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Qatar releases 8 Iranian sailors jailed for trespassing

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Iran Sailor

Kazem Ghariabadi says the sailors returned to Iran via the Shiraz Airport in southern Iran.

Gharibadi added that the sailors were released by Qatar after efforts by the Ministry of Justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran and by the Iranian Embassy in Doha.

Many Iranian sailors unwittingly trespass into the territorial waters of neighboring countries due to storms and similar reasons when they are at sea.

The sailors are mainly from Iran’s southern provinces such as Bushehr, Hormozgan and Khuzestan.

Pakistan seeking to ban Imran Khan’s party

By
IFP Media Wire
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Imran Khan

The announcement by Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Monday came days after the Supreme Court handed a major legal victory to the PTI by declaring it eligible for a share of seats reserved in national and provincial assemblies.

“The government has made a decision to ban PTI after seeing all the available evidence. We will move a case to ban the party,” he said, citing accusations, including the incitement of violent protests last year and the leaking of classified information.

Tarar added the case would be brought to the Supreme Court.

He also stated the government planned to bring treason charges against Khan and two other senior party leaders – former President of Pakistan Arif Alvi and ex-Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri – as well as file a review appeal against the Supreme Court’s ruling that said the PTI must be allotted some assembly seats reserved for women and members of religious minorities.

Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari, a senior PTI leader and party spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that the government’s decision “betrays their complete panic”.

“After realising that they cannot threaten the courts or put them under duress, or they cannot blackmail judges any more, they have decided to make this move via cabinet. All their attempts to stop us have been declared illegal by the courts.”

Last week, the Supreme Court recognised the PTI as a political party and affirmed that not having an election symbol does not affect its legal rights to field candidates.

The ruling was in relation to the PTI being banned from contesting parliamentary elections in February using its party symbol, the cricket bat, which forced it to field its candidates as independents.

Despite the setback, the PTI-backed contenders emerged as the largest parliamentary bloc securing 93 seats.

After Khan refused to team up with his political rivals, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) joined forces with other smaller parties to form a coalition government.

Ex-Governor Sindh Zubair, who was previously with the PMLN, said the government’s decision was in response to the Supreme Court’s verdict last week and warned of political chaos ahead.

“The powers that be are trying to disenfranchise the largest majority of voters of the country, who voted for PTI,” he told Al Jazeera.

Khan became prime minister in August 2018 but was removed from office in April 2022 following a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.

The cricketer-turned-politician has since faced a series of legal woes, including charges of misplacing and leaking the content of a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s then-ambassador in the United States in 2022.

Khan has repeatedly denied the charge, saying the document contained evidence that his removal as prime minister was a plot hatched by his political opponents and the country’s powerful military, with help from the US administration. Washington and the Pakistani army reject the accusation.

Despite several recent court decisions in his favour, Khan remains behind bars since August last year.

Saudi Arabia frees Iranian pilgrim 20 days after detention

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Hajj

Seyed Kazem Roohbakhsh was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj rituals when he was detained.

The Saudi officials did not give an explanation about the reason for his detention and sent him to Dubai on Sunday evening.

A number of other Iranian pilgrims have also been detained during the Hajj ceremonies this year in Saudi Arabia.

Iran is making efforts to win their release as well.

China, Russia launch joint military exercises

By
IFP Media Wire
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China, Russia launch joint military exercises

The three-day ‘Maritime Joint-2024’ drills are being conducted near the Chinese city of Zhanjiang. They will train naval forces’ ability to address security threats, maintain international and regional stability, and boost the strategic partnership, according to a statement, according to RT.

“The fourth joint maritime patrol in the western and northern Pacific Ocean” conducted on Sunday “did not target a third party and had nothing to do with the current international and regional situation”, it added.

Two vessels from Russia’s Pacific Fleet are participating in the annual event, TASS reported on Monday, citing the fleet’s press office.

Crews will conduct air defense exercises and drills involving anti-submarine aviation, as well as resupplying on the move and sea rescue training.

The naval cooperation comes amid mounting tensions between China and NATO members. In a document adopted after last week’s summit in Washington, the US-led bloc alleged that Beijing has been working with Moscow to “undercut and reshape the rules-based international order”. The communiqué also claimed that China has been providing dual-use materials and components to Russian arms manufacturers amid its conflict with Ukraine.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has dismissed the allegations as “groundless,” insisting that Beijing “has always been a force for peace and stability in the international community”. Wang urged NATO to focus on dialogue and establishing “mutual trust,” instead of dishing out allegations against Beijing.

The Chinese government has repeatedly rejected the Western framing of the Ukraine conflict, which has presented it as an unprovoked act of aggression by Russia. Instead, Beijing has cited NATO’s expansion in Europe as a key cause.

Trade between Russia and China has boomed since the West imposed an array of sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, which forced many international businesses to exit the country.

Syrians voting in parliamentary election

By
IFP Media Wire
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Syria Election

Some 8,151 polling stations opened in the areas held by the Syrian government at 7:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Monday and will close at 7:00 p.m. local time (1600 GMT).

The election will see 1,516 candidates vying for 250 seats in the parliament.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling Baath party is expected to secure most of the votes.

“The election process is being conducted under the full supervision of the Supreme Judicial Elections Committee, starting from nomination until the announcement of the results,” the official SANA news agency reported.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011, with Western countries and their regional allies aiding terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the Arab country.

Syrian forces, backed by Iran and Russia, have managed to win back control of almost all regions of the Arab country.

However, Syria’s northern parts are still controlled by militants and foreign occupation forces.

Bodies of dozens likely Daesh victims recovered from mass grave in Iraq

By
IFP Media Wire
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Daesh

The bodies were discovered in the Alo Antar hole, a natural desert feature located in Tal Afar around 70km west of Mosul, which was the headquarters of the terror group between 2014 and 2017.

“We have removed the remains of 139 persons and also human body parts,” said Dia Karim, director of the mass graves department at the Foundation of Martyrs.

“They include women and men … according to testimonies, the victims date back to IS rule” or when their predecessor al-Qaeda in Iraq was in the area.

He added the victims were most likely “Yazidis, Shiite Turkmen and security forces personnel from Mosul”.

IS controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017, but the combined effort of the Iraqi military, local armed groups and a US-led coalition saw the group’s power largely wiped out.

They still claim responsibility for sporadic attacks in northern Iraq and Syria, while the process of unearthing their many victims across the region has continued.

An official from the Foundation of Martyrs told AFP the victims in Alo Antar “were not buried but dumped” in a hole whose full depth ranges between 42 and 12 metres.

“Some of the victims had been shot and others were found with their throats cut,” stated Ahmed al-Assadi.

The UN estimates there could be as many as 200 mass graves across the region, containing as many as 12,000 bodies. More than one sinkhole has been identified as being used as a mass grave.

Natia Navrouzov, executive director at Yazda, an organisation advocating for the right of Yazidis, welcoming the uncovering of the grave at Alo Antar.

“We have been advocating for the exhumation of this specific mass grave for almost a decade,” she said in a statement, adding, “We believe that it will give answers and some closure to many Yazidi families but also to families from other communities.”

Russia claims US financed Ukraine’s plot to assassinate Putin

By
IFP Media Wire
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Biden Zelensky

Ukrainian defense intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on Saturday that Ukraine’s secret services had tried but failed to assassinate Putin.

“Yesterday one of the leaders of the Kiev regime, Budanov, admitted that Ukraine’s intelligence was plotting the assassination of the Russian president. This assassination attempt was being prepared, again, with US money, without which there would be no malicious activities of the Ukrainian intelligence, the Ukrainian armed forces and, general, Bankova Street [government in Kiev],” Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

The spokeswoman suggested that Washington should use the money it provides to Kiev to fund “the police and other agencies which were established to administer law within the US”.

Western countries have ramped up their military and financial aid to Kiev since the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin warns against continued arms deliveries to Kiev, saying it would lead to further escalation of the conflict. Russian officials have also warned that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian strikes.

UN says clearing Gaza of war rubble will take 15 years

By
IFP Media Wire
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Gaza War

The conclusions will underline the immense challenge of rebuilding the Palestinian territory after months of a grinding Israeli offensive that has led to massive destruction of homes and infrastructure.

According to the assessment, which was published last month by the UN Environment Programme, 137,297 buildings had been damaged in Gaza, more than half of the total. Of these, just over a quarter were destroyed, about a 10th severely damaged and a third moderately damaged.

Massive landfill sites covering between 250 and 500 hectares (618 to 1,235 acres) would be necessary to dump the rubble, depending on how much could be recycled, the assessment found.

In May, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said rebuilding homes in Gaza destroyed during the war could take until 2040 in the most optimistic scenario, with total reconstruction across the territory costing as much as $40bn. That assessment, which was published as part of a push to raise funds for early planning for the rehabilitation of Gaza, also found the conflict could reduce levels of health, education and wealth in the territory to those of 1980, wiping out 44 years of development.

“The damage to infrastructure is insane … In [the southern Gaza City] Khan Younis, there is not one building untouched,” one UN official based in Gaza told the Guardian last week.

“The actual topography has changed. There are hills where there were none. The 2,000lbs [907kg] bombs dropped [by Israel] are actually altering the landscape.”

Schools, health facilities, roads, sewers and all other critical infrastructure have all suffered massive damage.

The UNDP noted the possible price tag of reconstruction of Gaza is now twice estimates made by UN and Palestinian officials in January and was rising every day.

The mountains of rubble are full of unexploded ordnance that leads to “more than 10 explosions every week”, causing more deaths and loss of limbs, Gaza’s Civil Defence agency has said.

In April, Pehr Lodhammar, a former United Nationals Mine Action Service chief for Iraq, said that on average about 10% of weapons failed to detonate when they were fired and had to be removed by demining teams.

Sixty-five per cent of the buildings destroyed in Gaza were residential, Lodhammar continued, adding that clearing and rebuilding them would be slow and dangerous work because of the threat from shells, missiles or other weapons buried in collapsed or damaged buildings.

The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack into southern Israel in October, killing 1,200 people. More than 38,500 people have now been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials in the territory.

Republic of Azerbaijan reopens embassy in Tehran

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Azerbaijan Embassy Tehran

The Azerbaijani Embassy, in a message on its social media account, announced on Monday, “Following the negotiations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, on July 15, 2024, the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Islamic Republic of Iran resumed its work at a new address.”

Baku closed down its embassy in Tehran after an armed assault in January 2023 that left the head of the embassy’s security service killed and two guards wounded.

The assailant entered the embassy with a firearm and went on a deadly rampage. After his arrest the gunman cited personal reasons for the shooting, claiming that his wife visited the embassy last year and never returned.

Citing mutual respect, good neighborliness, and the implementation of bilateral agreements, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said the resumption of embassy operations aims to boost bilateral ties between Tehran and Baku.

The foreign ministry announced in June that Iran fulfilled Azerbaijan’s demand to relocate the embassy to a new place with higher security measures in place.

Iran’s president-elect reaffirms support for Palestine

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Masoud Pezeshkian

Pezeshkian made the remarks in a phone call with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, on Sunday.

During the conversation, Iran’s president-elect vehemently condemned Israel’s recent brutal attack on a gathering of the displaced people at the al-Mawasi refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

The massacre left at least 90 Palestinians dead and 300 others injured.

Pezeshkian said this horrific crime “proves Israel’s desire to continue the genocide and break the will of the resistance, but it will fail in doing so”.

He stressed that “the Islamic Republic will not leave the Palestinian people alone under these difficult conditions.”

Iran’s president-elect also emphasized that his administration will place the Palestinian issue at the top of its priorities as it is the central issue of the Islamic world.

“We will do our utmost to stop the war and stop the genocide,” Pezeshkian added, stressing that the long-term step that must be taken is to end the occupation and for the Palestinian people to obtain their full rights.

Haniyeh, for his part, once again congratulated Pezeshkian on his election as the new Iranian president.

He then touched on the heinous massacres committed by the Israeli regime against civilians in Gaza, including the al-Mawasi massacre in Khan Yunis and the strike on the al-Shati refugee camp that killed 20 Palestinians.

Haniyeh added that the occupying regime uses false claims of targeting resistance leaders to justify its crimes, pointing out that these massacres came despite the positive position adopted by Hamas and other resistance groups during Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

“However, [Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu set new conditions in his recent statements that were not included in the texts of the proposals exchanged through the mediators,” Haniyeh said.

He stressed that such measures prove that Netanyahu wants the aggression to continue and escalate, and that he is not interested in reaching an agreement.

Haniyeh also praised Iran’s positions on the issue of Palestine and resistance, as well as its support for the cause of Palestine at various levels.

He expressed hope that more political and diplomatic efforts would be made towards halting the Israeli regime’s aggression against the people of Palestine.

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