Region

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday it would soon become clear if Iran is serious about ending suspicions over its nuclear ambitions, as world powers appeared to inch towards a historic deal with Tehran.

But under heated questioning from lawmakers, America's top diplomat insisted the US administration was clear-eyed about Iran's global influence, blasting Iranian leaders for seeking to foment regional unrest.

Fresh from talks in Geneva with his Iranian counterpart, Kerry sounded a note of caution, saying he was unsure whether a comprehensive agreement would be reached as a March 31 deadline for a political framework looms.

World powers grouped under the so-called P5+1 "had made inroads" since reaching an interim deal with Iran in November 2013 on reining in its suspect nuclear programme, Kerry said.

"We've gained unprecedented insight into it," Kerry told the Senate appropriations committee at the start of two days of intense congressional hearings.

"And we expect to know soon whether or not Iran is willing to put together an acceptable, verifiable plan," he said, adding bluntly: "I don't know yet."

As the talks gather pace with the Iranian and US teams due to meet again in Switzerland on Monday, possibly with Kerry, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini insisted a deal was "at hand".

"We cannot miss this opportunity," Mogherini told Chatham House, a London think tank.

"A good deal is at hand if the parties will keep cooperating as they did so far and if we have enough political will from all sides to agree on a good deal and sell it domestically," Mogherini said.

Kerry announced he would soon travel to London to meet with leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council, and said he also planned to have talks with Saudi King Salman.

Kerry again stressed that US policy was that Tehran would not acquire a nuclear weapon. And he cautioned critics to wait and see the deal before rushing to condemn it.

The so-called P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany are trying to strike an accord that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.

In return, the West would ease punishing sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear programme, which Iran insists is purely civilian.

Opposition to a deal 

But many US allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, remain wary of the new US outreach to Iran and its Shiite Muslim leaders. Republican lawmakers have voiced opposition to the deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he would do "everything I can" to prevent a nuclear deal.

"This agreement, if indeed it is signed, will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state," he said in a statement.

Netanyahu's government has always opposed a deal with Tehran over its nuclear programme, and he is to address the US Congress on March 3, in a move that has angered the White House.

Kerry insisted that Iran, still the US number one state sponsor of terrorism, was not fooling America, acknowledging "the Iranians are reaching into, and having an impact, and influencing a number of countries in the region”.

Iraq, Lebanon and Syria and Yemen were all countries where Iran was seeking to wield its sway, Kerry said.

Asked whether the Yemeni government collapsed because of Iran's support for the Houthi, Kerry replied: "I think it contributed to it... without any question whatsoever."

Hawkish Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the appropriations committee, said: "From my point of view, we're dealing with people who are hellbent on expanding their influence in the Mideast in a destructive fashion."

But Kerry shot back: "The most destabilising thing would be if, in fact, you had a nuclear-armed Iran that projected even more power and influence than it has today."

Meanwhile, an exiled Iranian group accused the country of running a "secret" uranium enrichment site close to Tehran, which it said violated ongoing negotiations.

"Despite the Iranian regime's claims that all of its enrichment activities are transparent ... it has in fact been engaged in research and development with advanced centrifuges at a secret nuclear site called Lavizan-3," said Alireza Jafarzade, deputy director of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel's opposition leader said Tuesday that the upcoming speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the US Congress warning against an emerging nuclear deal with Iran is "spin" aimed at political gain at home ahead of March elections.

Labour Party chief Issac Herzog said "no Israeli leader will ever accept a nuclear Iran" but the way Netanyahu voices his concerns is for "his political interest”.

Herzog is competing against Netanyahu in the March 17 election as part of a centre-left coalition called the Zionist Union.

Netanyahu accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress on Iran next week. The speech angered the Obama administration because it was arranged without consulting the White House, a breach of protocol.

The planned speech has drawn fire in Israel as well, coming just two weeks before national elections. Netanyahu has rejected the criticism, saying it is his duty to lobby against the nuclear deal.

Herzog told reporters Tuesday that Israel should work closely with the US to resolve disputes over Iran rather than butting heads. He accused Netanyahu of using the visit for domestic political gain.

"I think part of it all is spin that has to do with his own political interest rather than dealing directly with the most important issue of how do you make sure that there is no daylight between us and the American administration on the exact prerequisites of a deal, how do we make sure that there is an iron-clad agreement or a good agreement and how do we define a bad agreement, and moreover how do we work in trust and confidence together in order to change the situation," Herzog said.

"Let's be frank about it, Iran is the most dangerous rogue nation in the world," he added.

In a statement Tuesday, Netanyahu said it was his "obligation as prime minister to do everything that I can to prevent this agreement," including speaking at Congress. He said Congress will "likely be the final brake before the agreement".

He called the emerging deal "a bad agreement that endangers our future”, warning it will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state and effectively give it "a license to develop the production of bombs”.

The Obama administration has said the negotiations aim for a deal that will ensure Iran cannot develop a weapon. 

Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence, citing Tehran's repeated calls for Israel's destruction, its long-range missile program and its support for violent anti-Israel groups like Hizbollah in Lebanon. Iran insists its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes like power generation and medical isotopes.

Iran reached a landmark interim nuclear deal with world powers in November 2013 under which it converted or diluted its stock of 20 per cent enriched uranium. It is negotiating a final deal with the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, with the two sides hoping to agree on a preliminary deal in March and a follow-up pact in June.

Benghazi, Libya — Libya's internationally recognised parliament on Monday suspended its participation in UN-brokered talks on the future of the war-wracked North African state, officials said.

"The chamber of representatives today voted in favour of suspending its participation in the dialogue," MP Issa Al Aribi announced on Facebook, ahead of a new round due to open in Morocco on Thursday.

He did not elaborate, but both the LANA state news agency and parliament's own Facebook page confirmed the suspension.

The parliament said it would issue a statement later giving the reasons for the decision which came "after last Friday's terrorist attacks in Al Qoba which killed or wounded dozens of people".

Daesh terror group said it was behind suicide car bombings that the health ministry said killed 40 people, including six Egyptians, in the eastern town.

Another parliamentarian, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to pull out of talks was taken over fears that the international community would exert pressure to include Islamists in a future unity government.

Last week's beheading of 21 mainly Egyptian Coptic Christians by Daesh sparked Cairo to launch air strikes against the jihadists in Libya and call for an international coalition to hit the jihadists.

State media in Egypt said almost 15,000 of its nationals have since flocked home from Libya via the border crossing at Sallum.

UN envoy Bernardino Leon told the Security Council last week that the only cure for Libya's trauma was political.

The United States on Monday renewed its call for dialogue, warning of the high stakes at play.

"We reiterate our call for all Libyan stakeholders to participate in the UN-led political dialogue," State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, told reporters in Washington.

"Those who choose not to participate are excluding themselves from discussions which are critical to combating terrorism as well as to the overall peace, security and the stability and security of Libya."

The international community faces a daunting task to find a political solution to the lawless nation's political and military crisis.

Libya is awash with weapons and opposing militias are battling for control of its cities and oil wealth.

It has two rival governments and parliaments, those recognised by the international community sitting in the far east of the country and the others with ties to Islamists in the capital, Tripoli.

Since launching efforts at dialogue in September, Leon has been unable to bring together leading players from the rival camps.

The United Nations had invited the elected parliament and its Tripoli rival, the Islamist-dominated General National Congress, to the new round of talks in Morocco.

On February 11, Leon met separately with officials from both sides in the southern Libyan oasis town of Ghadames — the first between the two bodies since a national dialogue was launched last September.

The UN envoy called the indirect talks "positive and constructive", despite not managing to sit the rivals round the same table.

Analysts believe efforts to bridge the gap will fail so long as the rival armed factions — led by General Khalifa Haftar for the elected government and Fajr Libya for the GNC — do not talk face to face.

The situation has been further complicated by the factions each having their own regional backers.

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are said to support Haftar, while Qatar and Turkey favour Fajr Libya.

Libya plunged into chaos after the 2011 revolution that toppled and killed Muammar Qadhafi, with heavily armed rival militias that had fought the longtime dictator's forces rising to prominence.

SANAA — Yemen's Shiite rebels said Tuesday that President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled the rebel-controlled capital earlier this month and has begun reconstituting his authority in the south, is "wanted for justice”.

The move escalated a crisis that threatens to split the Arab world's poorest country between the Houthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north, and Hadi, who enjoys wide support in the formerly independent south.

The growing chaos also threatens to undercut US efforts to combat Yemen's powerful Al Qarda affiliate, which has been linked to several failed attacks on the United States and claimed responsibility for the attack on a French satirical magazine last month.

In the latest sign of the country's growing lawlessness, a Frenchwoman working for the World Bank was kidnapped Tuesday in front of a ministry building in Sanaa, where several Western countries, including France, have shuttered their embassies. No one claimed responsibility for the abduction.

The rebel-run state news agency SABA quoted the Houthis' Revolutionary Committee as saying that they are monitoring the "suspicious" activities of Hadi. It did not say whether a formal arrest warrant has been issued.

The group says Hadi's "reckless and erratic actions harmed the Yemeni people," and called on the international community to consider him a fugitive from justice.

The group also warned state employees and even diplomatic missions against dealing with Hadi as president, saying they would be “held accountable”.

The Houthis hail from the Shiite Zayidi minority, which makes up about a third of Yemen’s population, and swept down from their northern strongholds last year, seizing the capital in September.

Last month, the rebels seized the presidential palace and placed Hadi, his prime minister and the Cabinet under house arrest, demanding political concessions. Hadi and his government resigned in protest.

The rebels then finalised their takeover by dissolving parliament and declaring their Revolutionary Committee to be the country’s highest political body.

Last week Hadi fled to Aden, where he retracted his resignation and declared himself the country’s legitimate leader. He has since been holding meetings with tribal leaders, security officials and members of the dissolved parliament.

On Tuesday, he replaced the intelligence and police chiefs in Aden as part of a shake-up to remove supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, now allied with the Houthis, according to security officials. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to brief the press.

On Tuesday, Hadi ordered the defence ministry to move the army’s headquarters to Aden and to take orders only from him. But with the army in shambles, divided over tribal and political loyalties, it’s not clear how much power Hadi has over the troops.

The United Nations Security Council was, meanwhile, expected to pass a new resolution against the Houthis and Saleh. Last year, the council imposed sanctions on Saleh and two Houthi leaders.

On Monday, the Houthis warned Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and his cabinet — all of whom resigned when Hadi did — to return to their posts or face arrest. Houthi militiamen prevented one minister from fleeing to Aden on Monday.

Abdel-Azizi Al Gobari, the leader of a small anti-corruption party who met with Bahah on Tuesday, said the prime minister would only take orders from Hadi.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni franchise is known, meanwhile held a meeting with tribal leaders in the southern Shabwa province, a militant stronghold, an Al Qaeda member told The Associated Press.

The Houthis have battled Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch and vowed to destroy the group, but the rebels also employ hostile rhetoric towards the West. The Houthis are widely believed to receive Iranian backing, though they deny such allegations.

A tribal source in Beihan confirmed the talks, in which he said tribal leaders had warned the jihadi group not to drag them into a war with the Houthis. The tribal source and the Al Qaeda member spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

BAGHDAD — A series of bombings in Iraq, including twin blasts in a busy street in a Baghdad suburb, killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said.

The deadliest of the day's attacks came shortly before sunset, when a bomb exploded in Baghdad's southeastern suburb of Jisr Diyala. Minutes later, a car bomb went off near the site of the first blast as people started gathering to help the victims.

Police and hospital officials put the casualty toll in Jisr Diyala at up to 16 killed and 30 wounded, including several students who had just come out of a nearby school after class.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings but Iraq sees near-daily attacks, mostly by Sunni insurgents targeting the country's Shiite majority and security forces. The attacks are often claimed by the Daesh terrer group, which seized about a third of the country in a blitz last year, along with a swath of territory in neighbouring Syria.

Earlier Tuesday, a parked car bomb went off in a commercial area in the town of Mishada, 30 kilometres north of Baghdad, killing at least four civilians and wounding 12, police officials said.

In Baghdad's northwestern Shula neighbourhood, a bomb exploded near a restaurant, killing three civilians and wounded eight, they said. Another bomb also killed three civilians and wounded nine in a commercial area in Youssifiyah, 20 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Two more civilians were killed and seven others were wounded when a bomb struck an outdoor market in Latifiyah, about 30 kilometres south of Baghdad. Another bomb hit a police patrol in Madain, about 20 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, killing a police officer and a civilian and wounding five people.

And in Baghdad's northern Shaab neighbourhood, a bomb blast killed one civilian and wounded five.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures from all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release the information.

TUNIS — Tunisia arrested about 100 suspected Islamist militants in the last three days, some of whom were preparing attacks, officials said on Tuesday, and published video footage showing evidence of a Daesh influence on some of those detained.

Tunisia is waging a campaign against hardline Islamist groups who emerged in the country during its transition to democracy after the 2011 uprising against autocrat Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali.

News of the arrests comes one week after four Tunisian policemen were killed by militants in the central region of Kasserine, close to the Algerian border.

"In the past three days we foiled terrorist operations and arrested about 100 jihadist elements," Mohamed Ali Aroui, a spokesman for the interior ministry said.

Aroui said security forces had uncovered a militant cell in the city of Hammam Ghzaz that was preparing explosives to use in attacks on security buildings. 

A video published by the interior ministry on Facebook showed the cell had owned instructions for making explosives and a picture of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of the Daesh terror group which is active in Syria and Iraq.

Daesh has already expanded its presence in Libya, where it has exploited the absence of law and authority as rival militias battle it out, and there are fears it is seeking to expand its activities in the rest of North Africa.

In addition, Tunisia has been a major source of Islamist fighters travelling to Syria since 2011. The number of Tunisians fighting in Syria has been estimated at about 3,000. A few hundred have returned home, although many have been tracked down and arrested.

Among the Islamist militant groups to have emerged after the 2011 uprising is Ansar Al Sharia, which is listed as a terrorist organisation by US and European officials.

The main hotbed of militant activity has been the Chaambi mountain range bordering Algeria, where fighters took refuge in after fleeing a French military offensive in Mali last year. Since then, Tunisia has deployed thousands of soldiers to the area.

CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has signed off an anti-terrorism law that gives authorities more sweeping powers to ban groups on charges ranging from harming national unity to disrupting public order.

The move, announced in the official Gazette on Tuesday, is likely to increase concern among rights groups over the government clawing back freedoms gained after the 2011 uprising that ended a three-decade autocracy under Hosni Mubarak.

Authorities have cracked down hard on the Islamist, secular and liberal opposition alike since then-army chief Sisi toppled elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

According to the Gazette, the law enables authorities to act against any individual or group deemed a threat to national security, including people who disrupt public transportation, an apparent reference to protests.

Loose definitions involving threats to national unity may give the police, widely accused of abuses, a green light to crush dissent, human rights groups say.

The interior ministry says it investigates all allegations of wrongdoing and is committed to Egypt’s democratic transition.

Under the mechanism of the law, public prosecutors ask a criminal court to list suspects as terrorists and start a trial.

Any group designated as terrorist would be dissolved, the law stipulates. It also allows for the freezing of assets belonging to the group, its members and financiers.

Since taking office in 2014, Sisi has identified Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to national security.

He has linked the Brotherhood, the region’s oldest Islamist grouping, with far more radical groups, including one based in Sinai that supports Daesh, allegations it denies.

Hundreds of supporters of the Brotherhood, which says it is a peaceful movement, have been killed and thousands arrested in one of the toughest security crackdowns in Egypt’s history.

Since Morsi’s fall, Sinai-based militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers, and the beheading of up to 21 Egyptians in neighbouring Libya prompted Sisi to order air strikes against militant targets there.

Some Egyptians have overlooked widespread allegations of human rights abuses and backed Sisi for delivering a degree of stability following years of political turmoil since 2011.

A court on Tuesday acquitted Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Nazif and former interior minister Habib Al Adly of graft charges, judicial sources said, a day after prominent activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, was jailed for five years for violating limits on demonstrations.

“I served Egypt, and history will judge,” Nazif told reporters at the court.

WELLINGTON — New Zealand will send troops to Iraq on a “behind-the-wire” non-combat mission to boost the local military’s ability to fight Daesh terror group, Prime Minister John Key said Tuesday.

Key said about 140 troops would begin the mission in May after a request from the Iraqi government for international help to increase its military capability against the jihadists.

“We cannot, and should not, fight Iraq’s battles for them — and actually Iraq doesn’t want us to,” he told parliament.

“Our military can, however, play a part in building the capability and capacity of the Iraqi forces so they can fight ISIL [Daesh] themselves.”

Key flagged the mission late last year and it has been hotly debated in New Zealand, with all major opposition parties against it.

A TVNZ opinion poll released this week found 48 per cent of participants supported a military training mission, with 42 per cent against and the rest undecided.

Key said New Zealand was part of a 62-nation coalition against Daesh which has captured swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria.

He described the group — infamous for beheading, stoning and burning alive its victims — as “barbaric”, saying New Zealand would “stand up for what’s right”.

“Sending our forces to Iraq is not an easy decision but it is the right decision,” he said.

He added that New Zealand troops would most likely work alongside their Australian counterparts at a military base in Taji, north of Baghdad.

Key said the initial deployment was for nine months and the mission would not extend beyond two years.

‘Get some guts’ 

The leader of the main opposition Labour Party, Andrew Little, said New Zealand should concentrate on supplying humanitarian aid to Iraq, rather than conducting military training.

“We won’t fix the [Iraqi] army, it is disorganised, it is broken, it is treacherous and it is corrupt,” he told parliament.

Green Party leader Russel Norman criticised Key for refusing to put the planned mission to a parliamentary vote, saying he knew he would lose.

“Democracy, it seems, is a military export and is not for domestic consumption,” Norman said.

In a fierce parliamentary debate, Key said opposition leaders should “get some guts and join the right side”.

“I will not stand by while Jordanian pilots are burnt to death, while kids execute soldiers,” he said. “This is the time to stand up and be counted.”

New Zealand, part of the so-called “five eyes” intelligence network involving the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, has faced pressure from allies to join the anti-Daesh effort.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond urged the country to make its military expertise available when he visited Auckland this month.

“Frankly we’ve got used to New Zealand being there alongside us, alongside the US, the UK, Australia, as part of the family,” Hammond said.

Key said in January that New Zealand was expected to assist the military effort, adding “there has to be some contribution, it’s the price of the club”.

New Zealand did not participate in the US-led invasion of Iraq to oust president Saddam Hussein in 2003, although it sent two 60-odd strong contingents of engineers to Basra in 2003-04 after a UN request for help in reconstruction efforts.

The country also sent a reconstruction team and small special forces contingent to join the NATO-led operation in Afghanistan in 2003, resulting in 10 New Zealand deaths during the decade-long deployment.

SEOUL — A South Korean teenager who went missing last month has joined Daesh terror group and is receiving training, South Korea's spy agency said Tuesday.

The 18-year-old middle school dropout, identified only by his surname Kim, went missing in Turkey on January 10. There had been speculation that he crossed into Syria to join the radical Islamist group.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to a parliamentary committee that Kim was receiving training at an undisclosed Daesh camp, Yonhap news agency reported.

The NIS report was disclosed by lawmakers who attended the closed committee session.

The teenager was last seen leaving his hotel in the southern Turkish city of Kilis — not far from the border.

South Korea's foreign ministry said earlier that CCTV footage obtained by Turkish police showed Kim taking an unlicensed taxi, together with an unidentified man, outside a mosque near his hotel.

They got out near a refugee camp at Besiriye, about 18 kilometres southeast of Kilis, the ministry said.

South Korean police said Kim had posted a series of messages on his Twitter account in October last year, asking for help in approaching Daesh.

Kim's parents allowed him to travel to Turkey along with a family friend, after he pleaded for the chance to meet a friend there whom he had contacted online.

More than 3,000 Europeans have gone to fight with jihadist groups in Iraq or Syria, according to European Union statistics. But Kim is the first Korean known to have done so.

LONDON (AP) — Police investigating the disappearance of three British schoolgirls said Tuesday they believe the teenagers are no longer in Turkey and have crossed into Syria.

The girls, aged 15 to 16, disappeared from their London homes on February 17 and boarded a flight to Istanbul in Turkey. Authorities believe the girls could be on their way to join the Daesh group.

The case underlines fears that growing numbers of young women in Britain and Europe are lured by online propaganda to join extremists and become "jihadi brides".

Security officials say at least 500 Britons have travelled to Syria to fight with extremists, often via Turkey. Experts estimate about 50 are female.

The three girls in the latest case have all been described as "straight-A students" from a highly regarded London school. The families of Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, have implored them to return home.

"They appear to have been induced to join a terrorist group that carries out the most hideous violence and believes girls should be married at nine and women should not leave the home," Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday.

As officials continued searching for the teenagers, a top Turkish official complained that British officials waited three days before seeking help in the case, losing valuable time.

Turkey's deputy prime minister said the girls arrived in Istanbul as tourists and British authorities did not share enough information for Turkey to act quickly.

"It is a condemnable act, a shameful act that a country like Britain... did not follow [the girls] closely," Bulent Arinc told reporters in Ankara, the capital. "They woke up three days after the fact to notify us."

"We don't have a mechanism that allows us to question or read the minds of tourists," he added.

The Metropolitan Police disputed that account, however, saying Tuesday that they notified the Turkish embassy in London a day after the girls went missing. Police from both countries are working together to investigate the case, the force added.

A fourth girl from the school where the missing girls studied disappeared in December and was thought to have left for Syria. Police said detectives investigating that case spoke to the three girls at the time, but there was nothing to suggest they were at risk of radicalisation.