theguardianuk--2019-01-16--Hundreds of UK care workers threaten walkout over wage cuts

More than 600 low-paid care workers are this week voting on strike action in response to moves by employers to start imposing wage cuts in the row over minimum rates for sleep-in shifts caused by protracted legal wrangling and indecision in government.  Unison members at Alternative Futures Group, a charity which employs 2,500 care staff, mainly in the north-west, are threatening an initial 48-hour walkout.  Some employers who had begun to pay the full national minimum wage for hours spent asleep by care workers – in response to tribunal rulings and official guidance – are going back to paying a lower flat rate following a contrary judgement in the court of appeal. Workers could be out of pocket by as much as £40 a night.  Some local councils that commission care providers are also moving to cut their contract prices in line with lower rates.  AFG says it has spent more than £8m extra over four years in paying the minimum and can no longer afford to do so. “Now that the law has changed, we must now act to prevent further losses to the charity,” it said in a statement.  Unison says it has already forced the charity to improve a planned £40 flat shift rate to £60 in February and £55 in March, with a review to follow, although £55 would still represent a £15 pay cut.  Gavin Edwards, national officer at the Unison union, warned: “Local authorities and organisations providing care who are seeking to cut the wages of already low-paid care staff are behaving irresponsibly and storing up serious issues for the future.”  The sleep-in pay row has been rumbling in the care sector for years, but came to a head in 2016 when government guidance was changed. Until then, it had said that minimum pay rates should apply only when a worker was “awake for the purposes of working”. New guidance, revised after this interpretation, had been successfully challenged at employment tribunals, and said that a worker required to be on work premises was entitled to the minimum “even though they are asleep”.  Many, though not all, employers began to follow this revision. But the guidance has now changed again following a court of appeal judgment last July that overturned the tribunals. The latest version [pdf] states that minimum rates “must be paid for time when the worker is required to be awake for the purpose of working, but not for time the worker is permitted to sleep”.  The appeal court ruling came last July in a case led by learning disability charity Mencap, which had warned it could be ruined by liability under the law for up to six years’ backpay for its care workers at full rates.  Unison is seeking leave to appeal the ruling to the supreme court to get a definitive decision, but a judgment would be unlikely before 2020. Employers maintain they would be happy to pay full rates if funded to do so – though they remain deeply concerned about backpay liabilities estimated at more than £400m – but ministers have refused to provide councils with the cash for employers to pay the legal minimum, currently £7.83 an hour for adults aged 25 or over, through the night.  A flat sleep-in shift payment is typically £30 or £40, plus minimum rate for any time the worker has to get up to help a person they support.  Lifeways Group, a company employing 10,000 people across the UK, has already reverted from paying the full minimum to its staff to doing so only where the commissioning council undertakes to meet the cost. Adam Penwarden, the group’s communications director, said paying the minimum between July 2017 and October 2018 had cost it £5m that had been unfunded by councils: “We are between a rock and a hard place, but we can’t pay money we haven’t got.”  Windsor and Maidenhead council, which is Conservative-controlled, has said in a letter to employers, seen by the Guardian, that it wants to revert to paying them a flat £57.80 for each sleep-in shift. Workers will receive perhaps £45 of that.  A spokeswoman for the council said it was “in discussion with our providers regarding current payment terms following the recent ruling”.  Tory-led Lancashire will vote next month on plans to move to a flat shift payment of £59.16 to employers, falling to £47.43 in October. After allowing for employer national insurance and pension costs, this equates to wage payments of £45 and just over £36 respectively.  In a letter last November to the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, representing non-profit employers, junior business minister Kelly Tolhurst said councils “should not use [the appeal court] judgment to radically alter their fee-paying practices in an ad-hoc way”. Instead, they should work with employers “to determine a fair rate of pay for sleep-in shifts to fit their local labour market conditions”.  Barbara Keeley, Labour’s shadow social care minister, called on ministers to take responsibility for what she called the sleep-in pay “injustice” and to ensure that shifts were paid at full minimum wage.  “This latest blow inflicted on care staff adds insult to injury and will simply drive workers away from the sector when they have never been needed more,” Keeley said. “Vulnerable people with care needs will pay the price.”


theguardianuk--2019-03-31--Pay rise for nearly 2 million as UK living wage goes up by 49

Pay rise for nearly 2 million as UK living wage goes up by 4.9%

Almost 2 million workers in the UK are in line for a pay rise on Monday as the legal minimum wage increases by nearly 5%.  Adults on pay rates rebranded as the “national living wage” will receive a 4.9% rise from £7.83 to £8.21 an hour, worth an extra £690 over a year and affecting around 1.6 million people. The hourly rate for 21- to 24-year-olds will go up from £7.38 to £7.70, and for 18- to 20-year-olds from £5.90 to £6.15 in increases that cover about 230,000 people.  Kelly Tolhurst, the business minister, said: “Our minimum wage rates are among the highest in the world and, through our modern industrial strategy, we are determined to end low pay and workers get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”  The national minimum wage, which was launched 20 years ago, was rebranded the “national living wage” from 2016 in a move that was criticised as the new name might be confused with the so-called real living wage.  The real living wage is an independently calculated pay rate designed to reflect what people need to spend to feed, clothe and house themselves, and stands at £9 an hour, or £10.55 in London.  Katherine Chapman, the director of the Living Wage Foundation, said: “The increase in the government minimum wage will provide a welcome boost for low-paid workers, but this is still over £1,500 a year short of a real living wage.  “Around 6 million workers are now paid less than the living wage and are struggling to keep their heads above water.”  Rises in the compulsory minimum wage have also failed to keep pace with the average pay of FTSE 100 chief executives. According to the GMB union, the national minimum would now stand at £11.41 if low-paid workers had enjoyed the same level of pay rises as the country’s top bosses.  The TUC added that the average 21- to 24-year-old minimum wage worker is earning £800 a year less than over-25s.  The TUC’s general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “Young workers are still getting a raw deal on pay. Their bills aren’t any cheaper, but they have to make ends meet with less.”


theguardianuk--2019-11-15--Watchdog attacks Tory and Labour minimum wage proposals

Labour’s plans to increase the minimum wage to £10 an hour for all workers on its first day in office will treble the number of people covered by the pay policy and largely miss the target of raising the incomes of poor households, according to a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.  The tax and spending watchdog said a Tory proposal to increase wages at a slower pace would only double the number of people protected by the minimum wage by 2024 and also largely benefit those in better-off households.  In a scathing review of the parties’ proposals to reduce in-work poverty, the IFS said less than one in five of the people who would benefit from a higher minimum wage lived in low-income households. “The direct benefits from minimum wage increases would mostly go to middle-income households,” the report says.  Only 17% of minimum-wage workers live in the poorest fifth of households and just 19% are in households in relative income poverty, after a shift to part-time work that often means low-paid workers live with higher earners, it says.  Those workers who are on the minimum wage and live in the poorest households would lose much of the gains under Tory and Labour plans without reforms to universal credit making it more generous.  “Many of those who do live in low-income households would see part of their gains clawed back through reduced benefit entitlements,” the report says.  Sajid Javid has proposed to increase the national living wage, which covers workers aged 25 and over, from £8.21 to £10.50, raising the low-pay floor from 60% to two-thirds of median earnings. Javid said the living wage would be extended to 21-year-olds over the duration of the parliament.  The IFS said this would bring one in six employees within its scope, adding 2.5 million to the current 1.9 million covered by the living wage.  Labour’s plans to introduce a £10 minimum for those aged 16 and over would mean more than a quarter of all employees’ wages being directly set by the minimum, with an additional 4.6 million employees aged 21 and over directly affected, taking the total to 6.5 million.  Private sector workers would be more affected by Labour’s policy, which would mean almost 30% of private sector employees’ wages being set directly from Whitehall, while Conservative policy would set 20% of private sector wages.  Xiaowei Xu, a research economist at the IFS and an author of the report, said: “The Conservatives and Labour’s plans would take us into uncharted waters. That calls for a careful and incremental process to ensure that, if the employment prospects of the low-paid do start to be impacted, policymakers can change course before it is too late.  “We should not be setting minimum wages via a political bidding war. If due consideration is not given to the balancing act involved, the risks to the very people the policy is intended to help may be quite severe.”


thehuffingtonpost--2019-05-02--Raising The Minimum Wage Could Prevent Suicides

Raising the minimum wage could prevent suicides for low-income Americans, particularly among women, according to a new working paper from well-respected economists and public health specialists at the University of California at Berkeley.  The researchers found that a 10% rise in the minimum wage led to a 3.6% drop in non-drug related suicides for adults without college degrees. For women, who make up the majority of minimum wage workers, a 10% increase led to a 4.6% reduction.  “It’s not just about jobs and wages; it’s about mental health,” said Anna Godøy, a labor economist at The University of California, Berkeley who co-authored the study. Higher minimum wages are “likely to save lives.”  Knowing that financial stress is a predictor of suicide, Godøy said she expected to find some kind of connection in their research. “Still I was certainly surprised at how clear the drop was,” she said, adding that as soon as a state raised wages there was a clear change in the data.  The study’s authors also looked at whether raising the Earned Income Tax Credit would have an effect on suicide rates. It did. A 10% increase in the credit led to a 5.5% drop in suicides for that same group.  The study, published in a working paper on the National Bureau of Economic Research’s website on Monday, adds to a growing body of research looking at the disturbing drop in life expectancy in the United States over the past three years ― mainly due to a rise in suicides and opioid-related overdoses, dubbed “deaths of despair.” In the early 20th Century because of World War I and the influenza pandemic, which led to about 675,000 deaths in the United States alone.  Some economists attribute the rise in death rates this time to declining economic prospects for those without a college degree. Others have put more weight on the rise in drug use.  The researchers looked at mortality data, census figures, and information on minimum wage and EITC increases at the state level from 1999-2015. They compared workers with and without college degrees. The more educated workers functioned as a control group, as they’re unlikely to earn low wages. Suicide rates in that cohort were unchanged by the minimum wage increases.  But the study highlights how poverty creates stress that leads to devastating health outcomes. Cooper pointed out that for years economists looking at the minimum wage were mostly concerned with how raising pay affects the employment rate ― would higher wages lead businesses to fire workers? That question has largely been answered (no). So over the past few years, researchers have started to look at other angles.  The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. There are 21 states now where that rock-bottom wage prevails, but a wave of states and cities have been moving toward higher pay, in some cases closing in on $15 an hour.  If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.


thehuffingtonpost--2019-06-16--This Is The Longest The Federal Minimum Wage Has Ever Gone Without Being Raised

Lawmakers set a new record Sunday by leaving the federal minimum wage untouched since July 24, 2009, the first year of former President Barack Obama’s first term. The rate hasn’t been increased from $7.25 in a whopping 3,615 days, making it the longest dry spell since the federal minimum wage was enacted under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1938.  That surpasses a previous milestone set between 1997 and 2007, when then-President George W. Bush signed minimum wage legislation. Obama, stymied by Republicans on Capitol Hill, became the first president since Ronald Reagan to not put a pen to a minimum wage bill throughout his tenure.  Even though the federal wage floor has remained the same, its purchasing power has fallen since 2009 due to the rising cost of living.  The federal minimum wage prevails in any state that doesn’t mandate a higher one. While Congress and the White House have left it alone for nearly a decade, more and more states have opted to hike their rates on their own, either through legislation or the ballot box. Now a majority of states have a higher wage floor than $7.25, with some now on a trajectory to $15.  But the federal minimum wage currently reigns in 21 states. While many of those states have relatively lower costs of living, Democrats have said the federal rate needs to rise because $7.25 per hour isn’t enough to survive on anywhere, including in rural areas.  There’s no mystery as to why the federal minimum wage hasn’t gone up in nearly a decade: in recent years Republicans have controlled either the House, the Senate or the White House, or all three. Democrats had full control of the government at the start of Obama’s first term, but the increases approved under Bush had just been phased in ― and the economy was in the tank ― so most Democrats chose not to pursue one.  With the Senate still in GOP hands and President Donald Trump in the White House, the federal minimum wage won’t be going anywhere in the near future. Democrats now run the House and are pursuing a bill for $15, but not all of the more moderate members are on board. Even if they manage to pass it, the legislation stands virtually no chance in the current Senate.  If the House and Senate wanted to hash out a deal, it isn’t clear where Trump would come down on a minimum wage increase. It seems to be one of the president’s favorite issues to flip-flip on. As The Washington Post detailed in a helpful guide, Trump has said he opposes a wage floor hike, only to later say he supports one, before reverting to opposing one, and then coming back around to supporting one.  While his own proclamations have been confusing, one thing is certain: Trump has not advocated for a minimum wage increase since taking office, and he’s been eager to peel back regulations on low-wage employers, not add new ones.


themoscowtimes--2019-01-09--Russia Shores up State Workers Support With New Wage Hike

Russia Shores up State Workers’ Support With New Wage Hike

State workers had already  reported  seeing unexpected salary hikes ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s re-election last March. This year, Russians are bracing for the first phase of retirement age increases many had opposed last summer.  Russian teachers, doctors, researchers and other state workers will receive another pay raise later this year as the Kremlin seeks to bolster its support with unpopular retirement age increases taking effect this year.  1 in 2 Russians Say They’re Ready to Join Pension Protests — Poll  State workers will see their wages indexed against inflation by 4.3 percent on Oct. 1, Labor and Social Protection Minister Maxim Topilin announced Wednesday.  “No one abolished the need to keep up public sector wages … with average regional economies,” Topilin said in an interview with the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.  The regions will receive 100 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) from the federal budget “to keep the balance” this year, Topilin added.  Around 2 million federal-level employees will see an increase in their paychecks, the Labor Ministry’s press service told the state-run TASS news agency.  These employees reportedly include social workers, veterinarians, consumer watchdog employees and Emergency Situations Ministry rescuers, among others.


theseattletimes--2019-06-25--Alabama wage suit to get second hearing before appeals court

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court is being asked to toss a lawsuit that had accused Alabama lawmakers of racially discrimination due to a law that blocked the majority-black city of Birmingham from raising its minimum wage.  At issue in arguments scheduled Tuesday before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a 2016 statute requiring every city in Alabama to have the same minimum wage. Lawmakers passed the law after Birmingham’s city council voted to increase the city’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.  Fast food workers and civil rights groups sued, accusing the Legislature of racial discrimination. They argued that the state law targeted a mostly African American city and would disproportionately impact black workers.  State officials say the law is race neutral and similar to measures passed by nearly two dozen other states.  A panel of 11th Circuit judges last year sided with the workers and civil rights groups, reversing a judge’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit. The court said that “plaintiffs have stated a plausible claim that the Minimum Wage Act had the purpose and effect of depriving Birmingham’s black citizens equal economic opportunities on the basis of race.”  State officials asked the appeals court to throw out that decision and reconsider the case with a hearing before all of the court’s judges. The 11th Circuit granted that request in January .  Attorneys for Alabama also argue that the lawsuit wrongly names the state attorney general as a defendant.


bbc--2019-08-25--Colombias former child rebels try to rebuild their lives

Colombia's former child rebels try to rebuild their lives

"There were battles and I didn't know what to do. You had to fire your gun like a crazy person to stop yourself getting killed," says 15-year-old Luis.  Recruited just days before his 14th birthday, Luis (not his real name) spent 12 months inside the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), a Colombian guerrilla group involved in drug trafficking and other illicit activities that operates mainly along the northern border with Venezuela.  For Luis, one of the hardest things to get used to as a young fighter were the long night walks through the mountains.  "They go out a lot at night. The leave at 20:00 in total darkness and without torches. They keep a distance of 10m to 15m (30-45ft) between each other and walk for two hours," he recalls.  Luis was given a uniform and two weeks of basic firearms training before he and other recruits faced an initiation test. They were told they would be killed if they failed to open fire when ordered to.  "The [guerrilla] officers said we were going to attack a police station and so they took all the new guys to attack it. And we opened fire until a plane arrived and we retreated," he says.  "I was scared because it was the first time. I had only been with them for a couple of weeks."  It was then he realised he had made a mistake and decided to run away. "I thought to myself: how did I get here? To the point that I am shooting a weapon?"  Luis escaped from the EPL with the help of a guerrilla commander who took pity on him back in February.  At the time, he never thought he would be given the chance to turn his life around. But after six months studying at Benposta, a home and school for ex-combatants, he has decided he wants to go to university and become a chef.  Benposta, which is set in the tranquil mountains overlooking the Colombian capital, Bogotá, houses about 100 children and teenagers from mostly poor, lawless communities.  The children are not usually physically abducted by guerrilla groups, but are instead seduced by false promises. Often just the offer of a motorbike or a regular hot meal can be enough to convince them.  Luis grew up on a farm surrounded by violence. He left school when he was nine to harvest coca leaves, the raw ingredient for cocaine. He says his parents put him to work to put food on the table.  It was in the clandestine coca plantations that he made his first contact with the EPL. They would pay him extra to run their errands. He would move drugs around and work for them as a lookout.  "The rebels said I should go with them because it was beautiful, that there were weapons, that there were women, that there was money, food and everything," recalls Luis.  "So you delude yourself and you go. But then you realise that it's actually bad."  Once inside the armed group, children and teenagers are put to work in a number of roles, from carrying out basic errands to cooking, working in drugs labs run by the armed groups, collecting extortion fees, cleaning weapons and in some cases, working as sex slaves.  The United Nations says the number of children and teenagers being forcibly recruited by armed groups in Colombia has risen since 2016 when the government signed a peace deal with the largest of Colombia's rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).  The UN special representative for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, warned that these numbers were only "the tip of the iceberg".  Most of the young people arriving at Benposta are from Colombia's troubled Catatumbo region.  The region has become one of the country's most violent following the demobilisation of the Farc rebels. Now the EPL and the National Liberation Army (ELN) battle for control of this northern section of the border with Venezuela.  And this area is not alone in seeing a rise in violence. Across Colombia, where the Farc have retreated from the cocaine trade that helped finance their operations, other groups are competing for their share of hefty profits.  As they expand, these groups set out to recruit new members.  Luis told the BBC that the EPL was offering children two million pesos (about $600; £400) to join its ranks, a small fortune in this part of the world.  He also said that they offered bonuses to those who could persuade their peers to take up arms, or identify their friends that might have joined the EPL's rivals, the ELN.  Luis says he has turned his back on the violence for good. He is now enjoying school for the first time: "It's really good because they're helping to rehabilitate me and to get over what I went through," he says.  "They support me through the good and the bad."


bbcuk--2019-01-10--The Berkshire ex-soldier clearing mines and rebuilding lives in Iraq

After serving in the British Army for 26 years, Dave Parker is now helping clear mines and explosive devices in Iraq left by members of the Islamic State group.  The explosives expert from Berkshire is part of the UN Mine Action Service that has helped more than a million Iraqi people return to their homes.  More than 19,000 devices were cleared last year and the UK has contributed £24.9m to mine action projects since 2015.


aljazeera--2019-12-14--As Lebanon's post-war system dies, a new one struggles to be born

Beirut, Lebanon - For almost two months, Lebanon has been swept by protests against a ruling class of sectarian elites who came to power as a result of a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.  The movement has brought down a government and brought together people from across the country's religious divides. • Hezbollah: 'No easy feat' but Lebanon gov't must include everyone • Lebanon budget deficit 'much bigger' than expected, says minister  Now, analysts say that the uprising, coupled with the most serious economic and financial crisis since the civil war, maybe ushering in the death of the country's political system where power is apportioned among religious groups.  "This system is clearly over," Sami Atallah, the director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera. "Economically and politically it is very clearly the end of an era. But we have yet to produce another one: we have left Lebanon 2.0 but don't have Lebanon 3.0 yet."  For Atallah, the economic and financial crisis in Lebanon today has become the clearest indicator yet of the incompetence and corruption of the political elite, in a country where basic services such as electricity and water are still unreliable 30 years after the civil war ended.  Decades of unsustainable financial policies, coupled with unchecked, unaccountable spending, have left Lebanon with the world's third-highest debt burden as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP). The country has increasingly had to borrow new money to pay back old debt, leading it into a debt spiral.  Meanwhile, the Lebanese pound, pegged to the US dollar for decades at about 1,500, has depreciated by about 25 percent to 2,000 Lebanese pounds, due to a dollar shortage tied to a years-long economic slowdown and a decrease in remittances from abroad.  When the government sought to impose more taxes in October, people took to the streets in an explosion of popular anger.  This has led parties that were previously in government together to become increasingly at odds, exposing and exacerbating existing divisions and creating new ones.  "The entire political establishment, which is endemically corrupt, is responsible for the impoverishment of Lebanon," Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera.  "The leaders are trying to dissociate themselves from the bankruptcy of Lebanon and are blaming one another without naming a culprit."  "They are facing the moment of truth because the vast majority of the Lebanese people have lost faith in them," Khashan added.  Atallah concurs that the protests "broke something".  But "materialising this breakdown or changing of alliances into something more material is another ball game". "We're at the end of the first phase, but how do you actually make something new," Khashan asked.  Lebanese politics is notoriously fractious, with parties quickly shifting alliances based on interest rather than ideology. But the scale of the splits since the eruption of the uprising points to a moment of severe crisis, Atallah said.  Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri's allies in the Lebanese Forces and Progressive Socialist Party have said they will sit out the next government even if it is headed by Hariri, with the latter saying it was going through a period of soul-searching and wants to return to its former socialist values.  Hariri has sought to take the side of the protesters, calling for the formation of a government of technocrats or specialists, albeit headed by himself, which many protesters have rejected.  "Hariri is opportunistic. His late father originated the financial crisis by heavy borrowing. Saad Hariri is hardly a reformer," Khashan said.  Hariri's father, Rafik Hariri, was a former prime minister who was assassinated in 2005.  Despite being brought to power by an alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), a powerful Christian party headed by caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Saad Hariri has sought to exclude Bassil, who is perhaps the most reviled figure on the street.  Bassil recently responded by saying that his party would sit out the next government if it was a government of experts and politicians headed by Hariri, effectively breaking his alliance with the caretaker prime minister.  Bassil also explicitly noted he disagreed with his ally Hezbollah, which has backed Hariri.  Hezbollah has sought to maintain the pre-uprising status quo. In a speech on Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called for a government of the "widest possible representation", similar to the one protesters brought down, that includes the FPM and is headed either by Hariri or a person the caretaker PM backs.  Nasrallah "is trying to preserve a system that he has learned how to operate in since 2005", Atallah said. "He's holding onto a system that is largely defunct."  As a result, Hezbollah is now the main backer of its nominal political foe, Hariri, whose father the group has been accused of assassinating.  MP Paula Yacoubian, the only legislator to be elected on an independent list in 2018 polls, said she believed that the Lebanese people would no longer accept a political system where "politicians disagree with each other and then make up later when they've settled their deals, all while the country loses".  "Masks are falling down. What happened with the revolution uncovered the deep understanding between the ruling class. It showed how each side is somehow dependent on the other sectarian leader," she said.  "I think the mindset of the people is changing, their political approach is changing, they realise the high price they paid to sustain these leaderships," she added. "It's a price on their lives and basic needs that they are no longer able to pay."  In recent months there have been warnings of shortages of medicine, fuel, wheat and other basic goods. Yacoubian sees the worsening crisis spurring on the uprising in the streets, which she said may soon become a "revolution of the poor and unemployed".  Whether such uprising can bury the sectarian system and erect something new remains to be seen.  Atallah said that elections, whenever they are held, would be a crucial indicator.  But in any case, he does not see the relationship between people and politics returning to how it was before October 17, when protests broke out.  "The ground has been shaken. All parties are trying to use these protests to their advantage, but I think people see through this. Their credibility is more dismal than ever before," he said.


sputnik--2019-05-31--Russia-Japan Post-War Peace Treaty Discussed at Lavrov-Kono Talks in Tokyo

When Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono, both accompanied by defence ministers of their countries, started their talks in 2+2 format on Thursday, everything went without major disturbances. But on Friday, when top military officials left, giving way to bilateral diplomatic negotiations, Japanese foreign ministry compound looked almost like a fortress besieged by local ultranationalists. Two vans were driving slowly around the block, playing recorded anti-Russian messages through loudspeakers.  The talks themselves are being held behind closed doors, with both sides agreeing not to disclose the details to the public, and most of the time it takes a lot of guesswork on media's side to shed light on what exactly Sergey Lavrov and Taro Kono are saying to each other. So, literally every bit of information coming from the officials is priceless.  Japanese diplomats did a lot to prepare for the talks. Everything was fine during Taro Kono's introductory remarks on Friday, but when it was Sergey Lavrov's turn to speak, the audio level of his microphone suddenly went down to nearly zero, so it was very hard for journalists to hear his speech.  Nevertheless, Lavrov had a chance to talk to the press once again that day — this time at the Russian embassy, where his statements on peace treaty between Russia and Japan, and on Tokyo's territorial claims, were loud and clear.  The head of Russia's diplomacy said that his country acts in accordance with the 1956 Moscow Declaration signed by Japan and the Soviet Union. Lavrov added that a peace treaty between the two nations has to be signed, and the signing of the treaty is impossible without accepting the outcome of World War II. The document, according to the Russian minister, also states that Soviet Union was prepared to express good will and to go on with negotiations on border issues, but with Peace treaty being a necessary first step:  "The fact that there is a groundwork [in the 1956 declaration] to do this as an act of Soviet Union's good will, as it's will to take into consideration the interests of Japanese people, means only one thing — that the islands at the time of the signing are being perceived by both sides as inseparable part of Soviet Union's territory. And without acknowledging this fact it's impossible to move further".  Japan has a different view on the issue, and so far has refused to sign the peace treaty, putting the territorial claims as a prerequisite to further actions.  The four Southern Kuril islands disputed by Japan are Iturup, Kunashir, Habomai and Shikotan.  At their talks in Tokyo the two Foreign ministers also addressed other issues, such as joint projects in agriculture, banking, energy and tourism.  Russia wants to introduce mutual visa-free regime with Japan — first for those who live in Japan's Hokkaido and Russia's Sakhalin region, and later — for all other citizens.  Lavrov's visit is a part of preparations for the meeting between Russian and Japanese leaders in Osaka in the end of June. It's expected that President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold talks on the sidelines of G20 Summit.


fortruss--2019-06-30--China will rebuild Syria US EU and Israel Excluded

China will rebuild Syria – US, EU, and Israel Excluded

By Vladimir Dobrynin – According to Bashar al-Assad , the restoration of the destroyed infrastructure and cities of Syria, which are now in ruins, will cost Damascus approximately $ 200 billion, which is equal to the annual gross domestic product of Greece. Where to get such money for a destroyed country,  and who can come to help her in difficult times, and why would they?  Although the fighting in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic is still ongoing, Damascus considers the civil war to be largely over and focuses now on peaceful construction. While in Syria, military operations were conducted by all and for various reasons — some for the desire to help the suffering people, others to grab a tasty oil-bearing piece and make money on it — there was no shortage of promises made by people “after the war” to take part in the restoration of the long-suffering state. However, not everyone liked the results of the end of hostilities (Assad remains), and now the ranks of the “promisers” are very thin.  First of all, the European Union and the US will disappear from the participants in peaceful construction, since the first and main condition for investments of the countries of the so-called International Coalition (which, by the way, nobody invited to the Syrian war, and who tried to wreak more havoc in Syria than to bring order) was and remains the removal of the current president from power.  Since it was not possible to implement this obsession with the hands of the “democratic opposition”, that Assad will relinquish the leadership position simply out of love and respect for those who do not like him and do not respect him back, there are no reasons to expect that Brussels and Washington will take up any contemplative process. From time to time they merely step in, giving advice on “how to do”, of course  from the point of view of the self-proclaimed defeaters of the “Islamic State”. At the same time, they may try to disrupt efforts to restore the SAR, as evidenced by the current US sanctions blocking Syrian exports or any financial transactions involving the national structures of Damascus.  Russia, Iran and Turkey – the three main external powers thanks to which the war against the ISIS was won (although not formally over), are interested in broad participation in the reconstruction of Syria. However, we must honestly admit that their economic power is insufficient for the rapid restoration of Syria. Financial resources are severely limited, and the sanctions imposed on them by the White House create additional problems in the implementation of the project.  That is, the situation for the entry of China into Syria is almost perfect: the United States and the EU cannot prevent the Chinese, and Russia and Iran aren’t the best position either.  The Chinese, according to the centuries-old tradition of the Celestial Empire, began not from loud head-on attacks on the situation, but from careful probing of near-constitutional regions. In mid-2018, Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of National Accord of Libya, Mohammed Siyal, and Libyan Charget in Libya, Wang Qiming discussed in Tripoli the return of Chinese companies to the country to resume frozen projects.  In the years when Libya was ruled by Muammar Gaddafi , Chinese public and private companies signed many contracts for the construction of infrastructure, buildings and railways with the Middle Eastern state. After Gaddafi was killed in 2011 and chaos reigned in the country, the Asian giant left Libya and froze the execution of contracts. In the second half of 2018, a return took place, which doesn’t just look like “we came to finish that we didn’t have time for reasons beyond our control” – Beijing’s desire to become one of the key players in the region is clearly readable.  The $6 million medical assistance allocated to the Libyan state by China looked more like a trial balloon and a hint for Syria than a demonstration “we returned to Libya”. From Tripoli to the Syrian border is only 35 kilometers, a suitable location of the command post to guide the landing force, whose task is to expand the once conquered springboard.  While the governments of Europe and America were withdrawing diplomatic personnel and closing embassies, Beijing signed several trade and economic cooperation agreements with Damascus. The main interest of China in Syria is steel and some natural resources. CNPC, a Chinese state-owned oil company, has already invested in General Petroleum Corporation (GPC) and Al Furat Petroleum, two of the three largest Syrian oil companies.  In addition, 200 Chinese companies participated last summer at the International Trade Fair in Damascus, and Beijing, according to data published by The Financial Times, announced it would allocate $ 2 billion in investment in Syrian industry and another $ 23 billion in the Forum cooperation between China and the Arab states. In these plans, China follows its usual model of financing infrastructure projects abroad, which are then built by Chinese contractors.  In addition to demonstrating interest in the economic sector, China has taken up the promotion of social projects in Syria, such as the supply of electrical transformers for residential buildings and the support program for the Syrian basketball team that will train in Beijing.  As the example of Libya shows, the shock wave of the “Chinese effect” in the application for the restoration of Syria may have long-term consequences not only for the latter, but for the entire Arab world.  Chinese companies have already signed contracts in the amount of $ 58 million to expand the northern port of Tripoli, which will become a special economic zone, will receive a new pier, as well as the opening and installation of six gantry cranes, according to the port administration. An object that is closer to Damascus than the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia, controlled and guarded by the Russian military, could be a gateway for building materials, bulldozers and excavators sent to Syria. Of course, Beijing can use the “Russian” ports in Syria, but there it will be a guest, and in Tripoli – almost the owner.  According to the Libyan expert, to revive this port, China plans to build the Tripoli-Homs railway, a corridor that Beijing needs to reduce the time it takes to transport cargo and to avoid the need to pass through the Suez Canal, already clogged with ships.  The port in Tripoli, becoming the headquarters of the Chinese COSCO, one of the four largest shipping companies in the world, is thus becoming an important node of the ambitious global Chinese strategy “One Belt – One Road”, during which China intends to invest up to $ 150 billion per year in railways, highways, ports and power plants.  With this new Silk Road, Beijing not only seeks to increase its exports and win tenders, but also wants to strengthen its geopolitical and diplomatic weight in the region – as evidenced by the fact that China chose to use the Libyan port instead of Israel to Tel Aviv. This maneuver will allow Beijing to avoid the formation of discomfort among Arab countries. And, to be honest, supplying building materials from Israel to Syria, as it would have looked like when using the Tel Aviv port, seems like nonsense.  The Asian giant will seek to replicate the success achieved in Iraq in Syria, where many Chinese companies obtained lucrative contracts for building and infrastructure development in the post-war period, and the PRC as a whole secured a new source of oil for itself.


fortruss--2019-10-14--VIDEO: Former rebel stronghold in Syria begins to rebuild with Russian assistance

SYRIA – Russian soldiers on Wednesday September 25th, handed out food and other supplies to residents of the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, which was recently been captured by the Syrian army. The town, which holds a strategic position in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, was liberated by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces last month following weeks of a massive offensive by Syrian troops backed by Russian military support.  On Wednesday, a group of foreign reporters on a trip to Syria organized by the Russian Defense Ministry, saw municipal workers clear the streets of Khan Sheikhoun of debris and Russian troops distribute aid. At the nearby Suran checkpoint, Syrian authorities on Wednesday greeted a group of about 100 people, mostly women and children, crossing into the government-controlled territory from rebel-held areas. The town, which had a population of 65,000 when Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, now has only about 4,000 residents.


globalresearch--2019-11-01--Rebuilding Syria – Without Syria’s Oil

Rebuilding Syria – Without Syria’s Oil

What happened in Geneva this Wednesday, in terms of finally bringing peace to Syria, could not be more significant: the first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.  The Syrian Constitutional Committee sprang out of a resolution passed in January 2018 in Sochi, Russia, by a body called the Syrian National Dialogue Congress.  The 150-strong committee breaks down as 50 members of the Syrian opposition, 50 representing the government in Damascus and 50 representatives of civil society. Each group named 15 experts for the meetings in Geneva, held behind closed doors.  This development is a direct consequence of the laborious Astana process – articulated by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Essential initial input came from former UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. Now UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen is working as a sort of mediator.  The committee started its deliberations in Geneva in early 2019.  Crucially, there are no senior members of the administration in Damascus nor from the opposition – apart from Ahmed Farouk Arnus, who is a low-ranking diplomat with the Syrian Foreign Ministry.  Among the opposition, predictably, there are no former leaders of weaponized factions. And no “moderate rebels.” The delegates include several former and current parliament members, university rectors and journalists.  After this first round, significantly, the committee’s co-chair, Ahmad Kuzbari, said: “We hope that our next meeting could take place in our native land, in our beloved Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited capital in history.”  Even the opposition, which is part of the committee, hopes that a political deal will be clinched next year. According to co-chair Hadi al-Bahra: “I hope that the 75th anniversary of the United Nations next year will be an opportunity to celebrate another achievement by the universal organization, namely the success of efforts under the auspices of a special envoy for political process, who will bring peace and justice to all Syrians.”  The committee’s work in Geneva proceeds in parallel to ever-changing facts on the ground. These will certainly force more face-to-face negotiations between Presidents Putin and Erdogan, as Erdogan himself confirmed: “A conversation with Putin can take place any time. Everything depends on the course of events.”  “Events” seem not to be that incandescent, so far, even as Erdogan, predictably, releases the whiff of a threat in the air: “We reserve the right to resume military operation in Syria if terrorists approach at the distance of 30km to Turkey’s borders or continue attacks from any other Syrian area.”  Erdogan also said the de facto safe zone along the Turkish-Syrian border could be “expanded,” something that he would have to clear in minute detail with Moscow.  Those threats have already manifested on the ground. On Wednesday, Turkey and allied Islamist factions launched an attack against Tal Tamr, a historic Assyrian Christian enclave 50km deep inside Syrian territory – far beyond the scope of the 10km patrol zone or the 30km “safe” zone.  Poorly-armed Syrian troops pulled out under fierce attack, and with no apparent Russian cover. The Syrian military on the same day issued a public statement calling on the Syrian Democratic Forces to reintegrate under its command. The SDF has said a compromise must be reached first over semi-autonomy for the northeastern region. Thousands of residents in the meantime fled farther south to the more protected city of Hasakeh.  Two facts are absolutely crucial. The Syrian Kurds have completed their pull out ahead of schedule, as confirmed by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. And, this Friday, Russia and Turkey start their joint military patrols to the depth of 7km away from the border, part of the de facto safe zone in northeast Syria.  The devil in the immense details is how Ankara is going to manage the territories that it now actually controls, and to which it plans to relocate as many as 2 million Syrian refugees.  Then there’s the nagging issue that simply won’t go away: the American drive to “secure the oil” (Trump) and “protect” Syrian oilfields (the Pentagon), for all practical purposes from Syria.  In Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – alongside Iran’s Javad Zarif and Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu – could not have been more scathing. Lavrov said Washington’s plan is “arrogant,” and violates international law. The very American presence on Syrian soil is “illegal,” he said.  All across the Global South, especially among countries in the Non-Aligned Movement, this is being interpreted, stripped to the bone, for what it is: the United States government illegally taking possession of natural resources of a third country via a military occupation.  And the Pentagon is warning that anyone attempting to contest it will be shot on sight. It remains to be seen whether the US Deep State would be willing to engage in a hot war with Russia over a few Syrian oilfields.  Under international law, the whole “securing the oil” scam is a euphemism for pillaging, pure and simple. Every single takfiri or jihadi outfit operating across the “Greater Middle East” will converge, perversely, to the same conclusion: US “efforts” across the lands of Islam are all about the oil.  Now compare that with Russia-Iran-Turkey’s active involvement in a political solution and normalization of Syria – not to mention, behind the scenes, China, which quietly donates rice and aims for widespread investment in a pacified Syria positioned as a key Eastern Mediterranean node of the New Silk Roads.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.  This article was originally published on Asia Times.


globalresearch--2019-12-03--Syria’s Pharmaceutical Industry Rebuilds Following the Defeat of US-NATO Sponsored Terrorists

The first factory of its kind in Syria and the Arab world opened November 21, 2019, in Damascus. Central Pharmaceutical Industries Company, ‘Mainpharma’, celebrated the opening of its factory for the manufacturing of anticancer drugs at Adra Industrial City, in the Damascus countryside. Syrian Health Minister, Dr. Nizar Yazigi, said that the number of authorized pharmaceutical laboratories has reached 96 laboratories, which cover over 90 percent of domestic needs. 20 additional factories for pharmaceutical manufacturing are in the pipeline for Adra Industrial City. Adnan Jaafu, chief executive of the company, said the factory will produce 70 percent of the entire spectrum of chemotherapy drugs, which will cover the domestic needs, and the excess will be exported. Syria imports all medicine for the treatment of tumors and vaccines from abroad.  The losses of the pharmaceutical industry due to war are 152 billion Syrian lira. Over 100 factories are awaiting the Ministry of Health (MOH) approval. Russia, China, Cuba, India, and Iran have contracted to sell the raw materials to Syria for medicine production.  “The MOH gives free medicines to 1,864 health centers, and 150 hospitals around Syria.” said Dr. Yazgi to ‘RT Arabic’ on November 16, 2019. The state-run hospitals are treating patients free of charge; however, the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry include the increase in the production costs, because of the fallen currency rate.  The conflict in Syria, which began in 2011, gradually affected the 3 areas with the highest concentration of pharmaceutical factories: Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs, which caused a severe shortage of medicines in Syria. The US-NATO backed terrorists concentrated on destroying infrastructure, and businesses. The terrorists made life unbearable for civilians, as the factories closed down because of attacks, and the employees lost their jobs and income, which in turn led to the mass migration of Syrian refugees, most of whom were economic migrants, having lost their income because of the terrorists. As the factories stopped production, medicines were no longer available, and yet importing medicines were prevented by the US-EU sanctions. 5,000 pharmacies and 24 pharmaceutical factories stopped service during the war, and in Aleppo, the industry was almost wiped out.  Fares Al-Shihabi, Member of Parliament, and President of the Aleppo Chamber of Industry said in August 2012, about 20 medicine factories in Aleppo, and many other factories were exposed to theft, looting, and kidnapping, noting that the production constitutes more than 50 percent of Syria’s production of pharmaceuticals. Shihabi said that two of the owners of these facilities were kidnapped, and many of the industrialists began to close their businesses and leave the country. The spokesman for the United Nations in Geneva, Tariq Jassar Fitch, said that “a large number of factories closed, which led to a severe shortage of medicines,” adding that the country is in an urgent need of medicine for tuberculosis, hepatitis, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and kidney disease. Iran provided Syria with quantities of drugs worth 1.2 million US dollars for the treatment of chronic diseases.  In January 2013, Shihabi stressed that the Aleppo Chamber of Industry had decisive evidence on the involvement of the Turkish government in stealing production lines and machines from hundreds of factories in Aleppo city and smuggling them into Turkey, against international laws. Syria formally accused Turkey of looting factories in the industrial city of Aleppo and sent letters to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council.  By 2014, Aleppo industrialists said, more than 300 factories were plundered and their equipment sold in Turkey, and they may take Turkey to The Hague, to settle their accounts at the International Court of Justice.  The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) took back Sheikh Najjar, in Aleppo, in July 2014.  Hazim Accan, the director-general of the Sheikh Najjar Industrial City, said  According to Habib Abboud, Syrian deputy health minister for pharmaceutical affairs, the sanctions US-EU imposed on Syria involved the pharmaceutical industry, by preventing exporting raw materials to Syria, even though medicines are purely humanitarian.  Syria has lost certain types of drugs, including those related to deadly and chronic diseases, such as: “Nitroglycerin” for minor strokes attack, “Daflon” for veins’ disorders, “Altroxan”, “Thiamasul” a medicine for the thyroid gland, asthma sprays, “Vlozon”, “Azmirol”, as well as cardiac patches “Netroderm”, and most of these have no alternative.  According to the Central Bureau of Statistics in Syria, in 2010 there were 70 plants producing pharmaceuticals, and only 2 were state-owned. These provided more than 91% of the domestic needs: especially psychiatric, dermal, gynecological, ophthalmic medications and children’s syrup. At that time, blood derivatives, cancer drugs, and vaccines were imported, yet the prices were affordable for all levels of society. The pharmaceutical industry employed around 30,000 workers and Syria held 2nd place among Arab countries in covering its local needs, as well as held the 2nd place among Arab countries in the volume of exports of medicines. The Syrian medicines ranked #1 in Yemen and Iraq, and had been exported to 57 countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and had been used by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.  Today, the pharmaceutical industry in Syria is on the rebound, but hampered by the post-war economic crisis, US-EU sanctions which continue to prevent importing drugs or the raw materials to make drugs, and the devalued Syrian currency, which makes drug prices higher than many consumers can afford. ‘Diamond Pharma’ factory in the countryside of Damascus was able to re-open after the SAA fully liberated the Damascus countryside in May 2018. As of July 2019, Aleppo has managed to complete 1,216 projects of rehabilitation to infrastructure, and this has allowed more than 15,000 industrial facilities to re-open after years of closure. 565 facilities are now in production in Sheikh Najjar Industrial Zone. Syrian businesses have fought back against the US-NATO attack for ‘regime change’, which has failed, but succeeded in destroying much of Syria and is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries, and displacements.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.  This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.


nationalreview--2019-04-15--Roger Scrutons Alliance with the Architect Trying to Rebuild Syria

Roger Scruton’s Alliance with the Architect Trying to Rebuild Syria

The two share an attachment to a sense of home.  In September 2018, I had the pleasure of speaking with Marwa al-Sabouni, a Syrian architect living in my mother’s hometown of Homs. Sabouni’s book, The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria, explains the context of the Syrian war and the role of architecture in accelerating the conflict.  After the French colonized Syria in 1923, they imposed Corbusian urban planning on a place where it was discordant with an ancient melange of Ottoman, Memluk, Ayyubid, and even Roman styles that one might simply call “Islamic architecture.” As with anything Le Corbusier touched, cities like Homs turned into assortments of sterile concrete blocks. Palaces, baths, and other historic structures that had rooted Syrians in their heritage were destroyed to create space for the blocks. Winding streets in Syria’s historic cities become modernist grids.  Sabouni is trying to undo the damage. And she has an ally and mentor in Roger Scruton, the British philosopher who was recently removed from a housing-design commission over comments that were allegedly “Islamophobic,” among other things. Her fixation on capturing a sense of unity and rootedness in one’s surroundings is reminiscent of Scruton’s fervent activism for the preservation of beautiful buildings in harmony with their surroundings, and he even wrote the foreword for The Battle for Home.  Sabouni — who stayed in Homs even as the ongoing civil war ravaged the country and bombs fell not far from her home, and still lives there with her husband and children — emphasizes the importance of the built environment and how it reflects what a people value. “Isolation is the key word here,” she told me. “The French sought control, so they’ve created division and ‘openness.’ The rich class was created by means of creating distinguished neighborhoods for them outside the old city. Sectarian quarters were emphasized and cut out from the urban fabric, the latter has become the victim of French planning, and unity had to go. Class and sect division was created.”  Syria, despite its cultural and geographic vibrancy and beauty, is a country beset by internal corruption. Sabouni notes this in her book; in her experience as an architecture student (she is in her 30s today) and for most of Syria’s modern history, government officials controlled all decisions relating to urban planning and construction. Contracts went only to those who were well connected. Sabouni describes a typical day at work: signing a paper every now and then, drinking coffee and tea, and then most workers would sneak out once the boss was gone. There was little hope or incentive to rebuild Syria in the image of its past glory; creativity wasn’t encouraged, only strict repetition. The malaise not only was conducive to complacence, but stoked division; when there is no sense of shared place among a people as there once was, it is class or faith that distinguishes one citizen from the other.  Sabouni, however, wants more from Syria after the war. Scruton has not only supported her in what he calls a “courageous” effort to rebuild Syria, but describes her as an intellectual “soulmate.” Sabouni’s worldview was changed upon reading Scruton’s 1979 book The Aesthetics of Architecture after haphazardly coming across the title in an online search related to her Ph.D. “I ordered the book, and it turned out to be the single most important and informative book I read about architecture,” Sabouni told me. “It has changed my whole outlook toward my major at the time and given me a perspective on creative judgment.”  As noted above, creativity isn’t often a feature of the Syrian school curriculum. Students are taught to memorize and regurgitate information. Scruton’s book, with the abstract concepts and artistic critiques that compel one to ponder beauty, spirituality, and ethos, was, and still is, liberating.  Sabouni wrote to Scruton in 2014. She had a question about aesthetics after reading his book. They kept in contact, and Scruton found her remarkable, noting in his foreword that her book is the “expression of a beautiful soul.” Since having met, Scruton has lauded Sabouni for her bravery and tenacity, appearing to have learned from her as much as she has learned from him, writing in October for The American Conservative:  While Sabouni tells me that she doesn’t believe classical architecture is the optimal model for returning Syria to a peaceful state (as Scruton suggests it would be), Scruton validates the Syrian yearning for identity as a human one; it isn’t only the Syrians, tragically afflicted by the destruction of war, who crave a landscape that evokes shared societal values and national history. In this belief, they have a kinship.  Scruton isn’t only a national treasure, although Britain is fortunate to have him; he leads an integrated life inspired by the transcendence of the beauty he’s encountered in his prolific life’s travels and experiences. To be able to communicate such ethereal and nebulous concepts so fluently is a rare skill to be celebrated by all lovers of thoughtful discourse. His understanding of the universal desire — whether it be British or American or Syrian — for a sense of home reflects a generous spirit that isn’t myopic or solipsistic, but anchored in reality with an understanding of human nature and a respect for cultural heritage. The irreverent attempts to drive him out of polite society are a grim indication that for some, the Socratic “examined life” isn’t only not worth living, but can render the person trying to lead it vulnerable to smears and censor by charlatanic vultures.  There’s a saying in Syria that “without the old, there can be no new.” Scruton is a boon to mankind for his conviction in this belief, too.


sottnet--2019-11-04--Rebuilding Syria without its oil

Rebuilding Syria without its oil

What happened in Geneva this Wednesday, in terms of finally bringing peace to Syria, could not be more significant:The Syrian Constitutional Committee sprang out of a resolution passed in January 2018 in Sochi, Russia, by a body called theThe 150-strong committee breaks down asEach group named 15 experts for the meetings in Geneva, held behind closed doors.This development is a direct consequence of the laborious Astana process - articulated by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Essential initial input came from former UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. Now UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen is working as a sort of mediator.Crucially, there are no senior members of the administration in Damascus nor from the opposition - apart from Ahmed Farouk Arnus, who is a low-ranking diplomat with the Syrian Foreign Ministry.Among the opposition, predictably, there are no former leaders of weaponized factions. And no "moderate rebels."After this first round, significantly, the committee's co-chair, Ahmad Kuzbari, said:Even the opposition, which is part of the committee, hopes that a political deal will be clinched next year. According to co-chair Hadi al-Bahra:The committee's work in Geneva proceeds in parallel to ever-changing facts on the ground. These will certainly force more face-to-face negotiations between Presidents Putin and Erdogan, as Erdogan himself confirmed: "A conversation with Putin can take place any time. Everything depends on the course of events.""Events" seem not to be that incandescent, so far, even as Erdogan, predictably, releases the whiff of a threat in the air:something that he would have to clear in minute detail with Moscow.Those threats have already manifested on the ground.- far beyond the scope of the 10km patrol zone or the 30km "safe" zone.Poorly-armed Syrian troops pulled out under fierce attack, and with no apparent Russian cover. The Syrian military on the same day issued a public statementThe SDF has said a compromise must be reached first over semi-autonomy for the northeastern region. Thousands of residents in the meantime fled farther south to the more protected city of Hasakeh.as confirmed by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. And, this Friday,to the depth of 7km away from the border, part of the de facto safe zone in northeast Syria.The devil in the immense details is how Ankara is going to manage the territories that it now actually controls, and to which it plans to relocate as many as 2 million Syrian refugees.Then there's the nagging issue that simply won't go away:(Trump) and(the Pentagon), for all practical purposes from Syria.In Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov - alongside Iran's Javad Zarif and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu - could not have been more scathing. Lavrov said Washington's plan is "arrogant," and violates international law. The very American presence on Syrian soil is "illegal," he said.And the Pentagon is warning that anyone attempting to contest it will be shot on sight. It remains to be seen whether the US Deep State would be willing to engage in a hot war with Russia over a few Syrian oilfields.Under international law, the wholeEvery single takfiri or jihadi outfit operating across the "Greater Middle East" will converge, perversely, to the same conclusion:Now compare that with Russia-Iran-Turkey's active involvement in a political solution and normalization of Syria - not to mention, behind the scenes, China, which quietly donates rice and aims for widespread investment in a pacified Syria positioned as a key Eastern Mediterranean node of the New Silk Roads.


sputnik--2019-07-22--Watch Syrian Christian Town Rebuild in Region Once Overrun by Daesh Nusra Terrorists

Watch Syrian Christian Town Rebuild in Region Once Overrun by Daesh, Nusra Terrorists

The Syrian Arab News Agency has released a report about the effort to restore the square in the town of Maaloula, with workers seen laying paving bricks in the city center among the partially ruined buildings.  The town, situated about 50 km northeast of Damascus, is one of only three remaining villages in the world where the Western Neo-Aramaic language is spoken. Aramaic was known to be the language of Jesus.  Before the Syrian war, Greek Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic Christians and Muslims lived side-by-side in the town, with the area home to two important and ancient monasteries – the Greek Orthodox Mar Thecla convent, an ancient complex partially built into the mountainside, and the Eastern Catholic Mar Sarkis monastery, as well as an ancient mosque.  The remains of several other religious sites are also located in the town, which was once a popular destination for pilgrimages.  In 2013, at the height of the war in Syria, al-Nusra,* an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group operating in Syria, took over Maaloula after battles with the Syrian Army. The terrorists would later battle it out with Daesh (ISIS),* a rival jihadist group, for control of the strategic town.  During the war, the terrorists killed scores of local residents and forced hundreds of others to flee, looting the religious sites and taking over a dozen Orthodox nuns as hostages, who were released in a later prisoner exchange deal. The Syrian Army recaptured Maaloula in April 2014, and painstaking restoration work began in 2017.  In January, the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch reported that nuns had returned to the Orthodox monastery in the town.  *Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.


sputnik--2019-12-25--Syria Making ‘Slow But Steady Progress’ to Rebuild Itself Despite Ongoing US Aggression

“The last year has been a year of ebbing and flowing, zig zags … and not much forward movement. We ended last year with the final defeat of [Daesh]. They [Daesh] were losing vast villages on the upper Euphrates and at least during the last 12 months, [Daesh] has not regrouped in any very significant way although they continue to lie low … which is at least one small step forward,” Ford told Loud & Clear hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker on Tuesday.  “But going forward, we’re seeing more economic warfare. It seems that the US, having failed to change the regime in Syria by military force or by proxies, is tightening the economic screws and the main reason why the US is keeping hold of the production facilities in eastern Syria. So, the economic situation is becoming more and more serious and dire in Syria and it’s a major reason why refugees are not going back,” Ford explained.  In late October, the Russian military released a detailed report on US oil-smuggling activities in Syria, proven by satellite intelligence data. According to the Russian military, the Pentagon, CIA, and private military contractors agreed to engage in oil smuggling operations with the Kurds and US-controlled oil companies, resulting in profits of over $30 million per month, Sputnik reported. Also in October, Trump said that some American troops would remain in northeastern Syria to “guard oil” from Daesh militants.  “Just in the last week, the Syrian Arab Army is advancing in [the Syrian city of] Idlib and has made substantial gains; over 20 villages have been recaptured by the Syrian government and the militants in that area, they seem to be in retreat … I was in [the Syrian city of] Homs and you can see major parts of the city that are destroyed but you see construction equipment at work and they’re rebuilding. Even buildings that had been damaged in the conflict - you could see laundry outside the veranda indicating that people are moving into those buildings even though they seriously need reconstruction. Other parts of the city have been untouched by the war … I think it’s very slow but there is steady progress to Syria winning the war,” Sterling pointed out, also noting that “it looks like the Syrian government is intent on recapturing Idlib before they turn their attention to east Syria where the US and its puppets are based.”  “We tend to overlook the importance of agriculture. Agriculture is one sector that doesn’t get damaged that much in war … this is the mainstay of the Syrian economy … they have a trickle of oil. Of course they don’t get much from tourism these days but even that is seeing some improvement. And then there’s the war economy itself, which surprisingly keeps a lot of businesses in business. But the economy is pretty dire. And I greatly fear that the latest round of sanctions … that Congress just approved [for alleged war crimes] are going to make things worse for ordinary Syrians,” Ford explains, also adding that the US continues to collaborate with the terrorist groups in Syria.  However, on a positive note, unlike in other cases of US interventionism, Syria continues to stand up against the US government.  “In 2010, Damascus was known as one of the safest cities in the world and then in 2011, as you indicate, the conflict in that country erupted and Damascus itself was threatened, seriously threatened in the early years, but it is more safe now and that’s a sign in some sense, the Syrians are winning … it’s a country that’s standing up for independence and international law and the ability to govern its own affairs and is supported by Russia and China and other countries around the world. What we have seen is the contrast between Libya, [where] NATO succeeded in overthrowing the government and creating chaos, versus Syria which has successfully resisted with the support of allies from Lebanon and Iran as well as Russia,” Sterling explained.  Meanwhile, the Western narrative of Syria continues to be exposed as a “false construct,” Ford noted, referencing a series of WikiLeaks revelations last week that showed that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released a doctored report on Assad’s use of chemical weapons in April 2018, which is the crux of the Western powers’ Syrian narrative.


theseattletimes--2019-06-29--Iraq says it deserves more global support in rebuilding

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister says his country’s sacrifices fighting the Islamic State group mean it deserves greater support in its reconstruction efforts from the international community.  Adel Abdul-Mahdi made his comments Saturday during a meeting with a visiting U.N. Security Council members’ delegation, the first such visit to Iraq.  Iraq declared victory against IS in July 2017, after its military regained control of the country’s second-largest city, Mosul, three years after it was seized by extremists bent on building a global caliphate.  The war against IS left many Iraqi cities, towns and villages destroyed and Iraq has been struggling to reconstruct them.  International donors pledged $30 billion to help rebuild Iraq last year, far short of the estimated $88.2 billion needed.


thetorontostar--2019-06-29--Iraq says it deserves more global support in rebuilding

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s prime minister says his country’s sacrifices fighting the Islamic State group mean it deserves greater support in its reconstruction efforts from the international community.  Adel Abdul-Mahdi made his comments Saturday during a meeting with a visiting U.N. Security Council members’ delegation, the first such visit to Iraq.  Iraq declared victory against IS in July 2017, after its military regained control of the country’s second-largest city, Mosul, three years after it was seized by extremists bent on building a global caliphate.  The war against IS left many Iraqi cities, towns and villages destroyed and Iraq has been struggling to reconstruct them.  International donors pledged $30 billion to help rebuild Iraq last year, far short of the estimated $88.2 billion needed.


unian--2019-06-21--Zelensky invites Ukrainian oligarchs to help rebuild Donbas

He has already met with three Ukrainian oligarchs.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Ukrainian oligarchs to help rebuild Donbas and has already agreed on investment with some of them.  "They will take on the responsibility for handling certain issues. For example, Mr. [Victor] Pinchuk will provide 24 families of our captured sailors with apartments and continue solving issues of social assistance for all military personnel. This is our agreement," Zelensky said at a meeting with business representatives in Kyiv on June 20, according to the TV news service TSN.  He also announced agreements with Rinat Akhmetov on the abolition of the Rotterdam+ formula, a method of forming a price of a coal in power generation by thermal power plants in Ukraine. It was introduced in March 2016 and became effective in May 2016.  Akhmetov is also ready to invest in local medicine and roads. Zelensky said that the recent purchase of 200 ambulances for Ukrainian hospitals was the first result of such a deal.  "Mr. Ihor Kolomoisky will invest huge money in Donbas infrastructure, but he doesn't know about that yet," Zelensky said.  In addition, he stressed that oligarchs would not be given any easy terms and "no monopolies" would be allowed.  Zelensky recalled that during his recent visit to Germany and France he had met with representatives of large German and French businesses, who assured they were ready to assist Ukraine in implementing social and economic projects in Donbas.  "But this is our country, and we owe it. It is my opinion. I urge you not to stand aside and to join the funding of such projects both as investors and philanthropists," Zelensky said.  According to experts' estimates, over UAH 300 billion, or US$11.4 billion, is needed to rebuild Donbas, the presidential administration said.  "This will be a major reintegration project. And we will not wait for the end of the war [in Donbas]. We have already started this work. In the territories of Donbas controlled by Ukraine, we must clearly demonstrate the advantages of living in a decent, free and independent Ukraine to the people who are forced to stay in the temporarily occupied territories," Zelensky said.  He also stressed the need to create high-quality conditions at the crossing points on the contact line, repair old roads and build new ones, develop the economy and the social sphere.


westernjournal--2019-01-14--France pledges 1B euros in aid to rebuild Iraq

The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.  BAGHDAD (AP) — French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says France is committing 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) to help Iraq rebuild after its war against the Islamic State group.  Le Drian, meeting with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on Monday, said the aid would go to rebuilding Iraq’s most devastated areas.  Iraq’s Planning Ministry has estimated the cost of reconstruction at $88 billion. Iraq was able to raise $30 billion at a donor conference in Kuwait last year.  Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Alhakim thanked France for its assistance to Iraq’s minority Yezidi community. Islamic State militants enslaved and killed thousands of Yezidis during their brief reign in north Iraq earlier this decade.  France is a member of the international coalition that territorially defeated the group in Iraq and Syria.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.  We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.