VIENTIANE: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hit out at China’s “escalatory and unlawful actions” in the South China Sea on Saturday, hours before he was due to hold talks with Beijing’s top diplomat at a regional meeting in Laos.
Blinken is in capital Vientiane for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting, part of an Asian tour aimed at reinforcing regional ties in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.
He has prioritized promoting a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region — a thinly veiled criticism of China’s regional economic, strategic and territorial ambitions.
The United States and ASEAN had to work together to “address challenges,” Blinken told ministers from the 10-member bloc, including China’s “escalatory and unlawful actions taken against the Philippines in the South China Sea over the last few months.”
Manila is locked in a longstanding territorial row with Beijing over parts of the strategic waterway through which trillions of dollars worth of trade passes annually.
On Saturday Manila said it had successfully resupplied troops on the Second Thomas Shoal — the focus of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippines vessels in recent months.
The mission was carried out under a deal agreed with Beijing last week.
“We are pleased to take note of the successful resupply today,” Blinken said.
“We applaud that and hope and expect to see that it continues going forward.”
Blinken is due to meet China’s Wang Yi later Saturday.
The two will “exchange views on issues of common concern,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Friday.
Washington-Beijing competition
This is Blinken’s 18th visit to Asia since taking office more than three years ago, reflecting the fierce competition between Washington and Beijing in the region.
He notably arrives two days after the foreign ministers of China and Russia met with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc — and each other on the sidelines of the summit.
Wang and Sergei Lavrov had discussed “building a new security architecture for Eurasia,” according to Moscow’s foreign ministry.
The pair also agreed to jointly “counter any attempts by extra-regional forces to interfere in Southeast Asian affairs,” it said.
China has a strong political and economic partnership with Russia, with NATO members labelling Beijing as a “key facilitator” of Moscow’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.
Ongoing tensions
The temperature between Manila and Beijing remains high, despite the deal last week on resupplying Filipino troops stationed on a disputed reef.
“We hope China implements the agreement,” Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo told reporters in Vientiane late on Friday.
“I think that would be an important step forward in diffusing tensions and hopefully lead to other areas of cooperation on the South China Sea.”
Beijing claims the waterway — through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually — almost in its entirety despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in the latest June 17 confrontation when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply its troops.
China lashed out earlier this year after Blinken said that Washington was ready to defend the Philippines if its forces, ships or aircraft came under attack in the South China Sea.
Beijing has insisted that the United States has “no right” to interfere in the South China Sea.
The two countries also remain at loggerheads over trade, human rights and the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims sovereignty over.
Blinken is scheduled to travel to Hanoi later Saturday to extend US condolences to Vietnamese officials after the passing of communist leader Nguyen Phu Trong.
ASEAN ministers are expected to issue a joint communique at the end of their three-day meeting.
One diplomatic source said the statement is being held up by lack of consensus over the wording of paragraphs on the Myanmar conflict and disputes in the South China Sea.
Myanmar’s junta has been banned from high-level ASEAN summits over its 2021 coup and crackdown on dissent but has sent two bureaucrats to represent it at the Laos talks.
Blinken hits out at China’s ‘unlawful actions’ in South China Sea
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Blinken hits out at China’s ‘unlawful actions’ in South China Sea
- Blinken is in capital Vientiane for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting
- He has prioritized promoting a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region
Tens of thousands rally in Dutch protest for Gaza
- “More than 150,000 people here dressed in red — and a clear majority of the Dutch population — just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib
- Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organize massive demonstration
THE HAGUE: Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on Sunday to demand more action from the Dutch government against what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza.
Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organized the demonstration to the International Court of Justice through the city, creating a so-called “red line.”
With many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide,” the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.
One of the organizing groups, Oxfam Novib, estimated that 150,000 people participated in the march. Dutch police generally do not give estimates of demonstration turnouts.
Protesters brandished banners reading “Don’t look away, do something,” “Stop Dutch complicity,” and “Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die.”
Organizers urged the Dutch government — which collapsed on June 3 after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition — to do more to rein in Israel for its military offensive on the Palestinian territory.
“More than 150,000 people here dressed in red — and a clear majority of the Dutch population — just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib.
“We demand action now from our government,” added Servaes.
Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, said: “It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I’m here because I think it’s maybe the only thing you can do now as a Dutch citizen, but it’s something you have to do,” she added.
A previous protest in The Hague on May 18 drew more than 100,000 people, according to organizers, who described it as the country’s largest demonstration in 20 years.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “To all those people in The Hague I say: we see you and we hear you.”
“In the end, our goal is the same: to end the suffering in Gaza as soon as possible.”
The Gaza war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians.
The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
Thousands of demonstrators protested across France on Saturday in support of Palestinians and calling for peace in Gaza.
Protesters criticized France’s stance on the conflict, branding it conciliatory or even “complicit” with the Israeli government.
French trade unions, left-wing parties and pro-Palestinian activist groups called for a global weekend of protests against Israel’s offensive in the territory.
In Paris, where the largest march took place, police counted 9,000 demonstrators, while the CGT trade union and hard-left party France Unbowed said 150,000 attended the gathering.
Thousands of people also rallied in the cities of Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes.
European Parliament member Rima Hassan called on supporters to “deviate, disobey and take all necessary actions to enforce international law, to put an end to genocide.”
She recently spent three days in a detention centre in Israel after attempting to breach its blockade of Gaza on a boat with other activists.
“We don’t want what is happening in Gaza to be silenced. Every day we hear that 30, 60 people have died. It has become routine, we don’t see it anymore and I’m afraid that with what’s happening with Iran, it will become even more invisible,” said one protester.
Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
- Funerals were held in India for some of the at least 279 people killed in one of the world’s worst plane crashes in decades
- Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them to grieving relatives in the western city of Ahmedabad
AHMEDABAD: Mourners covered white coffins with flowers in India on Sunday as funerals were held for some of the at least 279 people killed in one of the world’s worst plane crashes in decades.
Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them to grieving relatives in the western city of Ahmedabad, but the wait went on for most families.
“They said it would take 48 hours. But it’s been four days and we haven’t received any response,” said Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger on the jetliner.
There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground as well.
“My brother was the sole breadwinner of the family,” Christian told AFP. “So what happens next?“
At a crematorium in the city, around 20 to 30 mourners chanted prayers in a funeral ceremony for Megha Mehta, a passenger who had been working in London.
As of Sunday evening, 47 crash victims have been identified, according to Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad’s civil hospital.
“This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,” Patel said.
One victim’s relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it.
Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains.
Workers went on clearing debris from the site on Sunday, while police inspected the area.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff.
The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, Patel said, with one or two remaining in critical care.
Cause of the disaster
Indian authorities have yet to identify the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India’s Dreamliners.
Authorities announced Sunday that the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, had been recovered. This may offer investigators more clues about what went wrong.
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the first black box, the flight data recorder, would “give an in-depth insight” into the circumstances of the crash.
Imtiyaz Ali, who was still waiting for a DNA match to find his brother, said the airline should have supported families faster.
“I’m disappointed in them. It is their duty,” said Ali, who was contacted by the airline on Saturday.
“Next step is to find out the reason for this accident. We need to know,” he told AFP.
One person escaped alive from the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.
Among the passengers was a father of two young girls, Arjun Patoliya, who had traveled to India to scatter his wife’s ashes following her death weeks earlier.
“I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us,” said Anjana Patel, the mayor of London’s Harrow borough where some of the victims lived.
“We don’t have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling,” she added.
While communities were in mourning, one woman recounted how she survived by arriving late at the airport.
“The airline staff had already closed the check-in,” said 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan.
“At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn’t have missed our flight,” she told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Russia pulls citizens from Iran, halts Tehran consulate
- Russia’s civil aviation authority ordered airlines to suspend flights to Iran and Israel and avoid their airspace — along with that of Jordan and Iraq — until at least June 26
MOSCOW: Russia said Sunday it had evacuated several of its citizens from Iran and halted activity at its Tehran consulate after Israeli attacks on the country sparked retaliatory missile fire toward Israel.
“Due to the current situation, the consular service of the embassy is temporarily suspending its activities. The resumption of consular services will be announced later,” the Russian embassy in Tehran said on Telegram.
Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova said musicians from the Tchaikovsky Grand Symphony Orchestra were evacuated from Iran.
“The musicians crossed the Azerbaijani border. Yesterday (Saturday), Fyodor Bondarchuk’s film crew left Iran via the same route,” she said on Telegram, referring to the Russian director and actor.
Russia’s civil aviation authority ordered airlines to suspend flights to Iran and Israel and avoid their airspace — along with that of Jordan and Iraq — until at least June 26, following official travel warnings issued Friday.
Israel launched unprecedented strikes on Iran’s military and nuclear facilities early Friday, saying it aimed to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran has responded with multiple missile salvos targeting Israel.
President Vladimir Putin, who maintains ties with both Iran and Israel, condemned Israel’s strikes and warned of a “dangerous escalation” in the Middle East.
Trump says can broker Iran‑Israel peace using trade as he did with India‑Pakistan
- Trump’s reference to India and Pakistan pertains to military confrontation which ended with US-facilitated ceasefire on May 10
- Iranian officials report at least 138 people have been killed in Israel’s military onslaught since Friday, including 60 on Saturday
ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he could use American trade leverage to broker a peace deal between Iran and Israel, drawing a parallel to his administration’s role in facilitating a ceasefire between India and Pakistan last month.
The renewed conflict saw Iran and Israel exchanging missile and drone strikes over the past three days.
Iranian officials report at least 138 people have been killed in Israel’s onslaught since Friday, including 60 on Saturday, half of them children, when a missile brought down a 14-story apartment block in Tehran. Israel has reported at least 13 deaths.
“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal, just like I got India and Pakistan to make,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “In that case by using TRADE with the United States to bring reason, cohesion, and sanity into the talks with two excellent leaders who were able to quickly make a decision and STOP!”
Trump’s reference to India and Pakistan pertains to a brief military confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbors in May, which ended with a US-facilitated ceasefire on May 10. Washington said trade and security assurances were key to the de-escalation.
He also cited other conflicts, between Serbia and Kosovo, and disputes over the Nile dam involving Egypt and Ethiopia, saying his interventions helped maintain peace “at least for now.”
“Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran!” Trump added. “Many calls and meetings now taking place.”
Since Friday, Pakistan’s government has repeatedly pledged solidarity with Iran but urged its citizens to postpone travel to Iran and Iraq until the security situation improves.
On Saturday, Islamabad issued a formal travel advisory asking Pakistanis to avoid travel to Iran “for a limited period” due to the Israeli attacks.
Pakistan has also condemned the Israeli strikes, calling them an unjustified violation of Iranian sovereignty, and has urged the international community to help de-escalate tensions through dialogue.
Air India crash death toll climbs to 270 as victim identification continues
- Only one of 242 people on London-bound flight survived
- Doctors have identified 32 individuals through DNA matching
NEW DELHI: The death toll from the crash of an Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London has risen to 270, as bodies, including those of people killed on the ground, continue to be identified.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed less than a minute after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Gujarat state on Thursday.
It was carrying 242 people — 230 passengers, two pilots and 10 crew members. Only one person, a British national sitting in an emergency exit seat, survived the crash.
It remains unclear how many people were killed on the ground as the aircraft fell on B.J. Medical College and a hostel for students and resident doctors of the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti, president of the Junior Doctors’ Association at the college, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the hospital had received the bodies of 270 victims.
The process of matching DNA samples to confirm their identities is underway.
Dr. Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent at the hospital, told the media on Sunday that only 14 bodies had been handed over to their next of kin.
“In the Ahmedabad plane tragedy, the DNA samples of 32 deceased individuals have been matched,” the hospital said in a statement.
“The mortal remains of the deceased whose DNA samples have been matched are being respectfully handed over to their families.”
Dr. Sarbari Dutta, secretary general of the Indian Medical Association, told Arab News that at least four medical students were confirmed to have been killed when the plane crashed into the college compound.
“More than 20 students are admitted in the hospital, some of them with very severe injuries,” she said, adding that the actual number of casualties would “definitely” be higher.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the inquiry into the cause of the crash.
Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Saturday, after the aircraft’s digital flight data recorder, or black box, had been found at the site of the crash, that an investigation report would be issued within three months.
“The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has also given an order to do extended surveillance for the (Boeing) 787 planes,” he said.
“There are 34 in our Indian aircraft fleet today. I believe that eight have already been inspected and with immediate urgency. All of them are going to be done.”
