UN rights council orders probe of Iran crackdown on protests

Yahoo – AFP, Nina LARSON,, November 24, 2022 

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday condemned Iran's repression of peaceful demonstrators following the death of Mahsa Amini, and voted to create a high-level investigation into the deadly crackdown. 

Despite heavy lobbying by Tehran and a last-minute effort by China to undercut the resolution, a broader-than-expected majority of the 47-member council backed launching a probe of Iran's response to the ongoing protests. 

Thunderous applause erupted when the resolution passed with 25 votes in favour, 16 abstaining and only six countries -- Armenia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Pakistan and Venezuela -- opposed. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the vote, saying it showed the top UN rights body "recognises the gravity of the situation in Iran." 

"The fact-finding mission established today will help ensure that those engaged in the ongoing violent suppression of Iranian people are identified and their actions documented," he said in a statement. 

The vote came at the end of an urgent session requested by Germany and Iceland with the backing of 50 countries to discuss the situation in Iran, rocked by two months of protests. 

Those demonstrations were sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Amini, after she was arrested for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress rules for women based on Islamic sharia law. 

Footballer arrested

Iranian authorities have grown increasingly heavy-handed in their response to the demonstrations as they have spread across the country and swelled into a broad movement against the theocracy that has ruled Iran since 1979. 

During Thursday's session, UN rights chief Volker Turk insisted that "the unnecessary and disproportionate use of force must come to an end." 

Turk, who told reporters he had offered to visit Iran but had received no response from Tehran, said more than 300 people had been killed since Amini's death. 

Norway-based group Iran Human Rights has put the toll above 400, including more than 50 children. 

Around 14,000 people, including children, had been arrested over the protests, he said, describing this as "a staggering number", and decried the fact that at least six death sentences had been handed down to demonstrators. 

Among those arrested have been a number of celebrities who have expressed support for the protesters, including Iranian national team footballer Voria Ghafouri, arrested on Thursday for "anti-state propaganda". 

'Impunity prevents justice'

A long line of Western diplomats took the floor in Geneva on Thursday to denounce the crackdown in Iran. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on all countries to back the independent international fact-finding mission to probe all abuses connected with the ongoing protests, to ensure "those responsible can be held to account". 

"Impunity prevents justice. Justice for sisters, sons, mothers. They have names. Jina, Abolfazl, Minoo," she said, listing some of the many killed. 

She told reporters that the investigation would collect evidence towards holding perpetrators to account -- although it remains unclear under which jurisdiction they would be tried. 

"If we don't collect the evidence today... justice will never come to the victims," Baerbock said. 

Icelandic Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir agreed, telling reporters that the council vote was "about respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights and fundamental freedoms." 

Dozens of people protested outside the UN in Geneva, waving the flags used in Iran prior to the 1979 revolution, amid pictures of alleged victims of the Iranian regime. 

The organisers of that demonstration, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, hailed the Thursday's vote as "a positive and important step," insisting the "culture of impunity must end". 

'Historic'

Rights groups also celebrated the vote, with Amnesty International describing it as "historic", while Human Rights Watch said it was "a welcome step towards accountability." 

Iran however denounced the Western countries behind Thursday's meeting. 

Europe and the United States "lack the moral credibility to preach... on human rights", said Khadijeh Karimi, Iran's deputy of the vice president for women and family affairs. 

"Reducing the common cause of human rights to a tool for political purposes of specific groups of Western countries is appalling and disgraceful," she added. 

Iran received backing from some countries, with Pakistan, Venezuela and others decrying growing politicisation in the council, and China's ambassador Chen Xu warning against "turning human rights into a tool to intervene into other countries' internal affairs". 

China also put in a last-minute bid to change the text of Thursday's resolution, asking that the request to establish an investigation be removed. Only six countries supported that effort.

Amanpour says Iran president interview scrapped over headscarf demand

Yahoo – AFP, Ebrahim Raisi, September 22, 2022 

Veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour said Thursday that an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was scrapped after he insisted she wear a headscarf, the focus of major protests in the cleric-run state. 

Amanpour, the chief international anchor of CNN who also has a show on US public broadcaster PBS, said she was ready for the interview Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly when an aide insisted she cover her hair. 

"I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves," Amanpour, who was born in Britain to an Iranian father, wrote on Twitter. 

"I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran," she said. 

"I said that I couldn't agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition." 

She posted a picture of herself -- without a headscarf -- sitting in front of an empty chair where Raisi would have been. 

An aide to Raisi, a hardline cleric, told Amanpour that he was insisting on a headscarf because of "the situation in Iran," she said. 

Iran has been swept by nearly a week of protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police that enforce the clerics' rules on how women dress. 

A non-governmental group said that at least 31 Iranian civilians have been killed in the crackdown on the protests, in which women have been seen burning headscarves.

Theory that Coronavirus Escaped from a Lab Lacks Evidence

The pathogen appears to have come from wild animals, virologists say, and there are no signs of genetic manipulation in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

The Scientist, Emily Makowski, Mar 5, 2020

Since the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, theories have circulated about the origin of the novel coronavirus causing the disease, SARS-CoV-2. One prominent rumor is that it first escaped from a lab in Wuhan studying bat coronaviruses and then spread to the public. This theory has also evolved into claims that the virus was genetically engineered to be a bioweapon. But scientists say that while there’s not enough information to pinpoint where the virus came from, there is no evidence that it was created in a lab.

The lab-escape theory had been circulating on social media and various blogs for weeks, but gained considerable visibility in a New York Post article in late February. In it, Steven Mosher, a social scientist and the president of the Population Research Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, summarizes why he believes SARS-CoV-2 may have been accidentally spread by China’s National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers have studied bat coronaviruses.

In the article, Mosher describes several lines of reasoning, namely, that the lab is less than 10 miles away from the seafood market where a cluster of COVID-19 cases was first discovered, and that after the 2003 SARS outbreak, the SARS-CoV virus escaped from virology labs multiple times in China. He also describes how Chinese virologist and bioweapons expert Major General Chen Wei went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology with military scientists in January to study thenew virus, which Mosher sees as a form of damage control.

“The circumstantial evidence surrounding it is pretty compelling. . . . The idea that the epicenter of this epidemic would be just a few miles from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, which is where we know that dangerous pathogens are being kept and looked at as potential bioweapons, I think the odds against that are just astronomical,” Mosher tells The Scientist.

Dimitrios Paraskevis, an epidemiologist at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, tells The Scientist that while it’s not possible to rule out the idea of lab escape, he believes that it is unlikely. “Any person who works in a lab must follow very strict safety regulations. It sounds to me very extraordinary that something happened and nobody took care about such an accident,” he says. The World Health Organization updated SARS surveillance guidelines in 2004 after the lab-based outbreaks, urging labs to follow proper biosafety procedures, and China replaced the director of its Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

One problem leading to a lot of apprehension and speculation about the new coronavirus is that scientists “don’t know what the actual source of the virus was,” Anthony Fehr, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Kansas, tells The Scientist. Additionally, researchers don’t know if SARS-CoV-2 immediately started to spread in humans after a single transmission from an animal, or if it took multiple zoonotic events between an infected animal population and humans.

Despite the question mark around the exact source of the disease, it does appear to have originally come from wildlife, according to a team of international public health scientists who wrote a statement published in The Lancet. An analysis of SARS-CoV-2 by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology suggests that the virus’s genome is 96 percent similar to a coronavirus found in bats.

Mosher agrees that animals were the likely origin. “That doesn’t mean [the virus] wasn’t collected, brought to the lab, and was being tested on in various ways, and escaped from the lab,” he says. Mosher also does not claim that China genetically engineered the virus. “I’m not saying this has been genetically engineered to be a bioweapon that’s escaped from the lab. . . . I’m just saying that [China is] collecting dangerous pathogens, [and] they have a history of letting them escape from the lab,” he says.

Transmission from an animal, with no lab experiment or genetic manipulation involved, fits best with what scientists know about how other coronaviruses have made the jump to humans. In the past, these viruses have spread through wild bats that infect another type of animal—an intermediate host—that then spreads it to humans. SARS-CoV, for example, was transmitted from bats to civets to humans, while camels were an intermediate host in MERS, according to Quanta. The civet version of SARS-CoV was 99.8 percent similar to the one found in humans—much more closely related than the bat and human varieties of SARS-CoV-2—so researchers believe the new coronavirus also infected another type of animal on its way from bats to humans. But they have not found a candidate so far, according to Nature.

This ability to move in between different animal hosts is a characteristic feature of coronaviruses, according to Paul McCray, a pulmonologist at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine whose lab studies coronaviruses. “It’s exactly what we’ve learned in studies of SARS in 2002 and 2003, and MERS in 2012. . . . So the concept that this is happening again should come as no surprise,” he says. “For people that work with these viruses, this is completely unsurprising. We don’t need to come up with farfetched theories when the genome sequences and the characteristics of these viruses support what we’re seeing.”

No signs of engineering in SARS-CoV-2 genome

In addition to the claim that a naturally evolved virus escaped from a lab by mistake, some conspiracy theories have posited that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered. In fact, researchers throughout the world, including in the US and China, have conducted research involving the creation of experimentally engineered hybrid coronaviruses. But there is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered, says Paraskevis, whose genomic analysis of the new virus was reported as a preprint in January.

RNA viruses, which include coronaviruses, “accumulate mutations at a rate one million times faster than human DNA [does]. . . . It gives them the ability to survive against an immune response,” Paraskevis says. While the new coronavirus does have some genetic differences to other known viruses due to mutations, “there’s no evidence that this is the result of a human experiment,” he says, adding that if the virus were engineered, scientists would expect to see additional genetic material in its genome. For example, an early bioRxiv preprint on SARS-CoV-2 found HIV-like genetic sequences, but online commenters pointed out that “the findings were at most a coincidence” and that research has since been retracted, reports STAT.

As there are still many unknowns about SARS-CoV-2, researchers worldwide are trying to uncover as much as they can about the virus. Chinese researchers “released the genomic sequence incredibly rapidly online. . . . They were very public in sharing the most important first piece of information” about it, McCray tells The Scientist. “The fact that scientists all over the world had access to that genomic sequence” made a lot of early research possible, he says.

Emily Makowski is a freelance writer based in Boston. Find her on Twitter @EmilyRMakowski.

"China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a global pandemic and not telling the world" by spreading "dangerous and ridiculous" conspiracy theories, a US State Department official said https://t.co/wBxj3p3Sjl pic.twitter.com/myx3OcoixS

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 13, 2020

Related Articles:

US sees new pressure point as coronavirus hits Iran - New

"Kryon on Corona", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar 13, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis) - New

Kimia Alizadeh: Iran's top female athlete defects

DW, 12 January 2020

Iran's only female Olympic medallist, Kimia Alizadeh, has said she has left the country permanently following accusations of mistreatment and sexism against officials. The 21-year-old is reportedly in the Netherlands.

Kimia Alizadeh | 2016 Rio Olympics - Taekwondo (Reuters/I. Kato)

Amid rising unrest in Iran following the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian plane and simmering tensions with the USA, Iran's only female Olympic medallist, Taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh, has announced that she has defected.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the 21-year-old said she didn't want to be a part of "hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery" as "one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran".

"I wore whatever they told me and repeated whatever they ordered. Every sentence they ordered I repeated. None of us matter for them, we are just tools," she added.

Alizadeh, who made history when she won bronze in Taekwondo at the Rio Olympics as an 18-year-old, is believed to be training in the Netherlands, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.

She has claimed in the past that the Islamic Republic has used her as a propaganda tool and accused Iranian officials of sexism and mistreatment.

The ISNA agency reported that Alizadeh is hoping to still compete at the Tokyo Olympics later this year, but not under the Iranian flag.

Iranian students demonstrated following a tribute for victims of
Wednesday's plane crash (AFP Photo/Atta KENARE)

Related Article:

Iran agrees de-escalation 'only solution' to solve crisis with US

Iran agrees de-escalation 'only solution' to solve crisis with US

Yahoo – AFP, David Vujanovic, January 12, 2020

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (R) meeting with the Emir of Qatar
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Tehran (AFP Photo)

Tehran (AFP) - Iran signalled Sunday it favours a de-escalation after 10 days of heightened tensions with the United States during which both sides fired missiles and Tehran accidentally shot down a passenger aircraft.

Security was stepped up in Iran's capital after a vigil the previous night for those killed in the air disaster turned into an angry protest and police temporarily arrested the British ambassador for being there.

US President Donald Trump warned Iran against harming demonstrators and against a repeat of a deadly crackdown against rallies in November sparked by a fuel price hike.

"To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS," Trump tweeted in his occasional all-capitals style.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper, however, said Trump was still willing to "sit down and discuss without precondition a new way forward" with Iran, although Tehran has steadfastly refused to hold talks with Washington unless it lifts sanctions first.

Tehran said it favoured an easing of tensions after its arch-enemy Washington on January 3 killed a revered Iranian general, Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, in a Baghdad drone strike.

Iranian students demonstrated following a tribute for victims of
Wednesday's plane crash (AFP Photo/Atta KENARE)

'A critical time'

In a meeting between Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and the visiting emir of Qatar, both sides agreed de-escalation is the "only solution" to the regional crisis, the emirate's ruler said.

Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region but also enjoys strong ties with Iran, with which it shares the world's largest gas field.

"This visit comes at a critical time in the region," Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said on what was believed to be his first official visit to the Islamic republic.

"We agreed... that the only solution to these crises is de-escalation from everyone and dialogue."

For his part, Rouhani said: "We've decided to have more consultations and cooperation for the security of the entire region."

Iran's president also met with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, whose country has offered to mediate between Tehran and US ally Riyadh.

Iranian state TV shows Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, aerospace commander 

of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, pointing at a map during a press conference. Iran said

it unintentionally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people aboard

 (AFP Photo)

In a briefing to parliament, Hossein Salami, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said the missiles it fired last Wednesday on Iraqi bases hosting US troops were not aimed at killing American personnel.

"Our aim was not really to kill enemy soldiers. That was not important," he told parliament.

The US said no American personnel were harmed in the attacks.

Across the border in Iraq, the military said rockets slammed on Sunday into Al-Balad, an Iraqi airbase where US forces have been stationed, wounding two Iraqi officers and two airmen.

The base had held a small US Air Force contingent as well as American contractors, but a majority of these personnel had already been evacuated due to the tensions between the US and Iran, military sources told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's rocket attacks. The US has previously blamed such attacks on Iran-backed groups in Iraq.

Iranian demonstrators hold placards bearing the images of slain military commander 

Qasem Soleimani and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in front of 

the British embassy (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

'Death to Britain'

The current crisis claimed a tragic toll when Iran -- on hair-triggered alert just after attacking the Iraqi bases -- last Wednesday accidentally shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane, killing all 176 people aboard.

After days of denial from Iran, Rouhani on Saturday admitted to "human error" in bringing down the Boeing 737, and the Guards' aerospace commander General Amirali Hajizadeh accepted full responsibility.

On Saturday evening, a memorial at Tehran's Amir Kabir University in honour of those killed turned into a demonstration that AFP correspondents said was attended by hundreds of students.

They shouted "death to liars" and demanded the resignation and prosecution of those responsible, Fars news agency reported, saying that police "dispersed" them.

Around the same time, police temporarily arrested the British ambassador, Rob Macaire, who had attended the vigil, sparking a fresh diplomatic crisis.

Macaire tweeted Sunday: "I wasn't taking part in any demonstrations! Went to an event advertised as a vigil for victims of #PS752 tragedy.

Iranians light candles in front of Tehran's Amirkabir University for the victims of 

the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 that was accidentally shot down 

on Wednesday (AFP Photo)

"Normal to want to pay respects -- some of victims were British. I left after 5 mins, when some started chanting."

Fars said Macaire was summoned on Sunday to Iran's foreign ministry for his "presence in illegal gatherings".

Later on Sunday up to 200 protesters rallied outside the British diplomatic mission, chanting "Death to Britain" and burning a Union Jack..

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday called for countries in the region to bolster ties to overcome turbulence caused by the presence of the US and its allies.

"The current situation... demands -- more than ever before -- strengthening of relations between countries in the region as well as avoiding influence of foreigners'" meddling, Khamenei was quoted as saying on his official Twitter account as he hosted Qatar's emir.

Elsewhere in Tehran, tensions appeared to be mounting again, with a heavy police presence notably around the iconic Azadi Square south of the centre.

Riot police armed with water cannon and batons were seen at Amir Kabir, Sharif and Tehran universities as well as Enqelab Square.

Around 50 Basij militiamen brandishing paintball guns, potentially to mark protesters to authorities, were also seen near Amir Kabir.

On the diplomatic front, France, Germany and Britain on Sunday called on Iran to return to "full respect" of its commitments under Tehran's 2015 nuclear accord with world powers, despite Washington having walked out of the deal.

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission

Yahoo – AFP, Stuart WILLIAMS, January 11, 2020

An Iranian holds a newspaper with a picture of the debris of the Ukrainian plane
that crashed in Tehran on January 8, 2020, outside a news stand in the Islamic
republic's capital (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

Paris (AFP) - When a Boeing passenger jet crashed in Iran early on January 8, speculation immediately swirled that the only plausible explanation was that it had been shot down by Iran.

The crash of the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight came hours after Tehran had launched a barrage of missiles at bases housing American troops in Iraq, retaliating for the killing of commander Qasem Soleimani in a US strike.

Immediately, theories multiplied arguing that Tehran's air defence system, on high alert for possible US retaliation, may have been triggered by accident.

Western leaders cited intelligence pointing to an accidental strike by Iran. Verified video images later emerged showing a missile striking a plane.

From Wednesday to Friday, Iranian officials repeatedly insisted that the plane had not been shot down. Early on Saturday however, the Islamic republic admitted that the plane had been hit by a short-range missile in what President Hassan Rouhani described as a "catastrophic mistake".

Ukrainian passenger jet crash in Iran (AFP Photo)

What happened on January 8?

The Boeing 737-800NG for UIA's flight PS752 between Tehran and Kiev took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport at 6:12 am local time.

Although there was no distress message from the pilot, the plane had begun to turn back for the airport before crashing at 6:18 am, said the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization. The aircraft came down near Sabashahr on the outskirts of Tehran.

There were 10 departures from Tehran airport that day before flight PS752, according to the Flight Radar 24 monitoring site. That raised questions as to why air traffic had not been halted given the situation.

All 176 people on board the flight PS752 -- mainly Iranians and Canadians, including dual nationals, but also Ukrainians, Afghans, Britons and Swedes -- were killed.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first major leader to publicly 

state Iran could be to blame for the plane crash (AFP Photo/Dave Chan)

How did pressure grow?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first major leader to publicly state Iran could be to blame. He said Canada had intelligence from multiple sources "including our allies and our own intelligence" that indicated "the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile."

"This may well have been unintentional," Trudeau added.

His language was echoed by other Western leaders including Dutch Premier Mark Rutte, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

US President Donald Trump said he had "suspicions" as "somebody could have made a mistake", and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then said the United States believed it was "likely" that an Iranian missile downed the airliner.

The New York Times also said it had verified a video appearing to show a missile hitting a plane at night above the Tehran suburb of Parand, west of the airport.

What did Iran initially say?

For three days, Iranian officials refused to countenance any suggestion that one of its missiles had brought down the plane.

The country's civil aviation chief Ali Abedzadeh said that one "thing is for certain, this airplane was not hit by a missile", arguing that it would have exploded immediately if hit by a missile.

Experts questioned that claim, arguing that such missiles explode before coming into contact with the target.

This handout photograph taken and released on January 11, 2019, by The 

National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, shows people analysing 

the remains of the Ukraine International Airlines plane Boeing 737-800 that

crashed outside Tehran (AFP Photo/STR)

What does Iran now admit?

In an announcement early Saturday that took many experts by surprise, Iran admitted it had "unintentionally" shot down the jet after a missile operator mistook the plane for a cruise missile.

Tehran said its systems had been on high alert for American retaliation in the hours after the Iranian strikes on bases housing US troops in Iran.

"He had 10 seconds to decide," the aerospace commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said of the operator, who he insisted had "acted alone".

"He could have decided to strike or not to strike and under such circumstances he took the wrong decision."

Rouhani called it an "unforgivable mistake", vowed that compensation would be paid to the families while those responsible would be prosecuted.

What kind of missile was used?

Unverified images posted on social media show the remains of a Russian-made Tor M-1 missile but Tehran has yet to give details on the kind of weaponry used.

Tehran received 29 such air defence systems from Moscow under a $700 million contract signed in 2005, a deal that caused considerable unease in the West.

The Bellingcat open-source analytics website has said the origin of the images is yet to be determined, and the people who captured the images have not come forward.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, pictured on January 9, 2020 in a 

presidential press handout photo placing flowers at a memorial for the victims 

of the Ukraine International Airlines crash in Tehran, has toughened his stance 

on Iran (AFP Photo/HO)

What does Ukraine want now?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, initially wary of blaming Tehran, has toughened his line since Tehran's admission.

After Zelensky spoke to Rouhani later Saturday, the Ukrainian presidency said that Zelensky asked Tehran to allow the bodies of the 11 Ukrainian victims to be repatriated "by January 19".

He added that Ukrainian diplomats had produced a list of steps to be taken to "resolve the compensation issue".

Despite the three days of denial from Tehran, some have compared its reaction favourably to that from Moscow over the crash of the Malaysia Airlines flight shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Although the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team says a Russian-made BUK missile fired by pro-Russian separatists was to blame, Russia still denies any involvement.

Iranian police dispersed students chanting "radical" slogans during a gathering in Tehran to honour the 176 people killed when an airliner was mistakenly shot down, Fars news agency reported https://t.co/jtSIrcZiX1

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 11, 2020

Saudi 'not consulted' over US strike that killed Iran general

Yahoo – AFP, Anuj Chopra, January 5, 2020

Iran vowed revenge following the US strike that killed top commander Qasem
Soleimani at Baghdad airport (AFP Photo)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia was not consulted by its ally Washington over a US drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, an official said Sunday, as the kingdom sought to defuse soaring regional tensions.

Saudi Arabia faces a "heightened risk" of missile and drone attacks, the United States warned, after Tehran vowed "revenge" following the strike on Friday that killed powerful commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

"The kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not consulted regarding the US strike," a Saudi official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"In light of the rapid developments, the kingdom stresses the importance of exercising restraint to guard against all acts that may lead to escalation, with severe consequences," the official added.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry made a similar call for restraint at the weekend and King Salman emphasised the need for measures to defuse tensions in a phone call on Saturday with Iraqi President Barham Saleh.

In a separate phone call with Iraq's caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed "the need to make efforts to calm the situation and de-escalate tensions", the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The crown prince has instructed Prince Khalid bin Salman, his younger brother and deputy defence minister, to travel to Washington and London in the next few days to urge restraint, the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

Prince Khalid will meet White House and US defence officials, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.

The killing of Soleimani, seen as the second most powerful man in Iran, is the most dramatic escalation yet in spiralling tensions between Washington and Tehran and has prompted fears of a major conflagration in the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump, who ordered the drone strike, has warned that Washington will hit Iran "very fast and very hard" if the Islamic republic attacks American personnel or assets.

'Expect reprisals'

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both allies of Washington, are also vulnerable to Iranian counter strikes.

The American embassy in Riyadh on Sunday warned its citizens there was a "heightened risk of missile and drone attacks" close to military bases and energy facilities, particularly in the kingdom's oil-rich Eastern Province and areas near the Yemen border.

A string of attacks blamed on Iran has caused anxiety in recent months, as Riyadh and Washington deliberated over how to react.

In particular, devastating strikes against Saudi oil installations last September led Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to adopt a more conciliatory approach aimed at avoiding confrontation with Tehran.

Analysts warn that pro-Iran groups have the capacity to carry out attacks on US bases in Gulf states as well as against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz -- the strategic waterway that Tehran could close at will.

"Expect Iranian reprisals (directly or through partner groups in Iraq, Lebanon or elsewhere) to target US partners in the region including Saudi Arabia," said Thomas Juneau, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa.

"Given the climate in the US, where support for Saudi in the media and Congress is at an all time low, it will be difficult for Trump to commit significant resources to come to its aid."

Yemen's pro-Iran Huthi rebels, locked in a five-year conflict with a Saudi-led military coalition, have also called for swift reprisals for Soleimani's killing.

"The aggression... will not go without a response," said Huthi political council member Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti.

"How the response is going to be, when and where will be determined by Iraq and Iran, and we will stand with them as a hub for the resistance."

It was unclear if the Huthi warning was directed in part at Saudi Arabia, which has stepped up efforts to end Yemen's conflict amid a lull in Huthi attacks on the kingdom.

Saudi military commanders recently met with counterparts from "friendly countries" to formulate a new strategy to tackle the Yemeni rebels, particularly those "opposing" a political solution, according to Asharq al-Awsat.

Riyadh has said it will host a separate meeting of foreign ministers of Arab and African coastal states on Monday.

Protesters in US rally against prospect of war with Iran

Yahoo – AFP, January 4, 2020

Demonstrators rally outside the White House to denounce the killing of a senior
Iranian general in Iraq (AFP Photo/ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS)

Washington (AFP) - Demonstrators chanting "no war on Iran" rallied Saturday in Washington, New York and across the US to protest the assassination of a top Iranian military commander in a US drone strike.

Outside the White House, around 200 people gathered as part of a wave of rallies called by left-leaning organizations. They chanted slogans including "No Justice, No Peace, US out of the Middle East."

Organizers said demonstrations were convened in some 70 US cities to denounce the killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani early Friday in Baghdad on orders from President Donald Trump. The attack has prompted fears of a major conflagration in the Middle East.

"We will not allow our country to be led into another reckless war," one speaker outside the White House said.

The protesters later headed toward the Trump International Hotel, which is just down the street from the presidential mansion.

"Need a distraction? Start of a war," read a sign held by Sam Crook, 66.

Trump faces a looming trial in the Senate following his impeachment by the House of Representatives in the Ukraine scandal.

Demonstrators opposed to the US military presence in Iraq march in
New York (AFP Photo/Kena Betancur)

Crook described himself as concerned.

"This country is in the grip of somebody who's mentally unstable, I mean Donald Trump, that is. He's not right in the head," Crook told AFP.

"He's crazy, and has a childish reaction to everything. And I'm afraid he's going to inadvertently -- he doesn't really want to, I think -- but I think he could easily start some sort of a real conflagration in the Middle East," Crook added.

Shirin, a 31-year-old Iranian-American who would not give her last name, said she was worried about the possibility of war with Iran, which has vowed revenge for the death of Soleimani.

"We already spent trillions of dollars fighting unjust wars in Iraq and, you know, the longest war today in Afghanistan. And what do we have to show for it?" she said.

She argued that the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq caused instability throughout the region and strengthened Iran, "which is now, you know, a major political, social and cultural force in Iraq."

At Times Square in New York, demonstrators marched with signs crying out against the prospect of war with Iran and calling for the withdrawal of the 5,000-odd US troops in Iraq.

"War is not a re-election strategy," read one sign in that procession.

Demonstrators also marched in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles.