orianomattei

  Iran has moved a step further in its attempts to formalise its effective control over the Strait of Hormuz after the country’s top security organ announced the formation of a new body to manage the key passage. The country’s Supreme National Security Council on Monday said the new authority, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), would provide “real-time updates” on operations and the latest developments in the strait, a critical chokepoint through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas pass in peacetime. end of list The announcement comes two days after reports surfaced that Iran was planning to provide insurance to ships crossing  the Strait of Hormuz . According to a report by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency published on Saturday, Tehran will offer insurance for vessels transiting the strait and surrounding Gulf waters, with payments settled in cryptocurrency. Since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, Iranian officials and lawmakers have r...

  China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, has said there is a need to re-examine the UN Security Council’s decision to terminate the mandate of the longstanding peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which is due to end later this year. Speaking to reporters on Friday at the UN headquarters in New York, Ambassador Fu expressed China’s deep concern about the situation in Lebanon as Beijing assumed the council’s rotating presidency for May. He observed that a genuine ceasefire did not exist in Lebanon, describing the current state of conflict as merely a “lesser fire”. “We do believe that we should revisit the decision, actually, to withdraw the UNIFIL,” Fu said, using the acronym for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. “I think at least the view of the overwhelming majority of the Security Council is that this is not the time to really, to withdraw the UNIFIL out of that part of the country,” Fu said. China is waiting for a report from the UN secretariat, expected in June, “before...