Russia said on Wednesday it would need to see a change in NATO’s stance and a willingness for dialogue before it would consider returning to its last remaining nuclear treaty with the United States.
The lower house of the Russian parliament voted quickly in favor of suspending Moscow’s participation in the New START treaty, rubber-stamping a decision that President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday when he accused the West of trying to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine.
The 2010 treaty limits each country’s deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550. Security analysts say its potential collapse could unleash a new arms race at a perilous moment when Putin is increasingly portraying the Ukraine war he launched one year ago as a direct confrontation with the West.
Asked in what circumstances Russia would return to the deal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Everything will depend on the position of the West... When there’s a willingness to take into account our concerns, then the situation will change.”
Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying: “We will, of course, be closely monitoring the further actions of the United States and its allies, including with a view to taking further countermeasures, if necessary.”
Responding to a CNN report that Russia had unsuccessfully tested its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this week — a weapon capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads — Interfax quoted Ryabkov as saying: “You cannot trust everything that appears in the media, especially if the source is CNN.”
The suspended treaty gives each side the right to inspect the other’s sites – though visits had been halted since 2020 because of COVID-19 and the Ukraine war – and obliges the parties to provide detailed notifications on their respective deployments.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the Russian move was “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it made the world more dangerous and urged Putin to reconsider.
Russia said, however, it would continue to abide by the limits on the number of warheads it can deploy and stood open to reversing its decision.
Before passing the vote in Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, speaker Vyacheslav Volodin blamed the United States for the breakdown.
“By ceasing to comply with its obligations and rejecting our country’s proposals on global security issues, the United States destroyed the architecture of international stability,” Volodin said in a statement.
Russia is now demanding that British and French nuclear weapons targeted against Russia should be included in the arms control framework, something analysts say is a non-starter for Washington after more than half a century of bilateral nuclear treaties with Moscow.
“We will obviously pay special attention to what line and what decisions London and Paris are taking, which can no longer, even hypothetically, be considered outside of the Russian-US dialogue on nuclear arms control,” the TASS news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying.
He said there was currently no direct dialogue between Moscow and Washington on nuclear issues and it was unknown whether it would resume.
Russia: No return to nuclear treaty until West is ready to talk
Russia: No return to nuclear treaty until West is ready to talk
- The 2010 treaty limits the US’s and Russia’s deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550
- The suspended treaty gives each side the right to inspect the other’s sites
26,711 Pakistani pilgrims reach Saudi Arabia ahead of this year’s Hajj
- Around 179,210 Pakistanis will perform Hajj under both government and private schemes
- Over 1,000 Pakistani Hajj pilgrims have arrived in Kingdom through private tour operators
ISLAMABAD: A spokesperson for Pakistan’s religion ministry said on Tuesday 26,711 Pakistani pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of next month’s Hajj, less than two weeks after the country kicked off its pre-Hajj flight operations to the Kingdom.
This year, around 179,210 Pakistanis will perform Hajj under both the government and private schemes, for which a month-long flight operation started on May 9. This year’s pilgrimage is expected to run from June 14-19.
“Through 109 flights, 26,711 Pakistani Hajj pilgrims have reached Saudi Arabia,” a spokesperson of the Religious Affairs (MoRA) said in a statement. “After an eight-day stay in Madinah, the first convoy of 6,011 Hajj pilgrims has left for Makkah.”
The spokesperson said over 1,000 Hajj pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia through the private scheme, adding that 336 assistants or “Hajj Moavineen” have been deployed to help Pakistani pilgrims, and ensure their pilgrimage remains a hassle-free one.
He said Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain visited the residences of Pakistani Hajj pilgrims in Makkah recently and also reviewed arrangements for their food and travel in the holy city.
“Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Chaudhry Salik Hussain is expected to hold an important meeting with his Saudi counterpart today,” the spokesperson said.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and requires every adult Muslim to undertake the journey to the holy Islamic sites in Makkah at least once in their lifetime, provided they are financially and physically able to do so.
Pilgrims from Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi are availing the Makkah Route Initiative facility for the first time. Launched in 2019, the initiative allows for the completion of immigration procedures at the pilgrims’ country of departure.
This makes it possible to bypass long immigration and customs checks upon reaching Saudi Arabia, which significantly reduces the waiting time and makes the entry process smoother and faster.
France begins its first war crime trial of Syrian officials
The Paris Criminal Court will try the three officials for their role in the deaths of two French Syrian men, Mazzen Dabbagh and his son Patrick, arrested in Damascus in 2013.
“For the first time, French courts will address the crimes of the Syrian authorities, and will try the most senior members of the authorities to ever be prosecuted since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011,” said the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
The war between Assad’s regime and armed opposition groups, including Daesh, erupted after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.
The conflict has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged Syria’s economy and infrastructure.
Trials into the abuses of the Syrian regime have taken place elsewhere in Europe, notably in Germany.
But in those cases, the people prosecuted held lower ranks and were present at the hearings.
Ali Mamlouk, former head of the National Security Bureau, Jamil Hassan, former director of the Air Force intelligence service, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, former head of investigations for the service in Damascus, are subject to international arrest warrants and will be tried in absentia.
Scheduled to last four days, the hearings will be filmed.
War crimes
At the time of the arrest, Patrick Dabbagh was a 20-year-old student in his second year of arts and humanities at the University of Damascus. His father Mazzen worked as a senior education adviser at the French high school in Damascus.
The two were arrested in November 2013 by officers who claimed to belong to the Syrian Air Force intelligence service.
“Witness testimony confirms that Mazzen and Patrick Abdelkader were both taken to a detention center at Mezzeh Military Airport, which is run by Syrian Air Force Intelligence and notorious for the use of brutal torture,” the International Federation for Human Rights said, stressing that the pair were not involved in protests against the Assad regime.
They were declared dead in 2018. The family was formally notified that Patrick died on 21 January 2014. His father Mazzen died nearly four years later, on 25 November 2017.
In the committal order, the investigating judges said that it was “sufficiently established” that the two men “like thousands of detainees of the Air Force intelligence suffered torture of such intensity that they died.”
During the probe, French investigators and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), a non-governmental organization, collected accounts of torture and mistreatment at the Mezzeh prison, including the use of electric shocks and sexual violence, from dozens of witnesses including former detainees.
Lawyer Clemence Bectarte, who represents the Dabbagh family and the International Federation for Human Rights, said the trial was a new reminder that “under no circumstances” should relations with the Assad regime be normalized.
“We tend to forget that the regime’s crimes are still being committed today,” she said.
France backs ICC after prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu
- If such warrants are issued, members of the court, could be put in a diplomatically difficult position
PARIS: France backs the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the ‘fight against impunity’, its foreign ministry said after the court’s prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others for alleged war crimes.
On Monday, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said he had requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his defense chief Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders, including its chief, Yahya Sinwar.
If such warrants are issued, however, members of the court, which includes nearly all countries of the European Union, could be put in a diplomatically difficult position.
“France supports the International Criminal Court, its independence and the fight against impunity in all situations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement late on Monday.
While US President Joe Biden called the legal step against Israeli officials “outrageous,” the French foreign ministry took a different stance.
It reiterated both its condemnation of Hamas’s ‘anti-Semitic massacres’ on Oct. 7 as well as its warnings over possible violations of international humanitarian law by Israel’s invasion of the Gaza strip.
“As far as Israel is concerned, it will be up to the court’s pre-trial chamber to decide whether to issue these warrants, after examining the evidence put forward by the prosecutor ... ,” the ministry said.
Dubai DXB airport sees record 2024 traffic after 8.4% rise in Q1
- Dubai airport welcomed around 23 million passengers in January-March period, operator says
- India, Saudi Arabia and Britain were top three countries by passenger volumes in first quarter
DUBAI: Dubai’s main airport expects to handle a record passenger traffic this year after an 8.4% rise in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, operator Dubai Airports said on Tuesday.
Dubai International Airport (DXB), a major global travel hub, welcomed around 23 million passengers in the January-March period, the operator said in a statement, noting that the uptick was partly driven by increased destination offers by flagship carrier Emirates and its sister low-cost airline Flydubai.
“With a strong start to Q2 and an optimistic outlook for the rest of the year, we have revised our forecast for the year to 91 million guests, surpassing our previous annual traffic record of 89.1 million in 2018,” CEO Paul Griffiths said in the statement.
Dubai is the biggest tourism and trade hub in the Middle East, attracting a record 17.15 million international overnight visitors last year.
Its ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum last month approved a new passenger terminal in Al Maktoum International airport worth 128 billion dirhams ($34.85 billion).
The Al Maktoum International Airport will be the largest in the world with a capacity of up to 260 million passengers, and five times the size of DXB, he said, adding all operations at Dubai airport would be transferred to Al Maktoum in the coming years.
DXB is connected to 256 destinations across 102 countries. In the first quarter, India, Saudi Arabia and Britain were the top three countries by passenger numbers, Dubai Airports added. ($1 = 3.6729 UAE dirham)
US Anti-Doping Agency blasts WADA’s Banka over ‘hit job’ on US athletes
- The US agency said Banka had distorted facts “to deflect from the real concerns the world has about how WADA allowed China to sweep 23 positive tests under the carpet”
- On Friday, Banka cited three US doping cases that resulted from environmental contamination, as the Chinese swimmers’ cases have also been ruled
LOS ANGELES: The US Anti-Doping Agency on Monday accused World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka of smearing US athletes in a bid to divert attention from WADA’s handling of the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics.
In a statement released on Monday, USADA responded to comments made by Banka during an extraordinary virtual meeting of WADA’s Foundation Board on Friday.
The US agency said Banka had distorted facts “to deflect from the real concerns the world has about how WADA allowed China to sweep 23 positive tests under the carpet.”
WADA came under fire in April after it was revealed that the Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine — which can enhance performance — ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
The swimmers were not suspended or sanctioned after WADA accepted the explanation of Chinese authorities that the positive tests for the prescription heart drug were caused by food contamination at a hotel where they had stayed.
USADA chief Travis Tygart has called the situation a “potential cover-up.”
On Friday, Banka cited three US doping cases that resulted from environmental contamination, as the Chinese swimmers’ cases have also been ruled.
But USADA noted on Monday that the three US contamination cases were made public and resulted in violations and disqualifications for the named athletes.
Banka also pointed to “inconsistent rule implementation in the US” and claimed that 90 percent of American athletes — in professional leagues and college sport — do not compete under the world anti-doping code.
USADA said that remark was “a particularly manipulative comment in an effort to indicate that 90 percent of US athletes are dirty and only 10 percent are clean.”
USADA noted leagues such as the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball have their own anti-doping systems, and that it was “incredibly reckless for the President of WADA to suggest these sports do not have robust and effective programs and that their athletes are not clean.
“Simply put, these comments are harmful and an insult to all athletes in these leagues and to the leagues themselves,” USADA said, noting that college athletes become subject to WADA rules when they take part in competitions sanctioned by international governing bodies.
“There is nothing more classic in a cover-up than diversion and smoke and mirrors,” USADA said.
“The second most classic response to a cover-up is to attack the messenger, which is the current situation as Banka and surrogates plumb the depths of misinformation and half-truths to make personal attacks, even stooping so low as to attempt a hit job on all US athletes.”
