Síntesis informativa - 5 de noviembre 2018
THE NEW YORK TIMES
As U.S. Sanctions on Iran Kick In, Europe Looks for a Workaround
As tough new American sanctions against Iran took effect on Monday, European officials remained determined to go their own way, but their progress on an issue that has sharply divided the United States and its closest allies has been halting, at best.
The Europeans consider the 2015 Iran nuclear deal crucial to their national interests, and say they intend to keep honoring it. But to date, they have not managed to put in place a mechanism for sidestepping the sanctions without antagonizing the Trump administration.
Their stance has become only more complicated by Denmark’s recent accusation that the Iranian government tried to assassinate an Arab separatist living there. France has made a similar accusation.
In May, when the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal, it said it would reimpose the harsh economic sanctions that had been lifted under the agreement, aiming at Iran’s oil exports and banking sector. President Trump has called the deal “the worst in history,” saying it does nothing to restrain Iran’s non-nuclear aggression, including the killing of dissidents abroad, a large missile program and support for Hezbollah, the Syrian government, the Houthis in Yemen and Shia dissidents all over the region.
Saudis Sent Experts to Remove Evidence of Khashoggi’s Killing, Turkey Says
ISTANBUL — More than a week after Saudi agents killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Saudi Arabia sent an expert team to clean up evidence of the crime, under the guise of helping with the investigation, a senior Turkish official said on Monday — the latest twist in a case that has caused an international uproar.
A pro-government newspaper, Sabah, published news of the Saudi cleanup team and photographs of two of its members, whom it identified as a chemist and a toxicologist, who visited the Saudi consulate where Mr. Khashoggi was killed.
The senior Turkish official confirmed the main details of the report and said the Saudi team was sent with the knowledge of top Saudi officials. The two men traveled to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of the killing before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises, the official said in comments relayed by electronic message.
The two men were identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Jonabi, a chemist, and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, a toxicologist, part of a team of Saudi investigators who spent several days in Turkey visiting the consulate and the consul’s residence, ostensibly to help with the investigation into Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance, the newspaper reported.
China Seeks Allies as Trump’s Trade War Mounts. It Won’t Be Easy.
SHANGHAI — Faced with mounting American tariffs that could slow China’s already weakened economy, President Xi Jinping is pressing the case to the rest of the world that China can be a positive force for global trade.
The challenge will be convincing the world he means it.
Mr. Xi, the country’s top leader, on Monday kicked off a six-day expo intended to show China as a big buyer of foreign goods. He extolled China’s appetite for what the rest of the world makes, and he reiterated promises that Beijing would lower import tariffs and improve intellectual property protection to help make that happen.
“Openness has become a trademark of China,” Mr. Xi said. “China has grown by embracing the world, and the world has also benefited by China’s opening up.”
“Today, as economic globalization deepens and develops,” he added, “the ideas of the law of the jungle and winner take all increasingly lead to a dead end.”
Egypt Says It Killed 19 Militants After Deadly Attack on Christians
CAIRO — Egypt said on Sunday that it had killed 19 militants linked to an ambush that left seven Christian pilgrims dead, as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi scrambled to respond to a surge of Christian anger against his government.
The Interior Ministry said Egyptian forces had killed the militants during a chase through a mountainous area in the desert west of the ancient monastery where gunmen opened fire on three buses filled with pilgrimson Friday.
Six of the seven pilgrims killed in the attack came from the same extended family, Coptic Orthodox officials said.
The announcement on Sunday was accompanied by graphic photographs of bloodied bodies lying in the sand. But it offered few details about the circumstances of the raid, including its timing or whether the government had experienced any casualties.
THE GUARDIAN
Xi Jinping promises to open Chinese markets in trade war joust with Trump
“Protectionism and unilateralism is rising. Multilateralism and the free trade system are under threat … China will not close its door to the world and will only become more and more open”, the Chinese president said on Monday at the beginning of a trade fair in Shanghai.
The speech, ahead of a meeting between Xi and US president Donald Trump at the end of the month on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Argentina, signalled little improvement in trade ties before that meeting.
Trump to meet Putin and Erdoğan during first world war ceremonies
The mood of Trump’s two bilateral meetings, with the Russian and Turkish presidents, will be coloured by the outcome of the US midterm elections on Tuesday, and a decision, the same day, on whether to slap further US economic sanctions on Russia for using chemical weapons on British soil.
The US Congress-mandated sanctions could be draconian and darken the atmosphere of a meeting that is already likely to create tension over the US decision to withdraw from the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty.
Iran launches military drill in response to return of US sanctions
The new sanctions will particularly hurt Iran’s oil industry, a crucial source of money for its anaemic economy. Its national currency, the rial, has plummeted over the last year, sending prices for everything from mobile phones to medicine skyrocketing.
ranian state television aired footage of air defence systems and anti-aircraft batteries in military manoeuvres across a vast stretch of the country’s north.
The drill was to continue through Tuesday. Gen Habibillah Sayyari said both the national army and the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s were taking part in the exercise.
South Korea and US resume military drills ahead of nuclear talks
About 500 South Korean and American marines will take part in the drills on Monday, according to Yonhap news, which were previously indefinitely suspended in June after Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore. Pyongyang often bristles at joint US-South Korean military exercises, claiming they are provocations directed at the North, and officials hoped the suspension would encourage talks.
Should Paraguay invest its energy wealth in bitcoin ‘mining’ or fighting poverty?
A new hot commodity is piling up by the second. Dozens of dismantled CPUs and internet-connected circuits whirr away in the gloom, LEDs flashing, adding to the subtropical heat.
They are just a few of an estimated 20,000 units citywide, mostly mining the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum in an industry that has sprung up almost overnight.
Behind the boom is the monolithic Itaipú dam the country shares with Brazil, stretching across the Paraná river just north of the city. It is the world’s most powerful hydroelectric facility, and its abundant energy supply makes Paraguay an ideal setting for bitcoin “mining”.
DEUTSCHE WELLE
Irán denuncia “guerra económica” estadounidense
5 noviembre. El presidente iraní dijo hoy que su país "derrotará con orgullo" las sanciones "ilegales" de EE.UU., después de la entrada en vigor de la segunda ronda de represalias estadounidenses.
El mandatario iraní calificó la situación actual de "guerra económica" y denunció que las políticas de EE.UU. buscan "presionar simplemente a la población".
No obstante, insistió en que en la actualidad EE.UU. está "aislado", ya que la mayoría de los países del mundo rechazan las sanciones y apoyan el acuerdo nuclear de 2015.
https://www.dw.com/es/ir%C3%A1n-denuncia-guerra-econ%C3%B3mica-estadounidense/a-46154663
Iran sanctions: US grants oil exemptions for several countries
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced the details of US sanctions against Iran, including oil exemptions for eight countries. Tehran has said it will continue to sell oil despite the new sanctions.
As US sanctions against Iran came back into effect on Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed that several countries secured oil import exemptions, including: India, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.
Iran has said it will defy the reimposition of sanctions, which target the country's oil exports and financial transactions. The US decided to reimpose the sanctions after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal earlier this year.
https://www.dw.com/en/iran-sanctions-us-grants-oil-exemptions-for-several-countries/a-46160363
XINHUA
China's Xi Jinping vows lower tariffs, more imports at trade fair
China is trying to highlight it is open to importing more at a time it is under pressure to open its markets further. Critics say it is more talk than action.
President Xi Jinping echoed previous pledges to open up China's market and lower tariffs as he opened a weeklong trade expo in Shanghai on Monday.
The first-ever China International Import Expo runs November 5-10, drawing more than 3,000 exhibitors from some 130 countries to Shanghai to show the import potential of the world's second largest economy and its 1.3 billion people.
https://www.dw.com/en/chinas-xi-jinping-vows-lower-tariffs-more-imports-at-trade-fair/a-46153548
Turquía y Ucrania acuerdan impulsar cooperación estratégica
ESTAMBUL, 3 nov (Xinhua) -- Los presidentes de Turquía y Ucrania prometieron hoy impulsar la cooperación estratégica entre sus países en una amplia serie de áreas, con énfasis en el comercio y la industria de defensa.
En una rueda de prensa tras las conversaciones con el mandatario ucraniano Petro Poroshenko en Estambul, el presidente turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dijo que los dos países están decididos a llevar sus relaciones estratégicas a un nuevo nivel.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/04/c_137579905.htm
CIIE refleja beneficio mutuo y cooperación de ganar-ganar, dice premier de Vietnam
HANOI, 4 nov (Xinhua) -- La primera Exposición Internacional de Importaciones de China (CIIE, por sus siglas en inglés) exhibe el concepto de beneficio mutuo y de cooperación de ganar-ganar, creando un importante nuevo canal de promoción del comercio para los países del mundo entero, dijo el sábado el primer ministro de Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
A través de esta exposición, Vietnam espera servir como puente entre la Comunidad Económica de la Asociación de Naciones del Sudeste Asiático (ASEAN) y China y continúa haciendo un buen uso del Area de Libre Comercio ASEAN-China, para contribuir al desarrollo general de las relaciones económicas y comerciales ASEAN-China, dijo.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/05/c_137581765.htm
Iraníes conmemoran ocupación de Embajada de EEUU en 1979 ante inminente reimposición de sanciones de Washington
TEHERAN, 4 nov (Xinhua) -- Miles de iraníes se congregaron hoy domingo en Teherán para conmemorar el 39º aniversario de la ocupación de la exembajada estadounidense en esta capital.
Los manifestantes se lanzaron a las calles y se reunieron fuera de la exembajada estadounidense en el centro de Teherán, ahora llamada la "guarida del espionaje", portando pancartas y gritando consignas contra Estados Unidos y sus aliados regionales, como Israel.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/04/c_137581332.htm
AL JAZEERA
US reinstates tough Iran sanctions amid anger in Tehran
President Rouhani vows to 'proudly bypass' US reimposed sanctions, saying Iran will continue to sell oil.
China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey - all top importers of Iranian oil - are among eight countries expected to be given temporary exemptions from the sanctions to ensure crude oil prices are not destabilised.
Iran's energy sector accounts for up to 80 percent of the country's income from exports, according to the US Energy Information Administration, so a disruption could bring serious pain to its financial bottom line and its people.
The US economy is booming. It may not matter much to voters
Why aren't Republicans poised to take better advantage of the thriving economy during Tuesday's midterm elections?
Patricia Sabga. Yet, the headline indicators on the economy couldn't be better for the Republicans going into Tuesday's vote. Some 250,000 jobs were created last month, beating expectations. Unemployment is holding at a 49-year low, wages are going up and economic growth clocked in at a slower but still robust 3.5 percent last quarter.
Healthcare is top of the agenda for many Americans this midterm season. Though it's a separate issue from the economy, the main concern surrounding it is economic in nature, specifically affordability.
A record number of women are running in the midterms and some could score historic firsts.
In a recent Pew survey, Republicans ranked "illegal immigration" as the biggest problem facing the nation.
Democratic voters named healthcare.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/economy-booming-matter-voters-181103223713781.html
South Korea gets US exemption on Iran crude oil imports
South Korean official says waiver granted on oil imports and financial transactions with Iran's sanctioned central bank.
The United States said on Friday it would temporarily allow eight importers to keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposed sanctions on the country's crude flows from Monday, aiming to force Iran to curb its nuclear missile and regional activities.
RT
Saudis ‘don’t know how to use’ US bombs: Trump condemns deadly Yemen school bus strike… kind of
It wasn’t the US-made bomb, but rather the Saudi military’s inability to properly use the munition –despite all the American training– that led to the “horror show” bombing of a Yemeni school bus in August, Donald Trump has said.
A Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a school bus, that killed 40 children and maimed dozens of others in the busy market town of Dhahyan in northern Yemen on August 9, is not Washington’s fault, Donald Trump stated in an interview with Axios on Sunday.
Despite the fact that pieces of a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin were found at the site of the explosion, Trump shifted the blame for the tragedy to the coalition’s inability to use the US-supplied weapons properly.
The Pentagon, however, maintains that they are not to blame for the Coalition ‘mistakes’, despite the fact that the US provides training for the Saudi coalition in the use of their weaponry. Americans also provide aerial refueling and intelligence for Saudi jets attacking Yemeni targets. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, however, stressed following the August tragedy that, while the US military helps with “planning,” it does not provide “dynamic targeting” information to the Saudis.
https://www.rt.com/usa/443099-trump-saudis-weapons-yemen/
Saudi Arabia to invest in Russian petrochemicals plant
Oil major Saudi Aramco and the kingdom’s petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) are ready to invest into building a processing plant in Russia, according to Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih.
The minister said that the Saudi partners are hoping to cooperate with Sibur, Russia’s largest petrochemicals firm. The minister also said that Saudi Arabia is currently discussing the opportunity of building a synthetic rubber plant in the Saudi city of Jubail with French energy major Total, China’s Sinopec, and Russia’s Sibur.
The partners are currently looking for suitable technical, business, and engineering solutions, according to Sibur Chief Executive Officer Dmitry Konov “We are launching a joint enterprise to produce synthetic rubber in India this year,” Konov said, stressing that the production will be powered by Russian technology. “We are trying to apply the same approach in Saudi Arabia.”
https://www.rt.com/business/443101-saudi-aramco-russia-petrochemical-plant/
Iran will break US sanctions and continue to sell its oil – President Rouhani
Iran will continue to export its oil and will "break" the sanctions reinstated by the US on Monday, the nation’s leader Hassan Rouhani said in a TV address.
The Iranian president said that the country will undercut Washington’s plan for sanctions on its energy and banking sectors. “America wanted to cut to zero Iran’s oil sales,” but the Islamic Republic “will continue to sell” its oil “to break sanctions,”Rouhani warned during a meeting with the economists, which was broadcast on TV.
While the first round of US sanctions on Iran kicked off in August, the second round officially came into force on Monday. This was the deadline given by Trump to cease dealings with Iran, though the president did later promise to grant waivers to eight countries, allowing them to gradually reduce their oil purchases from the Islamic Republic.
https://www.rt.com/business/443102-iran-breaks-us-sanctions/
Turkey vows to make ‘sea bandits’ drilling gas off Cyprus pay, like ‘terrorists in Syria’ did
Ankara will not allow any “sea bandits” to roam free and tap the disputed natural gas reserves off Cyprus, Turkey’s president has vowed, while commissioning a new warship to challenge competitors militarily, should the need arise.
“We will not accept attempts to seize natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean through the exclusion of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC),” Erdogan said Sunday, according to Daily Sabah. While claiming that Turkey has no ambitions to annex any “territories,” Ankara promised to protect “the rights of our country and of our brothers."
The exploration of hydrocarbon resources off the coast of the Republic of Cyprus has become a sensitive issue for the international community, ever since the first gas deposit discoveries were made off the coast in 2011. While the Republic of Cyprus belongs to the EU community and is recognized by the UN, TRNC, the northern third of the island, has been occupied by Turkey since 1974. As a result, Ankara continues to claim jurisdiction for offshore research in the East Mediterranean, an area thought to be rich with natural resources.
https://www.rt.com/news/443095-turkey-cyprus-gas-sea-bandits/
AL MAYADEEN
Arabia Saudita libera sin explicaciones a hermano del príncipe Al Waleed bin Talal
4 de noviembre. Los hechos se producen justamente cuando la mirada interacional está enfocada hacia el reino árabe debido a los sucesos relacionados con el asesinato del periodista Jamal Khashoggi, cuando acudió al consulado de Riad en la ciudad turca de Estambul el pasado 2 de octubre.
Kurdos sirios piden a Damasco unidad para enfrentar la agresión turca
4 de noviembre. La declaración de los partidos kurdos se produce en un momento en el que la inteligencia turca pide al Ejército Sirio Libre y sus afiliados que se preparen para lanzar nuevas operaciones contra los kurdos sirios que operan en la franja fronteriza entre Siria y Turquía.
Por otro lado, trascendió que en reunión celebrada el pasado 2 de noviembre en la ciudad siria de Afrin, en el noroeste de Alepo, miembros del Servicio de Inteligencia de Turquía (MIT) llamaron a los comandantes del grupo terrorista del Ejército Sirio Libre (ESL) y sus afiliados a prepararse para lanzar nuevas operaciones contra los kurdos sirios que operan en la franja fronteriza entre Siria y Turquía
