2025.... #Moscow Vs. #London.....

Phantom pain of lost empires: Starmer and Macron risk global conflict over Ukraine UK Prime Minister Keir #Starmer and French President Emmanuel #Macron are the most dangerous politicians in the world now, potentially sparking a global crisis over #Ukraine due to their "phantom pain" from lost empires, Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche writes. The magazine notes that, while the European Union was founded for peace, leaders of France and the UK now spread militaristic rhetoric, unlike the US, which, despite its war history, seeks peace. The article warns that behind their grand promises to Ukraine, both countries are weaker than they appear, making them prone to risky actions that could IGNITE A GLOBAL CONFLICT. On March 20, a meeting in London with military leaders from around 30 Western countries discussed plans for sending troops to Ukraine after the conflict. Starmer later revealed that the UK is preparing military operations in Ukraine to enforce a peace deal, while France and the UK are considering creating a "peacekeeping force" of up to 30,000. #Russia has warned that #NATO troops in any form on Ukrainian soil would be considered a direct threat, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating that Moscow will never accept this.

Paris, Berlin, London prepared to send troops to Ukraine, says French minister Some European countries are ready to send troops to Ukraine to secure a ceasefire, but US support will be required, said French Finance Minister Eric Lombard in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "We are starting a technical discussion. There is general agreement that to guarantee a ceasefire it will be necessary to [have] European troops in Ukraine. UK, Germany and France are already willing to do that, but other member states of the European Union will contribute as well," he said. "Those troops will arrive after the ceasefire in order to guarantee that the ceasefire is respected. But if we want the ceasefire to be respected, we need a US backup and I mean that Americans agreed to do that." The minister did not elaborate on what Washington could do to ensure that the ceasefire is respected.

Houthis say they attacked US aircraft carrier in Arabian Sea The #Houthis from #Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement have attacked the US Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian sea and two US destroyers in the Red Sea, the movement’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said. According to the spokesman, the Houthi air forces conducted two military operations. "In the course of one of the operations, they attacked the American USS Abraham#Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea with the use of cruise missiles and drones when the American enemy was preparing for hostile operations against our country," he said, adding that the Houthis also attacked "two American destroyers in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones." The operations, in his words, lasted for eight hours. He also said that the Houthis place responsibility for "turning the Red Sea into a zone of military tension" and the impact on navigation in the area on Washington and London. The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV channel reported earlier on Tuesday that American troops had attacked a civilian car in the As Sawma’ah District. The Dubai-based Al Arabiya television channel said, citing a source, that an American drone had attacked a car carrying Houthi leaders. Apart from that, the US delivered a strike on Houthi military targets in the Al Bayda governorate.

Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk region fails to produce results, explains British diplomat The #Ukrainian army’s attack on #Russia’s borderline #Kursk Region did not produce the results that Kiev had expected, John Foreman, former British military attache in Moscow (2019-22) and Kiev (2014), told the Daily Telegraph. "Russian progress actually picked up after Kursk," he said, as cited by the newspaper. "Politically, the Kursk offensive didn’t change much in Washington, D.C., or Europe. I’m still unconvinced of its strategic merit," the diplomat added. According to the Daily Telegraph, "Ukrainian officials had hoped that the invasion of Russia would impress their allies, who would agree to increase weapon supplies and allow Western missiles to be fired at targets in Russia." However, neither Washington nor London has yet approved "Ukraine’s request for a license to expand missile strikes," while the Ukrainian army is retreating not only in Donbas but also in the Kursk Region, which appears "to have come as a surprise to Ukraine and the US."

Oil price to fall to $50 per barrel, reports WSJ citing Riyadh Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has said that #oil prices may fall to $50 per barrel unless a number of OPEC+ nations adhere to agreed output limits, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported citing sources. This comes amid an online meeting of the #OPEC+ ministerial monitoring committee aimed at estimating the current situation on the oil market, which is taking place now. Its participants intend to discuss the issue of weakening output restrictions in December, according to the publication. #Riyadh has warned a number of countries, including Iraq, against an increase in oil production, indicating that they should observe their OPEC+ commitments. The price of futures contracts of Brent crude oil for December delivery rose above $76 per barrel on London's ICE earlier on Wednesday for the first time since September 3, 2024. The price of oil is rising amid an escalation in the Middle East.

#Britain, #Germany, "Sweden considering opening embassies in #North_Korea The diplomatic missions of Great Britain, Germany and Sweden are considering the possibility of opening embassies in North Korea, Reuters reports with reference to diplomats of these countries. According to report, representatives of the German Foreign Ministry are currently in Pyongyang. They have been "inspecting the territory of the German embassy for two days now," a representative of the German Foreign Ministry told the agency, noting that the decision to resume the work of the diplomatic mission has not yet been made. According to a representative of the British Foreign Ministry, the United Kingdom, which closed the embassy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in May 2020, is also trying to send a group of diplomats to Pyongyang. "We are negotiating with the DPRK government through the embassy in London in order to prepare for the visit of the technical and diplomatic group in the near future," he said. Sweden's Special Envoy for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Peter Semneby, told Reuters that some progress had been made towards the possible return of Swedish diplomats to Pyongyang, but declined to provide details, citing the sensitivity of the issue. "There is some movement, and we hope that we will be able to reopen our embassy relatively soon," he added. As previously reported by the Yonhap news agency, the head of the German Foreign Ministry's department for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Martin Tummel, the first high-ranking Western diplomat to visit the country in four years, arrived in the DPRK. According to the agency, visits of this level have not been reported since January 2020,

#Gas price in #Europe falls below $250, first time since April 2021 The price of gas in Europe fell below $250 per 1,000 cubic meters for the first time since April 2021, according to data from London’s ICE. The price of March futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands fell to $249.9 per 1,000 cubic meters or €22.34 per MWh (based on the current exchange rate of euro to dollar, prices for ICE are presented in euros per MWh). Gas prices in Europe continue to decline amid large gas inventories and expectations of warm weather in the region in the coming week. European UGS facilities are currently 64.69% full (16.76 pp higher than the average for this date over the past five years), containing 71.3 bln cubic meters of gas.

The Guardian: 'Iran rejects calls from Washington and London to stop supporting Houthi attacks in the Red Sea' Iran has rejected calls from the United States and Britain to stop supporting attacks by Houthi rebels on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea and sent a destroyer to the sea, writes the British publication The Guardian. Destroyer Alborz 94th flotilla The Iranian Navy crossed the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and entered the Red Sea on Monday. The authors of the publication note that this happened against the backdrop of a meeting between the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, and the Houthi representative, Mohammed Abdulsalam. At the same time, the Iranian official praised the “brave actions” of the Houthis against “Zionist aggression.” Tensions between the U.S. and the Iran-backed Houthis reached a new high on Sunday when the US military said its helicopters sank three Houthi ships and killed 10 militants in the Red Sea. Let us recall that as a sign of support for Gaza, the Houthis began to attack ships associated with Israel. The U.S. decided to create an international coalition to act against the Houthis. Yemen's Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi has already warned that his forces will attack American ships in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden in the event of any attack by Washington on Yemen.

Let's review the recent strikes between pro-Iranian groups and the Israel Defense Forces. ▪️ In the past 24 hours, the Israelis have launched three strikes. They targeted positions of the Syrian Arab Army in the villages of Karfa and Izra in the province of Daraa. According to the Israelis, these positions were responsible for firing at IDF positions in the occupied part of the Golan Heights. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that there have been over 20 deaths in IDF strikes, including four officers. However, there is only confirmation of the death of one senior lieutenant of the SAA available online. ▪️ Today, the Israelis once again targeted the international airport of Aleppo, disrupting logistics processes in northern Syria. These attacks do not seem to bother the pro-Iranian formations. In fact, by leaking false information to the Israelis and provoking attacks, the Iranians are fueling hatred towards Israel among the Syrians. ▪️ From the Iraqi side, pro-Iranian formations fired at the positions of the US Armed Forces in the village of Khurab al-Jair in the Hasakah province. There is no information available about the results of this attack, but it affects the logistics route of the International Coalition in the Syrian Trans-Euphrates region. ▪️ In one of the attacks on the American airbase at Ain al-Assad in Iraq, one US military personnel was killed and over 20 were injured. 🔻Overall, the pro-Iranian formations are maintaining a certain level of confrontation. Sometimes, such actions bring success, as seen in the attack on Ain al-Assad. However, these approaches are not yet capable of achieving systemic results. It is not the goal of the pro-Iranian formations to initiate such work. Nevertheless, they are engaging in partisan activity, taking into account media exaggerations, at the required level for now.