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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
The richest security official: career, scandals, criminal case of Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Ivanov
2024-04-26
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[GlavnoeLife] The Investigative Committee of Russia announced the detention of Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Timur Ivanov on suspicion of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale. We tell you who Timur Ivanov is and about the criminal case for taking a bribe.

WHO IS TIMUR IVANOV
Ivanov is a man with a civilian background; he spent most of his career in the energy sector. Ivanov was born in 1975 in Moscow - thus, he can become the youngest of Sergei Shoigu’s current deputies. If he is appointed, the leadership of the ministry will be biased toward civilians over the military.

Ivanov has a diploma from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University with a degree in applied mathematics. It is curious that he graduated from the university in 1997 and immediately after graduation, according to his official biography posted on the Oboronstroy website, “he held senior positions in commercial organizations.” Since 1999, he was an adviser to the head of the department for the construction of nuclear facilities of the Ministry of Atomic Energy, then an adviser to the first deputy head of Rosenergoatom, and later became the first vice president of Atomstroyexport, from where he left for the post of deputy chairman of the board of Inter RAO UES. At the same time, Ivanov was in the position of adviser to the Minister of Energy.

In the period from 2009 to 2012, he was the general director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Russian Energy Agency” of the Ministry of Energy of Russia. He was a member of the working group of the government commission on energy efficiency issues of the fuel and energy complex. From 2011 to 2013, he was a member of the High-Level Group on Affordable Energy for All under UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

From March 2013 to May 2016, he held the position of General Director of JSC Oboronstroy (replacing Vladislav Germanovich in this post), which is directly and through JSC Garrison controlled by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

JSC Oboronstroy is a diversified company engaged in the construction of housing for military personnel, as well as socially significant and strategic military facilities. It includes enterprises involved in design, construction, manufacturing, logistics and energy.

Acting State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 1st class (2019). Honored Builder of the Russian Federation (2015). Hero of the LPR (2022).

“HONORARY BUILDER” IVANOV AND THE TRAGEDY IN SEVASTOPOL
Despite his short-term leadership of the Moscow region, Sergei Shoigu worked quite closely with Timur Ivanov, who managed to enter his inner circle. In November 2012, the former governor headed the defense department, and already in March 2013, Ivanov was appointed head of JSC Oboronstroy, an enterprise controlled by the Ministry of Defense and specializing in the construction of housing for military personnel, as well as socially significant and strategic military facilities.

Let us recall that the ministry at that time was rocked by a scandal related to the criminal case of Oboronservis and the new appointments were primarily aimed at the rehabilitation of this department mired in corruption. Its structure also included Oboronstroy. Ivanov was entrusted with one of the most financially promising areas - construction. And he had to justify the trust placed in him.

As the RBC portal reported, during his tenure, the new appointee “managed to complete several assignments of particular importance.” In particular, he built the Sevastopol Presidential Cadet School in record time in 2014, and also completed the construction of the Patriot Park in the Moscow region in 2015, for which he received the title “Honored Builder of Russia.”

A year earlier, Shoigu signed an order to award Ivanov the medal “For the Return of Crimea.” The Gazeta.ru portal wrote that the contribution of the general director of Oboronstroy to the expansion of Russian borders was “active participation in the restoration of the infrastructure” of the peninsula. The work proceeded at a really fast pace: the media noted that the cadet school alone was built in less than five months.

But quickly does not mean quality. Less than two weeks before the grand opening of the educational institution, an emergency occurred: the roof of one of the buildings under construction collapsed, a total of ten people were injured, and two construction workers were killed. The authors of press publications indignantly emphasized that if the structure had held out a little longer, children would have ended up under the rubble.

But when speed is the main indicator, everything else seems to fade into the background. Moreover, the tragic incident was soon safely forgotten, and the head of Oboronstroy received further titles and awards.

In May 2016, Timur Ivanov was appointed Deputy Defense Minister of Russia Sergei Shoigu. The appointment decree was signed on May 23. At the beginning of July 2016, he headed the Ministry of Defense commission to restore order in the Baltic Fleet, whose leadership was removed from duties at the end of June. At the Ministry of Defense, Timur Ivanov was responsible for organizing property management, quartering of troops (forces), housing and medical support for the Armed Forces.

Also, Timur Ivanov at the Ministry of Defense was primarily responsible for construction. In the new territories, all construction contracts were under him. These are astronomical amounts.
And about the missus:
TIMUR IVANOV'S WIFE IS SOCIALITE SVETLANA ZAKHAROVA
Nothing is known about Timur Ivanov’s first wife. But the second one is Svetlana Aleksandrovna Ivanova, ex-host of the “Take it off immediately!” program. on STS and an Israeli citizen, a rather interesting personality.

We can say that Timur Ivanov married successfully. His chosen one was a wealthy woman, but not entirely free - she was married for fifteen years to businessman and collector Mikhail Maniovich (Children from her first marriage with Mikhail Maniovich - daughter Alexandra (born 1998) and son Mark (born 2002). Guessed who speech? This is Svetlana Zakharova, owner of the Metropol Fashion Group, buyer, Moscow it-girl, regular at social events and host of the television program “Take it off immediately!”

As soon as Ivanov realized that he loved this particular woman, his career took off at cosmic speed. First, Ivanov was taken under the wing of Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, and then Timur Vadimovich was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region. Just at this time, the governor of the Moscow region for a short time was Sergei Shoigu, who, after moving to the Ministry of Defense, took the young and talented official with him.

Timur Ivanov's wife has Israeli citizenship. She allegedly designed it thanks to the leader of the Izmailovo organized crime group, Anton Malevsky. There was even information in open sources that at the time of receiving an Israeli passport, Svetlana Zakharova lived in an apartment that belonged to Anton Malevsky. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs certificate, Malevsky is “a killer with sadistic tendencies.” They say that Zakharova was once his partner.

However, this is not the end of the family’s connections with the Deputy Minister of Defense abroad. Svetlana Zakharova’s daughter, Alexandra, also has an Israeli passport and has been living quietly with it in France for more than five years. Think about it, the adopted daughter of the Deputy Minister of Defense lives in an unfriendly country and almost every day posts photos with expensive bags and other accessories on social networks. And this is at a time when relatives of those mobilized are collecting their last pennies to buy the recruits the necessary uniforms and other items of equipment.

In 2018, Timur Ivanov’s wife became the richest wife of all Defense Ministry officials. She earned about 50 million rubles in a year. She owns several plots with a total area of ​​10,200 square meters, apartment with an area of ​​317 sq. m, which she shares with her husband, and a dacha. The deputy minister's wife has three cars (Bentley Continental, Aston Martin ​and Hummer H2), and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Ivanova has three children, one of them, by the way, as indicated in the declaration, has an apartment in Mexico.
Those are nice rides...
According to the 2019 rating, Ivanov himself was among the top richest security officials in the country with a family income for 2018 of 136.7 million rubles.

Ivanov and Zakharova also have two minor daughters - Daria and Praskovya.

Let us note that the daughter of Svetlana Ivanova, Alexandra Maniovich, after receiving French docks for Israeli ones, began posting texts against the SVO from Paris. This act protected the Ivanovs’ property, as well as Svetlana and her children, from the authorities of the European Union. For the same purpose, on August 30, 2022, the Ivanovs filed for divorce, case M-0401/417.

Link


International-UN-NGOs
Four Arab countries are in mess and the UN cannot avoid the blame
2020-07-13
[Al Ahram] One hilarious joke once circulating in Iraq referred to an imaginary "anti-concern" medicine named after former UN secretary-general the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, known as much for his diplomatic clichés voicing concern over the tragic events in the country while lacking in action to stop them.

The fictional drug came in 200 mg tablets in blister packs advertised mockingly on social media as being a way to calm and pacify people in a state of trauma in the dystopian world of conflict-torn Iraq that many Iraqis blamed on UN failures in their country.

Soon the fictional drug became a political metaphor for UN dysfunction in ending the civil wars in Libya, Syria and Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
and its critical failures in addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict and the crises in Sudan, Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
and the Western Sahara.

Since 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq and triggered a geopolitical earthquake in the Middle East, more than a dozen UN envoys have tried to play the role of healer in the region’s civil wars, with none of them having any luck.

Whereas the Iraqis hoped the UN would stand by its mission of helping to turn Iraq into a functioning state following the US-led invasion in 2003, the organization did little to create the conditions for that to happen.

Instead of taking radical action to turn Iraq’s fortunes around, UN leaders said much but did little to bring about much-needed change in Iraq.

The UN has been blamed for much of the impasse in Iraq over the last 17 years, primarily for its failure in state-rebuilding efforts and the rehabilitation of an Iraqi society wrecked by the US occupation, prolonged civil conflict and governmental dysfunction.

The UN Security Council authorised the creation of a UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in 2003 that was expected to anchor support for the country’s political transition with the strategic objective of creating genuine democracy in Iraq.

But instead of seeing the "peaceful and prosperous future" the UN was tasked to help the Iraqis to achieve, Iraq today is one of the most miserable countries in the world to live in. Eight UN diplomats have headed UNAMI since its inception, but Iraqis remember nothing tangible of what they have delivered apart from empty rhetoric.
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Africa North
Large Algerian delegation at 15th Congress of Polisario Front
2019-12-22
[APS.DZ] A large Algerian delegation is taking part in the 15th Congress of the Polisario Front, being held from 19 to 23 December in the liberated Saharawi territories, Tfariti.
Related:
Polisario Front: 2019-12-06 Pompeo visits Morocco in first since Trump election
Polisario Front: 2019-10-12 Western Sahara: UN must not allow "the law of the strongest" to prevail
Polisario Front: 2019-10-05 UN chief hopes to maintain ‘momentum’ in Western Sahara talks
Related:
Saharawi: 2016-03-06 Ban Ki-moon expected in Western Sahara refugee camps, liberated territories
Saharawi: 2014-11-17 Thousands protest in Spain over Western Sahara
Saharawi: 2011-03-24 Corruption scandal of the United Nations at the port of Oran
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Kazakh president rejects calls for parliamentary republic
2019-09-07
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Friday rejected calls for a switch to a parliamentary republic as he met opposition activists and public figures to discuss political reforms.

“I am convinced that Kazakhstan must remain a presidential republic, but the parliament will assume a worthy role in the political system,” he said.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Friday rejected calls for a switch to a parliamentary republic made by opposition activists at recent public protests, but promised to give the Central Asian nation’s parliament a greater role.

Tokayev took over the oil-rich former Soviet republic this year, when his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned after nearly three decades in power, and some groups have urged him to dismantle the highly centralized political system.

“I am convinced that Kazakhstan must remain a presidential republic, but the parliament will assume a worthy role in the political system,” Tokayev said at a meeting with opposition activists and public figures picked by his government to join a newly-established National Council of Public Confidence.

Tokayev said he wanted to boost political competition by amending electoral laws and give the parliament a bigger say in major decisions.

The Nur Otan party led by Nazarbayev holds more than 80 seats in the 107-seat lower house of parliament, which mostly rubberstamps legislation drafted by the government. The next parliamentary election is due next year.

Nazarbayev’s daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva is the speaker of parliament’s upper house.

Related:
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev: 2019-05-11 Kazakhstan Says Scores of Children Evacuated from Syria
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev: 2012-01-25 UN disarmament conference may fail, says Ban Ki-moon
Related:
Kazakhstan: 2019-08-30 WHO warns over 'dramatic resurgence' of measles in Europe
Kazakhstan: 2019-08-09 Jordanian who posed as Syrian refugee to claim benefits hacked ex-flatmate to death 'because he feared he had exposed his lie'
Kazakhstan: 2019-08-04 Isis Syria Only Stamped Out Where U.S Forces Are Present – Official Claims
Link


Arabia
Bahrain adopts bill barring members of dissolved groups from contesting elections
2018-05-14
[PRESSTV] Bahraini parliament has approved a controversial bill preventing all members of dissolved opposition groups and organizations from running for elections, a fresh step by the small Persian Gulf island country in suppressing the dissent ahead of parliamentary polls this year.

Bahrain's state news agency, BNA, reported on Sunday that the Consultative Council, the National Assembly’s upper house, passed the draft bill, according to which all leaders and members of political associations dissolved by the judicial system are prohibited from standing for elections.

The report added that the bill had been approved against these people "due to their serious violations of the constitution and laws of the kingdom."

The bill has already secured its approval from the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Assembly, but still needs to be signed by Bahrain's King Hamad
...King of Bahrain (since 14 February 2002), having previously been its emir (from 6 March 1999). He is a Sunni, while the rest of Bahrain is predominantly Shiite...
bin Isa Al Khalifah to become law.

On July 17, 2016, the Bahraini High Administrative Court ordered the dissolution of the country’s main Iranian catspaw, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, and the seizure of its funds, accusing it of helping to foster violence and terrorism in Western-allied Bahrain, where the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is stationed.

The court ruling drew criticism from the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
, with then Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon describing the dissolution as "the latest in a series of restrictions of the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression in Bahrain." al-Wefaq’s leader Sheikh Ali Salman, a senior Bahraini Shia holy man, has also been in prison on a nine-year jail sentence since late 2014.

Link


International-UN-NGOs
World View: African Leaders Once Again Furious That They Won't Get a Climate Change Bonanza
2017-11-20
[Breitbart] African leaders were furious at last year’s climate change conference because Donald Trump had unexpectedly won the US presidential election and said that he would pull out of the climate change agreement. Even so, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged a rapid scale-up in funding for climate change programs, especially to support developing countries. "Finance and investment hold the key to achieving low-emissions and resilient societies," he said.

So now it is a year later, and there’s another climate change conference, and African leaders are furious agai because there were plenty of promises made this week, but no commitments.

Africans claim that they are entitled to money because they are the victims of climate change. That is, the West has caused the climate change, and the Africans are suffering because of it. Augustine Njamshi from the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) says:

In general, Africa has not gotten what it wanted at this Cop23. Because the discussions that matter to us, things that matter to us have been relegated to the background and all that we’re hearing is what the developed countries want, and that is not in the interest of Africa.

...

Africa has not contributed to this [climate change] problem, yet it’s bearing the consequences in a great way, in a massive way and we don’t have the luxury to adapt to the climate change consequences, as well as we don’t even have the means to do any mitigation.

Actually, Africa has benefited enormously from carbon emissions. At the beginning of this article, there is a picture of Kinshasa, the capital city of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). You can see the skyscrapers, apartment buildings, roads, cars, and other infrastructure made possible by research and manufacturing performed by the West. If it had not been for the West’s CO2 emissions, the people of Kinshasa would still be living in thatch huts and driving around in carts pulled by donkeys and camels. Africa is as responsible as anyone else is for carbon emissions because of the enormous benefits they get.

And what would happen if a huge pot of money were given to Joseph Kabila, the president of DRC, to mitigate climate change? Where would that money go? Anyone who knows anything about what is going on in Africa knows the answer. Kabila would use the money to provide support and weapons to government militias slaughtering, raping, and mutilating thousands of people in Kasai province, where 3.9 million people have already been forced to flee their homes.

I have been writing about climate change conferences for years, and it is always been clear that they have nothing to do with mitigating any climate problems. They have only one objective: To force the United States and other western countries to pay billions of dollars to leaders of "underdeveloped" countries, so that those leaders can use the money to pay their cronies, pad their bank accounts, and buy weapons to kill their enemies. I am not aware of any proposal coming out of a climate change conference that would actually reduce carbon emissions. And the examples of Germany and Norway described above illustrate this.

However, the conference did produce some good news for African leaders. According to Chinese state media:
...
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Spends Nuclear Deal Money on Troops, Missiles, Arms for Terrorists
2017-01-10
[Breitbart Israel] Critics of the Iranian nuclear deal charged that the Obama administration was not sufficiently concerned with how Iran would spend the money from its post-sanctions windfall. Evidently, departing President Obama and his team thought domestic political pressures would oblige the Iranian government to invest more heavily in constructive economic pursuits.
Reuters reports that, on the contrary, Iran is looking forward to more military spending, including more funding for ballistic missile tests that were supposed to be banned by the nuclear deal.

Iranian media announced that lawmakers voted for a five-year development plan that "requires government to increase Iran’s defense capabilities as a regional power and preserve the country’s national security and interests by allocating at least five percent of annual budget" to military spending.

The plan includes funding for "long-range missiles, armed drones, and cyber-war capabilities."

Also still a spending priority for Tehran: arms for terrorists. Despite the nuclear deal, an arms embargo from the United Nations is still nominally in effect, but outgoing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "expressed concern that Iran may have violated the embargo by supplying weapons and missiles to Hezbollah," according to Reuters.

Ban’s concerns are based, in part, by senior Hezbollah officials loudly boasting in public that all of their expenses, including weapons, are paid by Iran. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also spent the weekend praising recently-deceased Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani as a "great supporter and backer" of his movement.

Hezbollah has benefited greatly from Iran’s patronage. Newsweek pronounced Hezbollah the "real winner of the Battle of Aleppo" because fighting for Iran in Syria has enormously increased its prestige.
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International-UN-NGOs
Guterres Takes Reins at U.N., Looking to Make Changes
2016-12-31
[AnNahar] Antonio Guterres assumes the reins of the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
on Sunday hoping to breathe new life into the world body, in the wake of its impotence over Syria's humanitarian catastrophe. The Portuguese former prime minister, 67, will become the first onetime head of government to lead the UN, succeeding South Korea's the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon for a five-year term.

His unanimous election has energized UN diplomats who see him as a skilled politician who may be able to overcome the divisions crippling the United Nations.

Guterres faces a monumental task grappling with complex crises in Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, North Korea and elsewhere -- overseeing a clunky entrenched bureaucracy and a bitterly divided Security Council that will leave him little room to maneuver.

Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
's arrival in the White House on January 20 likely will further complicate his task.

Guterres has acknowledged that "the secretary general is not the leader of the world," but rather that his work depends on the goodwill of the world's great powers.

After two terms under Ban, widely criticized for lacking initiative and charisma, some diplomats are banking on a change of style and personality to revitalize the U.N.

An engineer by training and a practicing Catholic, Guterres fought for migrants colonists' rights as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015. He served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, anchoring his country to the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and working to raise living standards.

He has laid out three priorities for change: working for peace, supporting sustainable development and improving internal UN management.

One issue looms above the others, however.

"My deepest regret on leaving office is the continuing nightmare in Syria," Ban recently declared.

Guterres has acknowledged the criticism, saying "it is time for the United Nations to recognize its shortcomings and to reform the way it works."

"The United Nations needs to be nimble, efficient and effective."

He has already begun implementing one of his promises -- working toward gender parity -- by appointing three women from developing countries to key positions, including Nigeria's Environment Minister Amina Mohammed as deputy secretary general.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN approves sending monitors to Aleppo
2016-12-20
Shooting must have stopped...
The United Nations Security Council, with Russia’s backing, voted on Dec. 19 to quickly deploy U.N. observers to Aleppo to monitor evacuations and report on the fate of civilians who remain in the besieged Syrian city, which France says is critical to prevent “mass atrocities.”
Send in the mighty Uruguayans!
Some 20,000 people have been evacuated from the city so far, said Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

The resolution adopted Dec. 19 calls for the U.N. and other institutions to monitor evacuations from eastern Aleppo and demands that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urgently consult Syria and other parties on security and arrangements for the immediate deployment of the monitors.

France and Russia, who submitted rival draft resolutions, announced agreement on a text after more than three hours of closed-door consultations on Dec. 18.

The resolution also demands that all parties allow unconditional and immediate access for the U.N. and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid and medical care, and “respect and protect all civilians across Aleppo and throughout Syria.”
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Aleppo Evacuation suspended.. Or not
2016-12-17
Aleppo Evacuation Suspended amid Dispute Over Villages

The clearing of the last opposition-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo was put on hold on Friday after pro-regime militias demanded that wounded people should also be brought out of two Shi’ite villages being besieged by rebel fighters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said a group of ambulances and cars containing hundreds of civilians and fighters were stopped by pro-regime gunmen at a checkpoint south-west of Aleppo. They later returned to the enclave.

The second day of the operation to take fighters and civilians out of Aleppo’s rebel enclave ground to a halt amid recriminations from all sides after a morning that had seen the pace of the operation pick up.

“Aleppo is now a synonym for hell,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters. “I very much regret that we had to stop this operation.”

Aleppo had been divided between regime and rebel areas in the nearly six-year civil war, but a lightning advance by the Syrian army and its allies that began in mid-November deprived rebels of most of their territory in a matter of weeks.

Russia said the Syrian army had established control over all districts of eastern Aleppo although regime troops were suppressing isolated areas where rebel fighters continued to resist.

Rebel sources accused pro-regime Shi’ite militias, the so-called Iran-backed Hezbollah, of opening fire on a convoy carrying evacuees from east Aleppo and robbing them. Road blocks went up and a convoy was forced to turn back.

Though both Russia and Iran back regime head Bashar al-Assad, rebels have blamed Tehran and the Shi’ite groups it backs in Syria for obstructing Moscow’s efforts to broker the evacuation of eastern Aleppo.

Rebels in eastern Aleppo went on high alert after pro-regime forces prevented civilians from leaving and deployed heavy weaponry on the road out of the area, a Syrian rebel commander in the city said.

A Syrian official source said the evacuation was halted because rebels had sought to take out people they had abducted with them, and they had also tried to take weapons hidden in bags. This was denied by Aleppo-based rebel groups.

But a media outlet run by the pro-regime Hezbollah group said protesters had blocked the road from the city, demanding that wounded people from the Shi’ite villages of Foua and Kefraya, which are besieged by rebel groups, in nearby Idlib province should also be evacuated.

Iran, one of Syria’s main allies, had demanded that the villages be included in a ceasefire deal under which people are leaving Aleppo, rebel and United Nations officials have said.

The chaos surrounding the Aleppo evacuation reflects the complexity of the war with an array of groups and foreign interests involved on each side.

Red Cross Urges all Sides in Aleppo to Resume Evacuation

The International Comimttee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on all sides on Friday to continue the evacuation operation which was suspended hours earlier.

“Regretfully the operation was put on hold. We urge the parties to ensure it can be relaunched & proceed in the right conditions,” Robert Mardini, ICRC regional director for the Near and Middle East tweeted.

No further details were given.

More than 40 wounded people and around 3,000 civilians including children and women were evacuated from east Aleppo on Thursday in two evacuations, the ICRC said in a statement.

Mardini stated that “many more” rotations of buses and ambulances might be needed in coming days.

Turkey to Set up Camp for Aleppo Evacuees in Syria
That's awfully good of them, dontcha think
Turkey will provide a camp in Syria to receive people evacuated from Aleppo, Turkish officials said on Friday. The officials added that Turkey will, however, continue to take in the wounded to its own hospitals.

The camp shall be set to host around 80,000 people, in two potential sites, around 3.5 km (2.2 miles) inside Syria, two senior officials told media outlets.

“Work on the infrastructure for the camp will begin shortly,” a separate official from Turkish aid organisation IHH said by phone from inside Syria. The camp will be jointly set up by the Turkish Red Crescent, disaster agency AFAD and IHH.

The IHH official said evacuees majorly found a place to reside with relatives in and around Syria’s Idlib province, southwest of Aleppo, but that work to identify those with nowhere to go was proceeding.

Turkey has taken in 55 wounded and sick evacuees, according to Hasan Aydinlik, head of an emergency response division of Turkey’s health ministry.

Turkey is already sheltering around 2.7 million Syrian refugees.

Aleppo…The “Big Departure” Day

Beirut – It’s the “dream” day which turned into a nightmare. It’s the day of the “big departure” from destroyed Aleppo, after a tight siege ended through forced deportation of tens of thousands of families. And at a time when Iran’s conditions engendered more obstacles, Moscow took control of the situation in Aleppo Thursday by reinforcing the truce deal to secure the exit of hundreds of civilians and wounded people who had arrived in the afternoon to the west Aleppo countryside, as fighters are expected to head to Idlib.

The tears of mothers and families who were forced to leave their houses and the signs of hope of a near return, reflected the struggle which Aleppo residents endured in the last days spent inside their city. Before walking out, Aleppo residents preferred to burn their belongings so that they don’t end up in the hands of “strangers,” but they left behind them their loved ones and the human remains under the rubble, after the civil defense failed to remove them.

And while the Red Cross had described the first step of the evacuation as “positive,” Robert Mardini, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Middle East director told Reuters on Thursday: “The report received and what my colleagues were telling me was heartbreaking. People are totally exhausted, disillusioned, and disappointed.”

Mardini added: “But they were so happy to see us, they were thankful for us being there, although we failed them, because it’s too little too late, but yet it is important.”

The first hours of the truce did not pass without violations before the Russians pledged to secure the safety of civilians. Civilians were therefore moved in several batches using green buses now recognized for being the transportation means of the “forced exile” conducted by regime forces.

President of the regime Bashar Assad appeared at noon on Thursday through the Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency. Assad “blessed” what he called “history in the making” in Aleppo.

Member of the local council of Aleppo Besher Hawi told Asharq Al-Awsat there was confusion in the evacuation process because concerned parties were quick in reaching an agreement concerning the exit of families.

But, Hawi said that the Local Council is currently working to organize the evacuation by preparing a list according to which each family would know the time of its departure from Aleppo.

He asserted the presence of at least 70,000 people, including 4,000 fighters. “Until now, there is no accurate numbers due to the presence of open passages through which some families were leaving eastern Aleppo,” Hawi said.

He expected the evacuation to last 3 to 5 days.
Link


International-UN-NGOs
Antonio Guterres sworn in as UN secretary general
2016-12-13
I suppose we'll have to stock a photo of him now. It'll be a change.
[DAWN] Former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres was sworn in Monday as Secretary General of the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
, becoming the ninth UN chief in the body's 71-year history.

The former UN refugee chief was elected to the top job by acclamation in the General Assembly in October.

He takes over from the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon on January 1.

Guterres, 67, performed well in answering questions before assembly members and his executive experience as prime minister and as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005-2015 propelled him to first place among 13 candidates vying for the job in informal polls in the council.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rooshuns, Syrians committed war crimes
2016-12-02
Not if they win they didn't
[ARA News] Aleppo – The Russian-Syrian coalition committed war crimes during a month-long aerial bombing campaign of opposition-controlled territory in Aleppo in September and October 2016, killing over 440 civilians, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Violations Documentation Center, a Syrian civil monitoring organization, documented that the bombing campaign killed more than 440 civilians, including nearly 90 children.

During the month-long bombing campaign, Syrian military forces surrounded opposition-held eastern part of Aleppo city.

Although Syrian and Russian authorities declared that civilians and fighters could leave through designated corridors, very few did.

Syrian and Russian authorities and armed opposition groups blamed each other for the civilian casualties.

“Whatever the reason, the Russian-Syrian coalition should have taken precautionary measures to avoid and minimize civilian casualties when attacking armed opposition groups,” Human Rights Watch said.

Airstrikes often appeared to be recklessly indiscriminate, deliberately targeted at least one medical facility, and included the use of indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions and incendiary weapons, the human rights group reported.

Satellite imagery that Human Rights Watch analyzed have shown more than 950 new distinct impact sites consistent with the detonation of large high explosive bombs across the area during the month.

“Using that amount of firepower in an urban area with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of civilians predictably killed hundreds of civilians,” said Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

“Those who ordered and carried out unlawful attacks should be tried for war crimes,” Solvang stressed.

HRW has also documented armed opposition groups’ attacks against government-controlled western Aleppo.

“Deliberate or reckless attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including hospitals, committed with criminal intent are war crimes,” HRW said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council on September 28, that those using indiscriminate weapons in Aleppo “know they are committing war crimes.”
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