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The UK government has paid “substantial” compensation to a Guantanamo detainee who was tortured by the CIA and has been held there without charge for two decades, his lawyer said Monday.Abu Zubaydah, 54, was the first of a number of prisoners to be subjected to CIA “enhanced interrogation” techniques following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.The Saudi-born Palestinian — whose full name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn — was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held without trial at the US Guantanamo Bay military camp in Cuba since 2006.He was waterboarded 83 times and suffered other physical abuse, according to a US Senate report, which said the CIA conceded he was never a member of Al-Qaeda and not involved in planning the 9/11 attacks.Britain’s Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that he could use English law in a legal claim against the UK government over alleged complicity in the torture.Helen Duffy, his international legal counsel, said in a statement sent to AFP that the case had now reached a financial settlement.”The payment is significant, but clearly insufficient to meet the UK’s obligations. More must be done to bring this chapter to an end,” said Duffy. “Critically, the UK should seek to facilitate the immediate release of Abu Zubaydah, and other prisoners held without charge or trial at Guantanamo,” she said.She added that, among other tactics, Zubaydah was also locked into a coffin-sized box for 11 days and two hours, “left to marinate in his own urine and faeces”.Zubaydah alleged that London was “vicariously liable” for multiple wrongs against him, including conspiracy to injure, false imprisonment and negligence.He sought personal damages for injuries which he says were sustained during interrogation at CIA “black site” facilities in Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania and Afghanistan, as well as Guantanamo.He has not argued that UK forces were involved in his capture, rendition to the facilities or were present during his mistreatment.But he accused Britain’s intelligence agencies — MI5 and MI6 — of being aware of his torture, and even “sent numerous questions” to the CIA for the purpose of eliciting information from him.- Two other cases -The UK government declined to comment.It has neither admitted nor denied that officials knew where Zubaydah was being held at any given time, or that they were aware of his treatment, arguing they cannot do so for national security reasons.It has argued that the laws of the six countries where Zubaydah was held should apply to the case.But in 2023 the UK Supreme Court upheld an earlier Court of Appeal ruling that the laws of England and Wales applied.For years, calls have multiplied in the UK, to no avail, for full disclosure about the actions of British secret services in the US “war on terror” alongside their American allies.In 2023, lawyers for two other Guantanamo detainees — Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri — accused Britain of being “complicit” with the CIA in their torture after 9/11.Both brought civil complaints to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) — a specialist UK court that investigates complaints about UK intelligence agencies.In October the body ruled that, in Hawsawi’s case, the intelligence services did not act unlawfully.Nashiri’s case is still ongoing.

Reza Pahlavi, who as a boy was groomed to be the next shah of imperial Iran but has spent nearly five decades in exile, has emerged as a rallying figure in the protests shaking the Islamic republic.The chant of “Pahlavi will come back!” has become a mantra for many of the protesters, while the US-based 65-year-old has urged nightly actions in video messages.Pahlavi’s prominence in the protest movement has surprised some observers.Pahlavi has during the latest protest wave shown an “ability to turn out Iranians in the streets,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US-based group United Against Nuclear Iran.”There have been clear pro-Pahlavi chants at the protests. Does that mean every Iranian protesting wants a return of the monarchy? No, but there is a nostalgia for the Pahlavi era that has been building for some time,” he added.In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Pahlavi said he was “prepared to return to Iran at the first possible opportunity”.He has not set foot in his home country since before the Islamic revolution that ousted his father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979 and ended thousands of years of monarchy dating back to Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid empire, and beyond.- ‘Seems a nice person’ -Reza Pahlavi was outside Iran at the time of the revolution, after leaving in the summer of 1978, aged 17, for military pilot training in the United States. His father died in Egypt in 1980, although his mother — former empress and the shah’s third wife Farah, now 87 — is still alive.Clement Therme, a non-resident fellow at the International Institute for Iranian Studies, said Pahlavi had not been tainted by the excesses of the imperial rule because he left in his late teens.”He is a symbol. His name is well-known,” Therme said, describing Pahlavi as the “main popular opposition figure” within and outside of Iran.Pahlavi has always insisted he does not intend to be crowned king of Iran but is ready to lead a transition towards a free and democratic country.But he remains a polarising figure — even within Iran’s divided opposition. While swift to condemn the repression that has marked the history of the Islamic republic, he has never distanced himself from his father’s autocratic rule, which was harshly enforced by the dreaded SAVAK secret police.An attempt to unify the fractious opposition during previous protests in 2023 immediately triggered tensions and ended in acrimony when Pahlavi made a highly publicised visit to Israel that wasn’t coordinated with allied groups.Pro-Pahlavi accounts on social media have for years energetically attacked other opposition figures, with monarchists sparring with supporters of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, who is currently in prison in Iran.Pahlavi has long called for a secular Iran that offers greater social freedoms, especially for women, as well as space for supporters of the Islamic republic, but his own approach contrasts with that of some around him who have advocated retribution against opponents. “Pahlavi has many supporters in Iran and his popularity has increased in recent days as he is seen as the only nationally known opposition leader with something of a plan to confront the regime,” said Arash Azizi, a lecturer at Yale University.”But his supporters are still a minority in a highly divided country and a highly divided opposition scene. Instead of working to unify the opposition, most of his camp in recent years have helped alienate others and actively oppose them.”He has also yet to win international recognition as an alternative leader for Iran — even in the current situation.”I’ve watched him, and he seems like a nice person, but I’m not sure it would be appropriate at this point to do that (meet him) as president,” US President Donald Trump said last week.- ‘Galvanise a nation’ -As well as witnessing the downfall of his father, Reza Pahlavi has endured family tragedy. In June 2001, his younger sister Leila was found dead in a London hotel room. An inquest later found that the former princess, who for years had reportedly suffered from depression and an eating disorder, had taken a fatal cocktail of prescription drugs and cocaine.And in January 2011, his younger brother Ali Reza shot himself dead at his home in Boston in a suicide the family said came after he had “struggled for years to overcome his sorrow” over the loss of his homeland, father and sister.He has one surviving full sibling, his sister Farahnaz, who also lives in the United States but keeps a far lower profile, as does his half-sister Shahnaz whose mother was the shah’s first wife Fawzia.”The end of the regime is near… this is our Berlin Wall moment,” he told AFP in June while on a visit to Paris.”I am stepping in to lead this transition. I don’t believe I need a title to play that role. The important thing is to be someone who can galvanise a nation.”

Iranian authorities on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies in the wake of protests on a scale unprecedented in recent years, as alarm grew over a deadly crackdown.The foreign minister said Iran was ready for both war and talks after repeated threats from Washington to intervene militarily over the crackdown on protests, which activists fear has left at least hundreds dead.Over two weeks of demonstrations initially sparked by economic grievances have turned into one of the biggest challenges yet to the theocratic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.In a sign of the severity of the crisis, the authorities have imposed an internet blackout lasting more than three-and-a-half days that activists say is aimed at masking the extent of the crackdown.Seeking to regain the initiative, the government called for rallies nationwide backing the Islamic republic on Monday. Thousands of people filled the capital’s Enghelab (Revolution) Square brandishing the national flag as prayers were read for victims of what the government has termed “riots”, state TV showed.Addressing the crowds, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran is fighting a “four-front war”, listing economic war, psychological war, “military war” with the United States and Israel and “today a war against terrorists”, referring to the protests. Flanked by the slogans “Death to Israel, Death to America” in Persian, he vowed the Iranian military would teach US President Donald Trump “an unforgettable lesson” if Iran were attacked. Trump said Sunday that Iran’s leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in power since 1989 and now 86, had called him seeking “to negotiate” after he repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily if Tehran killed protesters.”The Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking war but is fully prepared for war,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a conference of foreign ambassadors in Tehran broadcast by state television. “We are also ready for negotiations but these negotiations should be fair, with equal rights and based on mutual respect.”Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said a channel of communication is open between Araghchi and Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff despite the lack of diplomatic relations. Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Oman, which has on occasion acted as a mediator, met Araghchi in Tehran on Saturday. – Soaring toll -The European Union has voiced support for the protesters and on Monday said it was “looking into” imposing additional sanctions on Iran over the repression of demonstrations. Iran’s shutdown of the internet has now lasted more than 84 hours, said monitor Netblocks. The blackout has severely affected the ability of Iranians to post videos of the protests that have rocked big cities since Thursday.A video circulating on Sunday showed dozens of bodies outside a morgue south of Tehran.The footage, geolocated by AFP to the district of Kahrizak, showed bodies wrapped in black bags, with what appeared to be grieving relatives searching for loved ones.The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it confirmed the killing of at least 192 protesters but that the actual toll could be much higher.”Unverified reports indicate that at least several hundreds, and according to some sources, more than 2,000 people, may have been killed,” said IHR.More than 2,600 protesters have been arrested, IHR estimated.The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had confirmed the deaths of 544 people.Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. The government has declared three days of national mourning for those killed. State outlets were at pains to present a picture of calm returning, broadcasting images of smooth-flowing traffic. Tehran Governor Mohammad-Sadegh Motamedian insisted in televised comments that “the number of protests is decreasing”.- ‘Stand with the people’ -Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, urged Iran’s security forces and government workers to join the protests against the authorities.”Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, have a choice: stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people,” he said in a social media post.He also urged protesters to replace the flags outside Iranian embassies. “The time has come for them to be adorned with Iran’s national flag,” he said.The ceremonial, pre-revolution flag has become an emblem of the global rallies that have mushroomed in support of Iran’s demonstrators. 

Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday the Islamic republic is ready for both war and talks after repeated threats from US President Donald Trump to intervene militarily over a crackdown on protests that activists fear has killed hundreds.Over two weeks of protests initially sparked by economic grievances have turned into one of the biggest challenges yet to the theocratic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.In a sign of the severity of the crisis, the authorities have imposed an internet blackout that has now lasted more than three-and-a-half days and that activists say is aimed at masking the extent of the deadly crackdown.Seeking to regain the initiative, the government was looking to fill streets nationwide with rallies backing the Islamic republic. Trump said Sunday that Iran’s leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in power since 1989 and now 86, had called him seeking “to negotiate” after he repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily if Tehran killed protesters.”The Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking war but is fully prepared for war,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a conference of foreign ambassadors in Tehran broadcast by state television. “We are also ready for negotiations but these negotiations should be fair, with equal rights and based on mutual respect.”Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said a channel of communication is open between Araghchi and Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff despite the lack of diplomatic relations.”Messages are exchanged whenever necessary,” he said, noting that while the United States has no diplomatic presence in Iran, its interests are represented by the Swiss embassy.Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Oman, which has on occasion acted as a mediator, met Araghchi in Tehran on Saturday. Trump, who has threatened new military action after the US backed Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, said Tehran had indicated its willingness to talk. “The leaders of Iran called” yesterday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that “a meeting is being set up… They want to negotiate”.He added, however, that “we may have to act before a meeting”.- Soaring toll -Iran’s shutdown of the internet has now lasted more than 84 hours, said monitor Netblocks. The blackout has severely affected the ability of Iranians to post videos of the mass protests that have rocked big cities since Thursday.A video circulating on Sunday showed dozens of bodies accumulating outside a morgue south of Tehran amid fears the toll from a crackdown on the protests could amount to hundreds of people or even higher.The footage, geolocated by AFP to Kahrizak, showed bodies wrapped in black bags, with what appeared to be grieving relatives searching for loved ones.The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it confirmed the killing of at least 192 protesters but that the actual toll could be much higher.”Unverified reports indicate that at least several hundreds, and according to some sources, more than 2,000 people may have been killed,” said IHR.More than 2,600 protesters have been arrested, IHR estimated.The People’s Mujahedin (MEK) opposition group, which is banned in Iran, said that according to its sources inside the country more than 3,000 people have been killed.Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies.State outlets were at pains to present a picture of calm returning, broadcasting images of smooth-flowing traffic. Tehran Governor Mohammad-Sadegh Motamedian insisted in televised comments that “the number of protests is decreasing”. With the government declaring three days of national mourning for victims of what it has termed “riots”, state television broadcast images of pro-Islamic republic rallies beginning in several cities with a march in Tehran expected later Monday.- ‘Stand with the people’ -Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, urged Iran’s security forces and government workers to join the protests against the authorities.”Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, have a choice: stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people,” he said in a social media post.He also urged protesters to replace the flags outside Iranian embassies. “The time has come for them to be adorned with Iran’s national flag,” he said.The ceremonial, pre-revolution flag has become an emblem of the global rallies that have mushroomed in support of Iran’s demonstrators. In London, protesters over the weekend swapped out the Iranian embassy flag, hoisting in its place a banner featuring a Persian lion used under the shah. The Iranian foreign ministry said it had summoned the British ambassador to Tehran over the incident.

Barham Salih has known torture and the wrenching loss of exile. Four decades after his own ordeal, he has taken the helm of the UN refugee agency as it grapples with a funding shortfall and ever-rising needs.A former Iraqi president, Salih, 65, became the first former head of state to run the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at the start of the year. “It is a profound moral and legal responsibility,” Salih told AFP during his first trip in the new role — to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.”I know the pain of losing a home, losing your friends,” he said.The Kakuma refugee camp, which Salih visited on Sunday, is east Africa’s second largest, hosting roughly 300,000 people from South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Burundi. It has been in place since 1992. The world “should not allow this to continue”, Salih said, praising a new initiative by Kenya to turn its camps into economic hubs. “We should not only protect refugees… but also enable them to have more durable solutions,” he said, while adding: “The better way is to have peace established in their own countries… nowhere is nicer than home.”- ‘Electric shocks, beating’ -The son of a judge and a women’s rights activist, Salih was born in 1960 in Sulaymaniyah, a stronghold of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which sought self-determination for Iraq’s Kurds.He went into exile in Iran in 1974, spending a year at a school for refugees. As a teenager in 1979, back in Iraq and already a member of the PUK, he was arrested twice by former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.”I was released after 43 days after having suffered torture, electric shocks, beating,” he said.Upon release, he still managed to rank among Iraq’s top three high school students, according to a former colleague, before fleeing with his family to Britain where he earned a degree in computer engineering and a doctorate.Salih has “real experience of exile… He brings a personal perspective of displacement, which is very important,” Filippo Grandi, his predecessor at UNHCR, told AFP last month.Salih went on to a successful career in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq’s federal government after Hussein’s overthrow in 2003, holding the largely ceremonial role of president from 2018 to 2022. – ‘Serious budget cuts’ -Refugee numbers have doubled to 117 million in the past decade, the UNHCR said in June, but funding has dropped sharply, especially since Donald Trump returned to the White House.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently praised Salih’s experience as a “crisis negotiator and architect of national reforms” at a time when the agency faces “very serious challenges”.”We have had very serious budget cuts last year. A lot of staff have been reduced,” Salih told AFP. “But we have to understand, we have to adapt,” he said, calling for “more efficiency and accountability” while also insisting the international community meets its “legal and moral obligations to help”. burs-jcp/mnk/er/kjm