WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is pushing for increased security precautions at European airports because of concerns that Al-Qaeda operatives in Syria and Yemen have teamed up to develop bombs that can be smuggled onto planes, US officials said.
The US government is in discussions with European authorities on measures that could include extra scrutiny of US-bound passengers’ electronics and footwear, and installation of additional bomb-detection machines, according to law-enforcement and security officials. An announcement is expected within days.
Bombmakers from the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are believed to be working together to try to develop explosives that could avoid detection by current airport screening systems, US national security sources said.
The main concern is that militant groups could try to blow up US or Europe-bound planes by concealing bombs on foreign fighters carrying Western passports who spent time with radical rebel factions in the region, the sources said.
AQAP already has a track record for plotting such attacks. It was behind a failed 2009 attempt by a militant with a bomb hidden in his underwear to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.
US officials believe Nusra and AQAP operatives have carried out operational testing of new bomb designs in Syria, where Nusra is one of the main groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad, a national security source said.
The “stealth” explosives the bombmakers are trying to design include non-metallic bombs, ABC News reported.
There was no immediate indication that US intelligence has detected a specific plot or timeframe for carrying out such an attack.
But officials are especially worried that the recent battlefield successes of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an Al-Qaeda splinter group, have drawn a growing number of militants from America and Europe to the jihadist cause and they would have easy access to flights headed for US cities.
Still, the Obama administration has been cautious in its response.
Negotiations for beefed-up security with European governments have taken place behind the scenes, apparently to avoid raising alarm among air travelers and to minimize diplomatic fallout. US officials said some measures under discussion will remain secret.
Calls grow for tighter European airport security
Calls grow for tighter European airport security
Kremlin welcomes US sanctions waiver says US and Russia share interest in stable energy markets
DUBAI: Russia sees a U.S. sanctions waiver on its oil as an attempt by Washington to stabilise global energy markets, and the two countries have a shared interest in this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"We see actions by the United States aimed at trying to stabilise energy markets. In this respect, our interests coincide," he said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a temporary authorisation allowing countries around the world to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea on Thursday extending a measure that had previously been granted only to Indian refiners.
Bessent stressed in a post on X that the authorisation would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.
“This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Bessent said on a post on X.
However, the measure received mix reviews in European capitals, with many fearing it could help replenish Russia's assualt on Ukraine.
"I am concerned that we are further filling Putin's war chest," German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said in Berlin on Friday.
Reiche said that she saw both sides to the United States' decision to issue a 30-day waiver for the purchase of Russian oil products, understanding the increasing ecnomic and political turnout from the oil crisis, particurlarly in South Korea and Japan.
"It seems to me that domestic political pressure in the United States is very, very high," Reiche said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was more direct, saying on Friday that it was wrong to ease sanctions against Russia for whatever reason. The sentiment was echoed by Norway’s Prime Minister, who also said sanctions should not be eased.
Oil prices held gains above $100 Friday and most equity markets dropped after Iran's leader called for the blocking of the crucial Strait of Hormuz and the opening up of new fronts in the war against the United States and Israel.
With the conflict heading towards its third week and showing no signs of ending, investors are growing increasingly worried about an extended crisis that could fan inflation and hammer the global economy.
