A Russian warship arrived off South Africa’s main naval base Friday to join Chinese and Iranian vessels in military exercises that risk further damaging Pretoria’s relations with Washington.The exercises draw together several nations feuding with the US administration and come at a time of heightened tensions following Washington’s raid on Venezuela.A Chinese destroyer and replenishment ship, and an Iranian forward base ship sailed into South African waters earlier this week ahead of the week-long manoeuvres due to kick off with an opening ceremony Saturday.AFP journalists near the Simon’s Town base saw the Russian-flagged corvette vessel pull into False Bay. China is the lead nation in the “Will for Peace 2026” drill involving navies from the 11-nation BRICS group of emerging nations which US President Donald Trump has labelled “anti-American”.The South African navy said it would confirm details of the vessels present later Friday.The United Arab Emirates was also expected to send ships, Deputy Defence Minister Bantu Holomisa told Newzroom Afrika television late Thursday.Other BRICS nations Indonesia, Ethiopia and Brazil will send observers, he said. The remaining members of the grouping are India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The drills will allow the navies “to exchange best practices and improve joint operational capabilities, which contributes to the safety of shipping routes and overall regional maritime stability,” South Africa’s defence force said.- Global tensions -Washington this week seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker it said was part of a shadow fleet that carried oil for countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran. It has also threatened action against Iran should protesters be killed in mounting demonstrations sparked by anger over the rising cost of living.Asked about the timing of the navy exercises, Holomisa said: “This exercise was planned long before these tensions we are witnessing today.” “Let us not press panic buttons because the USA has got a problem with countries,” he said. “Those are not our enemies,” he said. The joint drills were initially scheduled for November 2025 but were postponed due to a clash with the G20 summit in Johannesburg.Washington boycotted the summit amid a row with Pretoria that includes anger over its ties with Russia and Iran.”Washington has clearly been attempting to put Pretoria in its bad book since the beginning of the current Trump administration,” Priyal Singh, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, told AFP.”The optics surrounding the upcoming naval exercise will likely be used by policymakers in Washington as another prime example of why its bilateral relations with South Africa should be reviewed,” he said.

Tear gas burning his eyes, his voice hoarse from shouting anti-government slogans as cars honked around him, Majid joined crowds of Iranians taking to the streets in defiance of a crackdown on a swelling protest movement. He used a pseudonym for security reasons and like all those who spoke about the protests was reached by AFP journalists outside Iran.Majid described how he rallied with hundreds of others in the streets of eastern Mashhad on Wednesday night, even as police tried to disperse the crowd that nonetheless kept reforming. “Police are targeting people with pellets, tear gas and shotguns,” Majid said.”At first, people dispersed, but they gathered again,” rallying in the streets until the early hours of the morning. “We know that if we go out there, we might not survive, but we are going and we will go out there to have a better future,” he said. The demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over the rising cost of living and a currency nosedive have spread nationwide, their numbers — and death toll — growing.Protesters filled the streets of the capital Tehran and other cities on Thursday night, despite a crackdown leaving dozens killed by security, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights. Local media and official statements have reported at least 21 people, including security forces, killed since the unrest began, according to an AFP tally.Violent crackdowns accompanied the last mass protests to sweep Iran in 2022-2023 sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women. – ‘Last fight’ -Majid, a mobile shopkeeper in his thirties, said this time felt different.”During these protests, even those people or those classes that had never felt the pressure before are now under pressure,” he said.”You can see 50-year-old women, I saw someone who used to collect garbage on the streets chanting slogans along with shopkeepers. Young, old, men, women, all are in the streets.” This wave of protests has hit as the clerical authorities under the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel.”This is going to be the last fight against the government,” Majid said, though he’s uncertain of what would take the Islamic republic’s place. “Right now, we just want to get rid of this bloody government because no matter who comes to rule, it won’t be as bloody as them.”Another shop owner in Kermanshah in western Iran, which has seen intense protest activity, shuttered his store as part of a strike called in protest on Thursday.The 43-year-old said he had taken part in every protest since 2009, when mass demonstrations flooded the streets after disputed elections. But this one felt different from previous movements, because “people’s economic situation is heading towards complete collapse and life is no longer as it once was”.”No matter how hard we work, we cannot keep up with the inflation for which the regime is responsible,” he told AFP via messaging app, saying protesters wanted “radical change in Iran”. “Although I have a relatively good job, our lives have been severely affected this year by these economic conditions. We want a free and democratic Iran, and a free Kurdistan.” Another merchant in Saqqez in Kurdistan province said he expected “more intense and widespread waves of protests in the coming days in Kurdish cities”, echoing other Iranians.- ‘We stay alive’ -One Tehran resident said she and neighbours had been shouting slogans from their windows at night — something she did for months during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022. But, she said, now the “level of dissatisfaction is higher than ever”. And while President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for “restraint” and announced measures to try to address grievances, “the issue for us is the end of the regime, and nothing else is satisfactory”, she said. “Living and continuing our daily lives has been one of our major struggles for the past 47 years after revolution” that brought the Islamic republic to power, she said. “But we stay alive and fight until (we) get freedom.” Another Tehran resident, a mother of two, sent a message to a relative abroad saying she was safe but warning her connection was becoming unreliable, not long before the internet went dark across the country ahead of protests on Thursday night.She said it was becoming difficult to get groceries after days of demonstrations as stores restricted opening hours and that bigger protests were looming.  “Hoping for better days for all of us,” she said.burs-sw/sjw/ser

Kurdish fighters rejected a call to leave Syria’s Aleppo on Friday after the government announced a truce in deadly fighting that forced thousands of civilians to flee.Since Tuesday, government forces had been fighting the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo, the country’s second city.The violence killed 21 people and was the latest challenge for a country still struggling to forge a new path after Islamist authorities ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad just over a year ago.It also forced around 30,000 families to flee their homes, according to the UN.Both sides traded blame over who started the fighting, which came as they struggled to implement a deal to merge the Kurds’ administration and military into the country’s new government.On Friday, the defence ministry announced a ceasefire in the fighting with the SDF, which controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the defeat of the Islamic State group in 2019.”To prevent any slide towards a new military escalation within residential neighbourhoods, the Ministry of Defence announces … a ceasefire in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zeid neighbourhoods of Aleppo, effective from 3:00 am,” the ministry wrote in a statement. Kurdish fighters were given until 9:00 am Friday (0600 GMT) to leave the three neighbourhoods, while the Aleppo governorate said the fighters would be sent, along with their light weapons, to Kurdish areas further east.Hours later, the local councils of Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh said the Kurdish fighters would not leave.”We have decided to remain in our districts and defend them,” the statement said, rejecting any “surrender”.An AFP photographer located on the edge of Ashrafiyeh saw members of the security forces enter the area, as well as vehicles that appeared to be preparing to evacuate Kurdish fighters.The United States welcomed the ceasefire in a post on X by its envoy Tom Barrack.He said Washington hoped for “a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue” and was “working intensively to extend this ceasefire and spirit of understanding”.- ‘Children were terrified’ -An AFP correspondent reported fierce fighting across Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts into Thursday night. On Friday morning, the truce appeared to be holding.Syria’s military had instructed civilians in those neighbourhoods to leave through humanitarian corridors ahead of launching the operation.State television reported that around 16,000 people had fled on Thursday alone.”We’ve gone through very difficult times… my children were terrified,” said Rana Issa, 43, whose family left Ashrafiyeh on Thursday.”Many people want to leave”, but are afraid of the snipers, she told AFP.Mazloum Abdi, who leads the SDF, said attacks on Kurdish areas “undermine the chances of reaching understandings”, days after he visited Damascus for talks on the March integration deal.The agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, have stymied progress.Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International research centre, told AFP that “Aleppo is the SDF’s most vulnerable area”.”Both sides are still trying to put pressure on each other and rally international support,” he said.He warned that if the hostilities spiral, “a full Damascus-SDF conflict across northern Syria, potentially with Turkish and Israeli involvement, could be devastating for Syria’s stability”.Israel and Turkey have been vying for influence in Syria since Assad was toppled in December 2024.In Qamishli in the Kurdish-held northeast, hundreds of people have protested the Aleppo violence. “We call on the international community to intervene,” said protester Salaheddin Sheikhmous, 61, while others held banners reading “no to war” and “no to ethnic cleansing”.burs-ser/yad