Region

TEHRAN — Iranian authorities have prevented attempted sabotage at the country’s heavy water nuclear reactor, a senior official said Saturday without giving specifics as to the nature of the attempted disruption or its suspected initiator.

Asghar Zarean, who heads security at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said domestic intelligence agencies were instrumental in uncovering the plot, which has not been the first attempt to disrupt the contentious nuclear programme.

“Several cases of industrial sabotage have been neutralised in the past few months before achieving the intended damage, including sabotage at a part of the IR-40 facility at Arak,” he said in a statement issued by his organisation Saturday.

In the past, computer viruses have attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. While Zarean did not say whether that was the case this time, his comments coincided with the opening of a specialised lab Tehran says will fight industrial sabotage and neutralise cyberattacks.

“This specialised lab has been launched to identify, prevent and fight threats including modern software viruses,” Zarean said.

In 2010, the so-called Stuxnet virus temporarily disrupted operation of thousands of centrifuges, key components in nuclear fuel production, at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Iran says it and other computer virus attacks are part of a concerted effort by Israel, the US and their allies to undermine its nuclear programme through covert operations.

Some Iranian officials have also suggested in the past that specific European companies may have sold faulty equipment to Iran with the knowledge of American intelligence agencies and their own governments, since the sales would have harmed, rather than helped, the country’s nuclear programme.

Since then, Iran has also said that it discovered tiny timed explosives planted on centrifuges but disabled them before they could go off. Authorities now claim the Islamic Republic is immune to cyberattacks.

The country has also reported computer virus attacks on its oil facilities, including one in 2012 that disabled Internet connections between the oil ministry, oil rigs and a major export facility.

The US and its allies fear Iran may be able to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charges, saying its nuclear programme is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity and producing medical radio isotopes to treat cancer patients.

GAZA CITY — The Gaza Strip’s only power plant shut down Saturday due to a lack of fuel from Israel, which closed a goods crossing after rocket attacks, a Palestinian official said.

An Israeli official denied the claim, however, saying the lack of fuel was due to infighting between the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

On Thursday, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon ordered the closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing and the Erez pedestrian crossing “until further security assessments”.

In response, the energy authority cut the plant’s operation from only 12 hours a day to six until the fuel ran out.

“The plant has completely ceased to function due to a lack of fuel caused by (Israel’s) closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing,” said Fathi Al Sheikh Khalil, deputy director of the energy authority in the Palestinian territory.

An Israeli official denied that it was to blame.

The shortage of fuel “is the result of an internal conflict between the Hamas government [which controls Gaza] and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah,” said the source, on condition of anonymity and without elaborating.

“Kerem Shalom is always closed on Fridays and Saturdays, so it was only closed for an entire day on Thursday,” he said.

The PA helps facilitate the delivery of fuel to Gaza via Israel, which Hamas does not recognise.

The facility, which supplies some 30 per cent of Gaza’s electricity needs, has been forced to shut down several times, most recently in December.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Ten people have been killed in 48 hours of clashes in Lebanon’s northern town of Tripoli linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, a security source told AFP on Saturday.

The violence between two districts of the city caused local schools to close and cut traffic flow in the city to a trickle, an AFP correspondent said.

The clashes, which have also injured 50 people, pit the Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen against the neighbouring Sunni quarter of Bab Al Tebbaneh.

The latest fighting broke out on Thursday after a Sunni man was killed by unknown gunmen on a motorbike in central Tripoli.

But tensions between the districts have run high for decades, only increasing with the outbreak of the conflict in Syria, where Alawite President Bashar Assad faces a Sunni-dominated uprising.

On Saturday, two people were killed by snipers and another three succumbed to injuries sustained earlier in the clashes, the source said, raising the toll since Thursday to 10.

The Lebanese army has deployed in the city, arresting several people overnight and responding to sources of fire.

Three soldiers are also reported to have been wounded on Saturday.

The war in Syria has deepened existing sectarian and political tensions in Lebanon, particularly between supporters of the Shiite movement Hizbollah, an Assad ally, and Sunni backers of former prime minister Saad Hariri who support the uprising.

OCCCUPIED JERUSALEM  — Neither Israel, Gaza’s Hamas rulers nor Islamic Jihad want to see the latest round of cross-border fighting escalate but each side seeks to consolidate political gains, analysts said Thursday.

“Most of the rockets fired [at Israel] by Islamic Jihad were aimed at uninhabited areas,” said Adnan Abu Amr, a politics professor at Gaza’s Ummah University.

And Israel’s retaliatory air strikes on the Palestinian territory mainly hit militant training bases whose occupants had deserted them hours before.

“The sides are sending the message that they do not wish to embark on unlimited confrontation,” he said.

After firing more than 60 rockets from Gaza into southern Israel since Wednesday evening and suffering 36 Israeli air strikes in retaliation, Islamic Jihad said on Thursday that an Egyptian-brokered truce had gone into effect to halt the spiral of violence.

Israeli former National Security Adviser Uzi Dayan said that Israel was waging “a battle of deterrence”.

“The Israeli approach is one where we respond with force in order to restore deterrence but not so brutally as to oblige them to retaliate too violently, with the hope that there will not be victims,” he told public radio.

The Islamic Jihad rocket blitz was the most intense since an eight-day conflict between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers in November 2012 and sent thousands of Israelis into flight.

The group said it fired 130 rockets on Wednesday in the latest round.

Islamic Jihad and the Islamist movement Hamas announced on Thursday the resumption of the Egyptian-mediated truce which ended the November 2012 fighting.

“There is no will for confrontation on Hamas’ part, but rather for drawing attention to Gaza,” Abu Amr said.

Naji Sharab, a political science professor at Gaza’s Al Azhar University, said the Islamic Jihad offensive could not have happened without “consultation and coordination” with Hamas.

“It helps to break its isolation and pressures Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing” between Gaza and the Sinai.

He said the rocket bombardment was also a message from Islamic Jihad “to tell Israel that it had nothing to do with a shipment of arms allegedly sent by Iran but is able to stand against Israel and possesses powerful and varied weapons”, he added.

Israel last week said it had intercepted in the Red Sea a cargo of weapons, including 40 rockets, en route from Iran to Gaza fighters.

Iran denied the charge and both Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were not involved.

Battle for the border

Mkhaimer Abu Saada, also of Al Azhar University, agreed that the rocket fire must have had the consent of Hamas which has an interest in stoking tensions “because of its unprecedented isolation since the dismissal of Mohamed Morsi”, Egypt’s Islamist president toppled by the army last July.

“It is Israel which triggered the escalation this time,” he added.

“Islamic Jihad had no choice but to retaliate,” after Israel’s killing on Tuesday of three of its members preparing to fire mortar shells at Israeli troops on the Gaza border.

“What is surprising is not the rocket fire, which was expected, but its intensity,” wrote the defence correspondent of Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.

He saw it as “an attempt to create a deterrent against Israel and remind it of Islamic Jihad’s military capabilities”.

“The present cycle of violence is the product of a battle for control of the ‘security perimeter’,” a no-go zone imposed by the Israeli military along the Gaza side of the border with Israel, he wrote.

He said the Israeli army insists on “continuing to search that area to prevent bombs from being planted there and tunnels from being dug”.

“The idea is that the eruption of small-scale skirmishes as a result of the army’s incursions are preferable to bombs that cause Israeli fatalities and result in painful retaliation in Gaza.

“As the Palestinians see it, the incursions are a violation of their sovereignty — and they oblige a response.”

DAMASCUS — Syrian troops advanced Saturday in the key rebel bastion of Yabrud as the country’s civil war entered its fourth year, with more than 146,000 dead, millions displaced and peace efforts stalled.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights NGO said army forces were advancing with support from Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hizbollah, a staunch regime ally.

A military source said “13 rebel chiefs leading operations are dead”, adding there were “many deaths among the insurgents”.

State television broadcast images of the town from its outskirts and said troops had advanced two kilometres inside the town towards a roundabout.

Yabrud is a key rebel supply route and their last stronghold in the Qalamun region along the border with Lebanon and on the highway between Damascus and third city Homs.

The latest battle illustrates the intractability of the conflict that began on March 15, 2011 after popular uprisings that toppled dictators in Tunisia and Egypt.

Protests erupted in Syria’s southern city of Daraa after teenagers were arrested over graffiti declaring: “The people want the fall of the regime.”

President Bashar Assad’s regime cracked down on the protests, civilians took up arms, soldiers began to desert and an insurgency became full-scale civil war after the regime bombed the central city of Homs in February 2012.

Two years later, the conflict appears to have reached stalemate, with some predicting it could last another 10 or 15 years.

Rebels control large swathes of Syria, but are fighting both the regime and an Al Qaeda-inspired group they once welcomed.

Loyalist forces hold the more densely populated regions, and are advancing south of Damascus, in the Qalamun region and in Aleppo in the north, seeking to protect the coast, major towns and key roads.

Rebel chief seeks weapons 

Syria’s mostly exiled political opposition has secured Western recognition but is largely ignored by rebels on the ground.

On Saturday, Syrian National Coalition chief Ahmed Jarba urged international backers of the opposition to make good on promises to supply the rebels with better weapons.

“We renew our request to the friends of the Syrian people to immediately keep their promises... to do with qualitative weapons,” he said.

“Our fighters are not only facing regime forces and their allied gangs,” he said in a speech in Istanbul.

“They are also facing extremist gangs and are cleaning our house of terrorist mercenaries, particularly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).”

Anniversary demonstrations were held in London and Paris.

In London, around 1,000 demonstrators marched on Downing Street, brandishing pro-opposition placards and demanding international action.

“Where is your humanity?” and “Your silence is killing us”, banners said.

The opposition failed to achieve progress in talks with the regime in Geneva earlier this year, demanding that Assad step down.

Instead, Assad is now gearing up for elections in mid-2014 that he is expected to win.

On the ground, both sides have been accused of abuses, with the regime jailing and torturing thousands and dropping so-called barrel bombs that rights groups say kill indiscriminately.

Rebels are also accused of summary executions and other violations, particularly the jihadist ISIL.

 Nine million people have fled 

The human cost of the conflict has soared, with nine million people forced from their homes, creating the world’s largest displaced population, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

More than 2.5 million Syrians are registered or awaiting registration as refugees in neighbouring countries, and in excess of 6.5 million people are displaced inside the country.

The exodus has strained neighbouring countries, including small Lebanon which is housing nearly one million Syrians.

UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday urged all nations to open their doors to Syria’s refugees.

“To see Syrian children drowning in the Mediterranean today after fleeing the conflict... is something totally unacceptable,” he said.

“Borders need to be open everywhere, visa policies need to be open everywhere.”

Aid groups warned that a generation risks being “lost forever”, with millions of children deprived of healthcare, education and security.

Experts say neither side can score a decisive military victory.

“Rebel infighting has helped Assad take back some areas, but the advances are not dramatic enough to tip the balance and allow him to reclaim the rest of Syria,” Aron Lund, editor of the Carnegie Endowment’s Syria in Crisis website, told AFP.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s new cross-party government, formed last month, adopted a political programme Saturday after reaching a compromise over the thorny question of the arsenal of Hizbollah, one of the coalition’s members.

The Shiite movement, known as the “resistance” because of its opposition to Israel, never disarmed after Lebanon’s 15-year civil war ended in 1990, and its military power rivals that of the army.

The group sent its fighters into neighbouring Syria last year to support Bashar Assad, fuelling tensions in multi-confessional Lebanon, where many support the Sunni-led rebellion against the Syrian president.

Hizbollah insists its arms are necessary for protecting Lebanon from Israel, but detractors argue that its arsenal allows it to impose its will on the country.

Hizbollah had refused demands by the March 14 bloc of former premier Saad Hariri, a coalition partner, that its military operations be under state supervision.

At a meeting that began late Friday, the parties agreed on a compromise. Unlike in previous programmes, the text does not explicitly confer on Hizbollah a role of resisting Israel but still acknowledges the right to resort to arms outside the authority of the state.

“Based on the responsibility of the state to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty and its independence [and] territorial integrity... the government affirms the role of the state and its quest to liberate” territory held by Israel “with all legitimate means”, it reads.

But the text also affirms the “right of Lebanese citizens to resist the Israeli occupation, repel its attacks and take back the occupied territory”.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam unveiled the country’s compromise government on February 15, capping 10 months of political wrangling and bringing together Hizbollah and Hariri’s bloc.

Syria’s three-year conflict has left Lebanon bitterly polarised, and the violence has seeped across the border in a series of bombings and other attacks.

Lebanon is also struggling under the weight of nearly one million Syrian refugees, who are straining its already limited resources.

MUSCAT — Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Shiite Iran on Thursday sought to allay concerns among mainly Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab monarchies mistrustful of Tehran over its nuclear ambitions.

“Our message to the other countries of the Persian Gulf is a message of friendship, fraternity and cooperation,” Zarif said in the Omani capital Muscat, where he is accompanying President Hassan Rouhani on a landmark visit.

The sultanate maintains strong links with Tehran, and has played an important intermediary role between Western countries and the Islamic republic.

Gulf Arab countries have expressed concern about the reliability of Iran’s sole nuclear power plant at Bushehr and the risk of radioactive leaks in case of a major earthquake, as well as a possible military dimension to Iran’s nuclear drive.

Iran insists that its atomic ambitions are peaceful, despite fears in Israel and the West that these mask a covert drive to acquire the bomb.

“Iran is ready for strong and fraternal relations with all the states of the region,” said Zarif, who has embarked on a charm offensive towards the Gulf since Rouhani became Iran’s president in August.

In December, he toured Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

But Zarif has still not visited regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, which accuses Tehran of fomenting opposition among its Shiite-majority population to Sunni rule.

Zarif has said he is ready to visit Riyadh, but the Saudis remain cool to the idea.

“The region does not need another war. We should coexist on the bases of religion, history and common interests,” said Zarif.

Tehran’s good relations with Muscat “could serve as a example for other countries”, he added.

Relations between Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia have long been strained as both countries vie for regional dominance.

Tensions have been worsened by Tehran supporting Syria’s President Bashar Assad, and Riyadh backing rebels trying to topple him.

DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates summoned Iraq’s ambassador on Wednesday to protest against his prime minister’s accusations that its ally Saudi Arabia was funding terrorism, state news agency WAM reported, while Bahrain called the comments “irresponsible”.

Saudi Arabia has already rejected Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s assertion on Saturday that it and Qatar were funding Sunni Muslim insurgents fighting in Iraq’s western Anbar province.

Maliki has long had chilly ties with Sunni-led Gulf Arab states, which in turn view him as too close to Shiite Muslim Iran.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said that Maliki’s statements were “completely untrue and not based on any accurate assessment of the situation in the region with regards to terrorism”, WAM reported.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plays a prominent role in fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” WAM quoted Gargash as saying.

In Manama, Bahrain also strongly rebuked Maliki’s remarks against Saudi Arabia calling them “irresponsible and contradict the spirit of fraternal and neighbourly relations” between the two countries, state news agency BNA reported late on Wednesday.

Qatar has not commented on Maliki’s remarks so far.

Iraqi forces have been fighting insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  in Anbar’s two main cities since January 1.

TRIPOLI — Fighting between rival sects in Lebanon’s second city killed two people including a 10-year-old girl on Thursday, security and medical sources said, in violence stoked by the war in neighbouring Syria.

Clashes between Sunni Muslims and members of the Shiite-derived Alawite sect in the northern city of Tripoli broke out after gunmen shot a Sunni man who had Alawite family members and lived in a mostly Alawite area of the city, the sources said.

The man later died of his wounds and at least 14 people were wounded in the ensuing clashes, including two soldiers and one gendarme after Lebanon’s security services sent reinforcements in to restore order.

A 10-year-old girl was also killed by sniper fire as residents in the Sunni Bab Al Tabbaneh and Alawite Jabal Mohsen areas exchanged fire, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

The long-standing rivalry between Tripoli’s Alawites and Sunnis has been worsened by sectarian tensions in Syria, where the three-year-old conflict has killed more than 140,000 people.

The periodic clashes in the coastal city have been fought with increasingly sophisticated weaponry. Some combatants now use rocket-propelled grenade launchers as well as lighter weapons like assault rifles.

Last month gunmen shot dead an Alawite military commander, causing clashes that killed at least one more person.

SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday denied any responsibility for an oil tanker that loaded crude from a Libyan rebel-held port and fled the OPEC member state’s attempt to seize it, saying the vessel that carried its flag was linked to an Egyptian firm.

The incident marked the first sale of Libyan crude bypassing the government and was a huge humiliation for Tripoli as it struggled to rein in armed militias who helped oust dictator Muammar Qadhafi in 2011 but want to grab power and oil revenues.

Libya’s parliament ousted prime minister Ali Zeidan on Tuesday after rebels loaded crude at Es Sider terminal onto the North Korean-flagged tanker that later fled naval forces amid reports of a gunfight as it sailed off along Libya’s eastern Mediterranean coast.

It was unclear where the tanker had planned to sail. The North Korean flag is considered a flag of convenience, which is used to keep the ownership secret.

North Korea said the tanker violated its laws and a contract with the Alexandria-based company by carrying contraband cargo. It said it had notified Libya and the International Maritime Organisation that it had severed all association with the ship.

“Therefore, the ship has nothing to do with the DPRK at present and it has no responsibility whatsoever as regards the ship,” the North’s Maritime Administration said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The agency said it had temporarily allowed the Egyptian firm Golden East Logistics to use its flag under a six-month contract signed in late February. It said the firm ignored its demand to leave the rebel-held Libyan port without loading oil.

Contacted by Reuters, Golden East Logistics said it had been responsible for the vessel’s certification until its North Korean flag was cancelled earlier this week but was not the operator and had no knowledge of its cargo, whereabouts or ultimate destination.

“Our company only represents the certification management and nothing else and we have no relation, from near or far, to the operation of the said vessel nor its commercial management nor the undertaking of any agreements regarding its cargoes,” Golden East said in an e-mailed statement.

It was unusual for an oil tanker flagged in secretive North Korea to operate in the Mediterranean, shipping sources said. It had changed ownership in the past few weeks, a source said.

It was not clear what flag the vessel was now carrying and its tracking device appeared to be switched off.

Western diplomats worry the conflict over oil might dismember Libya as rebels demand autonomy for the east, which was neglected under Qadhafi as he concentrated power and wealth in Tripoli as well as his home region of Sirte.