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The International Atomic Energy Agency board on Thursday passed a resolution demanding that Iran provide “full and prompt” cooperation including access to sensitive nuclear sites, but Tehran immediately rejected the measure.Long-simmering tensions with the UN nuclear watchdog flared anew after Israeli and US strikes on Iranian sites in June. UN inspectors have not had access to any of the damaged complex.IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on Wednesday renewed a call for Tehran to let inspectors into the key nuclear sites and the agency’s governing board passed a resolution proposed by the United States, Britain, France and Germany by 19 votes to three with 12 abstentions.The resolution “urges Iran to comply fully and without delay with its legal obligations” under existing UN Security Council resolutions “and to extend full and prompt cooperation to the IAEA, including by providing such information and access that the agency requests”.Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the vote.”With this action and disregard for Iran’s interactions and good will, these countries have tarnished the IAEA’s credibility and independence and are disrupting the process of interactions and cooperation between the agency and Iran,” said Araghchi in a foreign ministry statement.Araghchi on Wednesday refused to allow UN visits to the bombed sites, including the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and Fordo underground enrichment complex. “We only cooperate regarding nuclear facilities that have not been affected, in compliance with IAEA regulations,” he stated on Telegram.- Negative impact -Speaking after the vote, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, also told AFP the resolution would have a “negative impact” on relations with the UN agency.”This resolution will not add anything to the current situation, will not be helpful, it is counter-productive,” Najafi said.Grossi said on Wednesday it would not be “logical” for a resolution to prompt less cooperation with his agency.The IAEA has called on Iran to let it verify its enriched uranium inventories, especially a study of the sensitive stockpile of highly enriched uranium that was “long overdue”, according to a confidential report seen by AFP.The IAEA has said Iran had some 44.9 kilogrammes of 60 percent enriched uranium when the Israel-Iran war began on June 13 — close to the 90 percent needed for a nuclear bomb and an increase of 32.3kg on May 17.According to the agency, Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons that enriches uranium to 60 percent. Western powers and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to build a bomb. Iran denies the charge.”The stockpile of enriched uranium is still there, so we need to check on that,” Grossi said Wednesday.”We have performed a number of inspections, but we have not been able to go to the attack sites. I hope we will be able. Indeed, we have to go because this is part of Iran’s commitments,” Grossi added. “I hope we’ll be able to move in a constructive manner.” 

A 19-year-old Syrian went on trial in Berlin on Thursday over a knife attack on a Spanish tourist at the German capital’s Holocaust memorial days before February’s general election.The suspect, partially named as Wassim Al M., is accused of being a supporter of the Islamic State group who intended to “target a person of the Jewish faith”, according to the court.He allegedly approached the 30-year-old victim from behind among the concrete steles of the memorial and “inflicted a 14-centimetre-long (more than five-inch) cut to his throat with a knife”, the court said in a statement before the trial.The victim, who was visiting the memorial with two friends, was badly injured but managed to stagger out of the steles before collapsing in front of the memorial.A police officer told the court he was on duty outside the US embassy, near the memorial, when he heard people crying for the police.”I went over and saw the victim clutching his throat,” the officer said, recalling that a passer-by had phoned emergency services.”The attacked tourist turned pale and his eyes closed” while they were waiting for an ambulance, he said. Prosecutors told the court that Wassim Al M. had “internalised IS ideology, rejected the Western way of life, and was convinced that a holy war against infidels must be waged worldwide”.He shouted “Allahu akbar”, or God is the greatest, after the attack, the court was told.The suspect had travelled to Berlin from his home in the eastern city of Leipzig, according to the court, motivated by his support for IS and “driven by the escalation of the Middle East conflict”.- ‘Religious mission’ -Shortly before carrying out the attack, he allegedly sent a photo of himself to members of IS via a messaging service and offered his services as an IS member.Wassim Al M. “wanted to kill”, prosecutor Michael Neuhaus told AFP on the sidelines of the trial.”He had become radicalised in line with IS ideology…, believed he had a religious mission, wanted to send a message against liberal society and against Jews,” Neuhaus said.The suspect was arrested at the scene with blood stains on his hands. He was carrying a copy of the Koran and a prayer rug, police said at the time.The assault shocked Germany two days before February’s general election after a campaign centred heavily on immigration and security fuelled by a series of deadly stabbing and car ramming attacks carried out by migrants.Germany is home to around a million Syrians — many of whom arrived during the huge influx of refugees that peaked in 2015 under former chancellor Angela Merkel. Since the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad in December, debate has grown heated around whether they should return to Syria.The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in particular has called for them to go home, highlighting a recent spate of high-profile violent crimes.The government is in talks with Syria’s new Islamist-led government to resume deportations of violent criminals.

Marina El Khawand was 18 when she saw her home town of Beirut shattered by the giant 2020 port explosion and decided she needed to help.Today, at 24, she is among five laureates at Thursday’s Young Activists Summit awards at the UN in Geneva, and described how the trauma of that day spawned a movement that has helped provide free medication and consultation to thousands in need.”I needed to do something,” said Khawand, who was starting her second year of law school when the explosion ripped through large parts of Beirut.In the chaos of the blast, which claimed more than 220 lives, her family urged her to leave the country to continue her studies abroad.But she told AFP in an interview that she decided to volunteer at the explosion site for a few days before leaving.”I was traumatised… I walked between dead bodies, there was blood everywhere,” she said, describing feeling powerless — unable to offer much help.- ‘War zone’ -But one day she ventured alone to one of the heaviest hit neighbourhoods, Karantina, which was like “a war zone”, and went into a building in search of a sick, elderly woman who had refused to evacuate.Now a lawyer, Khawand recalls hesitating outside the door, fearful of what she might find inside.”I entered and I saw an old lady, pale and not moving,” she said, describing the relief she felt when she saw a slight movement in the woman’s chest.She noticed an empty medication distributor in the woman’s hand, and recognised it as the same asthma inhaler her mother used.Khawand quickly snapped a picture of the dosage and rushed to get a new one.But Lebanon’s healthcare system had taken a hit after the country’s economy went into free fall in 2019, plunging many into poverty and sparking medication shortages.She visited three pharmacies without any luck, shocked to find that such a common medication was so hard to come by. She thought: “This woman survived the explosion… I cannot accept that she will die because she doesn’t have her medication”.Her mother did not have the same dosage as the woman, so Khawand determined that her best shot was to post an appeal on Instagram.An influencer she had tagged called her two hours later to tell her she had secured 12 boxes. – ‘Health beyond borders’ -“I was stunned,” Khawand said, describing her panicked rush to get the medication to the woman in time. After taking a few puffs on the inhaler, the woman gave Khawand “the most heartfelt hug”. “She whispers in my ear: Thank you for saving my life”, Khawand said, tears glistening in her eyes.”That sentence changed me,” she said, describing it as the moment she realised “my purpose in life would be to save lives”.After that experience, Khawand founded the Medonations non-profit aimed at providing free and equal medical assistance to vulnerable communities in Lebanon.Growing in the past five years to have collection points in over 65 countries, it says it has served more than 25,000 families across Lebanon with medical supplies and surgeries.Khawand’s team also provided oxygen machines during the Covid-19 pandemic, and during last year’s deadly war between Israel and Hezbollah, helped provide displaced people with sanitary products, diapers, and medication. She has also set up the Free HealthTech Clinic, with kits containing advanced AI-integrated devices enabling doctors to examine patients remotely, assess their prescriptions and adjust their medication.”The doctor can be in Switzerland, the patient can be in Lebanon, and they can see the vital signs in real time,” Khawand said.”It’s health beyond borders.”

Gaza health authorities said fresh Israeli air strikes killed four people Thursday as Qatar, a mediator of the weeks-long ceasefire, warned that renewed attacks threatened to undermine the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas.The new strikes came the morning after one of the deadliest days in the Gaza Strip since the truce came into effect on October 10, and after Israel launched a string of attacks targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon despite the nearly year-long ceasefire there.The Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza said four people were killed in the strikes early Thursday, after the territory’s civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, gave a lower toll of three dead.The hospital said three from one family, including a one-year-old girl, were killed in a strike on a house east of Khan Yunis and one more person was killed in an air strike on the town of Abasan al-Kabira, also east of Khan Yunis.A source at Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry, who did not wish to be identified, said artillery fire was continuing in the Khan Yunis area.Qatar, a key mediator in the Hamas-Israel war, condemned what it called the “brutal” Israeli air strikes, saying they were “a dangerous escalation that threatens to undermine the ceasefire agreement”.Gazans voiced despair at the fresh wave of attacks, saying it felt on the ground like the two-year war was continuing.”We are worried about the war returning. The sound of artillery shelling and explosions from the demolition operations east of Gaza was terrifying last night,” Lina Kuraz, 33, from the Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, told AFP.”My daughter kept asking me all night, ‘Will the war come back?’. Every time we try to regain hope, the shelling starts again. When will this nightmare end?”- ‘The war hasn’t ended’ -The so-called yellow line demarcates the boundary inside the Gaza Strip that Israeli troops have withdrawn behind, as part of the US-brokered ceasefire.”We are aware of a strike east of the yellow line that was done to dismantle terror infrastructures,” the Israeli military told AFP.”We’re not aware of the reported casualties. It’s part of the regular IDF (Israeli military) operations east of the yellow line.”Israel has carried out repeated strikes against what it says are Hamas targets during the ceasefire, resulting in the death of more than 312 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Wednesday’s Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip left 27 dead, according to the civil defence agency.”The war hasn’t ended. Nothing has really changed,” said Mohammed Hamdouna, 36, who was displaced from northern Gaza to a tent in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Yunis.”The intensity of the death toll has decreased, but martyrs and shelling happen every day. We are still living in tents. The cities are rubble, the crossings are still closed, and all the basic necessities of life are still lacking,” he told AFP.- Hamas appeals to mediators -Hamas urged US President Donald Trump and other international mediators of the weeks-long truce to put pressure on Israel to stop its attacks.”This violation requires serious and effective action from the mediators to pressure (Israel) to stop these violations and uphold the ceasefire agreement,” Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Islamist movement, told AFP in Gaza City.”The occupation is acting with blatant disregard to the mediators’ efforts,” he said.The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,546 people, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable.Israel also conducted several strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.The military said it targeted Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in several towns, and accused the Iran-backed group of trying to rebuild its capabilities.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday also drew a rebuke from Damascus and others in the region after visiting Israeli troops deployed in a buffer zone inside Syria.