Iraqi Kurds will head to the polls this Sunday to elect a new parliament for the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, a year after a controversial independence referendum led to an armed crackdown from the Iraqi government.

The region’s politics have been dominated by a coalition between the pro-independence Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the left-leaning Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) for almost three decades.

A range of smaller parties have representation, but not enough to shift the balance of power.

Many observers expect turnout for this election to be lower than during the previous one, citing Kurd’s disenfranchisement with the political process over perceived corruption and voter fraud, and a lack of change in the region’s status.  Others see the election as a chance to improve public perception of the region’s chaotic political system.

“I think at the end of the day it will be beneficial,” said Yousif Ismail of the Washington Kurdish Institute.  “It gives more legitimacy to the Kurdistan region politics.”

“This election is not for all of Iraq,” he added, “which gives people more motivation to show up.”

Senior KDP leader Hoshyar Zebari echoed this sentiment, saying the election would be “critical to restoring the legitimacy of our institutions” following accusations of widespread fraud in nationwide parliamentary elections in Iraq in May.

 
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said “Jerusalem is not for sale” and “Palestinians’ rights are not up for bargaining” Thursday at the United Nations.

Abbas also called U.S. President Donald Trump “biased” in favor of Israel and said, “We will also not accept sole American mediation in the peace process.”

The day before, Trump said he now favored a “two-state solution,” a term that typically refers to splitting Israel and Palestine into two sovereign areas with Jerusalem as a shared capital. He said he would reveal a new peace plan in the coming months.

While Palestinians welcomed the statement, many were still furious at Trump’s decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, to close the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington and to end aid funding, including to a U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees.

“This administration has reneged on all previous U.S. commitments, has undermined the two-state solution and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people,” Abbas said in his speech.

“All such decisions threaten the Palestinian national cause and constitute an assault on international law and relevant United Nations resolutions,” said the Palestinian Authority president.

“It is ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the ‘deal of the century.’ But what is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people? Humanitarian solutions?”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the next up to the podium, stating the Palestinian Authority kills those who sell land to Jews. “And you call Israel racist? The more they slay, the more you pay,” he said.
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Istanbul is seeing an explosion of creative graffiti, with women artists largely behind the blast of color that is sweeping Turkey’s main city in the face of what critics say have been mounting restrictions on expression.

“More and more, the new generation are very into painting on the streets, but for me it is still very much at the beginning,” said Gamze Yalcin, who has been putting her art on the city’s public places.

“As we are having more and more limits for our street life from what we used to have,” she said, “people want to see colors, they want to see art. Whatever you do on the street is a gift for everyone.”

Yalcin speaks to VOA as she applies the finishing touches to her latest work, on the wall of a derelict building in Istanbul’s trendy Tophane district.

The latest work spanning 10 meters is a myriad of images and symbols in pastel colors with an abstract depiction of a woman at the center, encompassing a range of themes found throughout Yalcin’s work.

“We have very limited parks, so green areas is always a subject I like to include with symbols of plants and greens,” she said explaining her work, a myriad of surreal colors.

For Yalcin, featuring women as a central theme represents female empowerment, she says, and “a symbol, for all the women, that they could do whatever they want. They can do their dreams, they can make it true.”

Painting Istanbul’s walls for the past six years, Yalcin – a classically trained artist – is a veteran of Istanbul’s fledgling graffiti world. She is also one of a growing number of women graffiti artists, a trend she is busy building on.

“I organize workshops, [which] women, girls are very much into, and they always come and attend to learn,” she said.

“I feel very lucky that as a female artist painting on the street wherever I go, that brings so much power and so much inspiration,” she adds. “Whatever you do on the street is a gift for everyone, so they [people] are really taking as a gift, and they feel connected.”

While graffiti in many parts of the world is generally seen as vandalism and a nuisance, here, for this genre of it, there is appreciation.

People regularly stop, to offer Yalcin encouragement as she paints, while others take photos of her work.

“These are not ordinary doodling, but something that makes the places more beautiful,” said Ulas a local restaurant manager, “coloring the walls and shop fronts is beautiful rather than having shutters down or derelict walls bare. This is much more colorful. When you wake up in the morning streets, look much different. I think this is super.”

Despite a heavy police presence in central Istanbul as part of an ongoing crackdown on political dissent, the graffiti wave sweeping parts of the city has met little resistance from authorities.

“I didn’t have trouble yet, and I hope it goes like this,” Yalcin said. “Sometimes they [police] see me, they say actually it is forbidden, but that is fine. And they say ‘thank you, thank you for creating art for our places,’” she adds, laughing.

Observers say such police tolerance can in part be explained by the fact that most graffiti artists stay away from overt political themes. Although the recent jailing of Ezel, a Turkish rap star, on charges of encouraging drug use, saw some graffiti artists pushing back with images of support.

On the Asian side of Istanbul, the Kadikoy municipality invites local and international graffiti artists to decorate neighborhood.

Walking around Kadikoy, a traditional center of opposition to the government, one is regularly struck by huge murals adorning the sides of the buildings. The images range from psychedelic colored tigers or huge robots to abstract pictures of utopian worlds.

Graffiti art is becoming an integral part of the city’s popular culture. At an art and cartoon festival in Istanbul this month, the graffiti section made up of women artists is among the most popular.

Graffiti artist Fulya Fu creates a surreal image of a woman whose hair is decorated with eyes; many watching Fu are young teenagers.

“[A] majority [of graffiti artists] are youngsters who started at a very early age, around 12-13,” said Fu, and they start from the street, inside the street culture, perhaps going out at night. They start from scratch and pursue graffiti. Also, there are also lots of people coming from the art scene, fine arts. Many artists try this once in a while,” she said.

Fu is among a growing number of artists making a living from graffiti. Decorating cafes and doing corporate work for companies seeking to catch the halo effect of the coolness of street art, is becoming increasingly lucrative. None of the artists interviewed was willing to say how much each of their works fetches.

Despite the commercialization of graffiti it still retains a cutting edge as one of few remaining outlets for public expression.

“The art is constantly evolving with what we are experiencing,” said Fu.

“Since the space of freedom we experienced 10 years ago has become more restricted,” she continued, “and graffiti is already seen as an illegal, so what people express, tell, even scream with their work will likely be a reaction and reflection of these changes.”

“In the past, we perhaps saw more simple writings ideas,’ but now it’s evolving. People are trying to form new sentences, new ideas, to express more,” she said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said “Iran has to come back and they have to talk” if it wants to avoid a new round of economic sanctions.

Speaking to reporters in New York Wednesday, the president defended his decision to withdraw from the 2015 six-nation agreement for Tehran to give up its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of crippling economic sanctions.

“Here’s the thing: they have rampant inflation,” Trump said. “They have rampant inflation, their money is worthless. Everything is going wrong.

“At some point I think they are going to want to come back and say can we do something. Very simple, I just don’t want them to have nuclear weapons,” he added.

​Taking on Iran, nuclear deal

Taking the gavel of the United Nations Security Council earlier in the day, Trump used most of his remarks on the theme of nuclear nonproliferation to criticize Iran, labeling the government the “world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.”

He claimed that “Iran’s aggression only increased” after the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Agreement (JCPOA) was signed. The Trump administration withdrew from the deal earlier this year.

Trump repeated his frequent assertion that the JCPOA, which was signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, was a “horrible, one-sided” deal benefiting Iran.

“They needed cash,” Trump said. “We gave it to them.”

Trump added that Iran, “a regime with this track record, must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon,” and warned that Washington will pursue even tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Speaking immediately after Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron said there needs to be a long-term strategy to manage the Iran issue and it cannot be done with just sanctions and containment.

Macron added that all countries share the same objective of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

​Rouhani reacts

Speaking at a news conference shortly after the Security Council session, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the meeting, which he did not attend, showed how isolated the United States is in its decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal.

“And today in the U.N. Security Council it became clear that America is alone,” Rouhani told reporters. “All the countries that spoke in the U.N. Security Council supported the JCPOA, either directly or indirectly, and referred to the American action as an incorrect action.”

Rouhani dismissed additional sanctions President Trump said would go into effect in early November, saying there was “not much left” for the U.S. to do. He urged nations to “trample upon” the sanctions and ignore them, because they are “illegal” and contradict the U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the nuclear deal as international law.

“The most important substance of the discussion is that nearly all other council members reiterated their commitment to preserving the Joint Comprehensive Program of Action, despite U.S. opposition, while several members (notably UK, France, Netherlands, Sweden) expressed their strong concern about Iran’s other destabilizing activities,” said Thomas Countryman, former assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation and now chairman of the board for the Arms Control Association.

In addition to controlling the spread of nuclear weapons, Trump, in his remarks on the stated theme of the council’s meeting, said, “We must never forget the risk posed by biological and chemical weapons.”

The U.S. president noted action he has taken to respond to Syria’s use of chemical weapons against civilians during that country’s protracted civil war and said, “The Syrian regime’s butchery is enabled by Russia and Iran.”

But Trump expressed gratitude to Iran, Russia and Syria for slowing attacks in Idlib, saying, “Get the terrorists, but I hope the restraint continues.”

​US, North Korea

Trump told the Security Council that “many things are happening behind the scenes” between the United States and North Korea as they pursue denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump predicted that very good news will be coming out of North Korea “in coming days and years.”

Earlier Wednesday, Trump said his administration is planning a second summit with Kim and details will be announced soon.

“I’ll be meeting with Chairman Kim,” Trump told reporters arriving at the United Nation’s General Assembly. He said a date and location would be announced soon.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he is planning the summit and that it may take place after October. The State Department announced Pompeo will visit Pyongyang next month.

“We’re working diligently to make sure we get the conditions right so that we can accomplish as much as possible during the summit. But we hope it will be soon,” Pompeo told the program CBS This Morning. “It may happen in October, but more likely sometime after that.”

Pompeo’s remarks came one day after Trump touted his relationship with North Korea, telling the United Nations General Assembly it has helped ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“The missiles and rockets are no longer flying in every direction, nuclear testing has stopped; some military facilities are already being dismantled,” Trump said.

Trump added that “much work remains to be done” with North Korea and said, “The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs.”

His comments about North Korea were in sharp contrast from those he delivered at the assembly last year, when he threatened to “totally destroy” the country and ridiculed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man” who was on a “suicide mission.”

South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, personally relayed a message to Trump on Monday, telling him that Kim wants to meet him again soon to make progress on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, with a U.S. president taking the gavel for only the third time (Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama did it twice), comes one day after Trump called on world leaders during his address before the U.N. General Assembly to “isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues.”

VOA United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer, Wayne Lee and Richard Green​ contributed to this report.
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Iranian truck drivers have begun another prolonged nationwide strike to protest rising costs, three months after an earlier lengthy strike drew international support and caused shortages at gas stations.

Video clips posted online by striking Iranian truck drivers and verified by VOA Persian showed trucks being idled Wednesday in at least six regions: Ahvaz, Ardabil, Borujerd, Qazvin, Shahreza and Urmia. It was the fourth consecutive day that VOA Persian has verified reports of widespread strike action by truckers in Iran.

Iranian truckers say they are protesting wage levels that they see as unfairly low, given a prolonged period of rising costs for parts and supplies such as tires.

In one of several videos sent to VOA Persian, a striking driver filmed idled trucks in the northern province of Qazvin.

Truckers on strike in Qazvin, Iran, Sept. 26, 2018

Another video narrated by an Iranian trucker speaking Arabic showed trucks idled in the southwestern province of Ahvaz, home of many minority Iranian Arabs.

Trucks idled by strike in Ahvaz, Iran, Sept. 26, 2018

A third video showed idled trucks at a cargo terminal in the central Iranian city of Shahreza in Isfahan province.

Idled trucks at cargo terminal in Shahreza, Iran, Sept. 26, 2018

The recent sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial versus the U.S. dollar has contributed to the rising prices of parts and supplies for truckers. The rial hit a record low of 190,000 to the dollar in unofficial trade Wednesday, according to Bonbast.com, a website that tracks Iran’s unofficial exchange rates. It was the third straight day of record lows for the rial.

In a report published Wednesday, Iranian state news agency Mehr quoted some truck drivers as saying the price for a particular type of tire should be about $450, based on the official Iranian exchange rate of 42,000 rials to the dollar. But the drivers said dealers have been charging them as much as $1,300 for such tires.

Similar grievances about rising costs and stagnant wages prompted Iranian truckers to launch a strike May 22 in several parts of the country.

The strike, which continued for several weeks, won statements of support from the London-based International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which represents 19 million workers in 140 countries, and from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents American and Canadian transportation and supply chain workers.

The participation of gasoline tanker drivers in the strike caused shortages at Iranian gas stations in some Iranian cities.

Iran has seen frequent nationwide protests this year, involving Iranians angered by local and national officials and business leaders whom they accuse of mismanagement, corruption and oppression.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian service.
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Four days after a bloody attack on a military parade in Iran’s mostly Arab “Ahvaz” region, also known as Khuzestan, and conflicting claims of responsibility, questions remain over who was actually behind the attack.

More questions were raised than were answered Tuesday after Iranian media showed video of a group of over 20 people arrested for alleged involvement in Saturday’s attack.

The Fars news agency named five alleged perpetrators, several of whom were killed, claiming that three of the men were brothers.

The country’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alawi vowed a stern response to the attack and insisted that all of the country’s security forces were trying to uncover information on the attack.

Alawvi said the military and security forces, along with the Revolutionary Guard and police, will work until they identify all the culprits behind the attack and then punish them, delivering a message to the world that it will react in the face of what he called  crimes against humanity.

The country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several Revolutionary Guard commanders, accused Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with the United States.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called the allegations “ludicrous,” while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied the U.S. had any role in the attack. Pompeo told Fox News that it is an “enormous mistake” to “blame others when you have a security incident at home.”

Former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani Sadr tells VOA that terrorism is increasingly an international phenomenon, so while it is unclear who was behind the Ahvaz attack, he doubts it could have happened without outside help.

Bani Sadr said that unless nation states or foreign powers support acts of violence, no independent organization, whatever it be called, can use violence for a long period of time.”

Bani Sadr goes on to say that “everything has become internationalized, today.” It has become very easy to send people to commit acts of terrorism anywhere in the world, including Iran or the U.S. He thinks that some international group “seeks to create instability” in order to “prevent any possible rapprochement between Iran and the West.”

Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, calls the Ahvaz attack an “enigma,” arguing that both internal or external forces could have been behind it.

He said that it is possible that a new separatist group is on the rise inside Iran and could be responsible for the attack, and that accusations against the UAE and Saudi Arabia are not new.

“The Iranian regime,” he said, “is currently facing serious problems, given U.S. (economic sanctions), so it is not unlikely that [Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Khamenei would try to divert attention by making accusations against the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”

“Iran,” Diab said, “is in a position now, where it needs to look like a victim.”

Bani Sadr, however, thinks that the “Iranian people have reacted to the attack by rejecting violence.”

“All Iranian political factions,” he argues, “are opposed to any kind of violence, including any ‘retaliation’ by [Ayatollah] Khamenei.”

 
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