Region

PARIS — The United States will impose "further costs" on Iran for its lethal crackdown on protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, President Joe Biden announced, drawing accusations of "hypocrisy" from Iran on Tuesday.

Amini, 22, was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality police detained the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly breaching rules requiring women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.

Anger over her death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock Iran in almost three years and a state crackdown that has seen scores of protesters killed and more than 1,000 arrested.

"This week, the United States will be imposing further costs on perpetrators of violence against peaceful protesters," Biden said in a statement on Monday. "We will continue holding Iranian officials accountable and supporting the rights of Iranians to protest freely."

Biden said he was "gravely concerned" about reports of the intensifying repression of protesters and said Washington stood with "all the citizens of Iran who are inspiring the world with their bravery".

Rights groups voiced deep concern after Iranian riot police used tear gas and paintball guns against hundreds of students at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology on Sunday night, with video footage showing detainees being taken away with fabric hoods over their heads.

Protests also spread to schools, with video footage shared by Kurdish rights group Hengaw showing schoolgirls demonstrating in two cities in Amini's native Kurdistan province.

"Women, Life, Freedom," the young female protesters chanted as they marched down the central strip of a busy highway in Marivan in footage that AFP has not independently verified.

The US president gave no indication of what measures he was considering against Iran, which is already under crippling US economic sanctions largely related to its controversial nuclear programme.

Iran on Tuesday accused the US leader of "hypocrisy" in invoking human rights to impose fresh punitive measures.

"It would have been better for Mr Joe Biden to think a little about the human rights record of his own country before making humanitarian gestures, although hypocrisy does not need to be thought through," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in an Instagram post, reported by Iranian media.

“The US president should be concerned about the numerous sanctions... against the Iranian nation, the sanctions whose imposition against any nation is a clear example of a crime against humanity,” he added.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had on Monday accused arch foes the United States and Israel of fomenting the protests.

The riots “were engineered by America and the occupying, false Zionist regime, as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad”, Khamenei said.

Nuclear talks 

The unrest has overshadowed diplomatic efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers which had come close to a breakthrough in recent months before stalling again.

But White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stressed that the “problems with Iran’s behaviour” are separate from efforts to revive the nuclear deal, which Washington will pursue “as long as we believe” it is in US national security interests.

In his first public comments on Amini’s death, 83-year-old Khamenei stressed on Monday that Iranian police must “stand up to criminals”.

Khamenei said “some people, without proof or an investigation, have made the streets dangerous, burned the Koran, removed hijabs from veiled women and set fire to mosques and cars”.

He added that “this is not about hijab in Iran”, and that “many Iranian women who don’t observe the hijab perfectly are among the steadfast supporters of the Islamic republic”.

On Tuesday, an official said singer Shervin Hajipour — arrested after his song “Baraye” (“For”), with lyrics taken from social media posts about the reasons people were protesting, went viral — had been released on bail.

Iran has repeatedly accused outside forces of stoking the protests and last week said nine foreign nationals — including from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland — had been arrested.

At least 92 protesters have been killed so far in the Mahsa Amini rallies, said Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, which has been working to assess the death toll despite internet outages and blocks on WhatsApp, Instagram and other online services.

Amnesty International said earlier it had confirmed 53 deaths, after Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said last week that “around 60” people had died.

At least 12 members of the security forces have been reported killed since September 16.

BEIRUT — Lebanon said Monday it will send "remarks" to Washington's proposal to resolve a maritime border dispute with Israel over gas-rich waters, a country it is still technically at war with.

The draft agreement floated by US envoy Amos Hochstein aims to settle competing claims over offshore gas fields and was delivered to Lebanese and Israeli officials at the weekend, following years of indirect negotiations.

On Monday, Lebanon's top leaders met to discuss the offer, delivered via Washington's ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea.

Crisis-hit Lebanon, which is grappling with it's worst-ever financial downturn, will send its notes on the offer by "Tuesday at the latest," and hopes to receive a response "before the end of the week," deputy speaker Elias Bou Saab told reporters.

"We are not giving an official response but delivering an answer to the proposal with... remarks that we have," he added.

Bou Saab, tasked by President Michel Aoun to oversee US-mediated negotiations, did not elaborate on Lebanon's feedback but said it included notes on "legal and logical" issues.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who also spoke after the meeting, said that "things are on the right track".

Washington's offer has not been made public, but it has raised prospects for a deal that could help Lebanon explore potential gas wealth that the debt-ridden country desperately needs.

'Important step' 

Lebanon and Israel are officially at war and their land border is patrolled by the United Nations.

They reopened negotiations on their maritime border in 2020, but the process was stalled by Lebanon's demand that the map used by the UN in the talks be modified.

The negotiations resumed in early June after Israel moved a production vessel near the Karish offshore field.

The most recent proposal by Washington was welcomed by both Israel and the Iran-backed Hizbollah group, which considers Israel its arch-enemy.

Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had repeatedly threatened Israel with attacks if it proceeds with extraction in disputed areas before a deal is reached, welcomed Saturday’s developments as “a very important step”.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid also welcomed the agreement, which he said grants Israel full claim over the disputed Karish field as well as profits from the nearby “Sidon reservoir”, known as the Qana field, which will fall to Lebanon.

Lapid on Monday said that “Israel gets 100 per cent of its security needs, 100 per cent of Karish and even some of the profits from the Lebanese reservoir”.

But Aoun on Monday said “there will be no partnership with the Israel”, while Bou Saab insisted Lebanon will have “full rights over Qana.”

In the event that a final agreement is reached, Lebanon will not sign a treaty with Israel, given that the two countries are still at war, Bou Saab said.

Instead, a mechanism will be put in place to register the demarcation with the United Nations.

Lebanon is currently grappling with its worst ever financial crisis, and fuel shortages have ground the country to a halt in recent months.

With a bankrupt state unable to deliver more than an hour or two of mains electricity a day, individuals, businesses and institutions have relied almost entirely on diesel-powered generators.

Lebanese politicians hope that commercially viable hydrocarbon resources off Lebanon’s coast could help lift the country out of crisis.

DUBAI — The United Nations envoy for Yemen scrambled on Monday to revive a six-month truce after a missed deadline raised fears of a return to war and prompted rebel threats against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Special envoy Hans Grundberg pledged "relentless efforts" to reinvigorate the truce, which lapsed on Sunday after bringing a sharp reduction in clashes since it came into force in April.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been fighting a Saudi-led pro-government coalition since 2015 in a war that has left hundreds of thousands dead and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis according to the UN.

Grundberg's plan to extend the truce — which was initially set to last two months and was renewed twice, to half a year — and to broaden it to new areas of agreement was rejected by the Houthis.

His proposal included paying civil servants' salaries, opening routes into the rebel-blockaded city of Taez, expanding commercial flights from the rebel-held capital Sanaa and allowing more fuel ships into the port of Hodeida, also controlled by the Houthis.

It also contained commitments to release detainees, resume an "inclusive" political process and tackle economic issues including public services.

But the northern-based Houthis, who seized Sanaa in 2014 and control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, said the proposal "does not live up to the demands of the Yemeni people and does not establish the peace process".

"The Yemeni people will not be deceived by false promises," the Supreme Political Council said, demanding revenues from Yemen's oil and gas resources, according to the Houthis' Yemen News Agency.

Elisabeth Kendall, Middle East expert at Cambridge University, said there was still hope for a deal.

"There may still be a chance for the truce to be resurrected. It may simply be that the warring actors are jockeying for position by allowing the deadline to pass," she told AFP.

"But I think the most we can hope for at this stage is another interim measure rather than the expanded six month truce that the UN was seeking."

Aid groups have raised the alarm for the long-suffering people of Yemen, including 23.4 million Yemenis who are dependent on humanitarian aid.

“Over the past six months, the truce had given millions of people in Yemen respite from fighting and hope for a more lasting settlement of the conflict,” said Fabrizio Carboni, regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“We call on all parties to keep the dialogue open and put the needs of the Yemeni people first.”

As well as fighting on the ground, hostilities have been marked by coalition bombing raids and rebel drone-and-missile attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a major partner in the anti-Houthi alliance.

The Houthis’ military spokesman Yahya Saree warned oil companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE “to organise their situation and leave”, in a tweet late on Sunday.

There was no immediate word from Riyadh or Abu Dhabi, but Yemen’s internationally recognised government, via a tweet from its Washington embassy, urged the UN Security Council to deal “firmly” with the Houthis over their “latest threats” and refusal to extend the truce.

Grundberg, who has shuttled between Sanaa and Oman, which was acting as a moderator, said he will “continue to work with both sides to try and find solutions”.

“Ultimately, Yemenis need an end to the conflict through an inclusive political process and a negotiated settlement,” he added.

“I will continue my relentless efforts to engage with the parties to quickly reach an agreement on a way forward.”

As Yemen’s fate remained unclear, government sources reported attacks by the Houthis south of Marib, the government’s last northern stronghold and key to Yemen’s oil resources.

Houthi shelling was also reported in Taez, Yemen’s third biggest city, which has been blockaded by the rebels since 2016. Sporadic clashes have continued even during the truce period.

PARIS — Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday accused arch-foes the United States and Israel of fomenting the wave of nationwide unrest sparked by outrage over the death of Mahsa Amini.

"I say clearly that these riots and the insecurity were engineered by America and the occupying, false Zionist regime, as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad," the supreme leader said.

Amini, 22, was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality police detained the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly breaching rules forcing women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.

Anger over Amini’s death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock the Islamic republic in almost three years, which saw security forces in Tehran crack down on hundreds of university students overnight.

In his first public comments since Amini’s death, 83-year-old Khamenei stressed that police must “stand up to criminals” and that “whoever attacks the police leaves the people defenceless against criminals, thugs, thieves”.

“The death of the young woman broke our hearts,” said Khamenei. “But what is not normal is that some people, without proof or an investigation, have made the streets dangerous, burned the Koran, removed hijabs from veiled women and set fire to mosques and cars”.

‘Incredible courage’ 

Concern grew over a night-time crackdown on students at Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology where, local media reported, riot police carrying steel pellet guns used tear gas and paintball guns against hundreds of students.

“Woman, life, liberty” the students shouted, as well as “students prefer death to humiliation”, Mehr news agency reported.

Iran’s science minister, Mohammad Ali Zolfigol, came to speak to the students in a bid to calm the situation, the report said.

Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights posted videos apparently showing police on motorcycles chasing students running through an underground car park and taking away detainees whose heads were covered in black cloth bags.

In one clip, which IHR said was taken at a Tehran metro station, a crowd can be heard chanting: “Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid! We are all together!”

“Hard to bear what is happening at #SharifUniversity in #Iran,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted. “The courage of the Iranians is incredible. And the regime’s brute force is an expression of sheer fear of the power of education and freedom.”

Protests were also reported at other universities, including in the central city of Isfahan, and unconfirmed reports by a student group on Twitter said dozens had been arrested in the capital.

Mehr news agency said that Sharif University of Technology had “announced that due to recent events and the need to protect students... all classes will be held virtually from Monday”.

‘Please help me’ 

Iran has repeatedly accused outside forces of stoking the protests and last week said nine foreign nationals — including from France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Poland — had been arrested.

The parents of Italian woman Alessia Piperno, 30, from Rome, said they lost contact with her after speaking to her on Wednesday — her birthday — but then received a phone call on Sunday.

“They arrested me. I am in a prison in Tehran. Please help me,” she told them, according to Il Messaggero, Rome’s daily newspaper.

She added: “I’m fine but there are people here who say they have been inside for months and for no reason. I fear I won’t be let out again. Help me.”

Italy’s foreign ministry has so far made no comment on the identity of the Italian held.

Canada, meanwhile, said it had imposed new sanctions against Iran over its “gross human rights violations”, especially citing “the egregious actions committed by Iran’s so-called ‘Morality Police’”.

“Canada applauds the courage and actions of Iranians and will stand by them as they fight for their rights and dignity,” said Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

At least 92 protesters have been killed so far in the Mahsa Amini rallies, said IHR, which has been working to assess the death toll despite internet outages and blocks on WhatsApp, Instagram and other online services.

Amnesty International said earlier it had confirmed 53 deaths, after Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said last week that “around 60” people had died.

The chief of riot police in Marivan, Kurdistan province, died of his wounds Sunday after being shot during “riots”, state television said — the 12th death reported among the security forces since September 16.

An additional 41 people died in clashes Friday in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, IHR reported earlier, citing local sources.

Those protests were sparked by accusations a police chief in the region had raped a teenage girl of the Baluch Sunni minority, the rights group said.

PARIS — At least 92 people have been killed as Iran has cracked down on women-led protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the notorious morality police, the group Iran Human Rights said on Sunday.

As protests stretch into a third week, President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday said that the "enemies" of Iran had "failed in their conspiracy".

Kurdish Iranian Amini, 22, was pronounced dead on September 16 after she was detained for allegedly breaching rules requiring women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes, sparking Iran's biggest wave of popular unrest in almost three years.

An additional 41 people died in clashes on Friday in Iran's far southeast, an area bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, Oslo-based IHR also said, citing local sources. Those protests were sparked by accusations a police chief in the region had raped a teenage girl of the Baluch minority, it said.

Solidarity rallies with Iranian women — who have defiantly burnt the hijabs they have been obliged to wear since the 1979 Islamic revolution — have been held worldwide, with demonstrations in more than 150 cities on Saturday.

In Iran itself, clashes between Iranian protesters and security forces have rocked cities nationwide for 16 nights in a row after they first flared in western regions home to Iran's Kurdish minority, where Amini hailed from.

"Rioters" and "thugs", some hurling Molotov cocktails, attacked the Tehran headquarters of Iran's leading ultraconservative daily Kayhan on Saturday, said the newspaper, whose director is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam urged the international community to take urgent steps against the Islamic republic to stop the killing of Iranian protesters, saying they amount to "crimes against humanity".

At least 92 protesters in the Mahsa Amini rallies have been killed so far, said IHR, which has been working to assess the death toll despite Internet outages and blocks on WhatsApp, Instagram and other online services.

London-based Amnesty International said earlier it had confirmed 53 deaths, after Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said last week that “around 60” people had died.

Tehran has also battled unrest in the country’s southeast, and it said five Revolutionary Guard members were killed in clashes Friday in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province.

The poverty-stricken region has often seen clashes with Baluchi minority rebels, Sunni Muslim extremist groups and drug smuggling gangs.

IHR accused the security forces of the mainly Shiite country of “bloodily repressing” the Zahedan protest that erupted after Friday prayers over accusations a police chief in the province’s port city of Chabahar had raped a 15-year-old girl from the Sunni Baluch minority.

A Sunni Muslim preacher, Molavi Abdol Hamid, had on Wednesday warned the community was “inflamed” after the alleged rape of a teenage girl by a police officer in the province.

Iran has accused outside forces of stoking the nationwide protests, especially its arch enemy the United States and Washington’s allies, and on Friday the intelligence ministry said nine foreign nationals — including from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland — had been arrested.

The unrest comes as Iran seeks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other major powers to end sanctions that have throttled its oil-rich economy and seen South Korea, China and Japan freeze billions of dollars in Iranian funds.

The landmark Vienna deal — which had promised sanctions relief in return for strict nuclear controls — has been in tatters since then US president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and Iran later backed away from its own commitments.

“At a time when the Islamic republic was overcoming economic problems... the enemies came into play with the intention of isolating the country, but they failed in this conspiracy,” Raisi said in a statement on Sunday.

In a rare concession, Iran has allowed a detained Iranian-American, Baquer Namazi, 85, to leave the country and released his son Siamak Namazi, 50, from detention, the United Nations confirmed on Saturday.

Baquer Namazi is a former UNICEF official who was detained in February 2016 when he went to Iran to press for the release of Siamak, who had been arrested in October of the previous year.

Both were convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Iranian state media said on Sunday that, following the prisoner release, Iran was now awaiting the unfreezing of about $7 billion in funds held abroad.

BEIRUT — Lebanon said on Saturday it received a letter from US envoy Amos Hochstein containing an "offer" on a maritime border deal with Israel that could settle competing claims over offshore gas fields.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea "who delivered a written offer from the US mediator", the premier's office said, without elaborating.

President Michel Aoun also met with Shea "who handed him a written letter... containing proposals regarding the demarcation of the southern maritime border", Aoun's office said.

Aoun contacted Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who also received the draft proposal, to discuss how to deliver Lebanon's response "as quickly as possible", his office added.

Hizbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, who had repeatedly threatened Israel with attacks if it proceeds with extraction in disputed areas before a deal is reached, welcomed Saturday's developments as "a very important step".

"The importance of what happened is that there is now a written text," he said in a televised speech.

"The coming days will be crucial," Nasrallah added, as Lebanese authorities prepare their response to an offer that could "open up wide horizons for the Lebanese people".

Lebanon and Israel have no diplomatic relations and their land border is patrolled by the United Nations.

They reopened negotiations on their maritime border in 2020, but the process was stalled by Lebanon's demand that the map used by the United Nations in the talks be modified.

The US-mediated negotiations resumed in early June after Israel moved a production vessel near the Karish offshore field, which is partly claimed by Lebanon.

Saturday's announcement followed a flurry of statements by Lebanese officials, including Aoun and Mikati, expressing optimism that a deal with Israel was close.

"The Lebanese response will be made as soon as possible, in preparation for the next step," an official at the president's office told AFP on Saturday on condition of anonymity.

Last month, Aoun told UN special coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka that "negotiations to demarcate the southern maritime border are in their final stages".

PARIS — Students demonstrated in Tehran and other Iranian cities on Saturday against an ongoing crackdown on dissent over the death last month of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the Islamic republic's notorious morality police.

Iranians based abroad and their supporters gathered in cities around the world in solidarity.

A wave of street violence has rocked Iran since Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died after her arrest by the morality police for allegedly failing to observe the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Protests have been held nightly for more than two weeks, despite a bloody crackdown that a rights group says has claimed more than 80 lives.

"Woman, life, freedom" and "Death to the dictator", they chanted in the streets of Amini's hometown of Saqqez, in Kurdistan province.

On Saturday, riot police massed at major road junctions across the capital, as students demonstrated in Enghelab (Revolution) Square near Tehran University in the city centre to press for the release of arrested students.

Police clashed with the protesters who were chanting slogans and arrested some of them, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Video footage shared by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group also showed student protests in other cities, including second city Mashhad and Karaj, west of the capital.

The protesters were seen chanting and women having removed their headscarves.

Demonstrations of support were called in 159 cities across the globe — from Auckland to New York and Seoul to Zurich, the Iranians for Justice and Human Rights group said.

In Rome, at a rally of about 1,000 people, a half dozen women cut their hair in solidarity.

But in Beirut, the head of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hizbollah movement, Hasan Nasrallah, described Amini’s death as a “vague incident” that was being used against Tehran.

“This vague incident was exploited and people took to the streets,” Nasrallah said, adding that the protests do not reflect the true will of the Iranian people.

The protests flared in Iran on September 16, when Amini was pronounced dead three days after falling into a coma following her arrest.

Iran Human Rights group says at least 83 people have been killed in the crackdown. Amnesty International says it has confirmed 52 fatalities, while Iran’s Fars agency has put the death toll at “around 60”.

It is the bloodiest unrest in Iran since a ruthless crackdown on demonstrations in November 2019 over a sudden hike in fuel prices that killed at least 304 people, according to Amnesty.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister who has been under house arrest for more than a decade, urged security forces to halt the violence, in a message on the Instagram account of opposition group Kaleme.

“I would like to remind all the armed forces of their pledge to protect our land, Iran, and the lives, property and rights of the people,” he said.

Iran’s intelligence ministry said Friday that “nine foreign nationals”, including from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland, were arrested “at or behind the scene of riots”, along with 256 members of outlawed opposition groups.

Unrest also erupted on Friday in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said two of its colonels were killed, bringing the official toll to 20 dead during clashes in the province where three police stations were attacked.

“Several chain stores were looted and set on fire, and a number of banks and government centres were also damaged,” said Sistan-Baluchestan Governor Hossein Khiabani.

Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchestan is a flashpoint for clashes with drug smuggling gangs, as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.

Iran has blamed outside forces for the nationwide protests.

On Wednesday, the Revolutionary Guard launched cross-border missile and drone strikes that killed 14 people in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, accusing rebel groups in the region of fuelling the unrest.

The US said one of its citizens was killed in the strikes.

On Saturday, Iranian forces mounted a new bombardment of Kurdish rebel bases over the border that caused damage but no casualties, a rebel official told AFP.