Ukraine may amend conscription law, Israeli minister issues warning on Gaza Strip

Russia warns the US about Ukraine, Hamas may negotiate the release of Israeli soldiers, South Korea postpones the launch of a spy satellite... are some notable international news in the past 24 hours.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said he was ready to send more troops to Ukraine. (Source: Sputnik)

The World & Vietnam Newspaper highlights some of the day's international news highlights.

* Russia warns the US about Ukraine : On November 28, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said: "The Americans will have to learn from experience if they do not want to fall into difficulties like in Afghanistan... and other difficulties." He noted that in the 1970s, the US was forced to acknowledge its equal opponent, even if only for a short time. According to Mr. Ryabkov, Russia's successful completion of the "special military operation" will be a decisive premise for the US to adjust its thinking.

Earlier, he assessed that in its current form, the dialogue on strategic stability between Moscow and Washington is unlikely to continue in the future. Even if Russia meets US proposals, “there will be no concessions.” (TASS)

* Chechnya declares readiness to send more troops to Ukraine : On November 28, writing on Telegram , Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said that another 3,000 of his soldiers are ready to go to Ukraine as part of new units of the Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian National Guard.

“They have the best equipment and modern weapons. In addition, the soldiers have high fighting spirit and are motivated to achieve results,” he said. According to Mr. Kadyrov, the conflict in Ukraine is a bulwark against Western aggression.

In early November, Mr. Kadyrov said a group of former Russian Wagner mercenaries had also begun training with special forces from Chechnya. (Reuters)

* Ukraine may amend its conscription law : On November 27, responding to The Guardian (UK), Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexei Danilov said that the country intends to change the regulations on military service. According to him, these changes involve using commercial recruitment companies to carry out more targeted service, and at the same time convince conscripts that they will be recruited into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (VSU) for positions suitable to their expertise. The changes are expected to be announced this week. The VSU will work with the country's two largest recruitment companies to find highly qualified personnel who want to help the army, but do not want to take up arms.

“The mobilization will be more flexible. The required specialties will be announced and people will find their own roles,” he explained. Some conscripts are afraid of going into combat, but they may be assigned to other tasks, the official said. He said the new defense minister was taking a “new approach.” (Reuters)

* US Congress concerned about aid to Ukraine : On November 27, The Economist (UK) wrote: “The longer the delay, the more the parties (Republicans and Democrats) will be caught up in election fever. If an agreement is not reached before Christmas, some in the US Congress are concerned that the allocation of new aid (to Ukraine) may be delayed until after the November 2024 election. If Donald Trump is elected president, it may stop completely.” The newspaper’s source in the US Senate noted that time is against Kiev’s supporters.

Ukraine fears that without the US example, Kiev’s European allies could quickly lose heart. The country’s manufacturing sector, once so strong in Soviet times, is no longer in its best shape. “No matter how much we increase domestic production, Ukraine will still be very dependent on its partnership with the West,” one official admitted. (Economist/Sputnik)

* Gunfire in Gaza after ceasefire extension : On the morning of November 28, witnesses heard heavy gunfire in the East and North of Gaza City, despite the humanitarian ceasefire extended until November 30. According to them, Israeli Air Force aircraft appeared in the sky over the Northern Gaza Strip.

Earlier, on the evening of November 27, the Qatari Foreign Ministry announced that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian ceasefire by two days. Thus, the ceasefire that began on November 24 will last until November 30. The agreement will take effect at 7:00 a.m. on November 28 (local time, from 12:00 p.m. Hanoi time). (Sputnik)

* Israel will release 50 more Palestinian prisoners if more hostages are freed : On November 28, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office announced that the country has approved the inclusion of 50 female Palestinian prisoners on the list of prisoners expected to be released if more Israeli hostages are freed from Gaza.

On the same day, the Israeli prison service said 33 Palestinian prisoners were released “overnight” under the terms of the ceasefire agreement. (AFP/Reuters/Sputnik)

* Israeli Defense Minister warns: On November 28, Haaretz (Israel) newspaper quoted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as saying that fighting in the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire agreement ends will become more intense and spread across the entire strip. He declared: "They (the clashes) will be larger and will take place throughout the Gaza Strip." According to this official, the Hamas Islamist movement will take advantage of the ceasefire to regroup and rest. Therefore, when the ceasefire ends, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will attack them with the support of the air force and artillery, and only then will the infantry continue to attack. (Haaretz)

* Hamas ready to negotiate release of Israeli soldiers : On November 28, the Jerusalem Post (Israel) reported that this Islamic movement announced its readiness to negotiate conditions for the release of Israeli soldiers captured during military operations. According to the statement, this issue does not appear in the temporary ceasefire negotiations. The conditions for releasing Israeli soldiers will be different from the conditions for releasing civilians.

This is an important move by Hamas, in the context of the international community increasingly focusing on the issue of releasing civilian hostages rather than Israeli soldiers. (TASS)

* Palestine criticizes Israel's settlement budget increase plan: On November 27, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, criticized Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's plan to allocate millions of additional Shekels to strengthen settlements in Palestinian territory. According to him, the proposal by Jewish State officials is part of a comprehensive campaign against the Palestinian people, territory and inalienable rights.

Earlier, the Times of Israel reported that the country's Cabinet is about to discuss changes to the 2023 state budget due to the need arising from the conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Accordingly, Mr. Smotrich insisted on keeping more than 300 million Shekels (80.87 million USD) in the contingency fund for settlement development. Mr. Abu Rudeineh commented that the above proposal was made in the context of Israel withholding tax revenues from Palestinians and conducting conflicts in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The official also warned of the impact of Israel's plan on regional security and stability. The Palestinian presidential spokesman called on the world to put pressure on the Jewish state to stop the plan and release Palestinian funds currently held by Israel. (Xinhua/Times of Israel)

* US welcomes ceasefire extension: The White House on November 27 welcomed the extension of the humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the country hopes that US citizens will be among the next 20 hostages to be released, as 8 to 9 US citizens are believed to be among those still being held.

John Kirby, the National Security Council's strategic communications coordinator, also said that conditional aid to Israel was an idea worth considering, but President Joe Biden believed his approach was working. "Of course, we hope that the pause will be extended. That depends on whether Hamas continues to release hostages," he said. (AFP/Reuters)

* WHO warns of disease risk in Gaza Strip : On November 28, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Margaret Harris warned: "We will see more people die from disease than from bombs if we cannot restore the health system here." She also described the collapse of Shifa Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip as a "tragedy" and expressed concern about Israel's arrest of some medical staff at the hospital. (VNA)

Southeast Asia

* Indonesia enters election campaign : On November 27, speaking at the launching ceremony of the peaceful election campaign on November 27, Chairman of the Election Commission (KPU) Hasyim Asy'ari said that this is an important time for the people and candidates to join hands to conduct an honest and fair election, "for a united, developed and greater Indonesia". The election campaign will last 75 days from November 28, 2023 to February 10, 2024. Up to 204.8 million voters are eligible to vote in the direct presidential election in this most populous country in Southeast Asia next year.

Currently, three presidential candidates are officially campaigning, including Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, former Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, and former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan.

On November 28, Mr. Anies started his election campaign in North Jakarta, while Mr. Ganjar held his first day of campaigning in South Papua. Meanwhile, Mr. Prabowo has not yet made any campaign activities because he is still performing his duties as Minister of Defense today. Previously, it was reported that the Prabowo-Gibran alliance would start its 2024 election campaign in the Jabodetabek region (including the cities of Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi).

According to the latest poll by Indikator Politik, 40.6% of respondents will vote for candidate Prabowo, 27.8% will vote for Ganjar of the ruling PDI-P party; candidate Anies is third with 23.7%. (VNA)

* Chinese naval ships arrive in Myanmar : Myanmar's military government announced that a Chinese destroyer, a frigate and a supply ship carrying hundreds of sailors arrived at Thilawa port on November 27, ahead of a "Myanmar-China naval security exercise". No details or time of the exercise were immediately available. However, Myanmar state media reported that the Chinese "naval task force" had 700 sailors. (AFP)

Northeast Asia

* South Korea postpones launch of military spy satellite : On November 28, the country's Ministry of National Defense postponed the launch of its first military spy satellite on November 30 due to bad weather. The launch of the spy satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the US Vandenberg Space Force Base in California will be postponed to December 2.

The planned launch is part of a project to put five domestically built reconnaissance satellites into orbit by the end of 2025 to better monitor North Korea.

North Korea launched its first spy satellite on November 21 and claimed that its satellite had taken pictures of major military facilities in South Korea as well as the US territories of Guam and Hawaii, but Pyongyang has not released detailed images. (Yonhap)

* Russia, Saudi Arabia not in talks ahead of OPEC + meeting: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 28 that President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman have no plans to contact ahead of the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners (known as OPEC+) on November 30. He also said: “As for OPEC+, as you know, we never announce anything. This is quite a delicate job, a responsible job. Russia continues to communicate with its partners in this form.”

OPEC+ is scheduled to hold an online meeting on November 30 to decide on oil production levels. Sources said the meeting was originally scheduled for November 26, but was postponed due to disagreements over African producers' output. Sources now say the group is close to a compromise on this point. (Reuters)

* Spain ready to sign agreement with UK on Gibraltar : On November 28, in an interview with Telecinco (Spain), Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said: "A few months ago, Spain put on the table a balanced and generous agreement." He said the country is ready to sign an agreement on the status of Gibraltar as early as November 29 when he is expected to meet new British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Brussels (Belgium) after a phone call on November 27.

Gibraltar covers 6.8 square kilometres, has a population of about 30,000 and sits at the only entrance to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. Spain ceded control of Gibraltar to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. However, Madrid still claims sovereignty over the territory. (Reuters)

* Turkey denies allegations of helping Russia evade sanctions : On November 27, a Turkish diplomatic source denied allegations of helping Russia evade sanctions: “The accusations against Turkey are completely baseless, without any evidence. We are not involved in evading sanctions against Russia.”

"From the very first day of the conflict in Ukraine, we have maintained a neutral stance, maintaining equally trusting relations with our close neighbors. Under the leadership of the President (Tayyip Erdogan), active mediation efforts are being made to reach a ceasefire. In its role as a mediator, Ankara cannot abandon its balanced stance, we have repeatedly explained this to the West," the source stressed.

Earlier, the US Treasury Department announced that Deputy Secretary Brian Nelson would visit Turkey to discuss sanctions against Russia. According to Bloomberg , Washington is particularly concerned about Ankara's refusal to join sanctions on Russian ships and aircraft, and has threatened to impose secondary sanctions. This is the second visit to Turkey by Nelson, who oversees "counterterrorism and financial intelligence" at the US Treasury Department. (Sputnik)

* Iran completes deal to buy Russian fighter jets : On November 28, Iran's Deputy Defense Minister Mehdi Farahi said Tehran has completed a deal to buy Su-3 fighter jets, Mi-28 helicopters and Yak-130 training aircraft from Moscow.

Iran's air force currently has only a few dozen fighter jets, including some Russian aircraft, as well as some older US-made aircraft purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Due to US and Western sanctions, Iran has had difficulty obtaining spare parts for these aircraft. In 2018, Iran said it had begun producing domestically designed Kowsar fighter jets. (Reuters)

* Syria criticizes Israel for attacking civilian airports : On November 27, the Syrian Foreign Ministry criticized Israel's airstrikes on November 26 on the country's civilian airports. It called on the United Nations (UN), the Security Council and other relevant international bodies to condemn and prevent Israel's actions, and ensure that similar actions do not recur. The statement stressed that repeated attacks on Syria's civilian airports endanger peace and security in the region and violate UN resolutions.

Earlier the same day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated: “We strongly condemn the latest Israeli attack on an important Syrian civilian infrastructure.” She stressed that Israel’s actions would have dangerous consequences, especially in the context of the worsening Israel-Hamas conflict and rising regional tensions.

Earlier, the Syrian army announced that Israeli airstrikes had caused Damascus airport to shut down on November 26, forcing incoming flights to be diverted to other airports. (Reuters/Xinhua)

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/tin-the-gioi-2811-ukraine-co-the-sua-luat-nghia-vu-bo-truong-israel-ra-canh-bao-ve-dai-gaza-251819.html