Category: Foreign Affairs

The European Parliament urged the European Union on Thursday to place Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on its terrorist list, according to the website of the Strasbourg-based legislative body.

In a nonbinding resolution, EU parliamentarians managed to get a large majority to urge the EU’s 27 member states to take such a punitive move.

The resolution said the Iranian regime’s blatant disregard for human dignity and the democratic aspirations of its own citizens as well as its support to Russia “necessitate further adjustments in the EU’s position towards Iran.”

“All those responsible for human rights violations should face EU sanctions, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should be on the EU terrorist list,” the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) urged.

They also called on the EU and its member states to add the IRGC’s subsidiary forces, including the paramilitary Basij militia and the Quds Force, to the EU terrorist list.

Any country in which the IRGC deploys military, economic or informational operations should sever and outlaw ties with this organization, the resolution said.

The MEPs also urged the EU to expand its sanctions list to cover all individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations and their family members, including Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri and all foundations linked to the IRCG.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament condemned “in the strongest terms the death sentences against and executions of peaceful protesters in Iran and called on the Iranian authorities to end the crackdown on their own citizens.”

The MEPs urged the authorities of the Iranian regime “to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all protesters sentenced to death.”

They also “condemn the fact that criminal proceedings and the death penalty have been weaponized by the regime to stamp out dissent and to punish people for exercising their basic rights.”

“Those responsible for the killing of hundreds of protesters must be brought to justice,” they added.

The resolution also called for “the expansion of restrictive measures” against Iran as it continues to provide unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and plans to provide surface-to-surface missiles to Russia.

Finally, the MEPs expressed “deep concern over the structural transnational repression carried out by the authorities of the Islamic Republic, which includes espionage and assassinations, against the Iranian diaspora living in the EU.”

They called on the EU and the member states “to protect those affected more robustly against such repression.”

The European Parliament’s resolution comes ahead of Monday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers, where additional sanctions against Tehran are expected to be adopted.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet with his US counterpart Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. on Feb.10.

Lula met in early December with White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, where he received an invitation to meet with Biden.

According to the G1 news outlet, Lula’s invitation to the US was reinforced in a phone call between his Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Lula’s first official trip abroad since assuming office on Jan 1. will take place next week, when he heads to Argentina on Jan. 24, where the former union leader will meet with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez.

In Argentina, Lula will participate in the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and also visit Uruguay.

In the near future, Lula is also expected to head to China and Portugal, although no dates have been confirmed according to G1.

Lula has previously highlighted the need to strengthen Brazil’s position internationally following what analysts have described as former President Jair Bolsonaro’s isolationist policies regarding the South American nation’s foreign policy.

Last month, Vieira touched on Brazil’s foreign policy, underscoring that Lula is keen to “rebuild bridges” with “traditional partners” including the US, China and the European Union and resume cooperation with Africa.

China and the US are two of Brazil’s biggest trade partners.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday urged the US and UK to close the extradition process against Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange, saying “enough is enough.”

During an interview with ABC Radio, the Australian premier said his country’s position on Assange is very clear, which he has communicated to the US and UK.

“I agree that enough is enough. It’s time this issue was brought to a close,” Albanese said, according to a transcript posted on his office’s official website.

“And I’ve made that very clear to the US administration and to the UK Government as well, that my view hasn’t changed from the view I had when I was Opposition Leader, which is that it’s time that this was brought to a close,” he added.

Albanese said his government is dealing with the matter diplomatically and that Canberra has made its position clear to its friends.

Assange, an Australian citizen, is being held in the UK, where authorities authorized his extradition to the US last year, where he is wanted for his alleged role in espionage and the dissemination of classified US military information.

The US Justice Department labeled Assange’s actions as part of the “largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.”

In November of last year, major global media outlets joined forces to call on the US to drop charges against the founder of Wikileaks and to halt his prosecution in order to protect journalism.

* Writing by Islamuddin Sajid

Source: Anadolu Agency

The governor of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday dissolved the provincial assembly, the state-run Pakistan Television reported.

Governor Ghulam Ali, who represents the federal government, approved the dissolution of the 124-member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had sent a summary, seeking the dissolution of the provincial assembly on Tuesday, a move that could force early general elections in the country.

The governor advised the chief minister to continue working on his position until the formation of an interim government, which would hold fresh elections in the province within the next 90 days as per the country’s Constitution.

This was the second provincial assembly dissolved in a week, following the 397-member Punjab Assembly, which was too governed by the PTI and its coalition partner, Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam).

Khan, who was ousted as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in April last year, announced last month that he would dissolve two of the country’s four provincial assemblies in a bid to force early elections, which are scheduled for late this year.

He has been campaigning for snap polls since his removal, heightening political uncertainty in the South Asian nation, which is already grappling with dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

Historically, polls for the federal and provincial assemblies are held at the same time every five years.

However, given the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, there is a high likelihood that separate elections will be held in the two provinces within 90 days unless the federal government calls a general election.

In a related development, Raja Pervez Ashraf, the speaker of the lower house, accepted the resignations of another 34 PTI lawmakers on Tuesday.

Over 120 PTI National Assembly members resigned en masse in April last year, following a successful no-trust motion against their leader and then-Premier Khan, demanding snap elections.

However, the speaker refused to accept the resignations until he was “satisfied” that they had been tendered without “duress.”

The speaker’s move came just days after Khan hinted at returning to parliament to prevent the ruling coalition and its “friendly” opposition from unilaterally installing an interim federal government, as required by the Constitution three months before general elections, which are scheduled for October this year.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Libya’s Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh said the country’s stalled elections will be held before November after an agreement between the rival legislative chambers.

On Jan. 5, Saleh met in Egypt with Khaled al-Mishri, chairman of the Tripoli-based High Council of State (HCS), which acts as a senate, where they agreed to announce a roadmap for holding the polls.

Speaking to Al-Qahera News late Monday, Saleh said he was looking forward to holding the Libyan elections.

“Laws regulating the electoral process are currently being agreed upon,” he added. “The Libyans need an executive authority, and the interests of the Libyans must be placed above all else.”

Saleh added that the Libyan elections will be held before November after an agreement between the parliament and HCS.

Oil-rich Libya has remained in turmoil since 2011 when longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi was ousted after four decades in power.

The situation has worsened since last year when the Libyan parliament appointed a new government led by former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, but the head of the Tripoli-based government, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, said he will cede authority only to a government that comes through an “elected parliament,” raising fears that Libya could slip back into a civil war.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Türkiye and Italy have been coordinating in many areas including migration, organized crime and terrorism, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Monday.

“Apart from the fight against migrant smuggling and migration flow, there is a close cooperation and relationship between Italy and Türkiye in the fight against organized crime, cross-border crimes and drugs, and the fight against terrorism,” Soylu told a news conference with his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi in the capital Ankara.

Soylu said the security teams of Türkiye and Italy are in such contact with each other that they have the ability and capacity to intervene immediately in case of criminal activity.

During Piantedosi’s visit, a memorandum of understanding was signed on the temporary assignment of experts from the Turkish general directorate of security to Italy.

Stressing that the ministries endeavor to fortify and strengthen friendly bilateral relations, Soylu said: “We continue our fight against illegal immigration with a common mechanism with Italy. In 2022, we all put forth a very strong effort in this regard.”

Piantedosi, for his part, said Türkiye and Italy are two countries facing onto the same sea and have a lot in common in many ways.

Upon the arrest of Italy’s most-wanted mafia boss Messina Denaro, Piantedosi said: “Today has been a very important day for us, but also in our own country … I received the news of the arrest of a fugitive, a leading name of a very important criminal organization, who had been hiding for many years.”

Denaro, 60, was detained in a private clinic in the Sicilian city of Palermo early Monday.

Considered one of the most powerful bosses of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia, he had been sentenced in absentia to a life term for several murders, including his role in the 1992 killings of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Washington is in favor of focusing on a German-French proposal to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo, US State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said Thursday.

Chollet is on a mini Balkan tour where he met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.

Chollet said the US is in favor of the proposal that is thought to be a way of speeding up Serbia’s EU membership process in exchange for its recognition of Kosovo.

”The United States advocates for putting in focus the agenda according to which the parties in the dialogue should focus on talks about the so-called Franco-German proposal for solving the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the rapid formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities,” he said in a statement.

Vucic said he expects Washington to use its leverage to influence Pristina to meet its obligations.

”In a meaningful and open conversation, I expressed expectations that the USA recognize Serbia’s contribution to regional peace and stability and use its leverage to encourage Pristina to uphold its end of the bargain and honor the agreements it accepted and signed,” he said.

Chollet also met Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and representatives of the Serbian List party, one of the main parties in Kosovo as part of his tour.

He will support a comprehensive agreement that needs to be reached on normalizing relations, according to media reports.

Kosovo-Serbia negotiations

Vucic said in October that Germany and France offered to expedite Serbia’s European Union membership process if it recognized Kosovo’s independence.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, with most UN member states including the US, UK, France, Germany and Türkiye recognizing it as a separate autonomous country from its neighbor. But Belgrade continues to regard it as its territory.

Brussels has facilitated Serbia-Kosovo dialogue, which is designed to ease tensions and resolve issues, one of the requirements for full-fledged EU membership.

Source: Anadolu Agency

France’s prime minister on Thursday called on the country’s labor unions to “not penalize” the French people and to consider the daily lives of citizens while protesting the pension reform.

The draft bill, which includes an increase to the retirement age from 62 to 64 in 2030, immediately triggered a wave of outrage from workers and unions when the government announced its preparation last year.

Several unions in France called for demonstrations and strikes after Elisabeth Borne on Tuesday revealed the details of the pension reform.

Borne called on the unions to “not penalize” the French while protesting the reform, and added: “This is a call to responsibility for the unions.”

She said she recognizes the right to strike, but asked to “take into consideration the daily life of our citizens.”

“We are in a complicated period, with a particular worry about the inflation,” Borne said. “Let us find modes of action that will not penalize our citizens.”

The country’s eight main labor unions issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for a nationwide strike and demonstrations on Jan. 19.

The oil branch of the General Confederation of Labor on Wednesday announced the industrial actions, including walkouts for Jan. 19, Jan. 26, and Feb. 6, with a possible extension and halt to refinery work, according to a statement by the union.

The draft reform is set to be presented to the Council of Ministers on Jan. 23.

Starting from 2027, the change will also require at least 43 years of work to be eligible for full pensions, Borne noted in her statement.

She said the minimum pension would also rise by 85% of the minimum wage, meaning around €1,200 ($1,288) per month.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russian President Vladimir Putin asked lawmakers on Monday to end Russia’s membership in a European anti-corruption convention.

In response to a move by the members of the Council of Europe severely curb Moscow’s involvement in the Group of States against Corruption, Putin introduced a motion in the State Duma to take Russia out of the international body, which monitors the convention’s implementation, the president said in the bill’s explanatory note.

Russia signed the convention in the city of Strasbourg on Jan. 27, 1999.

Commenting on the move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s withdrawal from the convention may cause problems on the mutual extradition of individuals accused of corruption.

However, he denied that the move would affect Russia’s internal anti-corruption legislation and its own efforts against graft.

The recent decision by the Council of Europe terminated Russia’s role in the Group of States against Corruption, except for Moscow’s obligations under the convention, including the extradition of people wanted on corruption charges.

Source: Anadolu Agency