Region

By Shwan Mohammed
Agence France-Presse

RANYA, Iraq — When he is not hauling concrete blocks on a construction site in northern Iraq, Jamal Hussein devotes his time to preserving the gentle art of Arabic calligraphy.

Though he has won awards in numerous competitions, Hussein acknowledged that "you can't live on this", the artistic handwriting of Arabic script.

"I have a big family. I have to find other work," said the father of 11, who is 50 years old and earns his keep working on building sites in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Ranya.

Last week, the United Nations culture agency declared Arabic calligraphy an "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity", following a campaign by 16 countries led by Saudi Arabia and including Iraq.

"The fluidity of Arabic script offers infinite possibilities, even within a single word, as letters can be stretched and transformed in numerous ways to create different motifs," UNESCO said on its website.

Abdelmajid Mahboub from the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society involved in the proposal to UNESCO said the number of specialised Arab calligraphic artists had dropped sharply.

Hussein is one of them, and he welcomed the UNESCO decision.

He hopes it will push "the Iraqi government and the autonomous Kurdistan region to adopt serious measures" to support calligraphy — "khat" in Arabic — and its artists.

Practising since the 1980s, his decades of experience and participation in competitions are attested to by about 40 medals and certificates displayed at his home.

No support 

In October he came second in an Egyptian online competition, and is now training for a contest next month in the Iraqi holy Shiite city of Najaf.

Hussein's creations are made with a reed pen that he buys from Turkey or Iran. He sometimes sells the work for posters, shop displays and even tombstones, he said.

For decades, in the major regional centres of Cairo, Amman, Beirut or Casablanca, calligraphy was displayed on storefronts, on walls featuring popular sayings, or on plaques at the entrances of buildings to signal the presence of a lawyer or a doctor.

Today, the remnants of this calligraphy are only visible on the faded facades of old shops.

Still, nostalgia for the vintage aesthetic has become something of a trend, as hipsters of the region post pictures of their discoveries for their followers on social media.

But in impoverished, war-scarred Iraq, there is no support from the government "whether for calligraphy or for other arts", Hussein lamented.

"Because of technology, the sanctity of calligraphy has declined," he said.

"Calligraphy requires more time, more effort and is more costly. People are moving towards cheaper technological production."

But it is impossible for Hussein to abandon his art. He dreams of "travelling to Egypt or Turkey and living there temporarily to improve my khat".

At the other end of Iraq, in the southern city of Basra, Wael Al Ramadan opens his shop in an alley.

A client arrives to inquire about the preparation of an administrative stamp used to confirm attendance.

Ramadan seizes one of his sharp-nibbed pens and starts again to practise the art which his father introduced him to when he was still a child.

On paper he slowly begins to trace the requested words, with Arabic letters distinguished by their elegant curves.

Like his fellow calligrapher Hussein, Ramadan applauds UNESCO for its "great support for calligraphy and calligraphers.”

Ramadan earns money by teaching the discipline in schools but also sells his skill for advertisement purposes.

"We hope that the government will take an interest in this art, through exhibitions and competitions," said Ramadan, 49, who is clad in black with a shaven head.

"The survival of Arabic calligraphy depends on the support of the state."

It depends, too, on the devotion of men like Hussein and Ramadan.

"I obviously hope that my children will succeed me, just like I followed in my father's footsteps," Ramadan said with a smile.

KHARTOUM — Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters rallied Saturday two months after a military coup, demanding that soldiers "go back to the barracks" and calling for a transition to civilian rule.

Waving flags, beating drums, dancing and chanting, crowds marched on the streets of Khartoum despite severed communications and a heavy presence of security forces who later fired tear gas to disperse them.

An AFP journalist saw injured people being evacuated by demonstrators.

The Doctors' Committee, part of the pro-democracy movement, reported that security forces fired tear gas into hospitals, attacking doctors as well as the wounded.

Officers had earlier barricaded bridges connecting the capital to suburbs, cut phone lines and restricted internet access ahead of the planned protests.

At least 48 people have died in crackdowns during weeks of demonstrations, according to the Doctors' Committee, and Khartoum's state governor has warned that security forces "will deal with those who break the law and create chaos".

Demonstrators converged on the presidential palace in Khartoum, the headquarters of the military government in control since General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan seized power on October 25.

International pressure 

Burhan held civilian leader Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok effectively under house arrest for weeks.

After international pressure including a cut-off of vital aid, Burhan reinstated him on November 21 under a deal promising elections for July 2023.

The move alienated many of Hamdok's pro-democracy supporters, who dismissed it as providing a cloak of legitimacy for Burhan's coup.

"What happened on October 25 was a coup... and we will not stop demonstrating until we have a civilian government," a masked woman protesting near the presidential palace told AFP on Saturday.

Othman Mustafa, a 31-year-old demonstrator, said: "We don't just want the military out, we want to choose our own Sudan that looks like us, that responds to our demands and gives everyone equal rights".

As well as rallies in Khartoum and its suburbs, protesters also marched on the streets of Wad Madani, a city around 150 kilometres to the south, witnesses said.

Others reported demonstrations at Atbara in the north and Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.

Internet cut at dawn 

Security forces with cranes used shipping containers to block the bridges across the Nile River connecting Khartoum to the sister cities of Omdurman and North Khartoum, and web monitoring group NetBlocks reported mobile internet services cut at sunrise on Saturday.

Activists reported the arrest of several colleagues from Friday night onwards, and Volker Perthes, the United Nations special envoy to Sudan, urged the authorities to “protect” the protests, not prevent them.

“Freedom of expression is a human right,” Perthes said on Saturday, adding that it includes “full access” to the Internet.

“No one should be arrested for his or her intention to protest peacefully,” he said.

The Doctors’ Committee called on the world “to monitor what happens in Sudan on the issue of the revolutionary movement for freedom and democracy”.

Khartoum’s governor warned that “approaching or attacking buildings of strategic sovereignty is punishable by law”.

A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned “looting and reported violence occurring around the former United Nations logistics base in El Fasher” since Friday, in part of the base handed over to local Sudanese officials.

At rallies on December 19 crowds began a “sit-in” protest outside the presidential palace. It recalled the action which ultimately led to the ouster of veteran strongman Omar Al Bashir three years earlier after mass demonstrations.

Rape used as ‘weapon’ 

But this time, within hours, security forces dispersed the thousands of protesters with truncheons and tear gas.

Activists have condemned sexual attacks during the December 19 protests, in which the UN said at least 13 women and girls were raped.

Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, has a long history of military coups, enjoying only rare interludes of democratic rule since independence in 1956.

More than 14 million people, roughly a third of Sudan’s population, will need humanitarian aid next year — the highest level for a decade, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Activists say more demonstrations are planned for December 30.



MANAMA — The US Navy has seized 1,400 AK-47 rifles and ammunition from a fishing boat it claimed was smuggling weapons from Iran to Houthi rebels in war-torn Yemen.



US Naval Forces Central Command, or NAVCENT, said it boarded the boat on December 20 in the North Arabian Sea, seized the weapons cache and five crew members - who identified themselves as Yemeni - before scuttling the vessel.

Yemen has been wracked by civil war since 2014, pitting Iran-backed H0uthi rebels against the internationally-recognised government.



"US 5th Fleet ships seized approximately 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition from a stateless fishing vessel," a US Navy statement on Wednesday read.

"The stateless vessel was assessed to have originated in Iran and transited international waters along a route historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in Yemen."

The Bahrain-based US 5th Fleet has seized approximately 8,700 illicit weapons this year.

The United States as well as ally Saudi Arabia — which is leading the military coalition backing the Yemeni government against the rebels — have long accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

"The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to the Houthis violates UN Security Council Resolutions and US sanctions," the US statement added.

The five crew members will be repatriated, the navy said, adding that the boat was sunk because it was a "hazard" for commercial shipping.

Riyadh has said that its 2015 intervention in Yemen was aimed at preventing an Iranian ally taking power on its doorstep.

In recent days, fighting in Yemen has seen Saudi-led coalition forces carry out air strikes on the rebel-held capital Sanaa.

On Wednesday, the coalition said it targeted a Huthi military camp in Sanaa, and destroyed seven drone and weapons storehouses, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.



Earlier this week, it targeted Sanaa airport, whose operations have largely ceased because of a Saudi-led blockade since August 2016, with exemptions for aid flights.

The UN estimates Yemen's war will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts.

More than 80 per cent of the population of around 30 million require humanitarian assistance.


TEHRAN — Iraq's foreign minister said on a visit to Tehran Thursday that the time has come for the Islamic republic and the United States to negotiate directly on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

US-Iran relations have been severed since April 1980, just months after the fall of the shah and the occupation of the American embassy by Islamist students loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

They worsened significantly after US president Donald Trump's 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw from the nuclear deal and impose sanctions on Tehran.

Negotiations resumed in November after a five-month hiatus to try to restore the deal, which gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities.

Diplomats from the remaining parties to the deal -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- are in talks in Vienna with Iran and the US, with the two sides refusing direct contact.

"We call for, and this is no secret, direct negotiations between the two parties," Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told a joint press conference.

"Iraq's interest is in helping the two parties to sit round a table and talk," he said.

"We have proposed this to the Americans and have made this proposal [to Iran] and even before our visit to Tehran.

"It is better that a direct meeting take place between the American party and the Iranian party," Hussein said.

He said Iraq felt there was a "problem" with the negotiating mechanism at the Vienna talks.

"The negotiations with the American side are indirect, through the European envoy," he said.

"We think the time has come for direct talks between Washington and Tehran to reach common understandings not just on the nuclear issue, but also on sanctions.

"We need direct contact between the two parties and we are working towards that," Hussein said.

Iraq is Iran's neighbour, and Hussein said US-Iran relations "are not an external matter for Iraq, but an internal one".

He said tensions between the long-time foes impacts directly on the political and security situation in Iraq, and that detente between the two would have a positive effect.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian outlined the way contacts currently take place.

"The Americans send unwritten messages to meetings and receive responses" indirectly from Iran, he said.

"As for the Islamic republic, we seriously declare that we want to reach a good agreement and we hope the other parties also come and negotiate with the same seriousness and the same goodwill," Amir-Abdollahian said.

The Vienna talks are set to resume on Monday after a 10-day break.

On Thursday, EU diplomat Enrique Mora, who is chairing the negotiations, said he hoped for speedy progress.

"Important to pick up the pace on key outstanding issues and move forward, working closely with the US. Welcome to the 8th round," Mora said in Vienna.



BEIRUT — The Lebanese judge leading investigations into last year's Beirut Port blast was forced to stop work on Thursday over a lawsuit filed by ex-ministers he had summoned for interrogation, an official said.

The suspension is the fourth since Tarek Bitar was chosen to lead investigations in February.

It comes two weeks since Bitar was cleared to resume work, after a series of court challenges raised by political leaders derailed his efforts.

On Thursday, Bitar was informed of a lawsuit submitted by lawmakers Ghazi Zeaiter and Ali Hasan Khalil — both members of the Shiite Amal movement -- which forced him to pause the probe until a ruling is issued, a court official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The total number of lawsuits against Bitar now stands at 18, the official said, most of which were filed by officials he is seeking to interrogate on suspicion of criminal negligence.

Rights groups and relatives of blast victims have repeatedly condemned what they have described as blatant political interference in the investigation.

They say it aims to preserve a culture of political impunity in a country where even assassinations and bombings can go unpunished.

The August 4, 2020 explosion was caused by a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that was stored haphazardly at Beirut port for years.

Top political and security officials knew of the dangers posed by the shipment but failed to take action.

The powerful Shiite movement Hizbollah is leading demands to remove Bitar.

Its ministers have said they will boycott cabinet sessions until an official decision is taken to replace him.

As a result, the government, which was formed in September to address an unprecedented economic crisis, has failed to meet since October, despite mounting woes.

KAFR AROUK , Syria, — Umm Raghad’s children don’t have proper clothes or a furnace at home to stay warm during Syria’s bitter winter so they burn scraps of garbage to keep the biting cold at bay.

“Every morning I wake up and find that my children aren’t near me,” Umm Raghad told AFP from a displacement camp in the north-western province of Idlib.

“They go out early to collect scraps of plastic from the streets, such as bags and shoe soles,” the mother-of-three said, her face half-covered by a thick black scarf.

Winter usually spells tragedy for northwest Syria, home to more than three million people, nearly half of whom have been displaced by a decade-long war that has killed nearly half a million.

In makeshift camps in the country’s last major rebel enclave, streets turn muddy, tents leak and inhabitants die of hypothermia or in fires caused by unsafe heating methods.

Widowed by war, Umm Raghad moved to the Kafr Arouk camp three years ago to escape fighting in other parts of Idlib province.

The harsh winter is unbearable for her family, which doesn’t have enough money for even the most basic of necessities, she said.

“I can’t afford to buy a furnace or to feed my children,” Umm Raghad said.

“My children are cold. They don’t have proper clothes.”

‘Survival’ 

Snowfall and sub-zero temperatures are not unusual in north-western Syria.

Aid agencies often help insulate tents and provide blankets and clothes, but donor funding is struggling to keep up with growing demand.

According to the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR, $182 million are required to finance growing needs in winter assistance across Syria this year but only half of the amount has been secured.

In the Kafr Arouk camp, a rudimentary furnace set up in Umm Raed’s tarpaulin tent attracts dozens of people looking to keep warm.

Last year, a group of people donated the heater to Umm Raed, whose eight children include three with special needs.

The 45-year-old can’t afford coal or wood, so she makes do with scraps collected by Umm Raghad’s children and other neighbours who forage for hours across the camp’s sludgy grounds.

“Our neighbours all gather here in my tent to stay warm,” she told AFP. “It gets crowded with around 15 people crammed in one tent, where they eat and drink and sit.”

Last month, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, which provides support to dozens of camps in Syria’s northwest, warned that unsafe heating methods are putting people at higher risk of contracting respiratory diseases and complications related to smoke inhalation.

“Respiratory illnesses are consistently one of the top three illnesses reported in our facilities in the northwest,” it said.

Fumes 

Umm Mohammad, displaced nine years ago from the northern city of Aleppo, is among the people risking their lungs to stay warm.

Inside her tent in an Idlib camp, the mother of three burned twigs and paper to feed a small furnace emitting white fumes.

“The smell is strong and there is a lot of smoke,” she said.

“Yesterday, my chest started hurting and I wanted to go to see a doctor but I couldn’t afford it.”

Nearby, Abu Hussein looked on as a group of children surrounded an outdoor fire fed by nylon bags and scraps of wood.

“When we light a fire inside, where it’s crowded and smoky and there are a lot of children, it is leading to suffocation,” the 40-year-old father of 10 told AFP.

Abu Hussein, who fled the countryside of Hama province four years ago, said he can barely buy firewood, let alone medicine for respiratory diseases.

“The cheapest prescription drugs cost around 50 to 60 Turkish liras [$3.80-$4.60] but... I don’t have work or access to aid,” he said.

On top of that, his tent is leaking, causing rain to drip on his children when they are asleep, he said.

“Sometimes, we stay up all night... putting up plastic bags so rain doesn’t fall on their heads.”