position:spokesman

  • Civilian casualties from airstrikes grow in Iraq and Syria. But few are ever investigated - Los Angeles Times
    http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fg-iraq-airstrikes

    U.S. Army Col. Joe Scrocca, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the coalition, conceded its civilian casualty counts are conservative, requiring multiple confirmations, and said the real total probably lies “somewhere in the middle” of the coalition tally and Airwars’.

    Military reports usually do not include accounts from the scene, he said, because many are in enemy territory. They don’t often include interviews with victims and other witnesses because they can be difficult to identify and find, he said.

    “We don’t have any means of going and searching out people and, honestly, we don’t have the manpower,” he said.

    #victimes_civiles #Etats-Unis

  • Hungary will cease providing Kiskunhalas asylum-seekers with food by end of April

    Refugees at the #Kiskunhalas camp in southern Hungary have been notified that soon they will no longer receive any food or stipends for purchasing food.


    http://budapestbeacon.com/featured-articles/hungary-will-cease-providing-kiskunhalas-asylum-seekers-food-end-april/46180
    #camps_de_réfugiés #Hongrie #asile #migrations #réfugiés #nourriture #it_has_begun

    • Hungary denying food to asylum seekers, say human rights groups

      Some adults whose claims were rejected went without food for up to five days, claim activists.

      Hungarian authorities are systematically denying food to failed asylum seekers detained in the country’s border transit zones, say rights activists.

      The policy, whereby adults whose asylum claims have been rejected are denied food, was described as “an unprecedented human rights violation in 21st-century Europe” by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation working to offer legal support to those in the transit zones.

      It may amount to “inhuman treatment and even to torture” under international human rights law, said the organisation in a statement released this week. It documented eight cases involving 13 people this year when the Hungarian authorities had begun providing food to people only after the European court of human rights had intervened. Some went without food for up to five days before the rulings were granted.

      Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has built his political programme around being tough on migration and demonising refugees and migrants. In 2015, he ordered a fence built along the country’s southern border with Serbia and regularly rails against the danger of migration in his speeches. A tax has been imposed on NGOs who work on migration-related issues.

      The Hungarian authorities only accept asylum applications from a small quota of people allowed into its border transit zones, and a July ruling last year made it even harder to satisfy the requirements, noting that anyone who had arrived in Hungary from a safe country was automatically ineligible. Most people arrive from Serbia, which is considered safe.

      Orbán’s spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, dismissed criticism of the policy of withholding food, saying the authorities provided “everything for people who have a legal right to stay in the transit zone”, but added that food would not be provided for those who had been tested and found to be ineligible. “It’s a businesslike approach. When business is finished, there’s nothing we can do,” he said.

      Kovács said the government still provided asylum or the right to stay for people who come with “not only a story but real proof” their lives were in danger. Last year, Hungarian authorities accepted 349 applications made through the transit zone, mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, though it is not clear how many of these came before the July ruling on safe countries.

      Kovács said when people’s asylum claims were rejected they were free to leave the transit zone and return to Serbia. “There is no free meal for anyone,” he said in an interview last year.

      However, Hungary and Serbia have no readmission agreement, meaning those in the transit zone cannot be legally deported.

      “The idea is that if you make people hungry enough, you’ll force them to go back to Serbia,” said Márta Pardavi, the co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. “This would mean they enter Serbia in a way that is completely unauthorised by Serbian authorities.”

      Orbán’s Fidesz party is campaigning on an anti-migration platform for European parliament elections next month. In this climate, all discussions of migration-related issues retain a political dimension, with organisations such as the Hungarian Helsinki Committee denounced in government-linked media.

      The independent Hungarian MP Bernadett Szél criticised the detention of children in the border transit zones after visiting one of the holding centres earlier this month. “They are locked between fences topped with barbed wire. And there is a lot of dust everywhere … I think the government is not allowing us to take photos inside because people would feel pity for these kids if they saw them.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/26/hungary-denying-food-to-asylum-seekers-say-human-rights-groups

    • Hungary continues to starve detainees in the transit zones

      23 April 2019

      Hungary started to deprive of food some third-country nationals detained in the transit zones started in August 2018. After 5 such cases successfully challenged by the HHC with obtaining interim measures from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Hungarian Immigration and Asylum Office (IAO) promised in August 2018 to discontinue this practice and provide food to all asylum-seekers in the transit zone. While welcoming the announcement to end starvation, the HHC also warned already in August 2018 that unless the legal framework is amended to clearly stipulate the requirement to provide food to all those detained in the transit zone, similar cases will occur in the future. Less than 6 months later, on 8 February 2019, an Iraqi family of five was informed that the parents would not be given food while detained in the transit zone. The IAO actually refused to provide the parents with food for 5 days, until the HHC secured an interim measure from the ECtHR that ordered the Hungarian authorities to immediately stop this practice.

      Between February 2019 and the 23rd of April 2019, the HHC had to request interim measures on a case-by-case basis in a total of 8 cases, pertaining to 13 starved people in the transit zones, bringing the total number of starvation cases since August 2018 to 13, and that of the affected individuals to 21.

      You can read our full information note, including the summaries of cases here: https://www.helsinki.hu/wp-content/uploads/Starvation-2019.pdf

      https://www.helsinki.hu/en/hungary-continues-to-starve-detainees-in-the-transit-zones
      #zones_de_transit

    • La Commission saisit la Cour d’un recours contre la Hongrie pour incrimination des activités de soutien aux demandeurs d’asile et ouvre une nouvelle procédure d’infraction pour refus de nourriture dans les zones de transit

      La Commission européenne a décidé aujourd’hui de saisir la Cour de justice de l’UE d’un recours contre la Hongrie portant sur sa législation qui incrimine les activités de soutien aux demandes d’asile et qui restreint davantage encore le droit de demander l’asile. La Commission a également décidé d’adresser une lettre de mise en demeure à la Hongrie concernant le refus de nourriture aux personnes en attente d’un retour qui sont placées en rétention dans les zones de transit hongroises à la frontière avec la Serbie. Une autre décision prise aujourd’hui concerne la saisine de la Cour de justice de l’UE d’un recours contre la Hongrie au motif que cet État membre exclut de l’exercice de la profession de vétérinaire les ressortissants de pays tiers ayant le statut de résident de longue durée.

      Saisine de la Cour pour incrimination des activités de soutien aux demandes d’asile et de séjour

      En juillet 2018, la Commission a adressé une lettre de mise en demeure à la Hongrie concernant la législation « Stop Soros » qui érige en infractions pénales les activités visant à soutenir les demandes d’asile et de séjour et restreint davantage encore le droit de demander l’asile. Ayant reçu une réponse insatisfaisante, la Commission y a donné suite par un avis motivé en janvier 2019. Après avoir analysé la réponse des autorités hongroises, la Commission a, en effet, considéré que la plupart des préoccupations exprimées n’avaient toujours pas été prises en compte et a décidé de saisir la Cour de justice de l’UE d’un recours contre la Hongrie. Plus particulièrement, la Commission estime que la législation hongroise est contraire au droit de l’Union en ce qui concerne les points suivants :

      Érection en infraction pénale du soutien aux demandeurs d’asile : en incriminant le soutien aux demandes d’asile, la législation hongroise restreint le droit des demandeurs d’asile de communiquer avec les organisations nationales, internationales et non gouvernementales concernées et d’être assistés par elles, ce qui enfreint la directive sur les procédures d’asile et la directive sur les conditions d’accueil.
      Limitation illégale du droit d’asile et introduction de nouveaux motifs d’irrecevabilité des demandes d’asile : la nouvelle législation et la modification constitutionnelle concernant l’asile ont instauré de nouveaux motifs pour lesquels une demande d’asile peut être déclarée irrecevable, restreignant ainsi le droit d’asile aux seules personnes qui arrivent en Hongrie en provenance directe d’un lieu où leur vie ou leur liberté sont menacées. Ces motifs d’irrecevabilité supplémentaires applicables aux demandes d’asile excluent les personnes entrées en Hongrie en provenance d’un pays où elles n’étaient certes pas persécutées mais où les conditions ne sont pas réunies pour que ce pays puisse être considéré comme un « pays tiers sûr ». Par conséquent, ces motifs d’irrecevabilité limitent le droit d’asile d’une manière qui n’est pas compatible avec le droit de l’Union ou le droit international. À ce titre, la réglementation nationale enfreint la directive sur les procédures d’asile, la directive sur les conditions que doivent remplir les demandeurs d’asile et la charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne.

      Lettre de mise en demeure concernant la situation des personnes soumises à un retour placées en rétention dans les zones de transit hongroises

      La Commission européenne a décidé aujourd’hui d’adresser une lettre de mise en demeure à la Hongrie portant sur la situation des personnes retenues dans les zones de transit hongroises à la frontière avec la Serbie, dont les demandes de protection internationale ont été rejetées et qui sont contraintes de retourner dans un pays tiers.

      De l’avis de la Commission, leur séjour obligatoire dans les zones de transit hongroises relève de la rétention en vertu de la directive européenne sur le retour. La Commission constate que les conditions de rétention dans les zones de transit hongroises, en particulier le refus de nourriture, ne sont pas conformes aux conditions matérielles prescrites par la directive « retour » et par la charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne.

      Compte tenu de l’urgence de la situation, le délai imparti à la Hongrie pour répondre aux préoccupations de la Commission est fixé à 1 mois, après quoi la Commission pourrait décider de lui adresser un avis motivé.

      La Cour européenne des droits de l’homme a déjà accordé le bénéfice de mesures provisoires dans plusieurs cas, obligeant la Hongrie à procurer de la nourriture aux personnes placées en rétention dans les zones de transit. En juillet 2018, la Commission a saisi la Cour de justice d’un recours dirigé contre la Hongrie dans une affaire relative à la rétention de demandeurs d’asile dans les zones de transit hongroises. Cette affaire est actuellement pendante devant la Cour.

      Saisine de la Cour de justice pour non-respect de la législation de l’Union relative aux résidents de longue durée

      La Commission européenne a décidé aujourd’hui de saisir la Cour de justice de l’UE d’un recours contre la Hongrie au motif que cet État membre exclut de l’exercice de la profession de vétérinaire les ressortissants de pays tiers ayant le statut de résident de longue durée, transposant ainsi erronément certaines dispositions de la directive relative aux résidents de longue durée (directive 2003/109/CE du Conseil). Cette directive exige que les ressortissants de pays tiers qui résident légalement dans un État membre de l’UE depuis au moins cinq ans bénéficient d’un traitement égal à celui des ressortissants nationaux dans certains domaines, y compris l’accès aux activités salariées et indépendantes. La Commission a adressé une lettre de mise en demeure à la Hongrie en juillet 2018 et y a donné suite par l’envoi d’un avis motivé en janvier 2019.

      http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-4260_fr.htm

  • U.S. Bombed a Mosque in Syria, Killing Dozens of Civilians, Investigators Conclude
    https://theintercept.com/2017/04/19/u-s-bombed-mosque-syria-killing-dozens-civilians-investigators-conclud
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOyihqEOfYA

    As my colleague Alex Emmons reported last month, Syrian activists and first responders accused the United States of killing dozens of civilians in an airstrike that mistakenly targeted a mosque in the rebel-held village of al-Jinah on the evening of March 16.

    After +24 hrs, @SyriaCivilDef teams finished work in AlJenah town hit by airstrikes yesterday, documenting 50 victims & 10s wounded. #syria pic.twitter.com/mXX1eXzNep

    — Majd khalaf (@majdkhalaf1993) March 17, 2017

    Confronted with these claims, a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, told The Intercept that they were mistaken. “The area was extensively surveilled prior to the strike in order to minimize civilian casualties,” Davis said. “We deliberately did not target the mosque.”

    As evidence, Davis provided an aerial photograph of the building destroyed in the attack, identified by U.S. officials as a “partially constructed community meeting hall.”

  • New York City Moves to Require Uber to Provide a Tipping Option in Its App - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/nyregion/new-york-city-uber-tipping-app.html

    New Yorkers have been able to tip a taxi driver by adding a few dollars to their bill before swiping a credit card for years. But they cannot add a tip when they use the popular ride-hailing app Uber.

    Now officials are moving to require Uber to provide a tipping option in the app.

    The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission announced a proposal on Monday requiring car services that accept only credit cards to allow passengers to tip the driver using their card.

    “This rule proposal will be an important first step to improve earning potential in the for-hire vehicle industry, but it is just one piece of a more comprehensive effort to improve the economic well-being of drivers,” Meera Joshi, the city’s taxi commissioner, said in a statement.

    The decision was prompted by a petition from the Independent Drivers Guild, a group representing Uber drivers in New York. The petition, which collected more than 11,000 signatures, argued that drivers were losing thousands of dollars without an easy tipping option.

    Passengers can tip an Uber driver using cash, but there has long been confusion over whether it was expected. Uber’s website says tipping is voluntary and that riders are not obligated to offer a cash tip.

    The lack of a tipping option in Uber’s app has been a sore point for drivers. If new rules are approved in New York, it would be a major change in how Uber runs its business in its largest United States market. Other cities could demand to have the same choice.

    A spokeswoman for Uber, Alix Anfang, said the company would review the proposal.

    “Uber is always striving to offer the best earning opportunity for drivers and we are constantly working to improve the driver experience,” Ms. Anfang said in a statement, noting that the company had worked with the drivers guild to make sure drivers had a voice.

    Lyft, Uber’s largest competitor in the United States, has long offered in-app tipping as an option for riders. But Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, has been one of the largest impediments to adding tipping to the Uber app, according to two people familiar with his thinking who did not want to be identified publicly discussing the company’s internal discussions.

    Mr. Kalanick believes the feature — which has already been built, but has yet to be deployed — could add “friction” to the in-app experience, and could potentially make Uber less appealing. It could also bring a sense of guilt to those who do not tip drivers. Some inside the company have lobbied Mr. Kalanick to change his stance, but he has long resisted.

    New York’s proposal will be formally introduced by July and requires approval by the taxi commission’s board. Before that vote, drivers and passengers will have a chance to speak on the measure at a public hearing.

    In New York, about 16 million passengers used Uber and other ride-hailing services in October, soaring from about 5 million in June 2015, according to a recent study. But Uber has faced a series of scandals over its corporate culture, including allegations of sexual harassment, leading to a backlash among consumers.

    In March, Lyft said its drivers had earned more than $200 million in tips nationwide since the company started allowing tips in 2012. Adrian Durbin, a spokesman for Lyft, said its tipping policy was a major reason drivers prefer Lyft over Uber.

    New York Today
    Each morning, get the latest on New York businesses, arts, sports, dining, style and more.

    “We’ve always known that offering in-app tipping is the right thing to do, which is why we’ve offered it since our earliest days,” Mr. Durbin said in a statement.

    James Conigliaro Jr., the founder of the Independent Drivers Guild, said that allowing drivers to earn tips would help them make a decent living after Uber had in recent years reduced driver rates in New York.

    “It has become harder for drivers to make a living wage,” he said. “They have to work much harder and longer hours to earn the same amount of money they did when Uber came on the scene.”

    Uber’s reaction to the proposal on Monday was muted compared to the company’s aggressive response when Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration tried to cap the number of Uber vehicles, suggesting the company might not fight the new rules. After Uber ran an advertising campaign in 2015 attacking the mayor over the cap, Mr. de Blasio ultimately dropped the idea.

    This month, Uber won a major victory in Albany when state lawmakers approved new rules allowing Uber and other ride-hailing apps to expand to upstate New York. Uber could begin operating in cities like Buffalo and Syracuse as soon as July.

    Some Uber users said the shift to tipping drivers in New York City was long overdue.

    “This is something Uber should have been doing from the beginning,” said Hebah Khan, 22, a junior at Barnard College.

    But Ms. Khan also wondered if the new tipping policy could turn away people who use Uber’s low-cost car-pooling feature. “They’re looking for a cheap luxury,” she said. “They’re probably not trying to tip.”

    Olivia Kenwell, a 25-year-old bartender at Broadway Dive on the Upper West Side, said she usually tips Uber’s drivers if she is the only one in the car during a car-pooling trip.

    “As a good-will gesture,” she said. “I might tip 5 dollars on my 2-dollar ride.”

    But she admitted she had an ulterior motive as well: a good rating as an Uber passenger.

    “I’m obsessed with my Uber rating,” she said. “It’s the only place in the world where you can find out exactly how well you’re liked.”

    Mike Isaac and Emily Palmer contributed reporting.

    A version of this article appears in print on April 18, 2017, on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Taxi Officials Call on Uber To Provide Tipping in Its App.

    #Uber #USA

  • Will Israel be a casualty of U.S.-Russian tension after Trump’s missile attack? - Syria - Haaretz
    http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-1.782265

    Putin might want to prove that an attack on Russia’s ally has implications for America’s ally. But Israel needs coordination with Russia over Syria’s skies

    Zvi Bar’el Apr 08, 2017 7:30 AM
     
    Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013. AP
    Analysis Syria strike marks complete turnaround in Trump’s policy
    Analysis Trump challenges Putin with first Western punishment for Assad’s massacres since start of Syria war
    Russia: U.S. strike in Syria ’one step away from military clashes with Russia’
    A military strike was warranted but the likelihood was low − so U.S. President Donald Trump surprised everyone, as usual. Russian President Valdimir Putin was furious, Syrian President Bashar Assad screamed, but the 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired by the USS Ross and USS Porter weren’t just another tug-of-war or show of strength.
    >> Get all updates on Trump, Israel and the Middle East: Download our free App, and Subscribe >>
    Without a UN Security Council resolution and without exhausting diplomatic chatter, the U.S. strike on the air force base near Homs slapped Assad and Putin in the face, sending a message to many other countries along the way.
    The military response was preceded by a foreign-policy revolution in which Trump announced that Assad can no longer be part of the solution. Only a few days earlier, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, announced that Assad’s removal was no longer an American priority.
    Did American priorities change as a result of the chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun near Idlib, and will Trump now work to bring down Assad? Not yet. Will Trump renew the military aid to the rebel militias so they can fight the regime? Far from it.

    Donald Trump after U.S. missiles strike Assad regime airbase in Syria, April 7, 2017JIM WATSON/AFP
    >> Read top analyses on U.S. strike in Syria: Trump challenges Putin, punishes Assad for first time | Russia, Iran, denounce strike, Saudi Arabia praises it | Trump’s move could backfire | Trump’s 48-hour policy turnaround <<
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    The American attack also provides no answers to the tactical questions. The Tomahawk missiles didn’t hit the warehouses where Assad’s chemical weapons may be stored, but rather the air force base where the planes that dropped the weapons took off.
    It’s possible the chemical weapons are still safely stored away. The logic behind the attack on the air force base is understandable, but does it hint that Trump won’t hesitate to attack the person who gave the order and the president who gave the initial approval? For now the answers aren’t clear.
    Trump did on a large scale what Israel has been doing on a smaller scale when it attacked weapons convoys leaving Syria for Hezbollah. Unless Washington decides to surprise us once again, it won’t return to being a power on the Syrian front, it won’t steal the show from Russia. Diplomatic efforts, as far as there are any, will be made without active American participation.
    So the immediate and important achievement for Trump is an American political one: He tarred and feathered Barack Obama and proved to the Americans that his United States isn’t chicken. Trump, who demanded that Obama receive Congress’ approval before attacking Syria in 2013, has now painted Congress into a corner, too. Who would dare criticize the attack, even if it wasn’t based on “the proper procedures,” and even though the United States didn’t face a clear and present danger?

    U.S. envoy to the UN Nikki Haley holds photographs of victims during a UN Security Council meeting on Syria, April 5, 2017. SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS
    The question is whether as a result of the American cruise missile attack, Russia and Syria will opt for a war of revenge in order to prove that the attack didn’t change anything in their military strategy against the rebels and the civilian population. They don’t feel they need chemical weapons to continuously and effectively bomb Idlib and its suburbs. They don’t need to make the entire world man the moral barricades if good results can be achieved through legitimate violence, as has been going on for six years.
    Such a decision is in the hands of Putin, who despite recent rifts with Assad is still committed to stand alongside the Syrian president against the American attack. This isn’t just defending a friend but preserving Russia’s honor. As recently as Thursday, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s support for Assad was unconditional and “it is not correct to say that Moscow can convince Mr. Assad to do whatever is wanted in Moscow.” But the Kremlin has said such things before, every time Russia has been blamed for Assad’s murderous behavior.
    Read Russia’s response to the attack very carefully. Peskov called it “aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up up pretext.” He didn’t embrace Assad and didn’t describe the attack as one that harmed an ally. And he didn’t directly attack Trump − just as Trump didn’t hold Putin responsible for the original chemical weapons attack.
    It seems that despite the loud talk, which included a Russian warning about U.S.-Russian relations, neither country is keen to give Assad the ability to upset the balance between the two superpowers.
    The only practical step taken so far by Russia − suspending aerial coordination between the countries over Syria based on the understandings signed in October 2015 − could turn out a double-edged sword if coalition planes start running into Russian ones. It’s still not clear if this suspension includes the coordination with Israel, which isn’t part of the Russian understandings with the United States.
    But Putin is angry about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments about Assad, and might want to prove to Trump that an attack on Russia’s ally has implications for America’s ally. So he could freeze or cancel the agreements with Israel regarding attacks inside Syria.
    This would mean the war in Syria puts Israel in the diplomatic crossfire too, not just the military one. It could find itself in a conflict between Trump’s policies and its needs for coordination with Russia.

    Zvi Bar’el
    Haaretz Correspondent

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  • Israeli troops shoot Palestinian teen in the back amid firebomb plot
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.779082

    Soldiers in ambush shot Murad Abu Razi while he was fleeing. He died on the spot.
    Gideon Levy and Alex Levac Mar 24, 2017 5:22 PM

    Last Friday night, 17-year-old Murad Abu Razi went to a party celebrating the release of a resident of his refugee camp from Israeli prison, after 13 years. The party in honor of Ismail Farjoun, who had been let out that very day, was held in the clubhouse run by the popular committee at the Al-Arroub camp, which lies on the main road between Bethlehem and Hebron. It’s a crowded, hardscrabble place where happy events are few and far between. Perhaps that’s why so many people showed up to welcome the liberated prisoner home with sweets and cries of joy.

    Murad left the party in the early evening, accompanied by both his father, Yusuf, who has been hard of hearing since birth, and an uncle, Hassan, a retired teacher. Murad bade them farewell without saying where he was going. Not long afterward he was shot in the back and killed by an Israel Defense Forces soldier who had been lying in ambush.

    From the clubhouse, Murad had walked toward the camp’s western edge, which is delineated by a fence, toward Highway 60. There’s a permanent IDF post there – a fortified watchtower, concrete cubes that serve as roadblocks, and an almost constant presence of soldiers. Murad was joined by four more youths his age. They carried plastic bags that held improvised Molotov cocktails of their making.

    On the way the teens encountered Murad’s cousin, who prefers to remain anonymous. He is 28 and lives in a small one-room apartment situated a few dozen meters from the camp’s fence. Fearing that Murad would get into trouble, he tried to persuade him – in vain – to go home. In the meantime, two members of the group left. Now they were three, approaching the fence.

    They took the firebombs out of the bags and placed them on the concrete cubes. Their plan was to throw them over the high fence that had been built years ago by the Israeli authorities in order to prevent stones and incendiary devices from being thrown at vehicles on the busy road. Parked on the other side of the fence at the time was an IDF jeep. In the dark of evening the youths didn’t notice the soldiers who were lying in ambush inside the camp.

    Suddenly, from a nearby abandoned tin shack with torn, perforated walls, soldiers sprang out. Spotting them, the three teens started to run toward the camp. The soldiers shot at them from behind as they fled. Murad was hit by a single bullet in the back. One of his friends, Seif Rushdi, was also hit, in one of his legs; he lost a great deal of blood, and is now in intensive care in Hebron’s Al-Ahli Hospital and could not be visited this week. The third teenager, who was wounded lightly, did not want to identify himself, for obvious reasons.

    Murad collapsed, lying in a pool of his blood. He died almost immediately.

    A trail of bloodstains, still visible this week on the road, marks their path of flight. This is the camp’s main road, traversing it from west to east without any sort of sidewalk. On both sides and in adjacent alleys, it’s lined with houses and shops, all appallingly crowded together.

    As we walked, from the site of Murad’s death to the building where the celebration was held for the released prisoner – which has now become a house of mourning – we were engulfed by hundreds of children, who were just getting out of school. In light of the fact that six of Al-Arroub’s residents have been killed in the past two years, it was impossible to avoid wondering how many of the children who were streaming past would share a similar fate.

    We had begun our visit at the end of the road, on the outskirts of the camp near the fence and the concrete cubes, where two soldiers were eating a meal from disposable aluminum trays. Maybe they’re the ones who shot Murad. Soldiers are posted at every entrance to the camp and in the watchtower that looms above it. To evade them, we left our vehicle at the car wash near one of the entrances and quickly stole into the camp on foot.

    Murad’s cousin invited us for coffee in his tiny room, which resembled a beach hut, though in his case it’s accessed through a junkyard. An old television was tuned to an Egyptian movie channel, a pack of painkillers lay on the table along with the remnants of a snack. There was also an unmade steel bed and a wall painting of the Lebanese singer Fairuz as a young woman and next to it a quote from one of her best-known songs: “You are my prison, you are my freedom.” The cousin’s car is draped with posters commemorating the dead youth. He was the last person to see Murad alive.

    Murad was shot at 8:40 P.M. on Friday, apparently from a distance of about 15-20 meters. He was obviously not endangering the soldiers as he fled. He managed to lunge forward after being shot, before he collapsed. He fell at the foot of the wall decorated with the image of Che Guevara, such as exists in almost every refugee camp, near a local medical laboratory. On the road we found a red casing with the inscription, “Stun grenade. Delay 3.5 seconds.”

    Murad had run along the left side of the road, with Seif on the right side; paths of bloody drops are splattered on both sides of the road. The two must both have lost a great deal of blood. The cousin, hearing a woman shouting, said that he went outside and saw Murad lying in a pool of blood. The driver of a private car took the youth to Sa’ir Junction, where he was transferred to a Palestinian ambulance that rushed him to the hospital in Hebron.

    A scratchy loudspeaker at the Popular Front clubhouse is blaring out Palestinian war songs from the period of the Lebanon War and the Israeli siege of Beirut. This is where the mourners were accepting condolences from camp residents, who arrived in a steady stream. Here, too, is where Murad attended his last celebration. When we got there, on Monday, a delegation from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah was just arriving. Murad’s father, who, in addition to being hard of hearing, has a speech impediment as well, shook the sympathizers’ hands mutely. He’s in a very bad way, his brother, Hassan, tells us. Murad was the youngest of his nine children.

    The hall is adorned with photographs of Murad, yellow Fatah flags and images of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat. There’s also a photo of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. As is the custom, young people – wearing shirts with the deceased’s photo emblazoned on them – offer dates and bitter coffee to those who come to pay condolences. The arrival of the PA delegation is announced. Faces are grim.

    Murad’s uncle, Hassan Abu Razi, takes us up to the second floor, where it’s quieter. He tells us that his nephew was already wanted by the Israeli authorities as a boy, for frequently throwing stones. Murad dropped out of school in the 10th grade and at the age of 13 or 14, was already hiding out and sleeping in various places in the camp. One time he was hit by an IDF jeep but wasn’t injured. Soldiers frequently came to his house looking for him. He had spent four months in jail.

    Hassan tells us about the grinding poverty of his brother’s family, which mostly lives off charity. It was in this clubhouse where he saw his nephew for the last time. Murad behaved normally that evening, his uncle recalls, and said nothing about his plans. Hassan himself was in Hebron when his wife called him later with the dreadful news. He hurried to the hospital, first to the wrong one and then to Al-Ahli, where Murad had already been pronounced dead, at 9:15 P.M. The Palestinian media initially said that two people had been killed; the mistake was later corrected.

    The hospital wanted to perform an autopsy but Hassan objected. Murad was already dead, he says, so what good would that do? He was shown the body: a hole in the back and a hole in the chest. From the medical report: “The wounded individual arrived at the ER in a Red Crescent ambulance after being shot by the occupation army. He was unconscious and had no pulse. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. After an examination we found that he had been shot with one bullet that entered his back and exited via the chest, on the left side.”

    The IDF Spokesman’s Unit told Haaretz this week: “A Military Police investigation was opened in the wake of the event, and upon its conclusion, the findings will be conveyed to the office of the military advocate general for examination.”

    https://seenthis.net/messages/579251

  • Une milice irakjienne sous le contrôle des Gardiens de la Révolution Iraniens crée la Brigade de Liberation du Golan

    IRGC-controlled Iraqi militia forms ‘Golan Liberation Brigade’ | FDD’s Long War Journal
    http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/03/irgc-controlled-iraqi-militia-forms-golan-liberation-brigade.php

    The Iranian-controlled Iraqi militia Harakat al Nujaba this week announced the formation of its “Golan Liberation Brigade.” While it is not uncommon for entities to name themselves after areas they aim to “liberate,” the militia’s spokesman has said that the unit could assist the Syrian regime in taking the Golan Heights, a region in the Levant that has been controlled by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

    #Syrie #Golan #Iran #IRGC

  • Shippers subpoenaed in U.S. price-fixing investigation - WSJ | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-shippers-idUSL3N1GY4S8

    Soupçons d’entente dans le transport conteneurisé

    U.S. Justice Department investigators have subpoenaed top executives of several container shipping companies as part of an investigation into price fixing, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

    Maersk Line, a unit of Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk, confirmed that it was issued a subpoena related to a probe into the container shipping industry on March 15.

    The subpoena does not set out any specific allegations against Maersk Line,” a Maersk Line spokesman said, adding that the company will fully cooperate with the authorities in their investigations.

    The subpoenas were issued during a meeting of the world’s 20 biggest container shipping operators in San Francisco, the Journal reported.

    German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd AG also confirmed it was given a subpoena by Justice Department investigators, the report said.

    Hapag Lloyd could not be immediately reached for comment.

    (intégralité de la brève)

  • The Syrian war shakeout is changing the Mideast’s balance of power - Middle East News

    Turkey’s intervention has created a rift with Iran, Jordan-Syria ties are tightening and America’s absence could weaken the Saudis. The alliances emerging in Syria will determine the fate the region.

    Zvi Bar’el Feb 27, 2017 1
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.773974

    Secondary relationships born of the Syrian civil war could have a greater impact on the future of the country and the region than the war itself. While the warring parties are busy holding onto and expanding territorial gains, finding funds and arms and jockeying for position in future negotiations, the smaller players are crafting long-range strategies that will divide the region à la the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.
    The secondary relationships are alliances and rivalries that developed between global powers such as Russia and the United States, and between local powers such as Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But the term is inaccurate in a sense because the Syrian war has long become a proxy war in which the payer of the bills dictates the military movements while changing proxies based on battlefield success.
    More importantly, the alliances between the sponsors and “their” militias create the balance of political forces between the powers. For example, Russia uses the Kurds in Syria as a bargaining chip against Turkey, whose cooperation with the Free Syrian Army creates a rift between Ankara and Tehran. Meanwhile, Jordan’s strikes on the Islamic State in southern Syria boost the Russian-Jordanian coalition and Jordan’s ties with the Assad regime − and everyone is looking ahead to "the day after.”
    The latest development puts Turkish-Iranian relations to the test. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference a week ago Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on Iran to stop threatening the region’s stability and security. The remark wasn’t only unusually blunt but also seemed to come from an American talking-points page. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi responded the next day, warning that while Turkey was an important neighbor, “there is a certain cap to our patience.”
    Tehran and Ankara are deeply divided over the Assad regime, and particularly over whether the Syrian president should stay on after a negotiated settlement. But these disagreements didn’t affect the two countries’ bilateral trade of some $10 billion a year.
    Iran was the first country to denounce the failed coup attempt in Turkey last July, and President Hassan Rohani is on track for a fourth visit to Ankara in April. Tehran and Ankara share an interest in preventing the establishment of an independent Kurdish region in Syria that could inspire the Kurds in Iran and Turkey.
    But Ankara and Tehran are each deeply suspicious of the other’s strategic ambitions. Turkey believes that Iran seeks to turn Iraq and Syria into Shi’ite states, while Iran is sure that Turkish President Recet Tayyip Erdogan dreams of reestablishing the Ottoman Empire.
    The Iranians were apprehensive about the liberation, by Turkish forces and the Free Syrian Army, of al-Bab, a city around 30 kilometers from Aleppo, even though the defeated party was the Islamic State. The Iranians were worried because control over al-Bab, whose liberation the Free Syrian Army announced Friday, opens up the route critical to retaking Raqqa, the Islamic State’s capital in Syria. Control over al-Bab is also key for taking control of the Iraq-Syria border, which Tehran views as critical.

    #syria #russia #iran

  • The United States Used Depleted Uranium in Syria | Foreign Policy
    http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/14/the-united-states-used-depleted-uranium-in-syria

    Officials have confirmed that the U.S. military, despite vowing not to use depleted uranium weapons on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, fired thousands of rounds of the munitions during two high-profile raids on oil trucks in Islamic State-controlled Syria in late 2015. The air assaults mark the first confirmed use of this armament since the 2003 Iraq invasion, when it was used hundreds of thousands of times, setting off outrage among local communities, which alleged that its toxic material caused cancer and birth defects.

    U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Maj. Josh Jacques told Airwars and Foreign Policy that 5,265 armor-piercing 30 mm rounds containing depleted uranium (DU) were shot from Air Force A-10 fixed-wing aircraft on Nov. 16 and Nov. 22, 2015, destroying about 350 vehicles* in the country’s eastern desert.

    #uranium_appauvri #armement #Syrie #États-Unis

  • 2 Palestinians killed, 5 injured in reported airstrike on southern Gaza tunnel
    Feb. 9, 2017 9:41 A.M. (Updated: Feb. 9, 2017 11:01 A.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=775384

    The bodies of Hussam al-Sufi and Muhammad al-Aqraa, two Palestinians killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza on Feb. 9, 2017.

    GAZA (Ma’an) — Two Palestinians were killed and five were injured during a reported airstrike on a smuggling tunnel between Egypt and Gaza on Wednesday night, official Palestinian sources said.

    Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said on Thursday that Hussam Hamid al-Sufi , 24, from the town of Rafah, and Muhammad Anwar al-Aqraa , a 38-year-old resident of Gaza City, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, while five other Palestinians were injured.

    An Israeli army spokesperson however denied to Ma’an that the army was involved in the reported strike.

    However, Israeli media stated that the alleged tunnel attack came in the wake of four rockets being fired from the blockaded Palestinian territory towards the southern Israeli city of Eilat. No casualties were reported in the incident.

    The casualties came in the wake of multiple airstrikes launched by the Israeli army inside the Gaza Strip on Monday which injured two Palestinians, after a rocket that landed in an open area in the Ashkelon region of southern Israel.

    The Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights expressed concern on Tuesday that Israel could be leading up to a wide-scale military offensive.

    The rights group called on the international community to “act promptly against Israel’s military escalation, to fulfill their obligations to protect civilians, and ensure respect for the rules of international law,” stressing that “acting before a full-scale military bombardment is launched is crucial to ensuring the protection of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.” (...)

    #Palestine_assassinée
    “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““
    Deux Palestiniens tués près de la frontière Egypte-Gaza (Hamas)
    AFP / 09 février 2017 06h35
    http://www.romandie.com/news/Deux-Palestiniens-tues-pres-de-la-frontiere-EgypteGaza-Hamas/773228.rom

    Gaza (Territoires palestiniens) - Deux Palestiniens ont été tués et cinq blessés dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi près de la frontière entre l’Egypte et la bande de Gaza, a indiqué le ministère de la Santé du territoire palestinien gouverné par le Hamas islamiste.

    Le ministère a incriminé une frappe israélienne. Interrogée par l’AFP, l’armée israélienne a dit ne « pas avoir connaissance » d’une telle frappe.

    Hossam al-Soufi, 24 ans, et Mohammed al-Aqra, 38 ans, ont été tués, et cinq autres personnes blessées par une frappe israélienne du côté égyptien de la frontière, dans le Sinaï, a dit le porte-parole du ministère Achraf al-Qoudra.

    Les circonstances de la mort des deux hommes étaient cependant très peu claires.

    Les faits sont survenus quelques heures après le tir de plusieurs roquettes mercredi soir à partir du Sinaï, en Egypte, vers la station balnéaire israélienne d’Eilat, sur la mer Rouge.

    Le Sinaï est frontalier d’Israël à l’est et de la bande de Gaza sur quelques kilomètres dans l’extrémité nord de la péninsule. Les deux morts palestiniennes sont survenues bien plus au nord que les tirs de roquettes de mercredi soir. Ces roquettes n’ont pas fait de blessé, a dit l’armée israélienne.

    Le Sinaï est le théâtre d’affrontements sanglants entre soldats et policiers égyptiens contre des membres de l’organisation appelée Province du Sinaï, la branche égyptienne du groupe jihadiste Etat Islamique (EI).(...)

  • Israeli forces continue airstrikes in Gaza, 2 Palestinians injured
    Feb. 6, 2017 9:33 P.M. (Updated : Feb. 6, 2017 9:33 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=775335

    GAZA CITY (Ma’an) —Israeli forces resumed attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip Monday evening, injuring two Palestinians, after injuring two Palestinians earlier Monday in a series of Israeli army airstrikes in northern Gaza, in response to a rocket that landed in an open area in the Ashkelon region of southern Israel Monday morning.

    Witnesses told Ma’an that at least eight Israeli missiles were fired at several locations across the besieged coastal enclave.

    One airstrike hit agricultural land in the center of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip. A spokesman of the Gaza ministry of health Ashraf al-Qidra confirmed that two people were injured in Khan Younis.

    According to locals, the airstrikes hit a “resistance” military post as well as an agricultural area east of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, in addition to the al-Shujaiyya neighborhood in Gaza City, causing damages to several residential buildings.

    The air strikes also hit agricultural lands east of al-Maghazi and al-Bureij refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip.

    Palestinian factions released statements warning of the consequences of the ongoing Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave.

    A spokesman of Hamas movement Hazim Qasim said the current escalation represented “a new chain in the series of ongoing Israeli occupation’s assaults against the Palestinian people and the Gaza Strip.”

    The Islamic Jihad movement said in a statement that “Palestinian resistance holds the Israeli occupation responsible for the ongoing and future attacks on the Gaza Strip.”

    #GAZA

  • British PM May warns Netanyahu: Palestinian land-grab bill is unhelpful
    After Netanyahu announces vote on bill which would legalize expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land to go ahead, May says it will make things more difficult for Israel’s friends.
    By Barak Ravid | Feb. 6, 2017 | 8:09 PM
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.770065

    LONDON – British Prime Minister Theresa May told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that an Israeli bill legalizing the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land is unhelpful and would make things more difficult for Israel’s friends around the world, Haaretz has learned.

    After his meeting with May on Monday afternoon, Netanyahu told reporters that the vote slated for Monday on the bill will go ahead as planned. He added that he had informed the White House of his intention of putting the legislation to a vote and said he will return from the U.K. on Monday night to participate.

    “I never said that I want to delay the vote on this law,” Netanyahu said. “I said that I will act according to our national interest. That requires that we do not surprise our friends and keep them updated – and the American administration was been updated.”

    Minutes before the meeting, May’s spokesman told the British press that the prime minister planned to tell Netanyahu she opposes settlement activity in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

    While Netanyahu said that May did raise the issue of construction in the settlements, he stressed that the issue “was not discussed in detail, to say the least.” He said he told her that the settlements are not an obstacle to peace and that preoccupation with them is a distraction from the main problems in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    At the start of their meeting, May told Netanyahu that the British government is committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu told May that he shares her desire for peace in the region, but avoided voicing an explicit support of the two-state solution.

    Netanyahu also asked May to stop the British Foreign Office from funding left-wing Israeli organizations, first and foremost the veterans’ group Breaking the Silence, which responded to Netanyahu’s remarks by saying the British government does not currently provide them with any funding.

    Netanyahu and May’s meeting was their first since May took office in July after her predecessor David Cameron stepped down over the results of the Brexit vote held the previous month. Besides the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the two leaders discussed Iran, the war in Syria and Israeli-British relations following the Brexit.

    The bill would allow the state to declare private Palestinian land on which settlements or outposts were built, “in good faith or at the state’s instruction” as government property, and deny its owners the right to use or hold those lands until there is a diplomatic resolution of the status of the territories.

    The purpose of the bill, the revised version says, is to “regulate settlement in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and allow its continued establishment and development.”

    The measure provides a mechanism for compensating Palestinians whose lands will be seized. A landowner can receive an annual usage payment of 125 percent of the land’s value as determined by an assessment committee for renewable periods of 20 years, or an alternate plot of land if this is possible, whichever he chooses.

  • Yemeni officials say warships shell al Qaeda positions, U.S. denies involvement | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-shelling-idUSKBN15H26I

    Warships shelled suspected al Qaeda strongholds in a mountainous region of southern Yemen on Thursday, government officials said.

    The officials, who asked not to be named, said they believed U.S. forces carried out the operation, though Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis quickly denied any U.S. involvement.

    The strikes come less than a week after a covert U.S. Navy SEAL raid, also in Yemen’s south, the first ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump as commander in chief.

    The naval attacks appear to be part of an intensifying campaign against one of the most active branches of the Islamist militant network.

    “Ships fired several missiles towards the al-Maraqisha mountains, where al Qaeda elements are based. The ships are widely believed to be Americans,” said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

    “We have received no information on the outcome of the shelling.”

  • Bruxelles offre 200 millions d’euros à la Libye pour freiner l’immigration

    La Commission européenne a mis sur la table de nouvelles mesures pour freiner l’arrivée de migrants via la mer méditerranée, dont 200 millions d’euros pour la Libye. Un article de notre partenaire Euroefe.

    http://www.euractiv.fr/section/l-europe-dans-le-monde/news/bruxelles-offre-200-millions-deuros-a-la-libye-pour-freiner-limmigration/?nl_ref=29858390

    #Libye #asile #migrations #accord #deal #réfugiés #externalisation
    cc @reka

    • Gli sbarchi non si fermano: 1600 persone soccorse nel Canale di Sicilia

      Non si arresta l’arrivo di profughi dalle coste nordafricane, all’indomani del piano varato dall’Europa per chiudere la rotta dei migranti dalla Libia verso l’Italia. A poche ore dal vertice di Malta tra i leader dei Paesi Ue e dal via libera all’accordo firmato a Roma da Gentiloni e dal premier libico Serraj, le operazioni di soccorso proseguono senza sosta. Nelle ultime ore sono oltre 1600 i migranti tratti in salvo dalle unità impegnate nel pattugliamento del Canale di Sicilia, mentre continuano a susseguirsi le segnalazioni di nuove barche in difficoltà.

      http://www.lastampa.it/2017/02/05/italia/cronache/gli-sbarchi-non-si-fermano-persone-soccorse-nel-canale-di-sicilia-ODZQa2sa3BO8bnCZU1EKtO/pagina.html

    • EU has not fulfilled commitments to provide equipment to Libyan Coast Guards – Libyan Navy Spokesman

      The EU has not “fulfilled any commitments” to provide the Libyan Coast Guards with equipment to help stem the flow of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, a spokesman for the Libyan Navy said Wednesday. “Unfortunately, the EU has not yet fulfilled any commitments and all we hear is propaganda that the EU has provided assistance to Libya and its coast guards,” Brigadier General Ayoub Kacem, a spokesman for the Libyan Navy, told Euronews.

      “Nothing arrived from the EU. Even the boats that arrived from Italy are the result of a previous agreement between Italy and the former regime in 2008,” he said, adding that out of the six boats loaned by Italy in 2010, two were then destroyed “by the international coalition during the liberation war.”

      The accusation comes after more than 200 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in the past four days and on the heel of an EU migration summit in Brussels last Friday.

      There, EU leaders agreed to strengthen control of the bloc’s external borders, provide additional support to countries of origins — which would include Libya — and reduce secondary movements of migrants within the EU.

      They also decided to open host screening centres in African countries although details have not yet been hashed out.

      The EU and Libya have been collaborating since 2015 as part of Operation Sophia whose main aim is to identify, capture and dispose of vessels used by smugglers. Its mandate was then broadened in 2016 to train the Libyan Navy and Coast Guard.

      The North African nation has also benefited from a €182 million EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africadesigned to protect migrants in Libya and support local communities to cope with the challenge.

      But Kacem called on the EU to provide Libya with equipment including ships, life jackets and communication devices, “instead of providing money.”

      https://corporatedispatch.com/2018/07/05/eu-has-not-fulfilled-commitments-to-provide-equipment-to-libyan-c

  • Trump’s nuclear wake-up call - POLITICO
    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-233822

    Confronting the reality of nuclear war has left past presidents deeply moved, even shaken. In his 1999 memoir, Bill Clinton’s former spokesman George Stephanopoulos described seeing Clinton emerge from his nuclear briefing, held at 7am on the morning of his inauguration.

    “The man who would soon command the most powerful military force in the world emerged… silent and more somber than I’d ever seen him,” Stephanopoulos wrote.

    Clinton wasn’t the only one moved. Stephanopoulos recalled that George H.W. Bush’s outgoing national security advisor, retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft, “slipped out of Blair House and into the street with tears reddening the rims of his eyes.”

    (...) Trump’s Friday briefing is meant to ensure that he understands how to quickly order a nuclear attack in the event of an emergency.

    “The briefer is very, very military. It’s a military briefing,” Card said. “It’s not a briefing of the conscience. It’s by-the-book, it’s rote.”

    “It’s kind of like how to use your remote control for the TV,” Card added.

    #nucléaire #bombe #États-Unis

  • What prompted Russia’s shift in stance on Syria opposition?
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/01/moscow-recognition-syria-opposition-russia-talks-astana.html

    On Jan. 10, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the preparation of talks between the Syrian government and the armed opposition in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, on Jan. 23. The rebels are seriously preparing for the talks. On Jan. 11, Astana hosted a meeting between Syria’s opposition figures and the nonmilitary opposition to find common ground for the upcoming negotiations. Previously, they accepted the terms of a deal to cease hostilities and confirmed their commitment to United Nations Resolution 2254 (2015) endorsing a road map for Syria’s peace process.

    Moscow’s road to the recognition of large opposition movements, including Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, as negotiating partners was long and tortuous. In April 2016, at the UN, Russia insisted on blacklisting Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham. Now Russia consents to the talks with them. When the Russian Ministry of Defense published the list of seven opposition factions Dec. 29, it raised many eyebrows among domestic and foreign experts. There have been very few Russian articles and commentaries expounding on this key step by the country’s military and political establishment and on the very selection criteria. Yet Russia’s move requires explanation, as something extraordinary has happened.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/01/moscow-recognition-syria-opposition-russia-talks-astana.html#ixzz4W0We9S

  • Israeli embassy official caught on camera discussing ’taking down’ British lawmakers - Israel News - Haaretz.com
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.763613
    http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.763614.1483841638!/image/3746778998.PNG_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/3746778998.PNG

    The official, Shai Masot, was recorded by an undercover Al-Jazeera reporter apparently discussing his wishes to engineer the downfall of several British Members of Parliament, including Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan, a supporter of a Palestinian state and outspoken critic of the Israeli settlements.

    C’est un agent russe ?

  • Hyundai Heavy Lands $650 Million Ship Order from Iran -Yonhap – gCaptain
    https://gcaptain.com/hyundai-heavy-lands-650-million-ship-order-from-iran-yonhap

    South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd received a $650 million order to build 10 ships for Iran’s state-owned shipping company, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported on Saturday, citing a Hyundai Heavy spokesman.

    The company will build container ships and tankers for Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, with delivery starting in 2018, Yonhap cited the spokesman as saying. The number of each type of ship was not disclosed.

    The deal was signed on Friday and was the first shipbuilding order by the Iranian firm since the lifting of international sanctions, Yonhap said.

  • Climate Change Conversations Are Targeted in Questionnaire to Energy Department
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/politics/climate-change-energy-department-donald-trump-transition.html

    The questionnaire requests “a list of all Department of Energy employees or contractors who have attended any Interagency Working Group meetings” to design a measurement known as the Social Cost of Carbon, a figure used by the Obama administration to measure the economic effects of carbon dioxide pollution, and to justify the economic cost of #climate regulations. That question goes on to demand “a list of when those meetings were” as well as “emails associated with those meetings.”

    A separate question asks for “a list of Department employees or contractors who attended any” United Nations climate change conference “in the last five years.” Still another inquires about which office led the department’s efforts to complete the five-nation nuclear weapons deal with Iran.

    Even the Energy Information Administration, the department’s independent statistics office, was not immune. The questionnaire demands justification for the office’s measurements of the nation’s carbon dioxide pollution.

  • Après les splendides “military-age male” et “signature strike”, #Obama termine son mandat en apothéose avec le “#collective_self-defense
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/27/us/politics/obama-expands-war-with-al-qaeda-to-include-shabab-in-somalia.html

    Obama Is Expanding Trump’s War-Making Powers on His Way Out the Door
    http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/28/obama-is-expanding-trumps-war-making-powers-on-his-way-out-the-door

    Under this broad concept of “collective self-defense,” it seems that U.S. military close air support airstrikes may be called upon anywhere U.S.-partner forces are threatened, whether or not that threat extends to American personnel on the ground. To give some sense of what that could potentially entail, in 2015, a spokesman from the command acknowledged that SOCOM forces had deployed to 147 countries. Undoubtedly, these deployments primarily consist of short-term military-to-military engagements, like training and education programs, with few direct-action operations. However, the Obama administration’s claim that certain foreign partner forces can be incorporated into the U.S. military’s inherent right to self-defense could open up the scope and intensity of airstrikes even further.

    #Etats-Unis #drones

  • Four parties enter bids for STX Offshore, STX France sale : Seoul court | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-stx-idUSKBN12Z186

    Four parties have expressed interest in buying one or both of South Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd and a controlling stake in STX France SA, a spokesman for the Seoul court overseeing STX Offshore’s receivership said on Friday.

    The Seoul Central District Court spokesman declined to comment on the names of the parties.

    The South Korean court in October decided to allow the two units of the collapsed STX shipbuilding group to be sold either separately or together.

    Initial bids were due on Friday for all of STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd and a 66.7 percent stake in STX France SA that is held by STX Europe AS.

    The four parties that entered non-binding bids in the sale were France’s DCNS Group, Italy’s Fincantieri SpA and Netherlands’ Damen Shipyards, and a fourth non-Korean bidder, South Korean M&A publication Market Insight reported earlier on Friday, citing unnamed investment banking sources.

    France’s Industry Minister Christophe Sirugue confirmed to Reuters that there had been four offers, including at least two from Europe.

    • Pour mémoire, article du Monde du 10/10/2016

      Sirugue : « Notre objectif est qu’un projet industriel solide soit mis en place pour STX France »
      http://www.lemonde.fr/entreprises/article/2016/10/10/bercy-ne-compte-pas-nationaliser-les-chantiers-de-saint-nazaire_5011170_1656

      Christophe Sirugue, secrétaire d’Etat à l’industrie, donne la priorité à la mise en place d’une solution européenne pour STX France.
      […]
      Mais c’est à STX que revient le choix du repreneur. Avez-vous votre mot à dire ?
      Oui, de deux façons. En tant qu’actionnaire minoritaire, l’Etat dispose d’un droit de préemption en cas de cession de la majorité. Par ailleurs, l’Etat peut mobiliser la réglementation des investissements étrangers en France, qui lui permettrait de s’opposer à une prise de contrôle des chantiers de Saint-Nazaire qui ne serait pas conforme aux intérêts nationaux. Si STX France est vendu séparément, nous pourrions faire jouer le droit de préemption. S’il y a une vente en bloc, nous pourrions mobiliser plutôt le second levier.

  • Hanjin Vessel Sitting Off Canada for Months Set to Dock in Vancouver – gCaptain
    https://gcaptain.com/hanjin-vessel-sitting-off-canada-for-months-set-to-dock-in-vancouver

    A container vessel that spent months sitting off Canada’s west coast due to the collapse of a major South Korea shipping company is set to dock in Vancouver on Thursday, port and union officials said.
    […]
    Prince Rupert Port Authority spokesman Michael Gurney said that the Hanjin Scarlet arrived into the port on Aug. 30 and discharged some containers at one of its terminals. It then remained under arrest and at anchor in the outer harbor for nearly two months.

    The ship, which has 24 crew members, will unload cargo on board, Lahay said. He added that crew members had less than 10 days worth of food and provisions left, and had run out of fresh food.

    • La situation des navires de #Hanjin se débloque doucement.

      Germany’s HSH Nordbank seals charter of Hanjin ships to Maersk | Reuters
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shipping-hanjin-hsh-idUSKCN12R1R6

      Germany’s HSH Nordbank has arranged a deal which will see six container ships from collapsed South Korean line Hanjin chartered out to Denmark’s AP Moller Maersk, the state-backed lender said on Thursday.

      This is one of the first examples of Hanjin’s lenders looking to resolve the fallout from the shipping firm’s collapse in August, which has left an estimated $14 billion in cargo stranded on its ships.

      HSH, which was among a consortium of banks that had financed Hanjin ships, said in a statement that Maersk’s container unit, the world’s No. 1 line, would operate the six vessels.
      […]
      A source involved in the transaction told Reuters HSH had separately arranged together with three other banks for three additional Hanjin ships to be chartered out to the world’s No. 2 line, Swiss-based MSC.

      MSC did not immediately comment.

  • US Officials Ask How ISIS Got So Many Toyota Trucks - ABC News
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/us-officials-isis-toyota-trucks/story?id=34266539

    U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs seen prominently in the terror group’s propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

    Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department — part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

    “We briefed Treasury on Toyota’s supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures that Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity,” said Ed Lewis, Toyota’s Washington-based director of public policy and communications.

    Toyota has a “strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities,” Lewis said. He said it is impossible for the company to track vehicles that have been stolen, or have been bought and re-sold by middlemen.

    Obtained by ABC News
    ISIS militants race through Raqqa in a propaganda training film released online in September 2014.more +
    Toyota Hilux pickups, an overseas model similar to the Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota Land Cruisers have become fixtures in videos of the ISIS campaign in Iraq, Syria and Libya, with their truck beds loaded with heavy weapons and cabs jammed with terrorists. The Iraqi Ambassador to the United States, Lukman Faily, told ABC News that in addition to re-purposing older trucks, his government believes ISIS has acquired “hundreds” of “brand new” Toyotas in recent years.

    “This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” Faily said. “How could these brand new trucks... these four wheel drives, hundreds of them — where are they coming from?”

    ISIS propaganda videos show gunmen patrolling Syrian streets in what appear to be older and newer model white Hilux pick-ups bearing the black caliphate seal and crossing Libya in long caravans of gleaming tan Toyota Land Cruisers. When ISIS soldiers paraded through the center of Raqqa, more than two-thirds of the vehicles were the familiar white Toyotas with the black emblems. There were small numbers of other brands including Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Isuzu.

    “Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” said Mark Wallace, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who is CEO of the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit working to expose the financial support networks of terror groups.

    “ISIS has used these vehicles in order to engage in military-type activities, terror activities, and the like,” Wallace told ABC News. “But in nearly every ISIS video, they show a fleet — a convoy of Toyota vehicles and that’s very concerning to us.”

    Toyota says many of the vehicles seen in ISIS videos are not recent models. “We have procedures in place to help ensure our products are not diverted for unauthorized military use,” said Lewis, the Toyota executive.

    But, Lewis added, “It is impossible for Toyota to completely control indirect or illegal channels through which our vehicles could be misappropriated.”

    Questions about the ISIS use of Toyota vehicles have circulated for years. In 2014, a report by the radio broadcaster Public Radio International noted that the U.S. State Department delivered 43 Toyota trucks to Syrian rebels. A more recent report in an Australian newspaper said that more than 800 of the trucks had been reported missing in Sydney between 2014 and 2015, and quoted terror experts speculating that they may have been exported to ISIS territory.

    Attempts to track the path of the trucks into ISIS hands has proven complicated for U.S. and Iraqi officials.

    Toyota’s own figures show sales of Hilux and Land Cruisers tripling from 6,000 sold in Iraq in 2011 to 18,000 sold in 2013, before sales dropped back to 13,000 in 2014.

    Brigadier General Saad Maan, an Iraqi military spokesman, told ABC News he suspects that middlemen from outside Iraq have been smuggling the trucks into his country.

    “We are spending our time to fight those terrorists so we cannot say we are controlling the border between Iraq and Syria,” he conceded. “We are deeply in need for answers.”

    In a statement to ABC News, Toyota said it is not aware of any dealership selling to the terror group but “would immediately” take action if it did, including termination of the distribution agreement.

    Toyota distributors in the region contacted by ABC News said they did not know how the trucks reached ISIS.

    Sumitomo, a Japanese conglomerate that ships vehicles to the region, wrote to ABC News, “In terms of how anyone operating outside of the law obtain vehicles for misappropriation, we have no way to know and therefore cannot comment.”

    A spokesman for former owners of the Toyota dealership in Syria said its sales operation was halted in 2012.

    The former owners, a Saudi company called Abdul Latif Jameel, said it “made the decision to cease all trading activities in the country and fully divested the business in October, 2012,” according to a spokesperson.

    Wallace, of the Counter Extremism Project, said his organization wrote directly to Toyota earlier this year to urge the company to do more to track the flow of trucks to ISIS, and noted that the trucks are stamped with traceable identification numbers.

    “I don’t think Toyota’s trying to intentionally profit from it, but they are on notice now and they should do more,” Wallace said. “They should be able to figure it out... how are these trucks getting there. I think they should disclose that, put a stop to that, and put policies and procedures in places that are real and effective to make sure that we don’t see videos of ISIS using Toyota trucks in the future.”

    Earlier this year, Toyota responded to Wallace’s organization with similar language the company has used to answer questions from ABC News, writing that Toyota stopped entirely its sales of vehicles in Syria several years ago.

    Toyota told ABC News that after company officials briefed the U.S. Treasury team and that Treasury indicated the meeting was “helpful.”

    “We cannot provide further details of our interaction with Treasury as we do not want to compromise its efforts to understand and prevent diversion, or make it easier for illicit groups to penetrate our supply chains or those of any other company,” Lewis said.

    Treasury officials told ABC News they could not comment publicly about the agency’s engagement with specific private companies. But in response to questions about Toyota, the officials said investigators are “working closely with foreign counterparts and stakeholders” on the issue.

    ABC News’ Randy Kreider and Mazin Faiq contributed to this report.