Region

VIENNA — Six world powers and Iran began talks on Tuesday in pursuit of a final settlement on Tehran’s contested nuclear programme in coming months despite caveats from both sides that a breakthrough deal may prove impossible.

Senior US and Iranian officials met separately for nearly 90 minutes on the sidelines of the negotiations in Vienna. Details were not given, but such bilateral talks were inconceivable before the 2013 election of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, as president of Iran. US-Iranian dialogue is seen as crucial to any breakthrough nuclear agreement.

“We’re only at the very beginning of this process,” a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity after US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman’s meeting with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Sherman headed the US delegation, while Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Araqchi led Tehran’s negotiating team at the table with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man with the final say on all matters of state in the Islamic republic, declared again on Monday that talks between Tehran and six world powers “will not lead anywhere” — while also reiterating that he did not oppose the delicate diplomacy.

Hours later a senior US administration official also tamped down expectations, telling reporters on Monday that it will be a “complicated, difficult and lengthy process” and “probably as likely that we won’t get an agreement as it is that we will”.

It is the first round of high-level negotiations since a November 24 interim deal that, halting a decade-long slide towards outright conflict, has seen Tehran curb some nuclear activities for six months in return for limited relief from sanctions to allow time for a long-term agreement to be hammered out.

The stakes are huge. If successful, the negotiations could help defuse many years of hostility between Iran — an energy-exporting giant — and the West, ease the danger of a new war in the Middle East, transform power relationships in the region and open up vast new possibilities for Western businesses.

The talks — expected to last two or three days — began on Tuesday morning at the United Nations complex in Vienna. The venue was to shift later to a luxury city centre hotel where the chief negotiators were staying.

A spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, overseeing the talks on the powers’ behalf, said bilateral meetings between delegations were under way.

Araqchi sounded upbeat about the initial 40-minute discussions but appeared to draw a line against Tehran’s ballistic missile programme being addressed in any future talks.

“We had good discussions ... and we are trying to set an agenda. If we can agree on an agenda in the next two to three days, it means we have taken the first step. And we will move forward based on that agenda,” he said. “This agenda ... will be about Iran’s nuclear programme and nothing else, nothing except Iran’s nuclear activities can be discussed.”

He was answering a question about Iran’s ballistic missile work after US officials said they want Tehran to accept limitations on any nuclear-capable missile technology as part of any long-term deal reached by Iran and the powers.

There may be other sticking points in the talks. Iran says it will not cede its “right” to install advanced centrifuges to refine uranium, signalling defiance in a manner that may irk the United States and its European allies.

Despite his public scepticism about chances for a lasting accord with the West, Khamenei made clear Tehran was committed to continuing the negotiations between Iran and the six powers.

“What our officials started will continue. We will not renege. I have no opposition,” he told a crowd in the northern city of Tabriz on Monday to chants of “Death to America” — a standard reflexive refrain since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Western diplomats said it was difficult to predict the chances of getting an final agreement with Tehran over the next six months that would be acceptable to all sides. “The one thing we know is they want the sanctions to go away, which will work in our favour,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.

During a decade of fitful dialogue with world powers, Iran has rejected allegations by Western countries that it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability. It says it is enriching uranium only for electricity generation and medical purposes.

Tehran has defied UN Security Council demands that it halt enrichment and other proliferation-sensitive activities, leading to a crippling web of US, EU and UN sanctions that has severely damaged the OPEC country’s economy.

Khamenei’s approval of serious negotiations with the six powers despite the scepticism he shares with hardline conservative supporters, diplomats and analysts say, is driven by Iran’s worsening economic conditions, analysts say.

Another major factor was the Iranians’ overwhelming election last year of Rouhani, who is determined to relieve Tehran’s international isolation based on “constructive interaction” with the West.

Curbing uranium enrichment

The goal of the talks for the United States and its European allies is to extend the time that Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a viable nuclear weapon.

For that goal to be achieved, experts and diplomats say, Iran would have to limit enrichment to a low concentration of fissile purity, deactivate most of its centrifuges now devoted to such work, curb nuclear research to ensure it has solely civilian applications and submit to more intrusive monitoring by UN anti-proliferation inspectors.

Khamenei and other Iranian officials have often made clear that they could not accept any such cuts in nuclear capacities. The trick will be devising compromises that powerful hardline constituencies on both sides can live with.

Western governments appear to have given up on the idea, enshrined in a series of Security Council resolutions since 2006, that Iran should totally halt the most disputed aspects of its programme — all activities related to uranium enrichment at the underground Natanz and Fordow plants and production of plutonium at the planned Arak heavy water reactor.

Diplomats privately acknowledge that Iran’s nuclear programme is now too far advanced, and too much a cornerstone of Iran’s national pride, for it to agree to scrap it entirely.

But while Iran may keep a limited enrichment capacity, the West will insist on guarantees that mean any attempt to build a nuclear bomb would take long enough for it to be detected and stopped, possibly with military action.

Israel, which criticised the November deal as an “historic mistake” as it did not dismantle its archenemy’s enrichment programme, made its position clear ahead of the Vienna talks.

“We are giving a chance for [a] diplomatic solution on condition that it provides a comprehensive and satisfactory solution that doesn’t leave Iran with a nuclear breakout capability,” Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said.

“In other words, that it doesn’t leave [Iran] with a system by which to enrich uranium by means of centrifuges, nor any other capabilities that would permit it to remain close to a bomb,” Steinitz he told Israeli radio.

While cautioning the talks will take time, the US official said Washington does not want them to run beyond a six-month deadline agreed in November. The late July deadline can be extended for another half year by mutual consent.

ADEN — Yemeni authorities have foiled an attack on the oil refinery in Aden and arrested 27 suspected Al Qaeda militants linked to the operation, police said Monday.

The thwarted strike was the latest in a series of attacks targeting security forces and vital installations, including oil pipelines, in a country grappling with a thorny political transition.

Security forces in the southern port city foiled at dawn Saturday “a terrorist attack by members of Al Qaeda”, said Aden Police Deputy Commissioner Najeeb Al Mughalas, quoted on the defence ministry webite, 26sep.net.

He said police and army units captured six gunmen who were headed for the refinery in a car, before making other arrests.

“In total, 27 terrorists were arrested, including some leaders of the Qaeda network,” he added.

Mughalas declined to give details on the attack when asked by AFP, saying only that “the operation was in the preparation phase” when it was thwarted.

Poverty-stricken Yemen relies on its limited oil and gas resources for exports that generate much-needed revenues.

The oil ministry said in December that frequent attacks on oil and gas pipelines have cost Yemen $4.75 billion in losses between March 2011 and March 2013. 

BAGHDAD — Powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s announced exit from politics two months before elections may be a “gift” to rivals but could also be another temporary withdrawal, experts say.

Sadr’s political career began with his fierce opposition to the presence of foreign troops in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, and has spanned more than a decade.

His rise, aided by the reputations of two famed relatives — including his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadiq Al Sadr — who were killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule, eventually translated into political clout.

At the time of his weekend announcement, Sadr’s movement held six Cabinet posts, the deputy speakership of parliament and 40 seats in the legislature.

“I announce my non-intervention in all political affairs and that there is no bloc that represents us from now on, nor any position inside or outside the government nor parliament,” Sadr said in a statement.

His exit so close to parliamentary elections in April may “benefit other [Shiite] parties,” said Aziz Jabr, a political science professor at Baghdad’s Mustansiriyah University.

One of the main beneficiaries could be Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, a Shiite whom Sadr has criticised as a “dictator,” he said.

Maliki “got rid of him without making a major effort, and it is like a gift”, said Jabr.

Kirk Sowell an Amman-based political risk analyst and the publisher of Inside Iraqi Politics, said that if Sadr’s bloc loses votes in April, they may go to the Shiite Fadhila Party and Maliki.

“Almost all of Sadr’s gain in 2010 came at Fadhila’s expense. Maliki could also benefit since their bases overlap quite a bit,” Sowell said.

Sadr was the commander of the Mehdi Army, a widely feared militia that battled US forces and played a key role in the brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict in which thousands of people were killed.

He later suspended the militia’s activities.

In recent years, his focus has increasingly shifted to religious studies in both Iran and Iraq that have taken him out of the country for extended periods of time.

Some commentators said there were potential downsides to his exit for Iraq, including political writer Sarmad Al Taie, who said the cleric has become a “supporter of the path of political reform, and worked to reduce sectarian tensions”.

Possibility of return

It was not immediately clear whether Sadr’s withdrawal was temporary or permanent, and he has left politics previously only to resurface later on.

Sadrist officials were unable to offer explanations for what they said was a surprise announcement, that has left some wondering if Sadr will still make a political comeback.

Sadr “usually backs out of the political limelight when he is physically threatened” or “when the Sadrist movement has to do something politically expedient that Sadr wants to disassociate from,” said Michael Knights, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Of Sadr’s possible return, Knights said: “Nothing is permanent in Iraq except death.”

But Sadr’s decision to quit politics this time has a more final air than past announcements.

“He had a period when he was in Iran unofficially out of politics a few years ago, then last fall he had his ‘self-isolation’ from politics that lasted just a few weeks,” Sowell said.

“All these actions have been aimed at trying to give himself a greater degree of religious authority,” he said.

But Sadrist MPs announcing their resignations “makes this appear more serious” than past departures, said Sowell.

Sadr has also ordered the closure of his movement’s political offices but said that others related to social welfare, media and education will remain open.

CAIRO — Egyptian police said Monday a suicide bomber was likely behind an attack on a tour bus that killed three South Koreans and signalled a possible change in tactics by militants who have mainly targeted security forces.

The bombing on Sunday, near the Taba border crossing with Israel, was the first targeting tourists since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July sparked a militant campaign that has killed scores of police and soldiers.

A shift to “soft targets” such as tourists would further damage Egypt’s foundering tourism industry as army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi is expected to announce a presidential bid which will focus on law-and-order and economic recovery.

After reviewing CCTV footage of the attack, police said they believe a suicide bomber had boarded the tourist bus and detonated explosives near the door.

“The preliminary investigation shows some tourists disembarked to get their bags. A man walked to the bus. There was an explosion when he reached the third step,” interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told AFP.

The tourists were all members of the same church group from the central South Korean county of Jincheon and were on a 12-day trip through Turkey, Egypt and Israel. They were about to cross into Israel when the attack occurred.

The South Korean ambassador to Egypt, Kim Young-so, told Seoul’s MBN TV station that the bus bombing appeared to be a “suicide bombing by a terrorist”.

Al Qaeda inspired Ansar Beit Al Maqdis group, based in the Sinai Peninsula, has deployed several suicide bombers in attacks on police, as well as in a failed attempt to assassinate interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim in September.

Militants have killed dozens of tourists in sporadic attacks over the past several decades, mostly recently in a 2009 bombing that killed a French tourist in Cairo.

Militants regroup

Police under now deposed president Hosni Mubarak had all but stamped out Islamist militancy after a spate of Sinai resort bombings between 2004 and 2006.

But the three-year period of lawlessness and unrest after Mubarak’s overthrow in 2011 has allowed the militants to regroup in the restive Sinai peninsula and to branch out to the Nile Delta.

“A continuation in attacks on tourists would mean a shift in strategy by jihadist groups that until now targeted the military and police,” said Issandr El Amrani of the International Crisis Group.

“But that cannot be judged after one attack,” he added.

The head of Egypt’s Chamber of Tourism said the attack could have been aimed at hitting the tourism industry, one of Egypt’s top revenue generators.

“The attack aimed at harming tourism in general,” said Elhami Al Zayat.

Sunday’s bombing came as a court in Cairo began trying Morsi and 35 co-defendants on charges of espionage and collusion with militants to launch attacks in Egypt.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected and civilian president, was ousted after a year in power amid massive protests demanding his resignation.

The military-installed government has since accused Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood of masterminding the attacks that have also targeted police headquarters in Cairo.

The Brotherhood, now designated as a terrorist group, publicly renounced violence decades ago and denies involvement in the attacks.

The deadliest attacks have been claimed by the Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al Maqdis group, whose leadership is drawn from militant bedouin who want an Islamist state in the peninsula.

DUBAI — Iran’s supreme leader vowed to continue nuclear talks resuming with world powers on Tuesday despite some reservations, in his strongest sign of support for moderate President Hassan Rouhani’s push to resolve the conflict peacefully.

Iranian negotiators will hold a second round of talks with the United States and five other world powers aimed at a definitive settlement of the dispute, which led to global economic sanctions against Iran.

Tuesday’s talks look to build on an earlier interim accord binding Iran to suspend some sensitive parts of its uranium enrichment in return for modest sanctions relief.

“What our officials started will continue. We will not renege. I have no opposition,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to a crowd in northern city of Tabriz on Monday. “But I will say again: there is no use... it will not lead anywhere.”

US and its Western allies suspect Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons, a charge Tehran has steadfastly denied, insisting that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

The initial deal, reached in Geneva last November, angered Islamic hardliners who accused the government of selling out to the West by making concessions on a matter of national pride.

Khamenei, whose powers transcend all others in the Islamic republic, stopped short of endorsing the hardliners’ charges but warned moderates not to get carried away with talk of better ties with traditional arch-foe, the United States.

Warning against US

Tehran and Washington haven’t had official ties since after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed Shah, and Khamenei has vetoed any initiative for rapprochement.

“Don’t try to dress up America and erase its past record of terror, violence and ugliness,” Tasnim news agency quoted Khamenei as saying.

“The nuclear issue is just a hype. American officials are already raising other issues like human rights and missile threat.”

Iran’s deteriorating economy and President Rouhani’s landslide election in June has revived efforts to reach out to the West in hopes of easing tension and drawing badly needed foreign investment.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who leads the Iranian delegation at the negotiations, told Iran’s official news agency IRNA before leaving for Vienna that “the path will continue and will bear results, even without US support. If it doesn’t succeed, everything will revert to the old ways...”

“Under the present circumstances, [our] talks with America are solely on the nuclear matter, but we have no fear about addressing other issues,” he said, referring to bilateral ties with Washington.

Zarif, who has been singled out for attacks by hardliners, said he had full mandate to pursue negotiations with the five nuclear powers the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany according to guidelines set by the leader.

“We don’t have to pause at every step and ask for permission,” he said.

DAMASCUS — The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has sacked its leader after the Western-backed rebels suffered repeated setbacks, amid signs of an escalation in fighting that has already killed more than 140,000 people.

Activists warned Monday that regime troops are preparing a ground offensive against Yabrud, the last rebel-held stronghold in the strategic Qalamun region near Lebanon’s border, after days of aerial bombardment.

On the diplomatic front, US Secretary of State John Kerry slammed Russia on Monday for “enabling” Syria’s President Bashar Assad to stay in power, after Geneva peace talks broke off without any result at the weekend.

Moscow dismissed the allegation and accused the United States of failing to ensure that a “truly representative opposition delegation” attended the talks.

Key rebel backer Saudi Arabia blamed the Syrian regime’s “obstinacy” for the failure.

The sacking of rebel military commander Selim Idriss was announced Sunday by the FSA, which said he was being replaced by Brigadier General Abdelilah Al Bashir, another army deserter.

Colonel Qassem Saadeddine of the rebel coalition said the decision was taken because of “the paralysis within the military command these past months” and the need to “restructure”.

A Syrian opposition source told AFP that Idriss — who was appointed in December 2012 — had faced criticism for battlefield failings.

These included “errors and carelessness in combat” and “poor distribution of weapons” to rebels, the source said.

The FSA has taken a beating in recent months not only from regime forces but also from Islamist fighters who have joined the battle to unseat Assad.

Considered the “moderate” rebel group, the FSA was once Syria’s strongest armed opposition force but is now increasingly marginalised by Islamists, including Al Qaeda-inspired groups.

Local truce in effect

The official SANA news agency said the army on Monday recaptured an Alawite village in central Hama province where rebels “massacred” civilians earlier this month.

In the Damascus area, meanwhile, a local truce went into effect in the southern suburb of Babbila, the latest in a series of local ceasefires in flashpoints around the capital.

An AFP reporter who visited the area under official escort said talks are taking place to arrange similar agreements in other areas.

Analysts said that with the failure of the latest round of peace talks, the regime and rebels are likely to ratchet up military operations.

“I fear that the failure of the Geneva talks will lead to military escalation — it will probably get worse before it gets better,” said Volker Perthes, director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

“Both sides will try to show that they can change the balance on the ground in their favour, and that they aren’t forced to negotiate out of weakness.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, reported a surge of fighting Monday around Yabrud, on a strategic highway linking Damascus and the central city of Homs.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP Syrian warplanes dropped explosive-packed barrels on the town’s outskirts, and that fighting had erupted in the nearby rebel-held towns of Ras Al Maara and Al Sahel.

Pro-regime newspaper Al Watan reported that troops were battling jihadists around Yabrud, including fighters from Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria.

Activ

ists say fighters from the Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbollah are helping regime forces in the Yabrud offensive.

Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday vowed that his group would help defeat the rebels, saying in a televised address it was only a “question of time”.

Diplomatic efforts stumble

The flare-up comes as diplomatic efforts to try to end the conflict seem to have ground to a halt.

A second round of US and Russian-backed peace talks between regime representatives and the opposition broke down on Saturday in Geneva with no date set for another.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Jakarta that the Damascus regime “stonewalled” in Geneva with “increased support from Iran, from Hezbollah and from Russia”.

“Russia needs to be a part of the solution and not be distributing so much more weapons and so much more aid that they’re in fact enabling Assad to double-down.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hit back, telling reporters in Moscow that the opposition delegation in Geneva did not include some of the most important members of the National Coalition umbrella group.

“They [Washington] assured us that they will be doing everything possible to ensure there is a truly representative opposition delegation,” Lavrov said.

“For now, they have been having trouble doing this.”

BERNE, Switzerland –– After years of trying, South American coaches are finally gaining a foothold in European football and their growing influence will be heavily felt as the Champions League Round of 16 gets underway.

Three of the eight teams in action this week are coached by South Americans, AC Milan’s Clarence Seedorf was born and ended his playing career on the continent and Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola said he was inspired by what he learned during a visit to Argentina.

Two of them meet in the week’s top clash as Manchester City, coached by urbane Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, host Gerardo Martino’s Barcelona on Tuesday.

“I have always been interested in Pellegrini’s career both in Europe and before, when he was coaching in South America,” said Argentine Martino, a surprise appointment by Barcelona before the start of the season.

“He is one of the best coaches in the world. I feel very satisfied to be facing him in this tie.”

Atletico Madrid, revitalised by former Argentina captain Diego Simeone, travel to AC Milan on Wednesday where they seem certain to give Seedorf a baptism of fire as he makes his coaching debut in a competition in which he was immensely successful as a player.

Guardiola’s Bayern Munich visit Arsenal the same evening as the two sides meet at the same stage for the second season in a row.

Overall, the round of 16 has a familiar ring to it after a predictable group stage where the only major surprise was the elimination of Serie A champions Juventus.

Ten of the 16 teams reached the same stage last year and Manchester City are the only knockout phase debutants.

Predictably, the English Premier League and Bundesliga dominate with four teams apiece, while Spain’s La Liga has three.

Bayer Leverkusen, second in the Bundesliga, host big-spending Paris St. Germain in the other of this week’s ties on Tuesday.

The remaining four first legs will all be played the following week with Olympiakos-Manchester United and Zenit St. Petersburg-Borussia Dortmund on February 25 and Galatasaray-Chelsea and Schalke 04-Real Madrid on February 26.

Tough transition

South American players have long been hugely influential in European football but, until recently, coaches have struggled to adapt in the modern era even when their records suggested they had all the right credentials.

Carlos Alberto Parreira lasted only a few months at Spanish club Valencia after leading Brazil to World Cup victory in 1994 while the hugely successful Boca Juniors and Velez Sarsfield coach Carlos Bianchi fared just as badly, with short spells at AS Roma and later Atletico Madrid.

Argentina’s Ramon Diaz and Colombia’s Francisco Maturana were others who failed to make it on the other side of the Atlantic.

The new generation has proved far more adaptable, although there is little connection between Pellegrini, Martino and Simeone who took very different routes to Europe.

Pellegrini, a qualified engineer and former Chile defender, coached five clubs in his homeland then worked in Ecuador and Argentina before carving out his reputation in a five-year spell at Spain’s Villarreal, leading them to the Champions League semifinals in 2006.

Martino, whose only major title as a coach was Argentina’s Final championship with Newell’s Old Boys last season, took an even more unlikely route, coaching modest clubs in Argentina and then Paraguay’s Cerro Porteno and Libertad before making a positive impression during five years as coach of the Paraguay national team.

Martino is widely regarded as a disciple of former Argentina, Chile and Athletic Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa, who also inspired Guardiola when he visited Argentina before his hugely successful spell in charge of Barcelona.

Simeone, often describing as playing with a knife between his teeth, is a former Atletico Madrid player strongly identified with the club which he has revitalised since coming back as coach at the end of 2011.

Seedorf, his opposite number on Wednesday, was born in the former Dutch colony of Suriname and ended his career in Brazil with Botafogo, where he commanded enormous respect.

“The Brazilian league is very different and it gave me a lot to be able to face this new adventure,” Seedorf, who won the Champions League four times as a player, told Milan’s website (www.acmilan.com).

“My experience with Botafogo helped me to prepare for this new job,” added Seedorf, who took over in January with the club in disarray..

“The match against Atletico will be a great chance to take a big step forward. We’ll play our game since Milan always have something extra in the Champions League.”

GAZA CITY — Hamas-run authorities in the Gaza Strip are investigating a senior member of the Palestinian Islamist movement over unspecified “irregularities”, a source in the office of another senior Hamas official said Sunday.

The implication of a high-ranking Hamas member in misdeeds could potentially tarnish the reputation of the Islamist group, which won a landslide victory in Palestinian elections in 2006 largely because of its reputation for honesty and incorruptibility.

An official in the office of senior Hamas member Ahmad Bahar did not provide further details on the allegations or the state of the investigation into Ayman Taha, who also served as a spokesman for Hamas.

But he confirmed remarks made by Bahar to Al Ghad Al Arabi, a pan-Arab broadcaster based in London which first reported that Taha was under investigation.

“With regard to Ayman Taha there are some irregularities and the brothers are investigating and he will be held accountable like any other ordinary citizen.”

In a videotaped statement posted on social media, Hassan Mohammed Taha, Ayman’s brother, condemned rumours of allegations as “libel and slander”, saying his brother had “perhaps made mistakes, but not to the extent of the rumours”.

He did not say whether his brother had been detained or not.

Other Palestinians sources said Taha had gone missing two weeks ago. Hamas has declined to comment on the matter.

TEHRAN — Iran is turning to environmentally friendly Euro-4 emissions standard petrol in major cities to battle worsening air pollution which claims thousands of lives every year, media reports said Monday.

“Some eight million litres of clean gasoline was distributed to 90 gas stations in Tehran on Saturday,” the Ettelaat daily reported Morteza Abedini, head of Tehran’s Oil Products Distribution Company, as saying.

“In order to reduce environmental pollution... all petrol stations are expected to distribute clean gasoline by February 20,” he said.

Pollution is a constant woe for Tehran’s more than eight million residents.

It is caused by bumper-to-bumper traffic and the city’s location between two mountains, ensuring that fumes from both cars and factories blanket the city.

Since the last Iranian year began in March 2013, residents have endured polluted air for 143 days, media reports said.

The poor air quality is made worse by reliance on domestic production of lower quality and therefore more polluting petrol, blamed on Western sanctions against Iran’s fuel imports.

Daily petrol consumption in Tehran is around nine million litres, according to official figures.

Iran currently produces 16 million litres of Euro-4 gasoline daily.

Euro-4 fuel has also been distributed in other major cities including Karaj west of Tehran and in the central province of Arak.

Other major cities such as Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz also suffer from air pollution caused by lower emissions standard Euro-2 fuel.

In 2012, air pollution contributed to nearly 4,400 premature deaths in Tehran alone and nearly 80,000 nationwide, according to health ministry figures. 

JENDOUBA, Tunisia — More than a thousand protesters gathered on Monday in the Tunisian town of Jendouba to condemn the weekend killings of four people by suspected Islamist militants.

“Tunisia is free, terrorism out,” and “Faithful to our martyrs”, were among the slogans chanted by the protesters outside the governor’s office in the town in northwestern Tunisia, before marching down the main street, an AFP journalist reported.

Tunisia has been rocked by sporadic attacks blamed on militant jihadists since the 2011 revolution that toppled a decades old dictatorship and touched off Arab Spring uprisings across the region.

The protesters expressed their support for the security forces, stopping before two police posts, chanting the national anthem and shouting “we are with you”.

On Saturday, a group of armed men who had set up a roadblock in the Jendouba area, some 40 kilometres from the Algerian border, shot dead a civilian and a prison warden as their car approached, the interior ministry said.

When a national guard patrol was sent to investigate, the militants again opened fire, killing two policemen and wounding another two.

The armed group consisted of three Tunisians and two Algerians, according to the police.

Much of the deadly violence witnessed in Tunisia since the January 2011 uprising has been blamed on Ansar Al Sharia, a hardline Salafist movement accused of having links to Al Qaeda.

The government has said Ansar Al Sharia was behind the separate assassinations last year of two secular politicians, killings that plunged Tunisia into political turmoil, but the group never claimed responsibility for those or any other attacks.

For more than a year, the security forces have been battling Islamist militants hiding out in the remote border regions of western Tunisia, notably in the Chaambi mountains.