Influential Saudi Royal Bemoans A Low In Riyadh-Washington Ties
Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud. FILE PHOTO
A senior member of the Saudi royal family has lamented the low level of ties between Riyadh and Washington, especially a lack of US support in confronting threats posed by Iran-backed Houthis.
Prince Turki al-Faisal – who is the former Saudi intelligence chief and a former ambassador to Washington -- made the remarks with Saudi newspaper Arab News published on Monday.
"We've had our ups and downs over the years, and perhaps at this time it's one of the downs, particularly since the president of the United States in his election campaign said that he will make Saudi Arabia a pariah and of course he went on to practice what he preached", he said.
Al-Faisal also criticized Joe Biden's decision to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition’s offensive operations in Yemen.
Referring to attacks by the Houthis, he said, "Saudis consider the relationship as being strategic, but (feel) as being let down at a time when we thought that America and Saudi Arabia should be together in facing what we would consider to be a joint, not just irritant, but danger to the stability and security of the area”.
Houthis target Saudi energy facilities and civilian areas with drones and ballistic missiles, which Riyadh and other say are provided by Iran while the Houthis say the coalition carries out air strikes against Yemeni civilians in areas under its control. Houthis have launched dozens of cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia since September 2021.
At least 40 teachers and teachers' union activists have been arrested in 10 cities across Iran during and after a round of nationwide protests on Sunday.
Iranian teachers staged demonstrations across the countryon May1, the international Labor Day, organized by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations.
The number of teachers detained during the protest rallies has reportedly been estimated at between 20 and 70, while some have been released so far. A few union activists had been arrested on the eve of Sunday demonstrations.
According to the council, security officers raided the homes of numerous teachers and activists on Monday and used violence during their arrests.
Reports say at least 30 other the teachers have also been summoned and threatened by the Intelligence Ministry in Tehran or its offices in other cities. At least 30 people have been detained by the Intelligence Ministry officers and taken to undisclosed locations.
Teachers say they will continue their protests until authorities meet their demands including the implementation of decade-old legislation that would bring the salaries and pensions of 750,000 teachers in line with other civil servants as well as the freedom of their colleagues who have been imprisoned for their trade union activities.
People from different walks of life, including teachers, nurses, firefighters, and even staff members of the judiciary department and prison guards, have held regular protest rallies or strikes to demand higher salaries.
Iranian officials were silent on Monday regarding reports that the European Union wants to send its envoy back to Tehran to jump start the stalled nuclear talks.
Iran on Monday was in a total confusion, as it was not clear if Ramadan ended or not, and if there was a public holiday. The foreign ministry did not hold its weekly press briefing.
Western diplomats told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that the EU is offering to send its top negotiator Enrique Mora to Tehran again to persuade Tehran to show flexibility.
Mora, the senior EU official chairing the Vienna process, has told Iranian negotiators he is ready to return to Tehran to open a pathway through the deadlock, diplomats told the Wall Street Journal. Mora failed to convince Tehran to return to the talks during his March 27 visit.
Talks in Vienna to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have been in limbo since mid-March when Iran insisted that its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) be removed from the US list of terrorist organizations. The US has not agreed to the demnd.
Reuters reported on Monday that the West has almost given up on the process and is contemplating what to do next.
"They are not yanking the IV out of the patient's arm ... but I sense little expectation that there is a positive way forward," one source, who like others quoted spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitiviy, told Reuters.
Western diplomats told the Wall Street Journal that they want to put the onus back on Tehran, making it clear the talks could fail unless Tehran took a step to end the stalemate. Mora, they said, will try to persuade Tehran to leave the issue of IRGC's delisting to a future point and sign off on the deal now. Tehran has so far not responded to the proposition, the report said.
In a phone talk with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's on April 20, the EU foreign policy Chief, Josep Borrell expressed frustration over the pause in the talks and called for fresh contacts between Enrique Mora and Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani.
Iran insists that it will not give up on its demand for the removal of the IRGC from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), calling it a 'red line' it will not cross at any cost
The Biden administration is adamant that it will only negotiate the delisting of the IRGC if Tehran also agrees to discuss other issues which are important for Washington, presumably Iran's aggressive regional policies and support for militant groups, which are also outside the JCPOA purview.
Despite the deadlock in the talks that appears to have much to do with the IRGC regional activities and pledge to take revenge on American officials for ordering the targeted killing of Ghasem Soleimani, officials in Tehran have shown no signs of softening their rhetoric in the past few weeks
Soleimani, commander of the Qods (Quds) Force, the IRGC's extraterritorial arm, was killed in a drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020 on Trump's orders.
The pause in talks has given ample opportunity for JCPOA critics in both Tehran and Washington. The Republicans have highlighted the prospect that lifting US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran accepting JCPOA limits on its nuclear program would see Tehran repatriate billions of dollars currently frozen by creditors wary of punitive US action.
US Democratic Senator Bob Menendez (NJ) reiterated Sunday that no nuclear deal with Ian was better than a bad deal. “It’s 2022. It's not 2014. Some of the original deal sunsets are even closer… to ending a pathway where Iran could ultimately achieve its goal,” a reference to the belief that Tehran is bent on producing nuclear weapons.
A missile attack targeted an oil refinery in Iraq's northern city of Erbil on Sunday causing a fire that was later brought under control, the Iraqi security forces said in a statement.
A missile also landed in the outer fence of the refinery without causing any casualties, the statement added.
Earlier on Sunday, the anti-terrorism authorities in Kurdistan region said six missiles landed near the KAR refinery in Erbil, adding they were launched from Nineveh province.
The security forces said they found a launch pad and four missiles in the Nineveh Plain after the attack and defused them.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said the armed forces will pursue the perpetrators of what he called a "cowardly attack", while discussing the security situation in a phone call with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, the prime minister's office said on Twitter.
Three missiles also fell near the refinery on April 6, without causing any casualties. Sources in the Kurdistan Regional Government told Reuters then that the refinery is owned by Iraqi Kurdish businessman Baz Karim Barzanji, CEO of major domestic energy company the KAR Group.
In March, Iran attacked Erbil with a dozen ballistic missiles in an unprecedented assault on the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region that appeared to target the United States and its allies. Later reports emerged that KAR Group might have been the target for plans to export natural gas to Europe.
Iranian security forces used force against protesting teachers on Sunday in several cities and arrested around a dozen protestors and union activists.
Iranian teachers staged a new round of protests across the country on Sunday, May1, the international Labor Day, organized by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations.
According to the association's Telegram channel, despite earlier arrest of several leading figures of the teachers’ movement, a large number of teachers tried to gather in front of the parliament at Tehran's Baharestan Square but they were forced by large contingent of security forces to leave the area.
In their rallies Sunday, teachers chanted slogans against Education Minister Yusef Nouri and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf whose family’s recent shopping trip to Turkey has led to widespread condemnations and demands for his resignation.
Protesters also demanded the release of their imprisoned colleagues. In Arak in central Iran protesters chanted "Teachers are vigilant, they hate discrimination" while in Shiraz, Fars Province, they said "Our enemy is right here, it's a lie to say it's America".
In Bushehr, as seen in videos posted on social media, security forces on Sunday attacked and injured several protesters and arrested at least six. There have also been reports of arrests in Langaroud in northern Iran, Marivan and Saqqez in western provinces of Kordestan and West Azarbaijan, and Tehran.
The association recently said in a statement that the teachers' movement would not be subdued by security and judicial crackdowns on union activists including sentencing them to four to 12 years in prison.
Teachers say they will continue their protests until authorities meet their demands including the implementation of decade-old legislation that would bring the salaries and pensions of 750,000 teachers in line with other civil servants as well as the freedom of their colleagues who have been imprisoned for their trade union activities.
Police raided the homes of several union activists in Tehran and arrested at least four on Saturday. Eskandar Lotfi, spokesman of the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, said Saturday that tens of other teachers from different parts of the country were summoned to court.
Lotfi and two other union members were also arrested early Sunday. Esmail Abdi, a member of the association, went on hunger strike Sunday in protest to the clampdown on union activists.
Following protests across Iran in December, the executive board of Education International, the Brussels-based federation of trade unions of teachers and education workers, in a resolution demanded respectfor the "rights of teachers and education workers to organize and to freedom of association and freedom of speech including the right to peaceful assembly, without fear of intervention by the authorities" as well as “institutionalizing dialogue” with teachers' representative organizations.
Four years of deep economic crisis in Iran following the introduction of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in 2018 has led to sharp increases in living costsand to labor unrest. In January hundreds of firefighters and staff from the judiciary took to the streets in several cities. Prison guards have also picketed to protest their salaries.
People from different walks of life, including teachers, nurses, firefighters, and even staff members of the judiciary department and prison guards, have held regular protest rallies or strikes to demand higher salaries.
A barrage of rockets targeted Ain al-Asad military airbase, which hosts US and other international forces, in Iraq’s western province of Anbar.
According to Iraqi media outlets on Sunday, the projectiles fell outside the base, without causing significant losses.
“Three Grad missiles landed in the vicinity of Ain al-Assad military base in Anbar Governorate, western Iraq,” a security source in the Anbar Operations Command said.
But, Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units – also known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi – reported that at least four BM-21 Grad rockets were launched at the base.
No casualty has been reported following the attack and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the base has been a frequent target of rocket attacks attributed to Iran-backed Shiite militias operating both in Iraq and Syria. (https://www.iranintl.com/en/202201050504)
Earlier in April, two combat drones hit targets inside the same Iraqi air base, again without any casualties.
The base was also targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles in January 8 2020 in retaliation for the killing of the commander of Qods (Quds) force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by the US in Baghdad in a targeted drone attack on January 3, 2020.
The attacks came as nuclear talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers have paused, mainly over Iran’s demand to remove the IRGC from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.
