SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – Russia will respond immediately and symmetrically if the United States quits the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
Moscow is ready to develop new weapons systems, both nuclear and non-nuclear, in response to other countries doing the same, Putin said at a forum with scholars.
From Reuter:
reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Writing by Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Christian Lowe
ISIS fighters can no longer escape Syria to carry out attacks in Europe such as those that took place in Paris and Brussels, according to a chief in the US-led coalition against the terror group.
“Terrorist combat units” intent on wreaking havoc in Europe can no longer leave Isil’s de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa via Turkey, said Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the global coalition against Isil.
“Not too long ago, what they [ISIS] would do is plan a terrorist attack in Raqqa, they would train a unit – kind of a terrorist combat unit – they would then infiltrate out… and go conduct an attack such as in Paris or in the Brussels airport” he said. “That’s what they used to do, and they were developing that capacity. They cannot do that anymore.”
But the claims came as an Isil militant captured by Kurdish troops in northern Syria gave details of the units trained to carry out attacks on European soil, and warned of future suicide bombings.
The fighter said that every European who crossed into Syria was given the opportunity to join the al-Kharsa Brigade, which offered a seven-month training programme including bomb construction and endurance.
The unnamed ISIS member said the al-Kharsa Brigade was still active as of February this year, and further attacks could be expected. “They will make more suicide attacks in Europe because the coalition is bombing them a lot,” he claimed.
Our security services have foiled seven attempted attacks since the beginning of the year,” he added. “The ‘returnees’ are automatically placed under surveillance by the Paris prosecutor and a number of them are currently in detention.”
The threat is not only from returnees from war zones in the Middle East, but from radical Islamists in France directed remotely by Isil members, Collomb said. That threat would remain even if no Isil members could leave Syria.
France’s Interior Minister confirmed on Sunday that 271 people – 217 adults and 54 minors – had returned home from Iraq and Syria in the past 18 months after joining Isil.
Some twenty per cent are women, adding to fears that more radicalized females may return from Isil territory.
The risk of another terror attack in France remained “very high”, said minister Gerard Collomb, in an interview with Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
“Our security services have foiled seven attempted attacks since the beginning of the year,” he added. “The ‘returnees’ are automatically placed under surveillance by the Paris prosecutor and a number of them are currently in detention.”
The threat is not only from returnees from war zones in the Middle East, but from radical Islamists in France directed remotely by Isil members, Collomb said. That threat would remain even if no Isil members could leave Syria.
As they retake ground from Isil, the US-led coalition is gathering intelligence to try to track down returnees. It has built a database of 19,000 names of suspected members of the terrorist organisation.
The information, gathered from mobile phones and address books, has been passed to Interpol in the hope of pinning down former fighters and sympathizers.
“If there’s somebody that fought in Syria and happened to have gotten out and in a routine border stop or routine search, routine traffic stop, they can actually be identified,” the US special envoy Brett McGurk said.
Some 40,000 individuals from 110 countries are thought to have traveled to Syria, mostly via Turkey, to join Isil.
Lizzie Porter, Beirut, The Telegraph
GENEVA (Reuters) – A member of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on Sunday she was quitting because a lack of political backing from the U.N. Security Council had made the job impossible, Swiss national news agency SDA reported.
Carla del Ponte, 70, who prosecuted war crimes in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, told a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Locarno Film Festival that she had already prepared her letter of resignation.
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to impose new sanctions on North Korea over the country’s long-range missile tests last month.
The measure cuts about $1 billion worth of North Korean exports, or about a third of the country’s export revenue each year.
“This resolution is the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime,” said Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. “This is the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.
“And this time, the council has matched its words and actions,” she said.
Arriving at new sanctions
The sanctions ban countries from buying North Korean coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. Other countries will also be barred from increasing the “total number of work authorizations,” and banned from creating “new joint ventures” with North Korean businesses or people.
“The United States was able to get a pretty strong resolution here that will hit North Korea where it hurts economically,” says Ankit Panda, who writes about North Korea for the online magazine, The Diplomat.
North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. The second, experts said, showed the potential to reach the U.S. mainland.
All 15 Security Council members approved the resolution, including Russia and China. China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and makes up 85 percent or more of North Korea’s total trade.
China’s representative to the U.N., Liu Jieyi, said North Korea needed to “cease taking actions that might further escalate tensions,” Reuters reported. But Liu also criticized the U.S. role on the Korean peninsula, saying the deployment of a U.S. antimissile system, called THAAD, in South Korea, “will not bring a solution to the issue of [North Korea’s] nuclear testing and missile launches.”
China fears a spread of U.S. influence in the region, though China and the U.S. agree on wanting to stop North Korea’s nuclear development.
A country with experience “absorbing pain
North Korea has already faced a decade’s worth of ever-increasing sanctions backed by the U.S. and its allies. Not only have there been loopholes in the past that traders and businesses have exploited, but implementation and enforcement of sanctions have been spotty. Despite that, the U.S. and two previous South Korean governments “essentially bought into a sanctions approach to try and stop North Korea,” says John Delury, a North Korea watcher who teaches international relations at Seoul’s Yonsei University.
“It hasn’t worked. So we’re doing more of the same,” he says. “One thing North Korea is extremely good at is absorbing pain. And the last thing they’re going to yield on is their deterrence capability. Because they feel under threat and under siege.”
The roles of the U.S. and China
President Trump has used different strategies, from charm to Twitter criticism, to urge China to put more pressure on North Korea over its nuclear program.
“The President appreciates China’s and Russia’s cooperation in securing passage of this resolution,” the White House said in a statement after the measure passed. “He will continue working with allies and partners to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to end its threatening and destabilizing behavior.”
But, as Amy King of the Australian National University told NPR’s Elise Hu and Anthony Kuhn, the focus on China “abrogates [other countries’] own responsibility, particularly in the case of the U.S.” The U.S. could do more on its own to develop a relationship with North Korea, she said.
Speaking at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila, Philippines, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the vote “a good outcome,” according to The Associated Press. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha called it “a very, very good outcome.”
Representatives from Southeast Asian countries plan to discuss at the summit what other action to take in response to North Korea’s recent missile tests.
From NPR JAMES DOUBEK, ELISE HU
