УКРОПИ

US, Poland Launch Mideast Conference Despite Uncertain Aims

The United States and Poland are kicking off an international conference on the Middle East on Wednesday amid uncertainty over its aims and questions about what it will deliver.

Initially it was billed by President Donald Trump’s administration as an Iran-focused meeting, but the organizers significantly broadened its scope to include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the fight against the Islamic State group, Syria and Yemen. The shift was designed in part to boost participation after some invitees balked at an Iran-centric event when many, particularly in Europe, are trying to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after last year’s U.S. withdrawal and re-imposition of sanctions in its self-described “maximum pressure campaign.”

Yet the agenda for the discussions contains no hint of any concrete action that might result beyond creating “follow-on working groups,” and many of the roughly 60 countries participating will be represented at levels lower than foreign minister.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will attend along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his counterparts from numerous Arab nations, France and Germany are not sending cabinet-ranked officials, and E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is staying away.

Russia and China are not participating, and the Palestinians, who have called for the meeting to be boycotted, also will be absent. Iran, which is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution this week, has denounced the meeting as a “circus.”

Pompeo predicted that the conference will “deliver really good outcomes” and played down the impact of lower-level participation. He told reporters in Slovakia on Tuesday that this “is going to be a serious concrete discussion about a broad range of topics that range from counterterrorism to the malign influence that Iran has played in the Middle East towards its instability.”

According to the agenda, Pence will address the conference on a range of Mideast regional issues, Pompeo will talk about U.S. plans in Syria following Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops and Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner will speak about his as-yet unveiled Middle East peace plan.

“We think we will make real progress,” Pompeo said. “We think there’ll be dozens of nations there seriously working towards a better, more stable Middle East, and I’m hoping by the time we leave on Thursday we’ll have achieved that.”

He did not, however, offer any details about specific outcomes.

Pompeo’s co-host for the conference, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, also steered clear of describing potential results. And, he made note of differences between the United States and Europe over the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, that also exist among Washington and Warsaw.

“Poland is a part of the E.U., and hence we are of the opinion and we accept the policy of JCPOA,” Czaputowicz told a joint news conference with Pompeo on the eve of the conference. “We consider this to be a valuable element on the international arena.”

In a joint opinion piece published Wednesday by CNN, Pompeo and Czaputowicz said they did not expect all participants to agree on either policies or outcomes but called for an airing of unscripted and candid ideas.

“We expect each nation to express opinions that reflect its own interests,” they wrote. “Disagreements in one area should not prohibit unity in others.”

In fact, three of America’s main European allies, Britain, France and Germany, have unveiled a new financial mechanism that the Trump administration believes may be designed to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is attending the Warsaw conference, but his main interest is in a side meeting on the conflict in Yemen, according to diplomats familiar with the planning.

Since Pompeo first announced the conference as a vehicle to combat increasing Iranian assertiveness during a Mideast tour in January, he has steadily sought to widen the program’s focus with limited success. Despite his efforts, Iran is still expected to be a major, if not the primary, topic of discussion, notably its nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile program, threats to Israel and support for Shiite rebels in Yemen and Bashar Assad’s government in Syria.

The Trump administration has repeatedly denied allegations that it is seeking regime change in Iran. And yet, mixed messages continue to come from Washington.

Earlier this week, Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton released a short video on the anniversary of the Iranian revolution in which he called Iran “the central banker of international terrorism” and accused it of pursuing nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them and of “tyrannizing its own people and terrorizing the world.” The video ended with a not-so-veiled threat to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “I don’t think you’ll have many more anniversaries to enjoy,” Bolton said.

Such rhetoric has prompted criticism from Europe and elsewhere but also from Obama administration veterans who have vocally opposed Trump’s attempts to wreck the nuclear deal, which was one of their signature foreign policy achievements. One group of former Obama officials, National Security Action, said the Warsaw conference was little more than an “anti-Iran pep rally” that underscored Trump’s isolation.

“We expect to see again this week an American approach to Iran that will showcase our alienation,” it said in a statement. “More than merely embarrassing, the administration’s stated ‘maximum pressure’ approach is incoherent, as America lacks allies willing to support such a strategy. Not a single E.U. country has endorsed pulling out of the Iran deal, unsurprising given that the Trump administration’s own intelligence chiefs testified earlier this month that Iran remains in compliance.”

 
…

Forced Evictions, Discrimination Continue to Afflict Bulgaria’s Roma

On a cold day in January, Ivanka Angelova was at home with her daughter and four grandchildren when the village mayor arrived and advised them to leave.

Two neighbors – brothers aged 17 and 21 – were accused of beating up a local resident. The victim, a soldier, had been hospitalized.

Angelova, who like the brothers is from Bulgaria’s minority Roma community, said the mayor told her that villagers were out for revenge. He was concerned her family might be attacked.

She and most of the 76-strong Roma community fled Voyvodinovo village that evening, Jan. 6, and headed 10 kilometers to Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city.

“We were spread all over the place like a broken egg,” said Angelova, a widow, wiping away tears.

Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007 and is its poorest member, has one of the bloc’s largest Roma minorities.

As in other EU countries, many Roma live on the fringes of society and struggle for work – with those in small settlements facing legal problems when it comes to land ownership, says the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC), a human rights group.

After Angelova and her family fled, the authorities started to demolish the cluster of 17 small homes at the village’s edge.

When the Thomson Reuters Foundation visited three days later, three houses had been destroyed and several others damaged.

Notices were pasted to the other homes to notify residents that theirs would be demolished too.

No Title, Few Rights

According to the 2011 census, there were 325,000 Roma people comprising about 5 percent of Bulgaria’s 7.3 million people. The European Commission, however, estimates there are more than twice as many Roma – about 750,000 people.

In the week following the assault on the local resident, nationalist and far-right groups held nightly gatherings in Voyvodinovo.

And at a Jan. 8 press conference, Krasimir Karakachanov – the deputy prime minister and head of the nationalist VRMO party – referred to the incident when he said “gypsies … have grown exceedingly insolent.”

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the BHC expressed “grave concern about multiplying cases of racist hate speech from Bulgarian government officials and frequent collective punishments for Roma communities.”

The BHC said the local authorities’ treatment in this case mirrored “many similar cases” of forced evictions of “illegal Roma settlements without providing adequate alternative housing, leaving those people homeless.”

Election Links

Other rights groups are also concerned about how the Roma people are treated in Bulgaria.

The Equal Opportunities Initiative Association (EOIA), which works on Roma development and rights issues, said in a 2017 study that one in four Roma homes were “illegal” – lacking land title, building permits or both. It noted other researchers had put the figure far higher.

Between 2012-2016, the EOIA said, information provided by three in every five municipalities revealed that 399 out of 444 housing demolition orders affected the sole residences of Roma families.

Daniela Mihaylova, a lawyer who co-authored the report, said in an interview that the data showed a correlation between the timing of elections and the number of demolition orders carried out – with nationalist parties using “the general anti-Roma trend in society to motivate more voters.”

Such targeting of the Roma by the right-wing alliance of United Patriots were “part of a strategy of distraction” and a way to deflect attention from corruption scandals, said Ognyan Isaev, country facilitator for The Roma Education Fund, and a Roma rights activist.

Retaliation

BHC chairman Krassimir Kanev said he was shocked that residents were chased from their homes in sub-zero temperatures, and that the demolitions were hastily carried out without allowing time for residents to gather their belongings. 

He said Bulgarian law required residents be given notice, time to prepare an appeal, and the right to demolish their own homes and salvage the materials.

He said the BHC had helped residents appeal the removal orders. In the meantime, the municipality was forced to stop demolishing homes until the court considers the appeal. That could take weeks, he said.

In a case brought by the BHC to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the court ruled in 2012 that in seeking to evict Roma from a community in the capital Sofia, the Bulgarian authorities had violated one’s “right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.”

Kanev said the ECHR recognized that “you cannot evict people on an arbitrary basis leaving them without any shelter.”

In 2015, the ECHR called on the Bulgarian authorities to halt forced evictions of Roma families or provide them with alternative housing, the Open Society noted at the time.

However, they have repeatedly failed to do so, said Kanev.

Meanwhile, he added, a number of other cases brought by Roma are pending adjudication at the ECHR.

‘Nowhere to Go’

Angelova said she had lived in her home since childhood.

But, said the mayor of Voyvodinovo, Dimitar Tosev – a former police chief – the land belonged to the municipality, and the Roma families had been warned they would have to move.

And, he added, villagers had demanded the municipality solve what they regarded as a long-standing problem.

“There have been a lot of issues – issues like integration,” he said.

“(Villagers) wanted to see action from the municipality,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that the Roma had been left alone until the fight sparked outrage, and he felt compelled to act.

Those whose homes had been demolished, he said, “have places to go, and they will go where they should go.”

In Angelova’s case, she headed to Plovdiv’s Stolipinovo district, where 50,000 people inhabit densely-packed apartment blocks and small houses.

She and her family are staying at a friend’s apartment that is now crowded with 18 people.

In the village, she said, she and her Roma neighbors worked on an occasional basis earning 2.50 Bulgarian levs ($1.45) an hour harvesting crops. There she had a home and a life.

“(Now) we have nowhere to go, we have no work and no money … I don’t know how I will survive,” she said.
…

BBC Wants Security Review After Cameraman Attacked at Trump Rally

The British Broadcasting Corporation asked the White House for a review of security arrangements on Tuesday after a BBC cameraman was assaulted at a Donald Trump rally.

BBC cameraman Ron Skeans was attacked by a Trump supporter yelling anti-media slogans during the U.S. president’s rally in El Paso, Texas, Monday night.

Skeans was unhurt and the man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat was restrained and removed from the riser where the media had assembled.

Paul Danahar, the BBC’s Americas Bureau Editor, said in a tweet that he had asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders for a “full review of security arrangements after last night’s attack.”

“Access into the media area was unsupervised,” Danahar said. “No one in law enforcement intervened before, during or after the attack.”

BBC Washington correspondent Gary O’Donoghue, who was covering the El Paso event, said his cameraman was pushed and shoved by the unidentified assailant “after the president repeatedly goaded the crowd over supposed media bias.”

He said the man attempted to smash the BBC camera.

“Happily, Ron is fine,” O’Donoghue said.

Trump paused his remarks following the commotion in the crowd and — pointing at the media – asked “You alright? Everything OK?”

Trump repeatedly denounces the media as the “enemy of the people” and frequently condemns critical reports about his administration as “fake news.”

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger urged Trump during an interview last month to tone down what he called his “potentially dangerous” rhetoric towards the press.

 
…

Russian Lawmakers Back Bill on ‘Sovereign’ Internet

Russian lawmakers backed tighter internet controls on Tuesday to defend against foreign meddling in draft legislation that critics warn could disrupt Russia’s internet and be used to stifle dissent.

The legislation, which some Russian media have likened to an online “iron curtain,” passed its first of three readings in the 450-seat lower chamber of parliament.

The bill seeks to route Russian web traffic and data through points controlled by state authorities and proposes building a national Domain Name System to allow the internet to continue functioning even if the country is cut off from foreign infrastructure.

The legislation was drafted in response to what its authors describe as an aggressive new U.S. national cybersecurity strategy passed last year.

The Agora human rights group said earlier this month that the legislation was one of several new bills drafted in December that “seriously threaten Internet freedom.”

The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs has said the bill poses more of a risk to the functioning of the Russian internet segment than the alleged threats from foreign countries that the bill seeks to counter.

The bill also proposes installing network equipment that would be able to identify the source of web traffic and also block banned content.

The legislation, which can still be amended, but which is expected to pass, is part of a drive by officials to increase Russian “sovereignty” over its internet segment.

Russia has introduced tougher internet laws in the last five years, requiring search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services, and social networks to store Russian users’ personal data on servers within the country.

The bill faces two more votes in the lower chamber, before it is voted on in the upper house of parliament and then signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.
…

NATO Planning for More Russian Missiles in Europe

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg cautioned Tuesday the military alliance will respond to “more Russian missiles” following the collapse of a key Cold War-era arms treaty but will not deploy more nuclear missiles in Europe.

Stoltenberg called on Russia to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which the alliance insists Russia violated by developing a new missile system Moscow calls Novator 9M729.

The U.S. began the six-month process of withdrawing from the treaty on Feb. 2, claiming Russia’s missile system violates the treaty’s range requirements. The U.S. believes Russia’s new missile system could enable Moscow to launch a nuclear attack in Europe with little or no warning.

The INF, which ended a buildup of warheads in Europe, bans the production and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers. Russia contends the ground-fired cruise missile has a range of less than 500 kilometers, and that U.S. target practice missiles and drones violate the pact.

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty by announcing it would also pull out. Also, Putin’s defense minister announced plans for new missiles, prompting a vow from U.S. President Donald Trump to outspend Russia. 

Stoltenberg said ministers will meet Wednesday in Brussels to discuss the “steps NATO should take to adapt to a world with more Russian missiles.” Stoltenberg added: “We don’t have to mirror what Russia does, but we need to make sure we have effective deterrence and defense.”

While Washington and Moscow are at odds over the INF, the treaty does nothing to constrain China, whose fast-growing military depends on medium-range missiles as a key aspect of its defense strategy.
…

European Court Deals Blow to Human Rights Efforts in Turkey

The European Court of Human Rights has dealt Turkish human rights activists a significant blow in its refusal to hear a pivotal case stemming from a Turkish military operation that left more than 100 civilians dead. The military campaign took place in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast between December 2015 and February 2016 as the security forces sought to oust PKK separatist fighters from towns and cities across the region.

The European Court cases focused on Cizre, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Turkish security forces “deliberately and unjustifiably killed about 130 people — among whom were unarmed civilians and injured combatants — trapped in the basements.” Ankara strongly condemned the allegations, maintaining that civilians were not deliberately killed.

Two civilians, Orhan Tunc and Omer Elci, were among the casualties in Cizre. Last Thursday, the court ruled that their cases were inadmissible because all “domestic remedies” had not been exhausted.  That means lawyers had not taken their case to Turkey’s Constitutional Court. The decision is a crucial legal victory for Ankara, but casts a shadow in the minds of many in Turkey over the integrity of the European court.

Town centers turned to ruins

During the military campaign in southeastern Turkey, the military, using tanks and artillery, turned many city and town centers to ruins, killing thousands and leaving hundreds of thousands more homeless. More than 600 members of the Turkish security forces were also killed.

“Human rights groups documented unlawful and mass killings, destruction of property and displacement, and so far there has been no effective criminal investigation into any aspect of what occurred,” said Turkey senior researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb of Human Rights Watch. 

Lawyer Ramazan Demir, representing Orhan Tunc, whose burned remains were found with his brother Mehmet in Cizre, said the case was the last hope for legal redress. “They (families of the killed) were hoping that the (European) Court would rule on the facts of mass crimes committed by security forces. They are abandoned to Turkish judiciary once again by the court.”

The court’s rejection of the cases validates Ankara’s argument the Turkish judiciary remains independent and functioning, according to analysts who say the ruling will also likely end hopes of dozens more similar pending cases. 

“The European Court of Human Rights has become an apologist for the Turkish Constitutional Court, claiming that the Turkish Court provides an effective remedy,” tweeted law professor Yaman Akdeniz and freedom of speech activists.

‘Demise of judiciary independence’

International human rights organizations and the European Union have sharply criticized Ankara for undermining the independence of the judiciary.

Since a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, 4,400 judges and prosecutors have been jailed or arrested. Two constitutional court judges are also languishing behind bars.

“In the history of the republic, it has never witnessed such demise of the judiciary independence,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar.  “The judiciary was always under the heavy influence of the executive, but never at the level, we are witnessing now. The regime is installing a new concept of law in Turkey.”

Ankara defends the purge, saying those behind the attempted coup have an extensive network of followers within the judiciary and security forces.

The mass arrests and dismissals within the judiciary and the Turkish presidency’s greater powers to appoint high-level judges, including to the constitutional court, are adding to growing pressure on the European Human Rights Court to accept cases without going through the Turkish legal process. This is a power the European court has seldomly used.

Court has limitations

Analysts warn such a move threatens to bring the court to a standstill. “There are so many violations (in Turkey) of the European Convention of Human Rights, if the courts accepted all those cases it would be overwhelmed,” said Aktar, adding, “It would stop the work of the court. This is why the court is so careful in accepting cases.”

Aktar points out it’s essential to understand the court’s limitations.

“The European Court of Human rights is not a tribunal to ensure the change of non-democratic countries into democratic ones,” said Aktar. “The court is conceived to redress of small deviations from the rule of law.  In Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia, these are non-democratic countries. The court can’t help there.”

Demir said he fears the door is closing on the last hope of legal redress for victims of injustice in Turkey. “The court has always been final hope for the victims,” said Demir. “However, they (Court) prefer not to disappoint the (member) states nowadays…”
…

Rights Expert: Hungary Backsliding on Women, Refugee Rights

Hungary is facing “many interconnected human rights challenges,” including laws targeting civic groups, backsliding on women’s rights and the systematic detention of asylum-seekers, the Council of Europe’s human rights chief said Monday.

Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, who visited Hungary last week, also expressed concerns about the independence of Hungary’s media and judiciary.

“The space for the work of NGOs, human rights defenders and journalists critical of the government has become very narrow and restricted,” Mijatovic said in a statement, calling on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government to “reverse its worrying course” on human rights.

Orban’s government said Mijatovic’s criticism was “not unexpected” and called it a “political attack” related to Hungary’s “zero tolerance” position on immigration. It said it expected further criticism ahead of the European Parliament election in May.

“As the elections approach, we can expect a rather sharp rise in the number of such political attacks against Hungary,” the government’s International Communications Office said. “However, Hungary will continue its migration policy, because… the Hungarian people have declared their opinion and their will: they do not want to live in an immigrant country.”

Last year Hungary approved jail sentences for people convicted of aiding asylum-seekers and put taxes on grants or contributions from foreign sources.

Mijatovic said the new laws had “a continuous chilling effect on the human rights work of civil society organizations.”

On women’s rights, she noted that 28 percent of Hungarian women age 15 or over have experienced physical or sexual violence.

“There is an urgent need to raise awareness of violence against women in Hungary,” Mijatovic said, urging the government to ratify the Istanbul Convention on combating domestic violence, while acknowledging that the country was expanding support services to address the problem.

Mijatovic also said Hungary should stop detaining asylum-seekers at border transit zones, since that blocks them from being able to “apply for refugee protections guaranteed under international and European law.”

 
…

Turkey Opens Government Vegetable Stalls in Battle with Inflation

Battling a sharp rise in food costs, Turkish authorities opened their own markets on Monday to sell cheap vegetables directly to shoppers, cutting out retailers who the government has accused of jacking up prices.

Crowds queued outside municipality tents to buy tomatoes, onions and peppers in Istanbul’s Bayrampasa district, waiting for an hour for items selling at half the regular shop prices.

The move to set up state markets follows a 31 percent year-on-year surge in food prices in January and precedes local elections next month in which President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party faces a tough challenge to maintain support.

Traders blamed storms in southern Turkey’s farming region for food price inflation, as well as rising costs of labor and transport. Authorities called it “food terror” and said they would punish anyone trying to keep prices artificially high.

“This was a game. They started manipulating prices, they tried to make prices skyrocket,” President Tayyip Erdogan said in a campaign speech on Monday.

“This was an attempt to terrorize (society),” Erdogan said.

Under the government initiative, municipalities are selling vegetables at around 50 percent of prices recorded by the Turkish Statistical Institute in January. A maximum of three kilos of goods per person is allowed.

The move will be extended to rice and pulses such as lentils, as well as cleaning products, Erdogan said.

The project is currently taking place only in Istanbul, where around 50 sites are selling the cut-price goods, and in the capital Ankara. That means it is unlikely to have a direct impact on national inflation figures, but could mitigate the price rises for residents of Turkey’s two largest cities.

Barely managing

Mustafa Dilli, 55, said he was struggling to make ends meet and hoped shops would follow suit by lowering their prices. “I think I can only shop here from now on,” he said. “We barely make it through to the end of the month.”

Several shoppers in Bayrampasa said they hoped the sales would carry on after next month’s vote. “I am curious whether this will continue after the elections,” 43-year-old housewife Nebahat Deniz said as she bought spinach and eggplants.

Agriculture Minister Bekir Pakdemirli, visiting a tent set up by the Ankara municipality, said the project would continue as long as it is needed, and could become permanent.

Last week, authorities inspected fresh produce wholesalers and imposed fines totaling 2 million lira ($380,000) on 88 firms for setting unreasonably high prices, according to the Trade Ministry.

At an Istanbul food market in a covered parking lot, traders complained that they could not compete with municipality stalls they said were subsidized by taxpayers and had been set up to win votes.

Standing behind an array of peppers, tomatoes and fresh greens, one trader said he was being hit by rising costs across the board.

“Prices in the food market are affected by the price of plastic bags, employee wages, stall fees, taxes, fuel prices.

All of them are increasing the cost of the goods,” said the trader, who only gave his first name, Yusuf.

“The government does not have these costs,” Yusuf said. “All of their costs are paid from the money out of our pockets.”

Another vendor, Erkan, said municipality sales were aimed purely at maximizing votes. “After the election, municipality sales will halt,” he said.

Erkan said the profit margin at his own stall, which supports three or four families, was very tight. “If we buy for 8 liras per kilo from the wholesaler we sell with little profit. We sell the goods for 9 liras for example,” Erkan said.
…

Pompeo Heads to Central Europe, in US Re-Engagement

When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Hungary, Slovakia and Poland this week he wants to make up for a lack of U.S. engagement that opened the door to more Chinese and Russian influence in central Europe, administration officials say.

On a tour that includes a conference on the Middle East where Washington hopes to build a coalition against Iran, Pompeo begins on Monday in Budapest, the Hungarian capital that last saw a secretary of state in 2011 when Hillary Clinton visited.

On Tuesday he will be in Bratislava, Slovakia, for the first such high-level visit in 20 years.

“This is overdue and needed,” a senior U.S. administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Our message is we have to show up or expect to lose.

“Our efforts at diplomatic engagement are aimed at competing for positive influence and giving allies in the region an indication of U.S. support and interest in order to have alternatives to China and Russia.”

Washington is concerned about China’s growing presence, in particular the expansion of Huawei Technologies, the world’s biggest telecom gear maker, in Hungary and Poland.

The United States and its Western allies believe Huawei’s equipment could be used for espionage and see its expansion into central Europe as a way to gain a foothold in the EU market.

Huawei denies engaging in intelligence work for any government.

Pompeo will also voice concerns about energy ties with Moscow, and urge Hungary to not support the TurkStream pipeline, part of the Kremlin’s plans to bypass Ukraine, the main transit route for Russian gas to Europe.

Hungary gets most of its gas from Russia and its main domestic source of electricity is the Paks nuclear power plant where Russia’s Rosatom is involved in a 12.5 billion-euro ($14 billion) expansion. It is also one of the EU states that benefit most from Chinese investment.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said this month the United States could help Hungary diversify away from Russian energy by encouraging ExxonMobil to proceed with long-stalled plans to develop a gas field in the Black Sea.

The administration official said there had been progress toward sealing bilateral defense accords with Hungary and Slovakia, which is looking to buy F-16 fighter jets.

Missing out

Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland, said U.S. engagement with the region fell after EU and NATO enlargement to central Europe, and as Washington’s attention moved to Asia and conflict in the Middle East.

“A lot of Americans thought our work in the region was done, and yet it was not so,” said Fried, now at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington. “There was a sense in the last administration that eastern and central Europe was a finished place.”

The bulk of Pompeo’s Poland visit will focus on a U.S. conference on the “Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East”. Vice President Mike Pence will also attend the two-day event that starts on Feb. 13.

Washington hopes to win support to increase pressure on Iran to end what the it says is its malign behavior in the Middle East and to end its nuclear and missile programs.

President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal on limiting Iran’s nuclear work last year but the European Union is determined to stick with it.

It is unclear what delegations European capitals will send to what Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called a “desperate anti-Iran circus”.

“We think anybody who doesn’t participate is going to be missing out,” a second administration official said.

White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, will discuss a U.S. plan for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, although he is not likely to give details.

 
…

Report: Finnish SS Volunteers Likely Killed Jews in WWII

An Israeli Holocaust historian praised authorities in Finland on Sunday for publishing a report that concluded Finnish volunteers serving with Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS “very likely” took part in World War II atrocities, including the mass murder of Jews.

Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded the determination of the National Archives of Finland to release the findings even if doing so was “painful and uncomfortable” for Finland.

Zuroff called the decision an “example of unique and exemplary civic courage.”

Finland’s government commissioned the independent 248-page investigative report, which was made public Friday. It said 1,408 Finnish volunteers served with the SS Panzer Division Wiking during 1941-43, most of them 17 to 20-years-old.

“It is very likely that they (Finnish volunteers) participated in the killing of Jews, other civilians and prisoners of war as part of the German SS troops,” said Jussi Nuorteva, director general of the National Archives.

A significant part of the study was based on diaries kept by 76 of the Finnish SS volunteers. Eight of the Finnish SS volunteers are still alive, Nuorteva said.

Finland was invaded by Moscow in November 1939. The fighting in what became known as the Finnish-Soviet Winter War lasted until March 1940, when an overwhelmed and outnumbered Finland agreed to a bitter peace treaty. The small Nordic country lost several territories but maintained its independence.

Isolated from the rest of Europe and afraid of another Soviet attack, Finland entered into an alliance with Germany, receiving weapons and other material help from Berlin.

As part of the pact, Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler insisted that Finland dispatch soldiers to the SS Wiking division, similar to the volunteers it demanded from Nazi-occupied Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and elsewhere.

Reluctantly, Finland complied and covertly recruited the first group of 400 SS volunteers to be sent for training in the spring of 1941. The vast majority of them had no ideological sympathies with the Nazi regime, the report said.

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 under Operation Barbarossa, Finnish regular army troops fought independently alongside Wehrmacht soldiers on the northeastern front. In 1941, the Finns advanced in the Karelia region outside Leningrad.

The Finnish soldiers were not under Nazi command, and the country’s leadership was mainly motivated by the desire to take back the territories lost to Moscow.

“At the beginning of the attack (on the Soviet Union), Finns were unaware of the Germans’ goal of eradicating the Jews,” Nuorteva said. “Finns were, above all, interested in fighting against the Soviet Union” due to their brutal experiences in the Winter War and the perceived threat from Moscow.

In this way, “the starting point for Finns’ involvement was different compared to most other countries joining SS foreign volunteers,” he said.

Finnish SS volunteers with the SS Wiking division operated on the eastern front until 1943, entering deep into Ukraine.

The leading Finnish military historians who undertook the study of the country’s wartime role wrote that the Finnish SS volunteers likely took part in killing Jews and other civilians, as well as witnessed atrocities committed by the Germans.

The volunteers returned to Finland after the Finnish government sensed the tide of the war had turned against the Germans. Many of them then served in the Finnish military until the end of World War II.

A copy of Friday’s report was given to Paula Lehtomaki, a state secretary with the Finnish government, who said it was a valuable contribution to existing research “on difficult and significant historical events” during Finland’s complex World War II history.

“We share the responsibility for ensuring that such atrocities will never be repeated,” said Lehtomaki.

The historical probe was launched following Zuroff’s request in January 2018 to Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

Finland’s move contrasts with the attitude of some eastern European nations that have sought to diminish their culpability in the Holocaust.

 
…

At Dubai Summit, IMF Chief Warns Britain on Brexit Challenge

The head of the International Monetary Fund warned Sunday that the British exit from the European Union means it “will never be as good as it is now” for the country’s economy.

Christine Lagarde spoke at the World Government Summit in Dubai, which also saw Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri make an own investment pitch for his small country, now struggling through a major economic crisis as one of the world’s most-indebted nations.

The clubby annual event brings world leaders together at a luxury hotel in Dubai for motivational talks littered with business buzzwords. But this year’s summit comes amid a worldwide turn toward populism and away from globalization.

Lagarde didn’t hesitate to criticize Britain’s upcoming departure from the EU, known as “Brexit.” Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29. U.K. businesses fear a possible “no-deal” Brexit with the EU will cause economic chaos by imposing tariffs, customs and other barriers between Britain and mainland Europe.

“I’m certain of one thing, is that it’s not going to be as good as if they had not been Brexit, that is for sure,” Lagarde said. “Whether it ends well, whether there is a smooth exit given by customs unions as predicated by some, or whether it’s as a result of a brutal . exit on March 29 without extension of notice, it’s not going to be as good as it is now.”

She urged all parties to “get ready for it” as it will upend how trade is now conducted with Britain.

For his part, Hariri sought to attract investment from Gulf Arab states, which long have been a major benefactor of Lebanon. His nation now faces soaring public debt of $84 billion, or 150 percent of the gross domestic product, making it one of the most-indebted nations in the world. Lebanese unemployment is believed to be around 36 percent.

Political paralysis has exacerbated the crisis. Lebanon formed a government last week after nine months of deadlock.

“We took the decision to bring together all the political powers because is this is the only way to save Lebanon,” Hariri said. “Today in Lebanon, we don’t have the time or the luxury of politics because our economy could completely collapse unless we surgically remove (politics) quickly, seriously and collectively.”

Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia are increasingly suspicious of Lebanon’ government because of the influence of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite political party and militant group. Hezbollah has three ministers in the new government.

A moderator gave Hariri a $100 bill and said he could keep it if he pitched him on investing in the country. After his pitch, Hariri returned the bill and said that he wished he had $115 to offer back.

Making a surprise visit to the summit was U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who took the stage to announce a robotics competition would be held in the United Arab Emirates later this year. Perry, a former governor of Texas who twice ran for president unsuccessfully, has tended to avoid the spotlight in President Donald Trump’s administration.
…

Right-Wingers Rally in Madrid, Demand Socialist PM Resign

Thousands of Spaniards in Madrid are joining a rally called by right-wing political parties to demand that Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez step down.

The conservative opposition Popular Party and the center-right Citizens party organized Sunday’s rally, which was also backed by the far-right Vox party. They claim that Sanchez must resign for holding talks with separatists in the northeastern region of Catalonia.

Sanchez’s government broke off negotiations with the Catalan separatists on Friday, when Vice President Carmen Calvo said the separatists wouldn’t budge from their demand for an independence referendum.

The political tensions come as a highly-sensitive trial at Spain’s Supreme Court starts on Tuesday for 12 leaders of the Catalan separatists, who face charges including rebellion for their roles in a failed secession attempt in 2017.

 
…

May Urges UK Lawmakers: Give Me More Time to Get Brexit Deal

With Brexit just 47 days away, the British government is asking lawmakers to give Prime Minister Theresa May more time to rework her divorce deal with the European Union.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said Sunday that Parliament would get to pass judgment on May’s Brexit plan “by no later than Feb. 27.”

The promise is a bid to avert a showdown on Thursday, when Parliament is set to vote on the next moves in the Brexit process. Some lawmakers want to try to steer the country toward a softer exit from the bloc.

Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29 but Parliament has rejected May’s divorce deal, leaving the prime minister to seek changes from a resistant EU.

The impasse risks a chaotic “no deal” departure for Britain.
…

Brexit Lessons in Norway’s Hard Border with Sweden

With fresh snow crunching under their boots and a handful of papers to be checked and stamped, truck drivers from Latvia, Sweden and Poland make their way across Norway’s Orje customs station to a small office where their goods will be cleared out of the European Union and into Norway.

While many border posts in Europe have vanished, Norway’s hard border with the European Union is clearly visible, with cameras, license-plate recognition systems and barriers directing traffic to customs officers.

Norway’s membership in the European Economic Area (EEA) grants it access to the EU’s vast common market and most goods are exempt from paying duties. Still, everything entering the country must be declared and cleared through customs.

Technological solutions being tested in Norway to digitalize customs procedures for cargo have been seized on by some in Britain as a way to overcome border-related problems that threaten to scuttle a divorce deal with the EU. But the realities of this northern border also show the difficulties that persist.

​Brexit and the Irish border

A divorce deal between Britain and the EU has stumbled over how to guarantee an open border between the United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland after Britain leaves the bloc March 29.

The Irish border area was a flashpoint during decades of conflict in Northern Ireland that cost 3,700 lives. The free flow of people and goods across the near-invisible Irish border now underpins both the local economy and Northern Ireland’s peace process.

The EU’s proposed solution is for Britain to remain in a customs union with the bloc, eliminating the need for checks until another solution is found. But pro-Brexit British politicians say that would stop the U.K. from forging new trade deals around the world.

​Can technology save the day?

Technology may or may not be the answer, depending on whom you talk to.

“Everyone agrees that we have to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland, and … technology will play a big part in doing so,” said Northern Ireland Minister John Penrose.

But EU deputy Brexit negotiator Sabine Weyand said on Twitter: “Can technology solve the Irish border problem? Short answer: not in the next few years.”

The Customs office at Orje, on the road connecting the capitals of Oslo and Stockholm, has been testing a new digital clearance system to speed goods through customs by enabling exporters to submit information online up to two hours before a truck reaches the border.

At her desk in Orje, Chief Customs officer Nina Bullock was handling traditional paper border clearance forms when her computer informed her of an incoming truck that used the Express Clearance system.

“We know the truck number, we know the driver, we know what kinds of goods, we know everything,” she told The Associated Press. “It will pass by the two cameras and go on. It’s doesn’t need to come into the office.”

That allows Customs officers to conduct risk assessments before the vehicle even reaches the border.

​Pilot project has glitches

So far, 10 Swedish companies are in the pilot project, representing just a handful of the 400-450 trucks that cross at this border post each day. But if it’s successful, the plan will be expanded.

In the six months since the trial began, Customs section chief Hakon Krogh says some problems have brought the system to a standstill, from snow blocking the camera, to Wi-Fi issues preventing the border barrier from lifting, to truck drivers who misunderstand which customs lane to use.

“It’s a pilot program, so it takes time to make things work smoothly before it can be expanded,” said Krogh, who still felt the program could have a long-term benefit.

The program also limits flexibility for exporters. If a driver calls in sick and is replaced by another, or extra cargo is added to a shipment, then all the paperwork must be resubmitted online.

Real barrier is complex trade

Yet a greater barrier to digitalizing the border is the complexity of international trade.

The Svinesund customs office, 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Orje, is Norway’s major road border, with 1,300 trucks each day carrying goods into the country from across Europe. Customs section chief Kristen Hoiberget has been following the Orje pilot program with interest but warns of systematic challenges to its expansion.

“It’s very easy to deal with a digital system when the goods are uniform,” Hoiberget said. “If you have one kind of goods in a lorry, it’s less complicated. But if you have a lorry that picks up goods at 10 different places abroad, the complexity arises rapidly.”

He said most of the export information needed is available digitally, but Customs, clearance houses and exporters all use different computer systems.

“There are a lot of prerequisites to a digital border,” he said. “A frictionless border would need development and lots of legislation.”

​Customs officers aren’t going away

Back in Orje, vehicles entering Norway are randomly checked, with officers mainly looking for alcohol and cigarettes, which are cheaper in Sweden. Border changes are coming, but certainly not in the tight two-month timeframe that any Brexit border changes would need.

“If you look 15 years ahead, I guess this office won’t be here. I won’t be sitting here stamping papers,” Bullock said. “But customs officers will still be on duty, to prevent goods coming into Norway that are not supposed to.”

As an AP journalist waited in the snow to watch a truck at Orje use the Express Clearance lane, a truck driver made his way across a large parking lot to the customs office.

“You must be doing a Brexit story,” he joked. “They’ll be in the same boat soon.”
…