Tag Archives: Russia

Syrian opposition casts doubt on peace talks after Russian bombing

PARIS (Reuters) – Syria’s opposition co-ordinator Riad Hijab accused Russia of killing dozens of children after a bombing raid on Monday and said such action meant the opposition could not negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Earlier the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 12 Syrian school children had been killed when suspected Russian warplanes hit a classroom in the rebel-held town of Injara in Aleppo province.

Hijab, speaking after talks with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, put the death toll at 35 children and said the Russian strikes had hit three schools in total.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which denies any targeting of civilians in the conflict.

“We want to negotiate, but to do that the conditions have to be there,” Hijab told reporters. “We cannot negotiate with the regime when there are foreign forces bombing the Syrian people.”

Hijab is a former prime minister under Assad who defected to the opposition in 2012. He was chosen in December as coordinator of the opposition negotiating body to lead future Syria talks.

Peace talks are scheduled to be held between the government and opposition on Jan. 25 under the auspices of the United Nations. However, opposition officials have already cast doubt on whether the talks will go ahead on schedule, citing a need to see goodwill measures from the government side.

“We do not want to go to negotiations that are condemned to failure before they start. We need to create the right climate,” Hijab said. “How could we negotiate when the Syrian people are dying? Each day there are massacres.”

He said the talks had to lead to a transitional government with the president and prime minister’s full executive powers.

“INADMISSIBLE ATTACKS”

Hijab said Russia was flaunting U.N. Security Council resolutions by bombing civilians and urged the world body to ensure Russia respected its humanitarian obligations.

He also dismissed Syrian government demands that it see a list of opposition members attending the possible talks, saying the opposition would not have choices imposed on them.

Earlier on Monday French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called on Moscow and Damascus to stop “inadmissible” attacks against civilians.

Hollande and Fabius reiterated the Western view that Assad, who has strong backing from Moscow and Tehran, must relinquish power under any peace settlement.

“Bashar al-Assad has no role in the Syria of tomorrow,” Hollande said after his talks with Hijab.

Fabius said images from Madaya showing people suffering from starvation in the besieged rebel-held town underscored why the Syrian leader should step down. On Monday an aid convoy entered the town where thousands have been trapped.

(Additional reporting By Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Erdogan says attempted Islamic State attack vindicates Iraq deployment

ANKARA/BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An attempted attack by Islamic State on a military base in northern Iraq shows Turkey’s decision to deploy troops there was justified, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, suggesting Russia was stirring up a row over the issue.

Turkey deployed a force protection unit of around 150 troops to northern Iraq in December citing heightened security risks near Bashiqa, where its soldiers have been training an Iraqi militia to fight Islamic State. Baghdad objected to the troop deployment, however.

The head of the Sunni militia said his fighters and Turkish forces launched a joint “pre-emptive” attack on Islamic State around 10 km (6 miles) south of the base on Wednesday because the militants were building capacity to launch rockets at it.

“Our forces managed to detect the position of these rockets so they conducted a preemptive strike,” Atheel al-Nujaifi, former governor of the nearby Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul, told Reuters.

“This operation was ended without a single rocket being launched at the camp,” he said.

Erdogan said no Turkish soldiers were harmed while 18 Islamic State militants were killed.

“This incident shows what a correct step it was, the one regarding Bashiqa. It is clear that with our armed soldiers there, our officers giving the training are prepared for anything at any time,” he told reporters in Istanbul.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi accused Ankara last week of failing to respect an agreement to withdraw its troop deployment, while majority-Shi’ite Iraq’s foreign minister said Baghdad could resort to military action if forced.

Erdogan said the problems over the deployment only started after Turkey’s relations with Russia soured in the wake of Turkey shooting down a Russian fighter jet over Syria in November.

“They (Iraq) asked us to train their soldiers and showed us this base as the venue. But as we see, afterwards, once there were problems between Russia and Turkey … these negative developments began,” Erdogan said.

Turkey, he said, was acting in line with international law.

The camp in Iraq’s Nineveh province, to which Sunni Muslim power Turkey has historic ties, is situated around 140 km (90 miles) south of the Turkish border.

Iraqi security forces have no presence in Nineveh after collapsing in June 2014 in the face of a lightning advance by Islamic State.

Ankara has acknowledged there was a “miscommunication” with Baghdad over the troop deployment.

It later withdrew some soldiers to another base in the nearby autonomous Kurdistan region and said it would continue to pull out of Nineveh. But Erdogan has ruled out a full withdrawal.

Nujaifi said the international coalition bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria had supported ground forces with air strikes in Wednesday’s operation.

The coalition said it launched four strikes near Mosul on Wednesday, but a spokesman said they were not in direct support of the Turkish-Iraqi operation at Bashiqa.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk, Ralph Boulton and Hugh Lawson)

Amnesty: Russian Airstrikes in Syria ‘May Amount to War Crimes’

Russian airstrikes in Syria killed at least 200 civilians and the Russian government might have lied to cover up the deaths and widespread damage to residential areas, according to a new Amnesty International report.

The human rights organization said Tuesday that some of the strikes seemed to be directly launched at civilian areas, with no clear military target to be found, and “show evidence of violations of international humanitarian law.” In a statement, Philip Luther, who directs Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program, said the strikes “may amount to war crimes.”

The Russian Defense Ministry disputes the allegations in the report, which it says includes “fake information” and “trite clichés,” a ministry spokesman told Reuters.

Russia has been performing airstrikes in Syria since Sept. 30, independent of the United States-led coalition that is dedicated to destroying Islamic State interests. Russian government authorities have publicly stated that the airstrikes are only aimed at terrorist targets.

However, the Amnesty report cites interviews with witnesses and survivors of those attacks, as well as analysis from weapons experts, as evidence that some of the airstrikes occurred in areas where “there were no military targets or fighters in the immediate vicinity.”

The report references six specific attacks in Homes, Idleb and Aleppo between September and November. Amnesty alleges five of those strikes targeted residential areas, while the sixth occurred very close to a hospital.

Amnesty referenced a Nov. 29 incident in which three missiles hit a busy public market in Idleb, killing 49 civilians. One man told the group that he spoke to a woman who was “crying beside a line of dead bodies” after her husband and three children died in the attack. In researching the report, Amnesty said it determined that there were no apparent military targets in the area.

Amnesty’s report also references an Oct. 1 airstrike against a mosque in Idleb, which caused the deaths of two civilians. A witness told Amnesty there weren’t any military targets within 500 meters of the mosque. But the report cites comments Russian officials publicly made about the airstrike, which the officials said targeted Islamic State interests and destroyed a command post.

Weeks later, after reports surfaced that the mosque had been destroyed, Russian officials said the claims were fabricated and showed a satellite picture of the mosque supposedly still intact. However, Amnesty reported the picture showed a different mosque than the one destroyed in the attack.

Amnesty called for independent investigations into the alleged transgressions, saying Russian leaders “failed to take feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”

Amnesty said it also has evidence Russia used unguided bombs in civilian areas, as well as widely criticized cluster bombs. Reuters reported Russia’s Defense Ministry denied using any cluster bombs in Syria.

Amnesty reported that it is also “researching and documenting its concerns” about the airstrikes conducted by the United States-led coalition.

Russia Planning to Sue Ukraine Over $3 Billion Bond Default

The Russian government is gearing up for a potential court battle with Ukraine after Kiev failed to repay a $3 billion bond debt, according to official statements from Russia’s prime minister.

Speaking at a meeting with his deputy prime ministers on Monday, Dmitry Medvedev said that Ukraine failed to repay the debt by a Dec. 20 deadline. While Ukraine can still repay the debt without any penalties in the next 10 days, there’s been no indication the nation plans do so.

Medvedev told his cabinet that the Russian government “must hire lawyers and start the procedure to make Ukraine pay everything, including fines,” adding that Ukraine’s failure to pay “amounts to manipulation and violation of its international commitments.”

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been deteriorating in recent months, fueled in large part by Russia annexing the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in February 2014 amid the Ukrainian revolution. The European Union issued a host of sanctions against Russia in the wake of the Crimean crisis, and announced Monday those sanctions would be extended through July 2016.

While it’s not a member of the European Union, the Ukraine has signed an economic agreement with the group. Speaking to his cabinet, Medvedev said that Ukraine implementing that pact “impinges on our interests and creates risk to our economic security.” Medvedev said he had signed a decree to enact “reciprocal economic measures” against the Ukraine beginning January 1, when the Ukraine’s revised economic agreement with the European Union goes into effect.

Bloomberg reported that Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, sold the debt to Russia in December 2013, weeks before Yanukovych was ousted. Ukraine’s new leader, Petro Poroshenko, has called that payment a bribe Russian President Vladimir Putin used to reward Yanukovych for shying away from closer trade ties with the European Union, which helped ignite the revolution.

The conflict has wreaked havoc on Ukraine’s bank accounts, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loaned the country $17 billion in April 2014 to help the nation reform its economy.

Bloomberg reported the Ukraine had to restructure billions of dollars in debt to obtain the IMF money, but Russia refused to participate and countered with its own proposed payment plan.

Ukraine’s finance minister, Natalie Jaresko, told Bloomberg that the decision to halt bond payments to Russia was made to remain compliant with IMF requirements, and that paying Russia “would have breached the contractual obligations that we have to our other creditors.”

Jaresko told Bloomberg she remained hopeful that an out-of-court settlement could be reached.

Kerry Working With Russians to Fuel Syrian Peace Talks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with key Russian leaders on Tuesday in an attempt to work past their philosophical differences and find a diplomatic solution to the Syrian civil war.

Kerry met with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.

The talks came ahead of a planned meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), a collection of countries looking to put an end to the ongoing conflict in Syria. The nations, which include the United States and Russia, are scheduled to meet this coming Friday in New York.

Russia and the United States haven’t been on the same page about how to end the conflict, particularly about the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The controversial leader has been the main point of contention in the conflict, which began with an uprising in 2011 and subsequently led to millions of Syrians fleeing their homes to escape the war-torn nation.

U.S. President Barack Obama has publicly said Assad must be out of office before the war can end. It’s been widely reported that Russia is one of Assad’s biggest allies, and Moscow believes Syria’s residents — and not any other nation — should ultimately get to determine what happens.

Complicating the issue is the fact that the Islamic State terrorist organization has taken control of territory in both Syria and Iraq, and the United States is leading a 65-nation coalition that is conducting airstrikes in the region. Russia has also been carrying out some airstrikes on its own.

Speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with Lavrov, Kerry said the two nations “did reach some common ground today,” but it wasn’t appropriate for him to elaborate further because they ultimately needed the entire ISSG to come together to discuss the future of Syria.

“We are cooperating now in Syria because (the Islamic State) is a threat to all of us,” Kerry told reporters, adding he expected Friday’s ISSG meeting in New York to proceed as scheduled.

Kerry’s visit to Russia came days after a collection of Assad’s critics gathered in Saudi Arabia to and developed a unified vision as to how they could politically resolve the multi-year conflict.

The Syrian Coalition said it’s seeking a new democracy built upon equality, transparency, law and accountability, but took a firm stance that neither Assad nor the members of his current regime could take part in any transitional government “or any future political settlement.”

That coalition wants to meet Assad’s government for peace talks, potentially next month.

Crude Oil Prices Rise Slightly After Hitting 8-Year Lows

Crude oil prices bounced slightly back Monday after hitting their lowest price in nearly a decade.

Oil prices have been closely monitored since Dec. 4, when the Order of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced at a meeting it would not place a cap on its oil production. That has allowed the organization’s 12 members to keep flooding an oversaturated global market with more of the commodity, sending the prices tumbling to levels not previously seen in years.

Monday’s developments were the first hint of a rebound since that meeting, Reuters reported.

The price of U.S. crude rose 69 cents and closed at $36.31, an increase of 1.94 percent.

However, the price of Brent crude, which is widely seen as a benchmark for global oil purchase prices, dropped a penny to $37.92. The Wall Street Journal reported it was the seventh straight day Brent crude saw its price decline, the commodity’s longest losing streak since July 2014.

Barrels of both oils were trading below $35 earlier Monday. Before the rebound, Reuters reported the prices were as cheap as they’ve been since the 2008 financial crisis started.

OPEC hasn’t capped its oil production because it wants to retain its share in the global market, Al Jazeera reported. If OPEC limited its output, other countries are in a position to produce oil that the organization otherwise could.

While U.S. drivers are certainly enjoying the cheap oil — AAA reported the national average dropped to $2.014 per gallon, about 55 cents cheaper than this time last year — the low price represents a significant challenge to some countries that depend on oil for their revenue.

CNN reported Monday that Russian finance officials were anticipating oil could drop to $30 a barrel in 2016. The country, which is not an OPEC member, based its budget on an oil price of $50 per barrel and the country’s oil and gas exports represent about 50 percent of its revenue.

AAA said the national average gas price has not fallen below $2.00 a gallon since 2009.

Russian Gunship Fires Warning Shots at Turkish Fishing Vessel

A Russian gunship fired warning shots at a Turkish fishing boat over the weekend to prevent the two vessels from colliding into each other, Russian government officials said in a news release.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the incident happened on Sunday morning in the Aegean Sea.

It’s the latest in a series of tense interactions between the countries since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Nov. 24. The nations believe conflicting sets of circumstances about the incident, which has led Russia to impose several sanctions on Turkey.

According to the Russian statement, its Smetlivy destroyer was anchored near Lemnos Island in the northern Aegean Sea when sailors noticed the Turkish vessel approaching at about .62 miles off the starboard side. Smetlivy fired some signal rockets and tried to hail the ship via radio, but received no response. When the Turkish ship got within .37 miles, Smetlivy utilized its “naval small arms … at the distance of guaranteed survivability of the target” to prevent a collision.

Russia says the Turkish ship immediately changed course after that, but never hailed Smetlivy.

The Russian Ministry of Defense summoned the military attache at Turkey’s embassy in Moscow to discuss the incident. But Turkish leaders were reportedly not thrilled with Russia’s reaction.

Citing comments he made an Italian newspaper, Reuters reported that Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said firing warning shots at a fishing ship was unnecessary.

“Ours was only a fishing boat, it seems to me that the reaction of the Russian naval ship was exaggerated,” Cavusoglu reportedly told Corriere della Sera. “Russia and Turkey certainly have to re-establish the relations of trust that we have always had, but our patience has a limit.”

Turkey Accuses Russia of Wanting “Ethnic Cleansing” in Syria

Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu is accusing Russia of using bombing raids in the supposed effort to fight the Islamic State in Syria as an attempt to drive ethnic Turkmen and Sunni Arabs, considered to be rebels against the Syrian region led by Bashar al-Assad, out of the area.

According to The Telegraph, Mr. Davutoglu, while speaking to reporters at a briefing stated, “Russia is trying to make ethnic cleansing in northern Latakia to force (out) all Turkmen and Sunni populations who do not have good relations with the regime. They want to expel them, they want to ethnically cleanse this area so that the regime and Russian bases in Latakia and Tartus are protected.”

Relations between Turkey and Moscow have been tense and heated since a Russian warplane was shot down last month on the Syrian border. The BBC reported UK specialists have been asked to help analyze the flight recorder by Vladimir Putin in a direct request to Prime Minister David Cameron. Turkey maintains the act was justified and that the Russian bomber had been repeatedly warned that it was in Syrian airspace.

Ethnic Turkmen were reportedly the ones allegedly being targeted by the Russian fighter. Turkmen also have claimed to be the group that shot at and killed one of the pilots.

According to Reuters, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that accusations of ethnic cleansing in Syria are “groundless.”

Leaked Document Claims ISIS Present, Planning Attacks in Thailand

Multiple published reports indicate police in Thailand have information claiming that a group of 10 people linked to the Islamic State allegedly entered the country to carry out terrorist attacks.

Reuters reported a leaked memo cites intelligence from Russia’s Federal Security Service that indicated 10 ISIS-linked Syrians traveled to Thailand in October to attack targets tied to Russia.

The BBC reported the document, which was marked “urgent,” said the Syrians did not travel together and at least six have gone to areas that are popular with Russian tourists.

A police spokesman confirmed to the Associated Press that the document was authentic, but he could not verify if the intelligence within it was accurate. Reuters quoted the commissioner of Thailand’s immigration bureau, Nathathorn Prausoontorn, as saying there isn’t any information that ties the 21 Syrians who entered Thailand in October and were still there to the Islamic State.

Russia has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria since late September, which intensified after ISIS bombed a commercial Russian plane in October and killed 224 people.

Russian officials accuse Turkish president of involvement with ISIS oil trade

Russian officials have reportedly accused the president of Turkey and his family of a direct tie to the Islamic State, claiming Tayyip Erdogan and his family are linked to the group’s oil smuggling.

Multiple media outlets reported the accusation Wednesday, saying Erdogan denied the notion.

According to Russian television network RT, the country’s defense ministry briefed the media on its investigation into the Islamic State’s oil activities and funding. The country’s deputy defense minister Anatoly Antonov laid out some of the evidence, claiming it directly implicates Turkey.

RT reported the evidence included clips of Russian airstrikes on ISIS oil interests, like refineries and pumping stations. The ministry reportedly claimed those strikes, and the bombing of more than 1,000 oil trucks, have cut the Islamic State’s daily income from $3 million to $1.5 million, but a significant amount of ISIS’ stolen oil was still entering Turkey via three smuggling routes.

“Turkey is the main destination for the oil stolen from its legitimate owners, which are Syria and Iraq,” Antonov said at the media briefing, according to a NBC News report. “Turkey resells this oil. The appalling part about it is that the country’s top political leadership is involved in the illegal business — President Erdogan and his family.”

But the BBC reported that Russia did not provide any concrete proof of Erdogan’s involvement at the briefing. Russia said it was only showing a portion of the evidence Wednesday, and RT reported that the ministry would be providing additional material on its website at a later date.

Erdogan reportedly dismissed the claims as slanderous.

“No one has the right to slander Turkey, especially the slander of Turkey buying ISIS oil,” CNN quoted Erdogan as saying during a speech at Qatar University. “Turkey has not lost its moral values to buy oil from a terror organization.”

Tensions between the two countries have been high since a Turkish plane shot down a Russian plane near the Syrian border last Tuesday. The two countries have disputed the circumstances of the incident, with Turkey saying the Russian plane ignored repeated warnings and crossed into its airspace and Russia claiming no warnings were given and Turkish airspace was not violated.

Earlier this week, CNN reported Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Turkey of shooting down the plane to keep its ISIS oil activity hidden. Erdogan vowed to resign if that was proven.

Russia has imposed some economic and travel sanctions on Turkey for its role in the incident.

President Barack Obama has asked the two nations to reduce tensions.

The United States has also asked Turkey to seal off its border with Syria to prevent Islamic State insurgents from shuffling oil and manpower, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN on Wednesday that Turkey plans to shut down the portion of its border that’s still not secure.