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INDIANS (ET)
The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to allow scaled-back cross-border humanitarian aid operations to continue into Syria, adopting a resolution just hours before the operations were due to expire.
Russia won its push to cut back the number of crossing points from four to two, and to guarantee they continue only for an additional six months, instead of the one year several other council members sought.â
We find ourselves in this situation because the Russian Federation has decided to use deprivation as a weapon against the Syrian people,â U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft said. âThis is a crisis of Russiaâs making; it is theirs to own.â
The U.N. and its partners have been delivering aid via several border points since 2014, reaching about 4 million needy Syrians. But the government of Bashar al-Assad no longer wants the deliveries to continue, as they try to stamp out the last rebel strongholds.
âll these cries about imminent catastrophe, disaster, which the northeast faces if we close one cross-border point, is totally irrelevant because humanitarian assistance to that region is coming from within Syria for a long time, and it will continue to come,â Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters. âWhat we are saying is that the situation on the ground has changed dramatically and we have to reflect it.â
Russia succeeded in getting the Yarubiyah crossing from Iraq into Syria closed, and dropping another crossing point from Jordan that has not been used recently. Two crossings from Turkey into northwestern Syria will remain.
In practical terms, Yarubiyah means medical aid for chronic illnesses, vaccines and trauma cases to about 1.4 million Syrians will not be able to get into northeastern Syria. Â
Several council members were bitter about being forced to accept this compromise.
âWe supported the resolution to save millions of lives in Idlib, but we strongly voice our discontent for how this result was achieved,â Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson, a new council member, said. âInstead of cooperation, the preferred means of negotiations by the Russian Federation were blackmailing and presenting other parties with ultimatums.â
Britainâs envoy said that while a serious diplomatic effort was made to keep the crossings open, ultimately the deal is âa woefully inadequate responseâ to the situation on the ground.â
âThe exclusion of any border crossing into northeastern Syria is, in our view, deeply regrettable and it puts the lives of thousands of civilians at risk in Syria,â Ambassador Karen Pierce said. Â
The council tried last month to broker a compromise effort to extend the mission for another year and keep the two Turkish crossing points, as well as Yarubiyah in Iraq. But it failed after Russia cast its 14th veto since the crisis started in 2011, in order to further the interests of the Assad regime. At the time, China also joined Russia in vetoing. Â
On Friday, Britain, China, Russia and the United States all abstained from the vote. All were unhappy with the final draft resolution, but none wanted to be seen to be blocking humanitarian aid operations. Â
Until Friday, about 4 million Syrians were receiving aid via cross-border operations. In the northwest, they reached 2.7 million people and another 1.3 million in the northeast.
âWe did everything to keep that alive so that these 2.7 million people will continue to get humanitarian aid,â Germanyâs ambassador and co-author of the draft resolution said. But he warned that the decision âcomes at a very heavy price.â
âTomorrow morning, 1.4 million people in the northeast of Syria will wake up not knowing if they will be able to continue to get medical aid that they desperately need,â Ambassador Christophe Heusgen said.Â
Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said died on Friday evening, state media said early on Saturday, and a three-day period of national mourning was declared.
Western-backed Qaboos, 79, had ruled the Gulf Arab state since he took over in a bloodless coup in 1970 with the help of Oman’s former colonial power Britain.
Qaboos had no children and had not publicly appointed a successor. A 1996 statute says the ruling family will choose a successor within three days of the throne becoming vacant.
If they fail to agree, a council of military and security officials, supreme court chiefs and heads of the two consultative assemblies will put in power the person whose name has been secretly written by the sultan in a sealed letter.
A three-day period of official mourning for the public and private sectors has been declared, state media said.
I would agree, except a significant minority of this population do not agree with, or behave like, those with a supremacist or economically predatory pathology.
Yes, Plainshitehead is morally blind. It can excuse any indecency, any crime, any inhumanity just to try to protect his hate-filled, Nazi-like racial beliefs. JustMe, on the other hand, hasnât demonstrated how he does any of that.
Go ahead, find a court that agrees with that legal opinion. Until then it’s just “…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing!”
By the way, there is a French court that has accepted the legality of Israel in Judea and Samaria as well as Jerusalem.
Turkish and Greek diplomats met Friday in a bid to defuse rising bilateral tensions over control of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, which is at the center of a regional scramble for what might be vast gas reserves.
The Turkish-Greek gathering in Ankara follows U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s confirmation Thursday of plans for a “diplomatic initiative” to calm tensions between the two NATO nations.
Athens and Ankara are historical rivals with long-existing territorial disputes over the shared Aegean Sea and divided island of Cyprus. Â
Those rivalries have been exacerbated by a dispute over control of the Mediterranean Sea, where significant exploration for hydrocarbons has been going on since Israel’s discovery of the vast Leviathan gas field.
Greece has exploited Turkey’s regional isolation by building an alliance with Israel and Egypt, while seeking to develop and distribute natural gas. All the countries have strained or nonexistent relations with Turkey.
Turkey took the region by surprise in November by turning to Libya. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a security commitment and a deal that gives Turkey control of a crucial strategic swath of the Mediterranean, with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord. The GNA is led by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj.
Turkey-Greece Tensions Escalate Over Ankara’s Mediterranean Ambitions
Turkey’s increasingly assertive ambitions in the eastern Mediterranean are putting it on a collision course with Athens
Under that agreement, Ankara now controls the sea. A planned pipeline was announced this month by Greece along with the Greek Cypriot government, and Israel.Â
“No plan in the region that excludes Turkey has any chance of success,” said Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay recently.
Erdogan on Sunday doubled down on his commitment to the GNA, announcing the deploying of Turkish soldiers to support the Tripoli-based government, which faces the possibility of being overrun by forces of General Khalifa Haftar. Haftarâs militia now controls eastern Libya. Â
“It’s a very strategic move by Turkey to stop the emerging blocs against Turkey. The deployment of Turkish troops to Libya is legitimate,” said international studies professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. Â Â
Turkey Starts Military Deployment in Libya as International Pressure Rises
Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces start of Libyan military deployment as analysts warn it could be the Turkish presidentâs biggest military gamble
But diplomatic pressure is building on Ankara. The foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Greece and Cyprus declared Wednesday at a meeting in Cairo that both agreements signed by Ankara and the GNA are “invalid.”
“The ministers asserted that those two memorandums of understanding have further undermined regional stability,” they said in a joint statement.
Ankara dismissed the statement, pointing out the GNA is Libya’s only internationally recognized government.
But Turkey received a further setback Thursday, with Haftar dismissing a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan for a cease-fire.
“We welcome Putin’s call for a cease-fire. However, our fight against terrorist organizations that seized Tripoli and received the support of some countries will continue until the end,” Haftar’s spokesman, Ahmed al-Mismari, said on a video posted to social media.
Eastern Forces Reject Call for Cease-Fire in Libya  Â
Russian and Turkish presidents appeal for truce, say fighting destabilizing entire region
Erdogan was widely seen as looking to Putin to use his influence on Haftar to rein in his forces, given that Russian mercenaries of the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group backed the Libyan militia leader. The Wagner Group is a private security force run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman reported to have close ties to Moscow.
But Haftar is not solely reliant on Russian support with other powerful backers, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which are seen as determined to reduce Turkey’s efforts to expand its influence.
“The aim of the [Libya] deal is to protect Turkish vital national interests and that Turkey is not to remain isolated,” said former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende. “But Turkey has made it clear it’s ready to talk with the view to reaching an equitable solution.”
Ankara is ruling out talks with the Greek Cypriot government, the only recognized administration on the divided island. Turkey refuses to acknowledge Nicosia’s status, maintaining that there is a Turkish-administered government, which only Ankara recognizes.
Cyprus was divided in 1974 after a Turkish invasion in response to a Greek-inspired coup.
The Mediterranean island lies at the center of the scramble for hydrocarbons and planned pipelines for energy distribution.
“We are at an impasse because Turkey doesn’t consider the Republic of Cyprus as a country, and everything comes out of this,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Athens University.
“The only response from Ankara is that any deal can’t succeed without us,” he adds. “But what is Turkey’s next move? Once you have said that, the next move is to look for the way and means to achieve this, to invent this table that doesn’t exist that is needed to sit around, to find common ground between these countries, but we have not seen this.”
Lack of progress is likely because both sides believe they retain winning hands. Greece believes Turkey is increasingly internationally isolated while Ankara says any pipeline to distribute the region’s gas reserves will rely on Turkish cooperation. Analysts warn such a scenario carries the risk of further tension and the continuing broadening of such discord across the region.
RE your conversations with Charliematerne, please note the LON Mandate NEVER said anything about a Jewish (or Israeli) state. It intended to establish a Jewish National Home. This term was intentionally used in place of “state”. And lastly, the Mandate is a dead letter since the British Authority (under attack by Zionist terror militias) abandoned it’s commission after LON was dissolved. Therefore no part of Mandate applies legally to Israel. These are suggested talking points to correct Charlie’s warped arguments.