Latest news with #KAREEMCHEHAYEB
Japan Today
16-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Airports close across Mideast as Israel-Iran conflict shutters the region's airspace
Huge smoke rises up from an oil facility facility after it appeared to have been hit by an Israeli strike Saturday, in southern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP Photo) By KAREEM CHEHAYEB and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA After Israeli strikes landed near the hotel where he was staying in the Iranian province of Qom, Aimal Hussein desperately wanted to return home. But the 55-year-old Afghan businessman couldn't find a way, with Iranian airspace completely shut down. He fled to Tehran after the strike Sunday, but no taxi would take him to the border as the conflict between Iran and Israel intensified. 'Flights, markets, everything is closed, and I am living in the basement of a small hotel,' Hussein told The Associated Press by cellphone on Monday. "I am trying to get to the border by taxi, but they are hard to find, and no one is taking us.' Israel launched a major attack Friday with strikes in the Iranian capital of Tehran and elsewhere, killing senior military officials, nuclear scientists, and destroying critical infrastructure. Among the targets was a nuclear enrichment facility about 18 miles from Qom. Iran has retaliated with hundreds of drones and missiles. The dayslong attacks between the two bitter enemies have opened a new chapter in their turbulent recent history. Many in the region fear a wider conflict as they watch waves of attacks across their skies every night. The conflict has forced most countries in the Middle East to close their airspace. Dozens of airports have stopped all flights or severely reduced operations, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded and others unable to flee the conflict or travel home. 'The domino effect here is massive,' said retired pilot and aviation safety expert John Cox, who said the disruptions will have a huge price tag. 'You've got thousands of passengers suddenly that are not where they're supposed to be, crews that are not where they are supposed to be, airplanes that are not where they're supposed to be,' he said. Zvika Berg was on an El Al flight to Israel from New York when an unexpected message came from the pilot as they began their descent: 'Sorry, we've been rerouted to Larnaca.' The 50-year-old Berg saw other Israel-bound El Al flights from Berlin and elsewhere landing at the airport in Cyprus. Now he's waiting at a Larnaca hotel while speaking to his wife in Jerusalem. 'I'm debating what to do,' Berg said. Israel has closed its main international Ben Gurion Airport 'until further notice,' leaving more than 50,000 Israeli travelers stranded abroad. The jets of the country's three airlines have been moved to Larnaca. In Israel, Mahala Finkleman was stuck in a Tel Aviv hotel after her Air Canada flight was canceled, trying to reassure her worried family back home while she shelters in the hotel's underground bunker during waves of overnight Iranian attacks. 'We hear the booms. Sometimes there's shaking,' she said. 'The truth, I think it's even scarier … to see from TV what happened above our heads while we were underneath in a bomb shelter.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office warned Israelis not to flee the country through any of the three crossings with Jordan and Egypt that are open to the Israeli public. Despite having diplomatic ties with Israel, the statement said those countries are considered a 'high risk of threat' to Israeli travelers. Iran on Friday suspended flights to and from the country's main Khomeini International Airport on the outskirts of Tehran. Israel said Saturday that it bombed Mehrabad Airport in an early attack, a facility in Tehran for Iran's air force and domestic commercial flights. Arsalan Ahmed is one of thousands of Indian university students stuck in Iran, with no way out. The medical student and other students in Tehran are not leaving the hostels where they live, horrified by the attacks with no idea of when they'll find safety. 'It is very scary what we watch on television,' Ahmed said. 'But scarier are some of the deafening explosions.' Universities have helped relocate many students to safer places in Iran, but the Indian government has not yet issued an evacuation plan for them. Though airspace is still partially open in Lebanon and Jordan, the situation is chaotic at airports, with many passengers stranded locally and abroad with delayed and canceled flights even as the busy summer tourism season begins. Many airlines have reduced flights or stopped them altogether, and authorities have closed airports overnight when attacks are at their most intense. Syria, under new leadership, had just renovated its battered airports and begun restoring diplomatic ties when the conflict began. Neighboring Iraq's airports have all closed due to its close proximity to Iran. Israel reportedly used Iraqi airspace, in part, to launch its strikes on Iran, while Iranian drones and missiles flying the other way have been downed over Iraq. Baghdad has reached a deal with Turkey that would allow Iraqis abroad to travel to Turkey — if they can afford it — and return home overland through their shared border. Some Iraqis stranded in Iran opted to leave by land. College student Yahia al-Suraifi was studying in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, where Israel bombed the airport and an oil refinery over the weekend. Al-Suraifi and dozens of other Iraqi students pooled together their money to pay taxi drivers to drive 200 miles (320 kilometers) overnight to the border with northern Iraq with drones and airstrikes around them. 'It looked like fireworks in the night sky,' al-Suraifi said. 'I was very scared.' By the time they reached the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, it was another 440 miles (710 kilometers) to get to his hometown of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. Back in Tehran, Hussein said the conflict brought back bitter memories of 20 years of war back home in Afghanistan. 'This is the second time I have been trapped in such a difficult war and situation," he said, "once in Kabul and now in Iran.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Ya Libnan
11-06-2025
- Business
- Ya Libnan
Former Lebanese economy minister is arrested on corruption charges
BY KAREEM CHEHAYEB A former Lebanese cabinet minister has been arrested and charged after an investigation into alleged financial crimes, judicial and security officials told The Associated Press. Former Economy Minister Amin Salam was detained after a three-hour interrogation about illegal use of ministry funds and use of suspicious contracts. The three judicial officials and one security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Lebanon has been trying to reform its battered economy, which for decades has been rife with profiteering. Salam has been charged with forgery, embezzlement, and misuse of public funds. Local media said it was related to alleged extortion of private insurance companies and using funds from a committee that supervises those companies for his own expenses. Salam did not directly comment. On Monday, however, he shared a video on social media that denied the reports and asserted that his use of those funds was to increase the committee's efficacy and transparency. Salam was economy minister for over three years. He was appointed in 2021 at a time when Lebanon's economy had plummeted and the country was plagued by severe power outages, fuel shortages and stark food inflation. (AP)
Ya Libnan
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Ya Libnan
Israeli army sets up roadblocks in southern Lebanon and announces it won't withdraw by deadline
Citizens check the destruction in their village caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. Israeli forces in southern Lebanon on Sunday opened fire on protesters demanding their withdrawal in line with a ceasefire agreement, killing at least 22 and injuring 124, Lebanese health officials reported, AP BY KAREEM CHEHAYEB MAYS AL-JABAL, Lebanon (AP) — Israel's military Saturday set up roadblocks across border towns and roads in a strategic valley in southern Lebanon, a day before the deadline for it to withdraw from the area under an agreement that halted its war with the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military, meanwhile, confirmed that it will not complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by Sunday as outlined in the ceasefire agreement. The deal that went into effect in late November gave both sides 60 days to remove their forces from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to move in and secure the area, along with U.N. peacekeepers. Israel says Hezbollah and the Lebanese army haven't met their obligations, while Lebanon accuses the Israeli army of hindering the Lebanese military from taking over. In a statement Saturday, the Israeli military said the agreement is progressing. But it said in some sectors, 'it has been delayed and will take slightly longer.' The Lebanese military has said that they had deployed in areas following Israeli troops' withdrawal, and in a statement Saturday accused the Israeli military of 'procrastinating' in their withdrawal from other areas. Washington appears to support an extension of this withdrawal phase. While Lebanese army soldiers are dispersed across the south's western sector, Israeli troops remained in control of most of the southeastern sector. Members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks and bulldozers have unexpectedly moved and set up several roadblocks, apparently in an attempt to prevent displaced Lebanese people trying to return to their villages. In Mays al-Jabal, peacekeepers from a Nepalese battalion watched in their position along the U.N.-mandated Blue Line as an Israeli jet flew overhead following the sound of what they said was an Israeli controlled demolition of a building. There are no residents left in that town and the vast majority of the buildings seen by Associated Press journalists were reduced to rubble or pancaked after intense Israeli shelling and airstrikes, following by clashes during its ground invasion. The few that stood had their walls blown out and are badly damaged. The piles of rubble and debris on the road make it impossible for civilian cars to enter the town that once was home to a few thousand people. The scene is similar in neighboring towns, including Blida and Aitaroun, where almost all the structures have collapsed into mounds of rubble and no residents have returned. The peacekeepers tried to appeal for permission to move across the roadblocks, but were not authorized to do so. An AP crew that had joined UNIFIL on patrol was stranded as a result. 'There is still a lot of IDF (Israeli army) activity going on in the area,' said Maj. Dinesh Bhandari of UNIFIL's Nepalese battalion in Mays al-Jabal overlooking the Blue Line. 'We are waiting for the deconfliction and then we will support to deploy the LAF (Lebanese army) in that position.' When asked about weapons belonging to Hezbollah, Bhandari said they had found caches of weapons, munitions and mines in some structures during their patrols. ADVERTISEMENT Israel says it has been taking down the remaining infrastructure left by the Hezbollah militant group, which has a strong military and political presence in the south. Israel since its ground incursion into Lebanon said it also targeted a tunnel network, and has conducted large-scale demolition of buildings in a handful of border towns. Lebanese officials have complained that the Israeli military is also destroying civilian homes and infrastructure. In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun pointed to the 'destruction of villages adjacent to the southern border and the bulldozing of lands, which will hinder the return of residents to their areas,' according to the state-run National News Agency. France, along with the U.S., is a guarantor of the ceasefire deal. Some 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced, out of over 1 million displaced during the war. Large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as Beirut's southern suburbs were destroyed in Israeli bombardments. ASSOCIATED PRESS
