Day: June 22, 2024

By Jason Gutierrez

The Philippines dismissed calls Friday to invoke a defense treaty with the United States over a highly charged confrontation between the Chinese coast guard and Filipino navy personnel in disputed waters during which a sailor was injured.

After the Philippine military released footage on Wednesday of the chaotic;June 17 standoff;at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, Philippine nationalist groups and hawkish politicians have been clamoring for the Marcos administration to use that to invoke the;Mutual Defense Treaty.;

The treaty, signed in 1951, binds Manila and Washington to come to each other’s military aid in the event of an attack by an external power. On Monday in the U.S. capital, officials at the White House and State Department condemned China’s alleged conduct at the shoal as “escalatory and irresponsible actions.”;;

“We are not yet ready to consider this as an armed attack,” Lucas Bersamin, the executive secretary of the Philippines who reports to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., told reporters on Friday when asked if the incident would trigger the treaty with Manila’s oldest security ally.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP);claimed that during the;encounter, one of its boats was forcibly towed, looted and damaged, and that Chinese personnel used machetes, blades and pikes to threaten sailors and damage equipment. A Filipino sailor lost a finger during the standoff, the AFP said.

The incident was “probably a misunderstanding or accident,” Bersamin said.

A day earlier, Senate President Francis Escudero had described the escalating tensions between Manila and Beijing in the South China Sea as alarming, while he requested a full briefing from the foreign affairs department about the incident.;;

He said the department should now “go beyond the filing of diplomatic protests each time an incident occurs.”

Bersamin said the foreign office had not received an official response from China about the incident, although Beijing had publicly defended its coast guard’s actions in the shoal, which lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone but is claimed by both countries.;

The incident occurred only two days after China’s coast guard began enforcing a;new regulation;authorizing its personnel to intercept and detain foreign boats and crews suspected of “trespassing” in South China Sea waters claimed by Beijing.

For their part, the Chinese accused the Philippine side of attempting to transport firearms and material needed to refurbish the BRP Sierra Madre, a rusting World War II-era navy ship that Manila deliberately grounded at the shoal in the late 1990s to mark its territorial claim there.

A contingent of Philippine marines is stationed aboard the ship, and rotated in and out of the shoal, which is known as Ayungin to Filipinos and Ren’ai Jiao to the Chinese.

“The Philippine vessels secretly carried construction materials and even weapons and equipment, and they deliberately rammed Chinese vessels. The Philippine side threw water and hurled objects [at] Chinese enforcement personnel. These acts clearly escalated tensions at sea, and severely threatened the safety of Chinese personnel and vessels,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry,;said;in a news briefing on Thursday.

“The Chinese side took necessary measures in accordance with law to safeguard its sovereignty, which was lawful and justified and done in a professional and restrained manner. It was beyond reproach,” he said.

During Monday’s incident, which occurred close to the Sierra Madre, small boats from China’s coast guard intercepted a rigid-hulled inflatable boat belonging to the Philippine Navy.

Initial reports from the AFP said that seven Filipino troops were hurt in the skirmish at sea, but on Friday Philippine officials clarified that the sailor who lost a finger was the lone casualty among the Filipinos.;

The Philippines runs regular rotation and resupply missions to the;Sierra Madre. The old ship serves as Manila’s military outpost in the contested waters and lies near Mischief Reef, an artificial island where Beijing built a naval base in the 1990s.

“I think this is a matter that can be easily resolved very soon by us and (if) China wants to work with us, we can work with China,” Bersamin told reporters after he chaired a meeting of the National Maritime Council, a government body established in March to boost Philippine security in the West Philippine Sea.;

Manila refers to South China Sea waters within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as the West Philippine Sea.

“As a result of the meeting today, the [National Maritime Council] agreed on policy recommendations for the President’s consideration,” Bersamin said.;

“Among these recommendations is the announcement of the rotation and reprovision missions to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, which will remain routinary and scheduled regularly.”;

“We will not yield and will not be deterred in fulfilling this duty,” he said, adding that it would be wise for the president to accept the recommendations and publicize the schedule of the government’s activities.

Jojo Riñoza and Mark Navales contributed reporting from Manila.

By Maksym Savchuk and Maksym Dudchenko

(RFE/RL) — Russian firms shipped tens of thousands of tons of wheat and peas out of occupied parts of Ukraine in 2023 to EU member Spain, NATO member Turkey, and Azerbaijan, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Schemes, and its partners have found.

Similar amounts of barley and corn reached Moscow allies Iran and Syria, which have an established track record of buying Ukrainian grain appropriated by Russia, Schemes, the Ukrainian hacker group KibOrg, the Belarusian Investigative Center, and Vyortska, an independent Russian-language media outlet, determined in an investigation based on official Russian documents and other sources.

At least 6.4 million tons of wheat alone were harvested from Russian-occupied Crimea and Russian-held parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhya regions in 2023, according to satellite estimates by NASA’s Harvest program, which tracks food-security threats. SeaKrime, a nongovernmental Ukrainian project that tracks Russia’s illegal grain shipments from Ukraine, has reported that 2 million tons of that harvest were shipped abroad from Crimea’s ports.

Such sales undermine Ukraine’s war-battered economy and provide Russia with revenue to finance the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year.

For 2023, Schemes and its partners documented Russian sales of nearly 35,000 tons of wheat, barley, corn, and peas from the Kherson region and Crimea at discounted customs rates.

Hacked documents from Kherson’s occupation administrators, leaked Russian customs data, and information from the online trade database Import Genius confirmed the role of at least four Russian companies – Agro-Fregat, Pallada, Sim-Trans Group, and TD Fregat – in these transactions.

One of these companies, Pallada, has a remote connection to the general contractor for construction of a massive residential complex on Russia’s Black Sea coast known as “Putin’s palace.”

Though Russian customs and occupation-administration documents show that the products came from the Kherson region and Crimea, rather than from Russia, whether the buyers ever questioned the origins of the products they were purchasing is unclear. None agreed to discuss the matter.

How It Works

The Kherson region, part of Ukraine’s breadbasket, boasted a record harvest of 3.1 million tons of grain in 2021 – a bounty that attracted Russian firms once Russian forces occupied parts of the southern region in 2022.

Satellite data in 2022 showed trucks traveling from Kherson and the neighboring Zaporizhzhya region, also partially Russian-occupied, to Crimea for shipment abroad.

In 2023, Russian companies shipped an estimated 6.2 million euros ($6.7 million) worth of agricultural products from the Kherson region at discounted Russian customs rates or duty-free, according to Russian customs data and contracts from the occupation administration.

Volodymyr Saldo, an ex-mayor of the city of Kherson who is the top occupation official in the Russian-held part of the region, has the power to approve or reject the decisions of a commission that assigns these discounts.
In 2023, about a dozen Russian companies applied for the special rates.

The commission’s decisions enabled Schemes and its partners to trace Russian companies’ illegal sales of Kherson’s agricultural products abroad.

European Union

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union has banned over 91.2 million euros ($97.6 million) worth of Russian imports but has avoided barring Russian-EU trade in food and health products “in order not to harm the Russian population,” an EU explainer states.

That spells opportunity for Russia’s Agro-Fregat, a wholesale agricultural exporter, whose train cars RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service has photographed in Crimea. In a 2022 article, Oleksiy Makeyev, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry special envoy on sanctions, denounced Agro-Fregat, based in southwestern Russia’s Rostov region, and seven other Russian firms for exporting “stolen grain” from Ukraine.

Peas also make up that portfolio. Russian export data shows that, in September 2023, Agro-Fregat sent, as part of a 4,500-ton shipment to Spain, nearly 2,674 tons of peas from the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Agro-Fregat has been receiving Russian quality certifications for Crimean peas since 2022, according to Russia’s Federal Accreditation Service.

In 2022-23, Spain ranked as the second-largest importer of peas exported by Russia after Turkey, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

A cargo manifest obtained by SeaKrime, a section of the Myrotvorets group, identified Agro-Fregat’s Spanish customer as Cereales Y Harinas Garsan S.L., a company in Spain’s southeastern city of Lorca that says it distributes foodstuffs to 12 countries.

Cereales Y Harinas Garsan did not respond to a request for comment. In a May 25 phone call with Schemes, Agro-Fregat CEO Dmitry Lapkin denied any knowledge of shipments from the Kherson region.

Turkey, Too

But Agro-Fregat routinely exports from the Kherson region: In June and July 2023, it requested permission from the commission to export 25,000 tons of wheat and meslin, a mixture of cereals and legumes, at discounted rates. The buyer, according to occupation administration documents, was the Turkish company Velar Tarim Sanayi ve Tic. A.S (Velar), headquartered in the city of Adana.

Turkey, which exports military goods to Ukraine, ranked in 2022-23 as the main importer of grain exported by Russia, according to agribusiness consultants APK-Inform.

At least 9,554 tons of the wheat and meslin for Velar, according to a Russian government itinerary confirmed by tracking by MarineTraffic, a shipping intelligence site, traveled on August 7, 2023, from Crimea’s Sevastopol Bay to Russia’s Port Kavkaz on the Kerch Strait on board the Alfa M, and thence, two days later, on to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Mersin on board the St. Olga.

Velar did not respond to questions about this shipment.

Azerbaijan

Turkey’s South Caucasus ally Azerbaijan, which has close ties with Moscow, has described itself as “a loyal and dear friend to Ukraine.” It also is a regular customer for Russian-expropriated wheat from Ukraine.

Wheat imports classified as Russian, in fact, narrowly outranked petroleum products in 2022 as Azerbaijan’s main Russian import, valued at $294 million, according to the trade data site OEC.

The Moscow-based Sim-Trans Group describes itself as one of the top three wheat exporters to Azerbaijan. In 2023, it exported the ruble equivalent of just under $410,000 worth of grain, according to an official Russian foreign trade database, to the Baku-registered company Diba.

The origin of all these wheat shipments is unclear. But in 2023, Sim-Trans Group received permission from the commission to send Diba up to 2,200 tons of grain from Kherson, occupation-administration documents show.

Sim-Trans Group did not answer phone calls about this shipment. Diba did not respond to requests for comment.

Iran And Syria

One Russian company, Pallada, LLC, which sent at least 15,400 tons of Kherson barley under a discounted Russian customs rate in 2023 to Iran’s Persian Gulf port of Bandar Imam Khomeini, has a distant connection to sanctioned Croatian businessman Kresimir Filipovic, who Russian media have reported was involved in the construction of a luxury estate in Gelendzhik on Russia’s Black Sea coast that was allegedly built for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pallada was registered as a grain wholesaler in the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don a few weeks before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Its minority owner is Megapolis-Invest, a Russian corporate management firm that previously controlled a company, Waveform Investments, formerly majority owned by Filipovic, according to the business database KonturFocus.

The independent media outlet Proyekt has identified a Filipovic-owned business, Velesstroi, as the general contractor for construction of “Putin’s palace.”

The extent of Filipovic’s involvement in Pallada, if any, is unclear.

The firm’s majority owner, according to the Russian business registry SBIS, is Sergei Kuznetsov, a 47-year-old Muscovite.

Kuznetsov did not respond to Vyorstka’s May 31 question via Telegram about whether he is Pallada’s nominal owner in favor of Megapolis-Invest and Filipovic.

Another Russian exporter, the Moscow-based TD Fregat LLC, also declined to comment. In May 2023, it received a customs-duty discount on 3,000 tons of Kherson corn as part of an 8,000-ton export from Crimea to the Syrian port of Latakia.

TD Fregat, which says it “specializes in complex operations in the grain industry,” did not respond to a request for elaboration.

Written by Elizabeth Owen

• Maksym Savchuk is a correspondent for Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, based in Kyiv. He is the author of 1937, a book about the political and business activities of Viktor Medvedchuk after the Revolution of Dignity. He was born in the village of Baryshivka in the Kyiv region. He graduated as an engineer at the National Transport University and a philologist at the National Pedagogical University. He worked at the Svydomo bureau of journalistic investigations, in the newspaper Ukraine Moloda, and in the investigative journalistic program Exclamation Mark on the TV channel TVi.

The UN Secretary-General on Friday voiced profound concern over escalating violence and “bellicose rhetoric” between Israel and Hezbollah militants across the frontier with Lebanon, warning that one false move could trigger a catastrophe for the whole region and beyond.

The situation along the Blue Line, the demarcation between Israeli and Lebanese armed forces, has been deteriorating since Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip following the brutal 7 October attack by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups against communities in the country’s south.

On Thursday Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly issued a stern warning to Israel amid reports that the Israeli military has approved plans for an offensive on southern Lebanon.

Prevent a catastrophe

Speaking to the press at the UN Headquarters, in New York, Secretary-General António Guterres underscored that a widening of the conflict in the Middle East must be avoided.

“Let’s be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza,” he stressed.

“One rash move – one miscalculation – could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination,” he said.

The UN chief also highlighted that on both sides of the Blue Line, many people have already lost their lives and been driven from their homes and livelihoods.

De-escalation now

He urged both sides to “urgently recommit” to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities.

Adopted in 2006, the resolution set in motion a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the establishment of demilitarized zone.

“The world must say loudly and clearly: immediate de-escalation is not only possible – it is essential,” Mr. Guterres said, declaring that “there is no military solution.”

He also underscored the need to protect civilians, ensure that children, journalists and medical workers are not targeted, and ensure the displaced can return to their homes.

UN peacekeepers on the ground

The Secretary-General also emphasized that the UN is “actively engaging” to promote peace, security and stability, in line with resolution 1701.

“UN peacekeepers, UNIFIL, are on the ground working to de-escalate tensions and help prevent miscalculation, in an extremely challenging environment” he said, adding that the Organization fully supports diplomatic efforts to end the violence, restore stability and avoid even greater human suffering in the region.

“And we do so as we continue to press for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages and a real pathway to a two-State solution,” Mr. Guterres concluded.

By Christy Lee

A new defense pact signed between Russia and North Korea this week publicly laid out Moscow’s willingness to engage in full-fledged military cooperation with Pyongyang, in contrast to their denials prior to the summit, analysts said.

Before Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, it was already widely believed that Moscow was transferring military technology to Pyongyang for weapons upgrades.

In 2023, North Korea launched the solid-fuel Hwasong-18 missile for the first time. After analyzing the shape and color of the smoke at the tail of the missile, experts said these technologies appeared to have come from Russia.

At the same time, U.S. and other officials have accused North Korea of providing Russia with large quantities of conventional munitions for its war in Ukraine.

In September, Kim showed an interest in various military assets during his tour of Russia’s satellite launch site, fighter jet factory, and Pacific Fleet equipped with nuclear-capable bombers and hypersonic missiles.

Both Russia and North Korea denied any arms dealings between them prior to Putin’s visit to Pyongyang.

It is still uncertain exactly what types of military technology Moscow could provide Pyongyang.

But at the summit, Moscow made explicit its willingness to prop up Pyongyang’s military in return for continued flow of munitions to use against Ukraine, according to Bruce Bechtol Jr., a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and now a professor at Angelo State University in Texas.

In the Treaty of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed between Putin and Kim at their summit, the two agreed to set up “mechanisms” for undertaking “measures” for “strengthening the defense capabilities.”

They also agreed to develop and cooperate in the areas of science and technology, including space.

At a joint press conference following their summit, Putin said Moscow “does not rule out developing military and technical cooperation” with Pyongyang as agreed on in the pact in response to the U.S. and other NATO countries’ allowing weapons that they supplied to Ukraine being used against targets inside Russia.

Kim and Putin also agreed in the treaty to intervene militarily if either North Korea or Russia is invaded. But Bechtol said the most significant part of the treaty “is military cooperation.”

“We’re not going to invade North Korea. We’re not going to invade Russia. It’s all about the military cooperation, the arms deals” that have “no limits” and will be made in a “barter” form rather than in a “cash and carry” arrangement, he said.

Any arms exports or imports by North Korea would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Putin trade proposal;

In an article by Putin published by North Korea’s state-run newspaper;Rodong Sinmun;on Tuesday ahead of his arrival in Pyongyang, Putin said Russia and North Korea would develop a trade and payment system not controlled by the West. This would make it easier to circumvent international sanctions on both countries.

Joshua Stanton, a Washington-based attorney who helped draft the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enforcement Act of 2016, said, “Russia and North Korea have been talking about setting up ruble-based and renminbi-based payment systems for at least a decade.”

He continued: “It never worked before. It would probably violate U.N. sanctions, and if our Treasury Department is willing to impose secondary sanctions on the banks that facilitate it, it will fail again.”

Moscow and Pyongyang are likely to exchange military hardware using railways rather than sea routes to avoid “any kind of interdiction,” said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy. He said the idea of interdiction could be discussed when Washington, Seoul and Tokyo meet on the sidelines of a NATO summit in July.

Putin said at a press conference in Pyongyang this week that Russian Railways will participate in the upgrade of the Khasan-Rajin railway crossing between the two countries.

‘High intensity of commitment’;

Even without the treaty, military cooperation — including arms transfers from Russia to North Korea — was likely to have gone forward, according to Bechtol and other analysts.

“I frankly don’t think that the treaty makes a huge difference,” said Michael Kimmage, who from 2014 to 2016 served on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department, where he held the Russia-Ukraine portfolio.

“It’s signaling a high intensity of commitment” and “a longevity of commitment,” which “in and of itself is quite significant,” but “I don’t think the treaty itself is that dramatic of a turning point,” he said.

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, said, “It is hard to imagine this new agreement makes it easier for Russia to transfer military technologies to North Korea, given the transfers in recent years of Iskander missile technology, liquid oxygen and petroleum fuel for satellite launchers, repair of satellite launcher problems, GPS jammers, and 24 mm MRL precision guidance.”

He continued: “I think the bottom line is not the greater feasibility of weapons technology transfers but the Russian government’s greater political willingness to make the transfers.”

Putin’s outspoken willingness to cooperate militarily with Pyongyang has prompted deep concerns in both Seoul and Washington.

A senior South Korean presidential official said on Thursday that Seoul will now consider sending arms directly to Ukraine. Seoul has withheld providing lethal weapons to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022.

A spokesperson for the South Korean foreign ministry told VOA’s Korean Service on Thursday that Seoul is “gravely concerned” about the treaty and the declaration of military technology cooperation “that outrightly violates U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

A State Department spokesperson told VOA Korean on Wednesday that “deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is a trend that should be of great concern.” The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is North Korea’s official name.

In contrast, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Thursday that Moscow and Pyongyang have “a normal need for exchanges, cooperation and a closer relationship.”

After Hezbollah, Israel Risking War With Russia & Iran’s Close Ally? IDF Kills Syria Officer: Report  Hindustan Times

Israel summons Armenia ambassador hours after his country recognises Palestine state  Middle East Monitor

Egypt welcomes Armenia’s recognition of State of Palestine  Egypt Today

Immediately after a visiting US delegation upped the ante on Tibet, India reiterated its stance on His Holiness’ Dalai Lama, emphasising his “revered” status and the respect accorded to him by the Indian people.

“The Government of India’s position on His Holiness the Dalai Lama is clear and consistent. He is a revered religious leader and is deeply respected by the people of India. His Holiness is accorded due courtesies and freedom to conduct his religious and spiritual activities,” the Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a press briefing.

Jaiswal’s comments follow the visit of a seven-member US Congressional delegation which asserted that President Joe Biden will soon sign a bill on Tibet that has upset China. Jaiswal however refrained from commenting on the succession of the Dalai Lama, but  highlighted the spiritual leader’s significant role in India’s cultural fabric.

“A seven-member US Congress delegation paid a visit to India from 16-20 June 2024. The bi-partisan delegation was led by Rep. Michael McCaul, Chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee. They visited Dharamshala on 18-19 June,” the MEA spokesperson said.

He said the delegation also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and interacted with External Affairs minister S Jaishankar and Commerce & Industry minister Piyush Goyal.

“As regards the statements by the US delegation, I would refer you to the US side and it is for them to answer,” he said.

In a strongly-worded statement on Chinese President Xi Jinping, former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi —who is part of a US Congressional delegation — said on Wednesday that while the legacy of the Dalai Lama will live forever for compassion and tradition, the Chinese President will be gone and nobody will give him any credit.

Pelosi made these comments after meeting the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. The US Congressional delegation is led by US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and has members including Pelosi, who is now Speaker Emerita, and prominent US Congressional members — Mariannette Miller, Gregory Meeks, Nicole Malliotakis, Jim McGovern, and Ami Bera.

While the Dalai Lama meets foreign diplomats and visitors, this delegation is one of the most high-powered delegations from the US in recent years. Pelosi has been at the forefront of challenging Beijing, as she had visited Taiwan in August 2022.

The delegation’s visit comes after the US Congress last week passed a bill urging Beijing to re-engage with the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders to peacefully resolve their dispute over the status and governance of Tibet.

Pelosi and McCaul told journalists in India that the government of President Joe Biden will sure implement the Tibet bill.

India recently hit back at China by renaming more than 30 places in Tibet. This was a riposte to Beijing which; has named 60 places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh with Chinese names in an attempt to back its claim on the Indian province China calls ” Southern Tibet. “

The Indian renaming of Tibetan places in effect as reopening the Tibet question because India has so far recognised Tibet as part of China.;

In the first week of June 2024, the Palestine office of the World Health Organization (WHO);released;figures about the atrocious attacks on health care facilities and workers in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Thus far, according to the WHO, the Israelis have attacked 464 health care facilities, killed 727 health care workers, injured 933 health care workers, and damaged or destroyed 113 ambulances. “Health care,” the WHO’s Palestine office argues, “is not a target.” And yet, during the past seven months, health care workers have faced relentless attacks by the Israeli military. Each of the stories about the deaths is heartbreaking, the names of the dead are too long to list in any article (although a group called Healthcare Workers for Palestine did;read;the names of their dead colleagues as a protest against this war). But some of the stories are worth reflecting on because they tell us about the commitment of the workers and the great loss to humanity from their murder.

Dr. Iyad Rantisi, who was 53 years old, ran the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, which lies in the northern part of Gaza. There are many Rantisis in Gaza, but they are not native to that part of Palestine. Like many Palestinians who live in Gaza, they have roots in other parts of Palestine from which they had been expelled in the Nakba of 1948; the Rantisis come from the village of Rantis, northwest of Ramallah.;

On November 11, 2023, during the Israeli military assault inside northern Gaza, Dr. Rantisi was taken into custody at an Israeli military checkpoint when he tried to;leave;northern Gaza for the south, following the orders of the Israeli military. Since then, his family had not heard anything about his whereabouts. Now, months later, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz;reports;that he was taken to the Shikma Investigation Center of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), which is inside the Ashkelon Prison. Dr. Rantisi was tortured and then killed six days into his detention. His family was not informed of this until the Haaretz report. Then, Dr. Rantisi’s daughter Dima;wrote;of the death of her father, a social media post that she paired with photographs of him in medical scrubs performing surgery on a patient.

Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh, also 53, trained in Romania before he returned home to Gaza to head the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital. He has a reputation of being a very loved doctor, whose office was crowded with his diplomas (from Jordan, from Palestine, from the United Kingdom). When the Israeli military;attacked;al-Shifa, Dr. Al-Barsh was forced to leave his post, but he did not leave his work. He first went to Kamal Adwan Hospital, where Dr. Rantisi worked, and then to Al-Awda Hospital in the area east of the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, which was also;attacked;several times by the Israelis. On December 18, 2023, the Israeli military raided Al-Awda and took Dr. Al-Barsh and other hospital personnel into custody. Included among those arrested was the manager of the hospital and another very popular doctor, Dr. Ahmed Muhanna. On October 15, 2023, Dr. Muhanna made a;video—which went viral—in which he pleaded to the world for help and for an immediate ceasefire. It is now reported that on April 19, 2024, Dr. Al-Barsh was killed by the Israelis in Ofer Prison. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health,;said, “Dr. Adnan’s case raises serious concerns that he died following torture at the hands of Israeli authorities.”

Dr. Hammam Alloh, age 36, was killed when an Israeli missile struck his home near his ward in Al-Shifa Hospital on November 12, 2023. Trained in Yemen and Jordan, Dr. Alloh was Gaza’s only nephrologist, a kidney specialist. Concerned about his patients who were on dialysis, particularly with the lack of electricity and the constant attacks, Dr. Alloh—who was known as “The Legend” during his residency in Jordan—refused to leave the hospital. On October 31, Dr. Alloh was asked why he did not abandon his post and go to southern Gaza. “If I go,” he replied calmly, “who would treat my patients? We are not animals. We have the right to receive proper health care. You think I went to medical school and for my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years so I think only about my life and not my patients?” This was the caliber of Dr. Alloh. Less than two weeks later, when he left his post to have a rest at home with his parents, his wife (pregnant with a child), and his two children, the Israelis struck his home. He died alongside his father.

At the International Court of Justice in January 2024, the Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh made the closing arguments for South Africa’s claim of genocide against Israel. In the course of her statement, Ní Ghrálaigh;showed;an image of a whiteboard with the following written on it: “Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us.” These lines had been written by 38-year-old Dr. Mahmoud Abu Najaila, who worked as a physician for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. On November 21, 2023, the Israeli military bombed the third and fourth floors of the hospital, where Dr. Najaila worked with Dr. Ahmad Al-Sahar and Dr. Ziad Al-Tatari. All three of them were killed.

On her LinkedIn page, Reem Abu Lebdeh, a physiotherapist who was an associate trustee on the board of MSF’s UK branch,;wrote, “Such a devastating loss for the medical community and humanity.” These doctors, whom she knew, she said, “were true embodiments of selfless service and humanitarian dedication, tirelessly saving lives in the most urgent conditions.” Then a few weeks later, sometime in December, the Israelis attacked a residential area in Khan Younis and;killed;Reem Abu Lebdeh, whose own messages of solidarity now sit on the web like Dr. Najaila’s whiteboard note: Remember us.

• About the author: Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.
• Source: This article was produced by Globetrotter.

The energy ministers of Iran and Kyrgyzstan emphasized cooperating in the field of generating energy and implementing hydroelectricity power plant projects.;

Iran’s Minister of Energy Ali Akbar Mehrabian and Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Energy Taalaibek Ibrayev held talks on;bilateral ties and issues of mutual interests on the sidelines of the 4^th;meeting of the energy ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)’s member states.

Mehrabian pointed to the proximity of Iranian and Kyrgyz cultures and said that Iran is ready to cooperate with Kyrgyzstan in all fields.

He highlighted;Iran’s hydrocarbon reserves including oil and gas, and said the country;generates about 360 billion kilowatt/hour electricity annually.

Iran possesses advanced technology in the energy industry (electricity, oil and gas industries) and offers quality services to many countries in the world, he said, adding that Iran’s FARAB Company is a consulting engineering company which enjoys high capacity in manufacturing hydroelectricity power plants.

He pointed to the Rogun Power Plant and Dam in Tajikistan, which is the tallest dam in the world, adding that five Iranian companies are constructing major parts of the dam.

He added;that competent Iranian companies are ready to implement hydroelectricity projects in Kyrgyzstan, IRNA reported.

The Kyrgyz minister of energy, for his part, referred to Iran’s high capability in;supplying oil and oil products and said that his country is interested in cooperating with Iran in this field.

Kyrgyzstan is ready to cooperate with Iran in the energy, solar and wind projects, construction of nuclear power plants and also supply of oil and oil technology, Ibrayev added.