Author: M Barbu

Europeans reject Israeli charges against Palestinian NGOs

Nine European countries said Tuesday that they have seen “no substantial evidence” to support Israel’s allegations that six Palestinian civil society groups are terrorist organizations and would not change their policies on supporting the groups.

The rare joint statement was a major rebuke of Israel, which backlisted the groups as terrorist organizations last October but has provided little evidence to support its allegations. The rights groups denied the allegations and accused Israel of escalating a long-standing crackdown on Palestinian opposition to its decades-long military rule.

Libya’s Dbeibeh appoints new head of state oil company

Former governor of Libya’s central bank named to head NOC

TRIPOLI, Libya

The Tripoli-based government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh on Tuesday appointed a new chairman of Libya’s state oil company.

“Farhat Omar Bengdara was appointed chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), replacing Mustafa Sanalla,” Oil Ministry spokesman Ahmad Jumaa told Anadolu Agency.

Kremlin hopes Biden will not seek to turn Saudi Arabia against Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that Russia highly valued cooperation with Saudi Arabia within the framework of OPEC+ group of world’s leading oil producers.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it hoped President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia would not be used to try to foster anti-Russian relations, just as the United States seeks to convince Riyadh to boost oil production amid soaring prices.

Ukraine war: Russia’s G20 walkout heightens tensions at fractious summit as China’s rise continues

While G20 foreign ministers were meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, threatened further escalation in his war against Ukraine, announcing to the world that “by and large, we have not started anything in earnest yet”. What he meant became quickly clear when a missile attack hit an apartment building in Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, killing 33 people. Further indiscriminate attacks followed against Kharkiv in northern Ukraine and Mykolaiv in the south.

The war in Ukraine: A no-win situation for the left

The political left is floundering over what to say about the war in Ukraine.

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro supports Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has been his ally since 2018.

Some radicals have denounced high-profile American socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders for backing the United States. Fightback, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency, supports neither Ukraine nor Russia, declaring this a “reactionary war on both sides.”

Risk or opportunity? How Russia sees a changing MENA region

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, has served to accentuate ongoing differences between the United States and Europe on the one hand and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) on the other. This has, to some extent, benefited Russia’s relations with the MENA region at the expense of the United States and Europe. But the impact of the Russian invasion may eventually prove harmful to Russia’s influence in the MENA region.

A pivot point for Europe’s role in the Middle East

Eleven years ago, as popular uprisings erupted across the Middle East and North Africa, Europeans imagined themselves as partners of choice for democratic and economic transitions that would create pathways to sustainable stability. This dream failed catastrophically. The region was overwhelmed by instability and conflict, and Europe, in turn, by waves of refugees and deadly terrorism. Through it all the European bloc found itself marginalized, crowded out by the more assertive interventions of regional and non-regional actors.