by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Damscus : A Syrian-Russian joint coordination committee has demanded the US forces to withdraw from Syria, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.
The Joint Coordination Committee for Return of Syrian Refugees said in a statement that the US must withdraw its forces, which are illegally present on Syrian soil, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Syrian government in coordination with the Russian side will organise humanitarian convoys as of the beginning of March to help return the displaced Syrians in the Rukban camp in southeastern Syria to their areas, said the statement.
The US forces in the al-Tanf area are preventing aid convoys from reaching the camp, which is controlled by the rebels near the Syrian-Jordanian border, it said.
The humanitarian convoys would reach the area in coordination with the UN, the statement added.
The Syrian and Russian sides opened two humanitarian corridors near al-Tanf for the evacuation of people from al-Rukban on February 19.
The statement charged that the US forces in al-Tanf were preventing the people from leaving the camp.
The Rukban camp is home to 50,000 displaced Syrians, who are suffering from the harsh humanitarian situation because of the cold weather and lack of supplies.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
File photos of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Washington : The US is set to impose more sanctions on Moscow over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter using a Soviet-era nerve agent in the UK earlier this year, the State Department announced here.
In a statement on Wednesday, Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US had made this decision on Monday and accused Russia of violating international law, reports CNN.
The statement anticipated that the sanctions would go into effect around August 22 in line with the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.
Sanctions under this Act have been applied in the past against Syria for its 2013 use of chemical weapons and against North Korea for its use of VX nerve agent during the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half brother in Malaysia.
Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy, and his daughter Yulia were hospitalised and treated for the nerve-agent attack in March. Yulia was discharged from the hospital in April, and her father in May.
The State Department notified Congress on Wednesday of the first of two potential tranches of sanctions required under the 1991 law.
Unless Russia takes certain steps, a second set of penalties — more stringent than this first round — must follow, according to the law.
The first set of sanctions target certain items the US exports to Russia that could have military uses — so-called dual use technologies. These are sensitive goods that normally would go through a case-by-case review before they are exported.
With these sanctions, the exports will be presumptively denied.
The items to be included in the second tranche are yet to be confirmed.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, first deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, dismissed the sanctions in a tweet late Wednesday responding to the news, CNN reported.
“The theater of absurd continues. No proofs, no clues, no logic, no presumption of innocense, just highly-liklies. Only one rule: blame everything on Russia, no matter how absurd and fake it is. Let us welcome the United Sanctions of America!” Polyanskiy tweeted.
The UK welcomed the move.
In a short statement, a government spokesperson said: “The strong international response to the use of a chemical weapon on the streets of Salisbury sends an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative, reckless behaviour will not go unchallenged.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously denied that Russia was behind the Skripals’ poisonings, saying in March that it was “unthinkable that we would do such a thing”.
Later that month, Trump ordered 60 more Russian diplomats expelled from the US as part of a global response to the attack.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Moscow : Despite the anti-Russia propaganda, US tourists to Russia increased by 25 per cent in the first nine months of 2017, the chief of Russia’s Tourism Agency said on Thursday.
Russia’s border authorities recorded the increase compared with the same period of 2016, Oleg Safonov, head of Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, told the Izvestia daily in an interview.
“The anti-Russia propaganda only arouses great interest among American citizens for our country,” Xinhua quoted Safonov as saying.
Safonov also explained why the anti-Russia propaganda helps. “American citizens are told various stories about what is going on in Russia, no wonder they want to come and see everything for themselves.”
Safonov said American tourists are not disappointed by what they see in Russia. They see a “modern, peaceful and developed country”, he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Sergei Lavrov
Moscow : The sanctions imposed on Russia by the US are groundless and will not affect Moscow’s foreign policy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
“We consider that the sanctions are imposed absolutely without any grounds as for the reasons behind them… Russia’s honest, open and constructive policy cannot be changed by them,” Lavrov said in an interview with a newspaper on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
Lavrov’s remarks are in response to the upcoming release of two reports by the US presidential administration, concerning backgrounds of high-ranking Russian officials and the feasibility of imposing new economic sanctions on Moscow.
The minister said that Russia’s foreign policy is based on the country’s national interests and will not submit to foreign pressure.
“The fact that our foreign policy enjoys a broad support in society is the best evidence that the attempt to change our foreign policy by putting pressure on our elites and certain companies is unpromising,” he said.
In August 2017, US President Donald Trump signed into law a new package of sanctions against Russia. Unlike previous sanctions bills, the new legislation grants US lawmakers power to block Trump from unilaterally lifting the sanctions.
Washington’s relationship with Moscow has been sour for some time, amid disagreements involving the war in Syria, the conflict in Ukraine and the Kremlin’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections, among others.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
flydubai
Dubai : Government-owned low-cost airline flydubai on Thursday announced the start of its new daily flights to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport slated to start from November 29.
flydubai first started operating to Moscow in 2014 and has grown its network in Russia to 11 unique points.
Makhachkala, Ufa and Voronezh being the latest additions with operations commencing in October.
Along with these newest points on flydubai’s network, the airline operates direct flights to Kazan, Krasnodar, Mineralnye Vody, Moscow (VKO), Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Yekaterinburg.
Commenting on the launch, Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, said: “We are excited to be offering our passengers more options to access two different points of the Russian capital.
“The launch of our new daily flights to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport is based on the increase in demand for more affordable and reliable direct links to the UAE and beyond.”
The airline, which recorded a 45 per cent growth in passenger numbers to Russia in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 and is the first carrier to operate direct flights to Sheremetyevo International Airport from the United Arab Emirates.
—IANS/WAM
