they saw as un-Islamic. Extremist imams took over mosques and set up Koranic schools.

Even before the Bardo attack, the government had begun a broad crackdown on suspected militants and brought mosques back under the control of the ministry of religion. That process has widened, say lawyers and rights campaigners.

“Now we are seeing people arrested just because of the way they look,” Anouar Aouled Ali, a lawyer who has defended suspected jihadists and Salafists. “There is a panic, we are creating terrorism, not fighting it.”

Ridha Bel Hadj, from the moderate Salafist party Hezb Ettahrir, said a crackdown could spur more radicalism.

“All this is a threat to the principles of the revolution and turning us back to a darker time,” he said. “The danger is if you continue with this campaign, it will create more anger and reactions from our Islamist youth.”

A slide into Ben Ali-style oppression is still unlikely. Ruling secular party Nidaa Tounes governs in a coalition that includes Ennahda, the Islamist party that won the first post-uprising election. That compromise may keep those calling for more repressive measures in check.

“We’re not going back to the past of Ben Ali, we can’t do that,” said one Tunisian security official. “Democracy is here to stay and it is stronger than ever.”

WASHINGTON — CIA director John Brennan gave a staunch defence of the framework nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday, calling some criticism of the accord "disingenuous" while expressing surprise at Tehran's concessions.

In his first public remarks since the outline agreement was announced last week, the spy agency chief said the deal would impose a litany of restrictions on Iran's nuclear work that had once seemed impossible to secure.

"I must tell you the individuals who say this deal provides a pathway for Iran to a bomb are being wholly disingenuous, in my view, if they know the facts, understand what's required for a [nuclear] programme," Brennan told an audience at Harvard University.

The outline deal announced last week would see the United States and the European Union lift all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran in exchange for a 98-per cent cut in Iran's stocks of highly enriched uranium for 15 years.

The accord would mean "cutting off pathways not just to uranium enrichment but to plutonium enrichment" and include a "very intrusive inspection regime", Brennan said.

"I certainly am pleasantly surprised that the Iranians have agreed to so much here.

“In terms of the inspections regime, the reduction as far as the centrifuges, the stockpile, what they’re doing with the Arak reactor — all of that I think is really quite surprising and quite good.”

Citing Tehran’s “concessions”, including agreeing to a dramatic reduction of centrifuges, Brennan said: “Boy, nobody ever thought they would do that at the beginning”.

Some critics were less focused on Iran’s nuclear programme and more on the effect of lifting sanctions, as they worry it will allow Tehran to “cause more trouble throughout the area”, Brennan said.

That was a legitimate concern, he said. But the framework deal itself offered a way of curtailing any attempt by Iran to build nuclear weapons and is “as solid as you can get”, he said.

US and allied intelligence agencies would be closely monitoring how Iran implemented any deal and there was no expectation that Tehran would alter its stance in the region, he said.

It was unclear if the pragmatic approach demonstrated by President Hassan Rouhani on the nuclear negotiations would “migrate to other areas of Iranian foreign policy”, he said.

“I think we’ll see. But I don’t think this is going to lead to a light switch when all of a sudden the Iranians are going to become passive, docile in the region, no.”

Brennan, a career intelligence officer who served as President Barack Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser before taking over at the spy agency, said Iran’s attitude on the issue had changed since Obama entered office six years ago mainly because sanctions had hit the country’s economy hard, he said.

New leadership under Rouhani, who was a “more reasonable” figure, also provided an opening. Apparently recognising the threat posed by the sanctions, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave a green light to Rouhani to try to broker a deal, Brennan said.

If the talks failed, Khamenei could then blame Rouhani and his foreign minister for the result, he added.

The CIA chief also suggested obliquely that digital sabotage on Iran’s uranium enrichment work had played a role.

Asked by New York Times reporter David Sanger if the cyber attack was a factor, Brennan said: “I think their inability to progress certainly helped slow that programme.”

Sanger in 2012 broke the story of Stuxnet, a US-Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program with a damaging computer worm.

Brennan made a joking reference to Sanger’s articles, saying: “I wouldn’t attribute your reporting to helping that frankly.”

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces launched a new offensive against Daesh insurgents in the Sunni Muslim heartland of Anbar on Wednesday, seeking to build on a victory over the jihadist group last week in the city of Tikrit.

Fighting began in the western province's desert terrain as Prime Minister Haidar Abadi was touring Anbar, visiting Iraqi army units and pro-government Sunnis, his office said. 

"Our next stand and battle will be from Anbar to liberate it entirely," Abadi said in a post on his official Facebook page. "We will prevail in Anbar as we prevailed in Tikrit."

Army officers said Daesh militants were driven back on Wednesday in the Sijariya area east of the Anbar capital Ramadi and Fallujah — the region's two key cities, where the ultra-radical Sunni group has been dominant.

Daesh was retreating from Sijariya, trading mortar fire with government forces, military sources said.

A senior Iraqi officer in Ramadi said the purpose of clearing Sijariya was to secure supply routes to the nearby Habbaniya air base and to weaken the jihadists’ grip on territory connecting Ramadi and Fallujah.

Large parts of Anbar had slipped from the government’s grasp even before Daesh overran the northern city of Mosul last June and surged through Sunni areas of Iraq.

Security forces and Shiite Muslim paramilitaries have since regained some ground, although core Sunni territories remain under Daesh control.

Shiite militia have played a leading role in reversing the insurgents’ advances, but officials from predominantly Sunni Anbar have expressed reservations about a role for Shiite paramilitary forces on the battlefield.

At a news conference in Jordan, Iraq’s defence minister said Abadi would oversee the distribution of weapons to Sunni tribal fighters in Anbar on Wednesday. “They will play an important role,” Khalid Al Obaidi said. “The battle for Anbar has begun.”

Iraqi officials have argued for some time that Anbar should be the next major battleground, or that operations should be carried out there in parallel with the northern province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is capital, in order to isolate Daesh in its strategic bastions along the Syrian border.

“In Anbar there are spots under government control and the troops are fighting IS [Daesh],” Deputy National Security Adviser Safaa Al Sheikh told Reuters in late March. “You have these spots and can expand from them. We don’t have this situation in Mosul.”

Iraqi and US officials have come to see the value in striking Anbar now after months of debate over whether to try first to take Mosul, where Daesh declared its Islamic “caliphate” and unfurled its campaign across Iraq last summer.

“Watching Tikrit has reminded people how difficult urban warfare is”, said a senior Western diplomat on condition of anonymity. The goal, the diplomat said, was to cut off Daesh supply routes from Syria to make it harder for it to reinforce Mosul.

DAMASCUS — A military operation is necessary to expel Daesh jihadists from the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in south Damascus, Syria's reconciliation minister said on Wednesday.

"The priority now is to expel and defeat militants and terrorists in the camp. Under the present circumstances, a military solution is necessary," minister Ali Haidar said in Damascus.

He made the comments after meeting Palestine Liberation Organisation official Ahmed Majdalani, who travelled from the West Bank for emergency talks on the situation in the embattled Yarmouk camp.

"It is not the state that has chosen this, but those who entered the camp," added Haidar, referring to fighters from the jihadist group.

Haidar did not spell out when a military operation might begin, or how it would be waged, but he suggested that Syrian troops could be involved.

"The Syrian state will decide whether the battle requires it," he said, when asked if Syrian soldiers would participate in any operation.

Daesh forces attacked Yarmouk on April 1, and have seized large swathes of the camp, executing Palestinian fighters who sought to resist.

The group's presence in Yarmouk has sparked international concern for the camp's remaining residents, who have endured repeated bombardment and a siege of more than 18 months by the army.

The government and residents of the capital have also been rattled by the presence of Daesh militants just kilometres from the heart of Damascus.

Once a thriving district that was home to some 160,000 Syrian and Palestinian residents, Yarmouk has been wracked by violence since late 2012.

The Syrian army imposed a tight siege on the camp that reportedly led to deaths because of shortages of food and medicines.

An agreement between rebels and the government, backed by Palestinian factions in the camp, was reached last year and led to an easing of the siege, although humanitarian access has remained limited.

RIYADH — Two Saudi policemen were killed when their patrol came under fire in Riyadh early on Wednesday, police said, in the second drive-by shooting targeting police in less than two weeks.

The predawn attack came in an eastern district of the capital, a police spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"A security patrol was carrying out its duties in east Riyadh when it came under fire from an unidentified vehicle," the spokesman said.

On March 29, two policemen were wounded in a similar attack in Riyadh, just days after the Interior Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef ordered that security be tightened nationwide as the kingdom launched air strikes against Iran-backed Shiite rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

The Sunni-dominated kingdom is also part of a US-led coalition taking part in an air war against Daesh terror group, which has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.

On March 22, the United States resumed consular services in the kingdom following a week-long closure over unspecified "heightened security concerns".

In January, three guards, including a commander, were killed in a desert area near the Iraqi border during a battle with Saudis who had infiltrated from the Iraqi side. No group has claimed responsibility for that attack.