An international watchdog is accusing Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, of committing “serious abuses” — including “taking hostages, torture and enforced disappearances” — against people they hold in detention.

 

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday it documented “16 cases in which Houthi authorities held people unlawfully, in large part to extort money from relatives or to exchange them for people held by opposing forces.”

 

It urges the rebels to “stop taking hostages, free everyone arbitrarily detained, end torture and enforced disappearances, and punish those responsible for abuses.”

 

Sarah Leah Whitson of HRW says some Houthi officials “are exploiting their power to turn a profit through detention, torture, and murder.”

 

Yemen’s civil war, which started in March 2015, pits Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition backing the country’s internationally recognized government.

 

 
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The five remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal have agreed to establish a special payment system to allow companies to continue doing business with the regime, bypassing new sanctions imposed by the United States.

Envoys from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran issued a statement late Monday from the United Nations announcing the creation of a “Special Purpose Vehicle” that will be established in the European Union. The parties said the new mechanism was created to facilitate payments related to Iranian exports, including oil. 

Federica Mogherini, EU’s foreign policy chief, told reporters after the deal was announced that the SPV gives EU member states “a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran…and allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance to European Union law and could be open to other partners in the world.”

Mogherini said the financial agreement is also aimed at preserving the agreement reached in 2015 with Iran to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for relief from strict economic sanctions. The deal was reached under then-President Barack Obama, but Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, pulled out of the accord in May of this year, saying it didn’t address Tehran’s ballistic missile program or its influence in the Middle East.
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The main jihadist group in northwest Syria will announce its position on a Turkish-Russian deal over Idlib in the next few days, it said on Monday, with its acceptance or rejection vital to the success of efforts to contain the war.

Tahrir al-Sham’s stance will be critical to last week’s deal which has, for now, averted a full-scale Syrian government offensive in Idlib, which along with adjacent areas of the northwest is the rebels’ last major foothold.

The agreement requires “radical” insurgents including Tahrir al-Sham to withdraw from a demilitarized zone along the frontlines by Oct. 15.

“An official statement will be issued soon,” after the group held internal consultation on the deal, said Emad al-Din, media officer for Tahrir al-Sham. He clarified that “soon” meant within a few days.

Tahrir al-Sham was formed in early 2017 as an alliance of jihadist factions including the former al Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front and it has a large armed presence throughout Idlib, including along the Turkish border.

A smaller, harder line jihadist faction in Idlib, Huras al-Din, has rejected the agreement and urged rebels to launch new military operations.

An alliance of Turkey-allied rebel groups, the National Front for Liberation, has declared its “complete cooperation” with the Turkish effort, but has also ruled out disarming or yielding territory.

The demilitarized zone agreed by Turkey and Russia will be 15 to 20 km (10 to 12 miles) deep and run along the contact line between rebel and government fighters. It will be patrolled by Turkish and Russian forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that all opposition heavy weapons, mortars, tanks and rocket systems are to be removed from the zone by Oct. 10.

Close to three million people live in Idlib, around half of them Syrians displaced by the war from other parts of Syria, and the United Nations has warned that an offensive would cause a humanitarian catastrophe.

 
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A U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees said schools and health centers are at risk if it is unable to plug a $185 million funding gap needed to keep operating until the end of the year, the agency’s head said on Monday.

“Currently we have money in the bank … will last I presume somewhere into … mid October,” said Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in New York, where world leaders are attending the annual U.N. General Assembly.

“But it’s clear that we still need approximately $185 million to be able to ensure that all of our services, education system, health care, relief and social services and our emergency work in Syria and Gaza in particular can continue until the end of the year,” Krahenbuhl said.

The United States last month announced a halt in its aid to UNRWA, calling it an “irredeemably flawed operation,” a decision that further heightened tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration.

UNRWA provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. Most are descendants of some 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.

The growing refugee count was cited by Washington, UNRWA’s biggest donor, in its decision to withhold funding.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has been critical of the U.N.’s count of Palestinian refugees. She has also questioned the “right of return” to Israel, claimed by the Palestinians as part of any eventual peace settlement.

“When you don’t tackle the underlying causes of conflict, that’s when you get 70 years of UNRWA, it’s not UNRWA that perpetuates itself, it’s because the refugee community is still there waiting for a political solution to address its situation,” Krahenbuhl said on Monday.

Under Trump, Washington has taken a number of actions that have alienated the Palestinians, such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a reversal of longtime U.S. policy. It led to the Palestinian leadership boycotting Washington’s peace efforts being led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law.

Krahenbuhl compared the Palestinian refugee “right of return” issue with those of Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar who have fled into Bangladesh and the return of Bosnian Muslim refugees to areas under Serb control in the 1990s.

“So the only question one should ask is why should Palestine refugees be the one community where this question is not a justified question,” Krahenbuhl said.
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Iran’s currency has hit another record low against the dollar, six weeks before the United States is due to reimpose sanctions on Iranian oil exports that are Tehran’s main revenue source.

The Bonbast.com website, which tracks Iran’s unofficial exchange rates, showed a new low of 16,000 tomans, or 160,000 rials, to the dollar Monday.

The rial has weakened to a series of record lows against the U.S. currency in recent weeks. Bonbast.com displayed the rial at a record low of 128,000 to the dollar on Sept.  3.

Iran’s official exchange rate, set by its central bank, has stood at 42,000 to the dollar since April.

The Trump administration has vowed to reinstate sanctions on Iranian oil exports on Nov. 4, in a bid to pressure Tehran to give up what the U.S. says is its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons. Washington reimposed a first set of economic sanctions on Iran last month as part of the pressure campaign. The moves reverse the previous U.S. administration’s suspension of those sanctions under terms of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

Speaking to VOA Persian last Friday in an interview broadcast Monday, U.S. economist Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University said Iranians should expect more of the same with their currency.

“The Iranian people already have anticipated the problems that will befall them after the sanctions go back on, and they react much more rapidly, of course, than anyone,” Hanke said. “That is why the rial has been plummeting and inflation has been soaring.”

A weakening rial makes dollar-denominated imports more expensive for Iranians.

In a Monday tweet, Hanke said Iran’s annual inflation rate has hit a record high of 293 percent.

In a graphic posted with the tweet, Hanke said he calculated the rate using data from Bonbast.com, Iran’s central bank and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

“It is impossible to predict how low the Iranian currency will go,” Hanke said. “We just know it is dying. And when currencies die, inflation goes up, the economy tends to be completely destabilized, and society in general becomes destabilized because [people] can’t trust their own money.”

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly at a time of high tensions with Washington. But Erdogan’s four-day visit could offer an opportunity to reset ties.

In a possible move to prepare the ground for a soothing of tensions with Washington, a Turkish official was quoted Monday in the Wall Street Journal, indicating the American pastor Andrew Brunson could soon be allowed to return home.

Brunson’s trial in Turkey on terrorism charges was the trigger in August for U.S. President Donald Trump imposing trade sanctions on Turkey. The sanctions were the catalyst for a collapse in the Turkish currency.

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said relations would reset when Brunson was allowed to return home. Washington calls the charges against the pastor baseless. Erdogan insists Brunson has to stand trial. Analysts suggest the impasse could be broken at the pastor’s next hearing Oct. 12.

“I would expect him to be released. There is more and more expectation this will happen,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “But we have to wait until October 12 if pastor Brunson is released. Then the problem is solved automatically.”

“The fiery rhetoric is much less than a couple of weeks ago between Ankara and Washington. Both sides, it seems to me are taking steps back, cooperation is urgently needed on both sides,” he continued.

Financial turmoil

Easing Turkish-U.S. tensions and the removal of the threat of further sanctions is vital to ending Turkey’s financial turmoil.

But apparent miscommunications between Ankara and Washington continue to dog relations and threaten to exacerbate tensions. The latest diplomatic spat erupted over apparent efforts to bring the two presidents together in New York.

The two presidents are not scheduled to meet.

“U.S. representatives keep saying they will evaluate a request for a meeting with Trump if one comes from [Turkish] President Erdoğan or the Turkish side,” said Omer Celik, spokesperson of Erdogan’s KP Party.

“We don’t appreciate such a tone,” he continued, “but I can tell you that if the American side, if President Trump, wishes to meet our president, we will look at their request and evaluate how to respond to it.”

US-backed YPG

Erdogan sent a reminder of the potential for a further escalation in bilateral tensions over Syria. In a speech Monday in New York, the Turkish president warned his armed forces are ready to launch an offensive against the Syrian Kurdish militia, YPG.

The YPG is a crucial ally in the war against Islamic State and about 2,000 U.S. troops are deployed with the militia where Erdogan is threatening to attack.

Ankara calls the YPG terrorists, accusing the group of being linked to a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.

“It is of serious concern to us that the American administration maintains its partnership with the YPG and PYD,” Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said last Friday.

Analysts say Ankara is increasingly alarmed that Washington will continue backing the YPG after the defeat of IS, as part of efforts to curtail Iran’s influence in Syria.

Last week Trump said, “We’re very close” to defeating the Islamic State in Syria, “and then, we’re going to make a determination as to what we’re going to do.”

On Monday, Bolton said “we’re not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders and that includes Iranian proxies and militias.”

Erdogan has indicated he is prepared to reach out to Moscow for support in his goal to eradicate the YPG in Syria. Turkish-Russian relations have markedly improved in the past 18 months as the two countries deepen cooperation in Syria.

Russia

Turkey’s relationship with Russia is another point of friction with Washington. Ankara is facing additional U.S. sanctions if it proceeds with a planned purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system. NATO warns the system’s deployment threatens to compromise its military hardware.

Analysts say Erdogan’s deal this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin that averted a Damascus offensive against the Syrian rebel enclave of Idlib sends a timely message to Washington of Turkey’s importance in the region.

“It’s clear Turkey is not an expendable country. Turkey is a sort of anchor for Western strategy in the Middle East,” said Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served both in Washington and across the region. “It is in the interests of the United States to work with Turkey. However, early November is approaching, which is when the U.S.-Iranian sanctions will be in place, and that will be the biggest test for Turkey-U.S. relations.”

Washington is due to impose sweeping new trade and financial sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. Ankara has repeatedly warned it will not back the new measures.
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