https://arab.news/22b2u
TEHRAN: Tehran on Monday summoned a Ukrainian diplomat to protest “biased” remarks by a presidential aide in Kyiv over a recent drone strike in Iran, the Islamic republic’s foreign ministry said.
Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, linked in a tweet on Sunday Iran’s support for Russia’s invasion of his country with the night-time strike on a military site.
“Explosive night in Iran — drone and missile production, oil refineries,” he said. “War logic… bills the authors and accomplices strictly.”
“Ukraine did warn you,” Podoliak added.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Tehran had been summoned to provide “an official and immediate explanation from the Ukrainian government.”
It called Podoliak’s remarks “strange and biased,” adding in a statement it hoped “such positions will not be repeated.”
Iranian authorities reported an “unsuccessful” drone attack late Saturday night that targeted a defense ministry “workshop complex” in the central Isfahan province, home to the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
An anti-aircraft system destroyed one drone and two others exploded, the defense ministry said, adding that there were no casualties and only minor damage to the site.
Dramatic video footage widely shared on social media and published by Iranian state media showed a fireball lighting up the night sky, with people outside seen running and emergency service vehicles speeding toward the site.
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Iran of supplying military drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine, a claim that is denied by Tehran.
AMMAN: The Ministry of Local Administration and the International Labor Organization held a workshop to introduce the sixth phase of Employment through Labor Intensive Infrastructure in Jordan project targeting Syrian refugees.
The project is funded by the German Development Bank, reported Jordan’s News Agency on Tuesday.
It focuses on improving infrastructure through labor-intensive methods that benefit communities in the long term, such as road and school maintenance, soil improvement and water conservation activities in farms and environmental cleaning services.
The project’s sixth phase is expected to provide 1,000 short-term jobs in 31 northern and central municipalities for Jordanians and Syrian refugees, designating 30 percent of employment to women and 5 percent for disabled people through funding worth €7 million ($7.6m) provided for the municipalities.
Being implemented in cooperation with the ministries of Local Administration and Agriculture, the project includes maintenance of municipalities, afforestation and training sessions on professions that qualify participants for the labor market.
The project’s infrastructure supervisor engineer, Anas Bakhit, briefed participants on the goals, phases, proposals and mechanisms of choosing employees.
The employment scheme started in 2016 in response to the Syrian refugee crisis in cooperation with several Jordanian ministries, and will end in 2024.
JERUSALEM: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel on Tuesday for a sharp escalation of violence in the West Bank as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged calm on both sides and reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to a two state solution.
Calling for “the complete cessation of unilateral Israeli actions, which violate the signed agreements and international law,” Abbas reiterated the Palestinians’ longstanding demand for Israel to end its occupation.
“We are now ready to work with the US administration and the international community to restore political dialogue in order to end the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he said in a statement.
WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday added seven Iranian entities to its trade blacklist for producing drones that Russia has used to attack Ukraine, according a posting by the US Department of Commerce.
Nearing a year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, allies have scrambled to gather and deploy air defenses to defeat cruise missiles and Iranian-built kamikaze drones that have attacked energy infrastructure targets this winter.
Earlier this month, Canada announced it would buy a US-made National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) for Ukraine. NASAMS is a short- to medium-range ground-based air defense system that protects against drone, missile, and aircraft attack. The United States has provided two NASAMS to Ukraine, with more on the way.
Other ground-based air defense systems such as Raytheon Technology Corp’s Patriot have been pledged by the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands as allies hope to stave off further power disruptions.
The Iranian entities added to the blacklist are Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company, Paravar Pars Company, Qods Aviation Industry, and Shahed Aviation Industries.
The Commerce Department posting said the Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) produced are being transferred to Russia for use in Ukraine, activity that is contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests.
PARIS: An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of over 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran’s main landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime, activists said on Tuesday.
Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, had been arrested in early November after a video went viral of them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower in Tehran.
Haghighi did not wear a headscarf in defiance of the Islamic republic’s strict rules for women, while women are also not allowed to dance in public in Iran, let alone with a man.
A revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced them each to 10 years and six months in prison, as well as bans on using the Internet and leaving Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
The couple, who already had a following in Tehran as popular Instagram bloggers, were convicted of “encouraging corruption and public prostitution” as well as “gathering with the intention of disrupting national security,” it added.
HRANA cited sources close to their families as saying they had been deprived of lawyers during the court proceedings while attempts to secure their release on bail have been rejected.
It said Haghighi is now in the notorious Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists.
Iranian authorities have clamped down severely on all forms of dissent since the death in September of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf rules, sparked protests that have turned into a movement against the regime.
At least 14,000 people have been arrested, according to the United Nations, ranging from prominent celebrities, journalists and lawyers to ordinary people who took to the streets.
The couple’s video had been hailed as a symbol of the freedoms demanded by the protest movement, with Ahmadi at one moment lifting his partner in the air as her long hair flowed behind.
One of the main icons of the Iranian capital, the gigantic and futuristic Azadi (Freedom) Tower is a place of huge sensitivity.
It opened under the rule of the last shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the early 1970s when it was known as the Shahyad (In Memory of the Shah) Tower.
It was renamed after the shah was ousted in 1979 with the creation of the Islamic republic. Its architect, a member of the Bahai faith which is not recognized in today’s Iran, now lives in exile.
The President of the Arab Parliament, Adel bin Abd al-Rahman al-Asoumi, met with the President of the Pan-African Parliament, Chief Fortune Charumbira on Tuesday.
The officials met on the sidelines of the Conference of the Union of Councils of Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Algeria, a statement by the Arab Parliament said.
The two sides reviewed regional and international interests, and agreed on full coordination in international forums in support of all Arab and African matters.
The Speaker of the Arab Parliament affirmed that the Arab and African regions possess many common denominators that contribute to supporting Arab and African matters, especially the Palestinian issue and the Libyan crisis.