WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a money exchanger and a group of firms across six countries involved in commodity shipments and business transactions that benefit Iran’s military and the Houthi militant group in Yemen and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six firms, two tankers and a money exchanger, all either based or registered in Liberia, India, Vietnam, Lebanon or Kuwait. They are accused of materially benefiting Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and the Houthis have been launching regular attacks since the onset of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and they have sparked international concern that the war in the Palestinian enclave could spill over into the rest of the Middle East.
Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops exchange fire on a near-daily basis along Lebanon’s southern border, which has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people on both sides. Despite losing more than 200 combatants and Israel striking deeper into the tiny country, Hezbollah maintains that it will stop launching rockets into northern Israel only when there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthls, who control much of Yemen’s north and west, have been launching drones and missiles on ships in the Red Sea, which they say is an effort to pressure Israel to end its war. Despite US-led airstrikes over the past two months, they have carried on with their campaign.
In a separate announcement Tuesday, Treasury slapped sanctions on 11 people and entities accused of facilitating financial transfers to the Syrian government to help it duck sanctions and being involved in the trafficking of a highly addictive amphetamine called Captagon that has become a booming industry in the war-torn country.
Treasury sanctioned a Syrian identified as Taher Al-Kayali and his company Neptunus LLC, accused of purchasing cargo ships to smuggle Captagon to Europe. One of his ships was intercepted by Greek authorities in 2018. Mahmoud Abulilah Al-Dj and his companies Al-Ta’ir Company and FreeBird Travel and Tourism were also sanctioned. He has had several of his drug shipments seized in Libya, and has cooperated with Abulilah. Al-Dj is also the “exclusive agent” of sanctioned Syrian airliner Cham Wings in Libya, Treasury said.
Experts say Captagon is primarily produced in Syria and Lebanon, where packages containing millions of pills are smuggled into Gulf countries, Europe and elsewhere. The trade allegedly has strong ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his associates, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in neighboring Lebanon.
Western governments estimate that the industry has generated billions of dollars in revenue for Syria. Syria’s Arab neighbors, notably Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states, have been desperate to halt the trade, as millions of pills have been smuggled in.
Meanwhile, Treasury slapped sanctions on Syria-based Maya Exchange Company, as well as Aleksey Makarov, the vice president of the listed Russian Financial Cooperation Bank, and Muhammad ‘Ali Al-Minala of the Syrian central bank, who used the exchange company to make payments to “a Jordanian beneficiary”.
Treasury also slapped sanctions on STF Logistic which it claims has generated tens of millions of revenue for the Syrian government and through a 50-year contract with Damascus has been granted the right to almost three-quarters of sales revenue from Syrian mines near Palmyra. Grains Middle East Trading, and its chief executive officer Yafi David were sanctioned for serving as an intermediary for STF Logistic. The company is based in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Assad’s crackdown on protests in 2011 led to his global isolation, and his forces were accused of torture, bombing civilian infrastructure, and using chemical weapons with support of key allies Russia and Iran.
US imposes more Iran sanctions and hits Syrian regime with penalties for drug trafficking
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US imposes more Iran sanctions and hits Syrian regime with penalties for drug trafficking
- The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six firms, two tankers and a money exchanger
- Treasury sanctioned a Syrian identified as Taher Al-Kayali and his company Neptunus LLC, accused of purchasing cargo ships to smuggle Captagon to Europe
Gaza blockade is death warrant for some dialysis patients struggling to get treatment
- They are some of Gaza’s quieter deaths from the war, with no explosion, no debris
- Over 400 patients have died during the 18-month conflict because of lack of proper treatment
The 54-year-old makes the journey from a temporary shelter west of Gaza City to Shifa Hospital in the city’s north. There, he receives dialysis for the kidney failure he was diagnosed with nearly 15 years ago. But the treatment, limited by the war’s destruction and lack of supplies, is not enough to remove all the waste products from his blood.
“It just brings you back from death,” the father of six said.
Many others like him have not made it. They are some of Gaza’s quieter deaths from the war, with no explosion, no debris. But the toll is striking: Over 400 patients, representing around 40 percent of all dialysis cases in the territory, have died during the 18-month conflict because of lack of proper treatment, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
That includes 11 patients who have died since the beginning of March, when Israel sealed the territory’s 2 million Palestinians off from all imports, including food, medical supplies and fuel. Israeli officials say the aim is to pressure Hamas to release more hostages after Israel ended their ceasefire.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid, declined to comment on the current blockade. It has said in the past that all medical aid is approved for entry when the crossings are open, and that around 45,400 tons of medical equipment have entered Gaza since the start of the war.
Hardships mount for Gaza patients
Attiya said he needs at least three dialysis sessions every week, at least four hours each time. Now, his two sessions last two or three hours at most.
Israel’s blockade, and its numerous evacuation orders across much of the territory, have challenged his ability to reach regular care.
He has been displaced at least six times since fleeing his home near the northern town of Beit Hanoun in the first weeks of the war. He first stayed in Rafah in the south, then the central city of Deir Al-Balah. When the latest ceasefire took effect in January, he moved again to another school in western Gaza City.
Until recently, Attiya walked to the hospital for dialysis. But he says the limited treatment, and soaring prices for the mineral water he should be drinking, have left him in a wheelchair.
His family wheels him through a Gaza that many find difficult to recognize. Much of the territory has been destroyed.
“There is no transportation. Streets are damaged,” Attiya said. “Life is difficult and expensive.”
He said he now has hallucinations because of the high levels of toxins in his blood.
“The occupation does not care about the suffering or the sick,” he said, referring to Israel and its soldiers.
A health system gutted by war
Six of the seven dialysis centers in Gaza have been destroyed during the war, the World Health Organization said earlier this year, citing the territory’s Health Ministry. The territory had 182 dialysis machines before the war and now has 102. Twenty-seven of them are in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people rushed home during the two-month ceasefire.
“These equipment shortages are exacerbated by zero stock levels of kidney medications,” the WHO said.
Israel has raided hospitals on several occasions during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes. Hospital staff deny the allegations and say the raids have gutted the territory’s health care system as it struggles to cope with mass casualties from the war.
The Health Ministry says over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s offensive, without saying how many were civilians or combatants. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.
Officials say hundreds of patients have died
At Shifa Hospital, the head of the nephrology and dialysis department, Dr. Ghazi Al-Yazigi, said at least 417 patients with kidney failure have died in Gaza during the war because of lack of proper treatment.
That’s from among the 1,100 patients when the war began.
Like Attiya, hundreds of dialysis patients across Gaza are now forced to settle for fewer and shorter sessions each week.
“This leads to complications such as increased levels of toxins and fluid accumulation … which could lead to death,” Al-Yazigi said.
Mohamed Kamel of Gaza City is a new dialysis patient at the hospital after being diagnosed with kidney failure during the war and beginning treatment this year.
These days, “I feel no improvement after each session,” he said during one of his weekly visits.
The father of six children said he no longer has access to filtered water to drink, and even basic running water is scarce. Israel last month cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory.
Kamel said he has missed many dialysis sessions. Last year, while sheltering in central Gaza, he missed one because of an Israeli bombing in the area. His condition deteriorated, and the next day he was taken by ambulance to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
“The displacement has had consequences,” Kamel said. “I am tired.”
Trump’s return boosts Israel’s pro-settlement right: experts
- “Since Trump’s election in November, we’ve started to hear more and more rhetoric about annexation in the West Bank, and seen more and more actions on the ground,” said Mairav Zonszein, an analyst from the International Crisis Group
- Trump has made clear statements on Gaza, demanding the release of Israeli hostages and making plans for the territory, but he has remained silent on Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank, which have escalated since the war in Gaza began
JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump’s return to power has emboldened Israeli leaders’ push to increase military presence in Gaza and reinvigorated right-wing ambitions to annex the occupied West Bank, experts say.
After a phone call Tuesday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said on social media: “We are on the same side of every issue.”
In Gaza, where the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel has raged for more than 18 months, Trump’s comeback meant “big changes” for Israel, said Asher Fredman, director of Israeli think-tank Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy.
“The arms embargo imposed by (former President Joe) Biden’s administration has essentially been lifted,” Fredman said.
“That, together with the fact the northern front (Lebanon and Syria) now is quiet and we have a new defense minister and a new (army) chief of staff, is allowing Israel to move forward in achieving its military goals in Gaza.”
Fredman said Trump has a good grasp of the situation in Gaza and understands Israel’s fight against Hamas.
“If Israel decides to stop the war and have a ceasefire with Hamas, he’ll support it... but he also listened closely to released hostages who told him how terrible Hamas treated them, and his instinct is to get rid of Hamas,” Fredman said.
Trump has made clear statements on Gaza, demanding the release of Israeli hostages and making plans for the territory, but he has remained silent on Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank, which have escalated since the war in Gaza began.
Just days after taking office, Trump proposed removing Gaza’s 2.4 million Palestinian residents to Jordan or Egypt, drawing international outrage.
Although he has since appeared to backtrack, the remarks emboldened Netanyahu and Israeli far-right ministers who continue to advocate implementing the plan.
Analysts say Trump’s silence on the West Bank has encouraged hard-line ministers who openly dream of annexing the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and Palestinians see as part of their future state.
In March, Israel’s cabinet approved the construction of a road project near the Maale Adumim settlement that would separate traffic for Israelis and Palestinians, a move Israeli NGO Peace Now likened to “apartheid.”
Shortly afterward, in a joint statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described Palestinian construction in the West Bank as a “strategic threat to the settlements.”
Smotrich, calling the area by its biblical name, hailed a record year for “demolishing illegal Arab construction in Judea and Samaria” and said the government was working to expand Israeli settlements — which are illegal under international law.
“Since Trump’s election in November, we’ve started to hear more and more rhetoric about annexation in the West Bank, and seen more and more actions on the ground,” said Mairav Zonszein, an analyst from the International Crisis Group.
It is a “combination of Trump’s specific approach and the people that he’s chosen to be around him that have led Smotrich, Katz and others in the Israeli right to be confident that they can move forward with annexation,” she told AFP, mentioning for example the new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who has openly backed Israeli settlements.
Sanam Vakil of Chatham House said that while Trump “has said he wants to end conflicts, there’s not one plan underway. I think there’s maybe multiple conflicting agendas.”
“There’s no criticism, there’s no condemnation of Israel’s activities, and I think that gives it free rein and confidence to continue its expansionist agenda” in the West Bank, Vakil said.
On Gaza, Vakil said Trump was “giving Netanyahu and his hard-liners a very long runway to get the job done.”
Israel says it now controls 30 percent of Gaza’s territory, while AFP’s calculations based on maps provided by the military, suggests it controls more than 50 percent.
While Trump and his administration have openly supported many of Israel’s policies, particularly regarding the Palestinians, sharp differences are emerging on another key issue, Iran.
Vakil said that by being flexible on the Palestinian issue, Trump was likely “trying to buy himself some room to manage the Iran file.”
The Trump administration has been engaged in indirect talks with Israel’s arch-foe Iran on its nuclear program, a clear departure from Netanyahu’s long-standing policy, calling to address the threat through military means.
“The president is making it clear that the military strategy isn’t going to be the first way to address the Iran crisis,” Vakil said, adding this has Israelis deeply worried.
On Saturday, Netanyahu appeared to push back against Trump’s diplomatic initiative, saying in a statement that he remained “committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.”
Yemen’s Houthi rebels fire a missile targeting northern Israel, a rare target for the group
- The new campaign started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid from entering the Gaza Strip
- The new US operation against the Houthis under President Donald Trump is more extensive than attacks on the group were under President Joe Biden, an AP review found
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a missile early Wednesday toward northern Israel, a rare target for the group as a monthlong intense US airstrike campaign continues to target them.
Sirens sounded in Haifa, Krayot and other areas west of the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli military said.
“An interceptor was launched toward the missile, and the missile was most likely successfully intercepted,” the Israeli military said.
Those in the area could here booms in the predawn darkness.
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take them hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults.
American airstrikes, meanwhile, continued targeting the Houthis on Wednesday morning, part of a campaign that began on March 15. The Houthis reported strikes on Hodeida, Marib and Saada governorates. In Marib, the Houthis described a strike hitting telecommunication equipment, which has previously been a target of the Americans.
The US military’s Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US is targeting the Houthis because of the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on Israel. The Houthis are the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.
The new US operation against the Houthis under President Donald Trump is more extensive than attacks on the group were under President Joe Biden, an AP review found. The new campaign started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid from entering the Gaza Strip.
From November 2023 until this January, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. The Houthis also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
Assessing the toll of the month-old US airstrike campaign has been difficult because the military hasn’t released information about the attacks, including what was targeted and how many people were killed. The Houthis, meanwhile, strictly control access to attacked areas and don’t publish complete information on the strikes, many of which likely have targeted military and security sites.
Last week, a strike on the Ras Isa fuel port killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others in the deadliest-known attack of the American campaign.
Sultan of Oman, Russian president mark 40th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties
- Putin announced plans to stage summit with Arab League group of states later this year
- Putin and Sultan Haitham welcomed establishment of Joint Economic Committee and the mutual exemption of entry visas
LONDON: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq became the first Omani head of state to visit Russia this week, discussing various regional and international topics with President Vladimir Putin.
During a meeting with Sultan Haitham at the Grand Hall of the Kremlin Palace on Tuesday, Putin announced plans to stage a summit with the Arab League group of states later this year.
"We plan to hold a summit between Russia and Arab countries this year," Putin told Sultan Haitham, who concluded late on Tuesday on a two-day visit to Russia.
"Many of our friends in the Arab world support this idea," he added, inviting Sultan Haitham to the summit without specifying the date and location.
Russia and Oman are marking the 40th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties.
Putin noted that Sultan Haitham was among the signatories of the agreement establishing diplomatic relations between Moscow and Muscat in 1985, according to the Oman News Agency.
The two leaders emphasized the importance of enhancing joint investment opportunities and improving communication between their countries, the ONA added.
Putin and Sultan Haitham welcomed the signing of several memoranda of understanding, the establishment of a Joint Economic Committee, and the mutual exemption of entry visas for citizens of both countries.
During their meeting, they stressed the need to create an independent Palestinian state. They affirmed their support for international efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and all other occupied Palestinian territories.
For Iraqi Christians, pope’s visit was a rare moment of hope
- His 2021 visit to Iraq, the first ever by a pope, came after years of conflict and displacement
BAGHDAD: The death of Pope Francis has sent shockwaves through Iraq’s Christian community, where his presence once brought hope after one of the darkest chapters in the country’s recent history.
His 2021 visit to Iraq, the first ever by a pope, came after years of conflict and displacement. Just a few years before that, many Iraqi Christians had fled their homes as Daesh militants swept across the country.
Christian communities in Iraq, once numbering over a million, had already been reduced to a fraction of their former number by decades of conflict and mass emigration.
In Mosul, the site of some of the fiercest battles between Iraqi security forces and Daesh, Chaldean Archbishop Najeeb Moussa Michaeel recalled the pope’s visit to the battle-scarred city at a time when many visitors were still afraid to come as a moment of joy, “like a wedding for the people of Mosul.”
“He broke this barrier and stood firm in the devastated city of Mosul, proclaiming a message of love, brotherhood, and peaceful coexistence,” Michaeel said.
As Francis delivered a speech in the city’s Al-Midan area, which had been almost completely reduced to rubble, the archbishop said, he saw tears falling from the pope’s eyes.
Sa’dullah Rassam, who was among the Christians who fled from Mosul in 2014 in the face of the Daesh offensive, was also crying as he watched the pope leave the church in Midan that day.
Rassam had spent years displaced in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, but was among the first Christians to return to Mosul, where he lives in a small house next to the church that Francis had visited.
As the pope’s convoy was leaving the church, Rassam stood outside watching.
“It was the best day of my life,” Rassam said.
