Chevron denied claim for Iranian oil

Three insurance companies have rejected Chevron's claim over the seizure last year of an oil cargo by Iran, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday in a US court in California.

The Chevron-chartered tanker Advantage Sweet was boarded by Iranian military, opens new tab in the Gulf of Oman in April 2023 and its crude oil cargo confiscated and later transferred to an Iranian vessel.

Zurich American Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance and Great American Insurance asked a US District Court in San Francisco to uphold their rejection of Chevron's $57 million claim under both marine cargo and war risks policies the company held.

The seizure of the crude oil and its later expropriation by Iran do not constitute 'warlike operations,' the companies said of their denial of war risks coverage. Chevron's marine cargo policy also did not cover a seizure or confiscation, they told the court.

A Chevron spokesperson said the company contests the denial of insurance coverage.

"The military seizure by the Islamic Republic of Iran of the Advantage Sweet in international waters with Chevron's cargo aboard was a hostile act plainly covered by our insurance policies. We look forward to proving this in court," said Chevron spokesperson Christine Dobbyn.

Chevron chartered the Advantage Sweet to transport crude oil to Houston from the Neutral Zone area shared by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the complaint said. Chevron has oil production operations in the zone.

"Iranian Navy commandos boarded the Advantage Sweet while the vessel was in international waters in the Gulf of Oman on or about April 27, 2023 and seized control of the vessel and its cargo of crude oil," according to the complaint.

 

Iran assures energy supply to Afghanistan

Iran's Deputy Ambassador to Kabul, Hassan Mortazavi, highlighted Iran's commitment to serving as a dependable energy supplier to Afghanistan during a meeting with Abdul Latif Mansoor, the Acting Minister of Water and Energy of Afghanistan's caretaker government in Kabul.

Mortazavi expressed Iran's readiness to export energy to Afghanistan and emphasized the country's potential to play a crucial role as a reliable partner in this regard. He also expressed optimism about the completion of the Kamal Khan Dam, noting that water cooperation could strengthen ties between Tehran and Kabul, benefiting the Muslim populations of both nations.

Under the 1973 Helmand River Treaty, Iran is entitled to approximately 850 million cubic meters of Helmand water annually. However, due to drought and irregular water conditions in recent years, Iran's agreed-upon water share has not been fully met, leading to challenges for residents of Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province. 

The Acting Energy Minister of Afghanistan acknowledged that a significant portion of Iran's water share has been provided thus far. The discussions between the two sides also encompassed topics related to water cooperation, including the energy supply chain between Iran and Afghanistan.

 

Trump not considering Haley running mate

Donald Trump said on Saturday that former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not being considered to be his running mate in the November 2024 election.

"Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the Vice President slot, but I wish her well!" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

It was reported that Trump could pick Haley if he were convinced she could help him win the presidency, avoid a potential prison sentence and cover tens of millions in legal bills if he loses.

Haley, the former South Carolina governor and a former US ambassador to the United Nations, ended her long-shot challenge to Republican presidential frontrunner Trump in March this year.

Comment was not immediately available from Haley. While she has acknowledged that Trump, who repeatedly belittled her candidacy, would be the Republican nominee, Haley has not endorsed him.

There is already a long list of potential candidates for the vice president position that includes North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and J.D. Vance, and US Representative Elise Stefanik.

Burgum and Scott competed against Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination before dropping out.

Noem has been embroiled in controversy after revealing in a memoir that she once shot a 14-month-old dog for being disobedient.

Trump does not seem in hurry to pick a running mate. He will not be formally nominated until the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July.

He will face President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 05 general election.

 

 

Muslim World League inaugurates first Council of Southeast Asian Scholars

Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Al-Issa, Secretary-General of the Makkah-based Muslim World League (MWL) and Chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars, has inaugurated the Council of Southeast Asian Scholars in Kuala Lumpur.

The ceremony was held under the patronage of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, with prominent scholars and muftis from ASEAN countries in attendance.

This new council represents the first comprehensive Islamic council in the Southeast Asian region, featuring senior muftis and scholars.

It also marks the first among the regional scholarly councils established globally by the MWL. The creation of the council is a direct outcome of the "Southeast Asian Scholars Conference," which took place in Kuala Lumpur on June 30, 2022, and received endorsement from the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Israel orders Palestinians to evacuate more areas of Rafah

Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza's southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.

In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to go immediately to places west of Gaza City.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight airstrikes across the enclave, including in Rafah.

"They threw fliers on Rafah and said, from Rafah to al-Zawayda is safe, people should evacuate there, and they did, and what has become of them? Dismembered bodies? There is no safe place in Gaza," Khitam Al-Khatib, who said she had lost at least 10 of her relatives in an airstrike on a family house earlier on Saturday, told Reuters.

Al-Zawayda is a small town in central Gaza Strip that has been crowded by thousands of displaced people from across the enclave.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck tens of targets across the Strip over the past day, adding its ground troops had eliminated fighters in Zeitoun in recent hours.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people in a house in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip, all from the same family, medics said.

In Rafah, residents told Reuters the new evacuation orders by the Israeli military covered areas in the centre of the city and left little doubt Israel planned to expand its ground offensive there.

"The situation is very difficult, people are leaving their homes in panic," said Khaled, 35, a resident of the Shaboura neighbourhood, an area where the new orders to leave have been issued.

The Israeli military said it was continuing operational activity against Hamas fighters in eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing.

Despite heavy US pressure and alarm expressed by residents and humanitarian groups, Israel has said it will proceed with an incursion into Rafah, where more than one million displaced people have sought refuge during the seven-month-old war.

Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing Rafah's eastern and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the eastern side in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up the delivery of some military aid to its ally.

Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out thousands of Hamas fighters it believes are deployed in Rafah.

About 300,000 Gazans have so far moved towards Al-Mawasi, according to Israeli military estimates released on Saturday.

Two crossing points vital for delivery of aid to Gaza were still closed on Saturday the Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Rafah crossing was closed for a fifth day, while another crossing, Kerem Shalom, has been shut for around a week.

The latest evacuation orders came hours after internationally mediated ceasefire talks appeared to be faltering, with Hamas saying Israel's rejection of the truce offer it had accepted returned things to square one.

The Palestinian militant group also hinted it was reconsidering its negotiation policy. It did not elaborate on whether a review meant it would harden its terms for reaching a deal, but said it would consult with other allied factions.

Israel says it wants to reach a deal under which hostages would be released in exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, but that it is not prepared to end the military offensive.

In Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands were sheltering, Palestinians mourned relatives during funerals on Saturday.

"Here they are, in pieces, here is my sister-in-law, without a head, my aunt is without a head, what is this injustice? Until when will this go on? We are exhausted, by God we are exhausted, I have lived in tents for the past seven months," said Khatib, sitting near bodies wrapped in white shrouds bearing the names of the dead men and women.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under increasing pressure over its military campaign, including from longtime ally the United States.

The Biden administration said on Friday Israel's use of US-supplied weapons may have violated international humanitarian law during its Gaza operation, in its strongest criticism to date of Israel.

But the administration stopped short of a definitive assessment, saying that due to the chaos of the war it could not verify specific instances where use of those weapons might have been involved in alleged breaches.

US drillers cut oil and gas rigs for third week

US energy firms this past week cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating for a third week in a row, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report on Friday.

The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by two to 603 in the week to May 10, the lowest since January 2022.

This puts the total rig count down 128, or 18% below this time last year.

Oil rigs fell three to 496 this week, their lowest since November, while gas rigs rose one to 103.

In Texas, drillers cut the number of rigs operating this week by three, leaving 289 active rigs, which was still the most in any state but the lowest in Texas since February 2022. The state with the second most rigs operating is New Mexico at 109.

The oil and gas rig count dropped about 20% in 2023 after rising by 33% in 2022 and 67% in 2021, due to a decline in oil and gas prices, higher labor and equipment costs from soaring inflation and as companies focused on paying down debt and boosting shareholder returns instead of raising output.

US oil futures were up about 9% so far in 2024 after dropping by 11% in 2023. US gas futures, meanwhile, were down about 10% so far in 2024 after plunging by 44% in 2023.

That increase in oil prices should encourage drillers to boost US crude output. The government this week slightly lowered its production outlook for this year to 13.2 million barrels per day (bpd), which is still up from the record 12.9 million in 2023. It forecast a slightly bigger 13.7 million bpd of output in 2025.

Occidental Petroleum said this week it expects to increase oil production in the Permian basin in the second half of 2024, with gains in efficiency allowing the company to reduce the rig count in the top US oil field.

The drop in gas prices to 3-1/2-year lows in February and March has already caused several producers to slash spending and reduce drilling activities, which should cause US gas output to drop to 103.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2024 from a record 103.8 bcfd in 2023, according to the EIA.

 

 

UNGA upgrades Palestinian statehood status

According to Reuters, the United Nations General Assembly voted 143-9 to upgrade the Palestinian's status as a non-member observer state, granting it all but voting rights with regard to all activities related to its plenum.

Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Papa New Guinea, Palau, and the United States opposed the resolution.

Among those countries that supported the text were many European Union members, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Australia also supported the resolution, while Canada, Great Britain, and Ukraine abstained.

There are already some 143 countries that recognize Palestine as a state. 

The UNGA vote, which is mostly symbolic, is viewed as an international referendum in support of unilateral Palestinian statehood.

Many Western and European countries have believed that full Palestinian statehood recognition and Palestinian UN membership should come at the end of a final status agreement that tends to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In light of Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel on October 07, 2023 that sparked the Gaza War, a number of Western countries have reconsidered their position.

Israel immediately attacked the decision, as a prize for terrorism, given that it comes in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 07 attack, which sparked the Gaza war.

It also warned that such a step would harm negotiation for the release of the remaining 132 hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza.

“The message that the UN is sending to our suffering region: violence pays off,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

“The decision to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN is a prize for Hamas terrorists after they committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and perpetrated the most heinous sexual crimes the world has seen,” it stated. 

“The decision also provides a tailwind to Hamas amid negotiations for the release of the 132 hostages and humanitarian relief, further complicating the prospects for a deal,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated.

“Israel seeks peace, and peace will only be achieved through direct negotiation between the parties,” the Foreign Ministry said, as it thanked those countries that opposed the resolution, explaining that they stood “on the right side of history and morality.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X that, “The political theater of the United Nations made an artificial, distorted and disconnected decision.”

"We want peace, we want freedom," Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the assembly before the vote. "A yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, it is not against any state. ... It is an investment in peace."

"Voting yes is the right thing to do," he said in remarks that drew applause.

Under the founding UN Charter, membership is open to "peace-loving states" that accept the obligations in that document and are able and willing to carry them out.

"As long as so many of you are 'Jew-hating,' you don't really care that the Palestinians are not 'peace-loving'," UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who spoke after Mansour, told his fellow diplomats. He accused the assembly of shredding the UN Charter - as he used a small shredder to destroy a copy of the Charter while at the lectern.

"Shame on you," Erdan said.

Deputy US Ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood told the General Assembly after the vote that unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground will not advance a two-state solution.

"Our vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood; we have been very clear that we support it and seek to advance it meaningfully. Instead, it is an acknowledgment that statehood will only come from a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties," he said.

The resolution affirmed that “Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance with article 4 of the Charter and should therefore be admitted to membership in the United Nations.”

The resolution affirmed “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine.”

It called on the UN Security Council to grant the Palestinians membership in the UN. The approval of the 15-member UNSC is a necessary state for UN membership.

The Palestinians with the help of the United Arab Emirates, which authored Friday’s resolution, turned the UNGA after the United States used its veto power in the UNSC to block Palestinain UN membership.

None of the UN member states have veto power in the UNGA where the Palestinians have an automatic majority.

In 2012 the UNGA granted the Palestinians all the rights of a non-member observer state, in a vote that was approved 138-9. At the time Argentina supported the measure, while Canada opposed it.