An 18-year-old Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport who says she is fleeing domestic abuse has taken to social media to appeal for help and prevent her deportation by Thai authorities.

Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun said she fled Kuwait while her family was visiting the Gulf country and had planned to travel on from Thailand to Australia to seek asylum. She said she was detained after leaving her plane in Bangkok and told she would be sent back to Kuwait.

Alqunun on Monday shared photos of herself on Twitter barricaded into the airport hotel room where she has been held since her arrival the previous day, as officials and police gathered outside the door to take her to a plane that would return her to Kuwait.

Alqunun appealed for the UN’s refugee agency to help her, and urged other passengers and travellers to take action.

“I’m not leaving my room until I see UNHCR,” she said in a video posted on Twitter. “I want asylum.”

Rights group Amnesty International released a statement on Monday saying the arbitrary confiscation of a passport “violates the right to freedom of movement”. The group also said that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has requested access to Rahaf, which the Thai authorities have yet to provide.

“The Thai authorities are bound by the general prohibition not to transfer persons to any place where they would face a real risk of serious human rights abuses. Rahaf is entitled to fair and effective safeguards against any deportation and to international protection,” Samah Hadid, Amnesty’s Middle East director of campaigns, said in the statement.

Alqunun was detained after she got off her flight in Bangkok, and was scheduled to be sent back on Kuwait Airways flight 412 leaving the Thai capital at 11:15am local time (04:15 GMT) on Monday.

She said she had originally planned to spend a few days in Thailand, a popular destination for medical treatment, so her actions would not create suspicion when she left Kuwait.

“When I landed at the airport, someone came and said he would process the [Thai] visa but he took my passport. He came back with what seemed to be airport security and said that my parents objected and said I must return to Saudi Arabia via Kuwait Airways,” she told the Reuters news agency.

Her claim that her passport had been seized was backed by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Alqunun told the AFP news agency on Sunday that her male guardian had reported her for travelling “without his permission”.

‘Losing hope’

She said she was trying to flee her family, who she accused of subjecting her to physical and psychological abuse.

Alqunun said she was certain she would be jailed if she were sent back.

“My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair,” she said.

“I’m sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail,” she said, adding that she was “scared” and “losing hope”.

The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if they fear their life is under threat.

“The UN Refugee Agency has been following developments closely and has been trying to seek access from the Thai authorities to meet with Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, to assess her need for international protection,” it said in a statement. 

Georg Schmidt, the German ambassador to Thailand, wrote on Twitter that he had “great concern” for Alqunun and was in touch with the Thai authorities and the embassies of other countries about her situation.

Surachate Hakparn, Thailand’s immigration chief, confirmed to AFP that Rahaf had been detained.

“She had no further documents such as return ticket or money,” he said, insisting her case was a “family” matter. 

“She ran away from her family to avoid marriage and she is concerned she may be in trouble returning to Saudi Arabia. We sent officials to take care of her now,” he said.

Thailand insisted on Monday that Alqunun would be deported despite her desperate appeals.

‘Halt any deportation’

Phil Robertson, HRW Asia deputy director, criticised the actions of the Thai authorities.

“What country allows diplomats to wander around the closed section of the airport and seize the passports of the passengers?” he said, adding that there is “impunity” within the family unit in Saudi Arabia to abuse women.

“Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty and other serious harm if returned against their will,” Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW, also said in a statement. “Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee.”

Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family.

An airline security official told activists that Lasloom was heard “screaming and begging for help” as men carried her “with duct tape on her mouth, feet and hands” at the airport.

There was no immediate comment by the Saudi embassy in Thailand and officials in Riyadh.

US network CBS has broadcast an interview with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi despite a request by the Egyptian government not to air the programme.

During the station’s “60 Minutes” investigative news show, el-Sisi told host Scott Pelly that his country was engaged in military co-operation with Israel in Sinai and denied the detention of political prisoners in Egypt.

Before the airing of the interview on Sunday, CBS had said the information given by el-Sisi was “not the kind of news his government wanted broadcast”.

“The 60 Minutes team was contacted by the Egyptian ambassador shortly after and told the interview could not be aired,” the network said, without specify which part of the president’s comments Cairo objected to.

Under Sisi, Egypt has quietly cooperated with Israel on security in Egypt’s Sinai, a desert peninsula demilitarised as part of a US-sponsored 1979 peace treaty between the two countries but where Cairo’s forces now operate freely.

Acknowledging such cooperation with Israel can be a sensitive and potentially damaging topic in Egypt.

Asked whether the cooperation was the closest and deepest that he has had with Israel, Sisi responded: “That is correct. The Air Force sometimes needs to cross to the Israeli side. And that’s why we have a wide range of coordination with the Israelis.”

Egypt’s military last year denied media reports that it was cooperating with Israel against fighters in northern Sinai, now led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Asked why he had not managed to wipe “the estimated 1,000 terrorists” out after receiving $1bn in annual US military aid, el-Sisi responded by pointing to the challenges that Washington has faced in Afghanistan against the Taliban.

“Why hasn’t the US eliminated the terrorists in Afghanistan after 17 years and spending a trillion dollars?” he asked.

Rabaa killings

El-Sisi was also asked about the massacre of more than 800 Muslim Bortherhood supporters in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in 2013 when he was defence minister, and whether he gave that order?

“Allow me to ask you a question,” el-Sisi told Pelly who had asked him whether he had given the order. “Are you closely following the situation in Egypt? From where do you get your information? There were thousands of armed people in the sit-in for more than 40 days. We tried every peaceful means to disperse them,” el-Sisi said.

Pelly then asked whether the response by security forces was “necessary” to the peace and stability of Egypt, citing a Human Rights Watch report on Rabaa which said that “using armored personnel carriers, bulldozers, ground forces and snipers, police and army personnel attacked the protest encampment with hundreds killed by bullets to their heads, necks and chests”.

In response, el-Sisi denied that the HRW was a “sound statement”.

“There were police personnel and they were trying to open peaceful corridors for the people to go safely to their homes.

El-Sisi also dismissed reports from international rights organisations estimating that Egypt has imprisoned as many as 60,000 political activists

“I don’t know where they got that figure. I said there are no political prisoners in Egypt,” el-Sisi said, his face shiny with sweat. “Whenever there is a minority trying to impose their extremist ideology … we have to intervene regardless of their numbers.”

Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein was arrested in December 2016 as he returned home to visit his family. Hussein has been held in an Egyptian prison without charge for 745 days.

The detentions are part of a large crackdown on dissent that includes tight control of the media, placing draconian restrictions on rights groups and reversing most of the freedoms gained by a 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

‘Uncomfortable, sweating’

Khaled Elgindy, non-resident fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said that “the optics were not good” for el-Sisi during his 60 Minutes interview.

“He came across as uncomfortable, sweating and also, of course, his responses – just completely denying everything that has been documented … by so many human rights groups both in Egypt and outside Egypt,” Elgindy told Al Jazeera.

“There was no nuance at all to his responses, they were simply very absolute and sweeping, ‘there are absolutely no political prisoners’, which is simply not believable.”

Elgindy said it was “striking” that el-Sisi – who is not known for giving many TV interviews – had agreed to speak to 60 Minutes and “surprising” how Egyptian officials went and asked CBS not to air the programme.

Commenting on the Egyptian president’s decision to appear in the show, Elgindy said that el-Sisi “to a certain extent … feels a little bit more emboldened” with Donald Trump at the White House.

“He probably felt that having a friendly administration in power in Washington was a good opportunity to try and reach out to at least President Trump’s base – that may be part of his thinking that he can win over some segment of the American public that would support him and his narrative as well as that of President Trump, but I don’t think it will go over well with the American public at large,” Elgindy said.

El-Sisi won a second, four-year term in office last year after running virtually unopposed.

Delegates from China and the United States are set to hold face-to-face negotiations in Beijing aimed at easing a bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The two-day talks, due to start on Monday, come after Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in December agreed to a truce in their escalating spat which has seen the two sides raise import tariffs on each other’s goods.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Sunday, Trump said that trade talks with China were going “very well” and that Xi is “very much involved in the talks”.

“I really believe they want to make a deal. The tariffs have absolutely hurt China very badly.”

Meanwhile Lu Kang, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, sounded a positive note ahead of the talks, saying the envoys will have “positive and constructive discussions” during the meetings in the Chinese capital.

Financial markets were being lifted early on Monday on expectations that the direct negotiations would lead to an easing in tensions between the two sides.

Lengthy wrangling ahead

The US side is led by a deputy US trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish. Neither side gave details of their agenda but Gerrish’s delegation includes agriculture, energy, commerce, treasury and State Department officials.

The Chinese government gave no details of who would represent Beijing.

The talks are going ahead despite tensions over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese technology giant Huawei, in Canada on US charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions against Iran.

Last year, Washington imposed tariff increases of up to 25 percent on $250bn of Chinese imports over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded by imposing penalties on $110bn of US goods, slowing customs clearance for US companies and suspending issuing licenses in finance and other businesses.

As part of the 90-day ceasefire, Washington postponed a planned increase of tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent currently to 25 per cent. Beijing has compromised by suspending additional tariffs on US cars and by buying US soybeans.

But analysts say the 90-day postponement of additional tariff increases is too little time to settle all the disputes that bedevil the two sides’ relations, arguing that they face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship.

During that 90-day period, agreements “may not be reached until the last day”, said Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for World Trade Organization Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

This week’s talks will focus on technical details before higher-level leaders “make hard political decisions”, Tu said.

In the longer term, the final tariffs might “remain for several years”, Tu said. “I don’t think it will proceed that fast. It must take time.”

Cooling economic growth

The US, Europe and other trading partners complain China’s tactics violate its market-opening obligations.

The clash reflects US anxiety about China’s rise as a potential competitor in telecommunications and other technology. Trump wants Beijing to roll back initiatives like “Made in China 2025”, which calls for the state-led creation of global competitors in such fields as robotics and artificial intelligence. American officials worry those might erode US industrial leadership.

The ruling Communist Party is reluctant to give up initiatives it sees as a path to prosperity and global influence.

China’s leaders have tried to defuse complaints by emphasising the country’s potential as an export market.

They have announced a series of regulatory changes over the past year to increase foreign access to their auto, finance and other industries.

Some Chinese officials suggest the technology initiatives might be opened to foreign companies. But they have given no details, leaving it unclear whether that will satisfy Washington.

Cooling economic growth in both countries is turning up the pressure to reach a settlement.

Chinese growth fell to a post-global crisis low of 6.5 percent in the quarter ending in September. Auto sales tumbled 16 percent in November over a year earlier. Weak real estate sales are forcing developers to cut prices.

The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter, and unemployment is at a five-decade low. But surveys show consumer confidence is weakening because of concern that growth will slow this year.

Beijing has tried in vain to recruit France, Germany, South Korea and other governments as allies against Trump. They criticise his tactics but echo US complaints about Chinese industrial policy and market barriers.

The European Union filed its own challenge in the World Trade Organization in June against Chinese rules that the 28-nation trade bloc said hamper the ability of foreign companies to protect and profit from their own technology.

For their part, Chinese officials are unhappy with US curbs on exports of “dual use” technology with possible military applications. They complain China’s companies are treated unfairly in national security reviews of proposed corporate acquisitions, though almost all deals are approved unchanged.

Some manufacturers that serve the US have shifted production to other countries to avoid Trump’s tariffs.

UBS said on Friday that 37 percent of 200 manufacturers surveyed by the bank have shifted out of China over the past 12 months. The threat of US tariff hikes was the “dominating factor” for nearly half, while others moved because of higher costs or tighter environmental regulation.

“Most firms expect the trade war to escalate,” the bank said.