Globe Best
North Korea, South China Sea
On Tillerson agenda
In Beijing
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Asahi.com
March 18, 2017
BEIJING--U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Beijing on Saturday for his first face-to-face talks with Chinese leaders expected to focus on North Korea's nuclear program, trade and South China Sea territorial disputes.
Tillerson's visit followed his remarks in South Korea on Friday in which he warned that preemptive military action against North Korea might be necessary if the threat from their weapons program reaches a level "that we believe requires action."
Source:
North Korea, South China Sea on Tillerson agenda in Beijing
China, the North's biggest source of diplomatic support and economic assistance, has yet to respond to his remarks, although Beijing has called repeatedly for steps to reduce tensions.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with whom Tillerson met Saturday afternoon, warned last week that the North and Washington and Seoul were like "two accelerating trains" headed at each other, with neither side willing to give way.
"The question is: Are the two sides really ready for a head-on collision?" Wang told reporters. "Our priority now is to flash the red light and apply the brakes on both trains."
Source:
North Korea, South China Sea on Tillerson agenda in Beijing
Wang said North Korea could suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for a halt in joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, a proposal swiftly shot down by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who said Washington has to see "some sort of positive action" from North Korea before it can take leader Kim Jong Un seriously.
Tillerson's comments in Seoul that "all of the options are on the table," including possible military action, are likely to be deeply disconcerting to Beijing, which fears that a collapse of Kim's regime would send waves of refugees into northeastern China and land South Korean and American forces on its border.
Source:
North Korea, South China Sea on Tillerson agenda in Beijing
China has agreed reluctantly to U.N. Security Council resolutions sanctioning North Korea, while calling for renewed dialogue under the Beijing-sponsored six-nation format that broke down in 2009.
In a further sign of its frustration with Pyongyang, China last month banned imports of North Korean coal for the rest of the year, potentially depriving Kim's regime of a key source of foreign currency.
Past U.S. administrations have considered military force because of North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile to deliver them, but rarely has that option been expressed so explicitly as by Tillerson.
Source:
North Korea, South China Sea on Tillerson agenda in Beijing
Washington Watch:
A Troubling Troika
Trump, Putin, Netanyahu
Douglas Bloomfield
January 11, 2017
Netanyahu, who identified with the Republicans, saw in Trump a candidate who didn’t give a hoot about peace talks, settlement construction or the Palestinians.
Source:
Washington Watch: A troubling troika- Trump, Putin, Netanyahu
Netanyahu had already been courting Putin. His calls and visits to Moscow were a way of poking a finger in Obama’s eye.[1]
He even talked about a realignment of alliances but that was meaningless. Who else would give Israel over $3 billion a year with no strings?[1]
Even with strings? Putin wants to replace the United States as the dominant foreign power in the region.[1]
Netanyahu may like playing the Russians against the Americans, but it won’t work. [1]
Right now he’s apoplectic because Obama did not veto UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning his settlements policy. That was a one-off; Obama had vetoed every other resolution Israel opposed – all of which, by the way, Putin voted for, including the latest.[1]
Source:
Douglas Bloomfield, Washington Watch:
A troubling troika- Trump, Putin, Netanyahu
Netanyahu: Trump Is A ‘True Friend Of Israel’
Who Will Bring Both Countries To ‘Greater Heights’
The way Putin and Netanyahu are responding
to Trump is really pretty unusual
Putin to Netanyahu: Don’t judge Iran by 5th century BC,
we live in a different world
Putin and Netanyahu:
A complex diplomatic dance
Jonathan Marcus
9 March 2017
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow on Thursday shows how Russia is now more important than ever in the Jewish state's strategic calculations. [2]
Russia's direct intervention in the Syrian war has consolidated President Bashar al-Assad's position and ensured that regime change will not happen any time soon. It has also transformed the tactical environment in which the Israeli Air Force operates.[2]
Russian combat patrols and sophisticated radars and air defences potentially limit Israel's freedom of action in the airspace over Syria.[2]
So Mr Netanyahu and the Russian president have much to discuss. [2]
Israel is eager to prevent sophisticated weapons systems being delivered to Hezbollah. It carries out periodic air strikes against warehouses or weapons convoys and these strikes do not seem to have been especially hindered by Russia's military presence next door. [2]
A good proportion of these weapons of course are Iranian-supplied, and Israel hopes that Moscow can act as a break on Tehran's growing influence in the region.[2]
Iran's broadening role has recently been a key element of the dialogue between Mr Netanyahu and the new Donald Trump administration as well.[2]
But it is the Russians who are the active players on the ground, hence the deepening and complex diplomatic dance between Israel and Moscow.[2]
Source: Putin and Netanyahu:
A complex diplomatic dance
Indeed they have frequent meetings - Mr Netanyahu rushed off to Moscow soon after the Russian military intervention in Syria was announced in 2015, and he was back there again last April. [2]
The regularity of these contacts underscores the importance of this "odd-couple" in Middle Eastern diplomacy.
[2]
Source: Putin and Netanyahu:
A complex diplomatic dance
The Republic of Armenia
VIOLATED
The UN Resolutions
822, 853, 874 and 884 of
The UN Security Council
Washington Times: US must stop financing Armenia that occupied Karabakh
USA should stop providing financial assistance to Armenia that occupied Karabakh
The UN Resolution 822, 30 April 1993 asked Armenia to respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and reaffirming the inviolability of international borders and the inadmissibility of the use of force for the acquisition of territory.[3]
The United Nations demanded from Armenia to act and follow the immediate cessation of all hostilities and hostile acts with a view to establishing a durable cease-fire, as well as immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from the Kelbadjar district and other recently occupied areas of Azerbaijan.[3][4]
RESOLUTION 853, 29 July 1993 : Reaffirming its resolution 822 (1993) of 30 April 1993.[5]
RESOLUTION 853, 29 July 1993: Reaffirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Azerbaijani Republic and of all other States in the region.[5]
RESOLUTION 853, 29 July 1993: Reaffirming also the inviolability of international borders and the inadmissability of the use of force for the acquisition of territory.[5]
RESOLUTION 874, 14 October 1993: Reaffirming its resolutions 822 (1993) of 30 April 1993 and 853 (1993) of 29 July 1993, and recalling the statement read by the President of the Council,
on behalf of the Council, on 18 August 1993 (S/26326), The conflict in and around the Nagorny Karabakh region of the Azerbaijani Republic.[6]
RESOLUTION 874, 14 October 1993: Reaffirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Azerbaijani Republic and of all other States in the region.[6]
RESOLUTION 874, 14 October 1993: Reaffirming also the inviolability of international borders and the
inadmissibility of the use of force for the acquisition of territory.[6]
RESOLUTION 884, 12 November 1993: Reaffirming its resolutions 822 (1993) of 30 April 1993, 853 (1993) of
29 July 1993 and 874 (1993) of 14 October 1993. [7]
RESOLUTION 884, 12 November 1993: Reaffirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Azerbaijani Republic and of all other States in the region. [7]
RESOLUTION 884, 12 November 1993: Reaffirming also the inviolability of international borders and the
inadmissibility of the use of force for the acquisition of territory.[7]
Nagorno-Karabakh Isn't Disputed Territory—It's Occupied
The Political Affairs Committee of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
has called for “the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces
and other irregular armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh
and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenian Takeover
On Azerbaijan lands
On Azerbaijan lands
Bastien Delvech
Translated by
Amélie Rastoin
30 Septembre 2014
For more than 20 years, Armenia has been occupying – in addition to the mountainous lands of Nagorno-Karabakh – 7 provinces bordering Azerbaijan, that it to say 20% of its territory.[8]
This Armenian unwillingness, preventing even as a start the creation of a frame to solve the litigation is that Armenia simply refuses to discuss the retrocession of these Azerbaijanis lands it is occupying. [8]
Yet on an international scale, no one wishes to acknowledge the legality of this takeover, and many refer to the UN law to denounce this situation. [8]
OIC meeting to address occupied Karabakh issue
Nagorno-Karabakh:Russia's Proxy War in the Caucasus
Russia shows its hand on Karabakh
Nagorno Karabakh is the historical land of Azerbaijan
