middle-east
Biden says US won’t wait ‘forever’ for Iran on nuclear deal
President Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States is “not going to wait forever” for Iran to rejoin a dormant nuclear deal, a day after saying he’d be willing to use force against Tehran as a last resort, if necessary.
At a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid following private talks about Iran’s rapidly progressing nuclear program, Biden said the U.S. had laid out for the Iranian leadership a path to return to the nuclear deal and was still waiting for a response.
“When that will come, I’m not certain,” Biden said. “But we’re not going to wait forever.”
Even as he suggested that his patience with Iran was running low, Biden held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin the agreement. “I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,” he said.
Biden’s desire for a diplomatic solution contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force in order to give up on its nuclear ambition.
“The Iranian regime must know that if they continue to deceive the world they will pay a heavy price,” Lapid said at the news conference. “The only way to stop them is to put a credible military threat on the table.”
Lapid suggested that he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.
“I don’t think there’s a light between us,” he said. “We cannot allow Iran to become nuclear.”
Resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama’s administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office. But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of getting Tehran back into compliance.
Israeli officials have sought to use Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as president to underscore that Iran’s nuclear program has progressed too far and encourage the Biden administration to scuttle efforts to revive a 2015 agreement with Iran to limit its development.
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Israel opposed the original nuclear deal, reached under Obama in 2015, because its limitations on Iran’s nuclear enrichment would expire and the agreement didn’t address Iran’s ballistic missile program or military activities in the region.
Instead of the U.S. reentering the deal, which Trump withdrew from in 2018, Israel would prefer strict sanctions in hopes of leading to a more sweeping accord.
The U.S. president, who is set to travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday, said he also stressed to Lapid the importance of Israel becoming “totally integrated” in the region.
Their one-on-one talks marked the centerpiece of a 48-hour visit by Biden aimed at strengthening already tight relations between the U.S and Israel. The leaders issued a joint declaration emphasizing military cooperation and a commitment to preventing Iran, which Israel considers an enemy, from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
In the joint statement, the United States said it is ready to use “all elements of its national power” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
Biden, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 that aired Wednesday, offered strong assurances of his determination to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power, saying he’d be willing to use force as a “last resort” if necessary.
Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.
The joint declaration could hold important symbolic importance for Biden’s upcoming meeting with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia as he seeks to strengthen a regionwide alliance against Iran.
“I talked about how important it was … for Israel to be totally integrated in the region,” Biden said after his one-on-one meeting with Lapid on Thursday.
The president heads to Saudi Arabia after calling the kingdom a “pariah” nation as a candidate and releasing a U.S. intelligence finding last year that showed the kingdom’s defacto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, like approved the killing of of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based writer.
Biden declined to commit to mentioning Khashoggi’s murder when he meets with the crown prince.
“I always bring up human rights,” Biden said at the news conference. “But my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesn’t understand it, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven’t been around for a while.” He did not reiterate his position.
Israeli politics a chaotic backdrop for Biden's visit
President Joe Biden, facing his own set of challenges back in Washington, will spend Thursday navigating Israel’s chaotic politics as he meets with the country’s leaders to bolster cooperation with the United States and other nations.
Biden begins the day by sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who became head of an interim government earlier this month after the previous coalition collapsed. The country is holding its fifth election in less than four years in November.
Although Biden will likely be cautious about showing any favoritism — after all, previous American presidents have tried to influence Israeli politics with little success — there's little question that he would like to see Lapid prevail. Their joint appearances could burnish Lapid's image in a country that prizes its relationship with the United States.
Biden and Lapid are expected to sign a joint declaration emphasizing military cooperation between the U.S. and Israel, as well as their commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. They're also planning to launch a strategic initiative on high-tech collaboration.
In addition, the two leaders are scheduled to hold a joint news conference and host a virtual summit with India and the United Arab Emirates, a collection of countries known as the I2U2. A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly before the meeting, said the UAE will help finance a $2 billion project supporting agriculture in India.
Lapid, 58, is a former journalist and television anchor who entered politics only a decade ago. He served as finance minister under Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister, before becoming leader of the opposition and cobbling together a diverse, eight-party coalition ending Netanyahu's government.
Naftali Bennett became prime minister, with Lapid as his foreign minister. But the coalition collapsed after months of infighting, and Bennett agreed to step aside for Lapid until the election.
Lapid worked hard to solidify his credentials as a statesman while foreign minister. His aides believe the private face time, public appearances and demonstrations of friendship with Biden — who, at 79, is making his 10th trip to Israel — will strengthen that image and get the electorate more comfortable with the idea of Lapid as their leader.
However, Netanyahu is running for prime minister again, and opinion polls have projected that his conservative Likud party will win the most seats in the next election, well ahead of Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party.
Neither party is poised to singlehandedly capture the majority of seats needed to form a government, and it is unclear whether either man could cobble together a ruling coalition with smaller parties.
Biden played down the political uncertainty in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 that aired Wednesday.
“We’re committed to the state, not an individual leader," he said.
Biden is expected to meet only briefly with Netanyahu, with whom who he's had a rocky relationship in the past. Most notably, when Netanyahu was prime minister, his government approved a massive settlement project in East Jerusalem while Biden was visiting the country in 2010. Biden, then vice president, was infuriated.
Much like Lapid, Biden also faces a political threat from his predecessor. Donald Trump, an ally of Netanyahu who still enjoys strong support from Republican voters despite his attempt to overturn the last election, may run for another term.
Asked by Channel 12 if he expected a rematch, Biden replied, "I’m not predicting, but I would not be disappointed.”
Given the U.S.'s status as Israel’s closest and most important ally, Biden is at the center of the country’s attention during his visit.
Israel staged an elaborate welcoming ceremony for him at the Tel Aviv airport, including a red carpet and a band that played the national anthem of both countries. Major television channels set up special live coverage of Biden’s arrival, and even broadcast a nonstop loop of his motorcade traveling on the highway to Jerusalem.
Biden can also expect to meet numerous politicians eager to have their photo taken with him, or perhaps share an earful about his administration’s attempt to rejuvenate the Iran nuclear deal.
Israel was opposed to the original nuclear deal, which was reached under President Barack Obama in 2015, because its limitations on Iran’s nuclear enrichment would expire and the agreement didn’t address Iran's ballistic missile program or military activities in the region.
Instead of the U.S. reentering the deal, which Trump withdrew from in 2018, Israel would prefer strict sanctions in hopes of leading to a more sweeping accord.
Biden also will receive the nation’s top civilian honor, the presidential medal of honor, from Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday.
He's also scheduled to meet with U.S. athletes who are participating in the Maccabiah Games. Also known as the “Jewish Olympics,” it’s the country’s largest sporting event that’s held every four years for Israeli and Jewish athletes from all over world.
Iran arrests 3rd outspoken filmmaker in escalating crackdown
Iran has arrested an internationally renowned filmmaker, several newspapers reported Tuesday, the third Iranian director to be locked up in less than a week as the government escalates a crackdown on the country's celebrated cinema industry.
Jafar Panahi, one of Iran's best-known dissident filmmakers, had gone to the prosecutor's office in Tehran on Monday evening to check on the cases of his two colleagues detained last week, when security forces scooped him up as well, the reports said.
A colleague of Panahi, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, told The Associated Press that authorities sent Panahi to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison to serve out a prison term dating back years ago.
In 2011, Panahi received a six-year prison sentence on charges of creating anti-government propaganda and was banned from filmmaking for 20 years. He was also barred from leaving the country.
However, the sentence was never really enforced and Panahi continued to make underground films — without government script approval or permits — which were released abroad to great acclaim.
Panahi has won multiple festival awards, including the 2015 Berlin Golden Bear for “Taxi,” a wide-ranging meditation on poverty, sexism and censorship in Iran, and the Venice Golden Lion in 2000 for “The Circle,” a deep dive into women's lives in Iran's patriarchal society.
The Berlin International Film Festival said it was “dismayed and outraged” to hear of Panahi's arrest.
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“The arrest of Jafar Panahi is another violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the arts,” the festival directors said.
His arrest came after the arrest of two other Iranian filmmakers, Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad.
Authorities accused Rasoulof and al-Ahmad of undermining the nation’s security by voicing opposition on social media to the government’s violent crackdown on unrest in the country’s southwest.
Following the catastrophic collapse of the Metropol Building that killed at least 41 people in May, protests erupted over allegations of government negligence and deeply rooted corruption. Police responded with a heavy hand, clubbing protesters and firing tear gas, according to footage widely circulating online.
Rasoulof won the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize in 2020 for his film “There Is No Evil" that explores four stories loosely connected to the themes of the death penalty in Iran and personal freedoms under tyranny. In 2011, Rasoulof’s film “Goodbye” won a prize at Cannes but he was not allowed to travel to France to accept it.
The Cannes Film Festival sharply condemned the arrests of the three filmmakers “as well as the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists.”
The increased pressure on filmmakers follows a wave of arrests in recent months as tensions escalate between Iran's hard-line government and the West. Security forces have arrested severalforeigners as talks to revive Tehran's nuclear accord with world powers have hit a deadlock.
Iran enriches to 20% with new centrifuges at fortified site
Iran announced Sunday that it has begun enriching uranium up to 20% using sophisticated centrifuges at its underground Fordo nuclear plant, state TV reported, an escalation that comes amid a standoff with the West over its tattered atomic deal.
That Tehran is enriching uranium up to 20% purity — a technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — with a new set of its most advanced centrifuges at a facility deep inside a mountain deals yet another blow to the already slim chances of reviving the accord.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said uranium enriched to 20% was collected for the first time from advanced IR-6 centrifuges on Saturday. He said Iran had informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog about the development two weeks ago.
Centrifuges are used to spin enriched uranium into higher levels of purity. Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers had called for Fordo to become a research-and-development facility and restricted centrifuges there to non-nuclear uses.
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Iran had previously told the IAEA that it was preparing to enrich uranium through a new cascade of 166 advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Fordo facility. But it hadn’t revealed the level at which the cascade would be enriching.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, told The Associated Press that it had verified on Saturday that Iran was using a set-up that allowed it to more swiftly and easily switch between enrichment levels.
In a report to member states, Director General Rafael Grossi described a system of “modified sub-headers,” which he said allowed Iran to inject gas enriched up to 5% purity into a cascade of 166 IR-6 centrifuges for the purpose of producing uranium enriched up to 20% purity.
Iran did not comment on the latest IAEA finding.
Nuclear talks have been at a standstill for months. The U.S. special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, described the latest round of negotiations in Qatar as “more than a little bit of a wasted occasion.”
The IAEA reported last month that Iran has 43 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity — a short step to 90%. Nonproliferation experts warn that’s enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon if Iran chose to pursue it.
However, Iran still would need to design a bomb and a delivery system for it, likely a monthslong project.
Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, though U.N. experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003.
Tehran’s escalating nuclear work has raised alarm with transparency rapidly diminishing. Last month Iran shut off more than two dozen IAEA monitoring cameras from various nuclear-related sites across the country.
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Former President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 and re-imposed crushing sanctions on Tehran, setting off a series of tense incidents across the wider Mideast. Iran responded by massively increasing its nuclear work, growing its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and spinning advanced centrifuges banned by the accord.
Iran’s adversary Israel has long opposed the nuclear accord, saying it delayed rather ended Iran’s nuclear progress and arguing that sanctions relief empowered Tehran’s proxy militias across the region.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called on the U.N. to re-impose multilateral sanctions on Iran — a bid that was met with stiff opposition when pushed by the Trump administration.
“The response of the international community must be decisive: to return to the U.N. Security Council and activate the sanctions mechanism at full force,” Lapid, who is serving as caretaker leader, told his Cabinet. “Israel, for its part, maintains full freedom to act, diplomatically and operationally, in this fight against Iran’s nuclear program.”
One million pilgrims begin standing at Arafat, marking climax of Hajj
Marking the climax of the annual pilgrimage of Hajj, around one million pilgrims ascended on Friday the vast plains of Arafat. Pilgrims in seamless white clothes - resembling a white sea of humanity -started their ritual of standing at Arafat, the most important pillar of Hajj, this afternoon.
Chanting “Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik (O God, here I am answering Your call)...,” the pilgrims flocked this morning to Namirah Mosque in Arafat, about 15 km east of Makkah, after spending a night of meditation and introspection in the Tent City of Mina, reports Saudi Gazette.
Read: Muslim pilgrims pray at Mount Arafat as hajj reaches apex
Sheikh Muhammad Al-Issa, member of the Council of Senior Scholars and secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL), delivered the Arafat sermon at the grand Namirah Mosque. The sermon resembles the famous farewell sermon of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) when he performed his only Hajj.
In the sermon, Sheikh Al-Issa urged all Muslims to obey what God has commanded and avoid what He prohibited in order to attain victory, salvation, and happiness in both this world and the hereafter. “You must realize that hastening to do good things includes being keen to comply with the values taught by Islam; values that soundly mold the conduct of a Muslim and refine them in the best way. Among the values taught by Islam are avoiding all that leads to dissent, animosity, or division; and instead, ensuring that our interactions are dominated by harmony and compassion,” he called on the pilgrims.
After the sermon, Sheikh Al-Issa led the prayers. Retracting the noble tradition of the Prophet (PBUH), he performed noon (Dhuhr) and evening (Asr) prayers, shortened and joined together, with one adhan and two iqamas. Pilgrims joined the prayers at and around Namirah Mosque, and then started performing the Standing (wuqoof) at Arafat.
Wuqoof Arafat, one of the four pillars of Hajj, begins after noon prayers. Pilgrims would engage in prayers and supplications until after sunset. They will seek forgiveness and pleasures of Allah. Many of the worshippers were seen holding umbrellas against the fierce sun while chanting Talbiyah and reciting verses from the Holy Qur’an after ascending on Jabal Al-Rahma (the Mount of Mercy) in Arafat.
Muslim pilgrims pray at Mount Arafat as hajj reaches apex
Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims from around the world raised their hands to heaven and offered prayers of repentance on the sacred hill of Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia on Friday, an intense day of worship considered to be the climax of the annual hajj.
Multitudes stood shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet, for the emotional day of supplication in the desert valley where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon, calling for equality and unity among Muslims.
The experience sent many pilgrims to tears. Muslims believe prayer on this day at Mount Arafat, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of the holy city of Mecca, is their best chance at salvation and spiritual renewal. The pilgrims set out for Arafat before dawn, chanting as they trekked. They remain there until nightfall in deep contemplation and worship.
Read: A hajj closer to normal: 1 million Muslims begin pilgrimage
“I feel I am so close to God,” said Zakaria Mohammad, an Egyptian pilgrim praying as the sky brightened over the hilltop. “He gave me such joy. This is my feeling now — joy, great joy.”
Men wore unstitched sheets of white cloth resembling a shroud, while women wore conservative dress and headscarves, their faces exposed.
The hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for all Muslims physically and financially able to make the journey, which takes the faithful along a path traversed by the Prophet Muhammad some 1,400 years ago.
“God brought me here,” said Khadije Isaac, who traveled to Mount Arafat from Nigeria, her voice clipped with emotion. “I cannot describe the happiness that I have.”
Strict pandemic limits had upended the event for the past two years, effectively canceling one of the world’s biggest and most diverse gatherings and devastating many pious Muslims who had waited a lifetime to make the journey. This year's pilgrimage marks the largest since the virus struck, although the attendance by 1 million worshippers remains less than half of the pre-pandemic influx.
All pilgrims selected to perform the hajj this year are under age 65 and have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Pilgrims spend five days carrying out a set of rituals associated with the Prophet Muhammad and the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, or Abraham and Ishmael in the Bible, before him. The rituals began on Thursday with the circling of the Kaaba, the black cube in the center of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, which Muslims around the world face during their daily prayers wherever they are in the world.
Read: 3 more Bangladeshi hajj pilgrims die in Saudi Arabia in three days
Around sunset on Friday, the pilgrims will march or take a bus 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) west to the rocky desert of Muzdalifa, where they comb the area for pebbles to carry out the symbolic stoning of the devil. That rite will take place on Saturday in the small village of Mina, where Muslims believe the devil tried to talk Ibrahim out of submitting to God’s will.
Pilgrims stone the devil to signify overcoming temptation. The ritual is a notorious chokepoint for surging crowds. In 2016, thousands of pilgrims were crushed to death in a gruesome stampede. Saudi authorities never offered a final death toll.
In their most noticeable effort to improve access, the Saudis have built a high-speed rail link to ferry masses between holy sites. Pilgrims enter through special electronic gates. Tens of thousands of police officers are out in force to protect the areas and control crowds.
With so many people from so many places crammed together, public health is a major concern. Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry urged pilgrims to consider wearing masks to curb the spread of coronavirus, although the government lifted a mask mandate and other virus precautions last month.
The ministry also advised pilgrims to drink water and be aware of the signs of heat stroke in the desert, where temperatures can exceed 40 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit).
Once the hajj is over, men are expected to shave their heads, and women to snip a lock of hair in a sign of renewal.
Around the world, Muslims will mark the end of the pilgrimage with Eid al-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice. The holiday commemorates the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail at God’s request. Muslims traditionally slaughter sheep and cattle, dividing the meat among the needy, friends and relatives.
A hajj closer to normal: 1 million Muslims begin pilgrimage
It is a scene that stirs hope — and relief — for Muslims around the world.
One million pilgrims from across the globe amassed on Thursday in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform the initial rites of the hajj, marking the largest Islamic pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic upended the annual event — a key pillar of Islam.
The hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for all Muslims physically and financially able to make the journey, which takes the faithful along a path traversed by the Prophet Muhammad some 1,400 years ago. Pilgrims spend five days carrying out a set of rituals intended to bring them closer to God.
That includes praying around the cube-shaped Kaaba, the holiest shrine in Islam. At the center of the Grand Mosque’s courtyard on Thursday, thousands of unmasked pilgrims circled the Kaaba.
The crowds, visibly thinner than usual, moved counter-clockwise around the granite building in a blur, their hearts tilting toward the structure meant to symbolize the oneness of God in Islam. Wherever they are in the world, observant Muslims face the Kaaba to pray daily.
Pilgrims appeared to throw COVID-19 caution to the wind as they thronged the Grand Mosque — in sharp contrast to the social distancing and mask requirements of the past two years. This time, there were signs of lingering vigilance.
Read: 2,415 more Bangladeshis can perform Hajj this year
Typically, worshippers would fight the crowds for a chance to touch and kiss the black stone on the Kaaba’s eastern corner, but the government has banned this practice. Saudi authorities also distributed bottles of water from the holy Zamzam well instead of allowing pilgrims to drink from cups at the mosque. Thousands of medical workers were on hand to assist those in need.
This year, the hajj is open to just 1 million foreign and domestic pilgrims who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, tested negative for COVID-19 and are between 18 and 65 years old. Authorities estimate 85% have arrived from abroad.
While this year’s attendance is far below the pre-pandemic influx of 2.5 million pilgrims, it represents a significant step closer to normal after the kingdom restricted the event to a small number of Muslim residents for the past two years.
The ritual was almost scrapped in its entirety in 2020, when as few as 1,000 residents were permitted to take part. Some 60,000 residents attended last year. The unprecedented restrictions sent shockwaves through the Muslim world and devastated many believers, who often save up and wait for years to make the pilgrimage.
Although no longer in the shadow of the pandemic, this hajj is taking place amid Russia’s war on Ukraine — a conflict that may be thousands of miles from the homes of many Muslims but has sent the prices of staple foods soaring and spread misery across the world.
This year’s hajj also showcases de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s latest efforts to loosen social restrictions and transform the kingdom. Saudi Arabia officially began allowing women to perform the hajj without a male guardian, or “mahram,” last year.
The hajj in Islam is meant to be a great equalizer and unifier among Muslims. Pilgrims wear simple clothing: For men, it’s typical to wear a white draping garment, while women wear conservative dress and headscarves, forgoing makeup, nail polish and perfume to draw closer to God.
But even Mecca cannot escape the world’s wealth gaps: The well-heeled may pay some $3,000 a night for five-star hotels overlooking the Kaaba. For most people, however, the pilgrimage means sleeping in simple accommodations or on the ground around the mosque to perform daily prayers ahead of the hajj.
With many more people applying to perform the hajj each year than the kingdom can accommodate, the Saudi government controls the flow of visitors through annual quotas based on each nation’s Muslim population.
The visa regulations have grown stricter after deadly incidents in recent years. In 2015, several thousand pilgrims were crushed to death in a stampede. This year, tight quotas were sharply reduced. Indonesia sent just over 100,000 people, the world’s largest contingent.
Shiite powerhouse Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional foe that in 2016 barred its citizens from making the pilgrimage amid an escalating sectarian rivalry, sent over 39,000, down from 88,550 in 2019.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s special envoy for the hajj did not receive a visa because he is over 65, Iranian media reported. Iran has criticized the kingdom for its decision to restrict pilgrims because of the virus. As tensions eased between the rivals amid regional negotiations and a ceasefire in Yemen, hajj officials from the countries met last month to discuss security for the first time in years.
Although the pandemic is far from over, with hundreds new infections a day in the kingdom, the government is glad of the influx. The event is a critical source of prestige and tourism for Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia expecting 1 million in largest hajj since virus
One million Muslim pilgrims were converging on Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca on Wednesday for the largest hajj since the coronavirus pandemic severely curtailed access to one of Islam’s five pillars.
Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow some 850,000 Muslims from abroad to make the annual pilgrimage, which begins on Thursday, marks a major step toward normalcy after two years of a drastically scaled-down hajj restricted to Saudi residents.
The 1 million foreign and domestic pilgrims participating is still far less than the 2.5 million Muslims who traveled in 2019 for the pilgrimage, typically one of the world’s largest gatherings. Those performing the ritual this year must be under 65, vaccinated against the coronavirus and have tested negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of travel. The pilgrims are chosen from millions of applicants through an online lottery system.
Saudi officials inspected the holy site on Wednesday and stressed their “readiness” to receive pilgrims with the goal of “maintaining public health.”
After the coronavirus struck in 2020, Saudi authorities allowed just 1,000 pilgrims already residing in the kingdom to attend, prompting historians to compare the disruption to the site’s storming by religious extremists and dramatic closure in 1979.
Last year, the hajj was similarly restricted to 60,000 fully vaccinated Muslims living in Saudi Arabia. The unprecedented curbs sent shock waves throughout the Muslim world, devastating many believers who had spent years saving up for the religious rite.
This year, however, Saudi authorities are keen to relax virus curbs. Religious pilgrimages brought in $12 billion before the pandemic — accounting for the largest percentage of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product after oil.
Although virus cases have risen steadily to over 500 a day in Saudi Arabia, the government lifted the country's indoor mask mandate and other virus precautions last month. Roughly 70% of the country has been vaccinated against the virus.
Pilgrims at the holy site this year are not required to be masked or socially distanced, as during the past two years. However, Muslims are still prohibited from kissing or touching the cube-shaped Kaaba, the metaphorical house of God at the center of Mecca that pilgrims circle as they complete the hajj.
Read: 2,415 more Bangladeshis can perform Hajj this year
The Quran says that all Islam’s followers who are physically and financially able should make the pilgrimage once in their lifetime. Pilgrims travel to Mecca from all over the world for five intense days of worship, carrying out a series of rituals.
The hajj follows a route the Prophet Muhammad walked nearly 1,400 years ago and is believed to trace the footsteps of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, or Abraham and Ishmael as they are named in the Bible.
Lebanon announces plan to repatriate Syrian refugees
The Lebanese government has drafted a plan to ensure the repatriation of 15,000 Syrian refugees per month to their homeland, the Lebanese Minister of the Displaced Issam Charafeddine said on Monday.
Two committees will be formed to carry out the plan: one will include Lebanon, Syria, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), while the other will include Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq, according to the minister.
"It is totally unacceptable that Syrian refugees do not return to their country as the war has ended and Syria has become safe," a statement released by Lebanon's Presidency quoted Charaffedine as saying during his meeting at Baabda Palace with Lebanese President Michel Aoun.
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According to the minister, the Syrian government has shown great support in this regard. Syria plans to build roads, schools, hospitals, and proper infrastructure to receive its citizens in areas that have become ready to host them.
According to the Lebanese government, about 1.5 million Syrian refugees are living in the country.
Lebanon has been suffering from an unprecedented financial crisis and a large number of refugees weigh heavily on the country's economy and infrastructure.
Israel’s separation barrier, 20 years on
Twenty years after Israel decided to build its controversial separation barrier, the network of walls, fences and closed military roads remains in place, even as any partition of the land appears more remote than ever.
Israel is actively encouraging its Jewish citizens to settle on both sides of the barrier as it builds and expands settlements deep inside the occupied West Bank, more than a decade after the collapse of any serious peace talks.
Palestinians living under decades of military occupation, meanwhile, clamor for work permits inside Israel, where wages are higher. Some 100,000 Palestinians legally cross through military checkpoints, mainly to work in construction, manufacturing and agriculture.
Israel decided to build the barrier in June 2002, at the height of the second intifada, or uprising, when Palestinians carried out scores of suicide bombings and other attacks that killed Israeli civilians. Authorities said the barrier was designed to prevent attackers from crossing into Israel from the West Bank and was never intended to be a permanent border.
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Eighty-five percent of the still-unfinished barrier is inside the West Bank, carving off nearly 10% of its territory. The Palestinians view it as an illegal land grab and the International Court of Justice in 2004 said the barrier was “contrary to international law.”
The United Nations estimates that some 150 Palestinian communities have farmland inside the West Bank but west of the barrier. Some 11,000 Palestinians live in this so-called Seam Zone, requiring Israeli permits just to stay in their homes.
The U.N. also estimates that about 65% of the roughly 710-kilometer (450-mile) structure has been completed.
The security benefits of the barrier have long been subject to debate and while the number of attacks has fallen sharply, other factors may be at play.