Month: August 2018

US Cuts Funding to UN Agency Helping Palestinian Refugees

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The Trump administration has cut funding to the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, calling the organization “irredeemably flawed.”

The U.S. State Department ended decades of support to the organization Friday, saying “the administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency).”

Chris Gunness, a UNRWA spokesman, said his organization rejects “in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA’s schools, health centers, and emergency assistance programs are ‘irredeemably flawed.’” He said the World Bank has described UNRWA’s activities as “global public good” and “recognized us for running one of the most effective school systems in the region, in which students regularly outperform their peers in public schools.”

“We are extremely grateful for the widespread solidarity,” Gunness said, “that our unprecedented situation has generated and the generosity of many donors that has allowed us to open the school year on time for 526,000 girls and boys this very week.”

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the agency enjoys the “full confidence” of the Secretary-General and that Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl, UNRWA’s chief, “has led a rapid, innovative and tireless effort to overcome the unexpected financial crisis UNRWA has faced this year.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.N. agency’s “endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years.”

UNRWA provides health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The agency says it provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees, most of whom are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israel’s establishment in 1948.

The United States supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of UNRWA and donated $355 million to the agency in 2016. However, in January, the Trump administration withheld $65 million it had been due to provide UNRWA and released only $60 million in funds.

Last week, the Trump administration announced it would cut more than $200 million in economic aid to the Palestinians, following a review of the funding for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. A senior State Department official said the decision took into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance to Gaza, where “Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza’s citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian and economic situation.”

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs Gaza, seized the coastal territory in 2007 from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. That led to Israel and Egypt placing severe economic restrictions on the region.

Under the Trump administration, Washington has taken a number of actions that have angered the Palestinians, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and moving the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian leadership has been boycotting Washington’s peace efforts since the Jerusalem announcement.
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Rights Group Criticizes Sentences Given to Iranian Journalists

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A media rights group is condemning what it calls “harsh sentences” that Iranian authorities imposed on at least seven journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Friday that the reporters were jailed this summer for their coverage of protests in February by the Gonabadi Dervish religious order. 

The New-York based group said Iranian courts in July and August sentenced at least six journalists affiliated with Majzooban Noor, a news website that focuses on the Gonabadi Dervish minority, and a journalist from the state-run outlet Ensaf to prison terms of between seven and 26 years.

A Turkey-based editor of Majzooban Noor told VOA earlier in August that the six jailed contributors had received prison terms totaling 71 years.

“There is no reason for them to have been given such heavy sentences other than the fact that the Iranian government is trying to apply pressure on us to shut down Majzooban Noor, which is the central news source of the Dervishes,” said Alireza Roshan, an Iranian Dervish writer and poet.

Dervishes involved in the February protests had been demanding the release of arrested members of their community and the removal of security checkpoints around the house of their 90-year-old leader, Noor Ali Tabandeh. Members of the Sufi Muslim religious sect long have complained of harassment by Iran’s Shiite Islamist rulers, who view them as heretics.

Roshan said Majzooban Noor has brought international attention to what it sees as human rights violations by Iranian authorities against the Dervishes, including the detention of dozens of women in February’s crackdown on the Dervish protests. He said the Iranian government had not accused Majzooban Noor of any illegal activity that could warrant the apparent effort to silence the news outlet.

Iran’s courts have accused the reporters of “spreading propaganda against the regime.”

In addition to the jail time, the journalists also received sentences of public floggings, multiyear bans on leaving the country, and bans on political and media activity upon their eventual releases.

“These horrifying sentences lay bare Iranian authorities’ depraved attitude toward journalists, as well as the hollow center of President Hassan Rouhani’s promises of reform,” Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program coordinator, said in Washington.

“Iran should end its vicious campaign against journalists and allow them to report freely,” Mansour said.
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Ugandan Activist Bobi Wine Freed from Kampala Hospital

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A Ugandan legislator allegedly tortured by security officials will be allowed to travel to the United States for medical care, a Ugandan political activist has told VOA.

Kiwanuka Lawrence Nsereko, who lives in New York State, told VOA’s Africa News Tonight radio program Friday evening that Robert Kyagulanyi has been freed from the Kampala hospital where he was held, and taken to the airport.

Nsereko said he’d spoken with Kyagulanyi’s family shortly after the news came out in Kampala. His family is “trying to scramble” to find him a flight, Nsereko said. His understanding is that Kyagulanyi will come to the Washington area, but it will depend on the availability of flights.

Thursday night police detained Kyagulanyi and fellow opposition lawmaker Francis Zaake at the Kampala airport as they tried to leave the country. The police said the two opposition figures, who both face treason charges, were fleeing the country. Zaake has not yet been freed.

Both men said they were tortured after their previous arrests, and a Kampala hospital had referred them for medical care abroad. Kyagulanyi, a popular singer known as Bobi Wine, was headed for the United States while Zaake was headed for India.

Upon reaching the airport, the opposition legislators were told they did not have clearance to travel and were taken to a government hospital in police ambulances. Their arrest sparked protests around Kampala, which were at times met with police gunfire and tear gas Friday.

Their lawyer, Asumani Basalirwa, says the director of criminal investigations, Grace Akullo, told him that since the legislators said they were tortured, government doctors needed to examine them.

“After the examination, they could then decide whether to take them to court or not. So today the government doctors were here. They were able to speak to the Honorable Robert Sentamu Kyagulanyi and we don’t know what will be the result of that discussion. But they didn’t carry out any examinations. And strangely they didn’t meet Honorable Francis Zaake,” Basalirwa said.

Nsereko says the international media and social media campaign by supporters of the opposition politicians appears to have helped free Kyagulanyi. “The government is realizing they are making a mistake.” 

He says this new development, however, while a relief for many people in Uganda, has not defused tensions entirely. In addition to Zaake, other protesters and critics of the government remain in prison and have been beaten. “The world needs to understand that it is more than just one person.”

Kyagulanyi, Zaake and three other opposition lawmakers originally were among more than 30 people arrested in early August after a protest broke during campaigning for by-election. Protesters threw stones at and damaged President Yoweri Museveni’s vehicle. 

Museveni has been president since 1986. Many older Ugandans still support the 74-year-old leader. But about 75 percent of Ugandans are under the age of 35, and they are beginning to tire of his authoritarian rule.

At the same time, human rights organizations and opposition politicians say the government has grown increasingly repressive toward critics.

This article originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service, with contributions from Kim Lewis and Halima Athumani.
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Poland Counts WWII Damages It Wants to Seek from Germany

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Poland says it lost more than 5 million citizens and over $54 billion dollars (46.6 billion euros) worth of assets under the Nazi German occupation of the country during World War II.

A parliamentary commission announced the numbers as part of the current Polish government’s declared intent to seek damages from Germany.

Poland spent decades under Soviet domination after the war and wasn’t able to seek damages independently. However, Germany is making payments to Polish survivors of Nazi atrocities.

Preliminary calculations done for the commission put the number of Polish citizens killed from 1939 to 1945 at 5.1 million, including 90 percent of Poland’s Jewish population.

Losses in cities were estimated to be worth 53 billion zlotys ($14 billion; 12 billion euros). Additional losses in agriculture and transportation infrastructure also were factored in.
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Xenophobic Group Marches in Johannesburg After Violent Killings of Foreigners

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Xenophobic attacks have surged in South Africa in the past week, with at least four foreigners killed in clashes with angry locals who accused them of taking scarce jobs. On Friday morning, a new anti-foreigner political party marched in Johannesburg, demanding that non-South Africans leave the country.

The 150 or so protesters who marched through downtown Johannesburg demanded the deportation of all undocumented foreigners in South Africa by the end of the year.

Their demonstration followed a new outburst of deadly xenophobic violence in the Soweto area of Johannesburg. Police say 27 people were arrested, and two face murder charges.

Friday’s march was led by Thembelani Ngubane, the founder of the new party, known as the African Basic Movement. He says the party’s views on foreign nationals are central to its platform.

“We cannot allow foreigners, even legal foreigners, to do small businesses in South Africa,” he told VOA. “That is for South Africans only. Illegal foreigners cannot do business. The constitution says they must be deported.”

Some 2 million foreign nationals live in South Africa, according to the most recent census.

Ngubane’s group believes that foreign nationals take jobs and bring crime into the country. However, researchers have found that immigrants are often job creators, and are not disproportionately responsible for violent crime.

Sharon Ekambaram, who leads the refugee and migrant rights program for legal advocacy group Lawyers for Human Rights, says her group is filing a legal complaint against the party. She says the party is spreading hate speech, which is against the law in South Africa.

“It is dangerous; it is not only dangerous to foreign nationals, our brothers and sisters coming from our neighboring countries, predominantly black African brothers and sisters, but it is also dangerous for South Africans and poor communities, and I think that we, that law enforcement agencies, need to be much more visible,” she told VOA. “We call on the police to ensure that they take action; this is unlawful.”

Both of South Africa’s main political parties, the ruling African National Congress and the opposition Democratic Alliance, have condemned the recent violence and say xenophobia has no place in the Rainbow Nation.

But as the angry protesters marched through the streets of Johannesburg, Malawian national Tasira Banda, working at a local nail salon, spoke about the protesters, and about South Africans in general.

“You see, they are saying, ‘Foreigners, we are stealing their jobs,'” she said. “Well, they can’t do what I’m doing, you see? They will say, ‘Foreigners, they are taking our wives.’ They can’t support their wives. All they do is drink beer, or go and steal, that’s it.”

She turned back to her work.

“Are we done?” she added.

Zaheer Cassim contributed reporting from Johannesburg.
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Can China’s Big Loans to Africa Continue?

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Over the past decade, China has extended billions of dollars in loans to African countries, mostly for infrastructure. However, some experts say the global trade war may factor into how China uses its money.

Chinese and African leaders meet every three years to discuss ways China can fund Africa’s development aspirations. The next session, to begin Monday, will address the Belt and Road initiative, which aims to better connect China with the African continent.

But with China engaged in a trade disagreement with the U.S., the Chinese government may be less willing to expand its financial commitment to Africa, according to Cobus van Staden, senior researcher on Africa-China relations at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

At the 2015 gathering in South Africa, China pledged to loan Africa $60 billion. Chinese companies are currently building railway lines in Kenya, Nigeria and Angola, as well as roads and housing projects in South Africa.

However, some Africans worry that their governments have over-borrowed, leaving their countries with huge debt.

The head of the Africa Policy Institute, Peter Kagwanja, says the loans need to be directed at projects that have high economic returns.

“But of course, the question is how do African countries deal with that particular debt, and China’s answer, which Africa seems to be agreeing with, is that we need investments in activities that are going to produce maximally to get the investment to pay for themselves,” Kagwanja said.

China is accused by Western powers of supporting and funding undemocratic states and countries that do not have respect for human rights.

As China’s interests expand, Kagwanja says, it cannot ignore the security and political threats in Africa.

“That question is critical, and it was brought on the forefront the kind of uncertainty that surrounded Kenya’s political elections last year at a time when China was celebrating one year of SGR [standard gauge railway] in the country, and that uncertainty raises questions: What can China do to secure the political stability of African countries? What kind of governance systems does Africa need to adopt in order to secure a long-term basis not only investment, but long-term planning for socio-economic transformation?” Kagwanja said.

The two-day forum in Beijing ends Tuesday. 
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UNHCR: Asylum Seekers on Greek Islands Live in Squalid Conditions

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The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) warns asylum seekers and migrants who came ashore on the Greek islands are living in conditions unfit for human habitation. The agency is urging the Greek government to speed up the  transfer of these individuals to the mainland so they can receive proper care.

According to UNHCR, thousands of asylum seekers and migrants who made the perilous journey across the Aegean Sea are forced to live in squalid, overcrowded centers on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios and Kos.

For example, the agency said more than 7,000 asylum-seekers and migrants on Lesbos are crammed into shelters built to accommodate just 2,000 people, one-quarter of them children.

UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley said these conditions are having a devastating impact on peoples’ well-being.

“We are seeing increasing numbers of people including children presenting with mental health problems,” he said. “… We are seeing rising levels of sexual assaults because there is insufficient security in place and the sanitary facilities as well. On recent missions to the islands, staff have commented that the sanitary facilities are essentially unusable in some cases.”

Yaxley noted an average of 114 people are arriving on the islands every day — more than 70 percent are families from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He said the new arrivals are adding to the congestion and deteriorating conditions.

The UNHCR said Greek authorities must do more to overcome bureaucratic delays that are preventing the speedy transfer of people to the mainland. If no ready solution can be found, it said extraordinary measures should be considered, including the use of emergency accommodations, hotels, and other alternative housing facilities.

However, at the request of the Greek government, the UNHCR said it has “exceptionally agreed to continue its support in transport of asylum-seekers to the mainland in September in order to avoid further delays.”
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Uganda Police Shut Down Capital After Opposition Figure Re-Arrested

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Protests broke out in Uganda’s capital Friday after police arrested a prominent opposition figure who was trying to leave the country for medical treatment.

Pop star-turned-lawmaker Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, was arrested at the Kampala airport Thursday night. His lawyer told VOA that Kyagulanyi was taken to a government hospital, allegedly so authorities can determine whether he is truly ill.

The attorney, Medard Ssegona, says Kyagulanyi is “not in good health” and was referred for a medical examination in the United States.

Kyagulanyi was one of five lawmakers arrested earlier this month in connection with an incident where protesters threw stones at the vehicle of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.  Kyagulanyi and other lawmakers have said they were beaten and tortured while in detention.

Police Friday re-arrested another one of the five lawmakers, Francis Zaake, as he also tried to leave the country for medical treatment.  

The protests erupted early Friday in the Kamwokya neighborhood of Kampala.  Police and soldiers have deployed around the capital and that by midday there were no protests or clashes in the city.

One reporter was attacked and beaten by security forces while covering the events amid growing signs that security personnel are now deliberately targeting journalists.

The 74-year-old Museveni has led Uganda for 32 years.  In July, a presidential age limit was removed from the constitution, allowing him to run for re-election when his term expires in 2021.

Halima Athumani and James Butty contributed to this report.

 
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Exclusive: Iranian Officer Flees After Refusing to Suppress Protests

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An Iranian police officer has deserted his post and fled Iran, saying his life was in danger for refusing orders to suppress anti-government protests that have swept the country this year.

Fariborz Karamizand, a member of Iran’s ethnic Kurdish minority, spoke to VOA’s Kurdish Service on Thursday. In an exclusive Skype video interview, he said he had deserted his Tehran-based position as a three-star first lieutenant with Iran’s Intelligence and Public Security Police. The force, known as PAVA, is a domestic security branch of Iran’s national police organization, the NAJA.

“I refused to implement an order to crack down on the people and their uprising, and [refused] to arrest those who participated in a legitimate cause,” Karamizand said. “My life was in danger. I had to leave Iran.”

Karamizand said he went into hiding with his family, but he did not disclose which country he fled to or when. He said Iranian police and intelligence agents of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were searching for him and his family members.

Karamizand said other security officers recently have abandoned their posts as well. “Just a few days ago, an NAJA officer deserted, and [there have been desertions] even within the army and Revolutionary Guards,” he said. He did not provide further details but said the deserters were “fed up” with what he called the Iranian government’s oppression of its own people.

Karamizand is a native of the predominantly ethnic Kurdish western Iranian province of Kermanshah. He said he had been stationed there for much of his police career, but his superiors transferred him to Tehran earlier this year. He said the transfer was in response to his initial defiance of orders to suppress anti-government protests by Iranian Kurds in Kermanshah.

“The people of Kermanshah played a leading role in the protests, but they were cracked down upon harshly,” he said. “They came under attack from the Iranian security apparatus, including the Revolutionary Guards and Basiji militiamen.”

After being transferred to Tehran, where he was subject to greater bureaucratic oversight than in his previous position in Kermanshah, Karamizand said he again refused to obey commands to crack down on anti-government demonstrations, this time in the Iranian capital.

Karamizand called on other Iranian police officers to side with Iranians seeking to expedite the demise of Iran’s Islamist leadership, which seized power in a 1979 revolution. “Police work is sacred, but its legitimacy is in the hands of the people, not the regime,” he said.

Karamizand also had a message for the Iranian people: “They should not wait for an outside country [to help], they should organize themselves in one city after another and stand up together as civilians, so that security forces do not interfere.”

Iran has seen frequent nationwide protests this year by citizens expressing anger toward local and national officials and business leaders whom they accuse of mismanagement, corruption and oppression. Iranian leaders often have deflected the domestic criticism by blaming the unrest on foreign “enemies.”

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.

 

 
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Armed Clashes in Tripoli Take Heavy Toll on Migrants, Refugees

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U.N. and international aid agencies are working to move refugees and migrants out of harm’s way in Libya as local militia and tribal leaders, vying for control of the capital, clash for a fifth day.

Libyan authorities report 30 people, many of them civilians, have been killed and 96 wounded during the fighting. The charity Doctors Without Borders warns that the lives of local residents, as well as 8,000 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants, are at risk.

More than 5,800 people reportedly have been displaced, according to a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Paul Dillon. Earlier this week, the IOM, with help from Libyan and Malian authorities, returned 164 migrants to their homes of origin in Mali, he said, adding that there is a waiting list of migrants from Somalia and other African countries who want to go home.

“We are also looking to try and speed up the voluntary humanitarian return part of this. Many of the people of the Somalia caseload were already sort of in the pipeline and we are looking to find ways to accelerate that process. Obviously, we are working closely with the UNHCR on these matters,” Dillion said. 

A joint effort by several U.N. and international agencies on Tuesday succeeded in evacuating some 300 refugees and migrants held in Ain Zara detention center in Tripoli. The U.N. refugee agency says the detainees were in danger of becoming caught in the hostilities.

The UNHCR says those released from detention come mainly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, and have been moved to a safer location. 

Many Libyan families also have been displaced by the fighting, with some taking shelter in the detention centers emptied of their refugee and migrant inmates, Dillon said.
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Ukraine Separatists Report Leader Killed in Cafe Blast

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The leader of the Russia-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region was killed Friday by an explosion at a cafe, the separatists’ news agency said Friday.

Rebel news agency DAN said the afternoon explosion killed Alexander Zakharchenko, 42, the prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. The separatist government’s revenue minister, Alexander Timofeev, was severely injured in the blast, Russian news agencies reported.

The Donetsk People’s Republic, along with a separatist republic in neighboring Luhansk, has fought Ukrainian forces since 2014, the same year Zakharchenko became DPR’s prime minister. More than 10,000 people have died in the armed conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Zakharchenko as “a true people’s leader” and promised residents of Donetsk that “Russia always will be with you.”

The cafe in the city of Donetsk that was hit by the explosion, named Separ, was separatist-themed and had camouflage netting hanging from its eaves, recent photographs show.

It was not immediately clear if a bomb caused the blast or it resulted from something else. Russia’s Interfax news agency cited local sources as saying suspects had been detained, but there was no official confirmation.

Denis Pushilin, the speaker of the separatists’ parliament, blamed Ukrainian forces for the explosion, calling it “the latest aggression from the Ukrainian side,” according to DAN.

A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Security Service, Elena Gitlyanskaya, said “The Ukrainian special services don’t have any kind of connection to this.”

There have been several assassinations or attempted slayings of prominent rebels in recent years. It never was established if pro-Kyiv attackers were responsible or if the violence resulted from factional disputes within the rebel ranks or Moscow’s possible desire to eliminate individuals it found inconvenient.

Among the prominent separatists who have been targeted are former Luhansk leader Igor Plotnitsky, who was severely injured in 2016 when a bomb exploded near his car; Arsen Pavlov, a feared squadron leader known as “Motorola” who died when the elevator of his apartment building was bombed; and fighter Mikhail Tolstykh, whose office is believed to have been hit by a shoulder-fired rocket.

Russia denies providing troops or equipment to the separatists despite widespread allegations it has done so. Russia is believed to have supplied a mobile Buk missile launcher that a team of international investigators claims shot down a Malaysian passenger jet while flying over rebel territory in 2014, killing all 209 people aboard.  

The rebellion in Donetsk and Luhansk arose soon after pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from power amid mass protests in February 2014. Russian-speakers predominate in the two regions, and separatist sentiment skyrocketed.

Encouraged by Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which also came after Yanukovych’s ouster, rebel leaders initially hoped their regions would be absorbed by Russia as well.

Fighting fell off significantly after the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in 2015 signed an accord in Minsk, Belarus, on ending the conflict. But most of the agreement’s provisions remain unfulfilled and clashes break out sporadically.

“Instead of fulfilling the Minsk accords and finding ways to resolve the internal conflict, the Kyiv war party is implementing a terrorist scenario,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of Zakharchenko’s death. “Having failed to fulfill the promise of peace, apparently they decided to turn to a bloodbath.”
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Pope Francis ‘Serene’ Despite Hovering Sex Abuse Scandal

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Pope Francis was described Thursday by a top aide as ‘serene’ in the face of the unprecedented public skirmishing breaking out among Catholic prelates over an explosive charge that the pontiff knew about sexual misconduct allegations against a U.S. cardinal but chose to ignore them.

The Vatican’s secretary of state said Francis is maintaining his grace despite “bitterness and concern” in the Vatican over the accusation leveled against him by a onetime top Catholic envoy, who has demanded the Pope resign.

The Pope’s accuser, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador and a doctrinal opponent of Francis, has gone into hiding after making his claim last Sunday in a scathing 11-page document that was crafted with the assistance of a well-known Italian journalist and a stalwart critic of the Pope. According to Vigano, Francis ignored misconduct allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

The incendiary document, which also warned of a homosexual culture in the church, was leaked to several conservative Catholic newspapers and blogs, all determined foes of Francis. They agreed to publish it on the second and final day of Francis’s trip to Ireland, in a coordinated effort, say Francis loyalists, to cause him maximum damage.

The publication of the letter upended the visit to Ireland, where Pope Francis had hoped to stanch the damage being done to the Holy See by the clerical sex abuse crisis that has roiled the Roman Catholic Church worldwide for decades. Just two weeks before the Ireland trip, the Church was rocked by further clerical abuse allegations with the release of a grand jury report in the U.S. which detailed the abuse of children in six Pennsylvania dioceses over the past seven decades by hundreds of “predator priests.”

In Ireland, Pope Francis met Irish abuse victims and asked for the faithful to forgive the church for its failings. “We ask forgiveness for the times that we did not show [abuse] survivors compassion or the justice they deserve in the search for truth,” he said. And he then added: “We ask forgiveness for members of the Church hierarchy who did not take care of these situations and kept quiet.”

But Vigano says Francis is one of the church leaders who’s colluded in covering up abuse or has been too ready to overlook abuse allegations when leveled against friends and progressive allies. He has also claimed that a tolerant attitude towards homosexuality in the Vatican — even alleging a progressive gay cabal in the upper echelons of the Church — is the root cause of clerical sex abuse. Francis supporters scoff at that charge, noting that clerical sex abuse has been going on for decades and for most of that time traditionalists were in control of the Vatican.

‘Conspiracy of silence’

Midweek Vigano reemerged to give an interview to La Verità newspaper, saying he spoke up out of a sense of duty to the Catholic Church and not because the Pope had passed him over for promotion. “I have never had feelings of vendetta or rancor,” he said, adding that there is a “conspiracy of silence” in the Church “not so dissimilar from the one that prevails in the mafia.”

Vigano says Francis was aware of the grave allegations of sexual misconduct against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who’s been accused of abusing young priests and molesting seminarians for decades. Unlike his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, who imposed sanctions on McCarrick, Francis and his circle of advisers chose to rehabilitate the U.S. cardinal, argues Vigano.

The claims are shaking Francis’s five-year papacy.

Amid the swirl of charge and counter-charge between church liberals and conservatives locked in a power struggle, there’s mounting anxiety in the Vatican that traditionalists, opposed to the Pope’s efforts to make the Church more inclusive and less rigid doctrinally, are determined to use the clerical sex abuse scandal to gain politically.

The pope’s supporters say Francis’ doctrinal opponents won’t be satisfied until they have either forced him to resign, or so damaged him that he’s stripped of the authority needed to drive the reforms they’re determined to halt. They say traditionalists have been emboldened by the resignation of Benedict, whose stepping down as leader of the Catholic Church in 2013 made him the first pope to relinquish the office since 1415, setting a modern-day precedent for pontiffs not having to stay in office until they die.

Abuse survivors are also suspicious of the motives of Vigano and the circle of traditionalists supporting him. Despite their own frustrations with Francis at what they see as a failure by his Vatican to take concrete steps to root out corrupt clergy, they worry traditionalists are enlisting homophobia in their campaign against Francis and are not truly focused on the well-being of abuse survivors.

Not a word

Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, one of the Pope’s closest advisers, dismissed Vigano’s attacks, telling La Repubblica newspaper Thursday, “Transforming information of a private nature into a bombshell headline that explodes around the world damaging the faith of many people doesn’t seem to me to be a correct action.” But Maradiaga did not engage with the details of Vigano’s central charge — that the pope ignored misconduct allegations against McCarrick, who last month resigned, becoming the first cardinal to do so since 1927.

Francis, too, has continued to remain silent about McCarrick.

The 81-year-old pope told journalists who accompanied him on his two-day visit to Ireland that he wouldn’t comment. Asked in an impromptu press conference on board his plane on the return to Rome about Vigano’s accusation, the Pope said he left it up to the journalists to judge for themselves. “I won’t say a word about it,” he said.

Vatican analysts say the Holy See appears to be hoping that by ignoring the substance of the claim against Francis, the storm can be ridden out.  But they warn that appears to be a forlorn hope — by shunning the charge, Francis is fueling it and prompting the question, ‘why won’t the pope answer?’ If the claim is inaccurate, “why wouldn’t the pope correct it, just as he has spoken so openly about so many other things?” queried commentator Tim Stanley in a commentary for the London Sunday Telegraph.

Francis’ conservative critics are gearing up to press formally for an answer. In an open letter to his diocese in Tyler, Texas, Bishop Joseph Strickland midweek said: “Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible.” He says he will agitate for an investigation.

Other prelates are plotting to do so as well, next month in Rome at a synod of bishops to discuss young people and faith.

The Diocese of Dallas in Texas has petitioned the Pope to hold a special synod, or summit, of bishops on the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Progressives started to rally Friday around Francis with prelates from Latin America, the pope’s home continent, as well as Portugal  leading the charge.

Of the accusations, Cardinal António dos Santos Marto, of Fatima, Portugal, told the Observador newspaper, “It’s a campaign organized by ultra-conservatives to mortally wound the pope.”

Marto predicted Francis will be strengthened by the controversy, adding, however, that “in this moment it’s necessary for the entire Church to manifest her support for the pope.” He said Francis may soon switch tactics and address head-on the accusations against him.

Francis also received backing from a top aide to his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Archbishop Georg Ganswein dismissed Vigano’s claim that Benedict had informed Francis of the misconduct allegations against McCarrick. He told Italian newspapers Friday: “It’s all rubbish.”

 

 
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Merkel Wraps Up Africa Tour with Talk of Business, Migration

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrapped up a tour of three African nations Friday. She said her goals during the visit were two-fold: to promote business ties with Germany and to curb the wave of migration from the continent to Europe.

But Merkel faces many other issues on the continent, analysts say: the rise of China, the declining image of the United States, and a still-festering wound in Namibia over Germany’s actions in that country more than 100 years ago.

Analyst Jakkie Cilliers of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies notes that Merkel’s trip follows recent visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

“So, in one sense, one could make the argument that Merkel is playing catch-up,” he told VOA. “But I actually think these [visits] reflect, to a large degree, real concerns in Germany about migration and, of course, radicalism and radical terrorism in West Africa.”

Merkel’s tour included stops in three of West Africa’s most vibrant economies: Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria. Nearly a dozen German CEOs keen on promoting business ties accompanied Merkel on her trip.

Cilliers also says that Merkel may be trying to fill a vacuum created by what he described as a “faltering” of U.S. leadership in the last two years.

“Africa is, in my view, an important pivot, a battleground in a certain way, about the future of rules-based order at a time when American leadership clearly is faltering,” he said. “So you can, in that context, make the argument that to a degree perhaps, Angela Merkel is partly stepping into the vacuum that has been left by the U.S. retreat.”

Merkel’s tour coincided with a major development in Berlin. Earlier this week, her government handed over the remains of indigenous Namibians killed by German forces in the early 1900s. German troops are believed have killed tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people after they revolted against colonial rule.

Vekuii Rukoro is the elected chief of the Herero people, who number about 400,000, and he attended the ceremony in Berlin. He says he welcomed the gesture.

“We feel happy that after more than 114 years we were able to bring back these remains, back home to the land of their ancestors, and reunite them with the spirits of the ancestors,” he told VOA.

But, he says, it’s not enough. His group is suing the German government in U.S. District Court in New York — which is home to a large concentration of expatriate Hereros — seeking an apology and group reparations.

Until Germany does more, he says, he sees no point in a visit from Germany’s chancellor.

“What would she come and do,” he said, “in the absence of them having acknowledged genocide, them having even issued an appropriate apology?”
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Syria Rebels Destroy Bridges in Anticipation of Offensive

Posted on by SeeEA

Syrian opposition fighters blew up bridges Friday linking areas they control to government-held territories in northwestern Syria in anticipation of a military offensive against their last stronghold in the country, activists and a war monitor said.

The explosions rocked the area in al-Ghab plains, south of Idlib and came after rebels detected government troop movement in the area, according to Rami Abdurrahman, head of the war monitoring Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Abdurrahman said two other bridges remain in the area and could be used by government forces to move in on the rebel stronghold.

Most of Idlib province and adjacent strips of Hama province remain in the hands of an assortment of armed groups, some Turkey-backed and others independent Islamist groups. But the strongest alliance of fighters is led by an al-Qaida-linked group that controls most of the area that is also home to some 3 million people.

Thousands of government troops and allied fighters have been amassing in areas surrounding Idlib while Russia, Syria’s powerful ally, has said a military operation was necessary to weed out “terrorists” it blames for attacking its bases on the coast.

Turkey, which backs a number of opposition factions in Syria and has set up observation points that ring the rebel stronghold, has been seeking to curtail a full-scale offensive. Ankara fears a humanitarian and security crisis on its borders.

U.N. officials estimate an offensive would trigger a wave of displacement that could uproot up to 800,000 people. The area is already home to nearly 2 million displaced previously from other parts of Syria.  

The Observatory said Turkey-backed rebels blew up the bridges as part of their reinforcement around the stronghold.

They have dug trenches, built berms and fortified their posts. Al-Qaida-linked authorities have also called on residents to take part in supporting the fighters, either through building reinforcements, volunteering to fight, or in field hospitals and kitchens to help men deployed on the frontline.

It also called on residents to take to the streets after Friday prayers against an offensive and in support of the fighters. Thousands protested in various towns in Idlib and Hama, denouncing threats of an attack and hailing the area’s readiness to fight.

The campaign for Idlib is likely to be the last major theater of battle after seven years of brutal civil war.

 
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US Navy Interrupts Gun Smuggling Operation in Gulf of Aden

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.S. Navy says it has interrupted a weapons smuggling operation in the Gulf of Aden, amid the ongoing war in Yemen.

“The guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham, deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet, seized an illicit shipment of arms from a stateless skiff in the international waters of the Gulf of Aden,” the Navy said in a statement. The seizure happened Tuesday.

A U.S. military video, released early Friday, allegedly shows the small-ship smuggling operation.

The Navy statement said the Dunham located a dhow, a traditional ship type common in the Persian Gulf region, transferring “covered packages” to the skiff. The skiff was determined to be stateless following a flag verification boarding, conducted in accordance with international law, the Navy said.

The Dunham’s search and seizure team found a cache of more than 1,000 AK-47 automatic rifles aboard the skiff.

The Navy said it has not identified the source of the weapons, which are now in its custody.

The skiff’s engines were inoperable, according to the Navy. The vessel’s “distressed mariners” were brought aboard the Dunham and were later transferred to the Yemeni Coast Guard.
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Pizza, Beer Help Foreign Students Orient to New Schools

Posted on by SeeUS

Before hunkering down in lectures about chemistry or economics, international students at U.S. colleges and universities are learning about health insurance and visa specifications.

It’s international student orientation week at many colleges and universities, including Rice University, where many graduate students are just days into their new journeys in Houston, Texas.

“Everyone is a little bit confused, a little disoriented. Lots of people are jetlagged,” Arina Zaytseva, a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies from Russia, told VOA at an afternoon pizza party in the engineering building, following a long morning of information sessions in lecture halls.

Zaytseva was not particularly impressed with the pizza.

Health insurance and bike laws

“But there were many important helpful tips, so I’m glad I came here,” she added, noting that she found the orientation sessions on health insurance the most useful.

Health insurance, which international students are required to have while in the U.S., is just one of many things students learn about in orientation, which can last multiple days.

Victoria Graja, a Ph.D. candidate from Ecuador, attended a presentation about coming from a culture that is less direct than American culture. 

“Here you have to know that people are very direct,” she said.

And for other students, the most vital, if not shocking information, was about U.S. bike laws.

“I’m still super freaked out by the turn right on red rule,” Konstantin Georgiev of Bulgaria said, speaking about a traffic law that allows cars to turn right even if their light is red. Georgiev, an avid bike commuter, said he bought a bike the first day he moved to Houston but has had a hard time adjusting to traffic laws in a city dominated by cars.

“I’m coming from quite a biking place so it really bugs me when I’m in the right lane waiting for the traffic light to allow me to go forward and suddenly there would be a big SUV making a right turn while the red light is still on, which is totally legal, although I still can’t imagine it is!” he said.

 

WATCH: International Students Learn About Insurance, Adjust to Weather at Orientation

Not new to US

Many of those attending international student orientation have spent time in the United States, particularly graduate students.

Takudzwa Tapfuma, originally from Zimbabwe, had attended Amherst College in Massachusetts for four years of undergraduate studies before moving to Texas for his master’s in architecture.

Standing under an archway over a stone staircase in one of the oldest buildings on campus, Tapfuma talked about how moving from Massachusetts to Texas was a culture shock.

“I’d heard a lot of great things about Houston. … I had not been to this part of the country, specifically Texas, so it was an exciting new challenge,” he said.

“I didn’t come in thinking I knew it all about being an international student in the U.S., and I think the Office of International Student Services showed that there’s a lot to learn even if you’ve been living in the United States,” Tapfuma said. “I’ve learned a ton from the orientation. There are resources on campus, how you can make use of the resources and just how to adjust to this new intellectual environment.”

​Diverse city

Houston has been recognized as the most diverse metropolitan area in the United States, boasting a population that is more than a quarter foreign-born and 44 percent Hispanic, according to Rice’s Kinder Institute and 2016 census data.

Rice University has an international student population of 1,676 this academic year, about 24 percent of the student population, according to Rice’s Office of International Students and Scholars.

“If Rice hadn’t contacted me in the first place, I would not have considered coming to Texas just because I had some previous ideas,” said Santiago Lopez Alvarez, a Fulbright scholar from Colombia. “I think it’s great that I ended up coming here because life teaches you that stereotypes and prejudice are always overturned when you get there.”

“What I like is the diversity that they have,” Graja said. “In these few days I have met people from different countries and cultures and backgrounds, and they are also studying different subjects so I think that that’s the most interesting part of it.”

But there are many things about their vastly different home countries that they miss. During a day bookended by a pizza party and a classic Texas barbecue at the university president’s house, many students said that second only to their friends and family, food is what they’ll miss the most.

“Five years into living in America, the food still leaves a gaping hole in my stomach,” Tapfuma said with a sad smile.

Plenty of leftover pizza remained after the students filtered outside before afternoon orientation sessions. As for the barbecue, it seemed the beer was more popular.

​You are wanted here

But more than 1 million international students braved American cuisine on college and university campuses during the 2016-2017 school year, making up 5.3 percent of the entire higher education student population in the United States, according to the International Institute of Education’s Open Doors report.

“I encourage everyone who’s considering coming to the States to pursue a graduate education to give it a try,” Lopez Alvarez said.

“The international component of the programs is one of the main strengths,” he said. “They do want to have you here. They do want international students, and American students want to get in touch with you and meet you, and that’s really cool.”
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Mourners Pay Final Respects to Aretha Franklin at Public Viewing

Posted on by SeeUS

Thousands of mourners have come to pay their respects to music legend Aretha Franklin, who will be laid to rest Friday in Detroit, Michigan. A star-studded roster of performers and speakers are scheduled to attend. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more.
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UN Envoy Warns Against Use of Chemical Weapons in Battle for Idlib

Posted on by SeeEA

The United Nations expressed concern for civilians in the Idlib area in northwestern Syria, where government forces, backed by Russia, plan to launch a major offensive to reclaim the last rebel stronghold. U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned Thursday that chemical weapons use would be unacceptable. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the U.N. official urged the Syrian government to allow civilians to leave Idlib before launching an offensive likely to cause another humanitarian catastrophe.
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Trump Notably Absent From McCain Tributes

Posted on by SeeUS

Notably absent from the final tribute ceremonies for U.S. Senator John McCain, who died last Saturday, is President Donald Trump. McCain and Trump disagreed on a number of issues, including U.S. relations with Russia. Some analysts view the feud as emblematic of the clash of values within the Republican Party. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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China’s Floating Nuclear Power Plants Pose Risks in South China Sea

Posted on by SeeUS

Floating Chinese nuclear power plants stationed in the South China Sea would help Beijing fortify its claims in a decades-old maritime sovereignty dispute, but come with environmental risks, scholars say.

China plans to power some of its claimed islets with nuclear energy, the U.S. Department of Defense recently told Congress in an annual report on Chinese military activities. Beijing had indicated last year it was planning to install “floating nuclear power stations” that would start operating before 2020, the report says.

That development would bulk up China’s maritime claim after about a decade of land reclamation in parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea and the sending of military units to some of the artificial islands, analysts say. Rival maritime claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam lack similar means to electrify their holdings.

“You are literally facilitating increase of physical control of the South China Sea,” said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

“I think the more immediate concerns of anyone, be they claimants, be they non-claimants, is a huge ecological risk, and taking into account that Chinese nuclear energy technology may not necessarily be one of the best in the world,” he said.

​Wait and watch

Chinese media said in 2016 their country might install as many as 20 floating nuclear power plants for commercial development. It’s not clear whether they would fuel Chinese installations in the Paracel Islands that are actively contested by Vietnam or in the Spratly archipelago further south where all six governments hold some of the islands.

Nuclear power plants on barges would technically work, said Oh Ei Sun, international studies instructor at Singapore Nanyang University.

“You have some sort of barge, that would actually be more feasible than if you had a permanent building there, because in that case you would be just like a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier,” Oh said.

Russia announced floating nuclear power stations in 2000 with a Ministry for Atomic Energy project that saw construction begin in 2007.

​Sovereignty advantage

A stable power supply would help Beijing ensure it can develop islets where it now has installations, experts say, and other claimants would keep clear of any barges to prevent accidents. China otherwise uses generators to provide electricity to its once uninhabited holdings that are more than 1,000 kilometers from the Chinese mainland, Koh said.

Beijing claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, overlapping waters that the five other governments call their own. The sea that stretches from Taiwan to Singapore is prized for fisheries, shipping lanes, oil and gas.

More than 1,000 Chinese live on Woody Island in the Paracel archipelago, where China is also looking to promote tourism. China has hangars at its three major Spratly islets, Subi, Mischief and Fiery Cross reefs, that can handle bombers as well as aircraft for transport, patrol and refueling, the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies says.

The other Asian claimants probably won’t try to overturn any nuclear installation, said Jay Batongbacal, a University of the Philippines international maritime affairs professor. All are militarily weaker than China, and the Southeast Asian claimants depend to some degree on Chinese economic support.

But the United States might take nuclear power as a new cause to send naval ships into the sea and warn China, Batongbacal said. It could follow up with a “diplomatic initiative,” he added. Washington, which supports freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, has helped Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines militarily in the past.

Once China installed a nuclear barge, Batongbacal said, any protests would be too late to stop it.

“There really isn’t much (other countries) can do once China installs those things there,” he said. “Their best hope is to bring pressure to bear and discourage China from actually doing it.”

Ecological risks

China is unlikely to do an environmental impact study on any nuclear-power barges before installing them, Koh said. A “runaway reactor” could lead to a “major ecological disaster,” he said. The U.S. Defense Department report notes that the sea is prone to typhoons, during which most vessels seek shelter.

Pirates and terrorists at sea could also disrupt a nuclear power barge, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank.

“It certainly requires a different kind of infrastructure building, because it’s a floating nuclear power plant, never been doing it before, and the maritime conditions (are) putting a lot of potential risks or uncertainty in terms of maintaining such an installation,” Yang said.
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Trump Again Threatens to Shake Up Federal Law Enforcement Leadership

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump, at political rally in the Midwestern state of Indiana, again directed his ire at the country’s top national law enforcement officials.

“Our Justice Department and our FBI have to start doing their job, doing it right and doing it well,” Trump said Thursday evening. “People are angry.”

“What’s happening is a disgrace,” declared the president.

“I wanted to stay out, but at some point if it doesn’t straighten out properly … I will get involved and I’ll get in there if I have to,” Trump added.

Sessions’ job

Earlier in the day at the White House, the president referred to the special counsel’s probe into whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russians as an “illegal investigation.”

Speaking to the Bloomberg news agency, Trump said the job of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has recused himself from oversight of the investigation, is safe until, at least, the November midterm election.

“I just would love to have him do a great job,” Trump said during the Oval Office interview, adding that he would “love to have him look at the other side,” reiterating calls for the Justice Department to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the origins of the Russia probe.

“I do question what is Jeff doing,” he added.

The president has repeatedly ridiculed Sessions, the top U.S. law enforcement officer, as “weak” for not pursuing what the president and many other Republicans perceive as anti-Trump bias in the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

​FBI refuted Trump claim

The FBI, on Wednesday, refuted the claim Trump made without citing evidence that the e-mails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated in the 2016 election, had her e-mails hacked by China.

Trump, earlier Wednesday had said federal law enforcement risked losing credibility if it did not further investigate the matter.

“Look at what she’s getting away with?” Trump said about Clinton at the Indiana rally, prompting the crowd in the 11,000-seat Ford Center to briefly chant “lock her up.”

Trump has repeatedly called the investigation, headed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is a former FBI director, a politically motivated witch hunt.

The president repeatedly asserts there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia.

Six convictions, 12 indictments

Mueller’s investigation has so far resulted in six people being convicted of crimes. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on August 21 was the first person to be convicted in a jury trial from the probe, which also returned indictments in July against 12 Russian intelligence officers in the computer hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

On Twitter earlier in the day Trump denied referenced reports he has tried to have Sessions and Mueller removed from their positions.

Discussing his soon-to-depart White House Counsel, Donald McGahn, the president tweeted: “I liked Don, but he was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions. So much Fake Reporting and Fake News!”

During the evening’s rally in Evansville, Trump again targeted journalists for harsh criticism, accusing them of being in alliance with those who oppose him politically, including “deep state radicals.”
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Report: Protesting Dervish Prisoners Put in Solitary Confinement

Posted on by SeeEA

An Iranian news outlet covering Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish minority says a number of jailed Dervishes have been put in solitary confinement at a prison near Tehran after guards broke up a protest they had held.

In several tweets posted Thursday, Majzooban Noor said authorities at the Great Tehran Penitentiary transferred an unidentified number of Dervishes to solitary cells in response to the protest staged by those prisoners the previous day. It said the prison management also cut off phone connections to wards where the Dervishes were being detained, to prevent information about them from leaking out.

Sit-in protest

A day earlier, Majzooban Noor posted several tweets saying security guards used batons and tear gas to break up a sit-in by male Dervish inmates calling for the release of female Dervishes held at Qarchak prison, also near the Iranian capital. The Dervish detainees in both prisons were among several hundred Dervishes arrested by security forces in February for involvement in anti-government protests in Tehran.

In its Thursday tweets, the news outlet said relatives of Dervishes wounded in the breakup of Wednesday’s protest were concerned that prison authorities would keep the inmates in solitary confinement until their wounds healed, in order to cover up the incident. It said family members sent a letter to judiciary officials demanding immediate access to the prison to meet with the detainees.

There were no reports of the Great Tehran Penitentiary incident in Iranian state media.

Violent confrontations

The February 19-20 protests by Iranian Dervishes escalated into violent confrontations with security forces, who arrested more than 300 people. Five security personnel were killed in the clashes.

The Dervish protesters had been demanding the release of arrested members of their community and the removal of security checkpoints around the house of their 90-year-old leader, Noor Ali Tabandeh. Members of the Sufi Muslim religious sect long have complained of harassment by Iran’s Shiite Islamist rulers, who view them as heretics.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian service.
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UN: Lebanon, Israel at Risk of Renewed Conflict

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.N. Security Council warned Thursday that violations of the cease-fire agreement between Lebanon and Israel could lead to a new conflict and urged international support for Lebanon’s armed forces and their stepped up deployment in the south and at sea.

The council’s warning against “a new conflict that none of the parties or the region can afford” came in a resolution adopted unanimously extending the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL until Aug. 31, 2019.

Council members urged “all parties” to exercise “maximum calm and restraint and refrain from any action or rhetoric that could jeopardize the cessation of hostilities or destabilize the region.”

Peacekeepers since 1978

UNIFIL was originally created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after a 1978 invasion. The mission was expanded after a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah militants so that peacekeepers could deploy along the Lebanon-Israel border, to help Lebanese troops extend their authority into their country’s south for the first time in decades.

The French-drafted resolution again urged all countries to enforce a 2006 arms embargo and prevent the sale or supply of weapons to any individual or entity in Lebanon not authorized by the government or U.N. force known as UNIFIL, an implicit criticism of the suppliers of weapons to Hezbollah.

Rodney Hunter, the U.S. Mission’s political coordinator, told the council that Hezbollah, with Iran’s help, “has grown its arsenal in Lebanon in direct threat to peace” along the boundary with Israel “and the stability of all of Lebanon.”

Hunter said 12 years after the council imposed an arms embargo, “it is unacceptable that Hezbollah continues to flout this embargo, Lebanon’s sovereignty, and the will of the majority of Lebanese people.”

Lebanese forces

Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war and the resolution reiterates the council’s call for Israel and Lebanon “to support a permanent cease-fire and a long-term solution.”

The council also stressed “the necessity of an effective and durable deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon and the territorial waters of Lebanon at an accelerated pace.”

It called for UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese military to analyze the country’s ground forces and maritime assets.

The council also called for the Lebanese government “to develop a plan to increase its naval capabilities … with the goal of ultimately decreasing UNIFIL’s Maritime Task Force and transitioning its responsibilities to the Lebanese Armed Forces.”

France’s deputy U.N. ambassador Anne Gueguen stressed that “only the presence of the Lebanese state and its armed forces will ensure security … and create the conditions of lasting stability in the south of Lebanon, and along its territorial waters.”

Political solution

The Security Council also commented on the current political situation in Lebanon.

Nearly four months after the country held its first general elections in nine years, politicians are still squabbling over the formation of a new government amid uncertainty over a long stagnating economy, struggling businesses and concerns over the currency.

The Security Council welcomed the holding of elections and the country’s progress toward reactivating government institutions, and called for the formation of a new Lebanese government “without further delay.”
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IAEA Says Iran Is Sticking to Nuclear Deal

Posted on by SeeEU

Iran has remained within the main restrictions on its nuclear activities imposed by a 2015 deal with major powers, a confidential report by the U.N. atomic watchdog indicated Thursday.

In its second quarterly report since President Donald Trump announced in May that the United States would quit the accord and reimpose sanctions, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had stayed within the caps on uranium enrichment levels, enriched uranium stocks and other items.

In its last report in May, the IAEA had said Iran could do more to cooperate with inspectors and thereby “enhance confidence”, but stopped short of saying the Islamic Republic had given it cause for concern. Thursday’s report to member states seen by Reuters contained similar language.

It said the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog was able to carry out all so-called complementary access inspections needed to verify Iran’s compliance with the deal.

“Timely and proactive cooperation by Iran in providing such access facilitates implementation of the Additional Protocol and enhances confidence,” said the report, which was distributed to IAEA member states.

“The production rate [of enriched uranium] is constant. There is no change whatsoever,” a senior diplomat added.

With the United States reimposing its sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the nuclear deal, many diplomats and analysts now doubt that the accord will survive despite European Union efforts to counter some of the effects of Trump’s move.

Sticking to the nuclear accord is not the only way forward for Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday. “Being the party to still honor the deal in deeds & not just words is not Iran’s only option,” he said on Twitter.

​EU action urged

Speaking after the IAEA report was sent to the agency’s member states, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the deal was still holding, despite the U.S. withdrawal.

He urged his fellow ministers, who met in Vienna on Thursday to discuss EU policy on Iran, to do more to protect Tehran from U.S. sanctions, calling for “permanent financial mechanisms that allow Iran to continue to trade.”

The EU implemented a law this month to shield European companies from the impact of U.S. sanctions on Tehran and has approved aid for the Iranian private sector, although large European companies are pulling out of Iran.

Adhering to the deal should bring Iran economic benefits, Zarif said. “If preserving [the accord] is the goal, then there is no escape from mustering the courage to comply with commitment to normalize Iran’s economic relations instead of making extraneous demands,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on the ability of EU countries to save the agreement and said Tehran might abandon it.

Khamenei told President Hassan Rouhani not to rely too much on European support as he came under increased pressure at home over his handling of the economy in the face of U.S. sanctions, with key ministers under attack by parliament.

Le Drian, whose country signed the Iran deal along with Britain, Germany, China, Russia and the United States under then-President Barack Obama, said Tehran should be ready to negotiate on its future nuclear plans, its ballistic missile arsenal and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen.

Those issues were not covered by the 2015 deal, and Trump has cited this as a major reason for pulling Washington out of it.

Le Drian said Iran, which says its missiles are only for defense, was arming regional allies with rockets and allowing “ballistic proliferation,” adding: “Iran needs to avoid the temptation to be the [regional] hegemon.”

Iran has ruled out negotiations on its ballistic missiles and broader Middle Eastern role.
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