International

Georgia: Mass protests grow entering fourth night

Published

3 weeks ago

December 2, 2024

Georgia: Mass protests grow entering fourth night

Tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets again Sunday as mass nationwide protests entered their fourth night. National media outlets reported demonstrations in at least eight cities, and protesters setting up roadblocks, as well as shutting down access to the Black Sea port of Poti.

Georgia has been rocked by unrest since the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party claimed victory in a contested October 26 vote.

The country’s opposition is boycotting parliament over the situation and the past several days have seen a massive uptick in civil unrest after Georgian Dream said it would pause Georgia’s accession bid to join the EU.

Georgian Dream says it made the decision to protect Georgia against outside meddling in its affairs.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday.

Incumbent President Salome Zurabishvili, who has called the Georgian Dream government “illigitimate,” has joined protesters calling for a new vote.

Zurabishvili has vowed to remain in office, decrying the vote and Thursday’s EU decision as unconstitutional and against the interests of the Georgian people.

On Sunday, Zurabishvili told a meeting of opposition leaders: “We only have one demand, which is based on the constitution. The only way to achieve stability is through new elections, there is no other way.”

Tbilisi: Protesters clash with police for third nightTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

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Protesters at the door On Sunday, protesters in the capital, Tbilisi, gathered outside parliament, waving EU flags and banging on the institution’s front door, with many wearing protective masks to fend against tear gas, which police have used of late.

Uniformed officers have reportedly pushed some protesters away, forcing them to retrench near Tbilisi State University.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze had brushed off calls for a new vote.

“The formation of the new government based on the October 26 parliamentary elections has been completed,” he said.

The European Union has called for an investigation into the October ballot over “serious electoral irregularities” and has withheld recognizing the incoming Georgian Dream government as the legitimate winner.

The European Parliament has officially rejected the result and called for sanctions against Kobakhidze and others.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday reaffirmed the EU’s openness to Georgia, despite a potential shift away from pro-European values. In a statement posted on X, von der Leyen expressed “regret” over the Georgian government’s decision to diverge from EU principles.

“The door to the EU remains open,” she wrote. “The return of Georgia on the EU path is in the hands of the Georgian leadership.”

President Zurabishvili dismissed Georgian Dream’s nomination for the presidency and claimed Saturday to have set up a “national council” of opposition parties. The council and the presidency, she said, would “ensure stability in this country.”

With Georgian Dream having approved its own claim to victory before a court could rule on Zurabishvili’s move to annul the vote, constitutional experts say any steps taken by the new government, including appointments, will be invalid.

Georgia: Suspension of EU bid reignites protests in TbilisiTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

EU and US condemn excessive police force The police response to the protests has been robust, with more than 150 people arrested and officers chasing down and pummeling participants.

Rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon have all been used over the past few days.

DW’s Tbilisi correspondent Maria Katamadze on Sunday posted images of police using water cannons as protesters shot fireworks at parliament.

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The heavy-handed suppression of protests has drawn broad condemnation internationally, with the EU’s new top foreign policy representative, Kaja Kallas, warning against the use of excessive force against citizens.

Speaking in Kyiv, Ukraine, Kallas said, “It is clear that using violence against peaceful protesters is not acceptable, and [the] Georgian government should respect the will of the Georgian people, but also the Georgian constitution.”

In a post on the social media platform X, Kallas wrote, “We stand with the Georgian people and their choice for a European future” and warned of “direct consequences from EU side.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated the EU’s open door to Georgia despite concerns over the country’s leadership apparently shifting away from pro-European principles.

“The door to the EU remains open,” she wrote on X. “The return of Georgia on the EU path is in the hands of the Georgian leadership.”

Along with Britain, France, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Ukraine, the United States also voiced its concern on the situation in Georgia.

“We condemn excessive force used against Georgians exercising their freedom to protest and have suspended our Strategic Partnership with Georgia,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller

The ever-present specter of Russia Polling has consistently shown that the majority of Georgians want their country to join the EU, a step that was formally enshrined in the constitution of the former Soviet republic. Still, Georgian Dream, like a handful of other European parties, has strong pro-Russian sympathies.

Pro-Russian ally Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was quick to show support for Georgian Dream’s victory claim, jetting to the country within hours of polls closing in October. He recently voiced support for Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and his EU decision.

The Kremlin has yet to comment officially on the situation. Nevertheless, Moscow is following events closely, with Dmitry Medvedev, a hawkish former president, writing on Telegram, that an attempted revolution was underway in Georgia.

Georgia is “moving rapidly along the Ukrainian path, into the dark abyss,” he wrote, adding, “Usually this sort of thing ends very badly.”

Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and maintains a military presence in both the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and the former South Ossetian Autonomous region of Soviet Georgia — both of which are widely recognized as occupied rather as independent territories.

Polls show a majority of Georgians want their country to join the European Union

Georgia: Mass protests grow entering fourth night

Image: Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP/picture alliance js/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

International

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

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Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

BBC

International

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port… and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

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Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

International

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

A Palestinian boy looks as others inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

CAIRO: The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.

In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesman.

Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of “ethnic cleansing” to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.

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Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.

Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the Central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.

CEASEFIRE GAINS MOMENTUM

The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.

In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other knowledgeable sources said. The CIA declined to comment.

Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.

There have been repeated rounds of talks over the past year, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on retaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops pulled out.

The war in Gaza, triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 250 abducted as hostages, has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and left Israel isolated internationally.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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