Iraq: Shiite Blocs Say Sunni-Kurdish Coalitions Should Entrust Kadhimi With Choosing Independent Ministers
Arab World
Baghdad- Asharq Al-Awsat
Photo of an Iraqi parliament meeting (Reuters)
Iraq's Shiite blocs said that Sunni-Kurdish coalitions should entrust Prime Minister-designate Mustafa al-Kadhimi with choosing independent ministers. While there are no differences over the number of ministries to be allocated to each bloc, the problem is almost confined to the distribution of sovereign portfolios. The premier-designate has so far enjoyed the support of the different political components, except for some reservations not yet formulated by the Shiite parties. However, disputes emerged when he presented his lineup without consulting the political blocs. In this context, MP Dr. Naim Al-Aboudi, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Shiites were not against giving Kadhimi the freedom to choose his ministers, but they were awaiting a Sunni-Kurdish mandate in this regard. Shiite blocs continue their meetings under great pressure due to the deterioration of the economic crisis and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. While the discussions between Kadhimi, the Kurds, and the Sunnis are proceeding smoothly, the Shiite blocs saw in this understanding flexibility by the premier towards those blocs, and criticized what they considered as double standards in the process of appointing the ministers. “Kadhimi gave in to the demands of the Sunnis and the Kurds regarding the ministerial portfolios, but ignored the Shiite blocs, which aroused their anger,” Hakim al-Zamili, head of the Security and Defense Committee in the former Iraqi parliament, told Asharq Al-Awsat. “The person in charge of forming a government must choose a strong professional lineup to meet the economic, security, and health challenges… Therefore, he needs the support of the blocs and parties to succeed,” he said. In contrast, MP Yehya al-Muhammadi, member of the largest Sunni bloc, said that the Sunni position “is based on giving the Prime Minister-designate enough flexibility in choosing the cabinet.” “If this government does not pass, then based on the current circumstances, we will face a real catastrophe,” he warned.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2258751/iraq-shiite-blocs-say-sunni-kurdish-coalitions-should-entrust-kadhimi-choosing
LNA Vows to Respond to Turkish Drone Attack on Food Convoy
Arab World
Cairo - Khalid Mahmoud
A member of the Libyan National Army fires a weapon during clashes with militants in Khreibish district in Benghazi, Libya, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori
Libya’s National Army (LNA) has accused Turkey of killing at least five civilians and their companions of expatriate workers in the country’s west. A Turkish drone struck a food truck convoy late Monday near the district of Mizda, 184 kilometers south of Tripoli. A counter-attack will be certainly launched in retaliation to the attack, LNA Spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari pledged in a statement on Tuesday. Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) has claimed responsibility for the attack, however denying targeting civilians. It said the attack targeted “trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for the LNA’s operation against Tripoli.” For his part, Mismari stressed that the attack came against Libyans and Arabs, pointing out that after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to face LNA’s forces, he resorted to bombing food convoys, open areas far from fighting fronts and safe cities and towns. Meanwhile, spokesman for the GNA said on Tuesday that their air force bombed two trucks carrying logistical equipment and ammunition on their way to supply LNA forces south Tripoli. He also indicated that the forces launched five strikes on Monday evening, during which they targeted military vehicles and LNA elements at al-Watiya airbase, 125 km (80 miles) west of Tripoli. In turn, pro-Sarraj media announced on Tuesday that the LNA forces have bombed civilian homes in the city of Maslata with more than 65 Grad rockets, causing casualties and damage to residential neighborhoods in the city. Meanwhile, LNA forces continued shelling Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport, which they say is used by Turkish soldiers as a headquarters for the operations launched by pro-Sarraj militias.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2258691/lna-vows-respond-turkish-drone-attack-food-convoy
Women Who Dare Dissent Targeted for Abuse by Yemen's Insurgents
Features
Asharq Al-Awsat
In this March 4, 2020 photo, Samera al-Huri, poses for a portrait in her home near Cairo, Egypt. As they grow more politically active, women are increasingly targeted by the Houthi insurgents who rule northern Yemen.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Samera al-Huri´s fellow activists were disappearing, one by one. When she asked their families, each gave the same cryptic reply: "She´s traveling." A few of the women re-emerged. But they seemed broken and refused to say where they had been for months. Al-Huri soon found out. A dozen officers from the Houthi rebels who control northern Yemen snatched her from her home in the capital, Sanaa, at dawn. They took her to the basement of a converted school, its filthy cells filled with female detainees. Interrogators beat her bloody, gave her electrical shocks and, as psychological torture, scheduled her execution only to call it off last-minute. Women who dare dissent, or even enter the public sphere, have become targets in an escalating crackdown by the Houthis. Activists and former detainees described to The Associated Press a network of secret detention facilities where they are tortured and sometimes raped. Taiz Street, a main avenue in Sanaa, is dotted with several of them, hidden inside private villas and the school where al-Huri was held. "Many had it worse than me," said al-Huri, 33, who survived three months in detention until she confessed on camera to fabricated prostitution charges, a grave insult in Yemen. Long-held traditions and tribal protections once guarded women from detention and abuse, but those taboos are succumbing to the pressures of war. As men die in battle or languish in jail in a conflict now dragging into its sixth year, Yemeni women have increasingly taken political roles. In many cases, women are organizing protests, leading movements, working for international organizations, or advocating peace initiatives - all acts the Houthis increasingly view as a threat. "This is the darkest age for Yemeni women," said Rasha Jarhum, founder of the Peace Track Initiative, which lobbies for women´s inclusion in peace talks between the Houthis and Yemen´s internationally recognized government. "It used to be shameful for even traffic police to stop a woman." ___ "I´D FALLEN OFF THE EARTH" Systematic arrests and prisons rife with torture have been central to war efforts by the Iranian-backed Houthis, the AP reported. Estimates of women currently detained range from 200 to 350 in the governorate of Sanaa alone, according to multiple rights groups. The Yemeni Organization for Combating Human Trafficking says that´s likely an undercount. Other provinces are more difficult to pin down. Noura al-Jarwi, head of the Women for Peace in Yemen Coalition, estimates that over 100 women are detained in Dhamar province south of the capital, a major crossing point from government-controlled areas into Houthi-run territory. Al-Jarwi, who runs an informal support group in Cairo for women released from Houthi detention, has documented 33 cases of rape and eight instances of women debilitated by torture. The AP met with six former detainees who managed to flee to Cairo before the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights and closed borders. Their accounts are supported by a recent report from a UN panel of experts, which said sexual violations may amount to war crimes. One woman, a former history teacher who asked not to be identified to protect family in Yemen, was swept up in a crackdown on protests in December 2017. She was taken to a villa somewhere on Sanaa´s outskirts, though she didn´t know where. At night, all she could hear was barking dogs, not even the call to prayer. "I was so far away, like I´d fallen off the earth," she said. Around 40 women were captives in the villa, she said. Interrogators tortured her, one time tearing her toenails out. In more than one case, three masked officers told her to pray and said they would purify her from sin. They took turns raping her. Female guards held her down. The Houthis´ human rights minister denied the torture allegations and the existence of clandestine women´s prisons. "If this is found, we will tackle this problem," Radia Abdullah, one of two female Houthi ministers, said in an interview. She acknowledged many women had been arrested in a recent anti-prostitution sweep of cafes, apartments, and women´s gatherings. They were accused of "aiming to corrupt society and serving the enemy," she said, referring to the Saudi-led coalition. A parliamentary committee created last fall to probe reports of illegal detention discovered and released dozens of male detainees in its first weeks of work. It planned to pursue the issue of women as well. But a Feb. 16 internal memo obtained by the AP complains that the Interior Ministry pressured the committee to end its investigation. ___ A WIDENING CRACKDOWN The first major round-up of women came in late 2017, after the Houthis killed their one-time ally in the war, former ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh. The militias detained scores of women who thronged public squares, chanting for the return of Saleh´s body. The scope has expanded since, said al-Jarwi. "First they came for opposition leaders, then protesters, now it´s any woman who speaks against them." One woman told the AP she was dragged from her taxi at a protest spot, beaten and detained. A peace advocate for a London-based humanitarian group was locked in a Sanaa police station for weeks. A computer teacher, 48, recalled how 18 armed men broke into her home and beat everyone inside, stomping on her face and screaming sexual insults at her. She had no connection to politics but had posted a video on Facebook complaining that government salaries had not been paid for months. She and her children fled to Egypt soon after. Al-Huri said when she rejected a Houthi official´s request to snitch on other activists, she was abducted in July 2019 by a dozen masked officers with Kalashnikovs, "as though I was Osama bin Laden." She was imprisoned in Dar al-Hilal, an abandoned school on Taiz Street. A fellow detainee, Bardis Assayaghi, a prominent poet who circulated verses about Houthi repression, counted around 120 women held there, "schoolteachers, human rights activists, teenagers." She said officers banged her head against a table so hard that she needed eye surgery to see properly when released months later. The head of the Sanaa criminal investigation division, Sultan Zabin, conducted interrogations in the school, al-Huri and Assayaghi said. Some nights, they said, Zabin took the "young, pretty girls" out of the school to rape them. The UN panel of experts identified Zabin as running an undisclosed detention site where women have been raped and tortured. At least two villas on Taiz Street have been used to detain women, along with other sites around the capital, including apartments confiscated from exiled politicians, two hospitals, and five schools, al-Jarwi and the ex-detainees said. ___ "GET US OUT" When the history teacher was released in March 2018, her limp body was dumped under an overpass. Her family refused to see her because of the shame. Women are set free only after pledging to stop protesting or posting on social media, and after they videotape confessions to prostitution and espionage. "They told me: If you leave Sanaa, we will kill you, if you spread information, we will kill you, if you speak against us, we will kill you," said Assayaghi. In Cairo, the women help each other cope and move forward. Over home-cooked dinners, they gather with their children and recall their city before the war, when they performed poetry and smoked water pipes in bustling cafes, many of which the Houthis have shut down to keep men and women from mingling. Many still receive threats from the Houthis. None can see their families in Sanaa again. Al-Huri struggles with insomnia. She knows the Houthis will release her confession soon. But she´s convinced that telling her story is worth the risk. "There are girls still in prison," she said. "When I try to sleep, I hear their voices. I hear them pleading, `Samera, get us out.´"
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2258641/women-who-dare-dissent-targeted-abuse-yemens-insurgents
Queen Elizabeth Celebrates Princess Charlotte's Birthday With Video Call
Varieties
Asharq Al-Awsat
Britain's Princess Charlotte poses for a photo taken by her mother, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, at Kensington Palace, London, Britain in April, to mark her fourth birthday | Photo: The Duchess of Cambridge, Reuters
Princess Charlotte's fifth birthday will be celebrated with cake, games, and a Zoom party with the Queen, 94, next Saturday. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are organizing the video call so Charlotte can spend time with her family and friends, while still observing social-distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic. The family is spending lockdown in their Norfolk Home, Anmer Hall. According to The Sun, Charlotte's parents are keen to ensure she has all the fun of a birthday next week, despite the unprecedented circumstances COVID-19 has forced on the world. "The family has arranged a Zoom party for her, so she can speak to family and friends. Then, they have put together a full plan that will give her all the fun of a birthday including cake and games, despite the extraordinary circumstances we are faced with," a source told the paper. Her great-grandmother will be joining the family call on the big day. As far as Charlotte is concerned, the important part is that her whole family is by her side to say: "Happy Birthday." Prince Philip, who is currently isolating with the Queen at Windsor Castle, is also expected to join the video call, especially that he takes a close interest in the little princess. William and Kate are now staying with their family in the 20,000-acre "Anmer Hall" country house in Sandringham, the couple's wedding gift from the Queen. This huge royal property allows the family to spend some time enjoying hiking and promenading amid the social distancing and confinement measures taken to curb the spread of the pandemic.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2258611/queen-elizabeth-celebrates-princess-charlottes-birthday-video-call
Lebanon: Hunger Protests Besiege Diab’s Government
Arab World
Beirut - Nazir Rida
A demonstrator is seen near a bank on fire during unrest, as an economic crisis brings demonstrations back onto the streets in Tripoli, Lebanon April 28, 2020. REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim
Hunger protests that broke across Lebanon have put pressure on Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government. The past few days witnessed overnight demonstrations and the blocking of roads in Beirut and the North, as well as direct confrontation with the army. The new developments raised fears over the deteriorating security situation, in a country grappling to face the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus and the unprecedented economic crisis. Clashes resumed in Tripoli on Tuesday evening, following the funeral of young Fawaz As-Samman, who was killed during the confrontations with the army the previous night. The city witnessed street demonstrations, while a number of angry protesters set fire to some bank branches, prompting the army to launch tear gas to disperse them. With the growing tension that strengthened in downtown Beirut, in protest against the deteriorating living conditions, widespread unemployment and weak purchasing power, Prime Minister Hassan Diab described the developments and the attacks on private property as “malicious intentions to shake security.” “We are working to meet the demands of the people regarding fighting corruption,” he said. “What happened in some areas, including attacks on private property and targeting the army, are malicious intentions behind the scenes to destabilize security.” Sources who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat warned of the deteriorating security situation. “The security reports indicate fears of a worsening security situation, due to the exacerbation of hunger, destitution and need…This might increase violence in the absence of any political and economic solutions,” the sources said. Meanwhile, Former Justice Minister Major General Ashraf Rifi said: “We have started a different stage now. The hungry and the innocent are increasing in number, and they are now moving to demand solutions to their living reality.” He told Asharq Al-Awsat that there was no prospect for a solution except by securing a decent life, resolving economic crises, and curbing the Iranian influence in Lebanon. “As long as Lebanon remains within the Iranian axis, its situation will worsen, given that the crisis is the result of the country’s detachment of its Arab and historical ties,” Rifi said. “Joining the Iranian project will not help us, because Tehran is unable to feed its people.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2258596/lebanon-hunger-protests-besiege-diab%E2%80%99s-government
The Saudi-led coalition accused Houthi rebels of committing 151 ceasefire violations over the past 48 hours, meanwhile, the Iran-backed militia group continued to intensify its presence at four fronts in Yemen. On Tuesday, the Arab coalition said the Houthi violations include "hostilities and the use of light and heavy weapons.” The coalition confirmed it was applying utmost restraint and complying with rules of engagement, yet reserves the right of response to self-defense on the fronts. It also stressed its continued commitment to ceasing hostilities amid the pandemic and expressed its support for peace efforts by UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. In a related development, a press office of the Yemeni government forces, supported by the coalition, said on Tuesday, citing its sources, that there were clashes between the government troops and the Houthis in the country's western province of Hodeidah, which resulted in heavy casualties among the rebels and caused serious damage to their military equipment. Early in April, the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Houthi insurgents has declared a two-week ceasefire in the country in a bid to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. Last Friday, spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said that the coalition had extended the ceasefire for a month starting from April 23, 2020, based on its previous declaration of a two-week ceasefire and at the request of Griffiths to allow progress between the warring parties in negotiations on a permanent armistice. However, Yemeni military sources said Joint Forces operating on Yemen's west coast foiled a Houthi attempt to infiltrate in a number of positions south the governorate of Hodeidah, particularly in Hays. The sources accused the militia of continuing to escalate and violate the UN ceasefire. The media office of the Giants Brigades confirmed that its members foiled a Houthi attempt to advance towards positions northeast the city of Hays. Houthi militias continued on Tuesday to escalate at al-Jawf, Sarwah, Bayda', and Dhale fronts, despite a decision by the Yemeni Army to respect the ceasefire.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2258566/houthis-violate-ceasefire-151-times-two-days
A Tunisian father refused to receive his son who had a contact with an individual infected with the novel coronavirus. He prevented his son from entering their home and urged all other family members not to receive him. His family did not ask about him during the quarantine period which he was obliged to spend at one of the local hospitals. Today that he has recovered, no one knows how his relationship with his family will be, especially that they did not even provide emotional support for him during the isolation period. This case is one among others that were recorded in several Tunisian towns in fear of the fatal virus. Fear of death has perhaps pushed many people to reveal their real feelings toward one another, especially in light of quarantine and self-isolation after lock down and movement restrictions. Mohamed el-Goueili, Professor of Sociology at the Tunisian University, is one of other experts who stress that measures taken to fight the novel coronavirus has revealed a deep gap in family ties and resulted in a rise in domestic violence caused by the pressure of lock-down and being obliged to stay with family members for long hours. However, for others, this has helped many families to rediscover their relationships and boost their ties. For this group, lock-down was a chance for recreation. Radia al-Jarbi, head of the National Union of Tunisian Women rights group (a non-governmental organization) confirmed that reported cases of violence against women and children had increased seven folds in the past weeks compared to the same period last year, mainly due to financial issues that were affected by COVID-19, in addition that thousands of families have lost their source of income.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2258541/tunisian-families-rediscover-ties-during-covid-19
