Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, died peacefully at Windsor Castle on April 9 at the age of 99 after seven decades at the heart of public life as consort to Queen Elizabeth II.

“It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

A charismatic figure famed for his deep sense of public duty, Prince Philip was the longest-serving consort of any British monarch after his marriage to Her Majesty in 1947 and her accession to the throne in 1952.

Philip was seen as an embodiment of British culture. But as with many nineteenth- and twentieth-century British royals, his family origins were a largely continental mix.

He was born on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921 to Andrew, Prince of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenburg, a royal from the ancient German principality of Hesse and a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

A war hero of continental origins

Philip considered himself Danish first and foremost – but also showed pride in his Russian as well as German and Greek roots. As a descendant of the Romanov dynasty, Philip gave in 1993 a DNA sample that identified the bodies of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and five children in an unmarked Siberian grave – dispelling the legend that the young Grand Duchess Anastasia had escaped the Bolshevik firing squad in the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Philip’s family left Greece as a baby when the royal family was exiled in 1922, as his uncle King Constantine I was blamed for the country’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War. He was then educated in France and Germany. “If you couldn’t think of a word in one language, you tended to go off in another,” he later told The Independent of his polyglot family life.

He was at boarding school in Germany when Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. The school’s Jewish headmaster fled to the UK, where he founded the boarding school Gordonstoun in Scotland. The young Philip went with him.

On the advice of his uncle, Greece’s King George II, Philip pursued his training in the Royal Navy upon leaving Gordonstoun in 1939, as the spectre of Nazism menaced Europe. He served with bravery throughout the Second World War – principally in the Mediterranean theatre, where he was commended for his role alongside Greek forces in the 1941 Battle of Crete.

But Philip’s greatest moment of the war came during the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily, a year after he was made first lieutenant of HMS Wallace. A Luftwaffe bombing campaign mercilessly attacked the ship, determined to destroy it, until Philip hatched a plan to set off smoke flares, fooling the German bombers into thinking they had already sunken the boat. Without Philip’s actions, those aboard would have had “little chance of survival”, one veteran recounted sixty years later.

During the war Philip corresponded with the then Princess Elizabeth. They had met in 1939 when he escorted the future Queen and her sister Margaret during their father King George VI’s visit to the Royal Naval College, where Philip was training. The 13-year-old Elizabeth fell in love with 18-year-old Philip and decided she wanted to marry him.

They were married in Westminster Abbey in 1947, months after Philip renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles and became a British subject. On the morning of the wedding, George VI made him Duke of Edinburgh.

Philip continued his naval career, spending a year in charge of the frigate HMS Magpie – again in the Mediterranean, where much of the Royal Navy was stationed to deter the expansion of communism – until his career at sea ended in 1951. With George VI’s health failing, the Duke became a full-time consort to the future Queen.

‘Will you walk with me?’

On February 6, 1952, George VI died and Her Majesty ascended to the throne. Philip became renowned for his commitment to public service, completing more than 22,000 solo engagements over 65 years until retiring from public duty in 2017 at the age of 96.

The Duke was either president or patron of some 780 charities and organisations that promoted causes such as environmental conservation, science and technology and participation in sport.

He played an instrumental role in founding the World Wildlife Fund in 1961, serving as the first president of its UK branch, then serving as president of the global organisation from 1981 to 1996 – using the pomp and circumstance of British royalty to help make the WWF an influential environmentalist force across the globe.

Philip’s most famous charitable cause in the UK was the Duke of Edinburgh Award, a programme for young people he set up in Britain in 1956 before expanding to 144 countries. It remains popular: More than 400,000 young Britons are currently completing their DoE, as it is commonly known. The award develops people’s skills and boosts their well-being through requirements including rigorous training in sport or fitness, volunteering for charitable causes and – most famously – the planning and undertaking of a challenging expedition over natural terrain.

The Duke was also known for his gaffes. At his wife’s coronation with one of the Crown Jewels the year after her ascension to the throne, he asked Her Majesty: “Where did you get that hat?” To a group of young deaf people standing next to a very loud steel band in Cardiff in 1999, he said: “If you’re near there, no wonder you’re deaf.” In 2002, when Her Majesty asked a young army cadet blinded by an Irish nationalist bomb how much he could see, the Duke said: “Not a lot, judging by that tie.”

When a member of the public told Philip, “I’m sorry to hear you’re standing down” after his retirement was announced, the then 96-year-old responded: “Well, I can’t stand up for much longer.”

But Philip famously deployed his softer side in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death in 1997, one of the most difficult weeks of Her Majesty’s reign. The 15-year-old Prince William, who had grown very close to Philip during family holidays, was reluctant to walk behind the coffin at the state funeral, keen to mourn his mother as privately as possible. But the Duke persuaded him: “If you don’t walk, I think you’ll regret it later. If I walk, will you walk with me?” he said.

A few months later, at an event to mark their Golden Wedding anniversary, the Queen paid tribute to Prince Philip: “He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.” She echoed this upon her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, describing him as a source of “constant strength” throughout the course of their marriage.

Philip gave Her Majesty this support during her record-breaking reign as an immutable incarnation of the British nation – through dizzying change over an extraordinary timespan. Britons see her as their greatest ever monarch.

Given Prince Philip’s role in supporting their Queen over more than seven decades of marriage, his biographer Gyles Brandreth wrote, “the joint author of that success has been the Duke of Edinburgh”.

Source: France 24

Talks to save the Iran nuclear deal resume in Vienna Thursday amid new tensions, with Tehran preparing to ramp up uranium enrichment in response to an attack on a facility it blamed on arch-foe Israel.

After a positive first round of negotiations aimed at resurrecting the 2015 agreement scuttled by Donald Trump, Iran’s push towards enrichment levels needed for military use “puts pressure on everyone,” a European diplomat told AFP.

Tehran says the move is a response to Israel’s “nuclear terrorism” after an explosion on Sunday knocked out power at its Natanz enrichment plant.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement but public radio reports in the country said it was a sabotage operation by the Mossad spy agency, citing unnamed intelligence sources.

“It definitely complicates things,” the diplomat said, ahead of the talks between the remaining members of the deal — Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and Iran — resuming at 1230 pm local time (1030 GMT).

But events of the past few days have also “reminded both parties that the status quo is a lose-lose situation”, and have “added urgency” to the talks, said Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group think tank.

“It is clear that the more the diplomatic process drags on, the higher the risk that it gets derailed by saboteurs and those acting in bad faith,” Vaez added.

 ‘Only viable solution’

Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal has been disintegrating since former US president Donald Trump dramatically withdrew from it in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, prompting Iran to retaliate by exceeding its agreed limits on nuclear activity.

Britain, France and Germany have expressed “grave concern” over the most recent enrichment move, while also rejecting “all escalatory measures by any actor”.

China and Russia also strongly back the United States returning to the deal, believing it addresses the most pressing concerns with Iran.

Russia’s representative in Vienna said the deal remained the “only viable solution which can bring the Iranian nuclear programme back to the agreed parameters.”

But the Joe Biden administration, while agreeing on the JCPOA’s value, has stressed that it is waiting for Iran to first roll back steps away from compliance that it took to protest Trump’s sanctions.

An American delegation is attending the talks “indirectly”, staying at a separate hotel.

Washington is “very open-eyed about how this will be a long process,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday.

“It’s happening through indirect discussions, but we still feel that it is a step forward.”

‘Not much time’

In the meantime, Tehran is reducing its “breakout time” — time to acquire the fissile material necessary for the manufacture of a bomb, said the European diplomat.

Under the JCPOA, it had committed to keep enrichment to 3.67 percent, though it stepped this up to 20 percent in January.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said its inspectors visited the site at Natanz for “verification and monitoring activities” on Wednesday, and that Iran had “almost completed preparations” to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Its foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Natanz attack had unleashed a “dangerous spiral” and warned Biden the situation could only be contained by lifting the sanctions Trump imposed.

“No alternative. Not much time,” he added.

“It was unrealistic to expect Iran not to respond to such a humiliating attack at the heart of its nuclear programme,” the ICG’s Vaez said.

“But the only thing that in the past two decades has effectively curtailed Iran’s nuclear program has been diplomacy, not sanctions or sabotage.”

(AFP)

US President Joe Biden announced Wednesday it’s “time to end” America’s longest war with the unconditional withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, where they have spent two decades locked in a bloody stalemate with the Taliban.

Dubbed the “forever war”, the US military onslaught in Afghanistan began in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Now, 20 years later – after almost 2,400 US military and tens of thousands of Afghan deaths – Biden has named September 11 as the deadline by which the last US soldiers will have finally departed.

In a nationally televised address, Biden said the United States had “accomplished” its limited original mission of crushing the international jihadist groups behind the 9/11 attacks and that with every passing year the rationale for staying was “increasingly unclear”.

Biden insisted there would be no “hasty exit” but he was adamant about his decision.

“A horrific attack 20 years ago… cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021,” he said. “It’s time to end the forever war.”

The conflict is at best at a stalemate. The internationally backed government in Kabul has only tenuous control in swaths of the country, while the Taliban are growing in strength, with many predicting the insurgency will seek to regain total power once the government’s US military umbrella is removed.

Biden told Americans that it was time to accept the reality that there’s no alternative.

“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” he said.

“I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats,” Biden added said. “I will not pass this responsibility to a fifth.”

Shortly after his address, America’s NATO allies said in a statement they agreed to also start their withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1.

Biden’s decision is not a shock. The war is hugely unpopular among voters and Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had committed to an even earlier exit of May 1.

“I applaud President Biden’s decision,” top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said Wednesday.

However, there was immediate criticism from some quarters that the United States is abandoning the Afghan government and encouraging jihadist insurgencies.

“We’re to help our adversaries ring in the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by gift wrapping the country, and handing it right back to them,” senior Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani insisted Wednesday after a phone call with Biden that his forces are “fully capable” of controlling the country.

And Biden said that Washington will continue to support the Afghan government, only not “militarily”.

He also said the United States will “hold the Taliban accountable” on promises to keep international jihadists from setting up base in Afghanistan. Pakistan, which has close links to the Taliban, should “do more” to support Afghanistan.

But the US exit will mark a profound shift in clout for the beleaguered Kabul government and its US and coalition-trained security forces.

The US president had earlier considered stationing a residual US force to strike at al Qaeda or other international jihadist groups in Afghanistan or making withdrawal contingent on progress on the ground or in slow-moving peace talks.

In the end, all conditions were dropped and only guards for installations like the US embassy in Kabul will stay.

The planned withdrawal comes as the Taliban are observing a truce with US troops and their allies but not with forces loyal to the Afghan government.

A threat assessment report published Tuesday by the director of US national intelligence said the Taliban “is confident it can achieve military victory”.

The looming upheaval raises big questions over the future of attempts to modernise Afghanistan, especially for Afghan women who have benefited from increased rights, like access to education.

The Taliban, who enforce an austere brand of Sunni Islam, banned women from schools, offices, music and most of daily life during their 1996-2001 rule over much of Afghanistan. Two decades later, 40 percent of schoolchildren are girls.

Turkey has said it will host a US-backed peace conference from April 24 to May 4 that would bring together the Afghan government, the Taliban and international partners.

But Mohammad Naeem, spokesman for the Taliban office in Qatar, said the insurgents will not participate in any conference on Afghanistan’s future “until all foreign forces completely withdraw”.

Source: AFP