Media In Iran Report A New Surge in Food Prices

According to the Saudi government-owned al-Arabiya Thursday, Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid al-Hamdani said Iran had cut off more than 90 percent of water tributaries and was not cooperating with Iraq to limit damage during drought. He said meetings were taking place with the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare the lawsuit.

Last year, Hamdani accused Iran of digging tunnels and trying to alter the water flows, and said Iraq had completed procedures to file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice.

Iraq faces acute water shortages. A senior adviser at the water resources ministry, Aoun Diab, said reserves were “far lower than what we had last year, by about 50 percent, because of poor rainfall and the quantities arriving from neighboring countries.”

The United Nations Environment Program’s in 2017 ranked Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country globally to water shortage and food availability. The Tigris and Euphrates, flowing from Turkey and Syria, supply 98 percent of Iraq’s surface water.

Smaller rivers come from Iran, which has suffered drought for at least a decade. According to the al-Arabiya report, Hamdani claimed Iranian projects had somehow deprived Iraq of 20 percent of its total water resources.

Across the Middle East, water shortages have led to tensions between countries and within countries. Iranian officials have warned of a further fall this year in precipitation.

In an interview with the Arabic-language al-Alam television channel Thursday, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, said no foreign country would dare to enter Iran’s territorial waters. Irani said there was no justification for the regional presence of navies from further afield.

Both Iran’s traditional army (Artesh) and the Revolutionay Guard (IRGC) have naval forces.

The commander described the northern Indian Ocean as the “main waterway to connect the continents,” and that if Iran did not have an “effective presence, governments that don’t have the right will come and approach our territorial waters.” Irani said Iran’s fleet would appear “wherever we feel threatened.”

Iran has since 2019 carried out naval exercises with Russia and China and has looked to expand its presence beyond the Red Sea and north-west Indian Ocean. The last major clash between Iran and the United States, whose Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, was quickly resolved diplomatically in 2016 after two American small boats adrift were seized by Iran’s navy after entering Iranian waters.

“We escort our ships in all the waters across the globe to guarantee security… Our presence offers security to the region and the entire world," Irani said.

In the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a bomb killed at least 20 worshippers in the Seh Dokan Shiite mosque, in the second major attack on Afghanistan’s Shiite community, mostly Hazara, in a week. The Islamic State group (Isis/Daesh) claimed responsibility. Fifty-eight people were injured, 32 seriously.

Hazaras – who are an ethnic and religious minority making up around 20 percent of Afghanistan’s population – have been frequently targeted by Sunni extremists who regard them as heretics. The Mazar-i-Sharif bombing came two days after blasts tore through a Shiite high school in western Kabul, killing at least six people and wounding 11.

There was some confusion over whether Isis-Daesh claimed responsibility for a second explosion Thursday near a police station in Kunduz that killed four and injured 18.

In a third attack, a Taliban vehicle was hit by a roadside mine in eastern Nangarhar province, killing four Taliban members and wounding a fifth. The fourth explosion, caused by a mine planted in the Niaz Beyk area of Kabul, wounded two children.

Like other Afghan neighbors, Iran has not formally recognized the Taliban authorities that took over when the United States last summer ended its 20-year military presence. Tehran has called for a broad-based government.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, Alena Douhan will visit Iran to assess impact of unilateral sanctions on human rights from May 7 to 18.

The role of this Special Rapporteur was created by a 2014 resolution at the UN Human Rights Council introduced by Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Human rights organizations have criticized the Islamic Republicfor not allowing similar trips to UN Special Rapporteurs focusing on human rights in Iran since 1992.

Lawyer Saeed Dehghan told Iran International, "We face a double standard, both from Iranian authorities and from UN officials", and activist Mehrangiz Kar said that the Iranian government seeks to convince the world that “if there is a violation of human rights in the country, it is due to sanctions."

Douhan’s visit is aimed at examining whether and to what extent the sanctions impedes the full realization of the rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.

During the visit, she will meet with various representatives from the government, the United Nations agencies, as well as non-governmental, business community, and civil society organizations and experts.

The Special Rapporteur – who has asked for input from all stakeholders -- is set to submit her conclusions to the 51st Session of the Human Rights Council in September 2022.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the Education Ministry building in Tehran on Thursday and its offices in various other cities to protest discriminatory regulations on a teacher ranking plan as well as the "continuous and systematic" suppression of union activists.

According to videos uploaded on social media, the security situation around the Ministry building was tense as security forces cordoned off the streets leading to the central building of the ministry and did not allow teachers to pass.

Videos from other cities show protesters shouting slogans against the education ministry and parliament with some demonstrators assailing its speaker, whose family’s recent shopping trip to Turkey has led to widespread condemnations.

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations said in its Telegram channel that at least 40 protesters were arrested until noon local time. It recently said in a statement that the teachers' movement "will not be subdued" by security and judicial crackdowns on union activists that have intensified in recent months, including sentencing them to four to 12 years in prison.

Teachers across Iran have staged several nationwide protests and strikes in the past six months and have vowed to continue protests until authorities meet their demands including, the implementation of decade-old legislation that would bring the salaries and pensions of 750,000 teachers in line with other civil servants.