Five Countries to Join UN Security Council Ranks in January

Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam were elected Friday to two-year terms on the U.N. Security Council. The five will join the 15-nation body responsible for maintaining international peace and security on Jan. 1, 2020. There is usually little suspense in the General Assembly for the vote, as regional groups typically pre-select a candidate from within their bloc to run uncontested. This year, Tunisia, Niger and Vietnam ran unopposed. So did Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, until just hours before Friday morning's vote, when El Salvador announced it would challenge the tiny island nation for the one open seat in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Diplomats expressed surprise ahead of the vote as to why El Salvador would come in at the last minute, when the regional bloc had agreed in December to put up Saint Vincent as their candidate. "You don't do it like that," one western diplomat said disapprovingly. Most other countries appeared to agree, with El Salvador winning only six of the 193 votes cast. Eastern Europe did run a contested race this year, endorsing two candidates, Estonia and Romania. Estonia, which joined the U.N. in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has never served on the Security Council. It beat four-time council veteran Romania after two rounds of ballots, exceeding the necessary two-thirds majority needed. Member states cast secret ballots and candidates must win a two-thirds majority of votes to succeed, even if they are running uncontested. Candidate countries cap off their often years-long campaigns with parties in the lead-up to the vote. Reaction "I want to reiterate that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines views this as an historic occasion," Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told reporters after the election. "We are the smallest country ever to be elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council." The island nation has a population of just 110,000. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has aligned with the Maduro regime in Venezuela. "Non-interference, non-intervention, peaceful settlement of serious difficulties pertaining to governance," the prime minister said when asked what his government's policy is toward Venezuela.   Vietnam had nearly unanimous support in the General Assembly, winning 192 of 193 votes. "As Vietnam went through decades of war, we hope that we can bring to the council the experience of Vietnam, the country that has been able to rebuild after the war and deal with many other issues," said the president's special envoy Le Hoai Trung. Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said his nation would try to be a "bridge builder" on the council and contribute to trying to solve some of the most important peace and security issues. Council dynamics "With the election of Saint Vincent and Vietnam, the Security Council could tilt a little towards China and Russia next year," said Richard Gowan, U.N. Director, International Crisis Group. "Saint Vincent has stuck with Maduro in Venezuela, and Vietnam hews to a pretty robust anti-Western line in U.N. debates."  Tunisia and Niger will represent Africa on the council. Gowan told VOA they could figure prominently if Libya and the Sahel continue atop the agenda. "It will be hard to ignore their views on issues like the spillover of violence from Libya and the worsening security situation in Burkina Faso," he said. The five new council members will replace Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland, whose terms end Dec. 31, 2019. They will join the other non-permanent members — Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa — as well as the permanent five members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Seaweed Could Help Produce Biodegradable Plastic

Efforts to recycle discarded plastic have not reduced piles of single-use products from landfills, and China will no longer import plastic waste for recycling. The United Nations says more than 8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year. Plastics are increasingly killing marine life and birds, threatening ecosystems and harming humans. Researchers are working to develop biodegradable materials to replace the durable plastic. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports on one such project in Israel.

UAE, Norway, Saudi Arabia: ‘State Actor’ Likely Attacked Oil Tankers

The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Norway said Thursday that a preliminary investigation into a coordinated attack on four of their oil tankers in an Emirati port last month was likely carried out by a state actor. In a joint statement, they said limpet mines were used in the May 12 coordinated attacks, which left large holes in the hulls of the four tankers, but did not cause more extensive damage or oil spills. Limpets are a type of naval mine that attach to their target with magnets. “It appears most likely that the mines were placed on the vessels by divers deployed from fast boats,” the statement said. “While investigations are still ongoing, these facts are strong indications that the four attacks were part of a sophisticated and coordinated operation carried out by an actor with significant operational capacity, most likely a state actor.” ​Findings to presented to Security Council The three countries presented their initial findings to the U.N. Security Council in an informal meeting Thursday to discuss what they see as a threat to international commercial navigation and the security of global energy supplies. While they stressed that their investigation is still in the preliminary stage and did not jointly point a finger at any country in their statement, Saudi Arabian U.N. Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi said there was a “preponderance of evidence” pointing in one direction. “We believe that the responsibility for this action lies on the shoulders of Iran,” al-Mouallimi told a small group of reporters. “We have no hesitation in making this statement, we believe there is enough evidence to demonstrate that.” He said the attacks follow a “pattern of regular behavior of the Iran regime in terms of spreading acts of terrorism, sabotaging and causing havoc in many parts of the world.” U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton shared a similar assessment when he was in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi last month, telling reporters that it was “clear that Iran is behind” the attack. Iran has denied any involvement. Quick, not random attacks The four blasts occurred within less than an hour on the two Saudi vessels, and one each from the UAE and Norway. The ships were within UAE territorial waters off the port of Fujairah, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a busy shipping lane through which a large portion of the world’s oil supply passes. The tankers were targeted from among nearly 200 other vessels at anchor off of Fujairah on that day. One of the vessels was several kilometers away at the opposite end of the anchorage area, an indication that the targets were not randomly chosen. The UAE is leading the ongoing investigation and said it will share its preliminary findings with the London-based International Maritime Organization.

Trump Calls for Iran Talks as Allies Announce Rare Tehran Visits

This article originated in VOA's Persian service. Katherine Ahn contributed from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has called for U.S.-Iran talks for a second day to resolve mutual tensions — a prospect two U.S. allies hope to promote as they send senior envoys to Tehran for the first time in years. "I understand they want to talk, and we want to talk. That's fine. We'll talk," Trump said Thursday, referring to Iran as he sat for a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Caen, western France. The two leaders earlier had attended a ceremony in the region to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. "But the one thing that [Iran] can't have is … nuclear weapons. And I think the president of France would agree with that very strongly," Trump added.  In a Wednesday interview with British channel ITV on the final day of Trump's state visit to Britain, interviewer Piers Morgan asked the U.S. president if he was prepared to talk to his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. "Yeah, of course. I would much rather talk," Trump replied. In the same interview, Trump reiterated his readiness to use military action in response to perceived threats from Iran. "There's always a chance. Do I want to? No. I'd rather not. But there's always a chance," Trump said.  Tensions between the U.S. and Iran, longtime rivals who broke off relations 40 years ago, have risen significantly in the past year. Trump withdrew the U.S. from a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers plus the European Union in May 2018, saying it did not do enough to stop Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons or other perceived malign activities in the region and beyond. He also began reimposing U.S. sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 deal and introduced even tougher sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran into negotiating a new deal to end all of its perceived harmful behavior.  Iran has denied seeking nuclear weapons and has vowed to resist the U.S. maximum pressure campaign.  The tensions escalated further when the Trump administration rapidly deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf last month, in response to what it perceived as an imminent threat of an attack on American interests by Iran or its proxies. Iranian leaders have vowed to retaliate for any U.S. military action.  Rare meetings Two U.S. allies, Germany and Japan, said Thursday that they plan to take the rare step of sending senior officials to Iran next week to try to peacefully resolve the tensions and encourage Iran to continue abiding by the 2015 deal, which both nations support. The deal requires Iran to suspend nuclear activities that could be diverted to a weapons program for a number of years, in return for relief from international sanctions. A German foreign ministry spokesperson said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will meet his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Tehran on Monday. It will be the first visit of a German minister to Iran in 2½ years. In another development, AFP said it learned from a Japanese government official that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will travel to Iran next week in the first such visit by a Japanese leader in more than four decades. Japanese media said Abe most likely will meet Rouhani and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. ​Khamenei, in a nationally televised speech on Tuesday, dismissed other recent comments by Trump suggesting an openness to talks, saying the U.S. leader would not "deceive" Iran with a "cunning political ploy." He also derided Trump by saying, "When someone like this leads a country, it shows that this country is declining in terms of moral and political power." But in an unusual comment later in the speech, Khamenei also called Trump an "honorable U.S. president," in reference to what he said was Trump's seemingly "generous" recent comments about Iran. He also did not explicitly rule out talks with the U.S., as he appears to have done in other recent remarks. "What we're seeing right now is the stage is being set for negotiations," Tzvi Kahn, a senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA Persian in a Thursday interview.  "Iran knows that the current situation is unsustainable as sanctions are tearing apart the country," Kahn said. "So, we're beginning to see cracks in the regime's facade, such as Shinzo Abe's visit to Tehran next week and a dialing down of the rhetoric from Khamenei." Trump, Macron Iran has seen its currency weaken significantly against the dollar, and its unemployment and inflation rates have soared since the U.S. reinstated sanctions.  In his Thursday remarks alongside Macron, Trump acknowledged Iran's suffering and said he would like to see it end. "They are doing very poorly as a nation. They are failing as a nation. And I don't want them to fail as a nation. We can turn that around very quickly," he said.  Macron welcomed those comments as he highlighted four goals that he said France and the U.S. share: preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons; reducing its ballistic missile activity; containing its involvement in regional conflicts; and pursuing peace in the Middle East.  "I think the [message] pronounced by President Trump is that [negotiations] are very important. We need to open a new negotiation in order to build and to get these four objectives," Macron said. 

Burning Trash and Factories Belching Smoke Choke Iraqis

As if life was not bad enough for Adnan Kadhim - he lives in a slum where municipal authorities dump Baghdad's rubbish - now someone is setting the waste on fire, making his children sick. As the United Nations marks World Environment Day on Wednesday, Iraq is suffering a pollution crisis, with trash piling up across the country and thick clouds of smoke produced by inefficient factories hovering above Baghdad. "The dirt, our children are sick, our families are sick. My daughter has asthma, and I had to take my family to the hospital last night. We had to go at 2 am to give her oxygen. What have we done wrong to deserve this?" asks the 48-year-old, with mountains of rubbish behind him. No one in his unplanned neighborhood within Baghdad's southeastern Zaafaraniya district knows who is setting the rubbish on fire, and their complaints to government and municipal authorities have fallen on deaf ears because they are technically not supposed to be living in the area. "For about a week or ten days now we haven't been able to sleep or work. We just sitting around because of this smoke, said Jabbar, a builder. "Every day, it starts at sunset and doesn't stop until the morning. You can see the tractors (shoveling trash) in front of you. We are being destroyed. We implored the government, and no one did anything, we went to the municipality and still nothing," he added. Officials say Iraq suffers from the lack of a formal waste management system, but that they are working on introducing one which they hope will alleviate the country's numerous environmental hazards which also include pollution from oil production - Iraq is OPEC's second-largest producer of crude oil - and other industries. "I am sorry to say there are no hygienic official landfills. All what we have are unorganized areas for waste collection," said Deputy Environment Minister Jassim Humadi. "We are working hard today to issue legislation establishing the National Center for Waste Management." Increasing pollution rates and other "environmental challenges" could be linked to rising rates of chronic diseases such as cancer and respiratory issues, as well as birth deformities, he said. Iraq is working with the international bodies on a plan to help it clean up, he added. Change is Costly Business owners say they are doing what they can to operate in a more environmentally-friendly manner but that it is too costly. The government needs to help them do so, they argue. At a brick factory in Nahrawan, east Baghdad, ovens running on crude oil are releasing thick smoke, making it hard to breath, or see anything. "Crude oil, if burned in an incorrect way, the way we burn it, of course has emissions. The new ovens which we are upgrading to will reduce these emissions by 60 percent, but that should not be the ceiling of our ambitions," says Ali Rabeiy, the factory owner. More environmentally-friendly ovens can fashion bricks and produce only 5 percent of the current harmful emissions, and some even produce none, he said, but they cost anywhere between 4 and 6 billion Iraqi dinars ($3.2-4.8 million), which is not financially feasible for a business like his. ($1 = 1,186.4300 Iraqi dinars)

World Bank: Iran Likely to Suffer Worse Recession Than Previously Thought

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. WASHINGTON —The World Bank says Iran is likely to experience an even worse recession this year than previously thought, as U.S. sanctions largely choke off oil exports that have been Tehran’s main revenue source. In its latest Global Economic Prospects report published Wednesday, the Washington-based institution that provides loans to countries said it expects Iran’s Gross Domestic Product to shrink by 4.5% this year, a steeper contraction than its earlier estimate of negative 3.6% GDP growth for 2019. “The oil industry is an important part of Iran’s economy, and its oil production is clearly going to drop because of the new U.S. sanctions,” said Patrick Clawson, research director for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in a VOA Persian interview on Wednesday. The Trump administration imposed a total, unilateral ban on Iranian oil exports on May 2 as part of its campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran to negotiate an end to its perceived malign behaviors. It had issued sanctions waivers to eight of Iran’s oil customers in November to allow them to keep importing Iranian crude for six months, but later said it would not renew those waivers and would require those customers to reduce such imports to zero. U.S. economist Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore told VOA Persian in another Wednesday interview that Iran’s internal economic problems also are to blame for its worsening recession. “Iran is very corrupt, has very little economic freedom, and it’s hard to start a business there because Iran is not really a free market or liberal economy,” Hanke said. Transparency International, a Berlin-based civil society organization that monitors global corruption, has ranked Iran 138 out of 180 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index. Iran’s other low global economic rankings include 155 out of 180 nations in the Economic Freedom Index of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy institute, and 128 out of 190 governments in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. The World Bank’s new report also said Iran’s year-on-year inflation rate has risen sharply from about 10% in the middle of last year to about 52% in April. It said the depreciation of Iran’s rial since May 2018, when the U.S. announced it would re-impose sanctions on Iran, has contributed to the rising inflation. The rial’s slump versus the dollar in Iran’s unofficial currency market has made dollar-denominated imports more expensive for Iranians. Clawson said Iran's inflation is high primarily because it is relying on printing money to finance its spending. “The Iranian government is not bringing in enough revenue to pay for its expenses, so it is borrowing money from the banking system to cover the difference, and that is driving inflation,” he said. Hanke, who says he is the only economist outside Iran to measure its inflation with high frequency, told VOA Persian that he calculated Iran’s actual inflation rate to be 113% on Wednesday, much higher than the World Bank’s latest reading. The World Bank’s projection of a 4.5% contraction in Iran’s GDP this year is not as bad as the 6% contraction predicted by the International Monetary Fund, another global lending agency, in its latest report from April. The World Bank also said it expects economic growth in Iran to return next year “as the impact of U.S. sanctions tapers off and as inflation stabilizes.” It projected a 0.9% rise in Iran’s GDP for 2020. Hanke declined to make his own predictions for Iran’s economic performance, saying any forecasts for a nation such as Iran are problematic because they rely on guesswork.

Nechama Rivlin, Israeli First Lady, Dies at 73

Israel is mourning first lady Nechama Rivlin, who died Tuesday months after a lung transplant. She was 73 years old and was a frequent presence beside her husband, President Reuven Rivlin, despite her illness. Nechama Rivlin was born in an Israeli farming community. Her parents emigrated from Ukraine. She married the lawyer and future president in 1971 and was known as a popular first lady whose interests focused on the arts, the environment and children with special needs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Nechama Rivlin "heroic" because of her battle against pulmonary fibrosis. "We send condolences from the bottom of our heart to the president and all his family," a Netanyahu statement read.

Iran Sends Journalist to Notorious Prison, Jails Another for 2 Years

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Iran has taken new steps against two detained journalists who covered domestic labor unrest and government corruption, sending one to a notorious women’s prison and sentencing another to a two-year jail term. Two human rights groups said Iranian journalist Sepideh Ghaliyan, who covered labor issues in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, was transferred to Qarchak women’s prison near Tehran on Monday. She previously had been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison and prior to that, in Ahvaz, where authorities arrested her last November as she attended a protest by workers demanding unpaid wages from the Haft Tapeh sugar cane factory, 100 kilometers to the north. She was accused of committing a national security offense in connection with that protest. ​The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) posted a tweet saying Ghaliyan had been transferred from Evin to Qarchak prison but did not disclose its source for the information. “Instead of dealing with her complaints of being tortured [in custody], Iranian authorities have sent her to a prison known for its mistreatment of inmates,” CHRI’s tweet said. Iran’s Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) also reported, without attribution, Ghaliyan’s transfer in a Monday web post. There was no comment about her case in state media. Ghaliyan and one of the labor activists detained at the November protest, Ismail Bakhshi, were released in December but rearrested in January after both said on social media that they had been abused in jail. A day before rearresting Ghaliyan and Bakhshi, Iranian authorities used state television to broadcast a report in which the two confessed to having ties to foreign activists seeking to overthrow Iran’s Islamist rulers. Rights groups said the confessions were made under duress. ​London-based rights group Amnesty International has documented cases of what it calls "appalling ill-treatment" of female prisoners at Qarchak. It has said inmates at the site, which used to be a chicken farm, are held in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, without access to safe drinkable water, decent food, medicine and fresh air. In a move against the second Iranian journalist, an Iranian court imposed a two-year prison sentence on Masoud Kazemi on Sunday, according to his lawyer, Ali Mojtahedzadeh. Authorities arrested Kazemi, a former reporter for prominent reformist newspaper Shargh, on May 22 as he attended a Tehran court hearing related to his initial six-day detention last November.  Before his November arrest, Kazemi had tweeted about alleged corruption at the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade. He had most recently served as chief editor of Iran’s Sedaye Parsi monthly political magazine. A Sunday report by Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted Mojtahedzadeh as saying the court sentenced Kazemi to two years in prison on charges of spreading anti-government propaganda and insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other officials. The defense lawyer said the court also banned his client from working in the media for two years. All Iranian journalists must have a government permit to work for a licensed news outlet in the country. Mojtahedzadeh also told IRNA that the court cleared his client of colluding against national security, a new charge that the presiding judge had filed at the May 22 hearing. The judge used that additional charge to justify raising Kazemi’s bail tenfold to 10 billion rials, or $237,000 based on Iran’s official exchange rate, a price far above the means of a typical Iranian journalist. IRNA said Mojtahedzadeh expressed hope that the court would reduce Kazemi’s bail and enable his release, pending an appeal of the two-year sentence to a higher court. ​Mojtahedzadeh declared his intention to defend Kazemi in a higher court in a Sunday tweet, saying he also communicated that intention in writing to Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Wednesday statement strongly condemning the sentencing of Kazemi. "With this heavy prison sentence, Iran’s [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps is clearly signaling that any journalist who reports on government corruption will face a similar fate," said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. "Masoud Kazemi is a journalist informing Iranian citizens, not a criminal undermining state security. He should be released immediately."   

Kushner: Palestinians Deserve Self-Determination But Uncertain They Can Govern Themselves

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the Palestinians deserve "self-determination," but stopped short of backing Palestinian statehood and expressed uncertainty over their ability to govern themselves. Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and an architect of the White House's yet-to-be-released Middle East peace plan, told the "Axios on HBO" television program it would be a "high bar" when asked if the Palestinians could expect freedom from Israeli military and government interference. The Palestinian leadership has boycotted a diplomatic effort that Trump has hailed as the "deal of the century." Although Kushner has been drafting the plan for two years under a veil of secrecy, it is seen by Palestinian and some Arab officials as tilting heavily in Israel's favor and denying them a state of their own. Kushner again avoided saying explicitly whether the plan would include a two-state solution, the bedrock of U.S. policy for decades, calling for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with its capital in East Jerusalem. But he said: "I do think they should have self-determination. I'm going to leave the details until we come out with the actual plan." The Palestinian Authority has said it will not attend a U.S.-sponsored investment conference in late June in Bahrain where the economic part of the initiative is expected to be unveiled. U.S. officials have been vague about the timing for releasing proposals for resolving the thorny political issues at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But experts are skeptical of the Trump administration's chances for success. With Israel heading for new elections in September after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to meet a deadline to form a government, uncertainty is expected to further delay the rollout of the plan. Asked whether he believed the Palestinians were capable of governing themselves without Israeli interference, Kushner said: "That's a very good question. That's one that we’ll have to see. The hope is that they, over time, will become capable of governing." The Palestinians, he said, "need to have a fair judicial system ... freedom of press, freedom of expression, tolerance for all religions" before the Palestinian areas can become "investable." Asked whether he understood why the Palestinians might not trust him, Kushner said: "I'm not here to be trusted" and that he believed the Palestinian people would judge the plan based on whether "they think this will allow them to have a pathway to a better life or not." The Palestinian leadership has refused to deal with the Trump administration since late 2017 when the president decided to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump: Stop Bombing, Killing in Syria's Idlib

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday told Syria and Russia to stop "bombing the hell" out of Syria's last jihadist stronghold Idlib. "Hearing word that Russia, Syria and, to a lesser extent, Iran, are bombing the hell out of Idlib Province in Syria, and indiscriminately killing many innocent civilians. The World is watching this butchery. What is the purpose, what will it get you? STOP!" he said on Twitter shortly before he was to depart for a state visit to Britain. His comments came after Syrian NGOs on Friday decried international inaction in the face of mounting violence in the northwestern region. As well as killing dozens of civilians, the recent bombardments by Syrian and Russian forces in northwest Syria have pushed 300,000 people towards Turkey's border, the NGOs said at a press conference in Istanbul. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that almost 950 people had been killed in the latest clashes in Idlib. A September deal was supposed to avert a full-out regime offensive on the province and adjacent areas held by Syria's former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. But the jihadists have refused to leave the area, and the deal is on the verge of collapse as Syrian and Russian forces allied to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad ramp up airstrikes and rocket fire. Iranian fighters and Hezbollah paramilitary forces are also stationed in Syria to back the Assad regime. The worsening unrest in Idlib comes with tensions soaring between Iran and the United States. The stand-off has been simmering since the US last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear treaty Iran reached with major world powers.  

Syria: Israeli Strike on Airbase Kills 1, Wounds 2

An Israeli airstrike on a Syrian airbase killed one soldier, wounded two others, and destroyed an arms depot, Syrian state media reported. The attack on the T4 airbase in central Homs province came hours after Israeli airstrikes on the Golan Heights in southern Syria. Israel did not comment on the attack on the airbase, but said its strikes in Golan were a response to Saturday night rocket fire into Israel from Syria. "We will not tolerate firing into our territory and will respond fiercely against any aggression against us," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes on the Golan Heights killed 10, including Syrian forces and foreign fighters. Israel has frequently fired at Iranian and Hezbollah targets inside Syria as warnings against Iran from entrenching its fighters inside Syria. Israel has traditionally reserved comment on its airstrikes but has recently begun breaking its silence.  

Israel Bombs Syria After Rockets Fired at Golan

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck Syrian army targets Sunday after rockets were fired at the Golan Heights, and Syria’s state media said three soldiers were killed in the second such flare-up in a week. Syrian television reported big explosions near Damascus before dawn and said air defenses had “confronted the enemy.” The Israeli military said it struck Syrian artillery and aerial defense batteries in retaliation for Saturday’s firing of two rockets at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. An Israeli military spokeswoman said it was still unclear who had fired the rockets, but the Syrian army was held responsible for any attack launched from Syrian territory. “We will not tolerate any firing into our territory and we will respond with great force to any aggression against us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. On Monday, Israel’s military said it attacked a Syrian anti-aircraft position that had fired on one of its warplanes, and Syrian state media said a soldier had been killed in the incident. In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against its regional arch foe Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which it calls the biggest threat to its borders. Iran and Hezbollah are fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war, and Israel says they are trying to turn Syria into a new front against Israelis. Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel later annexed the captured territory in a move unrecognized by most of the international community, except for the United States. President Donald Trump announced U.S.-recognition for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in March. The White House said Wednesday that national security adviser John Bolton and his Israeli and Russian counterparts will meet in Jerusalem this month to discuss regional security issues. Russia intervened militarily in the Syrian war on Assad’s behalf in 2015, turning the tide of the war.

Rights Groups: Abuses on the Rise in Syria’s Afrin

Rights groups are expressing concerns over the increasing abuses against civilians by rebel forces in the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin. Last week, a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome, who was kidnapped by a rebel group, was killed along with his father and grandfather after their family failed to pay the kidnappers a ransom of $10,000, local media reported. Such incidents have been rampant since Turkish military and allied Syrian rebels took control of Afrin after a two-month-long military campaign that ousted the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the region in March 2018, rights groups said. “There has definitely been an uptick in terms of persecution of anybody that shows any kind of dissent to Turkish or rebel presence in Afrin,” said Philippe Nassif, the Middle East and North Africa advocacy director at Amnesty International. He added that “behaviors such as [kidnapping for] ransom and indefinite detentions and the fear of just being out and about living your life in Afrin is very real for all residents.” ​Turkish military, rebel groups In addition to the Turkish military, there are at least a dozen rebel groups in control of Afrin, including the National Liberation Front and several other Islamist groups who have been accused by rights groups of committing crimes against the local population in the Kurdish-majority city. In February, the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a report assessing the situation in Afrin. “The commission finds there are reasonable grounds to believe that armed group members in Afrin committed the war crimes of hostage-taking, cruel treatment, torture, and pillage,” the report said. “Numerous cases involving arbitrary arrests and detentions by armed group members also included credible allegations of torture and ill-treatment, often targeting individuals of Kurdish origin, including activists openly critical of armed groups and those perceived to be so,” the U.N. report added. ​Turkey’s responsibility Rights experts say that Turkey has a responsibility to stop such violations and to protect civilians in the Syrian city. “Turkey is an occupying power, so it absolutely has an obligation to be responsible for the actions of its proxy forces that are operating within Afrin,” said Nassif of Amnesty International. He told VOA that Turkey instead has “empowered them to go after anybody who is opposed to the presence of these groups. They have empowered these groups to particularly carry out some of Turkey’s own domestic agenda when it comes to crushing Kurdish resistance.” Ankara views the Kurdish YPG as part of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a three-decade war with Turkish armed forces for greater Kurdish rights in Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Since pushing back Kurdish YPG fighters from Afrin in March 2018, the Turkish military has rarely commented on the situation there, but during a press conference in January of this year, Turkish presidential spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, said that Turkey “is committed to the safety of life and property of Syrians in Afrin.” Aykan Erdemir, a Turkey expert at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, says that Turkey’s influence on its proxy forces in Syria has not prevented Turkey-backed rebels from abusing Afrin residents. “The composition of Turkey-backed rebels and their ethos make them prone to undertaking criminal acts and violating the rights and freedoms of the locals,” he told VOA. Erdemir added that, “Building an inclusive polity with rule and law and greater governance capacity is the only remedy against such abuses, but Ankara’s Syria strategy implemented through proxy rebels is at odds with such a course of action.” ​Limited coverage With the military developments in the nearby Syrian province of Idlib escalating, the ongoing abuses against civilians in Afrin has received scant attention from the outside world, some experts charge. “Beyond coverage by local media and some rights groups, the situation in Afrin doesn’t get enough coverage in the Western media,” said Ilhan Tanir, an editor with Ahval News, a Turkish website. “For observers, what’s happening in Afrin is a ‘small issue’ compared to what’s happening right now in other Syrian regions like Idlib,” Tanir told VOA. Inside Turkey, pro-government media outlets are misleading Turks by painting the situation in Afrin and Syria in general as a success for the Turkish military, Tanir said. “When opposition parties in Turkey try to criticize what the Turkish military and its allied Syrian rebels are doing in places like Afrin, they are dubbed as supporters of terrorism,” he said. ​Demographic change The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors human rights in Syria, says Turkish-backed rebels have been carrying out demographic changes in the Afrin region since taking control of the city in March 2018. “We have been documenting hundreds of cases of demographic change and forced displacement in Afrin,” Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, told VOA. Turkish analyst Tanir believes the Turkish military is complicit with allegations of settling Arab families across Afrin, including many Syrian refugees who had been living in Turkey since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011. “It seems that [rebel forces] have already got the green light from Turkey to carry out demographic change and Arabize this Kurdish region,” he said. Some of the groups that operate under Turkey’s command in Afrin have a goal of turning Afrin into a Sunni Muslim region and resettling people who have been displaced from other parts of the country during the conflict, experts charge. “This is a pattern that has taken hold in Syria, which has made it even harder to come to a resolution of the conflict,” Nassif said.

Saudi King: Iran’s ‘Terrorist Acts’ Threaten Energy Supply

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman slammed Iran over recent attacks targeting the kingdom, describing the incidents Saturday in a speech before Muslim leaders gathered in Mecca as “terrorist acts” that threaten global energy supplies. It was the monarch’s strongest words yet since tensions spiked in recent weeks between the two regional heavyweights. The U.S. has sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to deter Iran as tensions run high. The crisis stems from the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers last year and impose crippling economic sanctions on the country. ​Organization of Islamic Cooperation Speaking to leaders from the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, gathered in Islam’s holiest city of Mecca, King Salman opened the summit with a statement saying the world must fight the sources and funding of terrorism around the world. He then said the alleged sabotage of four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in past weeks represents a “grave danger” to the security of maritime traffic and regional security. He blamed Iranian-backed terrorist militias of being behind a subsequent drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline. “We emphasize that these subversive terrorist acts are aimed not only at the kingdom and the Gulf region, but also on the security of navigation and energy supplies to the world,” King Salman said. ​Iran urges focus on Palestinians Iran, which had a representative present at the OIC summit in Mecca, denies being involved in the incidents. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani had his own message for OIC leaders ahead of the summit, urging them to stay focused on the rights of Palestinians. In a letter published online Friday, Rouhani said Muslim leaders should not let the importance of Palestinian statehood be “marginalized” in the face of the Trump administration’s forthcoming peace plan. Rouhani also complained in the letter about not being invited to the Islamic summit, but expressed his country’s readiness to work with all Muslim leaders to confront the White House’s so-called “Deal of the Century.” Palestinian independence? Glimpses of the still undisclosed plan suggest it sidelines or ignores the longstanding goal of Palestinian independence. A meeting next month in Bahrain focusing on the economics of the plan is being boycotted by the Palestinian leadership, but Saudi Arabia and the UAE are attending amid growing ties with Israel in the face of shared enemy Iran. King Salman told OIC leaders that the rights of Palestinians remains a cornerstone issue of the organization, which was formed 50 years ago in response to an extremist arson attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem, one of Islam’s most sacred sites. He said the mosque remains under occupation and threat. “We reiterate with emphasis the rejection of any measures that infringe upon the legal status of Al-Quds Al-Sharif,” King Salman said, referring to east Jerusalem and the mosque compound. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said any peace deal that does not include an independent and sovereign Palestinian state along 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital will be rejected by the OIC body. “We shall not accept the rewriting of history, exchanging justice with economic benefits and disregarding dignity and legitimacy,” he told the OIC summit. Leaders from Africa, Asia, Mideast The Islamic summit has drawn political figures and heads of state from countries spanning Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They come with widely varying policies and priorities, but share a common reverence for the Al-Aqsa mosque, known as the first “Qibla” because Muslims prayed toward it before the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca. The meeting began after midnight and ran into the early hours Saturday because of evening prayers and daylong fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Saudi Arabia’s effort to bring leaders to Mecca reflects the kingdom’s desire to project a unified Muslim and Arab position on Iran to isolate it internationally. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Tehran regrets “Saudi Arabia’s abuse of its privilege as the host” of the OIC “to sow division between Islamic and regional countries.” Emergency meetings The summit follows two emergency Arab meetings the night before in Mecca criticizing Iran’s behavior and influence in countries like Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Presenting a unified stance on Iran faces obstacles within OIC member-states, which includes Iran. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is attending the summit, has sought good ties with both Saudi Arabia and Iran, for example. The leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group told supporters in Lebanon on Friday the Mecca summits are a Saudi call for help from Arab countries after Saudi Arabia failed to win in Yemen, where the kingdom and its allies have been at war since 2015 against Iranian-allied Yemeni rebels. “It is a sign of failure,” Hassan Nasrallah said. “These summits are calls for help ... that express the failure and the inabilities in confronting the Yemeni army, popular resistance and people.”

Ramadan's Night of Destiny in Cairo

In Egypt, more than 30,000 Muslims gathered to pray for what is believed to be the night of destiny, known in Arabic as Laylatu Al-Qadr. Muslims memorize on this night the first revelation of the Holy Quran and believe that Allah listens to their prayers. Cairo-based photojournalist Hamada Elrasam has more from Cairo.

Saudi Arabia Asks Nations to Respond to Iran With 'Firmness'

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Thursday urged Muslim nations to confront recent attacks in the region that the U.S. and its allies have blamed on Iran with “all means of force and firmness.” Ibrahim al-Assaf made the comments at a meeting of foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation ahead of a series of summits in the kingdom beginning Thursday. Al-Assaf said the alleged sabotage of boats off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and a drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels requires the region to “make more efforts to counter the terrorist acts of extremist and terrorist groups.” “We should confront it with all means of force and firmness,” al-Assaf said. Iran has denied being involved in the attacks, which come amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. An Iranian official was at the meeting where al-Assaf spoke on Thursday, but Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif did not attend. The U.S. has accused Tehran of being behind the string of incidents this month, which also included a rocket strike near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. On Wednesday, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told journalists in Abu Dhabi that there had been a previously unknown attempt to attack the Saudi oil port of Yanbu as well, which he also blamed on Iran. Bolton described Tehran's decision to back away from its 2015 atomic deal with world powers as evidence it sought nuclear weapons, even though it came a year after America unilaterally withdrew from the unraveling agreement. He also stressed the U.S. had not seen any further Iranian attacks in the time since, something he attributed to the subsequent military deployments — America recently sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf. But Bolton warned the U.S. would strike back if again attacked. “The point is to make it very clear to Iran and its surrogates that these kinds of action risk a very strong response from the United States,” Bolton threatened, without elaborating. Meanwhile Wednesday, acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said some 900 troops coming to the Mideast over the perceived Iran threat — to reinforce the tens of thousands already in the region — would be deployed in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Another 600 attached to a Patriot missile battery have had their deployment in the region extended. “The Iranian threat to our forces in the region remains,” Shanahan said. Bolton's trip to the UAE comes just days after Trump in Tokyo appeared to welcome negotiations with Iran. “We're not looking for regime change — I just want to make that clear,” Trump said. “We're looking for no nuclear weapons.” But Bolton himself, for years before becoming national security adviser, called for overthrowing Iran's government in interviews and in paid speaking engagement before an Iranian exile group. “I don't back away from any of it. Those are positions I took as a private citizen,” Bolton said when asked about his prior remarks. “Right now I'm a government official. I advise the president. I'm the national security adviser, not the nation security decision-maker. It's up to him to make those decisions.”  

Israel to Hold New Elections After Netanyahu Fails to Build Coalition

Israel is heading for new elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a new government by Wednesday. Netanyahu won the April 9 election on the assumption that he would be able to garner enough support to form a governing coalition. After weeks of negotiations with smaller parties, he failed to secure 61 seats in a 120-seat parliament. As VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports, Netanyahu is also battling allegations of corruption, which could have contributed to his political woes.

Turkey Brings Home Dozens of IS Children from Iraq

The Iraqi Central Court of Investigation Wednesday handed over 188 children of Islamic State (IS) Turkish citizens to Turkish authorities in a process to repatriate dozens of IS fighters, as well as their children and wives, held in Iraqi prisons. The Turkish foreign ministry and its embassy in Baghdad told VOA the move is part of Turkey’s effort to bring home its citizens, particularly minors, ahead of Eid al-Fitr or Festival of Breaking the Fast at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan early next week. “For those who have not been involved in crimes and identified as Turkish citizens, especially children, our embassy in Baghdad has taken necessary steps for them to be handed over to our country by the Iraqi authorities at the soonest possible date,” a diplomatic source at the Turkish Foreign Ministry told VOA. ​Thousands of Turks joined IS The diplomat did not disclose the number of Turkish suspected IS fighters and their family members in Iraqi detention, but said efforts were under way to bring home those facing charges. “It has also been requested to extradite those who received the final judgment by Iraqi courts in order to stand in trial in our country,” the Turkish source said. According to the Soufan Center, a nonprofit global security organization, nearly 1,500 Turkish citizens have crossed into Iraq and Syria to fight for IS since 2014. When IS lost its control of territory in Iraq and Syria, those who were not killed in the battles were arrested or fled with family members and mostly caught in Iraqi and northeastern Syria’s prisons. In Iraq alone, more than 328 women and 600 children of Turkish nationality are believed to be held by security forces. Prison living conditions The source at Turkish Foreign Ministry said it has directed its embassy in Baghdad to ensure the rest of the detained Turks received proper living conditions and medical access until their transfer. “Iraqi authorities say the conditions are being kept well as much as possible,” said the diplomatic source, adding, “the health conditions of our citizens who are detained in Iraq and their children are closely monitored by our representations in Iraq, and medicine has been provided for those to protect them against infectious and epidemic diseases.” Iraq began its proceedings against suspected IS foreign fighters and their family members shortly after declaring its final victory over Islamic State terror group in December 2017. A Reuters investigation in March found that about 1,100 children of IS fighters were held by Iraqi authorities with nearly 200 children as young as 9 years have been sentenced. It said the youngest stayed with their mothers in prison, and at least seven children have died because of poor living conditions. In a statement Wednesday following the handover of the children to Turkish authorities, the spokesperson of the Iraq Supreme Judicial Council, Abdul Sattar Birqdar, said the figure included “a few grownups” who were convicted on charges of illegal border crossing and overstaying. “The extradition was made in the presence of a representative of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, the Turkish embassy in Baghdad, and international organizations such as UNICEF,” Birqdar said. Before Turkey, Iraq earlier this year handed over dozens of IS children with Russian, German, and Tajik nationalities to their respective governments.

Israeli Parliament Dissolves in Favor of Another Early Election

Israel's parliament voted early Thursday morning to dissolve itself and hold a second early election after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to put together a coalition government.    The lawmakers voted 74-45 to break up and hold a new vote on Sept. 17.    Netanyahu had a midnight deadline to form a new government after winning the April 9 election. He was hoping to form a coalition between his conservative Likud party, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers and another conservative bloc led by former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.    WATCH: New Elections for Israel After Netanyahu Fails to Build Coalition But the talks fell apart when Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox refused to heed Lieberman's demands that ultra-religious Jews be drafted into the Israeli army and serve just like other young Israeli men and women are required to do.    Ultra-Orthodox Jews consider military conscription a violation of their religious beliefs, fearing that military service will lead to secularization. But such exemptions from military service are widely resented by other Israeli Jews.  "Everything stands in the same place where it was," Lieberman said, while Netanyahu said he was confident his Likud party would win again in September.    "We will run a sharp, clear election campaign, which will bring us victory. We will win, and the public will win," Netanyahu said after the parliamentary vote.    Opposition leader Benny Gantz — who lost to Netanyahu in April and most likely would have been given a chance to form a government had parliament not dissolved — angrily accused Netanyahu of being more concerned about his own political future instead of what was good for the country.     Gantz said Israel was in for "three crazy months" of another political campaign costing millions of dollars.    He also called Netanyahu "legally incapacitated" because of possible corruption charges.     Netanyahu had been hopeful a new parliament would approve legislation granting him immunity.     Netanyahu's wife, Sara, reached a plea bargain Wednesday in a separate corruption case. She agreed to pay $15,215 in a reimbursement and a fine for spending almost $100,000 in state funds on catered meals at the prime minister's residence while concealing the fact that the residence also employed a cook. 

Journalists Accuse Syrian Government Forces of Targeting Reporters

Pro-government forces in Syria have been deliberately targeting journalists covering the war there, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which notes that a number of reporters have been injured by suspected pro-government forces in recent days. "The Syrian government and its allies seem to be intent on not only violating the human rights of the country's people, but also on attacking journalists who cover those violations," said Ignacio Miguel Delgado Culebras, the CPJ's Middle East and North Africa representative. "As long as no one in power in Syria pays the price, this cycle of impunity and violence will continue," he said. The CPJ notes that in the span of three days, three reporters came under attack while covering airstrikes and clashes in northwestern Syria. The media rights group cited regional press groups, news reports, and Facebook posts and videos from the journalists. The CPJ says in one incident, journalists came under shelling from pro-government forces in Hama. Those journalists included a Sky News crew and Bilal Abdul Kareem, an American reporter and activist who posted video on social media. The CPJ says that according to Sky News and Abdul Kareem's posts, he was struck in the armpit by a piece of shrapnel. Media reports say he was taken to a hospital in another town. The team asserts that they were "clearly identified as journalists," according to the CPJ. Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford says the group's location was pinpointed by a military drone and faced shelling from a tank identified as belonging to pro-government forces, says the CPJ. Two journalists working for pro-opposition broadcasters also alleged they were targeted by government forces last week. Mustafa al-Abbas and Mustafa al-Khalaf said they were injured by shrapnel. Al Khalaf suffered an eye injury, while al-Abbas took shrapnel to the face and shoulders. In social media footage, al-Khalaf is wearing a jacket marked "Press," according to the CPJ. Separately, the media rights group also noted that another reporter working for pro-opposition media suffered leg burns in a bombing south of Idlib. The CPJ says 22 journalists have been killed in Syria since 2011. The group is urging Syria's government to respect the civilian status of journalists covering the war. The CPJ says the Syrian Defense Ministry did not immediately reply to the group's request for comment.