BRUSSELS: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg played down on Tuesday the importance of Finland and Sweden joining the world’s biggest security organization at the same time as Turkiye refuses to ratify their membership, mostly due to a dispute with Sweden.
“The main question is not whether Finland and Sweden are ratified together. The main question is that they are both ratified as full members as soon as possible,” Stoltenberg told reporters. The long-held consensus at NATO has been that both the Nordic neighbors should join at the same time.
Sweden and neighboring Finland abandoned decades of nonalignment and applied to join the 30-nation alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All NATO members except Turkiye and Hungary have ratified their accession, but unanimity is required.
Turkiye has accused the government in Stockholm of being too lenient toward groups it deems as terror organizations or existential threats, including Kurdish groups. Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara has fewer problems with Finland joining.
He stressed, however, that it was up to the military alliance to decide whether to accept one country only or the Nordic duo together. So far, Finland has stood by Sweden and insisted they should join NATO’s ranks together.
Stoltenberg said that he is “confident that both will be full members and are working hard to get both ratified as soon as possible.” It had been hoped that both countries would be welcomed in at NATO’s next summit in Lithuania in July.
Turkiye was rocked last week by a devastating earthquake and aftershocks that killed more than 35,000 people in the country and neighboring Syria.
“We are all horrified by the terrible toll caused by the earthquakes” in Turkiye, Stoltenberg said, adding that NATO allies are providing emergency support to the huge rescue and recovery operation.
Turkiye is in an election year, and the topic of Nordic membership of NATO is a possible vote winner. In recent weeks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed anger at a series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm. In one case a solitary anti-Islam activist burned the Qur’an outside the Turkish Embassy, while in an unconnected protest an effigy of Erdogan was hanged.
Of the two countries, only Finland shares a border with Russia and would appear to be more at risk should President Vladimir Putin decide to target his neighbor. That said, some NATO allies, led by the United States, have offered security guarantees to both should they come under threat.
Hungary has pushed back its ratification date for both countries three times so far but has not publicly raised any substantial objections to either of them joining.
NATO chief unfazed about Finland, Sweden joining together
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NATO chief unfazed about Finland, Sweden joining together
- Sweden and neighboring Finland abandoned decades of nonalignment and applied to join the 30-nation alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Protests across globe mark one week of Iran war
- In Washington DC, demonstrators gathered at the National Mall carrying US, Israeli and Iranian flags, with some protesters painting the colors of the Iranian flags on their cheeks
- Several counter-protesters carried signs denouncing Israel and in support of the Palestinians
PARIS, France: Lion-emblazoned flags of pre-revolution Iran fluttered in cities across the world on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets a week after the start of the war in the Middle East.
Europe, Africa and the Americas saw demonstrations, with some protesting against Iran’s Islamic regime, others railing against the war, and some in support of Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first US-Israeli strikes of the conflict.
Paris saw two demonstrations: one supporting the US-based Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, to head up a transition, and another denouncing that scenario.
“I support Pahlavi who is calling for a revolution,” Masoud Ghanaatian, 35, a student, told AFP at a protest in southern Paris, where participants carried photos of the late shah’s son and waved US, Israeli and pre-revolution Iran flags.
“He’s a democrat. He can oversee a transition and promises to organize elections.”
Hundreds of pro-Pahlavi demonstrations also gathered in Stockholm, holding up pictures of him and his late father.
But farther north, protesters wearing yellow vests reading “Free Iran” showed off stickers on their hands that read “No Shah, no Mullah.”
In Amsterdam protesters snaked along one of the city’s canals, holding up Israeli, American and pre-revolution Iran flags, as they called on the government to invite Pahlavi to the country and to close the Iranian embassy.
In Israel, anti-war activists and police scuffled during a protest against eh war in HaBima Square in Tel Aviv.
Shortly after dawn in Britain, anti-war protesters gathered at the entrance of an air force base in Fairford, southwest of England, holding signs reading “Hands off Iran,” “Peace” and “Yanks go home.”
- ‘Assassins’ -
A demonstrations against the war also took place in Cyprus.
Outside the US consulate in Mexico City, protesters carried a placard with pictures of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with blood-soaked palms over the word “Assassins” and kicked pinatas with images of the two leaders.
In the United States, protesters carried Iranian, Lebanese and Palestinian flags and signs “Iran is not our enemy” and “No war on Iran” in downtown Detroit, Michigan.
In Washington DC, demonstrators gathered at the National Mall carrying US, Israeli and Iranian flags, with some protesters painting the colors of the Iranian flags on their cheeks.
In Boston, Iranian Americans gathered at Copley Square to call for the fall of the Islamic republic.
In South Africa — which has dragged Israel to International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide during the Gaza war, a charge Israel denies — dozens gathered in front of the US consulate in Johannesburg, holding up photos of Khamenei, the Islamic republic’s flag and signs bashing Israel.
Protesters carried pictures of Khamenei and denounced the war in central Tunis in Tunisia.
In Cape Town, Iranian pro-democracy activists and supporters of Israel waved Israeli flags and chanted slogans in the Albert Waterfront shopping mall.
Several counter-protesters carried signs denouncing Israel and in support of the Palestinians.
