Iraq agrees to supply Lebanon with fuel for six months
Iraq agrees to supply Lebanon with fuel for six months/node/2595256/middle-east
Iraq agrees to supply Lebanon with fuel for six months
Iraq has agreed to supply Lebanon with fuel for six more months, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement on Saturday. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 29 March 2025
Reuters
Iraq agrees to supply Lebanon with fuel for six months
Iraq provides Lebanon with the fuel in exchange for health care to Iraqi citizens
Updated 29 March 2025
Reuters
BEIRUT: Iraq has agreed to supply Lebanon with fuel for six more months, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said in a statement on Saturday, renewing a deal meant to alleviate Lebanon’s acute power shortage.
Under the heavy fuel oil deal, first agreed in July 2021, Iraq provides the Lebanese government with the fuel in exchange for services including health care for Iraqi citizens.
Lebanon then swaps the heavy fuel oil for gas oil that it can use at its power stations.
These have operated for decades at partial capacity, but electricity provision deteriorated further during a financial crisis that has hit the state’s ability to buy fuel.
Iran approves plan to slash four zeros from currency
Lawmakers passed the bill two months after a parliamentary commission revived the long-stalled proposal aimed at simplifying transactions
Updated 3 sec ago
AFP
TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament on Sunday approved a plan to remove four zeros from the national currency, the rial, which has sharply depreciated as the country grapples with renewed sanctions. Lawmakers passed the bill two months after a parliamentary commission revived the long-stalled proposal aimed at simplifying transactions, the legislature’s website said. Under the plan, 10,000 current rials will be replaced by one new rial. Both versions will circulate for up to three years, with the central bank given two years to launch the transition. The rial has hit repeated record lows in recent days, according to black market trackers, amid the reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran. Britain, France and Germany — signatories to Iran’s moribund 2015 nuclear deal — last month triggered the “snapback” mechanism to restore the international sanctions over the Islamic republic’s non-compliance. On Sunday, the rial was trading at about 1,115,000 to the US dollar, compared with around 920,000 when the plan was revived in early August. The redenomination was first floated in 2019 but later shelved. It still requires approval by the Guardian Council and the signature of President Masoud Pezeshkian to take effect. In daily life, Iranians drop a zero from the rial and use the resulting figure, called the toman, for most transactions.
Morocco sees eighth straight day of youth protests/node/2617824/middle-east
Morocco sees eighth straight day of youth protests
Members of a Moroccan online youth collective protested for the eighth consecutive day on Saturday, demanding better public health and education services
Updated 41 min 26 sec ago
AFP
RABAT: Members of a Moroccan online youth collective protested for the eighth consecutive day on Saturday, demanding better public health and education services.
The demonstrations in the usually stable North African kingdom have bucked the perception of young Moroccans as being politically disengaged, and have been organized since last Saturday by GenZ 212, a group active on the web platform Discord.
In Tetouan, in the north of the country, hundreds of people gathered, chanting slogans such as “The people want an end to corruption” and “Freedom, dignity and social justice,” local media reported.
In the western city of Casablanca, protesters shouted “The people want education and health,” while in the capital, Rabat, a dozen people gathered in front of parliament, an AFP photographer said.
GenZ 212, whose founders remain anonymous, earlier on Discord called for protests in 14 cities between 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) and 9:00 pm.
They want reforms to social services, particularly health care and education, as well as an end to corruption and the resignation of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, whose tenure ends next year.
On Friday evening, hundreds of people rallied in numerous cities, including Rabat and Agadir.
Two days earlier, there were reports of violence in several smaller towns, with three people killed by police “in legitimate defense” after they allegedly tried to storm a station in the village of Lqliaa, near Agadir, the authorities said.
GenZ 212, which has more than 180,000 members on Discord, insists on the nonviolent nature of its protests, and the gatherings since then have been largely peaceful.
The rallies follow on from isolated protests that broke out in mid-September in several cities after reports of the deaths of eight pregnant women at the public hospital in Agadir who had been admitted for cesarean sections.
Demonstrators have seized on the deaths as evidence of the public health sector’s shortcomings, feeding wider discontent over social inequalities.
Israeli army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
Updated 05 October 2025
AFP
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, from where Houthi rebels frequently launch attacks they describe as a response to the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF,” the Israeli Defense Forces said, using an acronym for the air force.
“Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” it said.
The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, regularly send missiles or drones toward Israel, the vast majority of which are shot down.
But last month, a drone attack claimed by the Houthis evaded Israeli air defenses and wounded 22 people in the tourist resort of Eilat.
Israel launched in response strikes on what it described as Houthi-linked targets in the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
The strikes killed at least nine people and wounded more than 170, according to the Houthis.
Negotiators due in Cairo for Gaza ceasefire, hostage release talks
The diplomatic moves came after Hamas responded positively to Trump’s roadmap for freeing the captives and administering post-war Gaza
Trump warned he would “not tolerate delay” from Hamas, urging the group to move quickly toward a deal “or else all bets will be off”
Updated 05 October 2025
AFP
CAIRO: Negotiators were converging on Cairo on Sunday ahead of talks aimed at ending nearly two years of war in Gaza, with Israel’s leader expressing hope that the hostages still being held there would be released in a matter of days.
The diplomatic moves came after the Palestinian militant group Hamas responded positively to US President Donald Trump’s roadmap for freeing the captives and administering post-war Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he had ordered negotiators to Egypt “to finalize the technical details,” while Cairo confirmed it would also be hosting a delegation from Hamas for talks on “the ground conditions and details of the exchange of all Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners.”
Egyptian state-linked media had previously reported that the warring parties would hold indirect talks on Sunday and Monday.
Trump also dispatched two envoys to Egypt on Saturday, according to the White House, sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his main Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff.
The US president warned he would “not tolerate delay” from Hamas, urging the group to move quickly toward a deal “or else all bets will be off.”
In a televised statement on Saturday, Netanyahu credited “military and diplomatic pressure” with compelling Hamas to agree to release the captives.
“I hope that in the coming days we will be able to bring back all our hostages... during the Sukkot holidays,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Jewish festival that begins on Monday and runs for one week.
On Friday night, Hamas had announced “its approval for the release of all hostages — living and remains — according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal.”
Trump immediately hailed the statement as evidence the group was “ready for a lasting PEACE,” calling on Israel to stop its bombing.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, insisted in his remarks on Saturday that “Hamas will be disarmed... either diplomatically via Trump’s plan or militarily by us.”
On Saturday night, crowds gathered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to call for an end to the war and to urge Trump to ensure a deal was struck.
The talks will take place two days before the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the conflict.
Strikes continue
Despite Trump’s call for a pause in operations, Israel carried out deadly strikes across Gaza on Saturday.
“The death toll from the ongoing Israeli bombardment since dawn today stands at 57, including 40 in Gaza City alone,” said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the civil defense agency, a rescue organization that operates under Hamas authority.
Israeli forces have carried out a sweeping air and ground assault in recent weeks around the city.
Mahmud Al-Ghazi, 39, a resident of Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, said “Israel has actually escalated its attacks” since Trump’s call for a pause.
“Who will stop Israel now? We need the negotiations to move faster to stop this genocide and the ongoing bloodshed,” he added.
The Israeli military said it was still operating in Gaza City and warned residents not to return there, adding that doing so would be “extremely dangerous.”
No role for Hamas
A Hamas official said Egypt, a mediator in the truce talks, would host a conference for Palestinian factions to decide on post-war plans for Gaza.
In its response to the Trump plan, Hamas had insisted it should have a say in the territory’s future.
Trump’s roadmap stipulates that Hamas and other factions “not have any role in the governance of Gaza,” while also calling for a halt to hostilities, the release of hostages within 72 hours, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’s disarmament.
Under the proposal, administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.
An AFP journalist in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi reported hearing celebratory cries of “Allahu akbar!” (God is greatest) from tents housing Palestinians as news of Hamas’s statement spread.
“The best thing is that President Trump himself announced a ceasefire, and Netanyahu will not be able to escape this time... (Trump) is the only one who can force Israel to comply and stop the war,” said Sami Adas, 50, who lives in a tent in Gaza City with his family.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,074 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
Syrian electors cast ballots in indirect vote for first post-Assad parliament
The indirect vote will see a combined 6,000 electors cast ballots at regional electoral colleges
Updated 05 October 2025
Reuters
DAMASCUS: Members of Syria’s electoral colleges will gather on Sunday to vote for new lawmakers, a milestone in the country’s shift away from the ousted regime of Bashar Assad and a major test of inclusivity under its current Islamist-led authorities.
President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who came to power after his rebel offensive toppled Assad in December, is trying to consolidate his hold over a nation fractured by a 14-year war and bouts of sectarian violence that fueled distrust of him among minorities.
The indirect vote will see a combined 6,000 electors cast ballots at regional electoral colleges starting around 9:00 a.m. local (0600 GMT), with polls closing around 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).
A committee appointed by Sharaa approved 1,570 candidates who showcased their platforms in seminars and debates this week. But public electioneering was muted, with no posters or billboards visible in major cities, Reuters reporters said.
Sunday’s vote will determine two-thirds of the 210-seat parliament, and results are expected the same night. But the legislature will not be formally established until Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda fighter, selects the remaining third.
The authorities say they resorted to this system rather than universal suffrage due to a lack of reliable population data and following the displacement of millions of Syrians by the war.
Citing security and political reasons, they postponed the vote in three provinces held by minority groups — leaving 19 seats in parliament empty.
Critics have slammed those moves, saying a partial and indirect vote is unrepresentative and too centrally managed.
Analysts say Sharaa’s selection of 70 lawmakers will ultimately determine the new body’s effectiveness and legitimacy: choosing women or minority lawmakers could add diversity, but loyalists could help him to issue laws without a legislative challenge.
