KYIV: An agreement allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea and aimed at relieving global food insecurity has been extended for 120 days, officials said on Thursday.
Ukraine is a top world exporter of grain, but Russia’s invasion in late February stopped shipments.
The deal between the two warring sides, brokered by Turkiye and the UN in July, has helped to transport more than 11 million tons of grain and other agricultural products from Ukrainian ports since the start of August. It had been due to expire on Saturday.
On Thursday Ukrainian and Turkish officials announced that the agreement would be extended by four months under existing conditions.
“#BlackSeaGrainInitiative will be prolonged for 120 days,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Twitter, while a senior Turkish official confirmed to AFP that the deal had been extended “under current terms.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted: “It has been clearly seen how important and beneficial this agreement is for the food supply and security of the world.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres hailed the extension and said the grain deal “continues to demonstrate the importance of discreet diplomacy in the context of finding multilateral solutions,” he said.
In recent weeks, Russia had repeatedly warned that it may not agree to extend the agreement because a separate deal that was also signed in July, exempting Russian fertilizers from sanctions, had not been implemented.
Guterres sought to allay those concerns, saying that “The United Nations is also fully committed to removing the remaining obstacles to exporting food and fertilizers from the Russian Federation.”
Both agreements were “essential to bring down the prices of food and fertilizer and avoid a global food crisis,” Guterres said in a statement released by the Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center (JCC) that has been overseeing the agreement.
The flow of Ukrainian exports is essential to stabilising prices on international markets and to supplying the populations most vulnerable to the risk of hunger, particularly in Africa.
Some 40 percent of the grain exported under the agreement has gone to developing countries.
In the weeks of intense diplomacy leading up to Thursday’s announcement, much of the negotiations focused on the issue of fertilizers, a UN source said on condition of anonymity.
Agricultural products and fertilizers do not fall under the sanctions against Russia but because of the risks in the Black Sea linked to the Ukraine conflict, it has become difficult to insure the vessels transporting them.
According to the UN source, a policy framework has been established for the exceptions in insurance, access to ports, financial transactions, shipping and access for shipping, in compliance with the sanctions imposed on Russia.
“Only if we could clarify this policy framework, the private sector actors were willing to reengage in the trade” of Russian fertilizers.
The Black Sea agreement allows Ukrainian grain ships to sail along safe corridors that avoid mines in the Black Sea.
Last month, Russia temporarily pulled out from the agreement, accusing Ukraine of a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in Crimea before rejoining it.
Russia’s invasion blocked 20 million tons of grain in Ukraine’s ports before the United Nations and Turkiye brokered the deal in July.
Ukraine grain export deal extended for four months
https://arab.news/y9byc
Ukraine grain export deal extended for four months
- The deal had been due to expire on Saturday
- Deal will be extended under existing conditions
US forces stop oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as Trump follows up on promise to seize tankers
US forces stop oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as Trump follows up on promise to seize tankers
- Trump following the first tanker seizure, of a vessel named the Skipper, this month vowed that the US would carry out a blockade of Venezuela
WASHINGTON: US forces on Saturday stopped an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela for the second time in less than two weeks as President Donald Trump continues to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The pre-dawn operation comes days after Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of the South American country and follows the Dec. 10 seizure by American forces of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the US Coast Guard with help from the Defense Department stopped the oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela. She also posted on social media an unclassified video of a UShelicopter landing personnel on a vessel called Centuries.
A crude oil tanker flying under the flag of Panama operates under the name and was recently spotted near the Venezuelan coast, according to MarineTraffic, a project that tracks the movement of vessels around the globe using publicly available data. It was not immediately clear if the vessel was under US sanctions.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem wrote on X. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
The action was a “consented boarding,” with the tanker stopping voluntarily and allowing US forces to board it, according to a US official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Pentagon and White House officials did not immediately respond to a requests for comment.
Venezuela’s government in a statement Saturday characterized the US forces’ actions as “criminal” and vowed to not let them “go unpunished” by pursuing various legal avenues, including by filing complaints with the United Nations Security Council.
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of another private vessel transporting Venezuelan oil, as well as the enforced disappearance of its crew, perpetrated by United States military personnel in international waters,” according to the statement.
Trump following the first tanker seizure, of a vessel named the Skipper, this month vowed that the US would carry out a blockade of Venezuela. It all comes as Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric toward Maduro and warned that the longtime Venezuelan leader’s days in power are numbered.
And the president this week demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from US oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a “blockade” against oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country that face American sanctions.
Trump cited the lost US investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a pressure campaign against Maduro, suggesting the Republican administration’s moves are at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments, along with accusations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned tankers already are diverting away from Venezuela.
“We’re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn’t be going through,” Trump told reporters earlier this week. “You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it — they illegally took it.”
US oil companies dominated Venezuela’s petroleum industry until the country’s leaders moved to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in the 21st century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Compensation offered by Venezuela was deemed insufficient, and in 2014, an international arbitration panel ordered the country’s socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.
The targeting of tankers comes as Trump has ordered the Defense Department to carry out a series of attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that his administration alleges are smuggling fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the United States and beyond.
At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes since early September.
The strikes have faced scrutiny from US lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and that the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
The Coast Guard, sometimes with help from the Navy, had typically interdicted boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea, searched for illicit cargo, and arrested the people aboard for prosecution.
The administration has justified the strikes as necessary, asserting it is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels aimed at halting the flow of narcotics into the United States. Maduro faces federal charges of narcoterrorism in the US
The US in recent months has sent a fleet of warships to the region, the largest buildup of forces in generations, and Trump has stated repeatedly that land attacks are coming soon.
Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the US military operations is to force him from power.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair published this week that Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
