عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Australian-Iranian Population Expert Arrested in Iran

Iranian riot police are seen on a street of Tehran in June 2009 (AFP Photo/STR)
Iranian riot police are seen on a street of Tehran in June 2009 (AFP Photo/STR)
TT
TT

Australian-Iranian Population Expert Arrested in Iran

Iranian riot police are seen on a street of Tehran in June 2009 (AFP Photo/STR)
Iranian riot police are seen on a street of Tehran in June 2009 (AFP Photo/STR)

Iran has detained an Australian-based academic on charges of trying to “infiltrate” Iranian institutions, according to state media.

State news agency IRNA identified the detainee as population expert Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi who was held as she was leaving Iran.

Hosseini-Chavoshi is affiliated with the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.

Population control became a sensitive issue in Iran when the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a decree in 2014 calling for a population increase after decades of state-promoted birth control.

In October, Khamenei called for greater efforts to combat enemy “infiltration” as tensions escalated with the United States after Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, according to Reuters.

Commenting on reports of detention of several experts advocating population curbs, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told reporters that authorities have arrested one person in this regard and are seeking three or four other people.

The judiciary’s news website Mizan quoted Ejei as saying “Everyone knows that the enemy is trying to infiltrate state bodies... and affect decision-making."

He added that foreign intelligence agencies stand behind many academic institutions, but some individuals who work there are not aware of that.

Last week, IRNA said there were reports that authorities had detained an Australian-based population expert on charges of trying to “infiltrate” state bodies in Iran.

IRNA quoted an attorney who named the detained woman as Hosseini-Chavoshi, and said that she did not have legal representation yet.

The agency quoted Kayhan as saying Hosseini-Chavoshi was detained by security forces in a drive against “enemy infiltration elements” as she was leaving Iran.

In 2017, Reuters reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had arrested at least 30 dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges. Among those held was British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Iran does not recognize dual nationality and does not routinely announce arrests or charges of dual nationals, whose rights to consular assistance are enshrined in the UN Vienna Convention.

In other news, police arrested 10 people Sunday in connection with the suicide attack in southeastern Iran that killed two police officers.

Separatist group “Ansar al-Furqan” has claimed responsibility for Thursday's assault in which an explosives-laden car was driven into a police station in Chabahar.

Authorities rejected this claim of responsibility for the attack, which also injured around 40 people.

Police chief Hossein Ashtari said 10 people had been arrested without giving any further details.

The group released a photo of the alleged suicide bomber on Saturday, identified as Bassim Abdullah Aziz, according to the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors militant activities.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

UN Aid Chief Vows 'Ruthlessness' to Prioritize Spending, Seeks $47 Billion

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
TT
TT

UN Aid Chief Vows 'Ruthlessness' to Prioritize Spending, Seeks $47 Billion

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, talks to the media about the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 and the UN annual humanitarian appeal, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

The new head of the UN humanitarian aid agency says it will be “ruthless” when prioritizing how to spend money, a nod to challenges in fundraising for civilians in war zones like Gaza, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.

Tom Fletcher, a longtime British diplomat who took up the UN post last month, said his agency is asking for less money in 2025 than this year. He said it wants to show "we will focus and target the resources we have,” even as crises grow more numerous, intense and long-lasting.

His agency, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on Wednesday issued its global appeal for 2025, seeking $47 billion to help 190 million people in 32 countries — though it estimates 305 million worldwide need help.
“The world is on fire, and this is how we put it out,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The office and many other aid groups, including the international Red Cross, have seen donations shrink in recent years for longtime trouble spots like Syria, South Sudan, the Middle East and Congo and newer ones like Ukraine and Sudan. Aid access has been difficult in some places, especially Sudan and Gaza.
The office's appeal for $50 billion for this year was only 43% fulfilled as of last month. One consequence of that shortfall was a 80% reduction in food aid for Syria, which has seen a sudden escalation in fighting in recent days, The Associated Press reported.
Such funds go to UN agencies and more than 1,500 partner organizations.
The biggest asks for 2025 are for Syria — a total of $8.7 billion for needs both within the country and for neighbors that have taken in Syrian refugees — as well as Sudan at a total of $6 billion, the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” at $4 billion, Ukraine at about $3.3 billion and Congo at nearly $3.2 billion.
Fletcher said his office needs to be “ruthless” in choosing to reach people most in need.
“I choose that word carefully, because it's a judgement call — that ruthlessness — about prioritizing where the funding goes and where we can have the greatest impact," he said. “It's a recognition that we have struggled in previous years to raise the money we need.”
In response to questions about how much President-elect Donald Trump of the United States — the UN's biggest single donor — will spend on humanitarian aid, Fletcher said he expects to spend “a lot of time” in Washington over the next few months to talk with the new administration.
“America is very much on our minds at the moment," he said, acknowledging some governments “will be more questioning of what the United Nations does and less ideologically supportive of this humanitarian effort” laid out in the new report.
This year has been the deadliest on record for humanitarians and UN staff, largely due to the Middle East conflict triggered by Palestinian militants' deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel.