Anti-Homophobia Campaign in Iran
May 17th marked the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. With sodomy remaining an offence which can be punishable by death, youth in Iran have begun a Facebook campaign to give voice to a message of anti-homophobia.
European Union's Catherine Ashton and Iran's Saeed Jalili at last month's nuclear talks in Istanbul (Cartoon:Nikahang Kowsar)
See also The Latest from Iran (23 May): Nuclear Talks in Baghdad
About now, Iranian officials, led by Saeed Jalili, are sitting with six other delegations (US, British, France, Germany, China, and Russia) at a conference table in Baghdad to discuss Tehran's uranium enrichment.
This is the second set of talks since a resumption after a 2 1/2-year break. The opening day in Istanbul on 14 April was a promising introduction, with all sides showing willingness to carry on talks. Over the last six weeks, there have been a series of closed-door preparatory meetings, notably between Helga Schmid of the European Union and Ali Bagheri, the deputy head of the Iranian negotiating team.
On Monday, there was a significant, promising prelude to Baghdad when International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano visited Tehran for a day of discussions about a protocol for inspecting and safeguarding Iran's nuclear facilities. Iranian officials were enthusiastic about the outcome; even more importantly, Amano indicated on Tuesday that a deal was imminent on IAEA access.
So does that progress continue today and beyond?
In April 2011, two months after the start of mass protests and a month after the regime tried to crush them with security forces backed up by outside military forces, Physicians for Human Rights issued a report, "Do No Harm: A Call for Bahrain to End Systematic Attacks on Doctors and Patients".
A year later, two PHR investigators, Holly Atkinson and Richard Sollom returned to the Kingdom to assess the situation. They conducted 102 in-depth interviews, including patients, doctors, and government officials, examined medical records and radiographic images, visited Salmaniya Medical Center twice, and went to an “underground clinic".
Yesterday, PHR released the findings, "Under the Gun: Ongoing Assaults on Bahrain’s Health System", summarising the politics around medical care.
See also The Latest from Iran (21 May): A Freudian Slip on the Economy
Yukiya Amano and Saeed Jalili2009 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Iran continues to be upbeat about tomorrow's nuclear discussions, “Tehran is optimistic that the Baghdad talks would be a good start to promote cooperation in international, regional and nuclear issues."
However, this inside story from Laura Rozen and Barbara Slavin of Al Monitor may put a damper on expectations:
The United States and its negotiating partners have agreed on a detailed confidence-building proposal to offer to Iran at nuclear negotiations due to get underway Wednesday in Baghdad. The proposed package is an updated version of a 2009 uranium fuel swap proposal that takes into account Iran’s progress in enriching uranium, American, Russian and European diplomats said.
While the details of the proposed package have not been made public, Western officials told Al Monitor that the package does not include sanctions relief at this stage.
Iranian officials and State media have made clear that a significant easing of US-led sanctions, including a pause on the European Union's suspension of Iranian oil imports --- due to start 1 July --- must be on the table.
This is excluded from the proposal put out via Rozen:
Instead, the United States and its P5+1 partners will offer fuel for Tehran’s Research Reactor (TRR) plus safety upgrades to the plant, which is of 1960s vintage. Also potentially on the table: new research reactors that use lower level 3.5 percent enriched uranium, safety upgrades for Iran’s one functioning nuclear power plant at Bushehr and spare parts for its accident-plagued fleet of civilian airliners.
In return, Iran must stop producing uranium enriched to 20 percent and halt activities at Fordow, an enrichment facility built into a mountain near Qom. It is not clear whether Iran would also have to send out its stockpile of more than 100 kg of the fuel.
A "current American official sets out the line, "If we talk substantively on elements of a deal and agree to meet again in three weeks, Baghdad will have been a success. Just hope the Iranians are not deluding themselves they are going to get sanctions relief now—that’s not going to happen at this stage.”
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 6:17 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Al Jazeera's report on Monday on the suicide bombing in Yemen
See also Bahrain Live Coverage: Appearing Before the UN Human Rights Council
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Amidst the Assassination Rumors, 60 Die
Turkey Live Coverage (21 May): Regional and Global Dimensions of "Terrorism"
1735 GMT: Libya. Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said Tuesday that Tunis will soon extradite former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, after detaining him for eight months.
Al-Mahmoudi was arrested in September for illegally crossing the frontier into Tunisia as he tried to flee to Algeria.
"Tunisia will never be a refuge for those who represent a threat to Libya's security," said Jebali on Tuesday, following a visit by his Libyan counterpart, Abdurrahim el-Keib.
Lawyers and human rights groups had opposed the extradition, saying Al-Mahmoudi might be harmed by Libya's new ruling authorities.
1730 GMT: Syria. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria says 13 people have died today: three each in Hama, Deir Ez Zor, and Daraa Provinces, two in Homs Province, and one each in Aleppo and Idlib Provinces.
See also Bahrain Report: The Ongoing Assault on the Health System
Yemen, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Suicide Bombing in Sana'a
Monday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime's Strategy of Rolling Detention
1610 GMT: Some detail on detained hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's appearance in court today, amidst 13 activists and political figures on an extended "retrial" of their lengthy prison sentences (see 1200 GMT)....
"The continuation of my arrest is a crime," Alkhawaja told the court. "Stop this sham trial."
Alkhawaja continued, "For more than 100 days I have been on hunger strike and am ready to sacrifice my life to demand freedom."
Alkhawaja's wife, Khadija Almousawi said her husband also told the court about the abuse to which he was subjected after detention in April 2011: "There was a moment of silence when he spoke about the psychological torture when they lied to him about arresting [their daughter] Zainab...torturing, raping Zainab and moving her to a jail in Saudi Arabia. This must have been harder than the torture itself."
1630 GMT: After the Kurdistan Regional Government had announced a deal with Ankara that would allow them to export oil through Turkey and on to the international market, bypassing Baghdad; the central Iraqi government warned Arbil and said that the deals must abide by the constitution and laws that govern relations between Baghdad and the Kurdish north.
1525 GMT: Turkish police detained three suspects for their suspected involvement in a plot to abduct a defected Syrian colonel who fled to Turkey.
1440 GMT: A special ops team officer was killed and five other security personnel were wounded in a clash with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Kulp, a district of Diyarbakır province.
As known, PKK members had kidnapped the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Kulp branch head Veysel Çelik earlier.
1120 GMT: The Turkish daily Radikal claims that President Obama, during the Chicago Summit, has ordered the handover of operational control of the early warning radar system to NATO.
An anti-regime protest on Sunday night, with a song dedicated to the dead of Homs, in Mare near Aleppo in Syria
See also Syria Video Feature: What is the State of the Opposition?
Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime's Strategy of Rolling Detention
Sunday's Syria Live Coverage: Obama Says "Assad Must Go" --- But How?
1939 GMT: Iraq. The central government warned authorities in the Kurdish region on Monday that their oil deals with Turkey must have Baghdad’s approval.
On Sunday, Iraqi Kurds announced a deal with Ankara that would allow them to export oil through Turkey to the international market, bypassing Baghdad.
The national government says the region has no right to sign deals unilaterally and that exports must go through state-run pipelines, but Kurds argue that the Constitution gives them the right to sign deals without consulting Baghdad.
Since the 2003 war that toppled Saddam Hussein, the Kurds have signed scores of oil deals. The central governmet considers the deals illegal and has blacklisted the companies involved.
In early 2011, the two sides agreed that the Kurds would send the oil to Baghdad, which would sell it, with an even split of the revenues. But last month the Kurds halted oil exports over a payment row
See also The Latest from Iran (20 May): A Tip of the Hat to President Obama?
1824 GMT:. Fraud Watch. In the 11th hearing in the trial of dozens of defendants over a $2.6 billion bank fraud, a former deputy at the Ministry of Industry has accused Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Parliament's National Security Committee, of involvement.
1813 GMT: Death to the Rapper Watch. Hojatoleslam Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the head of the Administration Court, is the latest cleric to call for the killing of rapper Shahin Najafi because of his "insult to Imams" with his song "Naqi".
See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (19 May)
Our recurring feature in which EA readers use the Comments section to bring in the latest news and thoughts from social media....
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