Region

BEIRUT — The United Nations' refugee agency chief called on Saturday for sustained support for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and vulnerable Lebanese citizens, three years after the country's economy began collapsing.

"We must stand with Lebanon," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut.

He urged the international community to help the country as it faces "one of its hardest moments" and hosts "one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world".

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been in the throes of an economic crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history, dealing an especially heavy blow to vulnerable communities, including refugees.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled to Lebanon after the country's civil war began in 2011 with the brutal suppression of anti-regime protests.

Authorities say Lebanon hosts around two million Syrian refugees, while nearly 830,000 are registered with the UN.

In a statement, Grandi said sustained support for Lebanon was needed “now more than ever... both to support Lebanese in need and the hundreds of thousands of refugees that they have generously hosted for so many years”.

During his visit, Grandi met with officials including caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati “to discuss how to better support vulnerable Lebanese and refugees”, the statement added.

Lebanese authorities have long pushed for Syrian refugees to return to their home country, and have made several repatriation efforts they describe as voluntary, but human rights groups have branded the returns as forced.

“The government reiterated its urgent appeal for an end to the refugee crisis,” Grandi said, adding that UNHCR was working towards this goal “despite the complex and challenging situation”.

Since the Damascus regime regained control of most of Syria, some host countries have sought to expel refugees from their territories, citing a relative end to hostilities.

But rights groups say some refugees have faced prosecution, and reject the idea that refugee returns to Syria are safe.

TEHRAN — More than 200 people have been killed in Iran since nationwide protests erupted over the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, the country's top security body said on Saturday.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on September 16 after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's dress code for women.

Quoted by the official IRNA news agency, the country's Supreme National Security Council said the number of people killed during unrest sparked by her death "exceeds 200".

It said the figure included security officers, civilians and "separatists" as well as "rioters", a term used by Iranian officials to describe protesters.

A general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps this week, for the first time, said more than 300 people had lost their lives in the unrest.

The security council said that in addition to the human toll, the violence had caused millions of dollars in damage.

Oslo-based non-governmental organisation Iran Human Rights on Tuesday said at least 448 people had been "killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests".

UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week that 14,000 people, including children, had been arrested in the protest crackdown.

ISTANBUL — A Turkish court on Saturday jailed a convicted member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a day after Sweden extradited him, state media reported.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland and Sweden in May dropped decades of military non-alignment and sought to join NATO.

That requires a consensus within the US-led defence alliance, but Turkey and Hungary have so far not ratified their membership.

Turkey has demanded the Nordic countries take a tougher stance on Kurdish groups it deems “terrorists” in exchange for its backing.

Mahmut Tat was sentenced to more than six years in jail over being a member of the PKK in Turkey. He fled to Sweden in 2015, but Stockholm rejected his asylum request.

Tat arrived in Istanbul on Friday night after Sweden detained and extradited him, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkish police arrested him soon after arriving at Istanbul airport and referred him to a court on Saturday, which sent him to jail, the news agency said.

Turkey has accused Finland and Sweden in particular of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish groups it deems “terrorists”, and held back on ratifying their NATO bids despite an agreement in Madrid in June.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held trilateral talks with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts on the margins of a NATO meeting in Bucharest this week.

“The statements [coming out of Sweden] are good, the determination is good, but we need to see concrete steps,” Cavusoglu said.

Ankara has said it expects Stockholm to take action on issues including the extradition of criminals and freezing of terror assets.

Swedish Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard meanwhile stressed that Tat’s extradition was a decision taken by the Scandinavian country’s migration board and courts, and not by the government.

“This is an extradition case where an individual has had his asylum application rejected,” Malmer Stenergard told Swedish broadcaster SVT, adding: “The government has no role in this process that concerns reviews of asylum applications”.

“That means neither the government nor an individual cabinet minister can intervene or influence relevant authorities or courts in their handling of individual cases”, she said.

Tat’s former lawyer in Sweden criticised the decision to extradite him.

“It’s awful. It isn’t a matter just for him, it’s a question primarily for Swedish democracy and human rights,” lawyer Abdullah Deveci told Swedish news agency TT.

In 1984, the PKK took up arms for the creation of an independent state in predominantly Kurdish south-eastern Turkey but it later scaled back its demands to greater Kurdish autonomy.

The conflict between the outlawed PKK and the Turkish state has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

WASHINGTON — US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Wednesday, expressing "strong opposition" to Ankara launching a new operation in Syria, the Pentagon said.

Turkey has carried out air strikes against semi-autonomous Kurdish zones in Syria and Iraq since a deadly Istanbul bombing it blames on Kurdish groups, and has threatened to launch an operation on the ground in Syria.

"Secretary Austin called for de-escalation, and shared the [Defence] Department's strong opposition to a new Turkish military operation in Syria," the Pentagon said in a statement.

He also offered condolences for those killed in the Istanbul attack, it said.

Austin's call with Akar came a day after the Pentagon's press secretary said a Turkish ground incursion into Syria would "severely jeopardise" gains made against the Daesh terror group, operations in which Syrian Kurdish-majority forces played the central role.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched several incursions against Kurdish forces in northern Syria that have allowed it to control areas along the border.

TEHRAN — Iran said on Thursday it had opened an investigation into the death of a man who was shot while celebrating Iran’s World Cup defeat to arch enemy the United States.

The loss eliminated Iran’s national football team from the tournament in Qatar on Tuesday night, drawing a mixed response from pro- and anti-government supporters.

Following the match, “a person named Mehran Samak died suspiciously after being hit by shotgun pellets in the city of Bandar Anzali”, Gilan province’s prosecutor Mehdi Fallahmiri said, quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.

“An investigation has been opened and a local prosecutor has been assigned to the case,” he added.

Human rights groups based abroad said Samak, 27, had been shot dead by Iranian security forces after honking his car horn during celebrations that followed Iran’s loss to the United States.

The result sparked both scenes of joy and despair among Iranians in a country divided by protests that flared over the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old, an Iranian of Kurdish origin, died three days after falling into a coma following her arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s dress code for women.

The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, said on Thursday Iran’s enemies had influenced youths who were happy with the football result.

“Today, they [the enemies] are all trying to sow the seeds of despair in the hearts of young people and some of them even showed their satisfaction afterwards and that they are happy with the elimination of the national football team,” he said.

“We must take measures to serve the people, because poverty and misery are also among the enemies of the country,” Salami said, according to the official news agency IRNA.

An Iranian general said on Monday that more than 300 people have been killed in the unrest sparked by Amini’s death.

Oslo-based non-governmental organisation Iran Human Rights said on Tuesday that at least 448 people had been “killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests”.

BEIRUT — The Daesh terror group said on Wednesday that its leader Abu Hasan Al Hashimi Al Qurashi has been killed in battle and announced a replacement to head up its remaining sleeper cells.

A spokesman for Daesh said Hashimi, an Iraqi, was killed “in combat with enemies of God”, without elaborating on the date or circumstances of his death.

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said Hashimi had been killed in an operation carried out by rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa province in southern Syria in mid-October.

Daraa province is mostly controlled by Syrian government forces and rebels who have reached understandings with the regime. In mid-October, Damascus said it had launched a joint operation against Daesh with former rebels in the south of the province.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “We welcome the announcement that another leader from ISIS [Daesh] is no longer walking in the face of the Earth.”

Speaking in an audio message, the Daesh spokesman said Abu Al Hussein Al Husseini Al Qurashi had been named as the group’s new leader.

After a meteoric rise in Iraq and Syria in 2014 that saw it conquer vast swathes of territory, Daesh saw its self-proclaimed “caliphate” collapse under a wave of offensives.