Agenda

Cómo nos gusta tener razón. En relación con lo que señalábamos ayer en un post (Viena), algunas cosas parecen estar cumpliéndose a partir de los sucesos de París. (Por supuesto, la realidad nos va a contradecir mucho más de lo que nos gustaría, pero bueno, para eso hay tiempo). Leemos en Russia Today en español:

Título: 'Paris changes everything’: Merkel’s allies call for German refugee policy changes

Texto: Following the terror attacks in Paris, the Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s sister party, has called for Germany to change its refugee policy and put an end to the mass influx of asylum seekers.

“The days of uncontrolled immigration and illegal entry can't continue just like that. Paris changes everything,” Soeder said in interview for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

“It is unacceptable that we don’t know who arrives in Germany and what these people are doing. We must stop this by all means,” he added.

The minister pointed out that if the EU fails to protect the bloc’s frontiers, Germany will be forced to guard its own borders. He added that when Berlin also fails, Bavaria will have to do it on its own, Soeder warned.

“When the government says ‘we can’t protect our borders alone’, Bavaria will be able to undertake the task,” Soeder said. “We managed to do that in the past.”

The Bavarian finance minister also said that the number of refugees expected to arrive in Germany this year is too high.

"One million is way too much. Conceivable at best, is an orderly immigration of between 200,000 and 300,000 people," he said.

Soeder also added that his party, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) is still Merkel’s ally, but the chancellor should be to take into account her sister party’s point of view.

“The CSU stands behind the chancellor, but it would be good if Angela Merkel acknowledged that the opening of the border for an unlimited period of time was a mistake,” Soeder mentioned.

Soeder’s statements are in line with the position of the CSU leader Horst Seehofer, who has been criticizing the German refugee policy for several months.

After Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, Seehofer called on the federal government to ensure “greater control not just of Europe's borders but also the national borders,” Deutsche Welle reports.

“We need to know who drives through our country,” Seehofer said, adding that he is worried that terrorists are taking the advantage of the refugee crisis to get into Europe.

Other leading German politicians do not share the CSU’s position. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere as well as Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel warned against anti-migrant sentiments following the Paris attacks.

“Many refugees come from those regions from where terrorism is being exported to us and to the world,” Gabriel reminded.

The terrorist attacks in Paris killed more than 130 people on Friday, leading to France declaring a state of emergency. The terrorist group Islamic State has claimed its responsibility for the attacks.

***

Título: French jets drop 20 bombs in massive anti-ISIS raid in Syria

Texto: France has carried out a massive airstrike on an Islamic State stronghold in Raqqa, Syria. It struck dozen’s of targets including a command and control center, training camp and munitions warehouse, the country’s defense ministry announced.

Twelve French aircraft, including 10 fighter jets, took part in the country’s biggest air raid in Syria, the statement from the defense ministry read.

The strike, coordinated with the United States, was carried out simultaneously from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh (a derogatory Arabic acronym for IS) as a command post, jihadist recruitment center and arms and munitions depot. The second held a terrorist training camp,” a ministry statement said, adding that in total some 20 bombs were dropped in the raid.

The air raid on the terrorist positions comes on the heels of series of horrific attacks in the French capital, which claimed at least 129 lives and injured hundreds more on Friday. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the barbaric attacks in Paris, while the French government has vowed to battle the terrorist group mercilessly.

Following the wave of terror in Paris, US intelligence services have expanded their data sharing with France and have begun providing “targeting packages” on Islamic State position, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Sunday.

The allies have agreed on “concrete steps the US and French militaries should take to further intensify our close cooperation in prosecuting a sustained campaign” against IS, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement, following a phone call between US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and the French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian.

***

Título: Obama, Putin talk Syria & Ukraine on sidelines of G20 summit

Texto: Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama have discussed the situation in Syria and Ukraine in an informal meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Turkey.

According to the Kremlin's envoy to the G20, Svetlana Lukash, the informal meeting between Putin and Obama lasted for more than 30 minutes.

Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov said the leaders had an extensive discussion on two topics – “first on Syria and then Ukraine.”

"Strategic objectives relating to the fight against the Islamic State are, in principle, very similar (between Russia and the US), but there are differences on the tactics side," Ushakov was quoted as saying.

A White House official told Reuters that "President Obama and President Putin agreed on the need for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition, which would be proceeded by UN-mediated negotiations between the Syrian opposition and regime as well a ceasefire."

The official added that Obama reiterated support for the Minsk agreement in Ukraine.

The two-day summit that started on Sunday has taken on a new urgency, in view of the Paris attacks in which 129 people died pushing the fight against terrorism to the top of the agenda.