16 ***^ Wednesday 24 July 2019 The Daily Telegraph
Hong Kong metro gang attack was planned, says politician victim
By Nicola Smith
and Wendy Tang in Beijing
A VICIOUS attack on pro-democracy
protesters by suspected triad gangsters
on Sunday night in a Hong Kong metro
station was premeditated, a politician
hurt in the incident has claimed.
Lam Cheuk Ting, a Democratic Party
politician, was cornered by thugs who
used sticks to break his hand and inflict
a facial gash that required 18 stitches as
he tried to defend terrified commuters
in Yuen Long station.
His claims will add pressure on Hong
Kong’s police force, already under fire
from a public shocked by the violence
and angered by the authorities’ slowresponse. Mr Lam told The Daily
Telegraph that anonymous internet
warnings appeared “two or three days
before the attack” that said it would be
“dangerous if anyone has a black shirt
and if they go to Yuen Long”. Black is
the colour widely worn at Hong Kong’s
recent mass protests.
Early that night, people leaving thestation spotted hundreds of gangsters
wearing white shirts and tried to call
the police. “The police hotline was
disconnected,” said Mr Lam.
He had been monitoring social me-
dia for developments. Shortly before
10pm, a video emerged of a young man
under attack and Mr Lam rushed to the
scene. “When I arrived, I was told alady was injured because the gangsters
used a baton to hit her head. There was
so much blood on the floor,” he said.
The crowd tried to shelter inside but
about 100 assailants smashed through
the entrance and chased them on to a
train, attacking everyone in sight.
Yesterday, a video emerged of the
moment a woman who appeared to bepregnant was knocked unconscious
and a female journalist recording
events was pummelled to the ground.
Police said it received 24,000 calls in
just three hours, RTHK reported, while
seven men have now been arrested and
blamed deployment delays on the force
being overstretched. They strongly
denounced accusations of collusion.AFP/GETTY IMAGESOnly a long-term funding plan
can replenish our weakened Navy
I
t’s in the nature of defence that you
mostly don’t notice it. In the last 10
days, defence has become visible
again. HMS Montrose has
accompanied more than 30 vessels in
the Strait of Hormuz with one major
intervention to protect the ship British
Heritage. Had she been given longer
notice of the Stena Impero’s transit, it
may have been 31 ships she would
have seen safely through. While
cooperation with merchant shipping is
the critical factor in keeping those sea
lanes open, the greater the number of
hulls you have, the greater options and
flexibility you have. Our ships and
their crews are very capable but they
can’t be in two places at once. Ourdefence capabilities are critical to our
interests and must be properly funded.
Our quality of life and our way of
life is dependent on the Royal Navy
and the other Armed Forces. So, what
should an incoming prime minister do
to ensure that we have the forces we
need? How much should we spend?
People focus on the 2 per cent Nato
commitment, which Britain meets.
Politicians rightly encourage other
nations to match it. But 2, 2.5 or 3 per
cent is not the issue. We need clarity
about the capabilities we need and
that’s why we have defence reviews.
Yet we fail to deliver on them.
In the last 22 years, if we had built
all the ships we said we would need,
we would have at least 32 new destroy-
ers and frigates. We’ve mothballed
them for lack of crew, spares or funds.
We spend heavily on costly design and
innovation, then only build a handful.
We run our old vessels into the ground
and delay new ones to run up massive
long-term costs. All because we’renot measuring over the longer-term.
This must stop. We need to commit
to a 10-year balance sheet. This will
allow the enormous benefit of defence
spending to be seen in the fields of
education, industry, science, training
and infrastructure. We must do more
to maximise the full value of defence.
I want to create a virtuous circle
where long order books and a steady
drumbeat in our construction yards
strengthens our supply chain and
bring down long-term costs, a closer
partnership with industry. Which is
why I have asked the MoD to develop
its industrial policy and asked the
Department for Exiting the EU to
ensure, once we leave, that we have
the choice where we build not just our
warships but support ships, too.
If the Royal Navy and wider defence
is to deliver on the ambitions of our
country, then we must tackle the
inadequate funding and political
thinking that undermines the best
Armed Forces in the world.Australian military
to stem China’s
influence in Pacific
By Our Foreign StaffAUSTRALIA will create a new military
unit dedicated to training and assisting
Pacific allies, as Canberra accelerates
plans to undercut Chinese influence in
the region.
Australia, which long enjoyed
virtually unchecked influence in the
Pacific, and its Western allies worry
that the region has edged closer
to China in recent years as Beijing
increases aid to the sparsely populated
region and its resource-rich oceans.
Australia has channelled ever larger
amounts of aid to the region to counter
China’s growing presence, but Linda
Reynolds, the defence minister, said
yesterday that Canberra would include
stronger military ties.
“The Pacific Support Force will em-
ploy a mobile training team approach
to strengthen capacity, resilience and
interoperability throughout the region
in areas such as security operations,
humanitarian assistance, disaster relief
and peacekeeping,” she said.
The announcement came during
a visit by James Marape, the prime
minister of Papua New Guinea, with
leaders wanting to foster closer ties.Dozens killed as Russia and
Assad intensify air assault
By Raf Sanchez
Middle east correspondentDOZENS of civilians, including at least
five children, have been killed in recent
days as Russia and the Assad regime
stepped up their assault on the
rebel-held province of Idlib.
At least 59 civilians were killed in
strikes on Monday, according to the
UN, in one of the most intensive days of
bombardment since the regime
offensive began three months ago.
The bloodiest air strikes fell on the
market town of Maaret al-Numan,
where around 40 people died,
including eight women and five
children, the UN said. The explosions
tore through vegetable stalls and
buried civilians in rubble.
“The nightmare in Idlib is getting
worse,” said Mark Cutts, the UN deputy
humanitarian coordinator for Syria.
“Many of the victims were women
and children, some of them suffering
the most horrific injuries.”
The air strike on Maaret al-Numan
was carried out by a Russian warplane,
according to the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights.
Moscow denied responsibility, say-ing its aircraft were “not carrying out
any missions in this part of Syria”. As-
sad regime forces, backed by Shia mili-
tias and Russian air power, have been
fighting since April to seize control of
Idlib, the last Syrian province still in re-
bel hands.
Syrian troops have made relatively
little progress against rebel fighters,
who are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,
the al-Qaeda linked jihadist group.
Around three million civilians have
sought shelter in Idlib, many after
fleeing from other parts of Syria.
The UN has warned of a major hu-
manitarian catastrophe if Assad’s
troops launch an all-out assault on the
province.
Meanwhile, at least six people were
injured in southern Turkey by a rocket
fired from Syria. The Turkish defence
ministry said it was fired from Kurdish-
controlled territory in north-east Syria
and said Turkey struck seven targets in
the area in retaliation.
Western-backed Kurdish forces,
known as the People’s Protection Units,
control parts of north-east Syria.
Turkey considers them to be part of
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
terrorist group.World news
We don’t want
conflict over
tanker, Iran
tells Johnson
By Josie Ensor
Middle east correspondent
IRAN said yesterday it was not seeking
confrontation with Britain amid a row
over seized tanker ships but was pre-
pared to defend itself, in a message di-
rected at Boris Johnson.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s for-
eign minister, congratulated Mr John-
son on becoming prime minister at the
same time as warning him that his
country would do what it needed to
protect itself from aggression in the
Strait of Hormuz.
“It is very important for Boris John-
son as he enters 10 Downing Street to
understand that Iran does not seek
confrontation. But we have 1,500 miles
of Persian Gulf coastline. These are our
waters and we will protect them,” Mr
Zarif wrote on Twitter.
Britain has demanded that Iran re-
lease UK-flagged tanker Stena Impero
seized in the Gulf on Friday, which
came two weeks after Royal Marines
impounded an Iranian tanker off
Gibraltar on suspicion of it breaching
sanctions against Syria.
Iran’s top diplomat claimed the move
by Britain to detain the Grace 1 super-
tanker was orchestrated by Donald
Trump, who has taken a hard line on
Tehran since taking office.
“It was clear from the very begin-
ning that the UK was doing the bidding
for the Trump administration,” Mr Za-
rif said. “What the Brits did and what
the Gibraltar authorities did in the
Strait of Gibraltar was a violation of
international law. It was piracy.”
But Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secre-
tary, indicated on Monday that the UK
was spurning the US’s maximum-pres-
sure approach by rejecting an invita-
tion to join a US-led naval protection
force in the Gulf in favour of a Euro-
pean-led one.
Eshaq Jahangiri, Iran’s vice-presi-
dent, said yesterday the creation of
such a force would be provocative.
“There is no need to form a coalition
because these kinds of coalitions and
the presence of foreigners in the region
by itself creates insecurity,” he said.
It was not clear how quickly the mis-
sion could be established or how many
assets the UK could commit. The Gov-
ernment has already dispatched HMS
Duncan, a Type-45 destroyer, to take
over from HMS Montrose, due to arrive
in the Gulf next week. France, Italy, the
Netherlands and Denmark support a
European-led naval mission to ensure
safe shipping through the strait, three
senior EU diplomats told Reuters yes-
terday. Spain, Sweden, Poland and Ger-
many also showed interest.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph,
Penny Mordaunt, the Defence Secre-
tary, says the latest incident shows the
need to commit more money and re-
sources into building up the Navy.
Tehran also said the seizure of the
Stena marked the “end to British rule in
seas” and made a sinister promise to
monitor all Western ships passingthrough the strait. The head of Iran’s
navy said yesterday that Iran was
closely observing “all enemy ships” go-
ing through the Gulf using drones.
“We have complete images and a
large archive of the daily and moment-
by-moment movements,” Rear Admiral
Hossein Khanzadi said.
In a video posted along with yester-
day’s tweet, Mr Zarif warned Britain
against engaging “in implementing theploys of the B team”. Mr Zarif uses
“B team” to refer to John Bolton, the US
national security adviser, Benjamin
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister,
and Saudi and Abu Dhabi crown
princes Mohammed bin Salman and
Mohammed bin Zayed, who want to
the see the 2015 nuclear deal fail.
“We are responsible for the security
and the freedom of navigation in the
Persian Gulf, that is our lifeline,” hewrote on Twitter. “The B team is losing
ground in the US and now they are
turning their attention to the UK. I
guess the same policies that failed in
the US will fail the UK.”
Iran will this week meet countries
still party to the troubled nuclear agree-
ment, which Mr Trump walked away
from last year. The July 28 meeting is
aimed at salvaging the hard-won deal,
on life-support since the US withdrew.New PM congratulated by
Tehran’s foreign minister
at same time as he warns
‘we will protect our waters’
‘What the
Brits did...
was a
violation ofinternational
law. It was
piracy’Iranian TV
yesterday showed
images of armed
guards on the
seized tanker
Stena ImperaCommentary
By Penny MordauntРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS