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Threats To International Peace And Security. The Situation In The Middle East ; United Nations S/PV.8231 Security Council Seventy-third year 8231st meeting Friday, 13 April 2018, 10 a.m. New York Provisional President: Mr. Meza-Cuadra . (Peru) Members: Bolivia (Plurinational State of). . Mr. Llorentty Solíz China. . Mr. Ma Zhaoxu Côte d'Ivoire. . Mr. Tanoh-Boutchoue Equatorial Guinea. . Mr. Ndong Mba Ethiopia. . Mr. Alemu France. . Mr. Delattre Kazakhstan. . Mr. Umarov Kuwait. . Mr. Alotaibi Netherlands. . Mr. Van Oosterom Poland. . Ms. Wronecka Russian Federation. . Mr. Nebenzia Sweden . Mr. Skoog United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . Ms. Pierce United States of America. . Mrs. Haley Agenda Threats to international peace and security The situation in the Middle East This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the translation of speeches delivered in other languages. The final text will be printed in the Official Records of the Security Council. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room U-0506 (verbatimrecords@un.org). Corrected records will be reissued electronically on the Official Document System of the United Nations (http://documents.un.org). 18-10728 (E) *1810728* S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 2/22 18-10728 The meeting was called to order at 10.05 a.m. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. Threats to international peace and security The situation in the Middle East The President (spoke in Spanish): In accordance with rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. I wish to warmly welcome His Excellency Secretary-General António Guterres, to whom I now give the floor. The Secretary-General: The situation in the Middle East is in chaos to such an extent it has become a threat to international peace and security. The region is facing a true Gordian knot — different fault lines crossing each other and creating a highly volatile situation with risks of escalation, fragmentation and division as far as the eye can see, with profound regional and global ramifications. We see a multiplicity of divides. The first is the memory of the Cold War. But, to be precise, it is more than a simple memory: the Cold War is back with a vengeance — but with a difference. The mechanisms and the safeguards to manage the risks of escalation that existed in the past no longer seem to be present. Secondly, there is the Palestinian-Israeli divide. Thirdly, there is the Sunni-Shia divide, evident from the Gulf to the Mediterranean. It is important to note that apparent religious divides are normally the result of political or geostrategic manipulation. Finally, there is a wide range of different factors — from opposing attitudes in relation to the role of the Muslim Brotherhood or the status of the Kurds, to the dramatic threats to communities that have been living in the region for millenniums and are part of the rich diversity of Middle Eastern societies. Those numerous divisions are reflected in a multiplicity of conflicts with different degrees of interconnection, several of which are clearly linked to the threat of global terrorism. Many forms of escalation are possible. We see the wounds of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continuing to fester. The recent violence in Gaza resulted in many needless deaths and injuries. I repeat my call for an independent and transparent investigation into those incidents. I also appeal to those concerned to refrain from any act that could lead to further casualties, in particular any measures that could place civilians in harm's way. That tragedy underlines the urgency of revitalizing the peace process for a two- State solution that will allow Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side in peace in two democratic States within secure and recognized borders. I reaffirm the readiness of the United Nations to support those efforts. In Yemen, we are witnessing the worst humanitarian disaster in today's world. There is only one pathway to ending the Yemeni conflict and to addressing the humanitarian crisis: a negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue. My Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths, is doing everything possible to facilitate that political settlement. He will brief the Council next week. In Libya, I encourage all parties to continue to work with my Special Representative, Ghassan Salamé, as he engages in the political process with a broad range of Libyan interlocutors across the country in order to implement the United Nations action plan. It is high time to end the Libyan conflict. The case of Iraq demonstrates that progress is possible with concerted local, regional and global commitment. With the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, having overcome the risk of fragmentation, the Government of Iraq must now focus on reconstruction, reforms and reconciliation. I hope that the upcoming elections will consolidate that progress. At the recent Paris and Rome conferences, the international community reaffirmed its support for Lebanon's sovereignty, stability and State security institutions. It is absolutely essential to prevent a new Israel-Hizbullah conflict, which could inevitably result in many more victims and much greater destruction than the last war. I reiterate the critical importance to act on key principles and commitments on Lebanon, including the Security Council resolutions, such as resolution 1701 (2006), and the policy of disassociation. The dangers of the links to the Syrian conflict are 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 3/22 evident in the recent confrontations between Iran and Israel in Syria.Syria today indeed represents the most serious threat to international peace and security. We see there confrontations and proxy wars, involving several national armies, a number of armed opposition groups, many national and international militia, foreign fighters from everywhere in the world and various terrorist organizations. From the beginning, we have witnessed systematic violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international law, in general, in utter disregard for the letter and spirit of the Charter of the United Nations.For eight long years, the people of Syria have endured suffering upon suffering. I reiterate that there is no military solution to the conflict. The solution must be political through the Geneva intra-Syrian talks, as stipulated in resolution 2254 (2015), and in line with the consistent efforts of my Special Envoy, Staffan de Mistura. Syrians have lived through a litany of horrors: atrocity crimes, sieges, starvation, indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, the use of chemical weapons, forced displacement, sexual violence, torture, detention and enforced disappearances. The list goes on.In a moment of hope, the Security Council adopted resolution 2401 (2018), demanding that all parties cease hostilities without delay for a durable humanitarian pause. Unfortunately, no such cessation of hostilities ever really took place. That is the bleak panorama of Syria today.In that panorama, I am outraged by the continued reports of the use of chemical weapons in Syria. I reiterate my strong condemnation of the use of chemical weapons by any party to the conflict under any circumstances. Their use is abhorrent and a clear violation of international law. The seriousness of the recent allegations requires a thorough investigation, using impartial, independent and professional expertise.In that regard, I reaffirm my full support for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and its Fact-finding Mission in undertaking the required investigation into those allegations. The mission should be granted full access, without any restrictions or impediments, to perform its activities. I take note that the Syrian Government has requested that and is committed to facilitating it. The first OPCW team is already in Syria; a second team is expected today or tomorrow.However, we need to go further. In a letter to the Council two days ago, I expressed, following the end of the mandate of the OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism,"my deep disappointment that the Security Council was unable to agree upon a dedicated mechanism to attribute responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in Syria".I want to repeat today that the norms against chemical weapons must be upheld. As I wrote in the same letter:"[e]nsuring accountability for a confirmed use of chemical weapons is our responsibility, not least to the victims of such attacks. A lack of accountability emboldens those who would use such weapons by providing them with the reassurance of impunity. This, in turn, further weakens the norm proscribing the use of chemical weapons and the international disarmament and non-proliferation architecture as a whole. I urge all Member States to act responsibly in these dangerous circumstances;"I appeal to the Security Council to fulfil its duties and not to give up on efforts to agree upon a dedicated, impartial, objective and independent mechanism for attributing responsibility with regard to the use of chemical weapons. I stand ready to support such efforts."The increasing tensions and the inability to reach a compromise in the establishment of an accountability mechanism threaten to lead to a full-blown military escalation. In my contacts with the members of the Security Council, particularly the permanent members, I have reiterated my deep concerns about the risks of the current impasse and stressed the need to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control.That is exactly the risk that we face today — that things spiral out of control. It is our common duty to stop it.The President (spoke in Spanish): I thank the Secretary-General for his valuable briefing.I shall now give the floor to those Council members who wish to make statements.S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 4/22 18-10728 Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We are greatful to the Secretary-General for his briefing. His participation, his assessments and his authoritative words about the situation that has developed are very significant. We agree with him that there are many wounds in the Middle East. However, most important, currently the deepest wound is the situation in Syria, insofar as any negative repercussions would have major global implications.Two days ago, news of a threat by the United States to launch missile strikes against the Syrian Arab Republic ricocheted around the world. The Russian Federation was also warned to prepare for strikes. Let me point out that our military is in Syria at the invitation of its legitimate Government in order to combat international terrorism. We continue to see dangerous military preparations for an illegal act of force against a sovereign State in violation of the norms of international law. It is not just the use of force but even the threat of it that flies in the face of the Charter of the United Nations, and that is precisely what we are seeing in the most recent statements and actions of Washington and its allies. The bellicose rhetoric is being ratcheted up at every level, including at the very top. Additional forces and assets of the United States military and its allies are bearing down on the Syrian coast. It feels as though Washington is singlemindedly heading towards unleashing a military scenario against Syria. That cannot be permitted. Such developments would be fraught with terrible consequences for global security, especially considering that a Russian military contingent is deployed in Syria.There are also those who have been observing these risky preparations with tacit approval, declaring that they understand Washington's motives or engaging in direct incitement, thereby becoming potential accomplices in an act of reckless military adventurism. There are people in the Security Council who love to talk about preventive diplomacy. Right now, for some reason, they are nowhere to be seen or heard. The guilty parties have been speedily identified not just before any investigation has been conducted but even before it has been established whether the incident in question took place at all, but evidently they must still be punished. Someone will have to answer for these unfortunate developments and for the previous interventions that have engulfed many countries in years of crisis with untold casualties.Witness the recent experience of Iraq and Libya, which, among other things, shows that the attitude of America's leaders to the Security Council is largely one of convenience. They need it as cover for their Iraqi test tubes and Libyan no-fly zones. What they are presenting us with now is another virtual test tube, and an empty one. The reckless behaviour of the United States as it tramples on international law and State sovereignty is unworthy of its status as a permanent member of the Security Council, which presupposes the highest possible degree of responsibility and certainly not a right to sabre rattling, a right that is unknown in international law.Why does the United States continue to torture the Middle East, provoking one conflict after another and pitting the States of the region against one another? Who will benefit from a potential strike against the Syrian military, which is taking the brunt of the fight against terrorism and achieving major victories in it? We know for sure that the ringleaders of the Syrian armed groups were given orders to launch an offensive after a possible military action. Is this latest wave of chaos really being unleashed just for that?The excuse is the alleged use of toxic substances in the Syrian town of Douma on 7 April, for which there has been no reliable confirmation. Our specialists found no trace of the use of toxic substances. The residents of Douma know of no such attack. All the evidence of the alleged attack has been provided by anti-Government forces for whom this development is in their interests. We have good reason — indeed, we have information — leading us to believe that what took place was a provocation with the participation of various countries' intelligence services. We have been issuing warnings about this for a long time. It is a repeat of the Khan Shaykhun scenario in April of last year.The Syrian Government, for which this is clearly the last thing it needs, has said that it was not involved and has sent a request for an immediate inspection by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of the location of the alleged incident. It has offered security guarantees jointly with the Russian military. The mission is already getting started on its work in Syria and we hope that it will be able to conduct a truly independent and impartial investigation.Only the Security Council has the authority at the international level to decide what measures to take and against whom in connection with the use of chemical 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 5/22 weapons in Syria. Russia will continue to work diligently and systematically to de-escalate the recent tensions in international relations. We proposed adopting a brief resolution in support of the OPCW inspection mission in Douma that the United States, Britain and France irresponsibly blocked, thereby demonstrating their lack of interest in an investigation. The only thing they care about is overthrowing the Syrian Government and, more broadly, deterring the Russian Federation. This has been clearly visible in other international and domestic political events built on unfounded hoaxes and conspiracy theories that always centre around the Russian Federation.What is the United States trying to achieve? After many years of internecine strife in Syria, significant areas of the country have been stabilized. The political process is reviving and indicators of national reconciliation are emerging. The terrorists have been dealt a significant blow. We have never denied that the United States has also made a certain contribution to achieving that shared goal, but it has always kept certain types of terrorists in reserve for its fight against the so-called regime and for advancing its geopolitical priorities in the region.My British colleague is always asking me what Russia is doing to implement resolution 2401 (2018). My answer is that my country is practically the only one that is doing anything about it. Over the course of the Astana process, peace has been restored in more than 2,500 towns and villages. That does not mean that they have become victims of the regime, as the United States calls it, merely that with the help of Russia and other guarantors they have established normal relations with the central authorities in Damascus. With the support of the United Nations, the Syrian National Dialogue Congress was held successfully in Sochi. How many towns and villages has the United States brought peace to? How many groups has it persuaded to join the ceasefire agreements?In order to break the deadlock in the situation in eastern Ghouta after the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), complex negotiations were conducted with the leaders of armed groups, with Russian assistance. The militias and their family members were safely evacuated from the district, and civilians were finally given the opportunity to shake off years of terror. Film of their genuine joy exists, but the Western media is not showing it. The United States does not care about the fate of the prisoners of the militias in eastern Ghouta who had been supporters of the Syrian Government. When they were bargaining with the Syrian authorities to exchange prisoners, the militias claimed that they were holding between 2,000 and 4,000 people. Now it turns out that there are far fewer. People died from harsh treatment and hard labour digging huge tunnels for their torturers.Some members have grieved to see their bearded pilgrims setting off for Syria on free tourist tickets. They lost no opportunity to shriek from every street corner about the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people in besieged eastern Ghouta. Now those people need help in rebuilding normal lives, but these Council members have already lost interest because the area is under Government control. Now there will have to be unpleasant discussions about the blockade of Fo'ah and Kefraya. When was the last time a humanitarian convoy was there? When was the last time Council members even asked about it? Someone must answer for the coalition's destruction of Raqqa.These are dangerous developments, with far-reaching ramifications for global security. In this instance, responsibility lies entirely with the United States and its allies. It is a pity that Old Europe continues to lose face. We call on the leaders of these States to immediately reconsider, return to the international legal fold and not to lead the world to the dangerous brink. We urgently need to find a peaceful way out through a collective effort. The Russian Federation is ready to cooperate equitably with all partners and to solve the problems that may arise through dialogue. We will continue to focus on finding a peaceful settlement to the conflict in Syria based on established international law. We will continue to work actively to that end, and we call on all our partners to do the same.Mrs. Haley (United States of America): I started to listen to my Russian friend so as to respond to him, but instead I am truly in awe of his ability to say what he said with a straight face.Today's meeting of the Security Council has been convened under truly strange circumstances. The Russian Federation has asked us to discuss what it calls unilateral threats related to Syria. What is strange is that Russia is ignoring the real threat to international peace and security that has brought us all here. It is ignoring its own unilateral responsibility for all of it. What we should discuss today is the use of deadly chemical weapons to murder innocent Syrian S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 6/22 18-10728 civilians. That is one of the most blatant and grotesque violations of international law in the world today. It is a violation of all standards of morality. It violates the long-standing international consensus that chemical weapons represent a unique evil. Chlorine, mustard gas and other chemical weapons killed 90,000 people and injured more than 1 million during the First World War. In the history Canada in the Great World War, the Canadian soldier A.T. Hunter described it this way."The gas cloud gathered itself like a wave and ponderously lapped over into the trenches. Then passive curiosity turned to active torment — a burning sensation in the head, red-hot needles in the lungs, the throat seized by a strangler. Many fell and died on the spot. The others, gasping, stumbling with faces contorted, hands widely gesticulating and uttering hoarse cries of pain, fled madly through the villages and farms and through the city itself, carrying panic to the remnants of the civilian population and filling the roads with fugitives of both sexes and all ages".Chemical weapons did not produce the most casualties in the First World War, but they were the most feared. In the Second World War chemical weapons were employed on an industrial scale against civilians, resulting in the worst genocide in human history, which the United States recalled just yesterday on Holocaust Remembrance Day. That is what brings us here today. That is what chemical weapons are all about. That is why we must not stay silent in the face of the horrible use of chemical weapons in our own time.The first response to all of this death and injury was the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which banned the use of chemical weapons and more. Later, in 1993, the Chemical Weapons Convention was signed. It obligates all of its parties to never under any circumstances"develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to anyone".It also prohibits all parties from helping anyone to engage in such activities. The United States is a party to the Convention. Russia is a party to the Convention. Every country that is currently a member of the Security Council is a party to the Convention. Even the Al-Assad regime has pledged to abide by the Convention, so in theory all of us agree on the core principle at stake today. No country can by allowed to use chemical weapons with impunity. Now that we have established what we all agree on, let us ask ourselves what we should be condemning today. We should be discussing the actions that truly brought us to this moment in time. We should not be condemning the country or group of countries that might have the courage to stand up in defence of our common principle against the use of chemical weapons. Instead, we should be condemning the country that has unilaterally prevented the Security Council from upholding it.Which member of the Council most exhibits unilateralism with regard to chemical weapons? It is Russia alone that has stopped at nothing to defend the Syrian regime's multiple instances of the use of chemical weapons. It is Russia alone that killed the Joint Investigative Mechanism, which enabled the world to ensure accountability for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. It is Russia alone that has used its veto six times to prevent the condemnation of Al-Assad's use of chemical weapons. It is Russia alone that has used its veto 12 times to protect the Al-Assad regime. To make matters worse, it was Russia alone that agreed to be the guarantor of the removal of all chemical weapons in Syria. If Russia had lived up to its commitment, there would be no chemical weapons in Syria and we would not be here today. That is the Russian record of unilateralism. It is a record that has led to the trashing of all international standards against the use of chemical weapons. This meeting should not be about so-called unilateral threats, but rather about the multiple actions that Russia has taken to bring us to this point.Our President has not yet made a decision about possible actions in Syria, but should the United States and its allies decide to act in Syria, it will be in defence of a principle on which we all agree. It will be in defence of a bedrock international norm that benefits all nations. Let us be clear. Al-Assad's most recent use of poison gas against the people of Douma was not his first, second, third or even forty-ninth use of chemical weapons. The United States estimates that Al-Assad has used chemical weapons in the Syrian war at least 50 times. Public estimates are as high as 200.In the weeks after Al-Assad's sarin-gas attack last April, which killed nearly 100 people, including many children, the regime used chlorine gas at least once and possibly as many as three times in the same area. Last November, just as the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism expired, the regime again attacked its people with sarin in the Damascus suburbs.13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 7/22 In January, Al-Assad used at least four chlorine-filled rockets in Douma, and then he struck again last weekend. Thanks to Russia, there was no United Nations body to determine blame. But we know who did this; our allies know who did this. Russia can complain all it wants about fake news, but no one is buying its lies and its coverups. Russia was supposed to guarantee that Al-Assad would not use chemical weapons, and Russia did the opposite.The world must not passively accept the use of chemical weapons after almost a century of their prohibition. Everything the United Nations stands for is being blatantly defied in Syria, with the help of a permanent member of the Council. All nations and all peoples will be harmed if we allow Al-Assad to normalize the use of chemical weapons. It is those who act to violate the prohibition of chemical weapons who deserve our condemnation. Those who act to defend it deserve our support. The United States and its allies will continue to stand up for truth, accountability, justice and an end to the use of chemical weapons.Mr. Ma Zhaoxu (China) (spoke in Chinese): I thank Secretary-General Guterres for his briefing and deeply appreciate his tireless efforts on the issue of the Middle East and that of Syria.The current situation in Syria is perilous. The country is at the crossroads of war and peace, and China is following the developments there with great concern. The possibility of an escalation of tensions worries us deeply. The pressing priority of the moment is to launch a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation into the relevant incidents in order to arrive at authoritative conclusions.China has consistently stood in favour of the peaceful settlement of disputes and opposed the routine use or threat of force in international relations. To take unilateral military action by circumventing the Security Council is inconsistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and runs counter to the basic norms enshrined in international law and those governing international relations.Syria's sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity must be fully respected. We call on the parties concerned to remain calm, exercise restraint, refrain from any move that could lead to further escalation of the situation and resolve the issue peacefully through consultation and dialogue. China is convinced that there can be no military solution to the Syrian issue; the only way out is a political settlement. China supports the United Nations in playing an active role in safeguarding the authority and standing of the Organization and its Security Council.China calls on the international community to steadfastly continue its diplomatic efforts, tirelessly stay the course so as to settle the Syrian issue politically, give full play to the role of the United Nations as the main mediator, and resolve without delay the Syrian issue comprehensively, justly and adequately, in keeping with the provisions of the relevant Security Council resolutions.The people of the world yearn for peace and oppose war. The situation in Syria has ramifications for peace and stability in the Middle East and the world at large, as well as for the credibility and authority of the Council. At this critical juncture, the Council must rightfully discharge its sacred responsibility emanating from the Charter of the United Nations; act in line with the dictates of our times; build unity and consensus and do its utmost to maintain peace; leave no stone unturned in its efforts to prevent war; and live up to the trust and expectations of the international community.China is and has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order. China stands ready to continue its unflagging efforts to safeguard peace and stability in the Middle East and the world at large, in a spirit of responsibility to history and to the peoples of the world.Mr. Delattre (France) (spoke in French): I thank the Secretary-General for his statement.We are meeting today to address the threats to international peace and security that have arisen as a result of the situation in Syria, six days after the latest chemical-weapons carnage, on 7 April in Douma.For seven years, the situation in Syria has without a doubt constituted a grave threat to international peace and security as defined in the Charter of the United Nations. The Security Council itself characterized this as such unanimously on 27 September 2013, when resolution 2118 (2013) was adopted in the wake of the appalling chemical-weapons attacks that had taken place in eastern Ghouta. The world then learned for the first time and with horror of the symptoms of large-scale chemical-weapons-related deaths in Syria.S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 8/22 18-10728 To counter those who are seeking to sow confusion, going so far as to accuse the Syrian people of having gassed themselves; those who are suggesting conspiracy theories; those who are endeavouring methodically to destroy our mechanisms for action on chemical weapons in Syria, we must come back to simple facts. Yes, the Syrian crisis represents a threat to international peace and security. This threat is related to the repeated, organized and systematic use of chemical weapons by the Bashar Al-Assad regime, which once again reached new levels of horror with the two attacks perpetrated in Douma on 7 April last. Those attacks claimed the lives of at least several dozen people and wounded hundreds of others. Many of the injured will continue to suffer throughout their lives from the serious respiratory and neurological aftereffects of the chemicals used.There is no doubt once again as to the responsibility of Damascus for this attack. The facts collected on the ground, the symptoms of the victims, the complexity of handling of the substances used, and the determination of the regime's forces to subjugate the last pockets of resistance in Douma as expeditiously as possible and using every means at their disposal, all point to this.This is a well-known and documented modus operandi, given that an independent mechanism, created at the initiative of the Security Council, had already established at least four times since 2015 that chemical weapons had been used by the Damascus regime in Sarmin, Talmenes, Qmenas and Khan Shaykun — an investigative mechanism that a permanent member of the Security Council decided last November to force into silence.The chemical-weapons policy of the Bashar Al-Assad regime is among the most serious violations of all the norms that guarantee our collective security. It is first and foremost a violation of all international obligations relating to the prohibition of chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Syria is a party.Secondly, it constitutes a violation of the very foundations of international humanitarian law, namely, the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality.Thirdly, it constitutes a breach of successive Security Council resolutions: resolutions 2118 (2013), 2209 (2015) and 2235 (2015) and therefore a breach of the obligations incumbent upon Syria under the Charter of the United Nations.Lastly, the use of chemical weapons against civilians, which was banned in 1925 under the Geneva Protocol, constitutes a war crime under the Statute of the International Criminal Court.The Secretary-General in August 2013 called the use of chemical weapons a crime against humanity. That chemical war is a tool to accelerate a deliberate policy of submission by terror, which, in seven years, has caused the deaths of 400,000 people, the deliberate destruction of civilian and health infrastructure in entire regions, a massive exodus of refugees and displaced persons and has fuelled international terrorism. This frightening picture is that of one of the most blatant threats to international peace and security in the contemporary era. It is also the record of those who, against all odds, continue to support it.I will once again have to state the obvious: if Syria has continued to use toxic substances for military purposes, it is because it has retained the capacity to use and manufacture them, in contravention of its international commitments, of the guarantees provided by Russia in the framework of the 2013 Russian-American agreement and of Security Council resolutions.It has already been several years since the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) informed us of the major remaining doubts about the sincerity of Syria's initial declaration to the organization in 2013. Many of the OPCW's questions and requests for documents have gone unanswered. Syria has never provided a satisfactory explanation for the inspectors' discovery of substances and capabilities that Syria had never declared. We saw those capabilities again in action on 7 April, used to kill as many civilians as possible and terrorize the survivors to consolidate the definitive takeover of Douma by the Syrian regime.Beyond Syria, the prevailing impunity since 2013 affects the entire chemical non-proliferation regime, and with it the entire security system that we have collectively built since the Second World War. It is that collective security legacy, built to protect future generations from the outbreaks of violence in the two global conflicts, that the members of the Security Council have been mandated to protect. To allow the normalization of the use of chemical weapons without reacting is to let the genie out of the bottle. That would be a terrible setback to international order, for which we would all pay the price.13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 9/22 The Security Council, to which the Charter of the United Nations entrusts the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security on behalf of the entire international community, is therefore more than justified in meeting today. It is more than justified for the Council to note, once again, the violation of international law and its own resolutions, and the persistence of a proven threat to international peace and security. It is more than justified to urgently re-establish a mechanism for attributing responsibility for chemical attacks — that opportunity was given to the Council in vain, once again, on Tuesday (see S/PV.8228) with the American draft resolution (S/2018/321).The Council is more than justified in doing what it has committed itself to do, that is, to take measures under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. But in the face of the mass atrocities committed in Syria, the Council's action has been paralysed for several years by successive Russian vetoes. Russia vetoed 12 draft resolutions on Syria, including six on the chemical issue alone. Those vetoes had no other objective than to protect the Syrian authorities — to guarantee a regime of impunity, in defiance of all international standards. To allow the indefensible, Russia has deliberately chosen to sacrifice the ability of the Council to act, the most important tool of our collective security. We had proof of that again last Tuesday.On 7 April, Douma joined Ypres, Halabja and Khan Shaykhun in the litany of chemical massacres. I solemnly say that, in deciding to once again use chemical weapons, the regime reached a point of no return on 7 April. France will assume its responsibility to put an end to an intolerable threat to our collective security and to finally ensure respect for international law and the measures taken for years by the Security Council.A chemical attack like that of Douma, which consists in gassing the last inhabitants of a besieged enclave — even when it is about to fall, even when the last fighters are negotiating their surrender — is the height of cynicism. That is where we are after seven years of the regime's war against its people. This is the situation to which the world must provide a firm, united and resolute response. That is our responsibility today.It will also be essential to combat impunity for those responsible for the use of such weapons and, more broadly, for those who are responsible for the most serious crimes committed in Syria. France is fully committed to that endeavour. That is the purpose of the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons, which we initiated last January. We will also continue to support and assist all international mechanisms in their work to investigate the most serious crimes committed against civilians in Syria.In addition to the chemical issue, continuing violations of international humanitarian law must cease without delay. We ourselves demanded it by unanimously adopting resolution 2401 (2018) — thwarted the day after its adoption by the resumption of bombardments by the regime with the active support of its allies, including those within the Council who had subscribed to the truce. Resolution 2401 (2018) has lost none of its relevance, quite the contrary — full and unhindered humanitarian access to help populations in distress must be implemented throughout the territory. It is essential and urgent that humanitarian convoys can reach eastern Ghouta safely and that civilians fleeing hostilities or in need of medical treatment can be protected.Finally, we can only sustainably resolve the Syrian crisis within the framework of a political solution and on the basis of the full implementation of resolution 2254 (2015). Only under those conditions can put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people, eradicate terrorism and work together for the stability of the Middle East. We have been calling for a political solution for seven years. May those who join us today in their concern about the consequences of the Syrian crisis finally force the regime to accept negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations.We cannot allow the most fundamental values and standards of humanity, such as those emanating from the Charter of the United Nations, be thwarted and flouted in front of our eyes without reacting. Those values and standards must be defended and protected. That is the reason behind our commitment — to restore the complete ban on chemical weapons set in stone within international conventions, and thereby consolidate the rule of law. It is the responsibility of those who believe, like France, in effective multilateralism led by a respected United Nations.We must stop the Syrian chemical escalation. We cannot allow a country to simultaneously defy the Council and international law. The ability of Damascus to violate all our norms constitutes a threat to international security. Let us put an end to it.S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 10/22 18-10728 Ms. Pierce (United Kingdom): The Secretary-General has presented a catalogue of danger in the Middle East, including Gaza, Yemen and Iraq. It is no disrespect to those issues that today, like other speakers, I will concentrate on Syria. The United Kingdom will be ready to put its shoulder to the wheel on those other issues when the time comes.The situation we face today and the reason we are in the Security Council today arise wholly and solely from the use of chemical weapons on the Syrian people, most probably by the Syrian regime — not just once, but consistently and persistently over the past five years. The highest degree of responsibility, to quote the Russian Ambassador, is indeed what the Council, and in particular its five permanent members, are for, and it is our duty to uphold.The British Cabinet met recently and concluded that the Al-Assad regime has a track record of the use of chemical weapons and that it is highly likely the regime is responsible for Saturday's attack. This is a further example of the erosion of international law in relation to the use of chemical weapons, as my French and American colleagues have set out, and it is deeply concerning. But more important than that, the use of chemical weapons cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. The British Cabinet has agreed on the need to take action to alleviate humanitarian distress and to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Al-Assad regime. To that end, we will continue to work with our friends and allies to coordinate an international response.The Secretary-General mentioned the Cold War. Of course, the Cold War was bracketed by East-West cooperation. We have been on the same side as Russia. In April 1945, Russia liberated Vienna as part of our joint efforts to bring peace to Europe. In 1995, it passed the Dayton Accords at part of our joint efforts to bring peace and stability to Bosnia and Herzegovina. But in 2018 the Russians refuse to work with us to bring peace to Syria.Instead, since the first attack on Ghouta and chemical-weapons use, in 2013, the Joint Investigative Mechanism has ascribed two uses of mustard gas to Da'esh, three uses of chlorine to the Syrian regime and one use of sarin to the Syrian regime before the latest attack. As my French colleague has set out, the United Kingdom, the United States and France are members in good standing of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We are members and supporters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and its Fact-finding Mission. In the debates in the Security Council earlier this week, we would have dispatched an investigative mission, had Russia and Bolivia not blocked that effort (see S/PV.8228).Syria is the latest pernicious chronology of Russia's disregard for international law and disrespect for the international institutions we have built together to keep us collectively safe. This is revealed in actions over Georgia 10 years ago, over Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 and over the attack in Salisbury, which we will return to next week.Let me repeat what I said in the Security Council last week. My Government and the British people are not Russophobic. We have no quarrel with the Russian people. We respect Russia as a country. We prefer a productive relationship with Russia, but it is Russia's own actions that have led to this situation.What has taken place in Syria to date is in itself a violation of the United Nations Charter. No purpose or principle of the Charter is upheld or served by the use of chemical weapons on innocent civilians. On the contrary: to stand by and ignore the requirements of justice, accountability and the preservation of the non-proliferation regime is to place all our security — not just that of the Syrian people — at the mercy of a Russian veto. We will not sacrifice the international order we have collectively built to the Russian desire to protect its ally at all costs.The Russian Ambassador set out what Russia is doing on the ground in Syria. He thought that might be inconvenient for me to hear. However, it is not inconvenient for me to point out that Russia has given $5.5 million to the United Nations appeal. The United Kingdom has given a $160 million, and this is part of a contribution totalling $3.5 billion in all. It is not inconvenient for me to say that; it may be inconvenient for the Russian Ambassador to hear it.The Russian Ambassador also asked why we were not joining in and trying to stabilize actions in Syria and bring about peace. We have tried. Indeed, we have tried very hard to support Staffan de Mistura in getting the Geneva political process under way, and we shall continue to so. But we do not join Russia, because, sadly, its efforts have not been to try and restart the Geneva process. Instead, their efforts have been to support Syria in the use of chemical weapons and the 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 11/22 bombardment of the Syrian people. In the area known as T-4, they helped the regime liberate this area but they took their eye off the ball and Da'esh took it back. They took it again, but, sadly, foreign fighters have been able to re-establish themselves there. This is not de-escalation. This is not political progress. This is a gross distortion by Russia of what is actually happening on the ground.The circumstances that we face today are truly exceptional. My colleagues from the United States and France have set out in great detail the catalogue of awful things that are happening to the Syrian people. That catalogue goes to the heart of what the Geneva Conventions, the non-proliferation regime, the United Nations and the Security Council are for. It is not only dangerous what Russia is doing in vetoing our resolutions and in supporting the Syrian regime's actions against its own people. It is ultimately prejudicial to our security. Indeed, it will let Da'esh re-establish itself. It is something that we believe we need to take action to defend.Mr. Skoog (Sweden): I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing today, for his efforts and for his good offices.Last weekend, reports once again began to emerge of horrifying allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, this time in Douma, with reports of a large number of civilian casualties. Like many others, we were alarmed by these extremely serious allegations, and we called for an immediate, impartial and thorough investigation to establish the facts. In that regard, we welcome the fact that the Fact-finding Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which we fully support, has been deployed to Syria. Full access and cooperation by all parties must now be ensured.I want to reiterate once more that Sweden will spare no effort to combat the use and proliferation of chemical weapons by State or non-State actors anywhere in the world. We unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms the use of chemical weapons, including in Syria. It is a serious violation of international law, it constitutes a threat to international peace and security, and their use in armed conflict is a war crime. The international disarmament and non-proliferation regime must be safeguarded, which is best achieved through true multilateralism and broad international consensus.We share the outrage and the frustration of many in this Chamber about chemical-weapons use in Syria. Those responsible for such crimes must be held accountable. We cannot accept impunity.The conflict in Syria is in its eighth year, and we are at a dangerous moment. We fully share the deep concern expressed by the Secretary-General about the risks of the current impasse and the need to avoid the situation escalating and spiralling out of control and to pay further attention to the divides, tensions and fault lines in the region, as described again by the Secretary-General this morning.We remain deeply disappointed that the Security Council has been unable to agree and move forward on a substantial, swift, and unified response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. We deeply regret that Russia once again used its veto and blocked the Council from taking action this week (see S/PV.8228). Over the past few days, we have tried to ensure that all peaceful means to respond have seriously been considered. We are working tirelessly to ensure that no stone is left unturned in efforts to find a way forward in the Security Council. The Secretary-General offered to support such efforts through his good offices, which is an opportunity that should be seized. That is why yesterday we circulated yet another proposal that asks for four things.First, it condemns in the strongest terms any use of chemical weapons in Syria and expresses alarm at the alleged incident in Douma last weekend, because the use of chemical weapons constitutes a serious violation of international law.Secondly, it demands full access and cooperation for the OPCW Fact-finding Mission, because we need facts and evidence about what happened in Douma last weekend.Thirdly, it expresses the Council's determination to establish a new impartial, objective and independent attribution mechanism based on a proposal by the Secretary-General, because the perpetrators of chemical-weapons attacks must be identified and held to account, and, to that end, we need a new mechanism.Fourthly, it requests the Secretary-General to dispatch immediately a high-level disarmament mission to Syria because we need to resolve all outstanding issues on chemical weapons and rid Syria once and for all possible chemical weapons that might still exist in S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 12/22 18-10728 the country. Such a mission would add political and diplomatic leverage to the necessary technical and professional work of the OPCW. We therefore call on all members of the Council to muster the political will and respond to the appeal by the Secretary-General so as to come together and move forward.The use of chemical weapons is a grave threat to international peace and security. It is indeed deplorable that the Council has not yet been able to come together and agree on a timely and firm response. Even though the use of chemical weapons in itself violates international law, any response must comply with international law and respect the Charter of the United Nations. The time has now come to urgently revert to a political process under United Nations auspices for a political solution in line with resolution 2254 (2015), and for Syria and the Astana guarantors to move forward without further delay and live up to their commitments so that resolution 2401 (2018), which demands the cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access, can be fully and urgently implemented. That is the only way to end to the suffering of the Syrian people and end the brutal seven-year-long conflict.We firmly believe that there is a way for the Council to shoulder its responsibilities under the Charter. We believe that there continues to be a way for the Council to come together. We believe that we need to ensure that we have exhausted every peaceful effort and every diplomatic option to stop further atrocities from being carried out in Syria, hold those responsible to account, come to terms once with the chemical-weapons issue in Syria, cease hostilities and find a political solution.Mr. Ndong Mba (Equatorial Guinea) (spoke in Spanish): First of all, on behalf of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, I thank Secretary-General António Guterres for having illustrated for us the chaotic and dangerous situation currently prevailing in the Middle East by providing a detailed overview of every one of the conflicts in that vulnerable region, from Libya to the desolate and devastating crisis in Syria, which, as all evidence suggests, runs the imminent risk of dramatically deteriorating.In line with the statement of the Secretary-General, we reaffirm Equatorial Guinea's firm belief that in confronting such situations we must always have recourse to dialogue and establish and respect mechanisms intended for achieving the peaceful settlement of conflicts until such options are exhausted. A unilateral military response could be counterproductive, and, far from solving the problem, it would lead to more suffering and chaos than already present, as the Secretary-General indicated — and additional disorder as in case of Libya, with which we are well familiar in Africa, and the consequences of which affect the entire Sahel region and part of Central Africa. We stand categorically against the use of force with the sole exception that it be justified under the conditions set forth under the Charter of the United Nations Charter and that it be used as a last resort after all other means have been exhausted.We are concerned about the rhetoric that is being used. It sounds dangerously familiar to us, and we do not like where it might lead us. We appeal to Governments' sense of responsibility, and in particular to the permanent members of the Security Council, as we believe that they have the additional responsibility of defending the relevance of the Council.We would like to ask the following questions. Who benefits from the inability of the Security Council to make decisions? Are we contributing to delegitimizing the Council? Are we actively eroding the Council's relevance in the international political arena? If the Council is unable to take action, how long will it take before the international community withdraws its faith, hope and trust in the Council?There is no military solution to the Syrian issue. We must therefore continue to look for ways to solve the problem through diplomatic channels. All Council members must act responsibly and agree to establish an independent and impartial monitoring mechanism to ascertain what took place in Douma and ensure accountability and that the perpetrators are brought to justice.The Secretary-General stated his disappointment with the Council's failure to establish a mechanism that would identify and attribute responsibility to those using chemical weapons. We could not agree more with that statement. Only a few days ago, our delegation stated its frustration when the Council failed to adopt three draft resolution put to the vote (see S/PV.8228). The Secretary-General's offer concerning his good offices must be considered, and we must provide him with that opportunity.In conclusion, we reiterate the position of Equatorial Guinea in arguing against and condemning 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 13/22 the use of chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction regardless of who uses them.Mr. Llorentty Solíz (Plurinational State of Bolivia) (spoke in Spanish): I thank you, Sir, for having convened this meeting. We welcome the presence of the Secretary-General among us. His assessments are always very precise and useful, and we thank him for the intensive work that he is doing for the benefit of upholding the purposes and principles of the Organization.For some reason, some members of the Security Council are avoiding addressing the main reason for convening this meeting, which is that one State Member has threatened the unilateral use of force in violation of the Charter of the United Nations. Much has been said about the use of chemical weapons, and Bolivia would like to make clear its total and absolute condemnation of the use of chemical weapons or the use of chemical agents as weapons as unjustifiable and criminal acts wherever, whenever and by whomever they are committed. For their use is a grave crime under international law and against the interests of international peace and security. Those responsible for committing those terrible and criminal acts must be identified, investigated, prosecuted and punished. We demand a transparent and impartial investigation that must identify those responsible for any act of the use of chemical weapons.Needless to say, it is essential that the Security Council ensures an independent, impartial, complete, conclusive and, above all, depoliticized investigation. We regret that the Security Council has as yet failed to achieve that objective. Nonetheless, we will support all work intended to accomplish that goal. It is crucial that the Council continue to discuss the issue of the use of chemical weapons, but I reiterate that what has brought us together at this meeting is the threat of one State Member' illegal use of force.Over the past 72 years, humankind has built a framework that is not only physical or institutional, but also juridical. Humankind has setup instruments of international law intended precisely to prevent the most powerful from attacking the weakest with impunity so as to establish a balance in the world and prevent grave violations to international peace and security. We have built an international system — the Security Council is clear evidence of it — based on rules. It is the duty of the Council and of all the organs of the United Nations to respect those rules and defend multilateralism. The Charter of the United Nations, which prohibits unilateral action, must be upheld.Another key detail to remember is that the Security Council is not representative of the five permanent members it comprises, nor of its 15 members seated around this table; rather, it represents the entire membership of 193 States, both the nations and their peoples. The Security Council must not be utilized as a sounding board for war propaganda nor interventionism. It should also not be made into a pawn to be sacrificed on the chessboard of war, geopolitics and petty interests.We have heard many stories from history about the prohibition of chemical weapons, and Bolivia is an active participant in that system, but I would like to talk about the story of our Charter. When one is unsure about how to act under certain circumstances, I read that the best way to settle such uncertainty is to recall the principles of the French Revolution and reflect on where the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are upheld. Those principles form part of the genesis of the Charter. Another part comes from the Magna Carta, of course, which, for the first time in history, limited the exercise of power precisely to defend the weakest.Another antecedent to the Charter is the Yalta Conference. I read that the Conference established the system of control and checks and balances, which is the Security Council with its five permanent members. Bolivia did not attend the Conference. As I understand it, just Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were present. The outcome of the Conference was ratified at the San Francisco Conference a few months later in 1945. That is the system that we have agreed to uphold, which is why I believe that is essential to understand the principles of our Charter. Our Charter is not words on page, meant to hand out to tourists visiting the United Nations Headquarters, but rather a set of norms that we have agreed to comply with and uphold. Article 2 states that"The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles."Principle 4 of Article 2 reads,"All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 14/22 18-10728 any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."That is to say that any use of force must be authorized by the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter. Any form of unilateral action therefore contravenes international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter.Another point worth mentioning is that we have listened, with due respect, to our colleagues speak about the criminal use of chemical weapons, and we completely agree with them on that. However, it would be very dangerous to fight an alleged violation of international law with another violation of international law and the Charter. That is why, in this specific case, we hope that there is an independent, impartial, comprehensive and conclusive investigation.Allow me to offer a clarification to my dear colleague from the United Kingdom. While Bolivia voted against one draft resolution, it voted in favour of two others. It voted against the one because, regrettably, this platform was being exploited for political motives. Draft resolutions are presented for nothing more than the spectacle of it, for the television cameras. Draft resolutions are presented knowing that they will be vetoed, and not all efforts are put forth to reach consensus, though that is what we normally do for resolutions.We believe that this meeting is very important because we not only discussing an attack on a Member State, or the threat of a military strike against a Member State of the United Nations, whichever it may be, but rather because we are living at a time of constant attacks on multilateralism. Let us recall that the achievements in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change have been undermined. Let us recall that the gains reached with the Global Compact for Migration have been eroded. Let us recall that there is a clear policy and mindset of multilateralism subversion. What happens is that for some the discourse on human rights is used until it no longer serves their interests, and then they violate those rights.My region is a witness to that. We endured Operation Condor, as it was called, during the 1970s, which was planned by the intelligence services of some Member States. When democracy did not suit them, they financed coups d'etat. When they were unhappy with the discourse on human rights, they infringed human rights. When the discourse of democracy was no longer enough, they were ready to finance coups d'etat. The use of unilateral practices leaves behind unhealed wounds, despite the passage of time.Some of the members of the Council have spoken on the situation in Iraq and Libya, which I believe are some of the worst crimes that have been committed this century. The invasion of Iraq, with its dire consequences, left more than 1 million dead. The effects of the strikes against Libya and the regime-change policies imposed on it, which, as my colleague from Equatorial Guinea aptly said, they still feel, suffer and endure throughout the entire region of the Sahel and Central Africa. But no one wants to talk about the root causes of those conflicts, and no one will talk about the impunity enjoyed for those serious crimes. It warrants repeating. Those are the most serious crimes committed this century. We hope that all the members of the Security Council, given the high degree of responsibility we have — 10 of us elected by the membership and five enjoy the privilege to have a permanent seat on the Council with the power of veto — must lead by example for the rest of the membership on the fulfilment of the purposes and principles of the Charter.By way of conclusion, I would like to reiterate what former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a similar situation in 2013: "The Security Council has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security". That is my appeal. Everything must be addressed within the framework of the Charter. The use of force is legal only in the exercise of the right to self-defence, in line with Article 51 of the Charter, or when the Security Council approves such action. That was the reason for the meeting, and Bolivia's position is to categorically condemn any threat or use of unilateral force.Mr. Alotaibi (Kuwait) (spoke in Arabic): At the outset, I would very much like to thank the Secretary-General for his valuable briefing today. We share his concern about the fact that the Middle East is experiencing crises and challenges that unquestionably represent threats to international peace and security. The situation will undoubtedly deteriorate if the Security Council resolutions are not implemented by the relevant parties.The question of Palestine, the practices of the Israeli occupation there and its continued violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and the relevant Security Council resolutions 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 15/22 are testament to that. The most recent is its repression of peaceful protests in Gaza and the use of excessive force. That led to the deaths of dozens of civilians and injuries to hundreds as they exercised their legitimate right to demonstrate peacefully in support of the March of Return. Kuwait condemns those Israeli practices in the strongest terms. We regret that the Security Council has not taken action to condemn such acts of repression or to call on the Israeli occupation forces to end them. The Israeli occupying Power should not be an exception. Everyone should respect and abide by international law and the Charter of the United Nations and should implement the relevant Security Council resolutions with the aim of achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace that can fulfil the Palestinian people's legitimate political right to establish their own State on their own land, with East Jerusalem as its capital.We have had a number of meetings over the past few days. Today's meeting would not have taken place if we had been able to agree on a new mechanism to investigate the allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria. This disagreement has led to deep divisions among the members of the Security Council. We must step up our efforts to advance the stalled political process in Syria. We have been concerned about escalating tensions among all parties since the beginning of the year. Through the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), which primarily calls for a cessation of hostilities throughout Syria for at least 30 days, we tried to improve the humanitarian situation. Unfortunately, however, it has not been implemented and has in fact been violated in flagrant disregard for the will of the international community.We share the concern and disappointment of the Secretary-General about the deteriorating situation in Syria and the ongoing allegations of the use of chemical weapons, and support his call for an agreement on a new mechanism to ensure accountability and end impunity in Syria. We reiterate our support for the efforts of the Fact-finding Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to establish the facts surrounding the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, in eastern Ghouta, and emphasize that there must be accountability for the perpetrators of those crimes, if they are confirmed.In view of our responsibility as members of the Council, we should do our utmost and not lose hope, and we should continue our efforts to agree on the establishment of an independent, impartial and professional mechanism for attributing responsibility and ensuring accountability. The continued violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and the relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolution 2118 (2013), by the warring parties in Syria further convince us that, in the case of grave violations of human rights or crimes that amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, there should be a moratorium on the use of the veto as a procedural matter, so that such tragedies for innocent civilians are not repeated.The State of Kuwait takes a principled and firm position, in line with that of the League of Arab States. We call for preserving the unity, sovereignty and independence of Syria, as well as for a cessation of the violence and hostilities in order to put an end to bloodshed, protect the Syrian people and achieve a peaceful settlement. This would be done under the auspices of the United Nations and through the efforts of the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Syria, based on the Geneva communiqué of 2012 (S/2012/522, annex) and resolution 2254 (2015), with the aim of achieving a political transition agreed on by all sectors of Syrian society and of meeting their legitimate aspirations.Mr. Umarov (Kazakhstan): We join others in expressing our appreciation to the Secretary-General for his insightful briefing and personal presence at today's meeting. In our view, since his appointment as steward of this world Organization, he has ceaselessly promoted a very important approach, which is the use of amicable and preventive diplomacy.Following an alert to the world, the Security Council underlined in its first presidential statement of 2018, on preventive diplomacy and sustaining peace (S/PRST/2018/1), adopted during Kazakhstan's presidency of the Security Council, that the ways to address conflict may include measures to rebuild trust by bringing Member States together around common goals. That has been particularly important in situations where international relations have featured confrontations and tension behind which the contours of a global war are increasingly apparent. We are right now in a moment when we must exercise special caution and vigilance in making decisions about our actions, especially in the Middle East. We believe that it is time to tap into all the tools available for a comprehensive strategy of preventive diplomacy in order to avoid the very serious consequences of any S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 16/22 18-10728 military action that could have repercussions for global security and stability.The recent escalation of the rhetoric on Syria and the threat of the use of unilateral actions has left the delegation of Kazakhstan deeply concerned about the unfolding situation, which has the potential to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security. We all bear a responsibility for complying with international law and order, and none of our countries has the right to violate the Charter of the United Nations or to act or threaten to act unilaterally with respect to a sovereign nation under any pretext, unless that is decided by the Security Council. The Security Council is a collective body and is designed to take balanced decisions with regard to the issues of peace and security. We can agree or disagree, but we are mandated to work together to achieve a decision for which we have to bear a collective responsibility.Kazakhstan believes that the most effective way to prevent conflicts is to use diplomacy and mediation, not military means. We look forward to the next round of talks to be held in Geneva and in our capital, Astana, when the parties will address the stepping up of efforts to ensure observance of their respective agreements, among other issues.In addressing the disputes over the issue of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma in Syria, which has provoked the most recent tension in international relations, we consider it necessary to state the following. Kazakhstan strongly condemns any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed. Impunity is not permissible. We should act resolutely to stop any further use of such inhuman weapons, but we should act on the basis of proven facts. In this particular case, where there are doubts about the actual use of a poisonous substance, Kazakhstan calls on the members of the Council to be patient, at least until the expert group of the Fact-finding Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to Syria is deployed to the site of the alleged attack and can report on the findings of its investigation, particularly given that yesterday we learned that the Syrian Government has granted visas for the OPCW investigators and pledged to facilitate access to the sites of the alleged chemical attack. We should first establish and understand the scientifically and professionally ascertained facts, after which the Council should decide on the appropriate line of action to take.At this stage, any military action or threat of it without the prior approval of the Security Council is undesirable. It could have a long-lasting negative impact that would be very difficult to overcome and could result in unprecedented and unanticipated complications. Kazakhstan remains committed to the Charter of the United Nations and to all Security Council resolutions aimed at resolving the political and humanitarian aspects of the Syrian conflict. We believe it is crucial to exercise restraint and refrain from any rhetoric that might exacerbate the already fragile and volatile situation. Such a pause for reflection on the consequences is essential to preserving international peace and security.In the light of the prevailing circumstances, it is more critical than ever that all Council members implement resolution 2401 (2018). The crisis in Syria can be resolved only through an inclusive and Syrian-led political process, based on the Geneva communiqué of 30 June 2012 (S/2012/522, annex), subsequent Security Council resolutions and the relevant statements of the International Syria Support Group. Lastly, we fully endorse the views articulated by the Secretary-General on 11 April about the risks of the current impasse that we are witnessing today (see SG/SM/18984). We must at all costs avoid the situation spiralling out of control. Our ultimate goal should be to put an end to the horrific suffering of the Syrian people and to help them to move forward on a path of peace and progress.Once again, this is an alarming moment, and we need to work together to restore unity and effectiveness in the Security Council by rebuilding trust and consensus in order to preserve global peace and security. We need cooperation within the Council to establish a workable attribution mechanism, which we passionately advocated today in this Chamber. Let us make it happen and transform our words into real deeds. The delegation of Kazakhstan is ready for that and calls on its colleagues to go the extra mile in that direction.Mr. Alemu (Ethiopia): We thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and deeply appreciate his efforts to weigh in on the grave challenge that we are facing, in order to ensure that what should and must be avoided will not happen because of miscalculation or a lack of thoughtfulness or of appreciation for the tremendous responsibility that the Security Council, especially its permanent members, bears. The Cold War is back with a vengeance, the Secretary-General said, but this time, he went on to tell us, in a less managed 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 17/22 manner. It is difficult to quarrel with him. His approach was quite comprehensive, focusing, as he said, on the multiplicity of dangerous conflicts that the Middle East is facing. While his approach may be better, I choose to focus on Syria because it is the current flashpoint.Following the alleged chemical attacks in Douma, it is regrettable that the Council was not able to adopt a resolution to create an independent, impartial and professional investigative mechanism for identifying those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. This is a problem that has been with us for some time and a reality that sadly reflects the lack of unity in the Council even on matters that are manifestly in the common interest of all. We certainly welcome the deployment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact-finding Mission to Syria to establish the facts surrounding the alleged use of chemicals as weapons. We have repeatedly stated that using chemicals as weapons is inhumane, and we condemn their use by any actor under any circumstances. One matter remains, and that is establishing a mechanism for attribution. We hope that will be done as soon as possible, but that does not mean that in the meantime we should cease to exercise maximum restraint in the interests of peace.Right now, pragmatic considerations and simple rational calculation suggest that we must get our priorities right. We need to continue to live if we are to be able to fight evil. We have continued to express our deep concern about the current dynamics in Syria and their devastating implications for regional and international peace and security. We fully concur with the Secretary-General, who stressed in his statement of 11 April that it is vital to ensure that the situation does not spiral out of control (see SG/SM/18984). He stressed that legitimate concern again today. The Security Council, as the principal body responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, should not and cannot allow that to happen. At a time when we are talking about preventive diplomacy — as well as after appointing a Secretary-General who told us, in his maiden speech to the Council (see S/PV.7857), that prevention is not merely a priority, but the priority — now is the time for the United Nations to undertake the search for diplomacy for peace in earnest. If we are seriously committed to moving our Organization from a culture of reaction to one of prevention, now is the time to stand firm, speak with one voice and take proactive and collective action that can be respected by all major stakeholders.That requires the Council to be united for global peace and security. We know that is difficult, but we believe that we have no other sane option. This is the time for the Security Council to stand up and be counted. The Security Council is the custodian of the Charter of the United Nations, which, growing out of the devastation of the Second World War, promised to save succeeding generations from that scourge. That is a clarion call the Council should heed and act on. The situation should not be allowed to spiral out of control. The Secretary-General is right and the Council should listen to him.Mr. Van Oosterom (Netherlands): We thank the Secretary-General for his comprehensive and insightful briefing. His statement rightly focused on the broader Middle East. However, I will focus on the most pressing issue at hand, the use of chemical weapons in Syria.The Charter of the United Nations starts with the words "We the peoples of the United Nations", and while the Russian Federation is blocking the Council from taking effective action on the crimes of Russia's ally Syria, all peoples of every nation are outraged by the continued unrestrained violence that the Syrian regime has unleashed against its own people. As the Secretary-General just said, the people of Syria have lived through a litany of horrors. No responsible Government can ignore the universal outrage that those horrors have provoked.Our collective incapacity in the Council to stop the crimes in Syria should weigh heavily on the conscience of all our members, but on the conscience of one permanent member in particular. It was our collective conscience that created the Charter of the United Nations. It was our collective conscience that created the Chemical Weapons Convention. The use of chemical weapons is unlawful in and of itself. It is a violation of the Charter of the United Nations. It is a serious violation of international law and may constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity.We strongly believe that the international community must fully uphold the standard that the use of chemical weapons is never permissible. As the Secretary-General just said, the norm against the use of chemical weapons must be upheld. The non-proliferation regime must be upheld. Accountability for the use of chemical weapons in Syria is therefore neither optional S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 18/22 18-10728 nor negotiable. The images of last weekend's attack in Douma are appalling. Atrocities have once again been inflicted on Syria's civilian population. Once again, dozens of innocent civilians have been killed and hundreds injured. The Kingdom of the Netherlands believes that it is highly likely that the Syrian regime is responsible for the attack. It has a proven history of such attacks, having used chemicals as a weapon against its own people in 2014, 2015 and 2017. It is unacceptable that four years after Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, its declarations can still not be verified as accurate or complete.The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a long-time supporter of fighting impunity when it comes to chemical weapons. Regrettably, all attempts to achieve accountability in the Council have failed. Referral to the International Criminal Court was vetoed. The renewal of the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) was also vetoed. This week, accountability was again vetoed. With its vetoes, the Russian Federation has assumed much responsibility for the crimes committed by the Syrian regime. The draft resolution for a new accountability mechanism that was vetoed this week remains the bare minimum of what is acceptable to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We will not settle for anything less than an independent, impartial attribution mechanism that can ensure that the culprits of that vicious attack will be identified and held accountable.No veto can wipe from our memory the clear findings presented by the JIM on the use of chemical weapons by the Al-Assad regime and Da'esh. No veto can stop our compassion for the victims of the chemical-weapon attack last weekend. No veto can end our determination to achieve justice for the victims and for the people of Syria as a whole.In conclusion, the Kingdom of the Netherlands remains committed to fighting impunity. We reiterate our strong support for an international, impartial and independent mechanism, the Commission of Inquiry, the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons and a referral of the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as the most appropriate path to accountability and justice. At the heart of our policy on Syria is a deep desire for peace and justice for its people. Impunity cannot and will not prevail.Let me end with warm words of appreciation to the Secretary-General and his tireless efforts for justice and the international legal order.Ms. Wronecka (Poland): I would like to thank the Secretary-General for his comprehensive briefing and to assure him of our full support in finding a political solution to all conflicts, not just the one in Syria.Since we are discussing the situation in the Middle East and in particular the current situation in Syria, let me begin with a very sad observation. Even with our unanimously adopted resolutions, such as resolution 2401 (2018), we are still not seeing any substantial change on the ground. The fighting is far from being over and the human suffering is tremendous. Taking into consideration the current situation and the growing risk of the loss of human life owing simply to a lack of food or medicine, we should try to do our utmost to find possible ways to ensure that life-saving aid convoys can reach those in need. Unfortunately, that applies not only to eastern Ghouta but also to Idlib and Aleppo provinces. We must find a way to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Syrians. The civilian population in Syria has already suffered too much.International public opinion is watching our meetings and sees our lack of agreement on the most basic principles under international humanitarian law. The Council bears enormous responsibility and will be held accountable for its actions. We therefore call on the Council to take the necessary steps to ensure that all the parties to the conflict, especially the regime and its allies, implement the ceasefire, enable humanitarian access and medical evacuations and fully engage in the United Nations-led talks in Geneva, in line with resolution 2254 (2015) and the 2012 Geneva communiqué (S/2012/522, annex), which represent the best path to peace.With regard to the issue of chemical weapons, a century ago that was a normal way to wage war. Just recently we commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the first use of chemical weapons, on the Western and Eastern fronts of the First World War alike. French, British, American and other Allied soldiers were targeted with chlorine in Ypres, while Russian soldiers were dying from the same gruesome weapons in Bolimów, now part of Polish territory. Now, a century later, we are being challenged by these ghastly weapons yet again. Our nations are seeing the effects of the same 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 19/22 toxic gas through the images of civilians who sought refuge in basements in Ghouta and other areas in Syria.Chemical weapons were banned when the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) cam into effect in 1997. We had begun a new chapter in the history of non-proliferation and disarmament. All of us in this Chamber agree that the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere is deplorable and unacceptable. Can we really allow the success story of the CWC to be reversed? Will the Security Council allow the vision of a world free of chemical weapons to be destroyed? It is regrettable that the establishment of an independent, impartial investigative mechanism on the use of chemical weapons in Syria was vetoed on Tuesday (see S/PV.8228), thereby enabling those responsible for chemical attacks to remain unpunished. Accountability for such acts is a requirement under international law and is central to achieving durable peace in Syria. As members of the Security Council, we must find a way to reach agreement on how to properly respond to chemical attacks in Syria. We hope to see the Fact-finding Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) deployed to Douma as soon as possible. We reiterate our appreciation to the Director-General and staff of the OPCW for their commitment to its goals and work, often in particularly challenging circumstances.Mr. Tanoh-Boutchoue (Côte d'Ivoire) (spoke in French): The delegation of Côte d'Ivoire thanks Secretary-General António Guterres for his briefing on new developments in the critical situation in several countries in the Middle East, in particular Syria, since the Security Council considered the issue on 9 and 10 April (see S/PV. 8225 and S/PV. 8228).Despite the relative lull in the fighting in Syria, the humanitarian situation remains troubling in the light of the allegations of the recurring use of chemical weapons by parties to the conflict. As a result of its internal divisions, despite our goodwill, the Council has failed to ensure the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018), which we adopted unanimously in order to deliver humanitarian assistance to people in need. In the light of the continuing reports of the use of chemical weapons in Douma, the Council was unable to reach an agreement on a statement that at the very least would have conveyed our solidarity to the Syrian people at this difficult time. The delegation of Côte d'Ivoire remains concerned by the current impasse in the Security Council, which has, unfortunately, prevented it from reaching agreement on a mechanism to combat impunity vis-à-vis the use of chemical weapons in Syria.In this context, we reiterate our support for the impartial, transparent, independent investigation to be conducted by the Fact-finding Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with the aim of shedding light on allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Douma, in eastern Ghouta.Côte d'Ivoire reiterates its strong condemnation of any use of chemical weapons, by any party, during peacetime or during wartime. Once again we beseech members of the Council to unite so as to set aside their differences and successfully set up an accountability mechanism to ensure that those who use chemical weapons are held accountable.We remain alarmed by the tensions stemming from the current political impasse, and we encourage the Secretary-General to make use of his good offices with stakeholders to restore peace and calm, in order to prevent any further escalation of the situation. To that end, my country invites all parties to exercise restraint so as to peacefully resolve this issue and in so doing safeguard international peace and security, which is our shared legacy.Côte d'Ivoire reaffirms our conviction and our principled position that there can be no military response to the crisis in Syria. The solution needs to be sought through dialogue and an inclusive political process, as stipulated in the road map set out by resolution 2254 (2015). My country remains convinced that dialogue alone will lead us to an equitable settlement of the conflict in Syria.The President (spoke in Spanish): I shall now make statement in my capacity as the representative of Peru.We would like to express our gratitude for the briefing by Secretary-General António Guterres and to thank him for his willingness to help to achieve a solution to the impasse in which the Security Council currently finds itself. We encourage him to continue to spare no effort in this respect, in line with the prerogatives conferred upon him by the Charter of the United Nations.Peru expresses its deep-rooted concern at the divisions that have emerged in the Council, in particular between its permanent members, and at the regrettable use of the veto, which limits our capacity to maintain S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 20/22 18-10728 international peace and security and to resolve the humanitarian conflicts and crises that form our agenda.We note with alarm the fact that the conflict in Syria continues to involve atrocity crimes committed with impunity and that it has deteriorated into a serious threat to regional and global stability, to the point where it is giving rise to serious tensions.With respect to reports of the further use of chemical weapons in Douma, we believe it necessary to resume, as a matter of urgency and in a renewed spirit of compromise, negotiations that will lead to ensuring full access, as required, for the Fact-finding Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is being deployed in Syria to determine what happened; and to create a dedicated, independent, objective and impartial mechanism to attribute responsibility.On that understanding, we believe it important to recall once again that there can be no military solution to the Syrian conflict and that any response to the barbaric events taking place in that country must be in keeping with the norms of international law and the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.We recall also that in its resolution 2401 (2018), the Council ordered a humanitarian ceasefire throughout the entire Syrian territory, and that it is urgent to make headway in the political process in line with resolution 2254 (2015) and the Geneva communiqué (S/2012/522, annex). As the Secretary-General himself said, of particular concern is the potential threat posed by the current deadlock. We must at all costs prevent the situation from spiralling out of control. This must not occur given that our duty is to put an end to the suffering of millions of people and to impunity for atrocity crimes.Peru reiterates its commitment to living up to the lofty responsibility that the maintenance of international peace and security entails. My delegation will continue to work towards a solution to the conflict and protect the Syrian people, in keeping with the Charter of the United Nations and international law.I now resume my functions as President of the Council.I would like to recall the statement by the President of the Security Council contained in document S/2017/507, on the length of interventions.Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): First, I should like, on behalf of my Government, to express our condolences to the people and the Government of Algeria in connection with the tragic military plane crash that claimed the lives of 247 passengers.Secondly, I welcome the participation of the Secretary-General in this very important meeting. I thank him for his comprehensive and accurate briefing, which made clear that he and others in the Council did in fact understand this meeting's agenda item. He spoke in a manner commensurate with the threats to international peace and security posed by the allegations and accusations against my country and its allies.My colleague the Ambassador of Sweden said that the use of chemical weapons is a war crime. This is true. I agree with him, as does my Government. However, I would ask him whether he believes that war in itself is a crime and needs to be stopped and prevented. Perhaps this would be a very good title for a book by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and perhaps this would make clear to Member States that war in itself is a crime.My colleague the representative of the United States said that the Syrian chemical weapons that killed civilians had been used 50 times; that is what she said. Chemical weapons were used 50 times and killed 200 civilians. Imagine that — the Syrian Government reversed the course of the global terrorist war against my country by killing only 200 civilians after having used chemical weapons 50 times. Are these not the words of amateurs? This is a scenario for DC Comics' Superman series. Is that how the White House strategists think — that a certain Government has used chemical weapons 50 times to kill 200 civilians? How is that logical?My American colleague overlooked one important detail — that her country, on board the MV Cape Ray, destroyed the Syrian chemical stockpiles in the Mediterranean, along with ships from Denmark and Norway. How could it be that the experts in the United States delegation did not tell her that Ms. Sigrid Kaag told the Security Council in June 2014 that there were no more chemical stockpiles in Syria. Could they have simply forgotten all of that?Some believe that the massive western military forces in the eastern Mediterranean are due to a Sufi Western affection for a handful of terrorist yobs in 13/04/2018 Threats to international peace and security S/PV.8231 18-10728 21/22 Douma. By the way, those yobs were chased out to the North, as the Council is aware. They are now on their way to Saudi Arabia and thence to Yemen. They will be recycled and used on other fronts, including Yemen. No, the massive military forces in the Mediterranean do not target that handful of terrorists. They target the State of Syria and its allies. That should be the topic discussed today in this meeting.My colleague the American Ambassador was not horrified that her country used 20 million gallons of Agent Orange in Viet Nam in 1961, killing and injuring 3 million Vietnamese. Four hundred thousand children are born with deformities every year due to the use of Agent Orange at that time. She was not horrified by her country's forces killing thousands of Syrians in Raqqa and thousands of Iraqis in Fallujah and Mosul through the use of white phosphorus, which is a chemical weapon. I ask my colleague, the Ambassador of Sweden: Is that not a war crime?I would like to read a remark of the former Defence Minister of Britain, Mr. Doug Henderson. He spoke of the use by his country and the United States of white phosphorus in Iraq. I would ask my friend the British Ambassador to listen to this. Mr. Henderson said that it was unbelievable that the United Kingdom would occupy a country — meaning Iraq — to look for chemical weapons and at the same time use chemical weapons against that very same country.George Orwell, the well-respected and ethical Western author said: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act". The truth that needs to be told today is that three permanent members of the Security Council are dragging the entire world once again towards the abyss of war and aggression. They seek to obstruct the Council's work in maintaining international peace and security, which is the main principle agreed upon and endorsed by our founding fathers when they adopted the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco on 26 June, 1945. Even though my colleague, the Ambassador of Bolivia has already read it out, I would like to once again remind the Council of paragraph 4 of Article 2 of the Charter:"All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations".The truth that needs to be told today is that those three States have a legacy based on fallacies and fabricated narratives in order to launch wars, occupy States, control their resources and change their governing systems. The truth that needs to be told today is that the entire world and the Council stand witnesses to the invasion, occupation and destruction of Iraq based on a United States lie in this very Chamber 14 years ago. They stand witnesses to France's exploitation of the Council to destroy Libya under the pretext of protecting civilians while ending the future of an entire people for the very simple reason that its President at the time, Mr. Sarkozy, wanted a cover up for his financial corruption. This is an ongoing case, of which members are all aware. However, some countries still fall for those lies promoted by those very same States in order to attack my country, Syria.God bless the days when France the policies of Charles de Gaulle in the Council followed and repudiated the aggression of the United States and Britain against Iraq. We yearn for those days. France no longer respects the policies of Charles de Gaulle and is now one of the countries that launch attacks against other countries.The truth that needs to be told today is that the international community has not sought to rein in those who are reckless and undermine international relations, subjecting them to disaster time and again since the establishment of this international Organization. Our biggest fear is that if the international community does not come together to end the abuse of those who are reckless, then the Organization will die in circumstances very similar to that which led to the death of the League of Nations.The truth that needs to be told today is that after the failure of the United States, Britain, France and their proxies in our region to achieve their objectives in Syria through providing all forms of support to the armed terrorist groups, we see them today tweeting and bragging about their nice, new and smart rockets, and defying international legitimacy from the Council Chamber. They dispatch war planes and fleets to achieve what their terrorists have failed to achieve over the past seven years.The truth that needs to be told today is that the Syrian Government liberated hundreds of thousands of civilians in eastern Ghouta from the practices of armed terrorist groups that used them as human shields, held S/PV.8231 Threats to international peace and security 13/04/2018 22/22 18-10728 them hostage for years and prevented any medical or food assistance from reaching them. The terrorist groups used the schools, homes and hospitals of those civilians as military bases to launch attacks on 8 million civilians in Damascus.The truth that needs to be told today is that some reckless people are pushing international relations towards the abyss based on a fake video prepared by the terrorist White Helmets, pursuant to instructions by Western intelligence.The truth that needs to be told today is that the so-called international alliance used its war planes to serve Da'esh in order to block the victory of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies against that terrorist organization. That international alliance made the White Helmets its media division to fabricate and falsify incidents in order to benefit the Al-Qaida terrorist organization.The government of my country took the initiative to invite the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to dispatch its Fact-finding Mission to visit Syria and the alleged site of the incident in Douma. The Government of my country has provided all the facilitation needed for the team to work in a transparent and accurate manner. The team is supposed to start its work in a few hours. This invitation was issued out of strength, confidence and diplomatic experience, not because we are weak or afraid and giving in to bullying or threats.The Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest terms the Governments of these three States for launching their threats to use power in a flagrant violation of Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations, which identifies the primary purpose of the United Nations as the maintenance of international peace and security and the suppression of acts of aggression and other breaches to peace.With the exception of the United States, Britain and France, we all understand that the Security Council is the organ charged with the maintenance of international peace and security and should stand against attempts to impose the law of the jungle and the rule of the powerful. However, some Member States think that the United Nations is just a private business company that works on the basis of pecuniary interests, market rules and the principle of supply and demand to determine the fate of peoples and States, and that use it as a platform for cheap theatrics and the dissemination of lies. This is the truth that disappoints the hopes and aspirations of the peoples of the world.I am not reinventing the wheel in this Chamber. The history of our relations with those States is filled with agony, pain and bitterness as a result of their very well-known policies of aggression. Another more important and shocking truth that should be told today is that the silence of the majority with respect to those aggressive policies does not constitute collusion with these States, but it does arise from fear of their arrogance and political blackmail, economic pressure and aggressive record. Those States do not blink when they go after anyone who is telling the truth.In conclusion, if those three States — the United States, Britain and France — think they can attack us and undermine our sovereignty and set out to do so, we would have no other choice but to apply Article 51 of the Charter, which gives us the legitimate right to defend ourselves. This is not a threat the way they do; it is a promise. This is a promise. We will not let anyone attack our sovereignty.Why do I say that this is a promise? I say this because a thought commonly ascribed to the great United States leader George Washington, who lived more than 200 years ago comes to mind — the sound that is louder than that of the cannons is the sound of the truth that emanates from the heart of a united nation that wants to live free. We in Syria also have leaders and prominent figures as great as George Washington. They are doing the same thing for Syria — protecting the unity and sovereignty of their country.The meeting rose at 12.25 p.m.

General Abstract 1. Introduction Nowadays, it is essential to develop and find new ways to reduce the increasing pollution deriving from anthropogenic and environmental sources. Human activities are major responsible of climate changes and ecosystems alterations, because of the increasing release of CO2 and other harmful gases inside the atmosphere. In order to reduce the environmental impact of the human society, a great attention is now given to such processes able to reduce the pollutants concentration in both air and water systems. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), which involves the generation of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals (OH•), have emerged as promising air and water treatment technology for the degradation or mineralization of a wide range of pollutants. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) induced photocatalysis is an example of AOP processes and it has been demonstrated its efficiency in the decomposition of various organic contaminants. TiO2 is a very well known and well-researched material due to the stability of its chemical structure, biocompatibility, physical, optical, and electrical properties. TiO2-based photocatalysts are used for a variety of applications such as degradation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) [1] and decomposition of nitrogen pollutants (NOx) [2] or also organic dyes, like Methylene Blue [3]. The crystalline forms of TiO2 are anatase, rutile and brookite. In general, TiO2 is preferred in anatase form because of its high photocatalytic activity, non-toxicity, chemically stability; moreover, it is relatively inexpensive. For a long time, new synthetic routes have been developed to prepare nano-TiO2 samples in order to enhance their photocatalytic efficiency [4-6]. In fact, since many years the attention has been focused on ultrasmall semiconductive particles, because they show peculiar and enhanced properties compared to the micrometric particles ones [7]. Nano-sized TiO2 is extremely efficient towards the photodegradation processes; in particular, photo-redox reactions are greatly enhanced thanks to the high numbers of active sites present on the extremely large surface area [8]. However, in recent years many papers published the possible health risks correlated with nano-sized materials [9,10]. The small size, shape, solubility and agglomeration degree of nano-sized materials, make them able to cross the cell boundaries or pass directly from the lungs into the blood stream and finally reach all the organs in the body [11]. On the other hand, larger particles are adsorbed by organs and cells with more difficulty. The main question is then if it is necessary to use the nano-sized particles in an exclusive way. Kwon et al. [12] stated that nanocatalysts having small particle size, high surface area, and a high density of surface coordination unsaturated sites offer improved catalytic performance over microscale catalysts but this does not imply the impossibility a priori to use these latter in selected conditions. The use in photocatalysis of TiO2 powders with larger-sized crystallites is a very interesting approach to reduce the possible health problems caused by nanoparticles. 2. Aims of work The aims of this PhD work is to evaluate the photoactivity of micro-TiO2 samples using as irradiation source both UV and LED lights. At first, commercial powdered micro- and nano-sized TiO2 catalysts, were tested and then improved for the degradation of pollutants in both gas and aqueous phase. The ultimate purpose of the PhD work is to test the possibility of using TiO2 for production of building materials; the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 can be then exploited for degrading air pollutants inside domestic environments or workplaces, thus making them healthier over time. Application of photocatalysis to construction buildings began towards the end of 1980s with the production of photocatalytic glasses, which provided self-cleaning and anti-fogging properties [13]. Afterward photocatalytic cementitious materials have been patented by Mitsubishi Corp. and Italcementi SpA [14,15]. In all these construction materials, the active photocatalyst is anatase TiO2. Although the use of photocatalytic cement is still restricted and limited, many buildings and city roads have been designed and constructed since 2000. Relevant examples are Church "Dives in Misericordia", Rome, Italy; Music and Arts City Hall, Chamberéry, France [16]. In general, the mostly used powders of commercial TiO2 for photocatalytic applications are nanometric: this leads some advantages in terms of pollutants degradation efficiency, but many backwards too, like the difficulty to recover the catalyst or the possibility of inhalation with consequent health damage, even the high cost is not negligible. For this reasons, the optimization of the photocatalytic efficiency of micrometric compounds is desired, in order to replace definitely the nanometric catalysts. In this PhD work micro-sized TiO2 powder was used for the preparation of porcelain gres tiles, which are commercial manufactured products, opening a new generation of material intrinsically safer than the traditional photocatalytic products. All samples were fully characterized investigating textural, structural, morphological and surface properties. The photoefficiency was evaluated in different ways, which can be summarized as follows: • Assessment of the photoactivity of commercial samples, both nanometric and micrometric, in gas and aqueous phases in the presence of typical indoor and outdoor pollutants (NOx and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), textile dyes, surfactants); • Assessment of the self-cleaning effect, evaluated by water contact angle measurements, during ultraviolet irradiation on micro-TiO2 tiles of building materials on whose surface the oleic acid is deposited (ISO/WD 27448-1); • Assessment of the effects of the addition of anionic or cationic ions, like fluorine, tin, rhenium or tungsten, on the catalytic surface through the impregnation method. Doping is useful to lower the titanium band gap and accordingly to increase the photocatalytic activity of the material. 3. Experimental details 3.1 Catalytic materials a) Preparation of TiO2 powders Different commercially available micro- and nano-sized pigmentary-powdered TiO2 were chosen; the catalysts were characterized and used without further treatment. In the Table 3.1 the photocatalytic powders used in this PhD work are reported. For each powder, the different physico-chemical characteristics are specified: XRD for the crystalline nature, BET for the surface area, XPS for the atomic composition of elements, SEM and TEM for the particles morphology, FTIR for the chemical composition of samples supported with DRS (diffuse reflectance spectra) for the characterization of the light absorption features and band-gap determinations. Before starting the photooxidation process of pollutants, commercial TiO2 powders were deposited in two plains of glass sample (each plain of 7.5x2.5 cm2). TiO2 powders (0.050 g) were first suspended in 2-propanol (50 ml) so to obtain a homogeneous suspension and then deposited by drop casting onto one side of the laminas. The solvent was simply evaporated at room temperature without any further treatment. The samples consisted in a thicker layer, obtained by overlapping three TiO2 coatings (labelled as T, standing for triple layers, followed by the substrate abbreviation), as shown in previous works by Bianchi et al. [17,18]. Table 3.1. Main features of TiO2-based commercial powders, used as photocatalysts, with the corresponding crystalline phase: nanometric and micrometric samples. Powder Crystalline phase BET (m2/g) Micro/Nano XPS OH/Otot P25 (Evonik) 75% anatase; 25% rutile 52 NANO 0.14 PC105 (Crystal) anatase 80 NANO 0.85 1077 (Kronos) anatase 11 MICRO 0.32 AH-R (Hundsman) anatase 12 MICRO 0.19 AT-1 (Crystal) anatase 12 MICRO 0.24 1001 (Kronos) anatase 11 MIXED PHASE (micro+nano) 0.27 1002 (Kronos) anatase 9 MIXED PHASE (micro+nano) 0.35 1071 (Kronos) anatase 10 MIXED PHASE (micro+nano) 0.18 A-Z (Hombitam) 99% anatase 4 MICRO 0.25 AN (Hombitam) 98,5% anatase 12 MICRO 0.5 N.10 (HombiKat) 98% anatase; 2% rutile 13 MICRO 0.13 b) Preparation of vitrified tiles Among all building materials, commercially available white tiles by GranitiFiandre SpA (sample name White Ground Active® (WGA) or Orosei Active) were chosen and used for the preparation of photocatalytic tiles. Porcelain gres tiles are manufactured under high pressure by dry-pressing of fine processed ceramic raw materials, with large proportions of quartz, feldspar, and other fluxes. The body of these materials is then fired at very high temperatures (1200–1300◦C) in kilns [19]. After impregnation with water, the tiles are subjected to temperature cycles between +5 and -5 °C, during a minimum of 100 freeze–thaw cycles, in order to verify their resistance to the frost and their durability. No evident cracks or damages were observed on the samples. The final material is thus characterized by lack of porosity, complete water-proofing, durability, hardness, wear resistance properties, and a complete frost resistance. The porcelain gres tiles were covered at the surface with a mixture of micro-TiO2 and a commercial SiO2-based compound prepared via ball–mill [20,21]. To achieve the desired product stability, at the end of the preparation procedure tiles were treated at high temperature (680 °C) for 80 min and then brushed to remove the powder present at the surface and not completely stuck. Temperature was precisely chosen to maintain the anatase form of the semiconductor and allow the vitrification of the tiles surface. Tiles were also prepared with the same procedure but without adding the photoactive oxide into the SiO2-based compound for the sake of comparison (sample name White Ground (WG) or Orosei)). The surface wettability of photoactive porcelain gres tiles was evaluated by static contact angle (CA) measurements performed with an OCA20 instrument (DataPhysics Co., Germany) equipped with a CCD camera and a 500 μL-Hamilton syringe to dispense liquid droplets. [22,23]. c) Doping effect on TiO2 powders Micrometric TiO2 powders were doped with cations like tungsten (W), tin (Sn) and rhenium (Re), and fluoride anions (F-). This was done with the aim to improve the photoefficiency of the micro-sized TiO2 catalysts, which have lower activity than the traditional nanopowders. Ren at al. [24] demonstrated that the fluorination of TiO2 nanocrystals gave a photocatalytic enhancement due to the higher separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes. Furthermore, it has been found that the surface fluorination favors the generation of free OH radicals, which are responsible of an enhanced oxidation [25]. Regarding the doping with metal cations, in the literature is reported that Re dopant could effectively inhibit the recombination of the photoinduced electrons and holes [26]. Re can act as electron trap and promote the interfacial charge transfer processes in the composite systems, which reduces the recombination of photoinduced electron-hole pairs, thus improving the photocatalytic activity of TiO2. Moreover, it was demonstrated that that metal particles doping can facilitate the electron excitation by creating a local electrical field, enhancing photoinduced surface redox reactions: it results in the extension of the wavelength of TiO2 response towards the visible region [27]. The band gap energy of the doped-TiO2 results less than that of naked TiO2, which induces the red shift of the adsorption edge to respond to visible light. This peculiar feature gets interesting for the use of LED (Light Emission Diode) as irradiation source for the photooxidation processes, because LED emissions are located only in the visible region of light. In fact, an important aspect is the use of irradiation by visible light, through LED lamps. Several cities, like Milano, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, have chosen to adopt the LED emission for the outdoor illumination: Milano will substitute the 80% of urban illumination with the LED light within May 2015 (Expo start date). Advantages, connected to this emerging technology (high durability, cheapness, low energy consume), adhere very well with the environmental safety. Thus, NOx and VOCs photodegradation was performed with LED lamp, using micrometric doped powder. The classical impregnation method was applied to dope the catalyst surface with fluoride anions, starting from inorganic fluoride salts (NaF, NH4F, CaF2 and F2). At the end of the impregnation procedure (24 h, room temperature), powders were calcined at 400°C for 4 h and rinsed in distilled water three times. The metal doping was performed in two different ways: it was used the same procedure of impregnation method for tin (Sn) surface doping, whereas a different surface deposition technique (decoration method) was performed for metals of tungsten (W) and rhenium (Re). Decoration of M- or MO-NPs is commonly implemented by means of ultra-sounds (US) in aqueous or organic solutions where ceramics or polymer substrate powders are dispersed [28]. In the latter case, the precursor of metal was sonicated at a costant temperature of 80°C for 3 h, with 33.0% amplitude and a 50 W cm-2 intensity. At the end, the solution was centrifugated many times to remove all the solvent; the final powders was washed with n-pentane and centrifugated again. The residual solvent was evaporated and the sample was finally calcined at 480°C for 40 h to completely remove the organic scents. 3.2 Testing procedure a) Photocatalytic set-up in gas-phase Photocatalyitc degradation of air pollutants, such as acetone, acetaldehyde, toluene (well known as VOCs) and NOx, were conducted in Pyrex glass cylindrical reactors having different volume depending on the type of analyzed pollutant: 5 L for VOCs and 20 L for NOx, respectively. In the case of VOCs analysis, the gaseous mixture in the reactor was obtained by mixing hot chromatographic air (f.i. 250 ◦C for toluene), with relative humidity (RH) of 40%, and a fixed amount of volatilized pollutant, in order to avoid condensation. The initial concentration of VOCs in the reactor was 400 ppmv, monitored directly by micro-GC sampling. Photon sources were provided by a 500 W iron halogenide lamp (Jelosil, model HG 500) emitting in the 315–400 nm wavelength range (UV-A) at 30 Wm−2 or by a LED lamp, emitting into the visible region. Acetone and acetaldehyde degradation tests lasted for 2 h, whereas toluene tests for 6 h, due to the difficulty in degrading a molecule with an aromatic ring and with a complex degradation pathway [19]. For NOx photodegradation study, a first static experimental setup was obtained used the following conditions: RH: 50%, UV light of 10 Wm-2 (for TiO2 powders deposited on glass sheets) or 20 Wm-2 (for micro-sized TiO2 gres tiles), with a NOx starting value of 1000 ppb. The analytical procedure was reported by Bianchi et al. [21]. NOx degradation by TiO2 powders (always immobilized on a glass sheet) and photoactive tiles was conducted also in continuous conditions using a plug-flow reactor (with an effective volume of 0.025 L) built strictly following the ISO 22197-1 rule [29]. Experimental conditions were maintained as follows: RH: 40%, 20Wm−2, [NOx]inlet=500 ppb, and 180, 32.4, 9, and 4.2 L h−1 total flow, respectively. A chemiluminescent analyzer (Teledyne Instruments M200E) was used to check the conversion of the pollutant in both batch and plug-flow reactor setups. b) Photocatalytic set-up in aqueous-phase The photocatalytic apparatus was a 1 L glass stirred reactor equipped with an iron halogenide UV lamp (500 W, Jelosil® HG500) emitting light at wavelengths of 315–400 nm and able to irradiate the reactor with a specific power of 95 Wm-2, when TiO2 powder was used as catalyst. The UV lamp was placed beside the reactor, which was cooled with water at a temperature of 30 ± 0.5◦C, as reported previously by Gatto et al. [30]. TiO2 was introduced in the reactor at the beginning of each test (0.66 g/L for surfactant degradation and 0.1 g/L for textile dyes). The variation of the surfactant (PFOA) concentration in solution was monitored by total organic carbon (TOC) analysis and ionic chromatography. The PFOA initial concentration ([PFOA]0= 4 mM) was maintained lower than its critical micellar concentration (7.8 mM) in order to avoid the formation of emulsions during the kinetic tests. Samples (10 mL) of the reaction mixture were collected at different reaction times: typically at 0 min (before the start of the reaction), 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, 6 h and 9 h. Textile dyes, chosen for the photodegradation tests, were Rhodamine B (RhB), Methylene Blue (MB) and Crystal Violet (CV); dyes degradation was checked every 60 min by determining the dye concentration in the water solution by a UV–vis spectrophotometer analyzer (T60 UV–vis PG LTD instruments), using water as the reference. Pure CV has an absorbance maximum at 590 nm, RhB at 555 nm and MB around 670 nm. Textile dyes degradation was also performed using photoactive tiles, covered with the micrometric 1077 powder. For this aim, a cylindrical batch reactor of 1 L volume was used for dye degradation tests in presence of ten photoactive tiles (0.03 m2 total surface photoactive area) immersed into the liquid solution, as reported by Bianchi et al. [31]. Refrigeration was allowed by a cooling jacket. Two different lamps directly immersed into the dye solution were used with this setup: a typical germicidal 9 W UV-C lamp (Philips TUV BL-S, model AEPL-7913 mercury vapor low pressure), with a radiant power of 1 Wm-2 and a 125 W UV-A lamp (Jelosil, mercury vapor low pressure), with an illuminance of 65 Wm-2, in correspondence of the tiles surface. During photocatalytic tests, the TiO2 active faces of the tiles were turned towards the UV light. After each test, the tiles were simply washed using deionized water and acetone and then left in deionized water all night long. The same dyes solution (RhB, MB, CV) were used in the present setup at a concentration of 1 × 10−5 M. c) Self-cleaning effect The self-cleaning capability of TiO2 photoactive tiles was evaluated in two different ways: (1) through the measurement of the water contact angle (CA) (KRUSS GmbH) of a tile, after oleic acid deposition and UV irradiation (Jelosil, model HG 500) for 76 h and (2) through the monitoring, by a colorimeter, of the discoloration of dyes directly put on the tiles surfaces, after exposure to the sunlight (Milan – Italy, May 2012). For water CA measurements, a test piece of porcelain gres tile of 100 ± 2mm2 were pre-treated by ultraviolet irradiation of 20 Wm-2 for at least 24 hours. Then, the catalytic samples were dipped inside an oleic acid (Fluka, >80%) solution (0.5 vol%) in order to simulate a polluting condition. The presence of oleic acids on the tile surface modify its wettability. After UV irradiation it was measured the CA at an appropriate time interval, observing a continuous decrease of the CA values related to a degradation of the polluting agent. The measurement can be considered concluded when the contact angle value of the clean photocatalytic tile is restored, as before the oleic acid deposition. For comparison, the measurement is repeated on a sample similarly polluted with oleic acid, but left in the dark for 76 hours. Furthermore, it was taken a sample of porcelain gres tile, not containing TiO2, and it was immersed into oleic acid solution and irradiated, with the aim to evaluate the pure contribute of UV irradiation. Dyes degradation instead was monitored by Vis-spectrometer equipped with an integrated sphere (OceanOptics, USB400-VIS-NIR-ES). 1 μL of dyes, dissolved in water, was put on the tiles surface and left under the sunlight, whose power was continuously checked from 9 am to 5 pm every day by a radiometer DeltaOhm HD2012,2. A mean power irradiation value of 7.28 W/m2 was measured. The color analysis was performed using the CIEXYZ and CIELAB models [22]. 4. Results and discussion 4.1 Characterization results a) Powders characterization Anatase, evidenced by XRD patterns, is the unique polymorph present for all samples, except for P25 and N.10 (by Hombikat) powders, which exhibit even the rutile phase (25 and 2%, respectively). The crystallographic reflexes (1 0 1), (2 0 0) and (2 1 1) have been employed to calculate the average crystallites size of the various titania particles. P25 and PC105, commercial nanometric powders, have comparable crystallite size centered on 25 nm, while the other samples have values between 120 and 200 nm, confirming their micro-sized nature. These structural properties are reflected in their BET surface areas that are about 11-12 m2/g, which are much lower compared to the nano-sized ones (Table 3.1). For 1001, 1002, 1071 samples Sherrer calculation was not performed, as TEM analysis reveals the presence of both micro-sized and ultrafine fractions, as it is visible in Fig. 4.1, section d. HR-TEM and SEM images confirmed the average crystallites sizes extrapolated by XRD analysis; moreover, it was excluded the presence of ultrafine particles in 1007, AT-1, AH-R, A-Z, AN and N.10 powders. It can be evidenced that nano-sized materials perfectly fall within the "nano" definition: in fact, both samples are characterized by average particles size of 15-30 nm (Fig. 4.1, section a), closely packed features and roundish contours [19]. As for what concerns the other powders (1077, AT-1, AH-R, A-Z, AN, N.10), they all exhibit well crystallized particles possessing smooth edge and average diameter size in the 120-200 nm range (see Fig. 4.1, section b and c), with fringes patterns belonging to the TiO2 anatase polymorph. On the contrary, for 1001, 1002 and 1071 powders TEM images again confirm that they are composed by a mixture of both micro-sized crystallites and some ultrafine particles (Fig. 4.1, section d). The surface state of the TiO2 particles was analyzed by XPS. No significant differences can be appreciated in the Ti 2p region among all the present samples concerning the binding energies (BE) and the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) values. The peak of Ti 2p3/2 is always regular and the BE at about 458.5 ± 0.1 eV compares well with the data for Ti(IV) in TiO2 materials [32]. The analysis of the oxygen peaks exhibits the presence of more than one component, which can be attributed to lattice oxygen in TiO2 (529.9 eV) and to surface OH species (>531.5 eV) respectively. A particular O1s shape was observed for PC105. In this case, the OH component is very intense probably due to a particular industrial synthesis in order to enhance the photocatalytic efficiency of the sample. The hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity character of photocatalysts surface plays a crucial role in determining the adsorption step and thus the photocatalytic activity, at least in the degradation of pollutants [33]. P105 exhibits the highest concentration of OH that represent the 85% of the oxygen at the surface, as it shown in Fig. 4.2. It is noteworthy that the micro-sized samples, with the exception of N.10 (by HombiKat) sample, present a higher atomic concentration of OH groups in comparison with P25, pointing out the higher hydrophilic character of their surface (see Table 3.1, fifth column). Fig. 4.1. TEM images of the various TiO2 powders. Section a: P25; section b: 1077; section c: AH-R; section d: 1071. FTIR spectra in the ν(OH) spectral range of the samples in air revealed two complex absorption bands, respectively located in the 3000–3450 cm-1 range and at ν ≥ 3600 cm-1. Based on the spectral behavior and of our previous data [19], the former envelope can be ascribed to the stretching mode of all H-bonded OH groups present at the surface of the various solids, whereas the latter corresponds to the stretching mode of all Ti–OH species free from hydrogen bonding interactions [34]. It is well-known that surface hydroxyl radicals play a fundamental role in the photocatalytic processes [35]. In particular, photo-generated holes react with water molecules adsorbed on TiO2 surface, leading to the formation of OH•: TiO2 + hν → h+ + e- (3.1) h+ + H2O → OH• + H+ (3.2) The pigmentary TiO2 powders showed appreciable amounts of OH groups and this validate their rather good performances in the photocatalyitc degradation, as reported in our previous study [19]. Fig. 4.2. O1s XPS spectra for (a) P25; (b) PC105; (c) 1077; (d) AT-1. b) Gres tiles characterization XPS measurement reveals the presence of only Ti(IV) and a Ti/Si ratio of 0.15 for the micro-TiO2+SiO2-based compound, which belongs to porcelain grès tiles. The preservation of the pure anatase form was verified by both XRPD and XPS measurements. As reported by Anderson and Bard [37] the presence of SiO2, together with TiO2, enhances the formation of hydroxyl radical OH•, which may be achieved via strong Brønsted acid sites at the TiO2/SiO2 interface region. Such incorporation inhibits the crystal growth of TiO2 allowing the preservation of the anatase structure at high temperature. By the investigation of morphological features, the presence of SiO2-based compound is evident in gres tiles (Fig. 4.3), in the form of either small protruding particles or as amorphous coating which covers the TiO2 particles. Fig. 4.3. HR-TEM images of the TiO2 porcelain gres tiles materials. (a) refers to low magnification and (b) to high magnification. The very thin nature of these particles and/or coating allows to inspect the fringe patterns located below, confirming that the spacing among the fringes are still ascribable to the anatase TiO2 polymorph. 4.2 Photocatalytic tests 4.2.1 Photocatalytic activity in gas-phase a) NOx photoabatement with TiO2 powders In this section, several commercial pigmentary powders were tested for NOx degradation and were compared with the nanometric powders efficiency (P25 and PC105). At first, the tested concentration of NOx in the reactor was 1000 ppb, in order to follow the same pollutant concentration requested by the ISO 22197-1 rules [38]. All the samples showed good photocatalytic performances, because the abatement of NOx was early completed at the end of 3 hours, except the 1071 (by Kronos) sample, which showed lower photodegradation (61.5 %). The efficiency of the other samples was between 90 and 99%: this behavior leads to hypothesize a complete degradation of the pollutant within the chosen limited time of the run (3 h). In particular, it is interesting to observe the photodegradation trend of the only micro-sized samples (1077, AH-R, Hombitam A-Z, Hombitam AN and HombiKat N.10) at 15 min, 30 min, 60 min and 240 min, the most significantly times. In Fig. 4.4 we can observe the peculiar differences, which arise in the initial period of the degradation. 1077, Hombitam AZ and Hombitam AN seem to be the most active, showing the best efficiency in the first times of reaction (15, 30 min). This behavior can be explained through the physico-chemical features and the amount of hydroxyl radicals that initiate the oxidation of NO. The ratio of OH/Otot, obtained by XPS analysis, resulted to be, in fact, higher than the other micrometric ones (Table 3.1). In particular, after 2 h, the NOx conversion of these samples is higher than 90%, very close to that of P25, which reaches the complete pollutant degradation in the same time. Thus, even if the nano-sized materials (P25 and PC105) show the best performances, the photocatalytic activities of the pigmentary powders are comparable, in agreement with the presence of appreciable amount of surface hydroxyls, which are crucial species for the photooxidation processes [39]. From the trend in the Fig. 4.4 it is clear that the micrometric samples with the best photocatalytic performances are the ones showing the largest OH component, the following 1007, Hombitam AZ and Hombitam AN. Fig. 4.4. TiO2 commercial micro-sized powders (1077, AH-R, Hombitam AZ, Hombitam AN, HombiKat N.10) for NOx abatement at 15, 30, 60, 240 min under UV light irradiation. b) NOx photoabatement with photoactive tiles Another study concerns the application in photocatalysis of building materials. In this PhD work porcelain gres tiles, covered with micrometric TiO2 powder, were used for the NOx degradation, under UV light, in static experimental conditions in gas phase. Starting from 1000 ppb of NO2, i.e. the same amount required by the ISO 22197-1 specification, the 65% of degradation was measured after 6 h. A very interesting trend (Fig. 4.5) was observed also following the NO2 degradation by photocatalytic tiles. NO2 was chosen as specific reference pollutant instead of the more generic NOx, because of its higher hazardousness. The continued exposure to high NO2 levels, in fact, can contribute to the development of acute or chronic bronchitis [40]. More in detail, tests were carried out by using as starting pollutant concentration 106 ppb (value not to be exceeded more than 18 times in a calendar year), and 212 ppb (alert threshold), according to the Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament, which states the guidelines for the protection of the human health. It is possible to observe (Fig. 4.5) that, as the amount of starting pollutant is decreased, the time necessary to bring its concentration under the limit required by the European Directive (21 ppb) also decreases. In the Fig. 4.5 inset the degradation trend can be observed in the case of an initial pollutant concentration close to the alert threshold. Fig. 4.5. Time necessary to degrade the pollutant and decrease its amount under the limit value required by the Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the council on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (21 ppb); 20 W/m2, RH 50%, static conditions. Therefore under real pollution conditions, simulating a day in the absence of wind (static conditions) WGA is able to degrade NO2 in a very efficient way bringing the pollutant concentration down to the required limit (21 ppb) in a matter of hours [21]. Micro-sized TiO2 porcelain gres tiles were also tested in continuous conditions using a plug-flow reactor, whose the operating conditions have been softened cutting the inlet concentration by half (500 ppb, instead of 1000 ppb). It was investigated the role of the flow per hour on the final NO2 conversion. An interesting aspect revealed: the modification of the flow per hour leads to an evident change of the contact times that is the time the pollutant can stay "in contact" with the catalyst surface. As expected, increasing the contact time, the final conversion proportionally increases. This result is very evident for Orosei Active sample that shows a conversion varying from 1.3% to 82.0% at 180 L h−1 and 4.2 L h−1, respectively. The obtained 82% conversion at 4.2 L h−1 flow can be consequently considered a very good value. c) VOCs photoabatement with TiO2 powders In order to study the photocatalytic activity of nano- and micro-sized samples, the degradation of three different VOCs, acetone, acetaldehyde and toluene, has been performed. As an illustrative example, it was reported the toluene photodegradation tests. For both nano-and micro-sized TiO2 powders, the pollutant was not completely degraded, even after 6 h of reaction. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the degradation percentages fell more or less in the same range (46–52%) with a slightly higher value for the nanometric P25 and PC105 catalysts, as it is shown in Fig. 4.6. Toluene degradation resulted very difficult due to the complexity of molecule, which presents the aromatic ring. The different catalysts show similar behavior toward the toluene degradation, irrespective of their physico-chemical characteristics. On the contrary, the pollutant mineralization is rather different for almost all samples. Furthermore, a low amount of CO2 formation confirmed the incompleteness of the degradation reaction. The possible by-products, which could take form during the degradation, were monitored by FTIR measurements. After the employment in toluene degradation, the spectra of the materials underwent deep changes. In particular, it was possible to recognize signals of unreacted toluene (T) and of several by-products deriving from its degradation, among which benzyl alcohol (BZOH), benzoic acid (BZAc) and benzaldehyde (BZH) [19]. In addition, the signals due to the stretching mode (νOH) of Ti-OH species free from hydrogen bonding interactions were disappeared with the parallel increase of the broad envelope generated by H-bonded OH groups [31]. Thus, it was possible to state that the catalysts surface underwent irreversible changes after the employment in the photodegradation reaction of toluene: the photo-active "free" Ti-OH sites were completely absent, as a result of their participation to the reaction. Fig. 4.6. Toluene degradation histogram: photoefficiency achieved with commercial micro-sized TiO2 and compared to the P25 and PC105 ones (nanometric). Their disappearance was a clear evidence of why toluene degradation appeared incomplete even after 6 h of reaction for all the samples, regardless of the morphological features of the materials. Therefore, in the case of toluene and in general for all less hydrophilic VOCs, it was well evident that both micro-sized materials and nano-sized ones possess almost the same photocatalytic behavior. 4.2.2 Photocatalytic activity in aqueous-phase Parallel with photocatalytic tests in gas-phase, photodegradation of surfactants and textile dyes in aqueous phase were performed. In particular, the PFOA (perfluooroctanoic acid) was chosen as surfactant species. The abatement was conducted by using P25 nano-powder as catalyst. The photodegradation trend, monitored at different times, highlighted the incomplete PFOA mineralization. For the entire duration of the photo-abatement process, it was possible to observe a decrease in the PFOA content in solution. However, the mineralization after 4 h settled down: the fluoride content and the percentage mineralization after 6 and 9 h remained equal to 29% and 32%, respectively, as reported by Gatto et al. [29]. Through HPLC-MS analysis was confirmed the presence of the intermediates in the solution that took form through two possible degradation pathways: this surface modification might influence the catalyst reducing the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2. Nevertheless, it is important to note that, as reported in the literature, no PFOA abatement was observed working in the presence of TiO2 as photocatalyst without UV irradiation as well as under UV irradiation in the absence of photocatalyst (photolysis) [31]. The other interesting study concerns the textile dyes photodegradation, using micro-sized TiO2 (1077) powders as catalysts. The textile dyes analyzed were Methylene Blue (MhB), Rhodamine B (RhB) and Crystal Violet (CV). Experimental dark tests showed a very low adsorption of all the dyes on both kinds of powders. The contribute of photolysis was almost negligible for MhB and CV, whereas 12% of dye degradation for simple photolysis (10% for P25) was achieved for RhB. Nano-sized powder showed the best results for all the considered dyes achieving the complete decolorizing of the water solution, but also micro-sized sample was able to degrade the pollutants with a good efficiency (ranging from 48 to 58% depending on the dye in six hours) (see Fig. 4.7), as reported by Bianchi et al. [30]. In addition, the micro-sized powder can be easily filtered and recovered in order to be immediately reused for further photodegradation reactions. In fact, 1077 was recovered by the simple centrifugation and reused in the same dye degradation test with no loss of photoactivity [30]. Fig. 4.7. Photocatalysis of dyes performed with powdered micro-TiO2 catalyst (1077): crystal violet □; methylene blue ▲; rhodamine B ◌. Another application is relative to the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 porcelain gres tiles, evaluated through UV-vis measurements. This choice reflects the fact that photoactive porcelain gres tiles are covered with the micrometric 1077 powder. It was observed an increase of about 15% of dyes degradation in comparison to the simply photolysis. These porcelain gres tiles can be reused, just after insertion of the tiles in distilled water, and without affecting the photocatalytic activity. In fact, all the tests were done using the same batch of ten samples of industrial tiles, and no loss in their photoactivity was monitored. This indicates that the TiO2 deposited layers are not deactivated during the reaction either by loss or poisoning of the catalyst, and can be reutilized in subsequent runs. Thus, these new industrial ceramic materials are surely an interesting alternative to TiO2 suspensions in photocatalytic applications avoiding the removal of the particles at the end of the process. 4.2.3 Self-cleaning effect A different aspect for the evaluation of gres tiles photo-efficiency is the CA evaluation, measured on micro-sized TiO2 porcelain gres tiles, after the deposition of oleic acid and irradiation by UV lamp. At first, before the oleic acid (Fluka, >80%) deposition, the pretreatment CA measurements were performed obtaining value of about 31°. The, the catalytic samples were dipped inside the oleic acid solution (0.5 vol%); the presence of oleic acids on the tile surface modify its wettability, the water contact angle in fact increases to about 65°. After UV irradiation it was measured the CA at an appropriate time interval, observing a continuous decrease of the CA values related to a degradation of the polluting agent. We observed that after 76 h of irradiation, the water CA reached the starting value before the oleic acid deposition (about 30°). This highlights the self-cleaning properties of TiO2 porcelain gres tile [22] and its photocatalytic efficiency for the degradation of organic contaminant deposited on the surface. On the contrary, the same kind of porcelain gres tile (Orosei Active), treated with oleic acid, but maintained in the dark, does not show modifications of CA in the range t0 and t76. The same procedure, consisting in the deposition of oleic acid solution and irradiation under UV light for 76 h, was performed for a porcelain gres tiles, not containing TiO2. Even in this case the CA measurement during the UV irradiation remained the same, i.e., the initial CA measured on the oleic acid film (65°). It is justified that the change in the value of the contact angle is due merely to the photodegradation of the oleic acid due to both the action of UV radiation and the photocatalytic efficiency of the used material and not by spontaneous degradation of oleic acid, induced by non photocatalytic factors. Thus, the photocatalytic process is necessary for the abatement of organic pollutants [17]. 4.3 Doping effect on TiO2 powders Micro-sized 1077 powder was even doped by the impregnation method. First of all the fluorination effect was investigated, making a comparison with the corresponding nanometric P25 powder: in both powders, after the fluorination, the photocatalytic activity of NOx and VOCs abatement resulted increased. The simply surface fluorination seems to be a good method to increase the photoactivity in commercial TiO2 samples, even with large crystallites [41]. In particular, the morphological features evidenced in the HR-TEM images and FT-IR spectral patterns, showed significant features. When the fluorination was carried out on the 1077 sample, there was an increasing of the OH groups interacting by H-bonding in F2 fluorination and new families of free OH groups involving Ca2+ and Na+ ions. The simple surface fluorination by fluorination resulted as an easy and good method to increase the photoactivity in commercial TiO2 samples, even with large crystallites, as reported in Fig. 4.8. Fig. 4.8. Toluene degradation for both micro- (1077) and nano-sized (P25) TiO2 samples, naked and fluorinated (NaF precursor). Physico-chemical characterization demonstrated that the surface fluorination influenced all the surface OH groups, leaving free only some particular OH "families", reasonably the more active in the photocatalytic process. Thus, the driving force of the process is both the presence of active OH population and the efficient adsorption of the pollutant molecules on the photocatalytic semiconductor surface. Parallel with this, the metal surface deposition with Sn, W and Re lead to an improved photoefficiency. In this case, micro-sized TiO2 powders exhibited a higher photoactivity compared with the naked TiO2 one. In particular, an interesting aspect was even the evaluation of photo-efficiency of doped 1077 using the LED light as irradiation source for the pollutant degradation. It has been observed that the photo-abatement efficiency of micro-sized catalysts for VOCs is improved by the presence of metals particles, in particular in the case of rhenium and tungsten. The degradation percentage of acetone was in fact, 37% for 1077_W and 33% for 1077_Re, compared with the 1077, which showed a negligible photoactivity (~2%), when the catalysts were irradiated by visible light. In Fig. 4.9 it is possible to see the improved photo-efficiency. In fact, the metal species like W and Re have the main properties of promote the charge transfer and the visible light absorption, which lead to enhanced photocatalytic degradation of pollutants than naked micro-sized TiO2, even under visible light irradiation [42]. Fig. 4.9. Acetone photodegradation in gas-phase under visible light (performed with a LED lamp). 5. Conclusions The photocatalytic activity of both nanometric and micrometric TiO2 powders was evaluated, revealing that nano-sized powders have the best photo-efficiency. However, commercial pigmentary micro-sized TiO2 powders have given good results proving that they could be good materials in photocatalysis and good alternative to nano-sized catalysts. In particular, 1077, Hombitam AZ and AN are the micro-sized TiO2 powders with the highest photoactivity for NOx abatement. The low surface area is not a discriminant factor if other features compensate it; the ratio of OH/O has a specific influence for the pollutants photodegradation together with the morphological features of particles. In fact, nanometric P25 is characterized by a significant higher amount of hydroxyl radicals, in agreement with the optimal efficiency in pollutants photodegradation. However, also pigmentary 1077, Hombitam AZ and AN samples show appreciable amount of OH• groups and this justifies their good catalytic performance. Furthermore, porcelain gres tiles, prepared entrapping micro-TiO2 at the SiO2 surface confirmed a stable and reproducible photocatalytic activity toward organic contaminants, such as dyes and NOx, in both liquid and gas phase. This indicates that these new industrial ceramic materials with micrometric TiO2 are surely an interesting application, which avoids the use of traditional nanomaterials in powder form for their preparation. In addition, the doping of micrometric TiO2 powders with anionic or cationic species highlighted the possibility to increase the catalytic performance obtaining comparable results with naked nanometric samples. And, as a consequence of the high demand of the use of LED lamps in the indoor and outdoor areas, the metal particles on the micrometric TiO2 surface confirmed their ability to adsorb visible light and to be considered sensitizers. To summarize, powders with large particles and low surface area can have good photoefficiency for the depollution abatement.

Volume 4: ⁰́₈Slaughter and "Scuttle"⁰́₉: Trouble at Home and Abroad (1870-1914)Acknowledgements Dedication List of AbbreviationsGeneral IntroductionIntroduction Volume 4: ⁰́₈Slaughter and "Scuttle"⁰́₉: Trouble at Home and Abroad (1870-1914)Part 1. Trouble At Home1. ⁰́₈Return of Number of Deaths From Starvation in Metropolitan Districts in the year 1877, upon which a coroners⁰́₉s jury have returned a verdict of death from starvation, or death accelerated by privation⁰́₉, Hansard, HC, Volume 71, Image 3.2. Anon., ⁰́₈Why be Transported?⁰́₉, Socialist Leaflets, no. 1, 1885.3. ⁰́₈One of the Middle-Class⁰́₉, (H. H. C), The Facts About the Unemployed: An Appeal and a Warning (1886)4. Select Committee of House of Lords on Poor Law Relief. Report. Proceedings, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, Index, Hansard, HL, Volume 15, Images 117, 123, 346-347 (23 April 1888). 5. Thomas Mackay, The English Poor, A Sketch of their Social and Economic History, London: J. Murray, 1889, pp.194-6, 256-7, 264, 284-9, 293-5, 297.6. Anon., ⁰́₈Starvation Once More⁰́₉. Reynold⁰́₉s Newspaper, December 1892, p. 47. J. Milson Rhodes, M. D., ⁰́₈The Objective Causes of Poverty⁰́₉, 10 January 1894, Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society, pp. 43-5. 47, 50, 57, 62, 67-8. 8. Gertrude Lubbock, Some Poor Relief Questions, With the Arguments on Both Sides. A Manual for Workers, London: John Murray, 1895, pp., 193-202.9. [F. Whelan], ⁰́₈A Plea for Poor Law Reform⁰́₉, no. 44 (Revised March 1907), and [J. F. Oakeshott], ⁰́₈The Humanizing of the Poor Law⁰́₉ no. 54, Fabian Tracts Nos. 1, 5, 7, 9, 12 to 86, London: Fabian Society, 1884-1899. 10. ⁰́₈Down with the Socialists!⁰́₉, Socialist Leaflet no. 2, nd, Open-air meetings. [s.n.] [19--]. 11. M. Birley, et al., New Poor Law and No Poor Law: Being a Description of the Majority & Minority Reports of the Poor Law Commission, London: Dent, 1909, pp. 77-8.12. Elizabeth Leigh Hutchins, ⁰́₈Working Women and the Poor Law⁰́₉, London: Women⁰́₉s Industrial Council, 1909, pp. 1-3, 7-11.13. David Lloyd George, The People⁰́₉s Budget: Explained by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1909, pp. viii-x. 14. Anon., ⁰́₈Deaths from Starvation: A List of 94 Tragedies⁰́₉, Votes for Women, 30 January 1914, p. 273. Part 2. Trouble Abroad: Egypt, the Sudan, Africa, China, IndiaPart 2. Introduction2.1. Trouble Abroad: Egypt, the Sudan, and British Africa15. Anon., ⁰́₈Egypt⁰́₉, Saturday Review, 29 March 1879, pp. 382-3 16. Extract from the ⁰́₈El Kahirah⁰́₉, a native newspaper, Incl No. 141, Correspondence Respecting Affairs of Egypt 1887, C4941, Hansard, HC, Volume 88, Image 131. 17. A. B. Wylde, ⁰́₉83 to ⁰́₉87: The Soudan, Vol. 1, London: Remington & Co., 1888; New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969, pp. 126-7. 18. Vice-Consul Barnham, Letters to the Prime Minister, the Marquis of Salisbury, regarding the famine in Sudan, 5th, 19th , 31st March 1890, Correspondence Respecting Finances and Condition of Egypt 1890, Hansard, HC, Volume 83, Images 106-7, 125-6, 135. 19. Eva Hope, Stanley and Africa, New York: Walter Scott; A. Lovell & Co, 1890, pp. 87-8, 339, 351-2.20. A. B. Wylde ,⁰́₉The Starving Soudanese and Our Responsibilities: Extracts from letter received from Mr. A. B. Wylde, of Suakin⁰́₉, Anti-slavery Reporter 10 May 1890, p. 92.21. Hugh E. M. Stutfield, ⁰́₈The Position of Affairs in the Eastern Soudan⁰́₉, Fortnightly, 49 (1891), pp. 383-7, 392-3. 22. Thomas Heazle Parke, My Personal Experiences in Equatorial Africa as Medical Officer of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1891, pp. 112-19.23. Henry Russell, The Ruin of the Soudan, Cause, Effect, and Remedy; A Resume of Events, 1883-1891, London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1892, pp. 183-5, 222, 24. Anon., ⁰́₈The Ruin of the Soudan⁰́₉, Speaker: The Liberal Review, 6 (1892), p. 175.25. W. T. Marriott, ⁰́₈The Devastation of the Soudan⁰́₉, National Review, 20 (1892), pp. 482-3, 485, 492-4.26. Joseph Thomson, Through Masai Land: A Journey of Exploration Among the Snowclad Volcanic Mountains and Strange Tribes of Easter Equatorial Africa, London: Sampson, Low, Marston, 1895, pp. 23, 339-40. 27. Henry Duff Traill, ⁰́₈The Burden of Egypt⁰́₉, Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, 39 (1896), pp. 545-6, 548, 550-52, 555-6.28. Ethel Younghusband, Glimpses of East Africa and Zanzibar, London: J. Long, 1910, pp. 78-9,103.2.2. Trouble Abroad: China29. Anon., ⁰́₈China⁰́₉, Morning Post, 12 February 1877, p. 6. 30. Anon., ⁰́₈The Famine in China⁰́₉, York Herald, 2 May 1877, p. 3 31. Anon., ⁰́₈Terrible Famine in China: Thousands Dying of Starvation⁰́₉, Aberdeen Journal, 5 May 1877, p. 5.32. Joseph Edkins, ⁰́₈Letter from China⁰́₉, Academy, 21 July 1877, p. 68.33. Anon., ⁰́₈Another Asiastic Famine⁰́₉, York Herald, 2 August 1877, p. 6.34. Anon., ⁰́₈China⁰́₉, Ipswich Journal, and Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire Advertiser, 25 August 1877, p. 8.35. Anon., ⁰́₈The Famine in China⁰́₉, Saturday Review, 45, (1878), p. 271. 36. Anon., ⁰́₈Political and Social. Notes and Comments⁰́₉, Examiner, 23 February 1878, p. [2].37. ⁰́₈Anon., ⁰́₈The Famine in China⁰́₉, Daily News, 15 March 1878, p. [5].38. The Famine in China: Illustrations by a Native Artist, London: C. Kegan Paul, 1878, Plate III. 39. [Charles William Wason], The Great Famine: Report of the Committee of the China Famine Relief Fund, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1879, pp. 3-9, 18-19. 40. H. E. Timothy Richard, ⁰́₈Despatches⁰́₉, in [Charles William Wason], The Great Famine: Report of the Committee of the China Famine Relief Fund, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1879, pp. 34-7, 41-2, 46-50, 66.41. Walter Kirton, A Silent War or the Great Famine in Kiangpeh, Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald, 1907, pp. 37-8, 40-1.42. Hu Tien Tsing, ⁰́₈An Account of my Trip to the Famine Region⁰́₉, Nanking University Magazine, Volume 2, September 1911, pp. 20-2.43. Zuk-Vann Lee, ⁰́₈Educational Comments⁰́₉, World⁰́₉s Chinese Students⁰́₉ Journal, Volume 5, Shanghai: The World⁰́₉s Chinese Students⁰́₉ Federation, 1906-1917, Images 448-9.44. Anon., ⁰́₈The Famine in China⁰́₉, Far Eastern Review, 8 (1912), pp. 319-20. 2.3. Trouble Abroad: India, Again45. Anon., ⁰́₈Famines. India⁰́₉, Ipswich Journal, and Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire Advertiser, 25 August 1877, p. 8.46. W. G. Pedder, ⁰́₈Famine and Debt in India⁰́₉, Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, 2 (1877), pp. 181, 184-7,194, 196-7. 47. H. M. Hyndman, Indian Famine and the Crisis in India, London: Edward Stanford, 1877, pp. 3-5, 24-5, 32, 34-6. 48. Sir William Digby, The Famine Campaign in Southern India, Madras, and Bombay Presidencies and Province of Mysore: 1876-1878, 2 vols, London: Longmans, Green, 1878, Volume 1, pp. viii, 45-55.49. Dadabhai Naoroji, ⁰́₈The Poverty of India⁰́₉ (1878), Extracts from Papers read before the Bombay Branch of the East India Association, April, and July 1876, Part I, London: Vincent Brooks, Day and Son, 1878, Images 17, 41, 43-4, 46-50, 59.50. Report of the Indian Famine Commission. pt.1.Famine Relief, London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1880, HC, Volume 52, Images 10-12, 16-21, 26-32, 38, 42-3, 77, 80, 82. 51. Anon. ⁰́₈Some Facts about the Famine in India⁰́₉, Social-Democrat, no. 2, (1897), pp. 35-8.52. Pandita Ramabai, ⁰́₈Famine Experiences⁰́₉, in M. Koshambi (ed.) PanditaRamabai: Through Her Own Words. Selected Works, New Delhi; Oxford University Press, 2000 pp. 251-68. 53. Pandita Ramabai, ⁰́₈An Indescribably Sad Sight⁰́₉, in George Lambert, India, The Horror-stricken Empire: Containing a Full Account, Elkhart, Indiana: Mennonite Pub., 1898, pp. 101-7.54. Behramji M. Malabari, India in 1897, Bombay: A. J. Cambridge, 1898, Images 7-11. 55. J. J. Lohr. A Few Pictures from Chhattisgarh and the Central Provinces of India, Illustrating the Scenery, the Social Customs of the Sath©Łmis and the Late Famine, np 1899, Images 114, 115.56. J. A. Baines, ⁰́₈Famines in India⁰́₉, India Ceylon Straits Settlements British North Borneo Hong-Kong. Volume 1, London Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr©ơbner, 1899, Images 393-5.57. An Indian. ⁰́₈How to Mitigate Indian Famines⁰́₉, Review of Reviews (1900), pp. 191-2, on pp. 191-2.58. Vaughan Nash. The Great Famine and its Causes; With Eight Photographs by the Author and a Map of India Showing the Famine Area, London: Longmans, Green, 1900, Images 115-22.59. John M. Robertson, ⁰́₈The Duties of Empire⁰́₉, The British Empire Series, Volume V, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1899-1902, Images 596-601, 603-4, 606-7.60. William Loftus Hare, Famine in India: Its Causes and Effects, with a foreword by William Digby, C.I.E., London: P. S. King & Son, 1902, Images 33, 35, 36, 42, 51. Index

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Preparatory Considerations -- § 1. Outset from the significations of the word logos: speaking, thinking, what is thought -- § 2. The ideality of language. Exclusion of the problems pertaining to it -- § 3. Language as an expression of "thinking." Thinking in the broadest sense, as the sense-constituting mental process -- § 4. The problem of ascertaining the essential limits of the "thinking" capable of the significational Function -- § 5. Provisional delimination of logic as apriori theory of science -- § 6. The formal character of logic. The formal Apriori and the contingent Apriori -- § 7. The normative and practical functions of logic -- § 8. The two-sidedness of logic; the subjective and the Objective direction of its thematizing activity -- § 9. The straightforward thematizing activity of the "Objective" or "positive" sciences. The idea of two-sided sciences -- § 10. Historically existing psychology and scientific thematizing activity directed to the subjective -- §11. The thematizing tendencies of traditional logic -- a.Logic directed originally to the Objective theoretical formations produced by thinking -- b.Logic's interest in truth and the resultant reflection on subjective insight -- c. Result: the hybridism of historically existing logic as a theoretical and normative-practical discipline -- I / The structures and the sphere of objective formal logic -- The way from the tradition to the full idea of formal logic -- 1. Formal logic as apophantic analytics -- § 12. Discovery of the idea of the pure judgment-form -- § 13. The theory of the pure forms of judgments as the first discipline of formal logic -- a.The idea of theory of forms -- b.Universality of the judgment-form; the fundamental forms and their variants -- c.Operation as the guiding concept in the investigation of forms -- § 14. Consequence-logic (logic of non-contradiction) as the second level of formal logic -- § 15. Truth-logic and consequence-logic -- § 16. The differences in evidence that substantiate the separating of levels within apophantics. Clear evidence and distinct evidence -- a.Modes of performing the judgment. Distinctness and confusion -- b.Distinctness and clarity -- c.Clarity in the having of something itself and clarity of anticipation -- § 17. The essential genus, "distinct judgment," as the theme of "pure analytics" -- § 18. The fundamental question of pure analytics -- § 19. Pure analytics as fundamental to the formal logic of truth. Non-contradiction as a condition for possible truth -- § 20. The principles of logic and their analogues in pure analytics -- § 21. The evidence in the coinciding of "the same" confused and distinct judgment. The broadest concept of the judgment -- § 22. The concept defining the province belonging to the theory of apophantic forms, as the grammar of pure logic, is the judgment in the broadest sense -- 2. Formal apophantics, formal mathematics -- § 23. The internal unity of traditional logic and the problem of its position relative to formal mathematics -- a.The conceptual self-containedness of traditional logic as apophantic analytics -- b.The emerging of the idea of an enlarged analytics, Leibniz's "mathesis universalis," and the methodico-technical unification of traditional syllogistics and formal mathematics -- § 24. The new problem of a formal ontology. Characterization of traditional formal mathematics as formal ontology -- § 25. Formal apophantics and formal ontology as belonging together materially, notwithstanding the diversity of their respective themes -- § 26. The historical reasons why the problem of the unity of formal apophantics and formal mathematics was masked -- a.Lack of the concept of the pure empty form -- b.Lack of knowledge that apophantic formations are ideal -- c.Further reasons, particularly the lack of genuine scientific inquiries into origins -- d.Comment on Bolzano's position regarding the idea of formal ontology -- § 27. The introduction of the idea of formal ontology in the Logische Untersuchungen -- a.The first constitutional investigations of categorial objectivities, in the Philosophie der Arithmetik -- b.The way of the "Prolegomena" from formal apophantics to formal ontology -- 3. Theory of deductive systems and theory of multiplicities -- § 28. The highest level of formal logic: the theory of deductive systems; correlatively, the theory of multiplicities -- § 29. The theory of multiplicities and the formalizing reduction of the nomological sciences -- § 30. Multiplicity-theory as developed by Riemann and his successors -- §31. The pregnant concept of a multiplicity-correlatively, that of a "deductive" or "nomological" system-clarified by the concept of "definiteness" -- § 32. The highest idea of a theory of multiplicities: a universal nomological science of the forms of multiplicities -- § 33. Actual formal mathematics and mathematics of the rules of the game -- § 34. Complete formal mathematics identical with complete logical analytics -- § 35. Why only deductive theory-forms can become thematic within the domain of mathesis universalis as universal analytics -- a.Only deductive theory has a purely analytic system-form -- b.The problem of when a system of propositions has a system-form characterizable as analytic -- § 36. Retrospect and preliminary indication of our further tasks -- b. Phenomenological clarification of the two-sidedness of formal logic as formal apophantics and formal ontology -- 4. Focusing on objects and focusing on judgments -- § 37. The inquiry concerning the relationship between formal apophantics and formal ontology; insufficiency of our clarifications up to now -- § 38. Judgment-objects as such and syntactical formations -- § 39. The concept of the judgment broadened to cover all formations produced by syntactical actions -- § 40. Formal analytics as a playing with thoughts, and logical analytics. The relation to possible application is part of the logical sense of formal mathesis -- §41. The difference between an apophantic and an ontological focusing and the problem of clarifying that difference -- § 42. Solution of this problem -- a.Judging directed, not to the judgment, but to the thematic objectivity -- b.Identity of the thematic object throughout changes in the syntactical operations -- c.The types of syntactical object-forms as the typical modes of Something -- d.The dual function of syntactical operations -- e.Coherence of the judging by virtue of the unity of the substrate-object that is being determined. Constitution of the "concept" determining the substrate-object -- f. The categorial formations, which accrue in the determining, as habitual and inter subjective possessions -- g. The objectivity given beforehand to thinking contrasted with the categorial objectivity produced by thinking — Nature as an illustration -- § 43. Analytics, as formal theory of science, is formal ontology and, as ontology, is directed to objects 119 -- § 44. The shift from analytics as formal ontology to analytics as formal apophantics -- a.The change of thematizing focus from object- provinces to judgments as logic intends them -- b.Phenomenological clarification of this change of focus -- ?. The attitude of someone who is judging naïvely-straightforwardly -- ?. In the critical attitude of someone who intends to cognize, supposed objectivities as supposed are distinguished from actual objectivities -- ?. The scientist's attitude: the supposed, as supposed, the object of his criticism of cognition -- § 45. The judgment in the sense proper to apophantic logic -- § 46. Truth and falsity as results of criticism. The double sense of truth and evidence -- 5. Apophantics, as theory of sense, and truth-logic -- § 47. The adjustment of traditional logic to the critical attitude of science leads to its focusing on the apophansis -- § 48. Judgments, as mere suppositions, belong to the region of senses. Phenomenological characterization of the focusing on senses -- § 49. The double sense of judgment (positum, proposition) -- § 50. The broadening of the concept of sense to cover the whole positional sphere, and the broadening of formal logic to include a formal axiology and a formal theory of practice -- §51. Pure consequence-logic as a pure theory of senses. The division into consequence-logic and truth- logic is valid also for the theory of multiplicities, as the highest level of logic -- § 52. "Mathesis pura" as properly logical and as extralogical. The "mathematics of mathematicians" -- § 53. Elucidations by the example of the Euclidean multiplicity -- § 54. Concluding ascertainment of the relationship be-tween formal logic and formal ontology -- ?.The problem -- b.The two correlative senses of formal logic -- c. The idea of formal ontology can be separated from the idea of theory of science -- II / From Formal to Transcendental Logic -- 1. Psychologism and the laying of a transcendental foundation for logic -- § 55. Is the development of logic as Objective-formal enough to satisfy even the idea of a merely formal theory of science ? -- § 56. The reproach of psychologism cast at every consideration of logical formations that is directed to the subjective -- §57. Logical psychologism and logical idealism -- a. The motives for this psychologism -- b. The ideality of logical formations as their making their appearance irreally in the logico-psychic sphere -- § 58. The evidence of ideal objects analogous to that of individual objects -- § 59. A universal characterization of evidence as the giving of something itself -- § 60. The fundamental laws of intentionality and the universal function of evidence -- § 61. Evidence in general in the function pertaining to all objects, real and irreal, as synthetic unities -- § 62. The ideality of all species of objectivities over against the constituting consciousness. The po.

The war has escalated into a nightmare for the people of Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of their soldiers have been killed or wounded, infrastructure and environment have been devastated. Ukraine's chances of achieving any of its hoped for goals are receding and more land is being lost every day.Furthermore, many of the dynamics that led to the start and the continuation of the war are making it especially difficult to get out of it. Having nourished the people of Ukraine during the war with promises of maximalist achievements, it will be very hard for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate an end to the war with less than maximalist success.Having led Ukraine through the war, Zelensky may be unable to lead them out. To encourage both Ukrainians and Ukraine's allies, Zelensky promised not only that Ukraine would win back territory up to its prewar borders, but that it would recapture all of its territory to 2014 borders, including the Donbas and Crimea. To negotiate an end to the war without reclaiming that territory but having lost even more would be difficult for Zelensky.Worse, it would be difficult for Zelensky to even attempt to negotiate an end to the war having decreed that Ukraine would not negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And even if Zelensky were to regroup and rescind the ban on negotiating and preserve the best case scenario for Ukraine, he would be dissuaded by the same ultra-right nationalists who persuaded him off his campaign peace platform prior to the war.Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko in a landslide victory in 2019 largely because of a promise to implement the Minsk Agreement and start to move toward peace with Russia. But he was pushed off that platform by a backlash in Ukraine and lack of support in the political West. Ultranationalist leaders defied Zelensky and warned that a ceasefire and fulfillment of his campaign promises would lead to protests and riots. More seriously, they threatened his life. Dmytro Yarosh, the founder of the fRight Sector paramilitary organization threatened that, if Zelensky fulfilled his campaign promise, "he will lose his life. He will hang on some tree on Khreshchatyk boulevard if he betrays Ukraine and those people who died in the Revolution and the War. And it is very important that he understand this." During a presentation announcing Zelensky's creation of a National Platform for Reconciliation and Unity on March 12, 2020, Zelensky advisor Sergei Sivokho was thrown to the ground by a large gang from the Azov battalion.Were Zelensky to return to his prewar platform after the death and devastation of the war, he could face the same resistance from the same groups now magnified by that devastation.Zelensky could be replaced by a peacetime president with less baggage. But elections are prohibited by Ukrainian law during martial law, which is still in effect. Zelensky has ruled out holding them. Battlefield conditions would make it difficult, and many Ukrainians have already fled the country. Furthermore, a survey conducted in February 2024 found that 49% of Ukrainians definitely oppose elections right now and 18% rather oppose it, though the poll suffers from the methodological problem that it likely excludes those in the Eastern regions and those who have left Ukraine.Bottom line: Zelensky isn't going anywhere right now, but would struggle to negotiate an end to the war without help. Such assistance could come, however, from the U.S. and its partners in the West. Though Zelensky may not have the political strength to realistically reverse his maximalist promises nor to survive ultranationalist retribution, he would have a better chance of selling it if he could say that the Western powers who promised to support the pursuit of those goals for as long as it takes were pressuring him to negotiate an end of the war. Responsibility could be shifted to the United States.But would the U.S. shoulder that responsibility? U.S. President Joe Biden, from the beginning, has framed the war in Ukraine as "the great battle for freedom: a battle between democracy and autocracy." The U.S. has insisted on supporting the war against Russia in defense of "core principles," including that each country has "a sovereign right to determine for itself with whom it will choose to associate in terms of its alliances, its partnerships."It may be perceived as a blow to Biden's credibility, to U.S. hegemony, and to NATO to concede the inability to push Russia out of Ukraine and to defend NATO's right to expand and Ukraine's right to join.Negotiations to end the war would be a desirable path out of Ukraine. Diplomatic talks are possible as proven by the nearly successful negotiations in Istanbul in the early weeks of the war. The existence of the signed draft treaty that those talks produced has been confirmed by independent sources who have seen it, including The Wall Street Journal, Die Welt and Samuel Charap of RAND and Sergey Radchenko of John Hopkins University.Those talks "almost finalized an agreement that would have ended the war," according to Charap and Radchenko's analysis of the text of the treaty. "Kyiv and Moscow largely agreed on conditions for an end to the war," Die Welt reports. "Only a few points remained open." Oleksiy Arestovych, who was a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team in Istanbul, says the talks in Istanbul were successful and could have worked. He says that the Istanbul agreement was 90% prepared. "We opened the champagne bottle," he said.But it is the very success of the diplomatic talks that makes future negotiations difficult. It will be very difficult for Ukraine — and the United States — after over two years of war, death, destruction, disruption of lives, and loss of land to agree to terms that are essentially the same as the terms they had won before the war.But there is another way that surmounts many of these obstacles by transcending them. The diplomatic negotiations could be broader than just negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.While several aspects of any diplomatic solution must address Russian-Ukrainian issues, like territory, caps on the Ukrainian armed forces and protection of ethnic minorities in both countries, significant parts could, instead, be addressed in a wider global solution. Putin has recently suggested that future talks encompass, not just a Ukraine-Russia security arrangement, but a comprehensive European security structure. "We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine," Putin said in May, "but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including Russia's. They must also involve a substantive discussion on global stability and security guarantees for Russia's opponents and, naturally, for Russia itself."Instead, the expansion of a U.S. led military alliance hostile to Russia appears to be moving to engulf Europe right up to Russia's doorstep. The insistence on defending that exclusive security structure contributed to the war in Ukraine. Addressing it could provide a more workable and lasting way out of it. Instead of building a bigger NATO that expands to Russia's borders and excludes and competes with it in conflict, the diplomatic energy could go into building a new inclusive European security structure that includes Russia in cooperation.This new structure could eliminate the need for Ukraine to join NATO and for Ukraine and the U.S. to concede the right to join NATO. It could eliminate the need for the U.S. to commit to bilateral security guarantees that it is reluctant to sign with Ukraine because they could draw the U.S. into a war with Russia should Russia again attack Ukraine. It could, at last, bring the hope of peace to Europe and of better relations across the Atlantic. Such global talks could relieve Zelensky of personal responsibility. They could bring sufficient force to defend against ultranationalist objections. They could truthfully be presented as a victory by the U.S. and not a surrender of "core principles." And they could avoid competition and comparison with the earlier talks in Istanbul by transcending them.How we get there is the hard part. But perhaps there is a way offered out of the war in Ukraine that delivers to each of Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and Europe what it wants. Perhaps the way out is to transcend negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine war with talks that include that but expand to include an inclusive global security architecture.

Iran's massive April 13 attack was meant to settle scores for the blow that it suffered when, 12 days before, Israel assassinated two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) generals and five other officers, three of whom directed operations in Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon. With some of its highest-ranking officers eliminated in one fell swoop on what was legally Iranian sovereignty territory, the IRGC was determined to show on the home and regional fronts that it is still a potent and lethal fighting machine. The purpose of Iran's assault was not only to make Israel pay, but also to blot out the shame for what IRGC leaders experienced as a day that will live in infamy.The task facing Iran was how to retaliate without inviting a wider war with Israel and especially the United States. The regime's effort to address this dilemma was not hidden from public view. Indeed, in the days leading up to its retaliation the semi-official press was full of warnings not to fall into "Netanyahu's trap." But if Tehran's perception that Israel's April 1 assault was designed to produce an overreaction by Iran, its retaliation has created new realities and new risks. Iranian leaders insist that the attack has forged a "new equation" for deterrence and thus are hoping—or praying—that, in the words of a statement issued by Iran's U.N. delegation, "the matter can be deemed concluded." But whether Tehran can sustain this new reality and also avoid a wider conflagration will depend on at least two other key players: the United States and Israel.The regional arena: Sustaining resistance before April 1The highest-ranking Iranian officer killed on April 1 was Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, an IRGC Al-Quds Force commander who played a major role in coordinating Iran's "resistance" strategy with armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, the West Bank and Gaza. To appreciate the symbolic and strategic significance of this loss for Iran, it should be noted that in 1998 Zahedi was appointed commander of the IRGC Quds Lebanon Force by Major General Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran's regional security, who was killed on January 2020 by a U.S. drone strike outside Baghdad airport. In the three years following his killing, the regime appointed a series of commanders in a determined bid to sustain its resistance strategy.Zahedi's role in this effort was pivotal, especially after he was named as the Al Quds Force Syria and Lebanon commander, succeeding Seyyed Razi Mousavi, who was assassinated in December 25, 2023, by Israeli air strike. In short, Zahedi was killed in a line of IRGC commanders, all of whose deaths the regime failed to prevent. While he and the other IRGC officers who died next to him were celebrated as "martyrs," Israel's superior technological and military capacities made their sacrifice possible. In a long shadow war that has come into the full light of direct Israeli-Iranian conflict, Iranian leaders had good cause to worry that Israel has had the deadly upper hand. This concern was in fact amplified when, in the aftermath of Hamas's October 7 "Al-Aksa Storm" atrocities and Israel's ensuing military onslaught, Iranian leaders within or close to the ruling circles of the regime warned that by failing to respond forcefully through its regional partners, Iran's capacity to deter Israel had been greatly weakened. Nevertheless, the question was how to shore up what might be called a "no war, no peace" resistance strategy that still depended on maintaining this increasingly precarious formula.Seeking to sustain this balancing act, Esmail Qani, the chief of Iran's Al-Quds Forces, together with, IRGC Commander in Chief Major General Hossein Salami, met with militia commanders from Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria in Tehran in February. "At the end," one source reported, "all the participants agreed that Israel wanted to expand the war and falling in that trap should be avoided as it will justify the presence of more U.S. troops in the region." Not long after, Iran persuaded its allies in Iraq to cease attacks on U.S. forces. As for the Lebanon front, Iran pressured Hezbollah to modulate the escalating tit-for-tat strikes between it and Israel. In this way, Tehran tried to sustain the basic if increasingly precarious rules of the deterrence game with Israel.Iran retaliates: Creating a new (and old) resistance equilibrium?Apart from the huge strategic loss that it inflicted by directly hitting IRGC leaders on what was in effect Iranian sovereign territory, Israel's April 1 attack violated those very rules. Henceforth, the nature of the "trap" facing Iran was more direct and menacing because it seemed that Israel was now determined to compel Iran to respond in ways that would open the door to a wider conflict not only with Jerusalem but also potentially with Washington as well.Thus, an adviser to President Ebrahim Raisi issued a statement warning "the U.S. leadership not to get dragged into Netanyahu's trap." But at the same time, commentaries in the semi-official press cautioned against a "suicidal reaction" and urged Iran's leaders to "behave wisely," given "the potential pitfalls of unrestrained aggression against Iran." These op-eds seemed to imply that Iran's retaliation would –or should --create a new balance of deterrence with Israel that protects Iran without inviting a large military conflict.After April 13: New risks and dangers for Iran and IsraelIt is still too early to tell whether Iran has succeeded in reestablishing a new sweet (or bitter) spot that will enable it to hurt its enemies while avoiding all-out war. It could be that by targeting its 300 or so missiles and drones at Israeli military targets –an assault that with the exception of one young Bedouin girl who was wounded, failed to produce a single civilian or military casualty--Iran has actually achieved its purpose. Paradoxically, Israel's success--with the support of the U.S. and other countries--in destroying the vast majority of these missiles may have helped to redefine a new, if perhaps even more dangerous, rulebook for Israel-Iran deterrence. Statements by IRGC leaders show that they are hoping this is true and that "with this operation as complete, this operation has ended."At the same time, however, Iran's retaliation has created new dynamics that should worry its leaders. The role that the U.S., together with France and Britain (and quite possibly several Arab states including Jordan), played in knocking out Iranian drones and missiles has created a new reality. Hence forth, Israel's deterrent capacity is inextricably linked to a military partnership with the U.S. and, in effect, some of its Western allies. This fact has grabbed the attention of Iran's leaders, who, prior to and after their assault, openly warned Washington to "stay out of it." Now that the U.S.—and the Biden White House-- is very much in it, Iran will have to carefully contemplate how to retool resistance.Moreover, Tehran's attack has refocused global and regional attention away from Gaza and onto Iran. In the coming days and weeks, it is possible that the U.N. Security Council will convene not to push for a Gaza ceasefire, but rather to press for a new resolution focusing on the consequences of Iran's April 13 attack. This, of course, will be good news for the government of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu but will make Iran's leaders nervous.And yet the new reality created by Iran's attack poses hard choices for Israel. That its deterrent capacity is now tied to the U.S. could constrain Israel's leaders. Indeed, Biden telegraphed this message in a discussion with Netanyahu in which he reportedly affirmed U.S. support while not only warning Israel not to retaliate in ways that would escalate the conflict but also asserting that Washington would not be a partner to any Israeli military retaliation on Iran.Nor will the administration allow the Israel-Iran conflict to deflect it from pushing for a Gaza ceasefire. Biden distrusts and dislikes Netanyahu today as much or more than ever, a sentiment that was probably reinforced by Israel's April 1 attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. For even if it was not designed to pull the U.S. into battle with Iran, it has created what Marxists might call an "objective" trap that the White House is struggling to avoid. Moving forward, the administration might redouble its quest for a diplomatic solution to the Gaza war (and Palestinian- Israeli conflict) even as it warily watches an Iranian regime that hopes that it has a new recipe for deterrence that will allow Tehran to have its resistance kabob and eat it too.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in December 2011, once seen as a triumph for the Obama administration, became a cautionary tale as the rise of ISIS prompted their return in 2014.
This is one reason why U.S. troops have remained in Iraq, despite the successful dismantling of ISIS by the end of 2018. Since then, the degradation of ISIS has continued, and any benefits of keeping U.S. troops there as a stopgap against its resurgence are now overshadowed by the risks of exposure to the tit-for-tat game of face-saving exchanges of fire, with Iran-aligned militias.
In Iraq, Washington cannot have it all, but with a touch of creativity and realistic expectations, it can still adequately safeguard its interests after U.S. troops leave, likely with reduced cost and better outcomes.The United States remains the most important enabler of Iraq's security forces and largest single donor of humanitarian assistance to Iraq. Congress has approved $1.25 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Iraq — allocated at $250 million annually — from 2019 through 2023. Since 2014, the U.S. has delivered a total of $3.5 billion in humanitarian aid to Iraq. This aid extends well beyond self-serving interests to tangibly improve the lives of Iraqis, including rehabilitating nine water treatment plants in Basra, a stronghold of Iran-aligned militias, providing clean water to 640,000 people, and offering cash assistance to those displaced in Erbil due to the war with ISIS. The U.S. has invested tens of millions of dollars in other projects, too, from the maintenance of the Mosul Dam to the preservation of historic and cultural sites, to financing higher education. In many other countries, such investments would earn Washington's leaders great respect. Not so in Iraq, where Secretary of State Antony Blinken wore body armor during his visit to Baghdad last November. But this measure is aimed at protecting against a specific segment of Iraqi society, namely certain Iran-aligned militias and largely stems from the Trump administration's choice to assassinate Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was accompanied by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), outside Baghdad's airport in 2020.
Other underlying issues that haunt the relationship include lingering resentment from the early years of the U.S. occupation (of which the younger generation has no recollection), real and perceived violations of Iraqi sovereignty by U.S. strikes, opportunistic blame-shifting by Iraqi politicians, and a significant gap between the expectations of ordinary Iraqis for U.S. commitment to their country and the actual level of U.S. investment. This dynamic has created, at times, an antagonistic attitude towards the United States, notwithstanding substantial aid.
The dynamic is further complicated by the ongoing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. While some Iraqis genuinely desire the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the arrangement serves the Iraqi government and certain quasi-integrated Iran-aligned militias quite well. The U.S. troop presence helps contain ISIS, ensures ongoing U.S. aid to Iraq, and provides Iran-aligned militias with a new self-serving adversary in place of ISIS, while they enrich themselves with corrupt business schemes.
Another reason Iraq is willing to accommodate U.S. troops is the influence exerted by the U.S. Federal Reserve over its economy given Iraq's lack of a functional banking system. There is also a widespread concern that if Iraq were to expel U.S. troops, the U.S. might cease permitting dollar transactions, thereby isolating its economy. Although the Iraqi government will periodically express concerns over U.S. strikes violating Iraqi sovereignty, it stops short of expelling U.S. troops. However, with each attack on U.S. troops by Iran-aligned militias and the subsequent retaliatory strikes, the U.S. military mission in Iraq encounters challenges shaped by Iraqi and U.S. domestic politics, along with the potential for U.S. casualties.
The more pertinent question for U.S. policymakers is how this arrangement serves U.S. interests?
Washington lacks the troop numbers, capacity, political will, or plain foolishness to try to defeat the Iran-aligned militias, and retaliatory strikes only deter them temporarily. Washington is poorly placed to fully understand let alone influence Iraq's intricate politics and elite bargains. Thus, it's time to envision ways to protect U.S. interests in Iraq without a prolonged deployment of troops.
Acknowledging some hard truths is the initial step. Iraq will always be a more vital interest to Iran than it is to the United States. Most Shi'a stakeholders, spanning the Iraqi political spectrum, would prefer to be independent of pressures exerted by either the U.S. or Iran; they think of themselves, after all, as Iraqis. If forced to choose, they would hitch their wagons to Iran rather than the United States — Iraq will always be on Iran's border and, for the foreseeable future, will depend on Iran to meet Iraq's energy needs.
The presence of Iran-aligned militias in Iraq is a lasting reality. The primary U.S. objective in Iraq should be a politically stable Iraq, averting significant sectarian violence and territorial losses to groups like ISIS. As David Schenker, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, recently argued, the latter can be achieved by leaving a modest U.S. presence in the Iraqi Kurdish region to aid counterterrorism efforts. What proponents and critics of withdrawal often get wrong is that they view Iraq as an adversary. It doesn't have to be if relations are normalized.
Polls indicate that economic development and corruption are more significant concerns for the average Iraqi today than security. A considerable number of Iraqis desire a more assertive U.S. stance against corruption, increased engagement in development initiatives, and a more candid critique of their political system's shortcomings. Washington should leverage its strengths, such as establishing robust anti-money laundering frameworks, implementing technical projects, maintaining infrastructure, and promoting human development.
These tangible forms of aid prove more impactful than other efforts dedicated to nurturing media and civil society, domains better suited for homegrown development. U.S. troops grant insights into the political and security developments of the country, but Washington should still be able to focus on areas where U.S. assistance is genuinely desired and needed after their withdrawal and potentially with less risk.
U.S. Ambassador Alina Romanowski is venturing into Iraqi society as much as possible, considering the restrictions she faces. In March of last year, she visited Mosul for the first time — a city liberated in part by overwhelming U.S. airpower and largely undergoing reconstruction with help from the U.S. after the ISIS conflict — a trip long made impossible due to security restrictions. She has engaged with various political leaders, including former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Shi'a theologian Ammar Al-Hakim.
However, her freedom of travel is limited compared to European counterparts, and she faces obstacles in meeting certain political and military figures for various reasons, not the least of which is that some are Specially Designated Nationals under U.S. sanctions. Removing U.S. troops could make it more politically tenable for U.S. diplomats to engage with Iraq as it is.
The low U.S. troop presence is invisible to most Iraqis. This doesn't mean it can't be used as a political football in intramural Iraqi games. But it is no accident that in the wake of each groundswell for ending the U.S troop presence, no action is ever taken. The Iraqis, who recognize the fragility of their state building enterprise, are not eager to experiment with a landscape devoid of U.S. troops. Many Iraqis outside of the Iran-aligned militias also see the U.S. military presence as a counterweight to Iranian influence. Some also fear that if U.S. troops leave, the benefits they receive through U.S. management of their monetary system will also go away.
It is not the U.S. military presence per se that is the problem from a restraint perspective. It is rather the fortress mentality of the official U.S. civilian presence. This imposes a heavy cost on the sustainability of diplomacy worldwide.
The U.S. Embassy operations in Baghdad cost about $1 billion per year. If this were a Defense Department responsibility, this figure would merit a shoulder shrug. But in comparison, the State Department's budget is miniscule — a vivid illustration of U.S. priorities — and its outlays in Iraq crowd out diplomatic initiatives elsewhere. The U.S. can withdraw militarily from Iraq, while continuing to facilitate temporary training missions. Most importantly, the U.S. should engage more broadly with Iraqi society and leave behind the fortress mentality that has hobbled U.S. diplomacy in Iraq.

Since October, Egypt has joined most of the international community in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. With Egypt being the only Arab country to border Gaza, Cairo's stakes are high. The longer Israel's war on the besieged enclave continues, the threats to Egypt's economy, national security, and political stability will become more serious.Located along the Gaza-Egypt border is Rafah, a 25-square-mile city that until recently was home to 300,000 Palestinians. Now approximately 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah because of the Israeli military's wanton destruction of Gaza City, Khan Younis, and other parts of the Strip. Having asserted that four Hamas battalions are now in Rafah, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that deploying Israeli forces to this Palestinian city is necessary for his country to defeat Hamas amid this war. As of writing, Israel's military is preparing to launch a campaign for Rafah.Officials in Cairo fear that Israeli military operations in Rafah could result in a large number of Palestinians entering the Sinai. "An Israeli offensive on Rafah would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt," said European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on February 10.Not only could such a scenario fuel massive amounts of friction between Cairo and Tel Aviv, but it could also severely heighten tensions between the Egyptian public and President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi's government. It's easy to imagine a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which would amount to essentially a "Nakba 2.0," triggering widespread unrest in Egypt if the government in Cairo is widely seen by Egyptians as playing a role in permitting, if not facilitating, such an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. Along with economic considerations, this is one of the main reasons why Cairo has articulated that Israel depopulating Gaza of Palestinians and forcing them into Egypt is a red line that Tel Aviv must not cross."The biggest concern for Cairo is related to the fate of the [Palestinians in Gaza] forcibly evacuated by the Israelis and who might find a 'safe haven' in Sinai. An uncontrolled influx of Palestinians into the [Sinai] Peninsula would be an enormous burden on Egypt, which would have to manage a problematic situation from a political and security point of view, as well as having to justify internally to its own public opinion an imposition that came from outside," Giuseppe Dentice, head of the Middle East and North Africa Desk at the Italian Center for International Studies, told RS."It is no coincidence that Cairo has reinforced the border with Gaza, closed the Rafah crossing, and warned Israel that any unilateral action involving a forced exodus of the Strip's inhabitants to Egyptian territory could jeopardize not only bilateral relations, but the preconditions for peace and stability guaranteed in the [Camp David Accords]," added Dentice.On February 15, Maxar Technologies, a Colorado-headquartered space technology company, captured satellite images showing Egypt's construction of a wall roughly two miles west of the Egypt-Gaza border. The following day, the London-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights said that this construction "is intended to create a high-security gated and isolated area near the borders with the Gaza Strip, in preparation for the reception of Palestinian refugees in the case of [a] mass exodus."What might happen to the Camp David Accords?On February 11, two Egyptian officials and one Western diplomat told the Associated Press that Cairo might suspend the 1979 Camp David Accords if Israeli troops wage an incursion into Rafah. A day later, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry denied such reports about his government's plans to freeze the peace treaty with Israel, yet he emphasized that Egypt's continued adherence to the 1979 deal would depend on Tel Aviv reciprocating. Alarming to Egyptian officials were Netanyahu's statements late last year about the Israeli military taking control of the Philadelphi Corridor (a nine-mile-long demilitarized buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt which was established in accordance with Egypt and Israel's peace treaty) because such a move on Israel's part would be a breach of the Camp David Accords.Are Egyptian officials serious about possibly freezing the historic peace deal? Or does such talk amount to empty threats issued for political purposes at home, as well as pursuing certain Egyptian aims vis-à-vis Washington and Tel Aviv? Mouin Rabbani, a political analyst and co-editor of Jadaliyya, told RS that if these statements from anonymous Egyptian officials are geared toward a domestic audience but Cairo doesn't follow through, Sisi's government could have a "potentially serious problem on its hands."Ahmed Aboudouh, an associate fellow with the Chatham House and a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council, doubts that Egypt would go as far as suspending the Camp David Accords. "In the end, Egypt is unlikely to take the first step to tear the treaty up unilaterally," he said.But what Egypt is doing is embracing "discursive strategic posturing" whereby Cairo uses "rhetorical escalation" and directs messages at three audiences, Aboudouh told RS. First is the domestic audience to say that Cairo is standing up for Egypt's core security interests as well as the Palestinian cause. The second is Washington to relay the Egyptian government's anger at the Biden administration for not stopping Israeli actions that threaten to displace Palestinians into the Sinai. Third is to Netanyahu, generals in the Israeli Defense Forces, and the Israeli intelligence community.Gordon Gray, a former U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia, also discounts recent suggestions that Cairo would suspend its peace treaty with Israel for three main reasons. "First, Egypt does not seek military confrontation — even an inadvertent one — with Israel. Second, Egypt does not want to risk losing U.S. military assistance ($1.3 billion annually), which was granted as a direct result of the Camp David Accords. Finally, while Egypt abhors the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, it shares Israel's views about the threat Hamas poses," said Gray in an interview with RS.What would come from Egypt freezing the treaty?Despite many experts believing that Egypt would not freeze the Camp David Accords, that potential scenario should be considered. There are important questions to raise about what it could lead to in terms of region-wide ramifications, as well as Cairo's relationships with Western capitals. But it's difficult to predict how events would unfold if Egypt took that step because there would be so many unknown variables in play.Egypt could act in different ways after suspending the peace treaty with Israel. Rabbani asked, "Would it simply declare the peace treaty suspended and leave it at that or would it stop implementing provisions of that treaty?"Regardless, any freezing of the Camp David Accords by Egypt would inevitably bring a layer of instability to Egyptian-Israeli relations never seen since Jimmy Carter's administration, which — with help from Iran, Morocco, and Romania — brought Egypt's then-President Anwar Sadat and Israel's then-Prime Minister Menachim Begin together in northern Maryland's Catoctin Mountains to sign the peace treaty in September 1978. The response from Washington would likely be extreme, particularly given how central Egyptian-Israeli peace has been to U.S. foreign policy agendas in the Middle East for almost half a century while surviving a host of regional crises, including Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and all the previous Gaza wars."The U.S. is certain to act true to form and retaliate against Egypt without holding Israel in any way accountable for producing this crisis, and Washington may well cease foreign assistance to Egypt, which is a direct function of its peace treaty with Israel. The EU will probably announce it is launching an investigation of the Egyptian school curriculum or some other nonsensical initiative," Rabbani told RS.Irrespective of how Egypt approaches its relationship with Israel, the fact that officials in Cairo are suggesting a potential freeze of the Camp David Accords speaks volumes about the Gaza war's impact on Israel's diplomatic standing in the Arab world. With the probability of more Arab countries joining the Abraham Accords in the foreseeable future having essentially dropped to zero, the pressing question is not which Arab government might be next to normalize with Tel Aviv. The focus has shifted to questions about how Arab countries already in the normalization camp, such as Egypt, will manage their formalized relationships with Israel at a time in which Israeli behavior in Gaza is widely seen across the Arab-Islamic world as genocidal.

Dan Cassara (CEGA Project Manager, Financial Inclusion) and Ariana Zapanta (IPA Research Manager, Financial Inclusion) introduce a new synthesis on the relationship between the digitization of credit and development. Explore the full report or a condensed summary.The first digital credit loan was made in Kenya in 2012 [1]. By 2019, these loans had spread across the globe, with billions of dollars of credit disbursed to consumers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) [2]. Though the proliferation of quick and easy loans made demand for these products clear, their impact on consumers was uncertain.While proponents hailed digital credit as a transformative development with the potential to drive financial inclusion and reduce poverty, reports of fraud, exploitation, and over-indebtedness led to concerns that many digital credit users suffered financial harm. Until now, a shortage of rigorous evidence has made it difficult to answer questions about the true impacts of the first wave of digital loans. Even as a sufficient body of evidence has formed to evaluate early digital credit products, rapid evolution in the market and the digitization of new credit products over the past decade has further complicated the challenge of fully understanding the impacts of digital credit today. Insights from early evaluations should be applied to critically assess newer forms of digital credit and focus future support on more productive and impactful products.A New SynthesisSupported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mobile Instant Credit: Impacts, Challenges, and Lessons for Consumer Protection is a collaborative report from the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) that contributes to a shared vocabulary, reference base, and conceptual framework to advance discussion on the relationship between the digitization of credit and development. The report draws on evidence mainly from CEGA's Digital Credit Observatory (DCO) and IPA's Consumer Protection Research Initiative (CPRI). Both initiatives have supported extensive research on digital credit and approaches to better protect consumers and support their financial health.This new report should temper both the fears of critics and optimism of proponents. The current evidence on digital credit suggests the average consumer has not benefited economically, but did see modest improvements in subjective well-being. Causal studies did not find that recipients were harmed by digital loans, but descriptive evidence showed a rise in problems such as debt stress, price shrouding, overcharging, and predatory collection practices. When considered alongside the proliferation of digital credit, these challenges necessitate new consumer protections.A small-business owner can be seen serving patrons in her restaurant in Nkhoma, Malawi. | Credit: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Barbara KinneyKey EvidenceThe report focuses on studies investigating the welfare impacts of digital credit, the forms of misconduct associated with digital credit, and the effectiveness of consumer protection tools. It emphasizes the narrower topic of Mobile Instant Credit (MIC) — small digital loans that are primarily marketed and used for consumption — and airtime loans, which together comprised the first wave of credit digitization. As digital credit continues to evolve with new products like Buy-Now Pay-Later, overdraft facilities, and Pay-As-You-Go schemes, this report synthesizes research on MIC to generate insights that can inform digital credit-related policy more broadly.The report's main findings include:The current evidence on MIC and airtime loans reveals modest improvements in subjective well-being for the average consumer. Most loans are small — the average loan was less than US$3 in half of the studies on the welfare effects of digital loans — which may limit how large the impacts can be. Although the majority of evidence indicates MIC has not affected financial outcomes, including resilience, consumption, and financial health, studies that examined subjective well-being found a positive impact. One research team speculated — with the caveat that more evidence is needed — that the ability to access resources in times of need can relax constraints that damage mental health, consistent with prior studies [3, 4].The absence of negative impacts contrasts with robust descriptive evidence on the diverse consumer harms associated with rapidly digitizing credit, including rising debt stress, price shrouding and overcharging, predatory collections, and fraud. The rapid digitization of finance in many regions of the world has revealed new and growing consumer protection risks. While digital credit does not appear, on average, to harm consumers' financial health, ability to save, or overall spending, descriptive evidence from digital finance and mobile money, which underlies MIC and digital credit, reveals misconduct and other risks.Upgrading consumer protection regimes is imperative given the increasing digitization of finance and credit. Fortunately, there are promising approaches to improve market monitoring and empower consumers. Despite existing challenges, a handful of causal studies and pilot interventions confirm the effectiveness and feasibility of interventions to address consumer protection concerns. New data sources and collection methods, along with advanced data analytics, suggest that a next-generation approach to market monitoring would enable regulators to move towards preventative interventions. Further, several interventions directly targeting consumer and provider behavior have empowered consumers in early evaluations, and may be effective if scaled up.Policy InsightsDigital credit is growing and evolving rapidly, with providers increasingly using digital lending to offer more than just small consumer loans and targeting a wider array of sectors, from agricultural finance to e-commerce. The digital credit model has the potential to enable growth as reduced costs, faster underwriting, and better information on prospective borrowers may lead to more suitable and sustainable products, particularly in more productive parts of the economy. Evidence on Mobile Instant Credit and airtime loans is particularly informative for emergent forms of consumer-oriented digital credit, such as Buy-Now Pay-Later and overdraft products. However, the effectiveness of many forms of digital credit, particularly those focused on productive activities, remains unexplored, and regulatory frameworks are still being developed in many countries, leaving consumers at risk. More research is needed to understand who benefits from digital credit, and why.There are also clear dangers to maintaining the status quo in unregulated or underregulated markets. Although causal studies have not found clear negative impacts of MIC and airtime loans, decision-makers should consider a broader set of evidence. Robust descriptive studies highlight diverse consumer protection challenges associated with digitizing credit, and there is evidence that the most vulnerable people are more susceptible to fraud and exploitation as they enter the formal financial system via digital credit. Though risks have grown, initial research on new market monitoring techniques and interventions to directly support consumers have shown promise, and could pave the road to more proactive regulatory approaches.Despite what remains unknown, there are reasons for optimism. Digitization has catalyzed rapid growth in financial inclusion, and addressing known policy issues now can be instructive for informing management and regulation of digital credit products more broadly, including the potential movement of digital credit into more productive parts of the economy. Mobile Instant Credit: Impacts, Challenges, and Lessons for Consumer Protection gathers existing evidence on the relationship between the digitization of credit and development, while clarifying the need for further research. Whether the next evolution of digital credit improves upon the first to provide less risky and more transformative solutions will depend on the evolution of commercial product design and public policy to monitor markets and protect consumers.References:[1] Totolo, E. (2018) Kenya's Digital Credit Revolution 5 Years On. FSD Kenya, Blog. https://www.fsdkenya.org/blogs-publications/blog/kenyas-digital-credit-revolution-5-years-on/[2] Cornelli, G., J. Frost, L. Gambacorta, P.R. Rau, R. Wardrop, T. Ziegler, (2023) Fintech and big tech credit: drivers of the growth of digital lending. Journal of Finance and Banking, 148, 106742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2022.106742[3] Haushofer, J., E. Fehr, (2014) On the Psychology of Poverty. Science 344, no. 6186: 862–867. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1232491[4] Banerjee, A., M. Faye, A. Krueger, P. Niehaus, T. Suri, (2020) Effects of a Universal Basic Income during the pandemic. UC San Diego Technical Report.The Promise and Harms of Digital Credit: What Does the Evidence Say? was originally published in CEGA on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In early 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed the Houthis from the State Department's lists of foreign terror groups, reversing a last-minute Trump administration move.
"This decision is a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen," Blinken said at the time. "We have listened to warnings from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, and bipartisan members of Congress, among others, that the designations could have a devastating impact on Yemenis' access to basic commodities like food and fuel."
Three years later, the situation in Yemen remains precarious, but the Biden administration has changed its calculus. Amid a Houthi campaign of attacks on ships headed toward Israel, Blinken announced that the U.S. will redesignate the organization as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (SDGT) next month. (The Houthis say their attacks would stop if Israel ends its assault on Gaza.)
This designation, though less stringent than the one imposed by the Trump administration, will likely complicate the distribution of aid in Yemen, according to Ashleigh Subramanian-Montgomery, the associate director of the Charity and Security Network. In practice, U.S. and UK airstrikes have already forced some aid groups to cut back operations in the country.
RS spoke with Subramanian-Montgomery to get her take on how the designation and the broader escalation will affect average Yemenis, as well as how political calculations influence national security decision making. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
RS: How are humanitarian groups responding to this decision?
Subramanian-Montgomery: Likely many humanitarian groups and aid groups are responding how they always do when either an SDGT designation or other designations happen, which is to review all of the authorizations that Office of Foreign Assets Control has put out. OFAC put out five general licenses and an FAQ. Organizations are looking into those and understanding what's allowable and what's not allowable then trying to act accordingly. Likely all humanitarian organizations will be forced to have conversations with their banks because any type of designation makes banks very, very hesitant and scared to continue transactions, even when things are authorized and allowed. There are certain places in the world where banks are more hesitant to transact to, and Yemen is definitely one of those places.
RS: Do you have a sense of how the designation might affect the ability of NGOs to distribute aid?
Subramanian-Montgomery: Where we have a little bit of the advantage is that it's not going into place until Feb. 16. So I think there can be some mobilizing around that that's kind of unique. You don't usually get any heads up that that designation will happen.
There are potentials for humanitarian aid organizations to be able to sort of figure out things a little bit ahead of time and find any workarounds that they need to do there. But the big challenge they'll face is the de-risking by banks, which will then make them not be able to do their aid delivery in the places that are going to need it the most, or potentially at all.
RS: Can you tell me more about the history of the relationship between NGOs and their banking partners in the Middle East?
Subramanian-Montgomery: Certain countries are always flagged. Banks will sometimes reject transactions just because of a certain name, like Syria, for instance, or Palestine, even before Oct. 7. Some organizations, if they have that in their name, or they're saying the transaction is going to this country, the transaction will be stopped or delayed. Delayed is the best case scenario, but that's not a good scenario if you need humanitarian aid immediately. Sometimes they'll be stopped altogether, or a bank will drop the relationship completely. Unfortunately, the relationships between humanitarian aid organizations in the region and banks can be really difficult. It's a fraught, challenging relationship. And it comes to be hard for aid organizations to know where in the pipeline the delay or the stopping of the transaction happened. Was it where the funds originated? Was it a bank along the way? That can be really, really challenging.
RS: Can you tell me more about the distinction between the SDGT designation and the FTO designation? My understanding is that they were both put in place by Trump, both reversed by Biden, and now just the SDGT put in place by Biden.
Subramanian-Montgomery: That's exactly right. I will say that it's very, very positive that the FTO designation was not reinstated, and it was just the SDGT. FTO designations are the prohibition on material support to terrorists. When an FTO designation goes into effect, most types of engagement with an FTO are then prohibited. And anybody running afoul of this, any individual organization running afoul of this can face really hefty fines and can face really dire criminal penalties, including up to 10 years of jail time. So it's pretty severe, and they cause a big chilling impact and effect on humanitarian aid. Since you can't really engage with anyone that's designated as an FTO, they also prevent you from then being able to go and negotiate with the Houthis to get humanitarian aid through. So that designation is particularly challenging, and also, as you can imagine, prevents any type of peacebuilding.
SDGT designations can be authorized either by the Department of Treasury or of State, which makes it both a counterterrorism designation, since State can issue can authorize this designation and those CT designations fall under State's purview, and because it has the financial and asset-freezing part of it that's under Treasury's purview. Basically, it means that all property and interests in property in the U.S. or even that later can come within the U.S. are blocked.
RS: We've already seen some impact from this escalation on the ability of aid groups to do their jobs on the ground. Some organizations have said that the bombings from the U.S. and the UK have prevented them from continuing operations normally. What effect would a renewal of hostilities have on the country's humanitarian sector?
Subramanian-Montgomery: A renewal of hostilities would be completely devastating given how dire the humanitarian situation already is in Yemen. It's almost hard to imagine that the situation could be exacerbated further given how bad it is and that it's one of the world's absolute worst humanitarian crises. It would block basic access to infrastructure, impact where and how aid could be delivered, how aid could get into the country, who aid could reach. All of these things will be impacted, and unfortunately, the Houthis are not going to be who suffer most. It's going to be the people of Yemen who are going to suffer the most with any kind of hostilities starting up again and everything that's going to follow on from that with the SDGT designation and whatever else it is to follow.
RS: What's the administration's justification for this decision? Do you see this as a politicization of the terrorist designation system?
Subramanian-Montgomery: Absolutely. Look, when the Biden administration removed the Houthi designation, both the FTO and SDGT designations in Feb. 2021, Blinken said it was "a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen." As I talked about before, that dire situation still exists today. If the priority for lifting it then in February 2021 was recognizing how bad the humanitarian situation is, and we know that it hasn't really gotten better to date, then how can you say that we're going to reinstate one of the designations that was lifted? It just feels really, really hypocritical. The Biden administration is making choices on political whims rather than realities and needs on the ground, which is unfortunate.
But it's the way these designations work. An example I always give is the Taliban. They've been designated as an SDGT since 2001, and the reason that they continue to be designated as an SDGT rather than as an FTO is because the administration would basically, if they made them an FTO, designate themselves out of being able to engage the Taliban. So the Doha talks in 2016 and 2019 couldn't really have happened because nobody could have engaged with the Taliban as they were an FTO. It's just an example that shows how political these designations are, and that, administration to administration, regardless of who's in power in the U.S., the decisions are always very political. They're very tactical and strategic. I don't mean that in a good way. They're making these very calculated decisions on terrorism designations based on a number of factors that they think will benefit their own self interest.

Since the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin on August 23, much ink has been spilled on the future of his private military company (PMC), Wagner Group, and its affiliated companies. Most attention remains on Ukraine, where the PMC has not been formally active since Prigozhin declared victory in Bakhmut on May 20. Meanwhile, Wagner continues to conduct military operations in both Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR).On November 14, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMA), backed by Wagner, took the separatist stronghold of Kidal. Despite entering a town nearly abandoned, the capture was undeniably a symbolic victory for Mali's Interim President, Colonel Assimi Goïta, and his military regime. There is a significant risk that FAMA's March on Kidal will further exacerbate humanitarian crises in the region, all at a time when the international community is stepping back from the Sahel. This is a mistake. The Sahel has become the epicenter of the West's, including the United States', two great threat narratives: jihadist terrorism and the expansion of Russian influence. Their accompanying containment narratives almost ensure counterproductive, knee-jerk reactions to future events on the ground.To avoid these pitfalls, the international community must focus today on creative solutions that account for Russia's presence in Africa.BackgroundThe past five years have seen a popular backlash against peacekeeping and humanitarian-military operations in central Africa and the Sahel. While politicized, the criticism has not been without merit. Peacekeeping missions have undoubtedly improved the lives of many. They have also often empowered the most violent and produced more, not less, armed groups. Yet it was Wagner Group's interventions in Sudan and CAR that turbocharged the criticism.
The structure of Wagner's 2017 intervention in Sudan initially followed standard practices for Africa's private security sector: training and security provision in exchange for mineral concessions. (A notable exception was the political consulting and media operations Prigozhin's team also offered.) In Sudan, the structure stayed consistent. In CAR, events on the ground shaped the nature of Wagner's intervention. In 2018, Prigozhin's men became diplomats.Wagner's diplomacy in CARIn February 2019, the CAR government and 14 major armed groups signed the Khartoum Agreement — a peace deal hailed by the United Nations. A considerable contribution to this process belonged to Prigozhin's working group, although experts from various Russian government entities also participated.
For Prigozhin, the prospect of peace would translate into increased access to mining concessions. It would also deliver a win to Moscow and increase the chances for Kremlin subsidies to fund his Africa gambit. For armed group leaders, the Agreement was a chance to obtain lucrative ministerial positions, while President Faustin-Archange Touadéra could shore up his vulnerable position vis-à-vis the armed groups.
The significance of the Agreement was immense, but unfortunately most walked away with the wrong conclusions. The international community felt it could finally distance itself from CAR's seemingly endless problems. The CAR government and Prigozhin, victims of their own success, felt they could abandon notions of an inclusive government. All seemed unable to account for the return of the largest potential spoiler of the peace, former president François Bozizé, and his decision to run in the 2020 presidential elections.
Despite rising tension between Touadéra and Bozizé, the CAR government, Wagner, and the international community pushed elections at all costs, even as a new coalition of armed groups — nominally led by Bozizé and including six of the fourteen Khartoum Agreement signatories — advanced on Bangui, the capital.
As a result of the rebellion, Wagner's mandate changed from that of a training mission to a military operation. The resulting counteroffensive brought nearly all major towns under government control.
The partial victory — armed groups are down but not out — led to overconfidence within Wagner's ranks: Military solutions were possible. The PMC came to view the Khartoum Agreement through a cynical lens as insiders reframed it as a clever way to weaken and divide the armed opposition, rather than the genuine effort at conflict resolution it was at the time.Wagner began to fashion itself as Russia's "security solution," Moscow's most successful export to Africa. Back then, Prigozhin had the ear of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Taking advantage of Moscow's light footprint on the continent, Wagner's boss could define what Moscow's interests in Africa were.Wagner's military solution in the SahelBy 2020, all actors recognized the value of the "Wagner threat" to Africa; not least African governments which leveraged narratives of "cooperating with" or "countering" Wagner to extract concessions or support from both Russia and the West.
Cold War containment narratives became a self-fulfilling prophecy in 2021 when, after a second coup, tensions between Colonel Goïta and France resulted in French military withdrawal from Mali and Wagner's arrival. Goïta's grievances with Paris were first political: He wanted France to recognize his government. Second, anti-French rhetoric helped build political legitimacy for the military regime.
The rhetoric tapped into genuine grievances with France's Operation Barkhane, especially among Mali's military class. At the top of the list was France's quiet cooperation with Tuareg separatists to oust the jihadists in northern Mali. Bamako saw that cooperation as a violation of sovereignty. Intervenors and those intervened upon could not agree on who the terrorists were.
Wagner's arrival in Mali further revealed the conflict's separate realities. Western analysts focused on human rights abuses and the territorial expansion of Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS) to prove Wagner's intervention a failure.
Goïta's circle was far less focused than western analysts on controlling territory outside the capital. The potential for another coup in Bamako was more important, and the government relied on internet influencers and political entrepreneurs to shore up its popularity. In turn, it became a prisoner of its own jingoistic claims to return Kidal to the fold.The resulting Wagner-backed operation has enjoyed more success than predicted. The Malian army has demonstrated increased combat capability and coordination between branches of the armed forces. Wagner's operations in Mali also reflect a new level of cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Russian officers are involved in planning military operations and acting as advisors. Wagner mercenaries participate in ground operations, but, unlike in CAR, they are always embedded within FAMA.A return to diplomacyFAMA does not have the ability or capacity to fight both separatists and jihadists. Indeed, FAMA and Wagner are on the path to an unwinnable counterinsurgency in the north. Interaction between Tuareg separatists and JNIM suggest the jihadi group is not quite neutral in the conflict, and its role could grow.Despite the current success of Wagner's military solution, it is evident that only peace talks, a process of reconciliation, and the equitable distribution of power and resources between Bamako and the provinces can end the conflict.The victory in Kidal puts the government in Bamako in a stronger position to negotiate with separatists. But given the prospect of an unwinnable war in the north, the continued threat of jihadist groups, and a host of economic woes, the window for "cashing in" on victory will be short.Of course, the Malian government has demonstrated little interest in serious negotiation to date. Few outside powers have leverage over its decision-making. Russia, and the Wagner Group in Mali, have more influence than most. For Russian diplomats, efforts to bring peace to Mali would reinforce Moscow's growing prominence in the Sahel. Wagner Group, too, has consistently engaged in diplomacy when it sees greater potential for profit in peace than open warfare.The international community has leveraged the presence of Wagner Group in Mali as a pretext to step away from the conflict. Yet the crisis in Mali, and the Sahel more generally, cannot be ignored. Efforts should be made to create at least conditions for a negotiating process.The West's exceptional concentration on the war in Ukraine and its support for Israeli operations in Gaza have damaged its credibility in the Global South. Competing with or trying to contain Russia (or China, for that matter) in Africa only does further damage to that credibility. Limited, compartmentalized work with all partners in the Sahel will show that the U.S. can view issues in the Global South outside these prisms.Russia is here to stay in Africa. Mali, and the Sahel more generally, should be an opportunity to engage in geopolitical deconfliction rather than competition.

The ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is a pivotal event in the modern history of Sudan. With hundreds, possibly thousands of civilians killed in the conflict, there has been a deep sense of horror particularly in Sudan's capital Khartoum, resulting in 2.5 million residents of the city fleeing to nearby regions of Sudan, or neighboring countries Chad and Egypt.For those remaining in Khartoum, fear and anxiety are constant, as gunfire, heavy artillery, and smoke rise above the city, fighter jets fly at low altitude over residential areas. The current war will have a devastating mental health impact, in addition to its many fatalities and physical injuries. Children in particular are more likely to suffer severe depression, flashback and post-traumatic events as a result of exposure to the horrific violence and abuses.Exacerbating these anxieties is the use by both the SAF and RSF of psychological warfare. Through social media, both sides have shared graphic content from the battlefield, intended to intimidate their opponents and influence public opinion in their favor. Much of this content has been impossible to verify independently. The SAF has struggled to gain legitimacy with the public, discredited for being part of the former regime of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's long-time former dictator. The SAF leadership claims to be fighting for stability in Sudan, despite allowing the proliferation of former regime-backed militias since the ousting of Bashir in 2019.Meanwhile, the RSF leadership has used media outlets to claim they are fighting against the SAF for being part of the former regime. Their stated intention is to restart the process of handing power from the military to civilian politicians in the framework agreement signed with the Forces of Freedom and Change, which came to an end with the military takeover in October, 2021. However, the RSF's claim is grossly misleading, as the RSF has been accused of committing genocide in Darfur since 2003.In both cases, the message is clear. Each side wishes to give the perception that it is winning the war on the ground. But, neither has been strong enough to achieve outright control of Khartoum. Hence, they merely seek to mislead people who are not residents of the city.The current war in Sudan arguably represents a long power struggle between the RSF, currently led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo or "Hemedti," and remnants of the Bashir regime that dominate the SAF, headed by Lieutenant-General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan. Since the Bashir regime was toppled, its supporters have used the transition period to organize.The SAF has targeted activists, members of resistance committees and politicians with arbitrary arrests and accusing them of backing the RSF. Over the last four years, they have waged a war against Sudan's demand for democracy. Effectively blocking all political efforts to ensure a smooth post-2019 transition, they have sought to prevent the outcome of a credible civilian democratic government. They have instigated violence, attacked civilians, and portrayed the revolution as a project planned in the West to divide Sudan.Furthermore, the SAF's leadership has made use of Sudan's lucrative black market to sabotage any economic progress. They have done so through raising the foreign currency rate against the Sudanese pound and creating shortages in the country, prompting the Sudanese people to feel economic pressure and protest against the civilians in power, providing justification for the military counterparts to launch their takeover. The emergence of numerous militias was encouraged, and the security forces that once maintained the Bashir regime's security turned a blind eye to crimes such as robbery, burglary, and aggravated bodily harm.Historically, the SAF is the oldest security institution of the state, and civilian political parties have used it to capture power in 1958, 1969 and 1989. After al-Bashir's coup in 1989, the Sudanese Islamists Movement, precursor of the National Congress Party (NCP), stacked senior officer positions in the SAF with their supporters.Simultaneously, the regime created various security institutions and militias to counterbalance the threat of a further coup, and to crush rebellions in outlying areas of Sudan. One of these security forces was the RSF, which originated in the early 2000s as the Janjaweed, Arab militiamen used by Bashir to defeat insurgencies in Darfur. Most Janjaweed fighters were of the Rizigat tribe, which includes the Mahria branch of which Hemedti is a member. In 2017, Sudan's parliament passed the Rapid Support Forces Act legitimating the militia. When Bashir felt threatened by his competitors within the NCP, he summoned the RSF to Khartoum to protect him; ultimately, it was the RSF's desertion of Bashir which sealed his regime's fate.After Bashir was toppled in 2019, Burhan became the president of Sudan, appointing Hemedti as his deputy in August 2019. Burhan's focus was on staying in power and preventing the transition to civilian rule. Burhan feared that out of power, he may be prosecuted for his claimed role in the Darfur genocide alongside Hemedti. To reduce any possibility of being ousted, he empowered Hemedti by abolishing article 5 of the RSF Act, allowing the RSF to act independently of the SAF command structure, while establishing loose ties to Burhan. Hemedti was able to increase the number of his forces from 20,000 to over 100,000, most being trained in SAF camps in Khartoum. The RSF was tasked with protecting strategic sites in Khartoum, including the presidential palace, general command, Khartoum airport, and the building of Sudan's Television and Broadcast Corporation. Burhan also retired several SAF generals who had criticized the expansion and new roles of the RSF.Ironically, Burhan's focus on staying in power resulted in his clash with Hemedti, who had his own presidential ambitions. Over time, Burhan and Hemedti started to compete with one another, regionally and internationally. Hemedti cemented his ties with Russia through the Wagner Group, a relationship with its origins in Bashir's request for Russia's help in protecting his regime in 2017. In 2018, it emerged that Wagner was contracted to train the regime's security forces, including the RSF, in riot control.Hemedti's relationship with Wagner expanded through gold smuggling operations that helped Russia offset the sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, and the RSF's support and Hemedti's influence for Wagner's extraction of resources in the Central African Republic (CAR). In January 2023, Hemedti used his forces to close the Sudanese-CAR border, to prevent CAR opposition forces from using Sudanese territory. Wagner has supplied the RSF with anti-aircraft missiles that have deterred the SAF from attacking its positions in Khartoum in the current conflict.The RSF-Wagner relationship has deepened as a result of both paramilitary groups' relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a key destination of Sudan's mineral resources, for example receiving 40 percent of Sudan's gold exports. Geopolitically, Wagner, Hemedti and the UAE are all backers of Libya's Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar. Hemedti sent 1000 RSF fighters to support Haftar's attempt to take over Libya's capital Tripoli in 2019, when Egypt refused to send ground forces to support Haftar despite also being an ally. There are indications that, in return, the UAE has been supporting Hemedti and the RSF in Sudan's current conflict.Burhan has also developed close regional alliances. Burhan received military training in Egypt, and the Egyptian Armed Forces today sees the SAF as the only institution that can hold Sudan together, and represent Egypt's own interests in the country. The Egyptian leadership deeply distrusts Hemedti and the RSF, who they view as a mercenary group with no loyalty to the state. Egypt has accordingly provided the SAF with covert air defence aid in its current conflict with the RSF.Burhan also uses his position as the president of Sudan, and commander of the SAF, to win the backing of Saudi Arabia. Strategically, Saudi Arabia needs to ensure the security of its Red Sea investments that are part of its Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia has also proven to be interested in investing in and deepening trade relations with Sudan, putting it in competition with the UAE's influence represented in Hemedti and the RSF.The current conflict has militarily incapacitated the forces of both Burhan and Hemedti, with Khartoum becoming a graveyard for their soldiers. The fighting has shown that both sides are just interested in cementing their own regimes in a post-conflict scenario. It remains to be seen how civilians will be able to resist whichever party, with its regional backers, emerges victorious from the violence, and continue Sudan's long journey towards democracy.

The events of recent days are unprecedented. The last time units of Jewish and Palestinian fighters — military or paramilitary — went to battle on such a broad front in Israel-Palestine was in 1948. There have, of course, been various battles over the years in Gaza as well as West Bank cities like Jenin, and Israeli and Palestinian units fought one another in Lebanon in 1982. But there is no parallel to the scope of what has taken place here since Saturday morning, and not since 1948 have Palestinian fighters occupied Jewish communities on this scale.This fact is not just a historical anecdote; it has a direct political meaning. This murderous and inhumane attack by Hamas arrived just as it seemed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was about to complete his masterpiece: peace with the Arab world while completely ignoring the Palestinians. This attack has reminded Israelis and the world, for better or for worse, that the Palestinians are still here, and that the century-old conflict here involves them, not the Emiratis or the Saudis.In his speech at the UN General Assembly two weeks ago, Netanyahu presented a map of "The New Middle East," depicting the State of Israel stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and building a "corridor of peace and prosperity" with its neighbors across the region, including Saudi Arabia. A Palestinian state, or even the collection of shrunken enclaves that the Palestinian Authority ostensibly controls, does not appear on the map.Since he was first elected prime minister in 1996, Netanyahu has tried to avoid any negotiations with the Palestinian leadership, instead choosing to bypass it and push it aside. Israel does not need peace with the Palestinians to prosper, Netanyahu repeatedly claimed; its military, economic, and political strength is sufficient without it. The fact that during the years of his rule, especially between 2009 and 2019, Israel experienced economic prosperity and its international status improved, was, in his eyes, proof that he is following the right path.The Abraham Accords signed with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and later also Sudan and Morocco, reinforced this belief conclusively. "For the past 25 years, we have been told repeatedly that peace with other Arab countries will only come after we resolve the conflict with the Palestinians," Netanyahu wrote in an article in Haaretz before the last election. "Contrary to the prevailing position," he continued, "I believe that the road to peace does not go through Ramallah, but bypasses it: instead of the Palestinian tail wagging the Arab world, I argued that peace should begin with Arab countries, which would isolate Palestinian obstinacy." A peace agreement with Saudi Arabia was supposed to be the icing on the "peace for peace" cake that Netanyahu has spent years preparing.Netanyahu did not invent the policy of separation between Gaza and the West Bank, nor the use of Hamas as a tool to weaken the Palestine Liberation Organization and its national ambitions to establish a Palestinian state. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's 2005 "disengagement" plan from Gaza was built on this logic. "This whole package called the Palestinian state has fallen off the agenda for an indefinite period of time," said Dov Weissglas, Sharon's advisor, explaining the political goal of disengagement at the time. "The plan provides the amount of formaldehyde required so that there will be no political process with the Palestinians."Netanyahu not only adopted this way of thinking, he also added to it the preservation of Hamas rule in Gaza as a tool for strengthening the separation between the strip and the West Bank. In 2018, for example, he agreed that Qatar would transfer millions of dollars a year to finance the Hamas government in Gaza, embodying the comments made in 2015 by Bezalel Smotrich (then a marginal Knesset member, and today the finance minister and de facto West Bank overlord) that "the Palestinian Authority is a burden and Hamas is an asset.""Netanyahu wants Hamas on its feet and is ready to pay an almost unimaginable price for it: half the country paralyzed, children and parents traumatized, houses bombed, people killed," Israel's current information minister, Galit Distel Atbaryan, wrote in May 2019, when she was yet to enter politics but was known as a prominent Netanyahu supporter. "And Netanyahu, in a kind of outrageous, almost unimaginable restraint, does not do the easiest thing: getting the IDF to overthrow the organization."The question is, why?" Distel Atbaryan continued, before explaining: "If Hamas collapses, Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] may control the strip. If he controls it, there will be voices from the left that will encourage negotiations and a political solution and a Palestinian state, also in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] … This is the real reason why Netanyahu does not eliminate the Hamas leader, everything else is bullshit."Indeed, Netanyahu himself had effectively admitted as much a couple of months before Distel Atbaryan made her comments, when he declared in a Likud meeting that "anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state needs to support strengthening Hamas. This is part of our strategy, to isolate Palestinians in Gaza from Palestinians in Judea and Samaria."Strengthening the Gaza fence became another aspect of Netanyahu's strategy. "The barrier will prevent terrorists from infiltrating our territory," Netanyahu explained when he announced the start of work in 2019 to add an underground barrier that would end up costing more than NIS 3 billion. Two years later, Israeli journalist Ron Ben-Yishai wrote in Ynet that the ultimate goal of the fence, which was considered to be an impenetrable barrier for terrorists, is to "prevent a connection between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria."On Saturday morning, that fence was torn down, and with it the broader Netanyahu doctrine — adopted by the Americans and many Arab states — that it is possible to make peace in the Middle East without the Palestinians. As hundreds of militants crossed the border unhindered on their way to occupy army posts and infiltrate dozens of Israeli communities as far as 18 miles away, Hamas declared in the most clear, painful, and murderous way possible that the conflict that threatens Israelis' lives is the conflict with the Palestinians, and the idea that they can be bypassed via Riyadh or Abu Dhabi, or that the 2 million Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza will disappear if Israel builds a sufficiently elaborate fence, is an illusion that is now being shattered at a terrible human cost.This is not necessarily good news. It is impossible not to define the actions of Hamas as war crimes: the massacre of civilians, the murder of entire families in their homes, the kidnapping of civilians including the elderly and children into captivity in Gaza — all of these violate the laws of war, and if the International Criminal Court does exercise its jurisdiction over Israel-Palestine, then those responsible for these actions will have to be prosecuted. In other words, Hamas' "declaration" that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still exists came at the price of the blood of hundreds of innocent people.It is also not necessarily good news because it seems that the conclusion Israel is currently drawing from the understanding that the conflict is here in Israel-Palestine, and not in Saudi Arabia, is to "overthrow Hamas" or "flatten Gaza." Likud MK Ariel Kellner and right-wing journalist Yinon Magal likely represent a significant portion of the Israeli public — and certainly the government — when they call for the response to be another Nakba.And yet, beyond the moral judgments, the attack by Hamas has brought all of us — especially the Israelis — back to reality, reminding us that the conflict began here, in 1948, and that no magic cure can make it disappear. And since Hamas, as strong and capable of surprises as it may be, cannot murder 7 million Jews, and since Israel — I believe — is not capable of carrying out another Nakba (or even recapturing Gaza), it is possible that from the trauma of the past few days will grow the idea that the conflict must be resolved on the basis of freedom, national and civic equality, and the end of the siege and the occupation.After the trauma of the 1973 war, which many are comparing to what is happening today, it dawned on Israelis that peace could come at the expense of withdrawing from the Egyptian territory it had occupied. The same realization can happen after the trauma of 2023.This article has been republished with permission from +972 Magazine. It originally appeared in Hebrew in Local Call.

The Government's Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill includes substantial planning reforms, setting out frameworks for the levelling up missions and introducing a range of devolution measures. The amendment of its "nutrient neutrality" rules was under fire from rebels and Tories, with the bill currently in the House of Lords, for blocking much-needed housebuilding. As housing targets are made advisory only and a reduction in housing requirements over the next few years, 100,000 more houses will be able to be built thanks to Michael Gove's agreement to the amendment (NC77). On the other hand, environmentalist groups are outraged by the amendment as they claim it would further increase water pollution, despite the fact that this new road has opened up the property market and will benefit the economy by approximately £18 billion. Over its 13 years in power, the Conservative Party has continuously been divided over the subject of housing. This recent change is undoubtedly a huge victory for rebels led by former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers. "It will enable thousands of new homes to be built which are currently blocked, while also securing real progress on cleaning up our waterways" according to Villiers. It has been obvious that a retreat was coming since the first sign of mutiny emerged a few weeks ago when Gove postponed a Commons vote out of fear of losing. Additionally, several of the leading Tories were furious. During Liz Truss' brief office, Sir Jake Berry, the former party chairman, fumed: "Conservatives need to deliver for the next generation if we ever expect them to vote for us." It was a key pledge in the Tories' 2019 manifesto and supporters claimed it was in keeping with Margaret Thatcher's crusade for a property-owning democracy and new homes for younger voters. Thus, Truss's Levelling Up Secretary Sir Simon Clarke blamed the failure to build more homes for the Tory vote in London collapsing, accusing the party of "pulling up the ladder" for younger voters. Contrastingly, Labour's shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy further accused the government of being "weak", calling the move "unconscionable in the middle of a housing crisis". In accordance with regulatory requirements, Natural England and the Government are collaborating with local planning authorities (LPAs) to ensure that wastewater produced by new homes does not increase pollution in our rivers and coasts while also allowing for quicker decisions that enable the construction of the homes the nation needs. To establish the legal context for this matter, it is necessary to go back in time to 1974 when the Control of Pollution Act initially seized control of waste disposal. When it took effect, a lot of old landfills were discreetly shut down and, for the most part, forgotten about—perhaps by residents of the area. The Government now also plans to cooperate with the housing sector to make sure that larger developers contribute fairly and appropriately to this programme during the ensuing years. In order to put protected sites on the road to recovery in the most affected catchments with the highest housing demand, Natural England will develop new Protected Site Strategies, and the government will then accelerate work on full site restoration. London councils who support the amendment see it as a method for them to set their own planning fees to cover the cost of the service provided, improve performance, and solveresource and capacity shortages in local planning departments as well as to cover costs associated with the service. However, the proposal might result in a new infrastructure levy rather than more affordable housing, which would mean fewer new affordable houses. However, it would provide local authorities the authority to demand that a certain amount of the infrastructure charge be delivered on-site. In a time when there is widespread concern that poverty and health disparities have gotten worse, housing policy can either help to increase disparities in society or be a method to reduce them. According to a source in the housing sector, "This is undoubtedly good news for Britain's housing supply. The only question is why it has taken so long for the government to get around to doing something about this". The District Local Network, meanwhile, welcomed the news and pointed out that in some local areas, nutrient neutrality regulations have limited the supply of affordable homes and raised the price of new homes for purchasers. Local authorities in hundreds of protected regions across England have been encouraged to not approve any new construction that is anticipated to increase river nutrients like phosphates and nitrates, either through wastewater from new residences or runoff from construction sites. The EU first imposed such rules in an effort to stop the growth of harmful algae and other plants that can suffocate aquatic life. Existing regulations required builders to reduce increasing nutrient loads brought on by expanding populations in homes, either on-site or in other parts of the same catchment. By making investments in new wetlands or by establishing buffer zones along rivers and other watercourses, they can achieve this. This has been criticised by builders as being expensive and time-consuming. Former cabinet minister and ASI Patron Sir Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth, told PoliticsHome Gove's proposals were welcome and a "really good move". As opposed to theoretical proposals for a long-term plan, Lewis said scrapping nutrient neutrality would allow the Government and developers to build more homes very quickly."It's not a solution to everything, but it releases 100,000 to 140,000 homes. That's a lot of homes, a lot of jobs, and a lot of opportunity." The neutrality announcement also included a £280 million increase in support in Natural England's nutrient reduction programme, which helps builders reduce the impact of developments on water pollution. Additionally, farmers and water businesses will receive incentives totaling £166 million for slurry infrastructure. Katie-Jo Luxton, director of conservation at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "If nutrient neutrality rules are scrapped, pollution will accumulate unchecked and our rivers face total ecological collapse." In agreement with Luxton, Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK said "Who would look at our sickly, sewage-infested rivers and conclude that what they need is weaker pollution rules?". He acknowledged that it would necessitate requiring water companies and home builders to utilise their revenues to upgrade treatment facilities and pipes to the level that a modern, functional nation would demand. Developers contend that farming is a considerably greater source to the pollution in question while asserting that Natural England is enforcing the regulations in such a severe manner that they have been compelled to halt the construction of up to 120,000 new houses. In response to protests from developers, ministers introduced a mitigation programme in 2022 that allowed builders to purchase "credits" in order to obtain clearance for their projects. However, according to those developers, the procedure for buying such credits has occasionally resulted in unforeseen repercussions, such as the acquisition of farmland to put it out of production in an effort to lessen water run-off. In order to reduce the likelihood of slurry leaks, they will provide payments totaling around £400 million to farmers and waterbusinesses. They will also spend about an additional £300 million assisting developers in reducing the effects of their projects. According to the Dasgupta review, investing in nature leads to wealth since it serves as the foundation for all we do. Leonardo Da Vinci once remarked that "water is the driving force of all nature" and that no society can function effectively without it. Nutrient pollution does not affect the bulk of house projects nationwide, but in 74 of England's 333 Local Authorities, pollution levels in some areas with abundant natural beauty are so high that additional mitigation measures are required. However, along with the elimination of the nutrient neutrality rules, new environmental measures will be implemented, such as increasing investment in and developing Natural England's "Nutrient Mitigation Scheme" (NMS), a programme that enables developers to purchase credits to offset nutrient pollution from housing development. Therefore, while the government moves forward with its housing ambitions, the neutrality statement has in fact slowed down environmental initiatives. To improve opportunity and the nation's environment, however, a number of mechanisms have been adopted to absorb the loss when pollutants and houses are built. In conclusion, despite objections from environmental groups, the amendment that was agreed upon was generally a good decision. Mr. Gove thanked backbenchers in a statement for "their hard work and support to drive forward these much-needed changes to create a planning system that works for all". More affordable housing offers a respite from the dark clouds of rising interest rates and inflation. So, while still investing in a healthy environment, we can see how the removal of the "nutrient neutrality" laws will be good for the economy and for the people in the long term.