https://arab.news/8j8ca
BEIRUT: Another significant section of the devastated Beirut Port silos collapsed on Tuesday morning in a cloud of dust. No injuries were reported — the area had been long evacuated — but the collapse was another painful reminder of the horrific August 2020 explosion. The collapse left the silos’ southern part standing next to a pile of charred ruins. The northern block had already been slowly tipping over since the initial explosion two years ago but rapidly deteriorated after it caught fire over a month ago due to fermenting grains. The 50 year old, 48 meter (157 feet) tall silos had withstood the force of the explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the blast that killed over 200 people, injured more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighborhoods.
#BREAKING The last remaining 8 silos of the Beirut port silos’ northern block collapsed minutes ago sending up a cloud of dust. Experts had said the collapse of the northern block, where fermented grains had been ablaze for over a month, was “inevitable.”
circulated on WA pic.twitter.com/bbxi45iCOq
— Sally Abou AlJoud | سالي (@JoudSally) August 23, 2022
The country’s caretaker environment minister, Nasser Yassin, told Lebanese TV that the government will now look into how to ensure the southern block remains standing. He urged residents near the port to wear masks, and said experts would conduct air quality tests. In April, the Lebanese government decided to demolish the silos, but suspended the decision following protests from families of the blast’s victims and survivors. They contend that the silos may contain evidence useful for the judicial probe, and that it should stand as a memorial for the 2020 tragedy. In July, a fire broke out in the northern block of the silos due to the fermenting grains. Firefighters and Lebanese Army soldiers were unable to put it out and it smoldered for over a month. Officials had warned that the silo could collapse, but feared risking the lives of firefighters and soldiers who struggled to get too close to put out the blaze or drop containers of water from helicopters. Survivors of the blast and residents near the port have told The Associated Press that watching the fire from their homes and offices was like reliving the trauma from the port blast, which started with a fire in a warehouse near the silos that contained hundreds of tons of explosive ammonium nitrate, improperly stored there for years. The environment and health ministries in late July issued instructions to residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces. Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, last month told the AP that the fire from the grains had sped up the speed of the tilt of the shredded silo and caused irreversible damage to its weak concrete foundation. The structure rapidly deteriorated ever since. In late July, part of the northern block collapsed for the first time. Days later on the second anniversary of the Beirut Port blast, roughly a fourth of the structure collapsed. On Sunday, the fire expanded to large sections of the silo.
KARBALA: Twenty million pilgrims, swelled by a record influx of Iranians, have converged on the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala to mark Arbaeen, an annual Shiite festival that climaxes on Saturday. It is one of the world’s biggest religious gatherings, observed in Iraq and neighboring Iran, both Shiite majority countries. The event marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the killing of Imam Hussein — a founding figure in Shiite Islam and grandson of the Prophet Muhammad — by the forces of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD. So far, there has been little sign of the intra-Shiite political tensions that have prevented Iraq forming a new government since elections nearly a year ago. “It’s as if I’ve arrived in paradise,” said Najme, a 37-year-old primary school teacher, wrapped in a black chador and her feet clad in sneakers. Along with her husband and parents, she is among more than three million Iranians attending the pilgrimage in Karbala, a new record, according to the Iranian government spokesman. The family drove from the Iranian clerical center of Qom to Najaf — a second Shiite holy city in Iraq — and then walked 80 kilometers (50 miles) to Karbala, home to the shrines of Imam Hussein and his brother, Abbas. Najme’s mother Latifa could not disguise her joy. “I keep calling the family back in Iran — I send them photos and videos, to share the atmosphere with them,” she said. Iranian pilgrims have flocked to the event this year in part due to Baghdad and Tehran waiving visa requirements for travel between the two countries since late last year. The influx of pilgrims has filled hotels and sent room prices soaring. Some have even resorted to bedding down on pavements. The pilgrims press forward on the esplanade, and among alleys that snake around the two mausoleums that sparkle with gold and blue under the unrelenting sun. At night, processions are bathed in neon light. Men dressed in black jump up and down on the spot, beating their torsos to the rhythm of religious chants blaring from loudspeakers. Some cry hot tears, others slap their faces, to mark the killing of Imam Hussein centuries ago in the Karbala desert. Among the 20 million pilgrims — up from 17 million last year — are five million foreign visitors, according to figures released by Baghdad. Iran is of course the key external source. “Arbaeen is an opportunity... for working class Iranians to travel” and celebrate what is both a religious and social occasion, said Alex Shams, who is researching a doctorate on the politics of Shiite Islam at the University of Chicago. “It’s almost impossible for Iranians to get visas to other countries,” he noted, and US sanctions have made the Iranian rial almost worthless. “Iraq is really one of the few countries that... they can afford to visit.” Before Saddam Hussein was overthrown in the US-led invasion of 2003, Shiites in Iraq were forbidden from overtly commemorating Arbaeen and indiscreet worshippers risked prison. But nowadays, the event flourishes and Shams notes that Iran actively promotes the pilgrimage, “despite the fact it is very much an Iraqi grassroots thing.” Tehran, and other political actors too, seeks to benefit from the pilgrimage’s popularity to “promote their own brand — to kind of coopt it,” Shams said.
BEIRUT: The leader of Lebanon’s Shiite armed group Hezbollah on Saturday condemned a recent amendment in the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force deployed along the border with Israel. The UN Security Council on August 31 extended the mandate of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force for a period of a year but with a slight modification in the wording. Hassan Nasrallah took issue in a televised speech with a part of the resolution that states the peacekeeping force “is allowed to conduct its operations independently.” The UNIFIL force, which was first deployed more than four decades ago, has routinely coordinated its patrols and movements in its area of operations in the south with the Lebanese army. “This is a trap that the Israelis have set for Lebanon over many years,” Nasrallah said, calling the resolution “a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.” Nasrallah lambasted the Lebanese government for allowing the resolution through and warned that it could give rise “to great dangers in the area south of the Litani” river. On September 13, UNIFIL reacted to Hezbollah concerns by assuring it was still working closely with the Lebanese army, a statement Nasrallah welcomed in his Saturday speech. UNIFIL was set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in reprisal for a Palestinian attack. It was beefed up in 2006 after Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war, and the 10,500-strong force is tasked with monitoring a cease-fire between the two sides. Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war.
AMMAN: Rescue teams in the Jordanian capital Amman recovered the body of a woman from under the rubble of a collapsed building, raising the death toll from the incident on Tuesday to 14, according to local authorities.
The Public Security Department announced on Saturday the end of the search and rescue operation at the site, amid information that the woman whose body was recovered earlier this morning was the last on the list of missing people.
At least 25 people were thought to have been in the building when it collapsed, the government said.
The four-story residential building in Amman’s El-Luweibdeh neighborhood crumbled on Tuesday, killing 14 people and injuring 10 others, PSD said.
At least 350 civil defense rescuers had been working on removing concrete slabs and lifting debris in search of survivors, according to Civil Defense Chief Hatem Jaber, who described the effort as a “relentless operation that lasted for 85 hours.”
The Amman prosecutor general opened an investigation into the incident and ordered the detention of the owner of the building, as well as maintenance and technical contractors.
Residents of the property said that its owner had been carrying out construction work on the ground floor, which had weakened the support structure and caused cracks to appear inside apartments.
A resident of the building, who was on the street outside washing his car when the building collapsed, told government-owned Al-Mamlakah TV that “just one day” before the disaster, he had warned the building’s owner that the construction work was damaging his apartment on the first floor.
In sarcasm mixed with grief, the survivor said: “He (the building’s owner) told me that he would finish tomorrow and tomorrow he really finished us all.”
The Greater Amman Municipality said that the building was almost 50 years old.
Although the municipality had been criticized for allagedly ignoring safety concerns around older buildings, GAM said that it was not to blame for the collapse, which was the result of “irresponsible construction inside the property.”
Following his return from France last Wednesday, Jordan’s King Abdullah chaired a meeting at the National Center for Security and Crisis Management to keep abreast of the situation.
The king urged that all those affected by the collapse of the residential building be provided with the necessary medical care and support.
He also called for greater awareness of how to safely manage older buildings.
Hours before Jordanian rescue teams were approaching the end of their mission, criticism erupted on social media after a concert was held at the Roman Amphitheater, a venue that is relatively close to the site of the collapsed building.
Users on social media argued that it was inappropriate to hold a concert while the search for the missing was still ongoing.
The Jordanian government denied in statements to Al Arabiya that it had any connection to the concert, saying the event was organized by a private company. It also noted that Amman’s Municipality had nothing to do with the concert.
DUBAI: Haitham Shuja Al-Din, Yemen’s delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has called on Iran to stop destabilizing the country and the Middle East region. By supporting the Houthi militia and providing the group with weapons, Iran continues to destabilize the security and stability of Yemen, as well as its neighboring countries, Al-Din said in a report from Yemen News Agency (SABA). “Iran has violated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and it must comply with its nuclear obligations within the framework of its comprehensive safeguards agreement,” Al-Din told the IAEA Board of Governors meeting. The delegate also expressed his concern that Iran was not serious about the ongoing negotiations, SABA reported. The stalled negotiations have been an excuse for Tehran to develop its nuclear program for non-peaceful purposes, he said, adding that any new agreement with Iran would thus be “ineffective,” according to SABA.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei received a group of visitors during a religious ceremony on Saturday, his first public appearance for more than two weeks, and urged them to act with patience and perseverance. State television showed Khamenei, 83, standing as he spoke in a steady voice to his audience sitting on the floor about the importance of Arbaeen, a ceremony that marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, Imam Hussein. Two sources close to Khamenei denied to Reuters on Friday that his health had deteriorated, responding to questions about his health. Khamenei had not appeared in public since he met followers in Tehran on Sept. 3, sparking rumors on social media that he was ill.
Khamenei told the gathering on Saturday that believers should rely on the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, which calls for patience when facing hard times — an apparent reference to Iran’s economic woes as the country faces US sanctions. “Patience means perseverance, it means resisting, not getting tired, not feeling yourself at a dead end,” Khamenei said, holding a microphone. “Take the right way and take others along to the right path.” Iran’s supreme leader was on bed rest under observation after falling ill last week, the New York Times had reported on Friday. Khamenei “canceled all meetings and public appearances last week after falling gravely ill,” the paper said, citing four unnamed sources with knowledge of Khamenei’s health situation. The 83-year-old leader had surgery last week at a home clinic for bowel obstruction after suffering “extreme stomach pains and high fever”. The US paper said that Khamenei, who took over as supreme leader in 1989, was too weak to even sit up and is being monitored by a group of doctors, though his condition had improved from last week.
This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)
Iran’s supreme leader makes final decisions in major domestic, regional and global issues, including those related to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. US President Joe Biden’s administration is attempting to revive a nuclear agreement — scuttled by his predecessor Donald Trump — with Iran in a bid to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. US allies in the region have called on Biden not to renew the deal in order to thwart Tehran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East.