US diplomats and military brass synchronize their messaging on Ukraine docs
State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the US and NATO’s written response to Russia’s security demands, leaked to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, are genuine. Both the State Department and the Pentagon denied being behind the leaks, but stood by them.
Originally intended to remain classified, documents published by El Pais on Wednesday revealed that the US and NATO have rejected Russia’s request that the alliance halt its eastward expansion, and NATO’s response also reiterated its support for “the right of other states to choose or change security arrangements,” rebuking Russia’s demand that it accept neither Ukraine nor any new members, and called on Moscow to withdraw from Ukraine, suggesting that the bloc wants Russia to cede control of Crimea to Kiev.
“We did not make these documents public, but now that they are, we can confirm what we have always said,” Price told reporters at a press conference later on Wednesday.
“We are united with our NATO allies … we have gone the extra mile to seek, to find, to test the proposition that there is a diplomatic solution to this crisis.”
Price’s statement was almost identical to one made earlier by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, who also denied that the US was behind the leak, yet celebrated the documents now being out in the open.
Neither Price nor Kirby outrightly rejected the idea that another NATO ally could have leaked the files to El Pais, which is a consistently pro-NATO newspaper.
Asked to directly confirm the veracity of the files, Price replied “I have seen nothing to suggest that these documents are not authentic.”
“If the source of these documents, whoever that source may be, thought that by leaking them that they would embarrass the US,” Kirby continued with a smile, “they will find that they were sorely mistaken.”
While both Price and Kirby said in unison that the US has “gone the extra mile” to seek a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, Moscow does not see things that way. Russia has repeatedly called for an end to NATO’s expansion into the former Warsaw Pact states, a promise the US-led West made at the end of the Cold War but subsequently reneged on.
Russia also points to the 1999 OSCE Charter for European Security, which says that each country “has an equal right to security,” and countries “will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other states.” While Western leaders claim that NATO is a purely defensive alliance and its expansion to Russia’s borders would not threaten Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian media last week that it was “difficult” to view the alliance this way, considering its interventions in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya.
MADRID, Feb 02 (IPS) – This is about Wetlands, which are considered as a natural solution to the global threat of climate change. They absorb carbon dioxide, help slow global heating and reduce pollution, hence they are often referred to as the “Kidneys of the Earth”.
Two wharf workers tested positive Tuesday. The Ministry of Health has been testing workers there amid international aid shipments after last month’s volcanic eruption.
(Image credit: Mary Lyn Fonua /Matangi Tonga/AFP via Getty Imag)
The French president has labelled Westminster “hypocrites” in the ongoing row over illegal Channel crossings
Speaking to regional French newspaper La Voix du Nord on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would be “stepping up” pressure against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to establish a legal route to Britain for asylum seekers.
Reiterating a previous remark, the French leader insisted that the British economy is reliant on low-paid, illegal migrants who do the jobs Britons just won’t consider doing.
“The British continue to have a system from the 1980s, which manages economic immigration through hypocrisy. There is no legal immigration route,” he stated.
“The British must articulate their needs in terms of the economy and reopen a path to legal asylum requests. We are going to step up the pressure,” the French leader, whose current term comes to an end in April, told the paper.
France has urged the UK to set up processing centers for asylum seekers and establish legal routes for migration, something Britain is yet to do.
Speaking in 2021, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that migrants had no other choice but to cross the Channel if they wanted to claim asylum in the UK. It was also claimed that Britain’s relaxed labor practice encouraged migrants to illegally move to the UK and seek employment.
Britain has called on Paris to do more in stopping migrants setting sail from France, even providing financing to enhance French naval patrols.
Despite this, migrant crossings grew considerably in 2021 and have continued to do so in 2022. In January, UK authorities intercepted or rescued 1,341 people making the perilous crossing to Britain, compared to 223 the year before.
Many asylum seekers have been put up in British hotels at the taxpayers’ expense as they await processing.
The Nationality and Borders Bill which is currently being discussed in the House of Lords could radically change things. It proposes ruling asylum claims as inadmissible if the claimant arrives by an illegal route, such as crossing the Channel from France on a small boat. They may even receive a jail sentence.
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Feb 02 (IPS) – Hidden in plain sight, the extreme hypocrisy of the U.S. position on NATO and Ukraine cries out for journalistic coverage and open debate in the USA’s major media outlets. But those outlets, with rare exceptions, have gone into virtually Orwellian mode, only allowing elaboration on the theme of America good, Russia bad.
