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European Council President Charles Michel addressed the annual conference of the European Defence Agency "Innovation in European Defence"

Press briefing ahead of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (Transport) will take place on Wednesday 8 December 2021 at 13.30.

The fourth meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council between the European Union and Kosovo took place on 7 December 2021 in Brussels.

The Council today reached agreement on a proposal to update EU rules on rates of value added tax (VAT). The new rules will grant member states more flexibility in the application of reduced rates and exemptions and create a level playing field between member states. The rules will also phase out preferential treatments for environmentally harmful goods.

European Council President Charles Michel addressed the annual conference of the European Defence Agency "Innovation in European Defence"

Press briefing ahead of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (Transport) will take place on Wednesday 8 December 2021 at 13.30.

A profile of BBC African Sports Personality of the Year 2021 nominee Ntando Mahlangu.

There’s a well-known f-word in Brussels – flexibility. And, when EU energy ministers met to discuss Europe’s plans for renewable energy and energy efficiency last week, it seemed they had bet on who could say it most.

Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, which took place November 29 through December 3. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 8 2021 (IPS)

Israel’s nuclear presence in the Middle East is best characterized as “the elephant in the room” -– an obvious fact intentionally ignored with deafening silence.

A Wall Street Journal cartoon, amplified the idiom, when it depicted a group of animals huddled together in the jungle with the elephant complaining: “I don’t know why they keep ignoring me when I am in the room.”

Nobody wants to openly discuss Israel as a nuclear power because it is a politically-sensitive issue, particularly in the United States.

And Israel has remained tight-lipped in the company of the world’s eight other nuclear powers– US, UK, France, China, Russia, India, Pakistan and North Korea— and it has never formally declared itself a nuclear power.

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times last August, Peter Beinart, a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, wrote that US attempts at “feigning ignorance about Israeli nuclear weapons makes a mockery of America’s efforts at non-proliferation.”

Last December, President-elect Joe Biden warned that if Iran goes nuclear, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt might go nuclear too — “and the last goddamn thing we need in that part of the world is a build-up of nuclear capability.”

But like most US politicians and presidents, including Barack Obama, Biden too believes that Israel’s nuclear weapons are best ignored—and never challenged in public.

Back in 2000, says Professor Beinart, when Obama was asked by a reporter if he knew of any country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, he said: “I don’t want to speculate.”

It is time for the Biden administration to tell the truth, Beinart wrote.

The nuclear weapons gamesmanship in the militarily and politically volatile Middle East goes in circles and semi-circles reaching a point of no return.

If Israel gets away with its nukes, the Iranians argue, “why shouldn’t we go nuclear too”, while the Saudis, the Egyptians and Turks warn: “If Iran goes nuclear, we will follow too”.

The Busher nuclear power plant in Iran. Talks about the country’s nuclear deal have restarted. Credit: IAEA/Paolo Contri

Meanwhile, since 1967, five nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ) have been established worldwide — in Latin America and the Caribbean, South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia.

But such a weapons-free zone in the conflict-ridden Middle East continues to remain elusive.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres points out that the established five zones include 60 percent of the UN’s 193 Member States– and cover almost all of the Southern Hemisphere.

Guterres welcomed the successful conclusion of the Second Session of the “Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction,” which took place November 29 to December 3, and congratulated the participating States “on their constructive engagement and the decision to establish a working committee to continue deliberations during the intersessional period”.

Dr M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told IPS establishing a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East is not only a major challenge but it is also important.

The challenge is primarily due to Israel’s refusal to not just discuss its decades-old nuclear weapons program but even acknowledge it, while at the same time attacking countries like Iran over even its nuclear energy-related programs, he argued.

Being backed by the United States, which adopts one rule for Israel and another rule for other countries, it is very difficult to involve Israel, said Dr Ramana, who is also Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues and the Acting Director of the Centre for India and South Asia Research (CISAR) in the Institute of Asian Research.

The only way to change this state of affairs is for efforts like this to be mounted. Even if they are not successful, they at least raise the issue publicly, Dr Ramana declared.

Hillel Schenker, Co-Editor, Palestine-Israel Journal, told IPS there is no question that a Nuclear and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Free Zone in the Middle East is in the interests of all the peoples of the region.

However, the issue of a WMD Free Zone is simply not on the political or public agenda in Israel, whose leaders and people find it very convenient to be the only presumed nuclear power in the region, he noted.

“And it also doesn’t appear to be on the agenda of the Egyptians who used to be the primary advocates for the Zone.”

Right now, he said, the main possible step to advancing towards this goal is a successful conclusion of the talks being held in Vienna for a revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear agreement with Iran and the Western powers.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have expressed opposition to a renewed deal, many senior figures in the Israeli security establishment support it, and believe it was a major mistake for former Prime Minister Netanyahu to have urged former US President Trump to withdraw from the JCPOA, he added.

If the talks are not successful, and Iran moves forward towards becoming a nuclear threshold state, it could produce a very dangerous chain reaction which might motivate Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and perhaps others to also try to go nuclear, seriously destabilizing the entire region, said Schenker.

Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives, President of the UN General Assembly, said nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regimes remain pivotal in ensuring that such an intolerable reality never manifests. And Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones are crucial to the success of disarmament and non-proliferation regimes, he said.

Like other regions, he argued, the geopolitics of the Middle East are complex. Reaching just settlements that will satisfy all parties requires sound diplomacy and negotiations based on good faith.

The addition of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction to the region’s politics will complicate an already challenging process, undermining trust and portending existential consequences.

It was in recognition of this that the General Assembly mandated a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East back in 1974, he said last week.

 

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Le cours de la monnaie européenne a enregistré ce mercredi 8 décembre 2021 une légère hausse dans les cotations officielles de la Banque d’Algérie. Sur le marché parallèle des devises, le taux de change n’a pas connu de grands changements.

Dans son tableau de change pour cette journée, la Banque d’Algérie a fait état d’un euro contre 156,87 dinars à l’achat contre 156,90 dinars à la vente, alors qu’hier, l’unité de cette monnaie s’échangeait contre 156,70 dinars à l’achat et 156,77.

Pour ce qui est de la monnaie étasunienne, un dollar s’échange dans les cotations commerciales de la Banque d’Algérie contre 138,91 dinars à l’achat et 138,92 dinars à la vente. Hier, il était à 139 dinars à l’achat et 139,02.

Le cours de la livre sterling dans les cotations officielles de ce mercredi est de 184,74 dinars à l’achat et 184,54 dinars à la vente. Dans les cotations d’hier, cette même monnaie s’échange contre 183,89 dinars à l’achat et 183,96 dinars.

Pour le taux de change du dollar canadien, la Banque d’Algérie indique 109,09 dinars à l’achat et 109,11 dinars à la vente contre 108,38 dinars à l’achat et 108,40 dinars à la vente hier.

La situation sur le marché parallèle des devises

Concernant le taux de change au niveau du marché parallèle des devises, la monnaie européenne n’a pas connu de changements par rapport à hier ; un euro est proposé contre 214 dinars à l’achat et 216 dinars à la vente.

Pour ce qui est de la monnaie étasunienne, un dollar s’échange sur le circuit informel contre 190 dinars à l’achat et 193 dinars à la vente.

La livre sterling s’échange ce mardi contre 250 dinars à l’achat et 248 dinars à la vente. Le dollar canadien sur le marché noir des devises est cédé contre 143 dinars à l’achat et 146 dinars à la vente.

L’article Taux de change du dinar : les cotations de mercredi 8 décembre est apparu en premier sur .

Heute u.a. mit dabei: Österreichs Lockdown für Geimpfte endet nächste Woche, Verdächtiger im Mordfall Khashoggi am Pariser Flughafen festgenommen und Europarat fordert Antworten von Polen nach umstrittenem Urteil. 

La Commission européenne a appelé les 27 mardi (7 décembre) à coordonner leurs restrictions de circulation face à la flambée du Covid-19 et aux inquiétudes sur le variant Omicron, renouvelant son appel à accélérer encore les campagnes de vaccination.

I. János Károly korábbi spanyol király egy 300 éves gibraltári egyezményre hivatkozva kért jogi mentességet egy londoni bíróságon ellene indított zaklatási perben – jelentette a The Daily Telegraph.

A brit konzervatív napilap online tudósítása szerint az illetékes londoni bíróság vizsgálja Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein német-dán családból származó üzletasszony beadványát, amely szerint I. János Károly a spanyol titkosszolgálatot (CNI) is felhasználva kémkedett utána Londonban, zaklatta és megfenyegette őt.

A spanyol sajtó a Corinna Larsenként született dán üzletasszonyt évek óta a volt spanyol király állítólagos korábbi kedveseként emlegeti.

I. János Károly ügyvédei szerint a Spanyol Királyság és az Egyesült Királyság között 1713 júliusában létrejött “Utrechti Béke és Barátsági Szerződés” alapján a volt spanyol királyt az uralkodóknak kijáró mentelmi jog illeti meg a brit bíróságok előtt. A barátsági szerződés nyilvánította brit felségterület alá tartozó gyarmattá Gibraltárt.

Az egy hónap múlva 84. életévét betöltő I. János Károly király 2014 júniusában mondott le trónjáról megromlott egészségi állapotára hivatkozva fia, VI. Fülöp javára. Távozott Spanyolországból is, ahol 2020 júniusában a spanyol legfelsőbb bíróság vizsgálatot indított ellene annak gyanújával, hogy a volt uralkodó százmillió dolláros kenőpénzért “intézte el”, hogy egy spanyol cég vasutat építsen Szaúd-Arábiában. A megbízási díj egy részét állítólag maga a király kapta. I. János Károly jelenleg Abu Dzabiban él.

The post I. János Károly, volt spanyol király kiérdemelte a ravasz eposzi jelzőt appeared first on .

Le président du Sénat, Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains), se rendra vendredi (10) et samedi (11) en visite officielle en Grèce où il aura des entretiens avec le Premier ministre, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, et le président du Parlement, Constantinos Tassoulas.

Tous les matins, Les Capitales décrypte pour vous l’info à travers l’Europe.

Emmanuel Macron s'entretiendra « dans les prochains jours » avec ses homologues ukrainien Volodymyr Zelensky et russe Vladimir Poutine, afin d' éviter une escalade militaire en Ukraine, a annoncé mardi (7 décembre) l'Elysée.

Ein ehemaliges Mitglied der königlichen Garde von Saudi-Arabien, der 33-jährige Khalid Alotaibi, wurde am Dienstag von der Grenzpolizei festgenommen, als er ein Flugzeug nach Riad nehmen wollte, berichtete der Radiosender FranceInfo.

Nach einem Urteil des Verfassungsgerichts soll Polen erklären, wie es die wirksame Umsetzung seiner Verpflichtungen aus der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention gewährleisten wird, fordert Europarats-Generalsekretärin Burić.

Die spanische Gesundheitskommission und Gesundheitsvertreter der Regionen haben am Dienstag eine neue Anti-COVID-19-Strategie gebilligt, die die Impfung von Kindern im Alter von 5 bis 11 Jahren im Rahmen ermöglicht.

The Omicron variant appears to be no worse than other coronavirus strains, top scientists from the WHO and the United States told AFP, while cautioning that more research is needed to judge its severity.