21 July, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 21.07.2014, 20:14
The main opposition party in Romania, the centre-right National Liberal Party, on Monday designated its candidate for November’s presidential elections. The Standing Bureau of the party had to choose between the current president of the party, the mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Iohannis, and his predecessor Crin Antones. The liberals elected Iohannis with 111 votes. He will compete against the nominee of the centre-right Liberal Democratic Party, Catalin Predoiu. The two parties will merge to create a new National Liberal party and will have a sole candidate running in the presidential elections.
Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Monday that the war in eastern Ukraine is a hybrid, with both the terrorists and the Russian Federation, which became their ally, holding responsibility for the situation in the region. In a statement to the press he said that the war is a carried out through intermediaries, by urban guerillas, being at the same time an insurgence and intelligence war, accompanied by terrorist actions. Previously, Great Britain had warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Russian economy would be furthered sanctioned if Moscow did not allow access to the site where the Malaysia Airlines plane crashed and did not stop fuel instability in Ukraine. Sanctions might affect advanced industrial goods, which can be used in the defense industry.
According to the foreign ministry in Bucharest, 19 Romanian citizens and their families have been repatriated following the deterioration of the security situation in the Gaza Strip over the last few days. At the request of the neighbouring Hungary, a Hungarian citizen was also repatriated with the group of Romanian nationals. This was the second evacuation operation for Romanian citizens since the start of the conflict in the region. Last week, 84 Romanians and their families were evacuated from Gaza.
On Monday, the Russian Federation banned imports of fruits and canned fruit from the Republic of Moldova, saying they are infested. The sanction comes shortly after the Republic of Moldova ratified the Association Agreement with the EU. The ban mainly affects the import of fresh apples, pears, quinces, plums, apricots, cherries, sour cherries, peaches and nectarines. Given the circumstances, the Chisinau authorities are considering the enforcement of the Free Trade Agreement Starting September 1st, not October 1st, as initially planned.
The Israeli army today killed at least 10 Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated into Israeli territory from Gaza using tunnels. At the same time, the army continued its ground and air operations in the Gaza Strip. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in the region, 18 Israelis and around 500 Palestinians have been killed so far in the conflict. Army officials have asked the inhabitants of southern Israel to remain in their homes due to security risks. On a diplomatic level, US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Egypt as part of efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian organisation Hamas. The authorities in Cairo say they support the Palestinian population in Gaza but that they disagree with Hamas’ terrorist practices.
Romania remains a firm supporters of the International Criminal Court, said Romania’s foreign minister Titus Corlatean in Bucharest on Monday after talks with the court’s prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. Mr Corlatean highlighted Bucharest’s efforts to promote the International Criminal Court Rome Statute and the court’s activity. According to the Romanian foreign ministry, Romania signed the Rome Treaty in July 1999 and ratified it in 2002, being one of the states with a direct contribution to the enforcement of the Statute. The International Criminal Court is the first and only permanent criminal court and 122 different states have adopted its statute so far.
Italian and Maltese authorities said they rescued over 800 immigrants found on the Mediterranean on Saturday, while the International Organisation for Migration warned that several hundred people may have been killed at sea, the German news agency DPA reports. Recently, Italy said it can no longer cope with the situation alone and called on FRONTEX, the European Union border agency, to take over the rescue of immigrants arriving by sea. According to the International Organisation for Migration, 5,200 people have arrived in Italy by sea in recent days. It is estimated that, since the start of the year, at least 80,000 migrants have arrived in Italy across the Mediterranean, exceeding the record 63,000 reported in 2011, during the Arab Spring.
