The Boston Globe - 20.09.2019

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 The Boston Globe A

The World

MANILA — The Philip-
pines on Thursday announced
an outbreak of polio, 19 years
after the World Health Organi-
zation declared the Southeast
Asian country free of the infec-
tious disease.
Health Secretary Francisco
Duque said government scien-
tists have confirmed the “re-
emergence of polio” after one
case in the southern province
of Lanao del Sur and another
suspected case of the disease.
He blamed “poor immuniza-
tion coverage,” a lack of sanita-
tion and proper hygiene, and
poor surveillance by health
workers as among the reasons
the disease returned.
Polio is an infectious dis-

ease that can spread rapidly

and mainly affects children. It

can cause muscle weakness

and paralysis, and on rare oc-

casions it can be fatal. There is

no cure for polio, but it can be

prevented with multiple doses

of polio vaccines.

Despite aggressive eradica-

tion efforts around the world,

the disease has hung on in a

handful of countries.

Duque said on Thursday

that the case in Lanao del Sur

involved a 3-year-old girl.

Apart from that confirmed

case, a case of “acute flaccid

paralysis” thought to also be

polio was awaiting confirma-

tion, he said.

NEW YORK TIMES

Philippinesreportpoliooutbreak

BEIJING — China’s foreign

ministry on Thursday accused

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of

making irresponsible remarks

about prodemocracy protests

in Hong Kong, one day after

she welcomed activists from

the city to the US Capitol.

Spokesman Geng Shuang

said Pelosi and other Ameri-

can lawmakers had confused

right and wrong by engaging

with what he termed Hong

Kong separatists.

‘‘We urge the US to stop

bolstering radical violent forc-

es in Hong Kong that advocate

Hong Kong independence,

and stop intensifying words

and actions that undermine

the prosperity and stability of

Hong Kong,’’ he said.

Hong Kong leader Carrie

Lam had announced earlier

that the government would

create a platform for dialogue

in a bid to end the protests de-

manding democracy that have

riven Hong Kong all summer.

Pelosi was joined by Repub-

lican lawmakers at a news con-

ference Wednesday with de-

mocracy activists including

Joshua Wong and pop singer

Denise Ho.

She sided with their de-

mand for fully democratic

elections and thanked them

for ‘‘challenging the con-

science’’ of the Chinese govern-

ment and the world.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ChinarapsPelosiforHongKongcomments

JAKARTA — Indonesian
police said Thursday they
have arrested 230 people sus-
pected of starting some of the
fires that are spreading
health-damaging haze across
a large part of Southeast Asia.
Among those arrested are
three men who were caught
Monday while trying to clear

land to plant crops in Tesso

Nilo National Park, which is

home to about 140 endan-

gered wild elephants, said De-

di Prasetyo, the national po-

lice spokesman.

Those arrested could be

prosecuted under an environ-

mental protection law that

provides for a maximum 10-

year prison sentence for set-

ting fires to clear land.

Indonesia’s fires are an an-

nual problem that strains rela-

tions with neighboring coun-

tries. The smoke from the

fires has blanketed parts of In-

donesia, Singapore, Malaysia,

and Thailand in a noxious

haze.

Poor visibility caused by

smoke has caused delays of

flights at several airports in

Indonesia and Malaysia and

prompted authorities to shut

thousands of schools in some

parts of the two countries, af-

fecting more than 1.5 million

students in Malaysia alone.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Indonesianpolicearresthundredsofpeopleaccusedofsettingforestfires

Daily Briefing

By Paul Schemm
and Louisa Loveluck
WASHINGTON POST
DUBAI, United Arab Emir-
ates — Iran warned Thursday
that military action by the Unit-
ed States or Saudi Arabia would
result in ‘‘all-out war,’’ as the
Trump administration weighs
its response after blaming Iran
for crippling strikes on the
kingdom’s oil infrastructure.
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo condemned the re-
marks, insisting that the United
States and its allies were seek-
ing a peaceful resolution, while
increasing pressure on Iran to
curtail its activities.
In an interview with CNN,
Iranian Foreign Minister Mo-
hammad Javad Zarif denied
that Tehran was involved in the
attacks and warned that retalia-
tory strikes risked causing sig-
nificant bloodshed on Iranian
soil.
‘‘I am making a very serious
statement that we don’t want to
engage in a military confronta-
tion,’’ Zarif said. ‘‘But we won’t
blink to defend our territory.’’
After a two-hour discussion

with Crown Prince Mohammed

binZayedofAbuDhabi,

Pompeo said the whole region

knows that Iran was behind the

attacks on Saudi Arabia.

‘‘I think it’s abundantly

clear, and there is enormous

consensus in the region, that

we know precisely who con-

ducted these attacks, and it’s

Iran,’’ Pompeo told reporters.

On Wednesday, he met with

Saudi Crown Prince Moham-

med bin Salman.

‘‘While the foreign minister

of Iran is threatening an all-out

war and to fight to the last

American, we are here to build

out a coalition aimed at achiev-

ing peace and peaceful resolu-

tion,’’ Pompeo added.

Regional tensions began es-

calating in May 2018, when

President Trump pulled out of a

landmark nuclear agreement

between Iran and six world

powers, including the United

States.

In recent months, those hos-

tilities have spilled into open vi-

olence. The Trump administra-

tion accuses Iran of using proxy

forces to target Washington’s al-

lies where they are most vulner-

able: focusing on Saudi Arabia’s

energy infrastructure and

Western-linked ships transiting

the Persian Gulf and neighbor-

ing waters.

The attacks on Saudi Ara-

bia’s Abqaiq and Khurais oil fa-

cilities initially cut the king-

dom’s production in half and

caused a spike in global oil pric-

es.

Both Washington and Ri-

yadh have presented physical

evidence and other details that

they said bolstered their asser-

tions of direct Iranian culpabili-

ty.

But as tensions simmer,

Trump himself has sent mixed

signals over Washington’s will-

ingness to respond with force.

‘‘There are many options.

There’s the ultimate option,

and there are options a lot less

than that,’’ the president told

reporters in Los Angeles, while

announcing a move to increase

sanctions on Iran.

Speaking to reporters at the

Pentagon on Thursday, Defense

Department spokesman Jona-

than Hoffman said Iran was ‘‘in

some way responsible’’ for Sat-

urday’s attacks but stopped

short of asserting that the

drones and missiles that offi-

cials have said were involved in

the attack had been launched

directly from Iran. ‘‘Regardless

of whether this was a proxy or a

direct attack, this has been a

dramatic escalation from what

we’ve seen in the past,’’ he said.

Hoffman declined to say

what actions the United States

mighttakebutsaidtheTrump

administration wanted to get

‘‘back on the diplomatic path.’’

‘‘Our goal is to deter conflict in

the Middle East,’’ he said.

Military leaders are expect-

ed to join Cabinet officials on

Friday as they present Trump

with options for responding to

the strikes.

Pompeo, in his remarks

Thursday, said more sanctions

are needed to stop Iran.

‘‘We have set about a course

of action to deny Iran the ca-

pacity and wealth to prevent

them from conducting their

terror campaigns, and you can

see from the events of last week

there is still more work to do,’’

he said.

In a news conference

Wednesday, a spokesman for

the Saudi military, Colonel Tur-

ki al-Malki, said Saturday’s at-

tack on the Abqaiq oil process-

ing plant in eastern Saudi Ara-

bia had involved 18 unmanned

aerial vehicles. Seven cruise

missiles, he added, were fired at

a facility in Khurais, the site of

one of the kingdom’s largest oil

fields.

These strikes were, he said,

‘‘unquestionably sponsored by

Iran.’’

Saudi officials have not de-

termined the location from

where the weapons were

launched, though al-Malki de-

clared, ‘‘This attack did not

originate from Yemen, despite

Iran’s best effort to make it ap-

pear so.”

In Iran, officials have de-

scribed the growing hostility as

a direct response to US sanc-

tions, which are crippling Iran’s

economy. Zarif said sanctions

relief ‘‘could change Tehran’s

calculations, opening the possi-

bility for talks.’’

Iranwarnsof‘all-outwar’ifattackedbyUS

Washington weighs retaliation for Saudi oil strikes

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/NEW YORK TIMES

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an

interview that Tehran “won’t blink to defend our territory.”

By Isabel Kershner

NEW YORK TIMES

JERUSALEM — Seizing the

initiative in Israel’s postelec-

tion political gridlock, Prime

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

on Thursday called on his

main rival, Benny Gantz, to

meet immediately to discuss

forming a government of na-

tional unity together.

Gantz responded at a meet-

ing of his Blue and White party

that the people had voted for

unity and that he was ready to

negotiate for a unity govern-

ment — but one under his

leadership.

“We will not give in to any

dictate,” he said. “I will con-

duct the negotiations responsi-

bly and judiciously.”

“There will be no short-

cuts,” he said.

Netanyahu, facing a loom-

ing indictment in three corrup-

tion cases, is fighting for his

political survival and, poten-

tially, his freedom. His only

chance of gaining immunity

from prosecution would be to

remain in the top office,

though neither he nor Gantz

emerged from Tuesday’s elec-

tion with a clear path to the

premiership.

Gantz had already called for

a unity government, but for

Netanyahu, time is of the es-

sence. He has a special hearing

with the attorney general set

for Oct. 2, and charges could

be filed soon after.

Tuesday’s redo election was

Israel’s second in five months,

after an April ballot also ended

inconclusively.

“I call on you, Benny, let’s

meet today, at any hour, at any

time, to set in motion this pro-

cess,” Netanyahu said in a vid-

eo message, calling it a matter

of utmost urgency.

The centrist Blue and White

party came out of the election

with a slight edge over Netan-

yahu’s conservative Likud. As

the final votes were being tal-

lied, Blue and White was pro-

jected to have won 33 seats to

Likud’s 31.

Together, they would have a

slim majority of 64 in the 120-

seat Parliament. Neither has

enough support from other

parties to build a viable coali-

tion on its own without defec-

tions from parties across the

lines. The center-left bloc of

parties appears to have won 57

seats, to 55 for the right-wing

and religious parties.

Now Netanyahu, a brutal

political warrior who had vili-

fied his opponents during the

campaign as soft leftists, is

loudly staking a claim to be the

bridge-builder.

Yair Lapid, the second-

rankingleaderofBlueand

White, dismissed Netanyahu’s

call as mere political spin. “Ne-

tanyahu is trying to drag the

country to a third election,”

Lapid said. “He’s simply un-

willing to accept the results of

the election.”

On Thursday afternoon,

hours after his initial call for

unity, Netanyahu made a pre-

emptive effort to blame Gantz

for any deadlock, issuing a

statement saying he was “dis-

appointed that at this time

Benny Gantz still refuses to re-

spond to my call to meet.”

Analysts had predicted that

the prime minister would en-

gage in postelection maneu-

vering designed to confound

his political opponents, and

some Blue and White mem-

bers warned that his appeal for

a broad coalition was a bluff,

designed to set Gantz up for

failure.

“Netanyahu can place con-

ditions that Gantz cannot

meet,” said Abraham Diskin,

an Israeli professor of political

science. The negotiating teams

of both Netanyahu and Gantz

were “very shrewd,” he added.

The secular, ultranational-

ist Yisrael Beiteinu party led by

Avigdor Liberman, a former

Netanyahu ally turned neme-

sis, has refused to join either

bloc this time and holds the

balance, having won at least

eight seats. Liberman has said

he would support only a broad,

secular unity government, ex-

cluding ultra-Orthodox and

right-wing extremist parties.

President Reuven Rivlin,

who has the power to appoint

a candidate to try to assemble

a governing coalition, said he

would begin consulting with

representatives of all the par-

ties on Sunday. The consulta-

tions usually last a couple of

days and Rivlin can take a few

more days to make a decision.

The leader of the party with

the most votes usually gets the

first crack at assembling a gov-

ernment, but it can also go to

whoever is thought to have the

best chance of forming a coali-

tion with a majority of 61. The

appointee gets 28 days to form

a government, though a two-

week extension is possible.

Forming a unity govern-

ment would be like putting to-

gether a puzzle with pieces

that don’t quite fit. The two

main rivals are both on record

supporting such a coalition,

but on conflicting terms.

Netanyahu,Gantz

agreeonunity,but

notwhatitmeans

No clear path

seen toward

Israel coalition

PETER DEJONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tom Rice, a 98-year-old American

WWII veteran, participated in a

tandem parachute jump near

Groesbeek, Netherlands, Thursday

as part of ceremonies marking the

75th anniversary of Operation

Market Garden. Rice jumped with

the 101st Airborne Division in

Normandy, landing safely despite

catching himself on the exit.

75YEARSLATER,

RE-DEPLOYING

VINCENT JANNINK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES