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Qatar, Iran Discuss Bilateral Ties, Regional Developments

Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)
Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)
    London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Qatar, Iran Discuss Bilateral Ties, Regional Developments

Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)
Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani held talks on Thursday with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in Tehran, ahead of talks with President Ebrahim Raisi.

Discussions tackled bilateral ties and political developments in the region.

Amirabdollahian met with Qatar’s ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Sheikh Mohammed during his visit to Doha on Jan. 11.

On Tuesday, Al Thani held talks with Iran’s FM over the phone, Iranian Ambassador to Qatar Hamid Reza Dehghani announced on Twitter.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, the ministers discussed bilateral and regional issues, including Afghanistan and Yemen, without referring to the nuclear talks.

Al Thani said in a tweet that he he met with his Iranian counterpart and held fruitful discussions on the latest regional developments.

“I emphasize the constants of Qatar’s foreign policy, based on good neighborliness and constructive dialogue, to foster political dialogue aimed at achieving sustainable regional stability,” he added.

Raisi underscored the importance of “deepening ties between regional countries” in a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed, who invited the president to attend Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit in February in Doha.

Al Thani’s visit comes after Amirabdollahian on Monday said Tehran is ready to consider direct talks with Washington if it feels it can get a “good nuclear deal.”

However, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the visit was not intended to help set up direct talks with Washington.

“Although Doha and Tehran are experiencing good and close relations, this visit ... has fueled some misconceptions. Some are fabricating it to facilitate direct talks with the United States,” IRNA said, Reuters reported.

The US and Iran have held eight rounds of indirect talks in Vienna since April aimed at reinstating the 2015 pact that lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

After then-US President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions, Iran gradually started violating the pact’s nuclear curbs.

Significant gaps remain about the speed and scope of returning to the deal, including Iran’s demand for a US guarantee of no further punitive steps, and how and when to restore curbs on Iran’s atomic work.

Sheikh Tamim will hold talks with US President Joe Biden on Jan. 31 including on efforts to salvage the pact.

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Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
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Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters

A magnitude-6.1 earthquake rattled buildings on Vanuatu's main island early Sunday but did not appear to have caused major damage, five days after a more powerful quake wreaked havoc and killed 12 people.

The nation's most populous island, Efate, is still reeling from the deadly 7.3-magnitude temblor on Tuesday, which toppled concrete buildings and set off landslides in and around the capital of Port Vila.

The latest quake occurred at a depth of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and was located some 30 kilometers west of the capital, which has been shaken by a string of aftershocks.

No tsunami alerts were triggered when the temblor struck at 2:30 am Sunday (1530 GMT Saturday).

Port Vila businessman Michael Thompson told AFP the quake woke his family.

"It gave a better bit of a shake and the windows rattled a little bit, it would have caused houses to rattle," he said.

"But you know, no movement other than a few inches either way, really. Whereas the main quake, you would have had like a meter and a half movement of the property very, very rapidly and suddenly.

"I'd describe this one as one of the bigger aftershocks, and we've had a fair few of them now."

Thompson said there was no sign of further damage in his immediate vicinity.

The death toll remained at 12, according to government figures relayed late Saturday by the United Nations' humanitarian affairs office.

It said 210 injuries had been registered while 1,698 people have been temporarily displaced, citing Vanuatu disaster management officials.

Mobile networks remained knocked out, making outside contact with Vanuatu difficult and complicating aid efforts.

In addition to disrupting communications, the first quake damaged water supplies and halted operations at the capital's main shipping port.

The South Pacific nation declared a seven-day state of emergency and a night curfew following the first quake.

It announced Saturday it would lift a suspension on commercial flights in an effort to restart its vital tourism industry.

The first were scheduled to arrive on Sunday.

Rescuers Friday said they had expanded their search for trapped survivors to "numerous places of collapse" beyond the capital.

- Still searching -

Australia and New Zealand this week dispatched more than 100 personnel, along with rescue gear, dogs and aid supplies, to help hunt for trapped survivors and make emergency repairs.

There were "several major collapse sites where buildings are fully pancaked", Australia's rescue team leader Douglas May said in a video update on Friday.

"We're now starting to spread out to see whether there's further people trapped and further damage. And we've found numerous places of collapse east and west out of the city."

Thompson said power had been restored to his home on Saturday but said many others were still waiting.

"We're hearing a lot of the major businesses are still down, supermarkets are trying to open back up," he said.

"So this is very different to what's happened with disasters here in the past.

"Cyclones destroy everything outside, whereas earthquakes really destroy a lot of infrastructure inside the buildings."

Vanuatu, an archipelago of some 320,000 inhabitants, sits in the Pacific's quake-prone Ring of Fire.

Tourism accounts for about a third of the country's economy, according to the Australia-Pacific Islands Business Council.