E-mails reveal: 'Belgium made sure Saudis knew it voted regime onto U.N. women’s rights commission'

Belgian Foreign Min Reynders on the right

Leaked e-mails: Belgium made sure Saudis knew it voted regime onto U.N. women’s rights commission. (UN Watch).

Scandal: internal emails reveal that Belgium instructed its diplomats to vote Saudi Arabia onto the U.N. women’s rights commission — and to make sure the fundamentalist regime knew of Belgium’s support.

New elements calling Belgian FM Reynders into question.

April 28, 2017 – At least nine hours passed between the time when the cabinet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed of the request of a vote at the United Nations Commission for Women’s Rights and the time when it was answered, as confirmed Friday by the Ecologists’ party, based on internal emails.

According to the Green Party, the Belgian delegation to the United Nations in New York informed the cabinet of Didier Reynders on April 9 at 12:33 a.m. of the request for a vote from the United Stations about the entry of Saudi Arabia into the commission. The response was sent at 3:34 p.m. Uncertainty remains about the way the time delay should be considered, but at the very least, nine hours had passed.

“This gives a false image of the foreign office”

According to these documents, the cabinet’s reply, written in the first person, mentions the following elements. The “clean slate” procedures should be followed and Belgium should therefore provide its support to the candidates for the various positions during the secret vote. Furthermore, the delegation was requested to inform the various candidates, including Saudi Arabia, of this support if possible.

According to the minutes from a meeting that took place at the foreign office yesterday (see the tweet from Kristof Calvo below), the administration complained about the communication about this affair and implied that Reynders was indeed aware of it. “Some press information insinuates that our Permanent Mission in New York may have acted on its own initiative, and that the Ministry may have not been aware of it. This give a false image of the foreign office as a completely uncontrolled organization.” Read the full story here.

Update :  

Belgian FM @dreynders: We voted Saudis onto UN women's rights commission to try and make them into better feminists.https://t.co/WDMB3HDHcQ pic.twitter.com/Pu1h4A7YtP

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 1, 2017

                          Hmmm.......Didier Reynders met Saudi Prince sought by Interpol

Who's Who at the UN........See below

EU’s Mogherini rushes to Iran's defense: JCPOA Endorsed by UNSC, Not to be Changed.

EU’s Mogherini rushes to Iran's defense: JCPOA Endorsed by UNSC, Not to be Changed. (IFPnews).

“And on Iran, let me tell you very clearly that this is not a bilateral agreement, it is a multilateral agreement, endorsed by the UN Security Council resolution. So it is in our European interest, but also in the UN interest and duty to guarantee that the agreement is implemented in full.

For the whole duration of the agreement, which is 10 years,” Mogherini said on Sunday evening at an informal meeting of the European Union’s foreign ministers in Brussels, the official website of the EU reported on Monday.

The ministers discussed a wide range of issue, including the change of US foreign policy under President-elect Donald Trump.

“I have personally a specific role to guarantee that this (the JCPOA) is done by all sides, and for sure this is in European interest. So we will take that as one of the keys elements that will not change,” she added.


Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), reached the comprehensive nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in July 2015 and it was implemented in January 2016.

Trump's Election Triggers Deep Concern in Europe & EU politicians fearing for their future.

Source

Trump's Election Triggers Deep Concern in Europe & EU politicians fearing for their future. (Spiegel).

The European Union is facing what the Americans like to call a "perfect storm." Russian President Vladimir Putin is pursuing expansionism on the back of violence and propaganda, Turkey is transforming into a dictatorship and populists are driving Britain out of the EU and have risen to power in Poland and Hungary -- and may soon take the reins elsewhere as well.

Two days after the US election, Europe finds itself gripped by a mixture of disbelief and desperation, only imperfectly masked by formulaic messages of congratulations sent to Washington. Chancellor Angela Merkel even made her cooperation with Trump dependent on his adherence to fundamental values. A German head of government admonishing a newly elected US president to uphold freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human dignity? Normally such a thing would be the height of impudence.

But almost nothing seems normal these days -- neither in European relations with the US nor elsewhere. Current events in Turkey, for example, would likely be the top issue of concern for the EU if it weren't for Trump's election. With the civil war still raging in Syria, Turkey plays a key role in European security, but the NATO country is sliding toward a dictatorship and the refugee deal with the EU is threatening to collapse. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doing booming business with Putin and even hopes to discuss buying a missile defense system with the Russian president.

With Britain's departure, the EU is losing its second-largest economy and a country with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Europe's economy remains unstable and right-wing populists are on the rise in France, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany -- and they are already in power in Poland and Hungary. The European Commission believes the same values Merkel admonished Trump to respect are under threat in Poland.

Many in Brussels are concerned that the EU is facing the same fate as the US -- namely that Front National leader Marine Le Pen could end up being elected president in France and that Frauke Petry, head of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany, could even take over the German Chancellery. Such a thing might seem unimaginable, but many thought that Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections was unimaginable too.

The anger that many voters feel against government institutions and the establishment, the anger that propelled Trump to the presidency, is also widely present in Europe. 

But nobody has yet found an answer for how to oppose it. The skepticism, she adds, isn't just fueled by concerns about having been left behind by globalization, but also by the desire to return to nationalist identity. Hmmm.......They all ignored the voters their complaints thought they could do without the voter now the time of reckoning is coming. Read the full story here.

Video - Children working 60 hrs a week in Sweatshops from Turkey, unethical & unfair competition towards the EU

BBC vid of Syrian refugee children (from Aleppo) working 60 hrs a week in Turkish factories. pic.twitter.com/KuNLlcbt5G

— Rojava (@AzadiRojava) October 28, 2016

BBC vid of Syrian refugee children (from Aleppo) working 60 hrs a week in Turkish factories. 

And the EU[nuchs] in the EU parliament want this to become part of the European market!

'Ukraine may provoke another gas crisis with EU.' Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU

 'Ukraine may provoke another gas crisis with EU.' Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU. (Tass).

Ukraine may provoke another crisis in gas relations between Moscow and the European Union if it steals Russian gas meant for transit to Europe in the wintertime, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on Monday.

"To live through a winter normally, there are calculations of how much gas is to be pumped to storage facilities in the summertime," he said. "I’d refrain from citing exact figures but I would say that Ukraine’s storage facilities are now holding much less gas than is minimally needed. Hence, they will not be able to use this gas from underground storage facilities, like they did it last winter - as I have already said they have not been buying Russian gas since November 2015."

Last winter, luckily for Ukraine, was warm enough, he noted. "I would not make guesses about the coming winter but even if it is mild the problem may surface all the same," Chizhov said.

"The entire experience of gas relations with Kiev suggests that the path of least resistance for them is to pump gas from the transit pipe running to Europe. In such event, we can expect another crisis."

"So, the European Commission is probably addressing this issue. Thus, [Vice-President of the European Union Commission in charge of the Energy Union Maros] Sefcovic has visited Kiev. So, let us wait and see what will come of it," the Russian diplomat said.

In the meantime, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Kiev will need about two more billion cubic meters of gas to live through the winter. Hmmm.....Sounds like the EU[nuchs] will again pay Ukraine's unpaid bills. Read the full story here.

Luxembourg foreign minister calls for Hungary to be booted from EU.

Luxembourg foreign minister calls for Hungary to be booted from EU. (SofiaGlobe).

Tuesday’s edition of Die Welt newspaper carried an interview with the foreign minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, in which he called for Hungary to be “temporarily, or in the worst case, permanently” excluded from the European Union.

“We cannot accept that the basic values of the European Union are being massively violated,” Asselborn said in the article.

 “Anyone, such as Hungary, who builds fences against war refugees, or who infringes on the freedom of the press or the independence of the justice system” should be excluded.


Hungary has been one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of taking in refugees from conflict areas such as Syria. The nation, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has taken several steps to keep refugees out, including building fences along its borders. Hmmm.....So it's OK To violate human rights for 'Islamist' Turkey, and Iran, but not for Hungary? More here at DieWelt

EU 'sold out European security to Turkey' over refugee deal: Hungarian PM Viktor Orban

EU 'sold out to Turkey' over refugee deal: Hungarian PM Viktor Orban. (AA).

The European Union has "sold out to Turkey" in its handling of the refugee crisis and the consequences are "impossible to predict," Hungary's prime minister warned in an interview published Saturday. Viktor Orban launched the salvo in an interview with the German weekly Wirtschaftswoche as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and top EU leaders head to Turkey to boost a migrant deportation deal that has been slow to get off the ground.

With the deal clinched by Brussels and Ankara, largely driven by Merkel, "we have sold out to Turkey. Such a thing is never good," said Orban, who has erected a barbed-wire fence to keep migrants and refugees from crossing into his country.

"The security of the European Union cannot be in the hands of a power outside the EU."

Under the month-old accord, migrants who travel to the Greek islands and whose asylum claims are rejected are being returned to Turkey in return for billions in EU aid.

The EU also promised to resettle one Syrian refugee for every Syrian taken back by Turkey, to grant visa-free travel to Turks within the border-free Schengen Zone and to reassess Ankara's stalled EU membership bid.

Turkey has also demanded an additional three billion euros by 2018 towards hosting migrants on its territory and warned that the deal could fall through if the EU does not allow visa-free travel for Turkish citizens by June.

"We, the members of the EU, have already paid three billion to Turkey, soon we must pay three billion more. Impossible to predict where that will end," said Orban, who had himself supported the deal.

"I supported the Turkish strategy only on the condition that there is also a system of protection on our own borders" in the EU, he said.

Brussels has made a "mistake", he said, by focusing on redistributing the refugees rather than protecting its borders.