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POLAND’S foreign ministry issued an “urgent” summons to the Russian ambassador yesterday to protest what Warsaw termed “provocative declarations” by President Vladimir Putin.
Putin had on Friday accused Warsaw of harbouring territorial ambitions in western Ukraine, as well as Belarus, a close Moscow ally which Putin on Friday promised to protect from possible attack.
Overseeing a national security council meeting, Putin also claimed that Polish western territories were a post-world War II “gift” from former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Polish deputy foreign minister Pawel Jablonski said the Russian ambassador was summoned following “provocative declarations by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as (following) threats and other inimical actions by the Russian Federation with regard to Poland and our allies”.
“The meeting was very brief,” he added. “The frontiers between countries are absolutely untouchable and Poland is opposed to any kind of revision thereof,” Jablonski declared. |
MORE than 1 100 Israeli air force reservists – including fighter pilots – threatened to suspend volunteer service as protests intensified yesterday before final votes on a bill that aims to overhaul Israel’s judiciary.
The judicial revamp has split the nation and sparked one of the biggest protest movements in Israel’s history, with weekly demonstrations often drawing tens of thousands.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government unveiled the plans earlier this year to limit the judiciary’s powers, which the protesters view as a threat to democracy. |
IRAQI security forces fired tear gas to repel hundreds of protesters as they tried to get to the Danish Embassy in Baghdad yesterday after reports a Qur’an was burned in Denmark, according to a government source and videos on social media.
The incident at Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone happened two days after protesters stormed and set alight the Swedish Embassy in protest at a planned burning of the Qur’an in Stockholm.
Iraq condemned the attack on the Swedish Embassy but also expelled the Swedish ambassador in protest at the planned burning of the Qur’an. |