Iran yet to receive $7.8 billion for crude oil sales in recent months

Haaretz

The United Arab Emirates has ordered some Lebanese to leave the country in the latest wave of deportations from the oil-rich state, Lebanon's Foreign Ministry and a former deportee said Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil called his Emirati counterpart to ask about the issue.

"The Lebanese in the Emirates fully merge into the Emirati society and abide by its laws. They are a good factor in this dear country," the statement said.

Hundreds of Lebanese, mostly Shi'ite Muslims, have been quietly deported from the UAE since 2009. Deportations of Shi'ites from oil-rich Gulf states rose in 2013 after the Shi'ite militant Hezbollah group joined Syrian government forces in Syria's civil war.

Shi'ite-Sunni tensions have been on the rise in the Middle East with increasing sectarian violence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Gulf states are also worried about the rise of Shi'ite Iran's influence throughout the Arab world.

Hassan Alayan, a former deportee and now head of a committee helping Lebanese deported from the UAE, told The Associated Press that 70 people, mostly Shi'ites, are to be deported.

Alayan called on the Lebanese government to defend its citizens in the UAE. He added that "it is a mistake for a state in the 21st century to adopt a policy of revenge on a sectarian or political basis. This is dangerous and unacceptable."

Deported Lebanese have said in the past that they were ordered to leave the UAE for "security reasons." Some deported Lebanese have said that the UAE's Sunni rulers associate members of the sect with Hezbollah. (AP)

6:07 P.M. U.S. to send $70 million in non-lethal aid to Syrian opposition

The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was working with Congress to provide about $70 million in new non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, bringing the total U.S. support to nearly $400 million.

Funds would go toward basic community services, supporting "vetted units of the armed opposition," digital security training, and documentation of war crimes and other violations by the Syrian regime, the State Department said in a statement. (Reuters)

4:53 P.M. Syrian Kurds call for airstrikes on ISIS in northeast Syria

A spokesman for Syria's main Kurdish force has called on the U.S.-led coalition to attack Islamic State group positions in northeastern Syria where the jihadis are on the offensive.

The call by Redor Khalil came as activists said dozens of Kurdish and IS fighters were killed this week in clashes near the Syrian village of Tal Tamr.

Khalil, a spokesman for the People's Protection Units, or YPG, also called in his statement for young men in the area to join the battle against IS.

Weeks of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition recently helped tip the balance against IS fighters in their attack on the northern Syrian town of Kobani.

Since then YPG fighters have regained full control of Kobani as well as dozens of surrounding villages.(AP)

4:38 P.M. Iran yet to receive $7.8 billion for crude oil sales in recent months

Iran has yet to receive $7.8 billion for crude oil sales made in recent months, government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht was quoted as saying, as Western sanctions keep Tehran shut out of the global banking system.

Iran's state-run Press TV said Nobakht gave no reason for payment delays, but reported that Tehran's oil customers were mainly China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey and that "U.S. and European sanctions are preventing international banks from transferring money to the Islamic Republic."

Sanctions imposed by the West over Iran's nuclear program have made it hard to obtain the U.S. dollars Tehran needs for international transactions.

Iran says the sanctions are illegal and has vowed to sidestep them.

Tehran is in talks with world powers about its nuclear program, seeking a deal to lift the sanctions that have halved its oil exports and hammered its economy.

Nobakht said oil revenue in the past 12 months had totaled $52.8 billion, Press TV reported. (Reuters)

10:35 A.M. Indonesia says 32 held or missing in Turkey, suspected trying to join ISIS

Indonesian officials confirmed on Friday that up to 32 Indonesians had been detained in Turkey or gone missing after being suspected of trying to cross into Syria to join Islamic State militants.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters a group of 16 Indonesians, most of them women and children, had been arrested by Turkish authorities this week.

"We have obtained information that they were indeed trying to cross into Syria," she said, adding that Indonesia would send a team to help a Turkish investigation.

Marsudi said 16 other Indonesian citizens who went missing from a tour group last week had yet to be located, adding that Turkish authorities had yet to confirm if they were still in Turkey or had crossed into Syria.

National police chief Badrodin Haiti said on Thursday the groups were suspected of trying to join Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The government has raised concern in recent months over Indonesians travelling to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. Officials say between 200 and 300 Indonesians have left the country but some security experts believe the figure is higher. (Reuters)