While the international attention on China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang has focused mainly on ethnic and religious issues, Beijing’s economic development plans in the strategic region also play a key role in shaping the conflict, some experts and observers say.Home to more than 11 million Turkic-speaking Uighurs, Xinjiang covers an area of 1.66 million square kilometers that accounts for one-sixth of China’s land mass. Its oil, natural gas and coal reserves make up more than 20% of China’s energy reserves, turning the region into a national powerhouse.The government in Beijing since 2017 has launched a major campaign of mass surveillance and the detention of over one million Uighurs and other Turkic minorities in the so-called “re-education” camps. Darren Byler, a Seattle-based anthropologist at the University of Washington who studies the Uighurs, charged that Chinese government’s economic development programs in Xinjiang to access natural resources have allowed a huge influx of majority Han migrants to the region. This has triggered more conflict with Uighurs who fear a demographic change in their land.
Uighurs: Some Quick Facts video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkThe programs, such as the Open up the Northwest Campaign in the 1990s, and the larger scale Open up the West Campaign in the 2000s, allowed Han corporate farmers to claim Uighur land and expand industrial scale agriculture in the Uighur-majority region, Byler told VOA.“In general, Uighurs were excluded from the most lucrative jobs in these new industries by state-authorized job discrimination. Uighurs saw the cost of living begin to rise because of the new forms of wealth in the region. Many had a difficult time entering the new market economy. This is at the heart of the conflict between Uighurs and the Chinese state,” said Byler.Xinjiang over the last 70 years has experienced a rapid demographic shift. The proportion of Han in the region has risen from nearly 9% in 1945 to about 40% today while the Uighur population has decreased from over 75% to only about 45%.Some experts say the geopolitical position of Xinjiang as China’s bridge to central and south Asia is yet another motive behind Beijing’s ambition to control the region and prevent any room for possible dissent.FILE – A man walks by a government billboard promoting Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, outside a subway station in Beijing, China, Aug. 28, 2018.Belt and Road InitiativeXinjiang in the northeast borders Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. The region is at the heart of the $1 trillion infrastructure development and investments scheme, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), that was introduced in 2013 by China’s President Xi Jinping to connect China with over 150 countries throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and Americas.According to Sean Roberts, a professor of international development at George Washington University, Uighur’s attachment to their traditional lands and ways of life is seen by China’s Communist Party (CCP) as a risk to the successful implementation of the BRI.“The intention to make Xinjiang a central part of BRI created a new urgency in the CCP to prevent further Uighur dissent in the region. In many ways, what we are seeing today is an attempt to entirely eliminate any possible Uighur dissent to the transformation of their homeland that the BRI will inevitably facilitate,” Roberts told VOA.Xinjiang for decades has witnessed violent conflict centered around Uighurs’ aspiration for independence and China’s efforts to crush it. In 1955, Beijing recognized Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region but the move failed to bring a lasting stability.FILE – Workers walk by the perimeter fence of what is officially known as a vocational skills education center in Dabancheng, Xinjiang, China, Sept. 4, 2018.’Three evils’Chinese authorities, who have rejected international accusations of human rights abuses in the region, say their measures are necessary to combat the “three evils” of “ethnic separatism, religious extremism, and violent terrorism.”They say the alleged mass detention camps are nothing but a “vocational training” program aimed at teaching the people new skills and manners.Shohrat Zakir, Xinjiang’s governor, in a press conference earlier this month said all the people in the camps have been released after “graduating.” He claimed the Chinese government courses helped the people to improve the quality of their lives and find stable jobs.However, some watchdog organizations say they are finding new evidence suggesting that people held in the camps are exposed to forced labor.Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow in China Studies at the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, told VOA that China’s claims about the graduated detainees does not mean a change in its policy towards Uighurs but rather “a second phase, and a long-term plan to deepen social control through various forms of coercive labor.”“I am not at all sure that they have in fact all ‘graduated’, but ‘graduating’ means that they might now go from their cell to a factory instead of a classroom,” Zenz said.FILE – Ethnic Uighur women leave a center where they attend what is billed as political education lessons, in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, Sept. 6, 2018.Push to low-wage jobsAccording to James Millward, a Xinjiang researcher and professor of history at Georgetown University, mounting evidence on the coerced labor shows Uighurs are being pushed out of the private economy to low-wage factories such as cotton and making clothes. The move, he said, will likely serve the needs of Han businesses from eastern China.“The forced labor is probably a way to recoup some of the billions of yuan that have been spent on building the camps, hiring security personnel, and the great cost to the local economy of interning a large percentage of the local population, an especially acute problem in southern Xinjiang,” Millward added.
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Month: December 2019
Million-Dollar Prize Winners Hope to Change the Face of Global Tourism
A team of Mexican entrepreneurs were the winners of the 2019 Diego Sandoval with his mentor Ahmad Ashkar at Boston Regional, 2017. (Courtesy – Diego Sandoval)”That led to a series of internships with the Hult Prize accelerator program, where the best 50 teams get together over six weeks to compete and build their businesses,” he said.”The accelerator program brings in 200 students from around the world from over 30 countries,” Sandoval said. “And I had the privilege of sitting down with every participant, every competitor, to study the social networks behind their business growth. And so as part of the Social Research branch of network science, I was able to investigate that social capital that we have embedded in the Hult Prize ecosystem.”The experience gave him the opportunity to understand the message of what the Hult Prize stands for he said. “It really aims to inspire students to change the trajectory of their careers from a traditional, conventional path to a more entrepreneurial and more passion-driven, mission-driven career.”Winners circlePrevious Hult Prize winners have included people like Mohammed Ashour, co-founder and CEO of the Aspire Food Group, which harvests crickets as a source of protein to feed the world.And a winning start-up team from India called NanoHealth, devoted to bringing health care to India’s urban slums.”We have companies in agriculture, in fishing, in youth unemployment, from Palestine to Zimbabwe,” Ashkar, of the Hult Foundation, said. “We’ve got over 25,000 students who organize programs across a hundred countries and 2,500 staff and volunteers.”It’s just been a humbling experience to build this movement,” he said.Hult Prize 2020The theme for the 2020 Hult Prize is the issue of climate change.For would-be contestants, Rutopia’s Iturriaga offered advice: “The important thing is that you really care about the problem. You don’t build a business and then make the impact, you first see what’s your passion, what do you want to solve in the world, and then you build a business around it.”Tina Trinh contributed to this report from New York City.
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Croatia’s Presidential Hopefuls to Face Runoff Election
Croatia’s conservative president trailed her leftist rival in Sunday’s election, but garnered enough votes to force a runoff early next year.With nearly 98% of the votes counted, former prime minister and leader of the Social Democrats Zoran Milanovic was leading with nearly 30% of the vote, followed by President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic with about 27%.Milanovic and Kitarovic will face each other on January 5.Croatia’s presidency is largely ceremonial but retaining the presidency is important to Kitarovic’s ruling Croatian Democratic Union party because the country is set to take over the European Union’s rotating presidency in February.In that capacity, the Croatian leader will oversee Britain’s exit from the bloc and the post-Brexit trade talks that will determine the union’s future.
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Following Trump Impeachment, Congress Breaks for Holidays
Congress is in recess after the House of Representatives voted to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, stemming from a phone call in July with Ukraine’s president in which Trump urged an investigation of a political rival. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders in the House must now decide when or whether to send the articles to the Republican-controlled Senate for trial. But some top senators have already said they do not intend to act as impartial jurors. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Are We Seeing Part 2 of the Arab Spring?
Dramatic changes jolted the Arab world in 2019 after veteran Arab leaders in Algeria and Sudan were forced to step down amid widespread popular protests. Similar protests later erupted in Iraq and Lebanon, forcing forced prime ministers to step down and threatening to erode their strong ties to Iran. Meanwhile, in Libya and Yemen, turmoil continued unabated.
Observers are calling the 2019 movements the second wave of the Arab Spring which began in 2011, ousting rulers in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and igniting civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya. The new phase of the Arab Spring began in December 2018 with protests against veteran Sudanese leader Omar al Bashir, culminating with his ouster in June by Sudan’s military.FILE – People gather as they celebrate the first anniversary of mass protests that led to the ouster of former president and longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, in Khartoum, Sudan, Dec. 19, 2019.In April, protests forced ailing Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down, foiling plans to have him run for a fifth term.Protests in Algeria and Sudan were carried live on Arab TV causing a ripple effect elsewhere and stoking the fervor of a large youth population.Efforts to spark a revolution in Egypt against President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi fizzled out quickly, however, despite efforts by a little-known businessman to accuse him of corruption.FILE – People are seen gathered for a mass anti-government protest in the center of the Algerian capital Algiers, Dec. 17, 2019.Tunisia also saw change, with voters electing a new leader after ailing President Baji Caid Essebsi died in July. Tunisians chose an outsider after support for high profile candidates waned.
Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches at the University of Paris, told VOA that efforts to refashion the Middle East began under former U.S. President George W. Bush, before hitting a snag in 2011 when Islamists tried to hijack Arab Spring revolutions.But, he said, protest movements in 2019 are more nationalistic and less ideological.FILE – An Iraqi female demonstrator waves an Iraqi flag during ongoing anti-government protests, in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 1, 2019.Pan-Arab protests spread to Iraq and Lebanon in October, as public ire focused on meddling by regional power-broker Iran and brutal behavior by pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias.
Dr. Paul Sullivan, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, says “it is hard to tell where protests will lead (because they) are organic and fluid (and) even the leadership of them is (often) unclear.”Even Iranians, frustrated by the pain of U.S. economic sanctions, took to the streets in November, but the regime quickly regained control.
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Australian PM Defends Climate Record As Bushfire Crisis Continues
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has apologized for going on vacation while the country struggled with a worsening bushfire crisis. Since September, the emergency has killed at least 10, destroyed more than 700 homes and scorched millions of hectares. Morrison is back in Australia, where his leadership is under scrutiny.A police officer said, “I am now directing you to move off this temporarily closed roadway so that we can reopen the road and warn you that should you fail to comply with my direction you may be arrested. Force may be used. Do you understand, Izzy?”Thirteen-year-old Izzy Raj-Seppings was told she could be arrested outside Morrison’s official residence in Sydney. With her father, the Australian schoolgirl had joined hundreds of protesters demanding that Morrison take the threat of global warming more seriously.Demonstrators hold up placards during a climate protest rally in Sydney, Austalia, Dec. 21, 2019.They argue that a drier warmer climate is increasing Australia’s vulnerability to bushfires.As the fires raged across the country, Morrison was on vacation in the United States. He was criticized for leaving the country during a crisis. He has apologized but is defending his government’s climate policies.”Look, I think Australians are fair-minded about this. They know at the end of a difficult year people go on leave and they know when dad makes a promise to their kids they like to keep it. But nevertheless, I understand the anxiety and why people have been upset by this. That is why I am pleased to be back and front up. I said we will meet our 26% emission-reduction target. Emissions per year today under our government are on average 50 million tonnes a year less than they were under the previous government,” he said.Firefighters tend to burning property caused by bushfires in Bargo, southwest of Sydney, Australia, Dec. 21, 2019.Morrison has visited the Rural Fire Service headquarters in Sydney and was briefed about the emergency in New South Wales, where more than 100 fires burn. Conditions Sunday have eased, allowing fire crews to prepare for more dangerous days in the weeks ahead.Bushfires have always been part of the Australian story. But this fire season has not only started earlier than usual, it is far more intense.The authorities say some of the fires will only be extinguished by heavy rain. However, weather officials say no major rainfall is expected in the next two months.
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‘Bull’s-Eye’ Landing in New Mexico for Boeing’s Starliner Astronaut Capsule
Boeing Co’s Starliner astronaut spacecraft landed in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, the company said, after faulty software forced officials to cut short an unmanned mission aimed at taking it to the International Space Station.The landing at 7:58 a.m. ET (1258 GMT) in the White Sands desert capped a turbulent 48 hours for Boeing’s botched milestone test of an astronaut capsule that is designed to help NASA regain its human spaceflight capabilities.
“We hit the bull’s-eye,” a Boeing spokesman said on a livestream of the landing.
The landing will yield the mission’s most valuable test data after failing to meet its core objective of docking to the space station.
After Starliner’s touchdown, teams of engineers in trucks raced to inspect the vehicle, whose six airbags cushioned its impact on the desert surface as planned, a live video feed showed.
The spacecraft was in an apparently stable condition after landing, according to images posted by officials from the U.S. space agency NASA.
The CST-100 Starliner’s debut launch to orbit was a milestone test for Boeing. The company is vying with SpaceX, the privately held rocket company of billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, to revive NASA’s human spaceflight capabilities. SpaceX carried out a successful unmanned flight of its Crew Dragon capsule to the space station in March.
The Starliner capsule was successfully launched from Florida on Friday, but an automated timer error prevented it from attaining the right orbit to meet and dock with the space station. That failure came as Boeing sought an engineering and public relations victory in a year that has seen corporate crisis over
the grounding of its 737 MAX jetliner following two fatal crashes of the aircraft. The company’s shares dropped 1.6% on Friday.Parachute challenge
Ahead of Sunday’s landing, Starliner’s three main parachutes deployed just over one mile (1,600 metres) from the Earth’s surface after enduring intense heat from the violent reentry through the atmosphere, plummeting at 25 times the speed of sound.
The parachute deployment, one of the most challenging procedures under the program to develop a commercial manned space capsule, earned Boeing a fresh win after a previous mishap where one parachute failed to deploy during a November test of Starliner’s abort thrusters.
That test tossed the capsule miles into the sky to demonstrate its ability to land a crew safely back on the ground in the event of a launch failure.
For the current mission, Boeing and NASA officials said they still do not understand why software caused the craft to miss the orbit required.
Sunday’s landing marked the first time a U.S. orbital space capsule designed for humans landed on land.
All past U.S. capsules, including SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, splashed down in the ocean. Russia’s Soyuz capsules and China’s past crew capsules made land landings.
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Strike Makes For Not-So-Merry Christmas Travel in France
Holiday travelers across France scrambled for alternatives Sunday as an 18-day-old transport strike over pension reform saw train services slashed yet again.President Emmanuel Macron issued an appeal on Saturday for a truce over the holidays, three days after talks between the government and unions failed to ease the standoff and labor leaders called for further mobilization.Workers at the SNCF and RATP rail and public transport companies have downed tools to protest at the government’s plan to meld France’s 42 pension schemes into a single points-based one, which would see some public employees lose certain privileges.Weeks of travel misery worsened on Sunday, when tens of thousands planned to meet up with family and friends for the Christmas break.Only half of high-speed TGVs and a quarter of inter-city trains were running, and the SNCF urged travellers to cancel or delay planned trips.In the Paris area, commuter trains were down to a trickle, and only two out of 16 metro lines were running on the last shopping Sunday before Christmas.Ten metro lines will open Monday but at reduced frequencies except for the two driverless lines, RATP said, while key commuter trains will run during rush hour but at reduced frequencies.SNCF said two in five TGV trains will operate and international traffic will also be affected.Public support droppingMacron, on a visit to Ivory Coast, urged striking workers to embrace a “spirit of responsibility” and for “collective good sense to triumph.””I believe there are moments in the life of a nation when it is also good to call a truce to respect families and the lives of families,” he said in Abidjan.The Elysee Palace also announced Saturday that Macron would renounce the pension he would be entitled to as former president, and he will not take up a lucrative seat on the Constitutional Council as tradition dictates.In so doing, the former banker, who turned 42 on Saturday, will forgo a total of 19,720 euros ($21,850) a month.A poll by the IFOP agency published Sunday showed public backing for the action dropping by three percentage points, though 51 percent still expressed support or sympathy for the strikers.’It’s unbearable’Jean Garrigues, a historian with the University of Orleans, told AFP this was likely to change over the holidays — cherished family time for the French.”The transport blockage has mostly affected the Parisian region, and we can see that in the coming period, it will also affect people in the rural areas. This will alienate many people from the labor movement,” he said.On Saturday, frustrated traveler Jeffrey Nwutu Ebube was trying to find a way home to Toulouse in the south from the northern port town of Le Havre — some 850 kilometers (530 miles) away.”I’m upset, this strike is unbearable… The government must do something,” he told AFP.The government insists a pension overhaul is necessary to create a fairer, more transparent system.It would do away with schemes that offer early retirement and other advantages to mainly public-sector workers, such as train drivers who can retire as early as 52.While some unions support a single system, almost all reject a new proposed “pivot age” of 64 — beyond the legal retirement age of 62 — for retiring with a full pension.Heavy toll on businessUnions are hoping for a repeat of 1995 when the government backed down on pension reform after three weeks of metro and rail stoppages just before Christmas.The protest is taking a heavy toll on businesses, especially retailers, hotels and restaurants during one of the busiest periods of the year.Industry associations have reported turnover declines of 30 to 60 percent from a year earlier.Stormy weather contributed to travelers’ woes Sunday, dropping trees on railway lines in the south of France, blocking several routes, as violent winds left 110,000 households in the southwest without electricity.
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‘Qualification Passport’ Enables Refugees to Study, Work in Countries of Exile
UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reports it is expanding its so-called Qualification Passport program, which enables refugees and vulnerable migrants to continue their studies or get employment in countries of exile. More often than not, refugees and migrants who have had a secondary or tertiary education at home have difficulty applying for higher education or finding work commensurate with their skills in their new countries. They often lack the certificates proving they have completed their studies.The UNESCO Qualification Passport is a standardized document, which contains information about the person’s qualifications, job experience and language proficiency. UNESCO assistant director-general for education, Stefania Giannini, says the aim of the program is to help refugees without documents be recognized for their accomplishments by their hosting countries.”If you do not have anything, if you do not have papers, which can demonstrate, you know — you lose part of your life. You lose part of your competence. You lose part of your knowledge,” she said. “So, this is for helping refugees. Then there is the other side of the coin, which is to give hosting countries the opportunity to valorize human capital they have.”Syrian refugee, Anwar Horani, is the first Qualifications Passport holder. After graduating as a physiotherapist from Albaath University in Homs in 2016, she was forced to flee her country. She spent a year in Greece without the necessary documents to prove her qualifications.In 2017, she received the European Qualifications Passport, which she presented to officials in Norway, her new country of asylum. She says this document has changed her life. “I was able to use this type of documentation to pursue my study in the University of Oslo and achieve a course in international public health. And after one-and-a-half years from arriving in the country to have like two jobs in two different places in my new host country, Norway.” The UNESCO program is being piloted in Zambia. This month, 11 candidates were issued with the first UNESCO Qualified Passports in the presence of the minister of higher education for Zambia. With this tool, officials say the refugees will be able to recommence their lives in the country.UNESCO says it is planning to start similar piloting programs in Iraq and Colombia.
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Al- Shabab Attack Kills 8 as US Launches Record Airstrikes in 2019
Abdiwahid Moalim Ishaq contributed to this report from Galkayo.
The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb that targeted military commanders in the central Somali town of Galkayo, killing at least eight people and wounding 55 others Saturday evening. Witnesses told VOA Somali that the vehicle exploded as the military officials were leaving a hotel to attend a reconciliation meeting.Commander of Somali land forces Brigadier General Abdihamid Mohamed Dirir and commander of the 21st Division General Abdulaziz Abdullahi Qoje survived the attack.Officials said four civilians and four soldiers were killed in the explosion.”At about 8:30pm last night this car you see its remains exploded, it was targeting military vehicles,” says the Mayor of Galkayo’s southern half Hersi Yusuf Barre. “There is a significant casualties, a lot of civilians were hurt.”Residents started cleaning up the site and collected the body of the suicide bomber for burial.A doctor at Galkayo hospital Mohamed Abdi Ahmed told VOA Somali some of the injured are in serious condition.FILE – An ambulance carrying an injured person from an attack by al-Shabab gunmen on a hotel near the presidential residence arrives to the Shaafi hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, Dec. 10, 2019.It is the second major attack by al-Shabab this month in Somalia. A complex attack on a Mogadishu hotel on December 10 killed five people.US airstrikesMeanwhile, the U.S. military has conducted a record number of attacks against al-Shabab and pro-Islamic militant groups in Somalia this year.With just few days left in 2019, the U.S. military has carried out 60 airstrikes, the vast majority of them against al-Shabab militants. Last year, the U.S. conducted 47 strikes and more than 30 the previous year.The 60th strike this year occurred on December 16 in Dujuma village area in Middle Jubba region, killing one al-Shabab militant.
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Sudan Opens Darfur Crimes Probe Against Bashir Regime Figures
Sudan has opened an investigation into crimes committed in the Darfur region by members of the regime of ousted former president Omar al-Bashir, the state prosecutor said Sunday.The conflict between pro-government forces and ethnic minority rebels left around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations.”We have launched an investigation into the crimes committed in Darfur from 2003,” prosecutor Tagelsir al-Heber said on his arrival in Khartoum after a trip to the United Arab Emirates.FILE – Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir stands guarded inside a cage at the courthouse where he is facing corruption charges, in Khartoum, Sudan, Aug. 19, 2019.He added that these were “cases against former regime officials” tied to Bashir, who is sought by the International Criminal Court for his role in the Darfur conflict.Warrants for the ex-dictator’s arrest were issued by the ICC in 2009 and 2010 on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity but Bashir has not been extradited to The Hague, the seat of the ICC.Sudan’s new transitional government, brought to power after the protest movement toppled Bashir, has vowed to establish peace in conflict-hit regions, including Darfur.On December 14, Bashir was sentenced by a court in Khartoum to two years’ detention in a correctional centre for corruption in the first of several cases against him.Bashir is also being investigated for his role in the 1989 coup that brought him to power.
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Iran Rejects ‘Conditional Release’ for Iranian-British Woman
The lawyer of an Iranian-British woman convicted on spying charges in Iran has asked that she be released after serving half of her sentence, a request that was immediately rejected by the Tehran prosecutors’ office, the state IRNA news agency reported Sunday.Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years for allegedly planning the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government while traveling with her young daughter in Iran at the time. She was was arrested in April 2016. Her sentence has been widely criticized and her family has denied all the allegations against her.The report by IRNA quoted her lawyer, Mahmoud Behzadi Rad, as saying that he had submitted a request for what Iran’s judiciary calls “conditional release” — when a convict has served half his or her sentence, the person can apply for such a release and the courts have the power to grant it for “good behavior.”
“According to the law, she is entitled to apply for a conditional release,” the lawyer said.
IRNA did not say why the request was denied. Behzadi Rad said he had applied for a conditional release for another of his clients, prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi who is serving a 10-year sentence. Behzadi Rad is her lawyer, too. The request for her release was also denied, he said.
The lawyer also said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe has had several psychiatric evaluations recently while in prison but did not elaborate on her condition or the state of her health.
In England, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has been leading a campaign to try to win his wife’s release from prison. British officials are also calling for her release.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe went on a 15-day hunger strike in June, to call attention to her plight. In July, she was moved to the mental health ward of Imam Khomeini hospital under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The Free Nazanin Campaign said in a statement at the time that it does not know what treatment she is receiving or how long she is expected to remain in the hospital.
Iran has also detained at least one other Iranian-British national, anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, who has been accused of spying and of links to foreign intelligence agencies.
Iran does not recognize dual nationality for its citizens.
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Defiant Lavrov Says US Sanctions Won’t Stop Russian Pipelines
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has struck a defiant tone, saying the Nord Stream 2 and Turk Stream gas pipeline projects will be launched despite U.S. sanctions.Quoted by the Interfax news agency on December 22, Lavrov said that Russia planned to respond to the new measures.U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill on December 22 that included legislation imposing sanctions on firms laying pipe for Nord Stream 2, which seeks to double gas capacity along the northern Nord Stream pipeline route to Germany.More sanctions against Russia for its alleged interference in democratic processes abroad as well as its “malign” actions in Syria and aggression against Ukraine —known as the “sanctions bill from hell” — has been approved by a U.S. Senate committee but has not been put to a vote in Congress.In other remarks, Lavrov said Russia was prepared to include the heavy Sarmat missile and the Avangard hypersonic missile if the New START arms treaty with the United States is extended.Russia is also ready to demonstrate the Sarmat missile to the United States, Interfax cited Lavrov as saying on a talk show on Russian state television.
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Notre Dame Fire Wakes the World up to Dangers of Lead Dust
It took a blaze that nearly destroyed Paris’ most famous cathedral to reveal a gap in global safety regulations for lead, a toxic building material found across many historic cities.After the Notre Dame fire in April spewed dozens of tons of toxic lead-dust into the atmosphere in just a few hours, Paris authorities discovered a problem with the city’s public safety regulations: There was no threshold for them to gauge how dangerous the potentially-deadly pollution was from the dust that settled on the ground.Since then, The Associated Press has found this regulatory gap extends far beyond France. Officials in other historic European capitals such as Rome and London, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization also have no such outdoor lead dust hazard guidelines.The reason, they say, is that although there are lead regulations, no one contemplated a conflagration on a lead-laden building the scale of Notre Dame — whose spire towered nearly 100 meters (330 feet) high.Poisoning from lead dust can cause permanent loss to cognitive ability, seizures, coma, or death — and exposure is of greatest risk to pregnant mothers and to young children, who can easily transfer toxic dust into their mouths.People watch as flames and smoke rise from Notre Dame cathedral as it burns in Paris, Monday, April 15, 2019.After 250 tons of lead on Notre Dame’s spire and roof was engulfed in flames in central Paris on April 15 and authorities alerted Parisians to an environmental health risk, they were forced to cobble together disparate and incomplete research to set a makeshift safety level in an attempt reassure the public.“When the Notre Dame fire happened, we didn’t have any threshold for what represented dangerous lead levels outdoors,” Anne Souyris, the Paris City Hall deputy mayor in charge of public health, told the AP. “It was a wake-up call … the amount of lead that was burned in Notre Dame was unprecedented.”Officials were surprised to discover that while safety guidelines exist in France for lead levels inside buildings and schools, as well as in paint, soil and air pollution, there were zero hazard guidelines for lead accumulations in public spaces, such as dust on the ground.The inherent danger and the regulatory gap for lead dust became impossible to ignore for French officials as it collected as a toxic film on the cobblestones of Paris’ Ile-de-la-Cite following the fire.“The authorities basically tried to create safety guidelines after the fire by piecing together a mixture of old fragments of data and reports,” Souyris said. “But there was really nothing official … we simply didn’t realize that lead outside might be a problem.”On July 18 — three months after the inferno — Paris’ Regional Health Agency (ARS) said it designated 5,000 micrograms per square meter (4,180 mg per square yard) as a concerning level for lead dust in public spaces. It also acknowledged there was an “absence of regulatory thresholds … regarding the presence of lead in dust deposited on roads.”AP learned from health officials that this figure was compiled by using incomplete data, including a French Culture Ministry report assessing lead levels in Paris monuments.Some media outlets reported that registered levels of lead contamination in locations surrounding the fire-damaged cathedral ranged between 500 and 800 times the official safe levels.But health officials told the AP that Paris still does not have any official regulatory threshold.The World Health Organization told AP it also has no outdoor safety guidelines for lead dust and has no “immediate” intention to create any.An image made available by Gigarama.ru on April 17, 2019 shows an aerial shot of the fire damage to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France.New legislation for hazard safety in Britain following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire also did not cover lead-dust hazards. The U.K. Environment Ministry told AP it doesn’t “have a specific threshold for unsafe lead dust levels in the U.K. in public places.” It said the hazard focus after Grenfell, an apartment building constructed in the 1970s, “was more on asbestos than lead due to the age of the building.”In the U.S., where many buildings were constructed after lead hazards were widely recognized, the Environmental Protection Agency has no lead dust hazard standards for outdoor public spaces.Lead is ubiquitous in Paris’ 19th-century architecture — in roofs, gilded balconies, floors and terraces — and not just in its most famous cathedral. In 1853, Napoleon III chose Baron Haussmann to carry out a near-total renovation of Parisian boulevards and parks in an era that used lead prolifically — designs that still dominate the city.French officials say there are so few guidelines on lead dust levels because it was not a problem they had to confront until the unprecedented Notre Dame fire.It took four months for the city to complete a deep-clean operation of the sidewalks even as tourists, residents and merchants walked streets around the cathedral daily.Paris City Hall issued a new action plan this fall to address lead — including cleaning and testing in places that host children, increased monitoring of children with high levels of lead in their blood and an independent epidemiological study of lead health impacts in a city that has used the toxic element since the Middle Ages.“Paris is a beautifully preserved city,” Souyris said. “But we realize we have also beautifully preserved its lead.”Experts say Paris’ rare status as a highly conserved historic city makes it a particular danger spot for lead.“Preservation does make Paris unusual,” said Neil M. Donahue, a chemistry professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg. “Incineration of one of the most famous roofs in the world may be especially dramatic, but there is no alchemy in this world. Lead will remain lead forever.”The fire in Paris’ spiritual heart increased awareness among authorities and the public to the dangers of lead.In June, Paris’ Regional Health Agency advised that all pregnant women and children under 7 years old living near the site take a test for lead levels.The agency said 12 children in the surrounding areas tested positive for elevated lead levels in their blood since the fire. None have been hospitalized or prescribed medication, but officials said it was impossible to predict the long-term health consequences of the fire.One child’s lead exposure came from a source other than the cathedral: the lead balcony of his family’s apartment. But it illustrates how the fire awakened Parisians to the dangers of lead. It’s unlikely the child would have been tested at all without the catastrophe.Despite the lead fallout from the fire, experts say tourists should not alter travel plans to one of the most visited cities in the world.But toxic lead dust remains a problem inside the burned-out cathedral, after tons of molten and airborne lead contaminated its interior. The inside clean-up is a delicate and painstaking process, complicated by French President Emmanuel Macron’s five-year timeline for the restoration to be completed — a deadline many experts say is unrealistic.Aline Magnien, director of the Historic Monuments Research Laboratory, recently dispatched her team of scientists to figure out how to remove the toxic lead from inside the 855-year-old UNESCO world heritage site without damaging it.“It’s a race against the clock,” she said. “The lead is a real problem. The cathedral is exceptionally precious. And we don’t have the luxury of time.”
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For Congress, 2019 Begins with Shutdown, Ends with Impeachment
2019 began with cheers at the U.S. Capitol as a record number of women as well as ethnic and religious minority members were sworn in as lawmakers. But, as 435 representatives and 100 senators got down to work, polarized politics regularly stalled progress in the politically-divided Congress, which ended the year consumed by the impeachment of President Donald Trump. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti reports, even with impeachment proceedings, Congress ended the year with a sudden flurry of significant legislative action
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NATO Leaders Turn Attention to Rising China Challenge
Many experts say the most remarkable news from the recently held NATO summit in London is that NATO, history’s most lasting and effective alliance, for the first time defined China as a strategic challenge. They contend that Beijing aims to dominate the world’s high-tech industry through its technology giant Huawei, forge a military on par with the United States, and connect the majority of the world’s population under its Belt and Road Initiative. VOA’s Jela de Franceschi talks with two former NATO supreme commanders about the geostrategic risks posed by China
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North Korean’s Kim Holds Military Meeting as Tension Rises Under Looming Deadline
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a meeting of top military officials to discuss boosting the country’s military capability, state news agency reported on Sunday amid heightened concern the North may be about to return to confrontation with Washington.Kim presided over an enlarged meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission, KCNA news agency said, to discuss steps “to bolster up the overall armed forces of the country … militarily and politically.”“Also discussed were important issues for decisive improvement of the overall national defense and core matters for the sustained and accelerated development of military capability for self-defense,” KCNA said.It did not give details on when the meeting was held nor what was decided.The commission is North Korea’s top military decision-making body. Kim rules the country as its supreme military commander and is the chairman of the commission.North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make progress on their pledge to end the North’s nuclear program and establish lasting peace.Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but there has been no substantive progress in dialogue while the North demanded crushing international sanctions be lifted first.On Saturday, the state media said the United States would “pay dearly” for taking issue with the North’s human rights record and said Washington’s “malicious words” would only aggravate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.North Korea Slams ‘Reckless’ US Remarks on Rights RecordNorth Korea warns US will ‘pay dearly’ for its comments
TWEET: North Korea Slams ‘Reckless’ US Remarks on Rights RecordNorth Korea has also repeatedly called for the United States to drop its “hostile policy” and warned about its “Christmas gift” as the end-year deadline it set for Washington to change its position looms.Some experts say the reclusive state may be preparing for an intercontinental ballistic missile test that could put it back on a path of confrontation with the United States.The U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, has visited South Korea and China in the past week, issuing a public and direct call to North Korea to return to the negotiating table, but there has been no response.
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Queen Elizabeth Mixes Puddings, and Sends Message of Continuity
At the end of a difficult year, Queen Elizabeth has posed for photographs with her son Prince Charles, grandson Prince William and great-grandson Prince George in an apparent message about the continuity of the British royal family.Buckingham Palace released photographs on Saturday of the Queen and the three immediate members of the line of succession as they prepared traditional Christmas puddings.Prince George, 6, is the focus of attention for his older relatives as he stirs pudding mixture in a bowl.The palace said the four generations of royals represented a cross-section of people helped by a charity for serving and former members of the armed forces – the Royal British Legion – which the queen has supported since 1952.The family scene struck a happy note for Queen Elizabeth, 93, after a difficult year.Over the past 12 months, her husband Prince Philip got a police warning for his involvement in a car crash, grandsons Princes William and Harry publicly fell out and her second son Prince Andrew became more entangled in the furor over his links to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.On Friday, 98-year-old Philip was taken to hospital for treatment of an existing condition, Buckingham Palace said.
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Eastern Libyan Forces Seize Ship With a Turkish Crew: Spokesman
Eastern Libyan forces seized a Grenada-flagged ship with a Turkish crew on Saturday off the Libyan coast, a spokesman said, amid rising tensions with Turkey, which supports the rival and internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli.Turkey’s parliament on Saturday approved a security and military cooperation deal signed with Tripoli government last month, state media reported, an agreement that could pave the way for military help from Ankara.A National Libyan Army forces naval combat vessel stopped the ship in Libyan territorial waters off the eastern city of Darna and towed it to Ras El Hilal port “for inspection and to verify its cargo”, spokesman Ahmed Mismari told Reuters. He gave no further details.The eastern forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar provided Reuters with a video that shows Libyan navy forces stopping the ship and questioning three crew members. They also published copies of passports of three Turkish nationals.It was not immediately clear what the ship was carrying. Ankara has sent military supplies to Libya in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, according to a report by U.N. experts seen by Reuters last month.Turkey has been backing the Libyan Government of National Accord led by Fayez al-Serraj as it fights off a months-long offensive by Haftar’s forces.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey could deploy troops to Libya in support of the GNA, but no request has been made.
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West African Nations Rename Common Currency, Sever its Links to France
Eight West African countries Saturday agreed to change the name of their common currency to Eco and severed the CFA franc’s links to former colonial ruler France.
The CFA franc was initially pegged to the French franc and has been linked to the euro for about two decades.
Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo currently use the currency. All the countries are former French colonies with the exception of Guinea-Bissau.
The announcement was made Saturday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer and France’s former main colony in West Africa.
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, speaking in the country’s economic capital Abidjan, announced “three major changes”.
These included “a change of name” of the currency, he said, adding that the others would be “stopping holding 50 percent of the reserves in the French Treasury” and the “withdrawal of French governance” in any aspect related to the currency.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Abidjan on December 21, 2019, during a three day visit to West Africa.Macron hailed it as a “historic reform”, adding: “The Eco will see the light of day in 2020.”
The deal took six months in the making, a French source said.
The CFA franc’s value was moored to the euro after its introduction two decades ago, at a fixed rate of 655.96 CFA francs to one euro.
The Bank of France holds half of the currency’s total reserves, but France does not make money on its deposits stewardship, annually paying a ceiling interest rate of 0.75 percent to member states.
The arrangement guarantees unlimited convertibility of CFA francs into euros and facilitates inter-zone transfers.
CFA notes and coins are printed and minted at a Bank of France facility in the southern town of Chamalieres.
The CFA franc, created in 1945, was seen by many as a sign of French interference in its former African colonies even after the countries became independent.
The Economic Community of West African States regional bloc, known as ECOWAS, earlier Saturday urged members to push on with efforts to establish a common currency, optimistically slated to launch next year.
The bloc insists it is aiming to have the Eco in place in 2020, but almost none of the 15 countries in the group currently meet criteria to join.
ECOWAS “urges member states to continue efforts to meet the convergence criteria”, commission chief Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said after a summit of regional leaders in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
The key demands for entry are to have a deficit of less than 3 percent of gross domestic product, inflation of 10 percent or under and debts worth less than 70 percent of GDP.
Economists say they understand the thinking behind the currency plan but believe it is unrealistic and could even be dangerous for the region’s economies which are dominated by one single country, Nigeria, which accounts for two-thirds of the region’s economic output.
Nigeria’s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed told AFP “there’s still more work that we need to do individually to meet the convergence criteria”.
ECOWAS was set up in 1975 and comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo — representing a total population of around 385 million.
Eight of them currently use the CFA franc, moored to the single European currency and gathered in an organisation called the West African Monetary Union, or WAMU.
But the seven other ECOWAS countries have their own currencies, none of them freely convertible.
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Fed-Up French Travelers Face Traffic Chaos Over Festive Period
Travelers across France scrambled Saturday to begin their Christmas getaways as a strike over a pension overhaul showed no signs of letting up. Trains were canceled, roads were packed and nerves were tested, but hopes of a holiday truce were dashed after talks between the government and union leaders this week failed to ease the standoff. Train operator SNCF warned that the traffic would be “severely disrupted” over the festive period.
SNCF said its aim to allow 850,000 ticket holders to travel this weekend was being upheld — but only half of its usual services were running.
“I’m upset. This strike is unbearable. … The government must do something,” said Jeffrey Nwutu Ebube, who was in the northern port town of Le Havre trying to find a way back home to the southern city of Toulouse, 850 kilometers (530 miles) away.
Late Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the strikers to embrace a “spirit of responsibility” and for “collective good sense to triumph.”
“I believe there are moments in the life of a nation when it is also good to call a truce to respect families and the lives of families,” he said, speaking in Abdijan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast, where he was on a visit. Options are fewMany stranded travelers have turned to car rental agencies or sharing platforms since the strike began on December 5, but the last-minute surge in demand meant vehicles were hard to come by. People ride bicycles alongside a traffic jam, in Paris, Dec. 20, 2019. France’s punishing transportation troubles may ease up slightly over Christmas but unions plan renewed strikes and protests in January.”We tried other ways, BlaBlaCar, et cetera, but everything is full, everything is taken,” said Jerome Pelletier, a manager in the textile industry.
Macron wants to forge the country’s 42 separate pension regimes into a single points-based system that the government says will be fairer and more transparent.
It would do away with schemes that offer early retirement and other advantages to mainly public sector workers, not least train drivers who can retire as early as 52.
While some unions support a single system, almost all reject a new “pivot age” of 64 — beyond the legal retirement age of 62 — which workers would have to reach to get a full pension. 1995 strike
They are hoping for a repeat of 1995, when the government backed down on pension reform after three weeks of metro and rail stoppages just before Christmas.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Thursday that talks had made progress and called on unions to lift the strike “so that millions of French can join their families for the end of this year.”
Although the moderate UNSA union agreed, the hardline CGT and Force Ouvrier unions said they would not let up.
This weekend, the last for Christmas shopping, the RATP Paris train operator said metro services would be “heavily reduced” on Sunday with only two driverless metro lines working.
The protest is also taking a heavy toll on businesses, especially retail during one of the busiest periods of the year, with industry associations reporting turnover declines of 30 to 60 percent from a year earlier.
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Diplomat: US Must ‘Engage’ to Seek Change From N. Korea
The United States will continue to pursue diplomatic negotiations with North Korea while pressing Pyongyang to improve its human rights practice, a State Department official said this week.
Robert Destro, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor affairs, told VOA in an interview Thursday that Washington has to “engage” with “a human rights violator like North Korea” to “get them to change their behavior.” Robert Destro, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor affairs. (Courtesy U.S. State Department)Destro’s remarks came amid escalating threats from North Korea to give the U.S. an ominous “Christmas gift” and walk away from nuclear talks.
Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he was redesignating North Korea as a Country of Particular Concern for systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom. The same day, President Donald Trump signed legislation tightening sanctions on Pyongyang.
Destro also commented on human rights practices in Iran, China and Venezuela. The following are excerpts from the interview.
VOA: Earlier this morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just redesignated Iran as a Country of Particular Concern. One year ago, Iran, along with others, like China and North Korea, were designated as CPC. Are those countries being redesignated again this year under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998?
DESTRO: I can’t speak to the other countries, you know. I can only speak for the countries that have been through the designation process. So I’m — the secretary announced Iran, so that’s all I can talk to you about today.
VOA: On North Korea: Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly, in an annual resolution, condemned “the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights” in and by North Korea. Could you please comment?
DESTRO: Well, we remain deeply concerned about what’s going on in North Korea. I think the credible evidence that’s coming out of North Korea speaks for itself. I think that the U.S. has been very eloquent and I don’t think we have much to add to that. It’s a very good statement.
VOA: Is there any discussion in this building that putting North Korea’s human rights abuses on the spot is hurting the diplomatic effort?
DESTRO: I’m not sure how to answer a question like that. I think that it’s — in any case where you have a human rights violator like North Korea and you’re trying to get them to change their behavior, you have to engage with them. I mean, this is just human behavior. You’re either going to have a good relationship or a bad relationship or something in between. So my view is that there’s nothing inconsistent with the president trying to engage with the North Koreans and to try and get them to change their behavior. That’s the whole point of the negotiations.
VOA: On Tibet, a recent proposed congressional bill — the Tibetan Policy and Support Act — would impose sanctions on any Chinese official who interferes in the selection of the successor to His Holiness Dalai Lama. It would also press for a U.S. consulate in Lhasa. China has pushed back, saying the United States “blatantly interferes in China’s internal affairs and sends a wrong signal to the Tibetan independent forces.” What is your take on this issue? How do you respond to China’s criticism?
DESTRO: As an official of the State Department, it’s not my role to comment on pending congressional legislation. Congress is its own independent branch, you know. They will take whatever action they need to take, and then we will take whatever actions are appropriate once they’ve acted.
VOA: On Venezuela, what is the U.S. assessment of the reported harassment by the government against the National Assembly members?
DESTRO: Well, the United States is committed to democracy in Venezuela. By removing the immunity of members of Congress, you know, you don’t foster democracy. And so we’re very concerned about any attempts by the government to suppress its own democratically elected representatives. That’s just not appropriate.
VOA: Do you have a general view on the current human rights situation in Venezuela?
DESTRO: Well, we applaud the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Madam (Michelle) Bachelet’s most recent report. We think it is a good follow-up to the report that they had before. And I think we all need to study it very carefully and to take heed of the kinds of recommendations that it makes.
VOA: Thank you very much for talking to Voice of America.
DESTRO: Thank you.
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Trump Says Trade Deal With China to Be Signed ‘Very Shortly’
President Donald Trump on Saturday said the United States and China would “very shortly” sign their so-called Phase One trade pact.“We just achieved a breakthrough on the trade deal and we will be signing it very shortly,” Trump said at a Turning Point USA event in Florida.The Phase One deal was announced this month as part of a bid to end the monthslong tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s two largest economies, which has roiled markets and hit global growth.Under the deal, the United States would agree to reduce some tariffs in exchange for a big jump in Chinese purchases of American farm products.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week that the pact would be signed in early January, adding that the deal had already been translated and was just undergoing a technical “scrub.”
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Pompeo Slams Russia, China for Opposing Syrian Aid Resolution
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced Russia and China on Saturday after the two countries vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on allowing cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria.
“The Russian Federation’s and China’s veto yesterday of a Security Council resolution that allows for humanitarian aid to reach millions of Syrians is shameful,” Pompeo said in a statement.
“To Russia and China, who have chosen to make a political statement by opposing this resolution, you have blood on your hands,” Pompeo said.
The resolution would have extended for one year cross-border aid deliveries from Turkey and Iraq to 4 million Syrian civilians who have been victimized by the Syrian conflict that began in 2011.
The vetoes raised fears that U.N.-funded aid would be prevented from entering the Idlib region and other opposition-controlled areas of Syria unless an alternative deal is reached before the current resolution expires in less than three weeks.
The ongoing assault by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian bombardments have intensified in the jihadist-held Idlib region since December 16, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes, the U.N. said.
The U.N. has called for an “immediate de-escalation” in Syria and has warned of other mass displacements if the violence continues.
More than 6 million people have been displaced in Syria since the war began, the world’s largest “internally displaced population,” according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes by the Syrian government and Russia on Saturday killed 12 civilians and wounded dozens of others.
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