Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 12 december 2017
Shiite cleric urges militias to disarm after IS defeat Iran says it will

BAGHDAD (AP) — An influ- Baghdad. tants from their last strong- of the paramilitary forces look at releasing
ential Iraqi Shiite cleric on Al-Sadr commands one of holds in the western desert. against participating in British national
Monday urged his fighters several mostly Shiite militias Al-Sadr, the scion of a re- elections scheduled for
to hand state-issued weap- that mobilized after IS mili- vered Shiite clerical fam- May. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s
ons back to the govern- tants swept across northern ily, commanded a power- Tens of thousands of Popu- Foreign Ministry said Mon-
ment, following Iraq’s dec- and central Iraq in the sum- ful militia that battled U.S. lar Mobilization Forces are day it will raise the case of
laration of victory against mer of 2014. The paramili- troops in the years after deployed across the coun- a detained British-Iranian
the Islamic State group. taries are state-sanctioned the 2003 invasion. His fight- try. Many are viewed with woman with the judiciary
In a speech broadcast on and officially under the ers are today known as the suspicion by some of Iraq’s “out of humanitarian con-
Iraqi television, Muqtada command of the prime Peace Brigades, and are minority Sunnis and Kurds. cerns” following a visit by
al-Sadr also called on his minister, but have their own part of the Popular Mobi- The paramilitaries clashed Britain’s foreign secretary.
forces to hand over some chains of command. lization Forces, the official with Kurdish fighters in Oc- Ministry spokesman Bah-
territory to other branches Prime Minister Haider al- name of the mostly Shiite tober when federal forces ram Ghasemi said the final
of Iraq’s security forces, but Abadi declared victory militias allied with the gov- retook disputed territories in decision on whether to re-
said his men would con- over IS in a national ad- ernment. northern Iraq that the Kurds lease Nazanin Zaghari-Rat-
tinue to guard a holy Shiite dress on Saturday, after During his address Monday, had captured from IS.q cliffe, who is serving a five-
shrine in Samarra, north of Iraqi forces drove the mili- al-Sadr warned members year sentence for alleged-
ly plotting to overthrow the
Hezbollah chief vows to return focus to Israel government, rests with the
judiciary.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe “is con-
By BASSEM MROUE sidered an Iranian national
Associated Press and should serve her prison
BEIRUT (AP) — Tens of thou- conviction according to
sands of Lebanese and the judicial system of Iran,”
Palestinians attended a he added.
Hezbollah rally in Beirut on British Foreign Secretary Bo-
Monday, where the militant ris Johnson raised the case
group’s leader vowed to during a two-day visit to Iran
return its focus to Israel after that concluded Sunday.
years of fighting in Syria’s Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a char-
civil war. ity worker, was detained
Chanting “Oh America, in April 2016. Her family
you are the Great Satan,” has denied the allegations
while pumping their fists in against her. She is among
the air, men, women and several dual nationals held
children marched through in Iran, where the judiciary
streets of Hezbollah’s south- and security forces are
ern Beirut stronghold car- dominated by anti-West-
rying Lebanese and Pal- ern hard-liners. It’s unclear
estinian flags, as well as whether Foreign Minister
the militant group’s yellow Mohammad Javad Zarif,
banners. a relative moderate, can
At the rally, called to pro- Tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians march in a street as they hold a giant Palestinian secure her release. John-
test U.S. President Donald flag in response to a call by Hezbbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to protest U.S. President son recently complicated
Trump’s decision to rec- Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in a southern suburb of efforts to free her by say-
ognize Jerusalem as the Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Dec. 11, 2017. ing incorrectly that she was
capital of Israel, Hezbollah (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) training journalists when ar-
leader Hassan Nasrallah ting much of Israel’s territo- checkered scarves. protesters who pelted them rested. He has since apolo-
said he hoped the “foolish ry, and its battle-hardened Nasrallah called on Pales- with stones. The protesters gized. Britain and Iran have
decision” would mark the fighters played a key role tinian armed groups and were hundreds of meters discussed the release of
“beginning of the end” of in turning the tide of Syria’s others in the region to (yards) from the embassy. some 400 million pounds
the Jewish state. civil war in favor of Presi- come up with “unified strat- Lebanon is home to over ($530 million) held by Lon-
Nasrallah said his group is dent Bashar Assad. egy” to confront Trump’s 450,000 Palestinian refu- don, a payment Shah
almost done fighting ex- Palestinian Electrician Mun- decision. He said Pales- gees, who make up nearly Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
tremists elsewhere in the re- zir Saleh came with his tinian and Arab leaders 10 percent of the popula- made for Chieftain tanks
gion, and will now “give all three sons from the nearby should halt all negotiations tion. Many are the descen- that were never delivered.
its time” to Jerusalem and Palestinian refugee camp with Israel, and called for a dants of those who fled The shah abandoned the
the Palestinians. “Death to of Burj al-Barajneh. He said boycott of the Jewish state. after the creation of Israel throne in 1979 and the Is-
Israel!” he said in the fiery Trump’s decision is “unjust “Trump is ignorant and is op- in 1948. Trump’s announce- lamic Revolution soon in-
address, which was broad- to Palestinians and Arabs posed to people’s rights,” ment on Wednesday broke stalled the clerically over-
cast from an undisclosed because Jerusalem is not said Hassan Mazloum, 14, with decades of U.S. policy seen system that endures
location and shown on big only for Jews but a holy a member of Hezbollah’s and an international con- today. Authorities in Lon-
screens at the rally. place to all religions.” Imam Mahdi scouts. “We sensus that Jerusalem’s don and Tehran deny the
Hezbollah forced Israeli “Trump’s decision means came here to say that Je- fate should be decided payment has any link to
troops out of southern nothing. Jerusalem is the rusalem is not the capital of by direct Israeli-Palestinian Zaghari-Ratcliffe. However,
Lebanon in 2000, and the eternal capital of Palestine Israel but the eternal capi- negotiations. Palestinians the United States made
group battled Israel to a and this is what I teach my tal of Palestine.” The rally viewed the U.S. declara- a $400 million transfer to
bloody stalemate six years children,” he said as he came a day after a violent tion as a blatantly pro-Israel Iran in January 2016 when
later. The Iranian-backed stood with his three sons, protest outside the U.S. Em- move, and protests have Iran freed Washington Post
militant group is believed ranging in age from seven bassy in Beirut, where secu- erupted across the Arab journalist Jason Rezaian
to have a massive arsenal to 15, all wearing traditional rity forces fired tear gas and and Muslim world since the and three other Iranian-
of rockets capable of hit- Palestinian black and white water cannons at rowdy announcement.q Americans.q