Region

BEIRUT — Syrian air strikes on a besieged rebel town in the heart of the country have killed nearly 50 people over the past two days, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

"On Tuesday, 25 people, including seven women and a child, were killed in air strikes on Talbisseh, in Homs province," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that a rebel commander was also among the dead.

On Monday, air strikes killed 23 people in the town, which has been under siege by the army ever since rebels seized it two year ago.

Activists appealed for help on Facebook.

"The town's hospital has received a large number of wounded patients. The hospital has no more medicines or bandages," said one activist from Talbisseh.

A security source in Damascus confirmed the air strikes.

"There are a large number of armed terrorist groups. On Tuesday, Talbisseh's most important terrorist and his brother were killed," the source said, using the regime's standard term for the rebels.

He identified the dead commander as Abu Hatem Al Dahik, head of the rebel Al Iman Brigade.

"We will continue to target the terrorists in all their hideouts," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Observatory said that rebels in Talbisseh had shelled regime positions around the nearby rebel-held town of Umm Sharshuh as fighting raged around it.

The towns are among a number that the rebels still hold in Homs province after their withdrawal from Homs city earlier year.

The Observatory meanwhile updated to 18 its toll for the number of rebels killed in an abortive attempt to infiltrate the heart of Damascus on Monday. Two pro-regime militiamen were also killed.

One person was killed in central Damascus on Wednesday by rebel fire from its outskirts, the state SANA news agency reported.

Some 191,000 people have been killed since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule erupted in March 2011.

SAADA, Yemen — The UN envoy to Yemen held talks Wednesday with Shiite rebel leader Abdulmalik Al Houthi in a fresh effort to end the country's political crisis, as deadly fighting intensified north of Sanaa.

Jamal Benomar flew to the rebel stronghold of Saada in an unexpected visit after failure to hammer out a deal between President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and rebels seeking greater political clout.

The talks "aim to restart negotiations that have stalled" in Sanaa, said a source from the rebels, whose supporters have camped out across and around the capital for weeks.

His visit comes as tensions run high in Shamlan, on the capital's northern outskirts, where deadly clashes between the Shiite Houthi rebels and pro-government tribesmen, Sunni Islamists and troops have raged since Monday.

Several explosions rocked the area overnight, according to residents, adding that rebels bombed several buildings belonging to Al-Islah party.

Among them were the residence of a local leader and a Sunni religious school, residents said.

At least 32 people were killed in clashes there Wednesday between rebels, on the one hand, and tribesmen and supporters of the Sunni Al-Islah (Reform) Party, a security source said.

The Red Crescent “pulled 20 bodies from the rubble of a building and 12 others from the streets,” the source said.

The toll, which could not be independently confirmed, takes the figure for two days of fighting to at least 43 people, tribal and medical sources said.

Meanwhile, the army has reinforced its positions around Shamlan to prevent rebels advancing towards the capital’s centre, only seven kilometres away.

Troops set up new checkpoints near the site of the clashes, according to tribal sources and residents.

The clashes started after the rebels set up a new protest camp Monday close to an army barracks in Hamdan, where Shamlan is located.

It was the eighth armed protest camp the rebels have set up in the Sanaa region since they launched their campaign on August 18.

The rebels had earlier rejected an overture by Hadi in which he offered to name a new premier and reduced a controversial hike in fuel prices — two of the core demands by the rebels.

The Zaidis, to whom the Houthi rebels belong, are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but are the majority community in the northern highlands, including the Sanaa region.

Analysts say they are trying to establish themselves as the top political force in those regions.

BERLIN — Qatar's ruler Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani assured the West on Wednesday that it was not aiding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, telling Germany that his own country's security was jeopardised by the militants.

Last month, a German Cabinet minister accused Qatar of financing Islamic State militants and the United States has expressed concern about funding from Arab states, although Qatar has now promised to support US-led efforts to combat IS.

"What is happening in Iraq and Syria is extremism and such organisations are partly financed from abroad, but Qatar has never supported and will never support terrorist organisations," the emir said, speaking alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel said Al Thani had assured her Qatar's security was also at stake in the fight against the Islamic State and that she had "no reason not to believe what the emir said".

Qatar has long faced criticism, including from neighbouring Gulf Arab states, of using its vast oil and gas wealth to back Islamists across the region. German Development Minister Gerd Mueller said last month that Qatar was the "keyword" when it comes to IS financing. Berlin then had to apologise to Doha.

Qatar moved this week to regulate charity donations to tackle funding concerns and last week was one of 10 Arab states which agreed to do more to stop the flow of funds and fighters to IS — a move which Merkel said was welcome.

German and Qatari business leaders also met in Berlin and Merkel said Europe's largest economy appreciated that "Qatar is a strategic investor" which takes a long-term approach.

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations has brokered an Israeli-Palestinian deal on imports of construction materials to Gaza to ensure they will not be diverted by Hamas fighters, an envoy said Tuesday.

The agreement on monitoring the supply of materials "must get up and running without delay”, said Robert Serry, the UN envoy for the Middle East.

The deal, announced by Serry at a UN Security Council meeting, would allow private companies to move in to rebuild Gaza after a recent 50-day war ravaged the enclave and left more than 2,140 Palestinians dead.

It addresses Israel's concerns that cement and other materials could be used to rebuild Hamas tunnels by setting up a UN monitoring mechanism of the imports.

Serry described the destruction in Gaza as "truly shocking", with some 18,000 houses flattened or severely damaged while 65,000 Palestinians remain in UN-run shelters and 100,000 are homeless.

He appealed for the re-opening of crossing points to allow the delivery of materials and emphasized that quick action on reconstruction would provide a "signal of hope to the people of Gaza".

Egypt is due to host a donor conference for Gaza reconstruction on October 12, supported by Norway.

"The crisis in Gaza is far from over and the window of opportunity to address critical needs and stabilise the situation is short," Serry warned.

The envoy appealed for action to "change fundamentally the dynamics in Gaza", warning that "if we do not, Gaza could implode — or, yet again, explode — possibly with a new and even more devastating round of violence".

Following weeks of Egyptian-brokered negotiations, Israel and Hamas agreed to halt their fire in Gaza on August 26 after 50 days, their deadliest confrontation in years.

The indirect talks are set to resume mid-September to discuss longer-term issues.

UN diplomats, however, are concerned about Israeli and Palestinian commitment to peace talks, with one Security Council member saying that the sides appeared to be drifting toward a "cold peace".

The council separately has been unable to agree on a draft resolution to shore up the Gaza truce.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank numbered 382,031 at the end of June, up from 374,469 six months earlier, the leading settler organisation said on Tuesday.

The number does not include occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel has declared to be an integral part of it and an inseparable component of its capital. Around 200,000 Israelis live in the eastern Arab sector of the city.

The Yesha council said in a statement that the 2 per cent growth in the first six months of the year translated to more than double the rate inside Israel of 1.9 per cent annually.

The largest settlement, it said, was Beitar Illit, southwest of Jerusalem, with 63,087 settlers.

Israel's settlement building, which is illegal under international law, is seen as an obstacle to any lasting peace with the Palestinians, who want their future state to be on land much of which Israel has annexed or built settlements on.

Last month, Israel announced plans to expropriate 400 hectares of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem area, its biggest land grab in the occupied territory in three decades.

The move brought strong international condemnation and a warning from Finance Minister Yair Lapid that Israel's settlement policy was eroding its international support.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Palestinians fired a mortar round into southern Israel Tuesday in the first attack since an August 26 ceasefire, without causing any casualties, the Israeli army said.

"For the first time since operation Protective Edge, a mortar shell fired from Gaza hit southern Israel," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said on Twitter, referring to the military offensive in Gaza.

"No damage or injuries reported," he added.

In July, Israel launched the operation with the declared aim of halting rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. An ensuing 50-day war with fighters killed at least 2,143 Palestinians, nearly 70 per cent of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side.

The sides, working through Egyptian mediators, are supposed to start negotiations in Cairo this month to agree a more formal and long-term version of the existing open-ended truce.

ISTANBUL — Turkey would welcome senior figures from Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood after they were asked to leave Qatar under pressure from other Gulf Arab states, Turkish media quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying late on Monday.

A senior Brotherhood official based in London said on Saturday that Qatar had asked seven senior figures from the movement to leave the country after its neighbours pressed it to stop backing the Islamists.

Senior Brotherhood figures would be welcome to come to Turkey if they wished to do so, Turkish television stations quoted Erdogan as telling reporters on his plane back from an official visit to Qatar on Monday.

Qatar and Turkey were the only regional countries to back the Brotherhood after Egypt's army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi last year following mass protests against him.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf Arab states, in contrast, have showered Egypt's new rulers with billions of dollars. They see the Muslim Brotherhood as an existential threat to their monarchies.

Egypt has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist movement. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful group.

NEW YORK — Iran and six powers resume Thursday in New York negotiating a potentially historic deal to ease fears that Tehran might develop nuclear weapons after 12 years of failed diplomacy and rising tensions.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (the P5+1) want Iran to scale down its nuclear activities to make any dash to make a bomb extremely difficult.

In return Tehran, which denies wanting nuclear weapons and says a peaceful atomic programme is its right, wants the lifting of UN and Western sanctions causing its economy major problems.

In July negotiators gave themselves four more months, until November 24, to strike a deal, with US Secretary of State John Kerry saying this was the "best chance we've ever had to resolve this issue peacefully".

The talks in New York will be at the level of political directors but foreign ministers from Iran and the six powers — present in New York for the UN General Assembly — will likely also meet.

It is unclear how long the talks will last or what the outcome will be, although diplomats say that with more than two months remaining before the deadline, it is highly unlikely that this will be the final round.

Herewith a look at the main issues:

Enrichment: The thorniest problem by far is uranium enrichment, a process rendering the material suitable for power generation and medical uses with centrifuge machines but also, at high purities, for a bomb.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader, said in July that Iran wants to ramp up its enrichment capacities to industrial level. But the powers want Iran to slash them. Both sides have called for more "realism" on this point.

Progress: Progress has been made in other areas. These include greater oversight for UN inspectors, on the future of Iran's existing uranium stockpile and what Kerry called a "different purpose" for Fordo, Iran's second main enrichment site under a mountain near Qom.

Another is Iran's apparent willingness to change the design of a new reactor it is building at Arak in order to ensure that it produces much less plutonium, the alternative to highly-enriched uranium for a bomb.

Timing: Apart from enrichment there are other tricky aspects, not least the duration of the mooted accord. Washington wants Iran's nuclear activities limited for a "double-digit" number of years, Tehran considerably less.

Another difficulty is the pace at which sanctions would be lifted and how to tie the relief to certain "milestones" by Iran. The lifting of sanctions by the UN Security Council and a sceptical US Congress also presents legal difficulties.

Skeletons in the cupboard: Another potential stumbling block is the UN atomic watchdog's probe into the "possible military dimensions" of Iran's programme — alleged work on developing a nuclear weapon before 2003 and possibly since.

After years of rejecting these allegations out of hand, progress at last began to be made this year but Iran failed to provide information on two out of around 12 areas of suspect areas to the watchdog by an August 25 deadline.

Another extension?: Although negotiators insist the November 24 deadline is set in stone, experts have begun to speculate about yet another extension, not least because of the current turmoil in the Middle East.

"Luckily, the alternative to a comprehensive deal is not necessarily a collapse of diplomacy and a return to escalatory sanctions and centrifuge enhancements, with military action again on the horizon," said Mark Fitzpatrick from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The more likely alternative, rather, is another interim deal, probably one with new conditions, such as locking in an agreement to change the design of the Arak reactor so that it produces less plutonium."

SANAA — Twenty-two people were killed in fighting between Shiite Muslim rebels and government-allied tribesmen in northern Yemen on Monday and Tuesday, tribal and local sources told Reuters.

The fighting in Al Jawf province, northeast of the capital Sanaa, is further destabilising a country struggling to overcome a range of threats including a secessionist movement in its south and the spread of an Al Qaeda insurgency.

The stability of Yemen is a priority for the United States and its Arab Gulf allies because of its strategic position next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes which run through the Gulf of Aden.

An upsurge in the fighting between the Houthi Shiite gunmen and Sunni tribesmen this month followed weeks of anti-government demonstrations by Houthi activists in Sanaa.

The Houthis, who follow the small Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam, have been embroiled in a decade-old conflict with the central government in Sunni-dominated Sanaa, fighting for more territory and control in the north.

The Houthi protesters say they are taking a stand against government corruption in the poor southern Arabian country. Critics say the Houthis are trying to grab power and carve out a semi-independent state for themselves in the north — something they deny.

The sources told Reuters the dead included 15 Houthi fighters, while the Houthis killed two sons of a tribal leader in addition to five other people.

RIYADH — A Saudi court Tuesday sentenced two men to death and 13 others to lengthy jail terms for killing a policeman and three civilians and forming an Al Qaeda cell in prison.

The verdict was delivered by a court in Riyadh "specialising in terrorism cases”, state news agency SPA reported.

The authorities set up specialised courts in 2011 to try Saudis and foreigners accused of belonging to Al Qaeda or involvement in a spate of deadly attacks in the kingdom from 2003-2006.

The group, three of whom were foreigners, were accused of using a firearm to attack the policemen, killing one of them and three civilians and wounding 12 members of the security forces, SPA said.

They were also charged with setting up an Al Qaeda cell in prison and planning attacks against foreign targets and kidnapping non-Muslims.

SPA said the cell planned to launch attacks on targets inside the kingdom "with civilian aircraft". They had also planned to attack a Saudi boat in an unnamed Gulf port, the agency reported.

In addition to the two men sentenced to death, another 13, three of whom are foreigners, were given jail terms ranging between 14 and 35 years.

Two Moroccans received sentences of 30 and 18 years respectively and a Yemeni was jailed for 20 years.

The group has 30 days to appeal.

The same courts are currently trying several Saudis for allegedly belonging to extremist groups and fighting abroad, particularly in Syria, and 13 people were jailed for up to 10 years in jail on Monday.

King Abdullah in February decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for citizens who travel abroad to fight, after the conflict in Syria attracted hundreds of Saudis.