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TEHRAN, Iran: Iran has confirmed it relocated a centrifuge facility to its underground Natanz nuclear site, state media reported, days after the UN atomic watchdog said it installed surveillance cameras to monitor the new workshop at Tehran’s request. The late Saturday report by the official IRNA news agency comes as diplomatic efforts to restore Iran’s tattered nuclear deal appear stalled. The news agency quoted the spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, as saying authorities had moved the operation to a safer place. Iran’s centrifuge facility in Karaj found itself targeted in what Iran described as a sabotage attack in June. Natanz itself has twice been targeted in sabotage attacks amid uncertainty over the nuclear deal, assaults that Iran has blamed on Israel. “Unfortunately because of a terrorist operation that took place against Karaj, we were obliged to intensify security measures under which we moved an important part of the machines and transferred the rest to Natanz and Isfahan,” said Kamalvandi. Isfahan is the location of another Iranian nuclear facility. On Thursday, The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it installed cameras and removed seals from machines at the new workshop in Natanz two days earlier. Those machines will be used to make centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows, crucial parts for the devices that spin at very high speeds to enrich uranium gas. Talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled. There is concern that Iran could be closer to being able to construct an atomic weapon if it chose to pursue one. The nuclear deal collapsed four years ago when former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and imposed crushing sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Iran has vastly expanded its nuclear work Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday insisted negotiations over the deal “are going ahead properly,” even after repeated comments by American officials that an agreement to restore the accord may not happen. The nuclear deal saw Iran put advanced centrifuges into storage under the watch of the IAEA, while keeping its enrichment at 3.67 percent purity and its stockpile at only 300 kilograms of uranium. As of Feb. 19, the IAEA says Iran’s stockpile of all enriched uranium was nearly 3,200 kilograms. Some has been enriched up to 60 percent purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. Meanwhile, Iran has stopped the IAEA from accessing its surveillance camera footage. Kamalvandi reiterated Iran’s stance that Tehran will not provide data from the cameras to the UN nuclear agency if a deal is not concluded. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003.
RIYADH: Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday stressed the need to unify, coordinate, and step up Arab efforts to halt escalations in Jerusalem, again urging Israel to respect the historical and legal status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque and safeguard the rights of Muslim worshippers.
Speaking during a meeting of the Arab League ministerial committee tasked with galvanizing international action to counter illegal Israeli measures in Jerusalem, the monarch expressed appreciation for Arab leaders’ stances in calling for calm in the Palestinian territories, and in supporting the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, as well as the Hashemite Custodianship.
He urged further efforts to prevent the recurrence of any form of escalation, state news agency Petra reported.
An upsurge of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in recent weeks has raised fears of a slide back to wider conflict.
Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed Al-Khuraiji participated in the work of the fourth emergency meeting in the capital, Amman, on behalf of Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi Press Agency said.
The committee is chaired by Jordan and includes Saudi Arabia, Tunisia — the president of the Arab League’s current cycle — Algeria, Palestine, Qatar, Egypt, and Morocco.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit also took part in the meeting, along with the UAE, as the Arab country which is currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
The meeting discussed ways to confront the dangerous Israeli escalation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to solidify a joint action to stop the Israeli attacks and violations of the holy sites, halt the violence, and restore comprehensive calm.
The committee also called on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to take immediate and effective action to stop the illegal and provocative Israeli practices in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to protect international law and the UN Charter, prevent an exacerbation of the wave of violence, and maintain security and peace.
The committee issued a final statement in which it stressed its condemnation of the Israeli attacks and violations against worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque. The committee also warned that the attacks and violations were a flagrant provocation to Muslims everywhere.
“These violations are a blatant affront and provocation of Muslim feelings everywhere and they risk a cycle of violence that threatens security and stability in the region and the world,” the Arab League said in a statement.
ISTANBUL: Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala and seven other accused delivered their final defense statements on Friday in a long-running case over nationwide protests held in 2013 that has strained Ankara’s ties with its Western allies. Kavala, 64, has been in jail for 4-1/2 years without a conviction and denies the charges he and 15 others face over the Gezi protests, which began as small demonstrations in an Istanbul park and snowballed into nationwide anti-government unrest, in which eight protesters were killed. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and activists say the case is politically motivated and symbolic of a crackdown on dissent under President Tayyip Erdogan’s rule, claims the government denies. The court had previously been expected to reach a verdict on Friday, but it was unclear whether that would happen or the hearing would be adjourned until Monday, given that statements remain to be given by defense lawyers. Prosecutor Edip Sahiner has said Kavala and architect Mucella Yapici should be convicted of attempting to overthrow the government through violence, which would carry a sentence of up to life in prison without parole. Speaking to the court via video link from prison, Kavala said: “It is evident that those who issued the indictment did not feel constrained by laws, considering that they will receive political support as they intended to prolong my detention.” The courtroom was packed with some 200 people, including opposition members, rights groups and Western diplomats. COUNCIL OF EUROPE Prosecutor Sahiner has said six others should be sentenced for aiding Kavala and Yapici, while asking that the case against the eight other defendants be separated. Kavala and another defendant, whose case the prosecutor also said should be separated, are also accused of involvement in a coup attempt in 2016, which the ECHR said also lacks evidence. The ECHR called for Kavala’s release in late 2019 and ruled his detention served to silence a philanthropist whose civil society projects aimed to foster social change. But Turkish courts have not freed Kavala, and Ankara faces being suspended from the Council of Europe rights watchdog, after “infringement proceedings” were launched due to his continued detention. Embassies of Turkey’s Western allies, including the United States and Germany, echoed the call for Kavala’s release last year, prompting threats by Erdogan to expel their ambassadors. Erdogan equates the Gezi protesters with Kurdish militants and those accused of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup and has targeted Kavala personally, saying Western allies would not release “bandits, murderers and terrorists” in their countries. Kavala was acquitted in 2020 of charges related to the Gezi protests. Hours later another court ordered his arrest on a charge of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order related to the coup attempt. That court later ruled to release him on that charge but ordered his detention on an espionage charge in the same case, a move critics said was aimed at circumventing the ECHR ruling. Kavala’s acquittal along with eight others in the Gezi trial was overturned last year and the case was combined with the other charges against him.
JERUSALEM: Israeli police in full riot gear stormed a sensitive Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims on Friday after Palestinian youths hurled stones at a gate where they were stationed.
The renewed violence at the site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims, came despite Israel temporarily halting Jewish visits, which are seen by the Palestinians as a provocation. Medics said more than two dozen Palestinians were wounded before the clashes subsided hours later.
Palestinians and Israeli police have regularly clashed at the site over the last week at a time of heightened tensions following a string of deadly attacks inside Israel and arrest raids in the occupied West Bank. Three rockets have been fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
The string of events has raised fears of a repeat of last year, when protests and violence in Jerusalem eventually boiled over, helping to ignite an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, and communal violence in Israel’s mixed cities.
Palestinian youths hurled stones toward police at a gate leading into the compound, according to two Palestinian witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. The police, in full riot gear, then entered the compound, firing rubber bullets and stun grenades.
Israeli police said the Palestinians, some carrying Hamas flags, had begun stockpiling stones and erecting crude fortifications before dawn. The police said that after the rock-throwing began, they waited until after early morning prayers had finished before entering the compound.
Some older Palestinians urged the youths to stop throwing rocks but were ignored, as dozens of young masked men hurled stones and fireworks at the police. A tree caught fire near the gate where the clashes began. Police said it was ignited by fireworks thrown by the Palestinians.
The violence subsided later in the morning after another group of dozens of Palestinians said they wanted to clean the area ahead of the main weekly prayers midday, which are regularly attended by tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers. The police withdrew to the gate and the stone-throwing stopped.
The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said at least 31 Palestinians were wounded, including 14 who were taken to hospitals. A policewoman was hit in the face by a rock and taken for medical treatment, the police said.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City is the third holiest site in Islam. The sprawling esplanade on which it is built is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of two Jewish temples in antiquity. It lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and clashes there have often ignited violence elsewhere.
Palestinians and neighboring Jordan, the custodian of the site, accuse Israel of violating longstanding arrangements by allowing increasingly large numbers of Jews to visit the site under police escort.
A longstanding prohibition on Jews praying at the site has eroded in recent years, fueling fears among Palestinians that Israel plans to take over the site or partition it.
Israel says it remains committed to the status quo and blames the violence on incitement by Hamas. It says its security forces are acting to remove rock-throwers in order to ensure freedom of worship for Jews and Muslims.
Visits by Jewish groups were halted beginning Friday for the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as they have been in the past.
This year, Ramadan coincided with the week-long Jewish Passover and major Christian holidays, with tens of thousands of people from all three faiths flocking to the Old City after the lifting of most coronavirus restrictions.
The Old City is in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians seek an independent state in all three territories and view east Jerusalem as their capital.
For journalist Amer Matar, a decade-long search for his younger brother has defined him and changed the course of his life, now dedicated to researching and documenting crimes committed by Daesh in Syria.
His brother, Mohammed Nour Matar, vanished in Syria’s northern city of Raqqa in 2013 while reporting on an explosion that hit the headquarters of an insurgent group. His burnt camera was found at the scene of the blast, and his family soon after got word he was in an IS prison. But there has been no other sign of him since.
Mohammed Nour is among thousands of people believed to have been seized by Daesh, the extremist group that in 2014 overran large parts of Syria and Iraq, where it set up a so-called caliphate and brutalized the population for years.
Three years after its territorial defeat, thousands are still missing and accountability for their captors remains elusive. Families of the missing feel abandoned by a world that has largely moved on, while they struggle alone to uncover the fate of their loved ones.
“These violations may constitute crimes against humanity, war crimes, and even genocide in some cases,” the Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center said in a report published on Thursday.
“These families have the right to know the truth about the fate of their loved ones.”
The rights group says that between 2013 and 2017, when Daesh ruled much of northern and eastern Syria, the terrorist group detained thousands who remain missing and whose families continue to live in a state of grief and uncertainty.
In its report titled “Unearthing Hope: The Search for the Missing Victims of Daesh,” SJAC said that around 6,000 bodies have been exhumed from dozens of mass graves dug by Daesh in northeast Syria, and retrieved from buildings destroyed by airstrikes of the US-led coalition during the military campaign that eventually brought down Daesh.
This may amount to approximately half of the total number of missing people in the northeast, according to the group, although estimates of the missing vary.
Mohammed Nour Matar had become a citizen journalist during Syria’s civil war, and he was often out with his camera documenting the conflict.
He went missing on Aug. 13, 2013 while covering an explosion in Raqqa that went off outside the offices of the Ahfad Al-Rasoul faction, one of several insurgent groups that were rivals of Daesh.
He was 21 at the time and was working on a documentary about Raqqa and its residents’ opposition to Daesh. Four months later, Raqqa became Syria’s first provincial capital to fall under the full control of Daesh.
When the extremists declared a so-called caliphate in June 2014, the city became their de-facto capital.
The group ruled Matar’s hometown of Raqqa with fear, setting up scores of detention centers in different parts of the city, brutalizing opponents and even placing heads of beheaded victims in the city’s Naim Square — Arabic for “Paradise.”
In the report, SJAC documented for the first time the vast web of detention facilities that were central to Daesh disappearances. Different wings of the Daesh security apparatus systematically used this network of 152 police stations, training camps, and secret security prisons to detain kidnapped civilians and members of rival armed groups, in some cases before issuing death sentences or summarily executing them.
It listed 33 detention facilities in the city of Raqqa alone.
SJAC says alleged perpetrators who may hold evidence necessary to identify remains are languishing in prisons of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces “with no fair judicial procedures in sight.”
It says other former Daesh members live in their home countries where they returned after the group was defeated.
“The permanent defeat of Daesh cannot be secured without justice for the victims of the organization’s crimes, including those who remain missing,” it said.
Amer Matar, who now lives in Berlin with his parents and siblings, said they were told at one point that Mohammed Nour was being held in a jail in the city. Some former prisoners who had seen him there provided personal details that only the family knew.
But as of 2014, the family lost any proof of life.
Amer Matar has traveled to Syria several times over the past years to try get information about his brother, even going to mass graves as bodies were being removed.
The International Commission on Missing Persons has started collecting DNA samples from families of the missing but they are moving slowly, and Matar said his family has not given samples yet.
Also a journalist, Matar began a few years ago collecting thousands of IS documents and 3D photographs of IS detention centers. He now works with activists from Syria, Iraq, Germany, France, Japan and the US to set up a virtual museum about the extremists.
He said the aim is to have a platform where the families of the missing can find information about their loved ones, where they can walk virtually inside the jails, see names of detainees, read documents and witness sites of mass graves and information about those buried there, whether in Syria or in Iraq.
Asked if his family has hope, Matar said that “the most difficult question is about hope. Sometimes I lose hope because logic says there is no hope.”
Asked if in his research he found evidence about Mohammed Nour, Matar said, “My mother asks me this question every month or every few weeks. My answer regrettably is, ‘We found nothing.”’
NEW YORK: The UN on Thursday welcomed the announcement of the planned first commercial flight from Yemen’s Sanaa airport in six years, and urged parties to continue facilitating such flights in line with the truce agreed at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the Amman-bound flight, scheduled to take off from Sanaa on Sunday, is an “important element” of the two-month truce agreement recently enacted in Yemen. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had hailed the truce as “the start of a better future for the people of Yemen.” Dujarric thanked Jordan “for its support in bringing about this achievement, and the government of Yemen for its constructive role making this happen. “We count on the continued facilitation of all parties involved to ensure a successful flight on Sunday, and to continue facilitating flights as per the terms of the truce agreement.” Although the ceasefire is broadly holding, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said it is still fragile and temporary. He expressed concern at the UN Security Council last week over military operations around Marib, and said such reports must be addressed urgently through the truce mechanisms. One week into the ceasefire, fighting had broken out on the outskirts of Marib after the Houthi militia attacked government forces. Yemen’s internationally recognized government has accused the Iran-backed militia of using the Ramadan truce to mobilize new combatants and military equipment. Grundberg said: “I remind the parties that the truce should be used to progress toward ending the war, not to escalate it.”