First squadron of Su-30MKI fighter jets inducted in South India, set to watch over Indian Ocean

India has supplied Thanjavur air base on its strategic southern coast with Su-30MKI air superiority fighter jets as part of an ongoing effort to boost the defenses of the Indian Ocean region.

On Monday, the jets were officially inducted at Thanjavur Air Force Station in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which is set to be home to the No. 222 Squadron, known as 'Tiger Sharks'.
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The squadron will have five to six planes, with the number expected to rise to 18 in the future, according to local media. The new aircraft are being equipped with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, which were jointly developed by India and Russia and have a range of 300km (186 miles).
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The Sukhoi-30 MKI was developed on the basis of Russia's Sukhoi-30 especially for India ('MKI' means Modernised Commercial Indian by its first Russian letters). The planes are highly-maneuverable, equally capable of striking ground targets during a raid and conducting dogfights. In Thanjavur, they will be tasked with defending India's southern coasts and patrolling maritime areas.

Several days before the ceremony, Air Marshal Amit Tiwari, who leads the Southern Air Command, said that the IAF are ready to "extend the reach into the vast Indian Ocean region." The strategic region has "an important role to play in regional peace, security and prosperity," he said.

Sukhoi Su-30MKI
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The aircraft is tailor-made for Indian specifications and integrates Indian systems and avionics as well as French and Israeli sub-systems. It has abilities similar to the Sukhoi Su-35 with which it shares many features and components.
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"We see the ceasefire as a particularly important step toward reconciliation and political settlement" in Libya, Erdogan said, reiterating that peace can be achieved only through dialogue.

Putin and Erdogan are also scheduled to participate in the talks, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The proposed draft communiqué from the Berlin meeting, which was leaked to the media, reportedly describes monitoring groups tasked with observing the "comprehensive" ceasefire and the creation of a joint government and presidential council in Libya.

Erdogan said that he has not yet seen the draft and that it's too early to discuss concrete measures ahead of talks.

The Libyan peace talks in Berlin were yet to begin, but Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan already voiced their positions on the conflict, Erdogan speaking against Haftar and Putin calling for dialogue.

"Haftar has proven himself to be in favor of a military solution [to the conflict]. Here in Berlin, the ceasefire must be confirmed. Haftar's aggressive behavior must be stopped so the political process and settlement can happen," Erdogan said.

Putin in turn recalled how, during their Istanbul meeting on January 8, the two had "taken a very good step by calling on the warring parties in Libya to end hostilities." Despite several violations of the ceasefire, "both sides have listened to our call and have ended large-scale military actions," Putin said. We don't lose hope that the dialogue will continue, as we seek to resolve the conflict [in Libya].

Some 11 countries, including Russia, Turkey, Britain, France, Germany, and the US, and several international organizations attended the event aimed at reaching a lasting ceasefire between Haftar and his rival Fayez al-Sarraj, the prime minister of the UN-backed Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

An arms embargo and a draft plan to work toward a lasting ceasefire to end Libya's years-long civil war has been agreed on in Berlin during a day of intensive peace talks, drawing on the process kickstarted by Russia and Turkey. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented the results of the talks at a final press conference on Sunday evening.

Guterres told reporters that "all participants today committed to support the ceasefire," while Merkel announced that the warring sides in Libya's conflict agreed that an arms embargo is necessary to reach a lasting ceasefire.

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte said Italian was willing to play a leading role in monitoring the Libya peace accord. Italy is "absolutely available to be on the frontline" when it comes to monitoring the peace, he told reporters, although whether or not the warring sides agree to that is still unclear.

Neither Haftar nor al-Sarraj were present in the room for the final press conference and Merkel said two men did not meet each other face-to-face during talks earlier either, with the chancellor hosting the rivals for separate discussions.

Merkel said the discussion in Berlin "will not solve all of the problems of Libya" but the talks were intended to "give new impetus" to the peace process. Guterres added that he was very worried that several of Libya's oil ports and an oilfield had been shutdown after Haftar's forces shut off production, a move which could badly impact the country's economy.

Merkel stressed that it is crucial that the arms embargo holds so that the truce can hold properly.

"We call for a comprehensive process of demobilization and disarmament of armed groups and militias in Libya and the subsequent integration of suitable personnel into civilian, security and military state institutions, on an individual basis and based on a census of armed groups personnel and professional vetting. We call upon the United Nations to assist this process."

"We support the establishment of unified Libyan national security, police and military forces under central, civilian authority, building upon the Cairo talks, and the documents produced therein."

Movement of forces:
"We call for the termination of all military movements by, or in direct support of, the conflict parties, in and over the entire territory of Libya, starting from the beginning of the ceasefire process."

"We commit to refraining from interference in the armed conflict or in the internal affairs of Libya and urge all international actors to do the same."

UN Role:
"We call upon the United Nations to facilitate ceasefire negotiations between the parties, including through the immediate establishment of technical committees to monitor and verify the implementation of the ceasefire."

"We call upon the UNSC to impose appropriate sanctions on those who are found to be in violation of the ceasefire arrangements and on Member States to enforce these."

Oil:
On Friday, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) issued a statement warning that shutting down oil terminals would have far-reaching negative consequences for the national economy, as protesters reportedly entered and blockaded the Zueitina oil port in eastern Libya.

"We stress that the National Oil Corporation (NOC) is Libya's sole independent and legitimate oil company, in line with UN Security Council Resolutions 2259 (2015) and 2441 (2018). We urge all parties to continue to guarantee the security of its installations and refrain from any hostilities against all oil facilities and infrastructure. We reject any attempt at damaging Libya's oil infrastructure, any illicit exploitation of its energy resources, which belong to the Libyan people, through the sale or purchase of Libyan crude oil and derivatives outside the NOC's control and call for the transparent and equitable distribution of oil revenues."

Political Process:
On 17 December, 2015, the Libyan Political Agreement on the settlement of the internal conflict was signed in Morocco's Skhirat, under the auspices of the United Nations. The main point of the document, which took 14 months to coordinate, dealt with the formation of an interim Government of National Accord (GNA), which would operate during a transitional two-year period.

"We commit to accepting and supporting the outcome of this intra-Libyan political process."

Conference participants expressed support for the 2015 Libyan Political Agreement as a viable framework for a political solution to the conflict in the country.

Further Actions:
"We herewith create an International Follow-Up Committee (IFC) consisting of all countries and International Organisations that participated in today's Berlin Conference on Libya in order to maintain coordination in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference on Libya, under the aegis of the United Nations."

Senior-level plenary sessions will be held each month to evaluate the implementation of the conference's conclusions and, if necessary, "exert leverage".

Four technical groups will meet at the expert level twice a month during the first implementation stages. The groups will be led by UN representatives and work in four areas — address obstacles to the implementation, exchange information, coordinate operational requirements and support the mandate of the UN Security Council.

Haftar representatives ordered to stop oil exports from five ports of Libya. "National Oil Corporation" (NOC) was forced to comply. Affected were Bregu, Ras al-Anuf, Kharig, Zuweitin and Sidra, now under the control of the Haftar army.

"This will result in a decrease in production by 800 thousand barrels per day and daily financial losses of approximately $ 55 million."

Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez Sarraj called on the international community to respond. The field marshal "is not looking for a peaceful or political solution," and the closure of the ports demonstrates his unpreparedness for a truce.

The Libya National Oil Corporation (NOC) has declared a force majeure. The production of crude could be cut to just 72,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The NOC has condemned the move and slammed Haftar's maneuvers as "setting fire to your own house. Shutting down oil exports and production will have far-reaching and predictable consequences. If the shutdown is prolonged, we face collapse of the exchange rate, a huge and unsustainable increase in the national deficit, the departure of foreign contractors, and the loss of future production, which may take years to restore. The main beneficiaries of this act will be other oil-producing states, and the harm will be entirely to Libyans."

The final document agreed at the Berlin conference on Libya on Sunday contains a clause stating that all Libyan people are entitled to the country's energy resources, Russia's acting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"There is a section on the political process, on how to solve Libya's economic problems, taking into account the fact that all Libyan parties - professional, military, political groups should have access to natural resources."

"The agreed final document is rather detailed, with recommendations and suggestions on how to overcome the current Libyan crisis. The document has several chapters. It has a chapter focused on security efforts, including the need to try to make the ceasefire sustainable,"

"It is clear that in the end it will be up to the Libyans to decide. It is clear that so far attempts to establish a sustainable, serious dialogue between them have failed — too big of a difference in stances. Nevertheless, the recommendations outlined in the Berlin conference's final document add up to the bank of ideas that the international community offers the Libyan sides so that they can agree on circumstances conducive to resuming dialogue."

Military Committee:
Lavrov highlighted that the newly-created military committee to resolve the Libyan conflict will seek a lasting ceasefire in Libya with UN assistance.

"The newly created military committee consisting of five representatives from [GNA's Fayez] Sarraj and [LNA's Khalifa] Haftar, will be engaged in the development of concrete confidence-building measures that will make the ceasefire lasting under UN supervision."

The head of the UN-backed Government of National Accord, Fayez al-Sarraj has said he would stick to the truce supported at the Berlin peace conference but would still not engage in direct talks with General Khalifa Haftar.

"For me it's clear... We will not sit down again with the other side." Sarraj said he's rejecting Haftar's condition of profit sharing for the lifting of port blockades.

Ankara has not yet deployed its military forces to Libya, A group of advisers and trainers arrived in the war-torn country to aid the UN-backed Government of National Accord. "If the ceasefire that we called for together with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is held, political process will be opened."

He does not see Turkey's role as that of a mediator in Libya. Instead, Ankara would lend its support to the UN-backed government against Haftar, whom Erdogan described as an "illegitimate leader."

The Turkish president also warned that Ankara would not hesitate to "do what is necessary" should Haftar's forces violate the truce. Earlier, Erdogan vowed to teach the general he denounced as a "putschist" a "lesson" if he does not stop his offensive on Tripoli.

In short, Iran demanded that the EU live up to its obligations to stand up to the US economic sanctions. The EU has consistently failed to do so, resulting in Iran's gradual backing away from its obligations, leading to the current state of affairs where all of the restrictions imposed by the JCPOA, not including international inspections, which continue unabated, have ceased to be in operation.

When it comes to levying fault for the current state of affairs, there is no "chicken or egg" causality up for debate. Blame lies squarely on both the US for withdrawing from the deal, and the EU for failing to live up to its obligations under the JCPOA regarding economic engagement with Iran.

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