Region

JUBA — Top United Nations rights officials vowed Wednesday to do everything in their power to prevent conflict-wracked South Sudan from sliding into genocide, and warned the warring factions they would be held responsible if famine breaks out.

Firing off a damning attack against South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she was “appalled by the apparent lack of concern about the risk of famine displayed by both leaders.”

The comments came after Pillay, accompanied by a special genocide envoy, held talks with the rival leaders, and a day after the UN made a desperate appeal for a one-month truce to avert a famine and humanitarian disaster.

“To the survivors of the genocide, we owe a pledge to take all possible measures within our power to protect populations from another Rwanda, there is no excuse for inaction,” UN envoy for the prevention of genocide Adama Dieng told reporters.

“It is clear that the conflict has taken a dangerous trajectory, and civilians are being deliberately targeted based on their ethnicity and perceived political affiliation,” he said in a joint news conference with Pillay.

The four-month-old civil war in South Sudan, which only won independence from Sudan in 2011, has already left thousands of people dead — and possibly tens of thousands — with at least 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes.

A ceasefire signed in January is in tatters, with tens of thousands of people sheltering in UN bases following a wave of ethnic massacres and other war crimes including rapes, the forced recruitment of children and killings in hospitals, churches and mosques.

“The deadly mix of recrimination, hate speech, and revenge killings that has developed relentlessly over the past four and a half months seems to be reaching boiling point,” Pillay said.

She said there were now some 9,000 children fighting in the country on both sides.

Risk of famine 

“The country’s leaders, instead of seizing their chance to steer their impoverished and war-battered young nation to stability and greater prosperity, have instead embarked on a personal power struggle that has brought their people to the verge of catastrophe,” she said.

“The prospect of widespread hunger and malnutrition being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of their people, because of their personal failure to resolve their differences peacefully, did not appear to concern them very much.”

She warned Kiir and Machar that “if famine does take hold later in the year... responsibility for it will lie squarely with the country’s leaders, who agreed to a cessation of hostilities in January and then failed to observe it themselves”.

Dieng also called on Kiir and Machar to take “higher responsibility” for those under their command.

The UN visit, which wrapped up Wednesday, comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry is also heading to the region.

The United States was instrumental in helping South Sudan gain independence, and Kerry, who was to arrive in Ethiopia late Wednesday, was expected to try to press the negotiators at slow-moving peace talks to end the fighting.

Earlier this month, the rebels were blamed for the killings of hundreds of people in the oil hub of Bentiu, and a pro-government mob killed dozens of civilians in an attack on a UN base in Bor.

The unrest broke out on December 15 in what Kiir called a coup attempt by Machar, his sacked vice president. The conflict has taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting Kiir’s Dinka tribe against militia forces from Machar’s Nuer people.

Dieng said the country “should not be led down this slippery slope”.

“I beseech everyone, the South Sudanese, your leaders, the regional and international community, to take immediate measures to end the violence and uphold our collective responsibility to protect the populations of South Sudan from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

Last week the UN Security Council brandished the threat of sanctions against both the rebels and government forces.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is “strongly concerned and will make sure that never again what happened in Rwanda happens in another place in this continent”, Dieng said, adding that “the world is watching”.

WASHINGTON — US Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, said on Tuesday he would not approve sending funds to the Egyptian military, denouncing a “sham trial” in which a court sentenced 683 people to death.

“I’m not prepared to sign off on the delivery of additional aid for the Egyptian military,” the Vermont Democrat said in a speech on the Senate floor, explaining why he would hold up the $650 million. “I’m not prepared to do that until we see convincing evidence the government is committed to the rule of law.”

The Obama administration has been grappling for months with how to deal with Egypt, one of its most important allies in the Middle East. The Pentagon said last week it would deliver 10 Apache attack helicopters and $650 million to Egypt’s military, relaxing a partial suspension of aid imposed after Egypt’s military ousted President Mohamed Mursi on July 3 and violently suppressed protesters.

On Monday, an Egyptian court sentenced the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and 682 supporters to death, intensifying a crackdown on the Islamist movement that could trigger protests and political violence ahead of an election next month.

Leahy said he would be watching the situation in Egypt with “growing dismay” even if he were not chairman of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, denouncing “a sham trial lasting barely an hour”.

“It’s a flaunting of human rights by the Egyptian government. It’s an appalling abuse of the justice system, which is fundamental to any democracy. Nobody, nobody, can justify this. It does not show democracy. It shows a dictatorship run amok. It is a total violation of human rights,” Leahy said.

The Apaches are not subject to congressional approval.

Washington normally sends $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to Egypt each year, but a US law — written by Leahy — bars funding governments brought to power via military coup.

The Obama administration wavered for months over whether to call events in Cairo a coup before cutting aid off in October to demonstrate unhappiness after the ouster of Mursi, who had emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood to become Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.

The Pentagon, State Department and White House had no immediate response to Leahy’s remarks.

However, US Secretary of State John Kerry noted at an appearance on Tuesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy that he would be discussing with Fahmy “disturbing decisions within the judicial process — the court system — that have raised serious challenges for all of us”.

Fahmy, who was visiting Washington, said Egypt’s judicial system was independent of the government and said he was confident due process was allowed in the courts.

ALGIERS — Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika “flunked” a test of his oral skills at his inauguration, newspapers said Tuesday, raising doubts about the stroke victim’s ability to effectively carry out his duties.

Sitting in a wheelchair, the ailing 77-year-old Bouteflika struggled to recite the oath of office and give a speech at his televised inauguration on Monday, following his re-election for a fourth term.

“Bouteflika flunked his oral,” the leading El Watan newspaper said in an editorial.

“Handicapped by illness, he was forced to tap into his meagre resources to pass this final and challenging oral exam.”

Bouteflika, who was also in a wheelchair when he cast his ballot in the April 17 election, has hardly been seen in public since the mini-stroke that confined him to hospital in Paris for three months last year.

“Algerians who followed the tragicomic event on television saw images that gave little reassurance on the state of the health of Bouteflika, who is to preside over the country’s destiny for the next five years,” said El Watan.

The El Khabar daily put the issue on its front page, describing Bouteflika’s speech as “incomplete”.

It noted that after reciting the 94-word oath in Arabic, the president stumbled on his words during his speech, a copy of which was distributed to journalists at the ceremony, which lasted 30 minutes.

The French-language Liberte described the swearing-in ceremony as “expeditious” and said Bouteflika “only read the preamble of the confusing speech” which was 12 pages long.

“Yesterday’s performance reminded us, once again, of the stubborn issue of the president’s capacity to effectively undertake his duties,” it said.

“The regime can say everything is in order, [but] the medical debate continues with its political ramifications.”

Meanwhile, the youth protest movement Barakat (Enough) said it sent a letter to the constitutional council on Tuesday calling for Bouteflika to be impeached over his inability to rule.

The request was based on footage showing Bouteflika had “failed to read all his text and only one paragraph of the 29 in the speech,” Barakat’s Amina Bouraoui told AFP.

Bouteflika won 81.5 per cent of votes in an election marred by low turnout and claims of fraud by his opponents, including main rival Ali Benflis, who received 12.2 per cent.

One of the few remaining veterans of the war of independence against France, Bouteflika first came to power in 1999, but has been dogged by ill health and corruption scandals.

He nevertheless remains popular with many Algerians, who credit him with helping to end the devastating civil war in the 1990s.

GAZA CITY — Gaza’s Ark, a Palestinian-built protest boat which was preparing to run Israel’s naval blockade of the territory, was badly damaged in an explosion on Tuesday that organisers blamed on Israel.

The blast in Gaza City port struck at around 3:45am (00045 GMT) and was preceded by an anonymous telephone call warning the guard that the vessel was about to be blown up, organisers said.

The ship, a large fishing vessel which was being readied to put to sea in June, sustained major damage and sunk in the shallow waters of the port, leaving three-quarters of it submerged.

“An anonymous caller phoned the guard and told him to leave because they were planning to destroy the boat. He was very afraid and ran away,” Project Manager Mahfouz Kabariti told AFP.

He said the guard escaped unhurt as he was about 200 metres away when the explosion struck.

He was referring to an incident in 2011 when two boats docked in Greece were mysteriously damaged ahead of an attempt to break the Gaza blockade that organisers blamed on Israeli “sabotage”.

“We are convinced Israel did it because we were preparing for a test run next week, with the main voyage planned for June 15.”

He said all the details had been given to Gaza’s Hamas-run police force who had opened an investigation.

Mustafa Abu Awad, the 25-year-old guard who was on duty at the time, told AFP he had been warned to leave the area by an anonymous caller.

“I was sleeping near the boat and someone phoned me — an unidentified caller. I answered and he told me: ‘Mustafa, leave the boat right now because we are going to blow it up.’ I asked him who he was, but he hung up.”

Palestinian labourers and foreign activists have been working for more than a year to fit out the boat to carry goods and more than 100 passengers in the latest high-profile attempt to challenge Israel’s maritime lockdown on the tiny Hamas-run territory.

If successful, it would be the first time goods from Gaza have been exported by sea since the signing of the 1994 Oslo peace accords.

TRIPOLI — Gunmen stormed Libya’s parliament on Tuesday and opened fire, forcing lawmakers to abandon a vote on the next prime minister, witnesses said.

Parliament spokesman Omar Hmeidan said several people were wounded in the shooting by the gunmen, who were linked to one of the defeated candidates for prime minister. He gave no name.

Lawmakers fled from the building, witnesses said. The incident ended quickly but the vote was postponed until next week.

The government has been unable to control armed groups and Islamists who helped oust Muammar Qadhafi in 2011 but refuse to disarm and have carved out regional fiefdoms. Militias have repeatedly attacked the interim General National Congress (GNC) to make political or financial demands.

Hmeidan said deputies had started the final vote on a replacement for Premier Abdullah Al Thinni, who resigned two weeks ago saying that gunmen had attacked his family.

In the first ballot, businessman Ahmed Maiteeq came out on top among seven candidates. A second round between Maiteeq and the runner-up Omar Al Hasi had been meant to take place when the gunmen burst into the assembly.

Thinni had resigned just one month after his election, replacing Ali Zeidan, who was fired by deputies over attempts by rebels in the volatile east to sell oil independently.

Deadlock

The assembly is deadlocked between Islamists, tribes and nationalists, compounding a sense of chaos as Libya’s fledgling army tries to assert itself against unruly ex-rebels, tribal groups and Islamist militants.

In February, it agreed to hold early elections in an effort to assuage Libyans frustrated at political chaos nearly three years after the fall of Qadhafi.

Deputies initially agreed to extend their term after their mandate ran out on February 7 to allow a special committee time to draft a new constitution. But that move provoked protests from Libyans angry at the slow pace of political change.

Many people in the OPEC nation blame congress infighting for a lack of progress in the transition to democracy.

In another sign of trouble, the attorney general asked to lift the immunity of assembly president, Nouri Abu Sahmain, to investigate a leaked video showing him being questioned over a late-night visit by two women to his house, Benghazi MP Ahmed Langhi told Reuters.

The case has the potential to damage Abu Sahmain, who is the army commander and has quasi-presidential powers. He has disappeared from public view since the attorney general launched his investigation in March.

At the time of the incident in January, rumours surfaced that he had been briefly detained by a militia to question him about the women. He denied then he had been kidnapped.

RAMALLAH/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — There can be no peace with Israel without first defining the borders of a future Palestinian state, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday.

“Since the creation of Israel, nobody knows what the borders are. We are determined to know our borders and theirs, without that there will be no peace,” he said as Washington’s nine-month deadline for reaching a peace deal expired, leaving the process in tatters.

In a televised address, Abbas laid out his conditions for returning to the crisis-hit peace talks with Israel which have made no progress since they were launched on July 29 last year.

“If we want to extend the negotiations there has to be a release of prisoners ... a settlement freeze, and a discussion of maps and borders for three months during which there must be a complete halt to settlement activity,” he said.

The peace talks hit a major stumbling block in late March after Israel refused to comply with a commitment to release 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners, prompting Abbas to resume moves to seek international recognition.

Abbas has repeatedly insisted that Israel release the two dozen detainees plus hundreds more and agree to a freeze on settlement activity.

He has also demanded comprehensive talks on the issue of borders.

But a senior Israeli official said there would be no further talks unless Abbas renounced a reconciliation pact signed last week with Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers, under which the two rival Palestinian administrations would seek to form a new government of technocrats.

“The moment that Mahmoud Abbas gives up the alliance with Hamas, a murderous organisation which calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, we will be ready to return immediately to the negotiating table and discuss all subjects,” he told AFP.

On April 24, a day after the unity deal was announced, the Israeli security Cabinet said it would not negotiate with any Palestinian government backed by Hamas, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Abbas would have to choose between peace with the Islamist movement, or peace with Israel.

The timing of the intra-Palestinian unity agreement was criticised as “unhelpful” by Washington, although US officials are understood to have a wait-and-see attitude to the new government, Haaretz newspaper reported.

“It is clear that the administration also has a ‘glass half full’ view of the controversial deal between the two rival Palestinian factions,” the paper said, quoting a top White House adviser who said it was not possible to make peace “with only a part of the Palestinian people”.

Vandalism

Vandals suspected of being Jewish extremists hit a mosque and a church in Israel, Israeli forces said Tuesday, in the latest of a string of racist and religious attacks.

Separately, security forces arrested an Israeli man after he threatened the Roman Catholic bishop of Nazareth and demanded that Catholics leave the country or face God’s wrath.

Security spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP vandals had scrawled “Close mosques and not yeshivas” (Jewish seminaries) on the outer wall of a mosque in the small Arab town of Fureidis, near the northern port city of Haifa.

The tyres of several nearby cars had been slashed.

Security forces were also investigating vandalism at Tabgha church on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which was built on the site where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

Church officials said a group of religious Jews in their early teens had damaged crosses there and attacked clergy.

And in Nazareth, also in northern Israel, Israeli forces arrested a Jewish man in his 40s for threatening Roman Catholic Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo and members of his faith.

“A suspect arrived at [Marcuzzo’s] house and delivered a threatening letter” on Sunday, Rosenfeld told AFP, saying the man was arrested in the nearby town of Safed.

In the letter, the suspect said all Christians, “except Protestants and Anglicans”, should leave Israel by May 5 and said that if Marcuzzo and his community did not comply, they would all be “killed by the heavens” — a term for God.

There are also other Christian communities in Israel, such as the Eastern Orthodox, Armenians and Copts.

The letter, which was signed by “the Messiah, Son of David”, quoted Jewish sources who hold that Christianity is a form of idolatry and should be banned.

The suspect said the message must be distributed to the community through the media by 1700 GMT Tuesday, saying every hour of delay would “cost the lives of 100 Christian souls”.

Reacting to the vandalism, security spokesman Rosenfeld said “crimes committed for nationalist motives are extremely serious.”

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni also condemned the incidents.

“Whoever did these deeds is not part of my people,” she wrote on her Facebook page, pledging to “catch and punish” those responsible.

Speaking for the Catholic Church, Wadie Abu Nassar criticised the attacks as “very dangerous” and the Israeli establishment for its “lack of will” to act against those inciting them — “especially radical rabbis and preachers”.

“The security establishment is not acting sufficiently” to arrest and indict those responsible, he told AFP.

Politically motivated acts of vandalism with their trademark Hebrew graffiti are euphemistically known as “price tag” attacks.

Carried out by suspected Jewish extremists, thought to be predominantly teenagers, the attacks initially targeted Palestinians and their property. They have since grown in scope to include Christian sites and anyone opposed to the settlements.

DAMASCUS — At least 59 people were killed in attacks in Syria’s Damascus and Homs on Tuesday, as an international watchdog said it would probe alleged chlorine attacks in the country.

The parliament speaker, meanwhile, announced four new candidates had registered for presidential polls next month expected to return President Bashar Assad to power despite the civil war, which has left vast swathes of the country out of his control.

On Tuesday morning, a barrage of mortar shells fired by rebels hit a central neighbourhood in the capital, killing at least 14 people, state media reported.

“Fourteen citizens were killed and 86 others wounded by terrorists who targeted the Shaghur neighbourhood in Damascus,” the SANA news agency said.

The attack hit a school of Islamic jurisprudence where some students are as young as 14, though it was unclear if children were among those killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights NGO put the toll in the attack at 17, adding that the figure could rise because several of the injured were in critical condition.

Hours later, a car bomb ripped through a crowded area of the country’s third city Homs, followed shortly afterwards by a rocket attack on the same neighbourhood, the provincial governor told AFP.

Talal Barazi said 45 people were killed in the double attack on the Zahra neighbourhood.

He said 36 died in the car bomb blast and another nine in the rocket fire that followed.

“The rocket fell about half an hour after the bombing on the same area, where there was a crowd of people” trying to help those wounded in the blast, he said.

The attack was one of the deadliest to hit the central city, where rebels control just a few remaining districts, most of them under a tight government siege.

Earlier this month, regime forces launched an attack on rebel areas in the city, where just a few hundred opposition fighters remain after most civilians were evacuated in a UN-led operation.

Chlorine attacks probe planned 

In the Hague, meanwhile, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it would examine allegations that chlorine had been used in attacks in Syria.

The watchdog’s chief Ahmet Uzumcu announced “the creation of an OPCW mission to establish facts surrounding allegations of use of chlorine in Syria”, a statement said.

The Syrian regime and rebels have blamed each other for the use of chlorine in at least one attack, in the rebel-held town of Kafr Zita in Hama province, with the opposition alleging the government has carried out several more.

The OPCW is already in Syria overseeing a deal under which Damascus is to turn over its chemical weapons arsenal by June 30.

On Sunday, the joint UN-OPCW mission in Damascus said 92.5 per cent of the country’s chemical weapons material had been removed or destroyed.

Syria agreed to dismantle its chemical weapons programme last year, after Washington threatened military action in response to a sarin gas attack outside Damascus that killed up to 1,400 people.

The regime denied carrying out the attack.

New presidential candidates 

In Damascus, Parliamentary Speaker Mohamed Al Lahham said four new candidates had registered to participate in the country’s June 3 presidential election, bringing the total number of candidates, including Assad, to 11.

Ali Wanous, Azza Al Hallaq, Talea Salah Nasser and Samih Mikhael Moussa are all relative unknowns.

Syria’s constitution requires that candidates for the presidency be Muslim, but a source in the constitutional court confirmed that Moussa is Christian.

“We receive all applications for presidential candidacy and transmit them to the parliament,” the source said.

“In the five days after the candidacy period ends, on May 5, we will examine the candidates to see if they meet all requirements. On May 6, we will announce who has met the conditions,” he added.

Hallaq’s application brings the number of women competing in the vote to two.

The constitution contains no explicit prohibition on female candidates, but its phrasing implies only male candidates are permitted.

The elections will be Syria’s first multi-candidate presidential vote after a constitutional amendment did away with the previous referendum system.

But with a brutal civil war raging and large areas of the country held by rebels, it remains unclear how the vote will be organised.

Nearly half of Syria’s residents have fled their homes, and the country’s electoral commission says those who left the country “illegally” will not be allowed to vote.

Electoral rules also prevent anyone who has lived outside Syria in the past decade from running, effectively excluding most prominent opposition figures, who live in exile.

BAGHDAD — Twin bombings killed 15 people northeast of Baghdad Tuesday, the latest in a wave of deadly violence that has cast a pall over Iraq’s first general election since US troops withdrew.

The bloodshed came a day after a spate of blasts, including 10 suicide bombings, killed 64 people, raising questions over whether Iraq’s security forces can protect upwards of 20 million eligible voters during Wednesday’s polls.

Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, under fire over the worst protracted surge in violence in years along with a laundry list of voter grievances, is bidding for a third term in office in the election, the country’s first since 2010.

The Shiite premier has trumpeted a battle against violent jihadists whom he claims are entering Iraq from war-torn Syria and supported by Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

But critics say the authorities’ heavy-handed treatment of minority Sunnis has contributed to the unrest.

In the latest violence, a spate of attacks on Monday killed 64 people in Baghdad as well as north and west of the capital, fuelling fears voters may stay at home rather than risk being caught up in bloodshed.

On Tuesday morning, twin bombings at a market in the town of Saadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, killed 15 more people.

“I can’t imagine the militancy is going to sit back and say, ‘Yeah, have your election’,” said John Drake, a London-based security analyst at AKE Group.

“They are going to make a strong statement undermining the government, undermining the capability of the security forces, and hopefully deterring voters so that the vote result will be seen as illegitimate... in the eyes of many of the electorate.

“This will harm the government, and make the terrorists seem more credible.”

More than 3,000 people have been killed in violence so far this year, according to an AFP tally, including more than 750 already this month.

The unrest is the country’s worst since it was plagued by all-out sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007 that left tens of thousands dead.

Voter grievances 

Authorities have announced a week-long public holiday to try to bolster security for the election, and vehicles will be barred from Baghdad’s streets from Tuesday evening.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest bloodshed, but Sunni militant groups have been accused of carrying out previous bombings in an attempt to derail the political process.

Though voters nationwide often list an array of grievances, from poor public services, rampant corruption and high unemployment, to say nothing of the persistent violence, the month-long campaign ahead of Wednesday’s vote has centred around Maliki’s bid for a third term in office.

The premier contends that foreign interference is behind deteriorating security and complains of being saddled with a unity government of groups that snipe at him in public and block his efforts to pass legislation.

The 63-year-old who hails from Iraq’s Shiite Arab majority and is accused by his opponents of monopolising power and targeting minority Sunnis, is widely expected to win the largest number of seats in parliament, but is unlikely to win a majority on his own.

He will therefore have to win the support of coalition partners, notably from Kurdish and Sunni parties as well as fellow Shiites who have been critical of his rule, in order to form a government.

But with a fractious and divided opposition, analyst say Maliki remains the frontrunner.

Formation of a government could take several months, however, as the country’s various political groups typically negotiate the senior positions of prime minister, president and parliament speaker as part of a package.

In previous elections, a de facto agreement has emerged whereby the premier is Shiite, the president a Kurd and the parliament speaker a Sunni Arab.

RIYADH — The 40-odd men gathered in a sandy, dung-scattered auction pen at one of Saudi Arabia’s largest camel markets were fiercely dismissive of a link scientists have found between the animals and an often fatal virus in humans.

“It’s not true. It’s a lie. We live with camels, we drink their milk, we eat their meat. There’s no disease. We live and sleep and spend our whole lives with them and there’s nothing,” said Faraj Al Subai’i, a trader at the market.

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus has infected 345 people in the conservative Islamic kingdom since it was identified two years ago, causing fever, pneumonia and kidney failure in some, and killing around a third of sufferers.

Although many patients in a recent outbreak in Jeddah appear to have become infected through person-to-person transmission in hospitals, MERS has been found in bats and camels, and many experts say the latter form the most likely animal reservoir from which humans are becoming infected.

Camels occupy a special place in Saudi society, providing a link to an important but vanishing nomadic tradition and valued at prices that can climb to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last week the World Health Organisation (WHO) advised people at most risk of severe disease to avoid contact with camels and take precautions when visiting places where the animals are present, and to avoid drinking raw milk.

Among the pungent animal pens in Riyadh’s camel market, stretching several kilometres along a highway out of the city, the traders, owners and camel workers said they had been given no advice, information or warnings on MERS by government officials.

Even Ehab Al Shabouri, an Egyptian veterinary doctor in one of the many practices stretching along a nearby road that cater to the camel owners, said he was unaware that the MERS virus had been found in the animals.

“If it was related to camels, the agriculture ministry would have taken some measures,” he said.

While the link is the subject of extensive study among scientists outside Saudi Arabia, it has been noticeably absent from much of the official debate inside the kingdom.

However on Tuesday, acting Saudi Health Minister Adel Fakieh told a news conference there has been “consensus in the discussions taking place over the last two days after the scientific team reviewed various evidence that it is advised not to get into close contact with camels, especially sick camels”.

He was speaking after meeting foreign experts including from the WHO who were invited by the government to help investigate MERS. They have also advised people not to consume raw milk or raw meat products from camels.

Fakieh was appointed a week ago after the former minister, Abdullah Al Rabeeah, was replaced following mounting expressions of public unease and anger on social media at what many Saudis saw as an inadequate and opaque approach to the outbreak.

The US-ally and conservative absolute monarchy allows little public dissent and is often secretive about subjects seen as politically sensitive, which analysts speculate encourages the spread of rumours and mistrust in its public statements.

Unlike his predecessor, Fakieh immediately visited affected hospitals and was shown on television meeting MERS patients in an apparent attempt to win back public trust.

MERS is of particular concern given Saudi Arabia’s role as host of Islam’s annual haj pilgrimage which attracts millions to the kingdom each year. Fakieh said very old people, children and those with chronic diseases should delay their pilgrimage, set for early October, this year, but that no other restrictions were being imposed.

Admiration, affection and poetry

Some infection experts have speculated that local sensitivities over the reputation of an animal much beloved in the desert kingdom, and closely bound to its cultural identity, may have caused resistance to the idea it may be behind the MERS outbreak.

Those experts fear this could hinder preventative measures aimed at limiting the spread of the disease, which so far appears not to transmit easily between people, by controlling it at source.

Camels are a common sight in some eastern districts of Riyadh, grazing on empty plots of land or carted in trucks on major roads. While they are less prevalent inside some other Saudi cities, such as Jeddah, they are still often seen on town outskirts.

At once a source of transport, milk and meat, camels were indispensible to the nomadic life of the Saudi people’s bedouin forefathers, inspiring admiration, affection and verse after verse of classical Arabic poetry.

That nomadic lifestyle is long gone, replaced decades ago by an urban culture of cars, supermarkets and television, but as Saudis drift further from their bedouin roots, many increasingly cherish values seen as purer and simpler than those of today.

The ownership and love of camels is an integral part of that nostalgic vision, expressed in races and pageants that attract tens of thousands of spectators, and in the millions of riyals that change hands for the fastest or most beautiful animals.

Among the corrugated metal sheds and bumpy roads of Riyadh’s camel market most beasts on sale are far less eminent specimens, said the traders, but are kept for breeding, for their products including milk and urine, and eventually for the slaughterhouse.

As a group of men in white Arab robes dispute the merits of the camels on offer, an auctioneer with a cane touches one tall animal and opens the bidding at 7,500 riyals ($2,000).

Camel flesh is displayed in the meat section of most Saudi supermarkets alongside cuts of New Zealand lamb and Irish beef, while the milk is usually drunk fresh and unpasteurised, and prized as a healthful panacea.

“We drink the milk ourselves and provide it to our guests. It’s medicine. People come to us for camel milk for their health, particularly to cure cancer. We all drink it every day and see how strong we are,” said a white-bearded camel trader.

Outrage

An outraged, high-pitched grunting erupted nearby as a pair of herders walloped a large beast on its haunches to steer it along the correct road, past a Bedouin-style black-and-white tent where five men were kneeling for Islam’s afternoon prayer.

Eid Al Rashidi, one of several men from the same tribe who were buying and selling camels at the auction, said his father and grandfather had both owned herds, and now he has 30 of the animals, valued from 20,000 to 30,000 riyals each.

He jutted a finger angrily as he declared there could be no MERS cases among the camels. A small crowd behind him added their voices in agreement, many of them asking how it could be linked to the animals if none of the traders had fallen sick.

There were no signposts or other visible warnings around the camel market to advise people to take extra precautions, such as increased hand washing or avoiding animal secretions.

Above Rashidi’s head, the arm of a small crane swung lazily from a truck, an adult camel swaying in the harness beneath it, scattering droppings across the ground before it was carefully lowered to the sand.

Its owner, Arabic headdress wrapped around his face, leaned down to undo the harness and the animal sneezed on him.

Viruses among camels may be particularly widespread now, although there is no indication whether that is the cause of the recent spike in MERS cases, because the birthing season recently ended and calves are more prone to picking up the virus.

As bidding for an adult continued, a group of very young camels, sprouting fluffy blonde curls atop spindly legs, trotted past with a young Saudi boy scampering behind them and patting them on their backs.

“If it has been confirmed that MERS exists in camels, then we are in the danger zone as we are playing with fire,” said Salman Al Rasheed, one of the traders.

“But this is not true, because this market has camels from all regions of the country, sick camels and healthy camels, and we have never seen MERS among any of us,” he added.

WASHINGTON — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he is prepared to normalise ties with Israel within days or weeks after counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu apologised for a deadly raid in 2010.

Erdogan, speaking on US broadcaster PBS late Monday, said US President Barack Obama was instrumental in arranging a phone call between the leaders of Israel and Turkey, which have been at odds since a 2010 Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships left nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists dead.

Officials said major progress has been made in recent weeks to narrow the gap between the two sides, by overcoming sticking points including the amount of compensation to be paid to Turkey.

Erdogan said the issue has been resolved.

“We have come to an agreement... with respect to compensation,” he told PBS through a translator.

“And with respect to sending humanitarian aid to the people in Palestine through Turkey... is the other step of the negotiations, and with the completion of that phase we can move towards a process of normalisation,” Erdogan said.

“I think we’re talking about days, weeks.”

Erdogan said the first step “would no doubt be taken by the sending of ambassadors”.

The May 2010 Israeli assault on the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara in international waters en route to Gaza sparked widespread condemnation and provoked a major diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador, demanded a formal apology and compensation, and an end to the blockade on the Gaza Strip — which is ruled by Hamas, a Palestinian group.

Talks on compensation began a year ago after Israel extended a formal apology to Turkey in a breakthrough brokered by Obama.