Due to the ongoing displacement and mass destruction caused by Israel’s war, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al Khalili has visited some of the Gaza’s fewer schoolchildren who are able to attend classes.
Iran’s currency has sharply decreased again as the world’s powers push for resumption of UN sanctions against Iran amid stalled diplomacy and fears of war with Israel and the US.
In Tehran’s open currency market on Monday, the US dollar hit a price of more than 1.06 million rials, slightly higher than it had before Tehran and Washington mediated negotiations began in April.
The Iranian government and central bank have once more stated that the sharp decline in the country’s embattled currency is more a result of a psychological response to the country’s deteriorating political environment than a drop in economic activity.
The remaining European parties to Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement, which includes France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, have triggered the “snapback” mechanism of the agreement, which would allow for the UN to immediately reimpose sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran has now been given a one-month deadline to reach an agreement that could defer snapback by at least a year by the European allies.
The UN inspectors have access to the US’s nuclear sites, resume negotiations with the US, and be responsible for the country’s 408.6 kg (900.8 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, according to the IAEA.
Iran has claimed that the Western allies have demanded that the negotiations’ outcomes, not the starting point, be changed so they cannot be met. It has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iranian parliamentarians are also working on legislation to force Iran to renounce its nuclear weapons (NPT) and halt all cooperation with the IAEA if sanctions are reinstated.
IAEA inspectors were given this week’s authorization to inspect the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant’s replacement fuel, but they were not given further information because Tehran denounces the world’s nuclear organization for allegedly allowing Israeli and US airstrikes against Iran in June.
Tehran has also claimed that the European powers lack the legal authority to initiate the snapback process as a result of the US’s unilateral withdrawal from the landmark nuclear agreement in 2018 and the harsh sanctions it imposes on Iran.
Iran’s nuclear activities increased as a result of the sanctions, which were imposed by US President Donald Trump during his first term in office, by President Joe Biden, and then by Trump himself during his second term, increasing those efforts.
Other signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal that are opposed to snapback have also made an effort to coordinate their positions with Iran’s authorities.
The three countries’ foreign ministers released a joint statement on Monday, claiming that the move by the Europeans is “by default legally and procedurally flawed” and violates the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that underpins the nuclear agreement. They also called on the parties to “abandon sanctions and threats of force” in order to address the root cause of the situation.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, claimed on Monday that the European powers are abusing the UNSC’s role as a “instrument of coercion rather than a guardian of global security.”
In a post on X, he wrote, “The urgent task is to restore international law and build upon it to give diplomacy the foundation it needs to succeed.”
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on Monday in Tianjin, north of China, the leaders of Iran, China, and Russia met. Apparently, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met for a two-hour meeting.
Despite the Western deadline, no breakthrough has been made, and Israel and the US have been making threats of additional strikes on Iran ever since the 12-day conflict ended in June.
Tehran’s currency market’s negative reaction reflects concern about the potential effects of reinstated UN sanctions on a nation that has endured years of severe sanctions from Washington.
UN sanctions would only worsen Iran’s isolation from international markets and make it harder to sell oil or other exports given that Iran’s inflation rate is still above 35 percent, one of the highest in the world.
Iran is also grappling with numerous domestic issues as external pressure mounts, in addition to decades of mismanagement and sanctions.
As a result of years of ageing and ineffective infrastructure, Tehran, as well as other cities, towns, and villages across the nation, have been experiencing daily power outages for months. Citizens have been frustrated by the interruptions, which also add insult to injury to industries that have been harmed by the sanctions.
The bustling capital city and other large areas of Iran are also dealing with a water crisis as a result of ongoing mismanagement and excessive use of water resources, as well as the growing droughts that have become more and more severe in recent years.
Internet speeds have been significantly slower and patchier than usual since Israel’s 12-day war ended, and the state has continued to block the majority of its websites and apps internationally.
GPS jamming caused a plane carrying EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen to crash in Bulgaria, where according to officials, Russia is to blame.
Von der Leyen’s chartered jet reportedly encountered a jam as it approached Plovdiv International Airport in southern Bulgaria on Sunday, according to Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta.
“We can confirm that there was jamming, GPS, and GPS, but the plane safely landed in Bulgaria.” The Bulgarian authorities have provided us with information that suggests that Russia is blatantly behind this, according to Podesta on Monday.
Bulgaria’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that it had advised the pilots to use “terrestrial navigation tools” as an alternative way to land safely.
The plane was forced to land using “paper maps,” according to the Financial Times newspaper, which first covered the incident.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, responded to the Financial Times by saying “your information is incorrect.”
Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging , dozens of attacks, and other incidents, including jamming, which involves producing a strong radio signal that overwhelms communications since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Due to congestion, a Finnish airline was forced to temporarily suspend flights to Tartu, Estonia, in April of last year. A plane carrying the British defense secretary was stranded on its way to Russia a month earlier when its satellite signal was jammed.
Von der Leyen visited Bulgaria as part of a four-day tour of “front line” European Union member states that are viewed as more vulnerable to Russian threats, such as Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Podesta argued that the incident would “intensify the bloc’s unwavering commitment to increase defense capabilities and support for Ukraine,” underscoring the commission president’s “urgency” in the region.
In the event of a three-and-a-half-year Russia-Ukraine conflict, Western powers are discussing how to guarantee Ukraine’s security.
At the beginning of his second term as president, US President Donald Trump attempted to restart diplomatic relations with Russia, but diplomatic efforts have slowed.
In a social media post on Monday, Trump criticized New Delhi for what he perceived as a slanted economic relationship and India’s purchases of Russian weapons and oil, adding to the deterioration of relations between the two nations.
“We do very little business with India, but they do a lot of business with us,” says one expert. In other words, they “sell us” a lot of goods, which is their biggest “client,” but we “sell them very little,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“They have already made an offer to eliminate their tariffs, but it’s already too late. He continued, “They ought to have done that years ago.”
Trump has not commented on any of his most recent statements, and the US president has frequently made unfounded claims that other nations have offered US excessive economic concessions in response to the threat of high tariffs.
Trump’s latest attack on India is seen as a partner of great significance as the US attempts to strengthen ties with Asian nations skeptical of China’s growing regional influence.
One of the highest tariffs the Trump administration has ever announced against scores of foreign countries was recently imposed by the US, which also criticizes India for purchasing Russian oil.
Trump frequently urges foreign leaders to purchase more US products in fields like energy and weapons manufacturing.
He stated on Monday that “India purchases most of its oil and military products from Russia, but not very much from the US.”
However, India has reacted to Washington’s severe tariffs, saying that New Delhi “will never bow down nor ever appear weak” in its economic ties with other nations.
Trump’s aggressive efforts to reform trade with the rest of the world, which he has described as unilateral and unfair to the US, may be compelled to work with other nations to create more cooperative relationships as they look for alternatives to an increasingly unpredictable US.
According to Al Jazeera, the United States has proposed a proposal for a southern Lebanon as an incentive for the Lebanese government to continue its efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
Thomas Barrack, the US envoy to the Middle East, showed little else but hints of financing during his Tuesday visit to Lebanon.
The Gulf, the US, and Lebanon will work together to create an economic forum that will provide a source of income, Barrack told journalists.
After last year’s Israeli war on Lebanon, experts speculated that the idea might be based on similar regions in Jordan and Egypt, two nations that have peace agreements with Israel.
A regional and domestic push to disarm the Lebanese organization has grown since the war, which was primarily waged against Hezbollah, and the relatively new Lebanese government, which took office in January and is under US and Israeli pressure, has declared its intention to do so.
Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a conflict that started on October 8, 2023, and continued until a ceasefire on November 27 that Israel has repeatedly broken without any results.
During the war, Israel was able to assassinate many of Hezbollah’s leaders, which was unfortunate because of its weak military.
Hezbollah is a member of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance,” which suffered additional troubling effects in the wake of Bashar al-Assad’s fall in Syria in December and Israeli-backed attacks on Iran in June, causing Hezbollah to lose regional support.
Hezbollah’s popularity outside its core constituency has declined over the past 20 years due to its role as the only Lebanese force capable of repelling Israel due to its support of al-Assad’s regime in Syria and its support of counterrevolutionary forces during the 2019 Lebanese uprising.
Many of its political allies have shifted their support for Hezbollah’s disarmament, including the Free Patriotic Movement and former presidential candidate Sleiman Frangieh.
Hezbollah’s domestic opposition said it was in favor of its disarmament because it would shift Lebanese state’s control over the country.
Hezbollah is now on the back foot with its opponents demanding disarmament and being removed from its position as Lebanon’s hegemon.
Hezbollah has previously criticized the government and rejected the idea of disarmament.
In a speech on August 25, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared, “We will not abandon the weapons that honor us nor the weapons that protect us from our enemy.”
He continued, “It cannot be trusted that Lebanon’s sovereignty will survive if this government operates in its current form.”
In a war that it carried out more than five attacks on Lebanon for every attack Hezbollah or an ally launched at Israel, Israel killed more than 4, 000 people and internallydisplaced more than a million.
Israel has continued to occupy at least five of the southern Lebanon areas despite the ceasefire’s requirement that it withdraw there. It also continues to occupy and to destroy villages there.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon during the fighting, forcing thousands of people to flee for their lives. Thousands of people are still unable to return home as a result of Israel’s use of intensive bombing and white phosphorus.
According to Lebanese political analyst Karim Emile Bitar, “people in south Lebanon are still traumatized by the recent war,” putting pressure on the US economic zone proposal to be accepted.
He continued, “Many Arabs, Muslims, and the Global South do not think that the US is an honest broker.”
Analysts claimed Barrack was attempting to pressure the government to continue with the organization’s demise by putting pressure on the people of Lebanon, especially those who support or are affiliated with Hezbollah.
According to Barrack, “We have 40, 000 people who Iran pays to fight.” What will you do with them, exactly? Take their weapon and say, “Good luck planting olive trees, by the way”?
According to some media reports, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Barrack in Paris first discussed the concept of a state-owned industrial area in southern Lebanon. The idea was that state-owned Lebanese factories would be set up in the area near Israel’s border.
Other details are not as detailed. The lack of specifics makes it difficult to imagine what a monetary zone would entail, according to an Al Jazeera analyst.
Hezbollah: Political Economy of the Party of God, authored by Joseph Daher, noted that both Jordan and Egypt have what is known as qualifying industrial zones (QIZs), which are constructed following the Oslo Agreement of 1993 with Israel.
Goods produced must contain at least some Israeli input in order to qualify for a QIZ. However, many Lebanese would still vehemently reject the fact that Jordan and Egypt also have normalized relations with Israel.
Experts also criticize these economic zones harshly.
They operate as isolated enclaves that are disassociated from local communities, which can cause serious environmental effects, according to Yasser Elsheshtawy, an adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia University in New York and author of Temporary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia.
They frequently play a role in workers’ rights abuses because they are typically prohibited from starting unions, he added.
Many analysts doubt whether such a prosperous project would gain the support or trust of local workers or residents despite its possibility.
According to Lebanese analyst and writer Michael Young, “I don’t see any desire or buy-in.” There will be buy-in if it ever succeeds, but all of this is too soon.
According to analysts, southern Lebanon’s residents don’t accept the US as a trustworthy actor or as a partner for Lebanon’s interests.
Qassem Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst believed to be close to Hezbollah, said, “The idea is rejected because there is no trust in America.”
Many Lebanese will find it difficult to believe that the US is acting in their best interests after a brutal war with Israel, which is a close US ally and largest recipient of military aid.
According to Bitar, “the economic zone] could provide oxygen and support a struggling economy.” However, it still must overcome a number of challenges, with psychological resistance the most pressing one being today. There isn’t enough trust, either.
Israel has attacked its neighbors on numerous fronts over the past 23 months, including in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria, with the US remaining silent.
According to Daher, “the US has not been pressing Israel to stop its violation of human rights, particularly in the past year and a half,” Daher said.
“Quite the opposite – it has been supporting them.”
On social media and other platforms, Hezbollah supporters from Lebanon, many of whom reside in the area where the economic zone is proposed, have publicly expressed their grave disapproval of US intentions.
Some have accused the Lebanese government of acting in the interests of the US and Israel.
There are few other political options, according to analysts, besides accepting what the US and Israel are proposing, given the lack of trust in US plans for the region.
“Western regions of the population are being subject to this US-Israeli hegemony imposed upon them as a result of the aftermath of the [2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel] and its devastation,” Daher said.
People in Guyana are voting for a president and members of parliament who will be watching over billions in oil revenue, offshore production with a United States-led international consortium, and tensions with Venezuela.
Over 750, 000 registered voters will have until 6pm (22: 00 GMT) on Monday to cast ballots at some 2, 800 polling places.
Six parties are participating in the election to fight for the presidency and seats in the 65-member parliament.
But it is effectively a three-way race between President Irfaan Ali of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Aubrey Norton of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), and billionaire Azruddin Mohamed, who started his We Invest in Nationhood party in March to challenge the two-party status quo.
Voting has traditionally taken place along ethnic lines, with the Indo-Guyanese supporting the PPP, and Guyanese of African descent backing the PNCR.
Billionaire Mohamed means to disrupt the system and has garnered some young backers of his own. But he is shunned by the US, which sanctioned him last year over allegations that he and his father Nazar Mohamed defrauded the Guyanese government of tax revenue and bribed public officials. They deny any wrongdoing.
The South American country’s president is seeking re-election as he wants to spend revenue from oil sales and royalties from a contract with ExxonMobil and others on infrastructure. Ali has governed one of the world’s fastest-growing economies since 2020 as a result of the oil boom.
But opposition groups claim that oil earnings disproportionately favour well-connected groups, and three of the five parties challenging the PPP have also pledged to renegotiate the country’s contract with ExxonMobil.
The victor will manage a booming oil economy that has quadrupled the state budget to $6.7bn in 2025 since production began in 2019.
But they will also have to navigate a crucial border dispute with Venezuela over the Essequibo region, where most of the nation’s oil reserves are located.
The Venezuelan government claims the region, which has been governed by Guyana since independence in 1966, as its own. Despite Caracas having no authority there, Venezuela elected a governor to the region this year.
The electoral commission in Guyana has said results may be expected by Thursday or later. The party that wins the most votes will select the next president.