EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Thursday urged member states to “take more responsibility” and ensure the bloc’s migrant rescue operation continues to fight human trafficking in the Mediterranean.
Rome plans to ask the European Union to modify the rules of the Sophia mission — currently commanded by Italy — and rotate the ports where migrants rescued at sea can disembark, with France and Spain expected to top the list.
Currently all the ships dock in Italy but Rome’s new right-wing, nationalist government says it should not have to carry the burden on its own and it is time other EU states do their fair share by taking in more of the migrants.
In comments before informal talks by EU defense ministers, Mogherini called on them to show a “constructive attitude” to work to continue the mission.
“So far consensus has not been found... We can definitely not afford to leave an EU operation without clarity on the rules it has to follow,” she said ahead of the meeting in Vienna.
“It would be good if member states take more responsibility,” she added. “The important thing is that we manage to keep the operation going... This has been a remarkable achievement for all of the European Union.”
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Sophia’s mandate was until year end — when she expected EU leaders to solve the question of how asylum seekers coming to Europe whose claims are recognized should be distributed among member states and how those rejected should be returned home.
“That is the question that is anyhow right on top of the agenda of EU leaders... and so I expect this question to be solved in the autumn,” she said.
EU leaders will meet in the Austrian city of Salzburg in September to discuss the migrant crisis. Austria currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
Sophia was launched in June 2015 following a series of deadly shipwrecks and has since picked up thousands of migrants floundering in the Mediterranean.
According to La Stampa newspaper, Italy’s idea is to rotate landings between Mediterranean ports, with a particular emphasis on France and Spain, and with Greece and Malta also sharing the load.
Italian Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta said late Wednesday that the ball was in the EU camp.
“By accepting our proposal it (the EU) will have the opportunity to show it is a real community of values and intentions; by refusing it will deny its own fundamental principles,” she said.
Italy has been turning away ships with migrants rescued at sea in a campaign to make EU countries take their share.
Last week, it threatened to stop billions of euros of EU funding over the issue, accusing Europe of turning its back as Italy grapples with seemingly endless migrant arrivals.
Mogherini urges EU to take ‘more responsibility’ on migrant mission
Mogherini urges EU to take ‘more responsibility’ on migrant mission
- EU leaders will meet in the Austrian city of Salzburg in September to discuss the migrant crisis
Putin eases access to Russian citizenship for Georgian breakaway regions
Georgia and Russia have no diplomatic relations since the 2008 war
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a decree simplifying access to Russian citizenship for people from two Georgian breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Under the decree, applicants will no longer be required to permanently reside in Russia to get citizenship, or prove their knowledge of the Russian language or culture.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia are recognized by most of the world as Georgian territory, but has been under de-facto Russian control since a brief 2008 war between Moscow and Tbilisi.
In Abkhazia, another pro-Russian president recently won an election after the previous one was ousted following tense protests over a bill giving Russians easier access to coastal property along the Black Sea.
Georgia and Russia have no diplomatic relations since the 2008 war, but critics accuse the current Georgian ruling party of being pro-Russian, and claim it came to power as a result of a rigged election.
Georgia, which shares a border with Russia, declined to join international financial and economic sanctions against Moscow over its Ukraine offensive, or to support Kyiv with military equipment.
Erdogan sees end in sight for US sanctions on Turkish defense sector
ISTANBUL: Turkiye has seen an easing of US sanctions on its defense sector since Donald Trump became president, with steps toward ending the measure advancing quickly, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.
“We can easily say that there is a softening in CAATSA,,” he told reporters while returning from a European summit, referring to US sanctions legislation.
In 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on Ankara over its purchase of an S-400 Russian surface-to-air missile defense system under a 2017 law known as CAATSA, which aims to limit Russia’s military influence.
The move soured ties between the two NATO member countries.
It also booted Turkiye out of its F-35 program, with Washington saying the presence of the S-400 would allow the Russians to collect information on the stealth jet’s capabilities.
Erdogan said Turkiye had raised the sanctions issue with Trump and his newly-appointed envoy to Ankara, Tom Barrack
“With my friend Trump taking office, we have achieved a more open, more constructive and more sincere communication on these issues,” Erdogan added, saying Turkiye valued “every positive step in this direction.”
“I believe we will overcome the CAATSA process much faster. As two great NATO allies, there should be no restrictions or obstacles in the field of defense between us,” he said.
Turkiye’s partnership with the United States was “of vital importance for the establishment of stability in our region and the world” he said.
In March, Erdogan spoke to Trump about the need to finalize a deal to let Turkiye buy US F-16 fighter planes and be readmitted to the development program for F-35 warplanes.
Turkiye has been seeking to modernize its airforce, and has been seeking to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoons which are built by a four-nation consortium grouping Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy.
Militants kill at least 23 in Nigeria attack, security sources say
MAIDUGURI: At least 23 farmers and fishermen were killed and others abducted by suspected Islamist militants in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state this week, security sources and local residents told Reuters.
Nigeria has been grappling with a long-running insurgency in its northeast, primarily driven by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province.
The latest attack happened in the village of Malam Karanti on Thursday morning, the security sources and residents said.
A spokesman for Nigeria’s army did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
Local resident Sani Auwal said by phone that militants had gathered farmers and fishermen near the village and killed 23 people, many of them bean farmers. They spared an elderly man who later alerted the community, he said.
Another local resident Usman Ali said the community had tried to recover the bodies of those killed but had been chased back by the militants.
Last month Borno’s governor acknowledged that Boko Haram had renewed attacks and kidnappings in the state, reversing previous gains by security forces.
India and US at odds on Kashmir truce with Pakistan — analysts
- Trump announced the truce after four days of missile, drone and artillery attacks from both sides, killing about 70 people
- President Trump’s rhetoric about the ceasefire is ‘irritating’ for India, an important ally for the US, an analyst says
NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump’s claim to have helped end fighting between arch-rivals India and Pakistan has driven a wedge between him and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, analysts say.
A week since Trump announced a surprise truce between India and Pakistan to end a brief but intense conflict, New Delhi and Washington differ about the way it was achieved.
The US administration thought “an intervention at this stage might give them some basic benefit in terms of highlighting Trump’s role,” Indian foreign policy expert Harsh V. Pant told AFP.
“That... became the driver and in a sense the hurry which with Trump announced the ceasefire,” said Pant from the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think tank.
Fighting began when India launched strikes on May 7 against what it called “terrorist camps” in Pakistan following an April militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the militants it claimed were behind the attack, which Pakistan denies.
Trump announced the truce after four days of missile, drone and artillery attacks from both sides, killing about 70 people, including dozens of civilians, and sent thousands fleeing.
He later boasted about bringing India and Pakistan “back from the brink,” telling Fox News on Friday it was “a bigger success than I’ll ever be given credit for.”
New Delhi however shrugs off these claims, which go against decades-long Indian policy that opposes foreign mediation in conflicts with Islamabad.
India and Pakistan claim the currently divided Kashmir in full. New Delhi considers the Himalayan region an internal matter, with politicians long viewing external mediation as a sign of weakness.
Modi’s first speech since the ceasefire did not mention US involvement and his government has since insisted that talks with Pakistan are “strictly bilateral.”
India was also quick to dismiss Trump’s suggestion that trade pressures hastened a truce.
“The issue of trade did not come up” in discussions with US officials, the Indian foreign ministry said this week.
According to ORF fellow Manoj Joshi, Trump’s rhetoric is “irritating” for India — whose strategic location and massive market size have made the country an important ally for the United States.
But India is being “very cautious” because it is in negotiations for a trade deal with Washington to avoid steep tarriffs, he said.
“We (India) would like the agenda to go in a different direction,” said Joshi.
It is also a thorny matter domestically.
Main opposition Congress party said Trump’s announcement had “upstaged” the Hindu nationalist leader’s “much-delayed address.”
It also demanded an all-party meeting to ask whether India is changing its policy on “third-party mediation” for Kashmir, disputed between Pakistan and India.
The two South Asian rivals had in the 1970s agreed to settle “differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations.”
Modi has previously poked fun at former Congress governments for “weak” responses against Pakistan in various skirmishes.
“So India would obviously respond to that and deny that... about as politely as they feel they can get away with,” said South Asia researcher Pramit Pal Chaudhuri of political consultancy Eurasia Group.
Trump’s claimed mediation was welcomed by Islamabad, which “needed an American intervention to give them the off-ramp they needed to get out of a conflict,” Chaudhuri added.
On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reaffirmed that “where Pakistan is concerned, our relations, our dealings with them will be bilateral, and strictly bilateral.”
But the same day, speaking from Qatar, Trump repeated claims of brokering a ceasefire and using trade as a tool.
“(I said) let’s do trade instead of war. And Pakistan was very happy with that, and India was very happy with that,” Trump said in his speech.
It has been a decade since Modi last met a Pakistani leader. Since then, relations have deteriorated, coming to a head when India unilaterally revoked in 2019 limited autonomy of the part of Kashmir it administers.
According to Joshi, “the hyphenation of India and Pakistan” is also “irritating” for New Delhi, which has tried to carve out a separate identity on the global stage.
“The optics of Trump hammering it day after day... is politically damaging for Modi,” Sushant Singh, a former Indian soldier and South Asian studies lecturer at Yale University, wrote on X.
“[Modi] can’t personally counter Trump, and despite attempts by India’s big media to play it down, social media amplifies Trump,” Singh said.
British police charge three Iranians in counter terrorism probe
British police have charged three Iranian men with offenses under the National Security Act after a major counter-terrorism investigation, the police said on Saturday.
British counter-terrorism police arrested eight men including seven Iranians earlier this month in two separate operations in what the British interior minister called some of the biggest investigations of their kind in recent years.
Mostafa Sepahvand, Farhad Javadi Manesh, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori were charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024, and February 16, 2025, the police said in a statement.
The foreign state to which the charges relate is Iran, they added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said he was “disturbed” to learn that Iranian citizens had been arrested by British authorities.
The British government has placed Iran on the highest tier of its foreign influence register, requiring Tehran to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK.
