Page 5 - aruba-today-20220621

A5
WORLD NEWS Tuesday 21 June 2022
Israel to dissolve parliament, call 5th election in 3 years

By ILAN BEN ZION that grant West Bank set-
Associated Press tlers special legal status. If
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s those laws were to expire,
weakened coalition gov- settlers would be subject
ernment decided Monday to many of the military laws
to dissolve parliament and that apply to the territory’s
call a new election, the more than 2 million Pales-
country’s fifth in three years. tinians.
The vote, expected this Parliament was to vote to
fall, could bring about the extend the laws earlier this
return of a nationalist reli- month. But the hard-line op-
gious government led by position, comprised heavily
former Prime Minister Benja- of settler supporters, para-
min Netanyahu or another doxically voted against the
prolonged period of po- bill in order to embarrass
litical gridlock. The previous the government.
four elections, focused on Dovish members of the
Netanyahu’s fitness to rule coalition who normally op-
while on trial for corruption pose the settlements voted
charges, ended in dead- in favor of the bill in hopes
lock. of keeping the government
In a nationally televised afloat.
news conference, Prime By dissolving parliament,
Minister Naftali Bennett said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, left, speaks during a joint statement with Foreign Minister Yair the laws remain in effect.
it wasn’t easy to disband Lapid, at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, June 20, 2022. Bennett, a former settler
the government, but he Associated Press leader, said that if he had
called it “the right decision nounced together. line parties that oppose without imposing any lock- allowed the laws to expire,
for Israel.” “Even if we’re going to Palestinian independence. downs. there would have been
The fragile coalition gov- elections in a few months, Often described as a politi- But eventually it unraveled, “grave security perils and
ernment, which includes our challenges as a state cal “experiment,” it made in large part because sev- constitutional chaos.”
parties from across the po- cannot wait,” Lapid said. history by becoming the eral members of Bennett’s “I couldn’t let that hap-
litical spectrum, lost its ma- Bennett formed the eight- first Israeli coalition govern- hard-line party objected to pen,” he said.
jority earlier this year and party coalition in June 2021 ment to include an Arab what they felt were com- The dissolution threatened
has faced rebellions from after four successive incon- party. promises made by him to to overshadow a visit
different lawmakers in re- clusive elections. The alliance made a se- keep the coalition afloat scheduled by President Joe
cent weeks. It included a diverse array ries of accomplishments, and his perceived modera- Biden scheduled for next
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid of parties, from dovish fac- including passing the first tion. month. The U.S. Embassy
will take over from Ben- tions that support an end to national budget in several The immediate cause for said it assumed that the
nett on an interim basis in Israel’s occupation of lands years and navigating a pair Bennett’s decision was the visit would take place as
an agreement they an- captured in 1967, to hard- of coronavirus outbreaks looming expiration of laws planned. q

EU: Blame Russia, not sanctions, for

global food crisis

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN ing in Ukraine and Western adding that the Kremlin’s
Associated Press sanctions had worsened attempt to blame Western
BRUSSELS (AP) — The Euro- food shortages, and ap- sanctions for the crisis was
pean Union’s top diplomat pealed to other countries just “propaganda.”
said on Monday he has to ensure grain and fertil- Sall also complained that
written to all African foreign izer exports from Russia and the collateral effects of
ministers to explain that the Ukraine aren’t blocked. the EU decision to expel
bloc’s sanctions on Russia “Russia is blockading Ukrai- many Russian banks from
are not responsible for the nian exports,” Josep Bor- the SWIFT financial messag-
looming global food crisis, rell said after a meeting of ing system will hurt African
and pledged to work out EU Foreign Affairs ministers. countries’ ability to make A Russian soldier guards an area next to a field of wheat as
ways for exports of food “Not us. Russia is destroying payments for food imports. foreign journalists work in the Zaporizhzhia region in an area
and fertilizers to reach their ports, and destroying food Borrell said he understands under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine, Tuesday,
continent. stocks, destroying transport the concerns of African June 14, 2022.
The EU has not banned ex- infrastructure.” leaders about the conse- Associated Press
ports of Russian food or fer- Russia’s war against Ukraine quences of EU sanctions. on Belarus before the war and economic actors to

tilizers to non-EU nations as has been preventing some “If there is a problem, we targeting exports of potash explain what they can do
part of its sanctions pack- 20 million tons of Ukrainian will solve it,” he said. “But I a common fertilizer ingredi- under the sanctions re-
age. grain from getting to the have to know the problem. ent can affect its distribu- gime.
Earlier this month, the chair- Middle East, North Africa Not the whole financial sys- tion across the world. “Because our sanctions
man of the African Union, and parts of Asia. tem of Russia is de-Swifted.” In addition, Borrell said the don’t forbid them to partic-
Senegal’s President Macky Borrell said it is “a deliberate Meanwhile, Borrell said the European Commission, the ipate on the trade on food,
Sall, told Russian President attempt (by Russia) to cre- bloc is ready to look into EU’s executive arm, will fertilizers with Russia and
Vladimir Putin that the fight- ate hunger in the world,” whether sanctions imposed send letters to all financial third countries,” he said.q