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China, France call for peace in Ukraine as Macron wraps up visit to Beijing
New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/china-france-call-for-peace-in-ukraine-as-macron-wraps-up-visit-to-beijing/
China, France call for peace in Ukraine as Macron wraps up visit to Beijing
Beijing (The Times Groupe) – As French President Emmanuel Macron wrapped up his three-day visit to Beijing, both China and France called for the peace in Ukraine. WAR
They agreed to strengthen political dialogue, foster mutual political trust, jointly promote world security and stability, and respond to global challenges jointly, according to a joint statement released by Macron and Xi Jinping.
“Both sides support all efforts to restore peace in Ukraine on the basis of international law and the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter,” they said in a joint statement.
Following Macron’s meeting with Xi in Guangzhou, the statement was released.
In the meeting, Xi reiterated China’s call for a cease-fire in Ukraine, emphasizing that China would welcome concrete proposals from France for a diplomatic solution.
No party would benefit from the continuation of the war, according to Xi.
The French president also addressed students at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou.
In his speech, Macron underlined that the war in Ukraine was a clear violation of international law and called for joint efforts for the preservation and reconstruction of the international order focused on peace and stability.
China has avoided using the words “war” and “occupation” for the conflict that broke out in February last year and it also abstained in a UN Security Council vote about Russia’s annexations of parts of Ukraine.
China was among the few countries that did not condemn Moscow.
On the anniversary of the war, China released a statement outlining Beijing’s position on a political settlement to the war in Ukraine in 12 points that included respecting the sovereignty of all nations, ceasing hostilities, resuming peace talks, and resolving the humanitarian crisis in the region.
The plan also called for the safety of nuclear power plants, the facilitation of grain exports, and the cessation of unilateral sanctions, stressing that “dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solutions to the Ukraine crisis.” TIMES OF OCEAN
UN Envoy Paints Grim Picture Of Political, Economic And Humanitarian Crisis In Yemen
New Post has been published on https://viralwizard.newonline.help/2021/03/17/un-envoy-paints-grim-picture-of-political-economic-and-humanitarian-crisis-in-yemen/
UN Envoy Paints Grim Picture Of Political, Economic And Humanitarian Crisis In Yemen
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations warned Tuesday that an offensive by Houthi rebels in Yemen has escalated the nearly six-year conflict in the Arab world’s poorest nation as it “speeds towards a massive famine.”
U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths and U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock painted a grim picture of the political, economic and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which is exacerbated by a government blockade of fuel ships entering the country’s main port of Hodeida controlled by the Houthis.
The intensified fighting has come amid an international and regional diplomatic push to end the conflict which began with the 2014 takeover of the capital Sanaa by the Iranian-backed Houthis. A Saudi-led coalition supported by the U.S. and allied with the government has been fighting the rebels since March 2015.
Yemen: “I see shocking reports of children increasingly getting drawn into the war effort and deprived of their future.”@OSE_Yemen Martin Griffiths briefed the Security Council on the dire situation in the country. https://t.co/ZlwHxGB0lx
— United Nations (@UN) March 17, 2021
President Joe Biden’s envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, last week urged the Houthis to agree to a cease-fire proposal.
Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council the Houthis’ weeks-long offensive on the oil-rich central province of Marib, the government’s last stronghold in Yemen’s northern half, has put an estimated one million already displaced civilians at risk. Fighting forces on both sides have suffered “heavy losses,” he said.
Missile and drone strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into Saudi Arabia targeting civilian and commercial infrastructure “have also increased significantly in recent weeks,” Griffiths said. And retaliatory airstrikes on Sanaa city are “endangering civilians there as well.”
Griffiths said other fronts have also opened, with government forces earlier this month launching an offensive against rebel positions in western Hajjah province, and fighting in the government-held southern province of Taiz.
The result has been “a dramatic deterioration” in the conflict, he said.
In addition to the suffering of Yemenis, Griffiths called for an independent investigation into the cause of last week’s fire at a Houthi detention center in Sanaa holding predominantly Ethiopian migrants that killed dozens and seriously injured over 170.
On the humanitarian front, Yemen, which imports most of its food and other commodities, remains the world’s worst crisis.
Both Griffiths and Lowcock urged the entry of fuel ships to Hodeida, warning that the blockade since January has increased prices of food and other goods and put hospitals and other services, including water which needs fuel for its pumps, at risk.
“Right now, 13 fuel ships are waiting outside Hodeida, carrying two months of imports,” Lowcock said, explaining that the government isn’t clearing them because of a dispute with the Houthis over revenue from the fees and taxes on the oil ships.
Despite the recent escalation in fighting in Marib and elsewhere, Lowcock told the Security Council that “the renewed U.S. commitment to a diplomatic solution has opened a window for anyone who is serious about ending the war.”
He again warned that “Yemen is speeding towards a massive famine” and said “that opportunity will be wasted if Yemen tips into famine.”
“So, I again call on everyone to do everything you can ― including money for the aid operation ― to stop the famine,” the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
ESSA AHMED via Getty Images
Meshaal Mohammad, 4, weighs just 20 pounds due to acute malnutrition. He is currently staying at a camp for the internally displaced in Yemen’s northern Hajjah province.
A U.N. pledging conference on March 1 raised a disappointing $1.7 billion, less than half of what aid agencies need this year, which means “we don’t have enough money to stop famine,” Lowcock said.
Last week, U.N. World Food Program chief David Beasley, who had just returned from Yemen, told the council it was “hell on earth in many places” and warned that “we are heading straight toward the biggest famine in modern history.”
“Over 16 million people now face crisis levels of hunger or worse,” Beasley said.
Griffiths said with famine now arriving, “a nationwide cease-fire, along with opening Sanaa airport and ensuring the unhindered flow of fuel and other commodities into Yemen through Hodeida ports, are urgent humanitarian imperatives.”
The U.N. envoy said the U.S. engagement “gives us all more energy and a great deal of hope.”
But Griffiths expressed alarm that “the mere fact of meeting across the table to discuss the contours of ending the war is being framed as a concession rather than an obligation.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration is stepping up diplomacy to reach a cease-fire and negotiate an end to the conflict, “but there can be no cease-fire and no peace in Yemen if the Houthis continue their daily attacks against the Yemeni people, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the region.”
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UN Envoy Paints Grim Picture Of Political, Economic And Humanitarian Crisis In Yemen
New Post has been published on https://hollywood.newonline.help/2021/03/17/un-envoy-paints-grim-picture-of-political-economic-and-humanitarian-crisis-in-yemen/
UN Envoy Paints Grim Picture Of Political, Economic And Humanitarian Crisis In Yemen
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations warned Tuesday that an offensive by Houthi rebels in Yemen has escalated the nearly six-year conflict in the Arab world’s poorest nation as it “speeds towards a massive famine.”
U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths and U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock painted a grim picture of the political, economic and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which is exacerbated by a government blockade of fuel ships entering the country’s main port of Hodeida controlled by the Houthis.
The intensified fighting has come amid an international and regional diplomatic push to end the conflict which began with the 2014 takeover of the capital Sanaa by the Iranian-backed Houthis. A Saudi-led coalition supported by the U.S. and allied with the government has been fighting the rebels since March 2015.
Yemen: “I see shocking reports of children increasingly getting drawn into the war effort and deprived of their future.”@OSE_Yemen Martin Griffiths briefed the Security Council on the dire situation in the country. https://t.co/ZlwHxGB0lx
— United Nations (@UN) March 17, 2021
President Joe Biden’s envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, last week urged the Houthis to agree to a cease-fire proposal.
Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council the Houthis’ weeks-long offensive on the oil-rich central province of Marib, the government’s last stronghold in Yemen’s northern half, has put an estimated one million already displaced civilians at risk. Fighting forces on both sides have suffered “heavy losses,” he said.
Missile and drone strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into Saudi Arabia targeting civilian and commercial infrastructure “have also increased significantly in recent weeks,” Griffiths said. And retaliatory airstrikes on Sanaa city are “endangering civilians there as well.”
Griffiths said other fronts have also opened, with government forces earlier this month launching an offensive against rebel positions in western Hajjah province, and fighting in the government-held southern province of Taiz.
The result has been “a dramatic deterioration” in the conflict, he said.
In addition to the suffering of Yemenis, Griffiths called for an independent investigation into the cause of last week’s fire at a Houthi detention center in Sanaa holding predominantly Ethiopian migrants that killed dozens and seriously injured over 170.
On the humanitarian front, Yemen, which imports most of its food and other commodities, remains the world’s worst crisis.
Both Griffiths and Lowcock urged the entry of fuel ships to Hodeida, warning that the blockade since January has increased prices of food and other goods and put hospitals and other services, including water which needs fuel for its pumps, at risk.
“Right now, 13 fuel ships are waiting outside Hodeida, carrying two months of imports,” Lowcock said, explaining that the government isn’t clearing them because of a dispute with the Houthis over revenue from the fees and taxes on the oil ships.
Despite the recent escalation in fighting in Marib and elsewhere, Lowcock told the Security Council that “the renewed U.S. commitment to a diplomatic solution has opened a window for anyone who is serious about ending the war.”
He again warned that “Yemen is speeding towards a massive famine” and said “that opportunity will be wasted if Yemen tips into famine.”
“So, I again call on everyone to do everything you can ― including money for the aid operation ― to stop the famine,” the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
ESSA AHMED via Getty Images
Meshaal Mohammad, 4, weighs just 20 pounds due to acute malnutrition. He is currently staying at a camp for the internally displaced in Yemen’s northern Hajjah province.
A U.N. pledging conference on March 1 raised a disappointing $1.7 billion, less than half of what aid agencies need this year, which means “we don’t have enough money to stop famine,” Lowcock said.
Last week, U.N. World Food Program chief David Beasley, who had just returned from Yemen, told the council it was “hell on earth in many places” and warned that “we are heading straight toward the biggest famine in modern history.”
“Over 16 million people now face crisis levels of hunger or worse,” Beasley said.
Griffiths said with famine now arriving, “a nationwide cease-fire, along with opening Sanaa airport and ensuring the unhindered flow of fuel and other commodities into Yemen through Hodeida ports, are urgent humanitarian imperatives.”
The U.N. envoy said the U.S. engagement “gives us all more energy and a great deal of hope.”
But Griffiths expressed alarm that “the mere fact of meeting across the table to discuss the contours of ending the war is being framed as a concession rather than an obligation.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration is stepping up diplomacy to reach a cease-fire and negotiate an end to the conflict, “but there can be no cease-fire and no peace in Yemen if the Houthis continue their daily attacks against the Yemeni people, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the region.”
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Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost’s next chapter
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UN Envoy Paints Grim Picture Of Political, Economic And Humanitarian Crisis In Yemen
New Post has been published on https://socialpress2.newonline.help/2021/03/17/un-envoy-paints-grim-picture-of-political-economic-and-humanitarian-crisis-in-yemen/
UN Envoy Paints Grim Picture Of Political, Economic And Humanitarian Crisis In Yemen
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations warned Tuesday that an offensive by Houthi rebels in Yemen has escalated the nearly six-year conflict in the Arab world’s poorest nation as it “speeds towards a massive famine.”
U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths and U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock painted a grim picture of the political, economic and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which is exacerbated by a government blockade of fuel ships entering the country’s main port of Hodeida controlled by the Houthis.
The intensified fighting has come amid an international and regional diplomatic push to end the conflict which began with the 2014 takeover of the capital Sanaa by the Iranian-backed Houthis. A Saudi-led coalition supported by the U.S. and allied with the government has been fighting the rebels since March 2015.
Yemen: “I see shocking reports of children increasingly getting drawn into the war effort and deprived of their future.”@OSE_Yemen Martin Griffiths briefed the Security Council on the dire situation in the country. https://t.co/ZlwHxGB0lx
— United Nations (@UN) March 17, 2021
President Joe Biden’s envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, last week urged the Houthis to agree to a cease-fire proposal.
Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council the Houthis’ weeks-long offensive on the oil-rich central province of Marib, the government’s last stronghold in Yemen’s northern half, has put an estimated one million already displaced civilians at risk. Fighting forces on both sides have suffered “heavy losses,” he said.
Missile and drone strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into Saudi Arabia targeting civilian and commercial infrastructure “have also increased significantly in recent weeks,” Griffiths said. And retaliatory airstrikes on Sanaa city are “endangering civilians there as well.”
Griffiths said other fronts have also opened, with government forces earlier this month launching an offensive against rebel positions in western Hajjah province, and fighting in the government-held southern province of Taiz.
The result has been “a dramatic deterioration” in the conflict, he said.
In addition to the suffering of Yemenis, Griffiths called for an independent investigation into the cause of last week’s fire at a Houthi detention center in Sanaa holding predominantly Ethiopian migrants that killed dozens and seriously injured over 170.
On the humanitarian front, Yemen, which imports most of its food and other commodities, remains the world’s worst crisis.
Both Griffiths and Lowcock urged the entry of fuel ships to Hodeida, warning that the blockade since January has increased prices of food and other goods and put hospitals and other services, including water which needs fuel for its pumps, at risk.
“Right now, 13 fuel ships are waiting outside Hodeida, carrying two months of imports,” Lowcock said, explaining that the government isn’t clearing them because of a dispute with the Houthis over revenue from the fees and taxes on the oil ships.
Despite the recent escalation in fighting in Marib and elsewhere, Lowcock told the Security Council that “the renewed U.S. commitment to a diplomatic solution has opened a window for anyone who is serious about ending the war.”
He again warned that “Yemen is speeding towards a massive famine” and said “that opportunity will be wasted if Yemen tips into famine.”
“So, I again call on everyone to do everything you can ― including money for the aid operation ― to stop the famine,” the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
ESSA AHMED via Getty Images
Meshaal Mohammad, 4, weighs just 20 pounds due to acute malnutrition. He is currently staying at a camp for the internally displaced in Yemen’s northern Hajjah province.
A U.N. pledging conference on March 1 raised a disappointing $1.7 billion, less than half of what aid agencies need this year, which means “we don’t have enough money to stop famine,” Lowcock said.
Last week, U.N. World Food Program chief David Beasley, who had just returned from Yemen, told the council it was “hell on earth in many places” and warned that “we are heading straight toward the biggest famine in modern history.”
“Over 16 million people now face crisis levels of hunger or worse,” Beasley said.
Griffiths said with famine now arriving, “a nationwide cease-fire, along with opening Sanaa airport and ensuring the unhindered flow of fuel and other commodities into Yemen through Hodeida ports, are urgent humanitarian imperatives.”
The U.N. envoy said the U.S. engagement “gives us all more energy and a great deal of hope.”
But Griffiths expressed alarm that “the mere fact of meeting across the table to discuss the contours of ending the war is being framed as a concession rather than an obligation.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration is stepping up diplomacy to reach a cease-fire and negotiate an end to the conflict, “but there can be no cease-fire and no peace in Yemen if the Houthis continue their daily attacks against the Yemeni people, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the region.”
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Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost’s next chapter
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TEHRAN, Iran | High-stakes diplomacy as battle for Syria's Idlib looms
New Post has been published on https://is.gd/hI0Tna
TEHRAN, Iran | High-stakes diplomacy as battle for Syria's Idlib looms
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran and Russia on Friday backed a military campaign to retake the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria as Turkey pleaded for a cease-fire, narrowing the chances of a diplomatic solution to avoid what many say would be a bloody humanitarian disaster.
The trilateral summit in Tehran involving Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan puts further pressure on the rebel forces still operating in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, including about 10,000 hard-core jihadists and al-Qaida-linked fighters.
It left the chance, however slim, for further diplomacy to try to separate civilians and rebels from the Islamic militants in Idlib. While Putin called for the “total annihilation of terrorists in Syria,” he left open the possibility of a cease-fire. Rouhani as well spoke of “cleansing the Idlib region of terrorists,” while also noting the need of protecting civilians.
Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a military offensive will touch off a flood of refugees and destabilize areas it now holds in Syria. Ankara also has hundreds of troops manning 12 observation posts in Idlib.
“Idlib isn’t just important for Syria’s future; it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region,” Erdogan said.
“Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience. . We don’t want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath.”
Erdogan also sought to use Persian literature to drive home his point in Tehran, quoting the poet Saadi: “If you’ve no sympathy for human pain, the name of a human you cannot retain.”
The U.S. also warned against an assault in Idlib, with Ambassador Nikki Haley telling the U.N. Security Council that “the consequences will be dire.”
Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people — nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria.
For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syria’s civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad.
A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russia’s longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syria’s postwar reconstruction. Russia also wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. and its long uncertainty over what it wants in the conflict.
“We think it’s unacceptable when (someone) is trying to shield the terrorists under the pretext of protecting civilians as well as causing damage to Syrian government troops,” Putin said. “As far as we can see, this is also the goal of the attempts to stage chemical weapons incidents by Syrian authorities. We have irrefutable evidence that militants are preparing such operations, such provocations.”
Putin offered no evidence to back his claim. The U.N. and Western countries have blamed Assad’s forces for chemical weapons attacks in the civil war, something denied by Russia and Syria. The U.S., Britain and France have vowed to take action against any further chemical attacks by Assad’s regime.
Reacting to Erdogan’s proposal for a cease-fire in Idlib, Putin said “a cease-fire would be good” but indicated that Moscow does not think it will hold.
“We hope that we will be able to reach an agreement and that our call for reconciliation in the Idlib area will be heard,” the Russian president said. “We hope that the representatives of those terrorist organizations will be smart enough to stop the resistance and lay down arms.”
There was no immediate reaction from fighters in Idlib. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said before the summit that his forces were prepared for a battle that they expect will lead to a major humanitarian crisis. “Idlib is about a lot of international power play and everyone is looking after their interests,” al-Mustafa said.
Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, told the Security Council that the government is determined to regain Syrian territory and “liberate it from terrorism and foreign occupation.” He said countries that facilitated the entry of foreign fighters, especially Turkey, “still have a chance to remove them from Idlib province.”
Staffan De Mistura, the U.N. envoy for Syria, told the council that “the signals” from the Tehran meeting are that they intend to continue talking to avoid a potential catastrophe in Idlib. Ideally, he said, all fighters should be given a deadline to move out of populated areas and all air and ground attacks on population centers should be halted, with Russia and Turkey especially but also Iran standing as guarantors of the plan.
De Mistura said a military offensive in Idlib would be incompatible with U.N. efforts to form a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution. It would be a failure of diplomacy “if with these efforts we simply saw an increase of military activities,” he said.
Early Friday, a series of airstrikes hit villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing five people, including a civilian, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack.
Faysal al-Antar, a member of the local council in Kfar Zita, one of the towns on the southern edge of Idlib that was hit in the airstrikes, said warplanes were flying as the leaders convened Friday in Tehran.
“The meetings never translate on the ground,” he said. “Imagine there is a meeting to calm the situation, while we are being hit, and there are airstrikes as it takes place. If they had the slightest respect, they would have at least halted the strikes for the duration of the meeting.”
Already, nearly a half-million people have been killed in the grinding civil war, which began first as a popular uprising against Assad and later devolved into a sectarian and regional conflict.
Eight aid agencies warned that in the coming offensive “it will be the most vulnerable who will pay the heaviest price, with women, children, and the elderly in Idlib unlikely to be able to move to safety.”
But Hassan Hassan, a Syria expert and a fellow at the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said he is doubtful an offensive is imminent, pointing to Turkey getting U.S. backing in opposing a major offensive.
“The regime might conduct a face-saving attack on areas away from Turkey’s zones of operation, a low-hanging fruit,” he said. “I say this because the US is making it clear it is not bluffing this time, and Turkey is similarly against the offensive.”
In her remarks at the U.N. Security Council, Haley said the U.S. has been clear with Russia and other nations that “we consider any assault on Idlib to be a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Syria.” “If Assad, Russia and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire,” she said.
“We urge Russia to consider its options carefully. Stop Assad’s assault on Idlib. Work with us and the U.N. to find peace at last for Syria,” she said.
The U.S. has found itself largely on the sidelines of the possible offensive as Iran, Russia and Turkey — all nations that Washington has imposed sanctions upon — discuss Idlib’s future. Although the U.S. has about 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, President Donald Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State group dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq.
By JON GAMBRELL and NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press
US focus mainly on diplomatic solution
US focus mainly on diplomatic solution
US focus mainly on diplomatic solution
The United States has reminded the parties the availability of ‘sanctions tools’ to be used against Myanmar for its security forces’ atrocities against Rohingyas, but placed greater emphasis on a diplomatic solution rather than through other means.
Bangladesh, in the meantime, has described the US as one of the strongest supporters with regard to the…
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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OubB2A8Y1-I) Vice President Biden is hoping to find a diplomatic solution to a dispute over airspace involving China and Japan. Get the details in Today 's program, and find out what led to political protests in Ukraine. We also report on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales results, and we explain why the online shopping experience could see a major shift. Plus, we hear how football fans caused a seismic event.