World

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan died Friday aged 73 after a years-long battle with illness, triggering a period of mourning and a handover of power in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Sheikh Khalifa, who was in office during a time of rocketing fortunes for the United Arab Emirates but was rarely seen in public, was laid to rest in Abu Dhabi’s Al Bateen Cemetery just hours after his death was announced, in accordance with Muslim tradition.

Sheikh Khalifa’s funeral prayers were conducted by his expected successor and half-brother Mohamed bin Zayed, who has long been viewed as the country’s de facto ruler.

“The people of the Emirates are united in grief as we mourn the loss of our leader and President, Khalifa bin Zayed,” tweeted Mohamed bin Zayed, often known as “MBZ”.

The most visible testament to Sheikh Khalifa is the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which was renamed after he bailed out the debt-hit emirate when the global financial crisis struck in 2009.

Flags flew at half-mast above the interior ministry in Abu Dhabi and other landmarks at the start of 40 days of official mourning, with work suspended in the public and private sectors until Tuesday.

Emirati men in traditional dress attended sombre funeral prayers at Abu Dhabi’s enormous, white-marble Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, where the imam’s voice brimmed with emotion over the loudspeaker.

As tributes poured in from abroad, US President Joe Biden called Sheikh Khalifa “a true partner and friend of the United States”. Neighbouring Saudi Arabia suspended sports and entertainment events and Oman, Lebanon and Kuwait also ordered three days of mourning.

In a demonstration of the UAE’s diverse allegiances, Russian President Vladimir Putin also paid tribute, as did Iran’s foreign minister and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Sheikh Khalifa took over as the UAE’s second president in November 2004, succeeding his father as the 16th ruler of Abu Dhabi, the richest of the federation’s seven emirates.

He has made few public appearances since 2014, when he had surgery following a stroke, although he has continued to issue rulings. 

The cause of death was not immediately released.

– Frail figure –

The UAE, a former British protectorate that was founded in 1971, has gone from desert outpost to booming state in its short history, fuelled by its oil wealth and Dubai’s rise as a trading and financial centre.

The Arab world’s second-biggest economy behind Saudi Arabia is now wielding growing political influence, filling a space ceded by traditional powers such as Egypt, Iraq and Syria.

The country of about 10 million also joined military campaigns in Libya and Yemen and broke ranks with much of the Arab world to establish ties with Israel in 2020.

As the changes unfolded, the bearded Sheikh Khalifa had cut a frail figure on his occasional public appearances, while his half-brother hosted world leaders and led diplomatic forays abroad.

Sheikh Khalifa, who had no formal higher education, came to the rescue of Dubai when it was hit by the global financial crisis, extending a multi-billion-dollar lifeline to the emirate.

Dubai’s ruler, UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, said the country mourned “with hearts filled with sadness”.

The emir of Qatar — which was blockaded by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other states in a three-and-a-half-year crisis until January 2021 — offered his condolences, as did British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron.

In Saudi Arabia, the UAE’s powerful neighbour and closest ally, King Salman ordered funeral prayers at Mecca’s Great Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

Saudi’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was regarded as a protege of Mohamed bin Zayed, phoned him with his condolences.   

The official WAM news agency named Mohamed bin Zayed as the new ruler of Abu Dhabi, and said the leaders of the other emirates would meet him at the capital’s Al Mushrif Palace on Saturday.

The leaders of the seven emirates elect the UAE’s president for five-year, renewable terms, according to the country’s constitution.

The leader of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia on Friday set July 17 as a date for a referendum on joining Russia.

“Anatoly Bibilov signed a decree on holding a referendum in the Republic of South Ossetia,” his office said in a statement, citing his people’s “historic aspiration” to join Russia.

South Ossetia was in the centre of the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 after which the Kremlin recognised the territory — along with another separatist region, Abkhazia — as an independent state and stationed military bases there.

The announcement came on the 79th day of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, with thousands killed and more than six million people fleeing the pro-Western country.

Ukraine’s separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk have also expressed interest in joining Russia.

The full-scale offensive on Ukraine has sparked an outpouring of solidarity in Georgia.

Georgia has previously denounced as “unacceptable” plans by South Ossetia to hold a referendum on joining Russia.

In August 2008, Russia launched an assault against Georgia which was battling pro-Russian militia in South Ossetia, after they shelled Georgian villages.

The fighting ended five days later with a European Union-mediated ceasefire but claimed more than 700 lives and displaced tens of thousands of ethnic Georgians.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine Friday in talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, but their first call since the war began resolved no immediate issues, the Pentagon said.

Shoigu spoke with Austin at the Pentagon chief’s request for about an hour, their first direct discussion since February 18, six days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Secretary Austin urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the call, saying the two sides discussed current international security issues, “including the situation in Ukraine.”

No other details were offered officially by either side, but a senior US defense official dampened expectations that any progress was made on the war situation beyond the reopening of a crucial line of communication between Moscow and Washington.

“The call itself didn’t specifically solve any acute issues or lead to a direct change in what the Russians are doing or what they are saying,” the official said.

The official added that the US call for a ceasefire was not a change in US policy toward the war, even as Washington has said it wants to support Ukraine with arms and funding in a longer effort to weaken the Russian military.

“Our call for a ceasefire is very much in line with what other allies and partners want to see happen,” the official said.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently urged the two sides to negotiate a settlement.

On Friday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked Russian President Vladimir Putin in a call to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations, according to his office.

Scholz called for a ceasefire “as soon as possible to improve the humanitarian situation and make progress in the search for a diplomatic solution to the conflict,” his office said.

The call also came as Finland and Sweden have expressed the desire to join the NATO defense alliance, a direct consequence of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which is not part of NATO.

Neither side would say whether NATO’s expansion, which Russia has opposed, was discussed in the defense chiefs’ call.

At the UN Security Council Friday, the United States branded as “ludicrous” Russian allegations that the US government had run a secret biological and chemical weapons program in Ukraine.

The allegations “are categorically false and ludicrous,” said US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Richard Mills.

The defense chiefs’ conversation came as Russian and Ukrainian forces battle along a long front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, with the Pentagon maintaining that Russia is weeks behind goals set in its war plan.

The Pentagon official said the Russians are “not making any major gains in the Donbas” region where the fighting is heaviest. 

“Ukrainian artillery is frustrating Russian efforts to  make much ground,” the official said.

But Moscow has shown no indication of pulling back and is believed by Western intelligence to want to take control of a wide swath of southern Ukraine stretching along the Black Sea to Moldova.

The majority of migrants traveling in a boat that capsized off the coast of Puerto Rico were Haitians, authorities said Friday, adding that of the 11 dead, all were women.

A total of 38 survivors have been found and rescuers continue to search where the accident occurred, about 10 nautical miles (19 kilometers) north of Desecheo Island, an uninhabited US territory between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The survivors were “36 Haitian and 2 Dominican Republic nationals, of which eight remain hospitalized,” the US Coast Guard said on Twitter Friday.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry tweeted his condolences to the families of the dead, who he said were Haitians.

“The news of the sinking of a boat off the coast of Puerto Rico which caused the death of 11 of our compatriots deeply upsets me,” he said.

Of the dead were all were women, and autopsies will be performed on them, according to the Puerto Rico Forensic Science Institute.

A Customs and Border Patrol helicopter first spotted the boat and  people in the water who appeared not to be wearing life jackets around midday on Thursday.

Several days prior, a Haitian woman died in the area after her boat carrying 69 migrants capsized. The other passengers were rescued by the US Coast Guard and the Dominican Navy.

In March, hundreds of Haitian arrived by boat in Florida. And more than 100 were intercepted by the coast guard near the Bahamas.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is facing an acute political, economic and security crisis.

When Russia shifted its focus to the Donbas in eastern Ukraine after failing to seize Kyiv, Western powers feared an onslaught that would see Ukrainian forces crumble within days.

But poor planning, high casualties and low morale have once again dashed Russian hopes for a quick win, experts say.

Ukraine has even managed to push Moscow’s troops out of the northern city of Kharkiv, and on the main eastern front Russian and Ukrainian forces appear to be settling into a stalemate.

“The expectation was that when they came back from Kyiv, they would launch all at once one of the Soviet-style offensives,” said Mark Cancian of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think-tank. “That didn’t happen.”

Western sources say up to 12,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in recent weeks, while Kyiv puts the number at 25,000. 

Such huge losses have harmed Moscow’s ability to score a decisive win, despite the scaled-back operations. 

“This is not the Red Army of World War II that marched to victory over the bodies of its dead,” said Cancian.

Instead Russia has “a much smaller army that has to be very careful about its casualties”, Cancian said, adding that Moscow had lost a lot of skilled personnel.

And the loss of troops inevitably drains morale that observers deemed low from the very beginning.  

The Russian army undertook major military reform after it was seen as falling short in the 2008 war in Georgia.

The 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea angered the West but displayed a military that was far more agile and able to carry out a lightening operation.

Russia’s intervention in Syria — from 2015 — also tipped the balance in Syria’s civil war and helped keep president Bashar al-Assad in power.

But none of the recent military operations prepared Russia for the level of resistance they encountered, and which intelligence services completely failed to foresee.

“This isn’t a war between David and Goliath,” said a French high-ranking military official who asked not to be named. 

-‘Recipe for disaster’-

Like its Soviet predecessor, the Russian army’s strategy is based on mathematical calculations that leave little room for initiative and having to deal with unexpected situations, the source said. 

On February 24, Russia launched its offensive on three fronts simultaneously: in the north towards Kyiv, in the east and in the south.

Since the end of March, Russia has concentrated 80 percent of its available troops in the east, compared to 20 percent previously. 

And Moscow has managed to reposition a great number of tanks and adapt to some of its pro-Western neighbour’s tactics. 

Yet, many of the Russian army’s problems of the kind seen in the first month of the war in northern Ukraine and around Kyiv remain unsolved.

“Each unit is waging its own war both tactically and strategically” instead of coordinating, said Alexander Grinberg, from the Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy (JISS) think-tank. 

“Even if Putin declares a general call-up — theoretically they can recruit more people –, it is hard to figure out how they will overcome the most basic organisational problems,” said Grinberg. 

The Chief of General Staff himself, Valery Gerasimov, has been on the frontline — a sign of his difficulty to delegate power. 

“The system is so centralised that Putin himself almost takes manual control of things that should be carried out by the military professionals,” Ivan Klyszcz, a researcher from the University of Tartu in Estonia, told AFP. 

“This is a recipe for disaster.”

The stalemate on the eastern front means a sudden Russian victory now seems permanently off the cards, according to experts. 

For Putin, any kind of result will therefore be some kind of defeat, Klyszcz said. 

“Russia has taken on a challenge that it dramatically underestimated. It launched a war it could not win,” he said. 

Europe pledged another half billion dollars in military support for Kyiv on Friday as Sweden followed Finland further down a path toward NATO membership, a goal Russia describes as a threat.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell promised Ukraine an extra 500 million euros ($520 million), bringing the bloc’s total military aid to two billion euros.

“The recipe is clear –- more of the same,” Borrell said at a gathering of leading democracies as the war entered its 12th week.

Borrell joined Group of Seven foreign ministers in the German sea resort of Wangels, where they conferred with counterparts from Ukraine and Moldova.

“It is very important at this time that we keep up the pressure on Vladimir Putin by supplying more weapons to Ukraine, by increasing the sanctions,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

President Putin invaded Russia’s neighbour on February 24, unleashing a worldwide shock that has resounded especially in Sweden and Finland.

Traditionally neutral, the two Nordic countries are taking steps towards fast-track membership of NATO.

The Kremlin has warned Russia would deem further eastward expansion of the alliance a potential threat to its security.

A day after Finnish leaders recommended joining NATO “without delay,” a subsidiary of Russian state energy firm Inter RAO said Russia would cut off electricity supplies to Finland from Saturday.

“This situation is exceptional and happened for the first time in over 20 years of our trading history,” RAO Nordic said.

Finland’s electricity operator said it could cope by importing power from Sweden and Norway.

In Stockholm, a review by parliamentary parties said Swedish NATO membership would have “a deterrent effect” on war in northern Europe.

In addition, “within the framework of current cooperation, there is no guarantee that Sweden would be helped if it were the target of a serious threat or attack,” it said.

The report stopped short of offering a concrete recommendation, although expectations are high Sweden will emulate Finland when the government announces its decision in the coming days.

NATO says it would welcome both countries — wealthy, established democracies with advanced militaries — with open arms.

But a potential hurdle was thrown up by Turkey, a NATO member.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is part of NATO, said he did not have a “positive opinion” on their  membership.

“Scandinavian countries are like a guesthouse for terror organisations,” he said after Friday prayers in Istanbul.

Turkey has long accused Nordic countries, especially Sweden, of harbouring extremist Kurdish groups and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based preacher wanted over a failed coup in 2016.

The two countries said they would discuss the issue with Turkey on Saturday at NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Berlin.

– Russian failures – 

Expectations of a lightning victory by Russia have sputtered out, raising speculation that the conflict could be protracted.

Russia abandoned early attempts to seize the capital Kyiv in the face of fierce defence by the Ukrainian army, supported by an influx of Western weaponry that has now reached billions of dollars.

Since then, Russia has focused its offensive in the eastern region of Donbas, where it has been supporting ethnic Russian-separatists.

Yet this too seems to be hampered by poor planning, high casualties and low morale, say experts.

“The expectation was that when they came back from Kyiv, they would launch all at once one of the Soviet-style offensives,” said Mark Cancian of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think-tank. 

“That didn’t happen,” he observed.

Western sources say up to 12,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in recent weeks, while Kyiv puts the number at 25,000. 

Ukrainian armed forces chief Valery Zaluzhny said Russia had resorted to “massive use” of anti-ship cruise missiles against civilian infrastructure.

“One of the reasons for the enemy’s transition to this tactic is the refusal to use aviation, which suffers vast losses,” he said on Facebook.

In Washington, the Pentagon said the US and Russian defence chiefs had held their first conversation since February 18, although no “acute issues” were resolved in the call.

– War crimes –

A Russian soldier accused of killing a civilian appeared in a court in Kyiv on Friday ahead of the first war crimes trial since the start of the offensive.

Vadim Shishimarin, 21, allegedly gunned down an unarmed 62-year-old civilian who had witnessed a carjacking by fleeing Russian troops.

He faces possible life imprisonment on charges of war crimes and premeditated murder.

The trial marks a significant moment in Ukraine, where accounts of murder, torture and rape by Russian forces are multiplying.

In eastern Ukraine, witnesses who spoke to AFP in the village of Stepanki, near the regional capital of Kharkiv, accused the Russians of shelling a home, killing several people.

They said six people who lived in the house were drinking tea in the courtyard when a tank approached.

“They started going into the house to hide,” said Olga Karpenko, 52. The tank took aim and fired at them as they entered the house.

“Four people died, two were injured. My daughter died from a shrapnel wound in the back of her head,” Karpenko said.

The UN Human Rights Council and International Criminal Court (ICC) have decided to launch their own probes into alleged atrocities.

More than six million people have fled Ukraine, more than half of them going to neighbouring Poland, the UN refugee agency says.

– Gas supplies –

Economists meanwhile pored over the impact of a downturn in Russian gas supplies for Europe, where several countries, including economic giant Germany, are heavily dependent on Russian energy.

Russian energy giant Gazprom announced Thursday it would stop supplying gas via the Polish part of the Yamal-Europe pipeline following retaliatory sanctions that Moscow imposed on Western companies.

Gazprom also said gas transiting to Europe via a site in Ukraine had dropped by a third.

Last year, Russian imports accounted for nearly 40 percent of EU gas consumption.

Ole Hvalbye, a specialist with the Scandinavian bank SEB, said the loss through Ukraine amounted to around two percent of European gas consumption, while the Polish pipeline had carried little gas for several months.

The fall “does not scream crisis, but it is a wake-up call for what is to come,” he said.

Finnish electricity network operator said would be able to make do without Russian electricity.

burs/ri/har

The European Union said Friday it had unblocked stalled talks with Iran after a mission to Tehran but the United States raised doubts on whether it was enough to revive a nuclear deal.

EU envoy Enrique Mora visited Tehran this week in a bid to help restart the 2015 nuclear deal, two months after slow-moving negotiations in Vienna to bring Iran and the United States back into compliance broke off.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the trip had gone “better than expected”.

“The negotiations had stalled and now they have been reopened,” Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Germany. 

“There is a perspective of reaching a final agreement.”

President Joe Biden has backed a return to the deal trashed by his predecessor Donald Trump but has been frustrated by Iran’s demands.

The United States voiced appreciation to Mora and said it  would speak to him in depth.

“All of that said, at this point,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “the deal remains far from uncertain.”

“It is up to Iran to decide whether it wants to conclude a deal quickly,” he told reporters.

“We and our partners are ready — we have been for some time — but now it’s really up to Iran.”

He warned that the United States was preparing for all scenarios including a failure to return to the deal.

The latest diplomacy comes against the backdrop of protests in Iran after President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric, imposed austerity measures to cope with an economy battered by soaring inflation and US-led sanctions.

Demonstrators in the southern city of Izeh attacked shops and tried to set fire to a mosque, state news agency IRNA reported.

Mora has also pressed the clerical state to release an Iranian-Swedish academic, Ahmedreza Djalali, who faces execution for allegedly passing along information on Iranian nuclear scientists to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, leading to their assassinations.

– ‘Positive enough’ signals –

The 2015 deal gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that it could not develop a nuclear weapon, something Tehran has always denied wanting to do.

Formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the agreement was left on life support by Trump’s withdrawal and unilateral imposition of sanctions, including pressing other nations not to buy Iranian oil.

Iran responded by reversing its own compliance with the accord, leading to threats from its arch-rival Israel that it could take military action if its nuclear work advances too significantly.

An Iranian return to compliance would see the easing of some of the most biting US sanctions.

But a key sticking point is Iran’s demand that the United States reverse Trump’s designation of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a terrorism blacklist.

Borrell said “these disagreements on what to do about the Revolutionary Guards” had hampered progress in the talks for two months.

He said Mora had taken the EU’s message to Tehran “that we couldn’t continue like this”.

“The answer has been positive enough,” Borrell said.

“These kind of things cannot be solved overnight. Let’s say things were blocked and they have been deblocked.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Mora’s two days of talks “were another opportunity to focus on initiatives to resolve the remaining issues.”

“A good and credible agreement is available if the United States makes a political decision and adheres to its commitments,” Amir-Abdollahian wrote on Twitter.

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, also met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Raisi on Thursday to push for progress.