TEHRAN: Iran on Thursday condemned as “irresponsible” and “hostile” a decision by Canada to designate the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist entity.
Ottowa announced on Wednesday it had placed the Guards on its terror blacklist over “disregard for human rights” and “willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order.”
In a statement Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani hit out at the Canadian move as “hostile” and “contrary to the accepted norms and principles of international law.”
“This irresponsible and provocative move is a continuation of the wrong path that the Canadian government has taken over the past decade,” he added.
Canada’s terror listing bars members of the Guards from entering Canada and Canadians from having any dealings with individual members or the group.
Any assets the organization or its members hold in Canada may also be seized.
The decision to add the Guards to Canada’s terror list comes amid tensions between Ottawa and Tehran which have not had formal diplomatic relations since 2012.
Canada and other nations have been engaged in legal action against Iran at the International Court of Justice over the downing of Flight PS752 in January 2020.
Iranian expats and families of the victims of from the flight, which was downed by Iran shortly after take-off from Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew, including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents, have long pressed Ottawa to designate the militia as a terrorist entity.
Tehran said a missile strike on the aircraft was carried out by mistake.
Ottawa has previously listed the Quds Force, the Guards’ foreign operations arm, as a terrorist entity, and in 2022 permanently denied entry to more than 10,000 Iranian officials, including Guards members.
The United States listed the Guards as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019.
Earlier this month, the European Union also sanctioned the Guards for allegedly supplying drones to Russia and its allies in the Middle East.
Iran says Canada terror designation for Guards ‘hostile’
https://arab.news/97t4n
Iran says Canada terror designation for Guards ‘hostile’
- Ottowa announced that it had placed the Guards on its terror blacklist over ‘disregard for human rights’ and ‘willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order’
- Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani hit out at the Canadian move as ‘hostile’ and ‘contrary to the accepted norms and principles of international law’
Syria FM says sanctions relief shows ‘international will’ to support country
- Lifting sanctions expresses the regional and international will to support Syria, said Al-Shaibani
DAMASCUS: The Syrian Arab Republic’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that the lifting of sanctions on his country shows an “international will” to support his country, after EU countries agreed to end most of its sanctions.
In a press conference in Damascus alongside his Jordanian counterpart, Asaad Al-Shaibani said that “lifting sanctions expresses the regional and international will to support Syria,” adding that “the Syrian people today have a very important and historic opportunity to rebuild their country.”
Syria’s driest winter in nearly 7 decades triggers a severe water crisis in Damascus
- Now, there is only a trickle of water following the driest winter in decades
- “I have been working at the Ein Al-Fijeh spring for 33 years and this is the first year it is that dry,” Bashi said
BARADA VALLEY, Syria: Inside a mountain above the Syrian Arab Republic's capital, Hassan Bashi walked through tunnels that used to be filled with water from a spring famous for its pure waters.
The spring rises inside the ruins of a Roman temple in the Barada Valley and flows toward Damascus, which it has been supplying with drinking water for thousands of years. Normally, during the winter flood season, water fills all the tunnels and washes over much of the temple.
Now, there is only a trickle of water following the driest winter in decades.
Bashi, who is a guard but also knows how to operate the pumping and water filtration machines in the absence of the engineer in charge, displayed an old video on his cell phone of high waters inside the ruins.
“I have been working at the Ein Al-Fijeh spring for 33 years and this is the first year it is that dry,” Bashi said.
The spring is the main source of water for 5 million people, supplying Damascus and its suburbs with 70 percent of their water.
As the city suffers its worst water shortages in years, many people now rely on buying water from private tanker trucks that fill from wells.
Government officials are warning that the situation could get worse in the summer and are urging residents to use water sparingly while showering, cleaning or washing dishes.
“The Ein Al-Fijeh spring is working now at its lowest level,” said Ahmad Darwish, head of the Damascus City Water Supply Authority, adding that the current year witnessed the lowest rainfall since 1956.
The channels that have been there since the day of the Romans two millennia ago were improved in 1920 and then again in 1980, he said.
Darwish said the springwater water comes mainly from rainfall and melted snow off the mountains along the border with Lebanon, but because of this year’s below-average rainfall, “it has given us amounts that are much less than normal.”
There are 1.1 million homes that get water from the spring, and in order to get through the year, people will have to cut down their consumption, he said.
The spring also feeds the Barada River that cuts through the capital. It is mostly dry this year.
In Damascus’s eastern area of Abbasids, Bassam Jbara is feeling the shortage. His neighborhood only gets water for about 90 minutes a day, compared with previous years when water was always running when they turned on the taps.
Persistent electricity cuts are making the problem worse, he said, as they sometimes have water but no power to pump it to the tankers on the roof of the building. Jbara once had to buy five barrels of undrinkable water from a tanker truck that cost him and his neighbors $15, a large amount of money in a country where many people make less than $100 a month.
“From what we are seeing, we are heading toward difficult conditions regarding water,” he said, fearing that supplies will drop to once or twice a week over the summer. He is already economizing.
“The people of Damascus are used to having water every day and to drinking tap water coming from the Ein Al-Fijeh spring, but unfortunately the spring is now weak,” Jbara said.
During Syria’s 14-year conflict, Ein Al-Fijeh was subjected to shelling on several occasions, changing between forces of then- President Bashar Assad and insurgents over the years.
In early 2017, government forces captured the area from insurgents and held it until December when the five-decade Assad dynasty collapsed in a stunning offensive by fighters led by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group, or HTS, of current President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.
Tarek Abdul-Wahed returned to his home near the spring in December nearly eight years after he was forced to leave with his family and is now working on rebuilding the restaurant he owned. It was blown up by Assad’s forces after he left the area.
Abdul-Wahed looked at the dry area that used to be filled with tourists and Syrians who would come in the summer to enjoy the cool weather.
“The Ein Al-Fijeh spring is the only artery to Damascus,” Abdul-Wahed said as reconstruction work was ongoing in the restaurant that helped 15 families living nearby make a living in addition to the employees who came from other parts of Syria.
“Now it looks like a desert. There is no one,” he said. “We hope that the good old days return with people coming here.”
Vance denies axing Israel visit over Gaza onslaught fears
- US vice president: ‘Logistically, it was just a little bit too hard’
- Advisers reportedly raised concerns after launch of new offensive
LONDON: US Vice President JD Vance has denied an Axios report that he skipped a planned visit to Israel amid concerns over its new military offensive in Gaza.
Vance, according to a senior US official, was reportedly hesitant to signal Washington’s support for the renewed onslaught, which was launched on Sunday.
The vice president labeled the Axios report as an “overstatement,” saying: “We thought about going to Israel, we also thought about going to a couple of other countries that the president would like me to visit some time in the next few months.
“Logistically, it was just a little bit too hard on basic things like, who the hell is going to take care of our kids if we take another couple of days overseas?”
He also highlighted “more serious” considerations relating to the proposed visit, “like how do we provide security, how do we make sure that we get over all the assets that we need in order to do the right official delegation?”
The US government is believed to have informed Israel on Saturday that Vance was considering a trip to the country after attending Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration at the Vatican.
Axios was told by a top Israeli official that Vance had believed a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was imminent.
Israeli media reported that he was likely to visit the country this week. But the launching of the new offensive was viewed as having disrupted those plans.
He reportedly canceled the trip when advisers raised concerns that his presence in Israel might be perceived in the Middle East as giving support to the Gaza offensive.
A White House official denied reports that Vance had planned to fly from Rome to Tel Aviv. His Secret Service protection had “engaged in contingency planning for the addition of several potential countries” to travel to, the official said, but “no additional visits were at any point decided upon, and logistical constraints have precluded an extension of his travel.”
Vance on Monday said he would visit Israel “some time in the future.”
Israeli strikes ‘shredding people to pieces’ in Gaza: British surgeon
- Tom Potokar: ‘It is difficult to imagine how human beings can treat other human beings in this way’
- ‘This will be a stain on humanity when people look back in years to come’
LONDON: Israeli strikes on Gaza are “shredding people to pieces,” a British surgeon working in hospitals there has told the Daily Telegraph.
Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon working in southern Gaza, said he was at the European Hospital when it was attacked by Israel.
Its new offensive has been met by international condemnation, with Gaza’s Health Ministry saying hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent days.
Potokar, who is now stationed at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, said: “You have to consider that the Gaza Strip is, geographically, a very small area and yet there are nearly two million people living here.
“So, when you drop ordnance — with the amounts being used and the type of weapons being used in such a small, densely populated area — you are literally shredding people to pieces.”
Potokar was forced to move hospital three times in the past week to avoid Israeli bombing. Describing the attack on the European Hospital, he said: “It is difficult to imagine how human beings can treat other human beings in this way. To see children particularly with horrific injuries and amputations, to see pregnant women requiring major surgery — it’s absolute brutality.”
Israeli attacks on hospitals have drawn widespread condemnation from humanitarian organizations.
The UN Human Rights Office and Human Rights Watch said Israeli bombardment is pushing Gaza’s already-damaged healthcare system to the brink of collapse.
Potokar was also near an airstrike that hit Al-Amal Hospital. “It was around 6 a.m. and a massive strike happened about 400 meters from the hospital, with heavy machine gun fire and helicopters,” he said.
“Thankfully, there were no casualties in the hospital, but a huge piece of shrapnel landed in front of the emergency room.”
He added: “What is the West doing, what is the rest of the world doing? Churning out press statement after press statement but nothing is changing.
“This will be a stain on humanity when people look back in years to come, when we say ‘how did we allow this to happen?’ We’ve been here before, and no lessons are being learned.”
Potokar said: “The killing goes on, the slaughter goes on and these are people like you and me.”
