MOSCOW: Russia said Friday it had seen an increase in US drone flights over the Black Sea and vowed to respond, warning they could lead to “direct confrontation” with NATO.
It comes five days after the Kremlin accused the United States of being responsible for a Ukrainian missile attack on the annexed Crimean peninsula that killed four people, an incident that sent tensions soaring.
Russia’s defense ministry noted an increased number of “US strategic unmanned aerial vehicles over the waters of the Black Sea” and accused Washington of using the flights to help Ukraine strike Russian targets.
“This demonstrates the increasing involvement of the United States and NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine on the side of the Kyiv regime,” it said.
“Such flights multiply the likelihood of airspace incidents with Russian Air and Space Force aircraft, which increases the risk of a direct confrontation between the alliance and Russia,” it added.
Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has instructed the army “to submit proposals on measures for an operational response to the provocations,” the defense ministry said.
The United States routinely carries out drone flights over the Black Sea, operations that it says are conducted in neutral airspace and in accordance with international law.
In March 2023, Russia intercepted a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, raising fears of direct confrontation between the two nuclear powers at a time of increased tension over the Ukraine conflict.
Russia says US Black Sea drone flights risk direct clash with NATO
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Russia says US Black Sea drone flights risk direct clash with NATO
- Kremlin accused the United States of being responsible for a Ukrainian missile attack on the annexed Crimean peninsula that killed four people
Sudan facing crisis ‘beyond imagination,’ UN humanitarian chief says
- 2024 Sudan humanitarian needs and response plan only received 17% of required funds
LONDON: Sudan is facing a humanitarian crisis “beyond imagination,” according to Martin Griffiths, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, with 750,000 people at imminent risk of famine and conditions set to deteriorate further.
In an interview with The Guardian, Griffiths contrasted the intense media coverage and diplomatic focus on Gaza with the unfolding and largely overlooked human-made tragedy in Sudan.
Statistics released by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification on Tuesday reveal that 495,000 Palestinians in Gaza are facing catastrophic conditions, characterized by an “extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities” over the next six months.
In Sudan, however, an estimated 755,262 people are facing similar “phase 5” catastrophic conditions, with an additional 8.5 million people in “phase 4” emergency conditions, marked by acute malnutrition, high disease levels, and a rapidly increasing risk of hunger-related deaths.
“These are staggering numbers. It’s beyond imagination,” Griffiths said. “I think historically it is a huge moment.”
Griffiths concurred with US officials’ estimates that, without improved access to humanitarian relief and increased international donations, the situation in Sudan could surpass the historic famine in Ethiopia, which resulted in the deaths of 1 million people between 1983 and 1985, according to UN estimates.
“Sudan is comparable in horror, in potential tragedy, if not worse. But it’s not moving in the right direction, and it’s not getting international attention on the level it should,” Griffith said.
“There was massive international attention (on the Ethiopian famine), and massive generosity … whereas in Sudan, partly because journalists aren’t given visas to get to places, it’s very difficult to get the story out.”
The 2024 Sudan humanitarian needs and response plan, launched late last year, called for $2.7 billion to address the crisis. However, as of this week, only 17 percent of the required funds had been raised, reflecting the average global response rate for humanitarian appeals.
“Tragically, it’s not that unusual these days,” he said. “It’s partly because the needs have grown, but the funding hasn’t.”
A critical issue in western Sudan’s Darfur region is the blockade of aid at the Adre crossing from Chad by Sudanese armed forces. Griffiths mentioned ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve the blockade, potentially through an inspection regime to ensure no arms accompany the food aid. However, he cautioned that time is running out to prevent the worst-case scenarios.
“The worry is that we are not going to get the seeds in to do the planting season, and it’s going to get worse,” he said.
In Gaza, Griffiths noted that the number of Palestinians facing catastrophic famine had halved since March, when over a million people were at risk. He attributed the improvement to the influx of humanitarian aid in March and April, demonstrating that “aid works” and can swiftly rescue people from famine, starvation, and disease.
However, since the limited opening of crossings into Gaza in early spring, Israel’s offensive on Rafah has displaced over a million people into central Gaza, closed the main aid access point, and exacerbated gang violence and insecurity, now the primary obstacles to food distribution.
“We have now gone down to practically nothing,” Griffiths said.
While acknowledging the issues of criminality and mob looting in Gaza, Griffiths insisted that Israel, as the occupying power, remains responsible for ensuring the security of humanitarian aid deliveries.
“The Israelis have an obligation under international laws to provide security for humanitarian aid, so it’s not right to say they’re not the problem,” Griffiths said. “They are part of the process that is needed to ensure the security of humanitarian deliveries.”
Two detained after attack outside Israeli embassy in Belgrade
- Assailant shot a Serbian police officer in the neck with a crossbow while he was on duty in front of the embassy early Saturday
- The attacker was shot and killed by the officer
BELGRADE: Two men were remanded in custody Sunday in connection with an attack outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade that Serbian authorities called a “targeted terrorist act,” a minister said.
The assailant, whom the police identified as being a “convert” to Islam, shot a Serbian police officer in the neck with a crossbow while he was on duty in front of the embassy early Saturday.
The attacker was shot and killed by the officer.
The assailant, from Mladenovac, near Belgrade, lived in Novi Pazar, a historical and political center of Serbia’s Bosniak Muslim minority, police said.
Authorities said a number of people known to the security services were suspected of being linked to the attack.
“Searches were conducted at several locations in Serbia, dozens of people were questioned,” Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told the state-run RTS broadcaster on Sunday.
The prosecutors will establish whether they were linked with the “targeted terrorist attack,” he added.
Two men were remanded in custody, the minister said.
Security was stepped up to the highest level throughout the country and the police operation was continuing, Dacic added.
“It is an operation against extremists and terrorists, people directly involved in the attack, but... also against those for whom there are indications they might belong to terrorist groups,” he said.
Police have traced the attacker’s movement in Belgrade, where he arrived early Saturday, saying he headed to the synagogue before the attack, but said he was deterred by a high police presence.
After that he proceeded to the Israeli embassy.
“From that it is clear what the main and possible targets were,” Dacic said.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Saturday thanked Serbian authorities for “strong support and cooperation following the attempted terror act.”
“Terrorism cannot be tolerated!” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Israeli ambassador to Serbia, Yahel Vilan, on Sunday visited the wounded officer in a Belgrade hospital.
The 34-year-old policeman underwent an operation to remove an arrow from his neck and was in stable condition, a doctor said.
Serbia has continued arms sales to Israel since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which claimed 1,195 lives, mostly of civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,877 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Delhi airport accident raises concerns over India’s infrastructure drive
- About $532 billion in new infrastructure will become operational in the next 2 years in India
- Modernizing infrastructure was key part of PM Modi’s campaign during this year’s election
NEW DELHI: The recent deadly roof collapse at New Delhi's main airport was the latest in a series of construction safety incidents in the country, triggering concerns over India’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure drive.
A portion of a canopy and pillars at a departure terminal in the Indira Gandhi International Airport, one of the country’s busiest, collapsed following heavy rain on Friday morning, killing at least one person and injuring several others.
The collapse also caused a temporary suspension of operations at the airport’s Terminal 1, which is used for domestic flights, impacting the travel plans of thousands of people.
It joins a growing list of infrastructure incidents in India in recent years that have raised questions about the rapid pace of mega-development projects in the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Narayan Moorthy, a Delhi-based architect, blamed it on many factors, including “slipshod work culture,” frequent use of poor-quality materials, “reckless hurry towards the end of projects so that some politician can inaugurate it on a pre-decided and politically significant date,” and lack of maintenance after construction.
“This whole cocktail comes together to result in unmitigated disasters, like the collapsed airport roof in Delhi that killed one hapless soul and injured many others … Similar is the case of the roof of the brand-new Jabalpur airport that thankfully had no human casualties but exposes our systemic rot,” he told Arab News.
“We have much to be ashamed of in the quality of our supposedly ‘world-class’ constructions.”
A day before the Delhi accident, a part of the canopy of Jabalpur airport in Rajasthan collapsed under heavy rains, while on Saturday, a canopy fell down at the passenger pickup area at Rajkot airport in Gujarat.
In the eastern state of Bihar, four bridges also recently collapsed and an $80 million underpass in Delhi, which was inaugurated just ahead of India’s hosting of the G20 summit last year, has been waterlogged for several days, disrupting traffic in Delhi’s main thoroughfare.
Under Modi’s building spree, about 44.4 trillion rupees ($532 billion) in new infrastructure will become operational over the next two years, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Modi has presided over many ribbon-cutting ceremonies of these projects, as modernizing infrastructure was a key part of his campaign during this year’s national election, when he won a third term as India’s premier. Over the past decade, his government said it has built 80 new airports, upgraded railways and expanded highways by thousands of kilometers.
The projects have been criticized by India’s opposition leaders, with Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Indian National Congress party, among the latest to accuse Modi’s government of corruption following Friday’s incident.
“Corruption and criminal negligence is responsible for the collapse of shoddy infrastructure falling like a deck of cards, in the past 10 years of Modi Govt,” Kharge wrote on X.
Niranjan Sahoo, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, highlighted how infrastructure was “turned into a vote bank ploy” under Modi’s government at an unmatched level.
“While the government might have good intent to build infrastructure at a rapid pace to match the requirements of a growing nation, (it) is done without adequate attention to their up-keeping, reliable maintenance and auditing,” Sahoo told Arab News.
“Never before has the country witnessed a kind of infrastructure blitz largely timed before the elections,” he added. “In a sense, infrastructure fits into populist narratives of taking India to the comity of great powers. However, the recent incidents badly expose India’s ambition and capabilities.”
Prof. A.K. Gosain, a civil engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi said one of the major reasons for infrastructural failures can be traced back to “falling quality” of construction, adding that “there is no accountability at the top,” leaving people at the lower levels as scapegoats whenever problems arise.
Anuj Srivastava, an architect from the School of Planning and Architecture in the Indian capital and a veteran of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army, also highlighted the lack of maintenance and accountability in India’s infrastructure projects and the indifference toward the environment amid a rapidly changing climate.
“The reason for accidents and collapse of infrastructure is the lack of concern for the environment and the haste in planning and executing the project, proving the adage ‘haste makes waste’,” Srivastava told Arab News.
“Infrastructure disaster damages India’s reputation in the world. In the unseemly haste to build ‘world-class infrastructure’ in a hurry and its subsequent collapse, irreparable damage is being caused to India’s reputation.”
Taliban delegation attends UN-led meeting in Qatar on Afghanistan, with women excluded
- The two-day meeting is the third UN-sponsored gathering on the Afghan crisis in the Qatari capital of Doha
ISLAMABAD: A Taliban delegation on Sunday attended a United Nations-led meeting in Qatar on Afghanistan after organizers said women would be excluded from the gathering.
The two-day meeting is the third UN-sponsored gathering on the Afghan crisis in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban government who leads its delegation, wrote on social media platform X that the delegation met with representatives from countries including Russia, India and Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the meeting.
The Taliban were not invited to the first meeting, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said they set unacceptable conditions for attending the second one in February, including demands that Afghan civil society members be excluded from the talks and that the Taliban be treated as the country’s legitimate rulers.
The Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country following two decades of war. No country has officially recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government, and the UN has said recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place.
Mujahid on Saturday in the capital, Kabul, told reporters the delegation was going to Doha “to seek understanding and resolve issues.”
“We urge all countries not to abandon the Afghan people in difficult times, and actively participate in Afghanistan’s reconstruction and economic strengthening,” he said.
He said they would discuss issues including international restrictions imposed on Afghanistan’s financial and banking system, challenges in growing the private sector and government actions against drug trafficking.
Earlier, the United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, defended the failure to include Afghan women in the meeting in Doha, insisting that demands for women’s rights are certain to be raised.
Russia claims two more east Ukrainian villages
- Moscow has claimed new villages in the east of Ukraine regularly for weeks, as outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces struggle to hold them back
MOSCOW: Russia on Sunday claimed two more east Ukrainian villages as its forces have had the upper hand over Kyiv on the battlefield for months.
Moscow has claimed new villages in the east of Ukraine regularly for weeks, as outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces struggle to hold them back.
Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had “liberated the settlement” of Novooleksandrivka as the Russian army pushes further westwards into the Donetsk region.
The village — which lies north-west of occupied Ocheretyne — is now the most western point of the region that Moscow holds.
Moscow also said its forces captured the small village of Spirne, further north in the Donetsk region near the border with the neighboring Lugansk region.
Moscow’s Ukraine offensive has dragged on for nearly two and a half years.
