position:diplomat

Ukraine crisis : US officials compare peace efforts to appeasing Hitler - Telegraph
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11398762/Ukraine-crisis-US-officials-compare-peace-efforts-to-appeasing-Hitler.h

A rift between Europe and the US over the Ukraine crisis appears to be growing after senior American figures reportedly compared the peace initiative by Angela Merkel and François Hollande to appeasement of Hitler in the run-up to the Second World War.
In a meeting attended by General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s military commander, and Victoria Nuland, the US’s most senior European diplomat, Angela Merkel was described as “defeatist” for her opposition to arming Ukrainian forces, according to details leaked to Bild newspaper.
Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande’s peace initiative was dismissed as “Moscow bull****” at the meeting of American delegates to the Munich Security Conference, held behind closed doors at the conference hotel.
Senator John McCain reportedly compared the initiative to the Munich Agreement in 1938 between Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister at the time, and Adolf Hitler, which allowed Nazi Germany to annexe the Sudetenland.

Une belle brochette à Munich : McCain, le SACEUR, V. Fuck the EU Nuland pour nous dénoncer, évidemment, un nouveau… #Munich.

U.S. embassy: What #Houthis are fighting for
▻http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2015/01/us-embassy-what-houthis-are-fighting-for.html
▻https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09SANAA2185_a.html

“Over the past 20 years, #Zaydis -) who have historically made up the majority of the governorate’s population )- have felt increasingly threatened by the radical Sunni Salafism exported from Saudi Arabia (ref b).”

U.S. embassy: How Houthis obtain their weapons
▻http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2015/01/us-embassy-how-houthis-obtain-their.html
▻https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09SANAA2186_a.html

"Contrary to ROYG [Republic of #Yemen Government] claims that Iran is arming the Houthis, most local political analysts report that the Houthis obtain their weapons from the Yemeni black market and even from the ROYG military itself. According to a British diplomat, there are numerous credible reports that ROYG military commanders were selling weapons to the Houthis in the run-up to the Sixth War. An ICG report on the Sa’ada conflict from May 2009 quoted NSB [National Security Bureau] director Ali Mohammed al-Ansi saying, “Iranians are not arming the Houthis. The weapons they use are Yemeni. Most actually come from fighters who fought against the socialists during the 1994 war and then sold them.” Mohammed Azzan, presidential advisor for Sa’ada affairs, told PolOff on August 16 that the Houthis easily obtain weapons inside Yemen, either from battlefield captures or by buying them from corrupt military commanders and soldiers. Azzan said that the military “covers up its failure” by saying the weapons come from #Iran."

#salafisme #salafistes #Saoud #Arabie_Saoudite

France to Israel: We backed Palestinians in Security Council to prevent ICC bid
Israeli diplomat meets French ambassador, conveys Israel’s deep disappointment with France’s vote in Security Council; French envoy says Paris wanted to encourage sides to return to negotiating table.
By Barak Ravid | Jan. 2, 2015 | 1:45 PM Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.635054

French ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave reported to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Friday after being summoned over his country’s vote in favor of the Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN Security Council earlier this week. French officials told Haaretz that Maisonnave clarified in the meeting that France voted for the resolution in order to try and prevent the Palestinians from pursuing other unilateral steps such as joining the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said that the ministry’s deputy director-general for Western Europe, Aviv Shir-On, told the French ambassador that Israel was deeply disappointed by France’s stance and its vote in the UNSC. “The only way to reach progress with the Palestinians is through direct negotiations, not through unilateral announcements or a unilateral policy,” Shir-On said at the meeting.

During the meeting, the French ambassador said that the international community is of one mind over the need to break the diplomatic stalemate and the dangerous status quo. According to him, France voted as it did in order to encourage the sides back to the negotiating table.

Maisonnave also said that France disagreed with several parts in the Palestinian resolution and therefore tried to formulate its own draft.

He noted that the vote was not aimed against Israel, but an effort to prevent further unilateral steps that would strengthen extremists on both sides. “That’s exactly what happened after the Security Council rejected the proposal, and the Palestinians went to The Hague,” the French ambassador said.

He added that France would keep trying to promote its own version of the resolution in the Security Council, presenting principles for the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on all the core issues of the conflict.

“The latest escalation is all the more reason to keep acting,” he emphasized.

The Palestinian proposal calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by late 2017 failed to pass the UNSC vote on Tuesday, after only eight member states voted in its favor, one vote short of the requirement.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has been closely following the deteriorating relations with France, and even held a special meeting on the matter about two weeks ago. A source who took part in the meeting said participants conveyed a sense that France is less attuned to Israel’s positions on the Palestinian matter.

Moreover, over the past three months the Foreign Ministry has identified several incidents in which events, delegations, and planned collaborations with French bodies were canceled in the last minute. Among these were a Paris conference of Israeli and French high-tech companies and a visit by a delegation of French lawyers in Israel.

A senior official said that in each of these cases a different reason was given, and that on the face of it they were unconnected. It is also unclear if the French government was behind the cancellations. However, the overall impression is that of deteriorating relations. “There is a sense that the French are trying to link the progress in the peace process to the promotion of bilateral ties with Israel,” the official said.

In addition to these incidents, there is also the recent vote in the French parliament calling on the government to recognize the Palestinian state.

EU diplomat : We made a mistake in Syria - Al-Monitor : the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2014/11/httpassafircomarticle1381138.html

“This issue is still ongoing. There are countries in the region that still believe that a military solution is possible. What we see today is a daily war in the region between Sunnis and Shiites. It is also a war among the Sunnis themselves. Looking at the Sunni-Shiite issue, however, we see that it is a historical and cultural conflict. It is not really related to religion as much as it is related to the misuse of religion for geostrategic purposes. We are well aware of that, because our region witnessed 30 years of war in the name of religion (between 1618 and 1648, Europe witnessed a series of long and destructive wars between Protestants and Catholics). However, here, there is nothing related to religion or God, but rather to geopolitical strategy and such. I feel that in all cases, even now, there are countries that actually prefer a military solution over negotiations.”

Les propos de l’ancienne ministre italienne des Affaires étrangères. Une personnalité qui fait rêver à autre chose que le socialisme français.

Diplomat warns families of Saudi prisoners in Iraq against aid scam - Al Arabiya News
▻http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2014/10/27/Diplomat-warns-families-of-Saudi-prisoners-in-Iraq-against-aid-sc

he Saudi ambassador to Jordan has warned Saudi families with sons incarcerated at Iraq’s prisons against falling prey to Iraqi con men who ask them for money to get clothes and medicines to their children.

Sami al-Saleh has asked such Saudi families not remit money to any Iraqi who claims to be a member of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) and ask them for money.

The road between Tehran and Riyadh: ‘closed’ until further notice | Al Akhbar English
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/road-between-tehran-and-riyadh-%E2%80%98closed%E2%80%99-until-fur

The answer is that Saud al-Faisal, the veteran diplomat who gave the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs a special and largely personal character, was fighting his own battle within the royal family, especially with the King Abdullah-led wing, which had a seemingly different approach to the relationship with Iran. This is despite the fact that the king was the one who famously called for “cutting off the head of the snake” in reference to Iran, according to leaked WikiLeaks cables.

The relationship between Abdullah and Rafsanjani/Khatami had followed a different path when Khatami became the president of Iran in May 1997, based on the personal and family ties between Rafsanjani, then-head of the Expediency Discernment Council, and King Abdullah. At the time, the former Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdel Aziz was not happy with that relationship. Nayef thus made sure to tell King Abdullah, Crown Prince at the time, that Saudi Hezbollah was behind the Khobar bombings, in eastern Saudi Arabia, on June 25, 1996, before the investigations were completed, in order to sabotage the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement.

A few months ago, Abdel-Lahian met with the king’s son, Abdel-Aziz bin Abdullah, in Senegal. The discussions centered on the “sabotage” being done by Saud al-Faisal, to prevent the opening of a new chapter in the relationship between Riyadh and Tehran. Abdul-Aziz pledged at the time to his Iranian counterpart that the “king’s wing” would handle the issue, and asked him to visit the kingdom in preparation for other visits by more senior officials.

In policy shift, U.S. opens direct talks with Syrian Kurds
▻http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/10/16/243690/in-policy-shift-us-opens-direct.html

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration acknowledged Thursday that a U.S. official for the first time met with a representative of a Syrian Kurdish political party that’s closely linked to a group on the U.S. terrorist list.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said a U.S. diplomat met with a counterpart from the main Kurdish political party in Syria – the Democratic Union Party, better known by its Kurdish acronym as the PYD – to discuss the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State. The PYD’s militia is engaged in fierce battles with the Islamist extremists, especially near the town of Kobani along the border with Turkey.

The direct talks are a sign of the shifting alliances created by the rise of the Islamic State. In Iraq, for example, the U.S. is providing air cover for Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militias that once targeted American forces. And now in Syria, it appears the United States is willing to work with a group that’s tied to the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, which has waged a guerrilla war for Kurdish rights in Turkey for 30 years and which has been on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations for nearly two decades. Turkey and the European Union also have blacklisted the PKK.

NATO : Russia Has Withdrawn Many Troops From Ukraine - WSJ
▻http://online.wsj.com/articles/pro-russia-rebels-say-they-are-pulling-heavy-artillery-back-from-eastern-ukraine-battle-zone-1411475620?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12584803618636143833504580171632416008238.html

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said that Russia had withdrawn a sizable number of troops from eastern Ukraine—though some remained. Meanwhile Russia-backed rebels in the region said they had begun pulling back their heavy artillery, after Ukrainian troops did the same.

Si même l’OTAN le dit,…

Mais la prudence reste de mise.

“There does seem to be, for the first time in several months, a set of indicators that seem to point in one direction, which is de-escalation,” one senior NATO diplomat said.

Still, he added, “we’ve seen any number of occasions in the last six or eight months where indicators pointed one direction, and we wake up some random Wednesday and they start pointing the other direction.”
(…)
On Tuesday, defense spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko said that while some Russian units had been seen crossing the border back into Russia, others had entered Ukraine. “A rotation of units is taking place,” he told a daily briefing.

He also accused Russia of continuing to operate training camps for separatist fighters on its territory as well.

Moscow blasts Kiev’s false accusations and lack of cooperation with air crash investigators — RT Russian politics
▻http://rt.com/politics/175020-russia-ukraine-false-boeing

“Every day and every hour representatives of the Kiev regime consider it necessary to make absurd and completely unfounded accusations against Russia instead of helping the full and unbiased international probe into the reasons for the disaster. According to recent reports, instead of helping Ukraine’s security services are holding some covert interactions with data carriers and employees of the Ukrainian air traffic controllers,” Lukashevich said in the statement.

All this is obviously against the objective and unbiased investigation, the Russian diplomat added.

Lukashevich also said that this was not the first case of such behavior on the part of the Ukrainian authorities.

“Where is the promised investigation of the Maidan shooting? Who are the people that shot the police and the protesters from the building controlled by the Maidan committee? Their faces are well known, but I recall that many respectful news agencies and TV channels from Europe and the US have failed to provide the public with this information,” the spokesman stated.

“Where is the probe into the terrible tragedy in Odessa where dozens of people were burnt alive, purposefully and in cold blood, and state officials participated in this? There people who jumped out of windows of the burning building were bludgeoned to death. I think that these things also were not shown to people in Europe and the USA,” Lukashevich said.

The Russian official claimed the Western mass media had imposed “an information blackout” on many events that had happened, and that are still happening in the south-east of Ukraine.

“Kiev authorities used weapons of mass destruction in villages, towns and densely populated cities in reply to the initially peaceful protest of the people who wanted to protect their rights. Missiles are exploding now in residential districts of Donetsk and Lugansk. Many hundreds of people have died. Those who consider this normal should stop using the stilted phrases about Human Rights,” the senior Russian diplomat stated.

Contre-attaque russe sur la propagande occidentale. Probable reprise dans les médias : zéro…

• accusation (gravissime) de pressions et manipulation des données des centres de contrôle aérien ukrainiens
• où en est l’enquête sur les événements de Maïdan du 21 février ?
• où en est l’enquête sur le massacre d’Odessa du 2 mai ?
• pourquoi ne voit-on rien des bombardements sur l’Ukraine orientale ? (sauf quand ils sont attribués aux « séparatistes »)

The Peninsula - 11 July, 2014

Bahrain has charged the country’s most senior opposition leader and one of his aides with holding an illegal meeting with a US diplomat, the public prosecutor’s office said yesterday.

It said Al Wefaq party leader Sheikh Ali Salman and his political assistant, Khalil Al Marzouq, should have obtained permission before meeting Tom Malinowski, US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.

Bahrain expelled Malinowski earlier this week, saying he had “intervened flagrantly” in the country’s internal affairs by holding the meeting. The United States has said it is “deeply concerned” about his treatment and is considering a response.

The incident has opened a rift between Washington and one of its main regional allies. Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet but has bristled at American criticism over its human rights record since suppressing a popular uprising in 2011.

In Washington, the US State Department yesterday said it had summoned a senior envoy from Bahrain — the chargé d’affaires of its embassy in Washington — on Tuesday to formally protest Malinowski’s expulsion.

“We look to the Government of Bahrain to take actions consistent with our strong bilateral relationship. We also look to all sides to recommit themselves to the reconciliation process, which remains the focus of our diplomatic engagement,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

Psaki previously has said the United States is considering what steps to take in response to the expulsion but offered no details.

The public prosecutor said Salman and Marzouq were questioned and then charged with “contacting a representative of a foreign government in violation of the political associations law and related ministerial decisions”.

They were freed after guaranteeing their places of residence, it added, without giving any further details.

Al Wefaq confirmed the charges and called them unfair, saying such regulations had never been implemented before and no one had been prosecuted for them.

Malinowski attended a Ramadan evening meeting of Al Wefaq on Sunday and met Salman and an aide again at the US embassy on Monday. He said he was asked whether they had made specific requests of the Americans, and replied that they had not.

Salman and Marzouq were interrogated at the Criminal Investigations Department on Wednesday before they were summoned to appear at the public prosecutor’s office yesterday. Salman said he was questioned for about half an hour, without his lawyer, “about the content of the (embassy) meeting and what was discussed at it.”

A court in Bahrain last month cleared Marzouq of terrorism charges.

The Gulf island kingdom is ruled by a Sunni Muslim royal family, but the majority of its population are Shias, whose political leaders have demanded democratic reforms.

#Bahrain opposition leader will face prosecutor
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/bahrain-opposition-leader-will-face-prosecutor

The head of Bahrain’s largest #Shia opposition movement will face prosecutors Thursday after police in the #Sunni-ruled kingdom interrogated him over a meeting with a senior US diplomat. Cleric Ali Salman, who heads #Al-Wefaq, and his political assistant, former MP Khalil Marzooq, were summoned by police Wednesday to appear before the public prosecutor, the movement said. That came after police questioned them the same day about the “meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State” Tom Malinowski and the “political situation in Bahrain and the region,” said Al-Wefaq. read more

Bahrain News Agency - 09 July, 2014

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)’s Secretary-General Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani expressed astonishment following the acts of US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Affairs who was visiting the Kingdom of Bahrain two days ago.

Dr. Al-Zayani told Bahrain News Agency (BNA) that the US diplomat’s holding meeting(s) with representatives of a certain political society excluding other components of the Bahraini community who have a significant political role in the community is deemed as an interference in the Kingdom of Bahrain’s internal affairs and it is absolutely incompliant with international diplomatic norms.

He said that such astonishing acts do not reflect the historic bilateral relations which have existed over the eons between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United States of America.

The GCC Secretary-General concluded that this does not help in confidence-building amongst the components of the Bahraini community, stressing that such acts do not support the positive trend of Bahrain’s ambitious reform programme.

#Bahrain orders US diplomat out for meeting with the opposition
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/bahrain-orders-us-diplomat-out-meeting-opposition

Bahrain on Monday ordered a visiting senior US official to leave the kingdom immediately because he had “intervened flagrantly” in the country’s internal affairs, the state news agency BNA said. BNA said the foreign ministry had declared US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, #Tom_Malinowski, persona non grata after he “held meetings with a particular party to the detriment of other interlocutors, thus discriminating between one people, contravening diplomatic norms and flouting normal interstate relations.” read more

#united_states

Home Page - Gulf in the Media
▻http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=708380&news_type=Top&lang=en

The ministry said in a statement that US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Tom Malinowski was ordered to leave after meeting Bahrain’s opposition group, Al Wifaq.

Bahrain ordered a top US diplomat to leave the country on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said, after he met a leading opposition group.

The ministry said in a statement that US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Tom Malinowski is not welcome in Bahrain.

It said he intervened in the country’s domestic affairs by holding meetings with some groups at the expense of others.

The statement said that such meetings “segregate” the people of the nation. His actions, added the statement, “run counter to conventional diplomatic norms”.

Despite the diplomatic spat, the Foreign Ministry statement said relations between Bahrain and the US remain strong and important. “The government of Bahrain asserts that this should not in any way affect the two countries’ relationship of mutual interests,” the statement said.

Malinowski was ordered to leave after meeting Bahrain’s opposition group, Al Wifaq. He arrived in the country on Sunday and was scheduled to stay for three days, but his visit was cut short by the abrupt order to depart a day early. He also had meetings scheduled with government officials.

Two US officials in Washington confirmed that Malinowski has been ordered to leave but is still there while the logistics of his departure are worked out. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Victoria Fuck the EU Nuland visite Odessa, distribue trois caisses de ballons aux orphelins et évite soigneusement la Maison des syndicats.

Victoria Nuland gives Odessa orphans balls - English pravda.ru
▻http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/09-06-2014/127759-victoria_nuland_odessa-0

After the meeting with the Odessa region administration, the US diplomat visited health and sports camp, where she gave orphans three boxes of balls.
(…)
Nuland did not come to the square in front of the House of Trade Unions.

GCC ambassadors’ reinstatement reports denied | GulfNews.com
▻http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/qatar/gcc-ambassadors-reinstatement-reports-denied-1.1344277

A Bahraini diplomat has ruled out the reinstatement of three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ambassadors in Qatar within days as claimed by media reports.
“There is an ad hoc committee following up the Riyadh Declaration and so far it has not reached a decision that would reinstate the ambassadors in Doha within days,” the diplomat said, quoted by local daily Al Ayam on Sunday. The paper did not name the diplomat.

Sudanese “apostate” sentenced to death gives birth in jail
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/sudanese-apostate-sentenced-death-gives-birth-jail

A Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for #apostasy has given birth in jail, a Western diplomat said on Tuesday. “She gave birth to a girl today,” said the diplomat, who is familiar with the case of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 27. “The mother and the baby seem to be doing OK,” said the diplomat who asked for anonymity. But he said: “It’s a cruel treatment to be in such a situation.” The case of Ishag has sparked global outrage since a Khartoum-area court sentenced her to death on May 15. read more

#Sudan

Hagel Urges Gulf Arab States, Divided Over Policy, to Unite for Security
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/world/middleeast/hagel-urges-gulf-arab-states-to-unite-against-threats.html?ref=world&_r=2

On Tuesday, France’s top diplomat said there was evidence the Syrian government used chemical weapons more than a dozen times after it signed the treaty banning them, and the United Nations mediator quit, citing frustrations over the moribund political negotiations.

“We’ve not seen any evidence” of additional chemical attacks, Mr. Hagel said.

The EU family, by Betto van Waarden | A Brussels diary (3)
▻http://mondediplo.com/blogs/the-eu-family

The British diplomat wasn’t being diplomatic: “You just have to give your colleagues a nice ‘shit sandwich,’” he told me. “You begin and end your comments with lots of praise for the work of the presiding member state and Commission, and you put all your criticism in between.”

(1) ►http://mondediplo.com/blogs/gone-fishin

(2) ▻http://mondediplo.com/blogs/brussels-requires-a-strong-stomach

Yemeni troops kill militants accused of attacking German diplomat
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/yemeni-troops-kill-militants-accused-attacking-german-diplomat

Yemeni forces on Wednesday killed three members of a militant cell who authorities believe carried out assassinations in the capital #Sanaa and attacked a German diplomat late last month, a Yemeni official and a security source said. The security source said special forces raided a house in the Shmailah district of south Sanaa and killed three al Qaeda militants. “They were behind the attempted killing of the German diplomat,” the security source said. read more

#Houthis #Top_News #Yemen

Former US diplomat warns of possible ’grave mistake’ in Syria - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/syria-ryan-crocker-grave-mistake.html#

“We would be making a grave mistake if our policy were aimed at flipping the tables and bringing a Sunni ascendancy in Damascus,” said Crocker, who experienced the pitfalls of US military involvement in Lebanon in the 1980s and in Iraq in the past decade. The United States would have no assurance, he said, that a Sunni government would be an improvement on that of Bashar al-Assad and the probability would be that such a government would be “dominated by the worst of the worst” religious extremists.

De mon point de vue, ça s’appelle un ballon d’essai...

The Ninja Miners of Mongolia | The Diplomat
▻http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/the-ninja-miners-of-mongolia/?img=8#postImage

The rugged landscape in #Zaamarr, 350 kilometers west of Ulan Bator in #Mongolia, is sown with so many holes that it may cave in at any moment. Here, in the shadows of the big #mining companies, thousands of “ninjas” labor relentlessly. The workers are named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because of the green plastic pans they carry on their backs. Mining has become a growth business, with about 100,000 Mongolians joining the industry in the past five years. Many lost their jobs during the country’s transition from Communism and initially became traditional herders. But two devastating winters, known as dzuds, wiped out a third of Mongolia’s livestock in 2001 and 2002, and so thousands of families joined the #gold_rush, scouring sites rejected by large mining companies for quartz or crumbs of gold. Ninjas have the potential to earn between $5 and $10 a day, often more than teachers, doctors and government officials.

The work is harsh. “If it rains, you’re hungry. If it snows, you’re hungry. If you are sick, you’re hungry. And while you are hungry, you need money to eat. If you’re alive, you can work,” says one female miner.

http://thediplomat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/thediplomat_2014-04-21_03-41-53.jpg

Ukraine : expulsion de l’attaché naval russe.

Kyiv ousts Russian diplomat for espionage
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/kyiv-ousts-russian-diplomat-for-espionage-345792.html

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has declared Russia’s navy attaché in Kyiv persona non grata in connection with his “activities (that are) incompatible with a diplomatic status under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961,” its statement said, cited by BBC Ukraine and Radio Free Liberty and Radio Europe. 

The Foreign Ministry stated that Ukraine’s spy agency – Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) – had detained the Russian diplomat “as a result of a successfully conducted counterintelligence operation on April 30…at the place (where he was conducting) intelligence actions.” No further details were provided. 

Russia’s naval attaché in Ukraine, according to the Russian embassy in Ukraine website, is Kirill Koliuchkin. He is better known, according to Ukrainian online intelligence forums and websites, as a lieutenant-colonel in Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, or simply as a high-ranking military intelligence officer.

Difficile d’imaginer qu’il n’y ait pas un lien avec la défection du commandant en chef de la flotte ukrainienne, l’amiral Berezovsky…
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/249515

#Libya jihadists release video of abducted Tunisian diplomat sobbing
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/libya-jihadists-release-video-abducted-tunisian-diplomat-sobbing

A Jihadist group in Libya released a video on Monday showing a #kidnapped hostage from the Tunisian embassy pleading with the authorities in Tunis to negotiate with his captors. The hostage, Mohammed ben Sheikh, is shown crying during the five minute video as he calls on #Tunisia's president to help rescue him from his plight. He is being held by a largely unknown group calling themselves Shabab Al-Tawhid. “Mr President, why do you want to deprive me of life?.. There are no negotiations, they will not release me,” he says. read more

#Top_News

Libyan #kidnappers demand #Tunisia release #Islamists for diplomat
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/libyan-kidnappers-demand-tunisia-release-islamists-diplomat

The kidnappers of a Tunisian diplomat in Tripoli have demanded the release of Islamist militants detained in Tunisia, Tunisia’s foreign minister said on Friday. The diplomat was kidnapped on Thursday in the Libyan capital, the second one within a month. “We have been able to learn the identity of the kidnappers,” Foreign Minister Mongi Hamdi said. “They belong to the family of a group of terrorists detained in Tunisia because of their involvement in attacks (three years ago) against security forces in Rouhia city.” read more

#Libya #Top_News