PANAGYURISHTE, (BM) – Your briefly report on June 25 in last 12 hours from BulgarianMilitary.com news team:
UN warns of humanitarian disaster in Syria’s Idlib
In Syria, the devastation of continued air raids on Idlib is being laid bare, AlJazeera reported.
Nearly 500 civilians – many of them women and children – have been killed since the Russia-backed Syrian government offensive began nine weeks ago.
On the ground, Syrian forces are being accused of conducting a scorched-earth policy of destroying crops.
Arms sold from UK to Israel during Gaza protests
The British government approved arms sales to Israel worth over $17 million in 2018 when Israeli soldiers were accused of intentionally firing on and murdering Palestinian protestors at the Gaza border, MEMO reported.
The information released by the Department of International Trade (DIT) and compiled by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) shows that licenses were issued for the sale of weapons that included parts for assault rifles, ammunition and other arms that would be used against Palestinian demonstrations.
Last year on May 18, an arms sale worth more than $125,000 was approved by the government just four days after 68 Palestinians were shot by Israeli soldiers. Ironically, the export was approved the same week, when then-Prime Minister Theresa May described killings as “extremely concerning”.
Moreover, during a debate in the parliament on the same day, seven MPs urged for greater scrutiny on UK weapon exports to Israel. Some even called for imposing a total ban on arms sales to Tel Aviv.
Nonetheless, this did not stop the government from approving licenses to supply missile technology, military radar equipment and night vision gear amounting to $18 million from March 30 to the end of 2018.
“The message it sends is that no matter what atrocities are inflicted on the Palestinian people, arms sales will continue,” said CAAT spokesman Andrew Smith. “If shooting on the border didn’t stop the arms sales if the bombardment in 2014 and 2008 did not stop them, what more will it take?” he asked.
Iran’s Zarif says ‘B-Team’ wants war, not diplomacy, with Tehran
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in a tweet after U.S. imposed new sanctions on Tehran, said on Monday hawkish politicians close to U.S. President Donald Trump were thirsty for war rather than diplomacy, Reuters reported.
Trump targeted Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials with new U.S. sanctions on Monday, looking for a fresh blow to Iran’s economy after Tehran’s downing of an unmanned American drone last week.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Zarif will be placed under sanctions this week.
“@realDonaldTrump is 100% right that the US military has no business in the Persian Gulf. Removal of its forces is fully in line with interests of US and the world. But it’s now clear that the #B_Team is not concerned with US interests—they despise diplomacy, and thirst for war,” he tweeted.
Zarif has in the past said that a so-called “B-team” including Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, an ardent Iran hawk, and conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could goad Trump into a conflict with Tehran.
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BulgarianMilitary.com
Editorial team
Source: MEMO, AlJazeera, Reuters