Parliament Speaker News
PHOTO: AA.com
The Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Sentop, visited North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from May 25 to 27. In North Macedonia, he met with President Stevo Pendarovski and attended an iftar meal in International Balkan University in Skopje on Saturday. On Sunday, Speaker Sentop proceeded to Bosnia and Herzegovina and met with Speaker of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s House of Peoples, Bakir Izetbegovic in the capital Sarajevo.
PHOTO: MENAFN.
Jordan’s Acting Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, Nassar Qaisi, met with the Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives Fakhri Hamza and his accompanying delegation on May 27. During the meeting, Qaisi lauded the deep friendship ties between Jordan and Indonesia and expressed hope to strengthen them at all levels, especially in the parliamentary, economic, investment, tourism, and cultural domains. He also praised Indonesia’s role in supporting Arab issues, especially the Palestinian issue. Indonesian Deputy Speaker Hamza expressed his appreciation for Jordan’s role in the region, and said that mutual visits and meetings between the two friendly countries will bring closer the positions and views and many issues of common concern, especially the Palestinian cause and Jerusalem.
Parliament in Session: Central and Eastern Europe
PHOTO: Marko Djurica/Reuters.
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic addressed the Serbian Parliament on May 27 with the message that Serbia needs to accept that it has lost control over Kosovo, its former southern province, and it must seek a compromise to normalize ties. Majority-Albanian Kosovo declared independence in 2008, almost a decade after NATO air strikes wrested control of the territory away from Serbia and ending a brutal counter-insurgency by Serbian security forces. But Serbia, which under its constitution considers Kosovo an integral part of its territory, has been blocking Kosovo from membership of international institutions including Interpol and UNESCO. Earlier, Serbia and Kosovo agreed to an EU-sponsored dialogue in 2013 to resolve all outstanding issues between them, but talks broke down when Kosovo introduced a 100% tax on all goods imported from Serbia last November. President Vucic said that the government will ask for the people’s opinion of a possible compromise solution in a referendum. Most opposition parties boycotted the session in parliament.
PHOTO: Reuters.
On Monday, Austria’s Chancellor Sebstian Kurz lost a no-confidence vote in parliament, removing him and his cabinet from office over a corruption scandal that brought down his coalition government. The move comes just after Kurz celebrated a big win for his Conservative People’s Party (OeVP) in Sunday’s European elections, gaining about 35% of the vote and two extra European parliament seats. The no-confidence vote comes in a wake of the so-called “Ibiza-gate” scandal, which saw Freedom Party of Austria’s leader and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Stratche resign from both posts after he was caught appearing to offer public contracts in return for campaign contributions.
PHOTO: Volodymyr Petrov/Kyiv post.
Ukraine Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy said issue of the resignation of the government and prime minister will be considered on May 30 during its plenary session. According to the law, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is provided with 10 days to consider the issue of resignation. Ukraine’s PM Groysman who inaugurated on April 14, 2019, wrote a letter of resignation on May 20. Representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to the Verkhovna Rada, Vadymn Denysenko resigned too. Parubiy also said that unless President Volodymyr Zelensky provides his version of the amendment bill by May 29, the relevant parliament committees would consider the bills on impeachment and on the lifting of parliamentary immunity. The series of bills, which include rules guiding impeachment, amendment of electoral system on parliamentary elections, procurement system during the elections, and lifting of immunity for parliamentarians, have been proposed since President Zelensky took office.
Rising Tensions in the Middle East
PHOTO: Khalid Mohammed/AP Photo.
Iraq offered to mediate in the crisis between its two key allies, the United States and Iran, amid escalating tensions in the Middle East as Tehran’s nuclear deal steadily unravels. Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mohammed al-Hakim, made the offer on Sunday during a joint news conference in Baghdad with visiting Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and President Barham Salih to discuss bilateral ties and the regional situation.
PHOTO: Amiri Diwan/Kuwait Times.
Kuwaiti Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has received an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud to attend an urgent Gulf Cooperation Council summit scheduled for Thursday. The meeting is likely to discuss the sabotage of four ships, including two Saudi oil tankers, near the Strait of Hormuz last week. The Saudi King has called for two emergency summits in Mecca with Arab leaders to discuss recent “aggressions and their consequences” in the region. Qatar also received invitations to the emergency summit from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.
Sources:
https://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/top-stories/turkeys-parliament-speaker-to-go-to-n-macedonia-turkish-information/
https://menafn.com/1098575433/House-deputy-speaker-affirms-Jordan
https://www.trtworld.com/europe/austrian-chancellor-loses-no-confidence-showdown-27028
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-serbia-kosovo/accept-reality-serbia-does-not-control-kosovo-vucic-idUSKCN1SX1U2
https://www.unian.info/politics/10564278-ukraine-s-rada-to-consider-resignation-of-government-on-may-30-parliament-speaker-parubiy.html
https://112.international/politics/ukraines-parliament-to-consider-resignation-of-government-prime-minister-on-may-30-40107.html
https://112.international/ukraine-top-news/bill-on-impeachment-is-ready-to-be-reviewed-by-parliament-deputy-head-of-presidential-administration-39987.html
https://112.international/ukraine-top-news/zelensky-to-sign-impeachment-bill-if-document-is-of-proper-quality-official-40119.html
https://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/saudi-calls-for-urgent-arab-talks-over-iran-us-tensions/
https://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/qatar-invited-to-two-emergency-summits-letter-from-saudi-king/
http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/70903/Kuwaiti-Emir-receives-urgent-GCC-summit-invitation-from-Saudi-King
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/saudi-king-invites-qatar-emir-gcc-summit-mecca-190526203906436.html
By MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)
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