Page 5 - aruba-today-20220923

A5
WORLD NEWS Friday 23 September 2022

EU talks up Russia sanctions but consensus may prove elusive

By LORNE COOK are the easy part. Agree-
Associated Press ing on new measures has
BRUSSELS (AP) — The Euro- proven exceedingly dif-
pean Union appears deter- ficult. Energy interests are
mined to respond to new notably hard to overcome.
Russian attempts to annex Hungary has led resistance
parts of Ukraine with more to sanctions that might hit
sanctions, but finding a its supplies from Russia, but
consensus among mem- it isn’t alone in hesitating.
ber countries is becom- The last round of sanctions
ing increasingly difficult as was announced on May
measures meant to punish 4, but only agreed on four
Moscow bite into their own weeks later, as concerns
economies. over oil divided member
The 27-nation bloc has im- countries. Rather than a
posed six rounds of sanc- new set of sanctions, a
tions on Russia since Presi- “maintenance and align-
dent Vladimir Putin ordered ment” package was sealed
his forces into Ukraine on in July, mostly to close loop-
Feb. 24. Banks, companies holes on measures already
and markets have been hit agreed upon.
even parts of the sensitive That said, the mayor of
energy sector and more Moscow was one of 54
than 1,200 officials been From left, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der more people whose assets
targeted with asset freezes Leyen, President Joe Biden, Connie Mudenda (RED) ambassador and South Korean President were frozen and Sberbank
and travel bans. Yoon Suk Yeol pose for photos during the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference, a major Russian financial in-
Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in New York.
What could have taken Associated Press stitution was also targeted.
years to agree on in the Meanwhile, technical work
past was achieved in just ment that Russian-con- sep Borrell said Wednes- brought forward as soon on a seventh package has
over three months relative trolled regions in eastern day that “Russia, its political as possible in coordination quietly continued.
light speed for the EU. But and southern Ukraine plan leadership, and all those in- with our partners,” he said Pressed by reporters in New
European economies al- to hold referendums on be- volved in organizing these in a statement after chair- York for details about what
ready battered by the CO- coming part of Russia. This ‘referenda’ as well as in ing an emergency meet- might be coming, Borrell
VID-19 pandemic are now could allow Moscow to es- other violations of interna- ing of EU foreign ministers said the sanctions would
fighting high inflation, with calate the war, especially tional law and international on the sidelines of the U.N. target “new areas of the
skyrocketing electricity and after Putin’s decision to call humanitarian law in Ukraine General Assembly in New Russian economy, espe-
natural gas prices. up 300,000 military reserv- will be held accountable.” York. cially if I can be a little
The spur for the EU to act ists. “Additional restrictive mea- But political declarations more concrete the techno-
again was the announce- EU foreign policy chief Jo- sures against Russia will be by officials based in Brussels logical ones.”q

Hamas threatens violence over contested Jerusalem holy site

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Mosque” ahead of the up- extremists visited a con- previous rounds of violence Mahmoud al-Zahar decried
Palestinian militant group coming Jewish High Holi- tested holy site revered by between Israel and the Pal- what he called a “blatant
Hamas on Thursday threat- days. both Jews and Muslims and estinians. attack on the religious and
ened hostile actions Hamas’s threats came just blew the shofar a ram’s For Jews, the site is the ho- Islamic status of the city
against Israel over what it ahead of Sunday’s Jewish horn that’s trumpeted in liest on earth, the location and the mosque,” saying
called “violations against new year, and a day after the run-up to and during of two ancient Temples. For Israel bore full responsibility
Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa a group of Jewish religious the Jewish High Holidays. Muslims, it is the home of for “the possibility of drag-
The Jewish new year, Rosh the Al-Aqsa Mosque and ging the entire region into
Hashanah, begins at sun- the third holiest place after an open religious war.”
down on Sunday, and in Mecca and Medina. The He said the militant group,
the succeeding weeks shrine is the emotional epi- which rules the Gaza Strip,
thousands of Israelis are ex- center of the decades-long would “defend the rights
pected to visit Jerusalem. Israeli-Palestinian conflict. and sanctities of our peo-
Omer Barlev, Israel’s min- Officially, under a loose set ple by all possible means.”
ister in charge of police, of rules known as the “sta- Israel and Hamas have
told Kan public radio on tus quo,” Jews are allowed fought four wars in the
Wednesday that Israeli to visit, but not pray at the Gaza Strip since the Islamist
authorities would not limit site, which is managed by militant group seized pow-
Jewish visits to the con- a Jordanian-run trust. But in er in 2007. The most recent
tested Jerusalem holy site recent years, the number battle, in May 2021, began
known to Jews as the Tem- of Jewish visitors to the site when Hamas fired rockets
ple Mount and to Muslims has steadily grown, and at Jerusalem as Israeli na-
as the Al-Aqsa Mosque some hold Jewish prayer at tionalists planned to march
Masked Palestinians carry Palestinian and Hamas flags during compound. the site under police pro- through Jerusalem’s historic
Eid al-Fitr celebrations next to the next to the Dome of the Rock
Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Visitations and prayers by tection. Old City, which is home to
Jerusalem, May 2, 2022. hard-line Jewish radicals Addressing reporters in the holy sites to Judaism, Chris-
Associated Press at the site have triggered city of Gaza, Hamas leader tianity and Islam.q