You are here

  • Home
  • EU’s Borrell urges long-range weapons for Ukraine
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Russia-Ukraine Conflict

EU’s Borrell urges long-range weapons for Ukraine

EU’s Borrell urges long-range weapons for Ukraine
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell attend an informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Sweden on May 13, 2023. (Reuters)
Short Url

https://arab.news/zxdct

Updated 13 May 2023
AFP

EU’s Borrell urges long-range weapons for Ukraine

EU’s Borrell urges long-range weapons for Ukraine
  • "The Russians are bombing from far away so the Ukrainians have to have the capacity to reach... the same distance, the same range," Borrell said
  • Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has been urging Western allies to provide more advanced weapons
Updated 13 May 2023
AFP

STOCKHOLM: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Saturday for European nations to provide long-range weapons for Ukraine to help it counter Russian strikes, while accelerating arms deliveries overall.
“The Russians are bombing from far away so the Ukrainians have to have the capacity to reach... the same distance, the same range,” Borrell said after a meeting with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Stockholm.
“But we have to speed up,” he said, as Germany announced a new weapons package for Ukraine worth 2.7 billion euros ($2.95 billion), including tanks, armored vehicles and air-defense systems.
“I welcome the German effort and invite all member states to follow this example,” Borrell said.
On Thursday, Britain said it would send its Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, becoming the first country to provide longer-range weapons to Kyiv.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has been urging Western allies to provide more advanced weapons ahead of a widely expected counter-offensive against Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.
“Instead of asking when will the counteroffensive begin, ask, have I done enough for the Ukrainian counter-offensive to begin and be successful?” Kuleba said at the press conference with Borrell.
“The main topics of my conversation with EU foreign ministers today will be a long-range artillery ammunition and short-range accession talks” to join the EU, Kuleba said.
Zelensky is seeking to accelerate the process for formal talks on EU membership for Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion, launched in February 2022.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict EU Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell Weapons

Related

Russia says Ukraine used Storm Shadow missiles from Britain to attack Luhansk
World
Russia says Ukraine used Storm Shadow missiles from Britain to attack Luhansk
Germany announces $3 billion military aid package for Ukraine before possible Zelensky visit
World
Germany announces $3 billion military aid package for Ukraine before possible Zelensky visit

Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp

Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp
Updated 14 sec ago
Arab News

Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp

Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp
  • Around 40 Australians, including 10 women, 30 children, remain detained inside the Roj camp in north-east Syria
Updated 14 sec ago
Arab News

LONDON: An Australian child stuck in a Syrian detention camp has written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, pleading to be brought home, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

The child, who is less than 10 years old, told Albanese “please don’t leave me behind,” after the government rescued a second group of Australians from the camps more than seven months ago and promised to repatriate others left behind. 

Around 40 Australians, including 10 women and 30 children, remain detained inside the Roj camp in north-east Syria, the Guardian reported. They are the wives, widows and children of dead or jailed Daesh fighters. Most have been in the camp for more than four years.

Some of the children born in the camp have never left. Many of the women claim their husbands coerced or manipulated them into traveling to Syria. 

“I am one of the children left behind in Roj camp and I have spent half my life in a tent closed off by gates like a prison. “I have never been to school, laid in grass or climbed a tree,” the child said to the prime minister. 

“When my friends left, I thought I was going to go to Australia too. I had so much hope and was looking forward to Australia saving me from this place. But it’s been seven months, we are still here.”

A UN expert panel has repeatedly expressed “deep concerns about the deteriorating security and humanitarian conditions of detention in Roj camp”. It has warned that boys separated from their families are at risk of being “forcibly disappeared, and subject to sale, exploitation, abuse (and) torture.”

In the message, the child said: “I am very sick. I took lots of needles. There is no hospital here to help us. I am always scared that the soldiers will walk into our tent and take me or my sisters or my mum.”

The child pleaded not to be left in Syria. “I just want to feel safe, live in a house and be a normal kid. Please, can you save me like you save the other Australian children that you took back. Please don’t leave me behind.”

Australia has carried out two repatriation operations from Syrian camps. 

In 2019, eight orphaned children including a pregnant teenager were returned to New South Wales. In October, four women and 13 children were also rescued from Roj.

That rescue mission was politically controversial, with Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton saying he had “grave concerns” that those repatriated posed a “significant risk … that can’t be mitigated”.

Mat Tinkler, chief executive of Save the Children Australia, said that the Roj camp was “one of the worst places in the world to be a child.”

“They have untreated shrapnel wounds from conflict, medical conditions that could be treated but they can’t access sufficient care, severe dental decay meaning they are malnourished, and psycho-social illnesses: these kids are in a really fragile state, and we hold grave concerns that some may not survive,” Tinkler said.

“These are innocent kids, these are Australian citizens, and they have an entitlement to return to their home country. If we don’t make the decision to bring them home to safety, inevitably a child will be injured or killed as a result.”
 

Topics: Australia Syrian camps

Related

Australian military bans alcohol after Afghan war crimes inquiry
World
Australian military bans alcohol after Afghan war crimes inquiry
Guardian uncovers documents at odds with evidence used to jail Australian engineer in Iraq
Middle-East
Guardian uncovers documents at odds with evidence used to jail Australian engineer in Iraq

Kerala to launch passenger ship service to Gulf as air fares soar

Kerala to launch passenger ship service to Gulf as air fares soar
Updated 11 min 44 sec ago

Kerala to launch passenger ship service to Gulf as air fares soar

Kerala to launch passenger ship service to Gulf as air fares soar
  • Kerala is the main source of Indian expatriates in the Middle East
  • Local government allocates $1.8m this year to solve workers’ travel problems
Updated 11 min 44 sec ago
Sanjay Kumar

NEW DELHI: India’s coastal state of Kerala is planning to launch a passenger ship service to provide affordable travel to Gulf states, local authorities said on Thursday, amid soaring costs of air travel.
Spread along the Malabar Coast of India, Kerala is the main place of origin of Indian expatriates in the Middle East, with about 3.5 million of them living and working in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Many of Kerala expats are laborers for whom the increasing cost of air travel has been a major burden, especially during festive seasons, such as the Hindu harvest festival Onam, the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Adha, and Christmas, when demand for flights soars.
P.T. Joy, private secretary of Kerala Ports Minister Ahammad Devarkovil, told Arab News the state government is developing an alternative, cheaper route through the Arabian Sea.
“This is a necessity because during the festival season the air fare is very high, and that prevents the blue-collar workers and poor workers from the Gulf countries from traveling to their homelands,” Joy said.
“The expatriates are in a situation where they have to set aside the lion’s share of their small earnings for travel.”
While the timeframe is still undecided, the initial plan and budget were agreed by the local government, the Malabar Development Council and the Kerala Maritime Board on Wednesday.
Initial funding will come from Kerala’s annual budget, where funds have already been earmarked to ease the travel burden facing expatriates.
“The Kerala government has already allocated 15 crore rupees ($1.8 million) for that,” Joy said.
“We are planning to fix the modalities, how to hire ships and other formalities and how to communicate these things to the communities living in the GCC countries.”
The Kerala Maritime Board predicts that the lower fare and larger luggage allowance will make the ship service popular.
“We are planning to charter some ships with 1,000 or 2,000 capacity. People will be able to carry 50 to 60 kg of weight in the ship as against 15 or 20 kg in flight. That may woo passengers,” N.S.S. Pillai, the board’s chairman, told Arab News.
Services will operate seasonally, with the peak period usually falling between August and the end of the year.
“We are trying to reach some logical plan. We cannot say any timeframe (yet),” Pillai said.
“Only during the festival seasons, we will use the ship services because in the off season flights are cheaper.”

Topics: India Kerala passenger ship service gulf states

Related

Japan to reopen to cruise ships after 2 1/2-year ban
Japan to reopen to cruise ships after 2 1/2-year ban
Red Sea cruise ships to set sail from Saudi Arabia on Aug.27
Saudi Arabia
Red Sea cruise ships to set sail from Saudi Arabia on Aug.27

Aid groups on alert as Rohingya food rations drop below humanitarian norm

Aid groups on alert as Rohingya food rations drop below humanitarian norm
Updated 31 min 10 sec ago

Aid groups on alert as Rohingya food rations drop below humanitarian norm

Aid groups on alert as Rohingya food rations drop below humanitarian norm
  • WFP has cut food assistance for Rohingya refugees to $8 per month
  • Aid groups in Bangladesh warn of looming crisis among the refugees and host community
Updated 31 min 10 sec ago
SHEHAB SUMON

DHAKA: Aid groups raised an alert on Thursday that rapidly decreasing humanitarian assistance threatens the lives of 1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh as the UN has further reduced their food rations.
Since the beginning of June, the UN World Food Program’s food aid for the Rohingya sheltering in Bangladesh has been cut to $8 per month. The WFP first reduced the rations in March, from $12 to $10, citing funding shortages.
Even before the first reduction, the rations provided to the Rohingya were already insufficient and posed health problems for the refugee population. UN special rapporteurs warned in February that the refugee population in Bangladesh was food insecure, with more than a third of children stunted and underweight.
Most of the refugees affected by the cuts are those who escaped deadly violence and persecution in neighboring Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017. They live in cramped camps of Cox’s Bazar district — the world’s largest refugee settlement — where they cannot be legally employed to earn their livelihood as Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
As the new food reduction came into force, NGO Platform Cox’s Bazar sounded an alarm that it will have severe impacts on the refugees and the host community.
“This reduction in ration will push the current food assistance provided to the Rohingyas…far below the recognized global humanitarian standard of 2,100 kcal, entailing a significant drop in refugees’ food intake,” the group, which includes BRAC, Plan International, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a call for action.
“Even before the first round of food ration cut in March 2023, with WFP’s food assistance, four in 10 families were not consuming enough food.”
The platform warned of looming tensions with the host community and multi-dimensional social conflict.
“Cuts in essential humanitarian assistance have severe impacts on the refugees and the host community, which lead potentially to criminal activities, such as theft and robbery, increased domestic violence, gender-based violence, and neglect toward persons with disabilities and older individuals in the community,” the group said.
Rezaul Karim, head of humanitarian operations of BRAC — the largest development organization based in Bangladesh and NGO Platform member — told Arab News that the impacts of the new food cut were expected to be seen already in the next few days.
“Due to this budget cut, a crisis will unfold in the families, resulting in uncertainties and frustration,” he said.
“It’s a matter of great concern…It may have negative impacts on the law-and-order situation since people tend to become restive in such poverty.”
Asif Munir, a renowned Bangladeshi expert on migration and refugees, also warned of a possible social and health crisis beyond Cox’s Bazar if Bangladesh, a developing country whose own citizens also often face malnutrition, is left to support the Rohingya alone.
“If the Rohingya suffer from malnutrition and lower immunity, it will have a broader impact on the society of Cox’s Bazar,” he said.
“To mitigate the fund crisis, Bangladesh may request assistance from its allies or friendly countries, including food support also. This aid may come through international aid agencies, apart from the initiatives of the WFP and UN.”
 

Topics: Bangladesh UN Rohingya refugees Aid groups

Related

Rohingya mothers fear hunger as UN further reduces food rations
World
Rohingya mothers fear hunger as UN further reduces food rations
India’s first female Rohingya graduate on mission to give voice to voiceless women
World
India’s first female Rohingya graduate on mission to give voice to voiceless women

Russia says it seeking third suspect over war blogger killing

Russia says it seeking third suspect over war blogger killing
Updated 01 June 2023
Reuters

Russia says it seeking third suspect over war blogger killing

Russia says it seeking third suspect over war blogger killing
  • Tatarsky, a native of eastern Ukraine's Donbas whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had been addressing an event in the cafe when the blast occurred
  • Roman Popkov, a Ukraine-based Russian journalist who was previously a leader of Russia's banned ultranationalist National Bolshevik Party, was wanted on terrorism charges
Updated 01 June 2023
Reuters

MOSCOW: Russian investigators said on Thursday they were seeking a third suspect over the April 2 killing of popular pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg.
In a statement posted on the Telegram messenger app, the Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said that Roman Popkov, a Ukraine-based Russian journalist who was previously a leader of Russia’s banned ultranationalist National Bolshevik Party, was wanted on terrorism and explosives charges.
Tatarsky, a native of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had been addressing an event in the cafe when the blast occurred. Russian officials later said a bomb had been hidden inside a statuette given to him as a gift during the event.
Russian officials have previously named Russian citizen Darya Trepova and Ukrainian national Yury Denisov as suspects in the killing.
Trepova, an anti-war and feminist activist, was arrested on April 3, while Denisov is believed to be still in Ukraine. Trepova is accused of giving Tatarsky the explosive statuete and has been charged with terrorist offenses.
Trepova’s husband told independent Russian media outlets he believed she had been framed and had not known the statuette she had been told to deliver contained explosives.
In its statement, the Investigative Committee said Popkov had exchanged messages with Trepova over social media and had given her “instructions regarding the preparation of the terrorist act.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Vladlen Tatarsky blogger St. Petersburg blast

Related

Russian woman loses appeal against detention over bomb that killed military blogger
World
Russian woman loses appeal against detention over bomb that killed military blogger
Hundreds turn out for funeral of Russian military blogger
World
Hundreds turn out for funeral of Russian military blogger

NATO presses Turkiye to drop objections to Sweden’s membership as summit looms

NATO presses Turkiye to drop objections to Sweden’s membership as summit looms
Updated 01 June 2023
AP

NATO presses Turkiye to drop objections to Sweden’s membership as summit looms

NATO presses Turkiye to drop objections to Sweden’s membership as summit looms
  • The military organization wants to bring Sweden into the fold in time for the summit in Lithuania next month
  • Turkiye’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient on terrorist organizations and security threats, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt
Updated 01 June 2023
AP

OSLO: NATO on Thursday ramped up pressure on its member Turkiye to drop its objections to Sweden’s membership as the military organization seeks to deal with the issue by the time US President Joe Biden and his counterparts meet next month.
Fearing that they might be targeted after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional positions of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO’s security umbrella. Finland became NATO’s 31st member country in April.
NATO must agree unanimously for countries to join. Turkiye’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient on terrorist organizations and security threats, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.
Hungary has also delayed its approval, but the reasons why have not been made publicly clear.
“It’s time for Sweden to join now,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt told reporters in Oslo, where she was hosting a meeting with her counterparts to prepare for NATO’s July 11-12 summit in Lithuania.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that he would travel to Ankara “in the near future to continue to address how we can ensure the fastest possible accession of Sweden.” He was unable to provide a precise date for his trip.
“I’m confident that also Hungary will ratify the accession protocol,” Stoltenberg said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that “it is essential that we can finally welcome Sweden as the 32nd member.” She stressed that the Swedish government has Berlin’s “full support.”
Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, said that “it is time for Turkiye and Hungary to start the ratification of the Swedish membership to NATO.” He said that “everything (that) bars Sweden joining NATO will be seen as wine for (Russian president Vladimir) Putin.”
For months Sweden, Finland and Turkiye have been holding talks to try to address Ankara’s concerns. Billström said that he expects things to be made clear at a new meeting of this “permanent joint mechanism” in coming weeks.
He noted that as of Thursday Sweden had tightened its antiterrorism laws. It is now it illegal to finance, recruit for or publicly encourage “a terrorist organization,” or to travel abroad with the intention of joining such groups.
The time may be ripe for movement. Sweden’s membership became embroiled in campaigning for elections in Turkiye, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won on Sunday. Erdogan has also been seeking upgraded US fighter jets, and Washington signaled this week that they might be delivered.
“I spoke to Erdogan and he still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden. So let’s get that done,” Biden said Monday.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the issues of Sweden’s membership and the fighter jets were distinct. However, he stressed that the completion of both would dramatically strengthen European security.
“Both of these are vital, in our judgment, to European security,” Blinken told reporters. “We believe that both should go forward as quickly as possible; that is to say Sweden’s accession and moving forward on the F-16 package more broadly.”

Topics: Turkiye Sweden NATO

Related

NATO’s Stoltenberg: Russia cannot veto Ukraine’s accession in military alliance
World
NATO’s Stoltenberg: Russia cannot veto Ukraine’s accession in military alliance
Turkiye’s Erdogan faces struggle to meet Syrian refugee promise
Middle-East
Turkiye’s Erdogan faces struggle to meet Syrian refugee promise

Latest updates

EV maker Lucid Group plans to raise $3bn, mainly from Saudi PIF 
EV maker Lucid Group plans to raise $3bn, mainly from Saudi PIF 
Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp
Australian child pleads with PM to be rescued from Syrian camp
LBCI campaign champions Lebanese basketball teams at FIBA Cup 
LBCI campaign champions Lebanese basketball teams at FIBA Cup 
Childhood photos of Rajwa Al-Saif revealed ahead of her wedding to the Jordanian Crown Prince
Childhood photos of Rajwa Al-Saif revealed ahead of her wedding to the Jordanian Crown Prince
Kerala to launch passenger ship service to Gulf as air fares soar
Kerala to launch passenger ship service to Gulf as air fares soar

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2023 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.