Region

RIYADH — Sandstorms across the Middle East have delayed flights, closed schools and hospitalised thousands, a phenomenon experts say could worsen as climate change warps regional weather patterns.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday became the latest country blanketed with dust that slowed traffic and made iconic towers in the capital difficult to see from more than a few hundred metres away.

Electronic signs along Riyadh's highways warned drivers to reduce their speed because of the lower visibility, even as life largely went on as usual in the kingdom.

The national meteorology centre predicted that "surface dusty winds" originating in the east and bringing a thick grey haze would continue west towards the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Other countries have been grappling with the problem for longer: Neighbouring Iraq has experienced eight sandstorms since mid-April, fuelled by soil degradation, intense droughts and low rainfall linked to climate change.

The country's latest sandstorm on Monday enveloped the capital Baghdad in an orange glow, sent at least 4,000 people to hospital with breathing problems and led to the closure of airports, schools and public offices across the country.

Iran announced that it, too, was closing government offices and schools on Tuesday, citing "unhealthy weather" conditions and sandstorms.

Average airborne concentration of the finest and most hazardous particles (PM2.5) was at 163 microgrammes per cubic metre on Tuesday in Tehran, according to a government website.

That is more than six times the World Health Organisation’s recommended maximum of 25 microgrammes per cubic metre.

In Kuwait, meanwhile, air traffic at the main airport was suspended for an hour and a half due to a dust storm Monday, and marine traffic in all three ports remained suspended as of Tuesday afternoon.

Kuwait’s ministry of education said classes were suspended on Tuesday but would resume the following day.

Response needed ‘urgently’ 

The Middle East has always been battered by dust and sandstorms, but they have become more frequent and intense in recent years.

The trend is associated with overgrazing and de-forestation, overuse of river water and more dams.

Unseasonable masses of dry, cold air help explain the recent proliferation of sandstorms in eastern Syria and Iraq and “their transmission to the Arabian Peninsula”, Hassan Abdallah from the WASM meteorological centre in Jordan told AFP.

By the time the sandstorms reach Saudi Arabia they tend to be less intense, he added.

Sandstorms are worsening regionally because of factors including low water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, large fluctuations in annual rainfall and disintegrating soil, he said.

As for how to mitigate them, Abdallah advised planting more trees and “addressing the low level of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers urgently”.

In central Riyadh on Tuesday, sand layered cars and buildings, and residents struggled to keep it out of their homes.

“Working outside is very difficult because of the dirt,” a Pakistani construction worker who gave his name as Kalimullah told AFP as he installed tiles.

“I try to wash my face from time to time,” the 30-year-old added, wrapping a piece of cloth around his face to block the sand.

Saudi office worker Abdullah Al Otaibi, 39, said he was grateful he works indoors.

“Dust storms are part of our culture and we are used to it, but some of them are severe,” he said, rubbing his eyes as he hurried inside.

TRIPOLI — Gunfire rocked Libya's capital for several hours on Tuesday as a rival prime minister attempted to oust interim premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah, threatening another escalation in the war-torn country.

Fathi Bashagha landed in Tripoli in the early hours of Tuesday and tried to take it by force, sparking pre-dawn clashes between armed groups supporting him and those backing Dbeibah.

Libya has had two opposing adminstrations and prime ministers since February, the latest trouble in the oil-rich North African nation since the chaos that followed a 2011 revolt that toppled leader Muammar Qadhafi.

Hours after landing, Bashagha left citing the "security and safety of citizens", as the United Nations, European Union and United States appealed for calm.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fighting, but AFP correspondents saw burned-out cars and military convoys later on Tuesday morning.

Dbeibah, based in Tripoli in the west, was appointed under a troubled UN-led peace process early last year to lead a transition to elections set for December, but the vote was indefinitely postponed.

In February, parliament based in Tobruk in the east appointed rival premier and former interior ministry Fathi Bashagha to take his place, arguing that Dbeibah’s mandate had ended.

Dbeibah has refused to hand over power except to an elected administration.

Both men come from the western city of Misrata and are backed by different armed groups in the capital.

‘Only the first act’? 

Bashagha’s press service had announced overnight “the arrival of the prime minister of the Libyan government, Mr Fathi Bashagha, accompanied by several ministers, in the capital Tripoli to begin his work there”.

But his arrival sparked a battle that raised fears of a return to the all-out conflict that gripped the capital when forces aligned with eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar attacked in 2019-20.

Several hours later, Bashagha’s camp announced that he and his ministers had “left Tripoli to preserve the security and safety of citizens”.

Dbeibah’s defence ministry said it would respond “with an iron fist” to anyone “attacking security and the safety of citizens”.

Dbeibah was later seen meeting the public in the streets of the capital.

Libya expert Emadeddin Badi said Bashagha’s move had been “a failed attempt at a fait accompli”.

Bashagha had “lost a large proportion of his constituency in his hometown of Misrata, tarnished his anti-crime brand and now tanked his popular support”, he added.

“It will be difficult to pick up the pieces after this,” Badi said.

But Anas El Gomati, of Libyan think tank the Sadeq Institute, said it was “likely that this is only the first act”.

On the international stage, “there is no bandwidth to deal with Libya in light of the conflict in Ukraine,” he said.

The UN’s top in-country official, Stephanie Williams, urged all sides to maintain calm and avoid “inflammatory rhetoric”.

‘Very grave’ 

Pro-Bashagha armed groups had already deployed in March on the edges of the capital, raising fears that a fragile ceasefire in place since October 2020 could collapse.

The creation of two governments echoes Libya’s troubled period of rival administrations between 2014 and 2021, when the nation was ripped apart by civil war.

The revolt that toppled Qadhafi plunged the vast but sparsely populated country into violence as armed groups vied for control and a string of interim governments came and went.

Many militia forces have been integrated into the state, partly to access a share in the country’s vast oil wealth, and rights groups have accused all sides of abuses.

Bashagha is backed by Haftar, who led a failed bid to seize Tripoli in 2019-20 and is widely hated in the capital.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday the situation was “very grave”.

“We were expecting something like this to happen, because in Libya we had not elections but we have two governments,” he said. “And sooner or later, when there are two governments, they clash.”

The US embassy urged “all armed groups to refrain from violence and for political leaders to recognise that seizing or retaining power through violence will only hurt the people of Libya”.

CAIRO — For nearly 30 years, his music has made its way to every young Egyptian’s ringtone — but it’s the country’s ancient history that recently propelled composer Hesham Nazih to the realm of superheroes.

Following his career-defining score for the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade last year — a grandiose spectacle that saw 22 mummies transferred across Cairo to a new museum — Nazih was tapped to write the music for Marvel Studios’ latest series, “Moon Knight”.

The six-episode saga starring Oscar Isaac tells the story of a superhero who draws his powers from an ancient Egyptian god.

“Ancient Egyptian civilisation is extremely appealing for any composer, whether Egyptian or not,” the 50-year-old composer told AFP from his studio in Cairo.

But while drawing inspiration from ancient heritage was “not an artistic goal” in and of itself for the musician, it has allowed him to realise his dream of transcending national boundaries.

Drawing on heritage 

In April 2021, all eyes were on the globally streamed procession of mummies through the capital, when Egyptian soprano Amira Selim, clad in a full-length gown adorned with Pharaonic motifs, took the stage with a haunting performance of the Hymn of Isis.

The ode, the lyrics to which were taken from texts in the “Book of the Dead”, was sung in phonetic ancient Egyptian and featured an arrangement of traditional folk instruments along with a classical orchestra, cementing the composer’s genre-shattering prowess.

The result was a media fervour that took Nazih himself by surprise, with the piece being shared widely both in Egypt and abroad.

“The audience’s reaction was very moving,” he told AFP, adding that the parade “holds a special place in my heart” as it showcased the talents of Egyptian artists.

Riding the ancient Egypt high, the virtuoso was selected to compose the score for Marvel’s Moon Knight, marking his first foray into Hollywood.

Helmed by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, the series has proven massively popular among his compatriots — despite there being no way to legally stream the show there yet — due in no small part to Diab’s insistence on the production being an Egyptian affair.

In addition to a cast and crew that brings together the likes of Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy and Egyptian editor Ahmed Hafez, the series soundtrack has been peppered with popular Arabic songs, ranging from golden-era classics to modern electro street music known as mahraganat.

“I’m still processing all of it. Moon Knight is a whole other level for me,” the composer said. “I was seeing reactions from so many different audiences and cultures.”

But Nazih’s latest experimentations with ancient Egypt weren’t the first time he has drawn from Egyptian heritage.

For the 2014 thriller series “The Seven Commandments”, Nazih wove in spiritual Sufi chants, to massive success. The soundtrack was a hit on social media, achieving a long-held dream for the musician.

When he was nine, he explained, he stopped halfway down a street in Alexandria to watch a Sufi ritual in a small mosque, and was haunted by the “majesty” of the scene.

Decades later, he was finally able to channel it into a composition.

No formal training 

“Music doesn’t communicate information, it’s pure emotion,” according to Nazih, and it was emotion that took him from a career as an engineer to creating more than 40 soundtracks for film and TV over the past three decades.

Having first felt the impact of a great score as a child, he has been chasing that high ever since. “I knew then that I wanted to go into this field, to make people feel what I felt,” he said.

His music has defined famous films including 2003’s “Sahar El Layali” (“Sleepless Nights” in Arabic), which was almost tipped as Egypt’s submission for an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film that year.

In 2019, Nazih scored “Al Fil Al Azraq 2” (“The Blue Elephant 2”), Egyptian cinema’s highest ever grossing film, earning 100 million pounds ($5.4 million).

Over his career, he says he has seen the once-stringent boundaries between music and film begin to dissolve.

“Film composers aren’t recognised as true filmmakers by directors because they’re musicians, but they’re not recognised as musicians by their peers because they belong to the world of cinema,” he said.

But things might be changing. In 2018, Nazih was the first musician to receive the Faten Hamama prize at the Cairo International Film Festival, which is awarded to renowned figures in cinema, but had previously only ever gone to directors and actors.

Three years later, he was also recognised in the musical world, winning a lifetime achievement award at the Cairo Opera House Arabic Music Festival.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Catholic archbishop in Jerusalem on Monday strongly criticised Israel's "police invasion" last week of a Christian hospital ahead of the funeral of slain Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.

The veteran journalist was shot dead during an Israeli forces raid in the West Bank. Palestinians and the TV network said Israeli forces killed her, while Israel said Palestinian gunfire may be to blame.

Anger over her death was compounded Friday when baton-wielding Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem beat pallbearers carrying Abu Akleh's coffin which was covered by a Palestinian flag.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Monday condemned "Israel's police invasion and disproportionate use of force" at St Joseph's Hospital, where her body was being held.

At a press conference at the hospital, he criticised Israeli forces for "attacking mourners, striking them with batons, using smoke grenades [and] shooting rubber bullets".

Israeli forces had stormed the hospital, "disrespecting the church, disrespecting the health institute, disrespecting the memory of the deceased, and forcing the pallbearers to almost drop the coffin", said Pizzaballa, speaking on behalf of the bishops of the Holy Land.

The hospital is owned by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, a French-founded congregation that has been present in former Palestine and Israel for nearly 200 years.

Chaotic scenes 

Israeli authorities have vowed to investigate the chaotic incident, which was broadcast live worldwide and sparked widespread condemnation including from the United States, European Union and United Nations.

Those calls echoed global demands for an impartial probe into the death of Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American, who Al Jazeera said was killed by Israel "deliberately" and "in cold blood".

Israel’s army has said it was not yet clear if she was killed by stray Palestinian gunfire or by Israeli sniper fire aimed at nearby fighters in the West Bank flashpoint district of Jenin.

Israeli occupation authorities have meanwhile offered a series of explanations for the unrest on the day of her funeral. In an Israeli forces video, an officer is seen telling the crowd that the procession would not commence until the crowd stopped “nationalistic”, or Palestinian, chants.

Israeli forces frequently crack down on individuals publicly expressing their Palestinian identity, including by waving the flag.

They have also said they were compelled to act to uphold the plans for the funeral agreed with the family, which were being disrupted by a “mob” made up of some “300 rioters”.

The Abu Akleh family has categorically rejected the Israeli forces version of events, stressing that officers stormed the procession in response to the Palestinian flags and chants.

‘No flags, no chanting’ 

The late journalist’s brother Anton Abu Akleh told AFP on Monday that Israeli forces had called him the night before the funeral to insist there should not be “any Palestinian flags, no slogans and no chanting”.

“I hope there will be some stand against this savage action,” he said, calling for accountability after the raid.

St Joseph’s Hospital Director Jamil Kousa told AFP that he had spoken to Israeli forces outside the hospital on Friday and pleaded that the procession be allowed to go ahead “peacefully”.

Kousa said Israeli forces had warned that if mourners shouted Palestinian national “chants” or waved flags, the procession would be blocked.

Kousa also commented on Israeli forces claims that members of the procession had hurled rocks at officers, saying: “You could see that maybe... five stones or objects were thrown, but it is not as they describe it.”

When they cleaned the grounds after the police raid, Kousa said, the number of Israeli-fired rubber bullets found far surpassed the few stones collected.

BEIRUT — An election in crisis-hit Lebanon appears to have dealt a setback to the biggest bloc, led by the Iran-backed Hizbollah party, and boosted reformists, provisional results showed on Monday.

Turnout was low in the general election on Sunday, the first since the Mediterranean country was plunged into a deep economic crisis that has stoked popular fury with the hereditary and graft-tainted ruling class.

Many polling booths lacked electricity, forcing voters to use their smartphone lights to cast their ballots, in a reflection of Lebanon's most painful crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Official results later Monday will show whether Hizbollah, a political and military movement seen as a state within a state, and its allies can keep an actionable majority in Lebanon's 128-seat parliament.

Hizbollah, considered a "terrorist" organisation by many Western countries, retained all its seats, but its Christian allies, President Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), suffered losses.

The Lebanese Forces (LF) of former warlord Samir Geagea, which has strong ties with Saudi Arabia, won several new seats and should emerge as the largest Christian party.

New opposition candidates also booked some gains, pushing forward the agenda of a cross-sectarian protest movement that erupted in late 2019 against a ruling elite widely seen as inept and corrupt.

Whatever the final election outcome, observers expect months of haggling over the next government line-up, and more political paralysis at a time Lebanon needs an IMF bailout.

Election turnout was just 41 per cent, eight points lower than in 2018, suggesting that the traditional sectarian parties that have shared power like a cartel for three decades failed to mobilise their supporters.

"Abstention is partly linked to frustration with the political class and the feeling that the economic situation will not change," said Lebanese analyst Karim Bitar.

'Build a country' 

Turnout was particularly low in Sunni Muslim areas, after former premier Saad Hariri triggered a de facto boycott in his community by pulling out of the elections.

Some of the politicians most reviled by the reform camp suffered stinging losses, including several MPs who had traditionally represented the interests of neighbour and former occupying force Syria.

New opposition parties produced a strong showing in various parts of the country. While the reformists struggled to unite ahead of the vote, they could end up holding enough seats to have an unprecedented impact on the country’s political game.

A presence of 10 or more lawmakers could disrupt the horsetrading between political barons that has characterised Lebanese politics for decades and leave reformists in a kingmaking position.

Analyst Ziad Majed said that the economic context could play in favour of reformists who will for the first be pushing from within parliament, not just as outsiders.

“This will create political and popular pressure for reformists and forces of change to cooperate,” he said.

Vote Jad Abdel Karim, 32, who backed opposition candidates, said “even if hopes of success are small, we voted to show them that they are not alone in the country.”

“We want to build a country even if it will take time.”

Presidential election 

The election was held two years after Lebanon defaulted on its debt and as the currency has lost 95 per cent of its value.

The other major cataclysm suffered by Lebanon was the August 2020 Beirut port explosion that killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and devastated swathes of the city.

Political heavyweights across the party spectrum have obstructed any meaningful investigation into the blast.

Two of the main suspects over the disaster, which is widely blamed on state negligence and corruption, even looked sure to have secured reelection in Sunday’s polls.

Several voting irregularities were reported, as well as scuffles and cases of voter intimidation.

The outcome of the vote could have an impact on a presidential election due later this year.

President Aoun, 88, has long been expected to be succeeded by his son-in-law, FPM leader Gebran Bassil, but Bassil’s bid suffered a massive blow with the surge of the Lebanese Forces.

Marc Saad, an LF spokesman, voiced optimism about the coming electoral battle for the head of state.

“We can say that the Lebanese people have punished the governing parties and have aligned with us, expressing their will for a new start in governance,” he said.