BRUSSELS: EU leaders agreed to impose sanctions against members of the Belarus regime on Friday and fired a warning at Turkey over its gas drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean.
In a summit statement hammered out over more than six hours of haggling, the 27 leaders warned Ankara it could face “immediate” sanctions if it persists with gas exploration in Cypriot waters.
The statement was enough for Nicosia to lift its veto on separate, long-delayed sanctions over the crisis in Belarus, which officials say will now come into effect on Friday.
But EU leaders voted against imposing restrictions on President Lukashenko himself, instead issuing travel bans and freezing the assets of some 40 Belarusian officials.
The first night of the two-day European Union summit was dominated by the bloc’s fraught ties with Ankara, which is embroiled in a dangerous maritime stand-off with Greece and Cyprus.
Adopting a carrot and stick approach, the leaders’ statement offers Ankara the prospect of closer ties and better trade if it commits to “pursuing dialogue in good faith and abstaining from unilateral actions.”
But it warns that the EU is prepared to use sanctions — possibly including broad-based economic measures — if Turkey persists with what Brussels sees as the illegal infringement of Cypriot waters.
“In case of such renewed actions by Ankara the EU will use all its instruments and options available. We have a toolbox that we can apply immediately,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters after the summit.
But previous EU warnings, and sanctions on individuals involved in the drilling, have done little to deter Ankara and the final statement falls some way short of the immediate action Nicosia had pushed for.
Before the summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan struck a defiant note, telling his parliament that the EU had made itself a “hostage” of the “spoiled Greeks and the Greek Cypriot administration.”
He vowed to maintain his “determined approach.”
The EU leaders have agreed to “closely monitor developments” in the eastern Mediterranean and revert to the matter at another summit in December.
Despite the growing tensions with Erdogan’s government, the EU is wary of alienating an important neighbor and NATO member which played a crucial role in ending the continent’s 2015-16 migrant crisis.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has led a diplomatic outreach, was keen to stress that the potential remains for improved relations.
“We also want to take this positive agenda forward, because we are aware of the importance of strategic relations with Turkey, despite all the differences,” she said.
Turkey-Greece tensions have eased slightly, with the two sides agreeing to resume long-stalled talks and on Thursday they set up a military hotline at NATO to avoid any accidental clashes in the area.
The EU leaders welcomed these steps and called for the efforts to be “sustained and broadened.”
Further complicating the Turkey talks are allegations of meddling by Ankara in the conflict in Nagorny Karabakh, where nearly 130 people have been killed in a flare-up between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
French President Emmanuel Macron demanded Turkey explain what he said was the arrival of Syrian jihadist fighters in Azerbaijan.
“A red line has been crossed, which is unacceptable,” he said.
“I urge all NATO partners to face up to the behavior of a NATO member.”
The agreement on Turkey persuaded Cyprus to lift the veto which it had imposed on sanctions over the Belarus political crisis to try to get more EU measures against Ankara over its drilling activity.
The EU will now impose asset freezes and travel bans on around 40 members of President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime whom it blames for rigging the August 9 election and cracking down on protests afterwards.
But, unlike Britain and Canada, which have already sanctioned Belarus officials, the EU will not be imposing measures on Lukashenko himself.
EU leaders back Belarus sanctions, warn Turkey
EU leaders back Belarus sanctions, warn Turkey
Regular flights between Ashgabat and Moscow suspended for a month from Dec. 30, says TASS
MOSCOW: Regular flights between Ashgabat and Moscow are to be suspended for a month from Dec. 30 after an Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed in Kazakhstan, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Saturday citing Turkmenistan's national air carrier.
A passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defence systems against Ukrainian attack drones.
Turkiye’s pro-Kurd party to meet jailed PKK leader Saturday
ISTANBUL: A delegation from Turkiye’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party is due on Saturday to visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving life on a prison island off Istanbul, a party source said.
“The delegation left in the morning,” the source told AFP, without elaborating how they would travel to the island for security reasons.
The visit would be the party’s first in almost 10 years.
DEM’s predecessor, the HDP party, last met Ocalan in April 2015.
On Friday, the government approved DEM’s request to visit Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) nearly half a century ago and has languished in solitary confinement since 1999.
The PKK is regarded as a “terror” organization by Turkiye and most of its Western allies, including the United States and European Union.
Detained 25 years ago in a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces in Kenya after years on the run, Ocalan was sentenced to death.
He escaped the gallows when Turkiye abolished capital punishment in 2004 and is spending his remaining years in an isolation cell on the Imrali prison island south of Istanbul.
Saturday’s rare visit became possible after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally, MHP party leader Devlet Bahceli, invited Ocalan to come to parliament to renounce “terror,” and to disband the militant group.
Erdogan backed the appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”
Afghan Taliban forces target ‘several points’ in Pakistan in retaliation for airstrikes – Afghan defense ministry
KABUL: Afghan Taliban forces targeted “several points” in neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan.
The statement from the Defense Ministry did not specify Pakistan but said the strikes were conducted “beyond the ‘hypothetical line’” – an expression used by Afghan authorities to refer to a border with Pakistan that they have long disputed.
“Several points beyond the hypothetical line, serving as centers and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organized and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan, were targeted in retaliation from the southeastern direction of the country,” the ministry said.
Asked whether the statement referred to Pakistan, ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi said: “We do not consider it to be the territory of Pakistan, therefore, we cannot confirm the territory, but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”
Afghanistan has for decades rejected the border, known as the Durand Line, drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through the mountainous and often lawless tribal belt between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.
No details of casualties or specific areas targeted were provided. The Pakistani military’s public relations wing and a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Afghan authorities warned on Wednesday they would retaliate after the Pakistani bombardment, which they said had killed civilians. Islamabad said it had targeted hideouts of Islamist militants along the border.
The neighbors have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several militant attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.
Indian state funeral for former PM Manmohan Singh
- Manmohan Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 on Thursday
- Former PM was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in his first term
NEW DELHI: India on Saturday accorded former premier Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s, a state funeral with full military honors, complete with a gun salute.
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 on Thursday, after which seven days of state mourning were declared.
The honors were led by President Draupadi Murmu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance, along with the country’s top civilian and military officials. Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck also attended the ceremony.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who called the former prime minister his mentor and guide, joined Singh’s family as they prayed before his cremation.
Earlier, mourners gathered to pay their respects to Singh. His coffin, draped in garlands of flowers, was flanked by a guard of honor and carried to his Congress Party headquarters in New Delhi.
It was then taken through the capital to the cremation grounds, accompanied by guards of soldiers and accorded full state honors.
Modi called Singh one of India’s “most distinguished leaders.”
US President Joe Biden called Singh a “true statesman,” saying that he “charted pathbreaking progress that will continue to strengthen our nations — and the world — for generations to come.”
The former prime minister was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing an economic boom in his first term.
Singh’s second stint ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth and high inflation.
Singh’s unpopularity in his second term, and lackluster leadership by Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the current opposition leader in the lower house, led to Modi’s first landslide victory in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah in what is now Pakistan and was then British-ruled India, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation.
He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
Singh worked in a string of senior civil service posts, served as a central bank governor and also held various jobs with global agencies including the United Nations.
He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to serve as finance minister and reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history.
Though he had never held an elected post, he was declared the National Congress’s candidate for the highest office in 2004.
In his first term, Singh steered the economy through a period of nine percent growth, lending India the international clout it had long sought.
He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the United States that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.
President Murmu said Singh would “always be remembered for his service to the nation, his unblemished political life and his utmost humility.”
Rival protests planned in South Korea after second leader impeached
- Vast protests both for and against suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol have rocked South Korea
- Yoon sought to impose martial law in early December, plunging the country into its worst political crisis in decades
SEOUL: Protests were planned across South Korea on Saturday, as supporters and opponents of suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol prepared to hold rival rallies two weeks after he was impeached.
Vast protests both for and against Yoon have rocked South Korea since he sought to impose martial law in early December, plunging the country into its worst political crisis in decades.
Lawmakers on Friday impeached Yoon’s replacement, acting president Han Duck-soo, after he refused demands to complete Yoon’s impeachment process and to bring him to justice.
It is up to the Constitutional Court to decide Yoon’s, and now Han’s fate, but demonstrators from both camps have vowed to keep up pressure in the meantime.
“Nearly two million people will come together to protect president Yoon,” said Rhee kang-san, a supporter of Yoon who is one of the rally organizers in Seoul.
“The rally continues our efforts to amplify the people’s voice against impeachment.”
An organizer of a rival anti-Yoon rally said the anger of those who supported his impeachment was “burning even more intensely.”
“The people are now strongly demanding Yoon’s immediate dismissal and punishment,” she added.
At the heart of the backlash against Han was his refusal to appoint additional judges to the Constitutional Court, which has three vacant seats.
While the six current judges can decide whether to uphold parliament’s decision to impeach Yoon, a single dissenting vote would reinstate him.
The opposition wanted Han to approve three more nominees to fill the nine-member bench, which he had refused to do, leaving both sides in deadlock.
The second impeachment on Friday thrust Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok into the roles of acting president and prime minister.
It also took the country into uncharted territory.
“We’ve had an acting president before,” said Lee Jun-han, a professor at Incheon National University. “But this is the first time we’ve had a substitute for a substitute.”
Choi said in a statement after the impeachment that “minimizing governmental turmoil is of utmost importance at this moment,” adding that “the government will also dedicate all its efforts to overcoming this period of turmoil.”
Like Han, Choi will face pressure from the opposition to accept the appointment of new judges.
If he refuses, he could face his own impeachment vote.
