Iran proposes a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in 7 days if the US meets its conditions

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By CARA ANNA, FARNOUSH AMIRI and AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press | Posted by TOE Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi detailed the proposal to reporters outside the U.N. Security Council on Friday, saying it would also restart stalled talks with the U.S. on Iran’s nuclear program. “The seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan,” he said. Araghchi said initial steps would take about four to five days to complete, and the strait would be open on the sixth day. “And on day seven, the talks with the U.S. will be started for the final deal on mutually agreed subjects,” he said, referring to the nuclear program. Iran’s disruption of the strait — through which a fifth of the world’s...
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Cyclone Gezani kills dozens, displaces thousands in Madagascar

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The death toll from Cyclone Gezani rose to 40 on Friday, three days after its passage across Madagascar, as officials struggled to restore widespread cuts to power and water supplies.

In its latest update Friday, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNRGC) said 40 people had been killed and 427 people injured, as one aid worker spoke of “apocalyptic” scenes on the Indian Ocean island.

Six people were still missing and the cyclone had affected 273,417 people — or 74,393 households, the BNRGC added.

After visiting the island’s second-largest city of Toamasina, which bore the brunt of Gezani’s 250-kilometre-per-hour (155-mile-per-hour) winds, the World Food Programme’s Madagascar director Tania Goosens told journalists that “the scale of destruction is overwhelming”.

“The authorities have reported that 80 percent of the city has been damaged,” she added.

“The city is running on roughly five percent of electricity and there is no water,” she said, adding that the WFP’s office and one warehouse “were also completely destroyed”.

AFP photos showed the scale of the destruction, with trees and sheets of metal scattered across the streets, hampering recovery efforts.

“A lot of zones are still inaccessible to rescue workers,” one aid worker told AFP. “Bridges are down, roads are destroyed. It’s really terrible.”

The situation was even worse beyond Toamasina, he added. “In the outlying towns, in rural areas, it’s apocalyptic.”

China has offered 100 million yuan (about $14.5 million) in aid, Madagascar’s presidency announced.

On Thursday, France said it was sending food and rescue teams from the French island of La Reunion after Madagascar’s new leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, called for “international solidarity”.

Fears that the full force of Cyclone Gezani would be unleashed on southern Mozambique — already hit by devastating floods this year — faded after meteorologists at the CMRS on the French island of La Reunion downplayed that prospect.

It would instead brush the coast of Mozambique to the west, they said, bringing heavy rainfall and strong winds to the Mozambican coastal city of Inhambane and the tourist resort of Tofo.

Officials in Inhambane called on those of the city’s 100,000 residents living in makeshift housing to evacuate to a safer place.

SOURCE: AFP AND AGENCIES



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/an9Iyg1

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