Day: November 3, 2019

Iran will not lift its ban on talks with the United States, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, describing the two countries as implacable foes on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

“One way to block America’s political infiltration is to ban any talks with America. It means Iran will not yield to America’s pressure,” Khamenei, who is Iran’s top authority, was quoted by state TV as saying.

“Those who believe that negotiations with the enemy will solve our problems are 100% wrong.”

Relations between the two foes have reached a crisis over the past year after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers under which Tehran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions.

Washington has reimposed sanctions aimed at halting all Iranian oil exports, saying it seeks to force Iran to negotiate to reach a wider deal. Khamenei has banned Iranian officials from holding such talks unless the United States returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions.

The anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is marked in Iran with annual demonstrations of crowds chanting “Death to America” across the country.

The embassy capture cemented the hostility between the two countries which has remained a central fact in Middle East geopolitics and an important part of Iran’s national ideology.

Iran, which accused the United States of supporting brutal policies of its ousted Shah, held 52 Americans for 444 days at the embassy, which it called the Den of Spies.

“The U.S. has not changed since decades ago … it continues the same aggressive, vicious behavior and the same international dictatorship,” Khamenei said. “Iran has a firm, iron will. It will not let America return to Iran.”

Washington’s European allies have opposed the Trump administration’s decision to abandon the nuclear pact. Iran responded to U.S. sanctions by gradually scaling back its commitments under the nuclear agreement and has said it could take further steps in November.

Khamenei poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron for trying to promote talks between the foes. Macron tried to arrange a failed meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September.

“The French president, who says a meeting will end all the problems between Tehran and America, is either naive or complicit with America,” Khamenei said in remarks reported by state television.

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Bangladesh said Sunday plans to relocate thousands of Rohingya living in overcrowded refugee camps to a remote island were “uncertain” after authorities failed to gain support from U.N. agencies.

Dhaka had wanted to begin its long-held plan this month to move 100,000 people to the mud-silt island of Bhashan Char, amid growing frustration with the presence of the squalid tent settlements in its southeastern border towns.

Bangladesh has said thousands of Rohingya families have volunteered to relocate, with some 3,500 of the Muslim minority due to be moved between mid-November to February during calm seas.

But the plan was in doubt as the U.N. has not supported the relocation so far, Bangladesh disaster management and relief minister Enamur Rahman told AFP.

“This has become uncertain,” Rahman said of the relocation to the island, which takes around three hours to reach by boat.

“They [U.N. agencies] still haven’t agreed to the relocation plan.”

Aid agencies including the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Food Program (WFP), which held meetings with the government, told him the island was “isolated” and “flood-prone.”

The agencies set out a list of conditions that had to be met, including a regular shipping service between the islet in the Bay of Bengal and the mainland, Rahman added.

The organizations provide humanitarian aid to the nearly one million Rohingya in the vast camps, including 740,000 who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in August 2017.

“We won’t do anything forcefully,” he said, adding that at least two ships were set to ply the waters between the site and the mainland.

A U.N. official told AFP on Sunday that “U.N. agencies cannot support a move for which [they] have no technical information.”

Dhaka is due to hold another round of talks with the agencies on Wednesday, Rahman said.

Global activist group Fortify Rights said last month it interviewed 14 Rohingya at three camps, including some who appeared on lists of refugees allegedly willing to go, and found none had been consulted “and all opposed it.”

Other groups have also expressed misgivings about moving people to the island, which is regularly hit by devastating cyclones.

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In Beirut, thousands of people turned out Sunday to show their support for Lebanon’s president. 

The demonstration was held near Michel Aoun’s presidential palace in southeastern Beirut. 

The show of support for Aoun is in direct contrast to the protests Lebanese citizens began staging across the tiny Mediterranean country last month, demanding a complete overhaul of Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics. 

The demonstrators have also blamed the political establishment for rampant corruption and poor public services. 

Another anti-government protest, however, is slated for later Sunday in central Beirut. 

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Israel’s prime minister says the military will continue to strike its enemies, including through covert missions, after a weekend flareup of violence in the Gaza Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, a day after Israel struck a series sites linked to Gaza’s Hamas rulers in response to a late-night barrage of rocket fire. Although no one claimed responsibility for the rockets, Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks coming out of the territory.

Netanyahu said Israel is in a “very sensitive” security environment to its north, south and east.

He said: “We will continue to act in all fronts for the security of Israel, both through open means and also through secret means, at sea, in the air and on the ground.”

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A court in Bangladesh’s capital granted bail Sunday to micro-credit pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus over the firing of three employees by Grameen Communications, where he is chairman.
 
Acting Chairman of the 3rd Labor Court in Dhaka, Zakia Parveen, granted the bail when Yunus appeared before the court. The country’s High Court had set a Nov. 7 deadline last month for him to appear in person. It had asked authorities not to arrest or harass Yunus before the deadline.
 
Court official Wasiur Rahman said the court granted bail of 10,000 takas ($120) in bonds in each of the three cases.
 
Defense lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan said Yunus would not be required to appear in person before the court until any indictments are handed down.
 
The labor court had earlier issued an arrest warrant for Yunus after he failed to appear because he was abroad.
 
The three employees filed the cases in July, saying they were terminated illegally after seeking to form a trade union.
 
Yunus founded Grameen Bank, which provides small loans to impoverished people, and shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with the organization.
 
Yunus, who now travels extensively across the world to promote social business, has faced several investigations by the government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has frosty relations with him. He was removed from the bank after surpassing retirement age.
 
A government-appointed investigation had earlier said that Grameen Bank violated its charter as a micro-lender by creating affiliates that did not benefit the bank’s shareholders, and recommended the government merge those businesses with the bank. Yunus maintains that those businesses are independent and should remain so.
 
Hasina was reportedly angered by Yunus’ 2007 attempt to form his own political party backed by the influential army when the country was under a state of emergency and Hasina was behind bars. Hasina came to power in a 2008 election and ordered an investigation of Yunus, who has close relations with the West.
 
Currently, Grameen Bank has about 9 million members, 97% of whom are women. With 2,568 branches, the bank provides services in 81,677 villages, covering more than 93% of the total villages in Bangladesh.

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