Region

CANBERRA, Australia — Counterterrorism squads have prevented 230 suspected jihadis from departing Australian airports for the Middle East this month, including at least three teenage boys, officials said Wednesday.

Officials had previously announced that two Sydney-born brothers, aged 16 and 17, were intercepted at Sydney International Airport on March 8 attempting to board a flight for Turkey without their parents' knowledge. The siblings were returned to their families and were to be charged.

Within a week, a 17-year-old boy was intercepted at the same airport on suspicion that he was headed for a Middle Eastern battle, Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said Wednesday.

The boy was also returned to his family, but remains under investigation, Dutton said.

Since counterterrorism units were attached to eight Australian airports in August, 86,000 travelers have been questioned and 230 people prevented from flying on suspicion that they were headed for the battlefields of Iraq and Syria to fight with groups including Daesh terror group, Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament.

Experts disagree about why Daesh had been so effective recruiting in Australia, which is widely regarded as a multicultural success story, with an economy in an enviable 24th straight year of continuous growth.

The London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence reports that between 100 and 250 Australians have joined Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria. The centre estimates that about 100 fighters came from the United States, which has more than 13 times as many people as Australia.

Abbott said his government was investing more on border security and on countering extremism.

"It is absolutely critical that the people of Australia appreciate that the death cult is reaching out to vulnerable and impressionable young people," he said, referring to the Daesh group. "The death cult is reaching out, seeking effectively to brainwash people online."

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported this week that Daesh posted on a social media website on March 14 — two days after the latest 17-year-old was intercepted — a step-by-step guide to help would-be jihadis leave Australia and fight with the terror group.

The guide included advice on how to use a Daesh support network and slip through security cracks, the newspaper said.

The same support network was used by Australian Muslim convert Jake Bilardi, 18, who flew from his hometown of Melbourne in August last year to join Daesh fighters without alerting security agencies.

Bilardi was reportedly killed in a suicide bomb blast in Iraq this month.

RAMALLAH — A Palestinian teenager died on Wednesday of a gunshot wound sustained a week ago during a confrontation with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, hospital officials said.

The officials at Ramallah Hospital said Ali Safi, 17, had been shot through the chest. Witnesses said soldiers had responded to stone-throwing at a protest against a barrier going up between a Jewish settlement and a refugee camp near Ramallah.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The incident came amid rising tensions in the West Bank after Israel froze the transfer of funds to the Palestinians in a diplomatic dispute and also following this month's re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel's withholding of tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians has crippled the Palestinian economy since January.

The Israeli military has said the move is fuelling violence in the West Bank and this month held a surprise training drill for its forces in the area.

Israel said it halted the funds in protest over the Palestinian Authority joining the International Criminal Court. When its membership takes effect on April 1, it can file war crimes charges against Israel.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian Prime Minister kicked off a visit to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in a renewed effort to resolve an eight-year rift with the rival Hamas group, which controls the tiny coastal territory.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah entered Gaza on Wednesday through an Israel-controlled border crossing. He told reporters he is seeking a resolution to the dispute between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.

Abbas' Western-backed Palestinian Authority governs parts of the West Bank, while Hamas remains in control of Gaza. Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 after ousting Abbas' forces.

Fatah and Hamas agreed last year on the formation of a "national reconciliation" government, with Hamdallah as premier, meant to end their dispute. But the deal has never been fully implemented, leaving the Palestinians divided between two governments.

Under the deal, Hamas agreed to step aside and give its backing to a new government of apolitical technocrats. In reality, the militant group remains in firm control of Gaza as the sides continue to wrangle over Abbas' demands that he take control over Gaza's border crossings and that his forces oversee security in the volatile territory. Hamas has refused to give up an arsenal that includes thousands of rockets.

Hamas, meanwhile, is demanding that the Palestinian Authority take responsibility for paying thousands of government employees. The cash-strapped group has not been able to pay the full salaries of its workers in months.

The rift has delayed reconstruction following Hamas' war against Israel last summer, which left tens of thousands of people homeless.

Hamdallah, making his second trip to Gaza as prime minister, vowed to find a solution for the underpaid civil servants.

"We will not leave any of the employees out in the streets," he said. "This is a promise from the president and the Palestinian government."

He added, however, that no solution to the larger Hamas-Fatah dispute will be found until Hamas grants the unity government control over the borders and "real control" over Gaza.

No major breakthroughs were expected during Hamdallah's visit. He is to return to the West Bank on Thursday or Friday.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused the unity government of discriminating against Gaza. "It must take real measures to atone this sin," he said.

GENEVA — Fighters are increasingly targetting water and sanitation facilities across the Middle East, exacerbating severe shortages for agriculture and households, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday.

Consumption of water in the volatile region with rising populations was already at unsustainable levels in many areas hit by record-low rainfall and drought, but wars have pushed systems "close to the breaking point", the aid agency said.

Miilitants in Syria, Iraq and Gaza have also used access to water and electricity supplies as "tactical weapons or as bargaining chips", the ICRC said in a report.

"Heavy fighting and direct targeting have destroyed water pipes and power lines, leaving this vital resource away from hundreds of millions of people that are at great risk of waterborne diseases," said Robert Mardini, the head of ICRC operations for North Africa and the Middle East.

Sanitation often got a low priority during the fighting, the ICRC said.

"It is a 'ticking time bomb' in terms of its impact on the general environment, water resources [surface and groundwater], and by extension, to human health," said Michael Talhami, ICRC regional water and habitat adviser.

Gaza's only power plant was damaged during the 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants. The Gaza Company for Generating Electricity said an Israeli tank shell hit the main fuel tanks, taking out almost all capacity.

In Syria, now in a fifth year of war, drought has greatly reduced wheat production, meaning higher imports, the ICRC said.

Areas around the capital Damascus are hard-hit, with some systems losing more water to leaks than they are able to deliver, the report said. "The network is severely damaged in every corner of the city, so you have leakages everwhere."

Syria's two main wastewater treatment plants, for Aleppo and Damascus, are virtually destroyed, according to the ICRC which helps disinfect nearly 80 per cent of the country's water.

"One of the greatest concerns is that untreated wastewater might seep into local aquifers, thereby contaminating water supplies and leaving an already vulnnerable population more susceptible to
waterborne diseases," it said.

Water scarcity is a pressing problem in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country that has descended into civil war, and where the water table is dropping every year, it said.

"In Yemen, it's foreseen that by 2025 Sana'a the capital will have no more water."

ADEN — Houthi militia forces in Yemen backed by allied army units seized an air base on Wednesday and appeared close to capturing the southern port of Aden from defenders loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, residents said.

The United States said that Hadi, who has been holed up in Aden since fleeing the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa last month, was no longer at his residence. It offered no other details on his movements.

After taking Al Anad air base, the Houthis and their military allies, supported by heavy armour, advanced to within 20km of Aden.

Soldiers at Aden's Jabal Al Hadeed barracks fired into the air to prevent residents from entereing the base and arming themselves, witnesses said, suggesting that Hadi's control over the city was fraying.

Houthi fighters and allied military units had advanced to Dar Saad, a village a half-hour's drive from central Aden, residents there said.

Earlier, unidentified warplanes fired missiles at the Aden neighbourhood where Hadi's compound is located, residents said. Anti-aircraft batteries opened fire on the planes.

The city's airport was closed and all flights were cancelled for security reasons, guards at the facility told Reuters.

Yemen's slide towards civil war has made the country a crucial front in mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia's rivalry with Shiite Iran, which Riyadh accuses of stirring up sectarian strife through its support for the Houthis.

Sunni Arab monarchies around Yemen have condemned the Shiite Houthi takeover as a coup and have mooted a military intervention in favour of Hadi in recent days.

US officials say Saudi Arabia is moving heavy military equipment including artillery to areas near its border with Yemen, raising the risk that the Middle East's top oil power will be drawn into the worsening Yemeni conflict.

Saudi sources said the build-up, which also included tanks, was purely defencive.

While the battle for Aden is publicly being waged by the Houthi movement, many there believe that the real instigator of the campaign is former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a fierce critic of Hadi.

It was Saleh who was the author of Aden’s previous humiliation in 1994, when as president he crushed a southern secessionist uprising in a short war.

Unlike other regional leaders deposed in the Arab Spring, Saleh was allowed to remain in the country.

Houthi advance

Army loyalists close to Saleh on Wednesday warned against foreign interference, saying on his party website that Yemen would confront such a move “with all its strength”.

Diplomats say they suspect the Houthis want to take Aden before an Arab summit this weekend, to preempt an expected attempt by Hadi ally Saudi Arabia to rally Arab support at the gathering for military intervention in Yemen.

Yemeni officials denied reports that Hadi had fled Aden.

But in Washington, a US State Department spokeswoman said Hadi had left his residence.

“We were in touch with him earlier today,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a briefing. “He is no longer at his residence. I’m not in position to confirm any additional details from here about his location.”

Hadi left the residence voluntarily, she said.

The Arab League will on Thursday discuss a proposal by Yemen’s foreign minister, who called on Arab states to intervene militarily to halt the Houthi advance, the regional body’s deputy secretary general said.

The Houthi advance was taking its toll. The bodies of fighters from both sides lay on the streets of the outskirts of Houta, capital of Lahej province north of Aden, residents said.

In Houta, storefronts were shuttered and residents reported hearing bursts of machine gun fire and saw the bodies of fighters from both sides lying in the streets.

Witnesses said Houthi fighters and allied soldiers largely bypassed the city centre and travelled by dirt roads to the southern suburbs facing Aden.

In Aden, heavy traffic clogged Aden as parents brought schoolchildren home and public sector employees obeyed orders to leave work. Witnesses said pro-Hadi militiamen and tribal gunmen were out in force throughout the city.

“The war is imminent and there is no escape from it,” said 21-year-old Mohammed Ahmed, standing outside a security compound in Aden’s Khor Maksar district, where hundreds of young men have been signing up to fight the advancing Shiite fighters.

“And we are ready for it.

The northern Houthi militia alongside army units loyal to Saleh have driven back an array of tribal fighters, army units and southern separatist militiamen loyal to Hadi.

Houthi militants took control of Sanaa in September and seized the central city of Taiz at the weekend as they moved closer to Aden.

Houthi leaders have said their advance is a revolution against Hadi and his corrupt government and Iran has blessed their rise as part of an “Islamic awakening” in the region.

While Hadi has vowed to check the Houthi push south and called for Arab military support, his reversals have multiplied since heavy fighting first broke out in south Yemen on Thursday and the Houthis began making rapid advances southward.

BEIRUT — Insurgents have seized a historic town in southern Syria from the government, a group monitoring the war said on Wednesday, part of a rebel counter-attack to stop Damascus reclaiming the border zone near Israel and Jordan.

A Syrian military source reported heavy fighting with armed groups on Tuesday night in and around Bosra Al Sham, whose ancient city is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. "We are investigating the facts in the field," the source said.

An alliance of mainstream rebels who are backed by Western and Arab foes of President Bashar Al Assad said they had taken Bosra and declared the start of a new attack against government forces in another area of Deraa province to the northwest.

Bosra’s historic sites include a citadel built around a second century Roman amphitheatre. It was the capital of the Roman province of Arabia.

Syria’s southwestern corner is of strategic importance due to its proximity to Damascus and neighbouring states Israel and Jordan. It is also the last significant foothold of mainstream rebels, who have mostly been crushed elsewhere in Syria by government forces or jihadist groups.

An offensive launched by Assad’s forces in early February made quick gains but its territorial advance then slowed.

The mainstream rebels, known as “The Southern Front”, say they have received more military support from Assad’s foreign foes since the start of the push by the Syrian army and allied militia including the Lebanese group Hizbollah.

Washington says Assad has lost legitimacy and must leave power, although its focus has switched to fighting the Daesh jihadist group that has seized swathes of northern and eastern Syria as well as chunks of Iraq.

The monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 21 insurgents had been killed in four days of fighting for Bosra, some 20km north of the border with Jordan.

Fighting in west, northwest

The spokesman for the Southern Front alliance said 85 per cent of the fighters who took part in the attack were from mainstream rebel groups and the rest from Islamist factions.

The Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s wing in Syria, did not take part, said spokesman Issam Al Rayyes. “We liberated the whole city, even the old castle and old city,” he said.

The Southern Front launched the attack because the army had been mobilising pro-government militia in Bosra for a new stage of its offensive in the south, he added.

The new attack announced by the Southern Front on Wednesday was aimed at taking Jadieh, some 80km to the northwest of Bosra.

“Our strategy was not to hold on to territory, but to attack in areas where the regime was not expecting it,” Rayyes said.

“We have started to liberate additional areas.”

The southwestern corner of Syria is seen as a priority for the Damascus government as it tries to shore up its control over western regions including the cities of Homs and Hama, the border with Lebanon and the coast.

In northwest Syria hardline Islamists including the Nusra Front and Ahrar Al Sham have launched an offensive to take the city of Idlib from the government.

The observatory reported heavy clashes between the sides on Wednesday. The Nusra Front ignited a car bomb on Idlib’s outskirts, it said, identifying two of the bombers as Gulf Arabs.

Idlib governor Kheir Eddin Al Sayid told Syrian state TV the attackers had been unable to enter the city and had sustained heavy losses.

In fighting near the Lebanese border, the Syrian army and Hizbollah fighters cut an insurgent supply route from Syria towards the Lebanese border town of Arsal, officials said. Twenty-three militants were killed.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi President Fouad Massoum said on Wednesday that the US-led coalition would soon carry out air strikes against Daesh terror group in the Sunni city of Tikrit, after starting aerial reconnaissance flights this week.

A three-week offensive by Iraqi government forces and Iranian-backed Shiite paramilitaries has failed to flush out Daesh fighters from Tikrit, the birthplace of former leader Saddam Hussein.

"Since yesterday, aerial support and reconnaissance flights started in Tikrit. They first begin with reconnaissance missions; then they compile the aerial reports; and afterwards the aerial [strike] operations start," Massoum told Reuters in an interview at the presidential palace in Baghdad.

Iraqi military commanders had asked for air strikes, while the Iranian-backed Shiite militias had publicly rejected the US role in the campaign to retake the jihadist bastion.

Faced with the deadlock, the Iraqi government had called a halt to most operations a week ago, citing concerns about civilian and military casualties.

But Massoum made clear that the Iraqi government had decided to ask for the US-led alliance’s air support in the battle despite the strong aversion of Shiite paramilitary leaders, who boast the strongest fighting force in the war against the militant Daesh.

“The Iraqi government along with residents of the area wanted an active contribution from the international coalition... The Iraqi government alone decides and no other force decides,” Massoum, a veteran Kurdish politician who became Iraq’s president last summer, said.

Upon being informed of Massoum’s comment, Shiite paramilitary commander Hadi Al Amiri, one of the most powerful men in the country, who enjoys close ties with Iran, told reporters in Samarra, north of Baghdad, that he had no knowledge of the decision and had not been consulted.

“If we need air strikes, we will tell our government... up until now, we don’t,” he said.

For his part, Massoum alluded to the United States’ previous reluctance to participate in battles alongside Iranian-supported Shiite armed factions and their Iranian advisers.

“If there were any kind of hesitation in the position of the coalition to support the [Iraqi] army and volunteers in Tikrit, it seems now that this sensitivity has ended,” Massoum said.

“Of course, the participation of the coalition will have an impact.”

The start of air strikes would mark the first active participation by the US military and Iranian advisors in the same battle space since US air strikes were carried out last August to help liberate the Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli.

Massoum said the country was not beholden to Iran despite its neighbour’s substantial contribution of weapons and advisers since Daesh seized large parts of northern and western Iraq last year, imperiling Baghdad.

“Iran has provided military and humanitarian help to Iraq from the first day... [But] they have no right to object to any Iraqi decision,” Massoum said.

The president stressed that Iraq was seeking a balance among its Iranian, Western and Arab states participating in the fight against Daesh, which aims to create a modern-day “Islamic caliphate” imposing a militant form of Islamic law across the Middle East.

“The coordination of the Iranians is not at the expense of Iraq’s independence and sovereignty. The same applies with our coordination with the coalition countries,” Massoum said.

The president said the timing of the air strikes would be determined by Iraqi and coalition military experts.

“The experts decide whether this needs one week, less or more,” Massoum told Reuters.

He emphasised that the strikes would avoid targeting civilian populations despite what he called Daesh’s attempts to use civilians as human shields.

He said the coalition air strikes would clearly target Daesh’s fighting positions.

The president said the security forces and other fighters were working hard to avoid any human rights violations.

Sunnis had accused Shiite paramilitary fighters of carrying out executions and burning houses during previous campaigns to expel Daesh from Sunni areas.

Massoum said those violations were isolated and not widespread; but, despite Iraq’s best efforts, he said he could not rule out the possibility of new incidents during the Tikrit campaign.

Massoum added that Iraq was looking at western Anbar province as its next military battle before attempting to retake the north’s largest city Mosul, which Daesh seized last June as it swept across Sunni parts of Iraq.

Massoum said he was worried that the battle for Mosul would displace hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, exacerbating an already dire refugee crisis that has seen more than 2 million people displaced since last year.

The president said Iraq was weighing calling an international donor conference to help it deal with its refugee problem.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — After a strong performance in last week's parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be cruising towards forming a new government of hard-line and religious parties. But in the smoke-and-mirrors world of Israeli politics, a centrist government more amenable to peace negotiations could easily emerge at the last minute instead.

With his "natural partners", Netanyahu could control a comfortable 67-seat majority in parliament — but such a government would probably set on a collision course with the international community. 

Already the talk is of more settlement construction in the West Bank, steps against foreign advocacy groups that support the Palestinians or the opposition, and a renewed push for a law formalising Israel as a Jewish state despite the large Arab minority.

Calls are mounting for an alternative. President Reuven Rivlin, expected to formally task Netanyahu with forming a coalition on Wednesday, has made national unity a priority and has called for “as wide a coalition as possible to ensure representation of all groups in Israeli society”.

For now, both Netanyahu and his chief adversaries — the centrist Zionist Union and Yesh Atid parties — are saying a “unity government” is out of the question. The bruising campaign featured harsh personal attacks on all sides, and bad feelings linger. 

In the final days, Netanyahu made strident appeals to his base that have saddled him with accusations of racism against Israel’s 2 million Arab citizens and of abandoning his previously stated support for an eventual Palestinian state. 

On both counts he has been trying in vain to apologise and backtrack, adding to the charged atmosphere. After such a divisive period, there seems to be little appetite to reconcile.

Yet this could all change in the coming weeks as Netanyahu cobbles together his coalition, potential partners make demands for government ministries, his opponents ponder four long years in the opposition and the world community makes clear how dimly it would view a government cool to making concessions for peace.

Here are some reasons why the Israeli government may end up looking far different than widely expected:

Relieving international pressure

Netanyahu came under heavy international criticism for campaign rhetoric that was seen as racist and anti-peace. Although Netanyahu has claimed his comments were misunderstood, the White House remains unconvinced, and President Barack Obama is threatening to reassess American policy toward Israel.

The possibilities for harassing Israel are great, beginning with US removing its near-automatic veto on anti-Israel maneuvers at the UN Security Council, probably clearing the way for world recognition of a Palestinian state on all lands the Palestinians seek. And if the United States sends the signal, the floodgates could open for real. Israel could face constant pressure at other international bodies as well as from the European Union. 

International boycott movements are primed to spring into action. Imports on goods made in Israel’s West Bank settlements could be banned and Israeli officers and officials could be denied entry at various ports of call.

None of this would likely occur if the government was instead composed of centrist parties plus Netanyahu’s Likud — with the prime minister once again proclaiming his theoretical support of Palestinian independence. His Likud Party colleagues — most of them opponents of Palestinian statehood — would be muttering and peeved. But they would be Cabinet ministers, some in position to continue the settlement of the occupied territories with the same machinations that have deposited nearly 600,000 Jews on occupied land to this day, most of them in the years since the peace process first began two decades ago.

While the personal relationship between Obama and Netanyahu seems badly and maybe irreparably harmed, in the grand scheme of things, a centrist government might enable the storm clouds to pass.

The hapless opposition

Israel’s moderate Labour Party — now rebranded as the Zionist Union — has won two elections outright in the past four decades, in 1992 and 1999. Each time it loses, its leaders face the same cruel choice: Try to rebuild in opposition, or agree to join Likud in a “broad-based” government of “unity”.

Some moderates, angry at the outcome of the vote, are urging their leaders to let the nationalists rule in peace, so that the people may understand what they have done. But the lure of unity is tempting. 

On one hand, despite the loss, one sits in government; and on the other, there is a strong urge toward damage control — a genuine sense by the moderates that they must contain the hard-line agenda of building settlements that would deepen Israel’s isolation and cause damage in a variety of ways.

The prospect of a return to power at the ballot box is in any case fading a little in light of last week’s loss, which was crushing after some unusually high hopes. Surveys had shown most Israelis to be sick of Netanyahu and a stunning parade of top Israeli security beseeched voters to end his reign. The cost of living seemed to leave masses of Israelis in despair and small scandals piled on as well. The last polls, four days before the vote, augured very well indeed. But at the last minute, with Netanyahu sounding the alarm on TV and radio, masses of Likud voters rallied back to base.

Isaac Herzog, the head of the Zionist Union, has particular cause for concern. Many are wondering how they ever thought that Herzog, slight of frame and high-pitched of voice, could wrest the leadership in such a security-obsessed nation. If he wishes to survive politically, a unity government may be the ticket — even if for the moment claiming otherwise is key.

He’s done it before

Netanyahu is forming his third consecutive government, and he has a history of bringing in centrist partners — suggesting he, too, has little wish to carry out Likud policy to the full. 

In 2009, he made Labour Party leader Ehud Barak his defence minister, and in 2013 he brought in dovish ex-foreign minister Tzipi Livni to be his chief peace negotiator. These people gave Netanyahu’s government international respectability and helped shield him from global criticism for hard-line policies toward the Palestinians — exactly according to plan. Herzog or Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid — who was also finance minister for most of Netanyahu’s last term — could play similar roles in coming years.

A clamor for unity

Following an especially polarising election campaign, Netanyahu is under pressure to repair the rifts in Israeli society. In a first step, Netanyahu apologised Monday for what he acknowledged were offensive comments about Arab voters. Leading Arab politicians swiftly rejected his call.

There has also been unseemly sniping in recent days between European-descended Jews — moderates mostly — and Sephardi Jews of Middle Eastern descent who heavily back Likud. The former stand accused of elitism and an inability to communicate — and the latter of tribalism, voting against their own interests and dooming Israel to destruction. Tensions between religious Jews — part of Netanyahu’s traditional bloc — and secular ones who dominate the moderate camp have flared up as well.

As the dust settles and tempers cool in the coming weeks, Netanyahu may be looking for a magic bullet to unify the nation once more.

TEHRAN — Iran’s atomic energy chief said good progress has been made in nuclear negotiations with world powers, as a critical round of talks begins, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, is heading to Lausanne, Switzerland as part of a negotiating team led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The negotiators are working to meet a self-imposed deadline for a preliminary agreement by the end of March. The talks are focused on an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of harsh international economic sanctions.

IRNA quoted Salehi as saying that Tehran is seeking a win-win agreement, while Zarif has stated that a full lifting of all sanctions is a red-line condition for any deal.

“We have had good negotiations and now have reached a stage that needs a serious decision and we hope that the other side can make the proper decision,” Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-e Ravanchi said on Wednesday. “We hope to be able to obtain results. Of course this depends on the other side which should accept the realities.”

Iran and the so-called P5+1 — the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — hope to reach a rough deal on the nuclear programme by the end of March and a final agreement by June 30.

ABU DHABI — Despite campaigns on the risks of smoking, teenagers in the United Arab Emirates are turning to a little-known tobacco product five times more potent than cigarettes and said to cause seizures.

Omar, an 18-year-old Sudanese student in Abu Dhabi, describes how each hit of medwakh — a legal product inhaled from a small pipe — makes him feel.

“It’s a horrible habit. But if I don’t do it my head hurts,” he said. “I feel I need it.”

Omar is not alone in smoking medwakh, which means “dizziness” in Arabic; the product is reportedly popular among young people throughout the United Arab Emirates.

One puff is enough to make the smoker light-headed, or as one 17-year-old ex-smoker who identified himself as “Clique-C” described the feeling, “relaxed”.

Based on 2013 statistics from the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation, 15.6 per cent of male teenagers smoke tobacco daily in the UAE, as do 18.1 per cent of men.

And while there are no official statistics on the use of medwakh among young people, researchers say the habit is widespread.

“We did a study in [the emirate of] Ajman on schoolchildren and we found that 36 per cent of them were doing medwakh,” Rizwana Burhanuddin Shaikh, associate professor at the department of community medicine at the Gulf Medical University, told AFP.

Then there is its potency.

According to Palat Menon, a researcher at the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Research and Innovation in the Gulf Medical University, each gramme of medwakh contains around 44 milligrammes of nicotine — the equivalent to four or five cigarettes.

‘A head spin’

“In an average pipe, six milligrammes of nicotine get inhaled in 15 to 20 seconds, and that is what gives you a head spin,” he said.

Shereena Al Mazroui, section head of non-communicable diseases at the Abu Dhabi Health Authority, said that although little is known about the product, preliminary research suggests a link between medwakh and seizures.

“Some users, after they take the puff, they suffer from seizures, dizziness and faint,” she said.

“This phenomenon has spread more within the last 10 years. The tragedy is that it has begun with children.”

Medwakh is usually sold cheaply in tobacco shops and grocery stores near schools, in small glass bottles with no packaging or content details.

“Smoking medwakh is mainstream here,” said Omar [not his real name].

“Almost everyone” he knows at his Abu Dhabi school smokes it, mainly the boys, he added.

Its appeal has even become international, with one Emirati expatriate family setting up a medwakh import business in the United States, according to Alan Blum, a tobacco expert at the University of Alabama.

Omar appears to know little about the tobacco he smokes three to four times a day and which leaves him dizzy for a few seconds each go.

‘Spices maybe?’

Asked what he thinks it may contain, he replied: “It’s tobacco with spices maybe? It’s not as bad as cigarettes. I don’t know if it’s addictive.”

His 17-year-old Lebanese classmate — Clique-C — said he stopped smoking medwakh three months ago “with the help of a close friend”, after he was suspended from school for a few days.

“When I first stopped, I started getting a need to use it,” he said, but now he feels “fresh and healthy”.

When he smoked it, Clique-C says medwakh gave him “comfort”.

“It was like a pain-reliever. It made my head feel so light.”

Although some schools carry out random bag searches for medwakh, Emirati authorities appear to be looking the other way for now.

“I have many times seen cases where police cars would pass by with obviously small kids standing at the corner and smoking it,” Omar said.

“But they just pass by, look at them, and don’t even stop.”

The teenager says he is struggling to stop smoking medwakh as “it’s everywhere and legal”.

“I hate myself for it,” he said, fearful of what his mother might do if she found out about the habit.

“I definitely want to quit.”