Renault CEO urges 'Marshall Plan' for Europe electric vehicles

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M

Paris (AFP) – The chief executive of French automaker Renault called Tuesday for a European "Marshall Plan" to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and reduce carbon emissions in the face of Chinese competition.

Issued on: 19/03/2024 -

Renault is already pushing strongly into the small electric vehicle segment with the launch of its retro R5 E-Tech model 

© Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP/File

The post-WWII US programme helped rebuild Western European economies, and Luca de Meo argued for a similar effort in a series of proposals made to launch a policy debate ahead of European parliamentary elections in June.

"A European Marshall Plan could be put in place to accelerate parc renewal and thus drastically reduce CO2 emissions," he wrote.

He likened it to the EU's post-Covid recovery plan, saying a special European fund could finance incentives for the purchase of new or used electric vehicles (EVs).

Europe aims to phase out the sale of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 as part of its efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

But with "an onslaught of electric vehicles from China", de Meo said the European automotive sector needed the EU to develop an industrial strategy, much like it did to encourage the development of planemaker Airbus, and as the Chinese have done for EVs.

In particular he called for the creation of "green economic zones" like China's special economic zones, with companies receiving additional subsidies and tax breaks to encourage the rapid development of EVs.

He also called for cooperative efforts to build small and affordable vehicles in Europe.

"These cars would also significantly improve air quality in cities," wrote de Meo, noting that one city in four suffers from poor air quality, with 39 percent of emissions being caused by road traffic.

Size also matters, both in terms of environmental impact and cost.

"Driving around every day in an electric vehicle weighing 2.5 tonnes is clearly an environmental nonsense," de Meo said.

Meanwhile, compact cars are 20 to 30 percent cheaper to build, he added.

But efforts to lower the prices of small city cars are needed, as they have more than doubled over the past two decades while wages have risen much less, as are incentives and financing options to ensure consumers can switch to EVs.

He also suggested that Europe's 200 largest cities adopt incentives like offering free access for small zero-emission cars and vans, while making other vehicle owners pay.

© 2024 AFP

Two years on, what does the Ukraine war mean for the Middle East?

Analysis: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has accelerated East-West bifurcation in an increasingly multipolar world, with Arab states striking a delicate balance

The deadliest conflict in Europe since 1945 rages on in its third year. So far, tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives in this war.

Many Ukrainian cities are destroyed while millions of displaced Ukrainians live as refugees in other countries. Moscow remains committed to achieving its objectives in this war while Washington’s continued military support for Ukraine is in question amid an election year in the US.

For Arab states, Russia’s overt invasion of Ukraine has represented both challenges and opportunities. This war has served to accelerate East-West bifurcation in an increasingly multipolar world, requiring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members to strike delicate balancing acts when navigating shifts in the global geopolitical order.

The conditions created by the shock of 24 February 2022 empowered GCC states in various ways. Their economies benefited from record revenues attributed to high oil prices.

Furthermore, the challenges before Western policymakers reinforced the centrality of Gulf Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia in terms of global energy, security, and geopolitics, underscoring Washington, London, and European capitals’ need to involve Riyadh in the formulation of their responses to global challenges of the 21st century.

"For Arab states, Russia's overt invasion of Ukraine has represented both challenges and opportunities"

In November 2019, Joe Biden, as a presidential candidate, called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” and he refused to speak directly with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) throughout the start of his term. Yet, by July 2022 Biden controversially visited Jeddah to meet with MbS.

One of the White House’s objectives behind that trip was to try to pull Saudi Arabia away from Russia’s orbit of influence several months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is reasonable to interpret Biden’s decision to go to Jeddah within the context of Saudi Arabia being successful in terms of maximising the benefits afforded to the Kingdom in an increasingly multipolar world defined by great power competition.

Put simply, the Ukraine war helped the Saudis make Washington view the US-Saudi partnership differently. Rather than assuming that Saudi Arabia depends on the US, and that Washington can make demands of Riyadh, multipolarity has afforded Saudi Arabia the means to do more hedging amid a time of intensifying East-West animosity while reinforcing to the US how much Washington needs Riyadh - arguably as much as vice versa.

At the same time, the Ukraine war also created instability that negatively impacted GCC members. For example, massive interruptions to supply chains posed serious challenges to the Gulf Arab states, especially concerning food security.

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Divergent positions within the Gulf

The six GCC states have not all had identical responses to Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine. On one side of the spectrum, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have been most accommodating of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government since February 2022.

On the opposite side, Kuwait and Qatar have been most critical of Russia’s violations of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereign rights. Oman and Bahrain have been in the middle. Nonetheless, all six GCC members have spent the past two years attempting to maintain their close relations with both Moscow and the West.

“Given its history, it is unsurprising that Kuwait has been the most outspoken against Russia's invasion of Ukraine and most supportive of Western states' responses,” Dr Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, said in an interview with The New Arab.

“Similarly, Qatar has taken a strong position in favour of Ukraine. For the other GCC states, however, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is ‘somebody else’s issue’- it is either seen as a European or NATO issue and one that does not directly affect the Gulf, though the consequences of the invasion, of course, have been felt all over,” he added.

“The Gulf states do not subscribe to Western narratives about Russia’s move posing a challenge to the rules-based order or see it to be of major consequence and this should be no surprise, as the region has experienced punishing wars and occupations for the past 100 years and more. Consequently, it is just another war.”

No GCC state has implemented any of the West's sanctions on Russia since Moscow's invasion. 

A careful balancing act

As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, the UAE joined China and India on 25 February 2022 in abstaining on a US-drafted resolution condemning Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine.

Nonetheless, all six GCC members have consistently voted with the West in UN General Assembly resolutions that called out Moscow for its invasion, occupation, and annexation of Ukrainian territory.

Gulf Arab officials have also diplomatically engaged their Ukrainian counterparts, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and given Ukraine much humanitarian and non-lethal assistance over the past two years. Indeed, Zelenskyy’s been in Saudi Arabia more than once since the full-fledged Russian invasion and many important officials from GCC states have come to Kyiv amid this war.

At the same time, no GCC state implemented any of the West’s sanctions on Russia. The UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed along with other leaders and high-ranking officials from Gulf Arab states have made trips to Moscow since February 2022. Late last year, Putin was a welcome guest in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

"The Gulf states do not subscribe to Western narratives about Russia's move posing a challenge to the rules-based order or see it to be of major consequence"

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, in particular, have maintained close working relations with Moscow across a host of domains. Saudi-Russian energy cooperation via OPEC+ is a case in point. The UAE also played a major role in enabling Russia to weather the West’s financial warfare. Since February 2022, Emirati authorities have permitted Russian oligarchs and Kremlin-linked figures to park their wealth in Dubai.

As the most Russia-friendly GCC member, the UAE’s willingness to play this role in helping Moscow withstand Western pressure stands to contribute to the long-term strengthening of the Abu Dhabi-Moscow partnership.

“From the onset of the Ukraine war, Gulf States - individually, not collectively - had made conscious and calculated decisions to not take strong positions on the conflict,” Dr Mira al-Hussein, an Emirati sociologist and research fellow at the Alwaleed bin Talal Centre, University of Edinburgh, told TNA.

“As the US’ focus on the region began to gradually wane, Gulf states continued to wisely hedge on other regional powers, while simultaneously attempting to re-engage the US and ensure a prolonged security commitment to the region,” she added.

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“If there is a shift in the balance in Moscow's favour because of diminishing Western support for Ukraine, then Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will feel vindicated for hedging against US commitment to their security,” said Dr Quilliam.

“At the same time, it will reinforce the idea that Russia is a dependable and enduring partner and that it has been seen to support its allies, such as Syria, through thick and thin. In other words, a shift in the balance in Moscow's favour would only serve to reconfirm Gulf Arab leader fears that they can no longer rely upon the US and encourage them to hedge further with Russia and China.”

Although Washington and some other Western capitals sought to bring GCC members into closer alignment with NATO and Ukraine against Russia, Gulf Arab officials seem to have played their cards wisely from a strategic standpoint.

With the war in Ukraine now essentially a stalemate with neither side having achieved a decisive victory, staying relatively neutral seems to have been a decision that served the long-term national interests of GCC states.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been most accommodating of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government since Moscow's invasion. 


As Dr al-Hussein explained, the Gulf Arab leaders and policymakers look at the current state of this war in Ukraine and are “reassured that their choice to remain neutral was rational and wise”.

Despite the GCC states remaining relatively neutral in this conflict, it can be said that these six Arab countries have had no choice but to view Russia as a global power with nuclear weapons and Ukraine as a much less powerful country on the international stage.

The foreign policy strategies of the GCC states, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, vis-à-vis the Ukraine war have reflected their vested interests in deepening ties with Moscow. Officials in Kyiv have taken note of this, which has probably left Ukraine somewhat suspicious of GCC states - particularly those which most accommodated the Kremlin after the shock of 24 February 2022.

That said, Kyiv has joined the West in taking advantage of Saudi and Emirati diplomatic bridges to Moscow throughout this conflict. Underscored by Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Riyadh’s mediation roles in the December 2022 Brittney Griner-Viktor Bout exchange, prisoners of war swaps, and the reunification of families, Gulf capitals have leveraged their relative neutrality to help the West, Ukraine, and Russia.

“The GCC countries have used their balancing act between Moscow and Kyiv to boost their strategic autonomy versus the US and present themselves as a mainstay for multipolarity,” Ahmed Aboudouh, an associate fellow with the Chatham House and a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council, told TNA.

“The past two years have been remarkable in the sense that they helped GCC countries, especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, to learn to deal with both sides of the conflict and build political clout on both sides that allows these countries to bring both to a middle ground on peripheral issues such as prisoner swaps,” he added.

"The GCC countries have used their balancing act between Moscow and Kyiv to boost their strategic autonomy versus the US and present themselves as a mainstay for multipolarity"
Balancing ties with Russia and the West

Despite Saudi Arabia and the UAE helping their Western partners with prisoner swaps and hostage releases, their overall accommodation of Russia since February 2022 has fuelled a degree of tension between those two Gulf states, on one side, and the US and other western powers, on the other. However, such tension related to the Ukraine war has not led to any major crisis in either Saudi Arabia or the UAE’s relationship with Washington.

“The US understands the rationality behind Gulf states’ neutrality on this war. There has not been any real effort on Washington’s part to penalise those who facilitate Russia's sanction avoidance, which calls into question the extent to which the US and Europe are interested in isolating Russia, or their desire to further antagonise Gulf states,” Dr al-Hussein told TNA.

Throughout the future, however, there might be some lasting bitterness in the West about these GCC members taking relatively non-aligned positions toward Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine. But given how quickly new developments on the international stage unfold and how short attention spans are in Washington and other Western capitals, it is not clear how long that bitterness will last.

At the end of the day, the US and other Western countries have to worry about more than Ukraine, and they count on their relationships with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi for help with countless international challenges from Afghanistan to Sudan.

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Gulf Arab statesmen focus on Gaza, not Ukraine

Gulf Arab policymakers are currently much more concerned about the Israeli war on Gaza than Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine. The mayhem in Gaza is impacting Arab societies in ways that Russia’s brutality in Ukraine does not.

Israel-Palestine is also much geographically closer to the Gulf than Ukraine, and for all GCC states the stakes are extremely high when it comes to the Gaza war’s spillover into Yemen, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden.

Israel’s actions in Gaza have the potential to bring GCC states closer to Russia. This is mostly due to how easy it is for Moscow to present itself to the Arab-Islamic world as a power which differs from the US.

The Ukraine war has not led to any major crisis in either Saudi Arabia or the UAE's relationship with Washington. 

Instead of vetoing UN Security Council resolutions to spare Israel from any form of accountability for its crimes, Russia is busy depicting itself as a defender of the Palestinian cause.

“If anything, the war in Gaza accelerated the push for multipolarity as the US credibility and reliability received a blow in the region. While the US will remain the GCC’s main security partner, the double standards and reluctance to revamp its support to Israel creates an opening for Russia and China to advance their standing and rhetorical appeal in the Middle East and the Global South. This will not alter the regional status quo anytime soon, but it will pave the way for deeper ties with Moscow,” said Aboudouh.

As Dr al-Hussein told TNA, “Russia’s statements in support of Palestine in the UN Security Council meetings may serve as good PR for local Gulf consumption to promote Russia as a moral counterpart to the US, if necessary”.

Giorgio Cafiero is the CEO of Gulf State Analytics.
Follow him on Twitter: @GiorgioCafiero

TikTok: Why people think the US bill to ban app is linked to pro-Palestine content

Journalists, rights experts and social media users say move to ban TikTok is being pushed by pro-Israel lawmakers

Representative Robert Garcia (D) speaks at a news conference about TikTok, on 12 March 2024 in Washington DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images via AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 18 March 2024 

After a bill in the US Congress was overwhelmingly passed to ban the social media app TikTok, social media users expressed outrage online and linked the move to pro-Israel groups trying to curb the surge of pro-Palestinian content on the platform.

The bill, which passed in the House by a 352-65 vote, requires that TikTok be sold to an American company or face a ban in the US.

To become law, it still needs to be passed by the Senate, which the Biden administration has been pushing to happen quickly.

The legislation was the culmination of a year-long effort and has been largely attributed to lawmakers with hawkish views on China.

TikTok was created by ByteDance, a company founded by Chinese entrepreneurs. While the app is owned by TikTok LLC, a company headquartered in the US, TikTok's ownership falls under ByteDance.


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While US opposition to China helped launch the bill, journalists, experts, and social media users pointed to several issues since October that they say show pro-Palestinian content was a part of the issue behind the bill's resurgence.

"The deranged hysterical push to ban TikTok is driven by the Zionist propaganda complex," said one user on X.

One of the instances they pointed to was a reportedly leaked recording of Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, in which he said, "We really have a Tik-Tok problem."

Another example users cite is that one of the major donors for Mike Gallagher, the Republican congressman who introduced the bill, is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac).

The Wall Street Journal also reported last week that there was "new momentum in part because of anger over TikTok videos about the Israel-Hamas conflict".

In another report by the WSJ, Democrat Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said it was the war in Gaza that led him to support a ban on TikTok.

Krishnamoorthi said: “Oct 7 really opened people’s eyes to what’s happening on TikTok.”

Republican Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter to the Biden administration in November calling for the ban of TikTok. In the letter, he specifically cited the "ubiquity of anti-Israel content on TikTok" as one of his main reasons for advocating for the ban.

"Every serious news account of how this 'ban TikTok bill' suddenly gained momentum - seemingly out of nowhere - emphasizes Oct. 7, when Bipartisan DC became enraged so many Americans were allowed to criticize Israel," said Glenn Greenwald, a US journalist and co-founder of The Intercept.

He is now the host of an independent news programme called System Update.

Others pointed to the idea that the goal of pro-Israel groups is not to ban the social media giant, but for a pro-Israel entity to purchase the application.

Last week, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is putting together a group of investors to try and buy TikTok.

"They are not trying to ban #TikTok. They are trying to use government power to force TikTok to be taken over by pro-Israel ownership to silence criticism of #Genocide and #apartheid," said Craig Mokhiber, the former director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.

Analysis

Will Britain hold its armed forces accountable for alleged war crimes in the Middle East?

In-depth: Britain's secretive special forces have operated across 19 countries, including the Middle East, but there's been a lack of government accountability.




Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

The New Arab.
13 March, 2024

Last week, five British special forces soldiers were arrested for alleged war crimes during their deployment in Syria two years ago.

They stand accused of using excessive force in the killing of a suspected militant, found with a suicide vest nearby, although the suspect was reportedly not wearing it when killed. The five soldiers deny these charges, saying they believed he posed a genuine threat.

The soldiers will be investigated by the Defence Serious Crime Unit (DSCU), which focuses on allegations of criminal activity by British armed forces.

In the past, Britain’s record of investigating alleged war crimes committed by its forces has been woeful, with ministers and senior military officials accused of covering up extrajudicial killings and other crimes, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there's been a glaring shortfall in how the UK authorities held members of the military to account over horrific alleged misconduct, and this must not be repeated with Syria"

Only one soldier has ever been prosecuted over an unlawful killing in Iraq, despite increasing indications of war crimes. That record has triggered mounting calls for independent judicial oversight to bring justice for the victims.


“In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s been a glaring shortfall in how the UK authorities held members of the military to account over horrific alleged misconduct, and this must not be repeated with Syria,” Kristyan Benedict, Crisis Response Manager for Amnesty International UK, told The New Arab.

A damning indictment

The arrests follow a public inquiry last year over allegations of special forces committing war crimes in Afghanistan. A series of damaging media reports and a legal challenge lodged by several Afghan families, who say dozens of their relatives were unlawfully killed in raids between 2010 and 2013, prompted that investigation.

Since the Afghanistan tribunal commenced, with the Ministry of Defence, or MoD, naming special forces for the first time, more allegations have surfaced.

In 2011, Gen. Gwyn Jenkins, who is now the second most senior officer in the British armed forces, received warnings that Special Air Service, or SAS, soldiers may have executed handcuffed detainees in Afghanistan, thus committing a war crime.

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While legally obliged under British law to report any evidence suggesting a war crime to the military police, Jenkins instead opted to “lock up” this disturbing evidence within a classified dossier, according to the BBC Panorama investigation, effectively silencing these allegations.

It also emerged that the special forces blocked applications from eight Afghan commandos who had fought alongside British troops to relocate to the UK. Some Afghan forces had witnessed alleged war crimes, triggering fears that these commandos may provide evidence in the public inquiry, according to the BBC.

As King’s College London researcher Elizabeth Brown wrote, the inquiry suggested a failure to investigate deaths promptly and attempts to cover up the incidents, with patterns indicating extrajudicial killings had occurred.

The investigation also includes reports that weapons were planted alongside victims who were unarmed civilians, while soldiers had turned off their cameras before raids.

According to Brown, if only some of the allegations presented were true, “they would represent a damning indictment of Britain’s Special Forces, and of the wider British armed forces’ ability to self-police”.

Britain's record of investigating alleged war crimes has been woeful, with ministers and senior military officials accused of covering up extrajudicial killings and other crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Operating in the shadows

Britain’s military forays into Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya are well known. Yet traditionally, the UK has refused to comment on special forces’ activities, leaving much of the public in the dark about their operations.


These elite teams operate in the shadows of Britain’s geopolitical aims, with a degree of operational autonomy compared to other branches of the army. The MoD has also traditionally upheld a policy of not commenting on SAS activities.

When they do attract attention, it’s often when they’re involved in controversy or when operations go wrong.

According to Iain Overton, Executive Director at Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), the use of special forces represents an attempt to “be everything, everywhere, all at once,” underpinning London’s ambition “to appear to be a power worth its seat at the UN Security Council,” despite having relatively limited resources.

"Given the SAS has been operational in at least 19 countries in the last decade, this is clearly an unacceptable lack of accountability and oversight, a failure that is now being seen in arrests and inquiries"

“It’s a post-colonial legacy that is, at best, an overstretch and one that appears invariably to lead to ill-defined policy goals. At times, it seems to be more about bombast than effectiveness,” he told The New Arab.

The recent Syria arrests have spotlighted special forces’ role in that country. During Syria’s war, not only did special forces join the fray to back up British airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS), but they also previously assisted anti-Assad rebels in 2012 – even before the British parliament voted against putting British troops on the ground against Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in 2013, to deter the use of chemical weapons.

The fixation on operational secrecy was so intense that when SAS sniper Matt Tonroe was killed in Syria in 2018 due to an accidental grenade detonation from a US ally, his official designation was stated as a member of the Parachute Regiment.

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Their actions didn’t end there. In Yemen, special forces had advised Saudi-led coalition operations against the Houthis, while later dropping humanitarian aid for impoverished civilians.

Stepping up their actions, around 40 SAS forces were deployed in August 2021, to hunt down Houthi rebels following a reported drone attack by the faction on the Israeli-operated “Mercer Street” oil tanker.

As Yemen once again comes into focus, following UK-US airstrikes on Houthi targets as they step up attacks on Red Sea shipping, the use of special forces was tabled for possible missions such as disabling the engines of Houthi boats.

Traditionally, the UK has refused to comment on special forces' activities, leaving much of the public in the dark about their operations. [Getty]

Lack of transparency

While the use of special forces to assist the Saudi-led coalition raised further concerns that the UK was “taking sides” in the war, they also triggered criticisms in parliament that British troops may have fought alongside child soldiers recruited by the Coalition, many as young as thirteen, highlighting the lack of parliamentary oversight.

And during the 2011 revolution in Libya, not only did special forces assist in hunting down Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed by Libyan rebels, they remained in the country until 2019 to support countering IS which had emerged post-revolution, while 20 troopers were deployed to Tunisia to preventing illegal crossings from IS in Libya.

After special forces fired a missile which blew up an IS-owned truck packed with explosives, then-chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee Crispin Blunt called for “proper accounting” and “clarity” over what the special forces were doing in Libya, despite stressing the need to support Libya’s post-revolution government.

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Also operating in Ukraine, Sudan and Somalia, SAS forces were also recently on ‘standby’ in Cyprus to assist Israel’s assault on Gaza, with the stated aim of rescuing British national hostages taken by Hamas. Although the MoD declined to give any details on possible SAS operations in that context.

With aims to punch above its weight in terms of resources, the use of special forces to project power on a budget has inevitably led to blowback.

“The government still refuses to speak about Special Forces' actions in parliament and there is no oversight by any select committee,” said Iain Overton.

“Given the SAS has been operational in at least 19 countries in the last decade, this is clearly an unacceptable lack of accountability and oversight, a failure that is now being seen in arrests and inquiries,” he added.

"The UK needs to demonstrate that it can hold members of its own forces accountable, especially for crimes committed overseas"
The need for accountability

Despite efforts to project a positive and pro-rule-of-law image of its foreign policy, a primary concern remains the pervasive political will to avoid holding its armed forces accountable.

This pattern is historical. A notorious instance is the 1919 Amritsar Massacre in British-ruled India. In that dark episode, Colonel Reginald Dyer, who ordered his troops to open fire on a peaceful Indian gathering, killing and injuring thousands of men, women, and children within ten minutes, escaped prosecution and was merely dismissed from his position.

Even after the dissolution of Britain as a colonial power, that trend persisted as Britain followed the United States into various wars, including Iraq.

An International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation concluded in 2020 that war crimes were committed in Iraq, as dozens of Iraqis reported torture, assault, deliberate hydration and starvation, and religious and sexual degradation. However, the court didn’t take any action, nor did Britain.

On the contrary, the government pursued its Overseas Operations Act following the investigation, which in its final form prevents the prosecution of soldiers if they took place over five years ago, while limiting the time to bring a claim for personal injury or death to six years. That bill would have made prosecutions virtually impossible.

Yet advocacy from rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Freedom from Torture, as well as opposition in the House of Lords, ensured the original bill was watered down, ensuring that time limits would not apply to war crimes, torture, and genocide.

However, legal experts and rights groups still feel there is room for improvement.

“The justice system has a lamentable track record of applying the principle of command responsibility,” Clive Baldwin, Senior Legal Advisor at Human Rights Watch, told The New Arab. “The UK needs to demonstrate that it can hold members of its own forces accountable, especially for crimes committed overseas,” he added.

"Military investigations need to be completely independent and outside of the chain of command, as well as beyond governmental influence. Preventing criminal investigations is also a crime under human rights law,” Baldwin said.

“Independent judicial oversight is necessary to ensure justice is delivered for alleged victims, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria.”

Legal advocacy and media pressure have driven a shift towards transparency. It will be prudent to monitor whether recent investigations, including those concerning Syria and Afghanistan, will ensure accountability is upheld.

“The recent scandals should be a wakeup call for future governments to ensure that the SAS are not only held to account but reined in and reformed.”

Jonathan Fenton-Harvey is a journalist and researcher who focuses on conflict, geopolitics, and humanitarian issues in the Middle East and North Africa.

 

In Iraq, Kurds digitise books to save threatened culture

The Kurdish language was mostly marginalised until the Kurds’ autonomous region in the north won greater freedom after Saddam’s defeat in the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

Wednesday 13/03/2024

A member of the Kurdistan Centre for Arts and Culture inspects an old book before making a digital copy, in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk, February 13, 2024. (AFP)

DOHUK, Iraq-

Huddled in the back of a van, Rebin Pishtiwan carefully scans one yellowed page after another, as part of his mission to digitise historic Kurdish books at risk of disappearing.

Seen as the world’s largest stateless people, the Kurds are an ethnic group of between 25 and 35 million mostly spread across modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

In Iraq, the Kurds are a sizeable minority who have been persecuted, with thousands killed under the rule of late dictator Saddam Hussein and many of their historic documents have been lost or destroyed.

“Preserving the culture and history of Kurdistan is a sacred job,” said Pishtiwan, perusing volumes and manuscripts from Dohuk city’s public library in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region.

“We aim to digitise old books that are rare and vulnerable, so they don’t vanish,” the 23-year-old added, a torn memoir of a Kurdish teacher published in 1960 in hand.

In Iraq, the Kurdish language was mostly marginalised until the Kurds’ autonomous region in the north won greater freedom after Saddam Hussein’s defeat in the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

After the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled the Iraqi leader, remaining documents were scattered among libraries and universities or held in private collections.

Once a week, Pishtiwan and his two colleagues journey in their small white van from the regional capital Erbil to other Kurdish towns and cities to find “rare and old” books.

They seek texts that offer insights into Kurdish life, spanning centuries and dialects.

‘Property of all Kurds’

In Dohuk’s library, the archiving team scours the wooden bookshelves for hidden gems.

With the help of the library’s manager, they carefully gather an assortment of more than 35 books of poetry, politics, language and history, written in several Kurdish dialects and some in Arabic.

Pishtiwan holds up a book of old Kurdish folk stories named after 16th-century Kurdish princess Xanzad, before gently flipping through the fragile pages of another religious volume, tracing the calligraphy with his fingers.

Back in the van, equipped with two devices connected to a screen, the small team starts the hours-long scanning process before returning the books to the library.

In the absence of an online archive, the Kurdistan Centre for Arts and Culture, a non-profit founded by the nephew of regional president Nechirvan Barzani, launched the digitisation project in July.

They hope to make the texts available to the public for free on the KCAC’s new website in April.

More than 950 items have been archived so far, including a collection of manuscripts from the Kurdish Baban principality in today’s Sulaimaniyah region that dates back to the 1800s.

“The aim is to provide primary sources for Kurdish readers and researchers,” KCAC executive director Mohammed Fatih said.

“This archive will be the property of all Kurds to use and to help advance our understanding of ourselves.”

A member of the Kurdistan Centre for Arts and Culture retrieves old books from the shelves in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk, February 13, 2024. (AFP)

Out of print

Dohuk library manager Masoud Khalid gave the KCAC team access to the manuscripts and documents gathering dust on its shelves, but the team was unable to secure permission from the owners of some of the documents to digitise them immediately.

“We have books that were printed a long time ago. Their owners or writers passed away and publishing houses will not reprint them,” Khalid said.

Digitising the collection means that “if we want to open an electronic library, our books will be ready”, the 55-year-old added.

Hana Kaki Hirane, imam at a mosque in the town of Hiran, unveiled a treasure to the KCAC team, several generations-old manuscripts from a religious school established in the 1700s.

Since its founding, the school has collected manuscripts but many were destroyed during the first war pitting the Kurds against the Iraqi state between 1961 and 1970, said Hirane.

“Only 20 manuscripts remain today,” including centuries-old poems, said the imam.

He is now waiting for the KCAC website launch in April to refer people to view the manuscripts.

“It is time to take them out and make them available for everyone.”

Iraq bans PKK after high-level security talks with Turkey

Turkish foreign and defence ministers Hakan Fidan and Yasar Guler as well as intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin held counterterrorism talks with their counterparts in Baghdad.

Friday 15/03/2024

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) receives his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Baghdad, March 14, 2024. (AFP)

BAGHDAD –

Iraq’s National Security Council has banned the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an armed campaign against the Turkish forces for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey.

The decision was disclosed on Thursday in joint Iraqi-Turkish statement issued after a high-level security meeting in Baghdad.

“Turkey welcomes the Iraqi National Security Council’s decision to designate the PKK as a banned organisation in Iraq,” said the statement shared on both the Turkish and Iraqi foreign ministries’ websites.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

The conflict was long fought mainly in rural areas of southeastern Turkey but is now more focused on the mountains of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, where PKK militants are based.

Turkish foreign and defence ministers Hakan Fidan and Yasar Guler as well as intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin on Thursday held counterterrorism talks with their counterparts in Baghdad.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Mohammed Hussein, Defence Minister Thabet al-Abbasi and other high-level Iraqi officials along with Kurdistan Regional Government’s Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed joined the talks, according to the statement.

Fidan’s chief adviser Nuh Yilmaz hailed the move as a “turning point.”

Turkey and Iraq “decided for the first time to jointly fight against PKK terrorism,” he wrote on X. “A decision that will mark a turning point! We will see the results gradually!”

The parties also agreed to set up joint committees to “work exclusively in the fields of counterterrorism, trade, agriculture, energy, water, health and transportation,” the statement said.

Speaking earlier this week, Guler said his country offered to establish “a joint operation centre” to strengthen the two countries’ coordination in Turkey’s fight against the PKK but they had failed to achieve progress on the matter.

Ankara has long been pressing Baghdad to designate the armed group a terrorist organisation. But the central Iraqi government has deemed Turkey’s operations against the group and its military outposts in the Iraqi territory as a violation of its sovereignty.

“The parties stressed the importance of Iraq’s political unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” Thursday’s statement said. “They have also stressed that the PKK constitutes a security threat for both Turkey and Iraq.”

Ankara has ramped up cross-border operations against the PKK which is based in northern Iraq’s mountainous regions, and warned of new incursion to the region.

A Turkish defence ministry official said that officials from the Turkish army held talks with Iraqi counterparts over the weekend to discuss “measures to increase security of the civilians” in the region where Turkey is conducting operations.

Turkey has, since 2019, conducted a series of cross-border operations in northern Iraq against the PKK, dubbed “Claw.”

Committee established to analyse Euphrates water in North-East Syria after Erzincan mine disaster

Following the allegations that poisonous water mixed with the Euphrates water after the soil collapse in Erzincan, the Euphrates Canton Executive Council established a committee to analyse the water.


ANF
KOBANÊ
Wednesday, 6 March 2024,

On February 13, the Çöpler gold mine in the İliç district in the province of Erzincan was the scene of a catastrophe. A huge slope of rubble contaminated with cyanide slid down and buried several workers. At least nine workers still remain trapped under the earth. A toxic dust cloud rose up, threatening the surrounding settlements. The disaster is expected to affect the Euphrates basin and the Tigris and all of Mesopotamia.

Following the disaster, images of cyanide water mixing into the Euphrates River were circulated on social media. According to reports, the poisonous water mixed with the river water and spread over a long area with the current due to the AKP government's failure to take precautions.

In the face of the allegations, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria took action to analyse the water flowing into the Syrian part of the Euphrates River. Since the Euphrates River water is an important source of drinking and agricultural irrigation water in the region, concerns have increased.

The Euphrates Canton Executive Council established a committee to analyse the water.

A total of 8 members, 2 from the Environment Committee, 2 from the Local Administrations Committee, 2 from the Health Committee and 2 from the Executive Committee, were elected to the committee established under the name of Euphrates Canton Emergency Situations Committee.

Following the appointment of the Committee, work was initiated. According to initial analyses, no toxic substances were found in the river water.

The members of the committee stated that there is a possibility that the poisonous substances will be transferred to Northern and Eastern Syria in the coming days and that they will carry out analyses continuously and inform the public about the issue.


Kahraman: Iliç mine disaster will have serious consequences for at least a century

Tuğba Kahraman from Polen Ekoloji, said that the ecocide in Iliç covers a very large area, and added that “cyanide and heavy chemicals will mix with the Euphrates as the result of a disaster that will have consequences for at least a century."


ANF
NEWS DESK
Sunday, 25 February 2024, 

Tuğba Kahraman from Polen Ekoloji answered ANF's questions about the before and after of the disaster in the Iliç mine. Nine workers who were trapped under the rubble of the Çöpler Gold Mine in Iliç in the province of Erzincan could not be reached, and the search efforts stopped.

Various expert reports have been published regarding the mining accident in Iliç. From the first day, it was claimed that waste from Iliç did not reach the river and precautions were taken. First of all, if we put all these explanations aside, is it possible to calculate the estimated destruction toll of the mining disaster?

It is very difficult to predict the toll of an ecocide of this magnitude. The destruction covers a very large area. There is a destruction that will affect the Euphrates basin and the Tigris and all of Mesopotamia. Cyanide and heavy chemicals will mix with the Euphrates. The consequences of the disaster will last at least 100 years... Considering that two million cubic meters of this toxic soil were scattered here and there, mixing with the groundwater through rainfall, and that the chemical mass weighed approximately 27 million tons, it is very difficult to imagine the size and destruction of the massacre. People, animals, soil, our waters will die. Unfortunately, the responsible companies and their collaborators will continue their way with ostensible fines and trials.

The air analysis carried out by the Ankara Branch of the Chamber of City Planners using photographs and satellite images revealed that it is almost impossible for the chemicals not to mix with the waters of the Euphrates River. It was also stated that Keban, Karakaya and Atatürk Dam were at risk. What danger does this pose?

As environmental engineers and other experts in the field point out, cyanide and other chemicals remain suspended in the air when mixed with the air through evaporation. They can be directly in contact with living creatures in that environment through inhalation, and if inhaled, they will cause public health and environmental health problems. If the chemicals affect the soil, animals and people will be affected through the plants growing there. This will affect the entire endemic structure, the health of living beings and human health through the food chain. COPD and cancer-like diseases will gradually emerge in subsequent generations. In the case of leakage into groundwater and water leakage, the width of the basin is very bad in terms of the scale of the disaster.

It is clear that the responsibility lies primarily with the Ministry of Environment, as permission was given to expand capacity despite the previous infiltration. Now new mining areas are being opened. What can we expect?

One of Turkey's largest gold mines is not going to give up so easily on the benefits it gets from favourable agreements with the government. The number of EIA positive reports and capacity expansion permits for all mines, not just Iliç, is increasing day by day. The ostensible closure of the mine in the previous leak in Iliç and the efforts to minimize the seriousness of the incident by saying that this disaster was in reality just a landslide, are the result of the agreement of the capital and the state. This result paves the way for other disasters.

To what do you attribute the ability of international monopolies to carry out, in countries like Turkey, many practices that are otherwise normally prohibited?

Turkey has become the dumping ground of the EU. The ease with which cyanide and asbestos can be used is an indication of how capital's greed for profit is superior to the right to life of humans and all living things, and how deep Turkey's relationship with international capital actually is. With the practice of ecological struggle that has developed in the last few years, there is more awareness that the problem stems from capitalism. The massacre can be stopped by developing these practices and increasing the struggle.


Miners buried in cyanide-laced landslide at gold mine in Erzincan

Several mine workers were buried in a landslide at a gold mine in the province of Erzincan. The DEM party blames the disaster on the negligence of the AKP/MHP government and the unscrupulousness of the mining companies.


ANF
ERZİNCAN
Wednesday, 14 February 2024,

A serious landslide occurred at the Çöpler gold mine in the İliç district in the province of Erzincan on Tuesday. A huge slope of rubble contaminated with cyanide slid down and buried several workers. According to the Ministry of the Interior, nine of the 667 workers in the mine are unaccounted for, and search efforts continue. It remains unclear whether this figure is correct and whether the 667 officially employed people are all those who were at the site of the disaster at the time. The governor's statement that the landslide was caused by the dumping of overburden points to negligence as the cause of the accident. According to the Ministry of Justice, four public prosecutors have begun investigations into the matter.

Governor conceals the toxicity of the earth

While the governor of the province claimed that it was soil under which the workers were buried, environmental initiatives are warning of the highly toxic earth. In view of the disaster, the İliç Environmental Platform stated: "We have said that the disasters in İliç will not end. The governor of Erzincan says it's a landslide, no, it's the cyanide-contaminated overburden, millions of tonnes of toxic soil!"

The spoil is highly toxic, so, according to mining engineers, the rescue workers would have to wear protective clothing to avoid being poisoned. Images from the scene show that this, however, is not the case. Apparently, fine cyanide dust was released during the landslide and formed a toxic cloud that spread over the surrounding area. Cyanide is still used in many places as a means of extracting gold from the ground by amalgamation. This causes massive environmental problems.

Departures to Erzincan banned, 4 detained

In the meantime, Tunceli Governorate "banned" the departure of the provincial organisation of Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and Dersim Environment Association members from Dersim due to disaster in Erzincan. 4 members of the Human Rights Association (IHD) who wanted to go to Erzincan were detained.

DEM Party Dersim Provincial Co-Chair Özcan Gürtaş stated that they were stopped at the exit of the province and said: "They justified the decision of Erzincan Governorate to ban entry and exit to the city. They stated that no one would be allowed to enter the scene of the incident in İliç. They cited the Tunceli and Erzincan Governorate decisions on leaving Dersim and entering Erzincan. They said they would intervene if we insisted on going."

DEM party holds the government partly responsible

"The government and its capitalists are responsible for every loss of life in İliç," said the DEM Party Commission for Ecology and Agriculture. "This is a massacre with a number of people responsible! The Canadian company Anagold as the operator of the mine, Çalık Holding as one of the shareholders of the mine and the AKP government and its bureaucrats, who turned a blind eye to this blatant disaster, are successively and equally responsible for this catastrophe. As a result of the landslide, carcinogenic cyanide was released into the air, water and soil. The effect of cyanide, which is poisoning the water resources, the entire soil and the atmosphere in the region, will continue for a very long time. The AKP government, which has always been at the service of capital and corporations, has not even taken into account that the active Bingöl-Yedisu fault line is located in the region where the Çöpler complex mine is operating. A favourable Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out for this mining project in 2008. In addition, the capacity was increased twice with new EIA reports in 2014 and 2021. In 2019, the mine was converted from cyanide production to production with 39 types of chemicals plus sulphuric acid plus cyanide. In August 2023, Anagold received approval to expand the open pit within the mine site by a further 5.83 hectares, with the decision being 'EIA not required'."

DEM Party: "Close the mine - hold those responsible to account"

Calling for the mine to be closed, DEM Party stated: "The mining licence for this mine, which continues to pose a threat to nature and the people in the region, must be revoked immediately and the mine closed. Urgent steps must be taken to remove the heavy metals and toxic chemicals that have been released into the air, water and soil as quickly as possible. Effective measures must be taken to achieve this. Immediate action must be taken to protect local residents, neighbouring communities and the environment affected by the cyanide cloud created by the soil spill. This incident is a massacre! As the DEM party, we will continue to pursue the issue until all those responsible for this massacre are held accountable."

Previous toxic disaster caused by gold company

The US-Canadian gold company Anagold, which operates the mine together with Çalık Holding, made the headlines back in 2022 when up to 20 tonnes of cyanide and large quantities of sulphuric acid flowed into the Euphrates. The company denied this and claimed it was only eight kilograms. Although this was a huge ecological disaster, the company's licence was not revoked. Instead, it was sentenced to a small fine of 16.4 million lira (far less than one million euros).

A gold company with AKP involvement

Instead, the company made record savings through the state. As part of a tax amnesty on 12 March 2023, the Group was waived taxes, interest and penalties amounting to USD 7.2 million. Instead, the company only had to make a cash payment of USD 1.4 million instead of USD 8.6 million. A paltry sum in view of the USD 1.5 billion in income from the mine between 2020 and 2023, including USD 334.6 million in net profit. This support for an extremely dangerous mine cannot be explained by neoliberal policies alone. If we take a closer look at the mine's co-operator, Çalık Holding, the background becomes clearer.

Çalık Holding is responsible for around 20 per cent of the mine and is one of the fastest growing companies under the AKP government. Thanks to privatisations, TOKİ (Housing Development Administration) tenders, agreements and favourable credit conditions, the holding company has grown rapidly in many sectors from energy to telecommunications, finance to textiles, construction to media. According to its annual reports, the holding company increased its equity approximately ninefold from 2012 to 2020, from 1 billion 600 million liras to 13 billion 900 million liras. Ahmet Çalık, the owner of the holding company, is listed in the 2021 Forbes list with a fortune of 1.5 billion dollars. In the Forbes list of the "100 richest Turks" of 2020, Çalık ranks 15th. At the same time, Çalık Holding has smuggled millions past the tax authorities in offshore companies. The holding company is known for its closeness to the AKP.

Close ties between the Erdogan family and Çalık Holding

In 2010, the Çalık Group company DAPRAŞ received a subsidy certificate for an investment totalling 14.8 billion liras for a refinery project in Ceyhan. Erdoğan's son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, was appointed General Manager of Çalık Holding in 2007.

The holding company has won numerous tenders in the telecommunications, construction, energy and mining sectors and was also the winner of the December 2007 tender of the seized media group Sabah-ATV. All participants withdrew from the tender and the only bid came from the holding company, whose general director at the time was Berat Albayrak. During its entry into the media sector, the group received a loan of 750 million dollars from public banks. The sale of Sabah-ATV to Çalık Group was a turning point in the media sector. After that, the process of transferring the majority of mainstream media to government-affiliated companies began. On 20 December 2013, Çalık Holding transferred its subsidiary Turkuvaz Medya to the Kalyon Group and ended its activities in the media sector.

A marriage of state and capital

The connection to the AKP was particularly evident at the wedding of the son of Ahmet Çalık, the chairman of Çalık Holding. Mehmet Tevfik Göksu, Mayor of Esenler, performed the wedding ceremony. The former Prime Minister of Turkey, Binali Yıldırım (AKP) was the best man. Former intelligence chief and current Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and many other high-ranking AKP government officials attended the wedding. The bride was Öznur Çalık, who has been a member of parliament for the AKP for four terms.