Middle East Thread

[Strontium]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/14/food-protests-continue-across-iran-as-one-person-reported-dead

 

Food protests continue across Iran as one person reported dead
Soaring prices of wheat and basic goods bring protests to cities across Iran as internet outages suggest attempted clampdown

Protests over soaring food prices continued in several cities in Iran on Saturday, according to postings on social media, while an Iranian lawmaker told local media one person was killed in a demonstration in the south-west.

The protests were triggered last week by a cut in state subsidies for imported wheat that caused price hikes of as much as 300% for a variety of flour-based staples. The government of President Ebrahim Raisi also raised prices of basic goods such as cooking oil and dairy products.

The northern city of Rasht, the central town of Farsan and the north-eastern city of Neyshabur were among areas hit by protests, according to videos posted on social media.

“Raisi, have some shame, let go of the country!” chanted protesters on one such video. Reuters could not independently authenticate the videos.

Local lawmaker Ahmad Avai told the semi-official ILNA news agency one person had been killed during rallies in Dezful, a city in the oil-producing southwestern province of Khuzestan.

State media earlier said an estimated 300 people were dispersed by security forces in Dezful and 15 were arrested late on Thursday.

In the first signs of discontent over price rises, Iranian media last week reported disrupted internet services, an apparent attempt to stop the use of social media to organise rallies and disseminate videos.

Internet blockage observatory NetBlocks on Saturday reported a disruption lasting hours on Iran’s MobinNet. “The disruption is the latest in a series of telecoms cuts amid protests,” NetBlocks said on Twitter.

Wheat prices have sharply risen globally since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, adding to the cost of subsidies in Iran.

Iranian officials have also blamed the price hikes on the smuggling of heavily subsidised flour into neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Bjornebye]

Horrible. Killing hungry protestors. Awful world we live in. 

[Gnasher]

Things gonna get a lot worse,

 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/ukraine-war-plunge-millions-malnutrition-global-powers-intervene/story?id=84191131

[AngryOfTuebrook]

 

[Fugitive]

I’ll be honest, I feel uncomfortable with this thread now. When I was at uni, shared a flat on the docks with a lad called Dorian. He was from London and he was Jewish. His mum owned the flat and we used to take the piss out of each other all the time. He would call me a Scouse cunt, thief and all the other stereotypes and I would call him Jew boy, says he sows his pockets at both ends and other shite. 
 

We were and still are good mates but don’t say all that shit anymore and I do sometimes think was it wrong. He was as bad as me and it was always just a massive pisstake but did I step over the line bearing in mind it was two mates taking the piss out of each other. I do still rip him for having a birds name though.

 

@Strontium this one is for you and a genuine question because you are the only person who can actually answer this

 

 

[Strontium]

@Fugitive I think most people can have an opinion on this, to me it just sounds like banter between mates! My missus calls me a shylock (ironic, because I pay all the utility bills) and I call her an inbred sheep-botherer because her mum is Welsh and her dad was from Norfolk. I always think it's a sign of a healthy relationship if you can rip the piss out of each other to that degree and be totally comfortable about it.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

3 minutes ago, Strontium said:

@Fugitive I think most people can have an opinion on this, to me it just sounds like banter between mates! My missus calls me a shylock (ironic, because I pay all the utility bills) and I call her an inbred sheep-botherer because her mum is Welsh and her dad was from Norfolk. I always think it's a sign of a healthy relationship if you can rip the piss out of each other to that degree and be totally comfortable about it.

I thought he was asking you to judge whether Dorian is a girl's name.

[Fugitive]

15 minutes ago, Strontium said:

@Fugitive I think most people can have an opinion on this, to me it just sounds like banter between mates! My missus calls me a shylock (ironic, because I pay all the utility bills) and I call her an inbred sheep-botherer because her mum is Welsh and her dad was from Norfolk. I always think it's a sign of a healthy relationship if you can rip the piss out of each other to that degree and be totally comfortable about it.

Sound, his ma paid for the flat so he was not really a tight arse but he defo has a girls name.

[Fugitive]

I say he is Jewish, but the cunt will eat a fry up with sausages and bacon and then deny it. His Mum thinks he’s a fucking Rabbi, the horrible twat.

[TheHowieLama]

He is named after a modal scale.

[Fugitive]

His nickname was ‘Birds of a feather’. 

[Bjornebye]

[Strontium]

Surprise surprise, Syria was responsible for that chemical gas attack back in 2018

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64424831

Watchdog blames Syria for 2018 Douma chemical attack
 

The world chemical weapons watchdog has said Syrian forces carried out a chlorine gas attack on Douma in 2018 that killed 43 people.

The attack was part of efforts to remove rebels from the outskirts of Damascus in the decade-long war.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a Syrian army helicopter had dropped toxic chlorine gas cylinders on civilian areas.

The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons.

The OPCW said there were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that the Syrian Air Force had perpetrated the chemical weapons attack on Douma on 7 April 2018.

"At least one" helicopter of the elite Syrian "Tiger Forces" unit, it said, dropped two yellow cylinders containing toxic chlorine gas on two apartment buildings in a "civilian-inhabited area" in Douma, 10km (six miles) north-east of Damascus.

The first cylinder "ruptured, and rapidly released toxic gas - chlorine - in very high concentrations, which rapidly dispersed within the building", killing 43 people, the OPCW said.

The second cylinder smashed into an apartment and slowly released some chlorine "mildly affecting those who first arrived at the scene".

"The use of chemical weapons in Douma - and anywhere - is unacceptable and a breach of international law," said OPCW Director-General Ambassador Fernando Arias.

The report was based on 70 environmental and biomedical samples, 66 witness statements and other data including forensic analysis, satellite images, gas dispersion modelling and trajectory simulations, OPCW said.

A previous OPCW investigation concluded in March 2019 that a chemical attack had taken place in Douma, but it was not tasked with assigning blame.

Around the time of the attack, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused the US, UK and France of "staging" the incident in Douma with the help of the Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets.

"It was a lie. After we liberated that area our information confirmed the attack did not take place," he told the Daily Mail in June 2018.

Syria's ally Russia has also claimed the attack was staged, describing it as part of a "Russophobic campaign".

A British diplomat called the allegation "bizarre" and a "blatant lie".

A peaceful uprising against President Assad that started in early 2011 turned into a full-scale civil war in Syria that has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians and combatants killed.

[Carradona]

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I missed this a few months ago. (I saw someone on BBC News talking about it last night.)

 

Iran and Saudi, sitting in a tree...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64906996 

[Strontium]