DUBAI: Iranian workers have staged a series of protests as employers failed to pay wages due to the country’s worsening economy, local Radio Farda reported.
Municipal workers, coal miners, machine manufacturers, and nurses are among those to take part in protest gatherings during the past month.
The sanctions imposed by the US since 2018 and lately the COVID-19 pandemic, have worsened Iran’s already weakened economy, which has lost most of its pre-sanction oil income.
A group of nurses and medical staff have protested since the beginning of May against what they referred to as “discrimination in payments and tariffs in Iran’s health system.”
The nurses said they did not get paid for their work. Dozens of nurses and other medical staff have died while treating a large number of coronavirus patients.
Iran is one of the most affected countries in the Middle East with a total of 133,521 infected cases and 7,359 deaths.
Unpaid workers protest in Iran amid economic downturn
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Unpaid workers protest in Iran amid economic downturn
- A group of nurses and medical staff have protested since the beginning of May
- Dozens of nurses and other medical staff have died while treating a large number of coronavirus patients
Syria government forces take over Druze village in south
- Forces under the Syrian defense ministry deployed in Al-Mazraa village, where Bedouin fighters were also located
AL-MAZRA’AH: Syrian government forces were advancing toward the southern city of Sweida on Monday after taking control of a Druze village nearby, an AFP correspondent said, on the second day of sectarian clashes there.
Security forces were deployed in Sweida province following clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes that killed at least 89 people since Sunday.
The AFP correspondent saw forces under the Syrian defense ministry deployed in Al-Mazraa village, where Bedouin fighters were also located. The forces continued to advance in the direction of Sweida city.
A commander, Ezzeddine Al-Shamayer, told AFP the forces “are heading toward Sweida.”
The Israeli army said on Monday that it struck several tanks between the villages of Al-Mazraa and Sami that were heading to Sweida.
It added that it would not allow “the establishment of a military threat in southern Syria and will operate against it.”
Druze spiritual leaders called for calm and urged Damascus to intervene.
But Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, expressed his “rejection of the entry” of general security forces into the province, demanding “international protection.”
The fighting underscores the challenges facing interim Syrian leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar Assad in December.
Leaders of Holy Land churches condemn Israeli settler violence during a West Bank visit
- The patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem called for the settlers to be held accountable by the Israeli authorities
- The Christian community in Israel and the Palestinian territories has dwindled as a percentage of the overall population over the decades
TAYBEH, West Bank: Top church leaders in the Holy Land asserted Monday that Israeli authorities “facilitate and enable” the presence of Israeli settlers who have intensified attacks in recent weeks on the only entirely Christian Palestinian village remaining in the occupied West Bank.
Speaking in the village, Taybeh, on a rare solidarity visit, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III and Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa denounced an incident last week when settlers set fires near the community’s church. They said that Israeli authorities failed to respond to emergency calls for help from the Palestinian community.
In a separate statement, the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem demanded an investigation into the incident and called for the settlers to be held accountable by the Israeli authorities, “who facilitate and enable their presence around Taybeh.”
The church leaders also said that settlers had brought their cattle to graze on Palestinian lands in the area, set fire to several homes last month and put up a sign reading “there is no future for you here.”
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Pizzaballa, the top Catholic cleric in Jerusalem, said he believed the West Bank was becoming a lawless area.
“The only law (in the West Bank) is that of power, of those who have the force, not the law. We must work for the law to return to this part of the country, so anyone can appeal to the law to enforce their rights,” Pizzaballa told reporters.
He and Theophilos prayed together in the church of St. George, whose religious site dates back centuries, adjacent to the area where settlers ignited the fires.
The statement from the heads of churches comes as Palestinians report a surge of settler violence. On Sunday, hundreds descended on the village of Al-Mazraa a-Sharqiya, south of Taybeh, for the funeral of two young men killed during a settler attack on Friday.
The Christian community in Israel and the Palestinian territories has dwindled as a percentage of the overall population over the decades, with experts citing lower birthrates and emigration by people fleeing conflict or seeking better opportunities abroad. Christians now make up a tiny percentage of the population.
Jordanian Armed Forces’ Piercing Star exercise improves skills in eastern region
- Tactical drill involved acquisition, neutralization of targets, medical evacuation, using unmanned aerial systems
- Princess Basma Battalion is subordinate unit of the Eastern Military Region, includes units from Ar-Ramtha, Mafraq near Iraqi, Syrian borders
LONDON: Maj. Gen. Yousef Ahmed Al-Huneiti, the chairman of the Jordanian Joint Chiefs of Staff, oversaw a tactical exercise on Sunday as part of military drills by the Princess Basma 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion.
The Piercing Star drill was designed to improve personnel’s skills and capabilities in various field conditions, the Jordan News Agency reported.
It involved the acquisition and neutralization of targets, medical evacuation procedures, and the use of unmanned aerial systems for reconnaissance and the destruction of high-value targets, Petra added.
Princess Basma Battalion is a subordinate unit of the Eastern Military Region, comprising units from the cities of Ar-Ramtha and Mafraq near the Iraqi and Syrian borders. It employed small arms, crew-served weapons, sniper fire, mortar, anti-armor ordnance, and close air support from the Royal Jordanian Air Force during the drill.
Al-Huneiti received a briefing from the regional commander and the battalion commander regarding the military exercise, which was also attended by the assistant for operations and training in the armed forces.
Palestinian president says Hamas must hand over weapons in Gaza
- Mahmoud Abbas said Hamas must recognize that there should be ‘one system, one law, and one legitimate weapon’
- Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after armed clashes with PA forces, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 700 Palestinians
LONDON: The Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed that Hamas will not take part in governing the coastal enclave of the post-war Gaza Strip during a meeting with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in Amman.
Abbas said Hamas must surrender its weapons to the PA and participate in political actions aligned with the principles of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad is part of the PLO, and both groups have long rejected calls to join what Palestinians consider their sole political representative since the 1960s.
Abbas said that Hamas must recognize that in the Palestinian territories, there should be “one system, one law, and one legitimate weapon,” during his meeting on Sunday evening with Blair, who served as the special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East from 2007 to 2015.
Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after armed clashes with PA forces, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 700 Palestinians, according to an official tally. Since then, it has engaged in several conflicts with Israel, the most recent being the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, which resulted in the deaths and abduction of several hundred people and prompted an ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 58,000 Palestinians.
Abbas called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and the flow of humanitarian aid.
He stressed the need for a two-state solution and the importance of the French-Saudi-sponsored conference, scheduled for the end of July in New York, to gain support for establishing a Palestinian state.
Gaza truce talks limp on, Trump hopeful to have deal ‘straightened out’
- The US is backing a 60-day ceasefire with a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and talks to end the conflict
DOHA: Stuttering Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas entered a second week on Monday, with US President Donald Trump still hopeful of a breakthrough and as more than 20 people were killed on the ground.
The indirect negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, appeared deadlocked at the weekend after both sides blamed the other for blocking a deal for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of hostages.
In Gaza, the Palestinian territory’s civil defense agency said at least 22 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes on Monday in and around Gaza City, and Khan Younis in the south.
One strike on a tent in Khan Younis on Sunday killed the parents and three brothers of a young Gazan boy, who only survived as he was outside getting water, the boy’s uncle told AFP.
Belal Al-Adlouni called for revenge for “every drop of blood” saying it “will not be forgotten and will not die with the passage of time, nor with displacement or with death.”
AFP reporters in southern Israel meanwhile saw large plumes of smoke in northern Gaza, where the military said fighter jets had pounded Hamas targets over the weekend.
Trump, who met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington last week, is keen to secure a truce in the 21-month war, which was sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“Gaza, we are talking and hopefully we’re going to get that straightened out over the next week,” he told reporters late on Sunday, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made on July 4.
A Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Saturday that Hamas rejected Israeli proposals to keep troops in over 40 percent of Gaza and plans to move Palestinians into an enclave on the border with Egypt.
In response, a senior Israeli political official accused Hamas of inflexibility and trying to deliberately scupper the talks by “clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin headed to Brussels on Monday for talks between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbors.
But the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority denied media reports that any meeting between the two was on the agenda.
In Israel, Netanyahu has said he would be ready to enter talks for a more lasting ceasefire when a deal for a temporary truce is agreed and only when Hamas lays down its weapons.
But he is under pressure to quickly wrap up the war, with military casualties mounting and with public frustration both at the continued captivity of the hostages and a perceived lack of progress in the conflict.
Politically, his fragile governing coalition is holding, for now, but Netanyahu is seen as beholden to a minority of far-right ministers in prolonging an increasingly unpopular conflict.
He also faces a backlash over the feasibility and ethics of a plan to build a so-called “humanitarian city” from scratch in southern Gaza to house displaced Palestinians if and when a ceasefire takes hold.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has described the proposed facility as a “concentration camp” and Israel’s own security establishment is reported to be unhappy at the plan.
Israeli media said the costs were discussed at a security cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office on Sunday night, just hours before his latest court appearance in a long-running corruption trial on Monday.
Hamas’s attacks on Israel in 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
A total of 251 hostages were taken that day, of which 49 are still being held, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s military reprisals have killed 58,026 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
