Gulf-Middle East Archive

UN chief arrives in Kabul amid poll turmoil

Published: November 2, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Kabul, Nov 2 (DPA) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived Monday on an unannounced visit to Kabul as political uncertainty deepened in Afghanistan after the pullout of presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah from a planned runoff election.

Ban came to the war-torn country six days after Taliban militants, equipped with suicide vests and automatic rifles stormed a UN guest house in downtown Kabul, killing five UN international staff and three Afghans.

UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said the secretary general was in Kabul to show his ‘solidarity’ with UN staff members in Afghanistan after the deaths Wednesday.

Ban was to meet with President Hamid Karzai for lunch, then with Abdullah in the afternoon and later with UN employees, Siddique said.

The Taliban claimed the attack in Kabul was the beginning of their anti-election campaign because the UN staff who were attacked were helping convene the second round of the elections after the Aug 20 presidential vote was marred by massive fraud, mostly in favour of Karzai.

Ban was expected to discuss the election situation with Karzai and Abdullah after Abdullah Sunday pulled out of Saturday’s runoff. The former foreign minister said he withdrew after Karzai did not accept his conditions for bringing transparency to the elections.

Abdullah’s decision to withdraw left Karzai as the only candidate and brought him to the verge of remaining in office, but it also cast doubt over the legitimacy of his future administration.

Both Karzai’s camp and Independent Election Commission said the runoff would go ahead despite Abdullah’s decision, but Western officials said the international community, which provided funds and security for the election, was not willing to support a one-man election.

‘There is no appetite on the part of international community for the second round of the elections,’ said a Western official who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

He said it would be ‘ridiculous’ to spend money and risk lives for a process in which the outcome is already known.

The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the fresh vote.

Karzai garnered more than 54 percent of the ballots in the August election, a percentage that made him an outright winner, but a UN-backed investigation discounted about one million, or a third, of his ballots and pushed him into a runoff with Abdullah, his nearest rival.

The Afghan constitution failed to anticipate a situation in which a candidate pulls out of a runoff, and officials said they believe Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission or the Supreme Court has to come up with a ruling to legitimise the future government.

A commission spokesman said the agency’s six-member leadership was meeting Monday to reach a consensus on whether to go ahead with the runoff or find another legal remedy to end the election crisis.

Lebanon, Israel exchange fires

Published: October 28, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Beirut, Oct 28 – A Katyusha rocket launched from southern Lebanon Tuesday hit Israel but no one was hurt, an official said. The Israeli forces retaliated with artillery fire.

The UN interim forces in Lebanon confirmed the rocket was fired from the Houla area in southern Lebanon and it landed near the Kiryat Shemona area of northern Israel, Xinhua reported.

Lebanese state-run media said Israeli forces retaliated with artillery fire.

UN peacekeeping forces are in contact with both parties, urging them to exercise maximum restraint, uphold the cessation of hostilities and avoid taking steps that would lead to further escalation, officials said.

Hamas calls for attacks on Israel

Published: October 27, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Gaza, Oct 27 – The Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, has urged its cadres to carry out attacks against Israel.

The call was in response to Israeli action at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Xinhua reported.

On Sunday, 30 Palestinians were injured in clashes with the Israeli police when they protested against a Jewish religious group’s attempt to enter the compound of the mosque.

Hamas leader Ahmed Abu Halabeya told a media conference Monday that Palestinian militants are urged ‘to carry out holly attacks’ against Israel.

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed in dozens of suicide bombings carried out by Hamas since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Tel Aviv in September 2000.

‘Armed resistance should hurry up to do their best and use all holy means of resistance and Jihad operations in Jerusalem and into the Zionist enemy’s depth,’ Abu Halabeya said.

‘I call on Arabs and Muslims all over the world to sever their diplomatic ties with the Zionist occupation in response to their attacks on the first shrine of Muslims,’ he said.

Four soldiers die in helicopter crash in Afghanistan

Published: October 26, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Kabul, Oct 26 (DPA) Four US soldiers were killed Monday when two helicopters flying for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan were involved in what was believed to be a mid-air collision, the ISAF and US military said.

Hostile fire was not involved in the accident, the ISAF said.

Two soldiers were also injured in the accident in southern Afghanistan, it said, without specifying the location.

US Colonel Wayne Shanks confirmed the four fatalities were American troops.

A third helicopter also went down in western Afghanistan after a raid on a compound where suspected militants involved in the narcotics trade were located, the ISAF said.

Casualties were reported in the third crash as rescue efforts were under way.

More than a dozen militants were also killed in a firefight that broke out with the international security force conducted the raid, the ISAF said.

Jordan warns Israel against provocation in Jerusalem

Published: October 26, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Amman, Oct 26 (DPA) Jordan Sunday warned Israeli police and religious radicals that further provocation in the compound that houses the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem would fuel violence in the region and jeopardise peace efforts.

Clashes between Israeli police and youths armed with rocks broke out Sunday at the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount compound where the mosque is located. The confrontation was apparently sparked by calls by radical Jewish clerics to their followers to go up to the compound, and by calls by radical Muslim clerics for their followers to defend the site.

‘Any new provocative attempts by Israeli troops and Jewish extremists such as what happened today in the shrine’s compound represents a flagrant violation of international law and conventions and sets the stage for more tension and acts of violence,’ Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communication Nabil Sharif said in a statement.

‘Jordan, out of its historical responsibilities in being the custodian of the holy places in Jerusalem, is extremely worried about what is taking place and warns against going ahead with this provocative behaviour on the part of Israeli troops,’ he added.

Sharif urged ‘an immediate end to such dangerous practices which threaten to derail all opportunities of peace and stability in the region’.

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Under the peace treaty which the two countries concluded in 1994, Israel acknowledged Amman’s right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem.

Relations between Jordan and Israel have soured over the past four weeks, with the Jordanian government summoning the Israeli ambassador in Amman twice to lodge a strongly-worded protest.

The Jordanian foreign ministry also summoned the envoys of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to ask that they intervene immediately to ensure a halt to unilateral steps by Israel in East Jerusalem, including excavations and measures to force Arab citizens to emigrate.

Iraq calls three-day national mourning for Baghdad blasts

Published: October 26, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Baghdad, Oct 26 (DPA) Iraq announced Sunday a three-day national mourning period for the victims of the twin terror blasts in central Baghdad which killed at least 50 people and injured 260.

Head of the rescue team, Abdel Rasoul al-Zaidi, said that his men were able to put out the fire in the buildings and that they are now looking for survivors or bodies under the rubble.

‘The two explosions were so huge and have left enormous damage,’ al-Zaidi said.

Saudi woman sentenced to 60 lashes over sexually themed TV show

Published: October 25, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Riyadh, Oct 25 (DPA) A Saudi court sentenced a female journalist to receive 60 lashes for her links to a broadcaster that aired a TV talk show in which a young Saudi man boasted about his premarital sexual conquests, the Saudi Gazette newspaper reported Sunday.

The woman, who works for Lebanese TV network LBC, was ordered to stand trial along with another female producer of the ‘Bold Red Line’ talk show. No details have been released about the trial of the second woman charged.

The episode, aired at the end of July by LBC, shocked many in the country, where the state enforces a puritanical brand of Islam.

Rosanna Al-Yami, who is under a travel ban as she awaits her punishment, said that during the Saturday trial, the judge dropped all charges that she had been directly involved with the episode.

However, Al-Yami said she was sentenced to 60 lashes for having been a part-time employee for LBC’s Saudi operations. The judge said that LBC had lacked the appropriate operating license.

Al-Yami’s sentencing comes weeks after Mazen Abdel-Jawad, 32, was convicted of of ‘publicising vice and confessing to crimes on a satellite television channel’ for describing his sexual adventures on the show.

Eight days after Abdel-Jawad’s arrest, authorities closed LBC’s offices in western Jeddah for airing programmes ‘contrary to morals and ethics’. The satellite channel was also accused of operating in the kingdom without a license.

132 killed in deadly Baghdad bombings

Published: October 25, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Baghdad, Oct 25 – At least 132 people were killed and over 500 others injured when two trucks packed with explosives detonated in quick succession in the heart of the Iraqi capital Sunday, the interior ministry said.

‘According to latest reports, up to 132 people were killed and 512 others were injured in the massive explosions in downtown Baghdad,’ an official told Xinhua requesting anonymity.

Earlier, the official put the toll at 62 killed and 180 injured.

The attack was the second largest to target government buildings in Baghdad after the deadly blasts near two Iraqi ministries Aug 19, in which dozens of people were killed and injured.

The first explosion occurred at about 10.30 a.m. when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-filled truck near the Iraqi justice ministry in Salhiyah district of the city.

The explosion killed several people and damaged many buildings in the area. Body parts were seen scattered across the place after the blast. Dozens of cars were also destroyed.

The blast occurred close to Mansour Hotel where the staff of many foreign media organisations and companies live.

The second explosion occurred near the Baghdad Provincial Council building, just 500 meters away from the site of the first blast, when another truckload of explosives was detonated.

Thick plume of black smoke was seen rising from the buildings near the blast scenes as fire tenders rushed to the area to douse the fire.

The security forces have cordoned off the area.

IAEA team inspects Iran’s new nuclear plant

Published: October 25, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Tehran, Oct 25 – A team of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Sunday inspected Iran’s new uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom Sunday, media reports said.

The inspectors of the Vienna-based organistion will stay in the country till Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

Last month, Iran confirmed that it is building a new nuclear fuel enrichment plant. In reaction, the IAEA asked Tehran to provide detailed information and access to the new facility.

At a meeting between Iran and top envoys from the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in Geneva Oct 1, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said his government would allow UN inspectors to visit the site.

25 killed in Iraq bombings

Published: October 25, 2009Posted in: Gulf-Middle EastTags:

Baghdad, Oct 25 – At least 25 people were killed and 40 injured in two suicide car bomb attacks in central Baghdad Sunday, an interior ministry source said.

‘The toll from the two coordinated attacks in central Baghdad rose to 25 killed and 40 others injured,’ Xinhua reported quoting the unnamed source.

A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden car outside the building of Baghdad Provincial Council near the Mansour Hotel, the source added.

The second blast occurred outside the Iraqi Ministry of Justice close to the location of the first bombing, when a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed car, he said, adding that the Iraqi security forces were investigating the incidents.

A Xinhua correspondent at the scene said at least 12 civilian cars were charred and some were totally destroyed by the powerful blasts.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the scene and fire engines arrived to put out fires as columns of black smoke rise above the scene, he said.

The two attacks appear to be the biggest since the attacks Aug 19 when suicide truck bomb attacks targeted two Iraqi ministries, killing and wounding some 1,300 Iraqis.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »