Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 4th August. The Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Centre on Wednesday said in a statement that the first commercial shipment of grain left the Ukrainian port of Odesa was cleared to proceed to Lebanon after a scheduled inspection stopover in Istanbul.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres facilitated the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 22 July, the crew of the merchant vessel Razoni and its 26,000-tonne cargo of Ukrainian corn underwent checks lasted three hours.
JCC said in a statement that Sierra Leone-flagged ship arrived in Istanbul’s waters on Tuesday evening, after sailing from Ukraine’s main Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday.
“A joint civilian inspection team comprising officials from the Russian Federation, Türkiye, Ukraine and the United Nations visited the merchant vessel Razoni this morning,” the statement said.
“This marks the conclusion of an initial ‘proof of concept’ operation”, the statement continued, added that three ports in Ukraine were due to resume the export of millions of tonnes of wheat, corn and other crops “at a time of global food insecurity”.
The initiative also envisages the export of fertilizer needed by the world’s farmers, “under close monitoring”, the Joint Coordination Centre statement explained.
It noted that the inspectors had spoken to the Razoni’s crew and gained “valuable information” about the vessel’s journey along the maritime humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea that was agreed by the signatories of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
“The JCC will use this voyage in its ongoing work on fine-tuning procedures and processes to enable the continuation of safe passage of commercial vessels across the Black Sea under the Initiative.”
Head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, warned that war in Ukraine was “threatening one of the world’s biggest nuclear power programmes”.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, addressing the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the UN in New York said the IAEA’s seven indispensable pillars of nuclear safety and security, were being violated.
He emphasized that the situation is worrying at Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar. The plant has been occupied and used as a military base by Russian forces since March.
“While this war rages on, inaction is unconscionable,” Mr. Grossi said.
“If an accident occurs at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, we will not have a natural disaster to blame. We will have only ourselves to answer to,” Grossi added.
He called for access to IAEA team of experts and inspectors.
UNHCR reported on Tuesday that over 10 million people from Ukraine have crossed their country’s borders seeking shelter in neighboring countries.
The latest data showed there have been 10,350,489 border crossings from Ukraine since 24 February this year, with more than 4.2 million journeys back into Ukraine since the end of that month.
UNHCR noted that many more people have been forced to flee their homes inside Ukraine and that they continue need protection and support.
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