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Iranian ambassador to Norway summoned over executions

Norway's foreign ministry said Monday it had summoned Iran's ambassador to Oslo for talks after the execution of demonstrators protesting the death of Mahsa Amini.

Published: 9 January 2023 16:21 CET
Pictured are protestors.
A protestor holds portraits of Iranian Mohsen Shekari (L), Mohammad Mehdi Karami (C-L), Mohammad Hosseini (C-R) and Majid Reza Rahnavard (2nd-R), protestors who were executed in Iran, during a rally in Lyon on January 8, 2023 against the Iranian regime, marking third anniversary of the downing of Ukrainian passenger jet, flight PS752 by Iranian forces shortly after it's takeoff from Tehran and to pay tribute to Mohammad Moradi, an Iranian student who committed suicide by drowning himself in the Rhone River in December 2022 to draw attention to the situation in Iran. (Photo by Jean-Phillipe Ksiazek / AFP)

Iran’s judiciary on Monday sentenced to death three more people accused of killing members of the security forces during the protests.

The Islamic republic has been rocked by civil unrest since the September 16 death in custody of Kurdish Iranian Amini, 22, following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.

Tehran on Saturday announced that two men had been hanged for killing a paramilitary force member in November during the unprecedented protests, sparking an international outcry.

“Norway strongly condemns the execution by Iran of demonstrators Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini”, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt wrote on Twitter.

“We call on Iran to end the repression of human rights. Norway urges Iran to respond to protests with meaningful reform and to immediately halt executions”, she said.

The meeting with Iran’s envoy will take place on Tuesday, a ministry spokesman told AFP.

Other European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, have announced similar moves.

The latest sentences, which can still be appealed, bring to 17 the total number of people condemned to death in connection with nearly four months of
protests.

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POLITICS

Norway to quadruple aid to Palestinians amidst famine fears

The Norwegian government Tuesday proposed 1 billion kroner ($92.5 million) in aid to Palestinians this year as humanitarian agencies warn of a looming famine in the Gaza Strip.

Published: 14 May 2024 14:48 CEST
Norway to quadruple aid to Palestinians amidst famine fears

Figures in the revised budget presented on Tuesday, show a roughly quadrupling of the 258 million kroner provided in the initial finance bill adopted last year.

“The urgent need of aid in Gaza is enormous after seven months of war,” Norway’s Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, said in a statement.

“The food situation in particular is critical and there is a risk of famine,” she added, criticising “an entirely man-made crisis” and an equally “critical” situation in the West Bank.

According to the draft budget, Norway intends to dedicate 0.98 percent of its gross national income to development aid this year.

The figures are still subject to change because the centre-left government, a minority in parliament, has to negotiate with other parties to get the texts adopted.

For his part, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide again warned Israel against a large-scale military operation in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the besieged Gaza Strip.

“It would be catastrophic for the population. Providing life-saving humanitarian support would become much more difficult and more dangerous,” Barth Eide said.

He added: “The more than 1 million who have sought refuge in Rafah have already fled multiple times from famine, death and horror. They are now being told to move again, but no place in Gaza is safe.”

As part of the response to the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7th, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is determined to launch an operation in Rafah, which he considers to be the last major stronghold of the militant organisation.

Many in Rafah have been displaced multiple times during the war, and are now heading back north after Israeli forces called for the evacuation of the city’s eastern part.

On May 7th, Israeli tanks and troops entered the city’s east sending desperate Palestinians to flee north.

According to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), “almost 450,000” people have been displaced from Rafah since May 6th.

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