STOCKHOLM: Sweden still hopes to be a member of NATO by the time of the alliance’s summit in Vilnius in July, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Friday.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine convinced Sweden and Finland last year to ditch long-held policies of military non-alignment and seek security of NATO’s collective defense commitment.
Finland joined NATO last month, but Sweden’s membership has been held up by objections from Turkiye and Hungary.
“There isn’t going to be any plan B or anything like that. Plan B is plan A — that is full membership in NATO and that is what I and the government are going to work for all the way to Vilnius,” he told reporters.
Turks vote in the second round of a tight presidential election on Sunday, with incumbent Tayyip Erdogan leading after the first ballot.
Billstrom said he hoped Turkiye’s parliament would begin the ratification process after the dust has settled.
“It is time for Turkiye to start its ratification process and uphold its part of the bargain,” Billstrom said.
Sweden and Finland struck a three-way deal in Madrid in June last year aimed at addressing Turkiye’s security worries.
But Ankara has continued to drag its heels over Sweden, saying Stockholm harbors members of militant groups it considers to be terrorists.
Hungary has also objected to Sweden’s application citing grievances over Swedish criticism of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s record on democracy and the rule of law.
Billstrom said it was unclear what objections Budapest had to Sweden’s membership.
“Hungary gave its support at the summit in Madrid last year for Sweden to be given invitee status without any conditions,” he said. “It is our firm opinion that they should start ratification.”
Swedish foreign minister says ambition is to join NATO by July
https://arab.news/y4wyt
Swedish foreign minister says ambition is to join NATO by July
- Finland joined NATO last month, but Sweden's membership has been held up by objections from Turkiye and Hungary
- Billstrom said he hoped Turkiye’s parliament would begin the ratification process after the dust has settled
French publisher recalls dictionary over ‘Jewish settler’ reference
- The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks”
- The four books are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said
PARSI: French publisher Hachette on Friday said it had recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promised to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company told AFP.
The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
“Jewish settlers” is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
France’s leading publishing group, which came under the control of the ultra-conservative Vincent Bollore at the end of 2023, has begun an internal inquiry “to determine how such an error was made.”
It promised to put in place “a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications” in these series.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, with 251 people taken hostage, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Authorities in Gaza estimate that more than 70,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces during their bombardment of the territory since, while nearly 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN data.
Israeli forces have killed at least 447 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
