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Lebanese patriarch prays in Israel with exiled ex-militia

By - May 28,2014 - Last updated at May 28,2014

CAPERNAUM, Israel — The Lebanese patriarch of the Maronite church celebrated mass with exiled former members of an Israeli-backed Christian militia on Wednesday as part of his controversial trip to Israel.

Hundreds of Lebanese Maronites came to Saint Peter’s Church in the village of Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where Christ is said to have delivered many of his most famous teachings.

But those who attended on Wednesday, a fragment of the thousands who fled across the border with Israeli forces in 2000 when Israel ended its 22-year occupation of Lebanon, said Beshara Rai’s historic visit would do little to change their circumstances.

Trained, financed and armed by Israel, the Christian South Lebanon Army (SLA) battled Palestinians and Shiite Hizbollah fighters during the occupation of southern Lebanon.

Many SLA veterans feel they have been abandoned by Israeli authorities in their adopted home, often working in low-paying factory, restaurant or cleaning jobs, but unable to return home for fear of retribution from Hizbollah and others who considered them traitors.

“The patriarch will not grant us anything,” Boulous Nahra, originally from the town of Qlaiaa, told AFP, adding he would consider going home if the circumstances allowed.

“We never wanted to leave our country and the patriarch knows that,” said Henry Al Ghafri.

“Israel is not our country, I want to return to Lebanon [but] a lot of people in Lebanon... have disowned us now,” he added.

But Victor Nader, former commander of an SLA special forces unit, said he was content with his new life.

“We are very happy here and my son is serving in the Israeli army,” he said.

Rai came to Israel earlier in the week to join a brief visit by Pope Francis.

The Lebanese cleric was condemned by media close to Hizbollah, which said travelling to arch-enemy Israel would be a “sin”.

Lebanon remains technically at war with Israel and bans its citizens from entering Israel.

But Maronite clergy are permitted to travel to Israel to minister to the estimated 10,000 faithful there.

Earlier on Wednesday Rai visited the derelict Israeli Christian village of Kufr Bir’im, near the Lebanese border, whose inhabitants were evicted by the Israeli army in 1948, six months after Israel was established, and never allowed to return.

The same happened in the nearby village of Iqrit, and Rai vowed to help the Christians of both places, who now live in nearby towns and cities, to reclaim their homes.

“We will work through the Vatican and lobby the Pope until the world hears your case,” he said.

Egypt extends presidential election to help Sisi

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

CAIRO — Egypt’s presidential election was extended by a day on Tuesday in an effort to boost lower than expected turnout that threatened to undermine the credibility of the front-runner, former army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

After Sisi called for record voter participation, low turnout would be seen at home and abroad as a setback for the field marshal who toppled Egypt’s first freely elected leader, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi.

The two-day vote was originally due to conclude on Tuesday at 10:00pm (1900 GMT) but was extended until Wednesday to allow the “greatest number possible” to vote, state media reported.

Sisi faces only one challenger in the election: the leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in a 2012 vote won by Morsi and was seen as a long-shot in the race against an army man who became popular after ending Morsi’s divisive year in office.

“I was going to vote for Sisi because he will be the president anyway, and because I was grateful to him for removing the Brotherhood from power,” said Hani Ali, 27, who works in the private sector.

“But now I won’t go as I felt people are unhappy with the chaos of the past months and are not as pro-Sisi as I thought.”

Lines outside polling stations in various parts of Cairo were short, and in some cases no voters could be seen on Tuesday, the second day of voting that had already been extended once, with polls originally due to close at 9.00pm.

Showing signs of panic, the military-backed government had launched a determined effort to get out the vote, declaring Tuesday a public holiday.

The justice ministry said Egyptians who did not vote would be fined, and train fares were waived in an effort to boost the numbers. Local media loyal to the government chided the public for not turning out in large enough numbers.

One prominent TV commentator said people who did not vote were “traitors, traitors, traitors”.

Al Azhar, a state-run body that is Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, said failure to vote was “to disobey the nation”, state TV reported. Pope Tawadros, head of Egypt’s Coptic Church, also appeared on state TV to urge voters to head to the polls.

Turnout in the 2012 election won by Morsi was 52 per cent — a level this vote must exceed for Sisi to enjoy full political legitimacy, said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University.

Were it to fall short, then he will have failed “to read the political scene and his miscalculation has to be corrected through reconciliation”, he said. Sisi had called for a turnout of 40 million, or 80 per cent of the electorate.

Distancing Sisi from the vote extension, his campaign announced he had objected to the decision.

Hero to some, villain to others

Sisi’s supporters see him as a decisive figure who can steer Egypt out of three years of turmoil. He became a hero to many for removing Morsi after mass protests against his rule. But the Islamist opposition sees him as the mastermind of a bloody coup, and a broad crackdown on dissent has alienated others.

Trying to lower sky-high expectations in the run-up to the election, Sisi had stressed the need for austerity and self-sacrifice, a message that cost him some support and drew some ridicule in a nation of 85 million steeped in poverty.

He had announced his priorities as fighting Islamist militants who have taken up arms since Morsi’s removal, and reviving an economy battered by more than three years of turmoil that has driven away tourists and investors.

“He is the man of the hour, a man of decision, he is a nationalist and clean man,” said Fatima Boultiya, a woman in her 60s voting in Cairo at a mostly deserted polling station.

Radwa Abu Al Azem, a 31-year-ld writer voting at the same polling station for Sabahi, said: “We don’t want Sisi. We don’t want military rule, we want a civilian state after 60 years.”

Sisi was widely seen as the most powerful figure in the interim government that has waged a bloody crackdown on the Brotherhood, declaring it an enemy of the state, and putting its leaders on trial on charges that carry the death penalty.

He had been lionised by state and privately owned media, which have helped build a personality cult around the former intelligence chief about whom little was known until last year: his face now appears on chocolates, posters and key-rings.

On Sisi’s Facebook page, admirers posted hundreds of pictures of themselves wearing Egyptian flags or patriotic T-shirts, with ink on their fingers to show they had voted for him. Others had banners saying “long live Egypt”, Sisi’s slogan.

He is the sixth military man to run Egypt since the army overthrew the monarch in 1952.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies had called for a boycott. The security forces killed hundreds of Morsi’s supporters and arrested an estimated 20,000 activists, most of them Islamists, in a crackdown since his removal.

Some secular dissidents have also been jailed, often for breaking a new protest law criticised as a threat to free assembly, alienating some liberal Egyptians who were glad that Morsi was overthrown.

In Morsi’s home village, northeast of Cairo only a few voters had cast ballots at two polling stations visited by Reuters on Tuesday afternoon, election officials said.

A poster declared Morsi still the legitimate president of Egypt, urging voters to boycott “the elections of blood”, while graffiti attacked Sisi as a traitor and killer.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organisation by the state, which accuses it of a role in attacks that have killed several hundred members of the security forces. The Brotherhood denies any role in the violence.

Western criticism

It is the second time Egyptians are electing a president in two years, and it is the seventh vote or referendum since 2011.

In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a Muslim Brotherhood leader in her 40s welcomed the low turnout.

“This boycott gives us hope that Sisi will not be a real president and be able to govern,” she said, declining to give her name for fear of arrest.

But Sisi, 59, enjoys the backing of many Egyptian Muslims attracted by his pious demeanour — he has presented himself as a defender of Islam — and Coptic Christians whose churches were attacked after Morsi’s downfall and who see him as a protector.

Sisi’s challenger Sabahi came third in the 2012 election won by Morsi. Other candidates in that election did not run this time, saying the climate was not conducive to democracy following a crackdown on Islamist and other opposition groups.

Sabahi’s campaign complained of many violations, including physical assaults on its representatives, and “intervention by police and army”, on the first day of voting.

In the industrial city of Helwan, south of Cairo, many men sitting in coffee shops said they were not voting.

“I’ve voted plenty of times,” said one, a 59-year-old security guard at a factory who refused to give his name.

Hamas, Fateh agree on Palestinian national unity government

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

GAZA — Rival Palestinian factions Fateh and Hamas agreed on the make-up of a national unity government on Tuesday in the most significant step yet towards healing their seven-year rift.

The two groups said they had decided on a list of independent, technocrat ministers who will run the government pending elections in at least six months — moves they hope will revive institutions paralysed since the parties fought a brief civil war in 2007.

Officials from the two sides told a news conference in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will make a formal announcement of the new government later this week after choosing a religious affairs minister.

“The viewpoints of the Hamas and Fateh movements will be presented to President [Abbas] to give his final decision on the government line-up,” Fateh official Azzam Al Ahmed said.

The deal cements an initial unity pledge the two parties announced on April 23, just as US-backed peace talks Abbas was holding with Israel were collapsing.

Those negotiations now appear to be totally stalled, yet both Abbas and his Israeli counterparts say they seek more talks under the right conditions.

Israel objects to the reconciliation moves and regards Hamas, which refuses to recognise it or renounce arms, as a terrorist group.

Fighting or negotiation?

The two factions agreed that current Prime Minister Rami Al Hamdallah, a former university president picked by Abbas, will lead the new Cabinet.

Sources close to the unity talks said Hamdallah would also assume the sensitive post of interior minister, and that the current ministers of foreign affairs and finance will stay on.

They said a formal swearing-in ceremony will be held later in the week at Abbas’s seat of government in Ramallah.

Abbas has sought to soothe foreign donor countries upon which his government depends for its economic survival that he will remain the main Palestinian decision-maker on diplomacy and policy towards Israel.

Deep mistrust have scuppered previous deals to end the internal Palestinian rift, with both sides struggling to reconcile Hamas’ commitment to fighting Israel with Abbas’ choice to negotiate with it.

Ismail Haniyeh, current prime minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, said at a rally earlier on Tuesday that Palestinians would now be newly empowered to fight Israel.

“Palestinian reconciliation aims to unite the Palestinian people against the prime enemy, the Zionist enemy. It aims to pursue the choice of resistance and steadfastness,” Haniyeh told supporters in the southern town of Rafah.

Sources close to the talks say reconciling the Hamas-built security services in Gaza with Abbas’s Western-equipped security forces in the West Bank will be delayed until after elections.

Leaders of the group said their most powerful armed wing will remain untouched even after the vote.

Gunmen fire grenades at Libya PM’s home; strife worsens

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

TRIPOLI — Gunmen fired grenades at the Tripoli home of Libya’s new prime minister, Ahmed Maiteeq, and his guards killed at least one assailant on Tuesday, just days after parliament approved his appointment in a contested vote.

Full details of the morning attack were not clear, but Maiteeq, who is Libya’s third premier in two months, was unharmed. “There were two cars and they fired RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) at his home,” a source from the prime minister’s office said.

Libya’s young democracy is in chaos three years after the civil war that ousted Muammar Qadhafi. Rival Islamist, anti-Islamist, regional and political factions are locked in a complex struggle for influence in the oil-producing country.

Maiteeq, a businessman from Misrata, won backing from an Islamist party and independents in a chaotic vote by congress earlier this month. The vote was challenged as illegitimate by rival lawmakers and anti-Islamist factions.

A week after his appointment, gunmen loyal to a renegade former general attacked the congress as part of the general’s self-declared war on Islamist militants.

The former general, Khalifa Haftar, has rejected Maiteeq’s government and demanded parliament hand over power. Early elections have been called for June, but that may not be enough to bridge deepening divisions over the country’s transition.

Haftar gained the support of several regular military factions and other militia brigades fiercely opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist factions. It remains unclear how much broad backing he can win.

Rival powerful brigades more allied with Islamist political parties have already rejected Haftar as a would-be coup-plotter, leaving Libya closer to a violent stand-off among its militia factions.

Four decades of Qadhafi’s one-main rule left the country with few institutions to resist the pressures of competing forces and brigades of former rebel fighters, who have become power-brokers in the vacuum of a strong state.

Worried that unrest may spill over into regional chaos, the United States and European Union have been helping train Libya’s nascent army. But political turmoil has undermined programmes to build up an effective force.

Oil protests

At stake also are Libya’s large oil resources. They have been battered by months of blockades by an array of former rebel groups and local protesters whose demands range from more autonomy to better payments.

A brigade from Libya’s state-run Petroleum Facilities Guard was disrupting operations at Hariga port as they demanded salary payments, an official from state-run oil company AGOCO said.

The official said the protest was interrupting work at the port, where full storage tanks forced a stoppage of production at Sarir oilfield and a reduction at Messla oilfield.

The Petroleum Facilities guards at Hariga have been allied with Ibrahim Jathran, a former rebel commander who defected from the guards to take over four major oil ports last summer to demand more autonomy for his region.

Jathran had agreed to lift his blockade steadily under a deal with the government. But late on Monday he said he does not recognise Maiteeq’s government, suggesting the oil deal may be in jeopardised.

A spokesman for Jathran declined to comment on the Hariga protest and would not confirm his movement was involved in any action there.

The port shutout by Jathran’s armed fighters and other protests have cut Libya’s output to 160,000 barrels per day from 1.4 million the OPEC country was producing before the strikes and blockades began.

Next Iran nuclear talks June 16-20 in Vienna — EU

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

BRUSSELS — The next round of talks on resolving Western concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme will take place in Vienna on June 16-20, the European Union announced Tuesday.

After “very long and useful discussions” in Istanbul, the “next formal round... will be from 16-20 June in Vienna”, a spokesman for EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said.

The talks were “very long and useful”, spokesman Michael Mann said in a brief statement.

Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also recommended that an experts meeting “should take place soon”, Mann added.

Ashton and Zarif met in Istanbul from Monday to discuss the next steps towards a final agreement which would resolve Western concerns that Tehran wants to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran has consistently said it is not seeking nuclear weapons but wants an independent nuclear programme to provide energy.

Talks earlier this month in Vienna made no “tangible progress”, with a July 20 deadline for a comprehensive agreement looming on the horizon and major issues still outstanding.

The EU’s Ashton leads the talks with Iran on behalf of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, known as the P5+1.

Kuwait hopes emir visit to Iran will boost Gulf peace

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait expressed its hopes on Monday that a landmark visit by Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah to visit Iran next week will strengthen security, stability and peace in the Gulf.

The visit comes amid a recent thaw in relations between Shiite Iran and the Sunni-ruled Gulf states despite high sectarian tensions over the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Sheikh Sabah, on his first visit to Tehran as head of state, will lead a high-level delegation consisting of the ministers of foreign affairs, oil, finance and commerce and industry, the Cabinet said in a statement.

It said it hoped the visit “would boost cooperation in various fields”, as well as strengthening “security, stability and peace in the region”, in the statement issued after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The two-day visit will start on June 1, the Cabinet said.

Iran’s newly appointed ambassador to Kuwait Ali Riza told reporters on Monday the emir’s visit “will give a push to regional cooperation and consolidate ties”.

He said Sheikh Sabah’s talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will touch on the Syrian conflict and the situation in the Gulf.

Kuwait currently holds the rotating presidency of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which also includes Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

The Iranian envoy said he expected the a number of cooperation agreements in fields including aviation, tourism, sports to be signed.

For years, Iran’s relations with the Gulf states have been frosty, with disagreements over unrest in Bahrain and the conflict in Syria, before Rouhani, a self-declared moderate, was elected president of the Islamic republic last June.

In December last year, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif started a tour of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar. But it ended without Zarif travelling to Iran’s main rival, Saudi Arabia.

Two weeks ago, Riyadh’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said he had invited his Iranian counterpart to visit.

Tehran welcomed the plan and stressed the need to boost relations after years of strained ties.

After his election, Rouhani said he wanted to reach out to Gulf Arab governments as part of efforts to end his country’s international isolation.

Israel hospitalises 40 hunger-striking Palestinian detainees

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel hospitalised 40 hunger-striking Palestinian detainees this week as their fast entered a second month, the spokeswoman of Israel’s prison authority said Tuesday. In all, some 240 detainees are currently on a hunger strike.

The condition of those hospitalised is “reasonable”, said spokeswoman Sivan Weizman, but did not elaborate.

Advocates for the prisoners said their health is deteriorating.

The advocacy group Addameer visited five hunger strikers in Israel’s Ramle Prison last week and said they were weak and barely able to move.

Issa Karakeh, the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs, told a news conference Tuesday that some of the hunger-strikers are in serious danger.

The prisoners demand their release and the halt of open-ended “administrative detention”, which allows Israel to hold people without charge or trial. Over the years, virtually all administrative detainees were Palestinians.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said that as of April, 191 Palestinians were in administrative detention. Overall, Israel is holding more than 5,000 Palestinians convicted or accused of anti-Israeli activity.

Since 2012, Palestinian prisoners have staged a series of hunger strikes, sometimes as individuals and sometimes in larger groups.

The current hunger strike was launched April 24 by 80 detainees and more have joined since then.

Weizman said that 240 Palestinian prisoners are currently on a hunger strike, while Karakeh put the number at about 300, and said about half of them are administrative detainees.

Iraq attacks, including Shiite mosque bombing, kill 27

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

BAGHDAD — A wave of attacks in Iraq, including a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killed 27 people Tuesday, the latest in a protracted surge in bloodshed.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad’s Shorja neighbourhood as worshippers were performing ablutions ahead of mid-day prayers.

At least 19 people were killed and 34 wounded in the blast at the Abu Al Timan Husseiniyah, near the headquarters of the Baghdad mayoralty, security and medical officials said.

Security forces barred journalists from taking photographs or videos of the aftermath of the scene, a common occurrence in the wake of deadly violence in the capital.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Sunni militants including those linked to the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadist group often target Iraq’s Shiite majority, whom they regard as apostates.

Elsewhere in the capital, roadside bombs in the neighbourhoods of Sadr City and Dura left two people dead.

And a series of shootings and bombings in the main northern city of Mosul killed six others.

Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province are among the most violent parts of Iraq, and security officials say Sunni militant groups including ISIL hold significant sway there.

Tuesday’s incidents pushed the death toll for the year above 4,000 as near-daily violence and battles with militants in western Iraq have fuelled fears the country is slipping back into the all-out conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007.

Violence has surged in the past year to its highest level since 2008, while anti-government fighters also control an entire city a short drive from Baghdad and parts of another.

The authorities have trumpeted security operations against militants, but attacks have continued unabated on a daily basis across Baghdad and much of the north and the west of the country.

The authorities blame external factors such as the civil war in neighbouring Syria, but diplomats and analysts say the Shiite-led government must also do more to reach out to disgruntled minority Sunnis in order to undermine support for militancy.

The government has made some concessions aimed at placating the Sunni Arab minority, which alleges mistreatment at the hands of the authorities and security forces, analysts say more has to be done to address their concerns.

Iranian judge summons Facebook CEO for breach of privacy

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

DUBAI — A conservative Iranian court opened a case against instant messaging services WhatsApp and Instagram while also summoning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over complaints of privacy violation, state news agency ISNA reported on Tuesday.

The case underscores the growing struggle between moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s drive to increase Internet freedoms and demands by the conservative judiciary for tighter controls.

The Iranian court in the southern province of Fars opened the cases against the social networks after citizens complained of breaches of privacy.

“According to the court’s ruling, the Zionist director of the company of Facebook, or his official attorney must appear in court to defend himself and pay for possible losses,” said Ruhollah Momen-Nasab, an Iranian Internet official, according to state news agency ISNA, referring to Zuckerberg’s Jewish background.

Zuckerberg, whose company owns WhatsApp and Instagram, is unlikely to heed the summons.

Iran is still under international sanctions over its disputed nuclear activities and it is difficult for US citizens to secure travel visas, even if they want to visit.

Internet use is high in Iran, partly because many young Iranians turn to it to bypass an official ban on Western cultural products, and Tehran occasionally filters popular websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Rouhani, in remarks that challenge hardliners who have stepped up measures to censor the web, said earlier this month that Iran should embrace the Internet rather than see it as a threat.

A Rouhani administration official said Iran would loosen Internet censorship by introducing “smart filtering”, which only keeps out sites the Islamic government considers immoral.

Pace of new MERS infections in Saudi Arabia slows to four a day

By - May 27,2014 - Last updated at May 27,2014

RIYADH/DUBAI — The rate of infection of a deadly virus in Saudi Arabia has slowed since mid May and Monday was the first day free of new cases in six weeks, figures released by the kingdom’s health ministry showed.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was discovered in Saudi Arabia two years ago and has since infected 562 people in the kingdom, killing 179 of them. It can cause flu-like symptoms, pneumonia and organ failure in some.

A surge in new cases in April prompted King Abdullah to sack the health minister and led to criticism of infection control procedures in many Saudi hospitals. There were also concerns the government was not taking seriously MERS’s link to camels.

Cases have also been discovered in other countries, including the United States, Britain and France and, most recently, in Iran. Most of these cases are linked to people who have recently visited Gulf Arab countries.

In the first two weeks of the month, the daily number of new cases in Saudi Arabia averaged nearly 11, but since May 14 the average number of new confirmed infections has been a little over four a day, the figures show.

Late on Monday the ministry reported its first day free of new confirmed infections since April 13.

The number of new patients had soared across Saudi Arabia, with the total number of confirmed cases jumping to 511 on May 14 from the 173 confirmed in laboratories at the end of March.

International scientists have also complained that Saudi authorities have not done enough to work with them on investigating the disease, something the kingdom’s health ministry denies.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials say they have confirmed the country’s first two cases of MERS.

“Four suspected cases of new corona virus infection were observed in a family in the province of Kerman. Two of these cases were confirmed in two sisters,” said Mohammad Mahdi Gouya, the director-general of communicable diseases at the Iranian Health Ministry’s Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention.

“One of the sisters is in critical condition and the other is currently receiving treatment under special circumstances,” the ministry’s website quoted him on Monday as saying.

Gouya also said that Tehran had dispatched trained medical teams to Saudi Arabia, where they studied MERS cases among Iranian Hajj pilgrims, according to Iran’s Press TV.

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