Region

AGUEREB, Tunisia — A Tunisian city held a general strike on Wednesday, after a protester died of tear gas inhalation during angry demonstrations over the reopening of a rubbish dump.

Abderrazek Lacheheb, 35, died early Tuesday in Aguereb, in the Sfax region on the central coast, after security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters.

A medic and a family member said he had died of asphyxia.

The prosecution has opened an inquiry into the incident, while the interior ministry said the man had died as a result of a pre-existing health condition.

On Wednesday, the city observed a general strike across the public and private sectors, following a call by the powerful UGTT trade union confederation to protest what it called a “savage intervention by security forces”.

Thousands of people joined a march against violence by security forces and demanding that the landfill site remain closed, an AFP journalist reported.

Police officers deployed heavily and used tear gas again to block protesters from reaching the dump.

The wider Sfax region has been gripped by weeks of protests over the rubbish crisis, which has seen trash pile up in the streets.

The Aguereb landfill, the main such site in the region, closed in September under pressure from residents, who said the facility was full and complained that toxic chemical waste was being dumped there, even though the site is only meant for household waste.

Municipalities in the province have since refused to gather waste, calling on the state to find sustainable solutions.

Authorities decided on Monday to re-open the site, sparking a new round of protests in Aguereb.

Tunisia has long suffered difficulties dealing with the estimated 2.5 million tonnes of rubbish produced every year, dumping the vast majority in landfills and recycling only a very limited amount.

ISTANBUL — Twenty-one people survived being buried under heavy debris when a two-storey building collapsed in eastern Turkey, the government said, with no fatalities reported as search operations ended early Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon on a busy street in the city of Malatya, as residents filled shops on their way home from work.

"Search and rescue operations in the collapsed Malatya building have come to an end. Thank God there are no victims," Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted early Wednesday.

Earlier, Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli said rescue workers had pulled 13 people from the rubble, while eight others managed to escape on their own.

Five of those rescued were still hospitalised, but their injuries were not life-threatening, regional governor Aydin Barus said.

He had earlier said two were taken to intensive care.

CCTV footage of the collapse showed the building suddenly crumbling, shooting up a huge cloud of dust. A car parked in front of the building sped off while passers-by rushed to help those trapped under the rubble.

Witnesses and media reports said the building crumbled during planned renovation work that resulted in damage to one of the walls separating two of the ground floor restaurants.

"I heard a crack first and then the building collapsed. A cloud of dust emerged. It was like judgement day," witness Turhan Cobanoglu told HaberTurk television.

The Turkish government's disaster and emergency management agency said 260 rescue workers were deployed to the scene, which was lit up to allow efforts to continue through the night.

Television images showed rescuers using construction diggers and their bare hands to clear out the heavy slabs of concrete and mounds of wood.

The cause of the collapse remained unclear, but Barus pointed the finger at the work being done on the building.

The building's owner and three people who were carrying out the work have been taken into custody, Malatya's prosecutor's office said.

Turkey has been rocked by a series of disasters — including a wave of wildfires and two flash floods — that claimed some 100 lives this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came under fierce political pressure when it emerged in August that Turkey no longer had functioning fire-fighting planes.

The deadly flash floods wiped out houses in mountain valleys and sparked questions over why officials were approving construction licences for regions prone to violent weather events.

Erdogan's office said the Turkish leader also placed calls to the local governor and mayor to receive a personal update about the rescue work.

ERBIL, Iraq — "Our life is awful," says Iraqi taxi driver Himen Gabriel, who no longer believes he has a future in his war-battered country and says he is about to try to reach Europe.

He won't say whether he will try to enter the EU across the Belarus-Poland border like thousands of others, but is determined to leave his home in Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Sporting a long, black beard and a fashionable haircut, Himen, 28, says he has no professional prospects, blaming local systems of patronage and nepotism.

He pointed to his four brothers, saying "all have degrees and none has found a job in the public sector because they do not belong to any political party".

He prefers not to say whether his travel itinerary will include Belarus where up to 4,000 migrants, many of them Kurds, now huddle in improvised camps in freezing weather.

As troops mass on both sides of the border, Poland has accused Russia of orchestrating a wave of migrants trying to illegally enter in a bid to destabilise the European Union.

One Iraqi man now in Belarus, who asked not to be named, told AFP by telephone that he and his family had made it all the way to the razor wire fence at the Polish border.

When they arrived, he said their group was confronted by "Polish soldiers" on the other side. "We tried to cross," he said, "but the soldiers fired tear gas to force us back".

Now back in the capital Minsk, he said he remained in contact with relatives living inside the European Union, eager to find another way to enter and cross to Germany.

Belarus tourist visas

Gabriel, the taxi driver, remains convinced that even an arduous and dangerous journey is worth it, given the prospect of "leading a quiet life" in Europe.

Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northern Iraq, presents itself as a haven of relative stability, but is often criticised for restricting freedom of expression.

The region has been ruled for decades by two parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Last May, the UN denounced "arbitrary arrests", unfair trials and "intimidation of journalists, activists and protesters" in Iraqi Kurdistan.

About 3,000 Kurds have left the region in the past three months, of whom 1,600 have gone to Belarus on tourist visas, according to the Kurdistan Refugee Association.

The Belarus honorary consul in Erbil, Fouad Mamend, told AFP that they were using travel agencies to obtain tourist visas and tickets for indirect flights to Minsk, since direct flights had now been halted.

He added that the Belarus missions in Erbil and in Baghdad had now been "closed for a week at the request of the Iraqi government".

The chief of foreign relations in Iraqi Kurdistan, Safeen Dizayee, told a press conference on Wednesday that he was "in contact with the Polish consul in Iraqi Kurdistan and with the Kurdish representative in Poland" about the migrants.

The head of the foreign relations committee in Kurdistan's regional parliament, Rebouar Babki, said that "initiatives are underway to bring these migrants back" to Iraqi Kurdistan.

"But some of them are not in favour of returning," he said.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi government said it would allocate $200,000 dollars to the foreign ministry "to help Iraqis stranded in Belarus, Lithuania and Poland".

'A better future' 

Belarus is also the immediate destination for Hiwa Fariq Mohammed, a printer in Sulaimaniyah in eastern Kurdistan.

After four unsuccessful attempts to try to reach Europe, he said he will keep trying.

"I want to leave because of the lack of security and the difficult economic situation," the 44-year-old told AFP.

"I want to ensure a better future for my son and daughter."

Another local man, Diler Ismael Mahmoud, 55, was grieving his son's death.

He said Kilan, 25, died less than two weeks ago in Belarus, while planning to enter Poland with a trafficker.

"He had diabetes and a spinal cord disease," the father said.

The tough journey in harsh weather killed Kilan, who had set off with two brothers, his sister, her husband and their five-year-old child in the hope of reaching Germany.

"We thought this route was easy," compared to risky Mediterranean crossings, said the bereaved father.

"Many have done it and they say it is a safe route, with a four-hour walk."

Today, he said, his daughter is being treated in Poland after breaking her leg during the journey, while the rest of the family is stuck in Belarus, awaiting an uncertain future.

AGUEREB, Tunisia — Anger over a regional garbage crisis in Tunisia degenerated on Tuesday into street clashes after a man died following exposure to tear gas during protests against the reopening of a landfill site.

Abderrazek Lacheheb, 35, died overnight, a medic and a relative said, in the town of Aguereb in the coastal region of Sfax after weeks of demonstrations over a growing waste and public health crisis.

"Abderrazek Lacheheb was transferred to Aguereb hospital suffering from asphyxia," a hospital official said.

The man was alive when he arrived at the hospital but died after security forces fired more tear gas outside the clinic, said his cousin Houcine Lacheheb.

"It was the police who killed him," he charged.

An AFP journalist in Aguereb saw security forces firing tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators.

Tunisian human rights group FTDES said Aguereb had seen "a violent intervention by security forces on Monday night to force the reopening of the Qena rubbish dump".

"The massive use of tear gas caused the death of Abderrazek Lacheheb," it charged.

The prosecution service said it had opened an inquiry into the man's death.

General strike

Protests flared again on Tuesday and demonstrators set fire to a National Guard station in the town, interior ministry spokesman Yasser Mesbah said.

He denied Lacheheb had been suffocated by tear gas.

"The man had a health problem that was nothing to do with the protests. His hospitalisation and death were nothing to do with the demonstrations," Mesbah said.

Videos shared on social media showed residents fleeing clouds of tear gas in front of the hospital, where angry relatives of Lacheheb were demonstrating after his death.

The powerful UGTT trades union announced a general strike for Wednesday in Aguereb, condemning a "savage intervention by security forces".

The union, which has had cold relations with President Kais Saied since he sacked Tunisia’s government and seized sweeing powers on July 25, described “bloody clashes between heavily armed security forces... and defenceless residents”.

Public pressure had forced the closure of the Sfax region’s main rubbish dump, in Aguereb, in September. City councils in the region have been refusing to collect trash, complaining that the state has not found workable alternatives.

In a meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Najla Bouden and Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine, Saied called for an urgent solution to the Sfax rubbish crisis.

Tunisia has long suffered difficulties dealing with some 2.5 million tonnes of rubbish produced every year, dumping the vast majority in landfills and recycling only a very limited amount.

Several ministries are involved in the issue, creating gaps such as municipalities refusing to collect medical waste.

Residents and activists in he industrial hub of Sfax have warned of an “environmental catastrophe” as mountains of uncollected garbage litters the streets of the Mediterranean port city.

DAMASCUS — The United Arab Emirates’ top diplomat met Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, state media said, in the first such visit by a top UAE official since Syria’s war began 10 years ago.

The visit is widely seen as a sign of regional efforts to end Assad’s diplomatic isolation as Syria grapples with a spiralling economic crisis caused by years of conflict and compounded by a spate of Western sanctions.

“President Assad received UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan” and an accompanying delegation, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

“They discussed bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and ways to develop cooperation in different sectors that are of common interest,” it added.

During the meeting, the foreign minister “underlined the UAE’s keenness on ensuring the security, stability and unity of Syria”, according to UAE state media.

He also expressed “support for all efforts made to end the Syrian crisis, consolidate stability in the country and meet the aspirations of the Syrian people”, the official WAM news agency said.

The meeting is the latest sign of warming ties between Syria and the UAE after the oil-rich Gulf state broke ties with Damascus in February 2012.

It severed relations as Syria’s repression of nationwide protests demanding regime change was escalating into a devastating war that has since left nearly half-a-million people dead.

Syria is backed by the Gulf state’s regional rival Iran, but in December 2018 the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus, suggesting an effort to bring the Syrian government back into the Arab fold.

The move was followed by the UAE’s calling in March this year for Syria to return to the Arab League — having been a key backer of its suspension in November 2011.

‘Arab fold’ 

Egypt, home of the pan-Arab body, said on Tuesday that relations should eventually be restored with Syria but that Damascus needed to first address concerns such as the humanitarian effects of the war.

“We believe that there necessarily has to be a time when Syria is reintegrated into the Arab fold. But this is in conjunction with policies that the Syrian government will demonstrate,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on a visit to Washington.

Addressing the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Shoukry said that Syria needed to “show greater moderation in how it regains the trust of both the region and in its own internal dynamics”.

Damascus is struggling to secure international aid, namely from oil-rich Arab regional neighbours that supported the opposition in the early days of the war.

Last month, the UAE’s economy ministry said it agreed with Syria on “future plans to enhance economic cooperation and explore new sectors”.

A ministry statement said the UAE was Syria’s most prominent global trade partner, with a 14 per cent share in Syria’s foreign trade.

Also last month, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan — the de facto ruler of the UAE — discussed developments in Syria with Assad in a rare telephone call.

It was the second call between the two leaders since an initial telephone conversation in March last year, during which they discussed the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the war-torn nation.

The UAE foreign minister is expected to meet his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Amman on Wednesday.

It is not yet clear if other Arab countries, several of which Assad accused of once supporting rebels, will follow the Gulf nation on Syria ties.

The UAE is one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states that took a tough stance on Damascus in 2012 and eventually recognised an opposition umbrella group as the representative of Syria.

Some regional powers see warming up to Damascus as a way of luring Syria away from the exclusive regional influence of Iran — a staunch supporter of Assad’s government that has expanded its military footprint in Syria throughout the course of the conflict.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's electoral commission said Monday that a manual vote recount in some polling stations where complaints were filed by pro-Iran groups did not show any "fraud".

The announcement comes amid tensions in Iraq, whose prime minister escaped unhurt from a drone attack at the weekend and where protesters have camped on the streets to contest election results.

The Conquest (Fateh) Alliance, political arm of the powerful Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary force, won around 15 of 329 seats contested in the October 10 legislative election, preliminary results show.

In the last parliament it held 48, making it the second-largest bloc.

The big winner this time, with more than 70 seats according to the initial count, was the movement of Moqtada Sadr, a Shiite Muslim preacher who campaigned as a nationalist and critic of Iran.

But Hashed leaders have rejected the results as a "scam" and their supporters have held protests chanting "No to fraud" and accusing the prime minister of "complicity".

Amid the mounting tension, Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi escaped unhurt early Sunday from an unclaimed "assassination" bid in which an explosive-packed drone hit his Baghdad home.

The electoral commission said in a statement that a manual vote recount at 4,324 polling stations indicated no irregularities.

"We have verified all the votes in the contested stations and the [preliminary] results are the same as those already announced," it said.

Final results will be announced after they are validated by a legal committee, it added without giving a date.

TEHRAN — Iran on Monday demanded US guarantees it will never again pull out of the 2015 nuclear accord and warned Tehran will not accept any partial return to the deal.

Washington "must guarantee that no other American government can flout the world or international law, and that what was done will never be repeated," foreign ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh told a news conference, referring to the 2018 pullout.

Talks to restore the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers are due to resume in Vienna on November 29, after a suspension since June.

Khabtizadeh said Washington must "definitively lift the unjust and illegal sanctions they have imposed following their withdrawal from the nuclear accord".

The spokesman stressed that progress in the negotiations was contingent on the US lifting sanctions.

The US unilaterally pulled out of the deal under president Donald Trump and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, including a unilateral ban on its oil exports.

In response, Iran began in 2019 walking back on strict curbs on its nuclear activities under the deal.

Unless the sanctions are lifted, Iran will not reverse its "compensatory measures", Khabtizadeh said.

President Joe Biden took over the White House in January hoping to return to the 2015 agreement.

There can be no partial return to the deal, the foreign ministry spokesman warned.

"Either we agree on everything or we agree on nothing," he said.

He announced Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri would serve as Iran's chief negotiator, and visit London, Paris, Berlin and "perhaps Madrid" this week.

On Saturday, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called on the West to be "realistic" and refrain from "excessive demands" on Iran, during a call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.