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6 March 2013
The United Nations refugee agency, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that one million people have fled Syria, in particular to Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. Since 1 January 2013, the number has risen with more than 400.000.
International donors have pledged 1.5 billion Dollar for a UN response plan to help the displaced people, but only 25 per cent of this has been funded.
Source: Reuters | One million refugees have fled Syria: U.N.
Source: UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency | Number of Syrian refugees reaches 1 million mark
4 March 2013
The sanctions regime imposed on Iran by the United States and the European Union impairs the delivery of drugs and medical equipment to Iran. Although the regime allows humanitarian trade, other laws restricting financial transactions with Iran make it impossible to implement that exception.
An Op-ed in The New York Times notes that although the Iranian government deserves criticism for poor allocation of scarce foreign currency resources and failing to act against corrupt practices, ‘the main culprit are the U.S. and European sanctions that regulate financial transactions with Iran.’ It concludes that ‘The West must relax and rationalize the terms of its sanctions regime against Iran to allow more medical goods into the country. If it doesn’t, more Iranian men, women and children will suffer needlessly’.
Source: Wilson Center | Sanctions and Medical Supply Shortages in Iran | by Siamak Namazi | February 2013
Source: The New York Times | Blocking Medicine to Iran
28 February 2013
The SHARES Project is closely following and collecting news items that are linked to the issue of shared responsibility (see: www.sharesproject.nl/news). Here is our ‘SHARES News Items Overview: 16-28 February 2013’ consisting of a summary of recent news relating to shared responsibility. (more…)
28 February 2013
The New York Times reports that Saudi Arabia financed a large purchase of infantry weapons from Croatia, which were secretly moved through Jordan to antigovernment fighters in Syria, according to United States (US) and Western officials familiar with the purchases. It is suggested by a Croatian newspaper that the US were possibly the intermediary.
The weapons supposedly included ammunition and ‘thousands of rifles and hundreds of machine guns’. Swiss-made hand grenades (that were provided to the United Arab Emirates) and Ukrainian-made rifle cartridges (that were purchased by Saudi Arabia) have also been found in the possession of rebels in Syria.
Source: The New York Times | Saudis Step Up Help for Rebels in Syria With Croatian Arms
26 February 2013
Al Jazeera has published a report detailing involvement of the United Kingdom (UK) in drone attacks by the United States (US). The report states that the UK has been providing locational intelligence in order to assist US drone operators carrying out strikes in Pakistan, and that it has granted General Electric export licenses for products integral to the production of Predator drones.
Source: Al Jazeera | Foreign complicity in the drone war