CNN
 — 

At least 4 prisoners have been killed and 61 injured after a fire at Evin prison in northern Tehran, Iranian state media IRNA reported, attributing Iranian authorities.

The prisoners died of smoke inhalation, IRNA added. The fire occurred Saturday evening and an Iranian safety official mentioned “thugs” set fire to the warehouse of prison clothes, IRNA reported earlier.

A giant, darkish plume of smoke was seen billowing close to the prison in a number of movies on social media Saturday evening.

The fire has been contained, and “peace is maintained,” the governor of Tehran, Mohsen Mansouri, instructed IRNA, including that the fire was began by prisoners. Tehran’s Evin Prison is a notoriously brutal facility the place the regime incarcerates political dissidents.

“Now the situation of the prison is completely under control and peace is maintained in the prison complex and the streets around the prison are being monitored and under control,” Mansouri mentioned.

Activist group 1500tasvir reported that in movies posted on social media, gunshots have been heard and Iranian particular forces have been seen heading to the realm the place the prison is believed to be situated.

The Iranian official mentioned that the “rioters” have been separated from different prisoners and the opposite detainees have returned to their cells, IRNA reported. CNN can not independently confirm the state of affairs.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard responded on Twitter to the social media movies with a reminder to Iranian authorities of their “legal obligation to respect and protect” the lives of prisoners following the fire.

Callamard famous the prison is “notorious” and retweeted a put up from journalist Jason Rezaian whose “544 Days” podcast recounts the time he spent incarcerated in the prison.

“Evin is no ordinary prison. Many of Iran’s best and brightest have spent long stretches confined there, where brave women and men are denied their basic rights for speaking truth to power,” Rezaian wrote. “The regime is responsible for what happens to those inside right now.”

Speaking to state broadcaster IRIB, Tehran’s prosecutor Ali Salehi mentioned the “conflict” at the prison was not linked to the protests which have swept the nation following the dying of a younger lady in police custody.

In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after she was detained by the nation’s morality police for allegedly not sporting her hijab correctly. Iranian authorities have since unleashed a brutal crackdown on demonstrators, who’ve united round a variety of grievances with the nation’s authoritarian regime.

“Today’s conflict of prisoners has nothing to do with the recent riots, and basically, the ward related to security prisoners is separate and distant from the prisons of thieves and financial convicts where the fire and conflict took place,” Salehi mentioned.

According to Tehran’s prosecutor, Wards 7 and eight have been overcrowded, and the primary concern was the fire – which he mentioned had been began by some prisoners. Both the prison and the encompassing streets are below management now, he mentioned.

Witnesses beforehand mentioned that Iranian safety forces beat, shot and detained college students at Tehran’s Sharif University. Last month, almost two dozen youngsters have been killed in the course of the protests, in response to a report by Amnesty International.

At least 23 youngsters – some as younger as 11 – have been killed by safety forces in the final 10 days of September alone, the report said.

Earlier this week, an Iranian official also admitted that college college students collaborating in road protests are being detained and brought to psychiatric establishments.

Editor’s Note: A model of this story first appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile within the Middle East e-newsletter, a three-times-a-week look contained in the area’s largest tales. Sign up here.

Abu Dhabi and London
CNN
 — 

Quite a bit has occurred since Gulf Arab states downgraded ties with Iran in January 2016 when an offended mob stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and set fireplace to it following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

Iran’s nuclear settlement with world powers got here into impact that month, however the Trump administration withdrew from it simply two years later, resulting in a wave of tit-for-tat attacks that affected oil and delivery within the Persian Gulf.

Those tensions culminated in a 2019 assault on Saudi oil facilities that knocked off half of the dominion’s crude manufacturing and threatened the very core of Gulf states’ economies. It was a part of a proxy battle between the US and Iran, with the Arab states caught in the line of fire.

As tensions grew, Gulf states discovered the US standing on the sidelines, both unwilling or unable to return to their rescue, with their very own traces of communication with Iran all however severed.

But a lot has modified since then. The United Arab Emirates is ready to revive prime degree diplomatic relations, saying on Sunday that its ambassador, Saif Mohammed Al Zaabi, would return to Tehran “in [the] coming days.” Kuwait returned its ambassador final week and Saudi Arabia, whose lead the Gulf states adopted in downgrading ties with Iran six years in the past, is holding direct talks with the Islamic Republic.

“It’s obvious there is a regional direction that is in tandem with Saudi movement,” Mohammed Baharoon, director basic of the Dubai Public Policy Research Centre, advised CNN.

The resolution to return the ambassador “comes within the UAE’s regional orientation towards restoring bridges, strengthening relations, maximizing on what we share and building on it to create an atmosphere of trust, understanding and cooperation,” tweeted Anwar Gargash, adviser to the UAE president.

Dina Esfandiary, a Middle East adviser on the International Crisis Group assume tank, mentioned Gulf Arab states have developed a “pragmatic policy” on Iran that includes each containment and engagement “because they realized just one would not work on its own.”

She advised CNN that, when the US didn’t comply with by way of on defending its Arab companions following the Aramco assaults “it became imperative [for the UAE] to secure itself without relying on others – the US in particular – and engaging with Iran is a part of that.”

Ties between Abu Dhabi and Tehran have been progressively bettering since then. The UAE is now the highest exporter to Iran with bilateral commerce rising to $21.4 billion in four months from March this 12 months, from simply $7 billion for all of 2019, in keeping with Reuters.

“Financially and commercially, the UAE benefits the most from lessening regional tensions,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political science professor within the UAE, advised CNN. “Even during the worst of political tensions between the two countries, trade was uninterrupted. It went down, but never stopped.”

The rapprochement comes amid uncertainty concerning the progress of oblique talks between the US and Iran to revive the nuclear settlement. If there’s a new settlement, it could cut back the chance of a nuclear arms race within the already-tense area. But Gulf states worry that lifting the sanctions on Iran will unlock billions of {dollars} that can be utilized by Tehran to additional arm itself and develop its affect in Arab nations by way of proxies.

If the talks fail, observers say regional tensions might escalate as they did when then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the settlement, probably dragging the area to battle. For Gulf states, each eventualities are a trigger for concern.

“For the Gulf Arabs, a return to the nuclear deal or no return is more or less the same: They anticipate that Iran will lash out in the region no matter the outcome,” mentioned Esfandiary. “So, while they continue to watch this carefully, the efforts to improve their ties are more closely linked to their security and threat perceptions than the nuclear deal itself.”

Abdulla mentioned Iran stays a critical menace to Gulf safety “with or without” a nuclear settlement. “So, one way to deal with Iran is to continue the conversation and find common ground for good neighborly relations.”

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are the one Gulf Arab nations with no ambassador in Tehran.

Iran mentioned on Monday that talks with Saudi Arabia had been a separate matter from talks to revive the nuclear pact, including that cooperation between Tehran and Riyadh might assist restore calm and safety within the Middle East.

The resumption of diplomatic ties is “not a silver bullet,” Baharoon mentioned. “It is an important step, nonetheless. Diplomatic ties are lines of communication that help directly in reducing tension and dealing with it. [We] can’t have cooperation if we are not talking to each other.”

US says Iran drops key demand as progress on a revived nuclear deal edges ahead

A senior US administration official advised CNN on Friday that Iran had dropped a key “red line” demand that had been a significant sticking level in efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The Iranians additionally dropped calls for associated to delisting a number of corporations tied to the nation’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the official mentioned. Iran on Monday mentioned the US had “not yet responded to the proposals of the European side” and accused the US of “procrastinating” in talks.

Landslide hits Shiite shrine in Iraq killing no less than 7 folks

At least seven folks had been killed after a landslide struck a Shiite mosque west of Karbala province in Iraq on Saturday, in keeping with the Interior Ministry. The whole variety of folks trapped below the rubble continues to be unknown.

Plane did not descend as pilots reportedly fell asleep throughout flight

Two pilots are believed to have fallen asleep and missed their touchdown throughout a flight from Sudan to Ethiopia final Monday, in keeping with a report by business aviation information website Aviation Herald. The incident happened on board an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 en route from Khartoum to Addis Ababa, the report mentioned, “when the pilots fell asleep” and “the aircraft continued past the top of descent.”

Iraq’s overseas ministry has recalled its ambassador to Jordan after photographs of him and his spouse with a well-known Lebanese singer brought about a storm on social media.

The photographs present the ambassador, Haidar Al Athari, and his spouse posing with music star Ragheb Alama. The three are pictured standing very shut to one another, with Al Athari’s spouse within the center.

Some customers accused the ambassador and his spouse of flouting diplomatic protocol by embracing the singer, whereas others decried the controversy as a storm in a teacup for a rustic that faces a bunch of issues. Much of the criticism was directed on the ambassador’s spouse, who in a single image is seen holding the singer’s hand.

“We are following closely what’s been shared on social media, of pictures involving the ambassador of Iraq to the Jordanian Hashemite Kingdom… suitable procedures will be taken as soon as possible on this matter, in a way that boosts Iraqi diplomatic values,” mentioned the ministry’s official spokesman Ahmed Al-Sahhaf.

Layal Shaker, a resident of Iraq, pointed out how her nation has greater fish to fry. “Iraq has shifted its focus from Zakho’s shelling that killed nine people, the political deadlock engulfing the country, the shrine collapse, to photos of the Iraqi ambassador’s wife with Ragheb Alama.”

By Mohammed Abdelbary

Middle Eastern oil exporting states are anticipated to earn as much as $1.3 trillion in extra oil revenues over the following 4 years, the Financial Times reported, citing the International Monetary Fund. The rise in oil costs attributable to the battle in Ukraine has seen Gulf states report funds surpluses after years of posting deficits.

Jerusalem and Gaza
CNN
 — 

The Israeli army launched lethal strikes towards what it stated had been Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza on Friday as tensions proceed to rise between Israel and Palestinian militant teams.

Islamic Jihad stated in an announcement that one in all its senior leaders, Tayseer Al Jabari, had been killed in an Israeli strike. He was a commander within the Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the group stated, and a member of its Military Council.

The Palestinian well being ministry stated at the least 10 individuals had been killed, together with a 5-year-old lady and a 23-year-old lady. Another 75 had been injured, it stated. Israel insists most of these killed had been militants.

A CNN producer in Gaza noticed medics carrying two our bodies out of a constructing known as the Palestine Tower that had been hit in one of many strikes.

An Israeli military assertion stated the army operation – which it known as ‘Breaking Dawn’ – was concentrating on Islamic Jihad, the smaller of the 2 predominant militant teams in Gaza.

The Israeli military stated the primary focus of its army motion was a pre-emptive air-strike on Al Jabari, and strikes on two anti-tank squads which had been en path to finishing up an assault on Israeli forces.

On a name with reporters Friday night time, a military spokesman stated the 2 squads had been tracked for a number of days earlier than the Air Force carried out its operation, including that Israel had been dealing with an imminent menace for a number of days as the 2 militant items moved very near the fence that separates Gaza from Israel.

A “special situation” has been declared in areas round Gaza, in anticipation of attainable rocket hearth, or different retaliatory assaults, the Israeli military stated.

“The goal of this operation is the elimination of a concrete threat against the citizens of Israel and the civilians living adjacent to the Gaza Strip, as well as the targeting of terrorists and their sponsors,” Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated in a joint assertion.

“The Israeli government will not allow terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to set the agenda in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and threaten the citizens of the State of Israel. Anyone who tries to harm Israel should know: We will find you,” Lapid stated.

Islamic Jihad has vowed to reply. “All options are open, with all means that the Palestinian resistance has, whether in Gaza or outside,” spokesman Daoud Shehab stated on Al Jazeera. “The battlefield is open … The resistance will respond with all force. We will not say how, but it is inevitable.”

Meanwhile, Gantz approved the call-up of 25,000 reservists on Friday night, signaling Israel’s preparedness for a full-scale escalation.

Those instantly known as up will reinforce the military’s southern command, which incorporates the realm round Gaza, in addition to items working Israel’s aerial protection methods, amongst different deployments, the Defense Ministry stated.

Sirens indicating incoming rocket hearth had been heard within the southern city of Sderot and different villages near Gaza late Friday night. Earlier, sirens sounded in Bat Yam, positioned just some kilometers south of Tel Aviv, and in Yavne, which lies between Tel Aviv and Ashdod. Israeli media reported that many rockets have been intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial protection system, with no reviews of any casualties in Israel.

The Israeli military stated that it continues to strike Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, together with a rocket-launching web site close to the southern Gazan metropolis of Khan Younis. The military additionally stated it’s putting weapons manufacturing services.

Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, has condemned the Israeli motion. “The Israeli enemy, who started the escalation against Gaza and committed a new crime, must pay the price and bear full responsibility for it,” spokesman Fawzi Barhoum stated.

Tor Wennesland, the UN’s prime official within the Middle East, stated he was deeply involved by the continuing escalation between the 2 sides.

Referencing the killing of a five-year-old lady, Wennesland stated there could possibly be “no justification for any attacks against civilians,” and addressing militants, stated that “the launching of rockets must cease immediately, and I call on all sides to avoid further escalation.”

The UN, together with Egypt, has typically performed a key middleman function between Israel and Palestinian militants in restoring a ceasefire after hostilities have damaged out.

Wennesland stated the UN was “fully engaged with all concerned” to attempt to keep away from an extra deterioration. But he added that “the responsibility is with the parties to avoid this from happening.”

Friday’s strikes come after Israeli forces captured a senior Islamic Jihad commander, Bassam al-Saadi, throughout a raid on Monday night time within the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

During that operation, a 17-year-old Palestinian linked to Islamic Jihad was shot lifeless in an alternate of gunfire with Israeli troopers, in line with the Israeli army. The Palestinian well being ministry stated he had been shot within the head by Israeli forces.

Saadi was one in all two needed terror suspects apprehended in that raid, Israel stated. The Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, stated it was mobilizing its forces throughout the Palestinian territories in response.

Recent months have seen repeated Israeli operations in and round Jenin, after a number of deadly assaults inside Israel had been carried out by Palestinian gunmen from the area. Thirty Palestinians have been killed within the raids because the begin of the yr, in line with the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

CNN
 — 

The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, President Joe Biden stated Monday in a speech from the White House.

“I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all,” Biden stated.

Zawahiri, who simply turned 71 years outdated, had remained a visual worldwide image of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one level, he acted as bin Laden’s personal physician.

Zawahiri was sheltering in downtown Kabul to reunite together with his household, Biden stated, and was killed in what a senior administration official described as “a precise tailored airstrike” utilizing two Hellfire missiles. The drone strike was carried out at 9:48 p.m. ET on Saturday was licensed by Biden following weeks of conferences together with his Cabinet and key advisers, the official stated on Monday, including that no American personnel have been on the bottom in Kabul on the time of the strike.

Senior Haqqani Taliban figures have been conscious of Zawahiri’s presence in the world, the official stated, in “clear violation of the Doha agreement,” and even took steps to hide his presence after Saturday’s profitable strike, proscribing entry to the protected home and quickly relocating members of his household, together with his daughter and her youngsters, who have been deliberately not focused throughout the strike and remained unhurt. The US didn’t alert Taliban officers forward of Saturday’s strike.

In a sequence of tweets, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid stated, “An air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city on July 31.”

He stated, “The nature of the incident was not apparent at first” however the safety and intelligence companies of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and “initial findings determined that the strike was carried out by an American drone.”

The tweets by Mujahid got here out previous to CNN reporting Zawahiri’s loss of life. Mujahid stated the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan “strongly condemns this attack on any pretext and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement.”

Biden, who was saved abreast of the strike towards Zawahiri as he remoted with a rebound case of Covid-19, spoke outside Monday from the Blue Room Balcony on the White House.

Zawahiri, Biden stated, “was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on American soil. For decades, he was the mastermind of attacks against Americans.”

“Now, justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more. People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer,” he continued. “The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm. We make it clear again tonight, that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

The President stated the precision strike focusing on was the results of the “extraordinary persistence and skill” of the nation’s intelligence neighborhood.

“Our intelligence community located Zawahiri earlier this year – he moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his immediate family,” Biden stated.

The strike comes one 12 months after Biden ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, prompting Taliban forces to quickly seize management of the nation.

Biden stated on Monday that when he withdrew US troops from the nation, he “made the decision that after 20 years of war, the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists who seek to do us harm, and I made a promise to the American people, that we continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond. We’ve done just that.”

Biden pledged that Zawahiri “will never again allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven, because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens.”

The President concluded by expressing gratitude to US intelligence and counterterrorism communities, saying that he hopes Zawahiri’s loss of life will convey some measure of closure to the chums and households of 9/11 victims.

“To those who continue to seek to harm the United States, hear me now: We will always remain vigilant and we will act – and we will always do what is necessary to ensure the safety and security of Americans at home and around the globe,” he concluded.

Zawahiri comes from a distinguished Egyptian household, according to the New York Times. His grandfather, Rabia’a al-Zawahiri, was an imam at al-Azhar University in Cairo. His great-uncle, Abdel Rahman Azzam, was the primary secretary of the Arab League.

He ultimately helped to mastermind the deadliest terror assault on American soil, when hijackers turned US airliners into missiles.

“Those 19 brothers who went out and gave their souls to Allah almighty, God almighty has granted them this victory we are enjoying now,” al-Zawahiri stated in a videotaped message launched in April 2002.

It was the primary of many taunting messages the terrorist – who turned al Qaeda’s leader after US forces killed bin Laden in 2011 – would ship out through the years, urging militants to proceed the battle towards America and chiding US leaders.

Zawahiri was continually on the transfer as soon as the US-led invasion of Afghanistan started after the September 11, 2001, assaults. At one level, he narrowly escaped a US onslaught in the rugged, mountainous Tora Bora area of Afghanistan, an assault that left his spouse and youngsters useless.

He made his public debut as a Muslim militant when he was in jail for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

“We want to speak to the whole world. Who are we? Who are we?” he stated in a jailhouse interview.

By that point, al-Zawahiri, a younger physician, was already a dedicated terrorist who conspired to overthrow the Egyptian authorities for years and sought to interchange it with fundamentalist Islamic rule. He proudly endorsed Sadat’s assassination after the Egyptian leader made peace with Israel.

He spent three years in jail after Sadat’s assassination and claimed he was tortured whereas in detention. After his launch, he made his option to Pakistan, the place he handled wounded mujahadeen fighters who fought towards the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

That was when he met bin Laden and located a standard trigger.

“We are working with brother bin Laden,” he stated in asserting the merger of his terror group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, with al Qaeda in May 1998. “We know him since more than 10 years now. We fought with him here in Afghanistan.”

Together, the 2 terror leaders signed a fatwa, or declaration: “The judgment to kill and fight Americans and their allies, whether civilians or military, is an obligation for every Muslim.”

The assaults towards the US and its amenities started weeks later, with the suicide bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed greater than 200 individuals and wounded greater than 5,000 others. Zawahiri and bin Laden gloated after they escaped a US cruise missile assault in Afghanistan that had been launched in retaliation.

Then, there was the assault on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, when suicide bombers on a dinghy detonated their boat, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 others.

The end result of Zawahiri’s terror plotting got here on September 11, 2001, when almost 3,000 individuals have been killed in the assaults on the dual towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A fourth hijacked airliner, headed for Washington, crashed in a Pennsylvania subject after passengers fought again.

Since then, al-Zawahiri raised his public profile, showing on quite a few video and audiotapes to induce Muslims to hitch the jihad towards the United States and its allies. Some of his tapes have been adopted carefully by terrorist assaults.

In May 2003, for example, nearly simultaneous suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 23 individuals, together with 9 Americans, days after a tape thought to comprise Zawahiri’s voice was launched.

The US State Department had offered a reward of up to $25 million for info main on to his seize. A June 2021 United Nations report advised he was positioned someplace in the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that he might have been too frail to be featured in propaganda.

Terry Strada, the chair of 9/11 Families United – a coalition of survivors and households of victims of the September, 11, 2001, terrorist assaults – expressed gratitude for the strike, however known as on the President to carry the Saudi Arabian authorities accountable for alleged authorities complicity in the assaults.

The group has criticized the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, which started its third competitors at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on the finish of July – some 50 miles from Ground Zero in Manhattan.

“I am deeply grateful for the commitment of intelligence agencies and our brave military’s dedication and sacrifices made in removing such evil from our lives. But, in order to achieve full accountability for the murder of thousands on Sept. 11, 2001, President Biden must also hold responsible the Saudi paymasters who bankrolled the Attacks,” Strada stated in a press release.

“The financiers are not being targeted by drones, they are being met with fist pumps and hosted at golf clubs. If we’re going to be serious about accountability, we must hold EVERYONE accountable,” Strada added – showing to reference the President’s controversial gesture with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

This story has been up to date with extra developments on Monday.