United Nations – European Affairs Magazine

UN envoy on Yemen in new bid to revive peace talks

8 Maggio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has the duty of pushing Yemen’s peace consultation, even if the grown humanitarian alarm. The UN Envoy will meet the Saudi and Yemeni authorities in Riyadh during the month of Ramadan. The purpose of this other speaking round is to led the peace consultation. The aim of this meeting will be to reach and to sign a peace agreement before of Ramadan. Since the begin of this war, there were about 7 attempting ceasefire agreements, but all of them have failed.

Iran and Italy 50% growth in trade exchanges

7 Maggio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe-American Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi in meeting with his Italian counterpart Vincenzo Amendola acknowledged 50 percent growth in trade exchanges between Tehran and Rome. Takht-e-Ravanchi said that Italy is one of important trade partners of Iran. According to the report of Foreign Ministry Media Department, Takht-e-Ravanchi reminded the existing crises in the Middle East region, and dismissed unilateral military action and expressed Iran’s readiness for cooperation and exchanging views with Italy to solve regional problems. He called Italy’s presence in Tehran International Book Fair as symbol of friendly ties between the two countries. Amendola also expressed his government’s interest to strengthen and deepen ties with Iran and talk about Italian companies’ desire for economic cooperation with Iranian firms. Italy supported nuclear deal between Iran and Group 5+1 and will do its utmost for full implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Vincenzo Amendola said. He said that regional crises has no military solution, adding that Italy as member of the UN Security Council and head of Group 7 is to use its capacity in line with achieving political solution for settling regional problems.

Iraqi army opens new front, advances on ISIS in Mosul from northwest

5 Maggio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

“At hour 06:00 forces of the army ‘s 9th Division and the 73rd Brigade of the 5th Division and forces of the federal police including the Rapid Response units attacked neighborhoods of Mshirfa, al-Kanisa and al-Haramat neighborhoods north of the right side of the city of Mosul”, the military statement read. “Your sons are now fighting to break defenses of the enemy and destroy its capabilities and they are ready to embrace either victory or martyrdom to liberate what has been remained of the Mosul city from the terrorist Daesh”, the statement continued using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. The attack would help the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and Interior Ministry Federal Police troops who were painstakingly advancing from the south, a military commander told Reuters. The militants are now besieged in the north-western corner of Mosul which includes the historic Old City centre and the Grand al-Nuri Mosque-from which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a “caliphate” in 2014. Heavy sustained gunfire has been a constant in the Old City area for days, where militants are hiding among residents and using the alleyways, traditional family homes and snaking narrow roads to their advantage. Tens of thousands of Mosul residents are trapped inside homes, caught in the fighting, shelling and air strikes as Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition advance in the west. The United Nations believes up to half a million people remain in the area, 400,000 of whom are in the Old City with little food, water and medicine

Oil politics driving Libya closer to failure

4 Maggio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

New tensions between Libya’s UN.backed government and the powerful NOC (Libyan National Oil Corporation), threatening recent economical recovery of oil sector. On Monday, NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla announced that the country has built its oil production up to 760,000 barrels per day and planned to go ahead with plans to expand production to 1.1 million bpd by August of this year. However, Sanalla, has openly criticised GNA policy toward global economy and Oil production on the country. He underlined that Oil will be the “lifeblood of any successful futur government in Libya”, and recalled that during Khadaffi’s time, 90% of Tripoli’s revenues was found on oil production. NOC had been closer of LNA (Libyan National Army) and general Haftar since few weeks, due to his capacity to maintain a unity in oil production.

Iran: Jaberi Ansari and Bashar Jaafari meet in Astana

3 Maggio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Iranian Deputy FM Hossein Jaberi Ansari and Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari held talks Tue. during the 4th round of Syria’s international conference in Astana. During the meeting attended by Iranian and Syrian delegations in Astana, the two sides conferred on the latest developments on Astana talks and the political and ground situation in Syria.General and specialized meetings of the fourth International Conference on Syria will be held on Wednesday and Thursday 3-4 May 2017 in the Kazakh capital. Delegations from Astana Process guarantor states (Iran, Russia, and Turkey) together with delegations from observer states will take part in the meetings to find ways to settle the Syrian crisis.

The UN Deputy secretary general praises Yemen aid Conference pledges

30 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Al Arabiya’s Talal al-Haj had an interview with the UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina J. Mohammed, who has praised to entire international community to bring a significative help and support to solve the biggest humanitarian crisis in the Middle-Area. Indeed, apart from Syria, Libya and Iraq, in Yemen, as the General Secretary of UN reported, Antonio Guteress “we are witnessing the starving and clipping of an entire generation”. The UN Deputy General Secretary has reminded all States in the international community to give their supports, as they should have done during the Yemen Aid Conference. In addition to this dramatic situation, yemeni people have concluded their “march for bread”, which lasted the entire week, starting from Sana’a Capital to Hudaydah Port, in order to make declare this port as humanitarian area and to allow supplies and aid assistances to be able at arriving and being spread out to needy people.

Kobler meets Al-Serraj in Tripoli to discuss political process

27 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

The UN delegate to Libya, Martin Kobler, met with the Head of the Presidential Council, Fayez Al-Serraj in Tripoli on Tuesday to inform him about the results of his meeting at the UN Security Council in New York. The two men also talked about the implementation of LPA (Libyan Political Accord), especially on the cooperation between different parts of Libyan political spectrum. Kobler recalled the decision of the UN Security Council of a “non-intervention” in Libya, with a military way, however Al-Serraj, told to Kobler, that in front of violence escalation in South Libya, the dialogue is impossible.

U.N. Syria envoy to meet Russian minister on Monday

21 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

The U.N. mediator for Syria said on Thursday he would hold talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov in Geneva on Monday and that the United States had declined to take part in any trilateral meeting for now. “The trilateral meeting that as you know was a possibility is being postponed, it is not taking place on Monday. It will be a bilateral. But the trilateral is not off the table, just being postponed”, Staffan de Mistura told reporters. “The trilateral meeting that as you know was a possibility is being postponed, it is not taking place on Monday. It will be a bilateral. But the trilateral is not off the table, just being postponed”, Staffan de Mistura told reporters.

UN Security Council Discusses the Libyan Crisis

21 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Widespread conflicts could return to Libya, yet the Libyan agreement could be amended to overcome the current political impasse, according to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. UN SecretaryGeneral recalled the importance to reach, as soon as possible, an agreement to stop current Libyan evolution toward an other civil war. UNSMIL responsable (United Nations Support in Libya), Martin Kobler, suggested the UN increases its support to the security, economy and political process in the country as means to put an end to the Libyan crisis. He also recalled that a large part of Libyans still support LPA (Libyan Political Agreement) signed on December 2015. Guterres urged Libyan political fractions to find a consensus to stabilize the country, he also evoked his worries about Human Rights in the coutnry.

Latest electricity crisis in Gaza makes the Strip unlivable for its two million residents

19 Aprile 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Gaza’s latest electricity crisis could be “the tipping point” that makes the Strip unlivable for its two million residents, a UN official told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “The UN has been warning for some years that the chronic problems of Gaza are accumulating to the extent that we may be approaching a tipping point at which Gaza becomes unlivable”, said Robert Piper, coordinator for humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. It is one more blow for the Hamas-controlled enclave, where unemployment is at 42% and fresh water is a scarce commodity. Gaza will now operate on only four hours of electricity a day, down from eight. The plant had hit a crisis point in December that was averted by tax-free donations from Qatar and Turkey that provided the necessary diesel fuel. To help fix Gaza’s electricity problem and to make it “dramatically cheaper”, the Gaza power plant could be run on natural gas, Piper said. The plant would need to be renovated to shift it from a diesel-based operation, Piper continued, adding that the project could be done in stages.When looking at the larger picture of the crisis, Piper was clear that the primary cause is the restrictions on the freedom of movement of goods and people through the three crossings into the Strip, which have made a viable economy impossible. Israel controls two of the crossings, and Egypt is in charge of the third.Israel has placed restrictions on the Gaza passages since Hamas ousted Fatah from the Strip in a bloody coup in 2007.