The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, had set a deadline of Sunday for Niger’s military to give up power and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who was detained on July 26, or face the possibility of military intervention.

With the deadline passing, the military in Niger has closed the skies to air traffic citing the threat of a military attack and warning ECOWAS to stay away from its territory, declaring that “we are determined to protect our homeland against any incursion.”

The military added that any armed intervention would be met with “an immediate and unannounced response by Niger’s defense and security forces.”

While the 15-member West African union has not publicly responded to the rejection of its ultimatum, the bloc is now set to hold another meeting on Thursday to mull its next line of action.

Many have questioned whether the seven-day deadline was even a viable option for military intervention in the first place, citing a lack of preparedness among ECOWAS states and the requirements of parliamentary approval before the use of force.

The possibility of military intervention will reportedly be discussed on Thursday, but ECOWAS, like its previous summit’s statement, has repeated that it is a last resort.

A segment of the statement issued in the previous “extraordinary session of the ECOWAS authority of heads of states and government on the political situation in Niger” on July 30 in Abuja, Nigeria, on resolving the unrest in Niger, stated that “in the event the Authority’s demands are not met within one week, take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger.”

The statement goes on to say that “such measures may include the use of force.”

Critics accuse the United States and France of exerting pressure on ECOWAS to reinstate Niger’s pro-Western President Mohamed Bazoum.

Publicly, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told reporters that Washington strongly backs the efforts of ECOWAS toward Niger.

“What we are seeing in Niger is extremely troubling and provides nothing to the country and its people,” Blinken told Radio France International on Monday.
He has declined to comment on the future of some 1,100 American troops stationed in the country.

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the future of Niger and the stability of the entire region are at stake.”

Both Paris and Washington have a strong interest in having Bazoum return to his post.

After all, he was a key ally who allowed France, the former colonial power, and the U.S. to keep their military bases and troops in a country that is the world’s seventh-biggest producer of uranium, the most widely used fuel for nuclear energy.

But there doesn’t appear to be any appetite in Niger for the United States’ or France’s position, who stand accused of destabilizing the country while looting its natural resources.

On Monday, a top American diplomat was snubbed after making an emergency flight to the capital Niamey.

Acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was denied permission to meet with the military’s self-declared leader Abdourahamane Tiani or with Bazoum, who is under house arrest.

Instead, she held talks for two hours with other army officers; but any progress on Washington’s goals in Niger hit a brick wall, with Nuland later saying It was “not easy to get traction there”.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Nuland said, “These conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult, because, again, we’re pushing for a negotiated solution. It was not easy to get traction there. They are quite firm in their view of how they want to proceed, and it does not comport with the Constitution of Niger.”

The 1,100 U.S. troops in Niger, who had previously been free to roam about as they wished, have now been restricted to their military bases and the American embassy over the past two weeks where events have been moving very fluidly.

The U.S. has two military bases in Niger.

One is Nigerien Air Base 201 in the central city of Agadez, from where the Pentagon flies drones to allegedly fight extremist militants. France had also used the base for military activities and stationed 1,500 troops there.

Air Base 201, whose future is now up in the air, is the second-largest U.S. military base in Africa.

After the Nigerian military intervention against President Bazoum, locals have been cited by news outlets as saying that they only saw drones flying off, without any security improvement on the ground.

The second is Air Base 101 located in the capital Niamey, another American military site used to fly drones for the purported purpose of combating extremist militants in Niger as well as threats in both the Sahel and Lake Chad Region.

Again, locals say they have witnessed no security improvements. Studies suggest the opposite effect has occurred with a rise in instability.

After Niger closed the country’s airspace, the drones and other warplanes were grounded.

Supporters of the military in Niger have staged a series of demonstrations around the country with footage showing people waving Russian flags.

Among the latest rallies, tens of thousands packed a stadium holding banners in support of the military. Many were seen holding French flags with a red cross, in a sign of their anger toward the former colonial power.

Reports also indicate that people in the region prefer a peaceful and diplomatic resolution to the crisis.

This is particularly evident among lawmakers in states along the more than 1,500km long border with Niger, who fear a conflict will, more than likely, spill over into their borders.

The United Nations said Secretary General Antonio Guterres strongly supports mediation efforts.

Meanwhile, the armies of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have announced their intention to defend Niger should it come under attack.

Both Mali and Burkina Faso had previously warned that any foreign intervention in Niger would be considered as a “declaration of war” against them.

On Monday, Mali and Burkina Faso sent delegations to Niamey in a show of unity with the leaders of Niger’s military amid threats to intervene against them.

“We will not accept military intervention in Niger. Our survival depends on it,” a spokesman for Mali’s military said on Niger state television.

There are unintended consequences of resorting to military force to achieve political objectives. Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan stand out as some examples.

With no post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation planning in place, it could potentially turn into one ugly long-term mess that just continues to spiral, not just out of control but also out of borders.

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The demonstration reflects similar rallies being held across Europe in opposition to their respective government’s support for the war in Ukraine. The constant supply of arms by mainly NATO members has prolonged the conflict in Eastern Europe, leading to the suffering of civilians caught up in the cross fire.

When Russia expressed legitimate concerns about the NATO military’s eastward expansion toward its border, it opened the door to discussion, negotiation and proposals on security guarantees. However, these were ignored which many critics said, at the time, will lead to a military confrontation that will hurt ordinary Europeans. In this case, Ukrainian civilians are suffering from the human cost and ordinary civilians are falling into poverty.

Russia’s sense of insecurity in the face of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization seemed quite genuine, but critics say the media coverage has dismissed Moscow’s initial concerns.

Opposition to NATO has been strong in Europe. The military alliance’s summits are always met with anti-war demonstrations. In June this year, protesters marched during an anti-NATO rally ahead of the summit that was held in Madrid. The organizers said the American-led military alliance is not the solution to the war in Ukraine. U.S. arms manufacturers have made lucrative profits from the war.

Last month, an estimated 70,000 people protested in Prague against the Czech government, calling on the ruling coalition to do more to control soaring energy prices and voicing opposition to the European Union and NATO.

For many years, the Kremlin has made it clear that if NATO continued to mass troops and weapons on the Russian border, the expansion would likely be met with serious resistance by the Russians, even with military action. That view was not just limited to Russian officials. Even some prominent American foreign policy experts backing the same possible scenario. The current director of the CIA, William Burns, has been warning about the provocation and consequences of NATO’s expansion on Russia for more than 20 years now.

On the other hand, Europe’s decision to cave into American pressure and impose unprecedented sanctions on Moscow has heavily restricted the gas supplies to the continent which have instead pushed energy prices up, leaving many in poverty. Europe relied on 40% of Russian gas before the conflict erupted.

The shortage of energy on the continent and rising prices for the fuel has been met with angry voters bringing down governments at the polling stations.

A recent poll by Elabe reveals that support for anti-Russian sanctions is on the decline across France. The survey shows only 40% of the French population are in favor of the anti-Russian sanctions. The poll also reveals that 32% of French people think the anti-Russia sanctions must be restricted to diminish their effect on the livelihoods of the French people.

The opposition French Patriots party again called for the demonstrations after the initial protests that took place on September 3rd. The protesters want Macron to leave office and withdraw from both NATO and the European Union.

The French government, like others in Europe, is adopting or considering various emergency measures ahead of the winter, such as the possibility of three-hour power outages in the United Kingdom.

As inflation levels are biting, a group of French intellectuals, including Nobel literature prize winner Annie Ernaux, have urged people to join the protests being organized by the left for next week. They accuse President Macron of not doing enough to help the poor cope with high prices while the profits of some companies are spiking.

The group of 69 signatories, including writers, film directors and university teachers, said in a text published in the Journal Du Dimanche that “Emmanuel Macron is using inflation to widen the wealth gap, to boost capital income at the expense of the rest.”

“It is all a matter of political will,” said the text, co-signed by Ernaux, who on Thursday became the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The statement also said the government has not done enough to fight the skyrocketing energy prices and declined to raise taxes on companies making enormous profits as a result of high inflation.

The signatories have also urged the public to join the protest march planned for October 16, which is being organized by the political movement of the France Unbowed party, which this year struck an alliance with more moderate leftwing parties to form France’s largest opposition bloc.

Next week’s protest is being promoted as “against the high cost of living and climate inaction”. It comes as Macron faces stiff resistance from unions over a planned pensions reform and as strikes by workers demanding a pay rise from retail to refineries have disrupted parts of the economy.

There is more misery for the French government as a number of fuel service stations are grappling with supply problems amid strike action at refineries run by major oil companies TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil. The walkout by members of the national trade union center CGT mainly over pay has disrupted operations at refineries and storage facilities. The industrial action has forced the government to tap into the country’s strategic reserves.

Environment Minister Christophe Bechu earlier told French media the government will, for the time being, not be rationing petrol for drivers or restrict the use of service stations in response to supply problems. “We haven’t reached this point yet,” Bechu said when asked if the government would impose any national measures beyond the bans already in place in some regions on filling large flat-sided metal containers for storing or transporting petrol.

The strikes at the refineries of ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies will continue, union officials at both companies have said. “It is continuing everywhere,” a CGT representative said, adding that there had been no contact from TotalEnergies since Saturday’s call by the union for the company’s managers to begin talks on pay.

In some areas, the share of affected petrol stations is much higher than the national average. An interactive map compiled by the website mon-essence.fr, where more than 100,000 users have reported outages in recent days, shows a large majority of petrol stations in and around Paris were marked out of service.

Across France, long queues have been seen outside fuel stations. “The waiting line will take you at least one-and-a-half hours or two”, motorist Jean Galibert said as he entered the last stretch of a 700-metre tailback in front of a Paris service station. Another motorist, Franck Chang, said, “This situation right behind me reflects the state of France. We’re struggling.”

Reports say the strikes have reduced France’s total refinery output by more than 60% which will be seen as another blow to the French government. On Sunday, TotalEnergies claimed to have offered to bring forward wage talks, in response to union demands, as it strongly seeks to end the industrial action that has disrupted supplies to almost a third of French petrol stations.

Amid warnings that energy shortages and rising inflation are set to extend in coming winter, further protests and anger at governments’ economic policies across Europe are expected to expand.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had prioritized building ties with Europe, said he considered France “a vital partner” and saw no “regional divide” between Atlantic and Pacific allies.

Blinken told reporters “we want to find every opportunity now to deepen transatlantic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and around the world”

But the French hit back accusing U.S. President Joe Biden, in whom Paris placed high hopes, of being no different than his “America First” predecessor Donald Trump.

French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, says he is “very angry” over the loss of what he once called “the contract of the century,” which was worth 31 billion Euros, ($36.5 billion) when signed in 2016.

Le Drian told French media “this unilateral, sudden and unforeseeable decision very much recalls what Trump would do”. And on Australia, Le Drian says “It’s really a stab in the back. We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust has been betrayed.”

He also called the U.S. move a “huge breach of trust” at a time when France was working with Washington on coordinating Asia policy.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly says that Australia’s about-face demonstrated the growing need for Europeans to bolster their own “strategic autonomy.”
“In terms of geopolitics and international relations, it’s serious”.

Biden has unveiled a new three-way alliance among the United States, Australia, and Britain that features the submarines, a key asset Washington supposedly views will challenge China in the decades to come.

It is a setback for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, not just in financial terms but also to French diplomacy, which had worked for years to secure the partnership with Australia and strengthen its strategic presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

During a meeting in Washington with his Australian counterpart, Biden says that the U.S. has been in contact with France over “the last 24-48 hours” to discuss the row.

However, a French embassy spokesman, says the contact came only after news had begun to leak in the media.

The French embassy in Washington also says it was scaling back commemorations of France’s role in a decisive American Revolution naval battle, with a ceremony at the ambassador’s residence canceled.

The move by the U.S., UK and Australia in the Indo-Pacific underscores increasing concerns in France where Paris is also looking to protect its interests. These include the overseas territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia. France is the only European country with a presence in the region, with nearly 2 million French citizens and more than 7,000 troops.

Despite the French anger, the submarine contract has been proving increasingly contentious in Australia in part due to cost overruns. Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton says the country’s existing submarines would only provide an edge into the 2040s and that military chiefs recommended switching to nuclear-powered versions.

Dutton says “in the end the decision that we have made is based on what is in the best interest of our national security”, calling France’s offer “not superior” to the nuclear submarines operated by the United States and Britain.

Australia will become only the second nation after Britain to access U.S. nuclear technology for the submarines. Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier said that Australia would acquire long-range U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The Australian PM says the new alliance, announced after more than 18 months of discussions with the United States and Britain, will be permanent.

Australia has also come under intense diplomatic and commercial pressure from China, the key market for its agricultural and mineral exports, over its close alliance with the United States.

Morrison will travel next week to Washington for the first in-person four-way “Quad” summit with U.S., Japanese and Indian leaders.

Biden has identified the rise of China as the top U.S. challenge of the 21st century and reoriented U.S. foreign policy around it.

He unveiled the new Australia-U.S.-Britain defense alliance this week, as not just extending nuclear submarine technology to Australia, but also cooperation in cyber defense, applied artificial intelligence, and undersea capabilities.

Last month the American President withdrew the remaining troops from Afghanistan after 20 years, calling the war a distraction from the “bigger picture”.

China’s government described the U.S.-UK, Australian alliance as an “extremely irresponsible” threat to regional stability, questioning Australia’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and warning the Western allies that they risked “shooting themselves in the foot”.

China accused the U.S. of setting off an arms race. At the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, China’s envoy Wang Qun called the three-way to move a “sheer act of nuclear proliferation”.

The Chinese embassy in Australia has also rejected “unfounded accusations” against Beijing made by the Defense and Foreign ministers of Australia and their U.S. counterparts after annual talks in Washington.

The embassy dismissed allegations by the U.S. and Australia about China’s internal affairs as a futile pressure tactic saying “this petty move to put pressure on China will be of no avail but a staged farce”. The embassy added “we firmly oppose and reject the unfounded accusations and erroneous remarks against China on issues related to the South China Sea, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other China-related issues.”

Critics accuse the White House of spreading disinformation about China’s internal affairs. For example, Washington claims Beijing is mistreating Muslims in China’s Xinjiang eastern province. Whereas China has actually taken security measures to protect itself from any terrorist threats as many Chinese Uighurs had returned to Xinjiang from Iraq and Syria after the collapse of Daesh.

Critics say it is a classic example of double standards as Washington consistently focuses on Chinese Muslims, but stays silent on Muslims being terrorized elsewhere like in Palestine, Yemen, Kashmir, Nigeria, or even Muslim human rights violations among America’s ruling allies in West Asia.

Analysts say the issue revolves around China’s growing economic power, which is expected to overtake that of the United States and there are believed to be more Mosques in China’s Xinjiang province than the entire United States.

The reality is, Washington’s public concerns has nothing to do with Muslims.

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The remarks, part of a 127-page opinion, follow a one-year inquiry into new payment technologies and shine a light on the watchdog’s views in the field, marked by a proliferation of smartphone banking apps, such as Britain’s Revolut and Germany’s N26.

In its opinion, the French watchdog says that Apple, Google and Amazon’s payment services enjoy important competitive advantages thanks to the large number of users their platforms have attracted and the trove of data they’ve collected.

These allow them to better evaluate their users’ financial health and to adapt their offers, including by estimating the maximum price a customer is willing to pay for a product or a service.

“Near Field Communication” (NFC) technology, the most-used short-range wireless tool to make contactless payments, can also constitute an entry barrier for potential competitors, depending on access granted by smartphone makers or operating systems, the watchdog says.

Apple Pay is only available on iPhones and is the only tool able to use the NFC contactless technology on these smartphones, for instance.

The biggest tech firms also have such financial firepower, the watchdog says, that they can invest vast sums to better integrate payment tools into their systems, thus heightening the risk of locking in consumers into their platform.

Apple Pay has already attracted regulatory scrutiny from the European Commision, as part of an investigation launched last year.

EU antitrust regulators are looking into Apple’s requirement forcing app developers to sell to customers using its own in-app purchase system. They are also concerned that Apple Pay, launched in 2014, is the only mobile payment service allowed to use the “tap and go” functionality on iPhones.

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In comments on Wednesday evening, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi rejected the statements released by the US and France which have voiced concern about the launch of an Iranian satellite into space.

Faced with decades of cruel sanctions, the Islamic Republic of Iran has relied on its young space scientists and has gained reliable know-how in this field, the spokesman noted, stressing that such technology and capability is used for scientific purposes and for meeting the country’s demands in the space sphere.

“Such (space) capabilities have civilian nature and are by no means in violation of any of the international regulations in this area,” Qassemi noted, underscoring that such Iranian technology does not breach the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 or any other resolution.

“Every nation is entitled to use and enjoy such knowledge and technology, and the other countries have no right at all to deprive the other nations of enjoying the scientific technologies under any justification, reason, one-sided and incorrect motives, and by resorting to wrong interpretations,” he underlined.

Qassemi then described the Middle East as a crisis-hit region that has practically turned into a depot of arms due to the flow of billions of dollars in Western-made arms to the regional countries, denouncing the “shameful humanitarian catastrophes” caused by that the allies of the US and France in the region.

He concluded that such humanitarian crises are definitely more worrying than Iran’s local scientific activities.

“It is a great pity that in the contemporary world, the criteria of certain countries for worry and expression of concern are not humanitarian issues, but economic interests and the amount of revenue earned in the trade caused by the outbreak of wars in different parts of the world,” he deplored.

Denouncing the “groundless” concerns about Iran’s launch of satellite voiced by the foreign ministries of France and the US, Qassem said Iran sticks to a path that serves its “strategic long-term interests” and will never sacrifice its scientific growth for the bogus and fabricated concerns of the outsiders.

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The leaders of Turkey, Russia, Germany and France will meet in Istanbul on September 7, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters Sunday.

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Most French companies will find it impossible to continue doing business in Iran after US imposes its new sanctions to the country, said Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Tuesday.

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The group that is led by director and writer Zahra Sabri will give three performances at the Théâtre d’argile in Frouard, the first of which will take place today. The two other performances will be held on Friday, the organizers have announced.

Sabri has composed the play based on a work by Persian poet Omar Khayyam. It tells the story of three soldiers who decide to cease fighting in an unknown land. To express themselves, they begin making sculptures with mud.

The group’s next stop will be Belfort in northeastern France on Sunday. Le Théâtre de Marionnettes de Belfort will host the theatergoers for the performance.

Yase Tamam will leave Belfort for Auray in northwestern France to stage the play on March 21 during the Festival Méliscènes.

Fatemeh Abbasi will be collaborating on the project as assistant director. The music for the play has been composed Behran Abbaspur.

Mehdi Shahpiri, Reza Bahrami and Hossein Divandari are other members of the troupe.

“Count to One” has been performed at several international events, including the 16th International Festival of Puppets and Animated Forms in Lisbon in 2016 and at the 30th International Theatrical Festival Valise in Lomza, Poland in 2017.

The play brought Sabri the award for best director at the Polish festival.

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