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Tag: International agreements

  • Iran claims prisoner swap with US; US calls it ‘cruel lie’

    Iran claims prisoner swap with US; US calls it ‘cruel lie’

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s top diplomat claimed Sunday that a prisoner swap was near with the U.S., though he offered no evidence to support his assertion. The U.S. immediately dismissed his comments as a “cruel lie.”

    Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has made similar comments in the past about possible deals with the U.S. on frozen assets abroad and other issues that never came to fruition. Some of those remarks have appeared aimed at shoring up domestic support amid the mass protests challenging Iran’s theocracy and supporting the country’s troubled rial currency.

    However, in an interview Sunday with Iranian state television, Amirabdollahian claimed that Iran had “reached an agreement in recent days regarding the exchange of prisoners between Iran and the United States.”

    “If everything goes well on the American’s side, I think we will see the exchange of prisoners in the short term,” he added. He alleged a document between Iran and the U.S. laying out the exchange had been “indirectly signed and approved” since March 2022.

    Reached by The Associated Press, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the comments “another especially cruel lie that only adds to the suffering of their families.”

    “We are working relentlessly to secure the release of the three wrongfully detained Americans in Iran,” Price said. “We will not stop until they are reunited with their loved ones.”

    A separate statement from the White House’s National Security Council also called the remarks “false.”

    “Unfortunately, Iranian officials will not hesitate to make things up, and the latest cruel claim will cause more heartache for the families of Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz,” the council said.

    Iran long has taken prisoners with Western passports or ties to use in negotiations with foreign nations.

    As of right now, there are at least three American citizens known to be held in Iranian prisons on widely disputed espionage charges.

    The evidence against them has never been made public. The detainees all have dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, something Tehran does not recognize.

    In recent days, however, longtime Iranian-American detainee Siamak Namazi was allowed to conduct an interview with CNN from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison — something that would not have happened without the acquiescence of security forces.

    Meanwhile, Ali Bagheri Kani, a deputy Iranian foreign minister who has handled nuclear talks with world powers, made a trip Sunday to Oman, a longtime interlocutor between Tehran and Washington.

    Amirabdollahian’s comments also come after Iran and Saudi Arabia, with Chinese mediation, announced Friday they would reestablish diplomatic ties and reopen embassies after a seven-year freeze in relations.

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    Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • S. Korea pushes to end Japan disputes over forced laborers

    S. Korea pushes to end Japan disputes over forced laborers

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    SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Monday announced a contentious plan to raise local civilian funds to compensate Koreans who won damages in lawsuits against Japanese companies that enslaved them during World War II.

    The plan reflects conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s determination to mend frayed ties with Japan and solidify a trilateral Seoul-Tokyo-Washington security cooperation to better cope with North Korea’s nuclear threats. But it’s drawn an immediate backlash from former forced laborer and their supporters, who have demanded direct compensation from the Japanese companies.

    South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told a televised news conference the victims would be compensated through a local foundation that would be funded by civilian donations. He said South Korea and Japan were at a “new window of opportunity” to overcome their past conflicts and build future-oriented relations.

    “And I think this is the last opportunity,” Park said. “If we compare it to a glass of water, (I) think that the glass is more than half full with water. We expect that the glass will be further filled moving forward based on Japan’s sincere response.”

    Observers had earlier said the foundation would be funded by South Korean companies, which benefited from a 1965 Seoul-Tokyo treaty that normalized their relations. The accord was accompanied by hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul that were used in development projects carried out by major South Korean companies, including POSCO, now a global steel giant.

    Ties between the U.S. Asian allies have long been complicated by grievances related to Japan’s brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, when hundreds of thousands of Koreans were mobilized as forced laborers for Japanese companies or sex slaves at Tokyo’s wartime brothels.

    Their history disputes intensified after South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 ordered two Japanese companies — Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — to compensate former Korean forced laborers or their bereaved relatives.

    Japan, which insists all wartime compensation issues were settled under the 1965 treaty, reacted furiously to the 2018 rulings, placing export controls on chemicals vital to South Korea’s semiconductor industry in 2019, citing the deterioration of bilateral trust.

    South Korea, then governed by Yoon’s liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in, accused Japan of weaponizing trade and subsequently threatened to terminate a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo, a major symbol of their three-way security cooperation with Washington.

    The Seoul-Tokyo feuding complicated U.S. efforts to reinforce its cooperation with its two key Asian allies in the face of confrontations with China and North Korea. Worries about their strained ties have grown as North Korea last year adopted an escalatory nuclear doctrine and test-launched more than 70 missiles – the most-ever for a single year.

    Since taking office in May last year, Yoon has been seeking to improve ties with Japan and strengthen its military alliance with the United States and a trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo security cooperation.

    Former forced laborers, their supporters and liberal opposition lawmakers berated the government plan, calling it a diplomatic surrender. Some activists supporting former forced laborers plan to hold rallies later Monday.

    “Basically, the money of South Korean companies would be used to erase the forced laborers’ rights to receivables,” Lim Jae-sung, a lawyer who represented some of the plaintiffs, wrote on Facebook. “This is an absolute win by Japan, which insists it cannot spend 1 yen on the forced labor issue.”

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  • S. Korea pushes to end Japan disputes over forced laborers

    S. Korea pushes to end Japan disputes over forced laborers

    [ad_1]

    SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Monday announced a contentious plan to raise local civilian funds to compensate Koreans who won damages in lawsuits against Japanese companies that enslaved them during World War II.

    The plan reflects conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s determination to mend frayed ties with Japan and solidify a trilateral Seoul-Tokyo-Washington security cooperation to better cope with North Korea’s nuclear threats. But it’s drawn an immediate backlash from former forced laborer and their supporters, who have demanded direct compensation from the Japanese companies.

    South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told a televised news conference the victims would be compensated through a local foundation that would be funded by civilian donations. He said South Korea and Japan were at a “new window of opportunity” to overcome their past conflicts and build future-oriented relations.

    “And I think this is the last opportunity,” Park said. “If we compare it to a glass of water, (I) think that the glass is more than half full with water. We expect that the glass will be further filled moving forward based on Japan’s sincere response.”

    Observers had earlier said the foundation would be funded by South Korean companies, which benefited from a 1965 Seoul-Tokyo treaty that normalized their relations. The accord was accompanied by hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul that were used in development projects carried out by major South Korean companies, including POSCO, now a global steel giant.

    Ties between the U.S. Asian allies have long been complicated by grievances related to Japan’s brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, when hundreds of thousands of Koreans were mobilized as forced laborers for Japanese companies or sex slaves at Tokyo’s wartime brothels.

    Their history disputes intensified after South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 ordered two Japanese companies — Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — to compensate former Korean forced laborers or their bereaved relatives.

    Japan, which insists all wartime compensation issues were settled under the 1965 treaty, reacted furiously to the 2018 rulings, placing export controls on chemicals vital to South Korea’s semiconductor industry in 2019, citing the deterioration of bilateral trust.

    South Korea, then governed by Yoon’s liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in, accused Japan of weaponizing trade and subsequently threatened to terminate a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo, a major symbol of their three-way security cooperation with Washington.

    The Seoul-Tokyo feuding complicated U.S. efforts to reinforce its cooperation with its two key Asian allies in the face of confrontations with China and North Korea. Worries about their strained ties have grown as North Korea last year adopted an escalatory nuclear doctrine and test-launched more than 70 missiles – the most-ever for a single year.

    Since taking office in May last year, Yoon has been seeking to improve ties with Japan and strengthen its military alliance with the United States and a trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo security cooperation.

    Former forced laborers, their supporters and liberal opposition lawmakers berated the government plan, calling it a diplomatic surrender. Some activists supporting former forced laborers plan to hold rallies later Monday.

    “Basically, the money of South Korean companies would be used to erase the forced laborers’ rights to receivables,” Lim Jae-sung, a lawyer who represented some of the plaintiffs, wrote on Facebook. “This is an absolute win by Japan, which insists it cannot spend 1 yen on the forced labor issue.”

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  • Nations reach accord to protect marine life on high seas

    Nations reach accord to protect marine life on high seas

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas – representing a turning point for vast stretches of the planet where conservation has previously been hampered by a confusing patchwork of laws.

    The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force in 1994, before marine biodiversity was a well-established concept. The treaty agreement concluded two weeks of talks in New York.

    An updated framework to protect marine life in the regions outside national boundary waters, known as the high seas, had been in discussions for more than 20 years, but previous efforts to reach an agreement had repeatedly stalled. The unified agreement treaty, which applies to nearly half the planet’s surface, was reached late Saturday.

    “We only really have two major global commons — the atmosphere and the oceans,” said Georgetown marine biologist Rebecca Helm. While the oceans may draw less attention, “protecting this half of earth’s surface is absolutely critical to the health of our planet.”

    Nichola Clark, an oceans expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts who observed the talks in New York, called the long-awaited treaty text “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect the oceans — a major win for biodiversity.”

    The treaty will create a new body to manage conservation of ocean life and establish marine protected areas in the high seas. And Clark said that’s critical to achieve the U.N. Biodiversity Conference’s recent pledge to protect 30% of the planet’s waters, as well as its land, for conservation.

    Treaty negotiations initially were anticipated to conclude Friday, but stretched through the night and deep into Saturday. The crafting of the treaty, which at times looked in jeopardy, represents “a historic and overwhelming success for international marine protection,” said Steffi Lemke, Germany’s environment minister.

    “For the first time, we are getting a binding agreement for the high seas, which until now have hardly been protected,” Lemke said. “Comprehensive protection of endangered species and habitats is now finally possible on more than 40% of the Earth’s surface.”

    The treaty also establishes ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities in the oceans.

    “It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” said Jessica Battle, an oceans governance expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

    Several marine species — including dolphins, whales, sea turtles and many fish — make long annual migrations, crossing national borders and the high seas. Efforts to protect them, along with human communities that rely on fishing or tourism related to marine life, have long proven difficult for international governing bodies.

    “This treaty will help to knit together the different regional treaties to be able to address threats and concerns across species’ ranges,” Battle said.

    That protection also helps coastal biodiversity and economies, said Gladys Martínez de Lemos, executive director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense focusing on environmental issues across Latin America.

    “Governments have taken an important step that strengthens the legal protection of two-thirds of the ocean and with it marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities,” she said.

    The question now is how well the ambitious treaty will be implemented.

    Formal adoption also remains outstanding, with numerous conservationists and environmental groups vowing to watch closely.

    The high seas have long suffered exploitation due to commercial fishing and mining, as well as pollution from chemicals and plastics. The new agreement is about “acknowledging that the ocean is not a limitless resource, and it requires global cooperation to use the ocean sustainably,” Rutgers University biologist Malin Pinsky said.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Berlin.

    ___

    Follow Larson on Twitter at @larsonchristina and Whittle at @pxwhittle

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Nations reach accord to protect marine life on high seas

    Nations reach accord to protect marine life on high seas

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas – representing a turning point for vast stretches of the planet where conservation has previously been hampered by a confusing patchwork of laws.

    The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force in 1994, before marine biodiversity was a well-established concept. The treaty agreement concluded two weeks of talks in New York.

    An updated framework to protect marine life in the regions outside national boundary waters, known as the high seas, had been in discussions for more than 20 years, but previous efforts to reach an agreement had repeatedly stalled. The unified agreement treaty, which applies to nearly half the planet’s surface, was reached late Saturday.

    “We only really have two major global commons — the atmosphere and the oceans,” said Georgetown marine biologist Rebecca Helm. While the oceans may draw less attention, “protecting this half of earth’s surface is absolutely critical to the health of our planet.”

    Nichola Clark, an oceans expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts who observed the talks in New York, called the long-awaited treaty text “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect the oceans — a major win for biodiversity.”

    The treaty will create a new body to manage conservation of ocean life and establish marine protected areas in the high seas. And Clark said that’s critical to achieve the U.N. Biodiversity Conference’s recent pledge to protect 30% of the planet’s waters, as well as its land, for conservation.

    Treaty negotiations initially were anticipated to conclude Friday, but stretched through the night and deep into Saturday. The crafting of the treaty, which at times looked in jeopardy, represents “a historic and overwhelming success for international marine protection,” said Steffi Lemke, Germany’s environment minister.

    “For the first time, we are getting a binding agreement for the high seas, which until now have hardly been protected,” Lemke said. “Comprehensive protection of endangered species and habitats is now finally possible on more than 40% of the Earth’s surface.”

    The treaty also establishes ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities in the oceans.

    “It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” said Jessica Battle, an oceans governance expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

    Several marine species — including dolphins, whales, sea turtles and many fish — make long annual migrations, crossing national borders and the high seas. Efforts to protect them, along with human communities that rely on fishing or tourism related to marine life, have long proven difficult for international governing bodies.

    “This treaty will help to knit together the different regional treaties to be able to address threats and concerns across species’ ranges,” Battle said.

    That protection also helps coastal biodiversity and economies, said Gladys Martínez de Lemos, executive director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense focusing on environmental issues across Latin America.

    “Governments have taken an important step that strengthens the legal protection of two-thirds of the ocean and with it marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities,” she said.

    The question now is how well the ambitious treaty will be implemented.

    Formal adoption also remains outstanding, with numerous conservationists and environmental groups vowing to watch closely.

    The high seas have long suffered exploitation due to commercial fishing and mining, as well as pollution from chemicals and plastics. The new agreement is about “acknowledging that the ocean is not a limitless resource, and it requires global cooperation to use the ocean sustainably,” Rutgers University biologist Malin Pinsky said.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Berlin.

    ___

    Follow Larson on Twitter at @larsonchristina and Whittle at @pxwhittle

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Nations reach accord to protect marine life on high seas

    Nations reach accord to protect marine life on high seas

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas — nearly half the planet’s surface — concluding two weeks of talks in New York.

    The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force in 1994, before marine biodiversity was a well-established concept.

    An updated framework to protect marine life in the regions outside national boundary waters, known as the high seas, had been in discussions for more than 20 years, but previous efforts to reach an agreement had repeatedly stalled. The unified agreement treaty was reached late Saturday.

    “We only really have two major global commons — the atmosphere and the oceans,” said Georgetown marine biologist Rebecca Helm. While the oceans may draw less attention, “protecting this half of earth’s surface is absolutely critical to the health of our planet.”

    Now that long-awaited treaty text has been finalized, Nichola Clark, an oceans expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts who observed the talks in New York, said, “This is a once in a generation opportunity to protect the oceans — a major win for biodiversity.”

    The treaty will create a new body to manage conservation of ocean life and establish marine protected areas in the high seas. And Clark said that’s critical to achieve the U.N. Biodiversity Conference’s recent pledge to protect 30% of the planet’s waters, as well as its land, for conservation.

    The treaty also establishes ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities in the oceans.

    “It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” said Jessica Battle, an oceans governance expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

    Many marine species — including dolphins, whales, sea turtles and many fish — make long annual migrations, crossing national borders and the high seas. Efforts to protect them — and human communities that rely on fishing or tourism related to marine life — have previously been hampered by a confusing patchwork of laws.

    “This treaty will help to knit together the different regional treaties to be able to address threats and concerns across species’ ranges,” said Battle.

    That protection also helps coastal biodiversity and economies, said Gladys Martínez de Lemos, executive director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense focusing on environmental issues across Latin America.

    “Governments have taken an important step that strengthens the legal protection of two-thirds of the ocean and with it marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities,” she said.

    The question now is how well the ambitious treaty will be implemented.

    The high seas have long suffered exploitation due to commercial fishing and mining, as well as pollution from chemicals and plastics. The new agreement is about “acknowledging that the ocean is not a limitless resource, and it requires global cooperation to use the ocean sustainably,” said Malin Pinsky, a biologist at Rutgers University.

    ___

    Follow Larson on Twitter at @larsonchristina and Whittle at @pxwhittle

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Russia keeps door open on future talks about nuclear pact

    Russia keeps door open on future talks about nuclear pact

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    A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow may continue to exchange information with the United States on issues related to their nuclear forces even after the suspension of the last remaining arms control pact between the two countries

    ByVLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press

    MOSCOW — Russia may continue to exchange information with the United States on issues related to their nuclear forces even after Moscow suspended its participation in the last remaining arms control pact between the two countries, a senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia has given the U.S. Embassy formal notice about the New START treaty’s suspension after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decision into law on Tuesday.

    Ryabkov noted that Russia and the U.S. had confidential discussions on matters related to the pact in recent days. He said Moscow could remain open to such exchanges in the future.

    “We will communicate and exchange information when necessary,” Ryabkov said in comments carried by Russian news agencies.

    The Russian diplomat emphasized that Russia will not end the suspension “at least until our American counterparts show readiness to abandon their hostile policy toward Russia, primarily concerning the developments in Ukraine.”

    Putin announced the halt in Moscow’s participation in New START in his state-of-the-nation address last week. He argued that Moscow can’t accept U.S. inspections of Russian nuclear sites envisaged by the pact when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Russia’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.

    Putin said Moscow was not withdrawing from the pact altogether, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty and keep notifying the U.S. about test launches of ballistic missiles.

    Bonnie Jenkins, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, said Monday that while the U.S. government has not fully assessed the consequences of Putin’s decision, “we’re not seeing any evidence that Russia is in noncompliance.”

    “We remain ready to work assertively with Russia to fully implement the New START treaty,” Jenkins said.

    The New START treaty, which then-presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed in 2010, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

    The inspections have been dormant since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussions on resuming them were supposed to have taken place in November 2022, but Russia abruptly called them off.

    Ryabkov argued Wednesday that Washington offered “too little too late” to come to an agreement on inspections and solve other differences between the countries regarding the pact’s implementation.

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  • UN raises $1.2 billion for Yemen, far below its 2023 target

    UN raises $1.2 billion for Yemen, far below its 2023 target

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    CAIRO — Global donors on Monday pledged about $1.2 billion at a conference aimed at generating funds to help millions of people in Yemen suffering from the fallout of an eight-year civil war, a U.N. official said. The amount is far below a target of $4.3 billion set by the United Nations to stave off one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

    More than 21 million people in Yemen, or two-thirds of the country’s population, need help and protection, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, which says the humanitarian needs in Yemen are “shocking.” Among those in need, more than 17 million are considered particularly vulnerable.

    “The people of Yemen deserve our support. But more than that, they deserve a credible path out of perpetual conflict and a chance to rebuild their communities and country,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, addressing the donors.

    Martin Griffiths, OCHA’s head, said they received 31 pledges at Monday’s conference, totaling about $1.2 billion. He said the U.N. hopes to collect more funds throughout the year to help cover its needs.

    Charities working in Yemen slammed the shortfall in global pledges, despite appeals from humanitarian officials.

    “The international community today showed it has abandoned Yemen at this crucial crossroads,” said Erin Hutchinson, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Yemen Country Director. “This is woefully inadequate and gives the signal that some humans are less valuable than others.”

    The International Committee of the Red Cross said, “Funding shortages risk turbo-charging Yemen’s humanitarian woes from bad to worse.”

    The high-level gathering was co-hosted by Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.N. in the organization’s Palais des Nations in Geneva. It was attended by officials from across the world.

    Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell called the conference a “good start.”

    “But with 21 million Yemenis in need of assistance, clearly more funding will be needed throughout the year,” he said.

    Addressing the conference virtually, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. will provide more than $444 million in humanitarian assistance to Yemen in 2023. He called on donors to step up their contributions to meet the humanitarian demands in Yemen, pointing to last year’s funding shortages that forced U.N. agencies to scale down operations including food rations for thousands of families.

    “The scale of the challenge we face is daunting. But I urge everyone to keep our focus on the people we seek to help,” he told the conference.

    Blinken also called for an end to restrictions on humanitarian workers and operations, especially in Houthi-controlled areas where the rebels restrict the movements of female aid workers by forcing them to be accompanied by male guardians.

    Such U.N. appeals are rarely fully funded. OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said last year’s appeal for Yemen – also some $4.3 billion – ended 2022 at just over half-funded, which is roughly on par with the percentage garnered in such appeals for “protracted” crises in places like Yemen, Syria, Congo, or Ethiopia.

    Laerke said meeting about one-fourth of the appeal was “a good, decent outcome of a pledging event” like Monday’s. Others known as “flash” appeals tend to get more because they’re often launched directly after an emergency, like after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria, he said.

    The conference came as the global economy remains rattled by the yearlong Russian invasion of Ukraine. Inflation rates have surged over the past year across the world, forcing many governments to focus on elevating the needs of their own people.

    Yemen’s conflict started in 2014, when the Iran-backed rebel Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north. A Saudi-led coalition intervened months later, in early 2015, to try and dislodge the rebels and restore the internationally recognized government to power.

    The conflict has in recent years become a regional proxy war that has killed more than 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians. The war has also created a horrendous humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from food and medical care shortages and pushing the country to the brink of famine.

    Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, that are part of the the conflict, did not announce pledges at Monday’s conference. Only Kuwait among the wealthy Gulf nations pledged $5 million for Yemen, according to a list of pledges circulated by the U.N.

    The conference is taking place as the warring sides continue to observe an informal and fragile cease-fire. Efforts are underway to declare a new truce after the parties failed to renew a U.N.-brokered truce in October.

    “We have a real opportunity this year to change Yemen’s trajectory and move towards peace, by renewing and expanding the truce,” Guterres, the U.N. chief, said.

    The truce, which took effect in April, brought some relief for Yemenis, especially in Houthi-held areas. It enabled commercial traffic to resume at Sanaa’s airport and the sea port of Hodeida.

    However, partly because of the territorial division — with roughly half of Yemen under Houthi control and the other half under government control — the country is haunted by an economic crisis. There is dual system of currency, dual exchange rates, restrictions on imports and double taxation on goods, according to the U.N. Panel of Experts investigating Yemen’s conflict. Annual inflation reached 45%, and food prices surged 58%, according to the panel’s report.

    There have also been Houthi attacks on oil facilities in government-held areas, resulting in the disruption of oil export, which is a major source of funds for the government.

    The war has decimated the country’s civilian infrastructure including its health care system. Hospitals and medical facilities have repeatedly been attacked.

    “Yemen requires urgent and robust support from international donors and other partners to effectively avert the potential collapse of its health system,” said Adham Ismail, the World Health Organization’s representative in Yemen.

    Climate change has added to the suffering. Yemen, located at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, is “at the forefront” of a global climate crisis, as natural disasters, including floods and arid weather, threaten lives, the U.N. has said.

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    Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

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  • Putin says Russia cannot ignore NATO nuclear capability

    Putin says Russia cannot ignore NATO nuclear capability

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    Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated in an interview set to be broadcast Sunday that Russia suspended its participation in the New START treaty not only because of U.S. nuclear capabilities but those of other NATO countries.

    As he has done repeatedly during the Ukraine war, also Putin claimed in excerpts carried by Russian news agencies that Russia faces an existential threat because, in his view, NATO members are seeking his country’s “strategic defeat.”

    Putin announced Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the 2010 treaty’s nuclear warhead and missile inspections. In the interview scheduled to air on state TV channel Russia 1 following Friday’s one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he said his declaration stemmed from the need to “ensure security, strategic stability” for Russia.

    “When all the leading NATO countries have declared their main goal as inflicting a strategic defeat on us … how can we ignore their nuclear capabilities in these conditions?” Putin asked, according to the excerpts.

    Putin argued a year ago that his overarching goal in invading Ukraine was to reduce what he perceived as threats to Russia’s security. At times during the conflict, he has cited those alleged threats as justification for potentially using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

    As Western military aid poured into the invaded country, the Russian leader and his foreign minister have portrayed the war as a de facto fight between Russia and not just Ukraine but NATO. Ukraine’s allies have emphasized they want to avoid becoming direct fighting parties in the war while equipping Ukraine to defend itself and to retake Russian-captured territory.

    New START is the last remaining arms control agreement between Moscow and Washington. In suspending his country’s participation, Putin said Russia can’t accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites under the pact while Washington and its NATO allies seek Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.

    The Russian president emphasized that Moscow was not withdrawing from the pact, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would respect the treaty’s caps on nuclear weapons and continue notifying the U.S. about test launches of ballistic missiles.

    In the interview with Russia 1, Putin said that while NATO countries are not party to the New START treaty, they engaged in “discussions on the issue.”

    Putin alleged the West wants to eliminate Russia, a notion that he has repeatedly used to justify Russian aggression in Ukraine. “They have one goal: to disband the former Soviet Union and its fundamental part — the Russian Federation,” Putin said.

    Appealing to his citizenry’s nationalistic sentiments, Putin predicted that if the West succeeds in destroying Russia and establishing control, ethnic Russians may not survive as a distinct people.

    “There will be Muscovites, Uralians and others,” he said of Russia’s possible fragmentation into regional groupings. The West could only partly accept Russia into the so-called “family of civilized peoples,” breaking the country into separate pieces, he theorized.

    Claiming threats to Russians’ survival is a favorite Putin theme, and Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted in a recent interview with The Associated Press that “for him, it’s all about protection, and he believes that the Russian world has been attacked from the West, and Ukrainians are a part of this Russian world.”

    Claiming the West and and not Russia provoked the war in Ukraine is also a favorite Putin theme that many Russians buy into, said Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served in the past three U.S. presidential administrations.

    “They think that this is a war of them yet again defending their territory, as it has been since time immemorial, since the Mongol invasion of having to deal with invaders when they are the ones that are doing the invading,” Hill said in a recent AP interview.

    In a speech Tuesday, the Russian leader alleged that a NATO statement on New START had raised the issue of the nuclear weapons of Britain and France, which are part of the alliance’s nuclear capability but aren’t included in the U.S.-Russian pact.

    Putin’s frequent references to nuclear weapons fit a pattern that Hill has identified.

    “He’s kind of menacing the world on every nuclear frontier because he knows that that’s the ultimate psychological weapon,” Hill said. “Nuclear weapons are pretty effective politically.”

    U.S. President Joe Biden countered some of Putin’s claims in a speech in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, on Tuesday.

    “The United States and the nations of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia. The West was not plotting to attack Russia, as Putin said today,@ Biden said. “And millions of Russian citizens who only want to live in peace with their neighbors are not the enemy.”

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  • China calls for Russia-Ukraine cease-fire, peace talks

    China calls for Russia-Ukraine cease-fire, peace talks

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    BEIJING — China, a firm Russian ally, has called for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Moscow and the opening of peace talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict.

    The plan issued Friday morning by the Foreign Ministry also urges the end of Western sanctions imposed on Russia, measures to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities, the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, and steps to ensure the export of grain after disruptions caused global food prices to spike.

    China has claimed to be neutral in the conflict, but it has a “no limits” relationship with Russia and has refused to criticize its invasion of Ukraine over even refer to it as such, while accusing the West of provoking the conflict and “fanning the flames” by providing Ukraine with defensive arms.

    China and Russia have increasingly aligned their foreign policies to oppose the U.S.-led liberal international order. Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed the strength of those ties when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow this week.

    China has also been accused by the U.S. of possibly preparing to provide Russia with military aid, something Beijing says lacks evidence.

    Given China‘s positions, that throws doubt on whether its 12-point proposal has any hope of going ahead — or whether China is seen as an honest broker.

    Before the proposal was released, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it an important first step.

    “I think that, in general, the fact that China started talking about peace in Ukraine, I think that it is not bad. It is important for us that all states are on our side, on the side of justice,” he said at a news conference Friday with Spain’s prime minister.

    State Department spokesman Ned Price said earlier Thursday that the U.S. would reserve judgment but that China’s allegiance with Russia meant it was not a neutral mediator. “We would like to see nothing more than a just and durable peace … but we are skeptical that reports of a proposal like this will be a constructive path forward,” he said.

    Price added that the U.S. hopes “all countries that have a relationship with Russia unlike the one that we have will use that leverage, will use that influence to push Russia meaningfully and usefully to end this brutal war of aggression. (China) is in a position to do that in ways that we just aren’t.”

    The peace proposal mainly elaborated on long-held Chinese positions, including referring to the need that all countries’ “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity be effectively guaranteed.”

    It also called an end to the “Cold War mentality” — it’s standard term for what it regards as U.S. hegemony and interference in other countries.

    “A country’s security cannot be at the expense of other countries’ security, and regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs,” the proposal said. “The legitimate security interests and concerns of all countries should be taken seriously and properly addressed.”

    China abstained Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces. It is one of 16 countries that either voted against or abstained on almost all of five previous resolutions on Ukraine.

    The resolution, drafted by Ukraine in consultation with its allies, passed 141-7 with 32 abstentions, sending a strong message on the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion that appears to leave Russia more isolated than ever.

    While China has not been openly critical of Moscow, it has said that the present conflict is “not something it wishes to see,” and has repeatedly said any use of nuclear weapons would be completely unacceptable, in an implied repudiation of Putin’s statement that Russia would use “all available means” to protect its territory.

    “There are no winners in conflict wars,” the proposal said.

    “All parties should maintain rationality and restraint … support Russia and Ukraine to meet each other, resume direct dialogue as soon as possible, gradually promote the de-escalation and relaxation of the situation, and finally reach a comprehensive ceasefire,” it said.

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  • Divided Cyprus’ new president scopes out peace talks reset

    Divided Cyprus’ new president scopes out peace talks reset

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    NICOSIA, Cyprus — The new president of Cyprus met informally with the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots on Thursday to test the waters on reviving stalemated talks to end the island’s ethnic division, which has been a source of instability in the east Mediterranean for decades.

    The two-hour meeting, hosted by the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission on the island, was the first for President-elect Nikos Christodoulides following his election victory earlier this month. The fact that it took place even before Christodoulides — a former foreign minister — formally assumes office on March 1 aimed to underscore a campaign pledge to keep a peace deal as an overriding priority.

    But the meeting itself is no harbinger of a breakthrough anytime soon, because seemingly insurmountable obstacles still stand in the way of a peace deal. Chief among those obstacles is an about-face by Turkey and the minority Turkish Cypriots regarding the agreed-upon shape of a deal after the most recent failed push for peace at a Swiss resort in the summer of 2017.

    The island’s division came about in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup aimed at union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third and it maintains more than 35,000 troops there. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the Greek Cypriot south enjoys full membership benefits.

    There had been a long-held understanding that any deal would reunify Cyprus as a federation composed of a Turkish-speaking zone in the north and a Greek speaking zone in the south. But Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots are now seeking a two-state deal that recognizes separate Turkish Cypriot sovereignty, something that Greek Cypriots reject out of hand and which has also been rejected by the European Union, the United Nations, the U.S. and other countries.

    Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar has said that he’s open to dialogue, but warned there’s “no flexibility or retreat” from the two-state proposal as well as a permanent Turkish troop presence on the island and military intervention rights for Ankara — all non-starters for the Greek Cypriot side.

    “You can never impose on us a settlement saying that ‘this is what the EU says,’ burying your head in the sand,” Tatar said. “Our red line is our sovereignty.”

    Emerging from Thursday’s meeting, Tatar repeated there can be no formal return to the negotiating table without the recognition of Turkish Cypriot sovereignty. He also raised the possibility of the two sides working together on dealing with potential earthquakes on the island. Christodoulides said that could be done through established “technical committees” formed to foster cooperation on a wide range of fields, such as restoration of cultural monuments on either side.

    Christodoulides told The Associated Press prior to the meeting that he’s “fully aware” of the obstacles, “but that doesn’t mean that we mustn’t do everything possible to break the current deadlock.”

    The president-elect said key to any peace deal would be the EU’s active involvement in U.N.-led talks through the appointment by EU leaders of a “strong political personality.”

    He said Turkey could be made more amenable to a deal if things that it has long sought from the EU — including upgrading its customs union with the bloc, visa-free travel for its citizens and unfreezing its EU membership bid — can be put on the negotiating table.

    Christodoulides said after the meeting that he “didn’t hear anything that he wasn’t expecting” from Tatar, but that he had proposed to the Turkish Cypriot leader to meet again socially with their wives.

    A potential deal could expedite the development of sizable natural gas deposits off Cyprus’ southern shores amid Europe’s energy crunch and remove a major thorn in the rocky relationship between NATO allies Greece and Turkey.

    “The EU has all the tools that could create a beneficial state of affairs in which all sides will have nothing but to gain from a Cyprus settlement,” Christodoulides said.

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  • IRA dissidents suspected of shooting N Ireland detective

    IRA dissidents suspected of shooting N Ireland detective

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    A senior Northern Ireland police officer is in critical but stable condition in a hospital after being shot by two masked men while he coached children’s soccer

    ByThe Associated Press

    February 23, 2023, 4:10 AM

    LONDON — A senior Northern Ireland police officer is in critical but stable condition in a hospital after being shot by two masked men while he coached children’s soccer, authorities said Thursday.

    A dissident Irish Republican Army splinter group is suspected of shooting the detective Wednesday night at a sports complex in Omagh, about 60 miles (nearly 100 kilometers) west of Belfast.

    The Police Service of Northern Ireland named the wounded officer as Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell, a well-known officer who has led investigations into murders, organized crime and dissident paramilitary groups.

    Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said Caldwell was attacked by two gunmen as he put soccer balls into the trunk of his car, accompanied by his young son.

    “The investigation is at an early stage, we are keeping an open mind. There are multiple strands to that investigation,” McEwan told BBC Radio Ulster.

    “The primary focus is on violent dissident republicans and within that there is a primary focus as well on New IRA.”

    Politicians from across Ireland’s political divide, and the leaders of the U.K. and Ireland, condemned the attack.

    More than 3,000 people were killed during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland involving Irish republican and British loyalist paramilitaries and U.K. security forces.

    The 1998 Good Friday peace accord largely ended the conflict, known as “the Troubles.” Major Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups gave up violence and disarmed, but small IRA splinter groups continue to mount sporadic attacks.

    Omagh is the site of Northern Ireland’s deadliest attack, an August 1998 car bombing that killed 29 people. A dissident republican group called the Real IRA claimed responsibility for that attack.

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  • Ahmed Qureia, top Palestinian negotiator with Israel, dies

    Ahmed Qureia, top Palestinian negotiator with Israel, dies

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    RAMALLAH, West Bank — Ahmed Qureia, a former Palestinian prime minister and one of the architects of interim peace deals with Israel, has died at age 85.

    A key player in the 1993 Oslo peace accords, Qureia witnessed the rise of the dream of Palestinian statehood that surged during the negotiations. But he also saw those hopes recede, with the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drifting further than ever. Domestically, Qureia was riddled with corruption charges that tainted his reputation.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed Qureia’s death on Wednesday. The cause of death was not immediately made public, but Qureia had been ill for some time with a heart condition.

    “Abu Alaa stood in the lead defending the causes of his home and people,” Abbas said in a statement carried by the official Wafa news agency, using Qureia’s nickname.

    Born in 1937 in Abu Dis, suburb of east Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, Qureia joined the Fatah movement in 1968.

    He rose quickly through the ranks under the leadership of its founder, late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and became a member of its decision-making body, the Central Committee, in 1989. He was also a member of the PLO Executive Committee.

    Qureia headed the Palestinian delegation to Oslo, where intensive talks with Israel led to the peace accords in 1993, which created the Palestinian Authority and set up self-rule areas in the Palestinian territories. During ensuing rounds of negotiations with Israelis, he met all Israeli prime ministers who were in office before 2004, including Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert, and U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

    Peace talks have collapsed in the three decades since the accords. Israel has driven up settlement building in the West Bank, and imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Islamic militant Hamas took power there after it routed forces loyal to Fatah. Violence is again flaring up between the sides, especially in the West Bank.

    In a 2013 interview with the Associated Press marking two decades since the Oslo agreements, Qureia said that if he knew then what he knows now he wouldn’t have agreed to the accords.

    “With such kinds of blocs of settlements? No. With the closure of Jerusalem? No. Not at all,” Qureia said in an interview at his office in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis.

    After the establishment of the PA, Qureia won a seat in the first parliamentary elections in 1996 and chaired the Palestinian Legislative Council.

    After Abbas resigned as the PA’s first prime minister in 2003, Arafat replaced him with Qureia. He held the post until 2006, when the militant Hamas group scored a landslide victory in the second Palestinian elections.

    During his tenure as prime minister, Qureia was the subject of controversy after reports accused his family of having financial interest in a company that sold Egyptian cement to Israel, which the latter used to build the West Bank separation barrier.

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  • Putin suspends Russia’s involvement in key nuclear arms pact

    Putin suspends Russia’s involvement in key nuclear arms pact

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    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States — sharply upping the ante amid tensions with Washington over the fighting in Ukraine.

    Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address, Putin also said that Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does so, a move that would end a global ban on nuclear weapons tests in place since Cold War times.

    Explaining his decision to suspend Russia’s obligations under New START, Putin accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of openly declaring the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.

    “They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time,” he said.

    Putin argued that while the U.S. has pushed for the resumption of inspections of Russian nuclear facilities under the treaty, NATO allies had helped Ukraine mount drone attacks on Russian air bases hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers.

    “The drones used for it were equipped and modernized with NATO’s expert assistance,” Putin said. “And now they want to inspect our defense facilities? In the conditions of today’s confrontation, it sounds like sheer nonsense.”

    Putin emphasized that Russia is suspending its involvement in New START and not entirely withdrawing from the pact yet.

    The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

    Just days before the treaty was due to expire in February 2021, Russia and the United States agreed to extend it for another five years.

    Russia and the U.S. have suspended mutual inspections under New START since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Moscow last fall refused to allow their resumption, raising uncertainty about the pact’s future. Russia also indefinitely postponed a planned round of consultations under the treaty.

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  • Marcos: China laser not enough to activate US defense pact

    Marcos: China laser not enough to activate US defense pact

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    MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president said Saturday the Chinese coast guard’s aiming of a military-grade laser that briefly blinded some crew aboard a Philippine patrol vessel in the disputed South China Sea was not enough for him to invoke a mutual defense treaty with the United States but added he told China that such aggression should stop.

    President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told a news conference he also reminded China’s ambassador to Manila that escalating aggression and incursions into Philippine waters by Beijing’s coast guard, navy and maritime militia forces violate an agreement he struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.

    “Despite the fact that it was a military-grade laser that was pointed at our coast guard, I do not think that that is sufficient for it to trigger the Mutual Defense Treaty,” Marcos said in his first public remarks about the Feb. 6 incident involving two Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.

    Responding to a question, Marcos said he was concerned that activating the 1951 treaty would ratchet up regional tensions.

    Marcos spoke to reporters in the northern resort city of Baguio where he delivered a speech before cadets and former graduates of the Philippine Military Academy and repeated a vow to defend the country’s territory amid a new territorial spat with China.

    “This country will not lose one inch of its territory,” Marcos said to applause. “We will continue to uphold our territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with our constitution and with international law.”

    “We will work with our neighbors to secure the safety and security of our peoples,” Marcos said without elaborating.

    Like his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos has taken steps to nurture friendly ties with Beijing. He met Xi in the Chinese capital early last month to boost relations and discuss the Asian neighbors’ long-seething territorial disputes in the strategic waterway that also involve Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

    China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety, putting it on a collision course with other Asian claimants and separately with Washington, which lays no claims to the disputed sea but has deployed its Navy ships and fighter jets to patrol the waters, promote freedom of mobility and challenge China’s territorial claims.

    The contested waters have become a delicate front in the broader rivalry between the U.S. and China in Asia and elsewhere.

    In the latest flare-up, the Philippine government accused a Chinese coast guard ship of beaming a high-grade laser to block the Philippine patrol vessel BRP Malapascua from approaching the Philippine military-occupied Second Thomas Shoal. The Marcos administration sent a strongly worded diplomatic protest to the Chinese Embassy in Manila and Marcos summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian on Tuesday to express his concern.

    China responded by saying its coast guard ship used a hand-held laser and another light-emitting gadget to harmlessly measure the distance and speed of the Philippine vessel, which it claimed intruded into Chinese territorial waters and was warned to leave the area.

    But U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said China’s “dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and security, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law.”

    Washington, he said, was standing by its treaty ally Manila following the latest sea feud.

    Price renewed a warning that an armed attack on Philippine military forces, public vessels or aircraft, including those of the coast guard in the South China Sea, would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under the 1951 treaty.

    Australia, Japan, Canada, Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom also expressed alarm following the Chinese coast guard’s use of the military-grade laser against the Philippine patrol vessel that they said threatens regional peace and stability.

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  • Nicaragua’s vote to strip opponents of citizenship

    Nicaragua’s vote to strip opponents of citizenship

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    MEXICO CITY — Last week Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega packed off 222 political leaders, priests, students, activists and other dissidents to the United States, their release long demanded by the international community.

    Shortly after, Ortega’s government voted to strip the former prisoners of Nicaraguan citizenship. Analysts, legal experts and human rights groups are calling it a political ploy but also a violation of international law that they say is unprecedented — at least in the Western Hemisphere — in terms of scale and impact.

    A look at what has happened:

    ——-

    WHY DID NICARAGUA KICK THE DISSIDENTS OUT?

    The expulsion comes amid a broader push by the Ortega government to quash political dissent dating back to 2018 anti-government street protests that were met by a violent response from Nicaraguan security forces.

    Ortega has called his imprisoned opponents “traitors” and maintains they were behind the protests, which he claims were a foreign-funded plot to overthrow him. Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have fled the government’s crackdown.

    The incarceration of government opponents became a sticking point internationally, particularly with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which used their detention to justify sanctions on the Central American nation.

    The release of the prisoners was, in part, a tactic to “minimize the public costs of his repression,” particularly in the eyes of the international community, said Ivan Briscoe of International Crisis Group, a nonprofit research group focused on resolving conflicts around the world.

    “He would prefer to revert to a steady, low-level authoritarian government in which there are no, perhaps none of the more visible forms of abuses, but continuing political control,” Briscoe said.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington on Monday that the release of the prisoners was considered “a constructive step,” and is something Biden officials have said would open a door to a dialogue between the two countries.

    But Ortega’s Congress simultaneously voting to strip the citizenship of the expelled prisoners is drawing criticism.

    “This was in no way a panacea for the many concerns we have with the Nicaraguan regime, including the repression and oppression it continues to wield against its own people,” Price said.

    While Nicaragua’s Congress still needs to carry out a second vote to approve the constitutional change to formally strip those expelled of their nationality, it was unanimously approved in the initial vote. Ortega’s firm hold on power leaves any other outcome highly unlikely.

    “I think the message is very clear: On my land, there will be no opposition,” said Briscoe.

    ___

    WHY DO EXPERTS SAY IT VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW?

    Peter J. Spiro, an international law professor at Temple University, and others say stripping away citizenship in this context violates a treaty adopted in 1961 by countries in the United Nations, including Nicaragua, which sets clear rules meant to prevent statelessness.

    The treaty states that governments cannot “deprive any person or group of persons of their nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds.”

    Spiro noted there are some circumstances when governments can terminate citizenship, such as ending nationality for someone who acquires citizenship in another country when the first nation prohibits dual citizenship. But, he said, ending citizenship is not allowed when it is used as a political weapon.

    “This is banishment, and banishment is antithetical to modern conceptions of human rights,” he said.

    Spain has offered its citizenship to the 222 exiles, while the U.S. granted the Nicaraguans a two-year temporary protection.

    But many of the former prisoners in the United States are left in a state of legal and mental flux, said Jennie Lincoln, senior adviser on Latin America for the Carter Center who is in touch with many of the dissidents.

    “Psychologically they are stateless,” Lincoln said. “They’re in shock, going from one day being in prison, then hours later on a plane to the United States. Imagine the psychological impact of that, and then being stripped of your citizenship.”

    ___

    HOW COMMON IS THE REVOCATION OF CITIZENSHIP?

    The move by Ortega is unprecedented in the Western Hemisphere, in both its size and reach, according to analysts and legal experts.

    Previous cases of states in the region moving to strip citizenship of political actors have always been limited in scale.

    In Chile in the 1970s, the Pinochet dictatorship stripped the citizenship of Orlando Letelier, who was living in exile where leading opposition to political repression in the South American nation.

    Spiro, at Temple University, said Ortega’s action does bear some resemblance to what has been done in Bahrain, in the Middle East.

    Over the course of years, the Bahrain government has stripped hundreds of human rights and political activists, journalists and religious scholars of their nationalities, leaving them stateless. In 2018, a court stripped 115 people of their citizenship in one mass trial on accusations of terrorism, according to Human Rights Watch.

    “But Ortega’s move is more high-visibility,” Spiro said.

    ___

    WHAT ABOUT PRISONERS WHO DIDN’T GO TO THE U.S.?

    Experts are especially concerned about Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a vocal critic of Ortega who refused to board the plane to the U.S. with the other prisoners.

    He told those close to him that if he got on the plane, it would be like admitting to a crime he never committed.

    Shortly after, Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison — famous for their poor conditions — and stripped of his citizenship within Nicaragua, something sharply condemned by State Department officials.

    It left him in a legal limbo more extreme than his counterparts in the U.S.

    Until now, no one has been able to contact Álvarez, nor confirm for themselves where he is or if the he is safe, said a person close to Álvarez, who asked not to be quoted by name out of fear of reprisal.

    “From a legal point of view, his future looks completely grim, and he knows it,” the man said.

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  • US renews warning it’ll defend Philippines after China spat

    US renews warning it’ll defend Philippines after China spat

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    MANILA, Philippines — The United States renewed a warning that it would defend its treaty ally if Filipino forces come under attack in the disputed South China Sea, after a Chinese coast guard ship allegedly hit a Philippine patrol vessel with military-grade laser that briefly blinded some of its crew.

    The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila sent a strongly worded diplomatic protest to the Chinese Embassy Tuesday that “condemned the shadowing, harassment, dangerous maneuvers, directing of military-grade laser, and illegal radio challenges” by the Chinese ship.

    The incident took place Feb. 6. when the Chinese coast guard ship beamed high-grade lasers to block the Philippine patrol vessel BRP Malapascua from approaching Second Thomas Shoal on a resupply mission to Filipino forces there, according to Philippine officials.

    China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety, putting it on a collision course with other claimants. Chinese naval forces have been accused of using military-grade lasers previously against Australian military aircraft on patrol in the South China Sea and other spots in the Pacific.

    Despite friendly overtures to Beijing by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in January in Beijing, tensions have persisted, drawing in closer military alliance between the Philippines and the U.S.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday that a Philippine coast guard vessel trespassed into Chinese waters without permission. Chinese coast guard vessels responded “professionally and with restraint at the site in accordance with China’s law and international law,” he said, without elaborating or mentioning the use of laser.

    U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said China’s “dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and stability, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law and undermines the rules-based international order.”

    “The United States stands with our Philippine allies,” Price said in a statement.

    He said that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of the coast guard in the South China Sea, would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under a 1951 treaty. The treaty obligates the allies to help defend one another in case of an external attack.

    Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich and busy waterway, where a bulk of the world’s commerce and oil transits.

    Washington lays no claims to the disputed sea but has deployed forces to patrol the waters to promote freedom of navigation and overflight — moves that have angered Beijing, which has warned Washington to stop meddling in what it says is a purely Asian dispute.

    The contested waters have become a volatile front in the broader rivalry between the U.S. and China in Asia and beyond.

    Price said the Chinese coast guard’s “provocative and unsafe” conduct interfered with the Philippines’ “lawful operations” in and around Second Thomas Shoal.

    In July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington was obligated to defend the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty.

    On Monday, Price reiterated that the “legally binding decision” underscored that China “has no lawful maritime claims to the Second Thomas Shoal.” China has long rejected the ruling and continues to defy it.

    The Philippines filed nearly 200 diplomatic protests against China’s aggressive actions in the disputed waters in 2022 alone.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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  • UN draft resolution: Any peace must keep Ukraine intact

    UN draft resolution: Any peace must keep Ukraine intact

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    UNITED NATIONS — Ukraine’s supporters have circulated a proposed resolution for adoption by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of its smaller neighbor that would underscore the need for peace ensuring Ukraine’s “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity.”

    The draft, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, is entitled “Principles underlying a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

    The proposed resolution is broader and less detailed than the 10-point peace plan that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced at the November summit of the Group of 20 major economies. This was a deliberate decision by Ukraine and its backers to try to gain maximum support when it is put to a vote, U.N. diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private.

    General Assembly spokesperson Paulina Kubiak said Friday that a reactivated emergency session of the General Assembly on Ukraine will start on the afternoon of Feb. 22. Dozens of speeches are expected to continue through most of Feb. 23 and the vote is expected late that day.

    Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister said last month that Zelenskyy wants to come to the U.N. for the anniversary, but diplomats said expectations of a major new Russian offensive may keep him at home.

    The General Assembly has become the most important U.N. body dealing with Ukraine because the Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, is paralyzed because of Russia’s veto power. Unlike the council, there are no vetoes in the assembly, but while its five previous resolutions on Ukraine are important as a reflection of world opinion, they are not legally binding.

    The Security Council will hold a ministerial meeting on Feb. 24, the anniversary of the invasion. Russian and Ukrainian diplomats will be at the same table, as they have been at dozens of meetings since the invasion — but there will be no outcome.

    The Ukrainian-backed draft resolution for the anniversary was circulated Thursday night to all U.N. member nations except Russia and its ally Belarus, and negotiations on the text started Friday afternoon, the diplomats said.

    It underscores the need to reach “a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine “as soon as possible” in line with the principles of the United Nations Charter.

    The Charter states that all U.N. member nations “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” and must settle disputes peacefully.

    The draft calls on U.N. member states and international organizations “to redouble support for diplomatic efforts” to achieve peace on those terms.

    The proposed resolution reiterates the General Assembly’s previous demand that Russia “immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces” from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. And it reaffirms that no territory acquired by the threat or use of force will be considered legal.

    The draft demands that all prisoners of war, detainees and internees be treated in accordance with the Geneva conventions and calls for the “complete exchange” of prisoners of war, the release of people unlawfully detained, “and the return of all internees and of civilians forcibly transferred and deported, including children.”

    The proposed resolution urges all countries “to cooperate in the spirit of solidarity to address the global impact of the war on food security, energy, finance, the environment, and nuclear security and safety.”

    It would deplore “the dire human rights and humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine, including the continuous attacks against critical infrastructure across Ukraine with devastating consequences for civilians.” And it would call for full adherence to international humanitarian law on the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

    Zelenskyy’s 10-point plan is far more specific, including establishing a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes, building a European-Atlantic security architecture with guarantees for Ukraine, restoring Ukraine’s damaged power infrastructure and ensuring safety around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia.

    The resolution adopted by the General Assembly on Oct. 12 condemning Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of four Ukrainian regions and demanding its immediate reversal got the highest vote of the five resolutions – 143-5 with 35 abstentions.

    The first resolution adopted by the assembly on March 2, 2022, days after the invasion, demanded an immediate Russian cease-fire, withdrawal of all its troops and protection for all civilians and received a strong vote – 141-5 with 35 abstentions. Three weeks later, on March 24, the assembly voted 140-5 with 38 abstentions on a resolution blaming Russia for Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis and urging an immediate cease-fire and protection for millions of civilians and the homes, schools and hospitals critical to their survival.

    But the assembly voted by a far smaller margin April 7 to suspend Russia from the U.N.’s Geneva-based Human Rights Council over allegations Russian soldiers in Ukraine engaged in rights violations that the United States and Ukraine have called war crimes. That vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions.

    And its last resolution adopted Nov. 14 calling for Russia to be held accountable for violating international law by invading Ukraine, including by paying reparations for widespread damage to the country and for Ukrainians killed and injured during the war was approved by a similar vote — 94-14 with 73 abstentions.

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  • Russian diplomat says ties with US in ‘unprecedented crisis’

    Russian diplomat says ties with US in ‘unprecedented crisis’

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    MOSCOW — Russia-U.S. relations are in a state of “unprecedented crisis” without any sign of improvement, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov argued that the White House’s emphasis on increasing weapons supplies to Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat leaves no room for diplomacy.

    “I don’t see any prospect for a productive political and diplomatic process,” Ryabkov said at a briefing. “We have a very deep and unprecedented crisis in Russia-U.S. relations. The Biden administration has driven them into a deadlock.”

    Ryabkov warned that the U.S. and its allies must carefully assess the risks stemming from supplying increasingly powerful Western weapons to Ukraine.

    “The Americans need to thoroughly and deeply weigh the risks linked to their unabashedly cavalier course,” he said.

    Ryabkov noted that Moscow doesn’t trust Western statements about self-imposed restrictions on a range of weapons supplied to Ukraine in order to avoid escalation, adding that such assurances in the past have served as cover for a steady expansion of the assortment of arms deliveries.

    “We don’t see any sign of reason in any of the NATO and EU members’ capitals,” Ryabkov said. “What they are doing isn’t going to strengthen their security.”

    He rejected the U.S. argument that Russia’s refusal to allow the resumption of inspections of its nuclear facilities represents a breach of the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control pact between the two countries.

    The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

    Just days before the treaty was due to expire in February 2021, Russia and the United States agreed to extend it for another five years.

    Russia and the U.S. have suspended mutual inspections under New START since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Moscow last fall refused to allow their resumption, raising uncertainty about the pact’s future. Russia also indefinitely postponed a planned round of consultations under the treaty.

    The U.S. State Department last week said that Russia’s refusal to allow the inspections “prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control.” It noted that nothing prevents Russian inspectors from conducting inspections of the U.S. facilities.

    Ryabkov on Thursday insisted that Russia has continued to comply with the treaty and exchange information in accordance with it. “We adhere to the treaty and observe its provisions,” he said.

    At the same time, he reaffirmed Moscow’s view that resuming inspections wasn’t possible in the current environment.

    Ryabkov’s comments followed a Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement declaring that it was impossible to maintain “business as usual” with Washington at a time when “the U.S. has effectively unleashed a total hybrid war against Russia, which is fraught with a real danger of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear powers.”

    It charged that Washington’s demand for resuming inspections of Russian nuclear facilities sounds “cynical” after a recent series of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian air bases housing nuclear-capable strategic bombers that the ministry said relied on U.S. intelligence assistance.

    Ryabkov, who met recently with the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, also said that the Russian Foreign Ministry has lodged a formal complaint to the U.S. Embassy, charging that its use of social networks represented interference in Russia’s domestic affairs.

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  • Indigenous senator quits party over Australian referendum

    Indigenous senator quits party over Australian referendum

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    CANBERRA, Australia: — An Indigenous senator in Australia quit the minor Greens party on Monday in a disagreement over a referendum to be held this year that would create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

    Sen. Lidia Thorpe’s resignation illustrates deep divisions among Indigenous Australians on the referendum and increases the difficulty for the government in getting legislation through the Senate.

    The Greens have suggested they will support a referendum likely to be held this year that would enshrine in the constitution a body representing Indigenous people to advise Parliament on policies that effect their lives. It would be known as the Indigenous Voice.

    Thorpe had argued that Australia should first sign a treaty with its original inhabitans that acknowledged that they had never ceded their sovereignty to the British colonists.

    She said after quitting the Greens that the party’s support for the Voice was “at odds with the community of activists who are saying treaty before Voice.”

    “This country has a strong grassroots black sovereign movement full of staunch and committed warriors and I want to represent that movement fully in this Parliament,” Thorpe told reporters. “It has become clear to me that I can’t do that from within the Greens.”

    Another high-profile Indigenous Sen. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has also spoken out against the Voice, arguing it would divide the nation along racial lines. Her conservative party, the Nationals, took an official position in November to oppose the referendum, prompting a senior lawmaker and Voice advocate Andrew Gee to quit the party.

    Bipartisan support has long been regarded as a prerequisite for a referendum’s success. But despite the divisions, an opinion poll published by The Australian newspaper on Monday found 56% of respondents in favor of the Voice. Opponents accounted from 37% and 7% were undecided.

    The survey of 1,512 voters nationwide was conducted from Feb. 1 to 4. It had a 3 percentage point margin of error.

    Indigenous people accounted for 3.2% of Australia’s population in the 2021 census. Indigenous Australians are the most disadvantaged ethnic group in Australia. They die younger than other Australians, are less likely to be employed, achieve lower education levels and are overrepresented in prison populations.

    Greens leader Adam Bandt and his deputy Mehreen Faruqi said they were sorry Thorpe had decided to leave their progressive party.

    Bandt said he had told Thorpe that the party’s constitution allowed her to take a different position on the Voice from her colleagues.

    Pakistan-born Faruqi said she and Thorpe had worked together as “strong allies against white supremacy and racism in all its forms.”

    “I know that we will continue to work together, this work of decolonization, as well as working for climate justice,” Faruqi said.

    Thorpe said she would continue to work with the Greens on their climate policy. The Greens want Australia to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 75% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

    The center-left Labor Party government enshrined in law a 43% target after it was elect in May last year.

    Labor has relied on the Greens’ 12 senators to pass legislation through the upper chamber that the conservative opposition party opposes.

    With the Greens’ support, Labor had only needed to enlist the vote of a single unaligned senator. With Thorpe’s departure, Labor now will need the support of two unaligned senators.

    Bandt said the government would continue to rely on the Greens to get its legislative agenda through the Senate.

    “The situation remains now still more or less the same in the Senate. The Greens are central in the balance of power in the Senate,” Bandt said.

    Thorpe has proved a radical and divisive element in the Senate. She was criticized for referring to the then-British monarch during a Senate swearing in ceremony in August last year as “the colonizing, her majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”

    She resigned as the Greens deputy leader in the Senate in October over what Bandt called a “significant lack of judgment” in failing to declare an intimate relationship she had with a former president of a biker gang.

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