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Gunmen kill 11 at Iran army parade, Tehran blames US ally

Agencies
September 22, 2018

Tehran, Sept 22:  Militants shot dead at least 11 people at a military parade in southwestern Iran on Saturday, state media reported, in a rare attack the government blamed on a US ally in the region.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting rampage dubbed a "terrorist" attack by the authorities, in which at least 30 people were also wounded.

But Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he held a US ally in the region responsible.

"Terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime have attacked Ahvaz," Zarif said in a tweet, adding: "Iran holds regional terror sponsors and their US masters accountable for such attacks".

The deadly shooting targeted the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan, a province bordering Iraq that has a large ethnic Arab community and has seen separatist violence in the past which Iran has blamed on its regional rivals.

"The number of martyrs has reached 11 and could rise further, and the wounded are now more than 30," the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Khuzestan deputy governor Ali-Hossein Hosseinzadeh as saying.

"One of the martyrs is a journalist," he added. Earlier he had said "eight to nine" of the dead were troops.

Four militants carried out the 9:00 am (0530 GMT) attack on the parade commemorating the start of the devastating 1980-88 conflict between Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

"Two were killed and two arrested," Hosseinzadeh said.

Several media reported the attackers were disguised in Iranian military uniforms.

The semi-official Fars news agency said they were overwhelmed by the security forces before they could attack the dignitaries watching the parade.

Finger pointed at Riyadh

Zarif did not specify which regional government he held responsible for the shooting, but Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said the attackers were funded by Sunni arch rival Saudi Arabia.

"Those who opened fire on civilians and the armed forces have links to the Ahvazi movement," Guards spokesman Ramezan Sharif told ISNA.

"They are funded by Saudi Arabia and attempted to cast a shadow over the Iranian armed forces."

Zarif vowed Iran would "respond swiftly and decisively in defence of Iranian lives".

Khuzestan was a major battleground of the 1980s war with Saddam's Iraq and the attack on the anniversary parade in Ahvaz had significant symbolic value.

The province saw unrest in 2005 and 2011 but has since seen been largely quiet.

Attacks by Kurdish rebels on military patrols along the border further north are relatively common.

But attacks on regime targets inside major cities are far rarer.

On June 7, 2017, 17 people were killed and dozens wounded in simultaneous attacks in Tehran on the parliament building and on the tomb of revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini -- the first inside Iran claimed by the Sunni Muslim extremists of the Islamic State group.

In April, 26 alleged IS jihadists went on trial on charges connected with that twin attack.

Police said that five people were arrested at the scene of the attacks and dozens more arrests were reported in the following months -- many along the borders with Iraq and Turkey.

- Rouhani defiant -

The attack in Ahvaz came as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was among the dignitaries at the main anniversary parade in Tehran.

In a keynote speech, Rouhani vowed to boost Iran's ballistic missile capabilities despite Western concerns that were cited by his US counterpart Donald Trump in May when he abandoned a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran.

"We will never decrease our defensive capabilities... we will increase them day by day," Rouhani said at a military parade. "The fact that the missiles anger you shows they are our most effective weapons," he said, referring to the West.

Iran has ballistic missiles with a range of up to 3,500 kilometres (2,200 miles), enough to reach both Israel and US bases in the Middle East.

The United States reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran last month, and a new round of even harsher sanctions targeting Iran's vital oil sector is set to go back into effect on November 5.

Washington has said it is ready to open talks on a new agreement to replace the July 2015 accord, but Tehran has said repeatedly it cannot negotiate under the pressure of the sanctions.

Washington insists any deal should address Iran's ballistic missile programme and its "destabilising" and "malign" influence in the region, as well as concerns about it long-term nuclear ambitions.

Trump and Rouhani will both be in New York next week for the United Nations General Assembly. But Iran has repeatedly ruled out any meeting.

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News Network
July 23,2020

Beirut, Jul 23: The pandemic will exact a heavy toll on Arab countries, causing an economic contraction of 5.7% this year, pushing millions into poverty and compounding the suffering of those affected by armed conflict, a U.N. report said Thursday.

The U.N.'s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia expects some Arab economies to shrink by up to 13%, amounting to an overall loss for the region of $152 billion.

Another 14.3 million people are expected to be pushed into poverty, raising the total number to 115 million — a quarter of the total Arab population, it said. More than 55 million people in the region relied on humanitarian aid before the COVID-19 crisis, including 26 million who were forcibly displaced.

Arab countries moved quickly to contain the virus in March by imposing stay-at-home orders, restricting travel and banning large gatherings, including religious pilgrimages.

Arab countries as a whole have reported more than 830,000 cases and at least 14,717 deaths. That equates to an infection rate of 1.9 per 1,000 people and 17.6 deaths per 1,000 cases, less than half the global average of 42.6 deaths, according to the U.N.

But the restrictions exacted a heavy economic toll, and authorities have been forced to ease them in recent weeks. That has led to a surge in cases in some countries, including Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

Wealthy Gulf countries were hit by the pandemic at a time of low oil prices, putting added strain on already overstretched budgets. Middle-income countries like Jordan and Egypt have seen tourism vanish overnight and a drop in remittances from citizens working abroad.

War-torn Libya and Syria have thus far reported relatively small outbreaks. But in Yemen, where five years of civil war had already generated the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the virus is running rampant in the government-controlled south while rebels in the north conceal its toll.

Rola Dashti, the head of the U.N. commission, said Arab countries need to “turn this crisis into an opportunity” and address longstanding issues, including weak public institutions, economic inequality and over-reliance on fossil fuels.

“We need to invest in survival, survival of people and survival of businesses,” she said.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

Makkah, Jul 31: Organising this year's scaled-down hajj required "double efforts" by Saudi authorities amid the coronavirus pandemic, King Salman said Friday after being discharged from hospital following gall bladder surgery.

Only up to 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom are participating in this year's pilgrimage, compared with 2019's gathering of some 2.5 million from around the world.

"Holding the ritual in the shadow of this pandemic... required reducing the numbers of pilgrims, but it obliged various official agencies to put in double efforts," 84-year-old King Salman said in a speech read out on state television by acting media minister Majid Al-Qasabi.

"The hajj this year was restricted to a very limited number of people from multiple nationalities, ensuring the ritual was completed despite the difficult circumstances," he said.

The speech came on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice, a day after the king left hospital following a 10-day stay for surgery to remove his gall bladder.

The hajj, which began on Wednesday, is one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime.

Authorities implemented the "highest health precautions" during the rituals, the king said.

Pilgrims, who were all tested for the virus, are required to wear masks and observe social distancing.

For Friday's "stoning of the devil", the last major ritual of the hajj, Saudi authorities offered the pilgrims pebbles that were sanitised to protect against the pandemic.

In a sign that its strict measures were working, the health ministry reported no coronavirus cases in the holy sites on Wednesday or Thursday.

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Gulf News
April 12,2020

Hyderabad, Apr 12: In the backdrop of rising tide of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia on the social media, a company in Dubai sacked an employee from Hyderabad for his hate-filled posts on Facebook.

Bala Krishna Nakka from Hyderabad, who was working as Chief Accountant at Dubai’s Moro Hub Data Solutions Company, was sacked after his Facebook went viral evoking widespread condemnation. The man had posted images on his Facebook page which showed Muslims as suicide bombers wearing bombs in the form of coronavirus cells.

It triggered demands both on Facebook and Twitter for action against him. In a quick response the company announced that the person was being sacked from his job, as the company had zero tolerance towards hate propaganda.

Moro Hub said in a statement: “At Moro, we take a zero tolerance attitude to material that is or may be deemed Islamophoic or hate speech. The tweets that we have been alerted to do not, in any way, reflect Moro’s brand values.”

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in India, a more intense hate propaganda has been unleashed by right wing elements on social media targeting India’s Muslim minority, some of whom are based in Gulf region.

As both the mainstream media, especially Indian TV channels, as well as social media users, have unleashed a campaign linking the spread of virus to a Muslim missionary organisation, the Tableeghi Jamaat, in India, a fresh war of words has broken out on social media.

While some activists have taken up it on themselves to highlight the hate propaganda and draw the attention of employers to such hate mongers, the right wing social media handles have also launched their own counter-offensives against such activists.

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