Síntesis informativa - 9 de enero 2020
THE GUARDIAN
Trump backs away from further military confrontation with Iran
Donald Trump backed away from further military confrontation with Iran on Wednesday after days of escalating tensions, saying Tehran appeared to be standing down following missile attacks on two Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops.
Later, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, said the nature of the missile damage at the targeted bases suggested the attack was intended to take US and allied lives.
Trump’s speech was notably more sober than his more bellicose statements and tweets in the immediate aftermath of Suleimani’s killing, in which he threatened to bomb Iranian cultural sites, a potential war crime. The United States, in recent days, deployed 3,500 paratroopers to the Middle East and Americans were urged to leave the region over safety concerns.
Iran plane crash: drone collision and terrorism being explored
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, cited unconfirmed reports circulating on social media that debris from a Russian-made missile had been found at the site, on the outskirts of Tehran, where the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and staff onboard.
“Our commission is currently agreeing with the Iranian authorities to travel to the place of the crash, and plans to search for debris of a Russian surface-to-air Tor missile, according to information which was published on the internet,” he said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
Confusion clouds international efforts to reach Libya ceasefire
An unprecedented drive involving Europe, Russia and Turkey has been launched to broker a Libyan ceasefire, and end the risk of the country collapsing into total all-out war.
However, it is unclear to which extent the joint Russian-Turkish call for a ceasefire by 12 January should be seen as complementary or in competition to an intensified Italian-led European push to end the fighting.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin – who have each backed opposing sides in the Libyan conflict – together called for a ceasefire by midnight on 12 January.
How the oil industry has spent billions to control the climate change conversation
America’s oil companies are trying to rebrand themselves as part of the solution to the climate crisis, launching a campaign to counter top Democrats’ proposals to rapidly cut pollution from the power plants and cars that run on the industry’s petroleum and natural gas.
They say natural gas – a fossil fuel that emits heat-trapping carbon dioxide – is helping to slow climate disruption by providing an alternative to coal. The campaign is part of a strategy in which the oil industry has funneled billions of dollars into its defense, threatening to outpace climate action advocates, say frustrated environmental activists who are increasingly calling on Democrats in Congress to take a tougher line on the sector.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/08/oil-companies-climate-crisis-pr-spending
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Al Jazeera
Tensions remain high as US, Iran pull back from brink of war
Signs of de-escalation after Iran strikes US targets in Iraq in response to commander's killing, but friction prevails.
In a White House address on Wednesday, Trump said Iran "appears to be standing down" after it fired more than a dozen missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops in retaliation for the US assassination of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Rather than announce military action, Trump said the US "will immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions" while it evaluated "options in response to Iranian aggression".
On Thursday, Soleimani's successor Brigadier General Esmail Qaani said he would continue the "luminous" path pursued by his predecessor, while Tasnim news agency quoted IRGC senior commander Abdollah Araghi as saying that Iran would take "harsher revenge soon".
US officials have said Soleimani, who was charged with extending Iran's military influence beyond its borders, was killed because of intelligence indicating forces under his command planned attacks on US targets in the region. But they have not provided this intelligence.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/tensions-remain-high-iran-pull-brink-war-200109083611790.html
UN monitors say Houthis not behind Saudi Aramco attacks: Report
Houthi-claimed attacks on two major Saudi oil facilities in September caused a spike in global oil prices.
According to the report seen by Reuters on Wednesday, the independent UN experts to the Security Council Yemen sanctions committee said: "That despite their claims to the contrary, the Houthi forces did not launch the attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais on 14 September 2019."
Riyadh, which is backing Yemen's internationally recognised government in its fight against the Houthis, has long accused Iran of supplying the rebels with weapons. Tehran says it supports the rebels diplomatically and politically but has repeatedly denied providing them with any military aid.
The UN investigators said they doubted that the drones and land-attack cruise missiles used in the September 14 attack "have a sufficient range to have been launched from Yemeni territory under the control of the Houthis."
Libya's war: Who is supporting who
Al Jazeera takes a look at the foreign actors invested in the Libyan conflict and who they are siding with.
Ramy Allahoum
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seen by many experts as one of Haftar's main supporters, having supplied him with advanced weapon systems in violation of a 2011 UN arms embargo imposed at the beginning of an uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Like Abu Dhabi, Cairo's aversion to the Muslim Brotherhood has meant that it found in Haftar a natural ally.
French President Emmanuel Macron has officially backed efforts for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Libya.
That stance, however, is counterweighed by France's diplomatic support for Haftar, which includes the blocking of a European Union statement calling on the renegade military commander to halt his assault on the capital, prompting GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in April to accuse the Macron administration of backing a "dictator".
Much like France, Russia has publicly supported the UN's mediation efforts led by Special Envoy Ghassan Salame. Moscow, however, in April blocked a UN Security Council statement that would have called on the Libyan commander to halt his advance on Tripoli.
Russian mercenaries from the private Wagner group have also reportedly joined the battle alongside Haftar's forces.
The US was among the states that supported the efforts that led to the GNA's creation in late 2015. But soon after taking office in January 2017, US President Donald Trump said he did not see a "role" in Libya.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported in April that Saudi Arabia offered tens of millions of dollars to help fund Haftar's Tripoli offensive.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/libya-war-supporting-200104110325735.html
UN envoy: 'Devastating surge' of attacks in Sahel and West Africa
Attacks increased five-fold in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger since 2016 with more than 4,000 deaths reported in 2019
The UN envoy said attacks are often "deliberate efforts by violent extremists to capture weapons and trafficking routes" and engage in illicit activities including illegal mining that sustain their operations.
With close to 70 percent of West Africa's population dependent on agriculture and livestock, he said, clashes between farmers and herders "remain some of the most violent local conflicts in the region."
In the months ahead, he said, six West African countries will choose leaders in democratic elections.
