Region

ALGIERS — Algerian security services said on Tuesday they had arrested eight people linked to the Hirak pro-democracy protest movement over an allegedly foreign-financed criminal association.

“The security services arrested a criminal organisation of eight people aged from 26 to 60 operating under the guise of an unauthorised cultural association in Bab El Oued,” the directorate general for national security said in a statement, referring to a working-class district of Algiers.

It said the group had acquired technological equipment through “financing from a large foreign country’s diplomatic representation in Algiers”, without identifying the organisation or the country allegedly involved.

The funds were received “under the guise of cultural activities”, it said, adding that authorities seized “677 banners, seven computers, an ultra-modern digital camera, three scanners and 12 printers”.

The financing had allowed the group to “produce provocative films and documents” and “pamphlets urging violence” during weekly Hirak demonstrations, the statement said.

Without identifying a link between the events, a prisoners’ rights group said several activists from the SOS Bab El Oued association, including its president Nacer Maghnine, appeared in the Bab El Oued court on Tuesday, after being arrested Friday during a Hirak demonstration in Algiers.

The Hirak protests were sparked in February 2019 over then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term in office.

The ailing strongman was forced to step down weeks later, but the protesters have not given up their demands for the overhaul of a ruling system in place since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962.

Since the movement’s second anniversary in February, thousands have continued to defy a ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic and taken to the streets for weekly protests, which were suspended for almost a year due to the health crisis.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune this month warned Hirak activists of “non-innocent activities” that “attempt to hinder the democratic process”.

Tebboune has called early elections for June 12 in an attempt to respond to Algeria’s political and socioeconomic crisis, but Hirak supporters have denounced the vote as a “masquerade”.

Authorities say the movement is being infiltrated by Islamist activists who are trying to drag it towards violence.

By Karim Abou Merhi and Ahmad Parhizi
Agence France-Presse

TEHRAN — The Oriental lute is making a comeback in Iran after decades in the shadows as musicians reconnect with an instrument integral to Arab and Turkish musical tradition in a fragmented region.

Known as the oud in Arabic, it is commonly called the barbat in Persian, although some would argue the instruments differ slightly.

“The number of [oud] students has increased considerably over the past 15 years or so; before a known teacher would have had a dozen students whereas today they’ll be about 50,” said Majid Yahyanejad, a 35-year-old oud teacher in Tehran.

Noushin Pasdar, a 40-year-old musician in the Iranian capital, made the same observation.

She started teaching the stringed instrument “about 23 years ago” after graduating from professional arts school, known as honarestan in Persian.

“At the time, most of my students were old, really old. Now they’re more on the young side,” Pasdar said.

“We only knew the oud as played in Egypt and Iraq. We knew nothing of the oud in Turkey. But today we know it’s also played in Syria, Kuwait and Jordan.”

Internet friends 

Yahyanejad noticed young Iranian oud players were “taking more interest in Arabic and Turkish culture... and Turkish, Arab and Iranian musicians are becoming friends on the Internet”.

The barbat has been around for centuries and it takes up a whole chapter of the “Shahnameh” (Book of Kings), written in the 10th century.

Iran and Syria are lobbying for the manufacture and playing of the oud to be added to UNESCO’s “intangible heritage” list.

The barbat had fallen out of Iran’s classical and traditional repertoires, with (other) stringed instruments such as the setar, tar, santur and kamancheh given preference.

But in the second half of the 20th century, a man named Mansour Nariman introduced oud instruction at the honarestan and published the first Persian-language manual on the instrument, Yahyanejad points out.

Nariman, who died in 2015, had been drawn to the “warmth” of its sound, at a time when the Arab oud did not even figure on Iran’s musical periscope.

In the absence of any teachers back then, Nariman taught himself and wrote off letters to Egyptians he had heard playing the instrument on the radio.

He received a reply from one of the biggest names in Arab music, Mohamed Abdelwahab.

Instrument to ‘reconcile’ 

Many years later, Mohammad Firouzi, a student of Nariman, recorded several pieces of music with the undisputed maestro of Persian song, Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, who died in October.

Among them were masterpieces such as “Aseman-e Eshgh” in 1991, “Aram-e Jan”, 1998, and “Ghoghaye Eshghbazan”, in 2007.

Pasdar remembers the first time music teachers showed her an oud, triggering a hunt for the instrument in central Tehran’s Baharestan Square, a paradise for musicians.

She said she found only two, both made in Egypt, and too bulky for a budding musician.

Fatemeh Moussavi, who crafts ouds in a small Tehran studio, says very few artisans manufactured the instruments and they were pricey back in the day.

Things didn’t change much until the early 2000s, when thousands of ouds landed in Iran, mostly from Syria and Turkey, bringing down prices.

It was a time of liberalisation under the reformist Mohammad Khatami who served as president between 1997 and 2005.

The arts scene benefitted from this period in the Islamic republic, where the Shiite clergy prioritises study of the Koran and religious jurisprudence.

For Hamid Khansari, who has written an introduction to the oud, the bow-shaped instrument is “a blessing” that “expands the possibilities of creation”.

Lebanon’s Charbel Rouhana played the instrument on stage in Tehran with Iranian group Gardoun in 2016, followed the next year by Yurdal Tokcan from Turkey.

Tunisian Dhafer Youssef has woven Persian poems into his repertoire and given several concerts with Iranian musicians figuring in his international orchestra.

In a Middle East tormented for decades by war and conflict, Yahyanejad harbours hope that musical interaction will forge bonds of friendship across religions, ethnicities and cultures.

“This instrument could finally help reconcile peoples of the region.”

By Rouba El Husseini
Agence France-Presse

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Beirut’s roads are riddled with potholes, many walls are covered in anti-government graffiti and countless street lamps have long since gone dark.

At night, car drivers creep cautiously past broken traffic lights and strain their eyes for missing manhole covers, stolen for the value of their metal.

Many parking metres have been disabled in protest over an alleged corruption scandal, while cars are parked randomly on sidewalks.

Charred patches from burnt tyres are seared into the asphalt downtown, reminders of angry street protests of past years against the political leadership held responsible for the malaise.

To many, the dysfunctional capital has become emblematic of a country mired in its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war after decades of mismanagement and corruption.

Much of Beirut’s infrastructure started falling apart long before last August’s massive portside explosion killed more than 200 people, levelled the waterfront and damaged countless buildings.

Amid the crisis, the Lebanese currency has collapsed and continues its downward slide at a sickening rate that in itself is deepening the problem.

As the currency has dived by more than 85 per cent on the black market, wary contractors are steering clear of any municipal repairs that are paid for in Lebanese pounds.

When the Beirut city council called for tenders to fix lighting on streets and in tunnels, no one showed up at two meetings to assign bids last month.

“Not a single contractor wants to work with the municipality,” a Beirut city council official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But if the city raised its offers, the official added, “there would be nothing left in the coffers”.

New garbage crisis? 

The few contractors taken on in recent months, the municipality official said, have been hired to repair buildings ravaged in the enormous portside explosion.

The buildings were divided into 15 groups depending on the degree of damage, but the city only found firms willing to work in the four worst-hit categories.

Just months after signing on, the companies are complaining because the pound has lost even more of its value on the informal exchange market.

Meanwhile, civil society and non-government organisations have often stepped in to help with the badly-needed repairs.

On other projects, companies contracted by the city are unhappy too — among them the waste management firm Ramco, which signed on to be paid the equivalent of $14 million per year, according to Beirut mayor Jamal Itani.

The sum is now worth less than $2 million.

“From time to time, [Ramco] threatens to suspend work until the fees are adjusted,” the anonymous official said.

Many worry that this could lead to a repeat of Beirut’s 2015 infamous trash crisis, when a landfill closure led to festering rubbish piling up in the streets.

Public anger at the time sparked anti-government protests, years before unprecedented cross-sectarian demonstrations broke out in late 2019.

Headed for bankruptcy 

Tenders for Beirut road and pavement maintenance cannot find bidders either, to the frustration of professional drivers.

“The potholes in central Beirut alone are a pain,” said Ahmad, a 32-year-old minibus driver. “Every time I drive over them, the bus gets more worn down.”

The head of the engineers’ syndicate, Jad Thabet, said private companies were not interested in any contracts with state institutions in Lebanese pounds.

“People don’t want to sign up to make a loss,” he said.

The municipality official said Beirut only had £800 billion left in its coffers ($530 million officially, or $64 million on the black market).

Of that, around 300 billion pounds is spent each year on salaries and other running costs.

The city also owes the state electricity company 27 billion pounds in arrears for 15 years.

Yet, revenues have plummeted, including from the municipality’s main source of income: building permits.

“The construction sector has ground to a halt,” the official said.

“Only four building permits were issued in the whole of 2020,” compared to dozens annually before that, the official added.

“If it stays like this, the municipality is definitely headed for bankruptcy, just like the country is.”

Charges of corruption 

Critics charge that the municipality has been bogged down by mismanagement and corruption for years.

“The municipality has been inefficient since before the crisis,” said Thabet, the syndicate chief, who added that even projects with foreign funding were never implemented.

One person familiar with the municipality said that it often tailors terms in the call for tenders to specific contractors chosen in advance to take on a project.

The city was suspected of corruption in 2019 after a row erupted over a deal under which parking metre revenues would fund the maintenance of traffic lights.

Amid speculation on whether the revenues were indeed being put to their intended use, protesters stopped people from using them.

Since then, the metres have ceased working, and traffic light upkeep has been halted until further notice.

Beirut’s mayor, dismissing accusations of graft and inefficiency, said many plans had not been implemented due to “exhausting bureaucracy” and the rapid currency depreciation.

“We haven’t been able to complete projects already underway,” he said.

None of this is doing much to lift the public’s spirits.

Inside her deserted handbag shop in the Hamra neighbourhood, Elissar Bou Dargham said her city was turning into a decrepit and “sad” place.

“Everybody is responsible,” said the 49-year-old vendor. “The people, the municipality, ministers and parliament.”

TEHRAN — Iran has asked Interpol to help arrest a suspect in a sabotage attack on its Natanz nuclear facility which it blames on Israel, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.

National television has published a photo and identified the man as 43-year-old Reza Karimi, saying the intelligence ministry had established his role in last week's "sabotage" at Natanz.

The broadcaster said the suspect had "fled the country before the incident" and that "legal procedures to arrest and return him to the country are currently under way".

Neither state TV nor other media provided further details on the suspect. The intelligence ministry has not issued an official statement.

The ultraconservative Kayhan daily reported in its Sunday edition that "intelligence and judicial authorities" are engaged in the process.

It added that "after his identity was established, necessary measures were taken through Interpol to arrest and return" the suspect.

Kayhan did not specify what form of Interpol assistance had been requested.

Contacted by AFP in Lyon, Interpol did not confirm or deny such a request being filed by Iran.

"Interpol does not... comment on specific cases or individuals except in special circumstances and with the approval of the member country concerned," it added.

As of Sunday noon, Interpol's public "red notice" list online returned no results for Reza Karimi.

A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action, according to Interpol's website.

A "small explosion" hit the Natanz plant's electricity distribution system a week ago, according to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.

The Iranian foreign ministry accused arch-foe Israel of an act of "nuclear terrorism" and vowed revenge.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement but public radio reports said it was a sabotage operation by the Mossad spy agency, citing unnamed intelligence sources.

The New York Times, quoting unnamed US and Israeli intelligence officials, also said there had been "an Israeli role" in the attack.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh last week indirectly accused Israel of attempting to scuttle talks underway in Vienna aimed at reviving a landmark nuclear agreement.

The talks are focused on bringing the US back into the accord after former president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, and to bring Iran back into compliance with key nuclear commitments it suspended in response to the sanctions.