Middle-East
Severe water shortages strain wheat harvest in Iraq
Salah Chelab crushed a husk of wheat plucked from his sprawling farmland south of Baghdad and inspected its seeds in the palm of one hand. They were several grams lighter than he hoped.
“It’s because of the water shortages,” he said, the farm machine roaring behind him, cutting and gathering his year’s wheat harvest.
Chelab had planted most of his 10 acres (4 hectares) of land, but he was only able to irrigate a quarter of it after the Agriculture Ministry introduced strict water quotas during the growing season, he said. The produce he was growing on the rest of it, he fears, “will die without water.”
At a time when worldwide prices for wheat have soared due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iraqi farmers say they are paying the price for a government decision to cut irrigation for agricultural areas by 50%.
The government took the step in the face of severe water shortages arising from high temperatures and drought — believed to be fueled by climate change — and ongoing water extraction by neighboring countries from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. All those factors have heavily strained wheat production.
Wrestling with the water shortage, Iraq’s government has been unable to tackle other long-neglected issues.
Desertification has been blamed as a factor behind this year’s relentless spate of sandstorms. At least 10 have hit the country in the past few months, covering cities with a thick blanket of orange dust, grounding flights and sending thousands to hospitals.
“We need water to solve the problem of desertification, but we also need water to secure our food supplies,” said Essa Fayadh, a senior official at the Environment Ministry. “We don’t have enough for both.”
Iraq relies on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for nearly all of its water needs. Both flow into Iraq from Turkey and Iran. Those countries have constructed dams that have either blocked or diverted water, creating major shortages in Iraq.
Water Resources Minister Mahdi Rasheed told The Associated Press that river levels were down 60% compared to last year.
For Chelab, less water has meant a smaller grain size and lower crop yields.
In 2021, Chelab produced 30,000 tons of wheat, the year before that 32,000, receipts from Trade Ministry silos show. This year, he expects no more than 10,000.
READ: India's Chennai rapid growth threatened by water shortages
His crops are both rain-fed and irrigated via a channel from the Euphrates. Due to low precipitation levels, he has had to rely on the river water during the growing season, he said.
Government officials say change is necessary.
The current system has been inefficient and unsustainable for decades. Water scarcity is leaving them no choice but to push to modernize antiquated and wasteful farming techniques.
“We have a strategic plan to face drought considering the lack of rain, global warming, and the lack of irrigation coming from neighboring countries as we did not get our share of water entitlements,” said Hamid al-Naif, spokesman at the Agriculture Ministry.
The ministry took measures to devise new types of drought-resistant wheat and introduce methods to increase crop yields.
“We are still dealing with irrigation systems of the 1950s. It has nothing to do with the farmers,” he said. “The state must make it efficient, we must force the farmer to accept it.”
Iraqi farmers have historically been heavily dependent on the state in the production of food, a reliance that policymakers and experts said drains government funds.
The Agriculture Ministry supports farmers by providing everything from harvesting tools, seeds, fertilizers and pesticides at a subsidized rate or for free. Water diverted from rivers for irrigation is given at no cost. The Trade Ministry then stores or buys produce from farmers and distributes it to markets.
Wheat is a key strategic crop, accounting for 70% of total cereal production in the country.
Planting starts in October and harvest typically begins in April and extends to June in some areas. Last year, the Agriculture Ministry slashed subsidies for fertilizers, seeds and pesticides, a move that has angered farmers.
Local demand for the staple is between 5-6 million tons a year. But local production is shrinking with each passing year. In 2021, Iraq produced 4.2 million tons of wheat, according to the Agriculture Ministry. In 2020, it was 6.2 million tons.
“Today we might get 2.5 million tons at best,” said al-Naif. That would require Iraq to drive up imports.
Most of the wheat harvest is usually sold to the Trade Ministry. In a sign of the low harvest, so far there are currently only 373,000 tons of wheat available in Trade Ministry storehouses, al-Naif said.
To meet demands amid the recent global crisis in the grain market, the government recently changed a policy to allow all Iraqi farmers to sell their produce to the Trade Ministry silos. Previously, this was limited to farmers who operated within the government plan.
Back in Chelab’s farm, the wheat is ready to be transported to the silo.
“It’s true we need to develop ourselves,” he said. “But the change should be gradual, not immediate.”
Palestinians: Israel deliberately killed Al Jazeera reporter
The Palestinian Authority on Thursday announced the results of its investigation into the shooting death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, saying it had proven she was deliberately killed by Israeli forces as she tried to flee.
The conclusion echoed the results of a preliminary investigation announced nearly two weeks ago and were widely expected. Israel rejected the findings, with Defense Minister Benny Gantz calling them, “a blatant lie.”
Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeera’s Arabic service, was shot in the head on May 11 during an Israeli military raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Witnesses and Palestinian officials have said she was hit by Israeli fire. Israel says she was shot during a battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants. It says that only a ballistic analysis of the bullet — which is held by the Palestinian Authority — and the soldiers’ guns can determine who fired the fatal shot.
Also read: Independent probe points to Israeli fire in journalist death
Announcing the results of his probe at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah,, Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al Khateeb said he had determined there were no militants in the immediate area where Abu Akleh was located.
“The only shooting was by the occupation forces, with the aim of killing,” he said.
Abu Akleh was in a group of journalists wearing helmets and protective vests marked “press.” Al Khateeb said the army saw the journalists and knew they were journalists.
He accused Israel of shooting Abu Akleh “directly and deliberately” as she tried to escape. He also repeated the Palestinian position that the bullet will not be handed over to the Israelis for study. He said they decided not even to show images of the bullet “to deprive (Israel) of a new lie.”
Al Khateeb said his investigation was based on interviews with witnesses, an inspection of the scene and a forensic medical report.
In a speech later Thursday, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi said it was impossible to know who fired the bullet and once again called on the Palestinians to cooperate to “get to the bottom” of what happened.
Also read: Israeli police beat pallbearers at journalist's funeral
“But there is one thing that can be determined with certainty," the military chief said. "No soldier fired intentionally at a journalist. We investigated that. We checked it. That is the conclusion. There is no other.”
Israel denies targeting journalists and has offered two possible scenarios, saying Abu Akleh was either shot by Palestinian militants who were firing recklessly at an Israeli army convoy or that she was hit by Israeli gunfire aimed at a nearby militant. The military has identified the rifle that may have been used in that scenario, but says it needs to test the bullet to make any final determination.
An AP reconstruction of events has lent support to eyewitnesses who say she was shot by Israeli troops. But a weapons expert interviewed by the AP as part of the reconstruction said that it was impossible to reach a conclusive finding without further forensic analysis.
Palestinian witnesses say there were no militants or clashes anywhere near Abu Akleh. The only known militants in the area were on the other side of the convoy, some 300 meters (yards) from her position. They did not have a direct line of sight, unlike the convoy itself, which was some 200 (meters) away on a long straight road.
Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation with the PA, with U.S. participation, and has asked the PA to hand over the bullet for testing. But the State Department said Wednesday that it had received no formal request for assistance from either side two weeks after her death.
The PA has refused to hand over the bullet to Israel or cooperate with it in any way, saying Israel cannot be trusted to investigate its own conduct. Rights groups say Israel has a poor record of investigating when security forces shoot Palestinians, with cases often languishing for months or years before being quietly closed.
The PA administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hussein Al Sheikh, a top Palestinian official, said Thursday's report would be shared with the U.S. administration. Copies will also be delivered to Abu Akleh's family and to Al Jazeera, he said.
The Palestinians say they will also share their results with international parties, including the International Criminal Court, which launched an investigation into possible Israeli war crimes last year. Israel has rejected that probe as being biased against it and is not cooperating with it.
The severe distrust means the Israeli and Palestinian investigations into Abu Akleh’s death are unfolding separately, with neither likely to accept any conclusions reached by the other.
Each side is in sole possession of potentially crucial evidence. Ballistic analysis could match the bullet to a specific firearm based on a microscopic signature, but only if investigators have access to both. Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, a military spokesman, told the AP the military has additional footage from that day, but declined to say what it shows or when it would be released, citing the ongoing investigation.
Palestinians are still mourning Abu Akleh, a widely known and respected on-air correspondent who rose to fame two decades ago, during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli rule. The 51-year-old documented the harsh realities of life under Israeli military rule — now well into its sixth decade with no end in sight — for viewers across the Arab world.
Jenin has long been a bastion of Palestinian militants, and several recent attacks inside Israel have been carried out by young men from in and around the town. Israel has continued to carry out near-daily raids in Jenin since Abu Akleh’s death, which it says are aimed at preventing more.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war and has built settlements where nearly 500,000 Israelis live alongside nearly 3 million Palestinians. The Palestinians want the territory to form the main part of their future state, but peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, and Israel’s dominant right-wing parties are opposed to Palestinian statehood.
The PA itself is seen by many Palestinians as a corrupt and authoritarian body that aids the occupation by coordinating with Israel on security matters. Any cooperation with Israel on the Abu Akleh investigation would likely spark a popular backlash among Palestinians, who view her as a martyr to both journalism and their national cause.
UN Mideast envoy calls for coordinated, strategic approach to Israeli-Palestinian issue
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland on Thursday called for a better coordinated and strategic approach to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
"We must push beyond the paradigm of managing the conflict and move toward resolving it," he told the Security Council in a briefing.
The persistence of conflict drivers and the absence of real political will to change course have empowered extremists and are eroding the perception among Palestinians and Israelis that a resolution of the conflict is achievable. These dynamics, combined with the financial crisis, are dangerously converging and intensifying, he warned.
While immediate steps to reverse negative trends and support the Palestinian people are essential, a better coordinated and strategic approach by the parties and the international community is needed, he said.
"Economic relief must be expanded and made more sustainable. An agreed and updated regulatory framework for the Israeli-Palestinian economic relationship is not only vital to bringing about meaningful economic dividends for the Palestinians but would add a tangible political perspective to these economic steps," he said. "This approach, however, must be combined with political and security steps that address core conflict drivers and ultimately lead us toward an end to the occupation and the achievement of a negotiated two-state solution."
Also Read: Israel-Palestine conflict: China calls for UN council action, slams US
Recent weeks have been filled with the familiar pattern of daily violence, including armed clashes, settlement expansion, evictions, demolitions and seizures of Palestinian structures, as well as a deadly terrorist attack in Israel, said Wennesland.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority's financial situation, compounded by the constraints of the occupation, the absence of serious Palestinian reforms and unclear prospects for donor support, is dire and requires urgent attention, he said.
In Gaza, efforts by the United Nations and international partners to improve Palestinian lives, and measures by Israel to ease pressure and facilitate more economic activities have enabled the fragile cease-fire to continue. Keeping the calm, however, is neither enough nor sustainable. More needs to be done to alleviate the humanitarian crisis and lift Israeli closures, he said.
Wennesland expressed particular concern over a possible escalation in the West Bank.
"As Jerusalem Day approaches on May 29, with the planned provocative flag march through the Muslim quarter in the Old City, I again urge authorities to take wise decisions to minimize confrontations and the risk of more violent escalation. I reiterate that the status quo at Jerusalem's holy sites must be upheld and respected," he said.
"More broadly, I am extremely concerned that current dynamics, particularly in the occupied West Bank, could spiral out of control at any time. I encourage leaders on both sides to make difficult but critical decisions that will take us back from the brink and help stabilize the situation. The irresponsible and provocative language and incitement to violence must stop," he added.
There are tangible, ongoing arrangements that can be regularized and expanded immediately -- if there is political will, said Wennesland. "I urge, and remain actively engaged with, Israelis, Palestinians, regional states and the broader international community to take action that will lead us back to the path of negotiations, which will end the occupation and establish two states, in line with UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements."
Indian, Pakistani killed in UAE gas blast that injured 120
A gas cylinder explosion in Abu Dhabi earlier this week that injured 120 people killed an Indian and a Pakistani national, authorities in those two countries said Thursday.
India's External Affairs Ministry said one Indian died and around 100 were injured in the blast Monday in Abu Dhabi’s Khalidiya neighborhood, just a few blocks from the Emirati capital’s beachfront corniche.
Also read:UAE's long-ailing leader Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed dies at 73
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said the explosion killed one Pakistani and wounded others. Pakistani diplomats also visited a police station in the capital and said Emirati authorities promised to share more on their investigation.
The United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven desert sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, faces seasonal fires brought on by the intense heat that bakes this nation each summer. Temperatures hit 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday.
Also read: UAE authorities order arrests over rare riot at soccer match
In February, authorities say a similar gas cylinder explosion struck the capital at the height of concerns over attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
Indians and Pakistani make up much of the foreign workforce that powers the Emirates.
United Arab Emirates detects first case of monkeypox
Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates detected on Tuesday the country’s first case of the monkeypox virus in a young woman who traveled from West Africa.
The government said little about the patient, but stressed that authorities were investigating her contacts and “taking all necessary measures” to limit the spread of monkeypox.
The statement did not say where the case had been discovered in the federation of seven sheikhdoms, which includes the capital of Abu Dhabi and tourist hub of Dubai.
Read: No Monkeypox cases detected in Bangladesh: BSMMU VC
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, authorities in the autocratic country similarly had declined to offer a geographic breakdown for COVID-19 cases.
The diagnosis in the UAE marks the first reported case on the Arabian Peninsula. Israel recorded the first reported case in the Middle East earlier this week. The World Health Organization has identified over 100 cases globally.
Read: New Monkeypox Outbreak: What We Know So Far
Cases of the smallpox-related disease have previously been seen only among people with links to central and West Africa. But Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the U.S., Sweden and Canada all reported infections, mostly in young men who hadn’t previously traveled to Africa. France, Germany, Belgium and Australia have also identified cases.
The virus originates in primates and other wild animals and causes fever, body aches, chills and fatigue in most patients. People with severe cases can develop a rash and lesions on the face, hands and other parts of the body.
Israel busts Hamas group for terrorist attack schemes
The Israeli Security Agency said Tuesday it has arrested members of a Hamas group in East Jerusalem over terrorist schemes, including attempts to murder Israeli politicians in early April.
"The suspects planned, among other things, to shoot at Israeli targets and public figures, including lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, manufacture IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and abduct soldiers," the agency, or Shin Bet, said in a statement.
The suspects were also accused of acquiring a drone in order to install explosives on it and use it to attack the Jerusalem light rail, according to the agency.
READ: Hamas, Fatah reject Israeli threats to storm Palestinian cities in northern West Bank
The Israeli State Attorney accused Rashid Rashak, a Hamas militant in East Jerusalem's Old City, and Mansur Tzafadi, a Hamas militant from the neighborhood of Abu Tor, of leading the cell.
Shin Bet said Israeli security forces "will continue to take determined action in order to deal with those involved in terrorism, especially in Jerusalem, to the fullest extent of the law."
Israel captured East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it shortly later, in a move not recognized by most of the international community. The Palestinians wish to build the capital of their state in East Jerusalem.
Iran building collapse kills 11 as mayor and others detained
Rescuers dug through debris Tuesday of a building collapse in southwestern Iran that killed at least 11 people, fearful that many more could still be trapped beneath the rubble as authorities arrested the city's mayor in a widening probe of the disaster.
The collapse Monday of an under-construction 10-story tower at the Metropol Building exposed its cement blocks and steel beams while also underscoring an ongoing crisis in Iranian construction projects that has seen other disasters in this earthquake-prone nation.
Also read: Iran Revolutionary Guard colonel is shot dead in Tehran
Video from the initial collapse Monday showed thick dust rise over Abadan, a crucial oil-producing city in Khuzestan province, near Iran's border with Iraq. The Metropol Building included two towers, one already built and the other under construction, though its bottom commercial floors had finished and already had tenants.
On Tuesday, an emergency official interviewed on state television suggested that some 50 people may have been inside of the building at the time of the collapse, including people moving into its basement floors. However, it wasn't clear if that figure included those already pulled from the rubble. At least 39 people were injured, most of them lightly, officials earlier said.
Aerial drone footage aired Tuesday showed the floors had pancaked on top of each other, leaving a pile of dusty, gray debris. A construction crane stood still nearby as a single backhoe dug. State TV said at least 11 people had been killed.
An angry crowd at the site chased and beat Abadan Mayor Hossein Hamidpour immediately after the collapse, according to the semiofficial ILNA news agency and online videos.
Police later arrested Hamidpour and nine others, Iranian media reported Tuesday. Initially, authorities said the building's owner and its general contractor had been arrested as well, though a later report from the judiciary's Mizan news agency said Tuesday that the two men had been killed in the collapse. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.
Authorities offered no immediate word on whether those detained faced charges and it wasn't immediately clear if lawyers represented them.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi offered his condolences and appealed on the local authorities to get to the bottom of the case. Iran’s vice president in charge of economic affairs, Mohsen Razaei, and Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi visited the site.
Lawmakers opened a separate parliament inquiry into the case Tuesday, trying to determine why the building on Amir Kabir Street collapsed during a sandstorm. However, there was no major earthquake recorded Monday near Abadan, some 660 kilometers (410 miles) southwest of Tehran.
A local journalist in Abadan had repeatedly raised concerns about the building's construction, beginning from last year, publishing images that he said showed sagging floors at the first tower. He also alleged corruption in the building permits process.
Also read: Iran says interactions with Israel can't ensure Arab states' security
Later Tuesday, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted Faramarz Zoghi, a construction expert and adviser to Iran's construction engineers league, as saying that “definitely national construction measures were not observed” at the site. Authorities also declared a one-day mourning period Wednesday over the disaster.
Abadan became the focus of development by the British beginning in 1909 as they built what became the world's largest oil refinery at the time. Iran later nationalized its oil industry in the decades before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iraq's long war on Iran in the 1980s saw Abadan and the surrounding region destroyed in the fighting. In the years since, fast private and state-linked construction projects rebuilt the area, amid complaints of shoddy construction practices.
The collapse reminded many of the 2017 fire and collapse of the iconic Plasco building in Tehran that killed 26 people.
Abadan previously has suffered through historic disasters as well. In 1978, an intentionally set fire at Cinema Rex in the city killed hundreds. Anger over the blaze triggered unrest across Iran’s oil-rich regions and helped lead to the Islamic Revolution that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Iran Revolutionary Guard colonel is shot dead in Tehran
A senior member of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard was killed outside his home in Tehran on Sunday by unidentified gunmen on a motorbike, state TV reported.
Although the Guard gave only scant detail about the attack that occurred in broad daylight in the heart of Iran’s capital, the group blamed the killing on “global arrogance,” typically code for the United States and Israel.
Also read: Iran says interactions with Israel can't ensure Arab states' security
That accusation, as well as the style of the brazen killing, raised the possibility of a link with other motorbike slayings previously attributed to Israel in Iran, such as those targeting the country’s nuclear scientists. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
The two assailants shot Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei five times in his unarmored Iranian-made Kia Pride, state media said, right off a highly secure street home to Iran’s parliament.
Reports identified Khodaei only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against the extremist Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s elite Quds force that oversees foreign operations.
Little information was publicly available about Khodaei, as Quds officers tend to be shadowy figures carrying out secretive military missions supporting Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, and other militias in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
The Tehran prosecutor arrived at the crime scene within hours of the killing to investigate and demanded police urgently arrest the perpetrators. The probe’s speed suggested Khodaei’s prominence in the murky structure of the Guard’s overseas operations.
Also read: Emirati-flagged cargo ship sinks in Persian Gulf off Iran
Those operations have come under repeated Israeli air attack in Syria. An Israeli strike near the Syrian capital of Damascus killed two Guard members in March, prompting Iran to retaliate by firing a missile barrage into northern Iraq.
Security forces were pursuing the suspected assailants, state TV reported, without offering further details or giving a motive for the killing.
Around the same time, state-run media said the Revolutionary Guard’s security forces had uncovered and arrested members of an Israeli intelligence network operating in the country, without elaborating on whether they had any connection to Khodaei’s slaying.
Israel confirms 1st monkeypox case
The Israeli Ministry of Health on Saturday confirmed the country's first monkeypox case after the viral disease has recently been detected across North America and Europe.
A man in his 30s returning from western Europe, who visited Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv with suspicious lesions of the virus and identified by the ministry as Israel's first suspected case of monkeypox was proved to have contracted the disease, according to a ministry statement.
A clinical sample was tested at the Israel Institute for Biological Research, where the suspicion of monkeypox was verified, according to the statement.
Also read: What is monkeypox and where is it spreading?
The man, who was exposed to a monkeypox patient in western Europe, has been hospitalized in quarantine to complete medical examination and supervision.
According to the ministry, the man is in good medical condition. The ministry also called on those who had returned from abroad and developed a fever and a blistering rash to see a doctor.
Recently, cases of monkeypox have been reported in the United States, Canada, Australia and several western European countries.
Monkeypox is common in wild animals like rodents and primates, but humans can also get infected with the virus.
Symptoms include skin rashes, fever, headache, muscle ache, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion.
Also read: African scientists baffled by monkeypox cases in Europe, US
The rash eventually forms a scab, which later falls off, indicating that the person is no longer infectious.
Palestinian teen shot in Israeli raid in occupied West Bank
Israeli troops shot and killed a teenage Palestinian boy as clashes erupted when they entered a volatile town in the occupied West Bank early Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry and local media said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has intensified overnight raids in the northern West Bank town of Jenin in recent months.
The ministry identified the dead teen as Amjad al-Fayyed, 17. It said an 18-year-old Palestinian was in critical condition after being wounded by Israeli gunfire.
READ: Palestinian gunman dies days after clash with Israeli troops
Local media reported that clashes erupted outside Jenin’s refugee camp when Israeli forces stormed the area. It was not immediately clear how al-Fayyed was shot.
Israel says it carries out “counterterrorism activities” to detain wanted militants and planners of recent deadly attacks in the West Bank and Israel.
On May 11, a veteran Palestinian journalist for the Al Jazeera satellite channel was killed while covering an Israeli military operation in Jenin. Shireen Abu Akleh’s family, the broadcaster, the Palestinian Authority and witnesses accused Israel of shooting the correspondent for the Qatari channel. Israel accused Palestinian militants of firing at the journalist but backtracked later.
Israeli military officials on Thursday said the military has identified a soldier’s rifle that may have killed Abu Akleh, but said it cannot be certain unless the Palestinians turn over the bullet for analysis.