WASHINGTON: The United States waived sanctions to allow the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar, a step needed to carry out a previously announced US-Iran prisoner swap, according to a US document seen by Reuters on Monday.
The broad outlines of the US-Iran deal under which five US citizens detained by Iran would be allowed to leave in exchange for the transfer of the funds and the release of five Iranians held in the United States were made public on Aug. 10.
According to the State Department document seen by Reuters, Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that waiving the sanctions was in the national security interests of the United States.
The document sent to US congressional committees marks the first time the US government has formally acknowledged it is releasing five Iranians detained in the United States as part of the agreement to secure the freedom of the five US citizens.
“To facilitate their release, the United State has committed to release five Iranian nationals currently detained in the United States and to permit the transfer of approximately $6 billion in Iranian funds held in restricted accounts in the (Republic of Korea) to restricted accounts in Qatar, where the funds will be available only for humanitarian trade,” it said.
The document said the transfer of funds would only provide “limited benefit to Iran” since the funds can only be used for humanitarian trade.
“Allowing these funds to be transferred from restricted Iranian accounts held in the (Republic of Korea) to accounts in Qatar for humanitarian trade is necessary to facilitate the release of these US citizens,” the document said.
White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement late on Monday that Blinken, on Sept. 8, had undertaken “a procedural step in an ongoing process to ensure Iranian funds can move from one restricted account to another and remain restricted to humanitarian trade.”
She said the administration had kept Congress informed from the start of the process.
“As we have said from the outset, what is being pursued here is an arrangement wherein we secure the release of 5 wrongfully held Americans. This remains a sensitive and ongoing process,” she said. “While this is a step in the process, no individuals have been or will be released into US custody this week.”
The transfer of the $6 billion and the prisoner exchange could take place as early as next week, according to eight Iranian and other sources familiar with the negotiations.
The waiver applies to certain financial institutions that fall under the primary jurisdiction of Germany, Ireland, Qatar, South Korea and Switzerland to engage in transactions with the National Iranian Oil Company, the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian financial institutions under US sanctions, it added.
US allows $6 billion transfer as part of Iran prisoner swap
https://arab.news/j47xb
US allows $6 billion transfer as part of Iran prisoner swap
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that waiving the sanctions was in national security interests of the US
- Document marks first time the US government has formally acknowledged it is releasing five Iranians
At UN Nakba commemoration, Palestinian president urges action on Gaza
The United Nations has since 2023 commemorated the “Nakba” — “catastrophe” in Arabic — which refers to the flight and expulsion of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
This year the anniversary is particularly painful, as Palestinians say history is being repeated in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Tens of thousands have been killed in Gaza and an aid blockade threatens famine, while Israeli leaders continue to express a desire to empty the territory of Palestinians as part of the war sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
“History is indelible and justice is not time bound,” Abbas said in a speech read out here by the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour.
“Today we stand before you, not only to commemorate the somber anniversary, but to renew the pledge that the ‘Nakba’ was not and will not be the permanent and inevitable faith of our people.”
Abbas said the war Israel has been waging for 19 month is a continuation of the “Nakba,” with the world standing by as Israel engages in “genocide” and starvation.
He said Israel’s goal was to remove the Palestinians from Gaza and steal land that should be part of a sovereign Palestinian state.
“The time has come for real and effective international action to stop this historic injustice and ongoing tragedy which has become a disgrace to humanity,” Abbas said.
The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold a conference in June to promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It will be co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia.
“Peace will require tangible, irreversible and permanent progress toward the two-state solution, an end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Gaza as integral part,” said Khaled Khiari, assistant secretary-general for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.
Satellite images show Israel’s aid distribution hubs under construction in Gaza
- BBC Verify says satellite images show work underway on sites believed to be part of Israeli’s control of aid supplies
- Israel has cut all aid into the territory since March, leading to increasing fears over famine
LONDON: Israel has started building distribution hubs in southern and central Gaza under plans to control aid supplies in the territory, the BBC reported on Thursday.
Satellite images showed four sites being prepared in Gaza, including three near Rafah in the south.
Israel cut off all aid supplies into Gaza in March after ending a ceasefire and resuming widespread bombing of the devastated territory.
Israel said that it will only allow aid into Gaza once it has prepared its new distribution system and taken over operations from the UN and aid groups.
Aid agencies warned last week that the Israeli plans will increase suffering and death in Gaza. The plan is also staunchly opposed by Arab and European governments.
The report by BBC Verify said that analyzes of the satellite images showed land had been cleared, with new roads and staging areas prepared in recent weeks.
The sites are similar in size and design to existing distribution hubs in Gaza.
One of the sites in the south is near a new Israeli military base, and images from early April showed a large staging area and new road surrounded by defensive berms 650 meters from the border with Egypt.
An image from May 8 showed earth-moving machinery working on an eight-hectare area of land.
Images from May 11 and May 12 showed the three other sites expanding, with one located half a kilometer from UN warehouses.
An imagery intelligence analyst told the BBC that the sites were likely to be secure distribution centers and that some were in “close proximity to IDF forward operating bases, which ties in with the IDF wishing to have some control over the sites.”
The newly created US-backed NGO, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said on Wednesday that it would begin work distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza this month but has urged Israel to resume aid flow immediately through the existing distribution systems.
The Israeli plans to focus the distribution hubs in the south has led to accusations that Israel aims to force the Palestinian population into that area.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation has become even more desperate, with food security experts warning this week that Gaza will soon descend into famine if the blockade is not lifted.
Major Palestinian hospital in Gaza out of service due to Israeli attacks
- Gaza European Hospital is the only remaining facility providing medical follow-up for cancer patients
- Intensive care units for premature infants lack incubators, respirators and oxygen supplies, and are at risk of shutdown
LONDON: A major Palestinian hospital in the southern Gaza announced it was out of service on Thursday after Israeli attacks damaged its facilities.
The Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis has sustained extensive damage due to Israeli bombings, impacting the building’s sewage network and internal medical departments, and destroying the roads that lead to it.
The hospital has 28 intensive care beds, 12 incubators, 260 hospital beds, 25 emergency beds and 60 oncology beds; however, all are out of service, Wafa news agency reported.
The Gaza European Hospital is the only remaining facility providing medical follow-up for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, after Israeli forces destroyed the Turkish Friendship Hospital in March.
Medical sources told Wafa that the hospital can no longer provide specialized services such as neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, a cardiac catheterization center, cardiovascular surgery and ophthalmology.
Intensive care units for premature infants in the hospital lack incubators, respirators and oxygen supplies, and are at risk of complete shutdown due to a severe diesel shortage to operate power generators. The hospital warned that premature infants in incubators are at risk of malnutrition, medical complications and even death, Wafa reported.
The hospital urged humanitarian and health organizations to urgently provide essential medical supplies, fuel, power generators and nutritional support.
Since March, Israel has prohibited the entry of humanitarian aid and relief into the Gaza Strip as it resumed military actions in the area. Reports indicate that 57 children have died from malnutrition-related causes since then.
Additionally, UN-backed food security experts have warned that hunger and malnutrition have sharply intensified since the onset of the Israeli aid relief blockade in March.
HRW: Israel’s Gaza blockade has become ‘tool of extermination’
- “Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination,” HRW interim executive director Federico Borello said
- Israel said the pressure aimed to force Hamas to free hostages in Gaza
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel’s total blockade of the Gaza Strip, in place since March 2, has become “a tool of extermination.”
“Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination,” HRW interim executive director Federico Borello said in a statement.
Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza on March 2, before resuming its military operations on March 18 after talks to prolong a six-week ceasefire collapsed.
Israel said the pressure aimed to force Hamas to free hostages in Gaza, most of them held since the Palestinian Islamist movement’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
Israel denies that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza.
In its statement, HRW said that “the Israeli government’s plan to demolish what remains of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and concentrate the Palestinian population into a tiny area would amount to an abhorrent escalation of its ongoing crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide.”
For weeks, humanitarian organizations and the United Nations have warned that supplies of everything from food and clean water to fuel and medicine are reaching new lows.
Borello also criticized “plans to squeeze Gaza’s 2 million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable.”
The UN estimates that 70 percent of Gaza is now either an Israeli-declared no-go zone or under evacuation order.
UNICEF says artillery fire leaves Sudan hospital patients without water
- “Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El-Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire,” the UN agency said
- The conflict has effectively split the country in two
KHARTOUM: Around 1,000 critically ill patients in Sudan’s Darfur region are nearly without drinking water after artillery fire destroyed a water tanker at a hospital, UNICEF said on Wednesday.
The tanker was stationed at the Saudi hospital, one of the few still operational in El-Fasher, a city in North Darfur with a population of around two million.
The city is the only state capital among Darfur’s five states to remain outside the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but has been under siege by the paramilitary group since May 2024.
“Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El-Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire, disrupting access to safe water for an estimated 1,000 severely ill patients,” the UN agency said.
“UNICEF continues to call on all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and end all attacks on or near critical civilian infrastructure,” it added.
The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has pitted the armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the RSF headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has effectively split the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east, and center, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
On Wednesday, the army accused the RSF in a statement of targeting populated areas of the city.
In April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimated that 70 to 80 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas in Sudan were out of service, citing El-Fasher as a prime example.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million, including 5.6 million in Darfur alone.
According to the UN, the war has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminately bombing residential areas and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.
