International
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN believes that Spain “opened a door that others will follow”
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Ryad Mansour, believes that Spain is in the group of “brave countries that opened a door that others will follow,” in reference to the recognition of the State of Palestine, which materializes on Tuesday.
In an interview with EFE at the UN headquarters, Mansour, 77, emphasizes that Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, has exercised “a sovereign right,” and is therefore a decision that “competes with Spain, its institutions and its people,” so he does not understand “the hysterical reaction of Israel.”
Mansour has been at the head of the Palestinian mission at the UN for 19 years and has become famous in recent months for starring in emotional speeches in the General Assembly or the Security Council in which he has been about to cry in the hardest days of the war.
Since last October 7, when the war began in Gaza with the attack in Hamas, he has deployed tireless activity in the corridors of the UN and has managed, for example, to unite the Arab Group of ambassadors and make them appear together regularly before the media, thus overcoming their differences present in almost all other conflicts.
Mansour believes that Israel has an “elitist and racist” attitude when he arrogates the right to tell countries whether or not they should recognize Palestine, or when he describes that recognition as “hostile”, to which he replies: “Is Spain an enemy of Israel because it believes in peace and invests in it? Please, it’s crazy!” he says, emphasizing that Spain has “a long historical relationship with Israel” (it recognized the Hebrew State in 1986) that no one doubts.
And although Israel has despised that recognition of Palestine as insignificant, Mansour questions it: “Don’t you care? Don’t they care about the bilateral relationship, the military assistance, the economic relationship? The hysteria with which they have accepted the decision (of recognition) is eloquent, otherwise why this fury? Why those measures against Spain, against Palestine?” he says, in relation to Israel’s announcement to prohibit the Spanish Consulate from providing services in the West Bank.
For the ambassador, there is no doubt that the decision of recognition has paved the way for others to do soon – he cites Belgium, Portugal, Luxembourg or Slovenia – and he says that this “door they have opened” works in two ways: it makes the decision of those already favorable easier and hinders resistance between those who oppose.
He has no doubt that it is a decision with echoes beyond Europe, since it can encourage other countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan or Korea. “The brave ones who started by opening that door will help them take the extra step in the right direction,” he says.
Mansour also believes that the admission of Palestine as a full member of the UN – vetoed alone by the United States on April 18 – is a matter of time, and recalls that other countries subject to vetoes, such as Italy itself before 1955, or the two Koreas, ended up accessing the UN through the big door. Palestine is now just an “observer state.”
“Why do we have to be at the mercy of what the occupier (Israel) says?, that violates our right to self-determination,” he explains, alluding to the reasoning that the United States – and others such as the United Kingdom or France – always repeats that a Palestinian State and its entry into the UN is something that must be the result of a negotiated resolution with Israel.
The ambassador is careful to openly criticize the United States for its unwakeable support for Israel, but says that when President Joe Biden talks about the solution of the States, he must specify it: “Are you going to ask for the settlements to stop? Land annexations in East Jerusalem? Are you going to reconsider the transfer of the Embassy? Tell me, what steps are you going to take?”
Regarding whether he prefers a Democratic government or a return of Donald Trump – president who multiplied more of the gestures towards Israel – the ambassador says he does not plan to make comments on national policy, but he recalls one detail: that in the Trump administration, after nine months of relative “honeymoon”, the United States changed its position and “the relationship became very bad.”
International
The Kremlin accuses the United States of throwing “firewood” by authorizing Ukraine to use long-range missiles
The Kremlin today accused the United States of “adding fuel to the fire” of the war in Ukraine by authorizing, according to the Western press, long-range missile attacks against Russian territory by Kiev.
“It is evident that the outgoing Administration in the United States intends to continue to add fuel to the fire and continue to cause an escalation of tension around this conflict,” said Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, in his daily telephone press conference.
The spokesman stressed that if it is confirmed that the West has given the green light to Kiev, it will mean “qualitatively a new phase of tension and a new situation regarding the involvement of the United States.”
The authorized weapons are, specifically, guided supersonic missiles called ATACMS that can carry conventional or cluster heads and have a range of about 300 kilometers.
Biden authorized the use of missiles only in the Russian region of Kursk
US President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use limited long-range missiles, for the moment, to defend its offensive positions in the Russian region of Kursk, where the Moscow army receives the help of thousands of soldiers from North Korea.
CNN and The New York Times report this unprecedented decision by the Biden administration, which will end its mandate on January 20, and which occurs when Moscow has deployed almost 50,000 troops in Kursk, the southern region of Russia where Kiev launched its surprise counteroffensive last summer.
The American network, which cites two officials from the country as sources, assures that the weapons are intended to be used, for the moment and mainly, in Kursk.
For its part, the newspaper highlights that Biden’s decision is an important change in American politics and has divided his advisors, since the measure occurs two months before his successor, the president-elect, Republican Donald J. Trump, takes office, after having promised that he will limit support for Ukraine.
Zelenski on missiles: “Those things are not announced”
Washington had refused to provide ATACMS to Ukraine during the first two years of the war, partly due to concerns about its manufacture, since the powerful missiles require time and complex components to produce them.
But Biden secretly approved the transfer of those missiles in February for use within Ukrainian territory. The United States delivered them in April, and has now allowed them to be used against Russian territory.
In his usual nightly voiceover, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, spoke about the information that appeared in US media about the authorization of the White House.
“The plan to strengthen Ukraine is the ‘Victory Plan’ that I have presented to our partners. One of the key points is about the long-range capabilities of our Army. Today there has been a lot of talk in the media that we would have received permission for these actions. But attacks are not done with words. These things are not announced. The missiles speak for themselves and there is no doubt that they will,” Zelenski said.
International
The number of deaths rises to 111 in Gaza in one of the most violent days of the month
The Palestinians killed throughout Sunday in Gaza rose at the end of the day to 111, according to the local news agency Wafa, which makes yesterday’s one of the most violent days in the Strip in the last month.
According to the daily report sent by the Ministry of Health, the total number of deaths as of today amounts to 43,922 people and 103,898 the number of injured in 13 months of war.
This high number of deaths in the punished enclave is mainly due to the massacre with 72 dead committed by the Israeli Army when bombing several buildings in Beit Lahia, in the northern region of Gaza that has remained besieged for six weeks.
The Israeli offensive in the northern Strip
Beit Lahia has been the scene of two of the bombings with the most victims of the war in the last month, the result of the campaign of air raids and the ground incursion that the Israeli Army undertook there, as well as in Yabalia and Beit Hanoun, between October 5 and 6.
On October 29, another airstrike against a five-story building ended the lives of 93 Gazans, according to figures from the health authorities, although residents of the area said at the time that they had buried 103 corpses.
On the 20th, another bombing that according to the armed forces was “precision” killed another 73 people in Beit Lahia.
For more than six weeks, the Army has maintained a military siege in the north that has caused more than 2,000 fatalities, according to estimates by the Government of the Belt, and has drastically worsened the already deficient conditions in which its population lived, having limited access to humanitarian aid to the region to minimal levels.
In addition, the Army has besieged and attacked the three active hospitals in the north: Kamal Adwan, Al Awda and Indonesia, the latter having to cease its activity.
Israel attacks a “humanitarian zone” in southern Gaza
“We are without electricity, we only have four hours of generator operation and for three hours we use batteries, the rest of the day we have no electricity,” Mohammed Salha, acting director of Al Awda, denounced to EFE.
Salha warns that he has not received a shipment of fuel for 40 days that allows them to operate the generators to have electricity, since it is in the Kamal Adwan but has not managed to coordinate with the Army to allow the transfer of gasoline to Al Awda.
Last night, the Wafa agency collected a new bombing against Beit Lahia of which no victims have yet been reported.
In the south, an attack against the “humanitarian zone” where most of Gaza’s displaced people are (90% of the population at the moment) killed a couple and their two children, and seriously injured another daughter of the couple.
Israel established part of southwestern Gaza, along the coasts of Al Mawasi, Jan Yunis and Deir al Balah, as a “safe zone” for the almost 2 million displaced people because of its offensive, although it has been the subject of multiple attacks throughout the year.
International
More than 20 dead and a hundred injured in several missile attacks against residential areas of Odessa and Sumi
At least 11 people have died and 89 others were injured in the Ukrainian city of Sumi by the impact of a Russian missile against a residential building last night, local authorities reported on social networks.
The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, has condemned the attack and explained that among the fatalities are two children.
“It is an attack not only against Ukrainians but against the very concept of humanity. And against all those who believe that the enemy can be stopped with concessions instead of by force,” Zelenska wrote on her social network account X.
According to Ukrainian emergency services, there are eleven minors among the injured.
Sumi is located next to the border with Russia and is regularly attacked by Kremlin forces.
At least 10 dead in another missile attack against Odessa
A few hours after the daylight attack on Sumi, at least 10 people died, including seven policemen and a health worker, in a Russian missile attack against a residential area of the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned this attack against Odessa on his social networks.
“Russian terrorists hit with a ballistic missile against Odessa, against a residential area,” Zelenski wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to the Ukrainian president, the missile has fallen into a park and has caused damage to a residential building, a university and an administrative building.
Zelenski added that it is not “an accidental attack” and described the bombing as “exemplary.”
Zelenski: Russia is only interested in war
“After the calls and meetings with Putin, after all these words in the media about his supposed ‘renunciation’ of the attacks, Russia shows what it is really interested in: only in the war,” Zelenski said in reference to the calls that the US president-elect, Donald Trump, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, would have had in recent days with the Russian president.
Zelenski asked the leaders participating in Brazil at the G20 summit to “listen” to the message sent by Putin’s attack.
Monday’s attacks follow a day, Sunday, in which Russia launched 120 missiles and 90 drones against several regions of Ukraine.
This massive combined attack in which hypersonic missiles and other types were used was directed against Ukrainian electrical infrastructure.
The destruction caused has forced the authorities to reschedule power cuts throughout the country.
The Kremlin accuses the United States of throwing “firewood” by authorizing Ukraine to use long-range missiles
The number of deaths rises to 111 in Gaza in one of the most violent days of the month
More than 20 dead and a hundred injured in several missile attacks against residential areas of Odessa and Sumi
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