Latest news with #KAREEMCHEHAYEB
Japan Today
5 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
Iran says talks with IAEA will be 'technical' and 'complicated' ahead of agency's planned visit
By NASSER KARIMI and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency will be 'technical' and "complicated," the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry said Monday ahead of a visit by the nuclear watchdog for the first time since Tehran cut ties with the organization last month. Relations between the two soured after a 12-day air war was waged by Israel and the U.S in June, which saw key Iranian nuclear facilities bombed. The IAEA board said on June 12 Iran had breached its non-proliferation obligations, a day before Israel's airstrikes over Iran that sparked the war. The IAEA did not immediately issue a statement about the visit by the agency's deputy head, which will not include any planned access to Iranian nuclear sites. Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters there could be a meeting with Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, 'but it is a bit soon to predict what the talks will result since these are technical talks, complicated talks.' Baghaei also criticized the IAEA's 'unique situation' during the June war with Israel. "Peaceful facilities of a country that was under 24-hour monitoring were the target of strikes and the agency refrained from showing a wise and rational reaction and did not condemn it as it was required,' he said. Aragchi had previously said that cooperation with the agency, which will now require approval by Iran's highest security body, the Supreme National Security Council, would be about redefining how both sides cooperate. The decision will likely further limit inspectors' ability to track Tehran's program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on July 3 ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the IAEA, after the U.S. bombed three major Iranian nuclear sites as Israel waged an air war with Iran, killing nearly 1,100 people, including many military commanders. Retaliatory Iranian strikes killed 28 in Israel. Iran has had limited IAEA inspections in the past as a pressure tactic in negotiating with the West, and it is unclear how soon talks between Tehran and Washington for a deal over its nuclear program will resume. U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
Security footage from Syria hospital shows men in military garb killing medical worker
This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo) By GHAITH ALSAYED and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Footage from security cameras at a hospital in the city of Sweida in southern Syria published Sunday showed what appears to be the killing of a medical worker by men in military garb. The video published by activist media collective Suwayda 24 was dated July 16, during intense clashes between militias of the Druze minority community and armed tribal groups and government forces. In the video, which was also widely shared on social media, a large group of people in scrubs can be seen kneeling on the floor in front of a group of armed men. The armed men grab a man and hit him on the head as if they are going to apprehend him. The man tries to resist by wrestling with one of the gunmen, before he is shot once with an assault rifle and then a second time by another person with a pistol. A man in a dark jumpsuit with 'Internal Security Forces' written on it appears to be guiding the men in camouflage into the hospital. Another security camera shows a tank stationed outside the facility. Activist media groups say the gunmen were from the Syrian military and security forces. A Syrian government official said they could not immediately identify the attackers in the video, and are investigating the incident to try to figure out if they are government-affiliated personnel or gunmen from tribal groups. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not immediately cleared to speak to the media on the matter. Syria's Interior Ministry, in a statement posted by state-run news agency SANA, said Deputy Minister of Interior for Security Affairs Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Al-Tahhan was assigned to oversee the investigation "to ensure that the perpetrators are identified and arrested as quickly as possible.' 'We condemn and denounce this act in the strongest terms, and we affirm that the perpetrators will be held accountable and brought to justice to receive their just punishment, regardless of their affiliations," the statement said. The government last month set up a committee tasked with investigating attacks on civilians during the sectarian violence in the country's south, which is supposed to issue a report within three months. The incident at the Sweida National Hospital further exacerbates tensions between the Druze minority community and the Syrian government, after clashes in July between Druze and armed Bedouin groups sparked targeted sectarian attacks against them. The violence has worsened ties between them and Syria's Islamist-led interim government under President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who hopes to assert full government control and disarm Druze factions. Though the fighting has largely calmed down, government forces have surrounded the southern city and the Druze have said that little aid is going into the battered city, calling it a siege. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which has organized aid convoys into Sweida, said in a statement on Saturday that one of those convoys that was carrying aid in the day before 'came under direct fire,' and some of its vehicles were damaged. It did not specify which group attacked the convoy. On Sunday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a statement expressing 'deep concern' at the violence in southern Syria and condemning violence against civilians in Sweida. It called for the government to 'ensure credible, swift, transparent, impartial, and comprehensive investigations.' The statement also reiterated 'obligations under international humanitarian law to respect and protect all medical personnel and humanitarian personnel exclusively engaged in medical duties, their means of transportation and equipment, as well as hospitals and medical facilities.' It expressed concern about "foreign terrorist fighters" in Syria, while calling on 'all states to refrain from any action or interference that may further destabilize the country,' an apparent message to Israel, which intervened in last month's conflict on the side of the Druze, launching airstrikes on Syrian government forces. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
16-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Airports close across Mideast as Israel-Iran conflict shutters the region's airspace
Huge smoke rises up from an oil facility facility after it appeared to have been hit by an Israeli strike Saturday, in southern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP Photo) By KAREEM CHEHAYEB and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA After Israeli strikes landed near the hotel where he was staying in the Iranian province of Qom, Aimal Hussein desperately wanted to return home. But the 55-year-old Afghan businessman couldn't find a way, with Iranian airspace completely shut down. He fled to Tehran after the strike Sunday, but no taxi would take him to the border as the conflict between Iran and Israel intensified. 'Flights, markets, everything is closed, and I am living in the basement of a small hotel,' Hussein told The Associated Press by cellphone on Monday. "I am trying to get to the border by taxi, but they are hard to find, and no one is taking us.' Israel launched a major attack Friday with strikes in the Iranian capital of Tehran and elsewhere, killing senior military officials, nuclear scientists, and destroying critical infrastructure. Among the targets was a nuclear enrichment facility about 18 miles from Qom. Iran has retaliated with hundreds of drones and missiles. The dayslong attacks between the two bitter enemies have opened a new chapter in their turbulent recent history. Many in the region fear a wider conflict as they watch waves of attacks across their skies every night. The conflict has forced most countries in the Middle East to close their airspace. Dozens of airports have stopped all flights or severely reduced operations, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded and others unable to flee the conflict or travel home. 'The domino effect here is massive,' said retired pilot and aviation safety expert John Cox, who said the disruptions will have a huge price tag. 'You've got thousands of passengers suddenly that are not where they're supposed to be, crews that are not where they are supposed to be, airplanes that are not where they're supposed to be,' he said. Zvika Berg was on an El Al flight to Israel from New York when an unexpected message came from the pilot as they began their descent: 'Sorry, we've been rerouted to Larnaca.' The 50-year-old Berg saw other Israel-bound El Al flights from Berlin and elsewhere landing at the airport in Cyprus. Now he's waiting at a Larnaca hotel while speaking to his wife in Jerusalem. 'I'm debating what to do,' Berg said. Israel has closed its main international Ben Gurion Airport 'until further notice,' leaving more than 50,000 Israeli travelers stranded abroad. The jets of the country's three airlines have been moved to Larnaca. In Israel, Mahala Finkleman was stuck in a Tel Aviv hotel after her Air Canada flight was canceled, trying to reassure her worried family back home while she shelters in the hotel's underground bunker during waves of overnight Iranian attacks. 'We hear the booms. Sometimes there's shaking,' she said. 'The truth, I think it's even scarier … to see from TV what happened above our heads while we were underneath in a bomb shelter.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office warned Israelis not to flee the country through any of the three crossings with Jordan and Egypt that are open to the Israeli public. Despite having diplomatic ties with Israel, the statement said those countries are considered a 'high risk of threat' to Israeli travelers. Iran on Friday suspended flights to and from the country's main Khomeini International Airport on the outskirts of Tehran. Israel said Saturday that it bombed Mehrabad Airport in an early attack, a facility in Tehran for Iran's air force and domestic commercial flights. Arsalan Ahmed is one of thousands of Indian university students stuck in Iran, with no way out. The medical student and other students in Tehran are not leaving the hostels where they live, horrified by the attacks with no idea of when they'll find safety. 'It is very scary what we watch on television,' Ahmed said. 'But scarier are some of the deafening explosions.' Universities have helped relocate many students to safer places in Iran, but the Indian government has not yet issued an evacuation plan for them. Though airspace is still partially open in Lebanon and Jordan, the situation is chaotic at airports, with many passengers stranded locally and abroad with delayed and canceled flights even as the busy summer tourism season begins. Many airlines have reduced flights or stopped them altogether, and authorities have closed airports overnight when attacks are at their most intense. Syria, under new leadership, had just renovated its battered airports and begun restoring diplomatic ties when the conflict began. Neighboring Iraq's airports have all closed due to its close proximity to Iran. Israel reportedly used Iraqi airspace, in part, to launch its strikes on Iran, while Iranian drones and missiles flying the other way have been downed over Iraq. Baghdad has reached a deal with Turkey that would allow Iraqis abroad to travel to Turkey — if they can afford it — and return home overland through their shared border. Some Iraqis stranded in Iran opted to leave by land. College student Yahia al-Suraifi was studying in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, where Israel bombed the airport and an oil refinery over the weekend. Al-Suraifi and dozens of other Iraqi students pooled together their money to pay taxi drivers to drive 200 miles (320 kilometers) overnight to the border with northern Iraq with drones and airstrikes around them. 'It looked like fireworks in the night sky,' al-Suraifi said. 'I was very scared.' By the time they reached the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, it was another 440 miles (710 kilometers) to get to his hometown of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. Back in Tehran, Hussein said the conflict brought back bitter memories of 20 years of war back home in Afghanistan. 'This is the second time I have been trapped in such a difficult war and situation," he said, "once in Kabul and now in Iran.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Ya Libnan
11-06-2025
- Business
- Ya Libnan
Former Lebanese economy minister is arrested on corruption charges
BY KAREEM CHEHAYEB A former Lebanese cabinet minister has been arrested and charged after an investigation into alleged financial crimes, judicial and security officials told The Associated Press. Former Economy Minister Amin Salam was detained after a three-hour interrogation about illegal use of ministry funds and use of suspicious contracts. The three judicial officials and one security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Lebanon has been trying to reform its battered economy, which for decades has been rife with profiteering. Salam has been charged with forgery, embezzlement, and misuse of public funds. Local media said it was related to alleged extortion of private insurance companies and using funds from a committee that supervises those companies for his own expenses. Salam did not directly comment. On Monday, however, he shared a video on social media that denied the reports and asserted that his use of those funds was to increase the committee's efficacy and transparency. Salam was economy minister for over three years. He was appointed in 2021 at a time when Lebanon's economy had plummeted and the country was plagued by severe power outages, fuel shortages and stark food inflation. (AP)
Ya Libnan
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Ya Libnan
Israeli army sets up roadblocks in southern Lebanon and announces it won't withdraw by deadline
Citizens check the destruction in their village caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. Israeli forces in southern Lebanon on Sunday opened fire on protesters demanding their withdrawal in line with a ceasefire agreement, killing at least 22 and injuring 124, Lebanese health officials reported, AP BY KAREEM CHEHAYEB MAYS AL-JABAL, Lebanon (AP) — Israel's military Saturday set up roadblocks across border towns and roads in a strategic valley in southern Lebanon, a day before the deadline for it to withdraw from the area under an agreement that halted its war with the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military, meanwhile, confirmed that it will not complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by Sunday as outlined in the ceasefire agreement. The deal that went into effect in late November gave both sides 60 days to remove their forces from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to move in and secure the area, along with U.N. peacekeepers. Israel says Hezbollah and the Lebanese army haven't met their obligations, while Lebanon accuses the Israeli army of hindering the Lebanese military from taking over. In a statement Saturday, the Israeli military said the agreement is progressing. But it said in some sectors, 'it has been delayed and will take slightly longer.' The Lebanese military has said that they had deployed in areas following Israeli troops' withdrawal, and in a statement Saturday accused the Israeli military of 'procrastinating' in their withdrawal from other areas. Washington appears to support an extension of this withdrawal phase. While Lebanese army soldiers are dispersed across the south's western sector, Israeli troops remained in control of most of the southeastern sector. Members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks and bulldozers have unexpectedly moved and set up several roadblocks, apparently in an attempt to prevent displaced Lebanese people trying to return to their villages. In Mays al-Jabal, peacekeepers from a Nepalese battalion watched in their position along the U.N.-mandated Blue Line as an Israeli jet flew overhead following the sound of what they said was an Israeli controlled demolition of a building. There are no residents left in that town and the vast majority of the buildings seen by Associated Press journalists were reduced to rubble or pancaked after intense Israeli shelling and airstrikes, following by clashes during its ground invasion. The few that stood had their walls blown out and are badly damaged. The piles of rubble and debris on the road make it impossible for civilian cars to enter the town that once was home to a few thousand people. The scene is similar in neighboring towns, including Blida and Aitaroun, where almost all the structures have collapsed into mounds of rubble and no residents have returned. The peacekeepers tried to appeal for permission to move across the roadblocks, but were not authorized to do so. An AP crew that had joined UNIFIL on patrol was stranded as a result. 'There is still a lot of IDF (Israeli army) activity going on in the area,' said Maj. Dinesh Bhandari of UNIFIL's Nepalese battalion in Mays al-Jabal overlooking the Blue Line. 'We are waiting for the deconfliction and then we will support to deploy the LAF (Lebanese army) in that position.' When asked about weapons belonging to Hezbollah, Bhandari said they had found caches of weapons, munitions and mines in some structures during their patrols. ADVERTISEMENT Israel says it has been taking down the remaining infrastructure left by the Hezbollah militant group, which has a strong military and political presence in the south. Israel since its ground incursion into Lebanon said it also targeted a tunnel network, and has conducted large-scale demolition of buildings in a handful of border towns. Lebanese officials have complained that the Israeli military is also destroying civilian homes and infrastructure. In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun pointed to the 'destruction of villages adjacent to the southern border and the bulldozing of lands, which will hinder the return of residents to their areas,' according to the state-run National News Agency. France, along with the U.S., is a guarantor of the ceasefire deal. Some 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced, out of over 1 million displaced during the war. Large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as Beirut's southern suburbs were destroyed in Israeli bombardments. ASSOCIATED PRESS
