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Cyprus Busts Refugee Trafficking Ring as More Arrive from Middle East 

File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS
File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS
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Cyprus Busts Refugee Trafficking Ring as More Arrive from Middle East 

File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS
File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS

Police in Cyprus on Monday arrested ten individuals suspected of running a crime gang trafficking migrants, as the island saw a fresh spike in arrivals over the weekend.

Cyprus, which lies at the crossroads of three continents, has seen irregular migration rise since 2017. Cypriot officials have in recent days repeatedly expressed concern that the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Middle East could lead to a surge in people fleeing the area.

Some 264 Syrians arrived over the weekend after setting off from the Lebanese coast, an interior ministry spokesperson said.

Police said the trafficking suspects were arrested at various locations in the western Paphos district on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a crime, being members of a criminal organization, trafficking and money laundering.

A large amount of cash was found in the possession of one suspect, police said.

Arrivals this year are still considerably lower than a record-breaking 21,565 asylum applications made for the whole of 2022, according to figures from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Until the end of August, Cyprus had received 7,369 asylum applications from new arrivals.

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Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
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Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi announced he intends to visit Tehran through a letter he addressed to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian Mehr Agency reported that Grossi sent a congratulatory message to the Iranian president-elect, which stated: “I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on your election win as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“Cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at the focal attention of the international circles for many years. I am confident that, together, we will be able to make decisive progress on this crucial matter.”

“To that effect, I wish to express my readiness to travel to Iran to meet with you at the earliest convenience,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Grossi as saying.

The meeting – should it take place - will be the first for Pezeshkian, who had pledged during his election campaign to be open to the West to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue.

Last week, American and Israeli officials told the Axios news site that Washington sent a secret warning to Tehran last month regarding its fears of Iranian research and development activities that might be used to produce nuclear weapons.

In May, Grossi expressed his dissatisfaction with the course of the talks he held over two days in Iran in an effort to resolve outstanding matters.

Since the death of the former Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi, the IAEA chief refrained from raising the Iranian nuclear file, while European sources said that Tehran had asked to “freeze discussions” until the internal situation was arranged and a new president was elected.