Mitchell working closely with Europe on Mideast. The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will start this evening with a dinner at the White House. In preparation, Obama’s Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell has briefed the press. He has underlined his close cooperation with Europe. Laura Rozen has a quote from Mitchell:
I have been to the region (Mideast) many, many times, and that’s all been widely reported. What has been less widely reported is that on most of my trips, I stop in Europe and in other places on the way over and back. I’ve made many visits to Brussels, to European capitals and to the United Nations. We think it important that there be a broad basis of international support. We take seriously the Quartet’s role, and that’s reflected in Prime Minister Blair’s presence at the diner tomorrow evening.
MEP’s joining demonstration in Moscow. AP reports:
Four European Union lawmakers joined a banned opposition rally in central Moscow on Tuesday and criticized Russian police for violently detaining an opposition leader and dozens of other protesters. Heidi Hautala, who heads the EU parliament’s subcommittee on human rights, called the detention of former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov at the rally “a violation” of his rights. Nemtsov is now an opposition leader.
Baton-wielding police officers also violently pushed around her colleague, Dutch lawmaker Thijs Berman. “This is an amazing way of dealing with democracy, shocking,” Berman told The Associated Press.
Dozens of police officers heavily cordoned off the square where the rally was held and hauled away protesters as they chanted “Down with the police state!” and “Russia without Putin!”. Moscow police told the Interfax news agency that more than 60 people were detained. Police also detained some 70 protesters at a similar rally in St. Petersburg. Opposition groups have been calling rallies on the 31st day of each month to honor the 31st article of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the right of assembly. Most of the rallies have been banned or dispersed by police as unsanctioned. (…)
The EU lawmakers were visiting Russia to attend a Sept. 1 commemoration ceremony for the 2004 hostage-taking raid on a school in Beslan in which 334 people died — more than half of them children.
More on the demonstration in the Moscow Times: here, more on the MEP’s trip in the EU Observer: here.
EU to discuss Gaddafi’s request for 5 billion Euros. AFP reports:
Italy’s foreign minister on Tuesday said the European Union would discuss Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s request for five billion euros (6.3 billion dollars) a year to stop clandestine migration.
“The issue of the five billions has never been examined or discussed. We will tackle it at the European level and I imagine it will be dealt with at the November Euro-African summit in Libya,” Franco Frattini told reporters. “Kadhafi is thinking what all north African leaders are thinking: they can’t and don’t want to be the keepers of Europe,” he added. “Europe needs to finally get a migration policy, giving plenty of funds to the migrants’ countries of origin and helping transitory countries face a huge burden.”
Speaking during a visit to Italy, Kadhafi suggested on Monday that the European Union should pay Libya “at least five billion euros a year” to avoid what he called a “black Europe.” To do so would be in the interest of Europe, he said, because otherwise “tomorrow, with the advance of millions of immigrants, could become (another) Africa.” Kadhafi said his plan to “put an end to” illegal immigration was backed by Italy, but Berlusconi did not address the matter.
Turkish-Kurdish conflict “is slowly and inexorably moving toward a crisis point”, says Henri J. Barkey (Carngie) in a backgrounder at Foreign Policy.
Kosovo and the ICJ ruling. The German Law Journal has a number of in-depth articles on the “advisory opinion” recently given by the International Court of Justice which is widely seen as supporting Kosovo’s independence. The articles can be downloaded here (found at Almut Möllers’ Berlin Brief blog).
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