Region

CAIRO — Al Jazeera journalists accused of backing Egypt’s blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood are to go on trial on February 20, judicial sources said on Monday.

Since president Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military in July, Egypt’s interim government has been incensed by Al Jazeera television’s coverage of a deadly crackdown against the Brotherhood to which the deposed Islamist belongs.

On January 30, prosecutors referred to trial 20 people they said worked as journalists for Al Jazeera, accusing them of portraying Egypt in a state of “civil war” and “airing false news”.

The Qatar-based network said last week that only “nine network staff are on the list of 20, meaning most of those named are not employees of Al Jazeera.”

Those on trial are 16 Egyptians and four foreigners — including Australian Peter Greste, Britons Sue Turton and Dominic Kane, and Dutch journalist Rena Netjes.

Of the 20, only eight are in detention — including Greste and Al Jazeera English’s Cairo bureau chief, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Adel Fahmy.

The others are being sought, the prosecution said.

The 16 Egyptians have been charged with belonging to a “terrorist organisation... and harming national unity and social peace”.

The four foreigners are accused of “collaborating with the Egyptians by providing them with money, equipment, information... and airing false news aimed at informing the outside world that the country was witnessing a civil war”.

Netjes fled Egypt last week and said she was told by the Dutch embassy in Cairo that her name was on the list for prosecution.

She also said she could have been implicated in the case over a conversation she had with Fahmy in a hotel lobby in December.

“I never worked for Al Jazeera, ever,” she wrote on Twitter.

Greste, Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were arrested on December 29 at their makeshift office in a Cairo hotel.

Fahmy, a well-known journalist in Cairo who previously worked with CNN, has no known ties with the Brotherhood.

Greste formerly worked for the BBC and won the prestigious Peabody Award in 2011 for a documentary on Somalia.

ANKARA — Negotiators are close to striking a long-awaited deal on compensation for Turkish victims of a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza aid flotilla four years ago, a Turkish official said Monday.

The May 2010 Israeli assault on the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara while it was in international waters on its way to Gaza sent relations between Israel and Turkey to an all-time low.

Talks on compensation for the nine Turks killed in the raid eventually began in March 2013 after Israel extended a formal apology to Turkey in a breakthrough brokered by US President Barack Obama.

“We are close to an agreement” to settle the compensation issue, a Turkish official told AFP on Monday.

Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu was in Israel earlier this month to discuss the terms of an agreement, which will help normalise relations between Israel and its once closest Muslim ally.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu acknowledged on Sunday there had been a “momentum” in talks in order to bridge the gaps.

“It would not be correct to provide a timeframe on such [delicate] issues but I can say that serious progress has been made in recent meetings,” Davutoglu told Turkish television.

“A historic step was taken with the apology... Now a second step will be taken with the compensation,” he said.

“We are going through a period where the relations are the closest to normalisation after Mavi Marmara”.

The assault triggered an international outcry and a severe diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel, with Ankara expelling the Israeli ambassador, demanding a formal apology and compensation.

Israeli media reports have said the compensation talks were revived in December when Israeli negotiators travelled to Istanbul and Turkey lowered its demands, which was neither confirmed nor denied by the Turkish side.

The amount of compensation to be paid, as well as the legality of a final agreement, are believed to be sticking points but the two sides appear to be narrowing their differences.

Last week, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel has offered $20 million in compensation to the families of those killed and wounded in the flotilla raid.

Western diplomats quoted by the paper said Ankara had demanded $30 million, but Israel was initially willing to give only $15 million.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later decided to up Israel’s offer to $20 million, with an extra $3 million available “if necessary to secure an agreement”, the paper said.

Davutoglu refused to disclose the amount of compensation being sought but hinted at “some positive developments”.

He also said he was in constant touch with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss future steps to be taken after a deal including the appointment of an ambassador to Israel.

NATO member Turkey’s representation in Israel would be key in enabling it to monitor and coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished Hamas-run territory of Gaza, he said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Suspected Jewish extremists punctured the tyres of more than a dozen Palestinian-owned vehicles in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and sprayed a racist slogan, a security official said on Monday.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri said the incident occurred in Ein Aluza, near Silwan which lies just south of the Old City.

An AFP correspondent said 19 vehicles were damaged, with Hebrew graffiti on a nearby wall reading: “Arab labour = assimilation” and more on a van saying: “Enough of the assimilation”.

Thousands of Palestinian workers and labourers are employed across Israel every day, and the use of the word “assimilation” is a negative reference to Jews and non-Jews mixing.

Monday’s crime appeared to be a “price tag” attack, a euphemism for hate crimes by Jewish extremists that generally target Arabs.

Initially carried out in retaliation for state moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts, the attacks have become a much broader phenomenon targeting non-Jews and anyone seen as hostile to the settlers.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with three of his top ministers to discuss ways to deal with the threat of economic boycotts against Israel, media reported Monday.

The meeting on Sunday night was attended by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, the reports said.

The meeting comes less than a fortnight after US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that Israel was facing a growing campaign of delegitimisation which could worsen if peace talks with the Palestinians collapsed.

Maariv newspaper noted that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who echoed Kerry’s sentiment in recent remarks, were not invited to Sunday’s meeting.

Israeli officials have refused to comment on the reports.

A growing number of governments and international businesses have said they will not trade with Israeli firms with ties to Jewish settlements, highlighting the creeping success of a Palestinian-led boycott campaign.

The so-called BDS movement — boycott, divestment and sanctions — works to convince governments, businesses and celebrities to cut ties with Israeli companies active in the occupied Palestinian territories, in a bid to repeat the success of the boycott which ended apartheid in South Africa.

The boycott has been given added impetus by a European Union decision to block grants and funding for any Israeli entity operating in the occupied territories.

A foreign ministry official told AFP on Monday there was a crucial difference between the BDS movement and “European states and institutions that have problems with Israel’s actions” in the occupied West Bank.

The BDS was a “fringe group” that effectively “seeks to bring an end to Israel” by calling for the right of return for all Palestinian refugees to Israel, the official said.

Moves by European firms to disengage from Israeli companies with West Bank activities “could not be considered a boycott of Israel” since they continue to invest in Israel, “only choosing in which firms”.

TEHRAN — Iran laid out “red lines” Monday related to its ballistic missile programme, nuclear sites and uranium enrichment ahead of fresh nuclear talks with world powers.

President Hassan Rouhani insisted Iran was “serious” about the negotiations, as his negotiators warned they would not back down on some of the thorniest issues of the decade-long dispute.

Negotiations are set to resume in Vienna on February 18 and 19 between Iran and the so-called P5+1 — Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China plus Germany.

Building on a breakthrough interim deal reached in November, negotiators hope to eventually reach a comprehensive accord to allay international concerns that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapons capability, allegations denied by Tehran.

Iran made progress in separate but parallel negotiations over the weekend with the UN nuclear watchdog by agreeing to divulge information that could shed light on allegations of possible past weapons research.

Under a deal reached in Tehran with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran will explain its need for sophisticated detonators that could be used to initiate a nuclear chain reaction.

But on Monday deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, who is also a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, said “the defence-related issues are a red line for Iran”.

“We will not allow such issues to be discussed in future talks,” he said.

The US lead negotiator in the talks, Wendy Sherman, last week told a Senate hearing that Iran’s ballistic missile programme would be addressed in the comprehensive deal.

The missile programme — targeted by UN Security Council sanctions — worries Western powers, as Iran boasts long-range missiles with a maximum range of 2,000 kilometres, enough to reach Israel.

Sherman also argued that Iran does not require an unfinished heavy water reactor in Arak — which could one day produce plutonium as a by-product — nor the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site for its civilian nuclear programme.

But another Iranian nuclear negotiator, Majid Takhte Ravanchi, on Monday reiterated that Iran would not accept the closure of “any of its nuclear sites”.

The Arak site is of international concern because Iran could theoretically extract weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel if it also builds a reprocessing facility.

Last week, nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran could make changes to Arak’s design to produce less plutonium and “allay the worries”.

‘Lack of trust’

Salehi has also said Iran would refuse to give up enrichment to 20 per cent, a few technical steps short of weapons-grade material.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on key state matters, “has said that Iran should not give up its right to enrich [uranium] to 20 per cent,” Salehi said.

Salehi also announced the development of a new type of centrifuge “15 times more powerful” than those currently being used to enrich uranium.

The November deal stipulates that Tehran stops 20 per cent enrichment for six months while transforming its current stockpile into a form that is more difficult to refine.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s top negotiator, said Monday the talks in Vienna would be “difficult”, while anticipating that a framework for future negotiations would be discussed.

“The biggest challenge is the lack of trust,” he added.

Tehran-based analyst Mohammad Ali Shabani said the progress in talks with the IAEA may help smooth the negotiations with the P5+1.

“The new agreement is a good indicator that Iran is serious in its commitment to a political solution to the nuclear issue and is indeed ready to resolve all outstanding issues with the IAEA,” Shabani told AFP.

The Vienna-based UN watchdog seeks to probe allegations that Iran’s nuclear work prior to 2003, and possibly since, had “possible military dimensions”.

IAEA chief inspector Tero Varjoranta said Monday Tehran’s promise to provide “information and explanations” for the development of Exploding Bridge Wire detonators was only a “first step”.

These detonators can have non-nuclear applications, the IAEA said in a November 2011 report, but are mainly used in weapons research, making Iran’s stated development of them a “matter of concern”.

The 2011 report detailed information made available to the IAEA, much of it thought to have been provided by Western and Israeli intelligence, about “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s programme.

TUNIS — Probes into the assassinations last year of two opposition figures that plunged Tunisia into crisis have gathered pace this week, with authorities saying they arrested a suspect and killed another in a firefight.

Early on Sunday, the interior ministry said it arrested a man suspected of involvement in the murder of leftist MP Mohamed Brahmi after a fierce gun battle during an overnight raid on a militant hideout near Tunis.

The announcement came after the government said Tuesday that the suspected Islamist assassin of opposition politician Chokri Belaid had been killed in a police raid.

Belaid and Brahmi were gunned down in February and July 2013 respectively. The moderate Islamist Ennahda Party that was leading the government at the time blamed jihadists for their murders.

The killings came as Tunisia was grappling with the political transition after the 2011 uprising that toppled the autocratic regime of veteran strongman Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, and a surge in Islamist violence.

The politicians’ killings triggered massive anti-government protests, plunging the country into crisis and forcing two consecutive governments led by Ennahda to resign.

Tunisia is only now emerging from the crisis, with the adoption in January of a new constitution after a government of independents took the oath to steer the country towards fresh elections.

On the eve of first anniversary of Belaid’s murder on February 6, authorities said his suspected Islamist assassin, Kamel Gadhgadhi, had been killed in a police raid.

On Sunday interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP that security forces had carried out a raid overnight and arrested Hmed Al Melki, better known as the “Somali”, over Brahmi’s murder.

Security forces “surrounded a house where a terrorist group had holed up. Following a sustained exchange of fire, four elements were arrested,” Aroui said.

“Among them is Hmed Al Melki, alias ‘Somali,’ one of the elements implicated in the assassination of the martyr Mohamed Brahmi,” he said, adding weapons were seized during the raid.

Relatives demand the ‘whole truth’

Brahmi’s son, Adnan, told AFP that Melki’s arrest was a relief for the family “because it will shed the whole truth on my father’s assassination, and especially who ordered the killing”.

Authorities blamed the murders on the Ansar Al Sharia, a jihadist outfit accused of having links to Al Qaeda, but the group never claimed responsibility for those or any other attacks.

Relatives of the murdered leaders and members of the mainly secular opposition had accused Ennahda of responsibility for its failure to tackle a rise in jihadist violence since the 2011 uprising.

Earlier this week Belaid’s widow, Basma Khalfaoui, accused Ennahda of hiding key documents in the murder inquiry.

“We don’t know anything [about what really happened]. All scenarios are possible,” she told AFP.

She also said she expected the new government of independents that replaced the Islamist-led administration to shed new light on her husband’s murder.

Khalfaoui said the suspect killed during a 20-hour siege of a Tunis house earlier this week and identified as Gadhgadhi may have pulled the trigger, but “there are other suspects” in Belaid’s killing.

Belaid’s brother Abdelmajid echoed her remarks saying: “We want to know the whole truth. Gadhgadhi was not alone.”

Brahmi’s widow, speaking Saturday during a rally marking the first anniversary of Belaid’s funeral, accused the authorities of having “done everything to wipe out the traces of the crime”.

A group of lawyers, meanwhile, said they planned to ask for a UN special rapporteur to look into what one of them called a “state crime”.

Ennahda won Tunisia’s first free elections in October 2011, following Ben Ali’s ouster in the uprising.

Last month, following a hard-won agreement with the opposition, Ennahda stepped down in favour of a government of technocrats, as parliament approved a new constitution.

The new government tasked with preparing elections not only faces the challenges posed by the rising violence carried out by jihadists, but must also deal with social unrest fuelled by economic difficulties.

SANAA — Shiite rebels and Yemeni tribesmen agreed a ceasefire on Sunday after deadly clashes between the two sides in the Arhab district near the capital Sanaa, state news agency Saba said.

Shiite rebels from the Ansarullah group, also known as Houthis, have been advancing from their mountain strongholds in the far north to other Zaidi Shiite-majority areas nearer Sanaa in a bid to expand their hoped-for autonomous zone in a future Yemen.

Sunday’s truce is part of an agreement signed by the two sides committing them to an “immediate’ ceasefire and to reopening roads in the area.

The deal will also see the army deployed to positions evacuated by rebels and tribesmen, and all fighters who do not come from the Arhab area will be pulled back.

In early February, Shiite rebels seized areas in the northern province of Omran, leaving more than 150 people dead and overrunning the home base of Al Ahmar clan which heads the powerful Hashid tribal confederation.

Political sources have said the rivals had been seeking to gain ground ahead of the demarcation of provinces for the creation of a federal Yemen, as agreed in a national dialogue which concluded in late
January.

BEIRUT — The article on Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency appeared routine: The minister of roads and urban development said the ministry does not have a contract with construction firm Khatam Al Anbia to complete a major highway heading north from Tehran.

Two things made it stand out: Khatam Al Anbia is one of the biggest companies controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and company head Ebadollah Abdullahi had said just three days earlier that it did have the contract.

The December report was one of a series of signs that President Hassan Rouhani, who came into office last August, is using the political momentum from a thaw with the West over its nuclear programme to roll back the guard’s economic influence.

Existing government contracts with the guards have been challenged by ministers and some, like the highway contract, that were left in limbo when Rouhani succeeded the more hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been rebuffed.

Senior commanders in the guards, established 35 years ago this week to defend the clerical religious system that replaced the Western-backed Shah, have criticised the nuclear talks but been more muted over the curbs on their economic interests.

Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said in December that Ahmadinejad’s government had insisted the guards get involved in the economy.

“But we have told Mr Rouhani that if he feels the private sector can fulfil these projects, the guards are ready to pull aside and even cancel its contracts,” he said, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency.

In the same speech, Jafari lashed out at the nuclear negotiations, saying Iran had lost much and gained little and took aim more directly at Rouhani. “The most important arena of threat against the Islamic revolution — and the guards have a duty to protect the gains of the revolution — is in the political arena. And the guards can’t remain silent in the face of that,” Fars quoted him as saying.

Mohsen Sazegara, one of the founding members of the guards who now lives in the United States, said that was no surprise. “It was predictable that the guards would have a cold and harsh response,” he said.

“It’s because they see themselves as running things. And more importantly they’re not happy that their hands have been cut out of some oil, energy and road projects. And they’ve shown this displeasure in a number of ways.”

Ideology under threat

The interim nuclear deal agreed with the West in November threatens the ideological basis of the power of the guards, set up to counterbalance the military and protect the 1979 Islamic revolution from external and internal interference.

The nuclear programme, which Guard commanders call a source of national pride, is being curbed in return for sanctions relief and a diplomatic thaw with the country the guards have long said is their biggest enemy, the United States.

Despite the criticism from the top, the guards are not a monolithic organisation and there are elements within it which have reacted more pragmatically. At least one senior commander has spoken publicly in support of the nuclear deal.

For now, backing for the nuclear talks from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest power in the country which the guards, at least in public, must defer to, has kept the hardline elements within their ranks in check.

There is also a realisation that the dismal state of the economy, largely brought about by sanctions, leaves the country few options.

“Khamenei himself is supporting the talks,” said Sazegara. “And from another side the guards don’t have much choice given the situation with the economy which has scared everybody.”

The Revolutionary Guards control broad sections of the economy and are also involved in political and cultural activities. The US Department of the Treasury has said in imposing sanctions that the IRGC controls “billions of dollars of business”.

At times, guard businesses, which include a share in the country’s largest telecommunication company and construction firms, overlap and work closely with an organisation controlled by the Supreme Leader that Reuters estimates is valued at approximately $95 billion.

In November, the news agency published a three-part series examining how the organisation, called Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam in Farsi, has become one of the most powerful entities in Iran.

During former president Ahmadinejad’s two terms in office, the guards expanded their economic interests as sanctions ramped up. Now, Rouhani is using the unique opening presented by the nuclear deal to decrease their economic presence and, as a result, their broader influence in the country.

Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Foundation For Defence of Democracies and an expert on the Revolutionary Guards, said the government used two main arguments to cancel the contracts.

“The government can’t afford the contracts, and the state is no longer subjected to the sanctions regime and there is no need [for a] state of emergency where IRGC participation in the projects is needed,” Alfoneh said by email.

While Rouhani’s use of the nuclear negotiations to decrease the economic influence of the guards has heightened tensions, the ongoing talks over the country’s nuclear programme are more contentious for the guards, analysts say.

Some senior guard commanders have pointed out that stopping uranium enrichment altogether could be a slippery slope towards the dismantling of the country’s nuclear programme, which Western leaders say they fear has military aims.

Guard commanders and senior Iranian government officials maintain that the country’s nuclear programme is peaceful. They argue that enrichment, a controversial point in the talks with the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, is necessary for medical and energy purposes.

Rasoul Sanai-Rad, the political deputy of the guards, warned against giving too many concessions, pointing to Libya where Muammar Qadhafi agreed to dismantle his nuclear programme but was later attacked by a coalition of Western countries.

“Libya gave up all of its facilities but what result did they receive?” he said in an interview with Fars, one of almost daily attacks on the deal by Guard commanders.

Rouhani has fought back: In a speech last Tuesday, he said that only a few “ignorant” people have been speaking out against the deal and asked for academics to express their support publicly.

But if Rouhani pushes too far in negotiations due to start this month on a long-term deal, Khamenei could withdraw his support which would allow hardliners among the guards to step in.

“The public statements of the IRGC commanders against the United States and allies clearly indicate attempt of the IRGC commanders to sabotage Rouhani’s opening to the West,” Alfoneh wrote.

CAIRO — A Cairo prosecutor has ordered the detention of an Egyptian accused of altering photographs before sending them to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network and of belonging to a terrorist organisation, judicial sources said on Sunday.

Egyptian authorities have arrested several Al Jazeera journalists in recent months and accuse the network of bias towards the opposition Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt has cracked down hard on the Brotherhood since the army ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed Morsi, from the presidency in July following mass protests against his rule. The authorities have declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group.

Hassan El Banna is accused of belonging to a terrorist group, an apparent reference to the Brotherhood, and of doctoring pictures to damage the image of security forces, a judicial source said.

Banna was arrested on Saturday and ordered detained for 15 days pending investigations, two judicial sources said.

A security source said his movements had been monitored before his arrest and that he had supplied Al Jazeera’s Egyptian channel with manipulated photographs, but was not an employee of the channel. A judicial source said he was not a professional photographer and did not officially work for Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera is funded by the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, which was a strong backer of the Brotherhood. The network’s ties with Egypt have been strained since Morsi’s ouster.

Critics accuse Egypt’s army-backed government of widespread human rights abuses and say it has undermined democratic gains made since a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The government says it is committed to democracy.

The Cairo offices of Al Jazeera have been closed since July when they were raided by security forces.

Last month, Egypt’s public prosecutor announced he would put four journalists he said worked for Al Jazeera on trial on charges of aiding members of a terrorist group.

The network has described the charges as absurd.

Three Al Jazeera journalists — Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed — were detained in Cairo on December 29 and remain in custody, as does a fourth journalist working for the network.

The man arrested on Saturday shares his name with the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood who was assassinated in 1949, but there was no suggestion that the two were related.