Region

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron should freeze suspect assets held by Lebanese officials in France to break a "political-economic mafia" that has plunged Lebanon into crisis and misery, an open letter said on Tuesday.

Macron called for radical reform in Lebanon after a deadly Beirut Port blast and has expressed exasperation at the lack of change, as the former French mandate territory remains mired in political stalemate.

Analysts have said that sanctions such as asset freezes could be the most effective lever for Paris to pressure Beirut, even if France has so far not explicitly indicated it is ready for such a measure.

Macron should issue instructions "with a view to implementing the legal mechanism for freezing assets of doubtful origin held in France by Lebanese political and economic leaders," said the letter published in France's Le Monde daily signed by more than 100 Lebanese civil society figures.

It said that a "political-economic mafia is responsible for the misery, hunger and insecurity from which more and more Lebanese suffer".

The letter suggested that such a legal process should draw on the precedent set over ill-gotten assets owned in France by some African leaders and former Syrian vice president Rifaat Al Assad.

"This endemic corruption on a grand scale has scandalously enriched Lebanese political leaders" by emptying the treasury and embezzling aid sent after the civil war, the letter alleged.

It was signed by lawyers, doctors, journalists and activists, including prominent political scientist Karim Emile Bitar, former Lebanese culture minister and UN Libya envoy Ghassan Salame and former MP and TV host Paula Yacoubian.

The letter was drafted after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in March that "the time has come" to raise international pressure on Lebanon to form a government.

Lebanon's prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, and President Michel Aoun again failed last month to agree on a new government Cabinet after months of deadlock, as the country sinks deeper into economic crisis.

A steep depreciation of the Lebanese pound along with an explosion of poverty and unemployment have eroded purchasing power and fuelled anger among the population.

The outgoing government of premier Hassan Diab resigned in the wake of an August 4 explosion at Beirut's port that killed more than 200 people and sparked protests against the entrenched ruling class.

KINSHASA — Talks gathering Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on Addis Ababa's contested dam on the Nile were being extended on Tuesday after Sudan objected to the terms of a draft communique, a Congolese mediator said.

Hosted by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Kinshasa, the meeting bringing together foreign ministers from the three countries began on Sunday and had been scheduled to end on Monday.

"Ethiopia and Egypt accepted the terms contained in the draft final communique. But Sudan felt that its interests in the River Nile were at threat," said the DRC source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Talks resumed on Tuesday aimed at finding common ground, the source said.

The long-running dispute centres on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a huge hydro-electric project across the Blue Nile.

Upstream Ethiopia says power produced by the GERD will be vital to meet the development needs of its 110 million people.

But the two countries downstream fear their lifeline could be threatened.

The talks are being hosted by DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, who became chairman of the African Union (AU) in February.

The US ambassador in Kinshasa, Mike Hammer, is also attending, and met during the night on Monday with the delegation chiefs of the three countries.

Their three-hour meeting took place in a room in the hotel hosting the talks.

“This communique will determine whether the meeting in Kinshasa is a success or a failure,” the Congolese negotiator said.

“This is why the heads of delegation want to give prior approval to its contents — their respective governments will be bound by it in the future.”

The GERD, whose planned capacity of 6,500 megawatts will make it the biggest dam in Africa, has been a source of tension since its first stone was laid in April 2011.

Downstream countries are especially worried about operations to fill the vast proposed lake behind the dam.

Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 per cent of its irrigation and drinking water, has warned of an existential threat.

Sudan fears its own dams will be compromised if Ethiopia proceeds with filling the GERD before a deal is reached.

Egypt has sounded loud warnings to coincide with the Kinshasa meeting.

Its foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, told Egyptian media that the negotiations represented “the last chance... to reach an accord”.

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi separately declared: “Nobody will be permitted to take a single drop of Egypt’s water, otherwise the region will fall into unimaginable instability.”

TEHRAN — Iran on Tuesday announced a new record number of daily coronavirus cases, as authorities warned of a "major increase" in infections to come as the country faces its fourth wave.

Over the past 24 hours, the Islamic republic officially recorded 17,430 cases of infection, health ministry spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari said.

The figure eclipses a previous peak in late November of 14,051 daily cases, and brings Iran's total number of cases to 1,963,394.

Iran also recorded 174 additional virus deaths, Lari said, bringing the total to 63,506.

Lari warned the population of a "major increase in infections" to come.

The Islamic republic is battling the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, and case numbers have risen following a surge in trips during the Iranian new year holidays in recent weeks.

Iran is facing "one of the most severe waves" of its coronavirus outbreak, Health Minister Saeed Namaki had said on Monday.

"We've now lost the reins of the virus,” he said.

Some officials, including Namaki, have admitted in the past that the virus numbers are likely higher than official figures.

Authorities had warned of a concerning rise in the spread of the more contagious British variant of the disease and of a "fourth wave" prior to the holidays.

Dozens of towns and cities including the capital Tehran are classified as "red", the highest rating on the country's coronavirus risk scale, requiring all non-essential businesses to close.

Iran has avoided imposing a full lockdown on its population of 82 million since the pandemic started.

Instead, it has resorted to limited and shifting measures, such as temporary bans on travelling or businesses.

Authorities announced overnight Monday to Tuesday the arrival of more than 700,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, its first delivery via the Covax vaccine-sharing programme.

Iran began its vaccination campaign in February, but it has progressed more slowly than authorities had hoped.

JUBA — The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said on Tuesday it plans to reduce troop numbers by 7 per cent this year, due to a drop in violence in the conflict-torn country.

UNMISS chief David Shearer said the drawdown is also a result of UN troops withdrawing from camps where civilians had sought protection during the country’s six-year civil war, handing control of the sites to Juba.

“Over the coming year, there will be reduction of our military and police peacekeepers by around seven percent,” Shearer told journalists during his last press conference after four years in the job.

He said the decision was also a result of a “reduction in violence” following the signing of a peace deal in 2018.

UNMISS currently has 14,500 military and 2,000 police peacekeepers across the country.

The mission announced its withdrawal from the so-called protection of civilians sites in September 2020, when some 180,000 still lived in the camps where they had fled amid brutal ethnic atrocities which characterised the conflict.

The government has not announced how many still remain.

Despite the reduction in the number of peacekeepers, Shearer cautioned “the peace process remains fragile and there is still much to be done”.

Shearer said, however, that more troops could be brought in if violence rose again.

President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, for years on opposing sides of the battlefield, formed a coalition government on February 22, 2020 after nearly a year of delays.

However, almost none of the other provisions of the truce have been honoured, and analysts have warned of a return to war.

Shearer urged the leaders to pick up the pace on the implementation of a new constitution, formation of a national army and economic reform.

Some 400,000 people are estimated to have died as a result of the war which broke out in 2013 — two years after independence from Sudan — when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup against him.

The oil-rich country remains severely underdeveloped and poorly managed.

Despite the peace deal, brutal communal conflicts — often over cattle raiding — continue, with more than 1,000 killed in violence between rival communities in the last six months of 2020.

The UN warned last month that parts of South Sudan were facing famine, with some 7.2 million going hungry in the coming months.

The International Monetary Fund has approved $174 million (148 million euros) in emergency assistance to South Sudan, much of which will be used to pay long overdue salaries for civil servants.

TEHRAN — Iran said on Monday that the outcome of talks in Vienna aimed at salvaging its nuclear accord will depend on European parties leaning on the US to lift sanctions.

Britain, France and Germany are pushing to bring US President Joe Biden's administration back into the 2015 nuclear deal, after his predecessor Donald Trump's withdrew and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

The other participants, including China and Russia, are to meet on Tuesday in-person in the Austrian capital, with the United States indirectly taking part.

"Whether the joint commission's agenda produces a result or not depends on the Europeans and the 4+1 reminding the US of its obligations and the Americans acting on their commitments," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

"How and where the 4+1 talk to the US is their own business," he told reporters, noting there will be no negotiations in Vienna.

The meeting's aim is to "talk about the path of lifting sanctions", he added.

The deal, also know as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), promised Iran relief from international sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme.

Biden has promised to rejoin the agreement on condition that Iran first returns to nuclear commitments it suspended in response to reimposed sanctions.

Tehran, however, says Washington has to end sanctions first.

The European Union has said its mediator will hold "separate contacts" with the United States in Vienna.

According to a senior EU official, two groups of experts from the other countries will work simultaneously, with one focused on US sanctions and the other on rolling back Iran's suspended nuclear commitments.

Khatibzadeh said experts from an Iranian delegation would explain "how [we plan] to stop our remedial measures".

"We have only one step, not step-by-step, [which] includes the lifting of all US sanctions," he stressed.

"It will become clear tomorrow whether the 4+1 can realise the points expected by Iran or not, so that we would have a clearer path forward," Khatibzadeh said.

The Vienna meeting comes after a video conference of a JCPOA joint commission held on Friday.