Conversation Tree

A UNITED GUYANA CONFRONTS VENEZUELA’S INTIMIDATION AND PERFIDY

Venezuela’s plan to create a state of ‘Guayana Esequiba’ on Guyana’s territory is an act of brazen and lawless perfidy. The border between Guyana and Venezuela was lawfully determined in 1899 by an Arbitral Tribunal, established by the Treaty of Arbitration signed at Washington in 1897 to find a “full, final and perfect settlement.” A dispute had arisen between the United States and Britain, with the United States invoking the Monroe Doctrine on Venezuela’s behalf, in its claim that Britain was occupying territory to which it was entitled.

CHANGING THE MIDDLE EAST

During the past week the Israeli Government has ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza into southern Gaza. Those who did not move were given a salutary lesson. The Al-Ahri Arab hospital was bombed last Tuesday, October 17, causing the death of near 500 persons, comprising patients, medical staff and persons seeking safety. Many were women and children. The fact that southern Gaza, to which northern Gazans were told to move, is also being continuously bombed, suggests that Israel wants to herd all the Gazans into an even more confined space because it would be easier to slaughter them all, or to force them all across the into Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing. Israel has denied the bombing of the Al-Ahri Hospital and has blamed it on Islamic Jihad, a Gaza militant organization. This denial is part of the information war that Israel wages against Palestinians. By the time the truth that Israel carried out the bombing becomes accepted, as Al Jazeera has clearly revealed, the anger would have died down.

‘OVERWHELMING BUT NOT SURPRISING’

Some of the names of the wars launched against Gaza include ‘Summer Rains’ 2006, ‘Hot Winter’ 2008, ‘Returning Echo’ March 2012, ‘Pillar of Defence’ October 2012, ‘Protective Edge’ 2014 and ‘Breaking Dawn’ in 2022. In the non-violent Land Day Protests by Gazans in 2018, 168 were killed by snipers and thousands injured. In the past few months alone, 200+ Palestinians have been killed by regular Israeli invasions. There were noted episodes of violence by Israeli civilians and military personnel against Gazans and their Holy Sites at Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock, referred to as ‘clashes’ in the western media throughout the 2000s, including in 2021, at which many were killed. 5,000+ Gazan men, women and children have been killed, mainly by bombs dropped by Israel on civilian homes in alleged retaliation for almost harmless rockets launched against Israel by Hamas.

NARGES MOHAMMADI

Narges Mohammadi, a professional engineer, is a 51-year-old Iranian wife and mother of two, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence imposed in May 2016 for spreading propaganda against the state. She is held at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, to whom she was married in 1999, moved to France in 2012 with their two teenage children, Kiana and Ali, twins, whom she has not seen in eight years, after serving 14 years of prison sentences. He is a journalist, a profession to which Narges turned after being banned from working as an engineer.

VENEZUELA’S THREATS ATTRACTS INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION

International condemnation greeted Venezuela’s statement of 19 September rejecting the “illegal bidding” for oil blocks carried out by the Government of Guyana. The statement claims that Guyana does not have sovereign rights over the maritime areas in international law and demarcation must be carried out in agreement with Venezuela. The statement goes on to warn that Venezuela will apply all necessary measures to prevent the “illegitimate exploitation” of its natural resources. Three baffling questions emerge from Venezuela’s statement. The first is that since the areas have not been the subject of demarcation and that without such demarcation (which, incidentally, Foreign Minister Rodrigues-Birkett requested since 2011, to which Venezuela has remained silent), on what basis is Venezuela laying claim to ownership of these areas? The second is, in the absence of demarcation, on what basis has Venezuela already, in 2015, issued decrees appropriating ownership of the entire maritime areas of Guyana? Thirdly, does Guyana have no rights to its exclusive economic zones recognized in international law? This exemplifies Venezuela’s warped logic, on full display since 1962.