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US Opens Investigation into Spain’s Reported Port Denials of Cargo Ships Carrying Arms to Israel

Israeli soldiers congregate on a hill close to the Gaza border in southern Israel, Thursday Dec. 5, 2024 (AP)
Israeli soldiers congregate on a hill close to the Gaza border in southern Israel, Thursday Dec. 5, 2024 (AP)
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US Opens Investigation into Spain’s Reported Port Denials of Cargo Ships Carrying Arms to Israel

Israeli soldiers congregate on a hill close to the Gaza border in southern Israel, Thursday Dec. 5, 2024 (AP)
Israeli soldiers congregate on a hill close to the Gaza border in southern Israel, Thursday Dec. 5, 2024 (AP)

The United States has opened an investigation into whether NATO ally Spain has been denying port entry to cargo vessels reportedly transporting US weapons to Israel.

The Federal Maritime Commission, an independent body charged with monitoring and evaluating conditions that may affect shipping and US international trade, said it had opened the probe after receiving information that Spain had refused to allow at least three cargo vessels into its ports.

“The commission is concerned that this apparent policy of denying entry to certain vessels will create conditions unfavorable to shipping in the foreign trade,” it said Thursday in a notice published in the Federal Register.

If the investigation determines that Spain has interfered with such commerce, the commission could levy millions of dollars in fines, up to $2.3 million per voyage, it said.

The notice said the commission had been informed on Nov. 19 that Spain was denying port entry to ships, including those enrolled in the US-run Maritime Security Program, which is supposed to afford vessels and their owners protection against “restrictive and discriminatory” licensing because their services are often used by the US military.

Two of the three incidents noted by the commission involved vessels run by the Danish shipping giant Maersk in November. The other occurred in May.

Spanish authorities did not immediately comment on the November incidents. But in May, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the foreign ministry had denied a request to dock by the Danish-flagged ship Marianne Danica, saying it “was carrying weapons to Israel.”

A day later, on May 17, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spain’s state broadcaster RTVE that this was the first ship carrying arms to Israel that had been denied entry.

“We are not going to contribute to any more arms reaching the Middle East,” he said. “The Middle East needs peace. That is why that this first denial of authorization will start a policy for any boat carrying arms to Israel that wants to dock at a Spanish port.”

The refusal to allow the Marianne Danica to dock at the Mediterranean port of Cartegena came just days before Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, recognized a Palestinian state on May 28.

Spain stopped its own defense companies from shipping arms to Israel in October 2023.

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Mayotte Faces Environment, Biodiversity Crisis after Cyclone

This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Mayotte Faces Environment, Biodiversity Crisis after Cyclone

This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
This photograph shows a truck unloading a garbage in a waste disposal site in the city of Tsountsou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 26, 2024. (AFP)

Mayotte has changed beyond recognition since a cyclone devastated the Indian Ocean territory, sparking an environment and biodiversity crisis that could last for a decade or more, scientists say.

After barreling into the archipelago at 200 kilometers per hour (125 mph), Cyclone Chido left behind scenes of desolation: Trees mowed down as far as the eye can see, sturdy tree trunks blown apart as if struck by mortars, the previous green of the foliage replaced by a sad brown.

"It's an environmental disaster," said Raima Fadul, a biologist. "There are no more trees. Those still standing have lost their tops... The cyclone flattened the vegetation."

A gigantic baobab over 300 years old collapsed onto a restaurant. Part of the mangrove is now completely bare and black. A three-meter (10-feet) earth mound looms where an acacia tree, half a century old, was uprooted by the violent storm.

One effect of the vegetation's sudden disappearance is that Mayotte's slums, formerly hidden by lush greenery, are now starkly apparent, making visible their number, and their sprawl.

- 'We never realized' -

"All we saw before were mango trees, coconut trees and a forest," said Rouchdat Mourchidi, an education counselor checking on what remains of a family plot on the island's heights. "We never realized there were metal shacks there because they were hidden in vegetation."

Trees have always played the crucial role of channeling rain and slowing down potential floods. Now that they are gone, any torrential downpour will wash soil into the lagoon below, covering the seabed in mud.

As a result, part of the lagoon's coral reef will be killed off, said Fadul, leading to the loss of some of the 300 species of fish, corals, vertebrates and mollusks present in the reef's ecosystem.

On land, wildlife is already suffering from the loss of forest cover. Small dark lemurs called makis are now being spotted increasingly in urban areas where they come in search of food, and where they will probably die.

Bats, pollinators with an important role to play in future reforestation, are also becoming rarer after losing their nesting spots in trees.

There are also grave concerns for lizards, insects and flowering plants that used to proliferate on Mayotte.

- 'In 10 years' time' -

One ray of hope is that Mayotte's tropical climate will help accelerate future tree growth, said Benoit Loussier, regional director of the National Forestry Office.

"In 10 years' time, plantations may have restored a forest cover" of eight meters (26 feet) high, he said.

But this can happen only if the population resists the obvious temptation to convert destroyed forest zones into farmland.

This illegal activity was already in evidence before the cyclone, notably due to desperately poor illegal immigrants practicing subsistence farming.

In 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated that 6.7 percent of Mayotte's woodland had been cleared between 2011 and 2016, a deforestation proportion comparable to that seen in Argentina or Indonesia.

The risk of illicit replanting is all the more acute as crops were also destroyed by Cyclone Chido.

Another looming risk is "subsistence poaching" of turtles, warned Lamya Essemlali at Sea Shepherd, a wildlife preservation NGO, as Mayotte's poorest go hungry while food aid is still slow to arrive.

Officially Mayotte has 320,000 inhabitants -- with unregistered undocumented migrants probably adding another 100,000 -- packed into a territory of 374 square kilometers (144 square miles), resulting in a population density eight times that of mainland France.

The median income in Mayotte is 260 euros ($271) a month, according to the national statistics institute Insee, six times less than in mainland France.