WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States demanded a cut off of Iranian oil exports to major importers like China and India who had been granted exemptions from sanctions, sending crude prices to six-month highs on fears the U.S. action could lead to a supply crunch.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a briefing on Monday, said the aim was to halt Iran’s exports entirely, as it continues to pressure Tehran to curtail its nuclear program, ballistic missile tests and support for conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
The Trump administration said it was working with top oil exporters Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ensure the oil market was “adequately supplied” but the market, already fretting about tight supplies, raised skepticism about whether Riyadh could take a slower approach in boosting exports.
The United States reimposed sanctions in November on exports of Iranian oil after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers last May. After renewing sanctions, it granted waivers to eight major buyers for a six-month period, which ends in May.
“We are going to zero. We’re going to zero across the board,” Pompeo said, adding that the United States had no plans for a grace period beyond May 1 for countries to comply. He said the aim is to deprive Iran of its lifeline of $50 billion in annual oil revenues.
While Saudi Arabia is expected to boost output again, analysts fear the U.S. move – along with sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry – will leave the world with inadequate spare capacity.
The international Brent crude oil benchmark rose to more than $74 a barrel on Monday, highest since November, due to the uncertainty surrounding increased supply from Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations, while U.S. prices hit a peak of $65.99 a barrel for the first time since October 2018.
“Combined with declines in global crude stocks, continued losses in Venezuela production as well as a possible disruption in Libya, a zero-waivers Iran decision will present a challenge to keeping global oil prices in check,” Joe McMonigle of Hedgeye said in a note to clients.
Pompeo said he was confident of Riyadh’s commitment to making sure there was sufficient supply in the market. Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Monday the OPEC exporter would coordinate with other oil producers to ensure a balanced market.
He said it was “monitoring the oil market developments” after the U.S. statement, without committing to raising production. OPEC is next scheduled to meet in June.
FILE PHOTO: A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oil fields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Persian Gulf, Iran, July 25, 2005. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi/File Photo/File Photo
QUESTIONS ABOUT WORLD SUPPLY
Trump has been clear to his national security team over the past few weeks that he wants the waivers to end and national security adviser John Bolton has been working the issue within the administration.
In recent months, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have cut supply dramatically. OPEC, along with allies such as Russia and others, agreed to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) but they have exceeded those benchmarks, with Saudi Arabia alone reducing supply by 800,000 bpd.
In a tweet, Trump said Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC “will more than make up the Oil Flow difference in our now Full Sanctions on Iranian Oil.”
Prior to the re-imposition of sanctions, Iran was the fourth-largest producer in OPEC at almost 3 million barrels per day (bpd), but April exports have shrunk to well below 1 million bpd, according to ship tracking and analyst data in Refinitiv.
Tehran remained defiant over Washington’s decision, saying it was prepared for the end of waivers, while the Revolutionary Guards repeated their threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipment channel in the Gulf, Iranian media reported.
The countries that were granted a waiver for importing Iranian oil free from U.S. sanctions were China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece.
While Italy, Greece and Taiwan already have halted purchases, doing so could prove much more challenging for China and India. Turkey, another buyer, already has slammed the U.S. decision, saying it will not serve peace. Asian buyers largely refrained from strong statements.
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Geng Shuang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a daily news briefing in Beijing on Monday that it opposed unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iran and that China’s bilateral cooperation with Iran was in accordance with the law.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the South Korean government had been negotiating with the United States at all levels to extend the waivers and that it would continue to make every effort to reflect Seoul’s position until the May 2 deadline.
In India, refiners have started a search for alternative supplies but the government declined to comment officially.
Embassies of India, China and South Korea in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment, along with Japan, whose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be in the U.S. capital on Friday for an official visit.
Actor Vladimir Zelensky is challenging incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko for a shot at the highest political office in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian presidential race has been set up into two stages – the first round on March 31 and the runoff on April 21.
Now, the Ukrainian public will await the results of the runoff to see who will lead Ukraine in the coming years.
20:05:21
Candidate from the Servant of the People party, showman Vladimir Zelensky is winning 73.2% of votes in Sunday’s runoff presidential elections in Ukraine, according to the National Exit Poll released after the closure of polling stations.
Incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko is scoring 25.3% of votes.
20:03:29
Zelensky's team is preparing lawsuits on “mudflows” against the candidate and his family members. This was announced by the staff lawyer, Vadim Galaichuk.
19:43:56
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that he had voted on Sunday for "free, strong and fair Ukraine."
18:22:26
Over 1,000 violations during the voting in Sunday’s runoff presidential elections in Ukraine have been reported to the police, Artyom Shevchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian interior ministry, said. "Most of such reports came from the Dnepropetrovsk region, Kiev and the Donetsk region. The smallest number of violations were reported from the Khmelnitskaya, Trans-Carpathian and Ivano-Frankovsk regions," he said
According to Shevchenko, 13 criminal cases have been opened over these reports, most of them linked with illegal canvassing, taking photos, spoiling ballot papers and vote buying.
17:19:37
The only polling station in Ukraine that did not open in time, the one in the Donetsk region, has finally opened its doors to voters hours after the official launch of voting, head of the Ukrainian Central Elections Commission Tatiana Slipachuk reported.
Chief of Ukraine’s National Police Sergei Knyazev said earlier that only one out of 30,000 polling stations across Ukraine has stayed closed. A criminal case was initiated. According to earlier reports, the station stayed closed because members of the commission had not taken an oath.
17:17:06
The Ukrainian police have received 281 complaints about violations committed during the presidential election runoff, the interior minister’s adviser, Zoran Shkiryak, told a news briefing.
The police "have received 281 complaints and messages concerning violations committed during the presidential election runoff," he said adding that illegal electioneering, photographing of ballot papers and voter bribery were the most frequent offences.
"The situation is under control," he added. Ten criminal have been opened. The rate of violations is the lowest in western Ukraine, and the highest, in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, Kiev and Donetsk.
16:03:36
The highest voter turnout in Ukraine’s runoff presidential polls on Sunday is reported from the country’s central and southeastern regions, as follows from an analysis of the data from the Ukrainian Central Election Commission conducted by TASS.
Thus, as of 15:00 local time, the highest voter turnout was reported from the Dnepropetrovsk region (50.91%), Zaporozhye region (50.8%), and Poltava region (50.37%).
The lowest voter turnout is reported from the Trans-Carpathian region (29.64%), Ivano-Frankovsk and Chernovtsy regions - 37 and 34.93% respectively.
15:56:13
Zelensky may be fined up to 850 hryvnias ($ 31) for displaying a completed ballot, the press service of the National Police of Ukraine said.
15:43:39
Lugansk People's Republic police press service claims that Kiev forces its military to vote for Pyotr Poroshenko.
15:31:30
Kiev police came to Vladimir Zelensky's HQ to fine the presidential hopeful for demonstrating a filled ballot.
15:12:55
Voter turnout (at 3 p.m. local time) in Ukraine’s runoff election stands at 47.87%, says the Electoral Commission.
14:49:05
The number of violations during the runoff election in Ukraine climbed to 562, the Interior Ministry says.
Mikhail Groysman, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, has cast his ballot in the election. He noted that the Ukrainians were choosing their future.
14:09:04
The voter turnout in Ukraine’s runoff presidential election reached 18.13%, says the Electoral Commission.
13:39:34
Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma said he pitied the man who would lead his country after the presidential election as that man would inherit the war in Donbass and the threat of default.
चेहरे की संरचना में 14 व्यक्तिगत हड्डियां शामिल हैं, जिसमें पाचन, श्वसन और दृश्य प्रणालियों के कुछ हिस्से शामिल हैं। मानव का चेहरा अन्य जीवों से अलग-अलग होता है।
मानव चेहरे की उत्पत्ति और विकास को समझने की कोशिश में, वैज्ञानिकों ने पिछले छह मिलियन वर्षों के अर्ध-मानव या ह्यूमस समूह में विलुप्त प्रजातियों के चेहरों का विश्लेषण करने की मांग की।
हाल की परिकल्पनाएं नए जीवाश्मों के रूप में उभरती हैं, जो पहले के शोध प्रयासों का खंडन या समर्थन करती हैं, जिससे ऐसी धारणाएं असंभव हो जाती हैं।
अमेरिका, यूनाइटेड किंगडम, जर्मनी और स्पेन के विश्वविद्यालयों के बीच अंतर्राष्ट्रीय अनुसंधान सहयोग में, शोधकर्ताओं की एक टीम चार मिलियन साल पहले मानव विकास के इतिहास का एक नया खाता तैयार करने में सक्षम रही है।
आहार के विकास को दर्शाते हुए अप्रैल को जर्नल नेचर एंड डेवलपमेंट में प्रकाशित नवीनतम उपन्यास का तर्क है कि मानव चेहरे की नई उपस्थिति जैव रासायनिक, शारीरिक और सामाजिक प्रभावों के संयोजन का उत्पाद है।
ऐसा कहा जाता है कि कम से कम 4.5 मिलियन वर्ष पहले, दो पैरों पर चलने वाले प्राणी का कंकाल अच्छी तरह से बना हो सकता है, और हमारे पूर्वज दो पैरों पर खड़े होने में सक्षम थे और सीधे चलने लगे, इस प्रकार कार्यात्मक ज्यामिति उन पैरों को स्थानांतरित करने के लिए विकसित हुई।
खोपड़ी और दांतों का विकास चर के लिए समृद्ध जानकारी का खजाना प्रदान करता है जिसे समय के साथ पता लगाया जा सकता है।
उदाहरण के लिए, मस्तिष्क की वृद्धि के चरण और श्वसन आवश्यकताओं के अनुकूलन मानव चेहरे की संरचना को बदलने का एक महत्वपूर्ण हिस्सा हैं।
लेकिन जो अधिक महत्वपूर्ण है वह यह है कि जबड़े, दांत और चेहरे में बदलाव केवल पोषण के पैटर्न और भोजन के प्रकार में बदलाव के लिए एक प्रतिक्रिया है। दूसरे शब्दों में, हमारा चेहरा वास्तव में जो हम खाते हैं उसके अनुकूल होने के लिए विकसित हुआ है।
आहार ने चेहरे के आकार में विकासवादी परिवर्तनों की व्याख्या करने में एक प्रमुख भूमिका निभाई। प्रारंभिक मानव पूर्वजों ने कठोर शाकाहारी खाद्य पदार्थ खाए जो कि जबड़े की मांसपेशियों और बड़े चबाने वाली गम को चबाने के लिए आवश्यक थे। उनके चेहरे एक ही समय में व्यापक और गहरे थे जैसे चेहरे की मांसपेशियां दिखाई देती थीं।
जैसे-जैसे वातावरण सूखने की स्थिति में बदलता है, विशेष रूप से पिछले दो सहस्राब्दियों में, प्रारंभिक होमो प्रजाति ने भोजन तैयार करने और मांस चॉपिंग में विभिन्न साधनों का उपयोग किया है, एक ऐसा विकास जो नए भोजन स्रोत को पूरा करने के लिए जबड़े और दांतों में बदलाव के साथ किया गया है।
आहार ने चेहरे के आकार में परिवर्तन में एक प्रमुख भूमिका निभाई। मानव पूर्वजों ने कठोर खाद्य पदार्थ खाए जो कि जबड़े की बड़ी मांसपेशियों की आवश्यकता होती है और बड़ी सुन्नी उन्हें चबाने के लिए पीसती है (अनातोलिया)
सामाजिक और भावनात्मक संचार की आवश्यकतामनुष्य के चेहरे में परिवर्तन विशुद्ध रूप से यांत्रिक कारकों का परिणाम नहीं हो सकता है। इन सबसे ऊपर, मानव चेहरा संचार, सामाजिक संपर्क और भावनाओं की अभिव्यक्ति में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाता है।
इस प्रकार, सामाजिक संदर्भ इनमें से कुछ परिवर्तनों के मुख्य कारणों में से एक हो सकता है। जिस तरह हमारे पूर्ववर्तियों ने कई पर्यावरणीय चुनौतियों का सामना किया है, वे भी सांस्कृतिक और सामाजिक कारकों से प्रभावित हुए हैं। समय के साथ, विविध चेहरे के भाव बनाने की क्षमता ने आपस में अशाब्दिक संचार को बढ़ावा दिया है।
शोधकर्ताओं ने प्रमुख भौं के आकार पर भी चर्चा की, जो कि सभी खोजी गई होमो प्रजाति की एक विशिष्ट विशेषता है। अपने नए उपन्यास में, शोधकर्ता उस समय होमो द्वारा अनुभव की गई परिस्थितियों के एक सामाजिक कार्य के रूप में प्रभुत्व और आक्रामकता से संबंधित व्यवहारों का श्रेय देते हैं।
मानव समाज के विकास के साथ, ऐसी क्रूर विशेषताएं, जैसे कि अन्य विशेषताएं, जैसे कि लापरवाह दांत, मानव जाति के विकास के मार्ग के साथ नए सामाजिक संदर्भों में कम आक्रामक और अधिक सहकारी बनने के लिए खो गई हैं।
अंत में, उपन्यास ने निष्कर्ष निकाला कि यह चेहरा जिसे आप दर्पण में देखते हैं, एक विकास का उत्पाद है जो लाखों वर्षों तक चलता है
JERUSALEM (AP) — Is the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dead?
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coasted to another victory in this month’s Israeli election, it sure seems that way.
On the campaign trail, Netanyahu ruled out Palestinian statehood and for the first time, pledged to begin annexing Jewish settlements in the West Bank. His expected coalition partners, a collection of religious and nationalist parties, also reject Palestinian independence.
Even his chief rivals, led by a trio of respected former military chiefs and a charismatic former TV anchorman, barely mentioned the Palestinian issue on the campaign trail and presented a vision of “separation” that falls far short of Palestinian territorial demands.
The two Jewish parties that dared to talk openly about peace with the Palestinians captured just 10 seats in the 120-seat parliament, and opinion polls indicate dwindling support for a two-state solution among Jewish Israelis.
“The majority of the people in the state of Israel no longer see a two-state solution as an option,” said Oded Revivi, the chief foreign envoy for the Yesha settler council, himself an opponent of Palestinian independence. “If we are looking for peace in this region, we will have to look for a different plan from the two-state solution.”
For the past 25 years, the international community has supported the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — as the best way to ensure peace in the region.
The logic is clear. With the number of Arabs living on lands controlled by Israel roughly equal to Jews, and the Arab population growing faster, two-state proponents say a partition of the land is the only way to guarantee Israel’s future as a democracy with a strong Jewish majority. The alternative, they say, is either a binational state in which a democratic Israel loses its Jewish character or an apartheid-like entity in which Jews have more rights than Arabs.
After decades of fruitless negotiations, each side blames the other for failure.
Israel says the Palestinians have rejected generous peace offers and promoted violence and incitement. The Palestinians say the Israeli offers have not been serious and point to Israel’s ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, now home to nearly 700,000 Israelis.
The ground further shifted after the Hamas militant group took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 and left the Palestinians divided between two governments, with one side — Hamas — opposed to peace with Israel. This ongoing rift is a major obstacle to negotiations with Israel, and has also left many Palestinians disillusioned with their leaders.
Since taking office a decade ago, Netanyahu has largely ignored the Palestinian issue, managing the conflict without offering a solution for how two peoples will live together in the future.
After clashing with the international community for most of that time, he has found a welcome friend in President Donald Trump, whose Mideast team has shown no indication of supporting Palestinian independence.
Tamar Hermann, an expert on Israeli public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the election results do not necessarily mean that Israelis have given up on peace. Instead, she said the issue just isn’t on people’s minds.
“Most Israelis would say the status quo is preferable to all other options, because Israelis do not pay any price for it,” she said. “They don’t feel the outcome of the occupation. ... Why change it?”
While the two-state prospects seem dim, its proponents still cling to the belief that the sides will ultimately come around, simply because there is no better choice.
“Either Israel decides to be an apartheid state with a minority that is governing a majority of Palestinians, or Israel has to realize that there is no other solution but two states,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told The Associated Press. “Unfortunately the Israeli prime minister is politically blind about these two facts.”
Shtayyeh noted the two-state solution continues to enjoy wide international backing. Peace, he insisted, is just a matter of “will” by Israel’s leaders.
Dan Shapiro, who served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Israel, said the two-state solution “is certainly getting harder” after the Israeli election but is not dead.
Getting there would require leadership changes on both sides, he said, pointing to the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt 40 years ago, reached by two leaders who were sworn enemies just two years earlier.
“We know what’s possible when the right leadership is in place,” he said. “So that puts us supporters of it in a mode of trying to keep it alive and viable for the future.”
That may be a tall task as the Israeli election results appear to reflect a deeper shift in public opinion.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute, which conducts monthly surveys of public opinion, support for the two-state solution among Jewish Israelis has plummeted from 69% in 2008, the year before Netanyahu took office, to 47% last year. Just 32% of Israelis between the ages of 18-34 supported a two-state solution in 2018. The institute typically surveys 600 people, with a margin of error of just over 4 percentage points.
Attitudes are changing on the Palestinian side as well. Khalil Shikaki, a prominent Palestinian pollster, said 31% of Palestinians seek a single binational state with full equality, a slight increase from a decade ago. His poll surveyed 1,200 people and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Although there was no breakdown by age group, Shikaki said the young are “clinging less to the two-state solution because they lost faith in the Palestinian Authority’s ability to provide a democratic state” and because the expanding settlements have created a new reality on the ground.
Amr Marouf, a 27-year-old restaurant manager in the city of Ramallah, said he maintains his official residence in a village located in the 60% of the West Bank that Israel controls, just in case Israel annexes the territory. That way, he believes, he can gain Israeli citizenship.
“I think the one state solution is the only viable solution,” he said. “We can be in Israel and ask for equal rights. Otherwise, we will live under military occupation forever.”
Netanyahu is expected to form his new coalition government by the end of May, and he will come under heavy pressure from his partners to keep his promise to annex Israel’s West Bank settlements.
Such a step could extinguish any hopes of establishing a viable Palestinian state, particularly if the U.S. supports it. American officials, who have repeatedly sided with Israel, have said nothing against Netanyahu’s plan.
There is also the Trump administration’s long-delayed peace plan, which officials have signaled could finally be released this summer. U.S. officials have said little about the plan, but have indicated it will go heavy on economic assistance to the Palestinians while falling far short of an independent state along the 1967 lines.
Shtayyeh said such a plan would be a nonstarter.
“This is a financial blackmail, which we reject,” he said
