6 Gulf Times

Monday, May 24, 2021

REGION/ARAB WORLD/AFRICA
Kuwait eases virus curbs

UN official urges
‘political process’
amid Gaza
reconstruction
AFP
Gaza City

A
UN official in war-bat-
tered Gaza yesterday
Kuwaitis enjoy a meal in a restaurant, adhering to safety regulations, in the capital Kuwait City, called for a “genuine po-
yesterday, on the first day after the government eased restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. litical process” to avert further
bloodshed after the military
conflict between Israel and Ha-
mas that ravaged the Palestin-
ian enclave.
As thousands of Gazans

Iran says IAEA access to slowly tried to piece back to-

gether their lives, top UN staff
visited the territory after an
Egyptian-brokered ceasefire

nuclear sites images has Friday halted 11 days of mutual

bombardment.
Yesterday, in a badly-dam-
aged district of Gaza city, vol-

ended, extension possible unteers swept up clouds of dust

Reuters according to the member of Iran’s Supreme Na-
Dubai tional Security Council.
Western diplomats have said that not extending
the IAEA deal could seriously harm efforts to sal-
at the feet of collapsed build-
ings, while others shovelled de-
bris onto the back of a donkey-
drawn cart.
Israeli air strikes on the Gaza
Strip since May 10 have killed
more than 200 Palestinians,

T
he speaker of Iran’s parliament said yester-
day a three-month monitoring deal between
Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog had
expired and that its access to images from inside
some Iranian nuclear sites would cease.
The announcement raised further questions
about the future of indirect talks under way be-
tween the United States and Iran on reviving the
2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and
Tehran struck the three-month monitoring agree-
ment in February to cushion the blow of Iran reduc-
ing its co-operation with the agency, and it allowed
monitoring of some activities that would otherwise
have been axed to continue.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi is in talks with Iran on
extending it.
European diplomats said last week that failure to
agree an extension would plunge the wider, indirect
talks between Washington and Tehran on reviving
the 2015 deal into crisis.
Those talks are due to resume in Vienna this
week. The IAEA had planned for Grossi to hold a
news conference but it said he was still “consult-
ing with Tehran” and that his news conference had
been postponed until today morning.
“From May 22 and with the end of the three-
month agreement, the (IAEA) agency will have no
access to data collected by cameras inside the nu-
clear facilities agreed under the agreement,” state
TV quoted parliament speaker Mohamed Baqer
Qalibaf as saying.
An unnamed official was also quoted as saying
that the agreement between the IAEA and Tehran
could be extended “conditionally” for a month.
“If extended for a month and if during this period
major powers...accept Iran’s legal demands, then
the data will be handed over to the agency.
Otherwise the images will be deleted forever,”
vage the 2015 nuclear accord, which aims to keep rendered thousands homeless
Iran from being able to make nuclear arms, which and laid waste to buildings and
Tehran says it has never wanted to build. key infrastructure across the
Iran and global powers have held several rounds blockaded territory. Palestinian volunteers use a donkey-pulled cart to transport rubble as they clean up the streets in the
of negotiations since April in Vienna, working on It was the latest such bom- Al-Remal commercial district in Gaza City, recently targeted by Israeli air strikes, yesterday.
steps that Tehran and Washington must take, on bardment to hit the crowded
sanctions and nuclear activities, to return to full coastal strip of some 2mn peo- Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 248 are ever going to recover from
compliance with the nuclear pact. ple, after three previous wars Palestinians, including 66 chil- this,” she said.
Iran began gradually breaching terms of the 2015 with Israel since 2008. dren, and have wounded over Authorities Saturday started
pact with world powers after former President Philippe Lazzarini, head of 1,900 people, the Gaza health distributing tents and mat-
Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the UN Palestinian refugee ministry says. tresses in the Gaza Strip, as
the deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions. agency UNRWA, said the re- Rockets from Gaza claimed OCHA said at least 6,000 peo-
Without commenting on the parliament speak- construction needed to go hand 12 lives in Israel, including one ple had been made homeless by
er’s earlier announcement, Iran’s pragmatist presi- in hand with efforts to create child and an Arab-Israeli teen- the bombardment.
dent, Hassan Rouhani, said yesterday that Tehran “a different political environ- ager, an Israeli soldier, one In- Lorries bringing much-
would continue the talks in Vienna “until reaching ment”. dian, and two Thai nationals, needed medicine, food and fuel
a final agreement”. He also repeated an earlier state- “We need to have a genuine medics say. entered Gaza on Friday through
ment that “Washington has agreed to lift sanc- focus on human development,” Some 357 people in Israel the Kerem Shalom crossing af-
tions” on Iran, according to Iranian state media. on proper access to education, have been wounded. ter Israel reopened it.
Other parties to the talks and Iran’s top nuclear jobs and livelihoods, he said. There is controversy about Peace talks have stalled since
negotiator have said some important issues need “But this needs to be accom- how many of those killed in 2014, including over the status
further discussion for revival of the nuclear deal. panied by a genuine political Gaza were combatants, and of occupied east Jerusalem and
To pressure President Joe Biden’s administra- process”. how many were civilians. United Nations Relief and Works Israeli settlements in the occu-
tion to return to the nuclear pact and lift sanctions, Speaking earlier to a group of Israel’s Prime Minister Ben- Agency for Palestine Refugees pied West Bank.
Iran’s parliament passed a law last year to end its journalists, he said “the layers jamin Netanyahu claimed the in the Near East (UNRWA) Yesterday, Jewish visitors
obligation to allow the IAEA short-notice inspec- of hardship in Gaza keep get- bombing campaign had killed Commissioner-General Philippe entered the Al Aqsa compound
tions to check nuclear work is not being covertly ting thicker”, because the root “more than 200 fighters” in Lazzarini speaks during a for the first time in about three
put to military ends. causes of the conflict have not Gaza. press conference in Gaza City, weeks. A Palestinian presi-
To give diplomacy a chance, the watchdog and been addressed. Lynn Hastings, of the UN yesterday. dential spokesman warned the
Iran agreed in February to keep “necessary” IAEA BLINKEN SUPPORTS humanitarian agency OCHA, Israeli visits could “sabotage”
monitoring and verification activities in the Islamic TWO-STATE SOLUTION said the intense bombing had there was absolutely no pause the Gaza ceasefire. Israeli po-
Republic. Qalibaf told parliament’s open session, US Secretary of State Antony devastated people’s mental for people to breathe. lice on Friday fired stun gre-
aired by state TV, that Iran’s ultimate authority, Su- Blinken, speaking ahead of an health. During the last war in “The comments that I have nades at worshippers in the Al
preme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, backed the imminent trip to the region, 2014, “we had humanitarian heard are not ‘I need access to Aqsa compound, and beat an
law. “Yesterday it was discussed and the decision reaffirmed Washington’s sup- pauses, where people were able water’ — even though there are AFP photographer covering
was made. The law passed by the parliament will be port for a two-state solution to get out,” she said. 800,000 people who don’t have the unrest. The incident was
implemented. The supreme leader has underlined so Israelis and Palestinians can “That really speaks to the access to clean water right now reminiscent of the tensions
the importance of implementing the law as well,” live “with equal measures of amount of trauma that was — but about the impacts on that sparked the latest round of
Qalibaf said. security, of peace and dignity”. experienced this time, where their lives overall and how they conflict.

Lorry crash leaves 14 Goma city ‘spared’ as river of lava UAE says it is ready to
dead in Guinea-Bissau from DR Congo volcano halts facilitate peace efforts
AFP south of the capital Bissau. AFP Reuters ment of formal channels under
Bissau Thirteen people were killed Goma Dubai the accords would allow the
when the truck collided with Gulf state to play a similar dip-
several houses in the early lomatic role in the Israeli-Pal-

F A
ourteen people died in
southern Guinea-Bissau
yesterday after a lorry
crashed into village homes, ac-
cording to a police officer in the
West African country.
The driver was speeding
round a bend, the officer said,
when he lost control and ca-
reered into the small village
of Cambesse, 180 kilometres
hours of the morning, added
the police officer, who declined
to be named.
The driver was also killed. A
hospital worker in Bissau con-
firmed the death toll to AFP.
Guinea-Bissau is an impover-
ished former Portuguese colony
of about 2mn people, where the
state of roads is poor and acci-
dents are frequent.
river of red-hot lava
came to a halt on the
outskirts of Goma
yesterday, sparing the city in
eastern DR Congo from disas-
ter after the nighttime erup-
tion of the Nyiragongo volca-
no sent thousands of terrified
residents fleeing in panic.
Fire and fumes emanated
from the blackish molten rock
as it swallowed up houses,
heading towards Goma air-
port on the shores of Lake
Kivu and leaving smouldering
T
he United Arab Emirates
stands ready to facilitate
peace efforts between Is-
rael and the Palestinians, the de
facto ruler of the Gulf state said
in remarks carried on state me-
dia yesterday.
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-
Nahyan made the comments in
a telephone call with Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,
Residents pick up remains of their destroyed homes from the whose country, with US sup-
smouldering lava deposited by the eruption of Mount port, brokered a ceasefire on
Nyiragongo volcano near Goma, yesterday. Friday that ended the fiercest
estinian conflict to Egypt and
Jordan, which have peace deals
with Israel.
Egypt and Qatar led regional
efforts for the ceasefire that
ended 11 days of fighting.
Jordan’s King Abdullah
stressed the importance of
translating the Gaza ceasefire
into an extended truce, and
said there is no alternative to a
two-state solution between Is-
rael and the Palestinians, Reu-
ters added from Cairo.
King Abdullah called for

Iran explosives factory wreckage in its wake, an AFP

correspondent said.
But the military governor of
Another four people were
shot dead while trying to es-
his weekly Angelus prayer at
the Vatican yesterday, when
fighting in years between Israel
and Hamas.
The UAE, which last year
“stepping up Arab and inter-
national efforts to translate the
ceasefire into an extended truce

blast injures nine North Kivu province said “the

AFP The blast occurred at Sepahan
Tehran Nargostar Chemical Industries at
4:00am local time (2330 GMT)
due to “unclear reasons still be-
city was spared” by a matter
of a few hundred metres after
“the lava halted near Buhene
on the outskirts of Goma”.
Nine people were nonethe-
less killed in accidents during
the evacuations, said General
cape Goma’s Munzenze pris-
on, according to local military
spokesman Guillaume Njike
Kaiko. Many families slept
on pavements surrounded by
their belongings under a night
sky turned red by the erup-
tion of Africa’s most active
the area felt around a dozen
tremors.
Ndima said 7,000 people
fled overnight to neighbour-
ing Rwanda before returning.
“All the Goma residents
returned home without in-
cident this morning after
normalised ties with Israel, “is
ready to work with all parties to
maintain the ceasefire and ex-
plore new paths to reduce esca-
lation and achieve peace”, state
news agency WAM cited Sheikh
Mohamed as saying.
The Crown Prince stressed
to push for a political solution
that fulfils the legitimate rights
of Palestinians”, the royal court
wrote on Twitter.
King Abdullah said Jor-
dan “puts all its diplomatic
relations and capabilities at
the service of the Palestin-

A
t least nine people were
injured in a blast yester-
day at a plant producing
explosive materials in Iran’s cen-
tral province of Isfahan, ISNA
news agency reported.
ing investigated,” said Mansour
Shisheforoush, head of the prov-
ince’s crisis management organi-
sation. Nine factory workers were
injured and transferred to hospi-
tal, he added.
Constant Ndima, appointed
governor early this month
when the province was placed
under a “state of siege” to
combat violence by armed
groups.
volcano.
“They lost everything...
hundreds of people,” one resi-
dent said.
Pope Francis offered a spe-
cial prayer for Goma during
spending the night in emer-
gency shelters which Rwanda
set up, mainly schools,” said
Rwanda’s minister for emer-
gency management, Marie
Solange Kayisire.
however the need for “addi-
tional efforts, especially by Is-
raeli and Palestinian leaders”.
UAE ambassador to Wash-
ington Yousef al-Otaiba said
last month that the establish-
ian cause”, state news agency
Petra reported. The king also
said “there is no alternative to
a two-state solution to achieve
just and comprehensive peace”,
Petra added.