Month: July 2018

Former Macron Security Aide Claims He Was Trying to Help Police

Posted on by SeeEU

A former senior security aide for French President Emmanuel Macron is insisting he was trying to help police when he was caught on video assaulting a protester at a May Day demonstration.

The outcry sparked by the video is the most damaging scandal to hit Macron since he took office last year.

The former security aide, Alexandre Benalla, who was fired by Macron on Friday, said Monday his action was “vigorous but without violence and caused no injury,” according to a statement released by his lawyers.

“This personal initiative … is obviously being used to tarnish the president in circumstances that defy comprehension,” the statement read.

Benalla, along with another member of Macron’s ruling party, Vincent Crase, were charged Sunday with violence, interfering in the exercise of public office and the unauthorized public display of official insignia.

The video made public by Le Monde newspaper last week shows Benalla, who is not a police officer, wearing a police helmet with visor as well as a police armband while dragging a woman away from the crowd and later beating a male protester as riot police looked on while breaking up a May Day protest in Paris.

Benalla said in the statement issued by his lawyers Monday that the man and woman he was filmed scuffling with were “particularly virulent individuals” whom he had been trying to “bring under control” while “lending a hand” to police.

On Monday, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told lawmakers he took no action against Benalla after the presidency assured him in early May that Benalla would be punished.

Three high-ranking police officers have been charged with misappropriation of the images and violating professional secrecy for illegally giving Benalla video surveillance footage of the incidents to help him try to clear his name. They have been suspended from their jobs.

Benalla, 26, handled Macron’s campaign security and has remained close to the president.
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Congo Opposition Leader Bemba to Return for Presidential Bid

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Congolese opposition leader and former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose war crimes convictions were quashed in May, will return to the country next week to submit his candidacy for president, a party official said on Monday.

His homecoming after serving a decade in prison at The Hague could dramatically shake up Congolese politics ahead of December’s long-delayed election, which is meant to choose a successor to Joseph Kabila.

Kabila, who has governed since 2001, has refused to commit to stepping down despite his two-term mandate expiring in 2016.

Allies in his ruling coalition have in recent weeks advanced a legal argument they say would justify his candidacy.

Bemba finished runner-up to Kabila in the 2006 election and commands a large and loyal following in western Congo. Despite still being in prison at the time, Bemba came third in a rare nationwide opinion poll in March behind two other opposition leaders.

“He is going to return on Aug. 1,” the secretary-general of his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) party, Eve Bazaiba, told Reuters. “Everything is in order.”

Bazaiba said that Bemba planned to file his candidacy with the national electoral commission while in Kinshasa. The registration period opens this Wednesday and runs through Aug. 8.

If Kabila does step down, December’s election would herald Congo’s first democratic transition following decades marked by authoritarian rule, coups and civil war.

The ICC quashed Bemba’s convictions in May related to murder, rape and pillage by fighters he sent to Central African Republic to back the country’s then-president Ange-Felix Patasse. An appeals court ruled that Bemba could not be held personally responsible for those crimes.

Bemba was one of only four people convicted by the permanent war crimes court in its 16 years of operation, and the highest ranking among them.

Kabila’s government moved quickly to provide Bemba a passport after his release from prison last month but has offered mixed messages about whether he might face further criminal prosecution or be allowed to contest the presidential election.

He still faces sentencing for a witness tampering charge by the ICC but has likely already served enough prison time for that.
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South Africa’s Fight Against Drug Addiction Continues

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Drug addiction is still a reality and becoming a bigger challenge in South Africa. A new way of sharing illicit drugs has made it even more complicated. From Johannesburg, Thuso Khumalo looks at the work of those who have taken it upon themselves to fight drug abuse.
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Trump Defends Putin Summit as Poll Shows High Disapproval

Posted on by SeeEU

President Donald Trump continues to defend his recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said Monday that he gave up nothing to Putin in their meeting last week. But the president’s performance got a negative review in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, which found that 50 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the summit, compared to 33 percent who approved. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more on the domestic fallout.
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Despair as Bulldozers Destroy Hundreds of Homes in Kenyan Slum

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Kenya’s largest slum was woken on Monday by the sounds of cranes and bulldozers that demolished hundreds of shanties overnight to make way for a road, leaving desperate residents homeless.

Kibera lies on the outskirts of Nairobi and is one of Africa’s largest slums, home to more than 400,000 people, but parts of it are being demolished for a new road to ease congestion in the capital.

Construction started in 2016 and there have been earlier demolitions, but residents said the latest move had taken them by surprise as authorities had promised compensation and advance notice of any forced evictions.

“We were raised here, we went to school here and we got married here. Now we don’t know where to go,” said Jacqueline Anzemo, a 30-year-old mother of three who has lived in Kibera since 2002.

“They came took our names and identification numbers and said they will come give us rent for three months so that we can go somewhere else,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “They have not given us anything and already they’ve thrown us out. Where are we supposed to go?”

Rights groups accused the government of going back on an agreement to delay construction pending an agreement.

Amnesty International said the demolitions went against an agreement between Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), a government agency, and rights groups to halt forced evictions until a resettlement plan had been agreed.

“Demolition prior to the completion of (the) Resettlement Action Plan betrays the public trust and violates our laws,” said Houghton Irungu, executive director for Kenya.

KURA declined to comment directly on the claim, directing the Thomson Reuters Foundation to a statement it made on Friday saying it was working with rights groups and local leaders on a plan to resettle people affected by the project.

Construction of the road began in 2016 and in March that year residents of the slum filed two legal challenges to the planned demolition of their homes.

But a judge ruled last year that the road was in the public interest and threw out the challenges.

Rights groups say the demolitions, which are expected to affect 30,000 residents of Kibera, highlight the difficulties faced by mostly poor people living in informal settlements as African cities expand rapidly.

As he watched a crane flatten a school behind him Arthur Shakwira, who has lived in Kibera for more than 20 years, wondered how he would find a new home for his family.

“I’ve taken my belongings to a neighbor. My wife and kids  have moved to my brother’s place to stay there for the time being. I don’t know where to start from,” he said. “We’ve not refused for the road to pass but they need to consider our well being.”
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Turkey’s Economy Faces Test as Erdogan’s Powers Expand

Posted on by SeeEU

International investors are looking to Tuesday’s meeting of the Turkish central bank as a critical test of whether the bank can remain independent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his increasing powers, and what some criticize as his Islamist agenda.

The Turkish currency has fallen sharply as concerns mount on whether he will impose unorthodox economic policies on the bank.

Erdogan, who has called for Islamic banks to make up a quarter of the country’s banking sector, strongly opposes interest rates and has described them as “the mother and father of all evil.” The president rejects economic orthodoxy that increasing rates reduces inflation.

Investors are looking to the Turkish central bank meeting to hike rates to rein in rampant inflation, currently running at over 15 percent — among the highest in the developed world.

“If the central bank cannot find the opportunity to hike, then the markets will take it very negatively,” economist Inan Demir of Nomura Securities said. “If it can hike then the market will see this as the first market-friendly action by the new administration.”

Investors’ concerns saw the Turkish lira plunge about 30 percent since the start of the year. Adding to the unease is Erdogan’s move to assume sweeping executive powers after last month’s presidential elections.

During his campaign, Erdogan pledged to take greater control over the economy, including the independent central bank. The appointment of his son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, as Turkey’s finance minister has further raised international investor concerns.

In the past, Albayrak voiced support for Erdogan’s stance on interest rates. The new cabinet announced earlier this month saw the removal of Mehmet Simsek and Naci Agbal, who investors saw as strong advocates of orthodox economic policies.

Uncertainty over the outcome of Tuesday’s central bank meeting is fueling investors’ fears that Ankara could adopt radical new measures to prevent capital from leaving the country.

“Investors are starting to ask if capital controls will be imposed,” Demir said. “If there is no monetary policy to counter the lira depreciation by the central bank, then investors will start to assume worst case scenario, the capital control scenario.”

“Such a fear,” he continued, “will mean an acceleration of capital outflows out of the country, which would bring capital inflows to the fore, so there is the risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Analysts warn capital controls would be tantamount to economic suicide, killing Turkey’s credit rating and thus its ability to borrow the $5 billion a month it needs to cover the shortfall of its current account deficit, or the difference between what it imports and exports.

In the past few days, Albayrak has sought to ease investor concerns by stating support for the central bank.

“We aim for an effective central bank. The central bank sees and builds the fiscal life in a correct way. Turkey will never again be this attractive for foreign investors,” he said Sunday.

Albayrak, accompanied by internationally respected economic experts, met Monday with his counterparts from countries at the G20 meeting of finance ministers in Buenos Aires, where he underscored his message that Turkey remains market-friendly.

Erdogan has also refrained from visibly advocating his opposition to interest rates, a move seen as helping investor sentiment. But analysts warn actions, not words, will determine how financial markets will ultimately react towards Turkey.

If the central bank does hike rates it could enhance Albayrak’s reputation among international investors, some analysts say.

“He can correct his own image going forward,” said Demir.

On the other hand, with Turkish interest rates already among the highest in the developed world at over 17 percent, a further hike will likely bring problems.

“[Turkish] private banks are already not adding to their loans because they realize at these rates, repaying will be very difficult,” political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners said. “That is going to hit economic growth.”

Both Turkish consumers and companies are already heavily indebted and economists predict a severe economic slowdown — if not a recession — by the end of the year.

Analysts warn even if the bank were to raise interest rates Tuesday and Erdogan were to abandon his unorthodox economic policies, investors would be looking for Ankara to do more to rein in public spending and avert a dramatic slide.

“The problem now is discretionary spending on mega projects, welfare projects which are simply not bearable, this needs to be corrected,” Yesilada said.
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South Sudan Criticizes White House Statement

Posted on by SeeAF

The South Sudan government on Monday criticized a White House statement that condemned South Sudan’s move to extend the government’s mandate by another three years and demanded the country’s leaders be sincere as they negotiate a peace agreement.

In a statement released Sunday by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the U.S. called on South Sudanese leaders to commit to negotiations that include civil society, church, women and other groups that have been excluded. The statement said a “narrow agreement between elites” will only “sow the seeds of another cycle of conflict.”

The White House statement said President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar have not shown the leadership required to bring “genuine peace” to the country, and that the U.S. “would not be a guarantor, a funder or an advocate for additional U.N. resources to support the transitional government if the leaders do not show a commitment to peace, good governance and financial accountability.”

Sanders also warned in her statement that additional sanctions are on the table for persons “engaged in corrupt activity” or for those who threaten the country’s peace.

The South Sudan government Monday criticized the White House statement, saying it is the kind rebuke that should never be directed to a U.S. ally like South Sudan. 

In an exclusive interview with “South Sudan In Focus,” South Sudan Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Mawien Makol described the statement as unhelpful and harsh.

“We need the language which is supporting this kind of commitment and I think this is what the U.S. should be doing, urging us to really continue to doing what we are really doing, but it will not derail us from our commitment,” Makol said.

Makol strongly denied that South Sudan’s negotiators meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, were preparing to sign a peace-sharing agreement that is not inclusive.

“They have to come in here with details about the lack of commitment they are talking about, because we are seeing these men are sitting together, laughing together and demonstrating that they can work together, so what else can you say about this kind of commitment?” Makol told South Sudan in Focus.

Makol said the Kiir administration is well aware of the suffering the conflict has caused on innocent civilians and will work with the rebels and other opposition groups to restore peace and stability.

But he said the White House statement has tarnished the image of his government.

“It shows to the world that the government is not committed, when you are committed to do something then somebody comes and say that if you don’t do it then you will face this and that. That doesn’t help in the diplomatic arena,” Makol told VOA.

Violence broke out in South Sudan in late 2013 amid a political power struggle between President Kiir and Machar, who fled the country in 2015 when a fresh wave of fighting erupted in the capital Juba between government forces and Machar’s bodyguards. 

Last week, the U.S. pushed for and received a U.N. Security Council arms embargo. Juba condemned the resolution authorizing the embargo.
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UN: Donors Must Rally Behind Ethiopia, Eritrea After Ending War

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Foreign donors must come forward to support Ethiopia and Eritrea after the long-time arch rivals ended a war which spanned two decades and hampered efforts to improve the lives of millions of people, a top United Nations official said on Monday.

Ahunna Eziakonwa, head of the U.N. in Ethiopia, said moves taken by the two east African neighbors to normalize ties in recent weeks had “sown seeds of hope” — but added that many challenges lay ahead on their road to recovery.

The two poor nations will have to remove landmines and rebuild infrastructure, especially along their border, where the conflict was concentrated.

They will also need to stimulate their economies and create jobs for the youth, say experts.

“I hope the international community will come forward to support these two countries. It is very important — not just for these two nations, but for regional peace and security,” Eziakonwa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

“It makes strategic sense — not just from the humanitarian perspective, but also from a security perspective – to rally behind this peace initiative and invest in a peace building process in a way that it touches on development transformation.”

Triggered by a border dispute in 1998, the conflict killed more than 80,000 people. At least 350,000 people living along the border on both sides were uprooted and forced to flee.

Meagre resources meant to reduce poverty and improve basic services such as health and education were diverted to fund the conflict while schools, hospitals, power and water supplies were destroyed by shelling and artillery fire.

Reward for peace

The two nations signed a peace deal in 2000 — but Ethiopia refused to implement it. Both armies have since been facing off across their border in a frozen stalemate.

Abiy Ahmed, who became Ethiopia’s prime minister in April, agreed to implement the deal, and there has been a rapid thaw in relations since the war was declared over on July 9.

Ahmed and Eritrean President Isias Afewerki have visited one another’s capitals to be welcomed by thousands of cheering crowds. Embassies have reopened, phone lines between both nations are restored and flights have resumed.

But other obstacles lie ahead. Millions of dollars will be required to support Ethiopia and Eritrea, which are among the world’s 47 least developed countries, according to the U.N. Eziakonwa said this included removing thousands of landmines along the 1,000-km (620-mile) border and rebuilding roads and other infrastructure for easy cross-border trade and movement.

Thousands of young people in both nations are expected to be demobilized and there will be an urgent need to provide them with jobs, she said.

“One of the biggest challenges is how to engage the youth in both countries in gainful employment and we need partners such as the international community and private sector to rally behind this new opportunity,” said Eziakonwa. “Obviously, you don’t want a whole lot of idle youth. They need to see the dividends of peace and that will largely be born out when we see the kinds of investments that integrate them into the economy.”

Eziakonwa said neither Addis Ababa nor Asmara had requested international assistance so far, but the U.N. was ready to assist in areas ranging from de-mining to helping to foster social cohesion and reconciliation.

“It’s an initiative that is home-grown — brought by the leaders concerned – and this is very rare,” said Eziakonwa. “We need to reward these gestures and show them as an example of what can be achieved.”
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Former Trump Aide Bannon Sets up Group to Undermine EU

Posted on by SeeEU

Former Donald Trump political strategist Steve Bannon and a top associate have created a Brussels-based political organization intended to undermine, and ultimately paralyze, the European Union, Bannon and the associate told Reuters.

In an interview and email conversations, Bannon and Raheem Kassam, a former chief aide to British anti-EU leader Nigel Farage who now serves as a Bannon lieutenant, said the group, known as The Movement, is already operating and hiring.

“The Movement will be our clearing house for the populist, nationalist movement in Europe. We’re focusing attention on assisting individuals or groups concerned with the matters of sovereignty, border control, jobs, amongst other things,” Kassam said.

“We decided to headquarter out of Brussels because it is the heart of the European Union — the most pernicious force against nation state democracy in the West today.

“The organization is already a structured foundation with a significant annual budget and we have started to staff up,” he said.

Kassam declined to give further details about the foundation.

Bannon, who during a London visit last week met Farage and Louis Aliot, a close associate of French far-right politician Marine Le Pen, described the organization he was creating as a “populist project” intended to touch off a “tectonic plate shift in Europe.

“Next year’s European parliamentary elections are going to be a major test for both Eurosceptics and reformers alike, and The Movement is where those two causes dovetail,” Kassam said.

“The political establishment has worked with the assistance of innumerable NGOs for decades, one hand washing the other. We felt like it was time there was an organization on the side of ordinary people, instead of the vested, big business lobbying interests in Europe,” he added.

The European Union traces its origins back to the aftermath of the Second World War, meant as a way of fostering economic cooperation and curbing national rivalries. Today it is the largest economic bloc in the world and has expanded its political powers.

Its “goals and values” state that it promotes peace, offers freedom, security and justice without internal borders and enhances solidarity among member states. Proponents say it defends European interests, whether against global powers such as China and the United States or against multinational

companies seeking monopolistic footholds.

Targeting elections

Bannon and Kassam said their plan was to use their new movement to organize a major turnout of nationalist and populist voters in European Parliament elections which take place in all EU member states next May.

Voter turnout in European Parliament elections historically is low, and Bannon said he and his organization hope that by mobilizing local anti-EU groups they can elect a large enough group of Members of the European Parliament to disrupt and even shut down the Parliament and the European Commission.

Asked about Bannon’s plans on Monday, the Commission’s chief spokesman told reporters that the EU executive noted them but declined further comment.

Senior EU officials gearing up for the 2019 election acknowledge that parties hostile to the Union could do well, but few expect them to have enough seats to disrupt the functioning of the institutions.

Parliament in itself is the weakest of the three main political bodies in Brussels, after the Council of member states and the Commission. It cannot propose legislation and would need a majority to block laws and budgets.

Right-wing, anti-EU groups have about 100 seats in the current 751-seat assembly.

With Britain’s departure next March, Farage and 18 other UK Independence Party members will lose their seats in what will be a 705-seat chamber.

Irrespective of the EU election results, new deals to form transnational party groups in the parliament after the vote will also be key to the strength of any anti-EU bloc.

Some experts on Europe’s far-right parties and movements question the extent to which Bannon and his associates will be able to unite enlarged right-wing European Parliamentary factions.

After the 2014 election, efforts to unite the far-right failed, leaving Farage and France’s Marine Le Pen leading rival groups and Farage accusing the French of being anti-Semitic.
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Congo Opposition Set Demands for December Poll

Posted on by SeeAF

Opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday called on President Joseph Kabila to step down ahead of elections in December but ruled out boycotting the poll.

In an exceptional move, five parties signed a joint statement setting out demands ahead of the December 23 presidential vote, whose outcome is crucial for the sprawling, volatile DRC.

“We are not going to boycott the elections because we have known from the very beginning that this is the ruling party’s plan, to push the opposition into boycott the elections,” said Delly Sesanga, a supporter of exiled opposition leader Moise Katumbi.

The statement — issued two days before the start of a two-week registration period for presidential candidates — called for “free, democratic and transparent” elections.

It said the elections had to take place without Kabila as a candidate and without the use of electronic voting machines, which the government controversially wants to deploy.

It was signed by five parties, including the traditional mainstream opposition, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), as well as by parties led by Katumbi and Jean-Pierre Bemba, an ex-vice president and former warlord recently acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Kabila has been at the helm of the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa since 2001, presiding over a mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest.

He was just 29 when he took over as president from his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, who was assassinated by a bodyguard.

Dozens of people have been killed in protests since late 2016, when Kabila was scheduled to stand down at the end of his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution.

Kabila has kept power thanks to a constitutional clause enabling him to stay in office until a successor is elected.

On Thursday, Kabila delivered a state-of-the nation address that had caused wide speculation that he would announce whether he would run again, but no such big declaration was forthcoming.

The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960. Some experts fear it could spiral into wide-ranging conflict once more if the present political crisis is not resolved.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) placed the DRC 176th out of 188 countries on its Human Development Index published in March 2017.

The watchdog Transparency International ranked the country 156th out of 176 countries in its 2016 corruption index. It was ranked 154th out of 180 in the Reporters Without Borders’ 2017 Press Freedom Index.
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Mothers of Casualties in Cameroon’s Separatist War March for Peace

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Hundreds of women whose children have been killed or are missing as a result of the separatist war in Cameroon marched in the capital Sunday. The women called for a cease-fire between the government and the armed groups demanding independence for Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

These are women who have escaped to Yaounde from the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, where a war has raged between the military and separatists for the past year. The women are praying and singing for peace to return to the central African state.

Among them is Gladys Arrey. She says her 24-year-old son has been missing since March, after she says the military destroyed his motorcycle to get revenge for the killing of a policeman in the southwestern town of Mutengene.

She says she came out to add her voice to the protest.

“We could not miss this opportunity to come and say enough is enough,” she said.

Last November, President Paul Biya declared war on people he called secessionists after armed men attacked and killed two policemen in English-speaking southwestern Cameroon.

The government of Cameroon reports that about 200 civilians and more than a hundred soldiers and policemen have been killed since then.

Ernestine Mbah, who fled from the northwestern town of Batibo, says she has lost her husband and two children in the war. She says she is taking part in the march to let the government know that when the military burns houses and businesses, youths are radicalized and escape to the bushes where they join armed fighters.

“In old times that I was a child, we used to live in peace, we used to share together, we used to talk,” she said. “What is happening? Whatsoever thing, whatsoever devil that is coming into their hearts please let us stop and make peace. If we humble ourselves God is going to give us our heart desires. I plead for peace, I plead for love.”

In June, rights group Amnesty International accused Cameroon’s government of using unnecessary and excessive force that frequently placed civilians in the path of violence. The government said the report was biased and denied using excessive force.

The crisis in Cameroon’s two English speaking regions started out as a protest against marginalization by French speakers who constitute a majority in central African country.

Some French-speaking Cameroonians joined in on Sunday’s march.

Marie Menanga, a Yaounde resident who is housing three people displaced by the fighting, says she wants the government to declare a ceasefire and stop what she describes as a senseless war.

She says armed separatists should also drop their weapons.

She says no woman who is normal and who kept a pregnancy for nine months and went through labor pains will want to see her child or children killed in a senseless war. She says every one should drop their weapons and come out of the bushes because the best gift of live is love and peace.

The United Nations reports that about 200,000 people have been internally displaced and tens of thousands have fled across to Nigeria for safety since the fighting began.

 

 

 

 
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After Delays, Former Iraqi Translator Will Be US Citizen

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More than a year after a former interpreter for U.S. military forces in Iraq was pulled out of a U.S. citizenship ceremony without explanation, he’s about to be naturalized.

Haeder al-Anbki said Monday he was notified over the weekend that he could participate in a naturalization ceremony next week in Orlando. Al-Anbki had sued a federal agency over the matter. He was given no explanation for the government’s reversal in his case, but he credited stories by The Associated Press and The Tampa Bay Times with publicizing his plight.

 

“The articles and it’s out in the public… made the changes and it’s opening many eyes to see the truth,” al-Anbki said Monday in text message from Camp Blanding in Jacksonville, where he was training with his Florida National Guard unit.

 

The Iraqi native was at a June 2017 naturalization ceremony in Fort Benning, Georgia, for 20 immigrant recruits when he was stopped and told he wouldn’t be participating. No explanation was given other than “there was a problem in the system,” according to a lawsuit he filed last month in the District of Columbia.

 

Al Anbki, 36, said in the lawsuit that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was obligated to complete his citizenship application but instead was applying a different set of rules under a program known as the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program, which opponents say targets applicants from majority-Muslim countries.

 

The once-secret program also is being challenged in federal court in Seattle by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Their class-action lawsuit claims the government since 2008 has blacklisted thousands of applications for asylum, legal permanent residency or citizenship as national security concerns. The case goes to trial next year.

 

An agency spokeswoman said in an email on Monday that privacy restrictions prevent her from talking about specific cases.

 

Al-Anbki, who works as a security guard at Orlando International Airport, came to the United States in 2011 after working with U.S. troops in Iraq for nine years as an interpreter, a job that allowed him to get a special immigration visa. During his service with the troops, he was stabbed by an insurgent and shot in the leg. He lost a toe on his left foot from shrapnel. His brother, also a translator for U.S. troops, was killed.

 

 
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Russia Detains 6 Prison Guards Over Torture Video

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian investigators said Monday they had detained six prison guards over a video showing officers brutally beating an inmate which was leaked to an independent newspaper.

The group of prison service employees, “acting deliberately, clearly exceeding their official powers, used violence against a prisoner,” investigators said.

Human rights activists regularly report torture, humiliation and beatings in Russian prisons, but the leak of such an explicit video is rare.

The branch of the Investigative Committee for the Volga city of Yaroslavl, where the video was shot at a penal colony, said “today six people have already been detained.”

“The criminals delivered multiple blows with hands, feet and unidentified objects to the man’s torso and limbs,” it said in a statement.

The 10-minute video posted by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper on Friday shows a group of 18 uniformed men methodically beating a man who is pinned down on a table as he groans and pleads for mercy. They also pour water on his head.

The prisoner, named as Yevgeny Makarov, was left covered with bruises and cuts on his legs which were swollen and infected, his lawyer wrote in a report quoted in the newspaper.

Makarov said he lost consciousness several times.

The video clearly shows the men’s faces. Novaya Gazeta reported that it was shot in June 2017 but criminal action was only launched after the publication of the video.

Investigators said they had identified all those involved and were going through legal procedures to detain the rest of the participants.

They said that they would also look at the actions of the prison governor and top regional prison officials.

The video was shot with a portable video recorder that according to the law prison officers are obliged to carry.

The prisoner is still in jail but has been visited by a rights ombudsman and is relatively safe in a one-man cell, his lawyer Irina Biryukova told the Russian channel TV Rain.

Threats from guards

Rights group Public Verdict, which passed the video to Novaya Gazeta, said Monday that Biryukova has fled Russia after receiving threats and had asked for state protection for family members.

Biryukova told TV Rain that a reliable source in the region had informed her that prison guards had voiced personal threats against her.

“For my safety, we decided that it was necessary for me to leave Russia for the meantime,” she said.

Amnesty International called on Russian authorities to “act immediately” to protect the lawyer.

“The launch of the investigation into the allegations of torture is a welcome first step towards justice,” the rights group said in a statement.

“However, in the absence of a national mechanism which systematically works to prevent torture, the criminal case against Makarov’s torturers will be an exception to the rule.”

Biryukova said she was hopeful that the publicity around the case would lead to more arrests and eventual sentences, and that she would return to Russia soon.

The regional Investigative Committee told TASS state news agency it was checking into threats against Biryukova and could launch criminal action.

The case is not the first allegation of brutality against prisoners to emerge from the Yaroslavl colony.

Last year, Novaya Gazeta reported an inmate who was sentenced for taking part in protests against the return of Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin in 2012 was tortured there in a punishment cell.

 
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Syria Blasts Evacuation of White Helmets as ‘Criminal’

Posted on by SeeEA

The Syrian government on Monday condemned a multilateral operation to evacuate hundreds of rescue workers from the war-torn country as a “criminal process” intended to de-stabilize Syria.

Syrian authorities have long described the Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, which are popularly known as the White Helmets, as a terror organization.

 

The group rose to prominence as it filmed its operations to rescue civilians from Syrian government airstrikes in the country’s brutal civil war. The government has said the group stages videos. Damascus’s ally Russia has accused the group of staging chemical weapons attacks on civilians and blaming them on the government, a charge that has never been proven.

WATCH:  Israel Evacuates Hundreds of White Helmet Volunteers 

 

On Saturday, more than 400 rescuers and their family members were evacuated from Syria’s Quneitra province through Israel to Jordan, after the rebels surrendered the last areas they held in the southwestern province to the government.

 

Syria’s foreign ministry called it a “smuggling operation” that was evidence of a Western conspiracy to overthrow the government. The White Helmets have financial backing from the U.S., Britain, and other nations.

 

The unprecedented operation was spearheaded by the U.S., Canada, and Britain, The Associated Press reported on Friday.

 

The rescuers and their families are expected to be resettled in Europe and Canada.

 

Germany’s Interior Ministry confirmed on Monday the country would give asylum to eight rescuers and 39 family members.

 

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Sunday giving the rescue workers shelter “is a humanitarian obligation. More than 250 White Helmets have been killed in the war since 2013.”

 

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was quoted as saying that “the efforts of the White Helmets deserve admiration and respect.”

 

Germany has provided the group with 12 million euros ($14 million) in funding since 2016.

 

Also Monday, Israel said it fired a pair of missiles to intercept two missiles fired from Syria in Israel’s direction. It said the Syrian missiles landed inside Syrian territory just short of the Golan Heights, which have been occupied by Israel since 1967.

 

Hundreds of refugees returned to Syria from Lebanon, also on Monday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

 

It is the latest in a string of returns this year. President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement party has put refugee returns near the top of its political agenda.

 

The National News Agency said 850 Syrians living around the border town of Arsal were repatriated on Monday.

 

Close to one million Syrians are registered with the U.N.’s refugee agency in Lebanon. The agency, the UNHCR, says it is not organizing returns to Syria. It says refugees should not be coerced into returning.

 

More than 5 million people have fled the country during its seven-year-long civil war, according to the U.N.

 

 
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Iran Dismisses Trump’s Explosive Threat to Country’s Leader

Posted on by SeeEA

Iranians on Monday shrugged off the possibility that a bellicose exchange of words between President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart could escalate into military conflict, but expressed growing concern America’s stepped-up sanctions could damage their fragile economy.

In his latest salvo, Trump tweeted late on Sunday that hostile threats from Iran could bring dire consequences.

This was after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani remarked earlier in the day that “America must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”

Trump tweeted: “NEVER EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKE OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.”

Within hours, Iran’s state-owned news agency IRNA dismissed the tweet, describing it as a “passive reaction” to Rouhani’s remarks.

On Tehran streets, residents took the exchange in stride.

“Both America and Iran have threatened one another in different ways for several years,” shrugged Mohsen Taheri, a 58-year-old publisher.

A headline on a local newspaper quoted Rouhani as saying: “Mr. Trump, do not play with the lion’s tail.”

On Monday, the White House said Trump’s tweet shows he is not going to tolerate critical rhetoric from Iran and insisted the U.S. leader isn’t escalating tensions between the two countries.

“If anybody’s inciting anything, look no further than to Iran,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said and added that Trump has been “very clear about what he’s not going to allow to take place.”

Prominent Iranian analyst Seed Leilaz downplayed the war of words, saying he thinks it was “the storm before the calm.”

Leilaz told The Associated Press he was not “worried about the remarks and tweets,” and that “neither Iran, nor any other country is interested in escalating tensions in the region.”

Citing harsh words the United States and North Korea had exchanged before the high-profile summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Leilaz said Trump and Kim got “closer” despite the warring words.

Trump’s eruption on Twitter came after a week of heavy controversy about Russian meddling in the U.S. 2016 election, following the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The tweet was reverberating across the Mideast. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the U.S. president’s “strong stance” after years in which the Iranian “regime was pampered by world powers.”

Trump earlier this year pulled the U.S. out of the international deal meant to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon and ordered increased American sanctions, as well as threatening penalties for companies from other countries that continue to do business with Iran.

With the economic pressure, Trump said earlier this month that “at a certain point they’re going to call me and say `let’s make a deal,’ and we’ll make a deal.”

Iran has rejected talks with the U.S., and Rouhani has accused the U.S. of stoking an “economic war.”

Rouhani also suggested Iran could immediately ramp up its production of uranium in response to U.S. pressure. Potentially that would escalate the very situation the nuclear deal sought to avoid — an Iran with a stockpile of enriched uranium that could lead to making atomic bombs.

Trump’s tweet suggested he has little patience with the trading of hostile messages with Iran, using exceptionally strong language and writing the all-capitalized tweet.

“WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!,” he wrote.

Another Tehran resident, Mehdi Naderi, fretted that the U.S. measures and his own government’s policies are damaging the lives of the average Iranian.

“America is threatening the Iranian people with its sanctions and our government is doing the same with its incompetence and mismanagement,” said the self-employed 35-year-old.

Trump has a history of firing off heated tweets that seem to quickly escalate long-standing disputes with leaders of nations at odds with the U.S.

In the case of North Korea, the public war of words cooled quickly and gradually led to the high profile summit and denuclearization talks. There has been little tangible progress in a global push to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons program since the historic Trump-Kim summit on June 12.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Pyongyang for follow-up talks earlier this month, but the two sides showed conflicting accounts of the talks. North’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of making “gangster-like” demands for its unilateral disarmament.

Some experts say Kim is using diplomacy as a way to win outside concessions and weaken U.S.-led international sanctions.

Many in Iran have expressed frustration that Trump has seemed willing to engage with North Korea, which has openly boasted of producing nuclear weapons, but not Iran, which signed the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Since Trump pulled out of the deal, other nations involved — Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China as well as the European Union — have reaffirmed their support for the deal and have been working to try and keep Iran on board.

“Iran is angry since Trump responded to Tehran’s engagement diplomacy by pulling the U.S. out of the nuclear deal,” Iranian lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh told the AP.

He added, however, the war of words between the two presidents was to be expected, since official diplomatic relations between the two countries have been frozen for decades.

“They express themselves through speeches since diplomatic channels are closed,” said Falahatpisheh who heads the influential parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy.

On Sunday in California, Pompeo was strongly critical of Iran, calling its religious leaders “hypocritical holy men” who amassed vast sums of wealth while allowing their people to suffer.

In the speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Pompeo castigated Iran’s political, judicial and military leaders, accusing several by name of participating in widespread corruption. He also said the government has “heartlessly repressed its own people’s human rights, dignity and fundamental freedoms.”

He said despite poor treatment by their leaders, “the proud Iranian people are not staying silent about their government’s many abuses,” Pompeo said. “And the United States under President Trump will not stay silent either.”
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China’s Xi Inks Deals in Rwanda on Whirlwind Tour

Posted on by SeeAF

China’s President Xi Jinping inked 15 deals including loans and grants worth millions of dollars with Rwanda on Monday as part of a whistlestop tour to cement relations with African allies.

Among the deals agreed, the value of which was not revealed, were loans for road construction, hospital renovation and the development of Rwanda’s new Bugesera airport.

As part of his first overseas trip since being re-elected in March, Xi last week visited Senegal to conclude a raft of trade accords.

He will head to Johannesburg on Tuesday for a summit of the BRICS emerging economies — Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa.

Since taking office, Xi has overseen efforts to expand Chinese influence in Africa.

China has already provided vast sums to the continent with Beijing’s financial largesse raising fears that poor nations are unprepared for such massive debts.

“We are bound with common interest. To grow our solidarity with Africa is an important foundation for China’s foreign policy,” said Xi at a media conference where no questions were taken.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame added that the agreements showed “what is possible between our two countries”.

Rwanda, which is one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, had trade with China worth $157 million (134 million euros) in 2017, making Beijing one of Kigali’s largest trade partners.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also set to arrive in Kigali on Monday on his own five-day African tour which will also take him to Uganda before he heads to the BRICS summit.

 

 
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Trump: ‘Gave Up Nothing’ to Putin at Summit

Posted on by SeeEU

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he “gave up nothing” to Russian President Vladimir Putin at last week’s summit in Helsinki, but details of their one-on-one meeting remained elusive.

“We merely talked about future benefits for both countries,” Trump said on Twitter. “Also, we got along very well, which is a good thing except for the Corrupt Media!”

He blamed the mainstream news media, “Fake News” as he called it again, for “talking negatively” about his meeting with Putin.

Trump and Putin met behind closed doors for more than two hours with only their translators in the room with them. At various times since then, Trump has said that the two leaders talked about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, stopping global terrorism, security for Israel, the need to curb a nuclear arms race between their countries, Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, cyberattacks, trade, Middle East peace, North Korea’s nuclear weapons and more.

But details of what Trump and Putin may have decided have not emerged. Trump late last week invited Putin to visit the White House in a few months for a second summit.

Criticism of Helsinki performance

Back home from the first one, the U.S. leader drew widespread criticism – from Trump’s fellow Republicans and opposition Democrats alike – for his performance at the joint news conference he had with Putin, where Trump embraced Putin’s “extremely strong and powerful” denial that Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, rather than defending the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Moscow had interfered.

Trump has voiced a mix of comments since Helsinki, saying he accepted the U.S. intelligence finding of Russian election interference, while coupling it with continued denials that his campaign colluded with Russia.

By Sunday night, however, Trump was calling the Russian interference story “all a big hoax,” and blaming former president Barack Obama for not intervening to stop it because Obama thought Democrat Hillary Clinton would defeat Trump in the election two years ago.

“So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election,” Trump tweeted. “Why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he tell our campaign? Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!”

​

Mueller probe

On Monday, Trump railed against special counsel Robert Mueller’s 14-month investigation of whether Trump’s campaign worked directly with Moscow to help him win and whether he obstructed justice by firing Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey last year at a time when Comey was leading the agency’s Russia probe before Mueller was appointed to take it over.

The U.S. leader attacked the FBI for four times winning approval from a surveillance court to wiretap Carter Page, one of his former advisers, about his suspected ties to Russia, one of the underpinnings of the Mueller probe. Page has not been charged and on Sunday told CNN the allegations that he was conscripted by Russia are “ridiculous” and not true.

Trump called the Mueller probe “a disgrace to America. They should drop the discredited Mueller Witch Hunt now!”

 
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Bosnian Serb Leader Pushes to Overturn Srebrenica Massacre Report

Posted on by SeeEU

The President of Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic Milorad Dodik pushed on Monday to reopen debate over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, less than three months before the country votes in elections.

Dodik launched a procedure demanding that parliament revoke a 2004 report issued by a previous government which established that Bosnian Serb forces killed about 8,000 Muslims in and around the town during the country’s 1992-95 war.

Critics accused Dodik of trying to use the issue of Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two to win the votes of hardline Bosnian Serbs in the October 7 general election.

Dodik has always rejected rulings by two war crimes courts – The U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and The International Court of Justice – that the atrocity qualified as genocide.

Though acknowledging the crime occurred, Dodik said the numbers of those killed had been exaggerated in the 2004 report.

A special session of parliament to debate the report will be held on August 14, a parliamentary panel, which convened at Dodik’s request, said on Monday.

Dodik said earlier that the report had been manipulated to harm the Serbs and that he wanted it overturned. Before this, Srebrenica survivors sent to German authorities a list of Serbs alleged to have participated in the massacre, many of whom are still at large. Many Bosnians settled in Germany after the war, one of a series of conflicts as Yugoslavia broke up.

Bosnian Serb forces, led by General Ratko Mladic, took over the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995. They separated men from women, detained them and killed them en masse in the following days.

Last year, the ICTY convicted Mladic of genocide and crimes against humanity, including at Srebrenica, and jailed him for life.

Bosnian Muslim deputies in the Serb Republic parliament condemned Dodik’s initiative.

“The initiative … is shameful when even the birds in the trees know what happened in Srebrenica. Dodik has no such eraser that can overturn the local and international rulings related to Srebrenica,” one of them, Mujo Hadziomerovic, said.

Dodik, who seeks the secession of the Serb Republic from Bosnia, will run for the Serb seat in the country’s inter-ethnic presidency in October.

Political analyst Tanja Topic said Bosnian parties in general were using such issues to win support. “This is a well-tried political recipe that the ruling parties have been using in their election campaign to mobilize voters around the nationalist agenda on the one side and to discredit their political opponents on the other,” she told Reuters.

After the war, Bosnia was split into the Serb Republic and a federation of Muslim Bosniaks and Roman Catholic Croats, linked via a weak central government.

 
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12 Killed as al-Shabab Attacks Somali Military Base

Posted on by SeeAF

At least 12 people were killed early Monday when al-Shabab militants carried out a raid on a Somali military base in the Lower Juba region.

Officials told VOA Somali the attack targeted the Sanguni camp, located about 50 kilometers north of the port town of Kismayo.

Mukhtar Abdi Mohamed, a unit commander with Somali forces in Sanguni, says troops identified two car bombs and detonated them before the vehicles could reach the base.

Mohamed said 80 to 100 militants attacked the base from the north, sparking a fierce firefight. Somali officials say four soldiers and at least eight militants were killed, including the drivers of the two vehicles.

“We had the information about the attack,” Mohamed said.

“If we didn’t have prior information, we would not have been able to destroy the vehicles before they entered the camp,” he added.

Al-Shabab said it had “overrun” the camp and killed 27 government soldiers.

Mohamed dismissed the al-Shabab report, calling it a “baseless claim intended to attract media attention.”

Sanguni is the same camp where an American soldier was killed in June when al-Shabab fired mortars at the base. It’s not clear if any U.S. advisers were at Sanguni at the time of Monday’s attack.

 
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Santas Converge in Denmark for Annual Congress

Posted on by SeeEU

Braving Europe’s heatwave, more than 150 Santas from around the world donned their heavy suits and full beards at their annual conference in Denmark.

As the 61st World Santa Claus Congress kicked off in Copenhagen, many of the delegates — from countries as far away as Japan and the United States — took a paddle in the sea, to the amusement of local bathers.

The three-day event will see the Santas visit the Little Mermaid statue during a parade and go head to head in the Santa Obstacle Course World Championships.

“Normally us Santas work alone,” said Santa Ian Tom, 67, from Scotland, who is attending his sixth congress this year. “This is like a big family. But a family you get on with.”

For Santa Douglas, 60, from Washington D.C., attending his twelfth convention, it’s the international feel of the event that keeps luring him back.

“It’s interesting how when meeting others their culture starts to rub off on you and yours on them. For example, a lot of the Santa suits now are not the traditional grey Danish one.

They’ve gone more American, which in a way is a shame.”
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Trump’s Ex-Aide Manafort Due in Court Over Bid to Delay Trial

Posted on by SeeUS

A U.S. judge on Monday will weigh President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s bid to delay a criminal trial scheduled to begin this week on more than two dozen financial charges, including bank and tax fraud.

Manafort, a long-time Republican operative and businessman, is a target of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election, has pleaded not guilty. The federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, scheduled a hearing to consider his lawyers’ request to delay his trial for several months.

Manafort faces a second criminal trial in Washington in September on related charges, including witness tampering, in connection with lobbying work he performed for a former pro-Russia Ukrainian government.

Manafort was expected to appear at the hearing at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT).

The trial scheduled to start on Wednesday involves 16 counts including bank and tax fraud and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

The charges against Manafort largely pre-date the two months he led Trump’s campaign in 2016, when the businessman and former reality TV star won the Republican Party nomination and none relate to possible collusion by Trump’s campaign with Russia.

Mueller’s probe has led to multiple indictments and several guilty pleas from other Trump associates, including Rick Gates, a former Trump deputy campaign chairman who worked with Manafort. Alex Van der Zwaan, a lawyer who once worked closely with Manafort and Gates, has also pleaded guilty and has been sentenced.

Though the charges did not reference the Trump campaign or the 2016 election, legal experts have said they put more pressure on former Trump aides to cooperate with Mueller as he looks into whether Russia tried to influence the election in favor of Trump by hacking the emails of leading Democrats and distributing disinformation and propaganda online.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has questioned Mueller’s probe and said Manafort’s indictment appeared aimed at leveraging him to provide information on Trump.

Mueller’s team has outlined an extensive list of evidence to present at the Virginia trial, submitting a 21-page list detailing more than 400 exhibits that include scores of bank records, emails and photographs, among other documents.

 
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Migrants Stranded Without Aid as Tunisia Refuses to Let Ship Dock

Posted on by SeeEA

A Tunisian boat carrying around 40 African migrants has been stranded off the country’s coast without aid for more than a week after authorities refused to let them disembark there, the Red Crescent said on Monday.

Monji Slim, an official of the Tunisian Red Crescent, said the authorities had argued that Malta or Italy should accept the migrants. The Tunisian interior ministry declined to comment.

Slim told Reuters the boat was stuck 12 miles off the coast.

“The African migrants at sea are in a bad condition after the vessel’s captain refused to receive aid to pressure the Tunisian authorities to receive them, but no solution has been reached after 11 days at sea.”

It was not clear from where the migrants had originally set off before they were rescued by the Tunisian vessel.

The new Italian government has closed its ports to charity ships operating in the Mediterranean, saying the European Union must share the burden of accepting the hundreds of migrants who are plucked from waters each month, mostly off the Libyan coast.

Rome called this month for migrant centers to be set up in Africa to stop a tide of asylum-seekers fleeing toward western Europe. Tunisia has rejected this proposal.

At least 80 migrants died when their boat sank off the Tunisian coast last month, one of the worst migrant boat accidents in the North African country of recent years.

Human traffickers are increasingly using Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as the Libyan coast guard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls.
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Poll: Most Germans Think Europe Can Defend Itself Without US

Posted on by SeeUS

More than half of Germans think Europe can defend itself without military backing from the United States, a poll showed on Monday, less than two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could withdraw support.

Only 37 percent of respondents said they believed Europe depended on U.S. military help, the Forsa poll showed.

The survey found no significant difference between eastern German regions and western areas, which have stronger historical ties to the United States. In the east, 60 percent thought Europe did not need Washington, and in the west, 55 percent.

Trump gave an ultimatum to European allies on July 12, warning a NATO summit the United States could withdraw its support if Europe did not share more of what he called an unfair burden on U.S. taxpayers in funding the alliance.

In a rebuke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he also called Germany a “captive” of Moscow because, he said, Berlin supported a Baltic Sea gas pipeline from Russia.

About 84 percent of respondents said Trump’s comments about Russia controlling Germany were “completely absurd”, according to the poll which surveyed 1,004 Germans.

Even more — 92 percent — said they suspected that Trump’s motive for making the comments was primarily to promote the sale of U.S. liquefied gas in Europe and Germany.

Two thirds said they supported the construction of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline because it would help provide Germany with a more reliable supply of natural gas.
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Israel Launches US-Backed Missile Shield on Syria Frontier, Russia Sends Envoys

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Israel launched its newest air defense system on Monday on the Syrian frontier, where Damascus’s Russian-backed forces have been routing rebels, as Moscow sent envoys for what it called “urgent” talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu planned to meet Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and its armed forces chief, General Valery Gerasimov, later in the day, a visit the Israeli leader said was arranged last week at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Israel has been on high alert as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regains ground from southern rebels, bringing his forces close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In a sign of high tensions, Israel launched two David’s Sling interceptor missiles at rockets which the Israeli military later said fell inside Syrian territory and were part of the internal fighting there.

It was Israel’s first published operational use of the mid-range missiles, which are jointly manufactured by U.S. firm Raytheon Co. The incident triggered sirens in northern Israel and on the Golan.

The military did not immediately elaborate on whether the targets were shot down by David’s Sling. Israel deployed the system last year to complement its short-range Iron Dome and long-range Arrow interceptors.

Netanyahu held talks with Putin in Moscow on July 11 amid Israeli concern that Assad, an old foe, may defy a 1974 demilitarisation deal on the Golan or allow his Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies to deploy there.

Russia, whose foreign ministry confirmed Lavrov’s visit, has said it wants to see the separation of forces on the frontier preserved. Lavrov’s deputy, Grigory Karasin, told Russian media the foreign minister’s trip was “urgent and important.”

Netanyahu, in broadcast remarks, said he would tell the envoys that “Israel insists on the separation of forces agreement between us and Syria being honored, as they were honored for decades until the civil war in Syria broke out.”

He also reaffirmed “Israel will continue to act against any attempt by Iran and its proxies to entrench militarily in Syria.”

Syrian state television said on Sunday an Israeli air strike hit a military post in the city of Misyaf in Syria’s Hama province but caused only material damage. An Israeli military spokeswoman said it does not comment on foreign reports.

Also on Sunday, hundreds of Syrian “White Helmet” rescue workers and their families fled advancing government forces and slipped over the border into Jordan with the help of Israeli soldiers and Western powers.
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