Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he has ordered his military to withdraw a “significant part” of Russia’s forces from Syria.

He made the announcement during a surprise visit to Russia’s Hemeimeem airbase in Latakia province, where he also met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian forces joined the Syrian conflict in late 2015 in support of Assad’s military.

Putin said Monday that Russian and Syrian forces had defeated the “most battle-ready group of international terrorists,” in an apparent reference to the Islamic State group.

Syrian state media said Assad thanked Putin for Russia’s role in the fight against terrorism in Syria and that the Syrian people will not forget what the Russian military achieved.

Russia plans to keep Hemeimeem airbase as well as a naval facility in Tartus.

The visit to Syria was Putin’s first, and came on his way to talks to Cairo.

Russia’s intervention in Syria helped stabilize Assad’s effort to defeat rebels who have fought since 2011 to force him from power. The conflict started as peaceful protests that were met with a strong government crackdown and eventually led to a civil war that also included the emergence of the Islamic State group in large areas of eastern Syria.

Forces opposing Islamic State have made large gains during the past year in both Iraq and Syria, including pushing the militants out of their major strongholds in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria. The United States has led its own coalition of militaries providing airstrikes and other support to fighters on the ground in both countries.

Multiple efforts to bring about productive peace talks to end the fighting in Syria have proven unsuccessful as millions of people fled their homes. The latest attempt at finding a negotiated peace is going on in Geneva, led by the United Nations.
…

France has ordered banned the sale and ordered a recall of several baby formula milk and baby food products made by French dairy giant Lactalis after the discovery of salmonella bacteria, consumer protection agency DGCCRF said in a statement.

The recall includes products for export, including to China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Lebanon, Sudan, Romania, Serbia, Georgia, Greece, Haiti, Colombia and Peru.

Some were also destined for regional markets, including Africa and Asia.

The agency said that Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy company, had not managed contamination risk and has been ordered to conduct a product recall and halt the sale and export of several baby food products made at its Craon plant in western France since Feb. 15.

The recall follows 20 cases of salmonella infection of infants in France during early December, which had already prompted a limited recall of 12 Lactalis products.

This week five new cases were reported of infection with the “salmonella agona” bacteria. One of the infants had consumed a Lactalis product that had not been on the first recall list. The infants have now recovered, the agency said.

Lactalis spokesman Michel Nalet said on BFM Television that the products can be exchanged in pharmacies or supermarkets. He said that any salmonella bacteria would be killed by boiling the milk for two minutes.

A full list of the products concerned is available on the agency’s website.
…

Thousands in Ukraine rallied Sunday in protest of the arrest of opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili, calling for his release and the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko.

Ukrainian officials have accused Saakashvili, whom they arrested Friday, of abetting an alleged “criminal group” led by former President Viktor Yanukovych — who was pushed from power in 2014 and fled to Russia — and have suggested that his protests are part of a Russian plot against Ukraine.

A day after he declared a hunger strike, his supporters took to the streets of Kyiv to demand his release.

“The authorities have crossed a red line. You don’t put opponents in prison,” said Saakashvili’s wife, Sandra Roelofs, as marchers brandished anti-government and anti-corruption slogans.

Saakashvili, 49, is also wanted in his native Georgia, where he served as president from 2004 until 2013, for alleged abuse of power.

Saakashvili became a regional governor in Ukraine in 2015 at the invitation of President Poroshenko. However, the two men later had a falling out, with Saakashvili accusing the president of corruption and calling for his removal from office.

 
…

Spain’s maritime rescue service says it has saved 104 migrants trying to make the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe from North Africa.

The service says its rescue craft Guardamar Concepcion Arenal intercepted two boats carrying 53 and 22 migrants each overnight and early Sunday in the Strait of Gibraltar. The same rescue vessel also took on board another 25 migrants that a Civil Guard patrol craft had picked up at sea.

Another rescue craft, the Salvamar Denebola, later spotted a tiny rubber boat carrying four more migrants that it took to shore.

Tens of thousands of migrants try to reach Europe each year in small smugglers’ boats unfit for the open sea, with thousands dying in the attempt.
…

Winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize warned that the world was “one impulsive tantrum” away from destruction, urging nuclear nations to adopt a U.N. treaty banning atomic weapons.

“Will it be the end of nuclear weapons, or will it be the end of us?” Beatrice Fihn, who accepted the award on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), asked in her speech following the group’s acceptance of the award.

Fihn warned that in particular, warlike threats exchanged between North Korea and the United States amid nuclear tests by Pyongyang were forcing the world to live “under the conditions where our mutual destruction is only one impulsive tantrum away.”

The Geneva-based group, which received the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year, consists of about 500 organizations in more than 100 countries that are working toward global nuclear disarmament.

The Nobel committee praised ICAN’s efforts toward securing the 2017 U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. A total of 122 nations adopted the deal — but none of the nine known nuclear powers signed up.

In a break from tradition, the three western nuclear powers — the U.S., France and Britain — sent second-ranking diplomats rather than their ambassadors to Sunday’s ceremony.

Receiving the award with Fihn was 85-year-old Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and now an ICAN campaigner, who described horrible scenes in the aftermath of the atomic bomb in 1945  when she was 13 years old.

“Listen to our testimony. Heed our warning. And know that your actions are consequential,” Thurlow said during her speech at the ceremony.

The nine nations that have nuclear weapons boycotted the U.N. treaty negotiations, which began in February. They are Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.

Nearly three decades after the end of the Cold War, the debate between disarmament versus deterrence is still being fought.

 
…

The head of the Arab League has called on the nations of the world to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will recognize the city as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there.

Ahmed Aboul-Gheit made the call Saturday at the beginning of an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab League. He added that the U.S. decision “amounts to the legalization of occupation.”

He also said it raised a question mark about the United States’ role as a peace negotiator in the Middle East and beyond.

Some Arab diplomats have also suggested submitting a draft resolution condemning the U.S. decision to the U.N. Security Council.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said he expected the Arab League to “immediately act in presenting a draft resolution to the Security Council that rejects this American decision.”

Saturday’s meeting in Cairo took place after three days of street protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as protests at Al-Azhar Mosque in the Egyptian capital.

​’US has crossed red lines’

Further, the heads of the largest Christian church in Cairo and Al-Azhar University have said they will not meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence when he visits Cairo on December 20. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has also announced he will not meet with Pence, saying “the U.S. has crossed red lines” on Jerusalem.

A statement from the Coptic Orthodox Church called the Trump decision “inappropriate and without consideration for the feelings of millions of people.”

In Paris, pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Netanyahu is to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has called Trump’s decision “regrettable.”

Pro-Palestinian rallies also took place Saturday outside the U.S. Embassy in Rome. Demonstrations took place Friday in Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Pakistan, Lebanon, Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

Earlier Saturday, Israeli airstrikes killed two men in the Gaza Strip. Hamas said it lost two gunmen in those airstrikes.

An Israeli army statement said the targets of the strikes were “two weapons manufacturing sites, a weapons warehouse and a military compound.”

Criticism of Washington

Some of the United States’ oldest allies turned their backs on Washington’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday.

More than half the council’s 15 members requested the open meeting, and delegations from other member states packed the chamber, indicating the importance Jerusalem’s status holds around the globe. 

Security Council members criticized the Trump administration decision, saying it risked prejudging the outcome of final status issues and threatened the peace process. They also expressed concerns it could be exploited by extremists and radicals, fueling tensions in an already turbulent region.

Trump’s announcement defied decades of diplomacy in the quest to bring peace to Israel. Jerusalem has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the quest, and it was widely believed that a solution would be found in peace negotiations.

The White House has denied that the president’s announcement on moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem means his administration is pulling out of the Middle East peace process.

No other country has immediately followed Trump’s lead in planning to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something the White House has acknowledged.

Ed Yeranian in Cairo contributed to this report.
…

A senior Russian general who was accused in a recent investigation of being a coordinator of separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and of possibly playing a role in the downing of a civilian airliner in July 2014 has said he plans to sue the authors of the report for defamation.

Retired General Nikolai Tkachyov told Novaya Gazeta on Saturday that he will sue the Bellingcat investigative collective and the independent website The Insider over their report, in which they used digital voice analysis to identify Tkachyov as a man codenamed Delfin (dolphin) who appears on intercepted communications with separatist fighters.

Tkachyov denies that he was Delfin or that he was in eastern Ukraine in 2014. He said he has spent the last few years in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg busying himself with the “patriotic education of youths.”

Bellingcat and The Insider published their investigation on Friday. In it, they reported that they had enlisted two independent analytical centers — one in the United States and one in Lithuania — to compare the intercepted audio from 2014 with recordings of Tkachyov made under the pretext of interviewing him for another story.

The two centers, using various digital analytical methods, independently determined it was “highly probable” that the man on the recordings and Tkachyov were one and the same.

According to the report, Delfin was a Russian general who was based in the Ukrainian town of Krasnodon in the summer of 2014 with the task of coordinating disparate separatist militia units in parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Dutch-led Joint Investigative Team (JIT) has identified Delfin as a person of interest in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014.

The JIT determined in 2016 that it was shot down from separatist-held territory in the Donetsk region by a BUK antiaircraft system provided by the Russian military. The JIT report says the BUK entered Ukraine near Krasnodon and was spirited back into Russia immediately after the airliner was shot down, killing all 298 people aboard.

Russia denies interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs, despite compelling evidence that Moscow has provided military, economic, and political support to separatists fighting against Kyiv. Russia and the separatists deny shooting down MH17 and have offered several other theories to explain the incident, all of which have been rejected by investigators.

Tkachyov, 68, is a decorated veteran of both Russian campaigns in Chechnya. He was released from military service in 2010.

After his retirement, however, he served in 2011-12 as a military adviser to the government of Syria. After his return, he was assigned to the Central Military District and based in Yekaterinburg.

In May 2014, he attended the Victory Day parade in Yekaterinburg. He appeared again in public in August 2014 at an event celebrating Orenburg Cossacks.

Novaya Gazeta contributed to this report.
…

Ukrainian opposition politician and former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has declared a hunger strike, his lawyer told journalists on Saturday.

Attorney Ruslan Chornolutskiy released a letter from Saakashvili calling on supporters to protest in Kyiv on Sunday and to call for the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko.

Also Saturday, a spokesman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office said prosecutors would ask a court to place Saakashvili under house arrest with electronic monitoring pending trial.

Ukrainian officials have accused Saakashvili of abetting an alleged “criminal group” led by former President Viktor Yanukoych — who was pushed from power in 2014 and fled to Russia — and have suggested that his protests are part of a Russian plot against Ukraine.

Saakashvili has dismissed the claims.

Saakashvili was arrested in the Ukrainian capital late on Friday, prompting hundreds of his supporters to demonstrate for his release.

The firebrand activist’s supporters gathered in a narrow street outside the police station where he was taken late on Friday, not far from the parliament building, shouting “Shame” and “Kyiv, get up!” while a large number of police in riot gear stood guard.

Close ally and fellow Georgian David Sakvarelidze called on Kyiv residents to take to the streets to protest Saakashvili’s recapture, which he blamed on President Poroshenko.

“Today Poroshenko broke all records and went down in history as a dictator who does this to political opponents,” Sakvarelidze told TV channel NewsOne.

Three associates of Saakashvili told RFE/RL that he was arrested at a friend’s apartment where he was visiting earlier Friday. Sakvarelidze said the agents were from the state security agency SBU.

Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said in a post to his Facebook page that “everything was done to avoid bloodshed.”

“The detainee is placed in a temporary detention facility,” he wrote. 

Hours earlier, Saakashvili called on Ukrainians to demonstrate in Kyiv on December 10. In a Facebook post, Saakashvili told supporters he had lost his voice and was running a temperature but would “be by your side again” at a midday march to Kyiv’s Independence Square, which was the site of the monthslong 2013-14 protests that ousted the country’s pro-Russia president. 

Saakashvili, who became governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region in 2015 but quit a year later and is now a vocal opponent of Poroshenko, thanked backers for their support in the tumult of recent days.

Law-enforcement officers searched Saakashvili’s apartment in Kyiv on December 5, dragged him off the roof, and bundled him into a car. But supporters blocked the streets and pulled him from the vehicle, and he led a march to parliament.

A day later, police raided a protest tent camp near parliament, but Saakashvili was not detained and a 24-hour deadline for him to turn himself in passed without visible action by the authorities.

The search of Saakashvili’s home was conducted two days after his Movement of New Forces party organized a rally in Kyiv calling for Poroshenko’s impeachment and for legislation that would allow it to take place. 

Poroshenko late on December 8 said international experts may help justice officials investigate the charges against Saakashvili, adding that he was sure Saakashvili would get a fair trial in Ukraine.

“I don’t exclude that the inquiry may ask for extra expertise, including from international organizations, to enhance trust,” Poroshenko told reporters during a visit to Vilnius to meet with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

Saakashvili “has to answer to investigators and to society regarding the accusations against him,” Poroshenko said. “If he doesn’t answer, it only means that these accusations are well-founded.”

“If he flees from the investigation, this undermines his credibility,” Poroshenko said.

This story first appeared on RFE/RL’s website.

AFP, AP and Reuters contributed to this story.
…

A new exhibition aims to show how the art world has responded to the global changes since the terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 at London’s Imperial War Museum brings together 40 artists from across the world whose works reflect on conflict and society since that day. Henry Ridgwell reports.
…

The environmental group EcoWatch estimates that at least 1 million sea birds, and 100,000 marine mammals are killed every year by ingesting plastic or getting caught in it. It is an environmental nightmare, and it’s getting worse every year. But this week, more than 200 countries signed an agreement to begin dealing with the problem. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

There was relief in London and Brussels Friday after Britain clinched an initial agreement on its terms of divorce from the European Union, opening the way for the next — and even harder — phase of negotiations over the country’s future trade relations with the economic bloc.

“Let us remember that the most difficult challenge is still ahead,” Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, warned after the overnight deal was struck. “We all know that breaking up is hard. But breaking up and building a new relation is much harder.”

‘Give and take on both sides’

Welcoming Friday’s deal, which guarantees the rights of Europeans living in Britain and Britons residing in EU countries, as well as committing not to reestablish a customs border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, a bleary-eyed British Prime Minister Theresa May said there had been “give and take on both sides.” 

Her aides say the deal was a triumph for her.

But many of the red lines she had laid down previously were crossed to pull off the breakthrough, analysts say. 

To clinch the deal, May had to agree that the European Court of Justice will oversee the rights of EU citizens in Britain, for at least a minimum of eight years after Britain formally breaks from the EU, which is scheduled next year. She also agreed on an expensive exit bill, which will amount to $47-$53 billion.

​’Regulatory alignment’

And to the anger of Brexiters, May also agreed that Britain will maintain “regulatory alignment” with the EU to ensure there doesn’t have to be a “hard border” or regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That suggests to them that Britain is likely heading for a so-called “soft Brexit,” whereby it remains entangled with the EU.

The former leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, scathingly described the 15-page draft agreement — it still has to be endorsed by EU national leaders next week — as “pathetic.” 

He added: “The British prime minister had to fly through the middle of the night to go meet three unelected people who condescendingly are now saying ‘Jolly well done, May. You’ve met every single one of our demands. Thank you very much, we can now move on.’”

May and Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, had originally planned to agree on a first-phase deal on Monday, but it was thwarted in a chaotic breakdown between the British prime minister and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who May needs for her parliamentary majority. 

The DUP objected to some of the border commitments May was making.

​Terms a tough sell?

For May, the challenge now may be to sell the terms of the divorce agreement to her own Conservative party. 

Brexiters within her cabinet, including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment minister Michael Gove, who both challenged her for the party leadership last year, were supportive of May publicly Friday.

“How long she will retain their backing? I wouldn’t like to place a wager on that,” remarked a Conservative lawmaker.  

The promise that Britain will maintain close regulatory alignment with many of the EU single market’s rules and regulations for the sake of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, even after leaving the economic bloc, quickly attracted criticism from other Brexiters Friday.

Former official has concerns

One former Conservative minister, Owen Paterson, tweeted his concern over the alignment pledge — as well as divorce bill — saying they “must be debated and resolved.” He warned ominously, “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” 

Other Brexiters said the agreement to maintain regulatory alignment between Britain and the EU was inconsistent with May’s pledge that “Brexit means Brexit.” 

They argue by entangling Britain with EU regulations, it will make it harder for Britain to strike out and to negotiate bilateral trade deals with other countries. 

They are suspicious also that, despite May’s insistence, Britain will leave the bloc’s customs union — which she is on course to keep Britain in — pushed to do so by ministers who want to retain a close relationship with the EU and opposition lawmakers in the House of Commons opposed to Brexit.

No ‘hard Brexit’

Their fears might not be misplaced. A former head of the British Foreign Office, Simon Fraser, says Friday’s deal makes it less likely there will be a sharp “hard Brexit” from the EU. But he says trade discussions will prove even harder than the first phase with “much bigger and more complicated negotiations.”

“We need a much clearer understanding of what our negotiating strategy is,” he told Britain’s Sky News.  

For all sides in the Brexit divide roiling British politics there remains much to fight over, including the biggest of all questions: What should Britain’s future relationship with the EU look like? The first-phase deal is full of ambiguity and fudge and leaves more questions unresolved than it answers, analysts say.

According to former Conservative lawmaker and newspaper columnist Matthew Parris, “Theresa May’s supposed victory merely prolongs the illusions and postpones the hard decisions.”
…