EU says will continue transport cooperation with Iran
The United Nations refugee agency on Monday cautioned against returning ethnic Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar from Bangladesh at this time, urging that officials be allowed to assess whether it is safe for them to return.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees issued the warning after the Myanmar government said Sunday that this week it would begin repatriating the more than 700,000 Rohingya who have fled from the Rakhine state in western Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape deadly violence carried out by Myanmar security forces.
“Myanmar authorities should allow these refugees to undertake such go-and-see visits without prejudice to their right to return at a later date, if indeed the refugees decide after the visits that the current conditions in Rakhine State would not allow them to return in safety and dignity,” the UNHCR said in a statement.
The Rohingya refugees generally have been denied citizenship and civil rights in Buddhistmajority Myanmar, where prejudice against them runs high. On Sunday, officials in Myanmar announced that Bangladesh had said repatriations would begin on Thursday, with an initial group of 2,251 to be sent back from midnovember at a rate of 150 per day.
The UNHCR said it supports the “voluntary and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya refugees in safety and in dignity to their places of origin or choice, and will work with all parties towards this goal.” It is Myanmar’s responsibility to improve conditions in the restive Rakhine region, it said.
Sunday’s Myanmar government statement said the returning Rohingya would stay at repatriation camps for two days and receive food and clothing before moving on to transit camps. It said China, India and Japan were “providing necessary assistance” for the repatriation process, but did not give details.
The Rohingya exodus began after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown in August 2017. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the United Nations, of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The European Union will continue its cooperation with Iran within the framework of the agreements concluded in the transport zone, a senior EU official said on Monday.
“With the visit of Mrs. Mogherini in 2016 a good agreement for cooperation in terms of city and air transport with Iran was signed and we will continue to cooperate within the framework of the agreement.” Maja Bakran, the EU’S Oil rose by more than one percent on Monday, set for its largest one-day increase in a month after Saudi Arabia said OPEC and its partners believed demand was softening enough to warrant an output cut of one million barrels per day.
Brent crude futures LCOC1 rose 80 cents on the day to $70.98 a barrel by 1205 GMT, while US crude futures rose 36 cents to $60.69 a barrel.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid alfalih said on Monday OPEC and its partners agree that technical analysis shows a need to cut oil supply next year by around one million bpd from October levels to avoid an unwelcome deputy director general of transport told the forum of Logistics and Supply Chain held in Tehran in cooperation with the EU and the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran, according to IRNA.
Bakran said that 80 percent of the world trade is carried out through sea transport and in terms of expanding the cooperation of Asian countries with the European Union, adding, “We are trying to continue to transport between Asia buildup of unused crude.
Falih said Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil supplier, would cut its production by 500,000 bpd as of next month to help stabilize the market.
Any official decision on global output cuts will be made at a key ministerial meeting for OPEC and NON-OPEC producers in Vienna in early December, Falih said.
Oil producers will continue to evaluate the market data prior to the Vienna summit, “but if we need to trim production by one million bpd, we will do,” Falih added.
The UAE’S Energy Minister Suhail and Europe on a very good level.”
Pointing out the logistics advantages, she said, “With the logistics chain, transport is developing, which will be highly effective in the sustainability of economic growth and marine environmental issues.
“Only with healthy competition we can contribute to the development of sea transport and the private sector can play an important role in this regard.”
al-mazrouei said balancing the market would “require changes in the strategy” of producers.
“We need not overreact” to falling prices, Mazrouei said, adding that crude was a dynamic market.
Iraqi energy minister spokesman Assem Jihad said his country, also an OPEC member, was hoping for “any decision that would help balance and stabilize the market”.
The comments followed a meeting in Abu Dhabi at the weekend, where major producers started laying the groundwork to cut supply in 2019, reversing an almost yearlong expansion.
The group, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, warned that crude supply would outstrip demand next year.
In a final statement, they said they had “reviewed current oil supply and demand fundamentals and noted that 2019 prospects point to higher supply growth than global requirements”.
The 14 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries alone pump over a third of global crude supply.
The oil price has fallen by around 20 percent in the last month, driven lower by a rapid increase in global supply and the threat of a slowdown in demand, especially from those customers, such as India, Indonesia and China, whose currencies have weakened against the dollar and eroded their purchasing power.
Production from Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States alone has risen by 1.05 million bpd in the last three months, based on official output figures.
This has left OPEC scrambling to adjust its own output, which, at around 33.3 million bpd, accounts for roughly a third of total global daily supply.
Reuters and AFP contributed to this story.