Michael Carpenter
Washington D.C./26.07.23/Turan: The U.S. ambassador to the OSCE on Tuesday reiterated warnings that Russia might consider using sea mines to blow up a ship and blame the attack on Ukraine, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"... An attack on a civilian shipping vessel would also be a war crime," Ambassador Michael Carpenter told a press briefing organized by the State Department's Washington Foreign Press Center.
Asked by TURAN's correspondent if there was any credible way out of the current crisis following the collapse of the grain deal, Carpenter said, this is an issue that Russia could end today "if it wanted to".
"... Russia unilaterally withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Russia could restore commercial shipping today, if it wanted to, if it had political will. So it will now be incumbent on the international community to decide what step – further steps to take," he added.
He went on to add that the U.S, would 'certainly' support the efforts of the UN and Türkiye, who brokered the initial deal, to continue to press Russia to come back to the deal.
"Because frankly, all of the justifications that the Russian side has given for exiting this arrangement are based on false pretenses... So for example, Russia has claimed that there are sanctions imposed on its exports of fertilizer and foodstuffs, which is patently false. It is not true that the United States is sanctioning those goods."
He concluded: "Right now we believe, for the sake of the Global South and the hungry populations that live around the world that depend on those foodstuffs coming from Ukraine, that Russia should immediately accede back to this arrangement – which is, 32 million metric tons of foodstuffs have been provided, mostly to the developing world, since this deal was inaugurated."
Alex Raufoglu
Politics
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On 23 November at the COP29 climate conference in Baku, eco-activists from different countries held a protest action against the failure of countries to agree on climate finance.
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On the eve of the closing of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has drawn attention to the criminal cases of journalists detained in Azerbaijan.
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Negotiations at the 29th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku have been extended until November 24, a source in the UNFCCC Secretariat told the Turan news agency. According to the source, participants aim to finalize and sign the concluding documents by that date.
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According to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, officials from the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office's Anti-Smuggling Unit have detained an Azerbaijani citizen with a large shipment of gold. The detention took place near the Vadi İstanbul shopping center in the Sarıyer district, where a taxi was stopped. During the search, 70 kg of gold was found. The Azerbaijani citizen in the vehicle claimed ownership of the cargo and also stated that he was a diplomat. The investigation by the prosecutor's office is ongoing, reports Sabah newspaper. The media outlet does not disclose the name of the "diplomat," only his initials – M.G.Ş. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declined to comment on the situation.
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