Political situation in South Africa
South Africa gets a historic coalition government
The South African parliament has re-elected the ANC's Cyril Ramaphosa as president, AFP reports.
He won comfortably by 283 votes to 44 against leftist challenger Julius Malema after the ANC reached an agreement with several other parties – including arch-rival Democratic Alliance (DA).
It will thus be a historic coalition government in South Africa – the first since the fall of apartheid and the first democratic elections in 1994.
In a televised speech, DA party leader John Steenhuisen says that South Africa today is "a better country than it was yesterday".
- From today, the DA will participate in the governance of South Africa in a spirit of unity and cooperation, he says, adding that multi-party governments are "the new normal".
******************
The fight against IS
Sweden-linked IS leader may have been killed by the US
Last May, the United States announced that it had killed three terrorists in an airstrike in Somalia. Several American official sources are now telling NBC News that the raid was aimed at the powerful IS leader Abdulqadir Mumin, who has previously lived in Sweden.
He has been the leader of the terrorist sect's Somali branch but, according to the sources, became IS's global leader last year. The sources cannot confirm that Moomin was killed in the raid.
IS in Somalia is relatively small, but since the US's anti-terrorist work has mainly been aimed at Iraq and Syria, IS sees Africa as a region worth investing in.
- They want to expand the terror cell and have therefore moved the caliphate to the region, says a high-ranking security source.
According to the Total Defense Research Institute (FOI), Mumin has lived for a time in Gothenburg. Something, among others, SvD has reported on.
*******************
Votes on the prisoner exchange
Analysis: The release "itch" in international relations
Sveriges Radio's Middle East reporter Johan Mathias Sommarström says that Hamid Noury's release will be "a kind of itch in international relations."
- You see that it is possible to exchange one's own citizens, convicted in Sweden, for Swedish citizens arrested in Iran, he says.
Gilda Hamidi-Nia, foreign reporter at SVT, is on the same line. So-called hostage diplomacy also risks leading to concerns among people with dual citizenship.
- If Iran continues to see that this benefits them, that they arrest people and that they can get something out of it, why should they stop doing it? asks Hamidi-Nia.
******************
The Israel-Hamas warThe reactions
US imposes sanctions on Israeli extremist group
The US State Department has imposed sanctions against the Israeli extremist group Tsav 9, several media reports.
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, says that for several months and on several occasions, Tsav 9 has tried to prevent humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
- Sometimes with violence, says Miller in a statement, according to The Guardian.
Miller brings up an example from mid-May when the extremist group set fire to two trucks near Hebron. The group's actions have been met with anger from several quarters around the world.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar