EU confronts Chinese subsidies with electric car probe

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – Brussels will investigate Chinese state subsidies for electric cars, the EU chief said Wednesday, vowing to defend Europe's industry from unfair competition.

China's BYD has become a major producer of electric cars 

The move is a victory for France which has expressed concerns that Europe will fall behind during the green transition if it is not more assertive when confronted with China's alleged protectionism.

But some EU member states, including Germany, are wary of angering Beijing, since they rely on trade relations with China, although Berlin welcomed the probe Wednesday.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced the anti-subsidy investigation, vowing to defend Europe's manufacturers.

"Global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies," von der Leyen said, during a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The probe could lead the European Union to impose duties on those cars that it believes are unfairly sold at a lower price, thereby undercutting European competitors.

"Europe is open for competition but not for a race to the bottom," the European Commission president said.

A Chinese official accused the EU of "protectionism" in a social media post.

Pointing to information from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Wang Lutong, director-general of the Chinese foreign ministry's department of European affairs, said "many EU members subsidise their electric vehicle industries".

"In what position is the commission to launch anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles from China? This is nothing but sheer protectionism," he said.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the probe was a "very good decision" during a visit to Berlin. Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck said it showed the "right attitude" and was about tackling "unfair competition".

Paris has already announced measures that would provide subsidies for new electric cars based on the manufacturers' emissions output. This would be more difficult for Chinese cars since their production often relies on coal-powered electricity.

'Distorted competition'

European car makers also hailed the EU's investigation as a "positive signal".

"The European Commission is recognising the increasingly asymmetric situation our industry is faced with, and is giving urgent consideration to distorted competition in our sector," said Sigrid de Vries, director general of the ACEA.

There are growing concerns across Europe about how much the continent relies on Chinese products, especially those needed for the EU's focus on clean energy.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has called on the bloc to define its own approach to Beijing 

© FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP

The EU's internal market chief Thierry Breton last week warned about a trend emerging where Europe was "being relegated to net imports of electric vehicles or solar panels".

China could overtake Japan to become the world's largest car manufacturer this year, according to some experts.

But European manufacturers have also to contend with state subsidies for electric vehicles across the Atlantic.

The US Inflation Reduction Act directs some $370 billion in subsidies towards America's energy transition, including tax breaks for US-made electric vehicles and batteries.

As she made the announcement, von der Leyen harked back to the bitter dispute with China over solar panel imports a decade ago.

"We have not forgotten how China's unfair trade practices affected our solar industry. Many young businesses were pushed out by heavily subsidised Chinese competitors," she said.

The EU imposed anti-dumping duties in 2013 after European panel manufacturers complained they were being forced out of business by underpriced Chinese imports.

The restrictions were scrapped five years later.

'Vital' dialogue

Von der Leyen has called on the EU to define its own approach to Beijing, although some of Europe's larger powers want to be cautious to avoid severing business ties.

Despite her strong comments, von der Leyen said it was "vital" for Europe to maintain "communication and dialogue with China".

"Because there are also topics, where we can and have to cooperate. De-risk, not decouple –- this will be my approach with the Chinese leadership at the EU-China Summit later this year," she added.

The EU's trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis will head to China next week, he said in a social media post, "to engage on trade and economic opportunities/challenges".


Issued on: 13/09/2023 - 

© 2023 AFP

Von der Leyen announces China car probe, presents herself as EU business champion

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced an anti-subsidy probe into Chinese electric vehicles on Wednesday, presenting herself as a champion of European business as she defended her track record ahead of elections next year.

Issued on: 13/09/2023 - 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers her annual speech on the state of the European Union at the European Parliament, September 13, 2023 in Strasbourg, France. 

© Jean-François Badias, AP

By:NEWS WIRES|

Video by: Armen GEORGIAN

Von der Leyen, who is widely expected to seek a second ter as head of the EU executive next year but has yet to announce her plans, promised in her annual state of the union speech to take steps to help Europe's wind industry, make business easier for small companies and address labour shortages.

"Europe will do whatever it takes to keep its competitive edge," she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"In a world of uncertainty, Europe once again must answer the call of history," the 64-year-old former German defence minister told EU lawmakers, saying this applied to a wide array of policies, including the EU's support for Ukraine, promotion of green energy and defence of business against unfair competition.

In a speech that announced few concrete steps on the foreign policy front - Ukraine, she said, must do more before joining the bloc — the most substantial announcement was the launch of the probe into China's electric vehicles.

The Commission, she said, would investigate whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect European Union producers against cheaper Chinese electric vehicle imports it says are benefiting from excessive state subsidies.

"Europe is open to competition. Not for a race to the bottom," she said.

Von der Leyen, who has been at the head of the bloc's executive Commission since the end of 2019, also said she would appoint an envoy to help small and medium-sized enterprises tackle red tape to make it easier to do business.
'Great strides'

In her last State of the Union speech before European Parliament elections next June, she said the Commission was proposing to extend special protections granted to Ukrainian citizens who fled to the EU to escape Russia's war.

She also restated the EU's commitment to long-term support for Kyiv, praising the "great strides" it had made towards joining the EU but saying hard work still lay ahead.

"Our support to Ukraine will endure," she said.

Lawmakers gave a standing ovation after von der Leyen recounted the fate of Victoria Amelina, a Ukrainian writer and activist who was killed in a Russian attack on Ukraine.

MEPs applauded as Héctor Abad Faciolince, a Colombian writer who was wounded in the same attack, showed a photograph of Amelina to the chamber.

An upcoming package to support Europe's wind industry would be aimed at helping the sector as renewable energy companies struggle with steep inflation, von der Leyen said.

"We will fast-track permitting even more. We will improve the auction systems across the EU. We will focus on skills, access to finance and stable supply chains," she said, adding: "The future of our clean tech industry has to be made in Europe," she sai

Looking back at her track record, she told the EU assembly: "When I stood in front of you in 2019 with my programme for a green, digital and geopolitical Europe, I know that some had doubts ... But look at where Europe is today."

"We have seen the birth of a geopolitical Union — supporting Ukraine, standing up to Russia's aggression, responding to an assertive China and investing in partnerships," she said, also touting policies to promote green energy.

Von der Leyen also said the wealthy bloc must engage more with African countries and accused Russia of stirring chaos in the Sahel region of the continent.

"We need to show the same unity of purpose towards Africa as we have shown for Ukraine. We need to focus on cooperation with legitimate governments and regional organisations," she said.

(Reuters)

 

Von der Leyen vows ‘fair’ green deal for EU farms and industry

By  AFP
September 13, 2023

Ursula von der Leyen's term ends next year, but she has so far not said if she wants a second one - 

Copyright AFP Adem ALTAN

Antoine POLLEZ, Julien GIRAULT

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen promised on Wednesday that Europe’s green energy transition would be “fair and just” for farmers and businesses fearful of new regulations and unfair foreign competition.

Nine months ahead of the European Parliament elections, von der Leyen’s State of the Union address to MEPs was more focused on addressing voters’ economic concerns than on foreign crises like the war in Ukraine.

Brussels will, she said, launch a probe into what she said were the “huge state subsidies” allowing China to flood the European market with cheap electric cars, opening a new front in the battle to lead the new green economy.

She said the EU would fast-track permits for new wind turbines, vowed that “agriculture and protection of the natural world can go hand in hand” and promised to organise an international conference on ways to fight human traffickers bringing migrants to Europe.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had been the centrepiece of the previous year’s address, but played a less central role this time, with the focus on what the EU must do to prepare itself to accommodate Kyiv and the countries of the Western Balkans as new members.

Some member states have dragged their feet on EU enlargement in the past, arguing that Brussels must streamline its decision-making rules — under which the 27 existing member states wield a veto in many areas — before taking on any more members.

– ‘Fit for enlargement’ –

But von der Leyen, who is due to report back to member states next month on Ukraine’s progress towards meeting the criteria for membership talks, said that Kyiv had made “great strides” and that reform of EU rules should not be an excuse for delay.

The president of the European Commission told MEPs the EU should reform “but we cannot -– and we should not –- wait for treaty change to move ahead with enlargement. A union fit for enlargement can be achieved faster,” she said.

“The future of Ukraine is in our Union. The future of the Western Balkans is in our Union. The future of Moldova is in our union,” she declared.

Von der Leyen’s commission has begun to lose some of its most senior members, as figures like former vice-president and Green Deal supremo Frans Timmermans seek new jobs ahead of the end of their five year mandate next year.

There is increasing speculation in Brussels that von der Leyen herself will seek to return for a second term, but first will come the June European Parliament elections, which will help define the political balance as a round of horse-trading over top European jobs begins.

Europe’s ongoing transition towards clean-energy technology has been at the heart of the commission’s agenda, but EU leaders are looking nervously over their shoulder at the mounting anger of farmers concerned that new green rules threaten their livelihoods.

In the Netherlands, a brand new populist farmers’ party, the BBB, rocked the political establishment in March by seizing the biggest share of seats in upper house elections.

In Poland, the country’s reputation as Kyiv’s staunchest ally has been damaged by popular opposition to Ukrainian grain imports.

And in France, memories of the Yellow Vest protest — a nationwide movement that sprang out of rural opposition to higher diesel prices — remain fresh.

– Fire and flood –

In the European Parliament, von der Leyen’s own conservative EPP group has begun trying to water down nature protection laws opposed by farmers, and the president herself marked her return from the summer break with a surprise vow to review the wolf’s protected status.

“I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to our farmers, to thank them for providing us with food day after day,” von der Leyen said.

“It is not always an easy task, as the consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, climate change bringing droughts, forest fires and flooding, and new obligations are all having a growing impact on farmers’ work and incomes. We must bear that in mind.”

European industry, meanwhile, is faced with the challenge of the United States and China pouring subsidies into their own battery, solar and electrical vehicle sectors.

“It is a crucial industry for the clean economy, with a huge potential for Europe,” von der Leyen said.

“But global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars, and their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies,” she said, promising “an anti-subsidy investigation” that could theoretically lead to restrictions on imports.

burs-dc/del/jj

‘Women, Life, Freedom’

Iran’s regime has crushed anti-veil protests, but it has ‘lost the battle’ for credibility

Agence France-Presse
September 12, 2023

A poster displayed at a protest after the death of Mahsa Amini at the National Mall, Washington DC, October 22, 2022.© Jose Luis Magana, AP

The crackdown was increasing, the screws of repression getting tighter, in the weeks leading up to the first death anniversary of Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini.

The 22-year-old’s death in police custody on September 16, 2022, sparked protests across Iran for months until the authorities responded with brutal tactics, forcing protesters indoors or into exile. But with the anniversary of Amini’s death approaching, the regime was taking no chances.

Weeks ahead of the one-year milestone, the families of protesters killed by security forces were barred from holding commemorative gatherings at their graves, in what Amnesty International called the “cruellest restrictions”. Several women’s rights activists were also detained and accused of planning events to mark the death anniversary, according to Human Rights Watch.

A year ago, Amini was arrested by Iran’s Gasht-e-Ershad – or guidance patrols, better known as the “morality police” – for “improperly” wearing the mandatory hijab.

As enraged female protesters took to the streets, many defying the hijab rules – some burning their headscarves and cutting locks of hair – there were reports suggesting the Gasht-e-Ershad had been suspended.

But since mid-July, the morality police squads have been back on Iran’s streets, aided by other security forces. In early August, President Ebrahim Raisi took to the airwaves to tell the Iranian people they should not “worry” because, he promised, “the removal of the hijab will definitely come to an end”.

A new “Hijab and Chastity” bill is now working its way into law, with a package of repressive measures, including exorbitant fines for hijab offenders and increased police surveillance.

Iranians have a lot to worry about, including the rising cost of living, hyperinflation, corruption, economic collapse, and isolation under international sanctions while the regime plays hardball in nuclear negotiations.

The prospect of women revealing their hair in public does not top the list of concerns for most Iranians.

But for their unpopular president, it’s a major worry. The veil in Iran symboliezs much more than just a hair-covering garment. The death in custody of one young woman, hailing from the marginalized Kurdish-Sunni periphery of the official Shiite state, exposed the weakness of the Islamic Republic four decades after the 1979 revolution.


A year after Amini’s demise, that chapter in Iran’s post-revolutionary history is still being written and it could have dramatic consequences for the country – as well as the international community.

‘A very fragile moment for Iran’

Since the protests erupted last year, Iranian authorities have used a combination of old and new measures to suppress public anti-regime displays.

Security forces killed at least 537 protesters, the majority in the first months of the protests, according to an April 4 report by Oslo-based NGO, Iran Human Rights. At least seven men have been executed in connection to the protests following “hasty proceedings”, noted a UN-appointed Independent International Fact-Finding Mission.

The appointment of the fact-finding mission on November 24 was hailed as a “landmark” by rights groups and came after intense negotiations at the Geneva-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In its first oral report presented in July, the fact-finding mission noted that Iranian authorities had not yet responded to repeated requests for a visit. “Even today, ten months after the events, no official data is publicly available regarding those arrested, detained, charged or convicted in connection with the protests,” the team noted.

In other words, it was business as usual for the Iranian regime after yet another crackdown on yet another round of protests that have been erupting with increased frequency over the past decade.

But this time, some unfamiliar suppression tactics were also applied, and they were disquieting.

As the number of defiantly unveiled women in public soared, the Islamic regime targeted prominent female influencers, including actresses, with dubious psychiatric diagnoses. As judges sentenced women to treatment for “anti-family personality disorder”, Iranian mental health organizations warned that the authorities were “exploiting psychiatry”.

A year after Amini’s death in custody, the figures may be disputed, but the facts are clear. “The government has very effectively crushed the protests that erupted last year. But anger at the regime is even worse,” said Barbara Slavin, distinguished fellow at the Washington DC-based Stimson Center. “The regime has been very effective in terms of repression, but it’s been a total failure at improving the lives of ordinary Iranians.”

The explosive mix of public rage and regime suppression makes it hard to say who really won the day, much less the year. “It’s a mixed picture: on the one hand, society is miserable, angry, restive. On the other hand, Iranians have shown that the regime no longer calls the shots,” said Slavin. “It’s a very fragile moment for Iran.”

‘Women, Life, Freedom’

The fragility was exposed last year by women, the officially fragile 51 percent of Iran’s 87 million population. Adopting the rallying cry, “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” – Women, Life, Freedom – Iran’s women led the latest charge against the regime with a mix of courage, creativity and doggedness that electrified the world.

Since the 1979 revolution, women have been used as a political symbol by the Islamic Republic, with the veil promoted as the most manifest proclamation of its values. More than 40 years later, that political symbolism provided the seed for its own unraveling.

“Heavily discriminating against women in all aspects of life, the Islamic Republic’s policies on compulsory veil emerges throughout the years as the symbol of its control over women’s bodies and life. Regardless, Iranian women have remained courageously outspoken for their rights, while having paid and continuing to pay a high price for their dissent,” said Azadeh Pourzand, senior fellow at the Center for Middle East and Global Order.

While the government is pushing for the adoption of the “Hijab and Chastity” law, Slavin doubts it will end the regime’s worries. “Overall, the government has lost the battle for the obligatory hijab – they can’t arrest all the women going around without hijab,” she explained. “They’ve lost the battle, they simply refuse to admit it.”

Despite the tightened restrictions, many Iranian women are putting up a fight, with some displaying exceptional bravery. Weeks before Amini’s death anniversary, firebrand Iranian labour activist Sepideh Qoliyan got a warning by a criminal court judge that she could face additional charges if she continued to appear in court without a veil.It came a month after an earlier court hearing was cancelled because Qoliyan refused to wear the mandatory hijab. The 28-year-old activist remains in prison while she fights two separate charges, including insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Meanwhile Nazila Maroufian, the Iranian-Kurdish journalist who interviewed Amini’s father last year, walked out of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on August 13 and posted a photograph on social media of herself without a headscarf and the slogan, "Don't accept slavery, you deserve the best."

She was promptly detained again, released on bail and then re-arrested. On September 4, an Iranian judge sentenced Maroufian to a year in prison, ensuring the now-prominent journalist would be locked behind bars on Amini’s first death anniversary.

New generation rejects ‘patience’

Iranian women and girls taking to the streets were immediately joined by male protesters who grasped the symbolism of the veil in their demand for total change. The unofficial anthem of the Women, Life, Freedom movement was written by a young man and recorded in his bedroom in the Iranian coastal city of Babolsar.

Shervin Hajipour wove tweets of protest-supporters into the lyrics of his song, Baraye, or “For” in English. He was arrested and released on bail when he won a special Grammy award in February for his powerful, haunting single.

The song title comes from #Baraye, a hashtag Iranians used to explain why they were protesting. One of the tweets in the song simply states, “For yearning for an ordinary life” – a central demand of the primarily young protesters.

The Gen Z component of the protests was particularly noteworthy, distinguishing it from previous Iranian protest movements, explained Iran-born and UK-based Pourzand.

At 38, Pourzand belongs to the “Green movement” generation of protesters who took to the streets to challenge the results of the 2009 presidential elections, which denied a victory to the reformist candidate.

“My generation thought patience is a value, that incremental change is a value worth holding on to,” she explained. “We thought we had to pick between the bad and worse. ‘Better to work for the bad – what if, what comes next is the worse,’ describes the reform movement.”

Iran’s Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2010 – or 1375-1389 in the Iranian calendar and dubbed DaheHashtadi (“the Eighties”) in Persian – displayed the impertinence and impatience of youth. This included a total rejection of the post-1979 edifice, complete with ripping and burning posters of Supreme Leader Khamenei.

The leaderless, social media-driven nature of the movement raised immediate doubts over whether the young protesters had the mobilization capacity to topple the regime.

But in their failure to bring immediate change, Generation Dahe Hashtadi did not fare any worse than their parents, analysts concede a year later. What’s more, in a country with a long protest culture, they fundamentally altered the discourse by calling for a dismantling of the republic itself.

“They got together, they figured a message quickly and effectively, and the whole world heard it,” said Pourzand. “'Women, Life, Freedom' divided Iran’s history into a ‘before’ and ‘after’. I don’t think the regime can take it back to before this movement.”

Referring to the Iranian saying, “the fire under the ashes”, Slavin says the smoldering anger cannot be extinguished by a deeply discredited regime using the old repression techniques. “Iranians understand this is a long struggle, they are very determined,” she explained.

A year after Amini’s death, the state of the republic appears to be as frail as that of the 84-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. “People have been calling 'Death to the dictator' for the past four to five years. They hate him,” said Slavin.

Khamenei’s most likely successor list includes President Raisi and the octogenarian supreme leader’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei. Both men lack popular support, according to analysts. “Khamenei has been trying to arrange for his son to succeed him. The hypocrisy of the regime is beyond all calculations,” said Slavin. “Someday it will fall and people will celebrate – just when and how it happens, people can’t predict.”

The Iranian women paying price for reporting on Mahsa Amini

Issued on: 13/09/2023 -

Paris (AFP) – Iranian authorities have since the death of Mahsa Amini systematically persecuted the journalists, often young women, who helped expose the case and magnify its resonance in and outside Iran, campaign groups say. 

Iranian journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi have both been held for almost a year 

Amini, 22, an Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, 2022 following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly flouting the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Her death sparked months of protests in one of the biggest challenges for the Iranian authorities since the 1979 revolution.

Security forces responded with a crackdown that saw thousands arrested, including almost 80 journalists, according to a watchdog. Particularly targeted were those who reported on the circumstances of Amini's death.

Her family says she was killed by a blow while in custody, a version rejected by the Iranian authorities.

Almost a week after Amini died, Iranian authorities on September 22 arrested Niloufar Hamedi, 29, a journalist with the reformist Shargh daily who went to the hospital where Amini had been taken.

She posted on social media a photo of Amini's family grieving when her death was confirmed.

Hamedi's fellow reporter, Elahe Mohammadi, 36, of the Ham Mihan daily, rushed to Amini's hometown of Saqez in Kurdish-populated western Iran to report on her funeral which turned into one of the first protests.

Mohammadi was in turn arrested on September 29.

Both women have been held in detention ever since, for almost a year. They are now on trial on charges of violating national security, which they vehemently deny.

'Fearless reporting'

"Niloufar Hamedi's courage and commitment must be rewarded, not punished," said Jonathan Dagher, head of the Middle East desk at Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

"Her imprisonment for almost a year illustrates the Islamic Republic's terrible repression of journalists, and their rejection of press freedom and reliable information."

In another blow for the Mohammadi family, her twin sister Elnaz, who also works for Ham Mihan and reported on the protests, was earlier this month given a three year partly suspended prison sentence for "conspiracy and collusion".

Mohammadi works for the Ham Mihan daily © ATTA KENARE / AFP

She and co-defendant Negin Bagheri will serve one-fortieth of the term, or less than a month, in prison, their lawyer told Ham Mihan. But they must undergo "ethics" training –- overseen by intelligence officials –- and are barred from leaving the country.

"By imprisoning Elahe Mohammadi for the past 11 months and punishing Elnaz Mohammadi, the Iranian government shows that it is determined to silence these two sister journalists and the women whose views they report," said Dagher.

In recognition of their work the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) –- founded by the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and actor George Clooney –- awarded them at this year's Albies awards.

The two journalists won the Justice for Women Award in recognition of "their fearless reporting that brought the death of Mahsa Amini... out of the shadows," the CFJ said.

'Don't accept slavery'

Weeks after the arrest of Hamedi and Mohammadi, the journalist Nazila Maroufian, now 23, published an interview on the Mostaghel Online news site with Amjad Amini, Mahsa Amini's father. He accused authorities of lying about the circumstances of his daughter's death.

Maroufian has since been arrested a total of four times, according to rights groups.

On her release she repeatedly posted a picture of herself without the Islamic headscarf in defiance of Iran's strict rules for women.

"Don't accept slavery, you deserve the best!" she wrote in one post after walking out of prison, holding flowers in one arm and the other raised skyward in a victory sign.

During her latest stint in jail this month, Maroufian said in an audio message that she was sexually assaulted while being arrested and had begun a hunger strike to protest her situation.

Nazila Maroufian has repeatedly posted pictures of herself outside prison without a headscarf © Alex MITA / AFP

She was freed at the weekend. This time, Maroufian opted not to post a picture on social media celebrating her release, implying she would be arrested again if she failed to wear a headscarf.

"I am forbidden to post my photo after 'freedom'. I preferred not to post a picture rather than posting a picture of myself... which is nothing like Nazila."

According to the RSF watchdog group, 79 journalists including 31 women were arrested in the crackdown. Twelve are still behind bars, RSF said.

Dagher said this "labyrinth of repression" has been created so journalists either "self-censor or they get locked up".

"But if the arrests are continuing, it is because there are still journalists who defy this formula."

© 2023 AFP

Iranians hit by internet curbs in year since protests

Issued on: 13/09/2023

Tehran (AFP) – Iran has imposed curbs on the internet in the year since protests erupted over Mahsa Amini's death, forcing people to find other ways to run their businesses or keep in touch with loved ones.

In the year since Mahsa Amini's death sparked protests, the Iranian authorities have imposed internet restrictions 

© ATTA KENARE / AFP

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died on September 16, 2022 after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Her death triggered months of nationwide protests in which hundreds of people were killed, including dozens of security personnel, before authorities moved to quell what they branded "riots", including restrictions on the use of social media.

Alma Samimi, who makes a living by selling leather bags online, said her business had suffered since the blackout came into force.

"The damage has been irreversible," she said, with profits linked to her Instagram account -- which had amassed thousands of followers -- nosediving 80 percent.

"Online interactions have dramatically dropped since last year," she said.

The restrictions, which affected online activity including on Instagram and WhatsApp, come as millions of Iranians struggle to make ends meet, grappling with an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and the Iranian rial's sharp decline.

Iran's economic woes were significantly compounded by Washington's 2018 decision to reimpose sanctions on Tehran after then-president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark nuclear deal.

"We cannot plan for the future anymore," Samimi lamented.

'Added cost'

Some 1,200 business owners have since called on Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi to lift the restrictions, according to local media.

To keep her business afloat, Samimi resorted to using virtual private networks and anti-filter tools to bypass the censorship.

Daily demand on VPN services in Iran rocketed to "3,082 percent higher than before the protests" last year, according to Top10VPN, a British-based digital security advocacy group.

Mohammad Rahim Pouya, a psychologist who offers online therapy sessions, said he lost more than 50 percent of his clients in the early days of the blackout.

The 32-year-old said he could maintain communication lines with clients in Iran but it was more challenging with those abroad.

For him, the use of anti-censorship tools was "an added cost and probably has security flaws".

"But what are the options?"

Finding ways around internet curbs has become commonplace in Iran where authorities have repeatedly blocked access over the years at times of unrest.

In 2009, access to social media networks was blocked during mass protests -- which became known as the Green Movement -- following a contentious presidential election that saw the populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad take office.

Popular social media networks including Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, have since been blocked.

A decade later, harsher curbs were imposed after protesters took to the streets over a government decision to raise fuel prices by 200 percent.

Costly curbs

In March, Iran's telecommunications minister Issa Zarepour urged foreign companies to introduce representative offices in Iran, saying "no one wants to limit the internet and we can have international platforms".

Meta, the American giant that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has said it has no intention of setting up offices in the Islamic republic, which remains under crippling US sanctions.

The internet curbs have been costly.

The government spent $773 million in 2022 alone to impose them, making it the second biggest spender on restrictions after Russia, according to Statista, a Germany-based data collection website.

In February, Iran's reformist Shargh daily reported that the country's internet service providers suffered 40 percent losses because of the restrictions.

With the bans on Western apps in place, Iranians have been left with little choice but to rely on state-backed apps.

But the homegrown alternatives for social networks and messaging apps -- like Bale, Ita, Rubika and Soroush -- have failed to garner significant popularity compared with their international alternatives.

Samimi says she has yet to "find any alternatives" to her now-dwindling online business on Instagram.

Likewise, Pouya insists on using international platforms through anti-censorship tools but he fears a total blackout.

"I wouldn't know what to do if they shut down (the internet) completely."

© 2023 AFP

Death of Mahsa Amini: 'Iran is not the same country one year on'

Issued on: 13/09/2023 

Arshas Alijani of the France 24 Observers team takes a look at how social and political attitudes have changed in Iran a year after the death of Mahsa Amini sparked a wave of protests across the country.

Iran: How Mahsa Amini’s death sparked a wave of protests

Issued on: 13/09/2023 - 

02:00

One year ago, 22 year-old Mahsa Amini was stopped by the Iranian morality police in Tehran for not properly wearing her head scarf. She died in hospital three days later, sparking outrage across the country. France 24 takes a look back at some of the key moments of the protest movement her death triggered

 

‘Like urban warfare’: The women at the heart of Iran’s year of protests

Issued on: 13/09/2023 - 

05:19

One year ago this week, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran sparked nationwide demonstrations against authorities in the Islamic Republic. For the women-led protests, the removal of the hijab became a symbol of defiance against what they viewed as an oppressive government. One year later, France 24 spoke to women inside Iran who took part in the demonstrations. They say, for now, the street protests have ended but their discontent remains. Correspondent Reza Sayah has more from Tehran.

 

'In absence of democratic structure', streets are 'ballot' of Iranians demanding 'change & justice'

Issued on: 13/09/2023 - 

07:27

Video by: Genie GODULA

Snap checkpoints. Internet disruptions. University purges. Iran's theocracy is trying hard to both ignore the upcoming anniversary of nationwide protests over the country's mandatory headscarf law and tamp down on any possibility of more unrest. Yet the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini still reverberates across Iran. Some women are choosing to go without the headscarf, or hijab, despite an increasing crackdown by authorities. Graffiti, likely against Iran's government, is rapidly painted over in black by Tehran's municipal workers. University professors have been fired over their apparent support for demonstrators. International pressure remains high on Iran, even as the administration tries to deescalate tensions with other nations in the region and the West after years of confrontation. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective as Iran approaches the grim 1-year anniversary of the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and the unprecedented anti-government protests that followed, FRANCE 24's Genie Godula is joined by Azadeh Pourzand, Author, PHD Researcher at SOAS, University of London, focussing on women and activism in Iran.

BABAWEAR

'Made in Russia' fashion industry tries to fill gap left by Western brands' exit (2023)

 France 24 / AFP

Issued on: 13/09/2023

 

03:15

Despite lacking equipment, staff and even fabric, Russia's fashion industry is striving to expand and fill the huge gap – both physical and psychological – left by the departure of Western brands since the start of the war in Ukraine. In Saint Petersburg, the YOU clothing brand has cast itself as an alternative to Spain's Massimo Dutti, which has closed more than 500 shops. "We cannot produce everything abroad," explains YOU CEO Yevgeniya Moseychuk. "We need to reduce distances and organise production here," she added.

‘Made in Russia’ fashion struggles to fill gap

By AFP
September 13, 2023

Russia's fashion industry is rushing to fill the gap left by the departure of major Western labels -

 Copyright AFP BAY ISMOYO

Marina LAPENKOVA

Despite staff shortages, a lack of equipment and dwindling fabric supplies, Russia’s fashion industry is rushing to fill the gap left by the departure of major Western labels.

Dozens of brands like Adidas, H&M and Zara have shut up shop in Russia since the conflict in Ukraine began last year, while Western sanctions have cut off access to foreign goods.

Moscow saw its European clothing imports drop by 37.2 percent last year, according to the Fashion Network site.

The Kremlin has cast the sanctions as an opportunity to bolster domestic firms, returning to Soviet-style manufacturing after years of foreign dependence.

But while the state has poured subsidies into industries like clothing, Moscow faces an uphill battle to sell customers on the “Made in Russia” label.

– Industrial revolution –

Nadezhda Samoylenko, who has worked in the sector since 1978, said that when the Soviet Union collapsed, so too did the country’s light manufacturing industry.

Russia stopped producing fabrics and lost the knowledge needed to train managers, as the Soviet-era schools that trained staff closed.

Factories are between 25 percent and 50 percent short of the specialists they need as a result, one industry expert told AFP.

While Western brands such as H&M and Uniqlo have been superseded by Russian replacements like LIME and “Lady & Gentleman”, most manufacturing still takes place abroad.

“Major Russian clothing brands produce in the same Asian factories as the Western brands that left Russia,” said Tatyana Belkevich from RAFI, an association that represents Russia’s fashion industry.

In Saint Petersburg, the YOU clothing brand has positioned itself as an alternative to Spain’s Massimo Dutti, part of the Inditex group that closed more than 500 stores in the wake of Moscow’s offensive.

The company does produce in Russia, but volumes remain low.

YOU said it doubled its production last year, to 4,000 items. The company is aiming to double this again by 2024, “even though delivery times for raw materials and supplies from Asia have also doubled”, CEO Yevgeniya Moseychuk told AFP.

The brand has tripled its workforce in 18 months and opened six stores, but it is still a long way from mass production.

And it lacks a quarter of the sewing staff it needs.

– Patriotic customers? –

Still, the number of clothing companies is on the rise.

According to the Rosakkreditatsiya registration service, the number of companies in the sector increased by 20 percent between 2021 and 2022.

When it comes to marketing, the overwhelming majority of brands have chosen English names in favour of Russian ones.

“In their hearts, Russian consumers are still under the influence of Western soft power,” Belkevich said.

Clothing consultant Stanislava Nazhmitdinova said fashion choices might also be dictated more by financial circumstances than patriotism.

“For consumers now, it is more important to buy cheap than to buy (Russian),” she said.

According to the Fashion Consulting Group, clothing prices have gone up by 30 percent as sanctions disrupt supply chains and the ruble lingers at historic lows against the dollar.

“Russians say now that they are more interested in local brands, but in fact, do they have a choice?” Nazhmitdinova said.

And, in any case, more than half of Russians continue to buy Western brands ordered via third countries, according to the audit and consultancy firm B1, the former Russian arm of accounting giant EY.

“When Westerners return to Russia, they will still find their loyal customers here,” Nazhmitdinova said.

“If they are still alive, of course.”

‘Rearguard soldiers’: Women sew for Russian victory

By AFP
September 12, 2023

The Kremlin has cast its soldiers as heroes battling for Russia's very existence 

- Copyright AFP Natalia KOLESNIKOVA

Romain COLAS

In the cluttered basement of a residential building outside Moscow, 81-year-old Raisa carefully attached plastic strips to a camouflage net stretched over a wooden stand in front of her.

“It’s for our boys who are over there,” Raisa told AFP, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“We are worried for them, of course,” she sighed. “We are ready to do everything to provide moral and material help.”

As Russia’s assault on Ukraine takes a heavy toll on the army and economy, the Kremlin has cast its soldiers as heroes battling for Russia’s very existence in the face of Western aggression and “Nazism”.

Raisa is one of a dozen mostly elderly women who make everything from camouflage nets to underwear in a workshop in the town of Zhukovsky, around 25 kilometres (16 miles) southeast of the Russian capital.

The volunteers say they were inspired by the Soviet Union’s historic mobilisation against Nazi Germany during World War II.

The seamstresses work in quiet concentration, surrounded by sacks and boxes destined for the front. A portrait of President Vladimir Putin is pinned to a wall. One of the posters says “From home with love.”

Manager Elena Poteryaeva proudly presented one of their latest creations — a green fabric stretcher with padded handles.

“That way the soldier won’t hurt his hands while pulling his wounded comrade,” the 50-year-old said.

The workshop is part of a network of about 10 in the regions of Moscow and Tver that produce up to 300 camouflage nets a month.

The nets then get delivered to Ukraine by volunteers or picked up by soldiers before joining the front.

Initially, several local grandmothers started sewing socks for soldiers last year, Poteryaeva said.

– Passionate support –

As the fighting continued, their efforts received official support, with the mayor’s office in Zhukovsky providing the women with a place to work.

While many Russians prefer to keep their distance from the conflict, the women volunteers make no secret of their passionate support for the Kremlin’s offensive.

“We support our guys and we believe that what they are doing is right,” said Poteryaeva.

“We already feel like soldiers, rearguard soldiers,” added the woman, an aeronautical engineer by training.

“I really hope that we will celebrate the victory together with our warriors.”

Her comrade Natalia Shalygina said the conflict divided Russians and that patriots like them continued “the work of their grandfathers”.

“In times of war there are those who help, those who wait and those who do harm,” said the 52-year-old philologist.

“So we need to reach out to the guys and tell them loud and clear that we are waiting for them here, helping and supporting them,” she added.

The women showed AFP a video of Russian soldiers thanking them for their support.

The workshop buys the necessary materials including fabrics and fishing nets from several companies across Russia and said it keeps going thanks to private donations.

Shalygina said she was already working on the new season as she pointed to a spool of white and green fabric for snow camouflage.

“Winter is coming soon,” she said.

Panama seeks new sources of water for canal

Panama City (AFP) – Panama is looking into new sources of water for the Panama Canal, which moves six percent of global maritime trade but recently had to restrict traffic due to drought, its operator said.

The Panama Canal, a wonder of engineering that provides a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific, expects to lose tens of millions of dollars after having to curb traffic from about 40 to 32 ships per day 

© Ivan PISARENKO / AFP

The canal, a wonder of engineering that provides a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific, expects to lose tens of millions of dollars after having to curb traffic from about 40 to 32 ships per day.

Ricuarte Vasquez, the canal's administrator, told reporters in Panama Tuesday that "another source of (water) supply is needed to regulate Gatun Lake" -- an artificial reservoir that is a key part of the 50-mile (80-kilometer) waterway inaugurated in 1914.

It is used mainly by clients from the United States, China, and Japan.

Each ship moving through the canal requires 200 million liters of freshwater to move it through an intricate system of locks, provided by two artificial lakes fed by rainfall.

The lakes also supply drinking water to half the country of about 4.2 million people.

However, Panama is facing a biting drought, made worse by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has also forced canal administrators to restrict the waterway to ships with a maximum draft (water depth) of 13.11 meters (43 feet).

The restrictions are expected to lead to a drop in earnings of some $200 million in 2024.

Vasquez said one option being considered was the construction of a dam on the Indio River, west of the canal, from where water could be transferred to Gatun Lake via an eight-kilometer pipeline.

The canal recorded a record queue of 163 ships on August 9 

© Luis ACOSTA / AFP

Another is to extract water from the Bayano Lake to the east, Panama's second largest after Gatun.

"Indeed there is a different weather pattern that is affecting rainfall levels," Vasquez said of the predicament.

The canal recorded a record queue of 163 ships on August 9. By Tuesday, the number was down to 116.

 13/09/2023 - 
© 2023 AFP

Bangladesh: Macron accused of putting trade before rights

Arafatul Islam
September 12, 2023

As China and the US jostle for influence in Asia, French President Emmanuel Macron offered an alternative to Bangladesh during a visit. However, he refrained from commenting on the country's poor human rights record.

During a rare two-day visit to Bangladesh, French President Emmanuel Macron focused on his country's Asia-Pacific strategy and ways to counterbalance a "new imperialism" in a region where several superpowers are jostling for influence.

The Bangladesh trip came after a series of short trips by Macron this year to Asian countries such as Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka.

"Based on democratic principles and the rule of law, in a region facing new imperialism, we want to propose a third way, with no intention to bully our partners or to lead them to an unsustainable scheme," he told Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Monday.

Macron's two-day visit came after attending the G20 summit in New Delhi.

Suppression of human rights in Bangladesh

While the United States and China compete for influence in the wider region, Macron has pushed France as an alternative partner.

He is the first French president to visit Bangladesh in well over three decades. Several Western powers widely criticized the world's eighth most populous country for its poor democracy and human rights records.

Rights groups have accused Sheikh Hasina of using law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to silence opposition members since she came to power 14 years ago. Hundreds of people have become victims of extrajudicial killings or enforced disappearances by the security forces under her tenure.

Many opposition leaders, civil society members, and human rights defenders have faced politically motivated lawsuits that force them to spend most of their time in courtrooms or jail.

Government likely to exploit Macron visit, says expert

Jasmin Lorch, a Bangladesh expert at the Hamburg-based GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, thinks that Macron's visit was very important for the South Asian country's ruling Awami League (AL) government, which can use it to claim both international and domestic legitimacy.

"The US has issued a visa ban for people who violate the electoral process and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary RAB while human rights groups have long been criticizing severe human rights violations committed by the Bangladeshi security forces," she told DW.

"In this context, Macron is offering the government a 'third way' and is promising to deepen political and economic ties between Bangladesh and France. It's a gift for the Hasina government, which can use Macron's visit to convey the message that it still has partners in the West despite US pressure and sanctions," Lorch added.




Macron ignores human rights, focuses on business, stability

Despite calls from rights groups, Macron refrained from publicly commenting on Bangladesh's poor democracy and human rights records during his visit to the country.

He focused more on regional stability and business opportunities his country negotiated with the South Asian nation in recent years.

Bangladesh exported goods, mostly garments, worth about $3.29 billion (€3.07 billion) to France between July 2022 and June 2023, according to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau. France's exports to Bangladesh were worth about $254.32 million last year, according to the UN database on international trade.

Dhaka and Paris have inked a deal to support Bangladesh to launch an Earth observation satellite system.

The letter of intent between the state-run Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited and France's Airbus Defence and Space company was signed on Monday after the talks between Macron and Hasina.

Both leaders also discussed a "commitment" from Bangladesh's national airline to purchase 10 A350s from the planemaker Airbus, headquartered in France, a potential contract that could be worth as much as $3.2 billion.

National carrier Biman had previously always bought aircraft from the US manufacturer Boeing, and the hope of a purchase from Airbus was "an important point," Macron told reporters alongside Hasina.

The two leaders also discussed geopolitical stability in the Asia-Pacific region, supporting Bangladesh's infrastructure development and combating the impact of climate change, according to Hasina's press officer Shakhawat Moon.

"We both hope that this new strategic move between Bangladesh and France will play an effective role in establishing regional and global stability and peace," Hasina said.

Macron paid homage to Bangladesh independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhaka

Yeasin Kabir Joy/AP Photo/picture alliance

Misconstrued as representing EU

South Asia analyst Lorch said she thinks that the timing of the French president's visit, which is just a few months before Bangladesh's national elections, is "unfortunate" because it can be viewed "as a signal that France is ready to prioritize geo-strategic and economic interests over democracy and human rights."

"And, although this is a bilateral visit, the position taken by France might even be viewed as representing the position of the European Union as a whole," she told DW.

The last two general elections, held in 2014 and 2018, were marred by allegations of massive vote rigging and intimidation of opposition activists, charges denied by Hasina's government. Her party won both controversial elections and she remained in power.

The country's opposition parties and civil society groups have been holding out hope for an important role by the international community in ensuring a free, fair, and participatory national election by January 2024.

Lorch said there is a broad consensus in European diplomatic circles about the last controversial elections. "Still, Europe has not come out very strongly against these violations of the electoral process as yet," she emphasized.

Both leaders agree on Rohingya repatriation

Both Macron and Hasina reiterated their commitment to put the issue of Rohingya repatriation high on the international agenda. According to UN data, around 1 million Rohingya Muslims live in squalid camps in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

Although several attempts have been made, the refugees are yet to return to their homeland.

Dhaka and Paris underscored the need for creating conditions inside Myanmar for the voluntary, safe and sustainable return of the Rohingya people to their ancestral home in Rakhine, Myanmar.

Rezaur Rahman Lenin, a Rohingya researcher based in Cox's Bazar, considers Myanmar's citizenship law the main obstacle to the return of the refugees.

"A few refugees returned in 2018, but it later emerged that they were living under strict restrictions, with little freedom of movement and work," he told DW. "If Myanmar's citizenship law remains unchanged, any repatriation attempt will fail to address fundamental insecurity in Bangladesh."

The Rohingya are not recognized by Myanmar as a distinct ethnic group and have been subject to discrimination and demonization for decades.

The French president's office has not responded to DW over whether Macron raised the issue of human rights violations with Bangladesh's Hasina during their meeting.

Edited by: John Silk

What would it take to make aviation green in the EU?

Ella Joyner in Strasbourg

DW
22 hours ago

Most Europeans have heard of "flight shaming," and now the EU hopes green jet fuel will be the answer to aviation emissions. The bloc has set ambitious production targets, but not everyone is sold.

Climate activists frequently hit out at the aviation sector for inaction in cutting emissions

 Piroschka van de Wouw/REUTERS


The peak vacation season of July and August is traditionally a chance for people in Europe to get away from it all. But with more frequent, intense wildfires and blistering heatwaves shaping summer in southern Europe, the climate crisis is getting pretty hard to ignore — even on the beach.

More and more people are thinking about the environmental impact of travel, particularly the real cost of a budget airline ticket.

With the dream of next-generation battery or liquid-hydrogen planes still likely decades away — at least for widespread commercial use — many governments are focussing for now on developing less environmentally harmful fuel to use in existing aircraft as a means of cleaning up a notoriously polluting sector.

Electric planes like this one made by Rolls Royce may look cool, but they are not ready to replace commercial fleets

Cover-Images/imago images

EU: 70% sustainable aviation fuel by 2050

The European Union has set its eye on boosting the production of sustainable aviation fuel, currently much more expensive than conventional fossil kerosene and very short in supply.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament is expected to formally approve a 70% target for the share of so-called green aviation fuel by 2050 at EU airports. The rules would increase the green aviation fuel requirements from 2% in 2025 to 6% in 2030 and 20% in 2035 and increase gradually to 70% in 2050. Less than 1% of aviation fuel is currently from sustainable sources.

The EU lawmaker leading negotiations, centrist Spanish politician Jose Ramon Bauza Diaz, called it a potential "revolution" and a "tremendous step towards decarbonization of the aviation sector" at a press conference in the French city of Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Bauz Diaz told reporters he hoped for an "overwhelming majority" in Wednesday's vote. The basic deal was signed off in April by negotiators representing the European Commission, the EU legislature and the 27 member states.

What is green aviation fuel and how green is it really?

The changes would oblige aviation fuel producers — major fossil fuel companies like Shell, Total and others — to change what they supply to EU airports or potentially risk penalties. The rules also would require flights taking off in the EU not to carry more fuel than needed to prevent them from stocking up in cheaper markets with laxer rules and the additional emissions of flying with higher fuel weights.

Of the final, mid-century 70% target, half should be biofuels, for example from used cooking oil or farming and forestry waste, Camille Mutrelle of Brussels-based advocacy group Transport & Environment explained. The remainder would be synthetic fuels, which are produced by harnessing renewable energy in liquid form, she told DW.

In reality, neither of these is straightforward in terms of minimizing climate harm, Mutrelle added. Biofuels are associated with massive land use if not collected from waste products and the production of synthetic fuels is currently extremely energy intensive.

"The amount of energy you can use is enormous," She said. "That raises a lot of questions when it comes to how the renewable energy that is available will have to be distributed between sectors and what share aviation gets."

Experts question whether e-fuel production will develop fast enough to meet climate goals

 Marijan Murat/dpa/picture alliance

With many industries vying for limited sources of cleaner energy to keep their businesses running in line with ever tighter EU laws, the question is whether there will be enough to go around — particularly for power-hungry endeavors like e-kerosene to fuel planes.

While the automotive industry is betting heavily on electric vehicles, the maritime shipping sector may also turn to sustainable fuel in the future.

Nonetheless, this legislation — first proposed by the European Commission in 2021 as part of its plan to make the EU "climate neutral" by the middle of the century, necessitating a 90%-reduction in transport emissions, among a raft of other measures — is an important step, according to Mutrelle, who called it "a great opportunity for aviation to decarbonize."

Where's it going to come from?

For the Transport & Environment advocacy group, the bigger problem is whether enough sustainable fuel, particularly biofuel, can be produced. "It seems, at least to us, extremely unrealistic to believe that 35% of the fuel uplifted in 2050 will be derived from biomass," Mutrelle said.

At present, the production of sustainable aviation fuels is minimal. In Europe, projects are concentrated in France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom.

"There are a lot of projects on the table, but none of them is a done deal," Mutrelle said, adding that the new legislation could help set the tone and encourage the sector's development.

However, imposing targets isn't the same as offering production incentives.

"A true sustainable aviation fuel industrial policy is missing in Europe," she stressed, comparing the situation to the United States, where tax incentives were offered under the Inflation Reduction Act investment spree.
Even if it works, will it be enough?

Although aviation is responsible for about 2% of the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission reported if global aviation emissions were a country, it would rank in the top 10 emitters. It is also fast-growing, having doubled greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2017. Aviation emissions have increased by an average of 5% year-on-year between 2013 and 2019, the Commission said.

Are new green fuels the cleaner future of flying?  11:40

Two years ago, the International Air Transport Association, a trade body representing the world's airlines, made synthetic fuels 65% of its plan to go "net zero" by 2050, along with offsets (19%), while still continuing growth.

The number of commercial flights could increase by as much as 42% by 2040 compared to 2017, according to figures cited by the European Commission.

Stay Grounded, which advocated for reshaping tax and subsidy structures that benefit airline companies, told DW that focusing on such alternative fuels wouldn't help solve the climate crisis.

"The new EU legislation drawing a pathway to substitute 70% of aviation fuels by 2050 by so-called 'green' fuels is no more than greenwashing, to guarantee that aviation continues growing," campaigner Ines Teles told DW in a written statement. "It is absolutely unclear, where the massive amount of biomass (for agrofuels) and renewable energy (for e-fuels) should come from that would be needed to meet those targets."

"The only way to reduce aviation emissions is to reduce flights, and to achieve that we need effective regulations such as progressive taxes and limits," Teles stressed.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

30TH ANNIVERSARY

Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords leave a complicated legacy

Tania Krämer
September 12, 2023

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators signed the Oslo Accords, an interim peace agreement, 30 years ago. There's still no lasting peace and the conflict's main issues remain unsolved.

Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yassir Arafat shake hands in Washington on September 13, 1993

Avi Ohayon/GPO

The photo of the handshake between Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, then-chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and Israel's then-Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin seems a distant reality these days.

On September 13, 1993, US President Bill Clinton hosted the two leaders to sign the Declaration of Principles on Interim Arrangements of Self Governance — what came to be known as the Oslo Accords — on the White House lawn in Washington.

The interim agreement created the Palestinian Authority and gave it limited authority over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip — territories Israel had captured and occupied in the war in 1967. The accords had extended mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO and allowed Arafat, who resided in Tunisia at the time, and other exiled Palestinians to live in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the years following the accord, many Palestinians and Israelis hoped that a lasting and just peace could be achieved between them. But that hope has long faded.
Secret track led to interim agreement

Thirty years on, Yossi Beillin reflects on that era. After the Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991, which brought Israelis, Palestinians and negotiators from other Arab countries together, the Israeli politician initiated contact with members of the PLO.

This led to a secret track of negotiations in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

"My purpose originally was very modest. From my point of view, it was just a way behind the scenes to put things in order to solve the gaps," Beilin, who became deputy foreign minister under Rabin, told DW.

The track proceeded while Palestinians and Israelis were also officially negotiating in Washington, DC.

In Washington, it was Ghassan Khatib who sat on the Palestinian side of the negotiating table. The Palestinian scholar was part of the group of negotiators from the West Bank and Gaza who were holding official talks with Israeli officials in the US capital. The parallel secret track in Oslo, he told DW, was unknown to the team in Washington.

One issue the two sides fought over in Washington was settlements. The team in Washington insisted that any agreement needed a written commitment by Israel to stop the expansion of settlements.

"That was something Israel did not accept. That's why we didn't reach an agreement," Khatib told DW.

Eventually, it was the secret track in Oslo that led to the interim agreement.

"In Oslo, Israel recognized the PLO and in return, the PLO accepted an agreement without a [written] Israeli commitment to stop the expansion of settlements," said Khatib, who today is a lecturer of international relations at Bir Zeit University in the occupied West Bank.

He sees the settlement issue as one of the main reasons why Oslo didn't succeed.

Meanwhile for Beilin, the main issue remains that Oslo was not a peace treaty but a transitional framework that was supposed to lead to a permanent agreement within five years.

"I don't see myself as the defender of Oslo. Oslo was a tool [towards a permanent treaty], but I am not enthusiastic about interim solutions," said Beilin, who points at successive right-wing governments in Israel that he says were not interested in an agreement. "The failure of Oslo is that we never got to our real target, which was a permanent agreement."

Beilin says that he pushed early on for negotiating a final status, warning Yitzhak Rabin that a five-year period would give extremists on both sides an opportunity to thwart the agreement.

"It would have been very difficult to talk already then about the permanent agreement but not impossible. Maybe we could have saved a lot of time, a lot of casualties on both sides," he said.

Sure enough, there was an escalation from extremists on both sides. Palestinian militant Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched a series of suicide attacks and bombings in which hundreds of Israelis were killed and wounded in the years following the signing of the Oslo Accords. Israel's right-wing opposition staged a series of mass demonstrations against the agreement. In 1994, an Israeli extremist opened fire on Muslim worshippers during Ramadan in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, killing 29 Palestinians. The violence culminated in the 1995 assassination of Israel's prime minister, Itzhak Rabin, by a Jewish right-wing extremist who opposed the peace process.

Different tracks to reach an agreement

Thirty years later, most Palestinians and Israelis have turned their backs on Oslo.

"Only one third of the [Palestinian] public remain in support of Oslo agreement, while it used to be in the 70% in the weeks and months after signing it," said Khatib, who oversees regular opinion polls among Palestinians.

Palestinians observe that despite signing an agreement, Israel is "still taking more land, settling more settlers and restricting the Palestinians in their confined areas," he added.

That is particularly relevant for the young generation, which has not experienced any substantial attempt to negotiate an agreement.

"They think that Oslo is responsible for many of our difficulties that we are living in," Khatib said.

Jewish housing in the Ma'aleh Adumim settlement in the West Bank: Israel's settlement expansion is still a major issue today

 Debbie Hill/UPI Photo via Newscom/picture alliance

Since the Oslo Accords, Israeli settlements have continued to expand. At the end of 1993, there were about 116,300 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.

Israel withdrew all its settlements in Gaza in 2005, but today there are about 700,000 settlers in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal under international law and seen as a major obstacle to any future agreement.

Moreover, the Oslo Accords failed to end Israel's military occupation of the Palestinian Territories, which has now been in place for 56 years, since the 1967 War. The core issues remain unsolved: delineating borders between the two states, the future of the city of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees and security arrangements.

This is reality for young Palestinian Shadha Musallam who heads a start-up. Born in Tunisia to a Palestinian refugee mother from Lebanon and a Palestinian father in exile, who worked as head of office with Palestinian leader Arafat in Tunisia, her family was able to move to the West Bank town of Jericho after the agreement.

"After Oslo, the Palestinian Authority passport was created. Before that we didn't have any document pertaining to Palestine. That was life-changing in the sense that we now have a nationality," she told DW.

However, looking at Oslo from today, "it was all a bit rushed" and important details were not negotiated, she said.

"I blame Israel a lot because they did not keep any component of their part in the Oslo agreement," Musallam said. "The A-B-C structure of the land was supposed to be how they will be moving out of the territories or stopping the settlement construction, and they did the opposite."

From left: Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, Egyptian President Mubarak, Jordan's King Hussein, US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat fix their ties before the signing ceremony of the Oslo II Accords

White House photographer/GPO

Musallam refers to the remnants of the Oslo II agreement, signed in 1995, which stipulated the division of the occupied West bank in three administrative areas for a transitional time of five years. Today, the Palestinian Authority has limited control over area A, and the transitional plan was never implemented.

But she is also critical of the Palestinian leadership. "After five years of seeing the agreement fail, they should have taken definitive steps in countering that inaction from Israel. I blame them for not reacting for over 30 years now."
'There is only one option now: One State'

Palestinian Fathi Al Ghoul is a young CEO-founder of a marketing start-up in Ramallah.

"There is a lot to say about Oslo, and a lot of things were wrong, but most importantly we got recognition, an identity," he told DW.

The young Palestinian was born in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria. After the Oslo Accords, the family was able to come to Gaza, where Al Ghoul grew up in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. They had to move to the West Bank in 2007, when Hamas seized power from the Palestinian Authority

"In general, with regards to Oslo, it failed. It was a process and was supposed to end with a two-state solution. But if you look at reality, I think Israel killed the dream of the two-state solution," Al Ghoul said, referring to the notion of the creation of an independent Palestinian State alongside Israel. "We really wanted that there will be two states, side by side, now the only option is a one-state solution."

These days, the young CEO is worried about plans by the far-right Israeli government to annex parts of the occupied West Bank and the increase in extremist settler attacks against Palestinians.

"There is the occupation, and there are [Israeli] checkpoints and many difficulties in moving around. But these days I am really afraid to go to Nablus or Bethlehem. I am really afraid of the settlers," he said.

An Israeli soldier stops a driver at a checkpoint at the entrance of a Palestinian village south of Nablus in the West Bank

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP

A generation without any peace process

Opinion surveys among youth on both sides suggest that they are far less in favor of a two-state solution than previous generations who experienced some attempts of finding a solution.

In Israel, only 20% of Jewish Israeli youths aged 18-34 are in favor of a two-state solution, according to a joint poll published in January 2023 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and the International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University.

Dorit Shechter lives in an Israeli settlement in the Binyamin region in what she refers to as Judea and Samaria, a biblical name for the West Bank.

"I personally think it [Oslo] was a huge mistake. Every time Israel gave land for any peace agreement, it blew up, it literally blew up in our eyes," said Shechter, who grew up in a city near Tel Aviv and describes herself as religious. She remembers a childhood marked by Palestinian attacks and bombings during the Second Intifada [arabic: Uprising] which started in 2000.

For her, the concept of land for peace doesn't work. "I would say first of all, we must not give any piece of land of Israel. It is, for sure, not bringing peace, but it brings only terror. I think that not making a decision is also a kind of solution. So, we should just leave it as it is," she told DW.

From Oslo baby to post-Second Intifada soldier

Hillel Assaf, an Israeli who grew up in Jerusalem, has a different view.

"I was an Oslo baby, and I became a post-Second intifada soldier," said Assaf, referring to the Palestinian uprising with casualties on both sides. After serving as a soldier in the occupied West Bank, he later became active in Breaking the Silence, a group of army veterans critical of the ongoing military occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

He thinks new ideas and a new generation of politicians are needed to bring about change.

"You see Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president] in the pictures of the Oslo Accords. [Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister] was doing all the defamation against Oslo," said Assaf, who works for a progressive civil society organization in Israel.

"It's like we can't have a paradigm shift with the same people. It's just not going to happen. So, I really hope these people step off the pedestal and let other people come in," he told DW.

At the same time, it has become difficult to imagine a new path in the current political atmosphere, he said.

"I feel closer to some Palestinians than to ultra-nationalist Jews that are supposedly on 'my side.' I'd rather be stuck with the normal people on both sides," said Assaf.

"So, whatever the solution might be, I hope it comes from the moderate mainstream and not from the fringes of each different group."

Edited by: Rob Mudge and Carla Bleiker

Oslo Accords promise turned into ‘destroyed dreams’ in Gaza

By AFP
September 12, 2023

PLO chairman Yasser Arafat joins Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin and US president Bill Clinton for the signing of the first Oslo Accord on September 13, 1993 

- Copyright AFP/File ALAIN JOCARD

Adel Zaanoun

Three decades after a historic handshake on the White House lawn that capped months of secret Israeli-Palestinian talks, disillusioned young Gazans face the consquences and failed promises of the once-celebrated Oslo Accords.

The agreements inked in the early 1990s were meant to lead to an independent Palestinian state, but years of stalled negotiations and bloody violence have left any peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict a distant dream.

In the blockaded Gaza Strip, “the Oslo Accords… destroyed our dreams, future and ambitions,” said 20-year-old student Iman Hassouna.

She was not born when Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza from exile months after the September 13, 1993 signing ceremony in Washington.

The interim accords granted the nascent Palestinian Authority some level of self-government but never expanded into a lasting solution, which “has had a negative effect on the future of my generation”, according to 22-year-old Adham Abdullah.

Fellow student Ahmed al-Abadila, 20, said what remains of the accords is “nothing but ink on paper”.

Mustafa al-Sununu arrived in Gaza alongside Arafat in July 1994 and was subsequently named captain of the Palestinian presidential guard.

“We thought the country would become like Singapore: open roads, work opportunities for our children, a government, an airport, a port and a passport”, Sununu, now 47, told AFP.

“We thought the state was within reach.”

– ‘Prison’ –

Gaza, a narrow coastal enclave, is now home to some 2.3 million people, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Daily struggles in the impoverished territory have been exacerbated by a crippling Israeli-led blockade since Hamas Islamists took control in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew troops and settlers.

Unemployment is rife with about 70 percent of young people without a job in Gaza, where residents regularly suffer power cuts and inadequate access to clean water.

“All countries have airports, border posts, ports… while our airport was destroyed and our borders have been closed,” said Israa Murad.

“We’re in prison,” according to the 21-year-old who studies journalism at Gaza City’s Al-Aqsa University.

Palestinians celebrated the opening of Gaza’s first airport in late 1998, but it was destroyed by Israeli forces in 2001 during the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada.

Since then, the Oslo Accords have become irrelevant for many.

“I’m not interested in that,” said the student Hassouna. “We young people are looking for work and a better future.”

– ‘No chance for peace’ –

Sununu, the former presidential guard chief, went into early retirement in 2008, like thousands of others employed by the security services of the Palestinian Authority (PA), based in the occupied West Bank.

It was the result of persistent rivalry between Hamas and its rival, Fatah — the party of Arafat and his successor Mahmud Abbas, which dominates the PA.

Two months ago, the retired officer opened a fast-food restaurant near the old presidential palace in Gaza City’s Al-Rimal district.

“We had high hopes,” he recalled of the days of the Oslo Accords.

But “the dream of a state has been broken.”

Gaza has seen four major outbreaks of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants since 2008 which have left thousands dead, most of them Palestinians, and ravaged the territory’s infrastructure.

“We have lived through four wars and other tragedies and sorrows,” said Murad.

“How could we just forget all our past… How can we stand hand in hand with our occupiers and seek peace?”

To her, “there is no chance for peace between the Palestinians and Israel. What has been taken by force can only be taken back by force.”

Former Palestinian negotiator Hassan Asfour, who now lives in Egypt, accused extremists “of conspiring to thwart the Oslo Accords”, which many Palestinians and Israelis would agree has largely succeeded.

Speaking to AFP by phone, he said Palestinians should “leave Oslo” and forge a new path towards the future.

‘There is no solution’: 30 years after Oslo, Israeli settlements still expanding

 

Issued on: 13/09/2023 - 

01:53

Thirty years ago, the famous handshake between Palestinian Yasser Arafat and Israeli Yitzhak Rabin ratified the Oslo Accords. The aim was to implement a two-state solution. Since then, however, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has continued to rise. Recently, a new plan, backed by settlement leaders, envisages doubling their numbers to 1 million by 2050. France 24’s Irris Makler and Claire Duhamel sent this report from Jerusalem.