FINAL MOMENTS FOR NUCLEAR DEAL
Iran and six world powers (United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China) are trying to overcome their remaining differences and agree to a framework deal on Iran’s nuclear program. They are gathered in Lausanne, where their self-imposed deadline will come tonight.
- There is total uncertainty around the success of the negotiations. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday he was leaving the talks and would return today if there was a realistic chance of a deal, Al Jazeera reports.
- Voice of America quoted State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf as saying the talks had just a 50-50 chance of success.
- There are three major obstacles, Le Temps reports: the duration of the framework agreement, the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran, and a mechanism that guarantees the agreement isn’t breached.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of trying to “conquer” the entire Mideast. “The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis is very dangerous to humanity, and must be stopped,” he said. “This deal, as it appears to be emerging, bears out all of our fears, and even more than that.”
AIRSTRIKES IN YEMEN CONTINUE
A Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes against the Houthi militia in Yemen Monday night, marking the offensive’s sixth consecutive day. The raid hit targets in the group’s stronghold of Saadah, the capital Sanaa and the city of Yarim, Reuters reports. A renegade Republican Guard military base as well as a weapon storage facility outside Sanaa are believed to have been hit overnight, causing huge blazes and fires.
Photo: Hani Ali/Xinhua/ZUMA
- At least 40 people have been killed by a Saudi airstrike on the al-Mazraq refugee camp in northern Yemen, in what could be one of the deadliest attacks yet since the beginning of the Saudi-led “Decisive Storm” operation. According to Yemen’s state news agency, under Houthi control, several refugee women and children were killed in the strikes. But Saudi Arabia insisted they were killed by Houthi artillery fire, according to Al Jazeera. Witnesses told the AP that the camp formerly housed displaced people, but was now occupied by Houthi forces and that those killed were mostly fighters. Agencies such as the UNHCR have confirmed the strikes and the deaths but aren’t able to say who caused them.
- The Iranian Red Crescent has reportedly sent medical aid and food to Yemen, according to AP.
- Iran also denied sending weapons to Houthi fighters in Yemen. The Fars news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham as saying that “the allegations about sending weapons by the Islamic Republic of Iran to Yemen are completely fabricated and sheer lies.”
EXTRA!
The ISIS terror group has devoted the cover of its official propaganda magazine Dabiq to its ambitions in Africa — Tunisia in particular, as the photo of Tunis’ Great Mosque of Kairouan suggests. See the cover and read more on our 4 Corners blog.
OPPOSITION LEADS IN NIGERIA
Nigeria’s presidential opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari held a significant lead over President Goodluck Jonathan as counting resumed this morning, Nigerian daily Vanguard reports.
- General Buhari, who first came to power as a military dictator from 1983 to 1985 after a coup, was leading with a advantage of 2 to 3 million votes against Jonathan.
- If this continues, President Jonathan would be the first incumbent to lose at the ballot box in Nigeria’s history, The Guardian reports.
- The election comes amid a bloody insurgency by anti-democracy terror group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria, where at least 15 people were shot dead on election day, Reuters reports.
