12, August 2024
UK’s Starmer urges Iran to refrain from Israel attack 0
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has urged Iran to “refrain” from attacking Israel during a phone call with Iran’s new president.
Sir Keir told Masoud Pezeshkian there was a “serious risk of miscalculation and now was the time for calm and careful consideration”, Downing Street said.
It is the first call between a UK prime minister and an Iranian president since March 2021 when former British leader Boris Johnson spoke to Hassan Rouhani.
News of the 30-minute discussion came as the UK issued a joint statement with the US, France, Italy and Germany – urging Iran to end its threats of an attack on Israel.
They called on Iran to “stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place”.
The leaders, who spoke together by phone, also expressed their support for the “defence of Israel against Iranian aggression and against attacks by Iran-backed terrorist groups”.
Fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East have been growing following the recent assassination of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
On Sunday, the US confirmed it had sent a guided missile submarine to the region in response to these concerns. The submarine can carry up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are used to strike land targets.
It had also ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which is carrying F-35C fighter jets, to accelerate its journey there. The ship was already on its way to replace another US ship in the region.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby later said that the US shared Israel’s concerns that it was “increasingly likely that there will be an attack by Iran and or its proxies and perhaps in the coming days”.
“That is why we have been continually speaking to our Israeli counterparts and other counterparts in the region,” Mr Kirby added.
Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said that the country took the threats of its enemies seriously and that Israel was at “peak preparedness for attack and defence”.
Downing Street also said on Monday that Keir Starmer had told Mr Pezeshkian he was “deeply concerned by the situation in the region and called on all parties to de-escalate and avoid further regional confrontation”.
Iran blames Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on their soil late last month and has vowed to punish it.
Israel, which is currently engaged in a war attempting to destroy the group in Gaza, has not commented but is widely believed to have been behind the killing.
Iran’s acting foreign minister said last week that the country would respond to the killing of Haniyeh at the “right time” in the “appropriate” manner.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a group of states with Muslim-majority populations, said it held Israel fully responsible for the attack, which it called “a serious infringement” of Iran’s sovereignty.
Ismail Haniyeh is not the only senior member of Hamas to be killed recently. Israel also recently announced that the group’s military chief Mohammed Deif was killed in an air strike in the Gaza Strip last month.
The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, with which Israel is also engaged in a conflict, has also said that it would retaliate for the death of its senior commander Fuad Shukr.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday became the latest leader to urge his country’s citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible, warning of the risk of growing tensions.
Airlines including Lufthansa, Swiss Air and EasyJet have either cancelled or suspended flights to the Middle East.
Source: BBC



















13, August 2024
Cameroonian activist Steve Akam missing since arrest 0
A Cameroonian social media activist and government critic has not been seen since his arrest three weeks ago and his lawyers believe he has been extrajudicially returned to Cameroon from Gabon, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
The activist, Steve Akam, was last seen in a video circulated online that showed him handcuffed and surrounded by Cameroonian police near the border with Gabon.
Akam had been living in Gabon for the past decade. Human Rights Watch said the video was filmed about three weeks ago in the Cameroonian town of Kye-Ossi, near the border with Gabon.
Akam is better known by his social media profile Ramon Cotta on TikTok, which has over 30,000 followers. In his last video, Akam accuses President Paul Biya of pursuing a war in Cameroon’s anglophone regions in order to remain in power.
“The Cameroonian government has for years cracked down on opposition and free speech, jailing political activists, journalists, and dissidents,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “Ahead of elections in 2025, it has increasingly restricted freedoms of expression and association.”
A spokesperson for Cameroon’s police declined to comment by text message.
Lawyers for Akam could not immediately be reached. Human Rights Watch said that his lawyers believe Akam was extrajudicially returned from Gabon to Cameroon.
Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto has previously called on the government to provide proof that the activist is still alive.
In a case that roiled the Central African nation last year, prominent journalist Martinez Zogo’s mutilated remains were found near the capital Yaounde after he was abducted. Zogo had reported on air about a case of alleged embezzlement involving a media outlet with government connections owned by business mogul Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga.
The two leaders also called for all other ongoing efforts to create an environment conducive to a lasting resolution to the conflict.
Seventeen people, including Belinga and the head of the counterintelligence service Maxime Leopold Eko Eko, are standing trial in connection with Zogo’s torture and murder.
The media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists has urged Cameroon authorities to be transparent over Zogo, and also account for the death of another journalist in government custody in 2019.
Source: Reuters