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TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019 / ZUL HIJJAH 5, 1440 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17148 28 PAGES 150 FILS

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UK in, Germany out of US Gulf patrolTehran says it can exit N-deal if necessary

LONDON, Aug 5, (RTRS): Britain said on Monday it was joining a US-led maritime security mission in the Gulf to protect merchant vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz.

Tanker traffi c through the Strait has become a focus for an increasingly tense standoff between Washington and Tehran, into which Britain has also been dragged, and the United States has beefed up its military presence in the Gulf since May.

Last month, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a British tanker, Stena Impero, near the Strait of Hormuz for alleged ma-rine violations. That came two weeks after Britain seized an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, accusing it of violating sanctions

on Syria.“The UK is determined to ensure her shipping is protected from unlawful threats and for that reason we have today joined

the new maritime security mission in the Gulf,” Defence Minister Ben Wallace told reporters.“We look forward to working alongside the US and others to fi nd an international solution to the problems in the Strait of

Hormuz.”Britain currently has deployed a destroyer HMS Duncan and a frigate HMS Montrose to the Gulf to accompany UK-

fl agged vessels through the strait. So far, 47 ships have been accompanied by the naval vessels, British offi cials said.Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday reiterated that Germany would not join a US-led naval

mission in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that Berlin favoured a European mission but warned it was rather diffi cult to make progress on that.

“At the moment the Britons would rather join an American mission. We won’t do that,” Maas told reporters.

“We want a European mis-sion,” he said, adding that the issue was not off the agenda but it would take time to convince the European Union to carry out such a mission.

The US Embassy in Ber-lin said on Tuesday the United States had asked Germany to join France and Britain in a mission to protect shipping through the strait and “combat Iranian ag-gression”. Germany rejected the request.

Earlier on Monday, Iran’s For-eign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran would no long-er tolerate “maritime offences” in the strait.

It has threatened to block all exports via the Strait, through which a fi fth of global oil traffi c passes, if other countries comply with US pressure to stop buying Iranian oil.

British Foreign Minister Dom-inic Raab said the latest move did not represent a change in approach to Iran and Britain re-mained committed to maintain-ing the 2015 nuclear deal agreed with Tehran in return for an eas-ing of sanctions.

A British security source said the focus of the new mission would be protecting the security of shipping and Britain would not be joining US sanctions against Iran.

SecurityIran runs security in the Strait

of Hormuz and will no longer tol-erate “maritime offences” there, its foreign minister said on Mon-day, a day after it seized a second oil tanker near the strategic wa-terway that it accused of smug-gling fuel.

Tanker traffi c through the Strait has become a focus for an increasingly tense standoff be-tween Washington and Tehran, into which Britain has also been dragged, and the United States has beefed up its military pres-ence in the Gulf since May.

On Sunday, Iran’s elite Revo-lutionary Guards Corps seized the Iraqi tanker north of the Strait and detained its seven crew, state media reported. Guards com-mander Ramezan Zirahi was quoted as saying it was carrying 700,000 litres of fuel.

“Iran used to forgo some mari-time offences in ... (the) Gulf but will never close (its) eyes anymore,” Zarif told a televised news conference in Tehran.

“... Iran is responsible for the security and safety of the Strait of Hormuz and the region.”

Iran has threatened to block all exports via the Strait, through which a fi fth of global oil traffi c passes, if other countries comply with US pressure to stop buying Iranian oil.

Zarif criticised US sanctions imposed on him on Wednesday, saying Washington had closed the door to diplomacy over Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which US President Donald Trump exited last year.

The deal with a handful of global powers had curbed Teh-ran’s nuclear work in return for an easing of sanctions, striking a delicate political balance that the US pullout has destabilised.

Strains between Washington and Tehran have heightened further since the spring. In June, Iran’s downing of a US drone prompted preparations for a US retaliatory air strike that Trump called off at the last minute.

“Iran will leave its 2015 nu-clear deal with powers if neces-sary,” Zarif said on Monday, adding that all measures taken by Iran were however “reversible if its interests under the deal are secured.”

Iran has so far rejected calls by the Trump administration to ne-gotiate a new deal.

Zarif called for improved ties with Iran’s rivals in the Middle East, where it has been involved in proxy wars for decades with Sunni Saudi Arabia.

He also labelled as “piracy” the seizure by Britain in July of an Iranian oil tanker near Gibral-tar that London accused of vio-lating sanctions on Syria.

Two weeks later, Iran’s Revo-lutionary Guards seized a British tanker, Stena Impero, near the Strait of Hormuz for alleged ma-rine violations.

Newswatch

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s seismol-ogy center says a magnitude 5.2 earthquake has rocked the coun-try’s south-west.

The report Monday says the quake hit near the town of Cher-am in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, about 544 kms (338 miles) southwest of the capi-tal, Tehran.

There were no immediate report of casualties in the city, which had a population of over 15,000, according to Iran’s latest census in 2016.

The center says the quake hap-pened at 00:21 local time, at a depth of 10 kms (6 miles).

One more aftershock hit in 10 minutes, which the center says was magnitude 3.5.

Iran is located on major seis-mic faults and experiences one earthquake per day on average. (AP)

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CAIRO: A midnight explosion following a car crash outside a hospital in central Cairo has left 20 people dead and 47 injured, the health and interior ministries said on Monday.

The intensity of the blast at the city’s main cancer hospital raised fears of an attack, but offi cials said it was the result of a car ac-cident.

Reuters video of the aftermath showed considerable damage to the front of the hospital, with an entrance wrecked and rubble strewn over the pavement. Vic-tims’ belongings were scattered among the debris.

The blast occurred when a car driving against traffi c on Cairo’s Nile corniche road collided with three other cars, the interior min-istry said in a statement.

It triggered a blaze that forced the partial evacuation of the Na-tional Cancer Institute, the health ministry said.

One local resident, who gave her name as Salwa, said bodies had been fused together by the ex-plosion and it was hard to believe it was the result of a car crash.

“There was a sound of an ex-tremely loud blast. It was no way two cars crashing. The car must have been rigged with explo-sives,” she told Reuters Televi-sion.

Another witness, who de-clined to give his name, said the car’s driver ran away before it exploded.

Later in the morning, investi-gators scoured the scene amid a heavy police presence. (RTRS)

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TRIPOLI: A drone air strike by eastern Libyan forces on the southern Libyan town of Mur-zuq has killed at least 43 people, a local offi cial said on Monday.

The attack is the second major air strike blamed on the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar after at least 44 migrants were killed in June when a detention centre in a suburb of the capital Tripoli was hit.

The LNA confi rmed a strike late on Sunday on Murzuq, but denied it had targeted any civil-ians. The LNA had also denied it had hit the detention centre but acknowledged increased air strikes on the capital.

The internationally recognised government based in Tripoli op-posing Haftar said dozens were killed and wounded in Murzuq.

Reached by telephone, Mur-zuq municipal council member Mohamed Omar told Reuters: “The air strike resulted in 43 killed and 51 wounded. This is only an initial toll of casualties.”

The LNA seized Murzuq at the start of this year as part of an of-fensive to control the oil-produc-ing south. But it later moved out to concentrate forces north where it has been trying to take the capi-tal Tripoli in a four-month cam-paign.

The LNA said in a statement its strike had targeted “Chad-ian opposition fi ghters”, a phrase that usually refers to Tebu tribes-men opposing them in the area.

Haftar’s LNA, allied to a par-allel government based in eastern Libya, has seen its advance on Tripoli held up by robust defences on the outskirts of the capital, and said it would start heavy air strikes after “traditional means” of war had been exhausted. (RTRS)

Interior designs of Grand Mosque. — Nourah Edhbayah-KUNA

Rebel drone attacks on Saudi airportsDUBAI, Aug 5, (Agencies): Yemeni Houthi forces launched drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid airbase and Abha and Najran airports, the Houthis’ military spokesman said on Monday.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fi ghting the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen said later that Houthi drones had been intercepted and downed heading in the direction of civilian airports.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saria said the attack on Abha airport “hit its targets” and air traffi c was disrupted at both Abha and Najran. All three locations are in southwest Saudi, near the border with Yemen.

The Houthis, who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa, have in the past few months stepped up their attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia. In response, the coalition has struck military sites belonging to the group, especially around Sanaa.

On Thursday the Houthis said they launched missile and drone at-tacks on a military parade in the southern port city of Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government and a stronghold of the coalition, killing dozens.

The escalation in violence threatens a UN-sponsored deal for a ceasefi re and troop withdrawal from the fl ashpoint coastal city of Ho-deidah, which became the focus of the war last year when the coalition tried to seize its port, the Houthis’ main supply line and a lifeline for millions of Yemenis.

Saudi’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) did not im-mediately respond to a request for comment.

Saudi air forces shot down pilotless aircraft unleashed by the Iran-backed terrorist Houthi militia toward the Kingdom civil airports early on Monday.

CoordinationOffi cial spokesperson of the coalition for supporting legitimacy in

Yemen, Colonel Turki Al-Maliki, said in a statement broadcast by the offi cial Saudi Press Agency that the Houthi militia started full co-ordination with the terrorist organization, the so-called Islamic State “DAESH”.

He indicated that the illicit coordination with the terrorist group had begun after a recent attack on a government military barracks in south-ern city of Aden.

The Houthi terrorists have been targeting airports, passengers in-cluding citizens and residents of the Kingdom, in violation of inter-national humanitarian law. Such attacks are tantamount to war crimes, Col Al-Maliki said.

He has said that the coalition joint command will continue carry-ing out deterrent action against the terrorist militia, demolishing their capacities with utter power. But he has affi rmed that the fi rm action against them will be in line with international humanitarian law and rules.

Attacks on Yemeni forces that form a core component of the Saudi-led military coalition in the south of the country risk further destabilis-ing Aden, seat of the government, and complicating United Nations peace efforts.

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which the alliance has been bat-tling for more than four years, launched a missile attack on United Arab Emirates-backed Security Belt forces in the southern port city, a coalition stronghold, that killed 36 soldiers on Thursday.

The strike on a military parade was the worst violence to hit Aden since southern separatists forces, including Security Belt units, clashed with the Saudi-backed government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in 2017 in a power struggle.

Analysts say the Houthis may be testing any weaknesses in the coa-lition following the UAE military drawdown in the south and western coast announced in June, which appears to have also emboldened Is-lamist militant groups in Yemen who carried out separate deadly at-tacks on southern forces last week.

The Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi cit-ies, but this is the fi rst serious attack by the group on Aden since it was captured by the coalition in 2015.

The Western-backed, Sunni Muslim alliance intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis after they ousted Hadi’s government from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014.

The Houthis, who hold most urban centres including Sanaa and the main port of Hodeidah, have no traction in the south, where the UAE has armed and trained some 90,000 Yemeni troops drawn from south-ern separatists and coastal plains fi ghters.

MP ‘supports’domestics fi rm

Syrians resume offensiveon rebel stronghold in Idlib

By Lukman BadruArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 5: MP Ri-yadh Al-Adsani has affi rmed that the main goal of Al-Durra Com-pany is to recruit domestic work-ers at affordable prices; so “we will not allow it to be paralyzed, affect the interests of citizens and adopt decisions not backed by law or without approval of the management board.”

In a press statement, the law-maker explained every procedure should be based on professional considerations and proper ac-countability according to the cri-teria laid down for all ministers, lawmakers, director general and other offi cials of the company in the interest of the public.

He said he forwarded letters to the concerned ministers such as the ministers of Finance, Interior, Health, Social Affairs, Economic Affairs, Justice, Commerce and Industry.

He disclosed the contents of the letters were on aspects con-cerning each minister, because they are board members along with representatives of Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), Pub-lic Institution for Social Security (PIFSS), Kuwait Airways Corpo-ration (KAC) and Public Author-ity for Minor Affairs (PAMA). He added the ministers of Interior and Health as well as the director gen-eral of the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) are members of the advisory board.

He condemned what he re-gards as obstacles and interfer-ence by the board chairman who revoked prerogatives of the director general without legal backing. He forwarded questions in this regard to the ministers of Social Affairs, Commerce and Industry; requesting for a copy of the minutes of the last board meeting that contains compo-sition of the board and date of withdrawing the prerogatives. He wants to know whether it was an individual decision or it was taken by the board. “According to the best of my knowledge, it was a verbal and individual deci-sion without any approval or au-thority from the board, especially since the membership has yet to be approved so all decisions can still be contested,” he asserted.

ISTANBUL, Aug 5, (Agencies): The Syrian army said Mon-day it will resume its offensive against the northwestern Idlib province, the last opposition-held stronghold, accusing insur-gents there of violating a recent truce. Opposition activists reported airstrikes had resumed in the southern parts of the enclave, which is located on the Turkish border.

Meanwhile, Turkish and American military offi cials began a two-day set of talks in the Turkish capital, Ankara, about establishing a safe zone in northeastern Syria to address An-kara’s concerns about US-allied Syrian Kurdish-led forces in that region.

The Syrian military said in a statement carried by state me-dia that insurgents in Idlib had continued to break the cease fi re, which went into effect late Aug 1.

State media and opposition activists had reported repeated violations of the truce by both sides since then.

The military statement said the rebels also failed to abide by an agreement reached last year to withdraw from a demilita-rized zone surrounding the enclave.

The cease fi re marked a brief pause in the stalled govern-ment offensive against al-Qaeda-linked militants and other ji-hadi groups, which dominate Idlib and surrounding areas.

The assault on the rebel stronghold began April 30, displac-ing more than 400,000 people and killing hundreds. Around 3 million people are living inside the rebel-held area.

RestartingAfter the army announced it was restarting military opera-

tions, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Syrian and Russian warplanes began airstrikes on the southern parts of Idlib, mainly the town of Khan Sheikhoun.

The Syrian military later reported that insurgents fi red rock-ets at the Russian air base of Hmeimim “infl icting large human and material” losses outside it.

Turkey’s defense minister tweeted that a new round of talks had begun with the US military about creating a Turkish-controlled safe zone inside Syria east of the Euphrates River, which would have no Syrian Kurdish forces within 19-25 miles of the border. Turkey sees the Syrian Kurdish fi ghters as terrorists aligned with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.

American troops are stationed in northeastern Syria along with the Kurdish forces, and have fought the Islamic State group together.

Turkish-US negotiations on the safe zone stalled in recent weeks, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has re-peatedly threatened a new military operation into the area. On Sunday, Erdogan renewed that threat.

For their part, the Syrian Kurds say Ankara’s statements mask a territorial grab inside Syria, which the Kurdish forces had liberated from IS militants.

The Syrian Democratic Council issued a statement Monday saying that its military wing – the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces – is a “force to defend” Syria’s eth-nic and cultural pluralism.

The council added that Ankara “is trying to deceive the pub-lic” and to get the US and other parties to “participate in the crimes that Turkey is committing against humanity.”

Syrian militants have shelled the outskirts of the Hmeimim air base in northwest Syria, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday.

The air base was unaffected by the attack, the RIA news agency quoted the ministry as saying.Continued on Page 2