Dubai - COP28 - Annual Climate Summit Started
The United Nations’ annual climate summit, COP28, started in Dubai on Thursday and will continue until at least December 12. The summit is an opportunity for nations to negotiate around climate change while simultaneously assessing each country’s progress in limiting emissions in recent years, following the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, it should be noted that President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, representing the two countries with the largest emissions are not going to attend the event. Nonetheless, on Thursday, nations approved a fund aimed at delivering much-needed money to vulnerable countries facing climate emergencies, and numerous countries even made initial pledges. Therefore, we await to see the agreements reached in the following weeks.
Venezuela-Guyana: Tensions intensify
On Friday, the International Court of Justice told Venezuela to “refrain from taking any action which would modify that situation that currently prevails” in the Essequibo region, controlled by Guyana, making it clear that any action to alter the status quo should be stopped. As a response, on Sunday Venezuela will hold a referendum where President Nicolás Maduro will ask the citizens five questions, including whether they should convert the Essequibo area into a new Venezuelan state, and whether or not to grant Venezuelan citizenship to the people of this new state. Guyana, nonetheless, says that the vote is a violation of international law and sources state that the people in the border region are very concerned, as many fear that Venezuela will use a positive vote as a justification to ignore the ICJ proceedings and annex the entire region by force. However, it remains unclear what the exact implications of the referendum will be, as some believe that the referendum is just a way for Maduro to gain public support for the upcoming presidential elections.
UN Security Council Lifts Arms Embargo on Somalia
On Friday, The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to remove the arms embargo on the Federal government of Somalia, allowing for weapon deliveries to Somalias’s government and its security forces. This decision came more than 30 years after the first imposition of the arms embargo on Somalia, with one of the reasons being concerns about the number of safe ammunition storage facilities in Somalia.
The Cancelled Meeting Between Sunak and Mitsotakis, and the Fear of UK-EU Relations
Tension between Britain and Greece evolved over the last few days due to the abrupt cancellation of a meeting, between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakos and Rishi Sunak, on Monday by the British Prime Minister. The diplomatic dispute erupted following Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ interview with the BBC on Sunday in which he parallelized the retention of the sculptures at the British Museum as similar to the Mona Lisa being cut in half. The British side claimed that Mr Mitsotakis had broken a promise not to bring up the issue of the Parthenon marbles in public during his visit, but the Greeks denied that he had made such a promise. Moreover the British feared that any talks were likely to be dominated by the topic of the sculptures and not used as a public platform. However, the Greek side claimed that the subject of the marbles was just one of the many they intended to discuss during the meeting. The issue was also extended to UK-EU relationships, as European diplomats suggested that Sunak had breached the diplomatic convention by cancelling talks with the Greek PM and even caused “offence” by offering him a meeting with his deputy, Oliver Dowden. The Parthenon marbles have long been a point of discord between the two countries, but with the upcoming general election in Britain, the sculptures are being used as another key differentiation between the Conservatives and the Labour Party. Making it thus evident that this dispute over the Parthenon marbles plays a pivotal role both in domestic and international politics.
Gaza - Abrupt End to Seven-Day Truce
After a pause of hostilities and the release of over 100 hostages that started on November 24, seven days later, on Friday, the truce ended and attacks resumed. Israel and the Biden administration have blamed Hamas for the end of the ceasefire claiming that they bombarded central and southern Israel with rocket fire and failed to provide a list of hostages to be released as stipulated in the agreement, and accused Hamas of refusing to release all the women it held. But, a Palestinian official said the breakdown occurred over female Israeli soldiers. Despite the reason why the ceasefire ended, as the United Nations even said, fighting is expected to worsen the extreme humanitarian emergency in Gaza, as less aid is now entering Gaza and will lead to many more casualties, as there have already been reported over 200 deaths following the new Israeli attacks.
Bibliography
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