Friday, 27th May, 2022

Page 2
DAILY ANALYST Friday, 27th May, 2022
Global News
A
UK-EU trade war
would be "shocking"
and "unnecessary",
the Irish Prime Minister
Micheál Martin
has said.
He called on the UK government
to "get into the tunnel and
negotiate" over changes to the
post-Brexit trade arrangements
for Northern Ireland.
The Taoiseach told the BBC
Eleven newborn babies
have died in a hospital
fire in the western city
of Tivaouane in Senegal,
the country's president
has said.
The fire at Mame Abdou Aziz
Sy Dabakh Hospital was in the
maternity department, President
Macky Sall tweeted.
Initial reports suggest the fire
was caused by a short circuit, according
to Senegalese politicians.
Three babies were saved from
the fire, said the city's mayor,
Demba Diop Sy.
The fire spread very quickly
and emergency services were
still at the scene, Mr Sy told local
media.
The hospital had been newly
inaugurated, according to AFP,
citing local media reports.
No British official
forced Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe to
sign a false confession,
the UK government
has said.
In a statement in the Commons,
Foreign Office minister
Amanda Milling said the UK official
simply passed on the Iranian
authorities' request.
"Iran made clear they would
not allow her to leave Tehran
airport unless Nazanin signed a
document," she said.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe revealed
to the BBC on Monday a UK official
was present when she signed
the statement.
Her lawyers have accused the
UK of "apparent complicity" in
the false confession.
The mother-of-one was
detained in Iran for six years
accused of plotting to topple the
government. She was reunited
with her husband and sevenyear-old
daughter in the UK after
being released in March.
of rising inflation the EU was
pondering such a move, the Irish
prime minister said it was only
the UK making threats.
"The only unilateral move
that has been made here has
been by the United Kingdom
government, which has threatened
to tear up an international
deal signed with the European
Union," he said.
"That's the only threat here.
And that's what's happened."
The taoiseach said a solution
between the parties was "doable"
and that French President
Emmanuel Macron and German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz "don't
want minute checks on everything
going into Northern Ireland
- they want to resolve this".
At the World Economic Forum
some of the world's biggest multhat
Ireland and the European
Union "do not want a trade war"
with the UK.
The government last week
announced plans to override key
parts of the Brexit deal within
weeks.
Boris Johnson's government
agreed the trade deal with the
EU in 2019 after the UK voted to
leave the bloc.
In the event of the UK
unilaterally abandoning agreed
elements of the deal that create
barriers on goods trading between
Great Britain and Northern
Ireland, the EU has the power
to suspend parts of the entire
post-Brexit trade deal.
When asked at the World
Economic Forum in Davos
whether the EU was drawing up
plans to apply tariffs to politically
sensitive UK exports, Mr Martin
declined to "get into the detail of
anything like that, because hopefully,
that's something we don't
ever have to contemplate".
"For now I'm simply saying,
and I've been consistently saying
get down there, get into the
tunnel, UK government and EU,
negotiate and get the technocrats
in there," he added.
When asked why at this time
Senegal hospital fire: Eleven
newborn babies die in Tivaouane
"To their mothers and their
families, I express my deepest
sympathy," President Sall wrote
in a tweet.
"I heard the news of the
fire last night, but I did not tell
my daughter. I waited until the
morning to inform her," said Ndeye
Absa Gueye, who later found
out her grandchild was among
the dead.
"This hurts all of Senegal,"
Tivaouane resident Ousmane
Kane told the Reuters news
agency.
"This situation is very unfortunate
and extremely painful,"
Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf
Sarr said from Geneva, where he
was attending a World Health
Organization meeting.
He said an investigation
was under way and he would be
Fellow British-Iranian
national Anoosheh Ashoori,
detained since 2017 on spying
charges, was released at the
same time.
Speaking to the BBC's Emma
Barnett on Woman's Hour, Mrs
Zaghari-Ratcliffe questioned
why the UK did not challenge
Iran over forcing her to admit to
crimes she did not commit as a
condition of her release.
She described being taken
away by Iranian Revolutionary
Guards without seeing her
parents and "made to sign the
forced confession at the airport
in the presence of the British
government".
She added that she was told
she would not be allowed to
get on the plane back to the UK
without signing the confession
'We don't want UK-EU
trade war' -Irish PM
cutting his trip short to return to
Senegal immediately.
The incident has sparked a
wave of indignation on social media
over the state of the country's
healthcare provision.
Opposition MP Mamadou
Lamine Diallo criticised the government,
tweeting: "More babies
burned in a public hospital… This
is unacceptable".
Rights group Amnesty
International has urged the
government to create an "independent
commission of inquiry
to determine responsibility and
punish the culprits, no matter
the level they are at in the state
apparatus," country director Seydi
Gassama said in a tweet.
Amnesty called for all of
Senegal's neo-natal wards to be
inspected after a similar incident
and said Iranian officials filmed
the whole process.
Speaking in Parliament, Ms
Milling told MPs: "A UK official
was present to help facilitate
both Nazanin and Anoosheh
Ashoori's departure, and passed
on the message from the IRGC
(Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps) that she needed to sign a
confession.
"Given the situation Iran
put Nazanin in at the airport,
she took the decision to sign the
document. No UK official forced
Nazanin to do so."
Describing Iran's treatment
of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe as
"horrendous", Ms Milling said
Iran had a practice of insisting
detainees sign documents before
their release.
"Nothing about the cruel
No UK official forced Nazanin
to sign confession - minister
occurred in the northern town of
Linguère last year.
Four newborn babies were
killed there after a fire broke out
at a hospital's maternity ward.
At the time, the mayor said there
was an electrical fault in the air
conditioning unit of the maternitreatment
by Iran of detainees
can be described as acceptable,
including at the point of release,"
she added.
On Monday it was revealed
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's lawyers
had written to Foreign Secretary
Liz Truss claiming the UK's lead
negotiator told her a confession
would have no value and she
needed to sign the document if
she wanted to get on the plane.
Human rights organisation
Redress, acting on behalf of Mrs
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, said the UK's
"apparent complicity" in the
false confession left her "deeply
distressed".
In a letter, Redress wrote:
"Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had
resisted intense pressure to
make a false confession on many
occasions during interrogations
tinational companies have told
the BBC they are already seeking
reassurances over the possibility
of a trade war between the UK
and the EU.
Earlier this week the Polish
prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki
said "only Putin" would be
happy with a disagreement between
the EU and UK at this time,
adding he was trying to "calm
down the situation".
The UK's Foreign Secretary Liz
Truss was in Northern Ireland on
Tuesday, stressing that her priority
was a negotiated agreement.
However, she has outlined
plans to table legislation which
would override key parts of the
Brexit Northern Ireland deal
within weeks.
ty ward.
Wednesday's tragedy also
follows a national outcry over the
death of a woman in labour, Astou
Sokhna, who died while reportedly
begging for a Caesarean during
her 20-hour labour ordeal. Her
unborn child also died.
and during her eight-and-a half
months in solitary confinement.
"The UK's actions would have
appeared to Iran as the UK agreeing
to play by its rules.
"This emboldens Iran to continue
its abuse in other cases."
Tulip Siddiq, MP for Hampstead
and Kilburn who campaigned
for her constituent's
release, said: "It was only when
a UK official told her that she
had to sign it if she was going to
board the plane that was waiting
to take her home, that she finally
caved and gave Iran what they
wanted.
"Nazanin returned home but
the toll this took on my constituent
after six years of detention is
unimaginable and unacceptable
and I do not accept what the
minister is saying, that no-one
forced her."
She also asked whether the
prime minister or foreign secretary
authorised UK officials to
advise Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe to
sign the false confession.