Tag Archives: cricket
UAE nationals closer to visa-free EU travel
UAE nationals closer to visa-free EU travel (Wam) / 6 September 2013 The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on Thursday adopted a report recommending that visa requirements for UAE nationals to enter the EU be lifted. Mariya Gabriel, the rapporteur of the report, told a meeting of the committee on Thursday that the UAE is interested in strengthening ties with Europe. “There is no risk of illegal immigration. Trips made by the UAE nationals to Europe are mainly for business, tourism, studies or health care,” Gabriel said emphasising that the UAE will comply with total reciprocity regarding the visa waiving. This would make the UAE the first Arab country whose nationals will enjoy visa-free travel to the EU. An official from the EU Commission told the meeting that the EU’s executive body is in favour of lifting the visa for UAE citizens. Continue reading
EU divided entering days of Syria talks
EU divided entering days of Syria talks (AP) / 6 September 2013 European Union nations enter high-octane talks on Syria as divided as ever, split between moral outrage over the use of chemical weapons and the obligations of slow and burdensome UN diplomacy. France, like the United States, is preparing possible armed action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. Britain has been surprisingly hamstrung by its parliament. And Germany says it will not take part in an attack and would limit itself to a backseat role at most. While EU leaders are in St. Petersburg with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama during the G-20 summit ending Friday, the EU’s foreign and defence ministers are meeting in nearby Lithuania through Saturday, seeking to broker a common stance that statements on Thursday indicated would prove elusive. Speaking in Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “I do not believe yet that we will reach a joint position.” And while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton cautiously said in Vilnius that she had been “of course, carefully talking with our colleagues and allies,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy — speaking in St Petersburg — bluntly insisted upon UN cooperation, upsetting the French and widening divisions further. Rebuffing French urgency, Van Rompuy told reporters that EU nations had to underscore “the need to move forward with addressing the Syrian crisis through the UN process.” That involves further delays as UN inspectors prepare a report on the August 21 chemical attack and the diplomatic quagmire at the Security Council, where Russia and China have veto power over military action. By invoking UN approval, Van Rompuy appeared to be isolating France, the lone EU member actively looking at military intervention. French President Francois Hollande came to the G-20 summit in hopes of rallying other European countries to support military action, if not with warplanes then at least with logistical or other symbolic help. Van Rompuy’s comments echoed those of Merkel — and upset the summit’s French contingent. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held bilateral meetings with several EU counterparts in Vilnius on Thursday, aiming to make them fully aware of the “unacceptable nature” of the chemical weapons attack, an official in his office said. He was pushing for tough language against Syria in a statement expected from Ashton on the crisis in coming days. On Saturday, US Secretary John Kerry will be coming to Vilnius to confer with his EU counterparts for a tougher stance against Assad. The US said it has proof that the Assad regime is behind attacks that Washington claims killed at least 1,429 people, including more than 400 children. Obama, however, finds himself slowed on taking action as he seeks congressional authorisation for the use of force in a vote expected after Congress returns to work September 9. British Prime Minister David Cameron stunningly lost such a parliamentary vote on military action last week, strongly reducing any chance of a US-British alliance such as the one that dominated the Iraq war a decade ago. Now, Cameron is on the defensive as he faces world leaders in St. Petersburg. In the face of such problems, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged “the international community to overcome its divisions.” “Not to act would send a dangerous signal to dictators all over the world that they can use chemical and maybe other weapons of mass destruction without any reaction from the international community,” Rasmussen said. Continue reading
US says Russia holding UN Council ‘hostage’ on Syria
US says Russia holding UN Council ‘hostage’ on Syria (AFP) / 6 September 2013 The United States on Thursday accused Russia of holding the UN Security Council “hostage” over the Syria chemical weapons crisis. With the White House pushing Congress to approve military strikes on Syria, US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said she could see no way to seek Security Council approval for action against President Bashar Al Assad because of Russia’s blocking. Amid mounting tensions between Washington and Moscow, Power said Russia’s protection of Assad has put the whole Security Council system of handling international crises under strain. “Even in the wake of the flagrant shattering of the international norm against chemical weapons use, Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirk its international responsibilities,” Power told reporters as Russia hosted US President Barack Obama at the Group of 20 summit. Power, who took over as US envoy to the United Nations one month ago, said the UN Security Council system, in which the five permanent members — Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain — can veto any resolution, had failed the Syrian people. “Instead the system has protected the prerogatives of Russia — the patron of a regime that has brazenly staged the world’s largest chemical weapons attack in a quarter century,” Power said. The envoy spoke after US officials briefed other UN members on evidence that Assad’s forces carried out an attack using banned poison sarin gas near Damascus on August 21. She said the evidence “overwhelmingly” points to an attack by Assad forces. The United States says more than 1,400 people died in the attack, which the Assad government, supported by Russia, has blamed on Syrian rebels. Since an uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, Russia and China have vetoed three western-proposed resolutions that would have aimed to increase pressure on Assad, without imposing sanctions. The Russian president said this week he would be ready to consider Security Council action if he could be convinced that Assad forces staged the August 21 attack. Power said she did not believe Putin would budge however. “We have seen nothing in President Putin’s comments that suggest that there is an available path forward at the Security Council,” the US envoy said. The Obama administration is seeking approval from lawmakers for military strikes, which could be joined by France. Power’s comments reinforced Obama’s stance that he was ready to order strikes without UN approval. And she stressed US exasperation at the repeated blocking of Security Council resolutions and statements. The resolutions had been proposed hoping that “our common security and our common humanity might prevail,” she said. “Unfortunately, for the past two and half years the system devised in 1945 precisely to deal with threats of this nature did not work as it was supposed to. It has not protected peace and security for the hundreds of Syrian children who were gassed to death on August 21. It is not protecting the stability of the region.” She added: “To stand back would be to endanger not only international peace and security, not only US national security, but, we also believe, the very international system that we have been working these decades to build.” Continue reading
