Turkish and US missions mutually restrict services, say they need to reassess each other’s commitment to staff security.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets his US counterpart, Donald Trump, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Turkey on Sunday suspended non-immigrant visa services at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in the United States, in a tit-for-tat move amid escalating tensions between the NATO allies.

Just hours after the US mission to Turkey announced it was restricting visa services, saying that recent events had forced it to “reassess” Ankara’s commitment to the security of US facilities and staff, the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC, hit back with an almost identical statement.

“In order to minimise the number of visitors to our Embassy and Consulates while this assessment proceeds, effective immediately we have suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in US,” read its statement on Twitter, echoing the earlier US announcement.

A first version of the Turkish statement had said the measure would apply “to visas in passports”.

But a later version said the measure “will apply to sticker visas as well as e-Visas and border visas”, leaving open the question of whether US travellers who already have visas would be allowed to enter Turkey.

The earlier US statement, meanwhile, said it was suspending the processing of “non-immigrant” visas, a specific category that relates to tourism, medical treatment, business, temporary work or study.

Immigrant visa services are for those seeking to live in the US permanently.

The escalation in diplomatic tensions comes a few days after the arrest of a US consulate employee in Istanbul for alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim leader blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt last year. Gulen denies involvement.

Washington said it was “deeply disturbed” by the employee’s arrest.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency identified the consulate employee as Metin Topuz, a male Turkish citizen.

It said he was arrested late on Wednesday on charges of espionage and attempts to damage the constitutional order and Turkey’s government.

Al Jazeera correspondent Sinem Koseoglu said this is the first in Turkey-US bilateral relations since 1960s. “I am expecting Turkey not be willing to escalate the tension,” she said.

‘War of words’

Turkey has pressed, so far in vain, for the US to extradite Gulen, while tensions have also risen over Washington’s military support for Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria.

The YPG group is considered by Ankara to be an extension of the banned PKK, which has waged an armed campaign for three decades in southeast Turkey.

“It’s clear that this [suspension of visa services] is just one more ratcheting up of the war of words between the US and Turkey,” Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman, reporting from Washington, DC, said.

Ackerman said that Turkish authorities “had imprisoned more than a dozen American-Turkish citizens” living in Turkey over the past year or so, including an Izmir-based Christian pastor.

Missionary Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in the western city of Izmir, has been held by Turkish authorities since October 2016 on charges of being a member of Gulen’s group.

“You can see that this more than just the accusations about one man in the Istanbul consulate,” Ackerman said.

Al Jazeera’s Diane Eastabrook, also reporting from Washington, DC, said the escalation comes just a few months after a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the US, in which he reaffirmed friendly ties between the two countries.

“Turkey is a strategic ally to the US,” she said.

“It’s a NATO ally, and there is a NATO base in Turkey which the US uses. As the US continues with its war against ISIL, it needs to have that presence in Turkey and it needs those close ties with this very important ally,” Eastabrook added.

“This [diplomatic tension] has repercussions throughout Europe and the Middle East, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few days,” she added.

Defying US warnings, state media shows test of Khoramshahr missile hours after it was unveiled during a military parade.

by Al Jazeera

Iran has “successfully” tested a new ballistic missile that can carry multiple warheads and can travel up to 2,000km, according to state media.

The news of the test comes just hours after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard unveiled the missile during a military parade in Tehran.

The move was a direct challenge to US President Donald Trump, who in August signed a bill imposing mandatory penalties on those involved in Iran’s ballistic missile programme and anyone who does business with those involved in the programme.

Though Iran has long boasted of having missiles in the same range in its arsenal, it was the first time that the Khoramshahr missile was displayed in public.

Trump has vowed repeatedly to take a tougher line towards Iran, threatening at various time to renegotiate or dismantle the 2015 nuclear deal, and shoot Iranian boats out of the water if they provoke US naval vessels.

‘Boost military capabilities’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed Friday’s parade in Tehran, saying that Iran would not halt its missile programme and would continue to boost military capabilities, despite US warnings and demands.

“We will strengthen our defence and military capabilities … whether you want it or not,” Rouhani said, a direct response to Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly this week.

Rouhani has said that the Trump administration is seeking “an excuse” to pull out of the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement that capped Iran’s nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions on Iran.

The deal between Iran and world powers does not strictly prohibit Iran from developing missiles, but after the agreement came into effect last year, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling on Iran not to take any actions related to ballistic missiles “designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons” for eight years.

Tehran has argued that the tests are solely for defensive purposes and notes the Security Council measure only applies to missiles specifically designed to carry nuclear warheads.

In February, Iran test-fired the same medium-range type of missile, prompting Trump to say that the United States is “putting Iran on notice”.

The report of the test, shown late on Friday on state television, did not mention the time or location of the test.

Early morning blaze kills at least 23 students and two teachers at Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah school in Kuala Lumpur.

Police and firemen work at the religious school [A. Ananthalakshmi/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 25 people, mostly students, were killed after a blaze broke out early on Thursday at a religious school in Kuala Lumpur – the deadliest fire in decades in Malaysia.

The fire at Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah – a “tahfiz” boarding school where students learn to memorise the Quran – was reported at 5:40am (21:40 GMT Wednesday), according to a statement from the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department.

Khirudin Drahman, director of Kuala Lumpur’s fire and rescue department, told AFP news agency the number of confirmed dead are 23 students and two teachers.

“It really does not make sense for so many to die in the fire,” he said. “I think it is one of the country’s worst fire disasters in the past 20 years. We are now investigating the cause of the fire.”

Seven people were taken to a nearby hospital for injuries, while 11 others were rescued.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and the blaze was out within an hour, but not before it wreaked terrible devastation – pictures in local media showed ash-covered, fire-blackened beds.

Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Amar Singh told reporters the boys who died were aged 13-17, and they probably suffocated due to smoke inhalation. The dormitory had only one entrance, leaving many of the victims trapped inside, he said.

An official said bodies were piled on top of each other, indicating a possible stampede as people tried to flee the fire. Some witnesses said they had heard the students crying for help after the fire broke out.

“They’re still counting the bodies, which were piled on top of each other in a corner,” Singh said.

Hundreds of people, including families of some victims, gathered outside the school as more bodies were being removed by fire officials.

The blaze began in the sleeping quarters on the top floor of the three-storey school building, fire officials said.

The police chief said no foul play was suspected. Abu Obaidat bin Mohamad Saithalimat, deputy director of the fire department, told reporters outside the school the fire was likely caused by an electrical short circuit.

Loga Bala Mohan, the government’s federal territories deputy minister, said: “We sympathise with the families. It is one of the worst fires involving so many lives. We urgently want the authorities to quickly probe the cause of the deadly fire so that we will be able to prevent future disasters.”

Tahfiz schools usually teach students between the ages of five and 18.

There were 519 tahfiz schools registered across the country as of April, but many more are believed to be unregistered. Such schools are unregulated by the education ministry and fall under the purview of the religious department.

Report dismisses claims by banks that under law they must provide services to illegal Jewish settlements in West Bank.

Over half a million Jewish settlers live in illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem [Ahmad Gharabli/AFP]

by Al Jazeera

A leading rights group says Israeli banks are contributing to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank by providing loans and mortgages for construction there.

A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released on Wednesday says no Israeli law requires the banks to provide such services for the settlements. It says the banks have continued to do so regardless of their human rights obligations.

“Israeli banks are financing settlement construction and facilitating settlement expansion as a matter of choice, not because they are somehow required to do so under domestic law,” said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

The group is calling on the banks to extricate themselves from the settlements or face the risk of action from shareholders.

Furthermore, HRW said that institutional investors should ensure that their business relationships are free from settlement-related products or investments.

The report mentioned the example of some previous international investors, such as the United Methodist Church pension fund and the Dutch pension fund PGGM, who have divested from Israel’s five largest banks after citing their involvement in settlements as being inconsistent with their human rights policies.

Israel’s banks lend money to home buyers, settlement councils or to companies carrying out construction in the West Bank. Most also have branches in settlements.

Israeli law requires banks to accept settlers as customers, meaning they cannot refuse to open accounts for them. But a legal analysis by Human Rights Watch of Israeli banking laws concluded that banks are not obligated to provide financial backing for construction in the West Bank.

While an anti-discrimination law prohibits refusal of service based on place of residence, the report said banks could cite other reasons for declining to provide loans, such as the construction’s implications for Palestinians’ human rights.

The law also allows companies to decline to serve certain areas so long as they provide advance notice to customers.

Under international law, settlements are considered illegal, and much of the wider international community considers them an obstacle to the two state solution.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, in the 1967 war.

Up to 400,000 people now live in West Bank settlements, and about 200,000 Jewish Israelis live in occupied East Jerusalem.

Rights group says air raids over two months killed dozens, including children, where there were no military targets.

Saada was the scene of deadly coalition air raids on August 4 [File: Naif Rahma/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Human Rights Watch has accused the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen of committing war crimes, saying its air raids killed 39 civilians, including 26 children, in two months.

The rights group says five air raids that hit four family homes and a grocery store were carried out either deliberately or recklessly, causing indiscriminate loss of civilian lives in violation of the laws of war.

“Such attacks carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes,” HRW said in a report on Tuesday.

The coalition has repeatedly denied allegations of war crimes and says its attacks are directed against its enemy – Yemen’s armed Houthi group – and not civilians.

Yemen has been torn by a civil war in which Yemen’s internationally recognised government, backed by a coalition supported by the United States and Britain, is trying to roll back the Iran-aligned Houthi fighters who control most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

“The Saudi-led coalition’s repeated promises to conduct its air strikes lawfully are not sparing Yemeni children from unlawful attacks,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW, said in a statement.

“This underscores the need for the United Nations to immediately return the coalition to its annual ‘list of shame’ for violations against children in armed conflict.”

On August 4, coalition aircraft struck a home in Saada, killing nine members of one family, including six children, ages three to 12.

On July 3, an air raid killed eight members of the same family in Taiz province, including the wife and eight-year-old daughter, the organisation said.

HRW said it interviewed nine family members and witnesses to five air raids that occurred between June 9 and August 4 and did not detect any potential military targets in the vicinity.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than three million and ruined much of the impoverished country’s infrastructure.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to fight the Houthi group and army troops allied with them who have fired missiles into the kingdom.

HRW called on the UN Security Council to launch an international investigation into the abuses at its September session.

On Monday, the UN said it had verified 5,144 civilian deaths in the war in Yemen, mainly from air raids by a Saudi-led coalition, and an international investigation is urgently needed.

Kuwait’s emir says military action by four Arab countries blockading Qatar has been averted as Trump changes his tone.

President Trump walks to the podium with Kuwait leader Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah on Thursday [Evan Vucci/AP]

by Al Jazeera

The emir of Kuwait says the threat of war between Qatar and Arab nations blockading it for the past three months has been neutralised.

Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the main mediator in the Gulf dispute, spoke in Washington, DC, on Thursday at a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump.

While both sides in the dispute have ruled out the use of armed force, some ordinary Qataris say they worry about the possibility of military action, given the ferocity of the criticism their country has received from media in the four Arab states.

“What is important is that we have stopped any military action,” Sheikh Sabah said.

In a joint statement, the blockading nations expressed regret about the Kuwaiti emir’s comment about stopping military intervention.

“The military option was not and will not be [used] in any circumstance,” it said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar on June 5, suspending air and shipping routes with the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Qatar is also home to the region’s biggest US military base.

The four nations say Doha supports regional rival Iran and “funds terrorism” – charges Qatar’s leaders vehemently deny.

The countries reiterated on Thursday the accusation that Qatar continued to finance “terrorism” and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Trump said there is still funding of radical groups by some nations, but added multiple countries are responsible. “There is massive funding of terrorism by certain countries,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said Trump’s tone had changed after previously sending mixed signals.

“What is significant is the US president is now no longer singling out Qatar. He made a phone call to the emir of Qatar immediately following his press conference to provide further assurances,” she said.

The joint statement by the blockading nations praised what they called Trump’s firm assertion that the only way to resolve the crisis was by stopping the support and financing of “terrorism”, “and his unwillingness to resolve the crisis unless this is achieved”.

Sheikh Sabah said he had received a letter from Qatar that expressed willingness to discuss a list of 13 demands from its neighbours.

“We know that not all of these 13 demands are acceptable,” Kuwait’s leader said, referring specifically to issues that affected Qatari sovereignty. “A great part of them will be resolved.”

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Al Jazeera that any mediation had to come “without conditions”, reiterating Doha would not negotiate while transport links with neighbours remained cut.

The Arab powers responded in the statement by accusing Qatar of putting preconditions on negotiations, which they said showed a lack of seriousness in resolving the dispute.

Qatari officials have repeatedly said the demands are so draconian they suspect the four countries never seriously intended to negotiate them, and were instead seeking to hobble Doha’s sovereignty.

At the same time, they have said Qatar is interested in negotiating a fair solution to “any legitimate issues” of concern to fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

Save the Children says kids are ‘unable to sleep, study or play’ as enclave faces electricity and environmental crises.

There are more than one million children living in the Gaza Strip [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

One million children are suffering from “unlivable” conditions in the Gaza Strip, according to Save the Children, an international charity that promotes children’s rights and provides aid worldwide.

“One million children in Gaza are living in dire conditions,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday. “Save the Children considers Gaza to be unlivable now.”

According to the charity, “60 percent of the sea around Gaza is contaminated with untreated sewage and over 90 percent of water sources [are] too contaminated for human consumption”.

The besieged Palestinian territory, where more than two million people live, has also been suffering from an energy crisis since mid-April due to a dispute over taxes between Hamas, which rules the enclave, and the occupied West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Gaza has also been under a tight Israeli blockade for a decade, and residents have been subjected to persistent blackouts.

The continuing electricity crisis and “environmental crisis” has left the more than one million children in Gaza unable “to sleep, study or play”, Save the Children said.

According to the charity, more than 740 schools are struggling to function without electricity, and most families receive only two to four hours of electricity each day.

The UN found in 2012 that if nothing were done to ease the blockade on Gaza, life there would become “unlivable” by 2020.

But following the release of a UN report in July that found that living conditions had worsened since the blockade began, the international body’s humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories said that point “of unlivability [had] been passed quite a long time ago”.

‘Worse every day’

Save the Children’s Caroline Anning told Al Jazeera that the “situation in Gaza is a growing humanitarian crisis”.

She added that the situation “is getting worse every day”.

Save the Children called on Israel to “lift the Gaza blockade and for Palestinian and Israeli authorities to provide basic services”, adding that the lack of such services was contributing to growing mental health issues in the enclave.

READ MORE: Letter from Gaza – ‘Alive due to lack of death’

“Gaza children are already suffering through a ten-year blockade and the constant threat of conflict,” Jennifer Moorehead, Save the Children’s country director for the occupied Palestinian Territories, said in a statement.

“Living without access to basic services like electricity is affecting their family life and mental well-being,” Moorehead said.

“We’re seeing increased levels of anxiety, aggression and mood swings.”

Hamas has run Gaza since 2007 when it seized the territory from Abbas’ Fatah movement in a dispute over parliamentary elections won by Hamas the previous year.

Multiple attempts at reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah have failed, but the Palestinian Authority has continued to pay Israel for some of the electricity delivered to the enclave.

Israel has launched three offensives on Gaza since 2008, in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.

Severe damage to Gaza’s already weak infrastructure has contributed to the current humanitarian crisis.

Rawalpindi: A Pakistan anti-terrorism court has declared former military ruler Pervez Musharraf a fugitive in ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder trial, ordering his property confiscated, a court official said Thursday.

Musharraf was charged with Bhutto’s 2007 assassination in 2013 but has been in self-imposed exile in Dubai ever since a travel ban was lifted three years later. The official said he had “absconded”.

The court also acquitted five men who had been accused of being Taliban militants involved in the conspiracy to murder Bhutto, the Muslim world’s first female prime minister, the official said. However it found two police officers guilty of “mishandling the crime scene”, the court official said, adding they had each been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment and fined 500,000 rupees (INR 300,904.68).

The verdicts are the first to be issued in the case and come nearly 10 years after Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack during an election rally in Rawalpindi. Musharraf’s government blamed the assassination on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement. He was killed in a US drone attack in 2009. In 2010, a UN report accused Musharraf’s government of failing to give Bhutto adequate protection and said her death could have been prevented.

(Agencies)