Bengal Village Heads' Fatwa Bans Music, TV, Lottery and Carrom, TMC Leader Says Nothing Wrong in It
New Age Islam
News Bureau
18 August 2020
For representational
purposes (Photo | PTI)
-----
• Public
Washroom Constructed on The Site of a Demolished Mosque in Atush Of Xinjiang
Province in Northwestern China
• Juvenile Killer
of Suspected Blasphemer, Tahir Ahmad Naseem, In Withdraws Bail Plea from An
Anti-Terrorism Court
• Opening
Al-Aqsa Mosque Will Limit Tensions Between Israel, Muslim World: Kushner
• Kabul Under
Rocket Attacks on Its 101st Independence Eve
• ‘Impossible’
That Beirut Port Blast Was Caused by Hezbollah Arms: President Aoun
• Pope Francis
Calls for Dialogue Between Egypt, Ethiopia And Sudan Over Nile Dam
India
• Bengal Village
Heads' Fatwa Bans Music, TV, Lottery and Carrom, TMC Leader Says Nothing Wrong
in It
• Indian Muslim
Artisan Fights Virus Slowdown with Hindu Idols by Making Environmentally
Friendly Ganesha Idols
• What TMC's
Heckling of a Muslim Cleric Tells Us About Bengal Politics and 'Minority
Appeasement'
• Digvijaya Asks
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Why BJP's Anti-Muslim Posts Were Not Stopped
• 26/11
witnesses won't travel, Pakistan panel can come: India
• 4 security
personnel, 3 LeT terrorists killed in J&K attack
--------
Southeast Asia
• Public
Washroom Constructed on The Site of a Demolished Mosque in Atush Of Xinjiang
Province in Northwestern China
• Over 1,700
Child Sexual Crime Cases Reported in First Half Of 2020 in Malaysia
--------
Pakistan
• Juvenile Killer
of Suspected Blasphemer, Tahir Ahmad Naseem, In Withdraws Bail Plea from An
Anti-Terrorism Court
• Four-Pronged
Strategy Being Pursued To Deal With India: Pakistan FM
• Pakistan army chief
arrives in Saudi Arabia to revive strained ties
• ATC orders
provision of facilities to Uzair Baloch in sub-jail
--------
Mideast
• Opening
Al-Aqsa Mosque Will Limit Tensions Between Israel, Muslim World: Kushner
• Israel
Preparing for Flights to UAE Over S. Arabia
• Iran Blasts
Western Countries for Excuses in Anti-Narcotics Campaign
• Iranian
Vice-Speaker Asks Arab States to Defend Palestine
• Speaker:
Lebanese Victory in 33-Day War, Glaring Defeat for Israel
• Egyptian
mediators in Gaza in bid to ease tensions between Hamas and Israel
--------
South Asia
• Kabul Under
Rocket Attacks on Its 101st Independence Eve
• Palace: Prisoners’
Release Process Halted, The Taliban Must Release Remaining Detainees
• Iran offered
bounties to Taliban in Afghanistan to kill US, coalition troops: CNN
• Christians And
Muslims Mourn the Death of Fr Homrich, A Great Missionary Among The Garos
--------
Arab world
• ‘Impossible’ That
Beirut Port Blast Was Caused by Hezbollah Arms: President Aoun
• Kurdish PKK says
shot down Turkish helicopter in Iraq
• Verdict on
Hariri killing to be issued by UN-backed court, 15 years later
• Lebanon
explosion: Customs chief Badri Daher formally arrested over Beirut blast
• UAE has
long-lasting support for Palestine: Abu Dhabi Palestinian Business Council
--------
Africa
• Pope Francis Calls
for Dialogue Between Egypt, Ethiopia And Sudan Over Nile Dam
• Mozambique
army surrounds port held by Isis-linked insurgents
• Tunisian party
slams UAE's ‘subversive’ activities
• Twin suicide
blasts kill 7 in Somalia
• Libya belongs
to Libyans: Turkish defense minister
• Militants
Attack Beachfront Hotel in Somali Capital
• Somali
regional minister shot dead: Police
--------
North America
• US 'Will Not
Chase' Palestinian Leadership for Peace, Says Kushner
• Trump says
world leaders seek his aid with Erdogan
--------
Europe
• Palestinians
In Berlin Protest Against UAE-Israel Deal
• EU warns
Turkey to ‘immediately’ stop gas exploration in eastern Mediterranean
• French PM
likens killing of French aid workers in Niger to 2015 Paris attacks
• Germany asks
UAE to use influence over Libya’s Haftar
• Turkish,
Russian presidents discuss Libya, Eastern Med.
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/bengal-village-heads-fatwa-bans/d/122656
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Bengal Village Heads' Fatwa Bans Music, TV, Lottery and Carrom, TMC Leader Says Nothing Wrong in It
17th August 2020
For representational
purposes (Photo | PTI)
-----
KOLKATA: Heads of a minority-dominated village in Murshidabad district issued a fatwa imposing a ban on a series of activities which include watching television, playing carrom, purchasing lottery, and listening to music using cellphones and computers.
The fatwa, under
the banner of a social reforms committee, also prescribed monetary penalty
ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 7,000 and sit-up by holding ears if anyone is found
violating the dictate.
The bizarre
incident took place at Adwaita Nagar village, with a population of around
12,000, located along the Bengal-Jharkhand border area in Raghunathganj
sub-division.
"We decided
to impose a ban on a series of activities to stop the young generation from
adopting methods which will lead to their moral and cultural degradation. We
cannot allow them to listen to music and watch movies and serials which do not
fit our religious culture," said Azharul Sheikh, the secretary of the
Adwaita Nagar Social Reforms Committee.
The committee
issued the fatwa on August 9 and posters listing the banned activities were put
up in every corner of the villages warning the local people of the consequences
if they violate the dictate.
The fatwa
mentions Rs 1,000 fine if anyone is found watching television and using mobile
phones or computers to listen to music. "If anyone is caught playing
carom, he will have to pay Rs 500 and in case of purchasing lottery, the
penalty amount will be Rs 2,000. There are provisions of rewarding the
informers. If anyone’s information helps us to catch an offender, he will be
given Rs 1,000 to Rs 200 as a reward, depending on the nature of offence
mentioned in the instructions," said Azharul.
The fatwa also
prescribes Rs 7,000 penalty for anyone who will be found selling liquor. Other
than the penalty, the dictate said the offender’s head would he shaved before
he would be paraded in the village. The same amount of penalty will he charges
from those who will sell the lottery and run a gambling racket. If a villager
is caught consuming alcohol, he will not only pay Rs 2,000 as a penalty but
also give sit-up for 10 times while holding his ears.
The local
Trinamool Congress-dominated Vasaipaikar panchayat pradhan Abdur Rauf found
nothing wrong in the fatwa. "Banning liquor is a good decision. Besides, I
welcome the decision to ban carom and songs using mobile phones because the
youths are getting addicted to it," he explained.
The block
development officer of Shamsherganj block, Joydeep Chakrabarty, said if anyone
takes law in his hand, lawful action will be taken against him.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/aug/17/bengal-village-heads-fatwa-bans-music-tv-and-carrom-tmc-leader-says-nothing-wrong-in-it-2184664.html
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Public Washroom
Constructed on The Site of A Demolished Mosque In Atush Of Xinjiang Province In
Northwestern China
Aug 17, 2020
Chinese soldiers on the
street keeping an eye on Uighur women wearing veils Photograph:( AFP)
-----
China's war
against Xinjiang has touched a new law as reports claim that Chinese
authorities have built a public toilet on the site of a demolished mosque.
The incident
took place in the Atush region of Xinjiang. The mosque in the Suntagh village
was demolished in 2018. Two years later, a public toilet stands in its place.
The people of Suntagh have toilets at home and the village barely receives
tourists, so locals say there is no need for the public toilet.
Chinese
authorities know it as well that's why the new stalls have not even been opened
to the public. The bitter truth is China wants to target the Uighur Muslims of
Xinjiang. China has destroyed 70 per cent of the mosques in Xinjiang and with
this toilet, it is only adding insult to injury.
However, it is
not the first such incident. In 2019, China destroyed the Azna mosque and now a
store that sells alcohol and cigarettes has come up in its place.
In the Hotan
city, authorities have been trying to build an underwear factory in the place
of a demolished mosque. Beijing has destroyed between 10,000 to 15,000 mosques
in Xinjiang in the last three years, according to the Uighur human rights
project.
A Guardian
report published last year had satellite images of the Imam Asim shrine. The
shrine is located in Taklamakan desert. It used to attract Muslims from across
the Hotan oasis. China recently tore down the buildings around the shrine. It
also demolished the mosque and the place is deserted now.
There are
similar images from Xinjiang's Kargilik town too, the mosque was razed in 2018.
China wants to erase the unique identity of Uighurs. It wants to "sinicise"
Islam meaning make Islam Chinese and it is not shy of saying it out loud.
In 2019, China
passed a 5-year plan to "guide Islam to be compatible with
socialism". The government of China also launched a mosque rectification
campaign. There are 22 million Muslims in China including 11 million Uighurs.
China wants to
blend them into the Han society which is the majority race and Beijing is ready
to go to any lengths to achieve it. It has unleashed genocide in Xinjiang.
Chinese authorities have jailed 1.8 million Uighurs. China has killed many and
harvested their organs. Women are being raped, men are being sterilised and
children have been taken away from their parents.
China has waged
a war on its Muslims targeting their culture, history and their religion, those
in Xinjiang cannot do much about it. However, people outside can but they
aren't. China's actions should provoke the Muslim world but they remain silent.
Saudi Arabia the
self-appointed leader of the Muslim world won't say a word against China.
Turkey which wants to dethrone the Saudis and project itself as the rightful
leader of the Muslim world has been rounding up those who escaped from China
and handing them over to Beijing.
Pakistan
pretends it doesn't even know what's going on in Xinjiang. Malaysia says it
won't criticise China because it does not respond well to criticism and Iran
has actually justified China's action saying Beijing is serving Islam by
suppressing the Uighurs.
The rest of the
world that claims to uphold human rights has watched China's Muslims being
killed by the Chinese state and not lifted a finger. China has built a toilet
as the world has flushed its conscience.
https://www.wionews.com/world/chinese-authorities-demolish-mosque-in-xinjiang-build-public-toilet-321313
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Juvenile Killer
of Suspected Blasphemer, Tahir Ahmad Naseem, In Withdraws Bail Plea from An
Anti-Terrorism Court
Waseem Ahmad
Shah
18 Aug 2020
PESHAWAR: A
teenage boy charged with killing a suspected blasphemer inside a courtroom last
month withdrew his bail petition from an anti-terrorism court on Monday.
A panel of
lawyers appeared for the suspect and told the court that their client didn’t
want to pursue the bail plea and was only interested in the early trial of the
case.
The court directed
the prosecution to submit the final challan (charge sheet) of the case within
10 days to begin trial.
Few days ago,
the bail petition was filed on behalf of the juvenile suspect on multiple
grounds.
The 10-page
petition mostly included verses of the Holy Quran and Hadith and said those,
who committed apostasy, were liable to be killed.
Body of deceased
sent to America
While the local
police claim that the suspect is around 17, the petitioner said he was aged
around 14 and a half years and that the entire investigation conducted in the
case is a violation of mandatory provisions of the Juvenile Justice System Act,
2018.
The blasphemy
accused, Tahir Ahmad Naseem, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, was shot down
inside a courtroom at the Judicial Complex here on July 29.
The petitioner
is kept in the Peshawar Central Prison on judicial remand.
The panel of
lawyers for the suspect compromises Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, Mohammad Enam
Yousafzai, Barrister Amirullah Khan, Qaiser Zaman Khan, Abdul Wali, Shakil Ahmadkhel
and others.
The FIR of the
killing was registered at the East Cantonment police station under Section 302
of Pakistan Penal Code, Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, and Section 15 of Arms
Act.
When the court
began hearing into the bail petition, the defence lawyers said they were
interested in the early trial of their client.
They requested
the court that instead of disposing of the bail petition, the court should
direct the prosecution to produce the challan of the case at the earliest.
Meanwhile, official
sources told Dawn that the body of the blasphemy accused was handed over to the
US Consul General in Peshawar on Aug 14 and it was sent to the US next day.
The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs had issued no objection certificate on Aug 6 for the repatriation
of the body of Tahir Ahmad Naseem, who held the US Passport No 469546675,
subject to the completion of all codal formalities.
Similarly, the
interior ministry had issued an NOC declaring it has no objection to the
transportation of the body of Tahir Ahmad Naseem to the US.
The deceased’s
family members, including daughters based in Illinois, USA, had issued a
general power of attorney on July 30 in favour of the US Consul General in
Peshawar for the repatriation of the remains of the deceased.
A resident of
Nowshera, Malik Owais, a student in a seminary at Islamabad, had alleged that
the deceased made false religious claims and told him that he had been
receiving Divine Revelations in dreams.
The deceased was
indicted on Feb 4, 2019, under PPC sections 153-A, 295-A and 298. However, he
had denied charges.
He was brought
to the court from the Peshawar Central Prison before the suspected teenage
gunman targeted him at point-blank range.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1575055/killer-of-suspected-blasphemer-in-withdraws-bail-plea
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Opening Al-Aqsa
mosque will limit tensions between Israel, Muslim world: Kushner
August 18, 2020
Palestinian Muslim
worshippers gather at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's old city on
the first day of Eid al-Adha on July 31, 2020. (File/AFP)
-------
DUBAI: Tensions
between Israel and the Muslim world will be reduced following the opening of
Al-Aqsa mosque to all Muslims, state news agency WAM reported citing Senior
Advisor to US President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, on Monday.
"Israelis
are very excited that they can get cheaper flights now by flying through Dubai,
and I know a lot of Muslims are excited that they can now fly through Dubai to
Tel Aviv to go and visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque," he said.
Israel said
Jordan’s King Abdullah II will continue to be the custodian of the mosque, he
added.
Kushner also
said Muslims are free to come and pray at the mosque peacefully, as part of the
UAE-Israel agreement, adding that more people throughout the world will notice
that the mosque is not under attack.
"Obviously,
this historic breakthrough, this is the first peace agreement in the region in
26 years, and only the third in the last 70 years with Israel. And so, I do
think it gives a lot of people great optimism that the Middle East doesn’t have
to be stuck in conflicts of the past," he said.
Kushner further
said that US President Donald Trump’s Vision for Peace proposed in January was
aimed to achieve a two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict.
"He
(president Trump) got Israel to agree to negotiate on the basis of the
President’s vision, agree to the map, and agree to move forward on a
Palestinian state. This was a major breakthrough," he said.
The peace deal
will also impact the economies of both countries, the UAE and Israel, he added.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721161/middle-east
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Kabul under
rocket attacks on its 101st Independence eve
18 Aug 2020
Explosion sounds
and rocket attacks disturbed Kabul as citizens were celebrating its 101st
independence eve.
Several rockets
have landed in Shash Darak, near the Ministry of Defense where the official
ceremony was being held.
Explosion sounds
near Sara-e-Shamali, a crowded area in between the district 4 and district 11
of Kabul were heard.
The Ministry of
Interior Affairs confirmed launch of several rockets on Kabul city.
“Several rockets
were fired around 09:30 on the Kabul city from district 8 and 17”, Tariq Aryan,
an spokesperson to Ministry of Interior Affairs said in a statement.
No casualties
have so far reported, stay tuned for further details.
https://www.khaama.com/kabul-under-rocket-attacks-and-on-its-101st-independence-eve-0980987/
--------
‘Impossible’
that Beirut port blast was caused by Hezbollah arms: President Aoun
18 August 2020
Lebanese President
Michel Aoun dismissed as “impossible” the chance that a vast explosion in
Beirut’s port this month was caused by a blast from a deposit of Hezbollah
arms, but said that all possibilities would be investigated.
Lebanese
authorities are probing what caused massive amounts of ammonium nitrate
warehoused unsafely for years at the port to detonate in a mushroom cloud on
Aug. 4, killing 178 people, injuring 6,000 and destroying swathes of the city.
Aoun, an ally of
the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, told Italian daily Corriere della
Sera in an interview published on Tuesday that the group did not store weapons
at the port, echoing comments by Hezbollah’s leader earlier this month.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“Impossible, but
serious events like these light up spirits and imagination,” Aoun said when
asked about people advancing the hypothesis, but added that “even this lead
will be investigated.”
Hezbollah leader
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has denied accusations that his heavily armed movement
had weaponry warehoused at Beirut port. He has said that the group would wait
for results of the investigation but if it turns out to be an act of sabotage
by Israel then it would “pay an equal price.”
Hezbollah, which
exercises sway over government in Lebanon, has fought several wars with Israel
and is classified by the United States as a terrorist group.
Israel has
denied any involvement in the blast.
Aoun has said
the probe is looking into whether neglect, an accident or “external
interference” caused the blast.
“Although it
seems that [it] has been an accident, I want to avoid being accused of not
having listened to every voice,” Aoun told the Italian daily.
He said that
many people claimed seeing airplanes fly by the port just before the blast and,
although “not very credible,” they should be listened to.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/18/-Impossible-that-Beirut-port-blast-was-caused-by-Hezbollah-arms-President-Aoun.html
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Pope Francis
calls for dialogue between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over Nile dam
15 August 2020
Pope Francis
called for dialogue between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on Saturday, urging them
not to let a dispute over a dam on the Nile lead to conflict.
The Grand
Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built some 15 kilometer (9 miles)
from Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, has become a major source of discord between
the three countries.
“I invite all
parties involved to continue on the path of dialogue so that the eternal river
will continue to be a source of life, which unites and does not divide, which
nurtures friendship, prosperity and fraternity and not enmity, misunderstanding
and conflict,” the pontiff said.
He was giving
his Angelus message for Assumption Day, the most important Catholic feast
dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Egypt, which
fears the dam project could lead to water shortages upstream, has threatened to
withdraw from the latest round of discussions.
Sudan is
concerned about the dam’s safety.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/08/15/Pope-Francis-calls-for-dialogue-between-Egypt-Ethiopia-and-Sudan-over-Nile-dam.html
--------
India
Indian Muslim
Artisan Fights Virus Slowdown with Hindu Idols by Making Environmentally
Friendly Ganesha Idols
Vishal Manve
August 18, 2020
Since the
coronavirus pandemic clobbered his pottery business, one Muslim artisan from
India's largest slum has turned to a Hindu god to revive his fortunes by making
environmentally friendly Ganesha idols for an upcoming festival.
Potter Yusuf
Zakaria Galwani works with his two brothers in the Mumbai shanty town of
Dharavi to create 13-inch-tall statues out of terracotta clay, counting on the
god -- who is revered as the remover of obstacles -- to give his business a
much-needed boost ahead of the celebrations.
Ganesh Chaturthi
-- which kicks off on Saturday -- is embraced with gusto in India's financial
hub.
The Hindu
festival traditionally ends with devotees leading massive processions to the
Arabian Sea to immerse elaborately decorated figurines of the much-loved
elephant god into the water.
But this year's
celebrations are expected to be muted, with authorities in the virus-plagued
city urging people to mark the 10-day festival at home in a bid to ensure
social distancing.
"As our
pottery sales dwindled, I decided to make Ganesha statues... as a means of
survival and also to promote environmentally friendly [alternatives],"
40-year-old Galwani told AFP.
Activists have
long criticized the practice of immersing the idols in the sea, arguing it
contributes to water pollution, and Galwani agrees.
"Every
year, we see huge Ganesha statues made from plaster of Paris washing up on the
shores after the immersion. This affects our local environment and marine life
as well," he said.
His clay
creations are designed to disintegrate quickly and turn into soil. They also
contain a seed inside which can germinate if watered like a plant.
Sold for 1,500
rupees ($20) each, Galwani has received orders for 800 statues so far and hopes
to see his neighborhood bounce back economically after tackling the virus.
Made famous by
the 2008 Oscar-winner "Slumdog Millionaire", Dharavi was thrown back
into the spotlight in April over fears that the lack of social distancing or
sanitation in its densely packed streets would make it an easy target for the
virus.
But a sharp
focus on testing accompanied by tough quarantine and lockdown measures have
seen infections plunge across the slum.
"Previously
I lost business as customers were wary of stepping into the slums,"
Galwani said.
"Now,
things have changed and they're willing to even come and pick up their own
orders."
A
third-generation potter, he said he saw no conflict in practicing his faith
while catering to the needs of Hindu worshippers.
"What's the
big deal if I am a Muslim making statues of Hindu deities like Ganesha? India
is a secular democracy and we have grown up with many cultures living
together," Galwani added.
Although
officials have not issued an outright ban on sea immersions this year, they
have imposed restrictions on local celebrations.
Devotees are
barred from making public offerings to the deity and organizers have been
ordered to sanitize any outdoor marquees several times a day.
India has
registered over 2.6 million infections -- the third-highest in the world --
with western Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, responsible for
a fifth of coronavirus cases nationwide.
Pandemic deaths
across the country passed 50,000 on Monday.
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/08/18/indian-muslim-artisan-fights-virus-slowdown-with-hindu-idols.html
--------
What TMC's
Heckling of a Muslim Cleric Tells Us About Bengal Politics and 'Minority
Appeasement'
Snigdhendu
Bhattacharya
Aug 18, 2020
Kolkata: On
August 10, a group of Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters allegedly heckled
Abbas Siddiqui.
Siddiqui is a
Pirzada – a pir’s son or religious leader – of Furfura Sharif, one of the most
popular Islamic religious institutions in West Bengal. He had recently revealed
plans for launching a political party to represent the interests of the Muslims
and Dalits and to field candidates in at least 44 seats in the 2021 assembly
elections.
Video clips
circulating on social media showed a group of purported TMC supporters
encircling a house at Bhangar area where Siddiqui came to pay a visit to one of
his followers. The agitators were seen hurling threats and abuses at Siddiqui
and slamming the windows of the house. The heckling followed with protests,
including road blockades, by Siddiqui’s supporters in some places. A section of
Muslim leaders condemned the attack.
Saokat Mollah,
the TMC’s Canning East MLA who allegedly masterminded the heckling of Siddiqui,
accused the religious leader of ‘spreading terrorist ideology’ and acting on
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s behalf.
“He is trying to
brainwash the Muslim youths just like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other
Kashmir-based terrorist organisations do,” alleged Mollah. “No one touched him.
People merely protested. He is spreading lies and trying to serve the BJP’s
purpose,” Mollah said.
Siddiqui, who
had earlier triggered controversies with conservative remarks, rubbished
Mollah’s charges.
“The TMC is
trying to hold Muslims as ransom by propagating fear of the BJP. My followers
have been facing TMC’s atrocities over the past few months and the attack on me
was a culmination of this escalating tension. This will be avenged in the
elections,” said Siddiqui, who heads the Furfura Sharif chapter of Ahle
Sunnatul Jamaat, an Islamic sect.
Siddiqui later
submitted a deputation to Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who, incidentally,
had accused Mamata Banerjee of ‘shameless Muslim appeasement’ a few months ago.
The TMC did not
take the incident lightly and organised, on August 16, a massive gathering –
largely violating COVID-19 lockdown protocols – at the same place where
Siddiqui was allegedly heckled. At the event, Saokat Mollah, TMC’s Bhangar
strongman Arabul Islam and TMC Rajya Sabha MP Subhashis Chakraborty blasted
Siddiqui for spreading communal hatred and working at the BJP’s behest.
A majority of
Bengal’s influential Muslim faces remained silent on the heckling. Siddiqui did
not even find two of his uncles – senior Furfura Sharif clerics Tawha Siddiqui
and Yusuf Siddiqui – beside him.
Meanwhile, the
BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh has referred to Abbas Siddiqui as a
‘respectable person’ and condemned the heckling. CPI(M) state unit secretary
Surjya Kanta Mishra, too condemned the attack, described Siddiqui as ‘a
relentless fighter for the unity of the oppressed young people’. Mishra has
also demanded the arrest of Saokat Mollah.
While Furfura
Sharif has a history of influencing election results, none of its religious
leaders have joined electoral politics. The aspirations of Abbas Siddiqui are
therefore a first.
Siddiqui,
however, is not the only Muslim leader to take on the Mamata Banerjee
government in the recent months. The Hyderabad-based All India Majlis Ettehad e
Mussalmeen (AIMIM) is also alleging that the state’s TMC government is allowing
them no space and implicating its organisers in false cases to foil AIMIM’s
planned launch in Bengal.
“The TMC is
going all-out to prevent our entry into Bengal but we have made our
preparations despite that. Party president Asaduddin Owaisi is expected to
announce a formal committee for the state very soon. As of now, we are
contesting the Bengal elections,” said Syed Asim Waqar, AIMIM’s national
spokesperson and Bengal in-charge.
Political
observers feel the recent developments reveal the TMC’s anxieties about a
possible split in the Muslim votes should these organisations gain grounds. The
TMC is heavily depending on Muslims, who form 27% of the state’s population, to
return to power for a third term.
Muslims and
Bengal politics
The historical
backwardness of Muslims in Bengal has generally been attributed to two factors
– the origin of Bengali Muslims, many of whom converted from lower Hindu
castes, and the Permanent Settlement of 1793.
According to the
Census of 1872 and 1901, William Hunter’s 1871 book The Indian Mussalmans,
Ramesh Chandra Majumdar’s History of Medieval Bengal (1973), and Richard M
Eaton’s 1993 publication, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier
(1204–1760), large-scale conversion from Hindu lower castes and outcasts helped
Muslims outnumber Hindus in Bengal by 1881. Since these conversions continued
even after Muslims lost their rule to the British and prestige to the Hindus,
historians gave more stress on voluntary conversions due to the Hindu caste
system than on the forced conversions during the five centuries of Islamic
rule.
These converts,
who mostly came from the socio-economically weaker sections, made up the vast
majority of Bengali Muslims.
William Hunter’s
book pinpointed the Permanent Settlement of 1793 as the decisive blow that
ruined Bengal’s Muslim aristocracy by reorganising the revenue collection
system. “The whole tendency of the Settlement was to acknowledge as the
land-holders the subordinate Hindu officers who dealt directly with the
husbandmen,” he wrote. According to him, it was in lower Bengal among the whole
of India where “Muhammadans have suffered most severely under the British
rule.”
The Permanent
Settlement and other reforms subsequently triggered the Muslims’ alienation
from and disaffection towards the British government and education, and led to
the gradual decline of the Muslim society. Muslims found no employment in the
Army, had no more role in the collection of taxes, found too few appointments
in government offices, and the end of the Islamic legal system rendered more
people jobless.
“If ever a
people stood in need of a career, it is the Musalman aristocracy of lower
Bengal,” Hunter wrote, and added, “There is now scarcely a government office in
Calcutta in which a Muhammadan can hope for any post of above the rank of
porter, messenger, filler of ink-pots and mender of pens.”
This socio-economic
decline of the Muslims simultaneous to their increase in numbers eventually led
to the birth of Muslim separatism at the turn of the 20th century, which was
first reflected in Muslim-dominated eastern Bengal’s lukewarm response to the
call of Swadeshi movement (1905-1911) against the first Partition of Bengal,
and then with the Muslims’ demand for a separate electorate in 1909.
According to
Koushiki Dasgupta, with the Partition of Bengal on religious lines in 1947, a
large number of the wealthy Muslims – most of who were Urdu-speaking traders –
went to East Pakistan, leaving West Bengal with mostly a community of peasant
Muslims.
In
post-Independence West Bengal, Hindu political parties Bharatiya Jana Sangh,
Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad
contested the elections with little or no success. But no Muslim political
party was in the fray at all, until the birth of the short-lived Progressive
Muslim League in 1969. Bengal’s Muslims preferred either the Congress or the
communists.
However, despite
the Congress’s rule of two decades and a half and the Left’s uninterrupted 34
years, the socio-economic status of the Muslims did not improve much, as was
evident with the publication of the report of Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee
in 2006. It revealed, among other aspects, that while Muslims made 25% of the
state’s population in 2001, Muslim representation in government jobs was a mere
4.2% and they occupied only 5% of the ‘key positions’ in the judiciary.
The publication
of the Sachar Committee report along with the Left Front government’s land
acquisition drive in two areas dominated by Muslims – Nandigram and Bhangar –
are mostly cited as the triggers of Muslim disenchantment with the three
decade-long Left rule. Their swing towards Mamata Banerjee – with Islamic
religious leaders crowding her daises onwards 2008 – played a pivotal role
behind the TMC’s historic success in 2011.
According to
sociologist Abhijit Dasgupta, a former head of the department of sociology,
Delhi School of Economics, Bengal politics witnessed a tectonic shift in
2007-08 when Muslims, for the first time, started asserting themselves as a
political block. He said that revelations of the Sachar Committee report was a
key factor behind the Muslim assertion of their identity as a political block,
something that they did not resort to since the Partition.
“Since 2007-08,
Banerjee’s way of directly addressing them as a community has increased their
aspirations, while the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has increased their
communal insecurity and anxieties. Even though she has taken some significant
steps towards meeting the Sachar Committee recommendations, she has altogether
given more lip-services. Muslims of Bengal are standing at a critical juncture
and that’s one of the reasons new players are trying to exploit the turbulent
Bengali Muslim mind,” Dasgupta said.
Mamata Banerjee
and the Muslim vote-bank
The TMC chief,
who had been in alliance with the BJP on and off between 1998 and 2007, started
making overtures to the Muslim population, and especially its religious
leadership, after testing her first success in getting Muslim votes – in
Nandigram and Bhangar in the 2008 panchayat elections. Banerjee was seen
wrapping her saree around her head emulating a hijab at Muslim functions.
Since coming to
power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee announced the establishment of hundreds of new
madrasas, monthly stipend for the Imams and their helpers (muezzins), included
majority of Bengal’s Muslim population under the Other Backward Communities
(OBCs) – which was a recommendation of the Sachar Committee – and
controversially tried to restrict Durga idol immersion processions to
facilitate rehearsals of Muharram processions.
It is through
their campaigns against Mamata Banerjee’s ‘appeasement of the Muslims’ that the
BJP and its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), started
gaining grounds in West Bengal since 2013.
With the BJP’s
rise at the Centre and in Bengal after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Muslims
votes further consolidated in favour of the TMC, as was evident from the 2016
Assembly election results. Analysis of the 2019 Lok Sabha election results
revealed a near-complete polarisation of Muslim votes in favour of the TMC,
except in two districts. Significantly, these districts are the two of Bengal
three Muslim-majority districts – Murshidabad and Malda.
The TMC,
therefore, is aware that it not only has to retain the existing Muslim votes
but has also to win over Malda and Murshidabad, which together have 34 of the
state’s 294 Assembly seats. In 2016, when the Left and the Congress fought in
alliance, TMC won only six of these 34 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,
TMC won only two of the five Lok Sabha seats in these two districts, while the
Congress won two and one went to the BJP, courtesy a split in the Muslim votes.
The BJP impact
The massive Ram
Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions organised by various organisations
affiliated to the RSS, and joined by BJP leaders, in 2017, had left Mamata
Banerjee puzzled. She sensed the formation of a Hindu polarisation in favour of
the BJP. She initially tried to dub Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti as ‘north
Indian culture’, ‘alien to Bengal’; but later made her party compete with the
saffron camp in organising Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti functions. TMC
leaders were also seen organising conferences of Hindu priests, felicitating
Hindu religious singers and taking on greater participation in Hindu religious
festivals.
However, amid
all her overtures for the Hindus, she took no such step that could irk the
Muslims. Apart from vehemently opposing the National Register of Citizens (NRC)
throughout 2018-19, she firmly stood against the CAA, taking the risk of
antagonising a section of Hindu migrants who hoped to gain from the
legislation.
When the
Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi (March 2020) hogged the
headlines in national and regional media, her was the only government that did
not made details about Markaz-returnees to the state public. She said, “It’s
not a communal virus,” and blamed the Centre of callousness for letting the
gathering happen.
In August, her
government changed the dates for day-long complete lockdown in the month four
times in as many days to ensure they did not fall on days of Hindu and Muslim
religious festivals, including Rakhi, Janmashtami, Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi.
But the government did not heed the BJP’s repeated demands for withdrawing the
lockdown on August 5, the day of Ram temple’s bhoomi pujan.
Electoral
equations
Voices critical
of Mamata Banerjee from among the state’s Muslim leaders started getting louder
soon after the BJP’s stupendous electoral performance in Bengal in 2019 – when
the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally rose from two to 18 and the TMC’s dwindled from 34 to
22.
The likes of
Abbas Siddiqui and Md Kamruzzaman, the president of Minority Youth Forum,
launched a sustained campaign against the Mamata Banerjee government, accusing
it of giving the Muslims nothing in return despite receiving their fullest
support. The AIMIM, having stepped up activities to launch a party in Bengal,
pegged their campaign on similar lines.
Recently, Abbas
Siddiqui, Kamruzzaman and AIMIM’s Bengal organisers expressed their deep concerns
over recruitment in teaching positions in government-run English-medium
madrasas. List of appointees in geography, history and English had only eight
Muslim names among the 36. Muslim leaders questioned the government’s decision
of conducting the recruitment process through the Public Service Commission,
instead of the Madrasah Service Commission.
“I condemn the
attack on Abbas Siddiqui. However, it would not be right to blame Mamata
Banerjee for Muslims getting fewer appointments than Hindus in the madrasas.
Historically, a majority of Hindus have made up the teaching staff in the
government-run madrasas,” said Md. Yahiya, the chairman of the Bengal Imam’s
Association.
According to
Yahiya, Muslims benefitted from Banerjee’s rule as much as the Hindus did. “She
did no special favour to the Muslims and there was no particular discrimination
towards the Muslims either. Muslims benefited from her social welfare schemes
and infrastructure development projects, and suffered from corruption and
highhandedness of TMC leaders, as much as the Hindus did,” Yahiya said.
Political
analysts Biswanath Chakraborty and Maidul Islam said they suspect the BJP’s
hand behind the sudden escalation in the activities of the likes of Abbas
Siddiqui and AIMIM organisers. Also, the revelation of the TMC’s critical
dependence on Muslim votes may have prompted these leaders to bargain with the
TMC.
According to
Islam, who teaches political science at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences,
Calcutta, Banerjee’s nine-year rule has seen the TMC giving importance to
mostly the Urdu-speaking urban Muslims as leaders, whereas more than 85% of
Bengal Muslim population are Bengali-speaking and rural.
“The TMC’s
failure in bringing Bengali-speaking, progressive Muslim faces have left a scope
for disassociation and disenchantment with the rural Muslims. Fringe Muslim
organisations are trying to benefit from it. These fringe organisations mostly
profess to conservative views and their assertion of the communal identity
would help the BJP further polarise the Hindus,” he said.
“What TMC needs
at the moment is progressive and Bengali-speaking Muslim faces who would speak
less on the religious grounds and more on economic issues and the Bengali
identity,” Islam said.
Chakraborty, a
professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University, said that
despite growing discontent among a section of Bengal’s Muslims against the TMC
rule, the state’s political situation is likely to prevent a split in Muslim
votes.
“There are
marginal farmers who now think they were better off under the Left rule.
Muslims have also suffered the most due to political violence. The BJP is
trying to secretly back fringe organisations to fuel discontent among the
Muslims. However, Bengal’s political situation is such that the Muslims are
likely to vote for the TMC in bulk simply to keep the BJP at bay,” Chakraborty
said.
Snigdhendu
Bhattacharya is a Kolkata-based journalist and author.
https://thewire.in/politics/muslims-bengal-trinamool-mamata-banerjee
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Digvijaya asks
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg why BJP's anti-Muslim posts were not stopped
Aug 17, 2020
BHOPAL: Senior
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday asked Facebook co-founder and CEO
Mark Zuckerberg to clarify why hate speech against Muslims by BJP leaders is not
being stopped by the social media giant. Two days ago, Digvijaya Singh posted a
news article in the Wall Street Journal that said Facebook had not taken down
instigating posts against Rohingya Muslims by BJP legislator from Telegana T
Raja and two others of the saffron party.
Responding to
the Wall Street Journal report, Facebook clarified, “We prohibit hate speech,
and content that incites violence, and we enforce these policies globally
without regard to anyone’s political position/party affiliation.” Facebook also
claimed, “We’re making progress on enforcement, and conduct regular audits to
ensure fairness and accuracy.”
Digvijaya Singh
on Monday took to twitter and contended, “It is a very poor clarification Mr
Mark Zuckerberg. You and your policy head Ankhi Das allowed a hate speech by
Raja Singh BJP MLA to continue on Facebook.”
In a second
tweet, Digvijaya Singh alleged, “Please explain why such a hate speech
instigating people to kill Muslims was allowed to continue obviously under
pressure from BJP. It is a fact that both Ankhi Das and her sister are known
BJP activists and openly support Modi who is stifling the voice of the People
and Media.”
The Wall Street
Journal report said T Raja Singh had said that “Rohingya Muslim immigrants
should be shot, called Muslims traitors and threatened to raze mosques.” The
report said, that Facebook INC employees has cautioned that T.Raja Singh not
only violated the company’s hate-speech rules but qualified as dangerous.
The news report
also said that Facebook’s top public-policy executive in India, Ankhi Das who
joined Facebook in 2011, “opposed applying the hate-speech rules to Mr Singh
and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups” who are
allegedly flagged internationally for promoting or participating in violence.
The newspaper also claimed that sources in Facebook said that Ankhi Das
“provided the BJP with favourable treatment on election-related issues.”
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/digvijaya-asks-facebook-ceo-zuckerberg-why-bjps-anti-muslim-posts-were-not-stopped/articleshow/77594342.cms
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26/11 witnesses
won't travel, Pakistan panel can come: India
Aug 18, 2020
NEW DELHI: After
years of delay, the protracted stop-start trial of the Mumbai attacks accused
in Pakistan may see some progress as India has offered to host a judicial
commission after Islamabad sent a list of 27 witnesses the anti-terror court
hearing the case wants to examine.
While Islamabad
reiterated its demand a few weeks ago that the witnesses based in India should
travel to Pakistan for examination, India has said they will testify only to a
visiting Pakistani judicial commission or through a video conference, TOI has
learnt.
Pakistan is also
said to have conveyed to India that the witnesses have to testify within 90
days as per a court directive. For India, however, it’s important that
witnesses record statements in an atmosphere free of fear or intimidation. The
government, in any case, isn’t sure how serious Pakistan is about the exercise,
given the inordinate delay on the part of local authorities in taking the trial
to its logical conclusion. The trial has been marred by changes in judges and
prosecution lawyers as well as release of suspects from detention.
For now though,
the government doesn’t want Pakistan to further delay the trial citing lack of
support from India, especially when it continues to mount pressure on Pakistan
diplomatically to move ahead with the trial. The need for Pakistan to bring the
Mumbai attacks accused to justice has continued to figure in India’s
engagements with all major powers. The India-US joint statement after the
Modi-Trump summit earlier this year, while calling upon Pakistan to ensure no
territory under its control was used to launch terrorist attacks, again asked
Islamabad to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of Mumbai and
Pathankot attacks.
A Pakistani
judicial panel had visited Mumbai in 2013 to examine witnesses. However, the
defence lawyers managed to get the trial court to quash the panel’s findings,
as they claimed the witnesses were not allowed to be cross-examined.
The Mumbai trial
was initiated after Pakistan in 2009 arrested seven men directly involved in
the terror attack, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Frequent transfer of judges who were apparently reluctant to hear the case,
intimidated Pakistani witnesses and lack of cooperation from the Pakistan
government are said to be some of the reasons for the trial dragging on for 11
years.
While the
anti-terrorism court hearing the case and the prosecution said in the past that
Indian witnesses’ testimonies were essential to bring the trial to an end,
India has remained sceptical about the outcome. This has mainly to do with
Pakistan’s refusal to take serious action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and
UN-designated global terrorist Hafiz Saeed whom India describes as the
mastermind of the Mumbai attacks. Lakhvi, too, managed to get bail in 2015.
Pakistan claims
there is not enough evidence to book Saeed in the Mumbai case. Indian officials
felt vindicated again earlier this year after a US state department
spokesperson was quoted as saying that Saeed had to be held accountable for his
involvement in the planning of numerous acts of terrorism, “including 2008
Mumbai attacks” that killed 166 innocent people, including six Americans.
Saeed was
recently booked on charges of terror-financing as Pakistan apparently sought to
avoid being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force. In fact, he was
said to have been sentenced to 11 years in prison in February. India has
repeatedly told Pakistan that all evidence against Saeed and others have
already been provided to Pakistan and it’s for the government to work on it and
bring the perpetrators to justice. Pakistan has usually stonewalled, claiming
addresses and phone numbers were untraceable.
Apart from
Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil
Ahmed and Younis Anjum are facing charges of abetment to murder, attempted
murder, planning and executing the 2008 attacks.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/26/11-witnesses-wont-travel-pakistan-panel-can-come-india/articleshow/77599837.cms
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4 security
personnel, 3 LeT terrorists killed in J&K attack
Aug 17, 2020
SRINAGAR: Four
security personnel — an SPO, two CRPF constables and a soldier — and three
Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in a terror attack in north Kashmir’s
Baramulla district on Monday.
Among the slain
ultras was top commander Sajad alias Haider alias Raja, tasked with recruiting
Kashmiri youth into militancy, J&K DGP Dilbagh Singh said. A soldier also
sustained critical injuries in the firefight.
“Sajad was
considered one of the most-wanted terrorist commanders in J&K. He joined
the terrorist ranks in the winter of 2016 and operated on the lines of slain
Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, luring local youth into terrorism. We
have arrested at least 20 such youth who were recruited by Sajad, besides many
overground workers,” DGP Singh said at a press conference later on Monday.
Sajad’s slain aides were identified as Anayatullah from Andergam area in
Pattan, Baramulla, and Usman from Pakistan.
Around 9.30am,
the Lashkar trio came through the orchards in Kreeri area and targeted a joint
team of security personnel manning the check post at Tindim village, killing
SPO Muzaffar Ahmad on the spot and grievously wounding CRPF constables Khurshid
Khan and Lavkush Sudarshan Sharma. The terrorists also snatched the weapons of
the security personnel before fleeing, IGP (Kashmir Range) Vijay Kumar said.
The injured CRPF men, both from Bihar and serving with the paramilitary force’s
119 Batallion, succumbed on the way to the hospital.
“Minutes after
the attack, the special operations group of J&K Police chased the
terrorists and one was injured just at the bund, a few metres away from the
attack site. He later managed to sneak into the orchards,” DGP Singh said. “In
the meantime, SOG men surrounded the orchards and were later joined by the Army
and CRPF. One of the terrorists, who was sitting on a tree, started firing at
the forces. He was shot dead first, followed by the injured terrorist,” the DGP
added. The security personnel also retrieved the weapons the ultras had stolen,
IGP Kumar said.
As the massive
cordon-and-search operation continued, fresh firing started in the orchards of
Kreeri in Watergam area in the evening after security forces spotted the third
ultra and shot him dead. The operation was suspended temporarily as darkness
fell, even as one terrorist is still believed to be holed-up in the orchards of
Kreeri, an official said.
A soldier was
also killed in the intense firefight while another was critically injured and
shifted to Army’s 92 Base hospital in Srinagar, officials said.
Late on Monday,
terrorists opened indiscriminate fire at a CRPF camp in Nehama area in south
Kashmir’s Kulgam district, in which an assistant sub-inspector of the force was
injured. “The ASI was shifted to a hospital where his condition is stable,”
said an official. Soon after the attack, a massive search operation was
launched in the area to trace the perpetrators, he added.
Meanwhile, late
Sunday night, alert security personnel averted a major tragedy by timely
detecting and defusing an improvised explosive device in south Kashmir’s
Pulwama district. A senior cop said the IED was planted by terrorists “under a
bridge near Tujan village and Dalwan”.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/4-security-personnel-3-let-terrorists-killed-in-jk-attack/articleshow/77598667.cms
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Southeast Asia
Over 1,700 Child
Sexual Crime Cases Reported In First Half Of 2020 In Malaysia
Minderjeet Kaur
August 18, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR:
Police recorded 1,721 sexual crime cases involving children in the first six
months of the year.
Deputy Women,
Family and Community Development Minister Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff told the
Dewan Rakyat today that another 813 similar cases were with the Special Court.
She said the
government was going all out to educate schoolchildren on sexual crimes and
looking at strengthening the relevant laws.
The Rantau
Panjang MP was replying to Shaharizukirnain Abd Kadir (PAS-Setiu), who wanted
to know the situation concerning sexual crimes involving children and efforts
made to address the problem.
Siti Zailah said
Malaysia ranked 23rd among 60 countries in the Out of The Shadows Index, which
examines how countries respond to the threat of sexual violence against
children.
Replying to an
additional question from Charles Santiago (PH-Klang), who asked if the
government would consider amending laws to allow the use of electronic
monitoring devices to monitor those charged with sexual offences involving
children, she said such devices were under the jurisdiction of the police.
She added that
her ministry was holding discussions with them on the matter.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/08/18/over-1700-child-sexual-crime-cases-reported-in-first-half-of-2020/
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Pakistan
Four-Pronged
Strategy Being Pursued To Deal With India: Pakistan FM
Baqir Sajjad
Syed
18 Aug 2020
ISLAMABAD:
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi explained the government’s four-point
strategy over dealing with India on Monday and emphasised that in a changing
world, there would have to be a greater reliance on national strength rather
than looking towards international structures.
Participating in
a webinar on “Annexation of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir: Lessons for Regional
Security”, organised by Islamabad Policy Institute (IPI), the foreign minister
said there was a “new world, brave or grave, that is upon us, and with which we
have to contend.
“This world is
more uncertain, less predictable, and for these reasons, perhaps more
dysfunctional.”
While
emphasising that “the buffers and support systems of international
organisations and international law” had not come up to expectations, Mr
Qureshi said countries would have to depend on their own strengths rather than
looking towards those structures.
Explaining the
government’s strategy on dealing with India’s expansionist designs, he said a
four-pronged strategy was being pursued. It entailed confronting, exposing and
pushing back against New Delhi’s intentions; deterring it through military
preparedness, conflict resolution and confidence-building; and not being
distracted by India’s actions and continuing with regional integration projects
through participation in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation, and the Economic Cooperation Organisation. Efforts
were being made for revival of the South Asian Association of Regional
Countries, the foreign minister added.
Dr Shireen
Mazari, Minister for Human Rights, listed the areas in which she believed
diplomacy was lacking.
She had last
week railed against the Foreign Office over its handling of the Kashmir issue.
Dr Mazari said there was more focus on the political dynamics rather than
looking at it from a wider spectrum. She suggested the sufferings of women and
children in India-held Kashmir be highlighted aggressively.
“We have not
appealed enough to women’s organisations on the plight of Kashmiri women,” she
maintained.
Dr Mazari
contended that India was moving up the escalation ladder, committing actions in
Kashmir that amounted to genocide, and therefore the threat of war was getting
more imminent. The impact of a conflict, she warned, would not remain limited
and affect others in the neighbourhood as well because of “unintended
consequences”.
She proposed
pursuing the model of ‘Good Friday Agreement’ in 1998, which brought together
all parties to the conflict in Northern Ireland and ended decades of violence,
as a possible approach for resolving the Kashmir dispute.
The webinar was
attended, besides Pakistanis, by scholars and think tank representatives from
India-occupied Kashmir, China, Iran, Turkey, Bangladesh and Nepal.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1574996/four-pronged-strategy-being-pursued-to-deal-with-india-fm
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Pakistan army
chief arrives in Saudi Arabia to revive strained ties
RAug 17, 2020
RIYADH:
Pakistan's army chief arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, its embassy in Riyadh
said, amid a diplomatic spat that has threatened Riyadh's financial life line
to the cash-strapped South Asian nation.
General Qamar
Javed Bajwa arrived in Riyadh at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), the embassy said. A
military source said the head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
General Faiz Hameed is accompanying Bajwa.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-army-chief-arrives-in-saudi-arabia-to-revive-strained-ties/articleshow/77589300.cms
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ATC orders provision
of facilities to Uzair Baloch in sub-jail
18 Aug 2020
KARACHI: An
antiterrorism court (ATC) on Monday ordered provision of necessary facilities
to Uzair Jan Baloch, chief of the outlawed Peoples Amn Committee (PAC), whose
custody was shifted from the Karachi central prison to the Mitha Ram sub-jail
maintained by the Rangers, after a military court convicted him of spying for
foreign countries.
In April, a
military court had sentenced Mr Baloch to 12 years rigorous imprisonment after
convicting him of spying for foreign countries, according to the prison
authorities.
Separately,
Uzair was allegedly involved in 59 other cases which were pending trial before
different courts of law, they said.
On Monday, the
matter came up before the judge of the ATC-VII. Uzair Baloch and others were
produced before the court.
The defence
counsel for Uzair Baloch moved an application pleading to the judge to order
the superintendent of the Central Jail of Karachi and the Mitha Ram sub-jail
hostel to provide necessary facilities to Uzair Ali, alias Uzair Jan Baloch, as
required under the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1948.
After hearing
arguments from the special public prosecutor, the judge ordered:
“Superintendent of Central Prison Karachi and sub-jail or sub-jail Mitha Ram Hostel
to ensure necessary lawful facilities to the under-trial prisoner (Uzair
Baloch) as provided in the relevant provisions of the Pakistan Prisons Rules,
1948.”
In the
meanwhile, the court also recorded statement of one witness while the
prosecution withdrew two other witnesses.
The court fixed
the matter for Sept 7.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1574961/atc-orders-provision-of-facilities-to-uzair-baloch-in-sub-jail
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Mideast
Israel preparing
for flights to UAE over S. Arabia
18 Aug 2020
JERUSALEM:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the Jewish state
was preparing for direct flights, over Saudi Arabia, to the United Arab
Emirates as part of its normalisation deal with the UAE.
Israel and UAE
announced on Thursday that they would normalise diplomatic relations under a
US-sponsored deal whose implementation could reshape Middle East politics from
the Palestinian issue to the fight against Iran.
Netanyahu,
briefed at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport on plans for expanding flight activity
curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic, gave no timeframe for the opening of an
air link with the Gulf Arab country.
“We are
currently working on enabling direct flights, over Saudi Arabia, between Tel
Aviv and Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” Netanyahu told reporters, estimating the flight
time at “about three hours, just like to Rome”.
Saudi Arabia
does not recognise Israel and its air space is closed to Israeli airliners.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1575031/israel-preparing-for-flights-to-uae-over-s-arabia
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Iran Blasts
Western Countries for Excuses in Anti-Narcotics Campaign
Aug 17, 2020
"Under the
pretext of sanctions, western countries do not provide the Islamic Republic
with any equipment and technical facilities that can deprive Iran of the need
for physical care to protect its borders," Lotfi said on Monday.
He pointed out
that that hundreds of millions of dollars is needed annually to block the
Iran's Eastern borders.
Noting that Iran
has discovered about 80 percent of Afghanistan's opium for many years, Lotfi
said, "Iran has discovered about 90% of opium, 26% of the heroin, and 48%
of morphine found in the world."
The spokesman
for Iran's Anti-Narcotics Headquarters stressed that the Islamic Republic's
efforts have always been endorsed by the United Nations.
The United
Nations has named Iran as the flagship of the fight against drugs.
The Islamic
Republic of Iran has so far sacrificed about 4,000 martyrs and thousands
wounded in the fight against drug trafficking.
In relevant
remarks in mid-June, Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) Alexander Fedulov praised Iran's serious efforts to fight against
drug trafficking.
Fedulov made the
remarks in a meeting with anti-narcotics Police Chief of the Law Enforcement
Forces Colonel Majid Karimi in Tehran on Tuesday.
The two sides
discussed issues on the fight against drug trafficking and sought to expand
cooperation in this regard.
Fedulov
emphasized Iran’s readiness to strengthen the capacity of its anti-narcotics
forces based on international standards, as well as the country’s role in the
regional and international fight against drug trafficking.
“International
organizations affiliated with UN confirm that Iran is at the forefront of the
battle against drug trafficking,” he added.
Karimi, for his
part, referred to the inefficiency of western countries in performing their
international duties in the fight against drug trafficking and maintained that
European countries do not act in accordance with the level of threat.
“The
Anti-Narcotics Police of Iran is an important and effective partner for United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for developing drug control programs
in the region and the world,” he added.
Karimi further
noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran is at the forefront of the fight
against drug trafficking and so far more than 3,000 police officers have been
martyred in this path.
On May 22,
Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to Vienna-Based International
Organizations Kazzem Qaribabadi said despite the troubles and obstacles posed
by the US sanctions against Iran, his nation continues to lead the fight
against drug smuggling in the world.
Qaribabadi made
the remarks in a letter to Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC) Ghada Fathi Waly.
He called on the
UN and its member states to practice their responsibility to recognize and
support Iran’s activities in this fight.
The Iranian
envoy noted that seizure of illicit drugs in Iran topped by 20% last year in
comparison to the previous year.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990527000498
--------
Iranian
Vice-Speaker Asks Arab States to Defend Palestine
Aug 17, 2020
“It was a long
time that certain reactionary regimes in the region had secret relations with
the Zionist regime and they revealed it finally under the Americans’ pressures
and they are making attempts to extenuate relations with the occupying regime
in Quds and occupation,” Qazizadeh Hashemi said in a phone conversation with
Hamas Representative in Tehran Khalid al-Qadoumi on Monday.
“We hope that
the Arab regional states support both their Islamic beliefs in defending
Palestine and their Arab features,” he added.
Qazizadeh
Hashemi reiterated the Iranian parliament’s continued support for the
Palestinian cause.
Trump on
Thursday announced a deal brokered by his government between Israel and the UAE
which he said would lead to full normalization of ties between the two.
Critics see the
deal as the latest attempt by Trump to save his presidential campaign against
the Democrat Joe Biden.
Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani decried the recent normalization deal between the UAE
and Israel, describing it as a gift to US President Donald Trump before
elections.
“These days we
have faced a neighboring country which has approached the enemy of the Islamic
world and the region and the murderer of the Palestinian nation in a decision
to get close to the Zionist regime,” Rouhani said, addressing a meeting of the
national coronavirus campaign headquarters in Tehran on Saturday.
He added that
the UAE rulers are wrongly thinking that their security and economy will
improve through relations with Israel, noting that the measure is aimed at
helping Trump win the November elections.
“(The UAE’s)
measure is one hundred percent wrong and condemned,” Rouhani said.
He warned the
regional states not to pave the way for Israel to have a foothold in the
region.
In a relevant
statement on Friday, the Iranian foreign ministry strongly condemned the UAE's
decision to set up diplomatic relations with "the Zionist regime of
Israel" and termed it as a strategic act of idiocy by Abu Dhabi and Tel
Aviv which will undoubtedly result in the further reinvigoration of the axis of
resistance in the region.
The statement
further stressed that "the oppressed nation of Palestine as well as other
freedom-seeking peoples worldwide will never forgive the sin of normalization
of the ties with the occupier and bloodthirsty regime of Israel and also the
act of those who approve and cooperate with its crimes".
Undoubtedly the
innocent bloods shed during the past seven decades of resistance to free the
sacred land of Palestine which is Muslims' first Qibla will sooner or later
take those that betrayed the Palestinian cause by the throat, it added.
The statement
also stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers as dangerous Abu
Dhabi's act of normalizing ties with the fabricated, illegitimate and
anti-human regime of Israel, and warns the Zionist regime against any kind of
meddling in the Persian Gulf region's equations.
The UAE
administration and all other governments which approve of this move should be
ready to take the responsibility of all the consequences of such a measure, it
further said.
The Iranian
foreign ministry's statement also noted that the history will definitely
demonstrate how this strategic mistake by the Zionist regime and the dagger
which stabbed both the Palestinian nation and the Muslim peoples in the back
will backfire and further strengthen the resistance axis by enhancing unity and
solidarity against the Zionist regime and the backward governments in the
region.
The foreign
ministry advised those rulers who, from inside their "glass castles",
hatch plots against the Palestinians and other regional oppressed nations,
including Yemen, to regain consciousness and stop erring in distinguishing
between friends and foes.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990527000453
--------
Speaker: Lebanese
Victory in 33-Day War, Glaring Defeat for Israel
Aug 17, 2020
Qalibaf made the
remarks in separate messages to his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri and
Secretary General of Hezbollah Resistance Movement Seyed Hassan Nasrallah on
the occasion of the anniversary of the 33-day war in 2006.
“No doubt, the
victory of the Lebanese Resistance is not only a turning-point and a golden
chapter in the history of the region's struggles, but also a glaring defeat for
the occupying regime,” he said.
Iran’s parliament
speaker reiterated that the 33-day war changed the military-political equations
of the region.
He noted,
"I take this opportunity to reaffirm our full support for Lebanon and
Resistance. I hope dignity and welfare for the Resistance and Hezbollah, and
the dear people of Lebanon."
About 1,200
Lebanese, most of them civilians, lost their lives during Israel’s 33-day war
on Lebanon back in the summer of 2006.
According to a
629-page report of the Winograd Commission, appointed by the Israeli regime
itself, Hezbollah fighters involved in defending Lebanon against the Israeli
war defeated the enemy, and Tel Aviv was compelled to withdraw without having
achieved any of its objectives.
The Winograd
Commission was set by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in September
2006 to examine the events during Israel’s 33-day war on Lebanon. It was
chaired by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd.
The commission
was formed in the wake of public criticism and protest over the fact that the
Israeli military had effectively lost the war by failing to achieve its aim of
freeing two soldiers captured by Hezbollah fighters.
UN Security
Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the 2006 war, calls on
Israel to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In relevant
remarks on Friday, the Iranian foreign ministry congratulated the Lebanese
nation, government, army, and resistance, especially the secretary-general of
Hezbollah, on the 14th anniversary of the proud victory of Lebanon’s Islamic resistance
against the Zionist regime in the 2006 war, which imposed a historic defeat on
the occupying regime.
The great
victory was achieved in light of domestic solidarity among various tribes and
synergy among the Lebanese people, and resulted in stability, security, and
dignity for Lebanon and the region, the statement said.
It added that
the resistance of Lebanese women and men and the struggle of the brave young
fighters of the resistance gave a lesson to the aggressors and sponsors of
terrorism, which will protect Lebanon against the fake regime of Israel’s
threats and aggression.
"The
Islamic Republic of Iran believes resistance against the Zionist regime will
result in their imminent defeat, as the 33-day war – a symbol of people’s
resistance and power against the heavily-armed Zionist regime – ended with a
sweet victory for the Lebanese nation."
It went on to
say that there is no doubt that the Lebanese nation will always remember the
sweet taste of the victory, and will not allow enemies to play with the
country’s security, independence, and sovereignty.
The Lebanese
nation will overcome the current crisis through unity and synergy, and that is
a great lesson for all regional governments and nations, the statement said.
It pointed out
that the Islamic Republic of Iran has always stood by the Lebanese nation and
government, and will stand by them forever.
"The
ongoing visit of the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Beirut
on the anniversary of the great epic and his talks and meetings with Lebanese
officials and personalities is aimed at promoting constructive relations
between Iran and Lebanon as two friendly and brotherly countries and is in line
with Tehran’s all-out support for the government, nation, army, and resistance
of Lebanon," the Iranian foreign ministry concluded.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990527000267
--------
Egyptian
mediators in Gaza in bid to ease tensions between Hamas and Israel
17 August 2020
Egyptian
mediators were in the Gaza Strip on Monday in an effort to reduce tensions and
prevent a new cross-border conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant
group Hamas.
The militant
group, which seized control of Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007, said
the three Egyptian general intelligence envoys headed straight for meetings
with Hamas officials after entering the territory.
The urgent visit
came as hostilities broke out along the Gaza-Israel frontier after months of
calm due in part to leaders from both sides being occupied by the coronavirus
crisis.
For the past
week, Palestinian youth groups affiliated with Hamas have fired incendiary
balloons toward Israel, setting swaths of farmland on fire. Israel, which holds
Hamas responsible for violence emanating from the territory, responded with
airstrikes on Hamas military sites, banned Gaza’s fishermen from taking to the
sea and shut the main commercial crossing into the territory.
On Tuesday, the
lone power plant in Gaza is scheduled to shut down because the closure of Kerem
Shalom crossing has cut fuel supplies, exacerbating the power crisis and
leaving Gaza’s two million residents with about four hours of electricity a
day.
Hamas says
Israel did not honor previous understandings reached with the help of Egypt and
Qatar, in which Israel should ease the blockade it has imposed on Gaza since
Hamas’ takeover and allow for large-scale projects to help rescue the
collapsing economy.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/17/Egyptian-mediators-in-Gaza-in-bid-to-ease-tensions-between-Hamas-and-Israel.html
--------
South Asia
Palace:
Prisoners’ release process halted, the Taliban must release remaining detainees
18 Aug 2020
The Taliban
prisoners’ release process has been halted, the Presidential Palace announced
on Monday.
Seddiq Seddiqi,
the spokesperson to the Presidential Palace appeared in a press conference on
Monday, announcing the Taliban prisoners’ release process has been halted as
they have not yet released the prisoners from the government side.
Seddiq Seddiqi
clarified that if the Taliban completed the release of captured government
prisoners, there would not be an obstacle to the Intra-Afghan talks.
On the other
hand, several other NATO members have expressed concerns over the release of
those Taliban militants who were engaged in killing their citizens in
Afghanistan.
France and
Australia have so far shared their concerns with the Afghan government stating
that those under detention has killed some of their nationals, must not be
released.
According to
Afghan government, 80 out of 400 remaining Taliban prisoners have been released
so far.
This comes as,
following the Loya Jirga’s decision, President Ashraf Ghani signed a decree to
release the dreaded 400 Taliban prisoners.
https://www.khaama.com/palace-prisoners-release-process-halted-the-taliban-must-release-remaining-detainees/
--------
Iran offered
bounties to Taliban in Afghanistan to kill US, coalition troops: CNN
17 August 2020
Iran offered
bounties to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to kill US and coalition troops,
according to a CNN report.
Iran reimbursed
the Haqqani network after it conducted at least six attacks against American
and coalition interests in 2019, according to a joint intelligence assessment
produced in July by the CIA, NSA and NCTC, CNN reported on Monday.
The Haqqani
network is led by Sirajuddin Haqqani who is also the deputy leader of the
Taliban.
Iran also paid
bounties to the Haqqani network for their attack on Bagram Air Base in December
2019, according to a Pentagon briefing document reviewed by CNN. The attack
killed two civilians and wounded more than 70 others, including four US
personnel.
In March, the US
decided to not take any retaliatory action in order to not jeopardize peace talks
with the Taliban, according to the report.
US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo had accused Iran in January of using militant groups such as
the Taliban to undermine Afghanistan peace efforts.
Iran’s ties to
the Taliban were cited by US officials as part of the argument for targeting
Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January, a current administration official
told CNN.
US and Afghan
officials have accused Tehran of supporting the Taliban in the past.
An Afghan police
official said in February that Iran had supplied the Taliban with anti-aircraft
missiles.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/08/17/Iran-offered-bounties-to-Taliban-in-Afghanistan-to-kill-US-coalition-troops-CNN.html
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Christians and
Muslims mourn the death of Fr Homrich, a great missionary among the Garos
by Sumon Corraya
07/27/2020
Tangail
(AsiaNews) – Bangladeshi Christians and Muslims are mourning the death of Fr
Eugene Eduard Homrich, a US missionary who died two days ago at the age of 92
at the Holy Cross House in Indiana (US) from COVID-19-related complications.
The clergyman
served the Church in Bangladesh for 60 years, until 2016, when he had to return
to the United States because of health problems and death threats from radical
Islamists.
Yesterday,
hundreds of people gathered in Pirgacha parish church, Tangail, for a memorial
service that highlighted his exceptional contribution to the Diocese of
Mymensingh.
Most of this
Diocese is home to ethnic Garos. Much of Fr Eugene’s mission was dedicated to
them, including setting up two high schools and 28 primary schools to keep the
Garo culture alive.
“Fr Homrich is
called the father of the modern Garo community,” said For Surma Chiran, a Garo
woman. “If he had not come to Mymensingh, our tribal community would not have
been able to save our culture.”
She remembers
that “Once he told us that religion and culture are not the same thing. So, he
advised us to practice our faith and at the same time maintain the culture we
received from our ancestors. I feel very lucky to have met him and learnt from
him what it means to be Catholic.”
Fr Simon Hacha,
a 66-year-old ethnic Garo priest in Diocese of Mymensingh, stressed that in 60
years of pastoral life, the great missionary transformed the Garos’
socio-economic conditions.
“By founding
schools and health centres, and defending the persecuted Garo community, Fr
Eugene became an indispensable reference in our life,” said Fr Hacha, who is
pastor in Dhakua parish. “When he had to return to the United States, Catholics
wept saying goodbye. Today we weep because of the sad news of his death.”
“Fr Eugene’s
life and mission were full of success,” Fr Hacha added. “He was a friend of the
Garo community and always encouraged its culture. In the liturgy he kept Garo
musical instruments, language, and hymns. When the Garos were persecuted, he
always fought for them.”
Muslims also
expressed their condolences for the missionary's death. “I met Fr Homrich many
times,” said Zoynal Abedin. “He was a Catholic, but he respected me as a Muslim.
We had good talks. May Allah Almighty give him eternal peace.”
During its War
of Liberation, Bangladesh (then called East Pakistan) fought West Pakistan (26
March- 16 December 1971). During the hostilities, Fr Homrich saved hundreds of
Muslims, Hindus and Christians by giving them shelter, hiding them in his
church and feeding them.
“Fr Homrich gave
a lot to the population of Modhupur [in the Diocese of Mymenshing],” said a
saddened Harun Rashid. “When he was alive, we could have honoured him with
Bangladeshi citizenship, but nothing was done. The Bangladesh government
honoured him as a foreign friend but he should have road named after him in
Modhupur.”
In 2012 Fr
Homrich received a Friends of Liberation War Honour award, which is given to
foreign nationals who helped the country win the 1971 war, directly from the
hands of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
This recognition
highlights Bangladesh’s friendship and gratitude for those who provide moral,
mental, material, political, diplomatic, logistical and military support for
the struggle for freedom of the Bangladeshi people.
Fr Eugene Eduard
Homrich was born in Michigan in 1928 and arrived in Bangladesh in 1955. After
learning the language, he served a Bengali congregation for three years in the
Diocese of Dhaka. In 1959 he was moved to Jalchatra parish, in the Diocese of
Mymensingh, where he remained until 2016.
The Garos are an
indigenous Tibeto-Burman ethnic group who also live in India. About 120,000
live Bangladesh and are mostly Christians.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Christians-and-Muslims-mourn-the-death-of-Fr-Homrich,-a-great-missionary-among-the-Garos-50665.html
--------
Arab world
Kurdish PKK says
shot down Turkish helicopter in Iraq
17 August 2020
The Kurdish
Workers’ Party (PKK) said Monday it had shot down a Turkish helicopter in Iraqi
Kurdistan in retaliation for the death of one of its commanders last week.
Last Tuesday’s
Turkish drone strike had also killed two high-ranking Iraqi officers, sparking
renewed tensions with Baghdad.
In a statement
Monday, the PKK said its forces in the mountainous Zagros region had “been able
to score a direct hit and shoot down a Turkish helicopter.”
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“Ten minutes
after the shooting-down of the first helicopter, our forces hit another one ...
forcing it to flee,” the militant group said.
The mayor of
Kani Massi, near the Turkish border, confirmed that a Turkish helicopter had
crashed nearby.
Servest Aqrawi
told AFP that he was unable to confirm the second hit or the extent of the
damage, given the difficulty of accessing the combat zone.
The PKK
dedicated Monday’s operation to its “martyr” Akid Karzan and the two Iraqi
officers killed “by the Turkish occupation army.”
Turkey, which
has had a military presence in Iraq’s autonomous region for a quarter of a
century, launched a cross-border ground and air operation against the PKK in
the mountainous region in mid-June.
Last Tuesday’s
strike had prompted Iraq to summon the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad for the
third time in two months.
Then on Friday,
Turkish bombardment killed three Kurdish fighters in the region.
Ankara defends
its right to bomb the PKK, which it considers to be a “terrorist” organization,
and accuses Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan of turning a blind eye to the group’s
activities.
Baghdad for its
part has sought to rally support to end Ankara’s offensive on its soil.
The US and the
EU also consider the PKK a terrorist organization.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/17/Kurdish-PKK-says-shot-down-Turkish-helicopter-in-Iraq.html
--------
Verdict on
Hariri killing to be issued by UN-backed court, 15 years later
17 August 2020
A UN-backed
tribunal is set to issue the verdict into the killing of Lebanon’s former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri on Tuesday after postponing the initial announcement due
to the Aug. 4 Beirut explosions.
Four members of
the Iran-backed Shia group Hezbollah have been on trial in absentia over the
killing of Hariri, Lebanon’s main Sunni Muslim leader. Hezbollah denies any
role in the killing, which set the stage for years of confrontation,
culminating in a brief civil war in 2008.
For all the
latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Hariri was
killed in 2005 by a suicide truck bomb on a seaside boulevard in Beirut that
killed him and 21 others, and wounded 226 people.
Hezbollah’s
leader Hassan Nasrallah last week repeated previous comments that his group did
not recognize the court and would not be affected by any verdict.
Read more:
Hezbollah to ignore UN-backed tribunal over Rafik Hariri assassination:
Nasrallah
Hariri’s son,
Saad, also a former prime minister, landed in Holland on Monday night ahead of
the ruling. A statement from the Saad Hariri’s office said that he would attend
the three Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s sessions Tuesday. “[PM] Hariri will
issue a statement following the announcement of the verdict,” the statement
said.
Saad Hariri’s
diplomatic adviser Basem Shabb told Reuters that many people were “waiting for
this decision for closure.
This tribunal
has cost not only money but blood.
“It will have
consequences; I do not expect turmoil in the streets. I think Prime Minister
Hariri was wise enough to make sure this does not turn into a sectarian issue,”
he said.
On Monday, a
French presidential source told Al Arabiya that the STL was formed by an
international consensus and "its authority must be respected."
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/17/Verdict-on-Hariri-killing-to-be-issued-by-UN-backed-court-15-years-later.html
--------
Lebanon
explosion: Customs chief Badri Daher formally arrested over Beirut blast
17 August 2020
The head of
Lebanon's customs authority was formally arrested on Monday after being
questioned over the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month, the
state-run National News Agency reported.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The
investigation is focused on why nearly 3,000 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate
was being stored at the city's port. The ignition of the stockpile caused an
explosion that tore through the capital, killing at least 180 people and
wounding 6,000.
Thirty people
are still missing after the August 4 blast, which caused an estimated $10
billion to $15 billion in damage.
Documents that
surfaced after the blast, the single most destructive in Lebanon’s history,
showed that officials have known for years that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate
were stored in a warehouse at the port and knew about the dangers.
Judge Fadi
Sawwan questioned customs chief Badri Daher, who was detained days after the
blast, for 4 1/2 hours in the presence of his two lawyers before issuing the
arrest warrant, the agency said. Daher will remain in custody as the
investigation continues.
NNA said that after
questioning Daher, Sawwan headed to the scene of the blast to survey the damage
and will later return to question Hassan Koraytem, who was the top port
official until the day of the blast.
Lebanese
President Michel Aoun said the probe into the devastating blast is “very
complex” and would not be finished quickly. Aoun said the probe is divided into
three parts. The first aims to determine the circumstances surrounding the
cargo, the second where it came from and who shipped it, and the third to find
who was responsible for handling and securing it.
Aoun said the
FBI and French investigators were helping because “they, more than us, have the
capability and ability to find out the details of what got the ship here, what
is the source and who owns it.”
A nine-member
team of FBI investigators landed in Beirut on Sunday, according to a Lebanese
aviation official, and were believed to have joined the investigation. French
investigators have been active for days at the port.
Popular anger
has swelled over the ruling elite’s corruption and mismanagement. Lebanon’s
government, which is supported by the militant Hezbollah group and its allies,
resigned on August 10 and continues to serve in a caretaker capacity. There are
no formal consultations underway on who will replace Hassan Diab as prime
minister and no likely candidate has emerged.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/17/Lebanon-explosion-Customs-chief-Badri-Daher-formally-arrested-over-Beirut-blast.html
--------
UAE has
long-lasting support for Palestine: Abu Dhabi Palestinian Business Council
18 August 2020
The Palestinian
Business Council in Abu Dhabi said that the United Arab Emirates has been a
staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, since the era of the late Sheikh
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and that support continues today, the official WAM
news agency reported Monday.
Israel and the
UAE reached a historic peace deal last week that will lead to a full
normalization of diplomatic relations between the two Middle Eastern nations in
an agreement that US President Donald Trump helped broker.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The new
UAE-Israel peace deal, the Abraham Accord, is a watershed moment in the region
as it is only the third such agreement with Israel, a first from a Gulf
country, and the first since the mid-1990s.
“The Council
stressed its belief that the UAE will never give away the legitimate rights of
the Palestinian people and will support them at all events in establishing an
independent state with its capital in Jerusalem, noting the UAE’s humanitarian
role in supporting Palestine and its hosting of Palestinians in its territories
for decades,” WAM reported.
The business
council affirmed that the UAE is an independent and sovereign country that has
the “right to establish its foreign policy and sign agreements that are in line
with its strategic interests,” WAM added.
The new peace
deal sought to halt a planned annexation of Palestinian territory in the West
Bank by Israel, the UAE said at the time. The deal has provided more time for
opportunities for peace that could be achieved through a two-state solution,
the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Gargash has since added.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/08/18/UAE-has-long-lasting-support-for-Palestine-Abu-Dhabi-Palestinian-Business-Council.html
--------
Africa
Mozambique army
surrounds port held by Isis-linked insurgents
Jason Burke
16 Aug 2020
Government
troops are taking up positions outside a port in the far north of Mozambique
which was captured by Islamist extremists last week in the latest escalation of
the insurgency in the southern African country.
Hundreds of
reinforcements have been rushed into position around the port in the town of
Mocímboa da Praia.
The facility,
which is close to the site of natural gas projects worth about $60bn (£45bn),
fell on Tuesday when marines who had resisted several hundred militants ran out
of ammunition and were forced to withdraw.
The Mozambican
defence minister, Jaime Neto, said last week that the extremists had
infiltrated parts of Mocímboa da Praia and then “attacked the town from the
inside out, causing destruction, looting and the murder of defenceless citizens”,
according to a report from the local Zitamar news agency.
The attack was
the latest in a series launched on the town by a group known as Ahlu Sunnah
Wa-Jamaa, which pledged allegiance to Islamic State last year. The extremist
operation took place over several days, with early attacks closing off roads
leading to the town by eliminating government defensive posts, before a final
assault.
“This involved
the largest concentration of insurgents we have ever seen, was sophisticated
and was clearly planned for some time. It’s a success and an embarrassment for
the government, but they are extremely vulnerable at the moment,” said Jasmine
Opperman, a South African analyst who has followed the intensifying conflict in
northern Mozambique.
The government
has suffered a series of setbacks in its efforts to roll back the extremists’
advance.
An Ahlu Sunnah
Wa-Jamaa force briefly occupied the centre of Mocímboa da Praia in March,
burning government facilities including a barracks and brandishing banners of
affiliation to Isis.
The militants
raided a second town and badly damaged the district police headquarters. They
too carried an Isis flag.
Other raids have
met with limited resistance. As many as 55 government soldiers, mainly recent
recruits being transported in open trucks, died in a well-prepared ambush last
week on an approach road to Mocímboa da Praia as authorities sought to
reinforce the garrison in the town.
Local security
forces suffer from poor training, minimal equipment and low morale. Recent attempts
to reinforce them with expensive foreign mercenaries do not appear to have been
effective.
At least 150
Russians linked to the Wagner Group, a company that has supplied mercenaries to
fight in several African countries, were deployed last year but were forced to
withdraw after suffering significant casualties.
Dyck Advisory
Group, a South Africa-based private security firm currently employed in the
north of Mozambique, has also struggled to make any significant impact. Its
handful of light helicopters were based too far from Mocímboa da Praia to
intervene effectively.
The insurgency
in the remote north of Mozambique emerged in 2017, and is rapidly developing
into one of the region’s most serious security challenges.
Observers
increasingly compare the situation with the early phases of insurgencies in
Nigeria, Mali and elsewhere in Africa. These have grown in strength over the
last decade, with repeated efforts by local, regional and international powers
to stem their spread achieving limited success at best.
The conflict in
Mozambique is rooted in widespread anger at the failure of central government
to fairly distribute earnings from the exploitation of the region’s rich
natural resources, as well as a range of historic grievances. Discontent has
been heightened by endemic corruption, expulsions to clear land for
international firms to invest in the gas project and an indiscriminate military
response to the violence. Muslims comprise around 18% of the overwhelmingly
Christian country.
The insurgents
have so far killed at least 900 civilians, as well as several hundred
government soldiers and police. The true death toll, however, is extremely
difficult to establish, observers say.
“The bottom line
is we simply don’t know how may have died. There are reports that bones are
being dug up in fields when farmers return to villagers once the government
forces have established some semblance of security and insurgents have
withdrawn,” said Piers Pigou, a regional expert with the International Crisis
Group.
The bloodiest
attack took place in April, when more than 50 people were massacred in Xitaxi
in the Muidumbe district after locals refused to be recruited to the ranks of
the insurgents. Most were either shot dead or beheaded.
Though now an Isis
affiliate, the insurgents in Mozambique remain a fundamentally local threat.
The unrest has
forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee, threatening a major
humanitarian crisis, and observers fear the insurgency, if unchecked, could
destabilise a swath of southern Africa.
South Africa is
reported to be considering a troop deployment, perhaps providing the bulk of a
force under the command of the Southern African Development Community that
might also include contributions from Zimbabwe and Angola.
Any such
operation would be hugely expensive, however, and it is difficult to see how it
would be funded, observers said.
Islamic State
has warned South Africa any intervention would make it a target for the group.
South Africa’s
state security minister, Ayanda Dlodlo, has said the country is taking the
threat “very, very seriously”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/16/mozambique-army-surrounds-port-captured-by-isis-linked-insurgents?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1445470_
--------
Tunisian party
slams UAE's ‘subversive’ activities
Adel
Al-Thabeti
17.08.2020
TUNIS
The Democratic
Patriots' Unified Party in Tunisia on Monday denounced “subversive” activities
by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Embassy in the country.
In a statement, the
party accused the Gulf state of “sabotaging the course of the Tunisian
revolution and seeking to return the country to tyranny”.
Last week, the
UAE and Israel struck a deal to normalize relations, becoming the first Gulf
state and third Arab nation to establish full diplomatic ties with the
self-proclaimed Jewish state.
The leftist
party denounced the UAE-Israel deal as an act of treason to the Arab world
“that aims at isolating the Arab resistance in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria”.
It accused Abu
Dhabi of declaring hostility to the aspirations of the Arab peoples for
“freedom, dignity, and unity.”
The party also
condemned the silence of the Tunisian Presidency on the UAE-Israel deal and
called on the Tunisian authorities to summon the Emirati ambassador to protest
his country’s interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs and to inform him of
the Tunisian rejection of the normalization agreement.
Palestinian
groups have denounced the UAE-Israel deal, saying it does nothing to serve the
Palestinian cause and ignores the rights of Palestinians.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/tunisian-party-slams-uaes-subversive-activities/1944796
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Twin suicide
blasts kill 7 in Somalia
Mohammed
Dhaysane
17.08.2020
MOGADISHU,
Somalia
At least seven
people were killed and 5 others wounded on Monday in twin suicide bombings
targeting a military base in Somalia, officials said.
The fatalities
include three soldiers, two suicide bombers and other 2 senior officials.
Military
officials say that Gofgadud Burey district commissioner Isaq Ali and Hassan
Baka, district police commander were also killed in the attack on the military
base.
After the
bombings, al-Shabaab militants entered the military base in the vicinity of
Gofgadud Burey, a town on the outskirts of the city of Baidoa, Bay region, Adan
Kheyrow, a military official in the region, told Anadolu Agency by phone.
Kheyrow said the
Somali army repulsed the attack and the base is in their control.
Al-Shabaab
claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack comes
after Somali security forces ended an hours-long siege by al-Shabaab militants
at a popular hotel in the capital Mogadishu that claimed the lives of at least
16 people.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/twin-suicide-blasts-kill-7-in-somalia-/1944749
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Libya belongs to
Libyans: Turkish defense minister
Sarp Ozer
17.08.2020
TRIPOLI, Libya
Turkey on Monday
reiterated its support for Libya's legitimate government, with the visiting
defense minister saying, “Libya belongs to Libyans”.
“We believe that
we will achieve the wanted results by supporting our Libyan brothers in their
just cause,” Hulusi Akar said during his visit in the capital Tripoli.
Accompanied by
Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Yasar Guler, Akar is visiting Libya to review the
training and advisory activities carried out under a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) signed between the two nations on security and military
cooperation.
The duo met with
the Turkish training personnel at lunch, following the inspections at the
Defense Security Cooperation and Training Assistance Advisory Command.
Among the
participants of the lunch was Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al
Attiyah. Akar said Qatar also supports efforts to ensure unity and peace of
Libya, and a permanent cease-fire in the war-weary country.
“We believe that
we will get the desired result supporting our Libyan brothers in their just
cause,” Akar said.
On Nov. 27,
2019, Ankara and Tripoli signed two MoUs; one on military cooperation and the
other on maritime boundaries of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Under the deal,
Turkey has sent advisers to help the Libyan army defeat militias of warlord
Khalifa Haftar.
Libya's
government, formed in 2015, in the wake of the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011,
has faced a number of challenges, including attacks by Haftar.
In recent
months, however, it has turned the tide against Haftar's forces.
Turkey supports
the government based in the capital Tripoli and a non-military resolution of
the crisis.
https://www.aa.comtr/en/africa/libya-belongs-to-libyans-turkish-defense-minister/1944618
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Militants Attack
Beachfront Hotel in Somali Capital
By Harun Maruf
August 16, 2020
Militants have
carried out an attack on a beachfront hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu on
Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring nearly 30 others, officials
said.
Officials and
witnesses told VOA Somali that a car bomb exploded outside Elite hotel at
Mogadishu’s Lido Beach. Moments later armed gunmen stormed the hotel.
Security forces
have arrived the scene and are battling the militates holed up inside.
Al-Shabab has
claimed responsibility for the attack.
The head of the
Somali journalist’s union Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu was among the witnesses
sitting outside the Elite hotel when the explosion occurred.
He told VOA
Somali that he arrived the hotel 15 minutes before the explosion along with his
friend Abdirazak Abdi Abdullahi, who works for the state-controlled radio
station. Abdullahi was killed by the militants after the first gunshots were
fired, Moalimuu told VOA Somali.
Abdirazak Aden
Osman, a security guard at a nearby hotel, said he heard a huge explosion which
rocked the area.
“It was a
massive explosion,” he said. “Glass from broken windows fell on us.”
Osman said there
was a heavy gunfire after the militants entered the hotel.
https://www.voanews.com/africa/militants-attack-beachfront-hotel-somali-capital?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1445470_
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Somali regional
minister shot dead: Police
Mohammed
Dhaysane
17.08.2020
MOGADISHU,
Somalia
A Somali
regional minister was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the town of Jowhar, middle
Shabelle region on Monday evening, police said.
Abdifatah
Hassan, a police official in Jowhar town, told Anadolu Agency over the phone
that Hirshabelle State Agriculture Minister Abdukadir Abukar was shot dead
minutes after the evening prayer.
"The gunmen
attacked minister Abdukadir Abukar while he was going to his house from a
nearby mosque," Hassan said, adding the attackers fled the scene.
He said security
forces rushed to the area and started an investigation into the incident.
Jowhar, is the
administrative capital of Hirshabelle State located 90 kilometers (55 miles)
north of the capital Mogadishu.
No group has yet
claimed responsibility for the killing but authorities blamed al-Shabaab group
for being behind the attack.
Landmine attack
Meanwhile, at
least six people were killed and more than eight others wounded when a landmine
planted at a busy livestock market in the border town of Beled-hawo exploded.
District
officials told local media that the victims were all civilians and that wounded
people were airlifted to the country’s capital Mogadishu for treatment.
The attack was
the second deadly bombing in 24 hours in the Horn of African nation.
At least 7
people, including soldiers and officers, were killed and several others wounded
in a double bomb attack targeting an army base outside the city of Baidoa.
Al-Shabaab
claimed responsibility for the attack.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/somali-regional-minister-shot-dead-police/1944971
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North America
US 'will not
chase' Palestinian leadership for peace, says Kushner
17 August 2020
A senior US
administration official said Monday that Washington would “not chase the
Palestinian leadership” for a peace deal with Israel, days after Tel Aviv and
the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement.
Jared Kushner
said the ball was now in the Palestinians’ court during a phone briefing with
journalists.
For all the
latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Kushner touched
on Israel’s halted annexation plans, which it agreed to in the UAE deal. He
said Washington had received assurances that Tel Aviv would not push forward
without US consensus on the matter.
“We do not plan
on giving our consent for some time. We want Israel to focus on creating new
relationships and alliances,” Kushner said.
He blamed Iran
for sowing strife and division in the region.
“If you think
about the people who don’t want Saudi Arabia and Israel to make a peace
agreement, the number one proponent of that is going to be Iran. But I think
that just shows that it’s probably the right thing to do,” Kushner told Al
Arabiya English during the briefing.
Asked about
US-Saudi collaboration peace plans in the Middle East, Kushner said that he had
had many discussions with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “They both have a strong place in their hearts for
the Palestinians … and they want to see the Palestinian people have a state and
economic prosperity,” Kushner said of Saudi Arabia’s leaders.
He added that
such an agreement would be good for Saudi business and Saudi defense.
The senior US
official, also Trump’s son-in-law, voiced his belief that there would be more
normalizations between other Arab countries and Israel soon.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/2020/08/17/US-will-not-chase-Palestinian-leadership-for-peace-says-Kushner.html
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Trump says world
leaders seek his aid with Erdogan
Michael
Hernandez
17.08.2020
WASHINGTON
US President
Donald Trump said Monday world leaders have sought his help with Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, because he claimed the Turkish leader will only
listen to him.
"The heads
of countries last week they called me up, 'could you call Erdogan?'" Trump
said during a Fox News interview, quoting world leaders whom he did not name.
Trump said he
asked the undisclosed leaders why he should be the one to speak to the Turkish
president, to which Trump said they responded, "'You're the only one he'll
listen to. He doesn't listen to us. You're the only one.'"
"I said,
'Is that because of the United States?' He says 'no, that's because of you.
That's because of your personality. You're the only one that he'll listen
to,'" Trump said. "I don't like saying this publicly, but it happens
to be true. I get along with him and he listens."
It is unclear
which leader or leaders Trump was referring to during the telephone interview,
but the call came amid heightened tensions in the eastern Mediterranean
involving several US allies, including Turkey, Greece, France, and Egypt.
The White House
said Sunday Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, and said the
leaders "agreed that Greece and Turkey must commit to dialogue, which is
the only path to resolving their differences."
Trumps said he
is "dealing with world class chess players" in these dialogues with
world leaders, singling out Erdogan among the national leaders.
Tensions have
been mounting in the region after Athens' controversial new maritime pact with
Egypt. Greek defense sources announced joint military drills Thursday in the
eastern Mediterranean along with France, that has sought to hem in Turkey's
maritime territory.
The exercise,
which includes two French Rafale fighter jets, was conducted off the Greek
island of Crete after France announced Wednesday it would beef up military
presence in the region.
On Saturday, it
was announced that a 2017 defense cooperation agreement between Southern Cyprus
and France had entered into force Aug. 1.
Fuat Oktay,
Turkey's vice president, slammed the joint exercises and underlying pact,
saying they are "unacceptable under any circumstances."
“It is essential
for France not to seek adventure in Cyprus-related matters, and act much more
responsibly," he said.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/trump-says-world-leaders-seek-his-aid-with-erdogan/1944798
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Europe
Palestinians in
Berlin protest against UAE-Israel deal
Oliver Towfigh
Nia
17.08.2020
BERLIN
A group of
Palestinians gathered at the UAE’s Embassy in Berlin on Monday to protest
against the controversial deal between the Gulf state and Israel aimed at
normalizing bilateral relations.
Chanting in
Arabic “Palestine is Arab” and “The Emirates are Zionist”, protesters voiced
anger over the UAE’s decision to establish full diplomatic ties with the Jewish
state.
Many protesters
carried signs saying “Down with the traitors”, “Jerusalem is the capital of
Palestine”, “Down with the unfair deal of the century”, “We will not forego our
right of return based on UN Resolution 194” and “No peace without ensuring
Palestinians rights.”
Speaking to
Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of the rally, a Berlin-based Palestinian
activist Assaad Kanaan said: “We are standing in front of the UAE embassy to
say we are shocked over the agreement between the US, Israel and the UAE.”
“This agreement
gives more rights to Israel in the Middle East but our question is: Where are
the rights of the Palestinians? That’s the problem,” Kanaan added.
He stressed any
agreement or political initiative has to also take into account Palestinian
rights.
Israel and the
UAE announced last week establishing full diplomatic relations in a US-brokered
deal that will see the Jewish states postpone plans for annexation of land it
already illegally occupies in the West Bank that is sought by the Palestinians
for their future state.
Reacting to
UAE-Israeli plans to normalize ties, Palestinian leadership strongly condemned
the move accusing the UAE of “selling out its friends".
A spokesman for
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh said reportedly the
deal was a "betrayal of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa and the Palestinian
cause."
Hanan Ashrawi,
an outspoken member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's executive
committee who has served in various leadership positions in Palestine, said the
UAE's announcement was the equivalent of being "sold out" by
"friends", according to the Qatari-based Al Jazeera Media Network.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/palestinians-in-berlin-protest-against-uae-israel-deal/1944932
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EU warns Turkey
to ‘immediately’ stop gas exploration in eastern Mediterranean
17 August 2020
The European
Union (EU) has warned Turkey to “immediately” stop its oil and gas exploration
activities in the eastern Mediterranean, after Ankara announced it was
extending operations in the disputed waters off EU-member Cyprus.
Turkey said on
Sunday that its Yavuz energy drill ship would extend operations in the disputed
waters off Cyprus until mid-September. The vessel will be accompanied by three
other Turkish ships, according to a maritime notice that added “all vessels are
strongly advised not to enter” the area.
Turkey had
already entered waters disputed with Greece, another EU member.
EU High
Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell issued a
stern warning to Ankara on Sunday, calling on “the Turkish authorities to end
these activities immediately and to engage fully and in good faith in a broad
dialog with the European Union.”
Ankara’s
operations, Borrell said, “regrettably fuels further tensions and insecurity in
the Eastern Mediterranean” and “runs counter and undermines efforts to resume
dialog and negotiations, and to pursue immediate de-escalation.”
Borrell convened
an urgent meeting on Friday during which EU foreign ministers expressed concern
about Turkey’s recent naval mobilizations that would “lead to greater
antagonism and distrust” in the region.
Borrell also
said he would prepare “options on further appropriate measures in case tensions
do not abate,” according to the European Council.
A standoff has
already intensified between Turkey and Greece over oil and gas exploration
rights in the eastern Mediterranean. The two have been at loggerheads over
overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources in the waters.
Turkish
exploration activities in the sea have angered the EU. France announced last
week that it would temporarily reinforce its military presence in the eastern
Mediterranean “in cooperation with European partners, including Greece.”
Citing Greek
defense sources, Reuters reported that the French military conducted training
exercises with Greek forces off the southern island of Crete on Thursday. The
exercises were conducted under a two-year Defense Cooperation Agreement between
the Greek Cyprus and France that had entered into force early this month.
Turkey slams
France’s ‘unlawful attitudes’
The drills
prompted a reaction from Ankara, which called on France “not to seek adventure
in Cyprus-related matters, and act much more responsibly.”
“It is
unacceptable under any circumstances that France organizes joint exercises with
the Greek Cypriot administration and deploys its military aircraft to the
island contrary to the 1959-60 agreements,” said Turkish Vice-President Fuat
Oktay on Sunday.
He also called
on the EU to take action against the “spoiled, aggressive, and unlawful
attitudes” of France in the region.
“No attempt
contrary of Turkey and the TRNC [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus] has a
chance of succeeding in the eastern Mediterranean,” Oktay said.
The Turkish
Foreign Ministry also said in a statement on Sunday that the French-Greek
military pact posed a risk of disturbing efforts toward stability and security
in the eastern Mediterranean.
It argued that
the Greek Cypriot administration did not represent the Turkish Cypriots or the
island as a whole and was not authorized to sign the agreement.
Greece and
Turkey almost went to war in 1974 over Cyprus, which has since been divided,
with the northern third run by a Turkish Cypriot administration recognized only
by Turkey and the southern two thirds governed by the internationally-recognized
Greek Cypriot government.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/17/631963/Turkey-EU-Greece-tensions-Mediterranean
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French PM likens
killing of French aid workers in Niger to 2015 Paris attacks
AUGUST 14, 2020
PARIS (Reuters)
- French Prime Minister Jean Castex paid tribute on Friday to the six French
aid workers who where killed by a group of gunmen on motorcycles in Niger,
likening the attack to the 2015 militant attacks in Paris that shook the
country.
The six worked
for international aid group ACTED and were accompanied by a Nigerien guide and
a driver, who were also killed during the ambush on Sunday.
“It’s very
likely the same hatred, the same cowardice, the same inhumanity that was at
work in Niger and at the Bataclan,” Castex said in front of the repatriated
coffins of the six at Paris’s Orly airport. The Bataclan was the concert venue
where 90 people were killed in one of the coordinated attacks by Islamist
militants in the French capital in 2015.
“We haven’t yet
been able to put a name to the organization behind this heinous crime” in
Niger, he said, adding that it had “all the appearances of a terrorist attack.”
The aid workers
were driving through a giraffe reserve, a popular destination for expatriates
65 km (40 miles) from Niger’s capital Niamey in an area considered safe by the
government.
No one
immediately claimed responsibility for the assault. But France and other
countries have warned people against travelling to parts of Niger where
militants including Boko Haram and an affiliate of Islamic State operate.
France’s
counter-terrorism prosecutor has opened a murder investigation in the case.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-niger-security-france/french-pm-likens-killing-of-french-aid-workers-in-niger-to-2015-paris-attacks-idUSKCN25A26N?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1445470_
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Germany asks UAE
to use influence over Libya’s Haftar
Zehra Nur
Duz
17.08.2020
Germany urged
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to use its influence over warlord Khalifa
Haftar, leader of the illegitimate armed forces in eastern Libya, according to
the German Federal Foreign Office.
“In Libya at the
moment, we are observing a deceptive calm. Both sides and their international
allies are continuing to massively arm the country and holding firm to their
preconditions for a ceasefire”, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas issued a
statement upon his arrival in Tripoli.
Maas said during
his two-day official visit to Libya, he will meet with Libyan Prime Minister
Fayez al-Sarraj, Foreign Minister Mohammed Tahir Sayala and Interior Minister
Fathi Bashagha to discuss the “dangerous situation” in the country and the
“establishment of a demilitarized zone around Sirte”.
The German
minister stressed that ending the oil embargo and ensuring fairer distribution
of oil revenues are important for the resolution of the ongoing dispute in the
country.
Sides will also
discuss the issue of irregular migration, Maas added.
Underlining that
he will visit Abu Dhabi after his visit to Libya, Maas said he will discuss the
topics of Iran, Syria, Qatar and Lebanon as well as the conflict in Libya with
his counterparts.
Maas said that
he intends to congratulate his Emirati counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan
on last week’s normalization agreement with Israel.
“In view of the
developments with regard to Israel, we also hope to see encouraging signs from
Abu Dhabi on the issue of Libya,” Maas said.
The UAE has an
influence over General Haftar and Germany expects them to use it in line with
the Berlin process, Maas said. “Only those who participate in a political
process will be part of Libya’s future.”
Libya has been
mired in strife since NATO operations led to the overthrow of former strongman
Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The new government
was founded four years later in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for
a long-term political settlement have so far failed due to a military offensive
by Haftar.
Since April
2019, Haftar's forces have launched attacks on Tripoli and other parts of
northwestern Libya, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths, including civilians.
Haftar has the support of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia while the
UN-recognized government is backed by Turkey and Qatar.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/germany-asks-uae-to-use-influence-over-libya-s-haftar/1944494
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Turkish, Russian
presidents discuss Libya, Eastern Med.
Berk Ozkan
17.08.2020
The Turkish and
Russian presidents spoke over the phone on Monday to discuss the latest developments
in war-weary Libya and Eastern Mediterranean as well as other regional issues.
Turkey’s Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin stressed the
importance of maintaining close cooperation and dialogue in this regard,
Turkey's Directorate of Communications said.
The two leaders
also addressed steps to enhance bilateral relations, especially in tourism,
transport, energy, and economy, and the fight against the novel coronavirus
pandemic.
Libya has been
torn by a civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Libya's new government was founded in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but
efforts for a long-term political settlement failed due to the military
offensive by warlord Khalifa Haftar’s forces.
The UN
recognizes the Libyan government headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj as
the country's legitimate authority.
Last Monday
Turkey announced that its drillship Oruc Reis would begin conducting fresh
energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey’s
decision came following a controversial delimitation deal signed between Greece
and Egypt, spurning Turkey’s earlier goodwill gesture to postpone energy
exploration in the region.
The ship will
continue its work in the Eastern Mediterranean along with the ships Cengiz Han
and Ataman until Aug. 23.
Syria
Erdogan and
Putin also agreed to maintain contact between Turkey and Russia on Syria via
military and diplomatic channels.
This March,
Ankara and Moscow agreed on a protocol urging parties to "cease all
military actions along the line of contact in the Idlib de-escalation
area."
The protocol
said joint Turkish-Russian patrols would begin on March 15 along the M4 highway
from the settlement of Trumba -- 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) west of Saraqib -- to
the settlement of Ain al-Havr. On Monday, 25th joint land patrols were carried
out in the region.
Idlib has long
been under siege by Assad regime forces and its allies, and previous
cease-fires for the region were plagued by violations.
Turkey has
worked to protect the local civilian population as well as rid the wider region
of terrorist elements.
Syria has been
ravaged by civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on
pro-democracy protesters.
Hundreds of
thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced,
according to UN estimates.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/turkish-russian-presidents-discuss-libya-eastern-med/1944451
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/bengal-village-heads-fatwa-bans/d/122656