Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrapped up a visit to Senegal on Sunday, where he discussed the U.S. role in security issues in Africa.This visit came as the U.S. Defense Department is conducting a global force review and has indicated there likely will be a reduction, but not a complete withdrawal, of U.S. forces from Africa.”We did have a lot of conversation about security issues here, about America’s role in those, we’ve made it clear that the Department of Defense is looking at West Africa to make sure we have our force levels right,” Pomepo said during joint news conference with Senegal’s Foreign Minister Amadou Ba.”I’m convinced that when our review is done we’ll have a conversation with not just Senegal but all the countries in the region, we’ll talk through why we’re doing it, how we’re doing it we’ll deliver an outcome that works for all of us,” Pompeo added.Washington has obligated more than $106 million in security assistance to support Senegal’s security institutions since 2014. The U.S., via the Departments of State and Defense, helps train and equip the Senegalese military and police to counter the evolving threats of regional terrorism and cross-border violence that spills over from the Sahel region.During his visit to Senegal, Pompeo also held talks with President Macky Sall. Ahead of Pompeo’s visit, Sall said a drawdown of American troops from Africa would be a mistake, and it would be “misunderstood” by African leaders.
The United States is the largest bilateral health donor in Senegal, with approximately $60 million in bilateral health funding in 2019 to support maternal and child health, nutrition, and efforts to combat malaria and HIV/AIDS.The next stop on Pompeo’s trip to is Luanda, Angola before he moves on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Pompeo will also visit Saudi Arabia and Oman before returning to Washington after his nine-day trip.In Luanda, he will meet with President Joao Lourenco and Foreign Minister Manuel Augusto to reaffirm U.S. support for Angola’s anti-corruption and democratization efforts.In Addis Ababa, Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Sahle-Work Zewde to discuss joint efforts to promote regional security and to support Ethiopia’s political and economic reform agenda. Additionally, he will meet with African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and give a speech.The chief U.S. diplomat began his trip at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he met with a number of foreign leaders, including Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani. A senior State Department official told reporters a reduction in violence deal has been reached with the Taliban, although the terror group needs to show it can deliver on throttling back the suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
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Month: February 2020
Former US Prosecutors Call for Attorney General’s Resignation
More than 1,100 former U.S. prosecutors and Justice Department officials called Sunday for the resignation of Attorney General William Barr after he intervened to shorten the political corruption sentence for Roger Stone, a long-time confidant of President Donald Trump.FILE – In this Nov. 15, 2019, file photo, Roger Stone, left, with his wife Nydia Stone, leaves federal court in Washington, Nov. 15, 2019.Four career federal prosecutors, part of the Justice Department headed by Barr, had recommended that Stone be sentenced this week to up to nine years in prison after his November conviction on seven charges, including lying to Congress and witness tampering, linked to the long investigation of the 2016 election won by Trump.But Barr and top Justice Department officials expressed shock by the length of the suggested sentence and Trump called it a “miscarriage of justice.” Barr intervened and the Justice Department then said the initial recommendation “could be considered excessive and unwarranted,” but left it up to the judge hearing the case to decide what the appropriate sentence should be at Thursday’s hearing.The former prosecutors and Justice Department officials, who came from across the U.S. political spectrum, said in an open letter Sunday, “Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice.”Barr told ABC News he did not talk to Trump about the Stone sentence, but the protesting former prosecutors said, “Mr. Barr’s actions in doing the president’s personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words. Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice’s reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign.”Marc Short, the chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, defended Barr in a CNN interview Sunday, saying that Barr “said the president has not called him directly to do these things.”A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment about the former prosecutors’ letter.After Barr intervened in the case, Trump praised him on Twitter, saying, “Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.” The four prosecutors who had made the sentencing recommendation quit the case after Barr stepped in.In the ABC interview, Barr said that Trump’s frequent tweets about politically charged criminal investigations make it impossible for him to do his job, although he said that the president has never directly intervened with him in any case.”I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” Barr said.Trump, hours later, said he had never asked Barr to “do anything in a criminal case.” Trump asserted that as president he had “the legal right to do so” but had “so far chosen not to!”“The President has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.” A.G. Barr This doesn’t mean that I do not have, as President, the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn departs after his sentencing was delayed at U.S. District Court in Washington, Dec.18, 2018.Barr ordered a federal prosecutor outside of the main Justice headquarters in Washington to review the origins and evidence in the case against Michael Flynn, who for a brief period served as Trump’s first national security adviser at the outset of his presidency in 2017. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with Russia’s then ambassador to Washington in the weeks before Trump took office, but has never been sentenced and recently sought to withdraw his guilty plea.Trump has called the case brought against Flynn “very unfair.”FILE – FBI acting director Andrew McCabe listens during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 7, 2017.Meantime, Barr dropped a criminal investigation against Andrew McCabe, a former acting FBI director, whom Trump has often attacked, claiming he was part of a “deep state” of government officials determined to undermine his presidency. McCabe had been accused of lying to government officials about his role in a leak about a government investigation to the Wall Street Journal.White House adviser Kellyanne Conway declined, in an interview on the Fox News Sunday show, to say what Trump’s reaction was to ending the McCabe investigation.”He’ll still be a serial liar whether he’s prosecuted or not,” Conway said of McCabe.”This is small potatoes,” she said, declining to further discuss the outcome of the case.
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China Reports Fewer New Cases of Coronavirus
Chinese health officials said Sunday that the number of new cases of the coronavirus has slowed for the third consecutive day.The health commission confirmed 1,843 new cases, representing a drop from higher numbers of new cases in recent days. Over the previous two days, China had reported more than 7,500 new infections.The death toll from the virus in mainland China hit 1,665, with 142 deaths reported Sunday. National Heath Commission spokesman Mi Feng said Sunday that the percentage of “severe” cases was dropping, and that the trends showed that China was succeeding in controlling the outbreak.But the World Health Organization warned Sunday that it will be “impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take.”Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany, Feb. 15, 2020.Speaking from the Munich Security Conference, WHO chief Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on governments to work with WHO to adequately inform the public of the dangers of the virus without causing hysteria.The World Health Organization said late Saturday there are 50,580 “laboratory-confirmed” cases of the coronavirus around the world, with the vast majority of the cases — 50,054 — located in China.China’s statistics, however, differ from those of WHO because China’s government recently changed its methodology for diagnosing and counting new cases, causing a spike in the numbers of reported cases. Under the new method, doctors can use lung imaging and other analyses to diagnose a patient instead of relying on laboratory testing.Also on Sunday, China’s state media published a speech that President Xi Jinping delivered on February 3 about his involvement with the country’s response to the coronavirus epidemic. The speech was published late Saturday.Local Chinese officials have been criticized for their handling of the virus outbreak, while the president’s involvement was been downplayed, until now. The publication of Xi’s speech, however, has done little to squelch questions about China’s management of the response. Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects the novel coronavirus prevention and control work at Anhuali Community in Beijing, China, Feb. 10, 2020.The president apparently handed down instructions on combating the virus on January 7 and he ordered the shutdown of Hubei province. “On Jan. 22, in light of the epidemic’s rapid spread and the challenges of prevention and control, I made a clear request that Hubei province implement comprehensive and stringent controls over the outflow of people,” Xi told a meeting of the top leadership of the Communist Party.Officials from the Wuhan — the city where the virus apparently emerged — and from Hubei — the province were Wuhan is located — have been fired by the Communist Party because of what was perceived as their inadequate response to the virus emergency.The speech also seems to indicate the country’s top leaders were slow to release information about the severity of the virus.A young doctor who took to social media to issue a warning about the emerging virus was upbraided by local police. The doctor later died from the virus.Meanwhile, Hubei’s provincial government said Sunday that it will prohibit vehicle traffic across the province in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. Emergency and public service vehicles will be exempted.Passenger disembark from the MS Westerdam at the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Feb. 15, 2020.An 83-year-old American woman who was a passenger on a cruise ship docked in Cambodia has tested positive twice for the virus after leaving the ship. She and her husband and other passengers from the MS Westerdam traveled to Malaysia after no one on the vessel tested positive. Her husband continues to test negative.China and WHO have launched a joint probe into the coronavirus. “We’re concerned about the lack of urgency in funding the response from the international community,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the annual Munich Security Conference.Officials in China’s capital have initiated a 14-day self-quarantine policy for all people returning to Beijing. The state-run Beijing Daily newspaper reports that those who refuse to seclude themselves or violate other containment rules “will be held accountable under the law,” but is was not immediately clear what the consequences of refusing to self-isolate would be.An 80-year-old Chinese tourist died Friday in a hospital in Paris. He was the first person in Europe to die of complications from the virus.In addition, the first coronavirus infection on the African continent has been reported in Egypt. The Diamond Princess, a quarantined cruise ship docked in Yokohama, has reported another 70 virus-infected people, bringing the ship’s total cases among the nearly 4,000 passengers and crew to 355. “We must anticipate a spread of infections,” Japanese Health Minister Katsunobo Kato said Sunday. Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea and the U.S. say they are sending planes to Japan to evacuate their citizens from the ship.
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Poor Africans Brave Conflict in Yemen for Work in Saudi Arabia
The International Organization for Migration reports despite Yemen’s brutal civil war, tens of thousands of desperately poor Africans continue to cross the Gulf of Aden each year into the conflict-ridden country in hopes of reaching Saudi Arabia and finding work. Nearly five years of civil war in Yemen has killed thousands of civilians, shattered the economy and left millions of people on the verge of famine. The United Nations considers Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.Despite this disastrous situation, migrants from the Horn of Africa remain undeterred in their determination to reach Yemen and then to Saudi Arabia and a hoped-for better life. Last year, the International Organization for Migration reports more than 138,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. This is more than the 110,000 migrants and refugees who crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe during the same period.IOM spokesman Paul Dillon says most of the migrants making the dangerous journey to Yemen are Ethiopians from the rural Oromia, Amhara and Tigray regions.“While tragedies along the Mediterranean routes are well documented, our staff bear witness daily to the abuse suffered by young people from the Horn of Africa at the hands of smugglers and traffickers exploiting their hopes for a better life,” he said. “Not only has migration along the Eastern Route not been reduced by years of conflict in Yemen, migrants appear undeterred by the Gulf’s strict immigration policies for undocumented migrants.” Dillon says most of the migrants are unaware of the dangers they will encounter in Yemen. Besides conflict, he says they are at risk of being kidnapped and tortured for ransom and exploited and trafficked by criminals.The IOM says establishment of legal pathways for migration offers the best and most effective way to protect migrants from abuse. It says an agreement last year between Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia that allows 100,000 Ethiopian workers to travel legally to Saudi Arabia for work has been successful and the agency calls for it to be extended.
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Fighting in Cameroon Kills Several Dozen
A least 35 civilians have reportedly been killed and 40 homes torched in less than a week in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest region, following bloody clashes between government troops and separatists fighting for the creation of an independent English-speaking state called Ambazonia. Both the rebels and the government blame each other for the gruesome murder of civilians, including children trapped in their burning homes. Affected relatives and communities that have escaped to the French-speaking capital, Yaounde, are trying to deal with the situation.Cameroonians from Donga Mantung, an administrative unit in the English-speaking Northwest region in Yaounde are trying to come to terms with news about massacres in their villages. Among them is 38-year-old Bruno Ngeh, who said his wife’s older sister’s entire family of nine was killed in an attack in the village of Ngarr-buh Friday.”These people had taken refuge in Ngarr-buh thinking that they were going to be safe in such a place but they never knew that they will be killed in their sleep by the very military that is supposed to protect them. I think it is time for the international community to put pressure on the Cameroon government to find a quick settlement to this conflict that has claimed so many lives,” he said.Donga Mantung’s Roman Catholic, Baptist and Presbyterian churches decried the killing in services Sunday, saying at least 29 civilians, including children and a pregnant women, were killed, and 14 houses were torched in the fighting.’Military responsible for the killings’Like Ngeh, they all said it was the military that was responsible for the killings.The military said many people were killed in raids but gave no further details. Local media reported that at least 35 civilians were killed in the crossfire between separatist fighters and the military or burned when their houses were torched.Separatist leader Samuel Ikome Sako, who calls himself interim president of Ambazonia, the English-speaking republic the separatists want to create, said the civilians were killed and their houses torched by Cameroon troops he describes as occupational forces dispatched by the French-speaking government in Yaounde to keep the English-speaking part of the country under their grip. In a message shared on social media platforms, Sako describes the killings as a massacre. He said his fighters have counted at least 40 civilian corpses in less than a week.”This is wickedness. These people [military] now are walking into houses, burn as many, then select families, pull them out [and] shoot. 22 in Donga Mantung, 19 in Bui, many more in Ngoketunjia. We are loosing hundreds per day,” said Sako.Similar attacks were reported in several villages of the Bui, Ngoketunjia and Mezam administrative units in the English-speaking Northwest and Lebialem and Manyu administrative units in the English-speaking South West.Cameroon said In January it had deployed at least 1,000 additional troops to the crisis-prone English-speaking regions prior to the February 9 local council and parliamentary elections separatist fighters had vowed to disrupt. Since the troop reinforcement, there have been several attacks on suspected separatist strongholds.Cameroon’s defense chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Rene Claude Meka, speaking on state media CRTV denied his troops were responsible for the atrocities. He said the military has remained professional and blames separatists for the atrocities.Meka said everyone should know that the military is out to defend Cameroon’s territorial integrity and its population from terrorists. He said in this very difficult moment, the military needs collaboration from the population to effectively defend civilians. He said anyone who has information that can be of help in fighting the terrorists should not hesitate to inform the military that is out to protect people and their property.Human rights violationsIn its 2020 World Report, the rights group Human Rights Watch blames both government troops and separatist fighters for gross human rights violations. It says Cameroonian security forces respond to increasing attacks by armed separatist groups by burning hundreds of homes and other property in villages and cities across the North West and South West regions, and torture suspected separatists in detention.It also accuses armed separatist groups of killing, torture, assault, and kidnapping dozens of people, including students, teachers, members of the clergy, and administrative and traditional authorities.Separatists have been fighting since 2017 to split the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest from the rest of the country and its French-speaking majority.The secessionist uprising in the English-speaking regions, home to an estimated seven million people, has cost more than 3,000 lives and forced 500,000 to flee either to the French-speaking regions or into neighboring Nigeria according to the United Nations.
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Orangutan Granted ‘Personhood’ Turns 34, Makes New Friend in Florida
WAUCHULA, Fla. – A orangutan named Sandra, who was granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina and later found a new home in Florida, celebrated her 34th birthday on Valentine’s Day with a special new primate friend.Patti Ragan, director of the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida, says Sandra “has adjusted beautifully to her life at the sanctuary” and has befriended Jethro, a 31-year-old male orangutan.Before coming to Florida, Sandra had lived alone in a Buenos Aires zoo. Sandra was a bit shy when she arrived at the Florida center, which is home to 22 orangutans.“Sandra appeared most interested in Jethro, and our caregivers felt he was a perfect choice because of his close age, calm demeanor, and gentle nature,” Ragan said in a news release. “Sandra still observes and follows Jethro from a distance while they are in the process of getting to know and trust each other. But they are living harmoniously in the same habitat spaces as they continue to gain confidence in their relationship.”Judge Elena Liberatori’s landmark ruling in 2015 declared that Sandra is legally not an animal, but a non-human person, and thus entitled to some legal rights enjoyed by people, and better living conditions.“With that ruling I wanted to tell society something new, that animals are sentient beings and that the first right they have is our obligation to respect them,” she told The Associated Press.But without a clear alternative, Sandra remained at the antiquated zoo, which closed in 2016, until leaving for the U.S. in late September. She was in quarantine for a month at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas before arriving in Florida.On Friday, Sandra celebrated her birthday, complete with pink signs and wrapped packages. Jethro, who was once in the entertainment business, attended the party.
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Hurricane-force Winds, ‘Life-threatening’ Floods Vex UK
Storm Dennis roared across Britain Sunday, lashing towns and cities with high winds and dumping so much rain that authorities urged residents to protect themselves from “life-threatening floods” in Wales and Scotland.The Met Office, Britain’s national weather service, issued more than 250 flood warnings for England, Scotland and Wales.As the winds churned up enormous waves in the North Atlantic and the North Sea, the bodies of two men were pulled from the water Saturday in two separate searches off England’s eastern coast.Severe flood warnings were issued for the River Neath in south Wales and local media reported the River Taff had burst its banks in the Welsh town of Pontypool.In one 24-hour period, Tredegar in southeast Wales was hit by 105 mm (4.1 inches) of rain, while coastal Welsh village of Aberdaron was blasted by hurricane-force winds up to 91 mph (146 kph).Hundreds of flights were canceled because of the high winds while train services were repeatedly disrupted by flooding. The travel chaos affected tens of thousands of passengers on a key weekend for British families as schools closed for the midwinter break.On Saturday, around 75 British army personnel and 70 reservists helped out communities in the flood-hit Calder Valley region in West Yorkshire, constructing flood barriers and repairing damaged flood defenses.
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‘Take One, Leave One’: Mexican Idea To Help Homeless Goes Global
A surprisingly simple idea to help homeless people has gone viral – and is spreading around the world. The ‘Take One, Leave One’ concept aims to offer warm clothing to the homeless. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the idea seems to have originated in Mexico, before spreading to the United States, and now to London and across Europe – with social media key in stimulating grassroots goodwill to tackle a growing problem.
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Exhibit Remembers Canine Contribution to 9/11 Rescue Efforts
Almost two decades have passed since the tragedy of September 11, 2001. The heroic actions of the first responders have become the stuff of legend. But one story is not well known — the story of the dogs who worked alongside firefighters and rescuers in the rubble of New York City’s Twin Towers. A unique exhibit commemorates those four-legged heroes. Anna Nelson has the story narrated by Anna Rice.
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Algeria Marks One-year Anniversary of Anti-government Protests
Algeria is marking the one-year anniversary this week of its massive popular uprising pretty much the way it started — with more street protests and a sense that demands for fundamental political change remain unmet. The political landscape has shifted dramatically. Ailing octogenarian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika — whose quest for yet another term in office triggered the so-called Hirak protest movement — is out. In prison today are former prime ministers and other once-powerful establishment figures, including Bouteflika’s brother, Said. The current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, 74, wants to reform Algeria’s constitution, among other areas. Even powerful army General Ahmed Gaid Salah, who orchestrated the ouster of Bouteflika and other members of his regime, is out of the picture, having died suddenly in December. Yet protesters and analysts believe the fundamental pouvoir, or traditional power system of influential military and business leaders, remains in place. And while some suggest there are options for moving forward, the street and the government, for now, are at an impasse. Not enough impact“The people in the streets now aren’t enough to pressure the government to meet their demands,” said analyst Brahim Oumansour of the French Institute for International and Strategic Relations, referring to the dwindling numbers in recent months. At the same time, he added, “I don’t think the Algerian government can continue failing to answer to their demands. The country cannot support such a political blockage.” In the streets and on social media, protesters claim their movement is as strong as ever, and vow another mass demonstration next Friday. “Fifty-second Friday of protest, the Hirak continues to be mobilized,” one Twitter post said, echoing many others. FILE – People carry a mock hangman with faces of businessman Ali Haddad, former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, and Said Bouteflika, brother of the former president, during a protest against the political structure, in Algiers, Algeria, April 5, 2019.Establishment figures remain In other signs of recent changes, an appeals court confirmed this past week a 15-year prison sentence against Said Bouteflika, who was an unofficial “regent” during his brother’s later years in office, along with two intelligence chiefs, on charges of plotting against the army’s authority. Meanwhile, a controversial media boss once close to the ex-president was arrested on corruption charges. But other establishment figures remain. Topping the list is Tebboune, a former prime minister and favorite of Algeria’s powerful army. He was among a short list of old-regime candidates for Algeria’s December election to replace Bouteflika. Protesters called for a boycott of the vote, and even the official turnout was low at just 40 percent. Since his election, Tebboune has reached out to protesters, calling for dialogue, freeing some detainees and vowing to amend the constitution to give Parliament and the judiciary more power. After a period of focusing inwardly, Algeria is getting more involved in regional issues, including finding solutions to unrest in neighboring Libya and the Sahel region. But authorities continue to crack down on largely peaceful demonstrations, along with some independent unions, analysts say. FILE – A wounded protester is evacuated during a demonstration to denounce then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term, in Algiers, Algeria, Feb. 23, 2019.Meanwhile, the protest movement remains unstructured, and some opposition parties refuse to engage in dialogue with the president. “The Algerian government is functioning but its legitimacy suffers and the country remains at an impasse,” wrote expert Robert Ford, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based research organization. Another combustible mix? To be sure, the current uprising is radically different from the bloody “Black Decade” of the 1990s, unleashed after the government canceled 1992 parliamentary elections that Islamists were poised to win. The conflict that followed — pitting Islamist militants against the military-backed government — that claimed roughly 150,000 lives was one key reason, analysts say, why Algerians failed to join the wider Arab Spring protests of the past decade. Today, however, Algeria’s struggling, oil-reliant economy, high unemployment and unmet political grievances could prove another combustible mix. For now, the government has kept sensitive subsidies on basic foods and fuel and other key items to avoid more protests. But it might be squeezed to change that policy, analyst Oumansour said. “If the economic situation leads to thousands of layoffs and inflation, it could perhaps drive the movement into violence,” he added, although not on the scale of two decades ago. Lack of leadershipComplicating the way forward, the protest movement has yet to produce any clear leadership. Some believe that is unlikely to change. “The Hirak is not a political party, and cannot be structured as such,” wrote Algeria’s leading independent newspaper, El Watan, in a recent editorial, since the movement “reflects all the currents of opinion of Algerian society.” Nor, the newspaper wrote, do Algerian authorities want the protest to become structured, since it would present a potent threat in the next elections. But Oumansour believes creating a credible opposition through the ballot box may be one key to ending the impasse. That would mean pushing up the next legislative and municipal votes, currently scheduled for 2022. “That would allow the Hirak to have its own legally recognized political leaders,” he said. “And it gives the government representatives they can negotiate with on the country’s future.”
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US: No Start Date Yet for Temporary Afghan Truce
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Saturday that consultations were still underway on setting a start date for a seven-day trial of reduced violence negotiated with the Taliban in Afghanistan. “That is a moving date because we are still doing consultations, if you will, … so I can’t give you a hard date right now,” Esper told reporters in Munich, Germany, after attending a security conference there. U.S. officials have said a successful implementation of the temporary reduction in violence would pave the way for a comprehensive peace deal with the insurgent group that could end America’s longest war and bring home about 13,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. “Where we are right now is on the doorstep of a reduction-of-violence period. If we decide to move forward, if all sides hold up — meet their obligations under that reduction in violence — then we’ll start talking about the next part, whether to move forward [with the comprehensive peace agreement],” Esper said. As part of the short-term agreement, he added, the United States will suspend “a significant part of our operations,” though the Pentagon chief declined to discuss details. U.S. officials say the deal binds the Taliban to halt major attacks, including roadside and suicide bombings, against Afghan and U.S.-led international forces anywhere in the country. FILE – A captured Taliban insurgent is presented to the media after he was detained with car explosive devices in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Dec. 10, 2019.Some risk, but ‘promising’Earlier, Esper told an audience at the Munich Security Conference the reduction in violence was not without risk but looked “very promising” and “we have to give peace a chance.” He went on to reiterate that “the best if not the only way forward in Afghanistan is through a political agreement, and that means taking some risk.” Taliban sources have said the seven-day period will begin February 22 and the comprehensive peace agreement is expected to be signed on February 29. U.S. and Taliban representatives have negotiated the draft peace agreement during months of meetings in the Gulf state of Qatar. If signed, it immediately could lead to a gradual withdrawal of American forces, bringing the force down to 8,600 personnel in the initial few months. Taliban sources say the agreement will require all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan within two years. Insurgent sources say international guarantors such as the United Nations, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Germany, Norway and Qatar will witness the signing ceremony. The agreement will require the Taliban to open negotiations within 10 days with an inclusive Afghan delegation that represents all political and ethnic groups in the country, including the government in Kabul. That intra-Afghan dialogue will discuss a permanent nationwide cease-fire and power-sharing in postwar Afghanistan. Germany and Norway have both offered to host Taliban-Afghan negotiations, but no final decision has been made. U.S. officials have stressed the troop drawdown plans, however, will be linked to progress in intra-Afghan negotiations and effective implementation of Taliban undertakings, including a further reduction in insurgent violence. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper alongside at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020.Ghani skepticalAfghan President Ashraf Ghani also spoke Saturday at the Munich conference and reiterated his skepticism about the U.S.-led peace process. “The concern that the Taliban could be using a peace process as a ‘Trojan horse strategy’ is there, but you can’t end this war without engaging in a process and testing them,” Afghan media quoted Ghani as saying. Between the signing of the U.S.-Taliban deal and the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, the insurgent group and Afghan authorities would be expected to release prisoners. Taliban officials say they already have given their list of thousands of insurgents being held in Afghan prisons. The troop drawdown agreement was expected to be signed last September, but continued deadly Taliban attacks on Afghan and U.S. troops prompted President Donald Trump to halt the peace process. The negotiations resumed in December, and marked progress has been achieved since then.
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Vietnam Turns to Private Companies for Public Services Needs
Last year companies like Coca Cola and Tetra Pak, an international food packaging and processing company, collaborated with Vietnam’s biggest city to lower garbage levels. Their work included putting recycling bins around Ho Chi Minh City and investing in the waste management system.Garbage collection is still a local government responsibility.The collaboration, though, shows how Vietnam is increasingly looking at private companies to fulfill its national development needs.Vietnam is at a turning point. The country used to rely on aid from nations such as Sweden and Canada, and that foreign funding helped Vietnam improve education, health care, and other public goods, and transform into a lower middle-income nation.Foreign governments are cutting aid budgets globally, though, and Vietnam no longer qualifies for as much aid, so it is trying a new approach to development, making it a business.It matches marketing strategy to a need for investment dollars.That means getting more companies involved in activities traditionally performed by government, with the intention of reaching Vietnam’s development goals.“A series of ongoing market reforms is giving Vietnam a market-leading status in Southeast Asia, making it an increasingly attractive place for investors,” Nirukt Sapru, who is the chief executive officer for Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank, said.He added that in Vietnam, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals present “opportunities for private sector investors looking to invest with impact and improve the lives of millions over the next decade.”Water is one example. The change in approach means officials are discussing the provision of clean water not just as a right or a development goal, but also as a potentially profitable investment. This hybrid approach is visible across Vietnam, with companies selling wind power as part of a national energy security agenda, building toll roads whose fees are collected by both government and companies, and laying internet cables as part of efforts toward universal connectivity.Standard Chartered estimates these and other goals in Vietnam provide companies with a $45.8 billion investment opportunity.The country is looking at public-private partnerships, which allow companies to participate in what are usually public services, sometimes for a limited time. For instance a city government could let a company build it a hospital, and run facilities until it recoups its investment. Vietnam must strike a balance, making the partnership profitable for companies, without the government getting in too much debt, according to Asian Development Bank consultants Sanjay Grover and Donald Lambert.“If it is too generous, governments can be saddled with millions of dollars in contingent liabilities,” they wrote in an ADB analysis. “If it is too conservative, investment stalls.”However, partial privatization is not without its drawbacks. Last year Vietnamese drivers protested against paying road tolls that went in part to private investors and that they felt had become unfairly high.Elsewhere in the region, Malaysia struggled to introduce a fee to clean septic tanks when privatization occurred because residents had gotten used to that being a public service, already covered by tax dollars. Citizens globally have resisted when governments move to sell assets they think should be kept for public benefit, from airports in France to the oil business in Mexico.One major donor, the U.S. Agency for International Development, though, thinks it’s a good idea for Vietnam to move toward more private sector involvement. In recent years it has promoted U.S. companies to work on Vietnamese development projects, such as energy and smart cities.“USAID provides development assistance for market-oriented reform and trade facilitation, including implementing a program to reinvigorate the public-private-partnership business model here in Vietnam,” said U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink last year.
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US Labels China ‘Greatest Potential Adversary’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has said that China tops the list of the Pentagon’s potential adversaries. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Esper said Beijing posed the greatest threat to the West, followed by Russia, what he called “rogue states,” like North Korea and Iran, and extremist groups.“In fact, under President Xi’s rule, the Chinese Communist Party is heading even faster and further in the wrong direction. More internal repression, more predatory economic practices, more heavy-handedness, and most concerning for me, a more aggressive military posture,” Esper told the audience of world leaders and military chiefs Saturday.His warnings were echoed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who took aim at Chinese telecom firm Huawei.“Huawei and other Chinese backed tech companies are Trojan horses for Chinese intelligence,” Pompeo said. “We can’t let information go across networks that we don’t have confidence won’t be hijacked by the Chinese Communist Party. It’s just unacceptable.”U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, shakes hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, as US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper watches during the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020.Key ally Britain announced recently that it will allow Huawei to build sections of its 5G mobile network, to Washington’s dismay. Officials in Munich said the U.S. is pushing to develop its own 5G technology.Pompeo dismissed European concerns over the health of the Western alliance.“I am happy to report that the death of the transatlantic alliance is grossly over exaggerated,” Pompeo said. “The West is winning. We are collectively winning. We are doing it together.”China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, also attending the Munich conference, said the U.S. accusations about Huawei were lies. “The root cause of all these problems and issues is that the U.S. does not want to see the rapid development and rejuvenation of China, and less would they want to accept the success of a socialist country,” Wang said.Details of a sideline meeting between Secretary Pompeo and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov were not released.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks on the second day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020.Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif, also spoke to the Munich audience Saturday and was questioned about Tehran’s response to the U.S. targeted killing in January of its top general, Qassem Soleimani. Zarif said his country was ready for talks.”It’s not about opening talks with the United States, it’s about bringing the United States back to a negotiating table that’s already there,” he said. “We met every three months around that negotiating table until April 2018.”The Munich conference is packed with military top brass. Analysts warn that Western defense capabilities must adapt to modern threats.In its annual Military Balance survey, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) notes that cyber defense, artificial intelligence and hybrid warfare would characterize conflict in the years to come.FILE – International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Director-General and Chief Executive Dr. John Chipman.“The deployment of traditional military power is not in every case an effective counter to the astute deployment of informal force by adversaries willing to operate below the threshold of war,” Director-General of the IISS John Chipman told the conference. “Examples include Russia’s strategy in Ukraine, its use of chemical agents in the U.K., and its election meddling. Iran’s ability to conduct warfare through third parties gave Tehran a strategic advantage over adversaries reliant on conventional capabilities.”Conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East and Afghanistan were high on the agenda in Munich — but it is China that has found itself at the center of attention, forced to defend its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and faced with intense efforts by Washington to paint Beijing as the greatest global threat.The annual Munich Security Conference traditionally has focused on grand strategy and the relative military strength of global powers. This year, there appears to be a greater recognition that the battles of the future not only will be fought on land, air and sea, but in the realms of cyberspace and information warfare, where technology outguns military hardware.The strong words from the U.S. delegation in Munich are just the latest salvo in the long battle ahead for cyber supremacy.
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US Defense Secretary Calls on Global Security Leaders to ‘Wake Up’ to China’s Efforts to Impact World Affairs
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged world security leaders Saturday to “wake up” to China’s efforts to influence world affairs, maintaining the world’s most populous country plans to achieve its goals by any means necessary.”It is essential that we as an international community wake up to the challenges presented by Chinese manipulation of the long-standing international rules-based order,” Esper declared at an international security conference in Munich.Esper emphasized the U.S. does not seek conflict with China but voiced concern over what he said were China’s goals to modernize its military by 2035 and dominate Asia militarily by 2049.He accused China of increasingly involving itself in affairs in Europe and elsewhere outside its borders with the intent of “seeking advantage by any means and at any cost.”Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said later that Esper and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who accused China of using a “nefarious strategy” to win support for its next-generation wireless network equipment maker Huawei Technologies, of telling “lies.”Pompeo said, “We can’t let information go across networks that we don’t have confidence won’t be hijacked by the Chinese Communist Party. It’s just unacceptable.”
Wang said “The U.S. does not want to see the rapid development and rejuvenation of China” and would especially dislike “the success of a socialist country.” He also said it is “most important” for the two superpowers to begin talks to “find a way for two major countries with different social systems to live in harmony and interact in peace.”NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the Munich Security Conference that China presents both challenges and opportunities for the West. He said the U.S. and Europe must agree on a unified approach to address China’s increasing global influence.Esper sought to garner European support for competitors to Huawei after Britain decided weeks ago to use Huawai’s 5G equipment. Britain’s decision dealt a blow to U.S. efforts to persuade allies to ban Huawei from their networks, claiming China could use the equipment for spying, an accusation Huawei and Chinese officials have denied.“We are encouraging allied and U.S. tech companies to develop alternative 5G solutions and we are working alongside them to test these technologies at our military bases as we speak.”Esper also discussed the war in Afghanistan, saying a U.S. deal with the Taliban that could result in the withdrawal of U.S. troops is not without risk but “looks very promising.”Esper’s remarks came one day after a senior U.S. official said a seven-day “reduction in violence” agreement had been reached with the Taliban and that it would be formally announced soon.
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US Hails Senegal as ‘Anchor of Democracy’ in West Africa
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Senegal, where he will hold talks with President Macky Sall focused on strengthening security ties and promoting deeper economic cooperation.The U.S. officially recognized Senegal as an independent state in 1960, and the two countries have forged a close relationship over the past six decades of diplomatic ties. Senior State Department officials have praised Senegal as a role model for democratic institutions, stability and tolerance in West Africa.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan Pompeo departing Munich for Senegal.“We see Senegal as an anchor of democracy and linchpin of security for West Africa,” said Pompeo. The U.S. regards Senegal as a critical ally in U.S. efforts to advance peace and security in West Africa and worldwide.Washington has obligated more than $106 million in security assistance to support Senegal’s security institutions since 2014. The U.S., via the Departments of State and Defense, helps train and equip the Senegalese military and police to counter the evolving threats of regional terrorism and cross-border violence that spills over from the Sahel region.
The Defense Department is conducting a global force review and has indicated there likely will be a reduction, but not a complete withdrawal, of U.S. forces from Africa. Ahead of Pompeo’s visit, Sall said a drawdown of American troops from Africa would be a mistake, and it would be “misunderstood” by African leaders.
The United States is the largest bilateral health donor in Senegal, with approximately $60 million in bilateral health funding in 2019 to support maternal and child health, nutrition, and efforts to combat malaria and HIV/AIDS.After leaving Senegal late Monday, Pompeo will travel to Luanda, Angola, and then Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He also will visit Saudi Arabia and Oman before returning to Washington after his nine-day trip.In Luanda, he will meet with President Joao Lourenco and Foreign Minister Manuel Augusto to reaffirm U.S. support for Angola’s anti-corruption and democratization efforts.In Addis Ababa, Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Sahle-Work Zewde to discuss joint efforts to promote regional security and to support Ethiopia’s political and economic reform agenda. Additionally, he will meet with African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and give a speech.The chief U.S. diplomat began his trip at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he met with a number of foreign leaders, including Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani. A senior State Department official told reporters a reduction in violence deal has been reached with the Taliban, although the terror group needs to show it can deliver on throttling back the suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
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Ukraine’s President Vows to End War, Invites Trump to Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed Saturday to end the separatist conflict in the east of his country, where fighting between Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops has killed more than 14,000 people since 2014.Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskiy said he hopes to end the conflict by the end of his presidential term in 2024.“If in five years, we will end the war, bring our people back, then I did (became president) for a reason,” he said.The conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in April 2014, weeks after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and has devastated the country’s industrial heartland.Thanking the United States for supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, Zelenskiy expressed hope to “start afresh” Kyiv’s relations with the U.S. now that proceedings for President Donald Trump’s impeachment are over.Ukraine and Zelenskiy were at the center of the impeachment hearings. In a phone call in July that triggered a congressional inquiry, Trump pressured Zelenskiy to investigate the involvement of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son with Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.In Munich, Zelenskiy said he wants to visit the White House, and he invited Trump to Kyiv.“We have a good relationship with the U.S., and I’m grateful to Americans for their support,” he said.Zelenskiy, a 42-year-old comic actor with no political experience, won Ukraine’s presidential election in 2019 on promises to end the fighting. He has expressed willingness to negotiate a peace agreement with Russia.However, several contentious issues complicate the peace process, including Ukraine regaining control of its border and allowing elections that would give rebel-controlled regions more autonomy.Zelenskiy said Saturday in Munich he wants local elections held across Ukraine, including certain areas of the east, in October. But the votes can’t take place while fighting continues, he said.“People in Donbass need elections that would be recognized as legitimate. But they can’t be that if held not in accordance with Ukrainian laws, to the sound of gunfire and without (Kyiv’s) control of Ukraine’s border,” the president said.Zelenskiy announced discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin in April about another exchange of prisoners. There are currently 200 Ukrainians held in the rebel-controlled areas, Zelenskiy said.
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South Sudan President Offers Key Compromise for Peace
South Sudan’s president said on Saturday he would return to a system of 10 states, a key opposition demand, paving the way for a unity government and an end to the country’s civil war.”The compromise we have just made is in the interest of peace…I expect the opposition to reciprocate,” Salva Kiir said, after a meeting of top government and military officials in the capital Juba.Kiir said the country would now be divided among the original 10 states, plus three “administrative areas” of Pibor, Ruweng and Abyei.The opposition welcomed the move but immediately raised questions over the fate of Ruweng, a key oil producing zone.The number of states is contentious because the borders will determine the divisions of power in the country.Oil zone argumentsKiir and rebel chief Riek Machar — who lives in exile — are under increasing pressure to resolve their differences by February 22 and form a unity government as part of a peace agreement.They have already missed two previous deadlines to enshrine peace and end a six-year conflict that has left at least 380,000 people dead and millions in dire poverty.Kiir and Machar met last week in neighboring Ethiopia but the talks ended in deadlock.However, Saturday’s announcement meant a key concern of Machar appeared to have been resolved.”This decision may not have been the best option for our people, but for the sake of peace and unity in the country, the Presidency sees it necessary,” a government statement said.But after the surprise announcement, Machar’s party said they welcomed Kiir’s compromise but opposed splitting off oil-rich Ruweng.Oil provides almost all of the government’s revenue in South Sudan, one of the most oil dependent nations in the world.Ruweng has been one of the most heavily fought over areas in the civil war and is claimed by both the Dinka people of Kiir and the Nuer of Machar.”We welcome this decision but we only have one complaint; the establishment of Ruweng Administrative Area,” said opposition party spokesman Pouk Both Baluang. “The issue of the states has not been resolved completely.”But Baluang said he expected Kiir and Machar to meet soon to discuss their differences. Kiir said the final matter of states would be debated once the unity government forms.When it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan had 10 states, as set out in its constitution. Kiir increased that in 2015 to 28, and then later 32.Kiir had repeatedly refused to back down on the number of states but had come under intense international pressure to compromise.Leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Riek Machar shakes hands with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir after a tripartite summit at the State House in Entebbe, Uganda, Nov. 7, 2019.Machar return urgedFighting has abated since September 2018 when Kiir and Machar — old rivals who have fought and made up multiple times — signed a deal to end the the bloodshed that erupted in 2013, when the president accused his former deputy of plotting a coup.They agreed to come together in a coalition in May last year but disputes over territory and security arrangements dogged negotiations and the deadline was missed, followed by another six months later.In November, the pair were given 100 more days to resolve these sticking points — an extension that finishes next Saturday.Any extension beyond February 22 was “neither desirable nor feasible”, the eight-nation East African bloc of nations, IGAD, warned last week.South Sudan vice president Taban Deng Gai said Machar must now return from exile to help form the government.
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Airbus ‘Deeply Regrets’ US Decision to Raise Tariffs on EU Aircraft
Airbus said Saturday it “deeply regrets” the U.S. decision “to increase tariffs on aircraft imported from the EU.”The European aerospace corporation said in a statement the new tariffs would heighten “trade tensions between the US and the EU, thereby creating more instability for US airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft.”The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said Friday tariffs on aircraft imported from the European Union would rise from 10% to 15%.The tariff hike is expected to go into effect on March 18.The Airbus statement said the tariffs create “more instability for US airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft.”The jet shortage U.S. airlines are experiencing follows the decision by U.S. plane builder Boeing to take its popular 737 MAX planes out of service after crashes that claimed the lives of 346 people.Talks between the U.S. and the European Union are expected to continue.
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Cambodia Gets More Praise for Allowing Cruise Ship to Dock
The cruise ship that was allowed to dock in Cambodia after being turned away at five other ports by authorities fearful of the spread of the deadly new virus from China disembarked passengers for a second day on Saturday so they can fly home.After being stranded at sea for two weeks, the MS Westerdam was allowed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to dock for what he said were humanitarian reasons.The Cambodian leader’s decision won praise from President Donald Trump, who tweeted: “Thank you to the beautiful country of Cambodia for accepting the @CarnivalCruise ship Westerdam into your port. The United States will remember your courtesy!”The first batch of hundreds of passengers who disembarked Friday saw Hun Sen arrive by helicopter and then personally hand them flowers as they made their way to land.Many were taken to the airport in the port of Sihanoukville from which they were flown to the capital, Phnom Penh, to make onward connections to home.The ship’s earlier appeals to land in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Guam had been rejected.“The one thing I can say is we’re very, very grateful that Cambodia has opened literally its ports and its doors to people in need,” U.S. Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy said Saturday at a dockside news conference.“We think this sends a strong message,” said the envoy. “We all have to help each other. And the passengers here are just average citizens from many different countries trying to make their way home. And this model is good and we hope that other countries can be equally as helpful to people in need.”According to Murphy, of the 1,455 passengers, more than 600 are American citizens.British passenger John Stanley said that in addition to the Americans, there had been about 150 people aboard from the U.K., along with other travelers from Australia, Canada, France the Netherlands and Germany. The European Union Delegation to Cambodia said there were 260 EU citizens from 20 different EU members states aboard.“They’re from all over the world. It’s a logistical nightmare to get us out of out of your country,” Stanley told said, referring to arrangements to get all of them home.All the passengers were expected to have been sent on their way by Sunday.Those passengers who had not already left Sihanoukville were looking for ways to occupy themselves. Hun Sen had said the passengers were free to go to the beach, go sightseeing in the coastal city, or even visit the famous centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex in the country’s northwest.“We’re stuck on this ship for now,” Lydia Miller from Washington State said in a text message. “Hoping to go to town for coconut water and a massage before we leave.”Some other cruise ships in the Asia Pacific region remain in limbo, barred from some ports and allowed into others. Two cruise ships that were set to disembark passengers in Vietnam on Friday were not allowed to do so.
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‘The West is Winning,’ Pompeo Tells China, Russia
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended Saturday his nation’s global role despite misgivings in Europe, vowing that Western values would prevail over China’s desire for “empire.”Pompeo was seeking to reassure Europeans troubled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America first” rhetoric, ambivalence over the transatlantic NATO military alliance and tariffs on European goods.“I’m happy to report that the death of the transatlantic alliance is grossly exaggerated. The West is winning, and we’re winning together,” he said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, listing U.S. steps to protect liberal democracies.Pompeo was, in part, responding to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who Friday accused the United States, Russia and China of stoking global mistrust.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and wife Susan Pompeo departing Munich for Senegal, Feb. 15, 2020.Trump’s decision to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as well as the Paris climate accord, have undermined European priorities, while moves such as recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital have weakened European diplomacy, envoys say.Pompeo defended the U.S. strategy, saying Europe, Japan and other American allies were united on China, Iran and Russia, despite “tactical differences.”He reiterated Washington’s opposition to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline under construction between Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, a project backed by the government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Citing Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, cyber threats in Iran and economic coercion by China, Pompeo said those countries were still “desiring empires” and destabilizing the rules-based international system.U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, speaking immediately after Pompeo, focused his remarks solely on China, accusing Beijing of a “nefarious strategy” through telecommunications firm Huawei.“It is essential that we as an international community wake up to the challenges presented by Chinese manipulation of the long-standing international rules-based order,” Esper said.He said it was not too late for Britain, which last month said it would allow Huawei a limited role in building its 5G networks, to take “two steps back,” but added he still needed to assess London’s decision.“We could have a win-win strategy if we just abide by the international rules that have been set in place for decades … that respect human rights, that respect sovereignty,” he said.
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Major World Events Canceled as Fears of Coronavirus Spread Mounts
As the death toll from the COVID-19 virus continues to mount within China, the world is beginning to experience the economic fallout from the epidemic and major events are being canceled. Officials said as of Friday there were nearly 64,000 confirmed cases in mainland China. Almost 1,400 people have died. Outside of China, about 500 cases have been confirmed in about two dozen countries and three people have lost their lives. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo updates us in this report.
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Turkey Continues Military Buildup in Syria, Seeking Diplomatic Solution From Moscow
Turkey is deploying tanks and armor in Syria’s Idlib province as Damascus continues its offensive against the last rebel enclave. But in an apparent gesture to Moscow, Ankara is pledging to crack down on radical elements in Idlib, along with calls for “a lasting cease-fire.” Damascus’s forces are claiming they are advancing against the rebels’ last stronghold. But in a sign of the intensifying fighting, rebels claimed to have to shot down a Syrian government military helicopter Friday, the second this week. A screen grab taken from a video published by jihadists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham allegedly shows a Syrian military helicopter being downed, Feb. 12, 2020, in Syria’s war-torn province of Idlib.Ankara reportedly is stepping up its arming of rebels with sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, along with deploying hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks. The escalating military presence follows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vow to drive back Damascus’s forces from Idlib if they don’t withdraw by the end of February. The ultimatum followed the killing of 14 Turkish soldiers this month by Syrian troops.However, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar appeared to strike a different note Thursday, pledging to crack down on radicals in Idlib. Akar said they would be “dealt with by force” and that “all measures” would be considered against them. The Turkish defense minister was referring to the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which Damascus forces are battling in Idlib. The radical group is now a mainstay of rebel groups in Idlib. Moscow blames Ankara for the Damascus offensive, claiming it had failed to disarm and remove radical groups as part of a 2018 Sochi agreement aimed at creating a de-escalation zone in Idlib.“The Turkish side had taken upon itself an obligation to neutralize terrorist groups” in Idlib, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Friday.Blame gameErdogan had dismissed Moscow’s calls to disarm radical groups, claiming the Russians were responsible for the Idlib fighting, in an increasingly acrimonious blame game.Washington, sensing an opportunity to create a disagreement between Ankara and Moscow, strongly backed Erdogan’s stance in Idlib. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dispatched Ambassador Jim Jeffrey for emergency talks Wednesday. Jeffrey, speaking to reporters Tuesday ahead of negotiations, appeared to suggest every kind of support would be considered, stoking Ankara’s hopes of military support.U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien appeared to rule out such a move Wednesday, however, asking, “What are we supposed to do to stop that? We’re supposed to parachute in as a global policeman and hold up a stop sign and say stop this, Turkey? Stop this, Russia? Stop this, Iran? Stop this, Syria?”U.S. special envoy for Syria and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Jim Jeffrey speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Nov. 14, 2019.A slap at Washington Turkish pro-government media were quick to hit back Friday against Washington, accusing its NATO ally of duplicity. “James Jeffrey’s deceit can clearly be read on his face. He is running wild at the peak of insolence. Who can call him human,” wrote columnist Taner Korkmaz of the Turkish daily Yeni Safak.Turkish Chief of Staff Yasar Guler spoke Thursday with his Russian counterpart, General Valery Gerasimov, about the situation in Idlib, the Turkish military announced on Twitter. “Erdogan is still a pragmatic man. He still thinks he can win. He can persuade Putin to give him some favors in Syria,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Sunday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.Displaced Syrians pass a house still on fire as they flee shelling on the town of Abyan, in the western rebel-held part of the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey, Feb. 12, 2020.No refugee exodusInternational relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University says Ankara could be looking to Moscow to save the 2018 Sochi agreement based on rebels giving up territory. “The best solution is for the Turkish military to withdraw north of the M4 and leave the two highways to the regime,” Ozel said. “And the regime will send a couple of hundred thousand refugees, and we will be stuck with them, at least not in Turkey.”Ozel claims Erdogan’s priority in Idlib is to avert another significant exodus of refugees into Turkey, given the country is hosting of 3.5 million Syrians from the civil war. The United Nations said Thursday more than 800,000 Syrians had been displaced by fighting in Idlib, with 64,000 sleeping outside and another 14,000 under trees in sub-freezing temperatures. Many reportedly are moving toward the Turkish border.“The level of tolerance of Turkish society for an extra number of Syrians is zero,” Ozel said. “It would generate a lot of tensions. I would be very concerned with inter-communal violence through the vilification of the Syrians, and it would be a pretty precarious situation, I think.”President of Turkey and leader of Justice and Development (AK) Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the party’s group meeting at Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara, Feb.12, 2020.Sliding economyA slowing economy is exacerbating Turkish discontent over Syrians, with youth unemployment at nearly 25%. Erdogan’s ratings in opinion polls, along with his AKP, are on the slide.Analysts also warn of a potential security threat of an exodus from Idlib, given the presence of large numbers of jihadists.“These radical elements can easily escape into areas of large concentrations of Syrian nationals. In some places, Syrians in Turkey are the majority,” said Haldun Solmazturk, head of the Ankara-based research group the 21st Century Turkey Institute. “If these groups feel betrayed by Turkey, they could use terrorist methods against Turkey,” Solmazlurk said.Ankara already is seeking to curtail the threat of a new refugee exodus. “They are building in a band within 30 miles of the Turkish border, thousands of temporary houses,” Yesilada said.“Which means that if [Syrian leader Bashir al-] Assad wishes to take them back, Turkish military forces will defend those settlements? [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel has reportedly vaguely promised to help finance those settlements. But would these people stay in such settlements with Assad breathing down their necks,” he added.
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US Prepares for Second Wave of Flu as Coronavirus Fears Rise
U.S. health officials are preparing for a second wave of the winter flu season, complicated this year by similarities between flu symptoms and those of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 in China and spread fear around the world. A first round of seasonal flu, caused by a strain of influenza B, named B-Victoria for the city in which it was discovered, peaked in the United States in late December and then dropped off, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the CDC says a second round of flu began in late January, caused by a strain of influenza A that is related to the swine flu that first appeared in 2009, and cases continue to increase. While there have only been 15 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States as of Friday, health officials have expressed concern that if the virus were to spread in the country, it could initially look like the spread of seasonal flu. FILE – Passengers arrive at LAX airport from Shanghai, China, before restrictions were put in place to halt the spread of the coronavirus, in Los Angeles, Jan. 26, 2020.Coronavirus testingIn part to address these concerns, U.S. health officials announced they would begin testing some patients who have flulike symptoms for coronavirus in several U.S. cities. The testing will initially be carried out by public health labs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York, which are already testing for seasonal flu. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters in a telephone briefing Friday that labs will conduct the coronavirus test on patients who show flulike respiratory symptoms, but who test negative for the seasonal flu. Both the seasonal flu and coronavirus cause respiratory illness, fever and cough. Other typical flu symptoms include sore throat, muscle aches, runny nose and fatigue, according to the CDC. While scientists have studied the flu for decades, little is known about this coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, because it is so new. Health officials are still trying to understand all the symptoms related to the new virus, as well has how it spreads and how often cases are severe. There have been few studies on the symptoms of coronavirus, however, research suggests patients most commonly suffer from fever, cough and shortness of breath and are less likely than flu patients to suffer from a sore throat and runny nose. To prevent the spread of the coronavirus to the United States, CDC officials have put in place travel restrictions and quarantine policies for people who recently visited China. However, officials say that strategy would change if the virus were to spread quickly in the United States. Messonnier said if there were an outbreak of coronavirus in the United States, the CDC would call for “social distancing” strategies that would include online schooling, teleworking, and canceling mass gatherings, in an effort to prevent people from spreading the virus. Flu kills 14,000 in USWhile health officials put plans in place for any possible outbreak of coronavirus, doctors around the United States continue to help patients battle the seasonal flu. The CDC estimates that 26 million Americans have gotten sick with flu this season and around people 14,000 have died. Health officials say the first wave of the flu, a B strain, has hit children particularly hard this season, causing 92 deaths in children. B strains are more likely to cause a more severe illness and death in children. Cases of the flu among the elderly have been down this season. The CDC says concern about coronavirus might have prompted more people with flu symptoms to go their doctor for testing this season, although they say there is nothing in their data to confirm this. Messonnier said if more people are going to the doctor that is a good thing. “People being a little worried and seeking care doesn’t especially worry me, because that’s the point,” she said.
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Europe Mulls Forceful Presence in Conflict-torn Sahel
The European Union is being urged to become more militarily involved in Africa’s Sahel region amid a possible drawdown of U.S. troops and a fast-growing Islamist insurgency.Fallout from escalating unrest in the arid scrubland edging the Sahara dessert — threatening to push deeper into sub-Saharan Africa and potentially export instability and migration across the Mediterranean Sea — offers a powerful argument for more European action. That is also the message from France, the United States and the EU’s own executive arm.But it’s not clear whether EU member states have much appetite for more military action. And current EU policy in the region, some analysts say, appears disjointed and scattershot.This pictured taken July 2, 2018 shows the logo of five-nation French-backed anti-terror unit, the “G5 Sahel” force.“We have more than 20 Sahel strategies from European countries,” said Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute, a Senegal-based research group. “That means there is no coordination — while the terrorist groups are coordinating, are trying to support each other and are multiplying their attacks against the countries.”Creating a cohesive European Sahel strategy will be tested next month, during a Brussels meeting that will involve the five African nations most affected by the conflict, known as the G5 Sahel, and EU leaders. Adding to the pressure are chances the United States may cut troops in Africa — along with a newly released government report describing a U.S. strategic shift from reducing to containing the armed threat in the Sahel. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger make up the G5 Sahel.The March meeting with G5 leaders “will be the occasion to see how we can have a more effective strategy in the short, medium and long term” in the region, European Council President Charles Michel told Radio France Internationale, or RFI, in an interview this week. European Council President Charles Michel talks to the media during a news conference in Skopje, North Macedonia, Jan. 24, 2020. Guns not enoughExperts say guns alone won’t solve a spiraling humanitarian crisis that has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and left millions in need of assistance. Attacks in three of the most affected Sahel countries — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — have doubled each year since 2015, according to the U.S. government-funded Africa Center for Strategic Studies. “We begin to fear the very existence of the Sahel states is threatened,” African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told Le Monde newspaper, ahead of a recent AU summit that focused on the conflict, among other threats. French President Emmanuel Macron meets soldiers of Operation Barkhane, France’s largest overseas military operation, in Gao, northern Mali, May 19, 2017.For now, former colonial power France is shouldering most of Europe’s military response. Earlier this month, Paris announced it was adding 600 troops to its 4,500-person Operation Barkhane force in the region. But Barkhane’s presence has fueled public protests in the region — a key subject of a January summit in the French town of Pau between French President Emmanuel Macron and Sahel leaders. Moreover, the deaths of 13 French soldiers in a November helicopter collision has fed criticism at home that France is mired in a conflict it cannot win.A potential U.S. drawdown in the Sahel would mark another setback. Earlier this month, French Defense Minister Florence Parly headed to Washington to lobby against the possibility. French Minister of Armed Forces Florence Parly speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Jan. 27, 2020.France’s Operation Barkhane “will not collapse if the United States withdraws their military assets,” defense expert Elie Tenenbaum told Le Monde, but it would see fewer fighter plane dispatches and reduced intelligence operations, among other changes. “The position of the United States is very clear — they don’t want to be involved in hard strategies, like France,” said analyst Sambe. “They invest in soft power. They empower West African countries to develop strategies against violent extremism.”Yet for now, at least, hard power is also in demand.“We need very strong military actions to stop the jihadist groups before they reach the coastal regions and link up with criminal networks, drugs and weapons,” Sambe said, naming countries like Senegal, Ghana and Guinea. French President Emmanuel Macron, right, greets Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita prior to a meeting at the G5 Sahel summit in Pau, southwestern France, Jan.13, 2020.Some African countries are responding. Chad was mulling deploying a battalion to the tri-border region of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali that is considered the epicenter of the violence.Mali plans to recruit 10,000 new soldiers — even as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told RFI his government was in contact with armed groups as a way to explore other “avenues” to end the violence. At the same time, the AU announced it would not start using a new fund for security operations until 2023, after it received less than half the contributions it hoped for. European responseIn Europe, France is pushing for greater EU involvement in counterterrorism operations in the Sahel, notably through a new special forces task force called Takuba. But so far, not many EU countries have agreed or expressed interest in joining. And crucially, analysts say, France is not getting enough buy-in from its most important European partner, Germany. “France believes Germany hasn’t done enough” in the Sahel, Le Monde wrote this week, even as the Germans “reproach France for not working collectively.”“France now wants better engagement from European countries so it can really be seen as cooperation between Sahelian countries and Europe — not just France alone,” analyst Sambe said, “but I don’t think the European countries are following France in this strategy.”France is not alone in urging greater European participation.“The French are calling on Europe to step up and do more” in the Sahel, the head of U.S. Africa Command, General Stephen Townsend, said in January, adding, “I absolutely think that is the right thing to do.”European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gives a press briefing after his meetings with Iranian leaders, in Tehran, Feb. 3, 2020.EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell offered a similar message last month, saying Europe “must absolutely do more” in the Sahel, while adding the bloc had agreed to enhance its strategic cooperation. To be sure, the EU has not been inactive. The so-called Sahel Alliance, grouping France, Germany, the EU and development institutions, has designated billions of dollars for regional development initiatives. Overall, the EU counts among the region’s biggest humanitarian donors, contributing more than $200 million to the crisis last year alone. Experts also note that having more boots on the ground is only a partial answer to the jihadist insurgency. What is needed, many say, is better governance and more investment in education and development.“France has a very military approach in the region,” analyst Sambe said. “But I always say you have never seen a Kalashnikov [rifle] killing an ideology.”
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