TEHRAN: Iran’s ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi plans to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly next month despite US sanctions against him, the government’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

“The preliminary planning has been done for the president’s attendance at the UN General Assembly session,” Ali Bahadori-Jahromi told a weekly press briefing.

GENEVA: UN experts on Tuesday condemned Israel’s “harassment” of human rights defenders and humanitarian workers in the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta villages, where Israel has a military zone.
The special rapporteurs insisted such harassment must stop, and said residents continue to be threatened by the risk of forcible transfer, including mass forced evictions and arbitrary displacement.

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Monday confirmed that a US drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, declaring “justice has been delivered.”
“This terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in an evening speech from the White House.
Biden said US intelligence officials tracked Al-Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out on Sunday.

RAMALLAH, A Palestinian was shot dead Monday by the Israeli army in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
He was declared dead on arrival at Jenin government hospital after being “shot by the Israeli occupation forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
Local sources named him as Dhirar Riyad Al-Kafrini.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported he had been killed during clashes with the army and undercover forces in Jenin refuge camp.
Israeli police said they had been operating in Jenin, but did not provide details.

ARWAD ISLAND, Syria: Khaled Bahlawan hammers nails into a traditional wooden boat he built by hand, toiling under the scorching sun on Syria’s Mediterranean coast to preserve a disappearing ancient skill.

“We are the last family that makes wooden ships and boats in Syria,” said the 39-year-old on the shores of Arwad Island, near the city of Tartus. “This is the legacy of our ancestors … We are fighting to preserve it every day.”

Located about 3km off the coast, Arwad is Syria’s only inhabited island and a haven of peace in a country torn by 11 years of war.