Israele-Giordania-Iran, rapporto difficile; Danimarca, incendio alla Borsa🗞️Rassegna del 17/04/2024

Israele

Israele-Iran:

(Reuters) Israeli war cabinet to meet for third time on response to Iran's attack + (The Economist) The head of Israel’s army said Iran’s attack on Israel would be “met with a response”

• Israel's war cabinet was set to meet for the third time in three days on Tuesday, an official said, to decide on a response to Iran's first-ever direct attack, amid international pressure to avoid further escalating the conflicts in the Middle East.
• Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he was "leading a diplomatic attack", writing to 32 countries to ask them to place sanctions on Iran's missile programme and follow Washington in proscribing its dominant military force, the Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a terrorist group.
• Meanwhile, the West increased pressure on Israel to show restraint. America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said Western countries were preparing further sanctions on Iran in a bid to stop war in the Middle East from widening.

Giordania-Iran:

(Bloomberg) Iran’s Conflict With Israel Puts US Ally Jordan on Edge

• Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel and the prospect of escalating hostilities has threatened to embroil Jordan, a key Western ally and a country regarded by Gulf states as pivotal to their own security.
• When the Islamic Republic fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday night, Jordan helped shoot down some that flew over its capital Amman [...] While he was quick to say the country would do the same if Israel were to use Jordanian airspace to attack Iran, the move led to a torrent of online abuse in the Islamic Republic. State media reposted a missive on social-media site X calling Jordanian King Abdullah II “a traitor” and pro-Tehran accounts shared memes of the king dressed in an Israel Defense Forces uniform.
• Jordan had already seen weeks of protests in Amman in support of Hamas [...] and the Palestinians who have died or had their lives upended by the conflict. Chants and slogans like ‘all of Jordan is Hamas’ and ‘Jordanian day of rage’ alarmed security officials and led to multiple arrests. Authorities have also been on high alert after Iran-backed Iraqi militia leader Abu Ali Al-Askary vowed to flood Jordan with enough weapons for 12,000 fighters to march on Israel.
• All of this has raised concerns about Jordan’s stability in both Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, and both Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed have offered their support to King Abdullah.
• [...] Jordanian officials feel caught between an Israeli government which they openly describe as a threat to regional peace and security, and a confrontational Iranian regime eager to leverage the increasingly unpopular war in Gaza to expand its influence and reach.

Ucraina

(Bloomberg) Russia Is Trying to Force Ukrainians to Abandon Their Second-Biggest City

• Ukrainian and Western officials see Russia’s escalated bombardment of Ukraine’s No. 2 city as a way to force the evacuation of civilians, they said.
• Russian forces tried and failed to capture Kharkiv in the first weeks of the war, a victory for the city’s mostly Russian-speaking population, [...] But more than two years since Putin ordered the invasion, living conditions in the city are increasingly perilous. The damage is extensive enough, and the attacks so unrelenting, that authorities will struggle to restore capacity before the cold sets in next winter [...]
• Almost nobody is predicting that Kremlin forces will be able to seize the sprawling city any time soon. Ukraine’s military is fortifying its defenses, while officials around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy estimate that Russia doesn’t have enough resources to mount a serious offensive [...]

(The Guardian) Volodymyr Zelenskiy signs new army mobilisation law + (Associated Press) Ukrainian president signs controversial law to boost conscription to fend off Russia’s aggression

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a controversial law Tuesday, days after it was passed by parliament, potentially helping Kyiv to boost conscription to replenish depleted forces to fend off Russia’s continued aggression.
• The mobilization law, published on Ukraine’s Parliamentary website, is expected to take effect in a month and make it easier to identify every draft-eligible man in the country. Many have dodged conscription by avoiding contact with authorities.
• It obliges men to update their draft data with the authorities, boosts payments to those who volunteer [the law provides soldiers with incentives, such as cash bonuses or money toward buying a house or car, which according to analysts Ukraine can’t afford], and adds new punishment for draft dodging.

(Reuters) Exclusive: Ukraine man's torture case against Russians seeks justice in Argentina

• Un uomo ucraino che sostiene di essere stato torturato dalle forze di occupazione russe ha presentato una denuncia legale dall'altra parte del mondo, in Argentina, un insolito tentativo di chiedere la responsabilità di presunti crimini di guerra in un momento in cui i pubblici ministeri di Kiev sono sopraffatti dalla guerra.
• Per la prima volta, l'uomo accusa, che rimane anonimo per questioni di sicurezza, è riuscito a far identificare almeno due persone dai loro nominativi o insegne militari, e altre senza nome di aver usato l'elettrocuzione e la detenzione illegale come forme di tortura tra la metà e la fine del 2022. Il ministero della Difesa russo lunedì ha rifiutato di commentare.
• "Sono stato trattenuto al lavoro. Poi mi hanno torturato. Hanno usato scosse elettriche", ."È stato incredibilmente doloroso, così ho perso conoscenza. Sono stato fortunato a sopravvivere. Molte persone sono ancora lì". ha detto a Reuters in un'intervista in un appartamento di Buenos Aires prima del deposito. Reuters non è stata in grado di confermare in modo indipendente le specifiche del racconto della vittima.
• Se i pubblici ministeri argentini accetteranno la denuncia, sarà il primo caso che esamina i presunti crimini di guerra russi in Ucraina presentati al di fuori dell'Europa e degli Stati Uniti. "Il deposito di oggi è un importante passo storico. Faremo tutto ciò che è in nostro potere per assistere la magistratura argentina nella sua ricerca della verità e della giustizia", ha dichiarato Yuriy Belousov, capo dell'unità per i crimini di guerra dell'ufficio del procuratore generale ucraino.

Europa

Danimarca:

(Reuters) Copenhagen stock exchange fire: Spire collapses as historic Borsen engulfed in flames

• A fire ripped through Copenhagen's Old Stock Exchange, one of the Danish capital's most famous landmarks, on Tuesday, engulfing its spire which collapsed in a scene reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral.
• The historic building, whose spire was shaped as the tails of four dragons intertwined, had been under renovation and clad in scaffolding when the fire broke out.
• Emergency services, employees from the Danish Chamber of Commerce, including its CEO Brian Mikkelsen, and even passers-by were seen carrying large paintings away from the building in a race to save historic artefacts from the flames.
• Rescued items would be sent to Denmark's National Museum for examination, its head of collection storage and curation Camilla Jul Bastholm told Reuters.

Belgio:

(POLITICO) Brussels police move to shut down Farage and Orbán’s right-wing jamboree

• Police in Brussels moved on Tuesday to shut down an ongoing gathering of Europe’s hard-right elite.
• The National Conservatism Conference was set to welcome Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and U.K. politician Nigel Farage over the next two days, but law enforcement arrived two hours into the event at the Claridge venue, near the European Quarter, to inform organizers that the event would be terminated.
• “The authorities decided to shut the event due to possibility of public disorder,” a police officer heard by POLITICO told one of the organizers.
• Just over an hour after first arriving, the police returned at roughly 12:45 p.m. to hand over an official order to the event’s local organizer Anthony Gilland, chief of staff at MCC. The police gave him 15 minutes to read and sign the three-page document. “One of the reasons that we’ve been given, it’s not the only reason, is that there will be a counterprotest this afternoon around about 5 p.m. and the idea is that the police are not able to protect free speech at this event,” he said.

Spagna-Catalogna:

(Reuters) Catalonia's Puigdemont says pro-independence party close to taking back control of region

• Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont [...] believes his party is "neck and neck" with Spain's ruling Socialists to win control of the region in an election in May. Puigdemont said that if it failed to do so, he may reconsider his party's critical support for the national government.
• Following inconclusive national elections last year, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had to go cap in hand to regional parties including Junts to prop up his minority government. In return, Puigdemont extracted the promise of an amnesty, which has enraged Spain's conservative opposition and a large part of its populace.
• Puigdemont fled to Belgium in 2017 after his attempt to secure Catalonia's independence collapsed, with Spain's then conservative government sending police to quash a referendum that courts had annulled and prosecuting its leaders for sedition and misuse of public funds.
• Now, with [the] amnesty bill due to exonerate him and hundreds of others, he is running for his hardline Junts party in the regional election from over the border in France. If he succeeds, he plans to return to take up his position. He said that despite early April polls showing the Socialists leading in Catalonia ahead of the May 12 vote, his party's internal polls show the race narrowed after he threw his hat in the ring.

Politica internazionale

Nord America

(BBC) House could vote on Ukraine aid this week, Speaker says

• He said an Iranian attack on Israel over the weekend had increased the urgency to sign off new foreign aid.Mr Johnson said the separate aid bills could be put to a vote this week.
   
• Mr Johnson went on to explain that the $96bn (£77bn) package of mixed aid - which had already been approved in the upper chamber - would not be put to a vote in its "current form". Instead, he said, "we will vote on each of these measures separately in four different pieces".
   
• It is thought these votes could happen by Friday evening. The aid - whether presented in separate bills or bundled back into one - would then have to be put to the Senate again.
   
• Mr Johnson has previously expressed support for legislation that would structure new Ukraine support in the form of loans - suggesting costs could be covered by authorising the US government to seize and sell Russian assets frozen since the start of the Ukraine war.