Saudi Arabia hajj disaster death toll at least 2,121

Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply divided on a host of regional issues and back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been at war with Iran-backed Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, since March.

The crush and stampede that struck the hajj last month in Saudi Arabia killed at least 2,121 pilgrims, a new Associated Press tally showed Monday, after officials in the kingdom met to discuss the tragedy.

The toll keeps rising from the Sept. 24 disaster outside Mecca as individual countries identify bodies and work to determine the whereabouts of hundreds of pilgrims still missing. The official Saudi toll of 769 people killed and 934 injured has not changed since Sept. 26, and officials have yet to address the discrepancy.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdul Aziz, who is also the kingdom's interior minister, oversaw a meeting late Sunday about the disaster in Mina, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. The agency's report did not mention any official response to the rising death toll.

"The crown prince was reassured on the progress of the investigations," the SPA report said. "He directed the committee's members to continue their efforts to find the causes of the accident, praying to Allah Almighty to accept the martyrs and wishing the injured a speedy recovery."

King Salman ordered the investigation into the disaster, the deadliest in the history of the annual pilgrimage. It came after a crane collapse in Mecca earlier that month killed 111 worshippers, and the twin disasters marred the first hajj to be overseen by the king since he ascended to the throne at the start of this year.

The Saudi king holds the title of "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques," and the monarchy's supervision of the hajj is a source of great prestige in the Muslim world. Riyadh has rejected a suggestion by Shiite power Iran, its main regional rival, to have an independent body take over planning and administering the five-day hajj pilgrimage, which is required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their lifetimes.

Iran has repeatedly blamed the disaster on the Saudi royal family, accusing it of mismanagement and of covering up the real death toll, which Tehran says exceeds 4,700, without providing evidence.

"The lying and hypercritical bodies, which claim to (be promoting) human rights, as well as the Western governments, which sometimes make great fuss over the death of a single person, remained dead silent in this incident in favor of their allied government," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday, according to a transcript on his website.

"If they were sincere, these self-proclaimed advocates of human rights should have demanded accountability, compensation, guarantee for non-recurrence and punishment for the perpetrators of this catastrophe."

Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply divided on a host of regional issues and back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been at war with Iran-backed Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, since March.

Saudi Arabia has meanwhile been targeted in gun and bomb attacks by an affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group, which holds a third of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared "caliphate." Like al-Qaida before it, the IS group views the Saudi royal family as illegitimate because of alleged corruption and its alliance with the United States.

The count of the dead from the Mina crush and stampede comes from state media reports and officials' comments from 30 of the over 180 countries that sent citizens to the hajj.

Iran leads all the affected countries, saying it had 465 pilgrims killed. Many of the dead also came from Africa. Nigeria said it lost 199 people, while Mali lost 198, Cameroon lost 76, Niger lost 72, Senegal lost 61, and Ivory Coast and Benin both lost 52.

Others include Egypt with 182, Bangladesh with 137, Indonesia with 126, India with 116, Pakistan with 102, Ethiopia with 47, Chad with 43, Morocco with 36, Algeria with 33, Sudan with 30, Burkina Faso with 22, Tanzania with 20, Somalia with 10, Kenya with eight, Ghana and Turkey with seven, Myanmar and Libya with six, China with four, Afghanistan with two and Jordan and Malaysia with one.

The previous deadliest-ever incident at hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people

Egyptian experts divided over Renaissance Dam declaration of principles

Political analyst sees declaration as a step towards new relations with Ethiopia, but former water minister slams it for threatening Egypt's share of Nile water

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, center, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, left, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, right, hold hands after signing an agreement on sharing water from the Nile River, in Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, March 23, 2015

Egyptian experts are divided in their reactions to Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on Monday signing a declaration of principles over Ethiopia building the Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, the Nile's largest tributary.

Egypt has repeatedly raised fears that Ethiopia's $4.2-billion dam, whose construction is said to be 40 percent complete and to finish in 2017,  would negatively affect its Nile water share.

Amany El-Taweel, African affairs specialist at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, explained to Ahram Online on Tuesday that "the declaration does not grant anything to any party."

She believes the declaration is merely an "introductory" step that forges a political atmosphere suitable for future negotiations, echoing Youssef's sentiments that the declaration is a "true beginning" for cooperation between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

"It's a political agreement, a diplomatic move par excellence," El-Taweel said, explaining thats its aim was not to grant Egypt its rights, but to create harmonious relations.

Presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said on Monday that the Declaration of Principles protects Egypt's water rights and is consistent with international laws, Al-Ahram's Arabic news website reported.

Youssef said that Egyptian diplomacy has been working on enhancing its relationship with Africa, and that Egypt is "launching" a new stage with its African neighbours.

"The declaration came at a very important time to remove the tension that had marred Egyptian-Ethiopian relations due to differences over the issue of the Renaissance Dam," Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) on Monday said in a document it published to explain the declaration.

El-Taweel said the declaration has to be followed by an agreement.

Egypt's Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Hossam El-Din Moghazy said earlier this month that the document was a positive step that will be followed by others.

Starting on 3 March, the foreign and water ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia attended three days of closed negotiations in Khartoum.

The declaration was drafted in Egypt and submitted to the Egyptian presidency, which resulted in Monday's signature.

Supporter: 'a dam for electricity, not irrigation'

Meanwhile, Egypt's president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi sent the declaration to the Supreme Council for Nile Water who commented on it, according to Ambassador Mona Omar, former assistant to the foreign minister for African matters.

Omar explained that the declaration is a statement of intentions or a general framework, agreeing with El-Taweel.

But unlike El-Taweel, she thinks that the declaration "offers some sort of guarantees for Egypt," she told .

It guarantees that Ethiopia will use the dam to generate power, not for agriculture, which would require greater water flow from the Nile, she explained.

Ethiopia's 6,000 megawatt dam is set to be Africa's largest.

"The purpose of the Renaissance Dam is to generate power, contribute to economic development, promote cooperation beyond borders, and regional integration through generating clean sustainable energy that can be relied on," states Principle 2 on "development, regional integration and sustainability".

However, Mohamed Nasreldin Allam, former irrigation and water resources minister, said "economic development" refers to agriculture.

Omar says that the declaration guarantees fair water distribution, according to Principle 5 on "the dam's storage reservoir first filling, and dam operation policies".

"We are still waiting for the consultancy firm's report," however says Omar.

The consultancy firm to carry out water and environmental impact studies on the dam, in fulfillment of an agreement made between the three countries last year, has yet to be selected after a delay from an initial selection date of 9 March.

Moghazy said last Wednesday that one of two shortlisted firms would be chosen by the end of March.

Omar stressed that the declaration is not binding, but it sends a comforting message that the three leaders are willing to cooperate, understand each country's needs and seek to abide by international law.

Critic warns of reduced water share

But Mohamed Nasreldin Allam, former minister irrigation and water resources, does not agree.

On private television channel Rotana on Monday, he slammed the declaration, especially as, he said, it might annul former agreements on Egypt's Nile water share or violate international law.

"Most of what was in the Antebe agreement that we refused in 2010 is in this declaration," he said.

The declaration is harsher than the UN's 1979 agreement, Allam says, because it does not stipulate fair use of Nile water "in a way that does not contradict former agreements". The declaration, he means, does not include this last condition.

Former agreements also include the 1959 agreement, which defines the Nile share for each of the downstream countries and sets Egypt’s annual share of Nile river water at 55.5 billion cubic meters.

This may well be annulled by the the recent declaration, says Allam.

"The agreement has taken up [the 10] principles from the perspective of their relation to the Renaissance Dam and its possible effect on the two downstream countries," however stated the SIS document, "and not from the perspective of regulating the use of Nile water included in other current international agreements that are not violated."

But Allam sees the declaration as "an unsuccessful step at an inconvenient time".

The former minister of irrigation and water resources further referred to Principle 4 on "fair and appropriate use", which states that a country's Nile water share depends on "the extent of contribution from each of the Nile Basin countries into the Nile river system."

Allam explained that, since Egypt does not contribute to the Nile, as it only receives water, this means that its share of water would decrease according to the above mentioned criterion.

He also criticised Principle 10 on "the peaceful settlement of disputes", which states that any discord is to be solved between the three countries through negotiations.

"If the parties involved do not succeed in solving the dispute through talks or negotiations, they can ask for mediation or refer the matter to their heads of states or prime ministers," according to the principle.

Allam said that  the declaration thus prevents Egypt from referring the case to the International Court of Justice or the Security Council.

Allam admitted that the declaration is only a general framework, not an agreement, and mentioned the fact that the parliament would review the matter.

Egypt has been without a parliament since the House of Representatives elected in late 2011 was dissolved in June 2012, following a court ruling that judged the law regulating its election to be unconstitutional.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi holds legislative powers until an elected parliament convenes.

Once a parliament is elected, they will have to vote on all laws issued by El-Sisi and his predecessor, interim president Adly Mansour.

FIFA concerned over spate of forfeited matches in Africa

FIFA is concerned at the way a succession of African teams have broken rules on player eligibility in World Cup qualifiers and will address the problem, director of competitions Mustapha Fahmy said on Friday

Eight matches have been forfeited during the competition because one of the teams involved fielded a player who was ineligible either under nationality rules or through suspension.

In each case, a 3-0 walkover was awarded to the offending team's opponents which in several cases had a significant affect on the outcome of the respective group.

"We have noted with some concern what has happened with a number of teams falling foul to the rules of the competition, which are clearly spelt out," Fahmy told the Confederation of African Football (CAF) website.

"This only happened with one continent, Africa... others, like Europe, Asia or South America did not experience the same problems where disciplinary action had to be taken.

"We need to look into what happened and work on finding solutions and ways to assist (so we can avoid) similar occurrences in future," added Fahmy, a former CAF secretary general.

"We will come up with possible solutions and discuss them in our relevant courses with member associations. FIFA will aim to provide means and ways to help, so that we address something that obviously went wrong.

"We are always looking to improve and provide better organisation for all our competitions."

The most recent case cost Cape Verde a place in the final round of playoff matches which will determine Africa's five teams at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Cape Verde topped their group after winning 2-0 in Tunisia but were found to have fielded a player who should have been serving a four-match ban and were penalised with a 3-0 defeat. Tunisia, whose coach Nabil Maaloul resigned after the defeat, took their place and will face Cameroon over two legs with Dutchman Rudi Krol as their former coach.

Cape Verde had themselves been on the other end of a similar case when they lost 4-3 to Equatorial Guinea, only to be given a 3-0 win because their opponents fell foul of the rules.

FIFA concerned over spate of forfeited matches in Africa

FIFA is concerned at the way a succession of African teams have broken rules on player eligibility in World Cup qualifiers and will address the problem, director of competitions Mustapha Fahmy said on Friday

Eight matches have been forfeited during the competition because one of the teams involved fielded a player who was ineligible either under nationality rules or through suspension.

In each case, a 3-0 walkover was awarded to the offending team's opponents which in several cases had a significant affect on the outcome of the respective group.

"We have noted with some concern what has happened with a number of teams falling foul to the rules of the competition, which are clearly spelt out," Fahmy told the Confederation of African Football (CAF) website.

"This only happened with one continent, Africa... others, like Europe, Asia or South America did not experience the same problems where disciplinary action had to be taken.

"We need to look into what happened and work on finding solutions and ways to assist (so we can avoid) similar occurrences in future," added Fahmy, a former CAF secretary general.

"We will come up with possible solutions and discuss them in our relevant courses with member associations. FIFA will aim to provide means and ways to help, so that we address something that obviously went wrong.

"We are always looking to improve and provide better organisation for all our competitions."

The most recent case cost Cape Verde a place in the final round of playoff matches which will determine Africa's five teams at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Cape Verde topped their group after winning 2-0 in Tunisia but were found to have fielded a player who should have been serving a four-match ban and were penalised with a 3-0 defeat. Tunisia, whose coach Nabil Maaloul resigned after the defeat, took their place and will face Cameroon over two legs with Dutchman Rudi Krol as their former coach.

Cape Verde had themselves been on the other end of a similar case when they lost 4-3 to Equatorial Guinea, only to be given a 3-0 win because their opponents fell foul of the rules.