Qatar minister in Iran as Doha moves to mediate nuke issue
QATARI Minister of Foreign Affairs met his Iranian counterpart on February 15, after Doha signalled its intention to mediate between Tehran and Washington over a landmark nuclear deal, an AFP journalist said.
The meeting comes as the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for international sanctions relief is hanging by a thread.
Doha, a close US ally, also has good relations with Tehran.
Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met in Tehran with Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Iran’s presidency said the minister also met with President
Hassan Rouhani, to whom he delivered a message from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, with Iran a year later gradually suspending its compliance with most key nuclear commitments in response.
The new administration of President Joe Biden has expressed willingness to return to the deal, but insisted that Iran first resume full compliance, while Tehran has called for the immediate lifting of sanctions.
Iran has said it will restrict nuclear inspections later this month if US sanctions are not lifted, or other key parties to the deal do not help Tehran bypass them, according to a law passed by the conservative-dominated parliament in December.
On February 15, Iran’s ambassador to the Viennabased International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kazem Gharibabadi, wrote on Twitter that the law “will be executed on time”, giving February 23 as the date.
“The IAEA has been informed today to ensure the smooth transition to a new course in due time,” he added.
Contacted by AFP for comment, a spokesman for the IAEA said the agency’s “Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will be reporting to the Board [of Governors], and he is also talking to the Iranian authorities”.
THE chief of the Royal Thai Police, Police General Suwat Jangyodsvisit, on February 14 visited Police Hospital to boost the morale of injured police officers following violence during a pro-democracy protest in front of the City Pillar Shrine on February 13.
A total of 23 police officers were wounded and hospitalised, of whom four were discharged from the hospital. Some had chemical injuries on their faces or bruises after being struck by a hard object. Officers were spared serious injuries due to their protective equipment.
He said the protesters must not cause violence like on February 13 and that if the rally was ended as promised, there would be no further disturbances, and the police do not have to take control of the situation.
Reacting to widely shared pictures on social media showing a medical volunteer being beaten up by police, he insisted that “such a person was a contributor to the chaos.
“The officer then had to arrest the culprit. If anyone thinks that the official has behaved inappropriately, they can make a complaint”, Suwat added.
He said “police will adjust
their strategy to deal with protests the next time.
“If anyone commits an offence, they would be prosecuted”, he warned.
He reiterated that police had
never started the violence and urged the protesters to understand and talk first so that no chaos occurs, and the situation could be controlled.
PET dogs are far more likely to play with one another when their owner is present and being attentive, according to a new study, raising the intriguing possibility that they are putting on a show for our benefit.
That our canine companions are keenly attuned to the level of interest humans are showing them is well established, Lindsay Mehrkam, an animal behaviorist and lead author of the paper that appeared in Animal Cognition, said on February 16.
“But we weren’t aware of any research that has really shown the effect of a human audience impacting species typical behavior, in this case dog-dog play.”
Mehrkam, an assistant professor of psychology at Monmouth University, oversaw an experiment involving 10 pairs of pet dogs that had lived together for at least six months.
The duos ordinarily engaged in play at least once a day, according to their owners.
The researchers videotaped the dog pairs under three conditions: where the owner was absent, where the owner was present but ignoring them, and where the owner was present and showering them with attention in the form of verbal praise and petting.
To ensure the experiment was robust, they ran each of the conditions three times over the course of several days.
“We found overall that the availability of owner attention did in fact facilitate play,” said Mehrkam, with human attention increasing both the frequency and intensity of behaviors like bowing, hip nudges, wrestling, chasing, gentle bites and so on.
“It’s really quite striking that dogs who have the chance to play with each other whenever they want to, nonetheless are much more likely to get up off their butts and start playing when a person is just paying attention to them,” said co-author Clive Wynne of Arizona State University.
Seeking attention like children?
The researchers offered several ideas for what might be driving the effect.
One possibility is that an owner’s attention might be a reward the dogs are seeking, like young children pleading with their parents to watch them as they show off what they can do.
The dogs might have also learned that playing among themselves leads to bigger prizes, such as the owner joining in the fun, or taking them outside.
Or, their owner might provide the dogs a sense of safety, because although animals use play to strengthen bonds, it can sometimes turn tense and lead to aggression. Having a person around is insurance against a fight.
Their human’s presence could also be a trigger that enriches the general environment, perhaps causing a rush of the love hormone oxytocin, which leads to a more positive emotional state that in turn manifests as play.
“It’s one of those types of studies that leads to a lot more questions than answers,” said Mehrkam, adding she was working on untangling the various threads in ongoing experiments.