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NATO members pledged to boost Ukraine’s air defenses against Russian attacks as the alliance marked its 75th anniversary Thursday, following a two-day summit of foreign ministers in Brussels. Members, however, did not agree on any specific military aid deal for Kyiv, as Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Madrid — Spain’s announcement this week that it will recognize a Palestinian sovereign state by July could mark a major turning point with other European states poised to follow Madrid’s lead, analysts say.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Spanish media Tuesday Spain would recognize Palestine diplomatically by July.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirmed the plan, saying it would help an independent Palestine’s entry into the United Nations.

Ignacio Molina, a specialist on Spanish foreign affairs at the Real Elcano Institute, a Madrid research group, said both domestic political and foreign policy reasons had led Spain to say it would recognize Palestinian sovereignty.

The catalyst was the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy Tuesday by Israeli forces in which seven aid workers were killed, sparking outrage in Spain.

Prime Minister Sanchez Wednesday branded as “insufficient” and “unacceptable” the response from Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israeli forces had “unintentionally” killed the aid workers. The NGO that employed them is run by Spanish-American celebrity chef José Andrés.

“In terms of domestic politics, Spain’s government is composed of a left-wing coalition government which has been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause,” Molina told VOA.

“The far-left Podemos and now Sumar parties in the coalition had not been involved in foreign policy until now but the Spanish government has been more vocal on the issue of Gaza.”

In terms of foreign policy, Spain wants to demonstrate leadership on the international stage by encouraging other EU states to recognize an independent Palestinian state, Molina said.

“Palestine is one of the few issues in which Spain can make progressive foreign policy. It gives Spain a leadership role in the EU. Spain has a peculiar position internationally with links between the Arab and Latin America which gives it a certain moral authority on this issue,” he said.

Madrid did not recognize Israel diplomatically until 1986, after Spain joined the EU.

The role of history

Spain’s position on Israel has been linked to the events of the 20th century.

During the long dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco from 1939 until 1975, Spain maintained close links to Arab nations.

“Spain did not take part in the Second World War, so it did not have the same moral obligations over the Holocaust as other Western countries to recognize Israel and for domestic reasons, Madrid wanted good relations with Arab countries to supply petroleum,” Molina said.

But Spanish policy has also been influenced by centuries of history.

In 1492, under the Alhambra Decree, Catholic monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ordered Jews to leave Spain or convert to Christianity.

More than 500 years later, in 2015, Madrid sought to make amends with an apology and offered Sephardic Jews Spanish citizenship.

Today Spain has a small Jewish community of about 50,000 people, compared with the 500,000 who live in France. Meanwhile, about 2.3 million Muslims, many of Moroccan origin, live in Spain according to figures from the Spanish statistics institute.

In 2014, under the then-ruling conservative People’s Party, the Spanish parliament approved a symbolic motion in favor of the Palestinian state.

Since the October attack by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war, marches in support of the Palestinian people have been held in Spanish cities on a regular basis.

Compared to other nations in Western Europe, there have been far fewer pro-Israel demonstrations.

A survey by Simple Logica published in January by eldiario.es, a left-leaning news site, found 60.7% of Spaniards condemned the Israeli offensive in Gaza and 57.9% agreed with the Spanish government’s call for a cease-fire.

Separatist sympathies

Within Spanish society, there is sympathy for the Palestinian cause because Basques and Catalans see their own struggle for nationhood against Spain as similar to the Palestinian fight against Israeli occupation.

“I think of myself as a Basque person rather than Spanish. We have always identified with the Palestinians as they have been oppressed by the Israelis as we were oppressed by the Spanish,” Igor Otxoa, of the Guernica Palestine organization, told VOA.

“If Spain recognizes Palestine, it is a start, but it does not mean that it will break off relations with Israel. Spanish companies are still selling arms to Israel and other goods.”

Spain’s Jewish community criticized the government’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood.

“We consider that the recognition of the Palestinian state should be reached from a consensus between all members of the EU. … Talking of two states, when one wants to push you into the sea, is difficult,” the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain told VOA in a statement.

Last month, Spain, along with Ireland, Malta and Slovenia, issued a joint statement saying they were “ready to recognize Palestine.”

Vanessa Frazier, the current president of the U.N. Security Council and Malta’s ambassador to the U.N., said this week that she has received a letter from the Palestinian Authority asking to be recognized as a full member of the United Nations and that the letter has been circulated to Security Council members.

Nine out of the 27 EU member states recognize a sovereign Palestine.

In 2014, Sweden became the first member of the bloc to recognize a Palestinian state. Malta and Cyprus did so before they joined the EU. Some Eastern European states did so when they were members of the Soviet Union, but Hungary and the Czech Republic have since emerged as close allies of Israel.

Apart from Spain, domestic political reasons may prevent Ireland and Belgium from formally recognizing the Palestinian state in the short term, observers said.

Ireland faces a general election next year and Belgium has a coalition government that is not united on the issue.

Malta and Slovenia are more likely to follow Madrid’s example.
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White House — President Joe Biden welcomed NATO’s 75th anniversary Thursday, as the security alliance hosted new member Sweden for the first time at a major meeting — and as Ukraine eagerly hopes for an invitation to join the group at an upcoming Washington summit. 

In a statement, Biden welcomed the recent addition of new members Finland and Sweden, saying “we must choose to protect this progress and build on it.” 

“This is the greatest military alliance in the history of the world,” Biden said. “But it didn’t happen by accident, nor was it inevitable. Generation after generation, the United States and our fellow Allies have chosen to come together to stand up for freedom and push back against aggression — knowing we are stronger, and the world is safer, when we do.” 

Biden’s Democratic allies agreed. 

“Despite [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s attempts to splinter our alliance with his war against Ukraine, the transatlantic partnership is more united than ever before, thanks to the determined leadership of Joe Biden,” said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “On this monumental anniversary, we reaffirm that America’s commitment to NATO remains bipartisan and ironclad — and that we will never waver in our defense of democracy.” 

NATO allies have been increasingly unnerved by the prospect of former Republican President Donald Trump returning to the White House if he defeats Biden in the November 5 U.S. presidential election. 

As president, Trump frequently complained that numerous NATO countries were not meeting NATO’s recommendation that they spend 2% of their country’s economic output on defense. 

In February, at a campaign rally, Trump recounted what he said was a conversation he had when he was the U.S. leader with the “president of a big country.” 

“Well sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia — will you protect us?” Trump quoted the unnamed leader as saying. 

“I said: ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent.’

He said: ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’

‘No, I would not protect you.,” said Trump. “In fact, I would encourage them [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay.'”

The NATO countries’ pledge to defend each other has been invoked only once, when al-Qaida terrorists attacked the U.S. in 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. 

The U.S. and its allies responded with a two-decade fight against the militants’ training sites and encampments in Afghanistan although Taliban rulers remained in power as Biden pulled out the last U.S. troops in 2021. 

Some analysts argue that the alliance remains relevant, citing Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. 

“Nearly a billion people sleep more soundly at night under NATO’s protective umbrella,” said Robert Benson, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, in a message sent to VOA. 

“Yet a small but vocal minority views the alliance as a relic of the past, an albatross, or a distraction — all this in a world where Russian imperial ambition has once again threatened international peace and security,” he said. “The United States must continue to support Ukraine and to strengthen NATO, not out of charity or moral obligation, but because it makes us safer here at home.” 

Sean Monaghan, a foreign affairs analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told VOA that he does not expect NATO to offer Ukraine a formal invitation to join the military alliance when it holds its 75th anniversary summit in Washington in July.

The allies agreed last year at NATO’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, not to invite Ukraine until its war with Russia has ended. 

“When the time is right,” Monaghan said, “NATO allies and Ukraine will want to move quickly from invitation to membership to avoid a drawn-out period where Ukraine is at risk of coercion but not protected” by the NATO treaty provision that all countries must defend each other if they are attacked. 

“The summit is likely to focus on boosting long-term support for Ukraine, including through NATO auspices,” Monaghan said. 
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PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron believes France and its Western and African allies “could have stopped” Rwanda’s 1994 genocide but did not have the will to halt the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, the presidency said Thursday.

In a video message to be published Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, Macron will emphasize that “when the phase of total extermination against the Tutsis began, the international community had the means to know and act,” said a French presidential official, asking not to be named.

The president believes that at the time the international community already had historical experience of witnessing genocide with the Holocaust in World War II and the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I.

Macron will say that “France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, did not have the will” to do so, the official added.

The president will not attend commemorations of the genocide this Sunday in Kigali alongside Rwandan President Paul Kagame. France will instead be represented by Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne.

Macron, during a visit to Rwanda in 2021, recognized France’s “responsibilities” in the genocide and said only the survivors could grant “the gift of forgiveness.”

But he stopped short of an apology, and Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebellion that ended the genocide, has long insisted on the need for a stronger statement.

A historical commission set up by Macron also concluded in 2021 there had been a “failure” on the part of France under former leader Francois Mitterrand, while adding there was no evidence Paris was complicit in the killings.
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Moscow — Russia’s FSB security service said Thursday it had arrested three more people suspected of helping plot last month’s deadly terror attack on a Moscow concert hall, state media reported.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, in which more than 140 were killed when gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall venue on the outskirts of Moscow before setting the building on fire.

The FSB said Thursday it had arrested three in Moscow, the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and Omsk in Siberia for financing and recruiting for the attack.

“Two of those detained transferred money for the purchase of firearms and vehicles used in the terror attack, and a third was directly involved in recruiting accomplices of the terror attack and financing its perpetrators,” the Interfax news agency quoted the FSB as saying in a statement.

State media published footage showing FSB agents making the arrests. 

Two were foreign citizens and one was Russian, the FSB said.

Russia has arrested more than a dozen people it said were involved in the attack, including the four gunmen, all citizens of Tajikistan.

The IS group has claimed responsibility for the attack on multiple occasions, but Moscow has repeatedly tried to say it was “ordered” by Kyiv or the West.

“We have every reason to believe that the main goal of those who ordered the bloody, horrific terror attack in Moscow was to inflict damage on our unity,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. 

He said “Islamic fundamentalists” had no reason to target Russia.

Ukraine and Western leaders have repeatedly denied any connection to the attack and said Moscow is trying to exploit the tragedy. 
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From the start of the war in Ukraine, drones have played an important role in carrying out surveillance missions and long-range attacks. Since last year, a new type of drone has come into the picture and is changing how war is waged on the front lines. They are called First Person View drones and, as Yan Boechat reports from Donbas, Ukraine, they have become a nightmare for soldiers on both sides of the battlefield.
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London — Britain has called for an immediate investigation into an Israeli airstrike Monday on an aid convoy that killed seven aid workers, including three British citizens, in Gaza.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rejected calls to suspend arms shipments to Israel amid mounting global anger over the attack.

The bodies of six of the seven victims were taken out of Gaza on Wednesday in a convoy of ambulances through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. The body of the seventh worker, a Palestinian driver, was turned over to his family for burial in Gaza.

Monday’s attack struck several vehicles being used by the World Central Kitchen charity. Video of the aftermath clearly showed the charity’s logo on the roof of a vehicle, next to a gaping hole apparently caused by a missile.

The three British victims were identified as 57-year-old John Chapman, 47-year-old James Kirby and 33-year-old James Henderson.

Sunak said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Tuesday.

“I … was very clear with him that the situation is increasingly intolerable, and what we urgently need to see is a thorough, transparent investigation into what has happened, but also a dramatic increase in the amount of aid getting into Gaza,” Sunak told The Sun newspaper.

“I think we’ve always had a very careful export licensing regime that we adhere to. There are a set of rules, regulations and procedures that we’ll always follow, and I’ve been consistently clear with Prime Minister Netanyahu since the start of this conflict that whilst, of course, we defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with international humanitarian law,” Sunak said.

The opposition Labour Party’s shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the government’s legal advice on Israel’s conduct in its war on Hamas must be published.

“If it is the case that international law has been contravened, then it is absolutely right that offensive arms are suspended to Israel,” Lammy told reporters Wednesday.

The three British victims were providing security for World Central Kitchen through the firm Solace Global. The firm’s non-executive director, Matthew Harding, said it was difficult to know exactly what had happened.

“We have looked very closely already at everything that preceded and went on after the incident. We are completely satisfied that all measures were correctly taken and executed” by his company, Harding told BBC News.

The other victims of the airstrike included the group’s Palestinian driver, 25-year-old Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; 43-year-old Australian national Lalzawmi Frankcom, who was World Central Kitchen’s relief lead in Gaza; 35-year-old Polish citizen Damian Sobol; and 33-year-old Jacob Flickinger, a U.S.-Canadian citizen.

Their governments have echoed calls for a swift investigation.

Israel said it did not intend to target the aid workers.

“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification at night, during a war, in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened,” Herzi Halevi, Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, said in a televised statement on Tuesday.

Israeli government spokesperson Ilana Stein said Wednesday that the government regretted the “awful” incident.

“This is a very complex war situation. Every war is very difficult. It’s very messy, it’s very dangerous, and it has casualties that we would all rather not have on the Israeli side and on the Palestinian side,” Stein told reporters in Tel Aviv.

“Having said that, Israel has been checking itself every day. We have been reviewing our actions in different manners, also in the field, but also regarding what we can do to distribute aid.”

The organization Human Rights Watch rejected her explanation.

“Israel’s deadly attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza displays the characteristics of a precision airstrike, indicating that the Israeli military intended to hit the vehicles. World Central Kitchen coordinated its coordinates and its movements with the Israeli government. Their vehicles were clearly marked,” said Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.

“This is not an isolated incident. The Israeli government has killed at least 196 aid workers in Gaza, according to the United Nations,” Shakir told VOA.

Israel maintains it makes every effort to avoid civilian casualties.

World Central Kitchen has suspended its operations in Gaza. The organization said it has provided more than 42 million meals since its operations began there 6 months ago.

In an article Wednesday in The New York Times, Jose Andres, the charity’s founder, said the attack was “the direct result of [Israel’s] policy that squeezed humanitarian aid to desperate levels.”

Despite widespread accusations from aid agencies that Israel is obstructing relief supplies into Gaza, Israel denies it is blocking aid and blames Hamas for the delays, which it accuses of using hospitals and aid facilities as military bases.

Hamas denies that claim and says Israel is using hunger as a weapon of war.
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Britain has called for an immediate Israeli investigation into an airstrike that killed seven aid workers in the Gaza strip, amid mounting global anger over Monday’s attack. Three of the dead were British citizens, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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New York — Children are being denied access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance in conflict zones around the world in a blatant disregard for international law, a senior U.N. official said Wednesday.

“Let me be very clear: The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain key provisions requiring the facilitation of humanitarian relief to children in need,” Virginia Gamba, the U.N. envoy on children and armed conflict, told a meeting of the Security Council.

“The denial of humanitarian access to children and attacks against humanitarian workers assisting children are also prohibited under international humanitarian law,” she said.

Her office verified nearly 4,000 such denial of aid cases in 2022, she said, with the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Yemen, Afghanistan and Mali having the highest number. Gamba said the data for her office’s upcoming report shows the negative trend continuing.

“Some situations involve high levels of arbitrary impediments and/or outright denial of humanitarian access to children, including in situations such as in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and in Haiti to name but two,” she said.

Gamba said denial of aid access is linked to the restriction of humanitarian activities and movements; interference with humanitarian operations and discrimination against aid recipients; direct and indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure; disinformation; looting; and the detention of, violence against and killing of humanitarian personnel.

Children are especially affected by the lack of nutrition, education and health care, which can have lifelong consequences. Gamba said it is even more catastrophic for disabled children. And it also impacts boys differently than girls.

“For instance, restrictions to girls’ movement challenge their access to aid in areas where it may be distributed, including in internally displaced persons camps, while teenage boys could be perceived as associated with an opposing party and, therefore, denied that access,” she said.

Gamba called upon all parties to allow and facilitate safe, timely and unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as access by children to services, assistance and protection, and to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and assets. She said hospitals, schools and their staff must also be protected under international humanitarian law.

The deputy executive director of the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, urged the Security Council to help humanitarians get the access they need. Ted Chaiban underscored that aid groups need more exemptions in sanctions resolutions for their work; they need to be able to engage with all armed groups without fear of consequences; as well as access across borders and conflict lines.

“Around the world, our teams on the ground are working under increasingly difficult operational circumstances to access children,” Chaiban said, adding they are committed to staying and delivering.

“Children are the first to suffer and the ones who will carry the longest-lasting humanitarian consequences,” he said. “Parties have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure children’s access to humanitarian services.”
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Turkey’s nationwide local elections this week dealt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party its worst electoral defeat, signaling what analysts say is a momentous change in Turkey’s political direction. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Helsinki — A 12-year-old suspected of shooting and killing a classmate and wounding two girls at a school in Finland said he had been motivated by bullying, police said Wednesday.

Flags flew at half-staff as the northern European country observed a day of mourning a day after the boy opened fire in a classroom in Vantaa.

“The suspect has told the police during interrogations that he has been the victim of bullying, and this information has also been confirmed in the police’s preliminary investigation,” police said in a statement.

Police also said that the young suspect had been a student at the school only since the beginning of the year.

They said their investigation showed that he had threatened other students on their way to the school.

According to Finnish broadcaster MTV Uutiset, the boy wore a mask and noise-canceling headphones when he carried out the shooting.

The child who was killed, a Finnish boy also age 12, died at the scene, and the suspect had already fled the school by the time police arrived.

The police opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder but said the suspect has been handed over to social services as he could not be held in police custody because of his age.

The revolver-like gun used in the shooting belonged to a close relative of the boy, they said.
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STATE DEPARTMENT — NATO foreign ministers meeting Wednesday in Brussels are expected to discuss a proposal to create a $100 billion fund for supporting Ukraine’s military.

The plan, put forward by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, also includes making NATO more directly involved in coordinating military assistance being provided by member countries, a role that has been filled by a U.S.-led coalition of more than 50 countries.

A final decision on the proposal would not come until NATO heads of state meet at a summit in July.

Ahead of the Brussels talks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed calls for the U.S. Congress to release military aid for Ukraine.

“We are at a critical moment where it is absolutely essential to get Ukrainians what they continue to need to defend themselves, particularly when it comes to munitions and air defenses,” Blinken said Tuesday during a visit to a defense facility in Paris with French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

Congress is yet to approve the Biden administration’s supplementary budget request that would provide aid to resupply Ukraine’s armed forces and help the country fend off Russian offensives.

Biden has called on the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives to approve the military and financial aid package. House Republicans have delayed action on it for months, prioritizing domestic issues.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Ukrainian forces will have to retreat “step by step, in small steps,” if Kyiv doesn’t receive the U.S. military aid.

French Foreign Minister Séjourné was in Beijing earlier this week. He said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that France expects China to convey “clear messages” to its close partner Russia regarding Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

France and China have sought to strengthen ties in recent years. Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning a visit to France in May.

During meetings in Paris in February, Wang told French President Macron that Beijing appreciated his country’s “independent” stance. But Paris has also sought to press Beijing on its close ties with Moscow, which have only grown closer since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. and French officials said they are working closely to effectively prevent the transfer of weapons and materials to Russia from North Korea and China, which could fuel Moscow’s defense industrial base.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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LONDON — The suspects who allegedly stabbed a journalist for an independent Iranian media outlet in London last week fled the country after the attack, police said on Tuesday.

Pouria Zeraati, 36, a presenter for Persian-language Iran International, was stabbed in his leg last Friday afternoon outside his home in Wimbledon, southwest London.

He was treated in a hospital for injuries to his leg and released on Monday.

On Tuesday, Scotland Yard said three men carried out the attack.

“Detectives have established the victim was approached by two men in a residential street and attacked,” it said in a statement. “The suspects fled the scene in a vehicle driven by a third male.”

The suspects later abandoned the car, which is being examined by forensic experts, Scotland Yard said.

“After abandoning the vehicle, the suspects travelled directly to Heathrow Airport and left the UK within a few hours of the attack,” it said, without providing further details.

London’s Metropolitan Police had said after the stabbing that the motive was unclear, but that “the victim’s occupation as a journalist at a Persian-language media organisation based in the UK” was being considered.

Head of the police’s anti-terror unit, Dominic Murphy, said police still “do not know the reason why this victim was attacked, and there could be a number of explanations for this.”

“All lines of enquiry are being pursued, and we are keeping an open mind on any potential motivation for the attack,” he said.

Iran’s charge d’affaires in the U.K., Mehdi Hosseini Matin, on Saturday said that Tehran denied “any link” to the incident.

The Met has said it had disrupted what it has called plots in the U.K. to kidnap or even kill British or Britain-based individuals perceived as enemies of Tehran.

The Iranian government has declared Iran International a terrorist organization.

The U.K. government last year unveiled a tougher sanctions regime against Iran over alleged human rights violations and hostile actions against its opponents on U.K. soil.
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ISLAMABAD — Russia said Tuesday that it is engaged in an “active dialogue” with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and is working toward removing them from Moscow’s list of terrorist organizations. 

“The fact is that this is our neighboring country. In one form or another, we maintain communication with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Russian news agency TASS. 

“We have to resolve pressing issues, which also requires dialogue. In fact, we are in contact with them just like everyone else,” Peskov stated. “They are actually the ones who are in power in Afghanistan.” 

He did not elaborate, but his statement came just days after gunmen stormed a concert hall outside the Russian capital and killed at least 144 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in the country in two decades. 

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the bloodshed, with U.S. intelligence officials saying the terror group’s Afghan branch, IS-Khorasan, was behind it. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly tied the attack to Ukraine — claims the neighboring country and the United States strongly rejected.  

“You have said yourself that the option is under consideration. Let’s wait until this process ends,” Peskov said when asked for his response to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement on Monday about possibly removing the Taliban from the terrorist blacklist.

The Taliban condemned the Moscow attack as “a blatant violation of all human standards” and urged regional countries to take “a coordinated, clear and resolute position” against such incidents. 

“Daesh, which has targeted civilians in Afghanistan and other regions of the world as well, again clearly demonstrated through this incident that it is a group in the hands of intelligence agencies aimed at defaming Islam and posing a threat to the entire region,” stated the Taliban Foreign Ministry, using a local acronym for IS-Khorasan. 

The Taliban reclaimed power in 2021 after the U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan, but they remain on a list of organizations Russia designates as terrorists.  

No foreign country has formally recognized the government in Kabul, citing a lack of political inclusiveness and sweeping restrictions on Afghan women’s access to education and work. 

Zamir Kabulov, the Russian special presidential envoy for Afghanistan, told TASS earlier this week that Moscow had invited a Taliban delegation to take part in an international economic forum, called “Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum,” in the city of Kazan from May 14 to 19. 

Russia is among several regional and neighboring countries that have retained their diplomatic presence in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. The U.S. and Western countries at large have since moved their Afghan diplomatic missions to Qatar. 
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State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the United States has urged Israel to promptly investigate an Israeli airstrike in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of seven humanitarian workers. Blinken reiterated the call for Israel to prioritize the protection of civilian lives. 

“We’ve spoken directly to the Israeli government about this particular incident. We’ve urged a swift, a thorough and impartial investigation to understand exactly what happened,” Blinken said Tuesday during a press conference in Paris. 

Humanitarian workers “have to be protected,” Blinken added. “We shouldn’t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk.” 

Hours before Blinken’s meeting with French Foreign Minister Stephane Séjourné, the charity organization World Central Kitchen, founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, said that seven of its personnel were killed in the Israeli airstrike in Gaza. The organization declared an immediate halt to its operations in the region.

Séjourné expressed strong condemnation of the airstrike during the joint press conference, saying the situation in Gaza “is disastrous and is worsening day after day. Nothing justifies such a tragedy.” 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said his government will establish a joint situation room with international groups to facilitate the coordination of aid distribution in Gaza alongside Israeli military operations. 

On Monday, France introduced a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council aimed at exploring options for U.N. oversight of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and suggesting ways to help the Palestinian Authority in taking on responsibilities. 

Last month, the United States abstained from a vote that permitted the council’s 15 members to demand an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends next week. 

Ukraine 

Blinken also renewed calls for the U.S. Congress to release military aid for Ukraine. 

“We are at a critical moment where it is absolutely essential to get Ukrainians what they continue to need to defend themselves, particularly when it comes to munitions and air defenses,” Blinken said during a visit to a defense facility in Paris with French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu. 

Congress is yet to approve the Biden administration’s supplementary budget request that would provide aid to resupply Ukraine’s armed forces and help the country fend off Russian offensives.   

Biden has called on the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives to approve the military and financial aid package. House Republicans have delayed action on it for months, prioritizing domestic issues. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Ukrainian forces will have to retreat “step by step, in small steps,” if Kyiv doesn’t receive the U.S. military aid. 

French Foreign Minister Séjourné was in Beijing earlier this week. He said after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that France expects China to convey “clear messages” to its close partner Russia regarding Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. 

France and China have sought to strengthen ties in recent years. Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning a visit to France in May. 

During meetings in Paris in February, Wang told French President Emmanuel Macron that Beijing appreciated his country’s “independent” stance. But Paris has also sought to press Beijing on its close ties with Moscow, which have only grown closer since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

U.S. and French officials said they are working closely to effectively prevent the transfer of weapons and materials to Russia from North Korea and China, which could fuel Moscow’s defense industrial base. 

The top U.S. diplomat is also set to express U.S. support for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as he holds talks with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.   

The United States and France have been among Ukraine’s top supporters in the two years since Russia launched the invasion of its neighbor.   

The State Department said efforts to bring stability to Haiti would be another topic on the agenda for the meeting of U.S. and French officials.   

Blinken will travel from Paris to Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers as the alliance celebrates its 75th anniversary.   

While in Brussels, Blinken is also scheduled to meet with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.   

A three-way meeting of the United States, European Union and Armenia is set for Friday, with the State Department saying the session will focus on “U.S. and EU support for Armenia’s economic resilience as it works to diversify its trade partnerships and address humanitarian needs.”   

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will lead their respective delegations.   

Separate U.S.-EU trade and technology talks will close Blinken’s stop in Belgium.
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Maria Kobets used to work in a museum in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region. But when her husband, Andriy, joined the armed forces, she took over his job as a blacksmith. Lesia Bakalets has more. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets.
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GENEVA — The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Russia of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws in its war against Ukraine.

A new report by the OHCHR warns Russia’s armed attack and occupation of Ukrainian territory will have long-lasting consequences for Ukraine and its population at a time when global attention on the critical situation appears to be waning.

“Despite harrowing stories of human suffering unfolding every day in Ukraine, I fear that the world has grown numb to this crisis,” Volker Türk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said Tuesday.

In a bleak assessment of the situation, Türk told the U.N. Human Rights Council, “It is now over two years since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on the country. Two years of immense suffering, bloodshed, loss and grief. Countless families have been separated.”

He noted more than 10,500 civilians have been reported killed and more than 20,000 injured.

“The actual figures are likely significantly higher,” he said.

The report, which covers the period from December 1, 2023, to February 29, says the war continues to cause devastating civilian harm in large-scale attacks through “missiles and loitering munitions launched by Russian armed forces across Ukraine.”

It says this is causing a spike in civilian casualties, “reversing the otherwise general downward trend in civilian casualties throughout 2023.”

This year marks 10 years since Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula, a period during which people in Crimea have been “charged and convicted … for acts that are not crimes under Ukrainian law,” according to the report.

“Russian Federation citizenship has been broadly imposed,” Türk said. “Russian authorities have conscripted male residents of Crimea into the Russian armed forces, eventually forcing them to fight against their own country.”

He said Ukrainian children have been deprived of an education in their own language and people have been denied the right to freely express their opinion.

“The violations we documented in occupied Crimea foreshadowed what we now see evolving in Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian Federation following its full-scale armed attack,” said the human rights commissioner.

“In the last two years, Russian armed forces have committed widespread violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including unlawful killings, torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention,” he said, adding that these violations have occurred with impunity.

“There has been nowhere to seek justice, nowhere to turn for an effective remedy,” he said. “The cumulative effect of these actions has been to create a pervasive climate of fear, which has allowed the Russian Federation to solidify its control.”

In the reporting period, OHCHR officials interviewed 60 Ukrainian prisoners of war who recently had been released from Russian captivity during a POW exchange. They said the POWs provided credible, detailed accounts of having been tortured, subjected to beatings, electric shocks, threats of execution, sexual violence and other harsh treatment.

The OHCHR recorded 12 cases of executions of at least 32 captured Ukrainian POWs. It has verified three of these incidents in which Russian service members executed seven Ukrainian service members.

“In this same period, my office interviewed 44 Russian POWs in Ukrainian captivity,” said Türk. “While they did not complain about the treatment and conditions in established places of detention, several of them described instances of torture and ill-treatment in transit places after they were evacuated from the battlefield.”

The high commissioner said the tragedy in Ukraine has gone on for too long and called on the Russian Federation to cease its armed attacks.

“The violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by the Russian armed forces and administrative officials in occupied territory must stop at once,” he said.

Russia boycotted the meeting and informed the council president that it “did not wish to take the floor as a concerned country.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva had no such misgivings. Filipenko Yevheniia sharply criticized Russia and its “systematic deprivation of fundamental rights and freedoms in Crimea and occupied parts of Donbas and other Ukrainian territories.”

“By inflicting significant demographic changes through forced displacement and deliberate replacement of the population, Russia is purposely altering the fabric of the society to cement its occupation in gross violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.

“By torturing, arbitrarily detaining civilians, by abducting and indoctrinating Ukrainian children, Russia openly and shamefully commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The Ukrainian ambassador called on U.N. member states “to condemn Russian terrorist attacks” and to send a clear message to the Kremlin “that the international community is not turning a blind eye to the invasion of a sovereign state, the killing of civilians and the destruction of critical infrastructure.”
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beijing — The French foreign minister pressed China on trade issues and the war in Ukraine on Monday ahead of a planned visit to France by Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this spring.

Stéphane Séjourné, in talks with his counterpart Wang Yi in the Chinese capital, largely echoed positions that have been laid out by European leaders, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on a visit to Beijing last week.

“The rebalancing of our economic partnership is a priority, as it is for our European partners,” Séjourné said at a joint news conference with Wang. “The European Union is a very open market, the most open in the world. But the current deficits with a certain number of countries, including China, are not sustainable for us.”

European officials have expressed concern that a flood of low-priced Chinese-made electric vehicles could disrupt production and displace jobs in Europe. The EU is investigating whether Chinese government subsidies for EVs give an unfair advantage to Chinese auto exporters. European companies operating in China are complaining that recent changes to national security laws have made it riskier to invest and do business in the country.

On the Chinese side, officials have raised concern about a “de-risking” strategy being pursued by the EU to ensure that it is not overly dependent on any one country for vital supplies and minerals. Wang expressed understanding for the European position but said he hopes it doesn’t negatively affect business sentiment.

“I believe the facts have proved and will continue to prove that China constitutes opportunities to Europe, rather than risks,” he said. “The two sides are partners not opponents.”

He also said that China is willing to import more “high-quality French products and services” and is working to resolve the concerns raised by European companies, including restrictions on the transfer of data overseas.

Séjourné insisted that Europe is not becoming protectionist and remains open to investment, a possible reference to attempts to woo Chinese automakers and other companies to create jobs by building factories in Europe rather than exporting their products from China.

Neither foreign minister mentioned a Chinese anti-dumping investigation into imports of French brandy that, together with the EU electric vehicle probe, could be a precursor to a trade war.

On the Ukraine war, he said France expects China, as a major country, to pass on clear messages to Russia. China, though, has a different stance on the war than Europe or the United States, both of which back Ukraine. China may have Russia’s ear, but it’s unclear what message it is delivering.

Séjourné said France is determined to maintain a close dialogue with China to contribute toward finding a path to a lasting peace in Ukraine.
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