VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United States on Thursday imposed new sanctions on Iran's financial sector, targeting 18 banks to further hinder Iran's earnings. Washington is increasing pressure on Tehran in the weeks leading up to the US election.

The move froze the US assets of blacklisted banks and prohibits Americans from dealing with them. This means foreign banks risk losing access to US markets and financial systems.

However, the US Treasury Department said in a statement that the ban does not apply to transactions in the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, or medical equipment to Iran because it understands the Iranian people's need for basic human goods.

However, analysts say secondary sanctions could increasingly deter European and other foreign banks from working with Iran, even on permitted humanitarian transactions.

"It is like a blow to the face for Europeans, who have gone to great lengths to show America that such efforts seriously threaten humanitarian aid or trafficking for humanitarian missions to Iran," said Elizabeth Rosenberg of the Center for a New American Security study.

"They also want ... to make it difficult for any future president to abandon these steps and engage in nuclear diplomacy," added Rosenberg, referring to the possibility that former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden could beat Republican President Donald Trump in US elections on November 3.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated since Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from his predecessor's 2015 Iran nuclear deal and began reimposing US sanctions reduced under the agreement.

Trump has reinstated sanctions ranging from selling oil to shipping and financial activity.

Although the US sanctions exclude food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies, many foreign banks have been prevented from doing business with Iran - including humanitarian mission deals.

Washington's latest move to target Iran's 18 major banks will allow the US Treasury to target entire sectors of the Iranian economy. These banks include Amin Investment Bank, Iranian Keshavarzi Bank, Maskan Bank, Refah Kargaran Bank, Bank e Shahr, Eghtesad Novin Bank, Gharzolhasaneh Resalat Bank, Iranian Hekmat Bank, Zamin Iran Bank, Karafarin Bank, Khavarmianeh Bank, United Bank Iran Mehr Credit, Pasargad Bank, Saman Bank, Sarmayeh Bank, Tosee Taavon Bank, Tourism Bank, and Islamic Regional Cooperation Bank. (Antaranews)

The U.S. national security adviser warned China on Wednesday against any attempt to take Taiwan by force, saying amphibious landings were notoriously difficult and there was a lot of ambiguity about how the United States would respond.
Robert O’Brien told an event at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas that China was engaged in a massive naval buildup probably not seen since Germany’s attempt to compete with Britain’s Royal Navy prior to World War One.

“Part of that is to give them the ability to push us back out of the Western Pacific, and allow them to engage in an amphibious landing in Taiwan,” he said.

“The problem with that is that amphibious landings are notoriously difficult,” O’Brien added, pointing to the 100-mile (160-km) distance between China and Taiwan and the paucity of landing beaches on the island.

“It’s not an easy task, and there’s also a lot of ambiguity about what the United States would do in response to an attack by China on Taiwan,” he added when asked what U.S. options would be if China moved to absorb Taiwan.

O’Brien was referring to a long-standing U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene to protect Taiwan, which China considers its province and has vowed to bring under its control, by force if necessary.

The United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it has not made clear whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack, something that would likely lead to a much broader conflict with Beijing.

O’Brien’s comments come when China has significantly stepped up military activity near Taiwan and when U.S.-China relations have plunged to the lowest point in decades in the run-up to President Donald Trump’s Nov. 3 re-election bid.

O’Brien repeated U.S. calls for Taiwan to spend more on its own defense and to carry out military reforms to make clear to China the risks of attempting to invade.

“You can’t just spend 1% of your GDP, which the Taiwanese have been doing - 1.2% - on defense, and hope to deter a China that’s been engaged in the most massive military build-up in 70 years,” he said.

Taiwan needed to “turn themselves into a porcupine” militarily, he said, adding: “Lions generally don’t like to eat porcupines.”

On Tuesday, the senior U.S. defense official for East Asia called Taiwan’s plan to boost defense spending by $1.4 billion next year insufficient.

He said it needed to invest in capabilities including more coastal defense cruise missiles, naval mines, fast-attack craft, mobile artillery, and advanced surveillance assets.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, in a response provided to Reuters, said they will “strive for an adequate budget” in accordance with their needs to build a solid national defense force. (Reuters)

World Health Organization (WHO) stated that about one in 10 people might be infected with the Coronavirus (COVID-19). This makes a large part of the world's population vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease caused by this deadly virus.

As reported by Channel News Asia, Tuesday, WHO emergencies expert, Mike Ryan, said that the Corona pandemic has soared in several Southeast Asian countries, as well as increasing in parts of Europe and the East Mediterranean region.

"Our current best estimates tell us about 10 percent of the global population may have been infected by this virus. It varies depending on the country, it varies from urban to rural, it varies depending on groups. But what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk. We are now heading into a difficult period. The disease continues to spread,” Mike Ryan's statement was delivered while giving an explanation to the WHO Executive Board in which the United States (US) launched a covert attack to China for what he called a failure to provide accurate and timely information about Corona.

WHO and other experts claimed that the Coronavirus, which is believed to have emerged on a food market at Wuhan city, China late last year, came from animals. WHO deployed a number of its experts on an international mission to China to investigate the origins of the Coronavirus, for being considered by Chinese authorities. 

US Assistant Secretary of Health, Brett Giroir, stated that it was imperative for the 194 WHO member countries to receive regular and timely developments so that all countries can be involved in the process and have confidence in the results.

Germany, speaking for the European Union, said that an expert mission has to be deployed immediately, while Australia supporting a swift investigation.

Meanwhile, Russia's Deputy Health Minister, Alexandra Dronova, called for an evaluation of the legal and financial impact of the US government announcing its effective exit from WHO in July next year. (CNA)

The blast that devastated large parts of Beirut in August was one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history, experts say.

As reported by BBC.com on Monday, the Sheffield University, UK, experts team said the best estimate for the yield is 500 tons of TNT equivalent, with a reasonable upper limit of 1.1 kilotons. This puts it at around one-twentieth of the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

The team mapped how the shockwave propagated through the city. The group hopes its work can help emergency planners prepare for future disasters.

"When we know what the yield is from these sorts of events, we can then work out the loading that comes from that. And that tells us how to construct buildings that are more resilient," Dr. Sam Rigby from Sheffield's Blast and Impact Engineering Research Group stated

"Even things like glazing, in Beirut, glazing damage was reported up 10km away from the center of the explosion, and the research Group knows falling glass causes a lot of injuries," he said.

The 4 August explosion was the result of the accidental detonation of approximately 2,750 tonnes of improperly stored ammonium nitrate. The blast led to some 190 deaths, as well as more than 6,000 injuries. (BBC)